Chisoxfn

QUOTE (Reddy @ Jun 11, 2009 -> 06:06 PM) cry me a river. What more could Josh have said. That was a pretty professional quote, imo.

Tremendous article. I really recommend everyone reads it.

QUOTE (BearSox @ Jun 12, 2009 -> 09:18 AM) Again, that's not what I'm doing. I keep saying there's no reason why Alexei shouldn't play out the rest of the season at SS... All I'm saying is depending on how the rest of the year goes, it might not be bad idea to move Alexei to maybe another spot and see how Beckham handles SS. Considering Alexei has the better defensive skill-set, it probably should be Beckham that switches positions. Alexei has more range and the stronger arm and he also has very good hands. In the limited amount I've seen Beckham he too has good hands but his arm and range wouldn't be above average for a shortstop while Ramirez is. Now if the Sox can't find a Cfer and deem it best to have Beckham at SS and Alexei in CF than I might understand but if we have someone able to play CF and plan on starting both Beck and Alexei in the IF, than Alexei should be the one playing SS every time.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Jun 12, 2009 -> 03:22 AM) Gavin, this type of start is why you are my homeboy. I say he ends up with better numbers than Danks this season, except maybe K/9. The biggest reason I think Gavin is better than Danks and it is also the reason Gavin will probably win more games most seasons is because of Gavins ability to pitch deeper into ball games. I really love Gavin. I love the s*** out of Danks too and clearly if you were going to ask around the majors Danks is the better of the two (has more trade value) but man I'm glad we have both of them.

Alexei is in his second season in the majors and his first full-season. Everyone here has probably heard of the sophmore slump and Alexei went through it early in the season. Teams had a full off-season to scout players and major league pitchers made a major adjustment to how they pitched Alexei and he had a hell of a time handling the breaking pitch early in the season. He has since made adjustments and has been playing much better, as evidence of his past months numbers (and his seasonal numbers, all of which are trending upwards). He also was playing SS for truly his first time at the major league level and while I realize he was a natural SS (or so they say) it wasn't as if he had been a fixture at short in Cuba either. So bottom line we have a guy that is still developing, although he is a bit older, and he put up fantastic numbers last season and shows the ability to be one of those guys that can hit for a very high average. Will he ever match the numbers he put up last year, I don't know, but I certainly think he's earned a shot and shown enough to warrant an extended look and it would be very foolish to be short-sighted and deem him a utility player based upon two below average months and really only three below average months in his young major league career (and one of those months was his first month in the majors where he hardly ever played).

QUOTE (rangercal @ Jun 11, 2009 -> 07:23 PM) overreact much? Thank God you are a poster and not a GM. AJ, I don't mean to call you out cause your a long time poster and a very good one at that (and it is with that in mind that I think you can handle this) but I want to point out this post as being the type of post we dont' want to see at Soxtalk. While I realize you are stating the obvious in the sense that clearly there is a bit of an overreaction to Alexei Ramirez play. However at the same time, BearSox is sharing his opinion (not fact, opinion). I'd rather see you say, I disagree and heres why or just ignore the post overall. There is no need for the semi personal attack. Again AJ, don't mean to call you out, but I want posters to see what I'm talking about when I say I want to see some changes.

The comparison to WSI should end by the fact we are leaving this topic open to discuss, like we always have. I think everyone knows that I'm not as active on the day to day modding an admining as I used to be and thankfully we've had a wonderful number of posters step up and take those roles and they've done a hell of a job doing it. The key is that we receive messages from good long-term posters, we look at things ourselves, and flat out realize that some things need to change. Am I talking about a massive lists of posts you can or can't make, absolutely not. I'm talking about common sense, thats it....common sense. We aren't talking about banning 100 posters or anything ridiculous like that. We are putting something out ther to make people aware that we see a growing issue at Soxtalk and believe it needs to be nipped in the butt and unfortunately the issue has been compounded by really terrible Sox play. Have you seen me make one positive post about the current major league squad in a while? No, did you see me ban or warn myself, absolutely not, why, because as far as I'm concerned the vast majority of my posts involve some sort of logical answer and discussion point as to why I feel the way I do (whether I'm right or wrong, who the hell knows). Please don't take what we are saying 1000% literally, just listen to what some of us long-time admins are trying to say and I think when you read the things, you'll pretty much agree 1000000% with what we are saying. It really is a matter of keeping the filth out of a place. That said, I get into game threads some days and people are cussing out Konerko or Danks or whomever because they do one thing wrong or have a bad night. Its absolutely f***ing ridiuclous to do that. This is a sport where people fail more than they succeed and I don't need to see one poster make that post because than another 10 or 15 chime in. And that my friends is the true pack mentality and it is completely unacceptable. If a guy has a track-record of poor performance (see Josh Fields) than go right ahead. Or if a guy can't execute and get a bunt (something that shouldn't have a high failure rate) than again, it is okay. But say something more like Damn it Josh, learn to execute than, Josh you f***ing suck at life or yada yada yada. I also want to say we are very appreciative of everyones comments and I want to ensure people that have these worries of us preventing negative topics or anything should not be worried cause I guarantee I'll start a few trade discussions over the next few weeks, possibly involving some long-time Sox players, why, because I don't believe in the current nucleus. Bottom line we still are as open of a large site as you'll find on the web and it is you the posters that enable us to have that sort of attitude (as we really have such a tremendous group of posters here). And Flash, Fathom is one of my favorite posters on Soxtalk.

