caulfield12

https://www.cnn.com/2018/02/28/politics/don...ions/index.html Kushner and Russia revelations rock the WH Who goes next, Kushner or Kelly? Is Trump going to just ignore security concerns about Kushner...because nepotism...and just hope it doesnt leak? Does Ivanka stay on, somehow, without a clearance? Does crossing a red line against going after pre-2015 Russian financial connections w/ Trump cause him to fire Mueller? Does anyone care about Hope Hicks telling “white lies” to protect Trump? What is she actually truthful about? What leverage does Russia have on Trump to not get a single negative comment directed Russia or Putin’s way once in two full years...when everyone else in the world has been verbally assaulted? Questions to some witnesses during wide-ranging interviews included the timing of Trump's decision to seek the presidency, potentially compromising information the Russians may have had about him, and why efforts to brand a Trump Tower in Moscow fell through, two sources said. The lines of inquiry indicate Mueller's team is reaching beyond the campaign to explore how the Russians might have sought to influence Trump at a time when he was discussing deals in Moscow and contemplating a presidential run. Mueller was appointed to investigate Russian meddling in the 2016 campaign. The President claims that any investigation of his family's finances would be a breach of the special counsel's mandate. Two of the sources said they do not know from the questions asked whether Mueller has concrete evidence to indicate wrongdoing. Cnn.com

QUOTE (wrathofhahn @ Feb 27, 2018 -> 10:52 PM) He had a serious knee injury so yes unless he proves to me otherwise I don't think he'll ever be the same on defense. Going off previous years he should have had a 4.1 rngr (range runs aka ability to get to balls) instead it was negative 5.4 Another indication is on the offensive side his Bsr was -5.4 and pre 2017 he pretty much always was in the -2 Bsr range or less other then an outlier 2015 season. I think projecting him to be the same defensive player he was pre knee injury is pretty unfair. There was no evidence last season of him getting back to that place and it's a pretty serious injury to come back to begin with from ask Boone it basically ended his career along with Sizemore his knee will also always sort of be a concern moving forward particularly since it's on his plant foot on throws and in the batters box. It's part of the reason along with age I'm reluctant to go five years. Well, the risk is certainly mitigated going just 3 or possibly 4 years. It's something the medical staff would have to assess carefully, just as they theoretically would have done when they signed Adolfo at the top of his intl class (maybe #2 to Eloy?) or drafted Burger at his size instead of a number of other options. Or taking a pitcher like McClanahan who has already gone through 1 TJ surgery, knowing that 2 is pretty much a death sentence. If he was 32 or 33 instead of 29, I'd agree with you. Just like a TJ surgery rehab takes a full 18 months to be back to form, knee surgeries can often take similar amounts of time (especially for bigger athletes) to get back to 100%. Moustakas was also hurting last year in the 2nd half and tried to play through it, probably because he was more concerned with his final numbers on the offensive side. PTAC has to decide this one, HAHA...

QUOTE (New Era on South Side @ Feb 27, 2018 -> 09:59 PM) Mark Cuban? He's too moderate (bordering on conservative) on a lot of his stances to ever be accepted by the progressives...and the complete lack of experience (see Trump) is going to be held against him, as obviously just being knowledgeable about business/marketing is far from enough to be an effective national leader. Similar to Bloomberg on many issues...who I would definitely vote for over Trump, but still a bit reluctantly. He does seem to have more EMPATHY than Trump, but so does my office chair or wastebasket.

And all those things said, the White Sox will wait it out one more year with Davidson/Sanchez...as Moustakas probably signs a deal that covers 2018/19 so he's not on the market again next year. He's still going to be one of the most attractive targets out there, but we'll have more competition for his services as the Top 4 (still not knowing what will become of Arenado/Rendon) will attract hundreds of millions and then the next tier of FA's will suddenly become the battleground for playoff contenders. The other possibility is that Josh Donaldson's WAR continues to fall for the fourth consecutive year and you have to risk it rebounding and pay $125-150 million for the right to find out about another mid 30's hitter and when he falls off a cliff.

