caulfield12

Cabrera is just an absolute monster. 2-1 Angels, Greinke's done, near his high pitch count of the season. Downs in to face Fielder. 2 outs, btm of 8th. Same place where the Tigers came back last night, crowd of 40,000 again tonight.

John Henry was very outspoken about never wanting Crawford on those terms. Kind of threw his administrative team under the bus and it's been downhill ever since with KFC Gate, Francona, Youk, the booing at Old Timer's Day, bullpen issues galore, Valentine hate, Bard, Beckett falling apart physically....David Ortiz has been about the only positive for that franchise this year.

I guess this whole "rush" thing comes from Hudson, McCarthy, Sale, Addison Reed, Boone Logan, Quintana and MOSTLY Beckham. Maybe Morel, to a lesser extent. It's certainly not like we rushed Viciedo, Jordan Danks, Jared Mitchell, etc. Maybe they're noticing all those recently-promoted guys like Saladino, Walker, Thompson, Sanchez, Mitchell....et al that were being pushed up a level at the end of the year. It's not like they are going to have Barnum and Hawkins in the Carolina League to start 2013. We do push our relievers pretty quickly up the ladder, but that's not a problem if you have the stuff to merit it.

Great power comeback for Ramirez in the 2nd half of this season. Nice to see it's still there. By the way, are there two more similar disappointments at 2B than Beckham and Ackley? Almost eerily similar overall stats. Dustin's a better baserunner, wonder if they would consider trading those guys for each other? Richie Weeks is the other guy mentioned a lot, but so much more expensive.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Aug 24, 2012 -> 08:10 PM) That proposed Boston salary dump again shows how DUMB baseball owners are. All they do are slobber over these players in the offseason and sign them to HUGE contracts, then desperately try to get rid of the salaries during the season. It's insane. Unfortunately the people who have suffered because of these moronic baseball owners are the fans. Prices didn't have to go up, up, up if owners would never have decided to overpay these guys in the first place. They better hope there's not another deep recession or a true depression, cause these teams might finally go broke. Greg, have you seen how many billions the Dodgers will get from their regional sports network as well as the upcoming new national tv contract increase? Mind boggling. Definitely not in danger of going broke...not even the Indians or A's or Ray's or Marlins.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Aug 24, 2012 -> 08:07 PM) That is a great post. I bet you are right. Dunn is the kind of guy who could carry a team through the playoffs or go 0-for-26. He's a weird weird baseball player. No doubt he's the feel-good story of this season. He's hit a ton of meaningful home runs. And Rios, and Peavy, and AJ, and Youk, and Sale/Peavy. Lots of great storylines with the Sox this year. Even Humber's perfect game. Addison Reed's rookie season, etc. Quintana's might be one of the most unexpected seasons of any pitcher in baseball. Hector Santiago has returned from purgatory to pitch some key innings as well. Based on where he was drafted, that's another great story.

Albuquerque is finally back doing a rehab with the Toledo Mud Hens. That's not good news.

QUOTE (fathom @ Aug 24, 2012 -> 08:03 PM) Loney, Sands, DeJesus, Webster, De La Rosa Is Bud Selig really going to allow a salary dump of those dimensions? Amazing how the Dodgers and Rangers have gone from broke/bankrupt to flush with cash in just a couple of years.

Dunn has to be having the best season in baseball history for a guy with under a .210 average. Fielder K's with Cabrera at 2nd, still no runs for Tigers yet. Only 3 hits.

Orioles aren't going away as easily as thought. Showalter and Ventura SHOULD battle for Manager of the Year...Maddon definitely deserves consideration, as well. Quietly, the Rays have had their usual 2nd half. Then you have Bob Melvin with the A's, those 4 guys.

Wells had a huge homer for them last night in the comeback against BOS. Porcello gets out of it, but damage is done. Huge 0-2 double by Kendrick, great so far by Greinke and they get Pujols back tmrw.

On the BA Prospect Hot Sheet yet again this week. No. 8 TRAYCE THOMPSON, CF WHITE SOX Team: Double-A Birmingham (Southern) Age: 22 Why He's Here: .476/.593/.810 (10-for-21), 1 2B, 2 HR, 4 RBIs, 6 BB, 4 SO, 2-for-2 SB. The Scoop: Some teams like to treat prospects like an index fund. Buy the stocks, check up on them every now and then, but in general, be patient and watch them slowly mature into a big league ballplayer. The White Sox aren't ones to buy an index fund, they prefer day trading. They draft a prospect and then push him up the ladder as quickly as possible. When it works, like it has with Chris Sale, it pays off very handsomely. In other cases, we end up wondering what happened to Gordon Beckham. Thompson is another player climbing the minor league ladder as if he's on an express elevator. Not long after center fielder Jared Mitchell was promoted to Triple-A Charlotte, the White Sox bumped Thompson up to Birmingham to replace him, despite a .252 batting average, a .321 on-base percentage and strikeouts in 32 percent of his at-bats. (The promotion to Double-A also qualified him to play in the Arizona Fall League.) It's not been long, but Thompson has handled the jump with no problems up to now. He's hitting .382/.475/.647 in 10 games since his promotion, including an excellent showing this week.

