caulfield12

Doug (Dallas): Which of the recent position playing draftees makes it to big leagues first and who will be the most successful? Joe Sheehan: Yonder Alonso and Gordon Beckham seem closest to me, although the Astros may be under some pressure to rush Castro to the majors, especially if Smoak plays well. I like Beckham to have the best career. Gordon Beckham, SS, Chicago White Sox: I caught some buzz from other observers that people are concerned about his swing: they don't like the way it looks, kind of "choppy" was how one person described it to me. Scouts were also downplaying his range, and at least one person I spoke with said Beckham really didn't look like a guy who was drafted in the first round. I will admit that he did not strike me either strongly positive or strongly negative in the one game I saw him play. I wouldn't make too much of this just yet, we need to see more out of him, but some people are concerned. Jordan Danks, OF, Chicago White Sox: playing well in Arizona, and I thought he was very interesting coming out of Texas in the first place. Speed and athleticism are highly impressive, and he controls the zone well. Some scouts theorize that he may be a guy who hits better with wood than aluminum. Still some concerns about his power, but he could be a Steve Finley/Brady Anderson type, and I mean that in a good way. from baseballamerica.com and baseballprospectus.com Note: I don't have access to the specific comments from Sheehan about AFL play. The first quotes were from after the draft.

''I hit about a week ago, and it was a nonfactor. I have not felt it in my swing and doing the one-handed stuff. I like using that one-armed bat, taking everything out of the equation to make sure my wrist is fine. And it responded great.'' As Williams tinkers with the lineup this winter, Quentin's name can be penciled into the No. 3 spot of the batting order. He hit .288 with 36 home runs, 100 RBI and a .394 on-base percentage this year. And while he'll likely have to wait for an MVP award, Quentin did grab some hardware, earning a Silver Slugger Award on Thursday. ''When talking about guys around the game or who are involved in the game, when they can sit there and acknowledge you for having a good year and appreciate what you accomplished, I just can't thank them enough,'' Quentin said. ''Since the start of last season, I've set small goals of really just getting on the field and then staying on the field, and this award was never in my mind. But it's special.'' from suntimes.com/sports Quentin's always a class act and very humble when he does give quotes to reporters.

The Brewers are reversing course and apparently not going to spend big bucks on a FA closer...not even B. Lyon. They feel that they've been "relatively" successful in the past with the likes of Cordero, Turnbow, Torres. Perhaps they also feel a little burned by spending money to give Eric Gagne one more chance to prove he's not the same pitcher he once was.

Carlos Quentin has resumed swinging a bat slightly more than two months after suffering a fractured right wrist that ended his season. He still led the White Sox with 36 home runs and 100 RBIs. "I would have been ready if we had continued with the season," Quentin said. "After we finished, I took another two to three weeks off just to make sure it healed right. "It's doing great." To cap his eventful November, Quentin plans to marry college sweetheart Jeane Goff in two weeks in Palo Alto, Calif. The Sox signed backup catcher Corky Miller to a minor-league contract, a scouting source said. Miller, 32, has played parts of eight seasons in the majors. He played last season for Atlanta and Triple-A Richmond. Anyone ever seen this kid play? Does he have an outside chance to fight off Armstrong/FA acquisition/trade for the back-up position to replace Goggles? What attributes (offensive/defensive hopefully!) does he possess?

