caulfield12

Who has seen FRUITVALE STATION? Thoughts?

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Aug 10, 2013 -> 02:43 PM) If the Angels hadn't pissed away half a billion dollars (or what seems like half a billion dollars) they could definitely use a catcher. Their last good catcher was the original Molina brother (Bengie!). Unless you count Napoli as a "real catcher." Offensively, he was completely legit.

QUOTE (fathom @ Aug 10, 2013 -> 02:42 PM) Agreed, and I asked yesterday, which teams out there will be in the market for a catcher? The Rangers, if they don't keep AJ, for one. What is Salty's status with the Red Sox? Napoli's not playing any catcher for them this year, is he? The Indians could use a full-time catcher there with Santana more well-suited for 1B/DH. Tigers, if they throw the towel in on Avila? Yankees?

Phegley has gotten the benefit of the doubt to an extent because of his lack of health and relatively high draft position...the scouts clearly saw SOMETHING they likely, originally. That said, if he continues his current level of offensive/defensive play, he's a back-up (at best, if it's not Flowers or another veteran like a Ruiz/Shoppach/lesser Molina brought in to add some veteran stability around the youngsters). Personally, I think it's more likely that Flowers ends up the back-up and Phegley's either the starter in 2014 OR traded OR AAA'ed. And the idea that Josh or Axelrod have/had much value at all around the rest of the majors is a pretty dubious one...we let, for example, Lucas Harrell, get away for nothing, Eric Stults, etc. Just because someone ends up serviceable in the NL West doesn't mean they're valued by other teams.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Aug 10, 2013 -> 02:31 PM) Where are these rumors? I haven't seen or heard any of them. Is this what goes on in the twittersphere these days, random people suggesting that guys who seem to age naturally must have been using because they performed well? Basically, YES. And it's honestly hard not to blame skeptics after the last 20+ years of baseball disappointments. You're only left as who as your Hall of Famers of the position players who entered the game since around 1990 or later? Vizquel Frank Thomas Thome Pujols (for now) Ken Griffey, Jr. Miguel Cabrera (if he continues at this pace another season or two)

QUOTE (hammerhead johnson @ Aug 10, 2013 -> 01:00 PM) I'm also a Puig fanboy, but Trout is getting ready to post back-to-back 10 WAR seasons, and he just turned 22 the other day. So yeah, there's not much of a debate. There are a lot of rumours and whispers out there about PED's and Trout, but I think it's simply because of his slighter stature and the fact that he was instantly so dominant after being a low 1st rounder (relatively unprecedented in the last 20-30 years)... Now with Pujols and Verlander under a BIT of suspicion, you just have to sincerely hope (and cautiously believe) that Trout's 100% legit. Of course, Latin American players have ALWAYS been under suspicion, too, almost automatically. So, in the end, Trout has the advantage of course, due to his track record and ability to play CF (not quite as well as Bourjos, but CLOSE). Yasiel belong at a corner, and he's back there again today with Ethier in CF. And he's been quite a bit more patient at the plate, as of late, accepting walks. .440 OBP now includes 20 walks, which is an upgrade over his first month or so in the big leagues. Puig missed 9 cutoff men over his previous four throws, lol, so that will definitely be addressed by the Dodgers' coaching staff...and there won't be nearly as much patience and "laughing off" Puig fielding and baserunning mistakes as there has been tolerated almost with a "well, that's Yasiel's style of play, we'll live with the negatives because we don't want to curb his aggressiveness/style of play" vibe this season. He just didn't have nearly the development time in the minors that he needed to erase all the bad habits developed in Cuba...where you don't bunt and you show off your arm on every throw (for the fans' adulation) even if you only have a 3-5% of recording an out.

