Chisoxfn

QUOTE (knightni @ Apr 27, 2015 -> 09:54 AM) Unless they trade the pick... They won't be trading out of the 1st round. It is why I didn't say with the 7th pick, they will draft a player.

QUOTE (daggins @ Apr 27, 2015 -> 08:52 AM) The other two in the bottom 3 are Eaton and Melky. Before long, Hahn has to realize there is a need for a standout defender in the OF, and Shuck isn't that guy. Trayce Thompson is the guy that would be the fit but I think they still see some potential their and want him getting regular at bats.

Umm, I think if you look at any of my posts, you could change this topic to say the White Sox are awful on defense. It is a huge fault, especially with a team being build around defense. All that said, we are talking small sample size and Eaton is not going to stay in the bottom. Big thing is Micah is going to make errors cause he is young and Melky is passable in left (but not good), Avi is awful (could probably be passable in left or maybe less awful) and well Connor is the same at 3B. Bottom line, we have few elite defenders and a lot of very bad defenders. That makes for a lousy defense.

QUOTE (Harry Chappas @ Apr 27, 2015 -> 08:54 AM) I've liked GOT but I did not read the books and am clueless on pretty much most of what is happening. What happened to the Stark kid that was pushed out the window. He has not been in this season I recall. Not yet, but I presume we will get an update on them this season. This was also first we saw of Reek, Bolton and Ramsey this season as well. Like all things GOT, early episodes each season tend to be more about building the next big stories, especially given how much of a bang their tends to be late in each of the seasons.

My son and daughter finally behaved well for a night (each of them) and got to catch up on some GOT (finally all the way up to speed). I haven't read the books so I don't know what happened but I feel that there are a lot of interesting storylines leading up to what should be a great season (figure things are going to really build from here). Curious whether we have Jon Stark or Snow and what will happen with Sansa and Winterfell. As a fan of all things North, I get fired up at the thought of Snow becoming a Stark and kicking Bolton and Ramsie's asses back to the stoneage, taking over Winterfell and rescuing Sansa. However...as a fan of the North...I realize I probably won't get my wish as the North is always getting crushed, haha. The one interesting thing...the show has less people I hate right now...Ramsay / Bolton I loathe and while I don't like Cersei (I think she plays the part fantastic and is good for the show), Reak (well I quietly hope he lashes back on them and rescues Sansa (if Snow doesn't). Outside of that, not a lot of people I loathe...where as I used to dislike the Kingslayer (now I like him) and with Joffrey and Lanister gone, who I despised too...I feel the show needs to find some new people to be "enemies". Maybe they do that with Stannis (who I don't hate or like) and well I actually don't like the Queen much, but if she hitches her wagon to Tyrion (and it means more Tyrion), than count me in. Damn...did I mention how much I love this series. I figure when my son / daughter grow up, I'll read these books and actually read Harry Potter and than show them the series.

I'm scared...I keep thinking to my post when the Cavs acquired JR Smith and how I said he's going to end up beating us because he saw everyone on ST laughing at how the Cavs got him and he's going to tell us all what is up and go on one of his crazy hot streaks for a series (just nailing 3's like crazy)...however, we can hope that it is only on the practice floor while he's dealing with his suspension!

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ Apr 26, 2015 -> 05:53 PM) Nothing official yet. But I'm hearing/reading Love could miss at least two weeks. This combined with what will no doubt be at least a 1-game suspension for (what a f***ing idiot) J. R. Smith gives the Bulls absolutely no excuse not to beat Cleveland. I still think the Cavs are the favorites and I hope Love plays. If we are going to win I want to beat every team at its best. That said, I really want to win a title, but first things first, we need to get the Bucks tonight.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Apr 26, 2015 -> 08:37 AM) Coming out of the huddle of the last play of the Bulls game, I asked out loud why Derrick Rose was on the floor for a defensive possession at the end of the game. I am still waiting for my answer. Dude didn't even get screened. He just lost Mayo. Embarrassingly bad. Would you want to have Brooks out there? Rose is a good defensive player. His lapses are when he zones out, which he evidently did right there. Our team defense is absurdly better when he is on the floor vs. off the floor.

