caulfield12

Yeah, his mound is just too clouded with the Cubs. Mound or mind? ??? Indian mounds? Or of the feminine variety? Speaking of Mounds, it would be nice if they had those here in China...or at least an Almond Joy.

Wil Myers or BUST if he (Shields) opts out! Odds of that actually happening...about the same as being able to go for one month without hearing that "Go Cubs Go!" song somewhere. (Let's hope Hahn didn't agree to take Matt Kemp's contract instead as "fair compensation.")

Donald Trump=Bonny Prince Charlie Even Ryan's ripping on him about "identity politics" and racist tones/language to his statements. The GOP definitely doesn't want to get branded even more as an all-white party because that's a surefire loss with today's shifting American demographic trends.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/baseb...emiumvideo.html

Looks like Avi Garcia is the next one whose days are numbered...if he's going to platoon with Shuck, or if it's just for a game or two to see if they can get him hot after the recall from Charlotte.

Looks like the thread just got split here into another one on Anderson's status...

He's happy with Saladino (for now) and also happy with Anderson for pushing the issue (and timeframe up in many minds) and rapidly improving from his tepid start in AAA. BLAH BLAH. Not the best news for those who thought he could inject a dynamic force/speed/athleticism into the moribund Sox offense, though.

The Heyward one has to be a decent-sized concern (but isn't because the team is playing so well overall). Edwin Jackson, completely irrelevant. Like worrying about Carlos Marmol, S. Castro or Soriano at this point.

The latest Alice in Wonderland movie is atrocious. I don't know why I thought I would find something enjoyable about it. Johnny Depp keeps becoming more and more bizarre in his real life and also his acting performances, I couldn't help but think to all those movies like Edward Scissorhands and reflect how the Pirates of the Caribbean movies actually put him into a "mailing it in" tailspin. Helena Bonham Carter was great as usual as the Red Queen, but watching the lead actress (Mia W.), she just doesn't leave much of an impression or have the requisite charisma to carry a movie (same feeling I have with the lead actress from the Divergent series). If you really like Sascha Baron Cohen, it might be YOUR type movie (in this role, he's FAR from humorous), but I wouldn't recommend it except to Sox fans who are trying to find something else to do with their time and need a distraction.

So the Twins and Royals have teams better suited to their particular stadiums... I guess I can buy that. Maybe another element is the White Sox have lost some of their home field advantage as the lack of winning has led to lower and lower attendance figures. It was also pretty obvious that those Twins' teams weren't well suited for that new outdoor stadium of theirs from the get-go. ANd it's just as obvious when you play in a stadium like USCF with an average or below average offense you have to have elite pitching (starting and bullpen) as well as defense and fundamentally-sound to offset the difference. You simply can't have single digits in homers from LHBers at this point in the season, not in that stadium. That still doesn't explain the success of the Tigers (well, Ilitch's money) and Indians (better at developing pitching than the Sox, at least recently?) The thing that stands out with CLE are all their Latin American studs....Salazar is one of the best pitchers in the AL, Carrasco isn't too far behind, Lindor in many ways is a better player than Carlos Correa, Jose Ramirez has been a revelation this year, Gomes is a competent catcher at worst and was a dynamic offensive player before his injury, Carlos Santana's OBP and power, plus they've got Kipnis, so up the middle they're extremely strong and also a pretty young team in terms of its core. Brantley has been an off and on again MVP candidate the last 2-3 seasons (reminiscent of Grazy Sizemore, in that the injuries have sidetracked his career). Kluber kind of came out of nowhere (like Keuchel) to get on the Cy Young radar...Tomlin as well, is like a RH version of Buehrle. Doesn't throw extremely hard, but he's got great control, a repertoire of pitches and somehow he just gets the job done because of his "moxie." Perhaps the most talented two guys in the bunch (after Salazar), Anderson and Bauer, can't even get footholds in that rotation.

QUOTE (SonofaRoache @ Jun 7, 2016 -> 09:12 AM) I was under the impression managers actually conducted and oversaw events called practices where they went over hitting, fielding, pitching, bunting, and real game situations to help the players get better. Guess I was wrong. Maybe we should just give the job to Tom Emanski and Fred McGriff. They have some pretty cool instructional/coaching videos in the 1990's. BRING BACK CAMP CORA OR DYE TRYING!!! P.S. Sandor and Gregor "The Mountain" Clegane as manager and hitting coach would at least scare the living hell out of the opposition. Are they currently available?

