Balta1701

So the Dodgers are the first team to win 43 games in a 50 game stretch since the 1912 Giants.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Aug 6, 2017 -> 04:41 PM) I have been watching this team for a long time, probably longer than most here, I can't remember them ever being this bad, and I have seen them really bad. I just hope it doesn't spill over and hurt development. You can see being defeated before the game even starts has started to seep in. I just hope the guys the Sox are hoping to eventually keep, can avoid it and get their work in, and get where they need to be. They were that way in 2013 too. I think the 2nd half of last year was like that also - with a lot better talent they put up a .426 winning %age after that 23-10 stretch to open it.

Woo hoo, now I just need him to line up for one of the games in Houston next month.

The second part of that is more interesting to me.

Tiny bit of NSFW language.

QUOTE (SoxPride18 @ Aug 4, 2017 -> 12:55 PM) 2 games back of 1st pick...1 game back of 2nd pick 4-20 in their last 24.

QUOTE (Quin @ Aug 4, 2017 -> 11:54 AM) So some crazy s*** happened The Republicans are as good at governing as they are at keeping Soxtalk running #BALTASLAM #MICDROP

QUOTE (Jerksticks @ Jul 31, 2017 -> 11:45 PM) Congress sucks. So sick of f***ing Congress. Should be 1 term and done, two max. And in order to run for Congress you should have to be retired & have had a family and they all died. I know that's super morbid but then the lobbyists and world corps wouldn't be able to threaten their families to sway policy. But at the same time, the candidate having had a family, would know how hard it is to have a family and fight for all the families of America, with humility. No career to worry about. No bribes necessary, no threatening of loved ones because there aren't any alive. Sick, yes. Morbid, sure. Pure though? Just maybe 1. Term limits have done the exact opposite of what people suggest they're supposed to do when they're tried. California remains the example case - you get rid of anyone who has experience doing things like "writing a budget" or "making a deal" and you wind up unable to have things like budgets written. 2. You want only retirees in Congress? I'm sure they'll do a great job of writing relevant laws for the internet, or to deal with education, or all those other high tech industries. Tons of expertise there. They might even have to turn to outside experts to figure things out. Might even call those experts lobbyists. Stop working around the back door. The problem is money. As long as we have a privately financed campaign system, then we will continue to have the best representatives money can buy.

QUOTE (BlackSox13 @ Jul 31, 2017 -> 05:10 PM) I think one aspect from LA's perspective is they could've looking at this as first dibs on re-signing Dervish in the off-season. I think once the season ends there's an exclusive 15 day window the team has to talk to the impending FA . The Dodgers are really close to sneaking beneath the luxury tax line and getting themselves out of the multi-year penalties next year also. They could throw that away & not care, but that has cost them an awful lot of money.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Jul 31, 2017 -> 03:06 PM) Whose turn is it? Lopez

QUOTE (steveno89 @ Jul 31, 2017 -> 02:14 PM) A's failed to leverage Gray into a truly elite prospect, so I currently consider this to be a failure on their part. If the price for Gray was substantially more than this, I would not have been in the running for him as a GM. Too high risk. This seems roughly fair value for him given his career.

QUOTE (Alexeihyeess @ Jul 31, 2017 -> 02:11 PM) Beane trying to buy low on injured players. Mateo is a nice centerpiece, though. Yankees system has taken a pretty major hit. They've still put themselves where they needed to be. They didn't trade Sanchez, Torres, or Frazier. They got a big performance boost from judge that no one saw coming. They haven't taken on payroll and have a shot to get below the tax level this year if they want to, which would save them like $30 million a year starting after 2018. They picked up a couple of cost controlled bullpen and rotation guys to go with that. They don't really need to worry about the system taking a hit when they still have their top 4 guys from it all as big league contributors and so many guys are cost controlled for several years.

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Jul 31, 2017 -> 01:51 PM) What was your favorite moment of the Mooch era? Mine was that time when he sold his business and got divorced by his wife and promised to fire everyone for leaking. That was week one The article.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Jul 31, 2017 -> 01:02 PM) They pretty much suck at analyzing the fanbase...with prime evidence being 2017 attendance actually rising despite being one of the two worst teams in baseball. (And just 1000ish behind the Indians, best team in AL, better stadium and huge winning streak going.) They were never able to think counterintuitively, which is doing the opposite of what isn't working, until they had no choice. KW and Hahn should have pushed back harder. I do think their advertising revenue has utterly utterly cratered this year even if ticket sales have gone up, although I'm not sure how much of that is taken up by Comcast. Had the DirecTV Extra Innings preview a week ago, watched a few sox games, couldn't help but notice that there was basically one "paid commercial" per game it seemed. Every commercial break was 3 public service announcements and people aren't getting paid for those. It was like listening to Rush Limbaugh's show, there's no revenue coming in through TV ads right now at all, literally no one is trying to reach White Sox fans through TV, but again that might be being eaten by Comcast.

