caulfield12

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Feb 24, 2015 -> 07:34 AM) Do you think John Danks sucked last year? Noesi's White Sox ERA was 0.05 lower, and his FIP was higher. The emergence of Hector Noesi is very overblown. How much did the White Sox pay Noesi last year? And by how much did he exceed relatively modest expectations? To use Hector Noesi, a guy released twice in one month...as a bar/benchmark/standard for comparing to John Danks is a bit beside the point. If both of those guys produce between the levels of last season and what Rienzo/Carroll produced, the White Sox will have a tough time competing unless Rodon takes the world by storm starting in May. Neither one were very good, but factoring in salary and performance, Noesi was 100% adequate as a 5th starter. It was the ineffective trio of Danks/Carroll/Rienzo that pulled the rotation down the most.

So what is really going on? Corporate profits have soared as a share of national income, but there is no sign of a rise in the rate of return on investment. How is that possible? Well, it’s what you would expect if rising profits reflect monopoly power rather than returns to capital. As for wages and salaries, never mind college degrees — all the big gains are going to a tiny group of individuals holding strategic positions in corporate suites or astride the crossroads of finance. Rising inequality isn’t about who has the knowledge; it’s about who has the power. http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/23/opinion/...top-span-region Part of the reason is "tricking" the American people into believing that the biggest issue is educational reform. http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/22/opinion/...ntial-race.html Another part of the equation is the undue influence of PAC's, soft money, the Koch Brothers, etc. There's a growing concern as well about how much influence foreign powers will have on a future White House based on their donations to the Clintons' non-profit foundation. Sure, we publish stories about the dizzying, obscene heights of spending by major donors, like one written in The Times last month by Nicholas Confessore. He noted that the Koch brothers had drawn up a budget of $889 million for the 2016 election cycle. ... We report, as we did in January, on how well or poorly Rand Paul, Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz performed when they spoke at a gathering put together by the Kochs in Southern California. But we don’t flag the oddity of these auditions, the chilling bizarreness of the way the road to the White House winds not only through the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary but also through plutocrats’ posh retreats.

QUOTE (raBBit @ Feb 24, 2015 -> 12:01 AM) Simply naming the guys he signed isn't much of an argument. What are you basing all of the success off of? Besides the fact that anything's going to be perceived as successful when you're comparing it to non-existent. Most are still not happy with the Nestor Molina deal. That was terrible. In general, the system is improving...slowly, gradually. Now if there's proof out there Paddy was a major part of the Avisail Garcia acquisitions, specifically identified Montas and Rondon from Boston...Cleto and Onelki Garcia, etc., then there would be more reason besides Micker Adolfo to be excited. The jury's still out. Also, if he had anything to do with Hector Noesi. If we want to measure success here, we have to look carefully at any Dominican and Venezuelan acquisitions, those are the two markets we were WAY behind in, and Asia as well (nothing since Takatsu and Iguchi). And, yes, Paddy's MAIN priority is 14-20 year old Latin American talent, but someone in his position should have his fingers in multiple pots.

http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2...tyrs-72-virgins For example, the whole idea of martyrs isn't attributable to the Koran. Nothing in the Koran specifically states that the faithful are allotted 72 virgins apiece. For this elaboration we turn to the hadith, traditional sayings traced with varying degrees of credibility to Muhammad. Hadith number 2,562 in the collection known as the Sunan al-Tirmidhi says, "The least [reward] for the people of Heaven is 80,000 servants and 72 wives, over which stands a dome of pearls, aquamarine and ruby." http://www.wvinter.net/~haught/Koran.html On the other hand, there's this... http://www.thereligionofpeace.com/Quran/023-violence.htm Unlike nearly all of the Old Testament verses of violence, the verses of violence in the Quran are mostly open-ended, meaning that they are not restrained by the historical context of the surrounding text. They are part of the eternal, unchanging word of Allah, and just as relevant or subjective as anything else in the Quran. The context of violent passages is more ambiguous than might be expected of a perfect book from a loving God, however this can work both ways. Most of today's Muslims exercise a personal choice to interpret their holy book's call to arms according to their own moral preconceptions about justifiable violence. Apologists cater to their preferences with tenuous arguments that gloss over historical fact and generally do not stand up to scrutiny. Still, it is important to note that the problem is not bad people, but bad ideology.

QUOTE (LDF @ Feb 23, 2015 -> 07:56 PM) i really enjoyed this, i was on the firing line but it was all good. bos is going to be tough. sox baseball. not everyone will have the same opinions. just remember one thing, sox in 2015.... http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mlb-big-leag...-180845308.html Maybe this will make you feel better. Yankees fans furious they lost Moncada to the Red Sox, saying that it would never have happened with George Steinbrenner still running the team, he would be turning over in his grave, etc. Of course, if Moncada becomes a breakout star, they'll have to watch him beat them up on the field 19 times per season for at least six more years. Kris Medlen going on to have huge success with the Royals later this season and in 2016 would burn the Sox a lot more than anything Beachy does.

