Chisoxfn

I'd imagine either Kanny or WS. Considering he's a collegiate player you could see the Sox rushing him to WS, but at the same time there wouldn't be much trouble starting him in Kanny (considering he stayed at Great Falls all season). He's a similar guy to Ray Durham (just not near as fast).

Good read. Thanks for the info Heads/Cheat

Technically its true. But Tate has upset quite a few big time Hawkeye fans. That said people have quickly forgotten how good he was for 2 years in the program and that a big reason for our struggles this year was our lack of any receiving core and a healthy Tate (he was never 100% this year). But remember, he will leave Iowa with a win!!!

QUOTE(Heads22 @ Dec 27, 2006 -> 10:30 AM) All of those schools except for UConn have offered a schollie. No one really knows where he's headed yet. Bernstein decided on the day I posted that. It was looking like UCLA was a strong possibility as of late. Will Steve Alford or Craig Neal be around in 08? They have no excuse to be as bad as they are. Neither Iowa or Iowa State should lose to Drake, but at least Iowa State lost half its roster. Haluska and Smith should be able to carry them to more wins than they have. I hope they will be around. We have the makings of a top 10 recruiting class in 08 if those guys come around and we can get one or two more of the guys we have on our list. This team has just two seniors so it was inevitable we'd see some ups and downs but we need to see Tate develop quickly because Iowa has two guys that can shoot (Smith and Haluska and Smith is one heck of an athlete) but no one else has stepped up. I want to see this team improve and grind its way to a .500 big ten record (I don't know if thats capable though). And my bad on Bernstein, I was thinking of someone else.

This was a good signing and its good to have Alex back. He's a pretty darn solid hitter off the bench and despite an absolute lack of a batter eye he is valuable because he can hit for average and play multiple positions.

It depends on whether our doctors think Mulder will be healthy. If we think Mulder can come back and be 90% of what he once was than he'd be a great guy to hopefully use to replace Buehrle. Mulder is a southsider at heart and is a very good pitcher when healthy (which is the key). I understand he probably won't be ready for half of the season but I'm not opposed to this move if the money is right. 1yr deal worth a few mill guarantee (another couple in incentives) and than 2nd 3rd and 4th year options that would pay him pretty good (say 7 mill a year, 8 mill a year and 9 mill a year). Its not a bad idea for Mark since he has a chance to prove himself and the Sox get the potential to get him at a bit of a discount in future years (but obviously have some clauses that could even boost those options to higher dollar value or even give the player an out clause somewhere in there.

Iowa signed these 3 guys to letter of intent for bball: Dairese Gary from Concord HS in Elkhart, IN, forward Jake Kelly from Carmel HS in Carmel, IN and forward Jarryd Cole from Winnetonka HS in Kansas City, MO. Those are 07 recruits (all 3 stars). All are pretty good looking recruits that join an already strong recruiting class Alford has going. Negedu will be key though as he's an Iowa lean and one of the top recruits in the country. Our 08 class consists of two 4 star recruits that are early comitts.

QUOTE(Heads22 @ Dec 22, 2006 -> 11:43 AM) Arizona, Iowa, Iowa State, UConn, Miami, Illinois and Indiana are the five schools in the running for ***** SF Emmanuel Negedu. We have fans of four of those teams here, at least, so this one should be fun. If Iowa lands him, I think we have a couple more top notch recruits that may come as well. Last I looked Negedu was an Iowa lean but I don't know if that changed. QUOTE(Heads22 @ Dec 23, 2006 -> 09:59 PM) Bernstein to Iowa. Didn't that happen a long long time ago?

