WCSox

QUOTE (MHizzle85 @ Jul 27, 2009 -> 10:30 PM) I'm not saying that Flowers won't be good, but I think we'll miss AJ when he's gone. To his credit, A.J. has become a better defensive catcher over the past year and a half. He's also swinging the bat nicely. Plus, I don't think that Flowers is anywhere near ready right now.

It's unfortunate that Alexei has decided to adopt B.J. Upton's attitude on the field.

QUOTE (SoxFan1 @ Jul 27, 2009 -> 08:25 PM) If I'm not mistaken, yes we can. From what I understand, anyone not on the 40-man roster can be traded in a waiver deal. The problem with putting a guy on waivers in August is that if no deal is reached with the team that claims him, the team has to pull the player back and can't negotiate with another team for 30 days. So that gives the claiming team all of the power, and incentive to low-ball the team looking to deal the player. I imagine that this is why blockbuster deals never happen after July. If Kenny put Dye on waivers in two or three weeks, he wouldn't get anything of value in return (except the ability to dump the remainder of his salary).

QUOTE (BearSox @ Jul 26, 2009 -> 10:12 PM) Either all of these trade rumors are false, or both the Angels and Blue Jays are very stupid. The first rumor was that the Blue Jays turned down Weaver and that seems extremely stupid. Now, if it's true the Angels offered Weaver but now only had to give Saunders and Aybar with one failed prospect and another meh prospect, and they feel that is too much to give up, that's beyond stupid. All of these rumors have to be BULL. I'm not sure if they're all bull, but the vast majority of them certainly are. Even Ricciardi wouldn't be arrogant enough to turn down Jered Weaver plus a couple of other solid prospects.

I'm glad to see Ozzie giving Richard his due. Sounds like Richard has a legit shot of being in the starting rotation next April.

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ Jul 27, 2009 -> 04:36 AM) This has got to be the worst trade rumor yet. Clayton Kershaw is so talented it's disgusting. The Dodgers reportedly wouldn't give him up for Halladay. So why in the heck would they trade him for Cliff Lee? Worst... rumor... ever.

QUOTE (lostfan @ Jul 27, 2009 -> 07:08 AM) Ichiro has funny-looking mechanics. Boy he must suck. Gary Sheffield was a massive bust as well.

QUOTE (BearSox @ Jul 26, 2009 -> 10:01 PM) I'm saying Nix has a better shot because he has shown good fundamentals. I really don't care what Fields did in his first time around the league, he has much worse than flawed hitting mechanics, and if he hasn't already learned a good, fundamentally sound swing, why should we expect him developing one any time soon with the same hitting coaches? Many successful players have had less-than-perfect hitting mechanics, while many busts have had very good mechanics. This is why Bud Selig doesn't give out a Batting Mechanics Title at the end of every season. Results are all that matter. Fields has them at the major league level, while Nix has not. Boldly claiming that Nix has a much better chance of being an every-day player because of his better hitting mechanics (despite a glaring lack of results) is silly, and reeks of personal bias. QUOTE (BearSox @ Jul 26, 2009 -> 10:01 PM) I really don't care what Fields did in his first time around the league Yes, because all of those pesky home runs and doubles ruin your argument. Let's just ignore those.

QUOTE (Stan Bahnsen @ Jul 26, 2009 -> 08:51 PM) Thing is, though, Buehrle's performance is less stuff-dependent than almost anyone else. He can have Moyer-like longevity if thats what he wants to do. Most pitchers "lose it" at some point. (witness Smoltz 2009) Buehrle will quite possibly be an exception to that rule. Actually, Smoltz "lost it" back in the late '90s when he had elbow surgery. Dude had a 97 mph heater prior to that. Like Pedro, he figured out a way to get guys out with lesser stuff. But I'm getting off topic... Agreed that Buehrle very well could have Moyer-like longevity. But he'd have to pitch into his 40's to get anywhere close to 300 wins (250 is much more realistic, and even that would be very tough). I have no idea what he's going to do, but he seemed to indicate not too long ago that he's not interested in hanging around the game for that long. But who knows... it's not like pro athletes haven't changed their minds before (*cough*Favre*cough*).

QUOTE (fathom @ Jul 26, 2009 -> 07:31 PM) Ozzie is opening himself up to a lot of criticism if he removes Richard from rotation and Colon gets rocked in his next few starts. And if he stays with Richard and Richard has a couple of bad starts next month, Soxtalk will tear him apart as well. After all, people here were calling for his head just a few weeks ago. Damned if he does, damned if he doesn't... The good news is that the Sox may have found their #4 starter for next season. Richard's stuff has always been there, and it appears that he's finally figuring out how to wield it.

QUOTE (BearSox @ Jul 26, 2009 -> 07:44 AM) How's that illogical cheerleading? Nix has much better fundamentals than Fields, you can't deny that. The crux of your argument seems to be that, despite putting up an impressive 2/3 of a season two years ago by displaying 20+ HR power and earning the starting 3B job back in April, Josh Fields is probably not going to start for the Sox again because his hitting mechanics are flawed. On the other hand, Jayson Nix, who you ague has much better hitting mechanics, obviously has a much better chance of becoming a major-league starter, despite the fact that Nix has never actually done anything remotely impressive with his bat in the bigs (career .613 OPS). Is that what you're trying to argue, or am I missing something?

