caulfield12

Josh Fields almost hit 25 in 60-70% of a season, Tyler will easily do it with 81 games in USCF. Scary that we only have 28,000 fans for a mid-May fireworks game against one of the most exciting offenses in baseball...albeit without Young and Josh Hamilton. Flowers has power to all fields just like Quentin, but he's not so aggressive...he had 98 walks last year. Very patient hitter.

It won't be Tyler Flowers, but he'll give us Thome-like numbers at catcher with less homers and higher batting average.

Poreda's pitching well so far tonight, but he would be on three day's rest and wouldn't be able to go Wednesday anyway. Will have to be Broadway, Richard, Carraso or Omogrosso (I hope). Vince Coleman or Henderson would steal 200+ bases in the AL Central with AJ and Victor Martinez in the division.

This has been a great game. We've cost ourselves 2-3 runs on the basepaths. Ramirez might as well go down to Charlotte, and Josh Fields will be there a week behind him.

We don't know for sure what we'll get out of Quentin, Ramirez, Danks or Floyd this year, either. We certainly can't say that Viciedo will take 2-3 years or 2-3 months based on five weeks in AA ball, for the same reason they haven't promoted Aaron Poreda, Beckham to play SS or Flowers/Allen to DH. KW would look a bit silly signing a player for 4 years only, with the thought behind it that he would only be able to get 2 years out of him. At worst, KW expected Viciedo to contribute something in 2010, but there are many (including KW) who probably felt he could give the team something this year with his bat. He's still leading Birmingham in RBI's, so at least he's been pretty clutch in terms of getting sacrifice flies and making contact most times with RISP. By the way, I cited his 2 errors as well...so, suffice it to say...he's also in the top 1/2 of SS's in terms in terms of fielding percentage as well.

If there was ever a time to market Dye to the Dodgers (and he's a California kid), it would be now. However, it won't happen for 4 reasons: 1) The biggest, KW won't give up on the season in May, and rightfully so 2) A lot of insiders say the Dodgers are actually happy to save $8 million (which they'd then have to pay Dye) and they still believe they will be in first in the NL West when Manny returns on July 3rd 3) There's no place for Dye when Manny returns 4) They still need to see what they can get out of Juan Pierre, who has that ridiculous contract What contending teams could potentially use a RF or 1B I hope it can bring us something but my guess would be Dotel gets shipped before anyone else. Dotel's still a pretty expensive acquisition for many teams, and he's not up there in that "Juan Cruz" territory as a set-up guy. Trading Colon, when/if they do decide they can't legitimately compete this year, makes a lot more sense...in terms of being able to get back a real prospect from a team that's one 4/5 starter away from winning a division.

We're fine with the Danks brothers. Ryan Freel would have made as much sense as Nix, as he could have taken Lillibridge's spot. No matter how I feel about Anderson and Fields, they both deserve the chance to determine their fate this season by their play on the field and sitting on the bench...and obviously Ramirez will be back out on that field as well. If they keep playing Thome, Fields and Lillibridge, they shouldn't sit Alexei as if he's the ONLY reason the team is struggling...it's as illogical as making BA the scapegoat for the team's pitching struggles in 2006.

And no runs in 14 innings against Harrison, who had a 6 or 7 ERA (still) heading into last night's game.

Fields is pretty close to a 35% strikeout ratio, which is WAY too high for the kind of power he's shown so far. And about the same as 2007 when he hit 23 homers in 300+ AB's.

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/stats/fieldi...lumn=zoneRating Ramirez has only made two errors...I think everyone is just down on him because of his offensive struggles. He certainly, with the exception of one game, hasn't hurt the White Sox at that position. He's in the top half in fielding percentage and #2 in zone rating. I'll just say he has been at least average for the position and maybe above average for an MLB SS. The one thing I've noticed is that he has a hesitation about diving for balls that's alarming. I'll also add that defensive ratings don't mean much to me until they're bettered, but to move someone who has played 40 games there 8 years ago....I need to see a lot more, because Nix was very rough the other night at 3B.

Batting Pods first with Getz 2nd, or Getz 1st, with Pods 9th, those are the two best options. If it was 2005/06, I would agree Pods should clearly hit leadoff, but we're living in the past with Scotty. He has contributed offensively so far, but it won't hold up over a month or season. Getz is doing the best job he can at the position, and far better than Cabrera or Swisher, veteran ML hitters, did there. The most logical thing to do is to put Alexei 2nd to try to get him a steadier diet of fastballs and hope to catch lightning in a bottle like May/June of last year with him when Uribe went down to injury.

