caulfield12

QUOTE (SI1020 @ May 19, 2009 -> 11:37 AM) You're right, that pitch was devastating because he could locate it with speed and movement. His drop down motion this year seems to me to be used more often and is more laborious. It's a get me over motion and pitch. He in no way looked like the pitcher he was the last half of 05 and the first half of 06. Which brings me to another point. Other than those two parts of a season when has he resembled a true ace for any decent period of time? He was pretty good the first half of last season until he tried to pitch through nagging injuries and didn't tell Cooper and Ozzie. He pitched well in NY until he started to have so many problems with the Red Sox and it got into his head and started affecting him.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ May 19, 2009 -> 11:25 AM) I disagree, his drop down 2-seamer in 05-06 was one of his best pitches and he threw it because it was unhittable, not because he wasnt healthy. But there's a huge difference when you are at 95-97 and in the low 90's. Your margin for error on fastballs is razor thin...Jose got away with bad location because they would foul off the pitches when he was the best pitcher in the game that they are now dialing in on. The other thing is that he consistently worked quickly, got ahead in counts and had that equalizing weapon nobody could hit, the forkball. The majority of his pitches were fastballs, but he was punching out batters with the off-speed stuff. Now, they just wait on the fastball, which he throws it 90% of the time from drop down. That's not enough variation. If he threw that slurve/slider 20-30% of the time, to the outside corner of the plate against RH hitters, he'd be much more effective. He comes inside almost every time with the fastball against RH hitters (08/09), but he doesn't ever knock batters off the plate, his velocity isn't a weapon anymore and everyone knows they can wait for a good fastball.

QUOTE (MO2005 @ May 19, 2009 -> 11:18 AM) And again...Everyone is acting like this is a shocker that the Sox are where they are. All offseason a few of us said that this team will suck and not compete. People bashed claiming we are not real Sox fans, but I will say one thing about that. Real fans are realistic. This offseason was garbage! Kenny didn't do jack this offseason except pick up guys he thought were going to come out of the gates hitting and pitching. The problem with that is that they are too inexperienced and YOUNG. We have a selfish ballclub that I have been saying since 2007 needs to be broken up. We have a hitting coach who might as well not have a job if the hitters keep getting the blame. We have a manager who puts out a different lineup everyday and can't stay consistent with one. I mean in all seriousness this thread should be changed to As expected... I think everyone EXPECTED it, about 70-80% of posters on Sox message boards. Now whether they were openly saying KW was making mistakes, some were quiet and waiting for the other shoe to drop. Obviously, most of the media thought they'd be 3rd or 4th...some in last place. Baseball Prospectus called for 72-90, they might be right on the Sox two out of three seasons. Just horribly off last year. Everyone had a sense the 2005 season was about to evaporate in terms of our roster (maybe only Buerhle, Paulie and AJ will survive this year...possibly Jenks)....and most were excited about the infusion of talent from the Birmingham squad. I'll be honest, I enjoy listening to the Barons games a lot more than watching the major league team lose game after game in similarly mind-numbing fashion. Winning is fun, losing sucks and sometimes makes you question why you even passionately follow sports or White Sox baseball, in particular. It would be one thing to watch a young/enthusiastic team that was making youthful mistakes...but this is largely a veteran bunch, and it feels like they're playing out the string and we still have 4 1/2 months to go. No part of our ballclub is alive. At least in CLE, they can hope that their offense can get them back into the race. We don't have any one aspect of this team that's working well right now, not even the bullpen this past series. The only question remaining for everyone is what to do about it...to that, there are no easy answers.

QUOTE (shipps @ May 19, 2009 -> 11:07 AM) Your only reason for making Jenks a starter would be to get him back in shape? Why do you care if he is ripped or not? If he can throw the ball effectively it doesnt matter if he is "in shape". No, I didn't say only reason, I said ONE reason. Another reason is that we don't have anyone at the AA level of above who has his stuff and he also has a history as a starter with the Angels. Poreda is our only minor league starter who's not at least 2-3 seasons away. Desperate times call for desperate measures. Tell me who you would start if Floyd continues to perform like this for the next 6 weeks? It's not going to happen, of course, but starting Thornton or Jenks is more logical than Broadway, Marquez, Van Benschoten, Egbert, etc. If this season goes like it looks like, starting the likes of Omogrosso or Santeliz or the likes of Harrell or Ely makes more sense than using pitchers who aren't a part of the future of this ballclub. This team won't compete again until we produce at least one starter of our own or KW makes a trade like AJ for Nathan, Liriano and Bonser that replenishes the upper levels of the system. Probably they will have to go to Carrasco and move Floyd to the bullpen. They need to do something to shake this thing up. Replacing Walker with Baines isn't going to do it, that's for sure. What would you do if you were KW to fix the starting rotation between now and April, 2010....???

