caulfield12

What a line. Hawkins has 23 K's in 37 AB's, along with 3 BB's. 711 OPS with a .162 BA. 4 HR's and 10 RBI's, along with 2 SB's.

Have you ever seen him play in person, just curious... He's one of those players who grows on you over time. He's an above average runner, an above average fielder...and has something we're completely lacking in at the minor league level, plate discipline and the ability to take a walk. When's the last time we had a hitter whose K and BB numbers were pretty even? He's also shown himself in the last 12-18 months to be a pretty decent contact hitter. Now without the 20+ homers or 40-50 stolen bases, he's not going to be a SABR/rotisserie league owner's dream....he profiles as a complementary piece, and not a game changer...like a Tadahito Iguchi. There's absolutely nothing wrong with that at all. The problem is we're going to have to be patient and wait for his XB power to come, and that's going to put even more pressure on the rest of the line-up to put up big homer numbers at USCF.

Or the typical Chris Rongey post-game defensive response...

Or the typical Chris Rongey post-game response...

It's pretty sad when most of us are hoping if he doesn't hit again like 2012 that he retires from shame and embarrassment. What a crappy situation, for everyone involved. That said, giving Dan Johnson those AB's (or fill in any random LH hitter) wasn't going to be and isn't the long-term solution, either. And it's almost beyond the point where you believe they could do anything BUT eat his contract...at least with Rios, that has turned around. But we have two contracts (Danks/Dunn) currently taking up $25-30 million in payroll with negative or negligible value. I just can't imagine giving those DH ab's to the likes of Wise or Jordan Danks. Even Gillaspie, with how he's been hitting...assuming someone else was playing 3B.

QUOTE (CWSpalehoseCWS @ Apr 16, 2013 -> 10:32 PM) Even if that's his future, I'll take it. When's the last time the Sox had a nice solid UTIL guy off the bench? The last few years, I think that has hurt the Sox. Eduardo Escobar, lol? Andy Gonzalez? Lillibridge, when he could actually hit worth a lick for 1/2 a season.

Supposedly, Danks is going to be in the clubhouse and working out with the team in Chicago on Friday. Then, he's going out on a minor league assignment sometime next week. FWIW, from Farmer and DJ in the radio booth.

Axelrod and Gimenez are very close...does seem to be this emerging storyline that Gimenez is doing a better job with pitch selection, although we have no idea with Cooper gone who's doing what exactly. Is it Parent? The individual catchers? Ventura?

Well, 1/4 with RISP improves our BA but didn't score a run because of Konerko's lack of speed, haha. Wonder if we've ever lost 2 consecutive games to starters with ERA's over 10?

Your apparent dislike for Viciedo is now overwhelming all logical thinking here. The only players who are going to get us anything significant back in return at the moment are Sale and Peavy. Period. The idea of replacing DeAza or Viciedo with Jordan Danks and thinking that's somehow contributing to any sort of positive direction for the franchise is laughable. It's the kind of move 12-13 year olds playing around with Strat-O-Matic cards would make in their basement. Major league teams, thankfully, don't operate in such fashion.

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Apr 16, 2013 -> 11:50 AM) Why not? Let's see if he can be anything useful. Obviously not, or the coaching staff wouldn't have Wise on the roster instead. If they believed Danks would hit 20+ homers and not strike out 150+ times, he'd be in Chicago. It's another version of the Brian Anderson story all over again....without the hype.

Because the direction and CLEAR message to Sox fans with a line-up of Gillaspie, Sanchez, Keppinger, Gimenez/Phegley/Anderson and Danks is... LOSING 100+ games and looking more like the Astros than anything resembling a contending MLB team. That would give us a clear direction all right.

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Apr 16, 2013 -> 11:31 AM) There doesn't appear to be a clear direction. I don't understand how they can't find a spot for Jordan Danks. Platoon him with Viciedo and put him in center to see if he can become anything useful. JORDAN DANKS is not a POWER HITTER. He will strike out way too much for the power he will give you. If we're going this route, we might as well bring back Ryan Sweeney. Giving Danks 300-350 AB's against RHP only will prove that we've wasted a year of Viciedo's development. Going from what you've said in your last year of comments, our outfield would be BJ Upton, Ichiro and Danks/Viciedo...assuming you didn't trade Rios to cut salary and clear payroll space. We play 81 home games at USCF. We have to get homers from SOMEWHERE, and it won't be coming from an infield of Gillaspie/Sanchez/Keppinger or whoever's catching (fill-in-the-blank journeyman/retread/AAAA filler).

