caulfield12

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Oct 5, 2013 -> 10:02 AM) IF anyone on the Sox ever said that, there would be meltdowns galore. There would be no more Darin Erstads or Mark Kotsays!!!! No....we can't have that.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Oct 5, 2013 -> 08:28 AM) And is five months younger. Everyone knows Ramirez and Viciedo are 2-3 years older than their "official" ages...

QUOTE (Tex @ Oct 5, 2013 -> 06:54 AM) https://tcta.org/node/13678 I chose to teach in a district where there is a large migrant population, where there is a high level of poverty, where parents more often than not did not graduate from college. I am interested in how they will find a system that fairly allows my efforts to be compared to say Highland Park, Texas (which is similar to Highland Park, Illinois, if everyone in Highland Park, Illinois suddenly received large pay raises). Not only that, but I teach English Language Arts with a high percentage of English language learners. Perhaps that makes my job easier as gains are easiest to achieve with new motivated learners. Is it fair to use gains when a few times a year I receive students who are reading 7 grade levels below average versus other teachers who may receive mostly students reading above grade level. I am glad I am not trying to devise the system. I fear an unbalanced rating system will cause good teachers to flee these schools and head to where the going is easier. Which is about the opposite of what is necessary to keep the US competitive in a world economy that values intellectual skills over manual labor skills. Also we are taking away human judgement. Gone are the days where a supervisor evaluated the employees. We are trying to achieve an unbiased, numerical formula where one really doesn't exist. Depends on whether those teachers are more motivated by money/job security than they are the challenge and idealistic part of why they first got into teaching... There's long been a theory that if you raised the pay of teachers by some random number, let's say 25%, it wouldn't dramatically increase teaching quality. Of course, that's an argument usually made in public school districts where teachers' salaries are relatively high vis a vis "average" salaries in the surrounding metroplex and yet the schools are underperforming dramatically....say, for example, the St. Louis and Kansas City public school districts. A lot of ESL students are more motivated by finding a job as quickly as possible that provides them tangible benefits and skills...so in that system, you'd much prefer to teach them, let's say, Business & Management compared to Economics, which is much more theoretical and esoteric for high school students. I think there will always be a bigger problem evaluating great or above average "humanities" teachers (History, English/Rhetoric/Writing/Government/Philosophy or even Visual Arts or Debate) than, for example, Chemistry/Physics/Biology/Math...where standardized testing and the "universality of hard science" makes judging results more black and white. And of course, universities and parents are making the argument that those humanities teachers are not "worth" as much to their universities...and that's a dangerous slope to be on, where you start eliminating history classes to fit in more math/science or "back to the basics" approach. I taught in an IB international school in China the last couple of years and it was pretty easy to see which students scored the best...but proving a correlation with teaching "quality" versus class size versus natural ability/talent of those students, that's where everything becomes much more complicated. An evaluator might assume because we had two students with perfect 800 scores on the SAT and because the students are Chinese and "expected" to outperform in mathematics that their scores would be higher for HL Math than for HL English, but then if you look at the structure of IB grading, you'd realize you could be an average or below average English teacher and your students would still receive mostly 5's and 6's (out of 7) whereas a lot of the HL Math students might get 4's and 5's and have a MUCH better math teacher. Statistics can always be misleading, and always be twisted one way or another to protect/defend or attack a particular teacher's individual results.

QUOTE (maggsmaggs @ Oct 5, 2013 -> 06:56 AM) I am convinced there is no "right" mentality to manage. Some players perform better for aggressive managers and some perform better for relaxed managers. Both styles have their pluses and minuses. Do you honestly feel Jerry Manuel or Terry Bevington were going to lead that 2005 team through the September collapse all the way back to the World Series title?

