Waygodai

QUOTE (The Ultimate Champion @ Dec 26, 2013 -> 12:31 PM) Not caulfield though, he reads everything. Right now caulfield is in some Chinese gas station bathroom deciphering the scrawl on the stall door while remembering the career of Chris Snopek. caulfield like older than my father, so he better 've read some actual books, lol. Nah Caulfield posts are very informative, interesting duderino me? I'm just a humble elitist know-it-all, bes' dey eez Did miss this place I have to say, esp the GT insanity, so as we say goodbye, in the spirit of this thread to ref earlier post (fie! Juilliard encouraging such language & lewd behavior, surely a joint of much ill-repute!)

QUOTE (Eminor3rd @ Dec 20, 2013 -> 02:40 PM) Rallies. Huh, I forgot what those were. Man, those felt good. Yes, rallies. You’d be surprised what can happen when you DON’T give away outs left and right, both offensively and defensively/pitching-wise…. and actually make adjustments within an at-bat, managing balls-strikes, leveraging favourable counts, match-ups, conditions; taking extra bases at high %, KYP, that sort of thing. That’s my kind of Moneyball in a broader sense; that’s real “situational” baseball -- that is, not confined to some lazy, limited stat like RISP that is subject to so much random fluctuation. (Which is NOT to say that intangibles like ‘clutch-ness’ or momentum don’t exist as per BP cubicle jedi’s swinging their metrics like sabers – they very much exist so long as baseball, or any other advanced endeavor for that matter, is played by wacky humans. But suffice it to say, clutch doesn’t exactly lend itself to easy definition let alone quantification, so in that sense, let’s invoke Justice Potter Stewart’s “I knows it when I sees it, kemosabe, mmkay?”) So Eric Surcamp, huh? Hahn chugging along, nice. First Paulino, now this. If nothing else, more of the things I like: competition, SP depth. Just as improved Gillespie hopefully will push Davidson to be better, or a healthy Beckham – Samien in AAA, maybe even Ramirez at SS…..No reason for Rienzo to be handed the job without really *earning* it. Gives Erik Johnson, or even John Danks something to think about, too in case they feel like strolling through Easy Street. OTOH, wouldn’t put too much stock in Surcamp’s dominant minor league numbers necessarily, but on the flip-side no reason to get depressed at his slow fastball gun-readings, either, cuz, to paraphrase the underrated Hawk, velocity is in the mind of the hitter; his body language will tell you how fast the guy throws. So a funky lefty who “hides” the ball well, keeps the hitter frustrated with off-speed arsenal, consistently works ahead, and just has some weird aura or mystique about him that makes hitters almost allergic when they step into the batter’s box ---- well, a letters-high 90 mph fastball on an 0-2 count from a pitcher like that, in an old-school ballpark probably *feels* much faster than, say, a 2-0 meatball at 93 mph from someone like Billy Koch or Felix Diaz at the Cell (where with that very hitter-friendly background, that same pitch would probably look like a beach-ball in slow-motion in comparison, mercy!) Speaking of meatballs & batting practice… it’s always amusing to hear people say so-and-so had a good BP session, or watch for this guy in ST he really puts on a show -- like that’s supposed to mean something??? Uh lessi: in BP, a stiff like Joe Borchard gets straight 80 mph lollypops from his favorite coach, in his preferred rhythm, in predictable spot, with no pressure whatsoever --- i.e. nothing remotely close to what he would be facing in actual games. So of course he could conceivably fool coaches & scouts by looking like Mickey Mantle. This is where baseball in general is at a disadvantage as compared to other team sports where more emphasis is put on scrimmaging & recreating game conditions. Like in olden times, someone like Scottie Pippen could actually make Jordan better by his stifling defense, or full-contact hitting that used to go on in NFL practices that could be more vicious then real thing…. This, and putting too much faith in college or minor-league stats as predictors of ML success, is one of those popular misconceptions. Oh and another favourite that’s not baseball but sorta related to velocity debate: Jay Cutler. Like how he’s this great QB talent, super-arm, blablabla. Uh-huh, except he doesn’t see the field well, esp at night; has issues with decision-making & emotion-control esp. on the road; isn't accurate & routinely over-throws the ball in the red-zone – the equivalent of a baseball pitcher pumping 95+ mph fastball after fastball after fastball in the same location over heart of the plate only to be fouled off, when even a decent off-speed pitch would have gotten the hitter out….. So maybe pure arm-strength isn’t everything, ya think? LOL. Tangent over, sorry. Say it ain so, Brent Morel. Pretty good bat-control, surprisingly strong despite type of swing arguably incompatible w. HR; could glove a bit too if I recall We’ll always have Sept 2010 or 2011 was it? Never got a chance to prove that power surge wasn’t a fluke; the body just wouldn’t hold up. I mean it’s one thing play through a torn labrum, but a structural spinal injury on top of it? Once a borderline talent like Morel got into the downward-spiral of missing games, demotions, heavy-duty painkillers, anti-inflammatories, epidural/cortisone, etc the fate was sealed. No chance. Of course most prospects fail because of the ol’ “light on talent, can’t handle the big city lights” thing, so we’ll never really know with Morel. Lastly, let’s not discount the 2014 draft; does anyone know who to watch for? As fast as Beckham, Sale rose, and hell back in the day didn’t McCarthy, Daniel Hudson fly through the system as well?…. wouldn’t shock me to see the 1st rd pick in Chicago later in the year, haha. Won’t be boring one way or another! .

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Dec 23, 2013 -> 03:05 PM) The Syrian government has spent the last month or so heavily bombing civilian areas in the city of Aleppo, leading to hundreds of civilian casualties including Children. This has provoked virtually zero notice anywhere as far as I can tell. O’ yah, Balta the whole thing is tragic all the way around. As Scuds & barrels worth of H.E literally level city blocks… Syrians made a mistake when they forgot to rename themselves “Northeastern Palestinians” or some such. THEN, the global media coverage would explode any time someone came down with diabetes in Aleppo or caught another “Zionist spy” bird in Homs. (Cue al-Beeb, al-Jazeera, Press.TV, RT headlines: “ZOMG Breaking: Ebbyl Juices just razed Al-Aqsa, turned matza back into gentile-baby blood & planted irresistible gay urges into the heads of our sexy-ass brothers of holy resistance, ay haram!!!!!”………… as Fatah tanzim/AMB, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, PRC, PFLP not to be confused with PFLP-GC, insert alphabet-soup terrorist joint-du-jour, begin to prepare their newest batch of human shields to parade around post-mortem). Who knows, Syrians could then even leverage out their very own UNRWA or 2 w billiosn euros in aid windfall for their corrupt leaders to bilk Arafat/Abbas style. But I digress.) Here’s the thing, Balta I’m sure you’re well aware that choosing sides in Syria has come to down to jabhat al-Nusra, ISIS psychos vs. Hezbollah, IRGC, Shabiha, sadrist Iraqi militia fanatics as pawns of the Grand GP Game played by Riyadh, Teheran, Moscow, Ankara, Doha, Dubai. Litmus test time: when even a sorta-kinda sentimental idealist like myself who normally abhors boring politics, starts to acknowledge the really complicated gray areas & defers to realpolitik… you know you’ve got a real scary-ass cluster****. Not without some good news. Syria fiiinally acknowledged 1000+ tons of sarin, Vx in the process of dismantling – though knowing the parties involved, I’ll believe it when I’ll see it hahaha…. Sounds like maybe some of that used to belong to a fellow mustachioed Baathist dictator once upon the time, ya think? Not to be outdone, over in Egypt Morsi-appointed al-Sisi suddenly pulled the ol’ switcheroo on his Ikhwan masters. Apparently Sisi has done more in 3 months to clean up Sinai snake-pit than alleged “Zionist stooge” Mubarak did in 30 years. Bravo, General Admiral Such-Strong Big-Man Al-Sisi! Throw in about couple dozen other horrific conflicts & potential flash-points around the world…..No worries, the utopian ‘World According to Vajayjay’s (Valerie Jarrett, Van Jones) is going to work out splendidly in all its simultaneously chaotic & increasingly Orwellian glory….Say what you will about the PNAC dudes, at least they were acting out of some perceived long-term interest of American hegemonic exceptionalism....right or wrong. Whereas these Alinsky revolutionaries won’t be satisfied until the US of A is knocked down a peg or 10 as it inches ever so closer to the glorious status of Stalinist Paradise that is North Korea. Ok I’m bored again, sorry. No worries, Balta, Syria is not going to disappear from the news forever. The “best” is still very much ahead: balkanization or more like Somalization…. Few installations near Qom, Arak, natantz, isfahan, w.teheran experiencing, oh shall we say, “totally 124% accidental spontaneous combustions”…. followed by the Twelver Mullahs in Teheran lashing out & doing something reeeeally stupid in the strait of Hormuz ------- and.herre.we.GO! YKMV Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, here's hoping for peace & joy .

Agree.

