caulfield12

2005 when Pods scores a run, including playoffs=49-16 2005 when Pods steals a base, including playoffs=32-11 2006 when Pods scores a run=48-17 2006 when Pods steals a base=24-6 97-33 in 2005 and 2006 when scoring at least one run, 56-17 when stealing a base Overall Sox record in 2005 and 2006 when Pods doesn't score=103-102 I went back to 2003 and 2004 with the Brewers, for argument's sake 2004, 42-29 when scoring a run, 25-28 when stealing at least one base Brewers are 25-65 when Pods doesn't score (overall team record 67-94) 2003, 43-26 when scoring a run, 21-17 when stealing at least one base Brewers are 25-68 when Pods doesn't score (overall team record 68-94) There are no easy answers right now. Sweeney has a huge hole inside...he can't turn on the ball pitched there, he simply plops it into LF or has his bat broken into splinters and plops it into LF. That's the one big adjustment he needs to make (noted by Girardi), that inside fastball, pulling his hands in and yet maintaining his swing mechanics and driving the ball. Of the two balls he's driven for hits, one came on a hanger. I can't remember the other ball he roped down the line for a double, it MIGHT have been a fastball. The Yankees exposed this weakness for all of the league, as noted again by Girardi (who I don't want to manage the White Sox, by the way!!!) Sweeney needs to go back down to AAA before Walker does more damage. We're in a place of desperation where the best option might be to play Jerry Owens everyday and pray for the best until Pods comes back. Ozuna hasn't been the same player since he got injured last year, and Mackowiak had a big hit yesterday but he's not an everyday player either. The more you play either of those guys, the more they're exposed. I'm not saying it's a great option or that Owens will ever be a regular, but I think we're close to the time where we have no other option. Terrero is certainly not a major league player, and sticking Fields out there to learn a new position on the fly in the big leagues seems insane (yes, that's what the Royals are essentially doing with Teahen in RF, but those are the Royals).

QUOTE(winninguglyin83 @ May 19, 2007 -> 02:31 PM) Signing pods ranks with trading for Todd Richie and drafting Royce Ring ahead of Joe Blanton as the great moments in KW History. Not even close...Barry/Berry and Masaoka for Baldwin, Adkins for Durham, trading Foulke for Koch, trading for Royce Clayton and displacing Valentin, signing D'Angelo Jimenez, making Willie Harris a starter, trading for R. Alomar when he was simply done, Felix Diaz for Kenny Lofton and many more. By the way, we'd be better off with Matt Cain and arguably Jeff Francoeur right now, they were also drafted after Ring. QUOTE(DBAH0 @ May 20, 2007 -> 06:12 AM) Was it too much to expect out of Pods to stay healthy and produce? Yeah probably. But beck72 came up with an excellent point. Would you rather had signed Dave Roberts on the DL himself with a .216/.283/.317 stat-line or Gary Matthews Jr. for $10M a season instead? KW pretty much had 2 choices this off-season. To trade B-Mac or Garcia for a starting OF to replace Pods, or to get some young pitching. He made his choice, and some of that has paid off if you look at how Danks has produced. I think KW was in a "can't win" situation because if he trades say Garcia for Rowand and Fabio Castro, people say we've not getting a good enough return to improve our young pitching. Pierre was the other main guy under consideration as well...so everyone's arguing they wouldn't have signed any of the three names that keep getting mentioned, but they would have found a "mystery" candidate like Trot Nixon or Preston Wilson instead that would have been a better move. The stats don't completely lie. We're 50+ games over .500 with Pods in the line-up since the beginning of the 2005 season, and now exactly one game under .500 when he's out of the line-up. That should tell you something. I'm sure our winning percentage is even higher when he either scores a run or steals a base.

