caulfield12

http://insidemovies.ew.com/2014/09/18/osca...atcher-birdman/ Early Oscar/Academy race article... Boyhood is the only one I've seen so far out of all those movies.

http://www.azsnakepit.com/2014/9/18/643917...was-he-worth-it Just thought it was worth revisiting. 52% of DBacks fans approve, 48% against, with this season almost completed. Would probably have about the same split from the Sox side...with most saying it was the RIGHT move at the time, Gillaspie didn't look like a surefire power source/run producer and had many defensive issues his rookie season and the White Sox were going to be rebuilding and not in need of a pitcher who was on the verge of becoming increasingly expensive in arbitration. Just as many doubts there about keeping him for 2015 as the White Sox have with Dayan Viciedo and Nate Jones.

QUOTE (Jake @ Sep 18, 2014 -> 01:20 PM) Great read. Sounds a lot like Konerko (early in his career), Quentin and Beckham, too...

http://m.mlb.com/news/article/95297102/cub...-impress-scouts Tomas to have his first big workout/showcase this coming Sunday.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Sep 17, 2014 -> 09:30 AM) I don't think it's so much that the saber community is unconfident in their numbers but it's more along the lines of if they are over/undervaluing it and if they should include other information. Alex Gordon's UZR this year is off the charts. The controversy there lies in the idea that it's because he's been head and shoulders above his peers to this point, not that his defense has improved substantially from this year to last. Either way, as has been said, if a person says substituting a 6 WAR player for a 2 WAR player adds 4 wins, it's an estimate and they should add 4 wins, but won't necessarily do so. The bottomline is it is an estimate and an average. No one has ever said it's perfectly accurate in that aspect, but that it should be fairly close. The Twins' announcers, who've watched Plouffe all season at 3B, said it was basically ridiculous that he was rated in the Top 3-4 in terms of range. They also said that they believe Dozier is MUCH better than the "average" 2B that he's being recorded as so far this season in UZR.

A's blew a lead in the worst way possible.....1-0 going into the 9th, ended up imploding, with six runs surrendered, including 5 by Doolittle A's and Royals tied, 1/2 game behind Tigers M's 2 games back of both OAK and KC battle of survival

Matt Kemp has quietly climbed all the way to 23rd overall in MLB OPS. So much for acquiring him super cheaply. Now Ethier and Crawford are different stories. (In fact, the White Sox have produced 3 of the top 32 in the majors, in Abreu/C.Carter/Morse). Puig/Kemp mini-feud? http://www.latimes.com/sports/dodgers/dodg...0916-story.html

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Aug 20, 2014 -> 01:32 PM) * “No baseball player will have a normal MRI,” Dines said. “If someone has a congenitally small ulnar collateral ligament, even if they tear it and you reconstruct it, you can always make it bigger. And it’s almost a foregone conclusion these days that a young pitcher who throws in the upper 90s will at some point have a reconstruction anyway. “When I read the reports about Aiken, I thought that there might be some concern about the bony anatomy where the ligament attaches, perhaps the medial epicondyle. If that is damaged or abnormal, you’re left with less bone there to reconstruct the ligament, and that can mean that a reconstruction won’t always work. They must have thought, for some reason, that a future reconstruction would not take.” PTAC? from si.com story on Aiken ptac's response The statement is accurate for the reconstruction. You need to drill a substantial size hole in the medial condyle (not really the epicondyle but that's semantics, it's the same area). the tendon that is used to replace the ligament is much larger than the original so there needs to be room with which to work. However, I have never been involved in a case where the condyle was too small. It's conceivable, I guess, but I've never seen nor heard of it. Maybe in a case where he had "little leaguer's elbow"as a kid where there is damage to the growth plate on the medial side of the elbow..

QUOTE (Señor Ding-Dong @ Sep 16, 2014 -> 07:35 PM) Regardless of his performance tonight, how is three starts enough to determine if anyone is a decent pitcher? Daniel Hudson

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Sep 16, 2014 -> 07:29 AM) IT WAS A FORWARD PASS Steve Tasker...just because it's tiring how many times you hear, "the difference in this game will come down to special teams" in nearly every single NFL broadcast

