Kenny Hates Prospects

QUOTE (jamesdiego @ Mar 30, 2009 -> 08:20 PM) I don't think he's great or anything, but he's WAY better than people around tak about him. Somehow in many Sox fans minds, Wise and Owens got morphed into one freaky being. And it's more of my lack of faith in Mr Anderson. But of course I could be wrong and if he out hits Wise, then he should get most of the playing time. By the end of the year both might be on the bench so Beckham can play SS and Ramirez CF. Sox fans think Wise sucks because through 12 seasons in professional baseball he has sucked. The only players Wise is WAY better than are those low minors filler types. I'd say Wise is WAY better than Micah Schnurstein for instance. QUOTE (jamesdiego @ Mar 30, 2009 -> 08:20 PM) With Wise, he changed his swing before last year. Racked at Charlotte with a .319avg .402obp 9hrs in 55 games, and earned the callup. Hit .288 with us before Ozzie put him in the leadoff. It was too much for him, and sucked it up for the next 8 games with a .080avg. But that was only 8 freaking games until the end of the season that he blew. And it was after he got moved in the leadoff position in the middle of a freakin pennant race. But he then turned it around by hitting .286 with 5 rbi's in the playofffs. Wise tore it up in a bandbox against AAAA players in his 6th season in Triple A. You're taking his brief, as usual, MLB stint in '08 much further than you should. He got 129 AB and hit .248/.293/.450. Only one of those numbers sticks out, and that's his SLG%, which his career history says he won't repeat. Wise is a veteran mistake hitter just like every other AAAA player who has been around as long as he has. Throw him three change-ups low and in and he's done. If it's not a low fastball, a meatball over the heart of the plate, or a hanging breaking ball then he's going to make an out. You also try to make it out like the pressure hurt him. He's played 12 years in professional baseball. If pressure hurts him then that is yet another strike against him. QUOTE (jamesdiego @ Mar 30, 2009 -> 08:20 PM) But I don't support him leading off by any means. I think Oz wants to take it rightfully slow with Getz, but he'll be in the leadoff by years end. Wise should bat only bat against righties, with Brian replacing him at end of games. I believe in a fluid offense and Brian will be a huge black hole. We lived through Mackoviak people, Wise isn't that bad. Ozzie is a moron when it comes to his grinders and he has proven this in the past. Ozzie believes there would be sooooo much pressure on Getz hitting at the top of the lineup but in reality there's no extra pressure than what he'll already be playing under. Being on television and playing in a loud big league stadium for your first full season? Check. Facing Major League pitching regularly for the first time? Check. Knowing the best prospect in the organization competed with you in ST and ALMOST took your job? Check. Knowing there are also two other guys in Lillibridge and Nix who want your spot? Check. Knowing there are playoff expectations and that you have a short leash as a result? Check. Chris' responsibilities at lead off would be: 1) see some pitches, 2) make solid contact, 3) draw walks, 4) be able to advance the runner, 5) make intelligent decisions on the basepaths. Regardless of where he is hitting in the lineup, if he doesn't do all 5 of those things he's going to be sent back down to Charlotte. It's not like the first batter of the game has to play under much harsher conditions or anything, in fact, much of the time you see starting pitchers struggle to find their control through the first few hitters they face, so if you're a patient hitter like Getz is, you've got a better chance of drawing a walk or getting a good pitch to hit. As far as your dislike for Brian Anderson, tell me, why is offense in CF more valuable than defense in CF? Let's just suppose for a second that D-Wise is actually a competent Major League hitter instead of career minor league roster filler. Why would Dewayne's bat over the course of 500-600 AB be more valuable than Anderson's ability to catch the ball over 350-400+ chances and Anderson's ability to throw the ball in every time he catches the ball with a RISP? I know you like a fluid offense, but I like a team that doesn't suck balls. In order to not suck balls, you have to pitch, catch, and throw. As others have pointed out, our team defense is quite possibly the worst in the American League and one of the worst in all of baseball. That doesn't help our pitching very much.

