caulfield12

QUOTE (Harry Chappas @ Sep 11, 2014 -> 12:26 PM) It was pretty good. The Gemma thing dragging on is a pain and really brings the show down for me but it is still a good show Many think Sutter's going to wait until Episode 13 for all the chips to to be cashed in with Gemma, Juice, Unser and Jax. Otoh, if you follow Hamlet and MacBeth...it would lead you believe that both Gemma and Jax will end up dead, with Nero and his drug addicted ex taking care of the kids (as was shown in the first episode). Juice is definitely a wild card...as the preview showed, he doesn't kill Unser, and I read somewhere where Unser will last the whole season and start an uneasy partnership with new sheriff Annabeth Gish's character beginning in the next episode. Apparently, Katey Sagal has already changed her hairstyle and many are taking that to indicate she's already finished filming her parts as Gemma and that she might be taken out around episode 7-10, although it's all just speculation at this point. Also, one of the reveals has been that at least two members of the MC will be killed, and I'm assuming that's from Tig/Chibs/Jax/Bobby/Juice and not the lesser members.

QUOTE (LDF @ Sep 11, 2014 -> 08:51 PM) you know, the sox have some really live arms coming up and the farm systems should starting to produce some really interesting prospects. Montas has a nice profile. I also think that it going to be really interesting seeing how all the prospect will develop. I think the sox need a stopgap player to step in and stabilize the pen. I think that will be done getting that player thru fa. Paying stopgap guys like Robertson, Janssen, Soriano (can't even remember if he's avail), Rodney, Jim Johnson, Frieri, League, K-Rod, etc., just means you're going to be paying some of them $8-12 million per season in 2015 for what purpose? Unless you address the starting rotation and add 2 bats, there's no way to compete anyway. The whole idea of flipping guys like Belisario, Boggs, Paulino, Cleto, etc., at the beginning of the year was fine in principle, but it didn't quite work out in the end, did it? As the season ends, the guys who built up some value (Noesi, Putnam, Guerra) are ones that you kind of need next year, and their career history is going to limit their history until they prove they can sustain that level of success for multiple seasons, at least through next June/July.

We'll probably end up with Raul Ibanez or Carlos Pena.

Royals using 1st rounder LHP Finnegan (TCU) out of the pen down the stretch drive...a lot like the Chris Sale situation in 2010, albeit for a much shorter period of games.

Thought Greg should see that things might actually be WORSE outside the US these days... BANGKOK: -- A 3-month-old baby boy was killed and his grandmother seriously injured when gunmen set a car in front of a house afire and shot at occupants coming to see the fire. The unusual attack happened Wednesday night at a house in Tambon Pranburi of Pranburi district, Prachuap Khiri Khan province. Alerted by the victims, police came with firemen managed to put out a Nissan sedan which caught fire 10 minutes later. Pools of blood were found on the floor in front of the house, and inside. An injured occupant identified as Mrs Rasamee Dechalor, 48, was shot in the shoulder, both hands and legs. But the baby was shot on the head and died at the scene. Mother of the killed baby Mrs Nichapan Naktap said they were watching TV when they smelt smoke outside the house. She came out with holding her baby in hands. She shouted for help when she saw her car parked in front caught fire. As she was shouting gunmen emerged and opened fire at her and her mother. Her mother was hit by the gunfire as well as her baby on the head, she said. She said her family had no conflict with any people. But she said her mother had been convicted of drug charge and was only two years ago freed from prison, adding it might be a cause of the attack. Source: ThaiPBS http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/759536...m_campaign=news

Even if Martinez was using steroids, a ton of hitters were also using them, so you'd have to say it was close to a level playing field...even in that context. Any time a pitcher breaks down due to injuries, there will be questions...then again, we've had more elbow injuries than at any point in the history of the game and most of these TJ's are not being connected to steroid usage/abuse to my knowledge.

