caulfield12

Utility Sox Rushmore Craig Grebeck, Pablo Ozuna, Norberto Paco Martin, Warren "The Deacon" Newson or Rodney McCray twincity sox, those are all good choices...

Merkin is usually not so effusive in his commentary, so high praise indeed. We seem to have a plethora of players that could end up at any one of 3-4 positions. Ramirez=SS, 2B, CF and possibly 3B Fields=3B, 1B, DH, LF Beckham=SS, 2B, 3B, LF, RF, DH Viciedo=3B, 1B, LF, RF, DH Lillibridge=SS, 2B, CF That gives KW a lot of versatility building the roster moving forward. Add in Flowers, Allen, Shelby (who can also play infield and outfield) and Jor. Danks and you have some interesting combinations. Based on all of that, I think Nix and/or Getz might end up being the loser (one of the two) as they are both less versatile. Getz could play 3B and maybe SS if he had to, but he doesn't have the type of bat for the corners and the arm/range for SS. The outfield fight with Owens, Anderson, Wise and possibly Kroeger will be very interesting and could down down to the last week of ST. I'll reserve my praise for Don Cooper at this point, but if Van Benschoten makes the club, that would be a pretty amazing turnaround for him.

QUOTE (Cubano @ Feb 21, 2009 -> 12:43 AM) I spoke to a frien of mine that has some contacts in the Dominican R. today. He said that SS/2B Jose "Candelita" Iglesias may be drawing attention from the Tigers. Supposely, the Tigers are offering 3.5 millions. He defected in 2008 along side LHP Noel Arguelles and another pitcher in Canada while in the World Junior tournament. It is just a rumor. I do not think the Chi Sox will go after him bacause it does not make sense for them to do so. It makes sense for the Tigers, because Adam Everett is a stopgap for now with Guillen moving to LF and Polanco is getting up there in years, too. I guess it depends on the number of years to say $3.5 million is a lot in this depressed market...if it's modelled on the Ramirez deal, it would be better...or the average or one year salary was $3.5 million, you would wonder why they didn't just go out and get Orlando Hudson, Cabrera, etc. I would be pretty surprised if DET sank that money into a playing heading into the perfect economic storm for the city that has been portended.

How did they overlook Sosa, lol? Five years ago, he would have taken Banks' place for sure. I would go with Thomas, Fox, Aparicio and Shoeless Joe. An interesting/controversial pick would have been Veeck, of course, you can't have Veeck without Reinsdorf (love him or hate him), so I nixed that idea completely. Fisk? Close call, but his going with the Red Sox cap eliminated him. Someone had a good catch with Minnie Minoso, too. Baines is the sentimental pick, but not quite good enough. If you were two Mt. Rushmores from the last 25 years, it would probably be some combination of Baines/Guillen/McDowell/Fisk/Ventura and then Thomas/Konerko/Buehrle/Ordonez I guess. Heck, you could make an argument for DON COOPER or HERM SCHNEIDER, hahaha. We could also have a Crede/Brian Anderson/Aaron Rowand/Robin Ventura special monument for fanboys. So many interesting possibilities...having had Bo Jackson and Michael Jordan on the team, they wouldn't fit exactly, but iconic figures nonetheless. I know all those guys like Appling, Lyons, Wilhelm, Eddie Collins, etc., deserve a place, but history tends to have a short memory....which is why it would be biased in favor of modern players...I say that having picked 3/4 players from a half decade prior! Also interesting that no other managers/coaches came up in the history of our franchise...not sure what that says. Guillen would be there for a combination of his playing days and managing, but I'm not quite ready to bump him for Fox or Aparacio. And then you always have the high probability he would do something idiotic and you would have to sandblast him off the facade and replace him with someone like Baines who wouldn't ever get in trouble.

March 9th is going to be a pretty significant day this ST for the Sox. If both Contreras and Colon hold up, that's a big plus...compared to where things were 6-8 weeks ago, when we were thinking it would be Richard/Marquez/Poreda at the back end of the rotation.

