caulfield12

Well, I called this game as a season definer for Iowa and it might end up that way. Up 34-13, completely blow the lead (some very questionable substitutions by McCaffrey as well at the end of the first half)...go down 66-61 and somehow pull it out. Crazy B10 season with PSU and NW suddenly looking dangerous. Marble and White came up big down the stretch. Someone mentioned the steal on the out-of-bounds play, I think the key play in the game was the Olaseni loose ball rebound...as an Iowa fan you can never be sure of anything with Marble and Gesell shooting free throws. White's the only guy you feel 100% confident shooting. First win for Iowa in Champaign since 1999 (I think the stat was 11 losses in a row) and just the 3rd since 1987 when Iowa had a Final 8 team. Finally, glad Iowa has those 2 NW games out of the way already....in football and basketball the last decade, playing NW has been the kiss of death. Iowa's next 6 are OSU and MI at home, at Penn State, at Indiana, Wisconsin at home and Minnesota on the road. Would settle for 3-3 in that stretch, 4-2 would be great and 2-4 a big disappointment. Other than the win at OSU (which is looking less impressive with PSU winning there), no signature wins but also not a single bad loss either. Losing to Villanova, at Iowa State, Michigan St. in overtime at home and at Wisconsin...all quite winnable games, isn't going to hurt, either. Guess MSU really had a let down as well after beating Iowa on the road, losing at Georgetown, a team with better interior play traditionally...obviously they took advantage of Payne's absence.

Trading Viciedo doesn't make much sense at this stage. Smart rebuilding franchises usually aren't in the habit of trading hitters like him at such a critical developmental stage when the jury's still out. He's either a big part of the future for the White Sox or we're going to run his value into the ground completely this year. At his age, and still with nobody to push him from behind, trading him is the last thing they should be thinking about. They're already looking at replacing Dunn/LH power bat...Ramirez...Beckham...and the catcher's spot, so the franchise would be 10X better off if he progresses as expected in 2014. DeAza will still get plenty of opportunities to make himself a trade target, both in spring training and in the regular campaign...especially if Dunn/Konerko/Viciedo struggle the first 2-3 months.

Cubs with their two "Paulino-esque" moves. Note no Santana/Jimenez.

QUOTE (hammerhead johnson @ Feb 1, 2014 -> 09:15 AM) I'll be watching Rasmus closely this year. Look at what he accomplished in 118 games: OF WAR 1. Mike Trout 10.4 2. Andrew McCutchen 8.2 3. Carlos Gomez 7.6 4. Jacoby Ellsbury 5.8 5. Shane Victorino 5.6 6. Hunter Pence 5.4 7. Shin Soo-Choo 5.2 8. Carlos Gonzalez 4.9 9. Colby Rasmus 4.8 10. Jayson Werth 4.6 He's just entering his prime, so we'll see if he can build on his 2013 success. http://espn.go.com/mlb/stats/batting/_/pos...ARBR/order/true You're missing Puig at 5.0

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Jan 31, 2014 -> 06:26 PM) DH DeAza, Viciedo in left everyday. OMG, you're really coming around on my boy Dayan. And no trade Alexei Ramirez threads yet this offseason. At any rate, to address one point TUC made: The White Sox have eaten salary before, they just don't do it unless it's absolutely necessary. See Mike MacDougal, Scott Linebrink...and pretty sure there was some cash going the other way with Thome and Contreras, but I'd have to double-check those deals again. They also sent $1 million along with Rios to the Rangers to get that deal done, it would have been more without L. Garcia.

QUOTE (HickoryHuskers @ Jan 31, 2014 -> 06:50 AM) I think it's more a function of the fact that White Sox fans have been very spoiled by having a franchise that very rarely gets stuck with bad contracts. The reality is that most big market teams regularly have one or more players in any given year who makes so much above his actual value that he's impossible to trade. I also think that Dunn's volume of strikeouts and low batting average obscure the fact that he was 5th on the team in OBP and 2nd on the team in SLG, and there isn't one team in baseball that would pay $14M just to make such a person go away. The Dodgers had 3 in one outfield alone, Juan Pierre, Andruw Jones and Manny Ramirez.

