caulfield12

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Mar 12, 2014 -> 06:46 AM) And it's one thing to flip a coin 4 times, have it come up heads 4 times, and declare yourself infallible too. 6.25% chance that happens.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Mar 10, 2014 -> 10:22 PM) I know a guy who confided in me he has $200,000 total. He is divorced but wife remarried and he has to pay no money to her. He is employed and currently healthy but we know how health can change in an instant. He wants to know what he should be doing with the money to make some rapid gains in his total wealth with about 10 years left to retirement. I had no idea what to tell him because my brother the tax lawyer has mapped out a plan for me. He wants rapid gains. What should he do? Greg, there's no such thing unless you're investing with Bernie Madoff. Rapid gains means what, over 10% a year? The only area you can make that is in individual stocks, emerging markets, high tech...where there is lots of volatility. Especially considering the increases in the stock market in recent months...it's a very high likelihood those rapid gains are gone for the next few years. Of course, nobody knows for sure what will happen. In general, he's taking a risk if he's putting more than 10% of his assets into any one place, especially if he's betting on high returns on 10% or more. History says he's more likely to fail at that than simply putting it into an index fund like Vanguard's 500 (vfinx). I learned this from experience, chasing high performance from Bill Miller (and Legg Mason Value Fund), who had a 13 consecutive year history of beating the index but who completely fell apart in 2007-08-09 and eventually lost his funds because of underperformance and early redemptions. I did the same thing when I was younger, changing from a rather conservative fund (Nicholas, based in Milwaukee) to American Century, which promised "quantitative evaluation models" and high tech exposure and simply ending up being another example for me of selling low and buying on a high.

QUOTE (Jose Abreu @ Mar 10, 2014 -> 10:02 PM) OT: Am I the only one who still wants us to do whatever it takes outside of Sale/Abreu/Garcia to land Giancarlo Stanton? Which means it would be impossible. Even if you made it Quintana, Davidson, Eaton, Viciedo, Ramirez, Beckham and say Beck and Danish, you're going to have to either completely deconstruct the major league roster so much it's pointless to rebuild (since we would be starting a 2nd rebuild on top of the one already in progress)....we should be a team in a position to compete for the playoffs this year with a deep minor league system to pull off such a trade. Our window is 2015 and beyond...probably 2016, but definitely not 2014. We could actually offer our entire minor league system and it wouldn't probably work after the year Hawkins had last season.

QUOTE (Heads22 @ Mar 9, 2014 -> 11:02 AM) Iowa's in 7-10 territory right now, IMO The irony is they're almost better off almost NOT making it, like Minnesota last year. They would have a much better chance as the 11 seed (knocking off a 6, then getting a 3) or the 12 seed playing a 5, then getting a 4 in the 2nd round. Right now, if they beat NW, the best case scenario is something like a 7 or 8 seed, and playing Wichita State in the 2nd round. That said, the way they've been going, it's not even assured they will beat NU. About the only positives is they signed a JUCO point guard (Trey Dickerson, the big-time recruit Willie Atwood's high school teammate) as well as Brandon Hutton out of ＤｅＬａＳａｌｌｅ　from the Class of 2015. That gives them some more "inner city toughness" (Dickerson's words on twitter) and athletic ability. Next year: Gesell (PG), Oglesby (SG), Uthoff (SF), White (PF), Woodbury/Olaseni ©, with Peter Jok and Dickerson rounding out the the top 8. Anthony Clemmons might transfer, with two points guards blocking him on the roster. They lose Marble, Basabe and addition by subtraction with McCabe. Another "big" in Kyle Meyer is coming off a red-shirt year. Iowa's definitely going to be depending on Oglesby, Jok, Dickerson and Uthoff to step up their games next year in order to make it to the NCAA's.

QUOTE (farmteam @ Mar 10, 2014 -> 01:07 PM) I've surprised myself, I've really grown to like Mickey's character on Shameless this year. Noel Fisher steals every scene he's in, unless Kevin is also in it. Then they're co-winners. Lip's sudden sense of self-righteousness is getting a little annoying, too. With Frank down for the count (for the moment), and Fiona bottoming out....show still struggling to find a cornerstone to build around again.

QUOTE (elrockinMT @ Mar 10, 2014 -> 07:07 PM) I wonder if the Dunn haters were complaining about his 2 for 3 & 2 RBI game last week? He was going to left and maybe he will do that more this year Yeah, the Reds' announcers said they never saw him do that... I think that ball in particular they were referring to was a double that clipped the 3B bag.

