Chisoxfn

QUOTE(bmags @ Oct 25, 2006 -> 07:16 PM) great episode. Really explains why they needed the boat so much. but it seems strange the other camp has never seen that island before. Ya, thats what I couldn't figure out. You'd think they'd have noticed another island.

Oh freak yes. I can fly out of Long Beach which is a nice small airport and go into Chicago. It'll give me options to go with my usual choice of Southwest.

Ya, but the man can hit regardless of how pissed off he is (in fact he's even better when he's pissed). He's one of those guys that no matter what is going on around him, no matter how mad everyone is at him, he'll continue to produce and producde at a top notch rate (as long as he's healthy).

Plus a sinkerballer like Huddy would look real good. I don't know if the Braves would move him though, considering his 06 and 07 salaries are incredibly attractive.

I assume we will place him on the 40 because he's one of the many guys we'll have to protect. The nice thing is we won't have to protect Robert Valido this year thanks to the new collective bargaining agreement.

Talk about a memorable time. From watching Game's 1 and 2 in Chicago. All of us going crazy at the bar during game 2 when Paulie went yard on the grand slam (as Jim is running back) and Brian is heaving and than Pods hitting the amazing HR. Game 3 being back home nervous about every pitch, thinking we were going to lose the game a million times over during the 8th/9th/10th/11th innings and than all of a sudden Geoff Blum goes bam and than we get an insurance run and closer Buehrle shuts things down. And than Uribe making two of the most unbelievable post-season plays in White Sox history and John Rooney's epic call. Wow, what a great time a year ago was. And than there was SNB's favorite part...the playoff beard, LOL.

I don't mind Haeger as the last guy in the pen, as long as we upgrade in a couple areas (ie Riske/Bmac). Obviously Bmac would be going to the pen. I think the biggest upgrade we could make would be Cotts rediscovering things. In fact, that seems to be the sentiment about our entire rotation (especially with Buehrle). We'd be light-years better with the regular Mark Buehrle and the Neal Cotts of 05 (or a very similar version). In fact we'd probably be playing in the series. We really don't have as many holes as people think, but get a replacement for Riske thats rock solid, open up a spot for Brandon and drastically tweak our outfield/top of the order (and that could also involve a new SS being our leadoff hitter).

I hope it proves him innocent and all of this non-sense can end. Despite his offensive problems (ie unwillingness to walk which gets him in trouble) Uribe is one of my favorite players in all of baseball to watch (especially out in the field).

Anyone happen to know of any decent way of getting a PS3 at release? I'm gonna try and buy one to throw up on ebay. I'm still waiting to see when Gamestop will do online pre-orders.

QUOTE(beautox @ Oct 25, 2006 -> 02:28 PM) This is all true of Pelfrey but Boras is his agent, and that would be a problem down the line. Still, thats a long time from now. We wouldn't have to really deal with Boras till arbitration time.

Are you guys implying that VW's have low maintenance cause aside from some cool looks they are some of the worse built cars on the road. I happen to love Audi's but even they are built like garbage (in terms of maintenance). But I know for a fact that VW's (jetta's especially) are some of the biggest piles of crap ever (in terms of how they hold up, not commenting on whether they are nice cause they got a cool look, plus tons of hot chicks drive them).

QUOTE(WhiteSoxfan1986 @ Oct 25, 2006 -> 01:28 PM) I would love to get pelfrey somehow(he can be traded, since he's pitched in the bigs already, so he doesn't have to wait a year after he signed). Would you rather have Pelfrey of Humber? I wouldn't mind either, but I'll go with Pelfrey, especially since Humber was pulled from the AFL with shoulder soreness, although that shouldn't be a big deal. The Mets have a lot to offer, that's for sure. Pelfrey. He's got a healthy shoulder while Humber had to have had arm problems a couple times. Humber is awfully talented too, but give me the guy with the better health rep. Both are top notch prospects though (when healthy).

