caulfield12

QUOTE (scenario @ Apr 28, 2010 -> 04:34 PM) It's what I refer to as FADS... Fan Attention Deficit Syndrome. Symptoms: Prior wins are forgotten immediately the day after a loss; anything good a player/manager, etc. does is forgotten quickly while anything wrong they do sticks in long-term memory. Etc. Okay...

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Apr 28, 2010 -> 03:04 PM) Seriously? The Sox had three straight games where they came back late to win, just this past weekend. Their clutch hitting is still bad, but did you not notice those games they just played? Ummm.....seriously, we have the lowest BA with RISP in the major leagues (.199)...and you're crowing about 3 games that we beat the M's, who perhaps are the only team who might end up having a worse offense than the White Sox??? Brilliant...the games are at home, we're not facing Cliff Lee or King Felix, but now we're clutch??? Seriously? At least the M's, though, have a philosophy, unlike the White Sox. Defense first, pitching, speed and fundamentals, just like the Twins, Angels and Rays.

''Not mechanical. It's more my mind,'' Beckham said. ''I'm not taking my BP into the game. When I'm getting in the game I feel like I'm a little rushed, I feel like my head is moving a little faster than it should. As opposed to being calm and just sitting in the box and let the ball come to me. ''I'm going to spread out a little bit, eliminate the lower half a little bit, and that's going to keep me locked in, a little quieter. Hopefully, that will help me be more accurate with the ball and make better decisions on pitches that are close and not close. That should help. I just have to do it in the games. It's all there.'' Guillen said Beckham would play in the series finale this afternoon, so it was obviously just a rest, not a punishment. And as far as if the club did put too much on Beckham's shoulders and could be ruining him, Guillen didn't think that was the case. ''No, this kid mentally is pretty tough about it, and he grew up with the right people around him,'' Guillen said. ''I don't want him thinking about, 'I'm the man here, I gotta do this, hit .350, I gotta do this, I gotta be the MVP.' No, he's got to go out and play his game the way he did when he was a little kid.'' www.suntimes.com/sports (cowley)

''[beckham] is trying to do too much, he's desperate to try to do good. This game is a marathon, it's not a sprint. A lot of people in Chicago think Gordon is the man of this ballclub. That's a bunch of crap. He's not. This kid has a long way to go. A couple of years ago he was playing college, and we did something that I don't think we should have been doing, which is put this kid like he's the savior of the White Sox for the next 30 years. It's not easy to handle that. He's struggling right now, and I hope it doesn't carry on to him to be the man. ''He's not the man, and he never will be the man. As long as I manage this ballclub, nobody is the man. There are 25 men out there, not just one. Because it will take 25 guys to win this thing, not one or a couple to win it. This kid has potential to be a great one. But when you're struggling you've got to sit back and relax, don't forget where you come from and do the same thing you've been doing your whole life.'' suntimes.com/sports (cowley)

Willie Randolph's not a bad option at all...I like it. As far as Melvin, it's hard to put my exact finger on it, I guess I'd feel the same way if he was named manager as I would about Buddy Bell or Mike Hargrove. I like the "new blood" guys that have retired in the last 5-10 years, rather than that 70's and 80's baseball generation. No doubt, however that Scioscia is one of the best, he came from those great Dodgers' teams of that era. And I really like Joe Maddon, too, old school guy, but with new/innovative ideas. Dave Martinez has the White Sox history, and it would be hilarious if we played the Cubs and Sandberg was managing. TMZ would have a field day with that story line.

Then I would send out FED EX'es with blank contracts to the following individuals and let them fill in the dollar amount...I would let them as a committee make the decision of who to hire as the next WS manager, it wouldn't be KW or JR. Mike Radcliff, Vice President of Player Personnel Rob Antony, Assistant General Manager Joe McIlvaine, Special Assistant to General Manager Tom Kelly, Special Assistant to General Manager Jack Goin, Manager, Major League Administration Amanda Daley, Manager, Scouting Administration Jim Rantz, Senior Director, Minor Leagues Brad Steil, Director of Baseball Operations Deron Johnson, Director of Scouting Joel Lepel, Minor League Field Coordinator Vern Followell, Pro Scouting Coordinator Kate Townley, Manager, Minor League Administration Particularly Radcliff, Antony (very experienced front office guy), McIlvaine, Rantz and Deron Johnson. Kelly would never leave the Twins' organization no matter how much you paid him, IMO. And KW's ego is so big he could never deal with "admitting defeat" and hiring front office members from the Twins, but imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, as they say. After all, the Twins have used Guerrier, Rauch, Crede, O-Cab, Thome...a lot more than the White Sox have signed former "Piranhas." AJ Pierzynski is one of the few examples to counter with, where Twins' players have ended up in Chicago. We did come "THIS close" to signing Torii Hunter, I suppose that counts to some extent.