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Dec 22, 2013 -> 04:42 PM) Barring major give away trades, the Bulls will make the playoffs. Everyone here is talking about how s***ty they are. Yes, they are going to suck when you don't have Deng/Butler in your lineup. When they are in the lineup (with Booz/Taj/Noah healthy), Bulls are 3rd to 4th best team in the East. They sucked when Deng and Butler weren't any near the court. By the way, Snell looking better each and every game. Seeing him develop is nice because it gives the Bulls a couple guys who potentially can replace Deng if they opt to move away from him (which they should if he's looking for 15M per year). Also nice to see Augustin looking good...bad thing about the fact that he's a one year guy means he'll play good and sign somewhere else for more money (just like Belinelli and Nate did last year). Fa’sho, those aren’t insignificant considerations, either. [[WARNING: wall-of-text incoming! Run, too late to save the children -- save yourselves, run run run ]] Jase, glad to see I’m not the only one who has a bit of a problem with this type of smug tank posturing. After vindictive assholes Jordan, Pippen, D-Wade thoroughly poisoned the FA waters for years… it’s important for Paxson, Thibs to reverse some of the damage. Derrick’s petulant unwillingness to recruit hasn’t helped either, but it is what it is. So if Bulls are to be viewed as a *winning*, respectable organization in a wider sense that also has a rep for PD & rejuvenation services, helping guys like Noah, Gibson, Asik, Belinelli, N-Rob, and now hopefully Augustin, Dunleavy, Deng, Butler earn some real $$$…. that bodes well for organization’s future plans. That’s also how you get a couple of future Ray Allens to take less money (if you don’t have LeBron, Wade, Bosh, that is which 95% teams don’t) to fit into the cap when Bulls are full-strength, on the verge of something special. Gonna need someone credible to attract & coach up Mirotic’s D, too btw Again, if Bulls are in the lottery in this East, it means the franchise is fundamentally F’d across the board in scouting, development & decision-making. So even if by some lottery fluke, they do get an Exum or an Embiid, that couldn’t begin to address those structural, systemic flaws. We’re talking years here. Look, I realize Rose injury tore some people up, who now have hard time dealing and resort to magical thinking; it’s natural to want a do-over, an easy answer, a short-cut solution, something spectacular – and this obsession with Tanking is just how some people cope….But come on peeps, rooting for all that misery is beyond self-defeating. While we’re at it, let’s pump some breaks on a couple of things. 2011 ECF. Not talking the boxscore over/under bar-meatball type of “analysis”, or the media narrative here. Scratch beneath the surface, delve into the complexion of that series, turns out it wasn’t so clear-cut actually. All the making of going at least 6. Owned Miami in reg season as per usual; destroyed them in Game 1 of ECF; had them over the barrel in Game 2 as well but just missed ton of open jumpers & lay-ups, at one point going down into the 20s %. Next two in Miami were tougher obviously but still competitive: one still winnable mid-point in 4Q, the other went into double-OT – all in spite the usual pathetic NBA home-court, star-friendly officiating the Heat got the benefit of. And Game 5 Bulls again dominated Miami, up 18 in the 4th Q, 95 times out 100, they close it out…. except this was one of those 5 times when Bron and Wade are chucking off-balance 30 footers with shot-clock expiring and they swish in. Derrick’s inexperience then finally showed itself, he totally panicked, reverted to the 1-against-team ball, give credit to Lebron he sniffed it out, rotated over…..Oh well, the better team won, collusion disgrace justified itself, still it was anything but boring or valueless. (Yes, the 2013 2nd round “rematch” was a different story: w/o rose, deng, hinrich, a banged up & straight up exhausted noah, taj + essentially a rookie-starter Jimmy-pants… had no chance. Still, that stolen game 1 in Miami as ugly a brawl as it was, somehow was one of the most gratifying Chicago sports experiences I’ve ever had outside of 2005 October, natch. You can keep your Bulls rings which I’d imagine at some point must have gotten boringly predictable as long as Jordan stayed healthy – gimme some of that under-dog sauce, Neil Funk haha! Then again, maybe I’m in the minority here: I really enjoy spirit of competition, unpredictability & challenge in general, hell my studies/profession has close to 99% attrition rate at highest level -- and I absolutely freakin’ love it) Look, pound-for-pond Dan Bernstein may be the most talented sports radio in Midwest or whatever when he is not being a giant douche, but it’s kinda silly all these years later to see peeps mindlessly parrot another of his (tongue-in-cheek) myth that in 2011 LeBron’s magical jedi ninja defense shut Derrick down any time he wanted, and that’s why it was never possible for Bulls to beat Miami. Fie! I am not even talking about regular season when D-Rose abused LeBron on several possessions I pretty vividly recall. Bron-Bron did switch on Derrick for a few minutes here and there in the 4th in ECF, and with his team trailing in the series with big-time pressure mounting, Derrick did become anxious & try to do too much instead of getting his teammates involved--- leading to missed shots, thus, in turn, leading to more desperation, a vicious spiral ….. But that’s more to do with Derrick’s immaturity as a PG than anything else. Over longer term, with today’s NBA rules prohibiting any kind of perimeter contact 1-on-1, no defender can shut down a guy as talented as Derrick; Lebron himself even admitted as much when talking about Kobe, nevermind a quicker younger dude like D-Rose… Like was said b4, D-Rose has lot more room to grow as a player, which is why a) the 2 borderline fluke injuries b). wasting 2 precious years of development with effin Vinny Del Negro c) not even trying to exploit the growing Dwight Howard-Magic rift, or Aldrich, or maybe just maybe possibly pre-empting Riley-Bron-Wade axis…and instead settling for bum-slayer Boozer. was so unfortunate. But that shouldn’t lead to knee jerk revisionist posturing about how Derrick was always too small, Bulls embody basketball Hell and some of the other smug nonsense that’s so popular now. It’s disingenuous, IMO.. Moving on. Ok let’s for a moment pretend that actively, gleefully rooting against your professed team, wishing Deng, Augustin, Butler and co keep getting hurt…. ISN’T weird & illogical, if not utterly pathetic…. Let’s tell all those people w families who shell out big money at the UC to pretty much ‘suck it, suckers”. the Tank brigade are just oblivious. Can’t enjoy simple basketball, respect the effort & ol’ spirit of competition. Lay-ups and perimeter passing and defense aren’t sexy, huh? They have this fantasy where Bulls get a new LeBron – and it’s happily every after…. though it rarely if ever works out that way in reality. Heck it even took arguably most talented player of all time “only” 9 years to win his first title… and even then he needed a HOF and a borderline HOF next to him and a crazy Ray Allen tray last time out. That’s the only scenario under which Tankers can be remotely satisfied after years of literally rooting for their team to lose? Feel sorry for them. Whatevs. Boozer and Co can’t make a layup and open 3s aren’t falling; therefore the SEVERELY short-handed Bulls are having trouble scoring at the moment? Wow, stop the presses, you’d think they’ve just discovered that OJ killed Kennedy or some other amazing revelation.... Of course no way those (minor) injuries can heal; or bricked lay-ups start bouncing in & the team 3-pt shooting reverts to the mean, market-corrects, whatever - at least middle of the pack…..at some point refs will start blowing the whistle when “uppity rooks” like Taj, Butler, Snell get absolutely hacked at the rim…. That plus the usual Thibs schematic adjustments—and voila, energy levels up, precious spacing is restored ….. Nope, can’t happen, no way no how, nuh-uh. [/end teal] Bit of the ol’ cognitive dissonance and just weird logic going on. Forget about the unglamorous work-ethic, team-work, old-fashioned scouting & player-development; cap management got no time for painstaking stuff like that. Then in one breath they curse Rose for 2 fluke non-contact injuries… in another they slobber all over the lottery & other team’s stars every year. Cue fantasy line-ups for 2017, oomph. Weed is always greener in other team’s locker-room, I guess. Nevermind that only 1 team out of 30+ gets to hoist up a trophy any given year, odds aren’t exactly favourable no matter how much tanking & so-called “long-term planning” you may wish to do…. Btw, how many rings do Melo, Dwight Howard, Anthony Davis, Durant, Irving, Wall, et al have? LeBron never can get hurt, eh? Another physical freak Dwight Howard never got hurt…until he did. Adrian Peterson never got hurt, until someone fell into his knee. Greg Oden coming out of OS looked like a sure thing. Pro sports history is littered with examples. Then there is Derrick… Obviously that can’t be the only organizational strategy going forward, but it just happens to be reality: why does this stuff even need to be spelled out to anyone older than 13? Ridic. Forget about 2011. Take even 2007 or 2009…. Yes, VDN incompetence, a very raw rookie Rose had no business beating the defending champs either time...Yet at the UC in ’09 in particular the team was just pure fun, clowning some people incl. IIRC Doc River Celtics, LebRon’s Cavs, Howard’s Magic, Yao’s Rockets, Dirk’s Mavs; had like a 20 pt lead against prime Kobe (Phil Jackson sat his starters threw the game and in equally fun fashion Bulls proceeded to blow that huge lead to Sasha freakin’ Vuwhatevich, haha, it was never boring). Close games, spectacular blow-outs, dramatic comebacks, triple OT’s, walk-offs, Tyrus/Noah block party, dunks, Tim Thomas, Brad Miller, Deng, Gordon raining 25-footers, ill-advised Noah fastbreaks, etc, etc, etc…. Basketball Hell indeed, oh hhhhow horrid, huh? Instead of having all that fun good time, should have been blasting Coldplay and slashing our wrists togevah! How horrible Bulls keep making playoffs; fans are having good time; ratings solid, UC & merch keep selling out….franchise valuation keeps going up by 50-100 mill every few seasons --- thereby giving the frugal JR a peace-of-mind of not just going heavy into Luxury Tax when Bulls are finally on the cusp…. but maybe also allocating a few extra mill for our White Sox (I know they’re supposed to be separate business entities, but in reality, what’s supposed to be and what IS, are often 2 entirely different things, lol). Oh no’es! .

