caulfield12

Stewart should be in AAA starting every day, not the last man out of the bullpen. Heck, if he's going to be in the bullpen, it should be in the 7th or 8th like Dotel...not as a spot starter in the DJ Carrasco or Sean Lowe mold.

They better hope it's Danks as a #2 and Floyd can at least be a #3. Sale is the one ultimately who has to be a #1 when all is said and done, and Peavy can overachieve (compared to 2009-11) as the #4 and Humber can even regress a bit at 5 or can be replaced by about 6 minor leaguers in the future if he pitches more like the 2nd half version, which was still quite acceptable for a back end rotation guy.

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Feb 19, 2012 -> 04:10 PM) "In Time" was f***ing terrible. We shut that trash off. Amanda Seyfried's getting annoying, too. She's kind of morphing into Scarlett Johannson #2. (Although Scar-Jo was fairly tolerable in WE BOUGHT A ZOO). Give me Anne Hathaway or Rachel McAdams anytime! And, the jury's still out on whether Justin Timberlake can carry a movie on his own or not. Mixed evidence, at best.

QUOTE (Milkman delivers @ Feb 19, 2012 -> 11:56 AM) I can't think of a single movie where Gleeson is a bad guy, unless you count the first Harry Potter he was in. And that was someone impersonating his good character. One is about 9/11 and features Tom Hanks. The other is an inspirational Spielberg flick about an underdog animal that gives us all hope. That's all the reasoning you need. What I mean is that he's usually somewhat ambiguous...if he's a "good guy" or hero/protagonist, he's usually doing some things that make you wonder "what the fuc*?" He just did what? If he's a bad guy or psuedo-villain, he usually has redeeming characteristics that make you empathize with him despite yourself. The Guard is a good example.

One will probably wonder later in this season if dealing Thornton, Floyd and possibly Crain in the offseason would have been the better moves to make...because there probably aren't very many Sox fans who bought season tickets because of their confidence in the Sox contending based on the retention of these 3 guys. They trade/dump any of those 3, clearly they're in rebuilding mode. With them, there's still the illusion for the more casual fan that we're sort of trying to compete in 2011, or at least not surrendering before the season even begins.

Plus Stewart, like Molina and Sale, are guys with a past history of relief work...so getting him another full season of starting at the AAA level would be much better than him replacing Jason Frasor, or Jesse Crain, or whoever else is dealt from the pen. We have to be more about development this year. You almost fear we're 3-5 GB and they begin to make decisions like sticking Stewart in the major league pen in order to shore things up instead of spending money acquiring another expensive veteran in the Linebrink/Frasor/Dotel/MacDougal mold.

And there's no reason that the likes of Santiago, Petricka, Castro and/or Axelrod can't be put into that starting rotation before Molina. Obviously, the same goes with Stewart. There's just no compelling reason to rush him, other than to justify that trade immediately. We finally have some semblance of pitching depth in the upper minors...let's use that to protect Molina's development and psyche to nurture him for as long as necessary before he's 100% ready for major league hitters.

That's not true, just as much blame has been placed on Williams as Guillen, it's just that KW went about dealing with it more diplomatically and was perceived to be less self-centered with his falling on the sword trick, but he doesn't have a huge number of supporters left here. We're basically left to hope that, like a gambler, his luck has to start changing again sometime soon. He started off with a steep learning curve in the first couple of years, had a great run from 2003-2008 and now he's back in a slump again.

Seems it was also about the "scope" of his powers with the Sox. I found the same article a while back when there was a discussion about who had actually hired Wilder, KW...or whether he was inherited from the previous GM.

KW > Bell > Guillen > Wilder

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Feb 19, 2012 -> 08:52 AM) Maybe, but if true, it makes you wonder why they gave him an extension at the end of last season. Hard to say, perhaps they had a change of heart when Molina was made available and Paddy had time to make the case for acquiring him. It didn't make much sense to bring back Frasor, either, but that seemingly has turned out okay.

QUOTE (GreenSox @ Feb 19, 2012 -> 08:31 AM) That analysis would work a year ago. But at the time we traded him, we leveraged a 30 save closer into a 2/3/4 prospect, with whom many scouts question that level of upside. That's not a lot of return. Trading him was smart - it just looks like to me it was another situation where Williams honed in on one prospect, and didn't cut a very savvy deal. Or the White Sox have identified his flaws as a closer internally that they weren't aware of pre-2011.

Safe House...literally a very "safe," formulaic movie that felt like about 10 other similar spy/CIA genre flicks crossed with Bourne and Man On Fire with a dash of Ryan Reynolds' "blank charm" thrown in for good measure. It's one of those movies that's neither bad nor good, that gets a 2 1/2 or 2.75 star rating and I honestly couldn't say if seeing it in a theatre or waiting for the DVD/rental would be worth it or not. Maybe because I like Denzel Washington so much, and Reynolds is at worst tolerable, then I'd barely recommend it. Vera Farmiga was wasted and Brendan Gleeson needs a lot more roles like THE GUARD and IN BRUGES, or GANGS of NY. He's one of those guys like Brian Cox you can never quite trust whether he's bad or good in any movie.

