caulfield12

We can certainly win with second tier free agents and smart “minor” trades that unearth valuable players, see 2003-2010. It’s just that Hahn has shown zero evidence of the ability to do so. Who’s his best free agent acquisition? We know the bad ones. Unless you count Abreu (a different classification of FA, more KW/Paddy), it’s probably David Robertson...who was overpaid to leave NY. Other than Eaton/Santiago, there haven’t been many great trades, either. Q for Jimenez/Cease currently looks like the second best. At any rate, you need a lot more than Swarzak, Kahnle, Narvaez and Palka to go right over a 2-3 year span...because those are the bottom 10 players on a playoff roster, not frontline guys.

Not until the country starts being defined again by what unites us instead of what divides us...and it feels like it’s likely to get worse before it gets better, because the real financial hardships/stressors are just around the corner. Up until recently, this has mostly been a period of prosperity.

I’m not even sure Jared Kushner or his sons being attacked would be enough to change his mind at this point. The Koch Brothers are the equivalent of Soros...I bet they’ve never worried a day in their lives about being attacked or targeted. Whenever they spend money, it’s about free political speech and liberty, whereas Soros and his Jewish cabal is funding hordes of locust-like invaders.

Just once in a while, it would be nice to get a Walker Buehler instead of Carson Fulmer. Sale’s exploits for Boston will have to suffice. It’s like 2005 and picking Chris are sufficient to get everyone lifetime contracts. Or just one outfielder we developed who could be one of the three best in Boston or LA.

Looks like 4 for now...

Even Pecota, a projection system that typically underestimates the Sox, was off by 11 full games.

Eovaldi just bumped up his contract demands by $10-15 million.

Board moderators, please put the original wins predicted for 2018 thread back up, before April 17th when everyone started revising their numbers downwards. Thank you.

Mentally disturbed people don’t think the same way those of us who watch CSI, NCIS or Criminal Minds do...maybe he wanted to be found? Cry for help, seeking attention type of thing...had been thrown out of house, homeless, no life prospects, was defacing his driver’s license to seem younger (40-something) to have a better opportunity in the dating field, some wacky behavior.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-whines-twitter-says-follower-152806488.html [EDITED BY MODS]

The Scalise shooting would have gotten coverage for weeks and weeks had he not recovered from his injuries. The scale/scope of this in terms of two past presidents and two other candidates (Biden/HRC) and at least two more for 2020 (Booker/Harris) makes this a huge story. Let’s turn it around and argue Antifa operatives from Cal-Berkeley carried out a similar op on 14 prominent Republicans. Is there ANY way Fox News, Breitbart, Alex Jones, Lou Dobbs...would not have bombarded the news with 24 hour coverage up through Election Day? Did anyone tune in to Fox at this time? I would bet they were covering the immigrant caravan...not referring to them as asylum/refugee seekers...and playing up that Mattis has authorized a heavily armed deployment at the border but as of yet there were no plans to shoot into the crowd of potential immigrants. This guy has such a long rap sheet..but I’m also willing to bet if he was a white unemployed 35 year year old who played games in his mom’s basement that the story would be extended further than through this upcoming weekend. https://www.miamiherald.com/latest-news/article220694495.html His remarks came a short time after he tweeted a complaint that the media’s focus on bombs was distracting from Republican efforts in the upcoming midterm elections. “Republicans are doing so well in early voting, and at the polls, and now this “Bomb” stuff happens and the momentum greatly slows - news not talking politics,” Trump tweeted in the hours before Sayoc was taken into custody. “Very unfortunate, what is going on. Republicans, go out and vote!” Trump’s tweet was an effort to refocus attention on the midterms that could alter the path of his presidency. His quote marks around “Bomb” were striking, suggesting the president might doubt the authenticity of the scare. That theory had gained steam in some quarters on the right. A number of Trump’s allies, including his eldest son, Donald Jr., and conservative commentator Lou Dobbs, have used social media to promote the idea that the bombs may be a Democrat-run hoax. And the president’s favorite television show, Fox & Friends, ran a segment Friday morning in the hours before his tweet that raised the possibility that the bombs were a “false flag” operation meant to gin up Democratic enthusiasm. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for an explanation as to the president’s meaning. Trump also issued a 3 a.m. tweet in which he complained that CNN and others were blaming him for the scare, saying they were “ridiculously comparing this to September 11th and the Oklahoma City bombing, yet when I criticize them they go wild and scream, ‘it’s just not Presidential!’” One of the packages was sent to CNN, forcing an evacuation of their Manhattan studios. Read more here: https://www.miamiherald.com/latest-news/article220694495.html#storylink=cpy

