caulfield12

Yeah, I think he plays the admiral or commander of the Western Fleet or something like that...and of course his daughter's an SI Swimsuit Cover Girl BATTLESHIP is pretty good, well, it's 100% predictable....but, unlike Michael Bay movies, you actually have SOME character development and at least care A LITTLE BIT about what happens to the various characters over the course of the film. It's the typical summer action movie, except it's the middle of April (kind of like when Iron Man 2 came out in 2010 to kick off the season early).

‘‘It was a tough night,’’ Santiago said. ‘‘That one pitch maybe changes the inning. I kind of walked off — ­ I don’t walk off unless I think it’s a strike. Then I kind of left one [a fastball] up and he got a hold of it. I have to make better pitches.’’ With his back to the wall, De Aza said he ‘‘jumped too early and took my eye off the ball.’’ The Sox are rolling the dice with three rookie relievers — Santiago, Addison Reed and Nate Jones —­ and Stewart, who is barely out of rookie school. With a 2.42 ERA and a .218 batting average against going into Monday’s game, the pen had shown no early signs of suffering because of its youth. Santiago, who viewed the ‘‘K zone’’ on television replays and saw that two of the balls called by Barrett were strikes, said he knows that comes to the territory. ‘‘Just learn from it,’’ Santiago said. ‘‘If the umpire misses a call or what, just go back and focus and make a better pitch. Just go out there tomorrow and be ready to go.’’ ‘‘It’s not the easiest job,’’ Ventura said. ‘‘I have confidence in taking him right back out there and letting him do it tomorrow night.’’ Ventura, Cooper and bullpen coach Juan Nieves knew there would be days like these with a young bullpen. ‘‘A year from now we’ll know who to count on and who not to count on,’’ Nieves said. ‘‘There was a concern [about having so many rookies], but we embraced it with open arms.’’ Sun-Times.com/sports Further signs that this year is being looked at internally as "a development/assessment" year.

We could have used someone not calling fastball after fastball to Reimold and Adam Jones.

QUOTE (whitesox901 @ Apr 17, 2012 -> 12:42 AM) Pennants aren't won in April, but they're lost in April. See 5-19 streak last April/May. From TRIB... "It’s not the easiest job. But you know, the way I look at it is how he bounces back. I have confidence in taking him right back out there and letting him do it (Tuesday) night." This was Santiago's first blown save in four chances. But he has a 6.75 ERA in four appearances. "I wasn’t expecting Hector to be perfect, but he battled," Ventura said. "That’s one of those that’s a tough loss, but we’ll bounce back. It’s one of those I think that you go through a season, you are going to have them every once in a while. You want to turn it around (Tuesday night). I still can't believe we were outdrawn by the Royals (14,039 to 13,732) last night. Maybe it's simply the fact they were playing the Tigers and Verlander was pitching, but they had just been absolutely obliterated this past weekend by the Indians. At least we had been playing pretty well. I guess it's the same old "so-so weather/April/kids not out of school/weeknight/games last too long/expensive tickets, parking and concessions/Sox fans don't believe in their team unless they're winning" thing. On the bright side, after 4 games, we're still ahead of: CINCY SD OAK KC HOU CLE Right about where we were expected to perform, 24th/25th in the majors.

QUOTE (TaylorStSox @ Apr 16, 2012 -> 11:07 PM) I don't know. I'd probably wait until May, at least, to make any changes. Or, I might wait until they have a losing record. In reality this isn't a good team and there is nothing anybody can do about it. There's no sense in getting all Jerry Manuel about it. This year is about finding some talent to salvage and try to build a good baseball team around. I hope you have some patience. You're gonna need it. And it's just not there. Reading the minor league box scores everyday, they're going to be cosmetic changes, but no real impact bats. Maybe Kuhn will get a chance at 2nd or 3rd, but he's never going to be an All-Star caliber player. Mitchell in Birmingham is about the only hitter to get excited about (in AA/AAA), and quite a few have given up on him already. Saladino, perhaps, is the other...that can fill in that 3B/2B gap. Beckham is playing so poorly that it seems impossible that he's going to fight his way through it at the major league level. And maybe Phegley as a catcher, but he and Tyler are both RH bats. Switching Mitchell for DeAza is probably more of a cosmetic change as well...it will take a long time before Mitchell's a fully-refined baseball player, and, realistically, it might never happen.

