caulfield12

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Jul 27, 2012 -> 11:23 AM) I doubt it. I think Greinke signs in Anaheim in the off-season. The other big rumors are we wants to play for the Braves or Angels. All things considered, So Cal is the best bet...or Atlanta.

QUOTE (ChiSox_Sonix @ Jul 27, 2012 -> 10:20 AM) They are actually run quite poorly. If they only had $100M to work with they'd be screwed. Just look at how many free agent signings have completely blown up on them That's why I left the Red Sox off too. Dice-K Lackey Crawford JD Drew Jenks Jason Bay Edgar Renteria Matt Clement Julio Lugo John Smoltz Brad Penny Mike Cameron

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Jul 27, 2012 -> 10:17 AM) I just have a hard time giving up Reed and Floyd for 2 months of Greinke. Its just tough. I can probably live with that deal though, as long as the Sox reinvest and do something in the off-season to sign a pitcher. If the Sox were interested in signing Greinke to a 4yr 80M deal, then I'd be more on board. But would Greinke realistically even consider that offer? The only way would be if he tanked and we didn't make the playoffs. Then we wouldn't want him anyway.

QUOTE (TaylorStSox @ Jul 27, 2012 -> 11:07 AM) The Yankees, and it's not even close. They've been much less successful in the playoffs than the Rays, Phillies, Cardinals, Red Sox or Rangers. It's like saying Manchester United is the best football club...once you start having this debate, they have five milllion advantages that make comparing them to other teams kind of a pointless intellectual exercise. It's like those same debates about how Phil Jackson would have done away from the Lakers and Bulls, with a rebuilding or "average" NBA team. Billy Beane as GM of the Yankees, or Terry Ryan, or Andrew Friedman. Cashman running, let's say, the Padres.

QUOTE (Frank_Thomas35 @ Jul 27, 2012 -> 11:10 AM) I personally trust KW, our scouts, player development, talent evaluators, etc we have in place with in the organization to make player decisions. They have had a damn good track record since Buddy Bell came in and our current ML roster shows that. With that said I also trust their assessment of a player when determining if he is replaceable going forward. Look at Sergio, people were flabergasted when KW traded him for nothing. And they guy hasn't pitched since April. Let them do their jobs. We have multiple closers on the team now and I trust them to find a replacement if need be for future years. Again do you want to take a chance and be a part of another deep run in October, see a trophy lifted in the middle of US Cellular field, a parade with 2 Mil people in the streets of Chicago. Or do you want to worry about what could happen next year and in 2018 next year. Cause the difference is, the Chicago Whitesox go for it, year in year out. The Chicago Cubs wait till next year and worry about next year in July. Me, I prefer to be a Sox fan. Go get em' Kenny, worry about next year in November with another ring on your finger. I wouldn't describe Santos as a "win." We lucked out, but it will make teams more hesitant to deal with us. That's the second time a significant pitching deal with the Jays has blown up. Buddy Bell? Hmmm. Beckham? Mark Teahen? I'd say the record is spotty at best.

QUOTE (chw42 @ Jul 27, 2012 -> 11:09 AM) He's kind of like Gavin Floyd, but with much much better stuff. He's actually stronger mentally than Floyd...in my opinion. Which should tell you something about Gavin. He does have the Verlander ability to reach back and get something extra on the fastball too....not high 90's, but 94-97.

QUOTE (Frank_Thomas35 @ Jul 27, 2012 -> 10:48 AM) This was the trade back then the Brewers had with the Royals: The Royals receive speedy outfielder Lorenzo Cain, young shortstop Alcides Escobar and pitching prospects Jeremy Jeffress and Jake Odirizzi for Greinke and veteran shortstop Yuniesky Betancourt, who presumably will take Escobar's place in the Brewers' infield. Kansas City will also send $2 million in the deal to Milwaukee to cover part of the salary of Betancourt, who is to make $4 million this year and has a $2-million buyout in 2012. IMO not one of those guys they received in return are perennial All-Stars and aren't players you can build a team around. If the Sox trade them Floyd and Beckham the Brewers have a replacement for Escobar in Beckham and a cost controlled SP who could be dominate in the NL. Let's not kid ourselves here, Floyd has nasty stuff. When he is on he is unhittable. It's not like the Brewers are getting some slouch. Gavins problem is in between his ears most of the time. And it turns out the Brewers have success with pitchers like that, see Zach Grienke. And if the Sox throw in Castro or Hernandez they have a young prospect with a high upside. At this point, comparing Beckham and Escobar as shortstops is something of a joke. And ur not getting Beckham's first 6 years, you're getting him where he's more expensive and possibly a non-tender candidate to many. Floyd is just another version of Edwin Jackson....he has value, but he's not getting paid like Edinson Volquez either. Nobody would say his production is coming cheap. Sure, he'll be better in the NL, but they wouldn't control his rights after 2013. Hernandez and Castro wouldn't come to approximating any top prospects (Top 100) that other teams could come up with. They might not even be Top 250, especially Hernandez. Odorizzi was more highly valued than any pitcher we could come up from our minor league system. Jeffress is like Nathan Jones or Soptic.

