caulfield12

DeAza 0 for 7 with the bases loaded this season. Yikes. Gee, another Flowers K. What a surprise.

Beckham 348 vs LHP, 209 vs. RHP. Yikes. 2 for his last 25. 14 innings and counting without a run for the Red Sox.

Because they're showcasing Beckham for a trade, lol. Eaton's really been slumping his last ten games again. Such an inconsistent season from him. Has to be considered a bit of a disappointment so far, but not quite to the point where he's not projected to start again in 2015 (and honestly, who else do we even have to replace Viciedo and DeAza, let alone Adam?)

What I meant was when half their "real" prospects start failing like Olt and Lake. There are already major question marks around Almora (power/promoted too quickly), Baez (fielding/contact) and Soler (health). Johnson and Edwards have been out. The prospects doing really well are Bryant (high K numbers still, you have the feeling he might be too overconfident and get exposed), Alcantara, Schwarber and the 19 year old Korean pitcher (think he's at Daytona). Vizcaino and some of the AAA starters look good on paper, but that doesn't always translate (see Jamie Carroll). Even Russell has some health concerns now with the hamstring problem/s. BTW, Cubs have not lost four in a row.

Have Beckham and Flowers bottomed out? We'll find out soon enough. Workman might be pitching for another team soon...or Peavy. Red Sox desperately need OF bats, and dearly miss the presence of Victorino, their "does all the little" things glue player.

Van Persie is out though, right? Robben's been their been best attacking player this tourney, certainly more consistent, the iconic RVP header to tie the score against the Spanish notwithstanding. This one could go either way. You kind of have a feeling that first goal wins it.

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Jul 8, 2014 -> 05:00 PM) Look at his total extra base hits. His stats are pretty darn good this year. Yeah, a month ago...he was around 30-40 for all of MLB for OPS. Like the White Sox offense, he's faded quite a bit with the Rangers' overall collapse. So there's that as well. Rios doesn't seem to play with as much focus when his team is kind of drifting along out of contention. So another concern.

How long are they going to keep running Erik Johnson out there this season before they sit him down for a couple of weeks and work on the mental side of things?

Is supposedly available from the Cardinals....his name is being mentioned in the Peavy talks. Any interest? StL needs pitching help, and Beckham/Ramirez were rumored to the Cardinals last year, so not sure if there's a match. Boston media currently doesn't think StL would accept that deal, Peavy for Craig, straight up. http://espn.go.com/mlb/player/stats/_/id/30399/allen-craig Only has a 659 OPS for the moment, and RH. But still at 810 for his career, and a consistent 2.2/2.2/2.3 WAR player. Will turn 30 in July, so maybe a bit beyond his prime.

QUOTE (TheTruth05 @ Jul 8, 2014 -> 03:58 PM) What Colombian? the one who cracked Neymar's vertebrae with the knee to the back

QUOTE (Y2HH @ Jul 8, 2014 -> 04:30 PM) The last part would seriously depend on where you go...there are places I wouldn't want to be -- ever -- and places I love to visit, but I always love coming home. That said, my absolute favorite place to travel is right here, the US of A. This entire study, if it can be called that, is a complete matter of perspective (or lack thereof), not to mention opinion. Yeah, hence the near-term reactions or overreactions in Cambodia and Thailand, for example. Anyone who has travelled extensively to both places would pick Thailand, except for the presence of Angkor Wat, which is can't miss.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Jul 8, 2014 -> 02:05 PM) Interesting article. Obama and the pigheads in Congress should be embarrassed they have been in charge during a horrific six year period in which just about every aspect of life in the United States of America has gone downhill FAST. It's very embarrassing for Obama, who seems to have washed his hands of it all. He basically has blamed the pigheads in Congress and is just playing out the string so to speak. Very sad. But King Obama, the man we'd elect again and again if we could, has been President during one of the darkest periods in U.S. history. The decline of a great great nation is sad to experience. Pontius Pilate=Obama Obama is watching idly as belief in Jesus/God has been crucified. Got it. (Of course, every Democratic politician other than Jimmy Carter has been accused of that particular crime).

Where is this idea coming from that we don't control Viciedo's rights through at least 2016, should we so choose to?

