caulfield12

QUOTE (RockRaines @ May 5, 2009 -> 09:03 AM) This thread is more embarrassing that anything Kenny has done. Nobody can argue that we have no quality depth among position players...we don't even have ONE that's pretty good offensively AND defensively (unless you want to put in an argument for Jayson Nix based on a couple of games). Charlotte is the biggest joke in the minor leagues. It's not about whether we will win this season, it's simply that there's no excuse to be in this position in the first place with our budget/payroll. Our bench was always a strength, and now it's perhaps our greatest weakness, after Contreras and the ongoing CF carousel.

QUOTE (Soxbadger @ May 5, 2009 -> 08:48 AM) Why do people blame Walker all the time? Its not like he is being given prized hitting spects who have amazing ba, obp and ops in the minors and then turning them into crap. Most of the players Walker has to work with, are what they are. But no one even mentions the fact that when Dye came to the Sox he was brutal at first(can anyone remember the "Dye Raise from the Dead"). He has since become more productive with the Sox than any other team he has played with. I think the Sox hitting suffers from talent, not from coaching. If he had players like Carlos Lee, Ordonez, Thomas, Ventura, coming through the minors our offense would be fine. Its not like CQ has done horrible with the Sox... Well, then we're back to the argument that Ozzie is a miracle worker/master motivator to get anything out of this threadbare talent, and Walker and Cooper should have lifetime contracts. In the middle lies the truth, as usual. It's not as if our payroll hasn't been in the Top 4-8 in the major leagues over the past three seasons. We're writing checks to someone besides Contreras and MacDougal, last time I checked. For Quentin (who seems to have regressed into strictly a lift and pull hitter with 110% swing velocity on almost every pitch, much like Thome), there are/were puzzles like Rowand, Crede, Borchard, Brian Anderson, Juan Uribe, Josh Fields, Ryan Sweeney, Swisher, Cabrera, etc., that failed to fully reach their potential here. (Yes, an argument can be made about each player...that they weren't that good in the first place, bad development/coaching in the minors, Dave Wilder, Ron Schueler, drafting, Shaffer, getting older, bad fit in the clubhouse, etc.) You (Greg Walker) can hang your hat on Quentin, Ramirez (although what Walker's done with him this season doesn't seem to be working so far) and Dye. Konerko has been wildly inconsistent. Thome has been as expected, simply because he's had pretty good health compared to 2005. AJ has seemingly regressed a bit in his hitting approach and has often wandered into the "lift and pull" school of influence as well. I'll just put it this way...there are a lot more question marks about Walker's tenure than Cooper, whose main failures could be counted on 2-3 fingers, and almost never with our most valuable "commodity," a starting pitcher. My biggest concern is simply that the rest of the players are too influenced by playing in USCF and the Big 4 in our line-up...everyone just makes the assumption it's better to take wild swings that miss down and away sliders by 3 feet than by trying to put that ball into play to the right side. 2005 might be something of an anomaly that we had a more balanced club and our pitching was so incredible...I'd almost prefer to see the White Sox move the fences back in 2010 or 2011 and force the natural doubles and single hitters to stop thinking about hitting HR's. The stadium would still be small enough for hitters like Quentin, Flowers and Viciedo, but would also enhance the abilities of Getz, Jordan Danks, Allen, Beckham and Shelby by giving up more doubles and triples.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ May 5, 2009 -> 05:00 AM) I agree with this 100%. There's really no other explanation for a guy like Brent Lillibridge being on the major league roster. He talked him up when he acquired him saying he's been after him for a couple of years. He didn't hit in the majors last year. He didn't hit in the minors last year. He didn't hit in spring training, and he hasn't hit so far this season. Its not like he's a 20 or 21 year old kid. Then to make him even worse, you put him in CF where he is on a good day average defensively. Check the ego at the door and get baseball players. There is no reason this team should have been 2nd in all of baseball in slashing payroll after last season. Sometimes you get what you pay for. Too bad that hasn't held true for White Sox ticketholders, the people who pay more per game than fans of any team other than the Yankees, Mets, Red Sox and Cubs, yet this year. This is beginning to feel like the late 80's and late 90's. We're in a transition year. It would have been much better if they kept season tickets at the same prices, admitted they were going to cut payroll (using the downturn or Tucson as excuses, lack of revenues from ST ticket sales, etc.) and been MORE honest with the fans about the realistic goal being to compete in 2010-12. Now there's the danger that we have a season somewhat like 2007, except not quite that bad, because nobody will run away with the division and we'll sort of be in the race for most of the season...but we'll lose a lot of the walk-up crowd that only comes out when we have good teams. Those casual Sox fans that don't show up until mid-to-late May won't come out and spend their hard-earned dollars on this. Having lived in KC for 10 years, it's nice to see the fans finally coming out to support their team on a Monday night and really getting into it. Of course, it helps to have the best pitcher in baseball, but I can't remember going into a Royals game in my lifetime (well, since the mid 80's) where you felt there was about a 5-10% to win the game, especially without Dye. Almost 22,000 sounds like a disappointment, but not when you look at their average Monday night attendance in April/May over the last decade. Royals fans are a lot like White Sox fans. They simply refuse to turn out for bad or average baseball, but they'll start filling that park in May and June if the Royals continue to be in or near first place. With Hochevar tearing up AAA now, they have a legit chance to compete when they add him to their rotation again. As far as checking the ego at the door with KW goes, I think it all depends on Flowers with that trade (and, of course, we never know how Gilmore and Rodriguez will turn out 3-5 years from now). If he can catch in the big leagues with that type of power and plate discipline (above the level of Victor Martinez at least), then the trade will be a huge success, but certainly not in 2009. It's hard to name more than a couple of catchers in baseball who give you that type of offense.