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Oct 5, 2013 -> 06:48 AM) First off, Dusty has been managing how many years? This is the first time I have ever seen that written as a problem, if it was, why would the Reds not only hire him, but give him an extension? Where has the same things been said about Ventura other than by people on message boards who come to that conclusion by the 2 or 3 shots of him shown in the dugout per game? I think this move was all about money. I think Reds ownership is thinking that point A to point B crap Krause used when he fired Collins. The article I read about cost of playoff tickets these days seems to me is going to put a lot of pressure on managers to avoid quick playoff departures. From what I read, a couple of these team could basically cover their entire payroll with a run to the WS just on playoff ticket sales alone. If that's the case, that the Indians were charging the most and were going to bring in something like $20 million per game...then there would be some incentive to fire Francona, but surely that's not the scenario. Likewise, unless the owner was Loria, it would have been nearly impossible for the Pirates to fire Hurdle even had they lost to the Reds (does the frustration of falling apart the two previous 2nd halves not get erased by breaking a two decade long playoff-less streak?). Following your line of logic, the pressure would be on the small market managers (the A's and Rays would be two other teams that jump to mind right away)...and yet Joe Maddon's job right now is probably among the most secure in baseball. Teams that are going to suffer financial setbacks if they get knocked out of the playoffs quickly without having had the opportunity to pocket all that additional revenue windfall. On the flip side of the coin is Don Mattingly, who the feeling is in LA right now that if he doesn't advance to the NL Championship (and perhaps win it or at least look like a convincing manager in losing) that he will be fired, and the Dodgers are THE Evil Empire West right now, yes? With the decision to walk Reed Johnson to face Craig Heyward in the rearview mirror...well, not even sure Ozzie Guillen at his worst would have done something that bone-headed. Finally, there's not a better franchise model in existence than the Cardinals, despite trying to upset the apple cart in the beginning with the 2nd manager hired with ZERO previous professional experience in Matheny. Rightly or wrongly, Ron Washington is going to be on the hottest seat of all beginning April, 2014.

When I was reading this article, I thought about Jerry Manuel right away, and how we needed the opposite of Manuel at that time...and picked Ozzie. But it also reminded me of a lot of the same things that have been said about Ventura as well. Keep in mind, the Reds made the playoffs 3 of the past 4 years. The White Sox have only made the playoffs 4 times in the past 20 years. Besides the fact that this year's team SEEMED to be lacking in talent, competitiveness/comeback-ability and cohesiveness (well, you can say that about any team that loses nearly 100 games), what are the arguments for retaining Ventura, and by that, I mean "longer term," for at least the next 2-3 seasons? Do you worry that he's too passive? All those accusations about being not committed enough/uncertain...do you still feel 100% confident he's the right man for the rebuilding/retooling job ahead? http://news.cincinnati.com/article/2013100...040071?gcheck=1 The next man the Reds hire won’t be much like Dusty. He won’t list Jimi Hendrix’ All Along The Watchtower as his favorite song. And he will come with an edge that Baker never had, nor wanted to have. Of all the managers and coaches I’ve covered here since 1988, none wanted to avoid conflict as much as Baker. It’s too bad that conflict comes with the job. Baker’s inability to motivate his players down the stretch partly owed to that trait. He wanted to be a friend and mentor, not a leader. That played well when Scott Rolen was here. It failed this year. Somebody needed to kick some aspirations in the home clubhouse. It never happened. Ballplayers want to be led. Most of us do. We want to be inspired, pushed, challenged, driven. Choose your descriptive. Dusty’s style might have allowed his players to play free and easy. It also encouraged a certain complacency. No one who witnessed this team’s last week of games could come away thinking it needed to win. Wanted to win? Of course. Needed it? Not really. Baker lost points with ownership when he allowed Brandon Phillips to interrupt his daily pre-game media briefing, to berate an Enquirer reporter. He lost points by not saying to Joey Votto, “Hey, man, this is a team game. Runs help us win, not getting on base.’’ He lost points by not always being a team player himself. Baker is nothing if not stubborn. Suggestions made by those in charge were rarely heeded, be it lineup issues or the role of Aroldis Chapman. Mostly, Baker is out because his personality stopped working with the players he managed. That happens a lot in baseball. It’s a reason even good managers get fired, usually more than once. Baker is a good manager.

QUOTE (Chicago White Sox @ Oct 4, 2013 -> 09:37 PM) And guess who has the higher career OPS yet is considered a bust. "work in progress" Domonic Brown and Chris Davis took even longer to find themselves...there's a decent chance that Dayan can get there too, and he's been through so many position changes as well that said, last year was miserable for the entire organization and there should be a "reboot/refresh" for the entire team starting in Spring Training

QUOTE (Buehrle>Wood @ Oct 4, 2013 -> 05:12 PM) Puig 0-2 and Atlanta scored on a ball he couldn't get to. Didn't see the play. You're saying he should have gotten to that ball?

