caulfield12

QUOTE (fathom @ May 7, 2013 -> 03:13 PM) He needs to show he can still be a productive hitter. Some huge question marks about his bat speed. It's kind of sad. A lot more fans hoping with their hearts over their brains with Paulie...at least what we've seen out of him so far in 2013.

QUOTE (fathom @ May 7, 2013 -> 03:13 PM) If these are the contingency plans, then can we just sign Carlos Zambrano to play first base? I don't think bringing in minor league journeymen means much. I've heard Julio Franco is available. Or Omar Vizquel. The problem with Dunn playing 1B is that he's horrible over there...and in LF. And the fact that we don't have a single player in the organization right now who profiles as a DH to replace him, other than Viciedo. And most would prefer Viciedo in LF/Dunn DH or Viciedo 1B/DUnn DH to Viciedo DH/Dunn 1B and trying to fill the LF hole with what we've got now in our system. That said, Marty's theory is that it's a lot easier to find a LFer than any position on the field, so we'll see what Hahn comes up with. There's definitely an argument that filling 1B/DH is just as easy with a Mark Reynolds/Carlos Pena/Lance Berkman/Eric Chavez type of player who's much less expensive than a premier DH. The counterargument would be someone like Josh Willingham, if you consider what the Twins are paying for him to be cheap.

QUOTE (danman31 @ May 7, 2013 -> 09:52 AM) All the stat does is credit positive statistics and punish negative ones. The actually number is a nonsense combination of that. If it was completely nonsense, it wouldn't have Johnson and Bassitt at 1/2. Who has pitched better than them, statistically? What argument could you possibly make from a more advanced SABR argument that those guys shouldn't be at the top?

QUOTE (danman31 @ May 7, 2013 -> 09:52 AM) All the stat does is credit positive statistics and punish negative ones. The actually number is a nonsense combination of that. Well, I'm sure there are better ways to do it. That was my own version of SABR back in 1988, lol. For hitters, it was adding a combination of slugging percentage and OPS (TB + W + HBP + SB) - (CS + GIDPX2)/TOTAL PA OR AB That stat penalized baserunners who were often thrown out and especially hitters who hit into lots of double plays, generating 2 outs at one time (vs. one out for a K).

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ May 7, 2013 -> 10:32 AM) I always hear fans talk about trading Castro. Rizzo not so much. Because they can argue they have a better prospect behind him in Baez. Castro's game has many flaws, he's had some issues off the field, etc. For whatever reason, they're pouring all their marketing efforts into Rizzo. I think it's one thing to trade a player in that situation....but you can't do it consistently without alienating your fanbase. Clearly, there is a difference between trading a player to maximize his return in prospects, and trading him because you have a better, cheaper option behind him (see the Sox with what they were TRYING to accomplish with the Sergio Santos deal as Reed was declared the heir-apparent).

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ May 7, 2013 -> 02:54 PM) So the Sox claimed Lars Anderson first, then cleared him off of the 40 man by outrighting him to Charlotte. Today they claimed Mike McDade, another 1B. Are the Sox setting up for the end of the Paul Konerko era? They should have picked up Van Slyke from the Dodgers' organization when he was available to any MLB team... If Viciedo starts playing 1B at any point this season, then we'll know. Or in winter ball.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ May 7, 2013 -> 09:21 AM) Probably. But he's still raw, in A ball, and experimenting. There are guys in the majors who use walking leads of sorts. I think the thing to take from this is, not only is Johnson very fast, he's also a smart baserunner. That could take him a long way, as long as he can get on base. If he can't get on base then he's just Gary Redus (thought you'd like that reference caulfield). Gary Redus A Bedtime Story, to be more exact. We need more Ivan Bubbling Calderons, haha. Actually, my favorite one dimensional Sox player (pinch-runner) from that time period was Rodney McCray. He later became more famous for running through a fence in a minor league game, I think it was while playing for Vancouver.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ May 7, 2013 -> 09:33 AM) Two things happened at about the same time that the pen fell apart. Gavin Floyd got hurt, and Santiago got moved to the starting rotation. I'm not sure that is coincidence. In other words, any advantage gained by Santiago in the rotation over Floyd has been nullified by the absence of Santiago, Veal Ver. 2012 and erratic performances from Jones and Lindstrom recently. So we're kind of a stabilization or treading water phase....strengthening one area, but weakening another simultaneously.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ May 7, 2013 -> 08:57 AM) Mike Cameron hit 4 homers that game Well, three were off of Parque...