QUOTE (joeynach @ May 4, 2009 -> 11:43 PM) This team is carrying 07 style dead weight, just not major players at all. 07: Pods Erstad Mackowiak Andy Gonzalez Luis Terrero Alex Cintron Danny Richar 09: Pods Wise Lillibridge Betemit Nix Contreras (sorry to say it) You're forgetting Corky Miller and Jerry Owens...not to mention MacDougal, Egbert and Broadway. Although, FWIW, Betemit is a good/effective hitter with regular player time against RHP.

She's sort of cute, I guess, but I'd have to agree with TRU. As far as female tennis players go, Daniela Hantuchova is much hotter. Barbara Schett, Carling Bassett-Seguso (going old school), Kournikova, Sharapova is okay, too. Then there's Ivanovic, she's cute but certainly not beautiful by any stretch of the imagination. Maria Kirilenko and Tatiana Golovin aren't bad either. http://www.beyondhollywood.com/gallery/spo...&Qis=M#qdig

QUOTE (scenario @ May 4, 2009 -> 09:27 PM) Hmmm... looks like your right. I wasn't sure a 5-inning rain-shortened game went in the books as an official no-hitter. Melido Perez did it too, I think against the Yankees. That was either five or six innings.

HUC(K) FINFANTE

I would even rather have Nix in CF (after watching him handle RF tonight for the first time) than Pods. At least Nix has instincts and a pretty good arm.

QUOTE (Leonard Zelig @ May 4, 2009 -> 09:01 PM) Where do you get this information on where the minor league guys hit the ball? From listening to most of the Barons games this season...all four of those guys have sprayed the ball all over the field. I would say there might even be some concern that Viciedo is hitting 75% of his balls to RF and RCF. Flowers' greatest power is to CF, although he can hit the ball well out of the stadium in any direction...he's had quite a few doubles to both CF gaps. Beckham usually homers to LF, but he's a tremendous hitter to the opposite field and up the middle when down in the count. And Gordon has simply been a doubles machine so far this season.

Beckham (2B), Ramirez (SS) and Shelby/Danks >> Beckham (SS), Getz (2B), Ramirez in CF Ramirez is better than Beckham at SS, Beckham is/can be equal or better than Getz at 2B and both of our young outfielders will be much better defensively than Alexei in CF.

