SoxFan562004

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jan 16, 2014 -> 03:30 PM) if the author was left off of that article, it would have been a slam dunk to guess that Kaplan wrote it. Also to me it's a misleading headline, read it my first impression is they're negotiating with his top reps, read it and it just means they're interested and will spend. This is just Cubbie fan spank material.

QUOTE (dayan024 @ Jan 16, 2014 -> 09:23 AM) Ken Rosenthal ‏@Ken_Rosenthal 1h Sources: #Cubs pushing hard for Tanaka. #Angels remain involved, along with others previously mentioned - #Yankees, #Dodgers, etc. I LOVE how the national media is so vague to tie big teams to things, especially on twitter. Stark yesterday with two "people" and now "pushing hard" which really says nothing.

QUOTE (SoxPride18 @ Jan 16, 2014 -> 08:37 AM) Starks is reporting that the Cubs are going hard after Tanaka. Angels involved too Is there anything beyond his ridiculously poor trolling for followers report of 2 "people" said "beware of the Cubs"? Not saying Cubs should obviously be players (and with the pitching they have in their system if any team should over-pay it's them), but his report last night was laughable.

QUOTE (Frank_Thomas35 @ Jan 15, 2014 -> 09:14 PM) Here's something to kill your erection: Brought up the name, "Tanaka," to 2 people at owners meetings this morning. They both had the same response: Beware of the Cubs. Per Jayson Stark: https://mobile.twitter.com/jaysonst/status/...525400283602944 Maybe it's good he's warming to Chicago. God knows why the hell he would want to pitch for the Cuba besides money. Those 2 people were Epstein and Hoyer

QUOTE (thxfrthmmrs @ Jan 14, 2014 -> 03:44 PM) especially when our original plan this off season is to spend some of the payroll savings in the scouting and latin american market to ensure long term success. Throwing 100+ million on this guy would be a bad move. well, all good plans should have flexibility if a unique opportunity arises, so just ignoring him completely wouldn't be great IMO. If it's a realistic option and Sox brass think it's the right thing if the price is right than deviating is OK.

QUOTE (dayan024 @ Jan 14, 2014 -> 03:19 PM) Phil Rogers ‏@philgrogers 1h Here's the thing about @Dodgers and Masahiro Tanaka. They've gotten every player they wanted in Mark Walter era. Always bet the streak. What's Kershaw's contract status? If he doesn't have a team friendly extension they are going to have to pony up major for him. In theory I agree with Rogers (gross to type that), but they may have to have another mega/record breaking deal with Kershaw soon if that's not already sewed up.

I could see any meeting past the initial one being for the Sox benefit as much as Tanaka's, they probably want to ensure, or at least as much as they can, that they have a legitimate shot and not just being used to get the most out of an LA or east coast team. JR is getting up there, even when you're rich travel can be a hassle. I imagine if the deal breaker is Tanaka meeting face-to-face with JR they'll make that magic happen!!

QUOTE (Y2JImmy0 @ Jan 14, 2014 -> 08:12 AM) Disagree. I always heard 2015 as the realistic date to start winning. It doesn't do them any good to win between 80-85 games. If they said that then it is lip service. They want high draft picks. They probably wish that they were bad enough to pick 1st instead of 4th this year. I don't really understand why people think the plan isn't working. They need pitching but they are loaded with some of the best hitting prospects in the game. I do think that Epstein undervalued how bad their farm system was though. They had pretty much nothing in the system when he took over other than Baez and Vogelbach. They will be godawful this year and hope that Castro and Rizzo are better. Cubs fans will most likely see Bryant and Baez this year too. I would say that next year (2015) will be the year that they hope to be around .500 and traject upward from that point. If the stadium gets done and they get a new tv deal they will be back spending in the $150 million range. This year will most likely be rough for the major league team though. Real rough. To me, that's burying the lead. That's a major, major issue that isn't magically fixed. Also, the Rizzo and Castro regressions have to be of some concern. Obviously one regressed year doesn't spell doom for a propspect, but until there's a bounce back it has to be a concern.

