BlackBetsy

This is the worst exhibition of football I've seen in a long, long time.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Oct 31, 2009 -> 12:02 AM) I will predict the hiring of McGwire will be a disaster. How many zillionaires actually work hard as coaches on MLB staffs? I would love to see a study on this vs. how many assistant coaches need the money. McGwire must be awfully bored to take any position excpt 1B or 3B coach. Don Mattingly was a pretty big star and is now a respected hitting coach / bench coach who many believe can manage. Pete Rose was not a zillionaire, but he was a star player and a very respected manager.

16/20. Good quiz.

Tears in my eyes. Most exciting baseball moment ever. Lost my voice within 15 seconds after he hit that. Loudest scream I've ever made.

I got 19 right, with Dellaero nearly at the last second. For some reason, I was able to recall all the picks from 1995-2001, and the ones from 2003 to the present. Missed Royce Ring :-( but he was pretty forgettable. I guess I followed the Sox most closely in the late 80's when I was in grade school / high school and had all the time in the world.

QUOTE (WCSox @ Sep 21, 2009 -> 02:41 PM) ^^^ I'd rather go 72-90 with Pods or Kotsay at DH than bring a nutcase douche like Bradley into the clubhouse. Remember when Griffey gushed about how the Sox organization had a "family" atmosphere? That attracts free agents and players with no-trade clauses. Let's not mess that up. The Royals have a very pro-family atmosphere in their clubhouse and they suck. If the Sox had 25 jackasses on their team and won the World Series, I would prefer that over a family clubhouse.

QUOTE (joeynach @ Oct 14, 2009 -> 02:56 AM) No thanks on Hawpe for 7.5 id rather make a run at Nick Jonhson. If anyone from the rockies I think we need id make a run at Rafael Betancourt, hes a FA unless the rockies pick up a 5.4M option, probably wont happen. He could probably be signed for 2 years 5 mil. Nick Johnson makes sense as a low-cost OBP machine.

QUOTE (Thunderbolt @ Oct 5, 2009 -> 11:42 PM) I really wonder if we could have an O-Cab type deal. Where we offer Dye ARB, and highly suggest that he not take it. I don't think that worked out too well for O-Cab. That was pretty much the Jedi mind trick to get O-Cab to not take arbitration. However, if you gave Dye $3 million to decline arbitration, I could see that working out. You are essentially paying $3 million for a draft pick. However, it also means that Dye is most likely to sign with a team in the top 15 which is protected from Type-A compensation. It may not be consistent with the CBA for a team to offer a player cash to decline arbitration. If Dye is making $12 million this year, the least he could be OFFERED by the club in arbitration is $9.6 million (the max 20% hair cut). Jermaine Dye will sign on the free agent market for less than $9.6 million. I could see him back to Oakland in a one-year $6 million deal or a two-year $11 million deal. Dye's second half offense and his defense will scare away most clubs.

QUOTE (Thunderbolt @ Oct 4, 2009 -> 10:26 AM) Why doesn't anyone seem to understand that it doesn't matter who gets into the playoffs from the AL Central? All we need to worry about are our Sox winning. It's not a lesser of two evils, it's about the evil that is going to get their ass-handed to them by the Yankees. Let's just cheer on our boys, one last time, becasue i DO NOT want the Tigers celebrating on our asses. It matters because I want the Twins fans to suffer like we suffered in 2003 and 2004 and 2006.

I kind of have mixed feelings about this one. I'm a Sox fan to the core, but a win here doesn't really change anything for them this season. And a loss means that the Twins may not get into the playoffs, and I hate the Twins. I also like Danks a heck of a lot and want him to get his 14th win and further lower his ERA. So I'm rooting for the Royals hard and hope that the Twins lose in a playoff with the Tigers.

QUOTE (GO CHI SOX! @ Oct 3, 2009 -> 09:17 PM) It is guaranteed. Oh, I see. There is a two-season provision. He will fall short of the one season provision, but will make it on the two-year vesting provision. That's not going to be a good contract for Detroit next year. Or this year. $18 million. Ouch.

So I noticed that Ordonez is going to fall about 25 plate appearances short of having his contract guaranteed for 2010. So sad, Boras, USA Today Article on Maggs' Detroit deal

QUOTE (CaliSoxFanViaSWside @ Oct 3, 2009 -> 08:59 PM) Garcia 5 shutout innings. Detroit is looking very tight. I might throw 5 shoutout innings against them. When did Freddy get a forkball?

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Oct 3, 2009 -> 04:58 PM) Blackburn and Grienke are in a nice duel on Fox. Grienke with one walk through 3 IP and nothing else. Blackburn is perfect through 4. I can wait until the 7th inning...when there is a secret trade between the Royals and Dodgers...the Twins fans expect Yuniesky Betancourt to hit but then, wait.....THAT'S JIM THOME'S AT BAT MUSIC....bomb to center off of Blackburn, 1-0 Royals, Twins done for season.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Sep 20, 2009 -> 08:03 PM) Hopefully this isn't reminiscent of 2000's minor league system... IIRC: Mark Buehrle Jon Garland Joe Crede Aaron Rowand Rocky Biddle (had success) Matt Guerrier (having success, also got flipped for Damaso Marte) Jon Rauch (having success as a setup guy) Chad Bradford (has had success) Josh Fogg Light on position players, but a lot of useful MLB pitching talent. Not counting the folks like Kip Wells or Scott Eyre who spent time in the minors during this season after having spent time in the bigs.