QUOTE (Feeky Magee @ Jul 31, 2017 -> 11:37 AM) Yup. Is there any contender with a worse no.5 starter than Gonzalez/Holland/Pelfrey? Gonzalez doesn't even have to be thought of as a 5th starter, a 6th starter can be really useful down the stretch too, especially if a team has 1 pitcher on the DL. How many teams can expect to have 0 pitching injuries through August, September, and October? The Indians made a great run last year using their bullpen, but they had to do that because 2 of their starters got hurt, and in the end Miller and that pen finally broke in game 7. If all you did was save Andrew Miller or the rest of that bullpen 1-2 innings earlier in the series by having Gonzalez as a long man or having a slightly more reliable 6th starter who got called on when the injuries piled up, that might have put the trophy in a different city.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Jul 31, 2017 -> 10:42 AM) Think of it this way, if the White Sox were in contention, and they traded for Miguel Gonzalez, or Derek Holland or Mike Pelfrey or Tyler Clippard and gave up anything better than Courtney Hawkins, how pissed would you be? And how much would you question the White Sox braintrust sanity thinking these were guys that could get them over the top?

QUOTE (soxfan2014 @ Jul 31, 2017 -> 09:09 AM) Can't they release him and sign him to a minor league deal to take him off the 40-man? That's assuming none out of 30 teams would offer him anything better.

QUOTE (Quin @ Jul 31, 2017 -> 05:32 AM) I'd love for the above field to be something they'd look at when The Cell actually begins to fall apart - build it on top of the old Comiskey site and try to blend the best aspects of The Cell and Comiskey. When the lease ends, this stadium will be nearly 40 years old. We may not see it, but guarantee that there will be some parts of the structure inside showing their age by then. What level of "fall apart" are we talking about?

QUOTE (steveno89 @ Jul 30, 2017 -> 06:35 PM) Inevitable new ownership may have a big influence on what happens^ IF there is new ownership in the next few years...it'll take years of lobbying, and a dramatic change in the economic/political conditions of Illinois, but if sometime around 2030 they can get a stadium package together, that's a great way to push up their franchise value.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Jul 30, 2017 -> 05:38 PM) This is a serious question. With all the multiple prospects acquired in trades, and the draft picks, especially if in the next 2 years they draft a guy who can play relatively quickly, are the White Sox looking at a 40 man roster crunch in a couple of years? I think it is safe to say the clock will be ticking on some guys starting next year. Saladino, Engel, those level of guys - if they come out weak next year and someone starts pushing them...they're the first casualties.

QUOTE (Rowand44 @ Jul 29, 2017 -> 06:20 PM) Say what you want about Jay but he legit could have made that team a Super Bowl contender. Kind of crazy to me that the Texans didn't try and grab him for a year. With Savage having been in their system for 3 years...and they clearly had already made the decision to draft a QB at the time...that one made some sense to me. They have a top 2 arms already, they want one of those 2 to play. Seemed odd they didn't have interest in him in FA, then they jumped up in the draft and that made sense.

QUOTE (Brian @ Jul 30, 2017 -> 04:17 PM) Any reasonable government would but they gotta erase the black guy's legacy. More so than that...many of them genuinely believe anyone who isn't wealthy enough does not deserve health care. It's either personal responsibility that you got cancer, or there aren't enough doctors (and they should serve my family and not less important ones), or it's too expensive and we just have to choose to leave some people out, or costs will make people ration care if they have to bear those costs.

QUOTE (Wanne @ Jul 29, 2017 -> 04:39 PM) Fair enough...but the second part of your first sentence kind of gives a sound reasoning to take Turang (if they feel he's worthy) overall...or possibly Madrigal if they're picking 2nd or 3rd. There's a dearth of SS talent in the system. We got plenty of big bats (sorry Beer fans)... If you're drafting a guy 1 or 2 you better be hoping he's a "Big bat", even if he's a shortstop. Do your homework, meet the people, come up with a "1,2,3" order, and take the highest ranked guy remaining. If you have pick 1, then whoever is #1 is #1 - pitcher or hitter or SS or OF or whatever.

Rick Hahn himself said he was looking towards 2019.