caulfield12

I just meant they have a hangover of problems inherited from JP. LF, you need something better than Thames or Rajai Davis long-term. And Drabek has obviously regressed this season. That has to be a bit of a concern. And it's still a big difference when you can have a pitcher for 2 full seasons (Marcum) versus just one or 1 1/3rd (Danks). If you're KW, it's hard to know what's going to happen with Buehrle. You can't trade Danks AND lose Buehrle if you hope to compete in 2012. Floyd, Peavy, Humber, Stewart, Sale That would be the starting rotation. Try selling season tickets with that. Good luck. Just losing Buehrle or Konerko alone will drive them into the low 20,000's per game unless they lead the division for most of the way like in 2008 and get off to a hot start (in other words, the opposite of the last 2 seasons).

Team seemed much more relaxed with Lillibridge out there instead of Dunn at 1B. You have to go with Brent against LHP, and you'd have to argue that it's also going to help Paulie a lot to DH the final two months...if Brent were only taller and had more experience with scoop plays (needed with Alexei and Morel over there)....but he has so much more range and athleticism than Paulie at 1B. Peavy's now had two positive starts in a row. That's huge. Now the big question becomes Humber. We have to go 6-1 or no worse than 5-2 the next 7 games, and, once again, at least get back to .500. Baltimore has been playing like crap, but that hasn't meant much when the Sox faced them the last 2-3 seasons. They play like the Royals against us for some reason. Showalter is a huge jackass, and it'd be so nice to beat these guys when they're really down.

Arencibia's really struggling the second half of this year. Aaron Hill has regressed. 3B has been a train wreck for TOR for quite awhile now (obviously they feel they have a solution for that problem). And Travis Snyder has been one of the biggest disappointments they've had in half a decade. So they've made a lot of great moves on paper to put themselves in position. As Ozzie says, "the big leagues is all about performance/winning, and not development." In the end, the jury's still out on what has actually been accomplished. As usual, 3-5 years out will give a much better picture.

C'mon Morel. If you're going to have a 585 OPS, at least MOVE THE RUNNER to 2B. That's all we're asking. Not a double, not a homer, just a productive AB.

C'mon Morel. If you're going to have a 585 OPS, at least MOVE THE RUNNER to 2B. That's all we're asking. Not a double, not a homer, just a productive AB.

Peavy starting off with his 90 MPH fastball....again. Nothing close to 92-95 MPH. At least for the moment. Usually he picks up a couple of MPH over the first 2-3 innings and levels off. Rare slider strikeout against Thome there. Perfect location, couldn't have place it in there any better if he walked it up to the plate.

16 times Dunn has had 3 strikeouts (or more) and no hits in a game... Has already broken the all-time MLB season record in that category, with almost two full months left to go. Beckham strikes out on a fastball again. What new?

Lilli-Elf. Start him over Dunn for the rest of the season as the DH, at least against LHP. Why not?

Rios 7/15 career against Duensing with only 4 staying in the park.

Or take back the Javy deal and stick Chris B. Young in CF. That would be a pretty potent line-up. Quinarv, where is Chris Sale in your line-up/roster rendition? Starting in Charlotte or Birmingham? Rotation depth? 2B is another obvious weakness with Getz. Keeping Uribe would have solved that infield issue (yeah, I know it wasn't realistic to pay him as a starter heading in 2009). But it was a big mistake not to keep him on the roster SOMEHOW. You really can't play Juan Pierre in CF, either. It would have to be Viciedo in RF, Sweeney in CF and Pierre in LF. Not with Juan's arm.

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/blog/big_leagu...urn=mlb-wp15224 Leyland responds to crazy, profane fan mail. What would it take to get Ozzie to notice a complaint or letter? I can't imagine it. Maybe when he first became the manager, but not recently.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Aug 7, 2011 -> 11:35 AM) Nathan has given up 7 career HR to the White Sox. Wow...were any those while he was a starter for the Gigantes? Carlos Lee? I just don't remember any save-blowing homers or walkoffs against him. Maybe one of the games in 2010 that he blew against us? I think there might have been one this year already, too. Maybe their first victory against Minnesota this season, can't recall off the top of my head because I was unable to watch that one.

Or Humber the first 3 months. Or no Santos, although they could have gone with Sale in hindsight. Probably at the time though, Ozzie would have gone to Crain first, then Sale as the 3rd option. At any rate, Chris Sale wasn't ready to close any games until halfway through this season.

He looked like he belonged in the big leagues, that's for sure. Not panicked or nervous. Getting Mauer in that situation was huge. Obviously, having 3 prior starts helped, but it was impressive. Really did all those things with just 2 pitches, and Dunn didn't help at all. The game shouldn't have been as close as it was...but we can't hit for shi- with RISP these days.

