caulfield12

There's just no way they get THAT desperate. I think they'd almost rather go back to Joe Saunders again than take on Danks' financial commitment. There were at least ten starting pitchers who moved the last 10 days of July and in August so far that fit that requirement of expiring contracts/veteran pitchers/lower-risk deals. If we were talking about Danks at the beginning of July, then it could be a legit conversation. But not right now.

QUOTE (thxfrthmmrs @ Aug 21, 2014 -> 08:59 AM) Carlos Sanchez will have a better chance to stick at SS in the ML than Anderson would. Uh-oh. I think we've already had this debate earlier in the season. On one side are Anderson's actual error totals, on the other side is his potential and defensive tools. While he doesn't have a Dunston or Uribe or Valentin arm, it's solid enough to the point where you don't want to move him off SS to 2B or CF until he proves he can't play that position. As with all the Charlotte Knights numbers this year, I'm not going to trust them very much until I see Sanchez look like a stronger Leury Garcia with the potential to at least put up a 675ish OPS at the major league level. Sanchez at Beckham level (625 OPS) or lower isn't any upgrade at all. Sanchez has also put on some weight, so that cuts down on his speed and one of his areas he would have a clear advantage over Beckham, baserunning/basestealing. You also don't see him hitting more than 4-6 homers at USCF...which, as we learned from watching the Orioles bomb away, it's critical to have some pop in the line-up besides Abreu and maybe Avisail Garcia.

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Aug 21, 2014 -> 06:45 AM) That's just an awful article. The author completely ignores that every major attendance spike of the past 30 years coincided with a Cubs playoff appearance. Attendance reached an all-time high in 2008 because the team had the best record in the entire National League. Do people attend Cubs games just for the Wrigley experience? Of course. But that ballpark won't fill if the team completely sucks for years on end. This usually happens when "finance/business" people write baseball articles. They usually can't see the bigger picture, with their limited sports background and knowledge of the teams.

He also has the 29th OPS out of 33 MLB catchers with over 200 PA's. Right ahead of AJ. In terms of WAR, he's something like 20th. Let's not kid ourselves that he's anything close to an "average" catcher quite yet. Now, that said, if the choice is keeping Tyler Flowers and paying Russell Martin $48 million, then I'm all for keeping Flowers for one more season until a clear upgrade can be found that's not prohibitively expensive in terms of talent traded away or a bad contract on the back end (see Brian McCann).

http://online.wsj.com/articles/why-wrigley...o?mod=yahoo_itp On Why Cubs Attendance Is Falling...Fans Actually Expect Winning Baseball for a Change

Flowers is slipping from that "adequate starter" category again...you might want to rethink that one. DeAza would be an adequate starter ONLY one of the bottom 5-10 teams in the majors. And Conor also has to be categorized as adequate bordering on barely adequate because of his subpar fielding, lack of HR power at USCF and difficulties with LHP.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Aug 20, 2014 -> 09:57 PM) I fully expect the Sox to finish below Minnesota which means last place 2 years in a row. That is unacceptable. If the Sox finish last again next year, I'd clean house. No more Kenny. No more Hahn. And beg Jerry to sell. You can't tell me the Sox should be finishing fricking last 3 straight years. And what's more, nobody is the front office is calling it a rebuild, right? They are denying we are rebuilding. Last place must be a thing of the past starting next year! Williams is the one who really scouted Abreu hard and pushed for his signing.

