caulfield12

I've had this happen over and over and over again with credit cards when living/traveling overseas. It's pretty much automatic anytime you charge over $500 or usually $1000 from another country that your account will get frozen temporarily for fraud...then there's the inconvenience of having to call the US and be waiting and waiting for a customer service rep. In China, unless you put a $300 deposit on your phone, you can't make international calls...and I never did it because I thought it would be a total pain in the ass to get the deposit back. The worst part is when I go travelling and call the card companies ahead of time (India and Kenya/Tanzania/Ethiopia in 2013) and even if they have a note about your exact travel schedule, those transactions still get flagged and the account temporarily frozen.

First MLB game was 1979...Gary Templeton and the Cardinals played at Wrigley. Do those 45 and older get a SoxTalk member discount or at least a discount card for Arby's or something?

With the Leury Garcia example, it's not as simple as using his current season stats. You have a LONG track record of minor league struggles...in the context of last season, it's easy to say it doesn't matter and we were never going to compete in hindsight. Clearly, we were lacking in talent...and our bench has been a black hole for two years now, particularly after Avisail Garcia went down last year early. That said, hopefully this year when they HAVE to rest players more easily like Alexei, there's a better option offensively (what Keppinger was supposed to be, and what Saladino might have to be...whether he's ready or not).

That trade for Dayton Moore has turned from the final nail in the coffin to the cornerstone of his career resurgence. I still don't think it's bad for the Padres at all. If both Myers and Kemp (two big ifs) can both get it going together, that would be a nice middle of the order punch. Unless players like Nick Gordon and Turner can hit .270+ with at least a little pop, they're not going be huge losses to their organizations. We've seen a lot of prospects drafted at SS not make it...ending up at other positions. Turner has speed and glove working for him now but the offense has been inconsistent at best.

QUOTE (sammy esposito @ Dec 16, 2014 -> 09:44 PM) I was just thinking Avisail hasn't really proven himself to me. Could he be trade bait. there is plenty of left fielders available. No one seems to want Tank. Not really. The best value on the FA market right now is probably Aoki at $7 million. Or Rasmus. Not exactly a plethora of riches. Would have taken Rasmus over Cabrera (based on contracts and risk/reward), but that ship has sailed. Mike Morse was basically the 3rd member of the remaining options and he's now signed with the Marlins. Otherwise, you're stuck trading bad contracts or prospects for the likes of Ethier, Crawford or CarGO. Or paying Alex Rios $11 million for one season.

http://www.kansascity.com/sports/mlb/kansa...cle4523857.html Moises Sierra is available again. DREAM AWAY.

Who the hell are the Rays going to have left to market? Archer? Moore...coming off TJ surgery?

Reading all the posts here (refusing to read spoilers), I'm tempted to skip to Season 4 of Homeland. For a long time, I thought Brody was going to go in the typical direction and become a VP or President. When you watch it all together, it's yo-yoing way too much back and forth with Carrie and her various and sundry mental health issues. Michael Cuesta, who was also a Prison Break producer, had the same exact plot problem with that particular show...you can only go back to that well (mental illness recurrences or new prisons to escape from) so many times before it runs dry. Part of me was hoping for Abu Nazir to survive. Now, I'm stuck with a boring arc of Venezuelan exile with the only viewing solace being Esme (captor's daughter). And the psych ward and conspiracy theories overlaid on top of each other.

Too much risk in terms of talent we're going to have to give up. It's not unlike the situation with Bruce in Cincy. We're forced to pay for the 2012-13 All-Star/MVP versions without being able to cover the expensive downside of these contracts. Acquiring Jermaine Dye coming off a catastrophic injury (or Thome) is one thing...but betting the future of the franchise on Longoria is not the type of move Hahn's going to make if he wants to stay GM for 5-10 more years. The Cubs have been looking for a solid 3B for decades.

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Dec 16, 2014 -> 03:36 PM) I think it's just the cycle. In the late 80s and 90s you couldn't escape Seagal/Arnie/Sly/Van Damme. Those guys dominated the theaters and THEY were the ones crowding out the other movies. The other movies are there, the Mission Impossibles, Fast and Furious, expendables, etc. people just aren't that into them anymore. I caught The Escape Plan the other night and couldn't get through it. You can keep that crap On the other hand, with Fast and the Furious, at least you're seeing a diverse/representative cast...even if it is for marketing purposes. And the NEXT movie will be hugely popular as long as they continue to be entertaining. Adding a legit bad guy in Statham compared to a generic one will be enough. As for Mission Impossible, that and the Bourne movies as well as Dark Knight pushed Bond into darker territory, and made him a more interesting character. As you can see from all the articles about the upcoming SPECTRE debacle, the attempt to return the character to more of a tongue-in-cheek Connery/Roger Moore sense of humor isn't working very well. That's the danger. That if you copy other styles too much, you lose what made the character great and so enduring in the first place. I was reading another leaked document about Aaron Sorkin and just found it mind-blowing that he couldn't think of a single Asian-American (Asian-Canadian) and that was the main argument behind not making the Michael Lewis work FLASH BOYS into a motion picture. Asian actors can only be in kung-fun/karate/action movies!!! And we can't find ANY actors in 2014 who MIGHT actually be confused with Egyptian/Israelite/Middle Eastern characters for EXODUS??? A sad state of affairs.

