caulfield12

Josh Bell has been really playing well so far in ST...wonder how sustainable it is. With Gillaspie, Angel Sanchez, Wise/Tekotte/Danks and the back-up catcher, there's not really any space for him on the roster. Kind of the same numbers game that caught up with Dan Johnson last year. Bell and Gillespie would both be options to replace Konerko at 1B next year...assuming Viciedo doesn't move to 1B with either Mitchell/Thompson/Walker making the progression to full-time starter in 2014.

AMOUR really should have been the movie of the year, but there's just not enough people who have sat through it....it would have been another version of THE ARTIST and that's terrible for Academy Award tv ratings, lol. But yeah, there were no GREAT movies. Lincoln, Django, Zero Dark Thirty, Life of Pi, Silver Linings, even Flight was one of the nominees, LES MIZ...having watched all of them, there wasn't a standout. There were a lot of GREAT individual performances, clearly, but not one great movie, overall.

Has anyone seen KILLER JOE? That movie is pretty much insane. There's a good reason for the NC-17 rating. Gina Gershon has some guts to do that scene with Matthew McConaughey. Emile Hirsch was good too, along with Thomas Hayden Church....whose career hasn't really taken off after the success of Sideways with Giamatti. SIDE EFFECTS?

Identify Theft isn't a bad little flick, although it's success is more a product of the dearth of competing product out there. Heck, THE LAST STAND with Arnie looks like Oscar material compared to a lot of the dreck from the first two months....or Mama. Not that it should come as a surprise, it's an annual happening to dump bad movies there. This is 40 has one of my favorite actors in Paul Rudd, it has Megan Fox for eye candy, but there's something so depressing about it (I'm 43 and don't have a wife anymore and no kids), it's almost enough to scare you away from having them....normally, movies are about escaping reality, this is from the Reservation Road school of dousing you in overreality and overacted drama that comes across as too cleverly written. Apatow has been struggling a bit recently to get back to what made his movies hugely popular to mainstream audiences in the first place.

We've been down this road before. You can say that he has advocated trading for the likes or BJ Upton and Juan Pierre. OTOH, Marty has spent 80% of his time the last couple of years advocating that Ramirez and Viciedo be traded, and that KW was a bad GM. Still, he has defended Ozzie Guillen, so he's apparently not against all Hispanics, although he's been very quiet about Alex Rios. Maybe it's Marty's version of a backhand compliment that he realizes both Ramirez and Viciedo have more trade value than pretty much anyone on the Sox not named Chris Sale. It just gets to seem like a pattern/trend because he's ceaselessly picking on Ramirez earning just $7.5 million this season when the likes of Dunn, Konerko and John Danks are earning considerably more... Or perhaps it comes off as an anti-Cuban bias, who knows. So I would ask the opposite. Has he ever said anything positive about a Cuban player on the Sox?

When you go "all in" and under the most optimal circumstances still likely not break 85 wins that is sad. So Marty, even though 2012 was not "all in" and nothing approaching "optimal circumstances" with a manager at the helm with no experience....why would you have believed the "sad" performance of 2011 would be bettered in 2012 since you obviously supported Ozzie Guillen more than Ventura/Williams??? What's your argument heading into 2012 for why they would contend? Not seeing it at all.

This one was a personal favorite of mine. Ichiro is a free-agent after next year and the Sox will have traded Viciedo for BJ Upton in June anyhow. Marty34 Looks like we don't have either player on our roster. The blame has quietly moved from Kenny Williams to JR, though...but he's never once thought trading Paul Konerko would be a good idea, even though, in his estimation, the team won't be contending until 2015.

