Steve9347

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ May 31, 2013 -> 12:15 PM) It's great that the series has "anustart". Indeed. They should just make a season 5. I am so incredibly pleased with how everything comes together.

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ May 31, 2013 -> 12:01 PM) Watched the first 7 Arrested Development episodes. Enjoying it so far. It's about to go from "enjoyment" to "bluing yourself".

Rockets want Dwight.

QUOTE (pittshoganerkoff @ May 31, 2013 -> 08:40 AM) Watched Jack Reacher last weekend. Decent movie, but having read most of the Reacher novels, I just can't accept Tom Cruise as Reacher. However, he played the part pretty well (aside from the fact that he's about 8 inches and 90 pounds smaller than the real Reacher), and he had some good one-liners. Also caught The Impossible and Side Effects. The Impossible was great. Emotional, terrifying, good effects. Side Effects was a very good, quiet thriller. The Impossible was indeed great.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ May 31, 2013 -> 09:20 AM) What's funny about this way of looking at things is that in order to make sure that the Cubs come off as on top, it counts "The entire f***ing starting rotation" as worth the same amount as a position the Cubs only use in a small percent of their games. Yeah - but I awarded it to the White Sox even though if I built a rotation from the starters on the roster 3/5's would be Cubs. IT'S CALLED READING DO IT

QUOTE (maggsmaggs @ May 31, 2013 -> 09:21 AM) I actually would take Barney over Beckham. Similar offensively and actually I disagree about Beckham being better defensively. Barney is widely recognized as the best at his position defensively. His 4.7 WAR last year is way better than anything Beckham has done. Too many years of Hawks' TWTW incepting my brain.

QUOTE (LVSoxFan @ May 31, 2013 -> 09:05 AM) That said, is there anybody--anybody--on this team where you can look at them and say: yeah, that guy is awesome? Chris Sale. Jake Peavy. Alex Rios to an extent.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ May 31, 2013 -> 08:41 AM) Like you and Jimmy Butler. Jimmy Butler being a future stud is actually based on visual and statistical evidence, not off a hot April.

OK HERE. Can we all agree that the Cubs have a MUCH better minor league system? MinorLeagueBall.com - Cubs 11, White Sox 28 Baseball Prospectus - Cubs 12, White Sox 28 Keith Law - Cubs 5, White Sox 28 Ok, now that that's settled, let's talk Major League Roster CATCHER - Tyler Flowers vs Welington Castillo. Both of these players are nothing to write home about, but Castillo over 104 games has a .270 average with a .730 OPS, and is better than Flowers defensively. Flowers is struggling to hit .200 and has an OPS of .625. EDGE CUBS FIRST BASE - Paul Konerko vs Anthony Rizzo. This one needs no discusssion - huge win Cubs. WIN CUBS SECOND BASE - Gordon Beckham vs Darwin Barney. One player is injured and bad, the other is just bad. Diving into the statistics, these players are surprisingly similar. Beckham's superb glove gives him the edge, and we won't count the massive failed expectations against him. SLIGHT EDGE WHITE SOX SHORT STOP - Alexei Ramirez is enjoying a nice bounceback year from his dreadful 2012, but no one in their right minds takes him over the Cubs struggling young stud Starlin Castro. WIN CUBS THIRD BASE - TWTW Conor Gillaspie vs Luis Valbuena. Valbuena had as many jacks over the past two weeks as Gillaspie has in his career. EDGE CUBS LEFT FIELD - Dayan Viciedo vs Alfonso Soriano. As much as I want to give the edge to Soriano, it's slightly in the White Sox' favor on the weeks Viciedo bangs the walks fairy. That being said, it's quite incriminating that this is so close. Whatever. EDGE WHITE SOX CENTER FIELD - David DeJesus vs Alenjadro De Aza. The battle of the random capitalization, De Aza's career season is worse than DeJesus's career average. This year 100 OPS points splits them. WIN CUBS RIGHT FIELD - Alex Rios vs Nate Schierholtz. Schierholtz is actually having a fine season and the stats are closer than you'd expect, but Rios is pretty studly and somehow consistent now. WIN WHITE SOX DESIGNATED HITTER - The White Sox are paying big money to a laughingstock, while the Cubs do not have Adam Dunn. MASSIVE WIN CUBS ROTATION - Samardzija, Jackson, Feldman, Wood, Garza vs Sale, Peavy, Quintana, Axelrod, Danks. This is way closer than it should be, but only because the Cubs have a lot of surprises here. I still take the White Sox rotation easily with Sale and Peavy at the top, while both teams have massive question marks in well-paid starters Garza and Danks. Interestingly enough, if I were to pick a rotation based on the players available, 3/5 WOULD be Cubs. Crazy. That rotation would be Sale, Samardzija, Peavy, Jackson, Wood. EDGE WHITE SOX BULLPEN - The White Sox have an easy edge here, with a franchise closer in Addison Reed and plenty of support. I won't even bother dealing with the Cubs' bullpen given their closer is Kevin Gregg. WIN WHITE SOX So let's tally things up here. Sadly, the Cubs only get 1 point for their massive advantage in the minor leagues, but they still win easy. Cubs 7, WHITE SOX 5 Shut up, SS2k5

