caulfield12

QUOTE (The Ginger Kid @ May 30, 2013 -> 11:20 AM) wow Wow. No Flavum numerical projections on what we have to do to run down the Tigers, haha. Guess he's past the denial stage on this year's Sox squad.

QUOTE (The Ginger Kid @ May 30, 2013 -> 11:20 AM) wow Wow. No Flavum numerical projections on what we have to do to run down the Tigers, haha. Guess he's past the denial stage on this year's Sox squad.

http://badwax.net/2009/07/07/the-curious-c...-greg-toe-nash/ We haven't even touched on Delmon Young or THIS guy in Rays' history.

http://thestar.blogs.com/baseball/2013/05/...e-disgrace.html Anytime someone mentions acquiring Brett Lawrie, read this article...hopefully he'll grow up and become a better player, like our worrying about Courtney Hawkins' tweeting habits.

QUOTE (High Mileage @ May 30, 2013 -> 01:02 AM) I'm not really sure where to even start, so please, if you take the time to read what I post below, try to understand my rambling. I've been a Royals fan my entire life. I was born in September of 1985. Less than two months later, they won their one and only World Series. They haven't even made the playoffs since. My earliest Royals memories are of George Brett, Bo Jackson, Frank White, David Cone, Bret Saberhagen, etc. My teen years had Carlos Beltran, Jermaine Dye, Mike Sweeney, Johnny Damon, etc. Last off-season, for the first time in my life, the Royals made moves to IMPROVE the team. They went out and got James Shields, a bonafide #1 starter who isn't past his prime. They took on Ervin Santana and his $13 million dollar salary, and although he's no star, he is a legit MLB starter with a pretty good track record. They took a chance on Jeremy Guthrie, who again, is no star, but is a legit MLB starter with a pretty decent track record. The line-up is loaded with former top Draft picks. Alex Gordon, Billy Butler, Eric Hosmer, Mike Moustakas. Not to mention former top prospects like Alcides Escobar, Lorenzo Cain, and Salvador Perez. This season was legitimately hopeful for the first time since probably 1994. I thought they had a real chance to compete for the Division. Did I expect them to win the Division? No, not really. I did expect some meaningful July/August/September baseball. Boy do I sure feel like an idiot for letting the Royals make me think way, I know better than that. I have supported General Manager Dayton Moore longer than most. Is it time for him to go? Probably. I have never liked Ned Yost. He's an arrogant, flippant, sarcastic bastard who has done nothing to earn the right to be that way. Major changes must be made. The talent is there, and pretty much every baseball "expert" would say the same. The talent is not producing and they're not progressing. They're regressing. You don't "blow up" a team full of 23-27 year olds, so you get rid of the people you can outright fire, the Manager and General Manager, Coaches, Trainers, everybody. I'm pretty diehard, I watch pretty much every game 1 thru 9. That really just makes it worse I guess. It's getting more and more difficult to justify my passion each year, hell, each day. f***. I don't have much of a response that will assuage your pain or make it any easier. Only to say this. I was born in November, 1969. From the time I can first remember following the White Sox, they were pretty much terrible, as I missed the 1977 "Southside Hitmen" and all the crazy antics of Bill Veeck as owner because I was too young. (And they didn't even make the playoffs...going back to the 1959 World Series appearance, the only time they were close was the final two weeks in 1967). It was a 40 year period from the Black Sox Scandal of 1919 all the way to 1959...essentially the same amount of time that Kansas City has had a professional baseball franchise. We suffered in a terrible, decrepit stadium (compared to the brand-new Kauffman/Royals Stadium) for much of the 70's and 80's, with the only highlight the 1983 AL West winner that was bounced out of the playoffs in the 1st round. We were haunted by names like Jerry Dybzinski and Tito Landrum, lol. The period of 1985-1989 was about as bad as anything the Royals have gone through in the last twenty years, probably even worse if you look at the attendance numbers back then, which were lucky to reach 1 million. We too had that infusion of talent in the late 80's (Jack McDowell, Frank Thomas, Robin Ventura, Alex Fernandez, Sammy Sosa, Wilson Alvarez, Jason Bere) that finally gave fans a reason to believe and a future to be confident about. Unfortunately, with all that talent, only the 1993 division title (bounced in the first round by Toronto) and then the 1994 baseball strike, which was partially orchestrated by the owner of the Sox....whose core was at its peak in the 1990's and would never have a chance to compete for the post-season or World Series until Frank Thomas when he could barely walk. The Indians blew by us and dominated the rest of the 90's....and then in 2002 came the Twins, with the brief excitement of the 2000 White Sox offense thrown in for good measure (another first round exit from the playoffs, this time swept by the Mariners). If it wasn't for the 2005 World Series title, White Sox fans would feel almost as bad as Cubs' fans, and certainly worse than Royals/Pirates/Mariners/Astros/Rangers/Rays/Rockies/Expos-Nationals fans who haven't seen a World Series or even the playoffs in their lifetimes....but whose teams hadn't gone for EIGHTY SEVEN YEARS without a World Series title. Just remember, it's always darkest before the dawn...I'll even give you a lame quote from the movie Battleship: "Adversity is the state in which man most easily becomes acquainted with himself, being especially free from admirers" So just keep hope alive and remember times like this and you can reflect back upon all the insanity (like Jose Lima leading the team to a 7 game lead at the All-Star Break in 2003) when the Royals finally get to another World Series someday...and enjoy the beautiful stadium and cheaper ticket prices there, where it's still possible to bring a family of four to a baseball game once a month in the summertime.

