sunofgold

The dude who used hgh is back. Great.

Dontrell Willis was released. White Sox should sign him to a minor league deal. Change him to a position player 1B or corner OF. His pitching days appear to be over.

This is Ventura's first close look at his players. Maybe that is why there are so many pitchers still in camp. Ventura taking a close look and seeing what he has to work with.

Hopefully this makes the cuts to the roster easier. Great chance that every pitcher for the White Sox today will be starting the season in the minors.

Robin Ventura is winning! Don't hear any complaints from any of the fans. Great job, Robin.

It is good that Escobar is playing well. Lillibridge hasn't looked good at SS. Maybe 2B/1B backup for Lillibridge and 3B/SS backup for Escobar.

God Dunn It!

Didn't see the game. From the box score, I see our pitching gave up 7 walks and had 2 Ks. Lillibridge had an error at SS. Danks gave up 3 runs, but only 1 earned run, 4 walks, and 1 strikeout. On the offense side, Escobar was 2-3 with a double. Oh well. It is still spring training. 2-6 so far.

I am okay with AJ batting second because right now we don't have anybody better to fill that spot. I think that AJ is our best option right now. Have to agree with Ventura on that decision. Who can you place in the 2-hole that would be better than AJ at this point? Of course I rather seeing AJ batting lower in the order. And who bats second when AJ isn't in the lineup? Hopefully in time somebody will emerge as a #2 hitter. Unfortunately, I don't see anybody else at this point. Maybe Morel is he continues to show progress. But he is going to have continue to draw walks. He did drew 15 walks last September. Just needs to keep doing this.

QUOTE (flavum @ Mar 11, 2012 -> 12:09 PM) Yeah, barring injury we know 12 of the 13 position players. It's one spot for Martinez, Escobar, Johnson, and maybe Jor. Danks. And as far as the bullpen, Ohman, Crain, Thornton and Reed are in. If I had to pick three more right now, I'd give Stewart, Santiago, and Bruney the nods. Yeah, Bruney makes sense b/c of his experience. Then we will have three young guys in the mix. Stults at least looked good yesterday. Stults and Santiago gives us some left handed relief options. Stults probably beginning the season at AAA. Maybe not a bad under the radar signing?

I couldn't find a thread discussing Robin Ventura as manager. Thought it would be cool to have a thread where we discuss Robin Ventura's baseball manager decisions, policies, philosophies, etc. Applaud or criticize his decisions. So far I think that he is doing fine. Still have to wait until the season goes on to really understand how he is going to act as manager. I am most interested right now in seeing how Ventura will handle an umpire who might be squeezing the White Sox on the strike zone. He seem fairly quiet but will he go out there and argue and get tossed out to help the team. Probably..but I want to see it firsthand. Overall, I think that Ventura is going to be at least a good, competent manager. Potential to be a great manager. However, this is subject to change. lol.

QUOTE (flavum @ Mar 10, 2012 -> 09:28 AM) Sox lineup vs. Texas (2pm): Lillibridge 2b, Fukudome cf, Rios rf, Konerko 1b, Dunn dh, Ramirez ss, Pierzynski c, Escobar 3b, Mitchell lf, Axelrod p Sox lineup vs. Dodgers (8pm): De Aza cf, Morel 3b, Viciedo lf, Gallagher 1b, Flowers c, Beckham 2b, Johnson dh, Martinez ss, Danks rf, Humber p Gallagher in the clean up spot. Awesome. I knew that he would make it in baseball after smashing all of those fruits and vegetables.

This is interesting. There are so many intangibles with AJ and the catcher position in general. Doesn't AJ call the pitches? And if pitchers feel comfortable with him behind the plate, won't they pitch better? But how can you measure that in stats? It doesn't show up. Catcher can help the pitcher relax, concentrate, gain confidence. At least the good ones. I believe that we should keep AJ until Flowers proves that he ready for full time play. AJ does suck at throwing out runners, but at the same time he is great at blocking balls in the dirt. Also AJ seems to be good at getting under the skin of opposing players. That is good in my book.

Love the screwball!

Santiago would be a good fit for our bullpen. A lefty to replace the departure of Sale from the bullpen. And able to get a righties out. Would allow Ventura to use him in different situations. Concur?

It is all good. Win today and celebrate it with the weekend. Lose today and just focus on that it is a spring training game and doesn't count.

Responding to that list, Bobby Jenks at #6 is a laugh. Even having Willie Harris and Brian Anderson on the list is funny. Willie Harris scored the winning run but what else did he really do for us? And BA was a great defender but couldn't hit. But then I did say that I like everybody from the 2005 team. Definitely we still had a 2005 hangover when voting in 2008.

Time to make this harder. Pick your ultimate favorite White Sox player. #1, Numero uno. Only one choice, one player. No ties. Like the Academy Awards, you all made some great nominees and now pick your winner. Managers and coaches are in play. This is hard. My ultimate favorite White Sox player is Ozzie Guillen. Like his humor, craziness, unpredictability..but at the same time he loves the game and respects it. Brutally honest even if I don't always agree with his opinion. Getting us to the promise land in 2005. And of course enjoyed watching him play defense at SS. What a character. Whew, that was hard. So many other White Sox players that I had to turn my back on. haha!

Interesting that it was Team Dunn vs. Team Konerko. Guess this means that the players are showing support for Dunn. Right? I am hearing that Beckham looking good at the plate. That is encouraging. But didn't he start last year the same way? Hopefully this year is different.

Oh no! We all forgot Ed Farmer. Remember when Al Cowens charged the mound. And Tom Paciorek. I also forgot Jorge Orta, Ralph Garr. And my favorite name Rusty Kuntz. Any love for Kenny Williams or Greg Walker? I liked LaRussa and Torborg as managers. Wilson Alvarez, Alex Fernandez, Ivan Calderon were good too.

We came in third place last year. A third place team in 2012 can earn a wild card. I am "all in" on this idea now. Maybe they should use a different name for the second wild card team. Like the "lucky SOBs" card winner. If they had this last year then Boston and Atlanta would have made the playoffs. And maybe the Cardinals wouldn't have won the World Series.

Let see: Ozzie Guillen Joe Crede Scott Podsednik El Duque (short but sweet stint with us) Robin Ventura Britt Burns Julio Cruz (not sure why? lol) Lamar Johnson ...(I was young lol) Don Kessinger Mike Squires Bo Jackson Ron Kittle Greg Luzinski Steve Lyons Harry Chapas TadaHITo Iguchi Aaron Rowand Keith Foulke AJ Pierzynski Freddy Garcia Jon Garland Juan Uribe Joey Cora Warren Newsom Tim Raines ...actually pretty much anybody on the 2005 team!!!

Ventura seems to be doing a good job as the new manager. Have no complaints so far.

Did anybody watch the Franchise with the Giants last year. I only saw a little bit of it and was good. I imagine with these guys on the Marlins the show could be very interesting. Buehrle should be one of the focal points of this show. Not sure about Mr. Z. haha!

QUOTE (Quinarvy @ Mar 2, 2012 -> 07:16 PM) So much is wrong. Cannot wait until Buehrle plays a prank on Mr. Z