With Juan Uribe, he was the glue/rock/center of that clubhouse. He also was the bridge between the white, black and Hispanic players...equally popular with everyone in the clubhouse. That player no longer exists, the one to make everyone laugh and who just loves playing the game, almost in the same way Ozzie did. And Uribe was going to be overpaid as merely a bench player...that's true enough. And hindsight helps too, looking at what he did for the Giants, especially winning the World Series last season. The one thing that stands out is that Buehrle was willing to give up at least $1 million of his salary (or defer it) to keep Juan on the Sox. Is there anybody that Mark would come close to saying that about now, with the way things have been the last 2-3 seasons? I think not. Not even for John Danks. Uribe always did the little things like hitting sacrifice flies and coming up with big clutch hits. He wasn't afraid to make a game-changing play defensively, either. I guess he was my favorite player on that Sox WS team, thinking about it now. Either Uribe or Contreras.

Well, I'll give him credit for finally taking Dunn out of the line-up. Just removing his "defense" from 1B will save 1-2 runs per game. Brent deserves a start for hitting a homer off Nathan. How many times has that happened in Sox history? Dye? Who else?

The Hunter deal wasn't a bad contract until this year, especially for a CFer. If you think about it, if we had Hunter for that whole time, we never would have had to pick up Rios. Hunter gave them 3 solid years at least. Granted, next year for Torii doesn't look like a good deal at all. Rios has given us one out of 2 1/2 seasons with the Sox, and we still owe him for at least 3 more. That's the nature of long-term deals for players in their 30's, it almost always comes back to bite you in the end. (Yet another reason why Pujols will get less dollars and years than Prince Fielder but it will still be "one year too many"). Just imagine if we'd been stuck with the Fukudome or Rowand contracts. The only plus is they all would have prevented the Rios deal from being triggered. And who's to say the Dunn deal won't end up being worse than Vernon Wells at THIS POINT? Not to mention that "winning" players like Uribe were unceremoniously shown the door.

Sabean still just won the World Series last year, so hard to argue with that result. Cashman's the Phil Jackson syndrome. Could he ever win with a small-market franchise or do a total rebuild? We'll probably never know. It would be interesting to find out. I'm sure that both he and Epstein have moments that they hear the whispers they could never have success in Pittsburgh, KC, Florida, Seattle, Baltimore, Cleveland, Cincy, Houston, etc. And Angels have still developed/drafted a lot more players than the White Sox over the past decade. Trout alone gives him the edge over KW, not to mention Weaver/Santana, the Saunders for Haren deal, Kendrick, Bourjos, Morales, etc. Sure, a lot of busts, too. But Reagins has the overall advantage. Plus that franchise has a LOT more playoff appearances in the last 10-12 years.

Shapiro's no longer the GM in Cleveland, he got bumped up. Flowers, it seems in hindsight, was largely a product of PED's in terms of his Braves' minor league numbers and AFL stats. Needed to do a bit more due diligence on that one, but obviously hundreds of players have gotten caught up in that. I would take Cashman, Sabean, Reagins, Jocketty and Alderson (based on past performance) over KW as well. Maybe he's a BIT higher, maybe 18-20, but you'd have a lot of argument/s around baseball. I suppose the question would be...were KW on the open market, how many of those teams would bring KW in and let go of their current guy? Alex A. needs to prove that the Blue Jays can come close to contending again in that division before you can annoint him as the best. Daniels would obviously be the "hip" pick as the best GM for his performance the last 2-3 years, but he and KW started out similarly on the learning curve.

Floyd is worth 5X what Matt Thornton is right now. The Red Sox would only make these moves if they actually wanted to keep Danks and/or Quentin long-term. Certainly, Danks would be the main reason they'd make the move. Is JD Drew under contract for next season? Personally, if I was Epstein, I'd rather have Reddick going forward (especially considering salary) than Quentin for one year at $9 million. So while it looks like a "win" for the Red Sox on paper, it's kind of a sucker-trade longer term. But there's zero chance we could afford to trade Danks AND Floyd together. When's the last time three All-Stars were traded together in one move (I know Danks hasn't made it before, but Thornton/Quentin were, and Danks would be the centerpiece obviously).

