caulfield12

They're not going to pay Shields $125-140 million. Pipe dream. He would be #2 starter, by the way, and #1 for at least half the teams in the majors. You can probably forget Gallardo because there's a club option which will undoubtedly be exercised by the Brewers. Martin, at his age, he's due for a regression, and a 3 year contract would be a big mistake. If they need to target a veteran catcher and there's no other choice, he should be closer to 28-30 than 33-35. Miller and Street are among the best in the majors for lefty-set up and closer, so it will be interesting to see if these kinds of "patch" moves are made going into 2015 or Hahn waits until 2016 when Rodon's ready to go from Opening Day in the starting rotation.

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Jul 10, 2014 -> 07:33 AM) What? I cant imagine street viagra/cialis is unsafe. Thats UNPOSSIBLE Nine times out of 10, it's men from India or the Middle East who are buying them. Guess they trust "street" Viagra more than Europeans/Americans/Canadians/Australians. Always ends up badly.

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Jul 10, 2014 -> 06:45 AM) Nice work, good to know it still works at that age! I would just take all those questions to your doctor, but I don't see why you couldn't go on a trip, just as long as you take it easy like you say. Well, if you ever want to find bootleg Viagra or Cialis pills on the streets, Thailand or the Philippines are your place. That said, don't buy them EVER because I've heard many older men have had heart attacks or bad reactions...seems like it happened every week in Thailand, you'd read about a foreigner dying under mysterious circumstances.

http://www.baseballamerica.com/fantasy/exp...endy-alcantara/ Alcantara's coming up temporarily with Darwin Barney on paternity leave.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Jul 10, 2014 -> 05:49 AM) Yeah and now it's over, forever. Trust me, I've had too much fun the last 9 years in Colombia, Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines, South Korea, the Czech Republic and China. Time to settle down and watch movies like "The Neighbors," haha. At any rate, the expiration date for being Owen Wilson/Vince Vaughn or Will Ferrell from Wedding Crashers was already long overdue. That said, it's quite the experience to be planning a second wedding (my first was in Russia and I only was involved in planning/organizing 10% or so) and getting ready for a child simultaneously. Plus, there's all these things like a solid stroller (cost in China is $1500, roughly), powdered milk (not safe in China), medicine for diaper rashes, etc., to buy and ship back while I'm in the US in August.

QUOTE (HickoryHuskers @ Jul 10, 2014 -> 05:42 AM) They didn't have to. Rodon wasn't going to turn down $6M to go back to college, and if he was going to turn down $6M then he's an idiot and I don't want him. It isn't so much just this signing as the precedent it sets. Now that the Sox have gone over slot once, every first round pick from now on is going to expect it. Setting a bad precedent. Probably moreso with Boras clients than anyone else. Let's remember Alex Jackson signed quickly and it wasn't a remarkable amount of money one way or the other. By the way, if they are sending him to Winston-Salem, is Austin going with him to be his personal catcher at least until he moves to BIRM? They seem to love JR Perdew as a pitching coach, so it's a great first placement...too bad Montas isn't around to benefit from seeing a polished pitcher go about his business and teach him a thing or two, but Tyler Danish will be able to pick up some things hopefully.

QUOTE (HickoryHuskers @ Jul 10, 2014 -> 05:37 AM) You had to know this would happen. That pretty much ensures a sweep for CLE. Because anytime we think we're a decent ballclub, heading back towards the .500 mark, that train gets derailed and we go back to "this team mostly sucks except for Sale/Abreu/Quintana." And it wouldn't be much of a surprise with Lester pitching for Boston and their desperation to make one last run at the WC/AL East before the deadline...two losses in a row...the going to Jacobs Field, where we got crucified last season.

QUOTE (pittshoganerkoff @ Jul 10, 2014 -> 05:27 AM) Remember that we've talked about the whole closer situation in the past. There are more teams than we may think that go through similar situations. With a team that is not likely to contend, not having a true closer is not a huge problem. Last night's loss is one of the 80-90 losses this season. I wouldn't say it was because of the lack of a true closer, I would say it was because of a lack of a good bullpen. Arguably, if we had either Tanaka or the best closer in baseball (pick one), we'd be 2-4 maybe 6 games over .500 and right in the middle of the race. Of course, we'd now have Tanaka on the DL and facing an uncertain future. And Hahn shouldn't/couldn't have thought trading for an elite closer (and I'm not even sure who was available....I guess names like Rodney and Joe Nathan, Soria and Huston Street now) with Jones and Lindstrom and Belisario and Webb all SEEMINGLY capable of doing the job. At that point, nobody was close to sure Abreu was going to be an MVP candidate. Many were hoping for just a 775-825 OPS for his first big league season.

