caulfield12

The problem is that the White Sox seem to treat Chicago like an inelastic market and they can just charge almost any price they want to because 80% of their annual attendance theoretically comes from people who would almost pay anything to watch White Sox baseball, at least that must be the thinking. What I don't get is how teams like the Dodgers and Angels have much more affordable ticket prices, concessions, parking, etc. Last time I checked, LA was a significantly more expensive cost-of-living market than Chicago. With this team, it seems like we'll be in the mix for most of the year, but it doesn't have any identity at all for the fans. We were a great home team last year. This feels like one of those seasons (with the economy being what it is) that the fans will be a bit pessimistic and wait as long as possible before they commit to coming out and supporting the team. Last year, in the beginning, you felt that the team might be good because of the starting pitching, the bullpen and the way they played at home. Then it gets back to the old argument...you don't want to go through another 72-90 season, but if it gives you another Beckham in the draft, might it be worth it? Especially with some of the small-market teams perhaps shying away from some of the Top 10 picks in 2010 because of affordability, it gives the White Sox a chance to get a franchise player even better than Beckham. Hopefully a college pitcher that could make an immediate impact, because pitching will be the most expensive cost to replace. But the cost of that 72-90 would be a loss of around 20-30% of the season ticket base...and theoretically they wouldn't do anything SIGNIFICANT to improve the team (OF/starting pitcher) through free agency but marketing the Birmingham team as the future and hoping the excitement of the arrival of 6-7 new players at one time would be enough to keep the season ticket holders around. I'd guess they would hold off on CF if Danks continues to impress, but that the pitching staff would be the area they'd have to improve. And it's area where we haven't spent since David Wells in free agency, but the Homer Bailey's of the world will be even more difficult to pry away. Personally, I'd rather have lower ticket prices, but I can also understand why they wanted to "lock" in those revenues for 09. The only question is what financial shape we'll be in for 2010. Going from $115 million to $65 million would be pretty astounding, but it's quite possible.

QUOTE (kyyle23 @ May 13, 2009 -> 09:22 PM) JP Ricciardi/Adam Dunn, Jim Bowden while with the Nats and Cinci was pretty outspoken, Omar Minaya is a daily quote in any NY paper and save your "i was his biggest cheerleader" speech, you havent been on ST very long and you have already written three novels on KW and they have gradually turned on him, and now he has the biggest ego ever and kicked your dog. so GMAB back to you Oh, so now you think Dombrowski and Shapiro are part of the outspoken/too much facetime group too? Since when does facial recognition have anything to do with the issue? Plenty of GMs are unrecognizable to most of the public, they are front office people. That doesnt mean they dont talk to the papers and get their opinions out there He does have one of the biggest egos ever, so does Obama (who I voted for, before you accuse me of being anti-Obama and a socialist), but Obama's doesn't have any affect on attendance, future revenues, fan attitudes, etc. So I'll keep it short and simple: 1) KW is a good GM, in general 2) KW has done a good job rebuilding the farm system 3) Almost none of the players he has traded have had an impact elsewhere, with the exception of Frank Francisco and maybe Chris Young 4) KW really believes that he can see things no other scout in baseball can pick up...or he's the best "spin doctor" in the world...based on his belief in Colon, Contreras, Lillibridge, Miller, Fields, Ramirez, etc., coming into this season. 5) KW could care less what the fans think, even when he is wrong Do you really believe that he's the best GM in baseball and is beyond questioning, ever? However, I am very much elated to see that someone is keeping track of the general "tone and tenor" of my thousands of postings about KW.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ May 13, 2009 -> 08:27 PM) Exactly how many teams do you follow in depth to the point of reading their message boards, blogs, local newspapers, local programing etc to know how much their GMs are quoted? We know Kenny because we seek out all things of the Sox. Of course it seems like he talks a lot because that is what we are reading. Its like reading a liberal blog and wondering why Obama is always talking so much. I read the KC Star, the Minneapolis Star Tribune, the Plain Dealer, The Free Press and the 3 Chicago papers... One thousand people at the Mall of America could walk by Bill Smith and not recognize him. Dayton Moore, same thing. Williams, Dombrowski and Shapiro make more of an effort to get their face and quotes in the papers and especially in the national media.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ May 13, 2009 -> 07:50 PM) 2008 Buerhle ERA home 2.65 away 5.05 Contreras ERA home3.25 away 5.85 Floyd ERA home 3.55 away 4.18 Vazquez ERA home4.25 away 5.10 Danks ERA home3.66 away 2.92 Walker is more vilified, Cooper is more praised...both are somewhere in the middle. However, I would imagine if both of them were fired, Cooper would get more job offers. It's really hard to break down who should be better...because the White Sox invested a lot more of their money in the pitching staff in 05/06 than they did in their hitters...so does that mean Cooper was expected to have such a great pitching staff in 2005? Or that he did a bad job when they regressed the next year? Or simply that they were all stressed from the extra innings and playoff baseball and a falloff was unavoidable? Last year, our homefield advantage was one of the best in the league, I'm sure it really helped the pitchers despite pitching at USCF...like the playoff game against the Twins with Danks on the hill. That adrenaline kicking in and the 26th man affect has to help quite a bit, too.