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Sep 16, 2014 -> 05:58 PM) I do it from time to time too but with the unwritten caveat that it should all be taken with a giant grain of salt. Like, if the Sox added Giancarlo Stanton to replace Viciedo (we'll say a 0 WAR player to a 5 WAR player) and the Sox are a 73 win team this year, it's not a stretch to say that, given the Sox exact same team and the exact same set of circumstances, they would have only won 78 games instead. It's also not a stretch to assume they improve upon that by 6 or 8 or 10 games. It's also not a stretch to assume that they don't by improve by quite that much. At the end of the day, the Sox still need to get better. They've had really bad luck overall with the bullpen both with quality overall and closing out games, but the rotation beyond Sale and Quintana has also been bad too, which can also be improved upon. There are also several areas around the field where they can improve too. Even teams with bad bullpens can win because the starter prevents runs and the offense scores enough and you don't notice those blown leads because they were big enough to prevent it in the first place. And we're not even anywhere close to an "average" defense with Viciedo, Garcia, Gillaspie and rookies all over the field.

QUOTE (The Ultimate Champion @ Sep 16, 2014 -> 04:39 PM) First we need a rotation that 1-5 is capable of 6+ IP every time out while keeping us in the game. Get the number of innings the pen needs to eat down. Then we need a quality long man that will further eat into those innings. Allow the setup guys and specialists to be setup guys and specialists. Then we need at least one lefty SU guy, a closer, ideally a second lefty, also we'd like to have a go-to option as a righty specialist to use on a per-batter basis. That's a lot of needs. Again I'll reiterate the Danks to the pen idea as a potential solution here. Balta says the numbers don't work, Danks isn't good enough vs. LHH but I'll take my chances on the numbers evening out. Platoon splits can vary year to year but the general rule is that same-side batters don't see the ball as long and so the pitcher is most often at a slight advantage at least. There are exceptions to every rule but I think he'd do fine there. If he's the long man and the 2nd lefty while out of the rotation I think that helps in a lot of ways. Hahn's got several holes to fill but I really hope he doesn't sign more than 2 guys for the pen to larger guaranteed deals, and if he does get a couple relievers I hope one of them is a closer candidate buy-low reclamation type that offers potential upside as a trade candidate. http://espn.go.com/mlb/player/splits/_/id/...ing3/john-danks You're not going to like it, from 2011 to 2013, his OPS against LHB and RHB is exactly the same, 775, which is WAY too high.

QUOTE (LDF @ Sep 16, 2014 -> 05:45 AM) ummm you know he does have a point. if he does get hurt, the sox still has control. dealing with the surgery, the meds can repair and thicken the UCL ligament, (I read that it can be done) if he doesn't get hurt, the sox will have a great pitcher. interesting gamble. the astros argued a repair wouldnt be effective precisely because of the smaller size...and certainly inserting a bigger presumably stronger replacement wouldhave detrimental consequences to his mechanics and likely lead to further injury

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/10-degrees--m...-034300834.html Article on the dearth of 38 and older players in 2014 compared to the recent past... Victor Martinez isn't THAT far away.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Sep 15, 2014 -> 10:42 PM) Read the CNN story that Hillary was making nice with the reporters in Iowa, taking the lead from Bill, who was holding court with them enjoying the attention. Don't know if Hillary can do it in a full campaign. Can a person who does not like the media (Hilly, Chelsea too) suck it up and do interviews and love interviews for 2 plus years? Generally it's hard to fake it that long. Bill innately loves the media so it's no problem. This should be a fascinating study of a person's demeanor in the Hillary campaign/8 years of presidency. You just wonder if she's capable of playing the game that long with the media/public. Like I said it should be fascinating. Also her relationship with Bill during the 8 years should be fascinating. Is he just going to hide? He's a former president for gosh sakes and deserves the fame/accolades former presidents get. I think Bill is a MASTER politician/candidate for office. My gut tells me Hillary is not. Obama loved the media before it had turned on him and stopped writing all glowing/fawning articles around 2010 or 2011. Double edged sword, as they say.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jun 25, 2014 -> 07:41 AM) I think Hillary may actually be the 2nd least wealthy candidate to be on a ticket since 2000. Kerry, Bush, McCain, Romney were all loaded with legit corporate/inherited wealth. Greg's forgetting the numerous quotes at the time they left office and were complaining about being broke due to defending the Monica Lewinsky and Whitewater cases, among many. Almost all of their wealth was accrued post 2000, but it's nothing like a Steve Forbes or Ariana Huffington, or someone of that ilk, Ross Perot, etc.