The debate here is whether universities should continue to force students to spend money on required PE courses. Univ of Iowa had two if I recall, so I took field hockey and racquetball. I taught badminton, baseball/softball, tennis, volleyball, ultimate frisbee, basketball, etc., as a TA which paid for most of one of two Master’s degrees. If you’re not going to be a healthy adult and spend all your time on gaming, it won’t matter. You can also take AP or CLEP or test out of required classes...but still difficult to find interesting courses you want to take in your major/minor areas due to low priority status for underclassmen in scheduling. Here in China, law school or medical school begins at age 18...you go directly into it. The problem is a numbers game...if you don’t do well on exams in high school, you can’t g to college or they choose a crappy major for you which you spend two years trying to escape by earning top 3 marks in the class. But no student loans, either. Parents pay for everything. Most kids never have their first job until somewhere between 21-24 years old.

QUOTE (SonofaRoache @ Apr 17, 2018 -> 08:47 AM) I will sit back and watch how the narrative changes now. Previously we were saying we'd compete for a playoff spot next year and a WS in 2020. If our team continues to progress slowly and play poorly, with the exception of a few pitchers, then those years need to be pushed back. Even Hawk was saying 2020. If a lot goes right, next year they have a shot. It's not like you have to win 100 games to make the playoffs. But 2020 is probably more realistic. From Dick Allen Most were predicting at least low 70’s for wins this last March. Not low 60’s or high 50’s, which was below the actual projected pace until the final two months of the season. That narrative didn’t change until the middle of April. Plus, everyone badly underestimated how putrid the entire AL Central would be after CLE, but the win total was still 5-10 lower than the consensus coming into the season on this particular board.

But that wasn't the storyline in August/September of 2017 when Moncada and Giolito were faring well. A LOT of casual White Sox fans had more than a glimmer of hope they would be a 68-74 win team this year. We could go back to the predictions thread, which is always going to be a bit more optimistic than Las Vegas odds because that's human nature for the majority of baseball fans when a new season is approaching.

Let's just put it this way, if the Cubs sign Harper and the White Sox pretty much stand pat, the odds of finding ANY Sox jersey in Chicago won't be that great. Maybe the hats at places like LIDS, but it's really hard to think of a jersey that fans would be credibly interested in buying. Jimenez is the only name that immediately comes to mind. I would have a hard time determining which player would be #2 in popularity behind Jimenez at this point. Let's just hope that Madrigal can fulfill the Jeter-esque qualities that Gordon Beckham was SUPPOSED to possess. He's the kind of player that nearly every kid in America could identify with.

The problem is that the majority of teams aren't going to be able to successfully follow the Astros/Cubs blueprints. We're already deviating, and we had three amazing contracts to deal (along with Frazier/Kahnle) and still are already one year behind schedule. If it wasn't for the fact that the REST of the AL Central was abysmal, the Twins are retrenching...and the Indians are clearly going to take at least one if not two major steps backwards, there's a window opening whether we are ready or not to step through. If we were in ANY other division in baseball and in the exact same position, there wouldn't be nearly as much of a temptation to jump-start the rebuild with moves like the Brewers made for established veterans like Yelich and Cain.

I guess it's up to the front office/JR/marketing department to determine how much more of the fan base they can afford to drive into apathy. We expected going into last off-season to be competitive (like the Royals in 2014, especially 2nd half) at least in July of 2019 and we're already one full year behind that timetable. (Obviously, Machado/Harper/Corbin could change that, with 2-3 "big name" veteran relievers being the more unlikely adds.) It remains to be seen if picking Madrigal instead of the 5th-8th guy (could get you a Fulmer or Buehler) is going to be worth it. That said, we ALL know pretty much beyond a doubt that duct-taping together a 72-78 win team but still not being competitive with the Indians isn't going to move the bar enough to get the fans back. The concern, of course, and a valid one, is how do you jump 20 victories in one year if you're going to be mired in the high 60's or low 70's in terms of win totals? You have to start hitting on some of your high draft picks and also making the right trades and free agent moves. It's that simple.

Trump has an opportunity to do a unifying speech in a Wisconsin rally tonight, or just go on without correcting course or messaging. Can he be a leader for the entire country and not stay on the attack with less than two weeks to go before the election? That’s the question.

