thedoctor

i'll be interested to see how taylor performs. i saw him play a few times with the reds the past few seasons and he always impressed me. can't say he was great but i thought he had a little potential still.

driving home the other night i remembered we picked up alex escobar near the end of last season. any word on his rehab progress or thoughts about what role (if any) he'll have with the 2005 chisox?

nice of deluca to step out on a limb. :rolly anyhow, i have no gauge on how the sox will finish. i think preseason rankings of the sox are going to be all over the place. when you alter your roster and style of play as dramatically as the sox have, i don't think you can make a really accurate prediction as to how they'll be.

buehrle

lmao! god, i never thought that quote would live on in infamy. i gotta be careful drinking and posting. and no, if i was a cub fan i'd just be talking about ron santo or a goat or something. i probably wouldn't realize a game was going on.

honestly, if i was cub management i think i'd conduct business exactly the way they do. they can make few moves, ignore the community, attempt to rip off their fans on ticket sales through shady schemes, try to pass off a broken-down and dangerous ballpark as "quaint" and people will still pack that place. what's the incentive for cub management to improve the club? no good businessman is going to pour money into a product that's making huge profits. the cubs are more than a baseball team, they're an image and as long as that image is perpetuated those sheep will continue pouring into that park, slugging back old style and waiting for some has-been to sing the seventh-inning stretch.

buehrle

stone is as astute as it gets as a baseball analyst. i'd love to have him.

my personal best moment was attending the game the night before the sox clinched in 1983. the sox had to beat the mariners and the a's had to lose for the sox to clinch. the sox won, but the a's ended up winning and staving off the inevitable for one more night. anyhow, after the sox won the fans stormed the field. my mom let me go down there and i climbed over the left-field wall and went on the field. most fans made it all the way to the infield where cops had things cordoned off. i was standing there and this lady grabbed me and dragged me over to a cop. she was like 'we're harold baines' family, let us through.' considering we were both as white as it gets, we were denied. there was just a great feeling on that field that day. even though i was only 10 at the time, it's a memory that has stuck with me. people were so happy. at the end i went back and had somebody boost me up over the wall and i went back to my mom and we left. before i left though i grabbed a handful of grass from left field and a handful of gravel from the warning track and stuck them in my pocket. when i got home i put them in an old shampoo bottle that i'd rinsed out. i still have that stuff.

hell, we had ribbie and roobarb at one point so what's wrong with having iggy and ozzie?

it was clearly time to try something different and the sox have definitely done what it takes to be a different team. whether or not different equals better remains to be seen.

i find myself unable to root for any cub players and i definitely wouldn't root for maggs. but, despite the way he exited the south side, i have no ill will towards him. the sox won a fair amount of games because of his efforts.

between willie and garland i think the sox have the market cornered on frustrating potential. anyhow, if willie is going to get a shot he needs to get a shot. you stick him in the line-up and leave him there, then watch your results and make a decision. the only problem with this is i don't think ozzie has the patience to approach it this way.

if they're smart they will.

i think he just fit well into the biggest need the sox had. he's the type of player the sox seem to want to remake their image around, and he'd have given them pretty good insurance in the middle infield.

awesome. very cool.

hey addison, cool illinois sig. but incidentally, has anyone ever mentioned that the guy on the far left looks like an old shemp playing the chief? or maybe i've just been at work too long...

as much as winning the sox need to do a better job of generating and maintaining momentum during the season. the past two seasons the sox have followed up big moves (2003-everett/alomar; 2004-garcia) by going in the s***ter. someone mentioned above about the sox being in the national spotlight, and they have when they made these moves. but for various reasons those trades were followed with poor play on the field. it seems like the sox have had so much trouble sustaining success. i remember watching the game against the tigers last year when crede won the game with the homer. i was thinking 'wow, we've got it going, this team is going to surge.' instead, they promptly went in the crapper. hopefully the new roster will be able to avoid the feast or famine problems.

this thread is an example of how numbers can be twisted in so many different ways. if someone wants to believe the sox are getting rich off ownership, you can probably find some numbers somewhere to back that. conversely, if you want to believe the sox are barely getting by, the numbers support that as well. i don't think the sox are making money hand over fist, and i think the team has in good faith attempted to make some moves. someone pointed out yesterday that although you may not like the moves the sox have made, at least they've attempted to rectify and reform this team, and have done a pretty impressive job of it, imo, given the financial constraints they face. whether or not the sox will succeed with this rebuilding is another point entirely, given the crapshoot a season can turn into once it starts with players emerging and regressing, injuries happening, team's gelling and falling apart, etc. i applaud kw for at least trying and making efforts instead of sitting idly back and hammering fans with talk about how hamstrung our salary limits have left us. like his moves or not, he's made moves and made some significant ones, and that's what you do when you have a team that isn't getting it done.

well, how would clement not been a question mark signing? i'd rather have a 4 million dollar question mark than an 8 million dollar one.

very encouraging. if el duque is healthy and pitching like he has in the past, we just got a huge steal.

the tower is aimed east, so you can get great reception out east. i live in columbus, ohio and get it loud and clear most nights. however, those to the west of the signal don't have that benefit.

welcome to the board. i like the signing and like the rotation right now. certainly there are question marks in that rotation, but i'd say the great majority of the teams in the league have similar question marks. as for optimism/negativity, i don't blame anyone for being negative or optimistic. the sox have done enough through the years to incur both emotions.

excellent point. this should be the plan.