The Ultimate Champion

Jake's next start is his biggest in a Sox uniform. Ace or not, he needs to be one tomorrow night.

When is the last time the Sox have done this? The last Tigers game was close minus the Wise brain fart on the bases that cost us a run. Usually it's the offense, walks with the starters, Robin's overthink/bunt attack, kicking the ball around, etc. The record the Royals have is a record they have earned. They can't play good, solid baseball for 9 innings. We OTOH are supposed to be able to do this, but it seems that for most of the last two months we can't go 9 nine innings, even in the games we win. When is the last time we've played 9 innings without stranding the man on 3rd again and again with less than 2 outs, without walking the 9 hole hitter, without Robin trying to bunt with a run producer, without getting picked off or trying to catch the ball with our ass instead of the damn glove, etc. when is the last time we've gone 9 where when it was over said, "good, solid baseball win?" Because I can't remember. Maybe in Texas.

QUOTE (HickoryHuskers @ Sep 19, 2012 -> 01:03 PM) Anybody ever tried using, "You can put it on the booooard, Yes!", during an, um, intimate, moment? Only if I'm chasing a hineybird.

I don't think there's really anything between Farmio & DJ. They seem like friends. Farmio however is a competitor & I think he feels like he has to get back on offense sometimes which makes it sound a little odd. Can't blame him though as DJ just absolutely buries him with his quips. There is a definite personality clash though with DJ being an easy going, fun loving, witty little gigglebunny and Farmio having that dry, dickish sarcasm. Also DJ generally likes to make his point without burying anyone (unless it's Valverde) while Farmio OTOH loves to hop on his pedestal & make his harsh declarations about how the game is supposed to be played. DJ once said on the radio that the players call Farmio "The Judge." Hmm, wonder why? Anyway, apples & oranges but I think they work well together. Love me some DJ.

Does anyone know if the Sox have ever clinched on Fan Appreciation Day? I was looking at the schedule this morning & it looks like we'll probably have to do it in one of the last 2 games at home vs. TB or maybe the first road game vs. Cleveland. Hopefully we get it done at home and use the last 3 games vs. Cleveland as starter rest/BattleAxe time.

QUOTE (knightni @ Sep 18, 2012 -> 10:38 PM) So, he's doing well this year... Would anyone have traded him on July 31 like people griped about the last few years? I've been a huge Rios fan since he came into the league and I was excited as hell when we got him. I've said so many times he could be our next JD and hit bombs here. He's one of the few 5-tool types out there and now it seems he may finally be becoming the player he was always supposed to be. That said, I'd listen to offers on both Rios & Dunn in the offseason no matter what. You just can't count on a guy who has shown in the past that he can take a whole year off mentally. Maybe this Rios is the real Rios, or maybe this is the second part of a Javy Vazquez-like good year-bad year-great year-s*** year cycle. It's a lot of money to gamble on & if another GM wanted to offer up enough to make the gamble worth avoiding, I'd avoid it.

