caulfield12

Santiago continuing to impress.

Hmmm...wonder how long Hicks has before he's sent down? The AA to the majors jump is a huge one. As to an earlier comment about not taking more pitches and being too aggressive against Wilson...well, Sale had one of the lower pitch counts of his career, against what was supposed to be one of the best offenses in baseball.

They have to strike gold in typical fashion...except it's going to be the opposite of injecting Contreras, Garcia and Jenks into the equation nearly a decade ago. We need their offensive equivalent...another infusion like 2008-2009 with the same impact of Quentin, Ramirez, Viciedo and Rios coming on board. It seems to go in cycles. Unfortunately, we don't have much margin for error. And I'm coming around to the position that we would be better off with Beckham or Sanchez at SS and selling Ramirez off before we have to eat part of Alexei's contract...that continued OPS decline is worrisome. This year, the Ramirez contract still isn't a bad one...but it's getting worse and worse. He would be a more valuable player in the NL, arguably. We just have to play through July and see where we are. Would be pretty shocking if Alexei Ramirez being on or off the roster would be the single biggest factor in chasing down the division lead. That's all on Rios, Konerko, Dunn and Viciedo hitting like we expect.

QUOTE (fathom @ May 13, 2013 -> 05:56 PM) How awesome has Jean Segura been this year for Milwaukee? Good to see the Brewers get a great return on their Greinke investment. Dodgers would be better to stick to their franchise history, which is scouting and development (until the 1990's), not overpaying for aging veterans.

QUOTE (Marty34 @ May 13, 2013 -> 05:13 PM) You would not trade Sale for Trout or Harper? Irrelevant. They have to keep Trout, he's one of their few affordable younger players. He's stuck, for now. And they wouldn't trade him in a million years unless he was damaged goods, same with Harper in WASH. Those are franchise, once a generation players/superstars. Chris Sale is an ace, but he's not the type of player that will draw 5-7500 additional fans to see him whenever he pitches.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ May 13, 2013 -> 09:53 AM) Sometimes its better for your stress level to write these things down on a piece of paper and throw it away. Could be therapeutic for you. LOL. If I was so stressed about it, I would just avoid the White Sox completely for awhile like quite a few are choosing to do this year...if something becomes not fun or enjoyable, why bother? By the way, you never mentioned what you think about Bell. Why so quiet recently?

Maybe it's not all that complicated. Opposing pitchers would rather walk him and face Keppinger instead.

Bring back Juan Uribe!!!

Chris Rongey is right. These arguments sounds exactly like the ones from two years ago. Now all we have to do is wait for 2014 to come around so he can break out of his slump again.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ May 13, 2013 -> 08:05 AM) So you tell me that the Kenny Williams is awful at drafting, and to make the argument that Buddy Bell isn't good at his job, you want me to find players that Kenny Williams drafted that succeeded? Oh but wait, let me keep narrowing the parameters until they are soooo narrow that there isn't anyway you can win! LMFAO. FIND A PLAYER DRAFTED IN THE LAST 15 MINUTES THAT STARTS WITH THE LETTER X!!! Finding players that Kenny didn't draft, and that succeeded, is actually a pretty solid argument that Bell isn't the problem here. If the Sox weren't getting anyone young to succeed, then you might have an argument about Bell being worthless, but that just isn't true. Then fine, maybe we should only draft pitchers and concentrate all our other efforts on Latin America, Asia and finding/scouting position players from other teams. I guess it's entirely unreasonable to expect one position player drafted by the organization to make an All-Star team, say, at least once a decade. We would be much better off turning our minor league pitching depth into future Carlos Quentins/MVP-caliber players than hoping and praying for miracles.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ May 13, 2013 -> 07:48 AM) Changing your argument already? There were position players in there, at least until you find another arbitrary reason to exclude them too... Back into circles we go. "name one position player success story from the last five years (of any player that we've drafted in that time span)" How about this? There's no point in arguing back and forth. I would love to hear any arguments for why people think Buddy Bell is doing a good job, why they have faith in him and why he should definitely be a part of the future of the White Sox organization. That's it. If you want, you can even argue that Gordon Beckham's defense not being in the line-up has cost us 2-3 wins, and that Bell is responsible for Gordon's defensive abilities. (Well, it would be nice if you could back that up or support it with any evidence or at least a quote from somewhere). Or that Bell has made Conor Gillaspie the success story of early 2013. ETC. If you want, you can even go back 6-7-8 years to the World Series team. Any position player drafted. You're left with an argument that C. Carter or Gordon Beckham are the two best products of our system...non-pitchers.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ May 13, 2013 -> 07:43 AM) Ummm...other than pitchers that he has almost nothing to do with, and guys like Sale or Reed who were barely in our minor league system for more than a cup of tea....name one position player success story from the last five years (of any player that we've drafted in that time span).

