caulfield12

http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/baseb...0,4260812.story Colleen Kane (is she the new Sox beat writer) on Abreu Some fairly tepid comments from Viciedo "He's a good hitter," Viciedo said through a team interpreter. "He always has been representing Cuba in international tournaments, and he always has been good. I wouldn't go past that in saying anything else. But he's a good hitter." "Some might be surprised (the bidding) got up that high," said Ben Badler, a reporter for Baseball America who covers international prospects and has followed Abreu's career the last few years. "But there's also an understanding Abreu is the type of player who has the talent to justify that kind of contract."

QUOTE (chw42 @ Oct 19, 2013 -> 11:47 PM) In no world should Victorino not start on the White Sox. The guy put up a .353 wOBA this year and a .351 OBP. He also played incredible defense in RF this year and can probably be pretty good in center. I don't care if he's going to be 33 next year, if you can get him at the right price, get him. That's the whole problem, he's not an everyday CFer anymore. We can't keep trying to force players into positions where they don't belong.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Oct 19, 2013 -> 09:44 PM) Unfortunately I believe for CF. I dont hate it, but I dont like it. The thing is you cant just sign him, which is good. He'll become such a cult hero, they might have to keep him on the roster for 2014 just for that at-bat. Sweet Caroline....is getting more annoying than "New York, New York." Just don't think Victorino's the right choice at this point in his career.

QUOTE (fathom @ Oct 19, 2013 -> 09:26 PM) And McCann is a great fit for them They will be practically minting money if they win another World Series You can also see them taking a run at Masahiro Tanaka as well...with two Japanese pitchers already on their roster. Of course, the Dice-K Experience might be enough to force them to shy away.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Oct 19, 2013 -> 09:40 PM) The Sox have interest in Victorino, your thoughts? As long as he's the 4th outfielder, okay. They need some more veterans on the ballclub to teach the youngsters how to play the game the right way.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Oct 19, 2013 -> 09:38 PM) How many pitches did our starters throw in 05? Bogaerts ripped a Scherzer fastball off the wall. You probably saw that happen less than five times all season. He was running on fumes at the end.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Oct 19, 2013 -> 09:30 PM) Recipe for disaster, Detroit!! Too many relievers. It never works. You got to get more out of your starter(s). Leyland fell in the trap; too many relievers used tonight. Say what you want about Ozzie? Our one glorious postseason he went with the starters a LONNNNNNGGGGG time. Thank god he did or we wouldn't have a WS crown. Leyland a big goat. They've pushed Scherzer to the breaking point...but yeah, their bullpen has been hit and miss all season long. But no choice. You can't fault Leyland and Scherzer. That was an 0-2 hanging breaking ball to the least threatening Boston hitter...hung it and sped up his bat. CA-CHIINNG....can just imagine Illitch calling up Jay-Z (not that it every really happens like that in real life, but fun to imagine), okay, here's another $300 million down the tubes. The reality is they would have been better off spending that money on the bullpen than Prince Fielder.

Among the team's dozen potential free agents are starters Ricky Nolasco and Edinson Volquez, along with bearded reliever Brian Wilson, who revived his career while bolstering the Dodgers' bullpen. Relievers J.P. Howell and Carlos Marmol could leave, too, as well as infielder Juan Uribe, considered a clubhouse favorite by his teammates. The Dodgers' bench could be facing a makeover, with veterans Jerry Hairston, Nick Punto, Skip Schumaker and Michael Young all eligible for free agency. Would prefer Volquez on a much lower spec contract than Johnson or Gavin Floyd. JP Howell would be a decent option for LH reliever, but he'll probably be at a price more than they're willing to spend (unless they add 2-3 more pieces and feel they're close to contention again, that move of overspending on the bullpen doesn't make any sense...) Marmol would be another option if we don't keep Lindstrom...

