caulfield12

QUOTE (Benchwarmerjim @ Apr 23, 2009 -> 09:01 PM) well, the dimensions of the new stadium is going to be nearly identical to Metrodome (I think centerfield is going to be a few feet shorter because of space constraints), and the Grounds crew and shape the dirt and infield grass to help the Twins out (if my memory serves me right, I think the White Sox do the same thing by shaping the basepaths from first and third in a way so that bunts go foul. But I could be wrong on that) . One thing I havent heard discussed much is how the wind is going to play a factor on things. I think the Twins Cities is one of the windiest metro areas in the country (Top 10ish). But of course, one doesn't really know all that stuff until you play games there (see Yankee Stadium) I remember Terry Ryan saying that there was a lot of discussion about how the ballpark was going to be built, but the conclusion was make it similar and then the organization can continue to Draft players just about the same. I just hope they draft a few more boppers instead of toolsy outfielders. Actually, almost every bunt that gets onto the dirty down the 3B line at USCF stays fair...which is very strange, because the White Sox have very few bunters on their team. If you watched the game in BALT last night, you'd notice that the grass comes almost right up to the foul line, so it's much harder to bunt down the lines there...despite the presence of Jones, Roberts and Pie, you would THINK their groundskeepers would do the opposite. If they are smart, the Twins would find a way to have a "jetstream" going against RH hitters and one taking balls hit up into the air to RF out, like in Yankee Stadium. That would benefit Morneau and Mauer...and the White Sox have predominantly RH power hitters, with the exception of Thome, who will be gone after 2009 in all likelihood.

QUOTE (JPN366 @ Apr 23, 2009 -> 10:59 PM) Viciedo found his gold glove tonight, snagging some screamers to contribute to Poreda's gem. He ranged deep to his right and into foul ground to snag one and throw the runner out. Poreda was great, but he clearly was out of gas in the 7th. His fastball was topping out at 90, so he ended up having a rough inning. But, through the first 6 innings, he only threw 85 pitches and no more than 15 in any inning. No walks until the 7th, only two 3 ball counts and only six 2 ball counts. He was visibly pumped when he struck out his 11th batter to end the 7th with the bases loaded. Beckham's error wasn't really an error. He ranged deep to his left and spun around to throw, but didn't get enough on the throw. Seems like a strange error to give playing at home....? Did the throw pull Allen off the bag? I've never seen an error called on a player in that situation unless he clearly mishandled or bobbled the ball first. Especially if he had to do any kind of spin move, just doesn't sound like an error that would be called in your home park when you're that organization's top prospect. Character building for Beckham, I guess. It would be great if Poreda could develop a curveball. His slider in ST wasn't very consistent or effective. If Poreda can throw mid 90's and then get over a hook with a 20+ MPH differential without varying his delivery at all, it would be a big breakthrough for him and the organization.

Rowand was the #6 ranked prospect for the White Sox in 2000. He was never a Top 100 prospect, but it's not like he was chopped liver, either. I guess I would have put him in the Aaron Cunningham or Jeremy Reed category of being more likely to make it as a fourth outfielder, but he surprised me. Especially his recovery after the dirt-bike incident. KW was really furious about that one. It almost ended his career with the White Sox.

Luckily it hit on the top of the hand, but they really need to give him some additional non-cumbersome protection for at least the wrist and that exposed part of his hand....since he gets hit so many times. Quentin breaks his hand and our season is essentially over. Plus, it was the same hand he had problems with last year.

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Apr 23, 2009 -> 02:05 PM) Urinating on Brian Anderson's lawn. I was going to urinate on Brian's lawn, but I am currently too busy trying to keep my Colombiana "hunnies" away from him. As soon as Brian hits a homer, I will release them to him for a celebratory fiesta and salsa and wet t-shirt contest. In my opinion, the "all-time" hottest Latina is a myth/legend from the Internet named Keyra Agustina (sometimes Augustina). She's supposedly from Argentina and may or may not actually exist, but she has the best "trasero" (butt) ever. You can google her.

Harris has always been a "plus" offensive player, but you give up a ton on defense. It's something that Bill Smith will have to consider because of the erratic starting pitching from Baker and Liriano...actually, I think they used Harris at 2B for Casilla and Buscher for Crede at 3B in one of the games last night. Harris has played SS, 3B and 2B but he's kind of like DeRosa in that he's the master of none. Gil Meche is continuing to pitch impressively, and Reyes was able to get out of a bases-loaded situation with no outs, but he had an elevated pitch count and also walked 4 batters in 6 IP. Will be interesting to see what happens with DET/KC and Minnesota at Cleveland this weekend. Of course, the Blue Jays have the best record in the AL, Halladay is matched with Contreras and the M's haven't been slouches either. Rumor that Cliff Lee will be made available to the highest bidder if the Indians fall further back in the first 2-3 months (cbssportsline.com). He has one more year left on his contract. The Cubs' designated Luis Vizcaino for assigment. KW and Ozzie might be interested, possibly.

