caulfield12

Morel at .097, Beckham at .111, the sad thing is you combine them together and they still barely surpass Dunn's .189.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Apr 17, 2012 -> 08:07 PM) Happily I was wrong about the big inning by the O's. I will say Adam Dunn is probably the worst hitter against lefties I've ever ever ever seen. My god he is bad. I won't rip Robin for batting him third, but many of you would be upset if our previous manager hit Dunn third vs. lefties. Jose Valentin at the end of his Sox career would give him a run for his money.

0/13 against LHP, right? Deja Vu, anyone? This guy pitches exactly like Bruce Chen, lol.

QUOTE (fathom @ Apr 17, 2012 -> 08:00 PM) Don't stop now Greg! Nice play by Beckham Greg reversed the "two consecutive leadoff walks lead to a run 84.5% of the time" maxim.

Needed that desperately. So much for KW's building a team around offensive fireworks theory to draw crowds. Seems like we pretty much have the exact opposite of that model now.

Don't think we should be looking to Olmedo or our "Ozzie" for help offensively! Kuhn started off white hot but he's since cooled down considerably.

The thing that would make sense (the most) about that is we don't really have any legit 3B prospects in the minors, unless you are projecting Saladino to move there instead of sticking at 3B or being moved to the other side, 2B. Saladino's bat probably projects better at 2B than 3rd, as he's not really a true power hitter, but he's developing (well, based on 2011 mostly) in that area. This is a big jump for him to AA, though, and will probably be a pretty rough year for him offensively.

Every kid could just read the Ted Williams/Charlie Lau books. Every golfer could read Tiger Woods/Golf Digest swing mechanics books, etc. Approach is ONE thing, but Gordon Beckham changing his basic swing is just not going to happen, any more than it is with Rios or Dunn. You'll see variations, little things like timing devices with the foot or the bat position, but nothing so huge. For example, Austin Jackson had his front foot in the air too much and the simple adjustment of quieting that down has totally changed him as a hitter from last season. Gordon Beckham could live 24 hours per day with Paul Konerko and it might actually make him worse. For example, if any hitter tried to copy Roberto Clemente or Frank Thomas, they would be cut by their high school team in about 2-3 weeks.

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20...lb&c_id=mlb Sometimes there are actually good or uplifting baseball stories.

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20...lb&c_id=mlb Love the paragraph four from the bottom...pure comedy! Can't wait for Cowley's exclusive, in-depth interviews from Miami. Wonder if he would have got the okay to go down there if not for the Cubs facing the Marlins?

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Apr 17, 2012 -> 08:44 AM) So, you're big plan is to develop players like Adam Dunn, Alex Rios, Paul Konerko, AJ Pierzynski, Alexei Ramirez, Alejandro De Aza? Maybe I can see this with Morel and Viciedo, but the rest of these guys are 30 or damn near it (save Gordon Brokhen). We should develop the pitchers, they are our bread and butter. I like what I'm seeing there in that regard, save I want Reed closing immediately. I haven't, however, given up on this season, but the Sox are not going to go far at the current rate they are striking out. DeAza's been around forever but he's still only 28. Clearly there are question marks about him putting up even an 800 OPS for the entire season, but 725-750 would be a HUGE improvement over what we got out of Alex Rios at that position last year. Maybe he's not a building block and he's just a stop-gap until someone like Mitchell (2013) or Trayce Thompson (2014) can be added to the outfield. There are doubts that either Mitchell or Thompson can play CF at the big league level, so having someone that can play adequate or above that a bit defensively is great. DeAza didn't cost us anything, either. You've got Flowers/Phegley for catcher....the mix of Lillibridge/Escobar/Kuhn for 2B, Morel or Saladino for 3B...but we're really not in a position for BOTH Morel AND Beckham to flop if we want to compete in 2013. OR....KW is going to have to pull off a miraculous set of trades involving AJ, Floyd, Peavy, Thornton and/or Crain to plug in those gaps. Deciding whether to keep Ramirez and/or Konerko have always been the biggest set of question marks for ownership, going forward. As Balta pointed out, even if attendance is abysmal this year, we've shed $25-30 million in payroll from last year and we're currently only deriving 25%, at most 30%, of our revenues from ticket sales. And that percentage is shrinking every year....so they're not going to be FORCED to trade Konerko unless they decide that's the best option for the franchise moving forward.

