caulfield12

That was encouraging. Humber's had a knack for pitching out of jams so far this season. For a minute, maybe he thought he was still pitching for the Mets against the Dodgers. CLE and DET are both trailing by 4 runs. That's encouraging. Looks like pretty brutal weather there in Chicago. On Stranger Tides, indeed. Hawk called that Rios looper an RBI just a bit too fast there.

Maybe Beckham's homer will get him going again. Then again, he could get homer/pull happy.

If we can beat the Indians again, there might be a genuine renewal/reversal of hope by at least 50% of the bandwagon that's been lost.

QUOTE (DirtySox @ May 17, 2011 -> 10:04 AM) Royals to call up Danny Duffy. Really looking forward to seeing him pitch. Huge fan of him and Hosmer. I hope we get to see Moose & Montgomery sometime this year too. I'm pretty excited for Royals fans. http://mlb.sbnation.com/2011/5/17/2175418/...ffy-royals-news What is it with this organization? Between Greinke and Duffy, that's two guys with huge ability that wanted to quit the game. Robert Smith-itis.

http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/gameday/index.jsp?g...id=mlb#continue Merkin game write-up with lots of good quotes. And Ozzie still wants to manage in the NL and have every game be 1-0, decided on sacrifice bunts/flies, stolen bases and hitting to the right side of the field. He should trade places with Gardenhire, that style is a lot more suitable for Target Field, Safeco, Oakland Coliseum (I refuse to call it overstock.com) or PetCo.

Pretty vague about the whole Latin American situation...almost like he was trying to distance himself from any type of connection. I still don't understand why our Venezuelan situation is so poor with Ozzie as our manager. I guess there's Infante, and we have Rienzo from Brazil (where have you gone, Anderson Gomes, Paulo Orlando and Joe DiMaggio???, lol) Encouraged to hear about the progress with Jordan Danks. He might be playing himself into the discussion again for the starting LF spot. Of course, the problem there is he's blocked by Viciedo, Rios in CF and Quentin in RF. Unless Quentin's traded, but that's certainly not a foregone conclusion at this point in time. 25% chance, at best. And then there's the inevitable linking always made between him being in the organization and his brother sticking around, but that's even less likely IMO. If nothing else, he's a valuable trade chip to have around to package with some other players.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ May 18, 2011 -> 11:50 PM) They are playing a video game in real life. That's like the only way I can describe that. They lost Carl Crawford, Carlos Pena (who cares), and their entire bullpen, a member of their rotation, their starting SS, and it's no big deal. Seriously, WTF? That's the kind of s*** you pull off in OOTP, not with a major league team. The Rays are like quite literally the polar opposite of the White Sox. I'm a Sox homer - not as big as some, but more than most - so I want to clarify that and point out that I don't mean that in any negative connotation whatsoever, because both styles can work. But the Rays don't resign their free agents, they make tons of trades to bring in young players, they use the prospects within their system for their major league team and nothing else, and they build, manage, and coach their team through sabermetric philosophies. The White Sox have done, for the most part, none of those things over the past 10 years. Neither style is necessarily wrong (I think both are wrong, personally, but the Rays are forced to do so because they are not a wealthy franchise, not by choice), it's just attacking the monster with different tactics. What's most impressive is that they weathered the 0-6 start (thanks partially to the White Sox breathing life into them with that comeback win we gave away), they've been missing Longoria for most of the season, they're starting Brignac/Johnson at SS (who would both fit better on the Twins' AAA team), they lost their predicted DH in Manny Ramirez right off the bat and Jaso/catchers haven't made as much of a contribution as in the past. Not to mention that Fuld's been in a 3 week slump after his fantastic play to start the season. Pitching, pitching, pitching. And obviously the right call not to sign Soriano, the Yankees can absorb that loss, though, just like the Red Sox with Jenks. And Desmond Jennings isn't very far away at all, he just might end up having a better season than Crawford at 1/100th the cost.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ May 18, 2011 -> 12:28 AM) I hate to say it, because it's basically company line, but that's a terrible record right now. And considering that they have been playing better recently and the schedule getting easier in the coming weeks, I would venture to guess that they'll be around or above .500 at the time of the All-Star Break. I say that with a caveat of course, because the 2007 Sox were actually 24-25 at the end of May and interleague play was their undoing, as they went 4-14 against the NL that year. The Cubs and Phillies were good teams, but the Marlins, Astros, and Pirates were not, and they went 3-6 against those 3. CLE (2) LAD (3) AT TEXAS (3) AT TORONTO (4) AT BOSTON (3) DET (3) What is getting easy about that schedule? We've played horribly against Texas and Toronto the last half-decade...Cleveland's in first place and has the 2nd or 3rd best record in all of baseball, winning 1/3 in Boston is challenging enough and then we haven't beaten Detroit in months. I guess you must have meant 3 weeks from now when we finally get the Mariners at home. That's the first "easy" team in sight, and considering our home record, and that we'll probably face either Pineda or Felix, a sweep isn't something I'd be counting on. OPTIMISTICALLY, I'm HOPING they can be at 5 games below .500 after this aforementioned stretch of games.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ May 17, 2011 -> 11:08 PM) Quentin isn't a free agent. Buehrle and Jackson are likely to be Type B free agents, and odds are very good that the Sox will offer arbitration to both of them. Assuming we don't trade both of them first. I guess we'll just have to wait and see how the next 2-3 weeks play out. Cross your fingers. And are the White Sox really willing to spend a minimum of $11.2 million on Buehrle next year? The problem is that he continues to have a 3.75-4.25 ERA season, the White Sox will clearly lose in arbitration and we'd be on the hook for $12-15 million. Is this going to be a handshake deal where we offer arbitration but he goes to St. Louis for less money than he would have gotten (at minimum) from the Sox?

