caulfield12

This time, Chris Carter might stick with the Oakland A's By Mark Emmons [email protected] Posted: 07/25/2012 02:35:21 PM PDT July 26, 2012 2:34 AM GMTUpdated: 07/25/2012 07:34:33 PM PDT This time, finally, it appears Chris Carter is ready. While 15 games is a mighty small sample size, there is cautious optimism in the A's organization that the quiet, power-hitting first baseman has begun to figure out what it takes to be a major-leaguer. In his previous stints in Oakland, the top slugging prospect in the system had looked badly overmatched and even a little timid at the plate. But since being recalled from Triple-A Sacramento last month, a new-and-improved Carter has performed like a ballplayer ready to fulfill his enormous potential after years of piling up eye-catching power numbers in the minors. "It's great to be able to feel good about yourself and have a little success instead of just pressing all the time," said Carter, who burst onto the scene with five home runs and nine RBIs in his first nine games back in Oakland. It all comes down to confidence, believes A's manager Bob Melvin. "Something has to be the difference," he said. "It's not like Chris is hitting left-handed or doing things completely differently. He's just a confident guy right now, and you're seeing the results. We already knew that the ability was there." It's easy to see why Carter, 25, who was born in Redwood City and grew up in Las Vegas, would have doubted himself. The shy Carter began his time in the big leagues with an atrocious 0-for-33 slump -- the longest hitless streak to start a career in Oakland history. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Advertisement -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Heading into this season, his forgettable time with the A's included a .167 batting average and 41 strikeouts in 114 at-bats to go along with three homers and seven RBIs. But if confidence was Carter's issue, it wasn't due to a lack of it, said Sacramento hitting instructor Greg Sparks. "He's always been confident almost to a fault where he began to become stubbornness," Sparks said. "He was convinced what he was doing would work at the major-league level. This is a kid who just dominated down here, and he was probably wondering why he shouldn't stay with what had gotten him there in the first place." Ever since coming to the A's organization from the Arizona Diamondbacks as one of the centerpieces of the big Dan Haren trade in December of 2007, Carter had torn up minor-league pitching. In 2008, he smacked 39 homers and had 104 RBIs at Single-A Stockton. The next season, Carter combined to hit 28 homers and drive in 114 RBIs to go with a .329 average at Double-A Midland and Triple-A Sacramento. And there were 52 more minor-league homers in 2010 and 2011. At 6-foot-4 and 245 pounds, Carter seemed tailor-made for the role of big bopper who could anchor the A's lineup. But the hardest step to navigate is the jump from Triple A to the big leagues. And each time he was called up to Oakland, Carter shrunk in stature. "I had always hoped to carry over what I did in the minors to here," said Carter, a man of very few words. But that didn't happen. So, Carter ended up having a long heart-to-heart talk with Sparks and River Cats manager Darren Bush this spring. "We all made it our goal that when he got the next opportunity up there, it was going to be different," Sparks said. "It wasn't going to end the same way. We bounced around some ideas and agreed on one specific change. Then he had the guts to go out there, work hard, and never deviate even though he struggled here for a while." That change was slight. Like many big sluggers, Sparks said, Carter had an over-reliance on his upper body. So they focused on getting him to use his legs more -- adding some flex in his knees to make him less robotic at the plate. That made Carter less susceptible to pitches tailing away to the outside of the strike zone. "It's a small adjustment that's turned out to be something big for him," Sparks said. "He's covering the whole plate now. He has cut down on the strikeouts and has begun using the entire field." Now, Carter platoons at first base with Brandon Moss. A's hitting instructor Chili Davis said Carter's body language at the plate now says, "I can hit these guys." He even compares Carter's swing to Detroit's Miguel Cabrera. "What we were trying to do in spring training was raise his aggressiveness," Davis said. "It's so easy (for him.) He just swings, and boom! He can miss a ball and still hit it out of here. He's like Cabrera." The goal now is proving he can do it for the long haul. "The biggest adjustment is the mental part of it," said Carter, who is hitting .279 with six home runs and 12 RBIs after hitting a solo shot and driving in three runs in the A's 16-0 rout over the Toronto Blue Jays on Wednesday. "It's still the same game, but everything is so much bigger. But this is the first time where I've really been able to deal with all that." Joe Stiglich contributed to this report. Contact Mark Emmons at 408-920-5745. http://www.thebaseballcube.com/players/pro...=Chris-Carter-5 http://www.contracostatimes.com/news/ci_21...t-stick-oakland

