caulfield12

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Aug 22, 2014 -> 09:39 AM) What do they have to do with Castillo? a DFAed free agent, AAAA bench player and first full season player have no impact on Castillo Very simple, if Jackie Bradley's a star and playing Gold Glove caliber CF while OPSing around 700, Rusney Castillo isn't in their plans. It's going to be pretty difficult to convince me otherwise. Nava, Holt, Gomes, etc. Not as relevant. Because if you really believe in Bradley or Betts, you're not going to leave them blocked for a year behind Cespedes, Castillo and Victorino. The fact that Castillo and Bradley play the same primary position, CF, is also telling. EDIT: And I completely forgot about Allen Craig as well, whose contract will be about as easy to dump as John Danks'

QUOTE (mr_genius @ Aug 22, 2014 -> 09:33 AM) i don't. if you go at the police with a butcher knife, you are probably getting shot. wander/meander in the general direction of the police and menacingly go at the police are two quite different things

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Aug 22, 2014 -> 09:03 AM) MLB Trade Rumors ‏@mlbtraderumors 4m Rusney Castillo “On Track” For Six-Year, $72MM Deal With Red Sox http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/?p=41049 That's crazy. Can't believe Cherington would do that. Granted, Jackie Bradley, Nava and Sizemore were huge disappointments, but wow. They also have Betts (blocked by Pedroia at 2B), Cespedes next year...well, even the vaunted Red Sox don't have complete success because this move smacks of desperation, and a lack of available options on the FA market. Finally, Shane Victorino is under contract as well for 2015, I'm pretty sure.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Aug 22, 2014 -> 08:48 AM) I understand what you're saying. I just think that a lineup with Semien in it full time maximizes maximizes the production of the team. I've had many discussions on the board about that so I don't want to delve into it any further, just that I hope they have some kind of big role in line for Semien. Frankly, if he can learn to play a competent OF and he's OK with moving around the field, you could play him damn near every day between DH, 2B, 3B, SS, LF, and RF. In order to evolve into that type of Chone Figgins/Zobrist role, he's going to have to hit, and probably put up a 750ish OPS to make up for some of the lost defense that will result from moving him all over the place constantly. If he could learn how to swipe 20-30 bags, that would bring a lot of additional value as well.

QUOTE (Eminor3rd @ Aug 22, 2014 -> 08:49 AM) It's not subjective, though. That's the thing. He's been an above average hitter for the last three seasons, and most of this board (and I'd wager most of the casual fans as well) has wanted his head the whole time. He unquestionably hasn't reach the heights we expected when he signed, but if we're being objective, he's been a key contributor to our offense and there haven't been any better options to replace him. Subjective would be how the initial hype of his signing has caused fans to consider him among the absolute biggest negatives on the team during his tenure, to be excised at all costs, despite the fact that he's been an above average hitter and is, by all accounts, a positive clubhouse presence. Look, I'm disappointed with him too -- I LOVED the signing, fresh off the Mark Kotsay debacle. But I'm glad our front office hasn't let that emotion cloud their decision-making. Disappointment or not, the offense has been better the past three seasons because he's been here. I'm still not going to believe any statistical measure that simply equates his OPS numbers with being a fair value and level of performance for that contract. WAR certainly wouldn't, as it favors effective middle infielders, 3B, catchers and CFers. We can say statistically from 2012-2014, he's provided a pretty decent level of output, maybe 50-100 OPS points below what we expected when he was signed. If he was putting up David Ortiz numbers these past three years DESPITE 2011, then all would be forgiven. But he's not. If he was putting up his average numbers from 2006-2010, everyone would be perfectly contented, since he would essentially be another version of Jim Thome. Objectively, he doesn't deserve this level of criticism, but that's not how baseball works. Even then, there will be more allowances given for guys like Konerko/AJ/Buehrle or even Danks because of "sentimental" value. "Outsiders" like Alex Rios will rarely be embraced unless Sox fans feel they've earned it.

