caulfield12

QUOTE (The Ultimate Champion @ Jun 23, 2013 -> 08:03 AM) Huh? There's a huge difference between Sale & Reed. Sale is a building block, Reed is a part. Reed rocketed through the minors and barely made the top-100 prospect lists. He has a closer's mentality but just recently Bobby Jenks, Sale, Santos all had much better stuff. He's not that kind of arm. You're selling high because you need talent, and because you should be able to fill out that role during the regular process of auditioning power arms which is inherit to really every rebuilding/reloading project. Also, unlike starting pitchers, closers quickly make their market rates through arbitration. You can't even expect the typical 6 years from a young closer, it's more like 5 and maybe 6, because of arb. There's no reason to hang on to him. i think you meant "inherent"

Placing a much bigger-than-expected #2 is Paramount’s 3D World War Z (3,607 theaters), co-financed with Skydance Productions in association with Hemisphere Media Capital and GK Films, about an epic epidemic based on Max Brooks’ plague novel. Hollywood thought its opening would flop. Instead, it received a ‘B+’ CinemaScore from audiences which helped word of mouth so it overperformed with $25.0M Friday and $23.7M Saturday for a more-than-solid $68M for the weekend after grossing a decent $3.6M in 2,600 screens for Thursday 8 PM previews and midnight late shows. That has Paramount’s moguls giddy with relief after all that pre-release bad buzz for producer and star Brad Pitt’s Plan B-bannered zombie pic – especially since statistics show only one original movie a year opens at $50+M. (“Franchises open bigger but originals play to better multiples as people start discovering them,” one exec tells me.) Paramount actually issued a press release to say this weekend’s opening is the biggest of Brad’s career – but not when 2005′s Mr And Mrs Smith ($50.3M) debut is adjusted for inflation and the 2D vs 3D ticket price. Pic also benefitted from a spot-on marketing plan savvy enough to book in advance 2 spots promoting Friday’s official debut during Thursday’s big Miami-San Antonio NBA final game. That became the 2nd most watched series end in pro basketball history. World War Z also started rolling day and date Thursday into 25 countries or 30% of the international market Thursday. First grosses came in and “looked great”, according to Paramount. Australia opened with $1.1M (exactly what Inception did) and Korea with $1.5M (Inception did $941K). Argentina grossed $710K on their holiday for the 3rd best opening Thursday ever in that market. Hong Kong did $350K. The studio said there were strong openings in some of the other smaller markets as well, for a total international cume of $5.7M Thursday which comps well with Inception‘s $3.6M for the same territories. (More WWZ below) Here and overseas, World War Z was in direct competition with Warner Bros’ and Legendary Pictures’ holdover 3D Man Of Steel (4,207 theaters in the widest release) which going into this weekend as still the big #1 leader in the worldwide marketplace. Now it’s #3 domestic with $12.7M Friday (-71% from a week ago) and +31% for $16.6M Saturday and another huge tally around $42.5M (-64% from a week ago) for a cume around $211.3M from just 11 days in U.S./Canadian release. It pulled in strong international numbers on Friday, grossing $19.7M from 52 markets now in release. This brings the overseas cume to date to $135.6M and a worldwide total of at least $346.9M in just its first 11 days of release. (Expect a bigger number announced this morning.) The major countries opening include France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Russia and China where opening day took almost 80% marketshare for Warner Bros’ 2nd highest opening day behind only the Harry Potter finale. The two-day cume is now $11.7M. In other markets, Spain grosses $1.5M (almost as much as Iron Man 3, Russia came in with a new cume of $3.15M, France placed #1 with a new cume of $4.2M, Germany also ranked a strong #1 with a new fresh of $1.9M, and Italy continues to rank #1 with a new cume of $1.1M. Australia opens on June 27, Brazil July 12, and Japan August 30. I’ll have the Top Ten based on weekend