caulfield12

QUOTE (Eminor3rd @ Apr 3, 2015 -> 02:21 PM) IMO, we should take them as really high variance guesses. I think that, in a way, things like the Rodon projection are the "x factors" in that they can skew the team wildly in each direction. He could really be the difference between being dragged down by a bad back-end or being vaulted to the post-season by an unexpected ace that gets use two or three extra wins in a tight division. Awkwardly timely, here's this article about the "most vulnerable rotations," essentially an attempt to quantify rotation depth this year: http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/the-most-vu...tations-in-mlb/ I guess there's my good argument for Dick Allen about the Royals, haha. That Finnegan's one of the top 3-4 guys waiting there in the wings, along with Medlen, Hochevar, Kyle Zimmer, etc.

QUOTE (CaliSoxFanViaSWside @ Apr 4, 2015 -> 09:12 AM) Fine then I will have the last say on it. We are all here glorifying athletes as fans . We speak about them all the time. We pay to watch them perform . My god the things people get annoyed about. Chill out. It's only distracting if you let it be. Doesn't bother me in the slightest. The only important question is whether Ventura, Hahn and Cooper are having this exact same conversation internally...and, with the $28 million still invested in Danks, the answer (at this point) has to be no...that they won't revisit the "Danks issue" until at least the middle of May and/or until Rodon lights Charlotte on fire like Katniss Everdeen appearing on the scene.

QUOTE (ptatc @ Apr 3, 2015 -> 10:42 AM) That's why you get as many as you can. I'm sure the Giants thought it would be Lincecum for awhile. Pitcher's success is fickle. They still won due to the pitching. And Cain. Or even Zito. Is David Haugh getting paid by the Cubs, too? Good God, this doesn't even strike the reader as halfway objective. http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/colum...404-column.html

QUOTE (LDF @ Apr 4, 2015 -> 06:29 AM) i think most here already knows not to get overly excited about this signing. it is confusing move but all i have to do is hope. i know i am not going to put too much faith in Lindstrom, remember he was cut from another team, the sox gave him a offer on a silver plate. i just have to hope in the best. Noesi was cut twice in less than a month before pitching quite effectively for the Sox last year. I think the same thing happened with one of the Orioles' "surprise" breakout hitters in the last 2-3 months....that they picked up on waivers, the name's eluding me right now.

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Apr 4, 2015 -> 08:30 AM) Who said anything about getting a veteran. I took that as cutting bait on Danks Do you honestly believe that type of move is possible in April/May? Don't think so. He's going to be first Zitoed/Lincecumed into the bullpen to replace Jennings or Duke, probably Jennings...or used as the long man. In order to try for SOME rebound in his confidence/net asset value.

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Apr 4, 2015 -> 08:19 AM) I refuse to take much serious stock in any minor league performance. I think you have to give Danks the month of April to see what he can do. If he isn't a MLB pitcher at that point, then Hahn is gonna have to head up to Jerry's office and beg to waste a good chunk of money. Umm..we already have Rodon, why do we have to spend MORE money to bring in a veteran? Not to mention Beck and Erik Johnson, we're not going to spend another $5-10 million for a back end rotation piece at this point in the proceedings when we haven't the last two offseasons....with Noesi proving the point it's not really necessary, but need good scouting and/or Don Cooper.

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Apr 3, 2015 -> 09:05 PM) All this name dropping bs isn't cute or funny, and adds little to the discussion Okay, fine, who's to say he wasn't working 100% on change-ups, cutters, slurves and all of his offspeed pitches? Or that he was working on pitching to one side of the plate or the other in terms of his command and mechanics? Unless you watched every pitch of his entire outing, there's just no way to make any kind of determination. Was it clear he was in "max" effort mode? Is he going through the proverbial dead arm period? We keep saying over and over again that spring training results don't count, and yet a lot of writers are super hyped about Courtney Hawkins because of his spring performance, just like Wilson Betemit or Ryan Sweeney in the past. Was the strike zone tight? Was he falling behind hitters and having to come with his fastball? There's no point in worrying until we know that he had any other goal than just reaching his pitch count. I mean, why don't we keep Junior Guerra over Javy Guerra if we're going to evaluate the roster based on a game or two? Why aren't we concerned about Jose Quintana after his last outing?

http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/S-F-...ver-6177739.php

QUOTE (spiderman @ Apr 3, 2015 -> 08:48 PM) They're going to be patient with him. If he's bad early, they can probably find ways to skip a start here or there and work on any mechanical issues in a side session. They can also hide him on the DL if he's really struggling. Chances are, he'll mix in a few good starts with his usual stink bombs though. Ideally, he'll be a #5 starter, and bite the bullet in some of his starts to save the bullpen. I'm at a point with him where if he can pitch around 200 IP in that slot of the rotation, I'll take it. Except the problems, as we all know, really aren't mechanical ones.

Chacin, McGowan, Penny, Wandy Rodriguez, dumpster diving time. I'd ALMOST say just throw Beck out there and see what he can do...but you just know that's not going to happen with Danks' contract. Or Drabek. Or Carroll. Or even Viciedo or Leury pitching. I heard Adam Dunn's available as well...

http://www.milb.com/multimedia/vpp.jsp?con...83&sid=milb Moncada video with Red Sox. Left-handed swings are a thing of beauty, inspiration and poetic words.

QUOTE (Chicago White Sox @ Apr 3, 2015 -> 07:05 PM) Jesus Christ Caulfield, you name drop worse than the rapper Game. Not as bad as Ed Farmio, lol.

I highly doubt they're going to choose Surkamp over Drabek.

