caulfield12

Maybe we should have the players all fill out confidential surveys...like in that sabre managing baseball book, The Only Rule Is It Has to Work. Then we can stop the endless speculating and reading between the lines.

Yes, but I suppose it will be belittled because it was an AmeriCorps National Volunteer program as well as hiring/firing summer camp counselors for Youth Volunteers Corps of America. Of course, your argument was the same exact one that Republicans used to attack Obama with in 2008. Community organizer, never had run his own business, law professor but not dean or in charge of a department...so, by your analogy, you would pick H. Ross Perot, Donald Trump, Herman Cain or Carly Fiorina over Obama. (Yes, I realize, a digression, but the point still stands.) And yes, it's not easy. My philosophy was always to give everyone an opportunity and second opportunity and even a third. I thought if I worked harder than everyone else and "empowered them" to make their own decisions and have more autonomy, things would run much more smoothly. That wasn't the case. Sometimes managers can get taken advantage of if they're not strict enough or "treat others how they would like to be treated," because that goes along with the assumption everyone has the same work ethic or attitude/professionalism as you do. Some workers will just clock in for a paycheck and couldn't care less about anything beyond that. Many don't want to take initiative, but demand to be told what to do and don't thrive in ambiguity. I'll just say this...I watched Jeff Banister manage the GreenJackets for 142 games and take essentially the same talent from the year before and win a championship with those players. The guy is a combination of Tywin Lannister, a real hard ass military drill sergeant, but his players loved playing for him because he demanded and commanded their respect, and they truly believed if they bought into his program that it would result in winning and all the sacrifices would have been worth it. He changed the atmosphere in that Rangers' organization nearly overnight. When someone goes through cancer, almost loses a leg, fights their entire life to get to the big leagues just to get a single at-bat (hit off Dan Petry), then you can be sure they understand what it's like to not be one of the most talented players. What it means to struggle and need for your coaching career to pay off, all those years in the minors...for the eventual payoff 20 years later at the big league level. You gain an appreciation for the opportunity going through all those struggles that Ventura will never understand. He's one of the most charismatic people I've ever been around (the other two were both billionaires on our board in KC, Tom Bloch, former CEO of H&R Block and Adele Hall, whose husband was the CEO at Hallmark Cards), relentlessly positive and always supportive of his players. Ned Yost is like that now, and Clint Hurdle with the Pirates, same thing. Not only that, but 20 years ago...he didn't care about statistics at all. The last five years, though, the Pirates totally changed the way the game is played with their shifting/pitching to contact philosophy predicated around strong defense. Fifty year old baseball "rats" adapted and evolved (unlike, say Scioscia). For Hurdle, his career as a manager was on the line if he didn't figure out a better way to get results. I haven't seen very much evidence of that "inventiveness" and creativity with Robin. It's almost 100% by the book. And he figured out how to get the most out of a 17 year old Jose Guillen, who could barely order a McDonald's hamburguesa on his own without help at that time. He took that kid, got him focused and helped get him to become a team leader (especially of the Latin players). Months earlier, he was almost kicked out of the Pirates' system for good because of a violent knife confrontation with another minor leaguer in Bradenton. But Banister saw the good in him and was willing to fight to give him at least another chance.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Jun 8, 2016 -> 05:17 AM) oh good god Brewers, Phillies, Braves, Reds, Padres, Twins, Yankees, Red Sox, Blue Jays. Do you understand talent distribution and how little left handed pitching there is in the majors Duke would get sucked up in a heart beat at his current contract. Back. My back hurts, but that's mostly due to work. Not sure what you're saying here otherwise, because if I don't/can't have sex, I choke my chicken. Are you trying to make a Hawkism relevant in a non-relevant situation? Because that's what it looks like. I also call it spanking the monkey. Of course Jennings isn't special. He still throws 93 from the left side with a semblance of command. He'd get eaten up immediately. (also, no there are not. There are similar, but this one is throws hard, and has command. While there are many that throw harder and have better command, this one is the White Sox, and no one else shall have him) Well, #1, it takes one hit. How about Heathcliff Slocumb from the Red Sox to the Mariners? You remember that one, right? Or Doyle Alexander from the Braves to the Tigers for some prospect named John Smoltz. I'm sure there are more recent examples, but you still don't make sense because #2 OH HEY GUYS, DON'T DO WHAT THE BEST TEAM IN THE MAJORS HAS DONE, THEY'RE THE CUBS, THEY SUCK, WHAT A BUNCH OF WUSSIES #3 this has nothing to do with the issue at hand. I expect him to actually make more pitchers than he has "good." Quintana doesn't have many quotes in the press - understandable. Sale does. Sale said he was trying to cut down on his pitches and would work more towards contact so he can work deeper into games. Is that something he came up with on his own or did he have a heart to heart sit down with Don Cooper on that? So what has Don Cooper done that's so good? I like the guy. When he's the pitching coach for my favorite team, and I haven't seen a thing but a turnstile of pitchers, I'm going to light fires. There are 29 teams in the major leagues. If I had the power to put him on waivers, I would do so to prove a point, but I imagine that, given his contract, there'd be like 4-5 teams who would NOT claim Duke on waivers given his current contract. Thanks for qualifying it as "rookie," so that way you can eliminate Peavy, Sale, Liriano, Jones, Floyd, Thornton, Crain, Myers, and, oh, Will Ohman. The miracle workers for that team were Alex Rios and AJ Pierzynski, because had they posted their normal career numbers, that would have been a 78 win team. --- I'd feel bad not ending this with an ALL HAIL DONALD COOPER Thornton was done the moment Jim Thome touched him up in the 2nd half of 2010...even though he lived on until this day in the big leagues. Forgot Jones, 3 rookies. Considering where he was drafted and his lack of success starting, that has to qualify as another success overall. Crain is an example that supports the Don Cooper Theory of Excellence. (Brett Myers and Liriano do not). And the fact that Jake Peavy could be rehabilitated through a once in a lifetime surgery and come out the other side AND get back Avi/Montas or Iglesias and not have to subsidize any of his salary was a minor Don miracle. (Except for when he faced the Tigers that year). Myers and Ohman? More indictments of KW/Hahn. HAIL HAHN!

