caulfield12

CURSE OF THE OFF-DAYS CONTINUES. Started with the Thurs/Monday combo after the Rangers' series. Well, everyone can focus on OKC/GS again. In other MLB news, Odor suspension reduced by one game.

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ May 26, 2016 -> 04:59 PM) They are the defending champs. If I were them, with the goodwill of a world series, I'd be potentially buying. No one is running away with this division. Good god...sell off cause of some injuries. At any rate, the (potential) market for Gardner and Beltran just picked up even more. Of course, the Yankees aren't in the sell-off business, either. Doubt the Orioles will trade them Alvarez so they can return him to 3B. The next thing is we'll hear that Shields and Wil Myers are both coming back to KC via trade. Fairly safe to say that most prognosticators are putting all their chips with the Indians now.

From a PR perspective, Harvey vs. Sale is the most compelling. That said, the one thing they can't do is let up and assume they'll just walk over the Royals now...don't think that's going to happen, though. Indians have a "tough" weekend series with the Orioles. Otoh, guess we should hope they face the Twins more since they're just 2-4 against them.

And Morales is out with a finger problem. Brett Eibner is at DH, of all people. Take away Cain/Perez/Hosmer, that line-up would struggle to beat Omaha or NW Arkansas. Royals must be hoping for a month of rainouts. (Can see where they would want the DH later in the season for when they have Gordon back healthy, Morales, etc.) BTW, who is pitching for the Mets in the first game of that series? That leaves the possibility of an interesting match-up next week for Chris Sale in NY. Isn't that Harvey's spot? Is he even going to make it?

QUOTE (raBBit @ May 26, 2016 -> 08:52 AM) Nobody said that about Nola. I thought the consensus was that he was going to be the fastest mover and was the most refined pitcher available, but wasn't projected to be the ace of a rotation...? I guess your argument is that he's (and the projections/scouts had him as) more like a 2 vs. a 3?

Royals have an interesting decision to make about rebuilding. Do they believe they can stay in the race without Gordon (who hasn't given them anything) and Moustakas...or should they start trading off all their pieces like Cain, Hosmer, Volquez, Wade Davis and Escobar (Perez isn't going anywhere IMO)? Do they believe that Morales is done or is going to recover offensively? Because they're not going anywhere with only Cain, Hosmer and Perez providing the offense. Just not enough balance. When you only have 2 total homers from FIVE spots in the batting order, you just can't survive with that little pop even if all of those guys were contact hitters (which they're not). My sense is that they believe they can compete if 1) Morales isn't done, and 2) if they can add a couple of pieces at the trade deadline.

https://weather.com/weather/hourbyhour/l/USMO0460:1:US Radar doesn't look that bad to the west, only 5% chance of rain at 6 p.m. but this model says the game's unlikely to be played. Rain/thunderstorms in the forecast all the way through Monday. Typical May weather in KC. Changeable.

1) It's acceptable if they are going to graduate school, for example, as a way to save money. 2) As noted, over and over again...most men and women around the world think it's WEIRD to move out at that age, that something is wrong with Americans. Look at all the Greek (once again, economics) and Italian men who stay at home with their families into their late 20's and early 30's. Basically, much of the rest of the world presents a challenging environment to save money when you're getting your first job right out of college, and these are countries where you typically need a 20-30% downpayment to buy a house. Nothing like we used to have in the US with interest only/ARM/no money down/no credit check. We see where that got us. There's something honorable about being patient and having to save and invest in order to earn something you want, instead of everything being so accessible through credit cards and easy loans. 3) 2008-09 altered the economic landscape...and blue collar/vocational workers have never faced a more challenging environment, especially when you add the costs of raising children. 4) Here in China, almost every girl/woman stays at home with her family (part of it's the feeling for both kids and parents of safety/security) until she marries, usually between age 23-27. My wife stayed at home with her parents (and she graduated from a Top 5 university and has a good job by Chinese standards) until we got married when she was 30. (The other thing is her salary is basically $1250 USD a month, which seems like poverty, but which is "good" here...unfortunately, good isn't nearly enough to pay $1000 a month for a mortgage on a 100 square meter apartment. Cars are also more expensive to buy, imported autos costing roughly 50% more due to high tariffs compared to the US.) The other thing, as noted, is that it makes ZERO sense when real estate prices are so high to put yourself in a huge amount of debt (and the amount of house/apartment/condo you can get is roughly 1/2 what you'd receive in America)...and there's also this idea that families take care of each other, your often see grandparents, parents and grandchildren living together. No such thing as day care here in China, except for elite families who hire nannies and au pairs and have cooks and cleaners and household staff. Nobody trusts strangers to take care of their family, so it's natural to live together. Otherwise, someone's going to have to commute back and forth all the time, and that's inconvenient in a country where many still don't have cars and trips on the subway/bus are often uncomfortable and frustrating because of the crowding. Why deal with all that stress for the illusion of privacy/independence just because it's this unique American idea?

