caulfield12

We should bring Soler over to the SouthSide and balance out the disappointing Cubans with Viciedo vs. Abreu/Ramirez. Actually, it would be great to trade them Avi and pieces for Soler but I'm not sure the Cubs would be willing to go for that. At any rate, it will be interesting to see what they eventually end up doing with Castro, Baez, Schwarber and Soler, to name a few.

Maddon... Benching Bryant would be about as idiotic as...well, it's just not going to happen. Even if he was 0 for his career against Cole. The question has to be more who you play in LF, Schwarber or ??? That must have been the conversation, if you want to be stuck with his poor defense out there in order to get the offensive upside.

QUOTE (CaliSoxFanViaSWside @ Oct 6, 2015 -> 10:33 PM) Colby Rasmus turned out to be a good investment for the Astros. I seem to remember a a lot of Soxtalkers didn't want him every time I brought him up last off season. He production this year was about what many thought LaRoche should have done. Take young over old and AL experience over NL and less years and less AAV next time Sox. The difference between the 2 was LaRoche's OBP was way higher and he is a good Christian man as opposed to Rasmus' rep as a problem child and low OBP in 2014 Rasmus put up a 2.8 WAR vs, LaRoche's -1.4 a difference of 4.2 WAR in 2015. Yep, he was one of the main players a few of us were targeting for OF on the assumption they wouldn't overspend on Cabrera or Yasmany Tomas.

This is like the Greg/Adam Dunn...why isn't he benched? debates of the past. Because the White Sox aren't in the habit of eating any contract of more than $5 million completely...until they've first thoroughly exhausted every avenue in an attempt to extract any remaining value.

See Andre Dawson's "pay me what you think I'm worth at the end of the season" pledge in 1987. If our best marketing strategy is pointing to the back of LaRoche's baseball card, they're in more trouble than previously imagined. Surely that approach heading into 2012 with Dunn didn't convince any season ticket buyers on the fence to commit.

QUOTE (ChiSox59 @ Oct 6, 2015 -> 09:22 PM) But that doesn't fit his narrative!! From another standpoint, it represents his downside and risk factors more accurately because it has been impossible to count on him to put up 31-33 starts per season.

Other than Abreu, Viciedo, Borchard, Micker Adolfo Zapata and going about $800,000 over on Rodon, they've largely been risk-averse. Dunn, Danks and LaRoche turned out to be larger risks than predicted, but after the fact. That covers about 15 years, too.

29 million people more or less in Mexico City. Otoh, A Man Apart, drug cartels, kidnappings, visa issues, border crossings, tax complications, difficulties of recruiting non Hispanic free agents.

QUOTE (Alpha Dog @ Oct 6, 2015 -> 01:32 PM) Like their methodology. "He liked george Takai, so he wasn't Christian'. Funny. What evidence is there that Christians were the only ones shot in the head and all others were just wounded/spared? Because of the woman in the wheelchair? There's far from any consistency to this theory across multiple testimonies.

Another option is bringing in Desmond for SS and moving Anderson to 3b, but that's definitely dubious from a defensive standpoint. Then again, moving players out of that pressure-filled position to either 3b or 2b has worked in the past. And we already have three potential starters at 2b in Sanchez, Johnson and Saladino. Practically anything sounds better than Olt/Davidson/Saladino long-term, fwiw.

QUOTE (Alpha Dog @ Oct 6, 2015 -> 10:35 AM) From what I read if the people responded 'Christian', he shot them in the head, others he shot more to wound. if that is the case, they yeah, he singled out Christians. http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyathei...to-be-the-case/ Nice try....though. More were interested in science/New Age/mysticism. Only two of the nine could be described as Christian. If he deliberately tried to wound but not kill 78% of the victims, pretty sure we would have heard something by now.

Yeah, but for every Nick Hostetler or Marco Paddy, there's still KW or Buddy Bell to cancel all of that out. The biggest impact talent of the early bunch, Adolfo, isn't on a pace to even make a dent in the majors (assuming injuries or non-performance don't get him) before the new tv contract negotiations in 2019. They also have stayed within the parameters on intl. signings, unlike many of the big market clubs like the Cubs, Red Sox and Dodgers who have been scooping up the most talent. Finally, Courtney Hawkins and Tyler Danish sank quite a bit as prospects. That has hurt, as well.

