caulfield12

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Apr 28, 2012 -> 06:36 PM) Don't try and change this into "kyle doesn't believe in turning points". That isn't my argument. I absolutely believe in turning points in games and seasons. What I said was your choice of turning points was absurd. A first inning double where your team takes the lead is not a turning point to a loss, even if it was this -> Why is it absurd? Let's examine tonight's game. Statistically, the team that scores first has a much better chance of winning the game, especially at home. Agree or disagree? We just gave up a run there in the first inning. It should be 1-0, if not for another mental mistake. Will you say that run scoring wasn't a turning point in the game? With a four-game losing streak, every little thing can be a turning point.

You're giving Lester too much credit! Flowers, Viciedo and Morel will need at least 9 pitches to strike out consecutively. The funny thing is with how bad we've played this week, the Tigers have been even worse and all three teams would be tied again atop the AL Central with a Sox win.

Just like the Santiago blown save and the rest of the A's series happened. You get a big shot of confidence when your team is scuffling and you can get out to a big lead early at home. With what happened, you leave those runners on 2nd and 3rd, you have the missed opportunity (part of a continuing trend with our offense) and the pressure's back on Danks to hold the lead. We just gave up another run when Dunn didn't pick up the 3rd base coach when he would have easily scored had he looked at Ross or McEwing. But it doesn't matter if you waste opportunities like this in the early innings I guess. Especially when we've been playing so poorly at home since 2009.

Yeah, but they can't see a thing. The hitter's backdrop is in the sunlight and there's a ton of glare. By the 2nd or 3rd inning, that decided advantage will be gone for the pitchers.

Only 17 hits and 4 walks in 29 2/3rd's IP now for Peavy. Down to 1.82 ERA. So you still think if Grady Sizemore caught that ball against the Royals so many years ago, the Indians still would have lost every game from there on out? Guess there's no such thing as a turning point. Better yet, we can take an insta-poll. I bet at least 50% would say if we took a 3-0 lead last night in the bottom of the first that we would have won the game last night...

Not the best of weeks for Jerry Reinsdorf and Bulls/Sox fans. Why does it always seem when we have a perfect game or no-hitter, that things always seem to fall apart right afterwards?

Marty, Are you saying that DET is in a much better position at DH/LF with Brad Eldred, Delmon Young, Andy Dirks and J. Worth than the White Sox? Why can't Dave Dombrowski find better players with a much bigger budget than the Sox?

For all we know, Mitchell's play/progression in AA this year will matter just as much as anyone at the big league level. In case you've forgotten, we control Phil Humber for the next 3-4 seasons, he matters a lot. His results can balance out Danks'. Tyler Flowers and Josh Phegley matter, because otherwise we're going to have to make another trade or go out on the FA market for a catcher. Santiago is likely to be a rotation member in the future, he matters just as much as John Danks. Nathan Jones could be out of baseball in 3 years or be the White Sox closer at that time. The play of Ramirez, Dunn, Rios and Matt Thornton is incredibly important as well, because they're slated to be on the roster for 2013, when we could be expected to be competitive again if everything starts going according to plan. However, 2014 is more likely the target date. Otherwise, we've got to get some nice major league ready pieces back for Alexei, Matt and possibly Konerko (yes, that's going to be an emotional thread, keeping him vs. trading him or letting him go at the end of his contract.) The main problem with 2014 is that it's possible Konerko and AJ will be out of the picture entirely by then, and replacing them as well will also require a lot of 2008 "GM magic" (Floyd/Danks/Quentin/Alexei all in that 07-08 cycle.)

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Apr 28, 2012 -> 02:04 PM) This isn't a very good defense either. It would be better if you just wrote that you like Kenny Williams. Oh btw, has Viciedo proved he could hit right-handers in the minors? What are his career splits. You're the one who has the burden of proof here because you're proposing benching our best young hitter 65-70% of the time for a declining 35 year old, and you're going to base it on 70 at-bats from 2011 when he was clearly injured and suffering from the lingering effects of his wrist problems? Obviously, the manager and the GM disagree with you, so it's kind of a moot point. I don't like Kenny Williams. But you seem to have an irrational, visceral hatred or antipathy towards him. Why? What has he ever done to you? I don't even mind Rick Hahn being the general manager, but to see someone repeatedly attacked when the "storyline" this season has always been about patience and development and "appreciating the game" doesn't make any sense. It's a sign of panic and not of stability.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Apr 28, 2012 -> 12:45 PM) Caufield, People blast my haiku style of posting, yet you haver all these spaces between paragraphs which makes me think it's an English paper. What style do people like better? Yours or mine? I say this respectfully. I like your posts generally. As far as Dayan, they might as well be patient with him. Look at the Angels. Pujols hasn't homered yet. Dayan has 3-4 at least. Nobody's gonna bury Albert yet. It's easier to read that way. People don't have the patience to read long paragraphs anymore...so they can quickly hunt and peck at the main topics instead of reading all the way through an entire paragraph. Visually, the haiku/poetry style doesn't tend to work well on a message board. Dunn/Peavy/Rios suck. Rios is overpaid. Dunn, Beckham and Morel K too much. The White Sox suck at home and attendance sucks and nobody cares about the Sox. Ozzie is great/Ventura is probably going to be so-so at best. We already know all those things. People like to go to boards to see new ideas, new perspectives, different ways of looking at things...information that the "average" fan doesn't have access to.

