caulfield12

Hunt for the Wilderpeople is awesome...one of my favorites this year, along with Captain Fantastic. Still patiently waiting to see La La Land and Moonlight. Seems like they're controlling the awards show screeners much more carefully than previous years. Will finally get to see Rogue One in the theatres here the week of the 6th.

I thought "settlements" were bribing Trump University scam victims while claiming I would have bigly won a theoretical court ruling? Unpresidented stuff here, folks. Not fair! By the way, Eric's a great kid and should be able to continue to entice charity donations by auctioning off more Ivanka Tea Times to those looking to curry favor with me. And, if you don't come up with the winning bid, we've still got some great deals going down over at Trump International Hotel DC. https://www.yahoo.com/news/mormon-tabernacl...-123210597.html Reweet Donald J. Trump "Mormon Tabernacle Choir member should be jailed...unless she's a hottie."

1-23 Lyle Mouton 24 Craig Grebeck 25 Melido Soul Glo Perez

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Dec 30, 2016 -> 05:31 PM) See that's the fun part. If it were a Republican in office, we'd hear non-stop about the two failed wars in Libya and Syria, along with reigniting the cold war with Russia. Because we reinstituted a draft and committed hundreds of thousands of ground troops there. Those situations are remarkably analagous to Iraq, Afghanistan, Vietnam and Korea. US and Russia reverse the Cold War, box in China from west and east and dominate the world. Get it done, Team America.

It's helpful that he doesn't trust computers, e-mail (leaves a paper trail leading back to mistresses is the main reason for avoidance), know what Israeli settlements are...and doesn't realize Twitter is also part of the Internet. He does at least have a Samsung Galaxy, but no nifty ipad like Obama for the often-ignored daily National Security Briefing. At any rate, who actually needs that when Putin, Kim Jong Eun and Duterte are always available for some friendly advice?

How about SoxTalk Top Ten prospect Hatchimals that actually work?

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/30/opinion/...col-left-region Trump better hope the stock market continues to skyrocket or medical savings accounts and privatizing Social Security will be dead in the water like the last time GW Bush attempted this nifty maneuver of the shell game. Krugman is exactly right on how the GOP is trapped on having zero replacement ready to go, yet facing huge pressures to repeal from voters/constituents misled by the insurance industry and Big Pharma. The fallout will be catastrophic, which unfortunately comes with real human/family and health consequences.

QUOTE (KagakuOtoko @ Dec 30, 2016 -> 11:07 AM) Don't they have scabs who will perform in lieu of the originals performers? http://seputarkita.info/2016/12/27/rockett...auguration.html This should help clarify things, to an extent.

QUOTE (brett05 @ Dec 30, 2016 -> 08:32 AM) Excellent Well you made it thru one sentence of one post. Top notch! No. Your Supreme Commander's words, not mine.

Let's all just move on now. By the way, the Russians are now are friends. We can trust them implicitly. And when all the unions are gone, ObamaCare, the minimum wage, the environment, the Department of Education, all public lands, gay people, the National Endowment for the Arts...who will you go after next? Oh, that's right...all those senior citizens and members of the middle class who have paid into Social Security and Medicare their entire lives. Then who in the world will be left to consume the products graciously bestowed on us by the job creators?

QUOTE (Tony @ Dec 29, 2016 -> 07:43 PM) The "tank-to-rebuild" strategy as you call it is a very poor interpretation of what the Sox are trying to accomplish. The goal is not to lose. That wasn't the Cubs goal, and it isn't the Sox goal. The difference between the goals of the 2016 White Sox and the 2017 White Sox is more about development than anything else. The Sox goal is not to obtain the #1 draft pick. The baseball draft is so much more of a crap-shoot than any other draft, the goal is to continue to develop the young talent within the organization. Have them take steps in the right direction. Would it be an added benefit for the Sox to obtain a Top 3 pick? Sure, but that isn't the objective. And in the specific case of Rodon, his develop is VITAL to the success of this franchise. In my eyes, getting a quality backstop to anchor the rotation someone to guide Rodon and others is vital in the development process. OTOH, we've seen numerous studies showing a HUGE difference in career WAR from the Top 3 picks in the draft, compared to say Picks #8-10. The especially hard part of this might be the race to the bottom from the Royals/Tigers (especially after this season) and if Buxton/Sano/Berrios don't break out, you've suddenly got 57 "very winnable games" (a disproportionate affect from the AL Central) for the 2018 Chicago White Sox. The obvious plus is the path back to second place isn't hard...but then you have to deal with the loaded AL East and AL West and even the Angels can't be down forever as long as Trout is healthy. To summarize, the Cubs aren't the World Series-winning Cubs without Kris Bryant. You need to get AT LEAST one impact/superstar position player from the 2017/18/19 drafts, and, IDEALLY, TWO MORE. With luck, we already have ONE in Collins, AND ANOTHER in Moncada, but the jury's still out.

I'd also like to bring back Dayan Viciedo, since we already gave Gordon Beckham that accolade/honor. So it's the Rymer Liriano/Dayan Viciedo Sox Reunification Tour. If all else fails, we can bring in Pedro Alvarez as part of a platoon DH, assuming we don't splurge on Jose Bautista.

Okay, just to be a contrarian, where can we start a Rymer Liriano Fan Club? Coats is just getting way too much attention, haha. The stated goal...to create a White Sox line-up with totally Latin American players. We've got Avi and Liriano for the OF (Basabe the most promising current prospect), Yoan Moncada, Carlos Sanchez and Jose Abreu for the infield, and Omar Narvaez at catcher. P.S. PLEASE RE-SIGN ALEX RIOS!!! Or Armando Rios. Just to annoy Greg.

