caulfield12

For what it's worth, Brett has played 43 post-season games and has a career OPS in those games of well over 1.000, compared to lower numbers for regular season play. Is that "clutch"? Of course, when you compare it to Tulowitzki or some of the numbers from the past 15 years, it's not so amazing...we all have selective memories to reinforce what we already believe to be true.

QUOTE (Eminor3rd @ May 8, 2014 -> 07:06 AM) And there you have it. Does that also incorporate post-season and 7th inning and beyond numbers?

https://www.teammarketing.com/public/upload...20mlb%20fci.pdf This should be provide a lot of support for those who are pushing the team to do something about prices (as in fact they have). We used to be something like 4th-6th on this list just two or three seasons ago. We're currently "flat," with no increase or decrease from 2013 (of course you can argue there should have been further prices decreases based on a 99 loss season). Now we're all the way down to 15th, just below the MLB fan cost index average...and behind teams like the Tigers, Twins and Astros. I'm not sure how this particular methodology takes into account dynamic pricing for series like Cubs, Red Sox, Yankees, etc., in their average ticket price. Five teams have more expensive parking, the Red Sox, Yankees, Cubs, Mets and Blue Jays. We're tied for 6th with the Giants, Tigers, Mariners and A's (of all the teams with historic attendance issues, you think the A's would be price sensitive, but they at least run lots of food discount nights, all you can eat packages, and special group deals). The Cubs have the second most expensive beers at $7.50, behind only the Marlins (also introduced Goose Island.....Anheuser-Busch InBev deal pushed Old Style out). Royals have the biggest array of across-the-board ticket price increases, up 24.7% (yikes, Greg!!!)

Greg775 will like this one... Currently, the Sox are second to last in home game attendance, averaging 16,959 (41.8 percent capacity) sold tickets per game—second only to the Cleveland Indians. It’s nothing new, as they have failed to draw more than thirty-thousand per game since they won the AL Central in the 2008 season. This year though, they are flirting with the sub twenty-thousand mark—a feat they have not seen since their centennial year back in 1999, when the team finished second in the division with a record of 75-86. It’s not some kind of mystery that the Chicago White Sox play second fiddle to their neighbors on the north side, but in a city of more than 2.7 million people, and a metropolitan sprawl in excess of 9.5 million, it’s quite pitiful how low their attendance has reached. The question then becomes, what is the problem down on the south side of the Windy City? Therein lies one of the problems—nobody can pinpoint any particular reason why people have failed to show up at U.S. Cellular Field. Some White Sox fans have pointed to the overall cost of attending games, placing part of the blame on the economic downturn. Although 2013 reports show the total price index for the Sox (a number that figures in total cost of tickets, food, parking, etc.) to be one of the highest in baseball, there are a handful of teams with a higher index that do not have the same attendance issues (seems to be flat out wrong, see below). Other fans point to a number of issues such as: crime, traffic, time, and the generic vibe of U.S. Cellular Park. It’s a wide-reaching problem that’s a result of numerous issues that surround the south side of Chicago, and despite winning the World Series in 2005, nothing appears to be changing that will fix the attendance issues. The only solution, besides dramatically dropping the average cost of tickets is for the suits upstairs to assemble a winning team. It has been proven that if they are winning, the fans will come, as evidenced by the 36,511 average attendance in 2006, the year following the World Series victory. Unfortunately, the team has not been winning and attendance figures have continued a decline ever since, reaching levels as low as 10,625 in a game earlier this season. It is well known that the Chicago White Sox have a strong and loyal fan base, but it is clear that home game attendance depends strongly on the fickle, fair weather fans that only show up if the team wins. It is a problem that plagues many MLB teams, but if the front office executives want to correct the pitiful home game draw, they need to make some major changes. They need to first and foremost make prices more reasonable for fans to attend games, and secondly, they need to assemble a winning baseball team. Preferably, for Sox fans, they should work on making both of these fixes come to fruition. Until then, fans will stay at home and watch their HD television, pop their own popcorn and watch a so-so product play to a near empty stadium. Commentary by Johnny "Don't Call Me Cueto or Maikel" Caito http://guardianlv.com/2014/04/chicago-whit...nce-is-pitiful/

QUOTE (oldsox @ May 8, 2014 -> 06:34 AM) Top 3 teams in system are collectively 24 games under .500. Winning percentage in the minors is irrelevant, with the possible exception of the two A teams. Has almost nothing to do with who's producing the best prospects...always keep in mind, a lot of the kids are working on refining specific aspects of their games. Now, if you have an organization like say the Pirates, Astros, Royals...where the MLB team hasn't won anything in decades, establishing a winning culture at the minor league level takes on more significance. With the White Sox over the last two decades, roughly 85% of our players have come from other organizations.

