caulfield12

Therein lies the beauty of this season. There's just no reason not to give Viciedo, DeAza, Morel and Beckham at least a full four months to prove they're major league regulars and part of the future, or spare parts/complimentary pieces/bench players/waiver wire bait. Viciedo, of course, is going to get a lot more rope. We simply don't have any impact hitters in the minor leagues...you have to reach all the way down to Trayce Thompson or maybe Mitchell if he has a great year in Birmingham.

I'd say the odds are about even if you ask which will come first, another Woods major or another Sox AL Central title... Adam Dunn is back (hopefully) Addison Reed looks as good as promised Dayan Viciedo has been hitting the last 10 days Paulie Konerko continues to be a hitting machine John Danks went into the AL pennant winner's home yard and would have left with the score tied if not for some defensive wobbles behind him Alexei Ramirez actually had a hit in early April. As far as the Masters go, might as well be Rory McIlroy's official golf coronation.

“And by no means is this a knock against [former manager] Ozzie [Guillen], [bench coach] Joey [Cora], [pitcher Mark] Buehrle, anybody, but it was an energetic dugout, a positive dugout with positive players. On the field, in the dugout, a lot of energy, playing until the last out. We simply got beat [Friday]. If we can maintain this over the summer, this should be a good, fun summer.’’ Then Danks added, “No excuses.’’ There it is. Forget “Appreciate the Game.’’ Sox baseball 2012 is about “No excuses.’’ No fingers to point, no distractions to blame, no Twitter accounts to “unfollow.’’ This is about the talent collected by general manager Ken Williams the last few seasons and if it is good enough to sprint with the best of the American League. By September, expect the answer to be a big, glaring no. Still too many free swingers, still not enough clutch hitters and still too many bobbled balls at the most inopportune times. Sox players will learn that they can escape blaming others, but they can’t escape the talent that stares back at them in the mirror. It’s a .500 ship with an iceberg awaiting it in Motown. Or maybe that’s just Prince Fielder taking a dip. “I wouldn’t make any predictions on, ‘Hey, if we’re going to do our thing, we’re going to measure up or make the playoffs,’ ” Paul Konerko said. “If we go out and do things the right way, with our talent, we’re going to be in the mix. Where that takes us, I don’t know, but we’re going to be there later in the season if we compete correctly and everyone is going about it the right way. I just don’t think it will be right to say anything more than that. “There are a lot of good teams out there, and you have to respect what they have done and what they have.’’ What the Sox had in the loss to the Rangers were seven men left on base and 13 strikeouts. They also had a new poster child for days gone wrong in third baseman Brent Morel. A bobbled ball that led to a run, an error and four strikeouts. That’s what happens when a team is forced to jam a bottom-of-the-order talent into the No. 2 hole. But again, that’s just an excuse. The Sox are all out of those. http://www.suntimes.com/mobile/11757365-46...-on-talent.html

QUOTE (JoeCoolMan24 @ Apr 7, 2012 -> 12:41 AM) Beckham and Morel projected better in the #2 hole than any other players on this team. The problem is "profile" and whether they can actually be counted on to produce in that spot, 2 entirely different things. Morel struggled there quite a bit last season, and it took him out of his "normal" offensive game. So many bad breaks in that game yesterday, but you make your own breaks too, especially on the road against the 2-time defending AL champions: 1) Horrible strike 3 called punchouts of Beckham and Viciedo with RISP that weren't even close (thanks, Winters) 2) The ball that Josh Hamilton fielded off the bat of AJ in RCF that he miraculously stabbed off the bounce and caught, which would have led to another Sox run and AJ on 2nd or possibly 3rd 3) Rangers playing the perfect defense in the late innings, no doubles/prevent....Dunn just crushed a ball down the 1B line right into the glove Pitching coach Don Cooper said a closer-by-committee approach is not an option. Yesterday, SunTimes quote.