QUOTE (TaylorStSox @ Apr 16, 2012 -> 10:56 PM) You realize you just wrote a giant post with 9 pretty drastic changes after the 9th game of the season, right? 5-4, with no expectations. Let's change everything! "I love it when you over analyze." The only real dramatic change would be sending Beckham down. Stewart's surely on his way out soon. I guess if you call moving Morel down and Ramirez to the 2 spot a big change...not really.

QUOTE (justBLAZE @ Apr 16, 2012 -> 10:42 PM) Who do you call up to take Beckhams spot? Jordan Danks as 4th OFer. Lillibridge to starting 2B, or a combination of Lilly and Escobar until one or the other gets hot (depending on the pitching match-ups each day). Or if that simply is not done in sports and you merely send a guy down when he's s***ty enough. That a final warning of sorts is simply not condoned. He's absolutely aware something has got to give. Morel was a rookie last year, Gordon's had almost 3 full seasons now to prove himself. Rios and Dunn are going nowhere.

C'mon Cowley, do your best. Let's see. First, revisit the terrible Edwin Jackson/Teahen for Frasor/Zach Stewart deal. Check. Remind everyone about how bad Rios and Dunn are... Point out that the White Sox system hasn't "raised" an All-Star caliber hitter from start to finish since the days of Crede, Rowand, Ordonez, Lee and Durham. (No, Gordon Beckham no longer can be considered a good or promising hitter at this point.) Point out the brutal attendance for a half-price night. Check. Remind everyone how good our starting rotation would look with Hudson and Gio Gonzalez out there, with Chris Young in CF, to boot. Remind everyone how nobody in baseball cares about the White Sox anymore because their manager is plain Jane/boring/vanilla. Maybe another paragraph on the bleak bleak future of Gordon Beckham, once compared favorably with Derek Jeter and a future franchise cornerstone and predicted replacement for Paulie/Buehrle.

Let's see where things stand at the end of April. In actuality, this Orioles' loss has very little to do with Robin Ventura, he simply has inferior talent. If Jones and/or Addison Reed were available for the 10th, I'm sure he would have used them.

http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/CH...201104110.shtml The dreaded Pierre/Thornton game...then there was the game Cliff Pennington drove in the winning run off Thornton, same series. At that point, we were 6-3, and went on to lose 19 out of 24 ballgames, to fall to an 11-22 mark we never really recovered from. We'll see what kind of cloth Robin Ventura is made of soon enough. No matter how good our starting pitching has been, you can't hope to compete with the Detroit Tigers with only 3 legit starters in your line-up (AJ, Konerko, Ramirez). We're crossing our fingers on Viciedo, but over the course of a 162 game season, not even the 2010 Giants had the pitching to cover up for our offense. When you compare our line-up with the Yankees, Rangers or Tigers...it just doesn't come close to matching up. We should be realistic. DeAza hasn't been nearly as good as last season, and Beckham/Morel/Dunn/Rios all look the same or even worse. At some point, opposing pitchers will just stop pitching to Konerko and/or AJ, like Showalter did tonight, in order to face Rios.

QUOTE (fathom @ Apr 16, 2012 -> 10:14 PM) That this is a rebuilding year and it's more important to find out if Morel/Beckham are MLB caliber players an whether or not Dunn/Rios can get any type of trade value (long shot) or if they need to think of possible replacements for them in the future. Morel should be given a chance to fight through it, with how he played at the end of 2011, with how well he did in the spring and then his defense and the fact that he's been doing the "little things" over the last 5 games or so. Ultimately, Gordon Beckham is just foundering like the Titanic and the only merciful thing to do is send him down, and take the Cowley/anti-KW columns that will inevitably follow. He just needs to rediscover his joy/love for the game of baseball or end up like Brian Anderson. His defense is so good, he'll probably find a home somewhere just because of his ability to play all three infield spots, but we really have no choice but to assign him to the Knights. Lillibridge is a better long-term solution at 2B than McPherson would be at 3rd for Morel. The odds that Lillibridge can be the same offensive force he was in 2011 might be against him, but there's no harm in playing him 40-50-60 games in a row. Beckham deserves one last shot to be a starter at 2B if Lillibridge/Escobar fails to work as a solution. Then you non-tender him or trade him in the offseason, or just outright release him.

