caulfield12

Snelling has some major league time. Larson. Hughes is a good prospect with the Twins. Nice swing by Beckham. I don't what's up with Fields' baserunning this spring...that's 2 silly outs on the basepaths. Now Kroeger. Link looked much better his seond inning. Wow Josh Fields is really locked in and looking much quicker on fastballs.

There are lots of interesting possibilities. This discussion hasn't even taken Lillibridge into consideration...as the assumption is that 2B is now a battle between Getz and Nix. If I had to pick the roster based on what we've seen so far, it would be Marquez and Richard to the bullpen...Corky Miller as back-up catcher....Getz and Nix starting in a platoon with Lillibridge, Kroeger and Wise fighting for the final two spots. Kroeger could be like Ross Gload, but with more power. Of course, it all depends on going with six or seven (more likely if Contreras and Colon start the year in the rotation) relievers. Maybe it's just me, but I am very tired of even talking about Anderson and Owens. BA definitely needs to play everyday at either the major or minor league level and we'll just have to see what happens. With Owens (I know he had a "good" game yesterday), I am willing to take my chances with Getz/Lillibridge and then Ramirez at the top of the order. It shouldn't be much worse than Cabrera/AJ. The final reason I'm souring on Owens is that he's not even really an effective basestealer...if not for that one hot stretch in 2007, his career statistical line would be atrocious.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Mar 6, 2009 -> 10:15 AM) Well, first, know that some of those names won't even be in the organization come mid-April. Broadway isn't likely to go to AAA again, for a 4th year, that's like a death sentence. He makes the club or he's shown the door. Richard won't be in AAA nor will Marquez, they are both making the team, one way or the other (though I would prefer Marquez starting in AAA if Colon and Contreras are both healthy, it won't happen). Also, no way they have Cassel repeat AA after he not only spent a full season there, but put up some of the best numbers of any starter in that entire league. If I assume that Broadway is gone, and others are not (which is unlikely, but I can't say who might get traded), it looks like this: AAA: Egbert Poreda Cassel Van Benschoten Torres (possibly goes to pen, in which case, Harrell gets this slot) 'pen will include: Omogrosso, Wassermann, possibly Russell, possibly O'Malley, Link, Lujan AA: Harrell McCulloch (if he is still even in the org, if not, possibly Carter) Ely Long Rasner That's about as far as I can project it right now. You'd have to think Nunez and Link would be the two closers. I suppose it could end up being someone like German or MacDougal, but I would doubt it. Doesn't C. Santeliz probably have the best potential in terms of stuff and future projectability, certainly better than Long and Rasner? Are you going to have him starting in High A or relieving in Birmingham? I wonder if the Sox will start S. Rodriguez? I'm assuming they will, somewhere in A ball...at least until he proves he's better suited as a reliever. It's going to be the final passing of the Shaffer/Wilder Era when Owens (although that was a KW trade), Broadway, McCulloch, Valido, Gomes, Paulo Orlando, Rafael Rayes and Juan Silverio are gone (Andy Gonzalez, thankfully, was the first). If it weren't for the health of Contreras and the signing of Colon, I couldn't see any way they could waive or trade Broadway. That would be putting a lot of pressure on Marquez, Richard and Poreda, and Richard's the only one with any MLB experience. He's close to the end of the rope...and maybe they'll trade him or put him in the bullpen in Charlotte, but I can't see them waiving him quite yet. If anyone, McCulloch deserves to be released b4 Broadway.

