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Big deal. Congratulations on the interview. Hopefully Rios will be a stud this year. Our lineup is counting on him big time.

I'm glad Fisk spoke out on this. He was a stud. As far as being a jerk, Chet, are you basing this on this article or insider knowledge? I never heard Fisk was a total dick.

Nobody will be down on him if he produces. He was just another MLB middle relief hack last year.

Yes but why sign a guy like Jones over Dye? Money? I think we could sign Dye on the relative cheap. Unless he'd be all upset and is bound and determined to play elsewhere.

That's what I'm hoping as well. If our starters can consistently go 7 innings ... wow that would make our pen so much better. This five and six inning crap is a different story. Please give us seven strong innings, Sox starters!

I would be sad to see the WS MVP finish his career with the other Chicago team. Bad, bad, bad. Jermaine hasn't gotten a lot of love recently after that second half flop, but he is one of the major players in White Sox history whether some fans want to believe that or not. For some reason, he's not that beloved a figure even though he was WS MVP and Chicago teams simply do not win World Series. Anywhere but the Cubs, Jermaine.

Yes but it's OK to have a couple guys like that. The way this has been portrayed, that Oz is the one who wants this, does put the heat on Oz to win the division this year.

Why don't we just sign Thome? Our lineup needs some thunder. Oz is gonna be the guy who takes the fall for not wanting a full time power hitting DH.

My expectations for this year are not high at all. We have great starting pitching and a ton of question marks. I don't know why you think our defense is assured of being very good. I love some of our players; think we have a lot of question marks.

I wouldn't say he "deserves" that honor. I would assume they'll want to position the lefties and righties so the rotaiton will probably be Peavy, Mark, Floyd, Danks, Freddy or Mark, Peavy, Danks, Floyd, Freddy.

Thanks. I forgot about his role in the no no. Hopefully AJP will have another outstanding year and Castro will only catch 35-40 games.

What do you guys think of Castro? This thread doesn't comment on him much even tho it's about him. I can't even remember him. Is he another backup catcher that was an automatic out?

Amen. I wonder why Oz is so anti Thome? I love big Jimmy but maybe Oz didn't like the fact it was all or nothing with him. Back in the day, didn't home run hitters at least shorten their swings with two strikes? Big Jimmy would hack away no matter the count. Even Paulie seems to try to whack singles up the middle when he has 2 strikes on him. I guess CQ, Paulie better be our hr threats this year.

Well Oz is getting what he wants: No Dye or Thome to clog the basepaths. I'm thinking Oz is going to be pretty frustrated with this lineup at times. CQ better stay healthy; Beckham better not have a sophomore slump and Rios simply needs to rake at the plate if we are going to be productive. Teahen needs to have a breakout year now that he's escaped lowly KC. If CQ gets hurt this year, our lineup will be f***ed. I'm thinking Lexi will have a good year at the plate and Paulie and AJ similar to last year.

We need to resign Big Jim Thome right now. Our lineup ain't good enough as it stands.

Great, now we have to play Scotty Pods 18 times a season ... and Getz ... and Brian Anderson ... and Fields. All guys who will want to kick our ass. Good luck to our pitchers keeping Scotty off base. He had a lot of multi hit games last year. Royals are loading up on our players. I fully expect us to trade for DeJesus soon and the Royals to sign Dye or Thome.

This is not a flame, just wondering what guys like Rios have been doing since the end of the season. He doesn't have the kind of body that appears to balloon, so he probably doesn't have to worry about what he eats or drinks in terms of getting fat. what do players do? I would guess they go to the gym if they are in the cold weather climate and maybe do some running if they live in the warm weather.

I don't see the best thread. I see best 10 moments. Top 10 best Sox of decade? Mark, Big Hurt, Paulie, Jenks, AJ, Dye, not necessarily in that exact order, also Thome, fill in some more guys from the title team.

I'd feel better about our lineup if Thome was back. Reduce his at bats some, but bring him back.

Good question. Carlos has to remain healthy. Maybe his career will be like Dye's. Injury prone then finally hits a stretch of healthy years.

Has there been any talk of interest in Dye and Thome? Not by the Sox but by other teams? Is Thome's career over?

JD sucked; so did Rios. Rios gave us nothing more than Brian Anderson could have given us. He hit like Anderson. Hopefully next year he'll hit like the Rios of old when he made the all star team.

Hope so. You obviously consider Rios a star cause 30 homers with his defense would be probably worth of an all star berth.

The bottom line is with that salary, Rios better hit and hit well next year or he'll be the whipping boy who is booed out of town. He looked pathetic at the plate last year, simply horrendous in his stint with the Sox. He was here in plenty of time to provide a spark that might help us get into the playoffs but he was almost an automatic out. That was last year. It seems to me most fans are giving him a clean slate. But now it's up to him. He makes a ton of money and better figure it out. We could have kept BA if all we wanted was defense out there. He hit a little better the last week or so so people are hoping he'll be better.

That is true. If we got Peavy and Rios in the offseason there would be a huge buzz. Rios was a disaster last season but Peavy was amazing in his few starts.