QUOTE (danman31 @ Apr 7, 2012 -> 02:22 AM) Is Nate Jones really something to aspire to? Just because the Sox gave him a roster spot doesn't mean he still isn't a mediocre pitcher. I have a hard time seeing Keenyn Walker doing anything, but the only one of the three that I think has any future is Thompson. I just hope Thompson can make it. For some reason, physically, he reminds me of Alex Rios. Such a large base when he's hitting. And as he fills out, he might have to move to one of the corner spots. If he can play a legit CF at the big league level, then we really have something along the lines of what Alex Rios was SUPPOSED to do for us, maybe upper 20's in homers, upside low 30's. Heck, anything above 20 would be great, right? From watching Mitchell all throughout ST, I think he has turned a corner in his recovery and he's now starting to trust his God-given athletic instincts again instead of playing a bit tentatively and feeling his way through the game. As far as Jones goes, we'll just have to wait and see. Maybe he's nothing more than Adam Russell or Aaron Poreda or whoever, but we do now have 9 homegrown players on our major league roster, probably the most we've ever had during the KW era.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/baseb...0,2757505.story Speculation about Crain or Santiago being named the closer. "You try to have the days where everything is perfect more than the ones like this, but it's a 162-game fight," Morel said in front of a crowd of reporters. "I lost the first one but am looking forward to (Saturday)." Lewis' array of darting pitches caused the Sox to chase balls out of the strike zone. Morel became the first Sox third baseman to go 0-for-4 with four strikeouts since Herbert Perry on Sept. 20, 2001, but he seemed more disappointed for his inability to start the double play. "Defense is really something that I take pride in to really try to help the team, and it's something I feel I can control better than hitting," Morel said. "It's hard not to take (offensive struggles) out there, but I try to do the best I can."

Jefferson Olacio, we need one of our homegrown Latin prospects to turn out, sooner or later. Plus, he's a lefty. Jeff Soptic, could be another Nathan Jones. Although both of those guys are already on the radar to an extent. Feeling much more confident about Mitchell and Thompson than K. Walker at this point. Although there are grave doubts whether Mitchell can ever be a solution at leadoff hitter. Would like to see progress with walks/OBP, stealing bases and obviously cutting down the K ratio. Josh Phegley, maybe, as the darkhose candidate to win the catching position next year over Flowers.

Was trying to post this into the last game thread but it just archived. As far as the #2 hitter, our choices are AJ and Ramirez. That's it, nobody else profiles well up there. You could theoretically stick Fukudome up there if he was to start sharing time with Rios. Lillibridge is probably better at leadoff or down in the line-up. He strikes out too much for the 2 hole, unless he can learn to tighten up his swing with 2 strikes. Morel's approach in the game yesterday was the opposite of the way he started last year. Intead of looking just to make contact and hit the ball up the middle and to RF, he's pulling his head off and pull happy. No way he could make contact with anything on the outside of the plate or off the plate, especially a breaking ball or offspeed pitch.

Santiago's definitely one of the top 3 candidates for the rotation next year. We have to replace Peavy and Floyd. Theoretically, at this point: 1) Molina (based on projections) 2) Santiago 3) Stewart OR Axelrod (whichever remains a starter) 4) Simon Castro 5) Doyle 6) Shirek 7) darkhorse candidate who emerges from A ball, probably Petricka or Jefferson Olacio

Let's face it, one of those 42 games per season that could have gone either way. You just want to get at least 1/3 in Texas and hopefully 2/3 or 1/3 in CLE, as long as you don't start the season 0-6 or 1-5. The Rangers weren't in the World Series the last two years for no reason. Lewis is a very crafty pitcher, he had our hitters behind all game long, second-guessing themselves, throwing first pitch strikes, taking pitches they should have swung at and swinging at pitcher's pitches. That's what a good pitcher does. He doesn't throw more than 89-91, but he definitely knows how to pitch, a poor man's Greg Maddux.

Billy Wagner says hello. But yeah, there haven't been so many of them. John Franco, Jesse Orosco, Tug McGraw, Sparky Lyle, former Sox pitcher Wilbur Wood, BJ Ryan, Brian Fuentes, etc.

QUOTE (The Ginger Kid @ Apr 6, 2012 -> 03:03 PM) 4 K's and an error that led to the go ahead run? Good to get your worst day out of the way early. The first one wasn't an error, but it did allow Hamilton to get to 2nd base. Beltre was out at first, but Young followed with the hit to give them the 3-2 lead.

Despite his ST success, Escobar's probably never going to have the stick to be more than a super-utility guy. Just going on his minor league track record. If he becomes the equivalent of Jose Oquendo or Joe McEwing, that would be great. If we're ever going to replace Morel, it's going to be with Lillibridge or McPherson (if he's still with the organization, not sure).

