caulfield12

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Jul 1, 2014 -> 06:53 AM) For a guy who doesn't attend games, you sure are obsessed with attendance. Why is your excuse for not attending any better than others? I have mlb.tv (when the stream works/doesn't freeze) and mlb gameday audio, which is revenue distributed equally to all the clubs. If the White Sox place a farm team in Wuhan, China, I'll be glad to support them. Otherwise, I only have August 5th-22nd to attend games, and will try to make at least one (my hometown is the Quad Cities) when I am back in the States.

Attendance so far this season 28. Chicago White Sox 793,806 (39 games)...20,354 average 1. Charlotte Knights 402,723...9,589 average 1. Birmingham Barons 260,734...6,518 average

The 2009 D-backs' first-round pick has gone 8-for-26 (.308) with four homers in his past eight contests, raising his average to .201 with 15 round-trippers on the season. Monday brought his June average up to .239 with nine long balls and an .892 OPS. The third baseman -- acquired from Arizona in the offseason for reliever Addison Reed -- was hitting .182 at the end of May with just six homers in 48 games. Davidson readily called the two-month stretch the worst performance of his career. "I've struggled this season, but I'm glad," Davidson said. "I'll definitely never say I've figured it all out ever again. It keeps me humble, keeps me focusing forward and always trying to progress." The prolonged slump wasn't an easy thing for Davidson to combat, but now that he thinks he's on the other side, he is convinced he's better off for it. "If you were talking to me a month-and-a-half ago, I probably wouldn't be as positive as I am now," he said. "It's definitely been, I don't know, a life experience I'll never forget. I got down on myself, lost all confidence. Now I know that I've had to build my confidence from zero all the way back up. "It's kind of cool to actually have to find that self-confidence when nothing is going right. Moving forward, I think that makes me a better player. Definitely, when you're hitting .250 … that's nothing compared to hitting .160 through the first two months. It always could be worse. I definitely believe that going through this will make me a better player and a more confident player in the long run." www.milb.com

https://twitter.com/robertreidryan/status/4...5781120/photo/1 Speculation where? You know it's the kiss of death when they start selling a high school pitcher's jersey in stores before he's even signed a contract.

Astros make Sports Illustrated as cover story...predicted 2017 World Series winners Jinx ensues immediately. http://blog.chron.com/ultimateastros/2014/...lic/#22102101=0 First the cyber hack/leaked trading documents. Almost simultaneously, SS Correa's knocked out for the season. Appel's having a horrendous year as well...at least he was. Now the Aiken situation with his signing/non-signing. http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2014/06/...hamps-for-2017/ Cover picture (George Springer) http://fullscalesports.com/2014/06/25/astr...-series-champs/

http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2014/06/infi...eaves-cuba.html

The Next Cuban Baseball Wonder Boy? 22 November, 2012No Comments By: Reynier Batista Morales Yoan Manuel Moncada Olivares is currently full of expectation, because in less than a week, he will wear the jersey of the Cienfuegos team, as rookie, in the 52nd Cuban Baseball Series. And no wonder, because this young player knows there are hundreds of eyes on him due to his distinguished career at youth level, which makes him one of the top prospects in the country. “Cienfuegos can expect the best of me this year despite being a rookie, I hope to have a good result from the work of my coaches and the support of my colleagues who have helped me, and I wish to give a good show to the people of Cuba,” this 17 years old youngster noted. Moncada was born in the neighborhood of Las Quinientas, municipality of Abreu, and made it to the Cuba team in the category 15 -16 years thanks to an excellent performance in the National Championship of 2011, in which he had a tremendous performance with 40 hits in 24 games, including eight homers. Moncada became famous in the 14th World Baseball Championship U-16 IBAF (AA), which was held in Lagos de Moreno, Mexico, where Cuba finished second and he became the only Cuban chosen for the all stars team of the tournament. He won the recognition for Best Third Base by his excellent figures, being the main slugger in the Cuban squad: Average 500, 10 hits in 20 at-bats, with two doubles and an equal number of triples, plus 0.800 slugging percentage and he committed just two errors in defense. A few days ago he had its pre-competitive test towards Cuba’s most important sport event while participating with Cienfuegos (The elephants) in the 20th Antillana de Acero Cup in which "I felt the best since this was my first competition in the Senior Class". He added "This is a good preparation for the National Series as our team thinks to be on top this year". Besides being a switch hitter, Yoan Moncada is able to play multiple positions in the infield, besides the 3rd base, he also plays as shortstop and in second base. "I feel good in all three positions, I used to play as shortstop, there I felt better, but now that I’m playing in second base I also feel comfortable and I think I can also do well here". Cienfuegos´ boy will have opportunities to shine from now on. He has talent to spare. Time will tell if he has what it takes to reach stardom. His focus on training will have much to do with that. http://oncubamagazine.com/sports/yoan-monc...all-wonder-boy/