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ May 13, 2013 -> 06:49 AM) I'm not sure how you can indict him without a consistent argument. If the argument is that he got nothing but bricks in terms of minor league talent, what is he supposed to do with that? At best the argument is that it is inconclusive. If you ignore everything that doesn't fit into your argument, such as De Aza, Viciedo, Harrell, Reed, Sale, Jones, Beckham, Quintana, Axelrod, Santiago, Richards etc. then it turns into a great irrational rant. What's rational about claiming that Harrell, Jones, Beckham, Axelrod and Clayton Richard are anything special or close to All-Star talent? Are we really so desperate that we're claiming Dylan Axelrod a long-term success story? After all, Axelrod is the shortest RH starting pitcher in the game with the slowest average fastball of all those aforementioned RH starters. In other words, the COMPLETE opposite of every pitcher that KW fell in love with for a decade, either relievers or starters. And when does Bell ever work with pitchers? Isn't his area of expertise SUPPOSEDLY hitters/infielders, since that was his position in the majors, 3B? Was Bell in the Dominican when they were scouting both Ramirez and Viciedo? Has DeAza ever credited Buddy Bell with helping him in any way, shape or form?

All of these arguments will go around in circles because you can argue that Hahn's responsible....well, no, it's KW behind the scenes, actually. It's Bell. No, it's Laumann. No, it's Paddy that deserves credit. JR is loyal to a fault, etc. One thing that has to be true is either they're doing a bad job of drafting position players (scouting, Laumann) or they're not improving any of the players that we do draft, in fact, they often regress or bust. Perhaps it's both. If it's the latter argument, then what does Bell actually do that's helpful to counter this? All we really know to be true about Bell is that he was 1) a bad manager, in at least two places, 2) a proponent of bringing Mark Teahen and Jeff Keppinger on board, from his time with the Royals' organization.

I'm still not understanding why you have all the love you do for Buddy Bell if you can't even provide a coherent defense for him, other than the fact that Laumann and our college/high school scouts suck at drafting position players...

QUOTE (Lillian @ May 13, 2013 -> 06:18 AM) What if you take Dunn out of the equation? In that it is highly unlikely that anyone would take him, why not just focus upon players who could be acquired to fill the role of middle of the order hitter? Of course, you can guess that my preference would be for a left handed hitter. Ideally, it would be someone who would be a salary dump and thus not require sacrificing any important pieces from the Sox roster. So, is there a good left handed hitter who could be acquired by taking on a less than desirable contract? Ethier is one name that I floated here before. I think the Dodgers would consider giving him away in order to make room for Puig, and to get out of the remaining 5 years of his contract. At 31 Ethier might reasonably be expected to contribute for at least 4 of the remaining 5 years of that contract. Remember, the Sox don't have a single left handed impact bat, that is expected to be on the active roster in the next 3 or 4 years. Would the Dodgers consider paying a portion of that contract? He is really good vs. RHP. If the Sox acquired him, I would put him in LF, and let Viciedo DH. What would I do with Adam Dunn? Who cares? Anything that didn't include his taking the field. I just can't watch him anymore. You don't want to compound your mistake by taking on another bad contract unless we can ZERO out at least half of Dunn's $27 million and get a younger player with a MUCH more higher probability of 1) rebounding and 2) being a part of the team's short-term as well as long-term future. Or you have to find a team to take Dunn and then get some money back along with the risk of assuming a huge long-term contract. We managed this quite successfully with the Jim Thome deal, in fact. Thome was coming off an injury/surgery and Ryan Howard needed a place to play.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ May 13, 2013 -> 06:21 AM) You are just going in circles at this point. And you never answered the question I posed. Name at least three things Buddy Bell has done well...and why, in your opinion, he deserves to still have a job in baseball. You are the one trying to twist my saying that they don't have a good record of minor league development to extrapolate it that they can develop other team's players at the major league level. What the heck does that have to do with Buddy Bell or the current state of affaris with the minor league system?