QUOTE (ptatc @ Apr 3, 2015 -> 08:11 AM) I gave some opinions in another theead. Not knowing everything that is going on, he just threw too hard too often. Now many things are breaking down. He needs to learn to not throw with that much intensity and still get people out. That's why its difficult to become a really successful pitcher for an extended period of time. They should learn early how to pitch purposely not throwing their hardest. So Nolan Ryan was basically just the sole exception to the rule, a complete freak of nature? They didn't have stadium radar gun readings back then, but I'm sure he was well aware of the scouts' guns. Or Randy Johnson, to a lesser extent?

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Apr 3, 2015 -> 02:49 PM) Why waste your time. They are bad, we all know that. It's because we are all jealous that he snagged his comely wife based solely on his Golden Spikes award at UGA, first round signing bonus, 2009, comparisons to DIRK Jeter and his walk-up music. Basically.

Insurance. Nothing to lose. Sox are familiar with him and his injury, obviously. Maybe they can catch lightning in a bottle, like Cleto for a couple of outings last year. Same thing with Leon...or Albers...or Crain...or Nate Jones.

THIS.TEAM.IS.DEAD Long live Leury The King!

http://www.milb.com/player/index.jsp?sid=m...tching/2014/ALL Do we have the wrong Guerra on the MLB roster? Venezuelan "Junior" Guerra, who apparently didn't pitch ANYWHERE from 2008-2012, then was in Mexico in 2012 and disappeared again pitched two innings with no hits/walks and 2 K's. http://www.milb.com/player/index.jsp?sid=m...tching/2014/ALL

I blame Dick Allen for supporting Beckham and Danks too wholeheartedly... Maybe Wandy Rodriguez will be next if we pick him up...if nothing else, we can thank him a little bit for 2005.

QUOTE (flavum @ Apr 3, 2015 -> 05:28 PM) This doesn't look like a club that's ready to be hot out of the gate, but crazier things have happened. Balta lurking like Calvin and Hobbes, ready to POUNCE!!!

QUOTE (Thad Bosley @ Apr 3, 2015 -> 05:05 PM) "I think the White Sox just make smarter business decisions than most teams." Really? And how do you arrive at this conclusion? Based on the club's success? The Sox have one playoff appearance in the last DECADE since the WS in '05, and that appearance lasted all of one minute. And the 24 years prior to '05, this current Sox ownership saw their team reach the postseason a measly three times, combining for just three wins in those appearances. Real "smarter business decisions" contributing to that unheralded record, I must say. And as of today, this supposed record of "smarter business decisions" has this big market team almost dead last in attendance and TV ratings as we speak, and a team payroll going into this season almost identical to that of the Kansas City Royals AND Minnesota Twins, and less than that of the Reds, Blue Jays, Mariners, AND former Montreal Expos, the Nationals. But god are we "smart", we managed to get Sale and Abreu to sign for under market. Whoopie...for the investors!! Well, we still won the World Series and there are like 9-10 that haven't, haha. We spent a ton of money from 2006-2013, albeit inefficiently for the most part. We've consistently been outmaneuvered and out-strategized on the pr/marketing front. If only Mike Illitch had been the CEO....we'd have Justin Verlander and Miggy Cabrera on contracts until they reached Social Security eligibility. You're right, I don't think we can overpraise JR and company...they stabilized the ship from the Veeck Era, let's just say that. Got the new stadium built, albeit it was a disappointment and have now rectified that to the best of their ability but original perceptions are still hard to walk back. In all fairness, if the 1994 strike doesn't occur (and that's also 50% at Reinsdorf's doorstep), things probably would have turned out differently...say we won the World Series THAT season. Another couple of things we can point to are the lower draft budgets (going underslot and putting more into MLB ops) and the Dominican Disaster. We've been pretty much shut out of that country for going on ten years now, so it's actually pretty remarkable we've still managed to do "fairly well." We can trot out that...the White Sox didn't have a Top 10 draft pick for XX number of years stat...that we were something like 3-4th-5th over any long period of time behind the Yankees, Red Sox, Cardinals, Braves over the last 20-30 years in overall win-loss record. Basically, saying we've been good at being decent/mediocre/middling but very rarely breaking out of the pack and having a chance for real post-season success. There was 1959, 1967, 1977, 1983, 1989-1994 (injection of all that exciting talent and new stadium as well), 2000, 2003, 2005, 2008 (doomed when Quentin went down with hamate self-inflicted injury), 2010 (26-5 stretch) and 2012. And that's pretty much been it, other than the 1900-1920 teams.

Danks did crank up a fastball up to 84. He's basically Jamie Moyer at this point. I remember he was actually throwing 88-91 pretty consistently at the end of last season.

The GREAT DEBATE was over why in God's name didn't we sign Santana or Jimenez and put ourselves into basically automatic contention for a playoff spot in 2014....didn't quite work out that way, although Erwin with the Braves was much better than his Orioles'/Indians/Rockies counterpart. Starring 85% Marty and Dick Allen.

http://www.milb.com/multimedia/vpp.jsp?top...ent_id=58135383 Here's the stream. You can't find it through MLB.com

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Apr 2, 2015 -> 02:56 PM) Its a pretty unique movie series in that way. Three and four totally bottomed out the series, I remember when Vin Diesel came back to the series I laughed at the notion that the movies would make a comeback. The Eva Mendes one was "okay" and then Tokyo Drift was surprisingly good if you rewatch it again today...and fit it into the overall series chronology with Han. Lucas Black (CSI New Orleans) simply wasn't a big enough name at the time to do much more than straight to video business, with all the primary characters out of the action and on the sidelines.