caulfield12

QUOTE (greg775 @ Aug 6, 2014 -> 11:57 PM) I said last chance at wildcard. There are 7 weeks left. Sox are just about dead. It will be far more interesting to see if the Royals can hold their 1 1/2 game WC lead. Gabe Kapler said this morning they don't have enough power to win some games with homers. They also strike out the least of any team in the AL, but those BABIP numbers in this hot streak will come back down to earth and probably end up in another 2-7 or 2-8 stretch. Still, with the issues the Jays and Yankees and Mariners all have, betting money should be on the Royals or Blue Jays. The Mariners have too many games with the A's and Angels down the stretch, and Yankees' pitching is too spotty without Tanaka and Sabathia.

QUOTE (elrockinMT @ Aug 8, 2014 -> 10:22 AM) Over the years I have had to remind young pups like yourself that "IT AIN'T OVER TILL IT'S OVER". Never give up! It's harder to be positive when we almost never have seen a White Sox team peak in August and September. 2005 was gut-wrenching, 2000 the pitching fell apart in the second half, 2008 was just like a Bataan Death March of survival with both the Twins and White Sox playing so badly both tried to give the division away until the White Sox finally put together 3 games in a row there to make it...2010 we peaked with that 26-5 mark in the middle of the season (we had the comedy of Manny Ramirez being Manny at the end), same thing with 2012. So there's virtually almost NO precedent for a Sox team dominating in the second half, except for 2003 July/August White Sox (before the Buehrle/Cotts Yankee Stadium fiasco and the Twins dominated us head-to-head down the stretch and Loaiza finally wore down)... So we're left with...the 1983 White Sox 2nd half. And that's basically it. Happens ever 30 years or so.

QUOTE (JUSTgottaBELIEVE @ Aug 10, 2014 -> 11:07 AM) Except for this... http://www.sbnation.com/2012/6/11/3078976/...ontract-opt-out Of course, Ken Rosenthal had no clue about any of the big trades that happened in July, so not sure if I would trust that information or not.

Stone was also on Conor and DeAza quite a bit. Said Conor wasn't really a run producer (lots of doubles!) and that he would need to be surrounded with much better talent to make up for his defense and lack of home run power. "In order to change the defense, you have to change the players." Also said hoping for improved offensive performance out of Beckham but getting the same old results "was as predictable as the sun rising in the east." Also was crtical of Eaton for not being "selectively aggressive." Had a really funny line about being introduced to the warning track (or reintroduced) by the coaching staff, and how he needs to spend some time with Aaron Rowand to understand the later life consequences on not only his playing career but future health as a father/parent in his 30's and 40's. Guess Aaron's really having some physical problems, which shouldn't be a surprise. Said that in his entire career in baseball, nobody on the DL or sitting on the bench because he couldn't play had ever helped his team in any meaningful way...in other words, he needs to improve his baseball IQ, and soon. Back to thinking they really are going to have to seriously consider DHing Viciedo, moving Garcia to LF and finding a much better defensive RFer...it would be nice if that was Moises Sierra, but they really need a bigger offensive force than that to start competing with the Tigers, Royals and Indians.

http://www.boxoffice.com/latest-news/2014-...torm-takes-800k Never in a million years expected Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles to perform so well. Megan Fox power? Of course, she was famously dumped by Michael Bay for the 3rd Transformers movie (and it's ironic she's in another completely "non-intellectual" Bay movie again). GotGalaxy still held up better than Captain America: The Winter Solder over its second weekend and has an outside chance at the best domestic box officer performer of the year, needing to get to $259.5 million in the US. The Lego Movie, Transformers 4, Maleficent and X-Men are currently 2-5.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Aug 10, 2014 -> 10:49 AM) I wish it would stop freaking raining You're in Louisville?

QUOTE (Rowand44 @ Aug 10, 2014 -> 10:45 AM) Steve Trout is a baller. Ooops, Mike. I was just listening to Steve Stone on the Score, lol. Or thinking of the former, unrelated Sox pitcher, not sure which. Stone, fwiw, said he was very skeptical that Jordan Danks could ever be a major league regular unless he could 1) ever lay off the pitch high or above the strike or 2) learn to drive that pitch. Of course, most left-handed hitters are much better lower in the strike zone, although there are a few notable exceptions.