QUOTE (kitekrazy @ Sep 18, 2012 -> 03:17 PM) One thing hard to ignore that needs to be fixed. The Sox don't draft well. Take notes Jerry if you plan on being a budget minded owner. Jerry's problem it seems was never with meeting a set budget, or the fact that talented prospects get big bonuses, it seems his issue was with organizations more or less handing out blank checks to unproven prospects and MLB turning a blind eye. Add in the Wilder scandal and it's hard to see an owner like Reinsdorf doing his part to make things even worse. Without getting into politics, JR is the kind of guy who votes 3rd party if he believes that candidate is the best one for the job, not someone who picks a side and runs with it just because he doesn't think his guy will win. JR I'm sure knew his organization would be at a disadvantage if he refrained from abusing the system like everyone else, but he held firm and didn't give in anyway. With things in order expect the Sox to address the farm system budget in an entirely different fashion.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Sep 18, 2012 -> 06:20 PM) Good post. However, I don't think ANYONE ever considered Escobar a potential force, any more than Andy Gonzalez, for example. And to characterize Gio Gonzalez as a "good but not great prospect" is slighting one of the best young pitchers in baseball. When all is said and done, there will be more complaining over dealing Gio for Swisher than perhaps any other trade that has been made, other than Todd Ritchie for Wells/Fogg/Lowe. But yeah, the Juan Uribe/Aaron Miles trade was another example of an under-the-radar trade that clearly led to 2005. Bobby Jenks and Sergio Santos also deserve/d mentions in the original article as "dumpster dives" that panned out incredibly well. And there's bound to be grumbling about Z. Stewart and Molina, although Stewart partially ended up getting us Youk and one of the players traded for Quentin led to the acquisition of Liriano, who has given us some decent starts down the stretch and helped buy time for Sale and Gavin Floyd, as well as Jose Quintana. Escobar has a shot at being a solid player, not necessarily a force, and that's a big part of the problem with the national prospect guys, they only seem to care about those with "force" potential. I singled out Keith Law in the post you quoted (and I usually do) because he's the one more than any other who comes off like a jag. It would have been/would be poor form for a national prospect evaluator to view Escobar as a game-wide top shortstop prospect over many others with higher ceilings, but someone like Law is apt to trash a prospect like Escobar as if he's just that - garbage - while someone like Sickels OTOH is far likelier to admit he has a chance if he can hit enough. My greater point though was that with so much focus on ceiling, ceiling, ceiling you miss a wide cross section of talent that ends up overachieving versus the higher ceiling guys who fall off the face of the earth. And speaking of Andy Gonzalez, he was actually a higher ceiling guy who didn't make it. Calling Gio a great prospect though is all hindsight. Gio's size, durability, pitch count, walk totals, and penchant for big struggles while adjusting to a new level made him one of those guys a GM really likes but is willing to part with in the right deal. Gio was offered as part of the Miguel Cabrera package along with Danks, Fields, and Sweeney and the Marlins let that one go. There are lots of young pitching prospects out there like Gio (and many in the Majors too, including the one we faced tonight) who have terrific arms but lots of questions. Some make it, others don't, Gio is just one that did. The Uribe trade is still one of Kenny's all-time best moves. Jenks & Sergio too. Really what Kenny has done -- in his ability to pull MiLB talent out of other organizations, pull former top prospects like Humber and Jenks off waivers, make the big trade ala Freddy or Bartolo, make the big money deal ala Dunn/Rios/Peavy, the Uribe/Thornton/Marte small-turned-huge trades, major reclamations like Contreras, etc. etc. etc. along with smart FA signings like Dye, Loiaza, Flash Gordon etc. and then the drafting and developing his own talent -- is he has shown he is a very versatile GM who works well under Reinsdorfian operational constraints and one who can turn a team seemingly destined for 5+ years of mediocrity or worse into a contender with an extended playoff window, all without even raising the payroll. Kenny is a great GM & sometimes angry Sox fans need to calm the f*** down and really look around the league because there are some other types out there who have handled money (payroll), minor league talent, and potential MLB windows of contention a hell of a lot worse than KW ever has. Oh, and he's also creative. And rather dapper in a suit, but better in a hoodie, if I may say so myself.

I just now had a min to read this article... good for me I was able to stop a couple sentences in. Err, per Cots... Brett Myers Kevin Youkilis Hmmm, a salary dump where the trading team pays almost all the salary? Sign me up! That's actually another way of saying "I know nothing about the players KW traded so I'll just assume they suck & the deal was a salary dump." Kudos, ESPN. Also, as an aside, the Quintana mention... if you read the scouting reports on Cuban lefty Gerardo Conception, best case scenario there is Jose Quintana. Kenny gets Quintana for nothing & he's contributing right now in a pennant race. Theo gets Conception for $7M and he's got a 7.39 ERA in A ball.

