caulfield12

QUOTE(SoxAce @ May 4, 2007 -> 08:07 PM) Blue Jays' 6-9 hitters are hitting a combined .279 on the season (including the feisty Royce Clayton). I wish we could have one batter hitting .279. Meanwhile, the streaking Indians are primed to go up 5.5 games over the White Sox, as they're taking a 2-1 lead in to the top of the 8th inning in Baltimore.

QUOTE(BigSqwert @ Apr 30, 2007 -> 01:00 PM) He'd probably no-hit us right now. Pitching much better tonight so far. Unscored upon over 2.3 IP, only one hit given up. Ooops, just gave up a solo homer to Sal Fasano. Walked the bases loaded in the fourth but got out of it. Up 5-1 going into the fifth inning with the chance to get his 2nd win.

QUOTE(santo=dorf @ May 4, 2007 -> 06:43 PM) The Sox didn't "stay put," they made some bad moves. They pretty much stayed "status quo" with the core of their team. Yeah, they signed Hall and dealt Garcia and McCarthy, but that only displaced one member of the starting rotation. They kept Pods one year too long and went with the cheapest possible solution in CF in Erstad, although that's actually worked out fairly well so far. It was pretty difficult to argue they'd clearly improved the team this year coming out of spring training, and the results speak for themselves. We knew the bullpen had the potential to be better, but Jenks is a pretty large concern (literally and figuratively), Thornton's a mystery and Sisco's still walking way too many.

QUOTE(Kalapse @ May 4, 2007 -> 03:42 PM) The ones I crossed out will not be a few of the prime reasons KW makes Buehrle an offer this offseason, the others mean nothing to him and rightly so. You don't give a player big money for what he's done in the past, you do it for what you believe he'll do in the future, Frank Thomas was also a critical part of the franchise for his entire career but was let go because KW believed he could find players that could outproduce Frank for what he projected him to do. You don't toss money at a player because he's home grown. #4 is a crock of s***. #7 I don't necessarily believe, there will be some damn good pitchers on the market over the next 2 years, if the Sox are willing to spend equal or a bit more cash than Buehrle will be getting this offseason you can probably acquire a damn talented starter such as Peavy. But the main reason I don't count #7 is because this doesn't seem to be KW's philosophy, he's not going to trade/sign big time/money pitchers and the loss of Buehrle is not going to change this. Thomas was coming off of three or four injury-plagued seasons and was in his mid 30's. KW never got along with Big Frank, that's no secret to anyone...you had the sense that he wanted Thomas out of the way and he was going to get rid of him no matter what. Yeah, we ditched Fisk, McDowell, Ventura, Thomas, Durham, Ordonez and Lee. I just get the sense that Mark and Konerko are the two players he respects the most, and he's not going to just let him walk without making a legit offer. I do think fans relate more to blue collar, "lunch pail" types like Crede, Rowand, Konerko and Buehrle. How do you explain the tremendous attachment to Aaron Rowand, a mediocre outfielder who many organizations viewed as an ideal fourth OFer...you would think the guy was the Dalai Lama for as much veneration as he receives. Just like the "average" fans identify more with Steve Nash (hey, I'm white and 6'0") or Buehrle (I'm a little pudgy and can throw the ball 85!)...they don't identify with players like Shaquille O'Neal or Yao Ming. They appreciate them, admire them, but rarely "love" them. Despite Michael Jordan's height, people most admired his competitiveness, his drive, his commitment to defense and his work ethic. To me, that's what Buehrle represents, someone who made it against all odds when the organization was planning for Kip Wells, Danny Wright, Jon Garland, Rauch and Barcelo to be the future. Buehrle just went out there and got results, unlike McCarthy. No talking, no complaining...he's just a solid, #2 big league starter. It's going to cost more to get someone from outside of the organization than it is going to cost the franchise to keep Mark.

