Chisoxfn

QUOTE(Kalapse @ Sep 10, 2007 -> 11:16 AM) Dave Roberts got no where near $10M a year. He got nearly half that. I want David DeJesus. He's going to be dealt this offseason and his value is way down after his slugging% took a huge hit this season. I want him. Plus IIRC he was signed to a relatively affordable extension about a season ago. I'd be all about this as I think Dejesus is a pretty solid all around ball player.

QUOTE(NorthSideSox72 @ Sep 10, 2007 -> 10:07 AM) Oh come on now. I know people here aren't big Owens fans for the most part, but jeez, the guy has done pretty well since his recent call-up, continues to improve his hitting and has been a pleasant surprise on defense. It amazes me that people wanted BA to keep playing all year while never reaching .200, and some of those same people wrote off Owens before he even got here (despite that he has been far more productive than Anderson was his first year). Believe me, I'd rather have Rowand or Hunter or someone else high caliber out there in CF in 2008, and have Owens as the 4th OF, if that situation can work. But if we can't get that done, I think Owens will probably do OK in a full season out there. He would probably be better than we got out of the CF position offensively in 2005, 2006 or 2007. 2006 & 2007...no way will he do better than Rowand's 05 (even if Rowand wasn't that great during 2005, he was still solid especially when you factor in his defense). I agree though, a lot of people have written Owens off. He has made some strides, but the thing I don't like his he's mediocre defensively in Cf (with a bad arm) and I'm not sure he has the ability to hit for a good enough average. He has actually impressed me with his base stealing (he still needs to work on getting better jums, but overall he's made a lot of strides in this department over the course of the season) and he does a nice job looking at pitches (and I can definitely see him being a guy who can draw a lot of walks). I even like how he's willing to go opposite field, however, he goes there so often that I think for him to be succesful he will have to learn to turn on the inside pitch (which will hopefully give him a few extra base hits as well). Mix that in with higher walk totals (and lower k's, which could happen as he learns to lay off a few more of those breaking balls) and you have a pretty darn good top of the order hitter. The only thing is, I hate pencilling him in out there when the club has so many other weaknesses.

QUOTE(Gregory Pratt @ Sep 9, 2007 -> 07:21 PM) We're not going to add Heath Phillips to any offer so that another team will give us a top prospect. Heath's contract situation and mediocrity say, No. I assume you are referring to Heath being out of options rather than him being anywhere close to arbitration. And I completely agree with you. I also buy on whomever mentioned the Sox potentially packaging Sweeney in a deal. Its too bad, a lot of us are looking to be wrong on that guy (Dan is not one of those guys as he was always far more careful about Sweeney than a lot of people). He just can't stay healthy and despite being a good athlete with an all around swing he's yet to put anything together where he had just a flat out all around good season in the minors. I keep holding my breath that it will happen because if he made a few minor adjustments he'd be a .300/15-20 HR/good D type of guy (that would be cheap on the Sox books for a few years).

QUOTE(southsida86 @ Sep 9, 2007 -> 05:07 PM) Sorry Jason, but Garland has worse trade value right now and going into this offseason than Freddy Garcia did last offseason, and probably identical to Buehrle's before this season. with him making $12M on a 1 year deal, I'd be surprised if we could get more than a reliever coming off a down year, or a couple of prospects like we got in the Iguchi/Mackowiak trades. I think it is best to hang on to him and hope he has a first half like he did this season so we may be able to get something of value for him at the deadline next season. I have no clue what Kenny is doing for this team because in all honesty this is a 5 year rebuilding project. The only guys on our team who have trade value are Buehrle and Konerko. Everyone else is worth a bag of balls to other GMs. I call BS. Garland is younger than Freddy and is coming off a far better season. Look at his overall season, its pretty average, but you throw out a 5 week stretch and he's one of the better starters in the AL this year. And despite him talking about a tired arm, he's on pace to again go over 200 innings. Move him to the NL and you are talking about a guy who will perenially give 200 innings with an ERA in the 3's and on a good team compete for the cy young year in year out (note I don't say win it, but I definitely think he could be in the top 10 cy young candidates for a few year span if he's pitching in the NL).

