caulfield12

QUOTE (midway @ Jul 9, 2014 -> 10:03 AM) In yesterday's MLB traderumors chat Billy Beane said his next target is 2B and asked if he should go after Gordon Beckham or Ben Zobrist and if Tom Millone would be enough to get either one....hell yes!!!! I think he was joking. He has said all along that Gray, Chavez, Kazmir and the two Cubs wouldn't be expected to make all of their starts in the 2nd half, especially the first 3 guys because of workload concerns. Zobrist isn't going anywhere, from everything I've read and heard. Price is the one they have to part with... SF is also looking for a 2B, supposedly. DeAza could be a good fit there as well, as they look to shake up their team and find any way to get some more offense out of players not named Sandoval, Posey, Morse and Pence.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Jul 9, 2014 -> 09:59 AM) Wrong. You should write a correction request to the Seattle Times, then. Although I think informing Heyman that Danks had a shoulder/rotator cuff surgery and not TJ would be a more worthwhile use of time.

And yet a lot of people wanted to acquire Kendrys Morales for $14.5 million, Victor Martinez for next year...or Colby Rasmus, for another example. This 2015 White Sox can't be all players under 27 or 28. (Once you subtract Dunn/Ramirez/DeAza, that's exactly what we would have). It sounds like we're trying to do a down-sized version of the Cubs' plan by acquiring all young position player prospects and hoping some of them turn out like Gillaspie. Meanwhile, we don't have any premium talent to give away to acquire aforementioned prospects, other than Alexei Ramirez.

George Kottaras is available. At least he can take a walk.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Jul 9, 2014 -> 08:58 AM) "Look at what happens with their first round picks that don't turn into studs! THEY AREN'T STUDS!" I'll let Dick Allen list them if he wants to... So we don't want to make any effort at all to compete for the playoffs/Wild Card while simultaneously we don't care about our draft pick/s next year, either? MEHHHH....

QUOTE (knightni @ Jul 9, 2014 -> 09:21 AM) If the Red sox want Viciedo, would they be interested Conor Gillaspie as well? He looks like a natural hitter for Fenway. They'd have to move Bogaerts back to SS and forget about Drew. And also give up on Middlebrooks, pretty much....because Napoli's at 1B/DH, along with Ortiz. Or stick him in the OF, which is easier said than done (as we learned with Josh Fields/Mark Teahen). Dayan Viciedo, LF, White Sox The Mariners have already been linked to Viciedo twice this spring. They scouted him this spring when they saw how left-handed heavy their roster looked. They weren’t impressed with Viciedo’s swing-first, swing-often approach and were really scared off by his outfield defense, which could be compared to Raul Ibanez. Viciedo does has a strong arm, but fly balls are an adventure. Could he improve? Sure he’s only 25 and outfield defense can improved to at least respectable if a player is willing. He’s hitting .250 with 10 homers and 31 RBI with a .303 OBP and .420 slugging percentage. His splits are relatively drastic …(LHP vs. RHP) Screen Shot 2014-07-07 at 1.58.50 PM If you noticed on Saturday, he was pinch hit for against a righty reliever (damn you, Ventura!!!). But the Mariners need a guy who can hit lefties. Contract: 1 years/$2.8M (2014) re-signed by Chicago White Sox 1/13/14 (avoided arbitration). He’d be second year arbitration eligible so it it could bump to 4ish next year. Skinny: At just 25 and being relatively (cheap I'm assuming is the missing word), the White Sox may just keep him. There is some potential and he fits their “park.” It seems likely Adam Dunn will be gone next year, so he could slide into the DH spot. The White Sox need relief help. The Mariners have a lot of hard throwing relievers. It could be a match. Other names being thrown around are Josh Willingham, Alex Rios, Matt Kemp, Carl Crawford, Andre Ethier, Stanton, Tulo, Marlon Byrd (he'd be worth a look for the White Sox, even though he's a veteran), A few things … 1. The Mariners are interested in any player that might possibly help them, doesn’t matter right or left handed, pitcher or player. And if you look their current roster, there are plenty of players on “the trade market” who are better than what Lloyd McClendon is forced to put out there on a daily basis. 2. Very rarely will any rumblings or rumors come from the Mariners. They are one of the most secretive organizations in baseball. GM Jack Zduriencik is quite adamant about this privacy. Not a good idea for a person’s employment status to be leaking stuff to the media. Much of this national stuff comes from opposing scouts and executives or agents. 3. The value of the Mariners prospects probably aren’t as high as you think. Right now, the two best prospects the Mariners have are Taijuan Walker and DJ Peterson. Prospects at lower levels just don’t move the trade meter, unless they are phenoms. The Mariners don’t have that. Edwin Diaz, Luiz Gohara, Gabby Guerrero are all good players and prospects, but they aren’t centerpieces. http://blogs.seattletimes.com/mariners/201...handed-hitters/

I guess I'd be okay with a catcher AND a pitcher, but I'm still not going to be particularly happy if Beckham and DeAza are both still around next year because we couldn't find someone who would take them off our hands.

