caulfield12

QUOTE (Harry Chappas @ Oct 3, 2016 -> 02:49 PM) Take out the 10-24 stretch and you are left with the complete opposite result. You'd be left with a wildly inconsistent team 5 games below the .500 mark...which is exactly where they finished. Once they were seven games under, they only got back to that mark once I think, then faltered again.

Other than Bernie Sanders, Obama and Paul Wellstone...not to mention libertarians, who will always be non-interventionist, that leaves a very select group who were against the Iraq War. You're basically asking those in Congress to have insider knowledge that Bush and Powell were deliberately misleading the country and UN. If you want to take issue with Clinton, it's on issues like the Pan Pacific Trade Agreement or 9/11 lawsuit against Saudi Arabia, where she stakes out positions that are poll-tested and practical but not politically courageous. Probably the last time I admired her as a politician was when she fought for health care in 1993-94, which was also the end of her career as a political first lady. After Somalia, she didn't stick her neck out for the Rwandans. The Clintons also executed a lot of people in Arkansas largely so it wouldn't be hung around their necks as being soft on crime/weak kneed liberals, like Dukakis vs. Bush. And then you have the shameful tactics against Obama in South Carolina in 2008. But what is the alternative? Can any really thoughtful Republican trust Trump on foreign policy? Why/how? Honestly...?

QUOTE (ChiSox59 @ Oct 3, 2016 -> 04:10 PM) You rarely see huge trades amongst division rivals but you have to wonder if the Twins would get involved in Sale or Q bidding. They need pitching in a MAJOR way and have the bullets. Some of their top prospects/young players have lost a bit of their glimmer, but that may even help the Sox. Buxton, Sano, Berrios, Kepler, etc...plus some of the younger pieces that are still in the minors. Twins never going to be able to spend to acquire top of the rotation FAs so this would be a way. Twins had 5.40 ERA from their starters this year.. Long shot for sure, but an interesting trade partner. Trading Buxton or Sano makes as much sense as the Sox dealing Anderson or Rodon. They need a good young SS more than they need to overpay for Sale or Q. Someone like Jean Segura was available to nearly every team in baseball for almost nothing...they went with Florimon/Escobar/Santana instead. At best, they'd offer Berrios (if they have, in fact, soured on him) and Kepler, who they'd be selling high on...and then one other piece, but an obvious match doesn't exist. The main problem is Sale would be leaving too early for their contention window, and Q just isn't returning the premium package because he's worth more to the Sox than other teams. As it is, they have to figure out how to pay Dozier and what to do with Plouffe.

In all fairness, PTAC has been arguing that Rodon would struggle with inconsistency since the day he was drafted. That has played out to form...tantalizing talent, so-so results. Danks and Shields? Robertson and Duke? Latos was miraculously a Cy Young candidate his first four starts and at worst held down the fort. Those all seem to be veterans whose performance is less related to the pitching coach than a number of other issues. Cooper is credited with Sale and Q, and Rodon/Fulmer were expected by many to magically be as good...well, just because Cooper/Sale/Q, right? So isn't that more on the scouting than the pitching coach or even the manager? On the plus side, you have the Miguel Gonzalez success story and Nathan Jones being at least serviceable, and that wasn't a given coming off two major injuries. That said, Jones as a closer has disaster written all over it, but Robertson didn't inspire much confidence the second half and is much more highly paid. Erik Johnson? Tyler Danish? Beck? Sometimes over the past 2-3 seasons our farm system has been so bad that somebody had to be thrust into prospect status without fully meriting it, but do we "blame" Don Cooper for those guys? Would even the great Leo Mazzone or Dave Duncan have turned some of those names, like Jacob Turner, Ynoa, Purke, Kanhle, into a world-class bullpen? Not to mention Cooper got a lot more out of Jennings, Petricka and Putnam than nearly anyone expected. Trust your eyes. Other than Rodon copying Sale's formula for going at 80-85% in the early innings to conserve himself, it's hard to find anything obvious to criticize with the pitching staff. If you look at Sale, Q, Rodon and Gonzalez as an aggregate group of starters, they're much better than league average. The problem is including Danks, Shields, Erik Johnson, Danish and Latos...they were so bad, especially Shields...who was 2011 Dunn/2015 LaRoche on the pitching side, that their numbers are skewed by so many guys who didn't even belong on a competitive big league roster. And even there, some adjustments were suggested and worked temporarily, or he would have cratered completely and been forced to the DL. For whatever reason, he was serviceable for almost ten starts there in the middle, although the peripherals would largely point to the same "luck" Latos enjoyed his first four starts. Or just calculate war/$ for the offense vs. the pitching staff.