Well, Cubano...the main thing to give you faith is how they stuck with Alexei last year when he was hitting about .120 going into mid-May and struggling mightily. I was really suprised they showed that much patience in him, because from reading the reports, the expectations weren't as high at that point as many of us now have. The White Sox are going to do what's best for their ballclub. $10 million is a pretty big investment in this economy...they're not going to rush him and risk damaging his career if he's not ready to play a position at the big league level yet. They know that they only have him for four seasons, so there's a big risk they really incubate his career and then when he enters his real prime he'll be gone to another organization. I'm really interested to see what some of these arms like Santeliz, Nathan Jones, Santos Rodriguez (Braves trade), Nunez and Jimenez can do out there. I don't think any of them will make the team (especially someone like Jones), and Ozzie/Cooper seem to be leaning in the direction of a multiple inning reliever, so pitchers like Richard/Carasco/Marquez/Broadway/Egbert/Van Benschoten are more likely. Putting Poreda in AAA as a starter makes the most sense...unless Cooper's the only one who can teach him secondary pitchers or they feel close to convinced his ceiling in the big league level is as a Matt Thornton type reliever, in which case, it would be better to trade him when we could market him as a POSSIBLE #2-3 starter. It is a bit strange we haven't seen or heard anything out of Cole Armstrong or Donny Lucy. Not sure about Lucy's health right now...maybe Armstrong played in the B game... One thing is for certain, Ozzie is going to play the heck out of Owens to make sure his health holds up over an extended period of time.

I don't think we can expect Matt Thornton velocity. Everyone's (DJ said it during the radio broadcast of Game 1) said a tick or two under that, so, when the season comes around, he should be at 93-96 pretty consistently.

An interesting case in this analysis has to be Damaso Marte. He was a castoff from the Pirates (I think he'd also been with the Yankees and M's) and he was really the Matt Thorton of the AL before Matt Thornton became Matt...at different points in 2003 and 2004, he was arguably the best LH set-up reliever in baseball. I think Cooper had a lot to do with that, but I also think Ozzie really got in his head in 2005 (like Vazquez this year) and he lost his edge mentally and got scared to throw strikes.

I'm not sure that's much worse than some of the idiotic things broadcasters will say about Erin Andrews. Almost as fawning as the Tim Tebow commentary in the national championship game. Try to be a little objective, fellas.

I guess Bryan Bullington and JJ House are next. The Pirates and Royals have just had some really, really crappy drafts. The funny thing is that both teams also went with the drafting athletes theory. I worked for the Pirates in 94 and 95 and Jason Kendall was about the only high draft pick that panned out. During that time, there was Charles Peterson (QB scholarship to Auburn), Mark Farris (QB, ended up at A&M after blowing out his knee), Shon Walker, Chad Hermansen, Jermaine Allensworth...none of those guys ever made it, except for Allensworth for a brief time. I didn't pay as much attention over the last 10 years, but I'm sure it is just as bad or worse during that time period. A number of bad GM's, too.

SO the very, very early surprises of ST. Josh Kroeger keeps hitting and ends up stealing an outfield spot...only 36 games to go on that one. Miller, who most assumed would get no more than 3 hits per month, gets 3 in one ST game. Flowers has been a non-factor. Lillibridge, who seems to have the best combination of speed, defensive ability and versatility, impresses. Nix, who everyone says could win a Gold Glove at 2B, comes charging out of the gate and actually looks like a hitter (so far) too. It looks like it will be a very interesting competition among Richard, Marquez, Poreda, Nunez, Jimenez, Carrasco, Egbert and Broadway for the final spot in the rotation (if Colon/Contreras start on DL) and the last spot or two in the bullpen. I think they really like Nunez...nice to see him come into the game in the 9th and shut the Rockies out, seems like our young pitchers have come into that situation in the past springs many times and given up the lead.

