caulfield12

Surely, it's heading into 2012. So you could push him down at least 3-5 places in the rankings. That said, right now....what players do we have in the Top Ten at their positions? DeAza in CF is probably middle ten. Rios, for most of last year, but nobody would expect a repeat. AJ, offensively...for sure. Konerko, he can't be ranked in the top ten anymore. Viciedo was MLB average for LF in terms of OPS but there's a lot of room for improvement. Keppinger, maybe if you base it solely on 2012, but not on his last three years, as he's been more of a super-utility guy.

Gameday Audio isn't live for some reason. Says there's an MLB feed, not either team's normal broadcasters.

QUOTE (flavum @ Mar 13, 2013 -> 10:36 AM) Lineups: http://baseballpress.com/lineup.php Video: http://chicago.whitesox.mlb.com/video/play...96&c_id=cws Rienzo, Heath, Stewart, Omogrosso, Rodriguez, Gray scheduled to pitch. Peavy, Thornton, Jones, Lindstrom, Veal, and Reed throwing this morning in a minor league game. I wonder if the Sox are the most paranoid team about having their pitchers face division foes in spring training. It's mostly attributable to Don Cooper superstition (especially hiding our lefties). We had Gray in spring training a year or two ago and then he caught on with another team for the regular season...maybe the Mariners?

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Mar 13, 2013 -> 02:21 PM) Do they wear their hats to the back? That's the best way to get a tan in the bleachers while also protecting your neck from sunburn, lol. However, it is super cool when a cute girl is wearing a Sox cap backwards or at an angle...the Korean style is with the completely straight bill and the New Era sticker still attached. The White Sox cap was definitely the most popular one there (in South Korea), or at least top 3. Japan, not as popular. Maybe the memories of Iguchi and Gong Takatsu have faded.

The opposite is true, as well. The desire to celebrate the "chicks dig the long ball," three run homers and a cloud of dust offense from say 2000-2004 and the 2008 team is out of style, too. The White Sox have always done the best when they had solid defense and Top 5 starting pitching. Period.

http://www.startribune.com/sports/twins/19...21.html?refer=y Looks like the Minnesota Twins are really going to be a threat in 2-3 years...of course, you could have said the same about the Sox 1999-2001 prospect lists. Nice to see the Hawk and Sanchez get some pub, a bit surprised Thompson wasn't somewhere in the 100-150 range as well, as his upside is probably higher than Sanchez still.

QUOTE (Jake @ Mar 12, 2013 -> 08:49 PM) http://articles.latimes.com/2012/aug/11/en...-films-20120811 This article seems to explain this phenomenon. Our taste has gone against the star-powered comedy. Anchorman 2 will be an ultimate test of this idea. The whole ensemble thing has really taken off....think of movies like The Hangover, Avengers, Fast and the Furious, that aren't based so much on one $20+ million super salary. Even The Expendables, at least the first iteration. Ben Stiller, Jim Carrey, Adam Sander, Will Ferrell, Tom Cruise, Julia Roberts, Owen Wilson, Reese Witherspoon...think of where their salaries have gone over the last decade, for the most part. Or Horrible Bosses/Identity Thief/Bridesmaids...where comedies are being driven by two or more lower-priced stars such as Jason Bateman, Kirsten Wiig and Melissa McCarthy.

IMO, Viciedo and Flowers (assuming he develops) are the only two guys in our current lineup that could be part of our long-term core (2015 and beyond). And possibly DeAza, although the odds are that Mitchell/Walker/Thompson replaces him as he becomes more expensive in arbitration...

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Mar 12, 2013 -> 07:03 PM) I think it's a question whether he can get his OPS back to 700+, he's 31. Moreover, the 2014 position player situation for the Sox could be a big problem. They could be looking at needing a new catcher, 1B, 2B, SS, not to mention being saddled with Dunn for another year. Don't forget an Alex Rios who's two years older and no longer in his prime or moveable until mid-season 2014 at best. Carlos Sanchez, right now, on the Big Board would have to be penciled into the #2 spot on the depth chart behind both Ramirez and Beckham for 2014. Obviously, that could change as early as June/July of this year. Viciedo can easily slide to 1B. That's not a big deal at all after all the defensive position changes he's gone through. STILL, as the old axiom or Royals Failure 101 goes, PITCHING PITCHING PITCHING. It's much easier to fix a line-up offensively than to address a bad starting rotation.

