caulfield12

QUOTE (Eminor3rd @ Jan 12, 2012 -> 06:15 PM) I have seen nothing to make me believe Lillibridge can play competently in the infield. SS, that ship has already sailed. But it was his natural position in the Braves' system after coming out of Washington. Based on athleticism and arm strength, 2B should be a position of advantage defensively and 3B just "so-so." It took Gordon some time to adjust as well before becoming one of the best defenders in the game last year. Same with Morel's progression throughout the season.

Except arguably Cespedes is the best player (along with Gourriel) to come out of Cuba in this current generation of players. DeAza was a waiver claim, largely due to injury/depth issues with the Marlins, but cheaply available nonetheless. At the least, Cespedes will get around $20-25 million. And we've seen some guesses for $50-60 million on the top side of the range. Nobody would have given Alejandro $1 million+ guaranteed when he left Florida, or a major league contract. He was claimed October 20th, 2009. Many teams in the majors passed on him, presumably.

Realistically, the only player who really could play 2B and clearly outproduce him offensively (based on 2011) is probably Brent Lillibridge. Despite Marty's please, we can't trade Alexei and move Brent to SS. But playing everyday at 2B might be his ultimate destination. If only we could have 100% confidence in Rios and, to a lesser extent, DeAza. That lack of depth is another reason (besides his clear inability to stick at 3B) that has had Viciedo moving all over the diamond...but we put Gordon Beckham through the same process, and one wonders if 2 position changes didn't do a number on him? Certainly, it couldn't have helped.

Cue Borat segment...the one with the cockroaches or "running of the Jew."

QUOTE (pittshoganerkoff @ Jan 12, 2012 -> 02:53 PM) That game was definitely a conspiracy to make Ozzie look bad and begin pushing him towards Miami. Pierre and Thornton were seen talking to each other the day before where it was reported Pierre said the words "ball" and "drop". Although no one could confirm the two words were uttered in the same sentence or even within the same few minutes, there's no doubt that it was the beginning of the end for Ozzie. The former manager was reportedly so upset by the happenings that he quit several months later and went to Miami. Darn you, Pennington!!! I think that was the game...A's? There were too many in that 4-18 stretch to count. At any rate, WHY WHY WHY haven't the Marlins signed Juan Pierre yet? What gives? Rowand was bad enough, but...just saying. I am waiting for the "Rowand Watch" when his career is rejuvenated and he single-handedly wins the NL East with his mythical "staring death in the face and not blinking" defensive abilities.

Let the open bullpen competition begin. Last couple of ST's with Ozzie were so boring and non-productive. For once, can we play well and take winning a bit more seriously so that we "hit the ground" running right out of the gate? (I know, I know, if Pierre/Thornton don't conspire to blow Game 8, the entire season would have ended up differently...don't blame OZZIE!!!)

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Jan 12, 2012 -> 02:49 PM) +1'ing him is like giving Bernie Madoff a recommendation. Actually, no, that's giving McGrad too much credit. I read about 3 lines of his post. All he does, and all he's ever done, is rip Reinsdorf. Jerry Reinsdorf could find a way to both spend more AND less money on the White Sox, win a World Series, find a cure for pancreatic cancer, and McGrad would still find something wrong with him. The fact that I am criticizing him right now, "behind" his "bac,k" is something he would blame on Jerry Reinsdorf. Don't +1 him again. Please. +1, or should it be -2?

Diamonds are forever: the business of baseball 作者：Paul M. Sommers Try this one...I think you can find extracts/PDF pages or a file by doing a GOOGLE search. http://www.amazon.com/Baseball-Billions-Pr.../ref=pd_sim_b_1 The problem is these books were written in 1992/94. I wonder, with all the Yalies and QUANTS now studying the game, influx of IVY Leaguer-educated front office guys, the DiPodestas and SABR community, if something like this hasn't been written and distributed internally throughout front offices by the Commissioner's Office but the majority of the public hasn't been offered access to it...or something from Bill James' Red Sox research staff or when he was putting together that preseason Baseball Almanac with projections every year.

