caulfield12

Before trying to trade for a third baseman, the Rockies probably will see what they can get from Josh Fields. The former White Sox player entered the weekend hitting .363 with seven homers and 30 RBIs for Triple-A Colorado Springs. from Phil Rogers' "Whispers" at www.chicagotribune.com/sports

QUOTE (ROC Sox Fan @ May 21, 2011 -> 09:32 AM) I believe if Mark gets traded an additional year on his contract is automatically invoked. That was last year (and it would have jumped to $15 million guaranteed for 2012 had he been traded in 2011). But he still has the NTC.

If they're not in the hunt, I can see several changes. Buehrle has been pitching exceptionally well lately, so he'll command at least two first-round pick type talents. The Sox still need protection in case he's dealt, so they'll need at least one top pitching prospect as Danks is 1 ½ years away from free agency. Think Mark G. has the Buehrle compensation a little exaggerated with the salary he's making. Don't imagine in my wildest dreams getting two first round pick talents back. For Danks, yes. from Mark Gonzalez mailbag www.chicagotribune.com/sports

We're tied with the Pirates and Astros with only 8 home wins (8-13). I guess on the bright side, we were 5-12 not so long ago. Ahead of only the Twins with their measy 4 wins. So much for Santos being the sure-fire All-Star pick. Back to 50/50 with Konerko.

Can't believe Dunn's now 0 for 27 against lefties. Thome-esque. Well, I guess there's nowhere else to go but up.

It's still hard to discount the fact that Omar played such a huge role in 2010 getting us going and has had a number of key performances already in 2011. The team's 9-3 recent record (I'll use greg775 logic here) argues that Ozzie's been right more often than not about line-ups the past 2 weeks.

I'm sure Ozzie's just trying to get Morel with the most favorable pitching match-ups to raise his confidence and batting average. Obviously he'll play against all lefties, but I have no problem with it until Morel gets in a real groove offensively, as long as the team's winning. Morel just had another error saved there. Has Morel always thrown from so far down or was that just sloppy mechanics on a slower runner where he had all the time in the world to throw him out?

That was encouraging. Humber's had a knack for pitching out of jams so far this season. For a minute, maybe he thought he was still pitching for the Mets against the Dodgers. CLE and DET are both trailing by 4 runs. That's encouraging. Looks like pretty brutal weather there in Chicago. On Stranger Tides, indeed. Hawk called that Rios looper an RBI just a bit too fast there.

Maybe Beckham's homer will get him going again. Then again, he could get homer/pull happy.

If we can beat the Indians again, there might be a genuine renewal/reversal of hope by at least 50% of the bandwagon that's been lost.

QUOTE (DirtySox @ May 17, 2011 -> 10:04 AM) Royals to call up Danny Duffy. Really looking forward to seeing him pitch. Huge fan of him and Hosmer. I hope we get to see Moose & Montgomery sometime this year too. I'm pretty excited for Royals fans. http://mlb.sbnation.com/2011/5/17/2175418/...ffy-royals-news What is it with this organization? Between Greinke and Duffy, that's two guys with huge ability that wanted to quit the game. Robert Smith-itis.

http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/gameday/index.jsp?g...id=mlb#continue Merkin game write-up with lots of good quotes. And Ozzie still wants to manage in the NL and have every game be 1-0, decided on sacrifice bunts/flies, stolen bases and hitting to the right side of the field. He should trade places with Gardenhire, that style is a lot more suitable for Target Field, Safeco, Oakland Coliseum (I refuse to call it overstock.com) or PetCo.