http://obstructedview.net/commentary-and-a...-and-video.html Their entire budget for international would have to go to this guy, but it might be worth it. He's exactly the kind of dynamic athletic talent we need on the infield, especially if he can play 3B. Seems he's become more of a middle infielder (SS/2B), but the idea he could play 3B, combined with that level of speed and athleticism...well, obviously Jose Abreu's going to be intimately involved in the entire process of the White Sox going after him. Would be another great option to go along with Timmy Anderson at SS. Have Abreu personally bring his former teammate a check for $5 million. Only the Marlins and Astros can outbid us, right? Forget Ynoa.

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article/mlb/phil-r...p;vkey=news_mlb With the warm weather, Rogers is predicting McGwire's rookie homer numbers and Albert Belle's HR/RBI numbers from 1998 go down. Long story, but not a bad one for Phil, all things considered.

QUOTE (Eminor3rd @ Jun 30, 2014 -> 08:41 PM) I have no doubt someone would give him a shot, but I really think we're deluding ourselves if we think we're going to get anything exciting back. He can't help anyone right now, and a guy who's had 1500 PA of ML failure is much less likely to help a team LATER than the prospect we would hope they'd give up. http://espn.go.com/mlb/player/stats/_/id/5...win-encarnacion Encarnacion went from his rookie year through 2011 (and these were years when power was up) hitting mostly in the low 700ish range for OPS. He played 3B at that time, but he was terrible at that position, and eventually moved to 1B/DH. There's also the example of Jose Bautista, who had a very solid rookie year, almost fell entirely off the map and then recovered. Domonic Brown...Pedro Alvarez, etc. No guarantees, but Encarnacion and Viciedo have been compared a lot. He's definitely worth SOMETHING to someone.

One thing we don't want to do is trade Davidson right now...there's no guarantee that Conor's going to repeat his first half performance, he still has many defensive issues and he still probably needs a platoon partner against LHP.

QUOTE (Jake @ Jun 30, 2014 -> 04:15 PM) I think the reason Micah is playing 2B is because he's an iffy defender there and it's unlikely to increase his value to move him off the one position where he is becoming serviceable. They know that Semien is competent around the IF and are less concerned with his getting reps at IF positions because they are less critical for his development Still, you traditionally leave the best player who you feel has the ability to stick at that position at SS. One could just as easily argue they know Semien can't play shortstop (everyday) at the next level...that Sanchez has the best shot at remaining there, so they need to find out how versatile Marcus is to possibly platoon with Gillaspie, PR, and play all over the field like a Zobrist-Lite.

#22 for Algeria just had a shot at point-blank range and pulled it to the left.

Wow. Shocker so far. Has a Muslim/N.African country ever beaten a European power in the round of 16 in the history of the WC?

QUOTE (Eminor3rd @ Jun 30, 2014 -> 12:34 PM) I'd do it in a second IF Castro came with more team control. He's reputed to be an excellent defender who is developing into one of the best pitch framers in the league. Just one year removed from a 130 wRC+, and two removed from a 100 wRC+. If he gave us 100 going forward with his defense, I'd be thrilled to give up Avi. But he'd have to agree to an extension we liked. Then you're talking about finding two corner outfield bats and a LH/DH. Yes, I am cognizant of the fact that catching is extremely difficult to develop. It seems no matter what/who we trade, let's say Alexei Ramirez, it opens up another gaping hole somewhere else in the major league line-up.

QUOTE (Charlie Haeger's Knuckles @ Jun 30, 2014 -> 12:34 PM) I love this voyeuristic view of the Gm dealings... "Inventory player" "Paydown" completely different terminology than that fans and writers use. Remember, the Astros are viewed as completely bizarre by the rest of baseball. I don't think it's considered normal terminology for any other organization.

QUOTE (southside hitman @ Jun 30, 2014 -> 12:30 PM) The guy who is currently hitting .218/.297/.363? And before you say small sample size, he's a career .247/.324/.405 major league hitter. Not saying he doesn't have potential, but for Avi? Injured or not, no freakin way. .729 is really good for a catcher, fwiw. That said, he's closer to being expensive, and his offensive game has really fallen off this season. And I'm not even certain why the Astros would need another OFer.

