caulfield12

http://chicago.whitesox.mlb.com/news/artic...sp&c_id=cws Really good to hear. Can't wait for Opening Day for the Barons as well. The left side of that infield will lead the minors in homers for 2 teammates combined together on one team. Along with Allen, Flowers, Shelby and Danks, we'll have at least six players to follow all year long and be excited about.

Ummm....it's hard to call Fields a "rookie" at this point in his career.

Of course, Jeter and Hunter are two prime examples of winning the award once, then you have to be almost dominated by another player or injured for them to take it away from you and award it to someone else...not to mention the offensive side having at least 30-40% to do with it, which, of course, is COMPLETELY illogical. Eric Chavez is another guy who comes to mind whose play slipped but they kept on awarding him Gold Gloves anyway.

White Sox UZR last year in CF (-9.9, 22nd in MLB) Brian Anderson, 8.4 (06), 0.3 (08) DeWayne Wise (career) LF +19.9, CF -5.9, RF -21.6 Jerry Owens (07) +6.6 The White Sox were 19th in overall defense by this measure, although the Twins, Yankees and Dodgers were even worse. That's one area where the Twins have really slipped, as Young, Cuddyer and Buscher/Harris were really brutal defensively. Also it looks like they won't have Span playing, which will be another tremendous help to the Sox. 1. Phillies 2. Rays 4. Red Sox 9. Indians 13. Cubs The Indians losing Franklyn Gutierrez is really going to be a bigger loss than offensive statistics will demonstrate alone. Ben Francisco and Shoo are so-so, and that infield with DeRosa, Peralta and Garko and then when Victor Martinez is catching, they are MUCH worse than the White Sox. The only good defenders on the Indians are Cabrera and Sizemore. Actually, the Indians very much mirror the White Sox...with Anderson/Sizemore up the middle, very similar, although Carlos Quentin was rated 'above average' in LF by quite a few metrics. Fields=DeRosa. Alexei will be much better than Peralta. Getz isn't quite the defender A. Cabrera is, so it's a wash. Konerko is probably a little better than whoever the Indians use at 1B. Shoppach kicks AJ's butt, but Martinez is MUCH worse than AJ when catching because he's not a good caller of games or effectively with the pitching staff. They really have a logjam with Garko, Hafner, Martinez and Shoppach with only three positions (1B, C, DH) for them.