Pretty vague about the whole Latin American situation...almost like he was trying to distance himself from any type of connection. I still don't understand why our Venezuelan situation is so poor with Ozzie as our manager. I guess there's Infante, and we have Rienzo from Brazil (where have you gone, Anderson Gomes, Paulo Orlando and Joe DiMaggio???, lol) Encouraged to hear about the progress with Jordan Danks. He might be playing himself into the discussion again for the starting LF spot. Of course, the problem there is he's blocked by Viciedo, Rios in CF and Quentin in RF. Unless Quentin's traded, but that's certainly not a foregone conclusion at this point in time. 25% chance, at best. And then there's the inevitable linking always made between him being in the organization and his brother sticking around, but that's even less likely IMO. If nothing else, he's a valuable trade chip to have around to package with some other players.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ May 18, 2011 -> 11:50 PM) They are playing a video game in real life. That's like the only way I can describe that. They lost Carl Crawford, Carlos Pena (who cares), and their entire bullpen, a member of their rotation, their starting SS, and it's no big deal. Seriously, WTF? That's the kind of s*** you pull off in OOTP, not with a major league team. The Rays are like quite literally the polar opposite of the White Sox. I'm a Sox homer - not as big as some, but more than most - so I want to clarify that and point out that I don't mean that in any negative connotation whatsoever, because both styles can work. But the Rays don't resign their free agents, they make tons of trades to bring in young players, they use the prospects within their system for their major league team and nothing else, and they build, manage, and coach their team through sabermetric philosophies. The White Sox have done, for the most part, none of those things over the past 10 years. Neither style is necessarily wrong (I think both are wrong, personally, but the Rays are forced to do so because they are not a wealthy franchise, not by choice), it's just attacking the monster with different tactics. What's most impressive is that they weathered the 0-6 start (thanks partially to the White Sox breathing life into them with that comeback win we gave away), they've been missing Longoria for most of the season, they're starting Brignac/Johnson at SS (who would both fit better on the Twins' AAA team), they lost their predicted DH in Manny Ramirez right off the bat and Jaso/catchers haven't made as much of a contribution as in the past. Not to mention that Fuld's been in a 3 week slump after his fantastic play to start the season. Pitching, pitching, pitching. And obviously the right call not to sign Soriano, the Yankees can absorb that loss, though, just like the Red Sox with Jenks. And Desmond Jennings isn't very far away at all, he just might end up having a better season than Crawford at 1/100th the cost.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ May 18, 2011 -> 12:28 AM) I hate to say it, because it's basically company line, but that's a terrible record right now. And considering that they have been playing better recently and the schedule getting easier in the coming weeks, I would venture to guess that they'll be around or above .500 at the time of the All-Star Break. I say that with a caveat of course, because the 2007 Sox were actually 24-25 at the end of May and interleague play was their undoing, as they went 4-14 against the NL that year. The Cubs and Phillies were good teams, but the Marlins, Astros, and Pirates were not, and they went 3-6 against those 3. CLE (2) LAD (3) AT TEXAS (3) AT TORONTO (4) AT BOSTON (3) DET (3) What is getting easy about that schedule? We've played horribly against Texas and Toronto the last half-decade...Cleveland's in first place and has the 2nd or 3rd best record in all of baseball, winning 1/3 in Boston is challenging enough and then we haven't beaten Detroit in months. I guess you must have meant 3 weeks from now when we finally get the Mariners at home. That's the first "easy" team in sight, and considering our home record, and that we'll probably face either Pineda or Felix, a sweep isn't something I'd be counting on. OPTIMISTICALLY, I'm HOPING they can be at 5 games below .500 after this aforementioned stretch of games.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ May 17, 2011 -> 11:08 PM) Quentin isn't a free agent. Buehrle and Jackson are likely to be Type B free agents, and odds are very good that the Sox will offer arbitration to both of them. Assuming we don't trade both of them first. I guess we'll just have to wait and see how the next 2-3 weeks play out. Cross your fingers. And are the White Sox really willing to spend a minimum of $11.2 million on Buehrle next year? The problem is that he continues to have a 3.75-4.25 ERA season, the White Sox will clearly lose in arbitration and we'd be on the hook for $12-15 million. Is this going to be a handshake deal where we offer arbitration but he goes to St. Louis for less money than he would have gotten (at minimum) from the Sox?

QUOTE (JoeCoolMan24 @ May 17, 2011 -> 06:13 PM) I'm not going to start hating on McPherson until he gives me a reason to. At this point, I'm hoping for mediocracy. Mediocrity? As opposed to the style and results of government that we've had for 30+ years, haha.

QUOTE (elrockinMT @ May 17, 2011 -> 04:44 PM) Does meaningful discussion mean that I have to see it your way? I sure understand your point and after some losses feel a lot like you do, but my head tells me that it's a long haul to the end and this team can start putting it back together. We play alot of baseball within our own division Which is the problem. The only team we've played well from our own division is the Indians, ironically enough. To imagine we're going to play well against DET (since we've lost 8 in a row), the Twins (could that happen as bad as they are when we're on a current 6-24 run there, too) and the pesky Royals is almost too much. It would mean a complete turnaround and reversal of our play the last 2 1/2 seasons against the Central, particularly the scrubby/also-ran teams at the bottom. Maybe since we're now that team on the bottom, things will change!!!

QUOTE (WHITESOXRANDY @ May 17, 2011 -> 04:42 PM) I will say this, Kenny Williams did a great job (much better than me) up until 2009. He was basically a bargain hunter and he was good at it. Then, he started going after big names and throwing around tons of money and lots of prospects and always against my judgement. Unfortunately, he's been completely wrong about PEAVY, PIERRE, TEAHEN, DUNN and JACKSON. Those were all bad moves that I was against and they all collectively have decimated this organization. It's time for a change. And Buddy Bell, who was the driving force behind the Teahen acquisition and has completely revitalized our minor league system with his mere presence, rapidly instituting a new "Sox Way" that's perpetuated itself throughout the system and resulted in incredibly rapid prospect development.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ May 17, 2011 -> 04:28 PM) Then expect extra screaming the next time Pierre makes one. Here's the thing. Juan Pierre is not part of the future of this ballclub (says this with fingers crossed for 2012). Dayan Viciedo is, and now is as good a time as any to find out. We have to be willing to accept the errors, it's part of the growing process. The main thing to me is that Viciedo has the potential to carry the team with his bat, Pierre has the potential to do what exactly? Even if he started hitting and getting on base at a higher percentage, his speed and confidence are gone. Didn't Ozzie already learn this with Pods? The greatest value Pods had the second go-around was he actually played better defense and was one of our best clutch hitters, actually. The problem with Pierre is he can't even hit a sacrifice fly and he's now starting to hit into DP's too because his speed is so diminished. Pods actually retained his burst getting down to 1B. It seems Juan has lost 2 steps there, as well.