1) The White Sox do have a permanent solution for SS, perhaps the most difficult position to replace externally. 2) Abreu hasn't gotten going, one woud think that has to change at some point (soon) with the warmer weather 3) Bullpen hasn't had a chance to develop defined roles, Petricka's been out, etc. 4) Lawrie and Garcia are due for a hot streak again 5) There's a lefty pitching, so maybe Rollins can hit another homer 6) White Sox have financial flexibility this season to make a move 7) White Sox are still in the heart of the race...whereas fans had mostly given up by this time last year 8) Attendance is picking up w/ the nicer weather, particularly the Sunday game this past weekend. 9) Delmonico, Coats and Hayes are all hitting well in AA/AAA. 10) I could easily name 5-10 flaws for every other contender in the AL Central. Nobody will run away with it, barring something strange or unforeseen happening. 11) We're getting the toughest part of the schedule out of the way in the first half of the season. 12) White Sox still "control their own destiny" 13) Excitement about upcoming draft, will be much more fun to follow than last year's 14) Danks is gone 15) Rodon should start finding his groove about right now 16) Matt Latos and Albers fueled our early start with surprising performances, Gonzalez has, at the very least, kept us in games 17) Frazier GS in Texas was great moment 18) Robertson continues to be one of the Top 5-7 closers in baseball

Ooops, funny, because I just looked up Hawkins to see if his OPS was anywhere near 800 after a 3 double game. Still at 737. But he's obviously missed a lot of at-bats already this season, and those numbers can change quickly. Right now, it's hard to count on Hawkins to make it, but he could always just start clicking like Thompson did after struggling for quite awhile. Not counting on it though. Fwiw, there was one point where we acquired Mike Jacobs (think that's his name) from BOS and we had ALL prospects with multi-sports backgrounds playing for the same team. But he didn't last long with the White Sox.

And yet they've protected lots of marginal players over the last 3-4 years. Surely, the Mets and Yankees didn't want to lose Quintana, but he got caught up in a numbers game and then the PEDs stuff as well. Of course, the odds of Guerra having a career war in the same vicinity as Jose are approximately 1 in 500,000.

No, that's not what I meant. Simply saying that if we were 6 games over now and in first place because we had just won 11 of our last 15 (similar to the trajectory of the Indians and the Royals to a lesser extent)...then the perception is quite a bit different. Especially considering winning 3 consecutive games and beating our opponent's two best pitchers (including the likely Cy Young winner). Glass is half-empty or half-full I suppose. 88-74ish team or 83-84? .500 is death in today's game. Look at last season, it led to hesitation and holding onto Shark when we theoretically could have gotten something useful for this season (and not a draft pick who conceivably MIGHT help the team in 2020 or 2021). If we had a plethora of prospects that other teams were interested in, it wouldn't be such a big deal. As it is, the Indians have the best farm system, and the Tigers and Royals have the ability to spend...so it all depends on how much JR is willing to add to payroll, especially in light of "saving" the money that was going to be allocated to DH/LaRoche. As it is, if we do fall back in the standings, there's always the possibility we hear "we're waiting on Anderson and Fulmer (for 2017)" and then spin will be we were competitive one year earlier than projected (throwing out the 3 year window stuff for a moment).

Same things were said about Wacha and Nola...maybe not 5th starter, but 3/4ish.

Because he tries to double down retiring fire at anyone who disses him. Has been trading barbs with Liz Warren all week, calling her "goofy" and Pocahontas, which obviously won't help his standing with Native American voters at 8/10ths of 1% of the US population. You'd think with the GOP conceding Romney's 47% he would think twice, but I guess he imagines it's making him even more popular somehow. And yeah, since the 30+ GOP governors control the election machines/get out the vote apparatus in those states, pretty unwise.

Even if he didn't make those comments about Castro, he wasn't going to last very long that season the way the Marlins were going, and with how much money had been invested in the roster with opening the new stadium. Probably, he would have made it through at least the first season, as he had a 4 year deal. It doesn't help when you have an overpaid and out of shape closer who just completely falls apart almost right out of the gate. Den Jennings, Fredi Gonzalez, Girardi....the casualty list goes on and on with Loria.