ASK TORII HUNTER where he ranks among the best defensive centerfielders, and he appears perplexed. "You mean, where I rank with guys now, or in history?" he says. The Angels' Hunter takes his defense as seriously as you'd expect from someone who says, "To catch a ball, I'd commit suicide." And to most of the baseball world, for that matter, it's conventional wisdom that he's one of the best fielders, period. Try to prod Hunter into naming another American League centerfielder in his class defensively, and he just shakes his head. The Indians' Grady Sizemore, perhaps? "Nah," Hunter says. "He's got some work to do. He takes bad jumps." The Tigers' Curtis Granderson? "He's up there, but he has to learn to take better routes," Hunter says. "You shouldn't dive as much as Grandy dives." Hunter's replacement in Minnesota last season, Carlos Gomez? "Dude is quick, but he also goes from points A to B to C to D when he should be going A to B," says Hunter. "And he's too aggressive with his throwing. Just look at his errors. [Gomez had eight.] I had none. Zero." He flashes a smile and shrugs. Case closed, as far as he's concerned. And few would disagree. Certainly not the managers and coaches who last fall voted him to an eighth straight Gold Glove award. (Only five outfielders in history have won more.) Certainly not the Angels, who last winter lured him off the free-agent market with a $90 million contract, as much for his defensive reputation as his bat. And certainly not the fans, players, scouts and other baseball cognoscenti who favor traditional fielding statistics—errors, fielding percentage (Hunter's was a perfect 1.000) and putouts (his 350 were fifth among AL outfielders)—and watch the familiar sight of the 33-year-old gliding gracefully over the grass and, on occasion, scaling the outfield wall to rob a batter of a home run. To the eye, there is nothing to indicate that Hunter is anything but what he thinks he is: an elite centerfielder, the best in the American League, possibly one of the best ever to play the position. But here's a flash for Hunter: Comparing players' defensive skills is no longer as scientific as sizing up Best Supporting Actress performances before the Oscars. In his first Bill James Abstract, in 1977, the oracle of statistical analysis lamented the inability to quantify defensive success with anything other than such antiquated statistics as errors and fielding percentage. It has taken three decades, but the mystery of defensive analysis, perhaps the last frontier in the statistical ether, has been cracked by sabermetricians who have devoted 15, 20 years to the cause. The clunkily named metrics that have emerged within the last five years may sound like topics at a symposium for mechanical engineers—Probablistic Model of Range, Defensive Regression Analysis, Special Aggregate Fielding Evaluation, Ultimate Zone Rating—but not only have they become accepted by analysts like James as accurate tools, they have also infiltrated the daily vernacular of front offices. But major league clubhouses? Not so much. "The Probablistic Model of who?" asks Hunter, after he's told where he stands by measure of the metrics. Not only does he rate below Sizemore, below Granderson and below Gomez, Hunter was also regarded across the board as a merely average fielder, and in many instances, below average—which is the case according to Bill James's disciple John Dewan, author of The Fielding Bible and creator of the Plus/Minus Runs Saved metric, which six years ago did rank Hunter as the league's top centerfielder. Now Dewan's numbers show that Hunter has been steadily slowing down, and that last season he made plays on five fewer balls than an average centerfielder would be expected to make, costing the Angels four runs. The best defensive centerfielder in the AL? Dewan's calculations says it's Gomez, who tracked down 14 more balls than the average centerfielder and saved Hunter's old team 16 runs. "If I've lost a step, I'm still better than the average person," Hunter huffs. "When I need a walker, I'll go to rightfield and be the best rightfielder in the game." In addition to telling us that Hunter is an average defensive outfielder, the metrics also suggest that the Yankees should relocate Derek Jeter, long rated by the metrics as the worst-fielding shortstop in baseball, to the outfield and that the Cubs' Alfonso Soriano, because of his strong arm, has saved more runs than any other leftfielder since moving from second base in 2006. In a poststeroid era, when scoring and home run totals have fallen as fast as the NASDAQ and speed and defense are becoming as important and as appreciated as they were during the Whiteyball days in St. Louis two decades ago, these metrics are becoming essential tools for winning organizations. "There are still teams stuck in the Dark Ages," says one American League general manager, "but the secret's getting out. Defensive metrics have almost caught up to the offensive side. Some people would say they didn't think they'd see this day. But the revolution's here." IN 1982 John Dewan was an actuary living in Chicago when a coworker handed him a copy of the Bill James Abstract. Dewan, a die-hard White Sox fan who grew up playing the baseball simulation board game Strat-O-Matic, was instantly hooked. Two years later he was sitting at his kitchen table reading one of James's articles about creating an organization of volunteers who would record detailed play-by-play information not found in the box scores of every major league game. "I put the book down, and I went to the phone and called directory assistance in Lawrence, Kansas," says Dewan. "I got Bill James's assistant on the line and signed up immediately." Dewan became the director of the organization, Project Scoresheet, a year later while continuing to hold down his day job. Soon after quitting his actuary job in '87 to devote himself full-time to statistical analysis, he invented a metric called Zone Rating, in which he took play-by-play data and calculated the percentage of balls fielded by a player in his defensive zone, as well as balls outside of his zone. (By these metrics, Jeter always ranks among the lowest shortstops because he doesn't get to many balls outside a shortstop's zone.) Ten years later companies such as STATS Inc. and Baseball Info Solutions (which Dewan cofounded in 2002 with Steve Moyer) began hiring armies of new college grads who collectively would watch every game and keep a detailed log of what happened to every batted ball: what kind of pitch was hit, where the ball was hit, how hard it was hit, who fielded it and how it was or wasn't turned into an out. THE DATA has given Dewan and other analysts the power to compute, with great precision, a player's ability to turn batted balls into outs. In 2003, in a forum on the website Baseball Think Factory, a professional poker player living in Las Vegas named Michtel Licthman introduced, in a 6,800-word primer, a metric that he called Ultimate Zone Rating (UZR). Lichtman was crunching numbers with data he purchased from STATS Inc.—paying nearly $10,000 for it annually—and, like Dewan, was measuring the runs saved or lost by every fielder compared to the league average at his position. His UZR model was similar to the plus/minus system that Dewan had come up with, but with more parameters for each batted ball; among them, the ballpark, whether the pitcher and batter were left- or righthanded, and the ground ball and fly ball tendencies of the pitcher. Gradually baseball people outside the sabermetrics community began to take notice. During spring training in '04, Dewan was giving a presentation to the White Sox' front office in the team cafeteria when manager Ozzie Guillen and his players wandered in to have lunch, their game that day having been rained out. Dewan noticed that Guillen would occasionally glance over at the presentation. Eventually he walked up to Dewan and started flipping through his statistical samples. "If they had this s--- when I was playing," the manager announced to the room, "I would have been the best f------ shortstop who ever lived." http://vault.sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vau...911/1/index.htm (for link to complete article)