QUOTE (kyyle23 @ May 13, 2009 -> 06:53 PM) GMAB, KW is no different from any other GM in the game, we just are exposed to every little thing he says, quit acting like he kicked your dog. Kicked my dog? GMAB back. I've been one of the bigger defenders and cheerleaders of KW through the last 2-3 seasons. Yes, I think there are better ones out there, but there are many more that are worse. Name me another GM whose quotes are in the papers more often about silly things like Frank Thomas and "pitching inside" to opposing players? He's a smart guy, but he can't get out of his own way sometimes...but I'll wait for your list of the GM's with bigger egos. I'll give you Billy Beane and Theo Epstein, who else?

Well, despite the chicanery and tomfoolery today: KW, having the biggest ego of all GM's west of the NESN broadcasting area, WON'T ever admit that the failure of the team has anything to do with the overall talent level of the team or that he believed they wouldn't compete for the AL Central title in 2009. The question is, who will blow up first if this year trends into another 2007, Ozzie or KW? I would rather have Steve Stone as the GM, personally, and I wouldn't mind seeing Ozzie stick around to manage the new generation of Sox players over the next 2-3 years and see how he does with a team that's more suited for his managerial style: players like Nix, Getz, Ramirez, Allen and Beckham, mixing in the power of Flowers/Viciedo and the speed/athleticism of Danks/Shelby.

Andy Gonzalez in 2007 185/280/249/529 OPS Lillibridge this season 154/247/185/431 Not even close, Gonzalez is the clear winner.

QUOTE (greg775 @ May 13, 2009 -> 04:09 PM) OK, then why the f*** mention Walker? I read a story when he got extended where Oz said he puts in an incredible amount of work with these hitters. That's all he can do. He can't tell them all to hit the same way like Charlie Lau did. If we had that, people would be freaking upset as well. The bottom line is "fire the hitting coach" is a baseball cliche that will be around 50 years from now just as it was 30 years ago. Like the mod said, we have several players who don't deserve to SNIFF a big league roster. Period. When people are tempted to post about Walker they should just scream his name and NOT POST. It's a cliche to blame the hitting coach/pitching coach. QUOTE Fields just has WAY too many moving parts in his swing now. It's no wonder he can't hit a Pavano fastball down the pipe. Lillibridge is probably beyond hope for this year...he wasn't even able to pull Jeremy Sowers, but continued to flare lazy flyballs to RF. Getz stands almost as much on top of the plate as Quentin. Of course he's going to get busted inside, and unless he turns on those balls and drives them to RF, it's going to keep happening. It's strange to see a LH hitter struggle so much will pitches that are low, but it's the pitches that are low AND inside that he's specifically dealing with, like a cutter from a RH pitcher. That was MY original quote. What is your point? Is Walker supposed to make all guys hit the same way? This is why players fail. If their swings suck, they are THEIR swings, they suck and they'll be out of baseball soon. We talk way too much about hitting coaches on here. This was YOUR response, where I never said anything about Walker or making all hitters the same...if I was to say something, it would be hit the ball where it's pitched, lol. WHERE DID I MENTION GREG WALKER??? I suppose we can't only NOT talk about Greg Walker or Don Cooper anymore, but we can't even add our own opinions or observations about the hitters? WHAT???? So you're suggesting that we now ban any poster who talks about any of the coaches or even Ozzie Guillen? Yes/no? Because our talking about them sure as hell won't change the opinions of KW or JR. In fact, if they read what was said here, they'd be MUCH MORE likely to keep them in place. Really, I think we should just curse at fellow White Sox fans right and left, because that will really have an actual affect on how the team is operated. If you want to curse at ANYONE, call up KW at 674-1000 or whatever the number is, leave your name and address and curse HIM out, not me. You can do that, but it would be cowardly to do it all the way from Kansas. Did you call and b**** at Roy Williams when he never led KU to a National Championship, too??

