caulfield12

QUOTE (Joshua Strong @ Jul 12, 2015 -> 12:34 PM) Why did you think it was a mess? And Snyder is a very good director, Watchmen is a great movie, 300 is very well done and was a bit a cultural phenomenon when it came out, although Sucker Punch had its faults it is still entertaining. I haven't seen Legends of the Guardians but the children in my family loved it. If you substituted Ryan Reynolds, Gosling, Channing Tatum and Jake Gylenhaal for the four main leads, would it still be watchable? Half the reason it was endurable was the Friday Night Cinemax element. It was more like a series of set pieces thrown together haphazardly with about zero narrative cohesion.

http://www.freep.com/story/sports/columnis...ategy/30067395/ Well, at least one DET writer wants to dump Price, Cespedes and Soria to retool for next year.

The problem is Cabrera's not going anywhere...is one of our best hitters now...and we do need to see what Avi can do for the remainder of the season. Right now, things aren't too optimistic on the Garcia front. You need a lot more than 15 homers and 60-65 rbi's out of that position with what 3b SS and 2b are producing.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Jul 9, 2015 -> 10:46 AM) This is where you ignoring things. Caulfield likes to say a third of the Cubs attendance are tourists, but then say USCF is 75% Tigers fans or whoever they are playing. So the assumption that everyone at USCF is local is crazy. The other assumption you make is if 37% of the crowd at any particular game are tourists, if those tourists stayed home, those tickets would remain unsold. I don't think that is true for every one of them. Not even close. The Cubs are more popular than the Sox. It's even in this thread people would be more inclined to go to a Sox game if there was a Wrigleyville vibe to the neighborhood. You've never heard more noise or seen more excitement from visiting teams' fans at USCF in the last 3 seasons? You've got Tigers' fans, Cardinals' fans, Red Sox and Yankees fans...what next, the Royals' fans too? They made the comment that there weren't nearly as many White Sox fans at Wrigley as there were in the past (and I guess they're referring to 2012), but surely USCF will be packed when the Cubs play there....and it will be close to a 50/50 split unless the White Sox are 5 games over .500 at that point. In fact, you can pretty much guarantee it will be more like a 60/40 split Cubs to White Sox on August 14th-16th because so many Cubs' games will be sold out from now until the end of summer vacation...and fans shut out of Wrigley will look for other options.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jul 11, 2015 -> 09:50 AM) It'll make more sense on Monday when they're figuring out how the Cubs were shut out for the first 27 innings of the series. (Quintana of course will go 9 IP, 0 runs, and we'll lose it in the 10th, because Quintana). Just thought it was hilarious that they just gave Lester an "ace" contract at his age...while Quintana has put up a better WAR than both him and Bumgarner in the regular season since the beginning of 2012. Yet somehow, according to Jordan Belfort on The Score (yes, I know that's not his actual name), Quintana's a 3 and definitely not a 2 on a playoff team. So what does that make Lester? They claim him as their ace, but, until recently....you'd have to go Arrieta, Hammel and then flip a coin between Lester and Hendricks. The Cubs need to worry more about Soler doing an Alexei Ramirez impression offensively, Castro's disappearance and the fact that Russell's going to wear down the final two months physically and mentally. That said, would definitely trade places in the standings with them.

QUOTE (Joshua Strong @ Jul 10, 2015 -> 06:01 PM) Supposedly the script stems from a dream that he had add a teenager dream that he had...or he had a dream that he had ADD, haha? could be too quite different results there depending upon the interpretation

QUOTE (Jake @ Jul 11, 2015 -> 08:17 AM) Given our need for a right-handed bat, you have to think we'll end up seeing Matt Davidson at some point this year. Yeah yeah lots of strikeouts disappointing return for Reed, but he there's a decent chance he'll be a really nice option at 3B/DH to cover for those lefties. He ought to take some reps at 2B in MiLB as well Don't think he has the range or athleticism for 2B, from the MILB games/videos I've watched. Not to mention the fact that adding another position for him to concern himself with seems like it could lead to yet another offensive setback. We already have plenty of utility guys growing on trees...the feeling is he either sticks full time at 3B/1B/DH or he doesn't make it at all.

