caulfield12

http://www.politico.com/blogs/burns-haberm...man-109497.html Funny Paul tweet at poor Huntsman. http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0112/71011.html Can Santorum catch fire? Other articles at politico.com arguing Gingrich and other candidates should give up and support Santorum against Romney.

Santorum put everything into this state...practically living there for much of the last year. Romney just fought back the final week/s when things finally turned against Gingrich and all the soft money destroyed him...Swift Boat/Bush vs. McCain/Perot/Kerry tactics Paul did well...Santorum seemingly got the entire Huckabee vote. 4th place allows Gingrich to live on a bit longer, Bachmann and Perry are pretty much done, although Perry will try to rally in South Carolina with his homespun speech. By the way, as a native Iowan...we have one of the best educational systems in the U.S., although we do get the leftovers from the Chicago suburbs who can't get into Northwestern or Illinois, haha. Those are the same college kids who got so firmly behind Obama in 2008 and helped turn the state for him.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jan 3, 2012 -> 07:22 PM) Who is Crowley? Terry?

QUOTE (JoeCoolMan24 @ Jan 3, 2012 -> 07:12 PM) Cowley is being a big doucher on twitter right now. Trying to start s*** between Garfien, Jermiane Dye, and the White Sox. What's the gist of it? China has twitter/FB/youtube blocked, so just curious. About the time that Rios was acquired in 2009 and the writing was on the wall as far as JD's future?

QUOTE (Eminor3rd @ Jan 3, 2012 -> 12:32 PM) If you buy into Tango's lineup research from The Book, Dunn makes more sense in the three hole and Konerko in the four hole. High K, high HR, high walk guys are perfect in the three hole because they see more double play situations than anyone else. Also, according to linear weights, doubles and homers tend to be more valuable in the fourth hole, so your better hitter should go there. Also, that gets us LRLR for the first four hitters, which is nice too. Edit: also, stolen bases play best in the 6th spot because of the tendency for 7/8/9 hitters to be singles guys. So I like Rios in the 6 hole as opposed to Viciedo. Assuming Rios gets on base at anything close to his clip the first 2-3 months of 2010. Otherwise, he belongs in the bottom 3 until proven otherwise. If he is super-hot, he might be moved up in the 1-2-3 spot, depending on Dunn's eventual fate. You could actually legitimately argue Morel deserves 6 over Rios/Viciedo based on the final six weeks of the season, but we'll see if that ending translates into early 2012 play.

Cue Greg/Ozzie Guillen/Chris Rongey post.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jan 3, 2012 -> 11:36 AM) From his time in the minors, Viciedo seems to be extremely streaky. Besides his build and lack of one clear defensive position, that streakiness might be the best reason he's compared to El Caballo.

On a great team, DeAza is the perfect fourth, a more dynamic version of Ryan Sweeney. With the White Sox, because of our barren farm system, he gets starting time. Otherwise, it's Lillibridge...assuming Rios and Viciedo produce this year (big assumption, in the case of Alex Rios).

QUOTE (justBLAZE @ Jan 3, 2012 -> 12:09 PM) We'll see this year, but I know he is overvalued by SoxTalk (in general). He was actually slumpin in September last season when 'the book was out on him'. Give him 500+ at-bats and the chance to play everyday, then we can say if anyone's figured him out. The league figured out Beckham, Dunn, Rios and Morel...might as well not even play or try to make adjustments. Well, Morel adjusted in the end...it's up to the hitters and hitting coach/staff to help our hitters. Just like when Phil Humber was an All-Star the first half of 2011, we weren't saying it would continue...just like Viciedo won't put a mid 600's OPS, which would still be much better than Rios and Dunn, ironically...or Beckham last year. Viciedo shouldn't be in the top five list of concerns going into next year... That would be Reed/bullpen Dunn Rios Beckham Peavy/Humber/Sale

QUOTE (bigruss22 @ Jan 3, 2012 -> 10:18 AM) The blonde was extremely hot. The main actor Ive heard is from Sons of Tucson, but not sure on that. The other one is Alan Tudyk, who was in Firefly, Death at a Funeral, Dollhouse, Dodgeball, A Knight's Tale and many other films and shows. I would compare it to "Snakes on a Plane" type movie, because you were always wondering how the next person was going to kill themselves, but more comedy in this one. It had a little of Final Destination to it as well. CREATURE is the movie I was thinking of, maybe the worst movie of the entire year according to many critics. The beginnings of the two movies are almost identical...

