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QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Feb 23, 2015 -> 10:10 AM) Anyone else still with 12 Monkey's or Vikings? Nice Debut for Vikings I am totally sold on 12 monkey's after the 5 or 6 episodes we are into it. My wife and I love 12 Monkeys. I'm really surprised by how well done it is. They do a great job with the time travel aspect.

QUOTE (Brian @ Feb 20, 2015 -> 07:56 AM) I feel sorry for folks with this mindset. Don't watch Jaws! Or The Graduate! They look dated!!!! The fact that they didn't rely on special effects that much for Jaws actually helped it be even more terrifying. The suspense throughout the movie could have been ruined by too much focus on a perfect looking shark.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Feb 20, 2015 -> 10:16 AM) I know they have offered him less, but I believe this is the target his people are aiming at. Well, that's discouraging. I don't see the Sox offering him that much, nor would I want them to. $28MM a year would be too much.

QUOTE (Chilihead90 @ Feb 19, 2015 -> 02:06 PM) ^Pretty much that. I guess you could compare it to that new NBC show called like "Allegiance" or something, although I refuse to watch that show because I feel like they are trying to capitalize off The American's success. Pitts forgot to mention that the family lives next to a guy who is an agent with the FBI, and they have befriended him. So it has the Breaking Bad element of two characters are close friends (Walt and Hank), but yet the one is unknowingly chasing after the other person at work. It's a really good show. The only negative about the show is that about 25% of the show's dialogue is in Russian, so you have to read subtitles, and the main characters have so many different disguises and personas that it can be a little hard to follow who they are pretending to be with whom. That is a very important part of the show. Now that you mention it, the scenario does resemble the Walt/Hank situation.

QUOTE (BigHurt3515 @ Feb 19, 2015 -> 12:35 AM) What exactly is this show about? What would you compare it to? I don't know what I would compare it to. But it takes place in the '80s when the US was still engaged in the Cold War with the Soviet Union. The show centers on a couple who are Soviet spies living in the US and have been for years. They're completely Americanized (at least to everyone else's viewpoint). They have a couple kids and run a travel agency...by day. They work covertly for the Soviet Union, running missions, turning people against the US, etc. There's a lot more to it, but that's the general idea. One of the best shows on TV.

I'd like to see him get better at stealing bases. He's got the speed, but he definitely needs to work on better reads and quicker jumps. If he can repeat (or come close to) his performance last year and steal more bases (and get caught a lot less), he'll be in the conversation for one of the top lead-off hitters.

Great episode of Shameless last night. Mickey is one of the best characters on the show...maybe the best.

QUOTE (Chilihead90 @ Feb 15, 2015 -> 08:04 PM) I hope you are all watching the SNL special right now. It's fantastic. That Celebrity Jeopardy is an instant classic. "It was in your mother's handwriting." I nearly pissed myself.

