caulfield12

QUOTE (Jerksticks @ Oct 18, 2016 -> 12:58 PM) Thank God for FoxNews and now some of these internet news streams. I lean liberal on some things and conservative on others but I'm not stupid- i acknowledge the huge bias and agenda in mainstream media. Everybody sees it. Everyday I read CNN, MSNBC, FoxNews etc...all sides. It's incredible the smear against Trump and the sweep-under-the-rug for Hillary. And most people notice it too. The only ones that don't are ignoring it for their own personal reasons, or they roll on a sound bite. It's just sickening. If that guy who went undercover and exposed the violence-creating at trump rallies by the DNC Offshoots is telling the truth, and CNN won't even cover it or page-10s it, I'm done forever. What's everyone make of it? Pretty effed up if true Trump is the worst candidate in modern history, by far. Nobody is even close, except Goldwater in 1964. You don't see Dems complaining that McGovern, Carter, Mondale, Dukakis, Gore and Kerrey got hosed (except for the Supreme Court and State of Florida in 2000). Just like the Republicans ran some pretty flawed candidates against Clinton and Obama. Republicans have always been able to outspend Dems by a 3/2 advantage, and Citizens United gave them yet another opening but they've failed to modernize and embrace the changing demographics in America. Before Obama, their use of databases/voter information was twice as good as the Dems as well. Hence 28/40 years with Republican presidents and numerous Congresses since 1994.

CSPAN has some excellent programs as well....

People also want to see the Cubs lose, just like the Yankees and Red Sox. More of a rooting interest on both sides of the ledger.

2000 and 1960 are the only elections in modern history that are really up for debate, unless you want to go for Dewey vs. Truman as another liberal conspiracy.

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/adidas-encour...-152512206.html Adidas dooms Cubs by pushing reverse the curse signage...

QUOTE (Joshua Strong @ Oct 18, 2016 -> 09:58 AM) Kaper does have previous managerial experience, both in the minors and WBC. A lot of top teams in baseball have hired young people to run departments in their baseball ops. Like the Rangers with Daniels and Preller, Oakland and the Dodgers with guys like Zaidi, Kapler and Forst, and the Astros with guys like Goldstein and Elias to name a few. Experience is not a guarantee of success. That's a whole different situation than working directly with minor leaguers players instructionally on a daily basis...requiring an even more specialized skillset and background intellectually.

QUOTE (Y2JImmy0 @ Oct 18, 2016 -> 08:46 AM) Gabe Kapler retired in 2012. he coached one year in the WBC for Team Israel. 1 year later he became the Director of Player Development for the Dodgers without any experience. He's super into analytics and nutrition and converted all of the prospect meals into gluten free stuff. Maybe Chris Getz is similar to Kapler where he has an actual "player development plan" that delves into nutrition, analytics and other factors. We have no idea. But assuming it's a s***ty hire because it's the White Sox is incredibly short-sighted and it's honestly b****ing just to b****. Everyone in baseball was talking about grooming him as a future manager. His name even came up here occasionally as a Ventura replacement. Assuming Getz has the same amount of respect and leadership qualities as Kapler is a bit far-fetched. Thankfully, it can all be settled quite easily with a FutureSox in-depth interview. http://kaplifestyle.com The Kapler situation is one where he has soent his entire adult life studying areas of nutrition/diet, fitness, weight lifting and advanced analytics for all aspects. He's more like a life coach and motivational speaker. He's a brand in the same way Jessica Alba's $1.4 billion valuated Honest Company is...and he wanted to use that LA market to his advantage in terms of marketing and career opportunities. http://www.latimes.com/sports/dodgers/la-s...1024-story.html Kapler story...

Surely the White Sox should have learned something from the Ventura debacle...in terms of hiring someone with absolutely zero professional experience as a coach/manager. Likely the Tigers wouldn't have hired Ausmus with a do-over, and Mike Matheny's not exactly on firm ground in St. Louis, either. The bigger question is why do winning MLB organizations or Top Ten minor league organizations always hire someone with vast/extensive experience for the Dir. of Player Development positions with their organizations if it doesn't matter?

Five years ago...or four, the White Sox were actually fielding competitive teams, at least in 2010 and 2012. Even then, though, there was concern about position player development with Beckham backsliding and Viciedo bouncing from position to position. The Sox were lucky Sale and then Quintana in 2012 covered up for much of the mess in that aspect of operations, but there were plenty upset Bell had such influence to bring in Teahen and then push for an unwarranted extension. Bell still has ties to the Royals, and it would be shocking if either Hostetler (ties to Dayton Moore/Atlanta) or Bell weren't the driving force behind this, along with Hahn. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nick_Capra Let's compare Capra's resume before assuming that position and Chris Getz's scant resume. The common theme is everyone I've looked at had at least eight years of experience in either scouting, minor league managing or as a bench coach/roving or infield instructor.