QUOTE (Chicago White Sox @ Mar 12, 2013 -> 06:36 PM) Personally, if Danks looks good this year, I'm sticking with a 1-2-3 of Sale-Peavy-Danks for the next two or three years and seeing where that gets me. With Floyd likely gone, we should be able to afford them with Quintana/Santiago and possibly Johnson/Snodgress/Rienzo/Castro at the backend of the rotation. Poor Molina. I guess it's a sign of some decent progress that we can at least list 4 theoretical replacements and not be including either Molina or Axelrod on it. Maybe he will perform better this year more under the radar than having the weight of the trade and expectations coming into 2012.

QUOTE (Chicago White Sox @ Mar 12, 2013 -> 06:36 PM) Personally, if Danks looks good this year, I'm sticking with a 1-2-3 of Sale-Peavy-Danks for the next two or three years and seeing where that gets me. With Floyd likely gone, we should be able to afford them with Quintana/Santiago and possibly Johnson/Snodgress/Rienzo/Castro at the backend of the rotation. If we're actually trading Ramirez, then getting cost savings by putting Santiago into the rotation for Danks would also make sense. In that case, you're pretty much resigned to also jettisoning Thornton, Crain and looking to move DeAza, Rios, Dunn and Konerko if you can get anything of value back (or just simply cost savings in the case of all those players except for DeAza and Konerko, and also co-dependent on the continued progress of Thompson/Mitchell/Walker/Hawkins). Keppinger's a nice veteran "glue" utility player who would seem to fit even if we went into that drastic rebuilding mode because you always need to have some veterans to teach the young infield prospects how to play the game right, kind of like a younger Omar Vizquel role.

We can talk about "opportunity cost" all we want right now...investing the $27 million of theoretical savings into signing DR talent and Venezuelans and Asians, BUT.... what's the cost of 1) punting on the season and White Flagging it by trading Ramirez and plugging in someone who's not yet ready and will definitely struggle and, 2) messing up Sanchez's natural development in the first place and possibly destroying him as a prospect 3) putting even more pressure on Keppinger and Beckham defensively 4) making Peavy on this roster pointless and a waste of money, since we DEFINITELY won't win the AL Central in 2013 with just any random player at SS? 5) back to point 1, what god-awful attendance and revenue numbers would result if the FO takes that position?

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Mar 12, 2013 -> 10:49 AM) I don't think there is a plan B for Beckham this year unless he's injured. I'd like Sanchez to stay at short because if he can play there it makes him more valuable and there's a replacement in in the unlikely event they are able to move Ramirez next offseason. It's not unlikely. It's a heckuva lot MORE likely than moving John Danks, Rios or Dunn, that's for sure. Second, of course there's a plan B. Sanchez will stay at short because it's a lot easier to move to 2B eventually...if need be, than to make the opposite switch, and his value is higher at that position, because more power is needed from 2B these days. But the organization can't be too optimistic at this point about Beckham going forward. DeMichele, Angel Sanchez or Keppinger could both play 2B as well...in the next couple of years. But those are just stopgaps or placeholders. Which is more likely? For Beckham to have over a 700 OPS in 2013, or Ramirez? History shows Ramirez, because he's done it 4/5 years. Whereas Beckham has had three consecutive bad offensive seasons and is also starting to get overpaid for his value/production.

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Mar 12, 2013 -> 02:21 PM) This is actually about right - save De Aza. He should be ok. Except for the fact that Latin players, especially speed-based ones, have been playing professionally since they were 16 and often times before that due to lying about their ages in order to sign quickly and get money to their families and agents. So you get the Pods/Chone Figgins/Juan Pierre falling off a cliff in their early 30's due to the wear and tear of playing so much....and DeAza has definitely had more than his share of injuries, including the 2012 season. Meaning you can't expect him to ever return to how good he was in 2011.