Yes, BUT... You're also leaving out many important facts. 1) Konerko was fighting a hand/wrist and later an oblique injury at that time...early in the season...so obviously he would not do as well. Doesn't that follow? 2) Contreras was battling an injury after that Reds game in May or June of 2006 that broke his consecutive victories streak. He would never be the same pitcher with the White Sox. 3) Contreras was also fighting through injuries/health concerns last year but did not take them to Cooper and Guillen...he tried to pitch through them. All of those exigencies corrupt your example.

Was Edwin Jackson available? Obviously he was, he was traded.

Well....then we would have had to trade them Dye and they wouldn't have signed Burrell. With that additional money, we would have signed Abreu for RF. We know he was available because the Tigers' "dumped" a lesser player on the Rays. I think it's pretty logical that they knew they had the cheaper Niemann and Price in the pipeline and Jackson, from their perspective (both salary and performance in 2008) was the one to go. Burrell is RH and he was changing to a new league (which has obviously been a difficult transition for him). Dye was only $2 million higher in salary. So the White Sox get additional insurance for the back of their rotation...since...at the time, it wasn't 100% clear that Jose was going to come back effectively. One must assume Williams knew Jose would be back this year, but being back and being effective are two different things entirely. KW also must have known we had "depth" issues behind Contreras...Marquez, Richard, Poreda, Egbert, Broadway...none of them could be counted on to put up .500 or better records as a 5th starter. PLUS, Cooper usually loves to take on talented projects that have tools, a willingness to learn and at least competent secondary stuff to go with a "plus" fastball (Jackson is usually 93-97).

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/players/gamelog?playerId=5842 We'll see how long it lasts, but this guy has been their version of Gavin Floyd so far...he has another start today. The consensus was that Edwin would never turn it around, realize his potential, and become a consistent starter. KW can't be right 100% of the time, and Jackson might falter (starting today), but there's no doubt we would be better off with him rather than Jose as our #4/5 guy. I know he was one of the more talked-about names on the boards in terms of targets to fill the back of the rotation.

"While his 1990 rookie year was marred by an 0-for-41 slump and 25 errors" Wikipedia.com

That's exactly why you should fear the Tigers. Because Verlander is pitching horribly and they are still in first place, the longer they hang around, the more dangerous they will be. They rallied late and the Angels gave up another huge crooked number in the 7th (Shields/Arredondo) and the Tigers took the win. There are a lot of "ifs" with this team...health of veteran hitters, Porcello's progress and number of innings pitched, Zumaya...but if either Robertson or Willis can ever figure things out and Bonderman comes back at midseason, they're at the very least, extremely dangerous. With Perry, Lyon, Seay, Zumaya and Rodney, they have the makings of a bullpen that's a notch or two better than ours. A big if, sure, but not impossible or entirely implausible. Galarraga is their version of Danks, Jackson has been better than advertised and Verlander will probably come around eventually...and we simply can't get any better pitching from our Big 3 and Colon. The only place we can realistically look for improvement is from Contreras' spot in the rotation. You can take the approach that the Angels suck without Vlad and most of their rotation, but the fact is that winning at Anaheim and rallying late is still a big confidence boost for a team that underachieved and never really was in it for the entire 2008 season.

That strikeout percentage for Danks needs to decrease from 1 in 3 to the 1 in 4/5 range for him to be really effective. I don't know what kind of power he will eventually develop, but those are Curtis Granderson (or Chris Young) numbers...the year he struck out 174 times.

Liriano with a 7.06 ERA now. Baker is also way up there. Perkins has really been the ace of their staff, and Blackburn and Slowey have pitched decently. They are going to have to get better starts (obviously) out of those two "aces" if they're going to do anything. More troubling, Cuddyer, Young and Gomez are all struggling mightily...and Punto/Crede on the left side of the infield don't give you much, either. They're going to have to start using Brendan Harris, and maybe Tolbert to generate some offense. It looked like Casilla was going to be a really pesky/dangerous offensive player like Asdrubal Cabrera with the Indians but it hasn't happened yet. Still, they're the freakin' Twins and they are only 2 games out of first, despite everything (and partially thanks to the anemic Angels).

QUOTE (GreatScott82 @ Apr 22, 2009 -> 07:54 PM) I'd like to see Contreras get those starts down in triple-a. He obviously needs more time to work out his kinks.... I'd like to see one of these guys up here getting some MLB experience: Charlotte (AAA) John Van Benchoten (1-1, 2.65 ERA, 17 IP, 13 SO) Wes Whisler (1-1, 2.20 ERA, 16.1 IP, 7 SO) Birmingham (AA) Kyle McCulloch (2-1, 2.37 ERA, 19 IP, 9 SO) Aaron Poreda (0-2, 3.00 ERA, 9 IP, 6 SO) It took a long time for them to give Egbert a shot in the bullpen...Whisler, you'll see the same thing. Van Benschoten and Poreda would be more likely to get a spot start than the other 2. Most see Whisler as "organizational filler" or merely a AAAA pitcher. A lot depends on Cooper's perceptions of JVB and Poreda. Poreda seems like he has another half year (at least) to go before they throw him out there for a start.