Denard Span caught a slider and hooked it softly into right field for a single to open the bottom of the first. Two innings later, Span looped a fly ball into center field. In the sixth, Darin Mastroianni nubbed a bouncer toward first and beat it out. Later, Danny Valencia hit a ball into the shortstop hole that Alexei Ramirez fielded with a dive and couldn't make a play. That was it. That was the substance of the Twins' hitting against Francisco Liriano, a teammate until late Saturday night, when he was traded to the Chicago White Sox. The Twins managed only four puny singles off Frankie -- and it was only through misfortune that he didn't leave Target Field with a victory against the team for which he made all of his previous big-league appearances. Liriano was impressive through five innings Tuesday night, requiring only one piece of assistance, and that came from plate umpire Mike Muchlinski. A walk and Span's second single had two on with two outs in the third, and Muchlinski chose to call out Joe Mauer on a 3-2 pitch that split the chalk of the lefthanded batter's box. Gentleman Joe was as upset as he gets, stepping in front of Muchlinski to tell him he had missed the call. Liriano put it in gear after that, not so much with his fastball but with his famous slider and underrated changeup. Then came the sixth. The inning opened with Liriano's eighth strikeout. Mastroianni's goofy little roller followed for a hit. He stole second and third, and it had the desired effect on Frankie's psyche. Liriano walked Mauer and Josh Willingham to load the bases. He still had the chance to continue the shutout, until first baseman Paul Konerko fielded Justin Morneau's bouncer and threw it past catcher A.J. Pierzynski to give the Twins a 1-1 tie. With two outs, Valencia hit the ball into the shortstop hole, Ramirez couldn't make a play, and it was 2-1 for the Twins. Liriano was done after six innings, giving up those four puny singles, walking four and striking out eight. He deserved better than being on the hook for the loss. And his new team took care of that. The White Sox tied the game 2-2 on a Ramirez single off a strong Nick Blackburn in the seventh, and then won it 4-3 on Pierzynski's two-run wallop off Jeff Gray in the ninth. It was a no-decision for Liriano and only good feelings in the visitors clubhouse as to how he pitched. "He pitched great," Chicago manager Robin Ventura said. "To pitch like that against a team that he has seen for so long and knows him so well ... that was very good. He looked calm the whole night. He was just pitching." Pierzynski said, "He was little bit excited, nervous, early in the dugout, but he made his pitches." What was different about catching Liriano rather than facing him? "I'm glad that somebody else has to hit that slider," A.J. said. Liriano said it was "kind of weird" to be facing the Twins, and he was "excited," and also said, "It was another game for me." Which means: Frankie remained as much of a contradiction with his comments after his first start for the White Sox as he was with his pitching in his previous 130 starts for the Twins. There were those 14 starts in 2006, from mid-May until the end of July, when Liriano was a rookie and baseball's pitching sensation. He was 11-2 with a 1.65 ERA in those 14 and joined Johan Santana in carrying the Twins back from oblivion to a division title. There was tenderness in his elbow after that 14th start, and then two more failed attempts to pitch -- once in August, once in September -- before it became clear he would require Tommy John elbow ligament replacement surgery. It was always an adventure with Frankie once he returned from that arm repair. There was some adventure on Tuesday, although not really of his doing, and the White Sox had to leave the ballyard with this feeling: They had found a starter who can help them outlast Detroit in the AL Central, and they had found him on the cheap. Patrick Reusse can be heard noon-4 weekdays on 1500-AM. • [email protected]

