caulfield12

QUOTE (hammerhead johnson @ Aug 8, 2013 -> 05:15 PM) He got slammed today, right? Well, his xFIP in the game was actually 2.90, which is actually an A+ level xFIP. He came into the game with an xFIP of 3.58, which was good enough for 27th overall in baseball. He's now in the top 25. That ranks a close 2nd to the BP Attendance Trophy in terms of overall importance for fans of successful franchises like the Cardinals, Rays and Braves.

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Aug 8, 2013 -> 05:35 PM) Chairman Reinsdorf is more likely to have a payroll north of $40M next year and the year after. It makes more sense to spend that excess on prospects than on 30-something year-old free agents. The best part of something like this is it is only a short-term obligation and the payroll drops back in '16 when in theory the core should be identified and then is ready to be supplemented by a free agent signing. Except we're going to be limited to around $9-10-11 million next year, in that area. (Unless it's the rare exception like that Cuban pitcher, Miguel Gonzalez, who was a free agent available to any club...but the White Sox aren't the type of organization that TYPICALLY goes out and bids $30-40-50 million on the Puigs, Solers and Cespedes of the world. Viciedo was a big exception, along with Joe Borchard back in the day.) We can't just go around throwing money at Viva (Micker) Zapata's, because there are a limited number of them, and fewer "hidden gems" than in the days when scouting wasn't collectivized and there was no internet with everyone becoming an amateur scout/talent agent/buscone.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Aug 8, 2013 -> 04:54 PM) I don't know, it isn't like it's Rios or bust at this point. Maybe it eventually will be, but I would have to think he will have another shot at a bat in the coming weeks, especially since they will take on money. Maybe Schierholtz....although he would be claimed by the Pirates first? Doesn't it go through the NL first, or it's all the MLB teams, regardless of leagues?

QUOTE (HickoryHuskers @ Aug 8, 2013 -> 04:51 PM) That's exactly why it's not super-important to dump Rios' salary if the Sox aren't getting good talent in return. There isn't anything productive to do with that money. And where our timing is bad, in the sense that just as we're starting to really get back into the game in the Dominican and Venezuela...we're going to be hit by these intl. spending caps, although we will be in a much stronger position to spend in 2014 and 2015 than almost any other team, there's that. Finally, wish we would also get back into the game on the Asian side of things, especially South Korea, because of the strong fundmantals and team approach their players exhibit. It's easy to forget that Iguchi and Takatsu were both quite useful pieces for us, especially Tadahito, and they both cost us next to nothing to acquire.

QUOTE (southside hitman @ Aug 8, 2013 -> 04:49 PM) It means value in the trade market, at the very least. Just because Garcia is available and he's being paid well doesn't mean we should give up something of value for nothing. Rios is being paid fairly for his level of production, we should be compensated in prospects to let that production leave our ball club, period. In the end, we'll get a very good idea in the next 24-48 hours how serious Mr. Daniels is about getting back to the playoffs THIS season versus preparing/reloading with a healthier starting staff for 2014.

QUOTE (HickoryHuskers @ Aug 8, 2013 -> 04:40 PM) +1 I simply hate WAR being thrown out as the be-all, end-all discussion point in these situations. It's like we're back in Moneyball and we're ignoring the Grady Fuson group of scouts who are there to say, "Yes, but...." from having watched his entire career, his body language, his moping, his "banishment" from Toronto and tempestuous relationship with the fans. Of all the starting players on the White Sox since 2009, there are probably fewer Rios jerseys (being sported at USCF) than just about any player, which is telling, considering he's been our best player (arguably) in 2012 and 2013, but does anyone REALLY CARE about losing him or NOT watching him play another game in a Sox uniform? Will anyone say "it's such a shame" we will never watch Alex play for us in the future? Not many. And I know he's part of the reason (at least in the top five) that I haven't cared about the White Sox the last couple of months, waiting for him to be replaced by Garcia.

