caulfield12

Hopefully the Tigers dump Porcello, insert Smyly into the starting rotation and Cooper fixes Porcello, lol. Doubt he would get to us in a waiver claim, though, and they're going to send him to AAA/AA before they make that move. But I would trade him and Gavin Floyd in a heartbeat. Porcello's still young (think Jon Garland at the same stage in his development) and was rushed to the majors, but he still can turn things around.

Courtney Hawkins 0/2 with a K already, down to .156 avg.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Apr 20, 2013 -> 05:04 PM) Interesting to see Ron Gardenhire running Aaron Hicks out there as a leadoff man hitting .040 Because the Twins usually show faith in their top prospects and don't give up on them so easily...or toss them aside like detritus. Ben Revere struggled when he first came up and they stuck with him and they were at least able to get some value back for him...as they saw Hicks possessing the most potential to be a dynamic, game-changing force in the outfield and Revere as "Span-Lite."

At least he didn't have the opportunity to end the game with his 4th K of the day. He was spared that indignity. Craig Grebeck/Shawn "Lil" Abner for DH 2013 Campaign.

Are there ANY areas we can point at and say Ventura's shown marked improvement in comparing the first 3-4 months of 2012 with where he's at today? Most would argue that he's actually "regressing" as a manager, if that's even possible for someone with so little managerial experience...

What's next, Minnie Minoso or Harold Baines at DH? Bo Jackson?

Can Adam Dunn go 0 for 5, K 4 times (the last one to end the game) and send his averaging plummeting below .098 for more comedy?

Of course, the Wild Thing version of Nathan Jones shows up at an inopportune time. And walks an .043 hitter. Typical. To face the 300+ guy.

Now what?

According to ESPN Gamecast, the Twins have a 42.5% chance of scoring here. With our luck, probably the .043 "future star" Hicks will break out of his slump, haha. Can't believe Florimon's over .300 either.

The Gods gave us Veal last year, but took him away in 2013. Knew it was too good to last...like Politte and Cotts in 2005.

QUOTE (southsideirish71 @ Apr 20, 2013 -> 03:27 PM) This is an 07 ish lineup we are rocking these days. At least Josh Fields had his homer binge late in the season and Owens had a 5/5 game against the Twins. With our line-up now, is there anyone even remotely interesting to watch? Mostly Dunn/Flowers, to see how many K's they record or if Tyler will actually get a hold of one and do something amazing and follow it up with 7-10 games of nothingness. With Dayan out, the only other hitter I'm interested in following is Gillaspie at the moment. And Rios...while he's hot.

Jason Dellaero's another one.

Then you have Flowers/Dunn. Individually, Tyler is 1/12 with RISP alone. Both he and Viciedo have had some HUGE hits for the Sox this season, but they haven't been consistent at all. Attendance announced yet today?

QUOTE (flavum @ Apr 19, 2013 -> 11:23 AM) If I had to make an educated guess, it'll be a day/night doubleheader on Friday, August 9th. The Twins have already lost an off day in August with the Mets coming back to Minnesota. Don't the Angels now have the same problem because of Wednesday's game?

Gosling really makes some offbeat choices, working with his favorite directors. Kristin Scott Thomas hasn't been good since The English Patient. Joking. But she's far from on a career ascendancy, or even the equivalent of say, Diane Kruger. So interesting casting, along with a local star, which will help with that box office (Thailand), obviously. Gives Gosling more chances to show off his six-pack abs, I guess.

Walker, Thompson and Brandon Short with low or dismal averages. Carlos Sanchez at .208. Pretty bleak. And then there's Mitchell and Hawkins. At least some of the pitchers have had more encouraging results...Erik Johnson and Beck.

QUOTE (Chicago White Sox @ Apr 19, 2013 -> 12:11 PM) Dollar for dollar, he's a bigger disappoint than Scott Linebrink & Jaime Navarro. Trying to think of other sizable free agents who flopped. Linebrink was at least a key factor in our 2008 pennant...the first half, when he was healthy, he was VERY good until the injuries caught up to him. David Wells...although that was just one year. More the way the injuries ended his season, his lack of strong results, the fight with Frank Thomas/radio comments and the way that year started 14-29 and was a struggle just to get back to .500. Going back, I remember the disappointment over Cory Snyder and Steve Sax, although I would have to look up how we acquired both of them. Tim Raines was pretty good with us, but I expected the game-changing player he was the first 7-8 years in Montreal and he was no longer that type of offensive force.

QUOTE (IlliniKrush @ Apr 19, 2013 -> 12:35 AM) Great if true, but who knows You'd have to think it's pretty accurate if the Boston Globe, the local newspaper which is quite reputable, is reporting it. It's not the NY Post or Daily News...