QUOTE (Buehrle>Wood @ Aug 22, 2014 -> 08:30 AM) Funny you live in China and can't see the danger here. That's like ground zero for insane knife attacks. Last night 7 people were stabbed in an attack. Couple weeks ago 100 people died in a mass knife attack. And on and on and on. It's like a reoccurring event there. 1) China has 1.6-1.8 billion people, so, once again, it's like an airplane crash...we only hear about the mass incidents. I've never been anywhere close to an actual mass knifing (although I did go to the same mall in Nairobi, Kenya last summer where the Somalian terrorists killed every foreigner and non-Muslim, and have seen motorcycle assassinations carried out in Colombia). 2) I found a link to a situation where 33 were killed in March, but do you have a link to the 100 person one you're referring to? 3) Guns aren't allowed in China, so knives are the next most logical weapon 4) The mental/psychological health system is not so advanced, so a lot of these cases are caused by lack of treatment and honesty about these real social problems...99% of the attacks are involving single men who are "disenfranchised" and frustrated with their station in life, that they can't get married because of lack of jobs/education/high salary (where are 6 men for every 5 women), just overall frustration with the government when there's so much corruption and unfairness. Why they target innocent children/schools to make their point is beyond me, although I guess it has a lot to do with drawing attention/news media/coverage to their situations...the need to die in a famous/infamous way rather than a random, unreported/anonymous way.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Aug 22, 2014 -> 08:31 AM) The regular police forces in the UK and Japan (and probably other countries) don't carry guns. edit: I'm not suggesting that for regular US police forces, but it does suggest that there are other ways of handling situations with armed people than shooting them at the drop of a hat. And guns don't help much against chemical/biological weapons and terror attacks, like you see more consistently in Japan, on the subways for example.

QUOTE (Eminor3rd @ Aug 22, 2014 -> 08:28 AM) Right, all of that has nothing to do with how well they play. It's fine, but everyone should be aware that they are hating on Dunn because they don't like him, not because of his performance. This is why witesoxfan has come off like a DUNN LOVER all the time when he isn't really -- it's just so confusing when everyone has wanted to "improve" the team by making the offense worse. You can have personal problems with a guy and want him gone, but let's acknowledge that is entirely separate from what our team should do in order to win. That's pretty subjective. What I mean is, sure, the odds of Andy Wilkins replacing Dunn's production are about 3-5% at best. It's more the idea of moving on, getting past the Konerko/Dunn era (last player from 2005 remaining) and using those financial resources more wisely/effectively in the future. If the question is can Wilkins and a platoon partner outproduce Dunn and Konerko?, probably not. If the question is whether Rick Hahn can either trade for a better replacement or spend that $16 million or whatever more effectively than what Adam Dunn has produced in 2014, sure, and I would add there's not much hope for the future of the White Sox if you're skeptical on that front.

QUOTE (TheTruth05 @ Aug 22, 2014 -> 08:24 AM) anybody catch the Hahn interview on the score earlier? anything interesting said? Not really. Usual close to the vest type stuff. He actually said people had already paid for their September tickets, like there was an expectation of seeing Adam Dunn, lol. Of course, it was measured by the usual, we have a responsibility to field a competitive team...games affecting the playoff race/s mumbo jumbo along with opening up at-bats for younger players yadda yadda. Wouldn't commit to Rodon coming up in September. Said it would get at least 3 starts in Charlotte. Said he was more refined/advanced than even they projected when the pick was made, etc.

You can't really compare Danks and Dunn because: 1) Danks came to our team when he was very young and is considered part of the White Sox "family" 2) His brother is also on the team 3) 2008 Blackout Game memories still linger for some 4) The fact that Danks' lack of effectiveness can be blamed on his career-altering injury, vs. laziness or "not caring" or whatever people say about Dunn 5) The fact that expectations were so high that Dunn was the final piece when he was added in 2011, having gone through a season where Jim Thome being on the Twins made a huge difference not making them playoffs despite the 26-5 run in mid-2010. 6) The fact that Dunn's never made the playoffs 7) Dunn's 2011 was chronicle in the NY Times for its historic abysmal nature, whereas Danks criticism is about fastball velocity, location, homers surrendered, leaving balls out over the plate, peripherals....you just can't equate them when you talk about total flops and then take into consideration what we were being sold at the time by KW

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Aug 22, 2014 -> 08:02 AM) I have a very hard time accepting that the only outcome of a man walking towards two police officers armed with a steak knife is that he's shot dead. According to the majority of posters in this thread, that's exactly the case. And, from living in China for four or five years...I can honestly say the police would have handled it quite differently. I've literally seen 25 similar incidents to this where you have crazy/drunk men on the streets acting erratically, sometimes armed with weapons, other times not...and always a large crowd of people circling around them, especially in the case of an argument between two people. Never have I seen the police even pull their guns once. Once, I was on a bus and the driver cut off a motorcyclist because he wasn't paying attention and the motorcycle was in his blind spot. The driver of the motorcycle went ahead of the bus and stopped and blocked the bus. The bus driver, amazingly, got out to engage the motorcyclist in conversation and, meanwhile, the motorcylist had somehow gotten his hands on a crowbar and they were about to get into a huge brawl when the police came along, patiently talked to both of them for about 20-30 minutes until they were laughing...the weird thing was NOBODY even got off the bus, stopped from looking at their newspapers, cell phones or I-pads, it was like it was the most normal thing in the world. Now, if you get the Chinese military, special police/security forces or army involved, they'll shoot first and ask questions later, they're not taught to engage, just to kill their targets. For example, any time a man goes into a school with a knife and threatens teachers or children, he's done.

