caulfield12

It's pretty clear we're heading directly into 1998 and 1999 again with the White Sox, with Dunn being our version of Albert Belle, Konerko as Thomas and nothing resembling a young C-Lee, Ordonez or Durham on the horizon. Not even a Crede or Rowand. Without Sale, I can't even say our pitching staff is stronger overall than the 2000 version. Pitchers should learn not to hang sliders inside against Dayan. Note to Ventura...tying the game against DET on the road with the "bunt approach" there isn't going to win any games for us. It just puts pressure on Beckham.

QUOTE (fathom @ May 4, 2012 -> 06:23 PM) Astros farm system blows ours away now And they're outdrawing us by 2,900 per game. The fans there seem more genuinely excited about that team of unknowns (see the Mets series this week) than Sox fans do about theirs. Despite having arguably a worse team, the Cubs might end up nearly doubling our attendance this season.

With the way everything else is going in this organization, we might as well pretend without Greg Walker around that Brent Lillibridge has reverted to the 2009-2010 version, too.

Yeah, see Moore, Matt. Too bad we gave Danks $65 million. That makes even LESS sense now with Sale unlikely to be a member of the starting rotation again. Too bad you don't burn first round draft picks on relievers. We've done that twice now with both Sale and Royce Ring. It's like taking a punter or place kicker in the first round of the NFL draft.

So we're going to build Chris Sale into an elite, Billy Wagner-esque closer on a rebuilding team that will need that final piece the least? Except for Mitchell in AA, with the Sale news, our future might be about as bleak as the Astros. The main two things most of us were looking forward to were Sale pitching every 5 days and Viciedo getting a full season of AB's.

Probably because everybody is afraid to suggest Williams, Jr., be released or sent to W-S...and/or because most of the front office and scouts aren't THAT high on either one of those guys.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ May 4, 2012 -> 02:13 PM) It's quite hard to get Montero from the Yankees these days. I would probably be convinced by one of their "ranked" guys, Banuelos, Betances, Sanchez, or Williams. I wouldn't make the deal if I wasn't getting something legit back. LOL. Kind of doubt Ramos is available from the Nationals, too. Just throwing out a couple of names as reference points. And hopefully the Sox pitchers don't forget Montero, because he hit some of the hardest shots in that series for the M's, including the homer to straightaway CF. I meant grabbing a future starting catcher with that kind of cache.

But what kind of prospect are you going to legitimately get from the Yankees for Matt Thornton? Not one of their Top 3 prospects. Maybe 6-10? If it was in 2010, when his contract was more typical of a set-up guy, I could see us getting something really nice, but not so much now because of his age, salary and failures in 2011. Probably nothing like Wilson Ramos or Montero, which is what we really need. This would be our wish list, theoretically. 4. Gary Sanchez, c 5. Mason Williams, of 6. Dante Bichette, 3b 7. Ravel Santana, of 8. Austin Romine, c 9. J.R. Murphy, c/3b 10. Slade Heathcott, of

Mitchell 3 for his last 18 (.167) with "just" two doubles.

I'm sure DJ will probably call Young a "knucklehead," not sure how much stronger their comments will be. Depending on his mood and flow of the game, Farmer MIGHT be willing to go a bit more political/controversial, but not really DJ's thing to criticize players as much as Ed. He'll chime in after Farmer has said something negative, but he usually doesn't initiate criticism as much as Farmer does.

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20...lb&c_id=mlb I think it's a little bit too gimmicky and marketing-centric. For example, the team that won the World Baseball Classic would play against the American All-Star team in July...or the Japanese professional league champion team or an All-Star team from Japan or Korea would face the American team.... Venezuelan or Dominican teams versus each other....4 game "playoff" tournament in the middle of the year, etc. Of course, we already have the WBC, but that's always in the preseason and doesn't have full participation...and the Olympics, but that's different, too. Maybe you could have a six team tourney (US, Dominican Republic, Venezuela, Cuba, Japan and Korea) and seed the teams 1-6 with the top two teams getting byes? Plus, you'd have to go back to the alternate-year home field advantage for the World Series, although I guess that wouldn't be the worst thing in the world to occur.

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ May 4, 2012 -> 10:27 AM) According to FanGraphs, Albert Pujols has been the 2nd least valuable player in baseball, right below Xavier Nady. Yay, Morel's not last. Nor is Beckham. Baby steps.

