Chisoxfn

I've been one of his biggest critics from time to time but I really don't think he's on the hot seat. Ozzie will never get fired, but I do think when his career ends he'll likely resign.

QUOTE(Colorado Sox Fan @ Mar 8, 2007 -> 05:31 AM) When I first saw this on the ESPN ticker I was shocked, but I get the logic. Replacing him will cost more in the future. As for MB, he needs to show me the second half of last year was an aberration. If he does, then I pay him the going rate. A 91 MPH fastball in spring training was all I needed to see. I have full faith in Buehrle being the guy we all have known and loved as Sox fans and not the guy that was absolutely downright abysmal over the 2nd half of last season.

QUOTE(Kalapse @ Mar 7, 2007 -> 08:48 PM) Anyone who questions Mike Caruso's talent is a f***ing idiot. The man had and likely still has (he's still only 29) all the talent in the world. He played some solid defense his rookie year in 1998 as a 21 year old rookie his defense only slipped the following year in '99 likely because of an unwillingness to improve on his game and some extraciricular activities that may hamper an athletes abilities. Anyone who hits .306 with 22 SBs and an 89 OPS as a 21 year old rookie obviously has some f***ing talent damnit. If he wanted to he could probably earn his way back onto a team as a backup infielder but he's likely a little occupied with other more important dealings in some latin country to work on his game at all. Caruso was awesome for a rookie. The sky was the limit for him and man could that guy run. He could have turned into a consistent 50-75 base stealer. Also, lets not forget his rookie season was something like his first year above a ball and he hit .300 doing it. Too bad he had a little dope problem and already thought he was amazing.

I'd just like to say that I really really like our GM.

You draft based on talent early on but eventually it gets to the point where you start drafting on an organizational need basis and in those instances its just something you got to do. However, it should be noted if you ever think a guy has high upside (whether early or late in the draft) you never pass him up for someone else because they have need. The thing is later on in the draft you usually have guys you are leaning to and they fill multiple needs and you go with it.

QUOTE(Rowand44 @ Mar 5, 2007 -> 11:26 AM) UNI isn't a bad loss, the other two definitely are though. Sorry Jas, but Iowa isn't even in the discussion, they need to win the tourny. And win the tourney they will

QUOTE(Hideaway Lights @ Mar 5, 2007 -> 02:45 PM) no cheating! 5 questions about the 2000's era of AL baseball 1) The White Sox have the 4th highest cumulative win total since 2000 at 617. Can you name the top three in order? 2) Seven teams have over 600 victories. Can you name all seven? 3) Two teams have an over 50 game disparity between their lowest win total and highest win total. Name them. 4) What team has the lowest variance in terms of disparity between lowest and highest win total at 13 games? 5) Which 4 teams have won less than 500 games in the 7 seasons dating back to 2000? Answers later 1. Cardinals, Yankees, Braves (if not them than I'm guessing Angels). 2. Cards, Yanks, Braves, White Sox, Red Sox, Angels, A's 3. Detroit Tigers, Florida Marlins 4. White Sox 5. Tampa, Detroit, Kansas City, Colorado

QUOTE(lord chas @ Mar 5, 2007 -> 10:31 PM) why would any team give the bears more than one draft pick when they have all the leverage? Because they don't have all the leverage. The Bears have leverage as Briggs would have to sit out an entire season if he really was so pissed and quite frankly thats just not that great off an option when he could at least be making just over 7 mill with a one year deal with the Bears. We hold the leverage as Briggs has no options really. Now that he's asked to be traded we can shop him around and my hope is for a first this year and next year or a first this year and a 2nd this year as well as something like a 3rd or 4th next year. Its only fair (unless of course the first rounder we get is top 10). Sorry but Briggs is a stud and we should be more than willing to hold onto him for a year (or at least play it off like we are willing to do so). I do expect Briggs to be dealt though and for the Bears to have a bevy of picks to work with. QUOTE(kyyle23 @ Mar 6, 2007 -> 05:16 AM) Briggs also turned down a reported 6 year 33 million dollar contract last year with a nice fat signing bonus. His lack of respect card is bullsh*t. And the difference between Adalious Thomas paycheck and Lance Briggs paycheck lies in one difference in their game: the ability to rush the quarterback. Thomas is regarded as a pass-rushing linebacker in the 3-4 defense, who can line up at end and rush in a straight up stance if needs be. Thomas would be right there with Briggs in money, if not making more. Thomas is also substantially older. I think with both on the open market, Briggs gets just a bit more than Thomas.

QUOTE(Balta1701 @ Mar 6, 2007 -> 03:46 PM) How does signing Vazquez for less than he'd get in arbitration mean that the White Sox have less money available? The only way to free up more money would have been to not offer Vazquez arbitration and therefore let him walk with no compensation, at which point we very well might be playing the market for a $12 million a year mediocre starting pitcher somewhere. It doesn't, what it does is mean barring any serious injuries we won't have a completely decimated rotation a year from now. We could have been facing some really ugly prospects a year from today if we weren't able to get at least one of our vets signed to an extension (hopefully one more during the year) which means we will only have 1-2 and a max of 3 rotation spots opening up over the next few years if all goes fine (and to me thats more than enough spots to give our young guys an opportunity). Remember prospects don't instantly pan out and put up numbers and planning on counting on more than one raw pitcher in the rotation (before you account for injuries) is just a bad idea for a contending team and now I think we'll be able to prevent that.

