caulfield12

Or if Hudson's range limits him and they end up with a 1st and 3rd situation instead of your typical Beckham/Ramirez 4-6-3 DP. It would be a shocker if Hudson's rusty bat held up against Verlander...but at least he's been getting regular play down at Charlotte. Not that anyone resembling Justin pitches down there.

We've moved from 29th in future power ratings to 21st in a single season. That seems like progress to me. Last offseason, you might have argued the Astros were the only franchise in worse shape.

That's your argument for firing KW this off-season? It's not going to fly. You might as well rest until the end of 2013...and make another set of arguments. Everyone knew Dayan was a work in progress when we first signed him. The fact that he's been forced to play 3B, 1B, RF and then LF should be enough testament to his defensive development track alone. They just need to let him play. Nobody knows about Danks...and Nathan Jones overall compared to where he was 1-2 years ago in the minors, nobody expected him to make the impact he has. If he went on the waiver wire tomorrow, every team in the majors would claim him.

Beck pitched his best game of the season. Rienzo a scoreless first for the Knights. Sanchez and Mitchell struggling (not unexpectedly) in AAA, Thompson and Hawkins continuing to impress.

Many wanted Wise in there over Viciedo. Flowers is a bit of a mystery, but AJ until Friday night was in a huge slump...and we do play Monday. Tyler has hit decently and made an impact, AJ has had a number of defensive issues (blocking pitches, throwing out runners, calling pitches). Hudson is just a hunch...going with a veteran over the once-again struggling Beckham.

Beckham isn't in development mode, it's beyond that. And Morel, to be fair, has been hurt all season long. And Tyler Flowers, the last 6 weeks, has emerged as a legitimate possibility as starting catcher in 2013. And you can't conveniently discount the contributions from numerous rookies in the pen like Reed, Nathan Jones, Santiago, Septimo, Omogrosso, Heath, Veal, Marinez, etc. Santos Rodriguez isn't far away from replacing Thornton and saving more money, in some combination with Veal and Septimo. Santiago has a decent chance to end up as our 5th starter and seems to have survived the "closer experiment" by Cooper and Robin. Reed, last time I checked, has lasted now nearly the entire season as a rookie closer. Not great yet by any stretch of the imagination, but he's pretty much replicated Santos' performance at a lower cost. Finally, if you really expected Viciedo to hit .290 with 30+ homers and 90+ RBI's, your expectations were too high. He's done fine for a rookie, just maybe not as consistent or as superhuman as some expected. He'll end the season with around 23-26 homers and 70-75 RBI's, he definitely hasn't HURT the White Sox as much as Morel or Beckham have offensively.

FWIW, Liriano has a 4.54 ERA with the White Sox this season. No Edwin Jackson, but he's kept the Sox in nearly every game out of his 7 starts, except for 1. At some point, the White Sox offense needs to show up to the party.

QUOTE (Rowand44 @ Sep 2, 2012 -> 11:21 AM) Yup, that one bad start has down graded Sale from a legit ace. Overreaction central. Now you're overreacting. I'm talking about the Chris Sale we have TODAY, for the rest of the season. If he can throw 93-96 like he did against the Yankees....or will it be the version we first saw against the Rangers and then somewhere in-between his last start out against the Orioles?? NOBODY knows how much longer he can go...or if he will even make it through the entire month. And we've known for months now that Peavy isn't a big-game pitcher, except against the Cubs, maybe. Obviously, long-term, April 2013, he's our ace and one of the 5-6 best pitchers in the AL. That's NOT in question and never has been, as long as he stays healthy.

So is Peavy...he has choked 3 times against the Tigers. No way they bring him back at those salary numbers for 2013. All things considered, what starter on the trade market was going to give you 5 good starts out of 7 and cost you next to nothing? Would we be any better off with Greinke now, having had to trade Trayce Thompson to get him? We have such an old core with AJ/Dunn/Rios/Konerko/Youk/Alexei that we need to reinvigorate it with some young power bats. We might have missed with Mitchell (still believe he's got a shot), but Thompson and Viciedo both have the ability to be 30+ home run guys in the future. And Hawkins, too.

He's about as good a fit as Brett Myers at $10 million next year for the Sox or Morel coming into the season as the starter at 3B. Flowers at C, I guess we might have no choice but to live with that one. Thinking about the possibility of not making the playoffs for the first time, it's hard to take away anything from this season...and 2011 was the most disappointing year in memory, not sure how we'll feel about the off-season until it gets here. Somehow, another late season fade and then losing Peavy, AJ and Youk might be harder to deal with than the feelings coming into 2012 because we were in first place for so long. Then you're looking at the definite probability of the Tigers being better (Martinez back, Scherzer coming into his own, Alburquerque back too) and the Sox taking 1-2 steps back. Still, the improvements from Thompson, the draft of Hawkins...the situation is more optimistic than last off-season at least. Maybe Cooper needs to part ways with Floyd and move on...and Thornton, as well.

Agree. They can't afford to start Axelrod and Santiago any more times than necessary. It's all up to Herm and Cooper, though, in the end...after consulting with Ventura and KW.

Thought they were playing next weekend. Weird scheduling. Monday it's Sanchez, Tuesday Porcello and Wednesday Fister. Friday Scherzer against LAA....Verlander Saturday, Sanchez Sunday. So it should be Porcello, Fister, Scherzer and Verlander. And Porcello has owned us recently this season.

