caulfield12

QUOTE (fathom @ Apr 17, 2010 -> 04:25 PM) Yep, just that the way sucking on offense since the ASB of 2006 has gotten rid of Walker. At this point, Ozzie's done so much damage to the talent of this organization that it's going to be hard to recover for a few seasons. Now this I'll disgree with. I think 75% of it has to do with KW's decision-making process...we just haven't done a good job for a decade in developing talent, with the significant addition of Beckham, but he's only one player. When Ramirez and Quentin proved they both overachieved a bit in 2008 and KW didn't replace that gap, along with shedding Dye/Thome and replacing those guys with Teahen/Pierre/Vizquel/Kotsay...we've regressed since that year and Twins have improved each season and grown more confident. Quentin TRYING WAY TOO HARD and pulling off the ball, popping up. What's new?

QUOTE (justBLAZE @ Apr 17, 2010 -> 04:24 PM) Can someone please tell me how Cleveland scored the third run? I missed it while driving home. Choo ripped a double after Sizemore had singled. Gave up two hits in a row to lefties. He's human. Newsflash...our offense sucks. End of story.

This does happen to Thornton occasionally, he doesn't have that 96-98 MPH FB when he's out of the stretch. Then he gave up a hit on an offspeed pitch to Sizemore. But hey, it's still early.

At least Pods can actually drive in a run, unlike Pierre. And he's got six stolen bases. Well, the odds of him lasting the entire season are about 10-15%.

QUOTE (Thunderbolt @ Apr 17, 2010 -> 12:14 PM) I believe Oswalt was one of the contingency plans after Peavy rejected the first trade last year. Oswalt didn't express any interest in coming here. Frankly, if we went after Berkman and the Astros demanded we toss in a couple more players and assume Oswalt and his salary... i'd be game. I'd love to see it, but adding $12 million to $20 million (Oswalt/Berkman)...depending on when they're acquired...that doesn't seem to be in the cards. It would be super ballsy, but with all the whining KW does, do you see it happening realistically?

It's frighteningly obvious...I don't know what KW was thinking, maybe that they really wanted to move Beckham to 2B as his most natural position. But you don't trade for Teahen and then sign him to an extension when he hasn't proven he can consistently put up corner infield numbers. I don't like Beckham at 3B, but having Hudson/Ramirez/Beckham (wherever they play) to me gives you more speed/athleticism and a better overall infield defense than what we have now. ANKIEL with two bombs...but still, trailing 5-3 and not looking good since the Royals' bullpen is Soria, (Sain) and pray for Rain. Farnsworth's current fastball is making Jake Peavy's look like Zumaya, amazing.

QUOTE (Disco72 @ Apr 17, 2010 -> 11:54 AM) If their pitching holds up, that's the difference. Other than Nathan and Pavano, they're not paying much of anything for their pitching. I'm not convinced their pitching is going to hold up over a full season. They're kind of in the same situation we are with Danks/Floyd. Blackburn just signed a $14 million/4 years, Slowey wants the same deal, essentially. Then you have Baker and Liriano hitting arbitration as well. But they don't have the big deals like we do with Buehrle, Peavy, Jenks and Linebrink. And all that said, they can easily sustain that payroll if they want because Pohlad has very deep pockets and wants to differentiate himself from his dad IMO. FWIW, we'd be much better off with Thome/Hudson (Beckham could have stayed at 3B) and SAVED money compared to what we have now with Teahen, Pierre, Vizquel and Kotsay. Hudson could have hit 1st, Beckham 2nd. Hudson/Rios Beckham Quentin Konerko Thome Jones Rios AJ Ramirez That line-up would score 50-100 more runs IMO than our present line-up. Thome, Jones, Rios and Quentin would get 90-95% of the OF/DH ab's, with Kotsay as the 4th OF/1B/DH and DeAza 5th. Heck, you could argue De Aza might be a better option than Pierre based on what we've seen for two weeks.