I forgot to include Marlins in the 2nd list. Nobody would vote for them now, unless they had a new ownership group and moved to another city/market. I'm predicting right now all the other 29 teams will pool their money together with the MLB offices and create some sort of "super academy" (with the new Marlins Park as the centerpiece) for all the Latin American prospects to bring them to the US and get them away from their buscones in the Dominican, Colombia, Panama and Venezuela. This would level the playing field for Puerto Rican kids and create more parity with every team more affordably being able to scout the same prospects all available for the draft. You could build a massive complex of diamonds in the Little Havana area and have "mini-WBC" type games with the prospects for the various countries facing off against each other in semi-annual tournaments at the big stadium. Asian players eventually could have their own training complex in California or Hawaii...probably CA, it would cost too much for the teams to get their scouts there, back and forth, but it would be a beautiful background, like when you had the Hawaii Islanders AAA team in the PCL.

Brewers and Giants barely missed the cut for differing reasons...eliminated Phillies, Dodgers, Yankees, Cubs and Red Sox just to make it interesting and create a tier or grouping that was perhaps the most similar to the White Sox in terms of revenue/resources/market. No definition of "best" here.....winningest, best farm system, best fanbase, most economically efficient, best young players under 25, etc.

QUOTE (fathom @ Jul 27, 2012 -> 10:37 AM) If the Sox traded huge pieces of their future for someone like Greinke for only and year and a half of his services, and then traded him away for an underachieving starting pitcher with one year left on his deal and an underachieving second baseman who's a possible non-tender candidate, I don't think anyone on here would be happy. Nope. The only way it makes sense is the say way the Teahen deal did to JR/KW. You dump Weeks' contract too, then it becomes a lot more interesting. And you have a potentially very solid and quite a bit cheaper player in Gordon Beckham. And then you throw in Mitchell/Thompson/Walker for a future OF replacement. As certainly nobody was happy with Frasor (Jaye/Webb eventually) and Stewart for Edwin Jackson (Holmberg/Hudson).

QUOTE (BDavisFutureHOF @ Jul 27, 2012 -> 08:40 AM) I too am a believer. Does anyone have his splits this year when hitting in the 2 hole? Seemed like he was putting it together and having much better at bats. You're going to take bats away from Youkilis for this now popular Beckham's getting screwed by not hitting in the 2 hole theory? Otherwise, you're going to have to change everyone's position in the batting order, at least Youkilis and Dunn. Rongey has debunked this idea, and it's one of the few times in my life I've agreed with him.

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Jul 27, 2012 -> 08:37 AM) Nope. Oops, I meant OBP. But he's been pretty awful compared to his usual standards, even from 2-3 years ago.

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Jul 27, 2012 -> 09:37 AM) That's not allowed, is it? You can't just offer players bonuses in the middle of the season, can you? Once you have a contract negotiated, that's it. I'm not sure why...I saw this idea floated in a story somewhere, that leaving Delgado on the table would result in Epstein and Hoyer doing something creative with Ricketts' money to force that deal through and avoid them having egg on their faces.

QUOTE (maggsmaggs @ Jul 27, 2012 -> 04:52 AM) Beckham is going to be like many other former top prospects before him who couldn't perform well enough with his old team and then suddenly figures it out after a change of scenery. He is too talented, smart and confident to be a replacement-level player his entire career. It seems like a shame that he probably won't become the guy we all thought, but unfortunately it happens. Happened with Kip Well as soon as he left the Sox. He looked like a world-beater for 2-3 seasons as the ace of the Pirates.