What gives ANYONE a right to believe that Carlos Sanchez is going to put up over a 700 OPS? He might never do that in a single major league season....so we're campaigning to dump Alexei Ramirez, save a little bit of money that may or may not be reinvested in the future, and then what? For salary relief? And that type of trade has worked so well for the White Sox WHEN??? We're going to just give up on the 2013 season before it even begins? If we accept this hypothesis about Ramirez, then you also have to believe that Beckham will never return to 2009 form, Flowers is likely to flop and that Dunn/Konerko/Rios/DeAza are well past their prime or past their prime and won't do anything but go downhill. If that's the belief of the organization, then why in God's name would they have re-signed Peavy, signed Danks, extended Chris Sale and kept Crain/Thornton and added Lindstrom? You can just see the future. CUE fans complaining about Ramirez being better than Carlos Sanchez defensively and at least being able to put up 15-18 homers a season and 70+ RBI's.

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Mar 11, 2013 -> 07:40 AM) You left an out in case you were called on it. You're still a coward. Gee. Maybe I'll start my own sympathetic thread here about being the victim of personal attacks, lol.

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Mar 12, 2013 -> 12:52 PM) I am busy at work and didn't get to this ASAP. But thankfully Marty has access to that new-fangled Google website. And that's not just a decline - it's a DRASTIC decline. Look at it month by month. He showed tremendous improvement after the first two atrocious months....then tailed off with the rest of the offense in September. If he was declining based on age, his first half would have been strong and he would have faded from June-September, like Rios in 2010, but that was certainly not the case. Nor was that kind of season indicative of any type of future performance for Rios, other than his weird "bad year/good year" thing repeating itself. How many AL shortstops drove in 70+ runs hitting from the bottom 3 of the order for more than half the season? I bet the answer to that is 0.

What has given anyone reason to believe that Beckham has turned the corner?

QUOTE (TomSeaverFan @ Mar 11, 2013 -> 11:06 PM) I was on the road and watched a movie on HBO the other night in a hotel. It was called "Wanderlust" I believe with Jennifer Aniston and Paul Rudd. It's about two people in the rat race who become hippies in a commune. I would give it a D or one star. Has anybody seen it? I don't even think Aniston looked that hot. I thought she looked GREAT in Horrible Bosses. Yep, bad bad movie. Paul Rudd's in a bit of a slump....I thought Malin Ackerman was good, though.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Mar 11, 2013 -> 02:43 PM) I thought Silver Linings was the best of the bunch. Depressed Dirty Dancing...?? Very good, but not quite great, either.

Carlos Sanchez at 2B, Ramirez at SS, Keppinger at 3B. Plan C/D/E is Morel starting anywhere besides Charlotte.

QUOTE (baseball17 @ Mar 11, 2013 -> 06:26 PM) Isn't Septimo out of options? Not sure. Theoretically, Santos Rodriguez profiles very similarly, so with Thornton and Santiago, they're probably not super worried. In fact, in a sense, they have "double insurance" with Veal. Reed Thornton Crain/Lindstrom Jones Santiago/Veal Will always remember Septimo for that Boston backbreaking homer he gave up to Adrian Gonzalez...pitching in a situation he wasn't really accustomed to, certainly not under that type of pressure.

Or Aparicio, Chico Carrasquel....Uribe

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Mar 11, 2013 -> 06:40 AM) You left an out in case you were called on it. You're still a coward. Yet somehow giving up on the next two seasons before they're even played isn't, it is actually quite courageous?

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Mar 9, 2013 -> 02:50 PM) To build a case that someone is a racist and not directly call them one is a very cowardly thing to do. I built a case that you are selectively biased, but not necessarily racist. Those two particular words are commonly confused or interchanged, but definitely not synonyms by any stretch of the imagination. In this particular thread, I wasn't the one who opened up that particular discussion, nor your Horatio Alger/Ayn Randish-defense to begin the other thread.