No idea. 3B? C? Lots of guys competing for Myers' spot, probably need to sign a veteran FA although Omogrosso, Heath and Marinez could obviously factor in. In an ideal world, Nathan Jones takes a step forward and improves to the point of trustworthiness. I've advocated since last off-season for ditching Matt Thornton (Santos Rodriguez, Veal, Leesman could figure in as replacements). We could get some savings there...to help pay for AJ or possibly Youkilis. Beckham is going to be pushed by Sanchez...possibly in 2013. It will be interesting to see if they have Trayce Thompson and Carlos in the AFL. Saladino and Morel could also figure in the equation. Would like to see Liriano back for a full season. Would like to wave goodbye to Gavin Floyd, although if Dylan Axelrod's the replacement, or Molina, no thanks to that. Jared Mitchell's striking out 40% of the time in Charlotte, but that wasn't completely unexpected.

That's true...if you look at all those pitchers who come straight over the top, most of them succumb to injury sooner or later. PTAC might be able to support this, but I remember reading once where the shoulder is not meant to take the strain of that motion and that pitching from a 75 degree angle, parallel to the ground or Bradford-style is actually healthier for the shoulder and elbow, ceteris paribus.

Amazing game between the Red Sox and Angels. Trout continues to re-write the record books.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Aug 23, 2012 -> 09:46 PM) Haven't looked, but I'm sure he hit homers 2, 3, and 4 on the season. Jake is going to be mad reading those comments.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Aug 23, 2012 -> 08:36 PM) Gonna end up in last place with a top 5 pick. Love that experts were talking about how they had a chance and to sell off more parts to go for it because the division is "weak." By general assumption, to win a weak division, you can't be part of the reason that it's weak in the first place. Besides, it's got this whole Chinese gini coefficient going on right now which I'm OK with since the Sox are apart of the wealthy group in that particular graph. Minnesota's probably in the same ballpark as far as revenues (for now), but their attendance is overwhelmed by our media/market advantages. Long term, Chicago has the huge advantage over Detroit, without Illitch as the owner. By the way, the Chinese gini coefficient is by most accounts over 0.5 now, although the government here refuses to announce figures because of the priority of showing that income levels are actually equalizing rather than branching apart at an exponential rate. The last time they announced an official government number was way back in 2000. Independent studies show 0.435 but because of the "unofficial market" almost $1 trillion is hidden and off the books.

That probably puts Hawkins' KANNY OPS over the 900 mark. Nice to see the progress he's made since hitting Bristol, obviously he's made some adjustments and is growing more and more confident.

QUOTE (TaylorStSox @ Aug 23, 2012 -> 08:56 PM) You ever heard of that Nolan Ryan guy? Yeah, there's that. Although, to be fair, he never gets thought of as a "winning pitcher." When you think of all the arms in history you'd want for the 7th game of the World Series, would you even put him into your Top 10 possibilities?

QUOTE (JoeCoolMan24 @ Aug 23, 2012 -> 08:27 PM) Just kidding about what Law said...... He ACTUALLY said.....Hawkins is the most exciting draft position player the Sox have had come through the system in a long time. He said Hawkins gives the Sox a good chance to finally develop a homegrown impact position player since Ray Durham in 1990. Apparently Magglio, C-Lee, Joe Crede and Aaron Rowand don't count on his list. Not to mention Michael Morse and Chris Carter. No doubt, Konerko/Dunn/AJP/Rios is an older core...Alexei's been slipping in the power department as well. That's why Viciedo is so important, as well as DeAza and Trayce Thompson/Hawkins/Barnum eventually.

With the Dunn and Danks contracts, we do have SOMEWHAT limited financial mobility, but it's 100X better than last offseason. We jettisoned the Santos deal. Peavy off the books soon, after the buyout. Rios and Dunn situations looking MUCH better. Still have to figure out what to do with AJP and Youkilis. Floyd's another dilemma...picking up his option and trading him?? Whether we want to be "stuck" with Floyd at $9.5 million. Can or do we make an attempt to keep Liriano? If Santiago's figuring into the starting mix for 2013, having 4 lefty starters would be a bit troublesome. What do we do with Humber going forward? Beckham? Morel?

With the Dunn and Danks contracts, we do have SOMEWHAT limited financial mobility, but it's 100X better than last offseason. We jettisoned the Santos deal. Peavy off the books soon, after the buyout. Rios and Dunn situations looking MUCH better. Still have to figure out what to do with AJP and Youkilis. Floyd's another dilemma...picking up his option and trading him. Whether we want to be "stuck" with Floyd at $9.5 million. Can or do we make an attempt to keep Liriano? If Santiago's figuring into the starting mix for 2013, having 4 lefty starters would be a bit troublesome. What do we do with Humber going forward? Beckham? Morel?

QUOTE (chw42 @ Aug 23, 2012 -> 05:34 PM) He's nowhere near bad. I'd take him over Viciedo in a heartbeat. Alex Gordon has a .799 OPS. On the other hand, he was already-developed and the #1 draft pick overall in the country. If Viciedo doesn't put up 30+ homers per season and an 800 OPS at age 25-26-27, it would be pretty surprising. We already know Gordon's upside. We don't with Dayan at the major league level.

QUOTE (knightni @ Aug 23, 2012 -> 07:38 PM) You can paraphrase, just not post the article. http://insider.espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/...-2012-nos-16-30 In this case, there's no way to get at the White Sox "synopsis"...maybe someone else has ESPN Insider and can paraphrase then.

The coolest thing is the $3000 Millenium Falcon and the special LEGOs room...