caulfield12

Have you seen CarGo's contract? We wouldn't claim him even in an Alex Rios waiver wire type of deal. As far as chemistry/discipline, I'm pretty sure Ventura's not the right manager to match him with...still, on talent alone, I'd gamble and make that trade because we do have Fulmer, whoever we get for Samardzija, Montas and Erik Johnson. Offense is always going to be more the issue than pitching over the next 2-3 years.

Hahn said this morning on the Score that he expected Sale to be starting on Sunday, with Rodon and the additional rest/blister issue pushed back to next week. Some dudes were calling in crucifying the Sox for not starting Sale today and trying to sweep the doubleheader, knowing that 2-2 probably won't do in terms of pushing them into a position where they can justify adding pieces. Did say one funny thing...that the only untouchable 23 they ever had was not Robin Ventura but someone who played for the Bulls, in response to a question about the possibility of dealing Chris Sale, and that they listen to any and all offers on every player until the point where an offer becomes too good to pass up. Really didn't seem committed one way or the other...which is understandable but not where any GM wants to be this close to the deadline. Also said they would be much less inclined to deal a player in the division (although the Avi Garcia example came up) and had no issue trading with the Cubs, as the idea of limiting your market further by not including them was counter-intuitive to the team's best interests long-term. Finally, mentioned how hard it was to both develop and compete at the same time and that rebuilding on the fly wasn't the most popular approach compared to the Cubs, Astros, Twins or big market spending teams.

QUOTE (whitesoxfan99 @ Jul 16, 2015 -> 10:58 AM) Agree. It was a pretty fun movie but I don't understand how it became such a cultural phenomenon. The idea of the militarized dinosaurs is just ridiculous with the types of weapons we have right now. And I'm not sure this needs a spoiler tag but: It's like writing a critical review of the most recent Fast & the Furious movie...of course, 90% of the set action pieces are preposterous and over the top (like the runway that goes on for about 5 KM from the previous film), but that's part of the enjoyment. Nobody ever says, "that could actually happen in real life!" after a typical summer popcorn flick. As long as it's not a movie based on historical facts, it's kind of irrelevant...you just have to be in a certain mood to watch it, like Sharknado I/II. So sure, when I was watching JW and just knew the dinosaur had gotten out somehow, you just expected the military or "greedy capitalist counterpart to heroine with a hidden heart of a gold" to do something idiotic like chase after the dinosaur in a helicopter. I mean...I suppose we could have also imagined that the helo was equipped with SAM missiles instead of merely machine guns...well, that would have required us to believe that "greedy capitalist guy" would be willing to destroy his golden parachute creation. Of course, knowing the consequences of the public safety being affected by such an event, and the resulting catastrophic financial losses...and that any dino could eventually be recreated or re-imagined in the laboratory, wouldn't they have logically taken it out with a drone strike? Of course, that would have summarily ended the movie after just 45 minutes.

I actually think that Rongey's become too cynical and negative, which is saying a lot...coming from my perspective. Undoubtedly a product of getting tired of being wrong whenever a "false positive" turns out to be incorrect over the last 3-4 seasons. After you've painted so many rose-colored scenarios that haven't come to fruition, you also start to believe that no matter what the team does, something will go awry. It's almost reminiscent of someone living in denial when a political campaign has been pronounced dead by the media and they're drawing handfuls instead of hundreds/thousands at events...but the strategists have to fight on anyway, because they can't realistically quit or give up. Watching the positive vibes around the Cubs and Maddon, it's impossible not to sense/feel the dichotomy in terms of the atmosphere surrounding both teams. Some fresh blood would help...in the front office/coaching staff, the broadcast booths, marketing, etc. Things have just gotten stale...at some point, you just have to move on to a new challenge.

QUOTE (knightni @ Jul 16, 2015 -> 08:52 AM) Watched R.I.P.D. last night. It was okay. It wasn't as bad as people said. It reminded me a little of a Men In Black ripoff. 2.5 stars out of 5. Jeff Bridges is almost becoming a caricature of himself.

Who's going to Ant-Man? The reviews seem pretty good/solid but not expecting too much. Rudd's an acquired taste for most...love his sarcasm but we'll see how he plays it as a superhero. Waiting for announcement of Minions 4-6.

Selling just to sell is dumb. Better to see if Alexei has anything left...because replacing him via trade or free agency wont be easy. Obviously, I mean the player who at least showed up defensively this past weekend. Offensively, who knows? LaRoche and Cabrera aren't going anywhere...and they can't deal Robertson until they see what Montas can provide.

QUOTE (Brian @ Jul 13, 2015 -> 07:25 AM) I turned Watchmen off after an hour. All visual style, no subtance for me. The only interesting Watchmen now belong to Harper Lee.

