caulfield12

http://www.baseballamerica.com/blog/prospe...beras-contract/

Couple of things that are interesting...that he tried to hire Keith Law as a scout this past offseason, and wasn't Jon Daniels of the Rangers also from a "non-traditional" baseball background? Daniels was born and raised in Queens, New York.[2][3] He went to Hunter College High School and Cornell University, majored in Applied Economics and Management, and joined the Delta Chi Fraternity.[4][5] After graduating from Cornell University in 1999, Daniels went into business development for Allied Domecq.[6] KISSIMMEE, Fla. -- For a guy who came to baseball relatiavely late in life and who runs a team that is by all accounts overmatched, new Astros GM Jeff Luhnow seems quite relaxed. He appears to have the right outlook and demeanor for a team that may again lose 100 games. "Of course, he is (calm),'' one skeptic from a rival team said. "There is absolutely no pressure.'' Luhnow, an intellectual ensconsed in the stat crowd (he just got back from the MIT Sports Sloan Analytics Conference), is always going to have his critics. He and Rays GM Andrew Friedman are the only ones to take the non-traditional route to the GM's chair, meaning they didn't start out as baseball executives. But Friedman quickly proved himself one of the best execs in baseball by now after starting out in the investment business. Pressure or not to win this year, folks are looking to Luhnow to prove himself. Not everyone is going to be rooting for him, either. Some folks like tradition, and he's taken an unususal route to get where he is. He has a dual engineering and business degree from the University of Pennsylvania and an MBA from Northwestern University, and he got into baseball in his mid-30s with the Cardinals, in 2003. Now 45, he spent nearly a decade as an executive with the Cardinals, contributing to two World Series teams as a high-level front-office person. Though, with the ongoing old-school vs. new-school denate raging (he is firmly in the latter crowd), there were definitely some critics in St. Louis. He tried to hire ESPN's Keith Law for a top scouting job in Houston, which wouldn't necessarily have endeared him to some older scouts. (Law turned the job down.) Say this for Luhnow, the Cardinals generally thrived in his time in a top scouting and player development job there. And say this, too, he seems to have an excellent handle on where the Astros are today. Luhnow said he seeks progress, which is precisely the right answer for a team that lost 106 games last year and threatens to repeat that output. He also said their seemingly dire situation will be aided by a lucrative TV contract that begins next year and that they also hope to become a free-agent player if they can recapture their audience in what he pointed out was a big market. Luhnow provided a positive-as-he-could be rundown of the Astros playing personnel, but it isn't fair to recount any of that here because his job is to be as upbeat as possible, no matter what the roster looks like. While Luhnow mentioned several nice things about many of their players, he isn't about to pretend the team is ready to contend, which shows he's far from delusional. He does seem to have high hopes for new Astros shortstop Jed Lowrie, whom he acquired in a trade for ex-Astros closer Mark Melancon, as well as a few others. The reality, though, is that even his relatively honest portrayal of his team's situation doesn't say how bad the Astros are thought to be. Their rotation led by Wandy Rodriguez, Bud Norris and J.A. Happ is somewhat presentable, but their everyday lineup threatens to be the worst in baseball. Everyone has their own evaluation of course, but one scout said he believed that besides veteran Carlos Lee, who Houston would love to trade, only two players have a chance to be major-league average, catcher Jason Castro and third baseman Chris Johnson, and Castro missed last year with a knee injury and Johnson hit .251 with seven home runs. "Two years ago, he hit,'' the scout said. "Last year he forgot how.''(sounds like Gordon Beckham, Alex Rios and Adam Dunn) Jon Heyman

Speaking of getting on-base... Pierre said the Phillies were the only team that reached out to him this offseason, making what he said was a surprise call in January. But perhaps nobody was happier to hear the Phillies were giving Pierre a shot than Willis. Pierre is the godfather to all three of Willis’ daughters. Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/03/04/2673...l#storylink=cpy

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Mar 4, 2012 -> 04:59 PM) It's just a terrible article all around with a writer who did no fact checking whatsoever. Looks like they misjudged the money left on Rios' deal (plus buyout) and averaged it over just 2 years instead of 3. Isn't our obligation to Rios around $42 million remaining? 12:$12M, 13:$12.5M, 14:$12.5M, 15:$13.5M club option ($1M buyout) NOPE, $38 million, still can't figure out where the $21 million average came from.

Ideally, Beckham would hit 3rd with Ramirez or Morel 2nd. Unfortunately, nothing is ideal with the Sox for the moment. As much as they claim they follow stats in the Sox front office, having Ramirez/Morel/AJ with their low walk rates at that spot in the order isn't ideal, but at least AJ's a professional hitter, albeit one who doesn't have much patience at times. http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news?slug=sh-h..._ramirez_030412 Cespedes and Manny becoming fast buddies...too bad we didn't sign both of them, haha.

