caulfield12

The "no-defense/all offense" option would be Betemit at SS with Alexei in CF. Of course, then you'd have to play Lillbridge against lefties, about 20-25% of the time...I guess you'd have to go with Getz/Betemit at the top of the order versus righties and Getz/Ramirez versus lefties. Or maybe it would just become obvious which one (Alexei or Betemit) was most comfortable with that spot in the line-up. We would have plenty of offensive firepower, the only question is how many more runs that line-up could potentially cost us defensively.

This goes way way back. Brien Taylor...Hensley Bam Bam Meulens...Kevin Maas...Shane Spencer. What the Yankees have done (like KW) is picked the homegrown players (Cano, Soriano, Rivera, Bernie Williams, Joba, Pettitte, Posada, Jeter, etc.) that would pan out and tried to maximize the return/value for those that were not part of their long-term plans.

At first I thought it was confined to Carlos Lee and then Brian Anderson...or that the spirit of Jose Valentin's man-moustache had disappeared. Why is our baserunning so bad? I think Josh Fields specifically has made at least four bone-headed outs already this spring, and maybe I missed a couple...today he tried to advance to 3B on a hard ground hit in front of him with Cabrera right behind him. Is this inexperience? Lack of playing time at OSU as he concentrated more on football? His desire to show off his health and newfound slightly above-average running ability? Or systemic minor league coaching failures over the last decade. Between not being able to steal or having the technique (players like Ramirez and Anderson), we have others like Owens who can't simply be effective. It reminds me of Willie Harris or Pods after his injury in 2005, never the same after that first half on the basepaths. Then, Getz and Ramirez were BOTH picked off...yet we lucked out twice. Getz was hit in the back by the throw from 1B and Cabrera whiffed on the tag on Ramirez because his slide was so unexpected and dangerous that he wasn't where Cabrera thought he would be (of course, had he torn his ACL or broken his ankle and been safe instead of being leaving without a scratch, we'd also be pissed off...except for those happy to see Beckham!) Do we have the worse successful stolen base percentage in the majors this spring? I just don't get it. The players with above-average speed (Lilli, Anderson, Owens, Getz, Fields, Ramirez, Wise) all have had their moments on the basepaths, but particularly Josh Fields. Of course, he's hitting about .450, so it's hard to complain, but it will be more of an issue when he does that and it costs us a real game as often happened with C-Lee/El Caballo. Is it hopeless? Any thoughts or answers? Does anyone see this is as a real problem going forward, or is there a fix? (Obviously with Owens and Wise, probably not). Also, can Wilson Betemit play CF? (Joking...sort of)

Melton called him Bob Jerren....too funny, it's Geren. Now the hitters (like Cunningham) are missing that high FB completely to fouling it to the opposite side...all good signs for Colon. Looks as if he is responding to being called out (in a way) by Ozzie to show his real stuff at this point in the spring.

Colon is looking sharper with his FB and location this inning. Let's hope he doesn't fall apart in his 3rd inning like Poreda did yesterday after flying through the first 2.

QUOTE (kane0730 @ Mar 25, 2009 -> 03:04 PM) REAL quick 1-2-3 for Colon. Only 5-6 pitches. Hard to tell the velocity watching online. I would guess 87-90 MPH. Cust just pulled a fastball, that usually doesn't happen when he's on his game. Sweeney looks like he's gained 10-15 pounds since a couple of years ago.

DJ just called him Derek Lillibridge (former Braves pitcher)...Lilliquist. Anderson is the #7 prospect in all of MILB...kind of a like a LH Jon Rauch but with a much better fastball. More like a kid the Mariners had who was hyped, can't remember his name, but he never panned out for some reason.

