caulfield12

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Feb 4, 2016 -> 10:26 PM) Count the Buckeyes out, they aren't making it. The preseason did a lot of damage to both OSU and Wisconsin, that's for sure. They both need to knock off Iowa/Indiana/MD/Purdue/MSU and not get tripped up on the road by lower tier teams. I guess you'd have to argue MI is still in a pretty strong position for the #6 bid (especially with Lavert healthy) and WI/OSU are going to have to fight tooth and nail to get there. Fwiw, Wisconsin has now won five in a row after starting out 1-4.

I thought it was 2029. At least 90% sure on that. All they did was changed the "sunfield" from right in the old park to left in the new one, essentially.

Friedman didn't become one of the best GM's in baseball by making rash, emotional decisions on players. They're not going to sell low on Puig. If it was going to happen, it would have taken place 2-3 months ago. These are not the outfielders we are looking for. But it is confirmation that Hahn isn't complete deterred by rumors and hearsay stuff in the Twitter-verse, either. Due diligence. How many times did we hear those two words out of KW's mouth over the years?

Ohio State, Wisconsin and Michigan are going to be in a dogfight for those 5th and 6th NCAA tourney bids... Theoretically, seven's a possibility, but so is just five.

The other danger we've seen with White Sox farm systems the last decade is the fact that we end up with players 4-10 who often wouldn't even be ranked in other organizations. There's a tendency to overrate or overvalue those players, as it's human nature to look for positives since what else do fans have? And there are lots of compelling human interest stories in our system, too, like Eddy Alvarez. Blake Hickman was another prospect last year (have some bias as a fellow Hawkeye on that one). Last year, Montas and Trayce Thompson. But that STILL shouldn't take away the focus from the fact that the major league roster is lacking in 4 key positions.

Bernie Sanders has become a much better debater and taking O'Malley out of the equations has added to contrast between the two. I think the biggest question is how many of the young people that he's getting out there between ages 18-29 will still be motivated to vote for Hillary in a national election when/if Sanders has to concede the nomination? It's something like 75-80% right now. Even Obama wasn't close to that number in 2008.

Hillary Clinton, undoubtedly aware her chances of winning in NH are slim and none, will instead go to Flint this weekend as part of her national campaign.

QUOTE (oldsox @ Feb 4, 2016 -> 09:21 PM) Would Ian Desmond sign a one year deal for $10mm? Nope. But if you created fair and realistic incentives that would give him the opportunity to make 25-35% more than he would get in guaranteed money playing for another organization (let's say the top offer right now is $12-15 million)...how could he and his agent not consider it?

QUOTE (hi8is @ Feb 4, 2016 -> 07:46 PM) Baseball life... Could it please be April already? Real life... Could it please be 1990 again so I could purchase google.com, sex.com, toys.com, and money.com - among other domains? Money Magazine would have been there first. Btw, what product/s do sex.com and toys.com even sell? Better to have put all that money into Apple, Nike or Johnson & Johnson stock.

There always tends to be a bit of an overreaction, both positive and negative, to AFL results. There are lots of positive signals with Engel, but one of the most difficult jumps in baseball is from High A to AA. Typically, Birmingham has been difficult also because the stadium was the minor league equivalent of playing in Oakland, but the new stadium's playing much fairer. If he can put up an 800+ ops for a full year playing for the Barons, that will elevate his prospect status. Last year, he was at only 704, and that's a somewhat worrisome number. As a collegiate player, he put up that line at age 23. Typically, the high school and international prospects are seeing that same level of competition at age 19-21 (like Courtney Hawkins). That said, he's on a positive arc in his development, compared to where he was just a couple of seasons ago. Instead of Torii Hunter, maybe a better comp is Aaron Rowand with more speed and less power. He also had a little Adam Eaton to his game as well. But, yeah, physically....he does show a pretty strong resemblance to Trout. Engel also has only 17 career minor league homers to go with roughly 1200 at-bats...including 279 k's and 121 walks. He's going to have to increase his walk rate and cut his K's down to 15-20% to be a starter in the major leagues.

