caulfield12

I think most of our thoughts were more like "what the f*#k????"

Please present your options for catcher in 2020. Keep in mind, Grandal's not going to sign a one year deal with the Sox unless we outbid every contender by 10-15%. Or he'll likely be looking for at least a 2 and more likely a 3 year deal at age 31. Also, would love to hear who you REALISTICALLY believe we could get back in return for Carlos Rodon...let's say he's at a 3.50 ERA in early July, good peripherals, .500ish W/L record, lower walk rate than previous years. Do we not need a RF next year? Do we not need a catcher? Since everyone will pooh-pooh the idea of Puig on principle, you're left with Castellanos (he of a career fWAR under 10) and Marcell Ozuna, who profiles remarkably like Puig in terms of their "average" numbers over the course of their young careers. We know none of our minor league outfielders remaining after Jimenez/Robert will be ready until Opening Day, 2021. Then you want to have a contending team built around a rookie or multiple rookies having to perform? Well, that sounds QUITE familiar, doesn't it?

Moncada, Anderson, Madrigal, Jimenez and Robert have to be it....leaving RF, C, DH and 1B. There’s no way around that. As it stands, you can add Collins as well, unless anyone believes we’re going to outspend 10+ teams for the services of a 31 year old Grandal. And Grandal will just go year to year like a Moustakas on contending teams unless he gets a minimum 3 or 4 year guaranteed offer...so the risk is high his best remaining season on the deal would be wasted in 2020. Otherwise, trade for Austin Hedges and don’t get shafted again. They would ask for Rodon, undoubtedly. The potential deal to be made would be Rodon, Leury/Yolmer (pick one) and Nate Jones for Hedges and W.Myers/Jankowski/Renfroe/Cordero/Reyes (pick one). Of course, that would also virtually force us to go into the FA market for a legit TOR starter against the big boys.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/felicity-huffman-and-lori-loughlin-reveal-how-to-ruin-kids-190801230.html College Admissions Scandal Reveals Worst Parents Ever There are also some prominent business and finance names, including Doug Hodge, the former CEO of investing giant Pimco, William McGlashan of investing firm TPG, and Gordon Caplan of law firm Wilkie Farr. The suit also charges fashion designer Mossimo Giannulli, who is Loughlin’s husband. But it does not name the actor William H. Macy, who is married to Huffman. The bribes in many cases were disguised as payments to a California college-prep service known as The Edge College & Career Network, and as donations to a California nonprofit known as The Key Worldwide Foundation. A man named William Singer ran both and was the alleged mastermind. Families typically made five- or six-figure payments to place their kids, with Singer bribing coaches as needed. He earned $25 million in this manner from 2011 to 2019, according to the indictment. One set of parents paid him $1.2 million to get their kid into Yale. Outrage flooded social media as the news of the cheating scandal broke. But responsible parents can take some pride in playing by the rules and raising their kids to succeed on merit rather than bribes. Opening every door for kids is horrible parenting, because it makes kids dependent on outside intervention to succeed. They never learn to be self-sufficient and can become fragile and needy. I researched the science of resilience for my 2012 book “Rebounders,” and discovered that kids who learn to surmount challenges on their own and even fail (in safe ways) learn how to excel in the real world. Shrewd parents help their kids develop the skills needed to open doors for themselves. It might not be illegal, but it’s a crime against your kids to carry them across every obstacle and prevent them from learning needed survival skills. Some parents do this to feed their own vanity, because kids are a kind of life accessory that must be as impressive as fancy jewelry or a vacation estate. Some commentary regarding Admission-gate characterizes it as an appalling microcosm of a new gilded age in which the rich are richer than ever and the rest can only look in from outside. But that’s not quite right. The perps in Admission-gate will suffer, if it turns out they actually committed crimes. The worst crimes, as the saying goes, are the ones that are legal. The wealthy enjoy the privilege of opportunity: they have access to all the education, financial resources and support systems needed to succeed. The biggest failure of American society at the moment is a shortage of opportunity. Too many Americans are stuck in lousy schools and limiting circumstances, without the resources to succeed. We should punish criminals, if that’s what they turn out to be. But we should provide more people the opportunities that would allow them to get ahead, on their own, without bribes or special treatment or pathologically overwrought parents.

Night game in Glendale with both home teams...no way that gets scrubbed unless there’s an El Niño monsoon.

Burr has been much better this spring than he showed last September. Veira and Ruiz are a couple of other names to watch, Thompson to a lessser extent.

We still don’t have a consensus long-term solution at catcher...that, fortifying the starting rotation with perfect veteran presence, and keeping LUIS Robert off the disabled list are/should be the biggest concerns. Rodon, Cease, Giolito, Kopech, Dunning, Hansen, Hamilton, Nate Jones, Fry (multiple TJ’s) and Herrera (general wear and tear from overuse in KC, diminished velocity) all have various levels of flashing warning signs about potential health issues now or down the road. That’s not unlike the 1998-2001 group of highly-touted pitching prospects. The odds are extremely high (at least for the moment) of being frustrated once again over losing another potential franchise cornerstone or superstar in Adley Rutschman this June.

https://news.yahoo.com/celebs-charged-with-fraud-in-buying-their-childrens-admission-to-top-colleges-180302288.html

More emphatic, lol....it was one way of guaranteeing myself of never posting there again. In the moment, felt like a voice or vote against “the man.”

