CanOfCorn

QUOTE(SoxHawk1980 @ Dec 20, 2006 -> 05:59 PM) False. Last year we won 90 games and managed 3rd place. Next year, the division is going to be just as good. Detroit will be down some, but Cleveland will be better. Minnesota will be good again. If the team doesn't improve its talent level over the 2006 team (and it hasn't), one should not expect different results. If by "one" you mean me, I disagree. If by "one" you mean you, then more power to you. It must be tough going through life as a pessimist.

QUOTE(vandy125 @ Dec 20, 2006 -> 12:14 PM) LF - Pods (guy who has been injured and may return back to full speed, of course maybe he won't) CF - BA (has had ONE full season. ONE. Excellent defender who has hit well at every level. You may want to give him a chance instead of pulling the reactionary crap). SS - Juan Uribe (one of the best defenders out there. He has hit decently before, and he can do it again. Unless you know of a better option that will not destroy the team's future for a slightly better improvement). Don't forget Pods and Uribe are in contract years.

I think the White Sox should win 90+ games barring injury. Pods is playing for his career, Anderson too. Dye, Uribe, Iguchi and Buehrle are in contract years. Vaz has something to prove. Hall is a huge upgrade over the Widge and Sandy (although I kinda hope Sandy retires and coaches the C's in the minors). Garland will have a chip on his shoulder. 1. White Sox 2. Detroit 3. Cleveland 4. Minnesota 5. KC (but I think they may hit the 70 win mark this year)

QUOTE(NUKE @ Dec 20, 2006 -> 11:23 AM) Christmas shopping is such an effortless thing for me. Everything is done online at home. I go through and order everything I want to buy for whoever and in such a way that it arrives already wrapped and tagged. Once it arrives, just arrange everything and set it aside. No crowds, no fuss, no running around in bad weather.........none of it. Thank god for the internet. Shut-in.

HOLY CRAP!!! She is freakin' gorgeous! And smart. She's the anti-Yothers.

And a Happy and Healthy Hannukah to you all.

Were Miller and Smith expiring contracts? Honestly, that's some pretty good talent for AI. The Sixers did much better than I thought. Both are solid if unspectacular players...and the two draft picks...even if they don't use them, they can package them for someone like Garnett or Pierce or Marion. Interesting. Nice job Billy King...nice job.

QUOTE(JoeBatterz @ Dec 20, 2006 -> 09:46 AM) Just as a follow-up. I actually found our original league constitution from 2001. At that time, we declared that total points would be the tiebreaker. Needless to say, we now will have one majorly pissed off guy, but I guess that is why they pay me the big bucks to be commish ;-) Although, I have taken knightni's advice and we are going to give the offender a chance to resign from the league as in the absence of an apology, we will have an open spot for next season. There's always going to be one pissed off person, but as Dubya says, "Fool me once.........you can't get fooled again." *Insert Pete Townsend guitar riff here*

If the Gordon's want to re-open the process...fine. But, and we all know this now, EG REALLY wanted to go to IU, then de-commit and re-open the recruiting. If he wants to make it just UI and IU, fine. But, he held the Illini by the sac by saying he was still committed. That's where I think Gordon was wrong. It's over and done with. We will go into '07 with who we got and start working on '08.

QUOTE(greasywheels121 @ Dec 19, 2006 -> 11:08 PM) That video is so great. I'm gaining so much respect for Justin Timberlake.

A bit NSFW...but dern funny. Have Her Open the Box!

QUOTE(aboz56 @ Dec 19, 2006 -> 10:38 PM) Rex, it's just Sour Grapes for all of the ILL fans that they lost Gordon. For those in the know of the situation, it's pretty evident that EJ grew up an IU fan and simply didn't want to play for Mike Davis and rightfully so. Davis was horrible at IU, what stud like Gordon would want to go there and receive no coaching and no discipline? When the switch was made, the GORDON family put out feelers to IU that he wanted to be recruited and things went from there. Unfortunately ILL fans have nothing better to do than to cry over this situation that is over and done with now that EJ is signed and delivered to IU. I realize the frustration from Illini fans, but after a while, just get over it. Making excessive phone calls is not an indication that someone is a bad person or unethical. Do these people not realize that this goes on EVERYWHERE? Bottom line is Kelvin Sampson is a very likable guy who has busted his ass to work his way up the coaching ranks and get to where he is right now. Reading his personal story will tell you of a man who is self-made and put in the work to get where he is today. Those who know him personally would tell you that he goes out of his way to do nice things for people and is one of most friendly guys out there among coaches. Although I like several of the ILL fans that frequent here and talk to them regularly, hopefully we can put this to rest as time goes on and everyone can realize that it's over and done with. To sit here and attack Kelvin Sampson over and over is ridiculous and unwarranted. Show some class and rise above it rather than re-hashing this nonsense over and over. Good point, but I wonder how you would react if the situation was reversed. And don't tell me that you wouldn't feel the same way, etc. because you have no idea how you would react.