The Cubs' fans have gone dormant... Hill, Urias, Kershaw the next three games.

Greg, I think I've prefaced every single post about Hillary Clinton with words expressing exactly that same sentiment. I haven't seen one Democrat claiming "I just LOVE Hillary Clinton so much!!!" 75-85% of the reason why most are voting in this election is 1) to STOP TRUMP FROM BECOMING PRESIDENT, 2) the SUPREME COURT and 3) PROGRESSIVE POLICIES/INCREMENTAL TRIANGULATION IN THEIR PREFERRED POLITICAL DIRECTION. As opposed to all out nuclear armageddon and international embarrassment/global catastrophe...and undoing most if not all of the "good" that the US has done for the rest of the world since 1776.

The hire, at the very least, should have been a more exhaustive process with at least 3-5 outside candidates along with 2-3 internal ones. As Balta said, we can draw the conclusion that they did at least go through an exhaustive search process before settling on Getz, who's the most inexperienced at his particular position (Director of Player Development) in the major leagues, or we can just as easily assume they half-assed it and went with the comfortable candidate who wouldn't make waves or rock the boat, someone who could easily be controlled or spied on/spy on others, depending on the latest version of who you believe is winning the soap opera-ish battle for control of the Sox front office. The fact of the matter is that we heard for four plus years that Robin Ventura was capable of being a Hall of Fame manager when/if he was presented a talented team to manage, and that his name could rank up with Torre/LaRussa/Leyland/Cox. At any rate, let's follow the career/s of Ventura and Chris Getz and see if they still have jobs in baseball five or ten years from now. If they don't, it's pretty easy to reach the conclusion that their services were not greatly in demand across MLB. We shall see.

As far as measuring failure and success in black and white terms, that's virtually impossible, since 65-70% of it is drafting talented players with major league ability. Simply going by the win-loss percentage of the big league club in 2018-2020 would be one indicator, but probably not the fairest one...

Suggested interview questions for Getz: 1) How did this big jump in your coaching career come about? What it a case where you contacted the White Sox about a possible opening (when Capra was moved to the big league staff) or did they contact you initially? 2) What was the interview process (if any) like? Who conducted it? 3) What have you learned in your two years in the Royals' organization that has helped prepare you for this huge jump in responsibility? What did being part of that organization when they won a World Series in 2015 teach you, and how can it be applied to the Sox minor league system? 4) What is your perspective on analytics? 5) What do you feel is your strength as a coach? One area you would like to improve? 6) How does your background as a "gritty" player who got the most out of his talent complement the drafting and development process put in place by Nick Hostetler? Are you familiar with Nick and his focus on high "baseball IQ" players with elevated OBP's and translatable baseball skills? 7) Will you report to Buddy Bell as your direct superior? 8) What are some things that worked well for the Royals' in their developmental process that you could bring over with your own unique stamp and incorporate? What are some of your core beliefs about teaching fundamentals, fielding and baserunning? 9) Where do you see yourself in 5 or 10 years in the White Sox organizational structure? 10) Many other major league directors have a strong background in scouting as well as minor league managerial experience...how will you make up for this lack of experience and "get up to speed" since you're on such a steep learning curve? What do you think the White Sox saw in you that made you an especially attractive candidate for the position?

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Oct 17, 2016 -> 03:58 PM) And until I mentioned him, you have never heard of him. How many of their draft picks are on their roster? How come you never mentioned Capra? They are both cogs in a machine, one effective (the Cubs), the other badly in need of a replacement or complete overhaul. There's simply no need (to waste time) to pick on Capra or Steverson when JR, KW, Hahn and Bell all need to go. It's like Wells Fargo firing all their marketing people and bank cashiers to protect the three top leaders who are most responsible. Finally, the majority of minor league columns tend to be puff pieces (milb.com, etc.), so it's really hard to determine what's going on because those types of problems will never be pointed out to someone from outside the "family" in a meaningful way, at least not until that person has already left the organization, and even then, it's more intimations and hints and reading tea leaves to sort through and divine.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/timworstall/20...-upon-election/ Hillary Clinton vows to slam the economy into recession. And we wonder why there's no point discussing actual policy anymore....

As Obama learned, drawing huge numbers in an adrenaline-fueled campaign and essentially being a rock star still do not equal governing. That famous political quote about prose (governing) vs. poetry (campaigning) immediately comes to mind.

