caulfield12

Anderson again? Or Hawkins? The most encouraging thing about this week (in terms of all levels, rookie ball through Chicago) is the play of Tim Anderson...with so many holes opening up in Chicago over the next couple of seasons, they have to develop at least one position player on their own or they'll run out of resources and end up bargain dumpster diving (which, largely has worked out pretty well this time around, but doesn't work as a sustainable philosophy).

Jose's running speed or the bat speed (slider speed right now)...? Not sure why Jose Abreu is the one trying to change Rodon's arm angles/motion...because Rodon is of Cuban-American heritage and therefore he should pitch like Jose or El Duque. Good thing they're not trying to turn him into Juan Marichal, Fernando Valenzuela or Luis Tiant if he was another nationality.

If you expected a comeback against Betances, Miller and Chapman to happen more than 3-5 times over the course of an entire season, good luck...

Yeah, they were playing that game like it was the last one of the season with either tee times or flights booked. Eaton probably should have made that play...that said, Q just got tentative out there for some reason. Headley didn't have any XB hits coming into this week, two homers in consecutive games and Jose had him down 1-2 and let him get away by pitching too much to avoid contact. Just kind of a weird situation how Jose got dinged up by the worst part of the Yankees' order. Just goes to show there is zero margin for error from the 6th inning on against the Yankees, and why they won't blow this whole thing up early because they want to keep working on fixes for the offensive and starting pitching in order to make a run at the division. Maybe Eaton just isn't completely adjusted to how well the ball flies there in the outfield, because he had that play and the one in the early going that he took 2-3 steps in, reversed his tracks and had to jump a couple of week in the air to snag and prevent a run scoring double/triple. And it's not like Nova is garbage. He was 16-4 in 2011. His stuff isn't as good as back then anymore, but he had his sinker going and almost nobody other than Frazier and then Lawrie could elevate it...unfortunately, Brett's hit midway on the wall and just didn't have enough elevation. Would have liked to stick with Avila one more game because his swing looked so good his first two at-bats yesterday...try to ride a hot streak there like we did with Navarro, but oh well. Twins SHOULD be at the end of finishing off the Indians,up 6-2 in the top of 9th and still hitting. Going into this series, I expected we might give up 1 game with CLE playing the Twins, and Tanaka going on SUN against Gonzalez (we'll see how the weather turns out on that prediction).

Actually, in many ways, the Sportsvision idea was literally and figuratively the first regional sports network, and was, for lack of a better descriptor, visionary....unfortunately, twenty years ahead of its time. Brilliant idea, but terribly executed. It's actually more admirable than the "playing it safe mode" we saw the past three years.

QUOTE (SCCWS @ May 14, 2016 -> 07:14 AM) Not sure I agree. If you even overpay for a player and they lead your team to years of success, it is not awful. If Sale was due next year, I would want the Sox to retain him at all costs even if we had to overpay because I think he is the best pitcher in baseball. I would place the top 4-8 players in baseball in a category that their team needs to retain them as long as they are on the younger side of their careers. So I would give Sale the ranch but I wouldn't give it to Price or Lester for example. http://www.blessyouboys.com/2016/5/13/1167...-it-hurt-so-bad You might change your mind if you're a Tigers' fan and are stuck with the Verlander, Upton and Cabrera contracts right now. As pointed out, they had essentially a decade run of success, including 4 in a row from 2011-2014, but in the end divisional opponent in Chicago and Kansas City have won the brass ring.

QUOTE (oldsox @ May 14, 2016 -> 07:19 AM) I thought it took 4 years to vest in the pension plan. Wrong? That's what I found, but didn't look too deeply. Maybe there are different pension amounts, and 43 days is for the minimum and 4 years is the equivalent of working for 25-30 years in a regular job and qualifying for a "full" pension...like the idea where each year adds 2%, etc. I remember this topic came up constantly with Scott Carroll and everyone rooting to spend enough time on the roster a couple of years ago. http://business.illinois.edu/d-sinow/fin43...20-%20Final.ppt This doc probably has the answer.

