caulfield12

QUOTE (L. Ron Paultard @ Aug 9, 2015 -> 12:43 PM) This was a supremely all-around DUMB team for years. A supremely all-around DUMB team coming out of '15 Spring Training. A supremely all-around DUMB team whenever it was actually expected to play like a playoff-caliber team. The only saving grace has always been that overall level of talent was above-average, lots of big names.... but the tsunami of Dumb would just overwhelm in the end. The bizarre pitch-sequences and shifting alone should have gotten Mark Parent or Coop fired like 2 years ago, haha, while KC seems to pitch to their advance-scouting reports, our dunces prefer to almost pitch TO the KC hitters strengths. So bizarre and hilar, haha! And yet the pitching war (at least for starters) was among the best the majors two weeks ago. Something's up with Sale, physically. That long strikeout streak took something out of him...hasn't been the same since. Flowers an abysmal 5/43 throwing out runners. But, pitch framing! Toronto continues to advance like a wheat thresher through the AL.

The mistakes on the basepath and mental game continue to kill this team... Soto daydreaming (Abreu homer there gives them a 5-3 lead instead of solo homer to make it 7-3 trailing), Jennings more concerned with holding Morales on than getting the hitter out, Melky clowning around all over the field, etc.

QUOTE (L. Ron Paultard @ Aug 8, 2015 -> 07:52 PM) haha, don't I know it. I can be that myself as a kid in particular, but since then grew up and prefer to avoid everything sports-related like a plague (Soxtalk excepted every few years, and even then I am only here until Monday, so better enjoy my infinite know-it-all swag Is your cousin/alter-ego The Ultimate Champion? Didn't realize he was a Scientologist/libertarian.

QUOTE (SouthSideSale @ Aug 8, 2015 -> 07:49 PM) Good luck getting one off Holland He's been worse than Robertson the past two months. We got one last night, to boot. Joe Nathan with the Twins, he's not.

QUOTE (L. Ron Paultard @ Aug 8, 2015 -> 07:45 PM) Josh Phegley is playing in a zero-pressure environment and even at his peak, he's a 1-WAR player (not that S-metrics can't be useless in a smaller sample size or can capture the true suckage that is his defense... mind you) As for Avi, again you're mixing everything up. Avi wasn't rushed to the big at all. At a quick glance, Mister Garcia's problems are 2-fold: 1) aformentioned Terrible scouting. Apparently someone told Rick Hahn that Garcia is a top-flight defensive CF.... who can also steal 30 bases with ease... and has Miguel Cabrera's HOF-caliber combination of poise, early pitch-recognition, hand-eye coordination & batspeed. I feel sorry for Hahn, haha. 2) And even with limited upside, Avi could still hit 20-25 HR in the majors because of his natural strength & an all-field line-drive swing. Which is what seem to happen before he tore his shoulder at age 22. When he came back, his mechanics were different. Still got off to a good start in 2015, including an impressive oppo HR against David Price no less. Sure he still needed to learn a lot in terms of plate-discipline & how to "think along with the pitcher".... but he was trending in a positive direction at 23 yo. Then everyone, including the media and fans began to whine how Avi need to pull more of those majestic Gio Stanton type HR to LF. Evidently Garcia took heed. And has been in pull-n-uppercut loopy off-balance swing mode for a couple of months. Numbers tanked big-time. Sure some responsibility is on Avi himself, got greedy, got out of his element. Doesn't seem to have affected Eaton too adversely that he went on a homer binge...

QUOTE (SouthSideSale @ Aug 8, 2015 -> 07:42 PM) Sigh..... Seven...I mean, next year will be eight for the Sox...and probably second consecutive year for the Cubs/Astros.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Aug 8, 2015 -> 07:38 PM) And the end result of the thinking that "We must compete this year and we can't field a below .500 team multiple years in a row" is going to be 4 years below .500 in a row and a team that isn't nearly competitive the next year wihtout a huge FA splurge, again. Because we must compete every year, we've been uncompetitive 3 years in a row. You can't tell me "This team can't afford to be uncompetitive 2 years in a row" when they've been an utter failure 4 of 5 years. They're going to be worse next year in attendance because the foolish fans that bought into the 2015 BS are going to be even more angry because of the 2015 failure. They bought into this bullcrap and the team took advantage of them - how on Earth do we expect them to repeat that mistake next year? We're now going to be in Cleveland Indians attendance territory because we took the people who were interested and flicked them off with the 2015 season. This might be the one offseason overpaying a name manager makes sense, because they're going to have to spend $150-200 million to get anyone to buy in again on free agents making a difference. But JR won't pay two managers simultaneously.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Aug 8, 2015 -> 07:38 PM) And the end result of the thinking that "We must compete this year and we can't field a below .500 team multiple years in a row" is going to be 4 years below .500 in a row and a team that isn't nearly competitive the next year wihtout a huge FA splurge, again. Because we must compete every year, we've been uncompetitive 3 years in a row. You can't tell me "This team can't afford to be uncompetitive 2 years in a row" when they've been an utter failure 4 of 5 years. They're going to be worse next year in attendance because the foolish fans that bought into the 2015 BS are going to be even more angry because of the 2015 failure. They bought into this bullcrap and the team took advantage of them - how on Earth do we expect them to repeat that mistake next year? We're now going to be in Cleveland Indians attendance territory because we took the people who were interested and flicked them off with the 2015 season. And yet we know it's quite possible nothing will actually happen until 2029, sigh.