QUOTE (Kalapse @ Mar 30, 2009 -> 04:19 PM) Kenny Williams just 2 weeks ago: In what f***ing world does this describe Dewayne Wise? He of the .254 career major league OBP, .309 career minor league OBP, low minor league doubles total and well below average pitches per plate appearance numbers. That's some two faced bulls*** right there. Kenny needs something supernatural to happen in order for Wise to be good at anything as a starter. Maybe we can take up a collection and hire a Voodoo doctor to travel with the team and shake his Voodoo stick at Dewayne whenever he leaves the dugout.

I'd feel much better about this situation if KW came out and told the media, "We talked to Atlanta, but they wanted Poreda." That won't happen, and actually I doubt Kenny ever had serious discussions. Kenny's quote will be something like, "There was nothing out there that we felt was better than what we have in house." WTF?! And then he'll say, "We feel we've got a guy in Dewayne Wise who can be just as good as anyone else in the league."

Damn it.

QUOTE (rangercal @ Mar 30, 2009 -> 01:10 PM) I hope wise hits .330 and is a 20/20 player. Will it happen? NO but... I will not root for someone on the Sox to suck. Sounds like you are more of a fan of the names on back of a jersey, instead of the logo on front. I'd root for Wise to turn into an above average CF but it's never going to happen. I'm sure she's rooting against him because she's rooting for the Sox as a whole. As long as Dewayne hits Ozzie is going to leave him out there and let him hurt the pitching staff. It's not as simple as not supporting one player = not supporting the team. Personally, I've backed Wise as a 4th OF and I think he'd bring some valuable things in that role. But I'll root against him as a starting CF because I want a glove in CF. That doesn't mean I personally dislike him, it means I strongly disagree with what Ozzie believes is the #1 priority of a starting CF.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Mar 30, 2009 -> 12:34 PM) Surprisingly, the last round of cuts did not include Lucy. This leaves Backup C as, I believe, the only remaining open roster question. I would have expected a catcher to be among the last cuts anyway. The Sox probably want to rest AJ a little bit for the remainder of ST and only use him in games, and they'll need someone else to help warm all the pitchers up. I think the Sox have already decided on who they want by now, and I'm guessing it's Corky. Edit: Voted for Lucy, probably because I'm biased towards a Sox prospect and also because I'd like to see him get a shot after coming back from such a devastating injury.

QUOTE (Melissa1334 @ Mar 30, 2009 -> 12:31 PM) it said wise won the job and will leadoff. god i hope he sux *angry* Totally agree. I want to see Anderson take the job from him, but it'll be hard for Brian to do it if he is only getting starts vs. LHP. Sad to see Egbert go. Bittersweet on Owens. I really wanted to see Wise named the 4th OF but I guess my hopes were too high.

QUOTE (bighurt4life @ Mar 29, 2009 -> 05:13 PM) I'm sorry but you will never convince me that 129 K's vs 36 BB's as he had last season is anything but a terrible K/BB ratio, on top of that, he's a leadoff type hitter, not a slugger. Power hitters will always K more often than speed guys. I'd never try to convince you of that, because I wouldn't support the .294 OBP he carried around with him in Richmond that year. Like I said from the getgo, his career in the minors is much better than that, a .352 OBP. He K'd 119 times the year before and still looks like he got on at about a .340+ clip combined between AA and AAA. Edit: Also, if you look at his numbers in Triple A last year, he only hit .220. His OBP was 74 points higher than his BA, and over his minor league career there's generally a 50-100+ point difference between his average and OBP. If he hits .270 that season then he's getting on at near a .344 clip. The players you need to watch out for are the ones who can't open up that gap between AVG and OBP, making their whole games reliant upon a .300 batting average in order to post a respectable OBP.

QUOTE (CaliSoxFanViaSWside @ Mar 29, 2009 -> 05:06 PM) Kannapolis player, nevermind . Doesn't he have a good mid-90's FB with movement? Or am I thinking of something else. I don't like how the Sox choose the unbroadcasted games to put in the players I've never seen before.

