caulfield12

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Jan 4, 2017 -> 06:08 AM) I don't agree with one word of this post Relax Luke Cage. Do you honestly enjoy Benetti? It reminds me of Ventura replacing Ozzie. He won't embarrass the team or organization, but he's about as interesting as listening to paint dry.

Frankly, I'd rather listen to Harrelson hype all the young prospects than put up with Benetti questioning Stone over and over and not providing any of his own insight. Hawak can also tell you more from hanging around BP for a week of spring training than we'll get all season from some "voice" announcers.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/m/553f7588-be0f-...t%3A-which.html

What happened to Indiana? By the way, there's a really good article on the Hoosiers/State of IU basketball in the post-Knight years at ESPN by Eamon Brennan. Finally, seems like Nebraska shocks people every other year now. When they were in the Big 8, they never did anything. I only remember Tyronn Lue (Raytown/KC) and Andre Woolridge (eventually transferred to Iowa) being their big name players over like a 20-30 year time period. And Danny Nee was a punk.

Well, they've basically got three weeks to get something done before Sox Fest at the end of the month... Then, it gets a bit uncomfortable for both Jose and the club, but he's never been anything but the best teammate since 2012. He certainly understands the situation...and is probably quite excited to get an opportunity to play for a playoff-contending team with an offense that can consistently support him.

It feels like almost NOBODY liked Jared Leto in that role. Plus there were all the rumors going around about how he supposedly treated Margot Robbie (poorly) on the set, although that might have been a "media creation" to drum up some additional hype around the movie. I guess there was an additional fan group who felt tricked as the Joker was such a small part of the movie, compared to the pre-release vibe. One of those roles that, no matter what you do, you're always going to be compared to Heath Ledger and found wanting.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Jan 3, 2017 -> 11:12 AM) Ford canceled plans for huge plant in mexico. 700 jobs added in detroit. Nice development. http://finance.yahoo.com/news/ford-isnt-ex...-192945024.html Ford isn't exactly caving in to Trump...

QUOTE (soxfan2014 @ Jan 3, 2017 -> 04:21 PM) They just ate most of Danks' $15 mill from last season and most of the $10 million given out to Latos,Rollins (both cut), and Jackson (missed over half the season). I wouldn't be shocked to see them kick in about $10 mill to move Melky because it is only for 1 year. Danks was almost forced because they were in first place and it felt like he could drag down the entire season. Melky, they have no compelling need to do anything one way or the other. No payroll crunch, etc. No rush to replace him with a better option, as the other two outfielders we roll out there will likely be much worse.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jan 3, 2017 -> 10:27 AM) It really isn't though. We have seen the Dems rally behind winners like Fidel Castro, Che Guerva, and Iran in recent years. The whole Machiavelli thing is just disgusting though. But that is the overly simplisitic political system we have apparently put into place now. Che Guevara is just a brand for souvenir sales. Rallying around him? Who? Are we also rallying around Jim Morrison or Jimi Hendrix or Bob Marley? In all seriousness, there's no comparing a 45+ year battle of competing ideology with pawn/puppet states like Cuba, Iran and North Korea. And wanting to actually engage or open a dialogue with countries who have little realistic chance of doing harm to you is quite different from completely realigning the global political alliance system and throwing the entire civilized world into turmoil.How are they even close to comparable?

Not only Saunders, but Rasmus and Rajai Davis too. Sox typically abhor eating salary...and nobody other than Liriano/Coats you could even conceive of giving his playing time to. In the end, Melky at $4-6 million (Sox might send $2 with) for 2 months is much more palatable than a full season commitment, especially with how his 2015 season went.

Well, corrupt in the eyes of those who don't want to be scrutinized. In the end, it will only result in more media-driven investigations...which will then be ridiculed for being witch hunts aimed almost exclusively at poor Donald Trump and the GOP. Nobody can even agree that there is such an entity as a truly bipartisan committee anywhere in government these days.

QUOTE (bmags @ Jan 3, 2017 -> 08:11 AM) Not a bet I'm taking. I don't think Sox need to target DH now with assumption they may be expensive in four years. Not a concern until midseason 2018...depending on where the rebuild is. But they better think about it before 2020, or something has gone terribly wrong.

So playing Sanchez or Lawrie is better? How? Does it even really matter one way or the other?

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jan 3, 2017 -> 08:40 AM) This is totally thinking of the past 10 years. Now we are more worried about quantity, and Todd Frazier gives us a better chance at that than does Saladino. We aren't going to be worried about chasing players to fill holes on a immediate basis until next decade. By then Saladino will be long gone. The one thing that might still be around is the player we get for Frazier, because we aren't getting anything for Saladino. It will be a prime consideration at the trade deadline in 2018 and going into the 2018-19 offeason. In all likelihood, it will be outfielders and/or a catcher. 3b is a good possibility as well.

QUOTE (bmags @ Jan 3, 2017 -> 07:26 AM) If they are the next market inefficiency that means they'll be cheap which is the point. Followed to that logical conclusion, any temporary disruption will eventually lead back to equilibrium. For now, they at least appear to be cheap. But that won't last forever.

It's just as likely those defensively-limited but solid hitters become the next market inefficiency...regaining value to an extent, while players like a Heyward, Alex Gordon or Adam Eaton return back to more more "normal" historical levels. It seems pretty obvious if everyone's now overpaying for defense and high leverage short relievers...or pitch framers...something else that's currently undervalued must come back into vogue. The other area with a lot of fascination around it is multidimensional guys like Bryant, Contreras, Baez and Zobrist that can play 3-4 different positions and provide some additional roster flexibility.