Happy Bday to all of you. There are some darn fine members celebrating their bday today

QUOTE(Gene Honda Civic @ Dec 26, 2006 -> 02:12 PM) Sox related, I got a White Sox santa hat and a t-shirt. I also got a Bears division champs longsleeve, which I immediately threw back at my mom, even though it was a gift from my sister... There's a story here... You see, back in late '05, before the Sox playoffs, but after the Sox had clinched, my mom bought me a Sox AL Central Division champs T-shirt. At the time, I was happy the Sox had won the division, but I wasn't satisfied with just a division championship. So when she handed the shirt to me, I touched it for only seconds before tossing it back to her as if it were contaminated with the black plague. I told her that I appreciated the shirt, but I wouldn't wear it until the Sox won the World Series. The reasoning being that if I wore the shirt before the playoffs/World Series, that I was already accepting of the Sox impending post-season failure. In other words, the Bears are gonna win the Super Bowl!

QUOTE(DBAH0 @ Dec 26, 2006 -> 02:23 PM) I'd be iffy on that. The Tigers don't seem to have a lot of faith in Ledezma anyways, and I think our young pitchers who will compete for the 5th starter's position, have more potential to do well than Ledezma even though they may not do so. Ledezma is really really talented. I don't think the Tigers value him as much because he's had some rough times there in the past, but he's also flashed a lot of brilliance and IIRC did pretty good when called upon last year. I'd definitely take him on our team.

QUOTE(IlliniKrush @ Dec 26, 2006 -> 01:08 AM) One of the things i received was a pair of nice slippers. First time i attempted to walk downstairs with them on our new wood stairs, fell down on the first stair and tumbled halfway down. it was essentially like walking down a hill of ice. Woke the whole house up at almost 3am. Good times. QUOTE(southsider2k5 @ Dec 26, 2006 -> 11:32 AM) Anytime buddy, anytime You both will get your asses handed to em. You are talking to the ping pong champion of my middle school. I got a bunch of work clothes (all of which are getting returned because I don't wear ties) and a new pair of work shoes (but I forgot to tell my folks I just bought a new pair about a month ago). Aside from that, Xbox Live for 13 months (my first month free just ended),Tiger Woods Golf, a nice sweater (that I can wear to work when its in the 50's, LOL), undershirts, & money. I bought myself a Rex Grossman jersey and a new football.

QUOTE(dwalteroo @ Dec 25, 2006 -> 11:32 PM) What I don't get is how we are realistically going to sort through all our prospects vying for the fifth spot in any reasonable amount of time. What happens if the chosen #5 goes out and has two bad starts? Do we bring in the second #5? And then what if he has a bad start? I realize this may not happen but of course the #5 guy is going to be on a shorter leash than everyone else. And spring training is great but how much can we learn? I would hate to see the entire season turn into one long audition for 2008. I just hope our organizatoin shows some patience with whomever they decide is best suited to be our 5th starter. We need to realize you can't judge a guy based on just two or three starts and that you need to give him time to make adjustments and either develop into a guy you deem a keeper or show that he's either not ready or will never make it. It should be noted that I am not saying we just continue to roll a guy out there to get shelled because I think relatively quickly you can find out if a player is mature or ready for the majors. Plus you should also be able to see him succeed in some small sample during his first couple outings (something that shows us that he can come through/deliver). By the way, welcome aboard.

QUOTE(SoxHawk1980 @ Dec 26, 2006 -> 11:28 AM) In 2005, Hernandez and McCarthy combined for an ERA of 4.74. I don't think the combination of guys who will be our 5th starter next year will be able to manage that. I doubt they will combine for an ERA under 5. Lots of talent there, but not ready to be good in the majors yet. Actually, I said that "I think they might be down a little." We've written off the Twins in the past and they just keep reloading and coming back year after year. They have great prospects coming up and they have had great success with selecting and developing their pitching prospects. Plus they have some good young position players who are still on the uphill sides of their careers. The Twins could fall off a lot. Or they could avoid an early slump and be nearly as good next year. I'm just not writing them off. They are always in contention, even when people say they shouldn't be. So they can just reload, but its impossible for the Sox too? They have to find and fill a couple spots, while some of there already filled spots are also considered question-marks (imo) yet the Sox who have one spot to fill (while the other 4, when on are some of the better pitchers in all of baseball in addition to being relatively proven commodities) and we have a gripload of arms to go with. And if none of them pan out quickly, we have the talent and cash to jump on a quick deal to fix the hole (if it needs to be). The only thing I'd like to see us do is find a way to get an extra bat which would help give the club a little time while the 5th starter develops and some of our younger relievers develop.

