caulfield12

This much is clear...the White Sox are "dead man walking" offensively, and that doesn't promise to improve any at all with the type of pitching we're likely to encounter in the playoffs. It seems we are bound and determined to back into the playoffs rather than win it, but anything is possible I guess, after what we witnessed in 2005. It will remarkable that a playoff team goes to the post-season with two combined wins against the Blue Jays and Yankees.

Even though Alexei might be losing the Rookie of the Year as we speak, I'll take it. Thanks for bailing out C-Pena Evan Longoria!!! Looks like Perkins might be shaken up a little bit.

Someone forgot to remind the Twins they were already out of it. Well, let's just hope they can lose in heartbreaking fashion somehow and that another loss really knocks them off stride. It looked bleak for the Indians for half of the game yesterday as well.

QUOTE (ptatc @ Sep 18, 2008 -> 03:21 PM) If this is the injury that they are doing surgery on, then it is a severe problem. Surgery is not done for patella tenonitis unless it has progressed to the point that part of the tendon becomes necrotic or starts to die. They can remove the dead tissue and have good tisuue grow in the spot. This is a severe case and doesn't happen often. Now you're reminding me of Bo Jackson's hip with "necrotic." Interesting...Fields' quote was something along the lines of that it was a simple procedure. "I'm excited to finally know what's going on and get it taken care of," said Fields of the arthroscopic surgery. "I don't know how to explain it because I don't totally understand what the doctors have told me, but they understand what they need to do. "They can go in take care of it really easily. The recovery is not supposed to be hard at all."

QUOTE (Kenny Hates Prospects @ Sep 18, 2008 -> 11:51 AM) I can't see why the Sox would go from an arb-eligible injury-prone 3B to another arb-eligible injury-prone 3B. There has been a lot of talk about Chone Figgins at third, and the D'Backs - Kenny's favorite trading partner - have two 3B in Chad Tracy and Mark Reynolds. Plus there's a logjam in Colorado with Stewart and Atkins, and other one-year possibilities like Melvin Mora and Pedro Feliz (I think he only signed a two-year deal with the Phils) who shouldn't cost much in terms of talent. Then there's Casey Blake, who I believe is an Iowa native and might like to play closer to home. There are several 3B possibilities beyond that and I doubt the Sox are going to restrict themselves as much as you say. In fact, because of all the possibilities that exist at 3B, I expect that to be one of the last holes to fill over the offseason. The first priority IMO is deciding whether or not to bring Uribe back, and at what salary. That decision immediately gives the Sox a direction to take. With Uribe locked in, then the Sox have a back-up plan as a starter for 3B, SS, and 2B. If they decide to pursue someone else as a starter then Uribe becomes a super UT man once again. The biggest question will be whether or not Uribe wants to test the free agent waters for a guaranteed starting job. He does love the Sox though, so if the money is right I could definitely see him re-upping right away even with some uncertainty as to his role. The second priority will most likely be a lead-off hitter. I think Kenny will leave his options open here and will be able to target lead-off types for 2B, SS, 3B, and CF, with the main targets being Figgins, Roberts, and Furcal. Once a lead-off hitter is found then he can move on to addressing other areas. The third priority should be deciding what to do with the Dye-Thome-Konerko-Swisher four-headed monster that should only reign over 3 spots. Dye will have the most trade value, but he has also been the most productive player of the 4 and is a fan favorite. If the Sox believe Konerko will come back and Swisher is still a good player in a horrible year, then trading Dye for parts that allow him a secondary move is an option. Thome I'd think is the safest bet of the four to stay simply because he's a big LH bat, and if you take that out then you have to immediately replace it. Swisher is the worst hitter of the four, but I can't see Kenny selling low on him. Anything can happen though. The fourth priority will be finding a SP, probably another young guy if possible. Kenny has pieces to deal and with Contreras' contract still on the books, I expect another under-the-radar Floyd/Danks type of acquisition. It may not work out the same way, but I bet that's the road Kenny will take. The fifth priority, assuming our new lead-off hitter doesn't play third, is finding a third baseman. Because of the number of options available, including Josh Fields (if he isn't traded by this point) and Uribe (assuming he's brought back) it doesn't make sense to address 3B until the larger concerns are. It's possible that picking up another reliever would hold priority over the 3B situation as well. I expect KW to have a 2005-like offseason. We'll have a lot of money coming off the books, the ability to trade a slugger without strongly damaging the strength of the lineup, we'll have several holes to fill, and we'll have the incentive to build a more fundamentally sound team with a more dynamic lineup. I can't remember where I saw it, but the net subtractions (assuming Cabrera and Crede are gone, and maybe Uribe) aren't that great, maybe we end up saving $5-7 million total. We still have Contreras' deal on the books, and while I'm not sure about how much insurance will cover it, or whether he will actually make a comeback attempt at mid-season....but we have to replace the fifth starter, and that won't happen with Poreda until 2010 I imagine. I think KW will try to find another bargain on the free agent market (like Loaiza) and then TRY to identify a youngster like Danks or Floyd that's undervalued and a team that would be willing to accept a package centered around Josh Fields. I don't see what pieces we have to make a deal for Figgins work...it just doesn't make sense for the Angels to strengthen an AL rival. They certainly don't need Fields. I think Thome will end up making more (because we're losing the Phillies subsidy), Jenks will definitely get a big raise in arbitration (I'm not sure about giving him a long-term deal with "controlled" numbers)...I think we're also carrying Mike MacDougal's contract through at least 2009. It's hard to imagine a Dye trade, even though that's the most logical from a "buy low, sell high" point of view. With Konerko and Swisher at "low value" and Thome very unlikely to be dealt because of the dearth of LH bats, that just opens up another big hole in the outfield. Are you going to trade Dye for another starting pitcher? Well, that's the ONLY thing that makes sense...and then trying to get an underachieving pitcher in the deal, maybe not a Phil Hughes/Homer Bailey in terms of name recognition but someone with a lot of unrealized potential. I just wouldn't count on finding another Quentin in this offseason. And I worry about going into the season with Anderson/Wise as the platoon in CF, with Swisher and Quentin on the corners. I think we can get another year or two out of AJ. He's never going to throw out many runners (our pitchers don't help much in this area either!), but he's a good complimentary player, and statistically, the #2 AL catcher in many categories. Just not a #2 hitter, except for desperate circumstances.

