caulfield12

QUOTE (The Ultimate Champion @ Mar 30, 2013 -> 08:17 AM) I sense that overall the Sox thinking is to acquire as much talent as possible in the most cost-efficient manner possible, and to put the best possible team on the field each and every season while still building for the future. That's so wrong. It is always foolish to concern yourself with your own matters, especially when others around you are doing more interesting things. f*** the hamburger in front of me, I'd rather go hungry watching that guy eat his steak. Why? Because he's better than me. IMO the proper approach for Sox brass should be to hold an emergency meeting every time a division rival acquires, promotes or extends a good MLB player or prospect and at that point decide whether it's best to play any games at all or instead to shift the focus to monster truck rallies. And right now, after the Verlander deal, all I can hear in my head is Gene Honda shouting "Sunday! Sunday! Sunday!" because we're totally f***ed and the sky is black and holy s*** we're doomed and Jerry needs to sell among other things. I don't remember saying anything about selling the team.

If we tried to trade Dylan Axelrod today, he would fetch the same in return as Lucas Harrell or Phil Humber. We have three or four distinct advantages with our organization right now, maybe 4. 1) Cuban connection...but we didn't go after Puig or Soler 2) Minor/major league outfield depth....DeAza/Viciedo/Mitchell/Walker/Thompson/Hawkins 3) Starting pitching goes 6-7 deep, especially if Danks is 100%, plus 3-4 minor leaguers behind them (Castro, Molina, Rienzo, Johnson) 4) Bullpen/bullpen depth (Septimo, Veal, Santiago, Omogrosso, etc.) 5) I'll add one more....the chance to have a fresh start and get rid of Williams, JR., Silverio, etc. But still, Buddy Bell is the constant. Somehow, one of those four areas has to be leveraged to our benefit soon in order to become more competitive.

It's pretty simple. Verlander and Miguel Cabrera are the two most important players in the AL Central, maybe the entire AL, right now. Knowing that Verlander's going to be around not just 2013 and 2014 but well into the future...could change the organizational thinking of the White Sox. The odds are diminished of both the White Sox beating the Tigers head-to-head or taking a Wild Card spot (look at the AL East, Angels/A's/Rangers/Mariners, the continued improvement of the AL Central with the Royals and Twins now turning the corner on a youth movement)...that would be one conclusion. The White Sox are in a very tough spot. They're probably not good enough right now to win the division unless everything goes perfectly right, and that's adding some pieces at midseason (like we did with Liriano, Youk and Myers). It doesn't mean that it's ALL doom and gloom...but I just can't imagine Axelrod being part of our long-term future...we really need to push the envelope with guys such as Santiago and Trayce Thompson/Hawkins that have the highest upside, instead of taking that unsatisfying middle road of being competitive but not quite good enough. Yet we can't begin to think about tearing down the team in any significant way until halfway through the season. I think looking at the schedule, a lot of Sox fans are thinking about a 2007/09/10/11 start to the season and how realistic being a comeback team in the 2nd half would be, based on team history and the ages of veteran players like Konerko, Dunn, Rios, Peavy, Keppinger, Ramirez, etc.

It's pretty simple. Verlander and Miguel Cabrera are the two most important players in the AL Central, maybe the entire AL, right now. Knowing that Verlander's going to be around not just 2013 and 2014 but well into the future...could change the organizational thinking of the White Sox. The odds are diminished of both the White Sox beating the Tigers head-to-head or taking a Wild Card spot (look at the AL East, Angels/A's/Rangers/Mariners, the continued improvement of the AL Central with the Royals and Twins now turning the corner on a youth movement)...that would be one conclusion. The White Sox are in a very tough spot. They're probably not good enough right now to win the division unless everything goes perfectly right, and that's adding some pieces at midseason (like we did with Liriano, Youk and Myers). It doesn't mean that it's ALL doom and gloom...but I just can't imagine Axelrod being part of our long-term future...we really need to push the envelope with guys such as Santiago and Trayce Thompson/Hawkins that have the highest upside, instead of taking that unsatisfying middle road of being competitive but not quite good enough. Yet we can't begin to think about tearing down the team in any significant way until halfway through the season. I think looking at the schedule, a lot of Sox fans are thinking about a 2007/09/10/11 start to the season and how realistic being a comeback team in the 2nd half would be, based on team history and the ages of players like Konerko, Dunn, Rios, Peavy, Keppinger, Ramirez, etc.

