Chisoxfn

QUOTE (knightni @ May 12, 2010 -> 12:00 AM) For me, Wade to Chicago is a better option than LeBron. Even if he isn't as good, there's less trash attitude - possibly cheaper too - plus he'll be back "home". He won't be cheaper, has more injury issues, and isn't as good. Lebron is the best player in the NBA and if the Bulls can get them, they should do it at all costs.

Alright Danks. This is a huge game, early must win. Get er done!

I should add that I fully believe in the Sox rotation and I know if/when it gets hot, this team could run off 15 to 16 wins over a 20 game span based upon hot starting pitching and just mediocre hitting. And I'll say right now, I think this team has a few 5 game winning streaks in them.

QUOTE (iamshack @ May 11, 2010 -> 01:25 PM) No one is saying ANYTHING about luck. And I am not disputing the difference in the record. What I am saying is from your impressions of this team - that they are bad - you think you have a pretty good idea of just how bad they are. And yet, with just 2 or 3 single different occurences inside of literally thousands of them, our record could be DRASTICALLY better. So what I am challenging is not the facts, but rather, that when just a few individual occurences out of thousands can impact a team's record so dramatically, that you have not seen nearly enough to make any kind of accurate judgment on might happen in the remainder of the next 130 games. Not even close. It is this reason that you will never see any significant trades made until the beginning of June. GM's really need enough time to get a true handle on there team. Do you know a decent amount through 30 games, sure, but 30 games is such a small sample in the grand scheme of things that one hot streak or cold streak has such a strong impact on how you rate a team.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ May 11, 2010 -> 01:15 PM) I don't things are quite so bleak. Let's go back to the end of 2007. Our minor league system was even looking more brutal, agreed? The only glimmer of hope was Owens/Fields/Wasserman and the fact that we hadn't dealt Buehrle/Dye, etc. With the additions of Floyd/Danks/Ramirez/Quentin to that ballclub, we went from 72 to 89 wins, a 17 game differential. There's absolutely no reason that can't happen again. 2005, coming off that mysterious 2004 offseason, we caught lightning in a bottle and never looked back. Yes, 100%, KW'd need to make the "RIGHT" moves in the prospects acquired department....if it was 2002 all over again with our returns (the only decent one we got back was Frank Francisco), then I'd tend to agree with you. Things would look a lot different to me if Mitchell was raking now at Winston-Salem or even BIRM, and looking 1 1/2 years away instead of 2 1/2 to 3 years out.... Yes, I do agree trading out of that most valuable core (Thornton, Danks, Peavy, Floyd, Rios) is riverboat gambling at its best and Jonestown suicidal at its worst, but I have zero belief that KW won't do at least SOMETHING and sit back on his hands while Rome is burning. Numerous times, they both said they won't tolerate and sit idly through another 2007, yes? We do need a lot of things to break right with Flowers, Morel, Viciedo, Danks II, Shelby (possibly), Santeliz, CJ Retherford...but I don't think we can say we're any worse off now than in 2007, with the possible exception of the Twins looking like a "dynasty" and spending more money than us on payroll. OTOH, look how good the Tigers and Indians (and White Sox in 05/06 and 08) have looked at different points and how each team "collapsed" and fell back to earth, only to be resurrected like a phoenix out of the ashes. It's always possible in this division, it's just that the margin of error is razor thin with Mauer signed until forever (then again, he goes down due to injury and their franchise is seriously imperiled, with 20% of payroll soaked up by ONE player, that almost never works, see A-Rod) and the Twins being finally able to compete on a level playing field with us and DET. I agree everything looked bleak and I give Kenny massive credit for what he was able to pull off. Our team is in much much better position that than 2007 club. That said, Kenny pulled off one hell of an off-season and I don't think you can regularly expect any GM or front office to be able to pull off something like that.

I think he had been rumored to be brought into the organization and we knew it would be in an international scouting capacity. However, I think this is the official annoucement and it appears that he is being brought in as much more than a consultant. Sleuth should be a pretty good hire for this and given his relationship with Jerry I would think he'd be capable of getting Jerry and ownership to deep further into there pockets when it comes to investing in the international front, something the White Sox have severely missed out on over the past 5-10 years. Basically put, Carlos Lee & Magglio were the lone successes (albeit good ones). And than you have the recent cuban influction. Outside of that we have had very very few quality prospects to rise through the system which we acquired on an international standpoint.