estimates later this morning. Frankly, I’ve never found traditional zombies scary – they’re slow, so just outrun them, right? – although World War Z has fast-moving zombies who swarm. But it’s not like lethal lasers are leaping out of their eyes. And these are PG-13 zombies who don’t look much different from George Romero’s 1968 horror classic Night Of The Living Dead or AMC’s Walking Dead. They’re more like the zombies from Dawn Of The Dead and 28 Days Later. These also are effing expensive zombies. Much has been made of the film’s mega-cost: between $220M-$230M brought down to $200M by tax incentives in locations Scotland, Malta, England, and Hungary, or so the studio claims. Vanity Fair which typically ignores Hollywood moviemaking even did a long feature article about the pic’s budget, plot, and production problems, including director Marc Forster’s revamps and reshoots. There were no less than four writers - Michael Straczynski, Matthew Michael Carnahan, Damon Lindelof, and Drew Goddard – and four producers – besides Pitt, Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner, and Ian Bryce. Which all prompted Time film critic Richard Corliss to grouse this week, “So they spent a bundle. Doesn’t matter; it’s not your money. Your ticket to this movie, unless you see the 3D version, costs the same as one for a pinchpenny indie film.” Earth to Corliss: Paramount is part of publicly traded Viacom, and shareholders need to know if their money was wasted so they can figure out which bums to blame. Hard to see how this film can earn out. But it won’t be a total write-off like John Carter or Battleshipthanks to steps that Brad Pitt and Paramount took to fix the movie before it came out. WWZ‘s TV campaign kicked off with the Super Bowl pre-kick slot. High profile teaser spots unveiled during the Walking Dead finale and Mad Men premiere. The first 2D theatrical teaser trailer debuted in November with Twilight: Breaking Dawn Part 2. A new 3D trailer hit theatres on March 28th with GI Joe 2, Star Trek 2, and Man of Steel. There were TV tie-ins with Discovery’s Deadliest Catch and History’s Greatest Chaotic Events. A global premiere and concert by Muse was held at London’s Horse Guards grounds at Buckingham Palace in early June complete with a ”black” carpet. Brad Pitt surprised fans in 6 cities - Atlanta, Philadelphia, Chicago, Austin, LA and SF – with special screenings over 36 hours. In the final week of release, Pitt was on a “Z” carpet in the middle of NYC Times Square to unveil the film for thousands of people with maximum media coverage. Online, major home page takeovers and #WorldWarZ on Twitter fueled better-than-expected reactions to the film. In the first of its kind campaign with Twitter, a :30 “cliffhanger” spot on-air drove fans to tweet with the hashtag to see an exclusive payoff clip and RSVP to see the movie first. FRIDAY 4 AM: Newcomer Monsters University wil be an easy #1 and was tracking even bigger than Cars and outselling Brave online and could pull $60M-$75M this weekend. Meanwhile, Paramount keeps using Inception as a good but inexact comp for World War Z because, although the two movies are both originals and summer sci-fi tentpoles, only World War Z was filmed in 3D. With those higher ticket prices, more pressure is on the zombie pic to do better at the domestic box office than Inception‘s $62.7M opening in July 2010. Christopher Nolan’s Inception did nearly a 5x multiple helped by the helmer’s Batman trilogy mega-success. Interesting, because Brad Pitt outbid Leonardo DiCaprio for the movie rights to World War Z. Still, with all kids out of school, and many adults starting vacations, and July 4th weekend fast approaching, it’s likely the movie will do solidly for several weeks but nowhere near a breakout blockbuster. With good early reviews and vastly improved tracking, World War Z just might (emphasis on the word might) overperform despite stiff competition. But the big question mark is all that bad buzz which World War Z endured for six months and how much it will affect filmgoers. Paramount is quick to acknowledge that bad-mouthing has created low expectations and is projecting only mid-$40sM this weekend. nikke finke yahoo.com/movies