QUOTE (Vance Law @ Jan 30, 2014 -> 09:47 PM) If they don't understand this, then they don't understand how baseball works. Or sports. Or business. I think it's good they're just a casual fan. Then they should be rolling their eyes about getting anything back anything significant for Beckham, Gillaspie, Flowers, Phegley, DeAza, Keppinger and Konerko as well.

QUOTE (Vance Law @ Jan 30, 2014 -> 08:01 PM) Viciedo has been batting against righties for the last 2 years. How does getting his ass out of the outfield sound bad? Because do you really want DeAza or Gillaspie to be our middle of the order LH protection for A. Garcia/Abreu/Konerko/Viciedo? They would just walk Abreu or pitch very carefully with him. Dunn still strikes more fear into opposing pitchers than anyone else on our current roster. And the same issue exists if you bat DeAza 1st and 8th/9th.

Plus casual fans only come out to games when the weather's nice and the Sox are DOMINANT/bandwagon effect is in play. That wasn't even the case in 2012. And whether you're a stock broker, house flipper or MLB GM, going in the same direction as "mass/popular" opinion is usually the losing strategy...98 times out of 100. For most of his Sox career, fans disliked Alex Rios, but KW/Hahn didn't give up on him or eat his contract.

QUOTE (Jerksticks @ Jan 30, 2014 -> 07:08 PM) Doesn't everybody else sense that the casual fan as a mass loathes Dunn? The only way to really sell THIS year as a new direction is to get rid of Dunn at all costs. It's possible that the new talent excites the fans enough to tolerate one more year of s***. But if he's batting 3 or 4 and terrible people are gonna get mean fast. They're already gonna be mean from day 1, ST too. Ultimately for the better of the team we could use the roster spot, especially since we may have a pretty fluid pipeline with AAA this year. WHO? Do you really believe Gillaspie or DeAza are part of the future? If you showed up as a fan and saw Alejandro's name in the DH slot, would that get you more excited? Wilkins or McDade or Dan Black? (Besides, if you're going to pick a player as public enemy #2 and emblematic of the team's failures last year, DeAza is right up there with Dunn, is he not? I saw him defended (DeAza) constantly with the OPS argument or WAR, but doesn't that also supports Dunn as being in the top 25-33% of the roster.)

They're (casual fans) certainly not out there thinking Dunn is going to be part of the rebuild, any more than they believe Ramirez/Konerko/DeAza will still be around. Likewise, the casual White Sox fan doesn't believe DeAza's going to put up 20+ bombs in the first half and fetch another Garcia/Davidson/Eaton from another organization at the trade deadline. DeAza is what he is....which is a younger version of Marlon Byrd at this point. Nice to have on a playoff roster, but he's not going to get you a Top 100 prospect back. In fact, you can make the same exact arguments about Gordon Beckham and Paul Konerko being on the roster. 0% believe Konerko's part of the future or part of another Sox playoff team, and MAYBE MAYBE MAYBE 5-10% still believe Gordon Beckham's part of the future as well. (I'll be charitable and bump it up to 20-25% of "casual" Sox fans still believe in Gordo.) And there are quite a few, at least 40-50%, who don't believe that Viciedo is part of the future, not to mention Flowers/Phegley. Then you throw in Conor and Keppinger. So you have Ramirez/DeAza/Viciedo/Konerko/Gillaspie/Keppinger/Beckham/Phegley/Flowers who all have a 50/50 or higher chance of being gone next year (along with Dunn). That's still a huge chunk of your roster, at least half of your position players aren't part of the future either, with the possible exception of Viciedo if he has a promising rebound season. From that list...is there any one player who's going to excite fans enough to buy a ticket if the team's headed for another 90-100 loss season? I sincerely doubt it. That only leaves Abreu/Davidson/Eaton/A.Garcia/Semien, and we know the odds of ALL of those guys making it as starters three years down the road are about 3-5% at best.