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/justin-verlan...-203513113.html Jeff Passan in favor of the move.

And when he (Verlander) showed up at Comerica Park and saw those statues out there in left-center field, you'd better believe he was thinking that he wanted to prove he deserved one of them himself. He'll get one now. He's committed to the Tigers now through his age-36 season, which gives him seven more years to add to a legacy that already includes 124 wins (you bet he'd like to take a shot at 300), six straight 200-inning seasons (probably would have been seven if the Tigers had allowed him to do it as a rookie), three strikeout crowns in the last four years and first- and second-place finishes in the Cy Young voting the last two years. On the way to all that, he has thrown a ton of pitches, 1,000 more than any other pitcher in the game over the last six years (and that doesn't even include the postseason). Some would say that all those pitches will take a toll, that all those pitches are one more reason why he won't make it to the end of this contract as an elite pitcher, a reason that the Tigers shouldn't have signed him for this long or that other teams should actually be happy that they won't be able to bid for Verlander on the free-agent market. The problem with that theory is that Verlander has already proven he can do things other guys can't. Who's to say that can't continue? Besides, there's no doubting that, right now, having Verlander atop the Tigers' rotation makes them one of the elite teams in baseball, perhaps even the best. There's every reason to believe that will still be true two years from now. The Tigers had a choice. They could pay up by Verlander's opening day deadline, or they could take a major risk that, after 2014, Verlander would be pitching (and winning) for somebody else. They couldn't sign Verlander to a shorter contract. Believe me, if they could have, they would have. Verlander had a choice, too. He could play it out and see if he could get even more, or he could sign now and commit to the Tigers. He could hope for more money, or he could go for a statue. The statue won out. Danny Knobler, cbssports.com

Florida storms back with a 16-2 run to close out the first half. FGCU will either wilt under the pressure or put together another run of their own. Interesting to see which way it goes. We'll find out how good Enfield is as a coach. UF is mauling them on the boards.

Carlos Lee was REALLY bad. Maybe not as bad as Sax, but worse than Raines.

Launched October 1, 2004 Network Comcast SportsNet Owned by NBCUniversal (20%) J. Joseph Ricketts Family (20%) Jerry Reinsdorf (40%) Rocky Wirtz (20%) Who can put a dollar figure on exactly how much that is worth? Plus advertising revenues...we know the White Sox experienced higher ratings last year for t.v. (making up for some of the falling attendance as well) as more and more fans have been staying home in the era of higher ticket prices and big screen/HDTV.

Pods his second time around was pretty good, too. As long as he wasn't playing CF. Raines wasn't very good...decent, but nothing to write home about.

QUOTE (CaliSoxFanViaSWside @ Mar 29, 2013 -> 12:24 PM) I'm surprised Viciedo didn't move up more after hitting 25 HR's in his 1st full season. Maybe I should be surprised he was ranked 380 the previous year when he only had a few September call ups in prior to last year which would rank him better than nearly half the major league players without doing much of anything. And his defense was surprisingly decent. This year is the really big year in determining what kind of player he eventually becomes. Just a good/average one (due to impatience, swinging at bad pitches, struggles with inside fastballs and breaking balls out of the zone, lower OBP) or a very good/great hitter. A lot of that was also based on the hype from 2010 when he tore up the minors and was a pretty key piece down the stretch, when Ozzie used him against mostly LHP.

