caulfield12

QUOTE (Marty34 @ May 6, 2012 -> 09:20 AM) Where are they going to get a potential top-of-the-rotation starter next year. If Danks doesn't step up they'll need two. Every year they go without that settled is a rebuilding year. Chris Sale and Nestor Molina.

QUOTE (JorgeFabregas @ May 6, 2012 -> 09:14 AM) You'd have to actually have an accurate list of players lost or added for this list to make any sense at all. If you're going to include free agents not re-signed, then you need to include all free agents signed. Including Chris Young in this list suggests that you're going back to the pre-2006 off-season unless you're just cherry-picking. So you're missing acquisitions like Floyd, Danks, A. Ramirez, Humber, Dunn, Sale, De Aza, etc. You're missing most of the useful players on the current roster, in fact. So you're just cherry picking. You can add Dunn, although you wouldn't have "dunn" that 3 weeks ago. Even if he performs at his statistical averages for the next three seasons, we're not getting anything resembling a great rate of return (overall), plus we lost the draft picks. You're right, I didn't include Freddy Garcia on the "lost/missing" list. Thanks for that reminder. Ramirez and Viciedo were signed as FA's, they weren't on the other side of the transactions involving the players I listed. Humber and DeAza (and you can add Santos to that ledger)...and Sale, so they're once again not involved in the transactions the players I listed were. And yeah, you could put Brandon McCarthy in "lost/missing" and John Danks' now seemingly bad contract on the other side of the ledger (if we're going to now count Dunn as a good or positive contract to have on the books, then Danks has to be put in the "bad" column based on April, right?)

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ May 6, 2012 -> 09:05 AM) The White Sox currently have the same team OPS they had as a team for the 2011 season. Getting rid of Greg Walker hasn't provided the improvement most thought. The Cubs spent a boatload of money bringing in a former Soxtalk favorite, Rudy Jaramillo. Their players who couldn't hit, still can't hit. And what is the average OPS in MLB this year? 2011? It's down from 730 to 720, so having the same OPS as last year would mathematically be an improvement according to the laws of statistical analysis. Let me guess, it's lower this year. We can argue the definition of improvement, but how can you account for an offense who didn't add anything significant (and actually lost one of its best OPS performers in Quentin) and has probably the weakest bench offensively in the majors leagues outperforming the 2011 version? Last year was just a "fluke" year or unlucky, right? Some of the hitters like Dunn are simply returning to their historical norms and last year was an outlier? Well, then the same arguments can be made for Heyward, who was commonly pronounced one of the future superstars of the game by every scout in the country.

QUOTE (JorgeFabregas @ May 6, 2012 -> 09:01 AM) Floyd is no more erratic or inconsistent than virtually any other starting pitcher. You can pretty much pencil him in for ~190 innings and an fWAR between 3.5 and 4.5. But with his talent and his arsenal of pitches, he could or even SHOULD be great, a #1 or #2 starter. Since he was drafted, that's been his curse to live up to. Blame it all on Don Cooper, right, for Floyd's "underachieving" and the accusations of being a "mental midget" that crop up from time to time?

Hey, I only talked of impending DOOM, no mentions of death as of YET. My metaphorical signature doesn't count. It's an allegory, not to be taken literally, lol.

http://movies.yahoo.com/news/avengers-scor...-154806723.html (#2 Opening Day to Harry Potter:DH, #1 overall Opening Weekend) And the line about a certain favorite poet/bard in residence at Stratford-on-Avon (in reference to Thor) Think Kenneth Branagh as director!

And this gets back to the point of why I'm so angry with Williams and the Sox management in general. Chris Sale was the key component for us to be competitive in the future, him becoming a sort of Randy Johnson-Lite. Without that, having the greatest young bullpen since The Nasty Boys in Cincy doesn't mean a thing unless you have the starting line-up and rotation to put the back end of your bullpen in a position to consistently close out games. Granted, they still have the option of holding onto Floyd ONE MORE YEAR if they feel they can actually compete in 2013, but that's 50/50 at best right now. So there legitimately could be at least THREE openings in the starting rotation, and if they're filled with young/rookie pitchers, it will take them at least 2-3 years (see Baltimore Orioles of today or Glavine/Smoltz/Avery in the late 80's/early 90's) to become consistent winners at the big league level, and there are SUBSTANTIAL doubts in the minds of everyone around baseball those guys have the talent to even do it. We're not the 30th ranked farm system in the majors without reason. Danks Floyd ??? (option for 2013) Humber Axelrod, Molina, S. Castro, Hector Santiago, maybe Pedro Hernandez (BIRM)...you'd have to say the odds for Zach Stewart look very long to be a starter again...and perhaps Petricka, but that would be a huge reach or stretch for 2013. So we really have 5 guys for two and possibly three open spots (although surely we'd get young pitching back for Floyd in a trade). But, yeah, not really pretty projecting forward into future years past this one.