Actually more disappointing that Molina's stuff hasn't looked better (yeah, we know his control is playable, but...) and Castro still looks really, really rough, too.

I would trade for Matt Thornton and take on that salary in a second before I would mess with Marmol. Marmol and the pressure-cooker that is NY, not a good idea. There's pretty good reason to suspect Soriano wouldn't be able to handle it either...he just doesn't have the same kind of stuff he had 5 years ago when he could be devastating. And Soriano's already become Cashman's own version of Adam Dunn in a way, the fans aren't going to give him much rope.

Except for Marty, nobody's calling for KW's head. We're 29th in MLB attendance right now and extrapolated out at the same pace, we'd end up with the worst attendance figures of the KW Era (2002, just over 1.6 million) and the worst for New Comiskey except for 1998 and 1999. But I don't see MOST of the fanbase in a panic. The hardcore fans are aware that there's some patience required...and have to look no further than the Northside for evidence of this fact. That parallel project alone gives KW some added breathing room, but it is frustrating because if he had built a consistent winner and a couple of more playoff teams, we'd be a in much better position vis a vis the Cubs than we are now.

http://espn.go.com/mlb/player/stats/_/id/3748/david-ortiz 27 1/2 is the first time he put up really big, 900+ OPS numbers. His first 4+ years with the Twins, he was at 802, 817, 810, 799 and then 839 at age 26 1/2. Then you have to consider the fall-off in OPS numbers since the height of the steroids era, that's the equivalent of Viciedo putting up 750-775-800 these next few upcoming years and peaking at ages 26-29. That's what a rebuilding team HAS to do. Have at least 4-5-6 position guys together in their peak production years.

Robin wears his hat too low on his head and doesn't bend the bill enough. And he's boring, like Joe C's twitter account now. Fire KW!

Robertson's the best reliever in baseball right now, statistically. Whether he can do the job as the closer, that remains to be seen. At least they have 2 good candidates before they have to make a desperation move.

QUOTE (greg775 @ May 3, 2012 -> 11:49 PM) Why the Farmer hate? I think he's OK. You should hear the Royals' hacks. They have one good announcer and they reduced his workload 90 games this year. Like when they say Angels instead of Royals, lol. Levebvre's okay, and so is Denny Mathews, albeit a bit cranky at times.. Bob Davis, so-so.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ May 3, 2012 -> 06:38 AM) Plus they still owe $189 million to Mauer and Morneau (counting this year). To put that in perspective the Sox owe $91.5 million to Peavy, Rios, and Dunn. Don't forget Danks now!!

You've got the Rangers' staff, all the AL staffs now are good (especially TB), Baltimore is rapidly improving there, Toronto, then the Mariners and A's don't have great staffs 1-5 but hitting homers in either of those stadiums is quite diferent than the ball flying out in St. Louis from May-September. The AL Central after the Tigers and White Sox is probably the weakest because of MINN and KC. Rehab stint likely for White Sox' Crain By Daryl Van Schouwen on May 3, 2012 7:32 PM | Jesse Crain is eligible to come off the disabled list Sunday but the right-handed reliever won't be back any time soon. Manager Robin Ventura said one or two minor-league rehab outings are likely once Crain's left oblique heals completely. Crain had hoped to throw off a mound Thursday but was limited to about 20 throws on flat ground. "I don't do anything half [way], so I got to be ready to go, I got to get through it without it bothering me and affecting the way I pitch,'' Crain said. Crain, who was shelved with a mild right oblique strain is frustrated with this one, which is probably more delicate for a right-hander. He tried to stay positive. "The other day when I was done throwing, it felt very tight and sensitive,'' he said. "Today, it doesn't feel quite like that. So I think it's a step forward." http://blogs.suntimes.com/whitesox/

Pedro Hernandez with another very good start in AA. Mitchell 0/4 with 2 K's.

QUOTE (fathom @ May 3, 2012 -> 07:20 PM) The Change-Up was way better than I thought it would be...and I'm not talking about Danks. Probably one of those movies that you appreciate more when you have kids. It's definitely better than a somewhat similar movie, HALL PASS. Ryan Reynolds and Owen Wilson both have that likeable quality that you can at least sit through pretty horrible movies when they're in them...like The Green Lantern.

Farmer still provides more insight/analysis than DJ ever does...when he's not incessantly name-dropping, mentioning Notre Dame or doing a shout out for kidney transplants.

mcgrad derisive post-game comments arriving in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1....