QUOTE(Heads22 @ Sep 10, 2007 -> 07:08 AM) They aren't his players. Maybe McCarney was a lot better than everyone thought. He had ISU playing pretty well considering the history of the program before he got there. Still, ISU is going to be desperate when they play Iowa so anything can happen. I hope Iowa will be able to improve to 3-0. I'm really excited based on Christensen's improvement, a very strong defense, and what I think is a good rushing tandum (Simms/Young).

QUOTE(IlliniKrush @ Sep 9, 2007 -> 08:38 PM) I think college football may turn out like this, in no particular order: USC LSU Okla l l l l l l l l Everyone else..... Notre Dame (LOL) Updated it with ND in the equation (although I'm excited to watch Claussen develop...I think this year will be much like Quinn's freshman year).

That stinks for Brown and Dusty. The Bears obviously can't replace Brown's leadership but he they signed Archeletta and can now use Adam and Manning. I'm also sure the Bears will look long and hard at a potential FA or trade pickup as well to bolster the safety position (or Kevin Payne will get activated depending on how much they like him). Dusty really had looked tremendous this preseason and again this week when in the game. I think he'll be really missed as now the Bears depth at the dline is a little less (luckily they had Walker and we still have Adams and Garay).

QUOTE(DBAH0 @ Sep 9, 2007 -> 04:52 AM) Hmmm; Now I wonder, if the Rockies offered say Fuentes, Chris Iannetta and another reliever for Garland, would that get you interested? Are you kidding me....relievers for Jon Garland. If Kenny does that he should be absolutely f***ing fired. RELIEVERS....your talking about RELIEVERS...NO NO NO. If you bring up some of there stud prospects..yes yes yes...but relievers...NO.

s***...that just sucks. I wish Mike the best of luck, but I think if thats the case his career as a coach should begin now.

QUOTE(IlliniKrush @ Sep 8, 2007 -> 07:14 PM) No, not really. VaTech being taken to the wood shed, yikes. Goes along with my OU LSU National Championship game. Those two teams are ridiculously good.

QUOTE(WHarris1 @ Sep 9, 2007 -> 04:06 PM) Cedric Benson, is not. The entire offensive line deserves a lot of the blame too. Peterson and Benson f'd up with the fumbles as well. Overall though I was quite pleased with Rex handling the Chargers pass rush and his throws (although he started the game off a little rough). Defense played suberb till they finally just got beat down thanks to all those stinking fumbles.

Gotta love it...Hawkeyes taking care of business against Syracuse this time around (after having to barely win last year). 28-0 in the 3rd. The young QB Christensen with 3 TD's and the defense is just playing awesome. Running game hasn't been near as strong as it was against Northern Illinois.

Thomas deserved to be stopped short on that 3rd down. And I don't buy into this Weiss stuff...he cares about winning and his players respect the heck out of him. Call him unclassy or whatever you want, but he's a great football coach and he's going to help a lot of guys have great careers.

I'm really with Keith...trade Konerko to the Angels or Rangers or Dodgers (preferably the Angels or Dodgers because they have a couple guys that you have to really like and would be good fits for the Sox) and than make a heavy push for Andruw Jones (as a FA) to come in, fill CF, and fill the hole in the middle of the lineup. Kochman semi replaces Konerko (no he's not as good, but he's more than solid and still has some upside) and Jones when right is still one of the very best CFer's in the game.

And the Irish get the ball back. Oline needs to step it up though...second false start of the game.

We had to put our cat to sleep today (only 4/1/2). The cat ended up having a kidney problem and they think it is from bad catfood (even though the food we use was not part of the recall, but I guess every company uses some sort of product that comes from China and it is what can cause the issue). Its amazing how much a pet means to you and how sad it is when they have to leave. Pets really are part of the family.

Notre Dame...7-0 over the Nittany Lions...WOOOO Claussen looks so poised. He has yet to make any pass other than a screen type of pass but he looks so darn composed for a freshman. The kid has that "It" trait and I think he's going to go down as a legend (even though I still think my Irish don't win more than 7 this year, but I still say they get right around 7...the question is can they pick up any early wins).

