caulfield12

Saladino can play basically everywhere on the infield. Some argue he's best at SS, some 3B...more recently, because of the presence of Sanchez/Micah Johnson in the high minors, he's probably had the least amount of time at 2B but he won't embarrass himself anywhere you put him.

I'm almost bored because the students in my Chinese school are TOO good, but they don't particularly enjoy debate/critical thinking (of course, they're miles ahead of US students on math, physics and chemistry, with students getting teased for anything below 740 on SAT Math). We have A-levels, IB, AP and International Foundation Year. Seven of our seniors got into Oxford/Cambridge, another 8 to UCLA, 5 to USC, University of Chicago, Cornell, Notre Dame, UNC, UC-Berkeley, Georgetown, UVA, etc. The students in IB and even some in A-levels look down on AP and believe it's not as academically rigorous, haha. Talk about the opposite of teaching in the inner city, where I had refugee/asylum students from 13 different countries on my girls' soccer team. I think the average SAT score for the IB program is around 2150-2175.

QUOTE (gosoxgo2005 @ Apr 10, 2016 -> 07:12 AM) If the sox are contending for a playoff spot at the end of the year, Jackson is hitting 9th The Tigers did just fine from 2011-14 not hitting him 9th. If he hasn't changed from his form of the last 1 1/2 seasons, sure, but then he's probably not an everyday player if that's the best we're going to get out of him.

Jackson has been pretty bad offensively for the better part of 1 1/2 seasons. You have to leave your best OBP guy in Eaton at 1 (where he's most comfortable, despite his base running issues) and then see how things go with Rollins/Saladino and Jackson for the first six weeks. If Jackson's showing signs of his former self, then you move him up to #2, but Jackson is also a guy who strikes out 125 or so times even at his best, so he's not ideal for the #2 spot because of the contact (or lack thereof) issue. Therein lies the conundrum. Normally you want your most professional situational hitter who makes contact and can work pitchers in that spot. The best options are Cabrera (when he's hot), Rollins and Jackson, but all three of them have flaws. Lawrie could also be in that spot as well, but has many of the same contact issues as Jackson.

QUOTE (Tex @ Apr 9, 2016 -> 08:39 AM) Finally, let's look at the scope of what we are trying to accomplish with the schools. Lately the social emotional character development of kids is being thrusted on the schools. http://www.casel.org/ We aren't really into taking anything out of the school day, but we keep adding. Does society really want me to be responsible for the emotional development of a kid I see 48 minutes a day? How am I going to have any meaningful impact on the social development of a kid who goes home to a dysfunctional family? When I was at my last school 15% of the students had a parent who had been in jail or prison, close to 50% had a family member or close friend in jail. And I am going to be judged on that child's character? I take seriously the fact that I may be the best role model that student sees each day and I do my best to help guide my students. They know when I'm talking to them like a dad and appreciate that. I would rather throw that in for free than be expected to and evaluated on how well the student's turn out. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_emotional_learning http://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/it...earning_why_now Therein lies part of the problem, expecting teachers to also function as social workers/counselors. I taught for four years in the Kansas City MO Public School District and we had a serious fight nearly every week. Pretty much every month, at least one student was directly affected by a murder or violent crime. One student stands out...he said his mom was always having sex with her boyfriend and there was never any food in the house, there were some nights I heard the cafeteria workers allowed him to stay in the cafeteria or not go home at night they were so concerned by his home environment. One of the ironies is that many of my students were born with crack addiction...and, of course they were over-prescribed ritalin to calm them down, turning many of them into zombies. Of course, if you allowed a student to sleep in your classroom (even if he had to work from 3 pm until 11 pm to 1 a.m. the previous night), you could be brought up for child abuse/negligence. I also had an economics class with 38 students when the district cap was supposed to be 33 in a classroom. Not ideal. A Fulbright Scholar didn't make it through the first month of teaching in our school...he was "bum rushed" because he was blocking the door to stop the students from leaving early at the end of the day and the situation became so confrontational and uncomfortable with that particular student that he ended up quitting. And let's not get started on breaking up fights with girls (we were basically told never to intervene because you could get accused of inappropriate contact) with long fingernails/hair extensions...22 1/2 hours teaching hours per week, usually the one planning period each day for my first two years was given up to substitute because the absentee/attrition rate in our district was so high (some positions went unfilled, others had teachers barely hanging on for their pensions that for instance were locked in their lab closets while the lab was set on fire, for example, I distinctly remember another teacher having his computer taken away due to an allegation of having child porn on it and him trying to hold onto the monitor idiotically, not to mention female students saying he tried to look under the table if they were wearing a skirt), and then I was coaching volleyball/basketball/soccer in addition to taking 2 1/2 hour classes for my master's degree 2-3 nights per week...and then I consistently had 2-4 different plans to do as well (for history, you have to teach American History, World History, Economics, American Government, Sociology, Psychology, World Geography). No surprise that only about 15-20% of teachers can survive that environment for more than 5 years, and that's what it felt like sometimes, a combination of survival/babysitting. One year, the seniors in our school that actually had an interest in college were averaging about 12.5-13.5 on their ACT prep test work. And that was the BEST 25% of those classes, god knows about the rest of them, and they felt so hopeless and/or unable to pay for college that many of them didn't even try despite the school paying KAPLAN a ton of money to improve their ACT scores. There was just no real world application to them, many of them already were parents at age 15-18 and the only thing they really cared about was economically providing for their families...sad situation, but reality. And then you're making about $2000 a month take home after union dues, pension payments, FICA, medicare/medicaid, etc. When we substituted, it was around $75 gross for 1 1/2 hours but only ended up around $30 after taxes, something ridiculous like that. At any rate, I always enjoy hearing the judgments and wisecracks from those who have never been inside a classroom and don't have the first idea about it...the program I was in, there was an actual medical doctor (neurosurgeon) who gave up his position to teach (our program was very similar to Teach for America) and he didn't last because his expectations were so high, the student ability level/morale/attitude so low that they simply decided to join together and accuse him of hitting or touching them in order to get him sent to "teacher jail" and he became so frustrated with the whole situation he just gave up...granted, there are certainly times when students had legit cases, but in my school, there were just as many when students knew they could screw up a teacher's career with a simple allegation backed up by just a couple of classmates. Not an easy environment, where any "tough discipline" leads to an inevitable accusation so teachers just give in and let the inmates run the asylum, so to speak.

