caulfield12

QUOTE (Princess Dye @ Feb 14, 2010 -> 07:08 PM) I remember a Pat Cline who was supposedly going to be Johnny Bench II See Kevin Orie, Bobby Hill, Gary Scott, Jerome Walton, Dwight Smith, Shawon Dunston, Rich Hill, Angel Guzman, etc. Some of those guys turned out to be "decent" major leaguers like Dunston, but nothing close to their hype. As for Viciedo, we'd all rather see him at 3B because of his arm strength, but if his range/mobility are lacking, he has to be moved to 1B/DH or corner outfield. We've already invested the signing bonus into him, so let's just be patient and wait things out instead of jumping off the bandwagon. Alexei Ramirez was 26 and a "seasoned" veteran when he came to us, those comparisons of Viciedo making an instant impact (he got more money than Ramirez, who basically was a ROY type player) because they were both Cuban (not to mention our success with Contreras in 05/06) led us to see this signing with rose-colored glasses. Many of us were guilty of thinking he could make an impact as early as 2009, while others were being a lot more realistic. And the expectations for Ramirez when he came to us were very low, kind of a super-sub/utility guy in the mold of Ramon Santiago or Jose Oquendo with a "plus" arm but reed-like physique who would struggle to hold down the last spot on the roster or be in AAA. By the way, Keith Law is an a s s. I'm going to get tired of reading that we have the worst farm system in baseball when it's the opinion of ONE writer. I think that 18-24 is a lot more indicative of the actual level of talent in our system. The only difference from this year to last year is Gordon Beckham being removed from the list. That doesn't account for falling 10 spots when we had a very solid draft last year. Mitchell and Flowers, theoretically, have the ability to be All-Stars at their positions. Hudson is seen by many as one of the top 25-40 prospects in baseball, while some don't even rank him in the Top 100. Then you have Viciedo and Jordan Danks, both of those guys have God-given natural ability that can't be coached or taught. Neither of them may make a HUGE impact, but you can't begin to compare the state of our minor league system with 2-3 years ago when it was Josh Fields, Jerry Owens, Ehren Wasserman and Angel/Andy Gonzalez at the tops of the depth chart. And Trayce Thompson has as much upside (and downside) as any prospect in the low minors today. Sure there are doubts about Morel or Viciedo or CJ Retherford, but we're not close to being the worst farm system in baseball...no matter what Keith Law's personal vendetta against the Sox and/or KW happens to be.

QUOTE (joeynach @ Feb 13, 2010 -> 12:56 AM) Well if this is the case then the twins made a big mistake in tendering Young a contract, albeit for $3M+ too. Thats not something the twins are in the business of doing, eating $$. Sidney Ponson Ruben Sierra Juan Castro Ramon Ortiz Tony Batista Adam Everett Mike Lamb Craig Monroe RonDL White Livan Hernandez Phil Nevin All say hello...just joking, but actually, the Twins have made LOTS of stupid financial decisions on veterans in completing their rosters over the last decade. It's just that the five ALCD championships hide some of that unless you give their rosters a closer examination. And they've made a lot of good moves too. I've always argued their unearthing Kenny Rogers on the cheap (the White Sox passed) for the fifth starter's spot was the single biggest difference between those 2 teams in 2003. The margin of error was that thin with the White Sox pitching, despite the seasons of Loaiza and Colon.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Feb 10, 2010 -> 12:19 PM) The logic I see in thinking that way is to look at the pitching staff. If MB departs after 2011 as he's discussed, D1 and Peavy a year later, that's a key block of 3 spots we might really struggle to fill. Floyd then is a FA 1 year after that. Even if Huddy is a success story, rebuilding the starting rotation is the hardest part, and aside from Hudson, right now we don't have obvious candidates to step in. But yea, when does KW ever not see things like that coming. But really, if MB packs his bags, that's the kind of thing that could literally close our window, with the effects he has on the whole pitching staff. Agreed. Buehrle to me has always been the main key to the franchise being competitive on a yearly basis, at least 50% because of his leadership qualities and the respect everyone for him has throughout the organization. Losing Buehrle, AJ and Konerko...Quentin and Beckham will have to become THE GUYS. Is that Megan Fox's thumb, lol?

