caulfield12

QUOTE(RME JICO @ Apr 24, 2007 -> 10:23 PM) Holy crap, an XBH for Erstad. Erstad is like Punto, Bartlett, Tyner or Castillo....they grow on you over the course of a season. Get 'em on, get em over and get em in. Worked in the first inning to perfection...Iguchi's really done a great job hitting to the right side to advance Darin.

QUOTE(Wanne @ Apr 24, 2007 -> 10:20 PM) I would have put that in green if I knew how. Forgive me...I'm a mac user. I think there would have been 30 posts in under a minute if that ball got over BA's head. I know the grass is wet, but the ground was very dry here in KC... EDIT: Erstad lifting and pulling into the RF corner. Better than the 4-3 grindout.

QUOTE(fathom @ Apr 24, 2007 -> 10:17 PM) He looked great against King Felix in 2005. However, I've always wondered how he's ever hit at any level. He has an atrocious swing. Time for Javy to let KC stretch out their lead again. This might be the worst fastball he's had in his Sox career. He's thrown some at 92-93. I think it's more a matter of location...he's already thrown 67 pitches, he's obviously struggling out there, but at least he kept the runner at 2nd that pitch. DON'T LET UP AGAINST DEJESUS. Get out of this inning and let's get the lead back.

QUOTE(Gregory Pratt @ Apr 24, 2007 -> 10:13 PM) What the hell is Anderson's approach? To take the same exact approach to the same exact pitch two times in a row and react like it's Jason Bere's "fosch" or Dice-K's "gyroball." Good God, Brian taketh and giveth away.

QUOTE(knightni @ Apr 24, 2007 -> 10:11 PM) Sweet! Double. 4-3 KC QUESTION....why does Buddy Bell not pitch around Uribe to get to Anderson?

QUOTE(3E8 @ Apr 24, 2007 -> 09:43 PM) OHHHhhh yes Please intentionally walk Grudzielanek. Although that would bring up another White Sox killer from last year, Teahen.

QUOTE(fathom @ Apr 24, 2007 -> 09:38 PM) Lack of ability Or lack of a compact swing.

QUOTE(fathom @ Apr 24, 2007 -> 09:37 PM) Sisco will never be a starter. He'd need 100 pitches to get thru 4 innings. I wish we could get him in the minors right now working as a closer. Well, he at least has the ability to be one...the Royals took a flier on Jorge De La Rosa, were patient with him, and he's starting to look like a serviceable starter. By the way, White Sox not exactly looking like they would care to share 1st place with CLE after tonight.

QUOTE(fathom @ Apr 24, 2007 -> 09:31 PM) Mackowiak didn't always start for a Pirates team that had less talent than this Royals team. It's too bad wind is blowing in. If not, I'd expect 3 or 4 homers by Sox tonight. Gload is worse than Pods in LF or Mack in CF!!! Didn't anyone see the first inning? Thanks for the grand salami against Ray and Orioles last year Ross, but a lefty who throws 95 MPH and might have a future as a starter has a lot more value than a utility 1B/DH/LF. ONCE again, Anderson blown away with the huge swing against a guy throwing 89-91 MPH.

QUOTE(CryptviLL @ Apr 24, 2007 -> 09:25 PM) ah well.. we should be able to hit the royals pitching. What is it with giving other teams a 3-4 run cushion that our offense has to make up? This is getting old fast.

QUOTE(Gregory Pratt @ Apr 24, 2007 -> 09:22 PM) *headshake* What'd Ozzie do to Gload, now? Everyone hates Osvaldo! Apparently Ross Gload was supposed to be our starting LF, even though he doesn't start for KC but platoons with Emil Brown.

QUOTE(fathom @ Apr 24, 2007 -> 09:21 PM) Ha, good for Gload shoving it up Ozzie's ass. Don Cooper should be ashamed of this. Anyone else notice a terrible jump by Anderson on that play? Don't think there's any way he could have had it, but it should have been close. Gload lucked out, that ball bounces back off the wall and he's out at 3rd.

QUOTE(fathom @ Apr 24, 2007 -> 09:18 PM) At this rate, at least Ozzie can use Sisco again. Back up to 92-93.... G-Load time. Javy missed horribly with location on Sanders and was lucky not to give up a 3 run dinger. AJ set up outside and it came in high and into his sweet spot.

QUOTE(chisox72 @ Apr 24, 2007 -> 09:14 PM) That's being nice...it looks like s***... 89-91

QUOTE(santo=dorf @ Apr 24, 2007 -> 09:11 PM) The downside of the internet has been the misuse of the word "loose" has gone up 10000000000000000000% since 1992. Erstad has a .299 career lifetime batting average as the leadoff hitter.

QUOTE(witesoxfan @ Apr 24, 2007 -> 07:56 PM) Eliminate 16 teams because all 30 knew he couldn't play 1B. Add to it that Thomas's value was never going to be as a reserve, while Erstad would have had that, and more interested in Erstad starts to make a whole hell of a lot more sense. The Marlins also wanted him to be the starter in CF.

QUOTE(SoxFanForever @ Apr 24, 2007 -> 07:41 PM) And nowhere near the talent level, what's your point? Ozzie prefers Erstad, it doesn't matter what anyone else says...I think the point made about the back-up QB always being the better option for half the fans, until the back-up QB actually plays and then the fans turn on him and they want the NEXT back-up QB was spot on. Politte, Dye, Hermanson, El Duque, Takatsu, Thornton, Loiaza, Contreras, Iguchi, Everett, Pods, AJ....they all made contributions to the White Sox between age 30-35 (or older) when little was expected of them.

