Leonard Washington

I watched Hudson against I forget who his last start. I won't even check, for the sake of observation. He was hit fairly hard. He didn't do great. In fact, he struggled hard But watching him that start, and watching E. Jax today, the comparison is nil. Both had little to offer. Both were way, way off. Only difference is Hudson salvaged a start. E-Jax is useless, meanwhile, for his what? 5th? 6th? team? He's useless. Period.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Apr 29, 2011 -> 12:23 AM) But that wasn't the intention going into the year. The emergence of Sergio Santos relegated Pena to that duty. What I honestly don't understand is why they didn't convert him to a starter. I get that he's been absolutely terrible thus far and his overall numbers as a starter were worse than as a reliever, but it seemed to me that he performed relatively well in those spot starts he made - I seem to recall one against KC last year where he had 6 perfect innings and hung up a 5 spot or something in the other. Either way, he really doesn't deserve another chance. You DFA him and hope that someone bites. Agreed on the DFA, and I think that's exactly what will happen once/if Peavy gets back. Humber takes the long-man role, and hopefully somebody steps up to fill Gray's shoes. We need some RH depth in the bullpen.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Apr 28, 2011 -> 11:57 PM) Because at the time Pena didn't serve in that role. They viewed Pena as, at the very least, an actual middle reliever - the competent 5th or 6th guy in the pen that I alluded to in the game thread. Carrasco was really nothing more than a mopup guy. On top of that, there was a bit more inherent value in Pena at the time, considering they had just traded Brandon Allen for him like 6 months prior. Carrasco was brought to the Sox on a MLC and thus there was no real loss in the investment. I also get that the Yankees lineup is pretty good, but allowing 5 straight batters to reach without recording an out when there is the slimmest of slim hopes that the team can still mount some sort of comeback is really inexcusable. You are better off going with Nunez or Carter or Infante. Pena served the same role in 2010 that Carrasco served in his time with the Sox. He was a longman, and occasional emergency spot starter. The only difference, performance-wise, is that Carrasco was better at it. They gave up more to get Pena, obviously, but my beef isn't so much the tendering Pena as it is the non-tendering Carrasco. It's irrelevant I guess, but man...what a failure.

QUOTE (oldsox @ Apr 28, 2011 -> 10:47 PM) But, he is one of Kenny's better moves. I still think Broadway's gonna turn it around and become a serviceable 3rd starter in the Pacific Coast League.

QUOTE (kjshoe04 @ Apr 28, 2011 -> 11:12 PM) I liked him last year. Now I hate the guy. Yeah, he had a couple of redeemable outings. But it made no sense to me, and likely never will, why they decided to tender him a contract and not Carrasco, who served a similar role much more effectively.

QUOTE (Rowand44 @ Apr 28, 2011 -> 11:00 PM) I was pretty similar to this. I hated the trade from the get go because I thought Brandon Allen had more value than an average reliever at the time(though I never thought Allen would be a legit major league starter) but I really thought Pena was going to turn it around here, boy was I wrong. He's one of those guys that Coop did the opposite of fix.

QUOTE (oldsox @ Apr 28, 2011 -> 09:59 PM) Pena is so bad that if we had kept Brandon Allen and made him a pitcher, he would be better than Pena. I actually used to be really high on Tony Pena when he first came up for the DBacks, and even though I knew it was a lopsided trade from the start, I was excited he was on the Sox. My how things change. He's awful. Totally and utterly useless.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Apr 28, 2011 -> 01:51 PM) Any time your game against a legit ace gets rained out, it doesn't hurt. Especially when we're slumping so badly.

QUOTE (kane0730 @ Apr 28, 2011 -> 01:49 PM) This would be welcomed news by me. Definitely.

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ Apr 28, 2011 -> 01:31 PM) And that will be the day J4L finds a new team to cheer for. Oh my goodness if that happens. I might switch over to the Cubs. The car in your profile picture looks to be the exact same as my first car. Great ride. And to get back on topic, I'm starting to get officially worried about Beckham, and to a larger extent, Rios. They just look so uncomfortable at the plate. The problems look mechanical as much as anything, which starts to go back to the whole "Fire Walker" thing. I'm not as worried about Morel. He looks content with just making contact at this point, but he had similar starts at each level he was promoted to in the minors. As he gets more comfortable, I think he'll start to drive the ball a little better.

QUOTE (chw42 @ Apr 27, 2011 -> 12:57 AM) Dunn hit a home run in his second AB. I think the initial impressions were pretty good. The surgery probably has something to do with his recent struggles. Oh, I agree. But I wouldn't be too surprised if the other factors come into play as well. And I wouldn't blame him. There's a few adjustments he's going to have to make, and those don't always happen overnight. My underlying point is that we should be patient with him. Even Miguel Cabrera had some struggles in his initial move to the AL/new position. And he's twice the hitter Dunn is.

