caulfield12

Locke is awesome An 80 minute film about a building contract/cement pour supervisor driving on the M-6 in his car to a hospital while dealing with three life-altering crises at the same time on his car phone. Tom Hardy makes this film work...and his imaginary deadbeat father in the backseat. Such a simple, yet elegant film...100% dialogue-based, not a single bit of action. And yet compelling. Reminded me of Stephen Spielberg's very first film DUEL in its utter simplicity.

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Jul 3, 2014 -> 06:28 AM) So when Robin makes a good decision, he gets zero credit because it was so obvious. Gotcha. You tell me...on one hand, Sierra was 4 for his last 11 and has put up an OPS of nearly 800 for the month of June in sporadic playing time. He also had one game-winning, walk off hit earlier in the season. On the other hand, he has 31 K's in 110 at-bats, and is much likelier to hit into a double play. Garcia has an uppercut swing and recently has had a tendency to hit the ball up into the air, fwiw. All those things taken into consideration, it was a very good decision. On paper, Sierra's the better hitter. Then again, someone said they would have preferred Garcia to Beckham because Gordon has been terrible with RISP this season (assuming that means something, when in previous seasons he was good or better than with nobody on, statistical variance/randomness/anomalies, etc.) but I digress. This year, with the Sox, Sierra has 29 GO's and 26 flyouts. Garcia is striking out at a slightly higher clip than Sierra this season, and is twice as likely to hit the ball into the ground as to pop it up, but he's still less likely to hit into a double play because of his speed. Sierra actually had a 579 OPS against RHP and Garcia was barely above 500, although I'm guessing the main reason (in the end) he used Garcia was to avoid the double play and he thought a lefty hitter against a RHP was a better option. So....while there's no clear and compelling reason why his "hunch" work out from a statistical perspective...if Ventura can "go against the grain" and continue to make decisions like this that work out more often than not, and he can do it to the point where you feel it wasn't just blind luck for a fluke, we can start to throw the genius label at him.

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Jul 2, 2014 -> 05:35 PM) I think our whole political system is a complete train wreck right now (just better then plenty of other places still) but I think he's a failure for the reasons our country is becoming a failure. More and more people in our country are expecting things from the government and expecting to receive hand outs and more and more of those people construe the voting public, therefor, we are getting to a place with less and less self empowerment and more and more government dependency (since you have to pan handle to that majority to win). I blasted Bush on this site for his role increasing the government and it has gotten even worse. It is an utter joke in my opinion. The republicans don't help things by focusing on what I consider to be social issues that are far less important then the broad base government bloat that is going on. I do not want to rely on the government to get me places. I rely on myself and my family. It is the same problem with society as a whole. Lets figure out what excuses to make and who to blame vs. taking ownership and responsibility. How many of the great advances of the 20th century have taken place without the involvement of government? Nuclear power/nuclear weapons, rocketry, the submarine, antibiotics (including the retrovirals that have stemmed the tide of HIV/AIDS), the Internet, and the interstate/national highway system.

Look at the situation he inherited in 2008. He's been a disappointment, but not the worst. 1) Carter 2) Ford 3) Nixon (everything he accomplished was pretty much wiped out by Watergate from a historical perspective) 4) GW Bush The best 1) Truman 2) Reagan 3) Kennedy 4) Clinton I'm neutral on both LBJ and Eisenhower, as well as George Herbert Walker Bush.

It would be nice to have the ability to look ahead five years into the future and see 1) how many of those $15 million of prospects signed make an impact and 2) how many players in 2015 and 2016 do, when the Yankees will be limited in who they can sign. Alas, no crystal balls. But with the Cubs' draft, we will find out much more quickly about those "high-risk" pitchers they were able to sign by picking Schwarber so high in the first.

We're collecting upper 90's fastball guys who can't get the ball over the plate...first there was the Sisco/Aardsma/Masset trio. Now we have Henry Rodriguez, Cleto and Angel Sanchez. Hopefully they can bring some excitement to Knights' fans...who knows, maybe they can even make a run at the playoffs in the 2nd half.

Davidson finally made it back to a respectable 700 OPS...at .206 now and rising. OTOH, the debate can start about the White Sox "ruining" Marcus Semien. .181, 637 OPS, 22 K's in 105 AB's (he does have 15 walks at least, that's returning to normal, correlating with his previous minor league numbers).

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Jul 2, 2014 -> 09:07 PM) He just used Leury Garcia as a pinch hitter which resulted in a White Sox Walk-off Winner. Genius. This wasn't a choice between Beckham and Garcia. It was Sierra and Leury. Any statistician would tell you that Leury makes more contact/strikes out less and has the remoter probability of hitting into a double play.

Guess the infield's really wet still, so DeAza might want to think twice about stealing...or at least get a good jump.

Surprised Viciedo didn't strike out there. How close was it to getting through?