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Apr 26, 2015 -> 06:34 AM) The Bulls played so terribly and still only lost because of a last second defensive breakdown. I'm annoyed they couldn't close the deal, but oh well The ball security is probably the one thing I have consistently griped about on this forum. It sickens me how poorly we are and how careless a lot of our turnovers are. All this said, It is clear why the Bucks were one of the top rated defensive teams. They are long and play fantastic d. Bulls better have learned that they can't just coast (they kind of did the past two games and got away with it in 1 and almost in the 2nd game). How about a nice victory in game 5 and than lets get some rest before playing the Cavs (and hopefully taking our game to another level...as we are going to have to play better each and every series). If we play like we did against the Bucks, we lose the series, imo.

QUOTE (shipps @ Apr 27, 2015 -> 07:21 AM) The idiots are always annoying in sports. The worst guys are the ones that pretend to know it all with no specific examples to back up their opinions and no real information to back up with what they saying as they deem fact. Also there are the people that do have some information and are unwilling to accept any other view points. But I do enjoy hearing the smart fans or analysts opinion about each guy in the draft. Fact...the Bears will draft a player in the 1st round Thursday. More analysis to come at 9.

QUOTE (shipps @ Apr 23, 2015 -> 09:49 AM) I am thinking the best route the Bears could have taken would have been to get rid of Cutler so they would likely tank. This way you could have still built your defense but you would have been bad enough to get a high draft pick and possible top QB in next years draft. With Cutler and this new defense they are going to be good enough to be in the middle of the pack and for what? If you can get a top QB, great, if you can't, we could end up far worse as a result of that. It is not easy to find serviceable QB's in this league. I have zero problem with the organization's plan to test Jay out with this new regime who is already knee deep in cleaning up a gigantic pile of poop.

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Apr 21, 2015 -> 10:43 AM) Quad contusion, they are hoping treatment will have him ready for the next game. At least thats what Cowley said an hour ago on the score Friedell says he will be very surprised if Niko plays in game 3 or 4.

I just want to point out that the way the Bulls rebounded and defended yesterday is how I expected them to do it all year. They were monsters on the glass and this team is so much better with Derrick at the point (when he is focused on D, he is an extremely strong defensive point guard...I should caveat this as saying there aren't many good defensive PG's in the league). Loved it. I still think we will have chemistry issues due to overall rust that will hinder us against Cleveland (who to me is going to be the eventual champ) but I think it will be a great series and just hope everyone on both sides is healthy for it. We'll need to play elite defensively and need all of our playmakers to be aggressive and effective. Cleveland has gotten us on the glass a bit this year so hopefully we can take that angle from them and crush them in the paint as Butler is going to have an extremely difficult match up in Lebron so key will be our bench having an advantage and helping us and Derrick and Pau outplaying Kyrie / Love with Dunleavy playing efficiently.

Oh oh oh boy, I want our old head coach back.

Did you know that Bryce Harper has yet to face a pitcher who was younger than him. That is pretty crazy.

QUOTE (TaylorStSox @ Apr 20, 2015 -> 12:29 PM) At this point, I prefer to pretend the PT never existed. They really are just bad movies in just about every way imaginable. Redlettermedia did a great job of illustrating it, especially the focus being on Anakin. It really should have been Obi Wan's story. I'm probably more interested in Rogue One than Episode VII, though I can't wait for both. A gritty war movie set in the Star Wars universe directed by Gareth Edwards? Yeah, I'm in. Apparently they've even hired some of the production team from Saving Private Ryan. Both of these sound fantastic.

QUOTE (GoSox05 @ Apr 21, 2015 -> 10:18 AM) @RobDemovsky First bit of schedule information: Packers will host the Bears on Thanksgiving night. #ESPNNFL Wow.

