caulfield12

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Mar 8, 2012 -> 02:29 PM) I was more thinking about starting position players, starting pitchers and relievers who pitched most of the year. Bench guys, sample size issues come into play. De Aza wasn't around for long and Lillibridge wasn't exactly playing a ton. You are right on Humber though, I left him off. Konerko and Humber overachieved. Among players still with the team, who else that got significant playing or pitching time outperformed their norms significantly? No one. Alexei, Ohman and Crain, all performed around career averages. That leaves these returning players who underperformed, a little or a lot: Danks, Thornton, Floyd, Peavy, Rios, Beckham, AJP (maybe), Dunn So, 2 guys over (one of which had never pitched a full season, so who knows), 3 guys at (and 2 of those are bullpen arms), 8 guys under, and then the guys you just don't know yet (Morel, Viciedo, Sale, De Aza, Reed). I am NOT saying this means everything, it may mean little, but I do think it is an interesting indicator. Agreed, just not sure how much more we could expect out of either Konerko or AJP at this point in their careers. I'm willing to say Alexei should be able to put up a better overall season again, maybe a 775 OPS. He kind of started out his Sox career like Uribe in 2004 and then has flattened out to a pretty predictable trend line in the mid 700's. But Peavy, Thornton, Floyd, Rios, Beckham and Dunn all very easily could be significantly better. Probably not enough to top the Tigers barring some unforeseen injuries, but a team that wins 84-87 games, can definitely see that.

Marinez and Santiago have been some of the rookie standouts so far. D. Heath pitched two scoreless, manned up after taking a rocket off his shoulder and asked Ventura to stay in the game. Nice to see Beckham and Dunn making contact.

And other than Lillibridge and Humber, and Santos if you want to claim he overachieved....nobody came close to outproducing their career lines. Maybe DeAza too, a lot are expecting something less than the numbers he put up.

QUOTE (The Baconator @ Mar 7, 2012 -> 11:43 PM) What's the news on Stults? Strengths/weaknesses/chances? I can honestly say I've never heard that name. Seems most of his time was spent with the Dodgers. I remember he even started against us once, can't remember which team he was with, probably LA. It might have been with the Rockies. He has the equivalent of about one year of major league experience (he's a true journeyman at age 32 already) and nothing particularly sticks out about his stuff, other than his being tall and left-handed, he wouldn't still be hanging around on the periphery of the game.

