caulfield12

Guess we have JPN's answer about who would jump into the BIRM rotation, at least for one start. Kloess. Mitchell, 0/5 with 3 K's, not good. Thompson's finally in the 220's again. Strange season, 19 doubles, 8 homers, 40+ RBI's...all or nothing hitter this year.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Jun 11, 2012 -> 10:13 AM) Humber is turning into Zach Stewart. How the hell did this guy pitch a perfect game?? He had his best stuff and it was the Mariners, who really didn't have many threats in the line-up at that time. Now they have Ichiro, Ackley, Seager, Smoak and Montero that can all reach out and bite you.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Jun 11, 2012 -> 10:11 AM) Vegas used to have insanely cheap hotel prices, figuring that once you got in the hotel, you'd lose your ass in the casino. They stopped doing that during the boom years. I haven't checked to see if prices are reasonably cheap again because of the recession/depression of the last 5 or so years. And also the reason for the $5.99 filet mignon and food or entertainment ticket specials like that. You leave the city recalling all the bargains and forget the fact you've spent hundreds or thousands in the casino.

QUOTE (knightni @ Jun 11, 2012 -> 10:00 AM) Season ticket holders could always be offered better seats at the same prices the following season. The idea is to get as many people to the ballpark while still adding revenue. What's so wrong with filling up the Upper UPPER parts of the stadium? They hardly ever have people in those seats. And then the "micro" considerations, like how many ushers are going to have to staff all those seats to keep the people who are paying for the cheapest tickets from moving to another seating area, for example... For me, it's crazy to think of the benefit of a $5 ticket when I know the parking that goes along with that will be 2X-8X more expensive than the ticket. That might be a primary reason NOT to come, psychologically. When you line all the numbers up, we're still destroying most of those teams like the Reds and Royals in overall revenues because of our average/frontline ticket prices being so much higher than all the teams 16-30 in attendance (the Mets would be the only other team with comparable prices).

I think between the $0.01 and $1 and $5 ticket prices, we're losing a lot of price points in between. The Sox seemingly can't cut ticket prices or discount too much, or it will hurt the current base of buyers who ARE willing to pay Top 4-8 ticket prices for all of the majors. Clearly, there's an idea that the Chicago White Sox ticket market is more inelastic than most other markets...that they can sacrifice X amount of attendance because there IS a willingness for those people/corporations to shell out money, even in a down time or continuing economic recession. That's all fine and good, as long as they continue to provide a product that from a cost/benefit standpoint is worthwhile to those people. The problem is going to be when they lose enough of the 20% who attend 80% of the games, where they will go for growth again? While I'll agree that many businesses (and teams) spend TOO MUCH time and money going for new or one-time customers, the White Sox almost seem complacent in this regard...that they're satisfied with their current economic model, as it's becoming less and less important to bottom line than ticket revenue was just 10 or 20 years ago, when it could make or break a franchise. I still continue to believe that they should make more efforts to entice all those fans that we've lost since 2005-06 back to see at least one game. You don't have to give them tickets for free, that erodes the value of your ticket price again...but you should make every possible effort in order to get former loyal customers to buy those former Ozzie/split plan packages. Have they done market surveys of all those fans who no longer buy tickets, what their primary considerations are? I'm almost positive they have, it's proprietary information that the team paid for, but it would be interesting to see how much of it is attributed to the team/product on the field, how much to the economy/prices/job security, how much to the squabbles between KW/Ozzie and the disappointing 2011 season, etc.

QUOTE (GreenSox @ Jun 11, 2012 -> 06:10 AM) Kenny Williams hasn't made a positive trade since the Carlos Quentin trade. What we don't need is him making more trades. Stick to the waiver wire and call-ups and move upstairs and hand the GM role to someone else. We have so few prospects that we don't need to trade them anyway. Surely a first place team has never changed general managers. Also, we've had 13 homegrown players on the major league roster, tops in the AL. A. Reed N. Jones Santiago Beckham Morel Viciedo Ramirez Escobar J. Danks Axelrod Quintana Lillibridge Flowers DeAza The last four came from other organizations but spent some OR significant time in our minor league system, particularly Flowers. Along with this liist, you can add Santos, Humber (it looked good for over a year), Hudson, McCarthy, Gio, Richard, Harrell, etc. It's sort of impressive that Harrell's 6-4 on one of the worst teams in baseball, that's something. He hasn't been great, but he's been at worst serviceable.

QUOTE (flavum @ Jun 11, 2012 -> 06:32 AM) Humber hasn't won a game at the Cell in a year. He's got to go. Sale, Peavy, Danks, Floyd, and Quintana seems pretty solid if Floyd gets it going. I think he'll run off a few good ones before the break. One thing is for sure...if Quintana pitches well Tuesday (and his next start if Danks stays on the DL), then he has to remain in the rotation. Even the ultra-loyal White Sox aren't stupid enough to demote Quintana if he keeps putting up quality starts. Quintana will get at least two more starts, this series and against the Dodgers this Sunday.