Well, despite the fact that I'm 44, I've managed to get my g/f here in China pregnant. (Before someone advises her to get an abortion, I should add we're planning to marry in late September here in Wuhan. Unfortunately, my mother is 85 years old back in Iowa and won't be able to attend or even come here because she hasn't flown on an airplane since 1988 and doesn't have a passport and I think it would be too much for her). She's 7 weeks along and we are going tmrw to the hospital to see the sonogram/ultrasound. Not even sure you can see or hear the heartbeat at that time? Any advice? We have a trip for 9 days to Thailand planned and she's worried about having a miscarriage...since the first 12 weeks are the most dangerous. She's concerned about being on a bus (we're renting a private car/driver) but we plan on mostly staying at a calm/peaceful/relaxing oceanside resort for at least five of those days and not spending too much time in the heat shopping in Bangkok. Does anyone think it's not a good idea to go...other than the fact that she'll have to avoid spicy foods? She's already dealing with not being able to drink coffee (she's trying), not wearing make-up, not wearing high heels (worried about falling down or getting jostled on public buses), changing all her clothing/bras, no alcohol, avoiding being around cigarette smoke, etc. I told her that as far as I can research, the highest odds for miscarriage/incipient abortion are from 2-12 weeks...and I can't prove for a fact that women are MORE likely to have a miscarriage the first time, although most women in China believe that...at any rate, I said the odds are 75-80% against it and that we just have to try to live our lives as normally as possible without worrying TOO much or being stressed out over every little thing. Other than folic acid and pre-natal vitamins, anything I/we should be doing from your own experience/s? She hasn't had morning sickness as of yet...just more burping/constipation, fever, constant hunger pangs, feeling tired and lethargic, she described it as feeling sick to her stomach but not able to throw up either. Peeing all the time. But I think the morning sickness period comes soon, doesn't it?

In the end, while my feelings about Ventura haven't changed in any way, it's impossible to blame him for giving up 5 in runs in 1 2/3rd's innings, hitting batters to start the 9th, etc. It was more a visceral reaction to falling asleep when the White Sox had a 3-4 run lead and being in disbelief Sale didn't get the win. Nothing like the feeling 8 years ago in September when I woke up to see the Sox had blown a huge lead late to the Royals and the Indians were one game closer.

In the end, while my feelings about Ventura haven't changed in any way, it's impossible to blame him for giving up 5 in runs in 1 2/3rd's innings, hitting batters to start the 9th, etc. It was more a visceral reaction to falling asleep when the White Sox had a 3-4 run lead and being in disbelief Sale didn't get the win. Nothing like the feeling 8 years ago in September when I woke up to see the Sox had blown a huge lead late to the Royals and the Indians were one game closer. In the final analysis, I'd rather they be 6-7 games out of the Wild Card standings than in "no man's land" again. Move on Rick Hahn, don't waver about trading guys that you don't perceive to be part of the future...and definitely don't trade prospects for Huston Street, Jonathan Papelbon or Joakim Soria.

Greg, are you of the "an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth" Old Testament belief, or the "let he who is without sin cast the first stone...judge not lest ye judged, etc." school of thought? Because it's hard for me to believe Jesus would be saying "burn in hell!" or something along those lines, right? Or things have gotten so bad that Jesus would have to go back to the Old Testament ways of destroying temples and kicking butt??

The problem is that going after "sure" guys like Huston Street or Soria will cost you an arm and a leg. They're going to be asking for Anderson/Hawkins/Montas...others for Davidson or Semien (buying low)/Micah/Danish/Trey/Ravelo, etc. Nobody's going to want our best trade chip in Alexei Ramirez while in rebuilding mode, and the Rangers already have 3 middle infielders among their top prospects, as well as a strong and growing desire to dump Andrus' salary. I could see Hahn MAYBE being willing to look at this second group, but a discussion of the first three should be off the table unless you could keep them beyond 2014. Trading for more middle relievers/set-up guys isn't going to solve the 9th inning problem. It's either a more reliable, veteran closer or there's no point at all in making a move.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Jul 10, 2014 -> 01:21 AM) We should lock this thread for one reason. He got an extension and this has ZERO chance of happening for some time to come. It's just not going to happen. The title of the thread is dumb cause it's not in the realm of possibility for a long long time. Surely you would have said the same thing about Ozzie Guillen before the 2011 season. And the likely reason at that time would have been his mouth getting him in trouble.

http://www.csnchicago.com/white-sox/white-...rehab-continues Setting return for sometime in August.

http://bustedcoverage.com/2014/06/05/carlo...d-keely-warren/ CHEERLEADER STALKERS!!! C'mon, she's like the girl next door although bordering on anorexic in some of her pictures. The irony is that Keely is a cheerleader for East Carolina, which is home of the coveted Jeff Hoffman, who we were arguably set to draft before the TJ surgery. Is she going to join Team Hoffman now? PS...One of those pictures, the NC State jerseys look not too far off from the 1983 Sox jerseys. Weird.