With the exception of Greg Maddux, wouldn't we say the Braves' model for most of their 14 year run was based on this principle, particularly for position prospects... You think of all those guys like Andruw Jones, Chipper Jones, Javier Lopez...of course, the first group with Pendleton and Sid Bream (FA's), but for the majority of the roster, they were youngsters beginning to peak and get over the hump (Glavine, Smoltz, Avery) all at the same time. Then there was the acquisition of Smoltz from the Tigers, aka Grand Theft HOF Arm. Or if you think of those Indians powerhouses of the 90's/early 00's, same thing, with a few exceptions (Vizquel/Felix Fermin trade)...or even the second wave with the Indians that was fully torn apart with the trades of Sabathia, Lee, Victor Martinez, Peralta, Blake, etc. Pretty much the only one left still hanging now is Grady Sizemore.

QUOTE (YASNY @ Jan 12, 2012 -> 11:41 AM) I see the thread title and then see that it is 8 pages long. My reaction is WTF? I think the thread count for the recent KW "inquisition" was a bit more ridiculous.

Then, by that measure, Alejandro DeAza should have an open competition with Lillibridge for the starting job/leadoff role in LF/CF. Because Alej pretty much sucked this winter in 100+ AB's.

So what's the most accurate information out there, age 26-30? There's strong reason to believe he's 29 or 30, it obviously becomes a MUCH MUCH higher risk...26, okay, he hits his prime in the majors at 27-30. But not if he's already right on the cusp of that age as of now.

QUOTE (Milkman delivers @ Jan 11, 2012 -> 08:15 PM) Mongolia? I will have to go to Ulan Bator or whatever the name of it...and try the BBQ.

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Jan 11, 2012 -> 06:33 PM) Everyone would like more money to spend, but to me the biggest problem with the farm system is our amateur scouts don't know what a good hitter looks like. Chris Carter/Quentin B. Allen Michael Morse Ordonez Lee Durham Crede Rowand Beckham was a great hitter at UGA and his first year with us, until fading at the end Alexei Ramirez Dayan Viciedo Jeremy Reed Jeff Abbott was a great hitter in college/minors, like J. Reed Chris Young Morel has the ability to stick around for 5+ years It's not like the White Sox system can't produce any hitters. The big misses on Fields/Anderson/Borchard are partly what have created that perception.

QUOTE (gatnom @ Jan 11, 2012 -> 05:45 PM) You're completely ignoring an entire dimension of evaluation. Is a farm system that produces 10 Nick Puntos better than a farm system that produces, say, 5 John Danks? Hell, I'd rather have 1 Albert Pujols than 10 Nick Puntos. The ideal farm system would produce a large quantity of high quality players, not just one or the other. But who would win a fight between Pujols, Mike Ditka, 10 Nick Puntos and a hurricane? (old SNL reference....Chris Farley)

QUOTE (YASNY @ Jan 11, 2012 -> 03:13 PM) No pressure. Just hit hit it once a week until 'mission accomplished'. Many men have been in worse predicaments. Unfortunately, I have to see my Filipinas this weekend, haha. Looking forward to the white sand beaches...and to seeing Kuala Lumpur/Malaysia and Singapore for the first time. Can cross every Asian country off my bucket list (which also includes going to the observation deck of the 10 tallest buildings in the world, Petronas Towers will be 7, somehow I have to get to Dubai and Mecca for the top 2) except for the compelling vacation locales Myanmar and Bangladesh. I guess technically Bhutan, Brunei, Nepal (was on the Tibet side of Mount Everest) and India count, too. Next "big trip" will be India or Australia, perhaps Egypt if things cool down there a bit more. Japan in October. So sadly, will have to wait for Round 2 beginning of February, as needed.