“Last year wasn’t a very good year, and everybody’s asking what we’re going to do,” Eddie Einhorn, the White Sox’ vice chairman, said by phone. “Well, here you go: we did something. If he turns out to be what’s expected, it’s money well spent.” The White Sox hope Abreu will inject a shot of energy into not just the lineup but also the franchise, which drew fewer than 1.8 million fans a year ago, an average of 22,105 per game. “You got to show the fans that we don’t quit,” Einhorn said. Referring to the electric Los Angeles Dodgers outfielder Yasiel Puig, like Abreu a Cuban, Einhorn added, “Hopefully he’s like Puig and can put people in the seats.” The $68 million price comes with the risks of a somewhat unknown commodity — and the lofty expectations that Abreu will follow in the footsteps of Puig and Oakland’s Yoenis Cespedes, two Cubans who starred for teams that made the playoffs. But Abreu is not an outstanding athlete like his countrymen, nor can he play multiple positions. While his numbers in Cuba provide a reason for optimism, nobody knows how he will hit against major league pitching. “The caveat I keep hearing is that he’s great but we wish we’d seen more of him,” said Keith Law, a former member of the Toronto Blue Jays’ front office and now an ESPN analyst. “That makes him riskier than your average free-agent signing.” Law said he worried that the White Sox, given the holes up and down their roster, were perhaps not the best fit for Abreu. “You wonder if they could have spent the money elsewhere,” he said. But he added, “I get that this will be a fun team if Abreu is batting cleanup, and I don’t think it’s going to flop.” The lucrative contract may be more reasonable than it appears at first glance. The White Sox will pay Abreu an average salary of a little more than $11 million annually, a bargain for a middle-of-the-lineup power hitter. In addition, the White Sox did not have to give up draft picks or prospects to obtain him. Abreu’s signing made sense for the White Sox because they needed both a first baseman and a power bat. Paul Konerko, 37, who has played first base for the team for the better part of this millennium, is a free agent who has pondered retirement. Although the addition of Abreu appears to end Konerko’s tenure with the White Sox, the team plans to sit down with him next month to discuss his future. Abreu will join two Cubans already in Chicago’s everyday lineup: shortstop Alexei Ramirez and left fielder Dayan Viciedo. “This is good for our fans because it gives us hope,” Einhorn said. “Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. But we listened to our scouts, and I hope we picked a good one.” www.nytimes.com

ABOUT TIME was very good. It's the same director (Curtis) who did Love, Actually and Notting Hill, as well as Four Weddings and a Funeral. The final 1/4 feels a bit saccharine and overly melodramatic, but you can overlook that. Rachel McAdams is always watchable (the one exception was THE VOW), Bill Nighy brings his humor as usual...I guess it just depends on your feelings about British romantic comedies. I really liked it, it's currently running in the 60's for positive reviews at rt.com.

QUOTE (scs787 @ Oct 19, 2013 -> 08:56 PM) I'm gonna throw a name out there....Rick Eckstein. He was the Nats hitting coach when Dunn was there and put up his best back to back seasons. He was also the hitting coach for team USA back in 08 so I assume he's highly regarded. The Nats manager choked up when he got fired saying, "I've experienced a lot of things in my career -- I've been traded, I've been released, I've been sold, I've been fired. But today is arguably the toughest day I've had in baseball," said Johnson, his voice cracking with emotion. "I respect Rick Eckstein. I think he's a great coach, one of the best hitting instructors in baseball. And he's just a great gentleman. So it hurts.". As long as it's not David Eckstein!

