caulfield12

Getting a six out save isn't going to be easy. HR hitters up and down the Astros' line-up. Pretty sure nine in double figures and two more with nine homers.

Hosmer scored the winning run last year from third...against the very same Luke Gregorson, pitching for the A's, last year, in the WC game, after Lester blew that same four run lead late in the game. Baseball is some crazy s---. Should have used Fields!!! KC has batted around this inning.

If the Astros do lose this game, not going to Josh Fields there will be questioned a lot.

Shades of Tony Graffanino ten years ago against the White Sox....

Shades of the comeback late in the wild card game last year. Pretty damned improbable. Sipp hadn't given up a hit in 3 1/3 ip before this game.

Greg's house...it gawn. Haha.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Oct 12, 2015 -> 02:06 PM) The Royals need to settle down. If they remain this emotional powerderkeg it will do them no good. Personally Sox need to man up and just start beating them. Sox's starting rotation is so much better than KC's. Royals bullpen now blows. Their window has closed with Gordon gone and Zobrist gone. They gawn. Now can the Sox beat them head to head? Probly not. And they're not going to spend any money at all this offseason? As soon as they add Cespedes, Iwakuma, etc., everyone will be giving them the division. Gordon didn't even play for over half the season, remember? They had to use Dyson and Orlando a lot as well. In the end, moves like Cueto and Zobrist didn't guarantee anything...any more than the A's moves that seemingly guaranteed a World Series appearance last year failed in the end.

MLB with some really questionable calls from NyC this postseason...calling out Gore wasn't nearly as bad as the Tejada situation, but still not clear and convincing.

The next question is why didn't Greg bet his house...? That would have wiped out the whole rolling stop thread since he would have acquired thousands of dollars to pay off his tickets with...and make additional charitable/church/Ben Carson/Kirk Cameron movie studio contributions. In the end, the White Sox are going to be facing a highly-motivated, desperate to get back to the post-season Royals team next year.

Just goes to show how much losing one cog in their bullpen machine impacted the Royals. This is the year for teams arriving "ahead of schedule." So that means the Astros, Cubs, Mets and Rangers are advancing, haha. Shades of Andruw Jones there from Carlos Correa. Rasmus would have been a cheaper pick-up than Cabrera with more upside. Oh well.

But nobody has ever hit you from behind, right? Because that will always be their fault. You can't let other people intimidate you into driving illegal just because of the "people are always impatient" excuse.

Dubious replay call there at 3b...not that Rios was likely to drive in Gore there.

The Stoops coaching tree doesn't exactly measure up to Hayden Fry's. His brother, Brett Venables, Spurrier's son, Leach, Mark Mangino, Chuck Long.... Compared to Ferentz, Bill Snyder, the Stoops brothers, Jay Norvell, Bielema, Barry Avarez, Jim Leavitt, Dan McCarney, etc.

The first four aren't. Iwakuma was very good again at the end of the season after being a top ten guy in the AL for ERA last year. Then, switching to the NL? Fister, if healthy, is a very effective fourth starter and potentially better. Latos picked up his fb velocity again and was much better after the first couple of months. Let's not forget how awful Cueto was in KC, and Shark in Chicago. Conversely, leaving the AL makes a lot of these guys better, like Brett Anderson now with the Dodgers (someone everyone laughed at signing). Heck, Chris Young would be fine, compared to $200 million for Price. By the way, the Cubs also might trade for James Shields and give up nothing much of significance.

There are all those guys like Zimmermann, Iwakuma, Latos, Fister, Beachy, Bud Norris, Colon, Shark, Kennedy, Mark Guthrie....why would they give up talent like Baez when they don't need to? Far better to trade Castro, even if it's mostly a salary dump. Signing Price or Cueto isn't even all that necessary imo. They could bring in Zobrist, Cespedes or Gordon along with any pitcher not named Price and be in a really good position in terms of roster flexibility. Betting on Zobrist as the veteran added into the youthful mix.

Two years ago, Yasiel Puig would have brought back any player in baseball other than Trout and probably Harper. Today, the Cubs would hesitate at least a bit to trade Schwarber for him...having already experienced the Sammy Show. Things change so quickly now in baseball. Once in a generation hitters are guys like Pujols, Trout, Bonds, Miggy Cabrera, Gywnn, Boggs and Harper. He's going to be better than Jose Bautista, for example? Schwarber has two tools...but can't run, field or throw exceptionally well. The jury is still out on whether guys like Bryant and him can also be high average hitters as well.

But the fact that he's been bankrupt 3-4 times (used the system to his advantage) and still has the money he does is testament to someone who knows how to negotiate...therefore, logically, putting himself in a tremendous position to bully Assad, Putin and the latest Kim in N. Korea. He probably believes that on some level even.