#Astros GM Luhnow says there are very few farm systems he'd trade Houston's for. 'May trade it for ... Cardinals'.' “Overall, I’m very happy with the system. I think about what systems would I trade it for and there are very few out there that are obvious. I may trade it for the Cardinals’ system,” Luhnow said. “Beyond that, there’s not a lot that are obvious that I would say, ‘OK. I’ll take your system and you take ours.’ And that’s a good place to be for us.” http://www.stltoday.com/sports/columns/ber...8af60bb6a8.html Is Matt Adams going to be the next Chris Davis? http://www.dailyherald.com/article/2013062...orts/706229839/ Dunn trade speculation...

QUOTE (thxfrthmmrs @ Jun 22, 2013 -> 07:51 PM) I wouldn't be as hard on you if you didn't feel strongly against the notion just last week. I brought up the Mitchell/Walker comparison because we've been down this road, rushing a raw athlete up a level before he's ready for the pitching is a risk to his development (of course people are still fairly optimistic about Walker because he WAS having a nice June). That was when he was still above .200. He was way down in the .150's and .160's, recovered all the way to .229, but I never thought he'd go back down under .200 for the remainder of the season. Thought he had things somewhat figured out to at least make it through the next 2 1/2 months at Winston-Salem. When you're going 3/40+ AB's with that many K's, it's starting to become counterproductive.

Superman and World War Z are both good, albeit not "great." If you like action, then Fast & The Furious 6 is the perfect movie. The Great Gatsby is fine, although you might consider it artsy since it is Baz Luhrmann who directed. This is The End has a ton of fans out there as well, but it's more of a comedy/satire than anything. Maybe you should wait for PACIFIC RIM...

QUOTE (jthunder93 @ Jun 22, 2013 -> 10:01 PM) Let's see if I can follow this Quentin trade outcome. The initial trade was Quentin for Simon Castro and Pedro Hernandez. Hernandez was traded 7 months later with Eduardo Escobar for Francisco Liriano. White Sox receive: LHP Simón Castro - from San Diego on December 31, 2011 LHP Pedro Hernandez - from San Diego on December 31, 2011 - traded on July 28, 2012 LHP Francisco Liriano - from Minnesota on July 28, 2012 - contract ended White Sox trade: OF Carlos Quentin - traded to San Diego on December 31, 2011 LHP Pedro Hernandez - traded to Minnesota on July 28, 2012 2B Eduardo Escobar - traded to Minnesota on July 28, 2012 Essentially, the Sox traded Quentin, Hernandez, and Escobar for: Castro - who hasn't pitched in the majors yet... Six months of Hernandez - just one horrible start in the majors with the Sox Two months of Liriano - he was 3-2 with a 5.40 ERA with the Sox If they would have traded him in August, 2008 for this type of package, you would have a valid point. How many games did Quentin average per season with the White Sox? What was his average OPS after 2008? It was going to be a risky decision at the time to keep paying him a higher salary with his propensity for getting hurt, and he wasn't exactly a Gold Glover in the OF, he was one of the poorer outfielders in the game. So we shouldn't pretend we just gave away AL MVP (nearly) TCQ, it was a very different player by that point in his Sox career.

QUOTE (jthunder93 @ Jun 22, 2013 -> 07:34 PM) I would totally agree. Bud Black has done an outstanding job with what he has. If they can keep it up, Josh Byrnes might be buying at the deadline. They're all set in the bullpen, but might be in the market for another starting pitcher or a good middle-of-the-order bat. Isn't enough that we already gave them Quentin, we have to give them Rios, too. The Pirates could use a RFer to replace Snider.

QUOTE (thxfrthmmrs @ Jun 22, 2013 -> 07:41 PM) You need to be flamed for such irrational suggestion. Because you are panicking, and If he fixes himself mechanically, he'll dominate anywhere. If he is having the same issues, he's going to struggle almost everywhere. This is his 2nd "40 days in the desert/completely lost" period of the season. Failing miserably twice, he's no longer going to get the benefit of the doubt based on how he performed in 2012. Everyone knew a high school kid in the Carolina League was a huge risk, it's just that his results last year were so surprising they pushed him too hard. Striking out 60% of the time, that's too much to overcome psychologically. The mental part of the game is overwhelming him now. That stretch of homers probably made him so overconfident, when all he was doing was masking his swing plane flaws by homering his way through the negative results, but without any kind of consistency. Just streaking up and down, like Mitchell did last season.

I've got it. Chev Chelios from Crank/Jason Statham

QUOTE (JoshPR @ Jun 22, 2013 -> 07:10 PM) I know CFielder takes charge, but Rios was right there. Why would Alejandro call him off? Cecil Fielder? DeAza's just a hot mess in CF this season. The cast of Bridesmaids would be doing better in LF and CF....at at least a League of their Own. Stick Madonna and Lori Petty out there...no Rosie O'Donnell, though.

M-Zoo? M-Zew? Zew/Zoo? We'll all get tired of trying to spell that name. Maybe someone with SoxTalk should interview him ASAP and find out his nickname so we can all adopt it ASAP.

