caulfield12

QUOTE (fathom @ May 23, 2012 -> 10:46 AM) Hawk's been way better this year than previous years, in my opinion. The only complaint I've had about him is that all of his stories has stuff to do about players from his era. If the hardcore baseball fans on this board don't know 75% of the stuff he's referring to, I can't imagine what the general Sox audience thinks about the stories. I loved when Hawk talked about how he won't listed to satellite radio and other games on his drive home if the Sox lose. That's just like many on this board who don't like to watch highlights of the game if the Sox lose, etc. That's just it. He represents the best and worst of our human natures as a fan. The polarity of it. 90% of the time when the Sox win, I'm combing through all the highlights, excited about trying to find any hope for our minor leaguers, reading all the articles at the Trib, Sun-Times, Daily Herald, etc. When we win, it makes me want to listen to all the other games, especially CLE and DET games these days...to try to assess if we realistically can compete with them, to get a feeling for how their seasons are going and how they stack up against us and vice-versa. Then, games like yesterday, I close mlb.com or read a book or watch a movie...anything to get away from baseball for awhile. You think about all the time you wasted in the off-day sort of looking forward to a performance that quickly causes you to tune out mentally after only about 20-30 minutes. Maybe sometimes you even question why you spend so much time following the day-to-day ins and outs of a baseball season, instead of just tuning in at playoff time like most NBA and NHL fans typically do. There's something almost twisted and yet glorious at the same time about dedicating so many days and months (not even including spring training and post-season and Winter Meetings/trade talk) to a game or sport, and yet, to live without Harrelson or the White Sox would feel very strange indeed.

Why does this remind me of the Moneyball scene with Jonah Hill/DePodesta facing off with Grady Fuson and the "old/crusty" scouts in the conference room, lol? The "older generation" is made to look kind of buffoonish and out of touch, the younger generation is Mark Zuckerberg or Billy Beane or whoever is flying in the face of convention, wearing hoodies to "road shows" and symbolizing a rebellion against the old guard that used to be symbolized by IBM "suits" and is now represented for baseball purposes by Hawk Harrelson. Then there are the "old school" guys like Scully or Harwell that EVERYBODY respected...that were maybe so "uncool" (like anything your parents or grandparents relished) that they've kind of become cool again to young people because they represent the way things used to be in the past and hearken back to better times and perhaps more pleasant memories for many adults. Listening to those guys like Harrelson, it's the baseball version of reading the newest Stephen King novel "11/22/63," it really makes you wish you were alive then to see the way the game was played by the '59 White Sox or '67 Red Sox/White Sox. It hearkens back to a "purer" time in our country, the 50's and 60's, when many of the problems were still masked or hidden under the surface and world didn't feel quite so ugly. Of course, those who lived at that time might beg to differ.

I do think that Harrelson represents the "old guard," and, to an extent, that's what has turned SOME young fans off from watching Sox games. From watching my students not being able to understand or really care much about anything which happened before they were born...it's that short-term focus, the immediate now, that gets to me. From having taught history, it's annoying when many schools (especially here in Asia) are making it an elective or not even carrying it as a course. So I get the fact that maybe baseball history and anecdotes from the past, that's not everyone's cup of tea. Some people love his obscure name droppings and comparisons (I am guilty of the same thing)...others, it drives them batty and they want a more "insightful" commentary about what's actually going on within the game. They do want everything to be thrown at them in terms of roto world stats and more quantitative analysis. Which is kind of the opposite of Harrelson...the whole "Moneyball" thing all over again, except this time applied to broadcasting. You really do need both, and I think Stone combines the insight with the storytelling the best. I listen to (rather than watch) a lot more games because the online tv feeds always suck here in China, and I listen to a ton of other teams' radio broadcasters, and to hear the Scully's and Eucker's (some people hate him too) of the world is a rare treat. Rooney's great, I grew up with him in high school and university when they had some abysmal teams and always enjoyed his calls. For every Cardinals fan who loved Jack Buck, there were as many detractors, but there were certain voices that just ARE baseball. Jon Miller, with the Giants, Ernie Harwell, Jerry Coleman with the Padres, the names go on and on. Dave Wills is pretty good, and I like him better than Rongey, but he's far from a "slam dunk/no brainer" type of replacement for Harrelson, overall, he's solid. So I would put them Stone, Harrelson/Farmer (tie) and DJ in that order. And I guess DJ is better at radio than Singleton, but not by much. Singleton's also improved and adapted, resulting in his career taking off more on a national basis. Put me in the camp that for the future of White Sox fandom, he does need to go relatively soon...but I'll really miss his emotional nature and rants, because he's not one of those smooth, professionally-polished cookie cutter broadcasting grads that we're supposedly pining for, that have put in years of training and minor league apprenticeship time of 10-15-20 years (Mario Impemba with the Tigers comes to mind, he started with my hometown Quad City River Bandits) because they never played in the big leagues and really had to earn their way to a promotion.

Jerry Kutzler also disagrees.

