caulfield12

I'd like to see KW argue with a straight face how BA and Wise leading off maximize our scoring opportunities when they both might combine for the lowest OBP of ANY position in the line-up??? This is just illogical, and makes Cabrera at leadoff seem like Rudy Law/Lance Johnson in comparison. I'm okay with Getz over Ramirez and AJ in the number two spot, but I would rather see Ramirez leading off (ala Soriano) than BA, even if Ramirez struggles to touch a .325 OBP. I don't think BA will do any better than that...and Ramirez is a much more menacing offensive threat. BA would see more pitches, but Wise isn't very selective at all. In fact, when he was trying to go deep into counts and take 4-5 pitches, he was terribly ineffective and the team ordered him to just go back to being himself, which is basically like Ramirez and AJ. I don't think Getz or Beckham are the perfect #1 hitters, but one of them might end up there before all is said and done this season. There aren't any other viable options in our organization. (I hope someone doesn't say Negron, Kroeger or David Cook here).

QUOTE (Kenny Hates Prospects @ Apr 1, 2009 -> 10:48 PM) I don't buy this. Dye would have been gone before the winter meetings if so, like I believe both Javy and Swisher were. Also, some closers got good money this year and Octavio with his $6M salary probably would have been on the block. The Sox are going younger and cheaper (and better) year by year, but I think what actually happened was the Sox were planning on having a higher payroll before they were given their budget. They then moved enough salary to meet their needs and nothing more. On top of that, the Sox apparently have felt all along that Wise and Owens are capable of being full-time starting CFers in the Major Leagues. Salary had nothing to do with the Sox passing on guys like Josh Anderson, and actually, either Josh Anderson or Gregor Blanco could have been possibilities in the Javy deal. The Sox are in the situation they're in because they still love their damn grinders. Do you believe we really could have gotten anything in return for Dotel this offseason without eating some of his salary? I'm just not sure how many other clubs would look at his (at this point in his career) as a potential closer again...and then whole idea of making a salary arbitration offer and expecting to get draft picks in return, well I would prefer Juan Cruz many times over Dotel, and look how many teams were interested in Cruz this past-offseason. In some ways, you could make an argument right now we should just cross our fingers with MacDougal and Mike might end up putting up better numbers than Octavio this season. Then again, the odds are equally as likely that BOTH will go down with some type of injury. Yes, the Sox chose Gilmore/Rodriguez when they could have had one "major league-ready pitcher" and you have to assume they also could have had Anderson (or POSSIBLY Blanco) instead as part of that deal...they went with long-range potential over the short-term, we'll have to wait and see if either of those guys pan out. Perhaps KW also could have taken Blanco but he would have had to sacrifice Lillibridge/Rodriguez/Gilmore. I think KW, in his mind, felt Lillibridge was undervalued and could be a similar type of player to Blanco, although Blanco obviously has a much better track record at the major league level.

I know he had 10-11 walks, his OBP wasn't actually that horrible. I think there were 3 reasons: 1) Lack of success/aggressiveness/burst on the basepaths and even running to first (where Getz and possibly Lillibridge looked a step faster) 2) Lack of hard contact and rolling too many balls into easy 4-3 outs that didn't put any pressure on the defense...only about 5-10% of his balls were hard hit, period 3) Lack of anything resembling an arm...Wise is at least "decent" in this area

QUOTE (JPN366 @ Apr 1, 2009 -> 01:40 PM) This clutters up the Charlotte outfield. Now they have Cook, Restovich, Kroeger, Owens, Raines Jr., Negron & possibly Gartrell. I guess this means Negron and Gartrell return to B'ham for 2009 & Raines Jr. is possibly cut outright. Gartrell, Cook, Kroeger and Negron are the only ones who POTENTIALLY will get a whiff of the majors after 2009 with the White Sox. Negron has actually gotten quite a few appearances this ST, more than any of them but Kroeger. Restovich and Raines are just filler. Owens is just insurance in case KW can't find ANYONE else in the entire world, but I can't see them going to him unless he's hitting .350 with a .425+ OBP and 85% conversion rate on stolen base attempts (or an injury to Wise/Anderson).

Jordan Danks is very string-beany...thought he would be more muscular. Merkin's 100% better than Melton. Ramirez has made 2-3 really good plays this game that nobody else in our organization could have made...cut him a little slack. Lillibridge made a glove lip and he wasn't expecting it and he tried to make the throw to complete the DP and catch it at the same time. That's going to happen in ST when you have new combinations all the time...the more comfortable Getz and Ramirez get together, the better off we are. AJ was an RBI single to pick up the first Sox run of the game. Also, MacDougal has to pitch out of those situations...Floyd didn't do it many times last year after the defense made a mistake. JESUS Betemit...that was just a horrible throw, sailed and Konerko didn't even try to catch it.

