caulfield12

I heard one of the minor league announcers commenting on this (referring to the long at-bats)...the White Sox organization should do the same thing. Any hitter who can manage to get a 10 (or more pitches) at-bat gets a free steak dinner. Simple idea, but it's amazing how much good instilling this type of philosophy from the very beginning of their time in the organization would do by the time they reach Chicago and Steverson. We're already seeing some of this out of Semien and Eaton, for example. Of course, a lot of it's currently ending up in K's for Marcus, at least for the time being until he can make some more adjustments.

QUOTE (SCCWS @ May 12, 2014 -> 07:00 AM) As I have posted before, the White Sox major problem is they don't sell enough coprorate season tickets. I don't mean coprorate boxes which the major companies buy, but blocks of grandstand seats usually 4+. The companies then give them out to customers employees etc. I bet teams like Boston, New York, LA etc have 15-20, 000 seats sold to businesses. Evidence/support? Or supposition? Sure, it's logical. We all know lots of corporations that have used the 2008 financial crisis as an excuse to cut back on sponsorsorships, season ticket packages for entertaining clients/customers as well as corporate donations to charities/non-profits, but why has the effect been so demonstrative in Cleveland and Chicago, but not, say, St. Louis, Milwaukee, Cincy or Detroit? It's not because that money is flowing in the direction of the Cubs. So is the main reason/excuse going to be the success of the Blackhawks attracting all those dollars instead...that success attracts success and the money/sponsorship flows that go with it?

QUOTE (Quinarvy @ May 12, 2014 -> 05:19 AM) Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. renewed for a second season and Agent Carter greenlit for a series, skipping the pilot. So the same actress as the movies, right? And it will all be set in the post-World War II period, from 1945-53?

QUOTE (ewokpelts @ May 12, 2014 -> 06:05 AM) Some of those are recent playoff teams and have a higher STH rate. Also, the YANKEES were in a rare visit to milwaukwe( and part of a jeter farewell tour). Oh, and how many had a giveaway yesterday? Why didn't the White Sox try to have a giveaway? I'm guessing they probably have fewer giveaway days because of the difficulties finding sponsorships and commitments (for 3 years) at the levels they want. 20. Toronto 21. Pittsburgh 22. Seattle 23. Oakland 28. Tampa Bay More than those teams, it's telling that Miami and Houston are significantly outdrawing the Sox. With how entertaining this White Sox team has been, compared to the Lastros, it's just kind of hard to believe. And Miami is one of the most expensive parks now, according to Fan Price Index/Team Marketing Report. Of course, the Mariners brought in Cano, but surely their fans shouldn't have been realistically expecting them to compete with the Rangers, Angels and A's this season. In fact, had the White Sox made the same move, 95% of this site would have been rebelling against it....at those years and dollars.

QUOTE (HickoryHuskers @ May 12, 2014 -> 06:06 AM) Not disagreeing that the Sox should be concerned about and working to improve attendance, but not because of comparisons like this. First of all, attendance is such a small portion of revenue compared to TV money, and none of these teams even comes remotely close to the Sox in that category. Secondly, all of these teams except Pittsburgh are literally the only team in town right now. They either don't have NBA/NHL teams or their teams are already eliminated. That's why they would be wise to go into the offseason with no comments about "you can't spend a dollar if you only have 50 cents..." that will further alienate the fanbase. It would behoove the front office to go out and get Masterson AND make the right #3 draft pick. There's clearly no other way to get the fans back in Cleveland, Chicago and Kansas City than to prove it on the field...and have a sustained period of success...not just the "blip" of one year winning it unexpectedly, but at least 3 or more seasons in a row, like the Rays have done.

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ May 11, 2014 -> 08:55 AM) The game thread isn't up yet and I guess it applies to CSN, I was looking at my guide to see when the Sox game was on, and the pre-game has a random year applied to it That was a fun season...except for the Blue Jays' buzzsaw of a rotation.

We'll see which offense shows up on the West Coast, where baseballs typically go to the power alleys to die during mid-May night games.

QUOTE (Quinarvy @ May 12, 2014 -> 05:17 AM) It'll be interesting to see who gets the bump when Sale returns amongst Rienzo, Carroll, and Noesi. Tough call. Betting money would be on Carroll. How many options do we have without running the risk of losing him to another team, like the Cleto situation? If we still have the option to send down Rienzo without losing him, then we'd probably give Carroll a few more starts to see if he can continue his momentum. We pretty much know exactly what we have in Andre, at this point.

Honestly, I can't imagine what this season would be like without Eaton, Abreu and the #3 pick debate. You've got Sale injured, Hawkins on the precipice of disaster as a prospect (thankfully, he seems to be holding his own for now), Semien barely holding his own, Davidson flailing away in AAA and a total mess in the rotation (plus the disappointment/reduced velocity issue with Erik Johnson). Thankfully, the offense has surprised, but that's starting to fall off a bit. At least it was entertaining while it lasted. We've already had more combined thrills than the 2013 season, that's for sure. What's really amazing is comparing Sox attendance with the rest of the majors yesterday: Cincy 33,143 TB 23,679 Milwaukee 43,544 Oakland 28,205 Seattle 30,447 Pittsburgh 32,065 And those were the "lesser" teams that are usually in the same ballpark as us attendance-wise, and Milwaukee, who used to be the "weak sister' compared to Chicago. If not for a no-name Marlins team visiting San Diego, where there are so many other options for fans in terms of activities, we would have been last and not even that close. Houston, we have a problem.

