caulfield12

Ellis Burks was actually pretty good for the White Sox...we rehabilitated him and then lost him, if I remember correctly. As KHP noted, at least 50-60% of those at-bats are going to be going to Jones and Kotsay. There's no way around it...now maybe it does sound BETTER to look at other players slotting in there to maximize the match-ups and rest the regulars AND avoid the Sunday line-up surrenders (we saw that a lot in 2005, too), then those are all legitimate arguments and valid to KW or he wouldn't have signed off on this whole new conceptualization of the offense from Ozzie. Then there's the elephant in the conversation...CQ's health, which player is he, the 2008 or 2009 version? If you told me Carlos Quentin was going to be the everyday DH and that Andruw Jones would play RF close to everyday (which is scary enough), at least that protects the most important bat in the line-up from injury or re-injury. I don't know if I would go as far as wanting Jordan Danks to play RF in 2010, but there's no doubt Quentin is the one bat we can't afford to lose. Almost everything has to go perfectly with this offense for it to get to 750 or 775 runs. There are just too many things that can go wrong IMO.

Someone just called in saying Gonzalez' club option year is void if he gets traded. Also there's reports he's gonna want Texiera money on his next deal. 10 years $200MM. So I can't see KW giving up much if this is true and they only get him for a year or two. I think the option year is 2012??? a friend sent me this by text

Nope, we'd still probably end up with Wilson Betemit instead.

Didn't Lopez fire Boras? That one didn't turn out too well, kind of like the Orlando Hudson situation last year...although O-Dog got a decent deal in the end, but nothing like first speculated. As far as Greene goes, I'm pretty sure Zach Greinke had the same thing, at least, that's what they called it originally, "social anxiety disorder."

Fair enough... I just thought there were some good details and insights into his life and personality that people would be interested in. Kind of like telling someone to go see Avatar...very poorly-written script and dialogue, but the overall effect of spending time watching it (or in this case reading), is worth your time. We're never going to see Pulitzer Prize winning caliber writing from the majority of sports writers, Telander, Rick Reilly and Posnanski are three of my favorites though.

http://www.csnchicago.com/02/26/10/Mooney-...&feedID=621

If you're the GM of the Padres, would you go after unproven players like Flowers, Hudson, Danks, Mitchell and Viciedo? I know I wouldn't. I'd ask for at least one of Ramirez/Beckham/Thornton/Quentin as my starting point. Then I'd target the 2-3 minor leaguers. Obviously Danks or Floyd aren't going anywhere, although I think a Floyd for Gonzalez swap might get KW's heart beating a little bit faster.

If I'm San Diego, the only players I'm looking at: Alexei Ramirez Gordon Beckham Viciedo (as possible 1B replacement) Hudson Matty Thornton Tyler Flowers Mitchell Carlos Quentin possibly Jordan Danks if he's playing like he did first half of 2009

QUOTE (Ozzie Ball @ Feb 26, 2010 -> 05:05 PM) That luck adjusted line regressed his BABIP to .361, so it is taking into account the likelihood that Mitchell with have significantly above average BABIP (.330-.340 range), with extra adjustment for poor defense. His strikeout rate was just that bad, and obviously it was a small sample size, but if Mitchell does start at Birmingham he could fall flat on his face. It's pretty difficult to make such a blanket generalization as this. Mitchell and Jordan Danks both came out of top college programs with a very high level of competition, so they're simply expected to be on a faster track. While Mitchell is more raw in terms of playing experience, nobody can say he would fail at Birmingham, anymore than scouts could project what Viciedo might do at age 19 or 20 in that league. I agree with most of the posters here that Winston-Salem is the more likely destination, and there's currently not any pressing need to rush either Mitchell or Danks with Quentin, Pierre and Rios all in the picture for at least the next two years. Of course, injury and non-performance (by Andruw Jones/Kotsay) could change all that, but the odds of KW dipping down to Jordan Danks as an outfielder or DH in 2010 are about 3-5% at most. I think the club really made a smart move with Viciedo...he certainly struggled out of the gate but the club stuck with him and didn't demote him. By the second half of the season, he was learning how to make adjustments and his stat line started to look much more respectable. Personally, with Mitchell, I'd really prefer that he builds his confidence step by step, and he's not nearly as polished as Danks, so we can take our time and nurture his development over the next two years with the idea he'd take over as the starter and leadoff hitter as early as 2012. I think that's pretty realistic...some will say late 2011 or late 2012, but somewhere in that time frame.

