dpd9189

Caught the end, Marmol is fn nasty. One of the few bright spots for the Cubs along with Castro.

Nice to have two good wins to start the season vs. Cleveland. If we're going to do anything this year we have to mop up the bad teams. I think we were .500 last year vs. Cleveland and KC and that can't happen again.

QUOTE (SoxAce @ Mar 27, 2011 -> 02:34 PM) Looks like that's KW admitting he missed on the Marquez "upside" when he acquired him. And yikes on that Swisher trade, even though he needed to go. Yeah we sold low on Swisher. Win some, lose some. Marquez hasn't panned out for us.

Silva is garbage, he's probably done in mlb. What an awful awful contract that was when Seattle signed him.

QUOTE (The Ginger Kid @ Mar 24, 2011 -> 04:42 PM) I think his K's might go up in the AL, don't you? Different league, more breaking balls, adjusting to DH. You have to take the good with the bad as far as Dunn goes. Lot of HR's, lot of walks, lot of K's.

Just walked in from work, what'd I miss so far (in short)?

Also put me in the camp that Peavy's contract is impossible to dump but if and this is a strong IF there's one team that might be willing to take him despite his injuries, I'd think it'd be the Yankees. Maybe KW can dump JP on Cashman because the Yankees desperately need pitching if they're going to compete for the WS and Peavy is such a big name that Cashman would do it. Realistically, probably not though.

To be honest this doesn't surprise me at all. I too like JP's attitude and determination but anything he gives the Sox is gravy if you ask me. I'm going into the season with no expectations for him. Hopefully the starting 4 (Danks, MB, Floyd, EJ) can do well with whatever guy is our 5th starter. I'm not writing JP off at all, but I will never expect him to be what he was with San Diego in 07 with the Sox. Too many injuries since then.

QUOTE (SoxFan562004 @ Feb 16, 2011 -> 03:03 PM) With the Cubs though they have to replace people. Soriano has 4 more years, so if they sign Albert for 28m a year you are at 46m for 2 players, one of which is not going to give you a whole bunch for the 1st 3 years of Albert's deal. OK, they lose Z and Dempster, these are players who have to be replaced and while the Cubs prospects are considered good, I've seen nowhere saying they have some uber system that can just put out young low salary guys to go with Pujols and compete for a WS. If Garza continues to be good, he's only going to go up and up in salary. Then even if Cashner (sp?) pans out, you still need at least 2 other really good starters, who aren't free. Then Pujols has said the last few years he wants protection in the line-up, it's why the Cards bent over to trade and re-up Holliday. Right now the Cubs have a bunch of prospects that could potentially be good players, but they're prospects, and 100% of them don't pan out. Say A-Ram has a resurgent year, well, he's a FA or a 16m team option, either way he's not going to play there for free or neither is someone who is going to replace him. The Cubs have an expensive stadium to maintain or upgrade to get more revenue and the owners are underwater with a huge debt service due on the team every year, signing Pujols to that type of contract for the Cubs as things stand now could easily cripple that team for the next decade. he won't be strictly rewarded on that criteria for this deal, especially since he's looking to go longer than 5-6 years on it. No doubt he's put up insane numbers, but he'll be 32 opening day of 2012. There's testing now and if anything it will get stricter and the media is constantly on the look-out for circumstantial evidence to tie superstars to PEDs not tested for. So, if he's never touched one drop of PED in his entire life and doesn't plan to, he will age like players did in prior to the late 90s. Like I said above, for any team, a deal in the neighborhood he's seeking has the real potential to cripple a franchise for a decade unless it's NYY. Even Bos and LAA would have to be extremely careful in how they allocate funds for it. I'm not going to play Cubs gm all day but Castro, Soto and Colvin are all young so I assume they have them under control for a while. Not sure if that Vitters kid is ready but they'll have to replace A-Ram. Regardless the Cubs might be in a good spot because if Stl does pony up and give Pujols $30 mil a year, that will cripple Stl because they'd have almost $50 mil to two players for a team who is around $95 mil for their team budget. If Pujols signs with the Cubs, he greatly improves their team and if he signs in the AL or elsewhere he leaves the division. Cards are in a bad spot unless Pujols accepts a $200 mil deal or less.

