caulfield12

QUOTE (LDF @ Jan 26, 2015 -> 07:07 PM) and as i have always said..... what the in hades to i know. Here's a more specific article on the Cubs' situation. Epstein predictably calling the expected new deal "a paradigm shifter." http://chicago.suntimes.com/uncategorized/...venue-stream-2/

QUOTE (LDF @ Jan 26, 2015 -> 07:15 PM) ref taken3, it was really bad editing in which they had a stunt man to the running for liam in the sewers. but at least i hope they had a conclusion to the series. easy entertainment. Equalizer really surprise me on how good it was. the hobbit made all its money if the first installment. part 2 and 3 were nothing but gravy... easy entertainment. i really can't come around to see hunger games at the movie.... i hate the last book. i am finally seeing intersteller. i am just past the first hour. man it is good. a few holes.... Hobbit (total international)...a little over $1 billion Desolation of Smaug....$960 million Battle of the Five Armies...currently sitting at $867 million (just made almost $50 million this past weekend in China and definitely will make it to at least $900 counting China alone)

Taken 3 wasn't as terrible as some of the reviews, but it's clearly a case or diminishing returns with that franchise. A notch down from The Equalizer, which isn't one of Denzel's best movies by a long shot. Finally saw The Hobbit finale here in China (Hunger Games finally arriving next month)...it made around $50 million this past weekend despite the long delay in order to protect local Chinese films in December. It was okay/decent, but that's about as far as I'll go. Definitely time to close the book on that trilogy and for Peter Jackson to move on to new challenges.

QUOTE (LDF @ Jan 26, 2015 -> 05:59 PM) now you know why that sCrub team from the morthside is pissed and was saying they can't wait until their contract is up, what, 2017. talk about a team that is doing arse backward. now is the time to take over chi media for the summer boys. 2019

QUOTE (LDF @ Jan 10, 2015 -> 10:18 PM) i would like to see who else can someone mention in MLB that make a big impression on loosing. dang it, i can't say what i want. Jeffrey Maier, Yankees/Orioles

QUOTE (LDF @ Jan 26, 2015 -> 05:48 PM) so let me rehash a statement that was made some weeks back. 'unless the fans can show interest, we the sox org can not afford a payroll over 105 million. maybe a little more." i am using red to emphasis this. You've just thrown a center-cut Dylan Axelrod fastball with no movement into Dick Allen's wheelhouse.

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.

QUOTE (Chilihead90 @ Jan 26, 2015 -> 05:01 PM) I thought last night's episode was Shameless was great. Easily the best of the season so far. The house exploding was far too predictable, but I guess it gives reason for Jody/Karen/Jamie to come back on the show at some point when Sheila picks them up from California. You're too addicted to this show if you remember their baby's name. God, Jody was/is annoying. And that would bring out even more annoying aspects of Joan Cusack. BTW, which girl is Lip going to go after (albeit it's supposed to be a summer romance)? I highly doubt that he'll go to Miami, but stranger things have happened. How long will this new music/band guy last with Fiona? Guys with Zack G.ish style beards don't tend to last long on shows.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jan 26, 2015 -> 04:42 PM) I don't think anything here would need to be drastic. It could be accomplished by saying that you have to have two IF on each side of second base. Within that, there is still a lot of room to align defenders. What about depth? That still doesn't preclude you from playing 2B in short RCF as is common against guys like Dunn. Maybe not pulled so far towards right, if the SS has to stay on the left side of 2B.

QUOTE (Jake @ Jan 26, 2015 -> 02:27 PM) From what I can tell, the lowest home attendance we had last year was 10,625 in the second game of the year. Can we say that that is a decent approximation of the season ticket base in 2014? If so, what's a realistic expectation for this year? 12,500-13,000?

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jan 26, 2015 -> 04:39 PM) The Dodgers lost the most money of any team in MLB, something like $80 or $90 million last year. And that's with the highest attendance (3.8 million) and nearly 47,000 per game, almost 3K per game higher than #2 (StL Cardinals). And with the biggest new local/regional media rights deal in baseball history (would have to check the Yankees and Red Sox numbers there, Boston has an extremely complicated, diverse and innovative/entrepreneurial revenue-driving strategy fwiw). http://www.latimes.com/sports/dodgers/dodg...0124-story.html Article about a Korean group wanting to invest $370 million for a partial/non-voting share in the Dodgers. Claims that number is at least $200 million too low, maybe low-balling in light of this recent season of financial losses as well as the local tv snafu?

