2014 AL Central catch-all thread

[witesoxfan]

Then I'm going to go by "past demonstrated ability to succeed" in the majors and try to sign Colby Rasmus over trotting out the likes of Taylor, Danks, Wilkins, Willingham, Sierra, Tuiasasopo, etc.

 

So you want to spend $75-90 million over 5-6 years on a 28 year old who has never showed any consistent ability to play well and then have him play LF or RF? That's not a very good idea either.

 

Taylor's already 29. There are reasons (just like Joe Borchard, for example) he was never given an extended look in the outfield, despite his obvious potential/ability at one time.

 

Replace "Taylor" with De Aza and "29" with 28. The sentence says the same exact thing.

 

I'm not saying Taylor is, or that any guy in AAA is, but the Sox need to do their due diligence in giving these guys a shot rather than spending gobs of money on a white, left handed version of BJ Upton.

 

We could just as easily argue that Jared Mitchell should be given that opportunity...since it seems whatever statistics are being put up in Charlotte have almost zero grounding in reality with what we're actually going to see in terms of major league performance.

 

No and no.

 

It's for this reason alone they're more likely to stay with Viciedo for 2015. Sure it would be nice to say, I'll take Melky Cabrera for LF, Russell Martin for C, James Shields for the #2 starter, Andrew Miller or Gregerson for LHR, Uehara/Robertson/K-Rod/Soriano/Janssen as a closer...but I will be believe it when I see it actually transpire.

 

They have a lot of holes, and, as you allude to here, unless they are willing to commit $70 mill or so to it this offseason in medium to long term contracts (which is a bad idea and not one that is endorsed by me), the team is probably going to be short of being competitive next year as well.

[caulfield12]

For the record, I want no part of Colby Rasmus.

 

I do find it interesting how many are interested in signing Victor Martinez at his age, when he's just as likely to go south right when the White Sox most need him to be competitive in 2016 and 2017.

[southsider2k5]

Right, and I don't necessarily believe Taylor is the solution, but it's a good thing to see these guys in action.

 

It's one of those things where I think we have two distinct sides of this rebuilding thing. Currently, the Sox have the requisite building blocks in place to field a good, strong, contending team - to me, those that we can be assured are those good players are Sale, Quintana, Abreu, and Eaton. We may have one in Garcia. But the Sox need glue guys, and acquiring those guys on the free agent market is incredibly expensive and inefficient. If you can find them cheap and cost controlled, you can begin to spend on areas where you have not been able to find those glue guys, which is when it is OK to spend way too much on a bullpen arm.

 

The biggest thing working against Taylor is that he is not on the 40 man roster. Someone has to be dropped to make room for him, and there are guys that the Sox are going to want to see in Sept who are also not on the 40 man. I doubt we see Taylor this year in a Sox jersey.

[Kyyle23]

For the record, I want no part of Colby Rasmus.

 

I do find it interesting how many are interested in signing Victor Martinez at his age, when he's just as likely to go south right when the White Sox most need him to be competitive in 2016 and 2017.

 

For the record, you bring him up all the time as an acquisition target

[Dick Allen]

The problem with Taylor is he is a former top prospect who most likely has been given chances others wouldn't have received due to his status. He has about 500 more professional plate appearances than Gordon Beckham. Maybe he is a late bloomer, but odds are for a major league player..............he sucks.

[witesoxfan]

The problem with Taylor is he is a former top prospect who most likely has been given chances others wouldn't have received due to his status. He has about 500 more professional plate appearances than Gordon Beckham. Maybe he is a late bloomer, but odds are for a major league player..............he sucks.

 

Don't get me wrong, I definitely agree with this. I just basically don't think it'd be a bad idea to see if there's anything there.

 

And, though Jake Sanchez is unlikely to turn into anything, he always put up good numbers and has continued to do so with Oakland. I don't think they would be so willing to just dispose of a guy like that for a guy they see nothing in. This isn't acquiring Shawn Hill for virutally nothing.

[caulfield12]

For the record, you bring him up all the time as an acquisition target

 

But more to demonstrate there's almost nothing desirable that's going to be out there on the free agent market...certainly not in our price range.

[Kyyle23]

But more to demonstrate there's almost nothing desirable that's going to be out there on the free agent market...certainly not in our price range.

 

You have no idea what price range the sox are going to be in, nor what is available via trade.

[greg775]

Bruce Chen desperately needs to face the White Sox again to maybe once again save his career. He's been absolutely trash since that last shutdown of the Sox. He's so bad and yet if he started tomorrow vs. the Sox we all know the result. Six innings. One or two runs off three hits. That's baseball for you.

[caulfield12]

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mlb-big-leag...-050846986.html

 

Joe Nathan building his fanbase in Detroit.