QUOTE (JoeCoolMan24 @ May 17, 2011 -> 06:13 PM) I'm not going to start hating on McPherson until he gives me a reason to. At this point, I'm hoping for mediocracy. Mediocrity? As opposed to the style and results of government that we've had for 30+ years, haha.

QUOTE (elrockinMT @ May 17, 2011 -> 04:44 PM) Does meaningful discussion mean that I have to see it your way? I sure understand your point and after some losses feel a lot like you do, but my head tells me that it's a long haul to the end and this team can start putting it back together. We play alot of baseball within our own division Which is the problem. The only team we've played well from our own division is the Indians, ironically enough. To imagine we're going to play well against DET (since we've lost 8 in a row), the Twins (could that happen as bad as they are when we're on a current 6-24 run there, too) and the pesky Royals is almost too much. It would mean a complete turnaround and reversal of our play the last 2 1/2 seasons against the Central, particularly the scrubby/also-ran teams at the bottom. Maybe since we're now that team on the bottom, things will change!!!

QUOTE (WHITESOXRANDY @ May 17, 2011 -> 04:42 PM) I will say this, Kenny Williams did a great job (much better than me) up until 2009. He was basically a bargain hunter and he was good at it. Then, he started going after big names and throwing around tons of money and lots of prospects and always against my judgement. Unfortunately, he's been completely wrong about PEAVY, PIERRE, TEAHEN, DUNN and JACKSON. Those were all bad moves that I was against and they all collectively have decimated this organization. It's time for a change. And Buddy Bell, who was the driving force behind the Teahen acquisition and has completely revitalized our minor league system with his mere presence, rapidly instituting a new "Sox Way" that's perpetuated itself throughout the system and resulted in incredibly rapid prospect development.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ May 17, 2011 -> 04:28 PM) Then expect extra screaming the next time Pierre makes one. Here's the thing. Juan Pierre is not part of the future of this ballclub (says this with fingers crossed for 2012). Dayan Viciedo is, and now is as good a time as any to find out. We have to be willing to accept the errors, it's part of the growing process. The main thing to me is that Viciedo has the potential to carry the team with his bat, Pierre has the potential to do what exactly? Even if he started hitting and getting on base at a higher percentage, his speed and confidence are gone. Didn't Ozzie already learn this with Pods? The greatest value Pods had the second go-around was he actually played better defense and was one of our best clutch hitters, actually. The problem with Pierre is he can't even hit a sacrifice fly and he's now starting to hit into DP's too because his speed is so diminished. Pods actually retained his burst getting down to 1B. It seems Juan has lost 2 steps there, as well.

Lillibridge will be terribly overexposed, but I can honestly say I'd rather see him playing LF and leading off for 3-4 weeks than Pierre at this point. He always hustles, he seems to truly value the opportunity to be on a major league roster the second time around and he's been a valuable contributor as a hitter after looking totally overmatched in his first go-round with us. I'm sure he would have a better stolen base % and play defense more than adequately. Doesn't matter what we think, though.

It's not the move itself. The hilariousness of "All In" just got more pronounced. If you want to look at an organization that's truly "All In," it's the Royals, who are taking a shot this year even though it might end up costing them ten of millions with Hosmer. Viciedo is a sunk cost. We're already committed to paying him $10 million plus. And it's not like we didn't see him have the ability to hit last year. He was pretty much signed TO HIT, with that as his #1 skill. Yet somehow, when we're going up against teams like TEX, CLE, the Dodgers, then hit the road against Texas, Toronto and Boston, we're supposed to be inspired that Dallas McPherson will actually contribute something positive??? It's predictable, but it sucks and I have a feeling we'll be wondering months or years from now if bringing up Viciedo earlier could have sparked the White Sox offense instead of going down in flames with the veteran Pierre.