But nationally, most experts were picking the Twins, because they'd won the division 3 years in a row...it was the logical choice, and we'd jettisoned Ordonez, Lee and Valentin for WHO? On the Sox, are they better with Dayan Viciedo in left field and Alex Rios in right — or with Viciedo in Charlotte and Rios on the bench? What happens if center fielder Alejandro De Aza regresses? Adam Dunn's fixed, right? Can Chris Sale and Jake Peavy combine for more than 50 starts? And who's the closer again? Cubs and Sox questions outnumber answers. Oh, yeah, can either Sveum or Robin Ventura manage? It promises to be fun finding out. It could be frustrating too. When Sveum addressed the idea of Soriano as a leadoff hitter by saying, "We don't have the bona fide guys at any position in the order,'' he became the latest Chicago baseball figure to inadvertently foretell the upcoming summer of nothing. Paul Konerko beat Sveum to it by correctly saying the Sox can have a successful season without making the playoffs. Both teams view the season through the same prism because, according to their top executives, neither is built to win in 2012. Pay now, playoffs later. That might sound like a lousy way to build a marketing campaign, but it represents the smartest approach to build a perennial winner. Teams committed to player development as much as the Cubs and Sox find themselves will endure growing pains. At least both teams appear to have their eyes wide open — not necessarily the way I recommend viewing all 324 of their games. One thing that stood out from splitting last week between camps in Glendale and Mesa was a common sense of inevitability. Optimism didn't spring eternal as much as realism. Professionalism permeated the desert air. Catching the Tigers or Cardinals came up in conversation as much as creating a new mindset. Not even Commissioner Bud Selig adding a wild-card team in each league produced much of a we-can-do-this buzz. Unsolicited, several Sox people at Camelback Ranch offered how refreshing it was to focus on baseball again instead of outside nonsense. One answered a question about the differences under Ventura by cupping his hand to his ear and asking with a smile, "Do you hear that? Silence." The strongest vibe at a serious Cubs camp surrounded young prospects such as Rizzo, Jackson and Matt Szczur as well as the confidence in Epstein and Jed Hoyer to replenish the farm system one shrewd move at a time. The process will take time, essentially giving 2012 the feel of a six-month-long extended spring training. It has been 13 years since the Cubs and Sox each won 75 or fewer games in the same season — the Sox were 75-86 and the Cubs 67-95. Brace yourself, Chicago baseball fans, to party this summer like it's 1999. [email protected] Twitter @DavidHaugh Let's see here. Sveum's idea is to hit the team's oldest player, and the one who's known to hustle the least of maybe any player in the entire league leadoff. Talk about a managerial brainstorm. I'd have hoped the Cubs would have hired a manager which has a true feel for the game, and not one who lives off stats, especially when the stats show failures from the past. The true quality managers don't play by the book only. They have gut feelings, which they're not afraid to implement. Sveum, i don't think so much. michaelc at 10:42 AM March 04, 2012 PECOTA projects White Sox for 78-84 and Cubs for 74-88. But the records are irrelevant. Making good progress on rebuilding is relevant. But experts have raised a very good question about Kenny and the W. Sox. Is he all in toward rebuilding, as he should be. I think not. There is no way AJP should still be the starting catcher over Tyler Flowers on a rebuilding-commited team. MikePomatto at 10:22 AM March 04, 2012 So the premise of questions the Sox have entering this season is to compare them to an idea to have Soriano bat first? This is the epitome of spurious coorelation. Whether to put Viciedo in right, or even in the lineup, is a legitimiate baseball question. The latter is typically asinine aspects that define the cubs.

Ramirez was horrible with situational hitting last year, though. The other side of the coin is that putting him in the 2 slot, he is almost forced by a new manager to be more of a "team player" and less of a free swinger. But will that take away his aggressiveness, or make him start going back up the middle and to RF? Morel seemed to "shrink" his offensive game in that type of situation, and the power only came back later when he started to feel like he belonged.

Hafner was really solid though, last year....after sucking eggs for about 3 consecutive years. I read somewhere that Sizemore was expected to be out the first 2-3 months of the season...keeps sounding worse and worse for him. Whose favorite player was he? Ozzie or Hawk's, there for a while?

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Mar 2, 2012 -> 11:26 AM) I got an A in basketball at Manchester with Steve Alford. Ah, the good old days. F--- Alford. He only won a single NCAA tourney game at Iowa, but he's actually had two good years at UNM. The one year he has a good season, they go out in the first round in 2006 as a #3 seed to one of those directional Louisiana schools. A's for racquetball and field hockey at Iowa.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/baseb...0,1854319.story Dunn story...which it was this simple, but it's probably not. As far Morel...he needs to put up at least a 700 OPS, 725 would be gravy and 675 at the bottom end of the acceptable range with the power falloff at that position over the last 2-3 years. Walks, plate discipline will be a big factor. He probably won't put up Crede's 20-25 homers per season, but he can't replicate the low walk rate and still be effective unless he's getting a lot more doubles than last year.

