caulfield12

John McCain's trying to get on the short list by "sort of" blaming Obama for Orlando. He has nothing to lose at his age except for remaining shreds of dignity and respect.

Wait, someone who's ignoring me can still accurately predict my post will be about Erik Johnson? Hmm...this site is too funny sometimes. It probably should ONLY be Greg talking about Bachelor parties and Hillary Clinton, that would be more enjoyable. As far as James Shields' go, there's really nowhere to go but up. It had a bit of a desperation feel, but that has worked out perfectly fine with Tim Anderson (so far), so I guess we have no choice but to roll with it since we're stuck with him for the next 2 1/2 years unless he has a dramatic transformation.

Erik Johnson getting rocked again tonight, this time against the Nationals. The only former starting pitcher to get "up in arms" about tonight is Junior Guerra if you're inclined to do so.

Hopefully Game 7 will be a good one. The series is close, but none of the games have been early as exciting as OKC/SA or OKC/GSW.

Tigers with five homers already in a very balmy KC. 6-4 Tigers going to the bottom of the 7th. Rare blown save by Hochevar. V.Martinez (2), Castellanos, McCann and Miggy Cabrera. Lucky we mostly avoided Sox-killer Victor! Victor hit three. Steven Moya was recalled, he's expected to get the majority of JD Martinez's bats for the next 4-6 weeks.

With JD Martinez out with a radial fracture, the Tigers just entered the market for another bat...they're not going to want to have to trot out Gose/Maybin/Romine/Aviles (2 of the 4) any more than they have to along with a still-struggling Justin Upton. Nor do they want to use the outfielder who gave the finger to his home fans.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Jun 16, 2016 -> 06:15 PM) They happen to do pretty well against Sale as well, don't they? http://espn.go.com/mlb/player/batvspitch/_...0948/chris-sale Maybe historically, but all of the current Red Sox hitters are only OPSing at a 578 clip vs. Sale. Betts, Bogaerts and Ortiz have hurt him the most.

If it was 2-3 years ago, the White Sox would have considered it. Of course, the cost would have been more prohibitive. This time, it would be more of a PR hit. Plus, they already signed Justin Morneau and promised him that opportunity if he can get through a rehab assignment successfully.

Jay is definitely more realistic in terms of minor league talent ... the typical KW "veteran" experience with winning org (StL). Kind of strange, Shields for Myers/Odorizzi was a huge AL Central trade 3 years ago, and now all three of them are potentially coming back to the AL Central again with the latter two names on the Top 10 of many current trade market lists. Cleveland could definitely use Myers. The Tigers could similarly use Odorizzi, as they have three very good starters in Verlander/Zimmermann/Fulmer and huge question marks with Pelfrey and Boyd/Sanchez/Norris. It's one of the main reasons that teams in the AL Central are struggling to get on extended runs, the back end of their rotations. White Sox obviously with the same issue. The problem is that it's not the type of move that puts the Sox over the top, it's more of an incremental..."one win" improvement. It all depends on the status of Austin Jackson's injury/projected return. There's no guarantee Jay would outproduce him. http://espn.go.com/mlb/player/splits/_/id/29691/jon-jay This season he's only a 694 OPSer against RHP, and that's in the NL West. So it still doesn't address one of the biggest issues. Myers has an 832 OPS against RHPers, is "only" 25 (same age as Avi, but seems he has been around forever)...very little difference between lefty and righty splits, period. He isn't a very good defender, but he's still head and shoulders better than Avi. He probably would play over Cabrera, with Melky moving to DH. Cost, though?

Eibner back up from rehab assignment, Fuentes back down despite hitting .317. Alex Gordon could be starting his rehab assignment as soon as this weekend. David Wright (yes, I know the Mets) had possibly career-ending neck surgery in NYC as well. JD Martinez, non-displaced radial (forearm) fracture tonight...just below the elbow. You can bet they'll be in the Bruce/Braun/Myers sweepstakes if he has to miss longer than 4-6 weeks.

Guess he went into that press conference (pre-game) deliberately trying to make national news by getting Ventura to blow his top...which of course just doesn't ever happen. As far as the topic, as to Southsider2k5, they're definitely going to have to outscore the Red Sox in Fenway. Not sure about the pitching match-ups, but the Indians are already excited to get a series with the Sox and not have to face Chris Sale.