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Jun 8, 2016 -> 05:17 AM) oh good god Brewers, Phillies, Braves, Reds, Padres, Twins, Yankees, Red Sox, Blue Jays. Do you understand talent distribution and how little left handed pitching there is in the majors Duke would get sucked up in a heart beat at his current contract. Back. My back hurts, but that's mostly due to work. Not sure what you're saying here otherwise, because if I don't/can't have sex, I choke my chicken. Are you trying to make a Hawkism relevant in a non-relevant situation? Because that's what it looks like. I also call it spanking the monkey. Of course Jennings isn't special. He still throws 93 from the left side with a semblance of command. He'd get eaten up immediately. (also, no there are not. There are similar, but this one is throws hard, and has command. While there are many that throw harder and have better command, this one is the White Sox, and no one else shall have him) Well, #1, it takes one hit. How about Heathcliff Slocumb from the Red Sox to the Mariners? You remember that one, right? Or Doyle Alexander from the Braves to the Tigers for some prospect named John Smoltz. I'm sure there are more recent examples, but you still don't make sense because #2 OH HEY GUYS, DON'T DO WHAT THE BEST TEAM IN THE MAJORS HAS DONE, THEY'RE THE CUBS, THEY SUCK, WHAT A BUNCH OF WUSSIES #3 this has nothing to do with the issue at hand. I expect him to actually make more pitchers than he has "good." Quintana doesn't have many quotes in the press - understandable. Sale does. Sale said he was trying to cut down on his pitches and would work more towards contact so he can work deeper into games. Is that something he came up with on his own or did he have a heart to heart sit down with Don Cooper on that? So what has Don Cooper done that's so good? I like the guy. When he's the pitching coach for my favorite team, and I haven't seen a thing but a turnstile of pitchers, I'm going to light fires. There are 29 teams in the major leagues. If I had the power to put him on waivers, I would do so to prove a point, but I imagine that, given his contract, there'd be like 4-5 teams who would NOT claim Duke on waivers given his current contract. Thanks for qualifying it as "rookie," so that way you can eliminate Peavy, Sale, Liriano, Jones, Floyd, Thornton, Crain, Myers, and, oh, Will Ohman. The miracle workers for that team were Alex Rios and AJ Pierzynski, because had they posted their normal career numbers, that would have been a 78 win team. --- I'd feel bad not ending this with an ALL HAIL DONALD COOPER Thornton was done the moment Jim Thome touched him up in the 2nd half of 2010...even though he lived on until this day in the big leagues. Forgot Jones, 3 rookies. Considering where he was drafted and his lack of success starting, that has to qualify as another success overall. Crain is an example that supports the Don Cooper Theory of Excellence. (Brett Myers and Liriano do not). And the fact that Jake Peavy could be rehabilitated through a once in a lifetime surgery and come out the other side AND get back Avi/Montas or Iglesias and not have to subsidize any of his salary was a minor Don miracle. (Except for when he faced the Tigers that year). Myers and Ohman? More indictments of KW/Hahn. HAIL HAHN!

FIRE NOBODY. Let's remain in Dante's 9th circle of hell forever!!! Stuck perpetually between contention and getting Top 3-5 draft picks (well, we did manage that feat once, which isn't surprising with the 5th worst record in baseball for the last 3+ years).