QUOTE (Jake @ Apr 9, 2016 -> 06:43 AM) I also think, especially at his stage in his career, missing a year of play is very costly. He seemed unusually polished in some ways, but between not getting the chance to develop further and the rustiness that comes from the time away can easily make something like his high K% skyrocket. See Jared Mitchell...although with Jared, it also seemed to rob him of some confidence and was even more crippling because of his status as a speed/athleticism-tools player.

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Apr 4, 2016 -> 10:22 AM) I agree with most everything you say about the teachers, but I will point out, most people who have 401K's fully contribute to those 401k's with a very small amount (potentially) being contributed by others. That said, I value teachers and education and think they should be paid fair middle class wages, however, I do not support the union and think the union causes more harm than good to our overall education system. So what is your solution for recognizing and rewarding the best teachers? Because if you're going to cut job security/tenure and ask teachers to contribute more to their retirement, you need to provide some positive incentives as well. I always hear that charter schools are the magic bullet solution, and 10-15% of them work really well...but there are quite a few that are actually worse and the majority are average or below, depending on the financial resources and motivation for starting the school (if board members/founders are doing it more for their own enrichment, it usually doesn't end up a pretty picture.) If you start paying teachers based on the students' performance on standardized tests, then you are going to force them all to teach to the test in order to keep their jobs and/or you're going to lose some of the very best teachers out there who can make significant progress with the lowest level students. Even the worst teachers can't stop especially talented and motivated students from excelling, but the oldest/tenured teachers are often the ones who get the best classes/assignments/students, which often ends up burning out the newest teachers when they have to deal with the worst conditions in terms of student behavior/discipline/attitude. At any rate, great or good teaching is very subjective and hard to quantify...especially when results aren't easily corrected for comparison's sake when looking at the respective academic level of the students when beginning a year compared to where they finish...how much progress they make, and the different degrees of difficulty for fostering progress from the worst students compared to coasting along on the coattails of the best/highest performing ones.

Well, otoh, those teachers' pensions are much cushier than SS, by far...whatever the formula is, 60% of your five highest salary years, available when your age and years of service equal 75 (which might not be a 100% benefit if you start teaching later or retire early) or you've taught for at least 30 years. At any rate, there's no doubt that all the state/public pensions are going to be coming in for haircuts at some point in the near future...how "fair" that is depends on your belief in unions and in general, protection/s for workers vs. the "greed" of higher level management.

