thxfrthmmrs

If the voters sleep on someone like Bassitt again like they did last time, I am calling for a re-election of the committee

QUOTE (Buehrle>Wood @ Jan 26, 2015 -> 03:46 PM) I have to fully disagree with this. Reigns eliminating a top baby face would have been nuclear heat on him. WWE did the best they could, they threw in 2 guys not even smarks could cheer for over Reigns (Kane and Show) and an anti American. It still didn't work. We'd rather side with Vladimir Putin than Roman Reigns. I personally wouldn't have a problem if it ended up with Reigns eliminating Bryan at the end. If Bryan and Reigns puts on hard fought battle for 10 minutes, that would have put the fans at the edge of their seats, because the match could have went either way. If Reigns beats Bryan convincingly at the end, Bryan comes back in the ring to shake Reigns' hand to endorse him, everyone goes home happy. The issue at hand is there was nothing convincing about the way Bryan was eliminated. Come on, you have one of the most over superstars of all time eliminated by a tackle from Bray Wyatt midway through the match after being out of action for half a year? I think the fans wanted to see more than that.

QUOTE (scs787 @ Jan 26, 2015 -> 03:17 PM) Which would be pretty dumb in my opinion but I guess I'm alone in thinking that. Too me its like Shawn Michaels is popular so let's not try and develop the rock or something along those lines. We saw with the rash of injuries just a few months ago that they really need to start building more stars than just your top few guys. Even though I can't stand Reigns personally, I think the backlash is more so on how it was done rather than who won. Bryan and Reigns were the 2 heavy favorites all along and when Bryan was tossed mid way through the match, everyone knew who was going to win and the rest of the rumble was pointless. There is usually excitement and suspense in the match when only 3-4 superstar remains. But when Ambrose was gone, it was more obvious than ever that Reigns will win out vs. the has been Big Show and Kane. Now, if the last 3-4 standing were Ziggler, Ambros, Bryan and Reigns, I think the crowd would have took the match a lot better than they did.

QUOTE (Brian @ Jan 26, 2015 -> 08:36 AM) That'd be nice...I mean NO! WWE SUX! Cancel your subscriptions!!! Give me some credit, I was part of the reason the Cancel page crashed last night!

On the bright side, unless Orton comes back to continue his feud with Rollins, we might finally get the WM Rollins vs. Bryan match.

f***ing BS they dragged Rock into this s*** show.

Reigns it is.

WTF.

I am predicting Lesner retains and Rollins will cash in again to take advantage.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Jan 24, 2015 -> 02:24 PM) Not unless there are major injuries. He was at AA last year, and this is just a minor league depth move. Not sure if you are looking at the right guy, Beltre spent all of 2013 in Triple A and made it to the bigs in September. He was hurt most of last season and spent 1 game in Double A for rehab. His offensive output is respectable for a defense and speed guy 3 out of the past 4 seasons leading up to the injury. I don't think he'd do any worse than what we originally expected out of Danks, and he certainly carries more upside with him.

There are no details yet on the terms of the deal.

Sox signed Engel Beltre, the once highly touted 5 tool prospect out of Dominican Republic. Could see him competing with Shuck for the 4th outfielder spot.

Thank goodness for Ballstreams, just catched that 3rd Q by Klay. He was hitting ridiculous shots all over the court, I don't think you will see anything like that again.

QUOTE (Brian @ Jan 23, 2015 -> 05:20 PM) I see him being heavily out of breath. And Samardzija comes out and gives him the RKO out of nowhere, for stealing his bit.

QUOTE (Buehrle>Wood @ Jan 23, 2015 -> 03:35 PM) Wonder who they'll announce as the surprise signing for the opening ceremonies. What more can you ask for on top of the Geovanny Soto face turn, showing up in a Cubs jersey then ripping it apart revealing the "good guys wear black" shirt he's wearing underneath, then jumping on top on the tables and starting the Yes! chants, Daniel Bryan style.

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Jan 22, 2015 -> 10:04 PM) Heck yeah boys! That's what I call bulls basketball. Rose was just sick!!! Pau played awesome too as did taj. Brooks annoyed me in second half. Offense gets so stagnant with him cause he dribbles way too much Kirk needs to get some confidence. Now let's make these types of performances and efforts a trend. Loved thibbs going with nazr early. He brought some toughness. Snell played good too. Yes, would have like to see more ball movement especially out of that second unit. Spurs looked dead tonight, but a win is a win. On a side note, I think we now have enough Kirk Hinrich boneheaded plays on the year to make the official 2015 Kirk Hinrich lowlight reel.

QUOTE (Jose Abreu @ Jan 22, 2015 -> 01:12 PM) Hoping for a good game scoring-wise from Butler. A lot of interesting matchups tonight with Rose-Parker, Butler-Leonard, and Gasol-Duncan. Kirk Hinrich vs. Spurs towel boy

QUOTE (lvjeremylv @ Jan 21, 2015 -> 11:29 PM) I don't know much about WAR, but you're suggesting that .290, 20, and 80, would only result in a WAR of 2? WAR is both park and position adjusted, so playing RF at US Cellular makes that stat line less valuable than say playing SS at Safeco. It also takes into account other aspects of the game - base running and defense. Avi has provided negative value in both areas in his 2 brief seasons. If he makes improvement with his glove, which isn't out of the equation, I could see a slightly higher WAR. FWIW, 2 WAR is basically a league average player.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jan 21, 2015 -> 07:40 PM) Year and a half? The 2nd half of 2012 he put up a .810 OPS in AA. He tore up AAA in 2013 as a 22 year old with a .991 OPS over ~1/2 a season. As a 22 year old Viciedo put up an .850 OPS in AAA, but he also had a broken hand in spring training and lost some time that year/had impacts from that as well. If you want to say "technically" he didn't have a year and a half year worth of plate appearances, sure. But point is Viciedo never put together a stretch like Avi did in the minors. That's without getting into the Viciedo's poor instincts and stubbornness as a hitter.

