caulfield12

QUOTE(JERMAINEDYE4MVP @ Apr 5, 2007 -> 12:38 AM) FACT! I REALLY DON'T THINK THIS TEAM IS GOING TO BE ANY GOOD THIS SEASON AND I BELIEVE THAT KW WILL TRY AND TRADE DYE, BUEHRLE, IGUCHI, THOME, CREDE, AND EVEN KONERKO BEFORE THE DEADLINE KIND OF LIKE THE MARLINS DID AND PICK UP YOUNG TALENT. DISCUSS. The great thing about playing in such a tough division is we will be exposed early (like Cleveland) if we don't cinch 'em up and hunker down and show some cajones. Facing Sabathia 3 times and Santana at least once will bring out the best (and worst) in this ballclub. KW was smart to anticipate the aging of the club (Contreras, Thome, Dye) and not to sign anyone long-term, IMO. If the ballclub is buried in 4th place (or 5th) in June or July, the strategy moving forward is obvious. There's really no other choice. If that means Buehrle, Crede, Dye and even deeper cuts occur to the heart of this ballclub, the White Sox will go on...they'll still wear the same jerseys, only the names will change. You can never get too attached to one player, and losing Thomas, Ordonez, Lee and Valentin should have taught the younger fans that the organization being a "winner" always comes before individual players. Restructuring the ballclub now will be a lot easier than doing it without a WS championship in the recent past. I think, in time, dumping McCarthy and Garcia will look like intelligent moves that maximized the return available for those two pitchers, pundits about the Garcia deal notwithstanding. The Astros were smart enough to steer away from former pitcher Garcia and maybe even Garland, liking the "upside" of Jennings much more than the "downside" of Garcia. JG has won 36 games over the last two years, and half the staff at Baseball Prospectus wouldn't be able to tell you he was tied for the MLB lead in victories over that time span...or that the White Sox also had the most wins as well. There's something missing with this team and last year's team, and you can exactly put a finger on it, but you can certainly feel or sense it in your bones. It won't take an 0-6 start, Buehrle getting hammered or the Twins sweeping us (out to a 6 game lead the first week?) for many diehard Sox followers to realize major changes are on the horizon with this club.

QUOTE(JUSTgottaBELIEVE @ Apr 4, 2007 -> 05:55 PM) This guy went from savior to now being on the verge of having his job in jeporady in a matter of a year and a half. Following the 2005 season his name was one of the hottest out there as far as pitching coaches are concerned. I can even recall hearing rumors that the Yankees were trying to get him. Well, last year he deserved some slack because the team was coming off a championship but this year I think there will be very little slack and if this pitching staff continues to struggle into the month of May and June I wouldn't be surprised to see Coop let go. It is hard to fathom a pitching staff that was so solid in '05 look so mediocre last year and potentially BAD this year. What happened? And again not all the blame can be placed on the pitching coach because the players still have to perform but it's never a good sign when your players are performing worse and worse each time out and no longer progressing Sure the heat falls on Cooper and Walker before Guillen, how many hitting coaches did the White Sox go through over the last decade? Did it really change the "3 run homer" philosophy of the ballclub that was imprinted in that 2000 season? Did Lee or Valentin ever progress beyond what they were (or were not)? If Contreras doesn't feel 100% right and Garland's shoulder is iffy, there's not much Cooper can do. The main mark he can make with this team is the bullpen, Sisco/Aardsma/Masset. Same thing with Jenks. Cooper can't fix physical problems. Being healthy is the best formula to get solid performance, Darin Erstad being the perfect example.

QUOTE(caulfield12 @ Apr 4, 2007 -> 05:25 PM) I didn't see the game (tried to follow via internet), but the thing that sticks out to me was Iguchi's failed bunt attempt. EXECUTION, EXECUTION, EXECUTION....I thought that's what we focused on in ST? It really doesn't matter if our pitching (both starting and bullpen) doesn't improve, though. This is a game the 2005 club locks down. The more "air" we give to Cleveland early on, the more likely they are to be in this thing all season long. They started out "okay" their first two weeks last year and hit a wall. We started off terribly (1-4 I think it was) and righted the ship, but going out to the West Coast next isn't exactly the recipe for a quick recovery from this mini tailspin that started in ST. I think someone has added the total LOB per batter (from a box score), which is not the ACTUAL number. Just a guess. Cleveland outhit us by a decent margin.

