Chisoxfn

Collusion is when all of, or a majority of the owners agree not to spend money, in hopes of driving down salaries. In the 80's the owners got caught. I'm sure it's something you can look up on the net. Ya, Collusion is when owners get together and talk and say that they won't pay anyone. As Showtime said, it happened in the 80's and the owners were caught and sued and they were hurt big time. Basically its them going out of the way to hold salaries down. I don't believe it is happening this year, I just think owners are finally getting smart. Remember, in the 80's baseballs economy was much different. I think teams were making more money, something that rarely happens in the current economy and payrolls were nowhere near as out of whack as they are now. I can't blame the owners for cutting payroll. THis has to be the first time in a long time that the majority of the teams out their have cut payroll (I'm assuming most of them have or at least, they aren't increasing it). These players are getting ridiculous prices and baseball is a business, the owners need to make profit otherwise they have no motivation to do it. We as fans sometimes forget its a business, and yes its in the business of entertainment and they are mainly millionaires and billionaires crying, but either way its their money and they aren't going to be happy losing it, just like we aren't going to be happy if we had a business and it was losing money.

According to KW, they will play it year by year and I truly think thats what they will do. Their is no way they deal Buerhle unless they are getting Zito in return.

When Cerb sees this thread he'll give ya a ton of info on his guy Anthony Webster. The Sox drafted Webster as one of those guys that had limited baseball experience, but has tons of atheletism. This guy is already well above average defensively in center field and was very impressive with his bat. The guy hit with gap power (At 19, he's yet to develop all his muscles and the Sox and other scouts see those extra base hits turning into homers as he gets older) and has great speed. Consider him a threat to hit .300, hit 25 hr's, steal 30 bases and win a gold glove in center. I don't consider this guy trade bait, he's a very very good prospect out their. I also have heard the Sox are incredibly high on this kid, and some think if he backs his first season up, he will shoot up as one of the top outfield prospects in all of baseball.

yeah they would - and yes it is. Maybe one day our dream will become a reality. Its real sorry that we have to dream about adding 8 mill to a salary (In essence cutting the payroll roughly 7 million from last year). Man, hopefully JR will figure it out and have a 50 mill payroll. If thats the case we could do so many things.

Fullmer was a pretty big dissapointment this year in Anaheim, but he's still a pretty solid player. I think the Angels made the right choice bringing him back. I know I expected him to do a lot better for the Angels then he did. Of course he's going to be platooning with one of my favorite Angels, Shawn Wooten.

JC played really good defensively. I have continued to stick to my guns that JC is better then Williams, today he played really well and so did my boy Fizer. That was an awesome game, they whooped them good.

You can't complain though, both left the Sox never to do a thing. Ya, Doublem, we have him till after the 2006 season. Also, I don't see why everyone is blaming KW, Buerhle just doesn't want a deal. He's offering a very fair contract, one that would pay more then Sabathia and I think Zito or Mulder, two pitchers that are just as good as Buerhle, if not better.

I just read something on Pedro Lopez. I'll find it tomorrow. I think it was on one of the prospect sites. He's supposed to be pretty good.

The problem is, its going to be hard to prove. Then again, no one is signing for much anything big. Of course, some teams have been throwing money all over the place like the Mets, Yanks, Phillies and even Red Sox. I don't think they will win, but htey are talking collusion. Still, if Collusion was going on you'd bet that JR is involved in it.

Well...in their defense what have the Sox done the past couple years to make them want to talk about the White Sox. After all, we haven't exactly been winning the series or even making the playoffs every year or at least trying to. Still, its pretty pathetic they still have the proposed Griffey for Maggs deal, thats like a month and a half old.

http://www.soxnet.net/snreport/388-1.6.html I'm not going to say that quite yet, but it really seems like he doesn't want to be here. Well, the Sox are only going to be investing 600k in him, so it looks like they'll have plenty of money to spend on Colon or Vazquez.

