caulfield12

Thornton with a late start getting over there, didn't run as hard as he needed to. Hmmm...no excuses for that. What did they do all spring in AZ?

DJ and Farmer pointing out that DeAza's not trusting his hands at all and not able to time fastballs yet this season...that he pretty much accidentally ran into that one. Well, we'll take anything we can get at this point.

Courtney Hawkins...2 more K's in his first 3 AB's, at least he has a single and a run scored. 18 K's/28 AB's

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Apr 14, 2013 -> 09:46 AM) There are only three players on the current roster who are important to a rebuild. Sale, Quintana, and Santiago. Danks is fourth on the list because of his contract. Realize Viciedo is a bust, keep Konerko through a rebuild if you want, doesn't matter and do with the rest of the roster what you will. Deal by deadline: Peavy, Rios, De Aza, Floyd, Reed, Crain. Ummm....Viciedo's a bust after 30 at-bats when he put up 25 homers and 78 RBI's last year and was close to a ML average left fielder at age 23. That's fine. Then what is Tyler Flowers? And Beckham? I'm not sure why we would be in a hurry to trade Addison Reed, unless some team out there's going to give up a ransom for him. He's super cheap still...and sure, you don't need a bona-fide closer when you have a rebuilding team, there's THAT argument. But something which is often overlooked is how difficult it is for a young team to have confidence it can win games when the bullpen collapses game after game. Internally, they should assess between Jones and Reed who they REALLY envision being the closer for the next 2-3 years and deal the other if they can get something significant back. And Lindstrom will have value if he continues to pitch this well....while not throwing 98-100 MPH anymore, he's a nice piece for a contending team if he's 100% healthy.

It's way too early to assume that Gillaspie's an everyday player based on a hot start. Keppinger, on a good team, is more of a super sub. They still need a full-time 2B/SS. Sanchez had a really good season last year, but he has to back it up in 2013 before he becomes a completely legit prospect. His age does work in his favor, but he's not the kind of dynamic, game-changing presence this team needs more of...he's more of a complementary piece, who does lots of things well but doesn't have a lot of pop (yet), and that's going to be an issue when you have three infielders who would be hard-pressed to put up 25-30 homers combined at USCF. We're having so many issues right now with Dunn, Viciedo and Flowers striking out...and the low team OBP...one shudders to think what might happen with Mitchell/Walker/Thompson (2 of the 3) starting in the 2013 outfield. Right now, I would go with Walker and Thompson, simply because Mitchell's going to strike out the most and we need another player at the top of the order to spark the offense, and Walker's the more prototypical leadoff guy. (That said, it's scary to think what could happen if we bring up Thompson too early and he goes Joe Borchard on the Sox...thankfully, in this scenario, we wouldn't be in "must win now" mode and we would be able to extend some patience). If that's the direction they do go in...it's going to be a 66-74 win team. And that's assuming Viciedo and Flowers are both around and have decent seasons offensively and don't end up as platoon players. They need to dump Matt Thornton from the payroll as well. The sooner, the better.

Better than where the Angels moved the press box, fwiw. http://blogs.ocweekly.com/navelgazing/2012...box_stadium.php

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Apr 14, 2013 -> 04:25 AM) On May 16th last year the Sox were 17-21. Why does one bad week freak so many people out? What was the record of the Tigers on that same day?

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mlb-big-leag...11649--mlb.html Quentin's twitter feed hacked...I liked the line "went all psychopathic like The Punisher" (@missnighthawk on Twitter) Granted, this is a very tame alteration, which is part of the reason why we can bring it to you, but it's still pretty funny. It's also factually correct, or at least the part about Nick Blackburn being the pitcher who's hit him the most is correct. In 37 plate appearances, Blackburn has drilled Quentin four times. That's a pretty high rate, though not as high as Quentin's batting average (.419) against him. Quentin has also homered three times against the Minnesota Twins right-hander. Three different pitchers have plunked Quentin three times. Of course Zack Greinke is the most notable name in that group for several reasons. Jon Lester of the Boston Red Sox is also on that short list. But if there was one person who should be truly watching his back, it would be Erik Bedard. He's equaled that total in just nine plate appearances. Maybe it's just me, but if a guy is hitting me every third plate appearance on average, that's the one I'd be seeking answers from.

Help on the way? It's not a reach to believe Erik Johnson could join the Sox by the end of the regular season. Johnson, the Sox's top pitching prospect, has allowed one earned run in 11 2/3 innings while striking out nine for Double-A Birmingham. Johnson threw seven innings of three-hit ball while striking out six Friday in a 1-0 win over Mississippi in a game witnessed by assistant general manager Buddy Bell. "He's making a ton of progress," minor league pitching coordinator Curt Hasler said. "His changeup has become a much better pitch for him, and he's using that more effectively. His fastball command to both sides now has improved quite a bit. "From the middle of last season to now, he's added a nice sinker to go along with it. He's getting all the equipment he needs to pitch at the major league level. He's doing a nice job with it." www.chicagotribune.com/sports

Talent trumps tenaciousness. This time, Pujols delivers the game winner with two out in the bottom of the 9th, plating Jimenez and Trout, who'd reached on an infield single. Almost had more fun cheering for the undermanned Astros against the Western Evil Empire than the White Sox yesterday.

