caulfield12

And no runs in 14 innings against Harrison, who had a 6 or 7 ERA (still) heading into last night's game.

Fields is pretty close to a 35% strikeout ratio, which is WAY too high for the kind of power he's shown so far. And about the same as 2007 when he hit 23 homers in 300+ AB's.

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/stats/fieldi...lumn=zoneRating Ramirez has only made two errors...I think everyone is just down on him because of his offensive struggles. He certainly, with the exception of one game, hasn't hurt the White Sox at that position. He's in the top half in fielding percentage and #2 in zone rating. I'll just say he has been at least average for the position and maybe above average for an MLB SS. The one thing I've noticed is that he has a hesitation about diving for balls that's alarming. I'll also add that defensive ratings don't mean much to me until they're bettered, but to move someone who has played 40 games there 8 years ago....I need to see a lot more, because Nix was very rough the other night at 3B.

Batting Pods first with Getz 2nd, or Getz 1st, with Pods 9th, those are the two best options. If it was 2005/06, I would agree Pods should clearly hit leadoff, but we're living in the past with Scotty. He has contributed offensively so far, but it won't hold up over a month or season. Getz is doing the best job he can at the position, and far better than Cabrera or Swisher, veteran ML hitters, did there. The most logical thing to do is to put Alexei 2nd to try to get him a steadier diet of fastballs and hope to catch lightning in a bottle like May/June of last year with him when Uribe went down to injury.

QUOTE (quade36 @ May 9, 2009 -> 05:57 AM) What do you guys think about Carlos Torres or Wes Whisler? Those guys have been doing the best in AAA so far. Not great scouting reports for either though. Neither one of those guys are the long-term answer either...they might win a game or two (like Lance Broadway has done against the Royals), but they're not on KW's "board" of future contributors. They're just organizational filler right now, occupying roster spots. Omogrosso is the only starter (besides Poreda) with major league stuff (and maybe Santeliz, but he's just off DL)...the jury is still out on Harrell, Ely and Cassel, but the first three are the most likely to stick as starters or relievers over a 2-3 year time period.

QUOTE (T R U @ May 9, 2009 -> 12:02 AM) I wouldn't go that far, I bet there would be a few teams who would trade a young MLB guy in a package for a Dye or Konerko and a chance at a World Series if they both continue to look like they are going to give you .300 30 100. And I know Konerko hasn't hit many HRs but if he keeps hitting like he is the track record is there anyways. And who cares if all we get are prospects, as long as they are good ones. This team is only getting older and slower by each game and its not like we are going to shell out big money for a superstar anyways. The more good prospects we have, the better the chance of some of them panning out. If we make those deals, we also clear a lot of salary and will be able to have a lot more room to fill out the roster through free agency. We would still have Quentin, Ramirez, Danks, MB, Floyd, Getz to go along with guys like Poreda, Beckham, Flowers, Viciedo, and are other young guys who look like they could contribute down the line. Add in what we get from those players being dealt and the salary relief I think that is exactly what we need. My team for the rest of this season as currently as I can get it would be 1. 2B Getz 2. SS Ramirez 3. LF Quentin 4. DH Thome 5. 1B Betemit 6. C Pierzynski 7. 3B Fields 8. RF Nix 9. CF Anderson OF Podsednik OF Wise IF/OF Lillibridge 3B/1B Phillips C Miller SP Buehrle SP Floyd SP Danks SP Colon SP Richard MR Broadway MR Carassco MR Contreras MR Whisler MR Link CL Linebrink Not good, im aware of this. If we are going to play like trash anyways, whats the difference. Stop lying to the fans already, we can clearly see this team is not that good and needs to be remade. I think they would get more support if they actually made an effort to rebuild this thing than doing nothing. If they are going to play Nix in RF, might as well see what hes got out there and see if thats going to be an option. As far as the MR goes, I am only going on what we could have now and not any other moves that could be made. Nix has a career minor league OPS of around 750 in the minors, where he languished for eight full seasons. No way he can be a full-time corner OF. He has to stay on the infield. Is he a better option than Lillibridge? Sure, I can't argue that. But the fact he's NOT Lillibridge is the main thing he has going for him, and his defensive abilities. He "looks" like a player up at-bat at least. I'll give him that much. Whisler probably won't pitch for us once this season, he's another version of Haeger/Tracey/Augustin Montero/Arnie Munoz/Mike Porzio/Josh Stewart. Yes, I'm aware of the Charlotte stats. Our MOST valuable trading chip, as someone pointed out earlier this week, would be Bartolo Colon, if he stays healthy and gets his FB up above 90 MPH consistently for an entire game.

