caulfield12

How does getting stuck with Andre Ethier through 2017 help things? Trading a bad contract that expires in 2014 for another similar contract is one thing...but Ethier is going to be getting older and older, it's the kind of contract you would debate taking over (like Rios) if he was available as a waiver claim essentially for "free", but trading for an 820 OPS (average over the last three years) NL hitter who will be entering the downside of his career is a recipe for disaster. Ethier is owed roughly twice as much as what we owe Dunn. It's kind of the definition of insanity to make that trade...if Ethier's upside was a 900-1000 OPS, and he was a young hitter who could be a breakout superstar, then that's one thing. But this is the same recipe acquiring good but not great expensive/aging veterans that got the Kansas City Royals into so much trouble the past 20 years. Trying to "band aid" their way back into competition because their minor league system wasn't producing in certain areas.

It's a bit ironic, because Frank Thomas was always considered "stats first, team victories second" type of player. More selfish than team/winning-oriented. And yet I'm sure that Harrelson would claim that Frank Thomas was a "winning player" and could have been a dominant hitter in any time period of baseball history, etc.

QUOTE (Leonard Zelig @ Apr 25, 2013 -> 01:29 AM) I was looking around on baseball reference at the 1985 Tigers who started the season 35-5. In August of that year, they played a double header on 3 consecutive days. Between July 31 and August 14 they played 6 double headers. Don't you mean 1984?

How many times in the history of baseball has a slugging, low contact/high K DH type totally changed his approach as everyone is suggesting and become Wade Boggs/Tony Gwynn/Ichiro? We've seen pitchers adjust to pitching without their fastballs later in their careers or after injuries, but Adam Dunn bunting and going to the opposite field or trying to hit the ball on the ground? Never will that happen in a million years.

Valverde records a 1-2-3 9th inning as the Tigers beat the Royals. Scherzer hasn't looked the same as he did the 2nd half of last season. Both him and Verlander are throwing noticeably less MPH on their FB's so far this year.

All things being equal, Tekotte has a bit more speed and Danks a bit more power, but it's not like there's a CLEAR difference. Both are mid 20's candidates for 4th outfielder (bad teams) or the final spot on the roster (good teams). Maybe some Sox fans WANT Danks to succeed more or hype him because of his brother, but he hasn't done much (yeah, he had one game winning homer last year) to warrant the hype...if he existed alone in isolation and there was no John Danks we were on the hook for $50 million or whatever, he wouldn't matter so much or be such a hot topic of discussion/debate.

But it's probably fair to say that Beck has the most potential (his status as a potential Top 5-10 pick heading into the last college baseball season), or certainly, hype surrounding him. Snodgress and Johnson are still flying a little under the radar to most unfamiliar with the Sox system.

Everything seems to be going Iron Man 3's way. Gwyneth Paltrow was just voted "world's most beautiful woman" by one of the weekly celeb mags.

Who was Harrelson referring to about getting fired? The old-time Grady Fuson School scouts? Or the new wave GM's like DePodesta and J. P. Ricciardi? (Interestingly, both of those guys are now with the Mets and former A's GM Sandy Alderson.)

QUOTE (The Ultimate Champion @ Apr 24, 2013 -> 07:09 PM) I think it was the offseason spent golfing. He finally figured a way out of his own head. Well, it definitely hasn't worked for Gordon Beckham to get advice from everyone, but maybe Rios can help him out. Konerko has tried to advise him, but he's always had his own personal psychological demons to battle in terms of the ups and downs of hitting, just like Quentin.

QUOTE (Jake @ Apr 24, 2013 -> 06:37 PM) Wise has never been a good defender. He literally never played CF until he got to the White Sox (the first time). It is a myth created by Ozzie Guillen. That and the Buehrle no-hitter saving catch.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Apr 24, 2013 -> 07:35 AM) If Courtney Hawkins were hitting .500 in A ball right now, would you call him up to the majors? Same exact story. I wasn't referring to promoting him, referring to the earlier post about Arcia being the 2nd or 3rd rated Twins' prospect. Thought it was Buxton for sure.

Not exactly a pitcher's duel in KC. Geez. Guess you still have to root for the Royals to beat the Tigers, even though we gain a game on first place if the Tigers win...actually, both would be tied for 1st. And what the heck happened with Moustakas? He was great last year for most of the season...now he looks about the same as when he first came up and struggled mightily.