We have zero incentive to trade Alexei Ramirez today. Or tmrw. 3-4 months from now, sure, maybe....same with anyone on our roster like Rios or Konerko, if the price is right. Carlos Sanchez, at his best, will be more of a complementary piece, an Iguchi with more speed and less power. We're not talking 2008/2009 Gordon Beckham here. If they're wrong about Keppinger, Beckham, Viciedo and Flowers, it won't matter anyway..we will have no choice but to rebuild (the line-up, but most importantly, not the pitching staff), but we've definitely go the pieces to fix the outfield in the next 2-3 years. And there's a danger to having a 2B/SS/3B at USCF where perhaps those three positions will give you no more than 20 homers combined. If you're going to have two slick fielding middle infielders, then you need some power from 3B, not just OBP. Plus, Ramirez consistently improved hitting-wise throughout the season. If he was getting old, then wouldn't he start out hot and fade the entire second half? The entire offense choked/collapsed in September, are they all done, too, like Mr. Dunn? Ramirez OPS April 498 (usual cold start) May 581 June 678 July 806 (typical hot/warm weather Alexei) Aug 801 (see above) SEP 562 (entire offense collapses/chokes)

Alexei Ramirez has been a consistent 700ish OPS guy his entire career before last season. In four of his seasons, he was between 727 and 792. Very predictable, offensively as well as defensively. (Maybe we can attribute the falloff to a new hitting coach, yes??) If you go by the theory of decline, then the team's totally screwed because Rios, Dunn and Konerko are all one year older, right? But then how do you explain AJ's 2012 season? Or Rios? Simply steroids accusations? Or Paulie dominating baseball for much of 2010 and 2011 in his mid 30's? Why does someone with an unathletic body like Konerko or AJ NOT decline.....whereas Alexei Ramirez is automatically doomed to end up like Angel Berroa or Carlos Febles?

Why did the 2006 Minnesota Twins and Detroit Tigers even bother to show up after the White Sox went 11-1 in the post-season and added Javy to a rotation where Brandon McCarthy was on the outside looking in? These projected dynasties only last as long as Verlander and Scherzer's arms/shoulders/elbows stay attached, Prince doesn't balloon up to 350 and Miggy doesn't have a relapse with the alcohol demons. Things are never as gloomy nor as bright as they seem in baseball. (I feel bad being forced into an optimistic viewpoint on 2013, haha....Dick Allen is probably waiting in the weeds with "why are you (all) even White Sox fans if you feel so gloomy and depressed and negative about the team's chances of returning to post-season again...?" Better to support the Angels, perhaps. Or the dreaded Cubs, because they don't have to worry about revenues and capping payroll. Or do they?

QUOTE (Andy the Clown @ Mar 8, 2013 -> 08:19 PM) Still miles better than 2012 Lexi. Game, set, whatever. What are you talking about? In what world is Gillaspie playing SS? In what world are minor league OPS's 100% indicative of future MLB performance? There's hundreds of thousands of guys who put up 800+ OPS numbers in the minors and had no prayer of playing in the majors. Nobody knows what Ramirez will do in 2013, but he had a range or parameter of statistics that make it more predictable. By your argument, we should have given AJ Pierzynski $10 million because of his 2012 season, or we should be expecting DeAza to continue to decline in OPS because he slid from 2011 to 2012. Nobody can say with any certainty what's going to happen. Half of this site would probably bet Alex Rios will have a 750+ OPS in 2013, the other half would be convinced he's going to be a sub 650 guy again.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Mar 8, 2013 -> 08:01 PM) Set.Game.Match. Except who's to say that we've ever seen a 100% healthy Brent Morel? These arguments are a bit reminiscent of the Dan Johnson ones last year...and yet he was quite successful in his brief stint with us, when used correctly. Ross Gload's another that comes to mind. Sometimes a player can thrive in a new environment...and he was obviously a fairly high draft pick, so someone believed in him and felt convinced he could make an impact at the big league level. That's not to say I would 1) trade Ramirez or 2) give significant playing time to Gillaspie in April.

