caulfield12

Madrigal was drafted for a number of reasons that aren't going to easily be measured statistically, but he's definitely going to be a LaRussa favorite and I'm pretty sure that the Brewers aren't quite ready to move Hiura, either. How much longer do they have to pay Ryan Braun, btw? Whenever we make a trade for pitching and trade 2 or 3 guys for one, at least the last twenty years...it always seems to work out in the other team's favor. Then we end up with an injury and even less pitching depth, and more desperation to find a back-end starter.

No wonder EVERYONE'S moving to Austin, haha. I would almost say there's starting to becoming a backlash, to the point where people who move there are feeling disappointed...it's like some are magically expecting to be transformed just by relocating there. Fwiw, I was always impressed with Will Hurd holding that Hispanic majority seat that's one of the largest in the country by mileage/territory.

You don't draft Madrigal that high in the first round just to turn around and trade him. Whether we like it or not, he's an important aspect of the future Sox competitive window that won't be traded away so easily, same with Vaughn.

Orlando Arcia...

And the other part of this goes to the heart of males (in general, or specific media personalities) constantly making comments about female sports reporters’ appearance, the way they’re dressed, and intimating that they’re in their positions solely because of appearance and to merely stand there in the spotlight with “the male gaze” upon them. Having lived in Colombia for one year...and witnessed the "machismo" first hand, it strikes one immediately how women are extremely objectified, pushed to get plastic surgery (even by their families), judged primarily on appearance and ability to be "eye candy" for their guy. This reporter must have thought America that men would be so much more respectful. In South America, very few women even go outside without full make-up and jeans or a skirt, and it's QUITE common for women to be whistled at and "cat-called" in the streets.

Therein lies the rub. I can’t imagine there’s a single baseball reporter or online sleuth thinking that attempting to sleep with Kim Ng for those same inside sources would be a wise strategy. That a baseball reporter from Latin America would be put in a position to hesitate or think it might benefit her career...an advancement strategy...tells us all we need to know about the good ‘ol boys club mentality still prevailing. The saddest part of the story is that she’s now in finance, which is not that much better for avoiding harassment, but where she is undoubtedly treated better simply because of the general wariness in the corporate world that’s at least partially a result of the #metoo campaign. Of course, if women use their appearance to get ahead...they get called out or labelled, with the double standard of men getting praised or cheered on by their buddies, we even have sports terminology for it, “being a player.” Too bad Porter didn’t have the opportunity to watch Promising Young Woman first to make him think twice.

https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/bed-bath-beyond-says-its-dropping-my-pillow-because-its-underperforming-183449855.html

Of course, Johnson himself came one lone vote from being impeached, as chronicled in Profiles of Courage. Let’s just hope Biden can do better than Grant. Finally, that pardon dump will come late Tuesday night, after the news....or very early Tuesday morning to be yet one more thing to distract from Biden’s inauguration.

Especially after the Capitol attack made his Amtrak route from Delaware more vulnerable...

“Oh come on, like you haven't sent a few dick DMs here and there yourself.... I bet former Chicago sports reporter Sierra Santos alone knows what the junk of half of Soxtalk looks like.” Verbatim quote from a poster earlier in the thread

Scary thought that 50% of SoxTalk would DM a local reporter with pictures like that, and actually believe that it would be an effective strategy, and never have any future consequences, lol. And we wonder why so few women typically post on baseball message boards.

Proving that Jack Dorsey is more powerful than Russian/Ukrainian troll farms. Somehow, this will be turned around into yet another argument about "cancel culture," how conservative voices on the right are being silenced and Section 230 "censorship" by Big Tech companies (which ironically is opposed by the majority of GOP conservatives, despite Trump's current obsession). The best argument I've seen made (against) is that fact that tracking these groups is becoming increasingly challenging for the Feds because they're now going underground and migrating away from mainstream sources like FB, Twitter, Parler, Reddit and 4chan...to the infamous Dark Web.

So obviously ESPN can't or couldn't legally intervene and preemptively warn the Mets (knowing they were interviewing him for GM) without first-hand sourcing/proof/evidence, even if they wanted to. It does get to be a slippery slope with media today. This is where Cohen's hiring process is going to come under attack. Not doing due diligence or more exhaustive background checks into family/relationships/social media. Assuming that anyone under "Saint Theo" would be beyond reproach, etc. Usually these types of idiots have a history of similar situations...

I'm not so sure it's about money as much as being around a culture where athletes are pretty much used to getting whatever they want...and treating women in this way, and it being excused or simply getting away with it over and over again. Some will say it's related to the fraternity mentality prevalent at universities as well as Steve Cohen's version of Wall Street (think, The Wolf of Wall Street, Billions, The Big Short or Inside Job). Power, definitely. Perhaps his pride was wounded when a woman from a Central/South American or Caribbean (second or third world to most Americans) turned him down or didn't return the interest. So entitlement belongs as one of the words in the description.

