caulfield12

Better just to get the best possible prospects back for Danks...and hope/pray Rios can rebound (AGAIN). With Gardner, Granderson, Swisher and Jones, I can't see how/why they'd actually have any need for Rios. Mike Lowell was the 3B for the Marlins who had a very good run with the Red Sox.

I'm not so sure about gay people wanting their adopted kids to be gay, either. Research has proven that the likelihood of that kid turning out gay (when adopted) is actually at a lower/lesser rate than the general population %. Some believe this "overcorrection" is due to the ubiquitous belief in the straight community that gay parents "teach" their kids to be gay, therefore, adoption by lesbian/gay parents shouldn't be allowed...always leading back to the same nature/nurture argument which will never be resolved to anyone's satisfaction.

QUOTE (elrockinMT @ Jul 11, 2011 -> 03:09 PM) I was asked my opinion and I gave it. Sorry it doesn't match yours. It isn't ridiculous IMO but I could say all this clamoring and such to blame someone is a bit old and getting ridiculous in the extremes people want to go. The manager always gets the blame and gets fired when the players fail to perform. I guess it is easier to fire a manager then a player making $16M a year. Doesn't mean it's right and doesn't mean it will make anyone play better either with the manager getting fired. But, that seems to be the only answer folks have ' FIRE OZZIE." If you make mention of a possible trade or of a player that should be singled out and you then hear all kinds of reasons why that can't be done. All this has become is a gigantic gripe session with fingers getting pointed everywhere. But, I still haven't heard how this idea of firing the manager or the hitting coach or the first base coach is going to help the team win. I think Ozzie is moving from protecting the players mode to lighting a fire under some people as it should be. He had called out Rios and that's one of the guys performing well below expectations. I refuse to believe this team can't get back on track during the second half. We have the talent to go on a winning streak. We are maybe one good stretch away from being on top. That's how I see it. If others don't fine, but don't call the positive comments ridiculous, etc, etc. I won't deny things have been bad and we find some new way to lose almost every day it seems. But, we have some darn good talent of this team and they have won before. They can motivate each other and I am loking forward to seeing them drive on He called out Rios and what has happened to his level of play since then? If anything, it has gotten worse. FWIW, he also said he wasn't meaning to send an example to Rios personally, that his being pulled was a message/warning to the entire team. I'd agree with you if there weren't 3-4-5 obvious "mental" errors per game. Physical errors, that's one thing. At least there's an effort being made, like when Juan Pierre throws the ball in from LF, I never get upset no matter what the result. In Sunday's game, Rios made numerous "mental errors" just in the span of 2-3 innings on defense. That's just not acceptable for a player with his OPS. Missing cutoff men, lollipopping throws, throwing to the wrong base/s, taking the wrong routes on balls, misreads....maybe the last two aren't as easily correctable, and it's true, most outfielders have a lot easier time coming in on the ball than going back. But Rios has made the same mistake 15-20 times this season....where a ball hit deep, he'l drift along with the ball instead of the more correct fundamental play of going straight back, contacting the wall, then readjusting and finding the ball in flight. So while the White Sox, in terms of fielding percentage, look good on paper...the truth isn't residing in that one statistic if you follow the team closely. And this isn't about Rios or Dunn alone....we have had so many opportunities to advance runners into scoring position when there are zero or one out and we almost never change our approach...shorten our swings, try to hit the ball to the opposite field...we hit groundouts/DP balls when we need sacrifice flies and hit pop-ups, foul out or K when we need to put the ball in play. I'll use Lillibridge as an example here. You can't have a player that size swinging for the fences every at-bat when contact is called for. Holding on runners...we can't even succeed this season throwing out runners when there's a pitchout. Guys are running on our pitchers (and AJ) like it's an American Legion or short-season minor league game. It just seems like Ozzie "respects" the veteran players too much and doesn't do anything to address their fundamental deficiencies. Jermaine Dye comes to mind here. JD, when he came up with the Braves, had one of the best throwing arms in the game. Yet when he was with us, he was a defensive liability (largely because of the loss of speed/range due to injuries and aging)....but he had the horrible habit of catching every ball flat-footed and then either taking a couple of crow/bunny hops or winding up with a long mechanical throw instead of coming into the ball with all of his momentum moving forward. That's the first thing you learn in Little League/Tom Emanski videos as an outfielder. Catch the ball with two hands. Figure out where the ball's going to land (and it's not ALWAYS possible, but most of the time, yes) and get a running start and catch/throw in one continuous motion with your momentum/force helping you to get some extra ooomph on the ball. Never addressed or changed by the coaching staff. Even something like sending out Alexei Ramirez to deeper LCF to help Pierre out with throws to 2nd, 3rd and home (especially). We don't make adjustments. We don't ever improve or teach fundamentals/execution once the season begins. We never, ever seem to improve in this area. That's where a coaching change can help. You have to break the players of the habit of swinging for the fences in every situation. I guarantee Gibson w/ the DBacks or watch the Nationals/Pirates....if a young hitter came up with runners at 1st and 2nd (no outs) and didn't advance those runners, that guy would be on the bench. Same thing with bunting, which we overuse for an AL team (especially considering none of our players have seemingly learned the art of sacrifice bunting, for a number of reasons). In the end, it's ONE thing if you get beat by a better team, like the Yankees/Red Sox/Angels/Rays/Rangers. It's quite another when you've been getting beat for a decade (with ONE exception) because you keep making mental errors that good baseball teams shouldn't make.

