caulfield12

How many times has Pods been picked off this year? 5? 6? He might be the worst baserunner we have...and his best way to steal has been to get picked off and have the 1B hit him on his way to second. It will be a minor miracle if we win one game this series with the line-up we're putting out there.

QUOTE (BearSox @ Jun 11, 2009 -> 08:19 PM) Nice win, but... I've mentioned this before, but I'm getting pretty sick and tired of watching Alexei out there. I've been one of his biggest fans and backers the past 2 years, but this s*** is getting old. Since there's not much hope for the rest of the season, IMO, there's no point in not letting Alexei go out there everyday and try and prove something, but I'm getting to the point where I don't think he's good enough to be an everyday player. I would not be upset at all to see Beckham getting a lot of time at SS. Alexei can still be a very valuable utility guy who can play all 3 OF spots as well 2B, 3B, and SS with average or better D. However, I don't think Alexei can be counted on as an everyday player. He tries to hit home runs every AB, and he just doesn't seem to have much baseball IQ (he's a natural player, but he's a bonehead). After Thome/Dye/Konerko (especially with Paulie on the shelf and AJ struggling), Alexei's the one player on the roster who has the ability to carry and spark this team offensively with Carlos out. We saw it last year. Alexei's OPS is probably about the same or a little bit higher than Orlando Cabrera's last year...and he's got one of the best "bargain" contracts in the game. What other player in the line-up has shown the ability to have that kind of an offensive impact? Pods is hitting well, but he's not scaring anyone on the basepaths, but White Sox fans. Beckham isn't ready yet and he's starting to press. Fields (based on 2007 only) is the other player who COULD have this affect on the offensive production...Anderson, Nix and Getz are simply complementary players who wouldn't be starting on MOST serious World Series contenders. You can have a player or two like that in the line-up, but not 3-4.

QUOTE (fathom @ Jun 9, 2009 -> 08:41 PM) Absolutely dreadful by AJP tonight. If you're not going to play Castro against Willis, why even have him on the team? Of course, that 700 OPS from Castro wouldn't hurt with our line-up. I wonder how much of it has to do with Buehrle being really comfortable with AJ? However, Mark's the kind of guy that doesn't really need an experienced catcher or one he's familiar with... The White Sox have to be last in the majors with RISP, correct?

QUOTE (Kenny Hates Prospects @ Jun 9, 2009 -> 01:05 PM) Type A distinction doesn't matter for those players because they're not getting arb at their salaries. Also, some of our veterans are very good and would be worth some very good young players, although I think in any deal we're far more likely to end up with projects who need a change of scenery and/or prospects who are 2+ years away. I could actually see Kenny both buying and selling. He did that in 2007 where he traded Iguchi & Mackowiak but also extended AJ, Buehrle, and Dye. Plus Kenny showed in 2004 that even during a bad season where the playoffs were unlikely, he'd still make a big addition to bolster the next season's team. He tried to acquire Carlos Delgado after we were basically out of it and he did pick up Contreras then. Overall I agree that it's unlikely we'll be moving the veterans right this minute. Not to mention that we traded for Freddy Garcia and subsequently signed him to an extension in 2004. That and the Contreras move were two huge keys that came before the momentous 2004/05 offseason. Dick Allen, Seriously, if you were the GM, what you do? Obviously, this team is a healthy Carlos Quentin, short above average production from 2B/3B/CF (Ramirez I think we can count on now for the rest of the season) and one starting pitcher short. You're telling me you would turn around and trade some of our core youngsters (Allen, Poreda, Flowers) for a 5-15% shot at winning this year. KW isn't or can't going to trade Viciedo, Beckham and Jordan Danks...and the next valuable players down the list are PROBABLY Josh Fields and/or John Shelby III. Do you really think the fanbase would be aggrieved if we were 10 games out at the end of July and KW traded Dotel or Dye to make this team better positioned for 2010? Now I'll grant you, trading Konerko or Jenks would send a few more shock waves, but KW isn't going to sit still. Would it really be better to TRY to compete with this fatally-flawed team in 2009 or wouldn't we much better off trying to have really good or great teams down the line? Yes, we definitely need to wait another four more weeks, but this 12 game homestand was the time to go 8-4 or 9-3 and get back to .500. What better opportunity were we going to have with two sub .500, last place teams at home and then a chance against the first place team in the division? What tells any of the fans that this team can compete besides blind optimism/hope/faith?