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Jan 30, 2014 -> 06:27 PM) Normally, I'd agree with you, but Dunn is toxic. The Sox dont want him, he doesn't want to be here, and the fans are ticked at both for this situation continuing. The same number of fans are buying season tickets to "say goodbye to Paul Konerko" as they're losing after 3 years of Dunn staying for a 4th. Now if you could go back to the 2011/12 off-season and prove that Adam Dunn being a terrible disappointment was the MAIN reason for fans not renewing their season ticket packages, you might have something. However, at that time, there were probably just as many fans optimistic about the White Sox getting a fresh start without Ozzie. In this offseason, most fans could care less about Dunn at this point and are already looking forward to the future post Dunn/Konerko with Eaton, Davidson, Viciedo, Semien, Abreu and Avisail as the core. FWIW, not even in 2007 did I completely give up on following any Sox team in my entire life...last year was the first time that has ever happened. Adam Dunn doesn't matter at all to how I think about 2014, and I would wager most rational fans who understand the baseball side of business understand it as well. The White Sox just releasing him today would score them PR/brownie points for a couple of days and then it would blow over and there would be zero left-handed protection in the middle of the line-up, thus leading to more losses and making it harder to get fans out to the park than the presence of any one individual player...the other thing you have to keep in mind is 90% of the time players in their walk years have career years and re-establish some value on the trade market.

You can argue DeAza's blocking Viciedo from getting everyday playing time, but it's not because of Dunn or Konerko. You could also argue that if Dunn was traded/dumped they could get more value OR production out of DeAza as the primary LH DH, which is an argument that could go either way (but which has surely happened internally, with holding onto Dunn for half the season winning out). Of course, 50% of the teams looking to acquire him would be looking at him as a CFer/LFer, so part of his value would be removed if he wasn't playing out in the field for 3 1/2 or 4 months and then went back into the OF for an NL team. Leury Garcia's mostly being blocked by Alexei Ramirez and possibly Beckham. He needs to be playing everyday in Chicago or Charlotte if he's EVER going to amount to a credible enough offensive force to play everyday, most likely Charlotte...which is probably why they're holding onto Ramirez and Beckham for another 3-4 months, to make sure L.Garcia/Semien/C.Sanchez have developed enough to be exposed to everyday play the big leagues. You could even make the same argument with Davidson, that they could hold him back 1-2-3-4 months and perhaps get something out of Keppinger/Gillaspie.

McDowell's first band, V.I.E.W., which consisted of him and fellow baseball players Lee Plemel and Wayne Edwards, had two albums, "Extendagenda" and "Replace The Mind." The band was formed in 1989 and disbanded in 1992. Their most notable accomplishment was touring with The Smithereens in 1992. His second band, stickfigure, consisted of McDowell, Michael Hamilton, Mike Mesaros and Frank Funaro. They produced the albums "Just a Thought", "Feedbag", "Ape of the Kings" and "Memonto Mori", before the group disbanded in 2003.[5][6] from wikipedia

QUOTE (ptatc @ Jan 30, 2014 -> 09:55 AM) Guess the music career of "stick figure" didn't go as planned. Who were the other members? LHP Wayne Edwards was one, I think. Radinsky didn't play with them, did he?

Really trying to figure out where Shameless has to go from here. Seems like there's a lack of energy right now. With Steve-Jimmy, Lip, Ian, Fabio/Karen and even Estafania gone, it's become suddenly quite uninteresting. Frank's a shell of his former self, there's no Monica around to blow through the squirrel fund...seeing Debbie going into any type of decline or descent just doesn't seem fair to her after everything her character's gone through. From watching the upcoming season scenes, the whole Fiona/Mike thing has about as much romantic tension as Emmy Rossum in Dragonball with her original partner in crime Jimmy-Steve. I think even she has gotten tired of showing her boobs every other episode, haha. I'm not even quite understanding how a student with Lip's ability can show up at "Chicago Polytechnic" and get a D on a freshman literature paper...but obviously they couldn't send him off to MIT because they needed to keep him closer to home.