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Jul 1, 2014 -> 09:52 PM) Best comment I saw on Twitter was that the US lost because we brought in Wondo and Belgium was able to bring in Lukaku. The US bust their ass, put up a valiant effort, but they just don't have the talent the top countries do at this point. They haven't reached 2002 success again, but back to back Round of 16s is no small feat. They keep improving IMO and there seems to be some young talent in the pipeline, especially with all the American kids playing in Germany. Plus, it's like the 5th most popular sport in the country and look how well we do. The future is looking up for US soccer. And you can make arguments for extreme sports, mixed martial arts, NASCAR, golf and tennis. Maybe in terms of overall participation, soccer is higher at the elementary and middle school level, over volleyball and softball, for example (girls).

QUOTE (fathom @ Jul 1, 2014 -> 09:58 PM) To me, it's becoming obvious the core going forward is: - Sale - Quintana - Danks - Petricka - Abreu - Eaton - Avi Garcia - Gillaspie Outside of those 8, there are a lot of roster spots to be filled or earned by the likes of Micah Johnson, Davidson, Semien Who would have picked Petricka over Webb coming into this season? He was kind of forgotten/overlooked since he became a reliever, like Saladino, as a former Top 10 prospect who had faded.

This inning's evaporating quickly. Well, now it's officially time to start looking forward to 2015. White Sox just got outplayed/outmanaged and the tail end of the rotation was outpitched, not surprisingly. Angels going for the SEASON sweep tomorrow. Or do they have another series with them? Hope not.

QUOTE (fathom @ Jul 1, 2014 -> 09:50 PM) He needs to be a DH. It doesn't matter how well you throw if you can't catch or get into proper throwing position. The exasperating thing is he really did it well in 2012. I hope it's not the case where he loses focus/concentration (like Rios or DeAza) when the team's not in first place and kind of just coasting along and playing out the string.

Viciedo now gunshy about throwing the ball. That's where you absolutely gun the ball to 3B, trying to get Trout. He had a decent shot at him. Something's going on where Viciedo's making mistake after mistake in his decision-making process. Coaching failure...DJ, former outfielder, seems to believe he's just not clear about what he's doing out there this season, something's definitely awry/amiss.

Viciedo now gunshy about throwing the ball. That's where you absolutel gun the ball to 3B, trying to get Trout. He had a decent shot at him. Something's going on where Viciedo's making mistake after mistake in his decision-making process. Coaching failure...

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Jul 1, 2014 -> 07:42 PM) Uh, no, that's the oposite of the argument being made stating that of he has to move to the outfield, his value goes down considerably. His value is perfectly fine at 2B. I meant Nick Franklin's value at 2B, it wasn't very clear I realize reading it over again.

QUOTE (fathom @ Jul 1, 2014 -> 09:40 PM) Just awful luck for the Sox that inning What happened?

QUOTE (fathom @ Jul 1, 2014 -> 09:28 PM) So why have the Sox been so awful at signing free agents off of other teams major league roster? Over the last two years, the Sox have gotten little to no production from: - Belisario - Downs - Boggs - Keppinger - Paulino Lindstrom has been the best FA signing (off of MLB roster) during Hahn's tenure. It possibly illustrates a major weakness in the scouting department. They've always been better with the Putnams, Guerras, Cletos, Humbers, Loaiza, DeAza, Matt Thornton, Santos, Jenks "under the radar" type of moves. Carlos Quentin, or Jose Quintana, for example. Belisario would arguably have been fine if he'd been left alone in the 7th/8th inning. With Boggs, the Cardinals wouldn't have given up on him if they thought he could be fixed...of course, their bullpen has 10X more depth and competition, so that was the second reason they felt comfortable moving on. If you add up all those salaries, it doesn't amount to Jake Peavy or Alex Rios.

QUOTE (Soxfest @ Jul 1, 2014 -> 09:26 PM) Off day Thursday no excuse to see Noesi/Carroll back to back ever again. Carroll's done. Has to be.

How can you rule an error on the shortstop when he goes after it with his bare hand? Okay, Rosenberg changed it. Or he was going to be Heisenberg'ed.

Grilli warming up for the Angels. I think this might be his first appearance since the Frieri change-of-scenery trade.

QUOTE (BigHurt3515 @ Jul 1, 2014 -> 09:21 PM) And what happens if Beckham pops up again?? Baseball is all about probability. Beckham still has a higher chance of coming through there than Leury Garcia. If you actually think Leury's more likely to come through, then we're not going to get ANYTHING in trade return for Gordon Beckham from opposing GM's.

Nice response, offense. Ventura/Viciedo/Petricka....thanks a lot. That extra run just took the entire life out of the comeback.

QUOTE (fathom @ Jul 1, 2014 -> 09:17 PM) Time to give someone else a shot. At managing? Yay, we have to pick from Surkamp, Heath and Beck. Or Rienzo. Nightmare time.