caulfield12

Alexei Ramirez had a .779 OPS in May and looking good again in June. Still comes down to Beckham, Quentin, AJ and our problems at 3B (offensively)...and Jake Peavy/Buehrle/Floyd pulling out of their slumps. Pierre is Pierre, we'll be lucky if he comes close to a 700 OPS.

http://espn.go.com/mlb/attendance/_/year/2007 White Sox 21st in attendance now, not as bad as I expected. Interesting we're only 19 fans per game behind the best team in baseball. Not so far behind SD and ahead of Cincy. Danks 67 pitches through 4.

We have to be leading the league in horrible baserunning this year, even without the presence of Pods. Masterson already at 62 pitches, we should have had him up to 70 this inning. Of course, we've had limited success against their so-so bullpen this year. 4 walks by Masterson, 2 to Kotsay.

QUOTE (Thunderbolt @ Jun 3, 2010 -> 08:07 PM) Are you kidding me? How can i have a negative reaction to a stupid, little league play made by Carlos Quentin? This is a game thread. It's just symptomatic of the overall "team malaise," not only making physical but also mental and concentration errors. The whole team is just going through the motions, and it shouldn't be tolerated by the GM or manager.

Two seasons ago, it really didn't matter how bad he or JD were defensively. But with a low 700ish OPS, that's not tolerable from a corner OF/DH.

Let's just hope Andruw Jones can get hot again, get his BA back to .250-.260 and we can get something back for him.

Thanks Carlos. We replaced JD with an even worse defender. That was pretty dificult to do, but KW and you helped to manage it.

6 quality starts in a row for ELY Only 8 earned runs allowed in his last 40 IP. Amazing 1.80 ERA for that stretch. Now we all know that Ely and Richard wouldn't be putting up those numbers for the White Sox, but it's frustrating. Obviously without Peavy, we'd have the ability to fill at least two holes (DH/LF-leadoff) on our roster. That still wouldn't cover up for Buehrle and Floyd, though. I guess theoretically you could argue Floyd would be in the bullpen with the rotation of Danks, Buehrle, Garcia/Hudson, Richard and Ely. Hindsight, hindsight, hindsight. I know. But psychologically, things would seem a LOT different with four young pitchers in the starting rotation. Right now, all we can do is wait for Peavy, Floyd and Buehrle to right themselves.

QUOTE (WCSox @ Jun 3, 2010 -> 03:02 PM) Pretty much. I lived through the late '80s, and that was a lot worse than the past 3 1/2 years have been. If the Sox have to go through another stretch like that to be competitive again, so be it. I'll still be here. I'll admit, Ivan Bubbling Calderon was my favorite player back then. So many characters, you had Ozzie and Steve Psycho Lyons, Baines was the best player, Kenny Williams, Melido Perez, Carlos Martinez, Craig Grebeck, Ron Karkovice Squad, at least those teams weren't mind-numblingly dull. Thigpen always made saves interesting, even moreso than Jenks. Greg "The Bulldog" Hibbard, or Hibbie.

I don't want to fight with j4l again...hopefully that can be spared. He's at least passionate about the Sox, I'll give him that. Same with greg, even though he drives me crazy (just like I do others!) 85% of the time. But I always read everyones' posts here, no matter what...at least when I have the time. Usually he J4L attacks me first, lol. It just reminds me of 2006 when the "dark clouds" were increasingly gathering and yet those holding onto 2005 and first half of 2006 wouldn't let go and bullied everyone who saw the inevitable dissolution of the World Series team coming sooner rather than later. I just don't see the point in good White Sox fans fighting each other over something pretty silly and not even quantifiable. Everyone has different ways of dealing with disappointment. To say someone is less of a fan because they turn off the game early, don't even tune in at all, don't believe the team has the ability to turn things around and make a comeback...everyone has their threshold. I tried to get invested in the minor league system and it's hard to do even that this season.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Jun 3, 2010 -> 12:31 PM) So it's J4L's fault that he wasn't born yet when you started going to games? Enough with the cock measuring. And there's no need to lecture people about "how they're better Sox fans" because they have a more optimistic approach to this year's team than others....I mean, come on, how can someone have joined the White Sox bandwagon in 2005 when many people were a fan of the team for decades before that? Why do we need to hear that sh--? Fine, he's a younger fan...then stop measuring who's a better fan based on their reaction to this season's putrid results. Even the "best" Sox fans can't easily digest this season. All you will have to do is look at the attendance figures from here on out to understand the malaise the entire franchise has fallen into just 4-5 years removed from glory. If nothing else, it was runaway hubris to think that this franchise was going to become a dynasty, pull even with the Cubs in terms of critical mass and win the hearts and minds of young fans throughout the Midwest. We might be the most irrelevant team in the AL today if not for the Kansas City Royals and Baltimore Orioles, and both those teams have loaded minor league systems to look forward to and give them some type of reason to believe in the future. Seriously, if I wanted a lecture about it, I would listen to MIT/CAL TECH/CAMBRIDGE/OXFORD taped ones, where I can learn something new about the world. Does it please any of us who questioned the make-up of this team coming into the season? No, not really. It displeases me more that our GM and manager are so completely clueless about how to fix this mess...it's not like we have a plethora of minor league talent waiting to rise to the top like the Indians do.

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ Jun 3, 2010 -> 09:55 AM) IBTL. I'm just curious, when did you go to your first White Sox game? Mine was 1979. Honestly, the 2007 team was more interesting than this one, because that one had Fields, Owens, Wasserman and Gonzalez at least TRYING to make an impact as rookies. Hopefully the inevitable trades and promotions of Hudson, Flowers and possibly Viciedo will provide a reason to become re-interested, re-invested, re-motivated to at least care about the development of the organization and how things are setting up for next year.

