caulfield12

It's going to be extremely tough to keep Lincoln Riley from going to the NFL...will take the two Heisman Trophy winners. Doubt that Stoops would return to coaching, and his brother at Kentucky wouldn't quite be a big enough name for head coach, I'd actually prefer former assistant Brent Venables from Clemson because somebody needs to get that defense sorted out at some point if they want to win another title.

1981: 56 games missed, add 50 hits 1994: 50 games missed, add 50 hits 1995: 18 games missed, add 16 hits TOTAL: 124 games missed, add 116 hits Add the 116 hits to Baines’ 2,866 career hits and we have 2,982. If Baines has 2,982 hits, how likely is it that the White Sox allow him to stick around for a few more months to get to 3,000 in 2001 when he was a 42-year old designated hitter? The Sox have a history of helping veteran players create milestones. They nudged Early Wynn toward 300 wins, and they signed Tom Seaver and Steve Carlton late in their careers. It’s fair to assume that if Baines entered 2001 less than 20 hits away from the magical 3,000 plateau, the Sox would have found a way to get him there. This is the same franchise that put Minnie Minoso in uniform in 1976 when he was 50 and again four years later in 1980 when he was 54, just to get him the title of “oldest man to get a base hit in the big leagues.” The White Sox even noodled the idea of letting a 64-year old Minoso play in 1990. Playing an over-the-hill Baines at 42 to get his 3,000th hit in front of the hometown fans wouldn’t have been the sideshow that the Minoso affair had been. http://baseballegg.com/2017/02/12/did-harold-baines-come-within-a-whisker-of-the-hall-of-fame/

America’s trade deficit with China reached a new high — $34.1 billion — in September. That’s a 13 percent increase compared to last year and is the second-straight record month after a deficit of $31 billion in August. That takes America’s trade deficit with China for the year to $225.8 billion — about $30 billion more than at the same point in 2017. ... The US trade deficit hit $55.5 billion in October, the highest since October 2008. The increase in the deficit is the result of continued growth in imports, while exports actually fell. The trade deficit with China also hit a record level. One of President Donald Trump's goals for the trade war was to reduce the trade deficit, but the president's own policies are likely in part prompting the widening gap. Shrinking the US trade deficit has been a key goal of President Donald Trump's trade war. But the US Census Bureau announced Thursday that the US trade deficit grew to $55.5 billion in the month of October, the highest in exactly 10 years. That was a 1.7% jump from September, as imports rose by 0.2% and exports fell by 0.1%. https://www.businessinsider.com/us-china-trade-war-record-trade-deficit-trump-2018-12

I take back my comment about A Star is Born. Really powerful film, pretty darned impressive accomplishment for first-time director and completely reinventing the image of a cultural icon in a genuine and authentic way.

Is it good enough for a Best Picture nomination? Feels like it will forever be compared to Driving Miss Daisy, there’s lot of PC crowd talk about the story being one of “white redemption” versus from Ali’s perspective (like Sam Rockwell’s win as the deputy)...and Mortenson hasn’t helped matters by using the N word on the publicity tour. Feels a year when The Favourite or Vice, because of a political subject could win...can’t remember such a weak class of films at this late stage in the year. https://www.oddschecker.com/awards/oscars/best-picture Out of the Top 15 here, have only seen 3...granted, quite a few still haven’t been released. And I’m not sure I can stomach Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga winning everything for A Star is Born. Fwiw, have Tully next on the viewing list.

At first, it seemed someone threw rocks off an overpass...the corrected story was rocks causing an obstruction in the road caused the crash, setting them up for the robbery.

Another DC Comics dud. Saw Aquaman today in China. Think it will end up in the 30’s or 40’s at RT when reviews eventually trickle in. Venom, for a movie at just 29% when I watched it, was MUCH more entertaining. In fact, it has already grossed about $300 million in China alone (note, only $75 million of that goes back to the U.S.) The visuals for Aquaman were great, Momoa was fine, but Amber Heard and Patrick Wilson were really miscast.