QUOTE (Jimbo's Drinker @ Jun 8, 2009 -> 09:24 PM) Trade Fields, takes pressure off Becks. Gordon Beckham might be putting pressure on himself, but it has nothing to do with Josh Fields. OTOH, Beckham's promotion has gotten into Josh's head. First Joe Crede, now Beckham...he feels "victimized" by the organization and wants to use that as an excuse for not holding the position. 3B hit for power OR field. Do one or the other Josh, doing NEITHER doesn't guarantee you a position in ANY organization, not even Washington.

But then what happens if Gordon really struggles and has to go back down to the minors? Betemit is gone. Do we just play Nix there? Viciedo is far from ready.

QUOTE (fathom @ Jun 8, 2009 -> 09:16 PM) He hasn't really tried to pull anything yet. He's not swinging and missing, which is very promising. He's just in between a little bit, but he'll be fine. There's just a huge difference between the swings and hand speed of a Ramirez/Beckham versus Anderson/Fields. Alexei's swing got too big, but he has the hand speed to compensate. Josh and Brian do not...and Wise might as well go home. Nix, of the other hitters, has the type of swing it SEEMS could be productive or dangerous. If you followed him in the minors or ST, you'll know his natural swing is between the 2B and the bag, right up the RCF alley/gap. He'll be a doubles machine and give you 16-24 homers per season playing 81 games at USCF.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Jun 8, 2009 -> 08:56 PM) Completely false. You are saying his lack of feel for his pitches was mental and not the huge layoff from rehabbing a career threatening injury? Seriously, sometimes I wonder where people get this stuff. I especially like the use of a statistic there pointing at something you have looked at subjectively. You're discounting the fact that he doesn't have a 95-97 MPH fastball to work with anymore. That will give any pitcher a lot of confidence, just like when Bartolo was dominant....you could see it with Bonderman in the low 90's/high 80's instead of mid 90's. Yes, a large part of it was/is mechanical when you come back from that kind of injury. You lose your consistent release point...and then when you jump around from different arm angles, it becomes that much more difficult to get a feel. Jose just has to be more precise with location and not pitch from behind in the count. Easier said than done. Ahead in the count, dominant with the forkball as a strikeout pitch, as long as it's close to the zone and the hitters don't lay off it. One of the things Jose hasn't done well since 2006 was knock hitters off the plate. When he misses inside, it's almost always center cut/inner half of the plate, not as much movement (backing up a bit). And he can't throw 90% fastballs from the side either. When he throws that slurve out and away, slicing across the other side of the plate on RH hitters, he's MUCH more effective because that gives them almost another pitch to think about, when he's basically a two and sometimes one pitch pitcher.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Jun 8, 2009 -> 07:51 PM) Or maybe the guy is such a f***ing gamer he hurried back from what many of us thought was a career ending injury so he could play for this team again which led to a small mechanical flaw and a lack of feel pitches. Or maybe he just doesnt have balls like alot of the people on here say about Floyd....at least when he is losing. No, he just gets a little bit afraid of contact and starts nibbling...but I wouldn't say it's a lack of balls. Like most pitchers, it's 90% confidence in his stuff. He needed to prove to himself that he could go out and win a key game and be a "stopper" again. He's just not as good since 2007 at battling like John usually does without his best stuff, and Mark almost always does...keeping the club in the game the 60-70% of the time he's not feeling great out there. Ramirez at his high water mark, .261 and 662 OPS now.

QUOTE (That funky motion @ Jun 8, 2009 -> 07:46 PM) I was watching game 5 vs the Halos, on MLB the other day. I forgot how good the count was and was just glued to the TV. Maybe getting sent down woke him up. Well, I thought the situation was that he went to Ozzie and asked to start in AAA to work on his control and conditioning (not to mention his forkball) rather than going to the bullpen in Chicago. There were always concerns from Ozzie and KW whether he could ever be effectively pitching out of the bullpen, although he did do it for a few games a couple of seasons ago, then went back into the rotation again for the remainder of the season. Wow, the Tigers are 1 for 21 today. Pretty good time for Jose to break out a decent game. Managed to lower his ERA to 6.69 in one game.