QUOTE (quade36 @ May 9, 2009 -> 05:57 AM) What do you guys think about Carlos Torres or Wes Whisler? Those guys have been doing the best in AAA so far. Not great scouting reports for either though. Neither one of those guys are the long-term answer either...they might win a game or two (like Lance Broadway has done against the Royals), but they're not on KW's "board" of future contributors. They're just organizational filler right now, occupying roster spots. Omogrosso is the only starter (besides Poreda) with major league stuff (and maybe Santeliz, but he's just off DL)...the jury is still out on Harrell, Ely and Cassel, but the first three are the most likely to stick as starters or relievers over a 2-3 year time period.

QUOTE (T R U @ May 9, 2009 -> 12:02 AM) I wouldn't go that far, I bet there would be a few teams who would trade a young MLB guy in a package for a Dye or Konerko and a chance at a World Series if they both continue to look like they are going to give you .300 30 100. And I know Konerko hasn't hit many HRs but if he keeps hitting like he is the track record is there anyways. And who cares if all we get are prospects, as long as they are good ones. This team is only getting older and slower by each game and its not like we are going to shell out big money for a superstar anyways. The more good prospects we have, the better the chance of some of them panning out. If we make those deals, we also clear a lot of salary and will be able to have a lot more room to fill out the roster through free agency. We would still have Quentin, Ramirez, Danks, MB, Floyd, Getz to go along with guys like Poreda, Beckham, Flowers, Viciedo, and are other young guys who look like they could contribute down the line. Add in what we get from those players being dealt and the salary relief I think that is exactly what we need. My team for the rest of this season as currently as I can get it would be 1. 2B Getz 2. SS Ramirez 3. LF Quentin 4. DH Thome 5. 1B Betemit 6. C Pierzynski 7. 3B Fields 8. RF Nix 9. CF Anderson OF Podsednik OF Wise IF/OF Lillibridge 3B/1B Phillips C Miller SP Buehrle SP Floyd SP Danks SP Colon SP Richard MR Broadway MR Carassco MR Contreras MR Whisler MR Link CL Linebrink Not good, im aware of this. If we are going to play like trash anyways, whats the difference. Stop lying to the fans already, we can clearly see this team is not that good and needs to be remade. I think they would get more support if they actually made an effort to rebuild this thing than doing nothing. If they are going to play Nix in RF, might as well see what hes got out there and see if thats going to be an option. As far as the MR goes, I am only going on what we could have now and not any other moves that could be made. Nix has a career minor league OPS of around 750 in the minors, where he languished for eight full seasons. No way he can be a full-time corner OF. He has to stay on the infield. Is he a better option than Lillibridge? Sure, I can't argue that. But the fact he's NOT Lillibridge is the main thing he has going for him, and his defensive abilities. He "looks" like a player up at-bat at least. I'll give him that much. Whisler probably won't pitch for us once this season, he's another version of Haeger/Tracey/Augustin Montero/Arnie Munoz/Mike Porzio/Josh Stewart. Yes, I'm aware of the Charlotte stats. Our MOST valuable trading chip, as someone pointed out earlier this week, would be Bartolo Colon, if he stays healthy and gets his FB up above 90 MPH consistently for an entire game.