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ May 19, 2009 -> 10:50 AM) The payroll was going down there anyway. Do you really think after they get rid of Thome, Contreras, Dye, Dotel and have to pay Viciedo $4.3 million less next year, that they are going to sign someone for big money? No way. They will indeed use the economy as an excuse for this year, but all the other teams in town have no problems filling their places when they give the people buying tickets something good to watch. Its like a guy opening a restaurant saying he's going to use old food because he's afraid no one will come to the restaurant. When no one comes, he lets everyone know how he was right. Its total BS. Its the defeatist attitude KW claimed he didn't have. I'll ask you this question. If you were KW going into this past offseason and were told to build for 2010 and that you couldn't add payroll, what would you have done differently? Besides 2001 and 2007, the White Sox have fielded competitive teams. They have one of the better records in baseball since 1990, overall, you know all the statistics just like I do. If anything, last year might have led everyone astray and into thinking we could continue to "reload" on the fly instead of rebuilding. For that to happen, almost everything would have to break right, and it certainly has gone about as much in the wrong direction as possible. When you go into a series HOPING to win one out of four (like when we go to Minnesota or Oakland, too), you're going to play in a manner that ends up in the losses we saw in Game 2 and Game 4. They were 75% beaten before they even took the field those games. I'll ask you a second question...let's say we go 3-3 in the next six games (someone has to win, the Sox OR Twins, I THINK)...what would you do if you were in the poisition of KW and Brooks Boyer to keep fan interest alive for the second half of the season? 1) Lower ticket prices for individual seats? 2) Send a refund to season ticket holders (with a letter explaining that the payroll would have to fall even more next year) 3) More half price nights and promotions to boost attendance during week (maybe drinks specials like Two For Tuesday or Thirsty Thursdays)....half price nights on Mondays or Thursdays, etc. 4) Give a speech saying the hope was to compete this year in a winnable division but we now have to set our sights on 2010? 5) Bring up Beckham, Poreda and Viciedo in June? 6) Write a letter of apology to the season ticket holders and newspapers and admit your mistakes?

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ May 19, 2009 -> 10:51 AM) But Thornton is much more valuable in the bullpen, you turn him into a closer and if you need to you can spin him for prospects in the future as well because you've just maximized his value. I'm not saying Broadway or McCulloch are long term fixes in the rotation, but someone is going to have to get a shot and this team is bad as is, so its not a big deal if you give one of those guys or someone just a shot in the rotation. Maybe Omogrosso is the guy and if he fails there you slide him to the pen, I don't know. I'm also not stating that we'd be able to get a front line starting pitching prospect, unless of course Jenks is dealt in which case I would expect us getting a high impact arm. Thorton and Poreda are very similar, but Poreda does have very good sink to his fastball which is the only way he'd potentially be able to get away as a good major league starter (since he doesn't have a great repetoire of secondary pitches). Santos Rodriguez is a good arm but still 2-3 years away if he even pans out and Richard is worth a look cause he seems like a potentially valuable piece (4th or 5th starter or a solid reliever in the pen). Looking at it strictly from the perspective of starting pitching, if it were year 2 or 3 of Jenks' career here, I might even consider starting him again (for one reason, to force him to get back into shape). Unfortunately, he only has two more years to go and his salary is determined by his being one of the 10 best closers in baseball. So there's little choice but to wait on Danks and Floyd to get straightened out again. All of the starters in A ball (especially Kannapolis), they're at least 2 years away...and the worst thing would be to try to rush one of them up to the big leagues. Besides Nathan Jones, there's nobody down there who is going to blow anyone away, and Jones would get crushed too, if he had to pitch from behind and throw fastballs over the plate. We have to work backwards and solidify that rotation again...it has to be the priority over the bullpen. A bullpen is a luxury for a non-contending team, one we can't afford if we're going back to the Kids Can Play approach. That's why I wouldn't mind trading Jenks, simply because he's the one piece who can get you back some more quality arms. White Sox history over the last decade has shown you don't need to have expensive closers...in fact, Koch has been the worst. We've used Howry, Foulke, Takatsu and Hermanson, and they all had periods of success....none of them were $5 million plus salaries. Tampa Bay had a no-name bullpen last year, except for Percival. Their two best pitchers were probably Howell and Balfour, two players whose organizations (Minnesota and KC) essentially gave up on them. Same way we ended up with Politte.

