caulfield12

Red Sox first five series Detroit, Blue Jays, Rays, Rangers and Yankees OUCH.

Haley Barbour?

QUOTE (Reddy @ Apr 7, 2012 -> 04:24 PM) Marty, Prince and Miggy alone today hit 4 homers. They're a good team. And Alex Avila has quietly become, mostly because of his offense, the best overall catcher in the American League.

Shouldn't the punishment be sitting against a RHP, though? Punished for what, not having Alex Rios' contract? He at least had a double yesterday and got totally jobbed on a strike 3 call that was well off the plate.

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Apr 7, 2012 -> 05:12 PM) You had the Sox possibly contending with the Tigers during spring training. You are all over the road my friend. Everybody picked the D-Backs last in the NL West coming into 2011. We'll surprise a lot of folks, but we don't have the offensive firepower to compete with them. That was also predicated on something bizarre happening, like multiple injuries to their pitching staff, particularly Verlander. Let's just put it this way. Their 9th place hitter, Ryan Raburn, was among all the MLB leaders in ST homers. He could easily put up 18-22 homers with everyday play at 2B. That would put him 3rd on the White Sox, unless Ramirez/Rios/Viciedo can top him.

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Apr 7, 2012 -> 04:58 PM) Thomas, Ordonez, and Lee were not on any of the '06-'11 teams. Wow, KW was so smart to trade Santos, he already blew another save today. Still waiting for your Alexei Ramirez/Lillibridge plan to be expanded upon. There's no reason we can't finish ahead of the Indians (thanks to the ill-advised Jimenez trade) and Twins. The Royals look like they might be tough to beat for 2nd.

Valentine and Cherington are already in trouble and it's only the 2nd game of the season. They're going to have to move Bard to the back of the pen or trade a king's ransom for Gavin Floyd. Beckett just doesn't have the crispness on his pitches that he used to...might be related to the thumb problem, but he just doesn't look right. Dating back to last year, 7-22 now. In the middle of their horrid start and ending, they were the 2006 White Sox offensively.

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Apr 7, 2012 -> 04:43 PM) What? You asked for a list of All-Stars and Silver Sluggers, all of them fit that category except perhaps Rowand. And I purposely excluded Griffey, Jr., and Vizquel, too. Oh, and Alex Rios was a 2 time All-Star with the Blue Jays. Not to mention Jake Peavy, Cy Young/All-Star.

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Apr 7, 2012 -> 04:40 PM) You are jumping to all kinds of conclusions if you think Dunn could make the Tigers starting lineup and Jared Mitchell will be anywhere near the big leagues by September. You're also misrepresenting my thoughts on Lillibridge at SS. Adam Dunn, if he plays like he did for entire career, except for one anomalous season, would be the starting DH for the Tigers. Cabrera and Fielder, while essentially DH's already, but that's not their position. Victor Martinez is out for the year, and how good he will be next season is a huge question mark. Many pitchers/positions players have shot through the Sox system very quickly, like Gordon Beckham, Brandon McCarthy and Daniel Hudson. There's no reason to believe that one year or another, we'll actually have a Mitchell or Thompson catch fire and follow a similar path. So what exactly is your position now on trading Ramirez and replacing him with Lillibridge? Who would you replace Alexei with? Surely not Escobar, Ozzie Martinez (well, unless you're in love with the name) or Saladino? What team is going to give up their "future" Alexei Ramirez for Alexei Ramirez when they could have the 20-25 year old version? You can get some nice pieces back, but you're not going to get an impact SS in all likelihood. Those trades like the Rangers pulled off for Teixiera with the Braves don't exist anymore, or the Indians for Sizemore/Phillips/Cliff Lee.

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Apr 7, 2012 -> 04:30 PM) Stacked? How many Hall of Famers, All-Stars, Silver Sluggers were on those teams? Thomas, Ordonez, Carlos Lee, Alexei Ramirez, Carlos Quentin in 2008, Paul Konerko, Joe Crede, Aaron Rowand, Jermaine Dye, Jim Thome, Adam Dunn, AJ Pierzynski, etc.