I'm a little surprised they haven't worked out a "consulting" contract for Ventura to come and work with Josh Fields in ST...not too far from his home. I think Robin just enjoys his family and life away from the diamond too much to give up more than a weekend or few days at a time.

GOLD GLOVE: Alexei Ramirez. It's almost hard to judge Ramirez's defense at shortstop because there are few diving stops and little drama. The reason is he gets to everything in the hole with such ease. He'll be a ''Web Gem'' in the making on a nightly basis this season. Sox manager Ozzie Guillen, on the talented Alexei Ramirez: "When you see this kid play shortstop, you will forget Ozzie Guillen ever played shortstop for the White Sox." and this "scouting gem" from Scot Gregor: It’s a tough situation for Owens, a good guy that never figured it out. Down in Arizona a couple weeks ago, one scout told me that opposing teams continually pitch Owens inside because he’s got zero power. That’s why you see so many lazy flyballs to the outfield.

I would really hate to see Pods' reputation further diminished by bringing him back to Chicago one time too many. I would much rather have Willie Harris on the ballclub than Pods, but neither of them would be anything but the last player off the bench and recipients of 100-150 at bats in the most optimistic rose-colored glasses scenario. Pods wasn't a credible threat on the basepaths in 2006, why he would be even better three years later is beyond me...and he's had diminishing OPS numbers in a progressive fashion over the last three years, which is why his good ST performance is being dismissed by the Rockies' front office.

Maybe it's kind of a "myopia" with Owens where they just believed that he could turn the corner so much, they didn't think it was necessary to go out and get "insurance" for Jerry. We've seen this before when he went into 2006/2007 thinking he could magically pull relievers out off the streets for auditions and ended up with dubious moves like Nelson, Aardsma and Sisco that backfired in the end. Not offering arbitration to Riske. Cutting Javier Lopez lose to the Red Sox, where he magically ended up a contributing second-tier set-up guy for a couple of seasons. Then again, they probably felt that Wise AND B. Anderson were the insurance if that plan failed, and the reason that KW didn't make another move. I'd hate to think KW is so overconfident that the rest of the division is vulnerable again this year that he believes he can get away with almost anything and finally be celebrated as a genius for proving all of the doubters wrong...he doesn't seem to care about that too much. Then again, he keeps talking about it so much you wonder if he is still secretly dying for validation. To tell the truth, I wouldn't be surprised if MacDougal actually has a better year than Dotel/Linebrink/Jenks (two of the three). Lillibridge could end up playing a huge role with this team, possibly another starting CFer and back-up plan that was considered preferable to the likes of Cook and Negron to those within the organization. Viciedo having success in the wake of Ramirez would really validate his going out on the limb with that contract. And he has the draft picks in his pocket to "prove" that he beat Cabrera and the Angels and ended up with the better deal in that trade as well. If Mike Mac makes another comeback from the dead, then the only "bad" contracts KW has to worry about going forward are Konerko for one season (possibly) and Linebrink for 2. When you compare that to "legendary" Dave Dombrowski poised to eat almost $50 million in contracts with Sheffield, Robertson and Willis, it's pretty easy to sautee KW for this one particular situation (along with Corky Miller, our back-up catching position is the biggest weakness right now IMO). And, as it turned out, KW was right and knew what he was doing with Contreras and Colon and wasn't ever thinking he would go into the season with more than one of the following (C. Richard, Marquez, Poreda, Egbert, Broadway) as his 5th starter. It just doesn't have the feel of the type of year that someone runs away with the division early, especially as the Big 3 in the AL East will give all the Central teams fits this year and push everyone closer to to the .500 mark. KW has still failed to make a huge mistake with one of our guys. Frank Francisco was an unfortunate loss, Ryan Sweeney or Carter or Cunningham could become serviceable major league starters, but he hasn't made a glaring mistake with a starting pitcher since the Ritchie move back in 2002, unless either Cortes, McCarthy, Gio or DeLosSantos become stars, and I don't trust the Royals to ever "improve" a pitcher going forward. That organization almost mismanaged Zack Greinke out of baseball altogether.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/baseb...0,7262094.story But wouldn't Wise/Anderson at a combined 750-800 OPS be better than Taveras at 675, with Anderson playing about 30-35% of the time? Certainly from a cost standpoint, yes. OTOH, we'd definitely give up an extra 12-15 runs with Wise out there defensively so much.

