caulfield12

DeAza sparking the offense single-handedly... He has done it the same number of times, perhaps more....than Rios has the entire season.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Aug 21, 2011 -> 12:52 PM) Yeah, if only we could have added a guy with a .701 OPS. 2 homers in 25 AB's, multiple RBI's he put up well over 100 RBI's last year.....Twins' line-up in 2011 just sucks he definitely will be more productive than Magglio....which is all that matters in the end

Lilly the home run machine. Maybe he will be the next Mike Morse. One things for certain, we will always wonder what would have happened had Lilly, DeAza and Viciedo gotten AB's a lot sooner this season.

Lillibridge looking shaky. Needs more PFP's over there still. Lucky Floyd's 6'6", no other starter would have speared that one.

Indians at least rallied for 5, still a game. 7-5 Tigers in the fourth.

Typical White Sox baseball. Lillibridge playing out of position and trying to make the throw to 2B before he even caught the ball... What else is new? This has been a season defined by paper cuts that have slowly bled us to death as a team.

That's 3/4 bad starts for Jimenez. The one good start did come against DET...but that trade looks to be disastrous, thankfully they didn't give up Kipnis. Our line-up today would be outgunned by most AAA and AA ones.

The only work I've liked of his since THE PIANIST was his tongue-twisting Halle Berry on the stage at the Oscars. All the rest, pretty much garbage or "B grade" stuff.

QUOTE (MattZakrowski @ Aug 21, 2011 -> 11:51 AM) Floyd isn't as good as Alexei relative to his position. Sale isn't proven as a starter, and Santos will never be more than a reliever. Viciedo might give him a run due to team control, but Danks isn't under contract long enough to surpass Ramirez' value. For the record, Dave Cameron at Fangraphs saw it the same way. http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/index.php/2...de-value-35-31/ That same fangraphs should have told KW to sell high on Rios while it was still a possibility. Well, all water under the bridge. On average, for all 30 teams (not ones specifically needing a closer, in which case Santos would have more value obviously)....Ramirez would be the one. Maybe in a couple of seasons, not so much....due to aging and increasing payroll obligations. At least through 2014, it looks to be a great deal for the Sox. But I'm sure there are a few GM's who would love to get their hands on Sale and/or Viciedo. Especially, Chris.

Anne Heche was interesting. The black dude was hilarious when he went into the party... At any rate...has anyone seen LIFE IN A DAY?

QUOTE (elrockinMT @ Aug 21, 2011 -> 10:41 AM) I think we have some too expensive players who are not performing, but Ramirez is not one of them Trading the Silver Slugger and one of the best three defenders in baseball at his position, in the prime of his career...making $1.1 million in 2010...that's telling the rest of the players that you made so many horrible decisions with the rest of the roster that your ineptitude in decision-making has forced an ever more desperate move that will end up making things SOMEHOW worse going forward.

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Aug 21, 2011 -> 10:30 AM) Ramirez is a combination of too expensive/too old/not good enough to build around. By that definition, we have four players. Sale, who might not even make it as a starting pitcher, Santos and Z. Stewart, who likely profiles as a back end of the rotation guy. Then Viciedo. Ramirez is only making $5 million next season. That's STILL one of the great bargains for our club. signed extension with White Sox 2/3/11 12:$5M, 13:$7M, 14:$9.5M, 15:$10M, 16:$10M club option ($1M buyout) We still have Peavy/Dunn/Rios, Konerko, AJ ($6 million next year, more expensive and much older and less productive in all likelihood)... Matt Thornton, a lefty set-up guy, will make $5.5 million next year. Heck, Teahen was set up to make more than Alexei will. Crain will make $4.5 million. Floyd, Danks and Quentin will all make more than Ramirez. Unless you're tearing the entire team apart....you can't "reload/readjust" for 2012 and trade away Ramirez. It's the exact same position Hendry was in after 2009....being told he couldn't spend but to be competitive. That's how he ended up trading away some good players and forcing Milton Bradley onto the payroll. You make increasingly desperate moves when you're back into a corner.

QUOTE (elrockinMT @ Aug 21, 2011 -> 10:24 AM) The post saeemed to turn to Beckham nedig to turn it around. What would trading Ramirez do for us there? I don't think you trade a silver slugger SS still learning at the big league level. He is a person you build around. I also think Bedckham can get on track and having him and Ramirez together will be a major plus. Lot of areas to look at to improve this team, but saying we should traade ramirez is missing the point. We are 5 games out now because of no production from Dunn-Rios-Beckham and struggles by some other early. Therein lies the problem. All In again for 2012, and we have to keep Ramirez. And that's also contingent on Quentin, Danks, Buehrle a few others being around. Plan B and it's a much bigger question mark how competitive we'll be before Alexei's contract starts to bite into the payroll too much. You're right, in the sense you're dramatically weakening one of our net team strengths (because of his offense but mostly defense...the offense is still net "plus" for that position) and making it into another weakness going forward based on the idea we can get a slew of major league ready prospects for the likes of Danks, Quentin, Floyd, Thornton, Frasor or Crain, etc. Plan C, total rebuilding and 14K-18K attendance (except Cubs, Red Sox, Yankees) per game for the forseeable future and we simply have to trade Ramirez.

I'm not sure about most valuable. It would be close, because of his contract ascending dramatically in the coming years and questions about his age. He doesn't seem to have the type of body that will break down in his early 30's, but you never can tell these days. Certainly you could make arguments now between Floyd, Ramirez, Sale, Santos, Viciedo and Danks (although moreso prior to the 2011 season) as to our most valuable asset.