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Feb 10, 2010 -> 12:13 PM) I don't understand why everyone thinks the Sox only ever have like a 1-2 year window. Sure, there will be other guys leaving, but there will be others coming in at the exact same time. People thought the window was closing after 2007 and the Sox would need a massive overhaul, and they won the division in 2008. With the way the Central is currently set up, no team is set up to consistently win the division for years and years, and the Sox are young enough with enough core talent at the right age that they have a window of about 5 years to compete with this core of players, and they will be plugging new guys into holes all the time. This is mostly based on the starting rotation staying intact, particularly Peavy and Buehrle, but also holding onto Floyd and Danks. (And also the questions surrounding how long Mark will be wearing a White Sox uniform in general.) If Flowers can make it at catcher, we're set for the near future with Beckham and Ramirez up the middle, Rios and Quentin...that's a pretty solid foundation. If Danks, Viciedo, Hudson and Mitchell (3 of those 4) can become regular contributors, along with Flowers, that would be amazing. Of course, we know that's unlikely to happen (see Kennyhatesprospects). The other thing is that 2008 was more of a transition year where nobody ever felt that team had enough to win it all, certainly not after Quentin went down. However, I'm sure if you look at the favorites for every year from 2000 until 2009 in the AL Central, only about 2 times have the "favorites" won. The closest to a "mini-dynasty" was the 2002-2004/06 Twins, and those teams were obviously lacking in offensive firepower. The more I think about the future of our franchise, the more it seems to revolve around Carlos Quentin being the 2008 version and Gordon Beckham being a legit All-Star player at 2B with an 850 OPS. If not, it's hard to see us getting very far.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Feb 10, 2010 -> 12:05 PM) He still put up a H/9 of greater than 10, and since coming to the AL in 2005, he's put up a H/9 of 10.9 in 345 innings. Not all of that can be blamed on poor defense. He doesn't walk a lot of hitters and he strikes out a decent amount, but he doesn't strike out enough to compensate for his very hittable stuff. Looking at his PitchFx numbers, he looks very much like he's become a junk or finesse pitcher. If he does get great defense this year in Minnesota - and it's possible with Harris/Punto-Hardy-Hudson-Morneau from 3B-1B though his outfield defense won't be as good - he could put up good numbers, but he's going to have to put up a H/9 of less than 10. That is obviously dependent upon his defense, but that comes with the territory of a guy pitching to his defense. If he could put up Mark Buehrle-esque IP/H and BB/K ratios, then he'd be in very good shape with that offense.

QUOTE (ptatc @ Feb 10, 2010 -> 11:55 AM) I don't disagree with most of the post. However, the team does not want a guy like Thome on the team. 1. He has shown to be a poor pinch hitter/part time player and the sox want to rotate the players, 2. They want to rotate the players to keep them fresh while still maintaining some consitency, so they weren't going to sign a DH only player. While the team plays 1/2 of the games at home, they are also going to play 1/2 of the games on the road. If you tailor your game too much to your own park you may do well at home but then have difficulty on the road. Take the Twins, they have had the best home field advantage in hte last decade. This has helped them to division tiltes but they have gotten nowhere in the playoffs. I believe (I'm sure someone will check this) that even when they won the Wrold Series titles in the 90's they never won a road game. I would rather go with the better overall team and to me that's pitching and defense, than to tailor it strictly to the ballpark. Ideally, you would blend both but under budget contraints I'm not sure that's possible. I'm not sure if this plan will work this year but I do think it's a good plan and a good way to continue building the team with guys like flowers, hudson and Morel on the way. Those players seem to fit the mold of this plan. Fair enough. Yeah, when they beat the Cardinals (I think it was them) and Braves in 1987 and 1991, it was 4-3 both times, with the home teams all holding serve. Flowers makes a lot of sense for USCF if he stays at catcher especially....if not, he fits into "others" fighting to replace Konerko at 1B or for at-bats at DH. Viciedo, hopefully, will figure in there was well by the beginning of 2011. I personally don't see Morel ever making it as a regular with the big league club, but then I've watched Chris Snopek and Greg Norton as starters over there. I'm more optimistic about Danks or Mitchell having breakthroughs than relying on Morel to play at close to maximum potential. The rumor was alway that KW felt offense was what helped to draw bigger crowds, and that he'd rather error on the side of building offensively-minded clubs both for the fanbase and to tailor it to the stadium itself...of course, die-hard Sox fans know that winning trumps everything else in terms of attendance. It's only fun if you have a Wisconsin, Butler or Iowa style of team (the baseball equivalent being us offensively unless Quentin returns to MVP form) if you actually win games with it, otherwise it really sucks for the fans. I think a lot of the frustration is with the idea of having only a two year window for this team...and the fact that we're starting out at a competitive disadvantage because of the DH situation, just as we limped out of the gate last year in CF, 3B and with Lillibridge getting many important at bats.