When you have the luxury of using Addison Reed in the 7th inning, and it's the first game of the season, it's the right decision. And not just because it actually worked, but we have a deep bullpen for a reason. You can argue that Fukudome should have been PH for Rios, but it's a bit early to undermine the confidence of what has to be one of our most important players in Rios, whether we like it or not. The real question will be how much rope Ventura will give to an Alex Rios before he starts PHing for him.

QUOTE (fathom @ Apr 6, 2012 -> 02:37 PM) IT IS! When did people get the idea that the Sox are actually trying to contend this year? KW doesn't make the trades that he did and then not bring in free agents to play a key role if he was trying to get this team into the 2012 postseason. Opening Day, there's always the HOPE/FAITH that we can actually surprise when we're huge underdogs coming into a season, or flying under the radar. But that's about it, blind fan optimism, nothing else.

Typical ending against Joe Nathan. Thanks Gordon and Brent for not giving us much confidence (again) that you'll ever be major league regulars because of your hitting woes. Well, on the bright side, maybe Adam Dunn can be productive again, and Lillibridge can cover for one of Rios/Morel/Beckham, but that just leaves this season as a developmental one. Hopefully, at least one of Beckham/Morel can have a good season offensively.

QUOTE (Reddy @ Apr 6, 2012 -> 02:23 PM) thank you. It's more the lack of execution, those dreaded little things, that's frustrating. If they were just getting beaten, that would be one thing. Not getting Viciedo over to 3rd, not hitting with RISP, DeAza getting thrown out stealing with Dunn/Konerko coming up, Morel getting eaten up a couple of times by that super-fast infield when supposedly he's our best fielder after Ramirez. The Rangers have played better fundamentally and they responded quickly when we tied the game. And their bullpen is one of the better ones in the game. But we'll see about Nathan. And moral victories this season will get old if Beckham, Rios and Morel look this bad on a consistent basis again.

QUOTE (Reddy @ Apr 6, 2012 -> 02:21 PM) I'd say Mike Winters #1, Brent Morel #2 Rios might be a close 3rd. So not only the four K's, but the ball that ate him up allowing the 3rd run to score, another error this inning...and striking out with Viciedo on 3rd, although that's more on Beckham and DeAza for watching 5 strikes fly by without even swinging once.

QUOTE (fathom @ Apr 6, 2012 -> 02:18 PM) To me, the league realized he has no plate coverage and knows he can't do anything with a pitch on the outer half. Teams should never, ever throw a pitch on the inner half to him, as that's his only chance to be dangerous at the plate. Hawk kept talking during ST about how good he looked, but whenever I saw him bat, he was hitting pop ups off the end of the bat. DJ said the same thing, and yet the guy had an OPS around 600 in spring training. I guess the "institutional" story is that he's taking a different approach and going up the middle more often, working hard with Manto, blah blah blah, but he still hits more weak fly balls to RF than Frank Thomas and Joe Crede combined.

What's that now, 0 for 7 with RISP? Morel is having an all-time horrible game. At least Beckham had cheap hit to RF, even though he was overmatched most of the game and perhaps had the worst AB of the game when he had an early chance to get Viciedo to 3B with one out. And Alex Rios still sucks. Reed looked great at least.

And Rios supposedly has more value (in trade) as a RFer than a LFer. If Rios even keeps his job for the whole season.

Santiago's definitely still in the mix, too. In fact, lots of roto league articles are popping up around the net with that exact speculation.

Well, the fact that we're pretty clearly one of the perennial 5 worst teams in terms of drafted talent...but have a top 5 record in baseball for most stretches of the 90's through today, says something about the jobs that our GM's have done during that time stretch, particularly the last 10-12 years. It's not like we can say the $100+ million payrolls from 2006-2011 really were primary reasons we had winning teams, although that also certainly hasn't hurt, either. We've just not allocated our money as efficiently ever since 2005.

No relation to Jose Can You See (Offerman)? That's the dude from THE OFFICE, right? At first, I thought it (Craig Robinson) was going to be Michelle Obama's brother who coaches BB at Oregon State, I think.

Even though it's NSFW, it reminded me of the SI Swimsuit issue and how tame that used to be, compared to now. Especially with that whole body-painting trend, which seems to give license to nearly any woman to be sort of provocative and "artistic" without being completely slutty...if you think of all the female athletes who've gone this route for pictures in the last decade. See-through (I was surprised by THAT look in one of the pictures) is definitely tacky, comparatively. I think the same 3 girls must have changed into 5 different outfits or more during the course of the night.