I can't see where the Dodgers would take back Cabrera...they already have enough overpaid veteran OFers as it is. The deal where we get back Urias, Montas and Pederson makes more sense. It would have been even more logical had we not added Frazier, which puts us in a position where we have to compete this season. It's pretty much completely dependent on how close Urias is to being able to contribute. You can make the argument that by the end of the season, Sale, Rodon, Urias, Fulmer and Johnson/Montas might be the most talented young rotation in the majors, after the Mets. If Montas is added to the bullpen, he becomes a huge weapon there assuming he can control his walks and perfect just one secondary pitch instead of working on 2-3 simultaneously. There's a lot of risk for both sides. The Dodgers, trying to cut payroll, are taking two of their top prospects that would be cost-controlled out of their depth chart. The White Sox could be taking a strength and turning it into a weakness, and guessing wrong on all three prospects panning out.

Right now, the best option might be trading for Desmond Jennings and adding Ian Desmond on a one year deal with a base of $10 million but a load of incentives where he could earn $17.5-20.0 million. The competitive athlete in him might respond well to that motivation, especially after turning down the 7 year, $107 million option. Or maybe it's a one year deal with a second year option that kicks in if he reaches his incentives, 20 homers and 30 steals, 750+ OPS, gets elected to the All-Star team, whatever, etc. With the caveat on Desmond Jennings being that you're not giving up someone you're unwilling to part with from the minors, and the Rays really aren't in a position to extract that with Jennings getting more expensive and the two injury-marred years. You lose the comp pick and get it back a year later on Ian Desmond. We should be willing to make our club a legit contender...the value to competing for the playoffs over the next two years should be a priority over 2020-22. Of course, this also depends on what Boras' demands are for Austin Jackson.

From the Democratic side, I'd include Mario Cuomo and Jesse Jackson on the best public speakers list. 1. Clinton 2. Cuomo 3. Jackson 4. Obama For Republicans, Gingrich is definitely up there. Jack Kemp. Rubio might get there someday with more practice. Paul Ryan has some potential. Reagan obviously.

They also need to reform those "competitive balance" picks. The criteria is too fuzzy. No way the Cardinals or Tigers belong in that category, for instance.

Isn't he being ranked around #10 in the Top 20 LA prospects signing list? Adolfo was higher than that, wasn't he?

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/mar...02c9_story.html Marco Rubio is running scared https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-l...ters/?tid=a_inl That's the biggest hole in the Rubio candidacy...he doesn't have the ability to improvise and have that feel for different audiences that Bill Clinton and Obama were so good at sensing intuitively. Everyone is criticizing him for giving the same canned speech over and over again, and being the product of his speech writers. If you look at his policies, he's very much the same thing as GW Bush. Hard line/military interventionist, cutting taxes on the rich/supply side economics, God knows exactly where he stands on immigration at this point. Just like Obama, people are projecting their hopes/dreams/aspirations about what he and is and what he represents and I wonder if it another sort of trap that voters will quickly become disillusioned whenever a young/attractive "change" candidate comes along. Rubio's currently getting a huge advantage of looking "normal" or more palatable because of the constant comparisons with Trump and Cruz...the longer they stay in the race together and the other candidates who are/were legit possibilities are wiped out (Bush first, then Kasich and Christie depending on NH, my sense is Kasich can stay in this longer and will start to spend more and more time "mentoring" Rubio unless they absolutely just don't get along well), the better Rubio's chances of winning the nomination.

QUOTE (fathom @ Feb 4, 2016 -> 08:41 AM) Why would you trade Q for an aging player with two years left? Because there's no combination of players that gets you either Puig or Pederson that the White Sox are willing to part with... That trade only works if the White Sox are confident that Urias/Montas will produce more upside than Quintana, which is a dubious bet. Probably the most likely result is something like Ethier/Wood for Robertson and Danks. As for Eminor's comments, you could just as persuasively argue the White Sox are not "actively" trying to win with Avi, Saladino, LaRoche and Johnson, either.

They might give you Urias, Montas and Ethier for Quintana and Robertson.