Well, if Ventura can survive it (0 for 41, Gordon only has 29 more to go), I think Beckham can too...although I would be genuinely surprised if Beckham ended up having a better career in Chicago than Robin. So I guess the next question is what happens with Jose and Bartolo? Do we move Colon to the bullpen? Seems pretty logical...KW can shop him to an NL team, but not sure if he could get much of anything back in return. Probably like one of the many Sandy Alomar trades, a fringe pitcher ala Emenencio Pacheco.

Shades of the 2005 post-season. MVP of the White Sox the past 4 weeks, never would have thunk it. At least among the position players. And Jose has usually pitched at least decently against the Tigers over his career, so I think we have a 50/50 shot to win.

Guess the Anderson defenders will never know now what would have happened had he not had the oblique strain and Pods been added to the roster down in TB. Looks like he has returned to mean at a 632 OPS, behind Fields and Ramirez.

QUOTE (BearSox @ Jun 8, 2009 -> 04:21 PM) I posted this in the gamethread, but I probably should have posted it in here: I got no idea what Ozzie was thinking in the 8th inning. First, you bunt with Getz? A 100 mph fastball is probably the toughest pitch to bunt effectively. And you bunt with Pierzynski on 1st? WTF? With Zumaya pitching, even if Getz does get the bunt down, it's gonna basically be a hard grounder because of the velocity of the fastball. STUPID!!!!! Then, you leave Fields in to face Zumaya? Fields can't hit a 90 mph fastball, let alone a 100 mph fastball. That last swing by him was pathetic. I'm pretty sure the ball was already in the catchers glove by the time Fields swung. Why not bat Nix or Beckham there? Even if they strikeout, they provide a pretty big defensive upgrade at 3B. And guess what, Josh Fields playing 3B in the 9th cost us the deciding run. f***ING AWFUL. Ozzie needs to go. Usually, I never had much of a problem with Ozzie, but he's lost his f***ing mind. He's not even the same guy from 05. Seeing him in the dugout, he's got the same mood as the players. It doesn't even look like he wants to be. It's not a horrible move if AJ wasn't on 1st base (PR with Nix/Anderson/Beckham, then put in Castro). Of course, AJ WAS on first base, lol. LH batters usually have a much easier time getting down a bunt against a hard-throwing righty, and Zumaya has almost zero movement on his fastball....now bunting Jenks when he's on and throwing 96-99, that's much tougher because of his movement.

QUOTE (watchtower41 @ Jun 8, 2009 -> 04:13 PM) and who's to say we even have 1 decent Major Leaguer in our Farm System? We won a WS without a farm system, we re-built another division winner without a farm system. Why is trading the farm such a bad thing if you can contend in a s*** division? Have we honestly lost anyone that will be a All-Star from a farm trade when we trades the pieces in 2005 through now? Everyone cried about Chris Young. He Blows. Everyone cried about Gio. BLOWS. Who is to say Poreda, Beckham, DanksII won't be much of the same. This board falls way too much in love with prospects. They don't win games today, and they don't win games tomorrow, but I guess they are cool to brag about on messageboards. whoa, a lot of rambling there. I'd imagine there will be a lot of fights at Sox/Cubs this year, as we both suck and will struggle to find fodder to hate with against fan foes. Because that type of approach doesn't lead to any type of long-term consistency. The only way to build a winner along the lines of the Braves is with starting pitching. We have the pieces, seemingly, and Richard has looked pretty darned good, but we're not close to competing with that Tigers' rotation. They have three possible aces in Verlander/Jackson/Porcello...you might even put a healthy Bonderman in that conversation, not to mention Dontrelle Willis, who has so much more ability than a Colon or Contreras. Galarraga is VERY solid too, when he's on. The problem is that we probably have too many holes for Peavy to make a significant difference because the offense is just lifeless without Quentin and relying almost 100% on the middle of the order veterans for production. If we trade away that future pitching in Poreda/Richard, then we still come up short...the team's at .500 or around that mark, attendance and season tickets sag and we end up not adding the pieces from the FA market but instead waiting for all the Barons players to make it up to Chicago and have an impact.

Overconfident GM.

QUOTE (SoxFan562004 @ Jun 8, 2009 -> 04:06 PM) my biggest fear is in 2-3 weeks when Manny comes back and Pierre starts grumbling about riding the bench KW trades for him. I will flip OUT if KW wastes the payroll flexability on Pierre, absolutely go ape. There's zero reason to trade for Pierre with Pods playing as well as he has...unless you can replace Colon with a significant upgrade, assuming they don't believe that's Poreda in 2009, then there's just not really any way to compete with the depth of the Tigers' starting rotation. Not to mention they have a better offense and a decent bullpen this year, too. Even if CQ was out the entire season, there would be no reason to trade for Juan Pierre. We need someone like Dunn (gasp!) to pick up the offensive slack, not another punch-and-judy hitter well past his prime.