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ May 31, 2013 -> 08:38 AM) Prove it right I'll do that in another thread. This thread is for the hilarity that is SOXTALK MEATHEADS falling in love with Gillaspie over a few hits.

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ May 31, 2013 -> 08:07 AM) agreed. pass WHO WOULDN'T WANT TO SIGN A PLAYER WITH LOW CONTACT, HIGH STRIKEOUTS, WHO IF HE LOSES ONE STEP WILL GO FROM HITTING .230 TO HITTING .180 OVER 2.5 YEARS WITH THE WHITE SOX OH MY GOD HOW CAN SOMEONE SERIOUSLY BRING UP THE IDEA OF GRANDERSON AFTER WATCHING DUNN SHOOT ME.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ May 31, 2013 -> 08:37 AM) This from the guy who just declared that the Cubs have more talent than the Sox. Quality. Prove that statement wrong.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ May 31, 2013 -> 07:03 AM) Round is a shape hahaha

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ May 30, 2013 -> 06:59 PM) A young lefty 3b is the one thing the Sox do have. I don't see a point in going after Francisco. SOXTALK MEATHEAD

Every year it's the same thing with the Soxtalk Meatheads, yes the SOXTALK MEATHEADS, I have defined you. You adopt some crap player on the roster and act like he's better than he really is or is finally figuring it out or just needs more time. We're not even including players like Gordon Beckham and Dayan Viciedo that you SOXTALK MEATHEADS refuse to see for what they are. Conor Gillaspie is the latest in a long line of scrubs who got a couple hits and you SOXTALK MEATHEADS adorned our great solution. Now there's a thread in which people discuss claiming another turd Juan Francisco and "the one thing we don't need is a solid hitting lefty 3B". Yeah, because that's Conor Gillaspie. Listen, this is baseball. Very rarely does a player like Gillaspie get released and all the sudden figure it out with a new ballclub. Conor Gillaspie is the 2013 Danny Richar. You will realize he sucks balls soon enough. Oh, his OPS for the month of May is .672. Moving forward, when I read something silly about a garbage player wearing the pale hose that is ridiculous, I will be replying to the poster declaring them to be a SOXTALK MEATHEAD. You've been warned.

QUOTE (flavum @ May 30, 2013 -> 04:45 PM) New campaign slogan! https://twitter.com/DanHayesCSN/status/340222128072822786 Ha!

QUOTE (Flash Tizzle @ May 30, 2013 -> 04:04 PM) I enjoy distancing myself from Soxtalk for awhile and then returning and reading through posts by the same members (often year to year) who cannot seem to recognize a White Sox team for what it is. I don't know if immersing yourself in every pitch of every game and then coming on here to discuss it every day removes you objectivity, but it's troubling in some cases. This is not a well constructed ballclub. They will not be winning in the playoffs. This. I tend to avoid Pale Hose Talk in years like this, but sometimes a realistic has to come around and break up the monotony of people thinking Dayan Viciedo will become a superstar or that this team doesn't just plain suck.

The Cubs are simply a better and more talented team than the White Sox - the White Sox just happen to not be in a division with the Cardinals so they get to tease the silly idiots who think they have a chance a little bit longer.

QUOTE (Harry Chappas @ May 30, 2013 -> 12:32 PM) Spurs are doing it with a lot less hype and a tougher conference. I don't know about that tough conference jazz. The Grizzlies? The Thunder without Westbrook? Snore.