Let's also hope his statement about Aardsma and Sisco essentially failing due to the lack of a secondary pitcher (and the ability to learn one or be taught one) doesn't also end up applying to Aaron Poreda. Pretty strong comments about how pitchers failing in Chicago just don't have what it takes to pitch anywhere effectively...and some interesting comments on Van Benschoten.

Let's say the average MLB catcher gives you .250-.260, 12-15 homers and 60-65 RBI's. If Flowers could double the home run numbers and put up 80-100 RBI's on a consistent basis, that's still a huge asset. As mentioned, as long as he can call a good game and has a good repoire with the pitching staff, then he's a huge asset...just like a Mike Piazza. Very few teams besides the Twins get good offensive numbers from that position. It's just the first game though. Not getting over and blocking pitches with your body/chest instead of trying to backhand them is a habit that needs to be taught and reinforced until it becomes natural...just like getting down on one knee to block a grounder for an infielder or running into the ball instead of being caught flat-footed or backing up on a flyball when there's a runner on base for an outfielder. Just comes down to good minor league coaching/teaching/instruction. Ozzie has already annointed Flowers as the starter if something were to happen to AJ. We all know Stewart, Lucy, Armstrong and Corky Miller aren't the long-term solution there. I know someone else was already saying Flowers and Marquez were overhyped. Well, look at the Cubs. Jerome Walton, Dwight Smith, Corey Patterson, Bobby Hill, Angel Guzman, Rich Hill, Gary Scott, Kevin Orie, Mark Prior (well, that's a different case), Felix Pie, Brooks Kieschnick, Kyle Lohse, Sisco, Matt Murton, Brant Brown, every team has prospects that stumble and don't become what they're supposed to be.

QUOTE (IowaSoxFan @ Feb 25, 2009 -> 02:15 PM) I cant see any city putting up the financing to build a stadium right now, or in the near future. Teams are locked in where they are and are going to have to make due with their current financial situations. KC - The team has lasted this long in that market and recently had renovations, dont see them going anywhere. Detroit - Probably the team in the most trouble because of their payroll obligations and increasing unemployment rate in the area, Detroit will probably see a shift from spending like a large market team to more of a small to mid market team over the next 10 years. Cleveland - The team is in pretty good financial condition and the population of the city will hold steady at least. Minnesota - Almost folded once, but a new stadium will cease any specualtion about that possibility and the team will continue to operate with its financial constraints. Pittsburgh is a team that could be in trouble, low attendance, small market size, and a lack of results hurts the team, though it has a storied history and a newer stadium to keep it anchored. Florida - The team is in the process of building a new stadium and ownership will be obligated to keep the team in the area for a period of time after the stadium is completed so that the city can recoup some of the money that was invested. Going nowhere. TB - Last season a WS run, this season contenders in the East that will likely fade in the second half of the season. Last years success will cause an attendance bump, but with no financing available the team will look at re-locating but have few options available (Charlotte, OKC?) I lived in KC for 10 years. If the team is at least .500 or competitive, you can guarantee 22-25,000 in attendance. But that has only happened in 2003 for the first 4 months, before that, you'd have to go back to the early 90's for the last really good Royals teams. They had a good foundation with Damon/Dye/Beltran/Sweeney but the pitching never got them over the hump. A couple of other teams that bear watching are SD (if they were still in Jack Murphy and with Moores' financial problems/divorce) and Cincinnati. Pittsburgh and Cincy are fairly similar, cities that have been or will be hard hit by the economy...mid-size markets...difficulty competing with the Cubs, Cardinals and Astros to a lesser extent. Milwaukee, I think they're stronger because of the ownership group...but, then again, wasn't most of the Selig money from car dealerships? Still, SD/Pitt/Cincy/Milwaukee all share one thing in common, "newer" stadiums. As far as a team in OKC, I doubt that will ever happen. They've been too closely tied to the Rangers for a long time in terms of their fan base. It would be like Omaha having a major league team, although I realize OKC is quite a bit bigger and has done well during the "oil boom" compared to many other states...well, until recently, which is another "bust" period for oil it seems. That inconsistent economy just isn't a stable one for a MLB team.

