caulfield12

Seems like we had about five total wins or less like that all last season. Amazing to win the game when we had 7 K's in a row against Kluber, only 4 hits, and double figures in the game overall. Great job by the bullpen today, a bit shaky at the end, as usual. Tyler, you've got to do a better job in the 9th. That would have been a killer if Cabrera ended up tying the game after that type of dramatic, quick strike comeback. First time in history that a new Indian has gone deep in his first two at-bats.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ May 4, 2014 -> 09:25 AM) So the idea is that the Angels would have been willing to sacrifice their entire draft for Mike Trout, and I am supposed to believe that because an article states that they believed all along that he was the NUMBER 2 player on their draft board? Despite nothing else actually giving evidence to that claim? Not his draft position, not his signing bonus, the fact they drafted someone else ahead of him and waited a couple of years down the road to actually public say oh yeah, we would have drafted Trout, not #1, but #2. That means they would have been willing to give up all of their subsequent draft picks down the road for Mike Trout, despite articles saying how excited they were to get the guys after him as well. Explain to me how that logic makes any sense. "None of us thought he'd be as good as he'd be last year, at 20 years old," former Angels scouting director Eddie Bane said. "You could dream about it when he was 27 or 30. Even then, we'd have been told we were crazy." That's because in the spring of 2009, when teams were assembling their lists and preparing for the draft, none of them thought Trout would do what he's done. Good thing, too. Or the Angels wouldn't have been able to get him with the 25th pick, after 21 other teams said, "No, thanks," including the Washington Nationals and Arizona Diamondbacks twice. "He definitely moved a lot quicker and turned out to be a hell of a ballplayer a lot quicker than people were anticipating," said San Francisco Giants scouting director John Barr, who picked sixth. "I think we all look back now and think, 'Geez, we wish he was higher on our boards.'" The Angels had Trout at No. 2 on their board, behind only Stephen Strasburg. "And even that may have been a little low," Bane said. Although Strasburg was baseball's consensus No. 1 pick, a once-in-a-generation talent who has lived up to the billing so far in his major-league career, there was at least one voice in the Angels' draft room who dissented. "I didn't think there was a better player than Mikey," said Morhardt, who now works as a national crosschecker. "I'll put him against anybody. Sometimes you have to jump out there a little bit. I didn't think there was a better amateur player in the country. At some point he's going to have a chance to be a Hall of Fame baseball player." Seems to be some contradictory information flying around... http://www.ocregister.com/articles/trout-3...hardt-bane.html Once Bane was sold on Trout, all that was left for the Angels was to hope that Trout would make it past those other 21 teams on draft day. Fortunately for the Angels, a couple factors dropped Trout on other teams' lists. First, he was from New Jersey. Because of the weather in the northeast, the high school baseball season is short, so scouts have less opportunity to see the players. "Guys there have a very short scouting window because of the weather," said Oakland A's scouting director Eric Kubota, who nearly took Trout with the 13th pick. "If you happened to go in and he had a bad day, which all guys do, you might not have had the opportunity to get in and see him again. In Florida and California and Texas, you have plenty of time. It's a lot harder when they are up in the northeast." Morhardt counted on this. In fact, once the Angels had seen all they needed to see, Morhardt joked to Trout's father: "I hope Mike doesn't get a hit the rest of the year." There was also a concern with Trout because of the way he wrapped his top hand around the bat. Some scouts thought he would become a dead-pull hitter. Morhardt said that question was answered when he asked Trout, during a workout the previous summer, to hit some balls the other way. Trout proceeded to hit five or six line drives into right. "They weren't sure if his swing was going to play," Morhardt said. "I think it was looking too much at the negative, which wasn't really a negative. The positive is he's faster than everyone, stronger than everyone, and when he hits it, he hits it harder than everyone."

