caulfield12

86-88 wins is more likely for WC. You know the AL East will beat each other up with those four teams now (including Blue Jays), perhaps suppressing the victory totals, but then you have to add the Angels into the mix with Pujols and CJ Wilson. If you believe the experts the Angels/Red Sox/Rays and maybe the Blue Jays will be fighting for that extra spot in the playoffs.

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Mar 6, 2012 -> 04:19 PM) So how does Beckham's stance look? Trying to get that stock to come back up since he's one of the few I felt ballsy enough to get an authentic jersey of a couple years ago! Same as last year. Looks like he's a bit too far off the plate.

Yay, Mitchell took an 0-2 pitch and lined it to LF. Nice things from Drew so far these first two games. Mitchell steals 2B, catcher's indifference. At least he's being aggressive. McPherson K'ed twice, and Ozzie Martinez did something uneventful and boring to get out...just like his namesake the former Sox manager. Olmedo grounds out to end the game, 4-3 PO. Sox with 9 hits and 9 LOB. Danks and Omogrosso struggled. Beckham 2 hits. Drew Mitchell with 2 hits in 2 days.

Ryan Langerhans sighting. Trout still not quite ready to play. Angels announcers claiming Anthony Carter tops out at 97 MPH. Not so sure about that. Brandon Short with a nice diving/airborne catch in the outfield that got the crowd a little bit excited. Carter gets the Angels 1-2-3. Dallas McPherson with a couple of plays at 3B the last two innings.

QUOTE (elrockinMT @ Mar 6, 2012 -> 04:40 PM) The only thing left to do is send Kenny packing I'm waiting for the first person to go off on why we're so terrible in the spring no matter who the manager is and who leads the preparation...and predictions for less than 70 wins and 1.5 million or under in attendance.

Six walks so far by White Sox hurlers, and counting. Veal gets out of it finally in the 7th, top of the 8th with Sox batters getting 2 more opportunities. Will hopefully get another Mitchell at-bat, hopefully he can carry forward the good momentum from yesterday. Brandon Short K's. Delwyn Young, former Dodgers 4th OF. Unassisted PO to 1B. Josh Phegley up. Hit by low and inside pitch. LH Tyler Kuhn up to bat. Kuhn a career .314 minor league hitter who we didn't protect, UWV product. Another unassisted grounder to 1B. BLECCCCCH.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Mar 6, 2012 -> 01:00 PM) Does Molina have any velocity at all? The video stuff I've seen of him shows nothing but slow meat. Molina's velocity is fine. It's all a matter of control/location and his offspeed stuff. He consistently is around 89-94 as a starter. Repeat delivery and consistency in attacking direction towards home plate, the two keys for a tall, left-handed reliever according to Cooper. Veal struggling with his control, hit a batter but wasn't awarded first and a walk as well.

I liked it better when they (Angels) had Rex Hudler and Physioc. Donnie Veal sighting, one of our lefties vying for the 3rd spot on that side.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Mar 6, 2012 -> 04:20 PM) They don't often sell off either, but they have picked up salary in deals when they dumped players. Linebrink and MacDougal as well.

Omogrosso was a legit prospect until he went through all those injuries...surely he's lost some of his power stuff he featured 3 years ago when Brian looked like he could be a dominant reliever for us. Jordan Danks single. Angels have a ton of Latin prospects on the upswing. Danks wiped out stealing. 3 runners now thrown out stealing 2B, 2 successes. Sounds familiar, even though no Pierre this season. Shades of Ozzieball, lol? Main positive of the day seems to be Beckham's two hits.

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Mar 6, 2012 -> 09:33 AM) Oh man, every time I visit my sister and her family in the quad cities I demand a taco pizza from Happy Joes. Easily the best taco pizza i've ever had. I'm the same way, when I'm actually in the US, I always go for the sausage pizza the first day back home. It has so many freaking tiny pieces of sausage on it, my dogs always loved to follow me around the house as a trail of them would fall off. Taco Pizza is great, except for the next day when the corn chips get soggy. Kind of like hour old McDonald's fries. Another beloved local chain is Whitey's Ice Cream and Lagomarcino's chocolates. Then I have a 2nd group of friends who love Harris Pizza as well.

I think Red Sox fans are just mad as hell, spoiled, and they're using Henry's out of touchness "otherness" or European side to criticize him. His coming down hard on Francona and the likes of Carlos Crawford made him no friends, some of the interviews he gave after they collapsed were bordering on the bizarre or Twilight Zone stuff. JR knows better than to justify himself to the fans like Henry was trying to do, especially trying to equate his business success to any type of baseball expertise in a Daniel Snyderish, meddling type of way. There's just no sympathy for guys like Henry or Tom Hicks these days...those dreaded 1%er's, haha.