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ May 7, 2013 -> 08:45 AM) Maybe he wasn't trying to miss bats? What was his swing and miss ratio in 2008-09-10-11? I'm just curious...Danks, at some point, is going to feel the pressure to start putting up some K's, unless he's trying to be Jim Parque II minus the PED's and three homer game to Mike Cameron.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ May 7, 2013 -> 07:07 AM) The White Sox trading for Giancarlo Stanton would be similar to the Mariners trading for Erik Bedard. Erik Johnson is Chris Tillman Courtney Hawkins is Adam Jones Alejandro De Aza is George Sherrill (sort of) Trayce Thompson is Tony Butler Carlos Sanchez is Kam Mickolio...? Whatever, the principle works. This is giving up a lot of future value for a player that does not make them favorites at any point in the next 3 years. Adam Jones was the centerpiece of that deal, along with Tillman. He already had some major league experience, if I recall correctly. He wasn't lighting it up, but everyone knew his potential. Hawkins is MUCH further behind in comparison to the advanced level Jones was already at at the time of the trade. Johnson needs to prove himself over the full season before you could put him on any type of Top 50-100 list for MILB/Baseball America. Better to just stick Matt Thornton in there for I Shot the Sherrill (But I Didn't Shoot the Deputy), haha. Anyway, if you're the Marlins, you don't want a reliever/set-up guy as you're looking for impact pitchers. Instead of a reliever (not even Nate Jones would do it), they'd be asking for another pitcher like Santiago, Quintana, Snodgress, Beck, etc.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ May 7, 2013 -> 07:49 AM) There's a guy who puts a lot of videos up for both Kanny and W-S (and other SAL and CAR league teams) on YouTube, FS talks with him regularly. He was there yesterday for the double-header. I'm very curious to see the video on Cose - he converted to a sidearm delivery, scrapes 90, his stuff moves a lot, and it has been working for him. Good to see him in action. They talked about wanting him to start, eventually. I'm guessing he's in relief for now, as he adds/refines secondary pitches. Should likely be starting by OD next year or sooner, though he may be a reliever in the end anyway. This org likes to have their relievers start sometimes, for their middle years in the system. Saw reports from the game he was 90-94 FB, with a good slider too. If I were making a list now, he is Top 20, but not Top 10 yet. That could change as the season goes on. If he can keep the OBP in the high 300's, with that speed, he has a lot of value. There was an MiLB article up about him yesterday. He does some unorthodox things - uses a walking lead-off, up to a limit, then paces in place. Weird. Seems to work for him, he's 25 for 29 in SB attempts. And one of those CS was a pickoff where he was experimenting with just how far he could take his walking lead. That's the kind of thing that won't work at the major league level. Sounds a little bit like Lance Johnson's basestealing strategy...."Lance on point," minus the marching in place mechanism. You'd think if he was basically pacing...that eventually a pitcher with a good pick-off move could catch him off balance or on the wrong foot and it would be hard for him to get back to the bag.

Rogers has been around the Cubs too much recently... There are very few players we've sold "high" on. If we were in that line of business, we would have found the best possible return for Carlos Quentin before the 2009 season even began.

QUOTE (fathom @ May 7, 2013 -> 08:20 AM) Cooper was on the radio this morning, and it sure seems like he's trying to get fans to prepare for mediocre velocity from Danks. Also, it sounded like Santiago could get moved from the starting rotation when Danks returns just based on Cooper's assessment of Santiago's contributions to the team. If Danks isn't 100% ready, they have no business pushing him up to Chicago if Santiago and Axelrod are still holding down the fort capably. Right now, I don't see how you could make a credible argument that Santiago's not a better option. Of the starters in our current rotation, Santiago has the second best stuff behind Sale. Basically, Santiago has a lot different stuff in his repertoire than Quintana/Danks, who are quite similar.

QUOTE (elrockinMT @ May 7, 2013 -> 08:26 AM) Sounds like he was pitching to contact and mixing his pitches with good movement on the ball. That is good Not missing bats=not good, that will catch up with him in the summertime at USCF against big league hitters

QUOTE (elrockinMT @ May 7, 2013 -> 08:26 AM) Sounds like he was pitching to contact and mixing his pitches with good movement on the ball. That is good Not missing bats=not good, that will catch up with him in the summertime at USCF

QUOTE (Chilihead90 @ May 7, 2013 -> 12:57 AM) I was going to say the same thing. In this organization, he could end up a top 10 guy by season's end, considering he is having a top 5 season right now.

QUOTE (danman31 @ May 6, 2013 -> 10:11 PM) Thompson is where he belongs. You're right about the improvement over the course of the season, but he wasn't given an aggressive assignment. If anything, you'd hope a high school player would at some point be able to move more than one level per year. Otherwise, it will take 5-6 years for him to reach the majors, which isn't very ideal.