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Mar 8, 2013 -> 04:27 PM) Are they a likely playoff team with Ramirez this year? No Are they a likely playoff team with/because of Ramirez in 2014 or 2015? No. Building block beyond '15? No If they're not trying to compete in 2013/14, why sign Peavy? Keppinger? Keeping Wise on the roster instead of trying Mitchell or Thompson? Heck, by that argument, Gordon Beckham should also be gone, but clearly they're rolling the dice based on the belief that he would put up better numbers than anyone in their minor league system, including both Sanchezes. Would you have preferred to have Brent Morel coming into 2013 as your starting 3B? And how many tickets would have been sold at this point had they 1) let Peavy go, 2) announced Morel as the incumbent, 3) dumped Alexei Ramirez for an unknown, 4) dumped Thornton/Crain and not signed Lindstrom? It would be a train wreck. Then you'd be turning around and saying JR should sell the franchise because he doesn't want to invest the money in say, Josh Hamilton, who would be lucky to play 130 games and would end up more of an albatross contract in his 30's than Dunn, Rios or John Danks. What's next? Now that we've signed Chris Sale to a very friendly, cost-controlled/projectable/insurable contract, we trade him off to the highest bidder for the top 3 players from another team's minor league system?

His career minor league OPS (granted, only two seasons) is .752. He put up 769 for the majority of last year in A ball and 564 in Charlotte. He's going to turn 21 June 29th. People are crazy to think his offense RIGHT NOW is going to be anywhere close to what Alexei Ramirez will put up at his very worst.

QUOTE (Reddy @ Mar 7, 2013 -> 11:55 PM) meh, would've liked more years since we'll lose 1.5 to TJ... but... not bad. How can you have more years than the possibility of going through 2019? Those later years aren't guaranteed for a very good reason...BUT, it's a good combination of length and years. He could easily earn the entire value of his contract in just 1 - 1 1/2 seasons.

QUOTE (Chicago White Sox @ Mar 7, 2013 -> 07:58 PM) I still think this kid has a chance to be a special player. He doesn't turn 25 years old until October, so he's pretty much age appropriate for AAA, plus he really hasn't had that much development time given his injury. The physical tools remain there, even if his speed isn't quite as elite as it once was. The kid is always going to strikeout a lot, as he takes a ton of pitches and as a result a ton of walks. He just needs to learn how to make adjustments so he can get his contact rate to a respectable level. Honestly, I have no problem at all with a high OBP/low AVG leadoff hitter with above-average power and speed. He just can't be Adam Dunn bad with the strikeouts, which is what he was last year, especially in AAA. Just don't know if we can afford two similar players in DeAza and Mitchell at USCF. Mitchell's probably going to end up being a 15-25 homer guy, but nowhere close to Carl Crawford's 50+ stolen bases. As everyone knows, walks and K rates and putting up at an OBP of at least 330 will be the key. He's definitely an exciting and dynamic player, and my hopes are much higher for him than Walker. You could definitely see a Mitchell, Thompson and Hawkins "dream outfield" if all three of those guys can make contact, because the athletic and defensive tools are plus ones.

QUOTE (chitownsportsfan @ Mar 7, 2013 -> 09:36 PM) Congrats your post was so ignorant it compelled me to make my first post here in years. The value of a win is about $4 million. The Sox are going to be paying Ramirez 26.5 million over the next 3 years with an AAV of 8.9 million. Even with his career worst year at the plate last year due to the paucity of legit MLB caliber shortstops and his solid glove, bWAR had Ramirez for 2.2 wins and fWAR had him down for 1.8. That means he was basically worth his salary (note he only made 7 million in 2012). I will concede that the arc of Ramirez's career is not promising, but thanks to regression to the mean all the projection systems have Ramirez somewhere around a wOBA of .300, which would add about half a win over his 2012 numbers -- assuming his glove grades out about the same. It's probably fair to project Ramirez for about 7 WAR over the next 3 seasons -- at 4 million per win he'll be making...about exactly what he "should be". The idea that Ramirez's contract is some albatross hanging over the Sox is ludicrous. You'd rather rush a 20 year old to the bigs (and starting his arb clock no less) that projects a worse WAR just so you can jettison a 2 WAR player (aka a solid starter) that is being paid a fair salary. I've held back, but seriously? GTFO with such non-sense. Agreed, except for the last line, lol. If there are any albatrosses right now, they are Dunn and John Danks, to name just a couple. Chris Sale easily could become one if he suffers an injury. Rios is still not going to get you anything more than salary relief unless he can prove that the Brett Saberhagen Effect hasn't set in for 2013.

