caulfield12

QUOTE (MAX @ Oct 26, 2014 -> 01:58 PM) Why can't the white sox get tomas? I don't get it. They should just cut the guy a huge f***ing check. Boom, one more problem solved for a long while. Because there's no consensus he will be better than viciedo and $85 million is a ton for the sox to eat finding out he's notbthe solution...and that still leaves no lh power threats.

QUOTE (Brian @ Oct 26, 2014 -> 08:59 AM) I have to go see Whiplash next week. Just reading too many good things. Was reading ew.com and laughing at a reader commenting they only care about miles teller, shailene woodley, Joseph Gordon Levitt, sons of anarchy and the latest ya movies (hunger games, divergent, maze runner, etc.) The idea that there was a conspiracy to force miles teller into superstardom made me lol a bit.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Oct 25, 2014 -> 10:27 PM) I've been thinking of ways to improve the Sox through free agency. I think I really can fix our starting rotation on the cheap. Here's my plan. OK. Jake Peavy is 33 years old. He is a free agent cause the player option doesn't kick in since he only pitched 200 innings. The Sox need a righty starter. Why not Jake? Better yet, sign Peavy and Masterson and trade Danks or turn him into a reliever. You sign Peavy 2 years 14 million and Masterson 2 years 14 million. That's a paltry 7 million a year apiece added to the payroll for 2 years. We'd have Sale, Peavy, Q, Masterson, Rodon. That's not a bad rotation. If Danks can adjust, he'd be a damn fine addition to the bullpen. If you can trade him for a fourth outfielder, fine. Now, go ahead and sign Billy Butler for 2 years 18 million. Yes it's risky to give him 9 million a year but you are gambling he can elevate the ball in the Cell. So that's nine million a year. Finally you sign Aoki for one year, 7 million to be our fourth outfielder. So we have that excellent starting rotation I mentioned, and we have Danks in the bullpen. We've only added 23 million to the payroll in my scheme which means we can gamble and pick a closer out of the free agent crop and pay him 9 million a year. So I've added 32 million dollars a year. Isn't that a doable number? I thought I read Sox have a payroll of about 60 million right now; I've added 32 million and it's still under 100 million. Our lineup 1B-Babe Ruth. 2B-Semien. SS-Lexi. 3B-Davidson/Gillaspie. LF-Viciedo. CF-Eaton. RF-A. Garcia. DH-Butler. Fourth outfielder-Aoki. C-Tyler Flowers (still not optimal). If Davidson emerges, this is a heckuva lineup. Davidson is KEY! If Viciedo gets better, that would also help my lineup. What do you say??? My plan is doable. You've added $41 million, because we can't dump Danks without taking another bad contract in return. We still wouldn't have enough lh power...and we are not going to waste that much money on a fourth outfielder. If anything viciedo would be replaced by Garcia with aoki in rf. Depending on Davidson is pretty illogical...as is overpaying butler who still doesn't solve the dh problem other than just hoping. Peavy won't sign that low and masterson only one year at that salary...finally getting an elite closer is going to cost $12-15 million not a mere $9 unless you hire the same guys from the royals who scouted hochevar crow soria Collins Herrera Finnegan Davis and holland.

The white sox weren't facing a situation except for game two against the angels where they were in danger. With this game, it shifts from the royals having a 90% chance to win one of three to roughly 40% odds of winning two consecutive home games against a more experienced team that has posey Sandoval and pence to rely upon in crucial situations.

Royals had that series by the cojones and let it get away. They still will if they can manage to beat bumgarner. Sandoval has a 4% chance of getting two consecutive hits as a righty and what does he do? In retrospect...managing finnegan Collins Duffy Frasor in the fifth and sixth is like the back of ventura's pen with more talent/potential. Most managers with the workload herreras had in games two and three..if you bring in Herrera to hold the tie against Sandoval you then run a huge risk of burning through your big three and having nobody to use tmrw night. Then again the result might already be a foregone conclusion. At any rate the enduring image of this series in the what if category would be Vargas almost walking for a 5-1 lead and smiles/laughs all around. Petit might be the giants' post-season MVP by the way although it will surely go to bumgarner or Sandoval.

http://www.tampabay.com/sports/baseball/ra...ay-rays/2203572 http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/colum...025-column.html Cubs angels twins...? Phillies because of Pennsylvania hometown? Haugh wants the cubs .... Quotes from maddon and former sox broadcaster Dave wills.