QUOTE (beautox @ Aug 10, 2014 -> 08:33 AM) With a 4.69 fip & 4.47xfip for scrap heap pick up not bad at all, he could conceivably be a 1-1.5WAR pitcher next season over 30 starts. For league minimum, thats a great job by Hahn finding a serviceable 5th starter when people like Jeremy Guthrie are making over 8M for similar production. That's essentially what a lot of people were dreaming (in hindsight) that Paulino would put up.

14:$2M, 15:$2M, 16:$3M, 17:$3M, 18:$4M, 19:$4M, 20:$4M Jorge Soler's contract. Likely to replace Alexei Ramirez's first deal, Chris Sale/Jose Quintana or Steve Trout's first 3 years as the friendliest contract in MLB. The last three years of Mike Trout's new deal, $100 million, or $33.33 million per season.

QUOTE (Chilihead90 @ Aug 10, 2014 -> 10:29 AM) ITT: You get out of your car, you deserve to have someone recklessly threaten your life, and if you happen to get killed, so be it. Would you still feel the same way if it was a 16-18 year old racer? 19? No matter how inexperienced? No matter the fact that no circuit has a policy or system in place to deal with these issues...in other words, that "machisimo" element of settling things through fighting and arguing has been part of the culture of racing for decades. It seems like that will have to be addressed, because they won't be able to ignore it or shove it under the rug when the eventual fallout (any charges against Stewart...loss of sponsorships, civil court case, etc.) settles. It is also what helps to sell tickets and drive interest, just like the vicious hits in hockey or football.

QUOTE (daa84 @ Aug 10, 2014 -> 10:23 AM) I can't believe anyone thinks tony truly didn't see him and has zero culpability here. I'm certainly now a lawyer, and I'm even less of a nascar/racing fan, but assuming he miraculously avoids legal trouble, who will continue to sponsor this fool? The days of Ray Lewis getting away with things are over, and it's a new era with social media/ news coverage He actually has an upcoming reality t.v. show called "Coaching Bad" where he works with I would presume high school/Pop Warner and maybe lower level university coaches on "anger management" issues. Isn't that rich?

QUOTE (Athomeboy_2000 @ Aug 10, 2014 -> 09:25 AM) the general rule is you stay in your car until a safety team arrives. It wasnt on fire, or in immanent danger. There was no imminent danger, it was simply an inexperienced 20 year old kid losing his temper...making the wrong decision. Many are also arguing Stewart NEVER should be racing in these types of events, he already broke his tibia/fibula a year ago and cost his team dearly in the final Cup standings AND it's putting the NASCAR brand at risk when independent teams/non-unionized contractors are involved in accidents/incidents like this. I wonder how many of his fellow NASCAR drivers were going to refuse to run today if Stewart was determined to race? Did Stewart decide, his sponsors/team or Bill France/NASCAR? Reminds me of that scene in RUSH where a lot of the drivers pushed Nikki Lauda to race in Germany when the track conditions were bad and he ended up getting into a horrific accident.

Rules change suggested for NASCAR (and theoretically lower-tier circuits). Get out of your car on the track, throw a helmet/wrench/hammer in the pits or at another car, etc. 1) 3-5 race suspension 2) $250,000 fine That would seemingly end 95% of it.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Aug 10, 2014 -> 09:03 AM) Ventura signed an extension that begins next season. He will be the manager unless Rozner and his buddy have a new job that hasn't been announced yet. As for the defense, this has been pretty obvious for a while but everyone wants the Sox to trade Alexei so apparently it isn't so important. I do think finding some more pitchers would help, as would finding a couple of more hitters. Hopefully, Garcia is one of those hitters. Just thought it was interesting because of the fact that the SCORE is the White Sox home radio station, and they were both openly critical of Ventura's managerial skills. I'm aware Rozner's main job is a columnist/sportswriter, so he theoretically has a bit more freedom than a Score employee.

Of course, those who defend Garcia and his hitting Beckham or Garcia up in the order (leaving nobody to get on base when Eaton's out for Abreu) is, who do you put there? Alexei Ramirez? Well, he's more comfortable in that #5-6 RBI position. Conor? He's not much of a threat on the basepaths, at all. DeAza...well, maybe, but certainly not against LHP.

