caulfield12

http://news.yahoo.com/lawsuit-names-white-...36874--mlb.html CHICAGO (AP) — The former head of the Illinois Sports Facilities Authority filed a lawsuit Monday against White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf and former Illinois Gov. Jim Thompson, claiming they conspired to fire her two years ago to stop her reforms at the public agency. Perri Irmer, the agency's former executive director, filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Chicago. It claims Reinsdorf and Thompson "sought to silence Perri Irmer and to stifle her efforts to protect Illinois taxpayers from Reinsdorf's greed." Reinsdorf pressured Thompson to remove her when the former governor was chairman of the agency, according to the complaint, which alleges Reinsdorf opposed Irmer because she succeeded in getting the White Sox to pay the agency $1.2 million in yearly rent for the use of U.S. Cellular Field. Thompson and a Reinsdorf spokesman denied the lawsuit's claims, with Thompson calling the suit a "self-serving tirade." Irmer's lawsuit, which seeks unspecified financial damages to cover her losses, includes biting language to describe Reinsdorf's alleged clout. Reinsdorf exercised "undue influence over former Governor Thompson and apparently over all the members of the ISFA Board of Directors who became complicit in allowing Reinsdorf to treat Cellular Field and the surrounding publicly owned lands as his personal fiefdom," the lawsuit states. The lawsuit alleges that the public agency has used taxpayer money to build and renovate U.S. Cellular Field and to build the Bacardi at the Park restaurant next door, but the White Sox organization has kept most of the revenue. "The highly favorable terms granted to the White Sox in 1988 and intended to last until at least 2029 served to create a sense of entitlement on the part of White Sox Chairman Reinsdorf, who has repeatedly acted as though Cellular Field was a gift by the Illinois taxpayers to Reinsdorf and his team," Irmer's lawsuit contends.

His upside is Johan Santana-Lite. His downside is back end starter/long man/middle reliever.

QUOTE (Knuckles @ Apr 18, 2013 -> 12:05 AM) Strikeout galore in the Tigers - Mariners game. Bottom 13th right now, I hope Tigers deplete their awful bullpen before the Angels series. The Tigers don't have an awful bullpen....they just have a lot of uncertainty at the back end. Smyly could be a 5th starter for 85% of MLB teams, Benoit and Dotel are solid veterans, Coke was great last year in the post-season, Downs is a decent LOOGY, Alburquerque has filthy stuff when he's healthy....Villarreal is one of those guys who COULD be a dominant pitcher if he gets it together in the Nathan Jones mode. Bullpen blues JAYSON STARK/ESPN Reasons to worry about the Tigers: Detroit's bullpen is now 0-3 with a 5.31 ERA and more blown saves (three) than saves (two). It's also currently playing everyone's favorite game: Who's The Closer? Tigers Bullpen Worry Meter: "In that division, they'll be fine with what they have right now," said one scout. "With a team like that, you don't need a lights-out guy to get you through the season. You need one in the playoffs. So they'll be fine. If they need to go get somebody [in July], they'll go get somebody."

QUOTE (greg775 @ Apr 17, 2013 -> 11:01 PM) Wow, what a clean victory. Maybe the Sox are getting used to playing on the road. Keep winning, White Sox! Nice job tonight by many players. If you'll remember, for many parts of the last 3-4 seasons, the White Sox were actually a better road than home team. Quentin and Beckham, in particular seemed to hit better on the road...would have to pull up the splits again and look at it more carefully.

No hitters broken up. Fr. Gutierrez has been off to an uncharacteristically good offensive start. Always has been a superlative defender.

http://espn.go.com/mlb/attendance The interesting question is can the Twins/Indians/Rays 10 game homestand avoid putting us in 29th place for attendance? We will have to wait until May 10th to play a team that should be a good draw in the Angels, and that's also a weekend series (assuming the Angels actually pick up the pace and start playing better than their woeful 4-10 start).

Hawkins now with 25 K's in 40 AB's (43 PA). Mitchell at least has 9 BB's, there's that. Same number of K's as Hawkins, but only two doubles and no homers.

