caulfield12

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Mar 20, 2012 -> 04:53 PM) In my view, Kenny Williams job rests in the performances of Beckham, Danks, Viciedo, Sale, and Reed. If they play the way they have been touted to play by Kenny Williams and others in the organization, I think the Sox will contend. If they don't the Sox have a huge problem because there isn't anyone else to build around and we're looking at a 3-5 year process. Kenny should not be the guy to rebuild this team if that young core doesn't produce this year. And Nestor Molina. It's fair to say those 6, isn't it? Perhaps you could extend it to Tyler Flowers, Humber or DeAza, but the point still remains, the "youth core" has to perform well or the whole thing will have to be completely blown up in 2013 or 2014. Of course, Dunn and Rios will continue to get the lion's share of attention in the media if they bomb again this year.

The only roster question/s is between Johnson and Escobar and the final bullpen spot/s, isn't that the consensus so far? Although it seems that Axelrod has a slight lead on Zach Stewart at this point, and they wanted 2 of the last 3 bullpen spots to go to pitchers who were capable of going 2-3-4 innings at a time.

QUOTE (Brian @ Mar 20, 2012 -> 02:44 PM) Hunger Games getting 100% on RT thus far. I'll see it even though I never read the books. Off tomorrow so I have to see 21 JUMP STREET due to word on the street. Honestly thought it would blow. 57 positive reviews, only 6 negatives so far

It is kind of amusing that KW's and Bell's solution to the 3B problem was to sign/acquire/trade for two of the worst 3B in modern-day baseball history in Teahen and Viciedo. Throw in Wilson Betemit, and you have a true Axis of Evil Defense. Even more ironic that after watching Crede and Uribe all those years and the positive effect it had on our pitching staff, they still decided to go in that direction.

QUOTE (flavum @ Mar 19, 2012 -> 04:09 PM) Saladino doesn't get over to 1B on a bunt play. I still don't know why he was added to the major league camp. Probably because Saladino and Lillibridge are the only ones in the entire organization with enough pop in their bats to play everyday SS/3B/2B if Morel/Ramirez/Beckham go down. And the fact that he's something like our 4th-6th rated prospect.

That would be about as effective as those electronic town hall meetings that Ross Perot proposed back in the day. Yay, let's cut all government spending. Ooops, I guess we need to keep the military, we can't cut national parks, I need my Medicare A & B and no way they can take away my Social Security!!! 40% of the people in the US would probably decide to get rid of the Federal government and Washington, D.C., altogether. The point is...an unscientific "opinion poll" or survey either here or at Chicago Trib or Sun Times.com isn't the best way to run a ballclub, it's a Bill Veeck stunt disguised as giving the fans a voice. The last thing that Reinsdorf wants to do is give Sox fans any power in the decision-making process of this team. It's nothing like a democracy, and never has been. And please save the, "why don't you put together a group of venture capitalists and come up with $400-500 million" comment, lol. Imagine if the Broncos had done that, the fans might have voted to keep Tim Tebow and passed up on Manning...because it's usually the most vociferous/passionate fans who vote (numerous times) in those polls, but it's far from the "average" fan's viewpoint, nothing close.

Self would be on a pretty hot seat in Lawrence if not for that national championship game escape. It must be a deja vu feeling for KU fans when their team gets down by 10-12 points early in an NCAA tourney game the last decade or so. Big 10 looking to have 5 of the final 16 teams surviving, Big East second with only 3. Johnson's draft pick status has jumped about 5-10 spots in the first round thanks to the last two games for KU.

It has been a tourney of huge runs. South Florida had a huge second half the first round game and totally disappeared against OHIO U. Hope Clark eventually gets to do his son's game for CBS.

That ranks right up there with the Melido Perez rain-shortened no-hitter, lol.

I know he had a prodigious homer in one of the intrasquad games, but he's really, really struggling now. 4/28, lots of K's and LOB. But we have no choice but to go with him and roll the dice. He was signed to be a franchise cornerstone/building block.

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Mar 18, 2012 -> 07:14 PM) I take it you think Williams will have gotten an unfair shake if he is let go after this season? Not necessarily. But it doesn't really matter what any of the fans think. That's always been a trademark of KW and JR.