QUOTE (lostfan @ Jul 25, 2009 -> 08:30 PM) But in and of itself, the sentence I quoted from you doesn't tell you much. There could be any number of reasons he hasn't had a shot as a starter in the majors. That's true. No argument there. But there's no logic behind the argument that a guy who will be in his late 20's next year and has accomplished jack squat at the major-league level will eventually be more successful than the guy in the late 20's who has had one good 2/3 of a season at the major-league level, but is deemed to have inferior hitting mechanics. That's just illogical cheerleading. The reality is that neither of these guys have lived up to their draft positions, neither have shown that they can hit consistently enough in the bigs to warrant a spot in the Sox starting lineup, and both of their windows of opportunity are quickly closing.

QUOTE (GO CHI SOX! @ Jul 25, 2009 -> 07:59 PM) Nix is great with the glove, maybe can't hit for a high average, but does show plate discipline. Josh Fields may have a better bat, but defensively is a liability. But Josh does backup PK and that will be his role for now, unless GB or PK get hurt, or if he gets traded. I would like to keep both on this team for now because they both are good in the roles Ozzie has put them in. I like Nix in the role of utility infielder for next season. He can't get on base regularly, but he has some power and his defense is very solid (not unlike a recent former Sox infielder). Since the Sox missed their window of opportunity to get good trade value for Fields, they're stuck with him now (he has one option left, so there's still some flexibility there). Josh needs to go the Carlos Lee route and learn a corner OF position. If Thome is let go and Dye moves to DH, Josh might work as a temporary stopgap in LF or RF.

QUOTE (lostfan @ Jul 25, 2009 -> 07:53 PM) No, actually. Doesn't really tell you much of anything. Nix is going to be 28 next summer and has done nothing to distinguish himself at the ML level. Maybe he'll be the next Roy Hobbs. But his resume suggests that he'll be the next Dewayne Wise.

QUOTE (BearSox @ Jul 25, 2009 -> 07:29 PM) All you got are minor league numbers as he's never got a shot to start everday except for the first month of 08. The fact that Nix didn't get a single major-league at-bat until last season tells you a lot about his chances of being a starter. That's a compelling emotional argument. Too bad that you don't have any results to back it up. Fields' horribly-flawed swing produced 23 big-league dingers in 373 at-bats two years ago, and the starting 3B position this year. Meanwhile, Nix's "basic fundamentals" have resulted in him being mired in the minors for most of his career, and a whopping .268 OBP when he finally did get some time in the bigs as a utility guy. It's pretty bad when Josh "Strikeout Machine" Fields is getting on base a lot more than you.

QUOTE (BearSox @ Jul 25, 2009 -> 07:14 PM) Besides 07 in his first go around the league, what has Fields shown you that shows he has any shot at becoming a decent MLB starter. All I've seen this year is a guy who looks like he just started playing baseball. Fields has at least shown me '07. What has Nix ever done at the ML level to show that he's more worthy of a spot in the lineup? And despite not hitting well this season, Fields' numbers still trump Nix's. That's pretty sad.

QUOTE (BearSox @ Jul 25, 2009 -> 07:11 PM) Also, Jenks is performing poorly at the worst possible time. With each blown save, his value goes down, and if we fall out of it, we won't get good value if we decide to sell. I don't think that we're looking to sell within the next six days. If Jenks continues to suck for the next couple of games and then snaps out of it, his value will still likely be solid in December.

QUOTE (knightni @ Jul 25, 2009 -> 05:07 PM) Bobby has struggled almost 75% of the time out there since 2007. He gives up a lot of leadoff hits and walks guys. In 2008, Bobby's WHIP was 1.10 and his ERA+ was 174. That doesn't sound like struggling to me. His WHIP over the past year and a half is also slightly lower than it was from 2005-2006.

QUOTE (knightni @ Jul 25, 2009 -> 05:04 PM) Since Kenny wasted a top 5 prospect on Pena, why not give him a shot at closing? Because Bobby hasn't really been struggling for that long, and he's earned the right to work through short-term struggles.

QUOTE (WhiteSoxfan1986 @ Jul 25, 2009 -> 04:49 PM) I love Buehrle, but hes not a hall of famer. He'll never go down as a dominant pitcher of this generation. His career will go down a lot like Andy Petitte or Cone, who aren't Hall of Famers. No offense to Mark, but that's pretty much where I stand. Those comparisons are pretty accurate.

After going with Thornton and Dotel early today, Ozzie was pretty much stuck with Bobby. His WHIP has been pretty respectable up until about two weeks ago. I don't see much of an option besides letting Bobby work through it. If they pull him from the closer role, it's pretty much a vote of "no confidence," which will negatively impact his trade value. If they give him a fake injury and stint on the DL where he throws on the side, his perceived durability takes a hit (he already has a surgically-repaired elbow, which doesn't help), also lowering his trade value. If he's still throwing like this two weeks from now, Kenny's going to have to make a difficult choice. The fake 15-day DL stint with throwing on the side might be the best way to go in that case.

Well, that was fun while it lasted.

QUOTE (wilmot825 @ Jul 25, 2009 -> 03:18 PM) Mark Buehrle doesn't hunt just deer.....he kills bears, f***ing bears! How is that not tough or likeable? Depends what kind of bears you're talking about. Black bears flee in terror when they get a whiff of human scent. On the other hand, killing a Grizzly would be pretty impressive.

QUOTE (maggsmaggs @ Jul 25, 2009 -> 02:05 PM) Mark is going to have to get 250 wins to even be in the discussion, IMO. I don't know about that. By the time that Mark is eligible, 250 might mean automatic induction.

Mark's career is on track to be a lot like David Cone's (minus the multiple championships). So it'll be interesting to see how the HOF voters treat Conie.