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Jul 11, 2011 -> 12:43 PM) Anyone else see Cedar Rapids with Ed Helms? It was a little too disjointed but had a lot of hysterical moments. It's too bad they couldn't have added about 30 more minutes to round out the story. Anne Heche was good in that one, and I've never even liked her. The African-American insurance agent was hilarious (the party scene and some of his ad-libbed one liners), so was John C. Reilly, who in some ways was the "heart" of that movie with Mr. Hangover. Very underrated comedy that just didn't have enough marketing "oomph" behind it to break out and become a big success box office-wise. I'd put it up there with "Win Win" (Giamatti) for one of the Top 5 movies "that most people haven't heard of" in 2011. Is it just me, it seems Jeong, Thomas Lennon and Jason Segel are in every movie that comes out these days. I guess that's better than too much Seth Rogen. Plus, being from the Quad-Cities, it's amusing to see the way "flyover territory" is perceived in Hollywoodland. A little like "Up in the Air" in that sense. But the "moral/emotional payoff" in the end of Cedar Rapids is much lighter and syrupy.

QUOTE (Greg Hibbard @ Jul 11, 2011 -> 01:25 PM) OBP is "as usual meager"....what exactly is a good OBP, in your opinion? Is .350 the last 2.5 months not good enough? Pierre has been offensively performing at right around his career numbers since May 1st (.281/.348/.326/.674), which is now nearly 300 PAs. He has been stealing bases at about the right percentage since then, too (73% - 8 for 11). More importantly, he has been his most hottest most recently. If you never liked the acquisition and were always against him, that's one thing, but he's doing what he was he was brought in here for offensively for the last 2.5 months. Swapping him out for a dude with 100 major league PAs seems silly at this point. The problem is that Juan Pierre is no longer a threat on the basepaths...except to the Chicago White Sox. I could pull all the MLB stolen bases leaders and there would be guys like Michael Cuddyer with nearly as many steals and a much better ratio of success. When your one "plus" tool is no longer there...you're limited to hitting for average, and (to give him his due) he's had some clutch hits recently. However, if you throw all the season-long statistics into the blender and spit out ANY type of number to measure him against the average production expected out of a major league outfielder, he's going to come up in the bottom 10-20%. The only number that he'll rank highly in is outs recorded and plate appearances. If Rios and Dunn and Morel were all hitting better, we MIGHT be able to get away with it, or mask Juan's weaknesses.

Wasn't the McDonald's case also partially about the fact that they deliberately kept their coffee 10-30 degrees hotter than what was considered "safe" in order to extend the product life cycle and save money...? That at higher temperatures, they'd have to brew fewer fresh cups of coffee...throw out less "cold/stale" coffee and wring more profit out of that particular product?

Still trying to decide which one I liked more, Bad Teacher or Horrible Bosses. I guess I'd have to go with Horrible Bosses simply because the ensemble of talent (Foxx, Spacey, Farrell, Aniston, Sutherland) in that movie. Maybe it's because Justin Timberlake's character was so over the top annoying...and Lucy Punch (the teacher across the hallway) was great for awhile...but her act grew thin too as the movie went on. Finally, there's just no way that any teacher (even in the worst public school in America) could have gotten away with all those things. When I started teaching 2002, you had to get permission from 2-3 different people in the building (instructional coach/at least one Vice Principal) just to show a movie ONCE, in a single period, and you had to write an extensive lesson plan linking it to your curriculum/textbook.

