caulfield12

We can't even quite be bad enough to know when to lose. The funny thing in all of this is that it will wipe out a decent percentage of moves that Hahn and Co. might have been tempted to make, so that's not a bad thing. The biggest concern has to be that taking some of those options off the board will force the White Sox to make a trade like the proposed one for Todd Frazier that will end up causing the team to not only tread water, but really push contention into close to fantasyland and force the inevitable trades of Sale and/or Abreu a year or two down the line.

QUOTE (fathom @ Oct 3, 2015 -> 10:04 AM) Yep, Betts quietly had a great year (5 WAR). I've said all along it would have to be a package of something like Betts, E. Rodriguez, Swihart and a good prospect. Unfortunately I don't think Boston would do something like that. Nor should they, with all their abundant resources, the number of pitchers on the market this year...they're essentially in the same position as the Cubs last off-season. As badly as the Porcello, Ramirez and Sandoval moves went for them, they're always one great off-season away from being back in instant contention again, although Toronto's going to be a tough out for the near future.

http://www.southsidesox.com/2015/10/3/9443...t-robin-ventura Says it better than most could on the subject of Ventura. Also, it's not clear that Ventura received an extension of any sort, just that he's being "retained" as the manager for next season...with the obvious concern now that the new bench coach (let's say, Jose Valentin or McEwing if he doesn't go to the Mariners) then automatically starts out as the back-up QB and the pressure's going to be immense on the team (regardless of what they do in the off-season) to get off to a much better start than in 2015. As things stand right now, they're going to be picked for last place (behind DET) by about 80% of the baseball writers out there. And that woul be the case even with Yasiel Puig and Iwakuma/Latos coming on board, possibly.

Bumgarner has a decent chance to merit consideration for the Hall of Fame if he can sustain his recent level of pitching another five years, but guys like Cain, Hudson, Peavy and Lincecum became shades of their former selves and they still won. Sure, they had Sandoval as well, but it will be hard to name more than a couple of position players from that starting roster a decade from now. What will stand out is the pitching, Posey and Sandoval.

Saying someone is evil is a little over the top. You can take pretty much every politician apart other than Jimmy Carter, and he was arguably one of the five worst presidents of all-time. Taking a quote from a Secret Secret agent (probably with an axe to grind, maybe he was relieved from her detail or caught up in one of the numerous scandals over the past couple of decades?) isn't going to convince anyone to compare her with Stalin, Mao Zedong, Pol Pot, Hitler and Joseph Goebbels. It's not a popularity contest. For every good trait of Bill Clinton as a politician or intellectually, there are just as many "evil/manipulative/lawyerly" ones that always worked to his detriment and will forever stain his two terms in office. Let's face it, the same characteristics in men...women always get described as "b----es."

Other than Buster Posey, SF a decade or fifteen years from now will have zero players getting more than 10% in their Hall of Fame votes, but they will have at least 3 World Championships during that time period. That says something about the level of managing they've received.

For ten or fifteen years under KW, we've been attempting to catch lightning in a bottle throwing together players from different teams (mostly with losing organizations, although a few have been exceptions) and expecting that mixing in a few home-grown players would be enough to get it done. Obviously, Sale, Rodon, Ramirez and Abreu have held their own, but they spent very little time in our system and were fundamentally-flawed (the Cubans) in some mental or defensive aspect of the game that hasn't been correctable at the major league level. The club hasn't been able to draft and develop a single impact player that was sound on both sides of the ball, both offense and defense. Thompson might actually be the closest, but who knows if his hitting will hold up. Avi Garcia, Soler and Viciedo are essentially the same player, and even Eaton's had a lot of issues putting all aspects of his game, offense/defense/fundamentals/baserunning together at the same time, at least not on a consistent basis. That's simply not going to work in this day and age. The White Sox can't afford to pay the Heywards/Uptons/Gordons/Cespedes so we consistently get stuck with the next tier down in terms of talent, with Robertson being the only free agent other than Dunn who was close to his prime as a player (and both 2-3 years past, realistically).

