caulfield12

Let's just put it this way....if you start comparing Bauer with, say, Greene/Simon, you take him every time and don't look back. New thought not necessitating another thread or post to follow: But I'm sure Cashman's still feeling dumb with yet another pitcher getting away and Gregorius looking like an anemic bat.

Schwarber's lighting it up again this year, right? What about CJ Edwards? McKinney? P. Johnson (P)?

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Apr 21, 2015 -> 06:27 AM) That was a sweet win. I have heard the Indians have quite an advantage in the AL Central from the managerial position. Leaving Aviles in CF and letting your closer give up 6 hits would be considered a fireable offense in these parts. Great, one win, two losses....still a net of negative one this last week on the managerial side.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Apr 21, 2015 -> 08:34 AM) The talent is there. For some reason this team has seemed to have the attention span of a Hummingbird with ADHD. If they figure that out, they can go somewhere. And who is responsible for that, Hahn, Ventura or both equally? Also, your characterizations sounds like you're describing the way posters take potshots at Alexei when he does something baffling or mystifying, or just has a brain cramp/fart about 10-15 times per season.

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Apr 21, 2015 -> 08:06 AM) no they were playing in, they dont have the arms for the outfield and the only chance was for a shallow fly and quick throw home. Where Melky hit it, there was no way they were throwing out Flowers there Unless Flowers didn't tag up properly and had a brain cramp, along with McEwing.

Cannot.displace.Gordon

QUOTE (Tmar @ Apr 21, 2015 -> 12:29 AM) http://youtu.be/EQ5UDp_bMh0 RIP Michael Clarke Duncan 1) Francona was absolutely nuts for having Aviles in CF...that "double" Ramirez hits is caught, it's a completely different game Michael Bourne was 4/14 coming into the game (against Danks) but only 9/45 on the season and struggling with his OBP and only 1 steal...Tito thought it was better to match him up with Noesi and Samardzija instead, but you HAVE to put in there defensively when you're paying him $48 million over 3 seasons (more than Melky's making)... 2) What the heck was Avi doing with that "pump" fake on the Brantley double against the wall...if he picks it up and throws it to the cutoff man right away, the trail runner doesn't advance and they have a good shot at the runner rounding 3rd. 3) 75-85% of managers are going to pull their closer when a 3-0 lead has turned into a blown save and tie game with only one out recorded...very surprising he left Allen in against Cabrera, especially since it's not like Allen has a pedigree of successfully closing out games over a 3-5 year period. The Indians just aren't as dangerous without Gomes....and their bullpen is a mess. OTOH, the Tigers and Royals are better than most were expecting or predicting. Still, that Indians rotation will keep them in a lot of games if they can firm up their defense and back end of the pen. FINALLY, never pitch to Ryan Raburn again, geez....the guy has like 17 or 18 career homers against the White Sox, I bet he doesn't have more than 30-40 against all the other teams in MLB combined.

QUOTE (OnlyGillis @ Apr 20, 2015 -> 09:22 PM) Maddon became available when the VP of Tampa's baseball ops quit. Maddon had a clause that if that guy left, he could opt out of his contract. Andrew Friedman, who left for the Dodgers job

QUOTE (fathom @ Apr 20, 2015 -> 07:18 PM) 4 errors for Sanchez in AAA already DFA. Or flip him for Tim Anderson.

QUOTE (OnlyGillis @ Apr 20, 2015 -> 09:24 PM) Probably because Pedro was better. But he didn't have as long a career near absolute peak as a lot of other pitchers...

http://m.mlb.com/video/topic/6479266/v8207...f-single-in-9th Cabrera's walk off "single" to the gap....Flowers scoring and the celebration. 13,055 fans (probably 50-75% left early) will quickly morph into over 40,000 were there with vivid memories nearly overnight.

Now they need Lester to actually pitch like he's paid to do. Maybe it would help Baez if they converted him to OF and left the INF Bryant, Castro, Russell and Rizzo. That would give you an OF of Fowler, Soler, Coghlan and Baez (and eventually, McKinney/Almora/Alcantara). Of course, they're probably going to have to trade Baez, Alcantara and another one of those outfield prospects to open up LF for Schwarber eventually...

