caulfield12

If Liriano pitched like he would go on to throw from 2013-2015, we might not be having this same conversation.

All depends on how motivated the Red Sox want to get rid of him, and/or Sandoval. Ramirez is probably the first to go. They'd probably prefer to play Bradley, Jr., Betts and Castillo and go younger, all things being equal. If it was Jeff Banister, I would trust him to get the most/best out of Ramirez. But Ventura? That leaves it all predicated on who the new Hispanic bench coach is, and his relationship with Hanley. Personally, I'd rather role the dice on Puig.

http://www.businessinsider.com/navy-seal-r...hooting-2015-10 Here you go, Greg. Now you'll be all set for the next shooting...

Except for Rick Hahn...

25% chance, maybe 1/3 if really lucky.

The story so far seems to be blaming it on forcing the Cubs to expand their strike zone (Phil Cuzzi, of course, Maddon was gracious enough to observe it was the same for both sides)...and also the possibility that Lackey ("I'm not accusing anyone" and then Ross inevitably did just that) was doctoring the ball or the Cardinals were putting balls that had been scuffed or fouled off back into play.

My whole thing about this is 1) I would never in a million years root for the Cubs to win it, 2) if they were to win it, I would attempt to be gracious and congratulate any Cubs' fans ("how does it feel to FINALLY join the club?" derisive comment attached) and then I would TRY to consider it philosophically in terms of all the lifelong REAL Cubs' fans, the grandparents and great-grandparents and aunts and uncles who suffered for decades and decades waiting for a winner to come along, made it through 1969 and 1984 and 1989 and 2003 and all those other heartbreaking years but never wavered in their fandom or abandoned their team. For me, it's Uncle Herman, who died about 20 years ago the tried to get me to follow the Cubs when I was growing up. It just so happens that my favorite uncle loved the White Sox (and drinking beer), and gave me some White Sox baseball cards in 1979 (Claudell Washington, Lamar Johnson, Mike Squires) and that's what got me started. He worked for the Dubuque Packing Company and never got to enjoy the 2005 season, unfortunately. The yuppies from the 1980's on...the investment bankers and trust fund kids and Northwestern grads (just a slight dig at Hahn, haha), and especially all the bandwagoners now, F--- them. "Trashy bar. The prices are pretty good but the food sucks, the music sucks, and the staff and owners are trash. I had never planned on bothering with a review for this place until i saw their newest trashy decision to give out a free beer for any time the cardinals HR off the Cubs. I'm a die hard Cubs fan but when the sox were going to the series, i rooted for them and the respect the Cubs showed was big. I will definitely not be back here ever and will make sure everyone knows this place is garbage." From yelp review

Although I'm kind of warming up to the idea of those who donate at least 10% of their income to church/charity should be exempt/ed from tickets, haha. I can just see it now. Many drivers would game the system, and contribute the minimum 10% and then drive around like maniacs and eventually everyone's insurance rates would skyrocket due to all the accident payouts...counterbalancing all the positives of avoiding paying fines to the police and resulting in a 25-35% increase in highway fatalities.

Seattle not only fired their GM, they also fired their manager now in Lloyd McClendon...probably the end of his MLB managerial career.

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mlb-big-leag...s-183823514.htm McNally's has gotten thousands of dollars worth of free press out of their shenanigans at least. As someone pointed out, it's not even legal in Chicago to give out free beer but all the stories keep quoting that as the centerpiece of the story.

They did hold onto Thornton too long, but the exact same happened with Marte...when you have the best or one of the top three lefties in the league, it's a natural tendency to ride him until it's too late. With Matty, the beginning of the end was the All-Star game in 2010 and then definitely the game-winner he gave up to Thome late in that season. He was never the same after that, physically (lost 2-3 MPH off his fastball) or psychologically. As far as the Cubs go, they really haven't had luck with guys such as Soler, Olt, Junior Lake, Alcantara, Almora (so far)....Baez struggled mightily last year, and Castro for most of this season, but they were still able to cover or patch up a lot of those holes. Another example, Edwin Jackson was terrible, and they overcame that (whereas Dunn/Danks/LaRoche seem to constantly weigh down the Sox). Bryant, Rizzo, Montero, Fowler and Schwarber had a lot to do with that, and Chris Coghlan surprised as well. When we look at the back end of that rotation five or ten years from now, I'm sure we will all be pretty surprised they did as well as they did after Arrieta and Lester. Finally, their bullpen has been huge for them in the 2nd half...some of it coming via trades, some developed internally.