Adding Reddick (overpaying in the process) is not going to cut it with the need to find a DH, 2B and catcher. You live with Lawrie/Saladino, you still have two huge line-up holes and any improvement you get from Abreu/Frazier will probably be offset from falloffs for Cabrera and Eaton. Looking at those AL East lineups, Rangers or even the Tigers/Indians, their 6th or 7th hitters would be 2nd or 3rd on the Sox. Unless Rodon, Fulmer and Burdi set the world on fire and they are willing to eat Shields' contract as well as adding another quality arm in the pen, they're a .500 team, and that's without injuries. Finally, Robertson has underperformed expectations and doesn't look likely to be on an improving track, especially when you consider the brutal nature of that schedule in April and May (a lot of damage against Robbie, Sale and Q coming from fellow AL Central teams.)

QUOTE (OmarComing25 @ Oct 3, 2016 -> 10:39 AM) With all the chatter about Britton's Cy Young chances I thought this post from Reddit by user yesacabbagez summed it up perfectly why he shouldn't win: If it was that easy to be a closer, more than 2-3% of those former/failed starters could do it. Either all those MLB execs are wrong and emulating the Yankees or Royals is not possible as a blueprint, or high leverage situations are more difficult to pitch than innings 1-3. Let's not forget that those are close to max effort outings every time, especially when pitching 1 1/3rd+ innings. Of course, another problem is repeatability...and the fact that Britton coukd just as easily look like Jim Johnson as Davis/Betances next year. Or look at career years for guys like Thigpen or Willie Hernandez...other than Mo Rivera and Trevor Hoffman and maybe K Rod, few could it well for 10+ years without going off a Brad Lidge. It's also not taking into consideration the AL East had three playoff teams and a pretty decent Yankees team in the same division...it's not like he was rolling over the Twins, A's and Angels every time out.

Anderson and Eaton were the big positives. Melky played much better and more consistently than 2015, but will we get that similar performance next year? Abreu ended on an upbeat note, to the point where there's at least not another question mark attached to his name. Rodon was more inconsistent than was expected...there was hope for him to make a big jump and it felt closer to treading water. Saladino and Morneau were definitely feel good stories, but there are still serious doubts whether either are regulars...not on a playoff team.

So Hahn deserves credit for replacing Laumann with Hostetler? In the end, it still comes down to Collins being an everyday catcher or at the very least an 800+ OPS bat at DH. He's the key, because offense isn't coming from the free agent market at a price they are willing to pay.

Dombrowski's the type of GM who will be the first to strike with huge shake-ups in the offseason if they come up short in the ALDS.

You don't trade Chris Sale for the likes of Shaw and Holt as your second piece. That would require Moncada being a superstar and probably the net difference even then is a couple of wins if you're lucky. Even guys like Kimbrel and Giles were getting better packages for the second player in those deals. Granted, Moncada is one of the best prospects in the game but so was Buxton...who's ending this year on a high note but still put up an average in the 220's. Alot depends on how guys like Pomeranz, Buchholz and Rodriguez fare in the playoffs . That offense can cover up a lot of deficiencies, with 3 30-100 guys for the first time in club history, a former MVP in Pedroia, Bradley Jr. & Bogaerts, not to mention Moncada in the pipeline.

