caulfield12

QUOTE (DirtySox @ Jan 7, 2012 -> 01:32 AM) FarrellBall FARRELL BALL My source jumped the gun; says Floyd to #Jays will be finalized by weekend. #Sox have concerns of the health of #Jays prospects coming back. 3 minutes ago Favorite Retweet Reply Must be "damaged goods" concerns about Drabeck and his performance downfall last year. After Sirotka, have to do excessive due diligence, especially with young pitchers.

QUOTE (sunofgold @ Jan 6, 2012 -> 11:24 PM) We had Santos as a low price for long period of time. Santos is making $1M in 2012. Molina is going to have be a solid front line starter to make that a fair trade. And you're going to have to believe that Santos will be capable of putting up an 80-85% save conversion rate in the 2nd deepest division in baseball, if not the best. Who's to say a young closer like Santos won't end up like Aardsma or MacDougal and be a blown contract? Of course, there's also no guarantee Molina will be a #3 starter to replace Floyd, either.

The only reason to hold onto Crain, Thornton and Ohman is to have some veteran presence in the bullpen...and to be able to compete in 2012. That's it, the rest of the bullpen is going to have to be piecemeal, a work in progress. Gone are the days where we can go out and spend on the likes of Dotel and Linebrink, let alone Crain/Thornton/Ohman. The best bet is Thornton's gone before the season starts, and Crain sometime in June/July if the team isn't contending. And there's no guarantee we even need to go with 7 pitchers (simply because Ozzie did it)....if Humber and Peavy can be 100% healthy, of course, there's no Buehrle to eat innings. Floyd and Danks can have their struggles to get to the 7th with under 100 pitches, historically. The biggest question mark in terms of durability and pitch counts is clearly going to be Sale, with Humber and Peavy a tie for 2nd in terms of worry/concern/uncertainty. On paper, the pen's now one of the biggest weaknesses on the team, but all the moves in the last six months....if nothing else, have given us some quality that COULD be nurtured at the back end of the bullpen. Just depends on what direction they choose to go with Stewart, Santiago and Castro, short-term versus long-term strategic thinking. Even if we had the best bullpen in the AL last year, it wasn't enough to make up for the offensive deficiencies and so-so results from the starting pitchers.

Hernandez, Stewart and Castro all might factor into the bullpen equation as well. Most want Stewart and Castro starting in AAA/AA, but Hernandez has a better shot than anyone but Santiago going in at the 3rd LOOGY role....

And there's reason to believe a "fresh start" for everyone in the organization with Ventura might breathe some life into the entire roster. Unless you're overwhelmed with an offer, you hold onto him for now, because trading him signals a surrender on the 2012 season to the entire fanbase. Santos being dealt could be spun, but not losing both Buehrle and Floyd.

QUOTE (DirtySox @ Jan 6, 2012 -> 06:26 PM) You aren't too familiar with larry are you? One of the most well informed people regarding White Sox prospects that I know. He has his sources and connections and is not even close to some random blogger. He knows his stuff. Okay, fair enough. Just some of those comments sounded a bit "flip" when you're making pronouncements based on such limited winter league ball action. It's really the same thing with ST, too. Wilson Betemit would have been the AL MVP the other year when he destroyed ST pitching, but he barely made it through 1/5th of the season in reality. I trust the posters who actually live in the South/Southeast and who've seen most of our prospects play in person, and even gotten to know some of them very well.

If he goes to the Tigers and becomes a stud All-Star OFer, it's REALLY going to suck. Assuming we do trade Floyd/Thornton and clear that salary space, there's not as good an excuse to let Cespedes go to the Tigers. They already had the 3 best performers in the division overall in Verlander/Cabrera/Valverde, we'll be close to doomed if Cespedes has the impact some are predicting. And, most importantly, they really do need to do ONE positive/exciting thing in the offseason to give the fans a reason to buy tickets or care about the Sox again, besides just Ventura...especially with Buehrle gone.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jan 6, 2012 -> 08:26 AM) http://www.southsidesox.com/2012/1/4/26775...r-league-update He's drawing conclusions on Infante and Jhan Martinez based on about 10 IP of winter ball. Give me a break! Ridiculous. This is why people who comment on baseball in internet forums/boards/websites but have never watched any of the players mentioned perform should be forced to write a disclaimer at the bottom of their articles. Maybe one of the pitchers was working on adding another pitch (like Santiago) or focusing on specific areas of his repertoire. Of course, in most winter leagues, if you don't perform, you quickly find yourself off the team, as they take the competition very seriously down there and have no tolerance for non-performance or "development" innings. It's the equivalent of saying Santiago's a lock for the bullpen based on an outing or two against the weakest Twins' line-ups of the season last year.