Former Hawkeye football player Marquis Bo Porter called for the suicide squeeze and it worked to perfection, haha. Scioscia brought in a LHR (Sean Burnett) to face a RHB who promptly drove in a run. 4-1 Astros to the bottom of the 7th. Crowd quieted.

Cleveland had something like 11,400 today for a Saturday day game. Yikes. Can't wait to see the totals for the next White Sox weeknight/weekday games. Intradivisional opponents aren't going to draw any fans, and few Sox fans care very much about beating the Twins anymore when the Tigers are the barometer for the rest of the AL Central.

Josh Hamilton solo homer follows a Pujols GIDP (Trout Farm had singled to begin the inning). Should have sent Trout...he seems more hesitant to steal bases so far this year, plus he hasn't been getting on base as much to establish a rhythm. 2-1 Astros into the 7th. Will be a battle of the bullpens. Harrell only ended up giving up the one run. Anyone want that Pujols contract? CJ Wilson still hasn't won a game, either. HOU with 213 losses the last two seasons combined. Most losses in back to back seasons since the 64-65 Mets. Went 4-34 in one stretch last year. How is that even POSSIBLE?

QUOTE (winninguglyin83 @ Apr 13, 2013 -> 08:55 PM) Agree on Johnson (especially), Beck and Snodgrass. There's hope with some of the young arms. As for Hawkins, what is the reasoning behind putting a 19 year old kid in high A ball and let him flail like that? I don't get it. Doesn't it make more sense to put him at a level where he can succeed and get his confidence where it needs to be? Thompson wasn't rushed like this. He didn't get to Winston Salem until last season when he was 21. He seems to be improving slowly but consistently. Can anybody explain what the plan is with Hawkins? We have too many whiff kings on the big-league roster. We have mitchell who had four more Ks in four at-bats tonight and is never going to be a big-league regular. I really don't get it. They're really basing it on how he finished the 2012 season. If he struggled mightily when he was promoted and didn't finish so strongly, there's no way he's not at KANNY. It's EXTREMELY rare to skip a high school player over Low A. I can't recall the last time it happened with the White Sox organization. Even pitchers like Boone Logan and Scott Radinsky that went to the majors quickly started in Low A, at least I remember Radinsky because he went all the way from South Bend/Midwest League to Chicago in one season. And it's a lot easier for a pitcher with great raw stuff (like Dwight Gooden) to jump than a raw/undiscplined high school hitter who hasn't had the repetitions due to playing multiple sports when he was younger.

QUOTE (DirtySox @ Apr 13, 2013 -> 08:29 PM) That isn't his line. He went: 6.0 IP 5 H 0 ER 3 BB 6 SO The Dash only gave up 1 run in the game and it was by Jason Van Skike. http://www.milb.com/milb/stats/stats.jsp?s...&pid=571476 Ooops, you're right, that was his FIRST start against CAROLINA, last week.

Astros leading the Angels again. Former Sox hurler Lucas Harrell on the mound, haha. 2-0 Stros in the bottom of the 5th. Angels' rookie Luis Jimenez just got his first major league hit...a blooper to put runners on 2nd and 3rd for LAA. Strikes out JB Shuck to avoid facing Trout with bases loaded. Former Sox Cris Carter with his 4th homer to account for the 2 runs.

Snodgress had another good start, 6 IP, 6 H, 2 R/1 ER, 1 BB, but just 2 K's. 3.27 ERA on the season. Almost everyone in the BIRM line-up had 1 or 2 hits. Saladino's off to a much better start this season as he settles in at this level. Hawkins actually INCREASED his K rate in terms of per AB but not per PA. 2 walks, but he also had one K. Now 16 of 25 outs can be attributed to the strikeout with him. 4/25 on the season (.160). On the plus side, a homer every 8.33 AB. Olacio was hit hard again. Beck had a strange line. 4 2/3, 4 H, 3 R, 0 ER, 3 BB's, 3 K's Seems this is the year when Johnson, Snodgress and Beck ascend past the "old guard" in Rienzo/Castro/Molina/Petricka as Sox pitching prospects, if it hasn't happened already.

At least one or two. And this year, we don't have the obvious Ozzie comparisons....because we're comparing year on year vs. what Robin's team did last year. Basically, it was the same team, except for AJ. You can certainly make numerous compelling arguments for winning 1-2 Nationals games and the first game of the Indians' series. Of course, the Nationals are playing like us all of a sudden. Their announcers would argue they SHOULD have won the first two games of the Braves' series, but they are making mistakes now and the Braves are taking advantage.

If this is a sign of things to come when Don Cooper's no longer around the organization, it's a scary glimpse.

Farmer and DJ claim the press box was warned, lol.

Dunn going to 1B when he's out. This is about as bad as Josh Hamilton last night. 6 K's for CY MacAllister.

Well, it only counts as one loss...baseball cliche. Not good when your ace loses to the #5 of the opposing team. I guess the same thing happened when we beat Felix with Axelrod.

Well, what can you say? There's not much to comment upon. Can't fix Dunn, but they are going to have to extend less patience to Viciedo and Flowers, to start with. 430 feet. Hope Sale doesn't get hurt here. Stupid to do that. Get outs, Chris!

Well, this is discouraging. Coming into the game, the biggest positive about our franchise was having an ace in Sale and yet we haven't even seen that in evidence. Hopefully just the proverbial April dead arm...otherwise, yikes!

High change-up to Sox Killer Ryan Raburn. Yikes. This is bleak.