caulfield12

QUOTE (fathom @ Sep 22, 2012 -> 08:59 AM) Question #1: Can Chris Sale be an effective starter Compared to this time last year, the Sox future seems much more stable to me. It's definitely more stable, simply because of Sale, Rios and Dunn. HOWEVER, there are almost as many ?'s as the past off-season. A lot of them can be answered with money, and that's where that $5-10 million from the playoff shares would really help, as well as an increase in season ticket sales for 2013. On the other hand, we have a big-time closer dilemma at this point. No answer at 3B, but Flowers has made enough strides you could argue he deserves 3-4 months to hold the starting catcher role in 2012. Thornton, Reed, Crain and Jones have all shown flashes and also been horrible quite often, especially Reed in the 2nd half. You almost never know what you're going to get out of Matt Thornton on a game-by-game basis. Viciedo's done just enough to alleviate any concerns whether he's an impact hitter. As you've mentioned many many times, there are now serious concerns about his ability to hit RHPers, especially ones with dominating stuff. If he's a platoon player against only LHP, that's a big loss to the organization moving forward. All that said, the Tigers are going to be much more formidable next season....there's no doubt about that. And can we honestly say we expect to put an improved team on the field for 2012 from what we have now with Youk, AJ, Myers, Peavy, Floyd, etc.???

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Sep 22, 2012 -> 07:47 AM) And its not like these same things haven't been brought up by the thread starter 1000 times already, although I do give him credit for trying to offset his total bummer thread starter by throwing in some Tiger dilemmas. Here's the sunny side, just for you. (Although I have a hard time imagining having written more than 50 of these opening post threads in my lifetime, I guess 1,000's pretty close). Beckham wins the Gold Glove in 2012 over Cano and becomes a consistent 700-725 OPS guy, maybe even 750. Ramirez gives us essentially what he has for the past 4-5 seasons with no "aging" regression, especially defensively. Viciedo cuts down on his swing with two strikes, learns to take more fastballs to RF and CF and ends up a 280 hitter with 30 homers, 90 RBI's and a decent OBP. Quintana and Santiago are both the real deals and end up anchoring the rotation while Danks scuffles. Sale makes it through 2012 and 2013 without any "wear and tear" hiccups. Trayce Thompson continues to evolve into a legitimate CFer prospect and ends up having a super solid August/September with the Sox, leaving lots of questions about who to keep and who to trade between DeAza, Viciedo and Mitchell, who makes tremendous strides in 2013 at Charlotte and mirrors his 2012 all the way through the AAA season, cutting down his K's. One of the AFL guys like Thompson, Rienzo or Salvador Sanchez makes the team out of ST. Nate Jones and Addison Reed become a devastating closing tandem, with pinpoint command and mastery of their sliders....Jones starts the 9th against lefties, Reed against RHBers. Donnie Veal isn't a one year wonder. Tyler Flowers improves on AJ's defensive numbers while putting up a .230 average, lots of walks, 22-24 homers and 67 RBI's. Beck, Rienzo, Molina, Castro or Johnson emerge as a legit starter for 2014 with a Daniel Hudson/McCarthy-esque run through the minors. Carlos Sanchez continues to make strides and becomes a legit 3B with doubles power, solid defense and occasional homers and SB's.

His batting average for post-ASB went under .200 with yesterday's 0-fer. He does have a mid 700's OPS, at least, which is 200 points better than Morel would have given us, but worth $13 million? Plus his spotty defense and a significant number of missed games and nagging injuries.

QUOTE (nitetrain8601 @ Sep 22, 2012 -> 06:18 AM) It happens. Whenever you think we're about to finally lay down, this team surprises us. I bet we lose tonight, Detroit wins, the board self-implodes, and then tomorrow, the exact opposite happens. Better yet, Detroit is swept by the Twins, and Scherzer is lost for the season (but not a career-threatening injury). The Twins cause the Tigers to blow up their entire bullpen on Sunday with two extra innings losses by one run.