QUOTE(joeynach @ May 4, 2007 -> 02:37 PM) First of all those names I mentioned aren't my suggestions for who we should get next year, thats unrealistic, they are their for comparison purposes only. As if Buehrle is your big $$ pitcher and our anchor I would rather have any of the other guys listed above. In our ballpark our big pitcher needs to be a non-contact hitter, our ballpark is tiny and our corner outfielders are slow or not good. You dont think Jake Peavy would be great in a sox uniform. My point is all about the value of MB, you make him sound like if he is resigned we are just blindly going to be OK for the next 3 years. Hell no, espeically if its gonna cost 15 Mil per year for that. Im telling you I like Mark, I really do, but he is worth the same contract Vazquez got, Contreras got, Garland got, and not much more. Im not saying we should swap him for somebody else im just saying in terms of his value and contract what would be beneficial to our team vs detrimental to our team. I have never been in love with Mark's style of being that finese pitcher who needs to be perfect and needs to be getting a good strike zone from the ump. Thats the problem and I think KW noticed it too. He went out and made a whole new bullpen on the premise that we need to make more pitches that are just flat out unhittable, more pitches that result in less contact, more pitches that dont rely on getting favorable nips on the corners of the strike zone. And im sorry but MB is the opposite of that. He even said it himself he needs to be getting the calls in and around the corners to be effective or hes going to get hammered. So you wanna give this guy big $$ so that if 10 factors dont go right any given day he could get shelled. No thank you. Thats why I preach on getting more guys like KW did for our bullpen. More guys who you cant hit (or more difficult to hit) regardless of the size of the strike zone, favorable calls, questec, blah blah. Guys whose stuff is outstanding thats where we should spend our 4 Years 60 Mil at for a pitcher. Im not saying who it should be I dont have the answer, but im saying MB doesn't fit that profile for that type of deal. And BTW that Zito contract was the worst contract in the history of baseball. Buehrle is the heart and soul of this franchise, along with Konerko. You can't put a dollar value on that...which is why replacing him with XXX player doesn't make a whole lot of sense, because starting pitching is so fragile. Everyone was betting against Gil Meche going from a 4-5 starter to the "ace" of the Royals, and he's been exactly that pitcher they projected (around a 2 ERA) but they're still well off the pace. Why did the Royals make that move? To show they were again a legitimate, viable "breathing" franchise. Well, the White Sox need to prove to their fans that they're going to be a "player" in the future of the AL Central or if we're going back to Maybe These Kids Can Play, Version 4. Signing Buehrle makes sense because... 1) He's been a critical part of our franchise his entire career 2) We're not going to end up keeping Crede, the other "born and bred" Sox player 3) He's very durable, and still in his prime, as opposed to Vazquez and Contreras 4) He's representative of the "blue collar" work ethic Sox fans most identify with 5) He doesn't have a violent motion or pitch that creates maximum torque like the Liriano slider or Felix Hernandez slurve 6) He's lefthanded and would be a great tutor/mentor for Danks and Gio 7) Any pitcher you can name that we would trade for (Peavy, Oswalt, etc.) would cost us way too much 8) All indications are he would like to come back if the White Sox make a "fair" offer near market value

QUOTE(Dick Allen @ May 4, 2007 -> 12:07 PM) I base it on their track record. They all have a history of being able to hit a baseball. You look at it, and it would seem they won't be able to get much offense going this weekend with some good pitchers going up against them. I'm thinking they may shock the world and actually start hitting them. If not this weekend though, it will be very soon. It had better be when they play the Twins at the Hubert H. House of Horrors next week, or the pressure on KW, Ozzie and Walker will really start to mount.

