greg775

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jul 5, 2017 -> 04:16 AM) White Sox traded away prospect = Super Prospect White Sox acquired prospect = bust, failure, and panic. Why do you guys support this front office this much? This is about Shields and how bad he is. You trust the rebuild to guys who think Shields was a smart investment?

Just DFA Shields for gosh sakes. He's done.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jul 4, 2017 -> 07:09 PM) This is fully and 100% wrong. Why would anybody want Melky or Frazier? Seriously. The relievers everybody's high on will not bring back much. Relievers who are not closers don't bring back much. Who is the Sox projected closer anyway once we deal David? We have to keep somebody so we'll keep Swarzik and Kahnle since they won't bring back anything of note. I don't think Jerry has bought into the losing every game thing has he?

Happy Fourth of July! Be careful with your fireworks tonight, very careful. One miscalculation could send you to the hospital. Have fun but be careful! Drink beer but if you MUST drink outside your own home, plan on Uber. One miscalculation otherwise could cause a tragedy and/or get you a DUI which in this day and age would probably ruin your life (fired at work, no car for a year). I was wondering today if this was the most unpatriotic 4th of July in a long time. Korea stuffed another missile test in our face on the eve of the holiday. Surprised they didn't wait til the 4th to do it. Russia and China want us and the Koreas to sign some de-escalation thing. There are reports the Korean missile now can reach US soil meaning you just know Trump is ready to over-react or react forcibly. Do you think today's holiday is a very sad day considering the state of our Trump hatred and the volatile situation regarding the USA and N. Korea, China and Russia? I will say, cherish Joey Chestnut today and have some fun, but has this holiday jumped the shark or temporarily been jaded because of current political climate/international conditions? The fact the two parties have never hated each other more and the fact Trump is a tweeting embarassment? HAPPY 4th!! Drink beer, wine and go watch fireworks tonight! But drive Uber and take care of your family members who need Uber.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Jul 4, 2017 -> 08:38 AM) I think I figured it out tonight. Renteria simply wants all the young players to buy into the concept of sacrificing for each other...always trying to advance the runner (Did you do your job or not?) and moving the line one batter at a time. Could be a one run lead, or 3-5 runs like tonight. Team over individual results, camaraderie, chemistry, etc. They seem to be buying into Steverson's approach now as well, they're working together instead of going up to the plate without a plan of what they're trying to accomplish like for much of the Ventura regime. Realistically, this team should be 2 games under .500, but we've been killed by our defense and all those unearned runs and mostly plays not made (double plays not finished, for example.) Going forward, that's the biggest concern organizationally (along with OBP and starting pitching development), and removing Melky Cabrera from the roster will be a first big step in the right direction. In my idea, it feels like we're trying to create a hybrid of the Cubs, Indians and Royals. Future elite pen. Check. Speed and athleticism. Check. Moncada, Robert, Adolfo, Engel, Tim Anderson, Leury, Yolmer Sanchez, Willy Garcia, Saladino, Hanson. OBP/contact...addressed last two drafts, hopefully. Defense, ummmm....not yet. Versatility...the examples are guys like Jose Ramirez, Josh Harrison, Zobrist, Baez, Whit Merrifield. The Sox players above have many of these qualities already, particularly Leury, but Moncada and Anderson should as well. (Of course, in this lively ball era, you also can't afford to carry a guy like Tilson who has no power playing 81 home games at Guaranteed Rate.) In the end, I don't think we're as far off as some here. This is a .500 team in 2018, quite easily. Get the best possible draft pick for 2018, but don't go out of the way to hold players back if they're truly ready. If for no other reason than Detroit and KC being terrible next year, and that representing nearly 40% of the schedule. They might need an anchor for their defense during this transition period. Unsurprisingly, I would pick Dyson (cheaper version) or Cain on three year deals and change the team's mindset by having an elite defender with World Series experience in CF. At any rate, by this October 1st they'll know a lot more about what they have in Engel and Leury. Maybe they logically then decide those guys are good enough to be part of the long-term plan and no further move is needed. Somehow, they also need to convince Abreu or Avi to DH. That potentially gives Asche and Delmonico a shot at first. Maybe Avi's traded? Then they eventually need to find an elite defender at catcher to back up Collins 2-3 years from now...trade deadline, someone like Severino with the Nats. Offense isn't as critical if Collins realizes his potential. 2018 LF Engel/W.Garcia/Asche CF Leury Garcia/Engel RF Willy Garcia/Asche/Hanson 3B Davidson/Y. Sanchez SS Anderson/L.Garcia 2B Moncada/Yolmer/Hanson 1B Avi Garcia/Davidson DH Abreu This would block Delmonico and Saladino, but dramatically improve the overall defense...perhaps Saladino stays and Hanson goes? You'd have three CFers in the outfield (well, Willy's pushing it). Avi's a lot more athletic than Abreu, but obviously that idea might not work. Certainly a good sized target over there, though. Caulfield I am very surprised you think a team without Q could possibly sniff .500 next year. The rotation promises to be one of the worst in Sox history and without Robertson there will be a new, likely unreliable closer. As well as defense. You just skipped over the pathetic defense. Finally in terms of your lineup, the infield defense will be one of the worst in team history of the players you listed. Also the verdict is still out on Anderson at a key position, ss. If Moncada is a sieve we are extremely weak up the middle. Your outfield is laugably bad, again one of the worstin team history with Willy, Leury and Engel. .500? What are u thinking today on the 4th? In summation, horrible rotation, horrible defense, incredibly soft hitting outfield. I'd say worse team in baseball by far unless somehow Moncada, Avi, Abreu and Anderson are all all-star hitters. Even then the pitching would doom your team to a horrific record. QUOTE (Feeky Magee @ Jul 4, 2017 -> 02:59 PM) I think you're reading too much into it. He calls for bunts because he thinks that's the best way of scoring runs. He is wrong and it is something that needs to be corrected for when this team is in contention. I loved your long post but I would agree with Magee. It does appear Renteria is trying to win games and he thinks these bunts help score pivotal runs. I agree with Feeky he's wrong. Your theory doesn't seem Renteria-like as some big picture thing.