QUOTE (scenario @ Sep 18, 2008 -> 10:26 AM) In the last few years maybe, but their 1990s teams had a pretty consistent core that played from cradle to near grave. Andruw and Chipper Jones were probably the two biggest constants over their pennant runs...Javier Lopez was probably #3. But it all started with the timely acquisitions of Sid Bream and Terry Pendleton to shore up the infield defense and provide veteran leadership to go with that young pitching staff of Glavine, Smoltz and Steve Avery (before he was hurt)... By the way, thanks for reminding me of that scene with Gabrielle Union "stripping" in that good 'ol predictable Jet Li/DMX movie.

QUOTE (scenario @ Sep 18, 2008 -> 10:46 AM) I'm sorry. I'm just having a hard time imagining how someone could say a lineup with Denard Span, Carlos Gomez, Brian Buscher, Matt Tolbert, and Alexi Casilla starting for them is "choking". Five position players with less than 5 years of MLB experience between them... and almost all of them performing above their minor league averages. Add that to 5 starting pitchers none of whom have a full year in MLB under their belt. Overachieving is a more appropriate term... not choking. If Hunter and Santana were still around, I have a hard time imagining the same fate befalling the Twins. Those guys simply wouldn't have let it happen...although I have been a little surprised with Nathan's dropoff. And we knew Liriano was due for a bad start, although he still has something like 15 consecutive victories dating back to Rochester in June/July and then the Twins over the past 5-6 weeks.

QUOTE (knightni @ Sep 18, 2008 -> 10:38 AM) How do you forget $5,000?...Mr. Rockefeller. That wasn't the worst, lol...I bought JDS Uniphase at the height of dot.com bubble at around 110 per share...it went up to around 140 when it was added to the S&P 500 Index, and then I rode it all the way down to $2.96 per share. Actually, I don't mind writing it off as a loss...although I will hold onto AIG and maybe something positive will come of it. Maybe Warren Buffett will swoop in and that might help my Berkshire-Hathaway....actually, I think MSDW and Goldman Sachs and many regional banks are getting shorted simply because they are banks, and things will slowly correct over time, although I certainly have little hope for my AIG investment. Thankfully, I don't have more than 100 shares...imagine being a lifetime AIG worker and having your entire retirement tied into that stock and seeing your future eviscerated in a little less than 2 weeks?? I don't think anyone really was out on the forefront and accurately forecasted what was coming with AIG and now the other two Wall Street investment banks.