QUOTE(Balta1701 @ May 4, 2007 -> 11:52 AM) Actually, I think in terms of having pitchers "Now", that's the one spot where we're going to be in pretty good shape for the near future. We have at least 7 bullpen arms right now including 3 lefties, so even if some of the guys struggle or get hurt, we have depth there, and there's some possible guys working their way up through the system to follow this backlog. In the starting rotation, even if Mark leaves, we're 4 deep next season including Danks and Garland, so we even have a lefty in there. And we have a boatload of depth at the AA and up level that will compete for a 5th spot next year if one does open up...Floyd, Haeger, Phillips, Gio, Russel. Some of those guys are struggling in the minors to start this season, and some will probably have to be moved so that we don't lose them, but in terms of pitching, we're deep even if we decide to trade Garland and lose Buehrle. It's the position players right now where we need some depth. Right now, it seems like almost all of our position prospects are hitting a wall simultaneously. This is the potential disaster. We don't have nearly enough money to bring in a FA or resign a guy to play LF, CF, RF, 3rd base, 2nd base, SS, C, and DH before the start of the 09 season. Think about that...as far as I can tell, the only position player we have locked up beyond the end of 08 is Konerko. We need to get contributions from quite a few of Fields, Anderson, Sweeney, Owens, and maybe Cunningham, and we need them ASAP. And if we deal someone, we need to find pieces to fill in some of those holes. Otherwise, the only way we stay competitive is if we spend Yankee dollars to hold our lineup together as they age. We're not going to be spending Yankee dollars, but we had question marks surrounding seven of our nine positions coming into this season... LF...Can Pods return to health? NO. CF...Can Erstad be a regular player again or will BA take the job? Mixed results RF...Will Dye be back? Probably not, either for 2008 or to the level of his past 18 months of play. 3B....Crede (see Dye), will he be back, will his back be back? Not so far. SS...Uribe, will the real Juan Uribe please stand up? Unfortunately, he has...he's a complementary player, nothing more. 2B...Iguchi, will he be back in 2008? 1B...Konerko, can he repeat and sustain his level of performance without hitting another 2003 slump? DH...Thome, can he stay healthy? C...AJ, will he continue to be a dangerous doubles hitter or a so-so average "power hitter"? Will his defense continue to wane? When you look at the collective whole, Erstad's rebound is about the only positive so far, and the guy's hitting .258. Uribe is back to being Uribe. Iguchi is solid, but he's not the type of player you can build around at this point in his career either.

QUOTE(Flash Tizzle @ May 4, 2007 -> 11:48 AM) What's wrong with talking about the possibility of a firesale? No different then discussing what moves may occur midseason if we're in contention. I'm giving them a month to rebound before I begin tuning up the firesale bandwagon. June 11th is my self imposed date for determing this. If we're seven or more games out of playoff contention, a tough decision has to be made. Cunningham may be your young leadoff hitting prospect. We might be 7 out after THIS weekend. Cleveland has the look of a team about to go off on an extended run, Barfield is picking it up and they just got Lee back too. Despite Wedge not being a very good manager, we're going to be in the chase position all season long, something the White Sox have never done, as 2000 and 2005 were pretty much runaways that each stalled near the end of those seasons.

QUOTE(whitesoxfan101 @ May 4, 2007 -> 11:40 AM) This team actually has very good pitching, the problem is Kenny's offensive philosophy going into this year: 1. Expected to catch lightning in a bottle with Pods, who is both bad and fragile. 2. Expected to catch lightning in a bottle with Erstad, who is both bad and fragile (that's worked out ok though). 3. Was, like many, under the false premise that last year was a breakout year at the plate for Crede, when it was actually just a career year. 4. Took the caculated risk that Thome would stay healthy again, which could work out still if he does after this DL stint is over, but who knows. 5. Relied on the contract year status to mean Dye would have a year again like 2006, when in reality that was another case of a career year, in this case from an aging player. There are your problems. Our pitching is fine, but our offense is wrong in almost every way possible. The lightning in a bottle approach worked in 2005, but there wasn't any pressure on that team like there had/has been in 2006 and 2007. The biggest example of things breaking the right way was going from Takatsu to Hermanson to a AA castoff and not missing a beat. How many times has the WS winner gone through 3 closers in one season? And Politte and Cotts were incredible that year, something they proved not to be repeatable. But gambling on Pods, Erstad, Thome's health, Crede's back, Dye's age and leg problems/slowing down, Contreras...there just wasn't much certainty going into this season. The odds were against KW being able to pull it off twice. Erstad has been a decent surprise, Danks has been better than anyone could have imagined, the bullpen has been awesome with the exception of the two returning pitchers (Jenks and Thornton) we expected the most out of. Of course, it also comes down to the failure of Borchard and not producing an impact bat in the line-up over a five year period now since Crede and Rowand.

