caulfield12

QUOTE (fathom @ May 27, 2010 -> 03:59 PM) I'm looking forward to a clubhouse led by guys like Peavy/Beckham/Rios/Thornton. I think things will improve greatly. The tide has finally shifted from Dye/Thome/Konerko/Buehrle/Crede/Rowand/AJ.... The question is whether players like Rios (seemingly Jon Garland's twin personality-wise), Quentin, Ramirez...your most talented players, what kind of leadership do you get out of them, if anything? Danks would be one I'd look to emerging in this area big-time, Floyd, not so much. Teahen's a very good clubhouse guy, but how can you lead anyone if you basically suck as a player? That's why the personalities of Flowers, Viciedo and Hudson will be critically important to their being "accepted" or rejected by the veterans...particularly Tyler and the pitching staff.

QUOTE (Thunderbolt @ May 27, 2010 -> 03:57 PM) The most telling example of clubhouse discord to me was the fallout behind the Getz comments coupled with Dye's obvious discomfort with having Rios on the team. Something was at work behind the scenes between the veterans and the younger core. Forgot about Getz and Fields. Of course, you can argue neither of these guys were that great to begin with, especially Getz, but Fields....let's hope Beckham's 2009 doesn't equal Fields in 2007 and we never see the same results out of Gordo again. That's almost too devastating to comprehend....Gonzales wrote how one scout said he'd be surprised if the league didn't figure out Beckham in 2010, and he was pretty much right on the money. OTOH, if you said the same thing about the top five rookies every year repeating their succcess (dealing with league-wide adjustments, especially hitters), you'd be right at least 50-75% of the time on those sophomore slumps. Same thing happened with Ramirez and Quentin, although he wasn't a rookie in 2008, he wasn't so far removed from being a rookie, either.

QUOTE (iamshack @ May 27, 2010 -> 03:51 PM) And OCab calls up to the official scorer to complain about errors and Torii Hunter comes out every year and says that white players shouldn't be wearing Jackie Robinson's number on Jackie Robinson day. Neither of these guys are infallible either. I just think that baseball is like any other industry or collection of professionals. Everyone has some people they like and some people they don't particularly care for. My feeling is some people think Ozzie is a loud mouth and others think he is freaking hilarious and would be a joy to play for. Just depends on what you enjoy about a leader. Like not everyone loves playing for LaRussa or Scioscia, for example. Two managers definitely known as being among the top tier in the game, along with Maddon (Scioscia's protege), Torre, Leyland, Gardenhire, etc. Dave Martinez is a name that is mentioned quite frequently....and he has that Angels/Rays mentality already ingrained, which seems a good fit for the current roster composition of our ballclub and it's strategic approach. But I agree with FATHOM, it really kind of stuck out, usually Gonzales is pretty "even-keeled" and it almost seemed like it was something put out there (a floating bullet point in the long list of ammunition against OG from KW or Hahn?) for some unknown reason, but it's definitely not insignificant, it's quite an important admission from our best beat writer.

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ May 27, 2010 -> 03:41 PM) Not at all. Oh, chalk another player onto my long list of players with potential reasons for grief: Orlando Cabrera Nick Swisher Brandon McCarthy (a good kid) Sean Tracey (who is an amazingly good guy) Ryan Sweeney Brian Anderson Jermaine Dye That is a decent list of players. Some might have BS reasons for being upset but regardless it is a list of guys. Once Jenks is gone, I think we will see him on the list as well. It is no secret that Jenks has had some heat with Sox management (including Kenny). It's also interesting to see articles now starting to come out about how the team (both in the line-up defensively and his clubhouse presence) misses Uribe so much. He was the glue that held everything together, and the bridge between the Hispanic cliques and all the other players on the team. One of Buehrle's best friends, too. Jon Rauch (July 2004 trade, mostly a beef with KW, but I think Ozzie was involved here, too) Jayson Nix (mystifying lack of playing time compared to last year) Magglio Ordonez Carlos Lee (???) Miguel Olivo It is a bit curious that before Omar Vizquel, we haven't had much luck at all bringing in Venezuelan players, like, say, Abreu....and I would hardly classify Omar Vizquel as a huge "get" as a FA!!!

