caulfield12

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.

Was listening to Walker on White Sox Weekly. Seems to have a very good handle on Dunn and Beckham's problems....yet, no "game" solutions. With Beckham, it's basically retooling his swing to get after high fastballs. He's changed his hand positioning and swing plane a lot in order to do that...when he swings at balls in the strike zone, he's around a 280-290 hitter. But, of course, Gordon gets "anxious" and puts too much pressure on himself, gets behind in the count, etc. The same story as before about him being "so good in the minors he never experienced failure" until the big league level. Not coping well. So his plate discipline has totally disappeared, and that's getting him behind in a lot of counts and fishing for breaking stuff off the plate or high fastballs. Says he does everything perfectly in pre-game....was the first one there today for hitting practice (or maybe it was taped yesterday) and they have to dial him back because he's trying so hard to improve and take those improvements into game situations. Dunn, it really seems the 2 big issues were coming back too soon from the appendectomy before he was 100%...then he started experiencing a high failure rate and it got into his head. Has never seemed to find any one thing to keep him busy or comfortable when he's not hitting, between at-bats. One thing they did with Thome (and they're now trying with Dunn 4 1/2 months into the season) was having him hit from the pitcher's mound in order to lower his swing plane. Dunn is "just getting under" a lot of pitches and they're resulting in flyballs and pop-ups (or K's) rather than homers that are liners rather than high fly balls that just go out due to his strength. Made lots of comparisons with Lance Berkman's 2010 and Dunn's 2011, with the hope that if Dunn can't straighten things out this year...that he can be "Comeback Player of the Year" too in 2012. Didn't talk about Rios....jumped to Konerko and Quentin.

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news;_ylt=AtFt...ricketts_081911 Article talking about Hendry dealing with the three different ownership groups and how Peavy would have gone to Cubs in 2009 was Ricketts deal sorted out. http://espn.go.com/chicago/mlb/story/_/id/...anges-dismissal

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Aug 20, 2011 -> 11:08 AM) Rick Hahn's time as assistant GM is unlikely to land him in the Hall of Fame. On the other hand, Hahn is an obvious Top 5 choice for Cubs' GM. Sandberg would be about as popular to Sox fans as Steve Alford would be were he to come back to the University of Indiana as head coach after his previous failure at Iowa...some would love the idea, but the majority would be against it.

So let's put together a list of pro's and con's 1. Seemingly very intelligent...innovative mind forged by studying different disciplines such as law, business/marketing 2. Decade of experience as KW's protege (could just as easily count that as a negative, though) 3. More reliance on statistical analysis 4. Good (existing/longstanding) relationships with MOST agents out there... 5. On most lists as one of the top 5-10 GM candidates in the sport, some as #1 (like SI.com) or #2 6. Harvard Law experience not exactly a selling point for Obama these days, either 7. Big ego like KW Weaknesses.... 1. Point 2 above 2. Wouldn't be perceived as a "regime change" by fans....it's not quite like Cora/Walker/Guillen, but fairly similar 3. Was also in Sox organization at time of Wilder fiasco 4. Limited playing/scouting knowledge 5. Has already been passed over for 2-4 GM jobs (the reverse "spin," he's very careful about what teams he would leave Sox/Cubs jobs for and turned a couple opportunities down already) 6. We don't know his REAL opinions about what should be done to "fix" Beckham, Rios and Dunn....or about ANY of the bad moves that KW has made the last 3 1/2 years...how much he supported them OR spoke out against 7. Can't be the GM if Ozzie Guillen is still the manager...Ozzie will run all over him, if he can run over a former player who put together a World Series roster and who's closer to JR than just about anyone (supposedly)...guess we don't know how close JR and Hahn actually are 8. Not a "flashy" name to the fanbase...or an outsider who will bring a totally different philosophy (farm system/development first) to the organization

Pretty clearly AL pitchers adjusted to Beckham in late 09, early 2010. What doesn't make sense is what happened from the second half of last season to the beginning of 2011? Seemingly, he adjusted back enough to be a productive hitter and went through a productive streak again (last year) but when was the "hitchy/loopy" swing change incorporated (seemingly without Walker or KW's blessings)?? Was that change in mid-season 2010 or before the 2011 season? After 2009? This year, he's been stuck between a 600-660 OPS for virtually four months.

QUOTE (Middle Buffalo @ Aug 20, 2011 -> 09:41 AM) That would be such a great move for the Cubs. I don't know anything about Hahn's ability as a GM, but there's really nothing for the Cubs to lose. If he doesn't work out, he's like so many other GMs who failed. If he works out, it really sticks it to the Sox and the Sox fans who wanted him as GM. But isn't that basically the same argument as the one for the Sox hiring Ryne Sandberg as manager of the Sox?

QUOTE (oldsox @ Aug 20, 2011 -> 08:42 AM) Who negotiated Dunn's contract, the richest, longest DH contract of all time, Kenny or Hahn? Hahn prefers to not directly talk with a player in the negotiating process, keeping the dealings primarily between himself and Landis, using Konerko as an example. According to Hahn, White Sox chairman Jerry Reinsdorf, who has a close relationship with Konerko, had a couple of offseason conversations with the team’s leader, but those were “more of an expression of appreciation and desire and hope.” [...] This final agreed-upon offer to Konerko was different from the original one made, and Hahn explained how there are very few situations where the team can say of an opening offer, ‘Here it is. Take it or leave it.’ Without going into too much detail, Hahn mentioned how initially there were disagreements with Konerko’s camp over length and structure, and by the end, they had to work through issues about deferral and cash flow flexibility to get it done. Scott Merkin One would have to ASSUME Hahn unless someone can find information to the contrary... It wasn't an overpay like Soriano by $40 million+ at least.

No more ridiculous than Ricketts saying he's going to consult with knowledgeable baseball personnel (former GM's like Gillick, Alderson, etc.) to make the best decision on the Cubs' job. Honestly, he seems more like a fan than either a business-oriented owner or an expert on much of anything but African safaris. Would having Jim Hendry around to sign the draft picks matter? Won't those picks now feel misled (more) that he's no longer around...when it would have been more honest in the first place to let the AGM (Bush) do that stuff? Then he's saying Quade and the coaches are A+ quality people and deserve the opportunity to keep their jobs for 2012. Why would ANY GM come in with the condition that Mike Quade be the Cubs' manager for the following season when the GM who signed him is gone with the wind? Maybe I'm just in an uncomfortable position because I've heard too much "personal" stuff about Hahn from his former Harvard Law classmates for me to ever have a positive opinion about him. Maybe he's changed as a person since he was 22-25. I sincerely hope so. In the end, it's not about Hahn. The White Sox need a clean break...having KW's protege from the last decade is a better idea for organizations OTHER than the White Sox to experiment with. I suppose, because of his background and education, the White Sox can "sell/spin" Hahn as being one of the new breed of "hyper-educated" Ivy League GM's like Epstein, Daniels, etc. Plus, he was also around when all the Wilder stuff was going on and should have been more aware than KW because I would think he would/should have a greater amount of objectivity than KW with that particular situation.