Especially when you consider 2013: Who plays 3B? Do we trade Ramirez or hold onto him waiting for some of our other (outfield) prospects to develop? Is Konerko really slowing down finally, or is it simply the wrist/bone fragment issue bothering him? What will we get out of John Danks? Quintana in sophomore campaign? Will the real Gordon Beckham please stand up? What will be Santiago's role? Can Addison Reed, Jesse Crain, Thornton and Jones be counted on? Which Veal will show up, the journeyman or reincarnation of Neal Cotts 2006? Can Dunn and Rios repeat? Does Viciedo have a role on this team if DeAza's not going to want to play CF? Is Wise actually a part of the 2013 plans at this point? Where will AJ, Youk, Peavy, Floyd, Crain and Thornton end up to start 2013? The Tigers have fewer questions: 1) Can Victor Martinez adjust to being a full-time DH/occasional 1B? 2) Can they live with Peralta and Infante's defense up the middle? 3) Will Dirks repeat or go into a sophomore slump? 4) Is Avisail Garcia for real? 5) Can Scherzer and Verlander stay healthy for another season? 6) Do they want to live with Delmon Young and Boesch offensively/defensively? 7) Will the real Alex Avila please stand up? 8) Can Austin Jackson repeat the huge strides he's made in 2012?

The thing is, the KC Royals didn't make Alex Rios hesistate when breaking for the plate (probably the fact that he knew runs can't score from third with less than 2 outs) or make Alexei Ramirez fall asleep and get picked off 3rd as well. The Royals were willing to give us that game (the Guthrie errant throw down the 1B line), and likely the playoffs with a 3 game lead and only 13 left to go. But we gave it right back to them by not destroying their will to fight back in that game, and had the predictable bullpen letdown late. If we got Liriano a 4-5-6 run lead, that game would have turned out much differently.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Sep 21, 2012 -> 09:58 PM) That is true. Only the White Sox. ... If we collapse the rest of the way and don't make the postseason, will you guys be mad or just sad? This team is so bizarre I feel differently depending on the day. Resigned. And knowing the challenge posed by Detroit is only going to be greater next season with Martinez back, Alburquerque for the entire season....maybe a ROY campaign by Avisail Garcia. All things considered, it would be a miracle for the Sox to beat DET next year unless Verlander and Scherzer both go down to injury. Not quite as bad as in 2008, because that would have been 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2006 and 2008 that the Twins had beaten us, with only 2005 in between.

QUOTE (Buehrle>Wood @ Sep 21, 2012 -> 09:42 PM) Only we could get owned by Chen, Guthrie, and Santana all right in a row We didn't really get owned like the other two guys. We just didn't take advantage of numerous opportunities presented. What new?

THIS.TEAM.IS.DEAD. Was it over when the Chinese took over the Diaoyu Islands?

QUOTE (rafacosta @ Sep 21, 2012 -> 09:27 PM) what the hell is Viciedo doing in this lineup? RV, you still have the division in your hands. Bench his sorry ass agst RHs, at least! You have to go Wise in CF, DeAza in LF from here on out against righties. Maybe even getting in Johnson more often against tough righties, although it's pretty hard to bench Konerko. You also might have to move Beckham up and Youk down, or at least have Wise second on the road instead of YOUK.

Jake Peavy is not an ace. No news there. Goodbye, and good riddance. They're getting fastballs to hit, the White Sox haven't gotten any since Game 1 against the Royals. The reason, as Farmer notes, because they're swinging at the other crap.

The Tigers play horribly on the road...where they will be to end the season. The Tigers are also going to have a much more difficult time sweeping the Twins with a day/night doubleheader Sunday. As long as we're in first place on Monday, even if it's a tie for 1st, we'll probably be okay. Even if we're down by 1, we play the Indians well and the Rays might already be eliminated from all reasonable contention...not to mention we don't face David Price as things are currently lining up, obviously subject to change.

