caulfield12

Once again, no credit for bringing John Danks back into the fold. Zero understanding of what Carlos Quentin was actually worth. Still no willingness to be patience to see where Santos, Molina and Addison Reed are 2-3 years from now as big leaguers. Knee jerk reactions. We saw the same types of commentaries coming into 2005. How could they possibly dump Lee, Valentin and Ordonez and still expect to compete with the likes of Iguchi, Dye, Pods, Hermanson, AJ, El Duque, Pods, etc.

Into the Wild, it was the more "true story" nature of the events, the waste of it all, and from having read the Krakauer book well in advance. Thought Emile Hirsch did a great job with the McCandless role. Because THE GREY was a work of fiction, it didn't really bother me at all.

The more interesting question is why did it decrease so much? Simply because of the lost ticket sales from the Dodgers? You'd have expected going into 2011 that optimism and interest would be about as high or equal to the first year (because of Dunn coming on board and the relatively positive 2010 season), and that's exactly what happened, it was stable. So instead of taking a direct shot at the chaos which was the Dodgers last offseason, they're firing a shot across the bow of the Sox for no reason at all. Sounds like the "anti-Ozzie" approach the last 3 years...we'll see how things go on the Northside, Southside and Miami. Sveum reiterated he will hold his players accountable, though he added it may not involve "screaming or yelling" at them. "It's just about when mistakes are made, especially on the mental side, that they're taken care of," he said. "They like to be held accountable. I think any human being does. It's the way America works. That's why we're the greatest country in the world, because we are held accountable on an everyday basis. "Our mothers and fathers always are held accountable, and the same as Major League Baseball players. They always have to be held accountable for what they do on the field, as well as off the field." Sveum's tough love approach will be interesting to watch, especially after the lack of accountability from players such as Carlos Zambrano and Milton Bradley in recent years. "You can tell that he means that," outfielder Reed Johnson said. "A lot of coaches and staff members can say that sometimes, but it's not genuine, or they're not really going to follow through. I don't think he cares if you're making $15 million or $450,000. You're going to go out there and play the game hard. And if you're not, you're not going to play. "For players like me, that's really refreshing, because a lot of the times, especially throughout the league and throughout my experiences, that hasn't really been true. The players know if you come in with that attitude, you're going to be in for a rude awakening with this staff."

So essentially, you're going to give all of 2012 to: Sale (until innings gets him) Reed Beckham Morel Viciedo DeAza Flowers (in the event of an AJ trade, mostly 2nd half) Lillibridge perhaps becomes option 1A to play full-time for Rios...although we know Ozzie would undoubtedly go with Fukudome, a lot of Sox fans would be interested to see what happens with everyday play for Brent as well after 2011. Nobody sees Escobar, Martinez or Kuhn as everyday big leaguers, there's little doubt about that. This is the only plans that makes sense...it's the logical or reasonable thing to do, in our present circumstances. The last one is debatable (Flowers), but we really need to identify a catcher for 2013 (if it's not Tyler) and acquire him for Floyd, Crain, Thornton, etc. In the event a complete rebuild, you finally move Ramirez or Konerko.

Will just be very happy when ST starts so there can be something positive to focus on. This is even more tiring than last year's pre-spring "overoptimism." Things are never as bad as they seem with the Sox, and experience has taught as that they're almost never as good as they look (1984, 1994, 1997-98, 2001, 2003, 2006, 2009, 2011).

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Feb 18, 2012 -> 06:46 PM) First, note that I said plate appearances not at bats. Secondly, if he's getting 450 plate appearances...that's almost exactly what Brent Morel got last year (435). And Morel himself came out and said that being put on the bench so regularly screwed with his mind and wound up making him swing tentatively for the better part of the season. If Viciedo isn't hitting 9th, then that means he's on the bench more than Morel last year. That means he's getting benched about 1 out of every 4 games. I'd rather have him sit at Charlotte for another year than play around with him like that. Not only have we already seen doing that hurt player develoment, but we're also wasting anotehr year of service time on him but having him spend 1/4 of the year on the bench. If Viciedo, Fukudome, Rios, and De Aza are playing well, Fukudome will both be the weak link and will be the guy who we won't mind sending to the bench more. Play the guys we're stuck with. If all of them are playing well, then Fukudome will be putting up the same numbers as De Aza, except De Aza will be better defensively and on the basepaths. If anyone not named Rios is playing poorly...then I'd rather either give him the time to develop (Dayan) or see if he can pull it together before we waste a roster spot on him the next year (De Aza). So if Dayan doesn't perform adequately, we're going to have to waste a roster spot on DeAza or Fukudome again as a back-up option to Viciedo? Not quite sure I understand your last sentence. Or you mean you don't care as much about the playing time for DeAza/Fukudome/Lillibridge, that the the sole outfield development focus should on playing Viciedo everyday no matter what happens to see what we actually have in him going forward?

