Balta1701

QUOTE (Chilihead90 @ May 14, 2014 -> 04:49 PM) I'm fine with him going to High-A. That's not a terribly huge jump. But they better leave him in High-A the rest of the season (barring playoff experiences). Jumping up again to AA in a couple months may be too large a task. He's thrown 38 innings this year so far, so if he's on a 100 inning limit as NSS said, really hard to make any additional promotions work.

QUOTE (JoshPR @ May 14, 2014 -> 04:09 PM) De Aza next? Because we have a ton of outfield prospects who need playing time right now?

QUOTE (Y2JImmy0 @ May 14, 2014 -> 01:48 PM) Absolutely. I think Thibodeau is probably the 2nd best coach in the NBA after Pop. He has flaws though. The minute loads are a big deal though. It is possible that his teams will never be healthy enough in the playoffs to win anything because of his "win all 82" mentality. The other side of that token though is that its entirely possible that one person's weak knees have sabotaged what would otherwise be a successful program. Take the opposite example; Luol Deng. Deng had a reputation of being injury-prone with the Bulls until Thibs came around, then suddenly he was actually able to stay on the court and be productive constantly for years. Boozer was incredibly injury prone before coming to the Bulls and he only had 1 year with us where he was banged up. On top of that, when you subtract a guy from the rotation who should be getting 35 minutes a night, that puts enormous stress on the roster. The Bulls even subtracted 2 of those from their starting lineup this season.

QUOTE (Chicago White Sox @ May 14, 2014 -> 02:05 PM) You got to think some team would be willing to take on Keppinger for $500k/season. Ask for nothing in return and hope you can recoup $1M of his remaining salary. I'd consider that a win at this point. I wouldn't do that if I were the GM of any team in the big leagues. I'd consider signing Kepp after clearing waivers but only to a minor league deal so that I can send him to AAA and see if he can get at least a few hits. He's only hitting .256 with Birmingham, .707 OPS, in double-A ball right now.

QUOTE (Jerksticks @ May 14, 2014 -> 01:23 PM) Could this be a precursor to a big trade? Is there any advantage to DFAing a s***ty player like this, letting him get claimed, and THEN completing a discussed trade with the claim team, instead of just straight up trading with said team? Like somebody mentioned, no team is gonna claim this guy in the real world. But in conniving Front Office world, is there any reason to plan a DFA-claim-trade instead of throwing him in like Teahen. Just seems like the risk of the trade team backing out would be too great to approach it this way. There is a reality you're missing. It is 99.99% certain that Jeff Keppinger will NOT be claimed by any other team. He will pass through all of the other MLB teams unclaimed, at which point he will be given the choice between assignment to one of the White Sox minor league teams (unlikely) or becoming a free agent. When he signs then with another franchise as a free agent, they will sign him for only the minimum salary, leaving the White Sox on the hook for the entirety of his remaining $8.5 million contract. If another team actually claimed him, that team would be assuming his entire $8.5 million contract, which no team is going to do.

QUOTE (Alpha Dog @ May 14, 2014 -> 11:27 AM) You and ED Begley Jr are about the only ones. I'll wait until I see Algore and others of his ilk act like it is important and do it without being forced to by law. Without acknowledging the stupid part of this post...the other real point is that I firmly believe, as do many, that right now we have the technology to solve this problem without causing a significant deterioration in anyone's quality of life, including people's ability to do things like drive to work, turn on the AC, and travel to conferences, but what is lacking is political will.

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ May 14, 2014 -> 01:06 PM) It's hard to expect positive results when you are throwing these sub-par starters against a suddenly explosive offense like Oakland has. Welcome to rebuilding!

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ May 14, 2014 -> 09:07 AM) I think it is more of an indication that they are bringing Keppinger back up, as much as I hate it. I just dont think the Sox will eat this season and next seasons salary for Keppinger I can't figure out how that makes sense either because if either Leury or Semien are sent down to make room then that makes Charlotte an even bigger mess. Davidson to AA?

QUOTE (Alpha Dog @ May 14, 2014 -> 07:32 AM) Way to just cruise on by the first part. You say that to the person who biked into his office in January any time it was more than -4°C and wonder why I don't bother replying.

QUOTE (greg775 @ May 14, 2014 -> 02:34 AM) For instance if the Bulls hired him if Thibs left would you be happy or furious? There is literally no name anywhere that will produce a response other than "furious". Fine, maybe Popovich, but no plausible name.

QUOTE (greg775 @ May 13, 2014 -> 04:51 PM) People that are worried about gas prices driving to a game are not going to games anyway. TOO EXPENSIVE. It's not just gas prices for that trip. In a modern, solid-transit city like Chicago, if gas prices rise, then many people simply will not own automobiles at all. Census data say that 29% of the households in Chicago did not own a car in the year 2000 when gas prices were fairly low; that number has almost certainly increased since then.

"I know what it does" !!!!!!!

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ May 13, 2014 -> 08:05 PM) Wasn't DeAza also leading off at least part-time his first 2-3 months of playing with the White Sox, when he put up a 900+ OPS? Or the following season? He was also fine in CF then, more or less. So what happened? He got off to a really slow start last year too and that was with more consistent usage and preparation.

