caulfield12

Trading Rodon makes no sense because you're going to replace him with a comparable position player so that just blows another hole in your rotation. And Rodon's value isn't quite so high as to net the same packages you'd get for Sale or Q. You bet that Sale /Q have peaked and Rodon will be at worst a #2 and then it makes some sense as long as you get two future frontline starting pitchers back as well in your trades. And pinning our hopes on Edinson Volquez looks more dubious by the week...look at his last couple of months. He's had some decent August starts but sliding backwards as a general trend in the second half.

QUOTE (SCCWS @ Sep 10, 2016 -> 01:40 PM) In 2013 Boston won the World Series and had Pedroia, Bradley, Bogaerts, Buchholtz and Ortiz. Had two down years but totally rebuilt their roster Through FA, trades and their farm they rebuilt their bullpen, starting pitching, catchers, RF, IB, 3B, LF. They also had Lester, and now they have Price and spent for Ramirez, Porcello, Sandoval, etc. The irony is that the low priced additions like Victorino, Napoli and Koji Uehara were the key according to most in 2013. You also have the best season historicallly for a 40 year old in mlb history and $63 million spent on Moncada, not to mention more money for Rusney Castillo. Not comparable situations at all unless you put Epstein, Cherington or Dombrowski in charge and gave the unlimited budgets. And they were still last 3/4 years, but 2016 is mitigating some of those struggles already.

QUOTE (Joshua Strong @ Sep 10, 2016 -> 06:54 AM) Best movie of the year. But I hated the ending scene, it was completely unnecessary in my opinion. And I hated very beginning scene, it didn't really have a purpose. Yeah, it's almost like they couldn't come in under 1:20. Sequel set up, although this one would be hard to top unless they do something related to virtual reality/computer assistance program.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Aug 30, 2016 -> 09:26 AM) So let's see, the first problem is that the final paragraph is exactly the argument that the FO will make to ownership about why they need to sell out and be all in next year again, but anyway. Here's my issue with getting excited about Rodon - you see it in posts above this one as well, saying "if he finds the consistency..." but that's not easy. Even a true ace will have plenty of days where he doesn't have 1 of his pitches working, and even a true ace will have days where he has literally nothing. The trick for "consistency" is what can they do when they don't have things working. To me, it's not unexpected at all that Rodon is having a really good stretch right now, because he has two plus pitches. When those two pitches are working effectively several games in a row, he will have several great games in a row. You can even see guys keep that up with two plus pitches for long enough to make the all star game, but eventually they always hit a rut because every pitcher loses the feel for some pitch eventually. Right now Rodon's had two seasons where he's found a groove and had both pitches working late in the year but not early in the year. Rodon's also had more demonstrable swagger/cockiness and hasn't been afraid these last seven times out to celebrate a big strikeout (the one against Orlando with bases loaded, two outs and a seemingly precarious 5-2 lead). That's where he needs to be more flexible as a pitcher. While he was struggling in July, the Yankees announcers noted that everything was hard, hard, hard with him - upper 90s fastball followed by high 80s slider. That's a mix that works from the bullpen when you face a guy once or you get pulled before the second pitch hurts you, but as a starter one way to overcome the times you are missing one of your pitches is to be able to change speeds. We're still waiting on him to have some ability to do that - a hard fastball and a hard slider will destroy some teams if they're plus pitches, but other teams that hit those pitches well or days when the slider isn't working well will still be bad. Without an effective pitch in the lower 80s, Rodon's success will be entirely based on him having his slider and fastball and good control of both every time out, and I haven't seen the pitcher who works that way. I would argue that he's finally found an effective mix. He was throwing 98-99 in the 6th at 110-115 pitches. Earlier in the year, he was trying to emulate Sale by throwing fastballs in the 91-94 mph range to conserve his stamina for later but he just doesn't have the fastball command to get away that velocity. He was throwing the fastball too slowly and the slider was too close to the fastball in velocity. He's a lot like Wilson Alvarez at this point in his career imo. Same body, maybe a bit more solid/muscular and same explosive stuff from the LH side. Ptac has always argued his mechanics were not conducive to consistent command over an entire season, and that walks and/or injuries would always be a concern. At any rate, Abreu, Anderson and Rodon are tilting that windmill in the direction where tearing things apart doesn't seem logical, but then JR has to open the pursestrings and that would be twice in three years where they "overspent" coming off losing or disappointing seasons.

