caulfield12

Yes, Neshek is expected to miss all of the 2009 season...they waited too long to do surgery. Matt Guerrier and Luis Ayala are not primary set-up men, the Twins learned that with Guerrier last year, and Crain was wildly inconsistent, even though he has a lot of talent. He has never been quite the same pitcher after coming back from injuries, and Rincon's HGH-injected FB was also a huge loss. A lot of pressure will also fall onto Mijares and Breslow, so, at the moment, our pen looks much better than theirs.

BALTIMORE — Wildness hampered Jose Contreras' quest Tuesday night for his first victory of the season. Whether he gets another shot as a starter may be up for debate after he allowed six walks in a 10-3 loss at Baltimore. "He has to figure it out, not me," manager Ozzie Guillen said after the Orioles scored eight runs in their final four innings after Contreras failed to protect a 3-2 lead. "It was a pretty bad game. He was walking people, not getting left-handed hitters out." White Sox-Orioles box score Guillen said he, general manager Ken Williams and pitching coach Don Cooper will assess Contreras' status Wednesday. But Contreras has hit a bump in each of his three starts — all losses. "I feel fine," Contreras said. "I just left the ball up, and they took advantage. "I was rushing and opening up and left the ball up." mark gonzales/trib There was a note in the article about Richard feeling more comfortable as a starter, but we all know how that will work out the 2nd and 3rd time around the order. They have to give Contreras at least 2-3 more starts. Maybe Ozzie's just trying to light a fire under him.

I just can't imagine what else that BA would expect in that situation from Ray BUT a fastball. Surely, every player in baseball would be an All-Star if they had only one type of pitch thrown against them and they didn't actually have to think or make adjustments. It was like Balfour and Cabrera last year...here's a heater coming, I'll through it right over the heart of the plate at 96-97, but I still don't think you're going to make any contact. That was just about getting overwhelmed/overmatched. If you're "in-between," you have to look for the FB first and attack that pitch when you get it. And Anderson still hasn't driven in a run with RISP (2nd and 3rd and one out)...maybe if we take a 4-2 lead instead of 3-2, the game turns out differently. Of course, Contreras just hasn't had his control. There were MANY things that went wrong tonight, and surely we'll be talking about Josh Fields (lack of power, K's, big swing) if he continues his current tailspin.

Got rocked tonight by Huff...he'll need to have better location if he doesn't want to be back in Charlotte next week. Throwing 87-91, you have to exhibit better command and movement than what he demonstrated tonight. Prediction...nobody claims MacDougal, and he signs with the Twins and becomes a dominant RH set-up guy in 2009.

He's not striking out at a HUGE rate right now...that would be one danger sign. He's never going to walk a lot...at least not until he's older. I just think he needs to play, and the future of Josh Fields is far from certain, too. So I don't think we can afford to move him to the OF yet. They should give him one full minor league season at 3B before they do anything that dramatic. Beckham has 4 errors already...but they're not thinking to move him to CF.

Why would he stay at extended spring training? The only argument is whether he should have started at Winston-Salem or BIRM. We only have this kid for four years...we don't have 2-3 years to "baby" him along...at worst, we would hope to have him ready for the 2011 season, but some were thinking he might make an impact this season, which STILL might happen. West was a lefty throwing 95 MPH tonight...Beckham struck out 3 out of 4 times as well. It happens.

Anderson simply cannot hit a major league fastball. His swing is way too big...and he hasn't shown any ability to be short and quick. Ray just threw center cut fastballs with no movement right down the pike and Anderson wasn't even close. As Harrelson says, if you can't hit the fastball, you're not long for the majors. The problem is that Brian isn't a very good offspeed hitter either. He has a "slider speed" bat and until he can tighten up that swing, he'll always be a 4th/5th outfielder no matter how well he can field, run and throw.

Cy Bergesen is his name. I guess that gun's about 2 MPH too fast. That means Contreras should be at 91-94 tonight.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Apr 21, 2009 -> 06:16 PM) I've learned so much about Joe Cowley today... If I can help it, I will never fly Southwest again. It's a flying trailer park/happy hour dive bar. cowley/twitter At least you now now know what airline to fly. Maybe there will be a protest against Cowley by the trailer park operators for "social" profiling. Indians scalping Royals in CLE. If the Royals didn't have to throw Ponson and Ramirez out there (Hochevar and Bannister are next), then they'd have a chance. 6-1. Hawk's idol Sizemore with another homer. Not quite sure who to cheer for in this game...probably the Royals.

