caulfield12

The Rangers are absolutely blitzing the Tigers so far this weekend with a barrage of homers... That line-up doesn't have many easy outs in it at the moment. Playing match-ups this early in the season (go for the sweep against MN or set the tone with going for the first win in a series against TEX) usually doesn't work out for well. They did attempt to do that, moving Danks out of the Blue Jays series and pushing him back against Baltimore, where he'd experienced more career success. 50% success with that, offense bailed out Gonzo in TOR, who gave up 5 and ordinarily would have taken the loss.

Looking like a perfect day so far with the Tigers losing and KC beating CLE and even the Cubs losing their lead...Sox win and they're five games clear of all three ALCD teams. Hope the positive vibes extend to Sale taking care of business against the Twins after a number of rough outings last year that bloated his ERA.

We can talk about Torre, Cox and LaRussa all we want, but if this team tanked and Ventura didn't have a job for next season, how many organizations would be lining up for his services? Is Robin Ventura so loyal to only JR and the Sox organization he wouldn't work for another team...he'd just go home and spend time with his family and coaching Little League again? Does anyone get the sense he'd like to make it a career for the rest of his life? As far as Illini's post goes, he does in some sense need to prove he can weather storms longer than 2 or 3 game losing streaks...which means how can he get the team to respond if they lose first place, one of their best players gets injured, the fifth starters continue to get pummeled or the Royals/Indians/Tigers dominate them in the first half of the season and really take off? Obviously, that 4-11 finish in 2012 raised a lot of questions. Were the Tigers just the better team all along? Did the White Sox simply choke the lead away? Was it simply they got tired and weren't used to the heat of a pennant race with so many rookie pitchers going that season? Adam Dunn's slide? Addison Reed folding? Was that finish inevitable? Would the team have righted itself with Francona or Leyland at the reigns, etc.? Dick Allen will surely defend Robin Ventura, and at least he's been consistent on this...but I don't think for a million years he will actually agree that the White Sox should give him an extension at this early stage. Or Renteria, for that matter. And there's always the possibility that "insiders" in the organization are attributing the team's rise in performance this year more to Renteria and new leadership emerging from Frazier/Rollins/Navarro/Jackson/Avila, etc. Hard to really know what's going on from the outside unless you're inside that clubhouse every day and/or were to ask the players "off the record" what they attribute the change to...? It could be something as simple as the resolution of the Adam & Drake LaRoche controversy clearing the air...after all the hard feelings were put out there for the world. Sale and Eaton were both highly criticized, and they've been two of the top ten performers in baseball this early season.

For a midmarket team, that's incredibly risky...because Trout has a ballooning contract, too. Eaton and Quintana being included is scary enough. Maybe if you substituted Rodon for Q...but that's probably undervaluing Rodon with his slow start.

With the presence of Simmons, the incentive to add Anderson to any package in lessened. While Fulmer would be attractive, and Adams...they just can't put together a competitive enough package compared to the 5-7 teams like the Red Sox, Dodgers, etc. It really has to be a significant overpay of prospects for them to give him up.

Is there anyone here actually in agreement with extending him now? My personal belief is that he needs to get to the playoffs first...and I wouldn't be too comfortable providing an extension during the regular season beyond the end of next year when many key players have expiring contracts like Cabrera, Frazier and Lawrie. Three year extension if he does successfully take this team to the playoffs. I do hope just contending but falling short doesn't earn him 2-3 more years automatically.

First of all, it would look completely inappropriate for him to take exorbidant speaking fees as "First Man." They probably should put all the Clinton Foundation investments in a blind trust. Which husband and wife got along best in the White House? The Carters...probably the worst presidency of the modern era. It would be idiotic for Hilary not to take advantage of his insight and experience...that said, MANY things have changed in the sixteen years since he was last president. He looks frailer, weaker and less energetic. Can still give a great stump speech, far better than his wife, but that's not exactly a high standard to meet.

I could theoretically see the White Sox at least waiting until the All-Star Break or trade deadline...and THEN extending him, but I almost have the feeling with so many players with one or two year deals that Ventura being extended would take away from some of that "last chance" feeling for players like Navarro, Rollins, Jackson, Avila and Latos. Right now, there's a real sense of immediacy...which we haven't seen for a long time. There's also the concern that we see another 2012-like fade down the stretch. You don't want to have Ventura extended for 2-3 more years in that environment. And it's not like there are any other teams in baseball breathing down our necks to outbid the Sox or pry him away (Atlanta Braves, for example).

http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2016/05/note...m-showcase.html

https://www.yahoo.com/movies/captain-americ...-205611003.html Why no Black Widow movie so far?...seems obvious slam dunk with star's popularity.