QUOTE (kitekrazy @ Sep 9, 2016 -> 09:57 PM) Starters not named James Shields have been pretty solid. Latos after first four, Johnson, Danks, Ranaudo....it would be nice to blink them into non-existence. Didnt Danish even start once? Gonzalez has definitely been a pleasant surprise, though.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Sep 9, 2016 -> 09:28 PM) Read an article today about Hillary's appearance in KC this week. Officials expected a sellout crowd in one of the downtown theatres, maybe it was The Midland, I forget. Anyhow, the crowd was so bad they put up a big curtain or something. It shows again how America doesn't give a bleep about Hillary Clinton. The crowd on a beautiful day in downtown KC was MISERABLE. BTW, in reading the story, she was speaking to some religious leaders as well who sponsored the rally. I know we have a lot of religion haters on here. You religion haters will not be pleased to learn Hillary quoted the Bible EXTENSIVELY in her long speech and mentioned God a lot and also said she was humble that she's been saved. So Greg does despise Hillary, but I am happy our President is a believer. GO SOX! Since when was Obama an atheist? She's not president yet. As for Kennedy, if you know your history, the JCS wanted to do exactly that during the Cuban Missile Crisis. He learned from the Bay of Pigs to exercise restraint and do the exact opposite, following his brother's advice. They received two conflicting telexes from Moscow, and deliberately disregarded the one that was basically a declaration of war because they couldn't be sure who was actually in charge.

Still won with three errors, so yay for that. Seven consecutive quality starts for Rodon? Can he sustain it into 2017 this time? 4-9 against KC on the season. Porcello probably clinched the Cy Young tonight.

Abreu with 89 rbis now.

Morales is going to be a good one year option for 2017 but the Royals might pick up his contract... Eaton with a leadoff double. Advanced by Anderson groundout, Cabrera sac fly. 2-1. 12/32, .381...Abreu has reached base in 33 of his last 34 games. Ks.

In some ways, it's the hardest thing anyone will ever go through, minus the loss of a child for those who are parents. It took me a full three years to get over and I was already 30, so I at least had the fortune to have a full childhood growing up with his presence. In fact, it's the only time I went to see a counselor in my lifetime, which was through our school district's free employee assistance program. My father never got to meet his grandson and I will always regret that. The hardest part is that he died suddenly from a heart attack at only 63. The worst part is that it was the Monday before Christmas that year (Ally McBeal was my parent's normal routine but he wasn't feeling well and stayed in bed according to my mom)...never got to say goodbye, and I always felt guilty because I went to visit other relatives for Thanksgiving because you just take for granted your parents will be around forever. Luckily, he didn't suffer for long and become a shadow of his former self or end up with a diminished life. The best part was reading all the kind words that his coworkers wrote on a tribute page that was adapted from a web page he had created for the Rock Island Arsenal. That helped. All the hysteria and worry over Y2K (this was the very end of 1999) was one of the primary causes (in my opinion), and the weird thing is that he was such a logical, rational person. In my entire life, he never cursed once, never smoked or drank, lost his temper or got into a single real argument with my mother. He was the most patient person I've ever known, and that's one attribute I've always tried to emulate with varying degrees of success.

QUOTE (Brian @ Sep 9, 2016 -> 05:19 PM) Why surprisingly? It'd been getting a great reaction. Most no-name (casting wise) teen thrillers are profitable but not nearly this good. Looks like the march is already on to give Tom Hanks a third Oscar for Sully. Seems forever since Castaway and Philadelphia. Plus the Academy loves everything Esstwood these days. Well, maybe not his brand of politics.

QUOTE (JUSTgottaBELIEVE @ Sep 9, 2016 -> 05:25 PM) White Sox don't need a lineup full of elite hitters. They need one elite hitter (Abreu), three good hitters (Eaton, Fowler, Frazier/Melky) combined with a lineup of league average and one or two slightly below average hitters to have an average offense overall. A team with a league average offense and very good pitching and defense absolutely can compete for a playoff spot. They already have very good pitching and with a few tweaks it can be great. They have average defense and with a few tweaks (most notably C and CF) they can have very good defense. The problem is if you overpay for Fowler and end up with the 2-2.5 war player rather than the 4....he's fallen off quite a bit the last couple of months, isn't close to an elite defender in CF and isn't getting any younger. That 2.5 doesn't get you anywhere...not unless you can boost production at multiple positions. And there's just no way they shell out for both Wieters and Fowler. If there was the will to do that, why didn't it happen last offseason instead of diving into 3rd tier (and beyond) guys?

