caulfield12

Well, there was the two-year, $10 million deal they gave outfielder David DeJesus. And signing veterans Andy Sonnanstine and Manny Corpas to minor league deals figuring they can fill out an up-for-grabs bullpen. Plus signing starter Paul Maholm for $4.25 million with a reasonable $6.5 million club option and re-signing reliever Kerry Wood for $3 million and outfielder Reed Johnson for $1.15 million. And there were four trades. Getting Anthony Rizzo, the team’s first baseman of the future, for a pitcher – Andrew Cashner – who could end up a reliever? Smart. Getting rid of Carlos Zambrano and receiving something even halfway decent, starter Chris Volstad, in return? Gravy. Turning an unneeded asset, reliever Sean Marshall, into five years of starter Travis Wood, plus prospects Dave Sappelt and Ronald Torreyes? Dynamite. And buying low on Ian Stewart and Casey Weathers for Tyler Colvin’s terrible plate discipline and D.J. LeMahieu’s iffy power? Worth a shot. Savior All hail King Theo Epstein, friar of the front office, deity of the draft room, sultan of the spreadsheet, giant of the gorilla suit. The Cult of Theo is in full effect because Epstein is good at what he does, and he can rescue this franchise with you-know-how-many consecutive years without a World Series title. That was part of the Cubs job’s allure, doing in Chicago what he did in Boston. Even if the rules are different than when he first accepted the job – the collective-bargaining agreement caps amateur spending, where Epstein and Hoyer planned to build heavily – his vigor is no less. Epstein is playing his very own game of “Inception,” trying to take an idea of what a ballclub should be and build a world around it. The foundation is steadying. The first bricks are going up. And if everything goes as it did in his head, Epstein will have a whole city – his city – in the palm of his hand. Passan yahoo.com/sports

Matt Clement, Mike Cameron, John Lackey, Bobby Jenks, Julio Lugo, J D Drew...etc. Not to mention the Carl Crawford disaster from last year. A lot of contracts reminiscent of Soriano, Zambrano, Fukudome, Dempster, etc.

But you simply can't measure that "clutch" factor and how many times Martinez has historically come up big in RBI situations... On paper, you can replace him (ala Moneyball theory). But it's just not the same when the opposing pitcher looks at that line-up and sees Martinez not in it.

The Krause situation was very mysterious, indeed. That one didn't last very long.

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ Jan 17, 2012 -> 06:48 PM) Why would you want to block Viciedo for another year...when Quentin's not coming back nor is he a part of any future Southside renaissance? If it's DeAza you bench, then Alex Rios is CFer and leadoff hitter...and he's surrounded by two pretty bad corner OF'ers in Viciedo and Quentin. If you play DeAza in CF (and hitting leadoff), then you're stuck with $40 million and Rios sitting on the bench the next 3 years collecting that money. And two bad corners again in the same OF.

Plus Ramirez was playing a few games in the DR. Did he cross paths with Cespedes' team yet?

Don't need another young superstar on the Northside....we need our own to counter with. Second, probably right....past mistakes won't be held against Epstein. But how long will it take before JR opens up the purse strings again on any player (besides Danks) from outside the organization making $10+ million per season?

Sounds a bit like THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST situation with Gibson. Saw Beginners, excellent movie...a little bit like Before/After Sunrise and Sunset with Delpy and Hawke (or 500 Days of Summer), mixed in with a "coming out" drama starring the underrated Christopher Plummer and Goran Vijnic who used to be on ER Always have liked E. MacGregor, and the chick from INGLORIOUS BASTERDS (Melanie Laurent?) just seems to have a quality about her in this movie, it's hard to describe, a bit like this much older actress named Nastasia Kinski when she was younger Beginners has made a ton of TOP 10 lists. Will go to see "WE BOUGHT A ZOO" here in the Philippines tmrw. Saw Mission Impossible on a big screen here as well...definitely worth the cost of admission ($4.00 USD here in MANILA). Haha. Attack the Block, Hunger and PINA are next in the viewing line-up, and Rampart with WOODY HARRELSON.

