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QUOTE (Texsox @ Nov 4, 2008 -> 03:42 PM) Yep, if baseball ever went to a platoon system, like football, he'd probably never play the field. Not a chance in hell. As long as his name is Derek Jeter he'll be out there in the field doesn't matter if he's the worst shortstop in the game or even crippled they would never "disrespect" the great Derek Jeter by insulting is defensive abilities. If the Yankees viewed Derek Jeter the same way the rest of us do then he would have moved to 3B or 2B when the Yanks acquired A-Rod seeing as how Rodriguez was the vastly superior defensive player at the time of the acquisition.

QUOTE (elrockinMT @ Nov 3, 2008 -> 09:48 PM) Plus I think he got the boot from Tony Larussa for not being a team player Yes because Tony LaRussa of all people should be judging the character of others. He's not a scumbag or anything.

Miguel Olivo re-signed with the Royals today. It's a 1 year, $2.7M deal and includes a team option for 2010. He'll act as the team's primary catcher.

Rolen has 2 years and $26M remaining on his deal ('09:$11M, '10:$11M + $4M bonus, the Cards agreed to pay the bonus but there's no guarantee that money would be included in any deal with the Sox) and has missed, on average, 2 months per season due to injury over the past 4 years. That's really all you need to know about Scott Rolen.

QUOTE (knightni @ Nov 1, 2008 -> 03:50 AM) http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=1947751 Do they want to give up decent prospects, plus pay $13 mil for a one year loaner? 1.) He makes $12M next year. 2.) If he manages even a mild improvement in his numbers next year (switching from Safeco to the Cell, come on) then he's pretty much guaranteed to be a Type A free agent which would net the Sox 2 draft picks and help make up for whatever prospects it took to acquire him.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Oct 31, 2008 -> 12:53 PM) His best assets are turning 2, tough turn and throw, and his arm in general. Yes, as I mentioned as well, he does make stupid mistakes. Those should fade over time. Stats wise, he wasn't "brutal" anyway. His FPct (.981) was 12th in baseball for 2B, RF (4.99) is 11th, ZR (.817) is 8th. But stats aren't a great measure for defense anyway, as evidenced in his case by his higher ranking in ZR than RF. I'd put Ramirez as an upper half defensive 2B. And as I said, that's at a position he was still learning, as he's a native SS. He also had the 3rd worst RZR (revised zone rating) in the game and by far the least OOZ (plays out of zone) of any 2B in the game which lends credence to those who believe his range was actually mediocre for a player with his speed. (myself included) And not that the stat means anything but Alexei's FPct was the 12th best out of only 17 qualified 2B that puts him in the bottom 3rd.

QUOTE (Wanne @ Oct 30, 2008 -> 09:00 PM) ok...so what side of the fence are you on? Trade Jenks and have Thornton for the closer or not? We get it....but what's you're actual point of view of Thornton as a closer besides telling people they're wrong? Like I've been saying for the past 2 years; if a team desperate for a closer wants to make a ridiculous offer for Jenks I'd jump all over it. I don't know if Matt Thornton would make a good closer or not, his success in the role would likely hinge on his ability to command his slider more so than his mental makeup. If the Sox are getting a king's ransom for Jenks then no, I don't have a problem with them making Matt Thornton the closer. He could fail and the Sox would be stuck looking for a new 9th inning man but he's yet to be given the opportunity to fail and anyone who says otherwise is mistaken. Jenks will make something like $3.5M next year in his first year of arbitration eligibility, if he has a good season he's looking at $6.5-$7M in '09 and it just goes up from there. He's still overweight, has a screw in his elbow and isn't exactly dominant so he can't be an untouchable like a Papelbon for example.