QUOTE (The Baconator @ Mar 8, 2012 -> 12:35 AM) The extended previews look so much like Star Wars: Episode II. The whole "in a coliseum of death with an alien race cheering against you" thing seemed to be directly lifted. Reviewed by Owen Gleiberman | Mar 07, 2012 http://www.ew.com With occasional exceptions, like Michael Keaton's Batman, we want and expect our superheroes to be classically handsome. But the sprawling interplanetary sci-fi bash John Carter proves it's possible for a superhero to be incredibly good-looking…in the wrong way. Taylor Kitsch, who stars as the messianic pulp space warrior created a hundred years ago by Edgar Rice Burroughs, has soft bedroom eyes, a pinup's pout, and straight long hair that makes him look like an easy-listening star from 1974. On Friday Night Lights, Kitsch had a pleasingly direct, loose-limbed charisma, but within the stoic, arid, and often wordless fantasy universe of John Carter, he's clad in a breastplate and loincloth, and he comes off more like the Abercrombie & Fitch model he once was. It's as if he were out to save an entire planet by lapsing into Derek Zoolander's poses. Kitsch looks marvelous, but that's the problem: He looks a little too marvelous. He's all sexed up with little to do. None of this is really the actor's fault. As a character, John Carter has appeared in countless iterations over the past century (novels and serials; comics from Dell, DC, Marvel, and Dark Horse; graphic novels like The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen). His fusion of valor and mystic ability casts a shadow over the whole superhero genre — and also movies like Star Wars. Yet when seen through the lens of all that has come afterward, what was once original and visionary just seems wanly plodding and routine. A hero of the Virginia Confederate Army teleported through space and time! Futuristic combat on Mars! Big whoop. John Carter, a $250 million spectacle based on the very first Carter novel, marks the live-action directorial debut of Andrew Stanton, one of the wizards of Pixar (he directed WALL•E and Finding Nemo). But Stanton's visual brilliance, as well as his storytelling wit, gets lost amid all the blah hardware and monochromatic dust. There is hardly a moment in John Carter that isn't stamped by the generic spirit of franchise filmmaking. A lengthy prologue, set in New York and Arizona in the mid-1800s, has a wax-museum deadliness about it. Then Carter is transported to Barsoom (Burroughs' fictional name for Mars). He wakes up in a desert that looks like a bombed-out Monument Valley and soon discovers his one effective superpower: With the gravity so much less forceful than it is on Earth, he can take flying leaps, like a long jumper. This must have seemed pretty damn exciting in 1912. Now, frankly, it's more than a little dorky. Carter's ability to bound has a ''Gee, is that it?'' quality. Carter doesn't know that he's left Earth until set upon by the Tharks, a tribe of übertall green warriors who look like skeletal versions of E.T., with twin sets of arms and horns jutting out of their cheeks. They're cool to look at, for about five minutes, but though played via motion capture by Willem Dafoe, Thomas Haden Church, and Samantha Morton, they're less differentiated from each other than, say, the Na'vi of Avatar, and their scenes grow dull. There are also humans on Mars, but the moment we meet them, we too seem to have been transported — to a bad sci-fi movie from the '50s. Ciarán Hinds, in the kind of thatchy wig no actor can triumph over, sulks and frets as Tardos Mors, leader of the red-tattooed Heliumites, and Lynn Collins, as his princess daughter Dejah Thoris, bats her eyes at the camera like a Gossip Girl version of Elizabeth Taylor in Cleopatra. Meanwhile, Dominic West smirks as Sab Than, leader of the dastardly Zodangans. He's Carter's rival for Dejah's affections, but it's a Flash Gordon love triangle, cheesy and predictable. The Heliumites fly around in contraptions that look like aerial pirate ships ringed with feathers from a giant badminton birdie. Stanton keeps cutting back and forth between visually sleek shots of them and the clunky action taking place on board. He seems to have forgotten the first rule of digital effects: They don't work unless they're fully integrated. But then, nothing in John Carter really works, since everything in the movie has been done so many times before, and so much better. D

Sometimes I really wish we could send Beckham to Vharlitte. Unfortunately, we're stuck with banishing to North Carolina.

QUOTE (Reddy @ Mar 7, 2012 -> 07:54 PM) especially the Hermanson. He had 34 saves that season, I think. We can argue we have 3 quasi-closers too, in Crain, Thornton and Reed, but it's hard to compare them ability-wise to Takatsu/Jenks/Hermanson, at least in terms of the impact those last two had on the Sox in 2005. And then there was El Duque as well in the playoffs. And Marte wasn't so good in 2005, but from 2001-2004, he was arguably the best left-handed set-up guy in baseball, and was even the closer for part of 2003 until Tom Gordon took the bull by the horns.

QUOTE (Wanne @ Mar 7, 2012 -> 08:08 PM) Personally I didn't think Peavy pitched that bad at all and very easily could/should have been out of there with no run off of him. I thought Morel pegged the guy at 1st in the 1st inning...should have been out of the jam. In the 2nd...Alex Rios again displays he absolutely gets ZERO jump on any fly ball. Just stick his ass in LF and tell him to stfu. Overall another uninspired performance. How you keep Lilly out of the lineup is beyond me. AJ let probably 3 balls pass Mitchell absolutely crushed one Jordan Danks is nowhere near ready It's early but the bullpen has me concerned Damn I'm startin to love me some Morel... Who are you going to bench to play Lillibridge everyday? Beckham, Rios, DeAza, Viciedo, Morel or Dunn? DeAza's the most "expendable" in terms of investment and future impact being replaceable...although clearly we would love to bench Dunn or Rios, it doesn't seem possible in either case, not until August at least.

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Mar 7, 2012 -> 03:55 PM) John Carter is apparently awful. 25 positive reviews and 17 negative ones so far at rottentomatoes. You can also look at metacritic. 60% overall approval puts it in red tomato and not rotten tomato territory, but right on the borderline.

