caulfield12

Have we decided to throw in the towel on Brent Morel yet for the first half of 2012?

I doubt Rios is going to end up with 75 RBI's on only 8 homers. That would require consistent clutch hitting for most of the season... Well, this game is in danger of being OVA soon with the start of this inning by Gavin. 9 hits in only 5 IP. .189 average against Gavin Floyd coming into the game, 3rd best average in the AL. Must be the new hitting coach, lol. Angels' announcers say they haven't seen this type of display all season long. "Angels' offense looks fabulous tonight." And there's your ballgame. 7-15 streak for the White Sox. First homer for Wells that wasn't of the solo variety. No action in the White Sox bullpen, lol.

Royals had the much easier chance to move into a tie with the White Sox but Broxton blew the save and gave up 2 runs against the Orioles. Still playing, bottom of the 13th inning.

Mitchell at least is 1/1 and back over the .270 mark. Anything from .280 and above for him on the season would be a great improvement, but he's striking out more and walking less compared to his earlier trendlines. Simon Castro has been pitching much better recently. 3 IP, 2 H, 1 R (unearned), 3 K's so far. Ozzie Martinez and KWJR both fighting to get over the Mendoza Line. Martinez 2/2 with a couple of RBI's. Mitchell with another hit (8th double) and a walk.

QUOTE (elrockinMT @ May 16, 2012 -> 09:02 AM) Pujols had three hits last night All three of them were infield hits, so not exactly line drives and XB smashes into the gaps. He does have 14 RBI's on the season, which is only abysmal by his normal standards.

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ May 16, 2012 -> 07:23 AM) Brett Lawrie ejected for arguing call, throws his helmet and it richochets up and nails the umpire. Im guessing he will be sitting out for a few http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/7936517/...et-gets-ejected Pujols claims his first victim in Anaheim, Mickey Hatcher loses his job as hitting coach http://espn.go.com/los-angeles/mlb/story/_...-mickey-hatcher Tuesday's move reflects a difference of philosophy between previous regimes in Anaheim and Dipoto's increased emphasis on on-base percentage and the incorporation of advanced analytics into the team's approach. Hatcher emphasized an aggressive approach at the plate. "We've struggled with situational hitting, we've struggled to get on base in ways other than the safely hit ball," Dipoto said. "Good hitters are also patient hitters. This is not necessarily about the individual message as much as the team-wide message we need to stress with our players." Haven't we been hearing the same type of talk from the White Sox for at least five years now?

Porcello getting roughed up too, but only one of the runs earned. Meanwhile, the Indians are trudging along in first place to the lowest attendance in the majors, just like 2011. Except last year, it seemed almost every one of their victories was a walk-off or dramatic come-from-behind win, many of them at home.

He did do away with his 1985 "Tears for Fears"/Prince Valiant or Prince Caspian haircut. That makes him look a bit tougher.

QUOTE (Jake @ May 16, 2012 -> 02:18 PM) Where is DJ Carrasco when you need him Zach Stewart

QUOTE (kjshoe04 @ May 16, 2012 -> 12:34 AM) Catcher is way higher on my list of needs than any of Marty's except 3b. Except we at least have a theoretical answer for 2013 in a combination of Phegley/Flowers. While it would be great to imagine there's another Wilson Ramos or Buster Posey just waiting to be traded to the Sox by a bottom quartile GM, the likelihood of that happening is pretty minimal.

So back to the Angels. They're penned in by the Wells contract (http://www.sbnation.com/mlb/2011/1/24/1953584/vernon-wells-contract-angels-trade-blue-jays), owing him $42 million for the next two seasons. But they get the Torii Hunter deal off the books after this season AND they've already jettisoned Abreu. Obviously, they have Trout in their future plans, but why wouldn't they just hold on to Bourjos for the remainder of this season, knowing they'll still need him in 2013 and beyond? What would the White Sox have to offer the Angels (that they need in present-tense since Pujols/Wilson put them firmly in "win now" territory) which would make the trade even worth doing for Anaheim? So, in the end, what's the best thing for the White Sox to do, trade Konerko and make Viciedo the primary 1B (sharing at-bats with Dan Johnson) with Dunn as the DH for two more years...making the OF DeAza/Bourjos/Rios...or trading Dunn and keeping Konerko? Sentimentally, most would argue for keeping Paulie (also because of the uncertainty about Viciedo's defense with another position move back to 1B and the fact Viciedo perhaps has his highest value in RF, compared to LF/1B/DH) and getting Dunn's contract off the books. The problem with that is Dunn is younger than Konerko, he's left-handed and he probably has a better chance of having two more excellent offensive seasons in 2013 and 2014 than Paulie does. Then you're still left with some difficult questions: 1) What pieces do you have to trade to acquire Bourjos 2) Will what's left of the starting rotation be enough to be competitive in 2013 and 2014? 3) Can they get anything back for Gavin Floyd which will make further weakening the starting rotation in 2013 worth it (long-term)? Or would they be better off exercising his 2013 option and waiting longer to trade him? 4) Is it worth it to keep Konerko and Dunn around if the team's still a 75-85 win proposition because of starting pitching issues?