That Top 125 number is supposedly right around $12.5 million. The only one on our team we'd offer that is Peavy, possibly. But it's moot, since we will decline his option and buy him out. It remains to be seen what they'll do with Youkilis. Hard to imagine going back to Brent Morel (or trusting him) after how Youk has performed, but still a LONG way to go.

QUOTE (Jeff Liefer @ Jul 27, 2012 -> 08:34 AM) I remember the rumor a few weeks back about the White Sox having interest in Betances. KW could easily sell some of our current MLB talent for a contending teams prospects and then flip them in a frankenstein type creation package for a top flight SP like Hernandez. That would be incredible. Also Seattle is open for business as far as I know, look at Ichiro. They have guys like Danny Hultzen in AAA that I bet they're dying to bring up into their rotation. Ichiro asked his own Japanese ownership group to let him go, preferably to the Yankees. He had an OPS under Beckham and Viciedo with less power, and a huge contract few teams could pick up. They are not into rebuilding completely, but they're clearly frustrated with Ackley and Smoak regressing.

There's the theory that the Cubs and Braves will revisit that trade and that the Cubs will throw in $1-2-3 million as a bribe to get Dempster to leave for the Braves so they can get Delgado. He's in a precarious place though...if he really wanted to come back to Chicago after a trade, this is not the way to go about doing it.

websports@dallasnews.com 11:37 pm on July 26, 2012 | PermalinkRangers starter: RHP Yu Darvish (11-6, 3.88) allowed two runs in seven innings during a win at the Los Angeles Angels on Saturday. This will be Darvish’s first start against the White Sox. Darvish is 7-1 with a 1.70 ERA when facing a club for the first time. In Darvish’s last eight starts, he has held right-handed hitters to a .136 average in 81 at-bats. Matchup of note: A walk is likely when designated hitter Adam Dunn faces Darvish. Dunn has taken an American League-high 75 walks. Darvish has given up 11 walks in his last 151/3 innings and is third in the league for walks allowed with 61. Chicago White Sox starter: LHP Chris Sale (11-3, 2.37) had a personal eight-game winning streak end Saturday when he gave up five runs in seven innings during a loss at Detroit. Sale has three “out” pitches: fastball, slider and change-up. He ranks second in the AL for ERA and third in opponents batting average at .211. Matchup of note: Sale allowed one run in 71/3 innings during a win against the Rangers on July 3, but Josh Hamilton reached base twice in three plate appearances against him. That was noteworthy because Sale has held left-handed hitters to a .205 average and .248 on-base percentage

QUOTE (Frank_Thomas35 @ Jul 27, 2012 -> 08:55 AM) I hate to say it but if you look at these Blockbuster trades for pitchers in the past. The team trading the pitcher always gets this sick package of can't miss prospects back in return. But really how many of those trades have panned out now? Moat of those center pieces had fizzed out or have been average players, basically Beckham and Floyd now. The only return I can think of recently was ATL and Tex swapping Texeria for basically half of the current rangers team. But other than that there is not that great win for any team. Colon for Lee, Sizemore, Brandon Phillips

QUOTE (greg775 @ Jul 26, 2012 -> 11:07 PM) If I was a baseball manager I'd fail just like Ozzie, cause I'd go with the guy (for a long long time) that the GM and owner acquired for me in the offseason. I mean ultimately I think what Ozzie told Bell in that meeting is true: "We are not gonna win without you as closer." I find it pretty wild that the owner and GM wanted Bell demoted since they and their scouts wanted Bell in the first place. But I'd stick with the hi paid acquisition a long time and deal with the fallout in the offseason if the rotten closer didn't get me fired first. Somebody mentioned Ozzie to the Royals. That actually is just what KC needs. KC has a pathetic team and starting today (Chiefs training camp) will not again draw more than 20,000 for a game. KC could use a loudmouth like Ozzie to steal the headlines for a while. KC can't win anyway; might as well have the sideshow. KC is too cheap to pay for a name manager, however. Oh well, forgive my ramblings. GO SOX. That's not necessarily true. He removed Thornton from the closer's position in May last year for Santos, and Matt was being paid something like $5.5 million. Maybe it wasn't a FA deal or $27 million (like Heath Bell)...but he removed Takatsu as well, in early 2005. Guess Shingo also didn't have such a big contract, compared to Bell or Jenks his last couple of seasons in Chicago.

