Disco72

QUOTE (chisoxt @ Nov 25, 2010 -> 09:37 PM) See Peavy, Jake;Rios, Alex There's "overpaid" and there's "bad contract." Rios is a productive player, so should Peavy (assuming recovery from injury). These are not bad contracts in the "we're totally screwed" sense. Of course, if Peavy doesn't return to form, that contract will be quite an anchor on KW's ability to field a winning team.

QUOTE (knightni @ Nov 13, 2010 -> 04:16 PM) I'm a little concerned that with only 14 lists and such a wide category, we may not get a consensus enough to make a good list. I can accept lists until Monday if anyone still wants to contribute, but if I don't see enough similar picks in the list to get solid voting, I may have to scrap this for another list idea. I was busy the last few days and thought I'd missed the deadline, so with the extended deadline, I was able to submit a list (it was just sent a few minutes ago).

QUOTE (T R U @ Nov 14, 2010 -> 04:50 AM) I wouldn't exactly say we developed him.. dude spent very little time in the minors Development isn't only at the minor league level. It would be a shame to suffer though his growing pains and then miss out on the good stuff.

QUOTE (The Gooch @ Nov 10, 2010 -> 10:39 AM) Are there other teams that won't deal with Boras, or is it only us? It isn't just the Sox. For example, Ken Rosenthal recently talked about the Angels not working Boras.

QUOTE (3E8 @ Oct 31, 2010 -> 02:26 AM) It's difficult to tell how much of last year's offensive output was Rasmus growing up and developing power, and how much was benefiting from good fortune. His BABIP was the highest of his professional career, over 70 points higher than last season without any significant change in batted ball percentages. For players with over 400 PAs, Rasmus was eighth-highest in BABIP, which is a bit staggering considering how few ground balls he hits. Nobody in the top 50 in BABIP has a ground ball-rate below 35% except Rasmus, who was at 32%. The amount of his fly balls which were home runs increased by over 5 percentage points compared to last season (according to HitTracker, 9 of his 23 home runs are categorized as 'just enoughs' or those barely making it over the fence). All this while his contact rate plummeted, his strikeout rate was 32% in 2010 compared to 20% the previous year. He's still very valuable because of his pre-arb status and still quite young. But it's hard to tell exactly what type of offensive player he will develop into. Anyway, I wouldn't put together a trade package for him based on the 2010 numbers. And KW is always looking to buy low, he's rarely (if ever?) traded for someone at the professional level coming off their best season Really good stuff here 3E8. It's good to see some realistic analysis of the 'return' part of the trade. Rasmus is a guy I'd like to see on the Sox, but I don't think I'd be willing to pay the price the Cardinals would ask for him.

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Oct 20, 2010 -> 10:54 AM) What an exceptional episode of SOA (no surprise). Tig just flat-out rocks. Next week's 90-minute episode looks insanely awesome. Jax is going to beat some ass. Last night was the episode I'd been waiting for... it took forever for them to get on that plane to Ireland, and I was starting to get bored. I'm very excited for 90 minutes next week.

QUOTE (Milkman delivers @ Oct 20, 2010 -> 10:59 AM) It makes me wonder how it's all going to play out with the Irish Sons lying to SAMCRO. My first guess is that they're going to betray Jimmy O (as that is definitely what the priest is trying to do), but you never know. I don't like how they're making Unser out to be the bad guy, though. The guy has legitimately tried to help over and over, but they just keep f***ing him. The rich guy who own's the plane is another guy that SAMCRO f***s at every opportunity (blackmailing him in the first season, getting him to post bail, jumping bail, and now bringing Gemma along to Ireland). Those are some great points. I think they are writing it that way so we don't forget that SAMCRO are really a bunch of a**holes. This season, because of the search for Abel, SAMCRO has sort of been the 'good guys' in the story. The show works best when they show that balance of good and evil. In fact, that's what makes the show - and the characters - more interesting that most network TV crap.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Oct 18, 2010 -> 03:12 PM) Really? How many franchises have we seen significantly boosted by a new ballpark? There will be a boost, but wouldn't you think that winning has a greater effect on attendance (especially over the long term) than a new ballpark? If they can't draw by winning, a new ballpark is an incredibly expensive short-term fix.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Oct 18, 2010 -> 02:14 PM) Depends on how long you're talking about. The Rays have been at least a winning team for 3 years with fairly low payroll, and there's plenty of reason to think they have more on the way. They lose Crawford this year but have Desmond Jennings lined up next. They still have more pitchers than they know what to do with. I agree on TB but think they are more likely the exception that proves the rule. They built 'cheaply' by losing and developing draft picks, and they've been able to stay with a lower payroll by continuing to develop drafted talent. It will be curious to see how long that continues, especially because of their inability to increase payroll due to attendance issues.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Oct 18, 2010 -> 01:16 PM) I'm going to go ahead and call BS on that one. The Rays had one of the lowest payrolls in baseball in 2008 and made it to the World Series after being a laughingstock for 10 years, the Angels had a middle of the road payroll in 2002 and won it all after years of mediocrity, and the Marlins have won it twice. Yes, you have to spend a LITTLE bit of money, but if an owner can't afford to spend even $60-70 million on his team during a period when the team is trying to be competitive, then they shouldn't be in an ownership position in the first place. I think it would be more accurate to say that you can become a winning team with a lower payroll, but you need a higher payroll to keep winning.