I guess the game thread is closed...first day's thoughts: 1) Flowers is really going to have to work on both throwing mechanics and blocking pitches 2) Nix and Josh Kroeger were the most impressive from a hitting perspective 3) Owens is still getting some bad reads out in CF 4) Who is Willie Anderson (pitcher)? I thought he played for the Spurs and UGA. 5) Brad Salmon is done, stick a form in him. 6) Wasserman and Russell didn't do anything to distinguish themselves...(John) Adam Russell (sorry DJ!) has a quickly diminishing star 7) Richard pitched well, Dotel was his normal unpredictable self and all over the place

QUOTE (chunk23 @ Feb 25, 2009 -> 07:35 PM) To throw more fuel on the fire, BP ranked Carter as a 5-star prospect. Gio and Cunningham are 3-star. I usually side with BA over BP...or always. They probably have Viciedo as a 3 star prospect as well, and arbitrarily picked that number after never having seen him play. At the very least, I think BA took into consideration the words and reports from scouts who were at his tryout, if not doing more extensive reporting. I'm sure those rated five star, on average, have better MLB careers...however, if you studied it thoroughly, it doesn't mean much to me at all. Rauch and Borchard were also five star prospects.

I went to mlb.com and renewed my Gameday Audio early for $14.95 (one of the best bargains still in the world today)...it said at the site that it would automatically renew around March 1st, but I wanted to try to hear the first four games before the normal ST post-time arrived on the 1st. When u click on GameDay audio, you get the renewal page today, so I just went ahead and did that so I could wake up at 3 AM Thailand time (how that's for dedication?) and listen to the first game of the year.

QUOTE (chunk23 @ Feb 25, 2009 -> 09:31 AM) Of all the players we gave up, Carter may be the best in terms of talent. However, in terms of value to the Sox, it's between Cortes and Cunningham. If Cunningham was as good or better than Rowand or Chris B. Young, you'd have a good point. The problem is that we need a natural defensive CFer and a leadoff hitter. I think Jordan Danks might end up being a better fit for that position, or even Brian Anderson still, than Aaron Cunningham. The problem with Brian is that he will never, ever be a leadoff hitter, so he'd have to be the #8 or #9 guy. It will also be interesting to see who has the better career in the majors, Ryan Sweeney or Aaron Cunningham.

Which puts all the pressure on Owens/Wise and then Lillibridge/Nix/Getz...along with the back-up catcher race. Haven't seen many mentions of Jimenez or Nunez taking the final spot in the pen. That's a possibility as well.

Disagree. I think if Cortes becomes a 1-2-3 level starter (doubtful, some said the same thing when we gave up Gio, twice), that's a much more valuable commodity than a LF/DH/1B. We already potentially have four of those on our team in Viciedo, Flowers, Brandon Allen and Josh Fields. If Faustino De Los Santos hadn't gotten hurt, we might be tied for the most on the BA list with on the ChiSox or other teams...and Ryan Sweeney might turn out to a decent little ballplayer as well, although he wasn't the best fit for USCF. When Carter or Allen start producing like Pujols or Howard at the big league level, that's when we can rue giving away a certain player. Personally, I'd take the bet that we get better overall production from the combination of Flowers and Viciedo than the numbers Chris Carter puts up over his career.

Thanks Milkman, lol. I always like to do the Jor. Danks to give you a rise. It reminds me of when brothers are playing on college baseball or football teams and have similar names on the back of their jerseys to differentiate them. I won't abbreviate Freida Pinto, though, in the movies thread. She deserves her full name for now, despite her C+ dress choice from John Galliano. Too bad she wasn't alive in the 70's, she could have gotten a nice promotional deal going with Ford. And good thing her name wasn't Gremlin or Pacer.