No mention of MSFT at all. Notably, the market saw flows into classic risk-off sectors with real estate, utilities, and consumer staples all closing in the green while the newly-formed communications sector dropped almost 5% while the S&P tech sector lost 4.4%. Treasurys also got a bid on Wednesday with the yield on the 10-year moving back to 3.11% and the 5-year falling back below 3% after yields earlier this month hit a seven-year high. The FAANG stocks, some of the highest fliers in the market since the beginning of 2017, were punished especially hard on Wednesday on no major market-moving news in the space, as Netflix (NFLX) shares fell 9.4%, Facebook (FB) stock fell 5% to approach a new 52-week low, while Amazon (AMZN) and Alphabet (GOOGL) shares lost more than 5% ahead of those companies’ reports expected after the market close on Thursday. Chip names were also under pressure all day on Wednesday with AMD’s (AMD) report after the market close putting even more pressure on the space after hours. AMD fell 9% during the trading day on Wednesday and was off more than 20% after hours as the chipmaker’s guidance missed expectations. On Thursday, the heavy earnings flow continues with Alphabet, Amazon, Gilead (GILD), Chipotle (CMG), Merck (MRK), Twitter (TWTR), Altria (MO), Discover Financial (DFS), and Comcast (CMCSA) all reporting on Thursday.

Add Maxine Waters...wonder if the FBI will dare to share investigation information in the last week or ten days before the election. Hopefully not. https://www.yahoo.com/news/cnn-president-tells-trump-words-matter-mail-bomb-found-214004747.html CNN responds to attacks...btw, Brennan’s name was spelled with only one N, whatever that means. Schultz’s last name spelled without a C. Soros was the first name released, and now all are linked together. One purportedly from Wasserman-Schultz TO Eric Holder, but returned. Waters bomb not yet 100% confirmed or linked yet.

Can’t imagine this topic being discussed rationally with no Filibuster...like the immigration caravan plodding across Mexico. I guess it can’t be that surprising with all the hateful rhetoric going back and forth. This is just a natural extension of verbal confrontation. It only takes one or two nuts, like the Scalise shooting at the Congressional baseball practice. Looks like the story is expanding to many other possible targets, including John Brennan/CNN.

They’d want to see Rutherford in AA and still hitting well and with plenty of xbh in bigger parks to value him highly. Right now, he’s at least two years away, which doesn’t help their playoff competitive team very much.

Those summer travel baseball leagues where they travel all over the region/country and cost at least $5000 per summer for parents to fund...that's what is killing youth participation. It's winnowing down the numbers earlier and earlier. It might not be a "white sport" because of the growing influence of Latin America, but no matter how much MLB puts into Reviving Baseball in the Inner City, the Bulls/Sox Academy, ACE...other sports are still drawing more kids, not just the NBA/NFL, but some of the secondary sports like soccer (in America), golf, tennis, etc.

There's no doubt that Sox gear (there was a brief burst for Moncada, then Kopech) simply is almost non-existent except for hardcore fans and random rappers/entertainers. (This is definitely the case a mere 175 miles away, in the Quad Cities.) That said, the real spread in Chicago's probably closer to 60/40 than 70/30, it's just that it has basically been a dormant/hibernating fanbase since the disappointment after the predicted 2006-2009 dynasty fell flat on its face. They have obviously attempted to lower prices significantly from the 2006-2012 era, but now there's simply many more entertainment options, MLB.tv/Extra Innings has improved by leaps and bounds, the incentive to actually go to the park is decreasing in all the professional sports, except for the post-season and All-Star games and post-game concerts, etc. Let's just say the belief/confidence in the organization has gradually withered on the vine. 2008 was great, 2010 was exciting in the middle of the season (the Thome dumping notwithstanding), but then you had Dunn's historic for the wrong reasons 2011 and the 2012 run that nobody expected was going to be able to withstand the Tigers' challenge in the end (losing franchise icon Mark Buehrle also stung). Obviously, 2007/09/11 also had a LOT to do with why the fans started to lose confidence in the front office...zero consistency or predictability in having a good product from year to year kills season ticket sales. In a lot of ways, the fans were absolutely correct, it should be added. Look at the 2012 roster again. It was all smoke and mirrors. What happened to all those rookies and young pitchers, other than Sale/Q/Nate Jones/Addison Reed? Look at the line-up, and compare it with the Tigers that year. Unsurprisingly, the "Ventura Defensive Magic" wore completely off after one season, and 2013/14 were complete disasters, with terrible fundamentals, defense and lackluster excitement/hustle being the commonalities connecting 2013-2016, with the exception of the first five or six weeks of 2016 (yet another mirage that left us shaking our heads at James Shields).

Trae Young might be better than predicted. Seems to be holding his own. We’ll see when he faces better teams that the Cavs. If he can shoot at least 37.5% from 3, he’ll be off to a good start. Can he not wear down the second half of the season? He was constantly double and triple teamed at OU after the sensational start. Doncic and Joe Ingles have been fun watches in the early going.