Bad hitting (Dunn/Rios/Beckham/Morel) equals losing, equals bad chemistry. If the clubhouse was truly lost 100%, we would have rolled over and gotten steamrolled by the Twins. We haven't, or didn't. The losses on Sunday and Monday really knocked the Sox offstride, and momentum turned against us with the Yankees, just like we swept through Boston on the road earlier in the season. The problem is our offense isn't consistent enough to even win 5 games in a row, let alone 26/31 like last year. I think there's a lot of chaos and uncertainty because of the strife between KW and Ozzie, and wouldn't be upset to see both leave. There really are a lot of Sox fans who would rather see KW gone than Guillen, actually. I know many that never post here....even though the current "pulse" here is probably 2/3rd's favoring Ozzie going over KW. The only way to get rid of Greg Walker and actually see what we have in Dunn/Beckham/Rios/Morel is to give them a shot with a totally different coaching staff. Guillen or JW won't fire Walker, so the only way is letting Guillen go to Florida. Dumping Beckham right now would be insane because his value is almost zero since he will soon head into his more expensive arbitration years period.

This doesn't really fit, because the Peavy deal was all about salary relief and the White Sox didn't give up anyone (other than Richard, who would have been the last guy out of the bullpen) who was arguably even going to be on their roster in the future. Rios was a waiver claim, and Dunn a FA signing. You have to go to Edwin Jackson for Hudson/Holmberg...which is now essentially Hudson/Holmberg for Stewart and Frasor...the two Swisher trades....and the bad "salary dump" trade we made to get rid of Javy to the Braves with Tyler Flowers as the centerpiece. Finally, dumping Fields/Getz/Brian Anderson/Pods and only ending up with Mark Teahen in return from KC, then the extension (I know the trade wasn't those 4). Those five trades are the center of 90% of the angst at all the sox boards. KW would argue that ridding the organization of Vazquez was a classic "addition by subtraction" but however he spent the money (saved), it clearly wasn't good. The Twins haven't traded well (Garza/Bartlett for Delmon Young, Ramos for Matt Capps, dumping their entire middle infield and bullpen and signing Nishioka, Hardy for Hoey, etc.), the Astros are a mess (stuck with Carlos Lee and Wandy Rodriguez for now), the Mariners have made a ton of bad moves (Erik Bedard trade was epic bad), the Padres, Cubs, Mets, Orioles, Dodgers, etc. KW went from a consensus Top 10 GM (2002-2008) to a pretty close to consensus Bottom 5-10 GM from 2008 offseason through today.

dissent/arguing/turmoil/chaos dissension in the ranks, lack of institutional control, mutiny, etc. basically, the Toronto managerial situation with what's his face...? http://www.baseballprospectus.com/odds/ Current playoff odds for White Sox at 11.5% (about .500 and 2nd place ahead of Indians predicted) Still better than 18 other organizations in major league baseball.

Post of the Day from startribune.com sports "While we loyal fans get fleeced to the tune of $168.00 per case of beer, $56.00 per pound of hot dogs and whatever else overpriced food and beverage we purchase, plus the ticket for the game, I think we should get a little more entertainment for that much $$$$$. When the between inning video board is the highlight of the target field experience , I scratch my head in wonder. Oh Berts California math tells me our favorite Joe made approx $400,000.00 for his 4 at bats tonight. Instead of trying to book a concert the twins should book a rodeo, with all the b.s. thrown about by the manager, and management they should fit in nicely. Does anybody know if there is any decention in the clubhouse with Gardy and Joe hawking different dairys? With Slowey probably coming back, doesn' that give the guys another Guitar for there kumbayah campfire singalong. I'd like to comment on the baseball but haven't seen much in the last week."

QUOTE (CaliSoxFanViaSWside @ Aug 6, 2011 -> 11:34 PM) Buehrle, Danks, Floyd, Peavy, Humber, Stewart, Sale all potential starters next year. Gotta still dump salary so that means MB or JP will or should go. Cheap guys Humber, Sale, Stewart stay though Stewart is no lock to make the team let alone the starting 5. Pierre should be gone so DeAza and Viciedo make the team. Most likely traded is Danks. So does KW load up on more pitching or try for a bat ? At what position can we get a bat ? I'd say KW will be trying like hell to get rid of one of the big salaries of Peavy, Dunn, Konerko, Buehrle, Rios. Konerko and MB are Sox icons so unless KW can rid himself of JP, Rios or Dunn then I'm guessing Danks will be traded. I like Morel . He seems to be hanging in there and learning how to hit better and love his glove. Beckham who knows . The team should look dramatically different next year and more so if Ozzie is fired as he should be ,taking Walker with him. Have to keep Cooper. I think we still have the means to compete next year . I know the Twins are bad but they've still had our number for a while and with guys like De Aza and Stewart leading the way we have turned the corner against them. Quentin might be moved also but would hate to lose him. Guys like him and Danks are sell high candidates and could restock or minors or get MLB ready players. Imagine if you're the GM of another team. Would you trade for Jake Peavy (at that salary and the buyout) based on what you've seen out of him the last 3 years? That would be almost as gutsy as picking up Alex Rios. The main difference is 1 year of risk versus six. But there's no way Peavy won't be on the opening day roster along with Dunn.