I think Dye just made the assumption that the defense would give up the run...that Gonzalez would just take the easy out and concede the run. Still, a really dumb call by JD or Cox. If Cox sent him, it would be even more upsetting. Two nice pick-offs by CR (proving he can throw to first from the mound at least) and a quality start. Hopefully something to build upon for the regular season.

Sisco never showed an ability to develop his secondary pitches or work with Cooper, same thing with Aardsma. Ozzie really rode Logan out of Chicago...I remember one time he left him in a game when he was simply getting brutalized. Boone was just too fragile psychologically, a little bit like Marte, but Marte was dominant for three seasons before he started to show signs of faltering. Logan only pitched well for about a 6 week stretch. Finally some signs for offense, Konerko with the 1-out double to RCF off the wall. Some more bad White Sox baserunning as Dye tried to score on the hard-hit ball to 1B with the defense playing back on their heels. We just don't have any team speed...same old sad story!!! So much for that threat. I wish we could see Fields, Getz, Viciedo, Beckham, Flowers, Brandon Allen, Jordan Danks, Shelby and Lillibridge out there once as a line-up. It would be so much more interesting to watch than this.

Maybe if Williams had been with the organization last year and the staff was more familiar/comfortable with him, I think the White Sox would have been more amenable to taking him to start the season. MacDougal also really pitched well enough to make the roster, there's no doubt that the odds were stacked against him at the beginning of March. And that $2.65 million contract has to be considered as another factor as well. Maybe, just maybe, he can get hot and they can end up getting some value out of him this year, either performance or trade-wise.

Dunn is just a much better Rob Deer, Cory Snyder or Pete Incaviglia. I don't think it would have mattered if Wise stopped that ball b4 it got to the fence....it was going to be a double. It wasn't a great route, but the ball really seemed to take off and just got past him. He had all of his momentum going away from the play, if he had caught it, impossible to plant and get anything on the throw.

But spring training is spring training...Williams hasn't pitched in the big leagues since 2005 and has had at least two major arm surgeries that he's recovering from. It's obvious his velocity isn't going to be good enough to be effective over 30-50 games. It would the equivalent of Lucy playing 3-4 times per week to also expect for Williams to magically contribute in the same fashion against all ML hitters. For the same reason Broadway, Egbert and David Cook didn't make the team, neither did this particular lefty reliever.

Scenario, did Ramirez have any AB's in BOS spelling Ortiz when he was hurt and got some additional homers from the DH spot? At any rate, a pretty amazing statistic. Still, we keep waiting for that inevitable decline year with low 20's homers and a .240-.250 BA from Dye. Can Willy Mo Pena play CF?? Just kidding...sort of!

QUOTE (Hawkfan @ Apr 1, 2009 -> 03:21 PM) i can't believe thome got that close. what a class act That's one thing I do appreciate about Wise and Getz. They're almost always hustling and trying to make things happen out there instead of being passive...it's nice to see that level of effort on a consistent basis, and you know Wise will never come close to taking his position on the team for granted like Jerry Owens seemed to coming into the spring. By the way, who the heck was the player from the box score yesterday that has never been seen b4? He pinch hit and got one AB. I think that's the first time I have ever seen the White Sox get Henry Blanco out in a game. Ramirez with another high-wire act...throwing effortlessly against his body and getting the easy out from an akward position. He's looking really good out there today.

Bender with the information that Dye has the most homers of any MLB outfielder over the last four years. That can't be right, can it? I think he meant RFers, or AL RFers....Manny Ramirez would have to have more HRers than JD? 137 during that time. Maybe that's right?

Wow...Quentin's not very fast, either. Can't believe he didn't beat that ball out somehow. I think Ron Karkovice might have been standing at first on that one. Or Little Nick Punto or Ozuna would have head-first dove into the bag. In a sign of the need for pitching in baseball, the Phillies, defending WS champions, are starting the season with Chan Ho Park as their #5 and Sidney Ponson is the #5 for the Royals. Pretty crazy how many opportunities Ponson has had, more than Bob Welch and Dwight Gooden. Betemit looks visibly more comfortable at 3B than he does at SS. Good sign for CR. Actually made a throw over to 1B accurately and picked Headley off...Konerko made the throw to Alisay to get the third out. Richard looks more relaxed after being assured a spot on the Opening Day roster and not like the last game out when he was pressing and trying too hard to impress Ozzie and Coop.

I'd even take Jody Gerut in CF. Ramirez with a VERY good play in the hole that nobody else in our organization could have made. Looks like more fans were in Comiskey in 1987 than this game...wow, the stands are almost deserted. Clayton strikes out one of the best hitters in the NL, he's going to be just fine in 2-3 inning bursts of time, but anything above and beyond that is far from guaranteed. We'll see...going to the bullpen first worked for Buehrle in 2000.

Clayton pitched well this ST with the exception of two particularly bad starts where he gave up 7 and 5 runs. Obviously Cooper and Ozzie are happy with him, and the only concern is making sure he gets ahead of hitters and keeps the ball down...which is true of any pitcher in the big leagues, whether he's a rookie or Cliff Lee, who has one of the worst ST ERA's in all of the Cactus League. When do we start the Geoff Jenkins in CF rumors? Of course, he has no ability whatsoever to play that position.

