3/25 roster rumbles

[heirdog]

I may be mistaken, but wouldn't it help Fields defensive ability a bit to have to do so under less than optimal fielding conditions?

 

Isn't this why quarterbacks practice throwing into small targets? Why hitters will often write numbers on tennis balls and put them in a pitching machine to improve their vision? Why golfers will try to putt the ball through a very narrow corridor?

 

What good is fielding in optimal conditions going to do to help Fields improve his fielding?

 

In all the analogies except for baseball, the projectile is moving away from you. So my thoughts as to why its not helpful:

 

1) Chance of injury

 

2) Learning to sit back on balls because he gets used to getting funny hops instead of charging grounders that roll true

 

3) Trying to charge grounders before they take a funny hop instead of getting in good fielding position

 

4) Getting in the habit of doing a hockey goalie move to block the ball instead of keeping his feet and making the play on speedy runners

 

5) Chance of injury

 

6) Did I mention...chance of injury

[The Ginger Kid]

everyone should take a deep breath. Crede's going to show the league he can still play, the Dodgers or Giants will be playing games that count and with a greater sense of urgency they'll re-visit a deal for Crede. This could work out very well for the Sox. Josh Fields is our 3B in the very near future and for years to come.

[fathom]

everyone should take a deep breath. Crede's going to show the league he can still play, the Dodgers or Giants will be playing games that count and with a greater sense of urgency they'll re-visit a deal for Crede. This could work out very well for the Sox. Josh Fields is our 3B in the very near future and for years to come.

 

The Giants aren't going to be very good this year. 2 months into the season, they'll likely be sellers and not buyers.

[iamshack]

In all the analogies except for baseball, the projectile is moving away from you. So my thoughts as to why its not helpful:

 

1) Chance of injury

 

2) Learning to sit back on balls because he gets used to getting funny hops instead of charging grounders that roll true

 

3) Trying to charge grounders before they take a funny hop instead of getting in good fielding position

 

4) Getting in the habit of doing a hockey goalie move to block the ball instead of keeping his feet and making the play on speedy runners

 

5) Chance of injury

 

6) Did I mention...chance of injury

 

Once again, this is an exaggeration. These are good fields still. Not the ones I play softball on.

 

 

[Rowand44]

I was honestly so excited to see Fields-Quentin-Richar start this year and now it's likely that none of them will. I just don't get this organization at times.

[iamshack]

The Giants aren't going to be very good this year. 2 months into the season, they'll likely be sellers and not buyers.

 

They are just getting hammered with injuries though....they gotta put something on the field.

 

Will we get Jonathan Sanchez? Probably not. But there has to be something decent out there...

[NorthSideSox72]

I was honestly so excited to see Fields-Quentin-Richar start this year and now it's likely that none of them will. I just don't get this organization at times.

I am disappointed too, although with Quentin and Richar, it would seem to be a health issue. Richar at least, anyway. But Quentin was one I was really looking forward to, along with Ramirez.

 

[SoxWS05]

I'm glad to see Crede starting, it sucks that Fields was sent down after such a promising year, but at least they made the right decision and started the best player at third.

 

 

We should trade Fields and try and get a good starter for him.

[southsideirish71]

I'm glad to see Crede starting, it sucks that Fields was sent down after such a promising year, but at least they made the right decision and started the best player at third.

We should trade Fields and try and get a good starter for him.

 

I was waiting for the president of Crede's crew to jump in and lend some reason to the situation.

 

Lets trade a young guy with potential under control for years, and keep the injured player with the mythical gold gloves.

 

 

 

[CanOfCorn]

Crede is a showcase and even if they don't or can't trade him...after this year, he gawn. You think a player can't deal with that? The Sox are NOT re-signing Crede, so if I'm Kenny, I tell Fields, "Look, we want you here, and you will be here. It may be sooner, or it may be Opening Day '09, but you will be here. So go to Charlotte, work on cutting down strikeouts, work on the routine plays and we will get you here as soon as we can."

