Chisoxfn

QUOTE (iamshack @ May 18, 2011 -> 11:12 AM) From the track record KW has, do you really think if this team is sitting at .500 he is going to blow it up? Not to mention that if you look at the clubs record, outside of the anomaly (this is assuming we are around .500 at that point in time), that he wouldn't have reasons to be convined. Now if Cleveland is 20 games over .500 at that point, than I understand and it is what it is. But the reality is the Sox can only control what they do and they can't play like they need to win 20 in a row. They just need to play good baseball and if they lose, they lose, but if they play good baseball, they will win a good number more than they lose cause they are a good team. I will point out that even in this recent winning streak (which I'm deeming the road trip plus a split against a good Texas ballclub), we haven't played our best baseball. The question is, as the team regains confidence, will better baseball be played and I for one think it will. I also will point out that we play the vast majority of our inter divisional games during the 2nd half of the season. So if we are near .500 around the break, the team will really be in a position where they can make some serious noise via divisional play. Will they, I don't know? But I know there are enough reasons for me personally not to give up.

Playing 2b down in AAA is what the doctor ordered. His swing is a complete and utter disaster. Guy is whiffing at breaking pitches and can't touch a good fastball. If there is one thing I'm sure of, it is that I want Walker gone. I don't blame him but even while we are winning, I've seen too many bad at bats and seen some of our young guys swings get worse under his watch.

QUOTE (iamshack @ May 18, 2011 -> 11:02 AM) Agreed...but you have to be patient. There are 119 games left! I'm not arguing with you that any game isn't big at this point...but you have to accept that we probably aren't going to win 25 out of 30 games and find ourselves tied for the division lead in a month...therefore, we are going to lose games. We just have to start winning more games than we are losing at a fairly decent clip. We are doing that lately. Not much else to say. I think the key is looking at things from a macro perspective. Don't focus on any one game, rather focus on series/one week at a time. You want to win series and more importantly you want to have winning records week after week after week. That could just be 1 game over per week, but the key is to make a habit of it. You do that and in time, they'll be right back in this thing. And if they run off a couple really good weeks in the meantime, they might be in it quicker than not. And if they don't, well, than they don't and all of you panning for change will get exactly that. No, I'm not saying anyone is rooting for the team to lose, I know better than that, we are all huge ass fans here and everyone treats games differently and I respect that.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ May 18, 2011 -> 10:58 AM) Yeah, that part sucked. Well you invited one person from work, now you have to invite your whole department. Ugh. I'd never get married again for no other reason, than to never have to plan a wedding again. Agreed!!!

QUOTE (iamshack @ May 18, 2011 -> 10:43 AM) No, but you're going to lose baseball games. This isn't the NFL or the NBA. We have 120 of these left. We're going to lose at least 9 of them (I kid). Certainly you want to win every single game, but you cannot be on a ledge every day saying "if we don't win this one, we've got to blow it all up." There are just far too many different things that can happen over the course of the next 4.5 months to start calling out must wins. The key is to keep improving and gradually climbing out of the hole we dug ourselves throughout April and early May. We're doing that. That's all you can ask for at this point. Not to mention, I simply can't enjoy the game I love, thinking that every single game is a must win. So what I do, is sit back and hope to see the club play good baseball and I know that if they play good baseball, they'll be just fine. If they don't, they don't, and they have no one to blame but themselves and we'll see significant changes made. Either way, I'm not going to go crazy and say if we lose game X that the season is over (unless game X is game 162, haha, or any playoff elimination game).