Yes, next time I won't give a stat that one of your own Sox announcers/personnel gave, because obviously they are incorrect, too. Someone mentioned that statistic and I didn't take the time to look it up, so please have me shot. I am pretty sure nobody else has EVER said anything that's incorrect around here, too, as we are highly-compensated to be professional SoxTalk posters and aren't allowed to make any mistakes. Half the things Bill Melton says are wrong, I hope you call up Beltin' Bill Melton as well....I'm sure you do. Of course, the overarching point is totally lost upon you. http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/stats/aggreg...amp;season=2009 Yay, we're now 12th in the AL in runs scored per game. Our offense thanks you for defending it. Sure as hell the White Sox fans aren't defending it, because only 21,000 came out to see a Friday night home game against one of the most exciting teams in the majors in the Rangers, a team that came into the night with 50 homers to our 30. We'll be lucky to get 2,000,000 in attendance this year if the team continues to play like this, giving KW further reason (and Dick Allen more ammunition) to cut payroll again next season down to the 2005 level of $65 million. Fields would of course be the logical choice to move to left. He was far from bad out in left contrary to the 2 errors you will likely mention. Historically third baseman are great to transit to a corner outfield due to there arm strength. Fields was really, really, really bad in LF. It's not always about errors, because Pods is horrible too, and when you take atrocious "Great Circle" routes to the ball and miss it completely or it bounces off your head, many times the official scorekeeper will give a hit....or when he goes in and it goes over his head, or vice versa, like Lonnie Skates Smith. (By the way, Josh is now on pace to make 29 errors at 3B...not to mention the balls he doesn't get to). Unfortunately, unlike our last OSU 3B, Josh Fields hasn't shown signs of developing into a GG 3B. Obviously, the error last night on Josh was big, but it didn't really matter because our offense just sucks right now. The even bigger problem with Fields is that he can't even hit an average major league fastball with authority at a spot in the line-up where he's inundated with them. The only reason he was in that hole in the first place was because of his high OBP, but he's slowing losing that point in his favor, too. Fields should be a 6-8 hitter in our line-up. Bottom line, when you strike out 30-35% of the time and are an opposite field singles hitter and only have 2 homers, you're not going to last very long as a major league hitter. Eventually, he might start hitting the ball with authority again...he did actually hit one ball well, right at Vizquel last night. Basically, Josh has a very, very long swing like Anderson and Crede when he first came up, and it was so much better in ST when he was short and quick. He's almost as lost up there at the plate as Thome and Ramirez. To summarize, there's no way that Josh Fields will be our LF in the future. It will be either Viciedo, Shelby or someone we've never even thought about (trade, FA acquisition). Almost every 3B who has been moved to LF was moved because they were even more horrible at 3B, like Carlos Lee...Fields has "average" arm strength for the position, and you don't need to have as good an arm in LF as RF. Actually, Carlos Quentin is playing much better defensively in LF than he did last year. It's not so clear-cut that they will automatically move him to RF, and Viciedo has the best arm of anyone in the organization, he might be just as good in RF (or better) if he lost a little more weight, as he can run better than most people think, although not quite as well as Brandon Allen.

With that line-up, we'd be hard-pressed to win 75 games. So we might as well go all out and substitute Betemit for Thome, since Jim won't be around after next year, either.

We've scored 0 or 1 run in 10 out of our 28 games. It's beyond pathetic. The weather's no longer an excuse. This offense needs more benchings than just Alexei Ramirez.

