caulfield12

QUOTE (Lillian @ May 12, 2011 -> 08:55 AM) There is another point here regarding something a little less tangible. When you have 4 key players under performing as badly as Pierre, Beckham, Rios and Dunn all have this season, perhaps you need to make a change just to let everyone be reminded that there is such a thing as accountability. You need Rios' defense in CF. Dunn is a big contract, and a potential force, with a very consistent long term track record. He has to be in the lineup if just by virtue of his left handed presence. Beckham has so much promise, and has shown flashes already in his young career. You can justify giving him some slack. Therefore, by process of elimination, J. P. has to sit, or be gone. Moreover, you have to consider the young player toiling in the minors, in an attempt to prove he is worthy of being promoted. What kind of signal does it send to all minor leaguers when they have to remain there even though they are doing their job, while veterans take their spot on the Big League roster, even though they "suck"? Imagine how demoralizing it would be to be putting great numbers at AAA and not be given a chance, because Juan Pierre was "untouchable" at your position. When you put it that way, it really does sound absurd, doesn't it? We're not talking Mike Stanton, Eric Hosmer and Heyward here waiting in the wings. Viciedo is still in the first 6-8 months of making yet another defensive transition (his 3rd at most recent count) and Jordan Danks was recently K'ing at a 40% clip. The White Sox would be doing Danks a disservice to promote him simply based on a hot 2-3 week time span if he's just going to end up like Brian Anderson. In some ways, we're lucky we're not the Twins. Because of the contracts for Nathan, Mauer, Morneau, Pavano and Cuddyer, they were forced to jettison JJ Hardy, Orlando Hudson, Punto, Guerrier, Rauch, Crain and Fuentes. As you can tell by glancing at their current stats (and these guys are coming from AA/AAA teams that had the worst combined winning percentage in all of baseball last year and are close again this year), none of those guys (especially in the bullpen) are close to ready. They have their Tosoni, Revere (one of their top prospects but by all reports not 100% ready defensively), Butera, Rene Rivera, Repko, Tolbert, Casilla, Hoey, Burnett, Luke Hughes, D. Hughes, etc. All of those guys are failing miserably. Of the whole group, Luke Hughes is the only one who legitimately should be in the big leagues right now. Hoey is up to justify his being one of the key components in an offseason trade. At least the White Sox have the luxury of veteran players like Teahen and Pierre and Pena/Gray protecting other prospects from being overexposed or having their confidence undermined. If this team fails and is out of the race, there'll be at least 3 months to see with Danks, Flowers, Viciedo, Escobar, Milledge (maybe) and some of the relievers like Bruney, Kinney, Lindsay, Carter, etc., can do. Lillibridge isn't a top prospect either....not since 3-4 seasons ago. No worries about setting back his career. And Vizquel provides even more insurance, with Castro.

Believe it or not, the Mets' low point last season was 5 games under .500 at 74-79 and 18 GB near the end of the season.

I'm just looking at getting out of the month of May around 6 games under .500. That means we still have to go 11-9 over the next 20 games. (As Balta I think noted, the Rangers have been struggling recently but they've been REALLY tough on the Sox for the last 5 years, almost as tough as TOR and OAK) If we can figure out a way to beat DET this season, and take out the Mariners, we could be fairly close to .500 by mid-May. I always go back to 2003 when both the Sox and Twins trailed the Royals by 6.5-7 games at the Break and quickly made that up by the beginning of August. So I'll set the "competitive" mark as being within 7.5 games at the All-Star break and no more than 2-4 games under .500

Only 16!!! I think this might be the first time in recent MLB history that a team with a $100+ million dollary payroll was sitting on the same number of victories for the season as games back in the standings already on May 11th. That at-bat by Valencia was among the myriad things eating at manager Ron Gardenhire. "Man on second, doesn't get him over, flips a weak fly ball," Gardenhire said. "That's not good enough. That's not how we play. And [he's like], 'I'm trying.' "OK, you are trying. Get it done. That's how we have to do it. Get it done because I'm tired of 'trying.'" Gardenhire said he would have preferred a ground ball to the right side of the infield. It's the little things the manager wants. He's not asking everyone to be Kubel. www.startribune.com/sports Another amazing stat. Without Kubel added to the team offensive stats, they're at a .219 BA and something like a 270-280 OBP. Only 3 games all season with five or more runs scored (including the loss last night, which included a blown save in the 8th and a blown tie game in the top of the 9th).

