caulfield12

QUOTE (fathom @ Aug 21, 2014 -> 04:05 PM) Maybe this guy can get another chance: http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/o/olmedra01.shtml He played in that game where Alexei was late in 2012 and Ventura benched him and of course he made a key bonehead play that helped to lose the game...that's all I remember about him.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Aug 21, 2014 -> 03:55 PM) Also, I can't see any way this isn't Semien coming up. What will be interesting to see is how the minors shake out. There's only a couple weeks left in the season, do we possibly see Rondon moved up to Charlotte for a 2-3 week spell to continue getting him consistent playing time? Why can't Rondon play in Birmingham or the AFL? You really want to jump him 3 levels in one season when he's just beginning to prove he won't have the bat blown out of his hand by a dominant pitcher? I don't even think it's three weeks left, more like 2 unless your team's in the playoffs/post-season.

QUOTE (Charlie Haeger's Knuckles @ Aug 21, 2014 -> 02:19 PM) Does anyone believe a system that places so much power to a "corporation" that works me 65 hours a week for a meager salary and shoddy "health insurance" while pocketing all the profits I produce for the "corporation" is fair? MLB and its owners are no different than any other Capitalism-empowered moneygrabbing machine. You're forgetting they also have the anti-trust exemption. That said, MLB players have much longer careers (on average) and better pensions than the other major sports. For example, look at all the problems former NFL players have had establishing this whole concussion case, setting up a fund to help those suffering from it, having it recognized as a legitimate problem that needs to be addressed. America once upon a time was a country where someone in your situation would say, "Screw it, I'm not going to work for THE MAN anymore, I'm going to hang up my own shingle and determine my own destiny. If I work hard enough, I just might make it."

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Aug 21, 2014 -> 02:46 PM) I think SOME people ignorantly thought this was another example of a white cop unjustifiably murdering a saintly black kid in cold blood. Turns out that's probably not a true depiction of what happened. But from there I think the story became more about the overreaction of the police and the militarization of the police. The race angle went away pretty quickly. Justification is a matter of interpretation. It's surely going to be a degree of culpability...whether that's 50% or above, is for a jury to determine eventually. Just like the reactions to the other case or even Tony Stewart, two perfectly reasonable people can weigh identical evidence and come up with radically different interpretations and conclusions. And I highly doubt anyone instantly thought the kid was perfect or saintly, any more than they believed the officer was infallible, heroic or incapable of poor decision-making in a stressful/tense situation.

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Aug 21, 2014 -> 02:39 PM) You keep bringing up these racial issues though. Clearly you think that played a part. If the media and general population didn't think it was at all a part of the case, we wouldn't have heard about in the first place, there would have been no riots, no National Guard, no 10 day span of national news leading with this story and no Obama/Eric Holder press conferences. Or do you disagree? How many days did the national news, CNN, Fox News, lead their telecasts with stories about all the murders/killings/shootings in Chicago this past year?

QUOTE (HickoryHuskers @ Aug 21, 2014 -> 02:19 PM) Is it not possible that the Ferguson police department has a history of poor race relations yet in this specific case Wilson was justified in shooting Brown? The former being true does not prevent the latter from being true. Of course, ANYTHING is possible. Just like I can't prove that if Officer Ron Johnson was the one to encounter Michael Brown in the middle of that street, that Johnson wouldn't have ended up shooting him. But it's also reasonable to think that in both of these shootings OTHER OUTCOMES COULD HAVE BEEN JUST AS POSSIBLE.

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Aug 21, 2014 -> 02:19 PM) So wait, let's go back. You really think this officer shot Brown because he was black? That's the only reason? No, I never said that. Although I'm pretty sure a white officer in Ferguson has never been found guilty of any type of wrongdoing for an incident involving an African-American member in that community.

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Aug 21, 2014 -> 02:12 PM) http://lmgtfy.com/?q=black+cop+shoots+white+kid If it was that easy to find, I'm sure all these instances would be out there to support the Wilson/Brown case that it has nothing at all to do with race, it's just a complete coincidence. It's surely a coincidence as well that a black person killing a white person is 12X more likely to receive the death penalty than a white person killing a black person, even if there are multiple victims.

This post has been edited by the Soxtalk staff to remove objectionable material. Soxtalk encourages a free discussion between its members, but does not allow personal attacks, threats, graphic sexual material, nudity, or any other materials judged offensive by the Administrators and Moderators. Thank you. God forbid that there ever be a reasonable response in any situation besides taking someone's life.