QUOTE (SoxPride18 @ Oct 4, 2013 -> 05:13 PM) I could see McDade, Rodriguez, Morel and Heath I don't think they're quite ready to give up on Rodriguez yet. They have a huge need for relievers coming into 2014, especially lefties and they're not going to pay for them on the FA market.

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/mets-matt-har...17272--mlb.html

QUOTE (Chicago White Sox @ Oct 4, 2013 -> 12:34 PM) I laugh when I see posts complimenting Theo for all he's accomplished. All he's done is purposely lose to accumulate high draft picks and large international bonus pools, which any GM can do with ease if they so desire. I'm sorry, but until some of these prospects turn into productive major leaguers, he's really accomplished nothing IMO. I haven't really seen any creativity or risk-taking to accelerate their small market approach to rebuilding with the exception of the Edwin Jackson signing, which has been a huge diaster so far. Not very impressed with what I've seen so far out of Theo. But he was so darned creative getting rid of Garza, Zambrano and Soriano!!! The Garza trade was the opposite of Broglio for Brock, essentially. And Kris Bryant is sure to follow in the time-honored tradition of Gary Scott and Kevin Orie.

QUOTE (HickoryHuskers @ Oct 4, 2013 -> 10:11 AM) I was going to cut her a little bit of slack because there are a handful in Congress who really do live off their salaries, but as soon as I got to the part about her husband being a surgeon I started cursing at my computer screen. I'm sure he's a full-time volunteer for Doctors Without Borders, lol.

QUOTE (Joshua Strong @ Oct 4, 2013 -> 11:14 AM) I would like to see the Sox take their lumps for a few more years as they rebuild the team, and in doing so they'll accumulate high draft picks. I think Rick Hahn did a wonderful job at the trade deadline by landing a player like Garcia, who I think is going to be an all-star caliber player for years to come. And more importantly he shed tons and tons of payroll, granting the Sox major financial flexibility and room to operate. With this money I would like to see Rick Hahn completely overhaul the scouting department, by luring away top scouts from other teams, like the Dodgers for example. And most importantly I want to see this money go to amateur talent, whether its the draft or LA. The Sox could potentially land an impact prospect with the number 3 pick in the draft (Here's to you Jacob Gatewood), look at what Theo has been able to accomplish on the North Side in just a short amount of time. Since he became the President of the Cubs they have acquired guys like Albert Almora, Jorge Soler, Kris Bryant, Eloy Jimenez, and they traded for a guy like Anthony Rizzo. Maybe the Sox, should take notes. And the White Sox won the Baseball America "Organization of the Year" in 2000 but almost none of those players had anything to do with the 2005 World Series championship with the exceptions of Mark Buehrle, who was barely on the radar as a prospect, and Jon Garland, who came over from the Cubs (ouch!) Their top guys at the time, Jon Rauch and Joe Borchard, did almost nothing for the Sox. Next you're going to argue that Castro was developed by Theo, too. Maybe you don't want to mention that name? If you want to raid scouting departments, it should be teams like the Rangers, A's and especially the Rays...anyone can be effective with an unlimited budget to sign guys like Puig and Ryu or take on massive contracts in Adrian Gonzalez, Zack Greinke and Carl Crawford. By the way, the Cubs were a disappointing 12th in the Attendance/Revenue Generation Championships. First time outside the Top 10 in ages. And there probably should be some special type of Theo-ish reward for that incredible deal they gave Edwin Jackson, too. And full credit for the amazing strides made by their ace hurler who easily surpassed Chris Sale in the hearts and minds of baseball scouts everywhere this season.

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Oct 3, 2013 -> 01:09 PM) What is the logic behind Rotten Tomato's scoring? Reason I ask, I noticed that of the 110 reviews in for Gravity, only two were classified as rotten. Upon closer inspection, one of those 2 reviews gave the movie a B minus. Best movie I've seen so far this year...whoever those reviewers who gave it low scores or not even a thumbs up are nuts.