So he's basically insurance for Saladino's health, and they'd probably play Carlos Sanchez for 2-3 months at 2b-3b if Tyler can't go (if they were to cut Lawrie in the spring.) Not sure what the benefit of of playing Sanchez over Lawrie would be, though...that's a tough call either way. Or Davidson.

http://www.cnn.com/2017/01/02/politics/don...eech/index.html Dubai business partners hyped prominently by Trump at Mar-A-Lago New Year's Eve speech to 800 supporters.

Trump won't even use e-mails. He's going to use government (one shudders at the waste of resources there) couriers. Can't wait for some of those guys to be kidnapped by Russian agents when Trump falls out of favor with Putin (or vice versa).

Or assuming that JUST because of the A.Miller/Kimbrel/Giles trades that Nate Jones or David Robertson can be parlayed into gold. Heck, even Jennings is getting lots of hype as a trade piece. There is one conclusion that's clear (so far). If you look at a team like Toronto, who panicked and assumed they had no chance to keep EE and probably didn't want to keep Bautista except at bargain prices...they really got suckered into overpaying for Kendrys Morales quite early in the process. Quite obviously, there are plenty of cheap options still out there for even better bargain prices on the dollar (see Balta's list). The previous year, although the comp structure was different, Desmond and Fowler were bargains late in the process. There's even more out there entering 2017. If they had it to do over, they probably would have been elated to send someone like Dalton Pompey over for Abreu, and just assume his contract, instead of being stuck with the older and more injury-hampered Cuban in Morales (especially on turf). And yeah, Frazier is not perceived as a 1B/DH type just yet. He has too long a track record over at third. It's not unlike the reactions going on around the baseball world to McCutcheon's 2016 season...but the Pirates still wanting MVP prices back in terms of a trade return. Frazier is exactly the type of veteran glue player that a playoff roster needs.

But then what was the point of wasting money on Lawrie just to sit him? DH Lawrie...with Garcia getting most of the playing time in RF? That's the only way the current roster construction makes any sense. Of course, running Lawrie out there as your DH (instead of playing 2B/3B) brings his value to other teams down even more, although it is likelier to keep him healthy. The other problem is that it SLIGHTLY blocks the likes of Coats/Davidson/Carlos Sanchez from getting at-bats, but that's really not such a big deal, EXCEPT for the fact that a veteran roster full of players trying to get traded (Lawrie/Frazier/Cabrera/Abreu) to contenders might somehow come up with a decent overall team record, compared to one in the low 60's that gives you access to a pick at the top of the draft board. It also wastes a not insignificant amount of financial resources that could be better allocated/reserved for the future.

3B Saladino SS Anderson 2B Moncada 1B Abreu C Collins DH ??? LF ??? CF Let's just put someone like Lagares or Dyson there, for argument's sake (2ish WAR guys, who could get to 3 in their bodies held up over a full season, not unlike Austin Jackson 2-3 years ago) RF Lorenzo Cain (if they can get him on a 2-3 year deal, ideally he'd be in CF but that would lead to more injuries) All of a sudden, you're only one more big bat (the equivalent of an EE/Trumbo/Bautista) away from a line-up good enough to win with "sub-optimal" players in CF (where Basabe could still rise, or Engel/Tilson surprise) and 3B. You simply need to find an OPS+ LF/DH and that line-up can still carry a cheaper platoon at the other spot. Other than Abreu/Collins, you'd also have "plus" defenders at nearly every position, especially up the middle. As has been stated over and over again, we're getting close to the point where we're not just trading for the best possible combination of talent (Meadows/Torres, etc.)...we need to be looking specifically at CF/RF/C/3B (if Frazier's not going to be re-signed and Saladino can't stay healthy, his back goes the way of Joe Crede). At any rate, we've got those 2017 and 2018 draft picks...a ton of money....and 1 1/2 years of development time to essentially fill four holes, two of which are traditionally the easiest (LF/1B/DH, not sure how long Abreu stays). If you go to the Balta argument: 3B Saladino SS Anderson 2B Moncada 1B Abreu C Collins DH LF Semien CF Thompson RF That would leave them only two players short. With that logic, they could have actually kept Adam Eaton, kept Frazier and Abreu and invested all the resources of the team finding a LEGIT CFer...but the timing's just off having to wait for Moncada/Collins as their next two big franchise-altering bats. Let's just say for argument's sake you put Trumbo and Bautista into that line-up, you've got a team that's borderline contending in late 2017 if Thompson and Saladino could hold up and be 2 at least WAR players. Plus you have Montas back to add to potentially the best bullpen in the majors when all the pieces arrive and the leftover starters are converted to bullpen arms or traded to fill in other holes.

It's telling not the even the real Republicans are bothering to "fight the good fight" to defend Trump...there have been a few, but the total of remaining defenders feels like 5 or less, for what has always been perceived as a slightly right/fiscal conservative and socially moderate board (especially the majority of mods, other than Balta and a couple others).

The way you wrote that, thought Sam Miller had died. Ooops. Where did he move on to? Another analytics writer recruited by an MLB team?

The problem there is the Astros, Rangers, Mariners...tough division to gain any traction in right now. The A's should be better. And I forgot to mention the moribund DBacks and the enigma otherwise known as the Rockies.