I'm neither an Ozzie supporter nor hater. But I thought he did a great job tonight.

These were my exact thoughts about Dunn entering the season: And that didn't take into account surgery. I'm going to stay optimistic we didn't sign Pat Burrell II to such a big contract.

When guys have big-time tools but aren't producing in the low-minors, the first thing to look at is contact rate. Mitchell fails the test, though I guess his injury gets him a slight pass for now.

In the subject of prospects, you need to have good internal scouting, and you need to trust it. For the most part, the Sox have done well with this. I don't know if their scouts have changed recently, but they haven't done nearly as well of a job separating the duds from the good ones. You look at the Angels, for example, and you see Brandon Wood. There was a time and place where he could have been the centerpiece for the best available player in baseball. Now he's DFA'd and can be had for peanuts. They took the risk of keeping and depending on him, and lost a ton of value. KW takes equally big risks, but usually in reverse. He'll take the risk that the guy doesn't develop the value he's expected to, and he sells high. He's been good at it, but he's losing his touch a little bit, as are the people he relies on. I'm OK with Hudson being gone, because I'm not that high on him personally. The only guy I'm still really upset about is Gio. There's a lot of doom and gloom about our management, but it's not easy to put together a team that's expected to compete year after year after year. Our division has something to do with it, but our division also has something to do with their decision making I'm sure. I'm rambling, but it just seems there's a whole lot of arguing going on that really is just hindsight being 20/20. And for the record, I hated the Jackson trade. But I don't necessarily hate them for making it. Just for clarity.

QUOTE (DirtySox @ Apr 21, 2011 -> 09:01 PM) I'd prefer Sale still as a prospect. Starting in the minors and such. Prospects "graduating" is also a lousy excuse for having a poor farm system. Those graduations are replenished in organizations that have a semblance of depth. It may sound odd...but I think we'll have some decent prospects come into their own this year. Viciedo is taking some walks (whether or not he's "prospect eligible" for lists is irrelevant...he's a prospect for us), Jose Martinez is healthy, Petricka is dealing, and a couple others. I have zero faith in Mitchell or Thompson panning out, but I like the odds of us having a couple more guys that can produce as above average major leaguers before the season is through.

QUOTE (maggsmaggs @ Apr 21, 2011 -> 11:56 PM) I actually just mean if he stayed with the Sox because he would be on the Sox whereas with E-Jax, I don't think he is on the Sox next year and thus, has no value to us. On pure performance, I agree with you that E-Jax might be better and on your value statement. Gotcha. Yeah, I agree. I just hope Jackson can gain type-A status and we get a couple picks (which also means he pitches fairly well for us).

I think they've got him on the fast track to the bullpen. If they were set on making him a SP they likely would have promoted Petricka and inserted Reed into his spot. Just my guess.

QUOTE (maggsmaggs @ Apr 21, 2011 -> 10:25 PM) Hudson obviously was not as good as he was with Arizona last year, but he is not as bad as he has been this year. He still is a solid, young pitcher. I think E-Jax is a better for this year, but you have to look at the money in this comparison. One guy is a free agent who will command 10+ million and the other is locked up for a few years at a cheap rate. E-Jax = better 2011; Hudson better 2012 on. I don't even know that Hudson is better than Jackson from 2012 forward. But I think it's a hell of a good bet that he'll be the better value.

Maybe this is weird, but even though I'm glad they're not our uniforms now, I'm glad we had them.

Our starting pitchers combine for more HR's than our starting LF's.

Flowers absolutely MURDERED that pitch.

QUOTE (flavum @ Mar 18, 2011 -> 06:39 PM) I don't know if anyone just watched Milledge's last AB, but he's really an ass. 13-run lead, and he's pissed about a call. Strikes out, and tosses his equipment. He really is an immature player. He's not good enough to act like that. Just my 2 cents. I noticed that. Wasn't impressed. But it is definitely linked to performance. Peavy yells and struts around the mound all the time, but he gets a pass because he's legit. Remember Ozzie saying how Peavy annoyed him in past Spring Training games before he joined the Sox? That's just how some guys operate. If Milledge can channel that competitiveness/cockiness the way Peavy has, consider it a good thing. He didn't look good on that particular strikeout though.

Kinda cool that Melton mentioned how the Jays faxed over Rios' medical records after the waiver claim. I was the guy that photocopied his records so they could be sent.

Bill Melton is beyond awful