QUOTE (Milkman delivers @ Oct 4, 2013 -> 09:42 AM) I'll eat my shoe if Beltran makes the Hall. Carlos Beltran should be headed to the Hall of Fame. [Cue mass hysteria! Seriously, please hear me out.] In the Cardinals Game 1 rout in the NLDS over the Pirates, he showed part of the reason why. Because his postseason numbers are the tiebreaker on a borderline regular-season career. After going 1-for-5 with three RBI Thursday -- which includes him crushing a three-run, upper deck homer to get the scoring started in the third inning -- Beltran is now hitting .357/.455/.783 in playoff games. He has the highest career postseason slugging percentage and OPS (1.238) in baseball history. According to Elias Sports Bureau, Beltran is tied for the highest home run rate in postseason play with Babe Ruth (both Beltran and Babe have 15 homers in 129 at-bats -- so one home run for every 8.6 at-bats). Ever heard of him? In terms of postseason play, an argument could be made Beltran is the best postseason hitter of all-time. On the Hall of Fame, though, I'm not suggesting Beltran is a Hall of Famer based only upon his 35 postseason games. That would be ridiculous and anyone who thinks I'm doing that isn't paying attention or particularly smart. As I said earlier, Beltran is a borderline Hall of Famer in regular-season play, so the insane postseason numbers push him over the edge, for me. And now onto why he's a borderline regular-season Hall of Famer. We're talking about a guy with over 350 homers and 300 stolen bases. Here are the only players in baseball history to have done that: Barry Bonds, Willie Mays, Alex Rodriguez, Andre Dawson and Beltran. The eight-time All-Star Beltran carries a career triple-slash line of .283/.359/.496, good enough for a 122 OPS+ (22 percent better than the league average throughout his entire career). His 67.5 WAR (baseball-reference.com version) puts him 83rd among position players in history. That might not sound impressive, but we need to think about just how many thousands upon thousands of position players have even taken the field. He also has 446 doubles, getting him close to the top 100 ever (104th right now). Also, take note of the players who accumulated less WAR over their respective careers: Roberto Alomar, Duke Snider, Pee Wee Reese, Craig Biggio, Andre Dawson, Willie McCovey, Dave Winfield, Billy Williams, Richie Ashburn, Billy Hamilton (the guy who played from 1888-1901, not the Reds rookie speedster), Lou Boudreau, Home Run Baker, Shoeless Joe Jackson, Mark McGwire, Harmon Killebrew, Yogi Berra and, well, you get the idea. Those players are all either in the Hall of Fame or have statistical Hall of Fame cases but aren't in for different reasons. Also on baseball-reference.com, they run a statistical similars stat. Of the top 10 similars through age 36 for Beltran, four (Winfield, Dawson, Williams and Jim Rice) are in the Hall of Fame. Also, using Jay Jaffe's JAWS formula -- an attempt to put one number on a player's Hall of Fame case -- Beltran ranks only behind the following among center fielders**: Mays, Ty Cobb, Tris Speaker, Mickey Mantle, Ken Griffey Jr., Joe DiMaggio and Snider. He ranks ahead of the the following Hall of Famers: Ashburn, Dawson, Hamilton, Larry Doby, Kirby Puckett, Max Carey, Earl Averill, Edd Roush, Earle Combs, Hack Wilson, Hugh Duffy and Ned Hanlon. **The list includes anyone who ever appeared in center field, not necessarily guys who played most of their games in center. Some people may think there are too many Hall of Famers, but based upon established Hall of Fame criteria -- that is, players who have already been inducted into the Hall of Fame -- Beltran makes it on regular-season performance alone and his sick postseason numbers should just be gravy. Still, strict, old-school voters might not think his counting stats in runs (1,346), hits (2,228) and RBI (1,327) or his batting average are good enough. They'll also scoff at WAR and JAWS, many in close-minded fashion. And I understand that, which is why I called him a borderline Hall of Famer earlier. But the unbelievable postseason numbers should eventually be the tilting point, because Carlos Beltran belongs in Cooperstown. www.cbssportsline.com

