southsideirish71

QUOTE(aboz56 @ Jul 5, 2005 -> 10:01 AM) There is no denying these kids have talent. The real problem that I see after looking at everything that has transpired over the past few seasons is that this organization has no clue when a prospect is ready to contribute at the major league level. A prime example of this was a few seasons ago when Neal Cotts was called up to take over the 5th starter slot. His command was terrible, but his overall numbers were great. Anyone who follows the game knows that poor command in the big leagues will lead to a lot of problems and indeed it did. I enjoy following the minors because at times it can provide a glipse of our future. I've also enjoyed meeting and talking with several of our prospects. This was not a knock on the talent of any of these guys. It is simply a questioning of why our farm system continuously calls up guys who are either A) not ready or B. not what they were hyped to be. Since our Baseball America ranking in 2000 as the top farm system (which was grossly exaggerated because hardly anyone panned out at that time) our system has been going downhill. I think it needs to be examined, plain and simple. I think our problem is we have a blueprint for the type of player we pick up. This hasnt changed over the years. We like to pick up Football player types for position players. Guys who are big and project to be big power guys. Josh Fields was the last guy, and we know how Borchard has done. Now on the pitching side. We get control guys over stuff guys. This years selection of Lance Broadway over a Carillo is the same thing. We have this dicussion because we see some other pitcher come up usually against us and do good. Cabrera last year came up. He had a nice live arm. A good arm doesnt project a solid major league career, but it does give you an advantage of pitching over mistakes. You can get away more often with a 95-96mph fastball over the plate than you can with a 90mph fastball over the plate. Just my two cents.

Someone needs to get up. Felix Diaz II is getting hit pretty well.

QUOTE(Chisoxfn @ Jul 4, 2005 -> 12:41 PM) Actually this would make some sense. He'd go into a good pitchers park and the Sox wouldn't be tying up as much payroll. Basically the Giants would pick up two promising prospects and a promising starter so they could still get some immediate help. Contreras is nowhere near as bad as some of you say he is. But I'd also assume the Sox may have to send a little cash his way. Plus if Jose is part of the deal it means there is no way in hell that Bmac is getting dealt. Jose has the tools. Anyone that would question that is foolish. A 95 mph fastball with a knee buckling forkball. The problem is that Jose for whatever mental reason does not want to throw his fastball the minute someone hits it. People are going to hit a fastball no matter how good it is. You still have to challenge the hitters. Jose for the last month and for the majority of his career has crawled into his shell the minute someone turns on his fastball. Then he starts to shake off hitters. He was once demoted in the Yanks organization all the way back to single A so he could work on his confidence and not to tip pitches with Billy Connors. This is a problem that keeps reoccuring. Its pretty sad, if anyone else had this amount of raw talent they would be dominating the league. However for whatever mental block Conteras will be this up and down pitcher until he comes over this fear of using his good stuff. We have seen when he dominates he doesnt shake off pitches, works a bit faster and just throws what is put up there. When he is bad, he shakes off everything, and wants to throw his forkball only. Then he walks, hits people or gets into hitters counts and puts himself into real danger. Everyone is counting on the 3 man rotation in the playoffs. How many teams use a three man rotation throughout the playoffs. Yes for the first series you can do that. But in the ALCS you will need 4 starters. I think even throwing 92-94 Jason Schmidt is a better fit for the whitesox for this year and challenging in the playoffs. He throws strikes and will let this defense that sits behind him make plays. He will not walk the world and get completely lost. I dont want to give up BMAC though, he is insurance this year and for next. If we cant give up Conteras and another prospect for Schmidt I would do it in a second. I however would probably rather have AJ Burnett if it is just going to be a rental.

The sad thing is that at soxfest this year, the Arow and Pods lines where just filled. So I was all upset because I was in the Jon Garland and Willie Harris line. Willie was rapping to himself and made some silly comment about stealing 60 bases. Jon was real cool and signed a ball for me. I thought it was going to be worthless, and made the comment to my wife. Great what is a Judy Garland signature worth, probably not as much as the stitching on the ball. Well if he wins the Cy. It might be worth something. Thanks for proving me and other fans wrong Jon Effing Garland. Nice job.

QUOTE(SpringfieldFan @ Jul 2, 2005 -> 09:26 PM) Happy Birthday to Brendan! Maybe it was him who broke the curse Brendan!! Well the next generation of whitesox fan is doing well. He was at soxfest earlier this year, and was in Spring Training this year watching our sox on Easter sunday, and he met Southpaw last week at Downers Grove Heritage fest. If I have anything to do with it this kid will be a life long sox fan. Thanks for the birthday wishes, his little irishness is now asleep. Nothing bonds a father and son like the game of baseball.

Today my son Brendan turned 1. I get done with his party and the cleanup to turn on the TV to see the whitesox getting a final out in a game in the 7th level of hell for a WhiteSox winner. I can sit back now and say the day is perfect. Nice win for the whitesox, and a nice day for my family. Its all good.

QUOTE(DBAH0 @ Jul 1, 2005 -> 11:26 PM) Would the Sox re-sign a 35 year old third baseman then and who would replace him if you gave up Crede in the deal? Why does Crede have to be included in the deal. The only one I see doing a swap of crede for would be Chavez. Crede can learn how to sub. I believe when we brought in Alomar and Everett we didnt give up on Arow or Willie. They still are on the team.

QUOTE(DBAH0 @ Jul 1, 2005 -> 11:21 PM) Why wouldn't you trade for Randa then if you could re-sign him e.g Freddy Garcia? Who else would they trade for? Sean Burroughs? Alex Cintron? The twins are not going to resign a 35 year old third baseman. They calculated that Cuddyer would play well at third. That is why they let go of Koskie.