One of those supposed market inefficiencies Beane has pointed out was the overvaluing of closers (not ones named Rivera, Nathan in his prime, Hoffman in his prime, etc.) by the rest of MLB. Especially ones that throw 95+. A prime example would be the Koch/Foulke deal. Whether Molina actually pans out, it's far from certain. Half of that trade will obviously be judged on what happens with Santos as well. If he totally flops in Toronto, a lot of Sox fans will still be wondering why we gave him that long-term extension in the first place. Did KW always have in mind to dump him once he was signed to a "team-friendly" deal? Probably not. No GM is that good of a poker player. We tried to exploit the Cuban one but that window's closed now with Cespedes and Soler. To an extent, we do have something of an advantage with the Venezuelan market due to Paddy, but that's closing quickly as well. As mentioned over and over again, getting all those rehabbing (Dye/Hermanson/Pods), unknown (Iguchi), bad reputation (AJ, Everett), over the hill (El Duque) veterans, but, most importantly, mid-priced or mid-tier veterans, was the smartest thing KW ever did in his GM career. None of those contracts broke the bank or taxed the payroll, like Dunn/Peavy/Rios, and, to a lesser extent, Javy Vazquez. Swisher also appeared to have a friendly contract when we acquired him...albeit one that rapidly escalated the last couple of seasons of the deal. KW has had those 2 "runs" of success, pre-2005 and then pre-2008 with Ramirez, Danks, Carlos Quentin, Gavin Floyd and later Beckham and Viciedo. He's overdue to hit on another run of good luck if things hold true to form, about every 3-4 years, a new cycle of incoming talent.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Mar 6, 2012 -> 08:45 AM) Who is Josh Stewart? Putting Zach Stewart in the bullpen annoys me but not nearly as much as putting Molina there would. Putting Zach Stewart in the bullpen means you've permanently given up on him as a starter, but there's at worst a 50-50 chance of that happening anyway. I'd like to see him get a shot at starting in AAA because I think sinkerballers work best in the rotation, but if Molina is a success, then having Stewart in the bullpen isn't a terrible thing. Oops, former soft-tossing left-handed White Sox pitching prospect. Came around at about the same time as the infamous Mike Porzio, when almost all of our 5th starter candidates were far from legit.

http://chicago.whitesox.mlb.com/news/artic...ws&c_id=cws Cooper on the 5-7 spots in the bullpen. Mentioned Veal, Septimo and Quintana as three guys he wanted to see. Two of the guys should be long men, so that would seem to favor Santiago (as the 2nd lefty) and Axelrod or Castro. Nothing about Josh Stewart. Jhan Martinez and Castro both pitched well in the B game. Then there's Bruney and Deunte Heath to consider as well. Gregory Infante. Coming into ST, you assumed it would be Santiago, Axelrod/Castro/Stewart (yes, this will clearly upset Balta as much as Molina being in the pen) and then a huge open competition for the final spot on the team among about 10-12 pitchers. Jhan Martinez Brian Bruney Gregory Infante Deunte Heath Eric Stults Brian Omogrosso Anthony Carter Pedro Hernandez Nathan Jones Charlie Leesman

Red Sox fans ready to burn John Henry at the stake... http://thefanhub.com/posts/detail/312411/R...ed-by-Liverpool

I love his patented "this White Sox team is the most talented collection of players he's seen in his 49 years in baseball" line nearly every year. It's like on the Bachelor or Bachelotte..."the most dramatic rose ceremony EVER" each season, miraculously.

QUOTE (JohnCangelosi @ Mar 6, 2012 -> 05:23 AM) Agreed, but for the record Gordo wasn't rookie of the year. He was in the Topps "player-balloting" vote. I'm pretty sure he was 4th or 5th in the official one MLB uses.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Feb 29, 2012 -> 03:27 PM) There is an interesting spin to the Orioles botch job in Korea. It seems the scout involved could have been someone who was taken down in the Wilder scandal if I am following the dates right. Combine that with reports coming out that out of the 11 other teams that scouted this kid, no one had him near was Baltimore claimed, and it makes it really interesting for speculation here. http://www.baseballamerica.com/today/prosp...12/2613037.html Wilder was fired on May 16th of 2008. Maybe they didn't fire this guy on the spot, but ended up just letting his contract lapse and not bringing him back. Byeong An, LHP (Red Sox to White Sox in Bobby Howry trade) A 22-year old Korean lefty, An pitched well in 2001 (3.62 ERA at Class A Sarasota), showing ... Another irony was that we actually traded for one of those Koreans listed in the report. This guy actually is the one who officially signed Tadahito Iguchi for the White Sox as well.

