caulfield12

FIRE NOBODY. Let's remain in Dante's 9th circle of hell forever!!! Stuck perpetually between contention and getting Top 3-5 draft picks (well, we did manage that feat once, which isn't surprising with the 5th worst record in baseball for the last 3+ years).

Worst MLB Records since September 15th, 2012 1. Houston -81 (but playoff appearance finally) 2. Rockies -79 3. Twins -74 4. Marlins -71 5. White Sox -69 6. Phillies -68 7. DBacks -47 8. Padres -42 Brewers -42 10. Reds -40 11. Braves -28 12. Mariners -12 Cubs +5 How many of those teams have kept their managers during that entire time??? Replace 2 or more managers?

In other shocking news, African-American students are 4X more likely to disciplined or expelled from schools than white students. Hopefully Trump will make a comment on that one...he really hasn't said much about crime or education in terms of any type of concrete policy or plan. Well. Not that I realistically expected anything of substance, who are we crappin'? http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2016/06...ended/85526458/ Yet another example of systemic bias/prejudice/racism in our public school systems.

That possibility exists every night in Colombia, Thailand, the Philippines and Indonesia. So best stay away from those countries, Gregster. Too many temptations. I was actually drugged once in Colombia in a bar and I had to be tested to see if the woman had sex with me when I was unconscious, lol. Well, it wasn't so funny at the time because my g/f at the time found out I was with another girl and it was a big scandal in our apartment complex. Plus my g/f was a professional masseuse, so that was the end of that. Luckily, she only took about $40 in cash and left all my credit and bank cards, driver's license, passport/visa, etc. Could have been worse. Some guys had their cars/trucks stolen by the same group who were lacing drinks in bars throughout that region of the country.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Jun 7, 2016 -> 11:53 PM) . Are you f***ing high? Albers and Jennings would be claimed in a second, Kahnle's thrown like 6 innings, Carroll is apparently a White Sox lifer, Daniel Webb has sucked f***ing dong, Zach Duke is still due like $8 mill (and would be scooped off waivers IMMEDIATELY) and Matt Purke is a AAAA player who has had like one good night of pitching in his life. I don't even get what you're trying to say here. Are you defending Cooper despite the fact that the pitching staff has been dogs*** for the past 4 years, despite the club spending money on pitchers? Please name ONE team that would commit to paying Zach Duke $8 million for the next 1 2/3rd's years. Your what hurts? I think you're seriously overestimating the esteem with which the rest of MLB holds our relievers. Jennings isn't anything special. There are left-handed relievers like him all over baseball, could be the next one is Purke for all we know. Despite Duke being absolutely terrible this past month, he hasn't been pushed ahead of him into 7th and 8th inning high leverage situations. I also distinctly recall on a number of occasions reading on this board that reliever XYZ could/should be flipped for XYZ prospect, and how often has that actually happened to our benefit the last 3-4 years? NOT OFTEN. Sounds too Cubs-like. What has Don Cooper actually done that's so bad? If you want to blame him for Rodon "regressing," that's probably the closest to a direct hit you're going to get on him...because it's pretty obvious he was extracting the maximum he was ever going to get out of the likes of Latos, Gonzalez and Albers. Now they're simply returning to their norms/means. In fact, name all those teams that are highly desirous of Duke and I will start sending out the e-mails to their Assistant GM's right this moment, because we're going to need that $8 million to pay for other needed spare parts to fix this team and keep it from completely sinking out of contention over the month of June. Finally, look at that 2012 roster. How many of those rookie pitchers other than Santiago and Q are still even playing professional baseball? Don Cooper is a miracle worker, I tell you. Surely, he would also be willing to tell you.

That's all fine and good, but just look at all the adversity the other three teams leading us in the AL Central Division standings have gone through. Kendrys Morales is hitting MUCH worse than Abreu, for just one example. Did the Indians plan on having their second best player miss the first two months of the season? At least Abreu has a presence in the line-up that Lonnie Chisenhall, Rajai Davis or Tyler Naquin don't. (I remember this was one of many EARLY defenses of the Manny Ramirez acquisition in late 2010.) Did the Tigers plan on having Daniel Norris get cancer, Anibal Sanchez getting bumped from the rotation, Cameron Maybin being hurt (had to play Gose, mostly, in the early going) and their bullpen, despite all the new additions/spending, laying an egg? On Justin Upton being MUCH WORSE than Jose Abreu? Or JD Martinez looking merely an adequate player and not an All-Star? Jose Iglesias hitting in the 220s instead of the 320's? Wow. We lost Petricka and Austin Jackson/Cabrera missed last weekend. Fire Robin Ventura is the diametrical opposite of a blanket statement, if you've watched this team over the last 4+ years under Ventura. If you're deliberating seeing Robin with rose-colored glasses, that's not a helpful solution by any stretch of the imagination, either.

If we DFA'ed Matt Albers, Dan Jennings, Kahnle, Carroll, Webb, Beck, Zach Duke and Purke tomorrow, how many potential suitors would be willing to give up anything of significance for those guys? Putnam's been doing quite well recently, and I'm not even sure that we'd get much back for him. Maybe some team's 24th or 25th bench player? To have any real value, you've got to have dominant stuff, two pitches you can throw for strikes even when behind in the count, be an effective lefty against LHBers OR have something very unique or distinctive about your style or repertoire. In reality, Cooper did a great job doing what he could to get something useful out of all those guys...Latos and Albers included. Putnam and Carroll and Petricka. All of these guys basically came off the scrap heap or were failed starters in the case of Petricka. If you average out their first month (32 games) and their last 26, you get an average MLB bullpen. Why everyone's expecting it to compete with the Yankees or KC is beyond me, they just don't have the talent to strike out tons of hitters, other than Jones and Robertson.