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Dec 18, 2013 -> 07:16 PM) If Shin Soo-Choo is turning down $140 million for 7 years from the Yankees, he's going to regret that one for a long time...watch, he turns around and gets signed for $150 million or $160 (which is what he believes he can get after the Ellsbury signing). I wouldn't go anything over $100 million, and that I would probably regret quickly. Coming back to the AL, I just don't see him having another year like he did with the Reds last season. http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/mlb/2...illion/4156805/ [as one intensely moral & big-hearted, hyper-sexual, endearingly dorky detective... exclaimed upon learning that her supposedly uber-faithful supercop Dad effed a C.I.... while her beloved Mum hadn’t a clue] -”Seriously?!” Friggin’ GM’s... haha, good call Caulfield

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Dec 21, 2013 -> 05:56 PM) That's a good list. I'd like to add that they need to fix fixable problems in a more timely fashion. I.E. don't waste six weeks hoping Viciedo can hit right-handers when you're in a pennant race or don't keep pitching Nate Jones when he isn't getting anyone out. Agree Nate Jones is still very much work in progress: while not young per se, still fairly inexperienced in different roles thrust upon him. Notwithstanding my belief that Sox should at least try him in the Hector Santiago, Alexi Ogundo, Daniel Bard starter role – I know in the minors he wasn’t great SP, but apparently that was before he physically matured, refined his curve which rarely needs as a reliever; proved his slider as major-league quality, displayed flashes of half-way decent change-ups against LH, and generally shown that he can sustain velocity for 3 innings (as he seemed to when I saw him). Yes, he will 2-3 mph by being really stretched out in the rotation, but he’ll also gain some MPH and hopefully command, by pitching out of the stretch vs. wind-up. I think even at “only 94-97” with the natural movement that Jones generates, and potential of his 2 breaking pitches... should be more than enough. I think like Santiago, temperamentally/mechanically Jones is not made for coming in on short notice in the 8th, in a tie or with Sox down by a run, with runners at 2nd & 3rd, no outs ---- and with basically no margin for error. That’s been one of the problems with pitchers handling in general. The stale orthodoxy of leaving the starter out there until he’s hit the wall, esp if there is less than 100 pitches… I get that OzzieCoop wanted them to learn how to be “real mangs”, but often it ended in like a triple-whammy of bad, LOL: -opposing hitters end up seeing the starter 3rd or 4th time through the order, which apriori gives them an advantage -(the tiring) starter’s pitch quality & control suffer, which only exacerbates that -the injury risk rises dramatically longer-term (2000 overuse leading to 2001, 2005 to 2006) -even if the starter is pulled juuust before blowing the lead, with bases loaded, you’re putting guys like Nate Jones and Donny Veal into real tough situation -while the opposing hitters are sitting pretty, licking their chops (confidence = success) -by contrast, Jones and Veal try to do too much (in baseball, too much = exact opposite effect) -inherited runs score, starter’s ERA suffers, and by extension his confidence going forward -new inherited runners score, 1st reliever’s ERA suffers, and by extension his confidence -rinse & repeat with 2nd reliever -even if the fatigued starter avoids injury or blowing the lead and goes the distance, it results in under-used or inconsistently-used bullpen, which leads to rust and thus hurts longer-term performance. I’d rather overuse bullpen because a decent reliever is MUCH easier to find than a good, healthy starter. It’s not like Sox have a bunch of Verlander-type workhorses, and even Verlander at some point gonna pay the price for Leyland’s “old-schoolness”..... Jones as closer at least he will have his own inning, started from scratch as an advantage. No guarantee of success by any means, but it’s a start. Which is why I like Hahn getting a bunch of solid vets to improve the middle-relief depth, you never know with pens year-to-year. Those grizzled guys like Crain seem to handle the set-up role pressure better than Jones. Re: Viciedo facing righties is tricky not only because often times some of this 'splits' issues are overblown because of sample size or some year-to-year fluky fluctuations..... but also because at the time he was and prolly still is considered a potential impact contributor to middle of the line-up. As such you HAVE to know what you’ve got with him, at age what? 22 when he smacked 25 HR; the ONLY way he can get better against righties is by.. actually playing against them. Learning, failing, adjusting, more failing…. No way around it, no short-cut. No specialized batting practice. Not simulated game. Not AAA, either. Majors. Sink or swim. realize this may sound a little contradictory given that I wouldn’t mind to see Davidson start off in AAA so long as Gillespie shows signs of improvement in Glendale. I guess every situation & player is different. And yes, risking a pennant race by putting faith in learning curve of prospects, can backfire – and I say this as someone who’s constitutionally averse to the idea of ‘tanking’ by the way… Then again 2014 is not 2012, I mean I think and hope it is as competitive, but still a Reload year is not quite the same as All-in year. We’ll see more clearly by June one way or another. I’ll also say this for Nate Jones, aside from Bobby Jenks he’s the only Sox pitcher whose stuff didn’t magically disappear on the plane-ride to Chicago. Think of the many Aaron Poreda’s over last few years: I guess all the Hoover Met reports of “impeccably spotted, heavy-sinking fastball at 99 mph, with unhittable slider”………were Yiddish for “straight-as-arrow 94, cement-mixer slider; couldn’t find the strike-zone if it told him his hair, uh, style was, um, interesting” Or take Addison Reed. Kept hearing how in AAA or AFL or whatever, he was touching 98-99, lots of movement with this filthy slider. Saw him in 2nd half of last year, he was like 92, straight, very ordinary slider. Maybe that’s why Hahn was willing to part with Reed so readily. Hey, it’s not just minor league readings that are unreliable. Even Fangraphs which is taken as gospel, doesn’t always tell the whole story (velo mid point vs crossing homeplate; high pitch low pitch; different guns, pitcher delivery; 4seam vs 2seam, tailing, cutting; count-variance,so on) Aaaanyway. 2014 will be extra interesting when experienced through the awesomely homerific prism of the Hawkaroo: I know assorted hipsters, contrarian cranks & out-of-town haters love to feel so intellectually/culturally superior to Hawk..... but personally I found that as long as one filters out his well-known bias, tongue-in-cheek shtick & remembers that Hawk is a home-team announcer whose job is to first and foremost cater to younger, casual fans.... there are a ton of hilarious as well as seriously insightful gems. On a national broadcast or in a radio setting where you need PBP to be just that, it would be different, yes... but those who want to run him out of town, will miss him when you get just another clueless JoshLewin3000 phony or The few games I did manage to see more than highlights, I thought the Stoney-Hawk feud thing was overblown, too. So what if they sat far apart, big deal. Contrasting styles, conflicting personalities? Good. Both have encyclopedic knowledge of the game; wildly different tones & personalities can complement each other, I like tension & drama obviously hahaha! if Tom Paciorek sp? wants to occasionally drop by as part of a 3-man booth, why not? .

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Dec 19, 2013 -> 02:51 PM) First point, Alexei only had 1 HR in June, but that was during the time when he was mostly hitting 2nd. In my opinion, he made major adjustments to hitting in that position - cutting down on the power stroke and trying to make better contact, as a result of being in the position. His power re-appeared again more when he was taken out of that role in Agusust. I'd really dislike having Davidson start in AAA and usually I'm the guy who likes to give people in the minors time to adapt. He's had his full year at AAA, he's had his cup of coffee in September already. He belongs in the big leagues unless he gets hurt. (lol to be fair by August it was all over, empty stats in low-leverage environment; and IIRC there absolutely no visible "adjustments" in his swing, stance, approach. He stunk as did most hitters when it mattered most. (contrast with say his 2008). re: the #2 spot excuse, back in 2009-2011 Lexi had no particular difficulty hitting HR in that spot. You convinced me, I am willing to give him one last chance, Balta, if Flowers gets one, ya know... but let's not twist ourselves in pretzels trying to justify his horridness with the bat & glove last year or the apparent long-standing issues with preparation and underachievement in genera, k? Under Rick Hahn's regime, I hope all this excuse-making homerism ) I don't believe extra seasoning ruins legit hitting spects any more than a stint in the pen ruined Mark Buerhle or David Price. Talent wins out. Esp. if the defensive issues are true. Plus Gillespie deserves a real look, Balta if only to build his trade value. Davidson could change that by looking real good in ST, I am not talking about the meaningless Arizona stats, but the stuff coaches look for day in day out, work out in, work out out. Esp, if Gillespie doesn't look improved, then Davidson makes the team.

QUOTE (Jake @ Dec 20, 2013 -> 06:21 PM) The standard for good GM'ing in the NBA is VERY low. I'd think twice before declaring our FO horrible. Maybe not ideal, though it sounds like the ideal FO is either the Miami one or whichever one is in last place. I dunno, I like John Paxson. I like Thibs. Even impartial to 'World's Last Unsuccessful Facial Transplant' (Gar Foreman). Hell, even as a dumb, authority-averse kid I remember for some reason naturally gravitating to a disciplinarian like Scott Skiles. Go figure Certainly prefer them to an empty-suit jag like Jason Kidd or an Empty-Haircut phony like Vinny Del Nergo (let alone trash like Steve Alford sp?) .

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Dec 20, 2013 -> 02:42 PM) Triple Yay for playoffs in the UC this year broham! Amirite? No, no, no perish the thought Kyle --- having fun at a sports event??? That's unpossible! Fun, competition, sudden surges in endorphins, serotonin, dopamine, chatting up a random hottie.... are the most diabolical inventions since the beach balls and the Wave. Im totes for the tank now, my man. Just wait til we get Wiggins AND Randle AND Exum next year, plus Eddie Curry and Tyson Chandler? Suh-weet! Think of the wicked starting line-up we could field on xbox by 2062, at latest... sick! No way Bron-Bron, Chuckles or Big Aristotle couldn ignore the Bulls on Twitter then! Not like Bron-Bron or Brian Westbrook could awkwardly step on someone's foot tomorrow or whatever and suddenly the field is wide-open again, either...

