caulfield12

QUOTE (flavum @ Jul 10, 2014 -> 04:32 PM) Hawk call Asians "Orientals" two games in a row. You would think that gets corrected after one. UGH. And we wonder why we have a hard time attracting Hispanic, African-American and Asian fans. Not just the White Sox, but baseball in general (actually, there's a ton of Asian MLB fans in California and NY, but doesn't seem to be a huge presence in Chicago, or mostly on the NorthSide until the Fukudome thing).

White Sox not exactly making much of an effort to charge back into this one. Things won't get any easier against Uehara. Webb fastball a tick or two better now...95/96 ish. 98 MPH fastball gets KILLT the other direction, almost destroys Garcia.

Wow...they might be willing to trade for Tyler Flowers now. NOT. Hello, JL, Mozeliak calling...how much do you want to rake us over the coals for Jason Castro for?

When is the press conference in Chicago scheduled? On the 18th, when the team comes back from the ASB? Or earlier, so they can get him out to Winston-Salem?

Red Sox radio guys questioning Ventura for pulling Sale "early" yesterday. They don't know how many pages at SoxTalk would pop-up (complete meltdown) had Ventura not conservatively/cautiously pulled him and he went down to injury in order to hold or complete what many would consider a meaningless victory in a rebuilding year. White Sox outhitting the Red Sox 7-2, haha. Of course. 4th straight start for Lester of 7 innings. He's placed himself at the top of the FA pitching list, maybe ahead of Scherzer, since his demands won't be QUITE as ridiculous as Scherzer's.

Let's face it...falling out of the Wild Card race now by losing five straight puts Rick Hahn squarely in the sell mode. Which is the right play. Then they can come back to fighting for .500 over the last 70+ games. I'm sure changing the catching situation (whatever they do) will breathe some new life into this team, just like it did for the Red Sox (see the WEEI anti-AJ article)...there's no doubt in my mind the Red Sox would be looking at a four game sweep had they not made that move. They just would have laid down and died with a 4-0 deficit in the late innings instead of fighting back. Well-timed, Cherington.

QUOTE (fathom @ Jul 10, 2014 -> 04:11 PM) I can't recall the last time the Sox played the same catcher in all 4 games of a series. You would think Tyler Flowers was the greatest catcher ever to get as much playing time as he has. Oh well, Quintana has to get over his 6th inning, 3rd time through the order scuffles to become a star. A not so subtle message to AJ Pierzynski that he's not needed, lol.

This will be another big test. Either we lay down and collapse going into the break or we fight back. Just go away, Tyler Flowers.

QUOTE (Capn12 @ Jul 10, 2014 -> 04:06 PM) And that's that. So we go from having a good shot to sweep a 4 game series from a dead Red Sox team, to splitting at best, and wasting a great Sale effort. Up until that inning, a great Quintana effort as well. He does have a propensity to kind of fall apart in situations like that, when there are some bad calls or questionable calls from the umps or particularly when the defense gives up extra outs and puts him under extra pressure. Not saying he's not a #2 starter, just that he doesn't have the dominating type of stuff to extricate himself out of those situations as often as an ace does.

Whether you want to blame Ventura, Cooper, Flowers or Jose for not shaking him off...that was just dumb.

Why did we just throw Ortiz five street curveballs with a base open???? 3-1 curve? WHAT?

Yeah, luckily we will have the huge assistance of my g/f (soon to be wife's) family, especially the mother...and her best friend. So like four parents...especially when we're working, which is normal in China, no such thing as daycare really. The current line of thinking is to spend at least 3-5 years in China to build all the pre-school skills in Chinese and English. I'm conflicted about living in a country like Singapore, but that's the most popular expat location these days because of the safety and standard of living...maybe continuing to teach in an international school and the child would have free tuition, which is probably the biggest factor with the cost of education these days, both abroad and in the U.S. My international school now costs about $8000 USD per year....the one I taught at the previous two years (near Shanghai) was double that. And, if you're married, the health care/delivery costs in China for a baby are practically zero.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Jul 10, 2014 -> 09:22 AM) The 2005 White Sox scored almost the exact same percentage of their runs from home runs as previous teams. You need power in USCF. It plays as an average park to even slightly pitcher friendly except for home runs. If you put this year's Royals team into USCF for 81 games, they would struggle to finish at .500 IMO.

Must protect "Red Sox Nation" mystique at all costs. It's getting more annoying than the "Butler Way." Big Papi's defensive, self-serving, "woe is me" rant about the steroids issue is just one more example...

Say what you want about Ozzie Guillen, but the fact that he managed to keep AJ "mostly" in line and a productive player with the White Sox is turning out to have been quite the accomplishment. He wore out his welcome in Minnesota (granted, Mauer was 90% of that), SF and Boston. No idea how we did in Texas last year in terms of clubhouse/chemistry, but that team also fell apart and drew lots of negative comments from the likes of Ian Kinsler, Michael Young and Nelson Cruz.

QUOTE (peppers312 @ Jul 10, 2014 -> 07:51 AM) Ramirez? he's one of the top SS in the AL and you want them to get rid of him? this is probably the most ignorant post i've ever seen. Ummm...okay. You have one asset on the team...do you hold him too long, like Bobby Jenks, Gavin Floyd, Jesse Crain, Joe Crede or Phil Humber? Right now, it's looking more likely that 2016 is the year the White Sox go all out for the playoffs, since it would be a mistake to push Rodon too quickly into the starting rotation. Yes, as of today, he's doing very well, his first two months are masking his June/July numbers. That said, he's also the only player on our major league roster with "premium" value on the trade market. If you believe he's more likely to return/regress to his offensive mean of 2011-2013, then you have to look into trading him. The other problem is that despite our plethora of minor league middle infield prospects, none of them profile yet as surefire replacements because of offensive or defensive flaws in their games (Sanchez, Semien, Anderson, L.Garcia and Saladino.) It's a "damned if you do, damned if you don't thing." That said, it's always better to trade a player one year too early than one year too late. Do you honestly think we'll get much back in return for DeAza, Dunn and Beckham?