http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/baseb...,7270182.column Other odds and ends. Quentin is now swinging a bat. Do we know if Alexei has his bats yet? LOL. "The Saguaros' chances could be helped by the Nick Swisher trade. They get the services of right-hander Jeff Marquez, who had been with the Peoria Javelinas as a Yankees prospect before being traded to the Sox. Marquez is tentatively slated to start one of the last games. Sox first-round pick Gordon Beckham is making a run at hitting .400 with good run-production numbers, but recently he was the target of some criticism. Baseball Prospectus' Joe Sheehan questioned Beckham's fielding and effort. Minorleagueball.com's John Sickels referenced scouts criticizing Beckham's range and "choppy" swing. Tough audience." phil rogers Randy Johnson to the Cubs? Ryan Dempster to the Sox? Brewers general manager Doug Melvin says there hasn't been much interest from other teams in JJ Hardy, who could be available because of the progress of prospect Alcides Escobar. The current plan is to have Escobar work with new coach Willie Randolph at second base during the spring. … One reason you're hearing Bobby Jenks' name in trade talks is the Sox's confidence in Jon Link, who had 35 saves in Double A last year. His slider has become such a nasty pitch that some in the organization believe he will have a good career as a big-league closer. Link came to the Sox for Rob Mackowiak at the deadline in 2007 — pretty good trade. Link or no Link, though, there's no way the Sox should trade Jenks. Given Kerry Wood's relationship with Nolan Ryan, it figures Texas will make a run at him. Arizona's another good possibility. … The Pirates are hoping to sign a veteran starter, with Paul Byrd, Odalis Perez, Braden Looper and Brad Penny on their list. … Some believe Randy Johnson still will wind up re-signing with Arizona despite the ugly impasse last week. If he has another season in him like 2008, he would be a welcome addition on almost any NL team, even if he is 45. … The best pitcher in the NL? Brandon Webb has finished in the top two in Cy Young Award voting three years in a row. Hard to argue against that. … Here are four must players for Team USA in next year's World Baseball Classic: Joe Mauer, Grady Sizemore, Dustin Pedroia and David Wright. They were the only big-leaguers to win Gold Gloves and Silver Sluggers. … Shortstop Julio Lugo, being shopped by Boston, hit .139 with runners in scoring position, the lowest average by a qualifier since Ron Gant hit .130 with Philadelphia-Anaheim in 2000. … Congrats to scout Mike Shirley. He signed six of the players who are listed tentatively in the White Sox's top 30 by Baseball America: Clayton Richard, John Shelby III, John Ely, Tyler Kuhn, Nate Jones and Levi Maxwell. … The hiring of Mike Arbuckle as an assistant to GM Dayton Moore counts as actual good news for the Royals. Arbuckle, as solid a scout as there is, helped build the World Series winner in Philadelphia but was passed over in favor of Ruben Amaro Jr. for the GM's job when Pat Gillick retired. … If the Cubs lose both Ryan Dempster and Wood, they will have a hatful of picks in the 2009 draft. Both are Type A free agents, bringing two high picks each as compensation. … The Sox can get that kind of compensation for Orlando Cabrera, but only if they offer him arbitration, no sure thing.[u][/u]

He also reported an aggressive market for another client, shortstop Rafael Furcal. “There’s been about five or six serious teams already on him today, and I expect that to even go up because there’s been at least eight or more that have been in contact,” Kinzer said. Commissioner Bud Selig repeatedly cautions teams to be careful in their spending, but the economic downtown doesn’t appear likely to depress salaries for top players. “We think that the time of free agents will still be recession-proof,” said Lew Wolff, owner of the low-revenue Oakland Athletics. “We think the second tier will present some opportunities.” from yahoosports.com In line with totally revamping their starting rotation, Jerry Crasnick at ESPN.com reports that the New York Yankees have sold RHP Darrell Rasner to the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles of the Pacific League for $1 million. Rasner posted a 5.40 ERA in 24 games with the Yankees in 2008. The cash from this deal would provide 0.7% of the money needed for the contract that has been offered to CC Sabathia.

Top 10 List of Goofy Moves essentially forced by Cheap Carl Pohlad.... Mike Lamb Craig Monroe Adam Everett Livan Hernandez Bret Boone (looked worse than Roberto Remember the Alomar in his second tour of duty with the Sox...more like Steve Alto Sax or Cory Snyder) Ruben High Sierra Tony Batista RonDL White Phil Nevin Jeff Cirillo (once a very good player, in a Kevin Seitzerish way) In all fairness, L. Castillo wasn't a bad move by them...but they've wasted more money than the White Sox the last couple of season reaching for free agents and stopgaps while their legit prospects were in waiting. Smith...I was commenting more on his scouting ability, but holding Liriano out for so long after the first month and giving Hernandez about 5 extra starts too many and Garza/Bartlett for D. Young/Harris was enough to make the difference in giving us the division. He waited too long to fix the pen, fixated on former Twins' Hawkins and Guardado, and Steady Eddie was Steady trips to the Tums counter for Gardy and Circle Jerk Bert. Crain is/was a walking disaster, and Guerrier was out of his element as 8th inning set-up man. Smith should also TIVO Gomez's game against the White Sox (the final of the four game set that most of cost some of us a couple of years on our lifespans, along with Harrelson's priceless hypemastering) and try to get the best possible package of prospects for him.