We need to make a list of all the "bet the house" predictions since last year and tally up how many houses we've already lost...

Robin Ventura and/or the new bench coach's tactical skills will be questioned the first week of the season. Someone else will say you can't expect champagne performance on a beer budget...that we won't be able to accurately assess Robin until the end of 2017 at the earliest. You can bet the house on that.

Schwarber struggled quite a bit down the stretch, compared to his hot start. Pretty crazy to project him among the top 15-20 hitters in the game at this point. Heck, Gordon Beckham in 2009 was similarly projected. Advanced scouts and opposing pitchers will adjust. He will have to adjust back. Look at Rizzo's young career, for example.

Let's not overlook that Keuchel was 15-0 at home and the Cy Young winner. There's no guarantee the Blue Jays or Royals can't win two or three in a row. Lots of parity, other than when Keuchel, Greinke and Arrieta start a game. It has nothing to do with Alex Rios...or the absence of Aoki. The playoffs are simply a crapshoot and sometimes just one pitcher (Bumgarner) and a little offense can carry a team. The Royals don't deserve to advance if they can't beat McHugh and Kazmir. It's also true the Royals' momentum stalled the last 4-6 weeks because there was no competition in the Central, compared to the Cards/Pirates/Cubs pushing each other all season long. Guaranteeing Yordano Ventura will get ripped is pretty silly, imo.

Reminiscent of 2006 when the "core" of Konerko/Dye/Thome told KW they were "good" and didn't need to make any major changes. It's like asking the starting pitcher if he wants to come out of the game. You're never going to get an honest answer. Of course the players are not going to say that the only position players assured of starting jobs heading into 2016 should be Abreu, Eaton and Cabrera...and that they don't have enough talent at those other six spots to compete. I imagine if the Royals are bounced out of the playoffs, they're going to be in true double-down mode because 2016 is going to be their last/best chance in awhile, with Hosmer/Moustakas likely to move on as free agents before 2017, following Alex Gordon out the door. With a rotation of Ventura, Volquez, Duffy, Medlen and Kyle Zimmer/Miguel Almonte (or a FA addition like Zimmermann), they're not going to be an easy out because of the additional off-season additions they'll make. They won't have Holland next year, either, but losing guys like Gordon and Guthrie frees up some money for replacing Zobrist/Infante at 2B and finding someone like Cespedes for the OF. Since Capuano is the only pitcher in history with 10+ starts after two TJ surgeries, they're going to have to be ultra-careful with Medlen, but it's assumed nearly everywhere they're picking up his $10 million option.

Former Iowa State head coach Dan McCarney got the axe at North Texas. He always figured out a way to get his undermanned teams up for the Iowa game, though...especially in Ames.

Probably Joe Maddon's Sunday breakfast caterer. Actually, it's a no-win situation for the White Sox. Name someone who is a threat to be named full-time manager, they're undermining Ventura or not showing enough confidence in him. Of course, maybe imposing a sense of "immediacy" will actually be helpful in this organization. On the other hand, a no-name guy immediate makes everyone think he's meant to be more of a "buddy" (Cora to Ozzie) and that the White Sox are basically content with their managerial situation and simply naming a Spanish-speaking candidate as a form of outreach to the Sox Latino players, as this was apparently an issue in the past couple of seasons (communication). Anyone taking the job has to know that if the White Sox get off to yet another terrible start, the job will probably be theirs for the taking.

QUOTE (BlackSox13 @ Oct 11, 2015 -> 06:37 PM) Wait, now the Astros are getting Hanley? Zobrist or Valbuena is debatable. Personally, I'd rather have Valbuena due to reasons I've already mentioned but that's just me. As far as Hanley goes, I think Boston would have to eat more money than they are willing in order for the White Sox to be interested. If the Sox look at a deal where bad contracts are exchanged I'd rather look into Ethier since he does give a little pop from the left side, can still hit and best of all is not a mental basket case. LA has some decisions to make. How confident are they to trade Ethier and hope for rebounds from Puig, Pederson and Crawford at this point is what he is...a declining speed-based player with an ugly contract (not unlike their situation with Manny Ramirez, Juan Pierre and Andruw Jones five seasons ago). The problem is that they have less incentive to trade Ethier now...if not exactly an asset, he's not a huge liability either. The biggest problem is whether Hahn's ready to throw in the towel on Garcia (send him to the minors for one year and then move Cabrera to DH?)...do they honestly believe they can compete with Ethier, Eaton, Cabrera, LaRoche and Abreu as the offensive core? Maybe they do. Who knows?