So how much are we willing to give Gonzalez? 3 years seems kind of pointless, unless we're also getting Harper or Machado. 4 years, and potentially 5, seems what to be this particular free agent market is looking like, especially for a current 29 year old. The one caveat being he accumulated 4.3 fWAR over 5 years with the Astros (not counting the one really good season), meaning his average was actually BELOW 1 for the majority of his career. So to predicate a pretty darned big contract for a hitter with one outlying 4.0 season...who has already (arguably) reached his peak, that doesn't seem to make sense unless the White Sox were looking to compete THIS year. Even if you average his last THREE years together, he's still below 2. And yet he's likely to get $45-70 million from SOMEONE. Just doubt it's the White Sox, not when we already have guys like Yolmer and Leury on the roster. The risk of him NOT being that 4 war player is just way too great.

Responding to the potential interest in Marwin Gonzalez expressed in the Heyman article: Not sure Gonzalez makes sense...but I thought he was older than 30 for some reason (actually 29, will turn 30 before next season). Definitely could play OF and 1B/3B, veteran presence, lots of post-season experience, the whole question is whether he would be better off on a team that would be contending right away, versus two years from now. Of course, the usual caveat, depends on years/$$$. Buy on the dip, or buy into his "over-performance" run in 2017/18 being over?

https://sports.yahoo.com/sources-indians-looking-move-trevor-bauer-corey-kluber-mlb-trade-market-heats-232621659.html The Indians’ austerity comes after getting bounced in the first round of the AL playoffs with a club-record payroll that neared $150 million. Cleveland’s current projected payroll is around $120 million, according to Baseball Prospectus, though it could drop prohibitively after 2019 even if the Indians did hold on to Bauer and Kluber. For $8.5 million, they could buy Edwin Encarnacion, Jason Kipnis and Yonder Alonso – who this season will make a combined $44.3 million – out of club options. Bauer and star shortstop Francisco Lindor will be in arbitration, starter Carlos Carrasco will make a reasonable $10.25 million in the first year of a new three-year, $37.5 million contract he signed Thursday, and MVP candidate José Ramírez ($6.65 million) and closer Brad Hand ($7.58 million) are under team-friendly deals. Young standout starter Mike Clevinger will be in his first year of arbitration. Owner Larry Dolan bought the Indians for $323 million in 2000. Since then, according to Forbes, the franchise value has increased to more than $1 billion, and the team profited more than $30 million in the 2017 season.

https://www.cnn.com/2018/12/06/opinions/arresting-huawei-exec-is-a-case-of-spectacularly-bad-timing-andelman/index.html

I don’t see that direct link with military spending and Michigan, WI, IA and PA. It was simply the Dems doing a terrible job of convincing lots of middle and lower middle class Americans they had a dynamic and actionable plan to improve their lives in any significant way. The actual revenues from the tariffs are pretty insignificant, compared to the overall budget imbalance. The stock market is still up around 35% from Election Day, 2016, although near correction territory now...and off 20-30% for some of the technology bellwethers. Goodbye, FIRE movement, we hardly knew ye. Fwiw, China is very quickly positioning to move manafacturing to countries like Vietnam and Malaysia to avoid the tariffs...the main companies being hurt are entities like Huawei, ZTE, Apple and everyone along their supply chain, particularly chip and semiconductor manufacturers...or Foxconn’s deal with Wisconsin, which is likely to be blown up. As far as the politics of it all, if the GOP tries to move forward with the Ryan/Mulvaney/Norquist plan of gutting SS and health care...they’re going to destroy any remote chance they had of winning in 2020. As it stands, Trump will have an incredibly difficult time, and that’s without facing the headwinds of a recession. Other than a few corporate elites, the majority of “flyover” voters are pissed about the tax cuts and even more pissed about health insurance being held hostage with nary a solution in sight. With a Federal debt fast approaching $22 trillion, there’s just no way to convince young people, Hispanics or suburban white collar women that they should do anything less than fight desperately to protect their futures, and the imperiled financial futures of their children and grandchildren.