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Apr 28, 2012 -> 12:31 PM) This is a defense for Kenny Williams? If you can't build a team through free agency, why would you keep the general manager of the team who experts universally say has the worst farm system in MLB? The majority of teams in baseball have been shifting philosophies in the last couple of seasons...away from free agency and towards minor league development. For the majority of his tenure, KW was 90-95% win now and spin off minor league pieces for immediate dividends at the major league level. Now the split has to be about 50/50 in order to pull off a combination of both. In the case of the White Sox, it has been towards the development of starting pitchers. If they pull the plug on this change 5-10% of the way in, then all they're doing is setting themselves back another season. It's not unlike dumping your mutual fund that's underperforming for the high-flyer from last year, selling low and buying high, then turning around and watching your new fund return to mean or below, then realizing to sell low again you would have been MUCH better off being patient and letting things play out with the 1st fund that you originally had faith in.

If you can't enjoy baseball for the sake of the game itself and the pleasure to be derived from it, why bother?

http://espn.go.com/new-york/mlb/story/_/id...sion-gone-wrong Fallout from the Pineda trade for Cashman/Yankees. Sweaty Garcia got rocked again, btw. Manager Mike Scioscia has seemed unusually uptight during the Angels' awful start, which had been illustrated best by 76 homerless at-bats from Albert Pujols entering the weekend. The Rangers have outhomered their American League West rivals in each of the previous 12 seasons, and led them 31-13 entering the weekend. It will be interesting to see if there are repercussions from Torii Hunter questioning game strategy and saying he means "everybody, not just the players,'' when he questions whether the preseason favorites have been going through the motions. … From Phil Rogers' "MLB Whispers" column

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Apr 28, 2012 -> 12:13 PM) Jerry Krause won 7 titles with the Bulls, he was replaced. Are you suggesting that Kenny Williams has a job for life? Having the best player in NBA history, an easy Top 50 all-time pick in Pippen and the best rebounder (for his size) of all time in Rodman helped a bit there. It's a lot easier to turn around an NBA team in a year or two than an MLB team, especially if you're willing to spend a ton of money on free agents. And spending money on free agents is clearly not the way to go right now in baseball, anyway. Look at the Angels or Marlins. So there's no choice but to be patient. Sox fans are used to that. Not even the Yankees or Red Sox are going that route anymore.

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Apr 28, 2012 -> 12:09 PM) What makes you think they won't be in the Central race all year? Fukudome is a better option than Viciedo v. right-handers. If you think the goal of this season is to draft between 12-15, why is it not to draft in the top 5 or better yet the top 3? We already established that the average LF OPS was right around .727 last year. Fukudome put up a .723 against RHP last year. He's unlikely to increase that. Dayan Viciedo is ONLY 23 years old. You're totally precluding the fact that such a young player can actually improve/adapt/adjust to RHP in favor of a veteran who has absolutely nothing to do with the future of this organization. If Dayan failed to hit RHP in the minors in 2011, you might have a point, but you can't judge a young player of his age based on a sum total of less than 300 cumulative MLB at-bats at age 21-22-23. And if the team played that poorly and our attendance was only ahead of the Indians, then you'd be here everyday saying KW should be fired, lol.

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Apr 28, 2012 -> 12:56 PM) You forgot about Beckham and Morel. It's been a tough start for those who think this is a rebuilding year therefore Kenny has a free pass. Too many of the developmental guys are failing, not even the success of Sale gets Kenny off the hot seat through the first month. What GM's are currently available who have developed both a #1 minor league system (1999-2001) and won a World Series on their resume? And, most importantly, want the job AND will accept the contract/terms/conditions JR's offering?

And what value would Viciedo have to another team if he's already a platoon player at age 23, and sitting 60-70% of the time? Has Tyler Flowers' value increased sitting on the bench behind AJ? Has he learned how to hit so he can be more effective in 2012 as a possible starter? Fukudome had a 723 OPS against RHP in 2011. He's 35 years old already. So where's the upside? Let's say Fukudome did put up an 800 OPS (not likely, as he's lost some bat speed), then we end up losing him to another team anyway, finish a couple of games higher in the standings, fall a couple of more spots down towards the 16-19 spot in the first round of the June draft instead of 12-15...and we haven't developed Viciedo to be a full-time regular in 2013.