Everyone gave Gordon Beckham lots of rope for being injured last season...so we might as well do the same thing with Viciedo. I'm willing to throw in the towel if he has another season more like 2013 than 2012 and he shows no signs of improvement defensively, vis a vis 2013. That said, Michael Saunders is not going to be a starter on the next White Sox playoff team. A lot of impatient people here probably would have given up on Pedro Alvarez and Dominic Brown and dumped them for pennies on the dollar...the odds that Viciedo someday morphs into Jose Bautista or the two names I just mentioned aren't extremely high, but I know that Saunders isn't going to be an offensively cornerstone at USCF. I know that Flowers or Phegley are not everyday MLB catchers. Viciedo, I can't say the same about... And, fwiw, McClendon just named Smoak the starter at 1B for the M's, so that means they're not going to trade him. So 300-350 "struggling, under .300 OBP AB's from now, go ahead and trade Viciedo (plus 2+ more minor league pieces) for Franklin and and a struggling Smoak.

QUOTE (raBBit @ Mar 10, 2014 -> 10:02 AM) Exactly. This was pretty close to what I posted when someone said "De Aza to Seattle?" Why would they need De Aza? They definitely could use Viciedo, though. DeAza would end up with 6-7-8 homers playing there...and probably find himself on the bench because his home run stroke that succeeded last year wouldn't translate as well. If he played like the DeAza of 2011 and part of 2012, he would be fine. But what kind of player is he at this point? High OBP/good baserunning/good fielding and occasional pop or so-so OBP, more power, more K's, bad baserunning and fielding? Can he really turn it around again and be the same kind of offensive force he was in 2011-12 playing just part-time?

I'm almost thinking Iowa got the better deal with the match-up against Northwestern instead of Purdue...but anybody Iowa's playing these days can be dangerous. Then again, it's hard to beat ANY team 3 times in one season, and yet losing to Northwestern and still making the NCAA Tourney would be a lot like Minnesota sliding in last year at 8-10 in the conference and losing their 1st round B10 Tourney game. Lunardi had them as an 8 seed against Gonzaga's 9 seed....with Nebraska still at 11 despite finishing the Big 10 season by going 10-2, a lot like Baylor has finished with a flourish in the Big 12. Thank god Iowa has been ranked all season long until today pretty much. This way, Iowa would play MSU, and probably lose....and Nebraska has a very interesting match-up with Ohio State. If Nebraska wins that game, then you can say they're definitely for real. Whatever happens, Miles has to be the Coach of the Year hands down, although Beilein also deserves a lot of credit for winning with a depleted roster and McGary out.

QUOTE (raBBit @ Mar 10, 2014 -> 09:41 AM) Considering this report is coming out of Seattle, Rock doesn't see any validity to it and it doesn't necessarily make sense for the White Sox, maybe this is just bulls*** coming out of Seattle because they may want to move Saunders. It makes a lot of sense for Seattle, less so for the White Sox. The Mariners are going into the season with 7 lefties in their starting line-up, which includes Saunders and Ackley at the moment. Adding Saunders would basically give us two DeAza's in the line-up, except one of them would be on the bench and wasting away OR Eaton would be in the minors, none very ideal situations. Of course, they also brought in Corey Hart, who may or may not be able to play 1B/LF/RF as opposed to DHing only. It appears that Montero, Smoak and Franklin (unless Brad Miller fails the test at SS) are all expendable. We don't need Seager as much as before the Davidson move. We need a LH bat (to replace Dunn), we could always use someone with Franklin's power in the middle infield and Montero's more of a throw-in at this point...or just a "change of scenery" candidate.

We already have 3 second basemen in Semien, Sanchez and Micah Johnson behind Beckham, or at least two SS/2B types and Micah Johnson. Ackley has to play 2B for his bat to play. LF, doesn't make any sense. If we were getting back Franklin for Viciedo, that's a bigger risk/return for both teams. That said, the White Sox have invested so much in Viciedo and they're in a rebuilding year, so trading him now makes about zero sense...unless they had a reason to believe he would be worse offensively than in 2013, which is highly unlikely, or they would have traded him after 2012 having a crystal ball in their hands. Or Franklin/Smoak for Viciedo and I'm thinking 2 more pieces...not even sure what it would require to make it work, with the idea that Smoak would be the DH in 2015 to replace Dunn.

Shameless is back to getting on track a little. Lip finally met the cutest girl he's going to date so far...if the roommate's g/f can't keep his attention with "midnight" bj's.

The thing is, Michael Sanders is more of a 4th outfielder than a starter on a championship team, just like DeAza. If they traded for him to play everyday CF, that's one thing, but we already have Eaton. If they wanted to play Eaton and Saunders together, that would be fine if we were in Seattle or San Diego, but we're not. Saunders isn't an impact hitter at USCF. You don't trade arb years and get older instead of younger in a deal. Doesn't make sense.