QUOTE (LVSoxFan @ Apr 16, 2013 -> 11:29 AM) Never liked this move. Nothing against him personally but I never saw the value in having somebody who is HR-or-bust, most often bust. Typical KW overcorrection. Went from Thome, which wasn't working according to Ozzie and/or KW....to Kotsay/Andruw Jones, which contributed to costing us the 2010 division (75% the fact that Jim went to the Twins and played so well in the place of Morneau)....which left a HUGE power gap from the LH side which couldn't be addressed internally because of our weak minor league system. If they actually found the right combination of hitters, they could have filled that position with the same production at a fraction of the cost....but Mark Kotsay wasn't the right hitter for 300-350 DH AB's at that point in his career.

QUOTE (LVSoxFan @ Apr 16, 2013 -> 11:29 AM) Never liked this move. Nothing against him personally but I never saw the value in having somebody who is HR-or-bust, most often bust. Typical KW overcorrection. Went from Thome, which wasn't working according to Ozzie and/or KW....to Kotsay/Andruw Jones, which contributed to costing us the 2010 division (75% the fact that Jim went to the Twins and played so well in the place of Morneau)....which left a HUGE power gap from the LH side which couldn't be addressed internally because of our weak minor league system. If they actually found the right combination of hitters, they could have filled that position with the same production at a fraction of the cost....but Mark Kotsay wasn't the right hitter for 300-350 DH AB's at that point in his career.

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Apr 16, 2013 -> 11:13 AM) Ditto. Wouldn't give up starting pitching prospects for him. Replacement for Konerko has to be a youngish player with credentials to be middle-of-the-order hitter. Yep, easier said than done, but that's what it has to be. Like it or not, that hitter is likely to be Viciedo. You're better off reviving your "Trade Alexei Ramirez" threads because we actually have a replacement in the pipeline in Carlos Sanchez. What we don't have is anyone close to major league ready capable of hitting 25-35 homers, and, despite your protestations to the contrary, it's just NOT THAT EASY to find a young hitter who's cost-controlled and who can put up those numbers. If it was that simple to hit based on minor league numbers, Cris Carter wouldn't be bouncing around so much at this point in his career. Why would a team with that kind of young impact bat trade him to the White Sox when there's a premium now on exactly those types of hitters?

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Apr 16, 2013 -> 10:54 AM) Why spend money to try to stay in the middle though? Better to save resources as you rebuild. That option isn't perfect either of course. Where would the White Sox be now with Josh Hamilton and Zach Greinke? Still in last place. Except they'd be in a position where they would absolutely be forced to quickly cut payroll as soon as the attendance numbers from the next homestand started rolling in.

Viciedo's trying to change to the leg kick timing device...but he's falling into the habit of not using it consistently, so he's getting in between, which is slowing down his bat and making him vulnerable to fastballs inside and anything over 90 MPH. However, I am glad that we can label a 23 or 24 year old a bust...because we can also label all of our young outfield prospects future busts too, since hitters never ever make adjustments over time. We have one young hitter under 25 and cost-controlled for the near future and we want to dump him...the only one capable of hitting 30+ homers at a ballpark that plays smaller than most. So our solution is Gillaspie, Carlos Sanchez, Jeff Keppinger, Alejandro DeAza and Kennyn Walker? Gimenez and Phegley? Most are already giving up on Tyler Flowers, and he was expected to provide 20+ homers, even if he was going to strike out 150-200 times. Beckham...he's on his 5th major league season, and some were still not ready to label him a complete bust. WHO IS GOING TO HIT HOMERS FOR THE WHITE SOX in 2014 and 2015? Dan Wilkins? We've pretty much already acknowledged we won't get AJ's 2012 numbers again....Dunn's 2012 numbers....Konerko will more than likely be gone after this season because what's the point of rebuilding around him and you can't give him a contract that cuts his salary significantly without insulting a Sox legend...so they're in an incredibly tough position.