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Apr 7, 2012 -> 04:27 PM) They have no choice. Who are they going to bench these guys for if they are losing? And if they are losing it might be very well be because these guys are not the players the organization thinks they are. Lillibridge and Fukudome, for starters. You wanted Brent to be the starting SS after your often-proposed Alexei Ramirez trade. Ramirez is our one starter, along with Dunn, who could actually make the Tigers' starting line-up. Yet somehow you prefer to start someone who's proven he can't handle the position at the major league level in both ATL and Chicago. If Mitchell continues to play like he's capable of, he could easily figure into the line-up by August or September. Thompson is two years away. Saladino could also end up replacing any of the 3 infield positions. And you're forgetting what we could acquire for Floyd, Crain or Thornton (hello, Red Sox, need some bullpen help?). If Santiago's legit, then there's no reason to pay Matt his quasi-closer salary when we already have Ohman on the payroll.

QUOTE (flavum @ Apr 7, 2012 -> 04:11 PM) He is scheduled to start the Sox home opener, BTW. Might be an oblique strain on the LH side. Apparently, he (Fister) was a bit touchy going into this start. Quietly, Cespedes already has 2 homers on the Left Coast and nobody knows what the heck is going on with Jorge Soler. Royals out 4-0 over Danny Haren, who was nearly untouchable this spring.

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Apr 7, 2012 -> 04:04 PM) What does holding pattern mean when you have the worst rated farm system? Nothing when about 25 other big league teams wouldn't have a shot to beat the Tigers. It means you have to put yourself in the best possible position for 2013, 2014 and 2015. Unless they suffer major injuries to their pitching staff, nobody in our division will come within 10 games of them.

QUOTE (flavum @ Apr 7, 2012 -> 03:27 PM) I'm just assuming that the Sox best chance at the playoffs this year, as remote as they are, is to win the second wildcard over Boston, Toronto, and Tampa Bay. So Go Tigers over Boston. And at the end of the day, I'd rather have the Blue Jays in there over Boston, so again, Go Tigers. Right now, there are essentially six teams fighting for 3 spots. If Kendrys Morales is 100% again and Trumbo can play 3B effectively, the Angels are arguably better than the Rangers.

At least it couldn't be uglier than Danny Trejo, could it? Let's think of it as pretty as Jessica Alba, instead. Back to the 2009 version, I refusal to acknowledge what has become of that swing and confidence/swagger.

Ugh....DET is so good now. Besides Alexei Ramirez and the Adam Dunn of old at DH, there's probably not a single player in their line-up they would prefer to start on their team. And Peralta outhit Ramirez last year. Mike Illitch is 82 this year year, and his only goal is to win a World Series title, hence, Prince Fielder.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Apr 7, 2012 -> 01:51 PM) I don't like it. Name someone and be done with it. And Don Cooper agrees with you.

Why would you sit Viciedo against a LH pitcher? That makes absolutely no sense. He must have some type of nagging injury we don't know about. They don't want to play Lillibridge in CF? Weird. We play our three worst hitters in Morel, Beckham and Rios but sit our best young hitter, who happens to rake against LHP. Sure, makes sense.

How would Cowley write anything differently from what Ozzie's own personal PR firm would write if they bought their own column space in the SunTimes? Here in Chicago, people/companies have to pay to be mentioned in the newspaper or to be interview on t.v. Ozzies gets this service free of charge, and Joe has a job largely because of it. So to answer the question, the reason is because the columns are so predictable and expected anyone on here could write the same interpretation ourselves. The number of real/actual/legitimate stories broken by his access to the team has been very limited, due to his current stance. I'll go back to the same question. Where is the mainstream journalist who's out there attacking the Cubs for blowing two huge games in heartbreaking fashion AT HOME to the lowly Washington Nationals?

