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Cutler has earned my respect. Few things bug me more than going to the media to talk trash. It annoys me with Jimmy Butler, it annoys me here. Cutler hasn't been good but his first 5 years he had ridiculous offensive coordinators and a GM who seemed to actively undermine him with the offensive line play and receivers.

Re: college tuition. Looks like that proposal could go two ways. Handling things like Fannie Mae/Mac or handle things like Medicaid. I like the idea of wielding around this group of students like a bargaining chip to prevent costs rising too high. I really would like a bipartisan coalition though with this. Free tuition is going to require iteration on seeing the unknown effects and handling them (as does a major bill like health care), and that will be difficult to do if one party is just going to openly sabotage it.

This was good on childcare plan and criticism of it (funded with tax credits) http://theweek.com/articles/625372/hillary...es-only-problem http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/17/us/polit...type=collection Kind of good rundown.

QUOTE (Ezio Auditore @ Aug 3, 2016 -> 09:28 AM) Interesting that Trump only thinks the election could be rigged if he loses. Nobody in republican party is going to put up with his b.s. though if he loses. Not concerned.

I am your voice

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Aug 2, 2016 -> 10:52 PM) It's really more about launching the political careers of Ivanka, and Donald Junior to a lesser extent. No, it isn't.

Hope that's what it is. No ACL

Sometimes the most obvious ones aren't that bad?

QUOTE (Black_Jack29 @ Aug 2, 2016 -> 06:46 PM) Agreed on both counts. Even after Big Poopie retires, the Red Sox will still have a ton of offensive talent, and I don't foresee DD wanting to rely heavily on Porcello. Price has been iffy in the recent past as well. I think that one of the "B" outfielders ends up in Chicago. I still see the Sox dealing Sale instead of Q, but perhaps I'll be proven wrong. The serious baseball discussion we need

Indians are 17 games over .500.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Aug 2, 2016 -> 04:43 PM) Au contraire mon ami, I can b**** on Soxtalk about it! Truth. It's goin down.

QUOTE (Y2HH @ Aug 2, 2016 -> 03:10 PM) It's still disingenuous in either regard. DCU printing money -- as in profits -- just not as much as their greedy asses wanted or estimated. That's like saying Google (DCU in this instance) isn't successful because it doesn't make as much money as Apple (Marvel in this instance). They're both very successful, one just more so. Microsoft would be better analogy. Microsoft putting out Windows XP over and over and over again.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Aug 2, 2016 -> 02:44 PM) No, it's that prospects bust. Very rarely does it work out trading a star for a bunch of prospects. It does occasionally, and these 2 are different. They have years of control. It's not like they are going to be a free agent in a couple of months or another year. People were excited about Avi when he was acquired. Many were excited about Davidson. A lot of people thought Hawkins would be a stud. People are already down on Fulmer. It's not just the White Sox who have prospects that bust. Every team does. Look at the top 10s from 5 or 6 years ago and they don't look as good now for the most part. That's why they cannot settle. You miss on the prospect package for Sale and Q, you just set your team back a lot more years. Being very careful with this should be applauded not ripped apart. Maybe they are going to rebuild. Is there really a big difference if they waited until the offseason as opposed to now? You make it seem like it's now past the point of no return, if they were going to rebuild, these guys had to be gone. Besides, how can the Sox have so many players that have value of top prospects, yet be a team that is destined to be awful? The White Sox have consistently been in the bottom third of farm system rankings for over a decade. You can list off a few that failed, a few that succeeded. The point is to get a lot. A lot of really good ones. Can you tell me that some will fail? Absolutely. But the reason Avi hurts so bad is because we haven't had a single outfielder come up that could push him out. Well we had one, we used him to trade for a third baseman because our lone 3rd base prospect in a decade failed. We, on the other hand, finally seem to have a wave of talent from a decent draft located in very early levels. If we commit to getting as many quality pieces as possible, vs doing whatever we are doing, we could find ourselves with an even larger core than we have now, and pieces to acquire the final pitchers or hitters needed to make a serious run. Not all of them will make it. But Adam Eaton made it. Sale made it. Prospects fail, well, a whole lot of teams have taken that into account and put a hell of a lot more emphasis on making sure they have as many as possible. We? We try to operate on the bare minimum. That gets you the slow decline in White Sox baseball, 2006-2016. It also should be noted that during that time, the team was mostly competitive due to a core acquired during a time of rebuilding, with a top farm system and trades of veterans. A lot of those prospects failed. But the core of Konerko, Buerhle, Rowand, Garland, and Crede, and many more pieces in Josh Fogg, Kip Wells, Rocky Biddle, Keith Foulke, Bob Howry, Mike Sirotka, Brian Simmons, Joe Borchard, etc allowed us flexibility to trade for alternate pieces. A lot of those guys in the paragraph above failed. I expect a lot to fail out of the promising group in the current draft and whomever we acquired. But we may also got a really dynamic core and depth in the system to trade for more proven talent to have a window of actual playoff teams. The White Sox showed us the best way to make this work. Get a core of actual successful teams and then sacrifice prospects to get them places to win. But then when it was clear that had expired...you don't just keep doing the same thing with a halved and quartered core.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Aug 2, 2016 -> 02:16 PM) When the Pirates rebuilt, they went 20 consecutive seasons without winning 80 games. Sure, the Sox can trade all of their good players for prospects, but how does that guarantee the team is better, let alone "fixed" ready to be in the playoffs 4 or 5 years in a row? Until we know what exactly was offered for White Sox players, I am a guy who can't say they made a mistake not trading them. There was a poster yesterday who said the return on any of these players had nothing to do with it. I think it has everything to do with it. They can still be traded, or maybe they won't. Until then, we have to watch Q and Sale pitch instead of a guy like Volstad. We have to watch Melky hit instead of a guy like Coats. We have to watch Robertson and less of lesser pitchers. I really don't have a problem with it. I will judge the team next year next year, not now. If they half ass it again, I'm with you, but I think they have learned their lesson. They are either going big or dealing guys away. I also wouldn't be surprised if a player or 2 is dealt this month. Maybe that will ease some pain. The Sox could get another Leury Garcia or 2 and the rebuild will be well underway. This is classic DA