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Dec 19, 2013 -> 02:46 PM) Well they agree, but they are acknowledging that the team was deeply flawed. There is no other reason why they'd export 5-8 significant players with a few other heads on the chopping block. I mean, we're talking about Dunn, De Aza, Viciedo, Beckham, Keppinger, Gillaspie, Flowers, Phegley, Ramirez, and (John)Danks that people have suggested getting rid of and finding an upgrade on at one time or another. That's almost the remainder of the roster. The Sox realize that they can be competitive next year, but that they needed to get young and re-develop or, rather, re-establish the foundation of the team. If they are anything more than a .500 team - I will be the first to acknowledge it is very possible - I will be pleasantly surprised. Basically, I handicap there odds of certain milestones as such: 100+ wins: 1% 95-99 wins: 3% 90-94 wins: 6% 85-89 wins: 10% 80-84 wins: 10% 75-79 wins: 25% 70-74 wins: 25% 65-69 wins: 15% 60-64 wins: 4.5% Of course the team was *flawed*. Who could, or would argue that? Kenny left a real mess – in a wider sense, including years-long Dave Wildering of the draft/farm system. Honestly even if the team *didn’t* lose 99 games, I’d be all for what Hahn is attempting to do. Generally, good GM has to always look forward; always reassessing, revitalizing the roster, looking for ways to structurally improve. It’s just that for obvious reasons, a true Rebuild would likely be catastrophic for this organization. Hell, even the Cubs with their much greater resource potential and a talent overload incl. Baez, Almora, Bryant, Soler, Starlin, headed by so called geniuses like Theo, Hoyer, Jason McLoud….are finding out how painfully slow and difficult it can be. My Cubbie bros were getting seriously pissed I’ll tell you that, that’s something right there knowing these people, bwa-haha Sox wouldn’t survive the Royals or Pirates status in this city, IMO. So to see Hahn attempt to balance long-term considerations with desire to be least competitive in 2014, is welcome. Btw Mr. Wite, a .500 record in 2014 you mention, would represent a whopping 18 game improvement while managing to cut payroll by, what, some 50 freakin’ million since 2011? Ok, you know what? That’s a start, esp. if it means being 10 games over .500 at Home, with HR once again flying out of the Cell come summer-time. People pay a lot of money to see games; the least they deserve is a half-way competitive, young, exciting team that kicks ass in style at home, ya know? Cuz last year’s debacle was a disgrace, esp. that unprecedented Cub shellacking I’ll never live down, lol. Though obviously I think and hope they are better than .500, woot. .

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Dec 20, 2013 -> 10:40 AM) Brian Windhorst reporting that the Bulls will not trade Deng this season and have high hopes that they will re-sign him next summer. That sound you just heard was every bulls fan throwing up at the same time, except Waygodai, and RZZZA Hooole up, playa just cuz I refuse to partake in the ongoing Tanker orgy & happen to like Deng as a 3rd option at 10-12 mill or whatever he’s currently making. doesn’t mean I would mind one bit Bulls let him go or traded Deng for a big-upside prospect -- and this is where, again, it’s important for Bulls scouts & coaches to have credibility, because if Bulls are in the lottery in this pathetic East, it will have meant the organization is fundamentally F’d because those responsible for talent-evaluation & development, are utterly incompetent. Double-yay for 5 percent chance at Wiggins or Jabari, though! No worries broham, I wouldn’t give too much credence to these reports, anyway. I have a feeling they are just saying this to keep several parties calm with the status-quo, or perhaps to send message to prospective trade partners that the price for Deng wouldn’t be as low as they would hope, that he is a valued part of Bulls future plans. While telling the casual $$$-paying Bulls fans that they are not tanking the season, afterall. Who knows what the exact motivation is. So much can change between now and next summer, as Bulls unfortunately experienced in last 2 years. Deng may want too much $$$. Deng’s Achilles may scare Reinsdorf off; Butler and Snell with increased playing time, may take that next step up and make Deng expendable. Or Luol may revert back to his old tunnel-vision self and start ball-handling & chucking too much, thereby pissing off Thibs and the FO, which, in turn, would start a media war with Deng’s camp…. cue ugly divorce. And if everyone keeps going down with injuries, and Bulls top draft pick next year despite Thibs best efforts to win..... that'd be OK, too. Po-tay-to, po-tah-to

QUOTE (Stan Bahnsen @ Dec 19, 2013 -> 01:29 PM) Loved your year to year evaluations of the consensus expectation. Accurate and telling. I do think Lexi has improved as a basestealer. And, I'd really like to know more about his familial issues in Cuba, regarding that excuse being made for him. IF he returns to elite defensive status, he'll have plenty of value by mid-season or next offseason, and will be more asset than burden. Fair nuff, I’ll give the dude one more chance. If Beckham deserves one, so does the Missile. Me? Before even knowing how high the upside of the Sox core talent is going forward, I’d like the whole organization, not just Ramirez, to display more – how to say in Swahili, ah yes: Fundamentals. No, not the phony-hollow buzzword Ozzie & adoring media have been smugly throwing around all these years; not bunting for bunting sake, stealing for stealing’s sake…. “teaching Jon Garland or Gavin Floyd to be a mang” by leaving him out there at 120 pitches against Jason Kubel, when he’s clearly gased, rolling curveball after curveball…..or whatever the F’ else the Oney-Cowley braintrust thought the word ‘fundamentals’ stood for. I mean, *real* fundamentals. That include but by no means are limited to: **--real scouts vs. Dave Wilder flimflam men. **--real minor league instructors vs. loyalty hires that warmedackles of Reinsdorf’s heart in ‘86 **--GM resourcefulness & due diligence to avoid being snookered by damaged goods like Jeff Marquez, Simon Castro, Felix Diaz, Nestor Molina, Zach Stewart, Tyler Flowers, et al **--actual advance scouting b4 each series, so maybe other teams rookies bums don’t look like Cy Chen…while our pitchers, in turn, don’t end up throwing say Delmon Young or Wilson Betemit knee-high fastballs middle-in, time after time after time **--hitting coach that understands value of drawing walks **--footwork, technique, angles, routes, jumps, reads; blocking plate, straddling the bag; throwing to right base, cut-off man…that are at least ML average quality. **--knowing which league & what ballpark, and what time of the year you are currently playing in. (ya know, stuff like maybe NOT bunting in the 1st inning off a Fly-ball pitcher at the Cell in July with 3-4-5 sluggers coming up…with Zach Stewart as the SP for your team) **--Team leaders like Konerko, Peavy NOT being selfish by either hiding or insisting on “heroically” playing through a nagging injury that could be fixed through a relatively minor surgical procedure or prolonged rest. **--Less than 15 throws to execute a basic CS or pick-off run-down. **--not sleepwalking through coaches’ signs & otherwise botching hit-n-run **--NOT having the opposing dugout pick your pockets Joe Nossek style every other game. **--not letting the inmates run the mixed-metaphor convention, i.e. NOT letting Jake Peavy, John Danks or 75 year old Contreras, Colon talk the team into letting them come back 3 months early… and then almost right away having them throw 110-115 higher-stress pitches in a 3-run game while your bullpen is not only rested but is starting to get rusty, with Thornton not having pitched for a week **--Don Cooper not being quite so stubborn & thin-skinned. Just take it down from ‘11’ to ‘9’, Coop. **--generally being aware that baseball is basically about breaking down games into individual mini-games within a game, aka ‘innings’… which in turn are built through situationally managing of ‘outs’ & strikes-balls (say, on 2-0 Albert Pujols may be 1300 OPS beast, while on 0-2 is sub-700 OPS or whatever). That’s how you amass these mythical things called “rallies”. **--OBP isn’t inherently evil, and your mistress #4 is not going to leave you if you take a walk with 2 out and 1st base open while down by 4 runs in the 9th when the opposing pitcher is visibly wild and refuses to give in.... **--AJ spending more time in film room & less time gawking at some Gators game. **--actually bothering to properly position both OF and IF… and then --gasp! – calling for pitch sequence that actually takes advantage of that shift, rather than completely undermine it, LOL **--Dunn not being fat, picking up a bat in the off-season, actually remembering LF-LCF exist. **--Alexei eating something, lifting something, at least once in a great while. **--#2 hitter NOT trying to pullevate pitches 2 feet outside the strike-zone to LF – all while the lead-off hitter is on base, the opposing pitcher seems distracted by his dancing over at 1st, is not very good pitching out of the stretch, the infield is pulled up at DP depth, thus creating a big hole on the right side through which even a semi-weak grounder would bounce for a hit….leading to a 1st & 3rd, no outs situation with the making of a knock-out rally **--speaking of which, baserunners like Uribe and De Aza spending less time seemingly devising clever schemes of how to get thrown out on the pads in increasingly more clownish ways…. And more time actually paying attention to how many outs there are, the OF positioning, IF positioning, the identity of the opposing pitcher who’re sideway glancing at them, what year it is --- in order to be able to go from 1st to 3rd on a single up the middle; to score from 2nd with less than 2 outs, and other “unsexy” things that over long season win games. **--Remembering that not only there is NO difference between a HR that is 450 feet and one that just baaarely makes it out at the 315 foot sign… but that shortening the swing, esp. with 2 strikes, esp. against a pitcher with big-time stuff, will make it far MORE likely that the sweet spot of the bat will find its way to the center of the ball juuuust as it’s crossing the plate…. **--no Mackowiak, Swisher, Rios, De Aza in CF. No Dunn in LF. No Dye potted plant or broken down Quentin in RF. No Konerko at 1B. No AJ or Flowers behind home plate. No Keppinger at 2B. **--no Randy Williams, Will Ohman against Robinson Cano in a high leverage situation just because it’s lefty-on-lefty. Those of you who watch a lot of Sox games, I am sure could add a lot more examples to the list. Baseball Fundamentals or Smartball or ‘common freakin’ sense’ don’t sound glamorous or important….. but over the course of a marathon season, esp. in a fairly tight division race…. they really matter. If Hahn succeeds in finally purging that old culture, we’ll see some real effin’ fundamentals result in some exciting times on the Southside. Hope springs eternal, yay!