Francisco Liriano made it through six innings Tuesday night without the usual parade of mound visits Twins fans are used to seeing from his catchers. White Sox catcher A.J. Pierzynski has a different philosophy. "He told me [Monday], 'If you want me to come out to talk to you every inning I'll do that,'" Liriano said. "But he doesn't like talking to the pitcher a lot. So that's fine with me." (nice shot at Joe Mauer...) Liriano let his pitching do the talking in his White Sox debut, and in the ninth inning, Pierzynski settled the score with his bat, hitting a two-run homer off Jeff Gray to defeat the Twins 4-3 before a crowd of 36,424 at Target Field. Nick Blackburn turned in his best performance of the season, giving up two runs over eight innings, but the first-place White Sox ended the Twins' four-game winning streak. Three days after getting traded from the Twins for infielder Eduardo Escobar and lefthander Pedro Hernandez, Liriano found himself paired in an unusual battery. Pierzynski is the same player the Twins traded to the Giants in 2003 to get Liriano, Joe Nathan and Boof Bonser. "It's something I never thought I'd do when we were traded for each other way back in the day," Pierzynski said. "It's cool." Wearing their gray uniforms with black trim, Liriano (No. 58) and Pierzynski (No. 12) walked together from the bullpen to the dugout before the game, as the starting lineups were announced over the public address system. For some reason, Twins fans still boo Pierzynski's name, but they gave Liriano a warm round of applause. Liriano escaped some early trouble and wound up taking a 1-0 lead into the sixth inning. The Twins capitalized on two walks to take a 2-1 lead that inning -- without getting a hit out of the infield. The go-ahead run scored on Danny Valencia's two-out infield single. That was it for Liriano, who held the Twins to two runs on four hits in six innings, with four walks and eight strikeouts. "Frankie did his thing," Twins manager Ron Gardenhire said. "He got in the same situations he got in with us. He just worked his way out of them. That's exactly what you're going to get out of him. You're going to get battles." After falling behind in the sixth, Chicago came back to tie it in the seventh on a two-out RBI single by Alexei Ramirez. But Gardenhire was thrilled Blackburn turned in eight innings on a night the Twins wanted to rest several members of the bullpen. "[Jared] Burton was not pitching, [Alex] Burnett was not pitching, [Glen] Perkins was save [situation] only," Gardenhire said, explaining that if he had used Perkins and Burton, they wouldn't have been available Wednesday. "Some other people have to get some outs," Gardenhire added. "Gray's got good stuff. He's been throwing the ball well. He just didn't tonight." Alex Rios led off the ninth inning with a single, hitting an 0-2 pitch off Gray (5-1), and Pierzynski also drilled an 0-2 pitch on his home run, a ball crushed down the right-field line. It was Pierzynski's 18th homer of the season, matching a career-high set in 2005, his first year with Chicago. "After the game [Liriano] was great," Pierzynski said. "He apologized to me for being wild. I was like, 'Dude you're fine. You're great. Don't apologize to me.' I thought he threw the ball great and hope he can continue to grow after this one." startribune.com/sports

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Aug 1, 2012 -> 08:13 AM) 16 out of 19 after the All Star break on the road and they are guaranteed to come home in first place. Things are looking good.(Except for Danks) And Youk, and Beckham....and pretty much the entire bullpen. One would describe them as shaky at best. Crain survived unscathed two times but looked horrific in the process of being "effective" (the 1st and 3rd, no outs escape was nicer), Thornton seems to have a penchant for giving up liners all over the field. Fortunately, both of those guys had our defense playing well behind them, and good positioning. Hard to blame Myers, he's the only one who has looked decent, but he gave up a leadoff hit to a bottom of the order hitter, too.

QUOTE (HickoryHuskers @ Aug 1, 2012 -> 07:49 AM) Apparently Tigers brass and Jim Leyland aren't on the same page: from espn.com: I think it was ALL about protecting Verlander. He would have had the pressure of leaving him out there to continue his super long streak of going at least 6 innings each start. And of course he didn't want him to get injured on that mound...not to mention he had 35-40 pitches in the first inning, including a bases-loaded walk. At least that way, with the loss from ahead last Thurs against CLE and this game, he's absolved of any blame with how he's handling him.

Can Coop fix YOUK? We seem like we have the streakiest hitters in baseball, but I'm sure fans of all teams feel that way. Too bad we don't play the Red Sox again, to get him heated up. OTOH, we're 2-6 against them, so maybe not such a great idea after all.

If not for the Danks contract, we could reclaim Mark Buehrle. That would have been something...feel sorry he's stuck with a rebuilding team down there in South Florida, but he did it to himself, partially. Not that he had the option to return unless he gave a HUGE hometown discount. But you know JR's kicking himself quite a bit now for keeping Danks over Mark.

QUOTE (HickoryHuskers @ Aug 1, 2012 -> 05:52 AM) Lefty starter + day game after night game = Flowers probably starts for AJ I only say probably though, because AJ is on a roll and tomorrow is an off day. No doubt, we'll either see Dunn at 1B or Konerko not playing at all. We need Paulie's bat in there against a funky LH, please, Robin. Not worried about Tyler playing....he's looked better recently and can stop the running game...but taking AJ out against his former team with an offday looming, that's never a good idea. He does have showtime homers in 2 consecutive games, after all.