QUOTE (Leonard Zelig @ Apr 17, 2010 -> 10:26 AM) I missed it, what did Ozzie say about the lineup? That the whole line-up was inconsistent...that Jones would be starting instead of Kotsay....maybe moving up Teahen and/or AJ in the line-up.

The thing that really sucks is not only can the Twins now outspend us, they have a much better farm system. The only area that we can argue superiority is the bullpen. Well, as they say, it's always darkest before the dawn. Things can shift and change very quickly in baseball.

Threets with another good outing. Here's hoping Danks stays healthy all season and sustains his high level of play...that would be a great sign for his future, although he's certainly not an obvious replacement for Pierre as a leadoff hitter. Leading to the (Ryan Sweeney-esque) question of moving Rios out of CF again or just letting Danks play a corner spot. Obviously, Pods and Pierre are lighter-hitting corner outfielders in terms of their power numbers, so the White Sox historically haven't been afraid to go that route. Yet Danks clearly strikes out too much and doesn't yet have the ability to put up 30+ steals either. Hope he ends up more like Sweeney than BA, Borchard or Jeremy Reed.

It wouldn't piss me off. It would be disappointing...and probably impossible with the Royals and Indians in our own division. We have to beat those teams about 50% of the time, no matter how poorly we've played the Indians so far. If we're going to be that bad, we might as well go out and completely tear things apart, because another 78-84 win team that's non-competitive for the division title won't do anything for the attendance anyways. Having a Top 5-6-7-8 draft pick would be so much better than 13-17, too. I'd be more excited about seeing Flowers, Hudson, Danks and Viciedo play than I ever would be about a 43 year old Vizquel, Kotsay, Pierre or Mark Teahen, that's for sure. Things have gotten to the point I'd rather see Nix play/bat than half of our line-up. That's saying something. Or I'd rather see CJ Retherford and similar players who have something to prove and a chip on their shoulders who really appreciate every day they're on a major league roster. It's not like they could be any worse than Owens, Fields, Wasserman, Brian Anderson and Andy Gonzalez. That's impossible to duplicate.

Marson's already thrown out 4 guys this season....leading Victor Martinez and AJ's totals for one year, haha. Well, there goes a run and RBI for Becks. Ugly.

You don't think Jack Z made a very silly move taking on the Bradley contract, undoing a lot of the good he'd done in 2009? At least he has a philosophy, defense/pitching first, but he obviously needs Lee for that to work...and the offense has been putrid to date.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Apr 16, 2010 -> 03:41 PM) I don't think extending Contreras had anything to do with acquiring him. Getting something worth a s*** for an expiring contract in Loaiza had everything to do with it. I can't imagine why the Sox would have wanted to resign Contreras at that time because his career ERA was like 5.50 at the time. I also don't think Williams is going to put any pressure on Danks, but Danks has to realize that if you pitch for the White Sox, you are almost always safe from being dealt if you are in the middle of a contract, and you are very vulnerable to being traded if you are in the final year of your contract, especially as a starting pitcher. Williams dealt both Garcia and Garland in the offseason of the last year of their deals, and he dealt Contreras near the end of the year for his deal. I meant, he (Contreras) had already signed a "subsidized" contract with the Yankees and he was going to be under our control for multiple seasons at that point. I can't remember exactly, I thought that Yankees deal was something like $32 million for 4 years, his first contract. Loaiza was a one-and-done at that point, wasn't he? After 2003?

Threets looks like he could be the real deal too... He is still 28, not super old.

Well, that was the whole idea of the Garcia move....it never would have been made without the "handshake" agreement that was verified days after the trade about a long-term extension, with Ozzie supposedly in the middle of it all. It was also one of the keys to bringing Contreras on board. What will be interesting to see is if KW puts pressure on Danks to sign a multi-year deal extending into Year 1 of Free Agency...

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=5098407 Best story of day, or weirdest. Fan arrested for vomiting intentionally on girl in Philly....$36,00 fine? Double wow.