QUOTE(infohawk @ May 4, 2007 -> 11:33 AM) It's hard to believe that a piece like this can be offered up as legitimate analysis. It's almost as if he scribbled it down on a yellow legal pad while sitting on the can. His first major mistake is the oft-repeated myth that the Sox won in 2005 by playing "small-ball." Their offense was very dependent on home runs. Sure they benefited from Podsednik's ability to get on and steal some bases, but their offense has really been predicated on the home run since 2000. The big difference is that in 2005 they either led the league in pitching or were darn close to leading the league in pitching. My gosh, they are one game under .500 after one month and people are talking about firesales. I'm willing to give them another six weeks or so before I jump on the firesale bandwagon. Sheesh!!! I do agree that any trades the Sox make should bring in a young leadoff hitter prospect. I like Pods, but he seems to have some pretty chronic issues with pulling groin and abdominal muscles. It's going to have to be a AA/AAA leadoff prospect that we "project" can get the job done starting in 2008. That's always dangerous. I think they will do a behind the scenes "full court press" on Buehrle to sign an extension, and trade him in July to the highest bidder if a deal isn't worked out. They can't wait for compensation picks, because we need pitchers now, not someone who will develop in 3-4 years down the line...and then, it's a crapshoot. I suggest we should also be scouring the Japanese leagues for such a hitter, as this philosphy doesn't jive with spending huge dollars on Ichiro next season, unless KW and the organization get really desperate about trying to retain their season ticket base. The problem is they can sign Ichiro for huge money and start losing attendance (to a further extent), then end up having to sell Ichiro off to the highest bidder. It's essentially the position we were in with Albert Belle...luckily, the Orioles and his contract allowed him to go to Baltimore. After that, you look to trade Contreras, Dye and Crede...and do your best to keep Buehrle, Garland (if reasonable, which I have my doubts about) and Vazquez could go either way due to his age.

http://www.suntimes.com/sports/couch/37087...-greg04.article

QUOTE(Dick Allen @ May 4, 2007 -> 10:52 AM) Well the team has sputtered for quite a while now. Is it time to fire the GM and manager? Tailgunner Joe Cowley argues for keeping Walker...some good points. http://www.suntimes.com/sports/baseball/wh...T-joe04.article

QUOTE(Friend of Nordhagen @ May 3, 2007 -> 09:40 PM) In the outfield, 'Ol Emil makes Pods look like Willie Mays. But we need offense more than defense at this point...no matter how you break it down, it's a crapshoot for sure. We could also get Reggie Sanders instead, but he's probably going on the DL for a slightly strained hamstring. Moore and KW have already done two quick deals, I wouldn't be surprised by another. The Royals want to clear space for Billy Butler and Costa. They also have Gathright and Berroa I'm sure they would like to deal if they could find any takers.

QUOTE(Heads22 @ May 3, 2007 -> 05:33 PM) If KW could pull off that coup, I'd personally fellate him. Ethier is a stud in the making. The best we could probably do right now is Emil Brown.

QUOTE(Kalapse @ May 3, 2007 -> 11:38 AM) The Brewers also have a big time prospect in Ryan Braun waiting in the wings in AAA (he's been lighting it up down there and should get the call sometime soon), I highly doubt they'd have much interest in Crede anyway. And getting rid of Hall and replacing him with a AAA player doesn't really solve any problem...it's like putting one finger in the dike and another hole erupting somewhere else. The Brewers finally have a real chance to compete this year...

QUOTE(Dick Allen @ May 3, 2007 -> 11:27 AM) The White Sox have been a below .500 team now for over 100 games. Maybe they just aren't that good. Therein lies the question KW has to be asking himself... Of course, the Cardinals probably had a similar stretch last year where they were under .500. However, they didn't have three teams capable of going deep into the playoffs stacked up in front of them.

QUOTE(Jenks Heat @ May 3, 2007 -> 11:23 AM) Joe Crede was hot for the playoffs and he has a very nice glove. If you could get ML ready talent for him, move him in a second. He gives up way to many at bats. His approach at the plate is comparable to many other players in this line-up. Same thing with Dye. I beleive there are other teams that could use these guys that could have excess in other areas. If Bill Hall shows he can play center could you move Crede for him. I am not certain of the numbers on Hall and am only using an example of the type of moves that need to be looked at. We need a totally different type of player. Hall strikes out too much, he's not a "young" player anymore and we would be weakening what I would have to consider to be another strength, our infield defense. This would end up weakening our pitching staff as well, as Buerhle and Garland tend to give up a lot of groundballs.

