southsider2k5

QUOTE (fathom @ Jun 17, 2014 -> 07:58 PM) Problem is, he can't catch up to a fastball even when he guesses it. It just seems to be a case of an invisible bat. He was way in front of that hanging slider.

QUOTE (lostfan @ Jun 17, 2014 -> 06:03 PM) Contained, in terms of a threat to the United States. Them attacking Iran was more complicated b/c the US was cool with it, and Saddam invaded with a wink-wink-nudge-nudge from the US (cuz remember, this is on the heels of the '79 hostage standoff, so Iran was a mortal enemy). You could also argue the invasion of Kuwait was a consequence of supporting Iraq against Iran. Iraq was broke and more or less trying to extort money out of Kuwait. Saddam thought, well, they supported me in the last war, and they haven't actually said they'll stop me here, so why not... That's one of those "if I knew then what I know now" moments for both sides, the U.S. probably would've been more explicit if they knew he was actually going to invade Kuwait, and Saddam probably never would've invaded Kuwait if he knew the U.S. was going to come out against him and subsequently use military force to push him back out. That still doesn't stop him from getting the idea of invading someone else at some point. I also really believe that eventually, that power base would have collapsed. If it can happen to Qadaffi and Assad, it can happen to anyone.

QUOTE (fathom @ Jun 17, 2014 -> 07:57 PM) Goodness, Flowers isn't even close. He is so in between right now. He needs to pick a pitch and swing for it, until he gets right.

QUOTE (oldsox @ Jun 17, 2014 -> 06:51 PM) Why not trade for him? Even with his sub-par performance this year, he is still better than at least one of our starting outfielders. lol. I'd rather start Jordan Danks or Moises Sierra.

QUOTE (raBBit @ Jun 17, 2014 -> 06:48 PM) Eh, Nieto is no contact machine himself. Nieto K% - 35.1% Flowers K% - 42.9% Nieto's is horrible but considering he's never played above A+ it's not surprising. Flowers, on the other hand, is due for Charlotte or another organization but I think the White Sox brass really, really likes the guy. I do believe the pitching staff loves Flowers as well. Get us rolling again RV23!! Nieto is a guy they are mixing and matching as much as possible to get him as many favorable match ups as they can because they don't want to bury the kid. They know he shouldn't be on a major league roster today, but to keep him in the organization, they know they have to carry him. He isn't going to start every day, or even semi-regularly for the simple fact that he isn't ready to be a starter yet.

QUOTE (Thad Bosley @ Jun 17, 2014 -> 06:21 PM) Nope, haven't missed the history. What I have missed is current ownership, after 34 years of trying their hand at this, figuring out a way to turn this thing around. To win on something at least remotely resembling a consistent basis, because that's the only way to get those "bandwagon fans" to the ballpark. Outside of '05, there are all of four postseason wins in the Jerry Reinsdorf era. Four. Four in the other 33 years of his ownership of the ball club. Part of the reason there was only $18K "paid" attendance on a lovely summer night at a game featuring Sale v. Scherzer, with Abreu and Cabrera also in the house. Like I said, the Sox fan base is bandwagon fans. That hasn't changed in 115 years. And again, that number is still way higher than it has ever been, outside of the 2005 bump, since you seem to want to exlcude that.

QUOTE (Thad Bosley @ Jun 17, 2014 -> 05:49 PM) Doubled to what? We're currently 28th in attendance on our way to the third straight year of drawing less than two million, which is pathetic for a big market team. That's the story, not that Reinsdorf's teams are outdrawing the Veeck and Allyn teams of yesteryear. If the story is that Sox fans are bandwagon fans, you missed the last 115 years of the teams history.

QUOTE (lostfan @ Jun 17, 2014 -> 05:42 PM) I'd argue the instability in Iraq contributed to that at least in part (that is virtually impossible to really argue positively though). Saddam was contained but there probably would have been international pressure to end the sanctions because of the damage it was doing to Iraq's population (Saddam's abuse of them notwithstanding). That would've strengthened Saddam's hand. Iraq barely is able to function as a civil society without a strong (read: dictatorial) central government. When Saddam did have his civil institutions in place he was able to put down civil uprisings - pretty brutally too I might add. Of course all this sucks, and is bad, but is probably preferable to the current situation in which the Iranians have more influence over what happens inside the country than we do, and everyone is killing everyone and jihadists control large swaths of territory. Contained is a bad term for Iraq. Prior to the first Gulf War they had invaded two neighbors. After the first one, the gassed their own people. Depending on where you want to start the counter-factual timeline, it is impossible to call them "contained".

QUOTE (fathom @ Jun 17, 2014 -> 04:45 PM) I'm gonna say Kyle Schwarber is a little too good for the Northwest League. 20 ABs.

QUOTE (Eminor3rd @ Jun 17, 2014 -> 03:42 PM) And here WE are, still pretending that nothing has changed regarding how people consume baseball over that 34 year period. And ignoring that attendance at the ballpark has doubled since Jerry and Eddie took over.

QUOTE (TRU @ Jun 17, 2014 -> 02:44 PM) Id rather risk taking the talented HS player there and getting him into your system that much earlier than taking a college senior much earlier than you should to save 200K so you can just offer that same high school kid the same money later in the draft. Of course, it may not all work out that way but this is just how I am looking at it. If you lose the HS kid, you also lose his slot value. If you pick him outside of the 10th round, there is no downside to losing him, in terms of bonus allotments.

