Chisoxfn

I still give Haig the nod, but I'm higher than Haigwood than most. Plus I think Gonzo has a little more to prove to me health wise. That said, he has very good stuff and polish for a kid his age.

QUOTE(Heads22 @ Nov 2, 2005 -> 10:22 AM) Man, IMO Vince throws one ugly ball. Gets there, though. I'm with Rex. I don't think anyone can have an edge on Leinart. I may go even with Young, because he has other intangibles, but in terms of whose the better QB, if given the choice I'm taking Leinart.

One other thing...the Bulls division will be the best in the NBA, imo. Detroit and Indy are the two best teams in the East while Cleveland, Chicago, and Mill are all playoff caliber teams. Its going to be a really interesting and tough race.

QUOTE(SleepyWhiteSox @ Nov 2, 2005 -> 09:59 AM) Duhon is a captain too. Ben better earn that starter role very soon. Ya, he's also a pretty darn good point guard. The only thing he's not great at is scoring, but thats over-rated. He's a good passer and does an outstanding job running the offense. He's also a very very strong on the ball defender and that was as a rookie. He's only going to get better in that regard and he should continue to develop offensively. Hell, i wouldn't be surprised if 3 or 4 years from now Duhon is the better player than Gordon. I have some hope for Gordon because I love his work ethic, but he is going to have to come around in a lot of areas this season and in the next couple. I think the things i'm looking forward to most is to see some of the new Bulls (Songalia, Sweetney, and TT, is he even playing) as well as looking at Chandler and hoping he can turn into a dominating defensive big man.

Really looking forward to watching my first Bulls game of the year.

Man Khaby gave up a couple really pathetic goals last night. The announcer seemed to be raving about hte Hawks though and how good they looked at times. The big thing I noticed (and Im' totally a novice) was that at times the Hawks looked like a pretty crisp team (in terms of moving and passing the puck) but at other teams they looked absolutely atrocious when it came to passing and moving the puck. I assume this lack of skill is whats killing them on offense. I don't watch enough hockey to know, but I was watching the Rangers game the night before and have been trying to catch a game or two a week and noticed how much more crisp teams look offensively opposed to the Hawks. Heck Chicago got tons of shot last night, but they only had a few quality shots. I also noticed that quite often they settled for horrid shots on power play opportunities. Oh and did I mention how awful Khaby looked. I wouldn't mind giving him two starts off just to try and get him to relax a little.

Haha. You also got to factor that my guess is Tracey is focusing on a specific pitch (maybe a cutter or his changeup). Reynoso it could be the same. Often times in the AFL a prospect will basically solely throw one or two pitches they are trying to develop and because of that they get hit up.

I think he will be one of those guys that can be packaged in a trade. He will not make the majors with the Sox unless there are some serious injuries. I feel confident that I can say the same about Munoz, but he could end up having a great spring and earning a shot. Munoz is still young and being a lefty helps. That said Diaz and Munoz have serious competition, most specifically Sean Tracey and Daniel Haigwood. Both have far better arms and better stuff, imo.

I know I've heard the Sox really really were left impressed with Danks and his family and I'm sure if they see his name on the board 3 years from now, they will not hesitate to select it.

I know I've said it a few times around here, but I need to reiterate the fact that I think the best thing for Brian Anderson is another 6 months of AAA. If this were the Pirates or Drays, sure, I'd give him a starting job and let him grow into things, but at this point, I dont' think he'd be an asset and I think he still has a lot to learn in the minors. Lord knows I've never been as high on Anderson as some around these parts, but at the same time, I do think he has a lot of talent. However, he still has a rather rough swing that still needs improvement and more importantly more ab's in the minors won't hurt him at all. If he were to play in the majors, I'd want him up, ocassionally giving Aaron, Dye, and Pods a day off (that should be 2 starts a week) and than giving the DH a week off from time to time. I think you could get him 3 starts a week and while thats not great, it would be a nice thing for him to see for a full season and will help him prepare himself for 2007, which is when I think he will be a starter.

Best of luck to him. I don't think he'll ever turn into much of a major leaguer, but hopefully he'll be able to get to the majors and stick. From all I heard he was a good character guy.