Can't believe 37 of Hawkins' 55 AB's (not counting walks/hbp) have ended up as K's. The funniest part is he still has a 720 OPS. I remember the days when we would have been "pleased as punch" for Brian Anderson to be able to put up a 720 at the major league level. Now we have BrYan Anderson and Lars Anderson at Charlotte. Wonder what happened to the real Brian Anderson? And how much of his original signing bonus is left? With Joe Borchard, surely the family was smart enough to invest that $5.3 million...they seemed to be a very down-to-earth, modest, blue collar labor/farming family.

Not sure DeAza, Wise (at his age now) or Jordan Danks could have made that same play.

Why would Rienzo be ranked over Snodgress? I would think with the fact that Snodgress is a lefty and doesn't have the PED's concerns surrounding him that other organizations would be higher on him than Rienzo (unless they're acquiring to market him to that tiny niche of Brazilian baseball fans, haha).

Want to see no part of Keppinger in the outfield...

The downside is the bullpen being pushed to get 12 outs isn't exactly a recipe for success. Let's just hope we don't see Thornton or Veal...but the odds of that happening are about 1.8%

Last year, the White Sox were very effective at limiting the running game against opponents. Even AJ was decent throwing out runners, and Flowers was really good, especially the first half of 2012. What changed? It's like every opponent has a license to run wild on us. It's not like we have Contreras and Garcia out on the bump every inning, or Jenks.

Not to mention you're sort of rewarding him with a start after making a base-running move that might have cost the team a game. Kind of reverse psychology...if you want to hold players accountable for mental mistakes, you think Ventura would start with the last player on the team roster.

Of course, it's almost AS BAD that our best player isn't thinking at all about the situation... Knowing how Dunn has been going, and Ramirez? Ventura commented about "cleaning things up," and yet if he's not going to play "kindergarten cop/teacher," what's going to be his response to obvious mental mistakes? Sure, we don't want to take away Rios' aggressiveness and confidence, but what about all the other base-running mistakes and mental lapses in the last 13 games? We always make fun of Ozzie's Camp Cora and the few times during the season where they read the riot act and made them come in on offdays or doing extra work in the morning or before games (bunting practice, for example), but this problem extends far beyond Rios' ill-advised decision.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Apr 24, 2013 -> 05:50 AM) You mean for the Floyd you just gave up one run in his last start? I'll give him credit, he didn't blow up with the bases loaded after walking in a run. He got Doumit. The start before, Santiago had to bail him out with the bases loaded or things would have been a lot worse. We still are talking about an 0-3 pitcher here. Overall, Axelrod has kept us in more games. That said, they're never going to skip him over Axelrod in a million years. But...personally, I would love to see his reaction. To see if that makes him pitch better or worse. Could go either way. We've never really shaken him out of that pattern of inconsistency he has been since 2009.

QUOTE (Quinarvy @ Apr 24, 2013 -> 03:34 AM) Fire sale in early May! Genius! Well, as someone noted...they need to time things right, and yet they can't hold onto all their pieces waiting for the perfect offer and getting nothing back in return at the trade deadline. But yeah, might want to wait until the last week of May or the first week of June to start really getting serious about going in that direction. Everyone remembers what happened in 2010...we were about one or two weeks from a massive sell-off before going 26-5 and taking over first place.

What about Byron Buxton?

QUOTE (joeynach @ Apr 23, 2013 -> 09:54 PM) For a one year contract, yeah I miss AJ. And OMG I couldn't agree with you more on Manto. Where does he get off thinking he is above and beyond modern intelligent thinking when it comes to hitting. From day one there was a red flag. I remember him on 670 the Score essentially trashing the see more pitches, work more counts, value player and team OBP theory of offense. Nevermind, the ancillary benefits of such an approach such as driving up pitch counts, tiring the pitcher earlier (elevated pitches, bullpen earlier), or of course the idea of placing hitters in more predictable hitting friendly counts. I was dumbfounded KW approved this hire. Look at what his approach has done to Dunn in just three weeks worth of playing time. But wasn't Manto also Dunn's hitting coach last year when he made his miraculous recovery from Greg Walker/Ozzie and 2011? Why would you try to change what has worked with Dunn for over a decade? It was like Walt Hrniak trying to get Sosa to hit like Frank Thomas...sometimes, you don't tinker with things. Or force everyone to adopt the same style or approach.