caulfield12

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Jan 11, 2016 -> 01:56 PM) Is the Count showing up to join Abreu and roll out the red carpet for Cespedes? As good as Sale has been, that roll Count went on that one year (don't remember which year...but I want to say it was 2005 and again in 2006 until his back or whatever it was got the best of him) was just absurd. I went from being annoyed by Contreras to thinking we'd never lose when he was on the mound. So damn dominant. What a trade by Kenny to get Jose. Basically the last two months of 2005 (not including the start against Byrd in the ALCS) and the first two months of 2006...I think he got hurt on the road against Cincy when he had that streak of consecutive regular-season wins still going from the previous season and that was the beginning of the end. Now I can't even remember if it was the hip or Achilles (covering 1B), but something caused him to change his delivery or arm angle a bit after that injury happened. Never a more dominant pitcher than when he had that two pitch combination of fastballs at 96-97 touching 98 and then the forkball falling off the table when he didn't overthrow it.

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Jan 11, 2016 -> 06:34 PM) How do you get the 6%? Are you factoring in for the large percentage who doesn't vote and thus aren't counting them? Either way, Huffpost poll (1st poll I came up with via google search) had Trump at 36.3. By and large, voting public is split 50/50 so I'll just half the Trump numbers for national poll and get to 18% (now you have votes for independents, etc, but presume that is an inconsequential percentage). So I guess my question is, where is the 6%? By my count that is ~18% of the voting public and could arguably be larger if Trump was truly the nominee (as right now that vote is split and I presume a lot of Cruz voters would vote Trump). http://elections.huffingtonpost.com/pollst...nal-gop-primary Also, no idea who Mercury polling are and for all I know they are a republican polling service, but thought this was an interesting stat in here on dems likely to vote for trump vs. repubs likely to vote for hillary (really small sample size too). http://www.usnews.com/opinion/articles/201...hillary-clinton Expressing support for someone in a telephone poll/survey versus likely caucus/primary voters in states like Iowa, NH and S.Carolina/Nevada are two very different things. Just like differentiating between "super motivated" supporters who would never vote for anyone else (were he to lose the GOP nomination) or would vote only if Trump as running as an independent. You have a huge number of Trump supporters who are more about what he represents than being ready to support all the other GOP candidates equally...on the other hand, you have huge numbers of GOP who will not support Trump were their 1st option or 2nd option to be taken off the board. I think it's fair to say he's drawing support from (let's split the difference between 18 and 6) 12% of the country, or one out of every 8. Now labeling them as "bad people" would be the same thing as Perot supporters being labeled as "crazy people"...there has to be a sense of separating the promise of a different kind of politics (the currently polarizing Dem vs. GOP) from the actual symbol of that movement itself. In the same sense, you can sympathize with or support the Occupy Wall Street movement without being a "slacker" or craving chaos and anarchy or whatever... The difference is "bad" people really believing the candidates mean what they say...those who don't know the difference or basically mimic or echo their family members' beliefs without thinking clearly on their own or consistently voting straight party tickets without even looking at races and issues...and those who ACTUALLY WANT TO SEE THE MAJORITY OF THOSE POLICIES ENACTED. Here, I think that 12% Trump support gets cut by 50-75%....leaving the 3-6% "bad," although, even then, in their own minds they are justifying fear of foreigners or fear of Arabs (conflating them all with being terrorists or jihadists) or fear of Mexicans in a sort of "racial profiling" type of way.