QUOTE (bighurt4life @ Mar 29, 2009 -> 04:56 PM) Obviously the small sample size in ST isn't the end all for him, but based on those numbers and now looking at his minor league numbers, he does not have good plate discipline, in aa and aaa he put up some big k numbers and those numbers will almost assuredly increase in the majors unless he makes some major changes in his approach If you think cracking 100 K is bad discipline then you'll be shocked to see how many highly touted prospects K at a much higher rate than that. Of current and former top prospects in our organization, Fields, Anderson, Nix, Allen and Flowers have cracked that. Shelby would have easily cracked that last year if he'd have played a full season, Viciedo will almost certainly crack that if he's down there all year, so will Jordan Danks, and it just goes on. Beckham and Getz are pretty rare. Why do you think Jeremy Reed was such a huge prospect for us? Lilli actually walks (through his minor league career) at a pretty good rate (career .352 minor league OBP).

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Mar 29, 2009 -> 04:41 PM) Ben Davis was one of THE best prospects in baseball when he was coming up w/ the Padres. I think he was either the 1/2 draft pick overall in the first round. Looking back, he's probably best remembered for bunting to break up a no-hitter. Andy Gonzalez was in our Top 10 list, but we could probably find a number of other Francisco Hernandezes and Silverio's on that list in the last 10 years....like Broadway, Russell, Ring, Dellaero, McCulloch, etc. Terrero was a top prospect, but he was a "suspect" by the time he reached Chicago. I think Ozzie is smart enough (replying to earlier comment) to stick with Anderson and/or Wise when they are hot and balance it as he did last year with all of our players...like Carasco coming out of the pen, mixing and matching and maximizing their contributions. Agree with all this and that's just my point. Lots of guys start out with lots of hype behind them but either completely miss or turn into role players out of the pen or off the bench. When an announcer says "Player A was once a 5-tool prospect" then he's probably telling the truth, but you could also look at both teams and see a ton of guys that once fit that description. At that time, Anderson, Sweeney, Dye, Uribe, Cintron, Iguchi when he was coming up in Japan before he had surgery, Erstad, etc. were also guys who had been labeled potential future 5-tool Major League players coming up. I agree though that Terrero was considered a bust well before he got here, although I still wanted the Sox to play him at the time since they weren't playing Anderson or Sweeney. In the middle of a season that is going nowhere, if you're not going to play your prospects then play some AAAA players just to see if you hit the lottery and end up with another Cust or Ludwick (even though those guys were better prospect than Terrero ever was).

QUOTE (bighurt4life @ Mar 29, 2009 -> 04:21 PM) Yeah but he has a horrible OBP and his BB/K ratio is horrendous, like 1/20 Check his minor league stats out. They're a much better indicator of his ability than a few AB in ST are. 2008 (AAA, MLB): 36 BB, 123 K, about 1 BB for every 3.4 K 2007 (AA, AAA): 40 BB, 119 K, about 1 BB for every 3 K 2006 (A, A+): 87 BB, 104 K, about 1 BB for every 1.2 K 2005 (A-): 14 BB, 35 K, about 1 BB for every 2.5 K

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Mar 29, 2009 -> 03:45 PM) Since we're talking "fake prospects" and we're playing the D-Backs, I'll add Luis Terrero to the list. Did they send Kroeger down? It would be nice to see him get some PT against his former team, good storyline. Go Sooners! Terrero had some pop, he could throw, he could make the plays in the OF, and he could run. He could also hit for pretty good average coming up for the D'Backs. Things just didn't work out for him, but that doesn't mean he was never a prospect. Alex Cintron was a pretty big prospect coming up for them too and he also turned into a bench player. And actually, Andy Gonzalez was once considered a good prospect for us as well. The truth is, normally you have to have some kind of talent to ever get any kind of shot in the big leagues. Many if not most of guys who end up on benches, like Pablo Ozuna, Willie Harris, Ben Davis if you remember him, etc. were at one time pretty big prospects. Kroeger might be a story if he had a shot at making the team, but unfortunately he doesn't. It appears Wise and BA have locked up jobs.