QUOTE (Quinarvy @ Apr 7, 2016 -> 09:49 PM) Last time I had Little Caesar's I had stomach pain for a week. My friend told me I needed to build up a tolerance for it. Imo's is an affront to pizzas very existence. But their garlic cheese bread (the one with the real cheese melting on it) and cheese-toasted ravioli are pretty darned good.

QUOTE (SCCWS @ Apr 8, 2016 -> 06:53 PM) We can also say that we are 3-2. We are on pace to win 97 games and probably the division as well. Well, one thing is for sure. Anything is an improvement on the first week of 2015. But if we struggle with Cleveland and Minnesota, hard to feel encouraged or like we've truly turned a corner. Have the feeling Minnesota is going to be a desperate team by the time we face them. They could be ready for the early knockout or fight back like a cornered bear.

QUOTE (BigHurt3515 @ Apr 8, 2016 -> 04:42 PM) Maybe we can trade for Bauer? Bauer could go a lot of places, but to another ALCD opponent isn't the most likely. Besides the fact there's nobody compelling we can trade in our farm system they would actually want after Anderson and Fulmer. They don't even really need either one of those two guys. If we had a legit outfielder or 3B to deal, but they signed Uribe and will get back Brantley this month. They're not going to trade Bauer for Avi Garcia/Shuck/Sands (he played for them last year or the year prior) and a spare part like Putnam/Petricka/Jennings in the bullpen.

QUOTE (Alexeihyeess @ Apr 8, 2016 -> 06:14 PM) The point of it is not to orient the entire offense around 1 player, but to try and create an environment where a few hits can be strung together. If it was 4-5 years ago, Rollins could absolutely be a 5-6 hitter or a leadoff guy. Just can't imagine the wear and tear of playing 120-125 games will allow his bat to hold up all season at that spot.

QUOTE (Alexeihyeess @ Apr 8, 2016 -> 06:14 PM) The point of it is not to orient the entire offense around 1 player, but to try and create an environment where a few hits can be strung together. If it was 4-5 years ago, Rollins could absolutely be a 5-6 hitter or a leadoff guy. Just can't imagine the wear and tear of playing 120-125 games will allow his bat to hold up all season at that spot.

That's 5-15 for Danks now against CLE. Tipping pitches? DJ made the comment that at the end of spring training, he was aggressive and going after hitters, busting them in on the hands...after two hits today, he started to get tentative, trying to "trick" them or pitching defensively to avoid contact or perhaps attempting to be too perfect again. First couple of innings, there was the Avila error, Jackson throwing home when he should have gone to third to hold the runner to 2nd (that runner didn't score), Jackson taking a poor route on a ball into the gap (misread the wind, which will take him time to figure out), Avi getting thrown out after reaching via walk in a situation you can never get picked off with a runner ahead of you on 2nd who's absolutely not going anywhere (this after Avi swung at pitches he had no business swinging at with Salazar wild early). On the plus side, we have more team speed and athleticism, definitely more enthusiasm from Lawrie, more professional/veteran hitters....Eaton has looked REALLY good and adjusted quite well to RF more quickly than most thought possible. That said, this division is going to be tough with DET looking to have one of the best offenses in the AL (at least early), Miggy has his legs back and Victor Martinez looks like he did 2-3 years ago and Zimmerman can be a monster, etc. You have a feeling that health, the bullpen before Robertson, the missing bat at DH and the back end of the rotation are still going to be the biggest issues with this team. We have a better overall offense, position by position, but something STILL seems to be missing. Granted, Salazar has very good stuff, the weather was miserable and they were out of the game after the first couple of innings and probably just wanted to get it over with. The most important thing here is we can't get into one of those "the Indians/Royals/Twins/Tigers just have our number" modes where we go 5-14 or 6-13 against one particular team and scuffle to get close to .500 in the division with the rest of the teams in the ALCD. Just an unfortunate situation with the terrible weather and terribly disappointing level of play after looking improved after the first four games. Hard to say which is the real team...probably the .500ish version that's not as good as against OAK and not as bad as they played today. But the Indians have a formidable team and it's likely to get even better when Brantley subs in for Jose Ramirez.