QUOTE (greg775 @ Oct 3, 2015 -> 01:16 AM) Exactly. And as this escalates ... wow. In 20 years you won't recognize America. It's really going to be a mean, scary place where people are scared to death to go anywhere. Wait til we get an incident at a sports event, which is inevitable. Wow that will change sports too. Second half of a sports event a couple hours into the game when some nutjobs storm a 20,000 seat hoops arena or 50,000 stadium? Wow. Lots more will be killed but hopefully the rent a cops are armed and kill the nutjobs before they do too much damage. That already did happen...in Beslan, Russia, or even a country that always finishes in the top 5-10 of the world for quality of life, Norway (77 shot by one individual). Mass killings far and above anything in US history other than the Oklahoma City bombing. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jeremy-haft/..._b_8227680.html This should calm you down. America already is pretty great!

QUOTE (LDF @ Oct 3, 2015 -> 02:51 AM) why is there always someone using another team and their history to justify something. there is no comparison . Comparing the Cubs entering 2015 with the White Sox entering 2016 wouldn't even make j4l's lmao/laugh trax album.

QUOTE (ewokpelts @ Oct 3, 2015 -> 01:06 AM) despite 2015 having the 2nd highest payroll in sox history. Expecting fans to come out when they're spending that money on the likes of Cabrera (peds), Keppinger, Belisario, Beckham, Bonifacio, Downs, Dunn, LaRoche, Samardzija, etc., is what kind of strategy exactly? Besides, they always have amongst the lowest paid coaching and scouting departments in baseball, once you get past Don Cooper. Consistent misallocation of resources.

http://www.vox.com/2015/10/2/9441957/trump-gun-control Trump actually makes sense on gun control/mental health...BUT offers no solutions.

Tied with Padres (getting shut out by LAD) for the ninth spot. Almost wish they would be outside of the Top Ten to prevent Hahn from doing something else that will push the rebuild back even further.

Because everyone wants to vent their frustrations... What next, Vince Coleman will get an extension or praise for the job he's done this year? We can keep throwing out examples like 2012, 2008, 2000, 1983, 1977...but nobody's buying it with the same front office and essentially the same managerial/coaching staff coming back intact. Does anyone believe that replacing Baines (whatever he did) will make one iota of difference? What are the odds Sale, Abreu, Quintana, Robertson, Nate Jones, Rodon, Cabrera, Ramirez, etc., are close to 100% health for another year?

Now, with this exciting announcement of Ventura's return, would be a great time to send out those season ticket renewals. Meanwhile, the other 3 teams with longer playoff-less streaks have changed their manager, GM or both.

http://news.yahoo.com/lightbox/douglas-cou...3747412056.html 2013 letter (written after a previous mass shooting) from local Oregon sheriff stating he won't follow any Federal laws regarding gun control that he believes to be unconstitutional...

Vince Coleman deserves another 3-5 years for his baserunning philosophy to take further hold.

http://heavy.com/news/2015/10/chris-harper...cebook-youtube/ The latest mass gunman counts himself as Republican, anti-religion but spiritual, anti-consumerism....a lot of contradictions. Bi-racial. Never had a gf apparently.

Way to go, Jose. Glad that he's still fighting to the end. Resilience is the hallmark of strong character.

Honestly, it's to the point where the only way things MIGHT change would be if members of Congress lost their own children in one of these situations. Scarily, I think some would be even end more resolute, and obviously the Giffords and Sandy Hook situations didn't bring about any changes. You hear those statistics bandied about, something like only three members of the House and Senate had children fighting in the first two Gulf Wars...it brings one back to the conclusion if more mothers were in leadership positions, logic follows that there would be both fewer wars and fewer guns/less violence since that would suddenly become more of a priority.

QUOTE (ron883 @ Oct 1, 2015 -> 05:19 PM) Alpha dog wants our prisons to be even more crowded that's rich Better yet, private, for-profit prisons with even higher recidivism rates. Yet the number of African-American, Indian-American and Hispanic-American (the three groups most likely to be incarcerated based on general US pop vs. prison population proportionately) mass shooters remains incredibly low, compared to Asians and whites.