But season ticket holders are already going to be upset/depressed/demoralized when the stadium's like a mausoleum on many nights and there hasn't been a discernible "home field advantage" since 2008. It's already true that 80% or more of their efforts go to keeping the 20% of the attendees (season ticket holders and corporations) happy. It's hard to think of another stadium that is more clearly divided beween the 1% and 99%. If there is, I'd love to hear of an example. The fact of the matter is that they've lost roughly 20-30% of their season ticket holders over the last 2-3 season, and it's largely because of the product they've been putting out on the field. In the end, they can do more creative things (all you can eat bundles) to keep the season ticket holders happy...while not irritating your core customers. The fact of the matter is that because our fanbase is so small, there has to be another strategy besides firework, a few random giveaway nights and have a winning baseball team to put fans in the upper deck. They might be maximizing profits, but they're not creating an atmosphere that's conducive to attracting free agents or even just playing winning baseball at home.

QUOTE (Jake @ Jun 11, 2012 -> 04:13 AM) I love PK, but I have to say he's been allergic to hustle lately. Doesn't like running out of the box on ground balls and not sliding there is stupid. Half the pitchers in baseball are terrified to put a tag on a sliding baserunner at home Would he have been safe? Or you're just saying the pitcher might have dropped it or the ball might have gotten kicked or knocked away?

Vegas odds on how many runs Stewart gives up here? 2-3-4?

So much for that rally. Dayan getting himself out easily on a 3-0 pitch. Konerko out at home. UGH. Since when does Harrell throw 94-95 mph? Maybe we would have been better off with him over Humber!

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jun 11, 2012 -> 04:03 AM) Sox are now 16-18 at home on the year. 16 wins, 2 games below .500...that's just godawful baseball. Unforgivable. I'll assume you're joking. At least after the last add-on word.

QUOTE (Capn12 @ Jun 11, 2012 -> 03:58 AM) Seems it is acceptable to some, to lose to the worst road team in baseball. Yeah, SoxTalk is gonna get a bit irritated at the thought of getting blasted to this s***ty team, everyone should With how bad Floyd and Humber have been pitching, it wouldn't matter where the games were played and who the opponent was. Just surprised that Nathan Jones also imploded, too. Thought we had a decent chance to come back. So it's ironic that it's Harrell beating us, who we gave up for dead, and rightfully so. I don't think we should start arguing we should have kept Lucas Harrell over Humber. Although it's tempting.

Another day in first place, yay! It sucks that Dayan's swing has also gotten so big and hitchy again, too. Thank god for Peavy and Sale, that's all you can say about this season, and the perfect game/no hitter bug with the Sox...let's hope 2012 ends up better than the last two times Buehrle threw them.

Two carbon copy games. Just didn't expect the implosion from Nathan Jones, but guess it was due after how well he's pitched for most of the season.

461 feet Wind-aided, but an absolute bomb. Already has 9 K's, ties a career high, but another "non-quality" start.

Humber/Floyd problems continue... That ball was crushed. Had him down 0-2 and got afraid to make a mistake. Maxwell's going to get drilled next time after the way he was acting there. Went OVER the top of the foul pole, so it will be really hard to prove it was fair...hopefully the angle can show a clear call, but doubt they'll overrule. We'll see.

Underrated White Sox farm system, producing pitchers galore. Of course, we'll probably put up a crooked number on him eventually.

QUOTE (sunofgold @ Jun 10, 2012 -> 11:47 PM) It is a team effort. S'ace has been a large part of our success. But we have gotten contributions from everybody. PK is hitting close to .400, Adam Bomb is adambombin'. De Aza has been a spark in the leading spot. If we didn't have CS, then KW could have made another trade for a starter. also Dr. Quin looks promising. also, Danks and Floyd and Humber are capable of pitching better. Who was KW possibly going to trade to get another starter? If anything, we were going to deal Floyd to build for the future in the offseason or at some point during this season.

QUOTE (oldsox @ Jun 10, 2012 -> 10:51 PM) Denver Post speculated today (6/10) that Padres will offer 3B Chase Headley. Another possibility for a more journeyman 3B, and less expensive in trade, is Rockies infielder Cris Nelson. Tulo is coming off DL in a week or so, Nelson would be available. He is okay defensively, can hit a little bit. An upgrade over what we have now at third. NL to AL conversion is always scary now. They're going to go for a bigger upgrade than Nelson, a name player like Youkilis. Its always been KW's style to go big, except for Geoff Blum in 2005. Not to mention the Indians have the same problem at 3B if Chisenhall doesn't hit or Hannahan can't come back. The scarier thing would be if they added Quentin to go with Sizemore and Choo...if they could actually stay healthy and productive. Whether they can afford to add $3-4 million in salary after taking on Jimenez's deal is another question, plus dumping more prospects when they're still in building mode.