Even if the Angels "lucked" into the best baseball player of his generation, it hasn't been enough to overcome all their other idiotic decisions. So the point is what? Didn't the Angels actually end up firing the scout who "discovered" Trout in the first place? Mike Trout is the most exciting thing to happen to baseball since the concession-stand hot dog. He's arguably the very best player in the game, even after he spotted everybody else a month this summer. At 21, he is the youngest to ever -- as in, ever -- produce a 25-homer/40-theft season. He also pilots the Angels charter flights, personally cleans the halo above the Big A in the parking lot and feeds the Rally Monkey before he goes home each night. Well ... some of those last items might not be true, technically. But this is: A total of 23 players were chosen by 21 different clubs in the 2009 draft before the Angels picked outfielder Randal Grichuk 24th and Trout 25th. For this, you would think the genius who drafted Trout for the Angels would have been rewarded with, what? A lifetime contract? A Lamborghini? A personal masseuse? Instead, Eddie Bane got fired. Then-general manager Tony Reagins summoned Bane, Angels' scouting director from 2004-2010, into his office two years ago and told him to get lost. "Real short conversation," says Bane, who now scouts for the Detroit Tigers. "He said, 'We're not going to renew your contract.' I said, 'You've gotta be kidding me.' He said, 'I don't like your last couple of drafts.' " Stuff happens in baseball every day, some things more unexpected than others. Even lifers like Bane know you're hired to be fired. In Houston this week, first-year general manager Jeff Luhnow's reorganization of the Astros included dumping a handful of veteran scouts, including Scipio Spinks and Jack Lind. "Scouts hate this time of year, the end of August, early September," Bane says. "Because after the draft, that's when guys get let go. "It drives a stake through your heart because you see guys on the road all the time, and then all of a sudden you don't see them anymore." But ... you find a Trout and you're still a short-timer? The Angels, with Bane drafting, also acquired All-Stars Jered Weaver and Mark Trumbo (2004). Trumbo smashed his career-high 30th home run the other day, becoming the first Angel to club 30 or more homers in a season since Kendrys Morales in 2009. Morales? Signed by Bane as an international free agent in 2005. Also from the '09 draft came pitchers Tyler Skaggs and Patrick Corbin, whom Reagins wound up trading to Arizona as part of the four-player package for pitcher Dan Haren on July 25, 2010 -- about a month before the GM dismissed Bane. Skaggs (supplemental first-round pick) and Corbin (second round) followed Trout in '09. So did Angels pitcher Garrett Richards (3-3, 4.84 ERA in 14 games, nine starts), who also was another supplemental first-round pick in '09. "Saying he didn't like that draft was like a slap in my face, because those were really good drafts," Bane says. "You look at Dan Haren, who is a really good pitcher, but I never understood that trade because you knew how good Skaggs was going to be, and Corbin had potential. "Skaggs has got a chance to be a No. 1 starter, and Corbin is almost a lock to be a No. 3. That was the one that bothered me the most." http://www.cbssports.com/mlb/story/1998741...t-weaver-trumbo

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ May 4, 2014 -> 06:25 AM) Who is this 29 year old consistently solid free agent available next year, and who was the 32 year old train wrecked turned bounce back free agent this past offseason? Masterson and Paulino, probably.

QUOTE (Stan Bahnsen @ May 4, 2014 -> 06:56 AM) PED suspension, among other things. http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/d/delosfa01.shtml http://www.milb.com/milb/stats/stats.jsp?s...&pid=501745 Has him listed with the San Antonio Missions (AA-Texas League) but apparently hasn't pitched this season.

