caulfield12

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Mar 7, 2009 -> 12:34 PM) You're saying that we didn't have CF problems WHILE Nick Swisher was here? It has been a problem for sure since Rowand's 2004 season. We haven't had above MLB average production (offensively and defensively) since then from that position. Heck, I'll go all the way back to Lance Johnson to the last time we had a CFer I really liked...or Mike Cameron, warts and all. Lofton was good for six weeks in 2002. We've run through Jeremy Reed, Chris B. Young, Anthony Webster, Rowand, Ryan Sweeney, etc. One of the biggest miscalculations KW ever made was thinking Brian Anderson would be ready in 2006. Whatever he was doing in the minors (and he put up some good seasons statistically), they should have realized his swing has significant holes that would be exposed, especially to breaking balls and sliders low and away. Not only that, but he's a horrible players in terms of fundamentals and execution...hitting the cutoff man, bunting, baserunning (sometimes), hitting to the opposite field, shortening up his swing for contact (it seems like he's still taking some god-awful cuts up there that leave him with no chance of even hitting the ball). He's just a very talented athlete right now at age 26 still trying to figure out how to play. Like Borchard, he'll hit some balls that make you think he's a natural...or when he got Felix Hernandez twice out in Seattle, where for some mysterious reason 75% of his homers come from (of all MLB parks!). When you compare him at the plate with the presence of a Beckham or even Viciedo, it's like night and day. With Uribe gone, he's the batter that opposing pitchers would MOST want to face in our line-up, it's not even close for 2nd place at this point. Owens might at least put some pressure on the defense with the idea he will bunt or force the infield to make a play...most of the time the defense can just sit back on their heels with Anderson at the plate.

Well, no matter how we "spin" it, as Viciedo/Marquez for Swisher, it's going to be remembered for how Swisher and Marquez do respectfully...and perhaps for continued CF problems in Chicago as well.

Possibly, but maybe KW liked Nunez a lot better...so let's say the two minor league relievers are an even swap, it makes the deal Swisher for Marquez, Betemit and Viciedo, essentially. That's the other angle that hasn't been raised, and the way KW has consistently presented it this offseason. I guess it could have been Hudson instead of Viciedo and Colon, but we'll never know for sure...the market sure turned against Hudson...I wouldn't be surprised if the Dodgers beat everyone, if they could get strong enough starting pitching and Furcal stays healthy.

Ryan Roat they said...different guy I guess.

ViciAdo according to Melton. Nice. Swinging out of his a-- against Thomas on that high FB, but he made solid contact, just hit it right at the SS. Beckham took a walk. These last two lefties have had really good arms, albeit not so much control. This is their closer apparently. UMMMM...melton, whisler is the definition of AAA/AAAA pitcher.

McCulloch's motion is a lot like Brandon McCarthy's. Not very smooth or fluid. He obviously can't throw 93-94 like Brandon, but that last strikeout looked McCarthyesque. I was more impressed than I expected to be.

I'm starting to be less concerned with finding quality RH relievers. Omogrosso looks like a man against boys out there. With Nunez, Santeliz, Omogrosso, Harrell, Nathan Jones, Santos Rodriguez...a good collection of arms we're building up. Are they playing Ratt "Round and Round"? Haha. Liam Neeson/Michael Collins at 1B.

Nice to see Beckham and Flowers going to the opposite field. Anderson almost had a 2 RBI double with that approach.

Omogrosso with a secondary pitch and a little bit of movement on his FB would be devastating. He's an intimidating presence out there. Seems like he's getting a couple of offspeed pitches over. Quick worker, also.

Note to KW: Please stick Viciedo at catcher. Flowers looks really rough back there. Viciedo has the arm to do it...Allen and Fields each 3/3.

Snelling has some major league time. Larson. Hughes is a good prospect with the Twins. Nice swing by Beckham. I don't what's up with Fields' baserunning this spring...that's 2 silly outs on the basepaths. Now Kroeger. Link looked much better his seond inning. Wow Josh Fields is really locked in and looking much quicker on fastballs.

