Speculation: Thornton a Trade Fit with Angels

[elrockinMT]

That's right about where I'd expect them to be.

 

 

I might go closer to .500 this year, but a losing season is very possible

[balfanman]

I don't care how good or bad we are in spring training. I know folks like to win and I do too but it means nothing much as far as the season is concerned. I see ST mostly as achance to see young players and what they can do and get the vets get ready for opening day. I think KW has some answering to do about his GM decisions and I am think Phil Rogers has it right in his analysis of KW's GM job.

 

I have know idea what article you are refering to, but I doubt very much that Phil Rogers has anything right.

[Balta1701]

I have know idea what article you are refering to, but I doubt very much that Phil Rogers has anything right.

Link

Talking baseball while hoping Rip Hamilton isn’t hurt badly: 1. Good morning, Ken Williams. The Chicago White Sox general manager could not have enjoyed his dinner Monday night very much, not after watching his top offseason acquisition, 23-year-old converted third baseman Nestor Molina, get rat-a-tatted around Camelback Ranch in his spring training debut.

 

Molina’s pitching line against the Dodgers was so ugly that Robin Ventura had to rescue him in the middle of an inning.

 

He worked 1 1-3 innings, allowing five runs on seven hits against the Dodgers, including a home run by Scott Van Slyke. His ability to pound the strike zone, which apparently was the key for Williams in trading closer Sergio Santos for him, was not much help against the best lineup he ever had faced.

 

There will be other days for Molina, of course, and some will be the polar opposite of this one. But as the centerpiece acquisition of an offseason in which Williams allowed pitching cornerstone Mark Buehrle to leave without even a counter offer, Molina is going to be more under the gun than he’s ever been.

 

Williams too is under the gun.

 

A lot of analysts have questioned how the White Sox could have traded a 30-save closer with an extremely club friendly contract even up for a prospect whom most ranked in the second tier of the Blue Jays’ deep pitching stable (although John Sickels of minorleagueball.com shares Williams’ enthusiasm).

 

But the really puzzling thing about the Molina trade is the question of whether Williams made it believing that Molina was, at that moment in December, mowing down hitters in Venezuela, as opposed to whatever it was he was doing.

 

Williams misspoke in announcing the deal, as some will remember. He praised Molina’s 2011 season, which was split between high-A and Double-A, and then just kept praising him.

 

“He is in (a) winter league right now, pitching with the same success,’’ Williams told Chicago reporters in Dallas for the winter meetings.

 

The club then distributed winter ball statistics showing Molina working 26 strong innings for the Lara Cardenales in Venezuela. There was a problem, however.

 

The statistics were a year old, as Blue Jays GM Alex Anthopolous had denied Molina’s request to pitch in winter ball last winter, believing 130 innings were enough in his first season as a starter.

 

I immediately tried to clarify the situation with Williams, but he ignored my call and multiple texts. Later, when a club spokesman reached him, he said that he knew those were year-old statistics, but that didn’t explain why he would have said he was “in winter league right now.’’

 

I’ve been critical of Williams’ job performance for years now (which, yes, is probably why he didn’t return my call), watching him swing for the fences (and miss) at the big-league level while letting the strong farm system he inherited become one of the weakest -- the weakest, according to multiple analysts -- in baseball. I’ll understand if you think I’m nit-picking here.

 

But the question I have -- and the one that should matter a whole lot -- is whether Williams did his homework on Molina.

 

Whether Molina was pitching in winter ball may have been irrelevant to the final decision on acquiring him. But if Williams thought he was, and he wasn’t, what does that say about the level of information that Williams is drawing from in making decisions that will impact the franchise for years?

 

Had he done the same level of due diligence on Jake Peavy’s health when he snatched him off the disabled list at the trade deadline in 2009? Or on the holes in Alex Rios’ swing when he claimed him on waivers later that year? How much had he watched Daniel Hudson before dealing him to Arizona for Edwin Jackson at the deadline in 2010? Had he studied him during his meteoric rise through the system in ’09 or was he just going off five big-league starts?

[elrockinMT]

I have know idea what article you are refering to, but I doubt very much that Phil Rogers has anything right.

 

 

Balta attached it and I am sorry but I think he does have it right

[caulfield12]

Williams should be fired for having his son anywhere a major league field and the official scorer for giving Williams' son a base hit on a ball that Beckham plays easily 995 times out of 1000.

[harfman77]

Thornton for Conger? The Angels don't seem to want Hank on the 25 man roster too bad and keep acquiring others to play in front of him. Could give us a potential everyday C for next season if Flowers regresses, or we could use Flowers bat in other places if he makes progress.