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Jan 11, 2012 -> 03:22 PM) ColombianCupid.com popped up on the ad banner this time. (Warning/disclaimer, the following tangent is not intended to completely derail the thread but posted merely for entertainment purposes in the dead of winter when fake Gavin Floyd trade rumors and Straw Man Arguments over KW are all that are left to entertain now that college bowl season is mercifully over). You would not believe how hot Sofia Vergara was as a blonde at age 20-25. I used to watch her on UNIVISION, there was a show called FUERA DE SERIE that came out with a new program nearly every weekend. Shakira. Esperanza Gomez (google is your friend). If you ever get a chance to go on vacation there (either the Caribbean Coast or Bogota/Cali/Medellin), it's the most beautiful country (overall) that I've ever been in...and it's really not as dangerous as Mexico, Thailand or Russia, not even close. My one year teaching there might have been the most fun I've had in my entire life. Just make sure you like futbol, dancing and drinking/fiestas (in no particular order). Would like to see J4L's recap posts after six weeks spent in Colombia, Venezuela, Brazil and Argentina.

Pretty soon, we're going to need some good nicknames for these guys. We have Marinez, Oswaldo Martinez and now another Martinez. Not to mention Carlos Martinez's son (I think still with us?)

Prime example, there was a lot of moaning and complaining when Aaron Miles was traded for Juan Uribe. Many Sox followers actually had gotten to know Aaron personally (a little bit like the Chris Getz fans, Jeremy Reed, Anderson, Rowand and Crede, etc.) and were huge supporters of his because of their "rooting for him" to succeed and make it with the Sox. You would have thought we'd traded away a future 7 time All-Star. And yet Juan Uribe, after Jose Contreras, was probably one of the five or six most important components of our winning a World Series in 2005. The point is...over time, there are always 2-3 players (Tyler Kuhn and Doyle more recently, CJ Retherford before, Maurice Gartrell, another AA/AAA outfielder whose name eludes me, Cook maybe?) who put up very good minor league numbers and yet have about a 3-5% chance to stick in the majors. Having worked in minor league baseball, the allure of the purity of the game and the real connections you can make with some of your favorites...well, there's nothing like that experience at a big league ballpark. In the end, the minor leagues tend to get romanticized...this has never been KW's philosophy, it has always been 95% about the results with the big league club, with the ill-fated Hudson/E. Jackson trade being the most prominent example. In the end, it's exciting for the fans to have something to look forward to in the future...and I remember even at my age being excited in 2009 just to listen to the Barons games when they had that incredible array of offensive firepower the first 2 months of the season. But where are all those guys now? We know about Viciedo, Danks, Beckham, Allen and Flowers, but the reality is that most prospects bust somewhere along the way...or they go "poof" like Borchard/Anderson/Fields, even after experiencing some limited success (particularly in Josh's case). In the end, finding young/projectable starting pitching seems to be the key...and they're going after that. But the dearth of impact position players in the system has been a concern for seemingly 15 years now. Part of the problem is that we were cut off from almost all of the DR and Venezuela for most of that time, so we lost out on a lot of talented ballplayers, particularly at the high skill positions such as middle infield and CF.

Why does it FEEL like Paddy is having more of an impact than Hahn? Molina, the Frasor trade, the rumored Floyd deal, this signing...now, if we can only start to finally see some progress again in the DR. Pretty sure Jesus Pena was the last one to come out of there, and that was seemingly ages ago. Just joking Rickster, surely the Danks deal was 75-80% your doing, and Danks' agent. And, to feel better, we should accept the idea this signing now pushed us past the Indians and Marlins...of course, they sign Cespedes, that goes out the window. We sign Cespedes and he doesn't play in the big leagues before SEPT and we're quickly #20-25. We should certainly see progression from our starting pitching prospects...and bounceback years from Mitchell and Walker.

Yay, we have a wave of Venezuelans in the pipeline now, to go with our "Cuban Connection." Tanks, Missiles and Cespedes THE DESTROYER. We will blitzkrieg our way through the AL Central!

