caulfield12

QUOTE (fathom @ Dec 7, 2011 -> 06:38 PM) Good thing he wasted money on Frasor to try and justify a terrible trade. The only time I can ever remember letting a player go and not attempting to keep him (to justify a past trade) was David Riske...(ironically we would have been better off keeping the LH set-up guy Javier Lopez in the first place). We now shouldn't be surprised that he's hoping and praying for a Frasor rebound (and possible trade to a contender) this time around.

QUOTE (Chicago White Sox @ Dec 7, 2011 -> 08:06 PM) Give what up? Are you saying he wasn't going to be ranked #18 in the Blue Jays' 2012 prospect list by Baseball America? Several other people also heard Jim Callis say this. But please ignore this point and pretend that he's some elite prospect. I'm sure it makes the immediate rebuilding process that much easier in your eyes. How many of the "phenoms" even in top 25 for all the minors make it big? Most bust. Look at the White Sox and their huge backload of pitching depth in the minors from 1999-2001. Of all those guys, who are the ones who had the most impact? Arguably the most lowly regarded prospects, Mark Buehrle, Josh Fogg and Chad Bradford (yeah, I know some will argue Garland too). If the White Sox and Paddy really like someone, we have to live with that...we can second-guess all we want. You can look at all the 3-4-5 star ratings for high school football players, but it really is just ONE indicator, in the end. I know with my Iowa football team, having underrated 2-3 prospects like Bob Sanders, Robert Gallery or Dallas Clark was preferable to the blue chip 4-5 star guys that always picked OSU, Michigan, Penn State or Nebraska. Those players became stars because of work ethic and great coaching. The same is equally true in baseball as well. And 80-90% of the success of our pitchers has always been attributed to Don Cooper, right? I'm guessing Cooper had to have seen video of this kid (pitching in the minors this season), or they never would have traded for him.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Dec 7, 2011 -> 06:13 PM) I'm now officially an ex-season ticketholder. I don't like rebuilding, and the rebuilder is a clown. As for Buerhle being a hypocrite, I don't think that's right. Being a free agent and talking to other teams, he was exposed to things he wasn't exposed to before. Opinions can change, and $58 million is $58 million to do something you love doing. IMO KW is rebuilding to give himself more time. They won't fire him if the team sucks for a while. Its imperative he hits a home run in at least a couple of these deals, but I have zero confidence. He's a bulls***er. Even his talk about "interviewing" Robin while he was playing for a manager job was sickening. If he truly did that, how come JR was one of the last to know? I hope he doesn't sit in his chair too much longer. Having him re-build is very dangerous. Where's Greg Hibbard when needed, haha? This whole thread is ridiculous. Buehrle has said the same types of things that EVERY ATHLETE IN THE HISTORY OF PROFESSIONAL SPORTS has said about money. It would be the corollary to an athlete saying, "F--- my family, I'm going where the union and my agent tell me to go, for the most years, and the most dollars." Buehrle leaving was the right business decision for the Sox, there's no question about it. It just seems pointless that we kept the likes of Juan Pierre and Omar Vizquel on the team for as long as we did...but I guess most of that can probably be blamed on Ozzie, right? Buehrle will always be a favorite...and the lack of reaction is more of a generalized acceptance that our team is returning to the 1985-1989 and 1998-1999 mode of rebuilding and patience. That KW is still around absolutely sucks...when all we can do is hope if things go wrong next year (again) that it's so uncomfortable for Williams that he has no choice but to fall on his own sword. Seriously, it absolutely sucks when you expect that you're more likely to compete for the #1 overall draft pick than first place, and yet you have zero faith the White Sox will actually select the right player. I guess because Ozzie and Mark will be together, that does cause more of an emotional reaction on the part of fans...that he picked Ozzie over the White Sox/KW. Anyone is free to see it that way...but the same thing will happen to the future Marlins as happened to the 1997 and 2003 teams, eventually. I prefer to HOPE that everything that can go wrong won't continue to go wrong forever...otherwise, I won't be watching any baseball games for the next 2-3 seasons, except to watch Dayan Viciedo and Paul Konerko hit. They might as well just send Konerko, Danks, AJ, Thornton, Ramirez, Quentin and Floyd packing. With the possible exception of Ramirez, none of them will be around for when the White Sox are capable of contending again.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Dec 7, 2011 -> 07:06 PM) The guy who acquired these players and created this mess shouldn't be the guy responsible for fixing it. Its apparent there is something missing. His winter ball comments about Molina are disconcerning. He thinks he's playing winter ball now, but hie's not. Then the Sox have Reifert spin something. So if this is KW's trade, he's not up to speed on the player. If its someone else's trade, how about the Sox living up to it. He signed Iguchi without even seeing him in person. Obviously, Paddy's very familiar with Molina and what he projects him to be in the future. Otherwise, we're left with a conspiracy theory that Paddy's secretly sandbagging the White Sox (like the Hoyer/Epstein stuff the last couple of years) to the benefit of his former boss, AA.