Casino Royale was excellent, largely because of Eva Green, or, should I say, the repartee between the two of them throughout the entire movie. The follow-up with the Russian model/actress wasn't so good...trust me, though, just watch some of the old Roger Moore ones, or the George Lazenby outing (On Her Majesty's Secret Service, the one where he is briefly married). Those really have not stood up well over time like the Connery classic ones. Heck, the Dalton ones seem more watchable today than most of the Moore ones, and then Brosnan was better than Timothy Dalton.

QUOTE (JoshPR @ May 22, 2012 -> 06:23 PM) Lauren sheratdi on MLB.tv is smoking.... Shehadi... http://mlb.mlb.com/network/personalities/?id=27273676 Notice out of all the "personalities" for MLB Network, Alanna Rizzo, Ms. Shehadi and Sam (wasn't she formerly Samantha?) Ryan are all pretty attractive. 3/32 are women...less than 10%.

QUOTE (justBLAZE @ May 23, 2012 -> 12:14 AM) Marlins the best team in baseball since May 1st and by a wide margin too. The best team in the history of the month of May under Ozzie Guillen. Just kidding...well, maybe it is, but would have to look at 05, 06 and 08. Can they start planning the Parade Route and special bus for invited Miami Heat players and the Brazilian samba babes?

Apparently, there's good hustle and "bad hustle" in Minnesota. Good=Piranhas, Denny Hocking, Henry Blanco, Jason Bartlett, Nick Punto diving into 1B needlessly, Lew Ford, Matthew LeCroy, Cuddyer, Kubel, Koskie, Mientkiewicz, Christian Guzman, Jason Tyner, etc. Bad=Delmon Young, Alexi Casilla, Orlando Hudson, Nishioka, Valencia

20,026 in attendance. At least we didn't end up under 20.

QUOTE (iamshack @ May 22, 2012 -> 09:03 PM) You really don't see any difference in the stuff of Stewart, Axelrod, and Doyle? I've been a White Sox fan since the late 70's/early 80's. I've seen enough of those types come around to know that the odds of them becoming the next Greg Maddux are pretty remote. (And evidenced by the fact that we didn't protect Doyle). Maybe Zach Stewart has found a new amount of movement with his sinker and other pitches that he wasn't getting in the 92-94 MPH range. I don't know. It's possible...Contreras' stuff always moved much better when he "underthrew" it and concentrated more on command and location. Then again, in his prime, he could just aim at the general vicinity of the plate when he had a 95-97 MPH heater and the forkball and hitters wouldn't stand a chance, despite only really using two pitches the entire game.

QUOTE (Jake @ May 22, 2012 -> 08:57 PM) Not a fair way to evaluate given sample size. Stewart is younger and much more talented. Are you watching this game? Okay, here's the thing. What's our likelihood of being an above .500 team next year with 2 of the following (Stewart/Axelrod/Doyle) as the back end of our rotation? All three of those guys are pretty similar, "command and control" guys who rely on movement, location and changing speeds. Right now, Molina and Castro are a LOT further away from making the big league rotation in 2013 than they were 2 months ago. Hernandez is the one guy who's stepped up consistently for the Barons, and he profiles the same way because of his lack of dominating stuff and a mesmerizing strikeout pitch. That's why Santiago should be starting to give them another option...although the odds are Hector would be in the low 90's as a starter. Johan Santana-Lite?

QUOTE (iamshack @ May 22, 2012 -> 08:53 PM) Caufield, for all the opium-induced bulls*** you post here, it pissed me off when you refer to a serious post I make with "LOL." I could probably make quite a few comments to your posts that reply to something about hitting and end up discussing Turkish bathhouses... Then you certainly have the freedom to put ME on ignore, too. Other than Marty or Dick Allen, I rarely fight with anyone here, and I've never personally attacked anyone as you are doing to me. But if it feels better to get it out of your system on a message board, better than kicking the dog I suppose.

QUOTE (Marty34 @ May 22, 2012 -> 08:46 PM) Strongly worth considering, imo. And what exactly are we going to get back for Gavin Floyd? You wanted to trade Viciedo 2 weeks ago, now Gavin Floyd coming off tonight's performance will net us what? He's a fairly or perhaps underpaid innings-eater who has some of the best stuff in the game, but will never be consistent. He will put up a 3.75-4.50 ERA in all likelihood. But the "demand" side of the pitching market hasn't emerged yet...and won't for another 2-3 weeks, at a minimum, when teams can start to more realistically assess their playoff chances. Zach Stewart a few times out of the bullpen pitching well in MOSTLY meaningless situations....good luck with him as a starter. There's a reason he had a 7.88 ERA as a starter against every team NOT NAMED THE MINNESOTA TWINS last season. I don't remember anyone clamoring for DJ Carrasco to be a 5th starter and he had better numbers at the major league level than Zach Stewart.

QUOTE (iamshack @ May 22, 2012 -> 08:42 PM) No, those were additional millions. Do me a favor, just put me on ignore. I've never put anyone on ignore since I have started posting here, I'm not about to start now.

