Unrequited Love

[Bucky F. Dent]

The passing of Pascual Perez got me thinking about his brother, Melido. I had an inexplicable love for the right handed Dominican, and an completely unsubstantiated belief that, given enough time, he could become a dominant starter for the Sox. I looked at Melido Perez and I saw the next Juan Marichal. That obviously never took place, and to this day I have no explanation for what I saw in this guy and his game that led me to these absurd conclusions.

So, since we are headed into the cold dark days of the offseason, who was your guy? Who was the Sox player or prospect that you were damned certain was going to become the next Babe Ruth or Cy Young, who never turned into the all-star you had always dreamed he would be, and, in the words of Bart Giamatti, left you to "face the fall all alone."

[SI1020]

I guess I'm not the greatest evaluator of talent because I've had more than a few of them. How about Fred Talbot, Ken Kravec and Chris Singleton for starters. Especially Ken Kravec.

[Harry Potter]

Ken Hill

[doublem23]

Mike Sirotka. Still have a jersey of his that I wear to the park on occasion.

Originally Posted by Bucky F. Dent

The passing of Pascual Perez got me thinking about his brother, Melido. I had an inexplicable love for the right handed Dominican, and an completely unsubstantiated belief that, given enough time, he could become a dominant starter for the Sox. I looked at Melido Perez and I saw the next Juan Marichal. That obviously never took place, and to this day I have no explanation for what I saw in this guy and his game that led me to these absurd conclusions.

You shouldn't be quite so hard on yourself about Perez, even though he was never more than a middle of the road kind of pitcher with the Sox, he did seem to turn a corner in 1992, his first season with the Yankees. He was only 26 years old, posted a 2.87 ERA in 247 IP, struck out 218 (2nd in the AL behind only Randy Johnson). Unfortunately, I think he developed elbow problems either that year or in 1993 and that effectively ended his career. Sadly for him, reconstructive elbow surgery was still in its relative infancy compared to today. Had he come along maybe 10 years later his career may have been prolonged.

[lpneck]

Greg Hibbard was my favorite pitcher on the 1990 team, which is my favorite non-2005 Sox team. I remember being disappointed when they lost him in the expansion draft and then he ended up having a pretty good year for the Cubs in 1993. Then he got hurt and was done.

[Huisj]

For some reason, I was really hoping Danny Richar would become a dangerous gap-hitting moderate-power high-average second baseman. It was probably just a case of trying to find something positive during the second half of 2007, or it might have been because he hit a homer just a few rows from where I was sitting at the Jim Thome bobblehead walkoff game in September that month.

I also had an unhealthy hope for Kip Wells. That was probably partly due to the perfect storm of the Sox' farm system being overhyped, the availability of internet baseball news and scouting info exploding around that time, and me being in high school and gobbling it all up all the time.

[Chez]

Joe Borchard, McKay Christiansen and Nyls Nyman.

[palehosepub]

Bill Melton, the first player I really "latched onto" about 1969 as a 7 year old. Although he was a very good player who won a home run title I always thought he going to be a Hall of Famer. I would always argue with the Cub fans in the neighborhood how much better Melton was than Santo. Maybe if he didn't blow out his back he could have piled up some big numbers.

The scarey part is that I am now 50 years old and I still believe that Melton was better than Santo and Santo is a HOFer due to a Cubs / Tribune conspiracy.

Probably time for counseling or therapy...

[tebman]

I've had several over the years myself. They seem insignificant now, but I was impressed when I first saw guys like Kevin Bell, Rich Wortham, Joe Borchard, and Josh Paul. They all looked like high-potential guys to me.

Shows how much I know. That's why Rick Hahn is the GM and I'm not.

[Madvora]

Kip Wells and Sirotka are great picks, but, Keith Foulke may have been the one for me though. For a while he seemed unhittable. When he was good, he was really good.

[haganaga]

Scott Radinsky. When I was 16 I just thought he was awesome and that it was a mistake to have Roberto Hernandez closing instead of him. Just looked like he was throwing 100 mph every time.

[Golden Sox]

PALEHOSEPUB: Before Melton hurt his back, I thought that Melton was better than Santo also. After he hurt his back he wasn't the same ballplayer. All I do know is if anybody thinks that Santo was better than Dick Allen, that person can kiss my dupa.

[russ99]

No doubt, Lance Johnson. The 40+ SB years in the St. Louis system made me think he was the going to be the next Rickey Henderson after he got dealt here.

To a lesser extent, Carlos Lee after his first AB homer and games thereafter, I thought Chad Bradford was going to be our best closer ever, and I really liked Alan Bannister during the South Side Hit Men days.

As far as players who didn't end up having a decent career, there's hundreds.

[Konerko05]

Originally Posted by Madvora

Kip Wells and Sirotka are great picks, but, Keith Foulke may have been the one for me though. For a while he seemed unhittable. When he was good, he was really good.

Kip Wells for me. I remember attending the second game of his major league career, which was game 1 of a double header against the Rangers. The White Sox won both games. Kip was throwing mid 90s with a power curve ball. He only gave up one run and struck out six, and I was in love.

He ended up pitching 7 games in '99, and I watched everyone one of them. He only had one bad outing, and I was convinced he was the next Nolan Ryan.

He never really had the same stuff when he came back in '00, and his control was awful. The velocity on his fastball seemed to gradually decrease until he was traded to the Pirates when his fastball magically starting hitting mid to upper 90s again. Even though his fastball came back to life, he still struggled with command and only had a few years of moderate success in the NL.

Thanks a lot, Nardi.

Foulke was by far my favorite pitcher with the White Sox for a very long time. I even modeled my style of pitching after him. I would only pitch out of the stretch, and I relied on a power changeup to get strikeouts. I don't think you can really include him though because he really was that good.

[SephClone89]

Gordon Beckham.