The biggest contract signed by a Cuban defector so far is the seven-year, $42 million deal Puig got from the Los Angeles Dodgers. "Along with Cespedes, he's the biggest name to leave Cuba,'' said Cuban baseball expert and author Peter Bjarkman. "He must look at what Puig got and think, 'He was just a young prospect. I'm a superstar.''' Abreu, 26, twice came close to winning the triple crown in the Cuban National Series, a feat never accomplished in the league's half-century history. The season after Cespedes set a league record with 33 home runs, Abreu blasted 35. "So you can imagine what kind of hitter he is,'' Cespedes said. Abreu was the starting first baseman and fifth-place hitter for the Cuban national team and batted .360 with three homers and nine RBI in six games during this year's World Baseball Classic. Even though he's listed as 6-2 and 258 pounds in the WBC roster, Cespedes and Bjarkman say Abreu is closer to 6-4 or 6-5, and athletic. "If Puig is built like a linebacker, Abreu looks like a tight end,'' Bjarkman said. "He's got as much potential as anybody to come out of Cuba.'' from usatoday.com/sports This Bjarkman dude is the one who kind of poo-poohed the Viciedo deal, and was skeptical about the impact he would have, right? Abreu is often called a four-tool player, missing only the speed of his countrymen Puig and Cespedes. Scouts have compared him to Ryan Howard because of his size and easy power. Peter Bjarkman, who covers the Cuban league for baseballdecuba.com, said Abreu had the look of a young Mark McGwire. Adding to his value, Abreu will be part of a relatively thin free-agent class in the major leagues. So far, the San Francisco Giants have expressed interest, as have the Boston Red Sox, the Pittsburgh Pirates and the Baltimore Orioles. The Mets, still looking for an impact hitter at first base, would also make an intriguing landing spot. But Abreu is hardly a guarantee at the major league level. An international scout for one major league team said that Alfredo Despaigne and Frederich Cepeda, outfielders on the Cuban national team, were more dangerous hitters. An international scout for another team said that major league clubs could not afford to make a mistake when spending big on a first baseman, since it is a traditional power position filled by players who bat in the middle of the lineup. In other words, the scout said, the same money that could be used to sign Abreu might be better spent in the acquisition of one of the many established first basemen “you already know can hit big league pitching.” Neither scout wanted to be quoted by name discussing a player his team might end up bidding on. Bjarkman noted that Abreu’s prodigious numbers came in a league that is leaking talent, as more and more players leave the country. Some pitchers in Cuba, he said, throw between 80 and 85 miles per hour, which is almost akin to batting practice in the majors. “His numbers in the Cuban league are great, but they came against some very mediocre pitching,” Bjarkman said. “For the national team, he dropped off a bit. If there is a question, it’s whether he can adjust as quickly to the better pitching as the Cuban players who have been so good in the majors.” Sigfredo Barros, a baseball writer for the Cuban newspaper Granma, said: “Sometimes it can be very hard to tell with the Cuban players. Not everyone can be Puig.” from nytimes.com

If you want to have Dunn hitting 6th, that means that Garcia/Abreu/Viciedo...two of those three and probably all three are your 3-4-5 guys, yes? So you have THREE guys hitting in positions in the batting order they're not very comfortable or familiar with. The opposite is much more likely....the younger guys would be at 5-6-7 until they can prove otherwise.

QUOTE (Tex @ Oct 19, 2013 -> 07:59 PM) How much of the money that we pay in interest actually makes us secure? Feeds the poor? Fixes infrastructure? Sends a kid to college? Now imagine what we could do if we could use that for the above projects instead of paying interest. The interest payments mean a project that may have cost a million, costs many times more. Why do we pay taxes? Why not cut taxes for everyone and just borrow more if debt isn't an issue? Tex, let's imagine there is a balanced budget every year and there was ZERO debt. Imagine the same Congress. Who on the GOP side would actually be for feeding the poor or sending kids to college? I can see more defense/military spending prioritized, PERHAPS fixing aging infrastructure, but not the other two priorities. However, I'm sure there's a relationship between the time period of 2001 through 2013 and the increased inequality between rich and poor in the US, with the hollowing out of the middle class. At some point (soon), that's going to start killing US corporate profits because there's just not going to be enough demand coming from outside the Top 10%. And that's exactly why countries like India are starting to take off....their growing middle class. Ours is contracting. But, ONCE AGAIN, how many in the GOP would really see the growing wealth disparity as a long term problem?

