caulfield12

19 Baltimore 12 289,956 24,163 50.1 17 26,800 60.1 29 25,709 55.8 20 Tampa Bay 15 345,973 23,064 52.7 13 21,868 50.9 28 22,509 51.9 21 Chicago White Sox 16 365,145 22,821 56.2 13 23,220 47.4 29 23,000 51.9 22 San Diego 16 352,830 22,051 51.9 12 25,245 56.8 28 23,420 54.0 Note to Brooks Boyer: PANIC!!! Actually, all kidding aside, this is a 3.6 or 3.8% increase from the same point in time in 2009. Interesting.

Randy, I agree with you. Ramirez would probably be my #2 pick, although fading to number 3 if he continues to put up sub 650 OPS numbers. The jury is still far from convening to decide the fate of Dayan Viciedo, speaking of our other Cuban. Alex Rios has 100% opened some eyes and went from the running joke/punchline representing 2009 to perhaps our best all-around player. Not even perhaps, considering his defense and speed, he's the most gifted player who can play well in all facets of the game since I don't know when...we just haven't produced those guys, which is why KW basically went out and "bought" him.

Let's not forget how completely ineffective Vizquel has been, while getting many many more at-bats than he deserves over Jayson Nix...

The White Sox will win tonight. We've only been six games under 500 once, at 5-11. Buehrle is due, the offense is due, it doesn't matter if Kotsay and Vizquel (over Nix, why why why, when you need offense OZZIE!) are in the line-up, for some reason I just feel, based on how the season has played out, that they will win going away. No logical reason, the Jays have won, what, five games in a row? Just intuition.

If they want some offense injected, they have to go with Nix. I suppose against a LHP, you also HAVE to go with Nix, even if you WANT WANT WANT to play Vizquel in the two spot and lead his induction parade into the streets of Cooperstown on a donkey with palm leaves trailing in his wake.

2010= $6.75million, 2011=$9million, 2012=$10.25million, $1million buyout) That's the money we would have been committed to paying Swisher had he stayed, which was going to happen in a sub-zero day in HADES. KW has said on at least 3 occasions (I can pull the quotes if you'd like) that the White Sox were only able to offer Dayan his contract once the Swisher money (future allocation) was removed from the future payrolls. That Dayan was the bat of the future and essentially Swisher's replacement on the BIG BOARD....that the return from the trade was meaningless, and that the only thing that mattered was how Viciedo did over the long-term as providing a big bopper in the middle of the line-up. So, once again, KW at least WANTS us to perceive that trade as Swisher versus Vicieodo's future payoff to the Sox, not Swisher for Betemit/Marquez/Nunez, which is a debacle/disaster. SECOND...Thunderstix I said Nix could have been included but wasn't, smart acquisition, great PH batter against LHP, occasional spot starter, the starter (should be) over Vizquel for the rest of the season at 2B if for some reason Beckham doesn't pull out of this tailspin and needs to go to Charlotte, theoretically (according to Carney Lansford) the best fielding 2B he's ever seen in his lifetime. And it cost the Sox almost nothing, what, $50,000 or something like that, yes?

But isn't Gordon Beckham also lost, too? I suppose I could have added drafting high-potential impact position players in Mitchell and Trayce Thompson, to go with the Jayson Nix move. PS: Brandon Short (24 game hitting streak) is now only 7 games off the All-Time Carolina League record of 31 games

Found it interesting that nobody's voted for TCQ yet. Post 2008, there would have been only 2 possible answers, that move and Alexei Ramirez would be 1 and 1A. Now both are looking more and more MEHHHHHHHH, but both directly led to the 2008 ALCD at least. Maybe I should have added keeping TMK to solidify our already devastatingly effective bench? Or acquiring Jayson Nix for nothing from the Rockies...? Ran out of options here, too many good KW moves to count.