QUOTE(jackie hayes @ Dec 19, 2006 -> 03:48 PM) I'm even further on the spectrum. I just can't watch it. I don't think I've ever finished watching a single game, even when I didn't have cable, so it was basically NBC, ABC, CBS, Fox, PBS, and WB, and nothing else. I'd finish watching something, AFL would come on, and I'd prefer to read a magazine after a few minutes. Or re-read, whatever. More fun in person anyway.

OT Jack Cornell committed to Illinois. Damn, that Zooker is a good recruiter. Now, if he could work on play calling and game management........

QUOTE(SoxFan562004 @ Dec 19, 2006 -> 11:38 AM) http://chicagosports.chicagotribune.com/sp...ports-headlines great, now we'll have to see the ESPN hype machine behind the AFL!! Will the Yankees join the AFL?

Oh man...that is so sad. I would like to personally thank him for Quick Draw McGraw and his alter ego and my personal favorite, El Kabong. "I'm going to Kabong you with my Kabongerrrrr." RIP

QUOTE(Balta1701 @ Dec 19, 2006 -> 10:51 AM) As pointed out earlier, the Runs scored thing is pretty much not a useful stat because it depends a lot on who is behind him. Here's the reality with Podsednik; we have no idea what we're going to get from him this year. Last year was a disaster for him, but it was a predictable disaster, because he was still recovering from health issues. In late 2005, he was really banged up, had a bad hamstring IIRC and wound up having a hernia surgery in the offseason. That slowed him down for the better part of 2 months in 05. Then, to start off 06, he went into Spring Training having had no real offseason to recover because of the surgery, then he wound up not having a Spring Training because of scar tissue, so he was basically inserted into the lineup on opening day with no time at all to get in baseball shape, and probably still with some nagging pain from those injuries. As far as I know, he hasn't had any major injuries lately that will interrupt his offseason, so he at least has some shot to both relax and to get his body back in playing shape. That could give us a significant improvement. On the other hand, with a guy who relies on speed to make a difference in a game, it's also entirely possible that this series of injuries will cost him a step on the basepaths, thus leaving him as a 60% stolen base guy for the rest of his career. If the only other option was giving Dave Roberts $20 million over 3 years, I understand going with Podsednik for 1 more year, but it's definately a big gamble. Excellent post Balta. And if I may add one more thing: with an injured and declining Podsednik, the Sox still had an excellent first half of '06. Now, if Pods is still strug-a-ling by the trade deadline and the White Sox are still contending, a $2.9 million dollar/1 year contract is going to be easy to dump as part of a deal to get a new LF and/or leadoff hitter. It'll be an expiring contract with no strings and cheap for a team that might need to plug a hole until 2007. What if Roberts or Pierre struggle? Now you've got them for 3 and 5 years, respectively. Yikes.

QUOTE(EvilMonkey @ Dec 18, 2006 -> 08:50 PM) You may be underestimating the tremendous egos of alot major league players. The desire to play, and the money, can be strong influences. That is true, but in THIS case, Bernie Williams has more money than he needs, has won many World Series titles AND probably most importantly, has a career as a musician (and a good one at that) all lined up for him. He will retire a Yankee.

QUOTE(iamshack @ Dec 18, 2006 -> 04:17 PM) If it were only that simple. Do you think Freddy has more trade value than Brandon, simply because Freddy > Brandon? Only in weight.

Donnelly traded.