QUOTE (Whitewashed in '05 @ Jun 12, 2009 -> 08:22 AM) If teams don't want to give up anything worthwhile for an impact bat like Dye's then I'd rather get the draft picks and see if the sox can make a run in the process of keeping their players. The Sox won't get draft picks for Dye, unfortunately. To get draft picks, we'd have to offer up arbitration and thus pretty much guaranteeing he gets an 11M or so contract from the Sox next season as I highly doubt anyone else offers very substantial money to Dye. I think best case Dye gets a 3yr 24M offer and maybe he takes it, but that is a best case scenario and the reason the Sox wouldn't offer him arbitration (unless of course they don't mind bringing him back and to be honest, if you could get him at 2yrs 15-16M, it isn't a bad idea, but with the plan on using him more in a DH role where he plays less in the OF or at least plays over in FL). I tend to agree you probably don't get a ton for Dye, but you also have to remember that you maybe get $5M in savings that was budgeted this year. So if the Sox than take that 5M and budget into the international market or futher move it to next years budget than I might be okay with it. But they still would have to get some sort of piece in return. To me Dotel (unless we trade Jenks/Thornton) is the most valuable piece in a trade.

QUOTE (whitesoxbrian @ Jun 11, 2009 -> 03:48 PM) Then send him to the Mets for Wilmer Flores and/or Fernando Martinez. Is there anyway the Cardinals would take Jenks, Anderson, and Carrasco for Rasmus? Doubtful. The Mets have zero need at closer, they have Krod and than JJ Putz in the back of there pen. Cards have been getting good performance out of there closer as well, so I wouldn't put it as a need for them, although I don't really buy into there closer. They probably don't trade Rasmus cause they love him.

QUOTE (whitesoxbrian @ Jun 11, 2009 -> 03:41 PM) If Jenks goes to the Cubs, it better be for Hoffpauir and maybe even Colvin. Oh my god, that would also be absolutely f***ing awful. That would be like trading Jenks for Kyle McCulloch and Brad Eldred (I know he's not with the club anymore, but he's the first AAAA slugger I could think of that was last on the White Sox). If you trade Jenks and are going to go the prospect route, you need to get two top 100 baseball prospects, preferably at least one who is considered an "impact" prospect.

Sucks they couldn't get the W for floyd, either way its great to see Gavin kicking ass. I'm officially on the bandwagon of moving Jenks if we can get a really good offer for him. Not sure if we can though. And it has nothing to do with him blowing the save and everything to do with the fact that I think now is the perfect time to move him, although, you have to get great value and if you don't, you keep him.

QUOTE (knightni @ Jun 11, 2009 -> 03:36 PM) I would assume that he'd want bonus money similar to a mid-late 1st round pick. I'd say close to $700-800k minimum to an upwards amount of 1.25 mil. Mid to late 1st rounders get a million plus. He will not sniff 7 figures or at least i wouldn't expect him to. He'll get very close to slot.

QUOTE (knightni @ Jun 11, 2009 -> 02:50 PM) With his talent, he can go to UCLA and be a top 15 pick in 4 years. Plus, his dad is an ex-athlete. This is kind of like the Kyle Long situation last year. I think he wants to play pro and it won't be an overslot bonus. The guy was a pretty early pick. Danks got paid top 3 round money. Thompson went in the top 3 rounds and will get exactly that. Long was a much different story as he was drafted far later so the Sox were going to have to go well above slot to sign him. They still got close, reportedly, and I guarantee you that Long is regretting his decision to pass up on the Sox offer. It sounds as if Thompson to the Sox is a relatively done deal.