QUOTE (Lillian @ Oct 4, 2013 -> 05:20 AM) Why not target 2015 as the first year to really compete? Under that scenario, the big piece is Abreu, because he is young enough to be a factor in 2015 and beyond. The young pitching will still be affordable in 2015 and if the Sox don't commit to any more long term contracts, and with Dunn gone, they could then use the funds saved to fill in the missing pieces in free agency, after next season. I think that the key is to retain the young pitching, and spend the next season trying to assemble a formidable middle of the order, which is where this team has the biggest hole. Konerko and Dunn were terrible as 3 and 4 hitters. If Garcia and Abreu can replace them, and one other bat, can emerge or be acquired in free agency, the supporting players would not be that hard to find. That third middle of the order hitter should be left handed, and bat between Garcia and Abreu. If Viciedo develops into a stud, then they could have an exceptionally formidable line up. Centerfield is an issue, however if the offense were solid in the middle of the order, the Sox would have the luxury of opting for a good defensive center fielder with an average bat, which is much easier to find. They have the number 3 draft choice to add to the mix, and that player may also be ready to contribute by 2015. If they can add Abreu, and keep the payroll under control, next year could be devoted to discovering what they have in young guys like Garcia, Semien, E. Johnson, and this year's draft choice. Then there are the very young guys, further back in the pipeline, like Hawkins and Tim Anderson. Even guys like Viciedo and Gillaspie might reveal much more about their true value after one more season. For my part, I would be very content to patiently wait one more year, providing that there were a plan with some realistic hope of competing in 2015. Wouldn't you? We're not adding Conor Jackson or Grady Sizemore? Just joking. In all seriousness, I'm sure this is probably close to the line of thinking right now at 35th/Shields. Can they afford to NOT trade Santiago or possibly Quintana in order to get one more bat for their line-up...to wait it out for one more year? Or are they risking injury setbacks/non-performance from Santiago and Quintana by not trading them soon rather than later? What are the pros and cons of holding onto DeAza for one more season? Do Gillaspie, Viciedo and Beckham merit another full season of investment in terms of patiently waiting for returns/development? If not with Gordon, it makes all these sense in the world for Semien to theoretically be a 2nd year player in 2015. Are they content to leave Keppinger in his ideal utility role or are they going to bring back the Gillaspie/Kepp platoon we were slated to start the season with....? Is Abreu the real deal, and worth tying Hahn's future to as the GM as his signature signing? What in God's name are they going to do about the catching position? Does the bullpen even matter if they're not going to compete until 2015? What are the pluses and minuses of dealing Addison Reed? Does he have any more value (let's hope so) than Sergio Santos after two seasons?

by Bill Plaschke/LA Times.com ATLANTA — October, we'd like you to meet Yasiel Puig. Now duck. The Dodgers rookie stormed into his first postseason Thursday night at Turner Field with the wild swings, crazy sprints, bold throws, and a smiling swagger. The Atlanta Braves tried to harness him, then challenge him, then, finally, they shrugged their weary shoulders and hit him. By the time the game was two innings old, he already had intimidated the Braves pitcher, bewitched their center fielder, enraged their fans and put a crooked number on their scoreboard. By the time it ended, the enigmatic, enchanting 22-year-old kid had laughed in the face of baseball's most pressurized month, waltzed around the team with baseball's best home record, and inspired the Dodgers to a 6-1 victory in the opener of the National League division series. After which, he put his cap on backward, blew kisses to the crowd, and threw an uppercut to his critics. "I'm always giving my best, making the best decisions I can," Puig said with a grin through an interpreter. "If they want to keep criticizing, they can keep criticizing." As usual, after dressing in T-shirt and jeans, he was one of the last players to leave the Dodgers' clubhouse, walking out this night with the last laugh. Few could argue that throughout the summer, Puig has cost the Dodgers runs, and even games, with baserunning blunders and fielding bravado. Most would agree that he has been difficult to teach and often unwilling to change. But after he silenced the whiny chants of more than 40,000 fans waving foam tomahawks Thursday night while allowing a rusty Clayton Kershaw to find himself and allowing his teammates to catch their first playoff breaths, it was clear there are times when his good can spectacularly overshadow the bad. "A lot has been said about his craziness, I get it," said the Dodgers' Skip Schumaker. "I'll take that because of all the other good stuff that outweighs the craziness. Does he make mistakes? Of course. But why would you take that aggressiveness away from him? I love it." Puig entered the game with a .214 September average amid worries that the frantic style of play that helped carry the Dodgers since the middle of June had finally burned him out. It took him all of four pitches to change that perception, as he casually knocked Kris Medlen's fourth offering up the middle with one out in the second inning for the game's first hit. Medlen then promptly did what many opponents do when they are startled by Puig's bat. He freaked out. He threw to first base four times while facing ensuing batter Juan Uribe in hopes of slowing Puig down. In doing so, he lost focus on Uribe and hung a pitch that was knocked into center field, and the sprinting Puig ended up on third base without even a throw from Jason Heyward. ''I'm thinking I've got to get to third base and [Heyward] did his job," Puig said. "He didn't want to risk making an error" The madness was just beginning. Schumaker lofted a fly ball to shallow center field that Heyward caught with what should have been a reasonable chance of throwing out Puig at home plate. But this was Puig. And Heyward had no chance. Yet he futilely threw home anyway and, in doing so, allowed Uribe to sneak to second base, from where he scored on A.J. Ellis' bloop double to left field out of the outstretched glove of lunging Evan Gattis. At that point, it was essentially Puig 2, Braves 0, and moments later it only got worse. In the bottom of the second inning, the Braves thought they were mounting a comeback with a bloop single to right against Kershaw. But when Brian McCann then flied out to right field, Gattis was so caught up in watching Puig make the catch that he wandered far off the base, and was easily thrown out at first by Puig to complete a double play. By the fifth inning, with the Braves trailing 5-1, it was clear that Puig had completely gotten into their heads after adding another single in the third inning. For Medlen's final pitch of the game, he hit Puig in the back, and fans actually stood and cheered. Then when Puig struck out to end the sixth inning — one of his two strikeouts in his final two at-bats — there was a huge ovation accompanied by fireworks. Soon thereafter, a stadium that was not even full during the game quickly emptied out while Puig remained, nearly crushing fellow outfielders Schumaker and Carl Crawford during their traditional victory chest bump. Throughout the game, the descriptions of Puig were as diverse as his talents. When interviewed on television in the dugout, Dodgers Manager Don Mattingly said of Puig, "That cat is some kind of fast." When talking on the radio — only for innings 1-2-3 and 7-8-9 — Vin Scully once again referred to Puig as "the wild horse." Before the game, Dodgers co-owner Magic Johnson had another name for him. He actually said he was like another Magic. "We came in the same way, fun-loving, all over the place," Johnson said. "He brought that same enthusiasm to the Dodgers. It's been great to have him and be acting like a kid." On Thursday night, he brought out the kid in all the Dodgers as they began what could be a quick and systematic dismantling of this seemingly overwhelmed Braves team, Puig by Puig. [email protected] Twitter: @billplaschke