The "everything that can go wrong will go wrong" skepticism that's set in with most of us, haha? Actually, knowing the White Sox, they'll pleasantly surprise and be competitive for at least half the season and nobody will notice or care because ALMOST everyone's given up on the team already until 2015. The "back-up QB" phenomenon definitely applies here to Phegley....now that he's struggling, the board's back to giving McCann big bucks. I'd agree there is ZERO to lose letting him play nearly everyday...though...with the caveat that Morel put together a strong final month in terms of power in a similar pressure-free situation but it was a mirage and had no carryover effect. That said, other than dealing with health issues, there's little in common between Morel and Phegley, other than the fact that they're "cursed" White Sox position prospects.

The identity of the PTBN reportedly is 22-year-old Leury Garcia, whom the Rangers were grooming to be a utility player capable of handling shortstop, second base and center field. Because he’s a member of Texas’ 40-man roster, Garcia, who plays for Triple-A Round Rock, would need to clear waivers to be traded. The White Sox have cleared more than $10.5 million in payroll commitments for 2013 by trading Rios, Jake Peavy, Matt Thronton and Jesse Crain and replacing them with players making the minimum. That outlook improves in 2014, when the Red Sox (Peavy) and Rangers (Rios) assume the combined $27 million for which the White Sox would have been responsible. White Sox Acquire Garcia has three top-of-the-line tools—speed, range and arm strength—though we’ll wait to go into more detail until his inclusion becomes official. www.baseballamerica.com

QUOTE (zenryan @ Aug 9, 2013 -> 08:57 PM) After watching Puig make 4 defensive mistakes in the first 3 innings tonight while playing CF, I think its safe to say Trout is the correct answer. He also ignited the comeback from down 6-1 in the 8th inning with an RBI ground rule double (would have been a triple), 2 for 4 again.....almost 30 multi-hit games already. Still hitting almost .380 FWIW, he's not a CFer. First and foremost, he plays RF, then LF, CF is his weakest position from what I've seen.

QUOTE (fathom @ Aug 9, 2013 -> 07:20 PM) I like guys like Semien and Beckham probably more than anyone, but they need to be supporting players as not your stars. Garcia has some potential, but there's no one else in the pipeline that projects as an above average player right now on offense. Therein lies the problem, in a nutshell: Potential impact bats Viciedo, Avisail Garcia, Barnum (a stretch, I know at the moment) and Hawkins Utility/complimentary Gillaspie, Kepp, Morel, Micah Johnson, Beckham, Carlos Sanchez, L. Garcia, Semien (nothing at 1B/DH in pipeline), middle infield prospect in Peavy deal from BOS Toolsy outfielders who might bust: Walker, Mitchell, Hawkins, Jacobs, Thompson a mess at the catching position still... lots of good arms but a mess overall in the bullpen: Webb, Santos Rodriguez, Petricka, Snodgress (sticking him here for now), Beck, Montas (who could quickly figure into the mix), Rienzo, Simon Castro (if velocity returns to go with that nice offspeed stuff) Athletic players who could really emerge or disappoint: Trayce Thompson and Tim Anderson

Rafael Furcal MERGED with Craig Grebeck...with a little Ozuna thrown in (hopefully he flies across 1B and calls himself safe simultaneously).

Overpaying on Choo is crazy.....we need players who will be in their primes in 2015/16/17. Just think the years and average salary will price him out of consideration.

Someone is forgetting Mr. Montas as well... Pitchers with that type of arm don't grow on trees. Plus, Crain MIGHT come back to the Rays. He will resume throwing again in the next week....when/if he comes back is anybody's guess, though.

QUOTE (Eminor3rd @ Aug 9, 2013 -> 04:33 PM) No definitely -- like I said, maybe the game changed this year. It's just frustrating to see because he gave up a ton of ML talent on reasonable contracts for much less talent in return, and a bunch of money that doesn't look like it can be spent under this CBA. That's all I'm saying. That said, there's NO REASON to think we can't get similar contributions from Quintana or Santiago or Johnson or even Rienzo at a fraction of the cost of the Peavy contract. Agreed? Jake Peavy was pitching well this year, but not QUITE as well as 2012 in the first half and then you have the injury situation flaring up (yet again). The area where we have to agree for the moment is replacing another outfielder (if Viciedo does move, which is far from certain at this point). Still, you can easily argue that Garcia can equal Rios (eventually, or even in the short-term), right? It's the same arguments we made about Flowers vs. AJ in the offseason, Keppinger vs. 600 OPS from that position in 2012, etc. Danks can be replaced, but we can't trade him. Reed/Jones replaced Santos. We need to replace Thornton and Crain, of course. It all comes down to Alexei Ramirez again...and whether L. Garcia or Semien can hold down the position. You can still argue "competitiveness" in 2014 with the 1B situation repaired, the bullpen and the catching position.