Balta, that fan was severely injured but didn't end up dying. And it wasn't a fall "instigated" by a ballplayer throwing a souvenir into the stands. http://www.cnn.com/2010/SPORT/07/09/fan.falls/index.html

LOL. From Old Comiskey Park, there's nothing people hate more than obstructed view seats. Having higher railings or railings with vertical as well as horizontal bars would block a lot of views in the first 2-3 rows, which is where people will usually choose to sit in any part of the stadium (except for those with fear of heights in the upper decks). It's a tough call. When you think of the literally millions of times a baseball player has tossed a ball into the front rows, isn't this the first time in history a fan has died as a direct result? In over 50 years or so of ballplayers doing this? Needless to say, more youngsters die in injuries suffered playing middle/high school football or baseball than fans falling over railings in just the right set of circumstances (only 20 feet fall, going over the railing at exactly the wrong angle, falling in exactly the wrong place, where there's a narrow enclosed space with lots of concrete and metal stanchions).....yet how many parents forbid their parents from playing these sports? Some, let's say 25%, but not the majority. How many people don't wear their seat belts or drink and drive when they've had "just a couple"? Or talk/text/type on their cellphones while driving? For the good of the "majority" of fans, that's why you don't have netting all over the entire stadium...as well as the expense, too.

Obviously, there have been occasions it has worked out, Jenks/Politte/Santos (so far) and Thornton. But I'd hardly call the Humber we acquired off the scrap heap a "stuff pitcher" (in 2011) any more than JVB from the Pirates. And 89-92 MPH fastball is basically league average these days. He's gotten results so far because of his command and his full repertoire a pitches, particularly the curveball, which has been consistently good, at least until his last start. But yeah...I think at one point we had the most #1 draft picks of any MLB team (including a FEW of our own) on our roster. Ability/talent...but not proven "winning" talent or a roster that was put together with cohesiveness, "complementary" skills and chemistry in mind. As much as it's overstated (because Pods fell off in 2005 when he came back from injury), Podsednik and Iguchi really worked well together at the top of that order. Ever since those teams....we've struggled to find a good leadoff hitter and a #2 hitter as well. Cabrera wasn't bad...but we all know how well that worked out. Alexei should be fine, too. It's just unfortunate now that Pierre's getting on base so much he's completely a shadow of the basestealing threat he was just a year ago. EDIT: And I forgot Contreras and Garcia, in their primes, two of the best "stuff" pitchers in all of baseball, while they lasted.

You can also go back to the Billy Koch failed experiment. KW's fundamental belief in "stuff" (ironic, since Koch had lost his electric stuff due to overuse)...but that period of acquiring all those guys like MacDougal, Aaardsma, Masset and Sisco. All of those guys ended up blowing up in their faces...Masset, you can argue that he just never got enough chances with the Sox, but he's obviously done pretty well with the Reds. Gavin Floyd, Jackson, Peavy (at one point)...all with the "stuff" or arsenal to be "aces" and yet very rarely have we seen that out of them in 2011. Meanwhile, we've gotten much better results out of the Buerhle's, Humber's and Danks'es (until 2011) of the world, all things considered. EDIT: And Javy Vazquez too, Mr. Potential with a great statline and so-so actual results (.500 at best) and falls apart in every "big game" situation.

QUOTE (SouthSideTeacher @ Jul 11, 2011 -> 02:44 AM) Is it wrong that I'm not so much bothered by WHAT he wrote in the dirt as I am that he found the time (and in-game 'focus') to dig around in the dirt like a silly 8-year-old? I'm all for the shaving cream interview pies and practical jokes when the players are earning their paychecks, but I'm simply OVER these (slumping--or just not giving a crap anymore?) guys goofing all all the g**damned time. PS: I'm usually a very nice girl, really. For years I've been criticized for having 'too much hope' and drinking the kool-aid. By now though, this team's broken my heart so many times I feel like I'm becoming a cynical b**** as a result. I'll try to keep the posts more positive in nature from now on. FWIW, Beckham's also the one that started lugging around a 6' tall "Most Interesting Man in the World" cut-out (the bearded dude from the Dos Equis commercials) everywhere they play and started the tradition of posing it behind the "Sox Game MVP" whenever he was being interviewed. At least Beckham was clever enough to joke that it very rarely leaves Konerko's locker these days.

http://www.cantstopthebleeding.com/good-th...-about-baseball http://livefromlawschool.blogspot.com/2008...amilton-do.html I'm pretty sure Sosnick has written a book about this (his experience of becoming a sports agent)...and detailed the Hamilton situation there as well as on a blog online.