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ May 18, 2011 -> 10:52 AM) If you guys are in the same circles, and you alone didn't get an invite, it might mean something. It is hard to say that for sure, just because of the sheer numbers involved there. Weddings are f***ing expensive, and it could just be that you just happened to be #301 on a list of 300. I need to clear up one thing, there is a reason I didn't invite any of you aholes to my wedding. But Milk, it all depends on the circumstances. They could have forgot, there could be a reason (if you are the only one not invited in your circle of friends, it could very well mean something), or it could just be they only can invite X number of people and there were people that if all being equal they would have invited but just couldn't. I know with us, there were probably 10 or so people that we would have liked to invite, but we were already in excess of our count and given our budget we just weren't able to invite more. Plus as we invited 10 more, than there would be another small set of people that you'd think you needed to invite. Wedding invites are a pain in the ass, unless of course you have an unlimited budget, and even than I still imagine its a pain.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ May 18, 2011 -> 10:27 AM) If there's one thing I expect to see from this team, it's "Not believing the hype". A Mr. Thibodeau sold me on that when his response to a question after Game 1 involved the phrase "Well we still have some things to tighten up". I would have agreed with that, but I thought the way they played at times in the Indiana and Atlanta series looked like a team that thought the wins would come easy.

QUOTE (flavum @ May 18, 2011 -> 08:24 AM) If they lose both, they aren't done, but it's going to make it that much tougher to come back. Winning both puts the Sox at 20-25, and 8 back, with 13 games left with the Indians. Very doable. Losing both puts them at 18-27, and 12 back. These are huge games. Losing both would pretty much force the Sox to go on 34-14 run leading up to the break. And that's not very likely. How do you get those numbers? Why do we need to be 9 games up at the break? I'm just not buying it. This is a big series though, a sweep by the Tribe would kill our momentum. A split is acceptable and a sweep by us would be great, but in no way does any outcome kill our chances, imo. Still, lets just win!!!

Big game tonight!!!! I hope the Bulls haven't bought into all the hype getting thrown around. This is a really good Miami team...alright, maybe not a good "team", but they are going to be a hard team to beat 4 times in a 7 game series with Wade, Lebron, and Bosh.

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ May 18, 2011 -> 07:03 AM) Again, he's already seen similar or better players. You just have to pray he has an off game(s) at this point. You have to stop the other guys. Dirk's shot is pretty much unguardable at this point in his career. It is up to him whether he's gonna be good or bad. However, you can still play physical with him and try to do other things to get in his head.

Or Williams out of Arizona?

Happy Bday Mike & Bighurt!

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ May 17, 2011 -> 03:00 PM) There are simply too many days off in between games. Guys are making trades for Dwight with a team that is up 1-0 in the Eastern Conference Finals, people are talking draft picks, now a completely random Vegas convo. Tomorrow night can't get here quickly enough! The next ST gathering should be in Vegas, following the Bulls and Sox winning championships. Steve might just die at Tao Beach or Rehab.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ May 17, 2011 -> 02:56 PM) They built another tower at the palms for some reason. There are simply too many new hotels to go around especially with the city center now open with 4 new hotels. I stayed at the Palazzo for less than 200 a few weeks ago. Palazzo is nice, but I haven't stayed there before. Is Palazzo pretty much all suites like Venetian? I assume the rooms are similar, much like how the Wynn/Encore are similar.

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ May 17, 2011 -> 12:01 PM) Awesome and good luck!! Good luck shack. Hope you hear good news around month end!!! By the way, I'll be out in your kneck of the woods next weekend and again around the 10th of June.

This smoking idea is intriguing. I think I'm going to have to try it in a couple weeks.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ May 17, 2011 -> 02:39 PM) True, they're just across the highway. I just remember the Maloofs flying coach all throughout 2008/2009 and I find it hard to believe they have the $ to spend on that franchise. I don't think their casino revenues have picked up much since them, I think the packed houses would have to come first. I agree. They don't have other revenue to generate from outside business so they will need the Kings to do well. But that place was rocking and that franchise was successful not so long ago. Pretty sad how quickly they've fallen apart. But I do think the Maloofs should get some credit for being real great owners when they had funds. I think there hotel has improved a bit as the Vegas economy and travel industry has picked up, but that area is so tough, with constant competition and new hotels. For pete sakes, next weekend, which is a huge travel weekend, I'm staying at a suite in the Venetian for $100 per night. I still have no idea how I pulled that kind of deal. Those rooms should be going for a few hundred a night on a holiday weekend.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ May 17, 2011 -> 02:33 PM) That was also when they had enormous revenue coming in from one of the hottest casinos on the strip. Those days have sorta vanished. Agreed, but they'll spend again. Technically, the Palms was off the strip (or did they own another casino as well)?

