caulfield12

QUOTE (fathom @ Feb 14, 2012 -> 12:15 AM) I'm happy that the Sox didn't end up spending a fortune on these 3 Cubans, but the question has to be asked "what exactly was KW talking about when he said that trading Quentin allowed them to do some creative things financially they couldn't have done before the trade"? Maybe he just underestimated the demand and was confident that had an in to reel in Cespedes or Soler...or simple due to their past history with El Duque, Contreras, Alexei and Viciedo, not to mention the ongoing relationship with Jaime Torres. The argument could be made that he meant "in-season" flexibility, which he clearly didn't have last year. Maybe he was simply implying that keeping Danks around was possible due to the shedding of those other salaries...at least, that would be his "spin" job on it.

Some might be lauding the Cubs' aggressiveness and open wallets, but I can hardly imagine that this constitutes a great signing at the dollars mentioned. I know you can't so easily compare it to someone like Borchard or Mark Prior, but the dollar figures have just gotten insane with an unproven five tool player. I'll take 10-15 Brian Goodwins over 1 Soler. It's not like there aren't any other five tool players in the Dominican, Asian market or Venezuela. Soler's just become way overvalued because of the circumstances. Someone mentioned Moneyball and exploiting a market, but the White Sox already set the precedent there, not the A's or the Cubs. The Cubs are like the mailman who buys the latest hot stock tip (Enron and WorldCom, you can't lose!) or plow their life savings into the property market at the height of the euphoria. The White Sox already got in and got out while it still made sense from a cost-benefit analysis standpoint.

Soler, according to one report, will be making $27.5 million with the Cubs for three or four years. He may have been courted by Cubs ownership and front-office officials while they were visiting their new Dominican academy earlier this month. That's just an incredible amount for a player who's arguably going to be starting 2012 in High A and is at least 2 years away from the majors, from all scouting reports.

Seems they plan on starting him in RF from the beginning of the season in April. Could be a big disaster if he continues to struggle so much with offspeed stuff and gets off to a terrible start and loses his confidence, which was already shaken a bit because of the rust in the Dominican Winter League.

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news;_ylt=ApMJ...cespedes_021312 By the way, the White Sox are projected to be at $98 million for payroll, around 12th-13th-14th with Brewers/Twins.

The funny thing is that Willingham will basically be making about the same amount of money...$21 million for 3 years. Obviously, they see Cespedes as being a "higher impact" All-Star level player who can be leveraged when he proves himself for 2-3 "superprospects" once/when/if his contract begins to seem like a bargain. Still a huge risk if there's no new stadium deal and you're going to start another rebuilding process with the prospects you get back from dealing him. It's an interesting move, that's for sure.

QUOTE (Milkman delivers @ Feb 12, 2012 -> 09:33 PM) There's quite a few posts that are multiple paragraphs. I always read them and then realize I'm not absorbing any of it. In other words, it's like a typical Michael Bay movie minus the bikini-clad girls and his trademark fiery car chase explosions have been replaced by rhetorical ones.

QUOTE (Swingandalongonetoleft @ Feb 12, 2012 -> 10:52 PM) Later on in the same interview, she attempted to sell her some prime beachfront property in Iowa. Hey, Sioux City, the Quad Cities and Des Moines have some beautiful lakefront and riverfront properties. You have to interpret the term "beachfront" very loosely, though. Certainly not pristine white sand beaches like the Maldives, Philippines, Thailand or Malaysia.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Feb 12, 2012 -> 09:32 PM) I don't mind the notoriety, but I'm trying to figure out why so many people mention my posts on here. It's either a.) people are curious if I'll ever start agreeing with the majority, which is deemed the correct position on all matters White Sox. or b.) for some reason my posts stand out. I'll respond with something another poster wrote to me. In fact, being kidded and chided and called out has caused me to rething my posting style A LITTLE over time, lol. This was from 2009. So you're not the only one here, Marty34 and VictoryMC, dick allen on Greg Walker or financial conspiracies, J4L has had his share of detractors through the years, etc. Good to see you're still posting. You catch a lot of s*** from people here -- more than I'm used to seeing, and perhaps have ever seen -- and it's just people massaging their ego. Good to see it hasn't gotten to you. As a fellow English major (and aspiring writer) I know exactly how easy it is to write a thousand words and drift off the point here and there. Most of the people here couldn't write a thousand words if they had a gun to their head. So, keep at it, even if it means I write another long post that makes no sense and suggests Alexei should play catcher to parody your style. After all, if anything, that just means you're doing something right.