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Oct 3, 2013 -> 08:30 PM) First, when you sign 16 year olds, they often aren't playing in the US for a couple years. And they sometimes don't even play DSL ball for a year or two. IT takes patience. Second, you have to take DSL performance numbers with a HUGE PILE of salt. They mean almost nothing. Third, spending money does not magically make the system better by itself... but spending many times over as much money, re-vamping your LatAm operations entirely, bringing in experienced guys like Paddy... those things will tend to pay off, and they are indicative of other, smaller changes we don't even see. It will, however, take a couple more years before you really see noticeable and major improvement. It takes time. Wilder did a lot of damage, and frankly, so did KW (whether or not you agree with his overall methods - focusing on LatAm talent in this case). Still better off, arguably, targeting the Puigs, Solers, Cespedeses and Abreus....although the price has gotten a LOT higher since the original Alexei Ramirez contract and even Dayan Viciedo's contract seems like, if not a bargain, a lot cheaper than what the Cubs paid for all of their Latin American talent.

Puig has been struggling the last 6-8 weeks, but has two hits tonight. Also had a nice throw to nail Gattis trying to get back to 1B which helped shift early momentum. Something like .232 for his last 42 games....and around .200 the last month. That said, the only thing that counts is the playoffs and he still had a Top 30 WAR despite missing two months of the season and swinging and missing in the top (well, "worst") 3 in the majors. So lots of room for improvement.

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Oct 3, 2013 -> 01:09 PM) What is the logic behind Rotten Tomato's scoring? Reason I ask, I noticed that of the 110 reviews in for Gravity, only two were classified as rotten. Upon closer inspection, one of those 2 reviews gave the movie a B minus. Yeah, it's weird. Usually, it's C/C+ and below, but it's pretty subjective. A lot of movie scales are out of 5 and I've seen some 2.5/5 ratings fall in both the positive and negative category. Same with 2.5/4. Almost always 3/4 or 3/5 end up in the "positive" category.

Beltran might be one of the players from this generation who does make the Hall of Fame and hasn't been tainted by the PED's brush as far as we know, yes? Leaving Frank Thomas, Thome, Griffey, Jr., Omar Vizquel, Ichiro and Derek Jeter. Who else is out there from the last 10-15 years? There's a TON of suspicion now about Pujols, to be honest.