Remember when Ricky Romero used to be considered one of the best up-and-coming lefties in the game?

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ Apr 17, 2013 -> 07:10 PM) That 8-10 HR barrage in 7-10 days stretch better be coming soon. A couple more 0/4 games and that average is going to be below .100. Only needs an 0/7. THAT would definitely start attracting national baseball writers to the "Dunn Story" again...especially after he SEEMINGLY recovered the first half of 2012. Can't remember such a bizarre career twist after such a consistent statistical track record in my lifetime...definitely not with a Sox player.

QUOTE (BigEdWalsh @ Apr 17, 2013 -> 07:08 PM) He'd have to pretty much go on a rampage just to get up to .200. 6/54. He goes 6 for his next 6, he's at .500, lol.

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ Apr 17, 2013 -> 07:06 PM) By far the best overall performance (Dunn excluded) of the season. Minus Bautista and Reyes, the Blue Jays still have plenty of decent hitters in that line-up. Very encouraging start for Quintana in 2013 after the very rough first outing.

Now you definitely pull Quintana... There's no reason for him to be out there unless he argues VOCIFEROUSLY he feels good and wants to go out there for one more inning. Respect the Verducci Effect, when possible...and what happened in the 2nd half last season to Peavy/Sale/Quintana.

DELETE

Well, we all know Torii Hunter's not a .400 hitter. I can't quite believe he was a .300 hitter last year....but with that line-up in LA, he had a lot of protection with Trout, Pujols, Morales, Trumbo, etc.

J4L, what's your take on the Blue Jays and AA these days? They have a target on their backs this year, having purchased 1/5th of the Marlins' roster...and some pretty high priced talent in Johnson, Buehrle and Reyes. Didn't work for the Dodgers last year...we'll see how it goes in the AL East this year.

T-Flow back up to the Mendoza line, hitting exactly .200. Stupid KW, if we had Tyler Greene LAST YEAR instead of Olmedo, you could make an argument we might have advanced into the playoffs...that game that Alexei showed up late and got benched for Olmedo was a critical loss.

Ramon Ortiz has been around forever. Born in 1973. I remember when he was a pretty decent starter with the Angels.

QUOTE (Tannerfan @ Apr 17, 2013 -> 06:48 PM) If Dunn had any sense of decency, he'd call a press conference, say "I'm sorry." And retire. David Wells can attend with him...and Todd Ritchie. Most importantly, Jose Paniagua, haha. At least someone FINALLY beat up Justin Masterson...the rejuvenated, Valentine-free Red Sox. And very quietly, Carl Crawford has come out of the gates ready to play for the Dodgers this year.

You have to hope those five homers (at least two and I think three against top opposing pitching prospects) will give him the confidence he needs to settle in and build his average back up into the mid 200's. I would be happy with anything above a .240/.250 average for a kid that raw at age 19 playing in High A ball. And hopefully he can start picking up some walks and improving his plate discipline a bit.

Viciedo now ahead of DeAza, Keppinger, Dunn and Flowers in BA at .222. Since we can't pick on Flowers tonight, that leaves the first three.

Cinco homers. El profundo. I don't know if we can call the Rios move a "genius" one exactly....because of the effect it had on the team/clubhouse/chemistry/Dye in 2009, and because of the 2011 disappointment. He's getting closer and closer to earning his money, though...and has clearly become the best White Sox position player.

Julio Franco or John Kruk could come out of retirement and both hit better than Dunn is now... Tony Gwynn, too. Tony Gwynn, Jr.

We're sure Baustista won't be back tomorrow? He's the one that really scares you in that line-up, although Encarnacion and Rasmus have dinged us up...heck, losing 19 of the last 22 games up there before last night...EVERYONE in their line-up was dangerous against the Sox.

Vanessa Hudgens...high school musical/disney star turned back girl wanna be, well, sort of

Hope this isn't one of those games where we score all our runs early....suddenly stop scoring and let the opposition slowly back into the game run by run. Alexei Ramirez must have been reading SoxTalk this offseason, haha. Not done yet.