Rios always looks better on paper than in reality...or in scouting reports when he's playing well and 100% locked in defensively, like for most of 2012. He is one of those players that loses focus more quickly when the team's struggling...for whatever reason. He just starts drifting with the tides, and has never really demonstrated any leadership abilities that anyone can detect or the beat writers have ever noticed. Along with that (the possibility we do hold onto him), the idea of DeAza or Garcia in CF is still a pretty scary scenario. They simply HAVE to improve up the middle, starting from the catching position and moving through 2B/SS to center.

http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20687836,00.html Elysium and We're The Millers both getting rather mixed reviews...although both of the ew.com critics liked the two films. Saw MUD on the plane from Ethiopia to Hong Kong.....very, very underrated film that couldn't quite punch its way into mainstream success but makes you sit back and wonder what McConnaughey's career could have been had he chosen more roles like this one and Magic Mike and less of the beefcake/romantic comedy parts. Killer Joe also exhibited a totally different side of his acting ability...a lot more versatility than the syrupy "beef, it's what's for dinner" Southern drawl from the John Grisham thriller with Ashley Judd (I think it was "A Time To Kill") from back in the day which really helped put him on the map or even How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days.

QUOTE (HickoryHuskers @ Aug 8, 2013 -> 04:19 PM) I don't think it's so simple, when you consider the disruptions to the 2009 and 2011 seasons (along with Dunn), clubhouse issues (rumored), attitude problems (some evident on the field, some rumored again, benchings by RV and Ozzie)... There's his sheer physical talent, juxtaposed with his rather pedestrian statistical output, but there's no way to subtract all those other headaches from the black and white picture or the "back of his baseball card" to put it in KW terms. And I know we've been throwing out numbers saying Rios and Ramirez are outperforming their contracts, but I would rather just let him go and start over, because 2014 is pretty much DOA.

Luke Jackson is still a more famous basketball name, lol... Well, at any rate, more of the "addition by subtraction" with Rios. Could care less about WAR or fWAR or any of those categories, the entire organization will be better off once he's moved along to greener pastures and out of the Sox's hair. In the end, KW will look like he won the gamble back from 2009 in some ways, because he did get surprising value out of that contract without giving anything up, but it also helped to sabotage the 2009 and 2011 seasons quite well and stalled our momentum as an organization.

The funny thing is (and a favorite topic of yours truly) that our attendance has been ONLY 1,000 fans below our rate from last season, with one of THE WORST and least memorable seasons in Sox history, even much worse than 2007 because of the lack of proximity to 2005 AND the lack of "exciting" young rookies like Josh Fields, Owens, Andy Gonzalez and Ehren Wasserman. So either the reduced ticket prices (especially on Sundays/family days) have mitigated the losses, or we did an incredibly poor job of marketing last year's team or getting anyone to believe in them.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Aug 8, 2013 -> 03:00 PM) It's Jerry Callo, with a C The two yutes approached the Suds and ...

The White Sox had to give up Chris Young to get back a "bad contract" in Javy V. In all seriousness, Ethier makes zero sense for the White Sox. We should be getting a huge subsidy (like the Thome deal, when Howard was pushing him out and Jim was coming off an injury) AND the possibility of 1-2 prospects depending upon how much money we DON'T force the Dodgers to eat. We already have Rios (for now), Garcia, DeAza and Viciedo (although he might move to 1B), and 5-6 outfield prospects from Hawkins/May to Mitchell/Thompson/Walker/Jacobs.

