Chisoxfn

Hey Caufield. Where in China are you?

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ Apr 22, 2010 -> 11:03 PM) You're right. And this drives me absolutely crazy. Since 1983, we've made the postseason 5 times. That means in 21 of the last 26 seasons we did not see playoff baseball. That, well, sucks. I laugh when I hear, and again you're right, Sox fans talk about they won't stand for a youth movement or any type of rebuilding. "I WON'T GET ANY TICKETS IF THEY REBUILD!" As if we've had this extended run of success. You know what? Stay the f*** home then. The attendance is second rate anyway. I'd rather go the route of putting more effort into the draft, beefing up the farm, maybe make a shrewd trade or two, and go from there. Beats spending 100+ million only to finish third most years. I take it you didn't become a fan until 2005? Either that or you were too young to see the teams from 95-99. And some of the older chatters can go back way back to when it was even worse than that. The Sox have also made the playoffs 3 times during this decade, which isn't too bad. I realize it isn't Yankees or Red Sox good but given the payroll that isn't all that bad. I'm utterly disappointing that we didn't win more or make the playoffs more but we were in a division that has been relatively competitive, albeit many years lacking a great team. Lets not act as if the team has been a failure recently. And when you talk about youth movements, I don't think you can go back to 1983, because the Sox had a youth movement in the early 90's and again in the late 90's (which was started with the White Flag trade). Will we have another movement, I don't know. I think it is more likely we see more of the aging faces going away, but guys like Danks/Floyd, they can be useful and don't need to be traded away in a hurry. Heck, St. Louis was a pretty bad team with a poor farm system and in about a year and a half they got themselves back on the right track again. Albert Pujols obviously helped significantly and the Cards poor team was impacted by injuries to guys like Carpenter, but it can be done. Lastly, don't forget that it is incredibly difficult to make the playoffs year in and year out in baseball, especially when you don't have the budget of a team like the Red Sox/Dodgers/Angels/Yankees/Cardinals/etc.

QUOTE (chisoxfan09 @ Apr 22, 2010 -> 10:41 PM) Chisox, but what do you do at say the half way point if we are out of it with only about 60-70% of the right roster in place? Fans don't want to pay to see a loser. This is the big dilemma. I don't have an answer, but the team is clearly in a really poor position and if it does fail this squad will be in serious trouble because the farm system is not there. The Sox have under-financed there system for a long time and that has made them heavily reliant on finding diamonds in the rough via FA and winning trades. When it comes to bringing up talent to replace or create a spark it really isn't an option for the Sox. I think right now Kenny would rather try to find another bat or add than he would be to subtract because once he starts subtracting the Sox rebuilding period will be rough due to how badly the club has ignored its farm system. A better idea would be to try and manage the payroll and reduce it in the areas you, while hoping to remain competitive, which should keep attendance numbers and allow the Sox to maintain a good size payroll. But if this team loses, they will be forced to make huge cuts to the team payroll and we might find ourselves in the position of the Padres when they finally crapped out (and that is not a good thing).

Don't know if you guys are aware of this, but Justin Jones, one of the Sox high picks that got away, is really kicking ass this year and has an outside shot of being the College Baseball Freshman Pitcher of the year.

They need someone to loosen the mood and let them have fun.

Just an FYI, but while some of us might like seeing young players, the majority of the fans will have zero interest seeing young players, especially if they aren't high upside young players, go through the motions of a 90 to 100 loss season.

QUOTE (fathom @ Apr 22, 2010 -> 07:01 PM) Players that we should consider trading are: Buehrle, Konerko, Jenks, Linebrink, AJP, Jones, Pierre, Ozzie, Garcia Thornton's the closer for next season, and you're not going to be able to unload Peavy or Rios I don't see the Sox dealing Buehrle, but if they did, it would have to be to the Cardinals. That said, I think the Sox will be loyal to Mark and keep all of there starters around. Hudson will slide into the rotation to replace Frederico.

If this team struggles, I could see May 15th or so being a date Kenny has set to potentially make a move to add to the team. But I only think he does that if the club shows something. If the team is still in a funk on May 1st and showing little life on offense, I have no doubt we see some sort of minor roster change. And no, I don't think we will see the Sox trade their starting pitching, but guys like Jenks/Thornton/Linebrink could all get shipped out. Linebrink being a wildcard because he'll have to kick ass to interest any team (Jenks probably would to). But I do think you'd see some of the Sox offensive players moved. I'm not saying the club would get much. I do not see Kenny going into a full rebuilding mode though because I'd see him willing to hold onto those starters for another try, but the offense has been long over-due for an overhaul.

Taylor Mays is an Oakland Raiders pick. Fantastic athlete, but he's not a great football player and is not a play-maker (albeit he has the skill set to be one).

QUOTE (fathom @ Apr 22, 2010 -> 05:52 PM) Can we all agree that Randy Williams needs to be released? There was no reason for Williams to be on the roster to begin with.