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ May 30, 2013 -> 11:28 AM) So in real life terms, Lebron was fined 50 cents More like 5 cents.

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ May 30, 2013 -> 11:30 AM) is he a submissive dog? Wouldn't you like to know.

QUOTE (IlliniKrush @ May 30, 2013 -> 10:15 AM) He easily could, and has so far. Quick's been the best goalie in the playoffs. Howard was good, Quick's been ridiculous. Who knows if he keeps it up, but Howard's not on the same level as Quick this playoffs. Quick has had way more "holy f***" saves in the playoffs so far. I think he's at 1.50 GAA so far with like a 95% SVPCT. True - I just meant in the grand scheme of things 95 and 94 percent aren't that far off - but it is true that Quick has actually been better this playoffs than he was last year when he won the Conn Smythe.

I'm through 11 episodes and everything is paying off perfectly with Arrested Development. It's brilliant.

Wow. What a night. I'll try to sum up all of my feelings on that game and moving forward in one succinct post. The atmosphere all over Chicagoland was just fantastic last night. Whereas 2010 felt like there were a lot of bandwagon fans, now it really feels like the Blackhawks have earned a true part of "anyone can like them" sports culture. It's a lot of fun for us die hards, but it's also a lot of fun seeing everyone at a packed bar sporting Hawks gear and being into it. This is what sports are all about. Game 7. Hawks/Wings. The first period was just nuts. The Blackhawks completely dominated play and came up empty. For everyone who is worried about Jonathan Quick, I don't really see him playing any better than Jimmy Howard did in the 2nd round. The man only allowed 16 goals on 238 shots for the series (just under 94%). The first goal was sex on a tv screen but better. Hawks played like s*** in the 3rd period. Came out thinking the game was already won. THEF*CKINGCALL: Ok, a few points here. One, I read some complaints in here about that play, so we'll clear it up and b**** like crazy in the process. A few folks said the ref didn't wave his arms before the goal went in - which makes sense since you only wave your arms like that to wipe out a goal. No sense in doing it prior to a puck hitting twine. The call itself was just awful. Brandon Saad could have blinked harder than he retaliated for being thrown into the boards, pulled out of the boards, and body slammed. To make that call in that situation is absurd. It'd be absurd in the first period of a regular season game. Clearly it was absurd with 1 minute remaining in a Game 7. The Hawks were lucky to get to OT after that. They were as deflated as the fans, and thank God Duncan Keith is a f***ing pimp. The game-winner was just relief. As Krush has pointed out, nothing beats a Game 7 except for OT in a Game 7 - but when it's your team it's absolutely terrifying. The last time this happened for us, it was also on a mad comeback in 2011 vs the Canucks. Hawks were down 3-0 and came back to tie the series only to lose in overtime on a . It's much more fun to be on the other end of the drama. Other Notes: Toews has to be happier than anyone on the planet that this series is over. The Red Wings handled him better than I've ever seen - and showed that the Hawks rely on their captain a ton. For all the talk about Quenneville answering the Toews problems following Game 4, he did not utilize last change nearly enough last night. The Captain was not even visible. If we're going to score enough goals to win this series against the Kings, Toews needs to be a factor and Patrick Kane needs to dance around a bit less and throw the puck at the net when possible. Back to back games Saturday/Sunday. Saturday can't get here soon enough. I leave you with this little nugget from a genius poster on Soxtalk who, in my mind, achieves retribution for the LeBron drama of yesteryear. QUOTE (Steve9347 @ May 25, 2013 -> 03:37 PM) Hawks are going to rip off 3 straight. Howard's luck is going to run out, and the UC crowd will pump the Hawks up for a blowout tonight. They'll head back to the Joe with their confidence regained. Go Hawks!!!

QUOTE (iamshack @ May 29, 2013 -> 10:46 PM) I'm assuming it is not a delayed call because there is no point in allowing the team that was not penalized the advantage, since both are by definition penalized, correct? I am happy for you and Steve and some of the other die-hards here...My booty was tight and I am just a fairweather Hawks fan. a team with a penalty called on it renders the play dead once the puck I'd touched. Thus, the Hawks having the puck when the call is made means dead puck.