caulfield12

QUOTE (Chicago White Sox @ Aug 21, 2011 -> 05:41 PM) I'm sure it's just a reduction in rent. If we draw less than 2 million fans, we just pay the state less money. MARTY, YOU'RE WAY OFF....hopefully you really aren't joe cowley or you're tremendously misinformed about something that could be google'd in mere seconds. Can't wait for Rahn Emmanuel to get his $200 million for the Cubs boondoggle going. Now I'm really curious what the rent costs (that we're not paying) are...this would be a partial explanation of why we charge so much for tickets, because it actually saves money to stay under the 2 million target while bringing in the same ticket revenues as teams like the Twins or Tigers post because of significantly higher average and premium ticket pricing. GENIUS. White Sox Go Years Rent-Free At U.S. Cellular Field, the White Sox lease expires in 2011. According to Christopher Lackner, spokesman for the ISFA, which owns and operates the stadium, the White Sox have paid rent nine times since 1991, but only once since 2001, when the annual attendance target was raised from 1.2 million to 1.5 million (I'm assuming that the target number is now set at 2,000,000, the number MARTY is currently referencing). Total rent paid depends on total attendance. “For all practical purposes, the Sox don’t pay rent,” said Sanderson, because in most of the years when the Sox have paid rent, they have barely passed the rent threshold. U.S. Cellular Field originally cost $125 million to build, but enhancements have been made since the original construction, putting the total subsidy at more than $200 million, not including interest on the debt. $20 Per Ticket Subsidy In “What Do We Do With the Hotel Tax Now that We Don’t Need Any More Stadiums?” a report issued September 30, 2003 by MCIC, a not-for-profit research and information organization for the Chicago metropolitan region, the organization says under current projections, by the time the White Sox lease expires in 2011: “ ■The ISFA will have spent well over $200 million of public money to build the new stadium, the scoreboard, and other capital improvements on the site; “ ■The White Sox will not have paid a dime more in rent; “ ■U.S. Cellular Field will have attracted somewhere between a quarter million and a half million fewer spectators per year than ballparks with a similar capacity and teams with a similar won/loss record;“ ■Every person buying a ticket to attend a White Sox game from now on will have been subsidized by public money at the rate of about $20.20 per ticket.” The study argues almost none of the money spent by the teams or fans benefits the surrounding area, and that the stadiums therefore have failed to live up to promises that were made about economic development. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

675 is more like a good month for Gordon Beckham the last 2 seasons. You have to get at least 725 out of him for him not to be hurting you.....assuming he's playing 2010 and not 2011 level defense.

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Aug 21, 2011 -> 05:33 PM) I don't think the Sox will do a total rebuild. I think Buehrle comes back, but their going to have to find money to do that. Ramirez, Quentin, Danks, and Floyd should all be options to trade. As far as season ticket sales go, the lease affords them the protection of 2M in ticket sales. 2 million at what price? GA or the cheapest upper deck seats? Certainly not premium or box seat rates. What does that even mean? So if the overall attendance was 1.8 million, they would have to recompensate the Sox for an additional 200,000 tickets? Then why do they even have to worry about trading Ramirez, because ticket sales are only about 25% of their total revenue these days. That's a counter-argument for why they should actually try to be as competitive as possible in 2012....instead of carving $20-30 million off the payroll. You're arguing for having a younger and possibly more competitive team in the future. Certainly more profitable. But in all probability nothing resembling a very good team unless absolutely everything possible breaks the right way for the Sox with underperforming players regressing to their expected means.

If Lillibridge joins the Sons of Anarchy in a patch-over, I'm ALL IN. Seriously, Brent has made himself into quite a valuable player. That we're even talking about him as a potential starter after the way he looked 2-3 seasons ago (both putrid and horrific) is amazing in and of itself...Walker has to get some of the credit for that, doesn't he???

