Chicago White Sox

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ May 12, 2011 -> 12:56 PM) Where has he ever said anything like he wouldn't take him out of games because he respects him too much? Well he has said he won't take away Pierre's greenlight on the basepaths out of respect.

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ May 12, 2011 -> 12:39 PM) Hm. I think you might be stretching it a bit calling him a "very good hitter" already. An .840 OPS last year in the majors and an .838 OPS in AAA this year (after a terrible start due to his hand) is pretty damn good for an OF. Plus he is young and will continue to get better. I still don't get how he is not a fit for this team.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ May 12, 2011 -> 12:33 PM) Wait you really believe that Ozzie is worried about what Juan Pierre thinks of him, and that is why he is playing LF everyday? Ozzie won't use Vizquel in certain situations out of "respect", so yeah I think he'd give Pierre an unusually long leash for the same reason. We're talking about his favorite player here. Pierre works hard and is great in the clubhouse, which I think would make it hard for Ozzie to pull him out of the lineup. The other problem is that Ozzie wishes he could have nine Pierre's in his lineup, so convincing himself to pull one may be impossible.

QUOTE (kjshoe04 @ May 12, 2011 -> 12:22 PM) Rios Ramirez Dunn PK CQ Teahen Viciedo Beckham AJ This is what I think the Sox should run out there. Rios and Ramirez are interchangeable. The defense would be terrible, but we need to score. I like the general idea behind that lineup, although I'd rather not use Teahan at 3B. Give Vizquel more starts at 3B against right-handers and perhaps lead him off. Bat Morel 8th when he plays. I love AJ last though. That should be a no brainer, but nothing is ever simple with Ozzie.

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ May 12, 2011 -> 10:57 AM) I don't know if a bat like Viciedo's is really needed right now. I'm want to see Jordan Danks sometime soon. No offense, but I don't understand the logic of this post. Viciedo is a very good hitter. Do we not want those? He'd be replacing Pierre, so we'd be receiving an increase in AVG, OBP, and SLG, while lowering the team's CSs. That sounds like a significant upgrade across the board. As for Danks, how is he the hitter we need? He does nothing better than Viciedo other maybe draw a couple more walks and steal a few more bases. Does that make him a better fit for this offense? I'm hopeful that Danks is making progress with his swing, but you do not call up a guy with his strikeout history because a good couple of weeks. He would most likely get destroyed up here, which would simply stifle any progress he was making. Viciedo is ready and should be up here right now. Unfortunately, Ozzie and KW are willing to throw away this season by giving our worst hitter the most at bats on the team. Hopefully it will at least cost them their jobs.

QUOTE (Chet Kincaid @ May 12, 2011 -> 08:42 AM) You guys might as well forget about moving Pierre. He's not going to be benched and he's certainly not going to be DFAed. I get that he's off to a bad start, but I think the best we can hope for is that he straightens himself out and reverts back to norm. Reverts back to form? Offensively, he was never very good to begin with. His offensive value was entirely tied to SBs and IMO he has appeared to have lost a step. That's not going to magically come back. To make matters worse, he has a constant green light and will continue to run into outs. I don't see Ozzie taking that privilege away anytime soon and if he did, Ozzie would be admitting Pierre has zero to offer offensively. On the defensive side, his value has been tied to his range, so if he has lost a step he's less valuable there too. The dropped flyballs are just icing on the cake. In theory, the issue should go away, but it's been a month and a half now. How much longer do wait? Right now, Pierre is providing negative production if that makes sense. Any replacement level player could come in and provide better results. Best case scenario, he stops dropping fly balls and becomes replacement level. We have a young player we could plug in the lineup that would destroy him offensively and come close defensively. There is no excuse for him not being up here at this point. We know what Juan Pierre is now and it's bad. Go with the better option in Viciedo. I support KW on most of his moves, but if he's afraid to DFA Pierre and improve our chances of winning a division title because he's afraid to hurt Pierre's feelings, then bring on the Rick Hahn era now.

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ May 12, 2011 -> 07:24 AM) I'm with Lillian. Just get JP off the field. I can't take it anymore. Yup, call up Viciedo, put him in LF, and DFA Pierre. It's really that simple. I'm fine with Rios or Ramirez leading off or even Vizquel when he plays. Almost anything that gets Pierre out of the lineup will improve the offense.