Sigh. Our farm system doesn't provide solace on nights like this for the big league team. Between Axelrod, Doyle and Hernandez, hopefully we'll get at least one competent back-end starter and another LH reliever so we can dump Thornton once and for all. Still believe Hector Santiago should be starting in the minors instead of being parked (mostly unused now) in the bullpen...especially with the health concerns about Sale more prevalent. Saladino and Mitchell have been "blah" to bad recently and Trayce Thompson can never seem to get his average out of the 220's/230's.

QUOTE (iamshack @ May 22, 2012 -> 08:38 PM) This showing is probably costing them millions of dollars at the gate... LOL. Those millions were lost in April and May of 2011, and with the KW/Ozzie travelling circus all season long.

QUOTE (Marty34 @ May 22, 2012 -> 08:33 PM) including this game the Sox have been outscored 102-76 in 19.5 home games. And after tonight, NO TEAM in the AL Central will have a positive runs scored/runs against differential. Barring a token White Sox rally to look the final score look respectable in garbage time.

QUOTE (2nd_city_saint787 @ May 22, 2012 -> 08:32 PM) Zach Stewart is meat release him. I've been saying this all season and spring training long. Not release him, but Axelrod deserves a shot again on the major league roster to show what he can do. Then again, Axelrod would have to be one of the favorites (right now at least) for the 5th starter's spot next year, so "wasting" a year as the long man out of the bullpen might be shortsighted. You get the argument that it's always better for a pitcher's development to be at the big league level with Cooper than in the minors, but this one's a tough choice for KW.

Can anyone live with Beckham as a 650 OPS hitter at 2B? The top 8 2B in the AL are all at 680 OPS and above. Of the regulars, he's only ahead of Jermile Weeks of OAK. Then, including NL, you have Scutaro, Danny Espinosa, our newly-acquired Orlando Hudson and Richie Weeks. Close to Neil Walker and Brandon Phillips. So two Weeks in the bottom 3, lol. He's also a Gold Glove caliber defender, so that's got to be taken into consideration as well. All things considered, we have to hope he can be a 700-725 contributor there, 675 on the bottom end.

QUOTE (fathom @ May 22, 2012 -> 08:20 PM) I'm not sure there weren't more Sox fans at the Cell on Sunday than there are at the game tonight. It really amazes me how much our attendance sucks this year. They showed the Cubs/Sox game at USCF? Hmmm... Yeah, it's also equally amazing how much our Twins' rivalry has dissipated into nothingness. Used to get so excited for these games, yet in the back of your mind there was the creeping doubt lingering about how they would manage to blow the game THIS time. The Twins were like the bogeyman (or Candyman) of the last decade. It has changed with two teams who might not be contending, Gardenhire probably on the way out, Mauer/Morneau nothing like they were as offensive forces from 2006-2009, no Santana, a ghost of Liriano, etc. Maybe having Nathan, Cuddyer and Kubel gone...following Hunter, that line-up is pretty much similar to a AAA one. Yet they're beating our brains in tonight.

Well, so much for the "good" Floyd run of starts. It was nice while it lasted. Might as well put O-Dog out there ASAP to start getting him adjusted to the 3B experiment. I'll let Greg follow up with his comments about our home record and how we can't win the Central if we don't beat the WORST team in our own division at home consistently...

Well, fits right in with Canseco, Cordero, Belle, D'Angelo Jimenez, Kenny Lofton, C-Lee, Ordonez, Swisher, Orlando Cabrera, Javy, etc. The all-time great example of a maligned player finding a home has to be AJ, though.

2005, the timing for bench time play was almost perfect. All those guys like Timo Perez, Willie Harris, Ozuna, Blum, and Widger all got 99 at-bats at least. Ozuna and Perez were around 200, Harris and Widger in the 150 range, and Blum had 99. (Then there was Frank Thomas and Gload, too). But all those guys were pretty productive (compared to the results we're seeing this year), and even Blum was able to come through in the World Series. That said, playing Lillibridge every day isn't really warranted...unless he's playing 5-6 times per week, there's just no way he's going to get into any kind of offensive rhythm with that big bat and swing of his. But he's very versatile and can play all over the diamond and pinch run as well as anyone in the league, so he's still a very valuable asset and weapon off the bench. Flowers obviously has a lot of pop in his bat, and his defense is much improved compared to 3 seasons ago. Fukudome and Escobar are clearly the weaknesses so far, and one of those was expected/predictable coming in...and perhaps Fukudome is proving once again that he's not a very effective player off the bench with sporadic playing time.

Quentin's value is closely tied to his ability to stay healthy. Once Quentin joins the Padres' lineup, don't be surprised to see him take off. Last season, with the White Sox, he hit for an average of .214 at home, compared to .294 on the road. A change of scenery and a clean bill of health might help Quentin produce great fantasy numbers. espn.com How can going from USCF, where he hit .214, to one of the LEAST hitter friendly stadiums in baseball cause him to post great fantasy numbers? Doesn't make any sense. So because he hit better on the road in 2011, and he's not playing at USCF in 2012, his numbers therefore have to go up? Hmmmm.

Ozzie is a Twins/Piranhas fan.