caulfield12

http://www.freep.com/article/20131021/COL0...land-drew-sharp Gibson's out. McClendon, Lamont are all in the running, as is Larry Parrish and possibly Torey Lovullo. Mattingly, if he doesn't stay with the Dodgers. Dusty Baker. Davey Johnson. Eric Wedge. They had Guillen's picture in their Top 10, fwiw. Rich Renteria. Interestingly, no Dave Martinez.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Oct 21, 2013 -> 10:44 AM) Well I guess that depends on whether you believe we have anyone that can develop into the long-term solution at C. Given the beating catchers take, I think it's foolish to acquire an above-average or elite one via FA. You've either got to develop one yourself, or go with a marginal veteran at a reasonable price. I don't think Phegley or Flowers is the answer, and I don't want to spend what it is going to take to sign McCann, given his age. So sign a marginal stopgap and draft a few this year and next and hope one can stick. The A's got by quite nicely picking up Vogt from the waiver wire. Not easy to do, but it's not impossible.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Oct 19, 2013 -> 02:37 PM) How does "He's aging normally!" make the steroid rumors more prevalent? His body is completely breaking down in his early 30's. If everyone's now susceptible to that, how do we explain Thome, Konerko and Ortiz being so dangerous in their mid 30's or later?

Peralta would not be THE WORST option in the world, but it wouldn't be easy to stomach. Coming off the year he's had offensively, you'd have to think he would magically regress again. But I'd rather him than Gillaspie/Keppinger at 3B, there's no doubt about that.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Oct 21, 2013 -> 07:31 AM) Sounds great in theory. Who does that fit in reality? Juan Uribe? Kyle Seager? Brett Lawrie? I guess they could make a play for Prado, if there's a match with pitching we're willing to give up. David Freese? There's very little chance the Cardinals trade him, or the Royals trade Moustakas at this point. Middlebrooks? Doubtful. Michael Young doesn't make much sense either. Castellanos is going to be in LF next year for the Tigers.

QUOTE (oldsox @ Oct 21, 2013 -> 06:08 AM) This was true many years ago in golf, don't think so any more. The only other relevant example would be buying shares of a thoroughbred horse...or staking a Formula 1, Nascar or Indy team. Not sure this whole NFL "player shares" thing will work at all.

http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archiv...athlete/280707/ Wonder how far we are from major league teams (especially cash-strapped ones) creating investment vehicles like this one? With an NFL running back, it seems like a very poor if not insane bet (not even Adrian Peterson). But there's the example given in the comments section: "For instance, young pro golfers on the minor league tours are often staked by investors who will pay the golfers' expenses in exchange for a sizable chunk (50% or so) of future earnings. This makes sense for golf because a) the money's big and b) you've got two decades worth of potential earnings." So you might have a viable investment in someone like a Micker Zapata/Adolfo as a young player...or especially someone not drafted in the first round who becomes a legit MLB prospect but who didn't get a huge signing bonus (for the White Sox, players like Semien, Micah Johnson or Erik Johnson who wanted to borrow against future earnings/endorsement deals in order to have more money in the present, for another example.) Or Mike Trout would also be the perfect example here, being drafted at the end of the first round...and having to wait at least three years to make significant money even though he's arguably one of the top 3-5 overall players in baseball his first two seasons. It's interesting. I doubt it would be very easy to make money off an NFL skill position player (except quarterbacks)....but there are much longer careers (and higher average earnings) in MLB or NBA.

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ Oct 20, 2013 -> 10:33 PM) Lillian just cummed. Conor Jackson and Sizemore are both available.

Giving up Santiago like that is crazy...for someone who has a 10-15% chance of working out. There's also no guarantees that Sale won't get injured or that Quintana won't regress or that Erik Johnson isn't ready. And there's no way I would give Jesse Crain that type of money coming off what seems like it could be a major injury. Will agree with one thing, we probably need at least one somewhat reliable (Howell, O. Perez, whoever) veteran lefty coming into spring training...unless we're just giving up on 2014 before the season even starts and will give that role to Santos Rodriguez to develop him.