QUOTE (BlackSox13 @ Jan 11, 2016 -> 11:36 PM) Agree with 3/4. Bassitt was MLB ready with 5 starts under his belt in '14 and if the Sox had not traded for Samardzija, Bassitt would have been in the Sox rotation in '15 ahead of all the players you named. In fact Bassitt had 13 starts for Oakland in '15 with a 3.56 ERA and 3.76 FIP in 86 IP. Going into the '15 season: Montas and Danish were in AA, Johnson at AAA coming off a horrible '14 season, Fulmer wasn't even drafted yet, Adams was in Kanny. Going into 16: Montas will be at AAA, Danish repeating AA, Johnson in the majors for his second cup while we cross our fingers, Fulmer at AA, Adams at high A. Considering we all know the Sox could use some starting pitching depth, I wouldn't mind having a cheap, long term team controlled option such as Bassitt. Would be a better option than Latos, Fister and the post TJ surgery pitchers we see mentioned. I agree that Sox aren't missing out on Phegley, Semien or Ravelo. How many of us would have smashed our TV's last season watching Semien commit 35 errors? Yet still the 6th highest WAR (just a point or two off from Tulo and playing at one of the worst stadiums for offense in the AL). What about DRS or UZR? We had this debate about errors seemingly 15 years ago back and forth between Jose Valentin and Royce Clayton when Jose put up a 30+ error season. In the end, Valentin had a huge differential in total chances because of his range advantage, and he also recorded numerous outs with his arm strength that would have gone as "hits" with Clayton competently fielding those balls and not being able to get enough on the throws. We can't argue, for example, that Lawrie or Frazier (especially) are above-average defenders and then completely disregard their error totals, focusing only on their other advanced metrics. The same should apply in reverse to Semien. You also have to look at the error rate by month...did he improve or basically stay the same in terms of defensive performance over six full months? Was there improvement or regression? Let's just say if Semien and Bassitt were STILL in our system (and eligible), they'd clearly be some combination of #4-6 or 3-5 (depending on the belief in Adams' potential)....you could take those two, along with Adams, and be able to trade for almost any outfield bat left on the trade market (in the same way we were able to acquire Frazier). Instead, we're forced into a situation where we have to trade Anderson/Fulmer/Adams OR overpay a free agent...unless the contract demands come down to a point where they're no longer overpays. Even with Gordon and Span, nobody's arguing those are huge bargains or that they would be particularly happy if the White Sox had signed those two particular players to either deal.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Jan 11, 2016 -> 07:03 PM) We've done pretty well on that front. This was true with the players that we acquired from 2004-2006 (Dye, for example, or Thome) and less so as time went on. If you look at examples like Quentin, Danks, Floyd, Jenks, Crede, Crain. By and large, we've had good health in recent years (across complementary or secondary players), but the times we have had health issues, the impact has been higher because they were often core pieces that were hurt and/or getting older. Then you have Eaton because of his style of play and Sale just for the torque on his body parts over time...not to mention Abreu's lower body issues caused by the sheer size of him.

He tries to make the big outfield assist or unnecessary throw more often at USCF, that's for sure... Whether it's related to lack of confidence in fielding the ball...that could be. It seems there are two separate issues though, clean/smooth throwing mechanics and just general instincts reading the bat off the ball (which is also related to positioning and confidence coming in versus going back to the wall). How many years did we watch a veteran in Jermaine Dye catch a ball back on his heels/going backward/flat-footed and then uncork a late throw to home plate that was impressive but was often too late due to the longer amount of time he took to unload the ball and poor fundamentals?

QUOTE (SoCalSox @ Jan 11, 2016 -> 09:58 PM) What did we honestly give up in that package? lol. Semein- Can't field to save his life. Bassett- Had Montas, Danish, Johnson, Adams, & now Fullmer all in front of him. Phegley- Nothing more than a questionable backup catcher with 1 impressive minor league stint. Ravelo- Maybe the most promising prospect & not even in their top 10. I see nothing worth b****ing about. You can't discount the fact that the jury's still out on Semien as an everyday player. If he was on the White Sox and had the season he just had for Oakland, his trade value would have been higher than Micah and arguably Thompson simply because of the position he plays, if nothing else (and better offensive numbers arguably at USCF compared to the Coliseum). It's not so much individual players in this case, but the fact that our overall depth is decreasing and decreasing to the point where it's difficult to imagine a trade for any impact bat without giving up Anderson/Fulmer and Adams at the very least. http://espn.go.com/mlb/stats/batting/_/pos.../qualified/true Semien had the 6th highest WAR among all qualified SS's in MLB at 2.7 and barely made the league minimum.

QUOTE (Lillian @ Jan 11, 2016 -> 07:45 PM) Perhaps a better way to describe this circumstance is that the Sox need a big bat, who happens to be a decent outfielder, because the outfield is the place where the Sox have room for an addition. Ideally, he should be able to play right field, because the other two outfielders who are on the roster are not qualified to play that position. That is why guys like Fowler and Parra are not good choices. They are not middle of the order, big run producers. Therefore, any suggestion of spending significant money, or sacrificing a draft pick, for such players simply does not make any sense. Parra makes more sense because wherever he plays, he's going to improve the defense (assuming last year with more of an anomaly) and he doesn't cost the draft pick, so it's more about how much are you willing to pay him...and how much is the improvement there versus adding a starting pitcher or SS to replace Saladino. With Fowler, he's going to cost you Samardzija's pick in the comp round, so essentially you're trading the rights to Fowler (who will get something like 3 years and $40-45 million) for the four players we dealt for Shark and you're losing $10-12 million of short and long-term impact from the lost draft pick, so it's actually costing you $50-60 million AND Semien/Bassit/Phegley/Ravelo if you look at inflows/outflows of talent onto the roster directly related to Shark. If you keep the draft pick, at least you can argue that's a fair rate of return for those four guys...at least it's an argument that has solid points on both sides. Not to mention Fowler's not an above-average defender in CF, and then you're forcing Eaton to move to RF or moving both outfielders to different positions. None of those would seem ideal.