QUOTE (chitownsportsfan @ Feb 23, 2015 -> 05:37 PM) The Royals (of course) have talked about carrying 13 pitchers this year. http://www.kansascity.com/sports/spt-colum...le10634720.html That's kind of a unique situation with Hochevar's recovery. It would make sense if the White Sox were bringing both Crain and Nathan Jones north for Opening Day, but that's of course entirely implausible. Odds are they end up with 7 and 4 bench players...Ventura will want to have a late-inning replacement for Avi if he continues to struggle defensively. Who knows, maybe he'll be decent this year.

Well, this thread has probably surpassed the number of pages on all other 29 teams' (including the Dodgers) websites devoted to the subject of Brandon Beachy. There's that. And yes, it was pretty silly to forget 2009 happened. I was too enamored with Gordon Beckham's golden flowing locks, lol. Maybe that's the curse of living and working in Thailand at that time, too many distractions. It happens to everyone, haha. But talking to Jeter, the Yankees’ shortstop, was different, Beckham said. He admits he was star-struck. “He was the only one who made me feel that way,” said Beckham, who is now with the Los Angeles Angels, “and I felt that way so much, I forgot how many outs there were.” The next batter hit a ground ball to Jeter, who threw to first for the second out. Beckham, still distracted from the conversation with Jeter, thought it was the final out. He wandered off third and handed his helmet to the third-base coach. Mark Teixeira saw that and threw to Alex Rodriguez, who tagged an embarrassed Beckham for the third out. http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/25/sports/b...jeter.html?_r=0

QUOTE (LDF @ Feb 23, 2015 -> 07:33 PM) for the best actor category, i guess that was the right winner. i never saw the movie, so i can't based it on anything. did the actor deserved the oscar? i thought keaton or carrell would have won it. http://www.everything2.com/title/Winning+O...th+disabilities Technically, Keaton and Carrell also had disabilities (in their roles), especially DuPont. Unfortunately, being a billionaire in America (at least family wealth) allows one to be termed eccentric, ala Howard Hughes.

QUOTE (Eminor3rd @ Feb 23, 2015 -> 06:31 PM) Is he banned currently? You might want to read his "interests" under the profile page.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Feb 23, 2015 -> 12:34 PM) 2 of them were awful, actually. The other one turned out OK, but he was a bit wild. He all of a sudden became lights out as soon as he was traded. http://espn.go.com/mlb/player/gamelog/_/id...0/daniel-hudson I'll amend it, one really good, one so-so and one terrible. To say a game when you're taking an 8-3 lead into the top of the 5th inning and trying to get through it for your first major league win in your debut is "terrible," well, the team ended up winning the game 15-5 (against KC), so he didn't hurt the Sox...performing well enough for them to win in 2/3 games, which is all you can expect out of a rookie call-up.

QUOTE (LDF @ Feb 23, 2015 -> 12:12 PM) i can see how a hs prospect may be ideal, but with the possibility of hawkins future not panning out as expected. i think it will be college rt this draft. but pitcher or positional . i would love to hear the sox FO discussing this. it is going to be a fun season. There's at least a 50/50 chance that Tim Anderson ends up in the OF. The hopes are higher for him going forward at this point than Hawkins.

And Beachy's not a great example because the innings he could provide in the 2nd half could be contributed from a number of other sources. There's just no reliable track record with pitchers coming off so many injuries. The last thing the White Sox would want is a "rehabbing" pitcher thrown into the heat of a pennant race when every game counts. Their patience in the past lasted for exactly 3 Daniel Hudson starts, for example...and 2 of them were pretty good, actually.

Back to the discussion of Paulino vs. Jimenez/E.Santana last year. Except LDF is taking Marty's and Dick Allen's role. It's understandable why they stopped where they did...if they had been able to get rid of Danks' deal, they already would have. Hopefully at some point the Cubs would be willing to revisit Danks for Ed.Jackson, but it seems unlikely to happen, that they'll just end up eating most of his contract one way or another. In the end, signing Volquez, for example, wouldn't have completely precluded Samardzija from signing a long-term extension, but it would have been close to the death knell. The problem with doing that would have been pushing either Noesi or Danks from the rotation, and they're unlikely to eat THAT much money turning Danks into a long man unless he goes all Barry Zito on them. Would Sale/Shark/Quintana/Volquez/Noesi or Danks with Rodon in reserve have clinched the division? Probably not...because there's just too many other factors or variables that could go wrong. As far as Rodon making a huge impact, you've got many examples of pitchers....Finnegan and Y. Ventura last year in the playoffs, or Francisco Liriano in 2006, just off the top of my head. Madison Bumgarner was a rookie in 2010. I'm sure there are many others, to go along with Sale out of the pen in 2010.

