caulfield12

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Apr 22, 2010 -> 08:51 PM) Yes they do. See also CC Sabathia 2008. Barry Zito comes to mind. Jason Schmidt. There have been a ton of "aces" with big contracts that have gone south (big-time) on those clubs. Heck, probably 60-75% of those pitchers with $50 million plus contracts, Hampton comes to mind right away, Kevin Brown, Darren Dreifort, Chan Ho Park, etc.

At this point, there's absolutely no reason not to give Threets a chance. It can't get any worse, he's younger and has 5X the upside of a Williams, which isn't saying a whole lot. But just let him work in blowouts and maybe things can click working at the big league level with Cooper and next to Thornton/Buehrle/Danks.

The only question is when will we hit an identifiable rock bottom...where is the light at the end of the tunnel? We're closing in on Baltimore, lol.

Okay...maybe a scout who makes talent recommendations/identification without making the final decision. Giving him too much authority might be a mistake. But he has to have some, or he wouldn't consider it worth his time and effort.

Well, it looks like this game is going down the drain rapidly...

Like the Twins, the Rays are a team with superior talent. Pure and simple. We can't win with smoke and mirrors again.

If I was hiring Guillen, it would be as Sox Baseball Academy Director in Venezuela....Assistant Scouting Director/Caribbean-South America. That would be it, right now.

Peavy at 95...seems like velocity concerns have disappeared.

Now that I've thought about it, Xavier Nady was the player that we needed to balance out our offense.

Well, I'd always rather talk baseball than engage in internecine warfare with fellow Sox fans, lol. We're all in the same boat...nobody wants to lose our interest in the season so early. Although, as I mentioned previously, I'd simply adjust my mindset, look forward to the youngsters playing and seeing what kind of return/s we could get via trade. I actually found it's somewhat therapeutic to watch other teams play on Extra Innings or listen to other games at MLB AUDIO/AT BAT. SOMEWHAT...but I can never escape my lifetime love for the White Sox, baseball begins and ends at 35th Street for me, ever since my favorite uncle gave me a 1979 Topps Claudell Washington baseball card, I wrote a letter to Claudell, got it back 3 days later and became a lifetime Sox fan. Heck, Barry Bonds even sent me back an autograph...Sheffield, Canseco, those guys were even nice when they were rookies. Sosa, same thing... (Well, Scott Radinsky actually got it for me, since I got to know him really well when he pitched for South Bend and I would get free tickets at will call whenever I would come to Chicago to visit my friends at Northwestern...unfortunately I had to go to "lowly" state school Univ of Iowa, haha). I gave most of these autographs (about 500) away to my ex-fiance's young son, hoping he might become a baseball fan. NOTE: I WROTE THIS RANDOM STREAM-OF-CONSCIOUSNESS message intentionally....to make fun of myself. Ha!

What is this movie, THE PERFECT GAME? Has anyone seen it? I did see the fictionalized movie featuring my hometown Quad City River Bandits about the Dominican pitcher...and adjusting to life in the middle of nowhere (aka the Midwest League) if you're a Latin American ballplayer. It was just so-so. Aha, Sugar was the name of it...not the greatest, not the worst, baseball movie of all time.

Winston-Salem Dash (2009-present); Winston-Salem Warthogs (1995-2008); Winston-Salem Spirits (1984-1994); Winston-Salem Red Sox (1961-1983) I was half right, lol. I should have remembered Warthogs though...that name change happened the 2nd year I was working for the Augusta GreenJackets. We'd just changed our name from the Pirates for marketing purposes. I'll never forget the day GM Ron Wolf sent us a bunch of Packers hats in the mail and asked for some of our merchandise in trade...he is a huge golf fan, apparently. I saw the package and was like "what the hell, why is someone in Green Bay sending us a box?"

And all the GM's who have given him multiple chances, too...he's like the modern-day equivalent of Steve Howe with how many GM's have fallen in love with his ability and forgotten the downside that always follows him wherever he ends up.

Nope, Nix is clearly better offensively. The main reason for Vizquel in the 2 hole is to advance our 1 hitter who never is on base. And Nix=Vizquel at 2B, perhaps a notch or two better.

The sad thing is that I'm seriously contemplating the idea our offense would be better off with Willie Harris (LF) and Miguel Olivo. That's pretty bad. Of course, we NEVER win the World Series without AJ and Sweaty Freddy.

Vizquel actually pulls the ball at age 43? What is the world coming to? He used to be a pretty good opposite field "cutter and slasher." At least in Ozzie's imagination, he's still that same hitter with the Indians.

What did they use to be called? Something like the Spirits? It's on the tip of my tongue...