It's simple, Viciedo, Hudson and Flowers have to be at least "capable" (or better) replacement players, and both Beckham and Quentin have to come close to our high expectations or we're sunk. Alexei Ramirez putting up a 750 OPS wouldn't hurt a bit either. As far as the likes of Danks, Morel and CJ Retherford, I'm not counting on any of them to do anything until at least mid-season 2011 if ever at all. Morel has a shot, but he's blocked by Teahen. If you move Teahen to 1B/DH, then I guess with Morel you have the weakest corner infield spots offensively in the AL in the best power hitting park in baseball. Makes lots of sense!!! We have to pray to God Almighty that Mitchell can bounce back from his injury and be Carl Crawford-Lite.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jun 2, 2010 -> 08:37 AM) The highest value single contract the Sox have signed was Konerko's 5/$60. The highest value 1 year payment that the Sox have signed was Buehrle's 4/$56, with the $14 million/year latter years. The Sox have offered higher values than that (i.e. the offered Ordonez deal, the Torii Hunter offer) but have not signed. The Sox have also taken on Jake Peavy's deal, which pays $15 mil this year, $16 mil next year, and $17 mil in the final year of the deal, but that was not "signed" by the Sox, only taken on. I'm pretty sure the final year of Magglio's deal with us was for $14.5 million.

QUOTE (JohnCangelosi @ Jun 1, 2010 -> 10:20 PM) None of this matters until we get a manager that can make the right decisions. This is Ozzie's team, and he deserves to take the fall for it and be fired now or at the end of the year along with the majority of his coaching staff. Let's see what kind of prospects we can get for: AJ PK Jenks Buehrle I'd like to keep TCQ, Beckham, Rios, Danks, and Floyd to build around. Why Quentin and not Ramirez? Ramirez is cheaper and plays a premium position....it's a lot harder to replace a SS than it is to replace a sub-par defensive corner OF/DH with a 720 OPS.

Getting Cliff Lee and paying him $20 million is insane. Same with throwing huge money at Crawford and Dunn. FUHHGETABOUT IT. If 2005 taught ANY lesson, it's that you had to find the right mix of veteran players and "one year wonders" and ride it to the end of the World Series. But none of those guys, Hermanson, Pods, Iguchi, Dye, AJ, Vizcaino, El Duque...were "expensive." Maybe Dye and El Duque, but compared to what Cowley wants to pay Lee? Trading Floyd at his lowest possible value is asinine as well, same with Quentin. Now you can argue that if they get really really hot in pressure-less games for the next 4 months that we should sell them, but that's another argument. You could also throw Alexei into that same discussion. We all know the upside of Ramirez, and we're all quite familiar with the flip-side. Trading Peavy or Buerhle at below par value is silly as well. If you want to maximize value in a trade, see what Rios will get on the open market...if you don't like the offers, you pull him off the trading block and you have your CF for the next five years, either way, it's a win-win situation for KW. Might as well try to trade Pierre and Teahen while we're at it, Andruw Jones, the whole roster basically, except for Thornton, Beckham, Santos. Then you have the whole issue of keeping/extending/trading Mr. Danks. Lots of interesting discussions will happen here over the next 8 months. Too bad most of it won't be about the games that actually used to matter.

Viciedo is our best prospect right now, along with Hudson. The odds are at least 50/50 at this point he's the starting 1B for the White Sox (or sharing DH duties) and makes the 25 man roster in April, 2011. Greg, the whole point is this: Konerko's "okay" at $4-5-6 million per year, over a one or two year contract. Anything above and beyond that in dollars or years is taking a HUGE HUGE risk that won't be logical from a payroll and going forward perspective.

When's the last time there was a stress-free, 1-2-3 ninth inning for a close? Not so many complaints about Brandon Allen being traded. That said, let's hope the Rangers can actually beat the Twins...or, if the Twins are going to sweep them, let's hope we be set up for the sweep, too.

If Thornton gets to 30 pitches, he might be out TUES against Texas even with the off day on Monday. Who the heck is going to pitch next, Putz or Jenks? I hope not Jenks.

They sniffed out the squeeze and pitched out. Nothing Vizquel could have done. That's two times that Maddon has out-managed Ozzie today...the other time with the CS. Teahen will have an x-ray of his ring finger tmrw. Nix/Vizquel platoon might come back. Unfortunately, Teahen was actually starting to contribute offensively for the last 7-10 days.

Beckham had those two "high leverage" situations where he didn't drive in a single run, and the defense lapse that opened up the floodgates in that inning...although the damage was contained when Pierre caught the fly ball to keep it from breaking open. The Pena bases-clearing double was obviously the game, and it stood up from that point on. I decided to read Dostoevsky instead of wasting my time with a foregone conclusion.

Was AJ dogging it to 1B or he's really that slow?

It seems we're going to oscillate back and forth between 5-8 games under .500 and 6-9 games back for the whole season. This year just sucks...we might as well tank and hope to get another Beckham in the Top 5 picks, if we can find someone who JR is willing to give a signing bonus (yes, I know we gave money to Borchard, Viciedo and Beckham, and stupidly to Lance Broadway).

Game set and match. That's all she wrote. If I was Danks, I would be really pissed off about that whole inning when Ozzie pulls him. 0-2 count, Pena slumping and we're once again 8 games back. Lovely.

THE LEANING TOWER OF TEAHEN...he falls enough (like a WEEBLE) to the left or right and finally we retire LONGORIA THE CUBAN MISCUE