QUOTE (scenario @ May 4, 2009 -> 08:52 PM) ^^^^^^ Funny how we didn't hear much about Walk when we were 6th in MLB in runs scored last year. Since you follow the minor leagues as much as anyone here, do you "trust" Greg Walker to be the best possible hitting coach for the Birmingham Five??? Obviously we're not going to pry Rudy Jaramillo from Texas and I'm not even sure Walt Hrniak is alive, but aren't there any better options out there? We've had this same approach for a decade, and maybe it will never change unless they move the fences back at USCF. Maybe it doesn't even matter what our offense does, it's completely dependent upon Cooper and the pitching staff on a year to year basis, whether we're a good/decent or REALLY good team each year.

QUOTE (ptatc @ May 4, 2009 -> 08:46 PM) I think everyone goes overboard on Walker for the offense year after year. Your earlier point about Liilibridge is that he doesn't pull the ball. Jim Thome hits many homers the to the opposite field. Maybe it's just the fact that to win at comiskey you need to hit homeruns, so KW has put together a homerun hitting team. Since most hitters hit more homeruns if they pull the ball, this is what the hitters do. They see the way the ball flies out of this park and start to hit that way. Very few coaches at the professional level will totally change the way a player plays. They will tweak it and adjust it, but not totally change it. If the hitter has a good hitting style to hit the opposite way they will. Iguchi was a good example, I don't recall Walker wrecking him. When a team is missing a third of their starters (Fields, Anderson and Dye) one of whom is the clenup hitter, the team will struggle to score runs. JMHO It's FAR from clear that Fields and Anderson have the ability to be big league regulars over a 5 year time horizon. But it's great you brought up two examples of players who haven't thrived or excelled under Walker and Guillen...because those two are exactly the kind of players (unless Josh is going back to the 30 HR style of hitting that's been lost to his new David Ortiz-ish opposite field approach) that need to do the little things well and support the core of the line-up. The problem is that you can't have a 3B with 10-15 homers and 60 RBI's who is ALSO below average defensively. Lillibridge, Pods, Owens and Miller are lost causes. I still have high hopes for Getz and Nix, although I see no possible way they all fit into a future picture with Ramirez and Beckham in the middle infield. Moving either Getz or Beckham to 3B makes them much less valuable, although we could probably live with Gordon at 3B. If Lillibridge only hits to 1/3rd of the field, the defensive alignments will start to kill him even more.

QUOTE (Thunderbolt @ May 4, 2009 -> 08:43 PM) Bailey's been dominant in AAA his last four starts. He went back to his old delivery. I don't want to start the debate again, but maybe Coop wouldn't have to do much "fixin". Well, obviously Jocketty would be insane to trade him...when it's far from clear the Reds can stay with the Cardinals and Cubs or the wild card all season long. They have to build around pitching and not one year "band aid" solutions, so I would be shocked if they traded for Dye now. Darn you, Hal McCoy!

QUOTE (fathom @ May 4, 2009 -> 08:41 PM) The more I think about it, the more I just want to be entertained by the White Sox this season. I had no championship aspirations for this roster, but at least be competitive in every game and put together good at bats, etc. Hopefully things get better soon, and the games are more enjoyable. That will relieve a lot of the tension on this site and Caulfield won't have to start another new thread every other day. I have three more weeks of vacation, then I have to go back to "real life" in Thailand and won't have 24 hours to devote to obsessing over the White Sox. I am going to the White Sox/Twins game on the 21st. I think that will be the first White Sox game I've been able to attend in Chicago for 7 years. Hopefully we won't have been mathematically eliminated by Kyle Davies, the Tigers, Rangers and Blue Jays (because we play SO SO well in TOR).