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Jun 21, 2013 -> 04:03 PM) Worst movie of all time nominee: Worst accent since Kevin Costner in Robin Hood. Geez. How could the producers let this one even go out on the net? There are so many better options for an Eastern European villain...like Dr. McCoy in Star Trek (see him in the Bourne Supremacy as a Russian) or the kid who was also the "heavy" in Harry Potter movies, Victor Krum from Bulgaria. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanislav_Ianevski

QUOTE (fathom @ Jun 22, 2013 -> 05:08 PM) They seem well managed, would you agree? Another argument for the Scioscia Tree of Managing. Maddon, Bud Black and Ron Roenicke. Then there's always Dave Martinez, lurking beyond the shadow of Sandberg, lol. But seriously, if you look at some of the line-ups that the NL West teams are throwing out there, you'd think they would finish in last place in the AL Central unless you took pitching fully into account. I was doing a little research, had no idea that Gene Lamont finished 2nd behind Valentine for the Red Sox job. Now he's the bench coach for the Tigers after being 3rd base coach for a long time. And Jeff Cox, interestingly, has finally found a home with the Tigers. Not to mention the former pitching coach of the Pirates, Chuck's son and briefly a member of the 1985 Chicago White Sox, Bruce Tanner (he was our pitching coach in 1995 in Augusta when we won the SAL) is one of the five major league scouts with the Tigers. And, of course, Dave Dombrowski's White Sox roots.

QUOTE (Quinarvy @ Jun 22, 2013 -> 04:38 PM) And there is no guarantee any of those could step in and be a good closer next year (Petricka? Really?) Thornton and Santiago were terrible closers. Shingo was brought over from Japan, so it's not like was an unknown. Really, the only two you can point to are Jenks and Sergio. Shingo wasn't unknown in Japan, but when your #1 pitch is/was a 67-70 MPH frisbee slider...well, he proved that almost ANYONE can be an effective closer for XXX amount of time before the league adjusts. Case in point, Jason Grilli. Takatsu brings up a good point...there's no reason we can't go out and sign another Japanese League (or Korean) veteran reliever and install him as the closer, we have some international options, as well as all the trade returns we're going to get in the next 6 weeks. Plus, we're going to need all the help we can get in the marketing department the next 24 months.

http://www.milb.com/milb/stats/stats.jsp?g...ox&sid=milb http://www.milb.com/scoreboard/index.jsp?s...mp;ymd=20130622 Hawkins down to .192 from a season high of .229. 3/37 with 22 strikeouts during that stretch. Still has a season OPS of 767, amazingly. It's getting close to time to pull the plug and send him down to Kanny so he can play together with Anderson, Micah Johnson and Barnum. That would be my play. About 10 days ago, I was against moving Hawkins down, but enough is enough. They might think about putting Micah Johnson in the OF and sending him to Winston-Salem, too. If I'm Buddy Bell though, I stick all four of those guys together and let them win a second half championship in the SAL and learn how to play AND WIN together, as well as learning how to play the game the right way.

QUOTE (Quinarvy @ Jun 22, 2013 -> 04:18 PM) The difference between Santos being traded and Reed being traded is Reed was our #1 prospect at the time and Daniel Webb certainly is not. Were Howry, Foulke, Damaso Marte, Shingo Takatsu, Jenks (as a reliever and not a starter), Matt Thornton (as a reliever and not a starter), Sergio Santos (as a reliever and not a SS) or Hector Santiago ever #1 prospects? The irony is the most ballyhooed closer prospect was Koch, who was the biggest failure for the SOX. Tom Gordon and Dustin Hermanson were also once top 50 prospects in the game, but that was earlier in their careers as starting pitchers. And the other key difference is the team's top priority going into 2014 realistically isn't competing for the division crown, like it still was when Reed assumed that role....unless something changes dramatically in the next 9 months that we've seen no sign of yet from the new Hahn/JR administration. The point is there's no reason in our recent history to believe we don't have another closer who will be even better sitting somewhere in the minors....whether it's Webb, Santos Rodriguez, Petricka, Simon Castro, Rienzo, our 2nd draft pick this year, Hansen, he's undoubtedly already there and we just don't realize it yet.