Fun with statistics.

At best, the results are mixed. 2012, we used, what, 12-13 different rookies....mostly in the bullpen, along with Quintana. In that situation, he did about as good a job as possible but the last 2-3 weeks were a different story, that 4-11 finish. 2013 was pretty much a disaster from all standpoints. 2014, we were lacking in talent/personnel...of course, the opposite's true heading into 2015, so a lot of questions SHOULD be answered this season about Ventura as a manager. All indications are that he's probably about average or just a notch below in most aspects (keeping calm and even-keeled being his best quality)...the bigger question is whether he can help push a team with talent that's a bit "above average" into a playoff spot? Will the team be dragged down or can he manage to elevate them...by 1 or 2 or 3 games, whatever it is that we can all agree is the actual number of games a "great" manager can make in difference over an average or below-average one? If Ned Yost could do it in 2014, why not Ventura in 2015? He's not going to have the past as an excuse. Other than a few players who have been questionable on the fundamental side of things like Ramirez and Viciedo, he's got an almost entirely different ball club than the one Detroit blew past down the stretch in 2012.

I'm not sure comparing him to Fredi Gonzalez is exactly the highest bar or standard available. Their teams were in totally different situations in 2014. I'm sure the same article could be written comparing Brad Ausmus and Ventura. The fact of the matter is that Mike Illitch was paying guys like Nathan, Soria and Chamberlain a lot of money to get the job done in a season where they were expected to make the playoffs. What was Belisario's salary last year? $3.5 million? It's not like RV removed A.Miller from high leverage duties in the first year of his four year deal. Now if RV does the same thing with Robertson halfway through 2015, I'd be amazed (and also depressed, simultaneously).

LOL. I'll agree that the statistical side of baseball is making the "old school/traditional scouts shooting the s---" conversation a thing of the past. The Hawk Harrelson School. When I first became a baseball fan in the 1980's, Strat-O-Matic was the equivalent of "sabes," to use a Greg-ism. Now it's like statisticians/quants and economists have created so many projection systems that they're covering themselves no matter what happens. The problem is that it's a lot easier to say why player A, B or C will fail than to say what will actually work. There's still that missing human element. Hopefully we don't or won't lose it completely.

New to Homeland. Just started watching last week and into the 2nd season now where Estes/Saul find out that Claire Danes actually knew what she was talking about... At first, this series didn't draw me in (the Nick Brody character, specifically) but now I'm getting into it. This show feels a lot like 24 to me, with a bit of House of Cards, The Blacklist and Person of Interest thrown in for good measure.

QUOTE (elrockinMT @ Dec 15, 2014 -> 08:26 PM) I think we should sign AJPerz to a one year deal That would make more sense than overpaying for Castro, at least. Not sure it's the right move at the right time for this organization, though.

QUOTE (Lillian @ Dec 15, 2014 -> 06:24 PM) Another way to think about the potential of adding Scherzer is to consider the difference between his resigning with the Tigers, or with us. How would k*** our chances of taking the Division with our current staff, and Detroit having a staff with Scherzer back in their rotation? Then, think about our prospects if the Sox signed him. Of course, he may not sign with either club, but it just provides another perspective. I think if you're talking about the difference between Victor Martinez OR Miguel Cabrera on the White Sox or Tigers (from 2011-2014)...or Kotsay/Jones versus Thome on the Twins....or back to 2003 when any team in the AL Central could have signed Kenny Rogers on the cheap, it would make sense. In this case, we'd be better off if Scherzer signed the 2nd biggest contract in the sports and the Tigers ended up stuck with another exploding contract on the back end. The White Sox can't afford to be on the wrong side of that kind of contract, not unless they had all those PROJECTED 2019 new television dollars coming in.

I can just see Ventura's agent using a system like this to argue the White Sox dramatically overachieved last year. Theoretically, anything's better than Phil Rogers relying on Pythagorean projections. If you watched this team last year, and, specifically, that bullpen....it's hard to see the White Sox even at the most pessimistic as a .500 team and potentially 85-88 wins if everything broke right/ comparative good health, etc.