QUOTE(Dick Allen @ May 19, 2007 -> 09:40 PM) Aardsma has had a few shaky outings and has been great others. Basically just like his short career has gone. KW built the bullpen and impressed a lot of people with the velocity, but who has had sustained success in the major leagues? Aardsma? No. Thornton? No. Sisco? No. MacDougal? No. Logan? No. Masset? No. Jenks? Some, but he was less than dominant the second half last year. Forget the radar readings, chances are this bullpen is going to struggle. Most have had control issues before or they wouldn't have been available in the bargain bin. The White Sox don't want to pay the going rate for guys who have strung together a few quality years of work together, and that's their prerogitive. I don't understand though how you give Vazquez all that money when you had him under your control through 2008, and go cheap on the bullpen. Vazquez will be a question mark every season he is a White Sox. You could have 2 or maybe even 3 quality relievers for the money you will be paying him. If you go the way the Sox have gone, chances are the bullpen is going to fail you more than you think. To answer your question about building a bullpen, spending some money on it is a start. The 6 bullpen guys make a combined $3,675,000 a year. Thats 6 guys making just a tad more than Pods, COMBINED. A lot of people in the know thought Justin Speier would be a White Sox in 2007. The White Sox didn't want to pay the going rate. The Angels got him. The Angels have a good bullpen. And you are right, a lot of things went right for the Sox in 2005. Things we may never see again. There was a lot of luck involved, but that doesn't take anything away from the accomplishment. Every team that has ever won a WS has been very lucky. We're paying the price for having one of the best starting rotations in baseball. Arguably, it's still soaking up too much of our payroll, and that's after jettisoning Freddy Garcia. Let's say we did have Justin Speier...well, we might have 2-3 more wins due to his "holds," but who would be our fifth starter then, Haeger, Floyd or Broadway? We're extremely fortunate to be where we are right now. I guess we can keep going back and wishing we had kept El Duque and Chris Young, but that doesn't do much good right now. Even if we dealt Vazquez today for "proven" relievers (and there's MAYBE 10 of them of them in baseball, the Scot Shields/Linebrinks/Zumayas of the world, one of them might be injured (Zumaya) or having an off season or decline, like Mo Rivera or Trevor Hoffman. It's ironic that two of the better bullpen pitchers in our division recently have been ex-Sox in Grilli and Matt Guerrier. It just shows the fragile nature of the bullpen. Look at the Cubs coming into the series...and they have spent millions on their pen. Denys Reyes? Jamie Walker? Of course, a lot comes down to depth, the Tigers have pitchers to cover up for Fernando Rodney or Zumaya, we didn't last year and don't this year. They also had the luxury of being able to bring up an Andrew Miller. Heck, Chad Durbin's pitching well for them, breaking the "ex-Royals" rule (same as Suppan and Miguel Batista). Minnesota has survived without Balfour and now Crain because they've produced Rincon and Neshek, among others...Perkins as well. KW has had to go out into the market time and time again and "outguess" other organizations...when's the last time we produced a true, bonafide reliever in our organization? Interestingly, Fogg and Ring both came to us as college closers. Rauch and Majewski did well with other teams as relievers, and there's Frank Francisco too. However, the focus for most teams will always be on starting pitching...and since all we have produced is Buehrle and McCarthy/Danks in the last 7 years, we're having to pay for it to acquire it another way. Imagine we had taken Matt Cain or Jeff Francoeur instead of Royce Ring? That one of the following became the pitcher they were once projected to be? Danny Wright Kip Wells Matt Guerrier Jim Parque Lorenzo Barcelo Jon Rauch Jason Stumm Corwin Malone Kris Honel Brian West Matt Ginter Aaron Myette As far as the bullpen goes, look what happened to Jeff Bajenaru, Sean Tracey or Joe Valentine, all prospects on the fringes or in our Top 10 lists... We've produced an injury-plagued and inconsistent Crede and Rowand, Lee and Ordonez, and then you have to go back further to Ray Durham, he became an arguably better player once he left the White Sox. Heck, Ray Durham would be the fastest player on the White Sox right now, at his age. QUOTE(DBAH0 @ May 20, 2007 -> 06:46 AM) My thoughts on each member; Jenks - Not much to worry about with Bobby, which is saying something considering his past couple of Spring Training's. MacDougal - Something tells me he's carrying an injury. 10 BB's in 15 IP's, .283 BAA compared to a .213 mark for the Sox last season. Probably been the major disappointment so far. Put him on the 15 day DL if there is something wrong with him, and call up Dewon Day for a little while. Thornton - You know Thornton's got great stuff, and yes we did win that trade with Seattle. However I think Matt's always gotten away with some things as his numbers show he isn't a "very good" setup man. His BAA is up by .041, but at least recently he's gotten into a groove with 0 ER in his past 4.1 IP pitched. We need him to keep that momentum up. Aardsma - 1 bad game has putten his ERA up by 2. Considering it was against his former team who would know his stuff, I'm not majorly concerned. It'll take a while at least for the AL still to work him out. Should take over for MacDougal as the primary 8th inning guy with Thornton. Sisco - Should not be up in the bullpen. I have said this from the moment we acquired him, he should be sent down to Charlotte and starting. Long - term that's where his future lies. Logan - Shown glimpses, and I'd rather have him up instead of Sisco. I think KW should have done a better job in the off-seeason of getting 1 more veteran lefty reliever. Hideki Okajima would have been perfect, look how good he has been and we've had success with Japanese players here before. That's something I think would have improved the pen just a little bit more. Just because he's striking out AA hitters doesn't mean he (Day) would be successful in the big leagues, where hitters are much more disciplined and force you to throw strikes. He has given up 12 walks in only 23 innings, and he's also giving up more hits than IP' (25 in 23)...if they thought Day or Oneli Perez were the answer, they'd be with the big league club right now.