QUOTE (Eminor3rd @ Jan 3, 2012 -> 11:33 AM) You could be right, I saw the $8m figure in some article, but you would probably know better than some generalist writer. I just remember thinking, everything that's been written about both Danks and Quentin...that Carlos was going to end up closer to $7 million, and Danks, $7.75-8.50 million....something like that, just ballpark figures. They already gave Danks the "expected" $8 million for 2012, we'll see where Quentin ends up. Doubt SD is really serious about signing him to a long-term extension, but who knows.

QUOTE (Lillian @ Jan 3, 2012 -> 10:20 AM) If they did sign Cespedes for the kind of money being speculated, it would be a waste to have him leading off. He would be expected to provide a lot of run production and bat in the middle of the order. None of the other candidates has the kind of OBP that would make them effective lead off hitters. I'm sorry, but I have to respectfully disagree, and reject all of these particular candidates. Any other ideas? Beckham would be fine if he hit like 2009 or 2nd half of 2010 We'll see. He's not a base stealer, that's for sure. Pierre wasn't much for the first 2-3 months when we really needed him last year, and his burst was really missing, as well as his confidence in stealing bases. Same thing happened with Pods after his injury...not the same threat on the basepaths.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jan 3, 2012 -> 08:05 AM) Dayan Viciedo is under White Sox team control for the next 6 seasons, assuming he isn't cut/released. So the total is ten years, essentially, with the initial four year deal and 6 additional "possible" years... Similar to the situation with Humber.

Is he really going to be making $8 million? I thought most were projecting him between $6.25-7.75 million, probably somewhere in the middle of that range.

It would probably be Alexei Ramirez, although I wouldn't be totally shocked by Morel or Beckham if he ever gets his confidence back. Rios is the other possibility. Really, four candidates if DeAza's not a starter, and Cespedes could do it as well, although I highly doubt Ventura would want to put that type of pressure on him right away until he got his feet set under him and built up some confidence. But we're a LONG ways from signing Cespedes, it's all just conjecture and speculation.

759-790 OPS would seem to be pretty realistic...although I'm sure most would prefer to project 800-850. To have real value, he has to be well over the 800 mark, to offset his defensive liabilities. But he's still very very young, we keep forgetting that. We'll have him for years 23, 24, 25 and 26, correct?

QUOTE (bigruss22 @ Jan 2, 2012 -> 08:17 PM) If you're into spoofs/parody of the murder/slasher genre, check out Tucker and Dale vs. Evil. My roommate and I watched it as a joke on Netflix then were cracking up throughout the movie. It's like the direct opposite of that "human croc" movie or the "shark attack" flick....from 2011. The main actor was a cross between Jack Black, John Daly and Seth Rogen. The blonde was a hottie too, the one who falls into the water and is "rescued/kidnapped." Had seen the other lead actor in a number of low-budget roles, the name doesn't come to mind but he looked familiar. Better than 90% of the spoof movies made in the last 2-3 years, that's for sure.

Eddie Williams, old Sox 3B....mixed in with Sandoval, Bobby Bonilla and Prince Fielder, lol.

QUOTE (Chicago White Sox @ Jan 2, 2012 -> 11:57 PM) Isn't Rodriguez under contract too? Wilson's contract is for five-years, $77.50 million (AAV=$15.5 million). Buehrle's is for five years, $58 million (AAV=$11 million). Remember how Astros fans (author included) verbally slaughtered former GM Ed Wade for extending Wandy Rodriguez, who has three years and $36 million left on his deal? All of a sudden, Rodriguez has a comparatively favorable contract, a list of suitors who missed out on Wilson and Buehrle, is in some ways a better pitcher than both, is left-handed, and the Astros have incentive to move him. The Astros are publicly shopping Wandy Rodriguez, and this may be our first glimpse at new GM Jeff Lunhow's trading savvy. The market has spoken, and a soft-tossing 33-year old left hander has been deemed worth as much money as Wandy. A 31-year-old converted reliever with only two seasons starting in the major leagues has been proclaimed worth almost twice as much as the money remaining on Wandy's contract. The statistics paint Wandy as a similar pitcher to Wilson over the past three years, and a superior pitcher to Buehrle. Below are some rate stats for all three pitchers, with a simple Roto-style ranking for comparison purposes. I found two different calculations for FIP (Fielding Independent Pitching), so I used them both. So according to this guy, Wandy Rodriguez for $36 million and 3 years is a great bargain. Not so sure about that one...or that he was superior to Buehlre. Comparing AL and NL numbers is apples to oranges. That contract is almost the same as what Danks got (average per year), and a lot more than Gavin Floyd. Plus we already have 2 lefties in the rotation already. So cross Rodriguez off the list. When you think of #2 guys, someone who's pitched for one of the worst teams in the majors the last couple of seasons doesn't jump right to one's mind immediately...certainly not for the NY Yankees. More like an Oliver Perez feel to it. That leaves Kuroda and Oswalt.