QUOTE(DBAH0 @ Jul 1, 2005 -> 11:18 PM) Why is that? They've got Michael Cuddyer already, and it's not like third baseman that are young, can produce at the MLB level, would fit into the Twins payroll just grow on trees. Who says Randa wouldn't re-sign with the Twinkies if they traded for him either? Because Terry Ryan has been quoted as saying that he is not going to upgrade his offense unless the player can be part of the team for the next few years. Terry Tiffie is not the answer at third. Cuddyer should be playing at 2nd.

QUOTE(Rowand44 @ Jul 1, 2005 -> 11:15 PM) No, that's not even close to being the only reason. We've been able to atleast compete with them at home, just strange things happen when we're out there. 9 walks by our pitching. And 4 hits by our offense are the wierd things that happened tonight. And they are directly in relation to our result tonight.

The Butchers Bill for tonight 4 hits 9 strikeouts and 1 walk. Well lets just get them tomorrow.

QUOTE(ZoomSlowik @ Jul 1, 2005 -> 11:11 PM) Especially considering most guys have an adjustment period when switching leagues. Randa played in the AL Central for his entire career. Outside of this year.

QUOTE(DBAH0 @ Jul 1, 2005 -> 11:06 PM) Funny how the Twins didn't trade for him because they thought he was average. And here I thought it was because they wanted someone that could play for a few years and not just be a rental for this season.

QUOTE(CWSGuy406 @ Jul 1, 2005 -> 11:01 PM) I agree. Everyone talks about getting a stud SP, or that guy at the back of the bullpen -- what about an upgrade at 3B? I realize you're gonna lose a little defense if you trade for someone, but we gotta get more production out of the offense. It simply isn't that great -- adding a bat like Aubrey Huff would do a lot, IMO. But that's not for this thread, so I won't talk a whole lot about it. The offense is fine. We score plenty of runs. No need to upgrade. The difference between Randa and Crede is 15 hits a season.

QUOTE(Rowand44 @ Jul 1, 2005 -> 10:58 PM) No, you're being sarcastic and it's old and dumb. I am confused. I am trying something new. Being uber positive. Trying to think half-glass full here. Harden pitched a great game. We just got a bit unlucky with an ump who was squeezing our pitchers tonight.

QUOTE(Rowand44 @ Jul 1, 2005 -> 10:56 PM) Do you think your funny?? Cause you're not. Why I am just repeating what everyone is saying. I just trying to get on the popular side. Lets just tip our hat to a better pitching performance.

QUOTE(Gene Honda Civic @ Jul 1, 2005 -> 10:53 PM) How retarded is it that Frank won't see any action in this game? Due to make outs in the ninth, Rowand, Konerko, Everett. Should one or more of them fail to make an out, Dye and Pierzynski will be up next. Ozzie will not pinch hit for any of those 5. Nothing wrong with our offense. Its fine.

QUOTE(DBAH0 @ Jul 1, 2005 -> 10:47 PM) So is that a yes or a no? Actually I was looking for a high 3 low 4 era for Jose. The guy has amazing stuff. After being down in Tuscon and watching him a few times get ahead of hitters are work fast I had hopes for him. Now after watching him crawl back into his shell. I am looking for anything below 6 as an ERA.

QUOTE(DBAH0 @ Jul 1, 2005 -> 10:44 PM) Let me ask this now. If Jose Contreras had an ERA of 4.34 heading into the all - star break, at the start of the season, would you have taken this? I am sure that Ozzie and Cooper are looking at Conteras and saying you know what, he is pitching pretty good. He has a good ERA and has been stellar at times this year. I am sure thats exactly what they are saying.

QUOTE(black jack @ Jul 1, 2005 -> 10:40 PM) Contreras is someone who really needs the All-Star break to get his head straight. Look at his brief history in the MLB. The yanks supposedly found a flaw in his delivery. They fixed it for a few starts. The goes back to what he did before. They once demoted him all the way to class A so they could work on his mechanics.

QUOTE(DBAH0 @ Jul 1, 2005 -> 10:26 PM) Clement got killed today, and he's got that injury history hanging over him, especially if he throws too many sliders. The cubans have both been very healthy over their years of service.

QUOTE(ZoomSlowik @ Jul 1, 2005 -> 10:22 PM) He was a joke when we traded him. He's not exactly tearing it up now anyways. Add the fact that he is in the NL and not in the Cell, he'd be doing about the same. Plus he was demanding a ridiculous sum of money considering how little he did in his contract year. I know we are paying 6 mill for Conteras out of the 8. But in hind sight. A few more mill and you have Clement instead of Conteras.

QUOTE(Frankensteiner @ Jul 1, 2005 -> 10:21 PM) Stanton isn't even a LOOGY, at least IMO. His 3 year splits say he handles right-handed hitters (.231 BAA) better than lefties (.255 BAA). This year righties are hitting over 400 against him.

QUOTE(Milkman delivers @ Jul 1, 2005 -> 10:18 PM) I honestly feel like Ozzie is tired of his s***, too. When Hawk and DJ start showing signs of not liking a guy, it leads me to believe a lot of people don't like him. Farmio and Rooney are crawling out of their skins also.

QUOTE(ZoomSlowik @ Jul 1, 2005 -> 10:11 PM) The guy has like two major league seasons behind him. There isn't a whole lot of information to go by. The guy put together a solid two months of baseball, and things haven't changed that much. He's always going to walk a decent number of guys. In his recent struggles, the problem has been hits more than walks (4 homers in the Az game, 1 and 5 other hits in the other one). In his last 4, he's had one pretty good start, one mediocre one, and two bad ones (and this one of course). He still has to go a long way to get his numbers back to his previous totals. This is exactly what he did against Boston a few times that basically got him run out of NY. Why trade a guy throwing 95 that you pay someone to take off your hands.