Should be Time's Person of the Year if he hasn't already....Nobel Peace Prize, on its way as well. If Obama can win it based on what he might have been able to accomplish in the future (mostly theoretically)...then Francis clearly should receive the award.

http://chicago.suntimes.com/sports/surging...a-new-contract/

And perfect timing, The Melkman t-shirt promotion is coming in just a couple of weeks...

Let’s say you’re a family of four sitting where I sat Thursday night, in a field-box seat about 35 rows behind home plate. Four tickets cost a total of $280. Mom and Dad have two craft beers each, totaling $36. Four hot dogs cost a combined $23. But who eats just one hot dog (certainly not Telander, whose press-box record is 12)? Let’s double it to $46. Soft drinks for the two kids come to $9. Buy them some ice cream for not spilling the drinks on the bro and his girlfriend sitting in front of you. That’s another $10. Parking sets you back at least $25. That adds up to $406. Hey, there’s no law that says those two young kids have to go to college. The prices at Wrigley are ridiculous but not so ridiculous that Thursday’s announced crowd of 37,564 decided to stay home. In other words, I can shake my head at how much it costs to go to a game and ask what it means for the future of the republic, but the fact is that people keep spending. There are either a lot of folks with money or a lot of folks with a lot of credit-card debt. http://chicago.suntimes.com/sports/on-ejec...-wrigley-field/ Funniest part of the story was not wanting to be a "peeping Tom" in the urinals or not wanting to make eye contact with the man/boys across from you when peeing at the urinal island in the middle of the restrooms...

Not sure they want to go back to having four left-handers in the rotation, ceteris paribus. Gonzalez probably gets at least two more starts, unless he just gets rocked on Monday.

Plus, there won't be so many jokes about who tipped at the restaurant or anything to do with golf...so there's that. Must have killed Harrelson to have the Red Sox playing well and visiting USCF and not doing those games I bet.

Gonzalez gets rocked on Monday, puts even more pressure on the White Sox to make a move with Latos also starting to regress to mean...that said, they're now 19-1 (95% winning percentage) in Sale/Quintana/Latos/Gonzo starts so far this season.

QUOTE (fathom @ May 6, 2016 -> 07:40 PM) Could have been way worse. That's it for him I'm sure. Really not sure what we have with him. His first four starts were great. Saw quite a few pitches at 91-93 and even a few at 94. Seems he was actually more effective at lower FB speeds his first four outings. Thank god for Adam Eaton...almost had a classic match-up with Sano's arm and Eaton's legs but throw was way off line. Sano at 262 pounds is like Dave Parker out there.

Essentially, the same performance we got out of Erik Johnson last night. Bullpen night...Latos now at 95 pitches and walking a tightrope. Simply cannot afford to let this game get away and breathe some life into the Twins (Chris Sale's going to have to face his MN demons as well...)

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ May 6, 2016 -> 08:20 AM) trump floating the idea of defaulting on the national debt Reminder that the 2nd place GOP nominee and a sizeable minority of their House representatives are also totally on board with this "crash the world economy" plan. But isn't something like $14 trillion of that $19-20 trillion basically money that's owed to Americans? I guess the argument would be that if we could devalue our currency that it would give the US a huge export advantage (temporarily)...but then the US dollar would no longer be the respected world currency it is and nobody would ever dare buy US debt/bonds again. So probably not a great solution there.

OTOH, the Indians don't have the financial resources the White Sox do to add payroll in July/August. So it's basically even...as they do have a number of legit Top 100 prospects.

6 strikeouts through 3 2/3 IP for Nolasco. Sox struggling with his offspeed stuff, he's got a crisp slider.

Not sure what the heck Saladino was doing on that ball hit to Lawrie...but he saved a run earlier with his defense. Mostly a symptom of sharing time with Rollins and not having enough reps with Brett to have that second sense about where to be on a play/teamwork/communication. He also had such a great baserunning jump he scored the fourth run from 1st. At any rate, that's what you get with younger players, they have to learn at the big league level (just like the Twins with Sano, Berrios, Buxton before demotion, etc.)

He very quickly faded out of the major leagues. Great clubhouse guy though, one of the best senses of humor you could find. Coming up with the Royals in that generation of players, you had have a way to deal with all the losing.

He very quickly faded out of the major leagues. Great clubhouse guy though, one of the best senses of humor you could find.