caulfield12

Thank god Liriano also means no Mark Kotsay in the 5 hole either. It would be nice to get Andruw Jones some consistent at-bats and see if he can go on a hot streak and carry the offense for a week or so with how bad our hitting has looked.

QUOTE (EvilJester99 @ Apr 9, 2010 -> 09:23 AM) How long b4 KW gets pissed and signs Dye or someone else to hit DH?? With our supposed payroll situation....never. It would be like admitting that letting Thome and Dye go was a mistake, and he doesn't do that very often. Not to mention the biggest need is for LH pop. For all we know, Andruw Jones could very easily put up the same numbers as Dye at 1/5th the price with much better defense.

It's a little early to be talking about trading Mark Teahen. Let's give the season at least 3 weeks before we start talking about benching players...not to mention the weather conditions are far from ideal for hitting. Does Teahan have a relatively short rope, compared to some of the others around here like Ramirez? Sure. But Brent Morel or Viciedo are both far from ready for everyday duty, and there's that slight matter of the extension that KW felt justified in giving to him. We all saw how Nix struggled when he was moved all around...he might get an occasional start in the first month, but he's not going to be getting regular at-bats in any type of scenario except for Teahen going 0 for the first three weeks or something dramatic like that.

I think most of our fanbase was ready to turn the page with Thome and/or Dye. However, knowing the replacements are Jones and Kotsay...there's the gist of the problem. It's not letting Thome go...or even the fact that he'll now hurt us as a "hated" Twin, but the fact that KW whiffed again this offseason and left a Grand Canyon-sized gaping abyss in the middle of our line-up. Still, if we had a clutch hit with the bases loaded early in the game OR in the 9th, things obviously would look much more favorable than they do right now.

QUOTE (Kalapse @ Apr 8, 2010 -> 10:54 PM) You can make the correct decision and not have it pan out and you can make the wrong decision and have it work spectacularly. When you're struggling to find hits and you're not allowing your best pure hitter to take swings because you apparently have little faith in one of the best base stealers in the game to swipe a bag late you're making the wrong decision. But didn't we see the same type of situation numerous times with Pods...where, instead of stealing, we'd be forced to bunt him over? I can't think of more than a few times after the first half of 2005 (when he was 100% and running every game) that he reached first, stole 2nd and THEN was bunted over to 3rd. If we have to waste an out with Beckham, then what's the point of even having Juan Pierre on the team, if we can't run without 85% certainty that he'll reach 2nd base. Then it might make SOME sense to bunt, but still better to let Beckham hit, despite his failure with the bases loaded earlier in the game.

Last year, the White Sox could get momentum going during the season....pretty much never. From game to game and series to series, seemingly nothing carried over, except not winning the games when we had chances to sweep. If the Twins keep getting this type of pitching all season long with that offense, you can forget about it anyway. This team was constructed with the idea of hanging close with the pitching and being able to eke out 1-2 run wins on a consistent basis. That's obviously been a big fail for two nights in a row. Almost feels like a broken record. Bullpen and fielding lapses, no clutch hitting....no Alexei in April. Trying too hard to manufacture runs...which puts a lot of stress on the hitters, knowing we no longer have a dominant or explosive type of offense anymore. There's nothing wrong with having this type of team in April's cold Chicago weather, but it's not going to work when the weather heats up. It's not even working now.

Now we're back to wishing/hoping we could pencil someone into the line-up with Jim Thome's numbers. Even though we apparently don't need or want Thome anymore. Maddening.

QUOTE (WCSox @ Apr 8, 2010 -> 11:38 AM) So you're basically comparing two completely different scenarios, without regard to the context. Gotcha. You bemoan the fact that we have Teahen and Pierre in our lineup, and suggest that Rays fans would scoff at the idea of having those guys in their lineup... ... but completely ignore the respective situations that the two organizations have been in for the past decade. Yeah, it would sure be nice to have Longoria and Crawford instead, but the draft rights to talent like that comes at a price. In the case of the Rays, it was finishing in 5th place in 9 of their first 10 years of existence. Sure, I'd love the have the Rays lineup as well, but not at the cost of a championship and a team that's competitive and watchable on a semi-regular basis. So, yes, you are technically correct that the Rays have a better lineup at a lower cost than the Sox. But it's a really bad comparison. I completely disagree with this. Having money to spend on free agents is nice (and at least some is necessary to build a champion), but spending one's way to a championship usually doesn't work (Yankees excluded, due to their excessively-deep pockets). Just about every team needs to build around a core of young, affordable talent. The Phillies are a good example of this. And, sure, rounding out a good core of young talent with expensive veterans is nice (as the Red Sox have done), but consistent access to cheap, young talent trumps all. You cite the Pirates and Royals as examples of teams that can't compete because of their lack of financial resources, but I'll argue that their own incompetence is what's holding them back. Organizations that make stupid decisions on free agents, like the Cubs and Mets, don't win pennants, not matter how much disposable income they have. Case in point: The Marlins have won two WS in the past 18 years, while the Cubs haven't wont any in over 100. And the core of that second championship was mostly home-grown on a shoestring budget. The early '90s Sox are a good example of a team with middle-market resources whose intelligent use of high draft picks from '87-'90 (Frank, Blackjack, Ventura, Alvarez, etc.) set their stage for a run of highly-competitive years. Hell, it took the Sox tanking in 2007 for them to have access to a stud like Beckham. Alvarez was part of the Baines trade and I think signed directly out of Venezuela, but the point still stands. Even some of our secondary pieces from those days like Scott Radinsky, Jason Bere and Greg Hibbard came out of our system. And then we picked up some valuable players like Lance Johnson and Melido Perez from other organizations. All and all, Himes did a very good job picking up the pieces after the Harrelson debacle.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Apr 8, 2010 -> 08:26 AM) Scutaro put up a .380 OBP last year. Based on OPS+, Cameron has been an above average OF bat for the last 11 years. Yes, we would be a lot better off with Scutaro as our leadoff hitter than Juan Pierre. He's actually one of the most underrated players in the game, which is why he caught Esptein's eye, and Bill James, no doubt. As far as Cameron goes, he's always been a little bit of a disappointment. Great defender, but too much of an all-or-nothing hitter. That said, Chris B. Young would thank his lucky stars to be able to have Mike's career post-White Sox from here on out. It's hard not to think of all the busts we've had in CF and look at that big payroll number in Rios and speculate the various ways that money could have been more astutely allocated to balance out our offense a little bit better. But I like Rios a lot, too. I think we won't fully appreciate him until after we watch him play for an entire year when he's putting up his customary numbers.

