caulfield12

‘‘It’s just kind of a little bulged disc, just kind of get that separation back so it’s not so much bone-on-bone,’’ Morel said of the injury. ‘‘Give it a little time.’’ As he was giving that description, Morel’s cell phone dropped in his locker. Watching him bend over to get it and place it back on the shelf was painful in itself. Give it a little time? Morel, 25, said doctors have told him surgery is not being weighed as an option yet. He admitted he’s not just forgetting Crede’s back issues. ‘‘It’s true — it’s going to be in the back of my mind a little bit, but hopefully I won’t have to cross that bridge,’’ Morel said. Besides, there’s another bridge he’s still trying to cross. Morel’s situation is complicated; details are murky about a condition that started as a mysterious loss of weight. According to a Sox source, Morel was having issues since the spring with keeping weight on and was feeling lethargic at times, raising a red flag about what was initially thought to be Crohn’s disease. After that was ruled out, there was concern he might have to undergo surgery on his intestine. Celiac disease was thrown around. Morel didn’t want to go into too many details about his issue but said that as of Tuesday, the plan involves a change of diet. ‘‘It’s not celiac disease, but it’s just a sensitivity to wheat,’’ he said. ‘‘I have to eat gluten-free, but actually I finally have been able to keep [some weight] on. I went into spring training at 220, and I’m back up to 215 right now. For right now, I just have to have a gluten-free diet, and so far it seems to be OK as we go forward.’’ www.suntimes.com/sports (Cowley)

THE DICTATOR is much better than Bruno, a tick or two below the classic BORAT. Started watching "Get the Gringo," by the same person who has ATTACK THE BLOCK in their sig...it's not bad, and didn't even realize Mel Gibson had made another movie since Jodie Foster's bomb, THE BEAVER (which wasn't so horrible, just a victim of almost unfathomable real-life events conspiring against it with Gibson's public self-destruction).

QUOTE (ptatc @ May 27, 2012 -> 12:08 PM) I don't know they seem to find alot of them. Quintana, Humber, Thornton, Pierzynski, De Aza were all guys released by other teams or were on thier scrap heap. The Sox have a pretty good history of getting production out of players from thin air. Not to mention Jenks, Santos and Alexei Ramirez weren't highly coveted. Floyd fits this bill, with his trade value at an all-time low. Loaiza. Contreras, Dye, Pods, Iguchi, etc. Quentin was the classic buy low candidate, an unquestionably talented player trapped by injuries and the depth chart out it AZ. The $10 million for a 23 year old Viciedo seems like a bargain compared to the $45 million and only 4 years of rights to Cespedes.

You also have to consider the fact that the real market value of this team has jumped to the $750-900 million range from $600 million, based on the Dodgers' deal and the explosion in national/regional broadcasting fees all around baseball. While our own agreements aren't going to net us huge amounts of money anytime soon (see Texas Rangers), we do have a significant ownership share in the sports network of one of the 3 biggest media markets in the US, and that is also exponentially increasing in value each and every day.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ May 27, 2012 -> 10:01 AM) Attendance also hasn't been an issue before. This is the lowest attendance since 1998. The last time the payroll was in this area, we were drawing 8000 more people per night, or about 650000 more twirls of the turnstiles over the course of the season. It makes a big difference. But there has to be the equalizer. We now have a top 3-4-5 average ticket price as well as parking price in all of MLB. That has changed significantly from 1998. I'm not sure about our concessions prices averaging in the top 5 as well, but we're booking a significant premium compared to the rest of MLB teams not named the Yankees, Red Sox and Cubs. http://espn.go.com/mlb/attendance I haven't checked the lastest numbers for 2012 from one of the sports marketing websites, but almost none of the teams in the bottom 10-13 in attendance charge comparably high ticket prices or have dynamic pricing. Maybe Seattle, Houston, Baltimore, San Diego and the Mets are SOMEWHAT in the same neighborhood but pricing, but not like the Sox. So just to look at sheer numbers or totals of tickets sold isn't nearly the same thing as total ticketing revenue booked, not to mention the luxury suites and corporate side of things, sponsorships, advertising dollars, etc. As we've noted over and over again, attendance is diminishing each and every year in importance, to the point where it's closer to 20-25% of revenues versus the more traditional 40-50%, especially for a big market team like the Sox.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ May 27, 2012 -> 08:57 AM) Unless attendance goes crazy here in the next two months, there are no moves to be made. Orlando Hudson is your move, unless it is a guy who is in the minors. What was our attendance spike in 2010 during and after the 26-5 run? Did that make bringing in Manny Ramirez largely possible, or was the money already there in reserve? Let's say we jump from 20K to a 22K average over the next 2 months. Is that enough to justify an acquisition that adds significant salary ($7.5 million and above)?

