caulfield12

This post has been edited by the Soxtalk staff to remove objectionable material. Soxtalk encourages a free discussion between its members, but does not allow personal attacks, threats, graphic sexual material, nudity, or any other materials judged offensive by the Administrators and Moderators. Thank you. God forbid that there ever be a reasonable response in any situation besides taking someone's life.

There's no point in even trying to discuss things if posters are allowed to act exactly like the police do in these situations... I would just LOVE to see all these examples of African-American officers shooting down white kids in the streets all over America. PLEASE, it has to have happened at least ONCE.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Aug 21, 2014 -> 12:06 PM) The Astros could technically still sign Aiken http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2014/08/astr...rady-aiken.html That's an interesting twist. But if you're the Astros and legitimately believe Aiken's UCL will go out sooner rather than later, and that, for medical reasons the repair won't take....you're better off waiting for that 2015 double-whammy for high first rounders. Maybe MLB stepped in and said, basically, c'mon guys, let's all find a point of compromise and work out deals for Aiken and Nix (and theoretically Marshall could also sign then or has he already enrolled in classes?) so that we don't have a series of messy and public grievances with the MLBPA...doesn't seem like they're willing to change the format of the draft to provide exhaustive physical exams for pitchers quite yet, either.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Aug 21, 2014 -> 11:29 AM) I believe 100% that they will spend $70-80 million on their payroll next year. Their payroll commitments currently are $45.4 million. This does not include De Aza, Beckham, Belisario, Viciedo, Flowers, Jones, or Noesi, who are all arbitration eligible players, nor does it include pre-arb players. Beckham and Belisario will certainly not be back, and Flowers and Jones' raises will be slight but still signficant. De Aza and Viciedo certainly could be non-tendered as well, or they could be kept. Regardless of what they do (I believe they'll trade both De Aza and Viciedo), they still have to replace that production in LF, and given the strides the team made this year - that they may be closer than they think, but with an ultimate goal for 2016 - they certainly aren't going to go with Michael Taylor, Jordan Danks, and Moises Sierra in LF. They likely have a replacement at 2B within the system. They could also justifiably bring in a catcher too and they will do something to address the DH situation too (whether that's internally or not). They will also need bullpen arms, and after this disaster of a season, you can believe they aren't going to go with Taylor Thompson and Andre Rienzo as options out of the bullpen. You figure all of that, and you are talking about adding $25-35 million between all of it at bare minimum. Where does that put the Sox payroll? If I were betting today, I'd say the only ones of those for sure that would be back are Flowers and Noesi. Nate Jones and Viciedo could go either way, although I would think long and hard about what the benefit of keeping either one is going to be moving forward.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Aug 21, 2014 -> 11:38 AM) I bet the payroll is higher next season than it is today. Then they're really going to be spending a lot more than most expect, because if you start out with that baseline of $45 million, 1) you'd have to not trade Alexei Ramirez or Danks 2) you're subtracting the salaries of Lindstrom, Dunn, DeAza, Beckham and Belisario 3) and probably sitting at 50-50 that Nate Jones and Dayan Viciedo aren't going to be brought back or offered arbitration...Flowers and Noesi will be offered for sure, barring a dramatic change move by Hahn To see an increase, that means there would need to be spending of roughly $42 million of additional/new spending on next year's roster alone. That would give you James Shields, one of the 4-5 closers on the market, and roughly Adam Dunn's salary for another big hitter in the middle of the line-up. Let's say it's James Shields at $20 million, Soriano/Robertson/Janssen/K-Rod/Uehara/Rodney (one of the aforementioned) at $10 million and then let's say Melky Cabrera/Markakis/Rasmus at $10-12 million. That's three big-time free agents, including one of the top five in Shields and another top 10-12 guy in Melky Cabrera. I'll believe it when I see it happen.

Because they had other alternatives available to them. Because the person involved was clearly mentally imbalanced. They could have waited in the car to get some back-up, used tasers....something besides just shooting the kid down before they had more time to assess the situation and the risks involved from the person with the knife. I just find it hard to believe that wasn't the ONLY way for this situation to have ended. Couldn't they at least TRIED to talk to him in order to find out what was wrong or what was bothering him? You'd like to think if this was your son or daughter the police would exhaust a more thorough set of alternatives before just blasting away so many times. If he was holding a gun or an imminent threat to others, I'd find it perfectly understandable, but in this situation, it's arguable either way.

Putting him in handcuffs after he's clearly not able to fight back or resist....probably dead, that's not going to go over well.

