Jerksticks

QUOTE (Eminor3rd @ Jun 3, 2013 -> 01:53 PM) Why? Why pay him not to play? Who needs those ABs? Assuming Beckham doesn't lead us to the WS, how about Jordan Danks? I know it's been trendy to be down on him since he didn't blossom at age 23 or whatever, and I had kinda written him off as well, but the dude quietly tore up AAA the last two years. Well "tore up" is subjective but he's added a tool to his game he never possessed- plate discipline and walking. His slugging isn't ideal but CF is one place we need to shore up the defense and where his light slugging can play. Dude has seriously put in his time and earned a look. Let De Aza and Kepp take DH til we see what we have. Can't do any of this s*** with Dunn around though.

I also think we need to be fair to JR because he was basically dealing with his two sons of the White Sox, KW and OG. I can't imagine how difficult that was for him. He probably sided with Ozzie's ideas because he ultimately thought KW to be the smarter and more valuable of the two moving forward. Maybe he realized Ozzie was poison and the "nicest way" of dismissing him, without stepping on his huge fragile ego, was to let him self-destruct. All speculation obviously. What really sucks is that if players like Tank, Flowers, Dunn and Beckham were half as good as KW projected we'd be a powerhouse.

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Jun 3, 2013 -> 08:08 AM) His OPS will be in the .600s shortly. Much like the bulk of our God awful roster. You're probably right but at least he has a decent approach (short and quick) and can take some walks. I feel like he hits a bunch of balls at guys. He'll end up as apiece of toiletfish just like the rest or them.

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Jun 1, 2013 -> 11:17 AM) That's why they have to deal for players other teams drafted and developed. Long term no, but for next year? Yea. Let's go pickin

QUOTE (Marty34 @ May 31, 2013 -> 09:42 PM) Why can't this year be the rock bottom year in a successful rebuild that includes dealing guys like Peavy and Rios? I kinda agree with you here dude. If we lose the majority of games in June and we are out of it I think everybody would support some degree of tinkering. This should be the rock bottom. We have way too many good pieces to do a rebuild. I think we need two good impact bats. If trading Peavy gets you one and some Aball pitchers I'm probably in, but Rios is exactly what we need more of so I don't really advocate that move. He's right in his prime, no? But yea, I can totally see this being the bottom and we are still pretty good. Having to trot Dunn out there next year would probably extend the bottom though. How do we get around that one?

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ May 31, 2013 -> 05:30 PM) KW Vetoed all the moves that would have made us better. Lol. And after he vetoes all Hahn's trades at the deadline we're all gonna know about it cuz Hahn will cry to the media about how KW is handcuffing him. This is one of the stupidest opinions on Soxtalk and I hate that it probably has no chance of going away!

QUOTE (lord chas @ May 30, 2013 -> 09:36 PM) If a Dunn platoon/extended benching hasn't happened by now I don't think it ever will I hate that you're right

In related news, Rocky Biddle...

Who do we got in Charlotte?

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ May 29, 2013 -> 11:05 AM) The only way Alexei gets traded is if this team melts down. Totally. Part of the problem is that many of us are still blinded by steroid-era SS syndrome. We have arguably the best defensive SS right now and he's locked up cheap. That's all that should matter. Miguel Tejada took roids.

I think he's making it simple like it should be: Everyone in the organization that needs to be on the case is on the case. Everyone. So I assume there is this area of struggle in the minds of the FO being that so many years and efforts have been invested in the development of TF. Nobody thought he was going to be THIS bad or show such an inability to progress even slightly. And now with wonder boy coming outa nowhere in AAA the temptation to completely can TF has presented itself. It seems like a sucky place to be if you're in the FO. Anyone can look up Phegley's stats. Can he block balls in the dirt? Can he make more contact than TF? Does a cup of piss taste any better than a cup of s*** when you're starving?

I agree with the above. So what position to we trade for though. If people believe that Gillaspie is the answer at 3B then I feel like we really need to add some power somewhere. Power hitting outfielder? Makes sense but good luck trying to find a power hitting CFer cuz I don't think Tank or Rios are going anywhere soon. Same with Beckham, Alexei and maybe Conor. That leaves 1B and Catcher. 1B is a logjam of old s*** right now so that really just leaves catcher. It looks like a position guy has to go along with the starter we trade here.

Rematch! C'mon PK!

Who's blood of the penis? I love it more than simple words can explain.

What do we do if Danks can't get anybody out after say 5 starts?

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ May 13, 2013 -> 09:47 PM) Phegley was highly touted for the bat when he was drafted, as a supp pick. He started well out of the gate too, then had health issues over a multi-year period. He's finally been healthy a full season last year, and offseson going into this year. That, too, will do magnificent things. Indeed sir! Hey weren't people saying he looked like s*** this spring, especially behind the plate? What's up with all that?

