Chisoxfn

QUOTE(PHAT ALBERT @ Dec 22, 2007 -> 07:32 AM) I do not think that the Scouting Buereau gets reports turned in by all 30 teams. Why would they do that? Why would they share proprietary, subjective evaluations with their competitors? No offense, but I think this is kind of bogus. The Sox used the MLB scouting reports/services when they signed Iguchi. Kenny himself mentioned that it is where the Sox got the information they did about Tadahito.

QUOTE(southsider2k5 @ Dec 18, 2007 -> 06:04 AM) There was also a pretty prominent ex-pitcher who said he wouldn't last, and I can't remember if it was Tom House or Mike Marshall. Actually, House was the one who developed his mechanics and was the person who said that he would pretty much never get hurt. He had awesome mechanics, the problem was he got overworked by Baker and a young age and the end result caused him to alter his mechanics a bit and well injuries popped up all over the place.

QUOTE(Kalapse @ Dec 21, 2007 -> 04:06 PM) Levine said it was $4.75M TOTAL which does not sound right at all. I'll just assume he misspoke and it's actually 4 years, $19M. That wouldn't make sense, because a draft pick would have gotten more than that. But I still wouldn't be shocked if the number ended up being much lower than expected.

Volquez is incredibly over-rated. He has a nice live arm, but I don't consider him one of the best pitching prospects in baseball and I would have gladly given up one of Gio/DLS for Hamilton (I'd have taken my chances) and I think the Reds would have considered such a deal.

QUOTE(Balta1701 @ Dec 21, 2007 -> 03:49 PM) Yes, that was certainly one of the things being said about him earlier. If he beats out Owens for CF, great. If he struggles in ST, fine, stick him in AAA for a year and teach him to be a SS. Either way, our organization is now stronger at a point it was weak at yesterday. That is a pretty funny comparison, considering how badly Contreras sucked when he first came over. Heck, Contreras has had about one good season of major league baseball (and it was over the course of two seasons).

Kendry Morales has been solid. He just wasn't as major league ready as everyone thought he would be. That said I'd take Morales any day because he has the talent to be a pretty good hitter. Ramirez has a lot of talent as well and I've seen a couple scouts compare his frame, which generates a lot of power to Soriano. Now that doesn't mean the Sox have a Soriano out there and I'd like to temper expectations because he will be asked to play at an incredibly high level (MLB is much higher than the Cuban leagues). However, he has the tools and that is what I love. The club is getting another athlete onto the roster, but I wouldn't be stunned if the deal is a lot cheaper than people expect (I'm talking 4yr 16M with incentives pushing to the 24M range or so, maybe even less than that in guaranteed money).

QUOTE(JDsDirtySox @ Dec 21, 2007 -> 02:58 PM) Lets hope he is the best player out of Cuba ever. Now this is a deal I love. I should trash Kenny more often because he has now made three deals that I love this off-season, two of which are great for the long term future of the franchise (this signing and the Quentin trade). The Cabrera trade was one I loved because OC is a great baseball player who likely ensures the Sox a couple compensation picks that they wouldn't have gotten had they kept Jon.

Random Fact: Since July 2004, Soxtalk.com has had ~383 Million hits.

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QUOTE(Vance Law @ Dec 16, 2007 -> 01:49 PM) Bull. If you are in the playoffs, you are a World Series contender. My point was that that team could compete for 1st or 2nd in the Central. A lineup that includes Thome, Konerko, Dye, Hunter/Jones or whoever, Fields, Quentin and Orlando has the potential to be excellent. With Danks and Contreras having not-good years last year, our rotation still had a better ERA than Detroit's, and that's without adjusting for the park. With all of the luck, chance, and randomness that effect baseball, that team can compete with Detroit and Cleveland for a playoff spot(s). Are Ordonez, Polanco, Renteria, and Granderson going to have years as good as last year? How about Sabathia and Carmona? How did the 06 Indians only win 78 games? How did Arizona win 90 games last year with a negative run differential? You are flat out indicating how Arizona had luck on there side to a large extent and than are expecting Danks/Contreras to have better seasons. I don't know if that is realistic in Contreras case since he could very well fall apart. You are also forgetting that Jon Garland was a big reason to that ERA, in fact a huge reason, and you are replacing him with Gavin Floyd who is as big of a questionmark as Danks/Contreras. I still think Contreras is the biggest questionmark and I think it is a joke the Sox aren't shopping him (well based on rumors, I can't actually guarantee that). So you are going to go out and pray/hope that three of your starters come in and pitch way better than they ever have. Danks/Floyd are capable of doing it, but it is unrealistic to expect them to be super good as neither of them is truly 100% ready for major league success. They aren't Justin Verlander type guys. They both have good arms and should have solid careers (especially Danks) but they are the type of guys that will take a year or two of major league development to really turn things around (and Danks could very well be above league average this year, but to hope all three of those guys are even league average is way unrealistic). Offensively that lineup has good power but still absolute s*** at the top of the order which will have an impact (whether people like it or not). So bottom line I would compare the team a bit more to the 2006 Sox and prior Sox (Jerry Manuel Sox) in the sense that those teams would slug and just hope to god the pitching would be there (the one difference is those 2000 Sox squads had young players that were still really developing...Thomas was pretty much the only true vet those years that was a significant producer in those offenses). I'm not saying that the lineup you are proposing doesn't end up making the playoffs, it could, but there is a lot of luck involved, imo. There is luck in anything, you are right, but had you traded guys for major league ready top prospects and used the money to sign a couple guys (or trade for a couple guys and than sign...such as Mcab) that you felt could help you in 08, 09 and beyond than I think you could also have had a couple lucky breaks (with guys developing early) and turned into a contender in 08 and you'd ALSO be in a spot to contend in FUTURE YEARS.