Wait a second here! Someone asked me what was the purpose of a hitting coach. I gave a brief/succinct answer. Ask Fathom...we both agree here, that the ONLY thing to say about Greg Walker is that he SHOULD be replaced in the off-season before we bring up the wave of talent from Birmingham. Those hitters (specifically Beckham, Viciedo, Flowers and Allen) are all excellent at spraying the ball all over the field and we simply need a change of approach, a fresh perspective, whatever the heck you want to call it. Things aren't working and the team is just completely stale, every element of the team but the bullpen. I could care less about what Walker does or doesn't do right now, we simply aren't putting the talent on the field to win games. Period. End of story. Some of our line-ups over the last two weeks have been embarassing and could be beaten easily by our Birmingham line-up if they went head to head in 10 games against 10 randomly-selected opposing pitchers. It doesn't even freakin' matter, because KW and JR aren't going to replace someone in the middle of the season, anyway. They're both too loyal. But JR was the idiot who was saying the team was "boring" last year, so we deconstructed it in order to present this product on the field? Whatever...the attendance will be 1.6-1.8 million and then the self-fulfilling prophecy will occur and they'll feel comfortable going into the season with a $60-70 million payroll and keeping ticket prices the same. Then KW will have the nerve to say the fans weren't supporting the team. I like KW, in general, because he HAD, up until this year, a gunfighter's mentality...he took risks and gambles and was generally willing to do whatever it took to put teams on the field in August that had a chance to compete with any team in the AL. This whole offseason, he's either been reading his own press clippings or he really believed that Brent Lillibridge or Jeff Marquez was capable of being a starter... It's a miracle we aren't 10 games under .500 and out of the race already. I don't know how Ozzie has managed to remain out of the insane asylum. Maybe his actions today showed even he is starting to crack up watching line-ups go out there that will win approximately 5-10 games out of 100 where you had the same line-ups and pitchers facing each other. Final note: Everyone in baseball can CLEARLY see that Lillibridge, Fields and Anderson, among others, don't have the type of swings that will hold up in the majors. That Pods was done 3 years ago. They can also see that Getz and Ramirez have the intelligence and hand speed to fix their swings. It wouldn't matter if Charlie Lau or Rudy Jaramillo or Walt Hrniak was our hitting coach, Getz and Ramirez would be okay, and the first three would be in trouble. At least Corky Miller has manned up and gotten some key base hits this year, a lot more than was expected out of him. I'm not going to pick on him and throw up his career batting average or whatever....and Nix has looked like a baseball player, when he didn't last year in Colorado. Whether Nix would credit the change of scenery or Walker or God, who knows.

Omogrosso looked very good in the ST appearance he made...he was absolutely dominant. He has a "stout" body and strong lower body, a little bit like Prior, not those immense calves, but he's well-built. 94-97 is more likely (probably a "fast" gun) but he can definitely bring it...and high 90's wouldn't be out of the question in short bursts as a reliever. His ERA is well below 2 now.

QUOTE (greg775 @ May 13, 2009 -> 02:42 PM) What is your point? Is Walker supposed to make all guys hit the same way? This is why players fail. If their swings suck, they are THEIR swings, they suck and they'll be out of baseball soon. We talk way too much about hitting coaches on here. Simple, he's supposed to help/assist/mentor in order to maximize the ability of each hitter.

Ozzie was mocking the umpire after the Dye call... Buehrle had a strike called in his favor when the Indians came up, and Ozzie was in the dugout motioning that HE actually thought it was low (he put his hands down below his knees) and then smiled towards home plate and just laughed for about 15 seconds. Of course, he was just trying to be sarcastic, it was one of those days for the offensive White Sox offense.