Agreed, more or less. There are "ideals" and then there are realities, but Garcia/Mitchell/Jacobs/Walker just don't quite fit the CF profile for different reasons like Trayce does.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Aug 9, 2013 -> 04:21 PM) Required arm strength for center? Sure. It's not quite the requirement it is for RF (throwing from right to 3B, the longest throw in the game)...but we've seen enough of Pods, Pierre and DeAza to see what happens when you're lacking in arm strength in LF and CF, too. Lance Johnson would be another example whose arm strength was his biggest defensive flaw in center. If Avisail had the range (and he's still growing) or Mitchell/Walker/Jacobs the arm strength and route taking ability, you can be darned sure they would be forcing one of those 3 guys into CF if their bats were even capable of a 675-725 OPS at the next level (feels like the Brian Anderson discussion all over again, if he could just hit ENOUGH).

Jacobs, from most reports, doesn't have the required arm strength for CF. Similar to Mitchell in that regard. It's THOMPSON or BUST.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Aug 9, 2013 -> 04:11 PM) Then you hold the player(s)! The two guys they traded were basically earning their paychecks. If your goal is to compete in the near-term, you hold your performing and over performing assets and trade or dump the underperforming assets. If the goal was to compete in the near term, they should have been trading the underperforming assets, subsidized with cash, in an attempt to get back prospects who could even out the losses you were taking on the underperforming assets. Admittedly, that is much more difficult. These are all reasons why I would have traded Sale. You either trade him and hold your performing assets in the hope that you can bring back even more over performing assets than he was, and hope to compete next year, or you blow the whole thing to s***, including Sale, and hope to come back with a vengeance in '16/'17 forward... Nobody disagrees with that, in theory...if you can get the return on Sale that you're asking for. HUGE IF. (Same with trading Ramirez/DeAza/Reed/Jones and even Viciedo or Beckham.) And how likely is that, in this current environment? But yeah, a possible Sale injury is the "Category 5/Armageddon/Apocalype" that we've been facing since the day he was drafted. That said, EVERY GM in baseball is aware of his mechanics, just like they were about Rios' "attitude," Peavy's injury history and Alexei's lackadaisical-ness/drifting. It always goes back to the famous Marty line....XYZ player won't be a part of the next White Sox pennant winner. Is Chris Sale going to be on the next White Sox team to make the playoffs? What are the odds? How big is the risk in not parlaying him into 3-4-5 useful assets, with at least 2 with potential All-Star ability (Avisail Garcia or better, another starting pitching prospect like the Cards' Martinez, a catcher/CF/3B, etc.)

We need to hire people who can INNOVATE and THINK OUTSIDE THE BOX. Not just the front office/minor leagues, but also marketing and PR, across the board...we need a REBRAND/REIMAGING. Is Hahn the guy to lead that charge, we'll see...? One thing is for certain, we need to be looking in places OTHER THAN LATIN AMERICA... If there's more Cubans we can spirit out of the country and into Mexico or the Dominican, we should be in on that....coming as close as possible to breaking the law without actually doing so, lol. South Korea/Taiwan, let's find the next Choo, Chien Ming Wang or that pitcher the Orioles got from other there who has done surprisingly well.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Aug 9, 2013 -> 03:48 PM) You should have kept reading. The plan should be to have a plan. I'm not sure what Hahn's is. But he's clearing money when there's a very weak FA class, which was alluded to in Jim's article you keep linking to. There are caps on the draft and international signings. There simply is nowhere to spend all this money in the immediate term. Accepting that, and looking at our available resources, it becomes clear that we do not have the talent in-house, nor the supply in the open market to drastically improve anytime soon. If you accept that, then what we should do is what the team across town is doing - converting current resources to future resources. The goal is build an organization that can challenge for championships consistently. Or we can simply invest into Pacific Rim 2, the movie....creating diversified revenue streams which we can leverage later down the line. In all seriousness, though...would it really hurt to hire an extra hitting instructor to work with Hawkins? How about opening a Sox Academy in Venezuela or Brazil? In China or India, etc. We need to get out in front of the curve SOMEWHERE. Heck, open a DON COOPER TRAINING ACADEMY for all of our minor league pitching personnel...more advanced and minor league scouts, more regional and international scouts on the June Draft beat, no more Jerry Krause Experiments.