Bassit's another guy with a live arm...I'm sure he will get a look in the pen (if he's not the 5th starter), because he has good stuff, can be a long man and provides them some versatility. That said, Petricka's your guy for right now, Putnam and Guerra in set-up, Webb as the big question mark, along with the left-handed component/s.

QUOTE (chisoxfan310 @ Sep 11, 2014 -> 06:06 PM) Looking at Scherzer's numbers this season, I kinda want our rotation to look like this next season: 1. Sale 2. Scherzer 3. Quintana 4. Place holder for Rodon/Rodon 5. Noesi/other signing or someone else in organization? If they can get Scherzer on a 6 year deal (his age 30 through 35 seasons), would you want him? 6 years is going to cost a minimum of $160 million, as he already turned down $144 from the Tigers, and that was with no bidding/competition from 10-12 other teams who obviously would be interested in acquiring his services. That's $26.67 million per season, AAV. Just impossible to believe Hahn would be interested or JR would authorize that kind of expenditure on a pitcher approaching the second half of his career.

QUOTE (Andy the Clown @ Sep 11, 2014 -> 07:40 PM) Are you implying that Adam Dunn has AIDES? You really don't know about Dunn's role in financing, producing and acting (even) in that movie, do you? Or you're simply trying to be clever? Which?

I think with Dallas Buyer's Club and some of his other entrepreneurial off-the-field activities, coaching in the minors (or even majors) is the VERY LAST thing Adam Dunn would do. As it stands now, he needs to get away from the game for 2-3 years, spend time with his children and business endeavors, like producing independent movies. Some distance and perspective will help...as there's probably some bitterness about the way his career went south and also his treatment by the fans.

QUOTE (Bigsoxhurt35 @ Sep 11, 2014 -> 02:40 PM) Nice to win a series. Kind of want to see us finish strong and head into '15 feeling confident. I'm not so sure we're finishing strong...it's more like limping to the finish line (at least until this home series). Well, let's just say they've been pretty terrible/boring the last 2-3 weeks and hopefully the last 3 weeks can put on a charge...which of course will lead to the draft pick debate/s. The A's are just playing tight, and playing not to lose, trying to hold onto their slim WC lead. That's a recipe for disaster.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Sep 11, 2014 -> 02:48 PM) This is actually an interesting idea in theory and I like it if they can't find a taker for Danks. I think they will work tirelessly to trade Danks while taking on as little as possible this offseason, but he's virtually valueless at this point and in fact holding negative value. If they are unable to do so, I think they would defer to the veteran out of Spring Training because Rodon is "going to need some seasoning" where he'll make 3-5 starts, ensure his arm is stretched out, and Danks will be given a short audition. If/when Danks fails, they could easily move him into the bullpen in that exact role and insert Rodon into the rotation. Who's the 5th starter in that situation? Sale/Quintana/Noesi/Rodon/??? We're still one short. Bassitt?

Danks walks too many to be a closer, and gives up way too many homers. If you could convince me he could go out like Verlander and throw 95 MPH with movement in the bullpen, that would be one thing. But we can only go by the evidence that he's pushing himself to the limit at 90-91 and there's almost no likelihood he could get up to the 93-95 MPH levels. Once again....with the Verlander comparisons. As a starter, he's been getting hit hard on his fastball this year (not a surprise) and either his change-up or slider, something like that....the argument is that he can ditch two of his four pitches and just concentrate on throwing harder and not throwing a slider/change/curve, but just constantly honing one of those to pitch off the fastball. Danks theoretically has the change-up, but he just doesn't have the fastball to pitch from behind in the count. And he leaves way too many balls up in the zone. It's just a bad combination for a reliever. And he hasn't been a strikeout pitcher or someone to miss a lot of bats (think Quintana) in terms of percentage of swings and misses.

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Sep 11, 2014 -> 02:22 PM) I am surprised Coop wouldn't be the one calling that shots. I'm extremely dissapointed at this. Do you really think Renteria wouldn't want Bryant up getting comfortable at the major league level and determining where here his ultimate position should be defensively? Of course, every pitching coach, hitting coach and manager's going to want the best players up with the major league team....but business is always going to come ahead of all other priorities.

