caulfield12

https://www.yahoo.com/news/reports-detail-t...-190230912.html Trump dogged by Russian connections...and questions.

Schoenfield knows the White Sox about as well as any ESPN writer. The need for just a paragraph (2-4 sentences for most teams) precluded him from going into too much detail. He's written much more detailed articles in the past (especially after the +13 over .500 start this year) on the Sox.

http://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/1792798...ahead-offseason If you go by Las Vegas gambling odds for winning it all in 2017, somewhere between 19th and 21st. Feels about right...split the difference and you're at 22. Not terrible enough to the bottom, and not good enough to contend for a playoff spot. Cubs 3-1 Dodgers/Nationals/Red Sox 10-1 Mets/Indians/Astros 12-1 Blue Jays 14-1 Giants 16-1 White Sox start off at 60-1 odds.

Not feeling as upset as I thought I would... The Cubs had to overcome the 3-1 deficit (last since 85 Royals), Cleveland crowds, Francona, Kluber, Miller (finally got to him at the end of the series), blowing a seemingly insurmountable lead with two of those runs scoring on a wild pitch, their closer blowing up (yet again) in the post-season. The Indians had four at-bats to either walk off or go ahead and couldn't get over the hump...maybe part of it was due to the weather in the bottom of the 9th. When they had Rajai Davis up with a chance to tie the game again, it started to dawn on me that nobody really deserved to lose that game, and that the Cubs fans didn't really deserve to be heartbroken/have heart attacks twice in the span of one game (assuming it didn't happen on the Lester WP). Not to mention surviving Baez's insane bunt attempt with a chance to drive in the go-ahead run and Lindor's play up the middle to preserve the tie against Fowler. This game really reinforced the impact that managers can make, especially in the post-season (although they tend to overmanage, too)...reminding of all those arguments about the coaching staff not really mattering that much over the last 4 seasons. In the end, the heroes were guy like Ross, Zobrist and Montero (some huge hits this post-season in his likely swan song with the team)...Lester, the veteran, holding back the tide for the most part, Bryant scoring from first on the hit-and-run single. Zobrist has now been a key player on the last two World Series teams in his mid 30's and had one of the most professional at-bats in his career with that opposite field double. Plus, I think he's a Chicagoland (well, maybe an hour away) native. The Indians just ran out of relievers (and gas) after having to use Miller and Allen so early....Shaw is just not that dominating. Pitching three times on short rest finally caught up with Kluber, and one of the few second-guess areas was Francona letting Kluber extend the lead to 4-1 on the Baez homer, but that's easy to fault in hindsight. Still, imagine if they had a healthy Salazar, Carrasco and Brantley...There's zero doubt that team will be back again with a vengeance, led by Lindor and Kipnis up the middle.

There's zero reason to believe the Indians are actually going away. Bauer was like their sixth or seventh starter in March. The had Clevinger, Tomlin, Cody Anderson....after Kluber, Salazar and Carrasco. They've also still got Bradley Zimmer and Merritt, and very strong quality depth in the low minors despite the Miller trade.

Losing Petricka and Putnam doomed the season. No, it was the lack of offdays in April and May. No, it was Matt Albers' conditioning level or lack thereof...not to mention overusing Robertson early as well. If we only had Austin Jackson back in mid July the season would have turned out quite differently, or LaRoche quit a month earlier. The White Sox have perfected the art of excuses covering their poor judgment. That an entire season could fall apart due to a combined loss that doesn't equal one of Brantley, Salazar or Carrasco alone is ludicrous.

QUOTE (Middle Buffalo @ Nov 1, 2016 -> 10:47 PM) I agree with your idea to build around the starting pitching. Watching the playoffs, I'm convinced that they are not that far away from a playoff appearance. They just need to add guys who can get on base consistently. It seems like 10 years of all or nothing teams. On the current roster of everyday players, I'd hold on to Anderson, Frazier, and probably Eaton and listen to offers for everyone else. Build the minor league talent pool with smaller trades for teams' 5-10 ranked prospects at the trade deadline if the season isn't going well. The important thing is to be aggressive at that time and dump guys like Jones and Robertson and Cabrera that teams want for their playoff push. The Duke to STL trade is a good example. They took a flyer on a mid level prospect. We'll have to see how it turns out. Sale for a team's top 4 or 5 prospects sounds great if they turn into Arizona, Baez, Contreras, etc, but that's no guarantee. I'd rather acquire talent and do a better job of developing it. Except Frazier and Anderson weren't particularly high OBP guys...