Worst MLB Records since September 15th, 2012 1. Houston -81 (but playoff appearance finally) 2. Rockies -79 3. Twins -74 4. Marlins -71 5. White Sox -69 6. Phillies -68 7. DBacks -47 8. Padres -42 Brewers -42 10. Reds -40 11. Braves -28 12. Mariners -12 Cubs +5 How many of those teams have kept their managers during that entire time??? Replace 2 or more managers?

In other shocking news, African-American students are 4X more likely to disciplined or expelled from schools than white students. Hopefully Trump will make a comment on that one...he really hasn't said much about crime or education in terms of any type of concrete policy or plan. Well. Not that I realistically expected anything of substance, who are we crappin'? http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2016/06...ended/85526458/ Yet another example of systemic bias/prejudice/racism in our public school systems.

That possibility exists every night in Colombia, Thailand, the Philippines and Indonesia. So best stay away from those countries, Gregster. Too many temptations. I was actually drugged once in Colombia in a bar and I had to be tested to see if the woman had sex with me when I was unconscious, lol. Well, it wasn't so funny at the time because my g/f at the time found out I was with another girl and it was a big scandal in our apartment complex. Plus my g/f was a professional masseuse, so that was the end of that. Luckily, she only took about $40 in cash and left all my credit and bank cards, driver's license, passport/visa, etc. Could have been worse. Some guys had their cars/trucks stolen by the same group who were lacing drinks in bars throughout that region of the country.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Jun 7, 2016 -> 11:53 PM) . Are you f***ing high? Albers and Jennings would be claimed in a second, Kahnle's thrown like 6 innings, Carroll is apparently a White Sox lifer, Daniel Webb has sucked f***ing dong, Zach Duke is still due like $8 mill (and would be scooped off waivers IMMEDIATELY) and Matt Purke is a AAAA player who has had like one good night of pitching in his life. I don't even get what you're trying to say here. Are you defending Cooper despite the fact that the pitching staff has been dogs*** for the past 4 years, despite the club spending money on pitchers? Please name ONE team that would commit to paying Zach Duke $8 million for the next 1 2/3rd's years. Your what hurts? I think you're seriously overestimating the esteem with which the rest of MLB holds our relievers. Jennings isn't anything special. There are left-handed relievers like him all over baseball, could be the next one is Purke for all we know. Despite Duke being absolutely terrible this past month, he hasn't been pushed ahead of him into 7th and 8th inning high leverage situations. I also distinctly recall on a number of occasions reading on this board that reliever XYZ could/should be flipped for XYZ prospect, and how often has that actually happened to our benefit the last 3-4 years? NOT OFTEN. Sounds too Cubs-like. What has Don Cooper actually done that's so bad? If you want to blame him for Rodon "regressing," that's probably the closest to a direct hit you're going to get on him...because it's pretty obvious he was extracting the maximum he was ever going to get out of the likes of Latos, Gonzalez and Albers. Now they're simply returning to their norms/means. In fact, name all those teams that are highly desirous of Duke and I will start sending out the e-mails to their Assistant GM's right this moment, because we're going to need that $8 million to pay for other needed spare parts to fix this team and keep it from completely sinking out of contention over the month of June. Finally, look at that 2012 roster. How many of those rookie pitchers other than Santiago and Q are still even playing professional baseball? Don Cooper is a miracle worker, I tell you. Surely, he would also be willing to tell you.

That's all fine and good, but just look at all the adversity the other three teams leading us in the AL Central Division standings have gone through. Kendrys Morales is hitting MUCH worse than Abreu, for just one example. Did the Indians plan on having their second best player miss the first two months of the season? At least Abreu has a presence in the line-up that Lonnie Chisenhall, Rajai Davis or Tyler Naquin don't. (I remember this was one of many EARLY defenses of the Manny Ramirez acquisition in late 2010.) Did the Tigers plan on having Daniel Norris get cancer, Anibal Sanchez getting bumped from the rotation, Cameron Maybin being hurt (had to play Gose, mostly, in the early going) and their bullpen, despite all the new additions/spending, laying an egg? On Justin Upton being MUCH WORSE than Jose Abreu? Or JD Martinez looking merely an adequate player and not an All-Star? Jose Iglesias hitting in the 220s instead of the 320's? Wow. We lost Petricka and Austin Jackson/Cabrera missed last weekend. Fire Robin Ventura is the diametrical opposite of a blanket statement, if you've watched this team over the last 4+ years under Ventura. If you're deliberating seeing Robin with rose-colored glasses, that's not a helpful solution by any stretch of the imagination, either.