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ May 11, 2011 -> 03:59 PM) Who cares what the Barons do. They have no prospects of note and everybody knows W-L records for minor league teams are fruitless. A Barons season ticket holder?

QUOTE (JPN366 @ May 11, 2011 -> 03:24 PM) I asked David Cook to hit a homerun to left field, he hit a homerun to left field in his third at bat today. You asked an opposing player to hit a HR? Why? You like watching the Barons lose?

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ May 6, 2011 -> 08:19 AM) And when he is in a slump, Dayan will swing more to get out of it. The guy isn't swinging at more pitches because he is hot. He swings at everything, all of the time. Think of him as Barney Stinson. Yet he was able to draw 4 walks in 13 games when he was struggling.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ May 6, 2011 -> 08:11 AM) And be prepared to see more errors than my coed church league softball team makes. Morel and Pierre have already combined for 9 errors. I doubt it could get much worse in the short run.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ May 6, 2011 -> 07:34 AM) The problem with his being unable/unwilling to take pitches is that for him to be really a monster doing that, he's going to need to be Vlad in terms of his plate coverage. If he can't lay off a difficult pitch, like the high and tight fastball that was killing him last year, and he can't make contact with that pitch, then pitchers will just throw things out of the zone to get ahead of him and strike him out ont he pitch he can't lay off of. The guy is hitting over .350 during his current streak. When you're this locked in, you're naturally going to swing more and draw less walks. Prior to this steak, he drew four walks in 13 games or so. His walk numbers will never be great, but I think they'll gradually improve over time and become more than acceptable for a high average/power hitter. Here's my question, is he really going to become a patient hitter after one year in AAA? What will he learn in AAA that he can't learn up here? I honestly think he'd learn to be more patient much quicker up here, because quality pitchers will attempt to exploit his lack of it, forcing him to make adjustments. Regardless, I'll take his low OBP and high SLG over Juan Pierre's empty AVG right now. Something has to change and Viciedo is the closest thing we have to an impact bat in the minors. If KW doesn't call him up soon, then I don't think he is trying anymore.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ May 5, 2011 -> 11:56 AM) If the Tank is simply not ready (and he's still been struggling to start the year) then yes, it can be worse. Not just this year, but in terms of solidifying bad habits for the long term. I was at the game on Tuesday and I swear they put on the scoreboard that Viciedo has a 10 game hitting streak and is hitting well over .300 during this stretch. If true, I think his hand was affecting him initially and now he's good to go. If it were up to me, I'd call up Viciedo in a heartbeat. The only reasons he was in AAA was there was no roster spot for him and people assumed his defense would need work. Everything I've seen has said his defense has been solid. Now that our offense is struggling immensely, we need to find a spot for him somewhere. Pierre is all but done IMO, so let Viciedo take over LF. Not only do you get more production out of LF, but you can stop giving your worst offensive player the most at-bats. Seems like a double win for me.

Guillen and Walker both need to go. I've wanted both of them gone for several years now. The DH nonsense last season was the nail in the coffin with me for Guillen. There was no logical reason to think having Mark Kotsay get the majority of your AB's at DH would be a good thing. Yet Guillen has to do everything his way. He's committed to an NL style team and refuses to adjust his strategy. Perfect example is Juan Pierre. The guy has stopped hitting much and has now been caught stolen 7 times versus 5 successful attempts. Yet Guillen plays him everyday, in the leadoff spot, and allows him to run wild into more outs. It actually disgusts me. Even Phil Rogers has been calling Guillen out for batting Pierre leadoff, so you know the issue is obvious. Pierre should be batting 9th or preferrably on the bench. This is just one of the many examples of Guillen being stubborn and refusing to make the appropriate adjustments. He needs to be gone and soon, because I strongly believe almost anyone out there with some coaching experience would do a better job.

QUOTE (lostfan @ Apr 27, 2011 -> 07:19 AM) The billionaire owners wouldn't be billionaires if they didn't have elite athletes playing for them either. I didn't realize all the owners made their billions from their NFL franchises.

Where is the catch?