QUOTE (Jerksticks @ Jun 22, 2013 -> 03:37 PM) Totally agree about Reed. So do you think we can sell highest on him and his iffy command now? I kinda but into that position. I have no idea how much OTHER teams value Reed. Sometimes you miss the forest for the trees when the player's from your favorite team. You are more likely to notice all his flaws, and miss some of his strengths. The reverse always happens with other fans, overvaluing every single player, especially when they've been incubated and risen through your own farm system and you feel more pride in them than perhaps players who come from outside the organization. It's DEFINITELY worth exploring/listening to.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jun 22, 2013 -> 03:18 PM) I wonder if "closer" isn't one of those positions you're better off trading mid-season rather than during the offseason. Right now, teams like Detroit are sitting there crapping their pants every time the 9th inning comes along. During the offseason teams will convince themselves they have it taken care of with some rookie or converted setup man, and then a few will wind up in panic mode. There is that...getting caught in the "day to day" psychology of the team beginning to lose confidence in leads late in games. It seemed so easy to just throw out that name Rondon in the off-season, but that experiment didn't last long at all. Really difficult for Leyland, just like Ozzie, to trust rookies or inexperienced players. I think Addison's done about as well as can be expected this year...but how much better could he possibly be? Unless he ever perfects that slider to where it's as good as Crain's off-speed stuff now, he's going to struggle behind in counts because his fastball and command with it just aren't quite sharp enough.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Jun 22, 2013 -> 03:22 PM) It looked like two guys who hate each other, who play for themselves refused to communicate and let it drop. The Royals announcer said he wouldn't put it all on DeAza because it looked like Rios didn't say a word calling for the ball. Obviously DeAza was a spastic in racing over there to begin with, and he has to take command as CF, but I get the feeling Rios isn't Mr. Communications either. Are you a screenwriter for a Thai or Korean soap opera, lol?

QUOTE (CrimsonWeltall @ Jun 22, 2013 -> 11:47 AM) This had to be created by drunks at a Hollywood party. HEY JOHN CAN YOU MAKE ME ANOTHER DRINK? YAH OF COURSE COMRADE AHAHA OH MAN YOUR RUSSIAN ACCENT IS SO GOOD YOU SHOULD PLAY A RUSSIAN IN A MOVIE OKAY Is that from the most recent Die Hard? I tried to watch the most recent one on the plane and kept falling asleep and couldn't finish it. It had some decent action/set pieces, but the dialogue in-between made me miss Justin Long and Maggie Q. That's one franchise that definitely pushed itself beyond the abyss. You really didn't care what happened to any of the characters.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Jun 22, 2013 -> 03:16 PM) Hilarious. Royals doing what we normally do against them. They are the favored team and can't beat us now. When we're the heavy favorites we can't beat them. It's called choking. Except the Royals aren't even a .500 team. The White Sox were leading the division for most of the season and between 10-15 games over .500 when they were losing some of those Royals games. Easier to call those losses "chokes" than a so-so Royals team losing, although it does hurt to lose those games on your home field with good crowd support behind you. Has to be frustrating to lose sight of .500 again after getting fairly close.

What happened with DeAza and Rios in RCF today? Jesus, Alejandro's really pushing the patience of this organization. And yet, he's been a pretty solid RBI guy for them from the leadoff spot (well, the tallest midget) and at least made contact to get the SAC fly. Ventura did a decent job managing today...there's that.

QUOTE (bbilek1 @ Jun 22, 2013 -> 03:03 PM) Well Micah suffered a strange injury after his Sophomore year, sat out his junior year and spent his senior year trying to get back in the swing of things. So while he's obviously 22, his baseball age isn't necessarily 22. Kind of like Phegley's situation. In any case, something has got to give soon. No need to hold him in Kanny any longer IMO. We had spoken about this earlier in the year, but I think moving DeMichelle or Johnson to LF may be the move to make. They are both struggling mightily at 2B as far as defense anyways. I think given Micah's above average speed and great athleticism he may make more sense moving to LF. Another thing to consider is freshman year he played 3B. I don't know if there was an older, more experienced player in front of him but it is at least worth noting. Johnson better be a heck of a dynamic offensive player to hold down a corner outfield position. Better to try to make him a Chone Figgins clone who can play 3B, 2B and CF.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Jun 22, 2013 -> 03:08 PM) I hope those fans in the expensive seats behind the plate are going to hit the buffet one more time and not leaving. Sports fans who leave games are idiots. Well, it's a bit different than Heat fans giving up in an elimination game in the final minutes. This game doesn't mean anything. The Royals don't have the offense to threaten DET.

Hopefully Addison can work past the demons of an earlier blown save against the Royals this year. Not one of the best memories of the year. That was a 2 run lead.