Of course, there's also a decent chance Jacobs, Thompson, Walker, Mitchell and Hawkins all fail, which would be a borderline fiasco for the scouting/development people. We have to be open to slotting other players (especially Micah Johnson) into CF if it's feasible. Tim Anderson's the other one with the athletic tools and arm strength for that position. Going forward, the biggest issue is finding a legit CFer....DeAza isn't (he's an ideal 4th OFer on a contender), Garcia probably isn't, Thompson MIGHT BE but there are a lot of questions about his bat at the big league level (you can see some Brian Anderson stats coming from him...) Of course, if you start moving guys like Johnson, Anderson or Semien around, you're weakening your middle infield eventually...which is yet another of the across-the-board areas of need. Finally, it would be NICE if Phegley, Viciedo and Gillaspie played well the remaining 7-8 weeks to give us some reason to be optimistic for the future. Rienzo, Johnson, Webb, Santos Rod, Castro, Petricka, etc.

http://wapc.mlb.com/cutfour/2013/08/03/558...foul-ball-catch

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Aug 3, 2013 -> 07:23 AM) .789 OPS in July for Puig. The last week or ten days he has recovered...definitely struggled for a couple of weeks there as pitchers made some adjustments in attacking him

Still doing okay with nearly 200 at-bats now. 1.022 OPS, would rank him 3rd behind Cabrera and Chris Davis. Ortiz 4th, Trout 5th. Only ten players in baseball at a 900 OPS or above. Still making lots of baserunning mistakes, though. He got picked off between 1st and 2nd because he got a horrible read/jump off Travis Wood, and ended up getting Punto in a pickle between 3rd and home with only one out, but Wood fell apart that inning and gave up four walks and that was all she wrote.

Why would you want Houston/Huston (Street?) to "go!" instead of the Twins?

Except the teams (like the Cubs, Dodgers, Blue Jays) are already spending as if they have that $25 million in their bank accounts... That leaves a bunch of other teams that are being more conservative. Jake might be right, after the season's over, the market for Ramirez and Rios could heat up again...but I have a feeling they were asking for either cash back (like the Pirates) or weren't willing to give up prospects in areas of need (corner infield, possibly catcher, possibly SS, CF, bullpen arms). And that Hahn's smart enough not to go after bullpen arms (although Montas will figure in there quickly) when they need to prioritize RHSP, SS, CF and the corner infield spots. Basically, any type of impact bats...not even the Cardinals are in a position where they WANT to both absorb veteran contracts and part with youngsters like Martinez and Taveras. (Surely, they wouldn't have held on to Wong if that was the ONLY piece Hahn was asking for...) Meanwhile, we continue to look for places for John Danks (knowing there's a 95% he's back with us), Dunn and possibly Lindstrom, as well as making decisions on DeAza, Gillaspie, catching position, Lindstrom, Rienzo, Simon Castro, Webb, Santos Rodriguez, etc.

http://screenrant.com/godzilla-pacific-rim...vie-discussion/ del Toro on the possibility of Godzilla coming together with Pacific Rim 2...