By Bill Shaikin May 11, 2013, 5:06 p.m. The Dodgers — and their world-record payroll — have sunk to the bottom of the National League West. The Angels — and their collection of superstar hitters — are flailing in the depths of the American League West. We thought we would be talking about the Dodgers and Angels meeting in a Freeway Series in October, not about whether the Dodgers and Angels would fire their managers before the Freeway Series at the end of May. Josh Hamilton is fighting to keep his batting average above the Mendoza Line. Matt Kemp has one home run. Albert Pujols cannot run. Matt Magill, a fifth starter at double A this time last year, has started more games for the Dodgers than Zack Greinke. The frustration runs so deep around these parts that we ought to pause for a few moments, to remind ourselves that this season's disappointment extends beyond our metropolis. Beyond our country, in fact. The biggest disappointment in baseball is not the Dodgers, not the Angels. It's not even close. The Toronto Blue Jays are a disaster. The Dodgers and Angels have the resources to contend for the long haul. The Blue Jays are buried in last place in the American League East, in the season they went all-in because of the perceived vulnerability of the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox. For all the outrage heaped upon Miami Marlins owner Jeffrey Loria for breaking his promises and breaking up his club, the players he dispatched to Canada have not rubbed it in. Far from it. Mark Buehrle has an earned-run average of 6.19. Josh Johnson has an ERA of 6.86 and is on the disabled list. Shortstop Jose Reyes played 10 games, then got hurt. The Jays also got catcher John Buck from the Marlins, then flipped him to the New York Mets in a package for defending Cy Young Award winner R.A. Dickey. Buck has 10 home runs, second in the NL. Dickey has a 5.06 ERA. Melky Cabrera has a career-low .634 OPS, the encore to his career-high .906 OPS season that ended in August after he was busted for testosterone use. The Jays rank next-to-last in the AL in on-base percentage and earned-run average. This was the team built for Toronto's first playoff appearance since 1993, a drought so pronounced that longtime ace Roy Halladay finally asked out so he could play in October. The Blue Jays traded him to the Philadelphia Phillies — and, in his postseason debut, in 2010, Halladay pitched a no-hitter. This season has not been kind to Halladay. His ERA is 8.65, his fastball is not hitting 90 mph, and he is scheduled for rotator cuff surgery this week. Halladay, 35, asked if he might speak with reporters last Friday, so he could apologize to the Philadelphia fans. "I just wanted to reach out to the fans, thank them for their support and apologize to the ones who pay the money and show up in the second inning and it's 9-0," Halladay said. Halladay said he understood if fans did not like him. When a reporter gently said that "no one doesn't like you," Halladay replied: "If I paid $60 and the team was down 9-0 when I showed up, I wouldn't like me." The Atlanta Braves thought that outfielder Justin Upton could flourish in a place where people liked him. The Arizona Diamondbacks had dangled him in the trade market for several years, and owner Ken Kendrick had publicly criticized him. The Braves traded for Upton — after they had spent $75 million to sign his brother, outfielder B.J. Upton, as a free agent. Justin Upton leads the majors with 12 home runs. No disappointment there. But B.J. Upton is batting .157 with a .513 OPS, both figures the worst for any regular player in the NL. The only position player signed for more money in free agency last winter was Hamilton, for $125 million. The Oakland Athletics won the AL West last season, with the Rangers making their third consecutive playoff appearance. The Seattle Mariners loaded up on offense. The Angels had Pujols, Hamilton and Mike Trout. And the four returning AL West teams could beat up on the new weakling, the Houston Astros, so much so that a fair share of conventional wisdom had three AL playoff teams coming out of the West. But what appeared to be the roughest division in the major leagues now looks like the most disappointing. The Rangers were the only team with a winning record before Saturday. There is disappointment all over baseball land. In Chicago, the Cubs and the White Sox are in last place. The frustration is not so great, not when the Cubs' brand is futility. The Dodgers have not won the World Series in 25 years, and this year is not looking good. Let us recommend local fans temper their disappointment. Kemp might not be hitting, but at least he is not playing for a team that has not won the World Series in 105 years. bill.shaikin@latimes.com Is AA really going to be able to keep his job after this unmitigated disaster?

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ May 13, 2013 -> 06:11 AM) You just made an argument against your own argument. Developing other players means we can develop players Ummm....not really. Because it wasn't our minor league system that did a single thing. Maybe Jenks, but he obviously had the raw stuff and talent, it would have been hard to mess that one up...he was the perfect "change of scenery" candidate. Almost all of those guys, you can directly point to Don Cooper's involvement. I didn't list Matt Thornton, but he would be another prime example. If you want to say development doesn't happen at the minor league level and 90% of it can be attributed to Don Cooper, okay, I'll go along with that. Are we going to credit Buddy Bell for Daniel Hudson, Clayton Richard and Gio Gonzalez? Remember, Quintana wasn't "ruined" by our minor league system because he was only in it for about a month. Santiago turned his career around in winter ball, at least that's my understanding from everything that has been written.

QUOTE (Brian @ May 13, 2013 -> 04:14 AM) Hooray for team meetings!! Our defense STILL sucks. Hooray for Chris Sale and Dunn not in the line-up against a LHP. Hooray for Viciedo walks, if Keppinger can actually drive them in at some point this season.