QUOTE(CWSGuy406 @ Oct 25, 2006 -> 01:11 PM) Ah, I'm glad you know this by all 166 ABs Milledge has at the major league level, because I'm sure you've been following his whole minor league career, right? Why again aren't you working in MLB? Technically speaking it seems attitude is the big reason the Mets are open to getting rid of him. I've also seen him make some horrible mistakes in the field, but thats totally understandable considering he's a rookie. The question is how much of the attitude is because he's in NY. Either way I'll take Mike Pelfrey. If we want to go young in LF we have Sweeney or Fields. Pelfrey dominated AA in his 12 games, pitched well in his only AAA game and while he's been rushed he has front of the rotation stuff and was able to get his feet wet at the major league level part of last season.

QUOTE(mr_genius @ Oct 24, 2006 -> 08:00 PM) it's accurate. they guy really hasn't done or said much to warrant all the amazingly positive publicity the MSM gives him. It all stems from his speach at the DNC 2 years ago. He had a good speach and people labeled him as presidential.

QUOTE(NUKE_CLEVELAND @ Oct 25, 2006 -> 12:47 PM) Sing it with me Jas.........."THISSSSSSSSSSS ISSSSSS OURRRRRRR COUNNNNNNNNNTRYYYYYYYYYY" FAAAAAAAAAAAAAA THIIIIIIIIIIIISSSSSSSS ISSSSSSSSSSSSSSS OOUUUUUUUUURRRR COOOOOOOOOOUUUUUUUUNNNNNNTTTRYYYY!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WOOOOOOOOO, HYPOCRITES FORD/GM AREEEEEEEEEEEE QUOTE(Steff @ Oct 25, 2006 -> 12:53 PM) I Amazingly fun cars to drive. You have a 5 or a 3 series??? My moms BF just got the new 5 and holy crap I finally got to drive it (and drive it I did) and it was amazingly fun to drive. If I won the lotto, I'd own a 5 series and a Denalli. One car, one SUV.

QUOTE(Balta1701 @ Oct 25, 2006 -> 12:45 PM) We should have talked a few months ago. Went out pretty much expecting to wind up in a new Corolla, took a look at that car and the Civic, wound up walking away having spent more money on the Civic and being pretty darn happy about it. Its a great car. I've had two Honda's and a Ford in my lifetime. I loved my Ford, but absolutely have loved my Honda's.

I :wub Scrubs. I need to watch the earlier seasons on TBS or WGN or wherever they are playing.

QUOTE(Rowand44 @ Oct 25, 2006 -> 12:48 PM) IIRC ND scored with about 5 minutes left to get the game within a td. So ya, blowout wasn't the appropiate term to use here but irrc they never actually had a chance to tie the game up. I thought at one point we recovered a fumble or something (only to have it reviewed and over-turned) or had a TD come back that could have tied it and than OSU instead shut the door. But if ND wasn't outclassed speed wise in the secondary it would have been more of a game. However, it was the type of game that even when it got close I really didn't think ND would win. But thats cause OSU was clearly the 3rd best team in the country. However that OSU team is probably national champs most years, but it just happened that two of the best teams in college history both happened to appear in 05 (Texas and USC).

QUOTE(ZoomSlowik @ Oct 25, 2006 -> 12:39 PM) Heads wishes he had Milledge. It's not a case of him having young players, it's him having a lack of talent. Anyways, on to the original thing. Heilman is probably a better fit for what we'd want, even though Milledge is a sexier name. If we can't find a more dependable option in LF though I'd consider it, the kid is quite talented. The guy I want is Mike Pelfrey. Thats an arm to hang our hats on. Give me arm's over a LF because I think our very own Ryan Sweeney is just the prospect Milledge is (or very very close to it) with far less hype (ie a better value). We don't have anyone like Pelfrey in our system. QUOTE(Balta1701 @ Oct 25, 2006 -> 12:42 PM) Just out of curiosity, how is Heilman a better fit for what we want? Don't we already have 6 guys who want to start in a 5 man rotation, with 2 guys at AAA or above who look close? Doesn't picking up another guy who wants to be a starter just leave us with the same problem? It helps the back end of the pen and makes him the new Bmac (our 6th starter if any of our 5 goes down). The only difference is this is a guy who has actually had success pitching out of the pen. The problem is he wants to start and I don't know how happy he'd be coming to Chicago and than pitching out of the pen. If we could swing a Pelfrey/Heilman for Tracey or Haeger/Garcia I'd be freaking exstatic.