"I'm also very concerned that "a baseball source" and ESPN were aware of this criminal behavior for 3+ years. And apparently failed to report it to authorities. How many other women were treated this way by Porter in the intervening time? Lots of speculation on my part this early in the story, but this really bothers me." Uh-oh. https://www.amazinavenue.com/2021/1/19/22238126/mets-gm-jared-porter-accused-of-sexual-harassment-espn-reporter-text-messages#comments

ESPN said it contacted Porter on Monday evening and he acknowledged texting with the woman. At first, he said he hadn't sent any pictures of himself, but when informed the exchanges show he sent selfies and other pictures, he said “the more explicit ones are not of me. Those are like, kinda like joke-stock images,” ESPN reported. After asking whether the outlet intended to run a story, Porter requested more time before later declining additional further comment, ESPN reported. https://www.sacbee.com/sports/article248596990.html The text relationship started casually before Porter, then the Chicago Cubs director of professional scouting, began complimenting her appearance, inviting her to meet him in various cities and asking why she was ignoring him. And the texts show she had stopped responding to Porter after he sent a photo of pants featuring a bulge in the groin area. (so let's just double down and up the ante!) Porter continued texting her anyway, sending dozens of messages despite the lack of a response. On Aug. 11, 2016, a day after asking her to meet him at a hotel in Los Angeles, Porter sent the woman 17 pictures. The first 15 photos were of the hotel and its restaurants. The 16th was the same as an earlier photo of the bulge in the pants. The 17th was of a bare penis. https://thecount.com/2021/01/18/jared-porter-controversy/ Other accounts are reporting it as "naked/erect." And at least Anthony Weiner can rest a little bit more easily tonight, there's that. Read more here: https://www.sacbee.com/sports/article248596990.html#storylink=cpy

ESPN reported that Porter, then working for the Cubs, sent the woman — a foreign correspondent who had moved to the U.S. to cover Major League Baseball — 17 pictures. The first 15 photos were of a hotel and restaurants. The 16th was of a bulge in his pants and the 17th was of a bare penis. Porter acknowledged to ESPN he had texted with the woman, but initially said he had not sent any pictures of himself. Presented with more evidence he denied the explicit pictures were of himself, calling them “joke stock images.” https://nypost.com/2021/01/18/mets-gm-jared-porter-sent-reporter-unsolicited-penis-photos/ What's more ridiculous is that he thought hotel/travel/restaurant pictures would somehow WOO her. And that current picture on the front page of the NY Post isn't doing him any favors, either. And poor Jon Lester, his homecoming story is getting buried.

Greg Norman...?

Be careful, we know from Hendricks that players/agents are reading... and the White Sox posters were labeled as more positive than most.

That's like expecting that some of the plays Juan Uribe made that year (especially the play going into the stands) to ever compete with Derek Jeter's dashing flip to home to catch Jeremy Giambi not sliding...

That Gibson homer totally changed the complexion of the series from Game 1 on, was against the best relief pitcher in the modern-game (at the time) and was done on one leg...while the Pods and Blum homers were equally improbable in many ways, Gibson's was something almost out of the The Natural in terms of dramatics.

I can understand the Dominican issues with Wilder and Santana, but the ONE huge miss has always been Venezuela. We never took advantage of Ozzie Guillen as the manager for a decade, Magglio Ordonez, the Sox history with Aparicio, etc. The ONLY obvious benefit was getting Freddy Garcia and that extension signed because of the family relationship. Of course, now, with all the political issues and the majority of MLB clubs pulling up stakes in Venezuela, it hasn't hurt quite as much...as scouting that pool of talent has become less of an issue of "boots on the ground."

Paddy and KW are as good as anyone at identifying talent. It's just matching up that evaluation with the A-OK from Reinsdorf on the spending side. To Reinsdorf's credit, he was smart enough to take the risk and pull the trigger on Robert, knowing the rebuild was at least one future star short at the time.

Let's put it this way, what MLB team has a higher return on investment in terms of Latin America? Between Alexei Ramirez, Jose Abreu, Tatis, Jr., and Luis Robert alone, does anyone even come close? The real problem for the White Sox has been the lack of high quality depth on the pitching side, the lack of outfield development from those 4-5 oft-discussed prospects (including Basabe there,) and then favoring "MLB-ready" college talent as an organizational focus, for example, guys like Collins/Sheets/Walker, etc. Otoh, the Padres have been pretty smart about reading the current market and realizing they can still get away with these "quantity over quality" deals and preserve their Top 6-7 prospects. If you look at all that investment in LatAm about 5-6 years ago, they've only lost Luis Patino and still have Morejon, M.Baez and even Anderson Espinoza, who was once their most ballyhooed pitching prospect before injuries sidelined him. Not to mention retaining Gore (who was never going anywhere) and Weathers, which is pretty remarkable starting pitching depth. Additionally, they've been able to move Eric Lauer, Kyle Davies and now Lucchesi, and actually get above-average returns for those pieces.

It depends which Pham you're getting...coming off a number of issues this off-season. If he's healthy and motivated, he can be a Top 10-15 NL outfielder. Myers was insane last year, so nowhere to go but back down. Grisham was perhaps the biggest surprise of the season, along with Cronenworth. How repeatable are either of their seasons? The actual key to that offense taking off was those two, along with the addition of Nola at catcher over Hedges. Hosmer is Hosmer. Of course, they've also got that top KBO middle infielder as insurance now, but the loss of Profar stings a bit (for now.)