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QUOTE (WhiteSoxLifer @ Jun 28, 2015 -> 02:56 AM) This team already has holes and you want to trade off all the players they got last year to create more holes and no one to fill them. Plus it's really going to make the organization look bad to trade off everyone you just got in the offseason and deter any future free agents from wanting to sign with them cause if they sign there and not play well they will try to dump them right away. Hi Lifer. I'd like to respond. I disagree with your first sentence. My point is trading the guys they got last year won't create more holes. I want us to get guys like Colon, guys in the bigs or close to the bigs. I know the Royals would give us Colon and a minor leaguer or two for Shark. We're not catching them. Send them Shark ASAP!! Or Shark and Robertson, then they can trade Holland. Think about it. We trade Lexi for a big leaguer or somebody very close! I'm not creating more holes. Your other point is well taken. But I think free agents aren't dumb. They'd still sign with us. Chicago's a great city and if they do decent, even a grade of B, we'd keep them. They're not stupid. They know LaRoche, Melky stink and Duke is expendable and Shark is just OK. They ain't dumb. Free agents still will come. If they are GOOD, they'd be Kings of Rush Street!

QUOTE (Chilihead90 @ Jun 28, 2015 -> 07:02 AM) Have slipped down to the #5 pick now. 7 GB of the Phillies for #1. I normally get so mad at this thread, but this year I don't really care either way. It's because for the first time in many years I'm TOTALLY convinced we're the worst team in the Central. Our record against our division foes alone is a reason to fire Ventura and clean house. But I digress. I don't want us to lose every game; I want to win every game still, but I'm totally convinced this team blows so I don't mind this thread. I love the new Balta BTW. I like his negative posts. It seems he's convinced the Sox suck. It's rare a mod has as forceful an opinion about the Sox s***tiness. Go Balta!

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Jun 26, 2015 -> 10:46 PM) That was fast http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/201...po#.VY3IBPlViko I never thought of it, but that is also an interesting topic. Why shouldn't polygamy be legal? It's a fair question. I think it probably should be legal. If consenting males and females are OK with that arrangement, why should the government dictate against it?

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jun 27, 2015 -> 10:42 PM) Well, it's an "issue" until they are able to trade some of these guys. Until, for example, they get rid of some of these contracts they signed last offseason, I'll expect that they'll think "oh we can just retool this on the fly this offseason" and then fail mightily while doing so....again. Exactly. Unless we get rid of all the bums (in baseball sense) we acquired this offseason, the team will reek again next year. Simple retooling won't work. It's time for a huge firesale.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Jun 27, 2015 -> 08:39 PM) If Robin Ventura put a catcher hitting about .175 fifty or sixty games imto the season, into the 2 hole with a team struggling, he would be called a moron. Ventura is trying to fimd a two hole hitter. Melky, Alexei, Beckham, Gillaspie, Shuck, Avi have all hit secomd. What the hell else is he supposed to do? Why don't you just tell us what the correct philosophy is and who the guy batting secomd should be. Dick, I understand loyalty as I worship Ozzie still. But why are you such a Robin lover? He's done nothing. He's blah at best. Most of us understand no manager ever born could win with this collection of awful talent, but Robin still appears average at best, keeping that in mind.

QUOTE (staxx @ Jun 26, 2015 -> 08:19 PM) I have had the opportunity, being a PT student currently, to observe multiple surgeries throughout my clinical rotations. I have never experienced any type of behavior remotely close to this. Each time that I have been in a surgery, the entire medical team was 110% professional and absolutely immersed in their work. It's sad that this occurs. Thank goodness.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jun 27, 2015 -> 07:25 PM) 1. Dump as many of the guys we have right now as possible to come up with that money. 2. Actually develop some of our own players to fill a role or two. 3. Then use the money saved in step 1 to actually sign guys who can make a difference when we have a roster around them. 4. Do a better job of scouting players before we sign them. Excellent take! That's exactly what the Sox should do. I wish we'd dump a batch of players before we start playing the Cubs. That will be yet another slap in our faces as fans this season, our performance against them unless somehow the bats get hot for those games.

Sox are 12 games out in their own division and it's not even July. They should be too embarrassed to be saying anything to the press except a firesale is ON.

Did you see the item about the guy who was put under anaesthesia for his colonoscopy? He secretly recorded the session on his i phone and discovered the doctor was mocking him, making rude remarks and jokes and generally abusing him verbally while he was under anaesthesia. It has made me wonder about the behavior of medical personnel nowadays. To any of you in the business ... is this commonplace with renegade doctors/anaestehsiologists? Do they mock patients all the time while they are under? Are doctors and nurses giving their best efforts during our heart surgeries and other operations or do they mess with patients all the time?? I have a buddy who just had a double bypass. He was intense pain a day after surgery. His son asked the surgeon assistant, "My dad wonders why the pain medication isn't working well." The assistant said, "He has no pain medication; he didn't ask for it." The son angrily said, "He's asking for it now." They didn't even ask him if he was in pain and wanted medication. Is this common? He also said the nurses did not offer to clean him up with a sponge shower until the son asked. The man had all this surgical goop on him, etc. Also the son said they were moving him around too forcibly, his dad in obvious pain. I know paying for medical care is an issue and through the roof, but what about the PERFORMANCE of doctors and nurses. Is it good in America and in your hospitals or shoddy? Is abuse/joking about people going on while they are under?