The next year he went to the Twins on waivers, and after the 2008 season the White Sox signed him as a minor-league free agent. He's never really given me the impression of being a position-change guy. He's got three quality pitches, and they're all above-average pitches." - Sox Pitching Coach Don Cooper So a year ago, Santos was also in Sox camp -- as a non-roster third baseman. In mid-March, a few days after he got cut, Chicago player-development director Buddy Bell told Santos he would be a backup in Triple-A and gave him a few choices. He could accept that job, take his release and look elsewhere, have the White Sox try to trade him -- or pitch. Teams had talked to Santos about moving to the mound over the course of his career, "but being able to put up the numbers I did, position-player-wise, I just dismissed the idea." After his talk with Bell, Santos threw a bullpen session."I did some soul-searching, and I just felt it was hard to start all over," Santos said. "I'm so close to just having it click, and then I'm there [in the majors as an infielder]." Chicago worked out a trade on March 20 with San Francisco, where Santos was told he would be the everyday shortstop at Triple-A. But four days before their opener, the Giants pulled a surprise move, sending down Kevin Frandsen rather than keeping him in the majors as the utility infielder. So they asked Santos if he'd try the outfield, and he did. For a day. But there was a logjam in the outfield too. "They said, 'The White Sox really want you back as a pitcher. What do you think?' " Santos said. "I just said, 'You know what? Everything I've tried as a position player just isn't working out. Let's give this a shot. Why not?' "The circumstances helped me change my mind faster. Because I felt I did everything I can, so now I can look back with no regrets." San Francisco traded Santos back to Chicago, and after a few weeks of extended spring training, Santos went to Class A to begin life as a pitcher -- his first time pitching in a game since he was 13. He made it up to Triple-A by the end of the year, but his overall numbers weren't pretty: 0-3, 8.16 ERA, 37 hits, 20 walks and six wild pitches in 28 2/3 innings. "I knew I had the stuff," Santos said. "As far as putting it together, making it consistent, like big-league pitchers -- that's a different story. I knew it was a matter of repetition, of innings, of experience in order to get that way." Santos said after three weeks of pitching he decided to ignore his statistics. "What I cared about," he said, "is if I leave the mound that day, did I get better? And if so, what did I get better at?" In the Arizona Fall League -- where he had been twice before as a hitter -- Santos was a bit better: 6.14 ERA, 20 strikeouts, 10 walks and 15 hits allowed in 14 2/3 innings. "[During the regular season] he had great stuff but he was all over the place," one scout said. "In the Fall League he tightened it up a little bit." Enough that had the White Sox not added him to the 40-man roster, Santos would have gone to another team high in the Rule 5 draft. "The second they put me on the [40-man] roster," Santos said, "I said, 'OK, you know what, this is attainable. ... This is probably the best opportunity I've had in a big-league camp to make the team.' " In six Cactus League outings, Santos has allowed three hits in 5 2/3 innings, walking four and striking out nine. "Every inning I go out there," he said, "and I feel like I'm gaining experience and getting better and getting better." Since he's out of minor-league options and "there is no way they can pass him through waivers," as the scout said, Santos (barring injury) seems likely to make the opening-day roster. That would give the Sox another power bullpen arm to go with Bobby Jenks, Matt Thornton, J.J. Putz and Tony Peña. "He's done extremely well," Cooper said of Santos, "and we really like him. "Certainly we're think he's got a chance. ... I've got him scheduled all the way [to the end of the month]."

Peavy trade. Sergio Santos acquired for a bag of peanuts and cracker jacks after filtering through MINN and SF systems. On May 13, 2008, Santos was claimed off waivers by the Minnesota Twins. He became a free agent at the end of the season and signed a minor league contract with the Chicago White Sox[2], but on March 20, 2009, was traded to the San Francisco Giants in exchange for future considerations. Less than two weeks after the trade he was brought back to the Chicago White Sox organization and sent to extended spring training to convert from infielder to pitcher. Signing Alexei Ramirez as a FA out of Pinar del Rio...Ramirez nearly wins ROY after almost every team passed on him after workouts. Signed to one of the true great contracts in the game for a young player in his prime playing a premium position. Signing Dayan Viciedo/ditching Swisher's contract. Offering arbitration to O-Cabrera and watching him blink. Future AL MVP Carlos Quentin acquired for INF Chris Carter. Signing Andruw Jones as a FA for a bargain-basement contract. Signing JJ Putz to a similarly favorable contract. Gambling on Alex Rios returning to All-Star form and assuming his contract. Gordon Beckham drafted and becomes TSN ROY (and perhaps the first to be sent to minors the following season, :-()

While the White Sox know what they received in former CY winner in Jake Peavy, it may be a matter of years before we see how Poreda, coined as the "prize in the deal," part plays out. This year, however, the Pads are getting pitchers in Richard and Russell who are already paying dividends for their first place team. Richard looks as if he plays with a load of confidence on the mound, often laughing or smiling. You have to respect a player that is having fun, working quickly, and pitching very well. As for Russell, this guy has legit stuff. Russell who looks like he could be a future closer and possibly even surpassing Adams and Gregerson. Adam throws primarily a two seam fast ball from 95 touching 96 with absolutely filthy movement! A four seamer that is much straighter but can dial it up to 97-98. Russell compliments his two fast-balls with a change up and a slider which are both respectable allowing him to throw them at anytime during an at bat regardless of the count. He is definitely a force on the mound with closer mentality and more importantly, STUFF! Total bunch of crap, even if Hawk and our biggest hypesters on the message board tried, they couldn't come up with such ridiculous hyperbole about Russell. OMG. Oh my Lady Gaga! Apparently, the person who wrote the article never saw Russell pitch and came from the same school of thinking that had Felix Diaz and Jon Adkins as excellent prospects when the White Sox added them in 2002. I would argue was Richard, by the time of the trade, was already being considered equally important, if not MORE important, than Aaron Poreda. This article makes Poreda look like Sandy Koufax as well, and is not "reality checked" by actual realistic observation and astute scouting commentary. Probably if Wasserman was involved in the trade, he would have been made out to be a future Trevor Hoffman...and any hitter would have had the ability to win 10+ batting crowns with a constant grin on his face like Tony Gwynn.