QUOTE (Lip Man 1 @ Oct 2, 2016 -> 06:58 PM) I don't. I'd be really surprised if it happened. All the talk, everything I'm hearing from a number of sources is that JR wants to go for it again in 2017. That means unless someone is willing to meet the Sox price of five big league or big league ready guys, they aren't moving him or Q or anybody else of note. But we'll see...things change. Mark But your belief should be stronger that JR would rather deal Sale and at least be able to market Moncada and Bradley (just an example) AND not have to spend an additional $30-40 million on payroll on overvalued free agents in this market. Remember the late 90s and early 00's when the KW philosophy was to at least give the fans an entertaining offense and lots of exploding scoreboards? Now we have bad baseball and pitcher's duels, which isn't nearly as entertaining to casual fans as it is to purists.

Great, another offseason of endlessly arguing whether JR, KW or Hahn is most responsible for each bad or good move...

QUOTE (TitoMB @ Oct 2, 2016 -> 07:08 PM) Damn we going deep on this comparison! See you guys in 900 years! JR will still be "penny pinching" that year, as the Scorpion team will have cryogenically frozen his body and downloaded his brain onto a Quantum computer so that he can keep annoying Thad Bosley and continue as owner for centuries until the last mutant strain of Sox fanaticism has been put out.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Oct 2, 2016 -> 06:56 PM) We exist in a large market, but are not a large market team. Even at our best, we ranked in the bottom part of the league in attendance. Halfway true. If we had the same or lower tv rights deals of all those bottom 10 teams, that argument would be easier to make...we have a larger POTENTIAL market than the majority of teams, but have surrendered a lot of it to the Cubs over the last 30 years or so. Or you can simply argue Sox fans have gone inactive due to apathy, and the full Cubs' bandwagon has been reactivated with championship caliber teams and the potential for it to continue for at least 4-5 more years. Bad timing with both bad teams with limited offense and no ability to draw on mushrooming media rights deals that have elevated teams like the Rangers and Mariners into the upper tier revenues-wise.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Oct 2, 2016 -> 05:26 PM) 2008 was lower than 2007, when they lost 90 games. It's called the World Series Effect. It lasts for at a minimum of five, and even up to seven years, for some franchises. You can clearly see the same thing happening with the Sox, with 2007, 2009 and especially 2011 killing the season tickey buyers. In 2006, you could at least argue you had a 90 win team with perhaps even more talent on paper than 2005. Coming into 2008, the bloom was already off that rose, no dynasty in the offing. Attendance never shows up until the following season, see 2006 compared to 2905, when they were ahead for the whole season.

QUOTE (Middle Buffalo @ Oct 2, 2016 -> 07:50 AM) This is one of the things I find very odd about politics, and I mean it in regard to how all politicians are treated. We bring up their voting record and and things they said 15 years ago and hold them to it today. It's like they aren't allowed to grow or change opinions without it being called a lie or "flip flop." I understand that their voting records and statements they've made are important, but if 15 years ago I said something that showed a blind devotion to law enforcement, and today I was critical, doesn't that show that I'm paying attention? Would it really be better for me to view a police brutality video and act like I wasn't able to see what was on the video? Again, I don't mean this in a partisan way. I mean it in regard to social, economic, and policy issues. I'm not sure why politicians aren't allowed to grow or change as long as they can justify the change. Well, the present election is a good example. Hillary being dinged for her husband's trade policies from 20+ years ago or using the term "super predators," it goes with the territory. Two events that happened twenty years ago, related to Alicia Machado and Trump's Federal taxes/losses, are going to help decide the election in her favor. Maybe that's why Obama had an advantage in 2008, having more of a blank slate and much less of a record to run on or against, but looking at only "recent" comments would generally lead to younger and even more inexperienced candidates, yes?

QUOTE (SpankyEaton @ Oct 2, 2016 -> 12:53 AM) There was a better candidate - his name was John Kasich. If you bought into his transition to a moderate Republican and stripped away all of his extreme viewpoints and statements over the years. He seemed more on point regarding economic solutions and uplifting the middle class than most of his fellow Republicans.