QUOTE (IlliniKrush @ May 7, 2014 -> 11:37 PM) Caulfield, you say there's nothing they can do. There is something they can do, and it's really easy - lower prices. We covered this last year, but the tickets prices are insane for a series that has basically no hype around it anymore and 2 rebuilding teams. $79 to sit in the bleachers? When Friday vs Arizona it's $23. LOL. I didn't realize they still had those elevated prices in place this year. Were they also higher for the Red Sox series? Hughes and Coomer said the bleacher seats were pretty empty...but I had no idea it was a crowd closer to 20,000 than 30K from the way they described it on radio. In that case, I can't blame fans for not staying home when they're being gouged to that extent. I still remember less than ten years ago being able to watch games in the upper deck or OF bleachers at Kauffman in KC for $7-10. $79 is just insane, especially with the iffy weather recently. For a day game with beautiful weather in the summer months...with a good Sox team, I'd think about it, if I was only going once that season.

QUOTE (fathom @ May 7, 2014 -> 10:31 PM) Yep, he had a tweet to CJ Wittmann Jr. where he agreed with his assessment from a few weeks ago about Hawkins. I believe that was the assessment which stated his ceiling was that of a bench player. That's still dumb. You could say the same thing about Jared Mitchell right now. He doesn't have the kind of swing that's going to translate into any type of repeatable success playing once every week or so...so bench player, I guess, he could run into a homer, but he's not going to be a defensive replacement or veteran bat who can make contact in a clutch situation like an Omar Vizquel or Jose Vizcaino.

QUOTE (Reddy @ May 6, 2014 -> 11:50 AM) Specifically a documentary. Would love anyone who's interested to take a look and give some feedback! This is the biggest project I've undertaken in my life, and I'm really excited about it. Essentially what it boils down to is this. Meeting up in Seattle in August, buying a cheap, old used car, and driving 5,000 to New York, camping the whole way. 16 states. Four guys. One tent. No smartphones. Doing it as cheaply as we can without missing out on any of the beauty in between. No I-80 all the way across for us! Why do it? A couple reasons... I'll let me partners in crime do some of the explaining: So if you want more, check out our website, like us on facebook, follow us on twitter - or even consider donating to our crowd-funding site. Even just a like would mean the world to me and the guys. Here are all the links: Just Go Official Website (you can even see an interactive map of our whole itinerary) Just Go on Twitter Just Go on Facebook Help Fund the Project Thanks for reading, and I'd love to hear your thoughts. It's good to be back. Sounds like a less commercial version of The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. Or a combination of "On the Road" with Into the Wild thrown in for good measure. Easy Rider, Borat, etc. Have you seen the Che Guevara movie series, Motorcycle Diaries?

QUOTE (Eminor3rd @ May 7, 2014 -> 11:02 PM) Well no one is trying, so you don't have to worry. The White Sox-related "clutch" example that always gets thrown out there is Crede... A bit of selective memory, though. I would actually say Uribe, with a runner on 3rd and less than 2 outs...he was the one I wanted up there the most. Even though he would strike out on those low and outside sliders in the LHBB with the best of them with nobody on base.

QUOTE (Wanne @ May 7, 2014 -> 10:02 PM) I asked this the other day on facebook about just who the eff the Cubs announcers even were. I don't live in Chicago...nor give two s***s about watching them...but GOOD GOD are they awful!!!! They make Bob Brenly exciting. That's the best "America's Team" can actually come up with.....geez us. f***ing horrible.... It was Pat Hughes and Ron Coomer on the radio feed, in this case. I've gotten superstitious this series, I haven't turned it to the Score (Farmer/DJ) once, so I don't want to ruin the momentum, haha.