Well, you could definitely make the argument that we should have cashed in our chips with Joe Crede and Bobby Jenks before they lost all their value. We waited until Fields and Anderson were basically worth nothing, not to mention Lance Broadway. Uribe walked away with nothing in return. The big debates are going to start centering around trading Buehrle and Danks, the two moves that could sink this organization for 4-5 years or propel us quickly back into contention in just a couple of seasons. (Yes, look at the Twins, they survived horrible trade returns for Santana and Garza/Bartlett and are still prospering because of their farm system resupplying major leaguers to replace aging veterans like Hunter, Jacque Jones, Shannon Stewart and Radke).

Yeah, which it would be nice if Alexei Ramirez would come close to doing....along with all the mental gaffes and baserunning blunders. I'll take Escobar at 700 OPS over Ramirez at 750 for sure and not think twice about it.

I don't get locking yourself into Teahen to save a couple of million (at most) in arbitration numbers down the line.... You go year to year, like we did with Crede and Jenks. Somehow we have more faith in Teahen than those two guys? Well, Crede, that's understandable, but I will never understand the logic behind that move. There was no reason to offer it until you can see what he does for the White Sox first over one full season of observation.

We could have had Fred Lewis as our leadoff hitter for almost nothing. Lewis fails, there's no hit against our payroll. Instead, we're stuck paying a fading Juan Pierre $9 million, and it's an untradeable contract for the White Sox. KW made some really bad decisions with the allocation of resources this offseason. Between Juan Pierre and Teahen's extension...WHAT? Luckily, he might have ended up with gold in Andruw Jones and JJ Putz.

The Astros really want to get out from under the dubious Carlos Lee contract. Good luck with that one Drayton McLane. Unfortunately, just like the position DD in Detroit found himself in, the Astros will have to sacrifice some core components like Berkman because there's no market for El Caballo. Detroit showed you could shed salary and get better or comparable players back for lower payroll numbers. Austin Jackson would be ROY right now and Scherzer has been better (and cheaper) than Edwin Jackson, who's looking like a "one year wonder" now, considering he should be prospering in the NL West.

Patented pull hook down to right side of the infield. But at least Kotsay doesn't strike out. Oops, that's bad too, because he would be better striking out instead of grounding into DP's so often.

Another patented Ramirez "vapor/brain lock." He sometimes makes Pods looks good out there with his decision-making processes and logic. Should have been 1st and 2nd, one out. Maybe it doesn't even matter with TMK batting...haha.

Home run if not the for wind knocking that ball down. Kotsay really needed that ball to go out...just symbolizes his early season struggles to make a consistent contribution.

Morel's not a power hitting 3B. Viciedo COULD be, were he actually able to play 3B competently. For Houston, though, it's similar to the Peavy deal, salary dump....although they'll expect something better than John Shelby III or Cleveland Santeliz.

QUOTE (fathom @ May 6, 2010 -> 07:30 PM) Danks is way up in the zone with all his pitches. 3rd straight game he's really struggled to keep the ball down in the zone. And yet he can pitch through so-so stuff and gut it out much more effectively than Floyd or Peavy (so far).

Let's just hope Beckham can pull out of this funk...I don't want to watch Nix/Vizquel playing 2B for the rest of the season. But we have to be careful that we don't let him scuffle too much. FWIW, I would give him 2-3 more weeks, also dependent on how well the Twins are playing and their divisional lead. The walks are encouraging, and the K was a nasty pitch, it's more troubling when he's swinging and missing average fastballs. Last year he probably swung and missed 10 times per week.

How do you see Shelby III's prospects at this point? I know he has always been one of your favorites...

Well, Vizquel's not in the line-up, and Kotsay wouldn't be if not for Paulie's injury. Nix makes more sense against a LHP and AJ has played 8 games in a row...not sure that any of the line-up decisions are even borderline questionable. And there's a LHP on the mound. So no problems, except wondering how our offense can be generated without Paulie, Rios and Jones these days.

http://www.baseballamerica.com/today/minor...010/269925.html It's about one of my college dormsuite-mates (University of Iowa) and his partner with the Houston Astros. Made me laugh, remembering similar experiences working for two years in the South Atlantic League, especially the anectdote about picking up prisoners to help for the groundscrew. Believe me with the heat in Augusta, I wished we had that option....literally, after the rain ended and the late afternoon sun would come out, you could feel yourself literally baking like in a convection oven. That was the worst part and ALSO the most fun part, helping with groundscrew. I got out of working in professional sports after 2 1/2 years, but my two best friends from grad school (Masters' in Sport Managment program at Georgia Southern Univ.), one is now Director of Advanced Scouting with the Atlanta Hawks, another one because a junior college assistant coach (basketball), then Athletic Director, coached professional basketball in Aberdeen Scotland, came back to the US to work as an assistant at Idaho State and now he's working on his PhD.