Definitely not. We can't afford to take another risk with Crede. Thome is getting up there in age, we're still not 100% sure if Konerko will be the "good" or "slider speed bat" Konerko in 2009...Contreras is on the shelf, Dye and AJ are getting older with every minute. I just don't see how we can add more uncertainty to the organization than already exists.

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Sep 18, 2008 -> 09:10 AM) Yet we've only managed to gain like 2 games on them in that period. Well, the White Sox can always hide behind the excuse of losing Quentin, Crede, Contreras, Konerko and Linebrink for large stretches of this season. The Twins don't have a similar excuse...their bullpen has really imploded dramatically, whereas ours has been pretty horrible for the last 2-3 months...really, since the beginning to middle of July, right around the All-Star break. Nathan has lost 2-4 MPH off his fastball, his location is way off, he's throwing an alarming number of pitches in each appearance...and his 3 BS in the last month are what he usually has in one season. I think the Twins' bullpen was SO good in 2006, only one game lost when leading going into the 8th inning, it's hard not to describe it as a choke. You can argue that Crain, Guerrier, Reyes, Nathan and Guardado are choking...or that, for whatever reason, they simply aren't VERY good right now. Hard to say which...but I think the Twins have had the lead in quite a few of the games they've lost in the last month. Not to mention numerous games they barely hung on to win that should have been blowouts. Once again, the Twins received no immediate punishment for their sins because the Yankees defeated Chicago 5-1, keeping the Twins 2 1/2 games back in the American League Central with 10 games to play. The White Sox are 8-11 in their past 19 games, but the Twins are in an 8-16 spiral. They boarded a late flight to Tampa, Fla., where they'll open a four-game series tonight against the Rays, who own the majors' best home record at 55-22. "At this point, you just see what we're made of," Guerrier said. "We lose three here at a time we need to be winning some games. It's going to be tough going to Tampa. They're fighting for a spot, and we've got pretty much our backs against the wall." from startribune.com

Maybe the scheduling Gods are finally shining upon us... Bannister, K. Davies and Brandon Duckworth for the next three games. No Gil Meche or Greinke, who gave us a lot of trouble the last time we faced him...actually, both pitched well, if I remember correctly. Of course, it's very possible that the Royals will also be riding a 7 game winning streak coming into Friday!!! OTOH, you have to think that their luck has to turn soon, and our Top 3 against (well, Danks is equal to any of them) against their Bottom 3 SHOULD SHOULD SHOULD be good for at least 2 wins out of three. And we've never historically struggled playing in KC like we have at Minnesota, Toronto, TB, etc. BTW, does anyone want to buy 100 shares of AIG??? I completely forgot buying it in 2005 at $50 per share, of course, now the brilliant Edward Jones stock brokers call my mom in Iowa advising her to sell. Great advice!!! Please tell me why the brokers never have the "inside info" to call maybe when the stock isn't down 96%!!!!

