caulfield12

Thornton not exactly Mr. Lights Out today. Wonder what his radar readings have been this spring. Has anyone heard? Thornton actually got across a slurve/cutter that looked appreciably slower compared to what he used to throw for the K to end the game. Shaping up as an interesting battle the final week for the bullpen and closer's role. If Santiago goes out WED and THUR with scoreless outings and gets out both lefties and righties, I wouldn't be totally shocked if he was the named the guy. In the back of Ventura's mind, he knows how important it is to get off to a good start this April, and there's just that lurking feeling in the back of one's mind that Matt Thornton doesn't have mentality to be THAT guy at the end of games.

Aaron Cunningham sighting. Love listening to Melton trying to extol Cleveland's chances, forgetting Justin Masterson's existence and randomly trying to cite their rotation and running out of names and brain-locking. You don't know what you're talking about. Rongey. Nope, not a clue. Melton They were 2-10, Bill. Thornton in as the pseudo-closer for the 9th. I don't think Thornton's going to magically get a change-up, split-finger/forkball or slider working at this point in his career, Bill. Terry Doyle will pitch tomorrow, fwiw. Reed and Santiago will throw tomorrow in the bullpen in one of the games. Santiago has a "rubber arm" (according to Rongey) and will throw WED and THUR. Same with Ohman.

QUOTE (LVSoxFan @ Mar 27, 2012 -> 12:35 PM) I'm not sure that I want to hear any talk from players about how we've got everybody just where we want 'em after a season where they finished 16 games out of first place with essentially the same team minus Buehrle and Santos. I think a good rule of thumb for the next two months is just play. Sox attendance has steadily gone down year after year since 2006 (which granted got a bump from the 05 World Series win) and is down 20% from '08 which was the last time we won the division. Enough talk. Just play. Not to mention Quentin, although I guess he would be injured for us too, theoretically. Dunn, Beckham and Rios have all hit slightly better (especially Dunn) than they did in 2011, but we'll find out soon enough. Same with Dayan Viciedo. And DeAza and Konerko, can they keep it up? So many question marks, like which Jake Peavy is going to show up, or Sale, or Humber. And the bullpen by committee can easily enough blow up in April/May.

Someone needs to tell Melton to stop reminding us he has zero knowledge of NCAA basketball or football. Melton...c'mon, going on and on about not scoring the runner from 3rd base with less than 2 outs isn't quite as important with a 7-1 lead and minor leaguers in there. He should just be happy they've played much better the last 10 days...and the Minnesota Twins that Melton/Rongey are referring to as "not beating themselves" don't exist anymore. Petit or Puh-TEE? LOL. RAHN-JAY. OH NO!

Alejandro DeAza with a tape measure HR, his first. Nice to see him demonstrating the pop he had last season. Indians' announcers saying Adam Dunn looks the same as a hitter as 2011, lol. Nice premature evaluation based on one game. Aaron Morrison (???) playing 3B for the Sox. Christian Marrero token appearance. Seth Logan pinch runs after a Dunn blooper falls in for a single and gets him back in the .230's. Former Sox reliever Scott Radinsky now the pitching coach for the Indians.

Young Adult, hard movie to watch, definitely not a feel-good, pick-me-upper, but Charlize Theron can run circles around Cameron Diaz in the acting department and Jason Reitman's a very talented director. This is no JUNO or UP IN THE AIR, but it's worth checking out. Patton Oswalt ("BIG FAN") is what keeps this whole movie together somehow, great performance.

Well, Iowa certainly learned the lessons of going with the "hot" coaches in Steve Alford (coming off a Sweet 16 at SW Missouri State) and Todd Lickliter. Looks at all the names from the past, like Bruce Pearl, Tommy Amaker, Quin Snyder, Jeff Lebo, Stan Heath, Billy Gillespie, Matt Doherty, Mike Davis...all "coaches of the moment" at different points, but usually coming off strong NCAA appearances. The George Mason coach, for another example. The list goes on and on. For every Mark Few, Billy Donovan or Brad Stephens, there's 5 who flamed out completely.

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news?slug=jp-p...ui_crash_032612 Great but sad story about Bush, albeit VERY long, by Jeff Passan.

Not close to happening. Way overplayed by the media, who enjoy speculating on Chinese internal politics. It will be interesting to see what happens to the mayor of Guangzhong, though, who is closely aligned with Wen Jiabao...whether he gets his seat on the Standing Committee (the top 9 officials in the country). Some think there was a trade, Bo Xilai goes but your personal pick has to wait to go on the Standing Committee until some point in the indefinite future.

Just hire Steve Bardo...hey, if the White Sox can do it with Ventura, why not? Kenny Battle can be on the bench with him. Even though I am an Iowa alum, I enjoyed watching the energy that guy brought to the game.

It certainly wasn't the case with a certain Iowa State football coach who went on to take Auburn to the national championship level despite a horrendous Big 12 record.

It's not allowing the option to choose all 3, just one. In that case, it would have been the obvious move to pick Santiago, based solely on performance. I tend to think they'll go with the experience of Bruney and Stults, over Stewart and Jones. Then again, they've said a couple of times they wanted 2 guys who can go multiple innings, so that favors Axelrod/Stewart. However, Bruney and Stults over their careers have been either starters and/or able to go 2+. So in the end, Santiago (100%) and Bruney (75%) with the rest being a crapshoot. BTW, Deunte Heath already was sent down to the minors, along with Quintana.