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Jan 26, 2015 -> 12:51 PM) Dave Cameron weighs in: http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/the-problem...em-with-shifts/ I like his take in basically saying that the biggest issue right now is not guys hitting the ball to other defenders but that they are striking out at an absurd rate. Guys striking out is not a big deal on a micro level, but at a macro level, it's getting out of hand, and that's the biggest reason why we're seeing the numbers fall. That's not to say that there may not be background factors working towards an increasing strikeout percentage - namely steroids - but that the surface reasoning is that shifts have much less to deal with repressed run scoring and a lack of contact has more to do with it. So give 1st-3rd multimillion bonus checks to reestablish the historical significance of batting avg in the AL/NL and highest contact ratio/hardest to strike out performances, haha. Maybe the "speed up the game committee" can reward AJ. Also, least number of pitches seen per plate appearance.

FOR LDF This doesn't factor in the new national broadcast rights deal for MLB, which someone in this thread pointed out provides $78 million guaranteed per team (as opposed to the previous $14-15 million)...and then the new regional rights deal, where a realistic number for the White Sox would be somewhere between the Mariners (around $120 million) and Rangers. (Of course, in the last year or so the Dodgers and Astros situations have caused some media skeptics to predict a "bust" in these RSN riches before the Sox can make their own deal. The Cubs are already positioning/posturing/predicting.) That will be a BIT more complicated with JR and Co. controlling 40% of Comcast at the moment. At any rate, we're easily capable of supporting $125 million...but, knowing the fans are going to be skeptical, they're not QUITE willing to go all in again because that approach in 2011 led to four pretty disappointing seasons (other than Abreu/Sale and the 2012 season until mid-September).

2006 should be the goal, not 2005. Attendance-wise, there's always a one year lag to catch up, especially with new season ticket packages after the WS.

Very simple. The payroll is pretty highly leveraged, as it is. You can make the argument for pretty much any team other than the Nationals or Dodgers that they're a couple players away. There are so few teams without at least 1-2 weaknesses, there's a TON of parity right now in the AL. The White Sox can't afford to put themselves in a position where they have to SUBTRACT payroll going into 2016. Samardzija gave them a much higher probability of competing THIS year, but the thinking is, like most seasons, that the adjustments (if necessary) will be made in June/July based on the standings and attendance/revenues. More than anything they can't afford to blow up that 2016 and 2017 optimal window by doing something that doesn't fit with the long-term plan. Right now, you're essentially looking at a 25% chance this year, 50% in 2016-17 and then back down to 25% in 2018 unless you hit gold with Rodon, Anderson, Montas, Hawkins, Danish, Micah Johnson, etc. and another high first-rounder this June. As long as John Danks is on the roster, they're hamstrung financially after all these additions to the point where they have to wait for the first 2-3 months to play out.

RECALL VOTE!!!!

Please have Frank move in with the lesbians OR his daughter/Chuckie in the trailer instead of Fiona's and Lip's house. Will Frank go to jail for causing the explosion (illegal moonshining) or will it be ruled accidental? Will Muslims protest this show now as well?

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Jan 26, 2015 -> 08:00 AM) I downloaded and watched Birdman. It's very, very, very, very good. It's the type of movie 10 years ago that would never have worked, because the cgi wouldn't have seemed effortless and no one would've given it a chance. Of course, I would have said the same about Pan's Labyrinth, for example. As far as Birdman, it doesn't fly without Norton, Watts and Stone. Not sure this movie can get made with just Michael Keaton's name attached.