There was a rumor that Lincecum was no longer throwing a pitch....maybe his slider? and speculation that he was experiencing elbow pain. And his velocity was way down in ST and so far in the early season.

If it was Dunn, Beckham, Morel or Rios....maybe it would be more controversial. Or they were with Brian Anderson, Daniel Hudson, Brian Anderson or Brandon McCarthy. At least the starting pitchers have shown up and done their part so far this season.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Apr 17, 2012 -> 08:26 AM) I'd prefer it if AJ not just call all fastballs to right-handed hitters with Santiago pitching. Beckham should be sent down. His approach sucks. His results suck. There is nothing else to say. What can it hurt, other than his psyche, which already seems to be on life support. Morel is a f***ing disaster, but we can't send down Beckham AND Morel at the same time. Send down Gordon first and let Brent try and work through it. If he doesn't, send Morel down when you bring Beckham back up (assuming he does indeed come back up). There is nothing to be said about Rios or Dunn. Keep throwing them out there. Reed is the much better closing prospect IMO. Santiago is a nice arm, but his fastball is too straight and when he doesn't have his screwball working he cannot get right handed hitters out. I'd use Santiago as my first lefty out of the pen and replace him at closer with Reed. I'm not giving up on Zach Stewart yet. Everyone calling for his head because of last night is jumping the gun a bit. He's an idea long man for us. De Aza has now boned a play on consecutive days. I'm going to hope it's just not his week. Fielding errors in the OF are pretty rare, so he should be fine going foward. I wouldn't mind seeing him sat once in a while for Lilli though. Gotta get Lilli more at bats... 28 of last 61 baserunners have reached against him. 7.88 ERA in all games not against the Twins' AA/AAA line-up last year 90-91 MPH fastball that he can't keep down or away from the heart of the plate rocked consistently at the end of spring training let the roof completely collapse last night

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Apr 17, 2012 -> 07:49 AM) Last night's attendance was 13,732. As far as I can tell, that's the smallest crowd since early 2005. So either the Sox are gonna win it all again this year, or they have officially lost all momentum they gained from the WS title. Most sports marketing experts consider five years to the standard window when the benefits of a World Series title pretty much are expended. With multiple wins, like the Red Sox or Cardinals, over the last decade....it's a bit different in terms of sustainability. We've pretty much seen that same trend....late 2006 and 2007 killed all the momentum, we got SOME back in the 2008 but the last 3 years destroyed what was left of the fans' so-called "goodwill."

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/bobby-valenti...DZJxe78mUw5nYcB Article on Valentine's mess in BOS already....interesting, Cherington apparently wanted Dale Sveum and John Henry/ownership group wanted disciplinarian type in Valentine.

Marlins Foundation donates $150,000; Ozzie Guillen salary (around $75,000) to be given away next BY ADAM H. BEASLEY [email protected] The Marlins Foundation donated more than $150,000 to three local charities over the weekend, and the ballclub says another round of significant gifts is in store once the team decides how to best use the salary manager Ozzie Guillen lost during his five-game suspension. Before Friday’s game against the Astros, the Marlins presented a check for $50,000 to Shake-A-Leg Miami, a watersports facility for children with physical, developmental and economic challenges. A day later, they gave $100,000 to the Miracle League of Miami-Dade for the construction of a park. The Marlins Foundation also donated $4,200 to the Jackie Robinson Foundation on Sunday, 65 years to the day after Robinson broke baseball’s color barrier. These donations were in the works before Guillen’s now-infamous remarks praising Fidel Castro. Guillen later apologized for the comments, and was suspended for five games by the organization. Marlins president David Samson said last week the team will donate Guillen’s salary for those games to a yet-to-be named human rights charity. Guillen returns from suspension Tuesday and will be back in the dugout for the Marlins’ home game. Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/04/17/2752...l#storylink=cpy