QUOTE (VAfan @ Feb 13, 2015 -> 12:23 AM) As we approach Spring Training, a lot of things are set for the Sox. We know our top 3 starting pitchers. Eaton, Cabrera, Abreu, LaRoche, Garcia, Gillaspie, Ramirez, and Flowers are all pretty set as starters. Robertson is our closer. Wells and Jennings have strengthened our bullpen. Bonafacio is making the team in some capacity. So what hasn't been answered? Here are 10 questions that need to be answered. 1. Who's going to emerge as our starting second baseman? Sanchez, who ended last season there? Micah Johnson, the speedy lefty? Bonafacio, who's probably better in a utility role? Saladino, who's coming off injury? Or even Gordon Beckham, in a bid for the Sox to torture us once again after we thought we were done with him? Gordon Beckham 2. Who is going to stick at backup catcher? Soto? Brantly? Nieto? Kottaras? Kottaras 3. Will Jesse Crain be healthy enough to help us this year? Will Nate Jones? (This is a two-fer.) Crain, yes. Jones, yes but later in the season 4. How will the Sox deploy Carlos Rodon? Will he stay in the minors long enough to give another season of control? When will his major league debut be? Will be in the bullpen, or as a starter? Will he displace Nieto or Danks if he starts? Start in AAA, come up in June as a starter 5. Gillaspie and LaRoche don't hit lefties very well. Who subs for them? Seems like Bonafacio and Beckham are both candidates to platoon with Gillaspie. But what about LaRoche? ? 6. Who is going to be our 4th (or 5th) outfielder (assuming Bonafacio will also sub in the outfield a fair amount). Shuck or maybe Taylor 7. How does the rest of the bullpen shake out behind Robertson and Wells? 8. Will these players all be healthier this year? Adam Eaton? 123 games. Avisail Garcia? 46 games. Jose Abreu? 145 games. Chris Sale? 26 games, 174 innings. Eaton will get hurt at least once, Garcia will be healthy all season, Abreu will rest a little more and stay healthy, Sale will stay healthy 9. Will guys like Matt Davidson and Eric Johnson get their careers back on track to where they can be seen at least as future help, if not being ready to help this year? Davidson will have a much better year and will be a September call-up, Johnson has another rough year 10. Who else are the Sox going to add to help the club in 2015? They'll pick up a veteran SP looking to come back after injury and/or down years Answer all 10, or pick and choose which ones you like, or add some others. Should be an interesting season!

Pretty dark episode of The Walking Dead last night. Solid opening to Better Call Saul. Didn't really watch The Grammys, but I did see AC/DC open the show. That was pretty bad ass. What was even better, though, was Jeff Lynne playing a couple ELO songs.

The Americans: Also, I started watching Black Mirror on Netflix. The episode The Entire History of You was great. Looking forward to watching the rest.

QUOTE (Chilihead90 @ Feb 4, 2015 -> 01:11 PM) Yeah, I'm a big fan, although the Russian embassy stuff always seems to confuse me because it's all in subtitles and they talk so fast that sometimes it's hard to even read all the dialogue before they take it off the screen. My question is, in real life in Russia do they address each other with their first and last names all of the time?

QUOTE (SnB @ Feb 3, 2015 -> 08:05 AM) Did anyone else play something like this? I vaguely remember playing it as a kid, though I think I was too young to fully comprehend it. http://www.amazon.com/Card-Baseball-Exciti.../dp/B0052EROZ8# My son got Strat-O-Matic Baseball for Christmas. It's similar to this one. What's nice about it is that you can make it as basic or as advanced as you want. We've played quite a few games with it, and it turns out to be pretty realistic. The more advanced you play (lefties vs. righties, slealing, etc.), the more realistic it is.

I was seriously into collecting from about '89 to '91. I still have a bunch of Griffey Jr. rookie cards. I stopped collecting around '92 for several reasons. One, there were just too many being produced, and they weren't worth much anymore. Secondly, and more impactful, was that I had joined the Coast Guard. But even once I got through bootcamp and went to my first duty station I didn't really collect anymore. It's a shame that the overproduction of the cards, and the number of companies making cards, ruined it.

I too thought Katy Perry did a good job. It certainly sounded like she was actually singing and not lip-synching. I'll giver her credit for that. The commercials weren't very good, but they haven't been for a few years now. The Snickers ad with Danny Trejo and Steve Buscemi was funny, but Liam (Li-am) Neeson was the best.

Because I am a stat nerd (not just with baseball, but in all things), I'm starting to see how these probability stats are as useful as some think. I think, however, that a season as a whole is less about mathematical probabilities than individual plays or scenarios. Managers have to use those probabilities all of the time. Lefties vs. righties, defensive shifts, pinch hitters, defensive substitutions. That being said, you can see why some teams are built to take that stuff into consideration. So, does replacing Viciedo with Beckham make enough of a difference? I believe so, mainly because Viciedo didn't fit with Shuck (or whomever may fill that spot) and Bonifacio. Beckham at $2 million gives the Sox more flexibility when it come to those probabilities than Viciedo at $4 million (or whatever he would have gotten). Plus, Beckham has better hair.