QUOTE (Thad Bosley @ Jul 4, 2017 -> 01:59 PM) This thread is about team attendance, and therefore the spectrum of opinion can and should be expected to cover a wide range of views. From the excitement of following players this year like Avi, Jose, Yolmer, Kahnle, etc., who have given some reason to pay attention to this last place team, all the way to the frustration with an owner and his management team who have now brought us the fifth summer in a row of completely meaningless baseball in the middle of the summer. A thread like this will cover the whole gamete. To give this some further context, we the fans have not had a reason to get truly excited about a competitive White Sox team since Obama's first term, and the team has not made it to the postseason since George W.'s second term. There's your reason for the "doomsday" posts. Fix that and those posts go away, or at least decrease dramatically. I would assume it's Robertson. The ONLY two on the whole list who will be traded are Quintana and Robertson. That will pretty much assure two more major holes for next season on the team and pretty much guarantee the cellar again. It'll be the buzzkill the Sox need (sarcasm) heading into the offseason.

QUOTE (PolishPrince34 @ Jul 4, 2017 -> 03:33 PM) Fernando Tatis Jr. tearing it up as an 18 year in Low A ball. This trade might go down as the worst in White Sox history. 274/.362/.462 12 hrs/14 Sb WRC-131 Since April 21 .300/.391/.511 WRC-152 Scouts are raving about his elite skills and saw one person make a comp to Manny Machado. I know he was 17 years old at the time, but makes me scratch my head to why they included him in the Shields deal. What a mistake!!!!! This is appalling. The White Sox have acquired some really awful baseball players and yet everybody keeps their jobs. Somebody thought Shields could pitch and the Sox had to take over a lot of money on his contract. Very bizarre. He had given up 10 runs the start before the Sox got him and was called out by SD for his ineptitude. And we throw a good prospect in the Erik Johnson for Shields deal. Weird.

QUOTE (Heads22 @ Jul 4, 2017 -> 04:21 AM) https://www.vox.com/world/2017/5/9/15516278...-than-you-think Good story. Unfortunately there is going to be a terrible disaster coming soon. We are going to do something and Jong-Un will blow South Korea off the map so to speak. Then we will hit N. Korea so hard the whole Koreas will be a nuclear wasteland. At that point, we'll see how China and Russia react to our behavior. I would not want to be in S. Korea right now. Americans better be getting the hell out of there.

QUOTE (harkness @ Jul 4, 2017 -> 05:02 AM) Bud they swept us at home last week.. so not sure about that conclusion. I know. That's why I said these were two horrific teams. Hard to imagine getting swept by Oakland.

These are two very bad baseball teams. The A's may actually be worse than the Sox. I will give Renteria credit. I can't see us blowing this lead. If this was last year with Robin I definitely would be expecting us to lose. The Sox were that dysfunctional with Robin even against horrible teams.