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jun 26, 2015 -> 04:23 PM) The idea that the government should not interact in the least with the existence of marriage is just silly. From tax purposes to hell, immigration, it's kinda important. Should the government not recognize that if one member of a family receives a lawful immigration status the spouse should be able to accompany them? Should the government not grant immunity against testifying against a spouse? Come on. Tax purposes? Just move to Kansas where you'll be sales taxed higher than people in any other state and traated like crap unless u are a rich business owner (I guess there are some here). Back to the issue. Great day for America. I like the post about this being just a piece of paper issue though. We do need to tackle security/economic issues. Our country is a mess. You can be killed at any moment going to church or a mall. And you can be bankrupt in the blink of an eye if you have a medical problem.

Did u see there have been random killings today. 30 some dead at a resort overseas. A beheading that was random. I'm telling you, the world is a cesspool right now. Anybody who travels outside this country right now is a fool IMO. You can be killed anywhere as an American target.

QUOTE (Thad Bosley @ Jun 26, 2015 -> 12:07 PM) Well, two things: A.) There isn't a general manager today or in the history of the game who would agree with your assertion that Hahn is not to blame for ANY of this. As GM, he is responsible for assembling the talent to fill out the roster, and he therefore shares in any praise should the team achieve success, or blame, if the team does not. This team that Hahn has assembled for 2015 is practically the worst team in the American League, and so to absolve him from any blame or accountability is simply ludicrous. And B.) This season is heading towards Hahn's second last place finish in his three years at the helm. Granted, three years isn't a terribly long time, but if the "best of his abilities" doesn't start turning things around sooner rather than later, then it'll be time to turn to someone with better abilities. Great post. It's results that matter and right now Hahn's grade is D. This team is by far the worst in the division and that's on him after all the deals last offseason. I do trust him though and hope he starts making some more trades and tries to re-do the mess he put the team in.

Call me crazy but I think he has value to a contender now. He'll re-focus on his new team. Trade him ASAP.

Pitching and defense, baby. That's the key to winning today in the non steroid era.

QUOTE (Dunt @ Jun 26, 2015 -> 07:23 PM) We are all frustrated, but I think we can all agree we want this franchise to contend in the very near future. The franchise is at a critical juncture and I have a hard time seeing them blowing this up and doing an entire rebuild. So, in your opinions, what is the best way to make this team a playoff contender in 2016? If you were GM, how would you approach this trade deadline and offseason? IMO, the quickest fix for this team is to shore up the defense this offseason. Avi either needs to be moved to DH or moved permanently, Alexei needs to be replaced, Conor should not be a starting 3B in the MLB, and Tyler Flowers needs to be gone. I know the Sox will likely be tight for cash, but they are going to need to spend if they have any intentions of cleaning up this mess. I think either Matt Wieters or Alex Gordon needs to be a top priority on the FA market. While people criticized the Russell Martin contract originally, he would have made such an overwhelming difference for this team. Great 2 hole hitter, leader in the clubhouse, and an excellent catcher. I really hope the Sox dont make the same mistake in FA this year. Two way players cost a lot of money for a reason. This franchise cannot continue to ignore the value of defense like it has over the last decade. I think they stand a legitimate shot at making noise next season with largely the same rotation and shoring up their defense. What are your thoughts? I can't give you specific names but I am CONVINCED fully my plan of keeping Sale, Q, Rodon, and our new draftee pitcher to go with Abreu and A. Garcia (I guess he's a fine prospect still) and trading all the pieces Hahn acquired last offseason is our best bet for immediate success. Those are a lot of bodies to trade and I'll leave it to him to fix the problems with those bodies as trade bait. Our ONLY hope is to ride what could be a top of the line rotation to the top. It would help if we could get in another division though. Sox are patsies to division foes in Central.

I hear Kansas lawmakers again are going to screw Kansans out of health insurance declining all the provisions of Obamacare. Yet all these lawmake®s get ®e-elected ove® and ove®. Amazing.

QUOTE (Iwritecode @ Jun 25, 2015 -> 02:18 PM) When I was in 4th or 5th grade one of the kids that was a grade below me was killed by being hit by a car on his way to school. As far as knowing your neighbors, I know that we have a least 2 sex offenders within a few blocks of our house. My girls had a few friends in the neighborhood but they all moved away before they even hit 7th grade. Yes and fear of this kind of stuff will forever have our kids imprisoned in their own homes, putting on their uniforms for soccer and baseball and basketball when they are 5 years old. It is what it is. I'm just saying parents are way overprotective and that's OK because that's the way it is now. We had a nut on our block when I was a kid and the parents did say to NEVER go in the vicinity of that house. Nobody got knifed by that moron either.