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ May 19, 2009 -> 10:47 AM) Matt Garza is the guy that would look really good right now, but your right, Ellsbury would have filled a major need as well. And for those that don't say the Twins make mistake, look at how awful that Delmon Young/Garza swap is looking right now. The end of the season last year for the Sox was amazing, but it was enabled by Bill Smith, too. 1) Not getting anything of value for Santana, the best pitcher in baseball east of Greinke. 2) Letting Garza go and the Bartlett trade continuing the trend of a once incredible infield defense to become below average...Harris is a bad defender, too...just like Young (obviously the Rays prized pitching and defense, and it worked) 3) Signing all of those washed-up/injured veterans like Lamb, Everett, Monroe and Livan Hernandez...and sticking with Hernandez 6-8 starts too long instead of bringing back Liriano 4) Never addressing the RH set-up issues that existed all year with Crain, Bass and Guerrier...and, when making a trade, adding Eddie Guardado instead of someone like LaTroy Hawkins who might have shored up that aspect of the team Everything the Twins did last year was wrong, and the White Sox deserved to win...but I don't think Terry Ryan would have made all of those same mistakes if he were still around.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ May 19, 2009 -> 09:44 AM) Actually, having him go up the middle and to RF is something he SHOULD be doing. Combine that with a less time-consuming bat load and he'll then be able to catch up to heat better. When he was doing this early in the season, it worked for a bit. We could afford him to be a 10-12 homer guy on the 2000, 2005 or 2006 teams. Not this year, especially if Quentin continues to struggle and/or is injured. Not on a team last in the AL in runs produced and one of the three worst teams in the majors in terms of runs scored and runs allowed. Hitting the ball to the right side, when it's dictated....that's great. Konerko has done it consistently and some are complaining about his lack of power, but I'd rather see Konerko's approach than Carlos'. The fact of the matter is that you can't strike out at his rate unless you're putting up 30-40 homers per year OR playing great defense. Josh is doing neither. It's pretty clear he has a hitch in his swing (just watch all of his hand movement on the replays, especially from the side) and he's not staying on the ball with his eyes until the point of contact, like Nix did with that low curveball yesterday. He's, as Harrelson says, a 54-55 foot hitter who's really gotten "in between," but he lacks Alexei's hand speed...which is why there is more hope for Ramirez to pull out of it than Lillibridge, Fields or Anderson in the long run.

QUOTE (Kenny Hates Prospects @ May 19, 2009 -> 10:18 AM) No reason to trade for Morales anyway. If the Sox took the money they would save in salary dumps and invested it in the farm then that would be great. The problem is, how much will they actually save when they factor in the decrease in walk-up sales, concessions, etc. that comes with dealing off veteran core players? Maybe the Sox can make up the difference Major League-style by filling the walls with chiropractor ads and so forth? This season was almost set up to become a self-fulfilling prophecy. White Sox struggle in a very winnable/average division...end up with 68-76 wins. KW and JR preach the need for being "fiscally responsible" while heading into next season. Attendance numbers of 1.6-2.0 million are also cited as evidence. "We've had one of the top ten payrolls in baseball for four years now and the attendance is only, let's say, 22nd or 23rd in the majors..." This situation is very frustrating. I've been reading whitesoxinteractive a lot the last 2-3 days and they've even started a VERY long "Fire Ozzie Guillen" thread, which makes absolutely no sense at all. Some people are saying we should have hired Gaston instead of Guillen, thinking that might have led to multiple World Series championships instead of quite probably zero. One thing almost nobody can match is Ozzie's passion for the White Sox. And yelling, screaming, knocking over post-game spreads, it's not going to change things for a beaten up team lacking in talent. As much as the idea that the payroll is going to dwindle to $60-70 million seems crazy (since it was $115), it's really the only logical thing to do. We can't easily rebuild on the fly because starting pitching is almost impossible to find from outside the organization. If there's any lesson from the last decade, it should be that the Sox win when they pitch well and have a decent offense (not 2000 or 2006 level, just between 8th and 14th in MLB).