More like the entire AL CENTRAL isn't very popular, except for Detroit. 3 of the bottom 4, 4 of the bottom 9 (last effects of Target Field newness wearing off already) http://espn.go.com/mlb/attendance 2005-2006 seems so long ago, the "glory days" of the division.

QUOTE (greg775 @ May 11, 2014 -> 09:53 PM) 1. We're eight back in the loss column. I'd say we're out of the Central race right now considering Detroit wins the division every year. I agree with the rest of your post though. So you would also agree the Royals are eliminated in early May?

QUOTE (ChrisLikesBaseball @ May 11, 2014 -> 07:21 PM) And he's headed to the bullpen, per ESPN Los Angeles Cooper can fix him.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ May 11, 2014 -> 04:03 PM) If you don't think you will win with him on this team in the time frame he is signed for, and you get a big offer for him, you absolutely deal him. But don't they legitimately have a chance to compete in 2015 and 2016 with another legit starter and a few more veteran bullpen pieces? (With our current offense, you have to argue yes. But having to replace Flowers/Viciedo/Ramirez/DH and possibly 3B...although Davidson and Gillaspie should provide ONE answer there...then you're pushing things back to 2016 and beyond. That's the year you realistically could expect Rodon to have a big impact too, if he slips to #3 and we can sign him.)

QUOTE (fathom @ May 11, 2014 -> 03:02 PM) That's pathetic The weather was nice again today, right? What's the excuse this time? Neighbors coming out? It can't be Spider-Man, because that movie fell off over 70%.

QUOTE (fathom @ May 11, 2014 -> 03:15 PM) Gibson managed a great game today. He's managing with a sense of urgency. Quite a few felt his job was on the line on this road trip.

QUOTE (flavum @ May 11, 2014 -> 03:10 PM) Ventura gets such a pass in this town. Everyone knows he's just wearing it for the franchise while things are down and they're rebuilding. He's a PR buffer to protect Reinsdorf and Williams until they can get things turned around. It's pretty hard to "hate" him like many did with Ozzie...so, you get something even worse, apathy. In all fairness, how can you get all over someone who never had any experience in the first place? Well, you can get all over Williams or Reinsdorf, but that takes too much energy to connect all the dots. It's the same thing with the Cubs...if they keep going through different managers, eventually the blame game will point to Epstein.

Still not convinced Ventura is the right manager for this team when they're back to a competitive level. Obviously, when you change out Peavy and Santiago for Paulino/Johnson/Noesi/Carroll/Leesman/Rienzo, you're expecting to be a 74-78 win team at best.

QUOTE (fathom @ May 11, 2014 -> 03:07 PM) Since when is Francisco a long reliever? 41 pitches is simply insane for him. This bullpen mgmt of late makes no sense. Ventura has that stupid...well, we are trailing by 1 or more runs, so we can never use Putnam/Webb/Belisario/Lindstrom..."A" Bullpen thing. And finally he makes a move when the game has become academic.

Would have been better if we had kept Cleto, lol. Francisco's stuff is nothing like what he used to throw. "Hit Me" on that hanger.

Dunn and Francisco equally to blame for that one....horrible footwork by Francisco there as well around the bag. Goldschmidt went 0 for the series.

18,612 on Mother's Day.

QUOTE (flavum @ May 11, 2014 -> 02:49 PM) A week ago, I didn't think the Sox had a prayer in Cleveland. Hope it turns out that way today. Well, Reed almost gave the lead away yesterday. Don't know that it's going to happen two consecutive days, but we all know a Reed save is usually shaky. Sox just hitting that first "flat" stage of the season. The offense was due to fall back eventually...and we can't expect to stay at .500 with Carroll, Noesi and Rienzo in the rotation. That's the kind of pitching you would expect at the back end of Houston's rotation.

QUOTE (Chicago White Sox @ May 11, 2014 -> 10:43 AM) Dude, I don't know where you come up with some of these narratives. We're going to have a ton of money available next offseason, way more than this past winter when we were hard after Tanaka. To say we can't afford James Shields is ridiculous and pretending our attendance this year will have a major impact on next year's offseason is also crazy. The Sox will spend big money if they think they're close. Given how this year is going, I think it's probable we'll major players in free agency. And I'm going to say it's equally crazy if you believe they're willing to give James Shields $125-147 (Greinke) at age 32-33. Just because there's money freed up doesn't mean they're going to have a place to allocate it to intelligently. None of those top 3 pitchers profile in the same way because of their respective ages/wear & tear vis a vis Tanaka at 25 or 26. It's possible they would go after Masterson, sure. But we're going to be competing with 10-12 teams for him, and the Cubs, for example, HAVE to do something about their starting pitching, for example.

QUOTE (JoshPR @ May 11, 2014 -> 02:45 PM) Thanks guys, i know he was with the sox at some point. I know rhwre was a korean guy traded with him or to tbe red sox in that trade. I know anthony webster went in that deal Byeong An or something like that. Pollock has been killing us this series. Francisco manages to extricate himself.

Goldschmidt doesn't even have a hit this series. Oh, well, the DBacks have actually been playing pretty well the last week or so. They've won their last two road series, including once against the Brewers. Looking to return home 6-3. I think Reed has 5 saves during that stretch as well.