elrockinMT

QUOTE (Soxnbears01 @ Dec 3 2003, 02:30 AM) a conversation has to involve two people Yeah I was just thinkin that myself. Sometimes a person thinks there is another one present. I think they have a name for it...

Let's hope we don't sign a bunch of end of their career players just because they are friends with Ozzie Guillen. Can Roberto Hernandez contribute anymore? I don't know, but not at closer and not for big bucks either. Do they have one more year left in them and make a pennant winnong contribution. Never know I guess till next October right?

I agree with you and should have added that to my original post. He seemed to be in the right spot in Boston and was able to step in and take over for injured players and be in the line up consistently.

Not a bad scenario, but I think money wise you are mistaken. I am not sure the Sox can clear 50 cents to sign an established name. I think what we will see is trades and signing role players for cheap. I do hope we still end up with Colon though. Reports have it that we might be in line to try and get him for less than the original offer. Maybe and then again maybe not, but I hope we stay in the running.

Jose Valentin is as good a SS as was available and maybe better. Forget the names of Nomar and A-Rod because we will never be in that kind of financial picture especially with Reinsdorf in charge of the checkbook nor should we look at paying the inflated salaries they demand. Jose has performed well with the Sox and I am glad he is staying. I think Uribe is here to replace Graffy and be insurance. Willie Harris looks to be the 2B anchor next year. I am not sure that there are any Sox players that some posters here like at all. We seem to quick to criticize our own team roster and undervalue our players. You develop a team of 25 players each having a role to play in making a winner and as much as we would like to see it will never have a roster of 25 Barry Bonds type players.

I am intrigued with the possibility of Gload being with the club next year. I was not happy with Daubach and think some new face in the role might be good. However, I don't question Brian D's desire and you can never tell he just might be back with an incentive laden contract.

At first blush I do not like this trade of Miles for Uribe. However, reading other posts I agree that Miles is a career minor leaguer and limited to 2B. However, his bat and aggressive nature make him a player that could make a difference. Uribe on the other hand comes with the same analysis that was associated with D Jimenez. KW raved about Jimenez and he is raving about Uribe. I gues we will see what affect our new manager has on this type of player. I have concerns though that Kenny Williams undervalues our talent and overvalues someone elses in cases like this. But, what is done is done and I hope Uribe can raise above my suspicions.

I think the player agents probably have something to do with the final result. They can point out to the player how much more money they are getting to do whatever a specific team needs them to do, in the case the Yanks need a set up man, and everyone is happy especially the agent who gets a bigger pay check.

If this report becomes official and Gordon makes 7 million dollars over two seasons ($3.5M per) I have to wonder about the Sox desire to sign our own free agents. I don't think what Flash was asking for is so out of line especially when unofficial reports said he wanted $5M a year.

The Konerko trade might happen, but remember that even though PK was a Dodger first round pick he never produced and they traded him to Cincy. He didn't produce at Cincy and we had the Cameron for Konerko trade. Paulie showed his ability in a Sox uniform till last years fiasco. A trade of O. Perez for Konerko might be good for both teams, but if we keep Paulie that might be alright too. Hopefully he will rebound and hit .300, 30-35 HRS and 110 RBI's.

Good story and we could use Castillo and his gold glove. However, I just read a MLB report that says the Marlins are poised to resign Castillo. I think we may end up with Robbie again, who will come cheaper than $5M plus a year.

Let's all take it easy. We knew that Sandy Alomar Jr would be back. Hopefully his expert tutelage will help Miguel Olivo hit the curve ball and lay off the outside pitches. The Sox are proud of all the money they have to spend to put together a winner and KW's bold moves continue this off season.

I was very surprised with this Cubs trade. Never saw it coming at all and I don't think there were any rumors out there either. The Cubs added a very good player, but the Sox did sign some utility minor league players so we are even right?

With the Angels signing Escobar, the Yankees going after Pettite and Bart not wanting to pitch in NY, the Phillies trying to keep Millwood and the Bosox going after Schilling, I am more and more convinced the White Sox will keep Colon. I like it, but anything can happen still.

I have always been a Jon Garland fan. If he can build on how he finishes a season, which is usually good, I think he can be a 20 game winner. However, $2.3M is pretty good for a guy averaging just 11 wins a year. If he only wins 11 in 2004 that computes out at $209090.90 per win, $12105.26 per inning or $74193.54 per start. No wonder baseball is in economic ruin. He has got to step up this year and earn that salary.

I checked with a source in Cincinnati who covers Reds baseball and was told that that he hadn't headr the rumor around Cincy and didn't believe the Sox would want to take on Griffey and Casey's contracts.

I see a disturbing trend developing with the Sox free agent list. KW says that signing them (Colon, the Alomar's, Tony G, Flash, etc) isa priority and then backs off saying they are out of our price range. I don't know if this is just negotiating ploy, or we are that tight as far as budget is concerned. If Tony G leaves I am assuming Miles will replace him as the super sub.

Disturbing trend developing with the Sox and that's everytime a free agent player that wore a Sox uniform last year and helped us compete is mentioned by the Sox management it's in the past tense. We may have a radically different look in 2004, but still ground into DP's and blow late inning leads

Maybe they should fire Bud Selig instead?

It would be very interesting, but an extremely doubtful happening, if the Sox signed someone from Japan or Cuba. He might be a player that could help, but he is 27 years old and as all these imports do will be looking for the big money. I can't see the Sox even thinking seriously about it. We all can dream though can't we? Ever thought where we might be with some bucks to spend?

An excellent point. My question is this: If the Rangers didn't have Alex Rodriguez then how much lower in the AL West could they have finished? A-Rod is a great player, but it just goes to show that spending huge dollars on a player will not guarantee a winner, let alone a pennant.

Did I say that we were going to trade for Piazza? No, I didn't so please excuse me and don't act so frustrated that someone might even bring it up. Thinking that Piazza might play a role with the Sox is no worse then some of the stuff that has been posted here and is in keeping with what the off season is all about and that's dreaming about the 2004 Sox. We do too much criticizing of our fellow posters. However, maybe it just seems that way cause we don't have the luxury of sitting around a table after work and sharing a beer while good naturedly bantering about the team we love?!

You may have something about a multi-team, multi-player trade. I don't think we could use Piazza either unless Konerko leaves and then maybe Piazza and Thomas could share 1B and DH duties. I think I would want Piazza before Cedeno though.

I think that Jon Rausch has the potential to make it in 2004. As has been pointed out the guy was battling back from an injury, which might take up to 2 years to heal. He showed real promise in the 2nd half last year and in my opinion shoud have been brought up rather than Panaigua who had shown nothing at the AAA level whereas Jon had performed well. I think our problem has been to give up too quickly on our young pitching prospects after all remember Wells and Fogg. I wonder how many are screwed up some from the days of Nardi Contreras?

I agree. Last year was the statement that we were going for it all and we came close. This year it's about tearing the team apart. What's up with that? We don't need to rebuild we need to just fill in some spots and go for it all.