I told you guys all our veteran "name" players will be sought after. Please Sox, dump LaRoche and Melky and Lexi and Robertson and Duke and Shark in a major "do-over" of the past offseason. I'm confident Hahn will get it right this time.

Any win is a great win for Chicago's Sox. I wonder what the team's record is when it draws five walks like today. I bet we're undefeated with four or more walks. The offense was pretty darn good today, like the front office and fans envisioned it in the preseason. Man, Rodon is off to a pedestrian start. I'm not complaining, he's young and doing OK, but not exactly Strausburg-ing it. What the hell is wrong with David R? Man, I guess no relievers are worth the $$$ nowadays. All we can ask is the Sox keep it going and win some series. I still am expecting 1-3 this series, but what the heck?

You've gotta be bleepin me. Now we go to Detroit?? For four games?? Geezus I hate baseball's schedule. Now we cure Detroit's ills. Sox take one if lucky. More likely Four game sweep coming considering our defense will kick it all over that big stadium. My gawd.

I "almost" feel sorry for Eaton on today's blunder. When you think a guy caught the ball u can go braindead. He took responsibility in his quotes. I think his hustle has been OK all year, he's just sucked big time.

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Jun 24, 2015 -> 10:41 PM) Rank dead last in baseball per fangraphs (Padres are team ahead of us). Over the past 3 years, we rank 3rd from the end having given up an etxra 102 runs vs. a league average defense. The difference between the Sox defense during that span and the Royals defense is 301 runs. Yes, i said that right, 301 runs. Absolutely apalling. Consistent though cause we have ranked in bottom 3 spots past 2 seasons and now own the bottom spot this year. Tribe and Astros are only teams that rank worse. Wow. This is why we knew after six weeks of baseball that this team was crap and needed to start trading its pieces immediately. You can't win with defense like this.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Jun 24, 2015 -> 08:12 AM) http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/educat...4eb1_story.html As well as makes up a phone call from Mark Zuckerberg (supposedly while in Panama)...urging her to go to Harvard, where he of course didn't even graduate. This is the corollary to the participation trophy idea...it's the "tiger" parents who are unwilling to accept anything less than eight Ivy League acceptances, who force their kids into mastering multiple instruments, leadership in volunteer activities, sports year-round (captainship is a plus), clubs/extracurriculars, student newspaper editor, training center classes for SAT, arts/drawing/singing/dance in order to differentiate their son or daughter from all the other perfect SAT scorers who look virtually identical to admissions counselors. http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/genius...d8e5_story.html Opinion piece on the situation. The evolution of parents/kids which has led to stuff like this is very sad.

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Jun 24, 2015 -> 09:30 PM) From the geezers in my office, they'd argue the biggest difference between now and when they were kids is that neighborhoods used to be neighborhoods. You knew everyone on the block and all the kids on the block. Parents could rely on other parents to keep kids in line. Nowadays i'm not sure how much that happens. Certainly in some areas, but there's a ton of movement now. You don't buy a house and plan to live there until you die. The house you live in is just a stepping stone to the next one. I just think folks born at the end of the Baby Boomer generation decided it was unsafe for their kids to do anything unattended. And every generation to follow has copied that and only made it worse. Johnny and Julie must be taken care of and watched and protected at all times and also can do no wrong. Just ask teachers who get in trouble for giving bad grades to brats who deserve the bad grades.

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Jun 24, 2015 -> 08:39 PM) I agree with the general point here, but I mean, if something happened, wouldn't you as a parent feel terrible? Given the availability of organized sports for kids from the time they're 3, call me crazy, but not letting them play on the street isn't some major sin as a parent. My son's K-5 school is 3 blocks from our house. I'm already dreading the day when we let him walk there by himself. I'm not sure it'll happen to be honest! I applaud those parents that want their kids to get out there and explore at a young age. And I 100% think it's bulls*** that some people/communities want to fine them for being bad parents/ But i'm also not going to judge other parents for not wanting to take the risk. Your post is great and understandable and 100 percent in line with how we as a society feel today. No way in hell kids are allowed to be kids and be alone EVER. I just want to say this. When I was a kid, from 10 years old on, in Mt. Greenwood, parents would allow kids to basically do whatever they wanted to do in the summer. Your bike was your friend. Unorganized sports with buddies was your friend! And nobody I ever know was hit by a car, kidnapped, abused, approached. Kids did play Little League from age 10 on. Drove their own bike to the games; parents rarely attended unless you made the playoffs or something. Great life. Nobody got killed or kidnapped or hit by cars. I'd make the bike ride from 103rd street to 115th Street where the fields were. Never a problem. We also got soft drinks if we won paid for by our coaches; we got nothing if we lost. For some reason people in my generation and ensuing generations refused to allow their own kids to have the same childhoods. We were too afraid of "something happening" to the kids. Can you imagine if coaches only bought soda for the kids if they WON nowadays? The horror. Buy those kids cokes win OR lose!!