QUOTE (scs787 @ Aug 21, 2014 -> 11:20 AM) I'm not disagreeing with the bold. All I'm saying is in 80% of his starts he's been serviceable. Period. And as a 4/5 starter, I'm fine with that. Just for funsies though, I'll do it to a guy a lot of people bring up, Edwin Jackson...Take out his 5 best starts and he has a 4.37 ERA. And those are absolutely acceptable numbers for Hector Noesi or Scott Carroll, but certainly not someone being paid $13-15 million per season.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Aug 21, 2014 -> 11:08 AM) You seriously expect the White Sox to spend absolutely no money at all this offseason? A team whose payroll was last below $65 million more than 10 years ago, will go into next year with a $48 million payroll? You have said and suggested some ridiculous s*** and this is right up there with it. AND QUIT WITH THIS ATTENDANCE BULLs*** AS IT HAS ABSOLUTELY NO CORRELATION BETWEEN PAYROLL AND SPENDING So you're willing to wager they are going to spend $77-80 million or more on payroll next year? Because that's what you are arguing. NOTICE I DIDN'T SAY SPEND ABSOLUTELY NO MONEY. WHERE ARE YOU READING THAT? As we've been repeating for months and months, we could easily be around $45-50 million next year without doing anything. In fact, we could actually be lower if we dumped Danks and traded Alexei Ramirez, not to mention you're going to be subtracting Belisario, Beckham, DeAza and probably Dayan Viciedo. If they did spend around $80 million, that would barely put them at 25th-27th. Arguably. Since we don't know what those teams are going to do for 2015, although we have a pretty good range or idea. As far as your last point, that WAS true for most of the last ten years, attendance ranking lagged payroll spending significantly, without correcting for higher ticket prices, parking, etc. I'm sure this is the closest (next year) these two numbers will have ever aligned together since the 1980's.

QUOTE (Y2HH @ Aug 21, 2014 -> 10:54 AM) Bad. Just the art direction/cinematography doing all those different train car sets, I think there were between 20-30...the imagination behind them, makes the movie worth seeing. In the end, it's just another version of the 99% vs. the 1% story, but visually it's such a different idea than most sci fi/futuristic movies these days.

QUOTE (thedoctor @ Aug 21, 2014 -> 11:04 AM) i don't really see it. i've always kind of looked at 2016 is the year that with the right moves the team could be a legitimate contender. i suppose next year's team could surprise and earn a playoff spot. that would be excellent but i still don't see that enough moves could be made this offseason where the sox would head into october with a strong chance to win it all (which to me is the goal, not successive wild cards). i hope that hahn approaches this offseason like he did the previous one. not sure it is even smart to lay out big cash as we did for abreu last year. to me, adding a few key pieces and letting some younger guys mature is smart, with the goal of perhaps adding the big pieces the following year. This is pretty much exactly where the Cubs are...the difference is we already have Sale/Abreu/Quintana/Garcia/Eaton/Ramirez at the major league level, whereas they have Rizzo/Castro/Arrieta and all of their prospects and more resources to work with, including the relationship with Lester and Epstein. Similar bullpen troubles, although it's hard to say anyone is actually WORSE than the Sox right now.

Are we joking about Josh Hamilton, or being serious? Haven't we been fighting for 4 years to get Adam Dunn's contract off the books? Then we're going to turn around and add a probable $16-22 million contract commitment? Seriously? He's 33 now and is going to be coming off two 1-2 WAR seasons, where his OPS was more or less Dayan Viciedo 2012 territory. Not to mention the damage that he did to his body in his teens and early twenties from all the drug abuse, that doesn't exactly help the aging process.

QUOTE (scs787 @ Aug 21, 2014 -> 10:33 AM) Ya, I think I'd be happy with 20M on top of taking Danks. If Hahn and JR really wanna contend I could see that payroll up over 100M come 2017. I still like Danks though. Think he's a quality #4/5. It just sucks that he's paid so much. If he can just avoid the big games, he has had 4 of em, his numbers would still look halfway decent. We very easily could end up 28th in payroll next year (which is fitting, since that's where attendance is as well). That's an amazing turnaround from 2006-2013. http://www.gammonsdaily.com/2014-mlb-opening-day-payrolls/ The bottom of the Top 10 payrolls right now is around $130 million.

Forget about .250, I'd rather have the .225 Flowers with 18-22 homers than the .250ish Flowers with just 8-10.

There's just no way they get THAT desperate. I think they'd almost rather go back to Joe Saunders again than take on Danks' financial commitment. There were at least ten starting pitchers who moved the last 10 days of July and in August so far that fit that requirement of expiring contracts/veteran pitchers/lower-risk deals. If we were talking about Danks at the beginning of July, then it could be a legit conversation. But not right now.

QUOTE (thxfrthmmrs @ Aug 21, 2014 -> 08:59 AM) Carlos Sanchez will have a better chance to stick at SS in the ML than Anderson would. Uh-oh. I think we've already had this debate earlier in the season. On one side are Anderson's actual error totals, on the other side is his potential and defensive tools. While he doesn't have a Dunston or Uribe or Valentin arm, it's solid enough to the point where you don't want to move him off SS to 2B or CF until he proves he can't play that position. As with all the Charlotte Knights numbers this year, I'm not going to trust them very much until I see Sanchez look like a stronger Leury Garcia with the potential to at least put up a 675ish OPS at the major league level. Sanchez at Beckham level (625 OPS) or lower isn't any upgrade at all. Sanchez has also put on some weight, so that cuts down on his speed and one of his areas he would have a clear advantage over Beckham, baserunning/basestealing. You also don't see him hitting more than 4-6 homers at USCF...which, as we learned from watching the Orioles bomb away, it's critical to have some pop in the line-up besides Abreu and maybe Avisail Garcia.