Epstein MAGIC. Perhaps a more disheartening start to the season than the White Sox last year with Pierre/Thornton blown saves. Wow. It will be really impressive if they can somehow recover from this double disaster on Opening Weekend.

Sergio Santos with blown save #1. Gives up Asdrubal Cabrera homer in the bottom of the 9th in CLE as it's now tied in extras. Marmol ripped to shreds and Cubs blow second heart-breaking game in a row. 4-2 lead at the start of the inning now 4-7 against them, Wood, Marmol and now Shawn Camp.

QUOTE (South Side Fireworks Man @ Apr 7, 2012 -> 11:44 AM) Thank you! If quitter Ozzie hadn't screwed up the team by demanding yet another unearned extension just as the Sox were fighting their way back into the pennant race, maybe the Sox wouldn't have had to let Buehrle go or dump Quentin's salary and maybe they wouldn't have been so quick to trade Santos. And to anyone who disputes that Ozzie was/is a quitter, just think back to 2005 when the Sox went through that rough stretch late in the season and Ozzie's response was to publicly declare that he just might quit after the season. The Sox turned it around in spite of Ozzie because they weren't yet sick of his act, so after the World Series win he magnanimously said he would be coming back. With the talent KW gave Ozzie over the years he should have at least produced a couple more division titles. Success breeds success, failure breeds failure. KW doesn't get a pass either, but this year he is saddled with the task of turning the team around after Ozzie f***ed it up over the past few years. Thtat's all fine and good, but we can't also blame Ozzie for Carlos' tendency to get injured at the drop of a hat, for Alex Rios/Dunn/Peavy/Beckham's 2011 seasons...virtually nobody was for signing Mark Buehrle for the same contract he received from the Marlins. Coming off a better season (in terms of wins and losses) or another successful playoff appearance, Mark might have been even more expensive to re-sign for us. In the end, they almost HAD to open up a spot for Viciedo, and they simply couldn't afford to have an outfield with Viciedo/Quentin on the corners and Rios playing CF again so uncomfortably like he did last year. None of these are Ozzie Guillen problems, they're all KW self-induced ones. Molina was all about the fact that we hadn't produced our own internal candidates for the 2013 starting rotation...which is also on KW. That's been rectified to some extent, but to imagine the likes of Stewart/Castro/Axelrod going up against the Tigers, well, not a pretty sight surely.

Who's daring to write a negative article every time the Cubs lose a game and coming down hard on Ricketts, Epstein and Hoyer? Nobody in the Chicago media right now. Not yet, at least.

QUOTE (GreatScott82 @ Apr 7, 2012 -> 10:28 AM) Yep if the current players are bad on the MLB squad, we have NOBODY to bring up from the farm who can help. And that is a terrible situation to be in. They are throwing all of there eggs in the MLB roster's basket. After this season, this team will need to shed even more salary and pretty much start from the bottom up. We need to start rebuilding the farm. Can KW even do that? I have been a huge fan of KW over the years, but his inability to build a strong farm is finally effecting the current state of the organization. We're already going to lose Peavy, AJ and Floyd. That's a pretty large chunk of salaries, right there. Then, you might also see Crain and/or Thornton moved, other than Danks/Konerko/Dunn/Rios, the majority of big salaried players are going to be off the books.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Apr 7, 2012 -> 06:38 AM) Except of course for the fact that people are trying to shuffle Morel's role after 1 game. Again. FWIW, I agree with you, but I think they would be better off leaving Morel and Beckham alone at the very bottom of the line-up, where there's zero pressure. Alternating Ramirez and AJ in the 2 hole, depending on the match-up with the opposing pitcher...might be a better idea. Brent had his greatest success when he just "let her rip" at the end of the season, and he can't do that in the 2 spot if DeAza's getting on at a good clip like he did in 2011.