QUOTE (GreatScott82 @ Mar 29, 2009 -> 12:43 PM) I would LOVE to give Josh Anderson a shot here. He stole over 40 bases in the past 5 minor league seasons. And he hit for an average of .294 in 40 games with the big league team last year. He is 26 years old, and the Braves seem to be leaning toward Schafer as their every day CF. So far this spring, JA is hitting .286 with 2 HR, a triple and 7 RBI. He is 2-2 in SBs. His OBP is only .298 so he would like be at the bottom of the order if KW looks into a deal like this. I'd be cool with an Anderson duo platoon.. . Its much better than having Wise or Owens out there. I'd like that too. I'm fine with Anderson getting a shot every day. I'm fine with an Anderson platoon if the other guy can play CF. I'm fine with a trade for another full-time starting CF, as long as that guy can also play defense, and as long as that guy is either very cheap in terms of talent, or very expensive in terms of talent but acts as a long-term solution. The only thing I'm not fine with is a bad LF in CF. I hope the Sox don't follow that formula, and if Josh Anderson is out there, and we can get him for the Links and Santelizes of the world instead of the Allens and Danks' and Poredas, then I make that deal.

QUOTE (Princess Dye @ Mar 29, 2009 -> 01:15 PM) Uribe had an absolutely unreal early 2004 with the bat. And also I wont be the one naive enough around here to avoid saying he couldve had some 'extra help' with speeding that bat up when it was still the era for that sorta thing. All in all, Lillibridge doesnt have a parallel situation with Uribe at this point. Instead of power, he's a toolsy grinder type guy who has to find himself after a lost year last year. I think playing every day, for at least one more year, would be a good idea for him. Nix is a more ideal 25th guy due to age and the experiences he's already had. I think we have enough OFs with the emergency situation allowing Alexei or even Josh to go back there. I'm not going to accuse Uribe of using steriods. I'm not dumb enough to believe that every player who has ever had an uncommonly good year is a 'roid suspect. I attribute Juan's '04 season to being in a comfortable situation with a Spanish-speaking manager and coaching staff, being pushed competitively, getting a new start, being in a hitters park facing AL pitching for the first time, and facing an overall weak AL Central pitching-wise. You just exactly described Uribe with your grinder statement. Lillibridge doesn't have the raw power Uribe has, but he's capable of hitting liners into the gap and legging out the XBH to boost his SLG%. Uribe can hit the moonshots, but his power isn't all that valuable most of the time because he takes himself out of his AB early in the count. With a better approach his power would show up in the stats a hell of a lot more than it does. Until then, Lillibridge has the type of talent that makes him capable of matching Uribe in terms of slugging and actually beating him in OPS by walking more. Whether or not he does that at the MLB level is yet to be seen, but to write him off during his Age 25 season after a successful minor league career simply because of one horrible season at Triple A and a bunch of K's in ST is flat out stupid, and I'm not saying you are, but others are. Firstly, he already hit well in Triple A in 2007 (.287/.331/.436) and secondly, the Sox said before camp started that they had to work with Lillibridge on his approach, so I think there's a pretty good chance that part of the reason he looked so awful early on was because he was doing something differently. He got two hits yesterday and ST isn't over yet. I agree on Nix if he can be an acceptable backup at SS. I imagine that if Lillibridge struggles early Nix will replace him on the roster and Lilli will get playing time in Charlotte. I think the Sox will try to hold onto Nix if they can. Lillibridge might be better off getting regular AB in Charlotte, but I don't think he would agree with that personally. It might be best for him if he can show he can do what it takes to stick on an MLB bench, and then take it from there. Actually that probably would be the best thing for him since there are so many better prospects to climb over that if he can't prove he can stick he may never get a shot with the team again. I can't see Alexei in the OF unless the perfect storm occurs where the Sox want more offense in CF, Getz is solid or better at 2B, and Beckham forces his way into the lineup. Josh Fields will never play the OF again for the Sox. On another team, who knows, but it's not going to happen here.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Mar 29, 2009 -> 05:08 AM) Juan Uribe was the opening day 2Bman. (BL won't be) Juan Uribe hit for power. (BL doesn't know what power is) Juan Uribe actually had an economically sound contract last season. (BL doesn't know what a contract is) Good enough, or you want me to keep going? (BL still loves you) Juan Uribe quite honestly saved the White Sox last year, because I hate to think of who would have played 3rd other than him after Crede went down. He was actually pretty solid offensively filling in, and fantastic defensively. God bless Juan Uribe. I don't understand what your point is supposed to be. Juan was the 2B on opening day because the Sox had nothing else other than Alexei who was the opening day CF. Danny Richar was supposed to be the starting 2B but he got hurt. Juan fell into that role, and the only reason he was on the team at all was because the Sox hadn't traded for Cabrera before they had to decide on offering Uribe arbitration. If you remember, the Sox put Uribe on waivers early but ended up keeping