QUOTE (GreenSox @ Jun 30, 2014 -> 11:33 AM) Trade Viciedo for that young Seattle SS who can't hit. Then trade Alexei for some of their young A and AA pitchers....don't know who, but I'm sure they have some - they always do. I watched their game the other night and they have some guy in the pen with electric stuff and an ERA of around 7...looked like a good "coop can fix 'em" candidate. Wilhelmsen?

One wonders if Nate Jones even could have passed a physical before the season started.

Hill got ripped for 8 runs. Boggs continues to be employed in professional baseball, mysteriously. Charlotte attendance already over 400K. Semien under .200 on the season. Sanchez close to .300, Micah hitting a soft .281 (687 OPS), Phegley with a homer. No Davidson in the first game of DH.

QUOTE (MnSoxFan @ Jun 30, 2014 -> 09:15 AM) Better than expected, still need more consistency. Stay where he is, if a promotion occurs Coats and May deserve it sooner. I have a feeling they're going to keep Hawkins and Anderson together, more or less. It's way too early to talk about May going to Birmingham unless he can sustain this success for another month. As far as Coats goes, it's not close to decided that he's the type of prospect that is going to push someone out of the Birmingham outfield yet...not because the organization is high on Thompson or Mitchell, but because they have to be 100% convinced Coats is ready.

QUOTE (Y2HH @ Jun 30, 2014 -> 06:50 AM) This is so sad...when crapfest rehash movies like this open huge and a relatively original SciFi project like Edge of Tomorrow bombs in comparison. People deserve exactly what we end up with because we keep paying to watch crap unoriginal sequels instead of going to see an actual good movie, instead. Well, that doesn't apply to me, but it applies to most. A lot of this has to do with the relative failure of Oblivion and sci fi burnout from a slew of disappointing ones...like Prometheus, Star Trek sequel, Pacific Rim (in the U.S.), a horrid remake of Total Recall, Elysium, the list goes on and on. So, in honor of GOOD movies, my Top Ten list so far in 2014, and some others to check out 1) Captain America: The Winter Soldier 2) The Grand Budapest Hotel 3) Snowpiercer 4) X-Men 5) The Lego Movie 6) The Raid 2 (or, if you want a lesser but similar movie, Brick Mansions, Paul Walker's final movie) 7) The Normal Heart (HBO movie, but a very very good one about the first three years of AIDS crisis) 8) Chef 9) Boyhood (Richard Linklater) 10) tie The Immigrant and Locke (Tom Hardy) Honorable Mention: The Edge of Tomorrow, Blue Ruin, Coherence, Foxcatcher, 22 Jump Street, Under the Skin, The Company You Keep

QUOTE (Chilihead90 @ Jun 30, 2014 -> 01:16 AM) I can not stand mediocrity. I know we all went over this topic last season around this time as well, but I would rather this team tank the rest of the way, or dominate the rest of the way. I don't want to see a midround draft pick next June. Therein lies the argument. The difference between 80, 75, 70 and 65 wins for a fanbase that knows this is a rebuilding year...in terms of attendance for the rest of this season, selling season tickets for next year and the difference between drafting let's say 4-8 vs. 9-12 in the first round. Half of the battle is getting Rodon signed and and evidence of encouraging results from whatever he manages to do in July and August or perhaps the AFL...they will be attempting to market Carlos almost like he's a free agent acquisition, in terms of "spin" to the media. Does Hahn have the budget (with the season ticket/sponsorship/revenues/attendance falloff) to approach 2015 in the same way KW approached 2011...or will they take a softer, less aggressive approach, not putting all their eggs in the basket of getting back to the playoffs as early as 2015 but pushing the timetable back to 2016-18, when it's likely Hawkins, Anderson and Montas would be arriving on the scene as reinforcements and an infusion of more youth/talent??

QUOTE (Chilihead90 @ Jun 29, 2014 -> 10:48 PM) Pick a lane, Sox. Go 7-2 against the Tigers, Giants and Blue Jays. Get wiped out by the Royals, Twins and Orioles (granted, we easily could have swept that series). Hard to figure this team out, except for the fact that it's fortunes reside with the back end of the rotation, which is why it's going to be so hard for this team to ever go on an extended winning streak.

QUOTE (bmags @ Jun 29, 2014 -> 02:28 PM) If Sox finish this year at .500 I'll be very confident in our future. But 75 wins more likely. Except no Avisail Garcia, no Dunn...probable changes in the free agency period, some more trades, you've got the possibility of Rodon, you might be changing your entire middle infield so if that were to take place, their overall season record's obviously going to take a huge hit with two rookies adjusting offensively.