But where was the outrage when George HW Bush's son became president...? When Jeb Bush ran? Bush had 9/11 on his watch, destroyed the budget by going unilaterally (based on the WMD argument that turned out to be a farce) into war and spending over 60% of discretionary funds on warfare in Iraq and Afghanistan, passed a Medicare prescription benefit that was completely unfunded...created an environment where the threats against the US were greater than any point since the end of the Cold War and maybe the Cuban Missile Crisis. Oh, forgot suspending personal liberties/freedom with the Patriot Act and torture/Guantanamo Bay, not to mention the Hurricane Katrina fiasco. What is is that you would expect Hillary Clinton to do that would destroy the country? If you've learned nothing, it's that the Clintons gave up on HUGE institutional change after 1994 when gays in the military and the health care reform was met with a wall of opposition and they were nearly destroyed by the Gingrich Revolution....she's going to be very moderate/centrist/establishment, more conservative in terms of her orientation than even her husband. It will be a "status quo" presidency, minus another 9/11 or conflict with China. What is it that you actually want/hope/believe that Trump could accomplish as president that would make our country better? 1)??? 2)??? 3)??? 4)??? 5)??? Would like to see at least three realistic answers of what would be a reasonable expectation for improvements from a Trump presidency... You want to see the consequences of the Bushes, I would highly recommend you read a great non-fiction story by Dave Eggers titled "Zeitoun" and then report back.

I wouldn't say Democrats adore him...many were disappointed/disillusioned on a number of fronts. If you took away Monica Lewinsky, Clinton would have left in 2000 with a 60-65% approval rating. Greg, if your media theory is correct about supporting Obama when there's an election, why didn't they do the same thing in 1968, 1972, 1980, 1984, 1988, 2000 and 2004? You had Democratics in office for only 4/20 years and 12/36. Even now, it's 20/44 dating back to the Kennedy/Johnson years. If Hillary wins this time, it would be exactly even over a 48 year period, basically a half century. And whereas the Democrats for a long time had control of at least either the House or the Senate, they've lost that as well as holding a minority of governorships. Local politics, like city councils, state legislatures and school boards, Republicans have a pretty large advantage still.

More like Turbo Glavine combined with Randy Johnson.

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/181983-...er-theo-epstein Here's a long list of at least 10 bad free agents signings that Epstein was involved with in Boston. The major one that sticks out with the Cubs has been Edwin Jackson, and the numbers weren't astronomical, just inconvenient...and it helped to have a veteran presence on those younger/rebuilding teams, no matter how poorly he was pitching, he was always a good teammate/clubhouse chemistry guy. Someone like Ryan Sweeney, once again, "bridge" players to get to your next wave of prospects and hopefully hold their positions competently. If not, you can discard them.

There's no reason to rush Anderson. If Rollins/Saladino are struggling and the team's theoretically falling out of 1st place, the LAST thing they would want to do is desperately try to force him into the line-up until they feel he's 100% ready. Even if you stuck him at 9th in the batting order, that would be a lot of pressure on him to "inject life" back into the offense. Best case scenario is we can manage his starts to the best pitching match-ups in games in August or September that aren't critical because we've already clinched a playoff spot. With how tough the AL is this season, there's no guarantees we get to that place.

Players vest in their pensions after 43 days on the active roster and just one day qualifies a player for lifetime healthcare.