QUOTE(CWSGuy406 @ Apr 24, 2007 -> 06:27 PM) Sorry, I stopped reading after you put Frank Thomas and Darin Erstad's name in the same sentence. Too funny. Go make some more threads. How many teams in baseball wanted Frank Thomas after the 2005 season? ONE. And Billy Beane was very reluctant and did lots of due diligence first. How many teams wanted Darin Erstad? At least two. Are you dense? I wasn't comparing them as players, I was making a point that everyone deserves the opportunity to come back from an injury....and that Erstad was a lot younger than Thomas.

QUOTE(JUSTgottaBELIEVE @ Apr 24, 2007 -> 12:21 PM) yea good point hey arizona, hows that chris young thing working out for you so far? thanks for javy Not so well for my roto team, I have Alex Gordon and Young, and I activated Young after he already had 8 RBI's, so he's been pretty much useless. At least I didn't overbid for Dice K or Felix Hernandez.

QUOTE(CWSGuy406 @ Apr 24, 2007 -> 11:48 AM) Haha, some of these arguments are histerical. "Guys -- Kenny could've done something WORSE, so don't worry!" He was healthy in 2005 and had a .325 OBP. So pretty much, you're wrong. If you look at current White Sox OBP and OPS leaders, you will find the name Scott Podsednik. I don't think anyone would have predicted that either. Nobody knows what budgetary constraints KW is working under, exactly, so it's easy to say we SHOULD have done A, B an C. It's easy to say, let's go get Andruw Jones or Ichiro, etc. Heck, I would rather we spent that $2-3 million that we spend on our bench players for the hiring of the Twins' Director of Scouting and use Angel Gonzalez instead of Alex Cintron. It would be great to have Jose Reyes, but we don't have him. At least KW is taking the most prudent approach here, and he always has the ability to wait for the trade market to open up in June and July if he so chooses.

QUOTE(Jenks Heat @ Apr 24, 2007 -> 11:19 AM) How about Ambrose Burgouix or something like that. Ambiorix Burgos

QUOTE(southsider2k5 @ Apr 24, 2007 -> 10:45 AM) Ah my favorite writer Joe Posnanski... I wonder how much better the KC pen would have been with MacDougal and Sisco still coming out of it? Don't forget Burgos too. Sisco was never going to recover without a change of scenery, he was in a death spiral.

QUOTE(Jimbo @ Apr 24, 2007 -> 09:42 AM) There is no way we pay fro either Jones or Ichiro, no point in discussing. Hunter's the only FA option, and that's about a 10-15% chance of happening, and it definitely won't happen if Hunter has a 30 HR, 90-100 RBI season. We can get Baldelli if we want to give up some pitching depth, but it will cost Gio, Danks, Russell....one of our frontline starting prospects, plus a reliever or another prospect. Willits from the Angels wouldn't be as expensive. QUOTE(tealeafreaderii @ Apr 24, 2007 -> 09:40 AM) Is it possible he just wanted to upgrade DH and pitching and centerfield just happened to be the assets available? If he could keep Young and move anderson for vasquez... I'm pretty sure he would have done that. How do you know KW wasn't panning to have a stop gap for 2 years untill Ichiro and Jones hit the market? I don't think anyone could foresee that El Duque would still be a legit starting MLB pitcher 18 months after the World Series. Obviously, the best thing would have been to hold onto Chris Young, trade McCarthy for prospects and let El Duque pitch in 2006, but those in favor of that in April of 2006....NOT MANY.

QUOTE(StrangeSox @ Apr 24, 2007 -> 09:29 AM) If he gets 600 AB's, doesn't he have a clause in the contract that kicks in for $6 million? Yes, which is a lot better than guaranteeing $18 million to an older player IMO. And he has to earn his 600 at-bats, and to do so, he would have to be healthy nearly the entire season. If he's healthy, he's proven that he can be a significant contributor to a playoff-caliber baseball team.

QUOTE(StrangeSox @ Apr 24, 2007 -> 09:18 AM) ESPN's splits. I think you're missing the point that, barring a big mid-season trade, we're stuck with these players. I agree that KW sort of dropped the ball with the OF this offseason, but the roster is what it is. KW didn't drop the ball. If he had done nothing besides going into the season with Anderson and Terrero and a prayer, THAT would be dropping the ball. At the same time, he ensured that Pods would have a back-up in Mackowiak not playing out of position, instead of having to play Mack in CF. You might not like Erstad, but getting him for $1 milllion is almost as big of a bargain as Dye's contract. We could be getting worse production from Dave Roberts and be stuck paying him $18 million for three years just as easily. There wasn't much out there, would anyone be happy with Preston Wilson's defense and overrated bat in CF instead? I really think we get too emotionally invested in some of the White Sox position prospects because we want so badly for them to become a legit, home-grown star. We haven't had any since Crede, Maggs and C-Lee. Unfortunately, I don't think BA will be one, and I don't hold KW's acquisition of Erstad against Darin, like some seem to. Ozzie and KW have both answered questions on this topic in recent days, it's just that many posters here disagree with them. That's all fine and good, we're all entitled to our opinions, but I guarantee Ozzie is not sitting in the hotel room right now worried about Erstad's OBP or OPS. QUOTE(StrangeSox @ Apr 24, 2007 -> 09:23 AM) ESPN's splits. I think you're missing the point that, barring a big mid-season trade, we're stuck with these players. I agree that KW sort of dropped the ball with the OF this offseason, but the roster is what it is. FWIW, Brian's OBP is actually higher than Erstad's THIS year. There's no reason to talk about BA (from a statistical analysis POV) if he has less than 50 or even 100 at-bats.