caulfield12

Danks is throwing the change-up a little bit less than 1% more than last season. The big thing that sticks out is his FB velocity is down a full 1.9 MPH from last year. Is it the April excuse, or something more serious?

QUOTE (fathom @ Apr 27, 2012 -> 06:35 PM) It's kind of amazing how Floyd, Danks and Ramirez seemed to have peaked in 2008. And Quentin, too!!!

Can we please start the "KW should be fired for giving Danks that big contract thread!" lol? Every day, we can change to a new player. Yesterday, Viciedo. Today, we can try Alexei Ramirez or Danks if we get tired of picking on Beckham or Morel.

http://www.milb.com/milb/stats/stats.jsp?s...biraax_monaax_1 Mitchell with yet another walk, currently at .347. Jose Martinez two-run RBI single. Charlotte's game at Syracuse was postponed.

Just a few feet away from 5 homers and 18 RBI's. That hurts not to get those 2 extra runs there. Note to JD: Do not give the lead back to the Red Sox right away, thanks!

Encouraging to see Dunn get so many walks this early season. Konerko with a chance to break it open early here. Didn't realize Skowron was a punter on the Purdue football team, played at Webber or Weber High School. Does that school still exist? Nasty slider to put him away after going after Paulie with all fastballs.

DeAza is an XB machine. Got to score this run. Horrible at-bat for Ramirez, no advance to 3rd. Still having troubles in the 2 hole.

Didn't realize that Skowron made the All-Star team 8 times, once with the Sox in 1965. They made a big announcement before the Yankees/Tigers game. What did they do at USCF? Joking about how Skowron was teasing Farmer all these years asking for a free Mickey Mantle autographed ball...."You can afford it, Farmer!" Didn't Skowron get hundreds or thousands of Mantle autographed balls when he played for the Yankees? Probably how he funded half of his retirement years.

http://www.freep.com/article/20120428/SPOR...ree-agent-value http://www.freep.com/article/20120428/COL0...y=mod|nextstory Eldred's bat breaks in half...Ibanez dives for it, misses and it goes all the way to the wall for a triple. 36 RBI's in 20 games this year. Unfortunately for the Tigers, they couldn't drive in the runner from 3rd with no outs. Looks like Kelly, Eldred, Peralta and Ryan Raburn will be the Tiggers' version of our bad offense at the bottom of the order. Verlander walking 17 guys in 24 IP, surprising. By the way, Eldred has 240 career minor league home runs.

Tigers are bringing up 31 year old Brad Eldred to be an occasional DH. 13 HR's in 20 games. 9 doubles and a triple. Adam Dunn comp, lol. .204 major league hitter. (Did he play for the Knights or Barons?) He of the Dave Kingman power, high K rate and Bull Durham comparisons (Crash Davis/Phil Nevin/Chris Shelton, etc.) Below will continue to start...Fister making progress but still a ways from getting a rehab start.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Apr 27, 2012 -> 03:51 PM) Sox need to start winning at home before home turns into the pit it's been the past couple seasons. Even mediocre teams finish 10 over .500 at home. Start winning at home please, White Sox. Like the Royals?

It's the White Sox problem with prospects, WIN NOW! 708 OPS in AAA at age 19. Only one homer and a handful of RBI's. For comparison, Brandon Inge put up a 907 OPS in AAA last year at Toledo. The Nats are in first place....so, here comes this accompanying move to instill even more hype and enthusiasm with the fanbase.

The "Screwball" documentary about RA Dickey and Wakefield's been getting good reviews so far. While trying to find THAT movie online, came across another "SCREWBALL: THE TED WHITFIELD STORY" about the greatest wiffle ball player. Now that one, I HAVE to watch. Childhood memories. If we used tennis or even racquet balls in the neighborhood playing baseball growing up instead of wiffleballs, we would have broken about 100 windows.

That's a full ten homegrown players on the White Sox roster now. Nearing the 13 which is the high mark for any team in the majors currently. KW for Executive of the Year. Just kidding.

Same. He's one of those baseball lifers like Minnie Minoso you loved to meet, hang out with, listen to their stories. He'll be missed by everyone in the Sox and Yankee families. One of the last truly great "characters" of the game. Reminded me of another one when I worked in the minor leagues, Rocky Bridges, who was coaching for the Pirates then. He had so many stories about the past, you could just sit there and listen to him all day. Bill Melton, not so much. Him and Santo were of a different era than Skowron and Minoso and Billy Pierce.

DELETE Stupid internet here in China while I'm using proxy/VPN to get on FB always double-clicks. There's been so many issues with it since the BO XILAI/murder mystery/corruption case broke into the public eye, and the blind human rights attorney that Christian Bale unsuccessfully tried to visit while here in China also escaped from his guards sometime yesterday to Beijing as well. FWIW, the Jason Shank at FB is from Nebraska, lives in Schaumburg, is a big Nebraska Cornhuskers fan and went to Robert Morris.