QUOTE (Lillian @ May 12, 2011 -> 05:58 AM) I'm not convinced that he couldn't handle the "hot corner", but if you're right, why not consider letting either Beckham or Vizquel play 3RD? Lillibridge could certainly handle Second. You understand that the motive in all of this is to get Viciedo in the lineup. Don't you think that lowest defensive liability would result from putting Viciedo in RF and Lillibridge in the infield? Maybe. But Ozzie almost always has preferred going with the steady, veteran hand. In this case, he'll defer to Omar Vizquel first. There's just no way with Beckham struggling again offensively and seemingly having adapted to playing an above average MLB 2B that they'll move him again. If you put Viciedo in LF, you're also changing Quentin away from a position he's finally grown comfortable playing. Probably not the wisest idea to do that in the middle of the season, it's more of an off-season move that you prefer him for mentally. If Quentin was also struggling offensively, I'd take a chance and think about moving him to LF, but not at this point in the season. Heck, they might be more likely to stick Dunn in LF and DH Viciedo than they would be to move both Quentin and Beckham again.

Because Lillibridge would be overexposed as a starter, and he's hardly ever played 3B in his career. http://www.thebaseballcube.com/profile.asp...llibridge.shtml In fact, he's NEVER played 3B in his life that I can see as a starter. Only SS, 2B and CF. His career at the University of Washington, he spent a lot of time in the outfield but none at hot corner. The White Sox aren't going to risk this kind of grasping for straws move with a $128 milllion payroll. Ozzie will stick with Pierre. You'd have a lot stronger argument if you put Viciedo at 3B again, but they're simply not going to do that, either. In all likelihood, they'll give the playing time to Vizquel first, like last year.

QUOTE (fathom @ May 11, 2011 -> 10:55 PM) Who's this Louis Coleman reliever on KC? Fantastic strikeout numbers in the minors, and he's doing well in the majors so far also. http://www.peekyou.com/ext/?target=http://...ty=&region=

http://www.startribune.com/sports/twins/121677159.html Reporters and questioning fans already turning on pretty boy Mauer.

Another thing. If the major league affiliate consistently provides their minor league teams with inferior talent that hardly ever put together winning/competitive seasons, the best minor league organizations (which are privately held) have the right to terminate their operating agreements with the major league teams and find better matches. There's a huge difference playing in new stadiums with pristine, well-groomed infields in front of sold out crowds and the alternative. Cany anyone argue that developing the habit of winning championships at the minor league level at some point down the line DOESN'T have a positive effect, especially if the draftee hasn't played for successful programs in high school, JC or university??

QUOTE (T R U @ May 12, 2011 -> 03:41 AM) Well technically yes it did, they got to the playoffs but obviously didn't win the world series.. they ended up winning 102 games and Randy Johnson went 10-1 with a 1.28 ERA and 4 CG shutouts for them.. but up until 04/05 they were notorious playoff chokers That's kind of like saying the Tigers went to the playoffs with Doyle Alexander and it made the Smoltz trade a good one, or Bagwell for L. Anderson. If they had both Carlos Guillen and Freddy Garcia long-term (and John Halama as their fifth starter), they would have been much better off IMO.

http://www.baseballprospectus.com/odds/ Right now, the Tigers are the clear favorites to win the division. The only one that surprised me was the Royals finishing at 70-92. Don't think that will happen. They should win in the mid 70's. They have the Sox pegged at 79.5-82.5 for the season, but I guess that would be almost exactly .500 after last night's late result is added in.

found this story from last fall when I was doing some research, I wasn't surprised in the least that none of the teams that climbed all the way back in to make the playoffs didn't win the World Series....including last year's Sox team, well, there's always a first time, right??? http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news?slug=ys-f...comebacks081809 A couple of teams they didn't mention because they were already 5-10 games over .500 at the All-Star Break. 2006 Minnesota Twins, 26-33 (low point, actually this year's team at 11 games under .500 NOW is the all-time worst record for a Twins' team under Gardenhire) 11.5-12 GB 47-39 at ASB 70-33 record to finish the season 2009 Colorado Rockies, 31-33 low point, 11.5 GB 47-41 at ASB 61-37 record to finish the season 2005 Houston Astros, started 15-30/21-35 (low point was 16 GB) ASB 44-43 Finished the season on a 68-38 run

4-2 now. Hopefully we can take 2/3 from Oakland, but as a Sox fan, you've learned that you have to be relatively satisfied not getting swept.

