CWSGuy406

QUOTE(Chisoxfn @ Jan 3, 2008 -> 07:29 PM) How, by getting a guy who is going to be a very good baseball player for the next 4 years? By getting a guy who potentially allows the Sox to have a couple good young players in the field for the next couple years. The Sox didn't have the guys to stick around and rebuild. The dumbest thing the Sox could do is sit around and let there prospects develop cause bottom line, they have s*** in the farm system for the most part. Kenny is agressive and has gotten himself a group of 4 young major league core players (Fields/Quentin/Richar/Swisher). Obviously some are more proven than others in that group, but he still has a group of Egbert/Broadway/Floyd/Danks in terms of pitching prospects and those guys will be slotted behind Buehrle/Javy who are slated to be here for a while. Plus you have Jose (whether I like it or not he's here). So the Sox had an assload of pitching prospects who are all ready to go now and keeping them in the minors for an extended period of time would have been detrimental. So Kenny probably graded them all out, decided which ones had more value (and if they had a lot more value while other prospects with less value graded out similarly in his mind) he decided it would be best to move one or two of those guys. I also think he now has the ability to make some other moves that I would love to see. I don't know if he has the balls to do it, but I think the addition of a guy like Swisher allows you to potentially swing a Konerko deal (cause Swisher could very well be the new offensive face of the franchise as he's a very loved player in Oakland and I guarantee you the city of Chicago will take to him). That's all fine and dandy, but what Rowand is saying -- and rightfully so -- is that the wins that Swisher is adding to this team isn't taking us from being a contender to a top-of-the-AL team -- it takes us from being a mediocre team to being an average team. Look at our roster and compare it to Detroit, Cleveland, Anahiem, New York and Boston. We're still MILES behind each and every one of those clubs. And we have no farm system. I agree that we have the making of a nice, youngish core. But we need our minor league system to supplement that, and now there's nothing down there that looks like it'll be able to do that. Broadway? Give me a break. One start and now he's comparable to Gio? Shelby looks nice, but when he's your top prospect, you're in an assload of trouble.

One of Konerko, Dye or Thome HAVE to go, or the Quentin trade looks extremely foolish -- neither Quentin nor Swisher are CFers. Swisher playing CF last year was more out of necessity, as I'm pretty sure Kotsay had some nagging injuries. Cripes... we're going for it in 2008. This is f***ing ridiculous.

QUOTE(Chisoxfn @ Jan 3, 2008 -> 07:05 PM) It is official.....Gio/DSL/Sweeney for Nick Swisher DLS gone? Gah. f***. this.

Unless you're getting a real good deal (ie not a salary dump) for Khabbi I don't see the point of trading him, especially with no ready replacement. I think the *ideal* (like nothing going wrong -- which probably won't happen, mind you, but that's why I said ideal) scenario is one where the Hawks break in Crawford as a backup next year, he proves ready and takes over for good in 2009-2010. Crawford is doing well this year, although I don't see Rockford enough to say whether that's because the team in front of him (before everyone got hurt) is good or if he's just that good.

Anyone ever been to Montreal? I'm going up there to see the Hawks play in a week, staying only a couple of days. Anyways, I want to go to the casino there, the big 'Casino de Montreal'. Of course I want to make a trip there but when checking their website I didn't see anything about Texas Hold'em (the game I'd be playing there). I thought a hold'em area was pretty standard to most casinos -- I'd be pretty dissappointed to go there and find out they don't have any hold'em tables...

QUOTE(SoxFanForever @ Jan 2, 2008 -> 04:17 AM) Speaking of our D, where the hell is Barker? Is he injured or something? I just noticed he is a scratch for tonight. What's the deal? Konroyd mentioned that he caught the flu late. Yeah, this sucks. We're starting three terrible defenseman (brutal play by MagJo on one of the goals), Khabbi was terrible and to top it all off, ANOTHER player is hurt. Can this team catch a f***ing break with the injuries? This is a freaking joke...

The whole game was s***. That was a bad bad hockey game, outside of a decent game by Khabbi. Richmond's play on the game-winner was terrible -- get your shot blocked and fall down when trying to get back on defense. It sucks because there's no other options, but having two of MagJo/Zyuzin/Richmond on the ice while Sopel heals up is going to be tough. Tonight was a game between one really bad hockey team and another team that was skating four-to-six AHL players. It also sucked because the guys behind me sucked hard. Among other things: - I heard the word "dude" more times than on a college campus. - Discussion of the two-line pass -- at no point in this discussion did anyone mention that the two-line pass isn't in effect. - One Anchorman reference over and over and over again -- "LOUD NOISES!". - The fake (terrible) Canadian accent that was killed about (at least) 15 years ago, tagging "eh?" at the end of every statement. - Complete lack of knowledge about anything and everything hockey. Calling Skille "Sally" (purposely, although the first time it was said it wasn't on purpose), calling Toews how his name is spelled as in "Toes", calling for the Hawks players to "HIT HIM!" while LA is cycling the puck. Oh, and any LA hit was a tripping penalty on them. And to top it off, they were loud, obnoxious and generally annoying f***s. Gosh I hate people like that.

