caulfield12

http://insidemovies.ew.com/2014/12/17/the-...w-prestige-pic/ Would this be happening if The Interview was a "prestige pic" like Hotel Rwanda or The Killing Fields? Apparently the influence of shopping malls that are connected to or close to movie theatres is winning the economic argument. We are letting the terrorists win!!!

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Dec 17, 2014 -> 04:45 PM) You still could view him as that but you're not going to pay $4 million+ for the privilege when he's probably going to be cut and claimable for much less than that at the end of ST. They're not going to do that...it would be idiotic to guarantee his salary and then dump him. They didn't do it with Beckham and DeAza, Hahn's not going to start now. If they were content to pay a back-up/platoon player that much last year, it's not going to change in 2015...

QUOTE (GreenSox @ Dec 17, 2014 -> 08:16 PM) Looks like the Nats made out like bandits in that deal. Souza was an extra player for them. Big minor league numbers, but he was 25. Any relation to John Philip, the composer?

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Dec 16, 2014 -> 10:49 PM) Let me know how the future is. The future's so bright, we've gotta wear shades. (Or sunglasses at night).

I've had this happen over and over and over again with credit cards when living/traveling overseas. It's pretty much automatic anytime you charge over $500 or usually $1000 from another country that your account will get frozen temporarily for fraud...then there's the inconvenience of having to call the US and be waiting and waiting for a customer service rep. In China, unless you put a $300 deposit on your phone, you can't make international calls...and I never did it because I thought it would be a total pain in the ass to get the deposit back. The worst part is when I go travelling and call the card companies ahead of time (India and Kenya/Tanzania/Ethiopia in 2013) and even if they have a note about your exact travel schedule, those transactions still get flagged and the account temporarily frozen.

First MLB game was 1979...Gary Templeton and the Cardinals played at Wrigley. Do those 45 and older get a SoxTalk member discount or at least a discount card for Arby's or something?

With the Leury Garcia example, it's not as simple as using his current season stats. You have a LONG track record of minor league struggles...in the context of last season, it's easy to say it doesn't matter and we were never going to compete in hindsight. Clearly, we were lacking in talent...and our bench has been a black hole for two years now, particularly after Avisail Garcia went down last year early. That said, hopefully this year when they HAVE to rest players more easily like Alexei, there's a better option offensively (what Keppinger was supposed to be, and what Saladino might have to be...whether he's ready or not).

That trade for Dayton Moore has turned from the final nail in the coffin to the cornerstone of his career resurgence. I still don't think it's bad for the Padres at all. If both Myers and Kemp (two big ifs) can both get it going together, that would be a nice middle of the order punch. Unless players like Nick Gordon and Turner can hit .270+ with at least a little pop, they're not going be huge losses to their organizations. We've seen a lot of prospects drafted at SS not make it...ending up at other positions. Turner has speed and glove working for him now but the offense has been inconsistent at best.

QUOTE (sammy esposito @ Dec 16, 2014 -> 09:44 PM) I was just thinking Avisail hasn't really proven himself to me. Could he be trade bait. there is plenty of left fielders available. No one seems to want Tank. Not really. The best value on the FA market right now is probably Aoki at $7 million. Or Rasmus. Not exactly a plethora of riches. Would have taken Rasmus over Cabrera (based on contracts and risk/reward), but that ship has sailed. Mike Morse was basically the 3rd member of the remaining options and he's now signed with the Marlins. Otherwise, you're stuck trading bad contracts or prospects for the likes of Ethier, Crawford or CarGO. Or paying Alex Rios $11 million for one season.

http://www.kansascity.com/sports/mlb/kansa...cle4523857.html Moises Sierra is available again. DREAM AWAY.

Who the hell are the Rays going to have left to market? Archer? Moore...coming off TJ surgery?

