caulfield12

QUOTE(fathom @ Apr 27, 2007 -> 09:29 PM) Good grief....why are we throwing fastballs to Vlad with a slider pitcher? Now we have Sisco in to face Anderson. It would be nice to have Joe Borowski. He blew the game against the Yankees with a 4 run lead, but he's been nails in all of his other games this season. And he doesn't throw 93-97, so it would be a totally different look for opposing batters.

QUOTE(southsideirish71 @ Apr 27, 2007 -> 09:23 PM) If you look at the 05 season, the only 2 good months that they actually had a decent offense where the times that Thomas was in some protection for the middle of the lineup. The minute he left, the offense went in the pooper. Pods was a non factor in the 2nd half. Pods helped out in the first 2 months when the big guys were not hitting at all. But after that, its a wash. What was our winning percentage in 2005 when Pods stole a base and scored a run in a game?

QUOTE(CWSGuy406 @ Apr 27, 2007 -> 09:16 PM) Nixon is more than a 'smudge' better than Podsednik. But if you want to think that they're equal ballplayers, that's your perogative. Nice job Bulls. Keep playing D and it'll be 3-0. Better player, but not better for the White Sox. Unless you think we would have won the World Series with Carlos Lee in LF and Magglio in RF instead...odds are, you'd see the same team as we saw in 2001, 2002, 2003 and 2004. All or nothing. Pods changes the mentality of the line-up, he puts pressure on opposing pitchers, creates more fastballs for Iguchi and drives up the pitch count, WHEN healthy.

QUOTE(fathom @ Apr 27, 2007 -> 09:14 PM) From what I've heard, KW basically felt forced to bring back Pods due to the asking price of Roberts/Pierre/Matthews Jr. He had every intention of not having him come back. Speaking of cost savings, Garcia has a 5.65 ERA and is on the downside of a 4-3 Marlins lead. Take away Danks' 3 "unearned" runs on the pop-up against DET, and his numbers are clearly better.

QUOTE(CWSGuy406 @ Apr 27, 2007 -> 08:39 PM) This is a serious question? It isn't a joke? Career OPS + Podsednik - 89 Nixon - 117 And Caulfield -- he's not a natural LFer? Is that a joke too? LF is the easiest position to play. We're not going to win the AL Central with Nixon as our everyday LF, or platooning with Ozuna either. Our OF would be incredibly slow-footed with Dye and Nixon...Mackowiak and Ozuna (despite his troubles) would get to more balls.

QUOTE(TitoMB345 @ Apr 27, 2007 -> 08:36 PM) Thome's BA is about 70 points higher than Cintron's OPS... I know its only been 13 ABs for Cintron, but, come on, thats just plain funny! And our current bench is 8 for 49 on the season. Ouch. We really miss Toby Hall's bat.

QUOTE(fathom @ Apr 27, 2007 -> 08:32 PM) I always get a kick out of people suggesting we shouldn't have signed someone cause they're not great in LF defensively, yet they're fine with the Pods/Ozuna combo. I'm not fine with Ozuna and Mackowiak sharing LF for a full-season either.

QUOTE(CWSGuy406 @ Apr 27, 2007 -> 08:27 PM) Trot Nixon's been brought up multiple times. He would've been a great one year fit. Also, keeping Eduardo Perez on the roster and just having an Ozuna/Mackowiak platoon out there would've been pretty much equal to giving Pods $3 million. Nixon's declining physically...and injury-prone. He's just as risky as Pods or Thome. And Mackowiak and Ozuna as a leadoff platoon just doesn't quite do it in terms of putting enough pressure on opposing pitchers. If you get Nixon, where is he going to play? He's not a natural LF, and I don't think anyone is quite ready to make Dye a full-time DH. Or we're supposed to know that Thome AND Pods will get injured, so we can acquire Nixon just in case...? Like we had McCarthy as insurance for one of our starters going down?

QUOTE(Jordan4life_2007 @ Apr 27, 2007 -> 08:25 PM) Yet you, Tony, or anybody for that matter, can't come up with a legitimate upgrade that wouldn't have costed a ton in money or players/prospects. On the negative side of things, the Indians just scored 5 and look to be heading for 6 games over .500. But at least the Twins and Tigers are beating up on each other for awhile.

QUOTE(santo=dorf @ Apr 27, 2007 -> 08:17 PM) Honestly, that means next to nothing. We got shut down by Cy Durbin, and Erstad did not drive in all 16 runs against the Royals (some people didn't think we should mention the positive offensive because it was the Royals.) It all comes down to Konerko and Crede pulling out of their slumps, it looks like Dye is slowly coming around.

QUOTE(TitoMB345 @ Apr 27, 2007 -> 08:14 PM) Very true. And Ozzie for being a DB and thinking Erstad is good. Erstad has nothing to do with our offense collapsing in the last couple of weeks. He has been our best hitter the past five games.