QUOTE (scenario @ May 8, 2009 -> 10:13 PM) The real reason CJ doesn't receive the acclaim he could get is because he was undrafted. And the reason he was undrafted... two issues: 1. He didn't have a clear position in college. In fact, he played EVERY position, literally... including being a pretty decent pitcher. His coach at Arizona State said during CJ's junior year that he thought he'd eventually end up as a catcher. (During one game at ASU he actually pitched and caught in the same inning. LOL.) 2. He suffered a high ankle sprain early during his final season. So he didn't play much until late in the year. (Although he kicked *** for ASU in the CWS.) So... no clear position and injured in his final year which lead to his being overlooked by most teams. Except for us. Advantage us. I think this was pretty much the same case with Michael Aviles, which is why he really had to hit well almost every day to keep his position...and the fact, like Rutherford, he really doesn't have a good defensive position where he's clearly "above average" is also a detriment. The way Josh Fields has been going, I'd almost rather see CJ Rutherford up there for a week to see what he could do...of course, this will happen about as soon as Cook becomes the starting CFer. Shelby and Cook, not in the same solar system as far as prospect status goes. Cook=Gartrell, if we want to be charitable to David.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ May 8, 2009 -> 10:37 PM) Contreras went to the pen in 2007 for a short break, and IIRC when he came back he was a fair amount better than when he left (can't check to make sure, B-R won't load damnit!) http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/players/game...3&year=2007 It happened at the beginning of August when he was already 5-14. He pitched two times in relief, then pitched "decently" (lowered his ERA by about a point, right now he's 8+) for the remainder of that season.

My main goal in life is to become an ubiquitous part of the vernacular around here...and, one day, even be used as a verb. "Go all Caulfield" I like that. Thanks for advancing my cause of becoming part of the lexicon.

QUOTE (Kenny Hates Prospects @ May 8, 2009 -> 10:28 PM) Omogrosso would probably be a better choice to replace Broadway in the bullpen IMO. At least then maybe we'll come up with a guy who can pitch one useful inning here and there instead of a guy we only want to go to if the game is out of hand and we want to save the important members of our staff. I don't like the idea BTW of replacing Contreras with something you know that for the most part isn't going to be any better. I'd rather keep running him out there with the hope he changes things up if we're not going to go outside the organization for either a young guy who profiles as a starter or a healthy veteran with a track record. Whether it's Charlotte or the bullpen, he has to get a feel for that forkball again. He can't pitch at 91-93 like he used to pitch at 94-97. Not only that, but, even more demoralizing, any baserunner with average speed who reaches first base is almost automatically in scoring position at some point. Ozzie didn't seem too confident going to the bullpen would help much, but it seems they prefer he stay with Cooper and maybe Alexei, too. It doesn't seem like any team would be willing to give up a really legit "young/er" pitching prospect at this point in the season. Richard might not make it, but he's been throwing 92-96 recently (if you believe the guns), and we've seen the likes of Bergesen and Harrison have success (maybe they would succeed only against the Sox!) with the same stuff that Richard has.

QUOTE (fathom @ May 8, 2009 -> 10:12 PM) I like Getz, but even he is struggling now. He's 3 for his last 20. You could also put him in the 2nd spot, but AJP seems like a perfect fit for that right now. As we were talking about in chat, the 2nd hitter usually gets the most fastballs. The problem with that is we have our worst fastball hitter in the 2nd spot. They have nothing to lose trying to jump-start Ramirez by putting him at this spot. Move Nix over to 3B for Fields if he continues to struggle and Ozzie decides to "unbench" Ramirez. I mean, while you're at it, bench Thome (for Betemit) and don't bother to play Lillibridge any more than absolutely necessary.

Getz SHOULD be a 2nd, 8th or 9th place hitter. It is what it is. The only fix for now would be to put Nix at 3B and let Alexei try to get hot again. You could also put Alexei in CF, but Josh Fields is looking horrible, striking out 30-35% of the time, which is fine if he had 7-10 homers, but he's getting blown away consistently by 92-94 MPH fastballs right across the heart of the plate. Solution 3 would be to but Betemit at 3B and Ramirez in CF instead of Lillibridge, who needs to go Charlotte with Contreras. (Yes, Brent had one of the few hits tonight, but he's still not a major league hitter or threat to the opposition.) Maybe Thome should sit (like Alexei) and you should give Betemit his AB's at DH. Thome is now below the Mendoza line and looking like a shadow of his former self. Quentin has had more bad at-bats pulling off everything and popping up than anyone the last two weeks.