QUOTE (scs787 @ Sep 11, 2014 -> 02:29 PM) Poor A's lol. Tied with the Royals now, 1 game ahead of the Tigers and 1.5 ahead of the M's for the moment. CLE with a big series in Detroit this weekend, looks to be putting on another late charge but they got stymied by the Tigers earlier this week when they had their head-to-head match-up. Meanwhile, KC gets the Red Sox at home, and has two more teams out of the race before the Royals come to the K next weekend.

Sale now with 192 K's in just 163 innings. All of Semien's homers this year have tied the game or given the Sox the lead late. Great double play turned last in the game between Semien and Sanchez...nice to see the teamwork and communication which surely started at Charlotte and BIRM.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Sep 11, 2014 -> 08:51 AM) How can they bring those guys in with their current attendance? How can they NOT? It's a business. They can be pretty profitable again with a $65-75 million payroll and finish 5-10 games under .500, or they can start going for it again like they did in 2011 with the Dunn acquisition. If they don't, the White Sox are in danger of becoming completely irrelevant to all but a smattering of dwindling die-hards. Other than Sale and Abreu, there's just no reason for anyone in the national media to follow this team or manager. I would be perfectly happy to go up to $90 million over 4 years for Shields. That still might not get it done. He might get $100+ now. I'd at least try. If you put our payroll somewhere in the mid 50's (with Flowers, Nate Jones, Viciedo probably)....then that bumps it up to the high 70's. We started this year around $91 million. That would leave money for one "second tier hitter" for DH (like an Adam Lind) and we'd have to be incredibly strategic and prescient about which reliever/s we brought in for another $5-7.5 million...in that Downs/Belisario second tier again. Maybe hoping for a bounceback from Jim Johnson, not sure....Frieri, someone who still has the stuff but mentally struggling.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Sep 11, 2014 -> 08:38 AM) Josh Hamilton? LMAO. You haven't been reading these threads carefully enough. I'm not the proponent of Josh Hamilton. I'll stand by hoped-for James Shields or Matt Kemp moves, though.

TUC, respectfully, I just don't think Castro and Headley quite move the meter to push us into contention. (And trading Flowers and Gillaspie to get Castro and then replacing him with Chase make our team payroll go up $10-15 million but AT BEST put us around the .500 mark, and that's being EXTREMELY optimistic IMO). They're solid veteran players, but it just feels like a "place-holding" move, waiting for 2016. Same thing with a declining Andre Ethier. I would like to see a risk taken, whether it's on Shields, or Josh Hamilton, or Matt Kemp. Or even dumping John Danks, although we all know how likely that is to actually happen, being White Sox fans. Sure, Keppinger and Downs were pushed out the door, but those are different situations and nothing like the money involved with Danks.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Sep 11, 2014 -> 08:22 AM) The Sox made it known that Garcia was off limits last offseason. I don't see how that would change now, especially considering his value probably hasn't changed much. Unless the Sox have identified a flaw in his hitting mechanics....not that they're to be trusted too much with hitters, but perhaps there's reason to have a lot more faith in Steverson than Walker or Manto, so there's that.

