caulfield12

Have to spend at some point. Tigers at $270+ million added this offseason and the Royals at $174 million with just Gordon, Kennedy and the Sal Perez extension to 2021. Around $200 million with Soria added in... The White Sox are at what, $12.5-15 million?

Have to spend at some point. Tigers at $270+ million added this offseason and the Royals at $174 million with just Gordon, Kennedy and the Sal Perez extension to 2021. Around $200 million with Soria added in... The White Sox are at what, $12.5-15 million?

Most Chinese think Trump is a bit nuts...I hear a lot of comments asking why is his skin so orange and they think he's like an angry monkey compared to their cuddly teddy bear in Xi Jinping. The majority are much more familiar with Hillary Clinton and generally have a positive view of the Clintons, especially her husband. Most of my students know Trump now but none of the other candidates other than Hillary all that well. My understanding is Europeans in general are much more interested and even have watch parties related to the debates and major primary contests.

The counterargument is that 42 was just a better movie...and that there is a movie for well-done sports movies, like Creed. Just like there's a limited demand for the latest Kevin Costner sports movie, such as Draft Day or McFarland, USA., which was actually much better but featured a largely unknown story, compared to, say, Glory Road (Texas Western/UTEP vs. Kentucky/Rupp.) It's also about finding great stories, whether it's Slumdog Millionaire or Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. The Indian and Chinese casts of those movies were irrelevant to audiences, or Hero, for another largely Asian cast.

How many accurate Eaton throws...to either the cutoff man, the correct base or on a line...have we actually seen? Plus, for some reason velocity always seems to be inflated on low throws into the ground or waist high compared to the typical Cespedes or Puig type of lofted throw. Where does Yoenis rate?

Even if Trump gets knee capped at the GOP Convention, it's hard to imagine retaining even half that angry/bitter/disaffected Trump support and getting them all energized to vote for another candidate after pulling for him for well over a year. Otoh, it might be better than having House/Senate candidates running just as much against Trump as their Democratic opponents. Fascinating stuff, if you're into dramas or soap operas and not wonkish policy discussions.

Let's just hope and pray our two catchers stay healthy...or we'll be seeing a lot more of Hector Sanchez. Which still might be better than supposed defensive fiend Corky Miller.

It works both ways. Chris Rock took a cheap shot at Asian-Americans (for being smart and hard-working, and doubling down with a child labor bit) and almost nobody in the world noticed, except for Jeremy Lin, who I guess is now the defender of all Asians in the minds of the media because he went to Harvard and is the most famous Asian athlete most Americans know. As for Gods of Egpyt, you should at least make an attempt to diversify part of your cast simply because it does make economic sense these days. Look at Star Wars and especially the Fast and Furious series...audiences want to see women as action stars, Hispanic or black characters they can identify with, more diversity. The melting pot, as long as it feels natural and organic. Just as insulting is integrating Chinese stars for maybe three to five minutes into X-Men and Transformers movies to pander to the audience here in China. It worked to an extent, but now expectations have risen and Chinese studios are demanding more or simply creating more co-productions as well as buying up US studios and theatre chains. To summarize, Affirmative Action or required participation in movies based on being 12% African American, 14% Hispanic, 7% Asian (but Asian worldwide dominates due to India and China) and 1% Native Americans won't work...so what is your suggestion that's actually feasible? I would counterargue that more movies aiming for small niche Hispanic and African-American audiences are profitable than the average "almost all white cast" movie...but the studios do typically role the dice on four quadrant movies that can lead to huge profits or four baggers as they're called. Tyler Perry movies, for example...almost always profitable until recently. Friday and most of the early Ice Cube movies. As a culture, can we honestly be satisfied only with "buddy" comedy movies with one black and one white star paired together...or anything with Will Smith or Denzel Washington since white America is more comfortable with them?

2015 you also had Crede, Rowand and Uribe that were all excellent or at least above-average...and that old adage of excellent/solid up the middle. Iguchi and Uribe as a combination were very effective. Buehrle was a perennial Gold Glover as well. Plus, AJ made up for some of his weaknesses with leadership and the strong relationship he had with Cooper and the starting staff all being on the same page. With most of our defenders, we're just hoping against hope they can be average. You're also sitting your best defender in LaRoche 90% of the time.

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Mar 1, 2016 -> 06:20 AM) Good story about Gordon Beckhams wedding invites. Compelling and rich Do you believe the White Sox prefer for their players to be openly political? It's probably not very helpful from a public relations standpoint to criticize the most famous White Sox fan in the world...many would see it as disrespectful.

Does Seattle have the right to protect its market from competition in Portland or Vancouver? I guess not. For all these years, the Giants have been able to block an Oakland move to San Jose, and then the Nationals/Orioles have their own long history of disputes as well.