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Dec 18, 2013 -> 07:31 PM) I'd absolutely hate moving Alexei right now. By all accounts Davidson is a poor defender. maybe he gets better with time, but for right now we could seriously benefit from having a guy next to Davidson who has really good range and in fact probably plays a little too close to 3b anyway. Davidson needs to learn to hit first. If he has a solid defender next to him, that should make things a whole lot easier. I get what you’re saying though hate is a strong word, Balta let’s not get carried away here, lol. Let’s be honest Ramirez is not Quintana working on a rookie contract w. prime years likely still ahead. Though we seem to agree on the dude’s upside, AR is facing a long road toward good graces… “fool me thrice” and all that. He’s not that young anymore to invoke the word ‘potential’. Gotta show me some major breakthrough when it matters to help the team get off to a fast start, build momentum to convince FO that Hahn’s strategy is working, thus maybe loosening Reinsdorf’s purse strings heading into 2015, if nothing else… Balta you mentioned how in 2012 Ramirez seemed more focused being on a winning team. That sounds awfully like an excuse, but I’ll take your word for it since for a few years now I get to see so few games in real-time, and have to instead rely on bigger picture, general trends, “scouting” overview type of a snap-judgment…. Ok, but doesn’t that work both ways? Looking back to 2013, when it actually mattered, when Sox climbed back .500 heading into the cup-cake portion of the season starting with the Cubs series… seemingly poised to go 10 games over .500 possibly forcing managements hand to trade for a big bat at the Deadline as Sox tend to do in winning seasons --- how was Ramirez doing at that point? He was awful, on both ends. Only 1 HR in June if I recall (and even that may have been hit in so-called “garbage time”!) I’d be interested to see if the Oakland hitting coach can somehow get through to Ramirez, or Viciedo, Gillespie types for that matter. As much as it’s fashionable to think hitting coaches don’t matter in general, I believe there are exceptions when it comes to certain talent-profile underachievers. Sometimes all it takes is that one spark of a realization, a light-bulb moment, a lil’ mechanical epiphany, if you will --- steakdinnerroofies-boom! As for Davidson glove, until I see him play no comment on that, except to say didn’t scouts really doubt both Beckham and Gillespie glove at various points? Not just at SS, Becks looked awful early both at 3B and later at 2B on DP pivots, the usual rookie ‘deer-headlights game is too fast’ type of stuff. Then both settled down and made enough spectacular type of plays to at least be considered ‘decent’ at their respective positions…. sides, ideally I’d have Davidson start off in AAA. Anyway Balta of slightly more importance is what do y’all think Hahn is working on now, because hearing him talk the other day, even the subtle vocal inflections, you KNOW he is up to something, can’t wait til next summer, hahaha! .

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Dec 18, 2013 -> 07:16 PM) If Shin Soo-Choo is turning down $140 million for 7 years from the Yankees, he's going to regret that one for a long time...watch, he turns around and gets signed for $150 million or $160 (which is what he believes he can get after the Ellsbury signing). I wouldn't go anything over $100 million, and that I would probably regret quickly. Coming back to the AL, I just don't see him having another year like he did with the Reds last season. Thankfully even before Kenny was sidelined as the decision-maker, Sox were somewhat “naturally“ protected from the 150-200 mill contract madness. Baseball is not basketball; Yankees seemingly unlimited budget aside…… the only guy worth that money would be Bonds-on-THG or Bob Gibson during days of 4-man rotation or something. Hek, as much as I liked Johnny Danks who, despite himself running on nothing but fumes by that point, refused to choke as the rest of his teammates under increased expectations down the stretch in 2008 (there’s that familiar aforementioned Sox choke-pattern emerging, btw….the Minnesota series, the Tampa series Danks was the only one who showed up aside from Wise) the Danks contract extension was a mistake IMO even at the time. A maximum-effort thrower like Danks, with innings already piling up & that violent throwing-motion, was a shoulder injury waiting to happen. I know any pitcher can get hurt even with picture-perfect mechanics, which is kinda Reinsdorf’s point….but that was very predictable and is still hurting the Sox flexibility to this day. It’s just that the rest of the market was so bizarrely skewed by the stupid GM, Danks extension may have seemed like a bargain. Maybe purely statistically it was.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Dec 19, 2013 -> 12:18 PM) Phil Rogers ‏@philgrogers 2m White Sox's signing of Scott Downs speaks to the organization's belief that 2013 was an anomaly. They EXPECT 20-win improvement. that’s what I’ve been trying to say haha. No way 2013 was “99 loss” bad. I mean, it was AND it wasn’t...…if that makes any sense. Baseball can be weird like that: seasonal outliers triggering cascading/down-spiraling effect. Sox management seems to agree with us optimists. Good.

Not sure about the general Soxtalk feeling, but as some who’s around a lot of Pro-tanker buddies and assorted out-of-town Bulls haters…. it always brings a big smile to my face hearing them gloat and wax on. Respectfully, the Pro-tankers just **don’t get it**. They clearly think they do, but they don’t. Simply put: 1) gleefully rooting against your own team, is a pretty perverse proposition in and of itself. 2) with how weak the East promises to be, if Bulls are in the lottery, it will have meant Bulls scouting & player-development struck out on Butler, Snell, Taj, Noah, even Deng. Just rooting against the White Sox in 2014 to get a higher pick, would mean Abreu, Garcia, Eaton, Davidson, Quintana, Eric Johnson, Nate Jones, Sale, et al failed big-time. Which has 3) might force Nicola Mratic (sp?) think twice before tying his future with the organization. 4) oh yeah and then there is this minor thang: Bull are NOT getting Parker or Wiggins. Or even 2nd tier talent, and there is NO guarantee of stardom for them. Stern is NOT fixing the lottery, again. 5) While internet poseurs have made it fashionable to think otherwise, invoking the Legend of Aaron Rowand for like 554th time…..“grinder” or “grit” is NOT a dirty word. It’s a sexy word, actually. The "Midwest" work-ethic. It makes the world go round. Human civilization and society couldn’t function without it. In virtually any human endeavor, incl. pro sports. Neuro-science 101, hell just crack open a Malcolm Gladwell soft-cover, lol. Does it replace the need for Derrick’s meniscus fully healing? No. Do Bulls still need to amnesty Boozer and somehow work in another borderline All-Star scorer into the cap? Yes. But the much-maligned Paxson/Thibodeau grinder factor is actually pretty big ASSET for the Bulls going forward. It will allow the team to maximize the upside, to be more efficient, to come ahead in the game of ‘informational-advantage’ If nothing else, it makes it easier to be a Bulls fan and look oneself in the mirror. You can keep your thugz, no thank you. Btw, Lebron? Works incredibly hard, by all accounts. In the gym, in the film room, computer modeling; sports psychologist, the works- looking for any and all edge. Lotsa grit & grind there. I know seeing Bulls at the nadir point, with literally everything momentarily going against them, the Tanker-orgy seems to be in full swing. It will again end in tears, trust me. I am not naïve thinking team as is, can dethrone Bron-Bron. Wade’s knee will do that, anyway. Not exactly breaking new ground here, but I always thought Bulls should have gone after another star to help keep Derrick in one piece even b4 the whole disgraceful collusion-charade thing in Miami. B4 the ACL. Whether we’re talking Dwight Howard 2 years ago or Aldridge recently. Derrick’s refusal to recruit Lebron/Wade or Dwight Howard really hurt, though to be fair, there is no guarantee it would have worked if collusion rumours are true. Derrick is a player, this is where real FO leadership was needed to overrule him and force him to lobby for another star. Players play, management manages, not Reggie Rose. So it’s a big strike against GarPax lack of cohones. Look, when Thib or Skiles team shoots 25-30%, it will always look terrible. Esp. these WestCoast trips. You can tell the team morale was absolutely crushed by what happened in Portland. Right now they’re missing not just wide-open jump-shots, but uncontested lay-ups & finger-rolls. Forget effective scheming: Thibs doesn’t even know who will be starting any given game at this point. That’s NOT gonna last forever, Luol is not gonna miss game-tying uncontested lay-ups like the Orlando one forever. Bulls will get rolling; last year should have told you that, hahaha. I mean really, are things so awful as the fans & media make it sound? Rose – yeah, in a perfect world he doesn’t suffer 2 fluke injuries. Get over it. Post-ACL the dude came back stronger, with a better vertical apparently. So it’s possible. Another good news is that meniscus injury is not a career ender. He’ll be back. Maybe even this year, though obviously Bulls learned their lesson with the expectation game after last year’s debacle, so they are purposefully keeping them low. Smart. Will Derrick have to be a better defender, better shooter, better field-general PG going forward? Yes. But that was gonna have to happen ANYWAY. Even b4 the ACL thing, even being league’s youngest MVP ever, the scary part was that there was plenty room for improvement in virtually every facet of Derrick’s game. The days of Rose doing the Ben Gordon shtick of driving into quadruple coverage regardless what the offensive set called for or the shot clock & throwing up an acrobatic low-percentage shot….badly needed to be OVAH anyway. His upside was only 2nd to LeBron, OK maybe Dwight Howard when he feels like it. Far from ending his career, the several come to Jesus moments that happened to Derrick will only accelerate the much needed maturation as a PG & leader. Thibs – the Man. Nuff said. Amnesty Boozer. That would be a classic addition-by-subtraction boost to the org. Not just freeing up much needed payroll some breathing space, but because Boozer is toxic. Horrible defense & offense-stalling ball-vaccum idiot who ruins everything Thibs and co work so hard for. Talk about A bum-slaying stat-padder who rips easy rebounds out of his team-mates’ hands. Though I gotta say, his dumb facial expressions, the whole vaguely metrosexual tatted up look, his fake-defensive positioning gesturing to the rookies, the “Gimme Dat!” yells as another ball bounces in from a guy he was supposed to be guarding…were a never-ending source of lulz, LMAO! Will miss it. Deng All-Star, defense, quietly developed a post-up game which people have been imploring him to do like 5 years ago. When he plays under control, cuts to the basket without the ball, battles for tip-ins, as well as contains himself to mostly stationary shooting in rhythm & within the offensive set (over 40% on 3pt before tearing that ligament couple years ago, too bad), Deng becames a legitimate 2nd and an excellent 3rd option. As long as Bulls don’t have to rely on him as primary, clock-expiring ball-handler like they unfortunately have had to with Rose injuries... Butler- another scouting/player development coup by GarPax. Basically only 1 full year in the NBA. And even that was without the benefit of having explosive Derrick making things easy next to him. As long as the turf toe is not mismanaged ala Noah’s/Taj Gibson’s plantar-fasciitis in the past… the future is pretty bright for Jimmy pants. Star? Maybe not. James Harden ceiling? Possible; how good was Harden early in his sophomore year? Remember he had Durant,Westbrook to take pressure off of him, so it’s not exactly a fair comparison. At the very least, Butler can be a deadly 2-way player. Taj- low- pick gem. It’s for those who sneer at Bulls two 1st-rounders in upcoming draft. I don’t believe we’ve seen the best of the dude just yet. Wasn’t used perfectly over the years; got seriously set back by multiple foot injuries, and is occasionally prone to get out of control as he lets refs egregious no-calls get to him. On the plus side: in addition to very good D, now has both a jumper and some low-post moves. Can definately be a part of a Championship team off the bench as part of Scott Skiles-ian Killer 2nd Unit (except obviously Skiles never had stars like Derrek, so in 2007 no championship). Snell – I bet the Tankers crowed hard-core when he looked so overmatched against Miami in the season-opener, dincha? Hahaa. Granted, Snell is not a make-or-break player in the greater scheme of things, but as a fan of the concept of Team-Depth in sports in general…. I thiiiiiink there is some hidden Jimmy Butler lite potential there, on both ends of the court. Hell, you can see serious improvement in just 1 or 2 games. Still needs a full year and another off-season’s worth of professional work-out routine, “get stronger, let the game slow down blablabla”. Noah- feel sorry for the guy, losing clearly is getting to him. It’s extended pre-season time for Joakim, the motor, cardio part is not there yet, but once it is, watch out. People were surprised he became an All-Star last year, but iirc before he hurt his foot, he was even better 3 years or so ago. Two 1st Rd'ers with Charlotte’s pick. Self-evident. Nicola Mirotic – the scoring I’ll have no doubt. Good news, if anyone can make him into remotely passable defender, it’s Thibs. Rejuvenated Augustine/Dunleavy leading bench-mob vs. Nate Robinson/Bellineli. Nate-Rob may have been a better bulk-scorer but Augustine is a much better passer, play-maker, and defender (by virtue of not being as horrible as Nate). Dunleavy and Bellinei off-set too, though the former may be a tad better rebounder & obviously more experienced functioning within an NBA offensive set at this point. Hinrich had to expand role his body can’t handle, which tends to make him look like worse player statistically than he actually is. Augustine signing alleviates that, too. I’ll keep it short & sweet as per usual: in true darkest-b4-dawn fashion, Bulls will win a lot of exciting, close games in the 2nd half of the year, once this group gets healthy & begins to gell, you will see it steamrolling teams at the UC again…..hello playoffs! It will crush the swaggering Tankers. And they will have deserved it, too .