Closer to a star than a stiff....we'll find out this season what we really have with Viciedo. He should easily beat Quentin's RBI numbers and equal his doubles total (from 2011)...not sure if he can best the homer totals. He also should hit for a higher average. And hopefully stay healthy for a full season.

Okay, in that case, they'd have to trade for him, so it doesn't make as much sense....too risky, giving up talent and committing to an uncertain pitcher who has never pitched in the AL before. He's in that Danks/Quentin/Jenks/Crede delicate year-to-year arbitration no man's land. And surely the Braves won't try to extend him unless they're 100% certain about his long-term viability and injury prognosis. So that leaves Kuroda, Rodriguez and Oswalt (that it could be realistically argued would be able to outperform Floyd).

•The Yankees “desperately seek” a number two starter, according to Heyman. Edwin Jackson and Matt Garza may be more likely targets than Hiroki Kuroda, Jair Jurrjens, Wandy Rodriguez, Gavin Floyd and Roy Oswalt. The Yankees like Jackson’s arm, potential and durability, though they wonder about his consistency. However, they would like to keep new contracts to one or two years and Jackson seeks a five-year deal in the $60MM range. Shouldn't we just trade Floyd for prospects and get Kuroda, Jurrjens, Rodriguez or Oswalt on a three year deal? Interesting question. Maybe it would even be possible to get one of those guys to sign a one-year, incentive-laden deal so they could go back out on the market in 2013, but you'd have to think there are still clubs circling their prey willing to give at least 2 and probably three year deals to those four. Jurrjens has the injury concern, Kuroda has never pitched in the AL, same with Rodriguez (plus we'd consquently have three lefties in the rotation)...Oswalt has clearly seen a deterioration in his stuff in the last 2-3 seasons. Is keeping Floyd a better option than trading him and bringing in one of those four? Would Williams and Reinsdorf be willing to sign Jackson or Garza to long-term deals (4-5 years) after everything that's gone wrong with Peavy, Dunn and Rios, and just after having signed Danks and letting Mark Buehrle walk without making a legitimate offer? Pretty doubtful. If you could trade Floyd (for prospects) and sign one of those six pitchers OR sign Cespedes and keep Floyd, I would imagine most would prefer to roll the dice with a potential superstar impact bat in Cespedes rather than investing so much money into the staff... Or option #3, you trade Floyd and use that money to go after Cespedes....leaving Zach Stewart, Axelrod, Santiago or Castro as your #5 going into the regular season...with the possibility of adding another or pitcher or two back in return for Gavin Floyd (a catcher would be nice too)

The Iranian film A SEPARATION is undoubtedly the best movie I've seen this past year (2011).

Probably the same people in "flyover territory" like Lawrence, KS and Cedar Rapids, Iowa, who are often mocked in movies like Bucky Larson, Up in the Air, and any movie starring Christina Aguilera... Huge Clooney fan, so pretty sure I'll still like The Descendants.

The Angels won their World Championship the year before Moreno took over. I think he would trade the last decade of White Sox baseball for his own period of ownership in LA because of that...one elusive trophy he's missing, despite all his business and marketing success. The McCourt Fiasco has been a gift for his franchise, any owner of another franchise in the same market would look like Mother Teresa or Lady Diana compared to that kooky duo. And the fallout over MannyLand collapsing in a heap of rubbish, along with Andruw Jones and Juan Pierre, didn't help matters any.