QUOTE (Joshua Strong @ Jul 12, 2015 -> 12:34 PM) Why did you think it was a mess? And Snyder is a very good director, Watchmen is a great movie, 300 is very well done and was a bit a cultural phenomenon when it came out, although Sucker Punch had its faults it is still entertaining. I haven't seen Legends of the Guardians but the children in my family loved it. If you substituted Ryan Reynolds, Gosling, Channing Tatum and Jake Gylenhaal for the four main leads, would it still be watchable? Half the reason it was endurable was the Friday Night Cinemax element. It was more like a series of set pieces thrown together haphazardly with about zero narrative cohesion.

http://www.freep.com/story/sports/columnis...ategy/30067395/ Well, at least one DET writer wants to dump Price, Cespedes and Soria to retool for next year.

The problem is Cabrera's not going anywhere...is one of our best hitters now...and we do need to see what Avi can do for the remainder of the season. Right now, things aren't too optimistic on the Garcia front. You need a lot more than 15 homers and 60-65 rbi's out of that position with what 3b SS and 2b are producing.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Jul 9, 2015 -> 10:46 AM) This is where you ignoring things. Caulfield likes to say a third of the Cubs attendance are tourists, but then say USCF is 75% Tigers fans or whoever they are playing. So the assumption that everyone at USCF is local is crazy. The other assumption you make is if 37% of the crowd at any particular game are tourists, if those tourists stayed home, those tickets would remain unsold. I don't think that is true for every one of them. Not even close. The Cubs are more popular than the Sox. It's even in this thread people would be more inclined to go to a Sox game if there was a Wrigleyville vibe to the neighborhood. You've never heard more noise or seen more excitement from visiting teams' fans at USCF in the last 3 seasons? You've got Tigers' fans, Cardinals' fans, Red Sox and Yankees fans...what next, the Royals' fans too? They made the comment that there weren't nearly as many White Sox fans at Wrigley as there were in the past (and I guess they're referring to 2012), but surely USCF will be packed when the Cubs play there....and it will be close to a 50/50 split unless the White Sox are 5 games over .500 at that point. In fact, you can pretty much guarantee it will be more like a 60/40 split Cubs to White Sox on August 14th-16th because so many Cubs' games will be sold out from now until the end of summer vacation...and fans shut out of Wrigley will look for other options.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jul 11, 2015 -> 09:50 AM) It'll make more sense on Monday when they're figuring out how the Cubs were shut out for the first 27 innings of the series. (Quintana of course will go 9 IP, 0 runs, and we'll lose it in the 10th, because Quintana). Just thought it was hilarious that they just gave Lester an "ace" contract at his age...while Quintana has put up a better WAR than both him and Bumgarner in the regular season since the beginning of 2012. Yet somehow, according to Jordan Belfort on The Score (yes, I know that's not his actual name), Quintana's a 3 and definitely not a 2 on a playoff team. So what does that make Lester? They claim him as their ace, but, until recently....you'd have to go Arrieta, Hammel and then flip a coin between Lester and Hendricks. The Cubs need to worry more about Soler doing an Alexei Ramirez impression offensively, Castro's disappearance and the fact that Russell's going to wear down the final two months physically and mentally. That said, would definitely trade places in the standings with them.

QUOTE (Joshua Strong @ Jul 10, 2015 -> 06:01 PM) Supposedly the script stems from a dream that he had add a teenager dream that he had...or he had a dream that he had ADD, haha? could be too quite different results there depending upon the interpretation

QUOTE (Jake @ Jul 11, 2015 -> 08:17 AM) Given our need for a right-handed bat, you have to think we'll end up seeing Matt Davidson at some point this year. Yeah yeah lots of strikeouts disappointing return for Reed, but he there's a decent chance he'll be a really nice option at 3B/DH to cover for those lefties. He ought to take some reps at 2B in MiLB as well Don't think he has the range or athleticism for 2B, from the MILB games/videos I've watched. Not to mention the fact that adding another position for him to concern himself with seems like it could lead to yet another offensive setback. We already have plenty of utility guys growing on trees...the feeling is he either sticks full time at 3B/1B/DH or he doesn't make it at all.

The Tigers have some interesting decisions to make on Price and Cespedes. They obviously have Victor Martinez under contract, Kinsler, Verlander, Cabrera...so it's very hard to blow it up at this point, or start a rebuild going into 2016. A decent core of young-ish guys in Iglesias, Gose, JD Martinez, Castellanos as well, but they just don't have the pitching in the majors or minors. Even Anibal Sanchez has been a shade of his former self. Losing Scherzer has hurt more than anyone realized, as the pressure has fallen more on other members of the rotation to pick up the slack. As usual, the bullpen has been hit or miss.

On one hand, it's the Twins who are 5.5 games ahead of us. On the other, there are about 8 other teams in the race as well (in some ways, the Cubs probably have the same hesitancy about "going for it" this year as we have about trading Shark when the team's finally going on another hot streak). Was listening on the way back from the game Thursday afternoon....B&B Show quoted that something like only 6 out of 944 or 946 teams in the history of MLB have made the playoffs with a record of 5 games under .500 or below on July 9th. So, you have the possibility of sneaking into the last WC spot and getting Chris Sale a start...or sitting on Samardzija until July 31st and hoping his value continues to increase as his ERA comes down into the 3's and he's had a stretch of almost 10 starts with an ERA in the 2's, and pitching deep into games. Certainly, playing the Royals coming out of the ASB will be huge. With Gordon out, Buxton out, Cabrera out...there's an opening to make up some ground. Sooner or later, they'll have to beat some AL Central teams head-to-head or fold.