BOT 1st...Shelby piling up walks, gets another. Nix fouled out on a high pop-up to the LF. Beckham struck out on a curveball. Flowers hit on foot by a pitch and Allen hits a hard grounder to 2B Torres. No score, 0-0. Omogrosso at 94 MPH...LHP West at 95. Three K's for Omo but not consecutively. Beckham with error #4 (this one at 2B). Allen committed to the ball and Omo was too slow getting over to 1st...so Beckham ended up taking his eye off the ball and it ended up with the runner at second. Omo with the "mental error" of not covering 1B...so not 100% Beckham's fault, but he did take his eye of the ball...wouldn't have had a play at first. Viciedo now in the midst of a 1 for 14 slump since getting up over .300. Missed a high FB.

Birmingham Barons (Chicago White Sox) THE WEEK THAT WAS: The Barons were 6-3 after going 4-1 at home against Chattanooga and then splitting two games at Tennessee. The final game of the series with the Smokies was rained out. WHO'S HOT, WHO'S NOT: RHP Derek Rodriguez had two wins and a save in his first four appearances, allowing one hit and no walks over 3 2/3 innings. ... OF Stefan Gartrell had three homers to tie for the league lead. ... LHP Aaron Poreda was 0-2 despite a 3.00 ERA. ... 3B Javier Colina was 2-for-18. PLAYER TO WATCH: C Tyler Flowers, acquired by the White Sox from Atlanta in the Javier Vazquez trade, got off to a .290 start with two doubles, a triple, a homer and three RBIs. He had 12 strikeouts in 31 at-bats, but also had six walks. Flowers, 23, had 98 walks and 50 extra-base hits last year with Myrtle Beach. PERFORMANCE OF WEEK: SS Gordon Beckham, the No. 8 overall selection in the 2008 First-Year Player Draft, started red-hot. He was 4-for-6 with the game-winning hit in the Barons' opener and finished 10-for-22 in the Chattanooga series. Beckham, 22, was hitting .368 with four doubles, two homers and seven RBIs overall. He did have three errors, though.

QUOTE (Kalapse @ Apr 21, 2009 -> 04:44 PM) Because Gordon Beckham is at all comparable to a meh prospect like Rowand? If you really want to make a comparison go back to Ventura who's probably the most comparable Sox prospect in semi-recent memory to Gordon Beckham. And if Gordon were to hit as well as Crede did during his first 200+ AB stint with the Sox I'd take it. I'm also confused as to why Beckham needs to be compared to past Sox prospects (none of which were as highly regarded as Gordon) as opposed to someone like Ryan Zimmerman. There's also the example of Joe Borchard. All that aside, the problem is the pressure of playing in a media market like Chicago where the White Sox have consistently been a winning team (fighting in the upper reaches of the division, 1st to 3rd in almost all seasons except 2007), placing undue amounts of pressure on prospects such as Rowand, Crede and Borchard. You could probably add Brian Anderson to that list...although Borchard was the only one of those hitters at any point ranked in the Top 25-30 prospects in baseball. Beckham is #8, or definitely a Top 10-20 level prospect at worst. A more recent example, Alex Gordon, was allowed to play under almost no pressure with the Royals, and he still never has achieved at the level that was projected from him coming out of Nebraska.

QUOTE (WCSox @ Apr 21, 2009 -> 03:07 PM) Right, just like how Crede (who was projected by some to be the next Mike Schmidt) came up and raked immediately. Given that Beckham has only been using a wooden bat for a couple of months, I don't see why so many want him rushed into the bigs immediately. Last time I made this argument using the examples of Crede and Rowand their relatively slow "adaptation" to the major leagues (or any Sox hitting prospects since Ordonez, Lee and Durham), I was told that's irrelevant and that Beckham will be the exception...that it's a "new era" of White Sox youngsters coming up and dazzling upon entrance to the big league arena.

MacDougal overthrows the slider and refuses to pitch in the zone with his fastball...he's just gunshy now about giving up hits for some reason. And you can't work "backwards" from the slider to the fastball if you can't get strikes consistently with either pitch. Actually, he pitches like I would expect someone who'd been hit by a batted ball (and seriously injured) would pitch upon returning to the majors.

QUOTE (kyyle23 @ Apr 21, 2009 -> 08:05 AM) She is freaking crazy and plays herself off as the crack whore quite well. Penelope Cruz is not even close to comparable to the mess that is Bai Ling Which means she has more talent than you think, because she's nothing like that in real life...

QUOTE (Soxfest @ Apr 21, 2009 -> 03:36 PM) He had 100 chances....I never understood KW giving him an extension. At the time, it didn't look like the worst deal in history...just should have been at least one year shorter. Just imagine if KW signed Bradford, Baez and Walker for the pen instead of Dotel and Linebrink.

Great, sounds like MacDougal and Carrasco. At least he hasn't "maxed" out his potential...I would rather see Egbert, Poreda or Nunez get a chance than watching the same old sorry storyline game after game. I say this more about Mike and DJ, who has meant a lot to this team over the last year...kind of like a Ross Gload contributor who's underappreciated.