We now see the first signs that Ozzie is at least pondering now about how Kroeger might make this team, and in what role. That would be starting off as the back-up outfielder and back-up 1B to Konerko, along with Betemit. Of course, all this hinges on the Owens/Anderson/Wise situation....and how they hold up over the next month. An injury or non-performance (or continued strong show by Kroeger) changes things, especially if Brian Anderson continues to struggle at the plate. Anderson has two things going for him, that he's the best defensive sub and he's right-handed. That's about it for now. The problem for Kroeger is that Owens and Wise are also LH. Still, if you look at what Quentin and Ramirez did last year at age 25/26, you start to also consider the possibilities with players like Kroeger, Van Benschoten (probably not this year), Getz, Floyd, Nix, Betemit, Lillibridge, Fields....then you have that second wave with Beckham, Flowers, Viciedo, Allen, Danks and Shelby, it's pretty inspiring in terms of some renewed hopes for the future. We're really becoming a much more youthful club over the next two seasons. One can easily imagine starting the 2011 (and possibly even 2010) without a single position player over age 30. It would be nice to see Kroeger blossom simply because he's another LH bat with extra-base power, something we're lacking in our system, with the exception of Allen, and a likely offseason target for KW going into 2010 to replace Thome if Allen struggles this year. Kroeger will really have to continue to work on his patience and making contact, but he's still ONLY 26, so it's just as reasonable to call him a "prospect/suspect" as Anderson or Owens.

Charlotte John Van Benschoten Jeff Marquez (depending on Colon/Contreras) Richard or Aaron Poreda Lance Broadway John Egbert AA Ely Anthony Carter (maybe) or Carlos Torres Santeliz Cassel Harrell Other names McCulloch Matt Long Zaleski Omogrosso Rasner would like to see Santos Rodriguez and what he's got but that will have to wait

The teams that were in on Viciedo and that had the ability to outbid the White Sox, well, that was the Yankees and the Red Sox. They have Alex Rodriguez and Mike Lowell at 3B, and Viciedo would have been facing even more unreasonable pressure and expectations in those markets. Torres knows this, and knows that having a Hispanic manager and coaches like Cora and then the other Cubans around would be the perfect situation for him. You don't think Cashman would be a little gunshy about bringing another Cuban into NYC to open a new stadium at the age A-Rod (already the best prospect in baseball) did the same thing? That's just not reasonable. It seems we're into these bi-polar discussions about Viciedo. It's almost like you believe he's the Cuban Babe Ruth (like Torres) or you're in the Peter Bjarkman school/camp where he will be just another solid major leaguer, more like Kendry Morales. I think we've seen with those two homers and kind of power he has....and he played very well defensively, although he finally went hitless. The thing is, if he's CLOSE to being as good as advetised, he will show it one way or the other, and the White Sox won't be able to hide him like teams used to do with their best prospects to keep other teams from drafting them (how Roberto Clemente was stashed away in Montreal...it seems impossible, as we live in the instant news/youtube/Internet age). No matter what happens with Viciedo, he will be getting a HUGE payday again at age 23, when most players have to wait until the late 20's for their first really big contract after their six years of mandatory service time. I think the Astros were the only other team really serious about Viciedo, and their budget prevented the spending on even "value" players like Wigginton and Wolf that didn't have huge contract demands.

I just don't see KW trading or making a play for Halladay. Maybe the time will come when he really does go after another "ace" caliber pitcher via trade or free agency, but his mode since the David Wells/Ritchie/Vazquez/Garcia deals has been to target younger pitchers with potential like Danks and Floyd and hope they develop into aces, rather than spending that kind of money and/or giving up the entire farm system to pull a move off. I won't say it's impossible because economics might conspire against the Blue Jays (and the almost unbeatable competition in the AL East) and force them to make a move, but they're not going to get anything back for the likes of Rolen, Wells and even Rios, so they simply HAVE to get something nice for Halladay.

I'm sure he'll look at the videotape quickly... Lillibridge looks like he's really too far away from the plate when he's hitting.

They did manage to make the idiotic comment that Reed Johnson was battling for the CF job with the White Sox, and were very dismissive of Brian Anderson because of his "sub-par offensive seasons" and that he was no longer a top prospect, lol. Egbert flirting with disaster but somehow he managed to get out of it.