QUOTE (thxfrthmmrs @ Apr 18, 2013 -> 10:15 PM) Sometimes I wish your posts stays on one point. Who's talking about Gillespie's power? Not to be a downer, his contact tool is not plus plus, maybe a plus, if that. He's only put up one .300 season so far. He has some speed, but he's been caught stolen far too many times to be an effective base stealer, see Alexei. I am not sure if it's a result of his technique or lack of top speed, I am hoping it's the former. Last thing, I wouldn't buy the scouting reports of him having a great glove, the organization wouldn't have him split between positions every season and slow down his development if he's elite at one position. The reason I brought up Gillaspie is because there's no set answer for 3B, and nobody in the minors in waiting...Alexei's getting older, and Beckham's a huge question mark. (And this is another reason our players tend to get moved all over the field, because the needs of the major league team keep changing...if you look at the examples of position changes for Viciedo and Beckham, for example). In my opinion, Sanchez only makes sense as a middle infielder, period. It's hard to say really what we have in him, because it's a lot like the Hector Santiago situation, where he just arrived on the scene and "got it" after years laboring in the lower minors. (For that matter, it took Jose Quintana 6 years to get out of A ball, the he essentially jumpe over both AA/AAA in one month). So to judge his past performance as a cumulative whole rather than looking more specifically at last season is a mistake, IMO. The whole idea of playing at one position is overrated...without power hitting tools or PED's, all players need to have more versatility than ever before. Ideally, a born SS with a rocket of an arm stays at that position all the way up through the minors, but we haven't had one of those in ages that we've incubated in our minor league system and brought up to the big leagues after developing them ourselves. And then when he has that kind of season at age 19, it's even more noteworthy...keeping in mind the advanced competition and ages of the players he's competing against.

If it's serious, it's can easily take a year or years to get over...I know Harrelson's documented this before on numerous occasions. Coming back too quickly is the worst thing you can do, because of the fragility of that part of that area of the body, and the impossibility of protecting it. (This injury, a soft tissue heel contusion/bruise and kidney stones, far and away the three worst physical problems you can go through short of cancer/leukemia/life-threatening ones). It is the kind of injury, unless you've experienced it yourself, you can't possibly imagine how sensitive and how easy it is to reinjure with just the slightest twinge or violent movement that comes from swinging a bat/racquet/club, or just a quick movement, like jumping upwards to catch a ball. Hopefully with Dayan is was more of a "twinge" and not a full tear or pull, so to speak.

By withholding their 15 minutes of fame, can you prevent the Hinckleys and James Holmeses and Timothy McVeigh's and David Koreshes? How can you do that in country that believes so strongly in freedom of the press, and where there will always be an overpowering interest in knowing the who and why in these situations? We can get carried away blaming movies and video games for real life violence, but there are links to be made...just like it's pretty clear these types of shootings and terrorist events come in bunches, usually. As a fan of the two NCIS shows, it seems that "real life" is no longer distinguishable from the plot of a t.v. show. It used to be that crime shows inspired copycats...now, they just reflect the reality of the random chaos and violence which has become a party of everyday existence since 9/11. It's the same argument about memorials/monuments, Freedom Tower, etc. There is a very memorable and poignant memorial in Bali to the nightclub bombing victims...some would argue that building these things only glorifies the perpetrators of violence, whereas the opposite argument is that non celebrating and memorializing the victims and stressing what they contributed to the world is giving those who sow violence even more power than ever.

QUOTE (thxfrthmmrs @ Apr 18, 2013 -> 08:07 PM) That's gotta be the worse k% I've ever seen. Between Mitchell, Walker, Thompson and Hawkins, I think our system is jinxed. Keep in mind Tyler Flowers also went through the same crap a few years ago, where he started striking out a bunch and lost the ability to make any contact at all. As far as Sanchez, I don't see him being a regular at the majors. There is no indicators of power at all. He's never shown any gap power with doubles or triples in his minor league career. A no power, average defense player isn't going to be an everyday starter. The most likely projection for him is a slightly better contact version of Chris Getz. There are lots of conflicting reports about his defense. Some describe him as a "plus" defender or having the ability to be elite. If he can play that type of defense at SS, then he has a chance to be a regular, or 2B (assuming they will replace Beckham, which isn't a sure thing quite yet). He doesn't hit for enough power to play 3B. As far as Gillaspie's power goes, we'll have a better idea two months from now, especially when the weather starts to heat up in Chicago. He has three big assets going in his favor right now. His walk/contact rate, his speed (maybe a 20-25 SB guy at the major league level) and his age.

At least Nate Jones looked better this outing. For only throwing about 90 MPH, Janssen's 27 for his last 30 save opportunities. Brett Myers should take some notes.

If Flowers can hit at least .220 or .230 with the type of XB power we're seeing again recently, we should consider ourselves fortunate.