Here's the problem. Moustakas pre-2015 was a completely different hitter. Unless you accept that hitters can change, then you're stuck compiling all his career numbers before that time and profiling him as "average." We could do the same with Avi, Logan Morrison or Yonder Alonso. Obviously, such a high draft pick has/had a tremendous amount of talent/ability, or he wouldn't have been selected so high. If you think he's a 2 WAR guy going forward, it's all based on his pre-2015 numbers and last year's 1.8. Here's why that's a huge mistake: 1) He made a concerted effort to go to the opposite direction and really raised his overall offensive numbers by using all fields, beginning in that 2015 season. Before that, he was not very good and back and forth...or at least on the verge of being sent down. 2) He was also trending in the exact same direction (high 3's, low 4's) WAR-wise in 2016 before his injury. 3) If you don't believe that a 29 year-old still close to the prime of his athletic shelf life can improve the second year back from an injury on defense, I don't know what to say...if you want me to cite the articles, I'm happy to link them again, the last 4-6 weeks of 2017 he was dealing with leg issues and that affected him as well as the injury recovery/rehab year. 4) Last year's Royals didn't buy into the team concept like the 2013-2016 teams did...they basically were like the 2006-2016 White Sox, lots of talented players pretty much doing their own thing at the plate instead of buying into the team concept. Moustakas got away from spraying the ball all over the field and became pull happy in an attempt to set himself up for his FA due to the fact that the writing was on the wall about the team going anywhere, he became a "selfish" player again because he knew the Royals weren't going to be able to keep him, Hosmer or Cain. 5) So if you think his ceiling is now a 2 WAR 3B, I'll happily take that bet that he averages 3 the next three seasons...and you can have the 2. That's worth more than $7-10 million per season. I constantly hear that it's worth closer to $20 million per year. If his defense bounces back (we can argue both sides here), then he's clearly a 3-4 WAR guy. If not, he's closer to 2 or 2.5. There's a risk there. But, in the right situation, where he becomes one of the long-term team leaders and role models...like he was in KC, then he can show the younger players how to play together as a team and do the little things to win, because he's already been there and done that, in our own division, multiple playoff series, 2 World Series, etc. Frazier never really felt 100% comfortable in the AL, at least that was my perception. My question is less about his defense and more whether he's interested in helping a rebuilding team win again or inserting himself in an "immediately competitive" environment right away. Obviously, money considerations (see Hosmer) will be 90-95% of that calculation, especially with Boras as his agent. 6) So yes, Frazier and Yolmer were technically 2 WAR players last year, but the odds of Moustakas being a solid all-around contributor and putting up a 3-4 WAR (especially in an even more hitter-friendly park than Kauffman) are MUCH MUCH GREATER than Yolmer Sanchez or Matt Davidson ever doing the same thing. And now we have the Burger setback to consider as well in projecting into the future...

Gomez has pitched well so far...

https://www.mlb.com/video/basabes-diving-grab/c-1878171583 https://www.mlb.com/video/basabe-cuts-down-...am/c-1876898583 throwing out Gordon Beckham I know, he just struck out...but some of his DEF this spring

According to WAR, Narvaez was the clearly better player despite Smith’s improved hitting...mostly coming down to walks and defense.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Feb 27, 2018 -> 04:24 PM) Foreign officials discussed manipulating Kushner via his business arrangements, U.S. officials say Fun Kushner fact: he had “issues[d] more requests for information to the intelligence community than any White House employee” other than NSC staff If the Anbang Insurance deal for his property bleeding in debt had gone through, he’d essentially be controlled by the Chinese government right now...Deng Xiaoping’s granddaughter is one of the biggest shareholders, or at least she was before recently. http://money.cnn.com/2018/02/22/news/compa...over/index.html

https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/everyth...-144956289.html Lego set clues to Infinity War

QUOTE (wrathofhahn @ Feb 27, 2018 -> 09:40 AM) Cozart accepted 3/38 and was coming off a much better year. All he's been getting is one year offers according to reports. So yeah I think he would but not being a fly on the wall I don't know for sure his thinking. Particularly the 4 year deal with an opt out after year two. Of course a three year deal would be ideal. We have him until age 33 after that you probably don't want him anyways. All these people in this thread saying it has to be a five year deal why is it crucial we have him through age 34 and 35? Age 33, turning 34 with a few weeks left in 2022..would be the end of five year deal. Cozart is closer to Frazier in age than Moustakas...we always say how rare FA’s under 30 are these days, hence all the crazy interest in Harper, Machado and Arenado.

Schwarber is as obvious as Christian Laettner for most hated college bb player of all time.

QUOTE (bmags @ Feb 27, 2018 -> 09:31 AM) If the white sox can get him at a price they never thought, I'd want them to consider why that is, especially after all of their value FA adds the last few years. He can still be replaced, but it will come at the cost of playing time for one of our fringe prospects. It is obviously unlikely that Sanchez ends up with a career as good as Moustakas, but allowing him and leury and the DH spot to be open could allow something more valuable than Moustakas years 2019-20-21 By that philosophy, we never would have added Dye, Pods, Pierzynski, Contreras, Thome, Quentin, Eaton...too many ?’s. Very simple. Buy low. Sell high. Rinse, repeat. We kept buying high and selling low until last year. It’s also how we ended up with Abreu...big market teams all on sideline then.

QUOTE (DirtySox @ Feb 27, 2018 -> 09:21 AM) Teddy Cahill @tedcahill Updating Travis Swaggerty's line through eight games: .321/.537/.714, three homers, 11 walks, five strikeouts. That's a 1.251 OPS Carlos Collazo @CarlosACollazo Swaggerty's draft stock: ??? Benintendi comp? Happ? Jeremy Reed, haha? Jim Edmonds? What’s his defensive scouting report?

