caulfield12

J4L, what's your take on the Blue Jays and AA these days? They have a target on their backs this year, having purchased 1/5th of the Marlins' roster...and some pretty high priced talent in Johnson, Buehrle and Reyes. Didn't work for the Dodgers last year...we'll see how it goes in the AL East this year.

T-Flow back up to the Mendoza line, hitting exactly .200. Stupid KW, if we had Tyler Greene LAST YEAR instead of Olmedo, you could make an argument we might have advanced into the playoffs...that game that Alexei showed up late and got benched for Olmedo was a critical loss.

Ramon Ortiz has been around forever. Born in 1973. I remember when he was a pretty decent starter with the Angels.

QUOTE (Tannerfan @ Apr 17, 2013 -> 06:48 PM) If Dunn had any sense of decency, he'd call a press conference, say "I'm sorry." And retire. David Wells can attend with him...and Todd Ritchie. Most importantly, Jose Paniagua, haha. At least someone FINALLY beat up Justin Masterson...the rejuvenated, Valentine-free Red Sox. And very quietly, Carl Crawford has come out of the gates ready to play for the Dodgers this year.

You have to hope those five homers (at least two and I think three against top opposing pitching prospects) will give him the confidence he needs to settle in and build his average back up into the mid 200's. I would be happy with anything above a .240/.250 average for a kid that raw at age 19 playing in High A ball. And hopefully he can start picking up some walks and improving his plate discipline a bit.

Viciedo now ahead of DeAza, Keppinger, Dunn and Flowers in BA at .222. Since we can't pick on Flowers tonight, that leaves the first three.

Cinco homers. El profundo. I don't know if we can call the Rios move a "genius" one exactly....because of the effect it had on the team/clubhouse/chemistry/Dye in 2009, and because of the 2011 disappointment. He's getting closer and closer to earning his money, though...and has clearly become the best White Sox position player.

Julio Franco or John Kruk could come out of retirement and both hit better than Dunn is now... Tony Gwynn, too. Tony Gwynn, Jr.

We're sure Baustista won't be back tomorrow? He's the one that really scares you in that line-up, although Encarnacion and Rasmus have dinged us up...heck, losing 19 of the last 22 games up there before last night...EVERYONE in their line-up was dangerous against the Sox.

Vanessa Hudgens...high school musical/disney star turned back girl wanna be, well, sort of

Hope this isn't one of those games where we score all our runs early....suddenly stop scoring and let the opposition slowly back into the game run by run. Alexei Ramirez must have been reading SoxTalk this offseason, haha. Not done yet.

24 K's for Hawkins in 38 AB's. Still has a 700 OPS. .158 AVG. It's going to be interesting to see how long they let this go on...if he can make adjustments or they'll try to rebuild his confidence by sending him to Kanny. IMO, you have to give him at least 100 AB's to right the ship.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Apr 17, 2013 -> 05:25 PM) He is so much better of a hitter when he is thinking through the box and right center. Just like Beckham, Ramirez and Quentin... Flowers just doubled his season output in RBI's in one swing there. Now, Quintana....HOLD the opponent after scoring, please.

Haha. Guess I reverse jinxed Flowers. It's like Borchard playing catcher. 400+ foot homer in a direction you wouldn't expect him to have that kind of power.

I guess we can stop picking on Viciedo for a couple of days. Back to Dunn/Keppinger... The main thing for Dayan is going to be cutting down that swing plane on fastballs. Happ and Buehrle were predictably good match-ups. DJ saying Flowers had a great BP session and was crushing balls out of the stadium. We'll see if that translates to game action...doubt it. Pitching around Ramirez to get to Flowers...

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Apr 17, 2013 -> 09:17 AM) I dont think any of these guys were strengths or even depth last year. Septimo never recovered from that bomb he gave up in Boston, Heath barely pitched, Omogrosso was meh, I dont even remember Marinez pitching. Santiago, Jones, Reed, Veal at the end, Axelrod here and there. That was the depth. Omogrosso pitched some very important innings last year...where you were surprised Ventura had such confidence in him. Same with Septimo, before the Gonzalez homer.

uh-oh. 2 run homer given up by Johnson to John Peterson, probably wind-aided. HBP, 3-6-3 double play but then a four pitch walk and a homer by Peterson, who now has 2 hits. 2-0 Lookouts. Puig hits a frozen rope almost right at Saladino.

Puig strikes out against Erik Johnson after trying to lay one down on the first pitch to move the runner over. Maybe all Cubans have a hard time SAC bunting...announcers joking he's probably not going to be doing that much at the major league level. Has given up a line drive to the 2nd hitter in the CHATT line-up (Peterson)...who has a 10+ game hit streak going. It's SaladINO, not SalaDANO, lol...at least the guy's radio partner corrected that one. Saladino picked off 1B after a walk. 1-2-3 for Johnson in the bottom of the 2nd, another K.

QUOTE (Jake @ Apr 17, 2013 -> 08:45 AM) Jordan deserves to be an MLB ballplayer IMHO. This is a case of 1. not needing 13 pitchers and 2. trying to get the best 25 we have on the roster, regardless of matchups, etc. Except last year, the real strength of the team wasn't our bench, it was the depth of the young bullpen. Guys like Omogrosso, Heath, Marinez, Septimo, etc.

Addison Reed's 7th in the AL Cy Young prediction standings....at ESPN. Ahead of Justin Verlander and Max Scherzer, but behind Anibal Sanchez. Matt Harvey is 2nd in the NL, currently. http://espn.go.com/mlb/features/cyyoung

What a line. Hawkins has 23 K's in 37 AB's, along with 3 BB's. 711 OPS with a .162 BA. 4 HR's and 10 RBI's, along with 2 SB's.

Have you ever seen him play in person, just curious... He's one of those players who grows on you over time. He's an above average runner, an above average fielder...and has something we're completely lacking in at the minor league level, plate discipline and the ability to take a walk. When's the last time we had a hitter whose K and BB numbers were pretty even? He's also shown himself in the last 12-18 months to be a pretty decent contact hitter. Now without the 20+ homers or 40-50 stolen bases, he's not going to be a SABR/rotisserie league owner's dream....he profiles as a complementary piece, and not a game changer...like a Tadahito Iguchi. There's absolutely nothing wrong with that at all. The problem is we're going to have to be patient and wait for his XB power to come, and that's going to put even more pressure on the rest of the line-up to put up big homer numbers at USCF.

Or the typical Chris Rongey post-game defensive response...

Or the typical Chris Rongey post-game response...

It's pretty sad when most of us are hoping if he doesn't hit again like 2012 that he retires from shame and embarrassment. What a crappy situation, for everyone involved. That said, giving Dan Johnson those AB's (or fill in any random LH hitter) wasn't going to be and isn't the long-term solution, either. And it's almost beyond the point where you believe they could do anything BUT eat his contract...at least with Rios, that has turned around. But we have two contracts (Danks/Dunn) currently taking up $25-30 million in payroll with negative or negligible value. I just can't imagine giving those DH ab's to the likes of Wise or Jordan Danks. Even Gillaspie, with how he's been hitting...assuming someone else was playing 3B.