Any comparison between 2005 and 2012 is moot for one reason. That bullpen was perhaps the best in White Sox history. This one will be comprised of 4 rookies/unknowns, barring another move by KW. Of course, you can argue that Cotts and Politte were equally strange pre-season picks to be at All-Star level, Jenks was the ultimate head case/"personality disorder" guy with the Angels and Takatsu actually looked like the surest thing in that pen. Nobody expected much out of Hermanson with his previous injury history, although he was originally a high draft pick. But I guess you can compare Marte and Thornton, in terms of where they are/were with their careers at similar points. Reed=Jenks, Thornton=Marte, Politte=Crain, Cotts=Ohman, etc. That still leaves us short a Takatsu, Hermanson, Vizcaino, etc.

Williams should be fired for having his son anywhere a major league field and the official scorer for giving Williams' son a base hit on a ball that Beckham plays easily 995 times out of 1000.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Mar 7, 2012 -> 05:08 PM) You mean like the guy Molina was traded for, right? Sergio Santos, cumulative minor league statistics, 2009 - 8.16 ERA, 1.99 WHIP - 26 G, 28.2 IP, 37 H, 2 HR, 20 BB, 37 K Sergio Santos, spring training statistics, 2010 - 3.48 ERA, 1.55 WHIP - 10 G, 10.1 IP, 9 H, 0 HR, 7 BB, 16 K I'm not advocating using Molina out of the bullpen, and I'm comparing Santos and Molina on the basis that Molina is (probably) more MLB ready than you are giving him credit for. And, simply put, taking anything from a Spring Training performance, especially their first performance of the entire season, is asinine. Freddy Garcia put up an ERA of 10.38 and a WHIP of 2.03 in the Spring of 2010 and he was pretty damn good for a minor league signing. To expect a young pitcher who is admittedly inexperienced to come out firing bullets right away is absurd. Molina admitted he was very nervous, too much adrenaline...trying to prove something right off the bat to his new teammates.

That wasn't a base hit. Only because they're playing in Glendale does Williams' son get that one. What a joke his even taking playing time over ANYONE else is. Olmedo single dumped in front of the RFer. Hector Jimenez, whoever that is...just got an RBI single. 10-5. Rally time. Delwyn Young SAC FLY to deep CF. 10-6. Gallagher K's. Good luck with Neftali Feliz tmrw. Missed Darvish's debut by one game.

Bruney with a decent offspeed pitch there for the K. If he can actually get that across the plate consistently, he just might make the team, but that fastball's straight as an arrow and has lost 2-3 MPH since he first came to the big leagues.

QUOTE (Cali @ Mar 7, 2012 -> 04:41 PM) Did Thompson get an at bat yet? I saw he was in the game, so now my interest is back haha. Hoping to see an AB before the game is over.... He hit a fairly weak double play ball to SS. Looked like he had a bit of patience...then again, the pitcher just walked the two preceding batters, so he didn't have much choice but to wait for a pitch to hit. Brian Bruney in for the 9th. Let's see something besides center cut fastballs, Brian.

Thompson hustles out on a double play ball, Saladino really took out the infielder at 2B and the run scores...ball goes into dugout. At least the young guys are trying. Escobar with a weak groundball to SS off the end of the bat...at least he has Pablo Ozuna's old number 38, unfortunately not his ability to get on base.

Michael Blanke sighting. White Sox go down 1-2-3 against the Univ of Texas phenom Youngman. Eric Stults in. Ray Olmedo into the game as well. They've got Escobar playing 3B today, with Saladino at SS and Lilly at 2B. Olmedo's playing 2B now for Brent. Gallagher 1B, OF of Williams, Thompson and Mitchell. Blanke C. Need to double-check, maybe Mitchell's the DH and Delwyn Young in RF. At least someone gets on base, Gallagher with the walk. Four pitch walk to Saladino for the 14th pick in the 1st round last year.

Saladino, Kenny Williams (GREAT!!!) and Trayce Thompson in the game now. Stewart throws the ball down the RF line and Gallagher wasn't even on the bag holding him on. Why would the Brewers be stealing with a 7 run lead? C'mon Stewart, get your head out of your you know what. Just get the freakin' batters out.

