Marty34

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Aug 21, 2011 -> 05:13 PM) If it's the Lillibridge with a line-drive/ground ball swing, maybe. If it's the "Hey, wow....I hit more homers than Adam Dunn" version who's constantly swinging for the fences with the big/long swing and striking out too much for someone so small, well, we've got 2/3rd's of our line-up already doing that. Short and compact, good. Whether he could hold up over 150+ games and against a steady diet of tough RH pitching, I doubt we'll ever have the opportunity to find out. If Dunn/Rios/Peavy are all coming back, Buehrle and/or Danks are gone (along with Quentin) and Lillibridge is the annointed SS...how many season tickets will that sell Mr. Smarty Marty Pants Rowland? 5000? 7500? It will be a dramatic falloff. I don't think the Sox will do a total rebuild. I think Buehrle comes back, but their going to have to find money to do that. Ramirez, Quentin, Danks, and Floyd should all be options to trade. As far as season ticket sales go, the lease affords them the protection of 2M in ticket sales.

Checked with my guy about this today, he said nothing is imminent, Just that the Illinois Sports Facilities Authority wants the option to stage winter events there. Don't know enough about the Bears lease, but presumably they can block college football games from being played at Soldier Field if they believe it will harm the playing field.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Aug 21, 2011 -> 01:48 PM) That would be one of the worst moves to start rebuilding. Especially since right now your strength moving forward is young pitching that needs stellar defense. Move Alexei at this point is pretty damn dumb, especially when finding a replacement for him would be extremely hard. Ramirez is 30 not 20. Not getting better.

QUOTE (elrockinMT @ Aug 21, 2011 -> 11:24 AM) The post saeemed to turn to Beckham nedig to turn it around. What would trading Ramirez do for us there? I don't think you trade a silver slugger SS still learning at the big league level. He is a person you build around. I also think Bedckham can get on track and having him and Ramirez together will be a major plus. Lot of areas to look at to improve this team, but saying we should traade ramirez is missing the point. We are 5 games out now because of no production from Dunn-Rios-Beckham and struggles by some other early. Ramirez is a combination of too expensive/too old/not good enough to build around.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Aug 21, 2011 -> 10:06 AM) And here's the biggest problem with your idea. We arguably will need more help at 3B or 2B than SS in the next couple of years. Ramirez isn't expensive YET. So we're going to trade one of our 2-3 best players for a bunch of prospects. Well, look what the Indians got for Sabathia, or the Twins for Santana. The odds of getting a player back of Alexei's ability are about 5% Like it or not, the plan for them contending over the next few years has Beckham being what everyone thought he'd be or something close. I'm going to assume he gets back on track because if he doesn't we have bigger problems.

I have serious doubts about Lillibridge's bat as an everyday player too, but against lefties he's an intriguing possibility at short.

I'd like to see Lillibridge get some time at short the remainder of the season to see if he a viable alternative to Ramirez. Ramirez should be shopped this winter.

QUOTE (knightni @ Aug 20, 2011 -> 01:43 PM) The Cell seats 40k, right? Could they add 10k seats to accommodate more people? Good point about the no beer sales at NU. 50,000 is real doubtful.

QUOTE (The Ginger Kid @ Aug 19, 2011 -> 05:50 PM) who's calling the shots on this disaster? @CST_soxvan Daryl Van Schouwen Beckham knows it: 'right now I'm having hard time laying off bad pitches.' GM KW said he'd rather see Beckham's old swing he brought from GA What good does it do for Kenny "The Genius" Williams to say that to the media other than curry favor with the public? If he didn't tell Beckham this privately, he shouldn't say anything. Even if he did, he shouldn't tell the media.

I would think the Bears would play at Northwestern in case of emergency.

After tonight, I'm convinced Chairman Reinsdorf will make the right decisions this offseason. The Sox have so many built in advantages over most teams in MLB that it won't take long to get better.

Maintenance guy I know on 35th told me his colleague was told today to price out the cost of getting the park ready to use during the winter. Bathrooms, etc ... I was thinking a college football, a Hawks game. He thought more long-term as a single event would not require much. Maybe Chairman Reinsdorf is bringing the Bills to town.

QUOTE (SI1020 @ Aug 19, 2011 -> 12:58 PM) His swing is not like it was at Georgia, and is longer and loopier than it was when he first came up. What is it with the Sox? Borchard, Crede, Fields, and Anderson all had major holes in their swings too. Crede finally was getting it together and then his back gave out. Do they teach guys to try to pull and kill the ball? This is exactly the kind of situation that a good hitting coach should be able to respond to. All of these players had great potential and only Crede was able to have somewhat of a decent career. This thing with Beckham makes me ill. A big part of it seems to be the Sox don't know a good hitter from a bad one. It's not like guys are leaving the Sox and suddenly turning into good hitters.

It's pretty sad when our best hitter and most dependable starting pitcher were acquired during the Schueler regime.

Beckham was a line drive machine when he came up. Walker deserves blame in this, but there were questions about whether his swing mechanics would work at the big league level. I don't trust anyone currently in the White Sox organization to recognize a good hitter. Off the top of my head the best hitters acquired since Williams became GM were 1. Thome, 2. Dye, 3. Quentin. Not exactly stellar.

QUOTE (Milkman delivers @ Aug 18, 2011 -> 10:42 PM) With the lack of passion that this team shows on a regular basis, I can't believe anyone still defends and wants to keep Ozzie. How many Guillen defenders are there? I have no problem with him being let go. I'd have a problem if it stopped with him (and his coaches).

The Sox aren't in terrible shape when it comes to cheap talent. Sale, Santos, Stewart, Addison Reed, De Aza, Viciedo, Flowers, and Beckham all could play significant roles on a very good team, imo. The Sox are just hamstrung by bad contracts.

Swisher played 70 games for the Sox in CF and was bad defensively. (He's played 1 game there since he was traded.) If he wasn't going to play CF I don't think they'd have ever traded for him.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Aug 18, 2011 -> 12:22 PM) Swisher, IMO, was ruined by our coaching staff. You are not going to convince me that Swish is not a productive player. Ozzie and Walker just failed to find a fit for him, and then keep him out of a rut when he struggled to fit into that role. Maybe acquiring him with the idea he could play CF everyday messed him up too.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Aug 18, 2011 -> 11:55 AM) With the huge attrition rates of prospects in this game, I honestly prefer our current model, which is weighted much more heavily towards committing to known assets. I agree. What the Sox do well is find low risk talent. It's too bad that our payroll level has increased substantially over the last 5-6 years and we are seeing less and less production from the expensive guys.

QUOTE (bigruss22 @ Aug 18, 2011 -> 11:42 AM) Talent doesnt always mean production though. Would you say that the Sox have had the most productive teams in the past 5 years or so? I would easily say no. Exactly. With the seasons we've gotten from Dunn, Peavy, and Rios we should not be anywhere near first. A trademark of Hollywood's teams going back to the Jerry Manuel days seems to be as you call it a lack of productivity from key personel

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Aug 18, 2011 -> 11:24 AM) I dont know, what does your guy on 35th think? If I didn't think you were being facetious, I'd get you an answer.

Maybe Chairman Reinsdorf doesn't want to spend money on something the organization has shown to be a weakness which is identifying amateur players who can play in MLB. It's made more difficult by their usual draft position.

Hollywood sees things no one else can see like "Chicago Tough". Don't know how Rios and Dunn slipped by him.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Aug 18, 2011 -> 10:18 AM) Williams wants nothing to do with the media. Hollywood does things a little differently. He flies under the radar, makes sure he acquires guys who are "Chicago Tough." Ugh.