Story splashed all over the front page of Detroit Free Press. Not in line-up tonight. Is being classified as a misdemeanor at this point. http://www.freep.com/article/20120427/SPOR...|text|FRONTPAGE 4th alcohol-related incident with a Tiger (had no idea about the Gerald Laird one in offseason, 2 were Cabrera) http://www.freep.com/article/20120427/SPOR...-recent-history http://www.freep.com/article/20120427/SPOR...nt-Delmon-Young Tigers' statement with only mention being about the alcohol side of the situation and nothing about the hate crime element Of course, they're also bringing back the past minor league incident with the umpire/bat-throwing as well. At that time, they couldn't charge John Rocker with a hate crime because it wasn't yet covered by the Federal statutes, right? For his anti-gay, homophobic comments? He was basically just ostracized and derided out of the game...that and injuries took his pitching ability away.

Hopefully not 1 Win Phil or the latest Sox pitcher who jinxed the team with a no-hitter/perfecto...

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Apr 27, 2012 -> 08:44 AM) When Frank Thomas first came up, he pretty much did most his damage the other way. Same with Beckham. Although the majority of his homers were to LF, his true "happy spot" was the RCF gap for a double. Same with Carlos Quentin when he was REALLY going well, actually. Remember when Brian Anderson hit 2 homers off Felix Hernandez in Seattle? How many times did KW say that Anderson could put up Torii Hunter numbers if he just played everyday....20-24 homers, 65-85 RBI's? And no power probably explains why there's probably never been a single thread about Eduardo Escobar, lol. Even Flowers and Lillibridge get their own uniquely-loyal segments of the fanbase excited.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Apr 27, 2012 -> 07:23 AM) Trouts level as a prospect. As excited as everyone is about Mitchell, Trout's 2012 numbers at AAA are better than Mitchell's, at AA across the board. Is there any way to even that out for ballpark factors, though? Putting those numbers up in Birmingham and the Southern League is more impressive to me. A lot of those XB hits will fly out of USCF in the summertime. Not so in BIRM.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Apr 27, 2012 -> 08:33 AM) There was at least 1 thread here when he was first signed asking if he could pass Thomas for the team HR mark that I can recall. I remember posting one of those Passan articles when he first signed, too. And seeing the quotes/comments/comparisons in this thread, as well. Never took the passing Frank Thomas thing seriously though, because he seemed to hit too many line drives/doubles. You could tell from those first videos he wasn't going to be a 30-40 homer type of guy. Not like Cespedes has the potential to be, at least.

Nobody said anything about him being the "Golden Boy." Beckham was the only one who had a shot to be that, and he's blown it, at least 90% of the opportunity he had at being the "Derek Jeter" of the White Sox. Is Dayan Viciedo our best current hope among our current major league roster to be an impact bat? Yes, there's no doubt about that. Is he going to win an MVP or get tons of endorsements or make any fans forget about Frank Thomas, Robin Ventura or even Crede and Rowand? No way. At this point, just "solid" major leaguers who are cost-controlled and put up average or above offensive production is what we're desperately in need of moving forward. If Conor Jackson or Brandon Inge or ANYONE can put up a 750 OPS and play a capable 3B, I'd be happy to call them a Golden Boy, too. If Brent Morel or Gordon Beckham could even put up a 675 or 700 OPS, I'll call them "Golden Boys" if it will make you happy.

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Apr 27, 2012 -> 07:57 AM) A "highly intoxicated" Delmon Young arrested in Manhattan after hotel brawl That powerhouse arm has always been more hype than reality. Although this incident will remind everyone of the problems with Miguel Cabrera at the end of 2010. The Tigers' announcers have said numerous times their team looks listless and basically unmotivated. Maybe they started believing their pre-season press clippings and thought with the rest of the AL Central down that there was an unabated path directly to the World Series and they just had to show up and put their uniforms on and the competition would cower in front of them.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Apr 27, 2012 -> 07:16 AM) To be fair, Mitchell has a long way to go to be put into that category. Bad picks or in Trout's vicinity as a prospect? Hasn't the bloom already started to fall a little off that rose...seems like all numbers put in the Angels' minor league system are suspect to an extent until validated with actual MLB results.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Apr 27, 2012 -> 08:09 AM) Why does it matter since when you have defended him and since when I have predicted failure? I never stated I hated the signing, or I've hated him as a prospect since 2008 or 2009. Put down the opium, dude. I never claimed to be a professional scout, nor have I claimed there is no room for disagreement amongst those professional scouts or GMs. What I have stated several times now is that I would like to move him now, while there still are people that are high on him, and before the scouting and GM community does reach a consensus that he isn't a good MLB prospect any longer. A few times some of you guys defending him have stated that he doesn't have much value on the trade market, of which I have stated I disagree. If he doesn't have that value, than what exactly are you seeing that the professionals are not? He's 23 freakin' years old. Some GM's will still consider guys like Matt Thornton or Joe Borchard prospects into their late 20's even.