QUOTE(southsider2k5 @ Sep 7, 2007 -> 07:55 AM) Well, as soon as baseball banned it... It has always been illegal. And it doesn't matter how many people did it, it is wrong. HGH was not always illegal. In fact, I remember various types of HGH being advertised on late night radio during the 21st century. This is not news...he used a substance that was perfectly legal in baseball and when it was banned he stopped receiving the shipment. Big deal. Thats really not much different than a player using an aluminum bat in college and than using a wood bat in the pro's (since you can't use aluminum in the pro ranks). Glaus' situation is news...Ankiels I could give a darn about. Than again I also could really give a hoot if guys are using or not. Bottom line, I love the game of baseball and the only reason I hope guys aren't juicing is because its bad for them. Sure it could taint records, but the main thing is I don't like people using a substance that is bad for them.

Another Sooner TD...there QB Bradford is so accurate and so good.

Oklahoma...2007-2008 National Champions...I think so.

QUOTE(Rowand44 @ Sep 8, 2007 -> 10:58 AM) Well I wasn't talking about signability, that's obviously become a huge factor in the draft. I'm just saying that MLB teams don't draft by need. Price was #1 on my board by a long shot. He's got it all.

If you could get Furcal for a package involving Contreras and a prospect, sign my ass up. Otherwise I think the best option is to trade for a young shortstop prospect (using our own prospects) or getting a top notch prospect via a deal of Jon Garland. However, that is because I would plan on going with 2008 as a partial rebuilding year (i'd try to have vets surrounding the young players, but I would also have a goal of getting the team a lot younger in an effort to try and bring back some of the payroll flexibility that the team had during the earlier part of the decade). It would also put the team in a better position to have a shorter downswing when things crash (and thats if things haven't already crashed with 2007 just being a fluke year...and trust me, I'm not convinced that things haven't completely crashed). Bottom line is I'm very afraid that the Sox are going to be overly stubborn and pay horribly with a run of 10-15 years of being one of the worse teams in all of baseball. If I were in charge I have no problem keeping a couple vet bats around, but I also would do everything I could to make sure we had a good number of upper echelon prospects coming in (meaning we would have to deal guys like Thome/Garland/Contreras). Heck, I really wouldn't have a problem moving Konerko & Crede (Crede only if you expand the deal to include a potential leadoff guy such as Willits) if the Sox were able to get a package involving Santana/Kochman/Kendrick (plus a top 5 minor leaguer while I would also try to get Reggie Willits to see if he could duplicate things) and than opting to hold onto Thome (banking on declining his option if things look like they are still a bit off and taking the draft picks for Thome in 2009). Basically put I'd have all of those guys available for trade (Vazquez/Buehrle would be off the market as I see them as intrical pieces to the squad beginning in 2009 which I feel would be the more likely year where you can begin to contend, however, if after making a couple of these massive trades you bring in a few veteran stop-gaps than I still think you could be a potentially competitive club in 08 and if things are going good you than make a deadline deal of sorts to add talent and if they aren't, you sell of those stop-gaps for more talent, thus really putting you in a position to buy in the 09 off-season both via FA and trade as you'd have a ton of payroll flexibility and lots of youth). I also firmly believe that Howie Kendrick/Casey Kochman/Danny Richar/Josh Fields give you a talented base of starting players (the question would be where you play both Kendrick and Richar but I think the Sox could figure that out somehow, especially considering that Kendrick is going to be a career .300 hitter as far as I'm concerned). However, if you have doubts you could always convince the Angels to include Brandon Wood or Kendry Morales instead (although I'd personally prefer Kendrick). Santana has been absolutely horrid, but you are getting a major league arm whose still a couple years from FA and he still has the stuff to be a good starter in this league (and there is no reason he can't at least be a #4 or #5). So he gets pencilled in with Buehrle/Vaz in the rotation along with young guys like Gio/Broadway/Egbert/Floyd (maybe a vet stop gap as well) who compete for the final spots (I should indicate that I expect the Garland deal to add more position prospects because I think he ends up going to the Mets or Dodgers with the other landing Contreras...however, Sox are going to have to take on payroll in the Contreras deal so Jose could end up being the Sox's in house veteran stop gap) Bottom line lets say you get 2 of the Mets top prospects for Garland or 2 of the Dodgers top prospects for Garland (meaning a combination of people like Martinez/Gomez/Milledge/Pelfrey/etc; Kemp/Hu/Loney/Ethier/Lefty/Kershaw/Laroche) That means you have in one season compiled a lineup that went from old as hell (that already was horrible mind you) to one that possesses speed (see Willets/Hu/or the Mets guys along with Richar); Power (Dye/Fields/Kemp/Thome); Defense (all of the prospects are pretty decent defensive players, some with the ability to be above average defenders) and you've significantly cut payroll (moving Konerko/Garland/Contreras frees up well around 40M this year and additional money in latter years and that is befor you factor in the departure of guys like Pods/Erstad/Uribe. Even prior to moving Garland your new lineup would be: Willets (if you can get him) Kendrick Thome Dye Kochman Fields AJP OF Opening - Willets can play any of the OF spots, so this would be either CF or LF SS (Richar???) or you consider moving Kendrick to LF and playing Richar at 2nd, thus leaving the SS position as an open one as well. While that is a young lineup and its definitely one with less power than the current Sox lineup...it is also one with guys like Kochman/Kendrick/Willets whom are all upgrades average wise (although there is no way Kochman is an upgrade for the lost production of Konerko). However, if Dye is effective for the full season (as opposed to just half of the season) and Thome is similar to this year (but maybe a bit healthier...obviously a big if) than Konerko's loss (compared with Kochman's play) would not be as significant of a downfall. Whoever plays SS will be an upgrade to the offense and we already can figure that it won't be too hard to find another outfielder that would improve upon this current year's production. Hell...lets say Kenny wants more assurance he can compete. Give Andruw Jones a 4yr 15M/yr deal (ie 4yr 60M) and pencil him into the lineup that now looks like this (Garland is still on the roster as Crede/Konerko/Contreras are only ones dealt thus far): Reggie Willits Howie Kendrick Jermaine Dye Jim Thome Andruw Jones Casey Kochman (or AJP) Josh Fields AJP (or Kochman) SS (Richar or you find a way to get someone else for SS) Price of lineup: (no one in that starting lineup costs much except...Thome (7.5 or so...Jones 15M....AJP...5M). I figure the rest of that bunch makes a combined 5M putting your payroll in your everyday players at 32.5 M (I expect Cintron/Erstad/Pods all to be gone) with Owens filling a bench spot...Ozuna in a reserve role....SS of some sort in a reserve role....maybe a mack or so in a reserve role as well as Hall (max bench price being about 5M). So position players account for $37.5M Rotation: Buehrle Vazquez Garland Santana Floyd/Gio/Whomever (I'm gonna assume 33M between the top 3 starters...plus 4M for the remaining starters...which is a high assumption...plus lets say 5M the Sox sent to another team to make Contreras a little better.....39M). 39+37.5 = 76.5M plus the bullpen. This basically means the Sox would have the ability to go out and make a big splash if necessary (or hell if they wanted to they could move Contreras/Cash and a prospect for Furcal and easily afford his salary as well, making the club better). s*** the more I see this, the more I like and the more I think it makes sense to move Konerko (cause he could command a boatload).