QUOTE (thxfrthmmrs @ Oct 20, 2013 -> 06:19 PM) The fact that we just shelled out $70 mil for this guy and that we are going to make a strong push for Granderson tells me that the FO is looking to make a playoff push next season. I am fairly optimistic that the south side will have more the competitive baseball team for the next year or two. Except adding Granderson isn't a huge upgrade over DeAza. And we're spending another $45 million and blocking ourselves from adding a catcher by any means other than dealing Ramirez, Viciedo, Santiago/Quintana, Beckham and Jones/Reed. If anything, we shouldn't be complacent about 3B/2B/C. Catcher seems to be the biggest key at the moment. And we'd be in the same situation as the Tigers were going into this season without a closer...because there are so many holes in the bullpen, there's just no way to compete without anyone reliable to get the game to the 8th and 9th. Sure, Webb might do great, or he might fall on his face. Lindstrom might improve. But to say he's the equivalent of another Octavio Dotel or Linebrink, though, is a bit premature. You'd think they would have at least one veteran down there if they were approaching 2014 as if they were really trying to compete.

QUOTE (Jake @ Oct 20, 2013 -> 03:55 PM) It's the fans, not the team. It's a well run team (that can spend with the big boys, by the way) The Cardinals fans were suffering for quite a while though, until the arrival of Pujols/LaRussa/McGwire. The death of Daryll Kyle as well. You had the 1987 and 1985 World Series heartbreaks....the call at 1B (Denkinger) and then the Tudor/Joaquin Andujar meltdowns in 1987. If that series was played 4 games in StL, everyone knows the Cardinals would have won (just like Twins' fans had the pleasure of the same advantage four years later against the Braves). And some very tough Mets' teams to deal with (Strawberry/Gooden) in the 80's as well. Until 2006, it was a LONG time since they'd broken through and had much playoff success. They were basically like the less successful version of the Braves, or maybe the Indians.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Oct 20, 2013 -> 03:35 PM) Between 1994 and 2000 it went from 0.13% of GDP to 0.18% of GDP. In other words, it's smaller than the lines on those plots. (It might have made a slightly larger difference but there were repeated cuts to capital gains taxes over that time, both when capital gains were increasing and when they plummeted after bubbles bursting). Or, put another way, a 38% increase. That said, Clinton deserves at least some of the credit for helping to create an environment that led to such productivity. The reverse point of view is that Clinton/Rubin/Greenspan helped to create (as well) the beginning of the reckless home loans/mortgage environment...and the lack of financial regulations/oversight (which can be blamed on BOTH parties, but probably 60-65% on the GOP since they were literally writing some of the bills, along with companies like Countrywide Loans/Mozilo).

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Oct 20, 2013 -> 03:06 PM) The Medicare Drug benefit has as much to do with the ratio between tax receipts and GDP as Yasiel Puig's celebrations do. It's actually kind of remarkable how you say there's no way to correct for ..... "lowering of taxes"...that's the ****ing point. What might be worth noting though is that the increase in the 1990's happened right after a series of Tax increases, including Bill Clinton's 1993 budget, and it dropped rapidly the second we started cutting taxes. 2 major tax cuts, in 2001 and 2003, and suddenly we went from a situation where we were getting the budget situation in line for what was necessary given upcoming demographic changes to one where we were underfunding everything at a federal level while simultaneously feeding another large investment bubble. Also worth noting...the 2000's housing bubble was much larger than the stock bubble in the 1990's, but it never produced tax receipts coming anywhere near the same fraction of the economy observed in the 1990's...because taxes were slashed. I'll just say this, most Republicans run and hide when you bring up the obvious "senior pandering" element of the medicare drug benefit and the fact that it wasn't funded. When everyone's running around screaming about balanced budgets and irresponsible government spending, that never seems to come up. Or Republicans will say it was all due to the "peace dividend of Clinton cutting military spending" because he was a draft dodger and hated the military, lol. But Balta, out of all those government tax receipts in 1997-1998-1999-2000, how much of it is attributable to capital gains? If anything, if you look at the growing chasm between the rich and poor and the hollowing of the middle class, all the tax cuts/advantages to the rich as well as corporations in the last decade and finally the cutting of capital gains and estate taxes...well, you reap what you sow, as they say. The problem is those rich people and CEO's need someone on the demand side to buy their products. China and India can't keep growing at 8-10% every year, those numbers are going to slow eventually, it's a mathematical certainty, like the Titanic sinking after 5/8 watertight compartments were filled. What then? Brazil? Indonesia? Because it's not going to come from the US or Europe at the rate things are going currently.