QUOTE (whitesox901 @ May 19, 2009 -> 12:38 AM) well whatever happens, DONT trade Linebrink or Dotel, if we really are serious about 2010, we are going to need a good core in a bullpen to go with Jenks, I know Dotel is a FA after this season, but I say sign him to another 2 seasons Unless you want to trade Matt Thornton, then basically you're advocating keeping the same four key bullpen members. This would make sense if we were a contending team, close to a contending team, or even just one move away (position player/pitcher). But it would be a waste of $20 million (roughly the salaries of all four together) to keep them together on a rebuilding team...it just doesn't make sense. Basically, about 20-35% of the 2010 budget/payroll would be allocated to four members of the bullpen. That won't work, any more than having five starting pitchers making $50+ million was sustainable (in 2006), either. You have to get some of the production from the minors if you want to have a contending team on a $60-80 million team budget.

Josh Fields can't really be defined as a bust until we put him back down at the 6-7-8 spot in the batting order and let him go back to what he was doing in 2007 instead of trying to have a stance like Carlos Quentin or driving the ball to RF like a #2/contact hitter. If he doesn't put up 15 homers and strikes out 150+ times, that's when you can have the conversation again. He could be a similar player to Michael Cuddyer (or Crede, or Rowand), who took a good 2-3 years to really establish himself as a regular at the major league level. His defense has been a little better than many suspected, and his OBP is actually better than Getz...he just needs to go back to what worked for him in spring training and 2007. Easier said than done.

Impossible to judge Griffey because he was very much NOT healthy last year. In fact, he probably won't ever be the same again. You can look at Swisher, but Swisher never used Walker as a hitting coach. Crede, it's hard to say because of his back problems. Cabrera and Ryan Sweeney are both struggling mightily in Oakland. C. Carter and Aaron Cunningham never spent much time with Walker. Jeremy Reed, same thing. Chris Young has had the very same problems in Arizona he had in our minor league system. Rowand had a very good 2004 season...he hasn't been a consistent hitter from season to season...and then it's very difficult to compare numbers put up in the NL versus the AL, or put up on non-contending teams. Miguel Olivo has basically been the same hitter his entire career. He struggled so much in Seattle (after leaving Walker), they basically gave up on him. Joe Borchard never did anything after we traded him for Thornton. Carl Everett's career faded completely in 2006. For instance, Jon Rauch, Kip Wells, Rocky Biddle (as a Montreal closer), Josh Fogg and many others would not have had the same success in Chicago they had elsewhere, for a number of reasons.

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ May 18, 2009 -> 09:40 PM) Don't know if I had a typo, but the closer. The reason I asked is because Thornton himself volunteered to go back to starting when we acquired him for Borchard. I know there was one other time when the question was raised. If Thornton failed as a closer, it wouldn't be the worst thing in the world to give it one last shot to make him a starter. Of course, he's already 31 or 32 and the likelihood of picking up 2nd and 3rd pitches that are consistent and effective at this point are not great. Thornton's fastball is too flat and his slider isn't reliable...but I think the odds of getting something out of Thornton as a starter are still higher than McCulloch or Broadway ever being consistent winners in the rotation. We have Poreda, Richard, Thornton and Santos Rodriguez that are all lefties who can throw 92-98 with marginal offspeed stuff. If just one of those guys could break through and be successful (#3 starter or above), that would be a great help to the rotation. Richard and Colon have both had successful starts this year throwing 85% fastballs. It's just very difficult to do on a consistent basis against good hitting teams, but Clayton has been effective against TB, NY and TOR in his short career, so the ability is there. It's just repeating and building upon that success that is the biggest question mark.

QUOTE (OilCan @ May 18, 2009 -> 11:50 PM) Well, if history has told us anything in the last two years.....if KW couldn't buy a CF, what makes anyone think he could buy any good/great FA? KW seems to overpay middle relievers and unknown quantities based of potential (Ramirez, Viciendo), and is dearly paying for piss-poor drafts before 2008's. He did mortgage the minors for the 2005 trophy...fine. Now fix this, KW. It's been 4 years. And counting... It's too early to judge the Viciedo signing, at least until the middle of the 2010 season. He has picked it up a lot in May, and has been a run-producing machine despite struggling quite a bit. That's the main thing that they're looking at with him, run production (along with strikeouts/pitch selection and where he fits in defensively). Ramirez, if he NEVER does a thing for the White Sox in the rest of his career, was a relative bargain, because he was vastly underpaid last season. His four year contract is pretty close to what we paid Juan Uribe for the 2008 season alone. If they sent him to AAA and he never played again for the White Sox, it would still have been a decent signing because of season he had for us.