QUOTE(santo=dorf @ Sep 3, 2007 -> 02:23 PM) I've never seen a source, but cheat mentioned there is a handshake agreement between the Sox and Philly for the Phillies to pick up $5.5 million if the Sox do indeed pick up the option for 2009 Wow, now that makes Thome a bit more interesting to me.

QUOTE(Calderon @ Sep 2, 2007 -> 07:55 PM) McCulloch was a waste of a first-round draft pick, not to mention more than a million bucks. Couldn't agree more. It was a horrid selection. Than again the guy I wanted from that draft isn't looking too hot either.

QUOTE(santo=dorf @ Sep 2, 2007 -> 01:38 PM) There's no way the Yankees are going to pick up his $16 million option, and at his age he shouldn't command a five year deal. I also recall him talking about willing to play for Guillen as well. Since the All-Star break: .319 .393 .555 .948 He has 22 stolen bases on the year, so that should attract him to Ozzie, plus he is a huge Sox killer so it'd be great to not face him any more. Would anyone else be willing to give Abreu a deal similar to what we gave Jermaine? Hell yes...especially if the Sox used him to replace Thome who would be moved for younger prospects, use Abreu as his replacement (even though Thome is probably better, Abreu can play LF, run a bit, and still would be productive...but more importantly he has not shown to be injury prone and would allow the Sox to get a couple good prospects in the system to fill other needs). Come on Santo...u know I'd have to bring Thome into this somehow . In all seriousness, I'd be all for giving Abreu a 2 or 3 year deal at a price like 11 mill per year.