caulfield12

Go ahead. Delete this thread or block it or whatever. We should have only happy thoughts while the White Sox and Cubs are in first place as the calendar turns to May. It has only happened one other time in the history of the city, dating back to 2008.

Ummm....openly wondering? I was just responding to what Tex wrote. Obviously it wouldn't happen until 2029 or whatever....unless the Reinsdorfs were to sell the team, and then getting out of the lease alone would be onerous. That said, I've also posited the idea of the White Sox playing a limited number of games in Havana as well. And I never said "cheap Mexican food" together as one idea. You can re-read what I wrote 1000 times. That's borderline a discriminatory statement, btw. The fact of the matter is that concessions prices are quite expensive in Chicago. We could look at 10-12 different markets, and outside, of Las Vegas or Vancouver or maybe Montreal, the projected food prices at the ballpark would be 10-30% cheaper. If the ballpark was somehow located near the RiverWalk, then I could see it being more upscale, but I have no idea about available land tracts in S.A. for a public baseball stadium plus requisite parking. In the end, AS I NOTED, it wouldn't affect the fans who live far away from Chicago or in other countries as much as the local White Sox fans. As I ALSO NOTED, the only way I would even consider it would be if the White Sox could increase their spending/payroll from $25-50 million per season as a result of the move. (And obviously, there's no GUARANTEE of that...) And we have the BEST RECORD in the AL. Best team? After just 26 games? I think we might just want to dial it back down a notch...

One thing for sure, the prices would be a lot more affordable in southern Texas in terms of the average ticket package, parking, concession items...and the BBQ and Mexican options would be great. That said, as a native Midwesterner, it would still suck, but as long as they kept the Sox name/logo and were able to increase their spending by 25-50% over what they're managing in Chicago now, it wouldn't be a deal-breaker as a fan. They would have the advantage of a bigger fanbase, as well as drawing interest from a marketing standpoint in many areas of northern Mexico even the Caribbean. That said, for most Chicagoans...at least 50% would probably disagree if they could no longer conveniently attend games. And tickets aren't nearly as expensive as they used to be from 2006-2012, they've come down significantly, except for parking/concessions/souvenirs, which are still pretty pricey.

Last year, increase of 1,051 per game from 2014 (21,947 per game, compared with 20,896 in 2014). This year, according to that updated information from Kaplan, they've guaranteed an additional attendance of 1,400 per game for the rest of the season. Currently averaging only 19,000 through 9 games, but a more than reasonable average of 24,625 of the remainder of the season would get them to 1,944,000 in attendance, nearly 2,000,000. 24,691 (let's say 24,700 to round it up) would get them to exactly 2 million, which they haven't done since 2011 and 2010. That would be a pretty big rebound over a two year time span, although they still in all likelihood would be "only" 23rd or perhaps 22nd in the majors overall.

Anachronistic: Millennials basically calling anyone over 40 or 50 dinosaurs who should be put out to pasture. C'mon Lip, make baseball fun again, wear your cap backwards or the to the side, etc.

The one thing I was impressed with from that interview was the idea of spending 750 minutes or 12 1/2 hours per team learning all the players before a series. Doubt Hawk has done any homework like that in years, other than his usual bantering around the BP with the players and coaches. That's quite valuable, but it's not enough in 2016 to incorporate all the more modern aspects of sports broadcasting into a 3+ hour window 81 times per year.

"Oh, my goodness" vs. "HELL YES!" Seems that Hawk wins with the young generation there for 1) being cool enough at his age to quasi-curse on tv, and 2) despite being older, not seeming like he's coming from a 1950's episode of Leave It To Beaver, "well, gosh Wally..."

Yeah, it's seemingly implausible the Yankees will still be playing THIS terribly when we get them. Same with the MN/Houston dilemma. They get to play each other this week, so presumably one of them will emerge with more confidence (Twins are winning the opener 5-1)...it's so hard to tell this season. On paper, Wright/Buchholz/Owens should mean 2/3 for the Sox. But it's probably preferable psychologically to follow the Jim Margalus trick over at SSS of simply predicting 1/3 and being pleasantly surprised each time. One thing's for sure, we have to be ready for AL Central Division opponents this year. It has seemingly been ages since we dominated within our own division.

QUOTE (SouthSideSale @ May 2, 2016 -> 08:01 PM) Rohnny What about Jhonny Nunez? Any relation?