DJ Carrasco might be the most logical person to start, but they should PROBABLY first go to Richard or Broadway, because it only makes sense to try pitchers who theoretically could be here the next 2-3 years. We need to replace Jose and probably Colon after this season, so at least two starters are needed. Torres, Van Benschoten, Egbert, Marquez (right now, for sure) and Whisler just don't profile as big league pitchers, but they simply won't bring up Poreda and Beckham and start their arbitration clocks in what could be a lost season. My choice for one spot start would be Omogrosso (he pitched last night for BIRM) and then working long-term to build up the arm strength of Richard and/or Broadway to give one or the other 4-5 consecutive starts to show what they can do.

I don't think they're confident enough in Poreda's control, and they're also concerned he too will become a one-pitch pitcher if he gets behind in counts...in which case Aaron will get hammered. There are no good solutions...but I think, unfortunately, another Broadway start is more likely than anything. Richard's arm isn't stretched out. Trying Omogrosso wouldn't be the worst thing in the world, he's predominantly as FB pitcher, but it wouldn't be the worst thing in the world for his confidence if he got totally bombed...and his ultimate destination has always been perceived to be the bullpen.

Sorry to see Jose's White Sox career possibly ending this way. Courageous comeback, and maybe he can get a feel for the forkball in the pen, but Jose has never profiled as someone who could successfully come into a short-relief situation. At best, he's a replacement for Broadway and can eat innings in blowouts at this point. Well, no matter what, he was the best pitcher from August 05 through May, 06 in all of baseball. Something to behold. 17 consecutive victories that will never be forgotten.

Bottom line, Nix only really profiles as an offensive "plus" at 2B or SS long-term, but what to do with CF has just as many possible "mehhhhh" options as the future Cy Youngs lining up to replace Jose if he implodes tonight...

.261 .332 .415 747 OPS Those are his CAREER minor league averages over 8 seasons. Throw in 10-15 stolen bases, that's a bottom 3rd major league CFer in terms of numbers. Now if Brian Anderson could hit .260 with a 330 OBP, that would be great, but Nix has no experience in CF, and just because he made a "good" play in RF doesn't mean he has the ability to just start playing CF with the White Sox. If they're really sold on Getz/Beckham/Ramirez up the middle, then fine, but it's just as logical to think that Josh Fields might need a replacement. Of course, Nix at 3B is going to be below average offensively, and he won't give you the stolen base totals that Figgins does, nor will he give you a high OBP.

It's fine to bench Ramirez, but why reward Lillibridge by playing him so much when he's obviously not ready for big league pitching, nor has he played the position enough recently to be at least an "average" ML CFer. Ramirez in a slump is still 10X more dangerous as a hitter than Lillibridge, and probably just as good or even better defensively. Pods against LHP is still a .229 hitter with a 600+ OPS hitter...Lillibridge isn't even close to that, and he hasn't shown much ability to steal bases, either.

Quentin is the player right now who easily has the power to hit the ball out of the park to all fields and he's pull-happy. In the last two or three weeks, how many balls has he driven to RCF?

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news;_ylt=Ag9t...o&type=lgns Jeff Passan article with some good one-liners on Manny, calling for zero tolerance policy (assumption is that this couldn't be enacted until a new CB agreement is negotiated in 2011.)

http://www.azcentral.com/sports/diamondbac...7melvin-CR.html Now we've got Wakamatsu and Hinch with White Sox ties, although obviously we can be more proud of Don. Everyone was so upset about losing AJ, and he turned out to be one of the bigger busts (among many) in White Sox draft history, along with Bobby Seay.

I understand the thinking behind that, but he still needs as much time as possible to work on his defense at SS. Then again, they're piling up so many crooked numbers, you have to balance that with being respectful to your competition and not piling on. And, as long as they rotate with Flowers and Allen and it's not always Beckham being pulled, that's fine. But Shelby and Viciedo really need to get 500-550 AB's this season.