Because Hudson as a CFer is far from a sure thing defensively, and extensive playing time there at his age was/is likely to end up in a trip to the disabled list and reduced effectiveness. Point 2, Hudson's primary position, 2B, is/was manned by Getz and we also have Ramirez, Betemit, Beckham, Nix and Lillibrdidge that could all man the position much more cheaply. Beckham, certainly, or possibly Getz, would be seen as the long-term answer there. You can make an argument they should have signed Hudson for one year to play second and kept Getz in the minors, but I don't think Hudson would have signed for the money he did to play CF...not to mention that going to a tougher league and it seems he wanted to stay on the West Coast, too.

Well, if it is Wise/Anderson/Ramirez at the top of the order (or AJ), we're going to be 3rd from the bottom in the majors in OBP from those two spots, not 3rd from last in AL). The only reason I can think of going with Wise is 1) Owens is arguably worse, 2) Ozzie is more comfortable with Wise than BA, for whatever reasons (his perseverance over a long minor league career, his "big" hits last year or the playoffs against TB), 3) Ozzie feels that Wise gets more out of his ability and hustles more than BA. It's hard to make the case from a baseball-only perspective, as BA would win that argument hands-down in terms of pure logic. The hard part is we're going to have a lot of "MEHHHHH" days if Wise is adequate but around .300-.325 OBP but not horrible enough that Ozzie or KW make another move (giving BA more ab's, Getz to leadoff, trade or adding a player off the waiver wire)...it's the "limbo" thing that has us scared, and even though it will cost us games, I'm sure a significant number will be ready to sacrifice them (providing MIN and CLE don't run away) if they knew a better long-term solution would be in the offing by the end of May, either BA playing everyday until the trading deadline or an acquisition from outside the organization, even Jim Edmonds worth be worth thinking about despite his sitting out all the spring).

QUOTE (greg775 @ Mar 30, 2009 -> 10:40 PM) We should save this post. I think you have identified why, on paper, we really may suck this season. Defense and speed are important. Our left side of the infield may be horrific. AJP isn't getting any younger. Up the middle, wow. We are a big question mark at best. This might be the long season we've dreaded for a while. Hope a lot of guys step up. It's still going to come down to pitching. Bonderman, Willis, Mauer and Hafner are either injured or ineffective, that gives us a huge leg up...if we would have just come out of ST w

QUOTE (SoxAce @ Mar 30, 2009 -> 03:34 PM) That's all I heard to until this thread. If it's just for opening day, and they are still platooning, then I don't have a problem with it. This is like Alexei starting in CF last year on Opening Day against CLE. It doesn't mean very much in the overall scheme of things. Just because Wise is starting ONE game (I guess against Meche or Greinke) doesn't mean that he will be in there against lefties, that would be suicidal for the line-up. The problem is that teams will have us over a barrel if the platoon doesn't work and it becomes obvious it's costing us games both offensively and defensively. It would have been easy to sign someone like CoCo Crisp for fairly reasonable money and this nightmare wouldn't exist AND continue like a bad soap opera. I do think at least the first series it will be Wise, because the Royals' rotation, if I'm not mistaken, is comprised of all righties (Greinke, Meche, Bannister, Davies, Hochevar, etc.)

Is anyone concerned at all about Dye? For all the b****ing, moaning and complaining about Mr. Lillibridge, Dye is hitting 107 points lower than he is... Anyone hear the velocities for Contreras and Colon today? Pitch count? It doesn't show at the MLB boxscore...just batters faced. I am on wireless internet at Bangkok Airport, will be in Japan/Toyko this morning (31st), still land at O'Hare the same day.

That's because all white players are "grindy/lunch pail (or pale, literally)" right?? Just kidding...

Although I would never refer to Valentin as flashy or really dynamic or spectacular at SS, either. He was very solid, and all the metrics showed that he had a lot more range than Clayton, who was (like Cabrera) reputedly a Gold Glove infielder. The problem is that the lack of arm strength and average to below-average range prevented Clayton from making many plays that Valentin DID make, but these plays of course didn't show up as errors but as infield singles or perhaps a Fielder's Choice instead of putouts. And there were quite a few double plays that the likes or Valentin or Uribe and now Ramirez could complete that a Cabrera or Royce Clayton couldn't. You can't look strictly at errors as the be all-end all measure of a good SS, that's for sure...or total chances, total chances/IP, there are hundreds of barometers, but none of them individually are indicative of performance in isolation.

I think Jose Valentin would qualify as a "wild man" as well...he scared lots of grandmothers sitting in box seats down the first base line back in the day, and routinely put up 30+ error seasons, eventually causing KW to pull the trigger on the Royce Clayton/Myette move.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/baseb...0,6651533.story Speaking of contracts, new article on Mike MacDougal...