QUOTE (soxfan2014 @ May 13, 2016 -> 09:02 PM) Between the minors and majors, he's thrown about 1,000 less innings than Greinke. That'll likely be a selling point as well (assuming he keeps pitching great until then). He also broke out kind of late meaning he will look to cash in on his one chance (as he has already come out and said for the most part). Yes, BUT. If you look at his career track record, and then tremendous increase of innings pitched the last TWO seasons, especially the number of "high stress" pitches in 2015 because of the post-season, well the human shoulder and elbow aren't meant to take that much stress. I'm not looking at the numbers right in front of me, but I'd have to guess the increase/s from 2013 to 2014 and then 2014 to 2015 are pretty darned significant. Of course, you can argue guys like Felix Hernandez and Justin Verlander a decade ago were both throwing upper 90's and now are more consistently 89-92 MPH with their fastballs. Nobody can defeat Father Time.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ May 13, 2016 -> 09:00 PM) The thing about our roster is that defensively its pretty amazing in the positions that arent hitting great. If anything we need a sweet pinch hitter in the Matt Stairs mold. OUr defense is whats carrying this team and removing someone like Jackson or Rollins is just not going to help If Avila can actually stay consistent with that short/quick swing to LCF, it would be HUGE for the Sox. He doesn't have to be the 2011 or 2012 Avila, an All-Star caliber guy, just something in between. You can bet both he and Jackson want to prove to Alex's dad that he was wrong to let them both go...especially when we face the Tigers.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ May 13, 2016 -> 08:53 PM) This isn't a guess. He's asking for the largest contract for a pitcher ever. I don't mean about the biggest contract. I meant about the "best" pitcher. I wouldn't give it to him if I were the Cubs. Would use my minor league system/draft/international to work around it. Another option is making the offense even MORE dangerous, like taking on Ryan Braun's contract. The odds of an injury/breakdown are simply too high. You have to get maximum value out of a pitcher his first 6 years and, if you're lucky, you can extend a couple of gems like Sale and Quintana EARLY but you can't wait until year 5 or 6. By then, a free agency payday is too close. The best thing that could happen for the Cubs would be winning the World Series THIS year and then having less pressure to keep Arrieta from the fans' standpoint...if Lester breaks down and Arrieta is allowed to leave (assuming they don't win it yet), then Cubs fans will be constantly ruing let him get away. (Dad, why did the Cubs trade Rafael Palmeiro and let Greg Maddux and Arrieta go, too?)

Yeah, for that WGN scenario to make sense, you'd have to jump to a big stretch that Harry Caray and the White Sox would have been drawing such big ratings that they would have gone exclusively with White Sox games. Both teams in the early 80's, were pretty up and down. The Sox had 1983, the Cubs 1984...and then 1987 and 1989 (earthquake offseason). It's almost impossible to imagine WGN being interested in the Sox as a property from 1985 until the opening of the new stadium. That was just a "dead era" for White Sox baseball until you had all of our Top 10 collegiate draft picks make an impact at the end of the decade (McDowell/Ventura/Thomas/Fernandez). Vin Scully or Ernie Harwell couldn't have done anything to make those Sox teams interesting for a national audience...and they were not very fun to watch offensively, even worse, they were just dull other than Ozzie, Bainesy and Ivan Calderon.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ May 13, 2016 -> 08:42 PM) Its a win either way. Its either going to be awful for them or they are going to lose the best pitcher in the league. I'd go with Kershaw or Syndergaard/Sale...but then someone who's averaging almost 98 MPH as a starter isn't long from the surgeon's office, either.

QUOTE (chitownsportsfan @ May 13, 2016 -> 08:38 PM) Imagine is this team had Trayce in CF and Semien at SS We'd have a cheaper roster, that's for sure. (And probably a 21-15 record without Frazier, if not 20-16). Perfect additions would have been Abad (lefties 0 for 17 against him), Park or Trumbo at DH, Maeda for the rotation...but Hahn obviously didn't know LaRoche was leaving and Avisail at least hasn't been a negative compared to last year (especially defensively). And if you look at that guys like Upton and Gordon, only Cespedes has been earning his money (and still not sure he's worth THAT much). As long as Anderson makes it as an impact player at SS, trading Semien won't hurt nearly so much. The one thing to remember with Thompson is that he's primarily getting at-bats in favorable situations and hasn't been playing everyday because of Joc Pederson's presence there...kind of like when Viciedo was protected in a similar way against really tough RHP and that was exposed later on in his career. Also, Inciarte's really struggling for the Braves and we might take a stab at him as the 4th outfielder, but he's not going to come for free.

