Chisoxfn

This is a fantastic move for the Cubs. A very good mgr that I'm sure wants to win real real bad after that disaster in Tampa. Plus he's had a year away which is often a good thing when it comes to mgr's like Pinella (who have that extra fire).

Umm, I think some of you mis-read one thing.

QUOTE(RME JICO @ Oct 15, 2006 -> 06:40 AM) I heard Razor Shines name brought up. He would be ideal as a bench coach, and possible successor to Ozzie. He has experience with a lot of the younger players and he seems to be an up and coming manager. I'd like him as a bench coach, but I still see the Sox finding a spot for Alomar Jr. Shines is the guy I want managing the team. The one thing I'd really like to see is us get a legit, top notch baseball guy on the bench who wouldn't be afraid to ocassionally let Ozzie know he disagrees with something or thinks something can be done better. Shines could very well be that guy. Its too bad Nossek isn't around cause he would have been that guy. Or like a Don Baylor type. Heck, even a Jerry Manuel type.

QUOTE(Rowand44 @ Oct 15, 2006 -> 06:19 AM) If it takes Brandon then forget about it. BTW, it's obviously real early so I can definitely see why NY would try to get Brandon included right now. That doesn't automatically mean a month or two from now that they won't rethink the stance on taking the other 3 pitchers. If we gave up Brandon but were willing to spend the extra money (in addition to our current payroll) on Arod without having to make any other major changes than I'd be willing to do that deal. The Yanks would obviously need to send a lot of money our way and if we gave up anything else I'd be talking about getting a good prospect in return from the Yanks. There is no guarantee Bmac is legit, there is a guarantee that Arod (when healthy and he's been healthy throughout his career) will be one of the 5 best position players in baseball year in year out.

Man, this sucks. Uribe is a semi valuable shortstop but having this looming for a while will pretty much ruin whatever trade value he had.

Pretty cool stuff.

I didn't get home till 4:30 and got up early and am gonna be up till about 3 tonight. I NEED SLEEP

s***, Iowa has a great drive going and Simms fumbles it.

QUOTE(The Ginger Kid @ Oct 13, 2006 -> 01:27 PM) but Cashman's an idiot, so we have that going for us. (evidence: the biggest problem with his club is lack of pitching yet he continually pursues all-star sluggers then can't make it out of the first round when good pitching defeats good hitting) I think we'd be idiots if we made that deal to be honest. I love AROD, but making that deal makes absolutely no sense unless we plan on moving someone like Paulie or Thome or another superstar or two for some front line pitching or some serious pitching prospects (which we could keep one or two of and move the others for whatever our needs are). Also, the talk on the local radio is that if the Angels were going to pick up Arod (or any team for that matter) that the only way the Yankees would get anything in return would be if they were paying a good portion of Arod's salary. Otherwise it appears (according to Socal Reports) that no team would trade for Arod. That basically means the Yanks either pay another few million per season to get a good looking young player in return or they could take on a salary guy that may have value to the Yanks (maybe a Freddy Garcia) and get another good young prospect to boot (someone like Josh Fields). In the Angels case, it appears they won't give up Adenhart unless they are getting some serious cash back.

My Hawks will probably have a down year, but we have some athletes coming in and the following years recruiting classes are looking very promising as well. Its gonna be weird to see a Hawks game without Balding Brunner and Jeff Horner on the court.

QUOTE(Kalapse @ Oct 13, 2006 -> 10:58 AM) Am I the only one who just doesn't give a s*** about Jay Mariotti? I just really don't care about this guy. I don't care either way. I tend to not get all bent out of shape based on what the media says. I take it ofr what it is and in Jay's case he writes to rile people up. He's not that great when it comes to baseball, but he gets great reactions out of fans and he sells people. Its not different than all the people that listened to Howard that absolutely hated him, yet they listened. Tons of people buy the Times to read Mariotti's column even though they hate him. On a sidenote I should say he's had some good articles, the problem is during baseball season he tends to be on another planet. But realistically, while he may not have phrased things that great, he's right about Ozzie being the type of mgr that won't be able to stick around very long.

A Chicago White Sox!!!

QUOTE(Gene Honda Civic @ Oct 12, 2006 -> 10:00 PM) If you've got Fields>Arod>Iguchi>Konerko around the horn, you might have a below average defensive player at every infield position, including catcher. There's no denying that A-Rod has been bad at 3B the last 2 seasons, maybe even the worst 3B in the league this year. I don't think it's a stretch to say that he's lost a step defensively, and that he won't be the fielder that he once was in Seattle and Texas. Fields is crapshoot*, but you've never heard his defense described as anything more than adequate. Plus he still needs another year to develop the bat at AAA. He might run into a few more HRs than Anderson, but he's going to look worse in more ABs than BA. If you trade Freddy + Crede for Arod, you've weakened the left side of your infield defensively on a pitching staff that has declining strikeout rates and is allowing more balls to be put in play. Fields will not be able to match Crede's output, which will negate the perceived huge jump in offense from your SS.. Let's not forget that adding ARod would likely mean that we've got LF-CF combo of Sweeney-Anderson which, while stronger defensively than the '06 unit, is not exactly going to light up the scoreboards. I'd like to avoid having 2 Rookies in the lineup along with Anderson if at all possible. Also, by not acquiring any pitching in the trade for one of our starters, you've weakened our overall pitching depth... Which means that Lance Broadway is our #6, and penciled into the '08 rotation. Any deal for A-Rod that includes both a starter and Crede is a loss for the Sox. *crapshoot -- not bloodly likely to be a good player. Which is why I think the only way we make the deal is if it involves a starter (and I'm willing to trade any of our starters not named Bmac), and Josh Fields (if we give up more, we maybe get a minor piece in return) for Arod. Financially it doesn't add a whole lot and we now have Uribe and Pods to deal (which once they are moved for some cheap pieces, we are talking about a financial wash).