QUOTE (Y2JImmy0 @ Feb 4, 2016 -> 07:36 AM) They do get to open their stadium with a s*** load of young pitching, Freeman at 1B, Enciarte and Olivera in the OF, and Dansby Swanson and Albies in the middle infield. They also have a huge bonus pool in the draft and are going nuts in free agency. Braves fans should be really excited actually. http://atlantabraves.blog.ajc.com/2015/11/...seball-america/ 7 of their top 8 BA top ten guys came within the last year from other organizations. Pretty unusual to see a 30 year-old in Olivera still listed as the top prospect...but that gives those Eddy Alvarez backers some hope because he'd only be 27-28 when he hits the majors, granted, he skipped over 6 years of valuable development time with his skating career.

http://www.milb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=2...22&sid=l122 It's possible that Alvarez ends up at 2B. One thing that's VERY impressive is how much patience he has...obviously, he's known for his speed and defense, but the thing that really stands out is his goal to get 100 walks in only 140 games or so. Can't remember many White Sox prospects who excelled in that particular area with his physical tools. Would be really cool to see him and Anderson at SS and 2B in 2018...which would really be pushing it for Alvarez, but due to his age and the fact the Sox always/push or challenge their guys with early promotions, not altogether impossible, either.

If the Dodgers are/were willing to eat $5-7 million, they could arguably add both for $25-27.5 million or the price of Cespedes for one season. That said, highly unlikely. Mainly because they are in the unusual position of counting on someone they couldn't dump even eating half his salary a year ago at this time.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Feb 4, 2016 -> 07:09 AM) Trying working in a place with a bunch of assholes. It makes a difference. By that theory, working with Kenny Williams wouldn't exactly be a walk in the park, either.

It's not so simple as the accounts we get from the media or Molly Knight, because that's only 5-10% of it. It's not like the White Sox haven't brought in guys like Javy, Swisher, Orlando Cabrera, Carl Everett (he had one of the worst reputations in baseball at one point in his career), AJ Pierzynski, etc. Bobby Jenks, reading all the comments from the Angels organization, you would have thought he was Satan reincarnated but he was a surprisingly pleasant and accessible clubhouse character guy until the very end of his White Sox days. Just because it's supposedly four players, well, you can say the same thing about Adam Eaton in his time with the DBacks...that he was getting on the nerves of almost all of his veteran teammates in AZ. Or with Lawrie and all the of places he has been despite his relative youth. Quite a few swear by the guy, and others say he rubs a lot of his teammates the wrong way. The price of acquisition was almost nothing. Now Todd Frazier, everyone loves the guy...but that doesn't mean the fans will accept a 650 OPS from him, any more than they did from Dunn, Cabrera (who also has his share of detractors, and not just for the PEDs) or LaRoche.

QUOTE (BlackSox13 @ Feb 3, 2016 -> 11:03 PM) I don't buy it for a second. Why would Puig be jealous over Van Slyke who's a backup OF or Turner who plays 3B or Kershaw/Greinke whom are starting pitchers? Nothing to be jealous of. Puig is just an asshole, plain and simple. You have it backwards. Maybe not jealous, but they felt it wasn't fair or right. As far as characterizing someone in that way, everyone says the same about AJ Pierzynski. Unless we grew up in the same exact situation in Cuba, had buscones and shadowy hitmen threatening our lives and numerous attempts to flee your country and leaving family behind...then he had very little time in the minors to make an adjustment and at the age of 22 you're the biggest star/phenom in the majors for half a season. I'm not sure how many people in the world are equipped to deal with it all. Probably the same percentage of huge lottery winners who are still happier ten years after winning than the day they won. I know Molly Knight has her book and her own agenda, but if the case was so simple Puig would be on another team right now. Clayton Kershaw would have bucked against doing a promotional camp down in Cuba along with Puig and the disgruntled teammates would have forced a trade. It's also no surprise from following Greinke his entire career in KC that he clashes with as many if not more people than Puig.

QUOTE (BlackSox13 @ Feb 3, 2016 -> 10:30 PM) Didn't work for the Dodgers clubhouse. Greinke, Van Slyke, Turner and Kershaw all had problems with Puig. Doesn't sound like much chemistry to me. The counterargument is Kemp, Puig, Hanley and Co. all got along great in that second half of 2013 when they went like 42-9. Part of the problem is having too much talent on one team and players being benched is that it leads to jealousy (see Cavs) when not every player is treated in the same way. Mattingly let Puig get away with a lot his rookie year and then it was difficult to get the genie back in the bottle.