QUOTE (SoxFan101 @ Apr 22, 2009 -> 05:43 PM) Its been hard to watch so far, but to be fair Baltimore has a pretty good offense and he was doing fairly well till blowing up at the end. Im willing to give the Count 3-4 more starts before i start jumping off the cliff. He was facing a line-up without Jones and Mora, on the other hand. Still, they're a pretty strong left-hand dominated line-up, not a good match-up for Contreras.

http://www.weather.com/maps/maptype/curren...om=hp_main_maps Looks like there might be a "window," but it's not going to be a very long one.

Well, whatever it is he's throwing, it acts more like a slider/cutter, because it breaks on a diagonal plane from 2 o'clock to 8 o'clock. It doesn't have the action of a typical sinker or two-seamer, that's more downward. Sometimes it's very hard to tell though...if you watch Colon, he has so much natural movement on his fastball, you would swear he's throwing a screwball.

D. Cortes (AA) 0-2, 7.71 ERA 11 2/3 IP, 18 H, 5 BB, 13 K's F. De Los Santos (California League, High A) 2-2, 5.87 ERA 23 IP, 29 H, 11 BB/26 K's Aaron Cunningham (AAA-Sacramento) 4/12, 3 2B, .333 C. Carter .300, 1 HR, 16 RBI's (50 AB's) Gio Gonzalez has started two games but only has 7 IP.

QUOTE (ChiSox_Sonix @ Apr 22, 2009 -> 02:26 PM) This is so stupid. There shouldnt be voting 15 games into the season Predictions: C - Posada 1B - Teixera 2B - Pedroia 3B - ARod SS- Jeter OF - Ichiro OF - Vlad OF - Swisher (Yankee fans seem to be enthralled with him right now) Doubt Guerrero will make it this year...unless the Angels' attendance can carry him over. It doesn't help much that he's injured now. Someone like Matsui or Damon could just as easily get in, just because of the Yankees'/Bristol bias. Swisher is almost down to .300 now, although still looking much better than Ryan Sweeney's 600 OPS. There's no way Rays fans can carry Longoria over A-Rod...although hopefully the rest of the country will do the right thing and be more knowledgeable about the fact that A-Rod hasn't even played yet. Seems like Quentin and Danks will be our two representatives.

Contreras was showing signs of being very effective with that cutter when he'd drop down to sidearm and throw it across the outside front corner of the plate against righties...virtually unhittable. The problems are obvious. He has no control or feel for the forkball yet. He's essentially a one-pitch pitcher, the fastball, which is only at 89-93 MPH and nothing like how hard he was throwing in 05-06, which was 92-97 consistently. If you get behind in the count with an "average" major league fastball and you leave it out over the plate, which he did consistently last night, you'll get killed. And he did, especially by Markakis, Huff and Scott. He also hung a couple of non-moving forkballs. As Cubano mentioned, sometimes he's very tentative about pitching inside, almost like he's afraid to hit someone. The other problem is that he wasn't showing a variety of pitches from the "drop down" mode and he was throwing inside backing-up fastballs to RH batters that were getting walloped all over the park. If he can throw the fastball, a cutter/fast slider and the forkball, he'll be fine. If not, he probably will end up in the bullpen with another 2-3 starts like the 3 he's had so far in 2009.

Actually, one could say the same thing about Brandon Allen...it's been pretty remarkable how Brandon and Gordon have tracked up and down together like Nasdaq stocks. Both are still over .300, so I am not sure if anyone is "in a lather" (favorite Whimpy saying about Tom Kelly) yet in the Sox FO. Doubt it. Beckham is 1 for his last 12, 2 for his last 14.

Well, I can't speak for the Nationals, but I think things are probably a little bit unsettled there with all the Bowden/Rijo fallout. I know they gave Zimmerman that huge contract, but the Perez situation now seems to have unsettled the teams dealing with Jamie Torres. One would have to assume that Marti would sign with SOMEONE once he's been cleared by MLB and the State Department. Have you been following Viciedo? What is your theory as to his early season struggles with BIRM? Have you heard anything? Ruiz is a 1B/DH type? Kendry Morales hasn't exactly been on fire this April, and Alexei finally MIGHT have shown some signs of breaking out of his 5/40 start.

What are the scouts saying about Pérez? "He had a developed body, with some stiffness," said one international scouting director (about) Pérez, echoing the thoughts of others. "I never saw the speed that he is supposed to have in his swing and was a bit harsh. I saw him with no ability within the range in which we speak." Cubano, can you explain that quote to me?

Wise was good last year against RHP. He had a 797 OPS in over 100 at-bats against RHP in 2008, but that seems to get thrown out/dismissed/overlooked conveniently. Nobody said he was an All-Star or the next Eric Ludwick. As far as Anderson goes....let's revisit all of our evaluation on May 30th. Agreed?