QUOTE (chitownsportsfan @ Oct 17, 2016 -> 02:53 PM) There's no way they should have even considered anybody with less than 5 years prior experience in a player development and/or an executive position in an MLB org. IE, someone who has experience with team building, consensus building, setting a budget, managing a staff -- not to mention the day to day task of trying to improve your players. That's what really boggles my mind -- not that he was hired, but that he was hired into arguably the 3rd highest executive position on the club behind KW and Hahn. The manager is on the players side, the Director of Player Development is firmly in the FO and will have quite a bit of executive decisions to make. They hired someone that has zero experience making those decisions. 0. Zero. Nada. Zilch. http://kansascity.royals.mlb.com/team/fron...ice.jsp?c_id=kc This is the more typical structure. Note Getz near the very bottom. With the White Sox, you have Haber and Buddy Bell with a lot more power than this position. Cooper, unofficially. Hostetler and Paddy now. At best, he would be 8th, and it would be impossible for me to believe he would be more respected than Laumann, who's a baseball lifer, so maybe 9th. Probably their Director of Analytics as well, Dan Fabian, the ND grad. 10th?

QUOTE (iamshack @ Oct 17, 2016 -> 02:48 PM) I suspect there are folks in the Cardinals, Pirates, Cubs, Red Sox, etc. organizations that had similar amounts of experience. Yes, and ironically, the one before Jaron Madison for the Cubs...eight years of experience in three vastly different organizational roles for the Marlins. Of course he played for the White Sox from 1997-2001. Brandon Hyde. Shifted to 1B coach for the Cubs when Maddon/Martinez came on board. We can't even identify the RIGHT former players to coach as well as other teams do. Cooper came over from the Yankees.

http://m.mlb.com/news/article/161592224/in...elopment-staff/ http://www.cleveland.com/tribe/index.ssf/2...omote_ross.html Carter Hawkins, eight years of experience, four years as assistant to Atkins, who was previously in charge of player development. Yet another exec with a better organization (the Indians) with EIGHT years of experience prior to assuming the responsibilities. http://www.minorleagueball.com/2014/5/21/5...ilb-adjustments http://r.search.yahoo.com/_ylt=A0SO8wvENQV...JSc5sl1PUQdhGo- Scott Sharp with the Royals had EIGHT years of experience in scouting with three different organizations. http://kansascity.royals.mlb.com/team/fron...ice.jsp?c_id=kc Well, at least Getz wasn't at the very bottom of their front office pecking order. There's one below. http://kansascity.royals.mlb.com/kc/team/e...dahia_chino.jsp And now we know why Getz wasn't in line for that position any time soon in KC. Someone with tons more experience in multiple organizations and bilingual to boot.

http://mbpelicans.mlblogs.com/2016/01/21/c...-jaron-madison/ http://vineline.mlblogs.com/tag/jaron-madison/ Jaron Madison was DIRECTOR of Minor League Scouting with the Cubs before changing to Director of Player Development. The previous one, Brandon Hyde, had eight years of combined minor league managerial, minor league infield coordinator and 2 1/2 years as Marlins' bench coach, including one game as interim/fill-in big league manager. Experience...in other areas. For both. And it's pretty much impossible for Sox fans to question the job the Cubs do scouting.

Even if he was an academic All-American at Michigan, NU or Notre Dame, that doesn't necessarily mean he's the best candidate.

QUOTE (Thad Bosley @ Oct 17, 2016 -> 08:28 AM) The skepticism of this hiring is to be expected, as we as Sox fans are fresh off of the failed Robin Ventura experiment, where his hiring was done solely based on name and association with the organization. Getz may be an up and coming talent in the player development space, but regardless, you just have to wonder if he was the best available talent out there to take on this very important role within this particular organization, one where certain aspects of player development (position players) has been sorely lacking in recent years. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thad_Bosley The real Thad Bosley is much more qualified. See "personal life"...at least he and Lenny Randle could teach corner infielders to blow balls foul. Heck, Abby Hornacek could have at least gotten an interview just based on her father's Bulls connections.

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/washingtons...ory?id=24551590 Interesting that Donald Trump makes a LOT more for his speeches than the Clintons. Smart business or crooked? Lots of other political names here. In 2010, it was Tony Blair at $616,000 per speech at #1.

Is there a weaker area in the entire organization...especially vis a vis positional prospects? Is there another in a similar position in MLB with less than two full years of experience? https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brandon_Hyde For example, look at the resume of Brandon Hyde, Sox minor leaguer from 1997-2001. He was named Director of Player Development for the Cubs at the end of 2012. Five years earning his stripes as a minor league manager, then minor league infield coordinator, interim bench coach with the Marlins in the middle of 2010, permanent bench coach for the 2011, 2012 seasons. That's eight full years of experience, with three vastly different roles for the Marlins. Then named Renteria's bench coach at the end of the 2012 season after one year as Director of Player Development. Currently 1B coach, as Dave Martinez came on board.