The irony is that ESPN must have picked that Wednesday game to show on primetime for the potential offensive fireworks with both Danks and Buchholz going. Probably a lot more compelling tv than watching teams struggle against a knuckleballer (although that can be fascinating for kids and baseball purists, I suppose). Logically, Erik Johnson probably deserves 2-3 starts just to see what happens. They know what they're going to get out of Gonzalez. Turner has to pass through waivers, although he could be the choice if he continues to improve from his first couple of starts. The weird thing about Johnson is his inconsistency with not only control but "stuff" as well, which has led many to speculate it's more mental/psychological than physical. On an encouraging note, Adams, Fulmer and Danish have been doing pretty good recently, but the latter two would be in that "if our RH relievers like Petricka or Putnam fall apart" bullpen replacements more than as starters in all likelihood.

Where is the Detroit free-falling idea coming from? They were, until the last five games...of course, facing Minnesota can help you get healthy in a hurry, but the Tigers still might end up being the 2nd best team in the division, if for no other reason than the additions of Zimmerman and Saltalamacchia to that core. Granted, the odds of Salty continuing to hit at the pace he's on, well, we said that about JD Martinez, too, but his career resurgence would be even more shocking if it went on for a full season. At any rate, as the Astros and even the Twins showed last season, one hot stretch of baseball can carry a team for most of the year...even if you're naturally an 84-85 win team (probably the real Sox talent level barring any additional moves), that hot start has allowed them to be in the conversation at 88-90 wins, and it's also helpful that nobody in the AL is running away and dominating. As of right now, the AL West is the toughest division, but a week ago, it was the Central. Don't think many were picking the Mariners over the Astros.

Did we get three homers out of 2B all last season? Between Micah, Sanchez and Beckham (mostly at 3B), it must have been pretty close. Looks like Carlos had five, not sure if they were all from that position...and, of course, his OPS was only 595 total.

How many "hell yeses!" has Harrelson had this year? Noticed it on the Frazier go-ahead HR yesterday in the highlights.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Apr 30, 2016 -> 08:33 PM) Just started watching. Why did the poster go off on Sanchez when he got a double? Did he have a bad error? Well...just because. It's possible drinking was involved, although God Loves the Infantry would have to confirm. He seems a bit ornery tonight.

Can Carlos Sanchez actually be the hero twice in one game? We'll see. Cy Worley coming in, former Phillies' starter I think.

QUOTE (MuckFinnesota @ Apr 30, 2016 -> 08:30 PM) I know they are on the road but why the f*** to Cubs fans attend White Sox games? I hate the Orioles. And I hate how the 7th inning was handled. I don't see why they couldn't have left Albers I and have him clean up his mess. I think you mean the 8th. Britton hurt, limping...after ending last night's game with the Garcia near collision. If we're paying Duke $5 million a year as the LH set-up guy, almost every manager's going to make that move against Chris Davis. And the BAA left-handers for Duke since 2014 is still under .200. Albers has been amazing for so long, but I don't think many non-Maddon managers make that move. Now you can argue Duke vs. Jennings as well, but, just like the Danks situation, they're not quite ready to pull the plug on Duke with 2 more years on his contract. That deal always smacked of being a "one year wonder," especially with pedestrian stuff and coming over from the NL.

QUOTE (ChiSoxFanMike @ Apr 30, 2016 -> 08:27 PM) If the Sox make the playoffs, this is the team I'd like to play the least. Just a BIT premature...

Sanchez and Saladino are fine as bench players...ideally, you only have one of them on your roster, because you need to get some pop somewhere (Sands, theoretically) from those 4 spots. Zach Britton absolutely manhandling the White Sox right now.

There's another spot where not having an above-average 1B kills you...and you can't easily sub out Abreu because he's your 2nd biggest offensive threat still after Frazier right now.

Got out of it finally... You'd think when Darren O'Day gives up 3 runs when he might give up that many typically in 1/2 a season that you might want to take advantage. The crazy thing is that the Orioles were a 3rd/4th place team according to most pre-season predictions.

Well, this doesn't bode well if it goes to extra innings. Getting absolutely killed by 2 out runs in this one.

Givens is nasty. Fwiw, Saladino should have had Adam Jones if he was paying attention.

Gausman's not going to be easy to square up at 96-97, but he's already nearing 95 pitches. That said, the O's have a pretty good bullpen. Seems like we don't have nearly as many good fastball hitters as we used to. Lawrie definitely can square one up, though. Realistically, we should be losing this game by 5-6 runs at this point. Incredibly fortunate to be down just 1.

QUOTE (raBBit @ Apr 30, 2016 -> 06:46 AM) Who said the Sox should trade Anderson? QUOTE (Alexeihyeess @ Apr 29, 2016 -> 04:05 PM) * I am not worried at all about Anderson now that we know what the basis of that "mysterious disappearance" was. He'll be fine, the biggest concern for me has always been his defense and from what I understand that continues to improve. In the end, I don't think he's going to be in the Sox org much longer. Other teams have things the Sox are going to want very badly, and Anderson is a chip the Sox can cash in for something very, very useful.

I think it's actually his father-in-law, fwiw.