Danks is retiring? Haven't heard anything about him at all for about a month. Guess he's hanging out in Nashville.

I guess. Don't know the Chicago media market well other than radio/print. Someone who works for a t.v. station and doesn't ordinarily come out every day to cover the team...asked about 5 questions regarding the issues with Avi Garcia, why he wasn't getting coaching/improving or why he was playing in the field, etc. Then it turned to why Sale didn't get a visit from Ventura or the pitching coach "quickly enough" when he was in the process of surrendering those 3 runs. http://www.southsidesox.com/2016/6/16/1195...e-for-white-sox

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Jun 16, 2016 -> 05:24 PM) He shot down being Deadline sellers , no mention of selling the team. How in the name of Hector Santiago would you get that? Bruce Levine/Jim Margalus Meanwhile, in other media speculation, Jerry Reinsdorf shot down Bruce Levine's idea that the Sox might consider selling at the All-Star break: As for the speculation in my story, Reinsdorf told me in his own instructive way that he had no plans for anything but a full-out attack on helping his front office find a way to win now. The meeting was brief and friendly. Knowing Reinsdorf for many years, I knew he was suggesting that although I wasn’t hurting anyone with my "panning for gold" speculation, rebooting and selling off wasn’t in the organization’s plans. Star-divide As far as the unabated rude questions to Ventura at the press conference (pre-game Wed), it was some dude named Benkowski I've never even heard of...that was the first time he's ever walked out, from my recollection.

Trump Superstation....just like the YES Network, Fox and NESN. The irony is that it just might work. Of course, he'd have to cut off access to all of the free tv/cable news organizations that have given him so much unpaid coverage. That would end up backfiring. And it's even a thornier issue as a sitting US president to try to monetize your own brand when politicians have to set aside all their assets in a blind trust when in office to avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest. (We're already seeing it play out with the PGA and his massive DC restaurant project, where politics are intruding into business and vice-versa, or the Miss USA/Miss World pageants, etc.) Would it just be t.v., or to the full array of other media avenues such as print and radio, because those formats aren't his specialty (anything that requires substance or him speaking articulately, even to the extent that Limbaugh or Huckabee do.) In the moment, anything seems possible. Just look at the Kardashians, for example. And yet someone like Sarah Palin, with her fervent following, wasn't able to go in this direction...granted, she makes a nice living giving speeches and doing appearances and taking to twitter occasionally, but it's not a 24 hour thing for her.

The obvious problem is that you want players like Myers in years 1-3, not their 4-6 arbitration years. That said, they should be "prime" production years, and still much cheaper than FA...not to mention the possibility of extension. We're in that same boat with both Frazier and Lawrie, although neither is exactly screaming out for an expensive extension at the moment. There are 10-12 contending teams with surplus talent in their minor league systems who are much better trade partners for SD, unless there's a particular player in our system they're absolutely in love with or have a simple mechanical fix for.

And, if the MAIN culprit is the offense, then you'd think Steverson would be more under the gun. But the accumulation of slides in 2012, slow start to 2015, collapse after 23-10 start in 2016 and poor fundamentals/defense/execution/general sloppiness in 2013 and 2014 have basically forced the issues. It's not just bullpen management or line-ups or any one particular thing, it's just the general lack of results and inconsistency. However, if the entire team starts to fall apart because of Austin Jackson no longer patrolling CF, then more of the blame has to be on Rick Hahn because of the lack of internal depth to fill the majority of positions on the diamond...which forced him into adding James Shields, has caused something of a bullpen merry-go-round and has still left the Avi Garcia/DH/RF issue unresolved at least a year later than everyone declared it to be an obvious issue. It shouldn't be THAT hard to find, at the very least, a relatively cheap way to cobble together a couple of platoon hitters like a Pearce or Raburn in order to confidently trot out a 775-800 OPS out of that DH spot. Finally, in what has become an "all in" season again, having Ian Desmond's numbers at SS or LF/CF/RF/DH would have the White Sox in first place or darned close to it. And the draft pick would simply have been deferred one year. The price tag went from $8 million this March to what is likely to be closer to the $107 million he turned down from the Nationals 18 months ago. As usual, the blame goes around to Ventura, Hahn, JR, Steverson and KW...assessing a percentage of blame is impossible, it's "soft math" for saber guys so it remains an area without any emerging consensus. (Things are still much better than idiotic Pythagorean wins and losses, though.) Don Cooper continues to have lifetime tenure, for good or bad.