Chessmen. Those cookies were all my favorites growing up, and Brussels too, but so super expensive now in the grocery stores.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Jan 17, 2012 -> 04:36 PM) Rotoworld brought it up, but Carlos Pena makes a lot of sense now. Anybody thinking that this will increase their efforts to sign Cespedes or Fielder is dumb...they still have Victor for 2 more years after this and, had they signed Fielder, would have 4 guys for 3 spots (Cabrera, Fielder, Martinez, and Avila), though that would be a fun offense to watch. And if they were going to go after Cespedes, they were always going to go after him and this really wouldn't affect that this much. Pena makes a lot of sense because he can almost certainly be had on a 1 year deal and, if they get lucky and he hits for a bit of average too, he's a nice player to have in the middle of that lineup. They should be more familiar with him than nearly anyone, and he'd probably be more comfortable back in DET compared to New York City. But the allure of those RF bleachers in the Bronx (see Damon, J.), if he really wants to put up huge offensive numbers and bid for a multi-year deal in 2013, then the Yankees might be the better destination.

After the Fukudome experience, you'd have to think that organization would still be a little bit gunshy about an international FA outfielder, we shall see. New F.O., new scouting system in place, Ricketts will certainly trust Epstein's judgement to a large extent for at least 2-3 years.

After the Fukudome experience, you'd have to think that organization would still be a little bit gunshy about an international FA outfielder, we shall see. New F.O., new scouting system in places, Ricketts will certainly trust Epstein's judgement to a large extent for at least 2-3 years.

Interesting, never heard anything about this, George Lucas' last feature film....RED TAILS, about Tuskegee Airmen/WW II http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/22/magazine...amp;_r=1&hp http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/red-tails/ Coming out this Friday, JAN 20. Terrence Howard, Cuba Gooding, Jr., Bryan Cranston (Breaking Bad)...impressive cast.

I wonder if the White Sox were to sign him...if it would be like the Rios situation, where many would be arguing we were trying to sign him largely to prevent him from going to the Tigers (or Cubs)? What's his current batting line?

How do we know who did/didn't look at Trout, officially? Just because they drafted Mitchell doesn't mean they didn't at least consider Trout..and many other teams did the same. It's not like there was some type of consensus around baseball he was a "sure thing," and there still isn't after 2011.

http://www.freep.com/article/20120117/SPOR...ews|text|Sports

So to see Zduriencik give up Michael Pineda – 95-mph-throwing, plus-slider-commanding, ace-in-waiting Michael Pineda – brought to mind three possibilities: The Mariners question Pineda’s durability, the Mariners are head-over-heels in love with Jesus Montero or both. Montero, ostensibly a catcher but likelier a DH, came as the meat of the deal, though right-hander Hector Noesi, who this winter pitched in a game and got married immediately after, should replace Pineda in the rotation. Montero should hit even with Safeco Field’s monster dimensions that scared off Prince Fielder. (More on that to come.) [ Related: Deal with Mariners turns Yankees into instant favorites ] Still, if he sticks at DH as most expect, the 22-year-old will try to become the fifth player in history to top four wins above replacement at the position. Yes, the only players with 90 percent of their games at DH and four-plus-WAR seasons, according to Baseball-Reference.com, are Edgar Martinez (with seven, including a DH-high 7.7 in 1995), David Ortiz (three), Travis Hafner (three) and Jim Thome (one). Thome is a Hall of Famer. Martinez is borderline. Ortiz will get plenty of votes. And Hafner was one of the game’s elite sluggers until injuries derailed him. Twenty-two pitchers posted WARs of four or better last season alone. Even though Zduriencik got starter Hisashi Iwakuma at an absolute bargain for $1.5 million, signed George Sherrill and Aaron Heilman to strengthen a mediocre bullpen and made the biggest mistake in the history of the world by letting Wily Mo Pena go to Japan, where they’ll appreciate what he does, this will be the offseason of Montero for Pineda. In a season that will be 162 games of staring at the Texas Rangers’ and Los Angeles Angels’ turbo boosters, the after-the-fact deconstruction of the deal will provide endless fascination. jeff passan yahoo.com/sports

Loved THE DESCENDANTS. Of course, being a bit Payne and Clooney fan helps. My all-time favorite of his is still About Schmidt, with Election a close 2nd.