QUOTE (fathom @ Jun 8, 2009 -> 04:03 PM) Tito...I usually like you, but I would likely to politely tell you to just take a step back and relax. Wise is on the roster right now cause we have no one else to call up. You do realize it would be Lillibridge most likely? Hopefully CQ comes up on Wednesday, and you will see Wise DFA'd. Just give Kroeger or Restovich a chance for awhile. Neither of them will be here long-term, but GOSH, I thought the days of Matt Merullo and Shawn Abner in the OF were sad, or the late 80's teams...this might even be worse, if not for the influx of talent we're all waiting on to deliver. Heck, I wouldn't even care if they gave someone like David Cook or Gartrell a chance, anything different would be nice at this point.

QUOTE (TitoMB345 @ Jun 8, 2009 -> 03:59 PM) I hope there are a lot of boos at the game tonight. The fans need to start showing they won't put up for paying full price to watch some AA team play ML ball. Beckham SIMPLY HAS to be starting tonight at 3B (or Nix, with Beckham at 2B)...or the fans won't be booing Ozzie when he takes Contreras out in the 2nd or 3rd, it will be the first time in many many years that they will be booing his managing, and rightfully so. We can't boo KW as easily, or target him in the owner's box, but he's at least 2/3rd's responsible for this debacle, but Ozzie isn't helping matters a bit.

QUOTE (TitoMB345 @ Jun 8, 2009 -> 03:58 PM) Wise, Fields, and Anderson all should be gone by tomorrow, but will probably be here til next year. There is no reason for Dewayne Wise to exist. Last year was great, thanks for the game-saving catch earlier this season in Motown, but you're not part of the solution, you're a part of the problem, especially if Ozzie continues to play you like a regular. But that's back on Kenny again...no major league roster was more gutted/decimated than the 2008 White Sox going into the 2009 season.

QUOTE (chw42 @ Jun 8, 2009 -> 03:56 PM) But Josh Anderson sure does look good... What did they trade to get him again? Looks like Kenny missed out. We missed out on Jackson, Josh Anderson and Pavano, although nobody could have seen that last one coming. I'll add Porcello to the list, just because the White Sox were clearly outspent by a mid-market team in our own division that was more committed to winning than we were...even this year, when the market's so down for Detroit because of the economic downturn. I'm sure Jackson and Porcello will both beat the White Sox a couple more times this season.

Fields and Anderson should both just be sent packing. It's obvious 1) we won't get anything in return for them at this point, 2) they both need a change of scenery and/or a new hitting coach. It's just not going to happen for them in Chicago, two more blown first-round draft picks in a streak of almost 15 years of bad ones. Not an Ozzie basher, but NO F'IN reason not to PH for Fields there with Zumaya on the mound, no reason not to use Nix/Beckham/Anderson defensively in the top of the 9th and NO REASON WHATSOEVER to leave Thornton on the bench as well in the most critical game of the season up to that point. Actually another point, absolutely ZERO REASON to let Wise bat there too, he's obviously not 100% and has ZERO TIMING, and yet Ozzie expects last year's string of luck to continue and for Wise to get a miracle hit against a 98-100 MPH fastball.

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ Jun 8, 2009 -> 02:31 PM) Any team that wins their division can be classified as a contender, I guess. But even the most optimistic Sox fan knew that team was so not built for October. They had a chance if their pitching was aligned for the post-season and we didn't have to use Javier Vazquez in the first 3 games. Healthy Quentin, Crede, Linebrink, etc., also would have made a huge difference.

QUOTE (Jenks Heat @ Jun 8, 2009 -> 03:45 PM) Ozzie Guillen is proving to be a brutal in game manager. Why are defensive replacements never an option? Wise and Fields suck there is no reason why Anderson and Nix are not in there for defensive reasons. They each should have hit in the 8th as they can hit fastballs they can not hit breaking pithces. Anderson wasn't going to hit Zumaya, but Beckham and Nix have compact enough swings to get to him, Gordon especially, despite the 0/12 start.

I really hope it's worth it in 2010 and 2011 what KW has done to our major league team this year.