QUOTE (farmteam @ Mar 29, 2013 -> 10:52 AM) Watched Rock of Ages last night. Not great, but a fun movie. Julianne Hough was bad, bad, bad in that. I guess we'll see this weekend with Kim Kardashian in the Tyler Perry movie, who's worse....her, Taylor Swift or Kim.The timing of the comic moments is off, and the film drags and drags before reaching a conclusion anybody can see from a mile off. Adding the no-talent Kim Kardashian to his sass and semonette formula was a mistake.The quartet of leads is blander-than-bland. The “Temptation” of the title is a come-on and a false promise. How “tempting” can a movie about cheating be with a PG-13 rating? Casting Norwood, a vapid clothes horse Kim Kardashian as a shallow, judgmental colleague in the dating service and Vanessa Williams as the boss of that service suggests that Perry is drawn to women who have been media (and man) victims, from time to time. But the filmmaker has points to make, about wealth and the allure of the new. “There’s nothing wrong with being rich and having nice things — so long as the nice things don’t own YOU.” “We become a lot of different people before we settle into who we are.” With homilies like that, I expected Perry to get into the talk show/advice game, but Steve Harvey leaped at that. But cranking out two formulaic movies like this a year show the Atlanta mogul’s true ambition — replacing all those soap operas TV is canceling, two hours at a time.Roger Moore-Movie Nation.com BTW, Wonder what happened to that Hispanic lead singer/co-star from Rock of Ages? Haven't seen him since. Tom Cruise and Malin Ackerman were cute together. Really liked his over the top performance, reminded me of Frank TJ Mackey in Magnolia. Olympus Has Fallen...predictable, formulaic, but good summer popcorn movie in spring, at least better than most of Gerard Butler's recent romantic comedy attempts, getting back to his bread and butter

QUOTE (Cali @ Mar 29, 2013 -> 11:36 AM) The Tank is gonna have to be hitting bombs cause the guys on in front of him aren't gonna be flying around the bases if he hits one to the gap haha Seems we always have at least 2 slows guys in the middle. It was worse with Thome, Dye and Crede, not to mention AJ...around. AJ was a smart baserunner, but not exactly fleet of foot. And Rios and Alexei, for all their athleticism, hit into more than their fair share of DP's.

37 Chris Sale, up from 244 entering 2012 98 Paulie, down from 75 115 Jakemeister, up 126 places 158 Alex Rios, up 307 182 Danks, down a charitable 47 183 Dunn, up 190 188 Addison Reed, up 263 226 Matt Thornton, down 19 (charitable) 260 Gavin Floyd, down 68 266 DeAza, NR 273 Sexy Alexei, down 120 316 Viciedo, up 64 331 Keppinger, up 148 359 Crain, up 25 407 Beckham, down 34 424 Quintana, NR 425 Santiago, NR 436 N. Jones, NR 449 Lindstrom, NR 492, Flowers, NR You have seven players improving at least 100 places, plus the last five guys that came out of nowhere in Quintana/Santiago/N. Jones/Lindstrom/Flowers. Sale, Rios, Dunn, Reed and DeAza made the biggest jumps. Can Peavy and Keppinger continue their upswings at their respective ages? The players to look for improvement from are obviously Danks, Thornton, Floyd, Ramirez, Viciedo (most would argue that way) and Beckham. A lot are cautiously optimistic/hopeful Paulie can be the same hitter he was in the 1st half, but skeptical due to the age concerns. SOURCE: espn.com/mlb

QUOTE (Jake @ Mar 28, 2013 -> 08:06 PM) Sounds like they're doing a good job. I think we have just enough to spend that we could really bring in a big name if the time and player was right -- the nice thing about the way we do things is we don't like to bring on huge salary commitments just because. No Michael Bourns or Kyle Lohses here. We could make a big dollar acquisition via trade this year to put us over the top or we could really do some adding in the next offseason if we want with a lot of money coming off the books. Manny Ramirez was a waste of money, but, otherwise, most of our mid to late season additions have been pretty good.

The Cavaliers, who finished the season 23-12, brought a 19-game home-court winning streak into the game. Snap, crackle, pop. Virginia went 9-0 at home against Atlantic Coast Conference teams this season. Coach Tony Bennett’s team was fourth nationally in scoring defense at 57.2 points per game. Duke scored 68 in a loss to the Cavaliers. No other ACC team scored more than 55. Iowa torched those numbers, shooting 49.1 percent from the field and making all 15 of its free-throw attempts. The last 14 came in the final 3 minutes and 9 seconds, which showed maturity from a team that had struggled in the final minutes of several Big Ten road games. “Guys made free throws, guys made passes,” said McCaffery, whose team was 2-8 on the road before Wednesday. “We never panicked.” Iowa’s 24th victory puts this team, two seasons removed from an 11-20 record, tied for third with the 1987-88 team for most single-season victories in school history. Only the 2005-06 team, with 25, and the 1986-87 team, with 30, have more. hawkcentral.com

http://www.cbssports.com/collegebasketball...ressure-on-fgcu Yet another "fun" FGCU story. Is Cinderella ready to leave the ball, yet?