http://www.baseballprospectus.com/article....articleid=19854 The best article I've ever seen about trying to link sports marketing with SABR analysis/metrics. Very thought-provoking, thorough, and definitely worth the read. One wonders how they feel about the system as of today, since the Indians are a full 2,500 per game behind the White Sox in attendance? If you search for THINKVINE (the marketing/data analysis company), you can't find any articles about whether the Indians considered the 2013 partnership a success or not...or whether they were going to continue their relationship into 2014. http://thinkvine.com/who-we-are/newsroom/p...-marketing.html Just about 1/10th of the full article. Armed with that information, the Indians are attempting to maximize revenue by optimizing their promotional schedule. King showed a bar chart displaying the effectiveness of each promotion, broken down by year. “Dollar Dog” days, for instance, were the biggest draw, better than bobbleheads or Kids Fun Days. But they weren’t necessarily the most dependable; Dollar Dog days did better when the Indians were winning, whereas fireworks nights were highly resistant to team performance: people apparently want to see fireworks whether their team is winning or not.* Nor were Dollar Dog days the most profitable; that distinction went to hat/cap giveaway days, presumably because the low cost of caps relative to the extra attendance generated offers the best return on investment. Not only can the Indians determine which promotions to schedule and when, but they can also arrive at the correct quantities for giveaway days: at the 15,000-item level, only hats are profitable; at 10,000, almost everything is. *The fireworks finding was my favorite, because of my fondness for Hall of Fame former Indians owner Bill Veeck. Veeck was writing about the positive effects of fireworks over 50 years ago, and putting his ideas into practice even earlier. Using what passed for a scientific approach to promotions at the time, Veeck learned that fireworks would bring fans to the park even if a bad team was playing. He’d have loved to see the data I saw on Saturday, and he’d be even happier that the Indians were the source. Veeck believed that good promotions had a compound benefit: they’d not only pump up attendance, but also increase concession sales. The impact of promotions on concessions wasn’t mentioned during King’s presentation, so I asked Ragusa via email whether they were considered. “We built the model around ticket sales but did all the backend ROI math considering merch and concession,” Ragusa said. “We are working on a project to build in more sense of lifetime value of different consumer groups in the model. This will include more direct/indirect impacts on both merch and concession simultaneous to ticket sales.” We can already see the effect that information has had on the Indians’ schedule. The team will always vary its promotional offerings, both to keep things fresh for the fans and to provide more exposure for their corporate partners. But now the Indians are emphasizing the ones that work. King didn’t say how they’d make use of their new awareness of the profit-generating powers of headwear (hat/cap giveaways), but it’s easy enough to see. The team’s 2013 promotional calendar includes no fewer than four cap/hat giveaways. Last year’s didn’t have any.* That’s satisfying in the same way that seeing Jose Molina play in a career-high 102 games at age 37 is satisfying: it’s a decision we can explain from afar, because we know it’s driven by recently discovered data which even we outside observers are aware of. And to take the parallels to the sort of sabermetrics we’re used to even further, King presented a “heatmap” of the optimal days of the week for each promotion. *Another tidbit: King revealed that it’s tough to break even on concerts. That surprised me, since the Rays run a summer concert series at Tropicana Field, and the Rays generally don’t do things that aren’t backed up by the data. Cleveland is putting on only one concert this summer.