QUOTE (Eminor3rd @ Jul 9, 2014 -> 09:11 AM) It'll be just Erasmo. Viciedo for Erasmo. Why would we do that when we got an even better pitcher for free in Noesi? At any rate, if he does, there BETTER be a plan for 2015 that doesn't involve Davidson striking out 150 times at DH/3B and bringing back DeAza for LF...because we're going to suck if we only have Abreu (and maybe Davidson) as the only hitter/s on the team capable of hitting more than 15 homers. Davidson's stat line would likely look quite similar to Mike Olt's at 3B.

QUOTE (The Ultimate Champion @ Jul 9, 2014 -> 07:46 AM) I don't know what their system looks like, but in theory we need all of the following: -RHSP (at least 1) -big lefty power bat -DH? if we keep Tank maybe not, but he still has to turn it around -SS after Alexei -an actual OF who can play the OF -starting C -LHRP at least 1 -quality MR and SU options So if you get like a good looking A- RHSP prospect or SS for example along with a good looking LHRP who is close to ready along with full salary relief then that should be something we'd have to think about pulling the trigger on. you're being way too ambitious when you consider his diminished velocity, high walks/lower K's and home runs allowed totals....not to mention his contract, the most important factor for at least 75% of playoff-contending teams

It better be for Maurer and Erasmo Ramirez.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Jul 9, 2014 -> 07:35 AM) For the record, here are notable players picked in that 14-18 range that Caulfield dreads so much: 14: Jose Fernandez, Jason Heyward, Billy Butler, Jeff Weaver, Jason Varitek, Derrek Lee, Cliff Floyd, Tino Martinez, and, of course, Ron Karkovice 15: Stephen Drew, Scott Kazmir, Chase Utley, Chris Carpenter, and Jim Rice 16: Nick Swisher, Lance Berkman, Lance Parrish, Roberto Hernandez, Shawn Green 17: Roy Halladay, Cole Hamels, Gary Matthews Sr, Charles Nagy, AJ Pollock 18: Willie Wilson, Glenn Wilson. RA Dickey too, but he was a genuinely talented pitcher but was forced to change due to injury. #18 has the worst history, but the best player in the majors right now went 25th overall, so it's not like there isn't talent there. Except what has happened when the White Sox have picked in this range...? Other than Chris Sale? Let's just say 10-19. BTW, the White Sox still haven't won a Saturday home game all year (yet), right? The one victory was on the road I'm pretty sure. Has a team ever gone for an entire season without winning a home game on a certain day of the week over a modern-day, 162 game schedule?

QUOTE (Baron @ Jul 8, 2014 -> 11:39 PM) Seattle's going to be a tough one to knock off Especially if we trade Viciedo for Erasmo Ramirez or Maurer, lol.

QUOTE (Tannerfan @ Jul 8, 2014 -> 09:41 PM) Caulfield you really should be a a Cubs fan. Their philosophy is perfect for you. The White Sox are the ones with this philosophy, not me. If we had a closer and a catcher, we'd legitimately have a shot at the Wild Card, even without Avisail Garcia. Instead, we continue to trot out the worst position player in the MLB on an almost everyday basis with no back-up plan in sight.