Kenny Williams is a very good GM and has been that for many years. He's only made a couple bonehead moves (Teahen, trading for the wrong player, the Thome situation, the CF situation for years), but those aren't the ones people focus on. The "misses" he gets stuck with were either all win-now moves (Edwin Jackson, the first Swisher deal, etc.) where he traded good-but-not-great prospects for highly talented proven players, or else low risk/high reward types that didn't work out (Sisco, Massett, MacDougal's extension, etc.). Pretty much everything Kenny Williams has done in the last 10 years has either been a great move that the Sox have benefited from or at least a decent on-paper move that only looks bad viewed in hindsight. Let's not forget that some of the "worst" moves Kenny has ever made, at least when you go back and look at the fan reaction when the deals were made - trading Brandon McCarthy, giving up Miguel Olivo AND Jeremy Reed plus Morse as a 3rd player which was a huge haul for rental Freddy Garcia, trading the now-injured Dan Hudson who I think we should all finally agree is NOT what many here trumped him up as, etc. - these have all been pretty good moves or at least haven't really stopped the forward progress of the organization. Kenny's bad farm system rankings are going to start to turn around fast now that Mr. Club Burn is out of here and the new CBA has put the Sox on pretty even ground. Watch Kenny build and then maintain a consensus mid-tier farm system while constantly depleting it through trades. Meanwhile, watch what Theo does on the North side. It'll be apparent rather quickly who the better GM is. And finally, one more thing to throw out there about Kenny & his farm: there are about 20-30 prospects per organization for the national "prospect evaluators" to pay attention to, plus the players who have graduated/fallen out of list contention, plus the players in the upcoming draft, plus the guys coming out of the Dominican as teenagers, or out of Cuba or Japan, etc. There are literally several hundred "prospects" out there for these national guys to pay attention to. Most of the time they are working on old 2nd or 3rd hand information that may account for nothing more than a couple of observations. These guys are desk jockeys who sit there and try to use their own criteria to come up with ranking systems more or less based on nothing. They are not pro scouts and their opinions & rankings mean next to nothing. If they get to see a good amount of video on a particular prospect then it's probably such a big name prospect that any fan with an internet connection can see the same thing. They are the Joe Cowleys of the prospect world, i.e. they have their "sources" which in general seem to account for very little and are really the only advantages they have over the average educated fan with an opinion. The Hector Santiagos and Jose Quintanas and Eduardo Escobars of the world always fall through the cracks with these guys, and only through posting otherwordly numbers in the minors do they ever get attention. The problem with that is that players like this account for a good percentage of the players actually competing in the Major Leagues. KW, Rick Hahn, Buddy Bell, etc. are showing that they have a system in place that is working and is producing actual results. Who the f*** cares if Keith Law doesn't like Chris Devenski or Matt Heindenreich? I doubt Houston does, and I certainly don't because I kind of like having Brett Myers coming in late in the game. So basically f*** these prospect guys, kudos to KW & the Sox. And next time KW trades a prospect nobody knows anything about, don't sit there and say "KW is a thief" like an idiot just because Keith Law says so, maybe give KW & his group a little bit of credit for finding a prospect that another team likes enough to bother trading a proven veteran for.

QUOTE (Jake @ Sep 16, 2012 -> 07:02 PM) The most users ever at this website was over 700 on July 16, 2007. I can't for the life of me figure out what happened on this day that is interesting. Mark Buehrle or Jermaine Dye related probably? Mark made a couple starts that a lot of us thought would have been his last in a Sox uniform. JD rumors were flying around then IIRC. Otherwise, possibly Bobby Jenks breaking the consective batters retired streak? Actually, knowing this site, it was probably one of Andy Gonzalez's 3 error Chuckie Knoblach butterfinger days. Man, if you took Andy off that '07 team we'd have gone 155-7 that season, we were so awesome.