QUOTE (Quinarvy @ Feb 23, 2015 -> 10:09 AM) Moncada could be the straw that breaks the camel's back, because it is actually hurting the MLB players more than minor leaguers and draft hopefuls. However, there are also political ramifications here at play...US normalizing relations with Cuba, etc. It's not quite so cut-and-dried as Moncada signing is taking away $30 million from James Shields. We haven't seen a player at his age that was this close to major league ready and universally-predicted by be a future superstar...at any rate, the Red Sox have two test cases with Rusney Castillo and now Moncada. Castillo was impressive in his brief call-up last year. Yasmany Tomas with AZ will also be an interesting situation, to see if he can stick at 3B. And, of course, Jorge Soler as well. We'll see soon enough if this is the absolute peak of the Cuban market.

Iowa 55, Illinois 57 and Purdue 59 in today's RPI. Iowa a 10 seed, Purdue in the last four guaranteed byes and Illinois in a play-in game as of this morning at ESPN Bracketology. Iowa State a 3 seed. Fwiw, you'd much rather be a 7 or 10 seed because that gives you a #2 instead of #1 the 2nd round. Avoiding KY would probably be a good recipe for survival, although WI on a really good night definitely could knock them off in the Elite 8.

QUOTE (Y2JImmy0 @ Feb 23, 2015 -> 09:29 AM) I have a question for the group to ponder. Would it beneficial to the White Sox to not be able to come to terms with their 1st rounder this year? It would only leave the team with picks in rounds 4-40 and the Sox would only have about $2 million to spend on the entire draft. My idea then would be to go nuts in International Spending this year. In this scenario, the White Sox would pick 9th next year and own their own 1st rounder. They may even have a third 1st rounder as compensation for Samardzija. The White Sox could have one of the biggest draft budgets ever by doing this. I know it would be tricky to pull this year and blatantly skirting the rules but it'd be an awesome strategy. Add a little talent to system through draft this year. Go nuts in International Market, spending way past the restriction and lose the ability for next year. (White Sox never do this) But in 2016, could have potentially 3 first rounders with lots of $$ to maneuver and no budget in International market. This would be awesome. Is this plan crazy? The problem is this doesn't fit well with the 2016-2018/19 window...until proven otherwise, the majority of their June draft spending will go back in the direction of collegiate pitchers, because of the tremendous expense of purchasing a rotation through free agency. There's just too many high-quality advanced pitchers available at that spot in the draft to pass up. The only reason would be taking a Hoffman/Fedde/Giolito type at 8, going underslot as much as possible and throwing 50% of the remaining money at another starter in the 4th round. That's dangerous, because you're putting almost all of your eggs in one basket (even though most drafts don't provide more than a couple of useful contributors). Along with the collegiate pitchers, the focus on C and middle infield...with the knowledge that some of those middle infielders will also end up at 3B eventually. Corner outfielders, DH/1B and relievers are always easier to find or acquire via trade. Until that 2019 media rights money is available, huge overspending in the intl. market from the Sox would be a shocker.

http://bizofbaseball.com/index.php?option=...&Itemid=203 This breaks down the numbers for the new national baseball contracts. They essentially doubled from 2013, with all teams previously receiving $24 million bumping up to $50 million last season just from those three networks alone. I would imagine the other $28 million has to be coming from MLB as a 1/30th share of all their various media properties like MLBTV, Gameday Audio, At-Bat, etc. Angels. Rangers. Mariners. Cardinals. Somewhere in that zone is where the White Sox should be for their tv rights deal. At any rate, we shouldn't be looking up to the Tigers for too much longer. This post has been edited by caulfield12: Jan 26, 2015 -> 05:50 PM I'll quote my own post $65 million (Comcast/WGN/WCIU) + $50 million (ESPN/FOX/TBS, etc.) + $28 million (revenue shared from MLB Media)=$143 million That $78 million is guaranteed to every team now....and the most lucrative deals are all well over $100 million per season for the regional sports networks (and then there are the Dodgers, Yankees, Red Sox, Rangers, etc.). I think the Mariners went to $118 per year with their new deal, so they started the 2014 season already $53 million ahead of the White Sox (hence, the Cano deal).