This is from Ken Rosenthal's twitter. Source: #Cardinals' offer would have given Pujols about 10th-highest salary in game. Likely translates to $19M-$21M per. #MLB If this is true and that's the highest they'll offer him then he's a goner next winter.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Feb 16, 2011 -> 02:21 PM) He was being called Pay-Rod and having fake money thrown at him in his first year in Texas. There was a lot of animosity long before then. I never understood that. If people want to dislike A-Rod because he used roids or is a straight up tool then that's fine, but the Rangers were the ones who offered that deal and any player would've been nuts not to sign it. I always thought A-Rod was liked until he went to the Yankees. Regardless though Tom Hicks was the guy who offered him that deal, A-Rod didn't put a gun to Hicks' head and make him offer it. Kind of like why I tell Cubs fans they can't get mad a Soriano for signing his deal.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Feb 16, 2011 -> 01:25 PM) If he doesn't want to tarnish his legacy, he won't leave St Louis. Maybe but we all know money talks and bs walks. $300 mil is $300 mil regardless of who's paying you.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Feb 16, 2011 -> 11:24 AM) By the way, the same wins poll last year pretty much nailed it, as I recall. The bell curve peaked right around 88 wins. Can't find the poll now though. Not quite sure yet. Could see the Sox winning the Central or can see them coming in 3rd place.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Feb 16, 2011 -> 12:58 PM) If this really bothers you, then you're a fan of the wrong team. Hell, even the Cubs can get ignored towards the end of a season if they're having a down year. Then it becomes Bears time. I don't look to much into these things, the Sox need to play well on the field. That's all that matters.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Feb 16, 2011 -> 12:41 PM) If anyone thinks that Pujols won't clear a $250 million+ contract if he stays healthy this season, you're kidding yourself. I agree. I'd go so far as to say anyone who thinks that he'll be okay making the same amount as Mark Texiera ($22mil a year), Ryan Howard ($25mil a year), or A-Rod ($27.5 mil a year) is kidding themselves. The guy is going for $30 mil year, make no bones about it. If the Cardinals won't give it to him, he'll most likely get it somewhere else. Regardless if you like some of these guys or not, they're all alpha males with massive egos. Pujols knows he's better than the guys listed above and wants to get paid like it.

QUOTE (SoxFan562004 @ Feb 16, 2011 -> 12:34 PM) I think Detroit and Seattle are interesting, but for Detroit, that would be two sizable deals on their books with Cabrera and another decent one with V-Mart. Again with the Cubs, I don't see how they realistically have the money for it. I posted on the last page, if they can't dump Zambrano, and gave Pujols 27m, which actually seems like it might not get it done, they would have 63m for 3 players between those 2 and Soriano, and you are getting less and less production out of Soriano every year. Another reason I question the Cubs signing him is they are not in the position to maximize his revenue ability, the Shrine isn't set up for it. There's no secret Ricketts has a desire to revamp Wrigley to get more revenue, I'm sure we all remember that debacle a few months ago when he was asking the state for money. So at this point he would have to front the money, when he's already serving 30m of debt a year for a team worth less than he paid for, take on new partners, or secure debt with the state in a plan he apparently has no interest in. If he doesn't do that the Cubs could sell out every game and they are still limited on revenue streams. I think LAA makes sense because the have a refurbished stadium that maximizes all possible revenues, they also have a higher capacity, so I feel they are the team that can maximize his revenue the most. He reportedly turned down 8/200+ so that number is going to be either 8 and significantly more than 200 or 2 more years and more money. If he leaves Stl, I think it's the Cubs or LAA that get him. Cubs lose 50 plus mil after this season and Zambrano/Dempster contracts in 2012. They have more than enough money to give Pujols what he wants. Remember even though they cut some money this year, they still carry a heavy payroll. LAA would make sense because Moreno would spend the money and it would help the Angels in the LA market where they always play 2nd fiddle to the Dodgers. Plus Pujols stands to make more money in endorsements in major markets like Chicago and LA then a small-mid market like Stl.

QUOTE (fathom @ Feb 16, 2011 -> 09:52 AM) It's going to be comical at Wrigley this year when the Cubs fans give Pujols a standing ovation. It's going to be like when Lebron used to go into MSG to play the Knicks the past two years. If I were a Cardinal fan, I'd give him a standing O every time he bats. This is going to be very interesting.