QUOTE (Milkman delivers @ Feb 12, 2012 -> 09:40 AM) Entirely her own fault for being with him and doing f***tons of crack. One less crackhead out there. Her sobriety had been a matter of public concern since the late '90s. A common public misassumption had been that if she ever got out from under the sway of husband Bobby Brown, she would be all right. "He was my drug," she told Oprah in 2009, two years after their divorce, after apparently cleaning up. "I didn't do anything without him. I wasn't getting high by myself." Whitney Houston remembered at Clive Davis's pre-Grammy gala But more recently, it'd started to look like her ex-husband was no longer the sole driving force of her substance abuse, if ever he had been. Last May, a Houston rep acknowledged that the singer was involve in outpatient rehab for ongoing drug and alcohol problems. That was right around the time Houston and her daughter, Bobbi Kristina Brown, made the news for getting a little too boisterous in the front row at a series of Prince concerts in L.A. Although Prince's reps later denied there was any dispute, it was reported at the time that Prince was so fed up with Houston's behavior and requests to get up on stage that he supposedly banned her from coming to the rest of his run. All that was just a couple of months after the March 2011 edition of the National Enquirer that featured a double-page photo spread of Bobbi Kristina allegedly snorting lines of cocaine at a party (albeit with her mom nowhere in sight). The tabloids also reported last year that Houston's fortune had run out. With no new albums on the horizon, her best hope for career renewal was the movie Sparkle, in which she played a supporting role as Jordin Sparks' mom. The film — her first since The Preacher's Wife in 1996 — was shot late last year and will come out in August, accompanied by a soundtrack that includes two new Houston tunes. Otherwise, Houston didn't have much of a career going at the time of her death. Her should've-been comeback album, 2009's I Look to You, sold about a million copies in the U.S. — far from a shameful number, but also far from the 13 million copies for which her 1985 debut had been certified. The most embarrassing factor was that none of the singles from the album rose above No. 70 on the Hot 100. (Houston's only top 10 single of the 2000s was a re-release of "The Star-Spangled Banner" in the patriotic days following 9/11.) Whitney's life in photos Houston's only major tours in the last decade were overseas, far away from the critical eyes of the American media. In September 2009, she did a short comeback concert for "Good Morning America" in Central Park. The blurring of the line between entertainment and news on morning shows became apparent as hosts Diane Sawyer and Robin Roberts lauded Houston's performance on their show, even as every other media outlet was reporting on how the voice of a generation could no longer handle the demands of even an abridged show, clean or not. The reports of ongoing trouble for Houston never served her image the way they might have, say, Amy Winehouse's. America never wanted to think of her as a bad girl, just a perhaps more grown-up version of the Girl Next Door who'd seemed so wholesome wanting to dance with somebody who loved her. But with the chops as well as the image failing her, there wasn't much left to make a thriving recording or certainly touring career out of. In recent days, one solution for returning Houston to the limelight without subjecting her singing voice to harsh scrutiny had seemingly been arrived at. Rumors had been floated — and published by the Hollywood Reporter — that she was up for contention as a judge on "The X Factor." Simon Cowell told Piers Morgan that Houston had not actually been approached, but that in response to the news reports (which he implied might have been instigated by Houston's camp), his team had planned to have a meeting about considering her on Monday. Bobby Brown breaks down But getting in that public scuffle Thursday night with Stacy Francis, an admirer who was one of the Season 1 "X Factor" finalists, might not have done Houston any favors, had she lived to come up for contention with Cowell and his producers this week. Even in as high-profile a period as Grammy week, Houston couldn't seem to shy away from small acts of self-sabotage. Her fans can only hope it's the years when pride predominated that ultimately define her legacy. ..

•Orioles executive director of international recruiting Fred Ferreira will watch Cuban outfielder Jorge Soler in the Dominican Republic when he travels to watch Yoenis Cespedes play, Roch Kubatko of MASNsports.com reports. This was written on the 6th or 7th of FEB.

At least they are brief and pithy retorts back and forth.

Can Beckham "turn and burn" on a Mustain fastball with his newfound confidence, that's the question.