Now "only" 9 1/2 GB, break up the Sox, break up the Sox. Ahead of the Astros and leaving the Twins in the dust by 1.5 28th and rising.

Apologies to the White Sox for giving up too early on this game. The Sox would never rally for Danks, lol. For some reason, they've bailed out our "ace" Jake. Guess we need to go back to Omar Vizquel at 3B to spark this team again, just like 2010.

QUOTE (southsideirish71 @ May 11, 2011 -> 09:57 PM) I wonder how bmac can contain his excitement to face our offense in Oakland. I mean facing our offense must excite opposing pitchers. Gio got blasted last night, but it would have been nice if we're just going to simply sink into an abyss to see KW getting asked questions by all the baseball writers like Rogers about Gio, Sweeney and McCarthy. Maybe that would make him angry, but at this point, I highly doubt it. Seems he's mellowed too much in the last 2-3 seasons, especially after all the strife and controversy last season. There was even quite a bit of talk recently they would give Gio a guaranteed 3-4 contract to buy out his first year of free agency. Nothing like a 7-20 stretch to create excitement.

Rosenthal was STILL predicting tonight at the Yankees/Royals game in NYC that Cleveland, DET and the White Sox would fight it out for first. That's becoming more and more of a remote possibility. I'm not even concerned with what the Indians are doing anymore. You would never understand that the White Sox are 8 for 25 and Angels are 7 for 25 and yet they're kicking our butts by looking at the box score. Unless you figure in the fact that with the possible exception of Michael Cuddyer, we're clearly the worst hitting team with RISP (except for the Twins and maybe Mariners) since the first 10 games of 2011. At least the Twins can point to Morneau's not being 100%, Mauer out, Young out, Nishioka out...they have some excuses. Our line-up has been basically healthy the entire year. That's what is most infuriating.

They should bunt every single ball down the 3B line until Teahen gets in playing shape...probably sometime in July/August. Great defense, as usual. It's like every above average MLB play has an automatic double or triple against everyone but Buehrle and Danks once they reach 1B.

QUOTE (fathom @ May 11, 2011 -> 09:41 PM) Teahen's batting average in free-fall mode, down to about .225 And he still has a higher OPS than Beckham. Who has a higher OPS than Pierre, AJ, Rios and Morel. Yikes. Looks like all of Peavy's pitchers are within 5-7 MPH of each other. Not exactly the 10+ MPH spread that's ideal. He is throwing sliders, change-ups and cutters according the play-by-play, in addition to the FB.

QUOTE (Thad Bosley @ May 11, 2011 -> 09:41 PM) When does Teahen's contract with us expire???? After 2012 I hope.

QUOTE (Harry Chappas @ May 11, 2011 -> 09:39 PM) except teahen Teahen's suddenly switch-hitting?

Has Peavy thrown any pitches over 90 MPH? I just picked up the game at mlb.com and he was at 88. That's Freddy Garcia territory. Or was it a sinking FB and his four seamer's in the low 90's?

The Randy Johnson trade didn't go so well, either.

I'll say one thing. The record of the Twins' AA and AAA teams these last seasons is a serious concern. Development is one thing, but they've compiled the worst record in the minors in 2010 and 2011 and it's now reflected at the major league level as well. When a major league team is having difficulty succeeding in terms of w/l record, they group all their prospects together and hope that they'll developing a "winning" habit that won't be so negatively counteracted when they get to the big leagues with a team like the Royals or Pirates.

There's a situation where Ozzie would have been grilled. 1 out, runners on 2nd and 3rd and you don't want the Twins' best hitter to beat you. It would have put the go-ahead runner at 1st, but geez. Schlereth already had given up a homer to Kubel, I think it was last night even, and there's Ozzie's dreaded L/L match-up. Morneau does have 2 doubles in this game, but he was the 2nd coldest hitter on the Twins of their "veteran" players. I think 90% of MLB managers would have walked Kubel to face Morneau there, setting up a force at any base. We'll see how well Mijares and Capps can do with the lead. Seems like one of those typical Twins' victories that might get their season turned around. Of course, Sox fans have said the same thing at least twice in the last couple of weeks. ONLY THE 3rd TIME THEY"VE SCORED 5 OR MORE RUNS THE ENTIRE SEASON.