There will be a Mark Kotsay thread every time our offense comes up short, just like there were DeWayne Wise, Brent Lillibridge, Corky Miller, Brian Anderson, Josh Fields, Chris Getz, et al, threads last year when we struggled offensively last year. There are no Pierre, Teahen or Ramirez threads...it's not quite fair to single Mark Kotsay out just yet, he's just the easiest one to pick on, like Wise was last year. Fans are no doubt frustrated because obviously this was a pretty glaring weakness to head into the season with. I know someone will point out the Red Sox are starting the likes of Mike Cameron and Marco Scutaro...that you can't field a team of All-Stars at every position. That we have a budget, that our team needs to be more versatile, etc. But this weekend will be a good test. The Twins have come out ready to play, already taking 2/3 from the Angels out on the Coast. USUALLY we play the Twins well in Chicago...we'll have a better idea where we stand over the weekend.

Note to Ozzie: Let's just see if we catch lightning in a bottle with Andruw Jones? Please let him hit more than once per series.

Let's hope this isn't an omen for the rest of Bobby's season...thank god we at least have Thornton and Putz in reserve for a total Jenks meltdown this season.

Since they got a new manager who actually knows what he's doing?

Jenks at 93 and 94 as usual early in the season... I don't know about Linebrink, but Jenks in these tied or trailing situations is almost asking for trouble usually.

Game 2 and I think already some heat will be on Teahen and Kotsay to pick it up...this offense of ours is a painful thing already. Let's hope we get the traditional bad Indians' bullpen from the last couple of years.

We'll see how well that "defense-first" approach works with the Mariners this season...at least it's an idea or strategy, something the Royals don't seem to have at all, ever. Beckham and Ramirez both quite obviously have the ability to be above average defenders, Teahen, mehhh....but still probably better than Fields/Beckham, which isn't saying much. We've been spoiled with Ventura and Crede, let's just leave it at that. Obviously we were atrocious last year, so it's hard to go backwards. Maybe we've gone from bottom quartile to Top 25-50%, I think you can make a legit argument swapping Dye and Pods for Pierre and Quentin in his correct position, not to mention Andruw Jones, Rios and Vizquel...that our outfield defense has gone from a huge negative to an overall asset to the club, which is quite an accomplishment. And let's not forget Kotsay at 1B and Nix's flashes in the infield as well. And we have Danks and (knock on wood) Mitchell to look forward to in the future as well. Pretty happy with KW's addressing some of these areas, although the jury is still out on Tyler Flowers replacing AJ.

If you want to give him credit for Pippen and Rodman, that's fine. Jordan, he was the third pick in the draft (I think the now infamous Sam Bowie from UK went before him) and hardly a hidden gem at that point in his career at North Catholina. Horace Grant was also a very well-known college player at Clemson...I guess he's also famous for the Toni Kukoc move, as much as any that he made.

which you would think would have showed up on at least ONE of his multiple scouting reports in the Sox FO...strange how they missed out on so many guys like Borchard, Josh Fields and Anderson that were athletically gifted but "baseball deficient"

Winnin' ugly. Those type of runs would have bailed out Alex quite a bit last year.

Kotsay is the new Carl Everett/Juan Uribe of RBI's. Joking...well, at least no double play ball, that would have stung, and advanced the runners.

Well, at least we're killing Westbrook's pitch count, and their pen was probably the worst in the majors last year.

I don't care about all the freaking fancy graphics, I just want to HEAR what's going on. You would think they would figure this out b4 Opening Day somehow.

Has anyone tried to use MLB GameDay Audio with this new AT BAT feature? figures it worked for the Yankees-Red Sox game last night but now it's not working at all for the Sox.

Basically, Brian Anderson told a reporter in Tucson (where he went to college) that if he was not going to make the Royals or any other major league club he would make the switch to pitching (he was a highly thought of P in high school and early in his U of A career- throwing 95) But, I have found out that this was more of a gusto reaction at the time of the interview…He is going to stay in the OF and will go to Omaha if needed. from blog at kcstar.com The next Sergio Santos or Jason Dellaero/Brooks Kieschnick?

QUOTE (chisoxfan09 @ Apr 5, 2010 -> 09:20 AM) Ignore my AGon posts and a serious question. Is Cust the type of bat Walker can maybe tweak to lower the K rate or is he too far gone in his swinging tendancies that he is a lost cause? Brian Anderson and Joshua Fields? Joe Borchard? Joking... There are many positive success stories with Walker, but I can't think of one evidencing significant K rate decline in my memory.