QUOTE(sox4lifeinPA @ Oct 25, 2006 -> 10:45 AM) this to me is like the Catholic Preist scandals.... EVERYONE knew that kids were getting hurt, but 20-30 years go by and the Catholic Leadership does nothing. EVERYONE knows that Fords suck goat balls and Ford's leadership do everything but make their cars worth investing in. "Built Ford Tough" only goes as far as your car breaking down 3 times in a month. No one believes in your product, so DO something to change that BESIDES fancy marketing. "you can polish a turd....but it's still a turd at the end of the day" For years there trucks were the best on the market. I'm not sure if thats true (since they changed the styling around 03 or 04) but they had that market covered. QUOTE(Rex Kicka** @ Oct 25, 2006 -> 12:32 PM) Actually Toyota pays, on average, a higher wage than GM and Ford union shops. The drive to unionize Toyota has had a side effect of making sure Toyota employees are well taken care of. As a result, KY's Toyota plant can't get more than 40% of the employees on board for the UAW. AKA the most over-rated car company on the planet. On a lot of there products, people are paying far more than what they are getting. Yes, I have a bias against Toyota in fact I hate Toyota. HONDA, now thats another story That said I think the Tundra and 4Runner kick butt, they are just overpriced (especially the 4Runner). QUOTE(southsider2k5 @ Oct 25, 2006 -> 12:21 PM) Tell me one that has offered anything near the compensation packages that the US companies have. Nissan was for a long while. Friend of the family worked pretty high up at there headquarters out my way and they were paying well more than the American Counterparts (he had previously worked for two of the American car companies). I also know Nissan has opened plenty more plants in the midwest and vehicles like the Titan are built entirely in the US. At the same time GM assembles most of its products in Mexico (at least for SUV's) although my dad was telling me the higher up SUV's are produced in the states or in canada (one or the other).

Q QUOTE(ZoomSlowik @ Oct 25, 2006 -> 10:48 AM) Oh please, take off the homer-glasses. ND has defeated one team with less than 3 losses so far, and that's from some mediocre conferences. Plus 3 of those wins were less than impressive. Florida had a convincing win against a 6-2 LSU team that would have one or no losses in any other conference and beat a 6-1 Tennessee team on the road. Tennessee absolutely destroyed a 7-1 Cal team that just might win the Pac-10 and had a convincing win at Georgia, who is 6-2. Auburn has wins against LSU and Florida. Even Texas at least beat Oklahoma and Nebraska. The best Notre Dame can claim is a win over 5-2 Georgia Tech, and all they really have is a win over an equally overrated Virginia Tech team. If Charlie Weis didn't have a four-leaf clover up his fat ass they could easily be 3-4 against a rather mediocre schedule. You could make a decent case that a few more teams should be ahead of them... Trust me, as a big time ND fan there is no way I'd make claim to ND being better than Florida. I don't think Tenn is that good but thats cause I don't think Cal (or the Pac 10) are any good. OSU Mich Florida (depsite its loss) are my top 3 (even though WVU and USC are undefeated). USC is hurting now that they don't have a QB who worked with Chow and knew all of the intracacies of his system.