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Sep 15, 2009 -> 12:32 PM) I guess I don't agree with either statement here. The minority certainly rules this country. Not putting my own opinions here, but the majority are happy and fine with their healthcare, but the minority wants to change it. The majority are against gay marriage, but the minority wants it. The majority of people don't want to spend trillions on defeating global warming, but the minority wants it, the majority of people are religious and don't care that religion is a public thing, but the minority doesn't want it, etc. And at this point I believe that a team like "home-bashers" would never fly because the majority of people think its offensive and unprofessional, despite their view on homosexuality in general. Edit: And really the Court shouldn't be in the business of this anyway. I mean, the Constitution was aimed at Federal and State actions, not private actions. If a franchise wants to be the homo-bashers, they should be able to. But now that these organizations have gotten so big, at some point, they've been linked to state/federal action. Isn't there a political forum for this kind of remark. But, FWIW, you are wrong on pretty much every statement you make about what the majority wants, beginning with who rules this country.

I'd say "Redskins" is the only nickname that is offensive in its own right. If you replace red with white or brown or black or change it to "slant eyes," it's obviously offensive. The tribal names like Illini or Seminoles seem OK to me...more like state pride than anything. I can see where people might get offended at war-like references to the tribes, but sports are the equivalent of "battles" in modern day. I'm not sure it is a blanket statement about tribal culture.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Sep 13, 2009 -> 12:42 PM) Tickets also didn't cost $50, parking wasn't $23, beer wasn't $7, and there weren't sponsors for everything. The entire cost structure is different. True. But my guess is that profit as a % of revenue was much higher in say 1986 than it is today. Here's an interesting link to TV revenue (I think this is the combined TV figure) http://eh.net/encyclopedia/article/haupert.mlb They have average salary of $410k in 1986, meaning the average team spent $10.6 million on payroll. At $6.21 per ticket x average attendance of 1.79 million, average ticket revenue is $11.0 million. TV revenue logged in at $12.4 million per team. Let's assume that includes the revenues from the cable royalty fund. I'll assume food/beverage/parking net income (i.e., price of food and parking minus costs) of $2 million per team. That's fairly conservative. Let's assume $500k in net income from licensed merchandise. Again, fairly conservative. So we have revenues of $11.0 + $12.4 million = $22.4 million. Salary cost of $10.6 million. Let's assume the team pays rent or stadium maintenance costs of $1 million per year and pays its non-baseball staff another $2 million (that's 70 employees at $30k per year...remember this is 1986). Baseball staff and minor leaguers are maybe $4 million per year more (this is wildly high - 150 minor leaguers making $20k per year plus $1 million to GM + scouts). $22.4 million minus $17.6 million expenses (10.6 + 1 + 2 + 4) = $4.8 million profit. Add back in $2.5 million net income for the food beverage parking and licensed merchandise and you are talking about a business with $7.3 million in profits per year. Given that the Sox were purchased for $20 million in 1980, you can see that it was a pretty profitable operation in the 1980's.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Sep 13, 2009 -> 11:07 AM) The 5 year $60 million committment he has to Rios probably is reminding him of Julio Cruz. That Julio Cruz deal didnt even come close to the dent the Rios contract is making. Baseball teams were wildly profitable in the 80's based on the low salaries they were paying. Remember the minimum salary in 1987 was something like $67,500. You could field a team for $8-$10 million comfortably. That's less than the MLB teams were getting from the national fund during that period.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Sep 13, 2009 -> 10:56 AM) Who have they gone out on the limb for, breaking budget to acquire in the past? I don't know if they ever "broke the budget," but the Albert Belle signing in 1997 was the largest contract ever awarded in MLB at that point (5 years $55 million with a break after 2 years, which Belle happily exercised). The Sox are happily profitable thanks to Comcast, WGN, a national fund that pays them $40 + million per year, 2+ million attendance and a sweet stadium deal.

QUOTE (santo=dorf @ Sep 13, 2009 -> 12:00 AM) You couldn't possibly be more wrong. http://sports.espn.go.com/chicago/news/story?id=4390120 Hopefully that last blurb from KW will be enough for people to stop giving him a free pass for this season. I actually thinks that cuts the other way. Since KW tried to trade for Rios, and Ricciardi asked for things back from KW such that KW wouldn't do the deal, KW assumed that he wouldn't just waive Rios and that a waiver claim was safe.

QUOTE (knightni @ Sep 12, 2009 -> 10:04 PM) Whoops! heh. That's why I posted it anonymously. I definitely don't feel great about my team, but am encouraged that as a whole people viewed it positively. I could see how someone who doesn't like Warner would dislike the team. I think my season rises/falls with him, as if he puts together another big season, I will do well. If he sucks, I'm screwed.

I am convinced that it will come out that KW did not want to pick up Rios' contract and that he assumed waivers would be revoked or that Toronto would eat some of the contract.

OK...was off on vacation, so couldn't reply to reveal which one is my team. My team is #3. It was a snake draft and the team numbers are the draft choices in the first round. I went MJ-D in the first round, of course. I dont feel that strongly about him but he's pretty obvious in that spot. I think LaDainan Tomlinson is going to have a rebound season, but he was too risky to pick at 3. Slaton was an obvious choice when he was around at 18, especially with Moss, Fitzgerald, Brady and Brees off the board. Jennings in the third round was the best WR on the board. Warner in the 4th round was probably the toughest choice I made. It was an email draft, so I had time to chat with a guy I know who has won multiple FF leagues over the last few years...including $2k entry fee leagues. He talked me into Warner over the WR options out there. I was disappointed not to get Knowshon Moreno and Earl Bennett...other than that, the draft was pretty ABC.

QUOTE (knightni @ Sep 5, 2009 -> 11:53 AM) I'm really not liking my autodrafted guys though. Warner and Manning are "meh" to me; after Peterson and Barber, my RB depth is unpredictable. WR after Smith is a mystery. If you only play 2 RBs, should be solid. I like Vincent Jackson, and if Brandon Marshall gets himself together, it's a nice three deep lineup.