Seems like only yesterday we had the humorous Sox Fest video panel with Avi, Eaton and his wife and a translator for Avi... I'm sure any player on the White Sox would probably say the same thing about bringing in Cespedes or Upton without first reflecting on what it would mean to one of their teammates...maybe with the outfield, it doesn't feel like impugning Garcia directly, Melky or even LaRoche as much because at least two of those guys would see their playing time cut arguably. Now if they were out there actively lobbying for the likes of Desmond, Alexei, Flores/Tejada, etc., to replace Saladino...that would be more of an issue.

QUOTE (QuickJones81 @ Jan 11, 2016 -> 06:11 PM) A good case study would be to see how players wRC+ splits compare before and after leaving the Rockies. Take Tulo, Holliday, etc. and see how their road wRC+ changed being a Rockie, and in their new home. You could do it for guys like Morneau who became a Rockie after life elsewhere. Without actually doing the work, and buying into your second article, I'm guessing you find the home numbers comes down a bit, and the road numbers come up to a greater degree. This would mean overall wRC+ might actually come up after leaving Colorado. Except with Morneau it's hard to isolate and discoonect here from health-related issues. Maybe Cuddyer and Fowler as well...

QUOTE (bmags @ Jan 11, 2016 -> 01:22 PM) Which is what the RNC itself DID say after 2012. That and figuring how they got so far behind on tech, data management/donor rolls and social media. Despite Citizens United, they got trounced. All that soft money somehow weakened the party and made it self-destructive.

And that doesn't explain the huge popularity of Sanders' socialism/populism campaign. It's more dissatisaction with Hillary Clinton than Republicans demonizing and labelling every single candidate like Humphrey, McGovern, Mondale, Hart, Dukakis and Obama a liberal. The Democrats have more successfully come up with candidates who appealed to independent/moderate voters and didn't scare minorities to death on immigration...and the fact a lot of those voting for the GoP on social issues realized that economic issues were actually more important. Those are the voters Clinton tore away from Obama in the primaries, that Trump claims now...the ones with lower education level and diminished earnings prospects because most of those jobs have gone overseas and been replaced by $10-15 per hour wages. Of course, Clinton is the one who pushed NAFTA and FTAA.

QUOTE (southside hitman @ Jan 11, 2016 -> 09:50 AM) Jon Heyman ‏@JonHeyman 39m39 minutes ago Tigers have discussed yoenis, j-up, davis, fowler, desmond. Depends on $. may just go for platooner for LF tho (ie rebury) Some fear mongering for all of you who are terrified of the Tigers. Tyler Collins, Maybin and Gose for 2/3rds of an outfield won't work.

Well, that's discouraging. Best case scenario is probably $75-84 million for three years, that's $27.5 million per season splitting the difference. What's the most they've ever paid a player for one season? Pretty sure $16-17 million in 2012 for Peavy or one of Dunn's years...the most Dunn made was $15 million his last two seasons. Ordonez made $14 million in 2004, that would be the highest adjusted for inflation. Buehrle made $14 million for four seasons. Konerko at $13.5 million.

http://m.mlb.com/news/article/161506558/13...sible-solutions Another Phi Rogers "spit-balling" column...hitting on a lot of familiar names we've been talking about. I guess the newest one would be the Mets trading either Flores or Tejada to a team looking for a SS, and the White Sox listed as a possibility. Hector Santiago for an outfielder. (Santiago for Avi Garcia, done!) Basically, everyone in the Dodgers' outfield going somewhere besides Puig or Pederson, including Alex Guerrero. Marisnick/Tucker Marcell Ozuna for pitching help, etc. Jay Bruce. Swisher/Bourn/Markakis Rusney Castillo out if the Red Sox are content to go with Holt, Bradley, Jr., and Betts. Another Cuban. And many more...

They prefer him until they actually have to vote...Cruz will win Iowa, and then Trump's going to be under a ton of pressure to do well in NH or his standing in the polls will start to fall. Of course, the next problem (but likely a good one for the establishment) is that Cruz is unlikely to weather the storm of being in first place for too long, with all the added media scrutiny that goes with it. Everything is still wide open. South Carolina is more the type of state you'd think would favor Trump, but he's still a Yankee/Northeasterner/Democrat and once a friend/ally of Hillary to them. On policy though, in terms of anti-immigration and anti-Arab sentiment, there's a lot more alignment in the South than NH or Iowa, where you have a huge sub-segment voting on religious beliefs...most of those caucus votes seemingly breaking in the direction of Cruz with his superior in-state/county by country organizational strength.

http://ftw.usatoday.com/2015/11/nfl-tv-rat...f-local-markets Despite Donald Trump calling the NFL "soft" and the movie Concussion, not going anywhere soon...pretty incredible set of ratings facts and figures for the NFL broadcasts. PS: There was a good idea about MLB moving at least one of their weekend World Series or Championship Series games to that 4 p.m. EST start, especially on a Sunday.