QUOTE (Eminor3rd @ Jul 10, 2014 -> 12:03 AM) I don't know http://espn.go.com/mlb/stats/batting/_/pos...outs/order/true Only Flowers. Although Zunino, Castro and Salty are not far off. Yikes. Grandal's closer to 50. What a wasteland. The Braves were very fortunate to find both McCann and Gattis.

QUOTE (GreenSox @ Jul 10, 2014 -> 12:11 AM) I hope we bring up Saladino - see if he can play some SS. That will have us never wanting to trade Ramirez. He's serviceable, and a step up from what Beckham would provide, but he's not a long-term solution, either.

QUOTE (Eminor3rd @ Jul 9, 2014 -> 11:03 PM) And in all 81 home games, we play a team that is also affected by the park we're in. I can't think of any team that's been successful building a winner by tailoring the team to its extreme park. Colorado and San Diego have the most extreme parks and have tried the hardest. And before someone says it, Yankees have a bunch of good left handed power hitters doesn't help them because of the short porch; it helps them because good left handed power hitters are helpful. The Mariners, 3-4 seasons ago, built a "defense first team" for Safeco. The Cardinals and Royals in the mid-80's built teams specifically for AstroTurf play...you can argue the Blue Jays did the same exact thing. The Twins and Rays also come to mind.

Well, the simplest thing is to look at team record when leading after 6, after 7 and after 8. Some teams have a knack for coming back to win when there's a blown save, others collapse. Then you have to look at the extent of the blown save, 1, 2 or 3 run leads. For example, the announcers were saying the Giants have the 3rd best bullpen by ERA, in the 2's...Well, that's not accurate, because they're not successful closing out the game, so who cares about ERA in the 6th-8th?? Just a way to measure impact (very simplistic) on a team's chances of winning games. It's no surprise, for example, that the Astros aren't terribly concerned (yet) with winning games, although I think Luhnow will definitely have to make it more of a priority in 2015 if they ever want to turn the corner with all that incoming offensive talent and get them to buy into the belief they can become a playoff-contending team.

QUOTE (Quinarvy @ Jul 9, 2014 -> 10:27 PM) Between Marcus, Sanchez, Johnson, Saladino, Anderson and Rodon the Sox don't really need another SS taking up space unless it's a blue chip prospect. Rondon, haha. Not the last time.

Blown saves/Total Team Wins X % of blown saves 30. Houston 0.2132 29. Colorado 0.16873 28. NY Mets 0.16065 27. Cubs 0.1264 26. Miami 0.10915 25. White Sox 0.10647 24. Arizona 0.10472 23. Pirates 0.10132 22. Rangers 0.09731 21. Giants 0.0848 Do the White Sox have a bad bullpen because they aren't good (expected to compete) or they're not good because of their bullpen? The truth lies somewhere in between. Of the competitive teams from this list, you'll find only the Marlins, Pirates and Giants. Of course, the Pirates traded for Frieri and the Giants demoted Sergio Romo already. You can also safely say that Addison Reed in the Chicago pen wouldn't have made an appreciable difference.

Everyone thought Boras would go for the max allowable under the rules without penalizing the franchise. He got it. The end. Mission accomplished, another satisfied customer in the Rodon family. Even moreso now because he can also proclaim he got more money for Rodon than Aiken and Kolek despite being the 3rd pick. What would have been more interesting would be his reaction as Aiken's agent in his current predicament.

Happy the White Sox weren't successful in signing Tanaka...as a TJ flameout would be the last thing our franchise could deal with on a contract that large. The thing with Tanaka is that his success isn't based on velocity as much as deception and movement. I would be more concerned with that being affected by TJ/elbow issues than I would someone like Strasburg, who can still be effective in the mid instead of high 90's.

Beckham, DeAza, Danks, Dunn, Viciedo and Ramirez. They GONE! Who cares anyway? Just shut up and be patient while waiting for 2016. (This is one area where 2005 works against us, as JR would be desperate, like Mike Illitch in DET, to get one World Series title at his age had we not already won one).