caulfield12

Interestingly, the White Sox are the one team out of the bottom six who hasn't done the "full out" rebuilding with youth, at least not since the late 90's. And yet we're going to have our worst attendance since 2002 and threaten the USCF stadium low 1.3-1.4 milllion mark (1998-99) if this team is knocked out of it again completely in May. As Fathom and many others have been pointing out, there comes a moment when even holding on to a Paul Konerko or Alexei Ramirez makes little to no sense going forward, as there's not any more ground left to fall from an attendance and PR standpoint. It has been a blessing and a curse during the KW years that we never bottomed out completely so that rebuilding could have started in 2007 or 2009 or 2010 or 2011. You can make an argument that 06-07 knocked off 50-75% of the bandwagon fans after the World Series and the remainders were lost the last 3 years with all the internecine warfare and squabbling between KW and Ozzie Guillen. Fans are fed up, and they're not going to come out to pay top dollar for a clearly inferior product, or simply to support former Sox All-Star Robin Ventura. The fact that we hired a manager with ZERO previous experience also has caused skepticism in the fanbase. For all we know, Terry Francona could have managed the club to the same record, we'lll never be able to test what would or could have happened with a more experienced manager, but the seriousness of the organization about winning anytime soon is questionable, some would even say dubious. Now, with Danks' contract on the books going forward, along with Dunn and Rios, we're still hampered payroll-wise to the point where rebuilding is made more difficult. If there's anything that's going to be questioned in the next 2-3 years, it's the intelligence of investing so much money into a #3 starter when the only thing that will pull this team into contention are elite arms like Chris Sale (assuming they actually have the durability to start). But you definitely don't build around John Danks as your franchise cornerstone.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ May 8, 2012 -> 08:46 AM) Stults was also one of the last players sent down at the end of spring. The Sox obviously like him, and he has a history at the major league level. By any measure he is ahead of Molina right now. But if we're now DEFINITELY going into a phase where the young players have to go everyday (no more Fukudome for Viciedo, for example, or Lillibridge for Morel) then why are we somewhat realistically looking at Stults as being a possibility for the starting rotation in 2012 and beyond? What's the point of wasting innings on him at the major league level? Just to buy time while our AA pitchers are getting ready? Wouldn't we be better served giving pitchers like Simon Castro or Hernandez or even Terry Doyle spot starts instead of a career minor league journeyman? If we are seriously considering an investment of starter's innings in 2012, well, that doesn't bode well for the future at all.

Coming into yesterday's action, for their careers: Quintana, 35 IP in AA Nestor Molina, 58 IP in AA Just think it's interesting we're all saying that Molina is at least a year or more away when Quintana just pops up out of nowhere and nobody is really questioning that decision, or wondering why someone at AAA wasn't selected.

QUOTE (2nd_city_saint787 @ May 8, 2012 -> 12:04 AM) I think Axelrods still the guy they just wanted to bring up Quintana to have a another arm in the pen. That def worked out for them and earned him future consideration should Axelrod fail. Man does this place get annoying when the sox play bad baseball...If I wasnt so addicted to these damn boards I'd stop coming...I'm not in doom and gloom mode yet and its annoying reading posts from those of you that are. I'm still a month away from getting there. If the Cubans dont heat up in that month time span then I start to worry. If they can get it going and the sox can go ADA-Lexi-PK-Dunn-Dayan-AJ-Rios-Becks-Morel then I think the offense can do enough be an over .500 that can contend. As far as the pitching goes, I'm an Axelrod fan and I think he's a capable 4-5 starter. I'm more concerned about Humber than I am Dylan to be honest. That said Dylan might have to become the #4 starter I said I think hes capable of and then we'll have to see If guys like Stults and Quintana are legit or guys like Molina and perhaps Stewart can become serviceable #5s. Just those starting pitching names alone are pretty strong reason to be doom and gloom. Actually, it's actually a much brighter future the more we lose right now because it means we can finally start to turn the pieces on this roster around and stop pretending we're legitimately in the process of competing in 2012. The faster KW acknowledges this, the faster the organization will be able to be competitive again. Just don't believe it can happen under KW at this point.

Just saying, I don't think anyone would have been upset had Quintana gotten totally bombed yesterday. However, had they started Molina instead of Stults, and Molina got lit up like a Christmas tree, it would have been a big story. It's hard to believe the Yankees would just let him go like that with their pitching issues.

Or Justice League versus the Avengers, lol. It's kind of like Mayweather/Pacquiao, has to happen eventually, there's too much money out there. Battle Royale.