QUOTE(The Critic @ Oct 30, 2005 -> 08:52 AM) Why don't you go for a 27-game package and then buy individual game tickets after that? I'm guessing they are hoping they can go in for full simply because they get a better benefit in terms of playoff tickets and maybe a bigger discount on the ticket price (not sure on this one).

QUOTE(Felix @ Nov 2, 2005 -> 02:02 PM) Remember how Griffey was injury plauged? And are you talking about the same Grant Hill that had a great year last year? Griffey is still injury plagued. He finally had one good year. The last thing I do is sign players that are injury prone. The only reason I was interested in Dye was because of his value and the fact that he was coming off an entirely healthy season and his injury was a total fluke in the 1st place (he also wasn't 38 years old). Griffey finally played 3/4ths of a season and I still wouldn't deal for him this offseason unless the Sox didn't have to give up anything but a prospect or two and even then I'd have to think long and hard about it. Just look at the Dodgers. They were stupid enough to give injury prone guys big contracts and look where it got them.

QUOTE(Rowand44 @ Nov 1, 2005 -> 12:58 PM) Cause he hits under .250, that's why I personally don't like the guy that much. I feel the same way. I've long debated the fact. I think quite a few people look way too much at OPS and not enough at AVG. They get infatuated with it to a point. OPS is great, but at some point or another a guy has to be able to get base hits. Dunn doesn't do that. He could move to a team like the Sox, have some protection and all of a sudden hit .270, if thats the case, the guy is a premiere offensive player in my book or close to it. I just don't know if thats going to happen, but he is part of a team that as a whole has been known to strikeout a ridiculous amount of times. If I were to trade for him, It would be because Walker and other scouts tell me (me being Kenny) that they see things they could do to help get his avgerage up to an acceptable level. Once again, I don't deal pitching and I think thats what Cinncy and most teams would be looking for. In fact, if i could compare it to anything, it would be a person looking at how great of a return a person could get in a stock, but they fail to look at the actual risk and deviation the stock has made over a certain amount of years. You can't look at just one thing, you got to way a few things into the factor and at one point, you got to look past someones ridiculous ops and look at the more basic things like hits.

QUOTE(aboz56 @ Nov 2, 2005 -> 01:47 PM) In more ways that one....

QUOTE(Felix @ Nov 2, 2005 -> 01:43 PM) In any season in which Frank has had more than 105 AB's, he has posted a ridiculusly high OBP, and if he can just get on base with someone like Konerko after him, run production will go up. And if Frank can hit 12 HR's in 105 AB's while having one good leg, I'm pretty sure he can do just as good, if not better, with two healthy ones. And again, we shouldnt go into next year with Thomas as our only DH choice. That would be downright foolish. But we should give him a shot to prove he can still hit, as he did prove in his brief stint this year. And if all else fails, we can trade for Carl at the trading deadline again. Frank has been given a shot the past couple years. He hasn't been healthy, now is the time to say goodbye. Sure he can be great when he's on the field, but he isn't on the field all the time and I'd rather have a guy who can put up 90% of Frank's production and be on the field the entire season. Heck a guy like Delgado would put up 100% of the production Frank would, imo, and would be far more likely to stay healthy. So over the course of a full season he'd exponentially do more than Frank would. For example, if the Sox have Brian Anderson and Frank Thomas as the DH platoon. When Frank goes down we'll have a DH who will hit .250 with maybe 15 Hr's and a lousy OBP. Lets say they add Durazo, we'll have two guys that may stink it up, considering Durazo is coming off of a pretty serious injury as well. Lets not forget some wonder whether Frank will be able to ever play again. He's 38 years old or so and hasn't been healthy in a few years. There is no reason to think he will stay healthy for a full season or even half a season and relying on him would be absolutely foolish.