QUOTE (greg775 @ Apr 22, 2010 -> 04:59 PM) I think you are delving too deeply in the minds of fans. The bottom line is a lot of us picked the Sox to go .500 or a little better, some people even said 90 wins in that one thread and now most everybody's expectations have been lowered dramatically. We will watch all season and see what happens. Many of us have our favorite players and least favorite players. I hate Pierre and like Pods, but I will try not to post that for the 1,000th time in the future. The Sox are what they are ... we shall assess their play on a daily basis and see what happens, but I think your talking about the marketing guy again was a bit old and made everybody cringe a bit. Look tomorrow at MLB attendance. There's a certain team 45 minutes east of your location that will be leading the White Sox for the first time this decade in that category. This, without the "real" Zach Greinke but a very entertaining offense, at least. They play the Twins at home, coming off winning 2/3 in TOR...it will be an interesting attendance battle with the White Sox this weekend.

Agreed, for the most part. The only "above average" replacement/s we could argue that we have waiting in the minors statistically would be Tyler Flowers at C/DH (assuming he could put up more than a 500 OPS), Hudson (over Garcia) and probably Josh Kroeger would get the slight nod over Kotsay, although Kroeger is really almost like Wilson Betemit as a walking defensive nightmare wherever you stick him on the diamond. Arguments could be made for Jordan Danks over Pierre, but everyone is concerned about his K percentage and lack of power, especially in LF/RF. But yes, there's a dearth of legit replacements, and there's very little talented depth...just "old/veteran/journeyman" depth, I don't even know that Jayson Nix exists in Ozzie's eyes anymore with Vizquel on the team. Nix is a Gold Glove caliber 2B, yet Ozzie has Nix benched still and going w/ Vizquel, who's a natural SS.

How do they calculate that? Taking into account the fact that pitchers like Contreras, Floyd, Vazquez, Garcia, Jenks, etc., did/do a pretty crappy job holding runners...not that AJ would be like Marson, Mauer or a Molina...I guess he's slightly below adequate, but better than V-Mart. How can they calculate gamesmanship, pitch selection, game strategy/location of attacking opponent's hitting weaknesses...? Almost impossible to develop statistics (beyond CD/field percentage) to accurately reflect a catcher's value. Then you have the fact that many catchers don't even call their own games, it's all relayed from the bench.

Break up the A's. Are they actually for real with that line-up? I'll believe someone can beat the Angels over the long haul when I see it, but good win for an improving young ballclub against the Yankees. Ziegler and Bailey make up a very strong combo to end games. Sweeney at .722 OPS w/ no homers, 9 RBI's. Gio struggled yesterday with Yanks' line-up. Of course, a lot of teams will suffer that same fate this year. Ubaldo Jimenez an early season monster, with Halladay. Will be 4-0, ERA around 1. Only 3 hits today, although it's a Nationals team with Willie Harris (he of the 927 OPS) in the 3 hole...STILL, the Nationals have been scoring a ton of run, close to first in the NL. Yes, the NATS. But their team ERA is 6 and Livan Hernandez (somehow a 0.41 ERA) hadn't even given up a run until today...how's that for bad pitching?? They really need Strasburg as soon as he's close to ready. Miguel Olivo with another runner thrown out stealing...7 FOR 9, best ratio in baseball (came to mind since another thread was talking about AJ's D). Also sporting a 978 OPS. Who would ever think that Willie Harris and Miguel Olivo would ever be doing that?

QUOTE (fathom @ Apr 22, 2010 -> 02:23 PM) Please explain...Matt Thornton blew 2 games in the first two weeks of the season, and so did Pena (though he didn't get the loss in one of them). Putz blew another game as well. Our bullpen has had no problem retiring guys in blowouts though up until last night. And you shift those 3-4 games, you get an 8-7 or 9-6 record, DESPITE the offense and inconsistent starting pitching as well as defense. That's one of many reasons this start is so frustrating.

I've maintained all along this bullpen is the most talented one we've ever had, with the obvious exception of Williams. If you substitute Threets from the LH side at 95 MPH with control...maybe the best bullpen in Sox history, despite Jenks' shakiness. Of course, I know the 2005 bullpen was better statistically. I'm talking about pure "stuff" and raw talent. Santos is one of my favorite things about this season so far that's making it somewhat more bearable.

You quote bullpen ERA as a conclusive stat. Linebrink was a lockdown set-up man in 2008...he was nails until he got hurt. Of course, after he went down, the bullpen wasn't as effective. Everyone had clearly defined roles, even moreso than now. But it's when the starting pitching and bullpen were working in unison that we won the majority of our games and got the division lead. Then we just had to hold on and gut things out on a day by day basis for the final 4-6 weeks after Quentin and Crede went down and Linebrink couldn't get back to dominating form. What does Hawk always say? It's not what you do, it's WHEN you do it. We've had a number of close games this year that the bullpen gave up late runs under pressure/duress. I'm not blaming them completely, the offense is putting too much pressure on the pitching staff...every little mistake is magnified. But if our pen was so perfect in 2010, we'd be 8-7 or 9-6 right now.

Or magnifies how desperate Ozzie is to shake things up and is now simply grasping at straws while sitting two of our best hitters, Rios and Beckham. It's like he takes darts and just throws them against the wall to see what sticks. Once again, Jayson Nix is irrelevant on this roster. If Pierre's not getting on, what the heck can Vizquel do in the 2 spot? At least Jayson has some pop and can occasionally go on a hot streak if he got some regular playing time.