QUOTE (oldsox @ Oct 3, 2013 -> 05:56 PM) I hope you're right, but we have no idea if that million ++ bucks was spent wisely. I believe only one of those 16 year old Dominican signings in 2012 actually played this year, and he hit way below .200. I never saw anything on the other two. Correct me if I am wrong. The other signing, Mick Zapata, at least offers a bit of hope, because there are plans for him play somewhere in the US in 2014. I just don't see what you see in the int'l signings that makes you think Sox will have a top 10-15 farm system. If we get top three draft picks the next two or three seasons in a row, that will definitely do it. In all seriousness, though...doing what the majority of MLB has been doing for the last couple of decades is NICE, it's a step in the right direction...but there's still no guarantee we are (or will be) selecting the right players. We have the examples of Ramirez/Viciedo and Rienzo to a lesser extent (in terms of Latin America), but we started practically from scratch in the Dominican. (I'm pretty sure Jesus Pena was our last homegrown contributor from the DR). Sure, there's Paddy, but with any of the successes or feathers in his cap...there's also Molina and the bizarre lack on knowledge on the part of KW about his background. We also have had very little to no presence in Venezuela, despite our former nearly decade-tenured manager being from there (pretty much a national hero) and our initial success back in the day finding Magglio Ordonez and Carlos Lee in Central/South America. The best thing you can say about Ozzie and Omar Vizquel being on the Sox is that Ozzie helped get Freddie Garcia and Omar mentored Alexei Ramirez and kept Mark Teahen from driving him insane with his statue-like defense. Other than Takatsu and Iguchi, who KW scouted from afar via video, we haven't done much of anything either in the entire Asian market.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Oct 3, 2013 -> 02:27 PM) Good idea Really, really hoping the Pirates can win the whole thing. It hasn't been 88 years, but that would be one of the more gratifying World Series wins in recent years. 1960, 1971 and 1979... It just seems like a long time because you're younger probably, and the last 20 years have been similar to what the Royals have experienced (except the Royals haven't been relevant since the 1980's), so it seems worse than the actual history would tell you.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Oct 3, 2013 -> 02:57 PM) Agreed. We have brought guys into the organization in many ways. Draft and development has worked for pitching, and it hasn't for offense. We have brought them in other ways. Sure, but doing that has also caused questionable chemistry and resulted in a lack of cohesiveness on the field. None of these Sox players came up through the system and learned how to win and play the game the right way fundamentally...as a group. Now all the fundamentals in the world won't make average or below average Twins' players great.....because they just don't have the pitching to cover up for it, but when the differences are more negligible, it makes all the difference in the world between 88 and 92 wins, for example. Playoffs or "wait 'til next year." Let's look at our starting line-up (for the moment) going into 2014 RF Garcia (Tigers/Venezuela) CF DeAza (Marlins/DR) LF Viciedo (Cuban system) 3B Gillaspie (Giants) / Keppinger (Rays, but Ventura is no Maddon in maximizing the results of his "spare parts") SS Ramirez (Cuban system) 2B Beckham (UGA/Team USA/NCAA) or Semien (only Sox prospect) 1B ??? DH Dunn (never on a playoff team) C ??? It worked once....by some miracle, in 2005, and to a lesser extent in 2008 because of great starting pitching and relief pitching for one half of that season while Linebrink was 100% healthy.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Oct 3, 2013 -> 02:54 PM) While I agree it would be nice to have one drafted/signed and developed, it's not necessary. I'm sure plenty of people will inevitably buy Avisail Garcia jerseys. This isn't necessarily a process that can be done overnight. Sure, in the same way you would have been excited to buy a Quentin jersey, for example....although it's a pipe dream right now that Garcia is also going to lead the MVP voting for 5/6th's of a season in 2014. My comment is more aimed at wanting to have SOME reason (I'll take one) to believe in this organization turning things around. If we can never develop a single position player, all the pitching in the world won't make up for it. (And we couldn't even manage to get anything productive out of Francisco Liriano last year....therefore, starting to come over to the Dick Allen side on this one). And if we can't adopt modern baseball strategies/methods, like the Pirates or Rays with their defensive alignments/shifts/quantitative analysis, it's even bleaker.