LDF

QUOTE (GreenSox @ Jan 19, 2015 -> 07:59 PM) That's true. And leave yourself some flexibility until you find out where the weaknesses are. What if A Garcia doesn't hit? Or Gillaspie? And I know, I know, we could have traded all of our prospects for the beloved "proven veterans" for those spots and made the point moot, but that's not realistic. You need to use young players or you will never field a winner. As it is, I think we may have some bullpen excess this year; whether we have the guts to use it mid-season, I don't know, but it could be used. the timing is wrong, now is the time to go forward and invest in making minor moves to help when the surplus is now. some teams will be wanting to move players now, before spring training.

QUOTE (BamaDoc @ Jan 19, 2015 -> 07:49 PM) With the budget being exceeded and a lot of new players, we may be at the point of owners wanting to see how this team comes together. If it is in contention or playing well you may add a further piece during the season. If it was your money, it wouldn't be unreasonable to say "lets see how this is working out'' before dropping further big bucks. ahhh don't give me that. JR mo has always been do enuf to try to compete and make the playoff. for once i am saying, get and stack the team. all can be said about the money and exceeding the budget, but the budget is based on money they received by fans and ticket sales. the sox wants to have those advance tickets sold first and bank the money, before they do anything. i refuse to hear poor sox in a financial way. they have plenty of money.

QUOTE (LDF @ Jan 19, 2015 -> 08:36 PM) the man with pure simple logic comes in to clear thing up. serious, thanks for that input. you know you got me thinking, come spring training, there are at least 2 prospects that may be heavily looked at. that will Erik Johnson and Matt Davidson. it just stand to reason, that last yr may have been a fluke yr. i mean it would be great if it does happen. but will the sox bring them north or keep then in the minors???? for that, even Penny may have a look see.

QUOTE (coco1997 @ Jan 19, 2015 -> 07:33 PM) Look at what the Cubs just gave up to get Dexter Fowler from Houston. Are you meaning to tell me Hahn couldn't match that to get Castro? i am kind of lost here. so here is my response, "and why should the sox do that" http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/...traderumors.com

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jan 19, 2015 -> 07:33 PM) Clearly they're not. There's no room for him whatsoever in the rotation starting out the year. the man with pure simple logic comes in to clear thing up. serious, thanks for that input.

QUOTE (StRoostifer @ Jan 19, 2015 -> 06:43 PM) Balta sums it up best with " we have no idea". Its difficult to have expectations when there's no clue what to expect. The only thing to do is hold onto hope that he can rebound back to what he was in 2013. Johnson has to be one of the biggest wild cards in the Sox system. but i will bet that the sox brass is betting on him like they did with Paulino last yr.

QUOTE (Quinarvy @ Jan 19, 2015 -> 06:42 PM) I don't think anyone is banking on him. Most people tend to ignore/forget about him in their extended projected rotations, myself included. good point. i didn't think like that.

oops

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jan 19, 2015 -> 07:46 PM) If you could guarantee me a ring I'd trade Rodon for one. But you can't do that. Adding Stras to this rotation makes them the clear favorites for the AL Central, but even then there's still 3 series to win and the best team often does not win a given series. The greatest rotation in the world doesn't guarantee you move forward. The Giants moved forward last year with Hudson and Peavy as 2 of their top starters. Clearly Quintana and Sale/Stras would be a lot better than them, but that's no guarantee that you're going to win those 2 games. nothing in life is a guarantee, all is a gamble. the point is to try as hard to fix the odds in your favor. Wash for now, will not be in the mood to trade Stras or Zimm. but maybe Fister. the majors teams who are in the mood to push it for this title run are maneuvering themselves to make that push. by getting the necessary pieces now.

QUOTE (Quinarvy @ Jan 19, 2015 -> 07:31 PM) If EJ somehow rebounds, the Sox are in an amazing position. good point but that is my problem. betting on something like this is like betting millions on the come in craps.

QUOTE (kev211 @ Jan 19, 2015 -> 06:30 PM) Maybe Tom should worry about where his fans are going to sit. NOW someone comes up with something funny.

i will admit, i can't think or see straight when talking bout that minor league team north of 290. so i will not post on this anymore. no offense to anyone. it is my stupid hatred.

QUOTE (raBBit @ Jan 19, 2015 -> 06:38 PM) I am shocked at the people throwing out names like Strasburg/Zimmerann/Scherzer/Shields like they are a real possibility. If things go perfect, Sale, Samardzija, Quintana and Danks make 33/32 starts each. Then Noesi, Johnson, Rodon, Brad Penny and Chris Beck will team up to make the last 32 starts + any missed starts due to injury in the 1-4 in the rotation. So sure, signing a guy with MLB experience as a SP who could help this team could/should happen, but these marquee/expensive names do not make sense at this juncture. with all due respect but Penny???? does anyone think he still has this stuff??

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jan 19, 2015 -> 06:21 PM) Again, the price for Stras starts and ends with Rodon. Maybe we could put together the best package for Zimmerman centered around Anderson but I'm not sure. here is a question, no offense for using your post. at what price of getting another world series ring is worth. 1 player >>> Rodon, Anderson????