There are lots of interesting possibilities. This discussion hasn't even taken Lillibridge into consideration...as the assumption is that 2B is now a battle between Getz and Nix. If I had to pick the roster based on what we've seen so far, it would be Marquez and Richard to the bullpen...Corky Miller as back-up catcher....Getz and Nix starting in a platoon with Lillibridge, Kroeger and Wise fighting for the final two spots. Kroeger could be like Ross Gload, but with more power. Of course, it all depends on going with six or seven (more likely if Contreras and Colon start the year in the rotation) relievers. Maybe it's just me, but I am very tired of even talking about Anderson and Owens. BA definitely needs to play everyday at either the major or minor league level and we'll just have to see what happens. With Owens (I know he had a "good" game yesterday), I am willing to take my chances with Getz/Lillibridge and then Ramirez at the top of the order. It shouldn't be much worse than Cabrera/AJ. The final reason I'm souring on Owens is that he's not even really an effective basestealer...if not for that one hot stretch in 2007, his career statistical line would be atrocious.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Mar 6, 2009 -> 10:15 AM) Well, first, know that some of those names won't even be in the organization come mid-April. Broadway isn't likely to go to AAA again, for a 4th year, that's like a death sentence. He makes the club or he's shown the door. Richard won't be in AAA nor will Marquez, they are both making the team, one way or the other (though I would prefer Marquez starting in AAA if Colon and Contreras are both healthy, it won't happen). Also, no way they have Cassel repeat AA after he not only spent a full season there, but put up some of the best numbers of any starter in that entire league. If I assume that Broadway is gone, and others are not (which is unlikely, but I can't say who might get traded), it looks like this: AAA: Egbert Poreda Cassel Van Benschoten Torres (possibly goes to pen, in which case, Harrell gets this slot) 'pen will include: Omogrosso, Wassermann, possibly Russell, possibly O'Malley, Link, Lujan AA: Harrell McCulloch (if he is still even in the org, if not, possibly Carter) Ely Long Rasner That's about as far as I can project it right now. You'd have to think Nunez and Link would be the two closers. I suppose it could end up being someone like German or MacDougal, but I would doubt it. Doesn't C. Santeliz probably have the best potential in terms of stuff and future projectability, certainly better than Long and Rasner? Are you going to have him starting in High A or relieving in Birmingham? I wonder if the Sox will start S. Rodriguez? I'm assuming they will, somewhere in A ball...at least until he proves he's better suited as a reliever. It's going to be the final passing of the Shaffer/Wilder Era when Owens (although that was a KW trade), Broadway, McCulloch, Valido, Gomes, Paulo Orlando, Rafael Rayes and Juan Silverio are gone (Andy Gonzalez, thankfully, was the first). If it weren't for the health of Contreras and the signing of Colon, I couldn't see any way they could waive or trade Broadway. That would be putting a lot of pressure on Marquez, Richard and Poreda, and Richard's the only one with any MLB experience. He's close to the end of the rope...and maybe they'll trade him or put him in the bullpen in Charlotte, but I can't see them waiving him quite yet. If anyone, McCulloch deserves to be released b4 Broadway.

We now see the first signs that Ozzie is at least pondering now about how Kroeger might make this team, and in what role. That would be starting off as the back-up outfielder and back-up 1B to Konerko, along with Betemit. Of course, all this hinges on the Owens/Anderson/Wise situation....and how they hold up over the next month. An injury or non-performance (or continued strong show by Kroeger) changes things, especially if Brian Anderson continues to struggle at the plate. Anderson has two things going for him, that he's the best defensive sub and he's right-handed. That's about it for now. The problem for Kroeger is that Owens and Wise are also LH. Still, if you look at what Quentin and Ramirez did last year at age 25/26, you start to also consider the possibilities with players like Kroeger, Van Benschoten (probably not this year), Getz, Floyd, Nix, Betemit, Lillibridge, Fields....then you have that second wave with Beckham, Flowers, Viciedo, Allen, Danks and Shelby, it's pretty inspiring in terms of some renewed hopes for the future. We're really becoming a much more youthful club over the next two seasons. One can easily imagine starting the 2011 (and possibly even 2010) without a single position player over age 30. It would be nice to see Kroeger blossom simply because he's another LH bat with extra-base power, something we're lacking in our system, with the exception of Allen, and a likely offseason target for KW going into 2010 to replace Thome if Allen struggles this year. Kroeger will really have to continue to work on his patience and making contact, but he's still ONLY 26, so it's just as reasonable to call him a "prospect/suspect" as Anderson or Owens.