QUOTE (Y2HH @ Jan 26, 2015 -> 07:40 AM) Some great points here, Tex. We try to do too much with too little time these days. Instead of hammering home 5 or 6 subjects over a span of 8 hours (for example), we're now trying to teach 12 subjects with the same allotted time, therefore, while the kids will know a little more about everything, they'll also know far less about certain things, such as history, math, and other historically "core" curriculum. The disconnect I see is that we've "arrived" as a nation, and instead of telling our kids what they need to hear, we tell them to chase their dreams and love what they do -- because we can. Now, this is not necessarily a bad thing, as it reflects the much higher standard of living we have now. Unfortunately, this mindset works for a low percentage of the population who have the right parents and happen to be born into the right circumstances to live through the "struggle period" of chasing dreams, while for others, that chase will result in a struggle that will never end. Historically, we taught our kids the skills in life that would allow them to get decent jobs. Even today, carpenters, plumbers, electricians are things we no longer tell our kids to chase, because they'll result in good jobs later in life, instead we teach them to chase their dreams and play baseball, or be a pop star, or "love what they do", which usually results in low paying jobs when those dreams come up short and they have no real fallback skill. Now, I realize many of you will begin spewing anecdotes here to prove you can, in fact, love what you do AND make really good money doing it, but like I said, for MOST that's simply not a reality. For all the hype you hear about how bad things are, overall, we've never lived better or easier lives in this country. Three generations shirtsleeves to shirtsleeves, as the saying goes, and if I'm not mistaken, we're in the second generation of this now, with many of us telling the third generation everything's going to be all-right, and that they'll want for nothing. Until we're gone, that is, and then their lack of fallback skill means blowing every dime the first two generations left for them to get to that point. And then the fourth generation can start with nothing, and repeat the process all over again. "Don't love your job, love the money it pays ... and use that money to do what you love." -Y2HH, Crushing dreams since 1999. Feel like I'm at a Tony Robbins seminar, lol. Not that I would ever spend money on one of those things. Just a preference for the George Clooney/Up In the Air backpack spiel, haha. http://m.mlb.com/cutfour/2015/01/25/107462...-universe-crown Speaking of living the dream, Mike Stanton "helping" out with judging at the Miss Universe pageant Wonder how many digits/twitter handles/fb likes those new contract dollars earned him at the after party?

QUOTE (Brian @ Jan 26, 2015 -> 04:50 AM) That was pretty clear a month ago. The race for Best Actor is interesting now. A month ago I would've thought Keaton but not so sure now. Two "serious" reflections tonight. 1) Johnny Depp seriously needs a challenging role...and no, Into the Woods doesn't quite count as a starring turn. He's essentially become a parody of himself. 2) The Taken series isn't being taken seriously anymore.

Birdman and Eddie Remayne (Theory of Everything/Hawking biopic) win honors at SAG Awards. Only one thing is for sure at this point, both JK Simmons and Julianne Moore will win Oscars for Whiplash and Still Alice.

QUOTE (Joshua Strong @ Jan 25, 2015 -> 09:28 PM) You're right, I forgot about them. I would put them first and the Sox second, but I think the Sox might have more depth in the minors than Washington. The best pitching prospect in the minor leagues, Lucas Giolito, is a Nat. So is A.J. Cole, who will be ready to step into the rotation by 2016. Joe Ross is a fast mover, Erick Fedde a high-end talent coming off Tommy John surgery and Reynaldo Lopez just your typical comes-outta-nowhere-throwing-100-mph right-hander. That's five potential frontline starters, and while graduating even one of them toward the top of a major league rotation would be a win, it speaks to Washington's ability to develop talent. from Jeff Passan yahoosports.com With the White Sox, you have Rodon, Montas (we could equate him to Lopez here) and Danish. Let's, for argument's sake, equate Rodon and Giolito. That still leaves Cole, Ross and another first rounder in Fedde...whereas with the Sox you've got the likes of Beck and Erik Johnson. Advantage Nationals

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Dec 24, 2014 -> 10:16 AM) If we are relying on a rookie who has pitched 20 innings above college ball to make this be a contending team next year we will not be a contending team. They've also referenced Montas and Beck as options who will be looked at early...along with Erik Johnson if he shows signs of rebounding. As for the potential of the Sox, Fangraphs' 77 win prediction (and 84 for the Cubs) better be reversed in reality or we're all going to end up disappointed in the end. Nevertheless, another 7 game improvement would be a big improvement. It's just that the bar has been set a lot higher to "playoff expectations," which is undoubtedly a good thing for the fans.

I think it's more about setting a "team mindset." There have been some seasons where Rios and Ramirez, for example, seemed like they ran a lot more. I'm sure this move is aimed specifically at Eaton and Micah Johnson.

QUOTE (StRoostifer @ Jan 25, 2015 -> 07:44 PM) The 2015 draft hype will get rolling in mid February when the college season begins. I'm looking forward to it myself. Anyone know when the HS season begins? March? I've been out of HS for too long to remember. Depending on your region of the US I'm sure. For soccer (spring sports), in Iowa we always started around the last week of February with tryouts/training/practices. Baseball was MUCH later, in May.