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Dec 18, 2013 -> 04:30 PM) But you also said he never makes an adjustment. Right there we've watched him learn a new skill that adds significant value to his game. Yes he needs to work on his focus, although it's also very interesting that his errors and bonehead plays dropped a ton in 2012 when the whole team seemed like they were focused (or in my writing, well-coached) and shot back up in 2013 when the entire team looked like they forgot what you were supposed to do when that white sphere comes at you. btw Balta just to be clear: not advocating dumping either Ramirez or Dunn just for the sake of it, if Sox have to pay most of their salary or part with a top prospect. rather, if there's an ol' "out-of-town-stupid" GM out there, an opportunity presents itself to Hahn to free up some major payroll space with those 2.... go for it, Rick. (And while it may not look like it now, recent history attests there is still plenty OOTS out there, hearing Tanaka may get 150 mill + posting fee or that Stanley Fischer may have to get appointed as Vice-Chair of Robinson Cano. Say what you will about Reisdorf, he was unto something; for the $$$ I'd trust Gavin Floyd's repaired elbow over Matt Garza's at this point.) But yeah, if Dunn and Ramirez both show up in March in top shape -- Dunn smaller, Lexei bigger -- I'd have no problem with that either. If that makes any sense.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Dec 18, 2013 -> 02:38 PM) That's a great post. Makes me never want to see Lexi play again. Don't get me wrong, I'm not an AR hater per se. In fact, again, I was one of the few people who liked his signing and wanted to start him over Uribe -- talk about a bad baserunner, incredibly overrated fielder with range of about 3 inches to either side.... Another thing Ramirez has in common with Dunn oddly enough: with Dunn, he has these stretches where is actually letting the middle-away fastball get a little deeper, shorter to the ball, levels the swing plane a little ---> boom, he looks like a HOF slugger that he was at his best with the Reds, with pitches away effortlessly driven to LF-LCF. And then he reverts to flailing & hooking the ball 2 feet off the plate..... It's just may be that money is better spent elsewhere given Sox needs and exciting new organizational direction. Let the front-office purge the old underachieving, compacent culture, ya know? If Kartman Jong Un can acquaint Uncle dearest with the business end of the flamethrower, the least they can do is let Rick Hahn spray some good-juju incence in the Sox clubhouse (i.e. free up 25 million in payroll) know what I mean?

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Dec 18, 2013 -> 02:55 PM) Alexei Ramirez was 30/39 in stolen bases last year. That was by far his best season and it was on top of a previous best season the year beforehand. He's gotten massively more dangerous on the basepaths in the last 2 years. That's all technique also, that's 100% learning how to steal bases because he simply has not gotten faster over the last 2 years. There is a lot more to baserunning than just SB; over his 6 year career the only guy with more lapses in that dept than Ramirez may be De Aza, lulz mercy! (76% SB not including pickoffs is actually pretty solid though I'd like it over 80 at the Cell.... but that's again more function of his still blazing speed than any apparent new technique or focus. Because neither translated to other areas of his game, which regressed.) Alexei knows what he can do and has shows flashes of brilliance. It's just a matter of consistency, concentration and effort that's often not there imo. YMMV.

QUOTE (ptatc @ Dec 17, 2013 -> 10:11 PM) I disagree. The ball made a difference. However there is a reason that power hitters have historically been the biggest and strongest players. Strength plays a major factor in HRs. OT: It’s both. Actually it was combination of --Roids, then designer stuff like THG + HGH + greenies erm I meant “decaf” coffee --Juiced or corked-center baseballs --Shrinking ballparks --Shorter mound --Shrinking strike-zone --Smaller baseball seams (much harder to consistently uncork a “Nintendo” Sandy Koufax curveball nowdays without blowing your elbow out) --Rules prohibiting pitchers not just straight-up headhunting ala Bob Gibson but even brushing the hitter off anymore (read: a comfortable hitter leaning across the plate = ready to launch, whoo-hoo) --More economic incentive to hit HR (100-200+ million dollar contracts = a lot of chicks and a lot of, uh, “digging”  ) Any one of those factors on its own can be debated or even dismissed…. but when taken together, it profoundly affects power-hitting. Basically baseball in our time has as much to do with 60s or even early 90s game as today’s (heavily passing-skewed) NFL has with the legendary times of Butt Ditkus or Jim Brown or whatever. Technically the same name of the game, but not really, ya know. Sorry for OT haha

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Dec 17, 2013 -> 08:04 PM) Viciedo isn't going into free agency. Gillaspie's going to have to look like an All-Star and Davidson completely tank in Spring Training for Conor to keep that job....and only for the first 2-3 months of the season, in all likelihood. I still think the key to this team is going to be up the middle....now that we have Eaton, that's one area addressed. Then you're going to need long-term stability from catcher, 2B and SS, which means they have to decide what to do with Leury Garcia, Semien (obviously 2B or SS now, not 3B), Carlos Sanchez and Micah Johnson would seem to be ticketed for 2B although he could still end up in CF or LF (similar to Alexei Ramirez when he joined the Sox in 2008, minus the ability to play SS). And getting the best return for Alexei Ramirez if they do decide to trade him. Last year at this time, he was looking like a salary dump. Now, he's got at least some value...maybe not Carlos Martinez or Wong from the Cardinals, but you can get more back for him that Rios, for example. Finally, probably not the worst thing to keep Keppinger around and hope for a bounceback, but it's going to be hard to imagine him getting much playing time unless Davidson doesn't make the team out of Spring Training or Beckham gets hurt again. My bad on Viciedo; did Sox extend him since or did the ML service clock start in 2010? Yeah, defense at catcher position is certainly a priority, even though hiding or platooning Flowers in the 9-hole is possible, you can’t hide his D. As you said Eaton has CF covered, because between Nick Swisher in 2008, Alex Rios, then De Aza, I was ready to gouge my eyes out. The fact that UZR apparently had Swish Nickowiak and Rios in 2010 as all time great defensive season at the position… only discredits UZR, haha no for real, UZR was wrong: Rios could barely handle RF just a few years later, makes no sense. Didn’t even figure guys like Samien or Micah Johnson let alone Carlos Sanchez into the equation as far as 2014 goes. I mean, it’s one thing to be high on A-list guys like Abreu, Eaton or Garcia. It’s another on B-listers. Odds are heavily stacked against them historically, just cold hard reality. Baseball being so stat-oriented, it’s easy to fall into a trap of projecting minor league production to the bigs. I mean, would one ever use NBA D-league or college football stats when talking about prospects of those respective sports? Of course not: you scout the player, not the stats (to the best of our admittedly limited ability as fans, however informed). The Keppinger stuff you mention makes sense, but after making excuses for the likes of Beckham and Gillespie, frankly I was all out of them, haha. Losing organizations, and loser fan-bases, always seem to be chockfull of excuses, ya know? Then again, maybe that explained why a LHP-slayer like Kep was so inept the few AB I did see him play. “Personal problems”. Ok, let’s assume that for a moment. Also part of what made Joe Maddon a good manager is proper utilization of utility guys like Keppinger; this is where hopefully Rick Hahn and the new hitting coach can help Robin Ventura, Mark Parent get the best of their bench which IMO they failed to do in 2013. Alexei effin’ Ramirez. Sigh. As one of his earliest backers and defenders, honestly even I’ve had just about enough of his showboating/coasting act. The dude is pretty much the only player I’ve ever seen who has made ZERO adjustments over, what, 6 years and somehow managed to lose weight during one offseason, LOL! He’s like Adam Dunn in a way, neither is what one would call a baseball “lifer”. Just getting by on pure talent (problem is, it gets harder and harder as they get older to even stay at par). Didn’t Dunn even admit he would have rather been a football player? Even stickfigures like Soriano muscled up over time and tried to improve, nope not our Cuban evidently. With the dude’s talent, the hand quickness, hand-eye coordination, plate-coverage, fearless demeanor, the speed to leg out a ton of “cheap” grounders, AR should be hitting .300 with his eyes closed…. with enough bad & mediocre pitchers around in MLB hanging enough 2-0 get me over cookies for Ramirez to hit 15-20 line-drive HR into LF-LCF at the Cell. In the 2-hole, with Eaton on base, opposing pitcher distracted, pitching out of the stretch and infield pulled up, all Alexei would be asked to do is punch a ton of soft liners & grounders to RF to spark rallies with big boppers coming up. Easy. Or rather, it would be easy if he didn’t try to complicate everything. Enter long-loopy uppercut overswing galore, resulting in JoeCredePopsItUp to first-base coach box. And defensively, don’t even get me started: that much range, arm-strength, aggressiveness = all the makings of a potential Gold Glover. Even UZR used to agree FWIW. But because mentally he goes to the proverbial zoo, fumbles routine grounders, takes horrendous angles, awful footwork, terrible positioning on outfield relay throws…and is a giant p*ssy when it comes to any contact around the 2B bag, which leads to a ton of would-be Caught Stealing ending with a SB or error unfairly charged to Sox catcher…… Terrible jumps on bases at times, not paying attention as a baserunner, either. Basically: I wonder if it’s really worth it anymore given the 10+ million dollars a year price tag going forward. At 26 and making just 1.5 mill per, there was a chance Alexei would get acclimated to MLB, get coached up a bit and try to improve if only to earn himself a big contract. But now at 32 or whatever he is, maybe that’s all we get. Between dealing Ramirez and Dunn, Rick Hahn could free up some 25 mill to play around with next off-season. I’d love for Sox to acquire a true #2 starter so that Quintana-Danks-Johnson can slide back to more comfortable 3-4-5 roles. After the 2003-2004-2006-2009-2012 5th starter debacles that killed the playoff chances, would be nice to have a veteran stabilizing presence back end of the rotation starter insurance. And a few spare affordable Jesse Crains to beef up the pen. Plus raises and arbitration. Nothing fancy. Then again, wouldn’t surprise me if both of those dudes bounce back in 2014, stranger things have happened before. Dunn certainly has the financial incentive as a FA to, you know, “pick up a bat” in the off-season and whatnot