I used to get angry that TSA people pulled me out of line for extra pat downs, then I realized it's always women agents. Good to see a new hitting coach in Manto has cured Dunn, Rios, Beckham and Morel. (why didn't Ozzie bring aforementioned hitting coach with him to Miami then?) No one took more blame for poor production than Ozzie, so if he got tired of taking bullets it's easy to see why. Again, for those that like to hide in caves - Coop has 90 percent of the say on how the pitching staff was, and is, handled. Maybe even more say now with Robin. Cop is like an off. Cord in football that has complete control of the playcalling. Ozzie is completely blame for 2011. Said it 100 times. He should have stuck his middle finger up to the box KW sits in and walked. Oh wait, can I get suspended for that? Find out tomorrow when I get to see all that Cuban money refuse to enter the ballpark. If Oz would have had Morel in the 2-hole this long, you people would have been screaming for his head from the stands ... all 8,000 of you. Funny, because the GM was the one getting in fights all the time. Wish he would have taken a swing at Walk like Walk told him. He would have looked funny in the Nike ad in a wheelchair. Jerry Reinsdorf wanted Walk back, he took time to think about it, Oz put his staff together his first week there. Is there anyway to unfollow myself? I can't handle all the truth I'm putting out there and want to run from it by unfollowing myself. And I would like to announce that I won a Pulitzer Prize today, but turned it down and threw a drink in their faces..... Of course they are better this season with Oz gone. But if Oz would have stayed and KW left, they would have been better, also. Tha's what everyone is missing. They needed one of them to leave because of all the problems. That doesn't mean Oz caused...the problems. Oz didn't try and embarrass Frank Thomas, Oz didn't pick a fight with Walk ..Oz didn't flip a table of food over in Oakland, Oz didn't stop paying attention to if a guy played winter ball or not (Molina)..and Oz absolutely didn't hire his "friend'' that ripped money from JR and set the franchise back in the DR for years. Santiago is about to throw a new pitch - the s***ball. You swipe the ball on the crap dripping down your leg and throw it like a splitter. And I would like to announce that I won a Pulitzer Prize today, but turned it down and threw a drink in their faces...I'm not selling out like that. Zach Stewart was better with the 80s perm look (Tears for Fears, Roland Orzabal?). Something the size of Mothra went after that foul ball..... I think I saw a crack, but I was throwing up, so couldn't tell. Meanwhile, someone check on Garfien ... his team lost, his future wife dove on the dugout for a foul ball, and he's still Garfien What Coop is really thinking: "I got dibs on the post-game food spread!'' I think it was coop trying to get back to the dugout. Miami tomorrow morning ... best for last.

Yeah, I think he plays the admiral or commander of the Western Fleet or something like that...and of course his daughter's an SI Swimsuit Cover Girl BATTLESHIP is pretty good, well, it's 100% predictable....but, unlike Michael Bay movies, you actually have SOME character development and at least care A LITTLE BIT about what happens to the various characters over the course of the film. It's the typical summer action movie, except it's the middle of April (kind of like when Iron Man 2 came out in 2010 to kick off the season early).

‘‘It was a tough night,’’ Santiago said. ‘‘That one pitch maybe changes the inning. I kind of walked off — ­ I don’t walk off unless I think it’s a strike. Then I kind of left one [a fastball] up and he got a hold of it. I have to make better pitches.’’ With his back to the wall, De Aza said he ‘‘jumped too early and took my eye off the ball.’’ The Sox are rolling the dice with three rookie relievers — Santiago, Addison Reed and Nate Jones —­ and Stewart, who is barely out of rookie school. With a 2.42 ERA and a .218 batting average against going into Monday’s game, the pen had shown no early signs of suffering because of its youth. Santiago, who viewed the ‘‘K zone’’ on television replays and saw that two of the balls called by Barrett were strikes, said he knows that comes to the territory. ‘‘Just learn from it,’’ Santiago said. ‘‘If the umpire misses a call or what, just go back and focus and make a better pitch. Just go out there tomorrow and be ready to go.’’ ‘‘It’s not the easiest job,’’ Ventura said. ‘‘I have confidence in taking him right back out there and letting him do it tomorrow night.’’ Ventura, Cooper and bullpen coach Juan Nieves knew there would be days like these with a young bullpen. ‘‘A year from now we’ll know who to count on and who not to count on,’’ Nieves said. ‘‘There was a concern [about having so many rookies], but we embraced it with open arms.’’ Sun-Times.com/sports Further signs that this year is being looked at internally as "a development/assessment" year.