Then Reinsdorf's legacy won't end up that much better than Comiskey's... Taking a World Series team and running it into the ground when they were recently 8th-12th in the Forbes valuations isn't very easy to do, especially with that team and owner-friendly lease deal.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Oct 6, 2015 -> 07:08 AM) 15th in payroll 20th in record 26th in attendance 30th in TV ratings http://www.statista.com/statistics/196644/...sox-since-2006/ $227 million in revenues last season (2014). Tied for 18th. Well up over 2013 despite a poor product. Revenues generated outperformed team record in the standings in 2013 and 2014. 16th in overall team valuation according to Forbes. Revenues should have risen to the middle teens to meet the offseason growth of season ticket plans sold this year. Seems we are exactly where we belong, all things considered. http://www.statista.com/statistics/193645/...-teams-in-2010/

QUOTE (Buehrle>Wood @ Oct 6, 2015 -> 06:48 AM) TV markets also weren't much of a thing back then. MLB would never move a team with the massive tv market of chicago. Of course, at that time NY was even bigger and you had three teams sharing it, with Boston and Philly not too far away. The biggest purpose of those moves, of course, was opening up California for MLB. Unless they move to another country (Cuba, Mexico, S.Korea or Japan), the White Sox are unlikely to be relocated inside the US.

The shooter asked everyone their religious beliefs, but apparently it had nothing to do with who he ended up shooting or not shooting in the end. He also deliberately shot someone in a wheelchair, so there's not much of a pattern here to be seen...even the one witness/hostage who was spared has no clue why he chose him to leave a message for the police. This wasn't one of those cases like in Nairobi, Kenya, two years ago where Somali militants were killing all "infidels" who couldn't quote from the Koran/Quran.

QUOTE (SCCWS @ Oct 6, 2015 -> 06:25 AM) Havana White Sox. Does Jerry smoke cigars????............................. Yep.

QUOTE (captain54 @ Oct 5, 2015 -> 11:57 PM) I don't think you are going to see any significant increase in viewership or attendance, unless the Sox come up with a strong April and May of 2016, and play without the bonehead mistakes, miserable defense, and non existent offense..I think the FO is deluding themselves if they think a roster reshuffling in the offseason is gonna bring fans back like it did in 2015 Let's imagine a best case scenario where they approximate the Twins' season this year. Virtually nobody will be predicting them to finish anywhere but 4th or 5th, so even being 8-12 games over .500 early in the season, that's not going to be enough unless they are just throttling everyone and pulling 5-7 games ahead in the division. With our lack of offense, it's hard to imagine that happening, so that means the defense and bullpen must be extraordinary to win a bunch of 1 and 2 run games. That seems inconceivable right now. The ghosts of 2012 are too close as well...with all the accumulated skepticism towards that team/manager getting rolled over to future teams. Except, instead of Detroit, it will be the Royals, Twins or Indians that will be waiting in the weeds to blow us away in the 2nd half. At any rate, if they followed the same exact track as the Twins this year, they MIGHT get about half their lost attendance (due to season ticket holders throwing in the towel) back but would still finish behind 2015, meaning 27th/28th/29th/30th in the league. And that's the sort of optimistic, 3-7 games over .500 for most of the year and peaking at 10-12 games over version. Without major changes, we're not going to have that team until 2017.