QUOTE(WHITESOXRANDY @ Oct 13, 2006 -> 07:43 AM) A lights out bullpen would be a major help. After that, maybe getting younger would help - I would look to trade Contreras for young pitching. I wouldn't mind retooling our staff. There are a few guys I have some question-marks about so if we could get younger quality guys I wouldn't be opposed. At the same time every one of our guys could come out next season and kick butt. First thing I'd do is try to make the pen a little stronger.

Wow

QUOTE(Rowand44 @ Oct 13, 2006 -> 05:46 AM) KW or Hawk/DJ's job. I know everyone here would be thrilled if I took over Kenny's job. You'll have to take it over my cold dead hands But my dream job would be working in professional baseball at a high level front office position. Well technically, it would be to be wealthy enough to own a professional sports franchise (preferably baseball, otherwise basketball). And yes, I'd call a whole heck of a lot of the shots. If I couldn't do that, sports-casting (even though I am pretty bad at it, but my opinions are so good they deserve to be listened to).

QUOTE(Balta1701 @ Oct 12, 2006 -> 08:47 AM) I'm not so sure about that...it's been Stoneman who has reportedly been the one making the decisions about whether or not to move their young talent resources, and thus far he's been very unwilling to do it. Moreno is putting a lot more pressure on him now though. They are feeling the pressure of missing out on the playoffs.

I think the Yanks game could be postponed.

QUOTE(SnB @ Oct 11, 2006 -> 01:22 PM) I saw a kid wearing a blue baracudas shirt today (this is for all you 90s nickelodeon fans) Legends of the Hidden Temple

Dang, RIP. Prayers go out to all that are involved

QUOTE(southsider2k5 @ Oct 11, 2006 -> 11:10 AM) The NHL and NBA seem to do just fine at it... Its only difficult because the players union doesn't want to see it happen. One major difference is the fact that the MLB draft is 50 rounds as opposed to just a few. So that would make things a lot harder, since many US born players would no longer get drafted and my guess is fewer international players would make the scene as a hole (thats if you don't expand the draft; if it were to happen I'd imagine you'd see it get expanded). Plus you have the MLB with 4 level's of full season minor league teams, 2 more short season teams and sometimes more than that. In the NHL you have the minors, but those players are allowed to play in there international leagues (which are still good, but in baseball I think that would be harder since there aren't as many international league's all over the place, plus the conditions are pretty poor in most of the leagues which can't be said for the NBA/NHL league's where the international players are still making a nice living).

QUOTE(southsider2k5 @ Oct 11, 2006 -> 11:07 AM) #2 wasn't claiming to be an indication of economic conditions. Supposedly all of the record revenues coming in are because of the housing boom, which isn't happening anymore, yet revenues are still even exceeding these record expectations. Also I realize that taxes are a lag of up to a fiscal year... if this is the case, why are they still raising expectations for tax revenues in the future, if the still pending impact of the housing market is totally yet to be felt. If we were looking at this impact on the deficit (which is what we were talking about in the first place) we would need to look at total deficit and tax revenues, which is exactly what I did. #1. Housing starts are down. There is less construction going on right now. We don't even have to look at a lag, because the numbers tell us it is happening right now. #2. Exsisting home sales are down. Prices are flat at best in most areas, and falling in areas which experienced the biggest booms for the most part. Houses are also taking longer to sell. There is no longer a lag here either. Homes that don't sell, don't realize revenues, which don't generate new sales, which don't generate home improvements etc... It is happening right now... or I guess not happening as the case may be. #3. The situation you are speaking of here is for just new home sales, and only those within preestablished subdivisions. This is a niche market, as the vast majority of home sales are exsisting homes, not brand new construction. Something like this isn't going to serve to artificially hold up home prices to much of an extent. Invest in tulip bulbs lately? I'm not saying the mortage industry isn't going to be hurting because I have no doubt people are gonna seriously be upside down because the industry got very lax when it came to qualifying/making loans. But those same Lax standards made anyone that owned real estate in a booming area a lot of money (I just want to remind people of that). One of the goals is to have as many home owners as possible and in a sense the lenders have helped with that. Obviously some people are stupid and maybe it doesn't make sense to go with an arm, but I still find it funny. Insanely low margins (if you have good credit) and a payment well under fixed. I've done all the calculations and if your not planning on holding your home for an extended period of time, it makes a hell of a lot more sense to go arm (becuase of the options you have). If you want to talk about foreclosures, it has jack to do with arm's for the most part and more to do with low start rates, interest only loans (which again can be very very effective, if used properly). Now many of those arm's may go into foreclosure, but I think if you looked at the terms you'd notice that they were neg am arm's and the people just got caught upside down (there own damn fault).

QUOTE(Steff @ Oct 11, 2006 -> 10:04 AM) $500K may cover the cost of TP for the '07 season. Or throw it into the player development pool each year. That could buy them a solid younger player or two per season.

QUOTE(WilliamTell @ Oct 10, 2006 -> 08:29 PM) I never thought of that idea before. It is a valid point. Its been discussed a few times as of late by MLB and the Players Union. I think we'll start to see more talks of an international draft, but logistically it could be a very difficult thing to agree to and do.

I've met Champ before and he's an excellent pitching coach. He's not as hands on as he once was as a roving instructor, but he's very familiar with every guy that throws in our system (as well as the cathers). The pitching coach Gene is referring to is Perdew who is supposedly top notch (based on conversations I've had with a few of his current/former pitchers).