Without the metrodome home field advantage for 1987/1991....those two series break to the national league teams.

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Oct 24, 2014 -> 10:29 PM) Is it time to start asking the question yet? Worst World Series champion, 2006 Cardinals or 2014 Royals? Not until the royals beat vogelsong or bumgarner tmrw night. Vogelsong is official. Don't want to pitch bumgarner twice on three days' rest.

QUOTE (winninguglyin83 @ Oct 24, 2014 -> 05:11 PM) I generally agree. You can look at the records of Pinella, Dusty and Jim Frey on the other side of town. But folks around baseball respect Maddon. His 'genius' seems to be in running the clubhouse and getting his guys to play hard and fundamentally sound. Guys who did not buy in -- Upton, Young -- were sent on their way. He was a consistent winner in the toughest division in baseball. He's got tremendous leverage for once in his life -- and he's going get somebody (Cubs, Mets) to pay him a lot of money. And garza as well...took a bit longer. If Dave Martinez doesn't get this job you know something's up.

QUOTE (Iwritecode @ Oct 24, 2014 -> 08:50 AM) Stalone, Bullock and Snipes were in Demolition Man. Dredd had Diane Lane and Rob Schneider. I get those two movies mixed up too. Both were roughly the same time....how can one forget a name like John Spartan? http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0113492/combined

http://www.kansascity.com/sports/spt-colum...cle3113391.html Did the royals reinvent a new paradigm shift....the anti-dunns?

Forgot Cain wasn't in the final three in cf for al.

http://www.kansascity.com/sports/spt-colum...cle3338539.html

Olacio had an outside chance with a great AFL to put himself in running for major league job. You can forget that now. Surkamp/Snodgress and then someone from outside the organization, maybe one guaranteed deal and two waiver claims to fight it out.

QUOTE (Jerksticks @ Oct 23, 2014 -> 11:29 PM) I think the article hit on why so many sox fans were upset with his play: you just never got the feeling he was doing everything he could in an AB to help the team. His swing looked the same no matter the count and no matter the situation, HR or bust. Dude, just put the f***ing ball in play and put the pressure on the defense, anything can happen. It's not his fault though or any of these 3 outcome guys' faults. It's a product of growing up in the steroid era or playing right after it...where everybody was jacking taters, where if you didn't have power you had a much harder time sticking. Matt Davidson is a perfect example of a kid growing up watching jacks and not learning how to be a dangerous hitter. These guys think jacks make you dangerous. This might take decades to correct since the mangers and coaches are all going to be guys from the juiced era. Guys that can hit with 2 strikes are going to be kings and I hope we stock up on these rarities. Eaton rules. Not necessarily...the "new/er" generation, guys like Hinch, Matheny, Ausmus, Banister (Rangers)...Scioscia and Maddon, they didn't feature that type of game as players, same with Yost. They were defense first, offense as a welcome side benefit type of guys. Karkovice and Joel Skinner with the White Sox are two more examples.

QUOTE (StRoostifer @ Oct 23, 2014 -> 09:47 PM) Great find Caulfield, I absolutely agree with the writer. Ratings mean absolutely nothing to me, if I desire to watch its because I'm interested and not because everyone else is. Game 3 is going to be a good matchup. In the first two games it was easy to see which team had the edge based on the pitching matchups but game 3 is a much closer matchup, IMO. I think the Giants may have a slight edge in game 3, slight. Should end up being the best game of the series so far. Hudson has a lot more experience in the playoffs, obviously, compared to Guthrie. But who really knows? I have a feeling that the Vargas/Vogelsong match-up is better for the Royals, but predicting anything in the post-season other than Bumgarner starts and the back 3 of the KC pen has been next to impossible.

http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2014/10/...re-low-so-what/ World Series ratings are low again, SO WHAT?

QUOTE (StRoostifer @ Oct 23, 2014 -> 05:57 PM) I did not think it was that high. If his bat comes back around to compliment his defense, holy s*** would he carry some value. Yikes! My bad, I was looking at the wrong Upton. OK, I'm greedy but can't we just have both Justin and Heyward, provided they both agreed to extensions? A lineup of Abreu, Heyward, J.Upton as 3,4,5 hitters sounds good. I would gladly try to build a package around Q and Avi for that haul. Not sure the Sox have enough to fill out the rest or not but its interesting to think about. I know I would not want to Anderson in the deal. Maybe the Sox agree to take BJ's contract to help balance things out. Justin in LF, Eaton in CF, Heyward in RF with BJ being the rotating 4th OF is a solid defense. OK, dream is over and I'm awake. With Danks' contract still on the books, they're not going to take on another bad contract in BJ Upton. Their operating style has always been to trade away prospects instead of eating the costs on the accounts payable line.