QUOTE(greasywheels121 @ Dec 15, 2006 -> 11:54 AM) http://mlb.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/news/article...sp&c_id=mlb I always liked him, and it was cool to see how much his career mirrored Frank's after being born on the same day. I think the Red Sox should sign him for one day so they can just shut up about the Anderson for Bagwell trade. Seriously, though, he was a great 1st Baseman and a class act. Good luck in your second career Bags...

QUOTE(Melissa1334 @ Dec 15, 2006 -> 11:51 AM) i dont see why he wouldnt waive it to go to the sox. its not like the braves will resign him. plus, its his FA year, if he played at the cell he would put up monster numbers, therefore he would get a bigger contract. Nope. Nope. Aaaaaaaaaaaannnnnnd nope.

QUOTE(SoxHawk1980 @ Dec 14, 2006 -> 02:03 PM) So that is what you meant when you said that you don't want the Sox to be like the Red Sox, Yankees or Mets. But the problem is that this strategy has led to World Series victories for the Red Sox once and the Yankees multiple times. Those teams won a lot of games and won the World Series because they had a hell of a lot of talent. If your strategy is trying to find magical chemistry with a bunch of cheaper players, you are lucky to get lightning in a bottle once. The fact that Pods knows his role and does his best to keep step doesn't help the team any. You say that he didn't have a great season "but so what?" So what? So, he hurt the team. He was an automatic out in the lineup and a liability in the field. I think that rates higher than a "so what?" I never claimed overspending on Pierre or Roberts would have been a good idea. But spending the market price on Guillen or Abreu would have been worth it and would have been affordable, if we are to believe what Kenny says in this article. And they both would have been major improvements over Pods. Magical chemistry. Wow. I don't call chemistry "magical." It's called being a team. The White Sox have talent. Show me a team that has absolutely NO weaknesses. Go ahead. I would say, all things being equal, Uribe is the weak link because he had a down year defensively and was just as inconsistent as ever at the plate. Where's the outcry to get his $4+ Million salary out of town? Sorry, but I trust the White Sox to do the best they can in their own framework. And you have to give them credit for standing tall in the face of fans who want them to sign the big-time free agent and/or trade for the big name EVERY year.

QUOTE(FlaSoxxJim @ Dec 14, 2006 -> 02:15 PM) That would be Goldar, Silvar, and their robot kid Gam from Space Giants! Kid Gleason will prolly come along and tell you the show was really called Ambassador Magma in Japan, but here we called it Space Giants! Yep, Speed Racer on Channel 44 for me too, and also another great early Japanimation treat, Prince Planet. As far as ONTV and the "special treat". . . I neber had the wherwithall to build the descrambler, so I spent a lot of late night time watching that image with the big jumpy line through it. 'Wait, wait, was that a half-boob or was it a bowling ball?!?' Can't forget Spectreman. AWESOME!! I will defeat you, Spectreman. Dr. Gori

QUOTE(SoxHawk1980 @ Dec 14, 2006 -> 11:44 AM) He would have been an upgrade over Uribe and Uribe could have been traded away for something. We have no idea if he would have come here. And it doesn't make any difference if he comes here to leadoff or not. He's a huge upgrade over Pods. And how do we know if he even cares if he is the leadoff hitter or the #2 or #5? Not every acquisition solves every problem. Again, he would have been a big upgrade over Pods. He or most players on the team would be better leading off than Pods. I don't know what this means. Do we want to spend as much as the Red Sox, Yankees or Mets? They spend what they can afford. If the Chisox could afford that much, they should spend that much. Unfortunately Chisox revenues don't allow for that kind of payroll. But as a fan, I certainly want the Chisox to spend as much as they can afford. And the Chisox can easily afford at least a small increase over last year's payroll. I would definitely like for them to spend that much money to improve the team. There have been opportunities to do that this season. Hopefully KW can figure out something in the remainder of the offseason to make it happen. What I mean is...the 2005 White Sox were a TEAM. They had no superstars, they had no ridiculous salaries and they won the World Series. If you want to put together an All-Star team every year and load up on players that either play or bat out of place, you might get winning teams every year, but you aren't going to get World Series champs. Hell, look at the late 90's Yankees. Sure they had star power, but they still had the O'Neil's and the Brosius' that know their role and play it well. Pods may not have had a great season last year. But, so what? He knows his role on this team and does his best to keep in step. I would MUCH rather pay him $3 mil for ONE YEAR than Pierre or Roberts for 3+ years.