caulfield12

QUOTE (Soxbadger @ Mar 6, 2012 -> 08:45 PM) What do you mean no way to beat Romney in VA? Paul is getting 40% of the vote, you dont think Santorum may have gotten 1 district? According to Wiki, this is how the VA delegates work: The three super delegates are unbound. 33 delegates are awarded on a winner-take-all basis by congressional district. The other 13 are awarded to the candidate who wins a majority statewide, or allocated proportionally if no one gets majority. [3] So 33 were by congressional district, I think Santorum may have been able to win a few of those. I meant him not competing there, while not gaining any delegates, the media doesn't focus at all on that state. Same with Massachusetts.

North Dakota also is now looking likely for Santorum. Maybe Paul wins AK in the late night?

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Mar 6, 2012 -> 08:40 PM) Getting zero delegates there makes this night a blowout even if little Ricky takes Ohio, because the race is about delegates. Clearly Romney wins the most delegates, but Santorum wins the PR war and the media can keep this horse race going. Romney will lose at least four states, two of his victories were basically uncontested (one his home state)...and Michigan was another form of "home state" advantage for Romney. That's not counting N.D. or AK, which could both go against Romney, as well as Wyoming. He'll win Idaho, but nobody cares about Idaho, since it's 33% Mormon and the media expects a win. But it's just as much about how damaged the candidate is...and Romney's reaching a critical point where Santorum is ready to go on and fight for the next 2-3 months, same with Gingrich, even. If we were talking about 2008, I would agree that was mostly about delegates, because Obama and Clinton had very very few philosophical differences. Everyone knew the party would unite in the end for the general, whereas this GOP race has practically fractured the party and the social topics side is a losing one for the GOP. They are risking alienating all independents/moderates, women, Latinos and young people. You can't win a general election when it SHOULD be a focus on the economy, and Romney's plan for creating jobs is just about as ephemeral as fog or mist.

QUOTE (Soxbadger @ Mar 6, 2012 -> 08:31 PM) Gingrich and Santorum gotta be kicking themselves over the Virginia debacle. Au contraire, not having to contest VA and Massachusetts (no way to beat Romney there anyway, although it would have been the ultimate embarassment, it's not in Santorum's sweet spot electorate-wise)...is actually helping Santorum, because it has put all the attention on Ohio, and Romney was predicted to win a close one coming into tonight and it looks like that bet was off and everything will be up in the air again. If Romney can't do well in the South...and is struggling with those battleground states like MI, OH, PA and Illinois, the GOP might have to step in somehow. It will also be interesting to see what happens with ND and Alaska. If Paul can finally come up with a win somehow. Santorum can also play the "David vs. Goliath" storyline that he has almost no money or budget for campaign organization and couldn't register in 100% of Ohio, Virginia, etc. In the end, it might help Romney get more delegates, but this GOP race has always been about public perception. Romney has trailed Gingrich twice, Cain, Perry and Santorum. That's an awful lot of uncertainty.

Santorum going to make this a race again. Things would really be interesting if Paul or Gingrich were to drop out, particularly Newt. He's got to do well in AL and MS. He (Gingrich) lost to Romney in Tennessee and it looks like he might lose in OK as well. It's so interesting to follow. If Santorum would have been able to keep his foot out of his mouth, he probably would have taken both MI and OH. Then the race truly would have been up for grabs. As it stands now, Santorum has about a 25% chance, at best. The story will be that MASS and VA were sure things (lowest turnout ever in Virginia) for Romney, but that Santorum outperformed him in the most contested state (Ohio) and that Romney is still super weak, especially in the South, with evangelicals, Tea Party members and "true" conservatives. That has to be worrying the GOP, no matter how many party leaders come out and endorse Romney...that the base will be suppressed and independents will be too turned off by all the negatives.

Please, not another 78-84 win team. Hopefully they come out and surprise everyone, or just suck from the get-go and it's obvious to everyone in Chicago they're rebuilding and playing youngsters and dealing veterans for the highest possible return is the only possible course. A 78 win Sox team and a 68 win team won't make more than a negligible difference at the turnstiles anyway. And maybe if they completely tank again this year and Molina's a bust, then KW will have no choice but to resign. But that's the doomsday scenario.