The Tigers have some interesting decisions to make on Price and Cespedes. They obviously have Victor Martinez under contract, Kinsler, Verlander, Cabrera...so it's very hard to blow it up at this point, or start a rebuild going into 2016. A decent core of young-ish guys in Iglesias, Gose, JD Martinez, Castellanos as well, but they just don't have the pitching in the majors or minors. Even Anibal Sanchez has been a shade of his former self. Losing Scherzer has hurt more than anyone realized, as the pressure has fallen more on other members of the rotation to pick up the slack. As usual, the bullpen has been hit or miss.

On one hand, it's the Twins who are 5.5 games ahead of us. On the other, there are about 8 other teams in the race as well (in some ways, the Cubs probably have the same hesitancy about "going for it" this year as we have about trading Shark when the team's finally going on another hot streak). Was listening on the way back from the game Thursday afternoon....B&B Show quoted that something like only 6 out of 944 or 946 teams in the history of MLB have made the playoffs with a record of 5 games under .500 or below on July 9th. So, you have the possibility of sneaking into the last WC spot and getting Chris Sale a start...or sitting on Samardzija until July 31st and hoping his value continues to increase as his ERA comes down into the 3's and he's had a stretch of almost 10 starts with an ERA in the 2's, and pitching deep into games. Certainly, playing the Royals coming out of the ASB will be huge. With Gordon out, Buxton out, Cabrera out...there's an opening to make up some ground. Sooner or later, they'll have to beat some AL Central teams head-to-head or fold.

Was listening to The Score in the morning and the typical names were mentioned for Samardzija, McKinney or Almora. A trade's definitely not going to happen with the Cubs...even though he would be the perfect fit over there. Laughed when they thought Schwarber was a huge overpay for Jose Quintana. Jordan whatever his name is, the host with Bruce Levine.

That just broke a 24 game home streak of not scoring more than four runs...or was it not scoring more than three? Either way, pretty incredible at USCF. Even in these offensively challenged days. Danks still sucks. Guess the concept of two in a row was impossible for him. Great job by the bullpen and defense for most of the game....Avi continues to do really dumb things.

Record in extra innings and one run games White Sox +9 Nationals +9 Cubs +9 Royals +6 Cardinals +6 Oakland -20

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jul 8, 2015 -> 04:19 PM) This is, of course, why I bumped this thread. If walkup crowds in July are this bad...when season ticket sales hit and get the same trend, it's going to propagate through to another major revenue drop. 10 bonus points for "propagate through to." Balta for 2015 White Sox 2nd Half Manager

QUOTE (BigHurt3515 @ Jul 8, 2015 -> 03:41 PM) Why is Beckham starting against a RHP? Look at his splits. Sadly, or inexplicably, he's hitting much better against RHP than LHP. 696 vs righties, 450 vs. RHP in about 60 PA's. Balta for White Sox Manager, 2015.

QUOTE (Jake @ Jul 8, 2015 -> 10:31 AM) Sox pitchers are 9th in WAR in MLB (#3 in past 30 days). Sox starters are 6th in WAR in MLB (#2 in past 30 days). The difference between our ERA and our fielding independent metrics are consistent with playing in the AL, playing at US Cellular Field, and having what is by far the worst defense in MLB. Don Cooper can't fix the offense! Bring back Greg Walker and Scott "The Scooter" Fletcher to work with Gordo... thanks, douglas