QUOTE (Alpha Dog @ Oct 1, 2015 -> 04:41 PM) Registration always does because it has always led to confiscation. Even here in the few places it exists, you get anti groups trying to make that list public. In California they are using that list to go round up guns from people they believe may or may not be able to have them anymore. (Not that I think it is a bad thing they are taking guns from people who shouldn't have them, but there is an open door). The GUN isn't the problem. It is a tool. Yes, that sounds like a bumper sticker but it is true. Most of these mass shooters are pretty f***ed in the head. Maybe they need some help? Put away somewhere? But that would probably be violating their rights somehow, as we can't do anything to them until they crack. How about enforcing existing gun laws? You know they have this nice little form you have to fill out to get a gun that goes to the feds. It is supposed to be a felony to lie on the form. Background checks stopped like 200,000 people last year from getting a gun for lying on that form. There weren't 200,000 prosecutions for that, not even 2000. Your average street thug probably has an arrest sheet longer then their arm. Why the hell are they back on the street? So you have f***ed up mental health in this country, screwed up prison system and judicial system that lets far too many violet criminals back on the steet or lets them go altogether and a lack of enforcement on current laws that all conspire to have this mess we have today. But then when you do have a gun group that tries to do good, like use a federal grant to give out free gun locks to poor people who don't have them, you have anti gun groups opposing that, because "guns, bad'. You have the NRA's Eddie Eagle program tp teach kids what to do and not to do when they find a gun, but god forbid the eeeevil NRA teach kids about safety, because 'guns, bad!'. Short answer is there is no solution short of banning guns, which won't happen and would only make things worse. Everything else just screws with people who legally own their guns and are not a threat to anyone, unless threatened. Let's see what details emerge after a few weeks, since everything we get now is bulls*** tainted by the views of whoever is reporting it. Then lets see what previously proposed thing would have stopped him. That last shooter, he passed a background check. But his mental health things weren't on his record because someone somewhere decided that it was none of our business that he may have been crazy. So banning guns would be worse because....people would just substitute knives and bombs? I'm almost to the point of agreeing with Greg again, that if the media didn't report for days and days about the shooters and their psychological issues, some of the motivation consequently be would be removed. One of the first social media quotes to come out was about the shooter's feelings of insignificance. "This is the only time I'll be in the news." According to the Oregonian newspaper, the shooter reportedly "asked people to state their religion" before opening fire. Of course, going back at least to John Hinckley almost 35 years ago...you have that same driving force (desire for fame) present in many of these shootings.

QUOTE (Alpha Dog @ Oct 1, 2015 -> 04:47 PM) http://pjmedia.com/tatlehttp://www.soxtalk...-joining-jihad/ So what's your suggested remedy? Internment camps like for Japanese-Americans during World War 2? What about all those who become outstanding citizens and join the US armed forces or make outstanding contributions in other ways? http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013...t-together.html

Wills had a way of seeming more like one of the fans (exasperated, for example) than just an arrogant/stubborn corporate lackey who you just knew with 98% predictability how combative he would be based upon the results of the game. In some ways, I think he's kind of given into the negativity a bit more this season, but, to use a Gregism, he never came across as the kind of guy you would enjoy a round or two of Miller Lites with...he never was able to find that middle ground where he was both standing with/sympathizing with the fans AND organization at the same time.

QUOTE (LDF @ Oct 1, 2015 -> 04:18 AM) i really don't know what the problem is or the answer. i will go back to what i stated earlier. not my rant on the owner and not getting enuf players nor the profit and lost. the one problem that i keep coming back to is this. many thought that the sox did enuf changes to be in better shape, including me. the owners and FO thought the same and to be honest most was in a giddy mood b/c it. dang, even at the trade deadline, the sox rolled out a series of wins. now this is a rhetorical question, what happen to cause most of the team to fail, to go into a prolong slump?? could anything have been done from management side to change the momentum?? We'll never know if they only make cosmetic changes to the scouting department and especially the coaching staff.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Sep 30, 2015 -> 11:29 PM) Hawk convinced me a year ago Micah was gonna be a superstar. Now he's just a blah prospect. What happened? I was hoping he was the next Ray Durham. He never had that type of pop and overall offensive ability.