Link=Egbert in terms of thinking him as a second/third tier prospect. KW still has a little bias in favor of the Koch/Russell/Masset/Adkins (post-Durham trade overhype) type of pitcher out of the pen. Or Aardsma. Seeing the successes of Hermanson, Takatsu and Wasserman should have given him pause to at least consider other pitching styles...in fact, too many pitchers with "stuff" and the same look/s out of the pen, that's basically the worst thing you can have. Every team needs a Chad Bradford/Neshek type.

QUOTE (Kenny Hates Prospects @ Nov 15, 2008 -> 04:35 PM) Carl Everett never got on base enough to win us a championship. Yeah, but we had to give up studs Anthony Webster and Josh Rupe to get him and he (Everett) thinks "The Flintstones" are live programming from Burbank.

"Evaluating GMs is really subjective. I strongly disagree with the idea that Kenny is a top three executive in baseball, let alone all of sports. I just don't see eye to eye with the guy. I vehemently disagree with many of his moves, probably due to his distaste for players that come through his own minor league system. I'd without question rather have all the following guys as a GM: Beane, Epstein, Cashman, Josh Byrnes, Andrew Friedman, Doug Melvin, Mark Shapiro, and Shuerholz." Original quote... You're drinking some serious Kool-Aid thinking Shapiro is better. Andy Marte? Jason Johnson? Going into the season with Borowski as a closer? Josh Barfield? What have the Indians done, exactly, the last four years? Not much, considering their overall talent level. Sure, there's Sizemore and Lee, but that only gets you so far, and KW's deal for Colon was pretty sweet too? Or you like like Michaels/Dellucci so much in LF? Cashman and Epstein can't be compared...it's like saying what could Phil Jackson do without Jordan or two superstars paired together? Not very much. What has Cashman done that's so great over the last five years besides loads of bloated pitching contracts and idiotic deals like Carl Pavano...Jose Contreras for a washed-up Loaiza and eating a big part of the future best pitcher in baseball's contract? Brilliant! Brian Cashman is one of the worst GM's in New York Yankee history. He rode Gene Michael's roster to three Championship rings. The major acquisition was Roger Clemens, who George Steinbrenner had wanted for years. When Michaels' guys started fading, there was no one on the farm from Cashman's early drafts. He's butchered one free agent signing after another; spending tons of money on big names with ZERO chemistry. Cashman put the emphasis on power hitting; over pitching and defense and situational hitting. He was handed a successful blueprint by Gene Michael (who is a genius), and he put it in the shredder. As a matter of fact, it was the Red Sox who wanted to make Gene Michael their GM but was rebuffed by Steinbrenner. The Red Sox have been using the Gene Michael blueprint, and have two Championships to show for it. Ptiching, defense, OBP, situational hitting. The blueprint was copied by Theo Epstein. Give him credit for witnessing true genius, and duplicating it. Unfortunately, Cashman isn't that bright. Brian Cashman has quite possibly THE WORST RECORD OF ALL-TIME in signing free agent pitchers. He passed on Johan, to protect his apparently over hyped prospects. I wanted to trade Robinson Cano, Melkey Cabrera and Ian Kennedy last off season for Johan Santana and Pat Neshek. Almost every Yankee fan was too afraid to deal Cano following a strong second half of 2007. I felt Cano was severly overrated. And it was overlooked that Cano never seems to put in a full season. Now this off season, rumors say the Yankees are considering dealing him to Joe Torre's Dodgers. We could have had Santana without giving up Phil Hughes. Brian Cashman kept his job because his butt buddy is the younger, Hal Steinbrenner. Big mouth Hank may be an idiot, but at least he's right about Cashman, and was right about Johan. The Media keeps protecting Cashman (he must know somebody) because he protected the young prospects. But of all those prospects, only Joba Chamberlin looks legit. And Cashman, with his overrated Manager Joe Giardi, want to make him a reliever again. Idiotic. I hope Joba gets 'enough innings' to be a stud starter sometime before he retires. Phil Hughes is beginning to look like a 'David West' situation. Melky was nothing more than a fourth outfielder, if that. Cano showed that he's not the player that Cashman thought he was. Ian Kennedy is a disaster, and has Scott Boras as his agent. Why couldn't Cashman deal him? I was happy to see Cashman acquire Marte and Nady last season. One of the few times he did something right. But today he acquires Nick Swisher. This guy is poor defensively at TWO positions. He's a young Jason Giambi, without the advantage of steroid enhanced play. Swisher hit .216 last year. Terrible fit, and I guarantee you that Cashman is planning on Swisher for centerfield. Now that he's re-signed, we can only hope that George Steinbrenner rises from near death, and gives this guy the boot he deserves. HATE is not a strong enough word for how I feel about this pretender. Epstein? Hardly. Comparing apples and oranges. Beane? Overrated and overhyped. He's become successful at creating an illusion based on smoke and mirrors but has never won a thing. He has succeeded in dumping Hudson, Zito, Harden and Mulder before they were totally worthless...but the main reason for his success was the Big 3 pitchers, not drafting and not Moneyball. Nice move to let Dan Haren go, by the way. Blanton looked pretty good to me in the World Series. The one player he decides to hold onto, 3B Eric Chavez, is now basically without value. Byrnes, Friedman (let's wait for some sustained success there, how many Top 10 picks can any professional franchise have without blindly stumbling into a diamond or two) and Melvin aren't consistently great...they've made mistakes, too. Schuerholz...I won't argue with. But he's not a MLB GM anymore, and the Braves only won one World Series in 14 years. If you want to argue the best, Terry Ryan/Smith are/were better, but KW is catching up. Other than that, you can make plausible arguments that he's #3-5 in the majors now...Jocketty and Gillick are up there too, so no worse than 6-7-8. You put KW in charge of the Yankees or Red Sox over the last decade, or the Dodgers/Mets, I guarantee he'd have multiple championships working without financial constraints.