If we DFA'ed Matt Albers, Dan Jennings, Kahnle, Carroll, Webb, Beck, Zach Duke and Purke tomorrow, how many potential suitors would be willing to give up anything of significance for those guys? Putnam's been doing quite well recently, and I'm not even sure that we'd get much back for him. Maybe some team's 24th or 25th bench player? To have any real value, you've got to have dominant stuff, two pitches you can throw for strikes even when behind in the count, be an effective lefty against LHBers OR have something very unique or distinctive about your style or repertoire. In reality, Cooper did a great job doing what he could to get something useful out of all those guys...Latos and Albers included. Putnam and Carroll and Petricka. All of these guys basically came off the scrap heap or were failed starters in the case of Petricka. If you average out their first month (32 games) and their last 26, you get an average MLB bullpen. Why everyone's expecting it to compete with the Yankees or KC is beyond me, they just don't have the talent to strike out tons of hitters, other than Jones and Robertson.

Bernie Sanders is available now. Baseball has never had a socialist manager before (that I know of). Unless it was around the turn of the century, a LaFollette/William Jennings Bryan follower.

Flavum, that might be too depressing a stat to track for a considerable period of time. Maybe counting days until Ventura is fired? How many consecutive losses they can absorb without any corrective action being taken? You could use emojis/icons with Roman emperor Nero fiddling. One fiddle for a good game, five fiddles for warning/bullpen or managerial implosion.

The Reds already traded one franchise player in Frazier. Another in Chapman. They have Votto, whose value is way way down. No way they just give Bruce away for salary relief when there are so many teams in the AL desperate for that one extra bat to carry them over the top. Other than OAK, TB and Minnesota, everyone could be buying...even the Astros, although that's questionable on their part.

QUOTE (Buehrle>Wood @ Jun 7, 2016 -> 10:15 PM) "An 8 game lead over the Tigers on May 6th turns into a 1 game lead for DET over the White Sox 24 games later." Ventura was not content on just having the worst collapse in Sox history (2012). Now he's got something to rival it. Even the Indians, when they picked up 12 1/2 games on us in 2005 before Crede homered off Riske, that took them 44 games played at a 33-11 clip to just come "close" to catching the White Sox. This was 19 fewer games to go from a surefire playoff position to selling off assets at the deadline (heck, 4 games after ADDING significant salary) and probably firing the manager as well.

Of course, Chris Carter had 5 RBI's tonight and now has 16 and 39. Trayce Thompson has been hitting 3rd and now 5th for the Dodgers the last two nights. Marcus Semien has a 743 OPS for the A's, which would be 770-780ish in a favorable hitting environment. But we do have that draft pick instead of Semien AND Desmond.

If they don't do it soon, the natives are going to wise up and turn on Hahn, KW and JR. Or Hahn/KW will turn on each other to blame the other for this current predicament. Somehow, Don Cooper will survive it all.

If nothing gets done after another Shields implosion and former two-time prospect Gio Gonzalez throws a no-hitter and the Royals sweep them again at USCF... What would it actually take? Will Carlos Sanchez be recalled to hit 5th and DH tomorrow?

Can we just add Purke to the rotation, lol?

Carlos Gomez is available!!! Of course, Mr. Anderson of the Indians is getting ripped to shreds in SEA. Not that we could do anything against him in the 2nd game of that DH. 6-0 M's. After tonight: CLE +7 Detroit/KC 2 1/2 GB CHW 3 1/2 GB Forecast: Cloudy with a chance of more bullpen hilarity tomorrow.

http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/16031510...entura-plunking Lawrie vs. Ventura, The Rematch, on Sunday. Will be interesting to see if he appeals, and how many games both he and Machado get from the Commissioner's Office. Reading Yost's comments, it's almost like he's hoping this situation will spark some life back into KC again... http://www.kansascity.com/sports/spt-colum....html#wgt=blogs Ventura taking a beating on social media. Rightfully so, you risk ending the career of one of the five best players in MLB.

More singles from Abreu...

There's going to be fight this weekend vs. the Royals. Too many forces coming together in confluence. Both teams terribly frustrated and at wit's end trying to figure out what happened to their teams. You've got Lawrie and then Ventura, after getting absolutely rocked tonight, pitching Sunday (and pitching frustrated/angry/emotional). Royals have seen a first place lead of 1 1/2 turn into 3 games back. White Sox will have lost 19 out of 25 games. It's almost like the opposite of the 2010 run in the May/June that season that put us right back into the race.

Now Rollins gets his job back...well, just because Ventura HAS to try something even though Jimmy Rollins has absolutely nothing to do with building for the future.

If they trade Tim Anderson for anyone at this point, that's the very last straw. Thankfully, they already have Cozart at that position. And, if we're buying Bruce, we might as well bring Devin Mesoraco over as well and try to "fix" him. Take half of the farm system, it doesn't really matter anymore at this point. Just becoming almost a comedic situation, where everything Hahn was trying to accomplish in 2013 has just been completely thrown out the window. They really didn't know that Avisail Garcia was going to be a problem coming into this season as a starter?