Leyson has ability. Lets not forget how long Will Ohman has been around the league. When you're told to throw a 3-2 curveball to Prince, who has seen nothing but breaking balls all year from us, and it's the third straight curveball in the AB, and you can't miss, then things probably aren't going to work out for you. Not making excuses for Septimo, he needs to throw his fastball over for strikes early in the count which he hasn't been doing, but our dugout is overmanaging the f*** out of our pitching staff this year and it's showing. Ozzie sucks at getting his teams to play for him, but he does do a great job of getting out of the way and letting the pitchers & catchers work. Hopefully Robin and his staff learn from their predecessors because otherwise we're going to keep dropping close games that boil down to poor decisions in crucial game situations. You'd think KW's public questioning of this kind of stuff would have gotten through by now, but I guess not.

QUOTE (Lillian @ Sep 8, 2012 -> 08:38 PM) Sox management cannot afford to be so complacent. I hope that they're not thinking "It's all good", because it's not!!! These kinds of performances are going to cost the team wins. The problem has to be addressed before it's too late. The best way to make a bad last couple weeks turn into something a whole lot worse is to start playing bullpen musical chairs.

AJ is still maybe the most underrated Sox player I've seen as a fan. He gets s*** on time and again on this board and it's always the same crap, i.e. he's too old, he can't continue to be so durable, his OPS isn't as high as it needs to be (he's a catcher), how so-and-so is/will be a better hitter because apparently AJ's offense is so easy to replace, blah blah blah, and then you have the same posters who always insist they have these "inside" sources who say he's so terrible and nobody really likes him. Of course it's just about all bulls***, and the only real complaint is his inability to throw out runners. Aside from that, AJ is a tough out who knows the game and is tough as nails. He's clutch. He hits very well for a catcher. He takes a beating & he doesn't complain. He annoys the s*** out of the opposition but he works great with young pitchers. AJ is the one guy on the field who is always a step ahead of everyone else; while most players just try to make the physical plays, AJ is also out-thinking his opponent. And going further, AJ might not have the personality to be a manager, but he'd make one hell of a bench coach. But if I had to guess his destiny I'd say he's Hawk's replacement down the road, and Sox fans will be just as lucky to go from Hawk to AJ as the Bulls fans who lost Johnny Red Kerr but picked up Stacey King. I just think commentating is the perfect fit for him. When his career is over his number belongs on the wall & he seems to be the type of baseball mind/character that maybe even one day ends up in the Hall if he sticks around the game long enough. He's really nothing like MB in terms of the personality he shows and the way the rest of the league views him, but both are equally rock solid yet consistently under-appreciated by Sox fans. I hope AJ sticks around here for another year or two, but if he gets a big payday & we're not the ones to offer it then good luck to him, same as MB. No matter what I'd like to see him end his career here & then stick around after it in some capacity.

QUOTE (TaylorStSox @ Sep 8, 2012 -> 06:37 PM) Reed looked good for the first 3 batters. I don't worry about his fastball. It has good movement and velocity isn't a concern to me. I do worry about the tilt on his slider. His offspeed stuff leaves a lot to be desired. He's a weird pitcher in that he doesn't miss many bats, but still strikes a lot of guys out. His slider is filthy when its on. The difference between good Reed slider vs. not good Reed slider is similar to Jessie Crain's good curveball (today) and the roller he inexplicably gets swings and misses off of leaving it high in the zone. Reed is still pretty wild in the zone & hasn't really learned how to pitch yet but IMO he gets all the K's because he's usually ahead in the count and can blow the fastball by people. He's a decent closer but I'd shop him over the offseason. I still like Jones better going forward.

QUOTE (fathom @ Sep 8, 2012 -> 06:21 PM) I don't think I've ever seen a pitcher who throws everything right at the belt as much as Reed does. He's like a pitcher in a video game where they just throw at the same spot every time and only thing that changes is velocity and if it's inside or outside. Lucas Harrell. Lots of high fastballs & balls right down the middle during pitchers counts. Instead of making them chase he gives them what they're looking for.

QUOTE (Jake @ Sep 7, 2012 -> 09:32 AM) CENSOR THE MEDIA THEY SAY MEAN THINGS ABOUT AJ This. And then rip the flesh from their bodies & suspend their skeletons from a bridge. That's all I ask.