QUOTE (PolishPrince34 @ Dec 7, 2011 -> 04:03 PM) GordonEdes Red sox disappointed that Santos wasn't shopped to them b4 White Sox sent him to Tor. Way to go Kenny-that's how you trade. Only talk to one team and pull the trigger. Kenny your time is way up. We need someone with a change of philosophy on trading. For the past 2 years, the Sox haven't come out ahead on any of Kenny's decisions: Rios waiver, Dunn, Teahen trade/contract, Peavy, Rushing Beckham, Swisher both trades, Ohman-2 year deal, and list goes on. I know it's not going to happen, but Jerry FIRE KENNY WILLIAMS. Santos Viciedo (the jury's still out) Addison Reed picking up DeAza for nothing Phil Humber The Ohman 2 year deal isn't horrible...in the overall list of worst decisions of MLB GM's, it's just "meh." I'll agree that if Rios/Dunn/Peavy don't perform at all this year and we have to eat all of their contracts (without Rios or Dunn just retiring or giving up), then we're in huge trouble. We all know that.

QUOTE (kwolf68 @ Dec 7, 2011 -> 02:21 PM) I am personally critiquing the trade and not the talent level of the player. To that end, I believe value was left on the vine. This said, I have reservations about Kenny's staff to properly evaluate/scout talent. We have one of the worst minor league systems in the majors and Kenny has recently traded off middle to top of the rotation talent (Hudson and Gio) for which we now have nothing to show. The Edwin Jackson trade was utterly mind boggling, because of who the agent was. Kenny knew Jackson was a short term solution and he really wasn't that much of an upgrade (if any) over Hudson. And OH BY THE WAY, take a prospect WITH HUDSON as well. What kind of sense was that trade? none!!! The Gio trade, which included another elite prospect + going for a mediocre outfielder is also something a 'good front office' does not do. The people responsible for the current sorry state of the White Sox are the ones we are asking to rebuild this thing!!!! I just have my doubts. I really am very cynical right now, as much as I've been in a long time about this franchise, but as White Sox fans I guess we're used to that on some level. We buried the Teahen debacle and freed up payroll (possibly to be used on Buehrle) We have a pitcher that at least has the ability to be a 3-4-5 starter in our rotation for the next five years. So I wouldn't call that nothing. Can't argue about Gio Gonzalez, although I'd still like to see him put up those same numbers pitching half of the time at USCF.

http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XMjY1NTIxMjUy.html Dhajini, another Amir Khan film. Pretty amazing. A mixture of Memento, Taken and Pretty Woman.

QUOTE (Quinarvy @ Dec 6, 2011 -> 10:03 PM) Beane is the most overrated GM ever. And he's a starter... Just wish we could have leveraged something out of Jenks, Crede and (now) Beckham when they had value. Alas...life never works like that. Let's hope this is a case where we look back later and say KW maximized the value of a player and got someone who made even more of a contribution to the franchise over the long haul. Lost in all of the complaining is the faint praise for us getting what we did out of Santos the last two seasons (as a pitcher).