QUOTE (Marty34 @ May 27, 2012 -> 08:45 AM) T?he crazy thing about this Dick is nobody has reviled in his recent success more than me. I hope he proves me wrong all the way to Vlad Guerrero. I think you mean REVELLED. Although sometimes you can be reviled when you are deliberately obtuse or obfuscating your true nature here, lol. I don't think ANYONE expects or predicts Vlad Guerrero. He's a Hall of Fame caliber hitter, and was a true 4 1/2 talent player when he first came up (just a bit short on the speed but an amazing once in a generation arm). Some amalgam of Vlad, Beltre, C-Lee, Uribe and Bobby Bonilla would be fine by me.

I was going to do a poll but skipped it. I think Dunn, it would be 25-35% for trading him now, Rios 65-80%. But we still couldn't get out from under the entire Rios deal...and Mitchell's the only outfielder that theoretially could replace him, and not until mid 2013 at the earliest, in all likelihood. And then it's going to take another couple of years for him to establish himself. But yeah, we've been down this road with Alex in early 2010 as well. So I think it all depends on 1) if we could get something back for Dunn, and 2) how/if we spent that money or invested it into the farm system and development. We don't have anything resembling an impact LH bat in our system. Rios would be much more easily replaceable, and then you could do lots of different things with his salary. But just for savings, no fan is going to love that if the team doesn't end up in a better position down the road. But maybe Marty would have been right about trading Alexei this offseason. Of course, who the heck would be playing SS now? I can't imagine Escobar there all season. Or Lillibridge.

Marty is right about one thing. We are much better set up to compete this year than any year going forward, because of AJ and Peavy. Alexei isn't getting any younger. Konerko only has one more season under contract. It almost feels like 2007-2008 all over again, where we were just about to rebuild only to end up re-signing Buehrle/Konerko and keeping the 2005 nucleus around for one more run at it, which somehow got extended by four more years because of Danks/Quentin/Alexei/Ramirez/Viciedo/Beckham/Sale/Rios/Peavy all coming into the organization over a two-year period. Still feels like we're "stuck" with no clear direction...other than the fact we're not going to cripple this team's chances to compete (because it will be our best shot for 2-3 more years) and we're not going to cripple the future either with any blockbuster deals, like one for David Wright, which will completely decimate what's left of our minor league system.

There aren't very many areas you could say that we need a definite improvement right now. Of course, David Wright would be nice, but at what expense? Hudson might end up doing an adequate job, and there's reason to believe that Morel could also return to being a productive player after all of his health care problems (gluten-free diet, weight loss, back problems) are behind him. In the everyday line-up, the main holes (after Hudson) right now are Beckham and Ramirez, and regardless of our offense, both are very solid defenders. Beckham has been hitting much better the last 2-3 weeks, and Ramirez has been hitting in awfully bad luck, with lots of line drives recently and not much to show for it. Messing up our stellar middle infield defense and DP combination seems to be a no-go from the start. The pitching has been shaky after Sale and Peavy (the two blown leads against DET and CLE notwithstanding), with Danks suffering from diminished velocity and clearly not 100% for most of the season, and Floyd and Humber on the consistent path of inconsistency. That said, all things considered, it's a rotation that is capable of winning the division and carrying the team for stretches, just as our offense has carried us in recent days. Trading Gavin Floyd would force Axelrod, Stewart, Quintana, Hernandez, Doyle, Castro or Hernandez into the starting rotation for 40-60% of the season, and while the evidence suggests one of those young guys COULD potentially replicate Gavin's numbers, can you take that risk NOW for the cost/salary savings and to get prospects back for 2013 and beyond? It doesn't seem to be KW's way. Second, we could trade Thornton and/or Crain with the emergence of Reed, Jones and Santiago to fortify the bullpen, but that would lead to us missing all veteran leadership and depth. You have to expect Jones will go through a down period, and we already let Frasor go, so trading Crain seems less likely. Dealing Matt Thornton might make the most sense, with Santiago, Ohman and now Quintana ready to supply depth there. But, once again, like in the Gavin Floyd case, if you're not getting something amazing back and the payroll level right now isn't killing you (with attendance expected to spike up in the summer), do you pull the trigger? Other than that, the only two places we could look to improve are replacing Fukudome and especially Escobar. If it comes down to it, we could bring up Danks, McPherson or Dan Johnson, but hopefully Kosuke can show some signs of life soon.

