witesoxfan

QUOTE (CaliSoxFanViaSWside @ Feb 25, 2012 -> 08:03 PM) The more I think about Lillibridge the more I want to see what he can do . When a guy hits as many HR's as he did in less than 200 AB's, he must have learned something and deserves a chance to be more than a supersub. I hope he gets a shot when others aren't playing well. Or he was getting lucky and he is, no matter what, bound to regress to the mean somewhat. His HR/FB last was was 21.3%. The league average is right around 10%. I agree he needs playing time, but expectations must remain tempered. For comparison's sake, Jose Bautista - he of the 97 homers over the previous two seasons - had a HR/FB of 21.7% in 2010 and 22.5% in 2011. I'm not about to make a comparison between Brent Lillibridge and Jose Bautista, but I will let anybody else do so if they so please.

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Feb 25, 2012 -> 11:11 AM) When you tip, you are paying 20% over the cost of the burger anyway, so what's the difference if they raise the price. Mandatory tipping is stupid IMO. Pay the restaurant workers a better wage and let me decide if they deserve an extra tip. I am already paying 20% over the menu price now anyway, so if they raise the prices it will work out the same. It was nice in Australia & New Zealand, tipping is not expected all because the servers make a much higher wage. If someone's service was was that much better, then you can give them a little extra at your discretion, but not be required too. You will always see, at the very minimum, a 25% hike in retail vs wholesale price of restaurant food, but that's because you have to pay for the employees (read: cooks, servers, dishwashers, bussers, hosts, and even bartenders) as well as rent. Sometimes, that can be increased by up to 50%. If you increase it anymore, you are going to end up with a $13 5-6 oz burger or a $15 half pound burger, and at that point, you may as well go the fast food route because you really aren't doing so much for your health that eating a freshly grilled burger is going to make that much of a difference. At the restaurant I work at now, we have a $30 steak - an 8 oz filet mignon with a port wine reduction. It's fantastic, but a tenderloin is not a low cost product and there isn't a lot of it. If we were to go with your pricing model, it would be a $35-40 steak, and through simple supply and demand, we'd sell it less and be able to afford fewer workers.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Feb 24, 2012 -> 05:37 PM) This is where I defend Ozzie and praise him and everybody says they are sick of me talking about Ozzie. You are saying that you defend Ozzie because he quit on the team. /facepalm

I also found one that I am going to use a lot more often now

CW, I went through similar experiences in my last relationship. I guess it would depend upon the exact circumstances. There was a point in that relationship where I felt like I "cheated" even though we were technically broken up, because we were still hanging out. I told her about it, we spend some time apart, and eventually let bygones be bygones. We were fine and had ultimate trust between ourselves. That's the thing though...if it was a one-time fling where she lost control, that can be overcome. If she did it multiple times, it's quite a bit harder to get over that, especially if it was with different partners. And if it's the multiple partners, I would suggest exactly what Steve said. Well, it's either that or the drinking/lifting thing. Although I found that the drinking really didn't help until the day after, because the hangover only kept my mind focused on the fact that I felt like absolute dogs***.

QUOTE (3E8 @ Feb 24, 2012 -> 02:25 PM) I hearken back to a young 3E8 getting dumped because his girl liked someone else. I spent so much time feeling sorry for myself, saying "but I'll never find someone else as good as her", and doing embarrassing things to try and win her back. I want to go back in time and never stop punching that 3E8 in the face. CW is in shock still. Because this is his first relationship, I think he is finding it especially hard to trust us over his feelings right now. Can I punch time machine 3E8 in the face with you?

You and me baby ain't nothing but mammals So let's do it like they do on the Discovery Channel

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Feb 24, 2012 -> 08:08 AM) I have to poop. QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Feb 24, 2012 -> 08:26 AM) Oof, that was a beastly dump. Feeling good now, though! That is f***ing GREAT hustle. (*slaps ass HARD*)