QUOTE (Brian @ Aug 20, 2014 -> 05:51 PM) SNOWPIERCER. Awesome. See it. You're late to the party on that one. COHERENCE is a very worthwhile watch, kind of blows your mind for awhile. Plus one of the lead actors looks exactly like Greg Maddux. Watching THE WIND RISES, by the most famous Japanese animation director....about the inventor of the Mitsubishi ZERO warplane before World War II. Very politicized movie with critics saying he romanticizes warfare way too much, but the movie simply presents him as an engineer who loved designing planes.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Aug 20, 2014 -> 04:31 PM) I just can't get over the horror of James Foley kneeling there knowing he was about to get his head chopped off. And I can't get over the inhumanity and horror regarding what the remaining journalist is currently going through as he waits to be beheaded. They probably told him of Foley's fate and he's just waiting to die. I almost threw up seeing the video of Foley bravely kneeling with the asshole behind him holding a knife to his neck. Can these ISIS assholes even speak English? Did they communicate with Foley? Sorry, man, nothing personal but we have to cut your head off to make a point? The horror of it all and the other things I mentioned makes you wonder if the end of the world has begun. Wait, I thought the Mayan calendar said it was going to end December 21st, 2012? There have been worse times, The Crusades, The Middle Ages, World War I and World War II, the first Great Depression, the Inquisition, the Plague/Bubonic Death, etc.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Aug 20, 2014 -> 02:25 PM) Peavy's injury and 2011 Rios fit on that list also along with the other 2 deals blowing up. Yep. I'm not going to bother picking on Konerko for 2013 too much, but that didn't help, either. Next, future "franchise star" Carlos Quentin never was the same after that self-inflicted hamate injury in 2008. He went from MVP to a near non-tender candidate and marginal trade return. Finally, Gordon Beckham.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Aug 20, 2014 -> 02:26 PM) I love when people misuse educational statistics to make leaps that are actually true. What is really happening there is that the selected top level students are making gains against a country that requires education of all students, even when they aren't educatable. They ignore the massive unemployment, and transients populations who aren't getting educations in their respective countries, and probably aren't even allowed to. There's never been agreement on how to conduct nationwide tests in countries like China, where they always cherry pick the best students from Shanghai and Beijing...random sampling, how many students need to sit the exam to prove test validity, etc. For my money, Finland scores the best in math and on PISA (one of the newer tests that's becoming widely-accepted around the world, it's more practical/applicable/real world and can't be memorized through like a Chinese or South Korean test). They also spent a lot less money per pupil. On the other hand, they don't have to deal with our diversity issues. Most importantly, to become a teacher in Finland, you have to be in the Top 10-30% of your class/subject in one of the Top Five universities in the country.

QUOTE (bmags @ Aug 20, 2014 -> 02:17 PM) Greg, go to Oklahoma Joe's. Post us a pic of the tips sandwich. Life is good. Oklahoma Joe's is getting TOO popular now. We didn't have to wait in such long lines about a decade ago...and for my money, go for the pulled pork sandwich. They always give you so many french fries that it will clog your arteries for about a month. At any rate, you also have Arthur Bryant's, KC Masterpiece (I think, on the Country Club Plaza, maybe it's just the sauce now being sold in grocery stores), Gates, etc. My ex used to work at Fiorella's Jack Stack BBQ in the Freighthouse and that place does a very good business as well.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Aug 20, 2014 -> 02:15 PM) Egypt and Iran have both released statements criticizing the violent repression taking place in the U.S. over the past couple days that are similar to statements the U.S. releases about them. I forgot the part about more than half the babies are born out of wedlock or to single mothers, and roughly 25% of the population (African-American and Hispanic-American) has about the same chance of graduating from university as ending up in prison. Meanwhile, countries like UAE, Bahrain and Qatar are making tremendous economic progress while American students slowly fall backwards to the rest of the developing world in the areas of math, science, physics and chemistry. American government can be summed up in one sentence: Citizens United with Koch Brothers leads to 14% approval rating for Congress and more time spent trying to undo Obamacare than solve any real problems in America.

QUOTE (SoxPride18 @ Aug 20, 2014 -> 02:12 PM) Although none of the players that KW gave up for these guys have amounted to anything. The biggest problem has clearly been the fact that the Dunn and Danks deals blew up, so it's pretty much been the excuse for the last four years or so for not doing anything. That said, they did go out on a limb with Jose Abreu. If we could apply our track record with Cubans (2 out of 3 or 67%) to everything else we do with the June draft and FA/international signings, this team would be sitting pretty right now.