I don't know what to suggest with Reed. Maybe it's where he stands on the pitching rubber. Somehow, he might need to rethink his angle of attack...sometimes, he gets a favorable line, like with his K for the second out. OTOH, his fastball is pretty darned straight. Not Billy Koch or Cliff Politte straight, but darned close. Blackburn's ball was moving all over the place at 90-91. It's almost like he is overthrowing it and it flattens out. You always gets the feeling he's one of those guys who got so comfortable with his fastball at SD State and in the minors that he can't start to become a pitcher yet at the major league level until he keeps getting hit on that #1 pitch. Some days, it will be stuck at 93-94-95. Other times, it will pop in the 96 or even 97 range. There's a huge difference there when it goes in a straight line. You notice the same thing with Crain and Thornton. Heck, every pitcher in our bullpen but Myers right now. You read the scouting reports, they tout his slider as the best in the organization...but Jones, when he's on, actually has had better results with his offspeed stuff. Neither of them have thrown it for a strike more than 20-25% of the time. It's like Gavin or Phil's curveball....just not consistently reliable.

Not only do we miss Weaver, we also miss CJ Wilson. Fortuitous bounce there. That and the Tigers/Red Sox game getting called with the Tigers having a chance to go ahead. Imagine how pissed off we would have been in that same situation? So between the missed call on the Konerko throw home (2 times in 3 games, with Adam also failing), the rockets hit all over the place against our relievers, the fact that final play of the game MON didn't turn out to be a blown call after all, Verlander being "below average" for him in two consecutive games...we're pretty fortunate to be right where we are at. You could argue we could or should have beaten up Feldman, De Vries and Blackburn, that we gave them essentially 5 runs on SUN/MON...but this team is just so inconsistent offensively, we stopped the bleeding before it became infectious last night and we ended up getting swept again heading into the huge upcoming Angels' series at home.