NPH ripping on the director of the short doc (whose son committed suicide, and the movie was about programs to remedy that) for her fashion choice wasn't exactly the best. Terrence Howard's getting a lot of mentions for his "overlove" or infatuation with 3 of the best picture nominations....everyone speculating something went wrong with the teleprompter and he was trying to wing it and went all emotional/dramatic as a way to fight through it. You could sense that he was totally lost there a moment and then got back with his pre-programmed speech. Finally, I wonder if Travolta's trying to act "too cool" these days because of all the whispers out there about his possibly being gay, Scientology, etc.? It's like he is trying to force his way back into relevancy by his behavior, but it's just icky. Idina Menzel seemed to have a good sense of humor about it...basically, those two will always be connected together forever now, so why not just laugh it off? If it was an episode of Criminal Minds and everything in his life since Battleship Earth was evidence, he'd be checking off 2-3 boxes on the serial killer list.

In other words, potentially they pack the punch of the 2006 White Sox (first half) offense but they will also go into prolonged droughts/slumps and have a challenge manufacturing runs because many of their hitters are not multi-dimensional.

QUOTE (Brian @ Feb 23, 2015 -> 06:36 AM) Loved Internet's Own Boy. DVRing CitizenFour tonight. Excited about it. My buddy really hyped it up for me so hope my expectations aren't too high. It's not really exciting...more of a "behind the scenes" look at the whole situation. It still leaves a lot of questions unanswered about Snowden himself.

Let's look at it this way. What team in MLB doesn't have a number of flaws? We can name 10-12 things that could go wrong with the Tigers off the top of our heads, and their payroll's a lot higher than the Sox. They've probably spent almost a billion dollars this past decade, still with no World Series titles. Even the Nationals and Dodgers, we could pick apart their weaknesses.

QUOTE (Brian @ Feb 23, 2015 -> 05:54 AM) I enjoyed Whiplash the most out of all them and think it was the Shawshank of this Oscars. Meaning in time, it will be the most rewatchable out of this years nominees and most quotable. Also think Simmons performance was the best of the year in any category. Leading or Supporting. Can't argue with Birdman. It really was an accomplishment all the way around. I also think Whiplash is indicative of a cultural "sea change" in the way that pushing kids is perceived. The other side of it is books like "Tiger Mom" about how the US is just too soft in the way we raise our children...that the path to excellence in the case of many breakthroughs is a mentor that pushed that person to the edge and beyond what they believed they were capable of. Definitely, if you have a teenager...it's relevant, not just for the story or for jazz/music aficionados. It's like Mr. Holland's Opus for modern times. Also, just finished watching CITIZENFOUR. Have the same reaction as the Oscars audience....not sure whether to praise him as a hero or vilify him as a villain. Would tend to side with the "heroic" take, but of course he broke the law (even though he was fighting against what he believed to be an unconstitutional overreaching of the Patriot Act). Very complicated situation. It's not unlike that doc you referenced early (and which I thought was even better), The Internet's Own Boy.

I think history will show that Birdman was the better pick over Boyhood. Unfortunate for Keaton not to get the best actor, but they picked up pretty much everything else. For foreign movies, Ida and Leviathan were the two best IMO. Imitation Game got credit for its adapted screenplay, which was nice to see. Overall, that movie was simply better than The Theory of Everything. Btw, Miles Teller living the dream with his new "model/actress" girlfriend. And cool Jack Black rant at the beginning.

In terms of the catcher's position, we have more depth than at any time in recent Sox history...you've got 3 veterans in Soto/Kottaras/Brantly, Nieto and Kevan Smith. That's not GREAT, but much improved compared to last year entering the season. The 4th outfielder, likely, is on another team right now...it's not like we're stuck with the only options being Taylor and Shuck. As far as the rotation goes, we are six deep with Rodon, and that's not including Beck, Scott Carroll and Brad Penny. We're in a better position than 75% of other teams, and with Danks on the books for two more years, making ANOTHER move before the season would have been foolhardy. If there was a speculative move to be made, it should have been a two-year deal like the Royals signed with Medlen, so that you have additional back-up insurance for Samardzija leaving via FA before 2016.

QUOTE (Boogua @ Feb 22, 2015 -> 03:29 PM) If Illinois wins 3 out of their last 5 they will be pretty safely in, so if they win tonight the Iowa game isn't all that important. If Illinois loses tonight, the play in game for Illinois will likely be @ Purdue the last game of the season. Up until last week, Purdue had been firmly on the bubble or out with most brackets because of their non-conference and lack of marquee wins. It will be an interesting finish. It's harder to imagine them winning in West Lafayette, compared to Iowa City. We just haven't had that home court supreme confidence for a decade now (this year losing to MSU and Minny already, along with WI).