Kyle, I think you need to see Sunshine Cleaning...that will brighten up your day.

QUOTE (kyyle23 @ Apr 21, 2009 -> 11:56 AM) Not according to the article that someone wrote, somewhere, at sometime Here's a statistic for you. AT-BATS where the count reaches 2 strikes (0-2, 1-2, 2-2, 3-2)....performance from 2006-2008. Brian Anderson 142 K's/253 chances=57% chance of a strikeout Josh Fields 142 K's/233 chances=61% chance of a strikeout Does that mean that Brian Anderson is a better hitter than Josh Fields?

QUOTE (lostfan @ Apr 21, 2009 -> 10:11 AM) Why are we talking about Viciedo struggling in the cold by the way? 5 day forecast for Birmingham: 68, 75, 82, 86, 84. Hopefully Viciedo doesn't get hypothermia down there. I don't think he's struggling with the weather or rain. I do think he's going through the typical transition issues that every Latin player goes through (see the upcoming movie "Sugar") when they come to play baseball in the US, and especially a place that's really different from what they're used to (say the Pioneer League or the strange accents/dialects of people from the South). I don't know firsthand what Viciedo's English level is, and if he has someone assigned to spend time with him (the Seattle SuperSonics actually had an intern whose job it was to make sure Sean Kemp got out of bed and got to practice on time)...I can only say that when I worked for the Pirates' minor league team, most of those guys struggled to order from the McDonald's menu. They needed help with finding a car (leasing, buying, renting, etc.) and reading a contract for an apartment. There are just so many details. Having now had the opportunity to live outside the US in four countries (China, Thailand, Philippines and Colombia), I have a much greater appreciation for these issues and the big impact they can have on players....finding a church, dealing with girls and groupies and having freedom away from their parents, ordering food, doing their laundry, trying to learn English, basic communication, it can be very frustrating and alienating. Now I'm not saying these all are excuses whey Viciedo has an OPS less than Brent Lillibridge. It is just 41 at-bats. He has at least come up with some timely RBI's. We know he can drive the ball...he did so in spring training. Over 140 games, the true/r nature of a player comes out. Perhaps he's just putting pressure on himself because of the signing bonus and contract, because of what Alexei did last year, because of all the posts by Cubano, there are many factors.

1) First you'd have to isolate all those players like Pujols who essentially grew up in Kansas City (Ft. Osage, to be exact) from the Hispanic players that live in the US year-round and then those who live in the Caribbean, Panama, Mexico, Venezuela, etc., in the offseason. 2) Then you'd have to throw out those players who played Winter Ball, because someone would make an argument they were more "tired" or not "fresh" coming into the season. 3) Then you'd have to look at those games that started in April and May with a temperature below 40 degrees...or 50 degrees...or with a wind chill factor of X amount, etc. 4) Then you'd have to look at the baseline for all players in those games and compare... So it could be proven, but in the same way UZR or Zone Rating determines a player's defensive effectiveness, it wouldn't be pristine or perfect in any sense. On the other hand, it would equally difficult to disprove...as many opinions tend to be.

Lillibridge is on fire...we can't take him out of the line-up. He's the IGNITER.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Apr 21, 2009 -> 07:52 AM) Its a lot easier to pitch in the cold than hit in the cold. I think Contreras struggling is because he's had a long layoff and is in the middle of his "spring training". The cold weather should help him. The pitcher has the advantage the colder it is. I remember them always saying the Cubans do much better in "Cuban weather." The thing is, Contreras isn't loose or relaxed....not sweating in any of the games. You can see that he doesn't have confidence in anything but the fastball. That comes with time and heat/better weather conditions. And his velocity is not back, either. I'm sure that will change as June/July/August come around.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Apr 21, 2009 -> 07:50 AM) I would say .238 with no walks and only 1 double and 0 other extra base hits in AA is struggling for someone who a lot thought would be on the White Sox opening day roster. That said, I wouldn't be alarmed. I do think there might be something to the weather, especially with Viciedo. He probably had never played a game where the temperature was below 60 degrees in his life until this month. I'm sure there's an adjustment, not only to the weather, but the culture, etc. I think and hope he will be alright. I would think the majority of Latin players have learned to play in the cold, but guys like Alexei and Viciedo haven't really been exposed to it very long and their adjustment period is just beginning. Its a very different feeling standing at the plate when there's a 25 degree wind chill vs. 80 degrees. At least we can hope its the weather, because if its anything else, it could be troublesome. Yes, because he did crush the ball the first week of ST and also hit quite a few liners and doubles to the opposite field. His contact rate has dramatically increased, but the power numbers are below Sweeney/Lillibridge.

But Contreras became dominant in 2005 when it was really hot in late July, August and September... You think "cold weather" has only an affect on baseball players? Why aren't other sports relevant?