caulfield12

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/19/opinion/...tml?_r=1&hp

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/19/opinion/...tml?_r=1&hp

http://www.suntimes.com/sports/12583507-41...guillen-is.html Except from new Rick Morrissey book on Ozzie Guillen...

Yeah, thankfully for Rios, Reed held onto the lead. I can't remember what year it was, maybe 2002, that Graffanino made a pretty big error that led to a Cubs' victory, I think at 3B. Or maybe I'm getting confused with the White Sox/Red Sox 2005 error that opened the floodgates. But I could have sworn Tony made a bigger error than Rios' would have been considered had Reed given up a hit to the other Reed (Johnson). Back then, those Cubs/White Sox games were beyond huge. It was like life and death. I suppose Rios should be punished by hitting 1000 fly balls out to him directly in the sun and making sure he catches every one of them. Just a fluke thing, like the wind at Wrigley or especially Candlestick Park.

First Indians one-run loss all season long. They had won their prior 9 one-run games. That has to even out, just like their string of miracle comebacks and home wins did last year in the second half. White Sox are on a current stretch of 51-22 in interleague games, best record in the majors during that timeframe. Marlins are the most successful NL franchise in interleague play. Indians had a walk-up of over 6,100 last night, the 7th highest total in Progressive Field history.

QUOTE (Marty34 @ May 18, 2012 -> 09:08 PM) My desire to have Kenny Williams replaced is based largely on 1 post-season win in last 6 years. So would you also fire Ron Gardenhire for the reason they've only won one post-season series in a decade despite appearing 6 times and have gotten completely blitzed by the Yankees the last couple of times? And because they're arguably the worst team in baseball right now, playing in a two-year old stadium. (Here's where Marty has an out, he can say he would have fired the GM who made four incredibly bad trades, Bill Smith, which is actually what transpired...and that the field manager has very little to do with the results of the team and that JR should have emulated the Pohlads and axed KW).

QUOTE (Marty34 @ May 18, 2012 -> 08:39 PM) Not young enough to make up for the descrepancy in numbers. And if it came out that Rick Hahn was 90% of the driving force behind this signing, would you still be going on and on about Viciedo like this? It's almost like you are unhappy he's been playing well recently since it doesn't support your hypothesis. Maybe it's time to go back to the "If Molina doesn't crack the starting rotation in 2013, KW must be fired!" strategy. Because if you were GM, Santos would have netted you, wala.....a young Pujols, Cabrera and Fielder in the same trade. And Quentin would have brought back a Kemp or Josh Hamilton, surely.

Molina got rocked again. 6 runs this time. Mitchell with two walks so far.

QUOTE (Jose Paniagua @ May 18, 2012 -> 11:01 AM) Yeah, but Alexei was barely pursued by anyone. If I'm not mistaken, there were multiple bidders for Viciedo, but we didn't really have to pay tons for him. So someone on the other MLB teams saw a problem with him, hence the holding back of offers....and I envision us being the ones who overpaid to make it happen. An earlier, cheaper Cespedes situation. It was also the biggest signing bonus/salary ever given in baseball history to Latin American position prospect under the age of 20 or even 25...and I'm pretty sure it still is 3 1/2 years later. Cespedes was already in the prime of his career and had a ton of international playing experience and scouting exposure. The Soler contract will eclipse the Viciedo one, largely because of the unique market situation at this particular moment with the bonus pools, his five tool talent and the fact that he's the last impact player available to every team before the new rules take affect. But he's a matter of weeks away from missing that deadline and losing quite a bit of money.

34,937 Lowest attendance all-time of the series at Wrigley.

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mlb-big-leag...-210332365.html The best bobblehead ever!

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/player--umpir...oesn-t-act.html Passan on relations between umpires and players fraying...

John Carter was 5-10X worse. Same lead actor. Battleship was fine for what it was....super loud, little character development, completely unrealistic or plausible, Michael Bay knockoff or "lite" but good summer popcorn movie fun. Rihanna was actually pretty good, in her supporting role.

QUOTE (2nd_city_saint787 @ May 17, 2012 -> 11:58 PM) http://espn.go.com/mlb/stats/batting/_/position/lf/sort/OPS http://espn.go.com/mlb/stats/batting/_/position/3b/sort/OPS s 12 3b above .725/ 10 LF above .725 but you look to be right as theres more 3B over .800....me thinking .725 was low confused me lol i play a lot of fantasy baseball so I dont really know squat about anything outside of BA HR RBIs and RUNs and I admit that. You have to consider that only 17/30 teams have qualifying 3B. So that also tells you the average for 3B would be a bit lower because the assumption is a lot of those plate appearances (for non-qualifiers) are ending up between 500-700 OPS (see Brent Morel, even lower) but they're not hitting well enough to play everyday, so they're showing up in the combined/aggregate stats for the position.