QUOTE(southsideirish71 @ Apr 27, 2007 -> 08:11 PM) Okay when the Count was pitching well in 05 and in 06 he was a 3/4 delivery. He would drop down once in a whle to give a righty a different look. He would pound the zone with hard moving fastballs, and would get out on the splitter. April or not, after his back injury last year he dropped down all the time. Which is something pitchers do when their back hurts You either drop down, or you dont follow through and leave the ball up all the time. Throwing side arm all the time, is not condusive to 2 things. Velocity and his splitter. For a splitter to work, it must have a tumbling action. You snap the wrists, and drive down to get the back spin and in his case it acts like a knuckler. I dont know how you get that motion on a side arm delivery. As long as he doesn't walk 4-5 hitters per game and elevate his pitch counts, he can still be a very effective pitcher at 91-93 MPH. Johan Santana usually throws in that 92-93 range as well. Santana has the change, Contreras has the forkball, although he doesn't throw the fork nearly as much as he used to. Despite his troubles this year, his IP/H ratio is very respectable.

QUOTE(Heads22 @ Apr 27, 2007 -> 08:05 PM) What may happen.... Thome to the DL, Anderson to AAA; Fields and Sweeney called up. That's just me throwin darts at the situation. We could DH Dye in that instance as well, with Sweeney in RF. And DH Fields against lefties with Dye in RF? I don't see us calling up both, especially with how Josh has been struggling at Charlotte. Look for a deal with someone like Jeremy Burnitz, Bernie Williams, Hollandsworth, Michael Tucker, etc.

QUOTE(Flash Tizzle @ Apr 27, 2007 -> 08:04 PM) Old people typically develop back problems. There's a 4 MPH difference between his peak and where he's throwing at now (97 versus 93), but it's very cold and it's April in Chicago. I expect him at 94-95 again, not sure if we'll ever see the peak Contreras of late 2005 and early 2006.

QUOTE(Jordan4life_2007 @ Apr 27, 2007 -> 07:46 PM) It was quite obvious Thome was in much worse shape than anybody was letting on. Possible options if not Ryan Sweeney... J. Burnitz Alexis Gomez Aaron Guiel Hollandsworth Terrence Long Q. McCracken Michael Tucker Bernie Williams QUOTE(Gregory Pratt @ Apr 27, 2007 -> 07:39 PM) It might very well spark our team. It wouldn't be the first time a team lost a huge player in trade or injury then rallied. The Twins of last year are a good example, I think, with Liriano and Hunter (if I'm not mistaken). It wouldn't even be the first time with a Sox team -- Ventura, 97! The Twins were playing really well before Radke and especially Liriano went down...I wouldn't say the injury inspired then so much as they survived it with Baker, Bonser, Garza. It was really the turnaround of Morneau in early June and the insertion of Liriano into the rotation, along with the release of Batista and the insertion of Punto into the line-up that really sparked that team last year.

QUOTE(TitoMB345 @ Apr 27, 2007 -> 07:40 PM) Wow, looking at our bench (Anderson, Ozuna, Molina), I've decided Cintron was the best option, and that we need to reassign someone and get us a damn good bat off the bench. Logan maybe? Thorton to DL or something? It will probably be someone like John Mabry.

QUOTE(santo=dorf @ Apr 27, 2007 -> 07:37 PM) Anyone else think Garrett Anderson is overrated? He reminds me of an Erstad with a little more power and more durability. Four or five years ago, he was a very underrated "almost superstar" player. Now he's just an aging outfielder, like Tim Salmon a couple of years ago. Still, you look at his overall stats over a career and they're pretty darned impressive.

QUOTE(fathom @ Apr 27, 2007 -> 07:33 PM) Sweeney isn't ready to hit at this level. Perez would help, but we'd still have no one vs RHP. What other choice do they have? EDIT: Dye's almost ready to be a full-time DH, and you don't pay $10-15 to that type of player, especially when his bat speed is slowing down a little bit (unless you're the Royals and Sweeney is your franchise player).

QUOTE(fathom @ Apr 27, 2007 -> 07:31 PM) Missing hangers and leaving men on base....seen this show before. How was Thome after the ASB vs LHP when his wrist was hurting? I'm assuming they'll recall Sweeney...or do they bring Eduardo Perez back?

QUOTE(RockRaines @ Apr 27, 2007 -> 09:10 AM) OH TQ, I miss your POV on here. But please dont bring up Royce Ring comparative to Gio. Royce was a closer at all levels, Gio is a young talented lefty starter, who has been very successful in the ranks. Gio has two plus pitches, Royce doesn't have one. At the time (2002), we needed a LH set-up guy. Damaso Marte eventually developed into the pitcher that KW drafted that June. Essentially, it was a wasted move...and Alomar was a bust for us as well. There are questions about his durability, but Gio, at least to me, looks like a deadlier version of Danks. While Danks has a better change-up, their curves are comparable (although neither rival Barry Zito in his prime) and Gio throws quite a bit harder and is even more of a strikeout pitcher. Ring and Fogg were both college closers, and neither made much of an impact for the Sox, although Fogg pitched very well when he had the chance, along with Bradford.