If the White Sox had the advantage of the current playoff format, they definitely would have won at least one World Series title over that time period LIP is referring to. Heck, they SHOULD have by all rights won the 1994 World Series, the one that never happened. (Thanks, JR!) But as usual, we should still be loyal 11 years later, because, "2005!" And yet for some strange reason, ALMOST everyone here supports the idea of getting rid of Williams to let Rick Hahn run things, the same Rick Hahn who has shown us what exactly in terms of talent evaluation (other than the Adam Eaton trade) over his tenure? But logically, without KW to meddle/interfere like the villain in a Scooby Doo cartoon, we would have made the playoffs numerous times if Williams and JR just got out of the way and let Hahn do his job.

By definition, wouldn't Mr. Ozzie Guillen then be a better manager (even while "stone cold" drunk) than Robin Ventura because he's at least shown the ability to win a World Series, which is one more than Robin Ventura has ever won. Following along with this line of logic, Guillen took two teams to the playoffs in the span of five seasons, something you'd have to go back many decades in Sox history to match. Ventura is 0 for 4 and closing in on 0 for 5. Ergo...contract extension? Greg wins!

The Braves really were failures. Yankees, too, since that run in the mid to late 90's. Mid to late 90's Indians. All those great Mariners' teams. Twins making the playoffs 6 out of 9 seasons as a small market team that was almost relocated by MLB. We basically have had the same degree of success, if not more. Kenny Williams deserves another promotion, just for 2005. By that definition, the ONLY solution is to hire a GM with MORE than one World Series title. That limits us to Theo Epstein, currently unavailable, Brian Sabean (assuming he's currently unwilling to leave SFG for the Sox with his team in first place in yet another even-numbered year) and Larry Beinfest, who I'm pretty sure was around for both Marlins' championship (Dombrowski was the GM in 1997). Same thing with managers. We should have hired Francona instead of the Indians, or Bruce Bochy.

If Corey Ray goes to the Brewers and becomes an All-Star, that will give Phil Rogers another decade's worth of material to write about another local player like Puckett/Granderson/Floyd/Kipnis/Zobrist making it big and not ending up with either the Cubs or White Sox.

Elrockin, in all your time being a White Sox fan, why do you think it has happened? Some here have attributed it to being "overly respectful/fearful" of the Twins on the part of Ozzie, Harrelson, etc. Getting "psyched out." Since it's obviously a huge problem historically and indicative of current issues the team has (and has had), then wouldn't it be better to do some self-reflection and figure out a way to get beyond it...? Team psychologist? Better advance/d scouting? Better international prospect development (particularly Latin America)? It's not just the Tigers and Royals though, we're behind every AL Central team over a 7+ year period in head-to-head play. How can you as a fan explain that? Simply the fact that all those teams were better, had more talent? Reached their full potential, whereas the White Sox as a team and organization haven't? I remember back in that 2001-2006 time period, we constantly heard how the "Twins were just lucky," but it was because they were so sound fundamentally (especially from a defensive standpoint) and allowed their more talented opponents to beat themselves. They also had really, really good bullpens at that time, fwiw. Recently, it has been that the Royals were "just lucky and outperforming their peripherals and predicted WAR, etc." at FG, and BP, and Pecota projections, etc.

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Jun 7, 2016 -> 08:36 AM) Ummm they traded 6. None of the above crazy spending happens without Cabrera, which necessitated gutting their system at the time "I told the Marlins he's going to be in the best shape you've ever seen him in," White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen said, according to the Times. "Whoever gets this guy is going to have a heck of a ballplayer with a different mentality. He's a big man and he has to take care of himself. ... He has the power and talent to be one of the best players ever." espn.com Maybe Ozzie is a better judge of players than we thought.... And De La Cruz was the only player there of the other 4 who was close to top rated, because of his 100+ MPH. Dallas Trahen was 8th in their system at the time of the deal, but that's like calling Courtney Hawkins a top prospect if we acquired Mike Trout and he was the 4th highest ranked prospect in the deal, with two others behind him. De La Cruz, maybe, being the equivalent of Frankie Montas. So if we traded Fulmer, Anderson (and they're both ranked behind where Miller/Maybin were by quite a bit), Montas/Spencer Adams, Hawkins and let's say Jacob May OR Trey M. and Tyler Danish OR Guerrero, I don't think anyone would be too upset about that trade at all, if Reinsdorf was actually willing to raise the payroll up into the $150 million range to accommodate Trout's contract escalating. http://www.detroittigersweblog.com/2006/11...pects-for-2007/