QUOTE (ChrisLikesBaseball @ Jul 8, 2015 -> 04:04 PM) Piggybacking on this, really more of a data dump than anything.. Comparing playoff appearances or attendance numbers to other sports isn't relevant. I can make this data say a lot of different things, depending on how I frame it: In 2014, the Bears had a total attendance of 493,449; the Blackhawks had a total attendance of 892,529; the Bulls had a total attendance of 890,370; the Cubs had a total attendance of 2.65 million; and the White Sox had a total attendance of 1.65 million. The Sox are selling more tickets than all but one major sports franchise in Chicago. Selling more tickets allows The White Sox to leverage fixed costs more more than three other sports. In 2014 the White Sox only sold 50.18% of their total capacity of tickets; the Cubs sold 79.65% of their total capacity of tickets; The Bears sold 100% of their total capacity of tickets; The Bulls sold 99.03% of their total capacity of tickets; and The Blackhawks sold 106% of their total capacity of tickets. The White Sox sold the lowest percentage of their available tickets. Being well below their capacity makes it challenging for the White Sox to leverage their variable costs in a way that is financially responsible while providing the in-game experience that they desire so as to generate repeat visits. While we're at it, we can also make the case that it's more challenging to make the playoffs in Major League Baseball than in other sports: 53.33% of NBA teams make the playoffs in any given season 53.33% of NHL teams make the playoffs in any given season 37.5% of NFL teams make the playoffs in any given season Prior to 1994, 14.2% of MLB teams made the playoffs each season. Between 1994 and 2012, 26.6% of MLB teams made the playoffs in each season. Currently, 33.3% of MLB teams make the postseason, but 2 of those teams for only one game, so still only 26.6% really make the playoff series. The Bulls and Blackhawks are the only two that are above the theoretical average in playoff appearances, while the Cubs and White Sox are essentially 2 playoff appearances behind the theoretical average number of appearances. Bulls = 18 (72%) Blackhawks = 15 (60%) Bears = 7 (28%) White Sox = 4 (16%) Cubs = 4 (16%) I always chuckle when I see your account name because I read it as "Christ Likes Baseball." Unfortunately for us, not the White Sox so much...at least recently. Even with Jesus of Nazareth hitting 4th or 5th, we'd still be offensively-challenged and he wouldn't be driven in by the bottom of the order. Then again, Jesus can walk on water...so, despite the presence of Vince Coleman. he could actually end up with at least an 80-85% success rate on steals one would imagine.

QUOTE (shipps @ Jul 8, 2015 -> 03:59 PM) I am hearing a lot of this but I absolutely loved it. If you liked the first Terminator I dont see how you wouldnt like this. It was the same movie but expanded upon. Michael Biehn and Linda Hamilton just threw up in their mouths a bit. Even Batman.

QUOTE (Brian @ Jul 8, 2015 -> 02:10 PM) Terminator: Genysis was nonsensical garbage. My one buddy said it wasn't good but fun. It's neither. 1) Jai Courtney sucks and always will. 2) Emilia needs to stick to blonde hair, nalf nude and GoT. She just didn't fit into that role, something was just OFF. (I'm joking about the nudity part, lest someone who was upset about the black cocktail dress girls at the Women's World Cup lays into me for sexism, lol). 3) Arnie is just too old to sustain that type of physical role, since the one liners were stale about 20 years ago. 4) Jason Clarke as John Connor didn't work either...miss the charisma of someone like Christian Bale. Of course, if it was Bale against Jai Courtney, that would have been laughable as well. 5) Even JK Simmons can't elevate bad scripts with 3-5 minutes of screen time. On the plus side, ME and EARL and The Dying Girl was a pleasant surprise and took the bitterness of Terminator away. Waiting for Greg775's Magic Mike XL review with bated breath. Will he dare go when the it's a 95% female audience? Seems an interesting way to meet a concupiscent girl at an afternoon "Bachelorette Party" matinee, haha.

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Jul 8, 2015 -> 03:45 PM) What double standard. We could go back to 1990. Our whole point was the Bulls franchise was changed for the better the day Jordan arrived. The Bulls become a show and a phenomena and backed it up with 6 titles and that gave them staying power through a down era and now they are back (not to the level previously) but have been a consistent playoff team and a perennial title contender (favorite, no, but Vegas has long had them amongst the front runners for the title). There is no comparing the Bulls & Sox from 1990 onward. It is a horrible argument. If you want to go back to the pre-jordan era and when the Bulls largely sucked, sure, but fact is, product took a turn for the better and the Bulls became the face of the NBA internationally and did so far a long time (Jordan was a god before he ever won his 1st title so the stretch really was well sustained). It feels like the White Sox are reminiscent of the Bulls in the late 70's/early 80's and waiting for their own Michael Jordan (which, of course, in baseball is usually not one superstar but a winning collection of players). Right now, it's the Quintin Daley and Jay Williams Curse...except it's the FREE AGENT/ALL IN Curse, because there certainly haven't been many injuries or drug problems with our players. We just can't select and/or develop a player to save our lives, other than pitchers. Ironic, of course, because the team on the other side of town that's getting 95% of the column inches has the opposite problem. Yet one has the feeling that Epstein and Hoyer won't panic and try to force something one year early, they're going to wait until July 31st and pick up a starting pitcher on the cheap....instead of taking advantage of a seller's market early in July like they've done the last 2-3 seasons.