The annual debate over the Indians' attendance is predictable and fruitless. But we'll throw the numbers out there for context: The team ranks last in the majors at fewer than 15,000 per game. Taking sides are those extremists who want to label this a terrible baseball town and those crazies who blame ownership for the downturn. Count me among those in the middle who believe it's actually more complicated than that. April and May could bring long winning streaks and weather so warm the Hinckley buzzards move up their flight schedule, and it won't matter until the Indians rebuild their season-ticket base with three to five years of serious contention and frequent appearances. At the current pace of every six years, $1 hot dogs 81 times a year won't be enough to drive traffic to the ballpark. Not only can't the season-ticket base get rebuilt in one winter of Terry Francona, Michael Bourn, Mark Reynolds and Nick Swisher, it wouldn't be a good bet over two winters. Not when the season ticket base slipped by nearly 20,000 over the last decade. A promising start in 2013 isn't enough to stem that tide, says Bud Shaw. The Indians don't need a hot month or two. They've been 30-15 as recently as two seasons ago after all. They don't need a Cy Young candidate to attract big crowds. They had two winners in consecutive seasons. They need consecutive playoff appearances, and perhaps another World Series appearance, at the very least to move the needle. That's the only way they're going to put Indians' tickets back on the family Christmas list. The comparisons between the relatively blind allegiance awarded the Browns versus the tepid following of the Indians is as moot now as it was when closer Chris Perez raised it. This is a football town, which is not the same as saying it's a terrible baseball town. I once attended a press conference at Auburn where basketball coach Sonny Smith was announcing his departure, in part because he felt basketball was an afterthought in football-crazed Alabama. Head football coach Pat Dye, who was also the athletic director, made the announcement. First question: "Sonny, tell us about your decision to leave." Second question: "Coach Dye, how's football recruiting going?" Cleveland isn't quite Auburn, Ala. But waking up the sleeping giant in the 1990s required a new ballpark, a robust economy, an exciting team with a Murderer's Row lineup, a poor division and the sense that October baseball was a given. Oh, and the Browns moving to Baltimore. Waking up those echoes is going to take more than a good start or even a good season. There are a lot of reasons for it. It's just so much easier to narrow it down to bad fans or cheap ownership and cover them up with blame. cleveland.com (Bud Shaw) The most ideal spot for a new baseball team may be Northern New Jersey, as the Newark/New York area sports nearly 3.5 million people according to the 2010 Census. The problem with moving to New Jersey, however, comes from the flack that they would receive from the other two franchises within 25 miles of Newark (Mets and Yankees) and the other that is less than 90 miles away (Phillies). Other possible destinations mentioned by The Bleacher Report in 2011 include El Paso, Omaha, Louisville, Charlotte, Albuquerque, Sacramento, Boise, Portland, Memphis, San Antonio, Salt Lake City, Nashville, Indianapolis, Las Vegas and, of course, New Orleans. In 2012, Baseball Prospectus lists the top ten locations that could support a baseball team as Norfolk, San Juan (Puerto Rico), Montreal (Canada), Monterrey (Mexico), San Antonio, Las Vegas, Charlotte, Portland, Sacramento and Newark. Any of these locations could be a more hospitable location for the Indians than Cleveland—a city that’s population is decreasing and hit a 100-year low of 396,815 at the 2010 Census. Perhaps a somewhat-less painful move to the middle of the state of Ohio to Columbus would make some sense as well. http://didthetribewinlastnight.com/blog/20...movewould-they/ Cleveland’s new (old) reality Cleveland’s baseball attendance story is sensational. Just as the beautiful Jacobs Field opened in the mid-‘90s, the Indians became a powerhouse, the economy was surging, downtown was booming and the Browns were leaving town. It was a prefect confluence of several unique factors. Now, the baseline has returned. The Indians are consistently ranking in the bottom seven in MLB attendance, just like before in old Municipal Stadium. The perfect storm is over. An under-reported factor is the fact that four new baseball teams have popped up in Northeast Ohio during this span: the Akron Aeros (moved from Canton in 1997), the Mahoning Valley Scrappers (1999), the Lake County Captains (2003) and the independent Lake Erie Crushers (2009). Thus, the Indians must work harder than ever to even remain competitive in the constantly surging MLB attendance picture. Just back in March, Baseball Prospectus wrote on the franchise’s analytic-based promotional efforts. Obviously, April and May always will remain a killer for attendance. It’s incredibly difficult for an outdoor team to draw fans in sub-50 degree weather. Previous research has shown that major external events – such as a playoff appearance – spark lagged attendance changes. That certainly will be the hope for the Indians as they head into 2014. This past offseason’s spending spree, the hiring of Terry Francona and the impressive July 2013 could eventually lead to a moderate rebound. The Indians also lowered concession prices and added a nostalgia-packed promotional schedule for 2013. Their new ticket pricing system has been labeled as innovative yet controversial. The new online system for managing season tickets – Tribe Rewards – could be described as confusing or unnecessary, which is never a good thing for your bread-and-butter customers. Their handling of major promotions also has come under question. The main issue affecting the Indians is their complete lack of a season ticket holder base. The franchise’s attendance varies so widely because there is no consistent flow of attendees. According to a late 2012 Crain’s Cleveland article from now-Indians employee Joel Hammond, the team reportedly had just around 6,000 full-season equivalents. It’s disheartening for a competing major league team, making its case as a legitimate contender, to play in front of sub-20,000 fan crowds on a consistent basis. Now-quiet closer Chris Perez certainly had a point in his very controversial comments last season. But per the numbers, the decline of Indians attendance over the last decade could be called disappointing and any number of adjectives, but certainly can’t be considered shocking. The existing data on “honeymoon” effects is too overwhelming for us to be too surprised by this development. http://www.waitingfornextyear.com/2013/08/...dance-analysis/