They need a qb, imo. Plummer won't cut it, and Miller definately don't cut it. Leftwich or Palmer or bust.

im with you on leftwich jason...i saw on special on him on of all stations, MTV...what a cool kid...hhis comes down for every home game and he insists she stays at his apartment...instead of partying he spends time with his mom..they also showed him taking out his offensive line for steak dinners prior to each season opener..plus he studies game film like crazy.. he would be the perfect fit for chicago..the non - cade mcnown.... Remember, Mcnown was the an absolute student of the game before he entered the NFL scene. The guy lived football, didn't have a gf, and didn't really have a life other then watching tape and practicing. THe problem was, he wasn't that well liked, and he was definately a leader and respected, but when you take that I'm the leader attitude into the nfl it isn't going to work, especially when you aren't the personable.

He bought the Dodgers to stifen (Sp?) ESPN's plans of creating a new ESPN Channel out here in California which would carry the Lakers, Dodgers, Angels and all the other sports teams. The Angels were going to go (Disney owns ESPN) and then they were going to spread it on if it were sucessful and the plan was to put the fox sports out of business, cause we all know ESPN has a much better following and reputation. ESPN still wants to do that out here, but they had to cancel the plans after the Dodgers reupped with Fox, cause they would never control the LA market without the Dodgers on board, plus the Angels still had a couple years with Fox Sports as did the other teams.

I know Baggs should be excited to see Hermanson on the list. I always remember him talking about Dustin. I'm in a much better mood regarding our pitching right now, then I was this morning.

One difference that I can think of is that Eckstein was a pretty sucessful hitter throughout the minors, or at least thats what I've read. I've never actually went back and looked at Eckstein's minor league stats, other then his previous two minor league seasons where he had very sucessful numbers.

We'll likely see Hummell this year and if in fact Miles is back in the organization, I'll get a look at him during spring training, but thats most likely the only time we see him unless Hummell or Harris gets injured.

This is awesome news. I've talked to Rogers once and I respect him quite a bit. He's got a lot of knowledge and tends to be a pretty good reporter. If indeed they have 8 mill, then they are definately in the Colon sweepstakes and don't need to move Lee for to make room for a pitcher. Damn it, now I'm getting my hopes up again. Could you imagine picking up Colon or Vazquez and Cruz Jr, Hollandsworth, or Palmerio...man I'd be happy.

I think we can get Ritchie back at any time. Poppy Hildago explained it a couple threads down.

Well, Whitesox.com says its very unlikely we will get Ritchie back, which surprised me, cause it means KW is admitting a failure, something I don't mind seeing out of gms. I like it when they admit they screwed up. KW admitted a couple of his failures already and thats one impressive thing about him.

so would I... in a heartbeat. But I wonder what the pressure is like in that job to have to sell the prospects you talk up and then hope like hell they make it - there must be some sort of percentage of your touted players that must work, or you ahve to be a really good buddy of the GM, to keep on in that job. I've talked to a couple scouts, and basically you get salary, but you get a ton of free stuff. Unless your a top scout, you don't exactly make money. Still, it would be a pretty fun job, of course, I enjoy having one place I can call home.

I'd love it to. I have a ton of fun doing the minor league reports at Soxnet, and I couldn't imagine getting paid to travel and scout people by watching baseball. Then again, I'd eventually start missing home.

Oooh, that I don't know. Its probably based on the fact that they don't have enough people following the guys. Its easier for us to tell stuff like that cause were only following one organization, so you can kind of tell.

damn right it's worth the trek, of course my trek is only about 20 minutes depending on the traffic on Highland. Its only like an hour drive for me, of course if their was traffic it would be like 2 and a half hours.

If we brought Fick in then to me we'd have to move Lee for a starting pitcher. Otherwise, I don't see the point in bringing Fick in, although I think he'd be a great bench player, we all know the Sox can't spend 1 mill on a bench player when they need to spend that mill on a pitcher that will send them to a series