We're putting a TON of faith to think Don Cooper could magically transform Bailey and get him to respond. It worked with Thornton in one or two days, but that's because Thornton was completely lost and desperate for any wisdom and guidance. From everything we've read about Bailey, he seems like he is a lot more resistant to coaching. Definitely, Dye for a pitching prospect is the right move, because you have to replace Colon/Contreras for the immediate future...it's just that it's nearly impossible to get a team with a young but underachieving pitching prospect to throw in the towel on them. Expecting Cooper to get anything out of Van Benschoten or Marquez is really pushing it. I liked Clayton a lot tonight. I'm not sure if he was a legit 93-96 tonight, but his pitches were on the same gun as Zach Greinke, and Clayton was throwing a tick or two faster than I've ever seen from him. It's going to have to be Richard, Poreda and/or an acquisition/trade of Dye/Konerko or one/two of our relievers in order to really have a competitive team for next year.

QUOTE (fathom @ May 4, 2009 -> 08:04 PM) Ah, the old vote of confidence for Walker. It's like groundhog day. When you have to give a coach a vote of confidence every year, maybe it's time to go in a new direction: http://www.suntimes.com/sports/baseball/wh...-050409.article We had this discussion before. It will be a disaster if Walker tries to make Flowers, Beckham, Allen and Viciedo patented "lift and pull" hitters. They've all consistently shown their best power to the opposite field this season. Unfortunately, there's no "fire sale" to be had with this White Sox team, even if they wanted to. We don't have any outfield replacements for Dye, unless we plan on playing Dayan Viciedo in LF/RF next season. Shelby and Danks are at least 1 1/2 seasons away from the big leagues. So Dye's not really tradeable, because 1) we have no replacement in the minors and 2) his contract is pretty big. Still, he's probably our most valuable player to the opposition. Konerko, if he continues to play as well as he has, would definitely be an interesting acquisition to a team like the Angels, if Morales continues to struggle. There are probably 2-3 teams out there who would be interested, and that could change with a key injury on some of the big market teams. Thome, at $13 million, forget it. Dotel, Linebrink, Jenks and Thornton will all be sought after. 1) Thornton...would it be best to trade him now or make him the closer to replace Jenks? Or could Poreda be the closer? It depends on what the Sox and KW are thinking here. There's always been that question about his ability to close or even pitch with inherited runners. Of course, scouts are in love with his arm and repeatable/easy delivery. Big plus is his contract seems to be a bargain. 2) Jenks, although his contract is going up year after year, will be around $7.5-8.5 million next season. 3) Dotel...an expensive acquisition for all but the big market teams, but our most effective pitcher so far this year and looking healthy, knock on wood. 4) Linebrink...least likely target, two years more to go on his contract, questions about overuse and future reliability

We also now have the very WORST offense in the American League, at least until the A's game becomes official later tonight. I'll repeat, after 15% of the season, we are now ranked last in runs scored per game in the AL. Oakland is behind us in runs scored, because they have played 3 less games. White Sox=4.32 runs per game Oakland=4.36 runs per game Home Runs White Sox=26 Royals=26

Brent Lillibridge, .186 career MLB average, 555 OPS Andy Gonzalez, .188 career MLB average, 549 OPS

Not for losing to Greinke tonight, that was pretty much a given and was one of those bets you ALMOST make but you can't really bring yourself to bet against the White Sox, no matter what. 1) Nix had played in 9 minor and major league games before his appearance at 3B. He threw one ball into the ground that Konerko miraculously snagged or it would have been runners on 2nd and 3rd. He also muffed a double play ball and almost didn't get the out at 1B. 1B) Wilson Betemit is now officially superfluous. This team would be better off with Uribe as the back-up across the infield. If you can't trust him to play 3B against Greinke, then you might as well just release him or wait for Thome to go down again so he can be the starting DH. Playing against tough RHP was SUPPOSEDLY the area where he excelled, at least last year. 2) Lillibridge has no business near CF (see yesterday's boot) or in the White Sox line-up, PERIOD. He hasn't hit a ball to the left of second base all season long. He has taken feeble/anemic swings 3-4 times already this season, getting baserunners like Anderson and now Pods thrown out easily on botched hit-and-runs. He makes almost as little contact as Josh Fields, and it's borderline nauseating now to watch. If you're not going to play Pods in CF, you might as well stick Nix out there, since he's NEVER even played the outfield in a major league game...still, he managed to look better than both Pods and Lillibridge respectively. Imagine if we lost a one run game because of Lillibridge and Pods being out there. 3) Pods playing AT ALL in RF is a permanent stain on all ML RFers. He can't judge flyballs (he never took good routes), he has to have the worst arm in the history of those who have ever played RF for even a single game (as a starter) and he's no longer a threat on the basepaths. The only thing he does (now) is work the count a little bit and get a few walks. It would really be better if KW just was honest that this team wasn't constructed to repeat in 2009 and that he wanted to build a team capable of winning and going deep into the playoffs in 2010/2011/2012. The fans are smart enough to know that players like Jerry Owens, Lillibridge, Corky Miller, Jack Egbert and Lance Broadway aren't really major league quality contributors...at least on winning teams.