Uribe was one of my favorites the last decade, if not THE favorite. For me, Brian Anderson would always be up there, because of his attitude and how he seemingly wasted so many chances. Chris Snopek, lol? Well, he just sucked, basically. Koch also has to be up there, but you kind of just felt sorry for him because he was left with a 92-94 MPH straight fastball compared to the upper 90's stuff he previously featured.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2012/writ...ml?eref=fromvlt Walker is going to come under some fire for letting Rios keep changing and tinkering all season long, but it seems he never felt comfortable at the plate, so what else can you do besides look at tape from the first half of 2010 and his All-Star years with the Blue Jays? Same thing with Gordon looking at UGA tape, 2009 Birmingham, June-July-August 2009 with the Sox and second half 2010 highlights.

I'll agree with you on Life is Beautiful, although I'm not sure I can agree it should have won over Spielberg that year. THE READER was terribly overrated, but just given so much praise largely because of the topic and the presence of Kate Winslet.

QUOTE (TaylorStSox @ Feb 29, 2012 -> 11:59 PM) Interpreter? Wtf does this say? There's a long history of Sox broadcasters who have been SOMEWHAT critical of Sox players before Stone, including DJ and Paciorek. I'll respectfully disagree about DJ or Chris Singleton being very critical. Farmer is more so (albeit radio, so not as heard)...and Paciorek was kind of in the middle as well. All things considered, pretty fair/objective (although Farmer's sense of self importance, Notre Dame allusions, name dropping and conservative rants get me annoyed at times). DJ is a BIT more critical now on radio...I think when he was doing TV and then regional/national TV broadcasting at time, he became very plain vanilla and tried not to offend anyone. Harry Caray, of course, and Piersall, were MUCH more polarizing in terms of their beliefs and opinions in the both...Jack Brickhouse, too.

QUOTE (TaylorStSox @ Feb 29, 2012 -> 11:59 PM) Interpreter? Wtf does this say? There's a long history of Sox broadcasters who have been SOMEWHAT critical of Sox players before Stone, including DJ and Paciorek. I'll respectfully disagree about DJ or Chris Singleton being very critical. Farmer is more so (albeit radio, so not as heard)...and Paciorek was kind of in the middle as well. All things considered, pretty fair/objective (although Farmer's sense of self importance, Notre Dame allusions, name dropping and conservative rants get me annoyed at times). DJ is a BIT more critical now on radio...I think when he was doing TV and then regional/national TV broadcasting at time, he became very plain vanilla and tried not to offend anyone. Harry Caray, of course, and Piersall, were MUCH more polarizing in terms of their beliefs and opinions in the booth...Jack Brickhouse, too.

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Feb 29, 2012 -> 04:33 PM) I think I'm in the minority but I thought that movie was way overrated. The death sequences were pretty neat, the cinematography was good, and the main bad dude who does voices in the Simpsons was great (and needs to be in more bad-guy movies). But the movie itself was just boring as hell. I think Gosling had, in all seriousness, 10 total lines the entire movie. He just kept staring into the camera. I didn't really care for the ending either. It was supposed to have that minimalist feel, like a Steve McQueen movie mixed with the techno soundtrack. Definitely not a movie for everyone, due to the violence. More of an artistic movie that critics mostly loved and audiences largely responded with a "ho-hum" to. Also a movie produced with the idea of making Ryan Gosling "hip/cool/iconic," part of the current cultural zeitgeist.

Sounds like it was written by a 20-30 year old TRYING to become a scout or just a very addicted SALLY League fan, but definitely not the report of someone involved with MLB.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Feb 29, 2012 -> 01:15 AM) Wow, Rowand, that was pretty brutal. Maybe he cleared his head and he'll try harder this year. Greg, are you considering adding RIOS to your "protected" list because they get picked on so much? That would go against the prevailing anti-Dunn/Peavy/Rios/KW narrative, however.

Albert Belle and Jaime Navarro come to mind. Cory Snyder, but it's just because he sucked so bad with us. Steve Sax, never liked that dude at all.