QUOTE (fathom @ Feb 15, 2011 -> 09:25 PM) He would be nuts not to take this deal. Sadly, it seems like he's determined to get 10/300 from someone. I just read the story on cnnsi.com. It was an 8 year deal but didn't seem like $240, just said an excess of $200 mil. I honestly think Stl is in a lose/lose situation. Pujols is not going to give them the hometown discount so it's either sign him to the $300 mil deal and not have money to pay the rest of your better players when they need to be resigned or let Pujols go (very possibly to the Cubs). I still think Stl gives in and pays him the #300 mil next Winter because the Cubs and Angels are very very real possibilities. The Cubs are almost set up perfectly to acquire Pujols with close to 60 mil coming off the books next year and still be able to add another guy or two and the Angels owner might finally decide to go all in and get his guy since he's fallen short on Texiera, Werth and Crawford the past few years.

Wow, that's a damn good bullpen. On paper right now, clearly the best.

QUOTE (IamtheHBOMB @ Jan 7, 2011 -> 10:55 AM) I thought that initially, but they were traded for each other in 1999. They both pitched for the Yankees in the 2002 and 2003 seasons, but Wells wasn't the 2 in either of those rotations. Good move by the Cubs.

What Jenks did (comments about Ozzie) is pretty normal. When players get let go some tend to fire back at their old team (recent example, Theriot - Cubs). However Oney was WAY out of line with his comments. Not good for the clubhouse and not good for Ozzie. Oney is a dbag.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Dec 17, 2010 -> 12:54 PM) I generally agree with this, except the idea that Jenks was pretty solid. He was far from that, and his overall performance is pretty easy to replace. I agree that last year wasn't Jenks' best year but he wasn't bad either. He was 27/31 in save opportunities. Regardless the bullpen is going to have to step it up this year for the Sox to be a contender.

QUOTE (SoxFan562004 @ Dec 17, 2010 -> 12:11 PM) Yup, he and Dunn have 4 years on their deal with each team, Dunn will get about 14m less over the next for years... really one of if not the worst position player contract ever handed out, and if you believe reports, Cubs really bid against themselves, no other team was showing a ton of interest at that point, I believe the Phils had kicked the tires but that was about it at that point. The Jayson Werth deal might be the new worst and I actually really like Jayson Werth.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Dec 17, 2010 -> 07:25 AM) I have no idea. I think it's pretty much a given that Buehrle is going to give the Sox 200+ innings and an ERA anywhere between 3.75-4.25 with one terrible month thrown into the mix. I have two concerns about this year's team as constructed today. First is the bullpen, we lost Jenks and Putz who were for the most part pretty solid for us. Assuming Thronton will be the closer, the other guys that get us from the SP to Thornton have to step up (Pena, Crain, maybe Sale). I think the success or failure of those guys will determine our fate as far as getting to the postseason. Second concern is we have some guys that are up there in age (PK, AJ, Pierre) and I just hope they don't start to drop off significantly. I think our starting pitching will be fine.

QUOTE (JoeCoolMan24 @ Dec 17, 2010 -> 11:16 AM) Or...how about when Kerry Wood didn't settle for less money 2 years ago when he decided to LEAVE the Cubs and go to Cleveland for a 2 yr/$20M deal. So, Wood is an amazing guy for leaving $2M on the table to sign with the Cubs, but the $8M or whatever he would have sacrificied to stay in Chicago and not go to Cleveland was not worth it? Seems funny to me that he can leave for more money, and then come back 2 years later and would praised for coming back to his roots. It's not like he was TRADED to Cleveland. lol, I'm sorry, it's just so stupid to me so see Rosenthal hail Kerry Wood for this and claim how touching this is. I do applaud Kerry for going back where he started, and for taking less money, but it's hardly "touching". Actually from what I remember and read, Wood wanted to re-sign with the Cubs but they let him walk in order to sign Milton Bradley. A colossally stupid move. Regardless I think it's obviously a good move for them especially when you consider the year and salary. You can never have enough good bullpen arms. I've never disliked Wood so if he wants to "go home" then good for him.