him, most likely because of Richar. Had Richar been healthy the Sox probably would have let him go to whoever it was that claimed him. Uribe's planned role was as a backup MIF if we kept him, just like Lillibridge, and because we didn't have the depth we have now, Juan ended up starting. Lilli can't be the starter now because if Fields, Alexei, or Getz go down then Beckham, Viciedo, and Nix are all ahead of him on the depth chart. All three of those players would be ahead of Uribe as well if he were still here. If a .386 SLG% over 324 AB in '08 is hitting for power then you've got some uncharacteristically low expectations for Major League baseball players. BTW, Lillibridge's career minor league SLG% is .421 compared to Uribe's .428. Oh wow, those extra 7 points are so huge... Since Brent doesn't have enough MLB AB to compare, the only thing you can go with is minor league numbers and actually Lillibridge's numbers in the minors are very comparable to Uribe's: .273/.319/.428 for Juan in 1397 AB, .270/.352/.421 for Brent in 1524 AB. Uribe was overpaid for a bench player, and I don't care what you use to try to refute that. Bench players are not supposed to get paid $4.5M a season unless they are good enough hitters to be starters, and Uribe does not fit into that category. As a starter, I'd say what he did last year was worth his salary, BUT he wasn't supposed to be a starter. Crede's back gave out and the Sox ended up spending about $10M on the 3B position last year and what they got for it was not $10M of production. I'm thankful we had Juan last year, but calling his contract "sound" is ridiculous. The Giants are paying him I believe $1M this year if he makes the club. While he may be a bit undervalued at that price, $1M is much more in line with what a backup IF with Uribe's experience and versatility should make. And as far as Lillibridge, you're talking about the league minimum for defense backing up at 2B, SS, and CF. I'm sure he could backup at 3B too if we ever wanted him to, but we have Betemit for that. So $400K or whatever for an IF backup, CF backup, and a pinch runner? Yeah, that's such a bad deal... You can keep going all you want, but it doesn't make any sense. Lillibridge provides defense and speed as a backup and his contract is as small as it can possibly get. On top of that, much like Uribe when he first came to the Sox as a backup IF, Lillibridge was once a top prospect and he has a chance at being a starter if he can do what Uribe did in '04 and prove himself with the bat. The road will admittedly be much tougher for Brent, because whereas Uribe only had to deal with Valentin, Willie Harris, and Crede blocking him, Lillibridge has Getz, Nix, Fields, Viciedo, Beckham, and Alexei standing in his way. The only shot for him would be CF, but there's Anderson there, and if the Sox look to replace Anderson then there's always the chance that the Sox throw Alexei or even Getz in CF if they're looking for a way to put Beckham's bat in the lineup.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Mar 27, 2009 -> 11:30 PM) Well, the argument for the Sunday-Special line-ups is always going to be 2005. Because the bench players got regular playing time that season (compared to many teams), players like Ozuna, Blum and Willie Harris were ready and able to make key contributions in the playoffs and World Series. That all kept our regulars fresh and allowed them to get a "second" wind in the final weeks of the season, and carried right over into the playoffs. Sometimes there is a method in Ozzie's madness. It worked last year, even though it's incredible looking back how it all played out and how just about everything possible went right for us the final five days of the season...and wrong for the Twins. I don't see that as a very good argument because our bench didn't do a whole lot of extraordinary things in the 2005 postseason. Blum hit a low fastball for a homerun off a guy who at that point was a garbage time pitcher meant to fill out the playoff roster; Willie Harris and Pablo Ozuna stole bases. Last year Paulie didn't get hot late because he was fresh, it was because he was healthy. Swisher and Griffey were rested but didn't come up big in the postseason, meanwhile OC started almost every single day and he still got some hits and put together good AB. I don't think anyone got a second wind at all in either '05 or '08. I think what happened was both teams tried to back into the postseason down the stretch, then got a bit of a push, then finally relaxed their minds a bit once they got in. In both cases the pitching stepped up big time (McCarthy and Jose in '05, Danks and Floyd mainly in '08). The difference between the two teams is that all-around the '05 team was ton better and probably would have swept the '08 team in a best of 7 series 9 times out of 10. But back to the point, yes the starters need to keep fresh, but you can give one guy a rest on each day for the first 3-4 days of the week while starting one bench player only (even though I don't think most players are going to need that much rest) instead of throwing out the weakest lineup possible once a week. There's actually a strategy you can use there too, like when we're facing a starter that AJ doesn't hit at all, start Miller that day regardless of the lefty/right match-ups. When we're facing an ace, or when we're playing in the first game of a series in a dome, pick that day to start Lillibridge and put some more speed in the lineup since we're probably not going to get a lot of hits anyway. Ozzie can manage these things differently so that we'll never go out there with a black hole throughout almost half of our lineup.