QUOTE (The Ultimate Champion @ May 29, 2013 -> 07:11 PM) IIRC 2009 went into the tank when we decided to start the year with Fartolo Colon & 37-year-old Jose Contreras as 2 key members of our starting rotation with the Mark Kotsay DH experiment serving as the cherry on top. Rios was terrible in Toronto which is exactly why we were able to acquire him in the first place. He was a 2010+ piece. Kotsay/A. Jones was the 2010 DH combo, fwiw.

QUOTE (The Ultimate Champion @ May 29, 2013 -> 07:11 PM) IIRC 2009 went into the tank when we decided to start the year with Fartolo Colon & 37-year-old Jose Contreras as 2 key members of our starting rotation with the Mark Kotsay DH experiment serving as the cherry on top. Rios was terrible in Toronto which is exactly why we were able to acquire him in the first place. He was a 2010+ piece. Kotsay/A. Jones was the 2010 DH combo, fwiw.

QUOTE (BigHurt3515 @ May 29, 2013 -> 10:34 PM) Out of the people you named I think Gillaspie and maybe Beckham if he figures it out will be the only players on the team when he is ready for the big leagues. I know we don't know who will be here to give us the home runs but I would much rather have a catcher who can be great on defense and hit for a decent average out of the 9 hole then someone like Flowers. I think catcher is one of the most if not the most important defensive position in baseball. We can see how bad Flowers defense has effected the team. I don't know much about this Gonzalez guy except for him being 22 and him batting over .300 in AA. A lot of players don't do that. So there has to be something there to work with The thing is, he's not playing everyday....or close to it. He's a platoon catcher in the minors, which is never a good sign. When you have a minor league career OPS of 643, your MLB predicted OPS would probably be 575 if you were lucky, but probably even worse than that. Not many teams can get by with players down in that range (and yes, I realize Keppinger has been doing it for most of the season, Morel/Hudson last year, etc.)

(Co-hitting coach Jack) Maloof has conceded, like many Royals hitting coaches before him, that hitting in Kauffman Stadium simply isn't conducive to home runs, at least not for the home team. (FYI: There are two co-hitting coaches this season for the Royals, Maloof and Andre David). "There is just no reward here (for us) to try and hit home runs," Maloof said. "We try to stay down on the ball, be more line-drive oriented, and do more situational hitting at least through the first two or three rounds (at home) here. That's why I'm not overly concerned because I think we'll lead the league in fewest home runs again this year. We don't have a 40-homer guy in the middle of the lineup. "We've got kids. Billy Butler is a doubles machine. No one has told me he is a home run hitting guy. If we try to do it too much, we'll get ourselves in trouble. Same thing with Alex (Gordon). They'll hit home runs on the road, and yes, they'll hit some here. They have. But the risk for them to go out and hit a home run in one of 80 at-bats, the reward isn't great enough. "Baltimore? Better reward. I'm not using it as an excuse. But it is a mindset." Of course, the counter argument is obvious: Other teams seem to come into spacious Kauffman Stadium and have no trouble hitting home runs. Yost mentioned as much after letting (hitting coach Kevin) Seitzer go last fall. In fact, opponents have hit nearly three times as many home runs (32-11) this season at Kauffman Stadium as the Royals. www.foxsportskansascity.com

QUOTE (BigHurt3515 @ May 29, 2013 -> 09:43 PM) He doesn't need to hit a lot of home runs for us. We have enough of that. If he is a stud defensively. and can hit at a reasonable average it sounds good to me. Other than Rios, Dunn and Konerko are complete mysteries and Viciedo's far from a finished product offensively....so it's probably too soon to say we don't need to worry about getting power from catcher, Gillaspie/Keppinger, Ramirez, Beckham, etc. Only DeAza and Rios have outproduced what was expected, but its definitely had an adverse effect on Alejandro as a lead-off hitter to starting hitting all those early homers in April/May.

