False Alarm

i once interviewed at blockbuster video and one of their questions was "if you were an animal, what kind would you be?" i said a dolphin, then got a ticket on my way home. didn't get the gig. cripes.

QUOTE(nitetrain8601 @ Feb 19, 2005 -> 06:41 PM) I think the Indians will have a better pitching staff than everyone thinks, but they'll finish in 3rd. i agree. sabathia and lee are young and have good stuff; they're more likely to get better (or injured) than worse. but i still think we'll finish ahead of them.

isu alum. go birds and chisox.

QUOTE(TLAK @ Jan 29, 2005 -> 03:35 PM) 1. If 7 million for Benson is too high, (and it is certainly debatable), so is Adam Sandler's 20 million per movie. Benson has much better command and a plus fast ball. 2. Two of the last 3 WS champions were mid to low budget teams, Angels and Marlins. The Angels have since gone wild but the Marlins are still pretty conservative. You can beat the Yankees and Rsox without going broke. 3. If furthering competitive balance means capping players salaries then you may indeed get a lock out - strike, and this could kill the 4 BILLION-dollar golden goose. After the '94 strike I didn't set foot in Comisky again until 2000. If these guys can't figure out how to live on $4 Billion, I'll spend more time at Hawkinson Field. 4. There have always been revenue imbalances in baseball -look at the St. Louis Browns or our own White Sox in the '30s- but the game seems to have survived. I used to feel as you do about this issue until I realized that it just wasn't my problem. Now I just watch the games and join occasional debates with friends like you, but I don't take it to heart. Its just baseball. 1. no one cares about competitive balance in movies, and with good reason. this point ain't analogous. 2. that it's entirely possible for a small- to mid-market team to win the world series in no way refutes the fact that they are playing with a larger set of constraints than the financial powerhouses. you can argue that it's OK, even beneficial, for the sport to be set up unfairly, but it seems wrong to suggest that it actually is set up fairly just because of tradition or historical precedent. 3. agreed. and maybe the goose should be killed if it's inherently flawed. 4. OK. nothing wrong with that, but the historical point here is addressed under #2, and the personal point about not taking it to heart is relative and doesn't actually address what we're talking about in any way. it isn't importnat to you and it is to some others. and...? i see no reason this thread should be moved from the pale hose board btw. market status is pretty much always pertinent to the chisox.

QUOTE(LosMediasBlancas @ Jan 20, 2005 -> 09:29 PM) Lighten up man, your not IN the f'n band. Of course it comes down to personal taste, it's not for me, big deal. Enjoy it and keep the suggestions coming. it's all good dude i was just playin.

QUOTE(Rex Hudler @ Jan 18, 2005 -> 11:49 PM) Actually, something like 85-90% of all first rounders make the big leagues. Not that many stick, but most make it. My problem is that agents have gotten involved and players now get huge dollars before they have proven s***. It seems as many fail to pan out as those that do. my bad; my numbers were for 3rd rounders. nonetheless, having a significant major-league career is far from a sure thing even for first rounders, and you need to have that kinda career to cash in on free agency. so my point about why they wanna do all they could to obtain financial security for life still stands, i think. also, if he doesn't sign, can't he pitch in an independent league? still a risk, obviously, but assuming he overpowered players in an indie league for a year, i wonder where he'd get drafted next year.

QUOTE(LosMediasBlancas @ Jan 20, 2005 -> 04:20 PM) Update. Thx for the suggestions, picked up Sigur Ros and they have become my new cure for insomnia. :sleep Are you kidding me? your elitist-critic shtick works OK i guess but it's kinda tired. cerb did it first, and better. some peeps prefer the atmospheric/postrock thing, especially a crew who does it as refreshingly as sigur ros; some prefer joy div--i mean, the psychadelic f--i mean, interpol. no need to mock either way.

