caulfield12

We just doomed Moncada to Hensley Bam Bam Meulens prospect status with the cadaver comp. Especially if he ends up with the Yankees.

http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/12308938...ets-stats-idiot Later this can be merged with the "advanced stats" discussion or put elsewhere on the site...we should all be waiting for Hawk Harrelson to come out in support, or at least Ozzie Guillen. The thing is, though, until a team wins a championship with this "new" approach, and I don't mean the Red Sox...but a team like the Astros, Rays or A's, then you're not going to see the majority of coaching personnel buy into it. The battle is seemingly 50% won. I know from personal experience that the "old school" guys were disdainful of these statistical discussions twenty years ago. But they evolved. Jeff Bannister was as traditional as you get and yet he was heavily involved in the Pirates shifting their organizational philosophy throughout the organization to the advanced metrics/shifts approach, as well as pitchers pitching to infield contact and not being as concerned with elevating their K totals. Clint Hurdle, same type, very traditional guy who's evolved and adapted with the changing times. One can only hope Robin Ventura and Cooper can start to come on board even more in the next 2-3 seasons. There's not a whole lot of supporting/anecdotal evidence out there supporting the White Sox as being a team that relies more than 25% on technology in their decision-making. Final note: I know Greg's taken some flak for using the term "nerds" or "Sabes," but his viewpoint isn't very different at all from that being expressed here, it's the view of most athletes who came of age in the 70's and 80's, or earlier

http://www.sbnation.com/mlb/2015/2/11/8018...e-title-vacated And it might not have even happened (getting reported) if not for that 43-2 disgraceful beating they (meaning their coaches) put on another team in their own area. What comes around goes around. Feel sorry for that LV team more than anything. Also, it seems they're still selling the t-shirts/merchandise online.

What about all the MLB donations, mostly from African-American players? Any claw backs? Or the money's already disappeared? If you bought the t-shirts, you're supporting Saudi Arabia and beheadings through the transitive theory of Kevin Bacon.

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Feb 11, 2015 -> 09:12 AM) I'm probably over diversified. I have an IRA that is an American Century retirement target date fund. My investment account is all Vanguard - total stock index fund, total international stock index fund and a total bond index fund (in a 40/40/20 split). And my employer has a 401(k)/profit sharing plan that I've split into three funds - a T. Rowe Price tech fund, T. Rowe Price healthcare fund and Vanguard real estate index fund (split 33/33/33). I had the option of just doing the Vanguard 500, but figured Tech and Healthcare funds will always be pretty solid and real estate has nowhere to go but up. Healthcare seems as good a future bet as any. I'm sure you have some duplication across funds, but at least you have the different sectors and exposure to international...with intl nearly always having the most volatility on a year to year basis.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Feb 6, 2015 -> 09:47 AM) Honestly, the best thing you can do it manage it yourself. Look to see if you company has an SP 500 fund/ETF. For your main investment you should put 100(- your age) % into the fund. The balance of your age should be put into a conservative-ish bond fund (something based in American blue chips). If you are 30 years old... 70% into an SP fund. 30% into a bond fund. All of those managed funds are so much more expensive to be in (fees) than the simple SP funds, and historically they underperform the SP on a long term basis. Yes, they might win years as being better, but once you factor in fees and such, you are better off in the SP. Remember every extra fee you pay for aggressive management, is that much higher of a return you need to earn to get similar results. Just my two cents. And also steer clear of load funds that you have to pay upfront fees of 3-5%. That's crazy, IMO. As far as the bond percentages, that's the typical advice from 10-15 years ago, and it's always better to be diversified (small and mid-cap, international/emerging markets, value vs. growth)...there's a possibility we're entering a new environment with all the challenges to the EURO and the fact that some of the safest bonds actually cost you money to own them, essentially....at least when you take into account inflation and taxes. If anyone really is interested in learning more about bonds, they should do their research about Bill Gross and what happened with Pimco's Total Return (Bond) Fund, which was once the biggest in history. When my father got me interested in investing, he put me in a fund called Nicholas out of Milwaukee that's very conservative. Of course, as the 90's went on and tech stocks started exploding, I got frustrated with value investing and sought out American Century (some of the quant/algorithm-based funds) and Bill Miller's Legg Mason Value Index, which was famous for beating the S&P 13 years in a row. So I sold low, bought high...two cardinal sins in investing. I wasn't patient. Even the best, most renowned investors will fall victim to the market, as you'll see if you read the stories of Miller and Gross. In the end, it's BEST for almost any investor to find an index fund (Vanguard/Jack Bogle is the trendsetter) and plow your money consistently into that. Basically, you go up and down with the market, but it's better than trying to beat the market yourself, which is essentially the same as any poster at SoxTalk trying to be the GM. Currently, I try to look for high/er yield stocks...and of course it all depends on your investing time horizon. The only investments I've made in the past 5 years (besides plowing money into Vanguard and Oakmark, another solid "value-oriented" set of funds) have been 500 shares of Vodaphone (for the high yield) and then recently 300 shares of Ten Cent (tcehy), which is the main competitor in China with Alibaba, and the originator of the WeChat application, the most popular in the world (the US bought/developed What'sApp at approximately the same time). And always be happy to take a profit...I had 100 shares of JDS Uniphase at 114.....they went to $140 the day they were added to the S&P and I wasn't happy making $2,600 so I got greedy and rode that stock all the way down into the teens, where it was basically a tax write off. A hard but important lesson, any profit is a good one.