QUOTE (professa @ Oct 20, 2013 -> 03:11 PM) This is how I look at the signing: Worst case: he ends up like Dayan Viciedo and has a ton of talent but is streaky and can't put it together ~ .230/.300/.450 20-25 HR Best Case: A right handed Ryan Howard in his prime ~ .280/.400/.500 40-45 HR If JDA performs to his worse case scenario above, those stats would still warrant a 8-10 million/yr deal on the open market. His best case scenario would get him 20-25 million. I think this is a fair deal overall when you consider that. Obviously he could pull a Dunn which would obviously not make it worth it but I foresee him putting up something like .260/.350/.475 with 30 HR. Thats 12-15 million on the open market. We are paying him just over 10/year, probably less with the signing bonus. I like this signing, it's exciting and worth the risk. Better than bringing in a Morales/Hart/Morneau and have to commit that same amount/year, although it is safer, but likely with less upside. This is the key part. We shouldn't forget that Morales is likely to turn down $14 million for just one season. All those guys, and you can include James Loney as well as an option...Morales, Napoli, Hart and Morneau could ALL be better players in 2014. It's possible. But their future upside is limited...and they're all entering their 30's or already there. The White Sox need potential superstars...and so far that hasn't panned out with Beckham, Viciedo and Hawkins (more from the average fan's perspective), and is still yet to be determined with Avisail Garcia. But you have to go after those types of impact bats, or you're just going to be mired in mediocrity forever. Even Trayce Thompson has the ability to be an All-Star, or Mitchell. Of course, they might never even make it to the major leagues. But you can't just draft "safe" Jeremy Reeds. You have to swing for the fences and go for it.

QUOTE (elrockinMT @ Oct 20, 2013 -> 02:58 PM) Cuban baseball has to be as good if not better than Japanese baseball don't you think? Aplus league level is awfully low. I am thinking at least AA plus or AAA. They have won the baseball world classic before with their all-stars Not really. Look at how many 25-33 year old Japanese players who have come into the game since Ichiro. Compare that, especially, pitching wise, with Cuba and the likes of El Duque and Contreras. Off the top of my head, you have this new guy (Tanaka) and Anraku, Kuroda, Mac Suzuki, Dice K, Hideo Nomo, Kei Igawa, Hideki Irabu, Uehara (best closer in the game), Sasaki (former M's closer), Yu Darvish, Iwakuma (M's), Tazawa, Saito, Hasegawa, Okajima, etc. Look at how well South Korea has played against those Japanese players. And yet how many Koreans have made a huge impact so far...just Choo, Choi and Chan Ho Park, along with Ryu this season (most of their players are never allowed to leave and/or run into military service requirements).

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Oct 20, 2013 -> 02:34 PM) Bait taken...now insert chart with actual data showing how tax rates have spent the last decade well below the long term average, starting in 2000, and have spent nearly 5 years at the lowest levels since 1950. We don't have a spending problem. We have record low tax receipts. But because that's been accomplished by cutting the highest-level rates and the corporate rates, no one feels it. That's where Balta's numbers are a little bit misleading, haha. A lot of the reason why those numbers look better at the end of the Clinton Years...and I say this as a lifelong Democract, are because of the extraordinary revenues coming in from capital gains taxes when the stock market was just flying along (although there was the 1998 Asian crisis, we were more insulated then compared to the huge one a decade later) and the fact that the economy was humming along like a well-oiled machine. There's just no way to correct for 9/11, the impact of two unfunded global wars, lowering of taxes (look at the estate tax scales, for example) and the unfunded Medicare prescription drug plan. You can blame 2/3rd's of the debt expansion on the Bush Years, and the right will say George Bush wasn't a true conservative or that the Democratic Congresses were also to blame, forgetting the political atmosphere at that time when anyone who was against the war in Iraq was branded as a traitor (see the Dixie Chicks) or to the left of Obama.

QUOTE (Alpha Dog @ Oct 20, 2013 -> 02:49 PM) Didn't he do well in that baseball classic thing or whatever it was, where there WAS some major league pitching present? Even then, everyone has been consistently saying Despaigne (played in Mexico recently, on loan) and Cepeda were more exciting/better raw tools/bat speed/light tower power. I feel like instead of McGwire, Bonds, Ryan Howard or Miggy Cabrera or one of those comps...he'll be more like a RH version of Fred McGriff.