QUOTE(SnB @ Dec 30, 2007 -> 09:09 PM) last year's NC game. no one saw that coming. Touche -- although in complete hindsight, Florida was much more of an athletic team than Ohio State was (or it sure seemed that way). Perhaps a close observer of both conferences (Rex?) can comment about the relative athleticism of both teams.

Can someone give me a decent reason why I shouldn't put just about every organ in my body on the LSU (4.5 points) line?

It'll be interesting to see what Skille can do. He hasn't been lighting up the A but, at the same time, it's difficult to judge these guys -- there's just too many other factors (who's on his line, mainly, but also the fact that success in the A doesn't seem to have a correlation to success in the NHL). I wonder who his linemates will be -- Savard has not been at all afraid to stick these rookies on one of the top two lines. With Skille, I think he can play on any of the four lines -- the things I remember most about his training camp was that he did an extremely good job of forechecking and finishing his checks. He's also very, very fast. Obviously you don't want to set the bar too low but what I'm trying to get across is that he can fit in (if need be) on one of those 'mucker' roles.

Surprised this hasn't been posted yet: http://www.hockeyfights.com/fights/39549 What a great end to that game. It's one of the best finishes to a Blackhawk game I've ever seen -- the standing ovation, the complete ass-beating of a little prick like Tootoo, the high-fives from people in the stands immediately after the whooping... It sucks that Wiz got hurt in (or before) the process, but that's been a long-time coming.

Ouch... Did I see that correctly -- Bobby Frasor tore his ACL? It's seemingly been injury after injury for him at UNC.

Anyone going to the Wolves game tonight? I'll be there -- going to keep an eye on Skille, Blunden and Brouwer. I'm also hoping Hjalm(whatever) plays (he might be hurt).

QUOTE(Tony82087 @ Dec 27, 2007 -> 04:47 AM) Gigantic loss. Hopefully we get some good news with Sopel, but with the way this season has gone with injuries, I say 3-5 weeks. Terrible. This will force the Hawks to use Byfuglian at defense -- they have to now, there's no going around it. Assuming Sopel is out for a while as well, it's going to be Keith, Seabrook, Byfuglien, Barker and Zyuzin to hold the fort. That's actually not that terrible considering you're missing two of your top five defensemen. As for #6... you can't have Zyuzin and Johanson on the ice at the same time, so I'd like to see Hjarmlson (sp?) get a shot first (if he's not injured). If not, I'd see if you could trade for some sixth defnseman-type veteran filler who you won't have to give up much for.

QUOTE(iamshack @ Dec 24, 2007 -> 06:40 PM) That is the KEY problem here. Thank you for stating that. And that is a player problem, not a GM problem. Although the Kenny detractors will say he should have forseen the fact that those players wouldn't hold up to their end of the bargain. And that is sometimes a legitimate complaint. But I don't see it in the case of many of our players. Those players' whose decline or likelihood of failure was great were guys like Erstad, Pods, Crede- guys who weren't making a large salary. Look at the core of players on this team -- most of them are over 30 years old. The only "core" -- and this admittedly a subjective term -- guys who aren't older than 30 are Jenks and Buehrle. That's a huge problem. And please don't tell us it's not the GM's fault. The crap farm system goes directly on the shoulders on Kenny. The lack of activity in the Dominican and the length of time it took for the Sox to actually be active down there is on the shoulders of Kenny. Hell, I even blame part of the lack of going over slot on Kenny. Every year there's at least 4-5 million that's wasted pointlessly on players with the big club (last year -- Podsednik, Erstad as the top two) -- you're telling me that money couldn't be allocated to the draft? But that's a minor point in the bigger picture of the complete garbage that has been the Sox farm system over the past half-decade or so.

Bringing back the Nocioni topic from last page, Matt from Blog-a-Bull hated the signing the moment it became official. That was just way too much money for a decent (not great) bench player -- especially one who doesn't project to start at any point in the contract (or beyond).

QUOTE(Kalapse @ Dec 22, 2007 -> 05:50 AM) If you're going to go by how past Japanese position players have faired in the US when projecting Fukudome's transition to the American game then there's a damn good chance he's going to be a pretty good player over here similarly to how he was over there. Yeah -- the big thing Fukodome figures to lose over here is some of his power, although (even that) will be tempered by Wrigley's power alleys. I'd say a slightly pessimistic projection is that Fukodome will be an .825 OPS player with good defense -- not a superstar by any means but still an above average (for his position and overall) player, who in today's market is definitely worth what the Cubs gave him. Hell, it'd be tough for me to believe Rowand will at any point be a better player than Fukodome yet he (Rowand) got an extra year and $12 million more. Where did the Jacque Jones comparison come from? That's worse than the somewhat-race-fueled Ichiro or Matsui comparisons. Jones' career OBP is .330 -- I'd eat my hat if Fukodome's OBP is as low as .330.