Said they believed that more often than not, that he hurts the team with his decisions, rather than helps them... That the two biggest issues with the future of the franchise were: 1) Ventura's future with the club 2) Defense That this is now two years near the bottom of the American League in defense, and that a lot of the errors aren't just physical mistakes, many of them are mental. Indirectly blamed the coaching staff...questioning how this happened after 2012 when they were one of the best defensive teams for 4-5 months in the majors. Going forward, we have ONLY two above-average defenders in Ramirez and Eaton (if he stops running into walls like Rowand, and remembers to stop trying to throw out every baserunner, like Viciedo also does)...and Alexei has lost a LITTLE bit of range this year, although he's been excellent overall. Conor's below average at 3B. Beckham has lost a bit at 2B and will be replaced. Viciedo and Garcia won't be good on the corners. We all know about DeAza. Abreu's adequate right now, but I'm not going to go as far as Hawk and call him a really good fielder. Then you have Flowers, who's been pretty good, probably in the middle 1/3rd but certainly not Sal Perez back there, either. Do we have ANYONE other than Rondon coming up who profiles as a future above average defender? Carlos Sanchez, at 2B, maybe...Semien might also be the equivalent (eventually) of Beckham at 2B, but not SS. Davidson, Micah Johnson and Anderson have all had their defense questioned this year. Hawkins, maybe he's a tick above average in LF, but nothing amazing, great or special defensively. He's not a MLB CFer, certainly. Jordan Danks, but I don't want to go down that line of argument again. Sierra has a great arm, but is he going to give you enough offense to play everyday? Which hitter is he, the one in the mid 700's OPS-wise or the one who started the year in a horrible slump with the Blue Jays and whose reality is probably somewhere in-between statistically? Ravelo had to be moved off 3rd to 1st. How is it going to be possible to improve the offense and defense at the same time? Since Conor's one of our two or three bright spots this year, can we say his defense has been compensated enough by his offense...and what if he doesn't hit 315 again but he's at 255-275, then his lack of power becomes an issue again. Viciedo gives the team power but hurts with his OBP and defense. Garcia isn't going to be anything more than average, unless he improves a ton...he does have the athleticism to be better. Flowers isn't a good enough defensive catcher than he can be at the very bottom of the league offensively (of course, his last 2-3 weeks shows he's not that bad at all as a hitter..but will he be able to sustain it?)

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Aug 10, 2014 -> 08:05 AM) We all know Tony didn't try and kill the guy, but he absolutely acted recklessly and contributed to his death. And now Stewarts history of anger issues and wrecking other cars on purpose and hurting other drivers will come into play Caulfield, Teddy Kennedy? For real? Wtf You're telling me his reputation isn't going to be severely tarnished from this point onward? That's not realistic. EVERY sports show on this morning, that's ALL everyone wanted to talk about. Give me another example of a famous person directly being held responsible for someone else's death, where it's clearly not murder...but MANY feel that it's pretty close, reckless endangerment/involuntary manslaughter, etc. Needless to say, there will be a ton of pressure on his sponsors. By the way, it was just announced 10 minutes ago Stewart wasn't racing today.

QUOTE (Brian @ Aug 10, 2014 -> 06:29 AM) How can you tell it was on purpose? I finally brought myself to watch the video and can't tell if there is intent or not. The kid is walking in the middle of a car race. WTF. The blue car went past and ALMOST hit him. That said, he (blue car) was able to keep his line much lower on the track, and there SHOULD have been enough time for him (Stewart) to correct his line. Forward vision is supposedly a non-issue in those types of sprint cars, according to those who drive them. It's the fact that he was CLEARLY upset with Stewart and shouting/screaming at him and that it was Stewart who actually hit him...just feels completely non-random. Nobody WANTS to believe it was intentional, and yet everyone understands the concept of "road rage" and the possibility he was trying to teach him a lesson or put him in his place and the situation just went out of control and he made a mistake and couldn't control his car (the fishtail) and its speed, although clearly witnesses believed he intentionally sped up or revved/gunned it. That and the fact that the race was under caution or yellow when it happened after the accident.