Does Seattle have the right to protect its market from competition in Seattle or Vancouver? I guess not. For all these years, the Giants have been able to block an Oakland move to San Jose, and then the Nationals/Orioles have their own long history of disputes as well.

http://ftw.usatoday.com/2016/02/adam-eaton-tweet-oscars Now the Eaton story has become "mainstream," getting picked up as a headline at USA Today and Yahoo News. SIGH. As far as Gordon's wife goes, it's not totally unexpected. She grew up in the Deep South, just like Scott Fletcher (her father), Greg Walker, Hawk Harrelson, etc. Beckham made a series of comments over time that were perceived to be anti-Obama, but, once again...it is what it is. Democrats in general struggle to get to 25% in some of those rural counties in Georgia and South Carolina. http://www.gammonsdaily.com/gordon-beckham...nvitation-list/ Beckham and his fiance (Tiffany Fletcher) also invited President George W. Bush and Laura Bush to his wedding in 2013. Apparently Scooter was a favorite player of his when he co-owned the Rangers.

Where's the indignation from the "religious right/Moral Majority" on these issues like Planned Parenthood and numerous issues where he's taken liberal positions in the last year or even last decade...even his Christianity has been constantly questioned, but that line of attack from the right seems not to have gotten much traction in recent weeks. It didn't work for Cruz in South Carolina, that's for sure.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Feb 29, 2016 -> 07:29 PM) He asked me what most Asians think...I can't speak for all, obviously, but I've lived/worked in South Korea, China (3 cities), Thailand, the Philippines and Indonesia. A pretty good mixture in terms of skin color and socioeconomic groups. In general, Korean/Chinese/Japanese and Singaporeans feel they are the dominant countries now, and represent the "whitest/purest" in their own minds. As far as racism goes, it's VERY prevalent. China does not have a diverse culture internally, despite the feeling (as a foreigner/visitor) of Shanghai, Beijing and Hong Kong/Guangzhou/Shenzhen being "melting pots" compared to the interior of the country. My wife went to one of the top 5-6 universities in China and she still has lots of incorrect (I'm sure most Americans would call them racist) ideas in her head that mostly come from Chinese culture/stereotyping but also as a result of watching lots of American t.v. shows and movies. One can only imagine those with lesser educations being even more ill-informed. And I did think of one, but only one, movie star who was/is very popular in China...Will Smith. But his popularity more or less peaked here with I Am Legend. The the sci-fi film he did with his son (one of the worst movies that year) actually did pretty good box office here in China before the negative reviews caught up with it. Cloud Atlas did better box office than in the US, and Halle Berry is one of the stars of that film. On the other hand, Creed wasn't shown here and Django Unchained was pulled by the government at the last second. AND NOW, BACK TO ADAM EATON TALK, sponsored by the Score

QUOTE (Y2JImmy0 @ Feb 29, 2016 -> 04:30 PM) This is probably a better question for caulfield but I've heard multiple people bring up the fact that Asians are generally racist. Movie studios make a ton of money overseas and in Asian nations, they don't want to see movies with black people in them. I'm not sure how true this is but Bill Maher brought it up and I've seen it mentioned in a couple of other places as well. First of all, I don't think many white people saw The Artist, Carol, The Room or Brooklyn, either...to respond to an earlier comment. I also doubt many white people saw Beasts of No Nation or the documentary about honor killings in Pakistan. That's not the point. When they constantly make movies and "whitewash" the characters like in Aloha or Gods of Egypt, there's a real issue. As far as Asia goes, what Jimmy said is largely true. Denzel Washington action movies like Man on Fire or the Equalizer don't sell well here at all. Now if you throw Chris Pine and a train into the story, great. Same thing with stories involving interracial romance unless it's mostly white men with Asian women. The only way you can be embraced is as a martial arts crossover star. And, in general, comedies don't translate...so you'll never have a Kevin Hart movie. About the only exception was the Rush Hour series with Tucker and Chan and Zhang Ziyi, but, even then it got banned by the third movie for negative stereotypes about Chinese triads/criminal activity. On the other hand, Kobe Bryant and Stephon Marbury (plays in Chinese league still) are wildly popular, as well as some of the African footballrs in the Euro leagues...but, once again, not in the context of movies and tv shows. In general, I typically hear comments like "black people are dirty/meaning not white or pale skin as well" and the worst one, that lots of black people (students here from Africa mostly) all have disease/s. Most Chinese parents and grandparents won't allow their children to date men of color as well. While I do see quite a few college or university interracial couples...the eventual marriage rate is infinitesimal.

Then some media outlet will take pettie's line at face value and use it to recycle the controversy somehow...and throw all the stereotypes about the White Sox fanbase into the mix. Or they can just dredge up half the yahoo comments on any article dealing with race, like Kanye West and the whole Zuckerberg $1 billion loan twitter controversy. That kind of stuff is 100x scarier, or just any general comments online from detractors of the president thinly-guised as political or states' rights/"freedom and liberty" philosophy. Of course, those with legitimate complaints rightfully bristle at being lumped in as racist...and it goes around and around. I remember a similar controversy when Beckham complained how inconvenienced he was by the president's entourage/detours/security details getting to the ballpark and it came across not unlike the Eaton tweet as being possibly racist or disrespectful. Just better to keep your mouth shut as an athlete in most cases.