QUOTE(South Side Fireworks Man @ May 19, 2007 -> 07:09 PM) You are absolutely correct. The Sox need to add a couple of key pieces in the next month or two, not subtract. Since the Sox don't have anything in their minor league system to help, they must overpay financially to fill holes. This is why they should be looking to pick up a couple of high priced guys by taking on some contracts while giving up little in talent in return. The Sox have been playing like crap and they're still over .500 and well within reach of first place with a lot of time to go. If they would only start playing up to their career norms, they would be right up there near the top. Adding a couple of key pieces can put them over the top. A fire sale would only guarantee the end of the current WS window and would guarantee nothing for the next few years. The Sox have to keep attendance up this year so they have the resources to replace the guys everyone is saying need to be replaced for next year. There is no one in the farm system that will help, so they need to pay for top tier talent. They have to operate like a big market team. Last year was the time to go out and do that, and KW flinched. He's flinching again by not re-signing or extending Dye, Buehrle, Crede and Iguchi, among others. The fact is, we can't add $10-20 million onto this payroll without dire consequences for the future...let's say the Sox still finish around .500 and attendance tumbles and JR decides we can't keep Konerko, Thome, some of our starting pitchers and the one or two new vets (like an Abreu) that have been added to the payroll. We'll be forced to sell those assets off and potentially give away what pitching prospects we have just to get our contracts cleared and off the books. The White Sox have NEVER operated this way. Our mentality is, well, we're paying Pods $2.9 million and he MIGHT come back and we have Sweeney/Mack/Ozuna, so why make a move? We have Erstad and we're only paying him $1.25 million, so why grab someone making $10-15 million? We have Dye, and he's only making $7 million and putting up MVP numbers.... You can already see the window of opportunity to take the city back for the White Sox...not just because we've lost 2 in a row to the Cubs, but because we didn't do anything in the 2nd half last season and we "stood pat" in terms of improving the ballclub significantly for 2007. Now KW is stuck...make some desperate moves and his job is gone and it's 5 years before the Sox are back in the playoffs again (not to mention Minnesota will be able to increase revenues with their new stadium). Do a fire sale and you can get back in 2-3 years, but risk alienating your fan base, like we've now done twice (a mini-version in 2002). The Indians started deconstructing in 2002/03 and they have the luxury of one of the best all-time trades, Sizemore/Lee/Phillips for Colon. We don't have a similar asset to Colon in his prime to trade off, unfortunately.