And if they don't got 9-7 in these next 16 games and beat Detroit 2/3 in Chicago, the rest of the season is almost to the point of being irrelevant, except for jockeying for draft pick position. It has already reached that status in Minnesota.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ May 17, 2011 -> 09:29 AM) Dude there would be more astericks in this than a George Carlin concert transcript. Fine, name me any player (pitcher or hitter) in MLB history who was signed for $10+ million (at the age of 19 or above) who wasn't a major league regular by his 3rd full season? I'll just say that when you gamble that much money on a non-collegiate player, it's almost unheard of. Beckett and Porcello are the only similar situations in terms of being Dayan's age at the time of the bonus. And A-Rod. 1.Stephen Strasburg, Nationals (2009, 1st round, 1st pick): Four years, $15.1MM. $7.5MM of that makes up the largest signing bonus in draft history, and his salary is set through the 2012 season. 2.Mark Prior, Cubs (2001, 1/2): Five years, $10.5MM. Prior's contract allowed him to void the final two years of the deal and instead file for salary arbitration, which he did in 2006. Instead being paid the $2MM his contract called for that season, Prior earned $3.575MM when the two sides settled before a hearing. 3.Mark Teixeira, Rangers (2001, 1/5): Four years, $9.5MM. Teixeira's $4.5MM signing bonus was the largest ever given to a player as part of a big league deal at the time, and it stood as the record until the next player on our list was drafted. 4.David Price, Rays (2007, 1/1): Six years, $8.5MM. Price has a clause similar to Prior in his deal, allowing him to void the $1.5MM he's scheduled to make in 2012 and instead file for arbitration. The early guess is that he will indeed go that route. 5.Pat Burrell, Phillies (1998, 1/1): Five years, $8MM. Pat the Bat's deal marked the beginning of the big money era for draft picks. 6.Dustin Ackley, Mariners (2009, 1/2): Five years, $7.5MM. Ackley can also earn another $2.5MM in salary based on how quickly he reaches the big leagues. 7.Rick Porcello, Tigers (2007, 1/27): Four years, $7.285MM. Club options for the 2012 and 2013 seasons could put another $2.88MM in his pocket. 8.J.D. Drew, Cardinals (1998, 1/5): Four years, $7MM. Drew famously refused to sign with the Phillies as the second overall pick in the 1997 draft, as he and Boras stuck to their guarantee that he would not sign for less than $10MM. 9.Josh Beckett, Marlins (1999, 1/2): Four years, $7MM. Beckett was the first high school player to receive a Major League deal since Alex Rodriguez in 1993, and the first high school pitcher to get one since Van Poppel. 10.Eric Munson, Tigers (1999, 1/3): Four years, $6.75MM. The $3.5MM signing bonus was a club record until Porcello showed up. source: MLBtraderumors.com

They simply have to find out what Viciedo can do for at least 3 months this season. If Morel can put together a solid rest of the season, they theoretically won't be entirely out of it for 2012 no matter what happens the rest of this year (see 2007/2008, or 2004/2005 offseasons). Of course, that's ASSUMING that Peavy, Humber and Sale are all solid contributors to the rotation next year (along with Gavin) and that we can get decent returns for Buehrle/Jackson. Then, they'll have to decide what to do about Quentin and Danks. If they decide to trade both of them, then they might as well go ahead and try to get the best possible return on Matt Thornton, although is new contract won't make that a slam dunk unless he picks it up in terms of velocity and his offspeed stuff shows some semblance of being respected by hitters. It's pretty obvious that they can't go through yet another year with AJ as their #1 catcher if he continues to be this punchless offensively. They have the option of finding another Olivo/Molina type who's "defense first" or rolling the dice with Tyler Flowers and calling all the pitches from the dugout.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ May 17, 2011 -> 07:52 AM) I've had really bad luck googling stuff like this today. Anyway, Jose Contreras and Aroldis Chapman blew past Viciedo's contract. I'll just put it this way, there's never been a contract of $10 million plus for an unproven 19 year old where there was considerable doubt about what impact he'd have in the majors...Contreras was expected to be a star right away, and Chapman was considered "major league ready" in the minds of many scouts after seeing him in the World Baseball Classic. It was largely based on "projectability," but the raw talent was there. Considering the amount of money given to him is like 3-4 entire June FA drafts for the organization, it's an interesting risk considering we almost never go over slot in the draft itself, yet we "went over slot" in the millions of dollars in an open bidding process with every team in the majors involved.