Cardinals score four in eighth May 29 ST. LOUIS — Right now, it seems the Royals might never win again. OK, for a while now, but particularly after Wednesday’s numbing 5-3 loss to the St. Louis Cardinals at Busch Stadium. Daniel Descalso’s two-run pinch single with two outs in the eighth inning capped a four-run hammer blow against Aaron Crow that sent the Royals to their eighth straight loss overall and their 19th in 23 games. It also dropped them into undisputed possession of last place in the American League Central Division. And of all the losses over this wretched streak, none might be harder to swallow than this one. The Royals built a 2-0 lead for Luis Mendoza, who contributed a two-out RBI single to the cause. J.C. Gutierrez protected a 2-1 lead in the seventh, and Crow inherited a 3-1 lead to start the eighth. And, boy, did things go wrong in a hurry. Crow, 0-1, started by serving up a leadoff homer to Carlos Beltran. After Matt Holliday struck out, Allen Craig pulled a single through the left side. It almost seemed possible to see it slipping away at that point. Yadier Molina lined a single to left that moved Craig to second before David Freese lined a game-tying RBI single to left. Craig beat the throw home from Alex Gordon, while the runners moved to second and third. An intentional walk to John Jay loaded the bases for Pete Kozma, who took a third strike. Descalso batted for reliever Randy Choate, 1-0, and punched a two-run single into center...and that was that. Or it was when Edward Mujica closed out the ninth for his third save in three days against the Royals. Absolutely crushing. Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/2013/05/29/42632...l#storylink=cpy Following Tuesday’s 4-1 loss, Yost snapped at the suggestion that he wasn’t holding players accountable by asking: “What are you asking me to do? Take my belt off and spank them? Yell at them? Scream at them?” Yost offered a calmer follow-up prior to Wednesday’s game. “The most important thing is you can’t go crazy,” he said. “That’s how you lose them — when you start going nuts when times are going bad. You have to stay steady. You have to stay in control. And you have to stay supportive. “If you start yelling and screaming, it makes it worse. I’m trying to stay as steady as I can. There’s nobody panicking. Dayton is doing fine. We’re all staying calm and thinking through every scenario to figure out what we need to do to get out of this. “If we need to make changes, what changes do we need to make? What do we need to do to get back on track to put an end to this slide.” Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/2013/05/29/42629...l#storylink=cpy

"Those (home runs) were two pitches I'd love to have back," Danks said. "My fastball command was nowhere near I'd like it to be. I'm going to chalk it up to one of those days. ... I just wasn't nearly as sharp I'd like to be." As far as where he is with the shoulder surgery from last August and the long road back, he still couldn't say definitely. "I wish I knew the answer," Danks said. chicagotribune.com/sports

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ May 29, 2013 -> 09:15 PM) A lot of us predicted this disappointment, but were waved off by the "rebuilding" crowd. Just like you could easily make the case that the Rays would be the best team in baseball if a little luck went their way. They had a scout obsessed with Pujols, but the cross-checkers and scouting director (Jennings) disagreed. We all know the Josh Hamilton story...when it could have been Josh Beckett, or Hamilton would have been the player everyone predicted at age 19-20-21 before the car accident and drug problems. Then there's the mysterious case of Rocco Baldelli...so 4 superstar/All-Star caliber players, in addition to all their good pitching drafts, Crawford, Longoria, David Price, the Zobrist acquisition, etc. Then they got scared off by Boras and Teixeira, so they ended up taking Dewon Brazelton (who the owner actually booed and encouraged the fans to boo as well) who ended up taking $2.5 million in a signing bonus spread out over 5 years. The Rangers were willing to meet his demands, and they parlayed that into one of the best established star for prospect trades in history.

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ May 29, 2013 -> 09:15 PM) A lot of us predicted this disappointment, but were waved off by the "rebuilding" crowd. I don't think ANYONE predicted they would have a 4-19 stretch and lose 10 consecutive games at home again.

http://www.thebaseballcube.com/players/pro...guel-gonzalez-2 Gonzalez has a career minor league OPS of 643. 10 career homers in the minors. He's going to have to hit like Phegley for a full season of everyday play before anyone starts hyping him as a POSSIBLE future starting catcher for the Sox.

Royals lose 5-3. Had a 3-1 lead going into the bottom of the 8th....Crow and Hochevar managed to give up 4 runs, lol. Yost has GOT TO BE FIRED...there's going to be a fan revolt in KC against Yost/Moore/the Glasses. Finally, former White Sox Jason Grilli with 22 consecutive saves. Pittsburgh got to Anibal Sanchez in the 7th. Best Pirates' team since 1992...finally, they SHOULD finish above .500.