 

As for Quentin...he needs to gain strength in that shoulder. And Richar needs to work on strengthening his back and get back on the Sox brass good side. I can see the Sox next year as Ramirez at SS, Richar at 2B, Fields at 3B, Swisher, Owens/Anderson/Quentin, Dye in the OF.

[Greg The Bull Luzinski]

BTW,

Aaron Rowand just got drilled by a pitch, was laying face down on the ground, and was removed from the game...

 

That's not what I saw. The ball came at Rowand, hit off his head and over the left field wall for a homer. Then, Rowand shot lasers out of his eyes and melted the pitcher.

[CanOfCorn]

That's not what I saw. The ball came at Rowand, hit off his head and over the left field wall for a homer. Then, Rowand shot lasers out of his eyes and melted the pitcher.

 

He's Grindy.

[Vance Law]

If the Sox were so intent on having Crede play 3rd base, we would have better much better off putting Fields in LF, letting Owens/Anderson fight for CF, and not trading 3 of our top prospects for Swisher.

 

em, hindsight. And Swisher will be here for 5 years, and Crede is very unlikely to be on the Sox for the whole year. Half of it tops, it seems, and possibly much less than that.

 

[greg775]

If the Sox were so intent on having Crede play 3rd base, we would have better much better off putting Fields in LF, letting Owens/Anderson fight for CF, and not trading 3 of our top prospects for Swisher. Considering that the Richar trade is a bust as of now, and Quentin isn't likely to be a starter, we really have wasted all of our minor league resources.

 

Exactly.

Fields should be on the team. I love Crede and love his defense, but like Fathom said, if KW and Oz were leaning toward going toward Crede, Josh should have stayed in the outfield.

Josh should demand a trade like somebody said, or at least really let the Sox have it in the press.

We should have never made the Swisher trade if Crede was to be the third baseman.

[NorthSideSox72]

Crede is a showcase and even if they don't or can't trade him...after this year, he gawn. You think a player can't deal with that? The Sox are NOT re-signing Crede, so if I'm Kenny, I tell Fields, "Look, we want you here, and you will be here. It may be sooner, or it may be Opening Day '09, but you will be here. So go to Charlotte, work on cutting down strikeouts, work on the routine plays and we will get you here as soon as we can."

 

As for Quentin...he needs to gain strength in that shoulder. And Richar needs to work on strengthening his back and get back on the Sox brass good side. I can see the Sox next year as Ramirez at SS, Richar at 2B, Fields at 3B, Swisher, Owens/Anderson/Quentin, Dye in the OF.

I think your analysis of the Crede situation is dead-on. Since Crede's trade value was near zero, that's what they have to do.

 

[Wanne]

Swisher, Owens/Anderson/Quentin, Dye in the OF.

 

If Dye has even a remotely decent season by the deadline (and the Sox aren't in the race)...I think he's gone. Time to move on...

[Greg The Bull Luzinski]

If Dye has even a remotely decent season by the deadline (and the Sox aren't in the race)...I think he's gone. Time to move on...

All Dye has to do is waived the NTC

[ptatc]

Fields is fine on tough plays...it's the routine plays that he struggles with. This is more of a lack of focus with him. This isn't like Ryan Braun where they wanted him to get repetitions in regards to throwing from 3rd to 1st without hitting someone behind the 1b dugout. I honestly don't worry about Fields defense, it's not nearly as bad as some Crede fans make it out to be. I'm more concerned that he won't get a lot of practice against 93 mph fastballs and up in the minors.

 

I think he may so more in the minors. There are alot of guys who throw hard in the minors but have poor breaking pitches. The big difference in the minors and majors is the "ungodly braking pitches" not so much the velocity. His hitting is progressing nicely although I dislike the K rate. It's the situational defense that he needs repetition on and must play everyday at 3rd. He will become anaverage to above average defensive 3B. He needs the repetitions.

[Dick Allen]

Funny how a guy who had 140 ABs less than Juan Uribe last year, but hit 3 more homers, hit .010 higher, that's 1 more hit than Juan Uribe per 100 ABs, and had an OBP .025 higher than Uribe, that's 1 more time on base every 40 ABs and struck out 13 times more is a sure-fire star to a lot of people here.