QUOTE (Andy the Clown @ Sep 21, 2012 -> 09:05 PM) I don't want Peavy back with the Sox, discount or not. All he does is throw fat 90 mph fastballs and hanging sliders. The dude is garbage. Wise is in CF, this game is still tied 1-1 and you're not calling Peavy garbage. DeAza in CF is playing like garbage, that much is true. Meanwhile, the White Sox hitting .241 on the road and looking to be dead in the water with just one hit. Bad hop prevents Ramirez from making a play, but he probably would have been safe anyway at 1B.

At some point in the future, we'll have runners who can beat out those plays....unlike Dunn, Konerko and AJ. Station to station corpseball in the 2nd half has left so many runners in scoring position at 2nd and 3rd because they can't advance two bases at a time. It's like they're all standing around and waiting for the homers instead of taking good approaches, knowing Santana's leading the majors in taters given up.

White Sox forgetting to hit the ball up the middle and to the opposite field like earlier in the season when they were going so well offensively. Manto and Ventura really need to wake them up somehow before we get swept away by Haren and Weaver.

QUOTE (Skipper @ Sep 21, 2012 -> 08:57 PM) Too many mental errors recently. I think this team is just running out of gas. It's an error whenever DeAza is in CF with his back to the wall. Then there was just a brain cramp or lack of awareness about the situation...not hustling to get the ball back in quickly enough. No excuses, and we're seeing these kinds of mistakes game after game after game biting us in the behinds. Rios and Ramirez yesterday, Dayan the game before (as well as Dayan and Alexei hitting with the bases loaded), DeAza sucking tonight defensively as he's obviously not comfortable in CF. That puts RV in the position of having to bench Viciedo and play DeAza in LF and Wise in CF. And that's not a good long-term solution for organization.

DeAza just gave the Angels two runs. Playing way too far back in CF again. Bench him. Then he ended up lackadaisically surrendering 2B to Pujols. Should have been a single and just one RBI, not a double and two RBI's. Actually, Wise would have been camped right under it and the game would/should have been tied still. So he's given us one run with the homer but cost two runs defensively. Our outfield defense has really cost us in the last week or so, especially Dayan and DeAza, who's just not confident enough going back on balls to not play with the CF fence right behind him.

C'mon Youk, let's pick up this RISP. Sigh. If Beckham continues to rake and Youk takes another 0 fer, you almost have to move Gordon to the 2 spot or Wise. Maybe you move Beckham up to 6th or 7th if you're going to play Wise and bat him 2nd. Either way, less Youk and Viciedo at-bats right now, especially on the road and against RHP. You might even have to think about sitting Konerko a bit and playing Johnson (against tough righties like Haren or Weaver).

75% of the time, he really doesn't have to do those 360 spin moves. I think it was warranted that time, but he tends to go for the flashy ESPN highlight plays when they're not always necessitated.

Almost the best double play of the year if Ramirez could have completed his patented spin move and made the accurate throw.

Goodbye, another Peavy lead. Albeit just one run. Callaspo simply kills the White Sox, whether he's on the Royals or Angels, doesn't matter. Wish we could have him as our 3B, just so he couldn't face us (the Mark Teahen theory).

QUOTE (JohnCangelosi @ Sep 21, 2012 -> 08:24 PM) I think it's gotta be considered. Youk looked awful there and is hitting what since the ASB? .201, but 754 OPS. In fact, his OPS numbers are pretty consistent from the 1st to the 2nd half, although he started out miserably with Boston. So that run he had right after the trade for 3 weeks with the Sox really picked those numbers up going into the ASB.

Santana hasn't pitched for 9 days. Seems like he used to throw 93-96 MPH before. Definitely looks like he has lost something off his stuff.

QUOTE (JohnCangelosi @ Sep 21, 2012 -> 08:16 PM) Who else is thinking about putting Gordon back in the 2 hole? On the road, if you look at the splits....YOUK definitely should be moved down. Hunter just missed that one. Getting ahead in counts, that's encouraging, and not giving the lead right back to them. Trumbo has really hit the skids since the last time the two teams played.

Trout finally hitting a wall offensively. Angels' announcers boldly declare Beckham the frontrunner for the Gold Glove. I'll believe it when I see it, Beckham beating Robinson Cano.