Charlotte John Van Benschoten Jeff Marquez (depending on Colon/Contreras) Richard or Aaron Poreda Lance Broadway John Egbert AA Ely Anthony Carter (maybe) or Carlos Torres Santeliz Cassel Harrell Other names McCulloch Matt Long Zaleski Omogrosso Rasner would like to see Santos Rodriguez and what he's got but that will have to wait

The teams that were in on Viciedo and that had the ability to outbid the White Sox, well, that was the Yankees and the Red Sox. They have Alex Rodriguez and Mike Lowell at 3B, and Viciedo would have been facing even more unreasonable pressure and expectations in those markets. Torres knows this, and knows that having a Hispanic manager and coaches like Cora and then the other Cubans around would be the perfect situation for him. You don't think Cashman would be a little gunshy about bringing another Cuban into NYC to open a new stadium at the age A-Rod (already the best prospect in baseball) did the same thing? That's just not reasonable. It seems we're into these bi-polar discussions about Viciedo. It's almost like you believe he's the Cuban Babe Ruth (like Torres) or you're in the Peter Bjarkman school/camp where he will be just another solid major leaguer, more like Kendry Morales. I think we've seen with those two homers and kind of power he has....and he played very well defensively, although he finally went hitless. The thing is, if he's CLOSE to being as good as advetised, he will show it one way or the other, and the White Sox won't be able to hide him like teams used to do with their best prospects to keep other teams from drafting them (how Roberto Clemente was stashed away in Montreal...it seems impossible, as we live in the instant news/youtube/Internet age). No matter what happens with Viciedo, he will be getting a HUGE payday again at age 23, when most players have to wait until the late 20's for their first really big contract after their six years of mandatory service time. I think the Astros were the only other team really serious about Viciedo, and their budget prevented the spending on even "value" players like Wigginton and Wolf that didn't have huge contract demands.

I just don't see KW trading or making a play for Halladay. Maybe the time will come when he really does go after another "ace" caliber pitcher via trade or free agency, but his mode since the David Wells/Ritchie/Vazquez/Garcia deals has been to target younger pitchers with potential like Danks and Floyd and hope they develop into aces, rather than spending that kind of money and/or giving up the entire farm system to pull a move off. I won't say it's impossible because economics might conspire against the Blue Jays (and the almost unbeatable competition in the AL East) and force them to make a move, but they're not going to get anything back for the likes of Rolen, Wells and even Rios, so they simply HAVE to get something nice for Halladay.

I'm sure he'll look at the videotape quickly... Lillibridge looks like he's really too far away from the plate when he's hitting.

They did manage to make the idiotic comment that Reed Johnson was battling for the CF job with the White Sox, and were very dismissive of Brian Anderson because of his "sub-par offensive seasons" and that he was no longer a top prospect, lol. Egbert flirting with disaster but somehow he managed to get out of it.

2B-303, SS-52, OF-15, 3B-6 About 81% of Getz's career games have been played at 2B. I think it would be a stretch to put him at 3B, 1B or in the outfield more than in "emergency" situations. I was about to say that Betemit was superfluous, but he's really not, because he's the best back-up for Fields and Konerko at those positions, and his presence allows Viciedo to start the season in the minors as well. Obviously, Lillibridge would be the best back-up at SS, the question is how much better Getz is than Betemit at that position? Is Getz even viewed as better at SS? I know Betemit took a lot of flak after his two error game, but the guy has 10X the experience at that position than Getz does. SS-553, 3B-435, 1B-53, 2B-18, RF-1, LF-1, DH-1 If you look at Betemit, he obviously has more career experience on the left side of the infield, and at 1B. The guy was once the #8 prospect in all of baseball, even though it was 7 years ago (the same time Borchard was found on those lists).

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/08/magazine...amp;_r=1&hp Very good (long) article in the NY Times Magazine written about the housing crisis in Cleveland...by a NU professor. If you want to learn how so "speculators/investors" are still figuring out ways to make money in this crazy climate, it should be particularly interesting. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/05/opinion/05collins.html Lashing out at Countrywide Loans former president for continuing to make profits from the government...