QUOTE(maggsmaggs @ May 19, 2007 -> 04:32 PM) Its sad that even if we win today, we have absolutely zero chance tomorrow because Ozzie is a moron. Seriously, Gio>>>Masset. Gio is a lefty and has better stuff, Masset will be rocked and Oz will look like a moron. Personally, I would have started Danks or Count on short rest, but Gio is the best option in the minors. Unless he pulls an Arnie Munoz and we have to use our bullpen for 8 innings. Floyd and Egbert are the pitchers who would come into Sunday with that as the natural spot for them pitch in rest-wise.

QUOTE(kyyle23 @ May 19, 2007 -> 04:30 PM) Rally. Crede. The bullpens will decide this game...and we have Thornton and Jenks for today, HOPEFULLY.

QUOTE(Chopper2Hopper @ May 19, 2007 -> 04:29 PM) Have you ever seen a team pop up so much? Of course you haven't! Man, Crede sucks! GREEN IMPLIED.

QUOTE(diegotony06 @ May 19, 2007 -> 04:26 PM) KW gives this f***ing gas can 11 million a year. What the f*** is that, the guy is a f***ing headcase!! What a waste!! f*** this team!!! If you're taking it that seriously, maybe you should get away from the tv or computer for awhile. This is not unexpected.

QUOTE(fathom @ May 19, 2007 -> 03:27 PM) Nice to know I wasn't the only one who thought that. The Cubs pitcher would probably be our 4th best hitter right now. Buehrle's at-bat yesterday was one of the best of the day for the Sox.

QUOTE(South Side Fireworks Man @ May 19, 2007 -> 12:35 PM) KW has a good track record as Sox GM. And if they lose a couple of free agents, they can also sign a couple of free agents. I just hope the Sox can win today, because if this team ever loses two in a row again, some people here will be ready to throw in the towel again and clamor for a fire sale. But he's built from the "base" of an average or mediocre team...never having to start from scratch. He's in a precarious situation with players like Uribe and Iguchi, because we have no natural replacements for those players. This might be the time to get a shortstop on the trade or FA market, the best thing right now is with the Yankees/Jeter and Mets/Reyes, the only major player in the market to drive up prices artificially is the Red Sox. Someone mentioned our drafting history earlier. Royce Ring was an ultra "safe" pick, as a college closer we looked to move into set-up (this was before Marte was firmly established)...the biggest risks we have taken were Stumm, Honel, Borchard and Anderson. Drafting high school pitchers is always a crapshoot. If you look at the Moneyball draft year, I think there were six high school pitchers from the first couple of rounds that have already made large impacts on MLB (Loewen, Greinke, Kazmir, Hamels). Matt Cain and Jeff Francoeur were two players we definitely could have used, INSTEAD of Royce Ring. You could make the argument that we would be a definite favorite for the playoffs with either of those players (Cain/Francoeur) on our current roster. However, from #18-30 in that first round, only Cain, Francoeur and Jeremy Guthrie (Indians) are on major league rosters.