QUOTE (elrockinMT @ Jan 19, 2015 -> 06:19 PM) Kind of along my line of thought. I was going to say that with all the moves we have made this off season, and the return to health of some players, how can you say we are not World Series contenders? psst .... until the season starts, and all players are signed to there teams. the sox are not WS favorites. i say the sox are Wild Card contenders.

QUOTE (ewokpelts @ Jan 19, 2015 -> 06:33 PM) and when they snagged maddon, the media was masturbating all over him and the "next year is now" narrative. and when they signed lester, it was as if they all but won the world series. and you think anything has change??? they will always be the darling's of the media. the media always love the underdog. the only way to change that is to win !!!!!!

QUOTE (pittshoganerkoff @ Jan 19, 2015 -> 05:57 PM) I misinterpreted what you were saying. Sorry about that. What is the final piece, though? I imagine there are plenty of different ideas from the fan base. I'd like to see one more proven starting pitcher, but that could get costly. The bullpen is much better, but they could still shore it up a bit more. There's a question mark at 2B, but that might be a lower priority. don't sweat about it. sox baseball is just around the corner..... here is the thing, all sox fans has many ideas on how to fix the team. i am just one of those fans. the one who has the answer is the owner, he has control of the money bag.

QUOTE (bmags @ Jan 19, 2015 -> 02:55 PM) I liked it a lot. Loved the energy the drumming gave it. Loved Ed Norton's scenes, almost every one of them. dang, i was gong to see some other movie, but i think i going to see it today. mondays are 1/2 price days here.

QUOTE (raBBit @ Jan 19, 2015 -> 04:56 PM) Kyle served four tours and the movie is set up alternating his home life and his tours. I read his book, followed all the media coverage and was pretty disappointed with the movie. I definitely would have been more into it if I had no foreknowledge of the character they were basing it off of. He was basically a hardass Texan who compulsively lied. They pick Cooper, who I thought was way too soft to accurately portray Kyle, and made him a southern gent who was entirely likable in every respect. That being said, a lot of the war scenes were captivating and it was, at the least, entertaining but another movie where "based on a real story" is really stretch. Jesse Ventura is the only one of his lies that actually caught up to him. A lot of his other lies didn't involve names so few people had any vesting interest to call him out. Kyle seemed to be born a narcissist who, understandably so, had more trouble with his grasp on reality after returning home. a great opinion. couldn't have said it better.

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Jan 19, 2015 -> 04:52 PM) excuse you it took me a long time to figure it out...... nice edit.... that goes to prove, we are ready for some sox baseball. yessss

QUOTE (raBBit @ Jan 19, 2015 -> 04:18 PM) You keep moving the goal posts here. My point was that there are ways to build perennial winners without spending money and spending vast amounts of money has shown to be ineffective in building winners. You wouldn't be happy with what the Braves built and you wouldn't have been happy this offseason without the Sox signing Scherzer. Your desires are unreasonable. The playoffs are a spontaneous outcome each and every year. The White Sox have one of the best front ends of any rotation and need to get to the playoffs as often as possible. You can expect the team to sign Scherzer after adding 145 million in contracts to LaRoche, Cabrera, Duke, Robertson and Samardzija but I'll stay in reality. great post. my take is the sox can continue to build and the final piece may not be the fa rt but thru a trade. if the season started right now, i am more than sure, my opinion may be a minority here, about the sox needs. i am sure many fans are extremely stoke by what the sox have done. so i guess i am of the few that will always look at the glass as half full, as someone already posted it.

QUOTE (Armchair Hahn @ Jan 19, 2015 -> 04:11 PM) I am continually amazed, how Cub fans can be so attached to such an irrelevant number as attendance. Do I care that the sox might draw 15k to any given game? No...in fact, i love it because i can get awesome pricing for any seat in the house. But someone tell me, from a fan perspective why this is any more important than the product on the field? the Sox and sox's fans are like the annoying flying insect at a barq party. no matter how hard it is they just can't get rid off us. we as fans and the sox as an org are constantly show the total scope of the northside incompetency.

QUOTE (oneofthemikes @ Jan 19, 2015 -> 04:47 PM) I was just thinking about the future of the organization and couldn't help but wonder if he might be a part of the future of it. and that is a valid point, but if the sox brass and medical people don't know what happen, how can we as fans predict.

does anyone have the right answer??? >>> no. does anyone have the right solution???? >>> no. with that, i will respect all people's opinions, no matter what is written and posted. but sometimes even in my saint like patience, i am pushed to rebuke.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jan 19, 2015 -> 04:30 PM) Honestly, everyone here's going to give the same answer..."we have no idea". Guys his age just aren't supposed to lose that much off their fastball if there's no injury. We kept wondering about injury the whole year last year and never saw him hit the DL or complain about anything. The Sox thought enough of him to roll with him out of ST even though his velocity was down, so they didn't think it was an injury or they thought it was something he'd recover from with work. It's just so weird. I wouldn't be stunned if he suddenly got his velocity back any more than I am stunned at how things went with him last year. i am pretty sure the sox went and go medical advice and all, and i am pretty sure they don't know what happen. if they did, the sox would have made an announcement, with that said, the sox will go into spring training and see what happens.