Maybe they will do that when/if they're out of the race. He hasn't been playing that position enough this season to just put him there without little transition period. The big problem with Lilli isn't whether he can play SS. It's whether he can hit as an everyday player, especially against righties. They have a better defender down in AAA in Escobar, there must be more curiosity about him (hitting in the majors)....because they already know what Lillibridge can do from scouting him in the Braves' minor league system and when he was playing infield for ATL. I'm sure KW doesn't want to have a platoon at that position. Better to have everyday players in the middle infield to get that chemistry defensively. And here's the biggest problem with your idea. We arguably will need more help at 3B or 2B than SS in the next couple of years. Ramirez isn't expensive YET. So we're going to trade one of our 2-3 best players for a bunch of prospects. Well, look what the Indians got for Sabathia, or the Twins for Santana. The odds of getting a player back of Alexei's ability are about 5%. Escobar probably can't hit well enough to hold down SS full time. Not with so many other question marks in the offense....they can't afford yet another one. Going into 2012, who is a sure-thing offensively? Konerko, maybe AJ. Viciedo, probably. We're not even sure whether Quentin will be back.

http://www.boxoffice.com/statistics/bo_num...mate/2011-08-20 I thought Cedar Rapids was more good than bad, all things considered with the state of "dark comedies" these days. Conan the Barbarian, Spy Kids and Fright Night all headed for disastrous openings. What happened to Jessica Alba's career?? She has the role formerly made famous by Carla Gugino. I would almost argue Minka Kelly's future is equally as bright, and she really is terrible at acting. (Shhhhh....don't tell Fathom!) The only one of the four new openings that will make its money back is "One Day," which is struggling to make the Top 10. By the way, saw THE HELP finally and really enjoyed it...wasn't as good as the book, of course, but I love me some Emma Stone. On the other hand, she's in almost every movie these days, so she has to watch the Lady Gaga/burnout factor....but I guess when everything's going well with any type of entertainment career, the agents always push overexposure rather than pulling back a bit so the public doesn't tire of the "It Girl/Boy" of the moment.

QUOTE (Heads22 @ Aug 20, 2011 -> 11:47 PM) You can sell beer at college sporting events. They are considering it at ISU, Iowa and UNI. I thought that encouraged inebriation was to insulate them from pondering their teetering sports program and the loss of Chizik to Auburn? Actually, ISU will probably be better than UI in basketball at least. But a lot of rumblings that ISU will be left out in the cold with the looming BIG 12 realignment or disappearance.

QUOTE (JohnCangelosi @ Aug 21, 2011 -> 04:21 AM) On a random note, I watched the last 4 innings of last night's game at a bar in Belgrade, Serbia. Got to love ESPN America! Just so happened the game was on live, so it was a real treat watching my team in HD while having a few drinks overseas. Opportunities like this don't happen often. Make sure to watch the movie "THE WHISTLEBLOWER" while you're there. Joking... Unfortunately, no baseball players in that region of the world, but you can scout some basketball prospects for JR.

Noticed the game thread was only up to 7 pages. Not unusual for a Sat night game...those three losses in a row (how many times has THAT happened this year?) really took the remaining starch out of the fanbase. They'll have to get to 2 1/2 or 2 GB again for anyone to START to believe in them again. (That, or the opportunity to jump on the teetering, mostly due to injuries, Viciedo bandwagon). At least they had an attendance of 30,000+ for a change on a Friday night. Of course, the Rangers were in the World Series last year, that helps a lot.

I meant Kenney. And apparently, he's the one who upped the Soriano deal by a FULL three years to ensure they got him. That $50-60 million commitment alone that Kenney pushed for should be the end of him. Zambrano and Bradley are 100% on Hendry though....OTOH, he felt forced to get creative because they capped the money he could spend so he had to have an equal payroll offset at that time (with Zell). Wonder how close they were at that time to pulling to the trigger on Peavy?

For right now, looks like the Cubs are going after really big names like Cashman/Girardi (combo), Esptein and Friedman... http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/baseb...0,7572084.story http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/baseb...,5919833.column Arguing for experienced "baseball men" like Gillick, Kasten, Alderson and Schuerholz http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/baseb...,4889687.column Hahn and Steve Stone (consultant) combo for the Cubs?

http://www.suntimes.com/sports/7187103-419...-his-fault.html Kenney is ONLY business side of things....nothing to do with players/personnel/scouting/development side. If Ricketts was really the one who approved all those long-term deals with no trade clauses (and not the ownership groups)....he should be gone, too.

Lillibridge already has that role, probably. Beckham has to start and he has to hit next year. We can't afford to give up on him just yet, or this franchise is in even more serious trouble than it looks. Hopefully a new hitting coach will help him break through.

What's the latest on Carlos Quentin? Any updates? Beckham is still terrible. Has slumped from a high of 255 to 234. Flowers has hit a lot better than most expected. Big win...in the sense we couldn't possibly fall 6 GB. Good effort by the pitching staff. (Adam Dunn, please go back to full-time DH, even if your average has "risen" to .169 now playing the field everyday) And yes, Ian Kinsler is one of those guys who always seems to kill us.

Interesting the switch with Morel and Beckham. With Gordon's anxiety/confidence issues, that's probably not going to turn out to be a good move to "inspire" him to perform better.