Torres has changed his tune from the end of the weekend/Monday at the latest to the end of next week...wonder what happened?

I don't think the odds are very high of getting Rasmus at all (0.005% chance). Ankiel and Ludwick are the ones being shopped...

Has anyone seen any updates on the Viciedo "sweepstakes," quotes from Torres or other teams about the workouts, etc.? I was thinking there might be something in the Dominican press, but I haven't taken the time to search for it on the net.

Someone might want to try to get Phil Rogers or Mark Gonzalez to investigate this. I know the times in the past I've sent them e-mails, they've usually responded....I think Rogers' is "[email protected]" if I'm not mistaken. It would make a huge difference to the team to be getting an additional $5-6 million back on Contreras (assuming he doesn't make it back this season).

Don't know what's going on. Braves' GM Frank Wren claimed the offer is tabled and that they are targeting other rotation possibilities, most likely Ryan Dempster. Yet the Braves had the best "talent match" on paper. Wonder if the Cards pick up their efforts to center a deal around Ludwick/Ankiel with some other sweeteners involved. It would be funny if the Cubs lost out on Peavy, Dempster and Wood. You have to think they'll take a run at AJ Burnett, Lowe, etc. I doubt they get involved with Sabathia, whose first offer from the Yankees is in the $140-142 million dollar range. With the Soriano and Fukudome deals looking less and less attractive going forward, we'll see if they show some financial restraint.

San Diego pitcher Jake Peavy, the Cy Young Award winner currently being dangled in trade talks, initially indicated to the Padres that he would prefer a deal to one of five teams -- Atlanta, St. Louis, the Chicago Cubs, the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros. from yahoosports

It will be interesting if they do trade Fields before the 2009 season starts...do other teams perceive his value to be higher than Nick Swisher, and by how much? I think it's got to be pretty close...with a slight edge to Fields. Although certainly debate-worthy.