Reporter Daniel Libit of ChicagoSideSports.com spoke with Pierce, 29, on Friday to get his take on Alford’s public apology. “I don’t have an issue with anything he had to say,” Pierce said. “He has always been in my corner since he recruited me, so I have nothing—you will never find me saying anything about coach.” According to Libit’s story, Alford and Pierce still speak occasionally. Pierce called to congratulate Alford after he accepted the UCLA job. “I heard the news when I was in France still and the first thing I did was give him a call and congratulate him,” Pierce said. “We still speak form time to time.” Last week, Iowa City Press-Citizen sports columnist Pat Harty wrote a column alleging that Pierce once attempted to assault Harty’s niece, when she was a freshman at Iowa. Libit read Pierce a portion of Harty’s column where he laid out the details of the accusation. My niece was an 18-year-old freshman at the University of Iowa, who had met Pierce on campus completely by chance. He showed up in her dorm room one afternoon that same fall — unannounced and uninvited — closed the door and refused to leave. I hate to think what might have happened to this bright, beautiful girl had her screams not scared him away. “I wish Pat Harty nothing but the best, but I can’t respond to everyone’s allegations or false allegations,” Pierce said. “I have moved on from my past. I am not calling it anything. If he wants to say anything about me, he can say it, and do with it what he wants to. At this point, I have moved on from Iowa, the writers, I have moved on from them all—far from them.” Pierce went on to say that Harty’s allegations “couldn’t be more false.” http://www.hawkcentral.com

Reporter Daniel Libit of ChicagoSideSports.com spoke with Pierce, 29, on Friday to get his take on Alford’s public apology. “I don’t have an issue with anything he had to say,” Pierce said. “He has always been in my corner since he recruited me, so I have nothing—you will never find me saying anything about coach.” According to Libit’s story, Alford and Pierce still speak occasionally. Pierce called to congratulate Alford after he accepted the UCLA job. “I heard the news when I was in France still and the first thing I did was give him a call and congratulate him,” Pierce said. “We still speak form time to time.” Last week, Iowa City Press-Citizen sports columnist Pat Harty wrote a column alleging that Pierce once attempted to assault Harty’s niece, when she was a freshman at Iowa. Libit read Pierce a portion of Harty’s column where he laid out the details of the accusation. My niece was an 18-year-old freshman at the University of Iowa, who had met Pierce on campus completely by chance. He showed up in her dorm room one afternoon that same fall — unannounced and uninvited — closed the door and refused to leave. I hate to think what might have happened to this bright, beautiful girl had her screams not scared him away. “I wish Pat Harty nothing but the best, but I can’t respond to everyone’s allegations or false allegations,” Pierce said. “I have moved on from my past. I am not calling it anything. If he wants to say anything about me, he can say it, and do with it what he wants to. At this point, I have moved on from Iowa, the writers, I have moved on from them all—far from them.” Pierce went on to say that Harty’s allegations “couldn’t be more false.” http://www.hawkcentral.com

http://espn.go.com/blog/chicago/white-sox/...vs-former-mates At least we can't blame this loss on poor advanced scouting, lol.

Puig hitting .389 with 2 homers and 7 RBI's already. Seems like he might end up the best Cuban hitter of that young group of Cubans in Cespedes (a bit injury prone so far, but a very solid rookie campaign...and he would have more value as pure CFer than a corner guy), Viciedo and Soler. At least Walker was 2/4 with an XB hit and 3 RBI's. And Thompson's over .260.

QUOTE (Chicago White Sox @ Apr 15, 2013 -> 09:25 PM) What does any of this have to do with Paddy? Other than possibly Nestor Molina, most of the guys he has brought into the organization aren't even in the United States yet. There are rumors he was advising KW/Hahn on the Zach Stewart/Edwin Jackson deal, that he was being felt out at the time for a possible promotion in title and salary with the White Sox...and his "insider" knowledge of the Jays' system was one of his selling points.

It would set a bad precedent to deal Jake quickly, but a lot can change between now and midseason. I think a LOT of it would depend on how comfortable he is here, what the atmosphere's like around the team and organization and attendance...if it gets to be all doom and gloom and they're struggling to draw 10-15,000 for weeknight games in the summer, then sure, you can imagine a scenario where Peavy would be the #1 trade target for other organizations. Rios...if he keeps playing as well as he has for another half season, and with only 1 1/2 more years to go on his original Blue Jays deal (with a club option for 2015) would become suddenly quite attractive. Right now, we're stuck with Dunn and Danks...but we can easily move pieces like Ramirez, Crain, Thornton, Floyd, Lindstrom, etc. Konerko, it's going to be a similar situation to the Peavy one, with the club and JR being more careful to avoid taking ANOTHER PR hit after already letting Buehrle and AJ go (at least the Buehrle decision was logical, but not having a capable replacement for AJ seems to be one of the glaring weaknesses from the offseason). If we have to pair a bigger salary with the likes of a Nathan Jones or Addison Reed, then we'd be dumb to not at least consider any and all offers....but hopefully all this conjecture is at LEAST one full month from ending up in Phil Rogers TRIB articles.

And yet somehow the Giants can take guys like Melky Cabrera, Angel Pagan, Gregor Blanco and Andres Torres and get positive results out of all those guys...