QUOTE (ptatc @ Feb 10, 2010 -> 10:21 AM) I still don't see this situation as being that bad. If you look at the splits kotsay had a .290 BA , and a .347 obp against rhp last year and jones had a .367 obp against lhp with a poor ba last year. While these numbers aren't great they aren't awful in light of two reasons. 1. they spent their money and off season moves on peavy and rios, so the sox were going to down grade somewhere. I, personally would rather have peavy and rios than a thome type at dh. 2. the sox want a more athletic defensive oriented team and kotsay provides this with backing up 1B and jones provides this with backing up the of. I think ozzie and kw got tired of seeing dye konerko, thome and aj getting on base but not scoring because it took 3 hits to get them home. The replacements may not get on base as much but have a chance to score on fewer hits. The sox are counting on the lineup working as a team as opposed to the fanasy stats of thome only scoring if he hits the homerun. It will be quite the different team built along the same lines of boston, angels and seattle all of whom shed power for pitching and defense this year. Yes, but the Mariners are playing to the strengths of that ballpark, and they have exceptional defenders (they did lose Beltre) at multiple positions. We have one starter on our team that you know is going to be better than league average in Rios. You could include Pierre in LF, although that arm's obviously a weakness. Sure, Ramirez, Beckham and Quentin COULD theoretically be improvements at their respective positions, but you're going from abysmal to average, which is an improvement but I'm not sure we could call it a philosphical change like in Seattle. Of cousre, we don't have many reasons (besides what seems like the blip/anomaly on the back of his baseball card in 2009) to feel confident that Pierre's offensive game will translate well to USCF. Once again, if they were playing at PetCo or Safeco or similar parks that play big, their changes would make a lot more sense. But it's hard to argue they're not putting themselves behind the 8 ball with all the things that have to go right offensively, which would put us somewhere around 7th-10th in the AL if EVERYTHING breaks right. 2005 showed we can win a championship with dominant pitching, but the timely/situational hitting and bullpen were also outstanding that season... We can and should do better. We keep hearing that Pierre was pretty good in 2009 or that Rios was good 2-3 years ago or Andruw Jones or Mark Kotsay or Omar Vizquel was an impact player offensively 10 years ago, but it's not like Jim Thome was bad last year. There's absolutely no reason a Jones/Thome platoon wouldn't have worked, and they wouldn't have needed to give him more than $2-3 million. It's not like it would have broken the team payroll.