QUOTE (ChiSox_Sonix @ May 17, 2011 -> 07:33 AM) Well that's just not true. How many players in Latin America have been signed to a guaranteed MLB contract (I won't even add "signed at age 19 or higher to their first contract"), received $10+ million dollars, and didn't (or hadn't yet) achieved a starting role in the 3rd year of their playing career? In this situation, it's basically like we "drafted" something between an advanced high school player and a seasoned SEC collegiate player and gave him one of the biggest signing bonuses in the history of the draft. It's an unusual contract and certainly "big" by most definitions.

QUOTE (Lillian @ May 17, 2011 -> 08:31 AM) We all have to remember that Ozzie can't speak as candidly about players as we can, here in a forum. He has to be supportive of his players, as long as they remain on the team. What would it accomplish to talk about J. P. the way we do? I'm confident that Ozzie and K. W. are contemplating the kind of move that we'd all like to see, but we aren't going to hear anything about it until it happens. I think when the time comes, Ozzie will spin it something like this: "We have to give this kid a chance. He's playing really well at Charlotte, and we have to find a place for him. Juan is struggling right now, so we're going to give the Tank some playing time." If Viciedo can establish himself, they probably don't care any more than we do what they do with Pierre. But in the meantime, they have to do whatever they can to try to instill confidence in Juan's psyche. I think that if we were in Ozzie's shoes, we'd do the same thing. I hope that Juan doesn't read our comments about him. That could negate anything Ozzie might say to try to bolster his confidence. You have to feel a little bad for the guy. I'm one of his biggest detractors, but you have to give him credit for being a hard working, dedicated athlete. If he fails, it sure isn't for the lack of effort. It's a shame that he just doesn't have many tools beyond his diminishing speed. If Joe Mauer read everything that was being said and whispered about him in Minnesota and let it get to him, he might never get another hit in the majors. These guys are used to dealing with criticism. They're professionals. It goes with the multi-million dollar guaranteed contracts. It's when it extends to 12-18 year olds, the recruiting and "shady agents" and criticism of basketball and football players, that's when I think it can have more of an effect by far than ANYTHING said at soxtalk or wsi or The Score or WBBM or written in the newpapers.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ May 17, 2011 -> 08:23 AM) Or without throwing out "big" contracts. Then we have to take Viciedo off the list because that was the biggest contract ever given to a non-major league ready player in MLB history. Ramirez...nobody can take that away from KW, same with Jenks and Santos.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ May 17, 2011 -> 07:46 AM) This is how it always goes with Ozzie and a kid. The kid gets 60 at bats. 75 if we're lucky. If he hasn't started hitting by then, he enters the doghouse and whatever guy Ozzie likes more starts getting all the at bats, while the young guy lingers. Which still leaves Ryan Sweeney (sort of) as the only Sox position player who's received the "Ozzie Treatment" and gone on to have success with another organization. If we can rescue failing players from other organizations, why haven't all the teams in MLB been able to fix the likes of Borchard, Fields, Anderson, Michael Morse, Jeremy Reed, Getz, etc.? It's hard not to arrive at the conclusion that they weren't that good in the first place...although some will argue we somehow messed them all up beyond repair. Doesn't their later failures with multiple organizations support Ozzie's position that they weren't good enough to play? When we brought in Alexei (and this was when he was still being compared to Ramon Santiago), Iguchi and Beckham, they played almost everyday from the beginning. Same with Quentin (albeit not quite a rookie in 2008) after Owens went down in ST. Is it not possible that Morel's just not meant to be a regular at 3B because of his lack of sufficient power (same argument as was applied to Sweeney) and that he would never would have come close to being ranked #3 in another team's sytem? We can argue Ozzie will stick with "bad" veteran players but not "bad" and unproven youngsters...?

QUOTE (JoeCoolMan24 @ May 17, 2011 -> 03:35 AM) From what I recall from last year, it took about 3-4 weeks for him to finally start clicking, and then he would tear it up until he peaked around .320 average or so. This is why I gaurenteed that Morel would have a much better May than April, but then of course he got benched about a week into May, even though he is hitting .292 in May. You don't think the shaky D has played an equal part in that? Along with the fact that Omar's been contributing something almost every game he's been in (I know, the Sunday game he made a couple of mistakes, but that happens and we still won, and Ozzie is usually pretty superstitious about breaking up a "winning/streaking" line-up).

And Dunn/Konerko were already onboard, thus no PT at DH/1B. Along with the acquisition and extension of Teahen, although it was pretty clear by mid 2010 that Teahen wasn't the long-term solution at 3B, either. But he always had the most value (by far) to the franchise if he could play an adequate 3B. I guess RF would be the next most logical, because of his arm.