QUOTE (WHITESOXRANDY @ Nov 14, 2008 -> 01:16 AM) There's no way that I believe that Kenny could not have gotten 1 good player back for Swisher from any team. Not one team would offer a solid regular thirdbaseman, secondbaseman, starting picther, relief pitcher, outfielder or B prospect? I don't believe it. The Yankees wouldn't have offered Ian Kennedy straight up for him? Or any of their top 10 prospects? I don't believe it. And, and, and the Sox throw in a solid pitching prospect, too? I'm sorry but I think this trade will go down with the Todd Ritchie trade. I know that Kenny has proven himself to be an excellent GM to me and I want to give every deal the benefit of the doubt. But, I can't with this one. There's no way that Swisher is going to suck for the rest of his career. And, more importantly, other teams such as the Yankees don't believe that. He had to be worth something and he gave him away for nothing. I'll go on record right now as saying that none of these 3 players will amount to anything for the White Sox - next year or ever. Unbelievable. If I'm wrong on this one then Kenny is a magician and I'll never question him again. But, I still say this is Todd Ritchie part 2. Yes, I am sure the final offers were Kershaw, Price/Garza, Kennedy/Hughes and Homer Bailey all on the table for Swisher, but KW went with his scouts instead and chose this offer over all those exceedingly logical ones. By the way, isn't Pods/Vizcaino for Carlos Lee actually Todd Ritchie II? Or Durham for Jon Adkins? Ah...the Pods trade worked out in a way, didn't it? You also have to look at who KW uses that money on...like when we let Maggs/Lee/Valentin go and brought in El Duque, AJ, Hermanson, Pods, Iguchi, Vizcaino, etc.

QUOTE (WHITESOXRANDY @ Nov 14, 2008 -> 01:16 AM) There's no way that I believe that Kenny could not have gotten 1 good player back for Swisher from any team. Not one team would offer a solid regular thirdbaseman, secondbaseman, starting picther, relief pitcher, outfielder or B prospect? I don't believe it. The Yankees wouldn't have offered Ian Kennedy straight up for him? Or any of their top 10 prospects? I don't believe it. And, and, and the Sox throw in a solid pitching prospect, too? I'm sorry but I think this trade will go down with the Todd Ritchie trade. I know that Kenny has proven himself to be an excellent GM to me and I want to give every deal the benefit of the doubt. But, I can't with this one. There's no way that Swisher is going to suck for the rest of his career. And, more importantly, other teams such as the Yankees don't believe that. He had to be worth something and he gave him away for nothing. I'll go on record right now as saying that none of these 3 players will amount to anything for the White Sox - next year or ever. Unbelievable. If I'm wrong on this one then Kenny is a magician and I'll never question him again. But, I still say this is Todd Ritchie part 2. And you've seen how many of those three guys....maybe Betemit...play how much? What did you say on the day we acquired the following players: Marte Contreras Jenks Thornton Ramirez Quentin Floyd Olivo (BB really suckered KW, right!?) Dye Garcia Danks Pods Iguchi Takatsu Hermanson Cotts Politte El Duque etc. Comparing this to Ritchie is crazy. Ritchie was going to be a frontline starter, maybe a 3, no worse than a 4. Swisher didn't have a position on this team going forward, with the presence of Dye/Quentin/Thome/Konerko. To compare the desperation of the Ritchie move (with a very solid prospect in K. Wells and a back of the rotation guy in Fogg) with dumping Swisher's contract on another team, well, there's no comparison here.

http://blogs.chicagosports.chicagotribune....rs-and-sen.html KW on the trade, some interesting/telling quotes.

With Uribe getting further decreased playing time in 09, I don't think it would make any sense to keep him around hoping to get a compensation pick. Thanks for the memories, Juan. I never missed Aaron Miles like some of his grinder groupies.

QUOTE (thomsonmi @ Nov 14, 2008 -> 12:33 AM) A whole bunch of them were acquired with players whom KW did draft. Criticizing KW because we don't have enough homegrown Credes/Rowands/Buehrle's to cheer on for ten years or so as they develop in our system is kind of getting a little bit nitpicky. Sure, I'd like to have Chris Young patrolling CF as much as the next person...but KW has always done a very good job of realistically appraising what he has on his 25 man, 40 man and minor league depth charts (the Big Board) and using those chess pieces to help him put together the most competitive team each season. When it looked like he needed to rebuild, he kept Dye/Buehrle and had the magic touch with bringing in four incredibly talented young players to revitalize our core. Turning Borchard into Thornton, getting Jenks for nothing, Ramirez for nothing (when all the other teams were laughing at us behind our backs....we'll see the laughing now about Viciedo, NOT!)...Garcia for Morse/Reed/Olivo, he's just been very, very efficient at identifying the players he likes and going out to acquire them. Perhaps, in my opinion, the most important move of his GM career was bringing over Contreras, because he was the horse/ace that this team has very rarely had in the last decade. Contreras, for a 4-5 month stretch of 05/06, was undoubtedly the best pitcher in baseball. Whether it has worked (Marte for Guerrier) or not (David Wells, Colon, Ritchie, Swisher, Cabrera, Alex Cintron, Mackowiak), he always is thinking almost like a fan and less of a GM. That can be a weakness, but I see it as a strength as well. He's also learned the importance of pitching depth and balance (speed/defense), and you'll see him correct the 06-07 errors going forward...