2B-303, SS-52, OF-15, 3B-6 About 81% of Getz's career games have been played at 2B. I think it would be a stretch to put him at 3B, 1B or in the outfield more than in "emergency" situations. I was about to say that Betemit was superfluous, but he's really not, because he's the best back-up for Fields and Konerko at those positions, and his presence allows Viciedo to start the season in the minors as well. Obviously, Lillibridge would be the best back-up at SS, the question is how much better Getz is than Betemit at that position? Is Getz even viewed as better at SS? I know Betemit took a lot of flak after his two error game, but the guy has 10X the experience at that position than Getz does. SS-553, 3B-435, 1B-53, 2B-18, RF-1, LF-1, DH-1 If you look at Betemit, he obviously has more career experience on the left side of the infield, and at 1B. The guy was once the #8 prospect in all of baseball, even though it was 7 years ago (the same time Borchard was found on those lists).

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/08/magazine...amp;_r=1&hp Very good (long) article in the NY Times Magazine written about the housing crisis in Cleveland...by a NU professor. If you want to learn how so "speculators/investors" are still figuring out ways to make money in this crazy climate, it should be particularly interesting. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/05/opinion/05collins.html Lashing out at Countrywide Loans former president for continuing to make profits from the government...

Scenario, I think a lot of this is all about "perception." Fields and Viciedo will never be able to be decent defensive players. Getz is "scrappy/grinderish," whereas Lillibridge is "versatile/athletic." (Disclaimer: I haven't seen Getz play very much in person, so I couldn't tell you how much better Lillibridge is at SS, or if Getz could play CF, or he plays all those positions in the way that a Bip Roberts, Figgins, McEwing or Jose Oquendo did.) It does seem that some perceive Getz as a best-case scenario major league utility player, whereas others perceive him as the answer to our leadoff or #2 hole and want him to play in 135-145 games). Because Carney Lansford made some comments, Nix is now the defensive player on our team. Some people think Alexei Ramirez was the best 2B in the American League last year, some think he was possibly the worst. That's not even getting into Brian Anderson...if nothing else, Owens/Fields/Anderson will all have their career tracks with the White Sox more firmly defined this season, for better or for worse. There's no doubt that we have some major defensive concerns on the corners of the diamond and at catcher. So it would seem logical to want to have your best possible alignment up the middle, covering the widest degree of the field possible. That would seem to give the advantage to Ramirez, Nix and Brian Anderson, at this point in time (this was raised in another thread, basically how we don't have many strikeout pitchers, having lost Vazquez, and our defense will be even more critical than in past seasons...of course, Colon and Contreras could more than make up for the loss of Vazquez if they're anything like their former selves, because Floyd and Danks can pile up some K's when they're on and even Buerhle seems like he has more days where he'll get 5-6 k's compared to earlier in his career). My questions would be the following: 1) Is Beckham going to be better than Ramirez at SS? If so, where do you put Ramirez, in CF, where he's going to be adequate/so-so offensively or second base, where he's going to be a much more dynamic player and more involved in the action on the field? The infield just seems to suit his personality more, at least to me. 2) Is there any serious consideration being given to letting Lillibridge start playing CF occasionally? If he doesn't make the team, will he play any other position than SS at Charlotte? Is Lillibridge better than Getz at 2B? 3) What is the behind-the-scenes thinking on Viciedo at this point? With Josh Fields seemingly holding his own offensively and defensively, do you look to trade Dye somehow and stick Viciedo in LF or RF to get his bat into the line-up this season...or do you play out the string with Thome/Konerko/Dye together for one final season? Would any GM dare trade a young pitcher like Homer Bailey at this point in time for Dye (even with a cash subsidy)? 4) Can Josh Kroeger play a competent enough CF that he will become a part of the OF conversation? That pretty much forces Getz/Lillibridge to be your leadoff man, and makes it a little harder on Nix. If Jordan Danks really takes off in AA this year, could he become part of the equation as early as 2009? 5) How far behind is John Shelby III in the mix? 6) Is the competition for back-up catcher really just Stewart and Miller? Will Armstrong get a real shot? Or is KW waiting in the weeds to pluck a particular player off the waiver wire?