So when was it exactly that Matt Thornton was thrust into the closer's role and struggled this past season? Because that never happened. Here's a post of mine from earlier this month: ---------------------------------------------------------- QUOTE (Wanne @ Oct 9, 2008 -> 05:57 PM) So I guess everybody was REEEEEEEALLY happy with Thornton in the closers role when Bobby was out for a while. Hmmmm...I seem to recall most said he didn't have the "closers mentality"...which I agree with. Why even consider trading Bobby unless you're in total rebuild mode? During Bobby's absence Matt Thornton got 1 save opportunity and converted it successfully, getting the one out necessary to record the save. Not a single time during Jenks' absence did Matt Thornton start the final inning of a ballgame in which the White Sox had the lead (the standard save situation). He pitched mainly in the 7th and 8th inning during that stretch including some work in the 9th of a tied ballgame. Hell Matt Thornton pitched in much bigger situations over the final month of the season than he did in Jenks' absence and kicked ass. By my count there were only 5 save opportunities during Jenks' absence. Thornton, Dotel and Linebrink all recorded 1 save each and Linebrink blew 2 more. If anyone came to the conclusion that Matt Thornton didn't have the "closer's mentality" during the 16 games Bobby Jenks missed in July (in which Matt Thornton had 1 save opportunity) then they're fooling themselves.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Oct 30, 2008 -> 06:41 PM) Miguel Olivo isn't going to sign with the White Sox to get 140 AB. With AJP around, that is what he'd max out at if AJ didn't get hurt. He was pissed about getting only 300 AB last year I'm sure he'd be perfectly content with cutting that in more than half. Considering how many s***ty starting catchers there are in the game today and the fact that Miggy put up a .722 OPS last season and is still only 30 years old I'm sure he'll find a team willing to guarantee him the majority of their PA at catcher.

For some reason I'm thinking that dealing away every one of our trading chips for 1 starting pitcher might not be the best way to improve this team and the 3 positions on the field in need of new starters.

QUOTE (ROC Sox Fan @ Oct 29, 2008 -> 09:59 PM) Does Type B mean anything positive for us? If we offer them (Uribe, Griffey) Arbitration but they decline and then sign with another team then we get a 2009 sandwich pick (between the 1st and 2nd rounds).

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Oct 29, 2008 -> 09:54 PM) IF Crede walks, lol!! I'm not convinced yet that it will happen. We'll see. Kind of the opposite of the Durham for Adkins deal where we were just trying to save money and "test drive" Willie Harris and there was a lot of speculation at the time that no compensation would be provided for lost FA's, so KW took a stab at Adkins' supposed plus arm in what turned out to be one of his worst PR disasters, along with the Barry/Berry Onan Masaoka deal. Even if he would play for $3M on a 1 year deal I wouldn't bring him back. I'm looking forward to having a 3B who can actually play 155 games in a season. Having to play a backup at 3B for at least a month in 3 out of the last 4 seasons was rather annoying. Someone other than Joe Crede played 3B in 241 out 811 regular season games over the past 5 seasons or roughly 30% of the time. Yeah, f*** that.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Oct 29, 2008 -> 09:46 PM) More notewothy than that: No sign of Crede. Crede finished at 38.312, 20 points shy of type B status (58.286 - Juan Uribe oddly enough.)

The real credit should go to http://tigers-thoughts.blogspot.com/ who did all the leg work on this. MLB Trade Rumors just posted the other guy's work on their site. Also according to http://tigers-thoughts.blogspot.com/ Uribe and Griffey will be type B free agents (sandwich pick) and Crede's back to back s***ty, injury plagued seasons lead to the Sox receiving no compensation when he walks.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Oct 28, 2008 -> 03:55 PM) .125 average with 17 k in 56 AB. Looks like a future Charlotte Knight. Yep, organizational depth. He's talented but fell on his face in his first shot at the majors last year (.395 OPS) though he rebounded nicely in his 3rd go around at AAA .303/.373/.591/.964 in 264 AB.

If they have over 8 years of service in Japan and are now free agents then they're not being "posted" they're just free agents like any other player. There's a BIG difference between a posted player and a free agent. If a player is posted then you have to pay a fee (usually substantial if the player is any good) to his Japanese team just to receive exclusive rights to talk to the player with no real guarantee that he'll sign. A free agent is a free agent, no posting fee necessary.

QUOTE (IowaSoxFan @ Oct 28, 2008 -> 02:38 PM) Does this mean they wont be offering arbirtration? I had always assumed that they would decline the option because it was quite pricy for the production, but it seems silly to give up a draft pick for the chance that Jr would accept it. If the Sox offer Griff arbitration and he accepts (the risk is always there) he will make, at a minimum, 10 million dollars next season. That's why they wouldn't offer. And no, I don't think Jon Heyman knows whether or not the Sox will offer him arbitration, them not being interested in resigning him isn't really an indicator one way or the other.