QUOTE(klaus kinski @ May 3, 2007 -> 11:07 AM) Money over a need, AGAIN The irony is that getting singles and doubles hitter is a much cheaper undertaking than the FA acquisition of power hitters and big RBI guys. Soriano for McCarthy would have been a steal, looking back on it. The wisest thing probably would have been to then flip Soriano to another club for 2-3 younger pieces that we really need....with the model for this type of trade being Colon for Sizemore, Cliff Lee and Brandon Phillips. We could have acquired a young outfielder, SS or 2B to take over those positions in 2008 after being "bench" or role players in 2007 on an experienced team. QUOTE(klaus kinski @ May 3, 2007 -> 11:07 AM) Money over a need, AGAIN I would consider getting faster and more athletic throughout our line-up one of the single biggest needs this franchise has at the current time.

QUOTE(Balta1701 @ May 3, 2007 -> 11:02 AM) $$. Assuming we'd have been able to sign Soriano for something reasonable, it'd still have been about $15 mil or so a year, even before the Cubs blew open the market. Yes, and at mid-season, the market wasn't totally out of whack. Soriano would have agreed to a more reasonable contract if it would get him to a contending team, and for fewer years, if he knew that the White Sox really wanted him and would keep him for AT LEAST 2-3 seasons (they could have given him a partial no-trade clause too to compensate for the dollars).

QUOTE(Steve9347 @ May 3, 2007 -> 10:53 AM) What the hell are you talking about? We would have still missed the playoffs last year, bc the last thing we needed was another guy swinging for the fences, and then he would have walked... to the cubs no less. The theory you propose is one that has this current team without the services of John Danks and Nick Massett on top of our pathetic crop... and they've been two bright spots. That would have been cataclysmicly bad. PS. Ichiro should be a Chicago White Sox when FA comes around... i think he's what this team needs, lol. Soriano would be playing LF now, we could have used the $2.9 million from Pods' salary to sign Ponson or Ortiz for one year...and we would still have Floyd and Gio in the minors as insurance. How is Soriano and Ortiz not better than Mackowiak/Ozuna/Sweeney and Danks? KW wouldn't have dealt for Soriano unless he could have secured his services long-term, like he did with Garcia in 2004. With Garcia's salary out of the way, we would have been able to afford Soriano, and we wouldn't have been stupid enough to give him more than a 3 year deal, MAYBE 4. LOL. QUOTE(Balta1701 @ May 3, 2007 -> 10:55 AM) Overall numbers: AVG OBP SLG OPS 2006, April: .329 .430 .616 1.046. 14 strikeouts. 12 walks. 2007, April: .221 .315 .442 .757 20 strikeouts. 9 walks. Yes, but he's producing and he's been much hotter recently. Teams know what Dye is capable of doing...and they're going to look at overall trends, especially the last couple of weeks. He has a track record over the last year and a half that's almost unmatched by any player. Even if he "regressed" to his career means or average, he's worth more than $7 million dollars for an entire season. In today's market, that's Mark DeRosa (pretty much a utility player) money. Dye is a huge bargain any way you look at it. It's like saying a club would pay Scott Podsednik $8 million based on his first month of performance (before the injury).

QUOTE(BigSqwert @ May 3, 2007 -> 09:22 AM) This team looks dead to me. I thought we'd never see an Ozzie coached team play like this. He's the great motivator who keeps everyone loose....or at least I've been told that numerous times over the past few years. A week or so ago, when we went on that 6 of 7 run that started with Buehrle's no-hitter, we looked like a totally different team. You would have thought we would be able to sustain it, to some extent. Of course, winning is the best "fix" for any team...as Ozzie said, these are the times when the coaches earn their money and they have to collectively figure a way out of this malaise. At least in 2005 down the stretch, you'd seen that they have the ability to play much better baseball. This time, we've been on a 45-54 stretch (essentially 100 games played) and we're just looking mediocre.