QUOTE (flavum @ Jun 10, 2012 -> 11:20 PM) Holmberg is in High-A at age 20. The bottom line (if I can borrow a phrase from Frank Thomas) is that it was an awful trade given the situation the Sox were in at the time. Does that mean Holmberg and Hudson will haunt the Sox for the next decade? Maybe not. But for now, it doesn't look good. But if the Sox win the World Series this year, they can hit the reset button and not care about any move made from November 2005 to October 2012. It isn't awful if it taught KW not to mortgage the entire future for a single season, or NOT to give up on young pitching after just 3 starts. If he makes the same mistake and deals Mitchell this year for pitching, it will be disappointing. Still, with DeAza/Viciedo/Rios, we have the OF covered for the next 2 1/2 seasons. Holmberg's like the #8 prospect for the DBacks. Who's to say Quintana isn't just as good already, or Santiago?

QUOTE (GreenSox @ Jun 10, 2012 -> 11:09 PM) There was nothing good about either E Jax trade. The DBacks were mired in an awful season, looking to dump salary with their 5+ ERA pitcher. Williams ends up giving them our top pitching prospect plus the top prospect in the low minors. Notably, the D Backs are Williams' top trading partner. ONe year later, Williams is holding the top SP available at the deadline. He gets a career AAA pitcher from the Jays and a career middle reliever that we didn't need. Was this the result of Williams sending out his scouts to scour the farm system of potential trading partners (like he should have done)? This is the best he could do? Notably, Williams executed two more trades with the Jays. It's not quite fair to call Stewart a career AAA pitcher, although he hasn't pitched well for us and looks like a bust. At the time, he had started a number of games for the Blue Jays at the major league level after having been converted from relieving. Frasor wasn't a bad move...teams can always use veteran RH relief pitchers, but he also wasn't good for us. Once again, the Jackson trade as much as anything was about dumping Teahen from the roster, unfortunately. Without eliminating Frasor, maybe we can't afford Thornton, Crain or Floyd are already rebuilding right now. Molina also doesn't look good, but where is Santos? With Reed and Jones, we had plenty of depth, it was worth the shot at adding to the starting rotation...so far, it hasn't really worked out for either team. In the end, recovery moves like Humber, DeAza and Quintana, to name a few, have masked the botched moves. Along with Jones and Reed, Santiago and Axelrod have helped to fortify the bullpen. We weren't planning on using Molina until late this season, anyway. The risk on Viciedo looks to have been the right one. As a GM, you don't need every move to work out in your favor. Chris Sale becoming an ace and Jake Peavy returning to form make up for a lot of sins.

Alejandro De Aza is having a scrapheap superfind season for the White Sox, posting a .389 OBP as the everyday leadoff man Juan Pierre could only dream of being. You’d be hard-pressed to meet folks beyond Chicago’s South Side who’ve noticed. What’s worth noting is that all these guys have OPS+ marks above 110. A total of 16 center fielders do so far this season. That’s why I’m bemused by the concept of average not meaning quite the same thing for center fielders these days. Center fielders as a group posted a 104 OPS+ in 2011 and 101 in 2010, but right now, major league center fielders are posting a collective 110 OPS+. It's probably no coincidence that the center fielder with the worst OPS+, Marlon Byrd, was designated for assignment Saturday. What this adds up to is that center field is moving up in the world. Among the position-playing positions, center fielders currently rank behind only the right fielders (115 OPS+) for production and are even a bit better than the first basemen (109). While MLB-wide offense is essentially flat this year relative to last, the center fielders as a group are doing better, a lot better. http://espn.go.com/blog/sweetspot/post/_/i...generation-next

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/boxing--timot...yz01ooMrzQ5nYcB Decision not bad for boxing? Pacquiao has a rematch clause in his contract, and the date was already determined to be Nov. 10 in the event of a rematch. Bradley even had a mock oversized ticket and mock poster printed to show off during the promotion to show people his confidence. Bradley (29-0, 12 KOs) didn't sound like a man who thought he won the fight. "It was a good fight. Every round was pretty close," Bradley said. "Pacquiao won the early rounds, I won the later rounds with my jab. I have to go home and see the tape to see who won." The CompuBox statistics favored Pacquiao, who landed more punches than Bradley in 10 of the 12 rounds. Pacquiao landed 253 of 751 punches (34 percent), while Bradley landed 159 of 839 (19 percent). Pacquiao also landed 82 more power shots (190-108). Although Bradley was game, he didn't seem to land many effective or clean shots. Pacquiao, meanwhile, landed a lot of shots. He shook Bradley several times in the fight, including with a combination late in the third round. "Manny hurt me a few times in the fight with his left," Bradley said. "He's a beast, but my corner told me if I won the last round, I would win the fight. I gotta give Manny a rematch. "Manny was aggressive, but he only landed four or five clean shots. He's a strong puncher, he rocked me a couple times. I withstood it and fought hard to the end." http://espn.go.com/boxing/story/_/id/80322...othy-bradley-jr

The White Sox have only scored 63 runs in the 15 games started by Floyd/Quintana/Axelrod/Stults, for a 4.2 average. In games started by their other four starters, they're averaging 4.98 runs scored. That's 126 fewer runs over the course of a season. In Sale's 11 starts, they've scored 57 runs, 5.2 runs.