greg775

Tough loss for the Royals. They had no chance against Baumgarner. Couldn't lay off his high stuff like Frank Thomas said in the postgame. Frank is really intelligent IMO. Would be excellent analyst/manager/hitting coach/whatever. When that ball skipped by the center fielder, I thought Gordon would scoot all the way around the bases. That was KC's only chance. Had Gordon somehow scored, KC would have won the World Series. Now they start all over next April. Right now they are light years ahead of the White Sox. I pity myself and our fanbase cause Detroit and KC figure to remain way better than our Sox, who also have no easy time beating Cleveland and/or Minnie. We better hope KC misses Shields and fails to get a good slugger to replace Butler. Without some more hitting, KC's lineup will remain abysmal. They need Colon to enter the lineup somewhere and be a star. He does look good. Once again, the last laugh is on the AL. The AL gets homefield and still can't win the WS. The Royals looked like s*** the three games in the NL park. This AL supremacy talk grows old when we do not dominate the WS at all.

It's all cliche. So Maddon is regarded as a great manager. A genius. Big deal. All these managers are basically the same. They make moves that get torn apart. How bout Boche tonight. He should be lauded forever for the way he set that up. They get the lead and Baumgarner is ready to mow down KC for five more innings. Hilarious. Nobody could have orchestrated it better. Meanwhile KC has a perceived buffoon managing the team and they are one Alex Gordon sprint home from tying it and winning it in extras. It's all cliche I tell you. Maddon is just another man. He's no magic elixir. Players win games though I will admit being partial to one, Ozzie Guillen.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Oct 30, 2014 -> 05:12 AM) WHY? They believe (at least internally) Finnegan could one day be comparable to Sale in the rotation going forward. That gives them Ventura, Duffy (one of the most underrated lefties in baseball statistically), Finnegan, Guthrie and Vargas. (Also, a nice balance with three quality lefties and two righties). A lot of that's OBVIOUSLY predicated on Finnegan developing, just like the White Sox with Rodon. With the injury in the AFL to Kyle Zimmer, that does put a little bit of a dimmer on their future...but they also have Liam Hendricks, Lamb coming back from rehab/injury....as well as Binford, who pitched very well in the minors this season and made himself into a solid prospect. The Royals can easily afford to let Shields go....although I doubt they'll get into the Scherzer/Lester sweepstakes, they definitely will be looking at guys like Liriano and Volquez that they can pay a lot less for AAV and for years and still continue to plug in their young prospects. A lot of this depends on how serious the Zimmer injury/situation is... Thing is, the Royals are still cheap and with the fans not clamoring to re-sign Shields or Butler, it's easy decision to let both walk. KC still needs some pop in its lineup so I bet they make some moves. They need a slugger.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Oct 29, 2014 -> 07:32 PM) I've said it before, and will say it again, there will be a LOT of pressure for the Royals to re-sign Shields that would not have been there if they had flamed out early or missed the playoffs. Nah. Fans here think he's old news. They don't care bout keeping him or Butler

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Oct 29, 2014 -> 07:31 PM) It's also because they don't know it yet. If pieces fit just right, I could see them around $110 million. If they don't, I could just as easily see them around $75 million. They'll spend some money but it's hard to know on just what exactly. If Hahn can win at 75 million bless him. I just want to win and win now. Frankly the Royals are gonna be difficult to knock off their pedastal for upcoming years as they become the Detroit of our division. If they make some smart moves by replacing Shields and Butler with capable players they only figure to get better. Watching the Royals defense and pitching makes me cringe about the Sox condition. Think of all the great plays they've made in the outfield that would fall in our left and rightfield corners. GO SOX! Change the roster significantly Mr. Hahn! But I do think Mark B should be included in the retooling.

Bingo on Hosmer being a dick. He and Moustakas are very rude, mean individuals. I better add IMO lest I get in trouble. I know people that have had run-ins. Billy Butler on the other hand ... gem of a person.

Bill James is THE BEST. He'll eat the Sabes people alive cause he is THE expert on real Sabes. I've met him and love the guy. He will not tolerate stupidity and recognizes ability.

Look, Paulie is gone; Mark is a White Sox true and true. Time to bring him back ... now! In 2-3 years he'll be wearing another World Series ring. With his example, our staff will be rockin.

Back to the topic. Shields is going to be grossly overpaid next season if you folks are correct. His resume is now screaming, "Don't sign me. I'm aging and faltering."

