caulfield12

The greatest concern for baseball should be in Cleveland and Kansas City, where teams have done well but the city doesn’t seem to care. The Indians are 12-5, but the crowds are down 5.3 percent, thanks to four games where less than 10,000 fans showed up. Kansas City is 11-6 and has seen its crowds decline by a whopping 16.8 percent, including last Thursday against Seattle where 8,811 people were counted. And what in the world is going on in Chicago, where the loveable losers can’t even fill up Wrigley? The 16 percent drop through the Chicago Cubs’ first seven home games is hard to believe. For the record, so far, with the unbearable weather and 4 game road losing streak...the White Sox are off 1.5% so far. http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news;_ylt=AlIA..._problem_042111

I guess we should never have traded Danks for McCarthy, either.

Transmorphers: Fall of Man, from the same team that brought you Titanic II... Quite possibly the worst spoof movie of all-time. The biggest problem I had was the casting of writer Shane Van Dyke in the lead hero. If he hadn't written the script, I doubt he'd have even had an audition. critic at rottentomatoes.com

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Apr 21, 2011 -> 07:50 PM) I proved your point? You basically said no one comes close to Shapiro since mid 2006. I don't mind your overall pissed-offness (if thats a word) about the Sox, but your statement is just wrong, and waiver claims don't count but trades do? For all we know, Santos might end up having an even better career than Bobby Jenks...another example of either a typical "lucky" KW move working out or a very insightful job of scouting and analysis (Jenks, Danks, Floyd, Quentin, Thornton, Ramirez, Iguchi, etc.)

QUOTE (Wanne @ Apr 21, 2011 -> 10:56 PM) I've heard this the past 4 years. Not arguing...but I remember the convos about having Konerko, Dye and Thome all in the same clubhouse and not instilling a very "lively" atmosphere. But it seems that element of the team won out over the likes of Swisher and Cabrera, in the end.

The famous Von Hayes trade, Eric Milton to the Phillies for Carlos Silva and Nick Punto (simply because those guys helped the Twins and Milton collapsed)...AJ Pierzynski for Bonser/Liriano/Nathan, although hardly a superstar, I think he'd been at least an All-Star with the Twins once at that point. Victor Zambrano for Kazmir? Then you have the White Flag deal where we got Foulke and Howry, but Caruso and Barcelo were major disappointments.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Apr 21, 2011 -> 07:42 AM) Just checking on my AAP, weird that Remenowsky hasn't pitched in like 4 or 5 days. I wonder if Tyler Kuhn can be what CJ Retherford was supposed to be. Hopefully better than Andy Gonzalez or Lillibridge!!!

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Apr 21, 2011 -> 07:41 AM) Develop and keep young players? Like Gavin Floyd, John Danks, Chris Sale, Matt Thornton, Bobby Jenks, Alexei Ramirez, Carlos Quentin? I'm not sure we can get much credit for Quentin's development as a hitter. He just got the label of being injury prone and lost out in a roster logjam in Arizona. There were no doubts in the minds of many that he could hit. Thornton was already in his late 20's when we acquired him. Ramirez was also a finished product, in terms of already being in the prime of his career age-wise. Now if Viciedo, Beckham and Sale pan out, you can start to give them a little more "recent" credit, along with the likes of Mitchell and Thompson. Unfortunately, the Peavy trade, Swisher trades, the Vazquez to ATL move, Teahen, Rios for most of his time with Sox (minus April-June, 2010) all of the big ones since the 2008 season have been near unmitigated disasters. Pierre has really made a negligible difference...you could hardly argue it's been a huge positive for the Sox. In particular, Tyler Flowers, the centerpiece of that trade. Losing Sweeney didn't hurt nearly as much as the depth lost with Gonzalez and Richard on the starting pitching "big board."