With Rios' track record, he'd been atrocious in 2009 with the White Sox and even worse on a season-long basis in 2011. Sure, 2010 and 2012 were very good/fairly consistent (2010 he faded after a very hot first half if I remember correctly) and 2013 he was decent...but there was still a lot more money remaining on that deal, too much for teams like the Pirates, etc., to absorb. Then you had some questions about his attititude behind the original dumping of the contract by the Blue Jays and then 2009 with Dye and 2011 was still fresh in memories of many, along with Dunn. It's hard to get past the stink of that season, for both of those particular players For all the talk about WAR, he still only has 3 homers, which is a bit alarming considering his track record. He'd be worth a lot more if he was in that 8-12 range.

5 goals in 29 minutes. 8 would have tied a record for margin of victory i think...of course, Brazil was just passed by Germany for all-time WC goals as well, to add insult to injury 9 was the most ever scored, happened just once or twice in history that Colombian better hide...although Brazilians who believe Neymar could have made up 7 goals himself are kidding themselves

3 1/2 hours to match kickoff. Any predictions? Seems it's too easy to pick Germany with Silva and Neymar out. Maybe they'll get overconfident and the Brazilians will unite together and play more cohesively to make up for the lost of two key components.

Interesting to see Addison Reed on the trade market again. We should check out Detwiler and Doubront (lefty again, so that works a bit against him) for the back end of the rotation. Among outfielders, there's Cuddyer, Quentin, three Phillies (Brown, Mayberry and Revere) as well as Desmond Jennings. Jennings and Brown would seem to be the most interesting...as Cuddyer is likely to stay in COL.

QUOTE (Y2JImmy0 @ Jul 8, 2014 -> 09:49 AM) Some of the Mets pitching prospects to the Cubs for a SS makes too much sense in my opinion. I agree with an earlier poster about the pitching staff. They have Arrieta and Wood. If they got Wheeler for one of their SS and signed Masterson or Lester, they'd have a pretty decent rotation. They have like a $30 million payroll. I'm pretty sure they will spend a little next year. You have to include Edwin Jackson in that rotation. He's just not going to up and disappear. Lester has been good the last two seasons, but he was struggling there for a while 3-4 seasons ago before righting the ship. Masterson could just as easily be another Edwin Jackson. There are no guarantees with pitching, that's true. I think there are a lot of Cubs' fans not entirely convinced that Arrieta's an ace, but they're billing him as one for now, so we'll see how long that holds up. But I would tend to agree at least having all your pieces in place (Lester and Wheeler) makes a lot more sense than waiting and waiting and waiting for the right moment to strike and then it has already passed you by because half of your prospects have deteriorated in value or been exposed in the majors like Olt and Junior Lake.

QUOTE (The Ultimate Champion @ Jul 8, 2014 -> 09:10 AM) ???? The PEAVY DEAL??? That's your formula for a Q deal? REALLY???? No. No. No. If you take back 4 spects/unproven MLB guys for Q they are all excellent. Read: they are all at Garcia's level or less than that but are still better prospects than Montas was, and none of them are anywhere near Rondon/Wendleken status, they're waaaaay above that. Nick Swisher brought in Gio and De Los Santos from us plus Sweeney, and DLS at that point was our most celebrated prospect. To move Q you need twice that return. No, it's not my formula, what I'm saying is that you're not going to get those 3-4 young prospects back for Quintana. You're going to get an offer of the Peavy deal, essentially, but not with Stroman/Norris as the headliner. As soon as those two names are off the table, then the deal dies quickly (in the hypothetical Jays example). Maybe AA is getting desperately/antsy to get back in the pennant race and sees this season getting away from him with the Angels and Mariners making charges...we don't know. We do know there's a lot of pressure on him to reach the playoffs, finally, but it's going to be through smaller moves (like Liriano/Myers/Youkilis) and not a blockbuster in-season involving his top two prospects.

The problem is, does anyone believe Phegley is the answer? If no, then there's no point in bringing up Kevan Smith. I think we're all agreed on that. So the options are very limited, other than playing Nieto more (not advisable) or bringing up Phegley. If the White Sox don't view Josh as being capable of holding down the position defensively or just in terms of his general make-up as a ballplayer, nobody's really being blocked. It's kind of the same situation as Adam Dunn right now. Unless they really want to give those at-bats to Saladino, Davidson, Sanchez, Semien, Sierra or Michael Taylor, there's no real reason to trade him, except for saving money to carry over for next season. Perhaps Micah Johnson, but that's more of a September call-up, and maybe they would rather he plays in the AFL instead of getting exposed by big league pitchers. Quite the quandary.