The problem there is they would have no desire to add another outfielder in Garcia, especially in "win now" mode and not having the luxury of any more development years from their players...just depends on how desperate they are to rid themselves of Singleton I guess.

QUOTE (Chicago White Sox @ Jan 10, 2016 -> 09:55 PM) What movement has there been on the Uptpn front? His agent (Reynolds) making comments to the media as well as a line forming of teams willing to give him one year deals so he can exploit an opportunity to put up huge offensive numbers and make more FA money next year...assuming Upton can't get the long-term deal he wants.

On the plus side, there's finally some type of movement or information out there on Upton...and you'd have to think that the Orioles would set a deadline on Chris Davis at some point so they don't miss out on both him AND the outfield market simultaneously.

It's hard to reconcile Sanders vs. Trump because their philosophies are almost polar opposites... As far as Trump's support only being 6%, you could make an argument if you extrapolated those numbers from the core primary/caucus constituency to to GOP comprising roughly 35-40% of the electorate and Trump polling in the mid 20's, you're looking at closer to 8-10% of Americans being in the Trump camp or at least open to him. If he did run as an independent, he would probably get 3 Republicans for every 1 Democrat, but that's just a guess...similar to Perot when he ran, or Ralph Nader bleeding votes from Gore and tipping the 2000 election to Bush's favor. The other "x-factor" here is Michael Bloomberg. The more the world financial situation remains in chaos, the more pull he will have as the "economic problem solver" candidate. OTOH, North Korea, China, Russia/Syria, Iran vs. Saudi Arabia, the European immigration crisis and terrorism...that doesn't exactly conjure up images of Bloomberg as a diplomat. Still, more experienced overall than GW Bush or Obama coming into office, fwiw.

http://www.southsidesox.com/2016/1/10/1074...-the-tigers-had Good follow-up article on Fields, with some tongue-in-cheek comments. Interesting to see the Indians are pursuing Juan Uribe and the Dodgers potentially have 10-11 starting pitchers, haha. The main reason for clicking on the article was "terrerobytes" in the URL, any connection to OF Luis Terrero has to be humorous, it's a given.

Purdue definitely has its weakness with guard play and perimeter shooting. Illinois beating Purdue at home handily today, Iowa State slipping back a bit now (compared to a month ago)...and then Iowa beating MSU at home without Valentine, it's really hard to know exactly what's going on from the Hawkeye perspective. How good are Indiana, Michigan and OSU actually? How bad is Wisconsin? How good is Purdue, for that matter? Iowa should lose at MSU Thursday, then MICH at home, at Rutgers, Purdue at home, at Maryland (seemingly a sure loss although they beat MD last year) and NW and PSU at home. Optimistically, 8-2 Big 10 mark but writing 7-3/6-4 in pencil just to be conservative/cautious. At this point, just happy they look to be a pretty sure NCAA pick after losing to a Division II team in preseason/exhibition.

QUOTE (Knuckles @ Jan 10, 2016 -> 07:34 PM) Any chance Sox games air on WGN America? Also havent seen this mentioned but MLB.TV is rumored to have a significantly cheaper, "follow your team" package for all the streamers out there. From everything I've read, the discount isn't really that high. Maybe 10-15% cheaper for being able to watch all the games of a team versus a slightly higher price for all of MLB.tv access. Not enough to make it attractive enough not to pay the surcharge for everything...I could see if it was a 33-50% discount just watching your favorite team's games.

Spy is worth it for Jason Statham doing tongue in cheek, over the top comedy alone... GG Update: Kate Winslet won for Steve Jobs, Matt Damon for The Martian... Even though it's a TV series, it feels more like a documentary/movie: WINNER: Oscar Isaac, Show Me a Hero From the creator of The Wire, six part series, worth checking out David Oyelowo, Nightingale Mark Rylance, Wolf Hall Patrick Wilson, Fargo

QUOTE (fathom @ Jan 10, 2016 -> 07:35 PM) You know the Sox would love to get Carlos Gomez, but cost would be sky high and he's a FA He had a pretty strong decline last season...totally forgot about him. With Springer, Gomez, Tucker, Marisnick and Rasmus, that outfield is loaded. Lots of options there. Springer's likely to be the first 30/30 guy since Trout. Selling high on Tucker or Marisnick would be the obvious thing to do, and/or figuring out someone to take Singleton's contract off their payroll depending on the financial situation of the acquiring team versus their minor league depth chart.