Saturday night, with about 65 hours to go until the trade deadline, the Twins pulled the trigger on an increasingly inevitable Francisco Liriano deal by sending him to the White Sox for left-hander Pedro Hernandez and infielder Eduardo Escobar. Both players have spent time in the majors for the White Sox this year and figure to be September call-ups if the Twins don't promote them before then, but unfortunately neither player is considered much of a prospect. Escobar draws strong reviews for his defense at shortstop and also has experience at second base, but he's never hit at any level and has spent most of this season glued to the White Sox's bench while going 16-for-82 (.195) with 22 strikeouts. Chicago letting him collect dust as a big-league utility man at age 23 doesn't make much sense, but it does suggest they weren't particularly concerned about his development and perhaps viewed him as a marginal player. And rightfully so, as Escobar hit .266/.303/.354 with four homers and a 104-to-27 strikeout-to-walk ratio in 137 games at Triple-A last season and is a career .270/.315/.351 hitter in the minors. He's still young enough to improve at the plate and if Escobar's defensive reputation is accurate he won't have to hit much to be valuable, but so far the switch-hitter has shown almost zero power along with terrible plate discipline and no ability to control the strike zone. Hernandez was traded from the Padres to the White Sox as the lesser half of a two-prospect haul for outfielder Carlos Quentin on December 31. He debuted for the White Sox two weeks ago and got knocked around by the Red Sox, allowing three homers and eight runs in four innings before an immediate trip back to the minors. Based on both his track record and raw stuff Hernandez is a typical Twins pitcher with modest velocity, good control, and few whiffs. His fastball tops out in the low-90s along with a slider and changeup, he's induced more fly balls than ground balls, and in 145 innings between Double-A and Triple-A he's allowed more than a hit per inning while averaging 6.5 strikeouts and 2.3 walks per nine frames. Those numbers combined with fly-ball tendencies and underwhelming velocity make it tough to project the 23-year-old lefty as more than a back-of-the-rotation starter or long reliever. Terry Ryan revealed after the trade that the Twins and Liriano never talked long-term deal, which isn't surprising from either side's point of view. Liriano is two months from being able to hit the open market and take bids from all 30 teams, so unless the Twins blew him away with a huge offer it made little financial sense to pass up free agency. And after living with his ups and downs for seven years the Twins can't be blamed for avoiding a long-term commitment. Under the new collective bargaining agreement making a "qualifying offer" to Liriano was also an option and would have led to either re-signing him to a one-year deal for around $12 million or receiving draft pick compensation when he signed elsewhere. I'd have preferred a draft pick to what they ended up getting and keeping him for 2013 without the long-term commitment wouldn't have been such a bad thing either, but clearly the Twins felt otherwise. Getting a pair of C-level prospects is certainly preferable to letting Liriano walk for nothing, but I'm just having a difficult time believing that's the best the Twins could have done. To believe that you'd have to assume the numerous local and national reports about no fewer than a half-dozen teams being interested in Liriano were mostly false or at least that the half-dozen interested teams were only willing to offer the Twins marginal prospects in return. Maybe that's true. After all, trading Liriano to a division rival--the Twins and White Sox last made a deal in 1986--suggests Ryan felt it was definitely the best offer and for as well as he's pitched since rejoining the rotation in May he's still a two-month rental with an inconsistent track record who turned in a clunker in front of a collection of scouts last time out. Of course, plenty of other two-month rentals are being traded for vastly superior prospects this month. My expectations for a Liriano trade were never particularly high, or so I thought. I certainly did not expect the Twins to land anything close to an elite prospect and thought even a prospect in the B-plus range was probably wishful thinking, but to wind up with two likely role players who didn't crack the top 10 in arguably MLB's worst farm system is disappointing. If this is truly the best the Twins could do a lot of people wasted a lot of energy reporting and speculating. Nine years ago in one of the best trades in team history the Twins acquired Liriano from the Giants along with Joe Nathan and Boof Bonser for A.J. Pierzynski. At the time Liriano was 19 and universally viewed as a high-upside arm, but coming off an injury wrecked Single-A season he rated behind Bonser in most prospect rankings. Bonser ultimately proved to be a bust, but Nathan developed into an elite reliever and Liriano ... well, that's a bit more complicated. Following the trade Liriano was healthy and dominant in the minors, establishing himself as one of baseball's top 10 prospects. As a rookie in 2006 he worked out of the Twins' bullpen for six weeks and then joined the rotation in mid-May, doing the impossible by upstaging Johan Santana with an 11-2 record, 1.95 ERA, .162 opponents' batting average, and 105-to-28 strikeout-to-walk ratio in 93 innings spread over his first 14 starts. He had a mid-90s fastball and a devastatingly unhittable slider that racked up a combination of strikeouts and ground balls rarely seen. He was simply as good as a pitcher can possibly be. And then he got hurt. After an unsuccessful comeback attempt Tommy John surgery followed, knocking Liriano out for all of 2007 and leaving him at Triple-A to begin 2008. He returned to the Twins in mid-2008 as a much lesser but still effective version, but then struggled in 2009. Liriano seemingly put it all back together in 2010, posting a 3.62 ERA and 201 strikeouts in 192 innings to show that he was still very capable of dominating despite missing a few miles per hour off his pre-surgery stuff. And then he unraveled last season, throwing away all the progress he'd made, and began this year with a 9.45 ERA in six starts before the Twins demoted him to the bullpen in May. Three weeks and a handful of unspectacular relief outings later Liriano rejoined the rotation and put together an 11-start stretch in which he posted a 3.68 ERA, .190 opponents' batting average, and 10.8 strikeouts per nine innings. His raw stuff was still closer to the excellent, post-surgery 2010 version than the otherworldly, pre-surgery 2006 version, but Liriano's strikeout rate and swing-and-miss totals were as dominant as ever. He picked a bad time for his one clunker during that 11-start span, failing to make it out of the third inning while allowing seven runs in Chicago last Monday night, although doing that damage against Liriano didn't stop the White Sox from trading for him. Coming into the game Liriano had gone at least five innings in every start since April 27, but he allowed three homers in 2.2 innings after allowing a total of three homers in his previous 71 innings. It's unlikely that one ugly start significantly altered Liriano's trade value and by trading him for a pair of middling prospects just 12 hours before his final scheduled pre-deadline start the Twins certainly showed that they didn't think one impressive outing would give him a big last-minute boost. So now in an odd twist of fate (or at least scheduling) Liriano's next start will come Tuesday at Target Field, against the Twins. And his new batterymate? A.J. Pierzynski. Liriano's time in Minnesota was both amazing and maddening, but it's hard not to think back to that unhittable rookie and dream about what could have been if only his elbow had held up under the pressure of a high-stress delivery and overpowering raw stuff. He left his mid-90s fastball on the operating table and never learned to consistently throw strikes with lesser velocity, which is how limitless potential turns into a 4.33 ERA and two marginal prospects. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- www.aarongleeman.com