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Sep 6, 2012 -> 10:14 AM) I agree. Delete the entire thread so the internet is helped to forget the rumors. This. Lock + Delete

QUOTE (flavum @ Sep 6, 2012 -> 09:35 AM) I'm glad he'll be playing tomorrow night, if it doesn't rain. Rumors are rumors. I doubt the original person made it up out of nothing, but it's better to just let these things take their course until MLB or the Sox announce something. Conte went public just a week ago or so saying he knew of another name or two. Since he's still at the center of all that stuff (just on the other side now, headhunting the players rather than covering for them) & appears to get info leaked throughout the process, it makes sense that others would immediately speculate on those names. Conte probably threw out a few carrots behind closed doors/off the radio/etc. and assumptions were made as a result. If anything were actually close there would have been a whole lot of smoke this morning; instead we have MLB denying this outright. There probably is another name out there but it's not AJ. Maybe it's even another Sox player. But this whole "I'm hearing this/that" stuff doesn't sound like anyone getting hard info from a direct source.

Great now that this is over it's time to grab the pitchforks & take out the bulls***ter. Funny this came from WSI. Controversial opinion? Ban. Fart in the presence of a lady? Ban. Run your little yapper about one of the greatest catchers & one of the most influential players in Sox history? Welcome aboard!

About a week ago I heard the Score playing excepts from the angel himself, Victor Conte, who IIRC said there were another 1-2 players who would be identified later as they were currently going through the appeals process. If anyone flaps his gums more than Victor Conte I'd be surprised. That's probably the origin, maybe this is 2nd or 3rd hand from there.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Sep 5, 2012 -> 12:20 PM) maybe someone at the Score is leaking things... http://www.dailyherald.com/article/2012081...08189847/print/ It's some kind of thick black fluid & it's coming from the vacancies in their skulls where their brains used to be.

QUOTE (Elgin Slim @ Sep 5, 2012 -> 11:51 AM) Flowers did test positive back in like 2008 or something. I remember when KW traded Vazquez for him people complaining about it. I have been wondering about this for a while. The big thing for me is that he started throwing guys out stealing, where last year he couldn't throw guys out stealing even in a pitch out. IMO catchers don't just magically gain that ability at age 35 when they have been bad at it their whole career. The pitchers have been a little better this year & AJ has improved his release. He's still not very good at throwing out runners but when the pitchers keep the runners a little closer it helps a lot. AJ's quicker getting the ball out of his hands but that's more footwork and setup. I don't see any indication that his arm is stronger or anything like that. Lots of players throughout sports are on performance enhancing drugs. It's all nothing but blurry lines anyway. You can load up on roids & it's not going to help you like adding cadaver parts/pieces of metal/vision correction etc. will, let alone what you can do with stem cells these days. If a player takes a banned substance he's just taking one thing considered to be illegal out of a thousand other drugs/supplements/procedures/etc. that are equally unnatural and designed to add an edge to performance. Where I'm going with this is that if this is true (and of course AJ would be framed anyway, he never **really** gave himself any unfair advantage & I'd take that to my grave & you should too with me being the expert I am on these things) then we've got 2 catchers who have tested positive and probably a good number of players on our team who just aren't getting caught. Baseball is a tough game to play and you can't finger the "cheaters" based on numbers necessarily; just because a player is having a great year now on a banned substance doesn't mean he wasn't still on the same banned substance a couple seasons ago when he, for one example, had a miserable first half.

We're quoting anonymous WSI posters now? If AJ tested positive for anything it's Flintstone vitamins & a positive mental attitude. However, if this is somehow true, and someone involved in the process has indeed framed AJ and made him incorrectly test positive, then it'll be fun to watch all the Sox fans out there call for AJ's departure in order to go with Flowers, who has of course always been clean.

QUOTE (RZZZA @ Sep 3, 2012 -> 06:47 PM) He's a shell of his former self. It's sad to witness. What former self? The 2003 Paul Konerko? The 2007 Paul Konerko? The 2008 Paul Konerko? Paulie's always been like this. When he gets down on himself, wrap it up & send it to Cooperstown.