The annual debate over the Indians' attendance is predictable and fruitless. But we'll throw the numbers out there for context: The team ranks last in the majors at fewer than 15,000 per game. Taking sides are those extremists who want to label this a terrible baseball town and those crazies who blame ownership for the downturn. Count me among those in the middle who believe it's actually more complicated than that. April and May could bring long winning streaks and weather so warm the Hinckley buzzards move up their flight schedule, and it won't matter until the Indians rebuild their season-ticket base with three to five years of serious contention and frequent appearances. At the current pace of every six years, $1 hot dogs 81 times a year won't be enough to drive traffic to the ballpark. Not only can't the season-ticket base get rebuilt in one winter of Terry Francona, Michael Bourn, Mark Reynolds and Nick Swisher, it wouldn't be a good bet over two winters. Not when the season ticket base slipped by nearly 20,000 over the last decade. A promising start in 2013 isn't enough to stem that tide, says Bud Shaw. The Indians don't need a hot month or two. They've been 30-15 as recently as two seasons ago after all. They don't need a Cy Young candidate to attract big crowds. They had two winners in consecutive seasons. They need consecutive playoff appearances, and perhaps another World Series appearance, at the very least to move the needle. That's the only way they're going to put Indians' tickets back on the family Christmas list. The comparisons between the relatively blind allegiance awarded the Browns versus the tepid following of the Indians is as moot now as it was when closer Chris Perez raised it. This is a football town, which is not the same as saying it's a terrible baseball town. I once attended a press conference at Auburn where basketball coach Sonny Smith was announcing his departure, in part because he felt basketball was an afterthought in football-crazed Alabama. Head football coach Pat Dye, who was also the athletic director, made the announcement. First question: "Sonny, tell us about your decision to leave." Second question: "Coach Dye, how's football recruiting going?" Cleveland isn't quite Auburn, Ala. But waking up the sleeping giant in the 1990s required a new ballpark, a robust economy, an exciting team with a Murderer's Row lineup, a poor division and the sense that October baseball was a given. Oh, and the Browns moving to Baltimore. Waking up those echoes is going to take more than a good start or even a good season. There are a lot of reasons for it. It's just so much easier to narrow it down to bad fans or cheap ownership and cover them up with blame. cleveland.com (Bud Shaw) The most ideal spot for a new baseball team may be Northern New Jersey, as the Newark/New York area sports nearly 3.5 million people according to the 2010 Census. The problem with moving to New Jersey, however, comes from the flack that they would receive from the other two franchises within 25 miles of Newark (Mets and Yankees) and the other that is less than 90 miles away (Phillies). Other possible destinations mentioned by The Bleacher Report in 2011 include El Paso, Omaha, Louisville, Charlotte, Albuquerque, Sacramento, Boise, Portland, Memphis, San Antonio, Salt Lake City, Nashville, Indianapolis, Las Vegas and, of course, New Orleans. In 2012, Baseball Prospectus lists the top ten locations that could support a baseball team as Norfolk, San Juan (Puerto Rico), Montreal (Canada), Monterrey (Mexico), San Antonio, Las Vegas, Charlotte, Portland, Sacramento and Newark. Any of these locations could be a more hospitable location for the Indians than Cleveland—a city that’s population is decreasing and hit a 100-year low of 396,815 at the 2010 Census. Perhaps a somewhat-less painful move to the middle of the state of Ohio to Columbus would make some sense as well. http://didthetribewinlastnight.com/blog/20...movewould-they/ Cleveland’s new (old) reality Cleveland’s baseball attendance story is sensational. Just as the beautiful Jacobs Field opened in the mid-‘90s, the Indians became a powerhouse, the economy was surging, downtown was booming and the Browns were leaving town. It was a prefect confluence of several unique factors. Now, the baseline has returned. The Indians are consistently ranking in the bottom seven in MLB attendance, just like before in old Municipal Stadium. The perfect storm is over. An under-reported factor is the fact that four new baseball teams have popped up in Northeast Ohio during this span: the Akron Aeros (moved from Canton in 1997), the Mahoning Valley Scrappers (1999), the Lake County Captains (2003) and the independent Lake Erie Crushers (2009). Thus, the Indians must work harder than ever to even remain competitive in the constantly surging MLB attendance picture. Just back in March, Baseball Prospectus wrote on the franchise’s analytic-based promotional efforts. Obviously, April and May always will remain a killer for attendance. It’s incredibly difficult for an outdoor team to draw fans in sub-50 degree weather. Previous research has shown that major external events – such as a playoff appearance – spark lagged attendance changes. That certainly will be the hope for the Indians as they head into 2014. This past offseason’s spending spree, the hiring of Terry Francona and the impressive July 2013 could eventually lead to a moderate rebound. The Indians also lowered concession prices and added a nostalgia-packed promotional schedule for 2013. Their new ticket pricing system has been labeled as innovative yet controversial. The new online system for managing season tickets – Tribe Rewards – could be described as confusing or unnecessary, which is never a good thing for your bread-and-butter customers. Their handling of major promotions also has come under question. The main issue affecting the Indians is their complete lack of a season ticket holder base. The franchise’s attendance varies so widely because there is no consistent flow of attendees. According to a late 2012 Crain’s Cleveland article from now-Indians employee Joel Hammond, the team reportedly had just around 6,000 full-season equivalents. It’s disheartening for a competing major league team, making its case as a legitimate contender, to play in front of sub-20,000 fan crowds on a consistent basis. Now-quiet closer Chris Perez certainly had a point in his very controversial comments last season. But per the numbers, the decline of Indians attendance over the last decade could be called disappointing and any number of adjectives, but certainly can’t be considered shocking. The existing data on “honeymoon” effects is too overwhelming for us to be too surprised by this development. http://www.waitingfornextyear.com/2013/08/...dance-analysis/