Second base never was the Tigers' most pressing concern this season. But Detroit is a town that feeds off obsession more than it does reality. If the Tigers don't make the postseason for the second straight year -- the last time they went back-to-back was consecutive American League pennants in 1934-35 -- it won't be due to getting next to nothing offensively out of second base. It'll be the lack of a dominating No. 2 starter and the inability to get sustained RBI production out of the middle of the batting order that brings them down. It's about Doug Fister, Delmon Young and Brennan Boesch delivering the numbers expected from them at season's dawn. It's why -- though the Tigers did nothing further as the trading deadline passed Tuesday -- they aren't done making moves. Big bats and arms, with even bigger contracts, will be available once they clear waivers in August. The Tigers will act then because they'll have no alternative. The biggest hole in the batting order is the fifth spot. Young has wasted three of the American League's top 10 in on-base percentage hitting ahead of him in the lineup -- Austin Jackson, Miguel Cabrera and Prince Fielder. According to Baseball-Reference.com, Young is 0-for-8 when batting with the bases loaded. That's inexcusable. The Tigers aren't getting the big, explosive innings they should. And it's not because of the bottom of the batting order. The Tigers rank 12th in the American League in RBI production from the five-hole in the batting order, but they fall to last place from the No. 6 spot in the batting order. Those are RBI positions, and Young and Boesch aren't getting the job done consistently enough for anyone to believe they can be trusted in what promises to be a tight divisional race in September. General manager Dave Dombrowski didn't specifically mention them by name when he addressed reporters in Boston on Tuesday after the 4 p.m. trading deadline passed. But he clearly meant Young and Boesch, among others, when he said, "Some of the guys that are on our club have to pick it up themselves. We've got guys who have to do that." But I still think Alfonso Soriano winds up in a Tiger uniform in another two weeks. Dombrowski insisted he never had one discussion with the Cubs regarding Soriano. Soriano is owed $38 million over the next two years. Do the Tigers want four $20 million-a-year players on the roster? The Cubs can wait a little longer to get exactly what they want for Soriano -- a team to take his entire salary -- because the new wild-card playoff arrangement has made the summer a seller's market. They're no longer forced to accept a deal simply because the calendar says July 31. The pressure rests squarely on the buyers now. The Tigers are reasonably confident Fister is gradually returning to his dominance of September 2011, when he outperformed eventual MVP and Cy Young winner Justin Verlander. They had better be right, because they can no longer afford the luxury of waiting much longer for the middle of the batting order. They have to make another move. It's obvious now that the Tigers didn't solve their primary problems when they acquired middle-of-the-rotation starter Anibal Sanchez and everyday second baseman Omar Infante last week. www.freep.com/sports (Drew Sharp)

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mlb-big-leag...Y3Rpb25z;_ylv=3 For some reason, the acquisitions of Myers and Liriano only rate 9th on this list, behind Broxton and ahead of Ichiro. Stupid.

Addison is going to get KILT if he throws 90% straight fastballs at 93-95 MPH in the playoffs. He needs to rediscover that 96-97 MPH fastball or figure out a way how to get that slider across. What a nerve-wracking game. In some ways, we got saved by the umps this game with the ball that Konerko made an ill-advised throw home on. Viciedo looked much better at the plate his last 2 AB's, had a SAC FLY and the game-saving catch, perhaps. Crain struggled and survived for the second time this week. AJ always come to play against the Twins. We needed that win in the worst way facing the troublesome lefty in Diamond, their ace, tmrw.

Plus we have all the waiver moves in August. That's when Soriano will move, in all likelihood.

That would be pretty hilarious if we brought back C-Lee and Uribe, but never going to happen in a million years... At least not with Lee. Pretty interesting Ozzie hasn't had much to say over the last couple of weeks. The team has been speaking more often than him, specifically on the Ramirez thing. Wonder if he has a gag order from Loria and Samson?

QUOTE (fathom @ Jul 31, 2012 -> 09:38 AM) Soriano's had a good year at the plate, especially since he went to a lighter bat in May. Honestly, if the rumors are true that the Cubs are willing to pick up a large portion of his remaining contract, then I'm surprised more teams aren't interested. Well, I'd definitely pick him over Juan Pierre, in our dream scenario where we're trading half our minor league system and Viciedo for Felix Hernandez.