QUOTE (Quinarvy @ Mar 25, 2012 -> 08:02 PM) And this was the most asinine comment in the thread, especially considering they're more inspired by Hitler and King Minos. Seriously, know what you're talking about before you're "sure" of something. Especially considering the book came out before Obama was elected, or else I'll go ahead and say 1984's villains are clearly based on Bush/Republicans. I'm pretty sure Marty34 doesn't like KW. "If we win, who would be in charge of the government?" Gale asks. "Everyone," Plutarch tells him. "We're going to form a republic where the people of each district and the Capitol can elect their own representatives to be their voice in a centralized government. Don't look so suspicious; its worked before." "In books," Haymitch mutters. "In history books," says Plutarch. "And if our ancestors could do it, then we can, too. Frankly, our ancestors don't seem much to brag about. I mean, look at the state they left us in, with the wars and the broken planet. Clearly,they didn't care about what would happen to the people who came after them. But this republic idea sounds like an improvement over our current government."

It must be about the Romney's, because they went to the movie. Therefore, guilty by association. http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2012/...the-day-hungry/

QUOTE (mr_genius @ Mar 25, 2012 -> 02:16 PM) Yes. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-03-20/j...ama-donors.html The concept of the noble and just Obama presidency is nothing but a fairy tale perpetuated by a marketing campaign. Of course not. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/46172017/ And how much have they already given to Romney? If you don't think Wall Street's on Romney's side in this election...well...they have no choice but to cover both bases, and since Mitt's been so inept, their has to be increasing worry that Obama might actually win despite the high unemployment numbers and unpopularity of the health care plan's mandates.

At least Viciedo didn't strike out this time. There's that.

http://collegebasketballtalk.nbcsports.com...ll-for-taliban/ The representative in this case is a retiring Democrat...if you notice in the comments section, so many GOPers are going off how excoriated he would be had he been a Republican Knowing about the UNC/Duke rivalry, it's a BIT funny but definitely in bad taste. Someone even pointed out that THREE Duke graduates had died in combat operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. I was surprised there was any at all. Obama might lose Illinois if he said that. Heck, there probably would be a Congressional investigation to delve once again into ties with the Indonesian "madrassa" private school and his Muslim name.

QUOTE (mr_genius @ Mar 25, 2012 -> 02:06 PM) So what, I've said stuff like that before. Now if I could just get some bribe money from Goldman and the rest of the Wall Street bailout bunch like Obama did, I will be set. Do you really want to go there with Goldman? Did you forget TARP and everything that happened under former Chairman Hank Paulson? How he was allowed to crush Lehman Brothers but "rescue" his own? Go ahead, read this article and tell me how the GOP doesn't look even worse. http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/...-sachs-20110511 Look at the contributions for this election cycle. Over 90% from Wall Street are going to Romney this time. Hmmmm...

Does this mean they can't play KWJR everyday? Darn!

That sounds like something Jonah Hill's character might say in 21 Jump Street to Ice Cube.

So it broke the 2nd Twilight's record of $142.8 million for a debut weekend. Impressive stuff.

LB? Has that nickname been approved by Joe Cool Man? At first, I was like LB...? Shouldn't it be BL? Then, it made sense, LilliBridge, but it took a second. Good thing he's not from Long Beach or he would be LB from LB.

The problem with that is the same problem you saw with Marte in 2004 and 2005. Marte was arguably just as devastating as a LH set-up guy from 2001-2003. The other concern is what effect will just one or two blown saves have on both Thornton's psyche and the entire team in April and May? Granted, there's no such thing as a guaranteed closer, and Reed's probably not 100% ready to be thrown to the wolves, but it would be a shame to see another season start off with the team looking for new ways to lose. Just don't know. Thornton looked like something was just physically not quite right with him last year. His velocity was definitely down a notch, and he needs those extra inches because he doesn't have nearly enough movement to blow away hitters when he gets behind in the count at 94-95 compared to 96 or 97.

QUOTE (Jake @ Mar 25, 2012 -> 08:42 AM) de Aza in CF makes perfect sense. He's good at it and has worked himself up to a status where we believe he may be a long-term CF. The dumb thing would have been to play him in a corner while the futureless Rios roams CF. But the problem, of course, is that we're stuck with that futureless Rios and almost $40 million on the books for two more years. As a corner OFer, he's even more worthless to another organization...if playing him in CF will convince another team to not force us to include his entire contract in subsidy, that could save us $10-15 million going forward. How confident are we that DeAza will still be the starting CF on Opening Day, 2013?

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Mar 25, 2012 -> 09:45 AM) Westpheldt and Hamm aren't married, they are "life partners" Okay, it's all too confusing for me, with Johnny Depp and Vanessa Paradis, Brangelina, common law marriages, etc. I guess, in the end, that's the point of the movie...that you don't have to be married to someone to have a great relationship, that throwing the label of marriage or conforming to societal expectations ruins the romantic part and just gives you responsibility and bills and arguments and too much of reality.