QUOTE (StRoostifer @ Jan 9, 2014 -> 02:44 PM) I can see the Sox being serious contenders for Tanaka. A 25 yo international FA that would be signed for years to come fits in with what Hahn's plans, provided the contract cost isn't too steep. I know the Yanks will try to outbid everyone but maybe Hahn can remind Tanaka and his agent about how s***ty Irabu was treated by Steinbrenner and how well Takatsu and Iguchi were treated by the Sox as well as the fans. I would tend to agree with you, but not only the Yanks, but LAD, LAA, Mariners and possibly Cubs and Red Sox are going to try and outbid each other. I think this ends up a mind numbingly huge contract.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jan 9, 2014 -> 02:06 PM) Yeah it was the Bulls. http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2013-07...ls-gar-forman/2 JR recommended the Sox be sold on his death. His family will then reap a next level bonkers windfall.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jan 9, 2014 -> 01:22 PM) A brief history of PED reporting by reporters. It is interesting. http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/102616...ing-steroid-era I purusued it earlier at work, so please put me straight if I missed something, I just feel it just ignores so many issues. Yes, this covers, basically, newspaper/investigative reporting, but I just feel it completely whiffs that ESPN was a major business partner with MLB over this time and that's kind of ignored. They like to say they're a news outlet, so they were just completely not a part of this type of story? I always thought Gammons got off easy. He was considered the dean of baseball reporters over this stretch. Also, two guys who now work for ESPN, come out as superstars in this, I'll retract that if it's made clear that both are now employed by ESPN. I get the "hindsight is 20/20" when I rag on baseball reporters, except it wasn't hindsight. It was extremely obvious what was going on and any trainer with his certificate for 5 minutes could have told you what was going on was basically impossible with out PEDs and it really was discussed a lot during the time. I don't know, I'm probably biased as I hate ESPN and not the biggest fan of Grantland.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jan 9, 2014 -> 12:47 PM) They both hold incredible sway with each other, that is very true. I'm trying to get something to pop in Google, but I want to say it was fairly kind of out there that JR had a big say in who the next Cubs owner was going to be.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Jan 9, 2014 -> 11:26 AM) No, but there's enough smoke there to reasonably assume it to be true. Being a private entity, they don't have to disclose the members or numbers or anything to the public, but there have been quite a few reports from people that know people within the White Sox organization on here. I think I recall reading that one of the big guys at RC Cola was on the board for the Chicago White Sox, but that's merely hearsay and dot connecting from like 5-7 years ago. This goes back about 8 years when I was in law school, but the then general counsel of the Sox, have no idea if it's still the same guy, spoke at a lunch. He was asked a question about the ownership and he even said it's convoluted, technically he's the only person who can really answer it but even he needs a bunch of documents in front of him to do so.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jan 8, 2014 -> 05:40 PM) Better question. Maddux in the HOF as a Brave or Cub... Go. I really don't think it's a question, it's Braves, and that's even me taking my Cubs dislike out of it. When he was back with Cubs they even did a poll question on a Cubs broadcast, and even that was lopsided to Braves.

QUOTE (Buehrle>Wood @ Jan 7, 2014 -> 10:56 PM) WWE TV sounds sweet if the rumors are true. Every Raw ever available on demand . 12 bucks a month is a bit steep. Wonder what they will make available of the rest of their massive library and how they handle Chris Benoit. Heard they were going to put a warning before every episode that he's in. I'm sorry that hilarious. "The following program features partial nudity, graphic violence, and Chris Benoit" Read somewhere, it has to be Meltzer's site since it's really the only wrestling one I go to, he'll be in things with some sort of notification message prior.

QUOTE (Jake @ Jan 8, 2014 -> 04:07 PM) Really irritating to hear people b**** about how it is unfair to assume the Big Hurt didn't use steroids when we are just assuming about everyone else. Get your head out of your ass and do some research. This guy spent much of his career talking about PED use and even tried to game the system to force testing to start happening. There is literally nobody that would surprise me more to find out that he used steroids than Frank Thomas, including my boyhood hero Ken Griffey Jr. He's really the only slugger from the juice era that is in HOF and he did it on first ballot with something like the 55th all time highest percentage. The majority have spoken and have not only recognized he's clean but are holding him out as an example of a clean player in a dirty era. People need to get clicks on their websites or ears to their radio show.