QUOTE(Rowand44 @ Apr 4, 2007 -> 05:20 PM) That's pretty awful, but once again, if we allow 10 runs per game then it's not going to matter what the offense does. I didn't see the game (tried to follow via internet), but the thing that sticks out to me was Iguchi's failed bunt attempt. EXECUTION, EXECUTION, EXECUTION....I thought that's what we focused on in ST? It really doesn't matter if our pitching (both starting and bullpen) doesn't improve, though. This is a game the 2005 club locks down. The more "air" we give to Cleveland early on, the more likely they are to be in this thing all season long. They started out "okay" their first two weeks last year and hit a wall. We started off terribly (1-4 I think it was) and righted the ship, but going out to the West Coast next isn't exactly the recipe for a quick recovery from this mini tailspin that started in ST.

6 IP, 10 H, 4 ER, 1 BB, 0 K's 6.00 ERA, 0-1 Small consolation after the frustrating loss today.

QUOTE(ScottyDo @ Apr 3, 2007 -> 02:46 PM) That's only 21 players Sorry, that was in response to RME's quote Obviously Wood, Maddux and Pierre are the "big" subtractions. You add in Soriano, Marquis and Lilly, it pretty much cancels that out, but not a huge difference. The big news with the Cubs is their "down the road" allocations for contracts that are going to be dubious, at best. Another reason for the "net balance" might be taking away Prior from the payroll.

Somehow the White Sox are doomed, but the Cubs and Dodgers hardly fall? Ridiculous! http://cbs.sportsline.com/mlb/story/10106039

http://www.philly.com/philly/sports/philli...ll__please.html Typical Freddy. Good luck!

QUOTE(Flash Tizzle @ Apr 1, 2007 -> 07:07 PM) I don't believe its a guarantee he'll immediate produce, either. However, if the 5th starter (Durbin/Ledezma/Minor) are struggling and Rogers' recovery extends past July, I would take my chances with a 96mph fastball/88-89 mph slider from the left side. He'll be 22 this season. I don't know about Miller. His fastball wasn't as explosive as advertised, and it seemed like he had some control and mechanical issues with his release point. Not saying he will be a bust, but I don't see him going out there like Verlander or Liriano and dominating the AL.

Twins fourth in the division, behind the Tigers, Sox and Indians. Boston, Toronto THEN Yankees. Likes Oakland over Angels, said Seattle might threaten with better pitching.

QUOTE(Jordan4life_2007 @ Apr 1, 2007 -> 03:45 AM) Konerko > Blake Iguchi > Barfield Uribe > Peralta Martinez > AJ (real close) Crede >>> Marte Pods > Dellucci Grady >>> Erstad Thome (healthy) > Hafner C.C > Contreras Garland > Westbrook Buehrle >>> Lee (not even close Vazquez > Byrd Danks/Sowers=To be determined. Garko also factors in at 1B, but Konerko is better obviously. I would take Barfield over Iguchi if I were building a team, but Iguchi for THIS Sox team. Uribe and Peralta is EVEN, at best, for the Sox Pods, no comment until I've seen him play the first 2-3 months Hafner is clearly better than Thome Garland and Westbrook is very even, edge to JG because of age Buehrle and Lee is pretty even, based on last year...over career, MB Sowers has a clear advantage on anyone we throw out there in the 5th spot

QUOTE(Kalapse @ Mar 30, 2007 -> 03:56 PM) + Neshek + Rincon + Guerrier the rest is pure dogs*** or unproven young talent. Reyes came out of nowhere last year (like Jamie Walker), but they also had a plus arm in Crain and Glen Perkins helped late in the season as well. In fact, Guerrier and Willie Eyre were their last men out of the pen. Their 4-6 was much better than ours last year, and the emergence of Neshek really made a difference down the stretch.

QUOTE(spiderman @ Mar 30, 2007 -> 12:16 PM) That's rather ironic considering that Kenny Willliams was telling him in that recent interview that the national guys are getting the White Sox plan, and the locals aren't. I think it's different understanding intellectually/philosphically where an organization or GM is coming from AND still picking them 4th THIS season, and, as everyone has noted, there's such a slight differentiation between the top four teams in the division. Next year or the year after, the moves will make a lot more sense (or not), like the Sox trading Lee for Pods and letting Ordonez and Valentin go, allocating that money to pay 8 other players that helped lead us to a championship. If at least two of those pitchers (Floyd, Gio, Danks, Masset, Rasner) make a lasting impact, then KW will look pretty smart.

http://cbs.sportsline.com/mlb/story/10096564 Ooops, I meant Scott Miller!