Greg, you are on my ignore list for a reason. Unfortunately, I have to read through your drivel because other people continue to respond to your nonsense. This bothers me. You have a crush on Ozzie Guillen. Not a "I want to make sweet-sweet love to Ozzie Guillen" crush, but more a "I want to talk sweet-sweet things to Ozzie Guillen" sort of crush. You're a prude. You'll do everything but f*** him. Hell, you'll even let him get to 3rd base...Lord knows the dude never hit a homer. But here you glorify him in absolute irrationality. The White Sox were awful this past year. They were good the year before, but how much of that had to do with Kenny Williams trading for Edwin Jackson at the deadline (if you believe either baseballreference or FGs...and you're not left with much beyond that...it was worth 2 WINS), which seems like quite little until you REALIZE THAT OZZIE GUILLEN SINGLE HANDEDLY BLEW TWO GAMES AGAINST THE MINNESOTA TWINS DUE TO SIMPLE BULLPEN MANAGEMENT. Oh hmmmmmm, my closer has struggled this year, LET ME LEAVE HIM IN WHILE HE'S GETTING HIS ASS KICKED ON THE ROAD AGAINST THE TEAM THAT HAS BEAT THE HOLY s*** OUT OF US THE PAST FEW YEARS. Hmm, Matt Thornton has pitched well, including the 2 innings he's pitched this game, YES LET'S THROW HIM OUT THERE FOR A 3RD INNING NO MATTER THAT HE'S FACING A GREAT FASTBALL HITTER IN JIM THOME WHO CAN END IT IN ONE SWING OF THE BAT. I could find countless others. Ozzie Guillen's main positive quality was placing blame on himself and not the players. By the end of his tenure, not only was he tired of placing the blame on himself, he was passing it off to the fans "They only remember the 2005 team (that won the World Series) in 2020 when we come here in a wheelchair," Guillen said. " 'Oh, yeah, thank you.' As soon as you leave the ballpark, they don't care about you anymore. The monuments, the statues they have for you, they (urinate) on it when they are drunk. 'Thank you for coming' for 30 minutes for all the suffering you did all your life, day in and day out." - reportedly Ozzie Guillen* *I totally feel like Fox News/MSNBC focusing on one side of the story...it is exhilarating. Whether it's 100% true or not, Ozzie was definitely tired of his time in Chicago. He was and is the Latino Mike Ditka. He will get his players fired up, but his focus on one stupid area will cost him severely, and he will never again achieve the type of success he did 20 years after Ditka did with the Bears. Ozzie Guillen was a terrible manager for this team and any beyond, and Greg, if you refuse to admit, if you continue to believe that Ozzie Guillen is second to the Dalai Lama, then you will never understand baseball or the intricacies that are involved in it. Instead, you will simply follow the manager's word, and 7 years from now, you will be pissed off that Rick Hahn is letting go of Robin Ventura (or Tony Phillips or Joe McEwing or Jose Canseco or Ty Cobb) and you'll argue it to the death. Seriously. Stop. Ozzie was and IS NOT THAT GOOD.

QUOTE (Rooftop Shots @ Feb 23, 2012 -> 06:10 AM) I went there on the 4th of July once, and during the grand finale, to this day, my chest has never thundered with that degree of pounding not only from the booming of how intense everything was being blown off, but also the reverberation of how it all bounced off walls and kept coming and coming and coming. ANNNNNNNNNNNNND that's what she said

The guy and the music are a bit goofy, but this video always helps me nail it. He goes through it slowly the first time, and then quickly the second. Usually, I nail it after watching him do it for about 10 seconds.

QUOTE (Tex @ Feb 21, 2012 -> 04:07 PM) It would also be impossible to paint a picture so pessimistic I'd argue with it. I think the proven part of the talent is down from last year, the upside is higher (even subtracting Dunn and Rios). I believe the attitude will be better. Simple and to the point. Agreed completely.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Feb 21, 2012 -> 11:14 AM) Congrats! Hopefully the firm was just on a long weekend or something bizarre, because otherwise not being able to get ahold of someone isn't a good sign. It's with MDU Resources, which is a Fortune 500 company. I just hope it's not Toby running the HR department.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Feb 21, 2012 -> 10:45 AM) It's a good grade. The Sox did not try to improve as a team. The team is expected to be way worse than last year. So it's a good grade. The Sox did improve as a team. Perhaps not as much in 2012, but going forward, they brought in a lot of young talent. You can't deny this. I also don't expect them to be worse than last year. If anything, I expect them to tread water. I think having a calmer voice leading this team will do the same for others on the team and will keep them playing pretty well all year. Further, I think having a new hitting coach will be good as well, even if they're hearing the same types of things. Sometimes, all you need is hearing something from somebody else. The bullpen still has a ton of talent and Buehrle is being replaced by Sale in the rotation. I don't see any possible way that Dunn could be as bad as he was last year and there are others who I expect to see good numbers from as well. I'm actually getting excited. (I also won't care if they lose 90 games because I have no expectations for this team. 90 losses would net a high draft pick, almost certainly top 10, and that brings more talent into the organization)