QUOTE (2nd_city_saint787 @ May 17, 2012 -> 09:13 PM) This doesnt make sense to me, why would he have less value in LF if the average LF has a .724 OPS whereas Im sure the average 3B has a higher one....It should be the other way around. I with you on that I was just pointing out that when you rank over 2000 minor leaguers 30's is a pretty good ranking. I could be wrong, but I would guess the average 3B OPS HAS to be lower than 724. I'm guessing 675-710.

Not to mention that Viciedo hurt his wrist in the middle of the year, wasn't able to show what he could when he was the hottest hitter in minor league baseball for six weeks (see Pierre, Juan and Rios, Alex blocking him) and the fact that we didn't see a healthy Dayan in very limited late season at-bats is being held against him now (never received regular playing time under a stubborn Guillen, except for maybe 2-3 weeks in 2010). Everyone expects or has come to expect slow starts out of Viciedo and Ramirez...whatever the reason, it always seems to happen with both of them since 2008/09.

QUOTE (iamshack @ May 17, 2012 -> 09:55 PM) He needs to produce above a sub -.600 ops when he's not on a "hot streak." Beckham, Morel and finding a catcher for next season are MUCH bigger problems. And we have to hope that Alexei Ramirez isn't now completely on the downside of his career already...

[/quote Well, that is baseball. Hitters are streaky. Konerko was a slow starter and a streaky hitter for a decade. Good thing we didn't trade him. He is 23 with a very live bat. Trading him is as short sighted as it gets. This team needs a dangerous bat more than anything. He has that potential. Give him, I don't know, half a full season before this discussion. Or look at Josh Hamilton...homers tend to come in bunches, same thing with Dunn. It's the nature of sports. Carlos Lee was ALWAYS that way...some hitters are a bit more consistent than others, but most power hitters aren't also high average guys. AJ Pierzynski has been one of the streakiest hitters this season, but nobody could argue his contributions in the first 2-3 weeks of the season weren't especially valuable to getting us off to that 10-6 start.

Mitchell with his 29th RBI, at .279. The Carlos Sanchez, Phegley and Ravelo bandwagons have slowed a bit...but none moreso than Tyler Kuhn.

QUOTE (2nd_city_saint787 @ May 17, 2012 -> 08:34 PM) Not sure what that only means but top 30's of all the hundreds of minor leaguers is pretty damn good. Are you seriously downplaying his hot streak?? And all of those guys like Jon Rauch, Danny Wright and Matt Ginter being top prospects in 2000 turned into what exactly? And where was Mark Buehrle on that same list in 1999 and 2000? Outside of the Top 100. It's like those football and basketball recruiting rankings, it's ONE benchmark or indictator, but the fact that he was rated 30th versus 15th or whatever doesn't mean much. Look at Borchard's peak rating, for example. Fields, Brian Anderson, etc.

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ May 17, 2012 -> 08:25 PM) .649 OPS after this "monster" hot streak. .669 http://espn.go.com/mlb/stats/batting/_/pos.../OPS/order/true He's still in the bottom quartile, but that's among the qualified players...I think it was Balta who said the major league (don't think it was AL, maybe?) average for a LFer was a 724 OPS. I think it's very realistic to expect him to put up 725-750 this season and keep improving every year, both offensively and defensively. That said, because of the position he plays, he's not valuable enough to get back a prime infielder or catching prospect, or a major league-ready starting pitcher that's in AA/AAA. If he was able to put up those numbers at 3B, then you'd have a much more valuable asset and the comparisons to Beltre would be more relevant. But 1) Williams would never trade him as long as he's GM, 2) His upside to contribute offense to the Sox in 2013-2014-2015 and beyond has a greater value to the Sox than almost any other team, particularly knowing you're probably going to be losing offense at catcher too with AJ leaving.

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mlb-big-leag...-142516062.html at USCF

QUOTE (Jake @ May 17, 2012 -> 05:53 PM) While winning independents typically wins elections, Bush Jr. lost independents twice yet still won two elections (well, one...kinda). Rallying the base has worked for Republicans in the past. Except why would that tactic work better now? He's the sitting president. All that information is already out there from 4+ years ago. Doing so will only cause the media to focus more on Romney's "personal stories" (dog on the roof, bullying episode he doesn't recollect) or the fact that their healthcare plans were virtually inseparable. In fact, Romney's was more liberal than the eventual Obama plan. If all of America can see for the next six months the disastrous results of the austerity plans in Europe (cutting budgets without doing anything to stimulate economies), then logic would dictate that the same type of dramatic government cutbacks in the US would provide a similarly ominous solution to most Americans. As Paul Krugman constantly points out, if the federal deficit was SUCH a big issue, why would our borrowing costs be exceptionally low on the bond market, and why would inflation to be so low?

Brent Morel says "Thanks, other Brent, for making my BA and OPS look better comparatively." Sample size, sample size. But Morel's heated up to 420 OPS, Lillibridge at 402.

With Trumbo an absolute beast, Morales on the mend, Trout (well, forget his defense)...the Angels are going to be there for sure as well until the end of the season. Assuming the back end of the bullpen holds up.