Weird that there are five more night games on the docket for AZ, all still on, at least so far.

No, I asked for a permanent ban too after they originally gave 10 days...especially after the way they treated my best friend after he joined, arguing with him and imposing the groupthink view on music of all things.

Hamilton didn’t 100% survive...his shoulder is hurting from jamming it in a recent car accident.

Floyd, Granderson, Zobrist, Kipnis=good players Tilson=AAAA fodder

https://www.cnn.com/2019/03/12/us/college-admission-cheating-scheme/index.html

Except we did the opposite this offseason, struck too early and paid above market value for Nova, Herrera, Jay, McCann...overpaid for Colome in terms of trade value and under appreciating Narvaez...overpaying by giving anything (Call) away and assuming Alonso’s contract when the Indians likely would have been forced to discount/subsidize him closer to March 29th.

Minus the much nicer and newer stadium and the cool downtown location....and the picturesque Clemente Bridge/Statue. Definitely some similarities, dumping fan favorites McCutcheon, Cole, Mercer, Harrison, etc.

At any rate, I guess we can still try to pick up Tim Tebow to sell some tickets. When is the last time you heard someone say, ”Let’s check out that White Sox game tonight, Charlie Tilson’s starting...” Said by no one other than his family members, ever. https://www.playstation.com/en-us/games/mlb-the-show-19-ps4/?emcid=di-st-190052&utm_medium=Display&utm_campaign=20190304_siea_displaydirect_mlbtheshow&utm_source=&utm_term=di-st-190052&utm_content=MLB_The_Show

1.2 million in attendance is going to be it, hopefully. A 60% falloff in attendance from 2007. Of course, they’ll still be wildly profitable unless they spend another $42 million on buddies/family/friends of Top 2019-20 Free Agents. Rumors are they are seriously thinking about relocating Trout’s entire hometown in NJ to The Village of Bedford Park.

No, Tilson went to Hahn’s high school...that should have been the first warning sign. Tilson was a Top Ten Cardinals’ prospect in the same way that Jerry Owens and Andy Gonzalez were for the Sox. And Burdi’s fine, but we need a homegrown position player superstar if we categorically refuse to take the risk of overpaying for one. Closers have such a short shelf life these days.

https://www.mlb.com/news/ian-hamilton-has-minor-setback-with-shoulder In other bad news, Carson Fulmer is starting today’s game...this might be his last chance of the spring. Don’t think he’s had a single outing without giving up at least a run.

They might outdraw us some nights...especially when they have some really cool giveaway up items. http://www.milb.com/milb/stats/stats.jsp?t=l_att&lid=117&sid=l117 The Knights were first in the International League at nearly 9,000 per game. There’s a business aspect to having winning/playoff teams at the AA and AAA level...you want to keep your best affiliates happy with their player development agreements.

Selected by the Seattle Mariners [Team Picks] in the 33rd round (987th overall) of the 2013 Amateur Entry Draft How did the Mariners of all teams scout him out of Simeon when he’s practically in our BACK YARD? It’s the same thing Royals’ fans said for a decade after one of the Top 10 all-time hitters in Albert Pujols was parked at Maple Woods Community College, roughly 5 miles away from Kauffman Stadium. “For those who don’t know, Ray is a product of the much lauded White Sox ACE program, where they help grow the game of baseball on the Southside of Chicago and keep kids out of trouble. Ray then went on to star for Jackie Robinson West (RIP), Simeon and Louisville, a favorite program of one Nick Hostetler. After failing to get hometown kid Nick Burdi in the Rule 5 Draft my heart is aching for a nice storyline, so lets go check in on Corey Ray.” https://www.letmebfrankblog.com/2018/01/10/white-sox-check-price-brewers-corey-ray/ I’ll restate it another way...we can’t even suck well enough to get talent at the top of the draft because of our classic Tier B veterans. How can the Brewers go from drafting 5th in 2016 to one of the best teams in baseball two seasons later...while we ended up with a catcher who is just as likely to be a 1B/DH? In actuality, that draft looks pretty bad right now...but they’ve still got time. And if we can’t sign a Machado or Harper, if we don’t have any homegrown players (see Mauer in Minnesota), what prayer do we have of attracting 2.5-3 million in attendance again?

At first I thought you were talking about Nova at $9 million....that will go down with Derek Holland as more wasted money. Why not try something new, like a Japanese or Korean just to see if something sticks to the wall? What, KW ran out of videotape from JPL?

I can guarantee that movie never comes to China. Escape Room and some of the Conjuring movies is as close as we get....mostly South Korean, Thai and Indonesian horror flicks. Completely underserved/underdeveloped genre here. More action movies...a rare romantic comedy like La La Land, Green Book is surprising here....Warcraft, Pacific Rim and Alita have each posted far bigger numbers here than in the States. Venom outperformed Aquaman. How to Train Your Dragon and LEGO Movie 2 are disappointing. Captain Marvel at $100 million today...”The Wandering Earth” sci fi disaster film at $686 million since February 5th. I think it should be on a Netflix soon.

The top 3 billed stars and Jordan Peele are really on quite a run... when does it premiere?