Absolutely not. You can talk all you want about our bullpen being upgraded and yes the talent in the pen has been upgraded but we are also relying on numerous question-marks. MacDougall while dominant when healthy has never proven he can stay healthy. Sisco, Aardsma, Massett are very unproven commodities with only one putting up good major league numbers over the past year (and that was Aardsma). So no, I'm not about to trade anyone from the pen. I'm just hoping a good chunk of these guys pitch up to there capabilities (if they do we have a sick pen) and that Jenksy stays healthy. However, if they don't we could have a disaster of a pen. That said I don't think any team has a better pen (stuff wise) than ours.

If the Yanks want to just unload him, fine. As long as we are talking about like a Jerry Owens for Johnson deal (we only have him for one year) and a couple million cash. I see absolutely no reason to give up anything worth while for Johnson.

QUOTE(fathom @ Dec 26, 2006 -> 10:24 AM) We're making the same exact mistake we made in the 2003 and 2004 years, when we thought we could just fill in (name pitcher) for the 5th starter position, and it would work out. Besides for adding Hall, we've done nothing to help our offense. We're putting a lot of hope into Thome, Dye, PK, and Crede staying healthy the whole season again (besides for Thome's little injuries). Also, even though we've added some guys to the bullpen, I don't think that's what KW had in mind when he said we were going to improve it this offseason. I think he thought he'd be able to get guys like Speier and Walker, but their contracts were a lot higher than he thought they'd be. All I know is that if I sit back and take off my White Sox goggles, we're not an improved team ON PAPER!. You forget how terrible Duque was for most of the season in 05 . The fact of the matter is in 04/05 we didn't have 4 other studly starters around them. In addition, we sure as heck didn't have this caliber of prospects next to them. This 07 team is better if the pitchers pitch up to there capabilities. If they don't, well than it'll be just like 06. However, I believe our team on paper was better than the production, thus I had no problem staying with a very similar team with the exceptions of finding a new OF, a RH bat off the bench that hits LHP (Hall), some more arms for the pen (albeit these guys aren't proven) and a backup catcher (Hall)

QUOTE(greg775 @ Dec 24, 2006 -> 12:19 AM) I think anybody with a brain thinks we coulda got more for BMac. I appreciate the logic but wouldn't yu all agree with me on that? That makes this a bad trade. No, I wouldn't. I don't think people realize the type of upper echelon prospects we got (Danks), the type of arm we got (Massett), and the type of high ceiling 3rd prospect we got (yes that 3rd guy is raw, but he's very projectable). Plus I'd like to think our GM has a brain, afterall he did find a way to build a world series championship club at one point in time. Also, just to point another thing out as people seem to continuously start comparing us to teams that throw out a bunch of young pitchers, I should add we still have 4 starters who are pretty good bets to log around 200 innings (the only real questionmark for me would be Contreras and his back woes).

But it was indeed very fun to watch him throw the football.

People forget that Floyd has shown major league success at one point in time or another, much like Brandon has. We are all forgetting about Brandon's unimpressive 06 campaign and relying on some great starts he made with the Sox down the stretch in 05 (a couple darn good ones) but must we forget that Floyd too had some darn good starts when he first came up at the major league level and than he too had a rather unimpressive first full year in the majors (albeit unlike Brandon, Floyd was in the rotation and I do think pitching out of the pen hurt Brandon). Still, Brandon is very much still considered a prospect, he just happens to be a major league ready one.