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Mar 18, 2012 -> 06:56 PM) The Sox are not rebuilding, but if they were GM's who preside over farm systems ranked dead last do not get the opportunity to rebuild. The fan base wanted Williams gone with Guillen. Nobody would care about the farm system if the major league team would have won at least one more division title, say, in 2010. That has never been Williams' style. By the way, who was in charge of the farm system in 1999-2000-2001 when it was ranked among the top five (one year, it was #1) in baseball? Kenny Williams. How many playoffs did that get the previous GM's? Just 1993 and 2000. or 3 in 18 years. Williams' 2/11 and one World Series championship and the overall winning percentage of the White Sox from 2001-2011 compares favorably with all the other GM's we had, unless you want to go back to the 1950's, 1900's or 1910's. And we've got about 7-8 players on our current team from that same system in the last 3 years. It's not like it has been completely unproductive, quite the contrary.

There are many reasons to be against Kenny Williams. Because he hired someone he trusted, an executive who was thought highly enough of that one of the 3 most iconic franchises in baseball considered hiring him to be in charge of their team, this same person who also happened to be African-American, who happened to be leveraged up to the hilt in debt due to the speculative ownership of about 10 Phoenix area homes and Club Burn, a controversial gay bar, THAT is not the main reason to hang Williams out to dry. If that's the case, then everyone in the U.S. government who hired someone from Goldman Sachs should be fired as well. Wilder got greedy (and desperate), but how is that different from anyone working on Wall Street or for a mortgage finance company in the last decade? None of them have even been prosecuted and brought to account for their crimes, to this day. Wilder has paid his debt to society. He will probably never have the opportunity to work in baseball again.

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Mar 18, 2012 -> 02:05 PM) I don't think it's a safe assumption Williams has two years. I doubt very highly that they can have a year like last year (or worse) and bring him back. Based on what? It's like telling someone to fix the U.S. financial problems in 2009, but you only have one year to do it. It's not realistic. If you're not committed to seeing the rebuilding effort through with one person, then Williams should have been fired last season. Because the next person who comes in will be stuck with KW's decisions (like Molina) and they will always have the excuse the previous regime hamstrung them by making poor decisions. It's KW's mess, he is the one JR trusts to fix it. Otherwise, Hahn would already have been named.

Hmmm....you might be right about that, but Bobby Jenks wouldn't have been on the White Sox if not for Wilder. Without Jenks in late 2005, no World Series trophy. And the Red Sox wouldn't have interviewed him for the GM position that eventually went to Epstein unless they had thoroughly vetted him as well.

QUOTE (sunofgold @ Mar 18, 2012 -> 11:34 AM) Remember St. Patrick's Day 2012. The day our spring training season turned around. Watch out Cactus League. We going to go from worst to middle of the pack. Sounds like a better slogan than "Appreciate the Game," LOL. At least it would get everyone in America talking, especially the grammar police.

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Mar 18, 2012 -> 10:29 AM) In this division the Sox don't need a top 5 farm system to have sustained success, top 15 would probably do it. That is what has been the most frustrating about this organization the last 5 years. In retrospect, we should have probably seen a stretch where they would be at the bottom of minor league systems after the Wilder indictment. If this was politics, Wilder would be the equivalent of Afghanistan for Obama today. While KW didn't bring Wilder into the White Sox organization, he's definitely responsible for what happened on his watch. In the end, the won-loss record and attendance over the next 2 seasons will have a lot more to do with KW's final longevity, just like the economy will determine Obama's eventual fate in November. God knows, Ozzie had enough off-the-field issues like the one with Mariotti or his sons on Twitter (with Jenks, for example, or the signing bonuses for the various children) that would have been fireable offenses in MOST MLB organizations where there wasn't so much loyalty. If I ran a business and my general manager was constantly doing things to alienate his customers (fanbase), then I'm not sure I would have been as patient with Ozzie as JR was. Obviously, that 26-5 run in 2010 bought Guillen 2012. In the end, Ozzie's the one quit on the team, when he saw what a difficult process lay ahead of him with this team.