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Aug 2, 2016 -> 02:25 PM) The same as most teams. I know White Sox fans are owed more than any other fanbase, but what you are arguing is 'why would they try to win?" You haven't made the playoffs in 8 years. Quit trying to win" Lose, lose, lose. Get a bunch of prospects. It's fool proof, and don't hold out for the best price. Just take what you can get. Menu tonight: Meatball sub

But the problem with the Pirates wasn't that they tried to rebuild, it's that they had poor management. Our management is not trying to rebuild and fielding a mediocre team for years because of poor management. You are identifying the strategy of trying to acquire a bunch of young talent as the cause of the problem, but really it's the poor management. The correct move right now would be to rebuild. We aren't rebuilding not because it is the right decision because Pirates, but because we have a front office that is scared of their own shadows. They'd rather fail when aesthetically it looks like they tried vs failing when they "gave up". So to your inevitable retort that "why would you want to rebuild with bad management", had we started to rebuild it would be a sign that they were starting to do things correctly. But because they are not, we can continue to assume that they are not the team that can find the playoffs. It's a great situation to be in.

Looks like Blake Hickman is in last month of rehab. Sucks he didn't get to see a roster. I wonder if he gets to go to AFL.

Well, if this ends Jared Leto's terrible career, it is worth it.

If there's one thing that defined this last trading window, it was teams receiving pennies on the dollar.

The White Sox Post Ron Schueler: - Don't overvalue prospects because many don't pan out. In fact, don't even bother with the farm, most prospects fail. Prospects fail a lot. Have I told you about how prospects fail? Sox used to have #1 farm system, what did that get them? Lorenzo Barcelo sucked! - Don't sign pitchers to long-term expensive deals. In fact, don't sign anyone to long-term expensive deals. You can find plenty of talent on reasonable deals, you just need to sign past their prime, older players coming off career worst years and hope they rebound. It works less than 10% of the time, but when it does! You can then hold onto them until they start to suck again and then hope they retire. - You are always in it. Don't compare your roster to other teams, that's a losers mindset. Compare your roster to only last years roster. Is it better? Then you are in the playoffs, probably. Teams make 15 game leaps all the time, especially when they replace below average players with average ones. Resist urges to sell. You had a bad run of luck, remember the white flag trade? Fans were mad for a whole 2 years. Selling just gets you prospects, and see point 1.

I try not to even respond about stuff like that because this menial stuff is the only thing his supporters remember and aare like "meh pc culture people making mountains out of mole hills but also HOW COME THE PRESIDENT DOESNT SAY ISLAMIC TERROR"

QUOTE (shakes @ Aug 2, 2016 -> 10:49 AM) But part of being a good GM is creating a market and getting the offers you like. It's another argument I just don't find defensible anymore, not saying by you, just in general. Look at the Yankees. Cashman had the two best bullpen arms and got teams to pay huge prices for them, hence dictating the market. He got a good price for a 39 year old outfielder. The Sox on the other hand were shopping the two best starters, one of the better lefty relievers with a good contract, a closer, could also have shopped Nate Jones, a productive outfielder on a good contract, two secondary starters which were going for valuable assets, and wound up with the Cardinals #12 prospect who is viewed by most as a 4th outfielder. That's on the GM for not getting to the offers they thought were good offers. The Yankees, Brewers, A's, Rays and Pirates all found deals for their assets. Why is it that whenever the Sox have something to sell there just doesn't seem to be a market for their players, even thought the market exists for other teams with similar assets? The conclusion I'm being forced to accept is an inadequate front office. Let's face it they blew this deadline spectacularly. Just like the blew the deadline last year by delusionally believing they were contenders , and I have no faith in them cleaning it up this winter. Couldn't agree more.

I had never seen an alignment of fan and media preference for selling like before this, and the shock when it didn't happen (aside from Q/Sale). Unless you are Rongey, you were disappointed. Had we sold I'd have a lot to look forward to next year even though winning wouldn't happen. But now it's just...bleh. I'm sure we'll try and go for it, fail, and we wasted 3 straight years pushing what anyone with eyes could tell you wasn't good enough.

QUOTE (Tony @ Aug 2, 2016 -> 09:39 AM) https://twitter.com/SteveKornacki/status/760477365948420097 Utah looks to be in play Eh, Utah/Georgia are unneccessary distractions. He'll win it by 10+ probably. I do wish for sanity of country the Utah Republicans can become a power base.

QUOTE (gatnom @ Aug 2, 2016 -> 09:42 AM) This isn't really meant to be a rebuttal to your argument, per se, but isn't it a bit funny how we always seem to be waiting on 2-3 guys to "play like they are capable of playing"? It's almost as if it should be expected for a couple guys to under perform on a year to year basis and having no backup plan for them not meeting expectations is a recipe for failure. This is what happens when your roster is so shallow that you have no margin for error with your top players underperforming and lesser players picking up slack.