There's no point in even trying to discuss things if posters are allowed to act exactly like the police do in these situations... I would just LOVE to see all these examples of African-American officers shooting down white kids in the streets all over America. PLEASE, it has to have happened at least ONCE.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Aug 21, 2014 -> 12:06 PM) The Astros could technically still sign Aiken http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2014/08/astr...rady-aiken.html That's an interesting twist. But if you're the Astros and legitimately believe Aiken's UCL will go out sooner rather than later, and that, for medical reasons the repair won't take....you're better off waiting for that 2015 double-whammy for high first rounders. Maybe MLB stepped in and said, basically, c'mon guys, let's all find a point of compromise and work out deals for Aiken and Nix (and theoretically Marshall could also sign then or has he already enrolled in classes?) so that we don't have a series of messy and public grievances with the MLBPA...doesn't seem like they're willing to change the format of the draft to provide exhaustive physical exams for pitchers quite yet, either.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Aug 21, 2014 -> 11:29 AM) I believe 100% that they will spend $70-80 million on their payroll next year. Their payroll commitments currently are $45.4 million. This does not include De Aza, Beckham, Belisario, Viciedo, Flowers, Jones, or Noesi, who are all arbitration eligible players, nor does it include pre-arb players. Beckham and Belisario will certainly not be back, and Flowers and Jones' raises will be slight but still signficant. De Aza and Viciedo certainly could be non-tendered as well, or they could be kept. Regardless of what they do (I believe they'll trade both De Aza and Viciedo), they still have to replace that production in LF, and given the strides the team made this year - that they may be closer than they think, but with an ultimate goal for 2016 - they certainly aren't going to go with Michael Taylor, Jordan Danks, and Moises Sierra in LF. They likely have a replacement at 2B within the system. They could also justifiably bring in a catcher too and they will do something to address the DH situation too (whether that's internally or not). They will also need bullpen arms, and after this disaster of a season, you can believe they aren't going to go with Taylor Thompson and Andre Rienzo as options out of the bullpen. You figure all of that, and you are talking about adding $25-35 million between all of it at bare minimum. Where does that put the Sox payroll? If I were betting today, I'd say the only ones of those for sure that would be back are Flowers and Noesi. Nate Jones and Viciedo could go either way, although I would think long and hard about what the benefit of keeping either one is going to be moving forward.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Aug 21, 2014 -> 11:38 AM) I bet the payroll is higher next season than it is today. Then they're really going to be spending a lot more than most expect, because if you start out with that baseline of $45 million, 1) you'd have to not trade Alexei Ramirez or Danks 2) you're subtracting the salaries of Lindstrom, Dunn, DeAza, Beckham and Belisario 3) and probably sitting at 50-50 that Nate Jones and Dayan Viciedo aren't going to be brought back or offered arbitration...Flowers and Noesi will be offered for sure, barring a dramatic change move by Hahn To see an increase, that means there would need to be spending of roughly $42 million of additional/new spending on next year's roster alone. That would give you James Shields, one of the 4-5 closers on the market, and roughly Adam Dunn's salary for another big hitter in the middle of the line-up. Let's say it's James Shields at $20 million, Soriano/Robertson/Janssen/K-Rod/Uehara/Rodney (one of the aforementioned) at $10 million and then let's say Melky Cabrera/Markakis/Rasmus at $10-12 million. That's three big-time free agents, including one of the top five in Shields and another top 10-12 guy in Melky Cabrera. I'll believe it when I see it happen.

Because they had other alternatives available to them. Because the person involved was clearly mentally imbalanced. They could have waited in the car to get some back-up, used tasers....something besides just shooting the kid down before they had more time to assess the situation and the risks involved from the person with the knife. I just find it hard to believe that wasn't the ONLY way for this situation to have ended. Couldn't they at least TRIED to talk to him in order to find out what was wrong or what was bothering him? You'd like to think if this was your son or daughter the police would exhaust a more thorough set of alternatives before just blasting away so many times. If he was holding a gun or an imminent threat to others, I'd find it perfectly understandable, but in this situation, it's arguable either way.

Putting him in handcuffs after he's clearly not able to fight back or resist....probably dead, that's not going to go over well.

QUOTE (scs787 @ Aug 21, 2014 -> 11:20 AM) I'm not disagreeing with the bold. All I'm saying is in 80% of his starts he's been serviceable. Period. And as a 4/5 starter, I'm fine with that. Just for funsies though, I'll do it to a guy a lot of people bring up, Edwin Jackson...Take out his 5 best starts and he has a 4.37 ERA. And those are absolutely acceptable numbers for Hector Noesi or Scott Carroll, but certainly not someone being paid $13-15 million per season.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Aug 21, 2014 -> 11:08 AM) You seriously expect the White Sox to spend absolutely no money at all this offseason? A team whose payroll was last below $65 million more than 10 years ago, will go into next year with a $48 million payroll? You have said and suggested some ridiculous s*** and this is right up there with it. AND QUIT WITH THIS ATTENDANCE BULLs*** AS IT HAS ABSOLUTELY NO CORRELATION BETWEEN PAYROLL AND SPENDING So you're willing to wager they are going to spend $77-80 million or more on payroll next year? Because that's what you are arguing. NOTICE I DIDN'T SAY SPEND ABSOLUTELY NO MONEY. WHERE ARE YOU READING THAT? As we've been repeating for months and months, we could easily be around $45-50 million next year without doing anything. In fact, we could actually be lower if we dumped Danks and traded Alexei Ramirez, not to mention you're going to be subtracting Belisario, Beckham, DeAza and probably Dayan Viciedo. If they did spend around $80 million, that would barely put them at 25th-27th. Arguably. Since we don't know what those teams are going to do for 2015, although we have a pretty good range or idea. As far as your last point, that WAS true for most of the last ten years, attendance ranking lagged payroll spending significantly, without correcting for higher ticket prices, parking, etc. I'm sure this is the closest (next year) these two numbers will have ever aligned together since the 1980's.

