Balta1701

QUOTE (IowanSoxFan @ Jun 11, 2013 -> 01:16 PM) I'm still scarred from Morel's time in the majors. Obviously going hitless in June for Gillaspie sucks, but I like what I saw in the first two months. But thinking about benching him or replacing him in favor of Morel, instead of giving him more ABs, is definitely...not smart. I certainly wouldn't bench him, but this might well be a situation where a platoon or two really would work well for the Sox.

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Jun 11, 2013 -> 10:45 AM) It's f***ing stupid. It's a dumb f***ing post. Morel is a terrible ballplayer and not an option for the White Sox, and Beckham has proven time and again to be completely useless with the bat. Hey, if Adam Dunn can just go 4-for-4 every night, our DH situation is set too! But hey, it's totally not f***ing stupid to decide that Conor Gillaspie is "not a good player" when he's in the middle of a slump. Morel's going to be back in the big leagues at some point with some team if he keeps hitting like he has been since the start of May.

Yes steve, "If guys could keep doing what they're doing right now" is so offensive you can't even look at the screen.

This could actually, finally, be the kind of circus that really starts to bother that Patriots team and gets under their skin.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jun 11, 2013 -> 09:43 AM) Refinary issues are adding another 50-60 cents on top of where prices should be. With futures at $2.80 right now, our prices in Indiana would usually be around $3.40 to $3.50. We are at $4.15. Yup.

QUOTE (Y2HH @ Jun 11, 2013 -> 09:38 AM) Taxes. Federal gas tax is 18 cents per gallon IL state gas tax is 19 cents per gallon Environmental gas tax is ~ 1 cent per gallon City of Chicago gas tax is 5 per gallon Cook County gas tax is 6 cents per gallon ...and then, placed on top of that is a City of Chicago sales tax of 6%, in addition to the State of IL sales tax (I don't know the number off hand), which is essentially taxing tax. That's why prices are so high. Nope.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jun 11, 2013 -> 09:39 AM) Honestly I'd put their ceilings (Morel and Gillaspie) at right about the same place. They are very similar players. 20 homer power tops. Solid defenders. Decent average hitters (.300 top, more like .270/.280 normally) when they are looking for hits instead of homers. Most productive in the 7/8 slots in a batting order. If Morel could get his act together and Beckham could keep hitting like he is right now, Gillaspie/Morel, Alexei (or other), Beckham, and Keppinger (UT) could cover the IF roster fairly affordably for the next 2 years.

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Jun 11, 2013 -> 09:10 AM) The first chip in Thibs' armor. The clock has started ticking on bringing a championship to the city, regardless of regular season accomplishments. Huh?

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Jun 11, 2013 -> 12:20 AM) Do you really believe he'd put up at least a 700 OPS in Chicago? Fully healthy and given time to get his game back together (rather than benched randomly the next day after every time he did anything useful)? Maybe. His numbers look like those of a guy in the minors who missed a lot of time and is slowly getting back into the groove. .226 average in April, .296 May, .323 June so far.

We won that game? S***.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Jun 10, 2013 -> 09:37 PM) The White Sox are going to have to hire someone to clean up the grammar on all the players' twitter feeds, lol. Watch him blow out his elbow trying to throw a slider for the first pitch. Wonder if that has ever happened? A first round draft pick getting injured after signing but before playing his first game? With all the weird injuries that have happened in the last decade...? The classic example is Canseco pitching for fun in a blowout in like 1992 and blowing out his elbow.

Lionel Hollins officially out as coach of the Grizz.

QUOTE (ZoomSlowik @ Jun 10, 2013 -> 06:19 PM) Name two of those. The only one that I can think of is Kevin Durant. Lebron, George, Josh Smith, ect are all 6'8"/6'9" much like 80's/90's players like Magic, Bird, Scottie, Schrempf off the top of my head. You named one, I'll add Dirk. Does Bosh count also?

Detroit Free Press

QUOTE (bbilek1 @ Jun 10, 2013 -> 03:41 PM) I think you're acting a little over dramatic here. We see several posts a day talking about Micah Johnson's stolen bases technique and projecting how it will carry into the MLB. I never projected any steals for Hawkins or anything even along the lines of that. All I said was he stole 11 bases in a short amount of time. Point being, he has some speed to work with. Caulfield claimed he wasn't going to steal 30-40 bases like Adam Jones and I simply pointed out that not only did Hawkins show some speed, but that Jones only averages 11 SBs a year in his full seasons. All right, you win here a little...if a guy already has developed SB technique, that can certainly be projectable, so for a guy who is successfully stealing a ton of bags at a high clip, you might project he can keep that up. OTOH, he's also not facing the kind of practiced arms he would in the bigs, so the CS %age might go up. But if a 19 year old has good speed and is 5/14 for stolen bases or something like that, I don't mind one bit. He's got 3-4 years to practice SB technique before he even gets to the bigs, and then years to learn while there as well.