Scenario, I think a lot of this is all about "perception." Fields and Viciedo will never be able to be decent defensive players. Getz is "scrappy/grinderish," whereas Lillibridge is "versatile/athletic." (Disclaimer: I haven't seen Getz play very much in person, so I couldn't tell you how much better Lillibridge is at SS, or if Getz could play CF, or he plays all those positions in the way that a Bip Roberts, Figgins, McEwing or Jose Oquendo did.) It does seem that some perceive Getz as a best-case scenario major league utility player, whereas others perceive him as the answer to our leadoff or #2 hole and want him to play in 135-145 games). Because Carney Lansford made some comments, Nix is now the defensive player on our team. Some people think Alexei Ramirez was the best 2B in the American League last year, some think he was possibly the worst. That's not even getting into Brian Anderson...if nothing else, Owens/Fields/Anderson will all have their career tracks with the White Sox more firmly defined this season, for better or for worse. There's no doubt that we have some major defensive concerns on the corners of the diamond and at catcher. So it would seem logical to want to have your best possible alignment up the middle, covering the widest degree of the field possible. That would seem to give the advantage to Ramirez, Nix and Brian Anderson, at this point in time (this was raised in another thread, basically how we don't have many strikeout pitchers, having lost Vazquez, and our defense will be even more critical than in past seasons...of course, Colon and Contreras could more than make up for the loss of Vazquez if they're anything like their former selves, because Floyd and Danks can pile up some K's when they're on and even Buerhle seems like he has more days where he'll get 5-6 k's compared to earlier in his career). My questions would be the following: 1) Is Beckham going to be better than Ramirez at SS? If so, where do you put Ramirez, in CF, where he's going to be adequate/so-so offensively or second base, where he's going to be a much more dynamic player and more involved in the action on the field? The infield just seems to suit his personality more, at least to me. 2) Is there any serious consideration being given to letting Lillibridge start playing CF occasionally? If he doesn't make the team, will he play any other position than SS at Charlotte? Is Lillibridge better than Getz at 2B? 3) What is the behind-the-scenes thinking on Viciedo at this point? With Josh Fields seemingly holding his own offensively and defensively, do you look to trade Dye somehow and stick Viciedo in LF or RF to get his bat into the line-up this season...or do you play out the string with Thome/Konerko/Dye together for one final season? Would any GM dare trade a young pitcher like Homer Bailey at this point in time for Dye (even with a cash subsidy)? 4) Can Josh Kroeger play a competent enough CF that he will become a part of the OF conversation? That pretty much forces Getz/Lillibridge to be your leadoff man, and makes it a little harder on Nix. If Jordan Danks really takes off in AA this year, could he become part of the equation as early as 2009? 5) How far behind is John Shelby III in the mix? 6) Is the competition for back-up catcher really just Stewart and Miller? Will Armstrong get a real shot? Or is KW waiting in the weeds to pluck a particular player off the waiver wire?

Well, Getz can play all over the diamond (like Betemit) and probably MORE effectively defensively, but I'm not sure we'd want him getting 15-25 starts at SS either. I'm not as concerned with him playing 3B. That seems to favor Lillibridge for two reasons...he can play a legit SS better than anyone on the roster defensively and he can also play CF, although he hasn't played there regularly since Univ. of Washington days and would need a refresher course before you just threw him out there...at least a couple of weeks playing CF. Somehow I don't think we'll see that happen until they decide between Owens/Anderson/Wise...who they want to award CF to. There seems to be a pretty big split on this board about 2B, with many favoring Nix (like me) and many preferring our own farmhand, Getz. Well, another argument in favor of Getz is that he's more of a "sure thing" than Lillibridge at this point to stick at the top of the order and to have the reasonable expectation he could hold his own. Then again, Lillibridge probably is more the profile of a typical leadoff hitter in terms of speed. It's an interesting argument back and forth that we'll have here the next four weeks or so.

Tiny little story (not even done by a beat writer, Gonzales was on his way home from Phoenix for a week) without even a picture, certainly no bold headlines...took me a couple of minutes just to find it even. White Sox beat Cubs 7-6 in Las Vegas Tribune 1:00 AM CST, March 5, 2009 LAS VEGAS - John Danks tossed three scoreless innings and Ben Broussard's single drove in Josh Kroeger with the winning run in the bottom of the ninth inning to lift the White Sox to a 7-6 win over the Cubs on Wednesday night in a split squad game for both teams. The two teams will play again in Las Vegas on Thursday at 3:05 p.m. Danks scattered three three hits, struck out four and walked none. Aaron Poreda allowed one earned run over the last three innings for the win. David Patton took the loss for the Cubs. The Sox got homers from Michael Restovich, Paul Konerko and Wilson Betemit.

I should have prefaced that by saying that came up through our system or essentially made his debut with us...they've been few and far between, especially considering we now have a Latino manager, but a complete lack of results from the DR or Venezuela in terms of scouting. Yes, I know, we can blame it all on Wilder or Shaffer, but it is deeper than that even, this goes back a decade or more, since the time time we developed Ordonez and Carlos Lee.