It should be either Danks or Peavy. With Jake, it's all about marketing him as a trade possibility from June onwards. With the expanded playoffs and renewed competition in the AL East (with both the Yankees and Red Sox holding back on offseason spending so far), the pressure will increase on both those teams to make pitching moves as the season goes along.

86-88 wins is more likely for WC. You know the AL East will beat each other up with those four teams now (including Blue Jays), perhaps suppressing the victory totals, but then you have to add the Angels into the mix with Pujols and CJ Wilson. If you believe the experts the Angels/Red Sox/Rays and maybe the Blue Jays will be fighting for that extra spot in the playoffs.

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Mar 6, 2012 -> 04:19 PM) So how does Beckham's stance look? Trying to get that stock to come back up since he's one of the few I felt ballsy enough to get an authentic jersey of a couple years ago! Same as last year. Looks like he's a bit too far off the plate.

Yay, Mitchell took an 0-2 pitch and lined it to LF. Nice things from Drew so far these first two games. Mitchell steals 2B, catcher's indifference. At least he's being aggressive. McPherson K'ed twice, and Ozzie Martinez did something uneventful and boring to get out...just like his namesake the former Sox manager. Olmedo grounds out to end the game, 4-3 PO. Sox with 9 hits and 9 LOB. Danks and Omogrosso struggled. Beckham 2 hits. Drew Mitchell with 2 hits in 2 days.

Ryan Langerhans sighting. Trout still not quite ready to play. Angels announcers claiming Anthony Carter tops out at 97 MPH. Not so sure about that. Brandon Short with a nice diving/airborne catch in the outfield that got the crowd a little bit excited. Carter gets the Angels 1-2-3. Dallas McPherson with a couple of plays at 3B the last two innings.

QUOTE (elrockinMT @ Mar 6, 2012 -> 04:40 PM) The only thing left to do is send Kenny packing I'm waiting for the first person to go off on why we're so terrible in the spring no matter who the manager is and who leads the preparation...and predictions for less than 70 wins and 1.5 million or under in attendance.

Six walks so far by White Sox hurlers, and counting. Veal gets out of it finally in the 7th, top of the 8th with Sox batters getting 2 more opportunities. Will hopefully get another Mitchell at-bat, hopefully he can carry forward the good momentum from yesterday. Brandon Short K's. Delwyn Young, former Dodgers 4th OF. Unassisted PO to 1B. Josh Phegley up. Hit by low and inside pitch. LH Tyler Kuhn up to bat. Kuhn a career .314 minor league hitter who we didn't protect, UWV product. Another unassisted grounder to 1B. BLECCCCCH.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Mar 6, 2012 -> 01:00 PM) Does Molina have any velocity at all? The video stuff I've seen of him shows nothing but slow meat. Molina's velocity is fine. It's all a matter of control/location and his offspeed stuff. He consistently is around 89-94 as a starter. Repeat delivery and consistency in attacking direction towards home plate, the two keys for a tall, left-handed reliever according to Cooper. Veal struggling with his control, hit a batter but wasn't awarded first and a walk as well.

I liked it better when they (Angels) had Rex Hudler and Physioc. Donnie Veal sighting, one of our lefties vying for the 3rd spot on that side.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Mar 6, 2012 -> 04:20 PM) They don't often sell off either, but they have picked up salary in deals when they dumped players. Linebrink and MacDougal as well.

Omogrosso was a legit prospect until he went through all those injuries...surely he's lost some of his power stuff he featured 3 years ago when Brian looked like he could be a dominant reliever for us. Jordan Danks single. Angels have a ton of Latin prospects on the upswing. Danks wiped out stealing. 3 runners now thrown out stealing 2B, 2 successes. Sounds familiar, even though no Pierre this season. Shades of Ozzieball, lol? Main positive of the day seems to be Beckham's two hits.

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Mar 6, 2012 -> 09:33 AM) Oh man, every time I visit my sister and her family in the quad cities I demand a taco pizza from Happy Joes. Easily the best taco pizza i've ever had. I'm the same way, when I'm actually in the US, I always go for the sausage pizza the first day back home. It has so many freaking tiny pieces of sausage on it, my dogs always loved to follow me around the house as a trail of them would fall off. Taco Pizza is great, except for the next day when the corn chips get soggy. Kind of like hour old McDonald's fries. Another beloved local chain is Whitey's Ice Cream and Lagomarcino's chocolates. Then I have a 2nd group of friends who love Harris Pizza as well.