[caulfield12]

Royals might be a team of destiny.

 

Jarrod Dyson lost a ball in the sun, which ended up allowing 2 runs to score for the A's...and lost the lead, 3-2.

 

Escobar laid down a perfect bunt and Samardzija threw the ball down the line but he was inside the baseline and ruled out instead of ending up on 2nd base.

 

 

Then Dyson has an 0-2 count in the bottom of the 7th against All-Star Ryan Cook and shot one through the hole to tie it....Aoki (11 RBI's this month) ripped a triple down the line, scoring two more runs.

 

Note: Abad's also been amazing for the A's. Already stranded 21 baserunners this season, something not done since Randy Myers in 1984. He K'ed Gordon, but then Billy Butler hit a single to RCF and Escobar ended up scoring all the way from 1B on a two-out single. So the score is 7-3 in the top of the 8th.

 

At least three 0-2 count RBI's in this series, 7 steals...have beaten the A's now two series in a row, and have won 7 consecutive series, including a couple of four gamers.

 

16-4 over the last twenty if they win today.

 

The best part for KC. They go on a 9 game road trip to Minnesota (4 games), Colorado (2 games) and Texas (3 games). Three last place teams. Meanwhile, the Tigers have the Mariners and Scherzer just threw today.

 

Wade Davis might be the best middle reliever in all of baseball right now, along with Cook/Abad.

 

5,300 walk up attendance on the first day of school in Kansas City area for many students.

Edited August 14, 2014 by caulfield12

[greg775]

Royals might be a team of destiny.

 

Jarrod Dyson lost a ball in the sun, which ended up allowing 2 runs to score for the A's...and lost the lead, 3-2.

 

Escobar laid down a perfect bunt and Samardzija threw the ball down the line but he was inside the baseline and ruled out instead of ending up on 2nd base.

 

 

Then Dyson has an 0-2 count in the bottom of the 7th against All-Star Ryan Cook and shot one through the hole to tie it....Aoki (11 RBI's this month) ripped a triple down the line, scoring two more runs.

 

Note: Abad's also been amazing for the A's. Already stranded 21 baserunners this season, something not done since Randy Myers in 1984. He K'ed Gordon, but then Billy Butler hit a single to RCF and Escobar ended up scoring all the way from 1B on a two-out single. So the score is 7-3 in the top of the 8th.

 

At least three 0-2 count RBI's in this series, 7 steals...have beaten the A's now two series in a row, and have won 7 consecutive series, including a couple of four gamers.

 

16-4 over the last twenty if they win today.

 

The best part for KC. They go on a 9 game road trip to Minnesota (4 games), Colorado (2 games) and Texas (3 games). Three last place teams. Meanwhile, the Tigers have the Mariners and Scherzer just threw today.

 

Wade Davis might be the best middle reliever in all of baseball right now, along with Cook/Abad.

 

5,300 walk up attendance on the first day of school in Kansas City area for many students.

 

Aoki getting hot has saved them; also addition by subtraction with Hosmer out.

[caulfield12]

Aoki getting hot has saved them; also addition by subtraction with Hosmer out.

 

 

And Butler.

 

Even Moustakas is hitting the ball better than earlier in the season.

[greg775]

And Butler.

 

Even Moustakas is hitting the ball better than earlier in the season.

 

Yes, Butler is happy as Justin Verlander at bedtime now that he gets to play first base. He despises being a DH. Good for him.

[LittleHurt05]

Yes, Butler is happy as Justin Verlander at bedtime now that he gets to play first base. He despises being a DH. Good for him.

 

Well done greg!

[southsider2k5]

Freep Tigers ‏@freeptigers 4m

 

Based on Ausmus press conf today, sounds like Verlander will return next Sat in Minn or have to go on DL.

[Donny Lucy's Avocado Farm]

Freep Tigers ‏@freeptigers 4m

 

Based on Ausmus press conf today, sounds like Verlander will return next Sat in Minn or have to go on DL.

 

 

Too much deep fingerbanging can really mess with the ligaments and tendons in your forearm.

[BaconOnAStick]

This Tigers thing is ending 2 years faster than I thought it would. Delightful.

[caulfield12]

Too much deep fingerbanging can really mess with the ligaments and tendons in your forearm.

 

 

Thought it was TUC before I saw the poster, haha.

[caulfield12]

http://www.kansascity.com/sports/spt-colum...cle1237204.html

 

Trading for and KEEPING Shields was key to Royals' 19-4 surge

 

 

 

http://www.kansascity.com/sports/spt-colum...cle1237145.html

 

On how to act when your team's actually pretty good for the first time in your lifetime

 

Did anyone cry when the Sox won the World Series? I don't remember crying...just being very proud and still kind of in shock because of how they barely the Indians' charge in September and then they just got on that surreal roll of games and pitching.