The Key to Being Clutch When Using Your Procedural Memory To excel under pressure and be clutch with tasks that require procedural memory, you must distract yourself from the task at hand. Instead of over-thinking what you’re doing or are about to do, you must trust that the hours of training and practice you’ve put in before that moment won’t let you down. Distract yourself. If you’re lining up for a golf putt, distract yourself from the mechanics of your putt by counting backwards or singing. Our guitarist above can close his eyes when he starts to feel nervous when playing in front of an audience (as an added bonus, scrunching his eyes shut will make the girls think he’s deep). Develop a mantra. Sports psychologists often counsel their athletes to develop a mantra they can repeat when the pressure is on. Mantras are just another way to keep you from over-thinking what you’re doing in a high-pressure situation. Baseball Hall of Famer George Brett’s mantra when he was up at bat was “Try easier.” A basketball player could use a mantra like “Relaxed and smooth,” for when he steps up to the free throw line. When you’re on the putting green, use the immortal mantra of Chevy Chase in Caddyshack: “Be the ball.” Focus on the target, not your mechanics. Another tactic you can use to avoid paralysis by analysis is to focus on your target, instead of your mechanics. For example, when you’re trying to bowl a strike, you don’t want to think about your approach, so you should focus and aim at an arrow on the lane instead. When firing a gun, focus on getting a clear sight, not on your trigger pull. Don’t slow down. Remember how with tasks that require working memory you should slow down? Well, forget that bit of advice for tasks that require procedural memory. Studies show that the faster you get going, the better you do. Football coaches understand this and will often try to throw off opposing kickers by calling a time-out right before they kick the ball. This technique is called “icing the kicker.” The idea is that giving the kicker more time to think about the kick will increase his analysis and anxiety, thus blocking his procedural memory from guiding the ball through the uprights. If you’ve ever mountain biked, you’ve probably witnessed the truth in this. If you see an obstacle up ahead on the trail and cautiously slow down in anticipation, you will often awkwardly hit the obstacle and fall over. But, if you swallow your fear and keep up a quick pace, more often than not the bike will sail right over the obstacle. http://www.artofmanliness.com/2011/07/10/b...ations-part-ii/ From having watched all of Tiger Woods' major championships, there's no way you're going to convince me there's no such thing as "clutch" putting or performing under pressure in a way that most athletes cannot.

"Any time you can play with a Hall of Famer, then it is something special to remember. I've seen great players make great plays many times. But he was the greatest clutch hitter I've played with or against. He was an excellent hitter through hard work and played at the right time against great teams like the Yankees. He hit .390, won three batting titles and always seemed to be there at the right time with clutch hitting." - Frank White "But they're (his hemorrhoids) all behind you now." - Greg Nettles in A Night at the Hot Corner (Yes Network) "George Brett clearly deserves a special place in the annals of major league baseball history." - American League president Gene Budig "George Brett could get good wood on an aspirin." - Jim Frey "George Brett could roll out of bed on Christmas morning and hit a line drive." - John Schuerholz "George Brett has always been a Hall of Famer, both as a player and a person. From the day he started his career at Billings (Montana) through his last game, George's work ethic and determination was second to none. His hard-nosed style, charisma and ability to deliver in clutch moments made him the first superstar in Kansas City. George's accomplishments and contributions during the last 28 years remain everlasting throughout the organization and our community. The Royals organization is proud of the fact that George has been associated with the Royals since the onset of his professional career." - Royals General Manager Herk Robinson "He was always the guy. He was the clutch guy. Not only with the manager, coaches and his teammates, but the fans knew more often than not in a clutch situation he'd come through because he was so mentally tough and he accepted being that guy." - Denny Matthews "He was clearly one of the best players of his generation, but he had a style that spanned the generations. He looked and carried himself like a baseball player and could have been at home in any era. He was the kind of guy who conveyed something to fans thats very important, which was that he thought of himself first and foremost as a baseball player. There was nothing in the world that he would rather be doing than playing baseball every day when he was on the field." - Broadcaster Bob Costas "His success in the playoffs and World Series in clutch situations really elevated him from the local to national scene. He had that national spotlight and stage to perform on. It's one thing to be in the Post Season and on stage, but it's another to come through. A lot of guys have been on that stage, but few have produced as he did." - Denny Matthews "If God had him no balls and two strikes, he'd still get a hit." - American League umpire Steve Palermo "If he can hit .350, we (Missouri driver's license bureau) figured he could see." - Harley Duncan on why they waived the eye test