QUOTE (rangercal @ Jan 8, 2014 -> 02:52 PM) Frank Thomas Scouting report from 1989 That's really cool, thanks for posting. This is also when 30+ HR potential was crazy.

QUOTE (rangercal @ Jan 8, 2014 -> 02:04 PM) ugh bluejay helmet on frank for the deadspin ballot? yucky They were going for goofy faces, look at the rest. HOF will have S - O - X on it!!!

I'm usually tin foil about anti-Sox bias, but today, it honestly doesn't matter to me. Frank Thomas and Fisk were my favorite Sox players as I was growing up and I am just so thrilled that Frank is a First Ballot Hall of Famer that ESPN and the rest can stick it.

Very excited for this. So glad he's getting in on the first try!

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Jan 8, 2014 -> 11:50 AM) I did get a kick out of Paxson saying over and over again yesterday how the $20 million+ they saved trading Deng will be put back into the team? How? There's a salary cap. I'm sure I'm not getting it 100% right, but Bulls would have been over the salary cap and into luxury tax territory which isn't a static penalty, it becomes more and more severe if you're a repeat offender. Shedding the Deng/Bynum money resets them so if they need to pay luxury tax to make a signficant move the penalty toll starts fresh. So basically it's not a hard cap, they can exceed the cap with that money eventually and pay less tax.

Things often don't generally make me feel old, but I remember when I worked at Oak Brook mall and saw Frank and family often, Sterling was a baby now he has a Twitter!

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Jan 8, 2014 -> 08:36 AM) Honestly, I don't care about Frank in this instance. I'm about 99.9% sure he's getting in. I care about Maddux. He and Pedro Martinez are absolutely the two greatest pitchers I ever saw, and I didn't even see much of Maddux in his prime. If you are only going to vote for one guy and cite "HE WAS AN ACE" as your reasoning, then GTFO and quit voting. This is like a person voting in the November election and only voting for Referendum 8, which allows the citizens to decide whether or not to bulldoze a 400 sq ft section to build a jungle gym for the community, but then again, it's not, because that person has the right to vote no matter what and their votes on the other issues don't matter at all, so, in fact, that person is better than Jerry Gurnick. Jerry Gurnick is a bitter POS who needs to have his right to vote removed by the BBWAA. I guess I'm not done. If he does not, and he submits a blank ballot next year (he would technically have to), then I fully endorse sending him a brown lunch bag filled with s***, because that's exactly what he would be submitting for his Hall vote next year. Won't argue with you about Maddux and Pedro, but I'd definitely add Randy Johnson to that. When he was at his peak he was as nasty as I've ever seen. If Jeter is the first 100% I think I would literally vomit.

Solid move by both sides. I still don't see the Sox coming close to signing him, but with the new posting rules Japanese players may hit the radar more for the Sox so likely his people will represent some in the future. For Tanaka and his people it adds another big market name to the "rumors" which can't hurt.

QUOTE (Sonik22 @ Jan 2, 2014 -> 09:46 AM) True, I just don't want Cutler to be the guy for the foreseeable future. I'm nervous to see what the financial terms of this deal are. No tone on message boards so please take this as a genuine inquiry that I ask whenever people say they don't want Cutler around. Who/what would you like the Bears to have done? It's a deep QB draft from my understanding, but where the Bears are drafting they were not going to get any of the top ones without making a ridiculous trade that would have cost multiple high draft picks. Stop gap would of had to be take a QB in mid 1st or 2nd round and get a stop gap guy like Schaub or franchise Cutler for about 16mm this year. Cutler is in no way perfect, but the elite QBs are going nowhere and looking at the options I'm OK with extending Cutler. Now let's work on that D a little bit, that was a s*** show