Unless it came from Reinsdorf directly. What former Sox player/personality would give KW the most cover during this rebuilding period? No wonder they threw out the idea of Konerko being a player/manager as well. For LaRussa, it would have been kind of a "no win" situation coming off a World Series championship, unless they just gave him a huge contract.

Beckham has looked like crap at the plate for most of the last week. Maybe someon saw him hitting the first 3-4 games of spring. He did get a nice double that he turned on, pulled it down the 3B line. Didn't see all of his AB's, though.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Mar 17, 2012 -> 10:36 PM) At least Quentin plays hard unlike some members of his former team. Sad he got hurt. Can never fault his effort. Shhh....Alex Rios might hear you and be inspired. By the way, both Scotty Pods and Juan Pierre are fighting for the last bench spot on the Phillies. So you've got both of those guys and Thome on the same team...will you cheer for them or the Marlins more?

http://www.cbssports.com/mlb/story/1786918...ura-hiring-work http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/baseb...0,2530150.story Another longer Trib story from Sunday's paper about Ventura's leadership style

QUOTE (Cali @ Mar 17, 2012 -> 09:08 PM) That statement makes me laugh. Do you realize how f***ing bad the White Sox have been historically? 111 season, only NINE total playoff appearances. 1/3 of those coming in the last decade or so (00, 05, 08) with gaps of 40 and 24 years between playoffs. If these fans suddenly can't take some time before being competitive again, f*** 'em. We don't need them around. This team has been better than it's ever been since 2000.... I'd GLADLY take multiple 90+ loss seasons, if it meant re-stocking the farm with talent and spending free agent money wisely to get back into contention in 3-4 years. I just don't trust KW in doing any of the rebuilding, mainly because he doesn't seem to think that's an option. And if he's forced into it by this team sucking, well, I don't wanna see what he'd do being backed into a corner. I'll put it into two eras in terms of patience. Those who grew up with the 60's and 70's and 80's teams. Those who grew up with Thomas/Ventura/Fernandez/Lance Johnson/McDowell/Fisk, the late 80's and early 90's teams, and weathered the strike. And then those who grew up and started following the White Sox during the Williams ERA. If nothing else, I guess my statement was a compliment to Williams and the fact that the fans are more fickle as a result of 2005. That and the expectations that come with severely elevated payrolls from 2006-2012. In some ways, winning that World Series was a curse, because KW had TOO MUCH money to play around and he didn't have to be as creative with roster decisions, trades and free agency. (Unfortunately, duplicating the 2005 $65 million roster in 2013 and competing with the mega-spending Tigers doesn't seem like a winning proposition compared to 8 years prior.) A lot of it is the frustration of the Twins winning with lower payrolls while KW only has two division titles in 11 years, with one of them being the result of a coin flip. Personally, I wouldn't mind it (rebuilding), if it meant we had a chance to have a great team for 2-3 years down the line....but there are no guarantees.

Heslip 9/13 in 3's. 9th player in tourney history to hit 9 of them. The record is 11 in one game, some Fryer guy that played for Loyola Marymount around the Gathers/Kimble/Westhead era. 22 3's in his last 4 games, 5 against SD State.

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Mar 17, 2012 -> 08:16 PM) With a $90M+ payroll I guarantee you White Sox ownership isn't rebuilding. They could draw roughly the same with a $60m payroll. Take Konerko off this team, with the economic recovery still fragile and casual fans watching their wallets, and we're losing 250K in attendance and finishing with 64-70 wins. Now whether we'd "break even" at that number and minus Konerko/Thornton/Crain/AJ/Floyd....versus our current payroll, that's a good question. But morale-wise, JR's not willing to go there at this point in his life. Parting with Buehrle is one thing, as well as Guillen. Marty, I choose not to partake in another Ozzie argument. The counter-argument is that another team wanted him, same with Walker. Who's to say another owner wouldn't want to hire KW?

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Mar 17, 2012 -> 08:10 PM) What would you guess Williams approval rating is among Sox fans? About the same as all the GOP presidential candidates, minus Ron Paul. 25-35% approval. You'd probably get the same exact numbers for Ozzie Guillen, too.