QUOTE(BobDylan @ May 19, 2007 -> 03:16 AM) Heads already hit it, but YOU'RE an idiot. Anyway, it is tough for any manager to mange over 4 errors. That was bound to happen, wasn't it? Fact is this is probably Guillen's last year any way you look at it unless the White Sox make a run deep into the playoffs...which doesn't seem likely. It's a bit of a different feel, but this team is just like the teams of '01-'04--in the mix, but not quite there. This may seem odd, but I'm looking forward to rebuilding and seeing some fresh faces. I'm excited to see if KW can bring this team back to the top. And you would trust KW to rebuild this team? Why? And what new manager would you want to bring in? Bobby Valentine? Buck Showalter? Cito Gaston? The same old recycled guys? Let's say they lose Buehrle and Dye as Free Agents...do you really trust KW to rebuild, when we've had so many blown first round draft picks and busts in our farm system? It's not just Ozzie Guillen, it's a systemic/endemic/organizational problem....front office, major league coaching staff, scouting, advanced scouting, minor league instruction. You could fire Ozzie right now and we would still be a .500 team. Joe McCarthy or Connie Mack wouldn't get this team, as presently constituted, to 90 wins. We're incredibly fortunate to be over .500 at this point. You can give all the credit to the players for the wins and blame to Guillen for losses, but a team that scores less than it gives up is hardly ever in the playoffs. Not even Merlin the Magician can pull that one off, in cartoon movies.

QUOTE(fathom @ May 18, 2007 -> 04:39 PM) Cotts and Politte had amazing seasons in 2005. Riske isn't a terrible reliever....he was just used in spots that he doesn't excel in. Interestingly enough, he's done a pretty decent job for the Royals recently as their closer.

QUOTE(fathom @ May 18, 2007 -> 04:37 PM) or be brought in for defensive reasons late in the game. AJP should have definitely been in the game after the top of the 7th. If they X-rayed him for a broken bone, I doubt they would be allowed to use him the same day. I guess we'll find out more. I'm sure he's okay, but Crede playing for Ozuna late wouldn't have changed the 4-3 score. And he might not have been able to hit either.

QUOTE(Soxfest @ May 18, 2007 -> 04:34 PM) OG has never been a good manger of the pen........................EVER! Ummm...apparently you missed 2004 and 2005. If you had the choice of: 1) Riske 2) Nelson 3) Cotts 4) Politte 5) Tracey 6) Montero Who would you have used of that bundle of mediocrity that would have pitched amazingly better for you?

QUOTE(BearSox @ May 18, 2007 -> 04:31 PM) How soon until the Fields project? We need a thirdbaseman who can hit and field. Right now, we have one that can't do either in Ozuna, and one who can only field in Crede. Something has to be done. The problem is that Fields is an "average" fielder at best (for now), and will strike out at least 33% of the time. If you bench Crede, you devalue anything he will bring in return. It's fine to bring Fields up in September, or try him as the DH, but Thome is about to come back.

QUOTE(fathom @ May 18, 2007 -> 04:28 PM) One of the reason our bullpen has blown so many games is that we never, ever, expand the lead in the 6th or 7th inning if we're leading early in the game. It's just a pathetic all-around offense right now. Our offense is playing a 6 inning game, and our pitching has to get 27 outs. But the weird thing is that, at one point, 8 of our 9 wins on the road were "comeback" wins, which flies in the face of that...overall, this team has been terribly inconsistent and looks like the offense isn't good enough to go on a prolonged winning streak, and the starting rotation will prevent a long losing streak. It was, what, our fourth or fifth chance to climb to 4 games over .500 this year? I hope that's not the high water mark for this season.

QUOTE(WhiteSoxfan1986 @ May 18, 2007 -> 04:26 PM) What exactly happened to Crede today? I find it hard to believe he couldn't have played. Pablo was a real suckfest out there. Hit in the face with a ball during pre-game...

QUOTE(BearSox @ May 18, 2007 -> 04:25 PM) Did you see the lineup the Mets had out there yesterday? http://chicago.cubs.mlb.com/news/wrap.jsp?...p&team=away Yeah, but Delgado and Wright had two of those hits, and those guys aren't chopped liver like our current bench...or maybe Swiss Cheese.

QUOTE(Heads22 @ May 18, 2007 -> 04:22 PM) Well, s***, we're going to lose upwards of 70 games this year. This loss has no effect on anyone else on the AL, giving them a better record. These games are of the least consequence. I'd really like to see us sport a real LF though. Terrero and Sweeney aren't doing it for me. It'd be super if Brian could figure it out and become a member of our OF again. I still think Ryan needs another year in AAA. You want Anderson and Erstad to start in LF and CF? We will average 3.5 runs per game for the rest of the season with that line-up.