Umm...they traded two, Miller and Cameron Maybin. Drafted Verlander. Traded for Scherzer, that was a huge move. But, just as importantly, Ilitch became willing to spend money on guys like Victor Martinez, Cecil Fielder (turned into Ian Kinsler), Magglio Ordonez, Juan Gonzalez (turned down), Pudge Rodriguez, Carlos Guillen, Fister, overspent to draft Porcello, etc. Authorized more spending on Verlander/Cabrera (perhaps foolishly), Jordan Zimmermann, Upton, etc.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jun 7, 2016 -> 07:58 AM) If the Sox had the Cubs fan base, they could do this. Remember the rebuild was based around not only the farm system rebuild, but bringing in about half a billion dollars worth of free agents, even with Wrigley Field filled during terrible seasons. This could never happen on the south side. Then how did it happen in Detroit? Ilitch spent the money, built a winner...and then the fans started showing up and became loyal customers. They didn't come out first and buy season ticket packages after having historically some of the worst seasons in franchise history, THEN he authorized spending the money. So we should say it could never happen with the Reinsdorf family still in charge of the team. That's all fine and good, maybe 17-18 franchises work in that same fashion. The other teams prioritize winning first, budgets second.

When you can acquire Rizzo, Arrieta and Addison Russell via trade, that would constitute 3-5 years in White Sox time...Fowler for Straily/Valbuena (although Straily's actually been really good this year), Strop, Hammel, Adam Warren, McKinney...sign a number of top international free agents like Soler, Eloy Jimenez and Gleyber Torres...draft Baez, Schwarber and Happ, they've done a pretty darned good job. Let's just say they haven't made too many mistakes. They basically stole Hector Rondon from the Indians. Not to mention bringing in Maddon, that has to be counted, too. Going by that 60/40 rule (40% of your moves don't work out), then you have obvious misfires like Edwin Jackson and Jason Heyward so far...Almora is probably going to be a miss too, and the jury's far from out on Baez/Soler. Then signing Lester, Fowler (second time), Zobrist, Lackey...not bad at all. Even Kendricks has been surprisingly good for another year.

http://nypost.com/2016/06/06/theo-epsteins...it-rock-bottom/

If it was so easy to fix, why weren't Bush or Rubio or even Kasich the nominee on the Republican side? The GOP is "more democratic and fairer?" Well, it all depends on if your belief in superdelegates runs along with the assumption they are mostly irrational political actors who don't have the party's best interests at heart. Bernie Sanders had the most liberal record in the Senate during Hillary's time serving NY. Hillary, surprisingly was 11th, which is probably to the left of where her actual beliefs lie but was pulled leftward a bit because of being a NY senator rather than one from Arkansas. If you look at candidates to the left like Dukakis, Mondale, McGovern, Humphrey...none of them came close to winning a national election. Elections are won from the middle.

How can it be explained for going on a decade that whenever this team plays critical AL Central opponents (especially in the 2nd half of seasons, but this year it has also happened in May), we consistently have folded like a cheap suit and typically those teams have just buried us with sweeps and long winning streaks against us (often after the White Sox played those teams well in the 1st half)...??? The only exception was/is 2008, and that was a war of attrition/survival...especially those last three games and then the Blackout Game. We've certainly never played well on the road against AL Central teams in the 2nd half even in 2000, 2003, 2006, 2008, 2010 and 2012, when we had some of our better teams. Even the 2005 team was 30-28 down the stretch and was plagued by the KC Royals and Indians until the Riske game finally released the pressure.