QUOTE(BureauEmployee171 @ Dec 22, 2007 -> 05:18 AM) Please everyone, lets not mistake a player who's MLB FOP Score (Future Overall Projection) matches Omar Infante with a player like Kosuke Fukudome. Fukudome may not hit like crazy in his first season (a transitional season), but to expect less than .300-.390-450 with extremely, extremely solid defense in RF from Fukudome for years 2-4 of the contract would be a mistake. Fukudome is a legitimate ballplayer. Ramirez does have some potential, he does. But he is not a 'young' 22 years old. His body is maxed out and his OFP matches Omar Infante. Can Ramirez be an integral part & nice utility player on a good AL team? Definitely. Is he Alfonso Soriano? Simply put: Not at all. Nice utility players are a good thing to have though. Don't put 'all of your eggs in one basket though' and expect perennial All-Star stuff. I simply work in Pro-Scouting in the new player development department and am not in the front office to hear decisions, etc. But, as a "fan" & helping to give some fans an "intelligent direction" - be happy that you have a nice utility-type - not a future All-Star. I'm not trying to 'sour' this, but corral expectations - I know you're thirsty for a nice move - but make sure to put all transactions into perspective. A player who can help spell at 2B/RF/CF is a nice thing to have. But to think that Ramirez is a player near the talent of Fukudome is a reckless baseball perspective. Get your well-reasoned analysis and facts out of here. You're killing the (delusional) vibes, man!

Singler certainly has the Duke-flop down already. My gosh, he'll hit the ground if you even lay a finger on him (not talking about the Blaire intentional foul, BTW).

QUOTE(southsideirish @ Dec 20, 2007 -> 11:22 PM) Fielding statistics are completely meaningless. Everyone knows this. Do you even know how Dewan comes to his +/- rankings? No? Just pulling more out of your ass? Everyone though -- you're right on there. You've been golden in this thread -- absolutely golden!

Also, why do the Sox have to make this so f***ing difficult? Mike Cameron is there ripe for the picking -- he's a better player than Crisp, he's better than anybody else on the market and you could make the argument that he'll be better than at least one of Rowand/Jones/Hunter next year. And the Sox are basically competing with one team (Texas) for him. Honestly -- is this really that difficult?

QUOTE(southsideirish @ Dec 20, 2007 -> 11:12 PM) umm, I don't know what you have been watching lately, but the White Sox have not had a slick fielding shortstop the last 2 years. Uribe can't even see his feet anymore when he is standing up. I think this tells us all we need to know. That and the judging players who they were traded for -- the LOL train continues.

QUOTE(southsideirish @ Dec 20, 2007 -> 11:07 PM) Called on it? How? Make the comparison then. So far you have compared him to Erstad, owens, Pods, Fields, am I missing anyone? Really great players there. In 115 games he has a .326 OBP and a .257 average. He is thrown out stealing bases 50% of the time. 22 years old you say? Nice. Let me know how this works out for the Nats. I'll try and make this really simple for you. You said: Which is a completely and utterly clueless statement considering he's coming off of a season where he hit for a 105 OPS+. Thus, your implication that Lastings Milledge is "s***" is completely wrong and you were called on it. See? Are the dots connecting? Probably not, that's okay, I'll try to go slower. And man, you just gave me a huge LOL -- first at using stolen bases to try and... I'm not really sure why that's relevant in any case, but to use all of eight attempts at the major league level? Talk to me when you get a clue. Or just keep responding, because several of your posts are providing some great LOLz (Cabrera = one of the best SSs in the league. Linebrink = AWESOME! The Sox still having cash over getting Cabrera and Linebrink = hee-hee!).

QUOTE(southsideirish @ Dec 20, 2007 -> 10:55 PM) (1) ha ha - that isn't saying much. Pods, Erstad, Owens....yeah that is who I want to compare my top prospect to. What the hell does this even mean? You made a completely ridiculous and uninformed point on Milledge and got called on it. Compare Milledge to anyone and his line last year is still fantastic -- a 22 year old putting up a .790 OPS in a bad hitters' park is great any way you try and slice it. Milledge did better than Josh Fields last year despite being two years younger -- that's awesome.

I drove by R-Kelly's house (more like mansion or palace) the other day. My God... place was completely decked with Christmas lights. He had some type of pine tree that was as tall or taller than the house that was also lit up -- you could see it from several blocks away.