I think Red Sox fans are just mad as hell, spoiled, and they're using Henry's out of touchness "otherness" or European side to criticize him. His coming down hard on Francona and the likes of Carlos Crawford made him no friends, some of the interviews he gave after they collapsed were bordering on the bizarre or Twilight Zone stuff. JR knows better than to justify himself to the fans like Henry was trying to do, especially trying to equate his business success to any type of baseball expertise in a Daniel Snyderish, meddling type of way. There's just no sympathy for guys like Henry or Tom Hicks these days...those dreaded 1%er's, haha.

One of those supposed market inefficiencies Beane has pointed out was the overvaluing of closers (not ones named Rivera, Nathan in his prime, Hoffman in his prime, etc.) by the rest of MLB. Especially ones that throw 95+. A prime example would be the Koch/Foulke deal. Whether Molina actually pans out, it's far from certain. Half of that trade will obviously be judged on what happens with Santos as well. If he totally flops in Toronto, a lot of Sox fans will still be wondering why we gave him that long-term extension in the first place. Did KW always have in mind to dump him once he was signed to a "team-friendly" deal? Probably not. No GM is that good of a poker player. We tried to exploit the Cuban one but that window's closed now with Cespedes and Soler. To an extent, we do have something of an advantage with the Venezuelan market due to Paddy, but that's closing quickly as well. As mentioned over and over again, getting all those rehabbing (Dye/Hermanson/Pods), unknown (Iguchi), bad reputation (AJ, Everett), over the hill (El Duque) veterans, but, most importantly, mid-priced or mid-tier veterans, was the smartest thing KW ever did in his GM career. None of those contracts broke the bank or taxed the payroll, like Dunn/Peavy/Rios, and, to a lesser extent, Javy Vazquez. Swisher also appeared to have a friendly contract when we acquired him...albeit one that rapidly escalated the last couple of seasons of the deal. KW has had those 2 "runs" of success, pre-2005 and then pre-2008 with Ramirez, Danks, Carlos Quentin, Gavin Floyd and later Beckham and Viciedo. He's overdue to hit on another run of good luck if things hold true to form, about every 3-4 years, a new cycle of incoming talent.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Mar 6, 2012 -> 08:45 AM) Who is Josh Stewart? Putting Zach Stewart in the bullpen annoys me but not nearly as much as putting Molina there would. Putting Zach Stewart in the bullpen means you've permanently given up on him as a starter, but there's at worst a 50-50 chance of that happening anyway. I'd like to see him get a shot at starting in AAA because I think sinkerballers work best in the rotation, but if Molina is a success, then having Stewart in the bullpen isn't a terrible thing. Oops, former soft-tossing left-handed White Sox pitching prospect. Came around at about the same time as the infamous Mike Porzio, when almost all of our 5th starter candidates were far from legit.

http://chicago.whitesox.mlb.com/news/artic...ws&c_id=cws Cooper on the 5-7 spots in the bullpen. Mentioned Veal, Septimo and Quintana as three guys he wanted to see. Two of the guys should be long men, so that would seem to favor Santiago (as the 2nd lefty) and Axelrod or Castro. Nothing about Josh Stewart. Jhan Martinez and Castro both pitched well in the B game. Then there's Bruney and Deunte Heath to consider as well. Gregory Infante. Coming into ST, you assumed it would be Santiago, Axelrod/Castro/Stewart (yes, this will clearly upset Balta as much as Molina being in the pen) and then a huge open competition for the final spot on the team among about 10-12 pitchers. Jhan Martinez Brian Bruney Gregory Infante Deunte Heath Eric Stults Brian Omogrosso Anthony Carter Pedro Hernandez Nathan Jones Charlie Leesman

Red Sox fans ready to burn John Henry at the stake... http://thefanhub.com/posts/detail/312411/R...ed-by-Liverpool

I love his patented "this White Sox team is the most talented collection of players he's seen in his 49 years in baseball" line nearly every year. It's like on the Bachelor or Bachelotte..."the most dramatic rose ceremony EVER" each season, miraculously.

QUOTE (JohnCangelosi @ Mar 6, 2012 -> 05:23 AM) Agreed, but for the record Gordo wasn't rookie of the year. He was in the Topps "player-balloting" vote. I'm pretty sure he was 4th or 5th in the official one MLB uses.