Was listening to The Score in the morning and the typical names were mentioned for Samardzija, McKinney or Almora. A trade's definitely not going to happen with the Cubs...even though he would be the perfect fit over there. Laughed when they thought Schwarber was a huge overpay for Jose Quintana. Jordan whatever his name is, the host with Bruce Levine.

That just broke a 24 game home streak of not scoring more than four runs...or was it not scoring more than three? Either way, pretty incredible at USCF. Even in these offensively challenged days. Danks still sucks. Guess the concept of two in a row was impossible for him. Great job by the bullpen and defense for most of the game....Avi continues to do really dumb things.

Record in extra innings and one run games White Sox +9 Nationals +9 Cubs +9 Royals +6 Cardinals +6 Oakland -20

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jul 8, 2015 -> 04:19 PM) This is, of course, why I bumped this thread. If walkup crowds in July are this bad...when season ticket sales hit and get the same trend, it's going to propagate through to another major revenue drop. 10 bonus points for "propagate through to." Balta for 2015 White Sox 2nd Half Manager

QUOTE (BigHurt3515 @ Jul 8, 2015 -> 03:41 PM) Why is Beckham starting against a RHP? Look at his splits. Sadly, or inexplicably, he's hitting much better against RHP than LHP. 696 vs righties, 450 vs. RHP in about 60 PA's. Balta for White Sox Manager, 2015.

QUOTE (Jake @ Jul 8, 2015 -> 10:31 AM) Sox pitchers are 9th in WAR in MLB (#3 in past 30 days). Sox starters are 6th in WAR in MLB (#2 in past 30 days). The difference between our ERA and our fielding independent metrics are consistent with playing in the AL, playing at US Cellular Field, and having what is by far the worst defense in MLB. Don Cooper can't fix the offense! Bring back Greg Walker and Scott "The Scooter" Fletcher to work with Gordo... thanks, douglas

QUOTE (ChrisLikesBaseball @ Jul 8, 2015 -> 04:04 PM) Piggybacking on this, really more of a data dump than anything.. Comparing playoff appearances or attendance numbers to other sports isn't relevant. I can make this data say a lot of different things, depending on how I frame it: In 2014, the Bears had a total attendance of 493,449; the Blackhawks had a total attendance of 892,529; the Bulls had a total attendance of 890,370; the Cubs had a total attendance of 2.65 million; and the White Sox had a total attendance of 1.65 million. The Sox are selling more tickets than all but one major sports franchise in Chicago. Selling more tickets allows The White Sox to leverage fixed costs more more than three other sports. In 2014 the White Sox only sold 50.18% of their total capacity of tickets; the Cubs sold 79.65% of their total capacity of tickets; The Bears sold 100% of their total capacity of tickets; The Bulls sold 99.03% of their total capacity of tickets; and The Blackhawks sold 106% of their total capacity of tickets. The White Sox sold the lowest percentage of their available tickets. Being well below their capacity makes it challenging for the White Sox to leverage their variable costs in a way that is financially responsible while providing the in-game experience that they desire so as to generate repeat visits. While we're at it, we can also make the case that it's more challenging to make the playoffs in Major League Baseball than in other sports: 53.33% of NBA teams make the playoffs in any given season 53.33% of NHL teams make the playoffs in any given season 37.5% of NFL teams make the playoffs in any given season Prior to 1994, 14.2% of MLB teams made the playoffs each season. Between 1994 and 2012, 26.6% of MLB teams made the playoffs in each season. Currently, 33.3% of MLB teams make the postseason, but 2 of those teams for only one game, so still only 26.6% really make the playoff series. The Bulls and Blackhawks are the only two that are above the theoretical average in playoff appearances, while the Cubs and White Sox are essentially 2 playoff appearances behind the theoretical average number of appearances. Bulls = 18 (72%) Blackhawks = 15 (60%) Bears = 7 (28%) White Sox = 4 (16%) Cubs = 4 (16%) I always chuckle when I see your account name because I read it as "Christ Likes Baseball." Unfortunately for us, not the White Sox so much...at least recently. Even with Jesus of Nazareth hitting 4th or 5th, we'd still be offensively-challenged and he wouldn't be driven in by the bottom of the order. Then again, Jesus can walk on water...so, despite the presence of Vince Coleman. he could actually end up with at least an 80-85% success rate on steals one would imagine.

QUOTE (shipps @ Jul 8, 2015 -> 03:59 PM) I am hearing a lot of this but I absolutely loved it. If you liked the first Terminator I dont see how you wouldnt like this. It was the same movie but expanded upon. Michael Biehn and Linda Hamilton just threw up in their mouths a bit. Even Batman.