No offense Rongey, but this isn't fantasy baseball. GMs are forced to look at more than just past production and projections when adding players. Most importantly, they have to look at organizational need. Since a GM is in charge of an organization, it's ultimately his responsibility to have a minor league system that can fill needs on a regular basis. If not, he's forced to go outside the organization to address those holes. That surely will have an impact on his decision making. He may be forced to overpay in free agency to fill a need, ala Scott Linebrink, or he may have to go with a player that is not qualified for the job, ala Dwayne Wise. Clearly, need and market forces play a major role here, and these are directly related to organizational management. KW may not be to blame if Jesse Crain performs much worst than past production suggests, but he is responsible for committing so much money to him. Had there been a decent minor league option, KW may have possibly used those funds to improve the team in another area.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Apr 19, 2011 -> 08:39 PM) What team wins because of brilliant managerial moves and strategy? Teams may not win because of them, but they certainly can lose games because of poor managerial decisions. Everything adds up in the end. You miss the playoffs by a couple games, I can show you a few decisions Guillen made that ended up costing us games that most managers would consider stupid. It's really no different than having a bad DH or closer. There is never a single cause to missing the playoffs, but a manager can definitely be one of the reasons. Otherwise, any Joe Schmo could have the job. I've wanted Ozzie gone for a couple of years now. I've never been a supporter of his philosophies, but I can longer tell what he does well. He's a terrible in-game manager. He refuses to use any statistics to support his decisions. Therefore, he has no idea that some players have reverse splits, which puts certain players in situations to fail. He's obsessed with small ball, regardless if it suits the team, which is costing us outs left and right. He overuses his worst bullpen arms. I still have nightmares about Randy Williams coming in every game last year. Now Ohman is his go-to-guy. He uses his bench poorly. Certain guys play too much and his Sunday lineups are an absolute joke. What once was considered a strength, his ability to motivate his players, doesn't appear to be there anymore. How else do you explain a team that constantly plays like a bunch of cowards as soon as they lose a few games in a row? Most importantly, his teams have been underachieving on a regular basis since 2005. If he's not at least partly responsible for that, how in god's name do you evaluate a manager?

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Apr 19, 2011 -> 08:09 PM) Biggest problem on this club, the hitting or pitching? Neither, it's the managing. The hitting and pitching will at least come around.

Guillen really needs to go. He will continue to throw away outs left and right as he tries to convince himself we are a small ball team. I still like this team a lot, but I'm 100% certain Guillen will limit our potential. His idiotic philosophies could be the difference between making and missing the playoffs in the end.

The topics on this site may be at an all-time low. This is quite possibly the dumbest suggestion I've ever seen here.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Apr 19, 2011 -> 09:30 AM) I'll wait and see what the news is before throwing more dirt on Peavy's grave. The last time he had a setback it was nothing, and he was throwing within days. Thank you. Everyone here has the right to be concerned about this, but to say he is done for the year is complete nonsense at this point. We have no details right now, so not even a doctor could speculate on the severity of this. Why not wait a few hours before we start the "put a fork in him for 2012" comments? I'll be just as pissed off as the rest of you if the issue turns out to be significant.

The overreactions on this site are hilarious. No one here has any real news, yet everyone is suddenly a team physician with access to private information. STFU and wait a couple hours before you officially quit on Peavy and this team.

QUOTE (kapzk @ Apr 14, 2011 -> 01:47 PM) Didnt we just add Jeff Grey by sending down Milledge.... so can`t we just send down Grey once Peavy returns? What I was saying was once Peavy returns (and Gray has been sent down), if you want add a reliever via the minors or trade, you'll have to cut loose Pena or Humber. If that's the case, I'd cut Pena.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Apr 14, 2011 -> 10:40 AM) I wouldn't cut him, but I have no problem with him becoming the long reliever. I think I'd rather keep Humber for that role. The problem is once Peavy comes back, who do you get rid of if you want to improve the bullpen? Crain, Thornton, and Santos aren't going anywhere. Despite his struggles so far, Sale has the potential to be our best reliever this year, so I don't see KW sending him down. Ohman is signed for another season and we all know how much Ozzie loves his lefties. If you want to add someone to the pen, it comes down to Pena or Humber going and I'd keep Humber right now. Not that I think he's anything special, but I feel more confident with him as our emergency starter than Pena.