QUOTE (bmags @ May 17, 2011 -> 12:27 PM) True, I'm just imagining in your cap and trade model the maloofs working a 10 million dollar salary and pocketing $40 million. Do you remember when the Maloofs spent tons of money on there franchise? Cause they did when they had a really good team. I think they will again too.

QUOTE (ZoomSlowik @ May 17, 2011 -> 11:00 AM) There may be a hard cap, but the chances of it being $45 mil are basically zero. You know how many teams have a payroll below $45 mil right now? The answer is one: the Sacramento Kings at $44 mil. They are the only team under $52 mil in salary and 22 of them are above $64 mil. That's just WAY too huge a dropoff to be practical. I don't disagree and it is a negotiation, but still, I was blown away that the owners were going to be starting that low.

On a sidenote, we all talk about what the Knicks gave up for Melo. How about what a steal the Nets deal for Deron was. Just because one team drastically overpaid doesn't mean that you can't get guys at a fair deal. And the Knicks will be better with an off-season to add a few role players. And they need to get better fast, given that Amare's knees won't hold up too long.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ May 17, 2011 -> 10:39 AM) IMO, Laker fans are morons if they think that is all it will take to get the job done, even though Bynum or Gasol are way better than any player the Bulls could send to Orlando (obviously you keep Rose). And I'm not saying that is what it ultimately takes. But those close to Howard indicate he wants to go to Chicago or LA. Many think LA is a huge favorite since they should be able to create cap space to sign him outright as a FA. It all comes down to how scared does Orlando get and how much of an ass can Dwight become. Personally, If I were Orlando, I'd do what I could to win a title next year cause that might just help you save Dwight.

One other thing to point out, since this is an offday, is that the new CBA talk is indicating the NBA wants a hard cap at $45M with a 3 year exclusion period (to allow teams to get there cap situations in order) and it sounds like portions of NBA contracts would not be guaranteed. That is a pretty drastic reduction in overall player/salary expenses given that right now there are numerous teams with upwards of 80 to 90M in player payroll (Lakers @ 94M). The luxury tax would also go away. Now that is obviously not a settled upon reality but holy crap, this is gonna be one tough labor negotiation. Makes the NFL problems look small (well, NFL really doesn't have problems other than figuring out who gets to make more money since everyone is pretty much raking in profits). NBA, on the other hand, has tons of franchises losing money.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ May 17, 2011 -> 10:05 AM) That would be no where near enough to get Howard. Look at what Melo got traded for. Would it be enough in a straight up trade, no. But if Howard is demanding an early exedus it wouldn't be a bad deal. Orlando gets a C and PF to fill 2 holes for a long time. And aren't taking on any horrific or untouchable deals. Noah's deal is expensive but reasonable for a center and Taj is still on his rookie contract. Laker fans are talking about trading Gasol straight up for him or Bynum. I'd say that the deal the Bulls are offering isnt' that bad and if Howard puts a gun to there head, well, that could put a lot of pressure on them. Throw in a 1st or something to sweeten the deal and they might bight. Of course they will probably try to include Arenas in any deal that involves Howard.

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ May 17, 2011 -> 09:59 AM) So your solution is to dismantle the team and go with a Rose/Howard combo surrounded by scrubs? Trading Noah and Taj for Howard isn't dismantling the team. The Bulls still would have Boozer and Asik down low and Howard can play a ton of minutes and is on a whole nother level. Plus his style of play would fit in perfectly with Thibbs and I suspect he would work tremendously with Rose. That type of deal would be a no-brainer for me, imo.