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Jul 8, 2015 -> 03:42 PM) 10 teams since 1990 have had fewer playoff appearances then the Sox (I believe): Nats, Rockies, Marlins, Mariners, Orioles, Royals, Mets, Padres, Blue Jays and Rays. On that list, 3 are expansion teams and the list includes 3 world series winners (Blue Jays (1) & Marlins (2)). I'd also say that one thing almost all of those teams has in common is lousy attendance (w/outlier being Nats (new stadium / relocated franchise), Rockies (solid attendance, beautiful stadium, big city, Mets (new stadium pickup, but prior attendance had its own issues when team stunk at Shea) and Mariners (just a strong fan base in general...nice stadium and they benefited heavily from Ichiro and market (heavy Japanese / Asian population). 1994 nearly destroyed the Expos, baseball in Montreal in that stadium was just never going to work....just like it (the STRIKE) did in the Midwest (along with the 2008/09 financial crisis). Revisit the theme of exceptions again, the Sammy and Big Mac Show in St. Louis and Chicago. The Rockies, Mariners and Orioles all had very strong attendance with the opening of their new stadiums....but eventually that fell off with the lack of success on the field (and the Rockies had 2007 and 2009, more recent success). The Mariners have a market all to themselves and still have been struggling with attendance over the last 5+ years, despite adding the likes of Cano and Nelson Cruz (to go with King Felix). Luckily, they have that new tv rights deal, but even that alone hasn't been enough because of the failures of young players like Smoak, Ackley, Zunino, Montero and whoever they've stuck at SS or CF (no Adam Jones). The Twins, Royals, Reds, Indians and White Sox are the norm...the Brewers/Cubs/Cards/Tigers are the outliers that don't fit.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jul 8, 2015 -> 03:33 PM) It is the double standard being used in this thread. One note talks about only the most recent history for the Sox, but then is going back to before a good portion of the Bulls fan base can ever remember to explain them. It is silly. See Cardinals since 1940. When you have a winning tradition established (actually making the playoffs, not just finishing 2nd/3rd or over .500), you can go through a down decade (relatively speaking), and still emerge on the other side. For example, St. Louis from end of the 80's into the late 90's (eventual arrival of Pujols) was pretty much similar to what the White Sox did over the last decade. Winning builds trust and good will. That has all but been erased in the minds of most Sox fans. If the White Sox had won 4-6 World Championships in a 10-15 year period, this thread wouldn't exist.

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Jul 8, 2015 -> 03:27 PM) I really don't care about any factor other then performance. Yes, cubs have benefited for whatever reason, but most teams are going to struggle with performance when they haven't had a lot of sustained success and post-season appearances. That is just the reality and more recently we have had some pretty awful teams to watch and as I've alluded to this team this year is probably the worst of the bunch to watch play (even more so then last years team that was horrifically frustrating to watch). When the product on the field stinks and the cost to go to games is their, what incentive does a person have to go pay. You don't get some huge discount on tickets when product sucks. Not much incentive to walk up and in 81 game season and with stadium capacity ~40K, that is a lot of potential seats to fill each and every night. Add in worse defense on the planet, cost, and poor fundamentals and I don't see why you'd watch. Do you pay 10 bucks to see a great movie, sure, lots of people do. Do you pay 10 bucks to see Gigli, hell no (or at least I hope not...that would be a bannable offense). Yes, the 2015 White Sox are the theatric version of Gigle. As a huge movie fan, I would definitely pay to see Gigli 3-4 times over ONE White Sox game, at least this season. With that said, I'm making the quite LIKELY idiotic decision to go watch what might be Samardzija's last start with the White Sox tmrw afternoon in a game which will be lucky to attract 12,000 fans with beautiful weather forecast...including a total drive of 6-7 hours (back and forth to the Quad Cities).