QUOTE(Balta1701 @ Mar 30, 2007 -> 11:00 AM) Of course, if we had the lefty with the 0 ERA in the pen instead of the lefty with the 6 ERA... If Logan is closing games this year, we're in serious trouble.

QUOTE(Heads22 @ Mar 29, 2007 -> 08:06 PM) :uhoh BA 3 run HR Uribe had a two run RBI before BA's homer. Now we'll see if the bullpen can actually hold a lead, if Ozzie plays this one out for 'real' or just development. We need a win, big time.

Does anyone know the flagship station for the Barons? What radio station or call letters or dial numbers is it? Is the game on tonight?

QUOTE(Kalapse @ Mar 29, 2007 -> 01:07 PM) That's actually pretty interesting. Iguchi: 1066 | .280/.347/.430/.777 | 16.5 HR per season | 112K per season Eckstein: 2201 AB | .278/.347/.353/.700 | 4 HR per season | 50K per season Eckstein's American League numbers are shockingly similar to Iguchi's until you start getting into power numbers. Yes, Eckstein doesn't strike out much and that is a nice quality to have. In the field I'll take Iguchi without question, Eckstein couldn't make a throw from the hole or a quick toss to first on a double play to save his life. To call Eckstein 'terrible' was a poor choice of words, he's not, he's also a below average player in my opinion, not taking intangibles into consideration. In the end I'm taking Iguchi. And "intangibles" are the difference between a World Series and also-ran status of 90 wins. Many here seem to want to pin it all on Guillen (overusing bullpens and always relying on "matchups", Mackowiak/Anderson, pulling starters or not pulling them enough, using bench too much), but that's just one small slice of the entire story.

QUOTE(3 BeWareTheNewSox 5 @ Mar 29, 2007 -> 12:46 PM) I think the season will depend on Vazquez and those bridge guys in the pen. I pretty much know what I'm going to get from everyone else (well Vazquez too, which is what worries me). Not as pessimistic as 4th, I've seen Sox spring trainings before, that changes nothing for me, but was a little worried in the offseason. Still though, we will compete. The division/leauge has some real good teams, but a lot of people overrate them a LOT. The bullpen blew 5-6 games in April and May alone, mostly due to Politte's ineffectiveness, but Cotts, Nelson and Jenks also. Then Jenks wore down in the 2nd half. We just need to survive the month of April without any major injuries and within 7-10 days of outstanding play within first place (or not being in 4th and having to jump two teams), aka hailing distance. The Twins came from 12 games back, but I don't see us having the two shutdown starters to win almost 90% of their starts like the Twins had in Santana and Liriano from June onward last year.

QUOTE(SoxAce @ Mar 29, 2007 -> 12:43 PM) First of all, your way off, more people were happy that we got Uribe and was excited about his potential. I loved Miles and so did most of the posters but we knew he wasn't our long term solution and was just a AAA player for us basically. And secondly, how in the hell would you know? You weren't even around here at the time. Other than that, I agree with you. It was my recollection from chisox.com at that time. There were a lot of posters who closely followed the minors back then and made regular trips to BIRM as well as North Carolina to see White Sox prospects play.

QUOTE(Balta1701 @ Mar 29, 2007 -> 12:33 PM) They're not terrible ballplayers, but you can only have so many guys like that on a team before you start lacking in production. David Eckstein is exactly what the Caridinals need...a cheap, non-terrible SS who's attitude they like. But if you start thinking that the only thing your team needs is more hustle...and forget that they have a couple guys, one of whom wears #5, that produce a hell of a lot of runs and can cover up for the deficiencies in other spots, then you're going to build a pretty crappy team. The teams that Eckstein are on nearly always are "winning" teams. Sure, Jose Guillen, Kevin Brown or Milton Bradley or Soriano have a lot more talent, but why do they never find a home? You need talent and "winning" players coming together to make a team, Carl Everett is another example. Yeah, he had a lot of talent when he first came up to the bigs with the Marlins and Yankees, but leadership isn't to be discounted either.

QUOTE(fathom @ Mar 29, 2007 -> 12:15 PM) There were people upset with the Uribe/Miles trade? If so....then that's just too many people putting too much stock in minor league numbers. At the time of the trade, I would say it was 75% upset at losing Miles, 25% excited that Uribe could get it turned around with a change of scenery and a coaching staff and clubhouse that might push him to improve his work habits.