We have four intriguing arms now that might affect the 2nd half race in Ynoa, Sanburn, Montas and, of course, Rodon. You could also add Webb and Nate Jones, who many were counting on at this point a year ago. Compared to where we were then, that's a veritable bounty of potential riches in the bullpen. Obviously, at least Rodon is expected to start, but it's nice to know we might not have to make a desperation trade at the deadline and can hopefully rely on internal options instead of overpaying.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Dec 15, 2014 -> 12:44 PM) Downloads for the week: The Maze Runner Gone girl nightcrawler Nightcrawler isn't a great flick, but it's very watchable, mostly for Gylenhaal's performance. If there was a dictionary definition of "creepy," his picture would be included. There's a part of him that's very earnest and eager to please, like someone who's watched 50 self-help videos, Tony Robbins and How to Win Friends and Influence People one too many times...but as the movie evolves, that part of him disappears. It definitely makes your skin crawl a bit...in the sense that it's easy to imagine these same conversations happening behind the scenes with assignment editors and producers in the big markets where there's a significant amount of "inner city" crime spreading outwards into the suburbs and gated communities.

QUOTE (Melissa1334 @ Dec 15, 2014 -> 07:16 PM) Alex rios signs 11 mil/1yr deal with royals . Wow that is awful lol morales and rios Essentially they're paying the same price for Rios and Morales as they would have for Aoki and Butler. In and of itself, it's probably a slight net gain, but you're putting a ton of pressure on that pitching staff and you haven't replaced Shields in any tangible way other than minor league depth/prospects. Royals fans undoubtedly expected more, and have good reason to be disappointed.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Dec 15, 2014 -> 04:27 PM) Bob Nightengale ‏@BNightengale 6m6 minutes ago The #Dodgers sign Brett Anderson to a one-year, $10 million contract, reports @Buster_ESPN, with chance to make $4 million in incentives. I don't think anyone had Brett Anderson projected to earn $10-14 million in 2015, when you take his injury history and lack of innings thrown/potential durability into account.

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Dec 15, 2014 -> 11:04 AM) No offense Wite, but pass whatever you are sniffing. 2 WAR starter for a guy who was drafted last year is an incredibly unrealistic expectation for him, imo. Could he do it, certainly, but to do something like that, being drafted all of 6 months ago, is an extremely tough feat. I think for this year, we could look at Rodon as a guy who could hold is own in the 4th / 5th spot, while flashing some of that upside (and also getting hit at times). What did Kip Wells do in 1989? I think that would be pretty realistic...someone who comes on in the 2nd half of the season and makes a big impact. Bigger than McCarthy in 2005 at least (and we arguably wouldn't have won the Central without him IMO.)

Doesn't feel like the right time. Tanaka was a situation where you had a potential ace at age 25 or 26...in the prime of his career, like Abreu. With Scherzer, it almost feels guaranteed you'll see an injury or drop-off sooner rather than later. It's just too big a risk, we've seen how the Dunn and Danks contracts alone have handicapped this franchise for the past couple of seasons. As mentioned, with everyone we've brought on, other than Robertson, those risks are limited to a 2-3 year window, which is the prudent thing to do. Best guess is the FO thinking has to be to get to June/July and then the "all-in" move will come at that time to try to make a push for the playoffs/World Series in 2015 if everything breaks right. That would give us another 3-4 months to assess where all of our top prospects are....how Rodon's adjusting....and how guys like Gillaspie, A.Garcia, Flowers and whoever's playing 2B are adjusting. Depending on our place in the standings, you start thinking about who you want to hold onto for 2016 and who you want to trade. That seems a lot more prudent move to make than putting all your eggs in one basket. I haven't done the exact math, but if you add up Duke/LaRoche/Robertson/Samardzija/Me.Cabrera you're still not even touching the overall package of what Scherzer will receive. I have my doubts that someone can argue that Scherzer would/will make more of an impact individually than all of those players collectively. If it was a year ago and Max looked like one of the top 3-5 pitchers in baseball, you could at least make an argument. That time has passed, where you're paying for 2012-13 Scherzer but not getting that same pitcher back for your investment.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Dec 14, 2014 -> 10:50 PM) I shake my head in disgust whenever there's a revelation somebody used or uses steroids. Nobody seems to be crying. Some of us would rather not sign the guy because of his past. I also don't think he's worth the money, but it's not my money, so I won't lose sleep over that. Isn't this guy getting as much or more than Dunn got from the Sox? Man, salaries are skyrocketing more and more, even since the Dunn signing. Cmon. Melky is not worth that kind of money. Sox overpaid greatly at least as far as what he's worth. Whether you want to believe this or not, Butler MIGHT hit better and produce more runs than Melky this year. Melky ain't no Mickey Mantle. Some of us don't like the signing. No biggie. I'm not going to root for him to fail, or anything like that. Would you have been happy with Aoki for half that money? All things considered, we were lucky to get three years instead of four, and lots of projections were in the $15 million range for four seasons. Billy Butler can't be compared to Melky. If you want to argue we should have signed Butler INSTEAD of LaRoche, that's a valid argument, although...at the time, Melky wasn't a sure thing (for us to sign) and the most important priority seemed to be a middle-of-the-order power bat to replace Dunn.