 

Maybe it's different for Pirates and Royals fans because of that 20-30 year gap without anything but misery.

 

 

 

We needed Matthew Wein all along. Wein, more than Shields and even more than Brett, has lived what Royals fans are hoping to experience over the next six weeks.

 

He just did it in Pittsburgh.

 

Wein is 31 and a lifelong Pirates fan, which means he’s basically lived the life of a Royals fan, just with a different wardrobe. He says that growing up rooting for a loser has shaped who he is an adult, some of it good and some of it bad. The Pirates are winners now, so to remind himself and others of the Kevin McClatchy years (the Pittsburgh equivalent of the Board of Directors years) he wears a Ryan Vogelsong jersey (the Pittsburgh equivalent of Neifi Perez).

 

“You did feel like you were in an abusive relationship with the Pirates,” he says. “Like it was really your fault for enabling the Pirates to do this…

 

“They were so bad, so ostensibly awful, I started saying, ‘I’m just a baseball fan and I happen to live in Pittsburgh.’ But then you realize, ‘I won’t stop watching. I can’t stop.’ Eventually, you accept it, like, ‘Oh, I’m really a Pirates fan.’”

 

That started to change two years ago, when the Pirates were in first place in July and above .500 as late as Sept. 18. They had a young star in Andrew McCutchen, and enough pitching that the future looked bright.

 

That’s when the transition took traction, with some bumps along the way that Kansas City can relate to — the football mentality transferred to a 162-game season, the embedded cynicism from a generation of letdowns, and an honest uncertainty about when to really believe.

 

That 2012 season ended in disappointment, and a 20th consecutive losing record. Not even the Royals can match that. But those who stuck around saw a start-to-finish contender in 2013, 94 wins and then an epic wild-card victory over the Reds in which the fans in Pittsburgh rattled Cincinnati pitcher Johnny Cueto so much he dropped the ball on the mound.

 

Now, the Pirates are again in position for the playoffs and the team is drawing more fans than any season in its history except for the opening of PNC Park.

 

“It took a while for people to think it was real,” Wein says. “But now they think about it like it’s nothing but real.”

 

The adjustment isn’t easy. Nobody likes to admit this, but there is a comfort in the losing. It’s familiar. Wein got used to leaving late for a game, parking close to the stadium, and waving at the nice usher who always let him sit closer to the field because of all the empty seats.

 

Last year, Wein couldn’t get a ticket to the wild card game. He watched from a bar, and spent the last few innings “sobbing like a child.” Winning brings a sort of first-world problems, of course. Tickets are more expensive, expectations higher, and Wein says he can already feel a sense of entitlement from some Pirates fans.

 

But this is a lot like romanticizing that dump of an apartment you lived in right out of college. The harder life is much better in hindsight, because the greatest thing in a world for a fan might be your team paying you back for years of letdowns with one glorious stretch of daily joy.

 

“There’s nothing anyone can tell you that’s going to prepare you for what you’re going to feel, or how you’re going to deal with it,” he says. “You can’t prepare for it. At some point, you’re going to accept that your team is no longer awful. Something is going to click in your brain and you’re going to lose it. You’re just going to lose it.

 

“If you’re someone who cries, you’ll break down crying. You’ll cease to be gunshy about it. And the payoff is worth it. Allow yourself to enjoy it. Don’t shy away from that. Allow yourself to enjoy it when it happens. Don’t become relentlessly pessimistic just because that’s been your nature the last 20 years. Allow yourself to enjoy it when it happens.”

 

At least, that’s what people in other places say. But even Pittsburgh is a different place, with different history.

 

Here in Kansas City, maybe we need to see this for ourselves.

 

To reach Sam Mellinger, call 816-234-4365 or send email to [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter at @mellinger. For previous columns, go to KansasCity.com.

 

Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/sports/spt-colum...l#storylink=cpy

Edited August 16, 2014 by caulfield12

[SoxAce]

Too much deep fingerbanging can really mess with the ligaments and tendons in your forearm.

I think it was more of him grabbing those melons which could effect his forearm(s). Those things are way bigger than the baseballs he's used to.

[greg775]

http://www.kansascity.com/sports/spt-colum...cle1237204.html

 

Trading for and KEEPING Shields was key to Royals' 19-4 surge

 

 

 

http://www.kansascity.com/sports/spt-colum...cle1237145.html

 

On how to act when your team's actually pretty good for the first time in your lifetime

 

Did anyone cry when the Sox won the World Series? I don't remember crying...just being very proud and still kind of in shock because of how they barely the Indians' charge in September and then they just got on that surreal roll of games and pitching.

 

Maybe it's different for Pirates and Royals fans because of that 20-30 year gap without anything but misery.