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Mar 27, 2013 -> 06:38 PM) I dont disagree with that, but he wasnt an unknown outside of the united states. "star known around the world" "unknown outside of the united states" there's a lot of territory in between those poles... even if I threw out the international box office numbers for those movies before Pirates, you would still argue he was a star known around the world...what is that opinion based on? have you lived outside of the US and seen the reaction of foreign audiences to him on a press junket or movie premiere? Q rating in other countries? What's a high enough score to demarcate star from superstar, which is what he clearly became after Pirates... The original premise of the article I quoted about Gosling/Lawrence/Chastain is that he (Depp) is one of the 3 biggest movies stars in the world today, along with Will Smith and Robert Downey, Jr. Was Robert Downey, Jr., also known all around the world before Iron Man and Sherlock Holmes?

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Mar 27, 2013 -> 07:36 PM) Dude...they actually lowered ticket prices this year. That was the point. That WAS my POINT. No matter what they do, even with lowered prices, there would still be a complaint about that from SOMEONE.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Mar 27, 2013 -> 06:58 PM) Maybe they could invest those profits into cutting ticket prices for 2013? That'd help a lot of fans. Then there would be complaints we were eroding or devaluing the "core fan product" by lowering ticket prices...leading to more fans and the ones with the suites and box seats having to compete more in concession lines or parking further away or having to wait an extra 15-20 minutes to get out on the expressway after the games.

Hawkeyes with their first quality road win of the season, at UVA, one of the last teams out. According to many sources, Iowa was one of the final 6 teams cut from the NCAA's. Even though it would have been awesome to hold that 33-20 lead against Michigan State, winning these three games (particularly on the road against UVA, where they've almost NEVER won a game on the road in the ACC/B10 Challenge) will do wonders for their confidence. And they're still not getting anything from White and Oglesby on the perimeter. Can't wait to see ISU/Iowa next season if Hoiberg's still around as coach. 75-64 Final Score. HawkeyeNation Real impressed with this Iowa team. What a big win for them, and for the future of this program. This is why the NIT CAN matter. Marble with 24, has been on fire these three NIT games. Iowa/Maryland in one semi-final on April 2nd, looking like BYU/Baylor in the other one at MSG. Nice to get two extra ACC games there on the schedule for Iowa. Would have been fun to watch Iowa/Baylor, too.

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Mar 27, 2013 -> 06:19 PM) What if I'm wrong? They could easily afford another $30M on this payroll. Then we're back in post 2011 mode and semi-rebuilding and having to shed payroll out of desperation or stuck with awful contracts that are difficult to unload. Adding 2-3 $10-15 million players to the payroll is definitely not the answer. It's developing young players who are cost-controlled and continuing to hit with their bargain shopping strategy.

They're building the right way. If Hawkins and Thompson continue to progress and are everyday players in late 2014, then the major area/s of concern will be replacing some of the infield, particularly Konerko/Dunn at 1B (probably Viciedo) and they'll still have Keppinger around. Who knows what will happen with Ramirez and Beckham, or Flowers, for that matter. But they're more than one player away from being able to match up with the Tigers on an even basis. Then you have to factor in Mitchell, Walker and Carlos Sanchez, to name a few. Eventually, we'll have to trade from our outfield depth, and maybe DeAza also has to go as he becomes more expensive and injury-prone. Having Adam Dunn playing 1B everyday in 2014 isn't a great option.

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Mar 27, 2013 -> 06:42 PM) When the Sox put 30K a night in that park for a 3-4 year stretch they'll be swimming in money. Operating income of $23M with an average of 24K while having a $115M payroll is pretty impressive. That's because of the higher average ticket prices, Chicago media market (I'm not sure exactly how they split co-ownership of Comcast and ad revenue there exactly), controlling all their own concessions/parking, the low taxes or even subsidies based on attendance for the stadium and the ongoing diversification of revenue streams, to the point where attendance-driven revenues are only 25-30% of the total picture.

Kansas is the pedigreed program here. Michigan definitely has a lot of pressure to step it up when all the bright lights are on and the whole country is watching. They haven't done that in 20 years.