QUOTE (danman31 @ May 6, 2013 -> 10:14 PM) I don't understand what dividing by ERA accomplishes. Well, it can make a pitcher with a lot of strikeouts (by my formula) but not pitching as effectively (ERA-wise) look worse...for example, Snodgress statistically wouldn't stand out, but most here are calling him our 2nd or 3rd best pitching prospect. Or it could do the opposite. A pitcher without gaudy IP/H or BB/K ratios could be made to look better because of a low ERA. Essentially, it's trying to screen for both pitchers putting up a good WHIP, high K's per IP and also lower ERA's, but combining it.

QUOTE (The Ultimate Champion @ May 6, 2013 -> 07:45 PM) There is no positive spin. I'm not going to harp on Hahn since this is his first go of it & it looks like we're in for a s***ty one this year, but Gavin should have been gone at the Winter Meetings. This is what happens when you over value your own players. Had Gavin stuck around healthy we'd have gotten much more than the insurance $$$ back in talent (even 1 year of a solid middle reliever can be worth $3-4M on the open market, and his trade value would have been much higher than that even if low overall) but either way we were looking at a mediocre return. Now we get nothing. Fine, whatever, but that makes it even more important that we get something out of our impending FA relievers. I guess if I would look for a positive spin it would be that Gavin's injury forces us to acquire more MLB-ready right-handed starting pitching sooner than later, so at least if that's the case we'll be looking to fill an area from an organizational scouting strength (if you forget about Molina anyway). Ugh. Damn it caulfield you brought me down with this post. I need a beer. http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/baseb...,7371618.column Phil Rogers addresses your point. However, in all fairness, it's easy to say in hindsight we should have traded Danks...it would have looked like we were giving up on the 2012 season. Although we were sort of sending that message when we dumped Sergio Santos. This is the problem with "timing" trades. We didn't deal Crede or Jenks while they still had value, Matt Thornton, now Danks and Floyd join the list of players we kept past their "due date" or shelf life. If anything, we tend to hold on to players TOO long. That loyalty thing. We did it with Jose Contreras. We also got almost nothing back in return for the likes of Jon Garland and Javy (jury's still out on Flowers).

http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/baseb...0,3161458.story Game story from TRIB. Didn't realize there were 3 baserunning mistakes. Ventura wasn't too upset, blamed them on "hustle/effort" errors. Of course, it's easy to be less upset if the errors don't end up costing you the game. Still need to clean a lot of issues up if we want to be competitive this year.

Reminds me of that Minnesota game he gave up a ton in the first, bowed his neck, and we came back and won. Arencibia homers with two outs in the top of the 9th off Rodney, 8-7 Blue Jays. 7-0 lead GONE...a bit of a shocker. We'll see if the Blue Jays can close it out...Mr. Janssen.

Buehrle sort of righted the ship and got through 6. Still sporting an ugly 7.02 ERA. Blue Jays only down 7-6 now late, would be a huge comeback if they could somehow pull it off.

QUOTE (fathom @ May 6, 2013 -> 06:49 PM) How do you know how much they'll get back on insurance? Basing on the percentages with David Wells in 2001 and throwing out an expected range...but I don't know specifically. Wells was even more of a risk at his age and with his health history and weight, FWIW.

QUOTE (The Ultimate Champion @ May 6, 2013 -> 07:45 PM) There is no positive spin. I'm not going to harp on Hahn since this is his first go of it & it looks like we're in for a s***ty one this year, but Gavin should have been gone at the Winter Meetings. This is what happens when you over value your own players. Had Gavin stuck around healthy we'd have gotten much more than the insurance $$$ back in talent (even 1 year of a solid middle reliever can be worth $3-4M on the open market, and his trade value would have been much higher than that even if low overall) but either way we were looking at a mediocre return. Now we get nothing. Fine, whatever, but that makes it even more important that we get something out of our impending FA relievers. I guess if I would look for a positive spin it would be that Gavin's injury forces us to acquire more MLB-ready right-handed starting pitching sooner than later, so at least if that's the case we'll be looking to fill an area from an organizational scouting strength (if you forget about Molina anyway). Ugh. Damn it caulfield you brought me down with this post. I need a beer. Don't forget Zach Stewart, haha. And don't count on getting much for Matt Thornton, beyond salary relief. We'll see with Crain, Lindstrom and possibly Nathan Jones (not saying trade him, just that they should listen to what's out there)... If Erik Johnson emerges as our top prospect and a #2/3 rotation candidate, we'll be fine. The bigger issue is what happens with John Danks. And right now, we can't be 100% certain about Santiago, Quintana or Axelrod...Quintana is the closest to a sure thing for 2014, though.