NASCAR doesn't "own" or "control" the drivers, to the extent the teams are like individual corporations or entities... So, at the moment, they can't keep their "brand" from being damaged in such incidents, at present...and they can't force Stewart not to race today. One would think that Bill France is getting a lot of calls already. Remember, Stewart's going to be facing a lot of protesters and angry family members in that region of the country...it's going to be like a hornet's next. Can you imagine this situation NOT becoming a distraction to the race itself, the other drivers and their teams, the sponsors for all the other NASCAR teams will be forced to have opinions. Stewart's own sponsors will quickly have to make snap decisions whether to stick by him or not...and then deal with the public relations fallout from such decisions.

QUOTE (Feeky Magee @ Aug 10, 2014 -> 03:08 AM) a) you're using the wrong WAR b) WAR is a cumulative stat and Abreu missed 2 weeks c) it's a good rule of thumb to be careful of seasons with huge defensive stats and look more towards career average d) like anything else, it's important to look at history as well as the current season. Seth Smith put up WAR of 1.2, 1.3, 1.2 and 1.1 his last 4 seasons. Cabrera 6.2, 6.7, 6.8 and 7.5. So I don't think WAR is telling us Smith is more valuable than Cabrera. Either way, the better WAR has Cabrera at 3.4 and Smith at 2.6 for this season. Which is reasonable, Smith is hitting .288/.383/.498 to Cabrera's .306/.365/.515 after all. e) devoid of context about age and contract, there's a decent number of players there you could make a strong argument that they are more valuable than Abreu right now. Trout, Tulo, McCutcheon, Cano, Puig and Stanton put up comparable offensive numbers at way more challenging defensive positions, and all have more speed on the bases. Lucroy is likely heavily undervalued because of his pitch framing. Finally, Jordan Danks just turned 28. Dayan is 25 and put up a 744 WAR rookie season at age 23 in the big leagues. That's going to get him the benefit of the doubt, and he's likely to finish with over 20 homers as well, which will help his case a bit when you look at the lack of pop we're getting out of 3B, 2B, CF, DeAza and Flowers (well, who knows who the REAL Tyler is?). I'll just say this, as things stand right now, Dayan Viciedo would go into next season as our #2 power threat behind Jose Abreu. In this day and age, you have to have SOME pop in your line-up. You could argue Avisail Garcia, but I'm not willing to go there until he proves it over a full season. Second, with Adam Eaton showing a proclivity for getting injured (at least this season), I think it's more and more likely Viciedo will be around again in 2015. Maybe Dayan won't just be given a starting job...as he entered this year in a platoon with DeAza. In a way Hahn "got lucky" when Garcia was injured that he had both DeAza and Tanks to cover that position. It has to be crossing his mind he needs a quality back-up option (compared to Leury Garcia or DeAza) who can play CF with Eaton getting injured so frequently. Statistically, if they played over a full season of 600 at-bats (I'm going by their cumulative major league results), Danks would hit 15.5 homers over 600 AB's and Dayan would hit 23.5 homers. We can argue all we want about WAR and Danks' defensive value, but his major league history has shown he's going to strike out out too much for that amount of power and that his defense, while VERY GOOD, isn't Gold-Glove caliber like an Endy Chavez or Franklyn Gutierrez in his prime or Torii Hunter or Juan Lagares.

It's also going to be a gut-wrenching decision whether he will race today or not. He just killed someone on the track, one-half the people think it might have been intentional...and he's 19th in the point standings for the Chase, so he has all the financial commitments to his sponsors as well to deal with. Don't know how he will deal with that, the guilt...compounded by the fact that if he does sit out this race, his enemies will use that as evidence that he's done something wrong and pulling out of the race is a form of culpability. Apparently there are no pending criminal charges (it's still under investigation) but you can be sure Ward's family will engage in a civil lawsuit against Stewart and his companies. A lot of the insurance agent(s) who handle his affairs probably were summoned out of bed at 2:00 a.m. or so last night when the story started to break on twitter. Apparently, Ward, Jr., the driver who was struck...died upon arrival at the hospital and not later, like at 1 or 2 .m. The incident actually happened around 10:30 p.m. or so EST. Ruggles, whose mother took her to the hospital after she began complaining of back pain following the accident, suffered a compression fracture in her back, according to the (Rochester) Democrat and Chronicle. "Right now, she has to take it one day at a time," Wendy Ruggles told the newspaper. "We had a big scare; she was close to being paralyzed." The track’s Facebook page posted that Ruggles was released from the hospital Thursday. "To quote our Alysha Ruggles - she said ‘Everyone needs to stop blaming Tony, it was a racing accident,'" the track said on its Facebook post. www.thesportingnews.com