ESPN recently polled 100 MLB players about various topics. Among them: the last manager they would choose to play for. I was a little surprised to see that Ozzie Guillen was rated worst, getting 30% of the votes! What's your take on how the Sox players feel about Ozzie and could he be a factor in free agents going elsewhere? -- John M.; Vienna, Austria I would look to the annual Sports Illustrated survey, which samples more major league players. In the past few years, I had three agents grumble to me about the way their clients were treated by Ozzie. I asked them to go on the record with their thoughts. All three declined. One agent still represented a few players in the organization and feared retribution. As the roster gradually changes, it will be interesting to see which free agents elect to sign here or go elsewhere after being courted by the Sox. But free agents usually make their decisions based on money and opportunity. Torii Hunter made his decision based largely on money, and I don't blame him for that. mark gonzales/tribune.com

Ginger, hallucinogenics are bad for your health. Not even the CLE bullpen can wake up our slumbering offense. Agreed with previous sentiments, this game seemed a big turning point to get to 5 games under .500 and sort of sniffing getting back into it with Minnesota facing the Yankees, the one team in baseball they always struggle to beat (with the exception of the last game they played which broke the string).

Mike Mussina will/should get into the Hall of Fame, he's another pitcher that comes to mind in the "very good" but not "great" for most of his career category. And Pettitte, because of his time spent with the Yankees, will get stronger consider for the HOF than Mark Buehrle, 100%. I know many will argue that point, though (about Mussina), especially those who saw him pitch in the first half of his career with some so-so Baltimore teams. When I think back about great pitching though, I think of Dwight Gooden in his rookie year or Saberhagen every other year in the 80's. Maybe Verlander and Greinke, the way they pitched last season. I think Buehrle, at most, ends up around 225. But IMO 175-200 is just as likely.

LOL, didn't realize until I heard this from the Indians' announcers, yesterday's loss was the 2nd worst in the history of interleague baseball.

Kotsay=1 for 17 with RISP We are better with RISP than the Orioles, 29th in MLB. Kotsay now 2 for 18, .111, will have to call him out every time, haha.

You can ameliorate/remedy/improve a bad situation, but you really wouldn't ameliorate a payroll....it's not quite the proper usage, there are a lot better choices. At best, a stretch.

QUOTE (Thunderbolt @ May 23, 2010 -> 03:28 PM) Here's a game to pass the time. Guess that current/former White Sox player by scouting report from draft day. Starting with a current Sox:" Strong, athletic physique. Well-defined legs and arms. Body like Alex Rodriguez. Wide, balanced, open stance. Good bat speed, plus power potential. Major League arm with carry. Smart player, good instincts with sure hands. Anticipates well at shortstop." Mike Morse? Andy Gonzalez? LOL Definitely not Caruso.

I think that can be one of our promo lines down the stretch.... See a new and interesting way how our 3B can f--- up the game defensively. And that's the end HOPEFULLY of Mr. Williams' MLB career. But probably not. IT'S STILL EARLY.

QUOTE (JohnCangelosi @ May 23, 2010 -> 12:20 PM) Teahen looks like a 3 legged dog out there Or those "death machines" from War of the Worlds (Tom Cruise) version...

Rios is now one of the five most valuable trade chips in all of baseball. I guess that's positive. Hard to believe he was ever in a slump...and such a terrible one last year. Hopefully we'll say the same thing about Gordon's troubles when we look back at 2010 and his career trajectory.

QUOTE (jphat007 @ May 23, 2010 -> 12:17 PM) Now thats some mother f***ing positivity right there. It's crazy, but it's positivity none the less Might as well...really, it doesn't even "hurt" anymore to go through innings like that. It's just like Ivan Drago versus Apollo Creed with our team playing the role of Apollo. Unfortunately, we're lacking the Rocky Balboa slugger factor in our offense on most days.

QUOTE (chisox2334 @ May 23, 2010 -> 12:15 PM) and no teahen wasnt going get that hard one liner at third. the ball was smoaked Justin Smoaked...? BBQ'ed? Flambayed?

It's okay. Still early. We have the offense to come back against Johnson. The White Sox love fastball pitchers historically.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ May 23, 2010 -> 12:13 PM) Teahen seems like he's going to fall down playing 3B at least once a game. No, no, that's just super-quick range. He's lulling the other team into trying to bunt on him by appearing outwardly to be akward in his fielding mannerisms.

QUOTE (Heads22 @ May 23, 2010 -> 12:12 PM) I'm following on Gameday. How did Ramirez not score from second on a double? I think he was kind of "deked" out by Pierre somehow...like he was going to be able to catch that ball. He still scored anyway. Wonder if that will spark another controversy with Gonzalez, who seems to be falling into disfavor big-time with Loria.

It's still early. We'll win this game for sure. We're just setting the Marlins up to take an early lead and rest on their laurels.