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Jul 10, 2014 -> 07:46 AM) I have Neighbors although its called "bad Neighbors" and its has japanese subtitles. Right up your alley. My g/f and watched it with Chinese subs, although her English is good enough to watch without. We liked it, but it wasn't as funny (overall) as it was billed to be...and we liked Blended for the opposite reason, because we had zero expectations, so it was actually "not bad." While that's quite a low standard for comedies, it did actually have some pretty funny scenes. Maybe I'm just not as big of a Seth Rogen fan as others. On the other hand, I can't imagine too many people out there have him as their #1/favorite actor/comedian in the world. Who knows, though, people are weird.

They're not going to pay Shields $125-140 million. Pipe dream. He would be #2 starter, by the way, and #1 for at least half the teams in the majors. You can probably forget Gallardo because there's a club option which will undoubtedly be exercised by the Brewers. Martin, at his age, he's due for a regression, and a 3 year contract would be a big mistake. If they need to target a veteran catcher and there's no other choice, he should be closer to 28-30 than 33-35. Miller and Street are among the best in the majors for lefty-set up and closer, so it will be interesting to see if these kinds of "patch" moves are made going into 2015 or Hahn waits until 2016 when Rodon's ready to go from Opening Day in the starting rotation.

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Jul 10, 2014 -> 07:33 AM) What? I cant imagine street viagra/cialis is unsafe. Thats UNPOSSIBLE Nine times out of 10, it's men from India or the Middle East who are buying them. Guess they trust "street" Viagra more than Europeans/Americans/Canadians/Australians. Always ends up badly.

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Jul 10, 2014 -> 06:45 AM) Nice work, good to know it still works at that age! I would just take all those questions to your doctor, but I don't see why you couldn't go on a trip, just as long as you take it easy like you say. Well, if you ever want to find bootleg Viagra or Cialis pills on the streets, Thailand or the Philippines are your place. That said, don't buy them EVER because I've heard many older men have had heart attacks or bad reactions...seems like it happened every week in Thailand, you'd read about a foreigner dying under mysterious circumstances.

http://www.baseballamerica.com/fantasy/exp...endy-alcantara/ Alcantara's coming up temporarily with Darwin Barney on paternity leave.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Jul 10, 2014 -> 05:49 AM) Yeah and now it's over, forever. Trust me, I've had too much fun the last 9 years in Colombia, Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines, South Korea, the Czech Republic and China. Time to settle down and watch movies like "The Neighbors," haha. At any rate, the expiration date for being Owen Wilson/Vince Vaughn or Will Ferrell from Wedding Crashers was already long overdue. That said, it's quite the experience to be planning a second wedding (my first was in Russia and I only was involved in planning/organizing 10% or so) and getting ready for a child simultaneously. Plus, there's all these things like a solid stroller (cost in China is $1500, roughly), powdered milk (not safe in China), medicine for diaper rashes, etc., to buy and ship back while I'm in the US in August.

QUOTE (HickoryHuskers @ Jul 10, 2014 -> 05:42 AM) They didn't have to. Rodon wasn't going to turn down $6M to go back to college, and if he was going to turn down $6M then he's an idiot and I don't want him. It isn't so much just this signing as the precedent it sets. Now that the Sox have gone over slot once, every first round pick from now on is going to expect it. Setting a bad precedent. Probably moreso with Boras clients than anyone else. Let's remember Alex Jackson signed quickly and it wasn't a remarkable amount of money one way or the other. By the way, if they are sending him to Winston-Salem, is Austin going with him to be his personal catcher at least until he moves to BIRM? They seem to love JR Perdew as a pitching coach, so it's a great first placement...too bad Montas isn't around to benefit from seeing a polished pitcher go about his business and teach him a thing or two, but Tyler Danish will be able to pick up some things hopefully.

QUOTE (HickoryHuskers @ Jul 10, 2014 -> 05:37 AM) You had to know this would happen. That pretty much ensures a sweep for CLE. Because anytime we think we're a decent ballclub, heading back towards the .500 mark, that train gets derailed and we go back to "this team mostly sucks except for Sale/Abreu/Quintana." And it wouldn't be much of a surprise with Lester pitching for Boston and their desperation to make one last run at the WC/AL East before the deadline...two losses in a row...the going to Jacobs Field, where we got crucified last season.

QUOTE (pittshoganerkoff @ Jul 10, 2014 -> 05:27 AM) Remember that we've talked about the whole closer situation in the past. There are more teams than we may think that go through similar situations. With a team that is not likely to contend, not having a true closer is not a huge problem. Last night's loss is one of the 80-90 losses this season. I wouldn't say it was because of the lack of a true closer, I would say it was because of a lack of a good bullpen. Arguably, if we had either Tanaka or the best closer in baseball (pick one), we'd be 2-4 maybe 6 games over .500 and right in the middle of the race. Of course, we'd now have Tanaka on the DL and facing an uncertain future. And Hahn shouldn't/couldn't have thought trading for an elite closer (and I'm not even sure who was available....I guess names like Rodney and Joe Nathan, Soria and Huston Street now) with Jones and Lindstrom and Belisario and Webb all SEEMINGLY capable of doing the job. At that point, nobody was close to sure Abreu was going to be an MVP candidate. Many were hoping for just a 775-825 OPS for his first big league season.