Reading all the posts here (refusing to read spoilers), I'm tempted to skip to Season 4 of Homeland. For a long time, I thought Brody was going to go in the typical direction and become a VP or President. When you watch it all together, it's yo-yoing way too much back and forth with Carrie and her various and sundry mental health issues. Michael Cuesta, who was also a Prison Break producer, had the same exact plot problem with that particular show...you can only go back to that well (mental illness recurrences or new prisons to escape from) so many times before it runs dry. Part of me was hoping for Abu Nazir to survive. Now, I'm stuck with a boring arc of Venezuelan exile with the only viewing solace being Esme (captor's daughter). And the psych ward and conspiracy theories overlaid on top of each other.

Too much risk in terms of talent we're going to have to give up. It's not unlike the situation with Bruce in Cincy. We're forced to pay for the 2012-13 All-Star/MVP versions without being able to cover the expensive downside of these contracts. Acquiring Jermaine Dye coming off a catastrophic injury (or Thome) is one thing...but betting the future of the franchise on Longoria is not the type of move Hahn's going to make if he wants to stay GM for 5-10 more years. The Cubs have been looking for a solid 3B for decades.

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Dec 16, 2014 -> 03:36 PM) I think it's just the cycle. In the late 80s and 90s you couldn't escape Seagal/Arnie/Sly/Van Damme. Those guys dominated the theaters and THEY were the ones crowding out the other movies. The other movies are there, the Mission Impossibles, Fast and Furious, expendables, etc. people just aren't that into them anymore. I caught The Escape Plan the other night and couldn't get through it. You can keep that crap On the other hand, with Fast and the Furious, at least you're seeing a diverse/representative cast...even if it is for marketing purposes. And the NEXT movie will be hugely popular as long as they continue to be entertaining. Adding a legit bad guy in Statham compared to a generic one will be enough. As for Mission Impossible, that and the Bourne movies as well as Dark Knight pushed Bond into darker territory, and made him a more interesting character. As you can see from all the articles about the upcoming SPECTRE debacle, the attempt to return the character to more of a tongue-in-cheek Connery/Roger Moore sense of humor isn't working very well. That's the danger. That if you copy other styles too much, you lose what made the character great and so enduring in the first place. I was reading another leaked document about Aaron Sorkin and just found it mind-blowing that he couldn't think of a single Asian-American (Asian-Canadian) and that was the main argument behind not making the Michael Lewis work FLASH BOYS into a motion picture. Asian actors can only be in kung-fun/karate/action movies!!! And we can't find ANY actors in 2014 who MIGHT actually be confused with Egyptian/Israelite/Middle Eastern characters for EXODUS??? A sad state of affairs.

Fun with statistics.

At best, the results are mixed. 2012, we used, what, 12-13 different rookies....mostly in the bullpen, along with Quintana. In that situation, he did about as good a job as possible but the last 2-3 weeks were a different story, that 4-11 finish. 2013 was pretty much a disaster from all standpoints. 2014, we were lacking in talent/personnel...of course, the opposite's true heading into 2015, so a lot of questions SHOULD be answered this season about Ventura as a manager. All indications are that he's probably about average or just a notch below in most aspects (keeping calm and even-keeled being his best quality)...the bigger question is whether he can help push a team with talent that's a bit "above average" into a playoff spot? Will the team be dragged down or can he manage to elevate them...by 1 or 2 or 3 games, whatever it is that we can all agree is the actual number of games a "great" manager can make in difference over an average or below-average one? If Ned Yost could do it in 2014, why not Ventura in 2015? He's not going to have the past as an excuse. Other than a few players who have been questionable on the fundamental side of things like Ramirez and Viciedo, he's got an almost entirely different ball club than the one Detroit blew past down the stretch in 2012.

I'm not sure comparing him to Fredi Gonzalez is exactly the highest bar or standard available. Their teams were in totally different situations in 2014. I'm sure the same article could be written comparing Brad Ausmus and Ventura. The fact of the matter is that Mike Illitch was paying guys like Nathan, Soria and Chamberlain a lot of money to get the job done in a season where they were expected to make the playoffs. What was Belisario's salary last year? $3.5 million? It's not like RV removed A.Miller from high leverage duties in the first year of his four year deal. Now if RV does the same thing with Robertson halfway through 2015, I'd be amazed (and also depressed, simultaneously).