The White Sox have always been pretty cutting-edge in the front office... Why not Kim Ng, to have the first female major league baseball manager in history? WHY NOT? http://mlb.mlb.com/la/community/executives/ng.html Margie Wright (Illinois St. 1980-1985; Fresno St. 1986-2007): 1,253 wins 446 losses 3 ties JoAnne Graf (Florida St. 1984-07): 1,180 wins 397 losses 6 ties Gayle Blevins (Indiana 1980-87; Iowa 88-07): 1,136 wins 529 losses ties I think it would be really interesting to see what they could do? Could it really be worse than Guillen? It would be like if Pat Head Summitt or Geno Auriema of UCONN were to coach NCAA men's basketball or in the NBA...why couldn't they??? Sometimes MLB is too "conventional" (I agree with Ozzie) and goes time and time again to the "retread" managers over being innovative. If baseball can have GM's like Epstein, Jon Daniels, Jack Zdk. in Seattle, DePodesta, Ricciardi, etc. that have IVY LEAGUE and MBA/management/retail backgrounds, WHY NOT have an uncoventional managerial choice? By the way, here are six young "up and coming" future GM's between 31-35 years old. http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20...sp&c_id=mlb Notice that two of those guys have UMass-Amherst Sports Administration MA's. That's the best school in the country...when I went to Georgia Southern University in the 90's, it was probably the #2 program. I would love it if we could hire PRELLER from the Rangers' staff, it seems he has a great grasp of the Latin American market, a HUGE HUGE weakness for us since Ordonez and Carlos Lee.

Don't like Melvin much at all...

QUOTE (daggins @ Apr 28, 2010 -> 10:54 PM) If he goes after the season, maybe La Russa comes back. Ozzie goes somewhere else - Braves? LaRussa wants a competitive team. And one of the highest 3 salaries among managers. Would JR break his 30 year tradition of having low salaried/inexperienced managers who aren't paid elite managerial salaries? Doubtful. But JR has a pretty good relationship with JR, and spending money there (on a truly elite level manager) makes more sense than wasting it on Juan Pierre, Mark Kotsay, Omar Vizquel and Scott Linebrink. Still, the greatest manager in baseball couldn't do much with this team as currently comprised. Actually, if they're going to outbit someone, they should have tried to pry Gardenhire away from the Twins after 2007. A couple of more "Soxie" names you can throw into mix: Fisk (DOUBTFUL), McDowell (JR has a testy relationship with him, so doubtful), Ventura (wait 3-5 more years for his kids to get older), Lance Johnson (my favorite all-time Sox player) and Chris Singleton. Ray Durham? Ron Karkovice? Seems former catchers are usually among the best managers, 40-50% of time.

QUOTE (knightni @ Apr 28, 2010 -> 10:49 PM) Joel Skinner might be interesting. But, there's no point to "Fire Ozzie" threads now anyway. If he goes, it'll be after the season. Not so sure....Ozzie had a hard time dealing with 2007, and that season was really only atrocious for 2-3 months. This one has a chance to get out of hand in a hurry. Thankfully the Tigers came back to life and rallied from a 6-1 deficit or it would have been a 4 1/2 game lead already, with the Sox a scary 7 games back. Other than 1983, no Sox team has come back from a bigger deficit (they were 16-24, to end up 99-63) this early in the season to make it back into legitimate contention.

I'll reiterate. Ozzie, at the Ballpark in Arlington, one of the true hitters' paradises....started an AL (NOT NL) line-up with the worst cumulative OPS across the nine starting players (Pierre, AJ, Kotsay, Vizquel at 2 spot, Ramirez....even Quentin was in the mid 600's at the beginning of the game) in the HISTORY OF MLB after April 28th. We had only four legit (counting CQ despite the recent slump) threats in the line-up. Beckham and Jones were both sitting.

Here's a list to start with, feel free to argue/debate: Cora (no way) Walker (maybe he would be better than as a hitting coach?) Joel Skinnner (White Sox ties) Alan Trammell Steve Stone/DJ/Singleton (joking) Buddy Bell Don Cooper (I think Fathom and I are both in this camp) Don Baylor Bob Brenly Bobby Valentine Davey Johnson Don Mattingly Terry Pendleton

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/alex-remingt...l_b_160456.html Why KW is going nowhere, although with THIS past off-season, you can argue that perhaps he has fallen into the "third tier." Ozzie Guillen, if you ranked all the managers if baseball 1-30, would be somewhere between 18-24 in IMO. Some would rank him 12-17 because of 2005 and 2008, but I personally am going more off 2nd half 2006, 2007, 2009 and 2010. He did a great job in 2008, that team was held together with duct tape and baling wire, I'll give him that.