Yes, but had we signed Desmond or Fowler, we would have gotten that compensation back when they declined qualifying offers...so paying either of two guys who put up 3 WAR seasons under $10 million AND getting draft pick comp wouldn't have been a bad deal at all. We signed lots of veterans this year to one year deals like Latos, Rollins, Morneau, Navarro, Avila, etc., so one more wouldn't have "ruined" the hypothetical long-term plan.

No, they didn't say that all. They said they can't prove a direct, conclusive link between Trump and Russia...not that foreign agents haven't tried to influence the US presidential election. Proving a conspiracy is always challenging. In the same way that being reckless with an email server isn't the same thing as bring a traitor or committing deliberate espionage. http://mobile.nytimes.com/2016/11/01/us/po...nald-trump.html

If the White Sox didn't have the necessary budget leeway to add another $5-10 million (the cost of finishing with either Fowler or Desmond), then they shouldn't have bothered to sign Robertson, Cabrera, LaRoche, trade for Frazier, etc. The margin of error was just way too thin, and it proved itself to be prophetic when Rollins and Latos struggled, Avila/Navarro struggled/got hurt and finally the Austin Jackson injury. Of course, the most mystifying part of last season was adding a lot more money onto the payroll for James Shields (when they were still in contention), money that they apparently didn't feel justified spending before the season began, even though it amount to much less than they eventually allocated to Shields. You can't defend the White Sox front office for falling short on adding an impact bat because they "ran out of money/budget/resources," because EVERYONE AT SOXTALK saw that situation coming from a MILE away. In fact, while many were not confident about a Cespedes deal, Gordon was a very real possibility, along with Desmond and possibly Fowler. Obviously, Gordon got hurt, but his asking price came down $18-28 million from the original expected/asking price at the beginning of the off-season. Looking at Jackson's last 2-3 seasons and his enigmatic performance, it was about as realistic for him to return to a 3 WAR player as it was for Lawrie. Of course, they could have traded for Jean Segura, for example, but 28 other teams missed out on that lower-hanging fruit (Trumbo as well).

Carlos was not the Junior (not Javy) Guerra or Carlos Torres of his time.

QUOTE (Lip Man 1 @ Nov 1, 2016 -> 10:28 PM) I would agree with your thought process if I didn't have 35 years history contradicting it. The Sox have never felt they are in competition with the Cubs, have stated it publicly many time. JR (and for right or wrong you have to admire the strength of his convictions) has never been influenced by the Cubs, Sox fans, the media, agents...never has and never will be. Significant and needed change will come eventually, it has to since time marches on and we are all human. Mark It was almost the opposite. The Cubs caught a lot of crap for trading Garland for Karchner, and then him going on to be a key member of the 2005 rotation (although he never became a star, he was at least a very solid 3/4 guy). At any rate, with Q/Sale, possibly Eaton (although he might be more valuable to the Sox, and defensive "overemphasis" in terms of WAR might start to correct back in the other direction, see Heyward)...Nate Jones, Frazier, Cabrera/Robertson (salary dumps, mostly) and then Abreu and/or Rodon, they've got a ton of marketable talent. Depending on how much offensive depth they get back, then they can start looking at Abreu and/or Eaton leaving for the right package...and then knowing Rodon will be out the door as a free agent, you have to calculate his value via trade (not as high as it could be, but 3-4X Fulmer right now) versus waiting for him to "put it all together" and have a breakout season. Another big question mark is Collins...whether he can stick as a catcher or becomes DH/1B/corner OF. The one common theme from the post-AJ time has been the lack of leadership and overall impact offensively or defensively coming from the catching position. That has been one of many issues holding the White Sox back compared to the majority of playoff teams.

QUOTE (fathom @ Nov 1, 2016 -> 07:52 PM) They could easily go on a 3 titles in 5 year run Unless the Pirates see quick development out of the next wave of young players, there's not much in the NL Central to stop them, with the Cardinals probably on a downward trend as well with a mostly veteran-laden roster.

QUOTE (ChiliIrishHammock24 @ Nov 1, 2016 -> 07:58 PM) Holy s***, how many times are we going to discuss the fallout of the Cubs winning the World Series? Some of you guys are so damn insecure. Unfortunately, it's far and away the most compelling thing to talk about regarding the baseball world right now, and it's especially relevant to White Sox fans. If the majority of Sox fans had even paid any attention after July...but that's just not the case. Even this week, we get the Guaranteed Rate stuff in our face again, it's like a never-ending loop of insults and jibes.

The argument isn't "less popular." That won't happen in the first 5-7 years (anyway), but the costs of attending Cubs' games will slowly become more and more like Red Sox and Yankees, where the corporations and "upper crust" fans will start to change the experience of attending games, except for in the bleachers, perhaps...

So much for this game, oops....Addison Russell statue to go up right next to Bryant, Rizzo, Schwarber and Maddon.