QUOTE (TheBigHurt @ May 18, 2009 -> 11:39 PM) I really want a legit leadoff as well, but really? The other problem with trading for Morales is we're back to overloading with 1B/DH types. We still have to find places for Viciedo, Brandon Allen and Tyler Flowers (if he can't catch, they will want his bat in the line-up somewhere). If we want to go in the direction of speed/athleticism, maybe Shelby factors in as well at DH since his defense isn't up to par with Jordan Danks. It all depends on what they would do with the roughly $15-20 million they would save by dealing Konerko. If they invested it in the draft, signing international FA's or the starting rotation, it would be fine. Certainly carving away all the pieces from the 2005 team won't be popular moves. We don't even know how happy Buehrle would be hanging around long-term for 2-3 years of rebuilding, or if he is serious about retiring roughly 2-3 seasons from now.

QUOTE (heirdog @ May 18, 2009 -> 10:33 PM) This isn't the NBA or NFL, you can't trade draft picks in MLB. Whatever we do, 80% of our focus and concentration in terms of making trades should be on either starting pitching or draft picks. If we hold on to Octavio Dotel for this season instead of trading him and offered him arbitration, where we would be limited to cutting his salary 20%, we would be able to get (unless they revamp the rules next offseason) Type A compensation for Dotel, in all likelihood. If they were to trade a package of salary for Chone Figgins, for example (since their salaries are fairly similar), same thing. So in the process of going on and trading a Dotel (or for a Figgins), we have to decide 1) whether getting an immediate player back, like Jon Adkins for Ray Durham is worth it, 2) whether we can afford to offer arbitration, certainly we won't with Dye or Thome, 3) whether the Type A/B compensation will continue to exist in its present form through the new CBA in 2011. There was talk of changing it this offseason when Juan Cruz, Cabrera, Varitek and many others were struggling to find homes. If we're going to use the draft picks on pitchers like Poreda or Porcello, then by all means, go for it. If we're in non-spending mode, then we won't want the picks. Up to KW and JR. As I mentioned earlier, the likelihood of being handed another Danks, Floyd or Bailey at the trade deadline this summer is infinitesimal.