QUOTE(quickman @ Apr 26, 2007 -> 09:49 PM) Agreed to a certain extent. Our future pitchers may not come from our system at all. They could come from free agency or through trades. but I do agree with most of your assessment. they are 4's and 5's, and floyd, right now has not proven anythign except being the next brian Anderson only from a pitching perspective. The bigger question would be if you could get a freel would you give up two of these guys, and that I would. i understand why you say what you say , but really the sox need to do a better job of proving that your right. You like these guys which is fine, but most won't make it. I will gladly trade any of them for a proven player that can help me win now. The sox are great at drafting and developing third baseman to be good players but they are truly hit and miss on pitchers which most organizations are and god forbid they can develop a catcher or middle infielders. Just a note Royce Ring had simular stats and quite frankly he is a fringe guy. I can go on with more and more and so on. I don't know if I would say we're great at developing 3B. The jury is still out on Fields. Snopek and Norton were disappointments. Ventura was already a polished player coming out of Okla. State. I guess you can give them credit for Carlos Lee, but everyone had a sense he was not a legit corner infielder and that he would need to be moved. Most organizations are "hit" and "miss" on pitching prospects. We still have Josh Fogg, Kip Wells, Majewski, Rauch, Matt Guerrier, Josh Rupe, Frank Francisco (mostly a Red Sox prospect), Grilli (SF prospect, mostly) and a few others who have made contributions at the big league level. Of course, there's McCarthy (looks like he is now in the Texas bullpen in favor of Cameron Loe) as well. Buehrle was a low draft pick we spotted and incubated. Garland was largely a product of our system.

QUOTE(Craig Grebeck @ Apr 26, 2007 -> 09:48 PM) And through his first 400 or so AB in the majors has not been considerably worse than a lot of stars/solid MLB players were in their first 400. It's called maturation and development, something our stupid no good couldn't manage his way out of a paper bag Larussa esque over managing bigot of a leader has no use for. If you think I'm being too hard on Ozzie, read what he had to say about BA last night. How f***ed are we gonna be when we're employing more than one young white guy in new positions over the next few years? You're kidding, right? You think Uribe hasn't been hard on Uribe, Padilla, Escobar, A-Rod or Magglio over the last two years? He loves Konerko, Thome, AJ, Crede and Erstad. He talks about Ryan Sweeney in God-like terminology. That's as WonderBread white as you can get. It's not like he's playing Luis Terrero over Anderson. Heck, they axed Eduardo Perez for Anderson, who many thought was going to be sent down. If he's a racist, why wouldn't he keep the son of a family friend (Tony Perez)? I guess his taking Molina (countryman) over Wiki Gonzalez also proves his blatant bias for Venezuelan players too. I think next week, he will bail Ugueth Urbina out of prison and replace Logan (who he hates and deliberately left in the game last night to conflate his ERA) with Urbina in the White Sox bullpen. You're also forgetting African Americans now make up only 9% of MLB players.

QUOTE(RockRaines @ Apr 26, 2007 -> 11:26 AM) Masset is a future guy in our rotation for sure. The guy has the stuff, makeup and size to be durable. Its possible our rotation a couple of years down the road will look like this: Gio Danks Masset Russell Fill in the blanks Eggy, Heath, Floyd etc It would also require trading Contreras and Vazquez for that to happen.

QUOTE(quickman @ Apr 26, 2007 -> 11:13 AM) First nobody cared or even considered Russell until spring training. Jury is still out on him. GIO will be a bullpen guy. But we will see who makes it, most won't but I do agree they will keep GIO. Trouble I see, is most people here believe we have some great talent in the minors, which we really don't, we are a C grade minor league system, so I think we tend to over evaluate our system. Ryan Freel is a good outfielder with speed. Giving up our crappy minor league players won't cut it. need not worry about belaboring the point, they won't trade him anyway. Broadway, McCullough, Phillips, Haeger, Egbert, etc. I think most would agree they would profile as 4 starters at best, 5 most likely and career minor leaguers just as easily. That leaves Floyd, Gio, Danks and Russell to POSSIBLY take Buehrle's or Garland's place. Other than that, we have to trade (since we won't sign a FA pitcher) or convert Thornton, Sisco or Masset to a starter.

QUOTE(quickman @ Apr 26, 2007 -> 10:40 AM) heath Phillips is a career minor league pitcher who most likely will hang on for a cup of coffee in the pro's, but that is it. Personally I would trade any of our minor league pitchers for Freel. in fact I would trade two of our minor league pitchers for freel, plus I would give them brian anderson to boot. Just saying Phillips sucks. If we trade Gio and Russell for Freel, we would have ZERO chance of developing a 1-3 caliber starter in the next 2 years.