What bat are the Tigers going to get? Young and Boesch are up and down, but is Soriano really he answer? He would obviously DH, well, not sure...it's a crapshoot who is worse out there, him or Delmon. Soriano might actually be a defensive upgrade there, funny as it might seem.

Here's a counter-argument (using the Royals' pen) why having so many good young relievers is another version of Moneyball...exploiting a new market inefficiency, largely because of their horrible starting pitching The reluctant revolution will be these Royals’ lasting legacy. Our own miniature Moneyball situation is playing out almost every day this summer now, the Royals trying to get outs in a way no team in baseball history has ever dared. They planned most of this, an interchangeable group of relievers capable of throwing 95-mph fastballs for any matchup against any team on any day, but already the team’s vision of building baseball’s most effective bullpen is being stretched beyond any precedent in the sport’s long history by a starting rotation that right now is just Bruce Chen and a whole lot of live batting practice. This isn’t what general manager Dayton Moore wants for his team, of course. Moore grew up in baseball watching Greg Maddux, John Smoltz and Tom Glavine build Hall of Fame careers in Atlanta. Moore always judges teams based largely on their rotations. He gave Gil Meche the largest free-agent contract in Royals history. He likes to draft pitchers first, pitchers second, and once that’s all taken care of he likes to draft a few more pitchers. The fruits of that philosophy are being at least delayed by an outbreak of Tommy John surgeries to the team’s top pitching prospects. But you can’t argue with economics. So once the Royals looked at what they could realistically afford, Moore did something entirely out of character and shifted his focus away from starters and toward the bullpen. The result is the Royals are using their bullpen more than any other team in baseball history. Again, not all of this is by design. The starters have been mostly awful. But as it turns out, to whatever extent the Royals are shifting their focus and resources to the bullpen, they may be pioneers of baseball’s next frontier. So far, 14 men have made 190 relief appearances for the Royals. They are rookies and veterans, skinny and fat, first-round draft picks and unsigned free agents, from as close as Parkville and as far away as Venezuela. One of them made the All-Star team last year. One of them is a backup outfielder. Two of them fit into a pair of another one’s enormous pants. These men have thrown 222 innings of relief, by far the most in baseball and on pace for nearly 30 more innings than the previous “record,” set by the 2003 Rangers. And while most of the rest of the team has underachieved, the bullpen is the biggest reason the Royals have played above .500 the last six weeks. Now, one more time so there’s no excuses or misunderstandings: The Royals would prefer not to break the Rangers’ record. No matter what else, having your relievers throw so many innings is a clear indication that something’s wrong, like a football team whose cornerbacks have the most tackles. The Royals sometimes carry two long relievers, and they’re wearing out I-29 sending tired arms to Omaha in exchange for fresh ones. But the Royals’ plan on asking more of their bullpen — in an ideal world, with competent starters, they’d have around 35 fewer relief innings and rank around third or fourth in the AL — is an inspired move. This all comes down to money, as most things do. Relief pitchers are cheaper than starters, more plentiful than starters and more replaceable than starters. Just think what the Royals bullpen would be with a healthy Joakim Soria, for instance. The Royals won’t be able to afford Cole Hamels this winter. They’ll only be contenders for Zack Greinke if they can use familiarity and comfort to their advantage. But they can afford a top-level bullpen, and in a baseball world where salaries for starters are rising along with the overall usage of relievers, this is not only smart but absolutely necessary for the Royals to compete going forward. CC Sabathia is baseball’s highest-paid starting pitcher with a contract that averages $24.4 million per year. Mariano Rivera is the highest-paid reliever at $15 million. Advanced metrics indicate the Red Sox had the AL’s best bullpen last year, and their top eight relievers made just under $24 million (most of it by Jonathan Papelbon and Bobby Jenks). The same advanced metrics indicate the White Sox had the best rotation, and their top five starters made $34.3 million (that doesn’t include $16 million to Jake Peavy, who made 18 starts). That’s indicative of the baseball climate. Starting pitchers made an average of $4.9 million last year, compared with $1.9 million for relievers. Accounting for a roster of five starters and eight relievers, that’s vaguely in line with how many outs each group gets. But the Royals’ place in baseball means they’re in an especially good position to take advantage of a market inefficiency, partly because the relievers’ pay scale is much more top-heavy than starters’. That means young and resilient bullpen arms are available at basement rates. For instance, Greg Holland, Tim Collins, Kelvin Herrera and Louis Coleman are each making less than $500,000. Jonathan Sánchez and Luke Hochevar are making a combined $8.7 million. This is the Royals’ loophole. Even on their record-setting pace of reliever usage, the Royals are paying more for each inning from the bullpen than they are the rotation. But the Royals’ spending level is much more likely to buy good relievers: witness a 5.08 ERA from the rotation through Friday and 2.99 from the bullpen. As the Royals wait — and hope — for prospects like Jake Odorizzi and Mike Montgomery to make an impact in the rotation, they have a steady stack of effective relievers already getting outs. That’s generally how it will go, because relief pitchers are usually better early in their careers compared with starters, and injuries are easier to compensate for. One of the unmistakable trends in baseball over the years is heavier use of bullpens. And even if the Royals got to this extreme place by accident, it’s a place they need to stay. This is one place they’re ahead of the trend.Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/2012/06/09/36501...l#storylink=cpy