When I saw the thread title, at first I thought that Tim Burton was doing a remake of Plan 9 from Outer Space (the legendary worst movie ever made in the history of cinema, by Ed Wood) but had changed the name to the even scarier "Option D in CF." KW knew what he was dealing with going into this season...nothing has changed one iota, with the possible change being Lillibridge and Ramirez moving back there with Beckham's continued progress. Still, I would rather take my chances with Viciedo the next four years...and it's telling that the Yankees aren't even thinking of starting Swisher in CF, and that option was never on the table according to Cashman from the time of the trade. In fact, they would start Cabrera over Swisher in center, although it would appear that Melky might end up re-establishing SOME value in the minors this year and maybe he tears it up again when/if Gardner struggles. We passed on Taveras, an oft-debated move. Supposedly, we passed on Dickerson and Denorfia in the past...as recently as the Dye for Bailey rumors, but I'm not sure what we can believe there. Ankiel might make the most sense...we'd have to put together a deal centered around pitching I think...Poreda/Richard/Marquez and one of our #10-20 prospects. Then again, defensively, we'd have a huge mess on our hands, worse than right now even when Wise and Owens man the position. Of course Ankiel has the arm strength, well maybe optimistically it would be a Nick Swisher/Griffey situation out there. Not sure what Edmonds' plans are. Crisp and DeJesus aren't going anywhere soon, and certainly not to a divisional rival. Marlon Byrd is tempting too, but can he replicate what he did last year? Blanco would perhaps most fit what KW and Ozzie are looking for, then it comes down to price, as mentioned. Cabrera would be worth a gamble, not so costly right now...but there's also no guarantee of success offensively, and he's definitely not a leadoff hitter based on last season, either. McCutcheon and McLouth are out of the question in terms of having to give up too much talent. Fred Lewis or Willits would be my last options of those listed. I just don't think KW is ready to take an untested kid like Josh Anderson and throw him out there into the AL Central pennant race...they had their chance to look at him more closely when they were debating the prospects coming back in return for Vazquez, so it might be possible they could rekindle the sparks for another deal, although who we'd give up or be willing to give up is another question entirely. You'd like to say Brandon Allen or Shelby, but neither one alone would get it done, and Allen is LH (a weakness in our system) and the heir apparent to Konerko in two seasons if Flowers isn't moved from catcher or Viciedo to 1B instead of LF/RF.

It's interesting that we're seeing Lillibridge in the starting line-up in CF. They should have done this about 2-3 weeks ago, though, if they were really serious. I think they just want to see how well he does out there out of curiosity, and because they know what they'll get with BA/Owens/Wise already...if he's a legitimate option to Anderson. You can't say he would be taking time from Wise or Owens, except for the fact that one of those guys has to go and Lillibridge has the most versatility (not saying he's shown anything offensively) of anyone left on the roster, along with Getz, Ramirez and Betemit. I think MacDougal versus Carrasco and Marquez comes down to the final week. Poreda eliminated himself with those four walks yesterday, the hanging slider to Sizemore and walking the 8 and 9 guys in the line-up, among other things.

MLB.com's Scott Merkin talked to White Sox starter John Danks, who recently turned down the team's offer of a four-year, $15.5MM extension (Gavin Floyd accepted the same offer). Danks was excited by the offer, but his agent advised him not to take it: "I was thrilled to death. I was advised that it wasn't the right time for that deal, but at the same time, never in a million years, never did I think I would have turned down a guaranteed 15. It was a hard decision, but that's why I pay my agent. We'll move on from there." So at least the desire to stay in Chicago is evident with Danks. Danks mentioned two more times that he turned down the offer on the advice of his agent Jeff Berry. He even admitted, "When I heard $15 million, I was like 'Heck yeah.'" Berry wants Danks to wait until after '09, when he'll be arbitration-eligible for the first time. Presumably Berry has his eye on a Jon Lester deal. Just hope Danks doesn't go all Cliff Lee second season version and end up regretting passing up the guaranteed $15 million.

Well, it would be nice if Nix was ready...Kroeger, based on his performance, really deserves the opportunity, certainly over the other veteran in camp, Ben Broussard, who is really looking at retirement I would imagine. The main problem with that is Betemit or Getz playing SS, although I think Chris could handle maybe 10-12 games there. I would rather have him at SS than Betemit, I think...although Betemit's LH bat makes sense backing up 3B, SS and 1B. I wouldn't be surprised if we see Contreras, after having so long to rest his arm and now being 100% healthy, back at 93-96 MPH with his FB either.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/chi-2...0,5403058.story Seems that Ozzie is really waiting for him to at least get his FB back into the lower 90's again. I don't think we'll ever see the Colon who would gain strength during a game and raise his velocity to 96-97 and even touch 98 in the late innings, but he has to throw at least 90-92 MPH to be effective IMO. His FB has always had a ton of late movement, so the velocity isn't as important to him as someone like Jenks, Thornton or Brandon McCarthy. With Richard as option #1 if Colon isn't ready for Opening Week, there's a lot of pressure on Poreda to hold off Williams as the second lefty out of the pen. This need might be mitigated a little bit by the seeming demise of both Hafner and Mauer, but Ozzie appears determined to have at least two lefties in the pen for late game match-ups. Outside of that, everything seems pretty settled...maybe the debate between Carasco, MacDougal, Russell and Marquez for the final spot in the bullpen...and Kroeger versus Lillibridge for the final spot on the team. Lillibridge would need to go for the next week to lose that job, it seems. He did hit the ball hard at least once yesterday off Carmona...maybe that's a positive sign. Owens APPEARS to be on his last legs with the White Sox, literally.

QUOTE (BearSox @ Mar 24, 2009 -> 10:36 PM) You have no idea how much I hate computer generated numbers/stats/records (even though BP nailed the Sox right on the head in 07). Many computers but very few managers (Korea's Kim is a lot like Ozzie, more gut/instincts) would have pitched to Ichiro in the 10th the other night. That's why baseball is so fun to talk about...numbers can frame debates, but they are certainly not the main determining factor out on the diamond.