QUOTE (GreenSox @ Jul 8, 2014 -> 10:28 PM) Use Youkilis as your example - he who was declining, whom we got for cheap in terms of players but who had a high salary, but who ended up carrying us into contention in 2012. Dye (good year before we signed him) and AJ (1 bad year) weren't declining like Craig and we got each absolutely dirt cheap. No 3/25 or 4/38. Pods was Pods. Bullpen can be 100 for all I care. Youkilis was already basically done because of the back problems...and we were fortunate that Middlebrooks was so promising then, or they wouldn't have parted with him so easily, just like the Thome/Ryan Howard situation in Philly. Dye was coming off a broken leg. The point is you do need SOME veterans in the mix for a playoff-contending team to be leaders. The other point is that finding a "guaranteed" 800 OPS bat in the outfield isn't as easy as it seems. It's either going to cost money or talent. It's not like the situation with pitchers (Jenks, Santos, Humber, Quintana, Putnam, Noesi, Carroll, Guerra) where they just grow on trees and are magically reborn under Cooper. In fact, the last everyday player we were able to pick up in that fashion was DeAza in 2010-11.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Jul 8, 2014 -> 10:31 PM) You don't agree that things have worsened considerably in all aspects (economy including gas prices, society, environment) during the Obama era? It's truly depressing. It's hard to argue all aspects since the stock market was collapsing two months before the 2008 election and now it is at an all-time high again. Gas prices and environmental problems were just as bad or worse under Bush. Society...I'm not even sure how you can quantify that...wouldn't most older and middle-aged Americans have said society was getting much worse in the 60's and early 70's, the era of "free love" and rampant drug use and where you had universities being occupied by protesters? Remember the 1970's when there was an oil shortage/rationing...the Cuyahoga River in Cleveland caught on fire, 3 Mile Island, rampant inflation, etc.

Here's the argument that we've been hearing about why Chris Beck isn't getting K's....applied by the Cubs to their pitchers Wada/Beeler/Hendricks in AAA. Following the gameplan is a point of emphasis for Cubs pitching coach Chris Bosio and Epstein's front office. (Iowa Cubs pitching coach Bruce) Walton has to send the top-down message. "Every night, I fill out a game report with my comments, telling [the front office] what we're working on, the progress of each guy, where they're at," Walton said. "For example, it could be a game where we went seven innings, gave up six runs, but three of the runs we gave up is because we were working on something and we didn't execute it as well as we're going to execute it in the future. "But we have to start somewhere and we don't want to start when they get called up. We do make some sacrifices here, where the line score probably could have been better if we had ignored some developmental things. But that's not what we're about. We're about trying to make our guys major-league ready when they get there." That’s the entire point. "They understand everything we discuss is going to help them in the long run,” Walton said. “They make sacrifices in the short run to be better in the long run. They get it. "Sometimes, there are baby steps here and some of the stuff we work on doesn't really help you for this league. It sounds funny, but with the plans that we have, we as a staff are trying to get better at the major-league level. We're not really worried about trying to get our outs here, although they do come. "We're trying to put our gameplan together for the big leagues. Not our gameplan to be an All-Star in the [Pacific Coast League]." http://www.csnchicago.com/cubs/after-samar...t-wave-pitching

Cubs blow 5-0 lead in the 2nd game of DH against the Reds, swept, now losers of 5 consecutive games since the big trade.

Cubs blow 5-0 lead in the 2nd game of DH against the Reds, swept, now losers of 5 consecutive games since the big trade.

You mean the road to the 14th-18th draft pick in the 1st round....? I'd rather they were 10 games under .500, improved the team with the best trades for prospects at the deadline and all the key players for next season were completely healthy/successful in Abreu, Sale, Quintana, Eaton and Avisail.

QUOTE (raBBit @ Jul 8, 2014 -> 08:12 PM) Who suggested trading for Seth Smith or Melky Cabrera? The Padres just signed Smith to a two year deal and Cabrera is on a first place team... That was kind of the point. All the outfielders (especially LH) we might want for next season (since Viciedo should be traded according to half the board) aren't available or are too pricey or are likely to come back down to earth and overachieving, etc. There's not a single player we could propose other than Mike Trout we could trade for that wouldn't be criticized, and some would undoubtedly say Trout is striking out too much this year.

QUOTE (BigHurt3515 @ Jul 8, 2014 -> 08:18 PM) Who else was up in the bullpen ? Surkamp and Putnam earlier.

QUOTE (Feeky Magee @ Jul 8, 2014 -> 08:15 PM) Quintana has a better FIP (Although Tanaka has a considerably better xFIP and SIERA) Sounds more like someone from Road Rules/Real World or a tribute to Ruben High Sierra.

QUOTE (Buehrle>Wood @ Jul 8, 2014 -> 08:15 PM) 163rd now alltime in doubles Passed Andre "The Hawk" Dawson

Especially with Sale and Quintana looming the next two games. Who's tanking more? Red Sox or Brazil soccer?

Konerko finally gets his chance to shine. What did they give him for retirement? A box of Dunkin' Donuts?