Few general managers balance the benefits and costs of in-season trades quite like Ken Williams of the White Sox. Prospects surrendered in July deals, with few exceptions, seldom fulfill their potential. Most grow into complementary players, if they make it all. On the other hand, veteran acquisitions typically return expected value, even if the cost in terms of salary and prospect assets seems steep at the time. For Williams and the White Sox, the benefit of making the playoffs for the first time since 2008 would offset the costs associated with trading talent from a farm system that ranks among the shallowest in the game. Winning the American League Central would give Chicago its best chance to make a deep playoff run. So even with his White Sox holding a 2 1/2 game advantage on the Tigers heading into the home stretch, Williams completed his third summer trade, this time acquiring 28-year-old lefthander Francisco Liriano from the Twins. Chicago sent lefthander Pedro Hernandez and shortstop Eduardo Escobar, a pair of modest, 23-year-old prospects, to Minnesota. The White Sox join the Angels, who traded for Zack Greinke, and the Tigers, who dealt for Anibal Sanchez, as AL playoff contenders who have reinforced their rotations through trade. Already this summer Williams had dealt for Red Sox third baseman Kevin Youkilis, who has batted .273/.387/.495 through 27 games with the White Sox, and Astros closer Brett Myers, who has made four scoreless relief appearances since joining Chicago last weekend. (You can assess the cost in talent yourself at Trade Central.) Perhaps Liriano will be subject to similar small-sample success as Youkilis and Myers, because he's been anything but predictable this season. In fact, the White Sox roughed up Liriano in his last outing on July 23 (seven runs, seven hits, three homers in 2 2/3 innings), but in six starts from May 30-June 25 he struck out 40 in 37 1/3 innings while logging a 2.41 ERA and 0.64 WHIP. Liriano has reached those heights infrequently throughout his career, but if matched up against the lefty-heavy offenses of the AL Central-rival Indians, Royals and Twins down the stretch, then he's capable of big things during his final 10 or so starts. Lefty batters have batted .195/.287/.286 with one homer versus Liriano this season, which is in line with his career .593 OPS allowed to lefties. A free agent after the season, Liriano's wildly-fluctuating results made it unlikely that the Twins would have made him the qualifying contract offer necessary to receive draft pick compensation. So while neither Hernandez nor Escobar project to be future impact players, each possesses at least one plus tool and can help the Twins in their organizational rebuild. That's certainly better than nothing. baseballamerica.com/tradecentral

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jul 31, 2012 -> 07:03 AM) We had to "Rescue" the pen because the highly paid guy in the bullpen, Crain, got hurt. And you'd have to argue that Nathan Jones was going south or sideways. Both were about equal factors.

Well, from where they're at right now, they've got a very good shot at the playoffs. And the cost for that "ace" is going to be prohibitive. What starters on the market out there would you pick to start a one game sudden death playoff over a healthy Chris Sale? Just a couple.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jul 31, 2012 -> 07:01 AM) Mitchell has been there for about a week, and put up nice numbers so far. Except for the K's, but he's still at .300 and still walking at a good clip. Has to clean up the baserunning miscues a bit.

Look at how much Dotel, MacDougal and Linebrink cost us salary-wise. Of course, we had to "rescue" the pen with Myers, but they shed Ohman and Frasor and have been able to use that money in other places.

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Jul 31, 2012 -> 05:57 AM) Fire KW It was actually ONE double and 2 walks, but still impressive.