QUOTE (La Marr Hoyt HOF @ May 7, 2014 -> 09:58 PM) White Sox hosting one game Wild Card playoff as of today ;-) Well, weren't we 26-26 last year at the end of May as well? I was expecting to see "flavum" as the poster for this one, haha.

QUOTE (fathom @ May 7, 2014 -> 09:17 PM) Seems like it will definitely be lower tomorrow night. The weather was actually decent tonight, right? High 60's/low 70's? I was expecting 25-27,000. That has to be the lowest in the history of the series by about 5,000, right? Last year, Monday, May 27=30,631 Makeup, Monday, July 8th=31,552 I think it's well beyond Brooks Boyer's reach at this time. That's just an unprecedented attendance collapse. And I can't even imagine what the attedance would have been without Abreu's April and coming into the game with a 3 game winning streak instead of having lost the finale in CLE and first two at Wrigley...at 6 games under .500. The dynamic pricing, weekday/night games (even though it didn't matter much last year), early May, the fact that the Cubs are horrible this year and even their fans are getting turned off...there's not a lot that they can do. Now I'm starting to wonder if it would have mattered had we signed Tanaka as well and sent him out tonight. 23,000-24,000?

Cubs' announcers still whining about the Nieto walk, which preceded the Beckham homer. .356 average coming into tonight against the Cubs for Gordo. Carlos Lee-esque.

QUOTE (fathom @ May 7, 2014 -> 08:46 PM) I saw where Nathaniel Stoltz inferred that he thought Hawkins was not very good. The offensive players in the system are slumping it seems. I hope you mean implied...because we can't be sure he's smart enough to infer or deduce.

QUOTE (Soxfest @ May 7, 2014 -> 08:42 PM) If he is coming back and going to be passive every start stay at AAA until he gets aggressive again. The problem is very few pitchers can be confident or aggressive consistently with less than their best stuff. Right now, Johnson's best pitch is his breaking ball. You can pitch backwards for awhile, but eventually the scouting will catch up to you...unless you can get ahead in the count consistently and keep the hitters guessing with 2 strikes.

I would have more confidence in Zach Putnam starting at the major league level pitching in the mid to high 80's with his splitter than Johnson at 87-90.

25 years ago tonight. Jordan over Craig Ehlo for the win.

If Aiken's as good as the scouts are saying, it won't take him much longer than a college pitcher to get to the big leagues. It just goes against almost everything we've seen from the White Sox for the last 30 years or so, since Reinsdorf took over. The one exception recently was Honel, and he was a local product. And Jason Stumm, who I think was supplemental, but obviously both those guys didn't come close to the big leagues.