Three things are sure in the world of defense, Alex Gordon, Heyward and Juan Lagares will all win Gold Gloves. And that there will eventually be so much "overhype" for defense that there will be another course correction as defense starts getting overvalued...especially if the Royals are able to win the World Series. (Yes, I know, they were down 7-3 to Lester and six outs away from not being part of the paradigm shift conversation). It's the same exact thing in the NFL. Everyone copied the idea of having 6-8 interchangeable defensive lineman to put continuous pressure on the QB throughout a game and wear opponents down in the 4th quarter. Magically, at least 10 teams copied this approach. Surprise, surprise. The same thing happened with the Pirates/Astros/Rays and defensive shifting....as well changing a pitching philosophy to encourage more ground balls/sinkers and fewer strikeouts/less wear and tear on pitchers. Eaton won't win because he missed too many games. Bradley won't win, either. Am sure either Escobar or Hardy (not Alexei) will win.

QUOTE (shysocks @ Oct 23, 2014 -> 07:50 AM) Not to beat the Volquez Sucks drum too much, but I would be shocked if he got anywhere near 3/$45. If his peripherals supported it, there would be an argument. The fact is, he's too far removed from his breakout year with the Reds...he'd need to repeat his 2nd half of 2014 next year. And I think it's possible if he remains in the NL. Then that contract number would definitely be in play.

C'mon, nobody has seen The Punisher with Thomas Jane? That might be one of the most low-key comic hero debuts ever...or Judge Dredd, not sure which. Dredd (the recent one, not the character played by Sly Stallone in the Sandra Bullock/Wesley Snipes iteration) was quite the entertaining movie, but very few noticed it.

Well, I think Heyward was the only RFer in the majors who was "great" defensively according to most of the metrics. On the other hand, WAR has become so "overhyped" to the point where teams are supposed to offer more for Alex Gordon or Heyward than Justin Upton, who's the far superior (at least in recent years) offensive player? Not sure I'm buying that...not with the money Victor Martinez is about to get as a DH at his age. Of course, it's also a matter of supply and demand. However, there's no way the Braves don't ask for Anderson and Montas, and that's probably the end of the conversation for Hahn. If he was a cost-controlled asset for the next three years, then it would be a big-time dilemma. Right now, it's nice to dream but the combination of a one-year rental possibility in a (still) likely non-competing year, along with the sheer amount of talent we'd give up that we REALLY need in 2016-19...just doesn't make any sense. And why would either player be willing to sign a "below value/club-friendly" long-term deal like F.Garcia did in 2004?

https://www.yahoo.com/movies/keanu-reeves-i...0673401392.html Keanu Reeves is super bummed Hollywood studios have abandoned him Rights to John Carter sequels expire http://furiousfanboys.com/2014/10/disneys-...lans-new-films/

QUOTE (Chilihead90 @ Oct 23, 2014 -> 12:51 AM) Am I the only one NOT in to these dozens of comic book movies that come out every year? Seems like every other movie that comes out is about superheroes. Feels like such a cash cow and some Hollywood big wigs are laughing at the amount of money they are raking in by s***ting out comic book movies every few months. Just me? Nope. I watch them all, but am nevertheless not "into" them at the same time. Never read a comic book, and will always prefer watching/reading and discussing a creative original concept...for example, Interstellar, even though it is derived from the physics professor Kip Thorne's black holes book, hopefully Nolan continues to be at the top of his game. Of course, there are movies for "deeper meaning" and those produced merely for entertainment, like the new Keanu Reeves movie all the critics are raving about, John Wick. Gravity would also fall into this category (amazing to watch but utterly forgettable), if we're talking about the sci fi genre. Without the Nolans, Aronofskys, Malicks, del Toro's, the movie world of today would be close to barren. We get it. Without spinoff movies, McDonald's/Burger King action figures, diversified revenue streams from multiple properties, it's hard to get an original concept movie off the ground these days. Too much risk, when the return on investment is much higher if you do a Denzel/Liam Neeson action movie, Transformers 5, TMNT 2, etc.