i wanna preface this by saying i hate boras as much as the next guy, and it tickles me that bobby hill (and guys like him) flopped. but the odds of making it to the majors, even for a guy like jared weaver, aren't that good. i think it's something like 30 to 40% of first-round picks who make it, and the percentage drops off steeply in future rounds. even if he does make it, jared weaver is no mark prior (they're not even sure he's jeff weaver), and there's no guarantee at all that he'll be the type of guy who has a huge payday when he finally hits free agency. and, of course, pitchers are known to flame out due to injury pretty often. so, considering all those things, it's understandable that boras and his client, knowing his stock may never be higher, would wanna get that financial security while they can. where i think boras is really f***ing these kids over is in the sense that they're baseball players--they wanna play ball. these types of negotiations hurt their development significantly and thus, as someone said earlier, their chances for success at the thing they presumably love.

aaron also has a stronger arm than pods from what i've heard. gotta factor that into the decision.

i dunno, i've always thought someone's theme song should be different from their entrance song. i mean they can be but don't necessarily have to be the same. in my case, i've always wanted "back in black" by AC/DC to be my entrance music. it's the song i entered to at my wedding reception, actually (dunno how i talked my wife into that one). but i'd consider my theme song to be "come on die young" by mogwai cuz it's more of a general reflection of me and my outlook.

QUOTE(JUGGERNAUT @ Jan 11, 2005 -> 12:58 AM) The deal has not worked out great for the CWS. You're letting KW off the hook. Lee was the most sought after talent on the CWS. Many teams wanted Lee. His trade value was at an all-time high. Salary purge or not, KW should have gotten much more than 2 avg at best players & a PTBNL that will likely never see his name in lights at the Cell. This was a bad trade for the CWS. dude, i never put kenny on the hook. i'm one of those oddballs who wait until well after a trade's been consumated to make definitive judgments. sometimes i even like to wait until the teams have played some games. for real though, your point's well taken. i find it hard to believe kenny couldn't've found better value out there for a guy like caballo. when i say i think the deal's worked out well (not "great" by any means), i'm just generally relieved that we actually attempted to address some needs with the money saved. whether i love those particular moves is another story, but i'm willing to wait and see and, for now, give KW the benefit of the doubt. you raise some worrisome stats about some of the players we've acquired, but i'm also not sure how much weight i put on those stats' predictive value, given all the other variables that'll affect performance. so, in summary, i'm going into this season biting my fingernails, but with cautious optimism about our moves. as for the trade, i'm skeptical, but i think it's premature to pronounce it a failure.

tidbit from a cali league chat. sounds like a fringe prospect.

i agree the deal's worked out well for our organization, and i applaud kenny for it, but strictly from the standpoint of getting fair value from the other team in return for a high-quality player (+ cash), i think a genuine prospect, not filler, is in order. i mean, it wasn't literally a trade for those four players, and selling guys like carlos lee at slashed prices bothers me. we shouldn't need to make straight salary dumps with the likes of milwaukee.

not sure, but i think max time is 6 months. if that's the case you gotta figure the sox'll use the whole six months so they can use the first couple of months of the minor-league season to evaluate the brewers' guys. personally, i'll be pissed if we don't get at least a decent prospect outta the deal. the brewers have a good, deep system and were getting a legit middle-of-the-order hitter; kenny should've pushed for a list of quality minor leaguers. guys like prince fielder and weeks and maybe JJ hardy were probably off limits, but i'm hoping we get someone in that next tier (hendrickson would be fine with me).

iguchi was a shortstop the first half of his career before his arm injury; maybe they figure he can play SS enough to occasionally spell uribe, then spend the rest of his time at 2B. otherwise, i agree with you guys--this leaves us with no backup SS (or room on the roster for wilson valdez [whom i don't think most of us want on the big club anyway]) and isn't the best move.

i read elsewhere that it was 10 pounds. i forget where. anyway, not good, but plenty of pro athletes can shed that no problem in the time between now and spring training. hope juan's one of em.