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Apr 21, 2011 -> 07:37 AM) Cleveland had a long pennant race and an ALCS game 7 just a couple years ago, and they're right back to the bottom of the league in attendance now. Trading Sabathia, Cliff Lee, Victor Martinez, Blake, Peralta, Franklin Gutierrez, Ben Francisco, etc., since will do that to a franchise. The only identifiable players they were left with were a post-HGH Hafner and an ailing Sizemore. Dolan just never got the fans back on his side (from the very beginning), he's regarded more like Huizenga there from what I've read. You would like to think with the Cavs seemingly dead in the water that they could make some inroads getting 20-30% of their fans back. Let's not forget, it took from something like 1954 until the 90's teams (and movies like Major League) for baseball to become popular again in CLE, along with the new stadium.

Or Anderson, Wise, Owens, Erstad, Pods, etc.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Apr 20, 2011 -> 08:56 PM) Yep, we have uniforms and everything. Masterson for Martinez? The other 4 are obvious, but Masterson hasn't been good with Cleveland and Victor was great with Boston and I'm about 99% sure he was a Type A free agent too. The other two Cleveland got in that trade have been quite mediocre. Honestly, it seems to me that trading elite players away just doesn't work out well and that, instead, you are better off making tons and tons of small trades. You aren't going to get Shin-Soo Choo and Carlos Santana for league average players at all times, but you are giving up very little overall in terms of production and have the ability to add so much more to your ballclub. The only trade of a really good player I can think of that resulted in a big gain for the trading team was the Teixeira to Atlanta deal, and Atlanta gave up a monster of a package to acquire him. Colon for Sizemore/C. Lee/Phillips/Lee Stevens?

Say what you want about KC and Cleveland, but season-long pennant races in both cities will do wonders for the sport of baseball from a generalized sense. I guess that's something to be optimistic about...having lived in KC for almost a decade, they deserve a team that's not a mirage like 2003 or even a couple of years ago. One they can actually believe in.

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ Apr 21, 2011 -> 12:23 AM) Thompson and Mitchell? I hope Viciedo qualifies as well. Of course, we need replacments for Pierre and Quentin sooner or later, so not sure how logical trading these guys would be unless Peavy's close to 100%.

Last inning, Humber totally got distracted by Upton at 1st and grooved a fastball. Typical for a young pitcher trying to make his mark in the majors. These games are all frighteningly similar. Death by small cuts and poor defense.

White Sox are now feeling snakebit, if it hadn't already happened after the 3 blown saves. By the way, I won't be too upset when Jeff Cox is no longer the 3B coach, either.

QUOTE (JoeCoolMan24 @ Apr 19, 2011 -> 10:21 AM) I couldn't stop laughing when all the people were just randomly falling down, and they ALL were tripping over the exact same staircase. lol. Also, there were a lot of canned shots of the ship and the safety boats that were all the same, repeating animations. Not sure if you made it this far, but there is one hilarious scene where the macho guy is in the elevator w/ the girls and the wave hits. His face just smashes right in to the glass of the emergency ax. It was so funny. And then he gets up, and throws his elbow in to the last remaining little piece of glass to get the ax out, even though most of the glass was already broken and he could have just pulled the ax out. Oh man, I recommend finishing the movie. Also, when the girl gets cut in half by the door, I almost gave up on the movie. That was just so "oh give me a break". Oh, and the helicopter exploding when the wave hits it. Lol, wow. I think you mean the refueling plane for the copter? "The shaft must have collapsed. This isn't good." Of course, the logic of taking the elevator isn't the best, either. One of my favorites was the guy in the beginning getting sucked down into the abyss when the glacier's collapsing but Davison and the scientist are skittering unharmed along the top, that was very funny. And the crowd panic scenes, which looked as if they were filmed at a local mall...along with that hilarious confrontation with the guy who punches macho dude in the face, only to later be punched back by another staffer as the doors close. Oh, and taping a credit card with gauze tape over a serious neck/carotid injury, too much. .