Twins let the Indians get away with one. Hit four homers (Park 2, Nunez and Sano) but still couldn't get the win. Had leads of 2-0, 4-2, 5-4. Park just missed a third homer (three Koreans have had multiple homer games in the last week, in MLB history it has only happened five total times, Kang/Park/Lee recently and the other two must have been Choo and Hee Sop Choi). Sano is looking better and better offensively (still vulnerable to breaking stuff, especially outside) but still a mess defensively. Weird to see Uribe in an Indians uniform. Twins had two huge chances with bases loaded to blow the game open, but Arcia and Suzuki struck out against McAllister. Cody Allen looked REALLY shaky. Park had an at-bat at the end of the game where he ripped a ball down the line but he pulled it just enough to barely go foul or the Twins would have taken the lead again. In the Orioles game, Verlander looked as good as he has all season but still not good enough against the O's, who are now one of the hottest teams in baseball again. Tigers lost 1-0, had a leadoff double in the late innings and couldn't move him from second. 8 1/2 games back now in the standings and teams are circling their roster for guys like Kinsler, Victor Martinez and JD Martinez. Tigers have taken to putting Upton in CF in order to get rookie Stephen Moya's bat in the line-up (Gose out)...but that creates another set of problems for them defensively. Royals looking like they're going to stay 6 1/2 games back (5-1 late). Both the Twins and Braves have the same record, 7-26. YIKES. The thing is, the Twins have some really nice looking offensive players. The problem is their starting rotation and defense...Plouffe, Arcia and Dozier haven't been nearly as dangerous as last year, and then Buxton had to be sent down again. But Mauer, Park, Santana and Sano all look pretty dangerous, especially Park and Sano. They've had a lot of pitching injuries, and their bullpen is a complete mess (Trevor May has good stuff but hung the game-winner to ageless Marlon Byrd with a 1-2 count and converted SS Santana couldn't flag it down in CF)...not to mention the injury/ineffectiveness with their closer. Wish we had Fernando Abad (lefties are 0 for 17 so far against him) and Park on the Sox roster. With the hitting success of the Koreans, hopefully we'll start to take a harder look there than in previous years.

So Hickory, would you be against her attending Northwestern, where many of the freshman dorms have "common showers" with unisex stalls together in the same bathroom and boys living on one side of the same floor, girls on the other? Does being 18+ years old change your feeling about this issue? Or maybe that has changed with NU, but that was the case around 1988-1990. Just curious from a parenting perspective...I know it's not the same.

http://www.latimes.com/sports/dodgers/la-s...-htmlstory.html Dodgers' columnist wants to see Puig sent down and Crawford released (eventually)...the strange thing about this season is he was really hitting well the first 2-3 weeks and then "lost it" again.

That Bush story is going to be another movie if he makes it back successfully. They had him clocked at 97-99 in spring training. A much darker version of Jim Morris' "Rookie" Disney story (Dennis Quaid), albeit with a lot rockier personal path filled with a number of demons on the part of Bush. For now, a story of redemption. Reminiscent of Josh Hamilton's as well, although Bush isn't going to win an MVP or anything like that. Crazy part of the story is he's 30 years old now. http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news?slug=jp-p...ui_crash_032612 Looks like the Rangers are cleaning house w/ that bullpen.

Players that should be moved and bring the most value back are Huston Street, Kole Calhoun, and Hector Santiago. July 2015: Yoenis Cespedes from DET to NYM for 2 of Met's top 15 prospects. This is a decent comparison for Calhoun because they are both power hitting OF's that play great defense but in our situation Calhoun holds higher value because he's a lefty with an extra year of control. He will easily net 3 top prospects and those 3 players would immediately become our top 3 prospects (lol). Just goes to show how far off teams' fans and opposing teams' fans are about trade value/s for a player...that said, Huston Street might be the more interesting option to supplement our bullpen. Calhoun's going to be too expensive on the prospect front...and their need for Anderson is somewhat mitigated by the presence of Simmons (granted, he's injured currently).

QUOTE (Y2JImmy0 @ May 13, 2016 -> 08:02 AM) I'm willing to bet that Jason Benetti over the next 25 years or so, never leaves the broadcast to check on a player. How many times has Vin Scully done it? I'll wait for my answer. Only because players and former players don't want to have anything to do with nerds...