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ May 18, 2009 -> 03:35 PM) This might be a bit too early and I'd be the first to admit injuries have played a large part in this season and I'm not at all saying it would be impossible for the Sox to go out and win the division, afterall, I felt a healthy Sox team might have beaten the Rays and advanced to the World Series. However, this club, as it is currently constructed doesn't do it for me. We have a much worse rotation, a similar pen (which is a good thing), and a much worse lineup. CF/SS/2B/3B are all worse this season as opposed to last season. In addition, Dye is not playing as good as he was last year and Thome currently isn't (although compared to last year this time, Thome had poor numbers than too) as well. Hell, Konerko is pretty much the only go doing a better job and I won't throw Quentin into this mess either because he has had injuries to deal with but he's clearly not done as good of a job. So the lineup is much worse and defensively it is awful and the rotation is significantly worse (even though 3/5th's of it is the same) because two guys are having some growing pains (Danks/Floyd). As far as I'm concerned, this means now is a good time to try something new. It might still be a week or two too early, but we'll know everything we need to know about the Sox within the next 2 weeks, imo. We'll see if they are potentially a contender and if they aren't, by June 1st Kenny needs to have his selling hat on cause it would be time to make some wholesale changes to the current club with the intent of putting the club in a position to contend next season (cause we can't go 4 years without contending, it would be stupid in this economy, unless we want to see a 30M payroll for a long long time). So who are the locks to go: Dye/Thome/Dotel/Colon - Three of the four are on expiring contracts and the other has been an above average reliever with a bit of a high contract, but nothing that would prevent a contending team from taking it on. I'd also be hard pressed for the Sox to receive Type A compensation for any of these players as it would be far to risky to offer Dye or Thome arbitration and in the case of Colon I would be stunned if he'd ever even qualify for Type B compensation so again, not worth it. This means the likely value on the trade would most likely be less than A level prospects. However, it would not be out of the question to get a B level prospect plus something for Dye and Thome and maybe a former big leaguer whose struggled or hasn't turned the corner for a Dotel/Colon all while clearing off a lot of salary. Over 30 million to be precise. Who steps in? Brandon Allen would be an immediate option to step in and replace Thome's AB's to the point that the Sox could gauge the type of prospect that he is and make an decision or at least educated guess as whether he's part of the future plans. In the outfield, its pretty clear that the Sox don't have any bats ready to make an immediate impact, so you'd have to think one of the guys they acquire in a trade would be an outfielder that would step in with Brian Anderson getting the bulk of the time in CF (a last ditch effort of sorts to see if he could make it). Shelby/Gartrell/Danks all wait in the wings with Danks having the most upside, but it would be unrealistic to have much expectations for them to fill into the lineup. The Sox could eventually decide they'll stick with Fields and use Viciedo a bit (as he might prove ready at a later date). In the pen, I'd personally be tempted to bring Poreda up and throw him into the pen. Let Coop work on his secondary stuff with a plan of eventually converting him to the rotation, but letting him get comfortable in Chicago first. This probably wouldn't be the White Sox plan though as they seem adamant about giving him a shot as a starter and that probably means more time in the minors (and I don't blame them if they go that route). The biggest question is probably who steps in for Colon. You could again point to Poreda, but I'd pass on that (see above). Than there is Marquez, currently hurt, Egbert, Broadway and a whole lot of blah names. Again, with Richard already up, Broadway is sadly the best current option (Hudson/Carter are the best starting prospects the org has and they are at least a ways off and I wouldn't project either as being elite prospects as of this date...good ones sure, but lots of time for things to go wrong). But I'd like to think the Sox could find a quality guy to plug in here via the trade as well and of course there is always Jose Contreras as a stop-gap until a prospect is ready (and ideally, Contreras comes up, does decent enough and the Sox ship him out with a bit of cash in a purely salary savings deal). Veteran Locks to Stay: Buehrle is too valuable and you just play it carefully with him. I want to retool, not reload so he stays as he is still a valuable asset the next few years and a face of the franchise. Konerko is a guy I would personally listen to regarding trades and if you were able to get good value, you make a move, but in this market I dont' think teams would be as willing to give up enough to make it worthwhile for the Sox and his stable presence would be worthwhile. Plus, he's a face and you need to keep a few of those to stay cool with the fans. And with Viciedo and Allen both around, it could get really tempting to move Paulie knowing that you plan on an ideal situation of both of them panning out and covering 1B/DH for the next 10 years (and if not, bats like Paulies are easily acquirable, imo). Linebrink I don't think you get a blow you away offer for Scott and you still need guys to get things to your closer. Linebrink should also be valuable for another year or two and will eventually be the type of guy that you should get Type A or at least B compensation for (if all goes well). So I don't see a major reason to move him (a team blows us away, sure, but it won't happen). Toughest Decision - Bobby Jenks Jenks is a big time asset and is easily one of the upper echelon closers in baseball. He's still young so he should be a very viable option during your retooling face and will still give you the ability to close out games. Plus at the current rate he's still cheap so there isn't a major reason to move him. However, he could also be the guy that gets you two A prospects. I think he's the guy that you quietly make available, listen to offers, and if the right offer comes along (maybe 25-30% chance) you make the deal. Say a team in need of a closer or stronger pen calls up and offers there two top prospects (at least one being a potential high impact one) and potentially more, you make that deal and move Thornton into the rotation. The bigger beauty of this is you have Thornton signed to a solid deal and have Poreda able to jump in and learn as Thorty's replacement and potentially our future closer. Oh and in time you'll also open up spots for the Links/Omogrosso's of the world to get there chances. In the off-season you evaluate the parts you like, trade some pieces that don't fit to acquire better fits, and use 30M or so on FA pieces (when all is said and ton, the Sox would still cut payroll, but be able to buy a lot in FA to clean up the pen, find a starter and maybe find an impact bat and leadoff hitter). You want to make Thornton the closer or make him a starter?