Jorge Soler has disappeared from the face of the earth. That situation is taking forever to get untangled.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ May 8, 2012 -> 05:12 AM) 2 of the 3 hits off Thornton were of the very cheap variety. He was way closer to unlucky last night than bad. But that's exactly what you say every time he falls apart in those situations. It's not just bad luck, it's about having a limited arsenal of pitches and not getting behind in counts. Chunk fastball after fastball over the plate against major league hitters, they'll make contact eventually.

Only for Dominique Strauss-Kahn or Sarkozy/

QUOTE (Brian @ May 7, 2012 -> 10:44 PM) Nice work, K23 Isn't that a movie about a dog or a German U-Boat or a Nepalese mountain?

Assuming we can actually find someone credible to replace Dunn. But yeah, you probably find someone willing to bite on his contract and move forward because he'll be getting into his mid 30's before we're competitive again.

QUOTE (Baron @ May 7, 2012 -> 09:09 PM) Thank you Matt for once again crapping the bed. I cant wait until your off the payroll. The more games he has like this, the harder it gets to 1) get anything of value in return or 2) start preparing for the fact that we'd have to eat a bit of that $12 million still owed (well, after one month, it's closer to $11 million).

QUOTE (iamshack @ May 7, 2012 -> 09:12 PM) I just don't understand why he can't develop a f***ing changeup Not even a change, he just needs to be able to throw a consistent enough slider that he can keep hitters off his fastball. And have the confidence to occasionally use it when behind in the count. But it's not like in his mid 30's he's going to be able to do that, or Cooper already would have taught him and he'd be one of the best relievers in modern baseball history from the LH side.

QUOTE (Capn12 @ May 7, 2012 -> 09:08 PM) Great performance, team! So glad I bought MLB.tv on a month to month basis, so I can cancel when I want to. Same thing, but I did it more because the connection here in China is very spotty unless it's from 2 am - 7 am in the morning...otherwise, it jumps and freezes. MLB GameDay Audio is still the best bargain in the world if you live outside the US. Got an e-mail saying they were "refunding" my purchase price of $24.95 (for "premium") in a future credit card statement.

QUOTE (Jake @ May 7, 2012 -> 10:00 PM) Damn it! I thought he had all of that. Damn this weather. Would have been out in the 1st game. The ball was carrying really well then. Lillibridge hit one that completely fooled Sanders in CF it carried so well and he had to make a circus recovery. 6/31 for Lillibridge. Everything that CAN go wrong WILL go wrong at this point. You just had to have a feeling the Sale announcement was going to torch any hope of competing this season and the self-induced prophecy is happening right before our eyes.

Guess they don't even have to worry about using Perez against us...

QUOTE (greg775 @ May 7, 2012 -> 09:57 PM) Hey, those are fighting words. Sorry the Royals are losing another home game again, lol. They seem to ONLY be able to beat the Yankees.

QUOTE (Jake @ May 7, 2012 -> 09:55 PM) There was already a man on first? Still would have been a lot more logical than what they ended up doing. We had better odds to get out of the inning that way than to score a run against Chris Perez. You risk the big blowout inning for the possibility of keeping it tied.

3 and 11. Only 2-8 more in order to reach complete irrelevance for the rest of the season.

QUOTE (Jake @ May 7, 2012 -> 09:53 PM) What's the alternative? Walk the bases loaded, set up the DP possibility. Hope and pray Thornton doesn't walk in the run. If you didn't know it, you would think the last 2 weeks that Ozzie Guillen was managing our bullpen, except he was intentionally mismanaging so as to lose games and get out of town ASAP.

And Ventura strikes again. Well, really it's our $12 million worth of commitment but can't consistently get out anyone this year "set up" guy in our supposedly lock-down bullpen, lol. So much for turning the game over to the pen.

QUOTE (greg775 @ May 7, 2012 -> 09:49 PM) I wish Hafner was on the White Sox. Hafner had a terrible stretch there for 2-3 years. Nobody thought he would ever come back to be the player he's been the last couple of seasons. Finally threw 2 sliders that AB to Hafner. Duncan vs. Thornton should be interesting. Would rather see Nathan Jones here, despite the possibility of the walk to load the bases.

We don't even get to see another Chris Perez/Rios confrontation next inning. :-(

Bad things have a way of happening when you throw six consecutive fastballs.

If nothing else, we're cornering the market on lefties. Moneyball II, What will we do with them all? Sale Thornton Santiago Ohman Danks Stults Quintana Pedro Hernandez Septimo