Well, Getz can play all over the diamond (like Betemit) and probably MORE effectively defensively, but I'm not sure we'd want him getting 15-25 starts at SS either. I'm not as concerned with him playing 3B. That seems to favor Lillibridge for two reasons...he can play a legit SS better than anyone on the roster defensively and he can also play CF, although he hasn't played there regularly since Univ. of Washington days and would need a refresher course before you just threw him out there...at least a couple of weeks playing CF. Somehow I don't think we'll see that happen until they decide between Owens/Anderson/Wise...who they want to award CF to. There seems to be a pretty big split on this board about 2B, with many favoring Nix (like me) and many preferring our own farmhand, Getz. Well, another argument in favor of Getz is that he's more of a "sure thing" than Lillibridge at this point to stick at the top of the order and to have the reasonable expectation he could hold his own. Then again, Lillibridge probably is more the profile of a typical leadoff hitter in terms of speed. It's an interesting argument back and forth that we'll have here the next four weeks or so.

Tiny little story (not even done by a beat writer, Gonzales was on his way home from Phoenix for a week) without even a picture, certainly no bold headlines...took me a couple of minutes just to find it even. White Sox beat Cubs 7-6 in Las Vegas Tribune 1:00 AM CST, March 5, 2009 LAS VEGAS - John Danks tossed three scoreless innings and Ben Broussard's single drove in Josh Kroeger with the winning run in the bottom of the ninth inning to lift the White Sox to a 7-6 win over the Cubs on Wednesday night in a split squad game for both teams. The two teams will play again in Las Vegas on Thursday at 3:05 p.m. Danks scattered three three hits, struck out four and walked none. Aaron Poreda allowed one earned run over the last three innings for the win. David Patton took the loss for the Cubs. The Sox got homers from Michael Restovich, Paul Konerko and Wilson Betemit.

I should have prefaced that by saying that came up through our system or essentially made his debut with us...they've been few and far between, especially considering we now have a Latino manager, but a complete lack of results from the DR or Venezuela in terms of scouting. Yes, I know, we can blame it all on Wilder or Shaffer, but it is deeper than that even, this goes back a decade or more, since the time time we developed Ordonez and Carlos Lee.

QUOTE (SouthsideDon48 @ Mar 5, 2009 -> 12:55 AM) What do you think the bullpen will be like this year? Assuming we go with a 7-man bullpen again this year, I'd rather see German with the major league roster instead of Wassermann and Russell. Plus, having German pitch the type of innings Wassermann and Russell would've pitched can't hurt, anyway. I'd like to see a bullpen like this: Jenks, Linebrink, Thornton, Dotel, Carrasco, German, Richard. Jenks Linebrink Thornton Dotel Richard or Poreda (a lot depends on Colon/Contreras, and whether they want Aaron to get the innings as a starter in AAA) Carasco (his spot to lose because Ozzie really likes him, and because he stepped up last year) German Marquez...Cooper has said he favored a multi-innings/long/swing man in the last spot of the pen, which also would seem to eliminate German Broadway...goodbye Wasserman....goodbye Van Benschoten....goodbye Russell...goodbye Link...need to see more of him Nunez...maybe, more likely to start in minors, live arm Jimenez....ditto, but much more experienced, will get a longer look that German probably Santeliz...very interesting prospect, along with Nathan Jones and Santos Rodriguez, one of the better arms in the system, and first Venezuelan pitcher since Alvarez possibly Salmon...goodbye Williams...might get a few more looks, but on a thin rope MacDougal...wouldn't count him out quite yet, if he's able to make the roster, they will try to showcase him, but that contract will be hard to unload, we certainly won't get anything in return of value