Yes and no, the Yankees/Mets/Red Sox can compensate for a lack of scouting talent (but I don't think that's the case) by the money everyone knows they can throw at a player. However, if you look over the last 2-3 years, the number of organizations signing international players to $500+ signing bonuses has really diversified. With the Internet and video scouting, the playing field has been evened a bit, because the majority of teams are in bidding wars for players instead of being the first one in on the ground floor and hiding that player and signing him b4 anyone else finds out about him. That's just getting more and more difficult in this day and time. Heck, there are blogs out there and video on the Cuban players now, imagine something like that 10-15 years ago...things have changed so dramatically. I agree with the point about those marquee franchise (Mets, Dodgers, Yankees, Cubs, Red Sox, maybe the Angels to a lesser extent now) needing to do well in order to "subsidize" the bottom 10 teams in the league. Then there's the case studies of the A's, Twins and Rays....and even Milwaukee was able to put together a very competitive club, spend money on Sabathia...and make him legit offer to come back. We know it can be done, which should offer some encouragement to fans of smaller market teams.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Feb 24, 2009 -> 04:22 PM) Yes, but we can acquire and develop even more talent if we trade those older players when they actually have some value. Yes, but, how many people ditched all their stocks and sold their houses before the last two busts? There's the sentimental attachment (which KW is certainly anything BUT) of course, but things shifted too quickly for many teams to know what even hit them. How much would those 3 Yankees Free Agents get today on the market? Kyle Farnsworth? K-Rod? Fuentes? Carlos Lee will make $68 million the next four years, not to mention those deals for Soriano and Dempster that are looking more and more dubious. Or the contract for Kyle Lohse that was perfect timing for him. Fukudome? Rowand? Torii Hunter? Maybe we've been lucky sometimes (like the Garland deal for Erstad getting nixed by Disney), but KW has done a solid job managing, converting and re-energizing our roster IMO. We'll probably never know the particulars of the Dye/Bailey trade, but I am sure KW would have pulled the trigger had it been on the table, especially knowing what we now do about the heightened importance of cheap/affordable players. Thome was never going to be easily tradeable. And if you trade Konerko after 2006 or let him walk after 2005, you would have been eaten alive by the fanbase for being cheap. On the other hand, we have a number of players like Quentin, Ramirez, Danks, Floyd, Beckham, Viciedo, Poreda, Flowers, Josh Fields, Getz, Clayton Richard, Jord. Danks, Lillibridge and Shelby that will be exactly what we need in this type of economy. Contreras and Konerko are the only two even remotely "questionable" contracts that KW has delivered, and I can certainly understand his logic and the reasoning behind each move, even with Contreras, who was simply a horse for two seasons and could be the Comeback Pitcher of the Year (or he could go down in a heap again). Obviously KW made every possible effort to trade both Dye and Jenks, who were probably the two most desired commodities at the beginning of the off-season. Before that, I guess if you were a fortune teller, you could have traded Joe Crede after 2006...but Fields wasn't ready yet. You also have to have replacements in the minor leagues b4 you go and trade 3B in their primes that are still in their arbitration years.

Louisville and Buffalo used to have the best AAA attendance numbers every year. Indianapolis is a big MAYBE. I am sure Buffalo will be screwed over the next 10 years, but how is Louisville doing? You always think of that area as being all UK/UL (like the Portland area's taste for college sports) and thoroughbred racing/farms. Chattanooga is obviously too small, Birmingham or Knoxville. That leaves you with the original too choices of Charlotte and Nashville in that region.

That power should be replaced by Fields, Viciedo, Flowers and Allen...not to mention "plus" power up the middle of the diamond with Beckham and Ramirez. Then a couple of nice athletes in Shelby and Danks. If there's any huge long-term concern, it's defensively, and the LH power (which right now is only Allen). However, if the economic troubles continue, it's not difficult to imagine not having to spend very much to acquire it. The days of a Thome-like contract for a DH are long gone now.