poppysox

Not to worry...Spring is right around the corner.

Just attempting to put a little sunshine in your day?.

Thank you Texsox. The analogy used by 2K5 was so off the money it left me speechless.

I believe Super-2 status and this 10-105 million pool are all tied together in some ways that have been left unclear in the reporting so far. It should be clear to you that it is the owners who are working feverishly to get the season started and the union is dragging its collective feet.

Who said anything about cutting salaries? What does commission sales have to do with anything? If you want to see rising prices...keep overpaying the help.

All of the players are nice people without a greedy bone in their bodies.

If you offered to sell someone a car for $15,000 and a guy offered you $2000...would you counter? I would say come back when you want to get serious. I think the owners should get a lot of credit for attempting to speed it up. Typical of unions...the players asked for a boatload of stuff they knew would be rejected. I was actually surprised when the owners didn't have a laundry list of silly stuff themselves. Mediation will speed it up for sure but if the players overplay their hand talks will come to a screeching halt and the season then gets to be in jeopardy. It was surprising to me that the owners didn't slow play this and let their superior financial position and unity wear down the players. After all, probably 80% or more of the players are going to gain nothing out of this work stoppage.

Apparently, the owners feel the players have been unreasonable in their negotiations. I know some of you think the players are the ones giving but I think if you ask for lots of ridiculous stuff and then give up a little...that's just posturing. The mediation process attempts to cut through the monkey business and gets both sides talking realistically. The mediator is in theory an impartial facilitator who keeps talks moving in an attempt to resolve conflicts. If mediation doesn't work we are in for a long frustrating summer.

I have no evidence...just wishful thinking. However, mediation does speed up the process in all cases.

Probably more like 4 times each week.

I like it! No point in postponing the inevitable.

So are there a bunch of $100,000 deposits in his bank account? If the story is true there must be a paper trail.

Some people won't be happy until they kill the golden goose. Average guys who deliver the mail or deliver appliances live for their ballgame for a few hours of escape from reality. I don't care if the players get another million or not. This forum has nothing but die-hard fans and yet it has been dead. Baseball ought to worry when the people who are really into their team are this apathetic.

Loss of revenue will ultimately hurt both parties involved along with other non-player personnel. Both sides want this resolved but it takes time for reality to set in. I would imagine the owners are already seeing the advanced ticket sales plummet. The players will be missing those first paychecks shortly. Over the next few weeks, the pace of negotiations will pick up considerably IMO. Over 80% of current players have nothing to gain in this set of negotiations with the things being asked for by the union. It's hard to keep that kind of employee group united. I keep using Leury Garcia as my classic example. A nice player but nothing special. Just signs a 16.5 million over a 3-year contract. What's in it for him?

Jirschele is our manager of the future for the White Sox IMO. Nice to see he is being brought up with patience.

Real nice guys. Love having him as part of the organization.

I make it easier for the Sox to win it all when they are the best team.

I care about winning the World Series. I don't care about the teams that are not trying to win. You guys preach about not wanting teams to be uncompetitive then set up divisions where 3 or 4 of the best teams compete while in another division the winner just needs to show up. We will never go back to the old days but this idea of half the teams being in the playoffs is not the best way to find out who has assembled the best team IMO.

If you had better reading comprehension you would realize I said it wouldn't happen. I did say I prefer to send the best team to the World Series. I said I prefer to play all teams the same number of games rather than this imbalanced thing we have with division championships. I don't base my preference on what gives the WS a chance to make watered-down playoffs...the current team has a very real chance to be the best team in the league...I have no desire to get beaten out by some .500 team that gets lucky in a 5 game series.

He already signed with the Rangers.

I see nothing wild about the best team in each league representing my preferred league in the WS. I have already stated it would never happen because the playoffs are a moneymaker. I would much rather see the Yankees the same number of times I see the Tigers. Also, it doesn't strike me as particularly fair that the Cubs vs Sox and the Cardinals vs Royals count in the overall standing. In short...the watered-down playoff system has greatly watered down my interest in the WS when the Sox are not in it.

No thanks. Additional playoff rounds just diminish further the importance of the regular season.

All part of negotiations. Don't get too upset until you see the final agreement.

I think if every team needed to spend a minimum of say 75 million...that would require many additional millions to be spent on players. Some of those millions would filter to many if not all major league players. Instead, this idea of a bonus pool for pre-arbitration players who perform well helps less than 5% of players. Baseball should stop worrying about the star players. They will make fist full of money in their careers. I am far more sympathetic to the journeyman.

The players said their #1 concern was needing all clubs to be trying for competitive balance. Raising the club minimum salary base should be all we are hearing about. So far it seems that this bonus pool which affects very view players has been the main thrust. If I am an average major league player...I don't want to be missing paychecks to fight for these things that don't have much significance for the majority of players.