Opinions are all over the board on Danks. Some love the guy, some absolutely think he'll never be much more than Brian Anderson. Like BA, all the physical tools...certainly a more fluid swing, but it will be his offense that decides whether he can ever stick in the majors as a starter. There's not much margin for error for him to be a corner outfielder (I suppose we could his compared his predicted offensive output to Ryan Sweeney, with more power hopefully), so he pretty much has to play CF. I don't think we'll see ever see a Mitchell/Danks/Quentin/Rios OF, but stranger things have happened with White Sox prospects. Maybe the strangest of all would be Sox position prospects starting to make a consistent impact, starting with Beckham.

Basically, he's like Joe Crede offensively without the Gold Glove defense. More potential for doubles, but still a downgrade from what Crede (the 775-825 OPS version) did for sure. Looking at those numbers on the surface, you start thinking about guys like AJ or Juan Uribe, not a "power" position. Which means the extra power with him in the line-up (as well as Pierre) has to come from Flowers (in the future) and continuing up with middle with Ramirez, Beckham and Rios.

If this past offseason was boring, this one has the potential to be even worse. As mentioned earlier, Hudson, Flowers and Viciedo could all take on more prominent roles (5th, C, 1B/DH)...then there's also Jordan Danks and perhaps CJ Retherford could challege Nix for the utility spot. Of course, 10 million things will change between now and then, injuries, non-performance, etc. That rotation is so good that KW might not want to invest so much money in a team and rely heavily on 3 rookies to make important contributions. OTOH, Hudson might be good to go already and Flowers is pretty darn close. The biggest question mark is definitely Viciedo...they've already invested $10 million into him, but that 1B/DH spot is (well, SHOULD BE) the easiest spot to find cheap/veteran talent if they have to plug in a hole for one year (I'm thinking of the Herbert Perry move b4 Joe Crede was ready to take over). FWIW, I'm not sure that keeping Jenks around makes as much sense going forward if JJ Putz has a very good comeback season. There's definitely room in the pen to pare some payroll, and of course, Linebrink's soaking up valuable resources as well.

Are you tweeting? What do you think of Ozzie's new plaything? How long before this whole thing blows up in his face and one of his sons inadvertently types something that comes back to bite them after a tough loss or player transaction? C'mon Ranger, I know you can get 11,000 followers in a couple of days if you advertise it on the radio and here!

It seems some of the tweets are already being translated into English and Spanish by his son... If there's kind of a "general message" that's not so specific, it's getting tweeted out both ways. Oh god I jinxed kobe...time for mlb network about 8 hours ago via txt I'm watching kobe, he reminds me of my boy mj would like to meet him I think it's kind of cool, you get a "behind the scenes" idea of what Guillen's life and what he likes to do in his free time: 1) tease/mess with people and talk s--t 2) play bad golf 3) watch other sports like basketball 4) have barbeques and drink alcohol, hang out with the Hispanic players and coaches

5,000 "followers" and counting for Ossssvaldo. What I would really love to see would be a KW twitter, but that's not happening. Has anyone ever sent him an e-mail (or even snail mail) and gotten an actual response from him?

I feel nice and relax(ed) today, I don't know why yeeessssssss carlos quentin and rios in camp b ready people 42 minutes ago via txt Yessss nice day let's go to work about 1 hours ago via txt I like how he makes his "yes" like Harrelson....too funny. Guess he's up pretty early in the morning out there.

Colon could dial it up there (when he actually wanted to) in 2003. Thornton with his effortless 96-97 and sometimes 98, you almost forget about him he makes it look so easy.

We've already had an endorsement of TaeRyan shirts/clothing (whatever that is)...and "going to eat in half hour why dye no have a job ?"

QUOTE (Thunderbolt @ Feb 23, 2010 -> 08:01 PM) It's crazy what's happening on the other big SOX board. There's a legion of blind optimists pouncing on any detractors. At least we have decent, reasoned debates here. Everyone who doesn't kiss a-- with the moderators or defer to their every judgment about the world (or White Sox) is quickly eviscerated or labelled a "dark cloud."