QUOTE (pettie4sox @ Oct 9, 2015 -> 04:35 PM) That's game Madson isn't Wade Davis. Not automatic by any stretch.

I guess the main point is to say that teams like the Cubs, Royals and Astros got a lot more back in return if you compared their 2012 rosters with ours. Surely, we rode a lot of our players into the ground when we should have rebuilt as early as 2011. We also got nothing to show for Crede, Jenks, Floyd, Crain, Uribe, Humber, etc. And, of course, Davidson for Reed has been a huge disappointment. Not to mention Viciedo and Beckham and basically most of our free agent adds other than Abreu and Alexei.

Huge recovery there from Fields to keep the game tied. Alex Gordon just lost $5-10 million on his next contract. Joking. But surely Cueto has by now with how he's pitched with the Royals. Without Holland, Madson becomes the weak point of the KC pen in the 8th. Fwiw, Keuchel is 15-0 at home with a miniscule ERA for Game 3. Of course, 33-48 and the worst road record in the AL leads to beating NY and KC on the road to begin the playoffs. Volquez for KC. Pretty sure with only 2 ip that Ventura will go again in a must-win Game 4 on the road.

QUOTE (OmarComing25 @ Oct 9, 2015 -> 09:05 AM) Not sure if I agree, I don't think everyone expects Mets fans to support the Yankees when they're on a playoff run. With the exception of 2011 after 9/11 against the DBacks in the World Series. At least being more "respectful" or not openly rooting against them...it would have been an interesting poll to see how many Mets' fans were secretl hoping for the Yankees to lose despite everything the city went through that fall.

http://www.si.com/thecauldron/2015/10/08/c...s-wild-card-win Poorly written but funny story about premature celebrations in baseball, highlighting Arrieta and his kid. https://twitter.com/Cubs/status/65196442267...src=twsrc%5Etfw

I'm not sure if you were watching the same David Robertson the final half of the season. More confidence in Quintana, Eaton and Rodon going forward.

Then you should ask Illinois' governor, senators or reps why they're not expressing condolences to the victims in Chicago like McCain already in AZ.

QUOTE (Buehrle>Wood @ Oct 9, 2015 -> 07:35 AM) Also Caulfield your plan would be illegal in the great city of chicago. I read where it's illegal to give away for free but can't it be discounted, two for one, 50 cents, etc.?

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Oct 9, 2015 -> 07:21 AM) http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/b...1008-story.html One person dead in Chicago. 6 others wounded. Can we make a new thread each morning for those people too? Or do they matter less? If it was a school/university-related shooting, sure...why not? Or if the Chicago shooting was a copycat.

I just put it here since it came up as a headline story at yahoo news and also on the front page of Bleacher Report. It's also crept into the Trib and even the Obama story about pulling for the Cubs. So the biggest national Sox headlines in weeks are ironically Cubs-related.

QUOTE (Jose Abreu @ Oct 9, 2015 -> 07:13 AM) World's Most Famous Sox Fan Rooting For Cubs They should have asked if he's a Robin Ventura fan, too!!

And that won't be too hard because they can easily add another starter (Price, Cueto, Zimmermann, etc.) and let next season play out without being forced to make another move until midseason. Eventually, Castro or Baez will have to be traded, and they will hope for a rebound from Soler as well, but they have desperation on the part of other teams on their side in the offseason, too, if they do choose to go into 2016 with more clarity as far as the future of the starting lineup (those three already mentioned, as well as Schwarber.) Assuming Bryant stays at third, unless they trade Schwarber for a Chris Sale-ish haul.

QUOTE (Middle Buffalo @ Oct 9, 2015 -> 06:58 AM) I think it's kind of funny, but it reinforces the idea that Sox fans are more concerned with the Cubs than their own team. I'd be against any Cub-centric marketing campaign by the Sox. Just get better. Backup campaign that goes in tandem with the Stand Pat Plan. Because the White Sox bringing in Cespedes, Norris/Wieters, Zobrist, Desmond, C.Davis and Heyward (pick any combination of two or three) is about as likely as Harold Baines playing the role of Frank TJ Mackey in Magnolia 2.

Buying a slugger at peak value and at the halfway post of a career hasn't worked well for us...Davis is just scary. Would have felt the same way about Nelson Cruz this year, at least in a Sox uniform.