QUOTE (fathom @ Jul 4, 2017 -> 04:31 AM) Such an awkward play by Timmy there. Another poor decision by an infielder not knowing the runner with Yolmer rushing I was surprised Anderson didn't fumble that grounder. It looked iffy but he fielded it cleanly and if Yolmer would have just concentrated on getting the one out it would have been no problem. Now, do we win? Or does the last place team find a way to lose before a big road crowd?

QUOTE (Heads22 @ Jul 4, 2017 -> 03:26 AM) If we're in a world where we don't trade Sale, we also don't have most of our best players this year. Don't get me wrong, I want to win, but this team is a lot further than Chris Sale away. Seeing peak Rodon is sexy, though. This is a definite bright spot in what has been a miserable couple of months. Finally a stellar performance. Forgot Rodon likes to work fast. That is huge.

Rodon pitched great. So much better than some of the hacks we throw out there like Pelphrey and Miguel and Holland. Sale, Q and a healthy Rodon woulda made a division winning rotation this year IF you throw in 2 of our prospects: the likes of Fulmer and some of the guys we got in the two trades we made.

Guys, N. Korea fired another missile -- this one too close for Japan's comfort. I ask you as citizens of the world, would you accept Trump putting a bounty on the head of Kim Jong-un? This guy won't stop and it's obvious his firing that missile today is mocking our 4th of July holiday. Will China allow us killing Jong-un and doing nothing else? Trump is a loose cannon and you can expect him to do something really significant very soon IMO. Jong-un is doing this just to prove he's a badass. We can't sit and wait around for his missiles to hit one of our allies or worse, the US Mainland or Hawaii. I told you all N. Korea will cause WWIII and may even succeed in bringing nukes into the equation. Nukes are coming if Jong-Un isn't removed from this earth. I don't think China is ready to support us fully regarding N. Korea.

I was just reading NY Magazine at the library asking folks to predict when Trump would be impeached and out of office. I was surprised only one of 10 respondees thought he'd be impeached/replaced. I liked the lead in. NY Magazine suggested that "everybody" knows he's already obstructed justice and it's just a matter of getting something to stick. I laughed at that, but I'd also agree with it. He's pretty obstructionary IMO. One guy predicted he'd have two terms then Pence would win BTW. Wild stuff.

The all-star game this season does not determine homefield advantage in the WS. I am happy about this. The All-Star game is an exhibition game in which everybody should play if possible and it definitely should take on a festive atmosphere. It was stupid to make the game "matter" by danging as something as important as homefield advantage as the prize to the winner. The way to make the guys play hard and care more is to offer $500,000 per player on the winning team and $50,000 to each player on the losing team. That IMO would be better. But at least now the game is back to being a meaningless exhibition game, which it should be IMO. Do you agree?

QUOTE (Thad Bosley @ Jul 3, 2017 -> 11:20 PM) I don't think it's necessarily fair to tell the long-suffering yet faithful fans to go away and watch hockey because they are voicing their discontent with the continued failures of the organization. Better served to join the increasing echoes of those looking for a change in ownership, given how the current owner (who is the LONGEST TENURED OWNER in MLB, mind you!) is just now "beginning" to "get those two things right" you referred to. Almost 40 years at the helm and they're just now getting around to that. Unbelievable. You'd think with having the longest tenured owner that the Sox would be the model franchise by now, the one by which the others are judged, with the "White Sox Way" copied over and over and over again. Yet it's almost exactly the opposite. Excessive failure on the field year in and year out, resulting in bottom-of-the-barrel attendance and TV/radio ratings. All of this for a franchise residing in a big market. Again, unbelievable, and again, time for a new owner. This is a great post. This is what a great message board post is.

QUOTE (Harry Chappas @ Jul 3, 2017 -> 08:27 PM) I like you greg as a matter of fact I think we may have been classmates. The previous poster is correct. A GPA of 3.9 is not what it was years ago. At Marist it is possible with enough AP classes to graduate with a 5.5 out of 4.0 I think at Rice the highest you could get is 4.8 out of 5.0 The southern catholic schools are all about be hit really hard times. Alum are all that are keeping Leo open. Thanks Harry. I still am planning on getting to a home football game one of these seasons. If you are in the area you should come by the same game. QUOTE (raBBit @ Jul 3, 2017 -> 08:40 PM) Just from what I hear being on the south side, Marist is the only catholic school that is totally safe. My uncle is an active alum at Leo and apparently it's not looking good there. Damn. Leo closing its doors would suck. Rice and McAuley at least have the sister school/brother school relationship going on with property so close by. I wonder if ultimately the two of them would bail each other out and merge campuses if it gets to that point. I guess they are at the mercy of the city. If everybody moves out or if the neighborhood dynamics totally change and there are no more kids, they are doomed. Of course everybody knows they recruit (at least the big time sports athletes, lol).