QUOTE (fathom @ Apr 22, 2010 -> 05:48 PM) Let me ask you this, how can you say he hasn't been all that bad this year? This is two absolutely awful starts, a good start (where he got some luck, but that happens), and a pretty bad start in his home opener. I didn't think his opening start was that bad. He blew the game and his command has been awful all season, but he had nice movement, was throwing a good changeup, and just hasn't had a feel for his slider. I didn't see any reason to panic. And no, I don't think we are going to see him regularly walk 6 guys a game. He's a much better pitcher than that but I think he is really rusty from being out of baseball for a relatively significant time.

QUOTE (Jenks Heat @ Apr 22, 2010 -> 05:46 PM) It is just a way to pass the time as the game progresses. Tampa is good and this lineup could not be worse. The tone was set when he blew a two run lead by walking 6 guys. The thread should be as embarassing as the lineup, it is almost there. No, usually when things go bad it means there are more opportunities to have good, intelligent, discussions about what is going on, etc. All I see is non-sense that would make Cub fans look like Newton. I'm giving a notice right here and right now, for all of you people (and you know who you are), that continue to sputter out complete non-sense, take the time to make good posts or you will find yourself sitting out of game threads.

QUOTE (TitoMB @ Apr 22, 2010 -> 05:41 PM) The Sox ruined this game thread, and many others, by being bad. No, comments that add absolutely zero value to the discussion are awful. Statements like he doesn't have 4 starts to figure it out, etc. He's got a Cy Young, was brilliant in 4 starts last year, and hasn't been near as bad this year as some of you guys seem to indicate. So when you take a game thread and spout the same stuff 1000 times that isn't even accurate or have a shred of fact to it, that is what ruins the game thread, because it fills the game thread with unintelligent nonsense.

QUOTE (Jenks Heat @ Apr 22, 2010 -> 05:41 PM) Sorry but there is not much to talk about. And talking about what a piece of s*** this team is ok. Talking about how Peavy is completely worthless, etc. How about some perspective people. I'm dissapointed but get yourselves in control cause these game threads are flat out embarrassing and to be quite frank ignorant.

Seriously, STFU people. You are the same guys that were busy talking about how awful Floyd was last year and what a joke of a pitcher he was too when he started rough. Give it a rest people. You are ruining the game thread.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Apr 22, 2010 -> 04:27 AM) Yeah that's a big difference between India and China. In India I was fortunate in that everyone there (basically) speaks English. In fact, everyone there spoke at least three languages - Hindi, English, and their local dialect. China, I don't know how true that is. Meanwhile, a lot of kids here in the States can barely speak one language, but that's another discussion. Kids are starting to learn english in China, but that is for the people who are pretty educated. Walking around and going to restaurants, etc, it will be very difficult to find anyone that speaks english. Usually you have to go with the old point method and order something with a picture otherwise you have absolutely no idea what you are ordering. Subways are pretty tough too, but they do have machines that translate into english. Beautiful city though, outside of the s***tiest air I've ever seen.

Thanks for the bday wishes!!! Went to the circus in Shanghai last night for my birthday, it was insanely awesome.

QUOTE (Cali @ Apr 15, 2010 -> 03:07 PM) I'm gonna be in the city next week, seeing if any of you fine classy people have any places to recommend... Your nuts. Sushi is much better in Cali.

QUOTE (bigruss22 @ Apr 21, 2010 -> 09:09 AM) Anybody ever travel abroad by themselves? Is it recommended? I say this because I am most likely going to study abroad in Hong Kong Spring 2011, and I really want to explore Asia, possibly other places before the semester begins (it starts late, on Feb 1st so I would have about 3 weeks to travel, depending on how much I want to spend). I would go with someone but I most likely will not know anyone traveling there at the same time, and none of my friends will have the time or cash to do it too. I do have friends from Taiwan and other places offering to let me know where to go, and I have no problem traveling alone, just dont really know the whole international traveling alone thing. I'm in Shanghai right now and its a beautiful city, but by yourself you will have a lot of trouble if you can't speak or know anyone (i.e. friend, translator, tour guide, etc) who speaks Chinese, imo.

At Deloitte. Her and I started at the same time, became very good friends and it turns out we had a lot of mutual friends and grew up within 5 minutes of each other.

Closed

Damn....keep it up Andruw!!!

QUOTE (Milkman delivers @ Apr 14, 2010 -> 04:16 PM) Seriously, all of those "I think the lineup should look like this" or "this lineup will solve the problem" threads need to have one catch-all. There must be two new threads like that every single day. Haha, I've made some adjustments, as you guys can see

Hey, I hate these catch all threads, but I've seen enough people complain that it isn't aruond so I decided to add it. I'm also debating whether I should go in and close and delete some of these the sky is falling threads.

Pierre is the Sox leadoff hitter and you don't make drastic changes 10 games into the season.