QUOTE (Jerksticks @ Apr 20, 2011 -> 04:23 PM) Ugh. Replace KW with what exactly? A GM like those 20 or so mediocre teams have? Or like the ones the deep pocket teams have? It took the Rays and Rangers over 10 years to grow their teams, after a lot of failure from top prospects washing out. 10 years man, 10 years. I like our living dangerously close to the edge style. We can squeeze a top prospect up every once in a while, but for the most part, those prospects are used as trading bullets. I don't mind having a chance every year. I really don't. The Yanks n Red Sox have just enough more coin than us to consistently carry an extra All-Star or two. It's just cash, not KW. Not just an All-Star or two, make it five or six. Of course, part of that is the ESPN/East Coast media bias kicking in. We're always lucky to get one or maybe two unless we're 20-30 games over .500 at the ASB.

Even if we only won 2-3 games on this road trip, it's not like KW can do anything this early in the season. We can't even blame the bullpen for this recent stretch. I suppose you might see Teahen getting more at-bats, or Omar, but there's really no solution for Juan Pierre. It's not like they're going to bring up Viciedo or Milledge to replace him in LF even if his stolen base success rate is 33%. We're just going to have to wait and see. Last year, we were all the way down to 9 games under .500 and dead in the water.

QUOTE (qwerty @ Apr 20, 2011 -> 11:44 AM) It all makes sense in the brain of caulfield. Which is disturbing. Post of the Year. Quite clever. At least try to have some style, like Bob Dylan employed incisively. Maybe you can just send a private text message between each other, Caulfield : LOL BFF

QUOTE (NCsoxfan @ Apr 20, 2011 -> 02:26 PM) A great benefit of my job is my building overlooks the Durham Bulls park. I just walked over and caught a few innings of the game. A few comments: -Jhonny Nunez was absolutely blowing people away. I think his strike out on desmond jennings was on a 95mph pitch. -Viciedo looked terrible against the Bulls good ppitcher (de la rosa??), but hit a solid single off the "blue monster" in a later inning. Beautiful day outside, wish i could stay the whole time!!! Nunez, Bruney and Kinney have all been pitching well so far. The starting pitching depth is the problem, though, as usual.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Apr 20, 2011 -> 03:41 PM) And I'd venture a guess that there are very few managers in baseball history who average 89 wins, and even fewer who are currently available. Besides Joe Torre due to his time with the Yankees...? Braves' years probably pull the average down, though. Cito Gaston? Cox? Scioscia?

QUOTE (Milkman delivers @ Apr 20, 2011 -> 10:03 AM) Everybody seems to forget that. Any time someone's head is called for, it's a knee jerk reaction. It's never the culmination of years of disappointment due to the ineptitude and failings of the manager or general manager. Remnants of 2008 and 2010. If we didn't have the miracle playoff run the last week (along with Minny collapse) in 2008 (along with the fortuitous coin flip) and the 26-5/38-13 spurt last year, you're right...it would be hard for even the staunchest optimists to use much more than the Cardinals/Astros/Rockies and the fact that it's the Royals/Indians and not the Twins/Tigers out in first and second.

QUOTE (Harry Chappas @ Apr 20, 2011 -> 10:01 AM) First loss was a blown save so you can say that was the starting point. The Sox held a lead in every game until that point and have since lead for a whole half iniing of play the last five games. The triple play may not have killed the momentum of this team but the 6 runs in two innings to a terrible offense seems to have killed any confidience this team has. Basically our season has boiled down to a triple play (Alexei), the dreaded A's series at home and letting TB get their first win of the season, all via blown saves...along with Juan Pierre, Matt Thornton, Opening Day offensive fireworks and the amazing comeback versus Soria. It has now been 8 days since Alexei's walk-off homer. Seems like a month.

Otherwise, you'll have to go into Jerry Reinsdorf's brain and plant the idea that "all in" wasn't such a good idea after all and reverse the Hudson/Jackson, Peavy and Swisher trades (both for good measure).

Val Kilmer looked very bloated to me in his recent movie appearances, hopefully he's in better physical condition now. After Top Gun, he was riding on top of the world, but he gained a reputation for being one of the most prickly and demanding actors in Hollywood. Interesting to see that he's still intimately involved in Native American issues after filming the movie "Thunderheart" about Wounded Knee almost 20 years ago now. "I'm your Huckleberry." Roy Halladay