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Feb 27, 2018 -> 09:11 AM) The Snake poem is ostensibly about immigrants/Muslims but it's really about Trump himself https://www.cnn.com/2018/02/23/politics/tru...song/index.html For those unaware... Maybe Dems can make countervideo with Chloe Kim as head of this threatening snake....and the 43.9% of start ups in Silicon Valley with at least one immigrant founder

QUOTE (bmags @ Feb 27, 2018 -> 09:15 AM) Every team in baseball has the opportunity to sign him right now for merely his market rate. What do we think he could get in return for his market rate and rights? It would be nothing. He's not a good flip candidate, which we know because nobody wants to sign him. Just like Arrieta...c’mon, Boras is the biggest factor here.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Feb 27, 2018 -> 08:38 AM) More grifting Lawsuit: HUD Official ‘Demoted’ for Restricting Ben Carson’s Expensive Office Makeover http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-33...rait-Jesus.html https://search.yahoo.com/search?p=carson+je...ss&ei=UTF-8 They blocked another Carson/Black Jesus painting?

https://www.mlb.com/news/projected-2018-lin...ams/c-266895088 Projected lineups/rotations for all 30 teams as of today Leury, LF Moncada, 2B Abreu, 1B Avi Garcia, RF Delmonico, DH Castillo, C Anderson, SS Engel, CF Sanchez, 3B That would leave Davidson, Saladino, Narvaez as bench... Noticed Clayton Richard as #1 for Pads, haha. No starting spot for Zobrist or Happ...but one has to start against RHP. Dodgers still with outfield logjam.

QUOTE (JUSTgottaBELIEVE @ Feb 27, 2018 -> 05:57 AM) I don’t see Machado or Arenado as realistic options with the money they will demand. That leaves Donaldson and Rendon and both guys scare me when you consider what they will get paid. Donaldson is great but his age relative to the Sox contention window is absolutely concerning. With Rendon, I don’t know but just a gut feeling that he’s the kind of guy that would see a drop in performance after moving to the AL. Maybe I have an irrational fear after seeing what happened to the likes of Frazier, LaRoche, Dunn, etc. Both Donaldson and Rendon feel like cases where you are paying a hefty sum for past performance versus expected future performance. Plus recent injury histories, especially for such a young player in Rendon.

QUOTE (ChiliIrishHammock24 @ Feb 26, 2018 -> 04:50 PM) Gillaspie has some big power. Just flicked a ball just short of the warning track opposite field in left. Resulted in an out, but that's 2 AB and 2 deep drives. Don't be fooled by Feb/March Arizona-induced power...especially OPPO. The Anderson homer the other day would have been a routine flyout in every park other than Fenway.

QUOTE (BlackSox13 @ Feb 26, 2018 -> 08:38 PM) Wait, what? Can you elaborate because I'm not following you here. Someone was talking about fans would get really upset if they "wasted" the money on a one year deal...but I said that nobody cared much at all about Holland's $6 million year deal last year, with no return on investment.

QUOTE (CWSpalehoseCWS @ Feb 26, 2018 -> 08:08 PM) Could it be something as stupid as a young, eager baseball player over-doing it and overexerting himself to make a good impression on the organization? That triple yesterday looked brutal, could he have hurt himself rounding the bases and then his effort today pushed him over the edge? We've seen injuries happen before when players hit the bag the wrong way, can the same be said for the Achille's? I've had a soft tissue/heel issue at least two times in my life (once from overdoing it jumping and landing from playing badminton in China...once from hitting the 1B bag awkwardly in mid 20's softball game, hitting with all the weight on the back) and never once had an Achilles' problem. When you hurt your heel, there's absolutely nothing you can do but rest and keep weight off it, no way to put a cast on, it's almost worse than a strained oblique. That said, Achilles' tears tend to happen to bigger athletes, although obviously Kobe probably had one due to cumulative wear and tear over a lifetime.

They originally (Langer/McKnight) thought he caught a spike...were talking about a huge divot in the ground along the baseline. I guess it doesn't matter what caused it.

QUOTE (BlackSox13 @ Feb 26, 2018 -> 07:11 PM) Right and it would be a risky move. I realise the lost pick isn't a guarantee but at this point the Sox have a better idea of what will be available for that pick than what teams will be willing to give up for Moustakas in July. If Moustakas struggles the move fails horribly. Can you imagine the posts on this board if such a move failed? Mercy!!! I'm not really sold on the idea of Moustakas myself, but am open to it under the right conditions. Give me the right money and contract length with no opt-outs and I could get on board. I can certainly see the benefits to signing Moustakas now and not trying to chase the Machado dragon next winter. Nobody really cared about Holland. That said, we're talking $12 million vs. $6, and it's decidedly not to protect the young pitching prospects from overexposure.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Feb 26, 2018 -> 05:53 PM) Trumps lawyers want to type the answers and have Trump read off a TelePrompTer if he meets with Mueller. Sounds like the notes from his school shootings "talk," where he had to be reminded by Hope Hicks to say "i hear you" and "show your care/concern" so you don't come across like a complete jackass with absolutely no empathy