QUOTE (fathom @ Apr 21, 2015 -> 09:39 AM) Congrats...as your kid(s) get older, if you want them to like the White Sox, buy them White Sox lego figures. Bought my kids a Sale and Abreu lego, and they know who to root for. PS...I told my kids that the Cubs don't like Lego toys and puppies, so I think they know who to root for now My daughter gets excited after time I go Jimmy Gets Buckets (which I said quite often last night). Want to make sure that in a few years and for the rest of my life, going to Chicago sporting events (and watching them) is considered a family tradition!!!

QUOTE (Tony82087 @ Apr 19, 2015 -> 02:47 PM) Not a fan. I like him getting major league experience, but it should be starting (I know, I know, this is how the Sox do it with their pitchers). Just don't know what the rush is at this point. Let's hope this works as well as it did with the last 2 lefties I remember we took this route with (Buehrle & Sale).

QUOTE (DirtySox @ Apr 19, 2015 -> 02:41 PM) Better be starting in not too long... As long as he is actually working on his pitches in side sessions, etc, I will be okay with this. The key is for him to still be able to develop, which is why I am surprised he is up here. Maybe they thought it was best for him to get mini action in major league games and spend as much time with Coop as possible (plus keep his arm fresh so that when he eventually moves to rotation this year, they don't have to worry about pacing him, other than obviously the first few starts where they stretch him back out). Clearly he is good enough to pitch effectively out of the pen (at least I think he is). Hard part is, harder to develop / work on things during big league games.

STEVE...I NEED MY JIMMY BUCKETS TSHIRT!!! COME ON NOW!!! PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE!!!

We have people on Soxtalk who can do our english homework. My kids are destined to be numbers people (born into CPA mommy & daddies, haha).

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Apr 16, 2015 -> 02:55 PM) Which remains, again, a thing that businesses are able to do because it's a way to cut payroll expenses without actually cutting their employees' salary. It is one version of an employer response to the near destruction of the global economy in 2008 - weak employment, no upward wage pressure, but actually cutting people's take home pay in response has much higher risk of losing the employee than cutting their benefits. In one case of my example that is true, but for all other companies, the amount the company would match and pay stayed flat and/or increased (as a relative percentage), however, to keep things from going crazy, other adjustments had to be made. For example, this current year at my current employer, premiums went up 10% (and coverage went down...hard to quantify exact percentage because a lot depends on how much you go out of pocket, but it was a pretty big overall reduction in coverage vs. the previous gold plated caddy coverage). Had the Company kept everything the same, premiums would have went up in excess of 40% (both to the company and the employee), whose % match was going to remain consistent). They opted to go with the version with lower premiums (and subsequently lower coverage) as the perception is the employee (and I'd generally say this is true) is more focused on the premiums paid vs. total cost (as you usually have to put some estimates in up front when analyzing that). Either way, my point is, it isn't employers driving this change. In some cases sure, but in general, all I see is absurd price increases and they have gotten crazy post Obamacare. I am not actually correlating the two because insurance costs have been crazy prior to, but lets not just look at premiums as an indicator. I could be on a plan that cost $50 / month and ultimately cost me thousands more than a plan that cost 500 a month depending on coverage & my use of insurance.

That is awesome and it sounds very interesting!!!

So I just want to point out, that for a normal pregnancy (2 night stay at hospital, only 1 night with baby since wife didn't deliver until morning...my bill will be in excess of $5K. My last child, obviously different plan, I paid less in insurance premiums and total bill was $100 dollars. Current plan is based upon my wife's company, which due to obama care, reduced benefits to the minimum required or otherwise standard bronze plan. I've already given examples of same situation for clients (when I worked in a different field that allowed me those insights). Obviously hard to differentiate what is driven by increased costs vs. driven by changes and companies changing what they will cover, etc. Long story short...we pay much more in premiums and get far less in benefit protection (have greater out of pocket max's, etc). I literally am dumbfounded at the cost of a standard delivery. I wonder if it was a c-section how much it would have been (clearly in excess of our Out of Pocket individual max). Thankfully we have good positions (and our big time planners), etc, and stable income and have planned for this, but I think vast majority of youth who have major student loans, etc, would be even able to afford the hospital bills (and it isn't like the typical middle class person is qualifying for a bunch of benefit assistance).