If any of you that haven't seen it feel any better, your really not missing out on anything. It was incredibly lame...kind of like SNL

QUOTE(Felix @ Nov 2, 2005 -> 01:33 PM) oh.. I didn't know posting a .905 OPS in the limited playing time you got was good. Compare that to Carl's last year (or this year, whichever you want to refer to it as). We shouldn't have Frank and no backup plan, but I dont think there is a doubt in my mind as to whether or not we should bring him back. This team just won the world series. Its not a time to be nice and cuddly and just relax. Its a time to make an upgrade and do whatever you can to give your team the chance at defending the crown. Next season is going to be harder, every single team will be gunning for us. Resigning Frank and finding another lefty gives the Sox nothing better than they had this year, which was Carl Everett. People, get your heads out of your butt and realize Frank is not going to be healthy for an entire season, heck, you'll be lucky if he's heatlhy for half a season. A world series team can't pin its hopes (especially one with a not so great offense) on a DH that will only play half the season. It needs to make an upgrade, a guy like Mark Texiera (probably best case and I can't see a chance in hell of it happening because the Sox aren't going to deal any starting pitcher not named Duque this offseason), however Carlos Delgado is an option. Manny Ramirez could be an option. Brian Giles could be an option. These are all guys that have a history of being healthy and flat out producing. Frank Thomas hasn't put up a seasons worth of production in a couple years and there is no reason to thing he's going to be able to do so next year. I expect the Sox to resign Konerko or find a similar player to him (via trade or FA) as well as to sign or trade for a very good DH (doesn't necessarily have to be a full time DH either). Anything else will be a dissapointment in my mind. The Sox had one major flaw during the season and it was DH, this off-season they will see payroll increase and they need to fill that one hole (not that others won't open up, cause injuries and guys just not playing to their capabilities are always possible).

QUOTE(Rowand44 @ Nov 2, 2005 -> 12:49 PM) If you find a way to trade for Billy Wagner this offseason I'll give you 10 bucks. I'll add in 100 and I know I'll never give any of it up. Wagner is a FA so the only option is to sign him (I think you may have been referring to this Rowand, but not sure).

I'll pass. This team doesn't need Frank Thomas starting at DH. That is not an upgrade and it is known the Sox need to upgrade the DH position (Everett was > than Thomas and Carl was one of the worse DH's in the AL). If I were told Frank would be healthy, sure, but thats not the case and they need to find themselves a full time, very good DH, and that persons name is not Frank Thomas. Frank Thomas is no longer an everyday player, case closed. He aught to go to Tampa Bay where he can swing for the fences and get his 500 hr's. I love and appreciate what Frank did, but if the Sox are depending on Frank getting healthy and being our DH, than well, quite frankly, we won't be defending our title next year.

Detroit may be the best 4th place team in baseball though, imo. I really think they are a better team than they showed last year and they should be better this year, assuming they continue to spend money (like they have been). The Al Central is a very, very tough division.

Poor threads get closed. This is one of them. This has nothing to do with baseball, and nothing to do with the Sox. This is irrelevant. Soxtalk does not care about whether Epstein stepping down is going to create more ESPN love. Maybe some people like discussing the media hatred and all that stuff, but last I looked the Sox are the best team in baseball...they are the 2005 World Series Champs and the last thing I want to see is people whining about the love the Sox are getting in the media. If your dependent on media love, go somewhere else, all I need to know is that the Sox are 2005 World Champs...thats all I need to hear, there is no other way to spin it than the Sox are world champs!!!! Take note, threads like this will continue to be closed and in most cases deleted. This will only be closed simply so people can read this and get the memo.

The biggest joke on there is Erstad not winning the gold glove at 1st base. He's the best first baseman in both leagues (by a landslide too, along with JT. Snow of the Giants). Tex can't hold Erstads jock strap (not knocking Tex) but Erstad has insane range on pop outs in foul territory and gets to more balls than any other 1st baseman. Plus he can pick it as good as anyone else too. But no shock to me. Oh and Jeter winning another crock.

I'm sure they will, who knows when it will be though.

QUOTE(White Sox Josh @ Oct 31, 2005 -> 08:44 PM) I hope they can backload Konerko's contract. Like have him earn $6 Million for the first year and he ends up earning $14.5 Million in the last year of the contract. That would total up to $49 Million and you can put bonuses in there to. No way, this team can't afford to backload, if they do that there pitchers will be becoming FA's at the same time Konerko and a few other backloaded contracts would get really steep, basically making it impossible to resign our starting pitching.