Well, this definitely is an interesting turn of events for the election. You would have to think this would favor the Democrats, but if the GOP can somehow deflect this, well...anything is possible. You can blame greed, you can blame deregulation and lack of institutional controls (remember Enron, when their accountants were also their "consultants"?), you can blame Wall Street or Main Street, but everyone has some level of responsibility. Of course, the Fulds and Thains and all the bank executives purged months ago are sitting on deserted islands with their martinis and daquiris and laughing with the Golden Parachutes softening the blow. The problem, of course, is how can anyone trust the numbers put forth by the banks, or any company, for that matter? Now you have "short selling" as a bubble, where every single bank (see the comments today from MSDW president Mack) is being shorted, doesn't matter why...just for being banking institutions. I'm not sure it's such a good idea to eliminate the short-sellers though...maybe by buying the housing giants and AIG, we're only prolonging the ultimate disaster. So far, the Dow's down about 25% off its high of a year or so ago. You just wonder where's the floor? I'm not thinking about selling any investments yet, and it's illogical to do (buy low, sell high!!!) because if you have a long-term orientation, things SHOULD come back to equilibrium, but there are many people out there overleveraged with debt who will be tempted to try to get at least something back...nobody wants to be the one left at the end of musical chairs without a place to sit down. I was/am a big follower of Bill Miller (Legg Mason Value Trust) and he has gotten absolutely creamed for 3 years in a row after 14 years consecutively beating the market. But disciples of Buffett (such as Oakmark Fund/Oakmark Select) have also been hammered. It seems even "value" investors are having trouble identifying the right market niches to get into. I manage assets for my mom and she's 80 years old. Fortunately, she receives enough money from my father's pension (he passed away 9 years ago) that she's okay without having to live on any of the investment income. However, I'm starting to feel it would have been better to be 80/20 bonds-to-stock instead of 20/80 stocks to bonds, something like PIMCO's Total Return Index instead of some of the Vanguard Index funds and Oakmark/Legg Mason. Well...I'll try to call her from Thailand and reassure her. It's scary, because we don't have long-term care insurance, and long-term nursing care can wipe out hundreds of thousands in as little as 5-10 years. We rode out the tech stock bubble, hopefully this one won't throw us into Great Depression II. But you have to wonder...all those people living beyond their means, all the credit cards, student loans, mortgages, you certainly have a feeling it will keep getting worse before it gets any better.

QUOTE (oralsoxpodcast @ Sep 17, 2008 -> 03:29 PM) Josh Fields needs to be traded to the Texas Rangers. They like their young home run hitters down there. He strikes out too much and plays a lousy third. The current White Sox don't need another player that is slow, bad defensively, and only hits homeruns. Enough of that. Besides, Crede will still be here next year, along with Juan as his backup, IMHO. I think they have to part ways with Crede, for a number of reasons...it will be either Fields, Uribe or Beltre/Blalock.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Sep 17, 2008 -> 02:52 AM) Have I ever told you how smart you are? lol Seriously though, I just think Beltre is the perfect choice for the Sox; there's no long-term committment, you should get compensation at the end of the season, he doesn't cost an arm and a leg monetarily (though he's not cheap by any stretch of the imagination either), he shouldn't cost an arm and a leg to trade for though he won't be stolen either, and he's a very underrated player - I don't think .270 30 .825 is seriously out of the question for him, and he plays fantastic defense at 3B too, which is incredibly important. As far as I'm aware, there are no serious injury concerns (though he is having surgery for a torn ligament on his hand...he wanted to play through it so it obviously wasn't effecting him a terrible amount). Beltre just seems too perfect. I also don't want to look too far ahead either because there's still plenty of season left to be played. The funny thing is this is decidedly the single biggest issue for the Twins in the upcoming offseason as well...and they have more room to negotiate, as they could package someone like Cuddyer and a minor league prospect. That still leaves them Span, Gomez, D. Young and Kubel for pretty excellent depth. I doubt they would trade Perkins or Blackburn (that was the Washburn deal that was nixed ultimately by the Twins)...unless they were very confident someone like Bonser could bounce back into the rotation. They will try to avoid a repeat of the Livan Hernandez disaster this past off-season. If the Twins lose, not using Liriano until mid August might be one of the obvious things to point at as a reason for the Sox winning the division. The Twins are also in the same spot we are, looking for RH relief help. The irony is that we have MacDougal, Dotel and Linebrink, but can any of them be counted on for next season??? The Twins have Guerrier, Crain and possibly Neshek coming back at full strength. I would say both clubs are in similar situations...we'll see how well Octavio and Scott do the next couple of weeks and possibly in the post-season.

QUOTE (Princess Dye @ Sep 17, 2008 -> 10:44 PM) Vazquez has seven strong starts coming in. In general though I'm really happy w/ our starting pitching right now. I like the thought of that staff turning things over to Thornton/Jenks in the playoffs, but we have to get there first. The problem is that the stress of the post-season is so much higher on the pitchers...and the managers tend to over/micromanage for individual match-ups starting in the 6th or 7th innings. The only hope or prayer we have is that our starters can go at least 7 and that Thornton and Linebrink are lights out. However, there are some questions lingering over Linebrink and even Bobby (although most of his troubles have been caused by 4 run leads or not pitching under intense pressure to begin an inning). Thornton always scares you if he doesn't come in to begin the inning with a clean slate. Dotel and Carrasco haven't been reliable...in fact, you've seen Guillen tempted to use MacDougal more and more often. The way things stand right now, the odds against either the Twins or the White Sox advancing past the first round are not good.