QUOTE (pittshoganerkoff @ Sep 13, 2010 -> 12:46 PM) I don't know why I thought it was two episodes already. Anyway, I like the way this one has kicked off. Probably because more stuff happened in one episode than some shows do in half a season!

QUOTE (JPN366 @ Sep 10, 2010 -> 02:08 PM) Disco72 just turned 35, he's due for a Ferrari and a trophy wife. A new job and a new city is good enough for me this year!

Nobody posting yet on Sons of Anarchy? Wow...what a season opener! Some stuff I never expected. This season looks absolutely incredible.

QUOTE (dasox24 @ Sep 5, 2010 -> 01:36 PM) We have another Knoxvillian? Nice. Last night was great, but can't take much away from playing a D-1AA school except that we didn't blow it like Ole Miss or Kansas. I'm so pumped for next week - I have no idea what's is store but Oregon looked stellar. I fully expect to lose, but it'll be closer than people think. I'm a recent transplant as we moved here last month. Agreed on next week - fully expect to lose, but it could be fun. It was nice to see them actually destroy a team they were supposed to destroy. Expectations seem pretty low this season, but I thought the defense looked ok and the offense finally seemed to click in the 3rd quarter. In either case, Simms needs to stop staring down every fricking receiver. He got away with it against UT-Martin, but that's not gonna work against Oregon.

That was a fun night here on Rocky Top last night! It could be real ugly next weekend though.

Not that I like starting like crap, but it's a lot of fun chasing someone else down for a change while the other team checks the scoreboard and wonders "are the Sox EVER gonna lose?"

QUOTE (FlaSoxxJim @ Jun 25, 2010 -> 01:59 AM) Dying to try that one! We're supposedly on the verge of getting New Belgium's stuff in FL, but it will be a gradual rollout starting with Fat Tire and then slowly getting in some others. I saw this on on tap at a Yard House in L.A. a couple of weeks ago but when I tried to order it the server told be the keg had just kicked so I got shut out. Hopefully soon for you. New Belgium has been in Atlanta for only about 6 months now. I haven't tried the 1554 yet, but this thread is encouraging me to do so!

I like KHP as a poster, but I have to lol at his attempts to constantly trade Pierre, Linebrink, and Teahen to the Cubs for bad contracts.

Six straight hits? Who are these guys????

QUOTE (chw42 @ Jun 18, 2010 -> 07:45 PM) Very few have played because they're usually not all that good, with the exception of Shin Soo Choo. That doesn't mean they're all bad. It just seems odd to assume a guy can't hit because he's Korean (or for that matter any race/ethnicity).

QUOTE (chw42 @ Jun 17, 2010 -> 12:59 PM) How good is Hak Ju Lee at hitting though...? And how many good Korean hitters are there in baseball? Oh yeah, none. So that means that Koreans can't be good at hitting? That makes no sense. Only a handful of Korean position players have ever played in MLB. (If you were joking, then I'll have to fix my humor / sarcasm detector...)

QUOTE (JPN366 @ Jun 18, 2010 -> 01:55 AM) The SEC Tournament is played at Regions Park, which is where the Barons play for anybody who didn't know. You can stand outside for only a few minutes an start sweating profusely. It only gets worse in July and August, that's why there are no more 11AM games after June. He speaks the truth. Midwest summers are no comparison to the South.

QUOTE (chisoxfan09 @ Jun 17, 2010 -> 12:14 PM) OK we are 8-6 after 14 games with 13 left. I think we have a good shot to go 9-4 in the next 13 (or better with luck) games and finish the month with a record of 39-38 and about 6 games back. Don´t really think we´ll gain much ground on the Twinkies. I think it is a good possibility to sweep the Flubs and the Royals. And the Nats I think we take 2 of 3 and I think we can take 2 of 3 from the Braves. I'd say best case is 8-5. You can't count on sweeps, and the Braves are a really good team. They could easily sweep the Sox if the Sox revert to their form from prior to this little winning streak.

QUOTE (11and1 @ Jun 13, 2010 -> 05:01 PM) Joey Cory as interim manager, right now. He may share some philosophy with Ozzie, but from his personalty we can surmise that as opposed to Ozzie, he would ask questions first, them shoot. Bobby Valentine is interesting only if we want a different ego-centric, center of attention guy in the job. And I don't believe it was Guillen who made the Sox relevant, it was winning. Cowley's "opinion" notwithstanding, Ozzie and his family have been the source of much of the off-field bad publicity surrounding this season, ignoring KW's explicit instructions to focus on baseball. KW should stay and should be given full authority to do his job. Whoever the next manager is, he should be KW's guy. As much as people complain about the "off the field" stuff with Ozzie's family, it's not like anyone is getting hurt or arrested. I think the soap opera is getting old too, but none of the off the field stuff is such "bad press" that it becomes a reason to get rid of anyone. If the two (KW and Ozzie) can no longer function as effective co-workers, then there is reason to fire someone, but that's the only reason the off the field stuff matters.

QUOTE (dmbjeff @ May 31, 2010 -> 07:55 PM) He is filthy with pinpoint control. I know we have handled fastballers better than junkballers, but I think the world of Strasburg. He will be dominant when he arrives for the Nats. I know the guy has been a stud, but he hasn't faced a single major league team yet.... and you're already putting an "L" on the schedule?