Lillibridge will be terribly overexposed, but I can honestly say I'd rather see him playing LF and leading off for 3-4 weeks than Pierre at this point. He always hustles, he seems to truly value the opportunity to be on a major league roster the second time around and he's been a valuable contributor as a hitter after looking totally overmatched in his first go-round with us. I'm sure he would have a better stolen base % and play defense more than adequately. Doesn't matter what we think, though.

It's not the move itself. The hilariousness of "All In" just got more pronounced. If you want to look at an organization that's truly "All In," it's the Royals, who are taking a shot this year even though it might end up costing them ten of millions with Hosmer. Viciedo is a sunk cost. We're already committed to paying him $10 million plus. And it's not like we didn't see him have the ability to hit last year. He was pretty much signed TO HIT, with that as his #1 skill. Yet somehow, when we're going up against teams like TEX, CLE, the Dodgers, then hit the road against Texas, Toronto and Boston, we're supposed to be inspired that Dallas McPherson will actually contribute something positive??? It's predictable, but it sucks and I have a feeling we'll be wondering months or years from now if bringing up Viciedo earlier could have sparked the White Sox offense instead of going down in flames with the veteran Pierre.

And if they don't got 9-7 in these next 16 games and beat Detroit 2/3 in Chicago, the rest of the season is almost to the point of being irrelevant, except for jockeying for draft pick position. It has already reached that status in Minnesota.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ May 17, 2011 -> 09:29 AM) Dude there would be more astericks in this than a George Carlin concert transcript. Fine, name me any player (pitcher or hitter) in MLB history who was signed for $10+ million (at the age of 19 or above) who wasn't a major league regular by his 3rd full season? I'll just say that when you gamble that much money on a non-collegiate player, it's almost unheard of. Beckett and Porcello are the only similar situations in terms of being Dayan's age at the time of the bonus. And A-Rod. 1.Stephen Strasburg, Nationals (2009, 1st round, 1st pick): Four years, $15.1MM. $7.5MM of that makes up the largest signing bonus in draft history, and his salary is set through the 2012 season. 2.Mark Prior, Cubs (2001, 1/2): Five years, $10.5MM. Prior's contract allowed him to void the final two years of the deal and instead file for salary arbitration, which he did in 2006. Instead being paid the $2MM his contract called for that season, Prior earned $3.575MM when the two sides settled before a hearing. 3.Mark Teixeira, Rangers (2001, 1/5): Four years, $9.5MM. Teixeira's $4.5MM signing bonus was the largest ever given to a player as part of a big league deal at the time, and it stood as the record until the next player on our list was drafted. 4.David Price, Rays (2007, 1/1): Six years, $8.5MM. Price has a clause similar to Prior in his deal, allowing him to void the $1.5MM he's scheduled to make in 2012 and instead file for arbitration. The early guess is that he will indeed go that route. 5.Pat Burrell, Phillies (1998, 1/1): Five years, $8MM. Pat the Bat's deal marked the beginning of the big money era for draft picks. 6.Dustin Ackley, Mariners (2009, 1/2): Five years, $7.5MM. Ackley can also earn another $2.5MM in salary based on how quickly he reaches the big leagues. 7.Rick Porcello, Tigers (2007, 1/27): Four years, $7.285MM. Club options for the 2012 and 2013 seasons could put another $2.88MM in his pocket. 8.J.D. Drew, Cardinals (1998, 1/5): Four years, $7MM. Drew famously refused to sign with the Phillies as the second overall pick in the 1997 draft, as he and Boras stuck to their guarantee that he would not sign for less than $10MM. 9.Josh Beckett, Marlins (1999, 1/2): Four years, $7MM. Beckett was the first high school player to receive a Major League deal since Alex Rodriguez in 1993, and the first high school pitcher to get one since Van Poppel. 10.Eric Munson, Tigers (1999, 1/3): Four years, $6.75MM. The $3.5MM signing bonus was a club record until Porcello showed up. source: MLBtraderumors.com

They simply have to find out what Viciedo can do for at least 3 months this season. If Morel can put together a solid rest of the season, they theoretically won't be entirely out of it for 2012 no matter what happens the rest of this year (see 2007/2008, or 2004/2005 offseasons). Of course, that's ASSUMING that Peavy, Humber and Sale are all solid contributors to the rotation next year (along with Gavin) and that we can get decent returns for Buehrle/Jackson. Then, they'll have to decide what to do about Quentin and Danks. If they decide to trade both of them, then they might as well go ahead and try to get the best possible return on Matt Thornton, although is new contract won't make that a slam dunk unless he picks it up in terms of velocity and his offspeed stuff shows some semblance of being respected by hitters. It's pretty obvious that they can't go through yet another year with AJ as their #1 catcher if he continues to be this punchless offensively. They have the option of finding another Olivo/Molina type who's "defense first" or rolling the dice with Tyler Flowers and calling all the pitches from the dugout.