QUOTE (HickoryHuskers @ Jul 27, 2012 -> 05:35 AM) Players on the ML roster I can see being traded: Floyd Humber Reed Thornton Jones Santiago Beckham Escobar Hudson JorDanks Anybody else really can't be traded if the Sox are trying to win this year. The guys I listed the Sox can either live without or replace somewhat easily via another trade. You can add Septimo to that list. http://www.jsonline.com/sports/brewers/gre...-163958826.html Latest from Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on possible Greinke trades

Home > Texas Rangers Blog Rangers vs. White Sox, 7:05 p.m.: Why Yu Darvish could be in for a big night 0 0 comments (1) By SportsDayDFW sports websports@dallasnews.com 11:37 pm on July 26, 2012 | PermalinkRangers starter: RHP Yu Darvish (11-6, 3.88) allowed two runs in seven innings during a win at the Los Angeles Angels on Saturday. This will be Darvish’s first start against the White Sox. Darvish is 7-1 with a 1.70 ERA when facing a club for the first time. In Darvish’s last eight starts, he has held right-handed hitters to a .136 average in 81 at-bats. Matchup of note: A walk is likely when designated hitter Adam Dunn faces Darvish. Dunn has taken an American League-high 75 walks. Darvish has given up 11 walks in his last 151/3 innings and is third in the league for walks allowed with 61. Chicago White Sox starter: LHP Chris Sale (11-3, 2.37) had a personal eight-game winning streak end Saturday when he gave up five runs in seven innings during a loss at Detroit. Sale has three “out” pitches: fastball, slider and change-up. He ranks second in the AL for ERA and third in opponents batting average at .211. Matchup of note: Sale allowed one run in 71/3 innings during a win against the Rangers on July 3, but Josh Hamilton reached base twice in three plate appearances against him. That was noteworthy because Sale has held left-handed hitters to a .205 average and .248 on-base percentage

Comment From Tucker ... Elvis Andrus and Mike Olt for Yovanni Gallardo and Zach Greinke... do you pull the trigger assuming Profar is ready? Cowlishaw: No. I don't like that deal. In general, trading sure thing every day players for hit-and-miss pitchers is a bad idea. See Edinson Volquez for Josh Hamilton, Ernie Broglio for Lou Brock (for you old-timers like me) for more details. Comment From Tucker ... Hit and miss pitchers... Gallardo and Greinke come on... Holland is far more hit and miss than those two and would become your #5 starter immediately! Cowlishaw: Talking long term. Pitchers are all hit and miss in that sense. How's Tim Lincecum doing? How's James Shields, who owned A.L. hitters last year, doing? Why do you want to trade away players who will have value for years for a shot at 2012 when you already have a good shot in 2012? That's what makes no sense to me.

"The White Sox have a good ballclub, and to add a pitcher of his caliber (Greinke) will make a rotation better and bring a lot of confidence to a team," Tigers catcher Gerald Laird said Thursday. "He would make our division a lot tougher. "But I really liked the moves we made, and I still think we're the best team in our division. We've got five quality starters, and that's where it starts -- on the mound. We've gotten a lot better defensively, with the addition of Infante and with (Quintin) Berry in the outfield. Up the middle we're really strong defensively, and now guys have started to swing the bat. "And the 3-4 punch we have (Miguel Cabrera and Prince Fielder) is the best in the league." www.freep.com/sports (Lowe) Maybe we really will have a repeat of 1908, when those three teams went to the wire for the AL pennant before the Tigers won it. Verlander said that by the second batter of the game, he could detect the Indians' strategy: swing at first-pitch fastballs. "A lot of teams have done that off me, and I feel like that plays into my hands more than it does theirs," he said. "It doesn't really matter (as long as) I hit my spots." In the seventh, he didn't. "I threw both pitches to homer-happy areas to lead off the inning, and they hit them," he said. Verlander had allowed three hits leading up to the seventh -- Shin-Soo Choo's double off the centerfield fence to open the first and a pair of bloopers. "I didn't really feel great," Verlander said. "I never got in a groove. But I was able to battle. A lot of balls were hit at guys." He considered it one of those handful of games all season where he doesn't have his good stuff.