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Oct 27, 2014 -> 02:52 PM) I don't necessarily think that. Bumgarner will be sitting down the bullpen if Hudson gets rattled at all in game 6. And, if he does, you take him out after 2 or 3 or whatever and Bumgarner pitches 3-4 innings for you. On one day's rest? Is that possible? QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Oct 27, 2014 -> 03:11 PM) The KC Royals make the playoffs for the first time in 29 years, and make it to the World Series, are 2 wins from a title, and their fans still complain about their manager. I hope it takes at least another 29 years before they sneak into the Wild Card game and lose it. Hopefully it will be 7-0 in the first inning. They are sickening fans. All they do is rip on Yost. It's crazy.

Getting him back would make me happy.

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Oct 26, 2014 -> 04:45 AM) One of these days you will give credit to the 05 Sox rotation for being so good, instead of just using it as excuse to praise Ozzie. The main reason I bring it up is to not glorify Oz any more but to point out the insanity of baseball. Managers won't let these pitchers go deep into games at all. It's ruining baseball. Every pitch was a crucial pitch in the third fricking inning. There's no rhythm to the games. A game in an NL park goes 4 fricking hours tonight? Like I said, I wouldn't have been surprised had Vargas been pinch hit for in the third. Ridiculous. I contrast it to Ozzeroo who let our guys FINISH f***ing games heaven forbid.

QUOTE (Jerksticks @ Oct 26, 2014 -> 04:32 AM) I still don't think you've done enough to make the lineup dangerous. The babe needs backup. And tank in LF? Get the ef outa here with that crazy talk. Well, I've given Hahn a break and put Davidson in there. What if he rakes? Also, what if A. Garcia is as good as Hahn thinks? As far as Tank, well, I didn't want to spend too much money and put it over 100 million. My plan still has the Sox as one of the cheapskates of baseball. My bullpen would be improved and my rotation might be a division winner. If Rodon is great, we've got Rodon, Sale, Q and Peavy in the same rotation! Defense is still iffy at best, but I don't know really what to do about it unless we trade for somebody who has leather in the outfield cause Aoki sucks defensively, too. But my team is GREAT cause of my rotation and bullpen.

I've been thinking of ways to improve the Sox through free agency. I think I really can fix our starting rotation on the cheap. Here's my plan. OK. Jake Peavy is 33 years old. He is a free agent cause the player option doesn't kick in since he only pitched 200 innings. The Sox need a righty starter. Why not Jake? Better yet, sign Peavy and Masterson and trade Danks or turn him into a reliever. You sign Peavy 2 years 14 million and Masterson 2 years 14 million. That's a paltry 7 million a year apiece added to the payroll for 2 years. We'd have Sale, Peavy, Q, Masterson, Rodon. That's not a bad rotation. If Danks can adjust, he'd be a damn fine addition to the bullpen. If you can trade him for a fourth outfielder, fine. Now, go ahead and sign Billy Butler for 2 years 18 million. Yes it's risky to give him 9 million a year but you are gambling he can elevate the ball in the Cell. So that's nine million a year. Finally you sign Aoki for one year, 7 million to be our fourth outfielder. So we have that excellent starting rotation I mentioned, and we have Danks in the bullpen. We've only added 23 million to the payroll in my scheme which means we can gamble and pick a closer out of the free agent crop and pay him 9 million a year. So I've added 32 million dollars a year. Isn't that a doable number? I thought I read Sox have a payroll of about 60 million right now; I've added 32 million and it's still under 100 million. Our lineup 1B-Babe Ruth. 2B-Semien. SS-Lexi. 3B-Davidson/Gillaspie. LF-Viciedo. CF-Eaton. RF-A. Garcia. DH-Butler. Fourth outfielder-Aoki. C-Tyler Flowers (still not optimal). If Davidson emerges, this is a heckuva lineup. Davidson is KEY! If Viciedo gets better, that would also help my lineup. What do you say??? My plan is doable.

We need the Royals to complete the deal so they aren't all fired up to win the division next year and get back to the Series. Shields and Butler will be gone, which should on paper hurt KC. You need some veteran starters and Guthrie and Vargas do not necessarily count. Without the automatic wins vs. the Sox, Guthrie has been Chen-like. They'll probably not spend much money in free agency, electing to go with their young rotation of Duffy, Ventura, Guthrie, Vargas and Finnegan or that stud Kyle Zimmer. Even though I'm not a Shields guy, the loss of Shields will hurt them. Cmon KC. Complete the deal and win it all so you can turn into the 06-14 White Sox.