I attended the Will County Old Timer Baseball Association banquet last night, and Scott Fletcher was the guest speaker. Turns out his daughter is married to Gordon Beckham. He predicted that Gordon will have a great year with the Sox, of course.

I'm okay with the move. The versatility of Bonifacio allows him to be an IF and OF bench player. With Shuck (most likely right now) already here and Bonifacio, there really was no place for Viciedo. Beckham will be a decent bench player...that is if either Sanchez or Johnson do well enough to get the starting 2B job. There is a possibility that Beckham is the Sox's starting 2B, but let's hope it's Sanchez or Johnson. Beckham will be more useful (read: less bad) as a bench player.

QUOTE (juddling @ Jan 28, 2015 -> 08:45 AM) While I thought the Justified season opener wasn't as good as some in the past....last night episode had a couple awesome moments....... Raylan's "I'm not following you" exchange with Choo Choo was great.

Shameless: Frank's verbal explosion (before the house explosion) was awesome. And after the house explosion: "Hey, that's a nice sock."

QUOTE (LDF @ Jan 19, 2015 -> 09:35 AM) did i say that the sox never improved this yr???? show me where i did say anything of the sort. i said the sox haven't finished the rebuilding, and i don't they would do anymore excepts for backups. I misinterpreted what you were saying. Sorry about that. What is the final piece, though? I imagine there are plenty of different ideas from the fan base. I'd like to see one more proven starting pitcher, but that could get costly. The bullpen is much better, but they could still shore it up a bit more. There's a question mark at 2B, but that might be a lower priority.

QUOTE (LDF @ Jan 19, 2015 -> 08:57 AM) in actuality, disappointed is the wrong word to use, or is it. maybe its the context of the sentence. i acknowledge that Hahn and the sox have done a fantastic job in rebuilding esp in a short time. that is a given. i am a little sad / angry that in my opinion the job is not yet done or competed. i have a feeling that the sox are going to see what they have in Erik Johnson, Rodon and maybe even Beck. again seeing if these players are ready or not. if they were not going to continue with the rebuild, then why even bother to rebuild at all, why trade for Jeff S??? why do the lip service of convincing the fans that they, the sox will compete.... oh i see, to sell tickets. How is signing LaRoche, Duke, Robertson, Bonifacio, and Cabrera AND trading for Samardzija and Jennings lip service? The Sox made so many improvements this offseason, and they are in much better shape to contend. That's getting stuff done. That's actually doing what needs to be done.

QUOTE (Chilihead90 @ Jan 18, 2015 -> 02:08 AM) 12 Monkeys TV premiere was.....confusing I'd say. I'm going to read some reviews and then watch Ep. 2 and see if it makes a little more sense. Not sure I like them changing Brat Pitt's character to a girl though. I enjoyed it. I think they did a good job with the time travel references. There was a clever line when he handed the watch back to the girl and said, "Hold on to that. It's going to save us again a minute ago." I hope they can keep it up for the entire series.

QUOTE (Tex @ Jan 15, 2015 -> 08:19 AM) I'm surprised that no one has stated the obvious. This allows him to easily take a position on the Sox coaching staff as roving minor league batting instructor until there is room on Robin's staff. Not only filling two roster positions as a OF/P but coaching as well. The future of baseball. Plus, he could spend some time in the booth, spelling Hawk or Farmer. And don't forget about hot dog vendor.

One of my favorite threads that unfortunately disappears quickly. I decided this year to read (or at least attempt to read) some books from the lists of the best books of all time. Some on the lists I've already read...some by choice (like Gone With The Wind) and some by mandate in school (like The Great Gatsby). I threw myself a softball for the first one of the year with H. P. Lovecraft's At The Mountains of Madness. I'm really enjoying it. The writing takes a little to get used to, but it's quite the story. His descriptions of the Antarctic are pretty vivid. Not sure which one I'll try next. The one nice thing about many of the books on the lists is that they're cheap (and even sometimes free) on the Kindle.