QUOTE (justBLAZE @ Mar 6, 2012 -> 12:55 AM) Agree to a point, but with Beckham.. if he doesn't start hitting, he comes from an untouchable prospect to a kid who might get released.. First round draft picks who were past Rookie of the Year rarely get DFA'ed or released. He'll be dealt for someone like a Justin Smoak if he continues to flail around for another season in Seattle. The typical busted prospects trade, Borchard for Thornton, etc. Even if he hits .220, he still has a lot of value to the organization as a utility infielder/defensive replacement at 2B/SS/3B. You're probably just not going to release him...it would make KW and the front office look stupid. Whatever they will do, you can count on them trying to save face, like they did in the past with Josh Fields and Brian Anderson.

where young players are overhyped/overvalued and yet our cupboard is nearly barren? http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2011/writ...ball/index.html When reading that article, it made me think of J4L and what his arguments would have been with Verducci. On the other hand, we certainly can't spend our way to success, as the $127 million payroll last year proved, especially when three of the biggest financial bets or risks don't pay off.

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Mar 5, 2012 -> 09:30 AM) I finally watched MoneyBall last week. I tried to get into it, but I couldn't get past the way they made it seem like Scott Hatteberg was the key to winning baseball games, ignoring the fact that Oakland had the MVP & Cy Young award winner in 2002, along with two other "ace" type pitchers. It's like doing a film review of the 2005 White Sox season featuring Geoff Blum and forgetting about Crede, Rowand and Everett, for example. Chavez and Tejada were so important to those teams, but nobody moreso than their three starters and "rent a closers." http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/7007945/...ft-class-review http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2011/writ...pact/index.html The most interesting breakdown of "Moneyball" in reality that I've read in a while.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Mar 6, 2012 -> 12:42 AM) 97 million? Cheapskates. The Sox are bound to make a sizeable profit this season if the team finishes five below or five above .500 wouldn't you say? They should at least have made a strong push for Cespedes (sp). Cespedes probably isn't going to be ready until at least July or August. Just watch what happens if Oakland pushes him into the starting line-up for Opening Day. And it would have been a shame to deny DeAza the starting job after how hard he's fought to get back after all the injuries he's suffered. That's not the MAIN reason we didn't acquire Cespedes, but it had to be at least 20% of it, along with the fact we already had another free-swinging Latin hitter in Viciedo at one of the corner spots. If Cespedes was a true CFer and leadoff hitter, it would have been a lot more logical/sensible, but not at those prices.

Has anyone seen PROJECT X yet? Saw THE IRON LADY this weekend, thought it was quite overrated, although Streep was very good. Just not sure it was Academy-Award winning stuff. Ebert really disliked this movie, usually his reviews are pretty positive, all things considered. http://popwatch.ew.com/2012/03/05/avengers...tlanteans-kree/ Clues as to the other villains from Avengers....based on upcoming LEGO characters?

QUOTE (Swingandalongonetoleft @ Mar 5, 2012 -> 04:13 PM) Everytime I read an article about Giordano's troubled future I quickly glance around to make sure no one saw that tear roll down my cheek. Whether or not I eat pizza ever again is directly tied to their future. Portillo's was mentioned. I'm pumped every time I go to our place down in Florida. Checkers seems to thrive nicely down there. I'm not big on Fast Food, but I'll eat the biggest, greasiest burger on their menu every day I'm down there. Chik-fil-A would be another one, though they seem to have started spawning all over the place now. Checkers is good...more of a Southern thing. Same with Waffle House, at least it used to be...but now it's more all over the country. Krispy Kreme started out mostly in the Southeastern U.S. as well. Let's see....Crystal, which is like White Castle Hamburgers, very similar. Think they're based in Tennessee. Culver's is one of my favorite Midwestern regionals chains. Shakey's Pizza has pretty much died out throughout the US but is still super popular in the Philippines. Ted Drew's Frozen Custards in St. Louis, although I don't think it can be found outside the city, so it probably doesn't qualify as exactly regional. Whataburger. Jimmy John's definitely merits a mention. When I was growing up in Iowa, Chi-Chi's Mexican Restaurants, owned by one of the Green Bay Packers from the Super Bowl years. Flakey Jakes. Happy Joe's is my favorite regional pizza chain around Eastern Iowa. Before that, Rocky Roccoco Pizza, especially in Iowa City. Taco John's. Big Boy or Shoney's? Chick-Fil-A really is awesome. The only thing that annoys me is being closed on Sundays, but at least I can understand the reason for that and respect it. Love Sonic, especially the foot long chili-cheese dogs that are not cardiac surgeon approved.