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Dec 17, 2013 -> 02:11 PM) First 5 months. Horrific final month there too. To be entirely fair to Ventura.... IIRC in 2012 rookie starters Sale and Quintana were absolutely gased by inning overload. As was Peavy in his first full rehab year coming back from an injury that could have easily ended his career (the Lat is a freakin' huge muscle, surgery was borderline experimental, i.e. uncharted territory in terms of rehab if nothing else). Dunn as mentioned had a torn rib-cage muscle and Konerko was visited by the ol' Wrist tooth fairy that essentially robbed both of their HR power. so when your 4 All-Stars essentially turn into zombies at most critical time, there is only so much you can do managerially. I don't think a combination of Joe Maddon, Tom Thibodeau and Subotai himself could have led to victory under the circumstances. It was fun season all the same. (full disclosure: as someone who thought Ozzie was a giant fraud both as a manager and human being long before it became fashionable, I am perfectly willing to concede that Robin screwed up his share as a novice manager. So it's not an Team Robin vs. Team Ozzie thing at all. It's just its a bit of a stretch to hang last 2 weeks of 2012 and 2013 on him. Likewise, 2014 will likely come down to Rick Hahn's talent bets and lucky breaks in terms of avoiding major injuries)

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Dec 17, 2013 -> 01:15 PM) The guys you listed with "All star potential" aren't going to be all stars this year. Gillaspie, you say he deserves another year, but there's no where to play him unless you send Davidson to the minors. He's likely traded or released. And right now, this team looks like it should be compared to the 1999 white sox if you're looking for a recent memory team to compare it to. Sorry I wasn't more clear: I and the Sox obviously expect them to be be "merely" good. Thus making for a surprisingly competitive, certainly very interesting, season. (if they're all All-Stars, Sox win 100 games, lol) Again 1999 was before my time, but looking back that team was literally all rookies + ailing Frank Thomas. Still somehow hung around .500 against powerhouse Indians until running out of gas with Hurt gone for the year. Not entirely apt comparison, imo I think 2000, 2003 and 2005 are better comps, personally, but yes, your scepticism is entirely valid. I realize as of this off-season my view is in the minority. No prob.