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Oct 19, 2013 -> 11:21 AM) Manto was from outside the organization If the organization is floating the idea of Konerko returning, I think they are going to be trying to move Dunn. Having all three on the roster is a potentially disastrous idea and forces you to trust that they all remain healthy and able to come off the bench at any time. It also forces the other 2 bench spots to be extremely flexible for all positions What I should have said was no ties or connections or loyalty to anyone on the Sox coaching staff or in the front office. A total, objective outsider. Parent and Manto both were/are quite familiar with Ventura.

One of the strangest and dumbest baserunning plays by a player in MLB playoff history. Fielder better hope that lost run doesn't come back to haunt them or he might not want to ever go back home to DET. That contract's working worse and worse by the minute. Now Austin Jackson with another baserunning plunder, picked off 1B. Starting to ALMOST feel sorry for the Tigers' announcers. And now an infield base hit. Would have been 1st and 2nd, no outs. Shades of Tony Graffanino for the Red Sox. Now too bad plays in a row by Workman...the first one COULD have been an error as well.

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Oct 19, 2013 -> 06:55 PM) Greinke Kemp and Agon had questions about their character/conduct? News to me Pretty much everyone hated Greinke on the Royals....and of course there were questions about his character, he has an anti-social personality disorder and almost walked away from the game to mow lawns with his headphones on for the rest of his life. He's had how much bench clearing brawls and beanings on his record? Kemp, you can find a ton of stuff out there on him, too. A-Gone, not so much.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Oct 19, 2013 -> 02:50 PM) Ah, the classic "this is a big number it must be bad!" post. That debt level does not have to come down. It has to eventually balance as a share of GDP...which has already happened. Budget projections show that the debt as a share of GDP is stable for the next decade already. It could start going down in fact if we actually could get people back to work, but long ago we decided unemployment is a low priority. But since you brought up interest payment outlays...it's worth noting that adjusted for GDP, interest outlays for the last decade are 1/2 what they were between 1980 and the Clinton administration, and despite the large increase in total debt over the last 5 years, interest payments have fallen as a share of GDP. The interest on the debt is actually taking up less of a share of the economy now than it was in 2000 or 2006, and it's 1/2 of what it was in the early 90's, and there is zero evidence of a trend towards increasing interest payments as a share of the economy. And how much of that debt is actually owed to non-Americans/banks/institutions? Something like 5.6 trillion, right? America basically "owes itself," largely, at least 2/3rd's of the money. China at 1.277 trillion and Japan at 1.135 trillion are the biggest foreign reserve note holders. If you consider HK & Taiwan part of China, that's another 0.3 trillion, so 1.6 trillion from the point of view of Chinese mainlanders.

QUOTE (Jake @ Oct 19, 2013 -> 05:40 PM) With all of that said with Cardinals and their fans being tremendous douchebags, the players on the Dodgers are also giant douchebags. Puig, perhaps, is the ringleader which is sad since he's always had questions about his character/conduct. More than Greinke? Kemp? Adrian Gonzalez? There are also a lot of role players like Uribe, Punto and Schumacher who /are/were beloved by their fanbases.

QUOTE (Jake @ Oct 19, 2013 -> 01:49 PM) Yeah, the Cards really made Pujols look like s*** so their fans would go along with it. They weren't interested in paying anything resembling the market price for him - which, of course, is prudent. Making your franchise's hero look like an asshole is low though With how far Pujols' career has fallen and the steroid rumors becoming more prevalent with his body breaking down, I don't think most Cardinals' fans are too upset anymore. They know a contract like that would have made the margin for error almost zero, like the White Sox. What other choice did they really have?