http://www.southsidesox.com/2016/6/16/1195...on-the-hot-seat DA, Really, fans should be "extra supportive" of Ventura because he's a nice guy? Surely we can have higher expectations as Sox fans than that. If Ty Cobb was managing the team right now and we were 40-26, the majority of the fanbase would be quite happy. Do fans "owe" him anything after the last 4 1/2 years? If this was 2012, you could certainly argue "yes" because it wasn't his fault he was given the keys to the team without even having a driver's permit. But, at this point, patience is wearing thin, especially when the division seemed so winnable...and still largely is, barring huge additions to KC or Detroit (Indians unlikely to be able to pull off a huge trade unless they finally show a willingness to trade one of their starting pitchers).

http://www.southsidesox.com/2016/6/16/1195...e-for-white-sox This article states JR (once again/recently) reaffirmed that he's not selling the team anytime soon... Expecting much out of Navarro or Avila was pretty dubious, at best. Everyone is very familiar with the struggles (recently) of NL players coming over to the Sox, highlighted by Dunn/LaRoche. Lawrie was basically a replacement level player for most of the last 2-3 seasons...started out pretty well (especially compared to Sanchez offensively), but he's not someone who you could really count on to be a 3 or even 2 WAR player. I'd say his results so far are about what was expected, more or less. Maybe a touch better than expected defensively. I'll agree with the premise that Rodon/Abreu are the two keys. And, on the other hand, nobody expected Anderson to have an 840 OPS and thrive (so far) in the leadoff role. Nobody expected the entire outfield defense to come unhinged at the seams when Austin Jackson (who's barely above replacement value) went out with his meniscus tear.

QUOTE (bmags @ Jun 15, 2016 -> 11:43 AM) Me too. Pretty cool line about how Sonoma is a town of 10,000, and they have 4,000 come to watch on Opening Night. But there is part of me that habitually thinks when they face backlash that Sam and Ben are celebs and should get their way and realize that very few people listen to baseball prospectus podcasts. In some ways, they may be "celebs" in the minds who follow the saber world, but that means very little to their first manager and is a constant source of strife throughout. Between the two, one is more assertive and the other's more of a politician/conciliatory, and they never quite reach that point of time for an extended number of games where they're really running things. They're more like "political advisors," whose advice may or may not be taken. This book would have been a lot better were they from Day 1 put in the position of actually managing the team. As far as the minor minor league baseball part goes, it's really all about marketing/promotions and the connection that local team has with its community. I was expecting to have more insight into the "1%" world, since Sonoma is famous for it's vineyards and upper crust entrepreneurs, but we rarely have any interaction with any of the corporate partners.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jun 16, 2016 -> 08:07 AM) Yeah, not really the power swing that Alf had, but the swing technique and mechanics, plus the long levers. But A.L.F. is an extra-terrestrial being.

Or someone who believes that Garcia could actually put up higher than a 750ish OPS as a full-time DH...that would work, too.

The only way to not act on this attraction IMO is if both partners in the married couple believe in God and just simply won't allow themselves to go there. Greg, there are plenty of gay and straight couples that don't cheat and I'm sure they would tell you the reason has everything to do with respect for each other, trust/commitment, the belief in the institution of marriage, etc. If you want to attribute Biblical or higher powers to being the reason for couples having integrity/fidelity, that's great, but there are just as many Christian/Catholic couples who are held in high regard and go to church every Sunday and tithe who are cheating than non-Christians.

http://m.mlb.com/video/v819697383 Ventura with one of his funniest moments in a post-game interview...about how he's such a bad manager he didn't realize Sale was getting hit around there and was completely oblivious, being sarcastic...that really lightened the mood of the last couple of weeks.

Wite is having the same exact problem the Republican Party is having...defending the indefensible and/or trying to turn it around and make it where the Dems and Trump are somehow equally responsible for this toxic political climate. What would Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt or Ronald Reagan have to say about their fellow Republican? One would guess they wouldn't be too impressed.