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/players/5945/g...3NxNn6RaACFCLcF Carl Pavano averaged a pretty "decent" 6 1/3 IP every time out with the Twins. His ERA was a very solid 2.82 if you take out one really bad start....and this is over a span of 11-12 starts, is it just a blip on the radar, we'll see. 7 QS/12 total starts Even his "non-quality" starts were 5 2/3-4, 6-4 and 7-5 (IP/ER)...with their offense, he at least gave them a chance to win those games. In other words, he gave his team a very good chance to win 10/12 games, and even the one where he went 4 innings with 5 ER didn't put his team in an impossible hole to dig out of...he also went head-to-head with Verlander and wiped him out, in a year when Verlander was one of the five best AL pitchers and at one time looked like a Cy Young candidate. There's a reason the typically penurious Twins gave him $7 million and are verging on having almost the same payroll as the White Sox...and if they know one thing, it's pitching and how to get the most of it. Think of all those guys like LaTroy Hawkins, JC Romero, Rincon, Guerrier, Reyes, Breslow, Mijares, Neshek, etc., that came out of seemingly nowhere to become reliable members of the bullpen. We've had a few, like Politte, Cotts and Thornton, but not nearly as many or as consistently as the Twins.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Feb 9, 2010 -> 11:42 AM) Unfortunately, I can also argue against this, although this will be why they play the games. There are a number of issues one can bring up that are decent arguments for why the Twins rotation this year will be better than last year. 1. Injury. They lost Slowey after 90 innings last year. He's expected to be ready for ST. 2. Duensing, who was their best pitcher overall in the innings he pitched, was a mid-season callup last year and will be there for a full season this year. He put up their best ERA in their rotation, 3.64, but only got 84 innings. 3. Pavano will be there for a full year, if he stays healthy. This isn't like adding a Cy Young winner, but if he simply repeats his last season, that adds depth to their rotation that it didn't have to start last year. 4. The dome actually didn't help the Twins last year. Most teams put up better ERA's at home than on the road. The Twins had virtually the same ERA on the road and at home. The Twins starting rotation had one of the best ERA's in the league on the road and one of the worst ERA's in in the league at home. It's entirely possible that moving out of the dome could therefore bring benefits to the Twins rotation rather than harm. These points may all be proven wrong easily by another injury or a struggling pitcher and I'm not 100% convinced by any of them. But just as there are reasons to think the Sox offense underperformed last year, one can argue that the Twins starters underperformed last year. Pavano would have had very close to a 4 ERA if it wasn't for one of his starts being disastrous. He was very solid, nobody expected him to come close to pitching like a 3rd or even 4th starter at the beginning of the year....maybe the one smart move Shapiro made was in acquiring him last offseason on the cheap. The Twins have lots of "strike throwers" and that will be a huge advantage in the colder weather because not as many runs will score due to walks/runners not earning their way on base. Blackburn is tough. Perkins has a great arm....and you never know what you're going to get with Liriano, although the odds of his returning to 2006 form diminish by the year. This will be his "make or break" year IMO. Baker really struggled for most of the year, but he's a lot like Floyd, he has the ability to be a front-line starter, at the very least a 2. So you go: Baker Blackburn Pavano Duensing Slowey Liriano/Manship/Swarzak/Perkins They have quite a bit more depth at the back end than we do, although HUDSON at least profiles to eventually be better than all those guys fighting for the fifth/sixth spot for the Twins. On paper, there's certainly no ace, but I would take a lot of those pitchers at the back end over Garcia, too. We'll see what happens with Hudson, if he gets the Brandon McCarthy "managed" treatment or gets thrown into the fire from the beginning of the season.

QUOTE (chw42 @ Feb 8, 2010 -> 03:09 PM) Delmon Young's always been terrible. Hudson's been on a steady decline for the past few years. Makes sense. Nice article about the horrendous Twins corner outfielder combo: http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/index.php/pity-nick-blackburn Basically, Cuddyer and Young's defense erase any offensive value each brings to the table. But couldn't we say the same thing about Dye/Pods/Quentin last year defensively? Well, I just hope they don't sign Joe Mauer to a six-year contract today. That would really suck. And I'm not going to root for him to get injured...no matter what, you have to respect him as an opponent and admit he's become a truly great player.

You could see this one coming a mile away. The Twins weren't going into the season with Harris AND Punto starting, and they didn't feel they could count on Casilla, Tolbert or Buscher.