Ooops. Thought this was Filibuster and we were discussing Sen. Dan Coats. Back to our regularly scheduled programming.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/dail...0904-story.html According to this, Scott Merkin should be around 51-52 years old. In that position, dream job, I think he'd stay as long as he possibly could. Especially to wait out the fruits of this rebuilding process which should have been started after 2012/13 but was deferred.

Except with that knee injury, you never know if he'll come back at 100%. Don't think they would trade for a player unless they've scoured all the doctor's reports and monitored in the spring. Possible, but unlikely. Plus projecting players from Mercer Univ. isn't a simple equation, either.

Upside Down. Balta now on the side of good, at least somewhat....while former SoxTalk heroes are being chastised for questioning the rebuild strategy and not drinking the Kool Aid the way they're supposed to.

Does anyone want to put statistical odds on Coats, Liriano, Engel or Jacob May being on a major league roster at the start of the 2020 season? The main benefit of them playing is the POSSIBILITY that just one of them is a 4th outfielder on a good team, like Saladino being a supersub/utility guy on a playoff-caliber squad. I'd take driving down the White Sox record into the 60's win total from the low 70's if it means not having to watch Avi Garcia for another full season. That said, the odds seem HIGH that they would continue with Garcia for more than 2-3 months if he's still in that 675-725 OPS range (due to his obvious defensive limitations). At that time (late June/July), you'd have playing time to give to the guys previously mentioned, as well as Davidson and anyone acquired via trade for some of our other veterans.

Or Frazier could go to the Indians...and they move Ramirez back into a Javier Baez-like role, with an emphasis on the corner outfield spots (especially if Brantley struggles with his health again). Lonnie Chisenhall is obviously not the first name that comes to mind for starting RFer on a World Series-caliber team, but they managed to get by with him last year. What were Ramirez's DRS numbers at 3B last year, compared to other positions over the last couple of years?

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Dec 28, 2016 -> 08:47 PM) Todd Frazier being a decent player is not the point. Todd Frazier not being a solid upgrade from what any other team has at those positions, and Todd Frazier basically being paid his market value for a 1 year deal, is what makes Frazier worth very little in trade. http://www.espn.com/mlb/stats/batting/_/po...ARBR/order/true He had a similar value to Matt Carpenter and Javier Baez, essentially 12-14 in WAR. Let's just put it this way, he was 14th out of 37 MLB players who had 300+ at-bats primarily at 3B. A season-ending injury to any of those Top 10 guys makes him extremely valuable. Not to mention that Jose Ramirez and Turner have to prove they can repeat, Longoria has a huge contract and has been spotty the last 2-3 years overall (rebounded in 2016), Rendon's battled a ton of injuries with the Nationals and hasn't repeated his breakout season. Carpenter's supposedly moving to 1B, as well. So you've got a clear Top 6 (or 7 if you include Turner), but any of those players 8-12 are pretty interchangeable.

Coats/Engel/Liriano/May...there's no compelling argument (yet) for any of them being everyday MLB players. Those are the ones who would potentially be blocking Avi (or vice-versa), along with Matt Davidson potentially getting some at-bats at DH. IMO, Engel and Liriano deserve a shot at least, especially if Engel can shore up the defense. It's easy to imagine some combination of Tilson/Engel (maybe Rasmus) and Liriano at some point as the Sox OF over the next 9 months. With Tilson's hammy and Saladino's back, we simply don't exactly how long they can hold up until March, at the earliest.

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/trump-blast...ory?id=44431926 Trump sniping at Obama now...that peaceful transition lasted almost two months, longer than most would have predicted. It's now coming into full conflict with the Obama administration's rearguard actions to protect his legacy. Hopefully the foreign policy issues don't blow up into a war while we're waiting for actual Trump directives to be put in place after the 20th.

I think everyone needs to start watching THE MAN IN THE HIGH CASTLE to get the full taste of Nazi/Aryan Supremacy hegemony. http://www.cnn.com/2016/12/28/us/lost-cause-trump/index.html Confederacy's "Lost Cause" and how it parallels to today's charged racial climate under Trump.

Everyone is undervaluing Frazier here... He has a more than reasonable contract, and he's definitely not close to over the hill. Sure, we can play some combination of Saladino, Davidson, Lawrie and Carlos Sanchez (4th option) there...but Saladino has been the only one who has shown a hint of being a major league regular, at least so far. Lawrie (and Avi, to a lesser extent) are simply there to hold down the fort for Moncada and/or better things to come in the outfield. As far as Melky goes, with that contract, he's much easier to trade with $6 million remaining and another solid/very good first half, but AL teams will still be more his limited market (due to his defensive shortcomings). To summarize, Frazier is a much better defender with a fair contract at a much more important position. I'd put the odds of Frazier hitting .240-.260ish at a much higher level of probability than Cabrera repeating his offensive performance...and his defense is declining by the year. He's probably not worth what Nate Jones is (due to the current over-inflated values of back-end relievers), but he's definitely ahead of Jennings/Gonzalez/Cabrera. And probably fairly close to Abreu, for teams in need of a nearly guaranteed offensive injection with a solid track record health-wise.

Play Davidson or Saladino at 3b. Real outfielders like Rasmus or Saunders could be interesting, but only if they don't believe in any of their internal options for CF and that giving Tilson/Engel/May etc. time out there won't change their minds. Saunders had really good numbers the first half last year...not as much of a buy low guy compared to Rasmus, who could also raise his trade value demonstrating his ability to handle center.