I saw the score was 3-0 going into the 9th and Avi had just reached 2nd base. So I promptly went to the convenience store to get M&M's and Powerade, and poof....couldn't believe the score when I came back. (The Bryant homer was further adding to the gloom). A lot like the time in late 2005 when the White Sox were wiping out the Royals....I gave up and went to bed (was in the Valle de Cauca in Colombia at the time), and was absolutely shocked and frightened they'd somehow lost that game and that's when the apprehension about choking and the Indians closing in started to sink in.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Apr 20, 2015 -> 05:45 PM) I' m making stuff up? He played mostly 3B with the White Sox. He is a horrible SS. Where did he play in 2012, 2013, 2014 in the Sox minor league system? 2011 55 games at SS, 4 at 2B 2012 80 games at SS, 24 at 2B 2013 44 games at 2B, 23 games at 3B, 73 games at SS So you've made the decision he's a terrible SS and 3B? Wonderful, he'd only played 3B 23 times in the minors before the White Sox just stuck him out there at the major league level. At the position he has the third most experience. Makes a lot of sense to help build up the confidence of your players by doing so.

QUOTE (lasttriptotulsa @ Apr 20, 2015 -> 01:44 PM) The Franchise Four is all players living or deceased. The greatest living players is something different they are doing to decide the four greatest living players regardless of team. Their ballot for this is ridiculous. It only lists eight players: Aaron, Bench, Bonds, Henderson, Koufax, P. Martinez, Mays and Seaver. While you can write in names this ballot is ridiculous as most people will just vote for who they can click on without having to type anything. http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/events/all_star/y20...reatest_players How did they pick Pedro Martinez over, say, Randy Johnson or Greg Maddux? Just weird. And why are they inserting Bonds into the discussion? (Assuming they mean Barry and not Bobby). How could anyone not vote either Mays or Aaron there? If it was "most impactful/disruptive" leadoff hitter, then sure, Rickey Henderson, okay.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Apr 20, 2015 -> 01:25 PM) Nice try. How come you weren't saying these things when he was sent down? Afraid to be unpopular? Not once did you mention what you are mentioning now it that thread, but almost 11 months later, now there's a problem and let's blame Soxtalk hot bottons Ventura and Beckham. If you blame those guys, most won't even care if it makes sense or not. He needed to go down. He wasn't ready. He was hitting .218, and very bad playing mostly 3B. Classic trolling. Classic. I'm trolling when you're just making stuff up now. Guess what position he's playing with Oakland now? Hint, it's not 3B. Why do the White Sox insist on playing young players out of position, such as Beckham at 3B or Viciedo having to go through four different position changes in his early career when he should have been allowed to focus on just one or two (at most)? Should I start a thread to second guess every decision ever made so I have an official response you can look up and reference? Should I set my alarm here in China to wake up at 1-3 every morning to chime in when something happens in US time? Now that I think about it, since none of us are working in the front office, why is anyone here qualified to second guess the front office when they were hired to run a professional baseball team to the best of their ability by Jerry Reinsdorf? Can't every single thread just go back and forth debating over this important point?

QUOTE (Joshua Strong @ Apr 20, 2015 -> 01:16 PM) I would draft Kyle Tucker at #8 overall and have him be my LF of the future. I think he's going to be a guy that's hits for .290 while hitting 25 homers and driving in 95 rbi a year from the left side of the plate. And he projects as a plus defender in the outfield. Can you imagine an outfield featuring him and Micker together? The rate this season is going, I can imagine them playing for the Havana White Sox by that point.

QUOTE (flavum @ Apr 20, 2015 -> 01:06 PM) https://twitter.com/whitesox/status/590229553089359872 Laroce better be good. edit: they're fixing it Is there a new nickname I'm not aware of? Let me guess, despite his father's and brother's names being around baseball, and having a decades plus career, someone spelled his name incorrectly? If anyone, that should happen with Samardzija.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Apr 20, 2015 -> 12:38 PM) Once again, the facts say you are wrong. Beckham started the year on the DL, and Semien played all but 6 games in the 2 months before he was sent down. He was recalled in September when Sanchez was playing 2B, and Beckham was in California. Here's the thread when he was optioned on June 1, no one was saying he didn't have a fair shot, even Caulfield. He just figured he could blame Robin and Beckham now and gets some mileage out of it. http://www.soxtalk.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=92227 http://espn.go.com/mlb/player/gamelog/_/id...4/marcus-semien Marcus Semien had a .673 OPS for the month of April and played nearly everyday. What are you reading? Can you not see the May numbers filled with DNP's? THERE ARE 14 (FOURTEEN) OF THEM!!!!!!!!!!! Wonder what his OPS was that month, and why it fell off so precipitously? The reason there was nothing to say is the simple knowledge they were going to jam Gordon Beckham down our throats again and we might as well have him playing everyday in the minors instead of sitting on the bench the majority of time in Chicago and completely losing any offensive rhythm or consistency. He had 42 FREAKING AT-BATS THE ENTIRE MONTH OF MAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yet, in the mind of Dick Allen, that was more than a fair determination he wasn't up to snuff. (Could it have something to do with the fact his Boy Wonder was sort of ready to come back then and had already made his magical 822nd swing/mechanical change?)