QUOTE(witesoxfan @ Dec 15, 2007 -> 02:15 PM) I like to take Haren out of the Mulder package for a second, and just include what they got for him in there instead. Essentially, 8 players for Mulder, several of them top prospects; that's how you build a baseball team. Arizona hangs up the phone I seriously can't believe people are still slupring up all over Beane. He has made countless of mediocre decisions and has continued to fail to get the A's to the promised land. He had some really good teams for a couple year span, I'll admit, but the past couple years they have been far more mediocre and they are right with the Sox when it comes to drafting (ie unimpresively).

Good god, what the hell happened...f***ing Miami won.

f***ing CBS. They take the game away after they call a TO. I want to see if Stover made the kick or not.

Miami is winning. New England will win.

QUOTE(Tony82087 @ Dec 14, 2007 -> 10:43 PM) So you're ok with the GM coming up WAY short on his plan for the off-season? He knew they were lofty goals, yet he set them. He was the one who put together the 72-90 team, so he needed to have lofty goals. He is also the one that assembled the farm system, that just so happened to not have enough ammo to acquire Cabrera. Williams knows how to talk a huge game. He just doesn't know how to back it up. The worse parrt is that it seemed like that was the only way this team could compete (by coming through on what was very, almost ridiculous expectations of an off-season) and even than you can say the team would have serious concerns around the rotation. Bottom line, Kenny put himself in the position as soon as he signed Mark/Dye to extensions that he was going for it and it was going to take a miracle for it all to work out and barring some sort of major impact from the young players currently on the roster this team will finish in 4th place and Ken Williams should absolutely be fired if it happens. Kenny had an opportunity to begin planning for 09 and instead he tried to create a miracle and sometimes you have to know when you can't. When you are looking at the board and getting Cabrera/Hunter/Cabrera/RP is the only way you'd even come close to competing (plus resigning Mark/Dye) than you have to sit and say is that really realistic. And if you think it is and already get going towards that process (which they started at the deadline when they didn't move Mark/Dye) than you must and I mean must overpay to get those final pieces (because otherwise you are totally f'd and are just setting there to go nowhere).

QUOTE(Rex Hudler @ Dec 15, 2007 -> 09:47 PM) Anyone hear anything about Jericho? It's my understanding they ordered 7 more episodes to be shown at sometime during this season. Any idea if any or all of them were shot and able to be shown? Btw, there is a Jericho marathon going on right now on Universal HD, for anyone that has that channel. Capn kind of knew the situation around the show. I have to think it is a good sign that they are showing it on Universal HD. The show is great and it would truly be dissapointing if it ends without any sort of resolution. I was thinking it was going to start in like February. But I have no idea how the writers strike has effected that. Update: Feb 12, 2008 the show will air its first new episode (according to cbs's jericho website). I also read something on there that this season will only be 7 episodes (apparently they completely f***ed up there marketing plan for it and considered it a complete disaster) and than they plan on having a 3rd season (although my guess is the success of those 7 episodes will have a major effect on whether they get another season or not.

QUOTE(IlliniKrush @ Dec 15, 2007 -> 11:23 PM) Willie, please don't go to Iowa. We have enough dbags around here like Gage to talk s*** about them Haha, just imagine how much s*** talking I could do if they ever get there s*** together and get good

QUOTE(WHarris1 @ Dec 15, 2007 -> 04:57 PM) Yeah, I'll live. I'm taking it better than I thought I would. Not that anyone really cares but, I already got in to Iowa and Indiana with small scholarships, still gotta get my Wisconsin app in(which is my 2nd choice). So I'm really banking on Wisconsin now. Iowa eh...Willie the Hawkeye fan...has a nice ring to it. Either way, no matter what, I'm sure things will work out great. I never expected to end up going to Fullerton and for me it worked out awesome (I had gotten into and was expecting to go to the University of Washington until something came up and I had to change decisions).

I'm real excited for some cool things that may be in store for Soxtalk and the other sites within the network. I'm talking cool ass possibilities surrounding content for all the membesr to read.

So does this make a deal for a major bat the next thing they do. Do they have enough prospects to get that bat? We know they have an extra pitcher to deal, but they'd need more than just that, imo.

Dude thats awesome....his stache in a Sox hat....I think its time for a new Soxtalk Banner!!!

Seems like a solid move for each team. Dbacks gave up two high ceiling guys (Gonzalez and Carter) and Carter's ceiling is limited because he's a first baseman (but he has massive power potential) and than a bunch of solid but not star studded prospects (aside from Anderson who is apparently pretty solid, but not as good of a prospect as Gio, imo). Haren/Webb is a real good 1/2.

Sweet...Congrats guys. For the sheer sake of every wall near him, I hope Willie got the news he wanted to get.

QUOTE(Buehrle>Wood @ Dec 14, 2007 -> 02:23 PM) Are the word-linked ads on the front page new? They were a mistake by me. I was messing around with the ad I have on the bottom of the page and somehow accidentally added f***ing word-linked ads. They were probably up for like half an hour before I realized it. Sorry about that folks...I axed them as soon as I realized they were there. I hate that s*** and will never put that on this site, unless of course it made me enough to not have to work anymore

I wish Wing nothing but the best of success in Oaktown.