QUOTE (Chicago White Sox @ Sep 9, 2016 -> 04:58 PM) A guy with a wRC+ of 100 is not an adequate #6 hitter when you only have one elite hitter in your lineup. And you want to commit to this guy as your DH/1B for the next three years? Signing B & C free agents are why we're in this mess in the first place because they have limited room to decline and remain productive players. Look at Melky Cabrera for example, he's dropped off slighty with the bat and suddenly he's a sub 2 WAR player. Mitch Moreland is only a league average hitter today, so doesn't take much of a fall-off for him to become a below a negative overall contributor. He is simply not the answer at DH, no matter how bad Avi has been this year. We need much more significant upgrade at that spot if we're serious about competing next year. Someone like Edwin Encarcion would make sense. Problem is his market will be crazy and we probably don't have the money to get a player like him. Can't keep signing Moreland type free agents and expecting a different result. The fact that nobody claimed Cabrera on waivers is all you need to know. Puig didn't even make it out of the bottom of NL, with all his warts. He's the definition of a glue or complementary player on a really good team, but he should be your 6th or 7th best hitter, not second or third. And Encarnacion alone won't do more than put you in the proverbial mix for the second wild card. They're not going to shell out $75-80 million for maybe. Especially because it would be the biggest contract in team history at a time where they're more likely to be unloading guys like Cabrera, Frazier and Robertson.

Don't Breathe was surprisingly good...especially for that genre.

Tigers have easiest schedule and Tillman out for Balt. Still could tip towards the Astros. Their offense is heating up, and Gurriel hasn't hit his stride yet after all the downtime.

QUOTE (JenksIsMyHero @ Sep 9, 2016 -> 03:33 PM) Yeah and I wouldn't mind that. How much of China's economy do we account for? It's time to start exerting some pressure on them to kick NK into gear. Less than Europe. Something like 20-25%. If they really wanted to go after China on human rights/treatment of Xinjiang Muslim separatists, everyone whiffed in Hangzhou. The South China Sea is a different story...even India is becoming proactive and aggressive in the face of Chinese expansionism, especially the New Silk Road project and port building on the doorstep of India. Not to mention the new AIIB bank China formed to compete with the West. Chinese leadership is much more concerned about consolidating power inside of China and their expansion plans (which pump money into the GDP) than anything North Korea is doing.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Sep 9, 2016 -> 12:10 PM) A whole bunch of journalists have been murdered over there, and 90% of the cases are "unsolved" Speaking of state-controlled media, Donald Trump was talking with Larry King on RT America yesterday. Didn't know Larry had fallen that far. And his 7th or 8th wife in her early 50s recently cheated on him...considering yet another divorce. Probably needs the money. Almost want to say poor guy, but bybthis point, hecshould have learned his lesson.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Sep 9, 2016 -> 03:12 PM) Look, this whole mob mentality about grabbing guys who are down is silly. Just because it doesn't always work, doesn't mean it never works. Miguel Gonzalez is proof of this. The Tigers got JD Martinez this way. Jose Bautista was passed around more times than a cheap hooker. It doesn't mean it is 100%, or fool proof, but you don't just quit a line of potential talent. Yes....DeAza, Quentin, Jenks, Santos, Humber, Crain, etc. They just haven't done it enough or nearly well enough recently. Doesn't mean it's invalid as a strategy just because you're failing to execute. Guys like Trumbo, Segura, Desmond and Fowler were all out there for the taking, particularly the first three. Napoli as well. Insert his numbers instead of Avi, and it makes a big difference with that offense. It's the same way we ended up with Jennings, Putnam and Albers. In the bullpen, they've really had no choice. Kahnle and Ynoa as well. Our own homegrown players haven't gotten the job done, guys like Beck and Danish. Fulmer didn't pitch well enough to make him worth keeping up as reliever, either.