As I made my rounds in the clubhouse Friday, the music was blaring because the Angels were on a one-game winning streak. They had a hockey game on TV. No one was watching, of course. But everyone was in a fine mood because they weren't home to be booed. But I wondered, are the players mad because they've played so poorly? "No, because as competitors we know it's a long season," Albert Pujols said. "But I can see how we've given the fans and the media reason to be mad at us." Most of the players are great guys, and they have their guaranteed money, so no worries and 120-some games yet to play. It's good to be a baseball player. "I can't tell you that there is anything wrong," said Howie Kendrick, and I'd like to see a show of hands from fans who disagree. Individually, the Angels are obviously competitors; yet collectively there just doesn't seem to be much fight in them. They lost that when Moreno chose not to keep team leader Torii Hunter. They have had arguably the best talent in the American League West the past four seasons but are on the their way to missing the playoffs four straight years. They get knocked down and they don't get up. They are very much like their owner, and as they say, the fish stinks from the head down. It's the same reason why the Clippers consistently disappoint, and why everyone is worried now about the Lakers after they had such a great owner. We saw what happened under the stewardship, as he called it, of Frank McCourt. We should care about who owns our sports franchises if we're going to take an interest in how their teams fare. T.J. Simers Bio | E-mail | Recent columns Also Take heart, Dodgers and Angels fans: Others are suffering too Angels fans may be wondering who's on ... well, name the base Red Sox closer Joel Hanrahan to have arm surgery Helmets not a good fit for pitchers, so far Ads by Google When criticism of Moreno started a few years ago, he buckled. He could never make it as a player and answer the media's questions after a poor performance. Three or four times a week. When he talks now it's only to mlb.com, which allows him to speak without cross examination. Gone are the days when Moreno was all smiles and known as the "People's Owner." He was the guy who lowered beer prices and who used to walk the Angel Stadium concourses to meet the fans. But when was the last time he did that? "I don't know," team spokesman Tim Mead said. "But he has, I'm sure, just not as frequently." Moreno can't take the heat, and the same can be said of the Angels, who have wilted under the strain of expectations. Again. "I absolutely hated [being picked as favorites] going into this year," Mark Trumbo said. "We saw the writing on the wall last year. Just because you have good parts doesn't mean you're guaranteed a spot." But shouldn't it? I suggested. "In theory, yeah, that does work," Trumbo said. "But it's painfully obvious that doesn't hold true." As a businessman, Moreno has excelled in improving the value of his franchise. Donald Sterling has done the same, and look how much McCourt got for his team. As a baseball owner Moreno has been inconsistent. He's never won a World Series, the Mickey Mouse folks from Disney doing that. Attendance has dropped 189,044 over the past two seasons, which speaks to disappointment. Attendance is up 77,131 this season, which speaks to hope, but what happens if that disappears? The future of his manager has been questioned, but instead of declaring publicly Scioscia will be here all season, Moreno declined the opportunity to talk. Does that mean Scioscia might not make it to the end of the season? General Manager Jerry Dipoto also has refused to answer the question. Why haven't the Dodgers curtailed all the chatter and announced Mattingly will guide the team to the end? Maybe that's the only race remaining for the Dodgers and Angels: Who gets rid of their manager first? Will the Angels ever finish first in anything with Moreno calling the shots? He likes to talk and cuss tough, but he has consistently rolled over when bidding has gotten serious on players like Mark Teixeira and Adrian Beltre. Prone to being emotional when Moreno doesn't get his way, the Angels ended up with Vernon Wells. Most of Moreno's big-time signings have come after he has swooped in quietly without significant competition to sign players like Vladimir Guerrero, Hunter, Pujols and Hamilton. Look at the Angels now. Much that has gone wrong and will continue to go wrong is his doing. In addition to whopping contracts for Pujols and Hamilton that will escalate each year, there's the fact the Angels' minor league system has been ranked the worst. So maybe this is the best we can expect from the Angels, and now isn't that fun to ponder? T.J. Simers/LATIMES

QUOTE (greg775 @ May 12, 2013 -> 09:24 PM) What do you think it'd take for KC to fire Ned this season? Losing six of seven heading into a road trip is not what the fans wanted. The Yankees sure beat up KC like the Royals were nothing. The Royals never look that bad when they play the Sox. http://www.kansascity.com/2013/05/12/42316...ing-royals.html#

http://hawkcentral.com/2013/05/01/124057/?odyssey=obinsite Big 10 pre-season projections for 2013-14 (from Iowa City newspaper, Press-Citizen)

http://hawkcentral.com/2013/04/30/steve-al...dyssey=obinsite

QUOTE (The Ginger Kid @ May 13, 2013 -> 01:46 AM) Sale will be 27, in his prime and locked up contractually by the magical '16. Why would anyone advocate giving up a known for one or more unknowns? It never fails to puzzle me. In fact, it was when Kenny traded Hudson for EJax that I had the same feeling. It just made no sense. I'm pretty sure it was a joke...