This was from one year ago... Monday night’s accident was the latest in a string of spills Stewart has taken in sprint cars in recent weeks. On July 16, Stewart was involved in a 15-car pileup at Canandaigua (N.Y.) Motorsports Park that sent a 19-year-old female driver to the hospital. Last Monday night at Ohsweken Speedway in Ontario, Canada, Stewart was racing for the lead when his vehicle flipped five times. Although former NASCAR driver Jason Leffler was killed earlier this year in a sprint-car crash in New Jersey, Stewart maintains close ties to his short-track roots by scheduling roughly 70 sprint car events per year. Friday at Pocono Raceway, Stewart brushed off the Ohsweken accident as routine. http://www.sbnation.com/nascar/2013/7/17/4...print-car-wreck The story from a year ago....when Stewart took responsibility for causing a huge wreck which put 19 year-old Alysha Ruggles in the hospital.

I don't follow racing at all, but it seems that Stewart "just snapped" and I'm predicting the reason's (from his defenders) going to go back to the broken leg/rehab/recovery he went through to get back to NASCAR (didn't that injury happen in a similar type or form of racing??) and the one that's going to be thrown back out there against him is that he supposedly caused a big wreck one year ago in July at the same track at which at least two other drivers ended up hospitalized. They're going to look at the "kid" (20 and not 17 or 18) who was killed...his inexperience, and how the veteran driver in Stewart should have known better, as it would be more understandable for a teenager to try to kill a veteran/famed NASCAR driver than the other way around. Stewart's ego and hubris. How dare a "punk" kid on a sprint/dirt track engage him so publicly? Who does he think he is? Then you're also going to hear the...."he just meant to scare him a bit" or "he lost control at the last moment when he realized how close he was coming" or the prank defense...like when someone falls down in the snow or water and someone skis past them to taunt them a little bit, spraying them with snow or water but not inflicting any real physical harm. August 07 2014 KANNAPOLIS, N.C., (Aug. 6, 2014) – Tony Stewart will be turning left and right this weekend at Watkins Glen (N.Y.) International, but since this time last year, his career has come full circle. A year ago, Stewart was absent from The Glen. His streak of consecutive starts in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series ended at 521 when in the wee hours of Aug. 5, 2013, an accident in a sprint car race at Southern Iowa Speedway in Oskaloosa, Iowa, left him with a broken right tibia and fibula. Stewart’s season was over, and he did not return to a racecar until Feb. 14, 2014 when practice for the Sprint Unlimited began at 5 p.m. EST at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway. #StandWithSmoke was the mantra upon Stewart’s return, and it’s appropriate that #StandWithSmoke reappears in Stewart’s return to Watkins Glen.

QUOTE (Vance Law @ Aug 10, 2014 -> 01:16 AM) 1) He's not being made into a regular player for the future on this team. He's a 4/5 OF if he remains here. 2) He's never been given the regular at bats that Anderson got, but I bet he could outhit him. His .682 OPS last year in his most regular playing time along with being a plus on the base paths and on defense in CF made him at least a positive WAR player, which is more than can be said for Dayan Viciedo. I'm not buying it. WAR would tell you these 20 guys are all more "valuable" than Abreu. http://espn.go.com/mlb/stats/batting/_/sort/WARBR/order/true Would you take ANY of them over Abreu OTHER than Mike Trout? Heyward being THAT high? C'mon. Tulo and Stanton, sure, I could buy that argument. But Yan Gomes? Would you take Seth Smith over Miguel Cabrera, for example?

99% sure Danish will stay with that Winston-Salem team as they fight to get into the post-season. That club features 80-85% of our better prospects. Better if they learn to play together, win together and progress upwards more or less as one, although obviously Rodon's on a faster track than the others. The last time we had so much talent together on one team was 2009 Birmingham before Beckham was promoted.