caulfield12

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Oct 30, 2015 -> 08:19 AM) Hello. What does that have to do with this discussion? Doyle Alexander lost twice in the playoffs and the '87 Tigers lost in the ALCS. The Royals are close to winning the World Series helped by a couple of gems pitched by Cueto. Those two situations aren't comparable right now. For some reason I thought he was on the 1984 Tigers. Oh well. Sometimes the example is a tad exaggerated. For the Yankees, I'm still not sure the overall ARod deal is worth it just for 2009 when they have so many championships overall.

Greg Sparks is a great guy, with great insight and results. As he is reunited with old pal Todd Steverson, it brings to mind a balancing of the universe (Yin and Yang); blending of opposite strengths; Steverson’s gregarious and Sparks’ lower-keyed personalities. Sure to be a winning combination for the Chicago White Sox Major League team. Between that and working with Chris Carter, we're absolutely set for a new generation of hitters. Or not. Kim Contreras must be related to Nardi or Jose with the Merkin/Rongey editorializing at the end. Results>great guy.

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Oct 30, 2015 -> 08:10 AM) Yes, absolutely. You have one person versus hundreds that require a shutdown. And he has the power to tell all of his agencies to stop providing services, stop enforcing laws, stop investigating crimes, stop prosecuting cases, etc. etc. Oh and he commands the entire US defense system. Congress can cut funding, so in an indirect way they can do the same in theory, but it's much harder to do. Most most of the Supreme Court basically has lifetime tenure. The bottom 1/3rd or 25% of presidents don't compare to Earl Warren or Oliver Wendell Holmes in terms of impact. Or the deciding vote on Roe v. Wade or Gore v. Bush.

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Oct 30, 2015 -> 07:10 AM) No it doesn't. Flags fly forever. Doyle Alexander/John Smoltz says hello. If Aaron Miles became the grittiest player in the history of baseball, a few would probably give away their World Series with Juan Uribe. Not that it would rational.

Also depends on how Finnegan and the other pieces from that deal turn out, Cody Reed, Lamb, etc.

Austin Hedges?

It doesn't make sense because we have to be building towards 2017-2019. Giving those at-bats to a Morneau over someone like Avi, Olt, Davidson (or even Cabrera, with a younger player playing LF/RF) makes little or no sense because we're just wasting those opportunities when they could benefit a "prospect/suspect" who actually could be a part of the future of the organization. Now you can certainly make the argument ALL of those guys might have no future, or even Trayce Thompson, but that's a different argument. If you at least believe they have a "reasonable" chance to succeed, then you have to go with the younger players.

Mattingly, 54, was one of at least seven candidates for the job. The Miami Herald reported Larry Bowa, Manny Acta, Bo Porter, Alex Cora, Phil Nevin and Rick Renteria also interviewed. It's almost a surprising number considering how difficult it has been for anyone to keep the job for long. yahoosports.com Acta, Renteria and Cora all speak Spanish as far as I'm aware. Cora has the connection (somewhat) because of Joey Cora, but that might not be altogether positive because Joey and Ozzie were tied at the hip together and didn't part on the greatest of terms. Bowa's too old and will automatically be considered a threat to manage out a "lost" season if things go south. Porter and Nevin are interesting names. Nevin hasn't ever managed a big league team, and obviously Porter's itching to get back in the manager's seat. My University of Iowa loyalty would typically favor him, but Nevin might be the better choice. Of course, playing Devil's Advocate, not sure the White Sox can afford to hire someone lacking in (big league) experience if the whole Ventura situation goes completely sideways. At least Nevin has been managing since 2009. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phil_Nevin Nevin managed the SeaWolves for one season. On November 11, 2010, Nevin was named manager of the Toledo Mud Hens, the Tigers' Class AAA minor league affiliate. He is considered a potential future MLB manager.[23] Catcher Omir Santos described his managing the Mud Hens as "like having a big league manager in [Class AAA]."[23] On August 31, 2013, Nevin was fired after the team's final home game of the season. Nevin's record as manager was 192–238; the team never finished higher than third in the International League's West division.[43] The Arizona Diamondbacks named Nevin as manager of the Reno Aces, their Class AAA affiliate, for the 2014 season.[44] After the season, the Astros interviewed Nevin for their open managerial position.[45]

Both the Roosevelts would be ashamed at what the office has become... Let's blame it all on Nixon/Watergate, the media, polarization of politics since the Reagan/Tip O'Neill years and just the general lack of respect (you lie!) that has been increasing over the last 20-30 years...the almost visceral hate opponents have towards Clinton, Bush, Obama, etc. When I was growing up, I always heard how important it was to respect the office of the presidency, even if you personally disagreed with his/her politics.

Pretty funny when your own beat writers know a lot less than another team's...typical of the Hahn style, though.

Well, he would be in the same exact position with Shapiro as KW with Hahn. Feels he's earned more respect and freedom than that level of oversight.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Oct 29, 2015 -> 10:12 AM) Anyways, about Sparks. http://www.baseball-reference.com/bullpen/Greg_Sparks Yay, Moneyball and OPS. We finally won in a transaction involving Oakland. Maybe... http://www.baseball-reference.com/bullpen/Greg_Sparks Six years of minor league managerial experience...pretty much a lifer in the minors. The anti-Ventura, so to speak. Looks like the whole time with A's. Four years as minor league hitting coordinator. Minor league coach again most recently in Sacramento. This post has been edited by caulfield12: Today, 09:26 AM

The A's Way or the Highway... The funny thing is that instituting this philosophy is a lot easier when it's in your drafting/talent eval phase and everything is well integrated. You can't turn a bunch of free swinging, low contact players into the A's or the Royals for that matter unless you draft and sign players with those tendencies. We hear over and over again they pretty much are what they are at the MLB level...guess we will find out. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, as they say.