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Aug 21, 2014 -> 06:45 AM) That's just an awful article. The author completely ignores that every major attendance spike of the past 30 years coincided with a Cubs playoff appearance. Attendance reached an all-time high in 2008 because the team had the best record in the entire National League. Do people attend Cubs games just for the Wrigley experience? Of course. But that ballpark won't fill if the team completely sucks for years on end. This usually happens when "finance/business" people write baseball articles. They usually can't see the bigger picture, with their limited sports background and knowledge of the teams.

He also has the 29th OPS out of 33 MLB catchers with over 200 PA's. Right ahead of AJ. In terms of WAR, he's something like 20th. Let's not kid ourselves that he's anything close to an "average" catcher quite yet. Now, that said, if the choice is keeping Tyler Flowers and paying Russell Martin $48 million, then I'm all for keeping Flowers for one more season until a clear upgrade can be found that's not prohibitively expensive in terms of talent traded away or a bad contract on the back end (see Brian McCann).

http://online.wsj.com/articles/why-wrigley...o?mod=yahoo_itp On Why Cubs Attendance Is Falling...Fans Actually Expect Winning Baseball for a Change

Flowers is slipping from that "adequate starter" category again...you might want to rethink that one. DeAza would be an adequate starter ONLY one of the bottom 5-10 teams in the majors. And Conor also has to be categorized as adequate bordering on barely adequate because of his subpar fielding, lack of HR power at USCF and difficulties with LHP.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Aug 20, 2014 -> 09:57 PM) I fully expect the Sox to finish below Minnesota which means last place 2 years in a row. That is unacceptable. If the Sox finish last again next year, I'd clean house. No more Kenny. No more Hahn. And beg Jerry to sell. You can't tell me the Sox should be finishing fricking last 3 straight years. And what's more, nobody is the front office is calling it a rebuild, right? They are denying we are rebuilding. Last place must be a thing of the past starting next year! Williams is the one who really scouted Abreu hard and pushed for his signing.

QUOTE (Brian @ Aug 20, 2014 -> 05:51 PM) SNOWPIERCER. Awesome. See it. You're late to the party on that one. COHERENCE is a very worthwhile watch, kind of blows your mind for awhile. Plus one of the lead actors looks exactly like Greg Maddux. Watching THE WIND RISES, by the most famous Japanese animation director....about the inventor of the Mitsubishi ZERO warplane before World War II. Very politicized movie with critics saying he romanticizes warfare way too much, but the movie simply presents him as an engineer who loved designing planes.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Aug 20, 2014 -> 04:31 PM) I just can't get over the horror of James Foley kneeling there knowing he was about to get his head chopped off. And I can't get over the inhumanity and horror regarding what the remaining journalist is currently going through as he waits to be beheaded. They probably told him of Foley's fate and he's just waiting to die. I almost threw up seeing the video of Foley bravely kneeling with the asshole behind him holding a knife to his neck. Can these ISIS assholes even speak English? Did they communicate with Foley? Sorry, man, nothing personal but we have to cut your head off to make a point? The horror of it all and the other things I mentioned makes you wonder if the end of the world has begun. Wait, I thought the Mayan calendar said it was going to end December 21st, 2012? There have been worse times, The Crusades, The Middle Ages, World War I and World War II, the first Great Depression, the Inquisition, the Plague/Bubonic Death, etc.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Aug 20, 2014 -> 02:25 PM) Peavy's injury and 2011 Rios fit on that list also along with the other 2 deals blowing up. Yep. I'm not going to bother picking on Konerko for 2013 too much, but that didn't help, either. Next, future "franchise star" Carlos Quentin never was the same after that self-inflicted hamate injury in 2008. He went from MVP to a near non-tender candidate and marginal trade return. Finally, Gordon Beckham.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Aug 20, 2014 -> 02:26 PM) I love when people misuse educational statistics to make leaps that are actually true. What is really happening there is that the selected top level students are making gains against a country that requires education of all students, even when they aren't educatable. They ignore the massive unemployment, and transients populations who aren't getting educations in their respective countries, and probably aren't even allowed to. There's never been agreement on how to conduct nationwide tests in countries like China, where they always cherry pick the best students from Shanghai and Beijing...random sampling, how many students need to sit the exam to prove test validity, etc. For my money, Finland scores the best in math and on PISA (one of the newer tests that's becoming widely-accepted around the world, it's more practical/applicable/real world and can't be memorized through like a Chinese or South Korean test). They also spent a lot less money per pupil. On the other hand, they don't have to deal with our diversity issues. Most importantly, to become a teacher in Finland, you have to be in the Top 10-30% of your class/subject in one of the Top Five universities in the country.