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ Sep 2, 2012 -> 11:37 AM) He's only been just as good, if not better, than scrubs like David Price, CC AND Cliff Lee. Jake Peavy has been better than a couple of other scrubs named Hamels and Cain. But the Sox somehow only have half an ace. You're telling me Jake Peavy has pitched really well recently, particularly against the Tigers this year? He's spit the bit at least 3 times, that I can remember. One was the infamous 5 or 6-0 lead that quickly fell apart in one inning thanks to Jake and Ohman. Yes, compared to Verlander and Scherzer, 1/2 to 2. If Sale goes out and dominates in a game we absolutely need to change the momentum, Verlander wets the bed again AT HOME on national t.v., like he did against the Royals last time out, then I'll definitely give him his props. Caesar might be the only one betting on the White Sox to win this game...

http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/baseb...0,5545729.story followed by Quintana and Peavy then theoretically Liriano, Sale, ???, Quintana against the Tigers at USCF can't imagine they'd pitch Peavy on 3 days' rest, but a lot depends on what happens with both those starts against MINNY

Two Cy Young guys if you look at how dominant Scherzer has been in the 2nd half. Definitely, the stuff and filthiness of 2. We have 1/2 of one now in Sale/Peavy.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Sep 2, 2012 -> 01:48 AM) I think I'm still pissed we let Buehrle go. Who do the Sox need right now??? Mark Buehrle, that's who. He's a legit big-game pitcher. He's just what this staff needed. Cheapskate ownership. But he usually has faded in the 2nd half, too... They're not cheap, or they wouldn't have added Youkilis, Myers and Liriano. No MLB team added more talent in June/July. We can revisit the Danks/Buehrle situation over and over and over again, but Mark was a big part of all those failures in 2006, 2007, 2009, 2010 and 2011...at the end of the year, we're not going to feel we would have beaten the Tigers had we signed MB, because JR would never in a million years have signed off on that crazy contract Loria gave him.

QUOTE (kitekrazy @ Sep 2, 2012 -> 12:06 AM) It's the pitching staff I refer to as a bunch of kids and the others according to years of experience. Interesting how the fan base has more confidence in Sale and Quintana than the other starters. Except for those who think he should be shut down soon or rested and is quickly fading...both guys, but especially Quintana.

QUOTE (kitekrazy @ Sep 1, 2012 -> 06:05 PM) They should be. They added Fielder and are in 2nd place to a bunch of kids. Plus most of their team can't catch a baseball. Sale, Viciedo, Quintana and Reed. The rest of our key contributors are 28+. The core of Youk, Dunn, AJ, Rios, Wise and Konerko are all 30+ veterans. So is Alexei. Beckham's near the end of his rope with the Sox. I guess if you want to count the likes of Flowers, Nathan Jones and DeAza as "a bunch of kids." Except for all the rookies in the bullpen, we're a very VETERAN team, all things considered.

QUOTE (southsideirish71 @ Sep 2, 2012 -> 12:23 AM) We have to eventually beat them head to head. We are not taking advantage of their defensive issues. How man bunts have been sent Cabrera's way? As bad as their defense is they can catch the fly balls lofted into the air on the first or second pitch by our hitters. Most importantly, we could have taken the series by the throat in the 4th with bases loaded, tie game and no outs. Youk hit a liner to 3rd, Dunn K'd and Konerko failed. That inning has defined entire season series....4-9 now, 6 losses in a row, 17 losses out of our past 20 in DET. Those are nearly the exact name numbers we used to put up in Minnesota.

QUOTE (Jake @ Sep 1, 2012 -> 08:27 PM) If it was "any righty" vs "any lefty" ... sure, probably a lefty. But we're looking at Jordan Danks and Dayan Viciedo. What Dayan might lack in hits compared to Jordan, I believe he'll make up for in extra base hits. I would have started Danks over Wise, though. Wise provided offense today but his hustle and defense continue to frustrate so it's tough to say what the right call is there. His hustle and defense continue to frustrate? What? He played too far in on a ball that went over his head, but that's the risk. He also eliminates a lot of cheap singles that DeAza allows, because Alejandro can't go back on balls nearly as well as Wise does. And he has been our ENTIRE offense tonight, besides Viciedo and Johnson.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Sep 1, 2012 -> 08:25 PM) Sox were the #1 offense in the AL before the break and #9 offense in the AL after the break. And Soriano playing was going to be enough to overcome the Tigers and Twins? Don't think so.

Same reason Ventura went with Jones against Garcia... Despite Jones giving up a below 200 BA against LHP but .328 against RHB. That's even more clear than the arguments for playing Wise over Viciedo against RHP.

Rios has looked terrible as well in these 2 games. Scherzer has something like 11 starts with 9 or more K's this season. Soon to be 12.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Sep 1, 2012 -> 08:18 PM) That's why KW traded McCarthy for Soriano, but lost the deal when Soriano decided he wouldn't sign an extension and watned to test the FA market. We didn't need hitting at that point, unless it was in CF. It was the pitching that collapsed in the 2nd half, and Jenks was injured.

QUOTE (fathom @ Sep 1, 2012 -> 08:16 PM) When Hudson makes the HOF, are you going to give his speech Back-to-back with the Zach Stewart speech.