At least one of Omogrosso, Santeliz, Link and J. Nunez can fill one of the holes in the bullpen...late this year, or going into 2010. We can be pretty confident about that. Whatever we do, 80% of our focus and concentration in terms of making trades should be on either starting pitching or draft picks. And they absolutely have to find out if Anderson, Fields, Ramirez and Getz are everyday players or move on. Playing Wilson Betemit over Fields at 3B is going to be a temptation, or Pods over Anderson, but neither one of those guys are going to be part of the long-range plans. In fact, the trickiest part might be getting enough AB's for those four, AND Nix, and still attempting to contend. There's absolutely no reason to promote the AA players to the big leagues. If they could show the Barons games, though, instead of the major league team (as an alternative), there would be something to feel positive about in terms of the future. In 2007, there was absolutely nothing to be optimistic about. But that team kept fans waiting another 3-4 weeks before totally nosediving.

If the Brewers just made an incredible offer for Nix, you'd be irresponsible not to listen. But it's not likely, and the reality is Betemit, with the emergence of Nix (who has made himself into Juan Uribe from last year, minus the $4.5 million contract) is expendable. However, the Brewers won't take Wilson to play 2B, unfortunately. The likelihood of getting potential 1-3 starters (unless they're at the A-level or below) out of any possible trades is very, very low, unless it's a trade of Jenks.

We need to wait until we get through the next homestand, at least. If we play .500 or less against the NL teams, it's history for 2009. With Weeks going down, Nix would be perfect for the Brewers. Of course, they had a shot at him when he was released by the Rockies, but he's really looking much better than in 2008, and he's proven he has a certain amount of versatility to play SS now and even a little on the corners. The problem is being 100% sure that Nix wouldn't be a better long-term answer than Getz. Getz came up through our system and he's left-handed, and Nix only has a .261 minor league batting average, but he looks pretty good so far and definitely has a better swing than Getz for now. Lillibridge, forget it. They might be better off with Eider Torres. The only relievers that are marketable are Jenks and Dotel, because we really have to hold on to Thornton and let him try closing (if Jenks were to be traded). Thornton probably wouldn't have the save conversion rate, but that contract for a closer would be a huge bargain when every dollar counts. Linebrink's the least likely to go anywhere because of his contract, age and wear-and-tear over this decade. And we have to keep at least two experienced relievers or we'll be in the same position we were heading into the offseason before the 2008 season.

Unfortunately, playing Nix in LF and Pods in centerfield (instead of Anderson) has equalled our offensive output in runs we've given up. They need to circle the wagons.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ May 18, 2009 -> 02:14 PM) Someone want to give me the summary of what happened on Rios's triple? Pods made a valiant effort, dove for the ball, wasn't able to block/trap it and went past him...Nix had to hustle behind him or it would have been an inside-the-park homer. Pretty sure Anderson would have had it, but who knows.

One thing is for certain. They're going to have to assign significant fines to pitchers for letting runners steal bases without even looking at them once. It just puts too much pressure on the pitchers to make perfect pitches...Dotel lucked out once, but not twice (having Anderson in CF would have made the obvious difference there).

Delay for Anderson?: Even before outfielder Brian Anderson went 0-for-3 with two strikeouts in the first game of a doubleheader Friday night, Guillen intimated that Anderson might not rejoin the Sox as soon as Anderson thinks. "The plan right now is we're going to play four games here," Guillen said. "Before we leave Toronto he might be here, but he has to play a couple more games, see how he feels. We'll take it from there." Anderson was 2-for-7 in his first two games on a rehab assignment after straining a right oblique muscle. He was the designated hitter for Game 2 of the doubleheader. (3 for 3 in nightcap, so 5/12 in 3 rehab games) www.chicagotribune.com/sports Yay! More of Pods, AJ, Thome and Getz against LHP. Lovely. It just keeps getting better and better. Lillibridge has had about 10X the shelf life of Wise and Owens by now.

QUOTE (qwerty @ May 16, 2009 -> 12:58 AM) One of the most ignorant things i have seen here in a long time. But i expected nothing else other than a response of this ilk. I admire your ability for being the most predictable person on the planet and not even being able to realize it. Quite hard to be that naive. Is the world still flat? I think some ''geek/s'' along the way realized that it in fact is not. What a moron to try and benefit society. We should have hung that buffoon. Sign up? You are right and I am wrong. I defer to you. Aaron Rowand is a golden god. I guess I just missed the memo inducting him into the Hall of Fame or even according him a Gold Glove.