HMM.... I think it says more about the lack of speed and a baserunning threat, especially in the first half of the season. If you don't fear the runner (like opposing pitchers did with Pods in 2005), then there's no reason to throw the #2 hitter fastballs unless behind in the count. Alexei really struggled with breaking stuff for most of the season...that would be another reason. Konerko was solid for most of the season, but yeah, if you had 2008 Quentin and first half 2009 Dye behind the 2 hitter, that changes things, too.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Feb 2, 2010 -> 01:32 PM) That's true, but part of Crede's value was also playing the field, and the way he plays 3B puts a tremendous amount of strain on his back. If Crede were a full time DH or played mostly DH, I would guess that he could remain relatively healthy. You also have to look at Thome's swing, which has a tremendous amount of torque in it...not unlike Tiger Woods' swing putting a tremendous amount of pressure on his knees, hips and back. Same idea. And I'm not so sure about Crede being healthy even if he was just DHing. The only thing that makes sense now is that Ozzie and KW would look really silly for passing on Thome, hyping the DH by committee idea, then getting another version of Thome in Branyan who just might end up having more injury problems than Thome while commanding even more money. Compound that with Thome putting those numbers up for our most hated rival and it's a recipe for PR disaster and oodles of Phil Rogers and Cowley "exposes" all season long, like when Chris Young played pretty well in 2006 and Vazquez wet the bed, it seemed every two weeks there was an article about KW dealing Young.

He also has the option of showcasing himself by signing a short-term deal with an independent league team...although I think (if I were his agent at least) that he'd want to get an MLB contract signed ASAP, because there's always the risk of injury

If Damon retires, he won't make it to the HOF! Oops Johnny, nobody thought you were going to actually make it (personal website glowing "bio" to the contrary) anyway, but there's nothing like a little false bravado and desperation... Comments like this make me appreciate the likes of Jermaine Dye all the more. You'll never hear him make similar comments to what Boras and Damon are putting out there, too funny. Exactly. He totally misplayed this one... It is almost like he is left field already. Not to mention the fact that it probably doesn't sit too well with Carlos Guillen, either.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Feb 1, 2010 -> 07:57 AM) If Danks doesn't hit 30 HR...then the only way he'll ever being a starter big leagues is if he cuts down on the strikeouts by like 33% or more. Otherwise he'll be hitting .250 or below with 10-15 HR's. See Anderson, Brian. I like Danks' swing (even though it's big) a lot more though. They're both big/rangy athletic outfielders...and I think Jordan definitely has a bit more explosiveness or speed in terms of stealing bases, too. Brian was quick and very fast once he got going because of his strides, but not what you'd call a "burner" either. You still have to assume it's going to be difficult to have Danks and Mitchell in the OF at the same time unless both develop 18-24+ homer power or Mitchell learns how to steal 50+ bags per season. Seems he's pretty raw in that aspect of his game at this point.

QUOTE (Quinarvy @ Jan 31, 2010 -> 03:11 PM) AJ has mega-blonde hair, it's hard to top that... Edit: Just remembered, Swisher. Don't forget Uribe's blonde goatee, too. As far as superstars who still bring out fans, you have to also count Pujols as someone who draws by his presence alone. Maybe the last couple of years, teams have always drawn more than individual superstars, but you also have/had the phenomenon of Japanese superstars bringing out droves of fans. I was at Dice K's debut in Kansas City and it was crazy, more media than a World Series game. Almost surreal for Kansas City. But yes, in general, even someone like Hanley Ramirez isn't drawing many fans, by themselves. Some of the individual pitchers, if you look at their attendance at home versus other starters and correct for weeknight/weekend games, Greinke and Halliday have had a tremendous impact on ticket sales, too.