We had Trayce Thompson batting clean-up quite a few times down the stretch. Anything's possible, although Heyward's going to be way too expensive when you need to stretch that money over 3-4 players. The problem with guys like Gordon and Zobrist, though, is they're getting older and you're still at least in a holding pattern until 2017 to be competitive, so that essentially leaves Gordon/Cespedes/Upton, with all three of those guys either out of their price range or entering their downsides from a physical standpoint. So basically, nowhere. Depending on how KC finishes the post-season, they're going to definitely make a run at keeping Gordon around if it's remotely feasible, because they saw what happened going cheap (Rios)...they ended up having to trade more prospects to shore up the offense with Zobrist. You pretty much are forced to look at 3B and catcher for upgrades and probably have to be contented with the idea that Thompson might supplant Garcia in order to improve the outfield defense, Sanchez will be at second again and undoubtedly Ramirez will be back for one final year since they don't have enough confidence in Saladino to hold down the position as a full-time player.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Oct 5, 2015 -> 10:40 PM) If we are gonna keep Robin, Jerry should at least demand somebody like Luis Aparicio (if we need to keep it in house) or Cal Ripken come to spring training and teach the guys how to fricking bunt! I can't remember but Cal was such a solid Hall of Famer I assume he was a good bunter. I mean, baseball is not THAT physically demanding a sport. Have the guys out there an hour early each day, Robin, and make them learn how to bunt. I've seen batting practice. They normally make a couple half-assed attempts at bunting then start trying to pull home runs instead of fricking work on their swings. But seriously Robin calls for the bunt and these stiff cannot bunt!! Make them learn how to bunt with Cal Ripken JR.!! Hire Cal as consultant. Then bring in Tim Raines and pay him some spring training money to teach these bums how to run the basepaths. Again ... make these millionaires spend AN HOUR A DAY running the bases and make them learn how to do it! That's two extra hours a day the millionaires must spend on the field. Tell them, "Maybe next spring we won't have to do this if you guys f***ing lay down bunts when called on and actually run the bases well this season!" So bring in Ripken and Raines next spring. Finally, fire Steverson's ass and bring in another hitting coach (Seitzer? Ripken? anybody) who preaches hitting to all fields. Tell the millionaires that hitting into the shift is selfish and sickening and they need to spray the baseball to beat the shift. Tell LaRoche that his 12-home run season forfeits the right to hit into the shift. Since he cannot pull the ball over the fence, DEMAND he go with the pitch or not play in the final year of his contract. Yes, bench him if he hits into the shift. Finally bring in motivational speaker Tony Robbins to talk about TEAMMORK and WINNING. Or Donald Trump to talk about WINNING. That.Is.My.Suggestion. They've already hired and fired Raines once. That's even less likely than Ozzie returning. Ripken wasn't much of a bunter and still has strong ties to the Orioles...bringing in the all-time leading HR hitter at SS wouldn't be far removed from Frank Thomas. Might as well use Karkovice, Lance Johnson or even Guillen or Cora for that clinic and save some money. Or Buddy Bell, haha. Tom Emanski? Come to think of it, Frank White would be a great choice. His relationship with the Royals is still strained and he clearly wants to be involved in the game, still.

It's quite sad in the modern day, where there are millions of ways to measure receptivity to your product, that this organization has suddenly become so tone deaf and stubborn.

If Rongey is a bigger part of radio broadcasts or gets an expanded tv role, we'll know the marketing and broadcasting groups are completely tone deaf. As it is, the fans are already voting by their lack of interest...worst ratings of all 30 teams. I'm not even sure they were doing that in the 70's and mid to late 80's.

1972 Munich Olympics

QUOTE (ewokpelts @ Oct 5, 2015 -> 04:26 AM) you do know that the cubs and sox negotiate their own contracts for tv, right? theo and tommy boy are banking on the big money of going on their own, but signs point to a burst in the rights bubble. Sox will likely stay on csn with a richer deal, along witht eh hawks and bulls. Houston had two bad teams at the same time, the Rockets and Astros. Yao Ming had just fallen apart. The Astros were at the end of the Killer B's time period and 4-5 years from contention. Bad timing. The problem in LA is/was that the contract was TOO generous and wasn't well thought out in terms of the assumptions being made that fans would "force" their cable and satellite companies to carry the Dodgers. Even the Mariners got nearly $120 million per season in the midst of being a doormat (and without Ichiro) for going on nearly a decade now. A lot of that was also based on the addition of Cano, which turned out not to be an automatic ticket to the playoffs, nor was Nelson Cruz, despite the numbers he put up this year. At any rate, you have the White Sox with arguably the lowest or next to lowest ratings of any franchise in baseball in terms of tv and probably radio as well this year. The Cubs are trending in the exact opposite direction. Unless that organization completely falls apart from 2016-2018, their new contract will be huge...and if the White Sox continue to suck, that will create an even more profitable supply and demand bubble for Epstein and Co. to take advantage of.

Although, from a marketing persoective, Puig would at least stabilize the expected 20-25% dropoff in renewals after this season. You bring back the entire roster pretty much as is, along with Ventura, amd it could get as ugly as 30% lost.