Does anyone planning to vote for Trump really believe he can change his habits? That he wouldn't be threatening war with a random third world country at 3 a.m. when he felt insulted on Twitter? Someone like Duterte in the Philippines wouldn't get under his skin? As it is, these latest comments on women will be the end unless HRC commits more self-inflicted mistakes simply because the average American woman is a Size 12, as opposed to the Size 2-4 average of his three wives.

Clearly, every really good manager can mean a difference of 2-3 games per season, and bad ones 2-3 additional losses. Let's just hope we finally see consistent refinement in some of the fundamentals, especially from the non-veteran players like Anderson, Tilson and Saladino (scary to say rebuilding without a young core of position talent beyond that, and hopefully Collins in late 2017).

You can't afford to give into the temptation of a watered down package to cover 3-5 spots. You have to decide on either Moncada or Benitendi and then get back at least one other above average starter. And Robertson isn't going to be included, unless you want to diminish the return...which would be a typical Sox move financially. The last thing we need to do is add three more veterans (and even Saunders might be out of their comfortable price range)...but maybe they'll do it simply because Cabrera/Frazier AND at least being able to argue they gave Renteria a halfway legit shot.

Anderson ending his rookie year on a roll....opposite of Beckham in 2009, who faded badly the last six weeks.

Not a shocker, but the roller coaster ride this week for the fanbase was completely unnecessary. They could have had a Robin Ventura Appreciation Day scheduled this weekend instead of the farce that ensued...which was so insulting to knowledgeable fans that even the casual ones saw right through it. JR obviously cares more about the perception of loyalty to valued employees than what fans think, and that's why the relationship has gradually been fraying the last five years after the honeymoon period of 2005-06 wore off.

The Cubs have a much much bigger regional fanbase. That's the key difference. Up until at least 2010/11, the numbers of fans attending games identifying themselves as Chicagoland residents for both teams was nearly identical. Not just hardcore fans of the Cubs, but regional fans of other teams who want to make a weekend of it and be closest to the Miracle Mile/Michigan Ave., outlet malls and the ballpark...and then you can't discount the historical value of fans just wanting to take their families to Wrigley or Fenway. All those other reasons get blended into the Cubs' numbers and create the loyalty perception. So much of it is a result of marketing, WGN, Harry Caray, day baseball, all the years without a World Series, etc. If you go to the Quad Cities, you won't see any Sox merchandise. Cubs and Cards dominate...which makes no sense geographically, but the Cards have the winning tradition as well as an extensive radio network. The Twins are third, probably a tie with Brewers and KC for fourth. This year, the WLS signal won't even come in. When I was growing up, 670 WMAQ came in like you were at the ballpark at night.

QUOTE (ChiliIrishHammock24 @ Oct 1, 2016 -> 02:20 AM) Barring a really bad start Sunday, Sale has locked up the fWAR and pWAR titles. That's why I posted what he needs to do ERA and WHIP wise to be better than Porcello. If he accomplishes that, then the only traditional stats the old-thinking writers can point to is wins and walks. Sale would have the advantage in IP, ERA, K, WHIP, H/9. And you honestly feel he has a chance to finish ahead of Porcello, Britton, Kluber, Verlander, Happ, Hamels, etc.?

QUOTE (Quinarvy @ Sep 30, 2016 -> 09:41 PM) The journalism school will always be the crown jewel. It draws in tons of Chinese students. Yes, but not when the choice is Medill... And honestly, there just aren't incredible amounts interested in journalism because of the lack of press freedom. While it may seem significant numbers-wise at one school or department, it's still barely a blip on the radar compared to math/engineering, computer science and business/economics/finance/MBA. I imagine many of those studying journalism plan to stay/work abroad after graduation. Even that's getting more complicated with Canada now agreeing to extradict "financial criminals" wanted back in China...they really don't want any more Chinese money flooding the Vancouver housing market.