caulfield12

http://espn.go.com/blog/sweetspot/post/_/i...four-al-central Dave Schoenfeld picks Franchise Four for the AL Central teams. Amazing Miggy Cabrera still isn't on the Tigers' list, but they have a long history...plus his time with the Marlins. And Walter Johnson seems so weird with all the modern-day Twins' names...Johan Santana didn't quite make the cut either, or Joe Mauer. For Sox, it's Thomas, Appling, Baines and Fox (over Aparicio)....Collins didn't have enough time with Chicago, more closely connected with the Philadephia A's. Didn't realize Faber and Lyons were so high on the career WAR, and Wilbur Wood, for that matter.

http://m.whitesox.mlb.com/news/article/119...mains-in-dugout "There is also a personnel management side of the game that most people aren't privy to," said Hahn of Ventura. "You guys as media members see some of it, but not all of it. And the strengths in that area are very high and very strong and something we are very pleased with." "That's part of the job," Ventura said. "The focus for me is what we're doing and how to make it better and turn it around. Stuff on the outside is always going to be there regardless. Even if we're winning, there will be criticism and things like that. The focus is in here and trying to turn it around, not kind of the outside stuff."

Bryant up to .462 with his 3rd double and 6th RBI of the week. 4 bb's, 4 k's. Btw, the woman hit on the back of the head by the foul ball has been released by the hospital...she was conscious and alert at the time of her leaving the ballpark with EMS personnel who took over for PNC Park medics.

It was the White Sox for being "unlucky" not to have the opposing team's feed (and really, they should have TWO interns going with both home and away feeds instead of one going back and forth desperately in a 20-40 second window,...with a video supervisor making the final call as to what to tell the manger, problem easily solved)...because the Detroit broadcast clearly showed he was tagged on the foot, whereas Comcast angles were inconclusive and/or showed he missed the knee.

Detroit was "only" 27,540. Of course, the Yanks have missed the playoffs for two consecutive years and all those nimrods wearing Jeter jerseys as if that confers magical powers to also date actresses and models have mostly disappeared. They had the A-Rod show, at least. I forgot about the cover in Milwaukee...but also meant just the general weather conditions outside...it's not like it makes you WANT to go to a baseball game (indoors) when it's pretty miserable like that. 10625, 11056, 11116....three worst attendance numbers last year in first half of April Roughly speaking, you're looking at about a 16-22% increase in the season ticket numbers, estimate. Of course, when you're jumping from let's say 11,000 to 13,000....2,000 statistically seems big but in terms of actual numbers it's nothing like the numbers we were dealing with in the 2006-2009 attendance and revenue cycle. Small progress. Let's see if there is any type of bump at all tonight after the victory. Probably will be hard to "control" for the weather, though.

QUOTE (chitownsportsfan @ Apr 21, 2015 -> 02:43 PM) Some quick fWAR numbers: Jose -- .3 Gordon .3 Avi .2 Tyler .2 Sanchez .1 Soto .1 everyone else is negative or at 0. Not very good offensive start. Micah, Alexei, Conor, Eaton and Melky need to step it up big time. Melky is showing signs we'll see about the other guys. Fangraphs like Eaton's defense so far but -5.2 runs with the bat already. Yikes. LaRoche has a pretty good OPS but of course he rarely has the opportunity to play 1B. Cabrera (hopefully) will start hitting for more power when the weather warms up....Alexei and Eaton are the two biggest culprits, by far. Hard to blame Micah for much and Conor's probably never going to hit quite as well as he did for 4 / 4.5 months last year before wearing down over the dog days of August. (And you're looking more at his numbers combined with Beckham, just like Soto/Flowers).

Every team in baseball drew 20,000+ fans except the Mariners, White Sox and Pirates. (Pirates were the only team lower). Note, Milwaukee and Detroit probably had similar or worse weather but both doubled Sox attendance. That's about where we are right now...like the Mariners, being at least a decade away from their last really good team (but higher expectations coming into 2015) or the Pirates, who feel like a perennial contender compared to the White Sox in recent seasons and with an MVP in McCutcheon, as well as dynamic young players in Polanco and Marte.

Herrera’s suspension is scheduled to begin Tuesday night, when the Royals continue their series against the Twins. If appealed, Herrera’s suspension will be held in abeyance until the process is complete. Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/sports/mlb/kansa...l#storylink=cpy Fwiw, Ventura was also fined an undisclosed amount. So basically, it depends on how long it requires for them to make a ruling. It would be nice if they waited until the end of the Twins' series, then announced 3 games, lol. I'm sure the Royals would rather have him against the Twins than the Sox, obviously. Then again, 2/3 losses this season have been against Minny.

QUOTE (Joshua Strong @ Apr 20, 2015 -> 07:05 PM) You are absolutely correct, at reddit when we did our reports on players, we wrote our projections under the assumption that everything pans out for that player and that's what I wrote for Kyle Tucker. That's what I wrote when I 'scouted' him and that's what I'm sticking to. Sounds a lot like Heyward but with a prettier swing, less K's/erratic offensive performance and maybe a notch or two below defensively. Something in between Heyward and Alex Gordon would be nice, haha.

Would have preferred for the announcement to come from Ventura and Hahn jointly... Or from Ventura and the video guy (who they still haven't named publicly)...feels like there would be more accountability that way, rather than rationalizations of what has already happened. Why don't they (the White Sox) put forward a petition or request to the Office of the Commissioner requesting that both the home, away and NY feeds all be the exact same and synchronized? Why isn't that possible in this day and age of modern tech apps?