QUOTE (Thunderbolt @ Jan 30, 2010 -> 11:31 AM) I think Renyel Pinto or Taylor Tanksersley could be had from the Marlins for a lot less than Scott Downs. Honestly, if i had run of this team i'd sign Damon, Leslie Anderson, and then float Kotsay to the Marlins as a one-year replacement for Ross Gload. From the way these situations always go, I would be surprised if Anderson ended up being able to play before the 2nd half of the season in the US. But definitely, I'd take him over Maya (of the Cubans, along with Arguelles). If nothing else, he would be insurance for Flowers/Viciedo not making it at 1B/DH if they move Tyler...although I think the odds are still 50/50 he stays at catcher.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Jan 30, 2010 -> 11:27 AM) I agree with you about Oakland. I think that is an option of last resort. Sounds like Boras is trying to drum up interest from Detroit, maybe moreso than here because of his distaste for our FO as well as the Andruw Jones connection you have mentioned before. I would be shocked if we did sign Damon, but I suppose stranger things have happened. I don't see how Damon would fit with the Tigers. They already have Cabrera and then five outfielders fighting for at-bats (Ordonez, Carlos Guillen, Austin Jackson, Raburn and Thomas). Assuming Ordonez is RF/DH, Guillen is LF/DH, Jackson for CF and Raburn and Thomas both deserving of playing time, it doesn't make sense. And I think they just spent their final wad of money on Valverde.

Damon in the line-up (over the Jones/Kotsay combo) means 844 runs scored instead of 808...big difference. Of course, repeating that .365 OBP and almost 500 SLG won't be easy for him at age 36.

Well, I'd much rather pay Damon $4-5 million and try the "audition by committee" bullpen approach that failed so miserably before than spend that money on Downs. No way do I spend that money on Scott. Ever since David Riske, we've been failing to offer arbitration to most of our veteran players at the end of their contracts. I just don't see how you spend that kind of money on the last roster spot compared to investing it in Johnny Damon, who very well could be an impact bat and the last piece of the puzzle in our roster construction.

You could probably add Viciedo and Jordan Danks into that depth chart as well.

QUOTE (Thunderbolt @ Jan 29, 2010 -> 12:01 PM) Leslie put up huge numbers last year, and consistently has a high average and a high OBP. "In 2008-2009, Anderson batted .381/.490/.572. He finished 5th in the batting race behind Michel Enríquez, Yulieski Gourriel, Yorelvis Charles and Giorvis Duvergel. He also won a Gold Glove at first base. He left Cuba following that season."http://www.baseball-reference.com/bullpen/Leslie_Anderson Vladimir Guerrero's name also was derived from the Russian presence in the Caribbean/Cuba in the 60's and 70's.

QUOTE (3E8 @ Jan 29, 2010 -> 08:06 PM) A lot should go to Herm and our training staff too. I think we often forget what an incredible boon they are to our organization. We must be constantly beating time played predictions because as a whole the Sox are exceptional at limiting DL trips and keeping necessary ones minimum length It is a BIT amusing how 90% of the credit goes to KW, Hermie and Don Cooper and about 10% goes to Guillen/Cora/Baines/Walker, etc.

Well, there was a LOT more heartbreak in the 60's and 70's because of the nature of the American League. There weren't three divisions with a wildcard. If the 2005 team would have ended up not making the playoffs, I think you could make a much stronger argument that would resonate with White Sox fans. 2005 changed everything. Nobody writing today remember the Black Sox Scandal or lived through it, I'm sure if this article was written in 1955 it'd be a quite different one. The Cubs also have the Billy Goat, Leon Durham/1984...1989 was forgotten because of the earthquake, 1969 will ALWAYS be used as the example of blowing a huge lead, along with I think the 64 Phillies. Who was that left fielder that muffed the ball again? Brant Brown? And the Cubs have blown their own lead in the final weeks, too.... The White Sox suffered because of mostly bad teams and cash-poor ownership for three decades, although a lot of Sox fans fondly reminisce about the 1977 South Side Hitmen team...the closest thing to that was the 2000 and 2006 teams (first half) in modern club history. When I think of losing baseball franchises, the Cubs and the Indians are the ones that come to mind, and the Indians have been to a couple of World Series in the last 15 years.