The Sox won't actually need a 5th starter until April 15th at Detroit, so in theory they could open the season with this pitching staff: Rotation: Danks-Floyd-Buehrle-Contreras Pen: Jenks-Thornton-Linebrink-Dotel-MacDougal-Richard-Williams-Carrasco Then they could test Richard out as a short reliever since he's been starting all spring and basically extend the 2nd lefty competition out until April 14th, which would be 8 extra regular season games. If Richard can't get it done as a reliever then keep Williams around and send Richard to Charlotte, otherwise put Williams on waivers and activate Colon.

Per MLBTradeRumors, the Braves are in fact looking to deal Josh Anderson and the Sox are named as a possible destination. He shouldn't cost anything all that significant (no top prospects) and would be a much better platoon option than Wise, if it is true that we are looking at a Brian Anderson/Wise platoon.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Mar 27, 2009 -> 10:16 PM) The question is if BA could put up a 740 OPS playing on an everyday basis. That's about the "break even" point for him...otherwise, it might make more sense to play Wise against some tough righties if he can close to approximating an 800 OPS against righties that Anderson has struggled mightily against. Let's say the Anderson/Wise platoon can give you a 770 OPS...or even 800 OPS. Is that worth it to sacrifice Anderson's defense for 30-70 OPS points? That's where the argument becomes a very interesting one. With Dye becoming ever more limited in terms of range in RF and Wise a defensive nightmare in center, I tend to favor the argument (and this is basically based on the idea that last year was a fluke for Wise, or anomaly) that playing Anderson everyday would be best, as long as he's nowhere need the leadoff spot and Getz and Ramirez are at the top of the line-up and not Wise/Anderson/AJ. Brian should be able to post a .740 OPS in everyday playing time no problem. The standards should be set higher, more like a .780 OPS. Wise will likely only drag that number down though, so I don't see how adding him to the equation helps anything. Even if Wise were a very good hitter I still wouldn't want him in CF. Anderson, if he played everyday, would be the only GG-worthy player on this entire team. Our pitching will definitely need that.

What is with the Lillibridge hate? Last year we seemed pretty thankful to be paying $4.5M/year for Uribe's defense as a backup. I for one am very happy that the Sox decided to go cheap with their bench and allocate funds elsewhere this year because I've wanted them to do that for a long time. Everyone but Betemit should be making the minimum. Lillibridge brings some D to the table and some speed, so what more is there to ask? You want a bat with that speed and defense? Well that's a starting-caliber player right there, not the type of player you just go out and grab for next to nothing. And, if Lillibridge were hitting right now, then everyone would want him in CF everyday. So make up your minds, do you want Betemit's ass booting everything at short when Alexei gets a day off or do you want the plays made in the field? Lay off the Lilli already. Accept him for what he is and accept bench players for what they are. This "worst hitter in the Cactus League" stuff is garbage. Yeah he K's a ton, but so the f*** what? He's going to sit his ass on the bench and may very well go down as soon as Nix is ready. There's no reason to rip either Brent or Corky unless they f*** up at their positions defensively. The only time they could hurt us is when Ozzie throws out those Little League Sunday lineups, but that's his fault and his fault only. Betemit at 3B, Wise in CF, Corky behind the plate, Lilli at SS/2B will be the worst 6-9 or 7-2 in baseball on that given day, but as Hawk will continually remind us all, Ozzie is not afraid to lose a baseball game. The biggest areas of concern are with our starters, both in the rotation and as position players, and the health of our bullpen. I don't want Richard or Marquez anywhere near that rotation and I don't want Wise in CF on a regular basis. Why? Because they're not very good. I like Richard a lot as a reliever, but he needs to stay there. Marquez needs to prove he can pitch above Double A. I don't want to see Broadway ever again. It bugs me that Egbert doesn't seem to get any consideration here.