QUOTE (SouthSideSale @ Aug 8, 2015 -> 07:24 PM) The Cubs, Pirates, Royals and Astros have been s***ty for a long time. They're due to get some really good players. Only a three year difference in last playoff appearance with Sox and Astros. Eight years each with Sox and Cubs.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Aug 8, 2015 -> 07:23 PM) Josh Phegley has been worth 1.3 bWAR this season. Soto has been worth 1.3 bWAR this season. Yes I'm defending Josh Phegley. Giving up on him because the org decides they didn't like him was stupid and it's exactly the kind of mistake this organization has been making for years - we don't like a guy even if they're talented so we assume they will never learn anything at the big league level. We then give them away because we don't like them. Then we assume guys we like will learn a ton at the big league level, like Avi, then they are slow to do so and somehow we are surprised when we're a below .500 team as a consequence. As long as we're ok with being a below .500 team permanently, it's a successful plan. Daniel Hudson, Brian Anderson, Brandon McCarthy, Rauch, Phegley, etc. Then we stick with someone like Teahen because Buddy Bell loved him when he worked for the Royals...you would think Gold Glove guys like Bell and later Ventura could make better determinations with Teahen, Viciedo, Gillaspie, etc.

Samardzija had like 21-22 starts of 5+ innings. Last two after the deadline, of course...0 for 2 getting through the fifth even.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Aug 8, 2015 -> 01:58 PM) That's a pretty good post. A mass murderer in the USA really doesn't have to worry about much. He either gets killed by the cops while committing his crime (which makes him famous thanks to the way we cover these stories in America) or gets life in prison (pretty cushy life unless inmates get to him) or is humanely thrust into the afterlife. Blowing a guy's head off or hanging him would be pretty scary and might deter some of this. Good luck to the people over there if they let him out. I'd make him wear a tracking device at all times so they know where he is and what he's doing. Or make America the equivalent of North Korea, China or a typical Middle Eastern country...

QUOTE (fathom @ Aug 8, 2015 -> 06:55 PM) Samardzija's next game will be against Cubs. Be interesting if he throws at any of them. Might be the only way to keep the White Sox off page 17 of the sports section. That or some fresh Ozzie quotes.

Haha. Called that one. Hits that ball in the fifth, it's 5-3 White Sox. Soto with the wandering mind, though. Play smart you win, play dumb you lose.

Now is when Abreu homers or gets hit by a pitch...

If Hahn can't even name his own manager, he should walk. Supposedly, he's had tremendous interest from 3-4 other teams, if he's so great...should be easy to find another job in baseball. Or maybe he gets lucky and Williams finally leaves.

Mental blunders....why is Jennings even bothering to look at Kendrys Morales, who isn't going anywhere in a million years? Kind of embarassing to be drawing attention to yourself like Melky has been doing recently when you should be worried more about winning the game.

QUOTE (SoxPride18 @ Aug 8, 2015 -> 06:39 PM) Ok, then you are giving up more valuable pieces from the minor league system. Melky and Robertson are fine and produce enough that they can be part of this. Just have to continue to bring in the players that they think can win with. Preferably a 3B. There were lots of options....guys like Volquez, Brett Anderson, Colby Lewis, Chris Young, Liriano, etc.

White Sox continue to beat themselves. Not sure why Melky Cabrera is clowning around so much on the basepaths and talking to the Sox dugout...almost got thrown out running past second. Just not the necessary level of focus and concentration. Soto has no business getting thrown out since he's not going anywhere with Abreu at the plate. Royals lead all of baseball in tallying runs in the next half-inning after their opponents have scored. Sloppy.

QUOTE (dpd9189 @ Aug 8, 2015 -> 05:03 PM) Where can we get an Addison Russell? I want one of those. We could have had Iglesias. Not the pop/overall upside, but a better defender.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Aug 8, 2015 -> 04:37 PM) Only when I feel it'll help the Sox win. Packed stadium, hot night, struggling KC team wanting to feast on Chicago to get well, inconsistent pitcher who could be taken deep by Hosmer and Morales ... I wanna win Actually, the Royals are probably needing to be challenged again...the fact that Minnesota has collapsed has allowed them for the first time all season to take the foot off the gas pedal and relax a bit. Hitting their batters intentionally is only going to wake them up again and get someone like Abreu or Eaton hurt.

Looks like it was THIS close to being Hamels pitching for the Giants...surely they'll add to their starting staff in the offseason with all the money coming free in terms of dead weight contracts, but it would have given them a real shot this year. So the odd/even year jinx continues, it would seem.

Guthrie is terrible this year and always on the verge of being dumpedfrom the rotation, which means another Chen-like shutout? Fwiw, with the way Toronto is playing, and with how inconsistent Y.Ventura has been, the Blue Jays have to be considered the favorites in the AL at this point. Of course, the same was said about the A's this time last year. Even the aARP Yankees are sentimental favorites, so that's new. Kind of ironic, because year after year the local sports talk station in KC always organized protests (typical small market team can't compete against the Evil Empire stuff) whenever the Yankees and their legion of fans came to town.

QUOTE (Cknolls @ Aug 8, 2015 -> 10:29 AM) Why are you comparing Presidential debates to Primary debates? Can you just get over your partisanship for just one minute to objectively look at even the smallest of metrics such as ratings? Seriously. We get it, you don't like R's. They don't walk on water like Narcissus. Noted. Actually, probably for the first time in my life, I would probably vote Kasich over Clinton. But I'm skeptical he will ever be allowed to emerge from the pack. http://www.newrepublic.com/article/122478/...worst-nightmare This article strongly supports the idea that too much GOP exposure/debating is bad and why...

We talked about Jeter already...another example is Tom Brady. You don't have to stop enjoying life as a professional athlete, it comes with the money/fame/power. That said, alcohol use turning into abuse often leads to problems. Hard as it is, you have to understand the limits. Just because many things are possible to do doesn't always make them right. Then again, many athletes live on that edge of everything falling apart and enjoy the risk. It reminds me of the story of James Hunt, the British F1 driver.