It's looking like Richard, Poreda, Marquez, Carasco and MacDougal at this point (two of those guys, perhaps three). I wouldn't be surprised if Mike, with the strikeouts he's been accumulating, is given one more chance to re-establish his value and maybe we don't have to eat his whole salary. The Indians could definitely use another arm in the pen, but you know KW won't send him there would it could bite us in the butt. You have this strange notion Wood might go down with an injury and MacDougal gets it together and has a better year than Jenks. Things like that always seem to happen with relievers. Wasserman and Russell are looking better than in the first stages of camp, but we have options on both I'm sure. Not sure how serious they are about Egbert (or Kroeger), it's hard to get a reading on that. You don't see their names come up very often...you assume they're destined for AAA. I would love to see them keep scanning the waiver wires or look to make a deal though for CF....Kroeger and David Cook might even come into consideration. I just hope they keep Beckham at 2B and don't put him in CF, that seems HIGHLY HIGHLY unlikely, though.

Anderson leading off won't last for very long anyways. As far as the comment earlier about "platoon" situations, there are obviously going to be some players like Beckham and Viciedo that would face all hitting when they come up. Others, like Anderson and maybe we'll see it with Fields/Betemit (Wilson facing the toughest righties), Wise/Owens etc., it's just about putting young players in the best position to succeed and gain some confidence. Well, in the case of Owens/Wise, it's simply maximizing your OBP and SLG. But being a platoon player is like the "utility player" kiss of death, unless you're Mark DeRosa. Getz or someone like Aviles on the Royals will fight against it every season of their careers, just like Aaron Rowand did at the beginning of his career.

Poreda sometimes is crisp with that slider and other times he kind of just "flips" it up there...Ozzie isn't going to have much patience with 4 walks in one inning, especially when two of them were the bottom hitters in the line-up. Poreda isn't going to have the luxury to work on that slider in pressure situations in the big leagues...needs more seasoning. Looks like Russell and MacDougal are still under consideration for that final spot in the bullpen. And it sucks, but Wise and Owens bringing nothing to the table defensively almost forces the hand of the White Sox to stick BA out there....Wise playing 60-75% of the time in CF just has disaster written all over it. To beat a dead argument into the ground, I would have much preferred Willy Taveras to the mess we're looking at. I'm almost to the point where I'd be open to seeing more of Lillibridge out there, but we haven't seen much of that, at least yet.

Was that ball hit by Getz an error by Gimenez or a double? Guess they called it an error. Haven't seen the ruling...I guess he shattered his bat on the inside fastball and ended up helicoptering the barrel down the line, distracting the fielder...but the ball did go between his legs. Getz always seems to do something positive, with the walks, hustle, speed..."little things."

The Indians' announcers are really impressed with Poreda. Said his fastball seems to have late life, that, like Thornton, he looks deceptively-fast...and that he's successfully gotten into the kitchen of 3 hitters already. Made the comment he (Thornton) just needed to challenge hitters with that stuff and stop nibbling and just go after hitters. Has anyone heard that Poreda might be leading Marquez for the last spot in the pen now? Is Carasco still perceived as a sure-thing to make the OD roster?

It was a hit-and-run...BA failed to make contact, not a straight steal. Peralta, perhaps the worst SS defensively in the American League, ironically stops the player that we're going to carry 90% for his speed/versatility/defense in Lillibridge.

You have to have MLB.TV, right? Fields perfect bunt single to start the inning...batting .415 and climbing. Anderson .261, Wise .275 and Owens .208 (but something like 10 walks), so his OBP is pretty decent. BA fails to make contact on a hit-and-run and gets Fields thrown out, then he promptly K's. Yet another reason BA shouldn't be batting anywhere near the top of the order, he just doesn't have the required "small ball" skills. And Lillibridge, please wake up and try to look like an offensive threat for a change.

Very ugly line-up today offensively. Last time I said that weeks ago, we exploded against the B and C pitchers after the starter left...Carmona pitched fairly well against us last time out this spring. And at least Ozzie has Owens at the very bottom of the order. Is Hafner done? He's still struggling this spring at .143...looks like Sox killer Victor Martinez is back to his old form, though.

http://www.baseballmusings.com/cgi-bin/Lin...381&Model=0 I went back and did this using BA in the line-up, with Thome's and JD's White Sox averages for the last three seasons, Konerko's career average, Quentin's 2008 season (along with Alexei) and "averaged" BA and Fields in terms of minor and major league numbers (Fields might be underestimated, BA overestimated at this point) and then just projected Getz based on minor league averages. 5.770 runs per game (935 runs in one season) 1. Jim Thome 2. Carlos Quentin 3. Fields 4. JD 5. Paul Konerko 6. Alexei Ramirez 7. AJ 8. Brian Anderson 9. Getz Everytime you run these simulations, you have Getz/AJ/Anderson as the bottom 3 in some way, shape or form. You could also make an argument that Thome and Quentin should be flip-flopped due to Quentin's better overall speed on the basepaths.