2003 Avg: .204 OBP: .259 RF: 3.08 2004: Avg: .262 OBP: 343 RF: 4.20 looks like improvement to me. and if you wanna argue that he didn't have enough at-bats prior to '04 to put much stock in those numbers--which he probably didn't--then by the same token, you can't claim to have a large enough sample size to make judgments or bulls*** claims about his improvement (or lack thereof). i understand peeps' qualms about willie, and yes there're a lot of questions and things to dislike about him, and yes i'll be happy to upgrade if there's someone available, but it's not like dude's a total bum.

looks like 3 years, 25.5 mil. i could use some of that cash if they're gonna give it away to just anybody.

the dragonbone chair, by tad williams fool's errand, by robin hobb the master and margarita, by mikhail bulgakov working through my endless to-be-read pile...

behind felix hernandez. morse didn't crack their top 10. 2. JEREMY REED, of Age: 23 B-T: L-L Ht: 6-0 Wt.: 185 Drafted: Long Beach State, 2002 (2nd round) Signed by: Joe Butler/Matt Hattabaugh (White Sox) Background: Reed ranked as the White Sox’ No. 1 prospect after leading the minors with a .373 average and .453 on-base percentage in 2003. When they traded Freddy Garcia, the Mariners insisted on Reed in a package that included Miguel Olivo and shortstop prospect Mike Morse. He batted .397 in his big league debut. Strengths: A natural line-drive hitter, Reed controls the strike zone and makes consistent sweet-spot contact. He runs well; his instincts make him a stolen-base threat. His September performance convinced Seattle he can handle center field. His arm is average. Weaknesses: Scouts from other clubs aren’t as sure he can stay in center—particularly in spacious Safeco Field. He needs to improve his jumps and routes on fly balls. Reed may max out at 15 homers a season, which would be below-average power if he has to move to left. The Future: Already having proven he’s more qualified than Randy Winn, Reed should open 2005 as Seattle’s center fielder. He should fit nicely behind Ichiro Suzuki in the No. 2 slot in the order. 2004 Club (Class) AVG OBP SLG AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB Charlotte (AAA) .275 .357 .420 276 44 76 14 1 8 37 36 34 12 Tacoma (AAA) .305 .366 .455 233 40 71 10 5 5 36 23 22 14 Seattle .397 .470 .466 58 11 23 4 0 0 5 7 4 3

though the #s are probably skewed cuz of his R/L splits, rowand had a .369 OBP in > 150 AB as a leadoff hitter last year and was 17 of 22 in SB. it may not be an ideal situation, but dude can lead off.

if we'd've given him the contract he wanted, with all that cash dumped on him up front, we wouldn't be looking for a SP and SS. we'd be sitting on our thumbs with a maxed-out payroll.

the story sounds like bulls*** to me. i mean, it's possible, but i used to work loss prevention for best buy, and i can't see it happening that way at any of the stores i ever worked at. first, there's no mention of the loss-prevention rep, who would've been closely invloved in any flap this big. second, they would've looked at the tapes of the purchase (all registers are recorded on closed-circuit TV) and seen that the cashier hadn't in fact lifted the thing at all and thus not put much stock in what she said. third, they'd've talked with the store warehouse guys, since if it was in-store tampering they usually are in the best position to do it with items like that. (granted that this might've happened outside the writer/victim's presence.) fourth, it seems unlikely they'd've accused the customer of stealing the item, even if that's what they thought. the only peeps i ever accused of a scam or shoplifting were always arrested a short time later cuz BB's policy on apprehension was so strict to protect them from lawsuits. finally, as others have mentioned, even the biggest assholes of the managers i encountered would've given the customer the benefit of the doubt and made some kinda concession, especially if he were as loyal and frequent as the writer describes. so again, while anything's possible, and it's been several years since i worked there, sounds fishy to me.

yeah, i've been pretty much the same way about brian's stuff. this is the only one by him i've read, and it's mainly cuz my friend got me a signed copy of it as a gift. it's probably not fair for me to mention it in a thread on worst books--it's competent, as sci-fi goes, but it just pales across the board next to his dad's stuff. i'd sooner reread the original books or read the frank collaboration than check out the conclusion of this trilogy.

i'm masochistic or something i tend to force myself to finish books even when they're not good. i think it's a thing where i'm always secretly hoping that the badness is just some kind of experimental device and maybe in the end it'll unexpectedly turn out to be awesome and brilliant after all. i'm still waiting for it to actually happen that way. anyway, my worst book is easy: ruffians, by former NFL defensive end tim green. utter s***. i'm reading dune: the machine crusade right now, and it ain't so good either. not really worthy of the dune name.