QUOTE (ptatc @ Aug 20, 2014 -> 02:04 PM) Who are these "marginal upgrade" players that caused the mess? Dunn. Keppinger and Downs, to a lesser extent. Swisher. Javy. Edwin Jackson. Manny Ramirez. Liriano, Myers and Youkilis. Griffey, Jr.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Aug 20, 2014 -> 02:03 PM) Yes. Play more golf. That's relaxing, assuming you're a good golfer and not the type to wrap a club around a tree in anger.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Aug 20, 2014 -> 02:01 PM) GMAFB. Those same people in the Middle East are probably watching Al-jazeera news...asking, "Is this really the way they STILL treat non-white people in the US? Didn't they learn anything from Hurricane Katrina?" That America is a REALLY scary place. Everyone has a gun. Every month or so, some random person will go into a school and try to blow it up or kill as many students and teachers as possible. All the kids are fat and addicted to McDonald's and playing computer games.

This question is pretty much irrelevant anyway until Opening Day, 2015. To categorically say "yes" or "no" without seeing the changes in the next 7 months...that's a bit premature. However, it's VERY VERY unlikely all the team's issues can be addressed in just two off-seasons.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Aug 20, 2014 -> 01:36 PM) I posted that a few pages ago, yes that was absolutely ridiculous. Verbally challenging the police doesn't justify beating, spraying, tasering or shooting anyone. Ooops...sorry, guess I missed a page or two somehow. It's reminiscent of that crazy pastor from Florida who was burning Korans to put himself in the news....Jones or something was his name.

Now I'm starting to agree with Greg, lol. Scary. This Sunil Dutta guy was born in Jaipur, India...it's QUITE alarming and a bit scary when immigrants to this country start believing this is the attitude a police officer should take towards other immigrants and minorities. Dr. Sunil Dutta was born and raised in Jaipur, India. He works for the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD). He is an author, adjunct professor, practitioner of Dhrupad, and a scholar of music and poetry.[1] He is the president of the North American Dhrupad Association.[2] Dr. Dutta was a scientist before he decided to join the police. He is a scholar of Urdu mystical poetry and an Indian classical music form called Dhrupad. Dutta was born and raised in Jaipur, India. He obtained his BS from Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar, India.[3] He came to the US for his graduate studies, obtaining his MS from the University of Florida, Gainesville and his PhD from the University of California, Davis. He received his Masters degree in Security Studies from Naval Postgraduate School/Center for Homeland Defense and Security.[4] Sunil Dutta was born and raised in a refugee family in India. His clan was a victim of religious holocaust in Punjab that accompanied the partition of British India in 1947. Many of his family members were killed in the violence and were forced to flee from their lands where they had lived for many centuries.[5] Dutta grew up in Jaipur, India. Career[edit] After spending some time working as a researcher and completing his doctorate in biology, he became disillusioned with science and left academia. Dutta was always interested in social issues. After leaving science, he joined the Los Angeles Police Department. Dutta is the founder of a non-profit corporation, the North American Dhrupad Association, which promotes ancient Indian classical music. He is widely recognised as a unique police officer and has received significant media coverage. Besides publishing in magazines and newspapers, he has published a book of poetry translations with Robert Bly.[6] Dutta has published some rare audio recordings of Dhrupad music.[2] Dutta has written numerous articles about terrorism in South Asia,[7] death penalty, revenge, religious fundamentalism, and police reform.[8][9][10][11][12] He has given many poetry recitals with Robert Bly. Dutta teaches music, art of poetry translation and is a criminology instructor. He has taught at-risk students in the inner city of Los Angeles at the high school level. At the graduate level, he has taught biology, ecology, criminal justice, and human trafficking. Currently he teaches terrorism studies at the graduate level.[13] He has organised several music concerts in Los Angeles area and instituted scholarships for music students.