We could have used someone not calling fastball after fastball to Reimold and Adam Jones.

QUOTE (whitesox901 @ Apr 17, 2012 -> 12:42 AM) Pennants aren't won in April, but they're lost in April. See 5-19 streak last April/May. From TRIB... "It’s not the easiest job. But you know, the way I look at it is how he bounces back. I have confidence in taking him right back out there and letting him do it (Tuesday) night." This was Santiago's first blown save in four chances. But he has a 6.75 ERA in four appearances. "I wasn’t expecting Hector to be perfect, but he battled," Ventura said. "That’s one of those that’s a tough loss, but we’ll bounce back. It’s one of those I think that you go through a season, you are going to have them every once in a while. You want to turn it around (Tuesday night). I still can't believe we were outdrawn by the Royals (14,039 to 13,732) last night. Maybe it's simply the fact they were playing the Tigers and Verlander was pitching, but they had just been absolutely obliterated this past weekend by the Indians. At least we had been playing pretty well. I guess it's the same old "so-so weather/April/kids not out of school/weeknight/games last too long/expensive tickets, parking and concessions/Sox fans don't believe in their team unless they're winning" thing. On the bright side, after 4 games, we're still ahead of: CINCY SD OAK KC HOU CLE Right about where we were expected to perform, 24th/25th in the majors.

QUOTE (TaylorStSox @ Apr 16, 2012 -> 11:07 PM) I don't know. I'd probably wait until May, at least, to make any changes. Or, I might wait until they have a losing record. In reality this isn't a good team and there is nothing anybody can do about it. There's no sense in getting all Jerry Manuel about it. This year is about finding some talent to salvage and try to build a good baseball team around. I hope you have some patience. You're gonna need it. And it's just not there. Reading the minor league box scores everyday, they're going to be cosmetic changes, but no real impact bats. Maybe Kuhn will get a chance at 2nd or 3rd, but he's never going to be an All-Star caliber player. Mitchell in Birmingham is about the only hitter to get excited about (in AA/AAA), and quite a few have given up on him already. Saladino, perhaps, is the other...that can fill in that 3B/2B gap. Beckham is playing so poorly that it seems impossible that he's going to fight his way through it at the major league level. And maybe Phegley as a catcher, but he and Tyler are both RH bats. Switching Mitchell for DeAza is probably more of a cosmetic change as well...it will take a long time before Mitchell's a fully-refined baseball player, and, realistically, it might never happen.

QUOTE (TaylorStSox @ Apr 16, 2012 -> 10:56 PM) You realize you just wrote a giant post with 9 pretty drastic changes after the 9th game of the season, right? 5-4, with no expectations. Let's change everything! "I love it when you over analyze." The only real dramatic change would be sending Beckham down. Stewart's surely on his way out soon. I guess if you call moving Morel down and Ramirez to the 2 spot a big change...not really.

QUOTE (justBLAZE @ Apr 16, 2012 -> 10:42 PM) Who do you call up to take Beckhams spot? Jordan Danks as 4th OFer. Lillibridge to starting 2B, or a combination of Lilly and Escobar until one or the other gets hot (depending on the pitching match-ups each day). Or if that simply is not done in sports and you merely send a guy down when he's s***ty enough. That a final warning of sorts is simply not condoned. He's absolutely aware something has got to give. Morel was a rookie last year, Gordon's had almost 3 full seasons now to prove himself. Rios and Dunn are going nowhere.