QUOTE(WHarris1 @ May 18, 2007 -> 04:20 PM) The thing with Ozzie is this... Fine MacDougal blows the f***ing game, you're down 1...ok. BUT HOW DO YOU SEND HIM BACK OUT IN THE 8TH? What if we need Aardsma tomorrow...when we're ahead? If you now consider Aardsma and Thornton the two primary set-up men for the games we're winning, then I suppose it makes some sense. What are the odds of our offense scoring a run against a guy who has converted 89% of his save opportunities, yesterday notwithstanding? The Mets have one of the best offenses in baseball, we are the worst, pretty much.

QUOTE(BearSox @ May 18, 2007 -> 04:14 PM) We are lucky the game was as close as it actually was. The Cubs left 18, count them, 18 runner on base. The Sox only left 8, but thats because they suck ass and not only cant drive runs in, but even get on base. No, you're reading the box score wrong, if you're adding them up for each batter...I'm sure it was quite a few less than that, especially the first 6 innings. Sucks Buehrle had to suffer for MacDougal's incompetence though. QUOTE(Greg The Bull Luzinski @ May 18, 2007 -> 04:15 PM) So bring him in next inning with the bases empty to build his fragile confidence. IMO, the conifdence issue is bulls***. If you are in the big leagues and don't think you belong, go home. Tell that to Garland when he was micromanaged by Manuel. Whether anyone wants to admit it or not, Ozzie has done wonders for the starting pitchers since he has been here.

QUOTE(Hideaway Lights @ May 18, 2007 -> 04:12 PM) Right, but we will ADDRESS his roster spot at some point this season, via waiver or via trade you can make damn sure of that the real problem here is that Kenny is in between, and it's what I was saying all offseason. This team is about good enough to win 84-87 games, which means we have to stand pat with major pieces all year because we are never more than 4-5-6 games out, but never much closer. He acquired just enough pieces to "contend" but not enough to compete with the two or three other juggernauts in this division. Still, we're in better shape than I thought we'd be right now given the circumstances. Which is why I've been arguing all along we need to blow it up and rebuild sooner rather than later....before it becomes a 3-5 year project, like the Kansas City Chiefs. Despite KW constantly mentioning it, we got old one year too fast...Dye, Iguchi, Pods and Thome. And then Konerko and Crede struggling as bad as anyone, nobody expected BOTH those guys to fall off a cliff simultaneously.

QUOTE(Greg The Bull Luzinski @ May 18, 2007 -> 04:10 PM) Manegerial talent was the problem to day - Why bring in McDoofus to throw batting practice to the Cubs when h has been awful almost all year. I would have rather seen CLiff Politte back. It is basically the same thing. The same reason Dempster was in after blowing a 4 run lead yesterday, or that Ozzie kept showing faith in Vazquez to try to get him over the 5th and 6th inning "hump." A player who knows the manager has no confidence in him is dead to the team (see Anderson, Brian).

QUOTE(Hideaway Lights @ May 18, 2007 -> 04:09 PM) "nerve racking", in my humble opinion, is an 8-19 start to the 2001 season coming off of a division title, watching big frank go down with a possible career-ending triceps injury, and watching the biggest offseason acquisition David Wells go nuclear, then go injured all in six weeks this is the friggin' kiddie pool compared to that s***, people Try 14-29 too...they did make it back to .500 around July and hovered near there for much of the remainder of the season.

QUOTE(Hideaway Lights @ May 18, 2007 -> 04:06 PM) we still don't have Jim Thome or Scott Podsednik, and we just got back a backup catcher capable of hitting at the major league level a little patience beyond one game would be completely refreshing I doubt we will ever have the "real" Podsednik for the remainder of his Sox career...it's not unlike Cubs' fans hoping for the return of Prior and Wood.