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ May 15, 2012 -> 11:26 PM) You are comparing Peter Bourjos to Juan Pierre and Reggie Willits. From 2004 through today, spanning 5,328 plate appearances, Juan Pierre hit 12 home runs. That's a super sizzling rate of 444 PA/HR. If you tried to figure out Willits' career HR/PA, the world would explode. If he miraculously hit 1 tomorrow in his only plate appearance, he'd be at 1,015 PA/HR. Peter Bourjos, in 552 PAs last year, hit 12 home runs. It's not an other worldly total, but it's a hell of a lot more powerful than the 12 homers combined that Pierre and Willits have combined for in their previous 6,344 PAs. It's an absolutely terrible comparison. If there IS a comparison you can make, it's probably to someone like Carlos Gomez, but even then, I'd argue Bourjos is a better hitter. But the point remains, is DeAza/Bourjos/Rios with Viciedo as DH ever going to be as effective statistically (looking at both offense, defense and payroll dollars) as Viciedo/DeAza/Rios with Dunn as DH? The only reason I used Willits and Pierre as examples is because Juan WAS here last year and got way too many AB's in the leadoff spot and many sought to acquire Willits two or so years ago. Then, there's the actual price we would have to pay in talent to acquire Bourjos in the first place.

QUOTE (High Mileage @ May 15, 2012 -> 10:04 PM) This is also a team that starts Chris Getz/Yuniesky Betancourt, Brayan Pena/Humberto Quintero every day. Melky Cabrera was huge for us last year, and he's still hitting in San Francisco. I was sad to see him go, especially for one year of Sanchez, who has been s***ty and is now on the DL. I've never been sold on Cain. Time will tell. Alex Gordon also got off to a terrible start. Francoeur looks like pre-'11 Failcoeur so far. His time with the Royals is running out, Wil Myers be in the big leauges this year. He's been playing all three outfield positions, as well as 1st and 3rd. The Royals drafted him as a catcher. The 21 year old is crushing Double-A with a .346/.419/1.165 line, 11 doubles and 13 homers in 34 games. I'm pretty happy to be 15-20 overall and 12-5 since the losing streak. Except they just signed Francouer to that contract extension through 2013 last summer. Doubt they'll start pondering the eating of that contract until next June/July. Plus, Cain being out for the next couple of months gives them a chance to look at Dyson. The problem is that they really won't know what they have in Cain if he only ends up playing half a season, and it's done while recovering from a serious injury for an outfielder.

With Robertson out now, it would be a good chance to market some of our relief pitchers to the Yankees again.

The problem with Bourjos is the same one we had with Juan Pierre taking up 600-700 at-bats, or we would have had with Reggie Willits, too. You can have ONE hitter in your outfield like that when you play 81 games at USCF. However, as the 8 run debacle proved today, once it heats up in the summertime, games are won at our park by 3 run homers. Speed and defensive ability helps, but not enough to offset fly ball pitchers unless those aforementioned outfielders have 40+ " vertical leaps and can rob numerous home run balls at the fence.

Uh-oh. Jared Mitchell 0 for 4, 3 K's. Let's hope he rebounds from here instead of continuing his free-fall. Gut check time.

And a SOX team that's one game away from being caught by a Royals team without Salvador Perez, Lorenzo Cain, Danny Duffy, Joakim Soria and their best hitter being mired at .176 in Hosmer. The same team which beat us up at home and are in the process of taking two in a row at the Ballpark in Arlington.