QUOTE (WCSox @ Apr 2, 2009 -> 07:27 PM) So are you saying that Abreu only got a one-year $5 million deal because he signed late, and that his age and eroding skills have nothing to do with it? Yep, and that's exactly what the Sox did with Vazquez and Swisher. Thanks for proving my point. Why are you comparing closer salaries to middle reliever salaries? Wood has actually succeeded as closer in recent memory. The Mets were able to over-pay Putz to be a setup man because they're one of about three teams that can still afford to over-pay players. That's a pretty narrow market. Putz is also a much better pitcher than Dotel, yet still makes less. Give me an example of a 7th-inning middle reliever who makes $6 million/year. And don't tell me that Dotel is a closer. He hasn't been a consistent and effective closer since his time in Houston. Hell, he couldn't even handle Linebrink's role as a setup man last season. No idea, as I wasn't sitting in on the negotiations with the Braves. Maybe it's because the Sox have a depleted minor league system and the Braves weren't interested in anybody that Kenny was willing to part with. Maybe Kenny knows things about Josh Anderson that we don't. There could be a number of legitimate reasons. One could easily turn this question around and ask any other major league GM why he didn't trade for Carlos Quentin last winter. Yeah, and he really backed up your assertion by trading away three quality minor league players for Swisher last year, and then trading for Griffey mid-season. That's an incredible vote of confidence in Wise and Owens. Kenny thinks that Wise and Owens are adequate players whose flaws can be overcome by Quentin, Thome, Dye, and Konerko. Because if he actually thinks that Wise and Owens are better options than Josh Anderson, he's a f'n moron. And almost everything that Kenny's done over the past five years suggests that he's pretty freaking smart. Well, there's no team out there without some flaws. Any team in the division, we can pick apart and find 5-7 pretty obvious ones. I don't think we can assume that someone that couldn't beat out Blanco or Schafer for CF is CLEARLY a better choice at CF than in-house options in terms of a platoon with Wise and BA. Also, there's no way some other viable options aren't shaken loose with the economy in the condition it is in today...it could happen this season as early as May/June as payroll and lagging attendance have owners putting pressure on their GM's to pare payroll even further. As far as Dotel, there's not a viable comparison with Putz or Fuentes out there. I can't think of any 6th-7th inning relievers paid more than Dotel and MacDougal, except for those crazy contracts BALT made for Baez, Walker and Bradford, although they were at least able to spin Bradford off to the Rays. Maybe Baez and Dotel would be a closer comparison, fwiw. I think it was REASONABLE to think that Owens might be a better option that Taveras, because Taveras was coming off an injury, and his ST statistics were pretty nearly identical. Of course, head-to-head, he's a much better defender, but Owens/Anderson will give you better overall stats and comparable defense and SAVE $5-6 million or whatever Jocketty ended up overspending.

Who was the LH prospect from New Jersey that KW released on the spot for being disrespectful in a big meeting of all the minor leaguers???? Curious about the answer to that question.

Could the Astros without Oswalt beat a community college team these days? So much for the Killer B's.

RBI single to RF by Wilson Betemit...Corey Hart (I Wear My Sunglasses At Night) dove akwardly but it bounced off his glove and Getz who'd singled (kind of a shank that Cameron misread) was able to score. Floyd hasn't given up a hit through 3 innings.