QUOTE (pittshoganerkoff @ Jan 6, 2012 -> 03:25 PM) Exit Poll? What would be really fun is to get a Facebook group of random sports fans in the Kansas City and Lawrence areas together and ask their opinions of random White Sox moves and see what, if any, reaction they have to them. Not just about Ozzie Guillen, but other more significant moves that would register on the sports radar, like Ventura being named manager. Thankfully, the Cardinals copied our idea (after winning a World Series) so the heat won't be as extreme on Williams as it will be on Mozeliak if it fails to work out.

•“We really liked him when we saw him at that workout [in November],” said Beinfest to Mike Bernardino of The Sun Sentinel, referring to Yoenis Cespedes. “It’s something we’re continuing to monitor, and we’ll kind of leave it there. But we were very impressed. Obviously, as a Cuban we think it would be an interesting fit in this market and on this ballclub. It’s something we continue to monitor and stay up on.” •Bernardino says teams will submit a sealed bid for Cespedes to his agent Adam Katz through MLB, then have an opportunity to increase their offers. It's unclear if this is an official process, or just how Katz will attempt to find a suitor for the outfielder.

This is getting to be like a Sherlock Holmes Mystery....Gavin, will he be traded or won't he? Follow the clues to their logical conclusion.

QUOTE (Jenksy Cat @ Jan 5, 2012 -> 11:18 PM) Why would someone make up a Floyd to the Jays trade? I could see someone starting a BS HOWARD TO THE BULLS!!!! But not something as (relatively) unimportant as this Because AA and KW are newfound best friends forever and 25% of new trade rumors should therefore connect the two organizations together. That and the fact that they Blue Jays need a "middle of the rotation" starter and Floyd is exactly that...3, no worse than 4.

Why don't we make a list of all the board trade targets? Then we can start an internet rumor everyday until one of them turns out to be true and we actually get the player we want in return. It will keep Rogers and Cowley busy, and supply material for their weekend columns. So we have... 1) Floyd 2) Thornton 3) Crain 4) Ohman 5) AJ 6) Ramirez (for Marty34) 7) Konerko What possible combination of those players will get us what we want in terms of minor league talent/prospects? The Floyd/Crain or Thornton (depending on need)/Alexei Ramirez package would be the closest we can come to assembling a "mega-deal" at this point. We need a future catcher, CFer (assuming Rios should be moved to a corner and DeAza as the 4th OF), leadoff hitter, more bullpen depth (especially LH side if Thornton is dealt) and a legit top 30-50 SS prospect to replace Alexei Ramirez, assuming KW and JR want to go that route. More starting pitching talent is never going to hurt, but we should probably prioritize CATCHER and CF first, then pitching (starting/bullpen).

QUOTE (DirtySox @ Jan 5, 2012 -> 11:12 PM) I'd prefer the Sox go after Soler instead. Soler looks more like a Viciedo situation....rather than $30-60 million over 3-5 years and whatever other numbers are being bandied around the Net for Cespedes. Jorge's about the same age as Dayan when he signed with us, 19 or 20. The question is how well can he play CF. We need a legit CFer that can rung rings around Rios and DeAza if we're going to invest $10-15 million into a youngster like this. http://www.thestar.com/sports/baseball/mlb...-strike-rangers Interesting article about evaluation Japanese players, their posting/bidding numbers versus actual value, scouting....a bit applicable to the Cespedes and Soler situations as well for the Sox.

QUOTE (Milkman delivers @ Jan 5, 2012 -> 07:55 PM) Honestly man, I have no idea what you're talking about half the time According to a random samplilng of 98 people at Applebee's in Mission, KS, last night....a full 71% understood a majority of my posts at SoxTalk, especially the ones concerning the subject of Ozzie Guillen.

http://www.thestar.com/sports/baseball/mlb...-on-darvish-bid Blue Jays/AA getting skewered for opaqueness with the Darvish deal. Will it be a case of "more of the same" with the White Sox and Cespedes? We've been there before with M. Cabrera, Torii Hunter, Fukudome and a number of high profile FA's we "offered" (like Victor Martinez) but were never really considered front-runners for. If Floyd is really gone, then there's going to be pressure to make some type of splash, and clearly it's being telegraphed that it almost has to be Cespedes.