Viciedo never dominated the minors the way Avi did the last year and a half. For every DV there's also a C. Lee. I am betting on a .290-20-80 2 WAR season.

QUOTE (LDF @ Jan 17, 2015 -> 07:39 PM) all man, i am sooo hype that someone like Callis will even reach out for future sox top list. this site sure has grown into something special. on to the subject. yeah i can wait to see the new list of soxtalk top prospect. Pretty sure that was someone from Soxtalk tweeting at Callis asking about the Top 100, not the other way around lol.

QUOTE (Stev-o @ Jan 21, 2015 -> 02:53 PM) My point is..."prospects", more often than not, remain nothing more than prospects. IMO, if you can trade them for proven commodities that can help you win NOW, you do it. As some wise dude once said, "a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.". You need to consider major league ready prospects make less than 5% of the salary of the "proven commodities" you're talking about. No teams can field a team full of "proven commodities".

QUOTE (raBBit @ Jan 21, 2015 -> 04:33 PM) You're wrong here. This article is from 2013 but it's the same CBA. The pick, or more technically speaking, the slot value, vanishes if the team signing the player has a protected draft pick. So if the Cubs pick 11th in 2016 and sign Samardzija next offseason we would get their 11th pick assuming we offered a QO. So this offseason since the Sox have a protected first round pick, the Yankees and Blue Jays will be awarded sandwich picks and the Sox lose their 2nd and 3rd round slot values. If the Sox had an unprotected pick and the same scenario played out, the Yankees would be awarded with our first round pick and the Blue Jays would get a sandwich pick. The Sox would lose their 1st and 2nd round values. Pretty sure you're wrong here. We do NOT get the Cub's 11th pick in that scenario, we get a sandwich pick at the end of the first round. The scenario would hold true in the previous CBA (Though I believe it was Top 15 protected). That's what also what the last sentence in your quote stated as well. For instance in last year's draft, 4 teams, Atlanta, Texas, Baltimore, Yankees sign free agents who received QO, and their former teams, all received a sandwich pick at the end of the first round, no one received the actual pick of the team that signed their free agents. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_Major_Le..._Baseball_Draft

QUOTE (Stev-o @ Jan 21, 2015 -> 11:55 AM) Hello...I've been reading this site for quite awhile, and I finally decided to "dip my toe in the water". I don't understand the posters' infatuation with prospects...other than Gio Gonzalez, when was the last time, over the last 10 seasons, that the Sox traded away a prospect who amounted to anything? You don't happen to be THE Stev-O are you? Anyways welcome to the board! Admittedly Sox haven't been good at drafting and developing prospects up until a few years ago. However, with a change in drafting philosophy and latin scouting, we have restock our farm and there are definitely a few guys who are posed to have a successful career. If you want cost controlled assets like Chris Sale, Jose Quintana, non-Sox players like Longoria, McCutchen, Goldschmidt, you gotta develop them from within. Otherwise you will end up spending $210 mil on Scherzer or $100 on Pablo Sandoval. Unless you're the Yankees or Dodgers who could just go build a team through free agency, you got to keep a good balance of free agents and home grown talents. To answer your question, on top of my head Ryan Sweeney, Chris Carter, Chris Young, Clayton Richard, Daniel Hudson, Brandon McCarthy, have had pretty good success in the big leagues so far.

QUOTE (SleepyWhiteSox @ Jan 20, 2015 -> 03:36 PM) 1. He is leading by example. He's been playing fairly well. 2. Not talking on the court isn't the sole issue obviously. 3. tnt crew isn't the brightest bunch. I'm fine with him voicing his frustration. Should do more good than any harm it could. And he didn't single anyone out. Fact is, the team is playing s***ty. Up to them and thibs to play harder. Where are you reading about this displeasure from teammates with Rose? It's one of the first issues even Rose admitted to. http://espn.go.com/chicago/nba/story/_/id/...on-sixth-loss-8 The issue is bigger than you would think. Boozer as bad as he was is a vocal guy and called out a lot of the rotations in years past. Gasol doesn't do the same, as evident they have been really bad this year in rotations, traps, doubling, and defending pick and rolls. Whether Rose was calling out guys for not communicating, hustling on defense, or rebounding, I haven't seen him doing his part to make a difference. And up till the last 4 games or so, he was historically bad shooting the ball. I think if you go out and put your teammates on the spot but you're not even doing your part, it hurts more than it helps. Edit: The Rose and teammates rift was speculated over at Realgm. Some players as well as Thibs are not pleased with Jen Swanson sending in notes for Rose and Noah to take a lighter practice or taking days off.