Is Chris B. Young for real again? Or just an anomalous beginning to 2010? Should I write another article revisiting the Javy Vazquez trade? From Phil Rogers

QUOTE (Kalapse @ Apr 16, 2010 -> 11:58 AM) So the 3 to 4 months that would remain in the 2010 season don't count? I should have been a bit more clear. I meant that more in the sense that we get him in late July instead of early June....I think the Padres will hold onto him as long as possible and wait for the bidding war to develop, not unlike the Halladay situation in TOR. Not that I was giving up on this season, because it's still WAY too early to make any conclusions until late May. I don't think you cripple your minor league system for a MAYBE division title in 2010 and just one full season of Gonzalez. It's too big of a gamble with long term negative consequences for our orgnizational competitiveness. Also, with the market set for Blackburn at $14 million/4 years, Floyd's contract, Slowey wanting a similar deal with the Twins...will KW now offer to pay Danksie more than all 3 of them in an effort to keep him from getting too expensive in Years 5/6? How high do you go to keep him a happy camper?

It will be interesting to see what becomes of Jenks, Konerko, AJ and Buehrle. They're the last four surviving links to 2005. Hard to imagine parting with all four before 2011. It's going to be the key decision of KW's tenure about moving Buehrle/Floyd/Danks. Danks would seem like the logical choice, since he's been more unwilling to accept a "favorable" (below market value) contract from the club perspective. Santos=Jenks Viciedo=Konerko (in a perfect world, certainly not with a 600 OPS so far at Charlotte) Flowers=AJ Hudson can take the place of Danks. It really scares me to trade Danks over Floyd, simply because I think Danks is going to end up as the better pitcher looking back 5 years from now... It does make for a much more interesting trade if you're the Padres....although Danks starts to look more and more expensive in arbitration, like Jenks has become. Danks/Danks/Flowers will definitely get you Adrian Gonzalez. Or Danks/Santos/Flowers. The problem is that KW has to pull another rabbit out of his hat to replace that other spot in the starting rotation. It's not likely to be Torres, Marquez, Cassell, Harrell, Hynick, etc. What I'd like to see is whether there's ANY possibility in the world to convert Sergio Santos into a starting pitcher. It's a 1/20 shot, but it's worth kicking the tires on. Letting him "stretch" out and develop his offspeed stuff would have nothing but positive consequences for his development. If we saved all the money from Jenks, Konerko and AJ, we could use it to resign Gonzalez long-term. Or something I don't believe I'm saying, bringing back Jermaine Dye to play 1B....if we don't pay Konerko $10-15 million for 2 years and/or Viciedo is FAIL.

Threets is definitely the next guy in...supposedly he was throwing 93-95 MPH in spring training, seems Coop can work with him. Williams has never been anything but a journeyman.

I don't understand trading for Gonzalez for basically just one season (doubtful on the possibility of an extension like Garcia signed right after being traded in 2004)...you know he's going to test the market with how underpaid he is. Buddy Bell on the subject of Tyler Flowers "We are trying to transition him back to the basics to get back to where he was last season....Too many thoughts, you just can't play [the game that way]." On his offense "We think the world of him offensively. Very intelligent kid." Let's say the deal was Santos, Flowers, Hudson and Shelby/CJ/Sergio Morales/M. Gonzalez, would anyone pull the trigger on that one?

I think 4.50 is pretty unrealistic for Garcia at this point. Anything above 5.25 or so, that would be the "danger zone" for Freddy.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Apr 16, 2010 -> 08:16 AM) If the Sox were looking to actually make a trade, who on their major league roster would be involved? They might want to sell of Jenks or Linebrink as a salary dump. I could see them moving Santos right now, but that would be unpleasant. Beckham or Ramirez? Hardly likely. Either they're looking at Toronto's team or their just advance scouts. If anyone's scouting the Sox's system right now, they're going to AAA. What would be the incentive to trade Sergio Santos at this point?

There is a unofficial sports rule that no group or subgroup can be called "Fab Five" or "Fab Four" if the team's overall record is below .500.