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ Mar 27, 2009 -> 08:28 PM) I agree with all this. If I'm Ozzie, and I know he won't go this route, I give Brian Anderson one final chance to prove that he can be anything besides a liability with the bat. If he continues to felate (I learned that word from Heads or Southsideirish), it's time for him to move on. I agree with you, but when you say it's time to move on if Brian doesn't hit, I think that all depends on what we'd be moving on to. If we're "moving on" to more garbage defensive AAAA players then we shouldn't move on at all. If I were Ozzie I'd put Brian out there every day and hit him 9th, no platoons, no AAAA players taking AB away from him. If he's not getting anything done by mid-season at the earliest then look for a replacement, but *only* if the replacement is a better player and *only* if the cost is worth it, i.e. upgrading Anderson to Melky Cabrera at the cost of Brandon Allen is not worth it by any means. The Sox need to stick with Brian until he proves himself capable or incapable, and if he's incapable, then they need to actually fill the damn position for once, either with an expensive (talent-wise) long-term solution that is worth the cost, or with a solid, above-average veteran stopgap that is again worth the cost (no top prospects).

Well I at least hope Kenny is out there looking around anyway. PS you've got a weird sense of humor, Caulfield. I do like it though.

QUOTE (Missy @ Mar 26, 2009 -> 08:59 PM) Figured this is a good place for my first post. Hi everyone! My keys are: Q, Alexei, Danks and Floyd have to back up their 2008 numbers 2nd base and 3rd base have to be solid, both defense and offense In addition to Colon and Contreras not being awful, one of the kids (Marquez, Poreda, Richard) has to become a big boy pitcher Hello and welcome to SoxTalk! Hope you don't mind threads about Brian Anderson...

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Mar 26, 2009 -> 08:50 PM) Not sure about being selfish...I know the organization really pushed Pods (post ASB 05) and Willie Harris (another example) to be more aggressive with their speed and utilize it on the basepaths, but both became hesitant. I think the same thing was happening with Owens early in ST, he was getting thrown out over and over again and started to lose his aggressiveness. That's his biggest weapon. Wise got thrown out trying to stretch a double into a triple today and I see that as a sign of things to come if either he or Owens end up leading off. There's nothing wrong with being aggressive and looking to put an opponent down 1-0 early, in fact that's the type of baseball I love more than any other kind. The problem is, these guys are going to have it in their heads that they need to do certain things in order to keep playing, and they're going to end up taking chances that do not benefit the team as a whole. Hopefully as far as steals are concerned that will all come from the dugout and Ozzie will pick his spots wisely, but I believe the Sox gave Pods the green light much of the time when he was here so that is something to worry about. Mainly it's the brainfarts like trying to stretch out singles into doubles and doubles into triples that is going to hurt us, along with one of these guys trying to tag and move to second on a fly ball or whatever. I just really, really don't want to see a situation where some bench player like Wise or Owens is out there every day playing s***ty defense and making outs, and then as soon as he does something good and gets on he ends up taking the bat out of the hands of a good hitter and/or running himself into an out. There's just so many problems you run into when you try to polish a turd. If we had a prototypical lead-off hitter I'd simply want that guy to play his game the best way he knows how to, but if we're asking players to do things they aren't capable of and turn themselves into something they'll never be then we're only going to hurt ourselves. Besides, maybe it's better if Ozzie doesn't get the toys he wants to play with. It seems like at least once during every week of the season he ends up out-managing himself with his bad hit-and-run calls.