Whats the score? Inning, etc.

f***ing vagina Brian. You ruined the show, at least you didn't tell me who won. I'm going to watch it tonight with the little lady.

Did Beckham have a hit or fly out deep?

A lot of people are talking about Thompson and saying he has more upside than our #1 pick.

QUOTE (BFirebird @ Jun 11, 2009 -> 01:04 PM) The one thing I don't see in Grady Sizemore comparison is the home runs. Grady has way more power than Danks2 probably will ever have. If you ask scouts, they could easily see Danks developing 30HR type of power. People expecte him to do it throughout college and he's starting to show a lot more power in the minors as he continues and continues to learn to drive the inside pitches with much more authority. However, it is relatively unlikely that he will actaully turn into a 30 HR hitter. That said, 20Hr's is not at all a bad estimate and it does make him relatively comparable to sizemore in the sense that your talking about good defense a high average, some power, etc. So basically we are saying his upside is that of Sizemore, doesn't mean he makes it. I'd put his downside as that of a Mark Kotsay, which again, isn't a bad thing.

QUOTE (ptatc @ Jun 11, 2009 -> 01:00 PM) This is usually a key to MLB success. You need to watch it. At the time of the Chris Young trade I said I didn't mind the trade due to his high stirke out rate. The reply from someone was "well you must be worried about Josh Fields as well, he strikes out alot." My reply was I'm very concerned about his MLB ability for that very reason." And boy was I torched by people on this board. My opinion of high strike out rate position players still hasn't changed. I'm worried about Danks and his high strike out rate and whether he will make enough contact in the MLB. Let's wait and see if it gets better before we annoint him "grady Sizemore" status. He has a good swing and hits the ball very hard when he squares it up. I'd compare him offensively a bit to someone like Jim Edmonds. Not fully but in the sense that Edmonds always had a high strikeout rate but he also hit the ball very hard whenever he made contract and it showed as he had a ridiculous BAPIP most of is career. Danks has a good swing and a good eye and I think he will settle in as a guy who strikes out 80-110 times which is completely acceptable if he's drawing walks, hitting for a good average (he should), good power (tons of doubles and 15-20HR's), all while stealing bases and playing gold glove defense. But you are definately right, strikeout rates are something you most definately have to look at, but I also believe you have to factor in other things. In Fields case I never was much of a fan because I didn't feel he offered good defense, a great eye or anything else and I felt those strikeouts would hinder him from becoming much of a player at 3rd. Especially since he was much more hit or miss than a guy like Danks. In addition, Fields struck out a lot because he flat out couldn't catch up to a good fastball and that is major sign of a guy that won't make it.

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Jun 11, 2009 -> 11:47 AM) Richard Roeper on twitter: Woman who just missed taking the doomed Flight 447 was killed in car crash. Sounds like a scene from "Final Destination." That is truly insane.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Jun 11, 2009 -> 08:08 AM) It is in fact meteorological summer (June-July-August). Just not official summer. Besides, ITS f***ING MID JUNE!!! IT SHOULDN'T BE 60 +/-5 AND RAINING EVERY DAMN DAY!!! It is that way out here too. We've had very few summer days and its been cloudy and very Seattlish all of June.

It might also be Lillibridge as he could bunt and do some little things. That said, Konerko ain't going to the DL right now.

Probably Andy Phillips. He can play multiple positions and there isn't any harm to his development if he doesn't play much at all. Allen and Viciedo would be mistakes since Fields will be the starter, not to mention the only reason you call up either of the Sox top prospects is if you plan on letting them get a fair shot and unless Konerko is going to be out for an extended period of time they won't get that shot. I'm not a fan of sending a guy back and forth as I think it can be a total mind f***.

I don't buy the allegations, but there might be other stuff out there that is true.

Nope, but I'll make sure to watch out for any of our guys slated to play. We'll also make sure that before the CWS starts that we have a list of guys still playing and when there teams are scheduled to play in the CWS. Obviously I'm rooting for my Titans. Afterall, I am an Alumni. Turns out Chad Ford is also an alumni.