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Jan 24, 2012 -> 10:16 AM) I only got like 1 or 2 questions like that, and for both of them I gave a couple different scenarios I've been in and my reasoning behind my actions in both of them. I actually think I interviewed pretty well, and they seem to need a lot of help pretty much right away, so I am feeling really good about it right now. Just have to cross my fingers at this point. Even if it ultimately is just a temporary 10 month position, I would love to have any experience I can get having to do with anything financially. One person on here already knows, but I received an offer last Thursday for this position. It's been a bit of a struggle initially though. I have to go in for a UA, but I wasn't able to get ahold of HR on Friday or yesterday, and have been unsuccessful thus far today, and they need a clean test before they can even let me in the building. I know they don't take long to do or get results for, but this is insanely frustrating.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Feb 21, 2012 -> 10:11 AM) Aren't the Steeler's in cap hell right now? Big money up front could be the key. It's seemingly doable, but for a team like the Bears that has a lot of other issues that they need to address, giving anywhere around $10 mill this year to a WR plus a franchise tag on Matt Forte while giving up their first round pick doesn't seem wise. This seems more like a move that the Patriots or Ravens would make where their teams are good all around but their one glaring weakness is a deep threat WR.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Feb 21, 2012 -> 08:23 AM) When you are not good enough if you don't obviously improve your team for the present or don't obviously upgrade your future you get a low grade Castro was once highly thought of but AAA ERAs around 10.00 lower expectations. Molina could be good but less than 300 IP in his life and only 22 of those above A ball tempers expectations as well. V Yeah, a C. They didn't make any big splashes or bring in any big time impact prospects that are going to change the scope of the organization, but the team looks better for the future. What's a team like the Twins doing? They lost 99 games last year, lost a lot of power in Cuddyer, Kubel, and Thome, and replaced it with Willingham, Doumit, and Jamey Carroll. They lost Joe Nathan and replaced him with Joel Zumaya who, in the last four years, has thrown 92.2 IP, which is about 23 innings a year. They brought in Jason Marquis to eat innings, and I fully expect him to put up an ERA of about 5. Do they really expect those moves to improve them much beyond a .500 team this year and then help them going forward as well? The Sox can have a C or a D- or an F--- or 0 stars out of 5 or three thumbs down or whatever stupid rating anybody wants to give them. I am happier with the way they approached this offseason than the Twins did. The Twins have a little better system, so they can afford to take chances like this, but if their moves fail, they're out a ton of money and have to let it ride on the bench. The Sox can simply cut players or trade them for other busted prospects who might be a bit better.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Feb 21, 2012 -> 07:54 AM) Actually...it's entirely possible this is true. A lot hangs on Molina and Castro. That's a pretty poor argument though. Using that same argument, I could say that the Athletics didn't really do anything to make themselves better this year and that they didn't really do anything to improve themselves in the future because nobody knows what Cespedes does. You could make the same exact argument about the Cubs too. Williams, by any measure you want to make, brought in a lot of pitching talent. The future of this organization looks better than it did before we went into the offseason. And, considering the success he's had at turning other teams' pitching prospects into big time contributors at the MLB level, I'm going to give him the benefit of the doubt on this one. A grade of D- is dumb.

I don't know how anybody could give the Sox a D- for the offseason they had. There were some questionable moves, but it's not as if this team is suddenly worse for this year and worse for the future because of the moves made during this offseason.

Alex Rios hit .280/.333/.400/.733 in 27 plate appearances in the 3 hole. And, if you want to use that as reasoning for batting someone in a certain spot, then he should be batting cleanup, where he put up a .795 OPS. But, that's silly. Humber not being in the rotation is also silly. He is technically the Sox best returning starting pitcher, and you want him in the bullpen? If Castro is going to be in the rotation, it will be after Floyd or Peavy is traded come midseason.

QUOTE (sunofgold @ Feb 19, 2012 -> 11:05 PM) Anybody know what Robin Ventura's managerial style is going to be? That to me is the biggest mystery right now. My ultimate guess would be that he talks to the team, wears a uniform, and stays in the dugout most of the time. Other days, he will wear a jacket.

QUOTE (The Ginger Kid @ Feb 19, 2012 -> 01:46 PM) Why? If Jimenez pitches like an ace I think the Indians will give them a run for their money the entire way. Fister is a ground ball pitcher who had a terrific half-season. Not sold on that guy at all. Lets see how he likes having miggy butchering 3B behind him. And take a look at the prince's numbers outside of milwaukee. He's also getting ready to see a lot more breaking s*** than he saw in the NL. And Valverde? No way he repeats that performance. They had their shot last year, blew it as usual. f*** Detroit. Funny that you're not sold on Fister because he had a terrific half season when that's all Jimenez has ever had in his career.

Preface: Row, if you need any support at all, let everybody know here...of course, through PM Most IMPORTANTLY: the game suck it players

QUOTE (Kalapse @ Feb 16, 2012 -> 10:35 PM) I f***ing nailed it. That's what HE said

QUOTE (JoeCoolMan24 @ Feb 14, 2012 -> 01:45 AM) Yeah, but these are not the same circumstances. You don't detiremine what to pay a free agent international player who can sign anywhere he wants to play to a drafted player that has to choose either the contract, or waiting around another year to enter the draft again. A player stands to lose a lot more by not signing his draft deal versus not signing with 1 of the 30 teams in Free Agency. Those are apples and oranges. That still doesn't mean you dole out $27.5 million for a 19 year old outfielder. Soler was the player I wanted the Sox to get through this whole process, but never at more than $20 million. There is far, far too much risk involved. I am just fine with the Sox not signing any of the Cubans. I would have taken Concepcion, even at that price, but that's water under the bridge. But Cespedes at $36 million and Soler at $27.5 million...no way in hell. You can spend that on major league talent instead.