Line-up has been changed around quite a bit. I know Restovich is in the starting line-up (why, why, why instead of Shelby???) in RF.

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/boxscore.jsp?gid=2...chamlb_milmlb_1 Why the heck is Miguel Negron getting a start in LF when we could be watching Viciedo, Beckham, Shelby or Jordan Danks? This line-up just screams PRODUCTION Ozzie...which means we'll probably score 15 runs like the the couple of times this spring the line-up has been equally as non-imposing. Wise, CF 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .311 Getz, 2B 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .328 Fields, 3B 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .443 Betemit, 1B 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .298 Anderson, B, RF 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .297 Miller, C 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .355 Lillibridge, SS 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .264 Negron, LF 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .125 Floyd, P (2.57 ERA) versus Jeff Suppan

QUOTE (Jenks Heat @ Apr 2, 2009 -> 12:23 PM) I said this before and I will say it all season. This team is going to struggle to score runs. I also think Getz will lead off by the end of April and Anderson will be in center. The Wise thing is just to ease him in as it will be a situation where "he can't be any worse than what we have". Even if Thome, Dye and AJ all regress/age/get injured, and Quentin puts up a 270, 25, 80 line instead of what he was on track for last season...we have some other ways to make that up. Getz with his OBP Konerko should return to normal Josh Fields will dwarf the numbers we got from 3rd last year There's no reason to believe that Alexei won't continue to improve in his prime...with the hand and bat speed and ability to correct in the middle of plate appearances that he has. Above and beyond that, we have some insurance...namely, arguably two of the Top 10 hitters in all of minor league baseball right now in Beckham and Viciedo. Now while seeing Viciedo trying to learn LF at the big league level at age 20 is a little scary (assuming a Dye injury, for instance, and Quentin move to RF), we have very good insurance all around the diamond for an injury to anyone BUT AJ. At worst, this is a slightly above-average offense. At best, you'll have six guys with 25+ homers to go with Chris Getz, AJ and BA/Wise. Combined, BA and Wise could approach the 25 homer mark too. Suffice it to say, no major league team has ever had 25+ homers from 7 different positions in the line-up. I can't see how that type of offense will struggle...it will continue to be inconsistent, but there's no reason to think we won't put up 800+ runs again.

If they trade Dye, Jenks or Buehrle, then those would all qualify as salary dumps. Vazquez simply wasn't worth what he was getting paid, and there's at least a 50% chance we'll get equal production out of Colon/Richard for $10 million less. There's also at least a puncher's chance that Tyler Flowers becomes the next Mike Piazza or Victor Martinez. That's not even factoring what Lillibridge can bring to the ballclub in terms of his athleticism and versatility, and then adding two sleeper prospects in Gilmore and Rodriguez that both have above-average chances of at least making it to the big leagues some day.

About 30-50 runs in a season.... I know this is the wrong thread, but related. Scott.Podsednik.is.dead. His body has just taken too much abuse fighting for 10 years to get to the majors, and stealing bases and sliding over and over again has taken its toll and his burst is gone, just like Neal Anderson after 6-7 seasons. Age 30 683 OPS Age 31 668 OPS Age 32 655 OPS (in easier league pitching-wise and in an offense-first stadium) Age 33 ??? Notice any trends??? I don't like Brian Anderson, AT ALL, but I wouldn't dream of starting Pods one game out in CF over Anderson. But I also wouldn't dream of leading off any game, ever, with BA. If they're going to be so stubborn and Fields is batting 9th, they might as well just hit Alexei Ramirez first instead of BA. I'm fine with Wise, as long as he's at an 800 OPS against RHP. If he's anywhere below 700 after one month, say goodbye to that experiment. The Braves have Blanco and Gorkys Hernandez (Venezuelan) 1 1/2 to 2 years away (like Jordan Danks)...it wouldn't kill our depth to go out and get Blanco.