 

 

 

We needed Matthew Wein all along. Wein, more than Shields and even more than Brett, has lived what Royals fans are hoping to experience over the next six weeks.

 

He just did it in Pittsburgh.

 

Wein is 31 and a lifelong Pirates fan, which means he’s basically lived the life of a Royals fan, just with a different wardrobe. He says that growing up rooting for a loser has shaped who he is an adult, some of it good and some of it bad. The Pirates are winners now, so to remind himself and others of the Kevin McClatchy years (the Pittsburgh equivalent of the Board of Directors years) he wears a Ryan Vogelsong jersey (the Pittsburgh equivalent of Neifi Perez).

 

“You did feel like you were in an abusive relationship with the Pirates,” he says. “Like it was really your fault for enabling the Pirates to do this…

 

“They were so bad, so ostensibly awful, I started saying, ‘I’m just a baseball fan and I happen to live in Pittsburgh.’ But then you realize, ‘I won’t stop watching. I can’t stop.’ Eventually, you accept it, like, ‘Oh, I’m really a Pirates fan.’”

 

That started to change two years ago, when the Pirates were in first place in July and above .500 as late as Sept. 18. They had a young star in Andrew McCutchen, and enough pitching that the future looked bright.

 

That’s when the transition took traction, with some bumps along the way that Kansas City can relate to — the football mentality transferred to a 162-game season, the embedded cynicism from a generation of letdowns, and an honest uncertainty about when to really believe.

 

That 2012 season ended in disappointment, and a 20th consecutive losing record. Not even the Royals can match that. But those who stuck around saw a start-to-finish contender in 2013, 94 wins and then an epic wild-card victory over the Reds in which the fans in Pittsburgh rattled Cincinnati pitcher Johnny Cueto so much he dropped the ball on the mound.

 

Now, the Pirates are again in position for the playoffs and the team is drawing more fans than any season in its history except for the opening of PNC Park.

 

“It took a while for people to think it was real,” Wein says. “But now they think about it like it’s nothing but real.”

 

The adjustment isn’t easy. Nobody likes to admit this, but there is a comfort in the losing. It’s familiar. Wein got used to leaving late for a game, parking close to the stadium, and waving at the nice usher who always let him sit closer to the field because of all the empty seats.

 

Last year, Wein couldn’t get a ticket to the wild card game. He watched from a bar, and spent the last few innings “sobbing like a child.” Winning brings a sort of first-world problems, of course. Tickets are more expensive, expectations higher, and Wein says he can already feel a sense of entitlement from some Pirates fans.

 

But this is a lot like romanticizing that dump of an apartment you lived in right out of college. The harder life is much better in hindsight, because the greatest thing in a world for a fan might be your team paying you back for years of letdowns with one glorious stretch of daily joy.

 

“There’s nothing anyone can tell you that’s going to prepare you for what you’re going to feel, or how you’re going to deal with it,” he says. “You can’t prepare for it. At some point, you’re going to accept that your team is no longer awful. Something is going to click in your brain and you’re going to lose it. You’re just going to lose it.

 

“If you’re someone who cries, you’ll break down crying. You’ll cease to be gunshy about it. And the payoff is worth it. Allow yourself to enjoy it. Don’t shy away from that. Allow yourself to enjoy it when it happens. Don’t become relentlessly pessimistic just because that’s been your nature the last 20 years. Allow yourself to enjoy it when it happens.”

 

At least, that’s what people in other places say. But even Pittsburgh is a different place, with different history.

 

Here in Kansas City, maybe we need to see this for ourselves.

 

To reach Sam Mellinger, call 816-234-4365 or send email to [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter at @mellinger. For previous columns, go to KansasCity.com.

 

Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/sports/spt-colum...l#storylink=cpy

 

 

Nope, didn't cry. I called my dad who was a lifetime Sox fan. You realize when your team finally wins that it still is just a game. You are happy as hell, but life goes on.

[southsider2k5]

The Baseball Cube ‏@thebaseballcube 12h

 

Jim Johnson is back in the big leagues as Tigers purchase his contract.

[caulfield12]

The Baseball Cube ‏@thebaseballcube 12h

 

Jim Johnson is back in the big leagues as Tigers purchase his contract.

 

 

Never would have thought a month ago that the Tigers and A's might be headed for a one-game elimination playoff.

 

They looked like the two favorites in the AL. Obviously, they both could make it...and the Tigers have to be the slight favorites for the division, but there are still a lot of question marks now with Verlander, Sanchez and Soria. Nobody knows how well JD Martinez, Rajai Davis and Castellanos will whether the heat of a pennant race, and rookie SS Suarez has been fading offensively...probably wearing down a bit.

[LittleHurt05]

Why did the Tigers trade Doug Fister for minor leaguers again? That trade still dumbfounds me