It's like hating the Braves and Rays, for example. Hard to hate teams that draft and develop young players so well. Admire, is more like it. Is there an "overhype" factor now where they're getting too much love and affection and attention, probably. Almost everything has gone right for them (except for Furcal being injured). Pujuls not coming back. Hiring a manager with no experience. Breakout performances in different seasons/post-seasons from Freese, Carpenter, Jay, Craig, Adams. Yadier Molina morphing into the best catcher in baseball. Beltran, the best post-season player in baseball history. Holliday providing solid veteran leadership. Probably the only hole in the line-up being SS, and still getting good defensive play there. Then Kelly, Wacha, Shelby Miller, Lance Lynn, Carlos Martinez, Jaime Garcia, Rosenthal, Gast, Siegrist, Motte, Lyons, etc. It's am embarrassment of riches, almost.

It is pretty amazing how far the bar has moved economically in 12-24 months. This contract would have seemed insane a year ago...nobody was willing to pay Puig at 22 what the Dodgers did. Now you have a player in the prime of his career, seemingly ready to contribute right from the get go. Of course, years from now, they'll probably be saying Soler and Concepcion (whatever the name of that soft-tossing LHP from Cuba) were grossly overpaid by Epstein. We'll see. Einhorn put it best....it's a calculated risk/gamble, you have to give your fans a reason to have hope and believe in the organization again. There's no guarantee it will work out, certainly, but you have to give them something more than James Loney or Corey Hart.

A+ to AA in terms of hitting A+ to low A in term of pitching talent Navarro and David Wells, despite years ago, always get brought up. Dunn. Keppinger, haha. On the other hand, you have "international" free agents like Ramirez, Takatsu and Iguchi who all made positive if short-lived impacts. I think a lot of it has to do with Viciedo's lack of impact....even if you compare him positively with Rizzo, which you can...a lot of Sox fans have been disappointed with him. You compare Viciedo to Puig/Cespedes and the Soler hype machine, somehow what comes out of that is "bust/disappointment" and not Rookie of the Year, whether that's fair or not. That, combined with the lack of development of nearly every hyped Sox hitting prospect (especially Thompson, Hawkins, Mitchell and Walker) and you have another reason for healthy skepticism about out scouts. Then there's the Gordon Beckham fiasco (despite Dick Allen's comparison to the rest of the draft picks that year). Which almost makes you think both Zapata and Abreu will be breakout stars, SOMETHING has to go right eventually, like it did in 2005.

http://www.baseballnation.com/2013/10/17/4...n=articlebottom Backlash to the backlash with an anti-backlash thrown in for good measure...

QUOTE (iamshack @ Oct 20, 2013 -> 07:00 AM) No Volquez! That guy is the most frustrating pitcher in the last 10 years. More than Contreras and Liriano?

http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/baseb...0,4260812.story Colleen Kane (is she the new Sox beat writer) on Abreu Some fairly tepid comments from Viciedo "He's a good hitter," Viciedo said through a team interpreter. "He always has been representing Cuba in international tournaments, and he always has been good. I wouldn't go past that in saying anything else. But he's a good hitter." "Some might be surprised (the bidding) got up that high," said Ben Badler, a reporter for Baseball America who covers international prospects and has followed Abreu's career the last few years. "But there's also an understanding Abreu is the type of player who has the talent to justify that kind of contract."

QUOTE (chw42 @ Oct 19, 2013 -> 11:47 PM) In no world should Victorino not start on the White Sox. The guy put up a .353 wOBA this year and a .351 OBP. He also played incredible defense in RF this year and can probably be pretty good in center. I don't care if he's going to be 33 next year, if you can get him at the right price, get him. That's the whole problem, he's not an everyday CFer anymore. We can't keep trying to force players into positions where they don't belong.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Oct 19, 2013 -> 09:44 PM) Unfortunately I believe for CF. I dont hate it, but I dont like it. The thing is you cant just sign him, which is good. He'll become such a cult hero, they might have to keep him on the roster for 2014 just for that at-bat. Sweet Caroline....is getting more annoying than "New York, New York." Just don't think Victorino's the right choice at this point in his career.