We saw this "market correction" earlier with the Cubs spending a ton of money on their soft-tossing lefty and Soler after Cespedes and Puig became so successful. Nobody wanted to miss out on the next toolsy/athletic/power-hitting guy, so you saw a lot of money flowing to Soler considering his experience level and longer math to the majors. For example, look at the money the Dodgers gave those two Cuban infielders (one was attacked and bitten by Olivo) who weren't as touted. Then you have another correction coming because of so many teams feeling they missed out on Abreu, Puig, Soler, Alexei Ramirez and Abreu.

QUOTE (Alpha Dog @ Aug 22, 2014 -> 07:39 AM) How close do you think you need to be to use a tazer? 21ft or less? Then look at the video I posted a page or so back. And someone's going to come to a "reasonable" conclusion that the person in question can't be considered "average" in the sense that he was MEANDERING around at best, calling for the cops to shoot him, acting erratically. Of course, the police didn't have the benefit of having monitored his behavior over the five or ten minutes before the shooting...but that also goes to the Brown case as well, that officer hadn't seen the convenience store video, so on one hand we can't use that video to add justification to the officer's actions in that particular situation but then turn around and not at all take into consideration the clearly pscyhologically-unstable nature of the second situation. All the police can do is judge the situation as they first enter the scene. It also seems clear from the video he wasn't an imminent danger (at least he wasn't perceived to be) to the other people around him, or they never would have been standing their taking video, making comments, etc. They just thought he was crazy. But if they really felt threatened by him, they would have quickly bailed.

QUOTE (LDF @ Aug 22, 2014 -> 07:36 AM) am i missing something on this player. for what is being rumored on his signing money, is really all that great? can someone pls explain why so much money???? is he going to be the next Jose A?? Doubtful.

Sin City... Well, two words, Eva Green. It seems like she has stolen or just taken over every movie she has been in recently: 300 (Rise of an Empire), Dark Shadows, she's amazing. Of course, her perfect body on display gratuitously without much or any clothing doesn't hurt her cause too much. Other than that, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt, not sure if it's worth watching in the theatre. If you do go, probably a better choice not to go with 3D as I don't feel it was worth the surcharge. Jessica Alba just cannot convince me that she's an alcoholic, bent on revenge stripper...just doesn't feel natural, and never has (even Natalie Portman in Closer was better at it). Powers Boothe was also excellent. Finally, it's a little jarring to see Dennis Haysbert in any non-insurance salesman related role, lol. Overall, been there and done that feeling...this sequel is about 4-5 years too late.

QUOTE (spiderman @ Aug 22, 2014 -> 06:25 AM) It was time to move on, and they probably messed up by not moving him earlier in the season when he got off to a hot start, now essentially trading him for nothing. I still hope he can have a good finish with the Angels, and get his career on track as he did seem like a good guy (who knows), but, as a White Sox, he was a bust and there are decent prospects right behind them. Even at that point, he wasn't going to get anything like a team's Top 10 prospect, but it could have been a decent Type B prospect or another bullpen arm. Hahn should have known better than to think he was ever going to turn it around with the Sox when we all knew better. Of course, an opposing GM would have had that same thought....we've seen this same story play itself out over and over again at the end of 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014.

QUOTE (Iwritecode @ Aug 21, 2014 -> 02:30 PM) Yea, it only looks bad because they are comparing it to the years when they were consistently over 3 million every year no matter what. Sure it’s down a little now but they were drawing over 2.5 million in the early 2000’s as well when they were losing 90+ games a year. Another couple years of missing the playoffs and they’ll be under 2 million. It's hard for someone who didn't live through it to forget how much hype Sosa and the HR binges got in Wrigley...which lasted until Prior and Wood came along to provide some hope that there would be pitching to finally go along with all the offense. For at least five years or so, that was THE reason to go to a Cubs' game.