QUOTE (fathom @ May 4, 2009 -> 04:37 PM) Brian Anderson is going to be in a movie, as will Brandon McCarthy. http://www.sportsbybrooks.com/mlb-players-...hollywood-23655 Apparently he didn't have time to play in Winter Ball because of the scheduled shooting times. Just kidding.

One thing Poreda needs to do is work a big faster and not throw so many pitches. He's like Scott Kazmir right now....the idea of our bullpen having to enter the game consistently in the 5th and 6th innings doesn't exactly build confidence. Although anything is better than being out of the game in the 3rd or 4th and having to go to Broadway then.

Flowers got credit for a caught stealing...but what happened was the runner came off the back after being safe. The throw beat him, but it was a bad tag apparently. Still, Flowers has been more successful than the major league catchers. Of course, they don't have to deal with the likes of Floyd, Contreras and Jenks not holding runners on base.

Hensley, the starter for the Diamond Jaxx, jumped all the way from the first month with Clinton (Midwest) League over their High A team all the way to a AA start tonight... Pretty unusual move so early in the year for an organization (in this case, the M's and their new GM Jack Z) to jump a guy all the way up two leagues. Wonder if they think he can help them in Seattle as early as this season? Or maybe they just wanted to see how well he could do against Birmingham? Well, it makes for an interesting storyline, I guess. So much for Hensley. Gave up his first earned runs of the season, 3-0 Barons going to the 2nd. Tyler Flowers with a two-out RBI single, Viciedo doubled (down the right field line) in Flowers and Brandon Allen, who'd walked. Beckham grounded out. Poreda supposedly throwing 98 on the Birmingham stadium gun. Actually got a strikeout with curveball.

For that, you'll have to refer to "The Girlfriend Experience," probably. New Soderbergh movie starring Sasha Grey.

QUOTE (Jimbo's Drinker @ May 4, 2009 -> 12:51 PM) The Sox have been home run or naught for 5 years(or so). We have had pretty good pitching to at least save us in some instances. Now, we are stuck with 2 young and getting better kids, one solid foundation, and 2 pitchers who have already had their 9 lives. It is amazing that this management can widdle away so much money and try to sell us on an improved product. I cannot even imagine how we will ruin next offseaon with a ton of money off the books. Besides MacDougal and Contreras, where would you have cut away from the team to be more "payroll efficient" like the $65 million 2005 World Series champions? Konerko? Thome's option vested, and we couldn't have deliberately prevented him from getting to that mark without a huge fight with the union. Of course it's silly to spend $13 million on a DH, but we also received $22 million from the Phils, so a good part of it was subsidized. There's even rumors of a "handshake" agreement between Gillick and KW that the Phillies would kick in money if the White Sox 2009 option for Thome vested. Besides jettisoning Swisher (which looks debatable now), Cabrera, Uribe, Crede and Vazquez, what could we have done realistically? Nobody was going to take Paulie's contract unless we sent them money, and probably no AL team would take Thome for $13 million. If Thome wasn't around, our best DH candidates would be Betemit and either Kroeger, Flowers or Brandon Allen.