We would have to average 23,413 per game over the next 64 games to equal last year's total of 1,768,413. Right now, we're currently 29th (ahead of the Indians) and averaging only 16,873 fans per game through the first 16. (IT'S ALL ADAM DUNN'S FAULT, haha). 2014---29th (1,366,713 at current/projected pace) 2013---25th 2012---22nd 2011---19th 2010---15th traditional 5 year cutoff date for the effects of a World Series championship to stop trickling down 2009---13th 2008---13th 2007---13th 2006---8th (2,957,411) 2005---12th (2,342,833) http://hundenpartners.com/database/?tag=hu...ers&paged=3 http://www.chicagosportandsociety.com/2013...isfa-agreement/ Essentially, the White Sox haven't been paying any fees/taxes on tickets sold since the 2011 campaign, just around $1.5 million per season for facility/stadium rental.

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mlb-big-leag...-031011744.html http://m.mlb.com/video/topic/52448062/v325...-threerun-homer Puig bat flip controversy. Puig is now 23rd in the majors at 906 OPS. Other notable Sox-related names: Michael Morse, 8th Abreu, 19th Dunn, 20th Alexei, 31st Viciedo, 35th Uribe, 36th

QUOTE (CWSpalehoseCWS @ May 3, 2014 -> 11:35 PM) All I can remember is that a lot of people thought he was the return on the Jesse Crain trade, but I know he wasn't. Was it cash considerations? I don't remember the Sox losing someone as a PTBNL. Sept. 21st, 2013 DETROIT -- The White Sox acquired left-handed reliever Frank De Los Santos through a trade with the Rays on Saturday for a player to be named or cash. De Los Santos will be a part of Chicago's 40-man roster, but he will not be added to the active Major League roster for the final week of the season. This move was unrelated to the trade that sent Jesse Crain to Tampa Bay in July. The 25-year-old Dominican went 1-2 with a 5.34 ERA over 26 appearances this season with Triple-A Durham, striking out 21 in 32 innings. He dominated left-handed hitters, holding them to a .167 batting average in 41 at-bats. De Los Santos, 6-foot and 165 pounds, didn't start playing baseball until he was 16 years old and was signed by the Rays as a free agent in 2007.

QUOTE (BigHurt3515 @ May 3, 2014 -> 11:24 PM) I am going to bump this. I would like to hear opinions.. There were at least 4 scouts at the game today video taping his at bats, 2 of which were home runs batting Right handed.. And he has more power left handed. Both were hit at least 390 feet. I would worry about quality of competition with that particular school.

QUOTE (SouthsideDon48 @ May 3, 2014 -> 11:28 PM) Maybe try and trade for Michael Pineda if the yankees are tired of dealing with him? Or deal for Jacob Turner from Miami and see if Coop can fix him? Trade Sale to the Mariners for Taijuan Walker and James Paxton? Trade for Trevor Cahill from Arizona as another Coop project? Trade for Josh Beckett from the Dodgers? Cahill makes a lot more sense than Beckett at this exact point in both their respective careers. Of course, the problem isn't just pitching now, it's offense/defense/fundamentals again (see 2013, rinse and repeat).

QUOTE (greg775 @ May 3, 2014 -> 09:24 PM) To get rid of 0-5 McCarthy. Sale had a losing record last year, right? Sometimes, the team has something to do with a pitcher's mark, unless you believe Danny Wright and James Baldwin were really good pitchers when they compiled big win totals a decade ago over a couple of anomalous seasons.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ May 3, 2014 -> 08:25 PM) I've only heard bad things. Well, my own review was pretty scathing, just can't believe that it has reached such a nadir in comparison with the Marvel Universe, but it's their own fault. I simply meant I expected at least 3-5 people to see it the first weekend, pretty telling that nobody really seems to be so excited about it.