QUOTE (Cubano @ Mar 5, 2009 -> 12:38 AM) I have never written bench Dye or Quentin to play Viciedo. Have I? If so, please point cite where I posted such thing. I am saying if the Sox decides he is not the starting 3B then play him as a bench player resting Fields and Dye. He played 3B and RF in Cuba. He can DH and provide rest to the regular. Do not send him to the minors because he will adjust better with Contreras and Alexei. That is what I have written many times. Guys you are killing me! Cubano, I can't think of any time in the recent history of baseball a 19 or 20 year old top prospect has come up to start the season and sit on the bench. Yes, he would be better off around Ramirez and Conteras, but he needs to get regular playing time...he's not a Brian Anderson or Brent Lillibridge that you just stick on the bench. He theoretically could play LF, RF, DH, 1B and 3B...but that kind of does a disservice to his defensive development if you move him all around the field like that at his age. Ozzie said the same thing about Beckham, when he heard Beckham was willing to convert to 2B or 3B to get to the big leagues more quickly...something along the lines of "he's not a utility player." Just like Beckham at SS, they will stay with Viciedo at 3B for as long as they possibly can, waiting for him to become "MLB acceptable" before they throw him out there. As an offensive player, the last thing they would want would be for him to make an error every day at 3B and start letting the defensive lapses get into his game and affect his mental approach. I also think that there's the perception they might need to "toughen him up" a little, send him to the minors, get his head out of the clouds a little bit...and just establish a routine of playing baseball every day, of getting used to the rhythm of playing a 140-162+ game season in the US. It wore down Ramirez in the second half last season.

QUOTE (SouthsideDon48 @ Mar 5, 2009 -> 12:43 AM) That's a Sox winner! I was hoping to see German pitch, but oh well. I think German is probably a good fit for our bullpen. Also, I like Kroeger and Restovich, and chance we can get rid of Owens and Anderson and put Kroeger and Restovich on the major league squad? Kroeger has an outside chance, Restovich is bound with Van Benschoten, Broadway, Wasserman and Russell for Charlotte. Broussard will probably be there with them as well. In no way, shape or form is Restovich able to play CF. Anderson will either be the starter or the RH outfielder off the bench. German, ten years ago....maybe. Who knows what he is now, just a journeyman pitcher. He was once one of the more highly touted prospects in the game, but I also think he will be in AAA unless DJ Carasco really falls apart this spring.

Poreda 3 IP, 3 H, 1 ER 39 pitches, 24 strikes That's his first official outing, his rough start against the Dodgers when Furcal took him deep was in a B game, but he recovered from that situation and went on to pitch pretty well. Nice to see Poreda can be effective the second time around seeing hitters.

Has anyone seen Josh Kroeger play CF? Then again, it's back to the whole problem of him also having to be a leadoff hitter as well...always keeping coming back to the same issue with this team.

I hope to see Jerry Owens get an extra base hit. And I'd like to see Corky throw someone out on the basepaths.

What was the reading on Van Benschoten's FB? 88-91?

QUOTE (Thunderbolt @ Mar 5, 2009 -> 12:12 AM) Didn't he move to third on it? Hard to follow on GameDay when it's delayed a bit. So Eider Torres and Fields failed to get him in then? It seemed to me like Broussard got him over to 2nd or 3rd...so the passed ball got him to 2nd? Well, it doesn't matter, they didn't score/execute. Well this sucks, you know when you don't get the runner in from 3rd and less than 2 outs that the next inning you will inevitably give up a run or two.

Why didn't Kroeger score on the wild pitch/passed ball?

QUOTE (scenario @ Mar 4, 2009 -> 11:19 PM) He played 1/2 the game. Getz gets the 2nd half. Well, Nix only got to play three innings....typically the starters go five. Oh, well. Both of them will have plenty of opportunities to win the job the next 30 or so games.