I have changed over the years from KW skeptic to supporter. The 2005 WS championship had something to do with it, of course, but he's also gotten better as time as gone by...not shaking up things or making trades just to be aggressive, but thinking strategically and more long-term, rather than just putting the best possible team together to win the World Series each season (he's also learned that for every Ramirez/Quentin, there are many more Julio Ramirezes, D'Angelo Jimenezes, Royce Clayton's or Kenny Lofton's that can seriously mess up your clubhouse chemistry...you can add O-Cab and Swisher to that list as well). If I wasn't convinced before, the transition from 07 to 08 really did the trick. He's earned our respect and patience/confidence. We have to sit back and see what happens before Spring Training...but, as always, a premature rush to conclusions does no good. In the early years, he had some bad trades like the Ritchie one, Adkins for Durham, Berry/Barry disaster with the LA Dodgers...but he's gotten better and better. If you look at all the players we've jettisoned over the years, which ones would definitely make our ballclub in 2009? I can think of only a couple...Frank Francisco out of the bullpen as a set-up guy (potential closer) and Ryan Sweeney, who I'd take over Anderson/Wise, etc., as the fourth outfielder, but not as the starter in CF. Other than those two names...and Chris B. Young (that trade has been argued to death, I've always been on the side of Chris Young over Javy)...who have we actually lost? Rauch? Well, he was a failed starter, and there were a lot of chemistry/personality issues with the front office behind the scenes...the return from his labrum injury (he didn't work with Sox staff/trainers like he was expected to), his "overconfidence" when he was barely touching 90 MPH yet thinking he should have a spot in the rotation. McCarthy? Besides that, you have Rowand/Thome, but I think we're better off with Jim's big LH bat...and that homer against the Twinkies will always hold a special place in our hearts now.

QUOTE (winninguglyin83 @ Nov 13, 2008 -> 09:36 PM) like Floyd, Marquez has been pitching in the Arizona Fall League. Kenny Williams and his top scouts are out there watching. I'm sure they had Coop or Kirk Champion take a look. they must see something they like. And they must be convinced Swish can't cut it no mo. Kenny laid it on pretty thick about how he expects Swishy to bounce back. I just hope this doesn't trumpet the arrival of the Jerry Owens Era in CF. Not when Taveras is out there for Broadway or Adam Russell and CoCo Crisp (who KW has always liked) is available.

QUOTE (winninguglyin83 @ Nov 13, 2008 -> 09:20 PM) how about this from the New York Daily News: "The Yankees believe Swisher’s poor average was a function of a strained relationship with Chisox manager Ozzie Guillen, major-league sources said." Swishy no likey Ozzie. If true, we'll hear more because Swish likes to talk. But that must be the buzz among scouts. No secret that O-Cabrera and Swisher weren't great fans of Ozzie. Well, duh. But here's the thing, what does it tell you that Ozzie was starting DeWayne Wise over you in the most important games of the season? Ozzie will always have his detractors...but, when it comes down to it...he's managed to push the 2005 and 2008 teams over the hump when their backs were against the wall and many skeptical fans were giving them up for dead. Swisher, in many ways, his actions in the clubhouse and on the bench, acted like he had quit when he stopped playing everyday, and more like someone trying out for the daytime Emmy's or SNL. I don't think it's any surprise Hall is also out the door...there's a few things I'm sure we're not privy to (besides the reaction of Dye to the pie in the face one too many times)...but KW seems to be cleaning house and trying to get rid of the round pegs that don't fit into the square holes. Good luck in NY Nick, you'll need it.