QUOTE (Feeky Magee @ May 3, 2014 -> 09:03 PM) Cleuluis Rondon made 2 errors. I can only assume a Rondon error is a 600-foot home run he didn't quite catch. Or more likely, a routine play like Alexei Ramirez often blows when he has just made a spectacular one. Lack of focus and concentration when the play's not challenging enough.

QUOTE (Soxfest @ May 3, 2014 -> 08:28 PM) Saw today Detroit is going to make him a qualifying offer to stay will be in 15 mil range. I think they won't insult him too much, but it will probably be more in the $10-12.5 million range. If Illitch wants to make him feel loved and needed, sure, with the way they're throwing money around in DET, anything's possible. On the open market, at his age, and with DET not involved, he would be lucky to get in the high teens for a two or three year contract.

QUOTE (greg775 @ May 3, 2014 -> 08:15 PM) Boy we are starting to stink. Here's a trade I thought of today: Keppinger or Beckham, either one, for Brandon McCarthy. Coop can fix McCarthy. Why would the worst team in baseball want either of those guys, especially Keppinger?

QUOTE (Eminor3rd @ May 3, 2014 -> 08:04 PM) It's unbelievable that you still don't understand the difference between a 32-year old trainwreck-turned-bounceback free agent this past offseason, and a 29 year-old consistently solid free agent next offseason. We don't hate free agents, Marty, we hate s***ty players. And Masterson's going to be perceived as even better than he really is, simply because of how dominating he has been against the White Sox.

QUOTE (Buehrle>Wood @ May 3, 2014 -> 07:59 PM) Take out Abreu it's the worst team in mlb on paper I would guess. On the other hand, take away Nate Jones, Sale, Eaton and Gillaspie and you're headed for trouble with most contending teams. Not to mention Erik Johnson and Davidson's non-performance issues, and now Semien as well. I'm also sure there will be a lot of comments about Semien's career track being derailed by the White Sox moving him all over the diamond instead of leaving him in one position (see Beckham, see Viciedo).

Pretty amazing not a single comment yet about the new Spider-Man movie. It's almost more astounding that it's going to come in well behind Captain America at the box office. If you would have predicted that before the first Captain America and Avengers movie, the Las Vegas odds would have been astronomical.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ May 3, 2014 -> 07:50 PM) The remarkable thing actually is...no matter how much time or money you throw at scouting, you're really unlikely to do better over the long term. Now that there's a fair system, its' almost a card flip. You should do slightly better if you have a series of high draft picks compared to lower ones, but it really is just statistics. It's like beating the Vanguard 500 Index for 13 years in a row like Bill Miller/Legg Mason managed. (A rock star in the stock-picking world who ended up ingloriously being ousted from his own fund due to a wave of redemptions). There will always be teams like the Rays or A's (used to be the Twins) who seem to be able to beat the system consistently (finding pitching), but eventually they come back down to earth/return to norm. For a long time, it seemed that Beane's best years as GM were behind him. Also, Epstein doesn't look like quite the genius with a limited payroll.

QUOTE (Soxfest @ May 3, 2014 -> 07:07 PM) A great contact hitter. A lot of people gave up on him way too quickly when that injury struck...he's one of the exceptions to age....like an Edgar Martinez.

So then why don't the White Sox also get credit for spotting something in Sale, Mark Buehrle, Hector Santiago, Addison Reed, Phil Humber, Bobby Jenks, Matt Thornton, Sergio Santos, Damaso Marte, Jose Contreras, etc.? For cornering the market on Cuban players, to the point where it's become a competitive advantage when the next big free agent becomes available...or with Rodon? This is the exact same argument (the Trout one) that we had when Garza was selected by the Twins near the end of the first and the Sox skipped over him. By the way, have the Angels come close to winning anything with a Top 5 payroll and the best young player in baseball? Don't think so.

QUOTE (CaliSoxFanViaSWside @ May 3, 2014 -> 06:32 PM) Cleto's of no use if he can't throw strikes. Doesn't matter. Hahn loves his arm. In this type of season, they'll risk losing Putnam before they do the same with Putnam, even if Zach deserves the spot based on performance.