Would prefer to worry less about Keppinger/Gillaspie, Beckham and the catching position. If the money's right, it's always a possibility, but that's still a longshot with how many other teams are chasing the same group of players with even more cash on hand.

http://network.yardbarker.com/mlb/article_..._wacha/14773970 Since the article also mentioned the Cardinals...the example of scouts "missing" on Michael Wacha has come up recently. There are some interesting theories given: 1) Wainright, Westbrook and Chris Carpenter have helped to mentor all the younger pitchers. 2) The Cardinals' Way, the guidebook/system at the major league level implemented (for pitchers) originally by Dave Duncan and adopted at every level of minor league instruction.... 3) Perhaps the best defensive/offensive catcher in the game today, Yadier Molina (and the impact having that type of catcher can have on an entire organization), as well as a former catcher in Mike Matheny. http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article/mlb/mike-b...p;vkey=news_mlb Interesting parallel to the 2005 White Sox, going through 3 closers in one season. Not easy to do. For those not too sick of them, more on the "Cardinals' Way"

QUOTE (Chicago White Sox @ Oct 19, 2013 -> 07:12 AM) I think the Theo hate is getting a little heavy right now, simply because most Cubs fans had unrealistic expectations to be begin with. I kept hearing from my Cubs friends that 2015 was going to be the year they became competitive again. Fans were cool with losing because they thought they'd gradually see the development of more and more young stars and then the signing of a plethora of free agents leading up to the 2015 season. I always thought this view was way too optimistic, because they only had a couple young players on or close to the major league roster and nowhere near an elite system yet. IMO, this was always going to be a 4 or 5 year process, at minimum, since they still needed to acquire a ton of talent and develop these guys through the system. The only way that was going to change was if guys like Castro, Rizzo, & Samardjza developed into stars and Theo got extremely creative in acquiring talent. Two years later, both of those items have failed to come to fruition. The three young guys have regressed/stalled and Theo hasn't really done much other than commit to his small-market approach to rebuilding. Whether this approach ultimately works remains to be seen, but it's quite humerous seeing Cubs fans start to panic. I think they're starting to realize Theo isn't a god and can't make talent appear out of thin air. It's going to take 4 or 5 years of losing to get that talent, and maybe longer if Rizzo & Castro don't take that next step in 2014. So much of their hope right now lies in the hands of a handful of young prospects including Baez, Bryant, Almora, & Solar. If the first one of those guys to reach the big leagues flops, it's going to be mayham on the north side. It's the curse of Dwight Smith, Jerome Walton, Brant Brown, Gary Scott, Bobby Hill and Kevin Orie. I do think if Epstein didn't have that Ivy League background that the expectations would be more realistic...that and the two World Series championships, it's a curse that guys like Friedman and Billy Beane have been able to escape, although the reverse is also true, not having won it all is held as a black mark against them. It's the same problem the White Sox/Hahn are going to face if Viciedo, Garcia, Abreu and Hawkins don't progress. Fans are going to forgive Hahn for the recent past, Dunn, Keppinger, etc. But they're not going to forgive 2-3 rebuilding seasons with no hope of progress in sight. Then there's the spectre of the Cardinals, Pirates and Reds to deal with for Cubs' fans. 10/14 playoff appearances for the Cards, for example. At least there's some hope for the White Sox because Verlander, Cabrera (I'm sure he'll be back to normal next season) and Fielder are/were looking very vulnerable at different points of this season, and the back of that bullpen is still a work in progress.

http://www.baseballamerica.com/internation...agrees-to-deal/ The most interesting thing to watch is going to be his coverage of inside fastballs. Are they going to have him back off the plate? How will that affect him? It's scary when they start comparing his bat speed and out of the world statistics with Frank Thomas. Nobody can live up to that kind of hype machine. Who will have the better career, Abreu or Despaigne? Who has seen both of these guys hit? It seems like Abreu is more disciplined and Despaigne has the raw tools/bat speed/light tower power. http://www.baseballamerica.com/majors/cuba...ying-in-mexico/

http://www.baseballamerica.com/majors/ask-...e-braves-do-it/