I remember the battle at WSI as the 2006 second half and then mid season 2007 turned against the Sox and we fell back to mediocrity. There were so many posters labelling everyone as "DARK CLOUDS" when really, we were just being pragmatic and realistic, accepting the fact that the dreams of a "dynasty" on the SouthSide and surpassing the Cubs in some intangible way in terms of clout were evaporating. We've returned back to mean...it's just that our payroll indicates we should be in 1st or 2nd every year. It's (payroll dollars) simply not being allocated as wisely as possible...and when the margin of error is so razor thin (see Game 163 in 08 and 09) between the Sox, Twins and Tigers, every roster mistake (Kotsay over Thome, who has a 1.1+ OPS, bringing in Pierre over other options like Pods) is completely magnified.

QUOTE (fathom @ Apr 28, 2010 -> 10:07 PM) Not surprised, we didn't really increase our team speed, especially when you consider Getz is way faster than Teahen. But Teahen is crafty (like Jose Valentin) and the best baserunner on the team, haha. Well, if you count Rios as a "new addition" in the offseason, as JR said (about Peavy and Rios), then we're faster. But Pierre is definitely slower than Getz and Pods now. Both of those guys beat out that last play IMO.

I'm waiting for the minor league threads and "trade talks" to start getting more "hits" than the Game Threads. Then you will know KW has a big problem on his hands, if even the "die hard" Sox fans are becoming apathetic.

QUOTE (fathom @ Apr 28, 2010 -> 09:01 PM) Better than the Twins? This is the best Twins team of the 21st century. Close. I would go with the 2006 team, the way they played the final 4 months was incredible. 2002-2004 with honorable mentions, those bullpens were simply untouchable against us with Hawkins, Romero, Rincon and Eddie Guardado.

DID we really start a line-up with lowest cumulative OPS after APRIL 28th in the history of MLB? I just heard that from the Rangers' announcers, they were belittling N. Perez for giving up hits to AJ, Ramirez and ALMOST Kotsay, who actually blistered a ball at SMOAK. You can run a computer simulation with our line-up, we would win that game one time out of ten with our line-up.

Why wouldn't Beckham or Jones be hitting for Pierre? C'mon Ozzie, wake up... You could stick Nix in the OF the next inning, who cares...but you have to let Beckham or Jones get a shot to tie it up!!!!! Our manager is once again proven fully incompetent. And good luck with Peavy contract, KW.

QUOTE (Capn12 @ Apr 28, 2010 -> 08:41 PM) Deer hit...I believe (recalling from memory)... .191 one year with 30+ homers. I stand corrected, 210s and 220s when he was in the 25-30 HR area. Dan Pasqua might have come close too, if memory serves me correctly. That guy could hit some absolute bombs. BTW, Milton Bradley and Javier Lopez can be solid offensive forces as well...when they're on and hitterish.

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ Apr 28, 2010 -> 08:39 PM) Yes. We obviously don't have a Felix Hernandez. Besides that, I'd take our talent over theirs. Certainly doesn't mean we have a better team. We also don't have Cliff Lee, Ichiro, a defensive/offensive threat that is equal to Franklin Gutierrez (Rios has been close, but look at Gutierrez's numbers AND his salary), Chone Figgins (sucky so far) or a defender that's close to as talented as Kotchmann (Kotsay is good, but not that good and not capable of regular play).

Has someone hitting under .200 ever hit 30+ homers in a major league season? Rob Deer? Dave Kingman? The funny thing is that if you look at Quentin's minor league stats and 2008, you would think he would be a consistent .270-.310 hitter for 15 years.

Level plane....sorry. Walker is around ostensibly to hang out with Ozzie and Cora in the dugout, shoot the sh-t with Harrelson (two good 'ol Georgia Boys) and sign autographs for those Sox fans who remember 1983 still.

Walker also said it's very very difficult to make in-season swing or mechanics overhauls....like when Rios came in and was completely lost. Beckham has a slight hitch now in his swing and he's also not swinging on a level plan with that inside out solid contact up the middle and to LCF/RCF. But why is it that Cooper (with pitchers) or Tiger Woods (in golf) can do it relatively quickly? Aren't both repetitive motions that can be learned and unlearned....trained and untrained and retrained?

Guerrier clearly would be in our pen, it's just that Marte played a key role for us in 2002-2004, and he had his moments but faded for us in 2005. But any component of that 2005 team, hard to say you'd undo the trade that brought them into the fold. Even Vizcaino was important in his role that year, in spots.