One thing is for certain. If they passed a new MLB rule that players/ballboys or ballgirls can never give/toss a baseball into the stands, it would be the wrong decision. We've had literally thousands of gun homicides and school shootings and yet nobody would ever dare to take that freedom away from the American people. Unfortunately, personal responsibility is something we're lacking. Seems we always have to find someone to blame. While the example cited earlier was extreme....well, the pitcher is at fault for the pitch that was too far inside and then Conor Jackson is partially at fault and the ballboys down the LF line and then the architects who designed the corner of that stadium (HOK I think) so that a foul ball would bounce all the way around to Josh Hamilton in that exact position. It's like those Final Destination movies. Wrong place, wrong time. 5-10 years ago, there was a plastic barrier put up so that fans would never fall back behind the scoreboard...but unfortunately, so many fans took license with that the dove over the railings and onto the barrier to fight for foul balls and create a disturbance or even fights. So those irresponsible people who changed the minds of Rangers' management to remove the barrier are also at fault, no? I wonder how the situation would change if it was a rookie outfielder who was unlikely to stick in the majors. Or, if instead of a fireman's son, the man was the CEO of Enron (well, a similar company) or head of the Dr. Pepper Company. Would a rookie feel "less" responsibility being in less of a position to make restitution. Do we expect Josh Hamilton to be even more of a "hero" because that role has been thrust upon him....in a sense, he used (in cynic's eyes) his recovery from addiction and backstory to make himself even more popular and marketable, higher Q ratings, etc. Would it be different if he hadn't become a born-again Christian and never fired his (first) Jewish agent for being a non-believer? Lots of deeper issues to consider here. Can you imagine if something like this happened when Alex Rios tossed a ball at USCF, compared to Konerko or Buehrle?

QUOTE (Swingandalongonetoleft @ Jul 10, 2011 -> 08:36 PM) Too soon, man. Too soon. My point wasn't that we should play the youngsters and trade all the veterans (yet). It was simply that it's very rare that there is a season where 3-4 rookies have ever gotten to play and advance all together with the White Sox. Not that any of them proved to have any staying power, but when rookies/prospects are on the field (especially since it so rarely happens with the Sox), it's always a lot more fun than seeing a veteran flail away, like Rios/Dunn, for example, or Pierre earlier in the season. That's the reason that 2009 was better too.....Beckham's first 3-4 months and the optimism about the acquisition of Rios and Peavy. Right now, the main reason we have to be optimistic is Viciedo, but the chances of him getting to play meaningful games seem to be about 25% at best, unless of course there's an injury. Maybe if Morel was putting up at least a 625 OPS, I'd feel more optimistic about him, too. For the first time in many seasons, you have the feeling that if KW went to Konerko/AJ/Buehrle at the break and asked them if they could win the division with the team they had on paper, they'd all say "games aren't played on paper or on the back of a baseball card" and that SOMETHING needed to be done to change the mix/chemistry.

QUOTE (elrockinMT @ Jul 10, 2011 -> 08:19 PM) Apparently so. I think we have been so centered on the bad we fail to see the life that is starting to show in some of the slow performers But it's really all just rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic. Sure, Pierre, AJ and Beckham have been playing better recently. Same with Chris Sale. But, Quentin hasn't hit a homer since June 8th, Morel is on the verge of being sent back to AAA, we've lost Castro, Rios has basically shown no reasons to have hope for improvement (he's actually regressing on a weekly basis defensively, which was the one area you used to be able to count on him)....and Peavy might never throw a fastball over 90 MPH for the rest of the season (hopefully, just "dead arm" or scar tissue). And Sergio has become very inconsistent/erratic in the last 6 weeks. Of course, that's expected for someone with his level of experience...and he does seem to have righted the ship enough to the point where it's clear he is THE closer and not part of any committee.