To summarize, White Sox and Tigers likely to make playoffs because AL CENTRAL pitching is so terrible... A year ago, Verlander was 12-5 through July 15 -- he would win his next 12 starts as the Tigers went 46-23 over their final 69 games to run away with the NL Central title. Maybe they'll do that again, although I get a feeling the White Sox will hang around to put up a challenge. And despite the trade that brought in Anibal Sanchez and Omar Infante, the Tigers don't seem as likely to get on that kind of roll. Similar to last season, the Indians seem to be hanging on by their fingernails. Zach McAllister scuffled through 6.1 innings and 117 pitches on Thursday, escaping a couple jams, but he has been the best Cleveland starter of late -- maybe the only one. In fact, in looking at the rotations of the Indians, Royals and Twins, I'm starting to think the AL Central will be sending two teams to the playoffs. Cleveland Justin Masterson, while not quite as dominant as 2011, is solid along with McAllister, but let's look at the rest of the current rotation. Derek Lowe: Let's be honest, Lowe is staring down retirement. Over his past 11 starts he has an 8.07 ERA and has allowed 83 hits in 58 innings. He has the lowest strikeout rate of any qualified starter. Ubaldo Jimenez: He's 8-9 with a 4.97 ERA and thanks to a league-leading 69 walks has allowed the third-highest opponents' on-base percentage of any starter (Lowe is worst). Josh Tomlin: The finesse righty just doesn't miss enough bats to be consistently effective. He has a 5.34 ERA. He had a 5.24 ERA over his final 16 starts of 2011. He throws strikes, but it's difficult to win striking out three batters per start. Kansas City Remember a couple years ago when all those Royals pitching prospects were being highly touted? Well, Danny Duffy and John Lamb got injured and Mike Montgomery struggled so bad in Triple-A that he had to be sent back down to Double-A. Even Felipe Paulino, stolen from the Rockies a year ago, blew out his elbow. It has been a lot of bad luck, which means Kansas City's pitching is as bad as ever. Let's skip over the gory details; Royals fans have already suffered enough. But we'll point out the Royals have a 5.40 rotation ERA and that's not all Jonathan Sanchez's fault. Minnesota Amazingly, that 5.40 figure isn't even the worst in the league. The Twins' rotation has a 5.77 ERA, which factoring in the overall decline in offense and Target Field being a pretty neutral park makes this one of the worst rotations ever assembled. And Francisco Liriano may soon be shipped out of town (not that he has been that great overall, with a 5.31 ERA). The rotation is so bad that the Twins are still throwing Nick Blackburn out there every fifth day despite a 7.99 ERA. Not to pick on a guy when he's down, but Blackburn has made 15 starts and has just two quality starts. Only six pitchers since 1901 who made at least 15 starts have ever had a higher ERA. Four of those came during the steroid era; one came in 1934; and the other was Steve Blass, who had a "disease" named after him after he lost the ability to throw strikes. Stop it, Minnesota, stop it. So you get the idea. The Tigers have 28 games remaining against the Indians, Royals and Twins (their final 13 games are against the Royals and Twins; imagine the starters they'll be throwing out by then). The White Sox have 27 games against those three clubs. That's a lot of games against Triple-A caliber opposing starters and it's why I think the Tigers and White Sox can both make the playoffs. That doesn't mean I believe the Tigers and White Sox are two of the five best teams in the American League. It's all about strength of schedule, which we can see in the season run differentials by division: AL East +84, AL Central -134, AL West +158. In fact, imagine this worst-case scenario for a club like the Angels. Say they win 94 games but lose the division title by a game to the Rangers. And then get to face the 86-win Tigers in the wild-card game. Your reward for winning eight more games while playing in a tougher division: Perhaps Justin Verlander in a do-or-die game. http://espn.go.com/blog/sweetspot/post/_/i...d-make-playoffs doniebrasco30The Tigers will be bankrupt in a few years. There owner spends money on fat people because he is old and thinks he can throw money away and win before he is gone. The White sox are a group of players playing in a contracted year or trying to justify the stupid contracts they got. They being in the second city have the revenue to spend to compete long after the tigers. Thats right I said revenue and not money. Dose anyone Know what revenue is? The money you take in. The Dolan's aren't cheep they just take in less money then say the Chi sox and Yankees. Based on the size of the city's that should make sense to dumb people. Or people that think its easy to run a business. I will laugh my $@% off in a few years when Justin V is wearing pin stripes. Not because I like the Yankees , but because I hate the Tigers more than I hate the Yankees or Red Sox or White Sucks.