Royals fans are officially insane, at least the ones who use Twitter. Now they are incensed at Yost for not calling for the bunt. They wanted Duffy to bat and bunt. Had Duffy screwed up the bunt they'd have never forgiven Yost for having an AL pitcher bunt. Also, these are the same fans who want Yost fired immediately for his use of the bunt whenever he calls for it. The Royals should just name Frank White manager for next year so these fans shut the f*** up. KC got its ass handed to it tonight. Now it's 2-2 going into the Shields-Baumgarner matchup. I'll tell you one thing ... why is it so hard to get a pitcher to go more than 5 innings who is not named Baumgarner? You guys may despise Ozzie but I'll forever thank he and Coop for all those complete game outings from our starters in 05. The way this Series has developed, every pitch is seen as crucial and tonight's game especially had no flow because of this. I'm surprised they even let Vargas go more than 2 innings the way the pace of this game was going. I'm surprised they didn't pinch hit for him. It's 2-2 now with 2 of the next 3 in Kauffman. It's the Royals' fault if they can't win it. The AL was superior this year; no need for the Giants to win it again. I won't shed a tear for these Royals' fans, though. They are insane on Twitter. This bunt thing is an oxymoron. Yost can't win either way.

I wonder if after a few weeks off Dunn has already changed his mind. There's no reason for him to quit if some team is willing to pay him and I'd suspect he could still get a contract. The guy is going to hit 20 homers again if he gets similar amount of at bats to this year. Of course he's going to do all the other things Dunn does.

Surprised the Royals picked him up. I guess they figure he replaces Aoki cheaply. No big loss. Sierra is just another guy.

Can you believe this Brownback disaster is going to win re-election in this woebegone state of Kansas? Do you folks laugh out loud when you hear the word "Kansas?" and/or "Brownback?" My gosh.

QUOTE (Buehrle>Wood @ Oct 25, 2014 -> 04:38 AM) Brother Rice beats St. Rita tonight. They've probably played the hardest scehdule in the state, so impressive season for them. Yes, I watched it on the Cube. Good high school game. Brother Rice tried an entertaining, crazy trick play late up by seven, which lost about 30 yards in its own territory. They punted, but the defense held out Rita. I guess it was worth a gamble. The kids doing the broadcast on the Cube were funny, criticizing the call and criticizing Rice being in a shotgun and the QB almost fumbling the final snap. Kind of funny to hear the high school broadcasters who attend Br. Rice "telling it like it is." Like you said, nice season. One of these years I'm going to do the walk down memory lane thing and fly in for a Rice game, maybe catch a Sox game the same weekend, and visit my old neighborhood if anybody ever wants to meet at a Rice game some year.

Royals fans are starting to piss me off. They buried Yost on Twitter tonight. Second guessing is starting to become silly by fans of a team that has lost one postseason game so far. They were furious he pitched Guthrie to start the sixth. I mean, f***, hindsight. WTF. The guy can't go out for the fricking sixth? Then they were furious he let Herrera bat. Fair enough criticism I guess but he wanted Herrera to face the tough righty to lead off the inning. Yost has a well oiled machine (great catches in right by Cain), great play on the bunt by Perez, clutch hit after moving Gordon up in the order but all he gets is grief from second guessing morons. Yes, Yost I guess is a horrible manager. But when you win games, you SHOULD shut your fan base up and those pricks aren't shutting up, just ripping Yost more and more with each victory.

Another shooting at a school today, a high school in Washington. Some dead. Get mad. Get a gun. Go kill as many people as you can before you get killed or shoot yourself. Happening way too often, folks.

QUOTE (Jake @ Oct 24, 2014 -> 08:02 PM) Managers just don't matter that much. I'm not too worried about it. I love the way any manager who lays down a bunt in the AL now is a buffoon. It's all cliche. It's about managing bullpens and hoping the guy you bring in doesn't implode. Robin had no chance with Sox bullpen but to look like a clown. Robin is fine.

QUOTE (Boogua @ Oct 24, 2014 -> 03:27 AM) Very doubtful that the KU offer is legit, but he's very talented. He would be a welcome addition if he can qualify. Kansas has about 3 scholarships to give and this guy is way way way down on the list.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Oct 23, 2014 -> 08:29 PM) Listen to some of these dopes who have been in college for 4 or 5 years try to put a sentence together. That is blatant proof they have been getting by with some BS classes or someone else doing the work. It is amazing how rare it is for a star player who really needed strings pulled to get out of high school has no problem staying eligible in college, and more specifically a real good academic college. I have always felt letting these guys actually graduate without really earning it cheapens the degree for all graduates. And as long as there have been boosters, your better players haven't had to worry about spending money during their eligibility. As usual, Dick Allen is spot on.