QUOTE (2nd_city_saint787 @ May 27, 2012 -> 01:23 AM) 2nd best Run Differential in the AL now. 6th in MLB at +24, right behind Atl @ +25 and Wash @ +26. Like I've been saying this team is awesome. There's room for improvement. 5 blown saves (7 total) resulting in 5 losses OBP Everyone in the starting rotation not named Sale. Our bench. Winning at home and winning close games (3-6 in one run games, CLE is 10-2)

QUOTE (Quinarvy @ May 26, 2012 -> 11:03 PM) I'm gonna be mad when he's not the starting 1B and AJ isn't the C. Pujols is actually getting closer to respectable numbers. 7 homers, 26 RBI's, 671 ops Considering where he was about two weeks ago (before they played the White Sox), its been a pretty remarkable, albeit overdue, turnaround.

QUOTE (The Ginger Kid @ May 26, 2012 -> 05:28 PM) If there really is an Iron Throne (and I like to think there is), I want Konerko on it. (Viciedo can be the "Hand" of the King or whatever...not like he needs help anyway, I mean this s*** is totally doable with just a king). For some reason, this made me think of that scene from "Role Models" where everyone's supposed to bow down to the King (the ever-present Ken Jeong)...that or those inane Burger Kong ads that eventually ended up getting their advertising agency replaced and Burger King beaten down by Wendy's in the US. http://www.google.com.hk/url?sa=t&rct=...jkw&cad=rjt

And Mitchell, perhaps just as importantly, had his 29th walk. What a streaky season is has been for him, though. Seemingly no in-between at the plate.

Poor Cubbies. 11 losses in a row now. 2 out based loaded HBP by Dolis in the bottom of the 9th forces the winning run in.

Danuel is the Lion's Den? Omar Vizquel's legend lives. 3 hits versus the Rangers, first one hitting RH'ed, including what is looking like the game-winning RBI in the 13th.

QUOTE (Iwritecode @ May 25, 2012 -> 04:16 PM) Actually I think a worse business decision was moving the Sox to pay TV (Sportsvision) in the 80's while the Cubs stayed with WGN. Letting Harry go to the Cubs ranks right up their too. Umm, letting Buehrle go was a move that the majority of realistic White Sox fans knew was due to happen. Would it have happened had Peavy, Dunn and Rios lived up to their contracts since 2009, of course not. And even had they made the playoffs in 2010 or 2011, it still probably wouldn't have been a wise move economically for the team long-term to make that kind of commitment. But sure, you can argue that giving Danks that kind of money in retrospect wasn't warranted, either. If you really want to discuss heartbreak, it would be Paul Konerko having his 2010-2012 seasons with a team like the Yankees. That would be MUCH harder to stomach for most Sox fans.

12-5 and streaking. Only 14 more to go to equal the streak from 2010, lol. The funny thing is that streak 2 years ago happened at roughly the same time...maybe a couple of weeks later, to the point where there was a lot of speculation about trading off some of our veteran pieces. But it definitely coincided with interleague play in May/June. This team has been so up and down, though. 10-6 (we were 8-6 after Humber's perfect game and won the next two) 3-11 12-5

Heath Bell knocked out in another save opportunity but Choate survives to get the win over the Giants, 5-3.

The only time I saw Rios talking was that video of him cursing out a fan who was trying to get an autograph somewhere in Chicago after a not-so-great game by him one of the last couple of years. But the fans was kind of taunting him, so what do you expect when someone's not playing well?

14 in a row retired by Sox pitching to end the game going away.

Meanwhile, Konerko at .396 and threatening Brett/Gwynn/Williams, as the slowest player in baseball history to challege .400 into June.

Now only 3 behind Baltimore for 4th place in AL runs scored. Amazing. What is about playing Cleveland? Just like the opening series last season in CLE. Viciedo hammered that one, too. Laying out clotheslines in all directions of the park.

Trade Rios, Trade Rios, Trade Rios. LOL. Hide the children, incoming missile. Should have really been 5 for 5 with a homer and at least 4 more RBI's. What the heck is going on?

They might as well start the statue design and construction right now. Wonder what kind of contract they'll be able to work out after 2013 to retire him as a White Sox? Would be a shame to see him finish his career in another team's jersey.