QUOTE (LDF @ Oct 29, 2015 -> 09:21 AM) and you make a good point on peoples POV. we are going to elect a leader for this country..... people should demand more from their leaders. And the media as well as the Presidential Debates Commission...

Yay, Moneyball and OPS. We finally won in a transaction involving Oakland. Maybe... http://www.baseball-reference.com/bullpen/Greg_Sparks Six years of minor league managerial experience...pretty much a lifer in the minors. The anti-Ventura, so to speak. Looks like the whole time with A's. Four years as minor league hitting coordinator. Minor league coach again most recently in Sacramento.

QUOTE (HickoryHuskers @ Oct 29, 2015 -> 09:07 AM) Because that's boring and doesn't attract voters. It worked on House of Cards, haha. And wasn't the Ohio plan more private driven, but essentially a partnership or cooperation with the government? Not too familiar with what's going on there.

Same as Ozzie's deal, in terms of length. Does Dan Jennings go back to the GM/VP spot?

https://www.yahoo.com/politics/missing-from...-113304645.html Why are the Republican candidates even running? What are they proposing that's new or different? Why can't Kasich have a campaign about jobs growth like in Ohio? Maybe Rubio doesn't want to go with the "Rich are getting a 28.7% break with my plan vs. 15% for the average member of the middle class" slogan. At least Trump has one that's solid and memorable, albeit completely unrealistic in terms of his proposals colliding on the same theoretical plane of reality. Bush...4% growth is way better than 2-3%!!! This goes back to Greg's point. Why is Hillary running? To carry out the Obama and Bill Clinton legacy of moderate triangulating liberalism that protects the middle class. But she has much more of an issue explaining what she actually wants to change about the system than Bernie Sanders, for example. Part of the problem is you can't tack too hard against your own party's president and two terms worth of policies (although Gore ran away from Clinton because of scandal and not wanting to be elected on his coattails in essence). Why is Fiorina running? To be the anti-Hillary choice and pretend her legacy is job growth and not job cuts. At any rate, this was the death knell of the Bush Era in Republican politics, not unlike 1980 for the Kennedys. He's done. Rubio is the closest to a legitimate threat to win and presents the perfect opposition...young, bright, handsome, charismatic and Hispanic. That's why the Clintons will also likely go to one of the brothers from San Antonio for VP...despite no way of winning Texas in the general election.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/sports/base...rticle26996693/ Article with the "inside scoop." Looks like Gibbons will be shown the door as well. Sad day for baseball in Toronto unless you're a huge Shapiro fan back from 2005 in Cleveland when he beat out KW for AL Exec of the Year.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Oct 29, 2015 -> 08:17 AM) An Ex-Met told you? Lol. From the Twitter feed last night from the game at EsPN...I didnt copy the whole name and source every single time because it would have been laborious and space-wasting. Obviously I'm not the one reporting, how could I from China?

Jordan4Life will surely hire him. First postseason in ages and the Goins missed popup goes against the Jays, Price and AA's fate were sealed that game in many ways. So close, and yet so far and not quite enough (the World Series appearance at least) to save his job. Estrada, Buehrle and Price have to replaced, as well as Bautista and Encarnacion after next year. Josh Donaldson the best move of the last offseason in retrospect.

QUOTE (OmarComing25 @ Oct 29, 2015 -> 05:58 AM) He got 3 swing and misses in his 94 pitches, not zero. Still very impressive by the Royals. Mets only had 3 swing and misses against Cueto too in his 122 pitches. In total, there was only 9 swing and misses in the entire game. Pretty crazy. Maybe they meant just on his fastball...

QUOTE (flavum @ Oct 28, 2015 -> 09:34 PM) The Royals are just the best team in baseball. They'll win two in NY. This series isn't coming back to KC. Maybe. I think a large part of it goes back to last year, knowing what it takes to compete on the ultimate stage, and their comfort level with close or tied games in the late innings (especially at home). When they had their WC comeback against Oakland last year, they rode that all the way into the World Series where they ran into Bumgarner, who was just better. This year, the huge comeback against the Astros' pen late in a critical game and then the comeback against David Price late in that game just confirmed the belief they already had in themselves. That philsophy of "keep the line moving" has really permeated the team ethos now in the post-season. Total team concept. You saw it with Cain trying to bunt in Game 1, for example. Every single player 1-9 is willing to sacrifice an at-bat for the good of the team. Honestly, as Greg noted often, the Royals looked incredibly shaky the last 4-6 weeks and actually ended up playing below .500 ball for most of that stretch until the final week or ten days when they caught Toronto for home field advantage. Cueto looked like a disaster, Ventura was becoming MORE reliable again but not his old self, Guthrie was on his way out and Duffy was also struggling. Volquez is really the one consistent pitcher, along with Chris Young and Medlen to a lesser extent, who kept the whole rotation from falling apart at the seams. Offensively, they are much better with Zobrist, although Rios is statistically a step down from Aoki, he's been very good in the playoffs. And Morales has been a looming threat all year long in the middle of that line-up, much more effective than Butler and also a leader along with Perez and Volquez of their Hispanic core of players like Escobar, Ventura and Herrera. And then you have this whole thing with Volquez, Young and Moustakas all losing their mothers and fathers within a 2 month period...that was the final factor bringing everyone together in the clubhouse.

That was either 1987 or 1991. I want to say 91, when the Twins came back to beat the Braves at home. Both of those series, they didn't lose a single home game.

If nothing else, he has ZERO connection to the White Sox in any way, shape or form (unlike Drabek's father, having pitched for the White Sox in the low minors and then again near the end of his career). PROGRESS.