QUOTE (Brian @ Mar 9, 2014 -> 06:24 AM) Don't tell that to my friends who went to Iowa. Marble disappears in games at big times so frequently. He'll have one great half than score 4 the next half. Don't get his Conference POTY hype. No Iowa fan is happy right now. They're at 39 for RPI, but a bad loss in the first round of the Big 10 tourney to the likes of NW or Penn State and there's blood in the water. Their opponent as the 5/6 seed depends on what OSU does against MSU today...amazing Nebraska is a 4 seed with a bye. NW just got ripped by almost 30 points by PSU, so you'd definitely want to play Northwestern over PSU at this point. Oops....forgot Purdue was 5-12 as well. Sigh. Anything is possible at this point.

QUOTE (whitesoxfan99 @ Mar 8, 2014 -> 09:47 PM) He obviously has a solid eye for talent (although Marble was already committed to Iowa when he got the job IIRC) but there is simply no excuse for that team to have finished 9-9 in the Big 10 and a team with that amount of size should never be this awful defensively. They aren't overly athletic but it isn't like they have a bunch of stiff out there. Marble was going to Iowa regardless. Woodbury has been his top recruit to date and he sucks, although he played sort of okay tonight. Other than Aaron White (Ohio) and Uthoff coming from Wisconsin (also another native Iowan, like when Adam Haluska transferred from ISU to Iowa), he hasn't done much recruiting-wise. They were in the Top 25 for almost the entire season and now have one two-star and one three-star recruit committed at this point. How is that even possible? He can't close the deal with recruiting or finishing out games. He's almost routinely been getting out-coached the 2nd half of the season. It's almost easier to be a fan of a Lickliter or Alford team, where you don't care about the result, mired in a malaise of apathy. This is like torture, to be on the cusp of turning the program around and then collapsing back into mediocrity.

QUOTE (whitesoxfan99 @ Mar 8, 2014 -> 09:47 PM) He obviously has a solid eye for talent (although Marble was already committed to Iowa when he got the job IIRC) but there is simply no excuse for that team to have finished 9-9 in the Big 10 and a team with that amount of size should never be this awful defensively. They aren't overly athletic but it isn't like they have a bunch of stiff out there. Uthoff, Olaseni, Marble, White and Basabe all have some skills/athletic ability. They've gone from 4-1/8-4 in the Big 10 to losing 5 of 6 and very close to being on the NCAA bubble after being ranked #10 in the nation at one point. I swear, if they lose in the first round of the Big 10 tournament, that might be the closest that team is to the NCAA's for another decade. This is almost making me more upset than the ending to the 2012 White Sox season. At least that was predictable. Wisconsin might still win at Nebraska, and I think MSU could easily beat Ohio State tmrw in Colombus, but the perfect ending to the season would be getting knocked out by Northwestern or Penn State or whoever they end up playing. Why was I born in Iowa, lol? Why not a state where they have players with enough athletic ability to actually compete for a national championship in basketball or football? Sometimes it really sucks to become invested into a sports team at moments like this.

QUOTE (Jake @ Mar 8, 2014 -> 08:49 PM) It's not for the White Sox's sake, it's for the players'. You see this at all levels. You tell them to run into plays where a bad throw is their only shot so they know their limits. You have them go way overboard early so they aren't too conservative during the season due to having not tested their limits since they were in little league. I'm pretty sure Viciedo already knows his limits.

QUOTE (Jake @ Mar 8, 2014 -> 08:03 PM) It is very common to encourage players to be extremely, extremely aggressive on the basepaths early in ST. You get to really test yourself and get a feel for making those judgments. I'm more concerned about the defensive lapses. The White Sox have wasted a ton of outs on the basepaths in recent years. It's fine to run and be aggressive, but do it in the right situations. And as far as seeing what baserunners can do, the White Sox already know that. With scouting sources proliferating and increasing amount of video coverage of minor league games, they're not going to discover anything new, especially when the catchers they're running on are unlikely to be their opponents on April 1st.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Mar 8, 2014 -> 06:00 PM) And why would Tommy say the first couple of weeks of spring training or the entire thing is not important? It is the time to iron out the kinks. Guys aren't going to be in midseason form. If there are going to be mistakes, now is a good time for them to happen. Chris Sale got lit up the other day. Should we all panic? Pinning too much on performance both good and bad, is a mistake. There was a stretch a few years ago that for about 4 or 5 years straight, the player that led the majors in spring homers failed to hit 10 in the regular season. It's not about homers or Chris Sale. It's about playing the game right. They haven't done that as a franchise since August 15, 2012. Nobody's expecting Paulino to have a 0.00 ERA, Abreu to hit 13 homers (like Betemit) or Davidson to hit 449. But to see a continuation of the same exact things we saw last year...it was enough to draw a CSNChicago article from Dan Hayes. Brennaman mentioned it during the Reds' broadcast, how many 11 a.m. workouts and practice sessions Ventura called when the team was on the road, to no avail. He said he'd never seen a worse team in terms of fundamentals and baseball IQ, and that the 99 losses weren't nearly as bad as what the reality was all season long. Balta has been harping on it as well. You can say it's just spring all you want, but the tone and tenor are set from the very first day of spring.