QUOTE (Eminor3rd @ Sep 11, 2014 -> 08:11 AM) Yeah, I agree. You can only make awesome trades when other GMs are willing to give you the shot. I think a lot of people don't realize what a great offseason this past one was in terms of getting big-time controllable talent, and it should NOT be our baseline going forward. An average offseason will not be as good as last year's. We had Santiago, Reed and Peavy to trade last year. This year, what? Maybe Alexei Ramirez? Dayan Viciedo? John Danks? C'mon. Conor Gillaspie and Tyler Flowers? Other than Abreu/Sale/Quintana/Eaton/Ramirez and Avisail Garcia, what do we really have? A LOT of question marks. A lack of talent, other than Rodon. We're not going to get anything significant back without dealing Anderson/Montas/Danish/Hawkins...and 2 of those last 3 guys would have to be bundled together, at the very least. Rodon and Adams aren't going anywhere, so I'm not even counting them. Fathom mentioned during the game thread that Avisail Garcia would be a good candidate to shop around...we'll see if that actually materializes or not.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Sep 11, 2014 -> 08:10 AM) So you're completely ignoring an extremely valid point because it totally contradicts your initial argument. You should run for Congress. I mean, seriously, you said this: They've done fine, given that they made the playoffs without him. How many times have the Royals made the playoffs with James Shields? That answer, at this juncture, is 0. So you would say the Rays are doing well right now...by including last season's results? That's PART of the truth, sure...but you could just as easily argue they'd be fighting for the playoffs now with Shields AND PRICE AND Wade Davis. Not to mention their attendance has been abysmal...even more abysmal than usual for them. At any rate, I made a bet with Dick Allen that Beckham would hit under .240 and he wouldn't ever mention Don Cooper again...not sure if he's going to honor that one. So a second one. I'd be more than happy to wager whatever you want that the Royals are going to make the playoffs at least this season. The Royals making the playoffs for the first time in 29 years without a single player with more than 20 homers or 100 RBI's is pretty strong evidence of the difference he's made to that team.

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Sep 11, 2014 -> 08:04 AM) because Baez, Almora, Vitters, and Bryant Why don't you actually contribute something to the conversation besides snarky comments? If it makes you feel better, then, by all means, have your fun...whatever. But it's not very becoming for a moderator. If you have an issue with me, send a PM. You know where to find me. I would be perfectly happy not to even have a Cubs' thread. This is a White Sox site, isn't it? Why do we need it? Maybe because the White Sox have been one of the most boring teams in baseball (except for Sale and Abreu) the last couple of seasons. These days, we have to struggle to even get a game thread going.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Sep 11, 2014 -> 07:59 AM) Look how the Rays have done without him? They won a play-in game against Texas, beat the Indians in the Wild Card round, and then lost in the LDS in 4 games to the eventual World Series champions. ...unless you're going to tell me that the reason that their offense has scuffled this season and has seen numerous players hit below their career averages and/or poorly all together was because of James Shields, in which case, I'm going to say that you're full of it. Which organization is in a much better position right now, at this exact moment in time? Who knows, maybe Shields even ends up staying in Kansas City...anything's possible. They're definitely jettisoning Butler's salary.