Greg, why would it be infuriating? You're leveraging a kid you only paid $50,000 for into a 6 year, cost-controlled #2-3-4 starter. That's a huge positive swing. Sure, if Molina doesn't do anything, gets hurt or never reaches the major, then you can moan and complain to your heart's content, not that KW can control injuries or bad luck as well. The other thing you're forgetting is that Reed definitely has the capability to be an even better closer down the line, and he'll be cheaper than Santos even. That said, Sergio has some great stuff and was downright dominant in stretches with us in 2010 and 2011. However, as noted by many, he imploded completely in six of those games, to the point where it was impossible for the Sox to come back and recover. Two of them were somewhat critical rivals games with the Tigers, particularly blown save #5 on the season. Sergio Santos might become the next Mariano Rivera or he might disappear from the AL by mid-season 2013, with all the talent in that division with the Yankees, Red Sox, Rays and Blue Jays. Where were all the experts picking the Sox in 2000, 2005 or 2008? How often have they been right about a Sox team? The only thing about the last three years was that we were really boring AND predictable, particularly 2009 and 2011. Nothing can be much worse than those 2 years, and I include 2007, because there was a lot of fun following Fields, Owens and even Wasserman that 2nd half. Last year sucked from the first blown save by Thornton/Pierre onwards.

Once again, no credit for bringing John Danks back into the fold. Zero understanding of what Carlos Quentin was actually worth. Still no willingness to be patience to see where Santos, Molina and Addison Reed are 2-3 years from now as big leaguers. Knee jerk reactions. We saw the same types of commentaries coming into 2005. How could they possibly dump Lee, Valentin and Ordonez and still expect to compete with the likes of Iguchi, Dye, Pods, Hermanson, AJ, El Duque, Pods, etc.

Into the Wild, it was the more "true story" nature of the events, the waste of it all, and from having read the Krakauer book well in advance. Thought Emile Hirsch did a great job with the McCandless role. Because THE GREY was a work of fiction, it didn't really bother me at all.

The more interesting question is why did it decrease so much? Simply because of the lost ticket sales from the Dodgers? You'd have expected going into 2011 that optimism and interest would be about as high or equal to the first year (because of Dunn coming on board and the relatively positive 2010 season), and that's exactly what happened, it was stable. So instead of taking a direct shot at the chaos which was the Dodgers last offseason, they're firing a shot across the bow of the Sox for no reason at all. Sounds like the "anti-Ozzie" approach the last 3 years...we'll see how things go on the Northside, Southside and Miami. Sveum reiterated he will hold his players accountable, though he added it may not involve "screaming or yelling" at them. "It's just about when mistakes are made, especially on the mental side, that they're taken care of," he said. "They like to be held accountable. I think any human being does. It's the way America works. That's why we're the greatest country in the world, because we are held accountable on an everyday basis. "Our mothers and fathers always are held accountable, and the same as Major League Baseball players. They always have to be held accountable for what they do on the field, as well as off the field." Sveum's tough love approach will be interesting to watch, especially after the lack of accountability from players such as Carlos Zambrano and Milton Bradley in recent years. "You can tell that he means that," outfielder Reed Johnson said. "A lot of coaches and staff members can say that sometimes, but it's not genuine, or they're not really going to follow through. I don't think he cares if you're making $15 million or $450,000. You're going to go out there and play the game hard. And if you're not, you're not going to play. "For players like me, that's really refreshing, because a lot of the times, especially throughout the league and throughout my experiences, that hasn't really been true. The players know if you come in with that attitude, you're going to be in for a rude awakening with this staff."

So essentially, you're going to give all of 2012 to: Sale (until innings gets him) Reed Beckham Morel Viciedo DeAza Flowers (in the event of an AJ trade, mostly 2nd half) Lillibridge perhaps becomes option 1A to play full-time for Rios...although we know Ozzie would undoubtedly go with Fukudome, a lot of Sox fans would be interested to see what happens with everyday play for Brent as well after 2011. Nobody sees Escobar, Martinez or Kuhn as everyday big leaguers, there's little doubt about that. This is the only plans that makes sense...it's the logical or reasonable thing to do, in our present circumstances. The last one is debatable (Flowers), but we really need to identify a catcher for 2013 (if it's not Tyler) and acquire him for Floyd, Crain, Thornton, etc. In the event a complete rebuild, you finally move Ramirez or Konerko.

Will just be very happy when ST starts so there can be something positive to focus on. This is even more tiring than last year's pre-spring "overoptimism." Things are never as bad as they seem with the Sox, and experience has taught as that they're almost never as good as they look (1984, 1994, 1997-98, 2001, 2003, 2006, 2009, 2011).