QUOTE (CyAcosta41 @ Dec 6, 2011 -> 09:05 PM) See, that's exactly my problem with what we're doing. We're not building up any real depth, at least not as much depth as we could be building up. Given our resources (lack of money and farm), we don't have the luxury of 1:1 trades of current major league talent (however flawed) for prospects. It's obviously a judgment call and market feel, but with some patience, a shrinking closer market might have landed us two "Molina-types" (or a Molina type, plus a hugely toolsy prospect). Someone might overpay (as we regularly seem to do). Wait it out a bit and find them. I sure hope that we wait it out a bit before dealing either or both Danks or Floyd. Solid (but not spectacular) starting pitchers of the workhorse variety have never been more valuable. Love Mark Buehrle to death (my favorite Sox pitcher since Gary Peters!), but the market for both he and a somewhat pedestrian CJ Wilson makes it very clear that someone -- someone of the "it just takes ONE" variety -- will overpay to bring in a quality major league starter who will start 30+ games with fairly predictable results (whether controlled for one year or two). I respect your analysis of KW's previous acquisitions and wasn't at all implying that he doesn't target some quality and oft-times undervalued quality players. He does. But part of that is that he's just a very active trader. Like Kenny Williams the hitter, Kenny Williams the GM swings hard (and often) just in case he hits it. Sometimes he does and it can be spectacular. But he misses a lot too. I just don't think our resources give us that luxury. You might be right...I'd rather roll the dice on 2 future Johan Santanas or Francisco Lirianos in A ball than one closer to the big leagues in Molina. Also ironic that we're acquiring more Venezuelans with Ozzie gone. And I forgot to mention the Quentin/Carter deal, too. FROM baseballamerica.com (sorry if already posted) The Blue Jays have an enviable amount of depth in their farm system and could afford to trade Molina, even though he was on the verge of pitching in the big leagues. Molina originally signed as a third baseman in April 2006. He moved to the mound in 2007, throwing just one inning in the Dominican Summer League. He returned in 2008 and made 20 appearances, completing the transition. Prior to 2011, Molina had made just 77 career appearances, four of which were starts. Toronto had their sights set on giving him a chance to start, assigning him to the high Class A Dunedin rotation. He flourished in the move, throwing 130 innings between Dunedin and Double-A New Hampshire while striking out more than a batter per inning and walking about one per nine. Molina has above-average command of a fastball that ranges from 88-93 mph. He originally tried to turn his slurvy breaking ball into a slider, but he has shifted to using a curveball now. Molina has a legitimate out-pitch in his splitter, and he also shows feel for a straight changeup. His secondary stuff doesn't jump off the page, but his fastball command helps it play up. He profiles nicely in the back of a rotation and will likely make his big league debut in 2012. Interesting, sounds a lot like Santos' career trajectory without the dominating fastball in the mid 90's.

QUOTE (VictoryMC98 @ Dec 6, 2011 -> 08:48 PM) One bad deal doesn't make you a worst GM.. Kenny gave up on Gio Gonzo.. and Foulke.. I would love to see Kenny be 1/2 the GM Beane is with a limited payroll. But Keith Foulke also removed himself from the closer's position. Let's not forget what Olivo (leading to F. Garcia) and Cotts contributed... They obviously made the wrong move with Swisher, but Ryan Sweeney was never going to be more than a 4th outfielder for the Sox. It will be interesting to see if DeLosSantos ever becomes more than a set-up guy...but clearly KW got fleeced with that move.

Clearly, they felt that the odds going forward with Crain/Reed were just as good, if not better, than with Sergio. Time will tell. The one thing we're doing is building up depth in the most important area for any organization, youung/quality starting pitching. In the meantime, there's always the possibility that Dunn/Peavy/Rios actually perform. There's no other choice but to wait it out for another 3-4 months with them. They can still get a haul for Thornton, Danks/Floyd, Quentin and POSSIBLY Ramirez, although I'd rather hold on to Alexei for now...at least through the first half of 2012.

QUOTE (SOXOBAMA @ Dec 6, 2011 -> 08:30 PM) Bailey is a much better player.. Since when has Billy Beane been a very good general manager the last 4-5 years? While has probably hasn't been AS BAD as Williams, he's clearly been in the bottom 50% of MLB GM's over that time span.