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Apr 21, 2015 -> 10:08 AM) Doug Padilla ‏@ESPNChiSox 22m22 minutes ago From @dschoenfield via Elias: Only 9 times last season did a team walk off when trailing by 3 runs in the 9th. http://espn.go.com/blog/sweetspot/post/_/i...ower-rankings-2 … And how many of those were with one out when the rally started?

QUOTE (chitownsportsfan @ Apr 21, 2015 -> 01:08 PM) Well his names Alfredo and he has a gut so I'm going with "Pasta". Why not "fettucine" like Alfredo Griffin?

QUOTE (Bigsoxhurt35 @ Apr 21, 2015 -> 09:33 AM) How bout that Gordon Beckham and Tyler Flowers? For as much s*** as we give them they came up big last night. I will swear years from now when I talk to my grandkids that Gordon's single to LF was a frozen rope you could hang out your laundry on, lol.

But I'm sure the SF Giants fans will put him in their Franchise Four. Mays, McCovey, Marichal, Bonds, Sandoval, Will Clark, Orlando Cepeda, maybe Jeff Kent (although everyone hated that dude)....Lincecum and Bumgarner will get some consideration as well.

QUOTE (Tex @ Apr 21, 2015 -> 09:45 AM) Congratulations! Have you reserved a soxtalk alias for him? I was looking through the registered names and Mydadcantspell is available. Will you be doing his homework? That might be ldf. (We love you, man, btw, since you make self-deprecatory remarks about your spelling inability, had to take the shot)

QUOTE (southsideirish71 @ Apr 16, 2015 -> 01:06 AM) Congrats to you and your wife. Remember to enjoy this. They grow up quick. It only seems like yesterday we welcomed our first. Congrats... I'm trying to strengthen my 7 week old's left hand/arm/shoulder (all the lefties!). His grip's really strong, but I don't think you can "force" handedness against nature. He will be the first Chinese or Chinese-American pitcher in modern baseball history, haha. Book it. (Probably not, I topped out in the low 80's as a pitcher). The funniest thing so far since giving birth....the Chinese doctor (a female) telling my wife she should pay $300 for special exercise classes for her "female parts" because "too loose no good sex." Can't imagine a doctor in the US saying that with a straight face to any woman and not getting it tweeted around the entire country.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Apr 21, 2015 -> 09:44 AM) If the Cubs want to throw a quarter of a billion dollars at David Price, I am OK with that. Same with the Tigers, Yankees, Red Sox, or whoever. His K rates and fastball have been declining over the last couple of seasons. That's a red flag. Obviously, guys like Felix Hernandez have adjusted, but I definitely would be leery about throwing $175-190 million his way based on his past performance. Plus, Comerica has a way of making pitchers look better (than reality) because of the size of that outfield...think guys like Fister and Porcello, for example.

Lester really went through a stretch in Boston where he wasn't very good...not Lackey/Beckett bad, but no longer really pitching like an ace. Then he seemed to get it back together again the last 2-3 seasons. So their biggest issues, at least to me: 1) Lester doesn't come close to living up to that contract, starts to be affected by "Chuck Knoblauch-itis" 2) Injuries (well, we can always say this, like in the NFL...special teams will play a decisive role) 3) Bullpen issues 4) They don't find a young catching cornerstone to build around...Montero seems to be wasted money...and it's probably not Schwarber 5) Baez/Almora/Alcantara/McKinney see their value/s fall through the floor 6) Defense, although Russell at 2B will be an upgrade (Barney-esque)...and they can't find a young CFer to captain their D like Lorenzo Cain in KC (maybe still Almora, but not looking good for him at the moment) Even with all those eventualities, they will still have Schwarber and their first round draft pick this year to work with....and then the eventual expected media rights payoff in 4 years.

QUOTE (Wanne @ Apr 21, 2015 -> 09:32 AM) that'd be Kevin Towers... http://www.northjersey.com/sports/baseball...reene-1.1313642

Feel bad for Jared Mitchell's career. 2/28, 15 K's. Nearing the end.

QUOTE (3GamesToLove @ Apr 21, 2015 -> 06:42 AM) Because he is one of the greatest players of all time? Just a wild guess. Seems pretty hypocritical. If they're going to do that, then A-Rod should be there as well. How can you glorify Bonds when he's unlikely to ever make the HoF? Notice, they also don't have Roger Clemens, for example. If it's the thin/skinny 80's/early 90's Pirates' version of Bonds, he's a HoF guy but maybe not on the first ballot.

QUOTE (fathom @ Apr 21, 2015 -> 09:07 AM) Schwarber's off to a slow start. Edwards has been moved to relief and has been awful. P. Johnson is hurt, while McKinney is not doing anything special. They still have some ok prospect, but Bryant and Russell were clearly the potential superstars in their system that made them ranked #1. Except I'm not so sure that Soler doesn't end up the best of all of them, except for Bryant (since he's looking like he might stick at 3B).

Poor Knights, didn't really get to take advantage of the Carlos Rodon marketing potential...they still have him on their home page banner.

QUOTE (GoGoSox2k2 @ Apr 21, 2015 -> 08:55 AM) Ole Dick Allen would remind me of our "great" treasurer Rita.. She puts us on the map after everyone forgot about Ronald Reagan's hometown. Hell we are now known more for Rita then we are The Gipper. No relation to the Beardstown investment grannies? But Reagan also needs to give some credit to the Quad Cities for his big radio break/early fame.

Except Castro's got a decent-sized contract already, so that's going to somewhat limit his return...but I'm sure there will be a decent-sized market there for him (off-the-field issues, notwithstanding), nevertheless.