They have a lot more quality depth than the White Sox at the back end. Sure, there's a lot more uncertainty with pitchers like Kelly, Shelby Miller and Tyrell Jenkins all gone. That said, Wacha obviously has the ability and post-season pedigree, Martinez is tremendously talented, Lynn's the equivalent of Quintana essentially...of course, most would take Sale over Wainright, but it's not like Gonzalez and Garcia are chopped liver. While Rodon has more POTENTIAL, the Cardinals still have more overall depth in the upper levels of their system. Montas and Danish are at least 1 1/2 seasons away...at least as starters.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Feb 11, 2015 -> 07:52 AM) It isn't that simple, but realistically, the major league roster will suffer if we spend $80 million ($50 million of it in one calendar year) on the minors. Who exactly would be gone we wouldn't know right away, but with Samardjiza being our next free agent, it makes the most sense to me in terms of a likely scenario. With him about to get expensive, and be a free agent, I would put him #1 on most likely to not be affordable if the Sox got Moncada. Maybe they trade Melky. Maybe they trade Robertson. Maybe they trade Alexei. Heck maybe they trade multiple players to cut salary. The one thing I would bet on is that SOMEONE goes off of the major league roster. They're not going to force themselves into a move with one of those newly-acquired players. You could also add LaRoche, Samardzija and Duke, for that matter. The White Sox were very fortunate to rectify the Peavy situation....to receive the return they did on a long-term contract they quickly wanted to be rid of. On the other hand, they don't want to become like the Marlins and end up promising free agents a competitive future and then turning around and doing a firesale. The odds of that are very low (it would take injuries to Sale/Abreu/Quintana), but they've reached the point of becoming an attractive landing spot again, and it would suck to turn around and cede all the territory they've fought to regain the past 2 seasons of rebuilding.

Did Avi say he was 14 years old when he was playing in rookie ball? At around 15 minutes...shouldn't he have been 16 at least?

QUOTE (ChiSox_Sonix @ Feb 10, 2015 -> 12:15 PM) The book's ETA is anyone's guess at this point. His publishers said about a week ago that it would NOT be in 2015. However, they then retracted that and said it is not currently planned for 2015. I think Spring 2016 is a realistic possibility. The books began back in the mid-1990's, so nothing is being drawn out because of TV. His first three books came out quickly and then he ran into his problem and everything has been severely delayed since then. An additional problem is that GRRM does so much else - the Dunk & Egg novellas, his editing of several anthologies, the World of Ice and Fire, until this year he's written an episode per season for the show, numerous tours and appearances etc... He's released or read 4 or 5 chapters from The Winds of Winter so far and was said to have had 100-200 manuscript pages done at the time of Dance with Dragons release, so hopefully he's almost done, but with George you really can't know when he'll get it done. Also, the show runners know the ending in broad strokes, they are not going to slow the show down. They are planning on finishing in in 7 seasons (although I personally think they need 8 to do it justice) and by then there is probably less than a 1% chance GRRM has released A Dream of Spring Thanks. Currently enjoying A Dance With Dragons a bit more because I skipped over the first three books as I'd just watched all the shows together. For that reason, it doesn't feel quite so slow/repetitive/redundant as some critics have pointed out. By June 2010, Martin had finished four chapters for The Winds of Winter from the viewpoints of Sansa Stark, Arya Stark, and Arianne Martell.[5] In July 2010, he added an Aeron Greyjoy chapter that had been moved from A Dance with Dragons to The Winds of Winter, accumulating around 100 completed manuscript pages.[8] By October 2012, 400 pages of the sixth novel had been written, although Martin considers only the first 200 as "really finished", the rest still needing revisions.[26] Supposedly the last two books will both be 1500+ pages.

QUOTE (LDF @ Feb 10, 2015 -> 12:52 PM) interesting choice, if true. he made a name for himself in whiplash. i saw the oscar interview with the cast of whiplash on youtube this morning. he look way different, ever since he lost weight. The irony of that would be that JK Simmons played the head of the Daily Planet in the first trilogy of Spider-Man movies. Of course, Miles Teller and Simmons were prodigy/mentor in Whiplash more recently.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0489037/ Very informative documentary from 2006, Who Killed the Electric Car? Balta's villains can be found therein.

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Feb 10, 2015 -> 02:05 PM) So are you proposing that we just go back into the stoneage and not use oil (as essentially that is what we would have to do, as we'd have a pretty limited oil resources globally). That said, US would be one of the lesser impacted countries as a whole but I'm fairly certain that would end up resulting in numerous other battles and wars. Taken to its logical conclusion, all those automakers (and their attendant lobbyists) who have "conspired" with the oil industry to fight back against building up electric grids/battery charging stations and stunted the development of cars running on alternative energy sources are the real culprits here, not the consumers... Or do we want to say that neighbor with no kids driving a huge SUV is more of a terrorist supporter than someone with a Prius, bio-fuel or battery-powered vehicle?