http://www.baseballmusings.com/cgi-bin/Lin...ul+Konerko& amp;OBA5=+0.344&Slug5=+0.438&Player6=AJ+Pierzynski&OBA6=+0.312&Slug6=+0.416&Player7=Josh+Fields&OBA7=+0.334&Slug7=+0.433&Player8=Chris+Getz&OBA8=+0.361&Slug8=+0.381&Model=0 You guys will all have a lot of fun with this tool. The best line-up I could come up with produced 5.638 runs per game, or 913 over a full major league season. Realistically, the best line-up that's also realistic for the White Sox is the one that produced 5.634 runs per game. 1. Beckham, SS (I projected him to .350 OBP and Alexei's .475 SLG from last year, still a fairly conservative .825 OPS) 2. Carlos Quentin, LF 3. Paul Konerko, 1B 4. Jermaine Dye, RF 5. Jim Thome, DH 6. Alexei Ramirez, CF (splitting up the two lefties with Alisay, although you could flip Fields and AJ I guess) 7. Josh Fields, 3B (based on average minor league numbers) 8. AJ Pierzynski, C 9. Chris Getz, 2B (based on average minor league numbers) Every formula I ran had the most runs scored with AJ and Getz as 8 and 9, bottom of the order. One other interesting statistical finding: If you use their career MAJOR league numbers, Brian Anderson comes out with a SLIGHT advantage over Jerry Owens and both are about .02 ahead of Dewayne Wise. The advantage is even bigger if you use BA's minor league numbers, and, once again, doesn't take into account defensive ability, which would obviously favor Anderson as well. Play around and find a line-up that can beat mine...also, you can have fun putting in Figgins, Brian Roberts, Orlando Hudson, Furcal, Dunn, Abreu, etc. It's a pretty neat line-up tool and makes for interesting discussion. FINAL NOTE: For all the Brian Anderson fans out there, I did this for you. I VERY GENEROUSLY AVERAGED his major and minor league numbers (.3205 OBP, .4265 SLG, .747 OPS, Torii Hunter, Jr.) and put him out there with Alexei and Beckham in the middle infield BUT the Getz 2B, Beckham SS and Alexei in CF version still won 5.634-5.638 to 5.571 RPG. In order for BA/Beckham/Ramirez to win, he has to save/prevent 10 1/2 runs per season on defense compared to the Ramirez/Beckham/Getz version. I think you could make that argument, with Anderson over Alexei in CF, Ramirez over Beckham at SS and Beckham over Getz at 2B. That line-up, the one we've just begun to embrace as White Sox fans, would score 902.5 runs in a season. Of course, that's all predicated on BA getting a .747 OPS in everyday play against tough righties and not just favorable match-ups, which is FAR from a sure thing.

Nice to see CQ's power coming around the last 7-10 days. I guess that means JO and Alisay both reached? Hmmmm...I guess Owens has two walks now, so how many is that on the spring so far? 10? That can't possibly take his .217 BA to a .350 OBP, could it? Now we just need a positive April from JD...not a .180 average on May 15th. Anyone think UK would rethink hiring Gillespie if they could have Travis Ford instead?

I hope we don't see too many line-ups with Lillibridge and Owens anywhere near each other. EVER. AGAIN. Shades of Mark Johnson and Royce Clayton.. Sorry, have been with my g/f in the Philippines for the past week...how has Josh Fields been hitting the last week? I see his average is still around .400, but he was starting to strike out more frequently about 10 days ago. When are they sending Beckham out? It will be nice to see Shelby play a little in the outfield in the next two weeks as well (and Danks). I know he's more of a LFer at this point, but I would be interested to see him in CF just for a couple of games. However, the CF battle coming down to the last week might curtail those opportunities. Looks like the B10 is now down to two teams already...MSU and Purdue. That Ohio State-Sienna game was a good one, am sure Matta will be second-guessed for the next six months, but they really didn't have much of a chance against LOU. Watch, Sienna will knock off the Cards. Well, I wouldn't bet on that one happening, unless I was wagering my 100 shares of AIG. 4-2 White Sox. Richard gave up two runs in the bottom of the first but struck out soon-to-be-displaced Bobby Crosby with two runners on base to get out of the inning. Errors on Lilli (2nd) and Fields (3rd) opened up the floodgates, so neither run was earned. Starting to wonder if Eider Torres might sneak back into the competition for back-up middle infielder with the way Lilli has been going...?