QUOTE (GREEDY @ May 15, 2012 -> 08:38 PM) I can't remember the last time a 25 year old player with this kind of talent has been this "available". Local dude, only 740 career at-bats, and he has a Jacoby Ellsbury circa 2011 skill set. But because Kenny Williams currently employs three everyday designated hitters, there really isn't an outfield spot for Bourjos. It is a shame because he is going to be a better player than anyone in our organization. At least the Sox aren't blocking him with Vernon Wells. Let's say the White Sox did acquire him, who are you going to bench to play him? He's a career .249 hitter with a 712 OPS and 33 steals in those 740 at-bats. Is that clearly better than what DeAza's been providing? No way. Yes, Bourjos is younger, 25, and he's a local Chicago product, but you're not going to see Alex Rios benched, so that means Viciedo will sit. In which case you're going to have an outfield with VERY limited power numbers at USCF, on a team where you're getting almost no pop at 3B, SS and 2B. The only thing that would make sense would be to trade Dunn, make Viciedo the full-time DH and then you'd have Bourjos, DeAza and Rios as your starting OF, but is that the kind of outfield that you can build a pennant winner around? Definitely, the defense would be much improved with Bourjos in CF, DeAza in LF and Rios in RF.

Looks like the Royals prophecies of Greg are close to coming true. After tonight's victory over the Rangers (two in a row in Arlington), they'll only be one game behind the Sox in the standings. They've done all this despite: 1) Losing 12 games in a row at one point 2) Losing 10 consecutive home games, and sporting a cumulative 4-11 home record 3) Losing Soria for the season 4) Having Eric Hosmer with just a .176 BA 5) Losing Danny Duffy for the entire season 6) Losing projected starting catcher and long-term contract extension signee Salvador Perez 7) Losing projected CFer Lorenzo Cain (Greinke trade) to a torn hip flexor It would be the White Sox equivalent of losing Chris Sale, AJ, DeAza and Addison Reed.

Santana trade Young for Garza/Bartlett Hardy trade to Orioles Ramos for Capps Signing Nishioka didn't help matters much, either. And gutting 75% of the bullpen from 2010 (Rauch, Guerrier and all their lefties) and having no good internal candidates to replace them. Train wrecks at 2B/SS/3B over the last couple of seasons. Traded Delmon Young to divisional competitor. Revere and Valencia fell flat compared to the impacts they needed out of both those youngsters. They couldn't afford Nathan and had to stubbornly hold onto Capps to justify the Wilson Ramos trade. Then you have the albatross contracts of Morneau, Liriano and Mauer, to name a few. Letting Kubel and Cudddyer go....Terry Ryan did find a great replacement (so far) in Willingham, but they're an abysmal 10-26 and have the worst record in baseball now.

QUOTE (Marty34 @ May 15, 2012 -> 09:06 PM) As far as team needs go, my order would be: 1.) top of rotation starter 2.) #3 hitter 3.) mid rotation starter 4.) CF'er/3B (tie) 1) Chris Sale 2) not in the budget for now 3) Santiago/Molina/Castro/Axelrod/Hernandez 4) Jared Mitchell / trade (Thornton, Crain)

“I’ve been in jams all year. I just have to make a pitch to get us out of the inning there and try to leave with a lead,” Peavy said. “I put Will (Ohman) in a tough situation having to face a couple of righties. ... I just don’t know what to say. It was ugly. I let my emotions get the best out of me. I take full responsibility for letting the inning get to where it got and the bullpen had trouble keeping it where it was. It was just a bad loss. ... when you get that many runs and you don’t walk away with a team win, it’s disgusting.” freep.com/sports

QUOTE (Marty34 @ May 15, 2012 -> 07:46 PM) Rios is a better CF'er than De Aza. The White Sox would be a better team switching Rios to CF and De Aza to RF. The beauty of this move is it costs no money and blocks no prospects. Once again, how many games did you actually watch Rios play CF last year? Your definitive statement which doesn't have any quantifiable or anecdotal evidence behind it doesn't pass any logical test. Not to mention the fact 1) Rios doesn't want to play CF and 2) there are zero guarantees he wouldn't go into an offensive funk if you made that move. Viciedo has the best RF arm on the team. DeAza's arm is pretty weak and he's not used to playing RF, so you're basically going to have to move all three outfielders around for a negligible defensive improvement (at best) which will probably be more than cancelled out by offensive falloff from Rios, based on past history.

QUOTE (Harry Chappas @ May 15, 2012 -> 08:10 PM) Mc = mount Carmel school run by the carmelites So mcgrad went to Mt. Carmel, but his "spiritual education" doesn't seem to have rubbed off on him positively?

Quintana having a great two weeks, both at the major and minor league level. Jaye had a so-so start.