I don't have the averages in front of me, but it felt like Poreda was at 91-94 most of the time. That was the biggest shock, beginning in spring training last year. That Clayton Richard, even as a starter, was throwing consistently and for a much longer duration at 92-95 and sometimes a tick higher depending on the gun. Before the season, Richard was billed as a loogy or fifth starter but almost nobody talked about his stuff...whereas Poreda had the "hype" surrounding his fastball from the time he was drafted. I think Nathan Jones, when he pitches for the White Sox, will end up in the low 90's somehow as well. The list goes on and on...Felix Diaz, Adkins, Aaron Myette, Lorenzo Barcelo (although he was injured), Rob Purvis, Royce Ring, Broadway, McCulloch, Sean Tracey, etc. I don't have any understanding how Matt Ginter was ever as hyped as he was, not only in college but also coming up through the minors. I guess Danny Wright, when he first came up (before the injury)....had some very nice stuff. But nothing like Jason Bere ten years prior.

QUOTE (southsidepride15 @ Feb 23, 2010 -> 01:23 PM) You guys have no clue what this offense is capable of. Are we going to rip through the league?? No. Do we still play in a hitter friendly park against a division that is sub par? Yes. These guys are major league baseball players....they will figure out a way to produce without the almighty A-Gon. Have some frickin faith!! And you could have said that going into 2000 or 2005, too. All you can do is look at the back of the baseball cards and ages/career paths and make projections. Baseball is not an exact science...in 2006, on paper, we looked great and that team fell apart. In 2008, nobody expected a whole lot and we overachieved. Last year, we had a lot of talent but very little team cohesiveness or identity. Nobody said we have to have A-Gon or Pujols, etc., or really expects those types of trades to materialize. On the other hand, we are still in the American League, not the NL West. Last year, we had very good pitching and the offense didn't exactly figure things out, even though they are all professionals. So is Greg Walker. Please tell me you weren't around last year telling everyone to have faith in Brian Anderson, Corky Miller, Josh Fields, DeWayne Wise, Jerry Owens, B. Lillibridge, Williams, etc.? It's pretty obvious there was a talent gap in the last 5-7 spots on the roster last year, as compared to years past. As Ozzie always says, great players look managers look very very smart, and the opposite holds equally as true.

If you want the "group think" positivism, you might prefer other Sox message boards, IMO. Trust me, that's worse than anything you see here. At least this site isn't NEARLY as filtered or controlling of its posters, as long as they stay fairly civil and back up their arguments with substance and not just personal attacks.

I sincerely doubt that 97 number has any current meaning. I would be really shocked if he was throwing that hard so early in ST, let alone at any point in the season...after all those injuries. I think 89-93 ends up being much more likely.

What the heck is the deal with our "relief" pitching philosophy? MacDougal, Masset, Sisco and Aardsma were coached to try to pitch more than throw...to very mixed results. The same thing with Jon Adkins. Maybe it's simply that if you have 2-3 pitches, you can get away with the loss of velocity...but if you don't have velocity OR movement in the pen, you'll get murdered with predominantly one pitch (see Joel Zumaya). Finally, they just gave up with MacDougal and went back to the throw it at the middle of the plate and let natural movement work to your advantage strategy, due to the failure of everything else to work with him. Looking forward to the competition with Dolsi, Santos, Cabrera, Nunez....who emerges and makes it out of camp. Those are very nice arms (especially the first 3), when they're healthy. Santeliz, too. I think the odds are definitely in favor of Hudson starting in the minors instead of working as the long man unless he just dominates, and there's always the possibility with Garcia of injury at any moment. Also feels like Omogrosso has fallen off the map after looking very good in ST last year.

Shelby is the one who really strikes me as having fallen off the map. He wasn't horrible last year, but he's not exactly a youngster anymore, either...and he's never seemed to have found one position on the diamond. I guess there's an outside possibility he makes it as a super-utility guy like a Willie Harris that can play multiple positions and pinch run. CJ Retherford has gotten about as much discussion as anyone in our system, but it's pretty clear the scouts don't see him as much of a prospect. Rodriguez, Escobar and Griffith have a lot of potential.