QUOTE(SoxHawk1980 @ Dec 23, 2006 -> 10:57 PM) It isn't about not trusting Jason. He hasn't even said what the information is, much less whether it is believable/credible. I just said with what I've heard it makes sense why we'd consider moving him. That is all, I'm not saying anything about whether people need to like the trade or anything like that. Please leave that up to yourself, thats why we have this place so everyone can have there own opinion and be willing to share it. And even if there is a reason to move a guy (and I'm not saying that in fact there was good reason or not cause again it depends on how people would feel about the situation) that doesn't necessarily mean we got the right package or right deal (I happen to like the deal from the perspective that we decided to deal Brandon I think we got some very good arms for him). That said I think Brandon had a chance to be a very special pitcher in our organization and there is no denying he'll be missed and no denying that this was a very very risky move made by Ken Williams. Maybe not as risky as the Bulls Brand for Chandler deal (Since Brand was a bit more of a proven commodity, yet no one knew he'd turn into a super star) but I guess you could see this in a similar light (although I hate comparing Brand, the #1 pick in a draft for a sport where #1 picks start immediately most of the time and where top picks are a lot more likely to make at least some sort of impact).

QUOTE(CWSGuy406 @ Dec 23, 2006 -> 10:56 PM) You got 360? If so, BOOO. HopeHop on Rainbow 6: Las Vegas and then we're talkin'... Yep...I may have Rainbow 6 pretty soon. Right now I just have an Xbox Live free month of gold but hopefully by Christmas that will change

QUOTE(SoxHawk1980 @ Dec 23, 2006 -> 10:15 PM) By the way, I think this elusive "inside information" about McCarthy which has been mentioned in this thread is dubious at best. It sounds like spin to me. Whispers about poor work ethic, attitude, etc. surround many, many players. They typically get thrown around a lot more after a trade. Whenever an organiztion trades away a popular player, we always hear a lot more about how he really was a bad seed. I call BS. Whoa whoa whoa....none of those things are true. McCarthy is a great character individual with a good work ethic and I've never heard anyone from the organization that I've ever talked to say otherwise. I can't go in depth on my stuff but it has absolutely nothing to do with the baseball side of things from a performance standpoint. That said I still say we got extraordinary value for Brandon and I think a lot of people that are panicking vastly overrated the guy (and I've long been one of his biggest supporters and I think he'll have a good career) because we got more than just one arm back, we got at least one guy with more upside as a starter (But also a bit more risk since he's not quite ready for the majors) and than a guy who can be a stud reliever or potentially a pretty good starter (he has the pitches/stuff to do so). I just want us to find a stopgap so we can give Floyd time to turn things around (although my guess is he'll be our 5th) while Danks/Gio/Broadway all work on being potential guys that we can turn to if anyone goes down.

QUOTE(Heads22 @ Dec 23, 2006 -> 10:04 PM) I'm not saying that was it, but it made it easier than if his manager said they cannot go on without him. You should get on AIM. Can't, got people over....playing some call of duty online

QUOTE(CWSGuy406 @ Dec 23, 2006 -> 08:08 PM) No. I wouldn't want Arias one bit. OBP is a problem? So is the fact that he hits for no power. He's slugged above .400 once, and just barely at .423. His OPS has topped .750 once in his minor league career. Why would I want him when we already have him. No, the third guy doesn't really excite me a whole lot. He is what he is, another young arm to add to the system. Just turned 20 years old a couple of weeks ago. And yes, I'd rather have another live arm in the system than Arias, because Arias isn't good. He'll probably make an okay backup. If he's starting for your team, you have lots of problems, though. And twenty-some-odd stolen bases don't change that. That's not to say that I'm a huge fan of this deal. I'm excited to have two of the best lefty pitching prospects in baseball in our system, but I'm quite pissed that McCarthy is gone. I'm excited at our prospects (no pun intended) for 2008 and beyond, but 2007 is going to be very tough with Flaeger as our current fifth starter. Unless, of course, they ink Clemens, which makes so much sense right now, but probably won't happen. To add to that, those steal numbers are not impressive. Good base stealers in the minors put up ridiculous totals (see Ruddy Yan) and when I see guys like Rogowski and company getting right around 20 steals I'm not very impressed (unless I know a guy is ridiculously fast). You got to be really careful about looking at certain minor league stats, in the ends stats are great in the minors but very few of them (especially offensively) deal with the tools/upside (unless we are talking about K/9Inning which is a very good indicator).