QUOTE (StRoostifer @ Sep 15, 2014 -> 04:43 PM) Ya know, one thing I have not considered is money. I just realized that I have caught myself saying no to Aiken with that 6.5M price tag in my head that he initially agreed to. The Sox are currently sitting in the 9th slot for the 2015 draft. In 2014 that slot allotment was a tick over 3M. Due to the undersized UCL ligament i dont think Aiken will be worth slot value BUT, if Aiken slipped to the Sox in the 9th spot and was willing to accept say 2.5M or less, I can see taking the chance since it would allow for a chance at an over slot to someone else. In the end it won't matter since its likely that some team ahead of the Sox will take the chance on him. If teams will draft pitchers that just had TJ surgery then Aiken will be drafted as well. You're assuming he's 100% healthy next year. Look at what happened with Hoffman, Fedde, etc., just in the last 6 weeks or so before the draft...I think there was one other guy that was ouchy too, maybe it was Finnegan or Evansville's pitcher.

QUOTE (LDF @ Sep 15, 2014 -> 10:57 PM) I wonder what or for how many yrs? Probably similar to the Rusney Castillo deal, although more money and more years by 10-25%.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Sep 15, 2014 -> 09:41 PM) I had Royals fans texting me throughout the game and I told them not to worry that they would win because our bullpen is the worst in baseball. I had to text them and say 'I told you so' even though I hate people who say I told you so. Royals fans are really really pathetic. They are more pessimistic than I am, on the rare occasions the Sox have a good team. 29 years without a playoff appearance will do that to you...even 2003 was a complete tease and that Royals' team wasn't in it going into September as the Twins and White Sox had already blown past them in the standings. The White Sox...only 6, but it seems like a lifetime.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Sep 15, 2014 -> 07:25 PM) What is the average 5th starters ERA? John Danks, Nolasco and Colby Lewis aren't the worst 3 starters in the AL.If you are goimg to call someome the worst or 3rd worst, you need to include every pitcher. But 78 pitchers would inherently include (on average) five starters or more for all 15 American League teams. Sure, you would presumably have a few example of 4 starters for some teams, and a few lists of six for others. The point remains that he's one of the biggest problems on the team, performance and salary-drag wise, going forward into next season.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Sep 15, 2014 -> 07:24 PM) What is the average 5th starters ERA? John Danks, Nolasco and Colby Lewis aren't the worst 3 starters in the AL. I don't even know how you would determine that, since it's very subjective who's every team's 5th starter. The problem is that Danks is being paid 2/3 money...not to NOT be one of the worst starters in the AL, fifth starter or otherwise. I suppose we can move the bar down and argue he's one of the Top 50% of 5th starters, but that's not going to help the White Sox very much in 2015. It's the kind of argument an agent would make in an arbitration board meeting....well, he's not one of the worst fifth starters!!!

QUOTE (fathom @ Sep 15, 2014 -> 07:23 PM) His stuff seems to be declining, in my opinion. He was 93-94 consistently against DET and the Yankees. I think those last two starts really took a lot out of him...and maybe he let up psychologically feeling the White Sox would just lay down for him, which we all know has a way of NOT happening when teams playing with nothing to lose take on contenders the last two weeks of September.

http://espn.go.com/mlb/stats/pitching/_/le...false/minip/100 If you go down to those who have pitched 100 innings or more, he's 66th out of 69 in ERA. Only Colby Lewis, Buchholz (who's pitched much better of late) and Nolasco are behind him. 73rd out of 78 if you go down to 80 IP. You pick up Workman (Red Sox) and Masterson behind him in that screen. 15x5=75 starting pitchers, roughly So if you take any SABRE numbers, and just gut instinct, I have a feeling that almost everyone would take Buchholz, maybe Masterson and Workman (since he's a rookie as well) over Danks. That leaves you in an argument between Colby Lewis and Ricky Nolasco for worst AL starter.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Sep 14, 2014 -> 10:38 PM) He's 13-37 hitting .350. He hit two homers in a game (a win) and two triples in another game ( a win). I don't understand WAR. Are u saying he's been GOOD with Baltimore and was GOOD in Chicago? Cause his traditional stat numbers in Baltimore have been excellent. Statistically, he's contributed almost as much to Baltimore in 2 weeks than Chicago in 5 months...within the margin of error, statistically.

http://espn.go.com/mlb/player/stats/_/id/2...lejandro-de-aza DeAza's WAR is almost the same in 37 AB's for the Orioles as the 0.6 for almost 5 months with the White Sox.