Balder has a new update out, any White Sox predictions of note?

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Jun 17, 2014 -> 01:33 PM) Right, he's incredibly recognizable. If I saw him, I'd know exactly who he was. Probably Abreu too. Viciedo just looks so much different in street clothes. It's the eyes. You can't miss them.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Jun 17, 2014 -> 01:30 PM) No chance in hell I'd ever think anything other than "that's a big dude" if I saw Viciedo out in public. As opposed to Alexei, who I would offer my double cheeseburger to.

Daryl Van Schouwen ‏@CST_soxvan 35m Bovada's AL Rookie of the Year odds: Tanaka NY 2/5 Abreu Chi. 3/1 Springer Hou 7/1 Bogaerts Bos 8/1 Solarte NY 18/1 Castellanos Det 25/1

Also a very cool shot. There is a lot of Sox history in that picture. https://twitter.com/whitesox/status/4789523...4843649/photo/1

QUOTE (bmags @ Jun 17, 2014 -> 11:23 AM) Considering what might be to come, yeah. We are probably already at about 130k deaths, if not more. And apparently ISIS will try to enflame the Shiites into attacking Sunnis and start this up again. An interesting counter-factual would have been how long Hussien would have lasted with either no second war, and/or no first war. After seeing what happened in Eygpt, Syria, Urkraine, and Lbyia, for example, I am fairly sure Hussein still wouldn't be in power, and if that was the case, Iraq would have melted down. Without intervention, the same undercurrent of boiling civil strife and ethnic hatreds would have been still there to explode given the chance. It is impossible to say for sure what would have happened, but it isn't too hard to see a scenario very similar to this having happened in Iraq.

QUOTE (bmags @ Jun 17, 2014 -> 11:45 AM) Also, for as much as the spurs "are not the heat" the core of Duncan (greatest PF of all time), manu and parker is better than what the bulls have. They've been able to identify and develop late and cheap talent better to keep those tools around. Outside of Duncan, none of that team has been top picks, or can't miss players. They have done an unreal job of picking guys and turning them into players that fit what they do in San Antonio. That is the most amazing thing of all down there. Does anyone think Kawhi Leonard is a star anywhere else? Tony Parker was a 28th overall pick. Ginobli was 57th. Their free agents have all been fill in guys, and not top dollar guys. They haven't had a draft pick higher than #24 since Tim Duncan. San Antonio is just a freak of nature in professional sports.

QUOTE (HickoryHuskers @ Jun 17, 2014 -> 11:01 AM) I've lost documentation on the thousands of dollars worth of deductions I'm claiming, but they'll take my word for it, right? Even better is when THEY lose my W2 and I get a letter stating that they won't recognize the taxes paid from it, and a I owe a fat fine because of it.

Orlando Hernandez, poses with this picture. https://twitter.com/whitesox/status/4789259...8108417/photo/1

QUOTE (Eminor3rd @ Jun 17, 2014 -> 10:55 AM) I think you'd have to analyze their stuff to make that claim. Axelrod is a really polished guy who has figured out AAA, but just doesn't have the goods to do it at the ML level. What is Surkamp? He may getting similar results, but is it from deception and polish or from better stuff? Could his stuff translate better? Does he have some command fixes he can make that might take him to the next level? I could be reading too much into it, but with as deep as we went into the minors, if Surkamp couldn't get called up then, that is probably pretty telling.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Jun 17, 2014 -> 09:48 AM) This isn't really the case, other than to say they both have low-marginal fastball velocity (upper 80's, T90). Surkamp was a T20 prospect in the Giants' system for years, was putting up numbers at lower ages per level than Axelrod, and has (or at least had) above average breaking stuff. Axelrod has never had breaking stuff that was even average really. Not saying Surkamp is anything great, but the only similarity I see between them is fastball velocity. Their numbers in the minors are very similar. The only real difference is that Surkamp strikes out a couple of more batters. Their numbers are close to identical otherwise over their minor league careers. It isn't a small sample size either Axe has 634 IP and Surkamp 551 over their time in the minors. Obviously you place Surkamp higher a prospect because he is lefthanded, but really there isn't much difference. Axe 2.99 ERA 1.172 WHIP 8.2 H/9 0.5 HR/9 2.3 BB/9 8.1 K/9 Surkamp 3.09 era 1.165 WHIP 8.0 H/9 0.5 HR/9 2.5 BB/9 10.1 K/9

QUOTE (ParkerBear7 @ Jun 16, 2014 -> 10:57 PM) seems like CarGO is turing into Carlos Quentin, he ends up on the DL every year. That contract will be a disaster if he can't stay healthy.

QUOTE (Lillian @ Jun 17, 2014 -> 03:38 AM) Wouldn't it make more sense to use him in the bullpen, where the Sox really need another lefty? Surkamp is pretty much the left handed version of Dylan Axelrod.

QUOTE (Buehrle>Wood @ Jun 16, 2014 -> 08:08 PM) Grant Park was awesome by the way. Crowd was great. Looked like by far the biggest crowd of all the sites they showed on ESPN around the USA.