1. Stewart and Beckham down to Charlotte 2. Lillibridge starting everyday (might as well find out whether he can play everyday now) 3. Morel back to bottom of the order 4. Ramirez batting 2nd, we can't afford to have AJ there with how well he's been going offensively 5. Pray for Dunn and Rios, but don't boo them 6. Pick the name of Stults, Axelrod or Bruney out of a hat to replace Stewart 7. Lillibridge playing infield, you probably go with Jordan Danks for Gordon to provide OF depth, or possibly Conor Jackson (that's for Lillian) 8. Find a Marco Paddy who can make recommendations on hitting prospects, bring back the scouts who identified Carlos Quentin/Ramirez/Viciedo to have them play a bigger role in the June draft assessment process. 9. Continue to monitor McPherson as a band-aid, but not long-term solution for a continued Morel tailspin. Zach Stewart won't survive in the big leagues at 90-91 MPH without pinpoint control. As a starter or reliever. With Peavy gone next year, Molina and Santiago are the two best candidates to replace him. For the future of the organization, Hector should be groomed as a starter to go along with Sale. It won't happen this week or this month, but it SHOULD happen. Closing has caused him to forget about his repertoire of offspeed pitches, which is what shot him all the way into the Sox plans from total obscurity at the beginning of last year. Hope that AJ stays hot and can be marketed to a better team whose starting catcher goes down. With how well he's hitting, you might even get a useful piece or two back in return. Hold onto Gavin Floyd until June/July and realistically assess whether it's better to trade him or hold onto him for 2013, if there's at least a 50/50 chance we can be competitive next year (see the performances of Dunn, Morel, Rios and Viciedo). Feel out the trade market for both Jesse Crain and/or Matt Thornton, depending on offers received.

QUOTE (fathom @ Apr 16, 2012 -> 09:41 PM) Our hitters can't draw a walk So much for the focus on OBP that Nick Swisher was supposedly the trend starter with...so many guys on this team who don't take walks, it makes AJ and Ramirez look like Conor Jackson or Bob Abreu.

QUOTE (fathom @ Apr 16, 2012 -> 10:38 PM) Orioles hitters are swinging out of their asses. Jones and Reimold look fantastic at the plate. Meanwhile, half our team seems to be feeling for the ball. Only about 3-5% of major league hitters turn on those pitches in those locations. They're a much better hitting team than the Sox, that's for sure. Other than AJ, Paulie and Tank against offspeed stuff, we're horrendous.

Don't even know who to bring up for Stewart. Stults, maybe. Pulling Axelrod from the starting role he's getting comfortable with, well, they have to pick someone. Bruney, whoever. I think he has been starting in Charlotte, too. Gut check time for this team. How will they respond? Luckily nobody saw this game, since it was on The U.

This isn't quite as heartbreaking as the early season losses in 2011, but it really feels like a kick in the gut. Just for a week at least, we had a sense we could compete this season (mostly due to the starting pitching and bullpen before tonight) and now we've had our rude awakening.

Might as well let the entire game fall apart. Send Beckham and Stewart down to the minors.

Ventura gets his first major test as manager after this game. In this same situation last year, we went about 9-19 and were never in it (really) for the remainder of the season.

I'll put Zach Stewart on the list now...start of 10th. Prove me wrong!!! Add DeAza to the list now. The entire team is falling apart. UGLY.

Probably going to Addison Reed...although Santiago has the endurance from starting to go multiple innings.

Can Beckham even see a 97 MPH fastball, let alone hit it? Lillibridge's swing is too long to hit this guy too, unless he throws an offspeed pitch. The Rangers WAIVED this Strop guy? WHAT?

Three homers in 4 IP as a reliever isn't easy to do. Many relievers go a full season without doing that. Well, we didn't deserve a 2 run lead there anyway with how the O's have played defense all night, so maybe our offense (besides AJ and Konerko) can actually win it for us.

Uh-oh....reminds me of that stupid A's game with Pennington, Thornton and Pierre when we had a similar 5-3 record to start 2011. The thing that made Santiago so successful was his offspeed stuff, and he's completely forgotten about it...or at least AJ's not calling it. Santiago the fireballer won't work. Don Cooper thrown out of the game, complaining about the strike zone to Reimold.

Santiago got robbed on that strike 3 call. Crap. Nice change-up to come back and get Hardy.

QUOTE (fathom @ Apr 16, 2012 -> 08:58 PM) Contract year Only have to wait until 2014 for Rios and Dunn to pick it up.