QUOTE (SoxAce @ Aug 22, 2014 -> 04:40 AM) Love to see Sanchez getting a chance. I may be a bit biased as he's probably the best hitter for average out of the three and he's nearly two years younger but I've liked him since I saw him turn a 100 mph fastball for a double in the futures game. Just a pure hitter. Pure hitter? Sanchez? Hmm... Remember, this is the White Sox we're talking about. With all the struggles Alcantara and Baez are having (and those were Top 10 and Top 85-100 guys in all of the minors), with what happened to Semien, with Leury Garcia performing exactly as expected offensively, most of us are going to be Doubting Thomases with our hitting prospects (and I don't want to hear about Alexei and Abreu, because they didn't spend time in our system) until ONE at least shows he perform at average major league level. For those down on Micah Johnson, he's not ready yet. That said, he also wasn't 100% healthy for most of this season, and I'm surely he will be sitting out the AFL as well in an effort to get him back to full health before ST next year. If everything plays out like expected (from the White Sox standpoint), he'll be the starter at 2B at some point next year. That leaves Semien and Sanchez to fight it out for SS, with the loser of that battle taking on Leury Garcia and eventually Saladino for the utility spot. Or there's that option of platooning Semien/Gillaspie at 3B, using Marcus as a PR and replacement all around the infield and in outfield as well.

QUOTE (Señor Ding-Dong @ Aug 21, 2014 -> 09:04 PM) I don't think many, if any, people are sleeping on Semien. In fact, he seems to be the consenus board favorite for 2B of the future. If nothing else, Semien is thought highly of by many. If anything, people are sleeping on Sanchez. People act as if he's some slouch when that's not the case at all. It seems like people's love for Semien is clouding their judgment on Sanchez. I said this in the Beckham trade thread, but I'll repeat it here: We got a good look at Semien earlier in the season, now we're going to see what Sanchez has to offer. Besides, Semien will be up in like a week and a half anyway. Sanchez is young, had a good bounce back season in AAA, and showed by far the most pop of his career. Perhaps there's more power potential there than initially thought; his body is filling out now afterall. We'll know who's better based on who wins the job out of spring training. For now, let's give Sanchez a chance. He certainly deserves it. I'd guess right now it's 60/40 in favor of Micah Johnson, with many thinking of Semien as a platoon partner with Gillaspie, PR and fill-in at 2B, SS and LF.

QUOTE (Soxfest @ Aug 21, 2014 -> 05:29 PM) The Angels initially claimed Beckham off waivers, MLB.com’s Alden Gonzalez reports So basically, every team in the AL except for maybe the Athletics (depending when he was actually placed on waivers) passed on him...and he didn't make it to the NL.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Aug 20, 2014 -> 07:11 AM) Looking like 3 out of 4 years in a row where the Pirates will make no major moves at the trade deadline while in the playoff hunt and then collapse when August hits. Justin Morneau last year. It's arguable if that constitutes major or not. He didn't hit that well for them, but this year he's been close to All-Star level.

QUOTE (ron883 @ Aug 21, 2014 -> 05:26 PM) My rankings as far as those 3 infield prospects 1. Semien 2. Sanchez 3. Johnson Sanchez and Semien can both play SS, while Johnson is shoddy at 2b. I think Semien can be an above average player at either 2B or SS, given his on base ability and decent power. The problem is that none of Sanchez's five skills right now are above major league average. Maybe, just maybe fielding, but we'll find out soon enough when we start comparing him turning the DP and see what his range truly is...how well he makes the throw against his body where he has to turn and jump in the air and release the ball all in the same movement to get a speedy runner at 1st.

QUOTE (Quinarvy @ Aug 21, 2014 -> 03:00 PM) You figure between Semien, Sanchez, Anderson, and Rondon one of them HAS to stick. It feels so weird compared to years past where it'd be like "We've got two or three position prospects that should be MLB caliber. Maybe." It's still that way, though. Semien didn't exactly take the job and run with it. Johnson couldn't stay healthy this year. Anderson's too raw, Sanchez doesn't have one outstanding tool and Rondon's got to put up at least a 700 OPS for 3-4 months in Winston-Salem before I'm ready begin taking him 100% seriously as a full-time future big leaguer. I don't think we can positive we have even one player in that group POTENTIALLY capable of being above average at the major league level other than Anderson.

Mike Caruso. Sammy Sosa. Mike Cameron. Kenny Williams.

I'm going with Cory Snyder or Steve Sax, lol. Jon Rauch would be up there for me, although he wasn't up for long with the Sox before he got himself traded, and he'd already had the labrum injury. Josh Fields and Brian Anderson have to be a part of this conversation, too.