FWIW, Ozzie's staying in town for "Ozzie Camp/s" Monday and Tuesday with the Bulls/Sox Academy....$225 a pop, for his priceless instruction on how to play as listlessly and apathetically as any White Sox team in recent memory. 2007 was actually more fun than this season...because there was also a sense that something had to and would change eventually. Plus, there was Fields, Owens with one really good game, Andy Gonzalez at least trying harder than Rios and Ehren Wasserman's fluke season out of the bullpen.

It's pretty bad when the Twins announcers are embarrassed for the White Sox. I heard comments such as.... "The White Sox are just letting the Twins exert their will on them. They're listless and lacking in energy... Do the White Sox even read scouting reports? How many times has Gardenhire played hit and run over the years and yet the Sox seem to have no response to these tactics?" There was a sequence of events today where Alex Rios made about 3 errors and yet none of them would go down in the scorebook as errors. Poor technique, misreading balls off the bat consistently....missing the cutoff men and letting runners advance to 2nd or 3rd (maybe it's because he assumed AJ couldn't throw them out and was trying to protect his SB/CS %) Even Konerko has gotten into the act the last week, in terms of defensive lapses. Passed ball/wild pitch situation in the 9th totally sucked the life out of the comeback when it really should have been 5-4 had we been able to muster one lousy hit with Beckham in scoring position. There's just something "broken" with this current roster that can't be fixed mid-season and can't be quick-patched with a "Camp Cora" or even if the players spent the entire All-Star Break working on these issues (which, of course, the union would never allow). Essentially, we have the same number of losses as the Twins, so I look at the Sox essentially as having three teams in front of them. As Dick Allen pointed out, we have a murderous stretch of games coming up, we'll know soon enough what this team is made of. But you can't imagine them going on any kind of run without Rios, Dunn and Peavy. And Jake's probably another half year away, stuffwise. And maybe we have to deal with the reality he never gets it back...just like the Twins are dealing with Nathan post-surgery. There's just very little to be positive about right now, other than Paul Konerko and Dayan Viciedo. I suppose if you REALLY want to look for the silver linings in rainclouds, you could add Sale and the "improvement" in Gordon Beckham over the last 2-3 weeks. Yet it seems to be defeat to think his upside right now is a 675-700 OPS/"great glove and range" 2B. Better than league average, but meeehhhhhhhhh. And this whole "gay slur" imbroglio is the icing on the cake. He's gone from "future face of the franchise" to someone KW is calling out for bring down the integrity of the White Sox. LOL. With the dysfunctional environment around the team, which starts at the top by the obvious lack of cohesiveness between KW and Ozzie, you have a recipe for disaster.

Farmer blaming the heat for Peavy's struggles. Unfortunately, it has no effect on the Twins when they play in our park, despite being a "cold weather" team now.

This was a "trap" game as soon as the starting pitchers were announced. Not sure how I feel now. I ALMOST would have rather been swept, because KW will use the victory yesterday as the excuse not to make any changes. That and the fact we're only 4 1/2 or 5 GB, depending on what the Tigers do. In the end, 21-25 at home and 8-16 in the AL Central aren't indicators of a competitive team that's just one or two players away.

QUOTE (JoeCoolMan24 @ Jul 10, 2011 -> 02:30 PM) OMG, a mother f***ing check swing "excuse me" slash through the infield. f*** this f***ing Twins team so f***ing much. Pieces of s***. So god damn annoying to watch. I almost hope they win the division just so they can be f***ing ass raped by the Yankees again. f***ing garbage f***ing slap hitters. That's what happens when you have hitters who make contact. Good things usually happen. And have been happening for at least a decade for Minnesota.

"Chicago White Sox, when it comes to fundamentals, are horrendous." Twins' radio. It's over, done. They need to change the manager, period. Rios getting his usual poor read this season. Konerko, had he cut that ball off, would have had Valencia at 2B. And they're going to put Will Ohman in now?

Hope we get to see Hector Santiago again....to see if the last couple of outings were a mirage or a sign of good things to come. Especially if he can repeat his success against the same line-up.

Peavy's had that 95 MPH fastball at least 2 times this season. There's just no other choice but to be patient....and hope that it comes back. What else can do they do? We are 8-2 in his starts, although it feels like the same stat when Danny Wright or James Baldwin had good records but didn't pitch all that well. From everything that you read, it's a gradual process where he's not expected to be 100% again for another 3-6 months at least. And there's just no way that relief outing helped any.

Here we go again. But we're acting like we have no chance to get a run off Swarzak anyway.