QUOTE (The Ultimate Champion @ Jul 8, 2014 -> 08:55 AM) I disagree. Rodon could slide into the #3 slot long-term and Danks could be the #5, and a quality option at that. I still DO NOT see us long-term having a 4 lefty rotation. It'll be L-R-L-R-L. Of course our best lineup there would be Sale-R-Q/Rodon-R-Q/Rodon but IF you can get a big time haul for Q to where we feel we are getting a RHSP slot filled plus we're filling an OF hole or picking up that big lefty bat, or grabbing a true SS, etc. then that's something you have to consider. But we'd have to be very careful. Trading Q for anything will likely at least set our rotation back a year, but if we trade Q and we don't get also back a quantity or quality then we'll set ourselves back *and* will likely lose the deal on the scorecards as well when it is all said and done. But let's say there is a 3-way where we get back Gregorius from AZ plus a top-end starting pitching prospect and a slugging lefty 1B/DH/corner OF prospect who we think is up by midseason 2015, and we're also getting a couple high ceiling MiLB pieces in Low A ... it would be very tough to pass that thing up. I don't think our FO would. Too many moving pieces, and way too much risk for the GM's involved. The Peavy deal is a better example...where we got Garcia and Montas. I just don't see GM's of playoff-contending teams mortgaging their future. The Cardinals refused over and over again last season, same with the Pirates. Now the A's, that's a different story...but they wanted veteran starting pitching, and Q's not quite considered to be in that category as of yet.

QUOTE (The Ultimate Champion @ Jul 8, 2014 -> 08:41 AM) Stroman looked terrific. That's the kind of return you'd need, Stroman+ 2 much smaller but still interesting pieces, but that's the kind of deal that probably has both GMs worrying too much to get a deal done. Q has a LOT of value, and he's already very good and lefthanded. Stroman does look really good though, and maybe you can see him as being just as good or even better. Tough to do that kind of deal. IMO a Q deal is like 5-for-1 or 6-for-2 where we send out something like Q and Petricka and get back a ton of really good prospects in the AA and below range and probably with a MLB piece or 2 thrown in of lesser quality. I think the Haren deal is a great comp for what we'd need out of Q. The Texeira deal with the Rangers is another great example but I don't like using that one because so many of those players turned out, it just makes it seem unrealistic. That was a lot of good luck there IMO, not exactly "Braves are stupid Rangers are geniuses" or anything. Trading Petricka now would be dumb because he's likely to be the next closer and his value would increase significantly (like Reed's did) if he could put together a couple of seasons of 30+ saves. He's not established enough yet as a major leaguer where a contending team would pay a premium, even as a set-up guy. When the playoffs come, managers are much more comfortable with vets.

QUOTE (southside hitman @ Jul 8, 2014 -> 08:34 AM) It's more exciting to talk about a pitcher that would bring back an actual haul rather than a second basemen who is hitting .244/.298/.389. If Beckham's average was his OBP and his OBP his slugging, then he might have some real value. Dammit, reality!!!

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Jul 8, 2014 -> 08:31 AM) I'm sure Piazza is an upgrade behind the plate at this point, but I'm not about to bring him in. Also, if I felt the Sox were in contention for a Wild Card birth, and I was looking to upgrade at catcher (which affects the chemistry with pitchers), I'm going to shoot a little higher than John Buck. Buck wRC+ - 65 Flowers wRC+ - 62 There is no way you can logically or reasonably justify bringing in John Buck. I honestly believe, playing 4-5 days per week...that he would put up better numbers and provide more leadership than Flowers does. But maybe that's just me. Yes, it's a SAD state of affairs in terms of catching all around baseball. With Wieters down, Zunino in Seattle and Sal Perez are the only impressive guys out there in the AL. But I don't think an upgrade's out there that won't cost you SOMETHING decent you don't want to give up in return.

QUOTE (striker @ Jul 8, 2014 -> 08:04 AM) I disagree. I think you could get Sanchez and one of Stroman/Norris for Quintana. Quintana is better than Samardzjia, is 25 vs. 29 and is controlled through 2018. Sox might have to throw in a low level pitching prospect to go back but I think the Jays make that move. If I'm Hahn I wouldn't do it. You know what you are going to get from Quintana and Stroman and Norris are still question marks. The White Sox don't need more un-projectionable players when they have a great duo in Abreu and Sale to build around. Harrelson's already said Stroman is the best young RH pitcher (best stuff, etc.) he's seen this season. Those quotes would be used against Hahn, haha.