QUOTE(winninguglyin83 @ Mar 6, 2007 -> 02:40 PM) All this talk about Buehrle ... wonder what Garland thinks of this deal. isn't he outta here after 2008? Ya, my guess is the Sox will talk to him about extending at some point this season if he's doing well and if he is pitching and Buehrle is pitching well they probably offer them each simliar deals and see which one bites (making either of them the likely highest paid pitchers on the staff, albeit not by much more than Javy and company).

Wow, first time I've logged on since early this morning and I log on to a very pleasant surprise. This seems like a more than fair deal for both sides and I'm really glad we have another pitcher signed. This means if we want to we will have at least 3 of our veteran starting pitchers back in 08 which is a major plus, as it means that if one our 5th starters pan out this year than we have them in the rotation and are just adding one spot and if one of them doesn't than Kenny only has to add one or so more starters as opposed to 2 or so.

I want to point out that unless your cable company has real terrible HD signal, you should get infinitely better HD quality with Cable. Both Cable and Direct TV (and any satellite provider for that matter) compress the HD signal a bit but Direct TV does it far far worse and because of it (unless your cable provider is absolutely horrid or you are in an area where the cable isn't using updated technology such as fiber optics) the HD picture quality on cable is superior (that may change in a few months when direct tv puts up a new satellite that is supposed to up its HD capacity) but right now if you like HD picture quality than Cable is 100 times greater (with about a 2% exception).

QUOTE(Jimbo @ Mar 5, 2007 -> 11:11 AM) Isnt Iowa barely above .500? Ya, only a few games over. That said we still have a shot at 20 wins if we have a nice tourney.

New poll out...FSU to 5, CSUF up to 7 and Rex's Evansville squad re-enters the rankings at 25. And Palehose's Tarheels remain the #1 ranked team in the country.

Wow...according to Lunardi both Purdue and Illinois get in and Michigan would get in before Iowa would (that I don't agree with) and yes damn it I got to say something about Iowa.

QUOTE(maggsmaggs @ Mar 5, 2007 -> 08:21 AM) Next year Cunningham will be on that list. Book it. He is a stud and it would not surprise me to see him put up a .300, 20 HR, 20 SB line this year with a fair amount of walks. He will be our next outfield stud. I tend to agree.

I agree 100% with what Kalapse said. The reality is this sucks for baseball fans, but this isn't something the government should be sticking its nose in either (even though if the package came back to cable I would be happy, I also know it wouldn't be for the right reasons). I guess I'll be getting the mlb.tv platinum this week. On the bright side I'll get to catch a few games while I'm at work but the thing that dissapoints me is I won't be able to tivo games becuase the only way to watch replay will be go to onto the site and somehow see the score (and I hate doing that).

QUOTE(Felix @ Mar 4, 2007 -> 05:30 PM) Anyone here follow college baseball a fair amount? I went to a Gopher game today (free admission, first row above Gopher dugout ), and it seems like a few friends and I are going to try going to these games regularly.. it's pretty fun to see free baseball (especially since I grabbed a bunch of free ticket vouchers for the rest of the year). Anyway, I'm looking for some sites that are pretty good for information on college baseball. Anyone have any? Baseballamerica.com They usually have quite a bit of free reading on college baseball and obviously some of it is pay. I follow it relatively closely than most but I'm not an expert by any means. I'll watch the games when I see them on ESPN and will go to the Fullerton games where we play other top schools (such as against Rice this weekend) where we took 2 out of 3 and should move up in the rankings as a result. We have a Sunday starter that is looking like a potential All Freshman Team Candidate in Sean Urena. Another good place is your schools website, they'll probably have good info on the Gopher players. I know in the past you guys have made it to the tourney and I think a couple years ago we knocked you out (back when you had Perkins).

Marky Boy...hope it was an awesome bday

QUOTE(greasywheels121 @ Mar 3, 2007 -> 01:03 PM) #2 UCLA falls at Washington. Took Washington enough time to wake up. They are one of the most talented teams in the country and I doubt they go dancing. THe Pac 10 is so good and yes, Washington >>>> every team in the Big Ten aside from OSU and Wisconsin (thats how good the pac 10 is this year). I want the Bulls to draft Horford.

I hope Iowa wins the tourney just to ensure that the Illini don't get in. Its a joke that the big ten may actually get 5 teams in. And no I don't think Iowa deserves a bid either, nor does Purdue or Illinois (albeit both deserve a bid more so than Iowa) and I have my doubts about MSU but they'll probably get one (thanks to having a big time win). Illinois, Iowa, and Purdue should be NIT bound. Funny thing is this year has been a second consecutive very very good coaching job by Alford because he got everything he could out of this quad.

Whooo...Cal State Fullerton takes 2 out of 3 against the #5 ranked Rice Owls.

Haeger has a really good knuckler and I liked what I saw of Danks and Gio. Garland was solid as well.

Ya, WGN at 12 my time so 2 central time.

QUOTE(Kalapse @ Mar 2, 2007 -> 05:55 PM) The Rangers held a $4M team option for the '08 season, if they're about to give him $15M a year to keep him around for the next 6 years then I doubt they would have had much trouble paying him $4M to stick around for 2008. The soonest he would have hit free agency would have been after the '08 season. I've been served. I don't know why I was thinking he was an unrestricted FA. It must have been from all the trade proposals talking about teams picking him up that I assumed it was because he was due to be a FA. That said I fully agree that is a lot of money to give Young.