Laughing that his hand-crafted "offense max" line-up pulled off a huge blowout against a pitcher who hadn't lost in his previous 8 starts? Well, at least we finished 4-4 against the defending AL World Series team. You have to take that.

If it's the Lillibridge with a line-drive/ground ball swing, maybe. If it's the "Hey, wow....I hit more homers than Adam Dunn" version who's constantly swinging for the fences with the big/long swing and striking out too much for someone so small, well, we've got 2/3rd's of our line-up already doing that. Short and compact, good. Whether he could hold up over 150+ games and against a steady diet of tough RH pitching, I doubt we'll ever have the opportunity to find out. If Dunn/Rios/Peavy are all coming back, Buehrle and/or Danks are gone (along with Quentin) and Lillibridge is the annointed SS...how many season tickets will that sell Mr. Smarty Marty Pants Rowland? 5000? 7500? It will be a dramatic falloff.

Does anyone hear a tree falling in the forest? Well...as soon as it's 3 or 3 1/2 GB again, some of the newly-lost fans (plus the football fanatics and back-to-schoolers) might come back. Once again, the consistency thing. Back and forth like a yo-yo or ping pong ball. Hard to get excited about any streaks unless it reaches 4-5 games.

It's a bit sad that we couldn't even consider going after the big names...whereas we're going to be considered quite lucky to be "stuck" with Rick Hahn if the Cubs aren't interested in pursuing him with all the other nationally-hyped entities in play.

And we don't have many of those "interesting to follow" players, lol.

Putting Eduardo Escobar out there wouldn't kill the defense. But Beckham and Morel might actually need to hit at 700 OPS clips to make it feasible. 600-635 won't do it for both those guys. DeAza, LillyBOMB and Flowers have all looked stout when they've had opportunities this last month. Another shutout by the Sox pitching staff. It's another offday and on to So Cal. Tigers get the Mariners. That's not good....the could reach their high point of 11 games over 500 on the season.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Aug 21, 2011 -> 03:03 PM) And there's another pitch Brent could have turned on and driven down the LF line. Lift and pull Brent! Open up those hips more and try to pull the ball! Did Greg Walker hack into your SoxTalk account during the game??

At least Greg will be happy for Juan Pierre's June-August success.... One hopes it's not like Kotsay late in 2009 and it ends up getting Pierre another contract with the Sox. Lilly, DeAza and Flowers (896) all over 800 OPS numbers. Amazing what a little offense can do for the pitching staff. And it's gotten us all of a .500 record.

Rangers an almost bizarre 5-18 in one-run games on the road. 47-16 for the Brew Crew at home.

QUOTE (The Ginger Kid @ Aug 21, 2011 -> 01:30 PM) I see that mighty Tiger pitching staff took it on the chin today. Hope that doesn't disappoint too many around here. But it wasn't nearly as bad as "ace" Jimenez in one single inning...he made it an almost impossible comeback. Now that they're within 1 run, they really need to win or it's much worse than just getting blown out. The Indians using Joe Smith....arguably their most effective short reliever...in the 5th and 6th innings today. Ozzie Guillen could learn something there from Acta's bullpen usage. Could have just as easily tanked that game...or not used Smith when down by 2 runs. Ozzie would have put in Ohman or Stewart there undoubtedly.

8-7 Tigers....Hafner single (out at 2B on the throw) to score Cabrera who'd doubled and moved over on a wild pitch. No boos for RIOS there? C'mon, has Rios/Dunn/Beckham apathy fully crept in?

LillyBOMB strikes again. Two nice approaches there against Holland. We've had probably more success against him than any other MLB team this year.

8-6 Tigers going to the top of the 6th in Motown... Daniel Schlereth in for the Tiggers. Indians can't afford the 3 game sweep.

Yet another reason to trade Ramirez. Lapses on concentration. But nowhere as many errors as Valentin used to commit...30+, and a heckuva lot better range than Clayton. Still think Uribe was the best SS we've had...although Ramirez is capable of more spectacular/athletic plays.

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.