QUOTE (Jake @ May 13, 2013 -> 07:01 PM) Not sure what to make of Phegley, who hasn't really been very impressive with the bat thus far in his career Hard to say. It's always possible he's gotten better. Improving the eye at the plate leads to magnificent things. Just look at Viciedo right now with the small, but delicious, sample size.

QUOTE (chisoxt @ May 12, 2013 -> 05:01 AM) Strongly disagree. Williams' approach was totally unsustainable. At some point, you are going to run out of prospects to trade and pick up veteran players with awful contracts. If you have the financial resources and can buy your way out of trouble like Boston or New York, that's fine, but obviously the sox are not. do not think for one minute that Kenny didn't realized that last summer when he decided to run away like a scared child and step down leaving Hahn to clean up his mess. BS. Had the Santos and Quentin trades went right we'd be able to acquire any bat on earth. Nestor Molina had absolutely ridiculous stats the year we acquired him. Looked like a KW steal. My point is that I think his strategy IS sustainable.

I kinda hate how we rarely trade anybody before their deal is up. But that's also a direct result of always being in the division race in July. I understand the thinking of the FO in that regard.

QUOTE (The Ultimate Champion @ May 8, 2013 -> 11:45 PM) I guess if I could only have one thing it would be pitching, so that's kind of good. Has anyone actually seen a good amount of Carlos Sanchez to say what he is one way or the other? I'm sick of scouting reports, they're usually full of bulls***, and on Sanchez I've seen anything from not good enough defensively to stick at short to basically a terrific shortstop. The reason I bring this up is that if the Sox have a young, very good starting staff, plus a good young bullpen, and potentially a couple decent (Flowers becoming a league average player at some point?) position players who are young, cheap, and under control at very key/hard to fill positions, then things really aren't that bleak. If we mainly need some 1B/DH/corner OF types plus a 2B then we can do that a lot easier than building a pitching staff and acquiring some pretty decent skill position players. I find myself in line with this type of thinking usually. Since we seem to have nice stables of pitching at all levels we will always be somewhat competitive. Dunn crippled the franchise and ruined going on 3 years now any chance we've had as a team. It's almost over. We've got some good young position talent at key positions. I think KW's approach was always correct and still is- we just need to hit on the FAs instead of ruining Paulie's twilight years with a selfish idiot like Dunn batting next to him. We need to pay for 1 huge impact bat. 2 would be nice but 1 will probably do, supplemented with improving core young guys. The pitching will always be good enough IMO.

QUOTE (Y2JImmy0 @ May 8, 2013 -> 01:26 PM) The Sox have no choice but to do the half and half rebuild/retool thing. I have seen good points on here though. I don't think they trade Rios or Peavy unless they are blown away by an offer. OTOH, some of the bullpen pieces should be shopped and dealt away (Crain, Thornton, Lindstrom). I would even trade Konerko if you could get something back in return. De Aza should be available and I would deal Ramirez for a good return as well. The surplus of pitching is nice as well as the intriguing starts by Erik Johnson and Chris Beck. If the Sox added McCann, Morales types in the offseason and made one big trade including one of the young pitchers (Quintana) with Beckham and more, they could compete next year. They would have a better offense and a rotation that includes Sale, Danks, Peavy, Santiago/Quintana, and hopefully Erik Johnson. It could work. I would be on board with the full blown rebuild but many would not be. It's probably not possible with this fanbase. What makes a rebuild full-blown anyway? Our pipeline of pitching is pretty rock solid which means we will always be somewhat competitive. Our offense doesn't score runs as is so selling all those guys won't make us lose many more games. So therefore out draft position won't move up much; we'll never draft much higher than 8-12 with our pitching stables being so young and deep. So does selling all our pitching, major and minor league, constitute a full-blown rebuild? Then we'd officially suck in all facets of baseball and maybe get some high draft picks that'll pan out by 2018-2020. Cool.

QUOTE (Chilihead90 @ May 2, 2013 -> 10:07 PM) Hector Santiago. Would it be in bad taste for a gigantic "WE TOLD YOU SO"?? LOL I love when we pretend to know more than the organization. ?

QUOTE (Cali @ May 2, 2013 -> 02:09 PM) Well pushing a young bullpen and young starters and almost never using the bench hurts and that's kind of on Robin. Ugh Blah Puke Vomit post. I hate when hindsight is used like this.

QUOTE (Cali @ May 1, 2013 -> 12:29 AM) Win 20 and we'll talk. f***, win 11 and ill be flabbergasted. The talent is just not there even when healthy and Robin has lost the ability to get the best out of his players and is allowing the poor play that cost them a playoff birth 6 months ago to inexplicably continue in 2013. I don't think you can say that with any certainty. This offense has been a bowl of puke and we've still won quite a few games. Same with the defense. If the offense comes around a bit and the defense shores up, then Thornton Lidstrom and Jones aren't blowing games. I just don't see how it could get much worse but I do see how things could get better.

Wow Axe sucks.