Very fair and balanced article. One thing I question is how realistically the Sox were actually looking at bringing in Victor Martinez to be their full-time catcher. If you want to argue they were ready to give the full-time job to Flowers in 2011 and make Victor the DH, more power to you. It was one of those moves (like Thome to Twins, Kotsay/Jones as DH) that had a "double effect" on the AL Central, and worked against us. It's pretty doubtful we would have won last year had the Tigers signed Dunn and the Sox ended up with Victor Martinez, but that argument can be credibly put forth. We've also had a number of players who weren't rushed (Rowand, Crede, Borchard, Fields, Brian Anderson...now Viciedo) but who had a tremendous amount of pressure put on them to perform as soon as they hit the everyday line-up. How much you can blame that on the Sox "win now" environment, it's hard to say. Look at the examples of Kip Wells or now Hudson, was it simply they weren't prepared to succeed in Chicago but they could perform much better in a smaller market, away from the media glare? Most argue dealing Hudson after only 3 starts was foolhardy, and including Holmberg, even more so. Then with Beckham (and Dayan), you have to look at all their position changes and what effect it had on their development, because of gaps in our major league roster and AA/AAA depth which forced them to be moved all over the diamond in consecutive years. That goes on KW and the scouts 100%. As far Chris Sale, clearly he was ready to be a big league reliever 2 seasons ago...the main question is whether he's been given enough time/coaching/development to make it as a starter, and how much the "wasted" 2011 season will stunt his eventual outcomes as a starter down the line. Guess we'll find out soon enough. As for anyone caring about Jason Frason being a "Chicago native" or going to a game because of his overpaid presence in the bullpen, that's laughable.

QUOTE (Milkman delivers @ Feb 18, 2012 -> 09:44 AM) That's kind of clunky, as it could be read that he walked out of the two movies he viewed after he completed The Grey. But I assume you're saying that he walked out of The Grey. What is the other? The movie immediately being previewed after THE GREY, he walked out of...as he didn't feel he could give it a fair review in light of the pervasively negative afterglow of Liam Neeson's flick.

QUOTE (Milkman delivers @ Feb 17, 2012 -> 10:22 PM) What? I don't get the love. I liked it, but it wasn't great. Don't know....I LIKED Crank (the first one) and was entertained by it, especially the hyperkinetic feel and the pretty bold "sex in the public" scene...but I wouldn't call it a career milestone or anything like that.

The Grey was a nifty little flick. Definitely not a happy ending, feel good story in any way, shape or form. Ebert made an interesting comment, that he'd never once walked out of a theater when reviewing a film...but that he did for the 2nd movie in a row he was watching after The Grey. I don't think it was THAT chilling or depressing, any more than INTO THE WILD or similar "survival" movies. That one where the three kids were stranded on the ski lift with the wolves actually got to me more than The Grey. That said, Liam Neeson's having quite an impressive run now as an action star. Lots of actors of that same ilk putting out stuff recently, Mark Wahlberg and Denzel Washington fall into that same category where every project they're involved in makes $20-30 million the opening weekend.

Bad news for fans of the character, admirers of quality filmmaking, and anyone who forgot to bring some Tylenol to the screening. FEARnet Cage maintains his reign as Hollywood's Captain of Crazy with a performance that sometimes feels like an impression of Andy Samberg's impression of him. RedEye Quite why Brian Taylor and Mark Neveldine, the directors of the brilliant Crank, got involved is anyone's guess. Perhaps their tax bills were also due. 9 positive reviews / 47 negs (not too far behind THIS MEANS WAR w/ Reese Witherspoon) Actually, the first one was mildly entertaining, in a campy sort of way. 1/2 or even 1 full star just for the presence of the ever-beautiful Eva Mendes.

Red Tails isn't a great movie on the ground and it's a bit too "feel good/Hollywood-ish," but definitely worth your time just for the aeriel fighting sequences. Terrence Howard and David Oyelowo were both excellent, although I'd love to see him (Howard, and Cuba Gooding, for that matter) in more roles that really stretched his ability.