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Oct 28, 2008 -> 08:37 AM) Why? Everyone pretty much hopped on that bandwagon who wasn't already on it after Fight Club. There's not many people out there who don't like Pitt... You should see "The Mexican", an underrated movie. I've seen "The Mexican" a few times and enjoyed it, how many movies have you ever seen tackle the issue of firing guns into the air?

QUOTE (Brian @ Oct 26, 2008 -> 08:25 PM) I don't mind Brad Pitt at all. I think he is pretty talented. Now that Milkman mentioned it, his best roles are in supporting. 12 Monkeys, Snatch, True Romance (Yes!). I think he is fine in leading roles as well. Looking forward to him in the Tarantino WWII flick. Yeah along side Eli Roth, BJ Novak and Mike f***ing Myers, helluva cast! After "Death Proof" (which I actually liked, a lot) Tarantino needs a winner, Inglorious Bastards looks like a pretty big risk to me.

QUOTE (Milkman delivers @ Oct 26, 2008 -> 06:29 PM) Brad Pitt is incredible in supporting roles, yes. He's pretty bad in lead roles, though. Hence why he was so good in Burn After Reading since there was no true lead in the film, I know I really shouldn't but I've always liked Pitt. Benjamin Button should be interesting, Fincher and Pitt work well together and the movie looks amazing. Lot of Oscar buzz around that movie.

The success Street had over those final 9 outings in the month of September were largely due to him having been stripped of his closing duties. Believe it or not, pitching in middle relief in September for a team that's been eliminated from contention isn't all that hard.

What the f*** is wrong with Neil Funk? The man has absolutely no energy on the TV broadcasts, he sounds depressed. As if watching Bulls basketball wasn't bad enough now you have a play by play guy who doesn't seem into the game at all, like he doesn't even want to be there. Thank god for Derrick Rose.

QUOTE (joejoedairy @ Oct 21, 2008 -> 09:28 PM) lol like brook fordyce? get olivo if they dont pick up the option. or trade for laird as bearsox suggested Olivo's is a mutual option and he already said he's not going to return to KC. The guy wants to be a starter, he wasn't happy with the 49/51 split they had in KC last year, something tells me he won't take too kindly to an 80/20 split (technically it was an 82/18 split last season) with Pierzynski.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Oct 21, 2008 -> 02:01 AM) Would you rather give Garland $7.5 mill a year over 3 years or try your luck with a combination of Garcia, Richard, Egbert, Poreda, YourMother, etc, while paying less than $5 mill and being locked into no long-term committment? I'd probably take Garland. If his shoulder is true and he can give me 3 years with a 105 ERA+ and 200+ innings then he's worth $8M dollars. If Poreda wasn't ready in September then he's not going to be ready in March, I don't think the Sox have much interest in Garcia (they didn't even go to his tryout last year and made no attempt to sign him) and even if they do, I don't (can't stand watching that man pitch), I want no part of Richard in the rotation he should be the #1 lefty specialist out of the pen next year and I don't think Egbert will be a member of the organization come April. As for my mother she has a nasty slider but her fastball tops out at 38 MPH and I'm not sure she could even get the ball to the plate on a fly so I'm gonna have to rule her out as well.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Oct 21, 2008 -> 12:27 AM) Garland was one of the worst starting pitchers in the AL last year and he has a ton of mileage on his arm. He should not be brought back. I just love this stat. Last year 48 major league pitchers threw at least 190 innings, of them, Jon Garland was the worst (according to VORP). 67 pitchers threw at least 175 innings, Garland was the 7th worst out of the group, the 6 pitchers behind him: Zach Duke, Daniel Cabrera, Tim Redding, Jeff Suppan, Barry Zito and Brian Bannister. That being said, if he were somehow interested I'd still give Garland a Jason Marquis type deal (assuming he's healthy, if that shoulder is f***ed I'm not interested); 3 years, $21M-$24M with incentives for All Star appearances, Cy Young voting and ~210 IP that could raise the deal to say $30M.