caulfield12

When will Vetters be back? Wish we could trade them one of our relievers and get something decent back....when/if the time comes to do so.

The 'Avengers' Bump: What Do 'Thor' & 'Captain America' Sequels Stand to Gain in the Wake of 'Iron Man 3'? ADD COMMENT ON MAY 07, 2013 BY SHAWN ROBBINS PRINT As the industry watches the incredible global success of Iron Man 3, we now know that last year's phenomenal reception of The Avengers had a big hand in increasing the domestic and overseas appeal of another Tony Stark-led sequel. For instance, 2010's Iron Man 2 took in $312.1 million stateside and $310 million in foreign markets. With the triple-whammy combo of increased Avengers interest, further expanding markets, and premium 3D prices, Iron Man 3 is already at $506 million overseas--and counting. In fact, the film is on pace to exceed The Avengers' box office receipts in many Asian markets. Domestically, Iron Man 3 exceeded the number of tickets sold by Iron Man 2 on opening weekend after accounting for inflation and 3D prices. That's a fairly rare feat among second sequels whose predecessors (Iron Man 2, in this case) aren't as well-liked as the original film. With a clear path toward at least $1.1 billion worldwide (and likely more), Iron Man 3 is setting a high standard for the next Marvel Cinematic Universe installments. None will be tested sooner than Thor: The Dark World, releasing this November. Domestically, that sequel has a good shot at the first Thor's $181 million in 2011--but being regarded as an event nearly as large as Iron Man 3 still seems a herculean task. Why? Two words: Catching Fire. Lionsgate's surefire hit opens just 14 days after Thor 2 on November 22. That said, the first Hunger Games movie wasn't quite as big of a monster hit overseas as it was in North America last year. If the status quo remains there, that gives Thor: The Dark World a foreign advantage--a very important one these days. 2011's Thor grossed $265 million overseas (itself an impressive number at the time). If the success of The Avengers and Iron Man 3 really are indicative of expanding foreign interest in the comic book genre (something recently shown by Chris Nolan's Dark Knight sequels), The Dark World may stand to gain quite a bit on it's predecessor. Beyond Thor, the next sequel will be 2014's Captain America: The Winter Soldier. That film has opted for an April release next year (for now, anyway). As the lowest grossing of the three major solo Avengers (we're excluding Hulk since his solo movies have ended for the foreseeable future), a large increase over the sequel's $367.7 million global tally isn't likely... yet. The nature of that character's obvious domestic appeal puts more importance on the North American performance, and getting a jump on the summer schedule next year isn't a bad strategy on how to tackle that. Then, in August 2014, comes Guardians of the Galaxy. This will be Marvel's most potentially esoteric adaptation yet, but their track record is hard to dispute. With a complete cast of new characters and new cosmic settings, forecasting its box office potential is simply out of the question for now. It's a complete wild card. There are two factors to remember with the core sequels, though. #1: Iron Man 3 was the first in its series to be released in 3D. While The Dark World and The Winter Soldier still stand to gain from the success of The Avengers, their predecessors were already released in 3D in 2011. In other words, expecting a 200-250 percent increase in foreign grosses (as will ultimately be enjoyed by Iron Man 3 over Iron Man 2) seems highly unlikely for those two. The second factor: the law of diminishing returns. As the first post-Avengers movie, it cannot be ruled out that Iron Man 3 stood far more to gain than any of the other solo films will. Nevertheless, both the Thor and Captain America sequels will still be major global players. The $758 million global take of an established A-list property like The Amazing Spider-Man might not even be out of the question for one (or both). Will $1 billion be in either of their futures? It seems unlikely, but Iron Man 3 has taught us to never say never. Ultimately, as it follows a $1.5 billion-grossing 2012 phenomenon, Marvel's The Avengers 2 is well-positioned to conquer the box office again two years from now. That much we can take to the bank. boxoffice.com

LA Angels on the verge of falling to 11-21 and losing to the DisAstros.

LA Angels on the verge of falling to 11-21 and losing to the DisAstros.

Viciedo 0 for 6 with 2 K's tonight. Well, we knew he was going to be rusty...no surprise there.

QUOTE (Chicago White Sox @ May 7, 2013 -> 07:52 PM) Here's my question. Say we hold on to Sale, Peavy, Danks, Quintana, & Santiago peg them for our rotation next year. What moves can be made to fix this offense between now and opening day 2014 if you're actually trying to compete? Trade Axelrod. Trade Ramirez and give SS to Sanchez and hope he can put up a 625-650 OPS. Decide who they'd rather keep between Crain and Lindstrom and deal the other. Trade Thornton. The big argument's going to be about trading Peavy...can what they would get in return offensively offset the falloff from going to Axelrod or Johnson to replace him? Then if you take Konerko's money off the books, Peavy, Ramirez, Crain and Thornton...you have created quite a bit of money to play around with and fix the offensive holes. It could obviously not work. But they have to do something. They also might need to go out and find a starting catcher....so they need to audition Phegley in the 2nd half to make sure he's not the answer for 2014. Going with Sanchez is a huge risk which can obviously backfire, but at this point, they're better off getting out from under Alexei's contract if they can pull it off. The return will be fairly marginal, though. (And maybe, just maybe, Semien or Saladino can play their way into the picture). You have to keep Rios because we don't have anyone ready to step in offensively from the minors. You might even have to keep DeAza.

http://www.milb.com/scoreboard/index.jsp?s...mp;ymd=20130507 Birmingham with a 16 run offensive explosion in a rain-shortened game. Arroyo didn't give up a run, but peripherals are not astouding. Wilkins (2), Saladino and Black, who's probably been the top hitter of all the affiliates, all homered. Walker's still struggling. Thompson manages to put up RBI's but he needs to get his BA at least into the 240's or 250's to be a viable candidate for future promotion.