QUOTE (JPN366 @ May 5, 2012 -> 11:01 PM) I thought this was a rebuilding year, growing pains and all. Your imagination is amazing, I give up... But Williams couldn’t find any trading partners and he certainly wasn’t getting a good return price, so he’ll start the season with a mostly veteran-laden team and see what they can do. It’s not likely that the White Sox will win the division, but stranger things have happened. It’s not always the team that is picked to win the division that actually does. Just look at last season when the White Sox were the prohibitive favorite only to fall flat on their faces. http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2012/02/27/sch...now-rebuilding/ He's trying to rebuild and compete at the same time. Nearly impossible, sure. But what other choice does he have? You can't have Brent Morel striking out 30+ times and being in the bottom 5 of MLB OPS without at least considering other alternatives besides sticking him out there everyday. Don't you? Trying to play him through a slump didn't work at all with Rios and Dunn last year, so we have the (multiple) option/s to send him down and try a different way to rebuild his confidence. There's got to be some objective truth between Balta's and Marty34's standpoint on this issue, it's a grey or nuanced area in the middle which is very hard to straddle without making fans/season ticket holders on one side of the equation or the other unhappy.

QUOTE (JPN366 @ May 4, 2012 -> 10:41 PM) Released by the Jays, minor league FA. Marco Paddy strikes again!

http://www.reelz.com/movie-news/13805/the-...n-the-avengers/ Explanation of the "shawarma" scene. Wonder how much of a kick in sales they'll get from the prominent mention? Wonder what executives with the studio or which of the actors have an investment in the company? They're super popular in the Philippines, many people start the stands in local neighborhoods as a secondary income source for their family. http://www.boxoffice.com/statistics/bo_num...mate/2012-05-05 Avengers will set new all-time opening weekend record, close to $180 million give or take (already around $300 million and climbing overseas)

QUOTE (2nd_city_saint787 @ May 5, 2012 -> 11:18 PM) Touche, One too many cervasas for this guy Cervezas...it's Cinco de Mayo, remember?

QUOTE (JPN366 @ May 5, 2012 -> 11:11 PM) Where do you get these ideas? The fact that we have to be in "win now" mode while we're still in the race, Sale is now in the bullpen and simply the fact that Ventura pinch-hit Esobar for Morel. Let's just call it intuition. At most, Morel has 2 more weeks at this current pace of striking out and not hitting for extra bases. That and the fact our bench has been among the worst in the majors in production, except for Brent's stolen bases.

QUOTE (RME JICO @ May 5, 2012 -> 10:32 PM) About Walker's comments, I believe everyone witnessed what he was feeling. It had a lot to do with the environment created by Ozzie and KW. No wonder Dunn came in and bottomed out and Rios struggled. I still believe some of these coaches get too much credit for successes and too much blame for failures. Sometimes it just takes the right type of person to get through to certain players who are struggling. Also, looking at the Braves' stats, no one is considerably better than last year other than Bourn. Most have came back down to earth since a hot start. And with Bourn, you'd expect part of that improvement is simply more time and familiarity with the pitchers in the NL East, comfort level of coming into spring training with the same team, not being placed on the pressure-cooker of leading off in the middle of a stressful August/September pennant race and also being constantly reminded of the fact that they sent a couple of their best young prospects to the Astros to acquire you.

2012 White Sox in their first 27 games, 107 runs scored (13-14) 2011 White Sox in their first 27 games, 107 runs scored (10-17) However, there's ONE key difference. In 2011, we scored 40 runs in our first 5 games, then went on to score only 67 in our next 22 (3.04 p/g). This year, we've been much more balanced, overall. In terms of runs scored and OPS, we're currently 9th in both categories in the AL (ahead of Seattle, KC, LAA, Minnesota and Oakland). Last year, we were 11th. (Obviously the Royals and Angels have been disappointments). So there are improvements taking place, especially when you consider the subtraction of Carlos Quentin from the line-up for what's basically a rookie in Viciedo. Runs Scored Per Game 7. Indians, 4.52 8. Tigers, 4.31 9. White Sox, 3.96 Also, yesterday was the first time in 11 tries we won a game where we scored 3 runs or less.