Is it true that the ref is supposedly one of the 3 best refs in the game? Saw that on the screen... Well, the NBC ratings in Chicago and Detroit just jumped up about 50% as a result of that play...

I just can't imagine if that happened in Game 7 of the ALCS or World Series and the White Sox were on the wrong side of an umpire's decision that basically took a victory away. Probably the remote would be broken or tv shattered or both.

That's a shame for the Blackhawks. Action over there had nothing at all to do with the goal scoring. In soccer, you just let the play go on if the foul/penalty is not impacting the forward attack of the ball...then you blow the whistle after the play finishes.... If that was the Miami Heat, everyone would just assume there was a conspiracy or fix to keep that team in the playoffs.

QUOTE (CaliSoxFanViaSWside @ May 29, 2013 -> 06:17 PM) Jones has over a month to rebound. Santiago's value is established. Might not be ideally established but 3 more good starts might bring it up a little but 3 bad ones bring it down more. He can be traded having established OK stats as a starter or reliever. If we're adding to win now look for more rent a players somewhere in this list http://forums.prosportsdaily.com/showthrea...-Shopping-Early If Santiago's value was 100% established, he wouldn't be pitching behind Axelrod. Because as much as they want you to believe it, that he's a "Swiss Army Knife" (Cooper's phrase), they're still basically using Santiago as the long-man and not a set-up guy. If Jones rebounds, why would you want to trade him when he's still affordable and we have a DIRE need to bullpen help in 2014. We can't fill 4-5 slots from what we have in our minor league system right now. We would be quite lucky to fill just two capably. Then you're really going to be overpaying for free agents OR going with the 2007 White Sox bullpen approach, which, trust me, you don't ever want to see again.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ May 29, 2013 -> 01:53 PM) 2008 attendance: 2,500,648 2009 attendance: 2,284,163 That's for the FULL season. The 2009 season went into the tank from the time that Rios started playing like 2011/13 Dunn...and we all know Peavy's injury issues and the fact he wasn't ready to pitch when he was acquired. But there was still a lot of excitement early that summer about the team. I'm pretty sure that going into August, the attendance numbers were fairly similar, if not the 2009 pace ahead before all the wheels fell off that team.

QUOTE (winninguglyin83 @ May 29, 2013 -> 06:25 PM) I don't expect to see Gonzalez in the big leagues this season. He's repeating AA -- and the benefits are obvious. I'm fine with letting him stay where he is -- and hoping he can help us down the road. He's been in our system so long, at some point, they'll need to make a decision on protecting him...maybe the minor league aficionados are more familiar with his exact status.

Cabrera's current pace still in Hack Wilson territory. 48 homers, 187 RBI's, .372 average (has cooled off from the .390's, lol)

QUOTE (winninguglyin83 @ May 29, 2013 -> 05:12 PM) If the Sox lose again on Thursday, I'm ready to try anything. What's it going to hurt? Considering his age and all-around performance, I expect Micah Johnson to get bumped to Hi-A ball soon. Maybe Phegley or Gonzalez will eventually get a chance to catch. And we have a few arms. They're not going to displace DeMichele, and he's DEFINITELY not ready for BIRM. I think they'll wait at least through the June All-Star games for various leagues before they start making more moves...as well as waiting on the draft. And there's no way Gonzalez would be anything more than a replacement for Gimenez at this point.

QUOTE (MuckFinnesota @ May 29, 2013 -> 05:09 PM) If they had actually played the rain outs, this team's record could have been in worse shape. What pisses me off more than losing to the Cubs is the fact that the minor league "talent" that the White Sox has is not very exciting save for a few exceptions that won't see playing time until September. I'd rather see Phegley and Troncoso out there as opposed to Flowers and Omogrosso. The Sox don't owe the fans All-Star caliber players via trades or free agent signings, but it would be nice to see some excitement and noise made in the minor leagues. After all, they will need to adjust with Konerko inevitably departing, Dunn leaving after 2014 (thank god) and the possible Peavy and Rios trade. I'd rather look like the Oakland A's of old as opposed to the crap they are putting out there now. And I'll still show up to the games even if they suck ass because I love baseball. Bottom line, today sucked. Hopefully Peavy pitches lights out and I don't have to hear more s*** from the assclown Cubs fans tomorrow. And this was on a day that Flowers had two big hits. Troncoso vs. Omogrosso is like rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic. Neither one's in our long-term future plans if we want to have a competitive bullpen in the future.