QUOTE (Jake @ Jun 10, 2013 -> 03:54 PM) I think in all due time, this board will be exceedingly indifferent about Jeff Keppinger's contract. If we're "Exceedingly indifferent" about a guy making $3 million as a platoon player/part time starter, then we'll have run out of things to be indifferent about.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Jun 10, 2013 -> 03:54 PM) It doesn't necessarily have to be a #3-4 starter. I should have worded it a bit differently in stating that they should be looking for a big talent, busted prospect, and another player with a higher floor, perhaps a strong platoon left handed hitter. I don't mind them looking for big relief arms though either. About the only guy I really think has a good chance of being a major league contributor is Webb. I like Marinez, but I don't think he's going to make it at the MLB level. That's mostly fine I guess...but if the "Busted prospect" is a starting pitcher, he's not likely to be anywhere near the Sox big league squad next year. They simply have too many starting pitchers as it is. If none of the starters are moved, by next year you start counting Johnson and the team is 7 deep in starters, with more who could fill in if necessary. I'm not sure I'd be mad if they targeted a reliever in a trade, but I'm not sure it's a good target unless there's a can't miss guy. Yes, the Sox are losing Thornton, Crain, and Lindstrom this year...but as others have noted, you still tend to want to have a couple veterans in your pen to help guys like Jones and Reed when they hit a rough patch. Even if the Sox came up with another reliever in a trade, it's not going to change what they are doing in FA all that much (unless Reed is moved). So I wouldn't oppose it, but just keeping things in mind.

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Jun 10, 2013 -> 02:58 PM) Overall the TV deal is a positive, but the Finals games on NBCSN still suck. Its the biggest moment of the year, your championship, and you are limiting your audience. There's nothing wrong with a casual fan stumbling upon NBC, saying "Oh, Stanley Cup Finals, maybe I want to watch this". Having it on a lowered tier cable network as opposed to NBC can potentially limit this. Of course...one obvious solution to this is to stop losing seasons to lockouts where you completely screw over your perspective TV deals for the next decade. The league wants on NBC, the league has to actually earn it. The product on the ice is doing a solid job of selling itself...as long as it is actually on the bloody ice.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Jun 10, 2013 -> 02:45 PM) You aren't going to get a prospect in a team's top 5, but even just last year, teams gave up good prospects for rent-a-relievers. The Uehara to Texas comparison isn't bad except that Uehara had 2 years left on his deal. A package similar to that though - a "busted" prospect and a pitcher who projects as a #3-4 - isn't an unreasonable return. Having said prospect turn into one of the best hitters in the majors, on the other hand, is probably a bit of stretch. IMO, it would really behoove the White Sox to avoid grabbing pitchers in any trade this year (unless they're buried down in A-ball). Their rotation is stacked and their bullpen may need an extra veteran arm or two next year, but its in a better place than the lineup. If the Sox pick up a starter who can be a #3-#4 starter, he's just going to be stuck at Charlotte next year unless someone gets hurt, and he'd be lucky to be the 2nd option in that case with guys like Johnson and Snodgress around.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jun 10, 2013 -> 02:14 PM) There is no doubt in my mind LeBron is the second most dominant player I have ever seen in my lifetime. That is my usual standard when it comes to GOAT discussions. It isn't about comparisons to other players and eras, it is about what you can compare and that is what they did in their own time. Using that standard my top 3 (again that I have seen) would be Jordan, James, and Shaq. Hmm, Lebron right now and Shaq in late 90's early 2000's is actually something interesting to think about in terms of which dominated more.

How about they just raise the gas tax? Simple, elegant, literally is weighted based on weight of the vehicle.

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Jun 10, 2013 -> 11:59 AM) This whole website jumped to a lot of conclusions based on a very small data set. I am simply refuting them and being proven correct with every pasing 0-fer.

QUOTE (bbilek1 @ Jun 9, 2013 -> 11:46 PM) In 2012, Hawkins stole 11 stolen bases in just 229 AB. Like, Jones he wasn't very efficient either. No one anywhere in their right mind should be projecting guys' ability to run/steal bases in the big leagues based on their performance in Rookie/A-ball at age 18-19. These guys aren't drafted because they've practiced the ability to steal bases (and it is a skill set that can be learned as long as you can run). They're drafted because of their ability to hit and occasionally field. Talk to me about where he is in terms of stolen base technique in 3-4 years.

QUOTE (oldsox @ Jun 10, 2013 -> 07:20 AM) Might be just me, but he looks like he has improved over the last 2-3 months. Cannot point to any stat to back this up. He's in a big time slump with the bat right now, seemingly popping everything up even when he gets a good swing on a good pitch. That's probably some combination of timing and mechanics, but that happens to players all the time. The only thing you can really do is play the guy and see how long it takes him to work through it. He had an absolutely stellar game with the glove yesterday to make up for it.