Chicago White Sox

QUOTE (Marty34 @ May 26, 2013 -> 11:27 AM) Could not be happier with the performances of the 6 or 7 most important players to his team's future. Sale, Quintana, and Santiago are proving that they can be part of a championship rotation and Peavy and Rios keep building their trade value. Viciedo is showing progress as well. So far so good. I love posts like this. Sale, Quintana, & Santiago are proving they can be part of a championship rotation, yet the rotation right now that already includes Peavy & Danks can't be one. AL ERA leaders: 7. Sale 12. Peavy 21. Quintana 33. Axelrod *10. Santiago (if he qualified) People need to accept the fact that we already have a championship rotation.

QUOTE (lasttriptotulsa @ May 26, 2013 -> 11:04 AM) Flowers has been having back spasms. Ok thanks. Alright, let's win this one and get back to .500. With 4 games against the Cubs left in May and a soft June schedule (15 games against the Mariners, Twins, Blue Jays, & Mets), we have an opportunity to be in good shape come July.

Is Robin going with a platoon at catcher now or is Flowers banged up? Three straight starts for Gimenez, all against right-handed starters.

QUOTE (Chilihead90 @ May 26, 2013 -> 12:58 AM) I think Sale has that day on lock. Yeah, I should have probably inserted roster in there. I just think Erik Johnson will be on the club next year coming out spring training. Most of our top SP prospects spend very little time at AAA and Johnson has been absolutely fantastic this year. 3rd in the Southern League in ERA & K's, but most importantly 1st in WHIP. Again, this is all conditional on him keeping this up, but if he does, Hahn should try to find him a spot in next year's rotation.

Johnson is definitely working his way into the 2014 Opening Day mix. We could have a surplus of starting pitching to work with this offseason.

QUOTE (Marty34 @ May 25, 2013 -> 10:08 AM) Series is fun when it's on the weekend. Just another series otherwise. Yeah, they really f***ed it up this year. Night game at the Cell on Memorial Day and then Wednedsy & Thursday day games at Wrigley. It's no longer about the fans but trying to sell out some weekday games. I live a block away from Wrigley and typically have a big pre-game BBQ before one of the games at Wrigley. Not only will I not being doing that this year, but I'll have to watch both games on DVR. Weekday day games really suck.

QUOTE (beautox @ May 25, 2013 -> 04:49 AM) The rotations future could become the envy of AL very quickly going into next season Danks will only be 28 and is locked up till 2016 (14:$14.25M, 15:$14.25M, 16:$14.25M), Sale will be 25 and is locked up with options till '19 (14:$3.5M, 15:$6M, 16:$9.15M, 17:$12M, 18:$12.5M club option ($1M buyout), 19:$13.5M club option), Quintana will also be 25 and is under control till '18 if i'm not mistaken due to when he was brought up last year in may. Santiago will be 26 and under control till '17. Baseball Reference must have an incorrect service time for Quintana as they show him at .133 years. I would have thought that last year would have easily qualified for a year of team control, especially if he was called up in May. Isn't the cutoff date typically in mid-June?

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ May 25, 2013 -> 08:11 AM) Love your enthusiasm, but it has never been the style of the White Sox (until Sale) to give long-term extensions to their young players, preferring to go year by year. Danks was the other big exception. If Quintana and Santiago still are pitching this well at the end of 2013 and going into 2014, then it's definitely something worth considering. The other factor to consider is simply the fact that having a 4 lefty rotation isn't something they're going to lock themselves into until they see how it goes first...and they have an even cheaper Erik Johnson trailing behind all those guys you mentioned...so there's always the possibility they'll deal one of them (or two, counting Axelrod) for a position player. I don't think the White Sox prefer going year-to-year, they just haven't had a lot of young talent to lock up or the deals didn't make sense. Some players are not eager to give a home-team discount and would rather maximize their value through arbitration. Can't really blame the Sox for that. Also, Danks was not an exception, he actually went year-to-year until his final season of team control. Again, the Sox tried locking him up earlier multiple times but Danks did not like the terms of those deals. However, the Sox did sign Floyd & Santos to affordable long-term deals. And while Ramirez isn't young, they locked him up as well through his arbitration years. There is no doubt in my mind that if Quintana and Reed keep pitching well, they'll get long-term deals in the offseason. As we saw with the Sale deal, the perfect time to strike is the year before arbitration. And I don't it matters how many lefties we have in the rotation or if we a viable rotation option in the minors, if you can lock up a good young starter to an affordable deal you do it. Makes that player much more valuable in trade talks.

The Sox are trying to win the division or a Wild Card spot right now. They believe Axelrod in the rotation and Santiago in the pen makes them stronger than Santiago in the rotation and Axelrod/AAA guy in the pen. Honestly, it's a real tough call IMO. No doubt if we're only looking towards next year, then Santiago needs to be in the rotation. In terms of winning this year, it's pretty close. I do think that Santiago is the better starter right now, but Axelrod has been more than solid so far and doesn't seem like the type of pitcher to translate well to a bullpen role. Hector can fill a variety of roles in the bullpen, which does make him more valuable than your typical reliever. I'd still probably go with Santiago as a starter right now, just because I value starting pitching over everything else, but I can understand why the White Sox are going with Axelrod for now. Having said that, if the team falls out of the race they better insert Hector back into the rotation and start developing him for next year.

QUOTE (Swingandalongonetoleft @ May 24, 2013 -> 10:34 PM) Extra innings are just no good for your health in the long run. They're ok when you're drunk and Hawk is going nuts about blown calls. Otherwise, I completely agree.

Awesome win! Maybe this will be the game that gets Keppinger going.

Even Stone is starting to enjoy Hawk's insanity.

I love that Hawk is so pissed he's dropping subliminals against the home plate umpire.

QUOTE (Heads22 @ May 24, 2013 -> 10:14 PM) Can't wait to hear Hawk coming back from the break. He ain't laying up.

NOOOOO!! NOOOOOOO!!!!

Ugh 0-2.

What the hell just happened there?!?

For some reason I get way too nervous when our team tries to bunt.

Oh this is awesome. Don't f*** this up De Aza!

Nice work Kep!

QUOTE (Chicago White Sox @ May 24, 2013 -> 09:58 PM) Let's get a DP here somehow. Awesome!

QUOTE (fathom @ May 24, 2013 -> 10:01 PM) Righties are batting .400 against Thornton this year, lefties at .172. It makes sense to bring him in for 4 straight righties. Welcome to the Ozzie Gui...I mean Robin Ventura school of managing. No stats/splits necessary.

Man, Thornton is da bomb right now.

Let's get a DP here somehow.

God I hate Thornton.