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jul 8, 2015 -> 03:17 PM) For whatever reason, Sox fans are the only ones in Chicago who seem to hold the logic that not showing up makes them better fans. As long as that mentality exists, there is no REAL comparison between Sox fans and anyone else in Chicago, because they are the ones who are different. It isn't neighborhood, or safety, or bars, seat color, the direction the stadium faces, or anything else. I will never get why people take such personal offense to that, when it is White Sox fans who say stuff like that. And to go back full circle to the begining of the recent discussion, when you don't go to games, or take in games, FOR WHATEVER REASON, the media isn't going to cover you as much either, because they know they will make more views, clicks, ratings, attendance, phone calls, etc off of Cubs fans. Pretty much the only thing Sox fans respond to these days is to be offended about something. How is that any different in Oakland, Citi Field or Anaheim (who are bleeding thousands of fans this year despite a playoff appearance last year and the presence of Mike Trout, the best young player in the game, along with Harper)? Where are these fans who show up season after season and support consistently losing teams, other than the Cubs (and they had big drop offs too over the last 2-3 seasons)? Please don't try to argue the Giants in the seasons between their World Series appearances....or HUGE market teams with historical parks like the Red Sox, who've still enjoyed 3 World Series titles basically in the last decade. Which team that has enjoyed LESS success on the field than the White Sox in the past decade (starting in 2006) has much better fan support/more loyal fans?

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jul 8, 2015 -> 03:12 PM) If only the White Sox had only taken a 20% after their title years. Then even when the team was awful, the attendance started going up again. They gained fans after a .366 and .280 winning percentage. The White Sox lost fans after winning a division title. But, let's hear about all of things that make it different for the White Sox again. 1) MJ 2) MJ 3) MJ 4) MJ 5) 6 titles vs. 1 6) Numerous playoff appearances versus a roughly 14% chance of even getting to the post-season. 7) Coaches fired for having one of the five all-time best winning percentages when our current regime has one of the most pedestrian records in team history 8) No compelling or exciting personalities...(Rodman vs. everyone in Chicago other than Bo and MJ when they were with the Sox) 9) Marketing, marketing, marketing 10) Complete lack of excitement...product is inferior...fans always will flock to something that's cool/trendy/popular/hip....to be "part of something" bigger, but they certainly don't want to be part of 10-12,000 fans unless they're huge baseball addicts 11) If you asked 1000 casual baseball fans outside of Chicago who was the best player for the Sox over the last 15 years or so, maybe 3-5% could come up with the name Paul Konerko.

The Cell and Kauffman are virtually identical...the slope or rake of the upper deck. USCF was almost an exact replica of that stadium, with the obvious difference of the outfield fountains. Nobody complains in KC because they have a winning/exciting team now. It's the smallest market in baseball and they're in the top 10 in MLB attendance and didn't even win the World Series last season. Very simple. Put a winning (and dynamic/interesting) team on the field, even the small markets can do well attendance-wise. The opposite is just as true. A team that doesn't score many runs...in fact, is one of the most boring teams in baseball if not for the presence of Sale and Abreu, well, the results are patently obvious. Attendance was terrible for the last 25 years in KC because they only flirted with winning in 2003 (first half) and finally had a winning season in 2013. This whole idea of the White Sox fanbase being unusual just doesn't have any support. Look at the Twins...who are playing in a very new stadium. They're not drawing very well and they're leading the race for the Wild Card. Nothing to do with bandwagon fans. It has everything to do with being terrible for 3-4 seasons in a row. Heck, the Twins also have Buxton, Sano and Berrios to be excited about. We have? Tim Anderson and Carson Fulmer? Okay. Not quite equal. Instead of thinking of the White Sox fans as "disloyal," we have to look at the Brewers, Cubs, Cardinals and Tigers are being successful anomalies that create the perception by their juxtaposition that Sox fans are "lesser thans" when it's just not true. The White Sox simply can't put together a consistently compelling product. They can't string together consecutive years of success (and 2006/08/10/12 don't count for much, except in comparison to the wasteland of the 60's, 70's and 80's).