With all the usual Southside off-season hand-wringing and insecurity-rooted moaning, only further amplified by Sox management’s prudent new strategy of actually tapering pre-season expectations, I think I’ll go out on a limb and predict a surprisingly fun, competitive 2014. Yes, obviously that would have to entail some lucky breaks in terms of health and several Rick Hahn’s bets paying off. But that’s true for most teams, in most seasons. Including 2010 Giants and Rangers. 2011 Cardinals and Rays amazing final 2 weeks. Even 2012 version of Giants w. Melky Cabrera on PED suspension. Or how about noone’s pre-season favorite: 2013 Cleveland Indians, hahaha! Or Oakland pulling out a boatload of wins out of their butt both in 2012 and 2013 when in prior 5+ years the organization looked like it was dying. Ton more examples just from recent history. The fact that literally just about everything went wrong for the Sox in 2013, only makes me feel more confident. It’s probably been said b4 that Sox performance over the years has proven somewhat of a statistical schitzo oddity, an enigma, though not without a peculiar pattern. Though admittedly this would be before my time, but let’s look at ancient history, shall we say 15 seasons? White Sox trend w. performance VS. expectations, predictions, projections and pressure, starting with 1999. Anytime the pressure mounted, Sox shrunk. That was even true during the magical 2005 when zero pre-season expectations turned into an excellent 1st half. Then as hype dramatically increased, almost blew a 14 game lead to the Tribe down the stretch, with the same old critics suddenly resurfacing with “see, we told you so; WSox are gonna get rolled in the playoffs”…. before stunning the defending champs Red Sox in the 1st round and taking off on an amazing run through October! 1999? No expectations, no payroll, not much hope to compete with the Tribe powerhouse heading into new millennium.. 2000 stuns, turns out “kids can play” 2001-2002 high expectations? Both disappoint, injuries galore, sell-off ensues 2003 low expectations return - voila a fun season, playoffs only derailed by lack of 5th starter.. 2004 higher expectations, both Frank and Maggs our version of Manny-Big Poppy go down. 2005 no more El Caballo, rotation of misfit washed-up retreads according to “experts”? Haha! 2006 everyone chirping about repeat before 1st pitch is even thrown? Not so fast. 2007 there’s your rebuilding, peeps, how did you like it, ouch! 2008? Again, most experts had them near the bottom. Low pressure, under-radar moves = nice surprise. 2009 again expectations go up accordingly, Ozzie team again responds by shrinking when it matters 2010 expectations moderate again, Peavy lost for the year, tank time, right? Wrong, good season 2011 expectations and payroll arguably never higher. Total choke-job in April-May by Dunn Co. 2012 virtually no hype, rookie manager? Until rookies Sale, Quintana, Peavy ran out of gas in September and injuries to both Konerko and Dunn, was on its way to the playoffs. 2013 expectations up, performance down. Like friggin’ clockwork. 2nd half tank job ensues. So 2014 is time to be “bullish” once again. Even financially, Sox are in surprisingly good shape, both in terms of the team evaluation and annual expenditures. Look where payroll was in 1999: like tree-fiddy total, bwa-ahaha, and most of it was Frank Thomas who was on DL. The year they hosted the All-Star Game I think in 2003 , Jerry “splurged” to the tune of….uh….50 mill? Even in the triumphant 2005, it was barely 70 mill. The last 5 years, despite terrible Recession and usual lack of attendance revenue, Reinsdorf has spent the money. 2008 and 2011 were giant payrolls by Sox historical standards. So even with all the not so veiled organizational talk of rebuilding this and that…….no reason to think if the rejuvenated 2014 Sox are off to a fast start, Sox won’t make a big impact trade. You know they will; just need to avoid the type of Corpseball that plagued the 2008, 2009, 2011, 2013 teams in April-May (2008 Sox were able to overcome the negative momentum, obviously, but not other incarnations) Baseball is funny game. Which is why we love it, but also it can be frustrating and why betting on it is a fool’s errand. Works both ways. 3 years prior World Series match-ups completely stumped both experts, media and fans (Giants-Tex, Cards-Rays late season charge 2011, Cards winning all being thrice down to 2 strike count Nelson Cruz error, etc…. Giants repeat despite Melky Cabrera suspension). Again, look at even 2013 Cleveland Indians in our own division. Lost V-Mart, Sabathia, Lee, Choo, Sizemore, prime Hefner, Peralta, ACabrera got hurt, Carmona turned out to be a big fraud; several managerial changes over several seasons. Prior to 2013, whether based purely on statistical analysis or on the ol “eye-test” of a knowledgeable person, would have been so easy to dismiss the Tribe as perpetual bottom-feeders. They proved many people wrong. Us younger generation fans rightfully get accused of not knowing how to truly enjoy the fun of competition, the meritocracy of pro sports, esp when it comes to the intricate, weirdly-structured, elegant “pastoral” game like baseball. Sox fans are known for emotional fragility, looking for reasons to be unhappy and avoid spending money. Ok I get all that, whatever to each their own and all that. Real quick, some of the reasons I think 2014 is far from hopeless: Avisail Garcia, Jose Abreu, Eaton, Davidson betting to have All-Star potential. “Fatties” Dunn and Viciedo have all the incentive to be in shape for FA, plus new hitting coach (lest we forget an in-shape 2012 Dunn before his late August oblique tear that tanked his stats, Dunn was in pace to hit 50 HR). Yes, Viciedo’s mechanics are poor and plate discipline even poorer, wasn’t all that healthy and a little too fat ---- but there is something to be said for in spite of all that hitting 25 HR at, what, age 22?! Another year to get acclimated to LF position; it’s perfectly reasonable to expect more from the Tank in a free-agent year out of that guy or have him platoon with De Aza worse case.. -Beckham healthy, no more of that dreadful Greg Walkerian 3-year Hitch in his swing; but of course 2 separate injuries derailed him just as he got into a nice groove. Remains to be seen how he matches with the new hitting coach bringing different OBP oriented hitting philosophy. Coming off his worst defensive year, you know Gordo is much better than that. So I’m fine with giving Becks one last, extended look in 2014. Maybe start him off in the 8 hole with lowered expectations, then put up into 2-spot if he’s off to a fast start ala 2013 With Eaton on base, Garcia, Abreu, Dunn line-up protecting, 2 hole hitter wouldn’t have to do much more than punch a lot of balls into RF through through the pulled up infield. With Gordon confidence is such a key thing. Konerko all-star as recently as 2010, 2011, 2012 (if his back is OK, good platoon mate at worst). If not for that wrist that robbed him of parts of prime years in 07, 08, 09, second half 2012… we’d be talking possible Hall of Fame candidate here. Totally fine with his new role for the huge paycut he took. Like Colon, Contreras, Peavy b4,,,,,,,,, John Danks was foolishly allowed to rush back his rehab throwing off the mound in Feb just 5 months post-surgery. Hopefully now closer to 2 years removed from surgery, the dude regains the fastball velocity and arm-speed on his patented change-up, just like Jake Peavy needed 2 years for dramatic improvement in 2012 following his operation. Paulino had Tommy Johns, luckily possible to come back throwing harder than before nowdays need Alexei of 2008 not 2013, the guy is an enigma, you know the talent is there, frustrating Davidson obviously changes things, still Gillespie deserves a full year: good batspeed, deceptive power and surprisingly capable leather, usual rookie learning curve notwithstanding. Tyler Flowers too was apparently playing though shoulder injury, but with him it’s a longer road back to viability as ML starter because unlike other bounce-back candidates like Eaton, Alexei, Gillespie, to a lesser extent Beckham…..Flowers has never proven he has the needed combination of pitch-recognition, hand-eye coordination and batspeed to consistently hit good ML pitching. Good news is that you can hide Flowers in the 9 hole, platoon him, find him an effective platoon-mate, have him hit 15-20 bombs and take some walks simply by the abundance virtue of bad and mediocre pitching in the bigs. So not that big a deal, but all the same I’d rather Hahn try to get a defensive stud at catcher through a trade since the catcher position is by far the most important defensive position. And Flowers is almost as bad as AJ was at it, without AJ’s off-setting stick. Then again, Flowers if free to prove me wrong, it would be great for the organization if he does. Everyone wants Sox to be more like Billy Beane’s moneyball A’s that pulled crapload of wins off seemingly out of their asses in 2012-2013? Well, Rick Hahn and Stevenson are Moneyball kinda guys. Which presumably includes smarter use of platooning with Kong, Elmore. Give them a chance to do their thing, ya know? Ultimately, though, guys have to improve. It’s that simple. In general. Look at Alshon Jeffry draft pedigree and rookie year vs. where he is now. Or Jimmy Butler. Or Taj Gibson. No way around it. Statistical analysis doesn’t capture that; this is where talent evaluation and scouting and sheer dumb luck, either comea through or it doesn’t. I’m big believer in team depth, especially when it comes to the starting pitching, esp. for a team that plays in a DH league, at the Cell (where if you occasionally have to trot out Arnie Munoz, Felix Diaz, Neal Cotts, Hernandez, Zach Stewart, et al they’ll get their brains beat in, and that can be the difference between making the playoffs and missing it by 2 or 3 games) Yes, would have liked to see Sox steal Eaton for someone like Rienzo. But let’s be honest, D-backs aren’t stupid, so Sox had to give up some talent. I liked Hector Santiago not just for his underrated talent, but for what he provided to the team depth. Felt bad that he was jerked around by Sox, though I personally always thought he was one of the rare pitchers who was more suited for rotation than bullpen. HS may very well have a big year in a pitcher’s league like Clayton Richard and Daniel Hudson initially did, but it’s quite clear that Sox had some major reservations about Santiago: maybe future health issues, maybe his inability to go deeper into games. Perhaps finer ML baseball seams that Santiago lamented, make it improbable that he could ever have sustained success with the screwball in the majors like he did in the minors, or even have the kind of mechanics and finesse to make a change-up his out pitch --- meaning that unless he can go back to topping out at 95-96 on his fastball, he will be exposed by big-league hitters as they face him more. Hell, maybe they found his distinct “2003-2004 Johan Santana Rule-V surprise” linebacker physique somewhat suspicious, meaning possible hint of PED use: considering the scandals of the last decade, even lacking in evidence, sometimes teams have to figure certain suspicions into trade considerations when a player makes a sudden break-through, see: Lillibridge, Brent 2011 mammoth HR, when in the past the puny Lilli dude could barely get the ball out of the infield. I think part of the Sox FO apparent dislike of Lilli was that they didn’t believe it was all that kosher, even without any proof. Who knows, really. On the plus side, I hope instead it was more the case of Sox and Cooper being that confident that not only are Sale and Quintana the real deals, which can be safely assumed at this point…. that John Danks, Paulino is healthy,,,, but also that Eric Johnson if not Rienzo are legit ML options going forward. Thus creating a logjam of SP. Thus, in turn, making Santiago expendable. Bullpen will be just fine. Higher on Jones than on Reed’s upside, wanted Addison sold high last June along with at the time 3.50 ERA Dylan Axelrod, to be honest so won’t miss him that much. Pens are notoriously unpredictable year-to-year anyway, so whatvs Obviously the top pick of upcoming 2014 draft is crucial for Rick Hahn’s scout team. 2013 1st-rounder Tim Anderson is also going to have to continue to adjust and progress. Sox have to have some breaks in development fall their way, but that’s true for pretty much all teams that don’t have Yankees or Red Sox budgets. The Courtney Hawkins mess hasn’t helped, though he’s still has plenty of time to rebound (as Jarrod Mitchell who was given up for dead apparently has shown in AFL. Holy crap, come to think of it has KW’s horrible 1st round drafting set this franchise back or what, Hahn has an uphill climb to reverse the damage. 2013 team was much more talented than 99 losses indicate. When it pours, it rains. It happens that way, was a .500 team seemingly heading into the cup-cake schedule portion of the season beginning with a 4 game series with the lowly Cubs. Little did they know that Jeff Ahmadinejadia, Edwin Jackson and Dionel freakin Navarro would have something to say about that, lol ouch never did Sox get that kind of whipping from the North Siders before, it’s usually the other way around, we’re the ones who sent them into a June Swoon! Maybe Detroit was still gonna take the division at the end by virtue of their superior talent. But that collapse, the resultant sell-off and corpseball apathy of the 2nd half made it look that Sox are that much far off from contending than they *actually* are IMO. This is where sabermetrics don’t quite do the team justice. Dan Bernstein is wrong about “basketball hell”, but at least his excuse is that his job is basically trolling the meatballs for ratings by saying stuff like that. And even if such thing existed, when transposed unto the baseball context in general, and our red-headed Chicago stepchild of an organization in particular: Hell would be Sox becoming the Pirates or Royals. With all the 21st century entertainment options now available; with how fickle Sox fanbase has proven itself to be, the organization would never recover from a protracted rebuilding process. No way. So, no thank you on full rebuild mode; as a fan I’d rather have 2003, 2006, 2010, 2012 type season experience where maybe the team didn’t win it all in the end, but lots of fun was had at the ol’ ballpark in summer time, HR flying, gurls poppin’ wootwoot woohoo! Hell, even in 2004, 2009 and 2011 as bad as things got at one point, Sox were like within 3 freakin’ games of Detroit in early September. I mean, if one can’t enjoy it, then what’s the point? Only 1 out of 30 teams ends up winning it all in the end, so apriori the odds are poor in any given year. I guess this is why while hating on the Cubs to lose every game to be able to playfully rag on my Cubbie buddies, deep down I never really begrudged their fans’ preoccupation with hotties and beer. Why can’t one have it all, ie. the honourable spirit of competition, gamesmanship, et cetera but also enjoy entertainment and escapism part of it, huh? Understandably, those who are into gambling or wasting time on fantasy leagues, always crave more “certainty”, or rather the soothing illusion thereof. No, I can’t promise anything concrete like 90 wins or whatever. Can’t guarantee 2005-like uber-awesomeness to occur in 2014. I am not a delusional homer. ‘Sides, it would horribly boring if such things were possible to know in advance, anyway haha. And yes, if Rick Hahn, Don Cooper and co catch some bad luck with injuries and whatnot, the team will not even crack.500, nevermind actually be in position to threaten Detroit in any way. That should go without saying, but again, that’s true for most teams, most seasons. Obviously off-season dealings are far from over. Hahn may very well pull off another serious trade. Moreover, should know about how healthy, Paulino, et al elbow is, or if Alexei fiiiiinally added a single, solitary fiber of muscle; or if Mr. last chance at big Free-agent payoff Adam Dunn is fat,,,,,,,,, and so on and so forth….. by end of Spring Training. So I’ll look forward to bumping this thread by late March to revise expectations, one way or another. But surresli, playa,,,,,,,, 2014 has a chance to be a helluva fun ride. Yes, while admittedly the downside is considerable, in my opinion this team has the making of once again tearing the Pythagorean and BP projections to shreds. The addition of the 2nd wild card sure helps. Cautiously optimistic, yo!