Losing record in the AL Central 6 of the last 7 seasons. That "successful" season had them just two games over .500, but the Tigers and Royals wiped out any chance for the playoffs down the stretch that year. 2009 34-38 (AL Central records determine 1-5 in exact order) 2010 32-40 (Twins have most AL Central wins, White Sox go 15-3 in interleague to finish 2nd but 3rd overall in Central) 2011 32-40 (order of finish predicted exactly 1-5 by AL Central records) 2012 37-35 (Detroit and White Sox 1st and 2nd in AL Central records) 2013 26-50 (AL Central predicted 1-5) 2014 33-43 (AL Central predicted 1-5) 2015 32-44 (AL Central predicted 1-2) 2016 9-12 (AL Central in order 1-5, CLE 18-7, KC 13-9, DET 10-8, CHW 9-12, MN 5-19, with 4 wins against CLE) 98-118 under Guillen his final 3 seasons with CHW, 137-184 under Ventura, total of 235-302 (winning percentage of .437, or 71-91) Under Robin Ventura, the White Sox are 146-196 against divisional opponents, a winning percentage of .427. If the White Sox only played the AL Central during that time period, they'd be 69-93 every season. Not even a 70 game winner. Only 1 winning season in AL Central, and that by just 2 games over .500. By the way, the last time the team with the best record in the AL Central didn't finish first was that memorable 2006 season, a decade ago. Minnesota was just 41-35 and the Tigers were 45-30, but MN finished one game ahead. Of course the Tigers went on to the World Series that season. So the AL Central division winner had the best record 9 out of the last 10 years (off by just one game in 2006) and then if you go back for 13 years it's 11 out of the last 13 (KC Royals had best record in the AL Central but finished 3rd to Twins/White Sox in 2003). 2009 10-8 vs. CLE, 9-9 vs. DET, 9-9 vs. KC, 6-12 vs. MIN 2010 9-9 vs. CLE, 8-10 vs. DET, 10-8 vs. KC, 5-13 vs. MIN 2011 11-7 vs. CLE, 5-13 vs. DET, 7-11 vs. KC, 9-9 vs. MIN 2012 11-7 vs. CLE, 6-12 vs. DET, 6-12 vs. KCR, 14-4 vs. MIN Division was lost against KC/DET 2013 2-17 vs. CLE essentially gave them the WC, 7-12 vs. DET, 9-10 vs. KCR, 8-11 vs. MIN 2014 9-10 vs. CLE, 9-10 vs. DET, 6-13 vs. KCR, 9-10 vs. MIN 2015 10-9 vs. CLE, 9-10 vs. DET, 7-12 vs. KCR, 6-13 vs. MIN 27-47 vs DET from 2011-2014 14-27 vs. KCR from 2014-2016. 36-60 vs. KC from 2011-2016 Overall from 2009-2016 vs. CLEVELAND 64-71 -7 vs. DETROIT 53-79 -26 vs. KC Royals 55-80 -25 vs. MINNESOTA 57-72 + 6-0 this year, 63-72 -9 We have a losing record over the span of 7 1/3rd years against ALL FOUR OF OUR AL CENTRAL DIVISION OPPONENTS!!!

The Royals hit in the draft with Gordon, Hosmer, Duffy and Moustakas. Hochevar eventually became an effective reliever. But look at their last 20-30 years of draft picks. It's beyond terrible. Worse than the White Sox developing position players terrible. Think Colon, Zimmer and Bubba Starling. They kicked our butts in Latin American development. Getting a franchise catcher in Salvy Perez, as well as Escobar (Ventura would surely be leading off with him, or #2 despite his 500's OPS and lousy OBP "because he's fast"), Yordano Ventura and Herrera, the best 8th inning guy west of Betances/Miller. Hit with the Wade Davis and Shields acquisition to turn the team's belief in itself around and discovered the best closer in the AL in a failed starter. Then they made a series of really smart and budget conscious free agents moves: Edinson Volquez, Madson (who they should have kept instead of adding Soria), Chris Young, Blanton, Kendrys Morales, Gomes (clubhouse/leadership/cheerleader), Medlen. Rios, of course was a disaster, as we all know. And then part four, they had the depth to trade for Shields/Davis, for Cueto and Zobrist....in Lamb, Montgomery, Sean Manaea, Finnegan, Odorrizi, Wil Myers, etc. Without all those key elements, they wouldn't have been nearly so successful. And Yost was the perfect manager for that team at the right time for the franchise, as it was transitioning from development to "winning now."