[DBAHO]

Just a few points;

 

1 - Crede's defense is a big upgrade on Fields' (if Joe can get back to where he was defensively pre surgery). He had a RZR over .900 last season, and Fields was much lower (check the defensive ratings thread). That will definitely help our pitching staff.

 

2 - There was a piece from Phil Rogers' I think saying that Fields has enough trouble catching up to 88MPH fastballs let alone 92-93 MPH ones. So if he can work on that down in Charlotte, that will help.

 

3 - Obviously the Sox haven't handled the situation well (again). If I had it my way, Uribe would be gone to Baltimore, Crede would have been shipped off and we use the 9.5M we save towards re-stocking the system and the draft. But because we want to "win now" they're going with the veteran guys, whether we like it or not (and whether or not it makes the most sense in the long - term).

 

4 - If Josh is going to K so much, he needs to start drawing more BB's at the plate. That's something he can work on while getting regular AB's.

 

By no means is Fields a finished product. He's got so many things he still needs to work on still (and hopefully, he can improve some of these things a little before he's back up with us).

 

He deserves better though, I won't deny that.

[nitetrain8601]

Exactly.

Fields should be on the team. I love Crede and love his defense, but like Fathom said, if KW and Oz were leaning toward going toward Crede, Josh should have stayed in the outfield.

Josh should demand a trade like somebody said, or at least really let the Sox have it in the press.

We should have never made the Swisher trade if Crede was to be the third baseman.

 

For fathom, power hitting is even lower than the need for 3b defense. If you don't think this is important for the White Sox, there's something terribly wrong with you. Again, if the Sox had strikeout pitchers, then you could make a case for defense not being as important, but we have a bunch of groundball/flyball pitchers who don't strike anyone out. Even Jenks has said, he rather get a hitter to ground out (which is why he chooses not to throw 100, but more in 94-96mph range) than a strikeout. It's the team's philosophy along with stupid speedy leadoff hitters.

 

Josh is being developed as a 3B because he eventually will replace Crede at that position, next year being the latest. If we do somehow keep Crede beyond, Fields has way more value as a 3B than a LF.

[RockRaines]

I was honestly so excited to see Fields-Quentin-Richar start this year and now it's likely that none of them will. I just don't get this organization at times.

2 out of the three are hurt

[elrockinMT]

I was waiting for the president of Crede's crew to jump in and lend some reason to the situation.

 

Lets trade a young guy with potential under control for years, and keep the injured player with the mythical gold gloves.

 

 

Why not and who says he is the presidnt of the club?

 

The Sox have traded quite a number of promising young guys. Irish you are blinded by the Fields torch you carry around. I haven't seen anybody cut down the less than one year in the bigs Fields and ignore the facts concerning Crede like you do. Fields is a great young talent, but he needs more seasoning that's all. Joe is a proven commodity and seems recovered from back surgery. You wait for someone to say something good about Joe Crede so you can post a diatribe. No call for sarcasm. We are all family here. In the immortal words of Rodney King, "can't we all just get along ?"

[DBAHO]

Funny how a guy who had 140 ABs less than Juan Uribe last year, but hit 3 more homers, hit .010 higher, that's 1 more hit than Juan Uribe per 100 ABs, and had an OBP .025 higher than Uribe, that's 1 more time on base every 40 ABs and struck out 13 times more is a sure-fire star to a lot of people here.

Well Dick, give Fields those extra 140AB's, he hits over 30HR's.

 

Uribe's in what his 5th - 6th season, this was Fields' 1st. There's quite a difference b/w the 2 (it also shows how terrible, Juan Uribe's OBP is).

[elrockinMT]

Well Dick, give Fields those extra 140AB's, he hits over 30HR's.

 

Uribe's in what his 5th - 6th season, this was Fields' 1st. There's quite a difference b/w the 2 (it also shows how terrible, Juan Uribe's OBP is).

 

 

That's a lot of math to swallow which is an exact science. Too many variables to really buy into that reasoning. Fields does have a lot of potential though.