QUOTE (Y2HH @ Aug 21, 2014 -> 10:54 AM) Bad. Just the art direction/cinematography doing all those different train car sets, I think there were between 20-30...the imagination behind them, makes the movie worth seeing. In the end, it's just another version of the 99% vs. the 1% story, but visually it's such a different idea than most sci fi/futuristic movies these days.

QUOTE (thedoctor @ Aug 21, 2014 -> 11:04 AM) i don't really see it. i've always kind of looked at 2016 is the year that with the right moves the team could be a legitimate contender. i suppose next year's team could surprise and earn a playoff spot. that would be excellent but i still don't see that enough moves could be made this offseason where the sox would head into october with a strong chance to win it all (which to me is the goal, not successive wild cards). i hope that hahn approaches this offseason like he did the previous one. not sure it is even smart to lay out big cash as we did for abreu last year. to me, adding a few key pieces and letting some younger guys mature is smart, with the goal of perhaps adding the big pieces the following year. This is pretty much exactly where the Cubs are...the difference is we already have Sale/Abreu/Quintana/Garcia/Eaton/Ramirez at the major league level, whereas they have Rizzo/Castro/Arrieta and all of their prospects and more resources to work with, including the relationship with Lester and Epstein. Similar bullpen troubles, although it's hard to say anyone is actually WORSE than the Sox right now.

Are we joking about Josh Hamilton, or being serious? Haven't we been fighting for 4 years to get Adam Dunn's contract off the books? Then we're going to turn around and add a probable $16-22 million contract commitment? Seriously? He's 33 now and is going to be coming off two 1-2 WAR seasons, where his OPS was more or less Dayan Viciedo 2012 territory. Not to mention the damage that he did to his body in his teens and early twenties from all the drug abuse, that doesn't exactly help the aging process.

QUOTE (scs787 @ Aug 21, 2014 -> 10:33 AM) Ya, I think I'd be happy with 20M on top of taking Danks. If Hahn and JR really wanna contend I could see that payroll up over 100M come 2017. I still like Danks though. Think he's a quality #4/5. It just sucks that he's paid so much. If he can just avoid the big games, he has had 4 of em, his numbers would still look halfway decent. We very easily could end up 28th in payroll next year (which is fitting, since that's where attendance is as well). That's an amazing turnaround from 2006-2013. http://www.gammonsdaily.com/2014-mlb-opening-day-payrolls/ The bottom of the Top 10 payrolls right now is around $130 million.

Forget about .250, I'd rather have the .225 Flowers with 18-22 homers than the .250ish Flowers with just 8-10.

There's just no way they get THAT desperate. I think they'd almost rather go back to Joe Saunders again than take on Danks' financial commitment. There were at least ten starting pitchers who moved the last 10 days of July and in August so far that fit that requirement of expiring contracts/veteran pitchers/lower-risk deals. If we were talking about Danks at the beginning of July, then it could be a legit conversation. But not right now.

QUOTE (thxfrthmmrs @ Aug 21, 2014 -> 08:59 AM) Carlos Sanchez will have a better chance to stick at SS in the ML than Anderson would. Uh-oh. I think we've already had this debate earlier in the season. On one side are Anderson's actual error totals, on the other side is his potential and defensive tools. While he doesn't have a Dunston or Uribe or Valentin arm, it's solid enough to the point where you don't want to move him off SS to 2B or CF until he proves he can't play that position. As with all the Charlotte Knights numbers this year, I'm not going to trust them very much until I see Sanchez look like a stronger Leury Garcia with the potential to at least put up a 675ish OPS at the major league level. Sanchez at Beckham level (625 OPS) or lower isn't any upgrade at all. Sanchez has also put on some weight, so that cuts down on his speed and one of his areas he would have a clear advantage over Beckham, baserunning/basestealing. You also don't see him hitting more than 4-6 homers at USCF...which, as we learned from watching the Orioles bomb away, it's critical to have some pop in the line-up besides Abreu and maybe Avisail Garcia.

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Aug 21, 2014 -> 06:45 AM) That's just an awful article. The author completely ignores that every major attendance spike of the past 30 years coincided with a Cubs playoff appearance. Attendance reached an all-time high in 2008 because the team had the best record in the entire National League. Do people attend Cubs games just for the Wrigley experience? Of course. But that ballpark won't fill if the team completely sucks for years on end. This usually happens when "finance/business" people write baseball articles. They usually can't see the bigger picture, with their limited sports background and knowledge of the teams.