Well, there's sprain, strain and tear...with different degrees of severity, calling PTAC. Guess Soler gets two weeks of of pretty much uninterrupted playing time now?

Wouldn't Miguel Gonzalez be the most likely candidate to replace Latos/Danks?

QUOTE (greg775 @ Apr 6, 2016 -> 11:22 PM) Winning three of four while scoring 6-8 runs in the final game of the set would make for an awesome opening series. Losing 3-1 or something like that would mean 2-2 and an OK start, but not that great. 10-15 years ago, winning just one game on the West Coast was cause for celebration. Eventually we started to figure out Seattle (it helped that they started to suck in the mid 2000's), but Oakland and LA have always been the two toughest places for us to win consistently. That said, starting this weekend...we need to finally start taking care of business in the AL Central again. That means 5-10 games over .500 within the division to have a realistic shot at the playoffs.

At least they have more "professional" hitters in guys like Rollins, Jackson and Avila/Navarro that can give you a battle up there. Didn't really expect it was going to be easy to take 3/4, especially with Gray being their equivalent of Sale. The Sox were pretty fortunate to get the win Tuesday after Jones blew up. Offensively, Cabrera and Garcia are going to be two huge keys. At least Eaton's off to a much better start and seems pretty comfortable in RF. Have made some mistakes already on the base paths but they were able to cover them up the first two. As far as Lip's comments go, I think that was referring to the Cubs also being 3-0 at the beginning of a season. At any rate, since 2006, the best we've done after one month is 2 games over .500 and typically we're 3-5 games under, so .500 or above and nobody (particularly KC) running away with the division is fine. They just can't get buried early.

When's the last time a college coach came in and did really well in the NBA? It's hard to think of many examples. Pitino is probably the one standout who coached both well, along with Larry Brown. Most of the big names, though, have fallen pretty flat on their faces and returned with their tails tucked between their legs. Can't say the Hoiberg situation has been especially surprising. Hurt both the Cyclones and the Bulls in the process. In the end, Brad Stevens might be the best basketball coach since John Wooden. He's going to have to win some NBA titles to prove it, but he definitely has a chance if he doesn't burn out first.

The weird thing is OU beat Villanova by 23 in December. No resemblance of that game. As an OU fan (dad went there), no heartbreak with this one...compared to Danny and the Miracles when we owned the Jayhawks all season long until the championship game almost 30 years ago. Guess the Hawkeyes getting demolished doesn't seem so bad either now, since Villanova took Miami and OU to the woodshed as well. TBS couldn't have asked for two more terrible games from an audience standpoint. Usually you get at least one competitive game out of the two.

QUOTE (Brian @ Apr 2, 2016 -> 03:02 PM) The trailer for GND2 is the most eye rolling trailer ever. You mean the presence of Melissa Joan Hart, Jesse Metcalfe (Desperate Housewives) and Robin Givens wasn't enough to draw you in? The first film with Kevin Sorbo (Hercules) was watchable only in the sense he was such a jackass you were cheering for something bad to happen to him...it wasn't quite in Kirk Cameron territory. Even the Left Behind books had potential with the right director...and Nicholas Cage not hamming it up too much. But back to the Batman reboot (for about the fifth time now)...did anyone read that quote from Kevin Smith that Affleck's script was Oscar worthy? Who's going to direct it? It will come after Wonder Woman, I presume? Or after another DC Comics "throw everything but the kitchen sink into it" movie?

It's going to struggle to make $100 million in China right now...current position is $75 million and falling like a rock due to three or four new Chinese movies out for Qingming (Tomb Sweeping) Festival. You basically can't break $1 billion these days in global box office without getting 25% of it from China. OTOH, Zootopia has done really well here. The best movies obviously are carried well by word of mouth in any country.

http://www.ocregister.com/angels/strong-42...body-table.html Lots of White Sox names in the Top 60. Unfortunately Rowand and Crede were the only ones to make it...Buehrle the year before. Others just off the list were Barcelo, Josh Fogg, Biddle and Stumm.

http://www.vox.com/2016/3/30/11329886/batm...iew-zack-snyder How Zack Snyder ruins almost every movie he makes (with the exceptions of 300 and Dawn of the Dead remake)...

Not to mention the Jimmy Olsen travesty. He had an extra day of box office, but Easter's usually slower, you had basketball and a lot of competition in the marketplace with Zootopia and Greek Wedding 2.