QUOTE (flavum @ May 11, 2010 -> 01:06 PM) Shack-- There's a huge difference between 13-19 and 16-16. I hate to break that to you, but there is. Just do this...assume the Sox are out of it until they get to .500. When they get there, then see how many games out they are, and go from there. Until they get to .500, there's no point in being Mr. Positive. Look at how many late games this club has blown. Much more than the typical ratio's and enough to state that a 3 game swing would have been the norm. Add in the fact that we've had a good bullpen for the most part and you'd have to think we'd fall on the other side of this process as well coming up. It doesn't always work out that way, but I don't think it is tough to say that this team probably should be .500 and has been a little on the unlucky side (not even factoring in our below normal averages and significantly higher ERA's).

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ May 11, 2010 -> 02:01 PM) The one guy missing from your list is Rios...who I think is the key guy if you're going to do the firesale. I didn't even mention Rios because he isn't tradeable. He falls similarly into the Peavy/Buehrle/etc mode where any value you'd get for the player is off-set by the fact that he has a significant long-term contract and while he is playing great this year, I don't see any team willing to take on that contract and give us quality chips. Basically put, this team doesn't have many guys that would fall into a firesale. And if we did go into firesale mode, it isn't as if we would be clearing payroll to than re-invest it in the following year. We would be clearing payroll because our team sucks and attendance is coming down and payroll will come down with it. So there would be very little value gained by moving a Rios/Peavy/Buehrle except from the financial standpoint. Sure we might get some B prospects, but I'd be quite surprised if we were able to turn those guys around for a few A prospects. I might be wrong though because it all depends on the market and if Peavy and Buehlre are kicking ass we might be able to get quite the haul for them and that might be enough to really speed up the rebuilding process.

The Sox will be in serious trouble if the team collapses. You guys should know that. We haven't dedicated enough money to the farm system and don't have a lot of tradeable assets to the contracts in place and the fact that most of our tradeable assets are guys we don't want to trade (Floyd/Danks) as they would be key building blocks. So Peavy/Konerko/Buehrle are all key guys that we could move, but wouldn't get a lot for due to there contracts. Paulie might be the exception on this because he's putting up massive numbers and only has this year remaining on his deal. But his pending FA will reduce his value a bit. Danks/Floyd/Quentin/Beckham/Ramirez are all guys that are potential building blocks that we probably wouldn't move because we'd have to trade for prospects and push everything back a few years. Quentin/Ramirez might be guys we'd look into trading, but there production hasn't been as good recently and because of that I don't know how beneficial a trade would be. Andruw Jones would be a good piece to sell come July if we aren't in it and he is still hitting. His contract is a steal and plenty of teams could use a player like him at his price. Jenks - most likely to get non-tendered Thornton - s***loads of value with 1 year remaining. If we were going to go into a rebuilding mode, we'd probably have to move him cause there is little value holding him due to the fact we would be a few years away. But the thing that is the most scary, is that if we were to go through a complete rebuilding due to salary restrictions, we just don't have the prospects at hand to even be close to being competitive. It would take years to get to that point, imo, since we don't have the trade chips necessary to help restock the system. We'd basically be completely reliant on the draft in the upcoming years to rebuild the system (outside of Viciedo, Flowers, Huddy, Morel and a few other guys). That is where Kenny's lack of setting aside enough resources towards our minor league player development and acquisitions has really killed the squad.

QUOTE (whitesoxfan101 @ May 11, 2010 -> 01:43 PM) Certainly, which is why you wait until July to decide what kind of trades you want to make (if any). I'm not sure how much the Twins are going to regress though. They'll probably have a mild regression, but if the Sox are going to get back in the race, it'll be because they play really well. And while I do feel this pitching staff could get hot, I can't say the same for this offense. As much as some guys will eventually hit better, I think it's unrealistic to expect guys like Konerko, Rios, and maybe even Andruw Jones to keep hitting as they are right now. I don't think Paulie will continue producing like a mad man. Rios might not stay quite on par, but the reality is we have pretty much 6 guys performing at historically below career norms and that will not continue. Those guys might not reach there career numbers, but it is relatively safe to say most of them will improve from where they are at at a significant level (low .200 avg will not hold up, no way, no how). And the starting pitching, barring injuries, should see significant statistical improvements as well. Combine those two areas and it is not unrealistic to see the Sox go on a large hot streak. All that said, the Sox have recently underperformed and that trend is somewhat alarming, imo.