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Jan 29, 2014 -> 07:02 PM) I disagree, do you remember the Pirates & Cardinals trade rumor threads last season? Everyone was sure the Sox would wipe out both teams' minor league systems at the trade deadline. But that was mostly based on the overrating or overvaluing of Alexei Ramirez and/or Rios, right?

QUOTE (IlliniKrush @ Jan 28, 2014 -> 09:01 PM) That's about the furthest thing from a big question. For an Iowa fan whose BB team has gone 8 seasons without an NCAA appearance, nothing is guaranteed this year until they get to 10 Big 10 conference wins.

If you can't beat MSU on your home floor with two of their top players out and superior depth in overtime, then you're not a legit B10 title contender. Now the big question will be to see how Iowa responds at Illinois and at home against OSU the next couple of games.

Ugh... Iowa having the same problem as last year, closing out games. This would be the fourth "heartbreak" loss if they don't close it out, along with Villanova, Iowa State and at Wisconsin. The only team that beat them soundly was Michigan in Ann Arbor. We'll see what wins out, Iowa's depth/home court advantage/injuries to key MSU player or MSU's desperation to stay in the B10 title hunt.

“I’m pretty abreast of what’s going on, and Rick does an incredible job of staying in contact with us,’’ said Peavy, who is said to be wanted by the Red Sox, Cardinals, Athletics and probably more. “Just being professional, letting us know kind of how things stand. If something does happen, I’m not going to be caught off-guard by it. “If you get moved now, you’re going to a contender. If I got moved in the winter, you’d be going to a team that was hoping to upgrade and be a contender. I’ve said I want to be on a winning team. I’ve said I hope that’s here. If I get moved, I hope it’s to a team that’s in the thick of things. That’s all you can ask for.’’ July 24th www.suntimes.com/sports

I wonder if any other MLB club has a message board with 43 pages dedicated to the intricacies and nuances of adding Erwin Santana or Jimenez?

QUOTE (Quinarvy @ Jan 28, 2014 -> 12:47 AM) Strasburg was a college pitcher. Also, again, Ervin Johan Ramon Magic Santana sucks. What is the Ramon for? Troncoso? Shouldn't it be Earvin, haha?

QUOTE (joeynach @ Jan 28, 2014 -> 12:42 AM) Weren't Strasburg and Harper both drafted out of HS and in the majors within 2 or 3 seasons? Now everyday players and All stars. Well, yes. But you're also talking once-in-a-generation players who were drafted #1 overall. Alex Rodriguez and Ken Griffey, Jr., would be two other examples. Trout had a very fast progression, from being drafted in 2009 to ROY/MVP-caliber three years later. For 2nd rounders, it would be incredibly unusual, unless it was a collegiate pitcher, probably a reliever like Addison Reed. A couple of other examples in the Sox system (who had less minor league time) would be Scott Radinsky and Boone Logan, LHR's. Of course, you have your "normal" progression for a high schooler, which is four years, essentially 4 1/2 minor league seasons including the year of being drafted (short season/Arizona/fall Leagues, etc.) and then Low A, High A, AA/AAA....arriving at the major league team a full five years later. Three or four is very fast, five is normal and six is probably a late bloomer.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Jan 27, 2014 -> 11:22 PM) The only point I am making is guys signing 4 year contracts are game to be traded. There is no rule against it. Signing a pithcer increases the White Sox pitching inventory, making it easier to trade pitching for help in other areas. It's just not how the White Sox do business. There's a certain amount of trust and loyalty that you don't see with other organizations. It's JR's decision, as long as he's the principal shareholder. It works to their detriment as well, sometimes, but it's a conscious choice. And, other than the Konerko decision, they've been brutally honest with Buehrle and AJ. They're not going to add a $40+ million dollar contract unless they've done their due diligence. Hahn's not doing if his job if he hasn't at least considered it, but that's why they have members of the front office to run the numbers and do risk assessment. If the numbers became even more attractive (let's say $24-26-28 million for 3 years), then they would give it more thorough analysis. They had numbers for Tanaka that made sense moving forward, they certainly have numbers in mind for Jimenez or Santana...but it's undoubtedly a lower number than what they'll eventually go for.