QUOTE (Quinarvy @ May 7, 2013 -> 07:42 PM) Loved and hated it. Loved it in context of the film, hated it in context of handling the source material. All in all, it's not stopping me from loving that movie. I rewatched Iron Man last night and 3 trumped it. IM3 right now trumps all the films but Avengers and MAYBE Captain America. Chris Evans just doesn't have a strong enough personality. In some respects, it's the part or role. He's supposed to represent "everyman" and be a character that guys like Downey and Ruffalo would play off against, the "straight guy." OTOH, when he's trying to carry the movie all by himself...it can drag...Tommie Lee Jones, to me, was a more poignant presence in that film, of even the scene-stealing Hugo Weaving overacting as the villain.

QUOTE (Marty34 @ May 7, 2013 -> 08:06 PM) The Sox can't put together a bullpen that's good enough to win a division. It's not an easything to do, but look since 2005, the years with good pens are few and far between. Do you really believe they came up short in 2006, 2010 and 2012 because of their bullpens? There are 10-15 other areas you could pinpoint before casting blame in that direction. You can say that 2007, KW went "on the cheap" and it led to a disastrous season and he overcompensated by paying a ton to Dotel and Linebrink, and later Crain. But that bullpen in the first half of 2008 was the main reason we ended up surviving and winning the division...even though Linebrink was never the same pitcher after returning from injury in the 2nd half.

QUOTE (fathom @ May 7, 2013 -> 07:58 PM) Cy Wood He's their early season version of Santiago.

QUOTE (danman31 @ May 7, 2013 -> 06:34 PM) As I clearly and simply said above you're rewarding positive stats and punishing negative ones so the ranking is correct, but the math that went into it is random. The actually numbers don't have proper context. Why would you divide by ERA? You could subtract ERA and that would do the same thing in terms of the relative number. Dividing by ERA will make a pitcher without gaudy stats but a low ERA look comparatively better. Someone like Beck for example, who's not putting up a ton of amazing stats but has pitched very well, overall.

QUOTE (Marty34 @ May 7, 2013 -> 07:58 PM) No. It was pretty good, with exception of Veal, until the last couple of weeks. The cracks are starting to show without Santiago to rely on. Plus, when you only have starters going through the 5th inning, forcing the bullpen to go 4 innings simply isn't going to work on a consistent basis.

QUOTE (fathom @ May 7, 2013 -> 07:55 PM) Sox are a botched play by Getz away from getting shutout for 3rd time in 4 games. They're the worst offense in the AL, and it's not even close. Which is a recipe for disaster playing 81 homes games at USCF. Worse, it's horrible for business.

Well, it figures after Jones got all those "vulture" wins last year in relief that he would be 0-3 this year.

QUOTE (Buehrle>Wood @ May 7, 2013 -> 07:11 PM) Let's get him. Anyone making Walker look competent for even a limited time should be good. If nothing else, it would make for an interesting soap opera if Gordon broke up with her or vice-versa and Fletcher was still his hitting coach. Would give new meaning to the word "flips." She definitely deserves a spot on the "hot babe" thread, that's for sure.

QUOTE (fathom @ May 7, 2013 -> 07:11 PM) Scapegoat all the way The fans aren't going to care about this hitting coach change...they'll be lucky to get an article in the TRIB. Maybe they can get "guest" columns by Rongey, Merkin or Dan McNeil preaching more patience with our hitters.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ May 7, 2013 -> 07:10 PM) Getting rid of Manto isn't going to make the Sox hit better. It's going to have to be Jesus and Lazarus to do any good with our hitting.

QUOTE (Buehrle>Wood @ May 7, 2013 -> 07:09 PM) They allow two now. Scooter Fletcher (his daughter is dating Beckham) is Walker's in ATL.

Flowers, Keppinger and Dunn....the "Sub Mendoza Line Cold Cut Trio," coming to a Subway in your neighborhood.

5 walks is going to get him killed pitching for Chicago. It's the new "obvious" stat of the day. 80% of the time when your pitchers give up more walks than your team's hitters compile, you lose.

Wow, Harvey only had 79 pitches coming into this inning. Sheesh.

QUOTE (Soxfest @ May 7, 2013 -> 07:04 PM) The current Sox team is a collection of misfit toys and they are going nowhere this season. I remember keeping track of the 85-88 offenses from box scores in the newspaper when I was in high school....and this offense is even worse than some of those teams, at least without Beckham and Viciedo.

QUOTE (Knuckles @ May 7, 2013 -> 07:01 PM) Which makes you wonder, is there something we don't know? Is the coaching staff blind? No, just stubborn. Clearly, at this time, Santiago has the second best stuff in the rotation, and he's looked better than Sale this year with the exception of getting battered around by the Indians when he came into the game on short notice to replace Floyd. Other than that, he's been like 2011 first half Sergio Santos or 2012 Donnie Veal.

111 pitches. Chicago White Sox baseball. Being carried by two 30th round draft picks nobody had even heard about 2 years ago at this time, except for those who watched Axelrod in the College World Series playing for UC-Irvine (Go Anteaters!)

QUOTE (fathom @ May 7, 2013 -> 06:27 PM) Here's a question: did they flat out miss the tears last year when he had similar pain? Quite possible. Or we're not giving him nearly enough credit for "manning up" and pitching in pain as we should have. (Not that it's advisable from the club's point of view, but it is respected by his teammates, like Konerko trying to play through last season).