Timothy Leary? PERHAPS A NEW FLAVOR OF BEN AND JERRY's, tied into Jerry/Cherry Garcia??? Leury Cherry Garcia? Bring on all the Garcia's we can get...Sanchezes (Angel/Carlos), too. Just to confused those fans already befuddled by what's going on down on the Southside this season. Leury Garcia, 2B/SS Age: 21 2012 stats: Hit .292/.337/.398 with two homers and 31 stolen bases for double-A Frisco Scouting report: Speed and defense are Garcia’s calling cards. Armed with excellent range and a cannon attached to his right shoulder, Garcia is probably the best defensive middle infielder in the Rangers’ system, which is saying something. He also reined in his errors last season, committing a career-low 16 while playing four different positions in double-A. His plus speed plays extremely well on the base paths, where he’s stolen 51, 30 and 31 bases in the last three seasons. But the trouble for Garcia has always been getting on. Though he had a career-best .292 average in 2012, that figures to be about as good as it gets for Garcia, and he doesn’t offer the sort of plate discipline to make up for it with a high walk rate. And as you’d expect from a defensive middle infielder, he doesn’t offer much power, despite a reputation for swinging out of his shoes. Notable: At 21, Garcia is already a veteran of sorts, having spent five seasons working his way slowly up the Rangers’ farm system. His bat has always been the big question – Garcia posted an OPS of .529 as a 17-year-old in rookie ball, and followed with a .574 OPS in the Sally League the next year – but the little Dominican has steadily improved his offense to the point where it no longer seems to be the thing that will keep him from ever getting to the big leagues. It might, however, be the thing that keeps him from ever being an everyday player. In a lot of ways, 2012 was a banner year for Garcia. His .734 OPS was easily a career high, and it was a positive sign that he was able to make the crucial leap to double-A with so much success. The Rangers also toyed with Garcia at a number of defensive positions for the first time in his career. Heading into the season, Garcia had played 318 of his 319 career appearances at shortstop. But in 2012, Garcia had 39 starts at SS, 57 at second base, four in center field and four in left field. And though he didn’t play third base at all, he’s got the arm strength to do it should he have to. Part of Garcia’s constant moving had to do with the fact that he spent the season playing alongside Jurickson Profar, who took most of the reps at shortstop, but it was also likely a clue to the Rangers’ future plans for Garcia. At 5-foot-7, 153 pounds, without much power or plate discipline, he doesn’t seem like all that likely of a candidate to finish with a 15-year career as a big league regular. But his versatility in the field and speed on the bases make Garcia a perfect candidate to be a super utility man, filling in across the diamond and subbing as a pinch-runner late in games. Future role: With plus defense to offer at a number of position and plenty of speed to spare, Garcia seems like a perfect candidate to be a utility man for the Rangers in 2013. The biggest questions will be how his bat holds up against big league pitching during spring training, and whether Ron Washington could learn to trust a 22-year-old who’s never played above double-A ball. You could wonder if bringing Garcia up to spend 100+ games on the bench will stunt his development, and it probably would, but the Rangers might think it’s worth it if they don’t view Garcia’s ultimate upside as an everyday player, anyway. Regardless of whether Garcia starts the year with the big league club, he should at least earn a cup of coffee at some point in 2013, and the Rangers just might have a do-it-all utility man under team control for at least the next six years. ETA: 2013 dallasnew.com/sports