QUOTE (Lillian @ Mar 7, 2013 -> 08:59 PM) The scouting report on Sanchez is that he is very good at short or second. That skill translates immediately, and won't take time to develop, as hitting does. He is supposedly very good at handling the bat, and I'm still not convinced that he couldn't be an effective number 2 hitter, even now. You have to be impressed with this article: http://www.milb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=2...;vkey=news_milb Anytime you start comparing a player to Roberto Alomar, I'm sold!!! Alomar and Bill Mazeroski were the two best 2B of all-time. Let's not get carried away with hyperbole. I'll just go back to Brian Anderson in 2006. If we did trade Ramirez, and stuck Carlos Sanchez in that position and the offense was really struggling (not inconceivable that we'll have to rely more on pitching to beat the Tigers), then there would be pressure to send him down if the White Sox were falling behind in the standings. You have to give him one more year...or at least 4 months, to develop with his hitting at the highest levels without all the pressure. Trading Ramirez sends the signal to the team and fanbase that the team has already given up on 2013. In that case, why sign Peavy? It would make ZERO sense. If the team's 15-20 games back at the ASB, sure, go ahead and look at ALL options, including Konerko as well. The only tool Sanchez has right now that is better than Alexei is plate discipline/OBP/making contact, but he's not ready quite yet from a hitting standpoint...if Carlos Sanchez tore up the Arizona Fall League or in spring training, but even then it would be a stretch. Not only that, but Beckham's going to be given his final 3-4 more months (at least) to make a statement that he belongs or he doesn't. But you could still advocate for playing ANGEL Sanchez there instead of forcing Carlos Sanchez up too early and stunting his development. Finally, you're in a position of selling low or close to dumping Alexei. Looking at his career, there's no reason to think he's not due for a hot streak that will elevate his value...there's a greater chance that he will improve offensively, compared to mitigating any downside risk. Not to mention the fact that he has a thin, wiry frame which tends to stand up in your 30's more than someone who's carrying more weight.

Man, Compliance really makes you feel uncomfortable. Reminded me of a somewhat similar movie called HARD CANDY.

QUOTE (Chicago White Sox @ Mar 4, 2013 -> 09:25 PM) Possibly, but that's not the point. How did opposing offenses perform at the Cell last year? Is it really that hard to believe that both us and our competition are affected by the park? That was point he was trying to make. Being 4th in runs doesn't necessarily mean we had a good offense last year. But then, conversely, our pitching always has to be deemed better than it shows statistically, too.

QUOTE (ptatc @ Mar 4, 2013 -> 09:26 PM) He fractured the scaphoid which is a bone on the other side of the wrist. That is a much bigger deal as it is one of the keystones for the wrist motion. I always thought it was the hamate bone. I remember Jose Canseco did that, as well. When did they report their initial misdiagnosis? peeepl.com/people/elia-hamate/ - 翻译此页您已公开地对此项 +1。 撤消I thought it was ugly, ... The Elias Sports Blog: Remember Carlos Quentin. Part of it could be the hamate bone surgery he had last year which saps a lot of power. Carlos Quentin broke his hamate bone last year in the middle of an MVP season

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/one-more-tri...ew_default=true The financial risks behind Oz: The Great and Powerful First 15 reviews up, 10 are positive at RT.com. Looks like it will land between Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Alice in Wonderland in terms of box office. A lot depends on international box office, obviously, whether it's ultimately profitable or not.

QUOTE (ptatc @ Mar 4, 2013 -> 05:46 PM) See the comments in his AAP. Not a big deal. Except it really did seem to affect Carlos Quentin. He was never the same hitter with us as in that 2008 season before the hand injury.

QUOTE (ScottyDo @ Mar 3, 2013 -> 10:49 AM) I think Melton may have actually performed admirably in this regard, in that I didn't notice him butcher Gillaspie's name (my have called him Gillespie). If Melton can do it, anyone can. I'm pretty sure Melton's autograph reads "X" The SD radio guys were wondering why the Sox didn't have anyone doing the Sunday ST game, no DJ and Farmer, and then went on to ask someone in the White Sox PR department if Harrelson was around the park and the response was "Heck (expletive), no!"

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mlb-big-leag...25325--mlb.html