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Jan 5, 2012 -> 08:20 PM) I think the Javy/Young deal legitimately scarred you. Everytime a trade happens or is rumored you reference that trade. It did. Phil Rogers, too. Ever since Kenny Williams (the prospect, not the GM) failed, I've been obsessed with toolsy/athletic White Sox OFer's that never make a dent. Partially, it's related to the trading of the Sammy "The Panther" Sosa after I had just purchased a custom-made 1989 Sox jersey in the midst of his rookie campaign. Anthony Webster. Jimmy Hurst was another one. Walker, Mitchell and Thompson...same thing. Claudell Washington. Ron LeFlore...I watched The RON LEFLORE story probably five times when I was a kid growing up. Rudy Law was another personal favorite. Of course, Lance Johnson...I remember writing for his autograph when he was still on the Cardinals, and McGee/Vince Coleman were my two favorite players to watch, along with Terry Pendleton. Ivan Calderon. Carlos Martinez. Too many to name/count.

QUOTE (103 mph screwball @ Jan 5, 2012 -> 08:01 PM) I think the Sox are much better off getting pitching prospects. I think our scouts, KW, and Cooper have a good track record for getting pitchers into our system and making them a better more valuable player. Floyd himself is a prime example. They are not nearly as good at developing young talented position players. Why not stock up on good pitchers and make them better and when you need a position player you can trade for an established major league proven player using the pitching surplus. The antithesis of the Javy/Chris Young deal. We built up a pitching surplus in 2005/06...and we did leverage it to get Danks. B. Anderson and Swisher have good careers with the White Sox, probably no need to get Alex Rios and Adam Dunn...certainly not Rios, and Swisher could have DH'ed too. And we dealt the legit CF prospect in Young because there was too much confidence (including BA himself) in Anderson's ability to be Torii Hunter-Lite. Then you have the bad move of letting Thome go in 2010. Just little things like that blew up...and Teahen's extension, limiting our return for Edwin Jackson. Overall, the only trade that really really rankles is giving up Daniel Hudson too quickly, but I'll just assume that Ozzie/Cooper had some issues with Daniel behind the scenes that we didn't know about....3 starts, c'mon!

QUOTE (Quinarvy @ Jan 5, 2012 -> 07:44 PM) Also, perhaps an overpay could happen due to AA basically receiving a package of Floyd-Santos-Thornton-Frasor Don't forget them taking on the useless Teahen contract and designating him to the last roster spot on the bench. The Cubs sent $15 million in cash and got back a serviceable starter. We erased $10 million of debt and got back $700,000 of prospects, Zach Stewart, Molina + 2-3 more B level prospects or more. We needed to leverage Jackson to get rid of Teahen's money...Jackson going alone would have gotten us a lot better prospect, quite obviously. And there's no reason we can't go out and sign a Roy Oswalt on a one-year deal, Rich Harden, same type of "band aid" solution the Tigers applied with Brady Penny/Coke until some of their minor leaguers were ready. Joe Saunders and Pat Maholm are out there, too.

We need to get a SoxTalk "EAGLE EYE" computer to filter and sift through all the internet data and give us instantaneous, "real time" status updates of all electronic conversations simultaneously and present probability printouts, haha.

Does anyone else here share the opinion Melancholia was one of the top 5 movies of the year and actually "life-affirming" rather than depressing?

QUOTE (chw42 @ Jan 5, 2012 -> 06:33 PM) AA loves himself some White Sox pitchers. What does that say about Kenny Williams? hmm... Kenny Williams is a Krazy "Gangsta" Genius. Potentially 20% of AA's roster will be comprised of former White Sox players. What's the saying, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery? Just win, Baby!!! KW is building a juggernaut minor league system while the Blue Jays are only preparing to threaten for 3rd place and will see no appreciable rise in attendance/revenues.

It would be much funnier if Santos/Thornton/Frasor completely blew up (performance-wise). Not because we'd like to have a repeat of the Sirotka/Wells fiasco (for both sides), and certainly you never want to see any athlete injured, but simply to read the reactions of j4l and especially Keith Law.

QUOTE (pittshoganerkoff @ Jan 5, 2012 -> 03:31 PM) You can make it even shorter and call it "Lawrence Polling" or "Lawrence Polled". Lawrence Polling shows the Quentin to Padres deal to be a head-scratcher. Maybe Lawrence Market Survey? Lawrence Surveying...? Lawrence Market Analysis/Customer Feedback? Polling almost makes it sounds like the name of some cricket player from Australia or New Zealand. What's that thing they do on CNN right after the primary and presidential debates...? There's a specific term for it that eludes me at the moment.

Balta-ing? Was that word/phrase recently added to the SoxTalk lexicon? Can I second "Lawrence, Kansas-ing" the conversation?