QUOTE(CWSGuy406 @ Oct 25, 2006 -> 11:51 AM) Jason, I know you would strongly disagree with me on this, but I don't think for a second that a Milledge/Anderson/Dye OF would be conceding. For all intents and purposes, we got nothing out of our left-fielder this season. He provided virtually no power, he didn't get on-base, and he didn't do a whole lot defensively either. Let's take Dye out of the equation here, and just talk about Anderson and Milledge. I think you have one of the most reasonable opinions about Anderson's potential. Some people talk about Anderson like he can be a future All-Star at the plate. That's terribly unreasonable. I believe he has the potential (I should say peak) to be a slightly above average hitter (I'm thinking .275/.330/.450, pretty much Torii Hunter's line through his age 27-29 seasons), with the obvious plus of being a good-to-great defender at a premium defensive position. Unfortunately, I still think we're in for another year of 'getting to that potential' from BA. I'd guess something like .250/.320/.425, which is similar to his ZiPS projection for 2007 (.247/.312/.392). That being said, I strongly believe you can put up with a line like that so long as the defense is there. The only two positions I'll say that for are SS and CF, with catcher coming in at a close third. The question is, how is Milledge going to perform next season? He seems to be a much superior offensive talent to Brian Anderson, so I don't think he'd struggle as much as BA did last season. What would you project from Milledge for 2007? And, is that better or worse than Sweeney? Wrapping it all up, the main objective for Kenny this winter is getting the pitching back to its 2005 level. That includes remembering that, if you are going to replace Uribe or Anderson, you're likely to have a defensive downgrade at two really important spots (there are some obvious exceptions, like Mike Cameron). And, although defense in LF isn't as important as CF, it would be nice to have a LFer who could get the ball to homeplate on a fly. My problem is if you have Uribe, Anderson and Milledge as a 7-8-9 you have as feeble of a 7-8-9 as anyteam in baseball (and you could almost go on to include NL teams that throw the pitcher in the 9 spot). Now I'm not saying these guys can't do better than that cause all three are highly capable, but I'm not a fan of developing more than a couple guys per-season at the big league level. I think the Atlanta Braves did things best by having a few horses in there rotation, a few key bats in there lineup and than each year they'd have 1-3 guys that they'd be developing but those guys would be completely eased into the situation and have little to no pressure (kind of like how BA had last year). Truthfully the key to next season is getting our pitching to perform more like 05 and less like 06 (rotation and pen). If we knew we had super strong pitching the team could probably get by with the outfield listed above and a weak lineup, especially since Milledge & Anderson would both provide speed and quite frankly you are accurate, our LF last year blew chunks anyway. However, I have very little expecations (like you) for any major/rapid development of Brian Anderson and I think your long term line was very accurate (his upside is that of a Torri Hunter) and he'll never be a super star offensive player but when you mix in his defensive abilities you end up having an above avg CF. In Milledge's case we are talking about a guy that is still extremely young and that is still very raw, but extremely talented. Defensively he has a long ways to go but the tools are there (plus LF isn't a hard place to play unless your Pods). He's still a slap hitter at this point and in a sense I'd expect him and Sweeney to have similar numbers and both are the type's of guys that should develop more power as they progress. I like Sweeney's defensive tools over Milledge's and I think Sweeney has the better swing to hit for a high average, however the few times I saw Milledge I did notice that he has what I'd call a "live" bat which could turn him into a Soriano type guy (small but with lots of power). Now I'm not saying he'll be that good, just kind of comparing body/bat types. Milledge has solid plate discipline for a 21 year old but also has a long swing which leads to ton of K's. I think he'd do a little worse than Ryan over the course of a full season and I tend to think Milledge is over-hyped a bit because as a whole I don't consider him much better (if at all better) than Sweeney (who now is what I'd call an under-rated prospect by those outside of our organization). The one thing Milledge does superior to Sweeney is hit doubles and I'm very confident some of those will turn to HR's. My closing point is that if the Sox want to carry those two in the OF than we might as well bring in a vet that can play both places and fill in from time to time (plus kind of be a mentor). I'm talking a quality guy. That could even mean Mack (who can play LF) as long as Ozzie knows he isn't the everyday CF. In addition to that we'd need someone else at SS that could be the teams explosive leadoff guy and obviously a very good pitching staff. It can definately be done, but the Sox would have to do somethings first.

QUOTE(Steff @ Oct 25, 2006 -> 10:19 AM) Or anyone except shaving products. Haha, damn job has me shaving twice a week. I shave Monday morning and Wed morning and on Sunday's I got some nice scruff. I should be a spokesman for the working without having to shave association.

Chicago White Sox

Ford is hurting, but a lot of the reason they are hurting is because the effects of all there restructuring adjutsments and layoffs have yet to really be felt. I expect another chunk of awful results for them but in a couple quarters things should imrpove at least a bit (not saying that means things will be good, far from it, but better than they have been).