QUOTE (jasonxctf @ May 13, 2009 -> 02:33 PM) i wonder about two things, when it comes to the hitters/hitting coaches. 1) Who scouts these opposing pitchers in the minors? It seems like whenever a guy is making his big league debut, or first outing against the Sox, he dominates. Are the guys getting bad info on the pitcher, are they getting no information??? 2) Whenever the Sox fall behind early, it seems like they pack it in. No motivation or drive. Fall behind 4-0 in the 5th, and you see guys either swinging for the fences, first pitch swinging constantly or dogging the run to first base. No one wants to work a count or hustle. They did load the bases together and put together some walks and singles late in the game. Neither Dye nor Quentin could come through with the big two-out hit. It's not really that they gave up, per se, it's that when you have all these holes in the line-up, like Lillibridge and Betemit against a RHP and Fields the way he's going the last 10 days, there's almost no way to sustain an inning without surrendering 3 outs first.

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ May 13, 2009 -> 01:29 PM) And if he was lucky in the first half, he was actually unlucky in the second half cause he was a much better "pitcher" in the 2nd half. And I speak of the intangibles, not what the f***ing stats show. He grew so much in the 2nd half of last season and I continue to say I'm not worried about Gavin. I will say that he needs to man the f*** up though. He'll have his chance soon enough. A Sunday start against Doc Halladay on a surface that's like kryptonite for the White Sox typically.

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ May 13, 2009 -> 12:58 PM) Not so fast. Highly unlikely Lee goes out for 2 more innings based on his pitch count. Betancourt, Rafael Perez and Kobayashi have been garbage so far this season. I think we score 1-2 runs here.

Outscored 125-39 in 18 losses. UGH. Jordan Danks is not God. He got thrown out stealing today.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ May 13, 2009 -> 12:55 PM) Lee's had a big strike zone all day, JD had a called 3rd strike on him with the bases loaded in the 6th that he thought was inside, JD was pissed, got himself tossed, may well get an extra game or two suspension for showing up the ump, Ozzie was yelling from the dugout, ump also tossed Ozzie. His helmet also made contact with the umpire somehow... That will be a 1 game suspension in all likelihood, possibly 2, but doubtful based on JD's career history.

Damn, Quentin was so close on that first pitch...almost hit a blast straight away to CF. Oh, well...at least we've had a little excitement the last two innings and Alexei Ramirez might be alive again. Jordan Danks 3/4 today with a 2B and 2 runs scored....go Barons, leading 2-1 in the bottom of the 8th at home. Omogrosso with another very impressive outing today.

PH Thome or Miller NOW DAMMIT!!!

Floyd versus Halladay Sunday at Toronto. Might as well add another loss to our record and put us at 4 games under .500. Somehow we've got to win at least one game against three unknown/rookie pitchers that we've never seen before...

Perfect approach to that pitch, Paulie. Would KW dare signing Cliff Lee as a FA and pairing him with Buehrle and Danks???

Hilarious. Ozzie was trying to get one of Buehrle's strikes called a ball by motioning that it was too low and smiling. Got to love the Ozzaroo. If any one of us had the same options on the bench and had to start Pods, Betemit and Lillibridge in a game like this, we'd probably be losing it, too. And Dontrelle Willis is back and Bonderman's starting his rehab assignment.

431 OPS for Lillibridge, and falling. Jermaine might get suspended for 1-2 games by MLB now for his helmet contacting the umpire, too. Great. Just what we needed, with no depth out there.

Lillibridge=Fields=Anderson=Ramirez Nix has the shortest, most compact swing on the team, along with Konerko this season. Lillibridge looks like Elijah Wood in Sin City.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ May 13, 2009 -> 12:09 PM) There is very little range. Fields is below average, Anorexei is very flashy but average overall defensively IMO, Getz is average no range, Paulie no range, Quentin is not very good in LF, BA rarely has played and everyone else, including Wise who did make a great play when he got hurt although most CF would have made that play without hitting the ground and Upton would have looked like he was loafing, Dye no range. There is no one except Ramirez who can be considered a regular (I'm not considering BA a regular) who doesn't have below average range except for Getz who is probably average but below to his right. Without a pitching staff that strikes people out, its not a good mix. I think Quentin has been average to above average this year in LF, especially compared to last year. He's made some really nice plays out there. Getz doesn't have the arm strength for SS, there's no doubt that Nix/Ramirez is our best possible combination defensively. And Chris goes have to play up the middle as he favors that side since he's much better moving to his left and making those spinning throw in RCF than he is throwing against his body falling into LF/SS.