It should probably also be pointed out that this club has been in so many games that it has lost. Which is a good indication that from a talent standpoint, we are not over-matched. When you add in how far below norm our team statistics are, you'd have to think that things would even out. And from that same standpoint, a lot has gone well for the Twins and they will see a swoon at some point. It is just a matter of time. They are a very good team though and it is quite possible that the Sox have already buried themselves, but to state that with extreme confidence would be very foolish at this point.

QUOTE (whitesoxfan101 @ May 11, 2010 -> 12:27 PM) The Sox will be 6 back if they sweep. I agree losing is rarely, if ever good, and you could certainly argue this team isn't as bad as their record indicates. But this is simply not a playoff team, and if people are worried they'll linger half a dozen games back in July, leading to a bad win now trade by KW that won't change the fact that Minnesota and the loser of the Tampa Bay/New York AL East battle are better than us, I can understand that concern. I don't know why, but the standings thing I was looking at showed 7.5 games and I was thinking that this was a 3 game series. I agree an 8 game deficit is large, but there will be significant swings during the season and very rarely will a team play without a cold spell. That means it is quite possible that the Sox have had there significant drought where the Twins have not yet been subject to that. So just that alone will be a regression towards the mean. On top of that we have a buttload of games left with the Twins/Tigers and the regression to the means on our team averages will allow for a significant increase to our production and a likely hot-streak. The pitching should also improve, well at least from the rotation. Our bullpen will likely see regression amongst certain members but 2/3rds of our team should improve and I expect we'll see at least one big run. So as much as it might sound cliche, I believe that this team has talent and will be better. That doesn't mean there aren't holes that won't continue to be holes, but right now there is a s***load of holes, most of which will go away (for example..Jake Peavy is not a hole).

Best sporting event in the world as far as I'm concerned.

Stupid comment. Sox sweep and they are 4.5 games back. That is great for the organization as a whole. Losing is rarely, if ever good, especially when you have a lot of key parts and to me aren't incredibly far away. The offense is one of the worse of all time at this point in the season and it won't stay that way (judging by career norms). This team has some holes, but to act like there aren't very very good baseball players on the squad, we'd be lying. I'm not saying there is an easy fix, but this team isn't near as bad as the record indicates.

Huge, Huge series. Time for a sweep.

The only thing I can really rip Kenny on is his short-sightedness when it comes to player development. We just haven't spend near enough in terms of international free agents and on the draft. Quite frankly it is an absolute mismanaged joke, especially for a team that spends as much as the Sox do on payroll a year.

Jenks will be non-tendered if we still have him (barring him completely turning things around). I also note that I don't think Jenks is as bad as some indicate and I think it has more to do with his command and how much he dicks around now on the mound. And if Jenks does turn it around, he'll still be traded. That alone will create some payroll flexibility. I'm not sure what they will do with the rotation

Titans finished off the sweep against UCR. Big West is weak, but Fullerton is coming on strong. I'm hoping they stay hot and a couple other top 10 teams falter, giving the Titans at least a shot at one of the 8 national seeds. Come on Titans!!!

QUOTE (RockRaines @ May 10, 2010 -> 02:31 PM) As well as talent. And they have Heads, which is an instant deal breaker.

f*** you all. Sox will win and all of the prior s*** will be done. Kick some ass Chisox!!!

Remember this people. The Sox are hitting terrible with runners in scoring position, terrible with no one on base and our starters (outside of Danks) all are putting up numbers worse than there careers have indicated. That won't keep up and once the averages work out we will than have an idea of what are team will look like.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Apr 12, 2010 -> 11:17 AM) Robert Shiller (yes, that one) on the Housing market. The government supports for the housing market pretty much all end over the next month or two. After that, you've got a couple of months while things that close are absorbed into the data, and by the middle of the summer, we may start getting a sign about whether or not I'm right and the housing market still has a decent ways to fall. I think there is a shot that in certain markets which still are at risk for additional foreclosure exposure that we will see prices drop again by a decent chunk. Nothing like earlier, but I think there is the potential for another decline in the market. And to be honest, at least in the area I live in, that wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing because affordability indexes are still quite off the charts.

RIP to one of the legendary broadcasters!

I enjoy both lost and FF and it will be a shame if FF gets cancelled, just like it was a shame that Jericho got cancelled. I've watched lost since pretty much the beginning (around episode #7...I have no seen all of them, but last nights, which is on the DVR) and at the time I loved Jericho even more than Lost.

And IIRC, Omogrosso has had tommy john before, so between a bum shoulder and a surgically repaired elbow the odds are stacked.