QUOTE (JUSTgottaBELIEVE @ Sep 9, 2016 -> 11:34 AM) There's no doubt that Cleveland is a force to be reckoned with but they will still have some difficult decisions to make this offseason - resign Napoli and Davis? extend Santana or let him walk after next season? will Brantley make a full recovery from season ending surgery? can youngsters Tyler Naquin and Jose Ramirez continue performing at this high of a level? will Yan Gomes learn to hit again? They will most certainly enter next season as the division favorite but they are far from invincible. Consider this: the White Sox have a better, albeit slight, non-divisional record than the Indians. That just goes to show how poorly the White Sox have played within the division and how well the Indians have played within it but is this solely due to superior talent? If so, then why do the White Sox have a better record outside the division (43-37 vs. 45-41)? I still contend that filling the well-known gaping holes in this 25-man roster with average to above average talent (second-tier FA if you will) combined with changes within the organization (i.e. coaching, advanced scouting, etc) results in a team with the ability to contend for the playoffs next year. They don't need a top 5 offense to contend, league average will suffice, as long as they have a top 5 pitching staff and defense, which they are more than capable of. One final thought: Our fifth starter this season has a combined W-L record of 3-15 and an ERA of 7.77. So yes, the two starting pitchers that I have suggested as #5 starter candidates Edinson Volquez (10-10, 5.02 ERA) and Doug Fister (12-11, 4.14 ERA) would be MASSIVE upgrades from what they have gotten out of that spot this season. By massive, I mean 6 or 7 wins better just by replacing that one spot in the rotation with an average pitcher while keeping all else equal. Davis isn't that important...they also have Chisenhall and Almonte and another outfield prospect in the high minors. They keep Santana, as their payroll was close to $90 million and they're also freed from Swisher/Bourn/Johnson to a large extent. Naquin and the underrated Guyer have actually been two of their better players, and there's nothing to stop them from going after Wieters or Ramos. Lindor continues to be one of the most underrated players in baseball, they've got all that pitching and Miller now as well to complement the back end. As you mentioned, there are a number of veterans guys out there who can put up Napoli's 109 line. We can do this with every team. Detroit will have a healthier Zimmerman and Daniel Norris for the full season. Boyd's had a full season of experience to get his feet wet. JD Martinez missed half the year and Upton has been the player they seemingly overpaid the last month, going on one of his typical home run binges. This has also been without Chisenhall, who has had a breakout year. A large part of that AL Central record is the White Sox against Minnesota early in the year....strip that away and it looks more typical, and the Twins are a much more competitive team offensively the last 6-8 weeks. They've been horrific with risp and that type of stat tends to even out year to year. The Royals would be tied or one game back in the wild card hunt if not for Soria doing his own version of Matt Albers and Lorenzo Cain being out of the line-up. They've absorbed 4-5 terrible losses in the last ten days....but still have an outside shot without Hochevar, Cain, Moustakas, etc. Gordon missed half the year and has underperformed when healthy, Davis was hurt for a month when they went 7-19, Perez has been banged up and Chris Young/Medlen compare with the back end of the Sox rotation. Next year they will be all in again and will be forced to go for it unless they plan on selling off half their roster early...not to mention they have more financial resources now, they've developed Cuthbert and Strahm and they're definitely going to be aggressive about fixing their pitching issues. All things considered, the White Sox are not in an enviable position. Two teams more desperate to be all in with Detroit and KC, the Indians and the Twins have been better than the Sox the last two months and are getting steadier contributions from Buxton, Dozier, Kepler and Sano. Berrios comes around and they start becoming dangerous.

QUOTE (JUSTgottaBELIEVE @ Sep 9, 2016 -> 08:29 AM) Don't forget future middle of the rotation starter Nestor Molina! Check out these Kenny quotes from 2011. In his eyes they already tried "rebuilding" back in 2011-2012: http://www.espn.com/chicago/mlb/story/_/id...s-nestor-molina I think this is the same type of "rebuilding" that can be expected this offseason, which is why I predict their first move is to trade David Robertson. Well, they hit 2/3 in the Cuban market...Alexei and Abreu vs. Viciedo.

Look at the list of FA left-handed hitters. There are more question marks than hitters you could reliably count on. Alvarez, Beltran, Bruce, Moreland, Saunders, Moss, Rasmus... http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2015/03/2016...ree-agents.html Votto, Blackmon, CarGo....all would cost Fulmer at a minimum.

Just saying we had some Seager, DeLeon/Urias, Pederson for Sale trade proposals a year ago that were being thrown out at SoxTalk. A lot can change in the course of less than a year. Which is why underlying this whole blockbuster trade idea is the inherent fear one of the Big 3 pitchers will go down with an injury and abort the whole process...and/or force the trading of the other two for less than fair value.

QUOTE (shipps @ Sep 9, 2016 -> 07:31 AM) To be fair I am certain they read some of our trade talk here involving them and thinks its hilarious too. I don't think they would trade Seager straight up for Sale right now...

http://dawindycity.com/2015/06/10/cubs-sta...happ-selection/ http://www.csnchicago.com/chicago-cubs/sha...plications-cubs http://www.csnchicago.com/chicago-cubs/pas...&yptr=yahoo It's interesting the Cubs and White Sox have almost opposite philosophies. The Cubs under Epstein have always believed everyday position players are safer bets than pitching phenoms because of the additional injury risk (as well as the belief they make more impact over a full season)...and, finally, that they could trade their excess depth for pitching when the time came.

http://chicago.suntimes.com/sports/sale-it...consider-trade/ Sox might be targeting young starting pitchers and relievers for Sale...