QUOTE (Thunderbolt @ Apr 2, 2009 -> 12:00 PM) Is their any financial upside to sending Bannister down? I know he sucks, but's he better then their other option. Hovecher makes a little more sense, but the fact is that the Royals have their best chance in years to compete right now, and they seem to be getting in their own way again. Bannister was something like 2-9 with a 6.91 ERA in the second half last season, but you'd have to think he would somehow be better than the likes of Luke Hudson, Brandon Duckworth, Ramirez and Ponson. Ponson at least pitched well in the WBC, but Ramirez? They might have been better off with Odalis Perez or Jorge De La Rosa...

If Baker AND Mauer are out for an extended period of time...Minnesota will be in some trouble. Then again, never count them plucking a gritty grinder from AAA or yet another Boof Bonser from that minor league system that somehow manages a 3.75-4.25 ERA in his rookie campaign. Redmond will be fine for awhile, he's one of the best back-up catchers in all of baseball, but you have to wonder how Morneau will be affected...why even bother pitching to that guy? It's going to be incumbent on Cuddyer and Young to pick it up and protect him, as well as Jason Kubel.

1. Verlander 2. Galarraga 3. Porcello 4. Edwin Jackson 5. Miner Depth: Bonderman, Willis, Robertson Closers: Lyon, Rodney (eventually Perry) Of course, the Twins would seem to have the better overall depth, and Liriano, if he returns even close to 2006 form, should be a Cy Young candidate again...and the back of that rotation at 4/5 is "mehhh," but it's definitely better than the Royals, Indians and probably the White Sox, too. Not to mention that Zumaya MIGHT actually return to health, that's a very nasty/imposing bullpen. Plus they have Dolsi in the minors now. I think many scouts in baseball would take that pitching staff over ours...I think the Tigers could still be very dangerous if they get off to a good start and Bonderman returns to something approximating his past stuff (which hasn't really translated into results, like Mr. Vazquez with the Sox).

QUOTE (Stan Bahnsen @ Mar 31, 2009 -> 12:17 PM) Take another look. SS Choo may well be an MVP candidate this year. Guy can flat out rake. Shoo was a strictly platoon player his entire career up until the 2nd half last season. MVP candidate? You've got to be joking, I hope. I can see him with a .280 average, 20-24 homers, 70-80 RBI's, but I highly doubt he'll get a vote at the end of the season. The M's basically gave up on him.

It's one of the few times I could stand both of them together in a movie, let alone ONE individually. Zack & Miri was much better than what I expected, to tell the truth. Craig Robinson? Isn't that MIchelle Obama's brother and OSU head BB coach??

Brian Bannister is on the DL, too. That makes the Royals' rotation Greinke, Meche, Davies, Ponson and Ramirez. Not worrisome. If Daniel Cortes and Hochevar pitched like projected, then I would start to seriously give them consideration as a contender and going in the right direction. The Twins haven't gotten anything out of Mulvey and Humber. That Gomez trade is going to depend on Carlos at least putting up a 750 OPS this season. Young almost played and acted his way out of his second organization in two years, despite being one of the youngest and more talented players in all of baseball. Mijares, from what I've heard, has been dismal in camp. I think they were really pushing things to hope from repeat performances for Breslow and Mijares, who gained even more weight (they were too cheap to keep AL Central dominator Denys Reyes) and they didn't sign Juan Cruz thankfully (Gagne would have been perfectly disastrous for Mr. Bill Smith, but they let him off the hook and threw him back). While they could trade Span or Cuddyer, they wouldn't get much of value in return. Blackburn and Perkins were each going backwards at the end of the season, and the innings pitched numbers might drag them down this season, especially Perkins, who was coming off injury. Jury's still out on Mr. Liriano, and whoever is the primary RH set-up guy. Last year, that was the biggest hole on their roster. If Crede and Punto struggle offensively or with health issues, this team will be the equivalent of the White Sox defensively on turf, except in CF with Gomez and RF/LF if Span is playing instead of Cuddyer or Kubel. At least they are/were smart enough to have a better back-up catcher than Corky Miller, C. Armstrong or D. Lucy. UPDATE: The Tigers are expected to erase almost $50 million in 2009 salaries with the releases of Willis, Robertson and Sheffield. (Just imagine how much we b**** and moan about MacDougal, Contreras, Thome and Konerko....but eating THAT much salary???) Perry and Porcello are both going North with the Tigers. Rodney is the closer. Dolsi, who pitched so well last year, didn't even make the club.