After pitching well during his first season at the Class-A level in 2001, Shields underwent serious shoulder surgery that caused him to miss the entire 2002 season. His fastball lost some velocity as a result, forcing him to change his pitching approach and develop a changeup as he worked his way up through the Devil Rays system.[4] And there's another reason...he's already gone through a major surgery on the worst part of the body for a pitcher and bounced back better, learning from it and changing/adapting his mechanics. If they get Shields now, they're in "WIN NOW" mode for the next four seasons, starting the moment he signs. A rotation of Sale/Shields/Rodon/Quintana and Noesi/Montas/Danish/Bassit will be one to be reckoned with. And it will also help attract the couple of bats that might be on the fence about the Sox but be pushed over the edge with a Shields acquisition. I don't think Hahn and Reinsdorf have the cojones right now to do it, but that's THE move I would make, the more I think about it. McHugh's a nice pitcher to have, and he's better than John Danks, but he's not going to change the atmosphere of the entire organization by his presence. Look how the Rays have done without him, that's telling as well.... DETROIT By now, the nickname is part of the persona. But it started out with innocence. James Shields grew up in Southern California, a Lakers fan, and he’s old enough that as a kid he rooted for James Worthy. That’s Big Game James Worthy, you know, so baseball being baseball it didn’t take long before a teammate in the minor leagues started using the nickname on Shields. So, no. As much as the truth has been left behind by sports mythology, the Big Game James thing didn’t start because of what Shields does in important moments. It started because of a different sport and a coincidence of names, but, you know, sports mythology can be fun sometimes, and the Royals’ first pennant race in a generation could use more fun and mythology. Besides, if the nickname started off as a bit of a tease ,it is now very real in the hearts and minds of Shields’ teammates. And so it is that the Royals wrestled back sole possession of first place on the reliable right arm of the man they traded part of their future for. This is two starts in a row where the Big Game thing applies, two shutdown wins on the road — first in New York, and now in a first-place showdown against the Tigers that stands as the biggest game of this most important Royals season in two decades. The Royals beat the Tigers 3-0 because Shields made the same two runs that have served as frustration in too many losses stand up in a crucial win. He did this by allowing no runs, two hits, one walk, and striking out eight over seven innings. He finished it in the most James Shields way possible — a strikeout on a changeup, a roar back to nobody in particular, and then a LET’S GO! toward catcher Sal Perez. That clip will make the highlight package of this season, no matter how it ends. ...... As much as momentum is overstated in this sport, it was clear the Royals could use a boost. Which has been Shields’ job going on two years now, whether in the clubhouse showing Danny Duffy how to use his emotions for good instead of bad or out in front of the crowd and the cameras shutting down one of baseball’s best offenses. There is a stubborn belief in the clubhouse that has been missing in previous years. Most of that is talent, and the fact that this is the best team they’ve had in years. Some of it, too, is in the earned swagger — a very different and more legitimate thing than swag, by the way — of their ace. It’s hard to measure the value of an entire team just knowing their guy is going at least seven strong. Maybe it’s just a coincidence, maybe it’s just one of those rough stretches that every team hits a few times over 162 games, and maybe it’s the unforgiving light of a pennant race, but the last week or two included some rough signs. A team built on defense, for instance, had committed 15 errors in its previous 11 games. Again, maybe this is all just happenstance. But the Royals were flawless defensively on Wednesday. Mike Moustakas, in particular, made one very good play and one spectacular play at third base — leaping toward the foul line to field a chopper, then throwing Torii Hunter out from the coach’s box. It’s as good a defensive play as you can expect to see on any night. When it works like this, it’s just so simple, smooth, no bumps. The Royals would love to score more runs, of course, but there are a lot of teams that would love to prevent runs like the Royals. It doesn’t always have to be about scoring more runs than the other team. Sometimes, it can be about allowing fewer than the other team. The Royals have now allowed two runs in their last five wins. That is an absurd fact, and the pitching and defense is why the team is in an offensive slump (14 runs in their last six games) but still able to open the last homestand of the season on Thursday in sole possession of first place. The Royals are 16 games from the end of their most thrilling season in decades. That’s too many to responsibly call Wednesday a must-win, but there was a different energy about this one. They shut out the team that’s chasing them, and put their arms fully around first place again heading into seven straight home games against non-contenders before these same Tigers come to Kansas City in what should be a wild weekend series. The Royals won a little more than a game on Wednesday, and they did it with their most accomplished player living up to the nickname he never asked for, and the hopes of a franchise that needs it to be true. Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/sports/spt-colum...l#storylink=cpy http://www.kansascity.com/sports/spt-colum...cle2060141.html James Shields absolutely dominant in big game versus the Tigers He came out aggressive from the start, looking to get ahead on Tigers batters with his fastball, which he threw with excellent location all night. He was locating those first-pitch fastballs (and even cutters) so well that he only fell behind in three at-bats in all of his seven innings pitched. Once Shields got ahead, he could get to his breaking stuff. All night, his curve, change and cutter were downright nasty, forcing the Tigers’ lineup into mis***s, rollovers and eight strikeouts. Shields gave up an opposite-field single to Ian Kinsler in the Tigers’ first at-bat of the game — and then didn’t allow a single base runner until the bottom of the seventh. By keeping his pitch count low, staying ahead of hitters and attacking the batters at the right time with the right pitch, “Big Game James” turned in one of his best performances of the year and put his team in a great position to win this crucial game. Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/sports/spt-colum...l#storylink=cpy