LOL. I dislike Rios as much as many or most around here, but you can't fault him for trying to do something to take his mind off the past season. Dunn chose to lose tons of weight, but will anyone care 2-3 months from now if Rios is having another 2010 first half and Dunn's still striking out at record-setting pace? Konerko and Buehrle never worked out at all, and they weren't criticized nearly as much. Then again, many fans grew up with them as franchise/cornerstone Sox players, and they have 2005, so the forgiveness factor is much stronger than with imported "guns for hire" like Rios and Dunn. Golf is one of the hardest sports in the world. It's not easy at all, I can understand his frustration...maybe baseball will actually seem easier in comparison and he'll fall back into it, just like riding a bicycle. I've played against some of the better Chinese badminton players, where the racquet/contact speed reaches 180 MPH before the birdie hits terminal velocity...and honestly, golf, even though the ball is sitting there waiting to be hit, is still 10X more difficult than ping pong, racquetball, tennis, basketball, baseball, volleyball, ultimate frisbee, every sport I've ever played. Maybe snowboarding and surfing (kite surfing or traditional) are harder, but I think with those sports, it's just a matter of gaining the confidence to stay up on the board and deal with the conditions. Same thing with water or snow skiing. Once you get it, it clicks in and doesn't leave you. But golf...well, just look at how much Tiger Woods has struggled in the last two years. Like baseball, golf is 75% mental/psychological. Whether struggling at golf will help his baseball game, I have no idea. It's easy to say that Rios should be a great golfer because of his athleticism, but look how difficult it was for Micahel Jordan to play baseball. Not everyone can be Bo Jackson, Deion Sanders or Jeff Conine (former US racquetball champion). We have our version in Trayce Thompson, who is always going to struggle to translate a basketball frame and body into baseball success.

Great story. I remember a similar situation, former Indiana/Iowa star Luke Recker was in a devastating crash and he ended up leaving his fiance who who by then was permanently confined to a wheelchair.

QUOTE (Thad Bosley @ Feb 28, 2012 -> 09:46 PM) I think you are getting Gary Thorne and John Rooney mixed up here. Thorne only spent one year with the Sox, and that was as the TV play-by-play man in the very forgettable 1989 season (paired up with Tom Paciorek that year). Rooney and Hagin worked the radio side of things from '89-91. I thought it was just an ok pairing, but only because it was two play-by-play guys with no playing experience between them handling all the broadcasting chores. I think each is obviously much better off when paired with an ex-player to provide the color analysis. Yeah, you're right. 1990 was Scott Radinsky's rookie season (I met him the previous year when he was pitching for South Bend), and my favorite overall as a White Sox fan, except for 2005. For some reason, I remember Rodney McCray as our designated pinch-runner (he later ran through an outfield fence while playing in the minors) and an amazing comeback against the KC Royals and Bo Jackson at Old Comiskey that I had the pleasure to attend.

QUOTE (DirtySox @ Feb 28, 2012 -> 08:50 PM) Petricka is further away than Molina. Otherwise I agree. Petricka has about 258 innings pitched as a starter over the last 3 years (including his 2nd year at Indiana State) and 332 overall. My feeling is that they would be more likely to "sacrifice" Petricka at the major league level (if they needed spot starts down the stretch in August and September) rather than Molina. In terms of development, they're in pretty similar areas, although if you include 2 years of university and a four year (total) history of starting, Petricka might be a tick or two ahead overall. But I agree in general that along with Rienzo to a lesser extent, there's no need to rush any of those 3 guys (Molina/Petricka/Rienzo). With Humber, Stewart, Castro, Santiago and Axelrod, we've got at least 5 guys for the final spot in the rotation. Then you've got other guys like Heath, Bruney, Leesman, (Harrell/Torres). etc., that can be thrown out there once or twice, in a DJ Carrasco or Tony Pena emergency mode.

QUOTE (The Ginger Kid @ Feb 28, 2012 -> 09:02 PM) If as I suspect the Tigers are less than what many think they will be, and the Sox are more than what most think they will be, then why wouldn't you turn to someone who's arguably the #1 starting pitching prospect in the organization if he could make a contribution? These sort of blanket declarations baffle me. The point is there's UNLIKELY to be any reason to rush Molina this year, other than in overreaction by KW to justify the trade for Santos as quickly as possible. There SHOULDN'T be any connection, but KW will look like a jackass if Santos is on the AL All-Star team and Molina is struggling in the transition to AA ball. In the end, rushing Santos isn't go to help at all...we have Santiago, Leesman (maybe), Axelrod, Castro, Petricka and not to mention Josh Stewart who should be provided opportunities to show what they can do before we're "forced" to go to Molina. Really, there should be no scenario where we absolutely HAVE to use Molina in 2012. Didn't KW learn from the Hudson/Holmberg disaster? I hope so.

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Feb 28, 2012 -> 06:30 PM) Not. Serious. Made me think of the scene from MALCOLM X was confronting the Catholic priest in prison about Jesus having "Middle Eastern descent, hair of wool, feet of clay..." Someone forgot to throw out Maya Angelou, Sojourner Truth, Toni Morrison, Bull Conner and J. Edgar Hoover (for the backlash against their campaigns against African-Americans), Abraham Lincoln, Dusty Baker, John L. Lewis, Medgar Evers, The Black Panthers and H. Rap Brown.