Cue Hoosiers soundtrack with Coach Norman Dale cameo...and the swinging gate play for Chitwood, errr...Holliday.

If they bring back Shields, they deserve every attendance woe and 0.1 broadcast rating they receive. It would be just...not sure if there are words to describe the apathy that his reappearance would engender. Yet you could just imagine Don Cooper pushing for exactly such a move behind the scenes.

Oops! Not so fast. I think Trump now has to hoping someone like Tim Cook, Howard Schultz or Jeffrey Bezos is “kidnapped” by the Chinese while travelling to a business meeting in Asia in a reprisal after the same just was done to the Huawei CTO in Vancouver. Since that transpired over the weekend while Trump was simultaneously blathering on about the supposed concessions that the Chinese made at G-20...it’s going to really piss off the Chinese, not to mention the whole tech sector is getting massacred. Bye bye, Mnuchin!

Well, if you trade off Fry, Boone Logan is still out there lurking SOMEWHERE. Plus, maybe they can convince Buehrle to return if they sign Harper, lol. Thome's ready to suit up, too.

KW is just itching to pull the trigger on Adam Jones.

Unless we are also bringing in the children of Joe DeSa and Ivan Calderon...? In all seriousness, Carlos was one of my favorite White Sox players growing up, and I liked him as a prospect before the injuries took over his career, but his son's not going to be a "plus" hitter in his early to mid 30's, when the White Sox legitimately need a DH. Of course, neither is Nelson Cruz, but at least he wouldn't cost anything and it might boost the attendance by a bit...plus it would be pretty cool to have both Nellie, Thome and Abreu all mentoring young Mr. Jimenez.

It would be a bit weird to shore up the bullpen with Familia AND Colome when we've let go of a number of our top offensive contributors from last season (granted, that's not saying MUCH). I guess it's that whole Harper/Machado OR BUST line of thinking that's out there right now...but normally, the bullpen is the last element a contending team will fix before their window of contention opens up. This would be a bit backwards, unless we're just intending to trade them before 2020/2021.

Familiarity breeds contempt? Utility infielders are not quite like back-up QB's, although McEwing was incredibly popular in StL during his playing days, just like Jose Oquendo before him.

Leury or Yolmer?

Just to put this in perspective, Eovaldi's deal for $68 million/4 years (proposed) would be essentially a tie with Abreu's original deal and just a tick ahead of John Danks' 5 year, $65 million contract.

Only if you could keep Goldschimdt long-term, and even then, there were signs of a decline last year in terms of elite bat speed. This would have been the equivalent of dealing Collins, Dunning and one of 4 minor league outfielders not named Robert for a one year, all-in attempt without first having secured Machado or Harper. Plus the whole NL to AL adjustment. The Cardinals have no choice if they want to compete with the Brewers and Cubs.

The odds are stacked against starting pitchers with 2 TJ surgeries...especially with max velocity styles. I tried to find it, but there aren’t more than a handful of starters who have thrown 250 or more total innings after a second surgery. Something like 2 or 3. They would be better off finding a solid 2/3 guy with a repeatable delivery or going all-in on someone like Cole when the timing is better. I get the point, would you rather have two Eeovaldi’s or one Corbin, for example...spread out your risk...but it’s those $45-60 million contracts that all added up over the last decade to hamstring the club financially. If we’re going to fail, at least do it swinging for the fences on the caliber of players who are not lightning in a bottle, everything has to go exactly right...maybe if we didn’t have so many young pitchers already in the “high risk” category it would be a different story, or if we could easily afford an eventual $160+ million payroll.

I was actually surprised Baez was so low...he still would have topped the Sox, but he was hyped like the second coming of sliced bread and a surefire MVP winner in July and August. I get it, his defense and base-running are big factors, but he wasn’t anywhere close to the MLB leaders for this specific metric.