QUOTE (CyAcosta41 @ Dec 6, 2011 -> 08:18 PM) Except that the "find/make your market" approach and KW's "go balls-out after your target" approach aren't mutually exclusive. You can do both. Many of us believe that KW stares down his intended target worse than a high school quarterback. He always (eventually) gets his man, right? If we see this, most of his peers certainly do too. Kenny is clearly not the patient sort -- he shows his hand and the adversary will generally set the price. I have a major issue with this approach for many reasons, principally that it's so hit-or-miss dependent on the scouting behind the target. We've had great successes with the likes of Thornton, Floyd, and Danks (although the great Nick Massett was supposedly the number one target of that deal); we've had horrible failures with Swisher, Marquez, Flowers, Teahen, and many others. At best, KW and group have proven to be middle-of-the-pack talent evaluators and targeting basically one "must have" per deal is incredibly risky. But the biggest issue I have with it is simple opportunity cost. Great, have your discussions about your target, put that info in your hip-pocket, and then like any reasonable person doing due diligence, get a sense of the overall market. You may find out that something a heck of a lot better than your target exists once you start looking around. Maybe you get an even better "target." Or, maybe you get a similar target, plus a few more players/prospects allowing for a better chance of striking gold every now and then. And when the targeted team senses that you're shopping around, then maybe you have the ability to start extracting target plus X from a team that previously thought they had you by the short ones ... every time. Gee, wouldn't that be a nice change once in a while? In fairness, I don't KNOW for a fact that this is the way KW and the Sox operate. I truly hope they don't. But, it sure seems like this is at least somewhat accurate. It certainly is what a heck of a lot of baseball execs believe (at least as relayed through admittedly sometimes unreliable writers). Not aware? Sheesh. Something like THIS should never happen. And per Peter Gammons, the Red Sox might have been interested in Santos as well. A team with a limited warchest and a desert-like farm simply MUST maximize value with each and every transaction. The Yank-Mes and Sawks can cover their mistakes with wads of green, but we don't have the resources to do that. We have to be smarter. And we certainly can't be dumber. But look at some of the guys he has targeted and succeeded with: Danks Thornton Floyd Jenks Santos Alexei Ramirez Iguchi Pods Hermanson Thome Dye Viciedo I don't think it's fair to just assume the Orioles were going to provide us with Jeremy Reed/Miguel Olivo/Mike Morse. Marquez was viewed at best as a tainted prospect who might turn into Jon Garland-Lite but was far from a can't miss at the time we got him. Edwin Jackson performed better for the Sox than any other team he's pitched for. Teahen, the two Swisher deals, the Braves' deal (although it was just as much about getting rid of Javy and Lillibridge was a huge plus in 2011) and the Daniel Hudson move have been the primary ones to upset fans. And of course Dunn, Rios and Peavy. With the exception of the risky Rios move, the majority of people in baseball were in favor of both the Dunn and Peavy moves... Masset wasn't the centerpiece, it was clearly Danks. It's just that there was a lot of hype after the trade that Nick could supposedly hit 96-99 mph and might be a good closer candidate. We heard the same type of hype about Jon Adkins after the Durham fiasco, Felix Diaz, etc.

QUOTE (MAX @ Dec 6, 2011 -> 07:58 PM) Seems like both teams traded surpluses they had. I like this trade for both teams. In the end, starting pitching has to trump relievers, even "cost-controlled" closers. Santos makes a lot more sense for a contending team... We just better be right on this kid, because the last Blue Jays' prospect looks more like the long man out of the pen/spot starter than anything resembling a frontline starter. We'll just have to give Cooper a full spring training to see what tweaks he can make. Williams has had so many trades not turn out the last 3-4 years that a few have to go in his direction eventually. This is the kind of move that former KW fans will be trumpeting....taking the likes of a kid we paid virtually nothing for an turning him into a 6 year replacement for John Danks/Gavin Floyd.

Hard to say what to make of this... If you look at the White Sox history of closers, we've always done pretty well with "under the radar" guys like Howry, Foulke, Takatsu, Hermanson, Jenks, Marte, etc. There's no doubt that Santos has the ability to be an elite closer...although those last couple of blown saves against the Tigers were disconcerting. Clearly, this dramatically lowers the odds of keeping Buehrle/Danks/Floyd. They might as well just go with Crain and then Reed as the back-up option. Sale to the rotation. Looking at the free agency lists, there's an incredible lack of depth in the LH spot. Darren Oliver's the best option out there, which means the haul for Matt Thornton might end up being better than expected. Greg might be right in the end, just like Marty34. Ozzie Guillen might be in a very good position to go to the playoffs...and we're stuck in a bleak 3-4 year rebuilding process. One thing's for sure, they better start coming up with an innovative, out of the box marketing campaign or they're going to be lucky to draw 1.5 million. Kind of weird we've been targeting the Blue Jays' system so much for pitching.

QUOTE (qwerty @ Dec 5, 2011 -> 10:59 PM) Aamir Khan's directorial debut to boot... but such a task is nothing for someone that is nicknamed mr perfection. He very well may be the best actor in the world... and it also might not even be close. Khan has chameleon like abilities. http://www.tudou.com/programs/view/LLL_b_AF4lw/ Here's a very clear streaming copy with English subtitles.