Morel with his 2nd hit (flare). Wild swing on an outside pitch K's Mitchell, but that 3 run blast was a no-doubter and about the only highlight today for the Sox. If he's back as legit prospect again, I'll be glad to trade that for an 0-3 record so far in ST. Another solution for the Melton problem is listening to the MLB.com feed, but it features former Brewer Bill Schroeder so it's about as biased as Hawk.

They're either thinking of dealing Thornton and replacing him with one of those two guys (assuming Reed is the eventual closer) or they're not quite ready to commit to going with Santiago/Stults/Veal, etc. The bullpen looks right now to have basically four rookies, and that has to be a major concern to Ventura. It was pretty unlikely they would break camp with 3 lefties, so we'll just have to wait and see what develops.

QUOTE (mr_genius @ Mar 6, 2012 -> 11:36 PM) Not sure this has been mentioned, Dennis Kucinich loses in Dem primary. http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0312/73713.html A Super Tuesday primary night that was supposed to bring clarity to the Republican nomination fight is on track to leave things nearly as muddled as ever, as the 10 states voting across the country scattered every which way and the most important battleground, Ohio, remained too close to call.. Mitt Romney entered the day’s contests tantalizingly close to a secure hold on the GOP nomination, and is still likely to run up his lead in the delegate count. If the current numbers hold in the Buckeye State, Romney may well deal a symbolic blow to his opponents by putting the key swing state in his column. Romney appears, however, to have missed his opportunity to put to rest doubts about his strength as a candidate and claim the status of presumptive 2012 nominee. While his challengers will have failed again to break open the race, Romney is headed on the same path to the Tampa convention as ever: a grinding march fueled by financial and organizational advantages, rather than personal political force and the sincere affections of the Republican base. Alexander Burns, politico.com

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Mar 6, 2012 -> 10:22 PM) Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. See the Stanley Fish column in the NY Times today... http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/...Fish&st=cse

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Mar 6, 2012 -> 11:02 PM) Molina isn't a tall lefty though. He's a righty. Veal is the lefty. I know. Somehow I put this post that should have been in the gamethread here accidentally. But the Angels announcers were talking about Veal and quoting Cooper on "tall lefties" and they used the Matt Thornton Miracle as an example. I wish Molina was a lefty, I would feel better about him after the way he got lit up like a Christmas tree yesterday.

1.2% of the vote right now is for "other"....11,568 votes, with Santorum's narrowing margin about 2500 votes at 11 pm EST. Who are these people who are voting other? Ex-Rep. Martin Frost Attorney, former Democratic congressman : There is an Army expression that describes the state of the GOP race: SNAFU (situation normal all fouled up). PermalinkTweet Martha McKenna Democratic media consultant, McKenna Pihlaja : Even if Romney eventually becomes the nominee, the Republican primary process has been hard on him. He is spending millions of dollars communicating with voters, but his numbers keep dropping. Independents are increasingly soured on Romney. It is hard to imagine that Santorum or Gingrich can upset Romney to win the GOP nomination, but this process is not serving Romney well. He's spending huge money in battleground states that will decide the election in November and his popularity keeps dropping. Romney may win the battle, but it looks like he's losing the war. PermalinkTweet Christopher Hahn Democratic consultant; FOX News contributor : Here's the question Newt and Rick should answer. If you can't figure out ballot rules, how can you be trusted to figure out our military policy in the Middle East? Whatever happens in Ohio Rick can't take all the delegates because he failed to file paperwork. In Virginia only Romney and Paul qualified. Tonight would have been a different story had Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich been serious well organized candidates. They're not. Organization is what separates a serious presidential campaign from a book tour or road show. It's hard to see any path to the nomination for anyone other than Romney.

With SuperPACs now, what is the motivation for Santorum or Gingrich to leave the race? It's like 3-4 more months of everyday publicity for their careers...especially positioning Santorum for 2016 to be the "Huckabee" conservative darling. Gingrich and Romney hate each other. Paul and Romney have a bro-mance. Sure, the math gets harder and harder for Santorum, but the media would love to have this campaign go on indefinitely, there have been so many good soundbites, twists and turns, and numerous gaffes.