From what everyone is saying about Gods of Egypt, far worse than San Andreas...epic failure.

If you're going to take a shot at the White Sox from high in your media tower, this is a pretty ridiculous one. Kenny Williams/Dave Wilder, Kim Ng, Minnie Minoso, Tony LaRussa, Ozzie Guillen as manager...the White Sox have always been at the forefront of minority hiring and outreach.

The irony is that one of the main reasons Donald Trump is doing so well this primary season is for representing the antithesis of this trend...being in a position (billionaire status definitely helps here, since he doesn't have a boss) to say whatever he wants, whenever he wants to say it. Fwiw, this was an area Michael Jordan was a master at...largely managing not to offend anyone, at least during his playing career. The flip side is that he was criticized within the African-American community for not being more outspoken about social and economic issues for someone who was in a position to be so influential as a role model and global marketing icon. Of course the argument was that he merely kept his thoughts to himself in the service of Nike profitability.

I thought we offered Fowler $17 million over two years, no opt-out? Even if it (Sox theoretical offer) was $20 million and two years (and no opt-out again), the Cubs' offer would be more attractive since he's guaranteed to be getting $13 million for the Cubs and is VERY unlikely to end up getting less than $7 million next season, unless he's injured or just has a terrible season as a complementary player within a potentially dynamic offense.

Apologizing then will be perceived as an admission of guilt. No matter what you do as an athlete, you're going to be open to interpretation or those with a political agenda when you have words on a screen and no other context for them. If it was said in the tone of "why can't we all just get along?" it would lend itself to a different frame or reference...not joking exactly, but more irreverent humor. Versus..."white people are always being forced to justify their actions/awards are not considered based solely on merit" way of looking at things.

I guess the "politically correct" interpretation or BLM one would be that years of systemic and endemic Hollywood racism (as well as sexism) have forced this discussion into the public spotlight. Obviously, Chris Rock probably added some fuel to the fire as well, the boycott of the Selma director to focus on issues in Flint, etc. It's also the kind of statement that fits into the narrative of "why don't African-Americans feel welcomed by the sport of baseball...?"

QUOTE (SCCWS @ Feb 28, 2016 -> 08:24 PM) A team that spent the majority of the season w Flowers, Sanchez, Saladino and Avi in your everyday lineup was a good team???? That is half of your lineup in the field. 3 of the 4 will not return to their position from last year and 90% of the fans want the 4th one replaced. Agreed that guys like LaRoche, Alexei and to some extent Melky did not perform but the rest of the lineup were not ML quality starting players. Don't forget Gillaspie as well. He was the original starter at 3rd. Not to mention Olt, Micah Johnson, Beckham, Bonifacio and Davidson...and then one of the few bright spots in terms of younger players, Trayce Thompson, was traded away. Davidson and Avi were supposed to be two key contributors, and their struggles have cost the White Sox quite a bit. Hahn did a good job covering up for those missed evaluations, but will it be enough now that we've run out of resources until at least mid-season?

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Feb 28, 2016 -> 02:37 PM) Funny how you were against giving up,draft picks and anything more than 3 year contracts earlier this offseason. Of course that is when everyone assumed Gordon to the White Sox was likely. Wanted to wait until June to sign Desmond. Wanted to give Latos $10-12 million, wanted to give Parra $8 million, even though he hasn't shown he can hit in the AL, and wanted no part of Fowler and the draft pick, pointing out without realizing he has spent a season in the AL, that he would be a good candidate not to be able to adjust. Waiting to June for Desmond would have made sense, but obviously he and his agent didn't want to take the risk of sitting out two months. It would have saved the Sox even more money, but, alas, not to be. When I wrote that about Latos, Kennedy had just signed for $70 million, Leake, Happ, etc., and nobody had access to his medical reports. Can you guarantee as of today he's going to provide anything positive (let's say an improvement on Shark's numbers) to the White Sox this season? Nobody knows, same with Rollins. His value might be more from mentoring Anderson than anything else, for all we know. (Of course, that's a pretty darned expensive coach/mentor.) Besides, if the White Sox are in need of financial savings, signing Desmond for $8 million, not signing Latos and Rollins, and not spending $2 million on the draft would have had the same net effect financially ($6 million overall cost). As a reminder, Desmond is the same guy who's in the Top 5 in war for MLB shortstops over the past four seasons. It still would be logical enough (signing him for one year) because of the fact that he's likely to end up with another QO from the Rangers to recoup that lost pick...and with the lack of talent on next year's market, and with his ability to put up huge offensive numbers in Texas, there's a very good chance he can make up at least part of what he lost financially turning down $107 million over 7 years. What it would essentially mean is that he needs to get $90 million for 5 years next off-season. That's not completely unrealistic if he can prove his defensive ability to play in the outfield and also ends up playing extensively at SS or 2B in case of an injury. In the end, we were in a great position to sign at least one of Jackson and Desmond...