I was listening to one of the Dodgers' games last weekend and Tommy Lasorda was adamant about spring training being crucial in setting the tone for the regular season. It's popular these days to say there's no correlation (or the Royals would have won 2-3 World Series titles), but for a franchise trying to turn things around and teach players the right way to play the game, it's probably a lot more important than for a veteran club. It shouldn't feel like last season never ended and it's just one long continuation with a different cast of characters (Eaton/Davidson/Abreu/Garcias, etc.)

QUOTE (Jake @ Mar 7, 2014 -> 11:37 PM) Yeah, a great deal of the rest of the world, both developed and otherwise, thinks it is very strange and quite selfish that children are rushed out of the house as they approach the end of their schooling. Likewise, they find it strange that and even more offensive that those same children don't welcome their parents into their household as the parents reach retirement age. That voicemail is nothing -- but what is this about her taking a s***? It seems like she's bragging about having taken a s***, as if someone had challenged her ability? Anyway, I've had two exes that spoke to their parents like this all the time and the crazy part was that it never seemed to carry over past the incident. The horrible exchange would happen but an hour later both sides would be totally amicable. which i really just wanna s*** all over your face right now because it looks like that anyway Seems to be a question of transference...wanting or thinking that she would like to do it on/to her mother instead...or just making a really nasty comment about her mother's appearance or it reminding her of her mother somehow

Iowa State with a big OT win over Oklahoma State in Ames to finish 11-7 in conference. Baylor won at K-State...which helps the Bears and puts KSU in a bit of danger. Looks like Tennessee and Missouri could be playing an elimination game, with UT all over Missouri in Knoxville. Cuonzo Martin on the hot seat to get fired without an NCAA tourney appearance, and even possible with one.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Mar 8, 2014 -> 09:28 AM) Do they give up a first or 2nd rounder? If he has a good year, the give him a qualifying offer, and they get a pick after the original first round. If they are giving up a second rounder, if he performs, they get his services for a season and basically trade a second round pick for a comp pick. Next year the FA pitching market is going to be a lot thinner when many of the pitchers on the board ink extensions. If he pitches well, this will be a win/win for Santana and Toronto. Not exactly jumping for joy in Toronto over the signing. http://www.thestar.com/sports/bluejays/201...ana_report.html By the way, he fired his agent last week (the one originally projecting a $100 million contract). Santana is representing himself. The other team in it is Baltimore, with Santana supposedly waiting until a 5 p.m. deadline for another team to swoop in and take him away from Rogers Centre. But Santana is not without his own question marks. Though he has pitched more than 200 innings five times in his career, his medicals reportedly suggest potential for an elbow injury. He threw more sliders last season — a pitch that is believed to strain the elbow if overused — than any other pitcher in the majors. He is also a fly-ball pitcher, which could be dangerous inside the homer-happy Rogers Centre, which averaged the most home runs per game of any American League ballpark. Santana has also been inconsistent throughout his career. Though he enjoyed a bounce-back season with the Royals last year, in 2012, he was among the worst pitchers in the majors, posting the fifth-highest ERA at 5.16 and giving up the most home runs (nearly two for every nine innings pitched).

They've got to tighten things up. 3 caught steals today, some in very inauspicious circumstances. Yesterday, we had Ramirez and Beckham failing to cover 2nd on a steal with Flowers' throw going into CF for the error, Viciedo out by 15 feet at 2nd base trying to stretch a single into a double, Trayce Thompson with a bad error and Eaton out stealing 3rd as well, running us out of an inning where we should have had 3-4-5 runs instead of just 2. Maybe Carlos Sanchez was trying to add weight this off-season in order to show more power at the dish? Seems like a net loss if he's lost some of his range and speed. Nieto, supposedly, has been impressive catching and hitting so far.

http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2014/03/...partner=ya5nbcs Nice to know Santana's looking for a high scoring offensive team.