QUOTE (knightni @ Feb 12, 2012 -> 08:12 PM) http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/r/riosal01.shtml Show me the "warning signs" on Rios offensively. Year Age Tm Lg G PA AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SB CS BB SO BA OBP SLG OPS OPS+ TB GDP HBP SH SF IBB Pos Awards 2005 24 TOR AL 146 519 481 71 126 23 6 10 59 14 9 28 101 .262 .306 .397 .703 84 191 14 5 0 5 1 * 2006 25 TOR AL 128 498 450 68 136 33 6 17 82 15 6 35 89 .302 .349 .516 .865 121 232 10 3 0 10 1 * AS 2007 26 TOR AL 161 711 643 114 191 43 7 24 85 17 4 55 103 .297 .354 .498 .852 122 320 9 6 0 7 3 * AS 2008 27 TOR AL 155 686 635 91 185 47 8 15 79 32 8 44 112 .291 .337 .461 .798 112 293 20 2 0 5 2 * 2009 28 TOR AL 108 479 436 52 115 25 2 14 62 19 3 31 78 .264 .317 .427 .744 94 186 14 6 0 6 1 9/8 It's not necessarily statistics, as much as rumors about his moodiness/surliness...his confrontation with a fan in TOR, the chemistry questions. Clearly, he was tailing off in 2008 and 2009 compared to the previous two years, but the same arguments can be made against Dunn because of the 2nd half of 2010.

Well, since we have ZERO tradition of paying top-tier GM salaries, I'll believe it when I see it with LaRussa. Would rather have Hahn, ceteris paribus.

QUOTE (Tex @ Feb 12, 2012 -> 01:05 PM) Dunn playing tennis is like a Lionel Richie song . . . Endless Love He's got the height if he can control that serve, lol. Lateral movement though, not exactly like Nadal or Agassi covering the entire court.

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Feb 12, 2012 -> 07:57 PM) The last thing I will say on this subject is to reiterate that if Dunn, Rios, and Peavy have bad years again there is no way Williams can be brought back as GM. You can't sell a rebuilding led by the same GM who mis-evaluated those three players by that big of a margin. If you think that's unfair so be it, but for the health of the franchise Williams would have to be let go. Except the problem we keep coming back to is was it reasonable to assume that Dunn and Peavy were bad moves at the time that they were made? There's not enough evidence to support this argument. Rios, sure, there were warning signs and red flags all over the place. That one's definitely on Williams, as is the Wilder fiasco. If you really want to go after Williams, it should be misfires like Teahen, Hudson/Holmberg for Jackson and then the two bad Nick Swisher deals.

Unless the real GM target for JR is someone like LaRussa who says he's not quite ready for a full-time job just yet and wants a full year off as a "media commentator" or whatever other reasonable explanation they can come up with, such as spending time with his children and grandchildren, etc.

I do agree with one major point. If Dunn and Rios continue to perform the way they did in 2011 and you hear more boos than cheers from fans at home games, something's gotta give with those contracts. They're going to have to do another Silva/M.Bradley type move to get them out of Dodge. Of course, if those two aren't around to kick around, Ventura'a a first-year manager and gets a free pass (more or less), that target really is pasted on KW's back.

The worst thing is we should have had 3-5 Jorge Solers from the Dominican over the last decade (for under $7.5 million total) if not for the existence of Dave Wilder.

1-2 sentence authoritative assertions are cool. If only they could be written in Greg-esque style, that's the only thing holding back their true potency.

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Feb 12, 2012 -> 03:24 PM) Chairman Reinsdorf benevolence only goes so far. If the White Sox do not contend in 2012 it is because the GM made bad talent decisions. He isn't going to entrust a rebuilding to that same GM. You've forgotten there's another out. Robin's inexperience as a manager. Cue the inevitable Hawk, "Robin's got one of the brightest baseball minds he's ever witnessed firsthand in his 63 years around the game, as soon as he really learns what he's doing and gets comfortable with his managerial duties, watch out AL Central!"

Of course, that 71 win projection is based mostly on 2011 and not on the back of their baseball cards. We'll see if "one year anomalies" or the collective wisdom of their entire body of stats wins out.

TAKE SHELTER with Michael Shannon, very well-acted and performed....definitely deserves all the kudos he's getting recently, and Jessica Chastain is seemingly in every single movie this year The Limey, not Soderbergh's best, but very simple and solidly-executed revenge picture with T. Stamp and Fonda grinning his way through it all...recognized Nicky Katt, an actor on one of my favorite shows in the past, Boston Public

Kind of like the 2nd half Albert Belle had with us....whatever year that was, 1998 I think.