Remember when Morel showed a lot of pop at the end of his rookie season? That didn't last long.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godzilla:_Final_Wars One of my favorite Godzilla movies from Japan... Gamera, Mothra, King Ghidorah, Mechagodzilla, Hedorah and Rodan....those are the six most famous kaiju, probably. With the new Godzilla (May 16th, 2014) movie, there are supposed to be two monsters (instead of the military) as the opponent. Would not be at all surprised to see the next Pacific Rim take off in a "Fast and the Furious" direction and bring Godzilla into the mix, fighting on the side of the jaegers/humans/Earth Defense Force...as Legendary Pictures owns parts of both properties, with Thomas Tull over at that studio being the key player on the projects. Then you add in the Mexican jaeger...throw Mark Wahlberg, The Rock or Tyrese into the mix and you've got yourself a four quadrant blockbuster that will make a billion dollars, assuming the 2014 Godzilla film works and is well-received. If that Godzilla film falls on its face, Pacific Rim 2 would be in huge trouble in the US. Director Yoshimitsu Banno, who had directed 1971's Godzilla vs. Hedorah, secured the rights from Toho to make an IMAX 3D short film production, tentatively titled Godzilla 3D to the Max, based on a remake of the Godzilla vs. Hedorah story. Banno and producer Kenji Okuhira then added American 3D cinematographer and visual effects supervisor Peter Anderson to the project. Anderson brought on producer Brian Rogers and the project was then re-negotiated with Toho as a full length 3D feature film. Also through Anderson, Kerner Optical came on board to produce the 3D film. However, Banno was unable to find backers to produce the film. In 2007, Banno met American producer Brian Rogers, and the two planned to work together on the project. Rogers approached Legendary Pictures in 2009, and the project became a plan to produce a feature film instead.[18] In August 2009, rumors surfaced that Legendary was in talks with Toho to produce a new American Godzilla film to be released in 2012,[19] and on March 29, 2010, it was officially confirmed that Legendary had acquired the rights to Godzilla. Legendary announced it would reboot the franchise with Warner Bros. co-producing and co-financing.[20] TriStar Pictures will not be involved in the production due to their rights expiring in 2003. Legendary plans to make the new film closer in style to the original 1954 film rather than the 1998 film and its "iguana-like creature".[21] According to Thomas Tull, chairman and CEO of Legendary Pictures, (sic) "Our plans are to produce the Godzilla that we, as fans, would want to see. We intend to do justice to those essential elements that have allowed this character to remain as pop culturally relevant for as long as it has."[22] Film producers Dan Lin, Roy Lee, Doug Davison and Legendary's Thomas Tull and Jon Jashni were added to the project to work with Rogers, Banno and Okuhira.[23]

QUOTE (Jake @ Aug 2, 2013 -> 12:15 PM) Garcia could seriously benefit from more sharpening in the minors. Regardless, Rios is our best player - he really is. You can't just let him go without making his departure coincide with an influx of production in another position. Right now it would be very optimistic to say that Garcia can simply match Rios's production. Good lord was that bad. Just some TheoJed sucking We don't have to move him this season. If we don't like the waiver market, there's an offseason when the market will be much more receptive to a player with high salary. Some team won't want to give 3-5 years and a higher yearly salary to a free agent corner OF'er and will likely prefer Rios and may give us a talented young player(s) to do so. This not to mention the fact that we can offer a discount on Rios's already fair contract to sweeten the pot. I don't think we'll make a move during this season for that very reason. It'll be fine. Garcia can fine tune his offensive game in AAA, perhaps work on that walk rate, etc. As far as position players go, outfield is our strength. We can deal with having an extra bat there until we get what we want for Rios. No reason to weaken the position of strength without making an area of weakness better. Would rather save $18 million (not an insignificant number to JR or Hahn) and let Garcia play RF (his natural position) and get comfortable at the major league level for the final two months...or at the very least, the entire month of September.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Aug 2, 2013 -> 12:00 PM) Obviously Viciedo is the disappointment this year out of the two, but Viciedo is also the one under team control a lot longer. He's part of the possible long-term future if he can be developed, Rios is not. That's why you move Rios for nothing other than salary savings at some point to clear space for Garcia if you have to move someone. Alternatively one of them could be moved to 1b, but as we've noted that does negate the advantage which is Viciedo's arm. If Viciedo doesn't put up at least a 750-775 OPS next season, I'll be more than happy to throw in the towel and move on. But he gets one more year, hopefully without Dunn/Rios/Ramirez/DeAza around...

QUOTE (elrockinMT @ Aug 2, 2013 -> 11:58 AM) Maybe we keep Rios? I doubt it though, but rather than being forced into some salary dump for a pretty good ball player let's consider off season trades. Garcia will be up soon enough. I actually think Viciedo is the disappointment this year and not Rios The money wasted on Floyd, Peavy, Konerko, Jeff Keppinger, Rios (not for performance as much as attitude/clubhouse/chemistry), Dunn and John Danks this year has hurt us 10X as much as Viciedo having a disappointing season. To paraphrase Marty, Alex Rios will not be a member of the next White Sox playoff team...Viciedo and Garcia at least have decent to good shots to be there.