Bernie Sanders is available now. Baseball has never had a socialist manager before (that I know of). Unless it was around the turn of the century, a LaFollette/William Jennings Bryan follower.

Flavum, that might be too depressing a stat to track for a considerable period of time. Maybe counting days until Ventura is fired? How many consecutive losses they can absorb without any corrective action being taken? You could use emojis/icons with Roman emperor Nero fiddling. One fiddle for a good game, five fiddles for warning/bullpen or managerial implosion.

The Reds already traded one franchise player in Frazier. Another in Chapman. They have Votto, whose value is way way down. No way they just give Bruce away for salary relief when there are so many teams in the AL desperate for that one extra bat to carry them over the top. Other than OAK, TB and Minnesota, everyone could be buying...even the Astros, although that's questionable on their part.

QUOTE (Buehrle>Wood @ Jun 7, 2016 -> 10:15 PM) "An 8 game lead over the Tigers on May 6th turns into a 1 game lead for DET over the White Sox 24 games later." Ventura was not content on just having the worst collapse in Sox history (2012). Now he's got something to rival it. Even the Indians, when they picked up 12 1/2 games on us in 2005 before Crede homered off Riske, that took them 44 games played at a 33-11 clip to just come "close" to catching the White Sox. This was 19 fewer games to go from a surefire playoff position to selling off assets at the deadline (heck, 4 games after ADDING significant salary) and probably firing the manager as well.

Of course, Chris Carter had 5 RBI's tonight and now has 16 and 39. Trayce Thompson has been hitting 3rd and now 5th for the Dodgers the last two nights. Marcus Semien has a 743 OPS for the A's, which would be 770-780ish in a favorable hitting environment. But we do have that draft pick instead of Semien AND Desmond.

If they don't do it soon, the natives are going to wise up and turn on Hahn, KW and JR. Or Hahn/KW will turn on each other to blame the other for this current predicament. Somehow, Don Cooper will survive it all.

If nothing gets done after another Shields implosion and former two-time prospect Gio Gonzalez throws a no-hitter and the Royals sweep them again at USCF... What would it actually take? Will Carlos Sanchez be recalled to hit 5th and DH tomorrow?

Can we just add Purke to the rotation, lol?

Carlos Gomez is available!!! Of course, Mr. Anderson of the Indians is getting ripped to shreds in SEA. Not that we could do anything against him in the 2nd game of that DH. 6-0 M's. After tonight: CLE +7 Detroit/KC 2 1/2 GB CHW 3 1/2 GB Forecast: Cloudy with a chance of more bullpen hilarity tomorrow.

http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/16031510...entura-plunking Lawrie vs. Ventura, The Rematch, on Sunday. Will be interesting to see if he appeals, and how many games both he and Machado get from the Commissioner's Office. Reading Yost's comments, it's almost like he's hoping this situation will spark some life back into KC again... http://www.kansascity.com/sports/spt-colum....html#wgt=blogs Ventura taking a beating on social media. Rightfully so, you risk ending the career of one of the five best players in MLB.

More singles from Abreu...

There's going to be fight this weekend vs. the Royals. Too many forces coming together in confluence. Both teams terribly frustrated and at wit's end trying to figure out what happened to their teams. You've got Lawrie and then Ventura, after getting absolutely rocked tonight, pitching Sunday (and pitching frustrated/angry/emotional). Royals have seen a first place lead of 1 1/2 turn into 3 games back. White Sox will have lost 19 out of 25 games. It's almost like the opposite of the 2010 run in the May/June that season that put us right back into the race.

Now Rollins gets his job back...well, just because Ventura HAS to try something even though Jimmy Rollins has absolutely nothing to do with building for the future.

If they trade Tim Anderson for anyone at this point, that's the very last straw. Thankfully, they already have Cozart at that position. And, if we're buying Bruce, we might as well bring Devin Mesoraco over as well and try to "fix" him. Take half of the farm system, it doesn't really matter anymore at this point. Just becoming almost a comedic situation, where everything Hahn was trying to accomplish in 2013 has just been completely thrown out the window. They really didn't know that Avisail Garcia was going to be a problem coming into this season as a starter?

How does Hahn keep his job? He gave Ventura only Sale/Q/Robertson/Jones to work with. Sale and Q have pitched great. Hahn went cheap on the rest of the pitching staff and didn't make any offseason additions to improve the bullpen (other than the idea that Nate Jones was "like" an addition). Rodon's the big question mark...maybe he's injured. PTAC has been concerned about him since the day he was drafted, so it might be that he'll just be our version of Liriano, he'll have some amazing streaks and then some stretches where you wonder what all the hype was about and where his control went, why he's throwing 92-93 MPH instead of 95-98 and where is that illusive change-up as the 3rd pitch he hasn't even gotten completely comfortable throwing. Now he's added James Shields when it's likely TOO late this year and 3-4 years too late in Shields' career.

Didn't realize it was actually the Washington Generals vs. the Harlem Globetrotters in this one...

QUOTE (soxfan85 @ Jun 7, 2016 -> 08:44 PM) I think it would fit right in. This team is just one huge ball sac. Except we're missing one or both about right now. Basically, we're Varys, Theon Greyjoy and the Unsullied all rolled into one.

Surprise, another lefty reaches base against DUKIE. It has become the opposite of Melky Cabrera against LHP last year. Just abysmal this past month. But hey, that $5 million is much better spent on him than player development/talent procurement.