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Feb 18, 2012 -> 06:46 PM) First, note that I said plate appearances not at bats. Secondly, if he's getting 450 plate appearances...that's almost exactly what Brent Morel got last year (435). And Morel himself came out and said that being put on the bench so regularly screwed with his mind and wound up making him swing tentatively for the better part of the season. If Viciedo isn't hitting 9th, then that means he's on the bench more than Morel last year. That means he's getting benched about 1 out of every 4 games. I'd rather have him sit at Charlotte for another year than play around with him like that. Not only have we already seen doing that hurt player develoment, but we're also wasting anotehr year of service time on him but having him spend 1/4 of the year on the bench. If Viciedo, Fukudome, Rios, and De Aza are playing well, Fukudome will both be the weak link and will be the guy who we won't mind sending to the bench more. Play the guys we're stuck with. If all of them are playing well, then Fukudome will be putting up the same numbers as De Aza, except De Aza will be better defensively and on the basepaths. If anyone not named Rios is playing poorly...then I'd rather either give him the time to develop (Dayan) or see if he can pull it together before we waste a roster spot on him the next year (De Aza). So if Dayan doesn't perform adequately, we're going to have to waste a roster spot on DeAza or Fukudome again as a back-up option to Viciedo? Not quite sure I understand your last sentence. Or you mean you don't care as much about the playing time for DeAza/Fukudome/Lillibridge, that the the sole outfield development focus should on playing Viciedo everyday no matter what happens to see what we actually have in him going forward?

Very fair and balanced article. One thing I question is how realistically the Sox were actually looking at bringing in Victor Martinez to be their full-time catcher. If you want to argue they were ready to give the full-time job to Flowers in 2011 and make Victor the DH, more power to you. It was one of those moves (like Thome to Twins, Kotsay/Jones as DH) that had a "double effect" on the AL Central, and worked against us. It's pretty doubtful we would have won last year had the Tigers signed Dunn and the Sox ended up with Victor Martinez, but that argument can be credibly put forth. We've also had a number of players who weren't rushed (Rowand, Crede, Borchard, Fields, Brian Anderson...now Viciedo) but who had a tremendous amount of pressure put on them to perform as soon as they hit the everyday line-up. How much you can blame that on the Sox "win now" environment, it's hard to say. Look at the examples of Kip Wells or now Hudson, was it simply they weren't prepared to succeed in Chicago but they could perform much better in a smaller market, away from the media glare? Most argue dealing Hudson after only 3 starts was foolhardy, and including Holmberg, even more so. Then with Beckham (and Dayan), you have to look at all their position changes and what effect it had on their development, because of gaps in our major league roster and AA/AAA depth which forced them to be moved all over the diamond in consecutive years. That goes on KW and the scouts 100%. As far Chris Sale, clearly he was ready to be a big league reliever 2 seasons ago...the main question is whether he's been given enough time/coaching/development to make it as a starter, and how much the "wasted" 2011 season will stunt his eventual outcomes as a starter down the line. Guess we'll find out soon enough. As for anyone caring about Jason Frason being a "Chicago native" or going to a game because of his overpaid presence in the bullpen, that's laughable.

QUOTE (Milkman delivers @ Feb 18, 2012 -> 09:44 AM) That's kind of clunky, as it could be read that he walked out of the two movies he viewed after he completed The Grey. But I assume you're saying that he walked out of The Grey. What is the other? The movie immediately being previewed after THE GREY, he walked out of...as he didn't feel he could give it a fair review in light of the pervasively negative afterglow of Liam Neeson's flick.

QUOTE (Milkman delivers @ Feb 17, 2012 -> 10:22 PM) What? I don't get the love. I liked it, but it wasn't great. Don't know....I LIKED Crank (the first one) and was entertained by it, especially the hyperkinetic feel and the pretty bold "sex in the public" scene...but I wouldn't call it a career milestone or anything like that.

The Grey was a nifty little flick. Definitely not a happy ending, feel good story in any way, shape or form. Ebert made an interesting comment, that he'd never once walked out of a theater when reviewing a film...but that he did for the 2nd movie in a row he was watching after The Grey. I don't think it was THAT chilling or depressing, any more than INTO THE WILD or similar "survival" movies. That one where the three kids were stranded on the ski lift with the wolves actually got to me more than The Grey. That said, Liam Neeson's having quite an impressive run now as an action star. Lots of actors of that same ilk putting out stuff recently, Mark Wahlberg and Denzel Washington fall into that same category where every project they're involved in makes $20-30 million the opening weekend.

Bad news for fans of the character, admirers of quality filmmaking, and anyone who forgot to bring some Tylenol to the screening. FEARnet Cage maintains his reign as Hollywood's Captain of Crazy with a performance that sometimes feels like an impression of Andy Samberg's impression of him. RedEye Quite why Brian Taylor and Mark Neveldine, the directors of the brilliant Crank, got involved is anyone's guess. Perhaps their tax bills were also due. 9 positive reviews / 47 negs (not too far behind THIS MEANS WAR w/ Reese Witherspoon) Actually, the first one was mildly entertaining, in a campy sort of way. 1/2 or even 1 full star just for the presence of the ever-beautiful Eva Mendes.