Yes, next time I won't give a stat that one of your own Sox announcers/personnel gave, because obviously they are incorrect, too. Someone mentioned that statistic and I didn't take the time to look it up, so please have me shot. I am pretty sure nobody else has EVER said anything that's incorrect around here, too, as we are highly-compensated to be professional SoxTalk posters and aren't allowed to make any mistakes. Half the things Bill Melton says are wrong, I hope you call up Beltin' Bill Melton as well....I'm sure you do. Of course, the overarching point is totally lost upon you. http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/stats/aggreg...amp;season=2009 Yay, we're now 12th in the AL in runs scored per game. Our offense thanks you for defending it. Sure as hell the White Sox fans aren't defending it, because only 21,000 came out to see a Friday night home game against one of the most exciting teams in the majors in the Rangers, a team that came into the night with 50 homers to our 30. We'll be lucky to get 2,000,000 in attendance this year if the team continues to play like this, giving KW further reason (and Dick Allen more ammunition) to cut payroll again next season down to the 2005 level of $65 million. Fields would of course be the logical choice to move to left. He was far from bad out in left contrary to the 2 errors you will likely mention. Historically third baseman are great to transit to a corner outfield due to there arm strength. Fields was really, really, really bad in LF. It's not always about errors, because Pods is horrible too, and when you take atrocious "Great Circle" routes to the ball and miss it completely or it bounces off your head, many times the official scorekeeper will give a hit....or when he goes in and it goes over his head, or vice versa, like Lonnie Skates Smith. (By the way, Josh is now on pace to make 29 errors at 3B...not to mention the balls he doesn't get to). Unfortunately, unlike our last OSU 3B, Josh Fields hasn't shown signs of developing into a GG 3B. Obviously, the error last night on Josh was big, but it didn't really matter because our offense just sucks right now. The even bigger problem with Fields is that he can't even hit an average major league fastball with authority at a spot in the line-up where he's inundated with them. The only reason he was in that hole in the first place was because of his high OBP, but he's slowing losing that point in his favor, too. Fields should be a 6-8 hitter in our line-up. Bottom line, when you strike out 30-35% of the time and are an opposite field singles hitter and only have 2 homers, you're not going to last very long as a major league hitter. Eventually, he might start hitting the ball with authority again...he did actually hit one ball well, right at Vizquel last night. Basically, Josh has a very, very long swing like Anderson and Crede when he first came up, and it was so much better in ST when he was short and quick. He's almost as lost up there at the plate as Thome and Ramirez. To summarize, there's no way that Josh Fields will be our LF in the future. It will be either Viciedo, Shelby or someone we've never even thought about (trade, FA acquisition). Almost every 3B who has been moved to LF was moved because they were even more horrible at 3B, like Carlos Lee...Fields has "average" arm strength for the position, and you don't need to have as good an arm in LF as RF. Actually, Carlos Quentin is playing much better defensively in LF than he did last year. It's not so clear-cut that they will automatically move him to RF, and Viciedo has the best arm of anyone in the organization, he might be just as good in RF (or better) if he lost a little more weight, as he can run better than most people think, although not quite as well as Brandon Allen.

With that line-up, we'd be hard-pressed to win 75 games. So we might as well go all out and substitute Betemit for Thome, since Jim won't be around after next year, either.

We've scored 0 or 1 run in 10 out of our 28 games. It's beyond pathetic. The weather's no longer an excuse. This offense needs more benchings than just Alexei Ramirez.

QUOTE (scenario @ May 8, 2009 -> 10:13 PM) The real reason CJ doesn't receive the acclaim he could get is because he was undrafted. And the reason he was undrafted... two issues: 1. He didn't have a clear position in college. In fact, he played EVERY position, literally... including being a pretty decent pitcher. His coach at Arizona State said during CJ's junior year that he thought he'd eventually end up as a catcher. (During one game at ASU he actually pitched and caught in the same inning. LOL.) 2. He suffered a high ankle sprain early during his final season. So he didn't play much until late in the year. (Although he kicked *** for ASU in the CWS.) So... no clear position and injured in his final year which lead to his being overlooked by most teams. Except for us. Advantage us. I think this was pretty much the same case with Michael Aviles, which is why he really had to hit well almost every day to keep his position...and the fact, like Rutherford, he really doesn't have a good defensive position where he's clearly "above average" is also a detriment. The way Josh Fields has been going, I'd almost rather see CJ Rutherford up there for a week to see what he could do...of course, this will happen about as soon as Cook becomes the starting CFer. Shelby and Cook, not in the same solar system as far as prospect status goes. Cook=Gartrell, if we want to be charitable to David.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ May 8, 2009 -> 10:37 PM) Contreras went to the pen in 2007 for a short break, and IIRC when he came back he was a fair amount better than when he left (can't check to make sure, B-R won't load damnit!) http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/players/game...3&year=2007 It happened at the beginning of August when he was already 5-14. He pitched two times in relief, then pitched "decently" (lowered his ERA by about a point, right now he's 8+) for the remainder of that season.

My main goal in life is to become an ubiquitous part of the vernacular around here...and, one day, even be used as a verb. "Go all Caulfield" I like that. Thanks for advancing my cause of becoming part of the lexicon.