QUOTE(BigSqwert @ May 3, 2007 -> 10:01 AM) That sounds about right. How would Dye have dropped in value by 50%? He has six home runs, and a very reasonable contract...the value of Dye is based on a team needing a RF or DH. What other players are available that would be considered better than Dye? Although I do wish we'd traded McCarthy for Soriano last July, that would give this team an entirely needed injection of speed and excitement. Even though Buerhle is not the best pitcher in baseball, he will get at least $15 million next year in the FA market because he is the best available pitcher, just like Zito and Schmidt were this past offseason.

QUOTE(Jenks Heat @ May 2, 2007 -> 08:19 PM) It is going to get worse before it gets better. We may not score a run, a single run this weekend. I do not expect much but I believe they will come out of this and be fine. The pitching is fine. We are missing our 1 and 3 hitters. I do agree with the other thread thought to sign Buerhle and trade Crede or Dye. I think the lack of running ability (not speed) is killing this team and Konerko, AJ and Thome are to viable. We can get good ML return with a Gio and Crede/Dye move or something like that. Another approach would be to trade Dye and Gio for Rich Harden. That would be a franchise-defining move which could backfire horribly or give us the best rotation in baseball and insurance for Contreras and buy a little more time for Danks in AAA...as well as insurance for the possible loss of Buehrle.

QUOTE(witesoxfan @ May 2, 2007 -> 07:44 PM) You know, I hate to be a complete buzzkill, homer, Hawk-lover right here, but the Twins were 11-18 on May 5th of last year. They won 96 games. I'm not comparing the Twins and Sox, but one of the changes that the Twins made during last year was a change in hitting coaches early on, and they also got rid of their mediocre talent and replaced it with younger talent. In other words, get rid of Walker to light a fire, get Fields up to play LF, get Sweeney in to play RF, and get Dye into the DH spot until Thome comes back. When Thome does come back, demote one of Fields and Sweeney who is doing the worst. It's a long shot to work, but that will atleast bring some talent into the lineup rather than trotting Mackowiak, Terrero, and Ozuna out there every game. There are some key differences... 1) We don't have two nearly automatic wins in our rotation with the potency of Santana and Liriano 2) There are three teams for the White Sox to contend with, not two 3) Our bullpen already has more blown saves leading to losses (3) than the Twins had all last year 4) Fields hasn't played LF for more than two weeks 5) There's no obvious "villain" like Tony Batista to release in order to send a message 6) Gardenhire's a slightly better manager than Guillen

QUOTE(Rowand44 @ May 2, 2007 -> 06:45 PM) Our pitching is pretty damn good right now. Nobody thinks this offense is going to be amazing but it's certainly not going to be anywhere near this bad all season. To give up in May is pretty ridiculous. Who's to say we couldn't play better with Josh Fields at 3B and ??? player in RF? Seriously, many Sox fans thought we were committing suicide by replacing Garcia and McCarthy with Danks, and that's turned out to be the best move, hasn't it? We need an injection of youth, speed, enthusiasm, excitement....something. QUOTE(elrockinMT @ May 2, 2007 -> 06:48 PM) Mr Caulfield is taking a very extreme negative view of this teams chances after just 24 games or so. I respectfully disagree with him also. I think the Sox should be trying to sign Crede, Dye and Buerhle now and not at the end of the year or never whatever the case may be. Thome and Pods will be back soon enoigh and hopefully Hall. The hitters will hit again and things will be better. Right now it's frustarting for sure though. If we ARE able to keep Buehrle, we then have four starters in the vicinity of $45-50 million....and then Danks. We can't keep Crede and Dye AND Buehrle. The math's impossible for this franchise. And it makes no sense to keep Crede when we have a farm system that has produced a replacement in Fields. As some of the BA backers have mentioned, BA and Sweeney and Fields HAVE to succeed for this franchise to be a viable, competitive member of the AL Central in 2008-2010. We can't afford free agents for those three positions AND Thome/Konerko add another $22-23 million per year. Right there, the four pitchers and Thome/Konerko would equal our entire payroll for the 2005 championship team. And you still have to figure out what to do with Iguchi and Uribe...