Let's imagine the doomsday (hopefully this thread disappears tonight or tmrw) scenario happens and the Cubs do win it all. On the negative side, the White Sox will practically cease to exist this offseason, and the Indians would be doubly motivated to make another run at the World Series in 2017 with Brantley, Carrasco and Santana all back in the fold, not to mention the additional veterans (like Pearce, mentioned in another thread) to supplement the current roster's few weaknesses. We've seen over and over again in sports, the team that just barely misses a title come back the next year, and, likewise, the title-winning team runs out of gas or loses its motivation and focus after all the celebrating and media attention becomes a never-ending distraction. This gives the White Sox even more cover to operate under the radar and start the rebuilding process in full. No first round draft pick protection, a scarce number of FA assets available, payroll pressures due to flat or negative revenue growth (taking into consideration discounted tickets over time) and few minor league prospects that would be in high demand for other teams. The other positives is that overall revenues/popularity (at least in the short-term) for MLB and MLB Media will grow...more young people will become interested in the sport (especially in Chicago) and a rising tide floats ALL boats, so the White Sox franchise value would actually grow by 5-10%. The positive (or negative) effect on the broadcasting rights climate in 2019 is another story altogether, although by rebuilding NOW, there's an extremely high likelihood they SHOULD have a competitive team by that time, rather than the approach of the last couple of off-seasons of trying to catch lightning in a bottle. Over the span of 5-7 years out from now (which seems like forever, in this moment), the Cubs will start to eventually lose some of the "Lovable Losers" appeal and they'll instead begin to morph into a corporate conglomerate franchise more and more like the Red Sox, Dodgers and Yankees that is judged more by wins and losses (and titles) than the touristic reasons of/for attending a game at Fenway or Wrigley. This will especially be the case if they were to win multiple WS titles or make the playoffs 3-4-5 times consecutively.

Schwarber moved up to second in the line-up....Joe Maddon Brilliance in action.

His programs still successfully sell advertising blocks. His supporters loyally buy or boycott products. In the end, 90+% is about economics and return on investment. Doesn't matter if it's the Kardashians or Real Housewives of .... and completely devoid of any social function other than pure entertainment. https://www.yahoo.com/news/reports-detail-t...-190230912.html Equally impossible to not have an investigation about foreign (Russian) interference/coordination with campaigns if Trump somehow wins and Comey stays on as FBI director. The country's pretty much equally screwed either way, now.

What next, a debate about the nooses around cardboard cutouts of Obama and Clinton at Camp Randall this past weekend weeke, with many arguing there's no racist connotation whatsoever since HRC was also included?

That would probably put the final nail in Playboy's eventual bankruptcy. Should stadiums funded with taxpayer revenues (unless 100% privatized) even have the right to use corporate names? It's an interesting debate. Most amusing line of Balta's statement is close to a reality already, our next manager actually might have been Kane County's in 2015 (in Grudzielanek), since we're banishing rhetorical Hahn lackeys off to run that franchise.

When is the result of the expedited investigation supposed to come out? Surely that's not going to be the biggest presidential election story since 2000 or Dewey Defeats Truman if Trump were to somehow pull this out of the jaws of defeat...

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Nov 1, 2016 -> 07:38 AM) The Frazier deal defines the big picture plan for the White Sox. They constantly believe they are one-two big name players away from competing for the wild card, and that failing to compete for the wild card every year is a mistake, so they should sell out whatever they can to get a big name player at a position of weakness. Put everything on the line and put as many big names on your big league squad as possible regardless of what it does to your organization. That's the Samardzija deal, that's the Frazier deal, that's the free agent signings of the last couple years, that sums up this team going as far back as bringing in Dunn and Rios, with the notable exception of 2014. Don't forget the great Jake Peavy Chase...

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Nov 1, 2016 -> 09:07 AM) Heck, maybe we can get some sponsors like Dumpster Fire International, Anemia Society of America, and America's Funniest Bloopers. Shouldn't matter how they tie into the image of the ball club. Weiner's Weiners? If the White Sox just did the exact opposite of whatever their instincts were the last 2-3 years, they couldn't be any worse off. Yes, if the White Sox are the Cubs and Wrigley was renamed...Guaranteed Rate is giving them $75-100 million and it's a downpayment on another franchise pitcher. Diversified revenue streams. Brilliant. Everyone would be lauding the decision unless the entire organization fell apart next season and they didn't make the playoffs again until 2026. Of course with the White Sox, that money usually turns into another Keppinger, Teahen or Bonifacio instead.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Grudzielanek Managed Kane County in 2015...then jumped to Assistant Coordinator of Player Development with the DBacks in 2016. A more promising version of Getz.