At least seven teams have interest in 19-year-old Cuban outfielder Jorge Soler, according to the most recent rumblings from around MLB. The Yankees and Phillies are said to have serious interest, and the Blue Jays, Orioles, Red Sox, Cubs and White Sox also appear to be in the mix. Soler isn't a fully fledged free agent yet, but that hasn't slowed the rumor mill down. The latest: •GM Ruben Amaro Jr. confirmed the Phillies' interest to Bob Brookover of the Philadelphia Inquirer. "It may come down to where he wants to play and, of course, the money," (brilliant!)Amaro said.The Phillies have stayed in close contact with Soler, taking him to dinner several times, according to Brookover. •The Indians have worked Soler out at their Dominican academy several times, Paul Hoynes of the Cleveland Plain Dealer tweets. •Jorge Arangure Jr. of ESPN The Magazine tweets that he would be very surprised if the Yankees sign Soler

Rios has to get the bulk of the playing time. There's no way to dump him on anyone if he's merely facing LHP. Especially if he's playing at least decently and we're anywhere within hailing distance of first place...if he's totally tanking, then you can experiment with Fukudome more and potentially move him at the deadline for a piece or 2. But getting Rios off the books should be priority #1 for Williams.

I'm assuming the A's were not included on that list after signing Cespedes? Must be a bit older. That "negative" article also doesn't give us credit for inking Danks, that's definitely at least ONE positive. It also doesn't acknowledge the "insider" we had involved with Molina...in Marco Paddy.

Walker=Rudy Jaramillo 2

And you also have to look at players like Viciedo and Iguchi's contributions, as well. Loiaza, Jenks, Santos and Humber. How many teams have unearthed four guys like that in less than a decade, for virtually zero cost? As far as developing Chris Young, he was pretty much OUR guy, how we can not take credit for him, I don't know. Take it one step further...we SHOULD get SOME credit for Michael Morse's 2011 season, which further mitigates the lower standing or ranking. Danks was essentially a rookie when we got him from the Rangers, so we leveraged McCarthy for Danks. Someone else noted Quentin for Carter, etc. Trying to think of other players we've dealt....and their WAR's. Brandon Allen got quite a few AB's in the last couple of years, not sure where his WAR number sits, probably not so high. Definitely the same with Carter. Another player I just remembered, Miguel Olivo...was a AA guy when we picked him up. A statistic like this is very misleading, particularly when you factor in the additional contributions of Humber, Santos, Loaiza and Jenks. Yeah, I realize Esteban was an established major league veteran, but those other 3 clearly were not.

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news;_ylt=Am4K...speranza_021312 Nice read, had no idea what happened to Dave Valle, but now I do. Makes you feel sick that our Sox guys were robbing money from these families.

I was joking, Greg. I'm actually Catholic, too...doesn't mean I have to feel guilty about everything, however. And I was an altar boy, haha.

QUOTE (Quinarvy @ Feb 15, 2012 -> 12:44 AM) I'm with greg. The f***? Cue Catholic Bishops' Conference entering thread, after dominating the airwaves last week.

QUOTE (Swingandalongonetoleft @ Feb 15, 2012 -> 12:08 AM) Sox fans need to seriously start worrying about a 48 year old Ichiro and Torii Hunter on wheels rolling around in the outfield soon. I know Manny got to take an iPod with him while on "defense"- would canes and respirators be permissible? I'm sorry for using Manny as an example again, but he was able to relieve himself inside the Green Monster while a pitcher was being relieved on the mound. Catheters just seem like they would be more convenient and would allow the outfielders to study whoever was in the on-deck circle like a hawk would study it's opposition (smaller-sized mammals). Bonus- opposing hitters would have to get used to being surrounded by four hawks. The fourth has an ideal vantage point perched directly behind home plate enabling him to assist the umpiring crew with any trouble they may have in making a correct decision. Bonus 2 - game worn jerseys are big business for memorabilia stores , but game used collection bags would be sought after and a new revenue stream is, more profit. You said "stream." tee-hee, Beavis.

The Cubs didn't have to do that with Concepcion...even though he's not "officially" contracted with, either. Maybe it's one of those things like the Jays' "fake" interest in Darvish that is mostly meant to placate the fans who were excited about getting Cespedes and feel let down. Who really knows at this point?

Or Valverde not blowing a single save.

Insurance for all 3 outfielders. Allows Lillibridge to spend a little more time practicing at all three infield positions. Experienced LH bat and walk machine off the bench. Paying him less than the likes of Castro, Vizquel and Linebrink (not to pitch for us last year). Decent to good glove, certainly a replacement for Dayan in late innings of close games. Hard to see any reason to complain here. For some reason, I was expecting Magglio Ordonez (just to spite Ozzie), but we needed a LH bat more.

Can he play SS for Alexei in April? Hey, the Royals had the bright idea of putting Teahen at 2B, anything's possible. Just not likely.