QUOTE(Kalapse @ Mar 29, 2007 -> 11:22 AM) 1. 1 out of 4 2. 4 out of 4 3. 1 out of 4 4. Bust, I honestly don't know. So 6 out of 12. This applies to 2 of the decisions, both of which were probably decided since the beginning of the Spring, going against what was said just a week into the Spring. Just like Ozzie did with Podsednik last year right? A Mackowiak/Gload/Ozuna platoon in LF would have been just fine. I would have had no problem seeing Mack or Iguchi leading off against righties and Ozuna leading off against lefties but the completely incompetent Podsednik was left out there to rot in the outfield. I don't have much faith that Ozzie would be able to pull the trigger on such a move this season, his history suggests a much. KW learned his lesson too. (I HOPE) They didn't do enough scouting of Mackowiak's "reality" in CF (yeah, he'd played there before, just not well) to realize how exposed they were by relying completely on BA. When you trade away Young, Webster, Rowand and Reed to help make way for Anderson (Young's another story), then he tanks, you're in trouble that Ruben Rivera can't solve.

QUOTE(fathom @ Mar 29, 2007 -> 12:08 PM) I can only imagine a team with Eckstein and Erstad as the 1-2 hitters. Grinders! Well, maybe we should just bring back Miles and Harris and pair them up. You would have thought JC had been re-crucified when that trade for Uribe went down, with the loyalty some of the minor league fans had to Aaron. That deal seemed to work out okay for the Sox. Long-term, I think they REALLY like Shelby at 2B, possibly Getz, although he profiles more as a utility guy if he ever makes it to the majors (similar to Angel Gonzalez and Pedro Lopez).

QUOTE(The Ginger Kid @ Mar 29, 2007 -> 11:44 AM) Lost in the oh-so-important, make-or-break soxtalk saga of Brian Anderson: Joe Crede has had a great spring. Tad Iguchi finally heated up in the last week or so. Kong and JD had a very nice spring. Uribe looks fit and very ready to go. Ozzie says he's the key. Contreras has consistently said he feels fantastico and looks to be in terrific shape. Podsednik feels his legs are back and his shoulder problems appear to be gone. Thome got a ton of bats again this spring in hopes of avoiding the slow start that plagued most of his career until he got to Chicago and they sought to get him more AB's in ST. Pablo being Pablo. Our infield defense is f***ing great, particularly late in the game when Erstad moves to first. Of course all this pales in importance compared to who's playing CF. There are more positives to be sure. Top to bottom this is a very solid lineup, on par with Detroit's IMO. But they definitely have the advantage on the bump. You would think we LOST 90 games last year, instead of winning 90. I think some of the constant local and regional media blitzkrieg has soaked into Sox fans, the pessimism is back in full force. It's almost like we never won a WS. I'm not going to be surprised if they make the playoffs, I won't be surprised if they're around .500 either. This club could go either way. There are many positives with the line-up of everyday players, but the PITCHING concerns are still paramount in everyones' minds, to the point where each member of the rotation and bullpen has more question marks surrounding them coming into the season than "certainty." QUOTE(nitetrain8601 @ Mar 29, 2007 -> 11:51 AM) I'm sorry, I stopped reading when you said Tad Iguchi is replaceable and Buehrle isn't. Right now, it seems like the exact opposite. We have guys in the minors who could somewhat replace Buehrle. We have no one and there's no one in FA who is going to be as good as Iguchi. Not sure who you're responding to. At any rate, I have never once said Buehrle isn't replaceable. As far as 2B goes, Iguchi, at his age, won't get more than 3 years and $13-16 million. There are a ton of players out there like a Loretta that are comparable. In terms of Free Agents, you have Kent, Marcus Giles, you could move Eckstein from SS to 2B, and you can move Uribe or Cintron or even Ozuna there as well. I really like Iguchi, but he's not a priority for KW to retain if we have to completely rebuild this team. QUOTE(Balta1701 @ Mar 29, 2007 -> 11:53 AM) What exactly is it in this team's recent history that suggests that Erstad and Pods will be gone at any point this season if they don't perform? Politte release Development of Anderson (Lofton was dealt in 2002 for Diaz) Takatsu Ben Davis starting 2005 in AAA, eating that contract Koch trade to Marlins