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Apr 28, 2012 -> 11:38 AM) The mistake with Viciedo would be keeping him. They should be looking to move him while he has value left as a prospect. Arguing that about Alexei Ramirez at least makes a BIT more sense than trading Viciedo. But that doesn't fit your "fire KW now" scenario as neatly, because then you'd be forced to be patient for 2-3 years to see how a young SS performed, if it wasn't Saladino starting at that position in 2013 or 2014. Since it's so easy to find a 1B/DH, why aren't you in favor of getting maximum value for Paul Konerko? Is the attendance going to get any worse than now? You could get a lot more back for Konerko than Dayan right now, and free up a lot of payroll flexibility.

Ugh. Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't we go on a 26-5 run in the middle of 2010 and hold 1st place for much of the season? What's the connection between not being patient with Hudson in 2010 and Viciedo in 2012? Oh, because we still theoretically are in "Win Now" mode this season and if we don't win with our starting pitching, then KW deserves to be fired. And if John Danks continues to disappoint, KW deserves to be fired. And if Molina doesn't make it as a starter....well, you guessed it. Marty, why is it so hard for the Tigers to find a DH? Why do the World Champion Cardinals have a rookie playing 1B with .732 OPS? Shouldn't they trade him for veteran who will put up 850 or 900 at that position? What next, you'll argue we should pick up Bobby Abreu and stick him in LF? And you've still YET to come up with ONE EXAMPLE besides someone on our own team of a LF who's an upgrade on Viciedo and who's currently available and who we actually have the ability to acquire feasibly.

And the idea of moving Dunn, besides the offensive downgrade and his age, still leaves a gaping hole at DH. Are we arguing that Dan Johnson, Conor Jackson or Brent Lillibridge could easily put up average MLB OPS numbers there? Or just making fun of KW for obtaining a one-dimensional player who's best suited for DH and occasional 1B duties? I'll answer Marty's question. The Tigers have a bigger payroll, aspirations of the World Series and a much more solid everyday starting line-up than the Sox. They just brought up Brad Eldred, a 31 year old version of Crash Davis AAA journeyman to be the DH for as long as he can hold the position. Eldred has 36 major/minor league RBI's in 21 games so far this year. If I'm not mistaken, he was actually in the White Sox system for ONE of those years and he never came close to getting a real opportunity in the big leagues with us. It's no longer 1998 or even 2008. Huge OPS numbers at 3B, LF and RF are getting harder and harder to come by. Or 2B, too. The A's signed Manny Ramirez. Johnny Damon was brought back yet again. It's just not that easy to find above-average hitters at even those positions, especially YOUNG hitters. Sure, you could answer Vladimir Guerrero or Magglio Ordonez or Aaron Rowand, but the days of those guys hitting well enough not to undo all the damage they'd inflict defensively are long gone.

QUOTE (SoxAce @ Apr 28, 2012 -> 07:12 AM) He's been en fuego for a good stretch here. Check out his OBP and BB/SO last 10 games.. sick. And personally, I think his glove is wasted if he moves to 3B (from what I've seen and remember, he has a pretty damn good glove at SS). And Mitchell might start moving up in the order soon. There's always the maxim you should leave a kid alone who's playing SS for as long as possible and not move him to 3B or 2B. Especially if you want to maximize his trade value. If Ramirez IS traded, you have your SS in Saladino...although for the time being, one would guess the organization is probably more concerned about 3B and 2B. And part of that has been addressed by moving Conor Jackson to 3B at Charlotte.

Young made the comments to a panhandler that he thought was Jewish...the confrontation was with other men who overheard the situation as they were passing by...or possibly felt he was calling them a derogatory term for being Jewish, but that's not 100% clear.

http://www.suntimes.com/sports/12181010-41...els-mining.html Speculation about Cole Hamels signing with the Cubs as a FA...

Two run deficits, Guillen said, "feel like we're down 20." "That's how it feels like right now," Guillen said. "And I want to get that feeling out of this area." Asked if he might shake up the lineup, Guillen said he might -- but not because any one in particular is struggling. "You cannot lose confidence in those guys," Guillen said. "As soon as you start losing confidence and being negative, bad things happen. I always say you can't win a pennant race in the beginning, but you could lose a pennant race in the beginning. "We're not winning now. We've got to pick it up and play the game right, now. Believe me with the experience I have, I've been through it before. We have to keep fighting. If we had a bad club I would say it would be tough. But I know in my heart, my soul we have a good team. "You can lose confidence early in the season, or grow up and play better. But you're not going to play worse than this. We're not going to be worse than we are right now." Read more here: http://miamiherald.typepad.com/fish_bytes/...l#storylink=cpy

http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-0428-a...0,5887830.story Downs will be the closer, Walden out. Trout will replace Peter Bourjos. Worst start in club history. 5-14. UPDATE: Trout now 1/11 (091) with a single. Pujols 1/4 with a K...also made a pretty big defensive blunder (in foul ground) which he would never make normally.