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ May 23, 2010 -> 09:02 AM) On the other side of the coin, how come you have to remind everyone after every game that you dont feel it is possible to catch the Twins or Tigers? You absolutely bask in it, and every time someone says "you know, if X and Y happens, we just may have a shot at competing for the rest of the year and maybe/possibly/dare I say catching up to the almighty Twins" you come back with (basically, not verbatim) "No, we cant do it, the Twins are too good and too many things have to happen" So, to your "Fine, nobody should care, we should just shut down SoxTalk until trade talks resume!!!", I respond to you with "Fine, the Sox are 6 games under .500, we should just shut down Soxtalk until 2011 starts!!!" Caulfield, the last two winner threads, you didnt even mention the game. You mentioned the Twins and Tigers, and how its not going to happen. At least try and discuss the two nice wins that we just had before you dump cold water over everyone. Where are you with a comment when I've written about 80-90% positive things about the White Sox the last 2-3 weeks? If you followed the minor league section, you would notice I've written many many positive statements about our minor leaguers, especially VICIEDO. In fact, I don't think there's another poster here besides CUBANO who has been more in his corner since the day that the White Sox signed him. IF there is, I'd like to know who it is... I guess you must have skipped over all those threads, trying to catch me making a mistake between Mauer/Morneau. Maybe if I actually lived in the US, if I actually could watch tv or ESPN or had enough bandwith strength to be able to watch MLB games live, then I wouldn't make such a silly mistake. And from now on, is it okay for me to say "stop dumping cold water on everyone" whenever any negative comment is written about the players, Ozzie, KW, Walker, etc.??? I remember being blasted day after day after day for not buying into the Brian Anderson is a victim of the vindictive Ozzie Guillen vendetta story when it was pretty obvious all along he was never going to measure up, just like I've said about Teahen over and over again. Maybe it's my imagination, but it feels like roughly 85% of the posts here in the last 4-6 weeks have been pretty critical/negative, maybe I'm missing something and I'm the only one who doesn't see each day as a Rainbow Brite My Little Pony-ish day of "the White Sox will win the division because the 1983 team started out with a 16-24 record so obviously we will do the same thing again this year...." FINAL POINT: UMMM...I live in China, there's a 13 hour time difference between here and Chicago. I'm sorry I couldn't wake up, in order to please you, to comment about games I wasn't even home or awake to listen to....but tonight I'll make sure to set my alarm clock to wake up at 2 a.m., even though I have to teach at 8 am tomorrow, just so I can contribute. Thanks for that advice.

LOL. Fine, nobody should care, we should just shut down SoxTalk until trade talks resume!!! Why care about anything? Don't we have better things to argue about than who cares about something, who doesn't care enough, who cares too much....who used to care, but now is looking for reasons to care but isn't willing to trust the Sox anymore than you would trust a girlfriend that's already been caught cheating on you two times (lol, no, this is not a personal example).

There's DeLosSantos and Dexter Carter out there too...

Colligan RF 4 2 3 0 0 1 2 1 1 .284 Thompson, T CF 3 1 1 0 0 0 0 1 2 .248 Gonzalez, Mi C 4 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 2 .222 OP was looking too crowded and messy to read....Thompson with another walk. Colligan with a homer.

Lillibridge SS 5 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 2 .265 Retherford 2B 5 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 .211 Kroeger LF 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 .192 Viciedo 1B 4 1 2 2 0 0 0 0 1 .300 Gartrell RF 2 1 1 0 0 0 0 1 1 .269 Danks, Jor CF 3 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 1 .228 Lucy C 3 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 .273 Viciedo continues to rake with 2 doubles. Danks with only 1 K/3 AB's and 669 OPS. No Flowers. Lillibridge and CJ Retherford both just had chances to win it with walk-off hits with 1 and 2 outs and the bases loaded and both struck out against Jensen Lewis. Retherford has 3 K's in 5 AB's tonight, not so good. Santeliz continues to be perhaps the best bullpen prospect, or at least the most interesting one in upper levels. BIRM split a DHer. Morel was 2/3 with a stolen base, now at .321. A. Carter recorded his 3rd save of the season. WINSTON SALEM PURPLE PHALLUS CONTINUES TO KICK-ASS. Perhaps most encouraging, Escobar hit TWO freaking homers, and Justin Greene hit his 6th. NOTE to KW: promote some of these guys so the Barons aren't the most boring team in baseball, coming off a season when they were one of the 3-5 most interesting teams in all the minors. Short RF 5 2 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 .371 Escobar SS 5 3 4 0 1 2 4 0 0 .266 Gilmore 3B 5 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 .337 Loman 1B 4 1 3 0 0 1 2 0 0 .287 Lewis DH 5 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 .315 Bour C 5 1 3 2 0 0 2 0 1 .324 Shelton 2B 5 1 2 0 0 1 2 0 0 .281 Cheatham LF 5 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 .274 Greene CF 4 1 2 0 0 1 1 0 0 .340 BTW, I'm not sure if Kotsay 5th or Kroeger 3rd place hitter is worse?