Myles Jaye rated equal to Tyler Saladino??? Really!!

http://www.kansascity.com/2012/01/14/33714...rnover-off.html

Lillibridge will get exposed by everyday play. He's fine if you maximize his performance by matching him up with the best possible opposing pitchers for his skill-set. In that sense, there's a big question about both DeAza and Brent...whether either one could stand up for 600+ at-bats in a full season. From his time at UGA, 2009 and half of 2010, Beckham deserves at least 4 months of play this season (simply because of his defensive improvements) to get things turned around offensively...if he doesn't, he's going to be worth about as much as Joe Borchard when he was traded for Matt Thornton. That still leaves you with the likes of Martinez, Escobar and Kuhn in the middle infield. Probably best to leave Brent in the OF instead of moving him around from season to season, like we've already done with Beckham and Dayan. Before 2011, Lillibridge wasn't close to a threat for everyday play in the majors. If he earns it, like he did last season, great. But not counting on it. Benching Rios serves what purpose? We're doubtful to be competitive with him playing OR with him sitting on the bench, so we have to try to extract the most possible ROI when we do try to dump his salary eventually. Sitting on the bench the whole season is going to cost us $30 million instead of maybe $10-12-15 million in future payroll outlays. Dunn and Rios have to begin the year as starters and play close to everyday (you can sit Dunn against LHP until he gets his confidence back, HOPEFULLY)...as much as it will pain Greg and Ozzie, they have to play.

The other thing is that is this model only successful because with the exception of the Twins, our competition for the AL Central was grossly inferior (2005-2006 and 2001-2002, maybe 2003 were more competitive years for the division in terms of overall strength) to say the AL East or the NL East? Pretty clearly, we only would have done well in 2000 and 2005 in the AL East. But that would have left us with only one division during KW's tenure, the World Series year of 2005. We can recall the Blackout Game of 2008 fondly, but we were inches within being beaten by the Twins many times in that final week of play...before it even came to the knockout game. Without Danks, Thome, Alexei Ramirez, Floyd and Quentin, hitting every move exactly right from 2006-2008, there's no way that we get there and pull it off. Without Rick Hahn's son's coin flip, the masses are at the gates of KW's manse with pitchforks before now. Then again, you can argue that in 2000, 2003 (August), 2005/2006, 2008 and stretches of 2010, we were very arguably the best or one of the best teams in baseball for prolonged stretches of excellence, whereas the Twins were exceptionally well-equipped to win the division but not advance further. Ironic, in that both teams with grossly different models find themselves in very similar positions (Twins/Sox) entering this campaign.

QUOTE (DirtySox @ Jan 16, 2012 -> 03:07 PM) I just keep seeing you post articles saying rebuilding doesn't work, or articles highlighting that other teams are bad too. I don't think Kenny is the worst GM in baseball. He's certainly been bad lately though. As far as finances go, it's quite obvious that NY and Boston have more money to play with than the Sox, but the White Sox aren't some poor small market club. The teams you posted are fine comparables, and it exemplifies my point. Teams can have a good farm system that significantly compliments free agent signings and trades. It's what the White Sox should aspire to be, and I hope it comes to fruition in the coming years. I don't think JR and the fanbase have the patience for it....not after 2005. Of course, the argument could be made that with the World Series trophy already safely tucked away, the Sox should look at building a more sustainable model of remaining competitive than gambling/juggling/tinkering and rebooting in July every year.

Anti-rebuilding crusade? Haha. Just tired of the assumption that KW is the worst GM in the major leagues because of 2-3 trades and signings that backfired miserably. To tell the truth, it's far easier to criticize than to defend. At some point in the last 4 months or so, I suppose I made a conscious decision to try to be optimistic rather than to just slam every move Williams makes. And to also point out that there are QUITE a few teams that enter 2012 in worse standing than us. The Rangers went through a rough period there for almost a decade, and where Daniels was learning on the go and putting his front office/scouting/administrative team in place. The fact that they now have the financial resources to sign both Fielder and Darvish in one fell swoop after the team was technically bankrupt under Tom Hicks...a pretty big success story. Nevertheless, the Rangers aren't splitting or sharing a market like the White Sox are....the Metroplex is growing and growing, heck, much of Texas is trending upwards. We can and should look at the Braves, Mariners, Giants/A's, DBacks, Cardinals, Twins, Brewers and Tigers as similar markets to ours. Forget the NY and BOS comps. Even NY now claims they only have $2 million to spend on Carlos Pena or J. Damon...and the Red Sox claim to not have enough guaranteed money for Roy Oswalt.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/17/sports/b...tml?_r=1&hp