Shuck and Taylor were already options ahead of him, especially with Bonifacio on the roster. Not a big deal, but always sad to see, especially for a speed-based player. Odds are pretty high that someone else will be added to the roster before Opening Day via the waiver wire or trade.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Feb 10, 2015 -> 08:57 AM) Thanks, good to see a little more info on UNI. http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/rpi/_/teamId/2460 Not much of a resume as of yet, other than spanking Wichita St. at home and beating Iowa at a neutral site. Their other three wins over Top 100 RPI teams...those opponents were all in the 80's. It would have helped if they were able to match up with Iowa State. The VCU loss by six on the road is probably their third most impressive accomplishment...high-scoring game.

QUOTE (Rowand44 @ Feb 10, 2015 -> 10:53 AM) I'm sure we'll get a back story at some point but ya, I have no idea. http://www.comingsoon.net/tv/features/4072...etter-call-saul Paranoia or schitzophrenia? Fear that the government is spying on him and/or fear of technology? Fear of leaving his house? Guess we'll find out sooner or later this season, according to the interview. Hopefully they'll move on soon from the bit about the stickers and parking ticket validation. A few times, it was cute...

When is the 6th GOT book supposed to be published? I was just finishing the fourth and he signed off saying it (the 5th) would come in a year or so and it ended up being almost five years. Was the book series originally planned to end at 6 or is it getting extended as well because of the success of the HBO series? EDIT: Guess it will be anytime from 2015-2017...The Winds of Winter, with A Dream of Spring following hopefully when everyone is still alive and interested in the series. They're really going to have to show down the t.v. series and stretch it out while waiting for WofW.

QUOTE (Quinarvy @ Feb 10, 2015 -> 08:29 AM) Dylan O'Brien and Ansel Elgort would be good picks. Drake Bell actually wouldn't be a bad pick, but I'd avoid it. Zac Efron has been cited. Also: Stay away from Donald Glover / Maguire / Gyllenhall. They're all too old for a character that will likely be in his late teens / early 20s. Also, they aren't going to make Peter African-American because they have Miles Morales and they explicitly stated that they aren't doing Miles Morales. Zac Efron's too overconfident/cocky to play geek Peter Parker.

QUOTE (Brian @ Feb 10, 2015 -> 07:20 AM) Is he still a teenager in these upcoming movies? Good question. I have faith Kyle will know the answer...

Anton Yelchin (Star Trek), Robbie Amell (Firestorm on the Flash), Ansel Elgort (The Fault in our Stars/Divergent), Drake Bell... Tobey Maguire, which would be the most interesting and controversial move Dylan O'Brien (The Maze Runner), Dave Franco (James' brother), Logan Lerman (Percy Jackson), Freddie Highmore (British), Donald Glover (African-American Spiderman?) Drake Bell (cartoon voicework only so far), Elgort, O'Brien or Maguire would have to be considered the four favorites at this point.

So who plays Spider-Man with Andrew Garfield likely to be out?

http://www.sfgate.com/tv/article/TV-Don-t-...off-6062113.php I think this is a very fair critical assessment of the first three episodes of Better Call Saul (BCS won't work as an acronym for obvious reasons). No spoilers...

QUOTE (Tex @ Feb 9, 2015 -> 07:43 PM) The take away I get from Balta's posts are we tolerate the exact same behavior from our "friends" that we condemn our enemies for. We do have some level of hypocrisy on this level. I do believe we would have a greater moral platform if we didn't use capital punishment as a deterrent to acts we find deserving. We execute people people as well but we do it humanely (maybe) and for better reasons. Well, even that last part's debatable if you look at all the issues with Old Sparky in Florida. https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2015/02/...ommon-practice/ Another thing to consider is the mutilation that all the victims of drone strikes suffer...and how it interferes with the traditional Muslim funeral rites. When you look at all the collateral damage, can we really consider ourselves to be standing on a moral high ground?

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/how-james-shi...-195000246.html Jeff Passan article on the blunders made by Shields' agent Fister, Iwakuma, Porcello, Latos and Gallardo would be nice consolation moves if they can't keep Samardjiza in the fold, but I'm not sure how much better those moves would be compared to the Shields signing (this year), which would have cost a much lower draft pick. OTOH, having Shields in the rotation would have pushed back Rodon a year...in the end, it just wasn't feasible with Danks' deal still on the books. However, knowing what he did end up signing for, I would have preferred to save the money on Cabrera and Robertson and gone with lesser options there to invest the money into that rotation. But hindsight is 20/20. For example, Aoki and Shields....and a cheaper closer.

They do and they don't. It's hard to say there's zero impact psychologically on the seedings for the NCAA's. There's always going to be an imperceptible bias towards power conference teams...especially the most storied programs. Oklahoma playing their best game of the season. Ok. State has become a dangerous team as well. Baylor and ISU going backwards a bit.