By the way, it says (at least my mlb.com e-mail about this) the greatest LIVING players. So that would be Thomas, Baines, Aparicio, Buehrle/Konerko, arguably. You could make an argument for Fisk as well, and Billy Pierce.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Apr 20, 2015 -> 07:20 AM) I know Robin bashing is a way to get popular on this board, but why don't you at least look at the facts. Semien started 33 of the first 35 games last season, and played 58 out of 64, when Rick Hahn sent him back to Charlotte, and recalled in September. And before you go into the ...but Beckham, or the ...but Ventura crap again, or mention Ubaldo Jimenez, just look it up, you are wrong. And that was enough time in a rebuilding year to make a completely negative assessment on a player and give up on him? I still think you need to give a player 3 months, if not 4. It's one of the many reasons guys like Rowand, Crede, Borchard, Fields, Anderson, etc., have had trouble breaking into the line-up and staying there (lack of patience/we have to win now mentality...major league results >>> development). I'm almost 100% sure that Chris Getz (who's arguably much less capable and lower upside) was given a lot more playing time his rookie season than Marcus Semien.

Or, for another argument, let's look at what the White Sox/Ventura did with Marcus Semien last year. Sort of the same thing we're arguing about between Johnson and Sanchez right now...which is a demotion or sitting him on the bench for significant periods of time. In the end, Marcus really didn't have that 2-3 month extended look he really deserved, and should have received, in what turned out (and was expected/predicted to be) another long rebuilding season. A lot of those AB's ended up going to Beckham, which got us where exactly? Bonifacio would have been the perfect final addition to a team that was already in playoff contention, but he's actually one sort of "semi-big" contract that serves as an added obstacle for players like Sanchez, Saladino and even Leury Garcia. And I'm starting to get the same feeling about Gordon Beckham as well. Ultimately, we're not the Oakland A's and haven't mastered the art of platooning players effectively or optimizing their results. There's no guarantee that Marcus Semien will end up as a long-term answer for the A's at SS, but he certainly wasn't provided a full opportunity in Chicago after he struggled and was overwhelmed early with the high K totals and just making enough contact in general.

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Apr 20, 2015 -> 05:34 AM) Glad to see people are finally realizing how unlikable the Royals are. When fan boy Jeff Passan calls them out, you know it's getting bad. http://sports.yahoo.com/news/10-degrees--s...-033932160.html Except you don't win any type of title for being "America's Team" these days. And their fans love it...so, whatever works. In some ways, they need that tension and "backyard" brawl atmosphere to dial it up another notch and hit that top gear. Remember how we always hated the Twins for so many years, guys like Hunter and AJ and Mientkiewicz? Corey Koskie? Morneau? Mauer? Nathan? Not so very different, those guys also played with an attitude and cockiness, led by Hawk's all-time favorite, Brad Radke.

After giving it careful consideration, Kyle Tucker would be my choice. I'm coming around to the POV that pitching is easier and easier to find/develop/trade for than huge impact bats. Granted, there's already some controversy surrounding the Hawkins choice, and the temptation's going to be to take another proven college arm, but I think they surprise us and go in another direction. Just not excited enough about all these middle infield guys like Swanson and Newman. Happ (if they are confident he can play 3B) or best available collegiate pitcher without injury problems would be the 3rd choice.

You don't make these kinds of desperation moves barely 1/16th of the way into a season...yes, we're behind the 8 Ball, but the fact is that Carlos Sanchez wasn't an overwhelming offensive force by any stretch of the imagination last year (at the MLB level). I'm sure they have their reasons for sticking with M.Johnson, just like Guillen was right to have reservations about playing Viciedo against tough righties from 2010-2011 or bringing up Gordon Beckham too quickly (2008-09) and letting the hype build and build....he was, in the end, right on both accounts...remember, there was a long period of time when Juan Pierre was really struggling and Viciedo was raking in the minors that they stood pat and didn't make a move and it seemed inexplicable at the time. It's going to be hard for the fans to let go of their hopes of making the playoffs in 2015, but Micah Johnson's the better long-term solution at 2B, and in order to build a playoff-caliber team, they're going to have to take their lumps with him THIS year. If they push him back another year, you're breaking in a rookie on a team that absolutely has to compete for the division title/playoffs/wildcard from Day 1. Better to do it in 2015.