http://espn.go.com/blog/chicago/white-sox/...bs-sox-identity Greg will love this one. Here's hoping for some Cubs-Sox fireworks May, 5, 2014 MAY 5 12:08 PM CT By Jon Greenberg ESPNChicago.com Archive Contrary to popular opinion, you don't need good teams to have a memorable Cubs-White Sox series. That's a good thing, considering this is Chicago. No, all you need are interesting personalities. The current Cubs-White Sox series could use some of the unpredictability from the days of Ozzie Guillen and Lou Piniella. Ozzie Guillen, A.J. Pierzynski, Carlos Zambrano, Michael Barrett's angry fist, Lou Piniella, the BP Cup. They're all gone, except the Cup. But it's not the same, either. Heck, I don't even think there are rats in the Wrigley batting cages anymore. Where have all our good storylines gone? With four games this week, two at Wrigley Field starting tonight and two at U.S. Cellular Field on Wednesday and Thursday, baseball is front-page news in Chicago. I mean, it's not bigger than the Blackhawks or the Bears' draft, but still, somewhere on the front page, folks. Not bad for a sub-.500 team facing a last-place one. Will we be entertained? That's up for debate. The notion that this series has seen better days isn't up for debate. When you don't even have a sponsor for your intramural championship trophy, the writing is on the wall, man. Maybe Ozzie can write some jokes for Rick Renteria and Robin Ventura, but their delivery won't have the same panache. Jose Abreu might think he's back in Cuba when he sees the visitors clubhouse, but I don't see him complaining. Maybe Jeff Samardzija will talk about Hawk Harrelson's broadcast style again. If a Sox player rips Wrigley Field, we'll have five Cubs executives agreeing with them: That's why we need minority investors to start the rebuild! The true purpose of the crosstown series isn't to proclaim the best team in baseball -- the 96-loss Cubs won their first "Cup" last year, beating the 99-loss White Sox. Rather, it's to get all the inmates in the city's baseball asylums in one place for a mass convention. But of course, we're missing Randle McMurphy. No, not Pierzynski. While he best represented the rivalry on the field, the Cubs-Sox series, as we knew it, died the day Guillen left town for a big payday in Miami. What's your favorite moment of the Cubs-Sox series? Mike Caruso's home run (1999) A.J. Pierzynski-Michael Barrett fight at the Cell (2006) Pierzynski's 3-run walkoff homer at Wrigley (2006) Carlos Zambrano getting tossed for yelling at Derrek Lee (2010) Cubs fans boo the BP Cup because they thought it was the Stanley Cup (2010) It was Guillen who stirred up the city's internecine baseball rivalry during his eight years as White Sox manager. He would joke about the steroid-ingesting rats in the Wrigley batting cages ("I think the rats out there are lifting weights"); the intelligence of White Sox fans over Cubs fans ("Because our fans are not stupid like Cubs fans, they know we're [bleep]"); and Cubs players ("Tell that Triple-A [bleep] to shut the [bleep] up -- tell him to start throwing some strikes or he's going to get Dusty fired"). By the end, even Ozzie was sick of doing his Wrigley shtick, but he always performed. And of course, we had Lou Piniella. Sweet Lou didn't have any problems, that I can recall, with the South Siders. During this series, he had a beef in his clubhouse and with the media. Piniella had to kick out players in back-to-back years at the Cell after dugout tirades, Milton Bradley in 2009 and Carlos Zambrano in 2010. "Boy, every time we come here," Piniella said with a chuckle after tossing Zambrano for nearly fighting Derrek Lee. And then there was the time Piniella decided to rant about Sox broadcaster Steve Stone during the Cubs-Sox series. That was at Wrigley. Someone asked about the rookies and Piniella went off. "And Steve Stone, he's got enough problems doing what he does with the White Sox," Piniella said that day in the home dugout, his voice rising. "What job has he had in baseball besides talking on television or radio? What has he done?" As rants go, it was highly entertaining and furthered the notion that something always happens during this series. I'm going to Wrigley on Monday hoping something does.

QUOTE (flavum @ May 7, 2014 -> 08:06 PM) Coming into today, runs per game: Angels 5.19 Tigers 5.11 White Sox 5.03 I added the 8 runs for tonight already. So they're 13 ahead of LAA. Forgot the Tigers had played so many fewer games. In striking distance of the Blue Jays and Rays (wow) for 10th-9th in the AL team ERA race. http://espn.go.com/mlb/stats/team/_/stat/pitching/league/al Ahead of 3 teams now, including the "pitching improved" Twins.

Amazingly, the White Sox are still first in the AL in runs scored at 178. The Angels have 166 but have played 2 1/2 fewer games, so basically it's dead-even.

GLORY DAYS, THEY'LL PASS YOU BY Why in God's name would you speed up his bat with a slider out over the plate? Wood is pitching very tentatively this game, compared to how he looked last season. His best pitch was always a well-placed inside fastball.

QUOTE (BigHurt3515 @ May 7, 2014 -> 07:57 PM) Who is this Alexei Ramirez guy? Taking pitches, getting a walk. Not chasing.. Abreu/Steverson, haha.