Here we go again, when things were just beginning to settle down... (CNN) -- In a single column, a veteran police officer has catapulted himself into the national debate over the death of unarmed teen Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. "I'm a cop. If you don't want to get hurt, don't challenge me," the Washington Post headline blares. The piece was written by Sunil Dutta, a 17-year veteran of the Los Angeles Police Department . "Even though it might sound harsh and impolitic, here is the bottom line: if you don't want to get shot, tased, pepper-sprayed, struck with a baton or thrown to the ground, just do what I tell you," he wrote. Dutta cautions against arguing, insulting, or screaming at officers, "and don't even think of aggressively walking towards me. Most field stops are complete in minutes. How difficult is it to cooperate for that long?" If you believe an officer is violating your rights or bullying you, Dutta says, don't challenge him then -- save that for lodging a complaint later. "Do what the officer tells you to and it will end safely for both of you." It took no time for the anger over his message to explode. "The outrageous thing is not that he says it. The outrageous thing is that we accept it," writes Ken White of the blog Popehat, which tracks American legal issues. "Do we have a justice system? By name, yes. Is it effective in deterring cops from abusing citizens or punishing them when they do? No... If you hope the cop will be charged criminally for misbehavior, you're going to be waiting a very long time for no result." Dutta's message is to "shut up and take it, because even the slightest bit of intransigence is grounds for the cops to unleash a world of hurt," writes Benjamin Freed of the Washingtonian. "To say that putting up a verbal argument warrants bringing out the billy clubs, stun guns, or actual guns only stokes what's been seen coming out of Ferguson in the past week -- images of peaceful demonstrators being met with a lines of officers rigged with military-grade equipment, marchers being fogged with canisters of tear gas, and people being slugged with rubber bullets after not moving quickly enough," Freed complains.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Aug 20, 2014 -> 01:24 PM) James Foley is beheaded by ISIS. This is beyond horrifying. The other journalist there will have the same fate. The inhumanity of this and the other beheadings depresses me beyond no end. I am so freaked out by this and the Ferguson situation and the economy here and globally, not to mention Putin and the North Korean bastard asshole, it makes me think things will never get better in the world, that our world's best days are over. Can anyone get me off the ledge? Don't watch White Sox games where the bullpen has a lead from the 7th inning onwards? Follow the Royals instead?

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Aug 20, 2014 -> 01:19 PM) And out of this list, 2 guys have OPS+ numbers of 96 (OPS in the low .700's, below average) a 3rd has an average OPS+ (exactly 100, .740 OPS), and the 4th was traded away for a pitcher. And that's telling you exactly why the Tigers are where they are right now, besides the injuries/non-performance with Verlander, Sanchez's injury, Soria's injury and Nathan's general ineffectiveness and more blown saves already than 2012 and 2013 combined. Of course, Jackson went south offensively, Castellanos is a rookie and Avila's a "decent" bat at catcher but still probably below average overall, despite the terrible lack of depth at that position. Not to mention their defense, although that's been improved over past seasons...especially because of Suarez/Igleias up the middle rather than Peralta. Obviously, moving Cabrera from 3B to 1B helped, too. Of course, trading Austin Jackson and surrounding him on the corners with Davis/Martinez/Hunter hasn't helped matters. That was a huge risk for Dombrowski to take. I forgot to mention Torii Hunter. He was great last year (especially for his age), but he's finally become a defensive black hole at his age and his OPS/WAR numbers are pretty bad (mid 700's, negative WAR due to defense). That said, Victor Martinez has been nearly an MVP candidate, making up partially for the erosion in Cabrera's power.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Aug 20, 2014 -> 01:18 PM) The cops raided a church where people were allegedly sleeping. Church leaders denied it. Another cop shown last night telling people he was gonna f***ing kill them and told the media to f*** off when asked his name. Both sides are at fault in these protests. It's scary to think after a week and a half, these protests still could get really really violent. I think you mean the church denied they were allegedly sheltering looters/troublemakers from outside the community?

QUOTE (Jose Abreu @ Aug 20, 2014 -> 01:04 PM) Sure, but bolded are right handed hitters. Sadly, the best LH power options for 2015 are Wilkins, Dunn, Rasmus, Alvarez (Pirates growing tired of him), or some switch hitter like Melky. Yes, I was simply highlighting some of the other guys who MIGHT be options. It's not impossible to do. The Tigers came up with both Rajai Davis (2 years, $9 million, basically the same as DeAza/Keppinger/Lindstrom) and JD Martinez (waiver wire), but neither of those players are true impact guys. They've been better than expected, but you have to add them to a solid/decent core of hitters (Martinez, Cabrera, Kinsler, Castellanos, Austin Jackson, Avila, etc.)