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Aug 9, 2013 -> 03:17 PM) If you really want to pile up names though...the top 5 young starting pitchers in the White Sox org looks really intriguing as well if you count Sale. Sale, Santiago, Quintana, Rienzo, Johnson...looks pretty darn intriguing. And yes, there's no guarantee with any of those guys, but the White Sox may well have just as large of a fraction of a team put together with young guys as the Cubs. And ours are closer to the big leagues/more well established. Part of it is surely psychological. None of our top prospects (other than Hawkins) are position players...unless you want to include Trayce, too. And nobody would be surprised if NONE of our current outfield prospects made it as big league regulars...so there's that lingering disappointment/suspicion of our own system and minor league development (in general), juxtaposed with the seeming riches in young position players that the Cubs have... And yeah, the pitching's definitely harder to find/obtain. Maybe not sexy enough, though. At least Semien and Micah Johnson and Phegley for awhile gave us SOMETHING to pin our hopes on...as well as Mr. Webb's development. Now both Garcias, and we're yet to see what will come of the Jesse Crain deal.

The Rangers will send the White Sox a player to be named later – minor league INF Leury Garcia if he clears waivers – or cash. The White Sox will also absorb some of the remaining $17 million left in Rios’ contract through 2014. If Garcia doesn’t clear waivers, the deal would change with the Rangers likely taking on more, if not all, of the remaining salary commitment. dallas morning news/sports We can get a decent idea of exactly the financial value being placed on acquiring Garcia right here in this paragraph... As far the the Astros taking Garcia, they MIGHT...Correa is way down in A ball still, at least 1 1/2 or 2 seasons away from the big leagues.

Reports had the White Sox asking for two of the Rangers' top prospects back near July 31. Some reports said those two were Martin Perez and Luke Jackson, a ridiculous price for Rios. The Rangers, rightly, said no. But once the White Sox put Rios on waivers, the Rangers put in a claim and -- as the team with the worst record of those that put in the claim -- got the right to negotiate with the White Sox for 72 hours on a deal. Chicago must have decided it didn't want Rios' long-term salary on the books and chose to at least get a player back in the process. Garcia showed he could play multiple positions and certainly has upside, but it's a deal that makes great sense for the Rangers to get an outfielder who isn't a rental. With Cruz, who is suspended for the remainder of the regular season, and David Murphy set to be free agents at the end of the season, the Rangers are able to address an immediate need and think big-picture. Rios can slide right into an outfield spot next season, and the club has an option for 2015. A trade clause in his contract boosted his 2014 and 2015 salary, as well as the 2015 buyout, so he is owed $13 million next season and the remaining portion of his $12 million salary this season with a $2 million buyout for 2015. Still, I like this deal. One scout described Rios as a 5-tool player, but with inconsistent use of those tools. He doesn't have the power of Cruz, but he does have speed and should be highly motivated coming to a winner in the midst of a pennant race (WHERE HAVE WE HEARD THIS ONE BEFORE???). Yes, he isn't hitting home runs lately. But he's still getting hits and driving in some runs. Rios is not a guy you'll find working counts deep. But we've seen manager Ron Washington do a terrific job in finding the strengths of his players and utilizing them. He'll get the most that he can out of Rios. And it won't hurt to have former teammate A.J. Pierzynski in the Rangers' clubhouse too. (LOL at Rios and AJ being buddies.) espn.com (Dallas Bureau)

QUOTE (Wedge @ Aug 9, 2013 -> 03:04 PM) What talent have the Cubs amassed this way? You're frustrated Corey Black isn't in the system? I mean....just going on a huge spending spree across the board the last two years, throwing good money after bad, and hoping some of it sticks. There's no arguing their Top 4-5-6-7 of K.Bryant/Baez/Soler/Olt/Almora/Alcantara is a LOT more interesting/exciting/intriguing. Of course, there are no guarantees with prospects, any more than there is picking random mutual funds.