Brooklyn Decker sucks as an actress. Compared to her, Sucker Punch is Academy Award-caliber stuff.

http://www.soku.com/search_video/q_Love%20in%20Space Here's a Chinese romantic comedy everyone might like... By the way, if you use tudou.com, youku.com, sohu.com, baidu.com or any number of Chinese websites, you can see practically any movie within a couple of months of when it comes out. Which is obviously unfortunate for US film-makers and producers. Just search with the exact English title. Margin Call came out weeks ago and I already used a couple of brief snippets of it for my ECON class. Then there are movies like "Gran Torino" that you have to pay for after watching for 5 minutes...the same idea with the itunes store, but still the money's not going back to the US. Typically, when a movie like Avatar plays here (it made up 20% of the entire year's box office the year it came out in China), only about 13% of the total proceeds go back to the US. About 45% go to the Chinese producers who funded the film and 55% goes to the theatre/cinema. There's actually a huge fight over the new Christian Bale Nanjing movie by Zhang Yimou because it cost almost $100 million (the most expensive Chinese movie of all-time) and has a longer showing time (less shows available per day), so the producers are asking to change the split from 45 to 47% and some of the theaters are boycotting. They also raised the price 5 RMB (about 70 cents) to the price for each ticket. Another movie which has done extremely well is called "Love Is Not Blind." Made for a cost of only $1.4 million, it's already grossed almost $100 million...still, nothing can equal the overall profitability of the Paranormal Activity movies. Finally, I found yet another Aamir Khan (3 IDIOTS) movie I really love, this time he's a teacher of an autistic/special needs child. Taare Zameen Par is the official title, which is translated to "Like Stars on Earth" in English.

Greg must be celebrating the Marlins' 2012 NL Championship, along with random Lawrence/KC-area fans. Reyes, Heath Bell and taking a run at Pujols? Wow!

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Dec 3, 2011 -> 10:04 PM) One thing I know for certain about the White Sox. They know far better than anyone else how to price their product for maximum revenue. Yay! Marty, for once we agree on something. Although that doesn't mean that most of us who grew up with the Sox in the late 70's or 80's in Old Comiskey Park will agree with that direction. Quite obviously, it's not OUR club to run like it was perceived to be when Bill Veeck was the owner.

You can avoid watching SLEEPING BEAUTY (NC-17) unless you really have a thing for Emily Browning. (FWIW, I actually enjoyed the Soderbergh movies with Sasha Grey 5X better even though there was no nudity). Yet to see Shame with Fassbender, will have to check that one out. Ides of March...not quite as good as it could have been when it bogs down into some of the traditional political cliches and conflicts two-thirds of the way through, but I thought it was an overall "decent+" movie and certainly worth watching.

QUOTE (Milkman delivers @ Dec 1, 2011 -> 02:00 PM) Actually, yes. You're right. It makes sense that I never equated Pablo and Antonio possibly being related in my head. Perhaps the article meant to say that the guy is the nephew of Pablo Ozuna? That, or they made two mistakes. http://mopupduty.com/jays-on-verge-of-sign...rto-osuna-1205/ Definitely no connection to "flying across 1B while signalling safe on any close infield grounder" Pablo Ozuna.

QUOTE (knightni @ Nov 30, 2011 -> 10:10 PM) Here's the guy that Paddy replaced. Why was I expecting a picture of Dave Wilder/Club Burn instead of this?

Does anyone want to make the case that Edgerton/Hardy are better in Warrior than Bale/Wahlberg in The Fighter? Warrior seems a little bit more like a promotional vehicle for MMA... In that sense, I would say it's clearly better than Real Steel (similar genre), but still not the overall quality of acting across Fighter with Amy Adams and Melissa Leo. Nolte was solid, though. And I always like the guy who plays the school principal in Warrior...I think the first time I remember seeing him was in the movie DAVE.

Winter's Bone? Right. I'm talking everyday poor that also isn't a focus on the nobility of being poor in that condescending way. Even with that, her character obviously had an education and knack for creativity (the bakery)...that would clearly separate her from the chronically poor/underemployed, like former GM/Ford/Chrysler assembly line workers in Michigan whose jobs have all been outsourced over the last 20 years. Pursuit of HappYness would also be close to this idea of portraying a poor but hard-working family fairly realistically...although obviously it has the Hollywood-ized happy ending.