QUOTE (elrockinMT @ Jul 3, 2017 -> 07:28 PM) Yolmer Sanchez may have made him less necessary for another year or two. What about Saladino and Leury? That is an interesting post. It normally would come from a fan of rebuilding. They love to keep these guys in the minors lest the cliche "rush them" comes into play. Rushing prospects concerns our rebuild fans even though in the NBA 19 year olds are starting year after year now. It's a "baseball thing" to make sure players stay in the minors 3, 4, 5 seasons before bringing them up. At the same, Sanchez, Saladino and Leury are all projected once a week players at best, El Rockin.

QUOTE (SoxFan2003 @ Jul 3, 2017 -> 03:03 PM) Unless things have changed since the early 2000's, a 3.9 isn't as difficult at Rice as it seems. Honors classes when I was there were based on a 5.0 scale. So a 3.9 is basically a 'b' average. If you are like most on here you probably will be appalled and furious that I also went to Rice, since I am a despised person. I can't think of one poster who likes me, though fathom and caulfield seem to tolerate me. Brother Rice ... the only school in the world that would make poor Mt. Greenwood kids take swimming first hour after walking a mile to school on a 10 below zero day and freezing one's butt off. I joke. I think it's a fine school. p.s. HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY! Please toast me during your dinners, unless it's a Bud product. I am one of 5 percent of the population allergic to Bud or Bud Light. If I have one I immediately get a headache (google it). I am OK with all Miller products.

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Jul 3, 2017 -> 12:19 PM) I swear you are like 10 months behind the world Wat you mean? the Trump twittering issue regarding Morning Joe was still in the news the last couple days. It hadn't reached its 15 minutes yet when I commented on it. QUOTE (KagakuOtoko @ Jul 3, 2017 -> 12:45 PM) greg moves at snail's pace compared to other's My blood pressure stats would suggest otherwise. QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jul 3, 2017 -> 03:22 PM) That's what happens when you live in Kansas. Kansas is just as mean and cut-throat as any other state. The Western part of the state should be its own rural State. Lawrence is a nice liberal town with a trendy downtown (not as nice as Madisons obviously) only 40 minutes from KC. KC is a poor man's Chicago. Much smaller but a good sports complex, good Plaza area, good suburbs and growing downtown on the Missouri side (crossroads district by Sprint Center) and growing district in KCK by the racetrack/casinos.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jul 3, 2017 -> 04:20 PM) Further proof as to which party is actually willing to stand up to its leadership, and not just fall into line. Social media and the hate it spews politically has just added to the collapse of America. Democrats and Republicans have always been at odds, but now it is WAR. Thanks to twitter, everything is a W/L situation. The Republicans are out to win every battle; the Democrats are out to win every battle. The Republicans gave us Donnie "the disaster" Trump. Mr Tweetmeister. The Democrats gave us LOL unelectable Hillary as their nominee, when they could have begged Mr. Biden to run (I realize he was still mourning the death of a family member). If not Biden, Bernie. No matter what you all think, both parties are HORRIBLE and should be ashamed of themselves. I am appalled at this Chris Christie story of him going to the beach today when the beach has been shut down because of budget woes!! How one-percent elitist of him. Very sick and sad (unless it's a fake news photoshop).

QUOTE (The Mighty Mite @ Jul 3, 2017 -> 06:34 PM) Maybe I should have said the Sox are suppose to be a big market franchise, the main reason they're not is they are owned by JR and company. The franchise has been a joke since 2008 and new ownership is needed more than anything, I'm not a fan of the rebuild because I know the front office will in the long run screw it up. Agreed. The 05 regime deserves credit for the WS title. Put them in the team Hall of Fame. But please Jerry and the group, SELL. Please sell. Our ballpark is no good (I know the popular opinion on here is it's great, but take away the food and what do you have except a monstrocity with a horrid upper deck). Aside from the park, we have a horrific front office. I agree with you. The supposed rebuild is not going to work. SELL, JERRY. Sell it to somebody with money to burn. Thank you.

Trump's twittering is officially an embarrassment and/or illegal. He's bullying on there and mocking and threatening people. He needs a national nickname involving Twitter.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Jul 3, 2017 -> 04:23 AM) Wow, Fenwick is over $15k. I remember when I went there it was something like $5,500-6k...so it has basically tripled in 20 years. f***, I can't believe how old I am... Whoa. How can Fenwick be 4,000 more than Rice?