LOL. I'll agree that the statistical side of baseball is making the "old school/traditional scouts shooting the s---" conversation a thing of the past. The Hawk Harrelson School. When I first became a baseball fan in the 1980's, Strat-O-Matic was the equivalent of "sabes," to use a Greg-ism. Now it's like statisticians/quants and economists have created so many projection systems that they're covering themselves no matter what happens. The problem is that it's a lot easier to say why player A, B or C will fail than to say what will actually work. There's still that missing human element. Hopefully we don't or won't lose it completely.

New to Homeland. Just started watching last week and into the 2nd season now where Estes/Saul find out that Claire Danes actually knew what she was talking about... At first, this series didn't draw me in (the Nick Brody character, specifically) but now I'm getting into it. This show feels a lot like 24 to me, with a bit of House of Cards, The Blacklist and Person of Interest thrown in for good measure.

QUOTE (elrockinMT @ Dec 15, 2014 -> 08:26 PM) I think we should sign AJPerz to a one year deal That would make more sense than overpaying for Castro, at least. Not sure it's the right move at the right time for this organization, though.

QUOTE (Lillian @ Dec 15, 2014 -> 06:24 PM) Another way to think about the potential of adding Scherzer is to consider the difference between his resigning with the Tigers, or with us. How would k*** our chances of taking the Division with our current staff, and Detroit having a staff with Scherzer back in their rotation? Then, think about our prospects if the Sox signed him. Of course, he may not sign with either club, but it just provides another perspective. I think if you're talking about the difference between Victor Martinez OR Miguel Cabrera on the White Sox or Tigers (from 2011-2014)...or Kotsay/Jones versus Thome on the Twins....or back to 2003 when any team in the AL Central could have signed Kenny Rogers on the cheap, it would make sense. In this case, we'd be better off if Scherzer signed the 2nd biggest contract in the sports and the Tigers ended up stuck with another exploding contract on the back end. The White Sox can't afford to be on the wrong side of that kind of contract, not unless they had all those PROJECTED 2019 new television dollars coming in.

I can just see Ventura's agent using a system like this to argue the White Sox dramatically overachieved last year. Theoretically, anything's better than Phil Rogers relying on Pythagorean projections. If you watched this team last year, and, specifically, that bullpen....it's hard to see the White Sox even at the most pessimistic as a .500 team and potentially 85-88 wins if everything broke right/ comparative good health, etc.

We have four intriguing arms now that might affect the 2nd half race in Ynoa, Sanburn, Montas and, of course, Rodon. You could also add Webb and Nate Jones, who many were counting on at this point a year ago. Compared to where we were then, that's a veritable bounty of potential riches in the bullpen. Obviously, at least Rodon is expected to start, but it's nice to know we might not have to make a desperation trade at the deadline and can hopefully rely on internal options instead of overpaying.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Dec 15, 2014 -> 12:44 PM) Downloads for the week: The Maze Runner Gone girl nightcrawler Nightcrawler isn't a great flick, but it's very watchable, mostly for Gylenhaal's performance. If there was a dictionary definition of "creepy," his picture would be included. There's a part of him that's very earnest and eager to please, like someone who's watched 50 self-help videos, Tony Robbins and How to Win Friends and Influence People one too many times...but as the movie evolves, that part of him disappears. It definitely makes your skin crawl a bit...in the sense that it's easy to imagine these same conversations happening behind the scenes with assignment editors and producers in the big markets where there's a significant amount of "inner city" crime spreading outwards into the suburbs and gated communities.

QUOTE (Melissa1334 @ Dec 15, 2014 -> 07:16 PM) Alex rios signs 11 mil/1yr deal with royals . Wow that is awful lol morales and rios Essentially they're paying the same price for Rios and Morales as they would have for Aoki and Butler. In and of itself, it's probably a slight net gain, but you're putting a ton of pressure on that pitching staff and you haven't replaced Shields in any tangible way other than minor league depth/prospects. Royals fans undoubtedly expected more, and have good reason to be disappointed.