Very few incumbent presidents have been stronger the second time around. It's quite unusual, unless there's a wartime situation like Roosevelt in 1940 or 44. Reagan in 84, Clinton in 96...but it requires an improvement in peoples' optimism/confidence and better economic prospects for the future. At any rate, the odds of the economy still going strong after this 8 year cycle of "easy" Fed money and low interest rates for both homebuyers/business loans/government bonds. Just don't see it continuing, especially with China, Brazil and the rest of the world continuing to slow down. It should be fairly easy for the Republicans if they can nominate a younger candidate with positive proposals that isn't simply about cutting taxes/supply side reforms. Hopefully, entitlement programs can finally be addressed, but the Dems will obviously attack anyone like Ryan who goes after them.

I think Greg was referring to the Miami firing, but he just as easily could have been referring to the Mariotti situation.

Yep, Keenyn Walker, Jared Mitchell and Brian Anderson. Not to mention Trayce Thompson. And signing Dayan Viciedo.

A lot of us predicted 82-85 wins. That's exactly what we're looking at right now. We're very fortunate to be 6-0 versus the Twins (Royals and Tigers are 8-1, KC just lost today after having a 5-3 lead)...whereas the Indians are 2-4 against the Twins. Basically the main difference in the division, because the Indians are actually 9 games over .500 against the Sox, Royals and Tigers.

That would be something like 4.77 (2nd spot) vs. 4.26 (7th) or 4.16 (8th). Let's average it out to 0.56 times X number of games. More in line with your 40-50 at-bats per season. That said, you're giving those at-bats to Saladino/Jackson instead, so that spot is getting around 90 AB's more, over an entire year.

QUOTE (elrockinMT @ May 25, 2016 -> 08:22 PM) White Sox are in first place and we are talking about firing the manager, releasing players and trading others. Yes, but if the White Sox had gone 11-4 to get here from 1 game under .500, you'd see a completely opposite reaction. Skepticism, still...is it sustainable, but not the end of the world threads. And it doesn't help to be going on the road to KC, NYM and Detroit...and having our two best pitchers lose on consecutive nights when we just had a 3 1/2 game lead on Monday before the 2nd game of the DH.

QUOTE (ptatc @ May 25, 2016 -> 08:13 PM) I guess it's two different perspectives. I see what you are saying over the season the better hitters will get more at bats, honestly how many more per year? 50? Rollins has an OBP of 290 so if you replace him with ahitter getting on base at 330 that 40% more. So thats about 20 more times over the course of the year or once every 8 games? However, if you separate the bad hitters you have less chance of running into a strong of outs. If Rollins strikes out with Eaton on first, the next hitters can drive him in as opposed to 3 straight outs with all of the bad hitters in a row. I see advantages to both but it seems worse to put all of the bad ones in a row to maximize the bad innings. Roughly .9 plate appearances per game from leadoff to 9th. So .9 X 162, it's pretty darned significant over the course of a full season.

http://espn.go.com/mlb/player/_/id/32511/chris-devenski And another former Sox prospect.

Arrieta? Soler? Strop? Hector Rondon was Rule 5 from CLE.

We always talk about OTHER managers and try to apply that by osmosis to Ventura. According to that "The Only Rule Is It Has to Work" book, any manager over age 48 risks a generation gap with his players (Maddon seems to be the exception again). Robin's right in that borderline area, between this generation's Millennials and the 80's/90's Gen Xers. I will say he's very good at maintaining an even keel and almost never losing his composure. Bland with the media, especially in comparison with Maddon (maybe that's a net minus from a marketing standpoint, but not his main job). Not sure what else is he is good at, to be honest. He probably grades out as average or below average in all those categories like strategy, motivational techniques, bullpen usage, etc. I'm not sure any opposing team is CONCERNED about being outmanaged by Robin compared to the feeling we might be outmanaged by one of our opponents (and that's a bias a lot of fanbases have, grass is always greener or backup QB syndrome.) Perhaps the other managers like Gardenhire, Leyland, Francona, Scioscia, Maddon are better because we keeping hearing about them being better in the media? OTOH, I don't think ANYONE who's regularly posted in the gamethreads over the last 4+ seasons rates him as even an above-average manager and worries about losing him to another organization. And it was an insult to the fanbase, in a way...that they didn't want to hire a more experienced guy. At least Ausmus and Matheny were catchers and always aspired to managing. Same with AJ Hinch (came out of the front office), for that matter.