Morneau 3 for 3 against Lee. 1st and 3rd with one out.....please, the GIDP from D. Young!!!! Okay, strikeout works for me too. Walking the tightrope and gets out of it. WOW.

QUOTE (whitesoxbrian @ Sep 17, 2008 -> 07:31 PM) How can you boo a .300/.380/30/100 guy? Well, as Farmer noted, he tried to opt out of his contract and negotiate (hold hostage) the Yankees in the middle of the World Series. No Yankees WS victory in eight years now. The Yankees are paying him his whole salary now, without Rangers' subsidies. Because Jeter is so beloved, he has to play the villain, and does it well. Off the field issues with wife, Madonna, Scores strippers, etc. Attitude....aloofness, the same things they're saying about Obama, basically. Horrible late innings, RISP, and tremendously disappointing playoff stat lines. Throwing errors a season or two ago....the fans know they can get into his head.

Tie game in CLE. I guess I inspired Hafner by getting on him, lol. 2-2. Baker not much longer for this game, but neither is Lee. It will come down to Russian Roulette with the bullpens. Let's hope Gardenhire's choices end up throwing grenades on the gasoline instead of putting out the fire/s.

QUOTE (daa84 @ Sep 17, 2008 -> 07:21 PM) great effort from clayton tonight...any sign of trouble ozzie has to have DJ ready You still feel confident in DJ??? Really? I think the magic is gone from that option. I would go with Danks...call me crazy. But he can easily pitch 2-3 innings and get us to Linebrink and Jenks. We don't have any good options in middle relief to accomplish that same task.

Gomez goes deep for the Twins. 2-0. Luckily, there was a GIDP right before that, or the game would be even more precarious. Lee's also getting his pitch count way up there, 68 through 4 IP. That doesn't bode well, because the Indians' middle relief is terrible.

QUOTE (knightni @ Sep 17, 2008 -> 07:03 PM) This three days rest stuff is too risky, in my opinion. It's too late in the season to suddenly have them overdoing it. They've already all approached 175+ innings this season. Why risk a breakdown on young arms? The Twins are doing the same thing today with Baker. He's pitched really well through three innings, no runs given up. The only risk is with Floyd, as Vazquez and Buerhle are veterans and experienced enough to deal with it and they both know their soreness tolerance.

QUOTE (fathom @ Sep 17, 2008 -> 06:59 PM) No, it's Vazquez/Danks/Buehrle/Floyd/off day/Vazquez/Danks/Buehrle/TBD It would make some sense to use Danks against Mauer/Morneau, but I think they are more concerned about his pitch count and IP than any Sox pitcher, and for good reason. The articles I've read said they wanted to line up Vazquez, Buehrle and Floyd for that series, and they would each be on full rest because of the Monday off day.

QUOTE (Brian @ Sep 17, 2008 -> 06:57 PM) They said on the radio that Buerhle was pitching Friday. I didn't think that sounded right. I figured Danks was Sat. One of us is right. Floyd going Saturday night in KC on three days' rest. That was the latest I read. If it comes down to it, those three would have to go on three days' rest again against CLE and then the DET game on Monday. They could use Danks with full rest or Floyd on three day's for the possible final DET game after the regular season ends. CLIFF LEE...five hits, two walks, yet only one run surrendered in 3 IP.

QUOTE (fathom @ Sep 17, 2008 -> 06:52 PM) You absolutely save Danks for Friday. Danks isn't starting until Sunday. We're going with Vazquez, Buerhle and Floyd on three days' rest consecutively.

Well...this is getting interesting. With CLE trailing the Twins, will Guillen insert Danks into the middle of this game and go for the win? Will the Twins' score affect Ozzie's decision-making process? Or will we get our usual middle relief suspects? The longer we stay tied or if we can get the lead, the possibility of sneaking out of this game with a victory must be tantalizing. Dewayne Wise at .842 OPS. Pretty amazing. He's ahead of Alexei...that's impressive for a bench player in limited action.