Just to defend Nike, I had a pair of new balance shoes a couple years ago and noticed that whenever I wore them my arch/plantar fascia area started hurting. I wore those out, switched back to Nikes, and haven't had pain since. Definitely IMO it was the shoes and I've decided the indonesian 6 year olds who make nikes must be my friends.

QUOTE (Alpha Dog @ May 13, 2014 -> 04:51 PM) When the people screaming about global warming the loudest adjust their personal lives as if it were important on their own, without waiting for government to FORCE them, and everyone else, to do so, then I will give them a listen. Do we really need global warming, i mean, climate change, conferences at exotic destinations all around the globe where people travel to in CO2 spewing jets just to castigate the sheeple because they like to drive Chargers instead of Priuses? Teleconference, sell your private jet, take commercial air if you must. Stop the limos, downsize your house, without being forced to by governent actions, then I will listen. besides, it may end up being cheaper to just use our technology and resources to learn to adapt to the change instead of thinking that we can somehow change it 'back'. Seriously, anyone who thinks this hasn't sat down and added up the GDP value of "new york city" and "florida".

QUOTE (Eminor3rd @ May 13, 2014 -> 05:04 PM) I say DFA Keppinger. If he clears, he goes to Birmingham. If not, welp, he's gone! I believe by doing so you'd be buying out his entire remaining contract.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ May 13, 2014 -> 04:07 PM) I have never heard that name before. You can see him pitch at the futuresox youtube page.

QUOTE (Stan Bahnsen @ May 13, 2014 -> 01:45 PM) Yeah, no guarantees. I'm sure you've read where Sale has been encouraged to throw more changes and less sliders due to this belief, though. He's also been encouraged to throw more changes and fewer sliders because of the thought that the change will be a more effective pitch against right handers than the slider was. The effectiveness of the change against righties is probably why Danks, for example, has been slightly tougher on righties than on lefties in his career despite being a lefty himself.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ May 13, 2014 -> 02:59 PM) It's anticipated to start slowly and accelerate towards the end, not be a linear rise. So people 100 years from now can say the same "why should we care!? it's probably not even real!" crap they are now, but people 120 years from now will have catastrophic sea level rise on their hands. Every inch of sea level rise we've already had pushed the peak storm surge from hurricane sandy 25 feet further inland.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ May 13, 2014 -> 01:24 PM) Incorrect. Beckham was a top 10 pick. But all 3 are just because of 4 players, Harper, Strasburg who both were #1. Storen and Crowe were top 10s with the Nationals. Trout and Sale make up the majority of WAR for the other teams. Sale, Beckham and Hudson are the only White Sox draft picks in that time frame with WARs higher than Jake Petricka's 1.3. Besides Sale, and Beckham (who if I praise you accuse me of trolling) and Hudson, the collective WAR of the rest of the Sox draft picks in those 3 drafts is barely 3.0. Jake Petricka has 1.3 WAR already?

Anyone here know Pittsburgh very well? Lived there in the past few years or visited several times? If so please PM me.

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ May 13, 2014 -> 11:04 AM) It'll take hundreds of years. Think about the world 200 years ago. Why do we think coastal cities will still be the norm? Why do we assume we won't have technology to deal with it later? f***ing Al Gore and his doomsday scenario crap. I love that you guys were all over the Bush Admn for fear mongering and you don't see how Gore & Co. startedthe same thing. I'm still waiting for the non-stop category 5 hurricanes and tornadoes we were supposed to get ten years ago. Great job of ignoring the hundreds of billions of dollars of increased spending on disaster relief over the past few years.

QUOTE (bmags @ May 13, 2014 -> 10:59 AM) Isn't this all draft picks? And now you can play the fun game of listing 30+ names who have had Tommy John Surgery in the last couple months and saying you should be wary of drafting any pitchers while you're at it.

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ May 13, 2014 -> 10:04 AM) Meh, no one visited anyway. Once those go, it will be the equivalent of the Hurricane Sandy Storm Surge, worldwide, on an average day. The results just out suggest that those glaciers melting cannot be avoided; nothing we change will prevent it. Hopefully it'll take a few hundred years, but yeah, I'd be selling my oceanfront property if I had any.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ May 13, 2014 -> 09:46 AM) What other elite ones? Sammy is/was in a class of his own. I think Sammy's the best receiver to come out since AJ Green, but most others think that too. You won't see people making those comparisons for Beckham or Evans or anyone else in the draft, and if you take one later - several of whom I did like a lot - you better be damn sure those guys are #1 receivers, otherwise you're just adding depth. This is a move made for now and later. Or Dez Bryant or AJ Green or Eric Moulds or Terrell Owens. Anywhere in that range, or in between, or better, or slightly worse. He just can't bust. 2 first round picks for an Eric Moulds would disappoint a bit. Dez Bryant that's becoming fair, but Dez also has taken a while to develop, so that's a potential major issue if this guy doesn't come out and light the world on fire this year. If he becomes Dez Bryant and like Dez it takes until his 3rd year for him to become a really top flight WR, that's a decent pick but man, two first rounders for that player is still steep. Moulds didn't get to 90 catches until his 5th season, Bryant his 3rd, Owens his 5th. They contributed beforehand but it took most of the guuys you listed several seasons to become really top flight WR's. AJ Green was the only one you listed who lit the league on fire as a rookie, which is what the Bills appear to be counting on in the justifications you're giving.