If you really look at it closely, we're somewhere in the middle from 1995-2011 in terms of producing players on a major league roster. Retroactively now, we have to get SOME credit for Michael Morse, at least identifying him and drafting him. Gio Gonzalez, Daniel Hudson and Chris Sale all have the ability to be front-line starters, no worse than 3's in almost every MLB rotation. So when you go back and assess all these other organizations over the last 5 years, how many have done that? Potential and actuality are 2 quite different things. Look at the Royals' list of first round draft picks for 20 years. Yes, Borchard, Anderson, Fields...all those guys failing killed us, particularly Borchard, due to the pressing need for an impact LH bat, which led to trading for Thome and Swisher, which led to... Not developing any elite minor league starters recently led to the ill-advised Hudson trade (although everyone here believed he was "CLOSE" to MLB ready, making that deal even more ironic). We all know about Beckham...but that particular pick looked like one of the best in that draft until 2011. And it wouldn't be shocking if Mitchell, Walker or Thompson...one of those 3 guys, at least, makes an impact. We always hear how the 2nd year back is the key indicator for injury comebacks. Let's just wait and see, no other choice. You also have to look at our ability to find guys like Thornton, Jenks, Santos, Humber and DeAza. How many teams have picked up 4-5 pretty high impact players for virtually nothing over that five year period? It's almost like they had another 5 #1 draft picks, if you want to look at it that way. Then you have Alexei Ramirez and Dayan Viciedo. Added on top of that is the impact Lillibridge made for us, and potentially Tyler Flowers. IMO, if Viciedo and Sale (particularly mowing down AA/AAA as a starter) were still in our system, it would have to be ranked around 18-22. We're still in bad shape in the DR and Venezuela, but it's not nearly as bleak as it was for most of 2010-11. And there's this little issue of a lot of the talent in our system (outside of starting pitching) having nowhere to go...outside of the catching position, we COULD be set at every position for at least 2012 and 2013. It's the "where would they play?" argument. At least with the bullpen shortage, there's a clear number of open spots (2 and possibly 3) and there should be a huge competition for them. It will be good to see players coming to ST with hunger and desire in their games again. Dunn/Peavy/Beckham/Rios all have a ton to prove, and the spotlight will be on Viciedo and Chris Sale as well to see exactly what they can produce.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Jan 11, 2012 -> 01:13 AM) can I help get her pregnant? You can be the back-up plan, lol. You're like the Rick Hahn in this situation. To tell the truth, I'm 42 and have never had a child or intentionally set about to have sex with the purpose of getting a woman pregnant, so it's making me a bit nervous that I have to perform "under pressure," and I don't think the odds of getting pregnant from just 1-2 times could be much more than 20-30%. The really funny thing is that I just talked to my ex in the Philippines and she doesn't want to get married but she now also wants to have a baby with me in 2013, haha. So I'm going from babyless to Philander Rodman (Dennis' dad) in the span of one week. Knock on wood/crosses fingers.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Jan 11, 2012 -> 08:31 AM) I understand why she would potentially want someone such as yourself to impregnate her (I guess...)...my question is how did you meet her and what has she wanted with you up until this point? We met through a local fitness facility's badminton club. There are over 100 members, we play from 700 pm - 900 pm every Mon/Wed/Fri. So just be careful...the next time you join a badminton club, the same thing might happen to you (or not, since there are so few of these in the US)! As far as what she wanted...I had an inkling, but was still pretty surprised, because up until about 10 days ago, she was just asking for my advice and opinion about what she should do, her various options (I said from the husband's POV, it would be VERY hard for me to accept another man sleeping with my wife and that I would probably prefer the science/tech solution despite the additional expense.)

•One scout guaranteed to ESPN.com’s Jayson Stark that at least five teams will claim Mets outfielder Fernando Martinez, who is now on waivers (Twitter link). INTEREST? We already went there with Lastings Milledge.