QUOTE (Kenny Hates Prospects @ May 8, 2009 -> 10:28 PM) Omogrosso would probably be a better choice to replace Broadway in the bullpen IMO. At least then maybe we'll come up with a guy who can pitch one useful inning here and there instead of a guy we only want to go to if the game is out of hand and we want to save the important members of our staff. I don't like the idea BTW of replacing Contreras with something you know that for the most part isn't going to be any better. I'd rather keep running him out there with the hope he changes things up if we're not going to go outside the organization for either a young guy who profiles as a starter or a healthy veteran with a track record. Whether it's Charlotte or the bullpen, he has to get a feel for that forkball again. He can't pitch at 91-93 like he used to pitch at 94-97. Not only that, but, even more demoralizing, any baserunner with average speed who reaches first base is almost automatically in scoring position at some point. Ozzie didn't seem too confident going to the bullpen would help much, but it seems they prefer he stay with Cooper and maybe Alexei, too. It doesn't seem like any team would be willing to give up a really legit "young/er" pitching prospect at this point in the season. Richard might not make it, but he's been throwing 92-96 recently (if you believe the guns), and we've seen the likes of Bergesen and Harrison have success (maybe they would succeed only against the Sox!) with the same stuff that Richard has.

QUOTE (fathom @ May 8, 2009 -> 10:12 PM) I like Getz, but even he is struggling now. He's 3 for his last 20. You could also put him in the 2nd spot, but AJP seems like a perfect fit for that right now. As we were talking about in chat, the 2nd hitter usually gets the most fastballs. The problem with that is we have our worst fastball hitter in the 2nd spot. They have nothing to lose trying to jump-start Ramirez by putting him at this spot. Move Nix over to 3B for Fields if he continues to struggle and Ozzie decides to "unbench" Ramirez. I mean, while you're at it, bench Thome (for Betemit) and don't bother to play Lillibridge any more than absolutely necessary.

Getz SHOULD be a 2nd, 8th or 9th place hitter. It is what it is. The only fix for now would be to put Nix at 3B and let Alexei try to get hot again. You could also put Alexei in CF, but Josh Fields is looking horrible, striking out 30-35% of the time, which is fine if he had 7-10 homers, but he's getting blown away consistently by 92-94 MPH fastballs right across the heart of the plate. Solution 3 would be to but Betemit at 3B and Ramirez in CF instead of Lillibridge, who needs to go Charlotte with Contreras. (Yes, Brent had one of the few hits tonight, but he's still not a major league hitter or threat to the opposition.) Maybe Thome should sit (like Alexei) and you should give Betemit his AB's at DH. Thome is now below the Mendoza line and looking like a shadow of his former self. Quentin has had more bad at-bats pulling off everything and popping up than anyone the last two weeks.

DJ Carrasco might be the most logical person to start, but they should PROBABLY first go to Richard or Broadway, because it only makes sense to try pitchers who theoretically could be here the next 2-3 years. We need to replace Jose and probably Colon after this season, so at least two starters are needed. Torres, Van Benschoten, Egbert, Marquez (right now, for sure) and Whisler just don't profile as big league pitchers, but they simply won't bring up Poreda and Beckham and start their arbitration clocks in what could be a lost season. My choice for one spot start would be Omogrosso (he pitched last night for BIRM) and then working long-term to build up the arm strength of Richard and/or Broadway to give one or the other 4-5 consecutive starts to show what they can do.

I don't think they're confident enough in Poreda's control, and they're also concerned he too will become a one-pitch pitcher if he gets behind in counts...in which case Aaron will get hammered. There are no good solutions...but I think, unfortunately, another Broadway start is more likely than anything. Richard's arm isn't stretched out. Trying Omogrosso wouldn't be the worst thing in the world, he's predominantly as FB pitcher, but it wouldn't be the worst thing in the world for his confidence if he got totally bombed...and his ultimate destination has always been perceived to be the bullpen.

Sorry to see Jose's White Sox career possibly ending this way. Courageous comeback, and maybe he can get a feel for the forkball in the pen, but Jose has never profiled as someone who could successfully come into a short-relief situation. At best, he's a replacement for Broadway and can eat innings in blowouts at this point. Well, no matter what, he was the best pitcher from August 05 through May, 06 in all of baseball. Something to behold. 17 consecutive victories that will never be forgotten.