http://blogs.ajc.com/jeff-schultz-blog/201...ut-greg-walker/ No, this isn't what you would expect. I researched and found an article that actually supports DA's position...that said, I found some of Walker's comments interesting (if not unexpected) about the wear and tear of the last two seasons with the White Sox and that it was beyond time to part ways mutually (and supposedly, Reinsdorf wanted to keep Walker around for this season, if you believe the rumors). On the other hand, we've also seen huge progress with Adam Dunn (the medicine ball between the legs to limit his over-striding, for example), Rios has shown (until recently) big signs of improvement, AJ was the co-offensive MVP (along with Konerko) in the early season. DeAza has been about what everyone expected (we all knew he would fall off from a 900 OPS, that clearly wasn't sustainable). For now the main concerns are Ramirez and Viciedo (both Cubans always start cold, and Manto seems to love Viciedo)...Morel, of course, and Gordon Beckham, whose OPS now is an improvement on 2011. That and the fact that our bench doesn't provide much at all to work with, other than Lillibridge. Fukudome's near the end of his career, but it must be difficult working with Flowers and Lilly when they're getting so few opportunities in games to develop any sustainable type of rhythm and consistent approach. (Perhaps in a few days, Lilly will become the starting 3B if Morel continues to struggle and needs to be sent down). As Balta said, we were losing 8 wins from the losses of Santos/Quentin/Buehrle and now the idea that Sale's addition to the rotation would negate Mark's loss has been wiped out by his move to the bullpen and Danks' horrid start. All things considered, both teams have to be happy with their new hitting coaches. The Braves clearly have more "in their prime" offensive talent (McCann and Heyward are close to superstar level, Uggla's always been a potent hitter, Freeman is very impressive, etc.) One other thing, from the comments sections, it seems a LOT of the players were happy to have TWO hitting coaches. One is more mechanical, the other about visualization, this approach would seem to work very well for teams where the hitting/pitching coaches are not egomaniacs (as Walker is clearly not) and don't mind sharing some of the responsibilities. Just like teachers don't always get through to some students, different approaches and personalities can mesh where maybe only having Walker to work with in Chicago was becoming counterproductive for the likes of Beckham, Dunn and Rios last season. To summarize, the exchange of Walker for Manto has worked for both teams, and both organizations should be pleased.

http://www.scoutingbook.com/players/p2876 I love this report on Hector Santiago, "a polished and well-rounded blah blah blah" and stopped reading. God, so much of the stuff out there on the internet is horrible. A pitcher who's been struggling his whole career in our minor league system and then rockets from Winston-Salem to the majors on the strength of his Winter League tinkering is, well, the opposite of what they're describing. Like the comparison with the Kimbrell/Venters combination (with Reed closing), although he probably should be in AA (would prefer the bigger park to help him regain his confidence a bit) or Charlotte starting, working on both his command in the strike zone but specifically on getting a feel back for his breaking stuff. Seems very few of the people writing these reports have seen any of the players involved, but just go off stats.

QUOTE (knightni @ May 5, 2012 -> 08:41 PM) How are they going to do roster expansion on Sept 1 then? Won't that add more than 3.5 mil to their salaries? They don't have to bring up more than a handful of players (3-4-5-6 guys), and their salaries are pro-rated for just that month, right?

QUOTE (knightni @ May 5, 2012 -> 09:34 PM) Vance Worley would work for me. Philly can afford to move a SP to shore up their bullpen. Are the Phillies really in a position to give up that much in return for Matt Thornton, especially with his salary? Seems like fixing their offense on the fly with some band-aids for this season would be more of a priority.

And that starting pitching prospect better be able to throw in the mid 90's.

Beltre just ended their run of good luck. 5-2 Rangers. Not a good idea to intentionally walk Mitch Moreland, no matter how well he's been going today, in front of Adrian. Alexi Ogando's the secret weapon for that team. He can pitch multiple innings at any point in a game. Tonight it was the 9th and 10th.

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ May 5, 2012 -> 07:42 PM) I think Nate Jones has been pretty good, but iirc he had a lot of control issues in the minors. I would rather Reed do the job that he did all through college. At the very least, Jones can mature into a 7th-8th inning reliever (hopefully) and be the main reason we can dump Crain's contract and don't need Jason Frasor. That would be really good, compared to where he was about 2 years ago as a prospect.

The Indians continuing to impress, going for their 4th straight home victory after being atrocious at home to start the season. Beat the Rangers (now in a three-game losing slide) and mounted a nice comeback against Adams to put the game tonight into extras. Tied 2-2 in the 10th in CLE.

Trout now 4/24 with 6 K's. Pujols on the bench at least to start the game. http://espn.go.com/los-angeles/mlb/story/_...-angeles-angels Pujols very grumpy about being benched. Almost 140 AB's since his last homer. http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/gameday/index.jsp?g...&mode=video Trout ended up 2/4 with his first homer of the season, now at .231 6 homers in 149 career at-bats, would pencil in at 20-25 HR's for a full season hitting lead-off.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/baseb...,2584506.column Apparently many of the new owners of the Dodgers' franchise grew up in Chicago as Cubs' fans (gasp, even one from Iowa who didn't turn into Bucky Larson but instead became a lawyer after NU and eventually part of a major league ownership bloc).

http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/colum...,2247571.column Jake Peavy "redemption" story by Haugh.