AddisonStSox

King Kong was a good, good movie. Loved Jack Black's role, the graphics, and haven't seen that many people cry in a movie theatre in a long, long time. Thumbs up.

One of my favorite days of the year. Relax all day, go to 5:00 Christmas Eve mass, then go to my aunt's house with about 30 others for dinner, catching up, playing with the god-kids. It's the best.

Gang, you aren't really biting on this are you? Come now. Nothing doing.

QUOTE(SoxFan101 @ Dec 23, 2005 -> 05:57 AM) Lets not be a homer ok ... He might not be as good as Vizcaino was in the 2nd half of the season but he is a much better option than Tracey or Baj and he would be the 6th starter incase one of the starting 5 go down.(assuming we trade one of the 6 we currently have). Exactly. I couldn't agree with you more. He is a much, much better option than anything the White Sox have in the farm system and is a perfect fit for the long-man/spot/sixth-starter role. What seperates him from Tracey or the Prodigal Son is having pitched in the MLB for five or six years. He is really fantastic in his first three innings of work and then begins to trail off. I think he'd be a very nice signing for the right price--maybe one or two years at $1.4M or so. I hope the Sox organization at least inquires about him.

Whenever I see Encarnacion's name, I have to smile. We have a guy in our cut-throat fantasy baseball league that drafts him in the sixth or seventh round year-in-and-year-out. By now, he's just the on-going joke of the league. We always give him s*** for drafting him and waiting for a "sleeper, break-out season." For that, I applaude Juan Encarnacion. Look to grab him in the seventh round, gang, he's about to put it all together.

QUOTE(Gene Honda Civic @ Dec 22, 2005 -> 04:09 PM) This is correct. 2006 = First year of Arbitration 2007 = 2nd " " " 2008 = 3rd " " " It's not until 2008 that Crede is in the same boat as Garland. Well I'll be damned. Service time, yes? That complicates things. I'll have to rethink that.

QUOTE(Gene Honda Civic @ Dec 22, 2005 -> 04:06 PM) Oh, and he's not a free agent until after the 2008 season... You keep him, despite his agent, until Fields PROVES he's ready to play. Crede's not a free agent until after the 2008 season?

QUOTE(TheBigHurt @ Dec 22, 2005 -> 03:57 PM) What I meant was does that mean they won't be returning (Crede mainly)? If I had to guess, Crede will be this team's starting third baseman in 2006; he'll be involved in rumors around the trade deadline and will be playing baseball in another city in 2007. The only reason his situation is different from Garland's is because we do not have an MLB or near-MLB ready third base prospect ready to step in and take his spot. It's safe to say Fields is more than one year away with those high K totals and underwhelming play. He'll be here for at least the first-half of 2006, after that, it's anyone's guess.

QUOTE(SnB @ Dec 22, 2005 -> 03:40 PM) randle is just such an athletic freak it's ridiculous. If he can start becoming more involved on the offensive side (getting open, moving more, being more aggressive) he could be a force. On the defensive side, he just needs to stop hacking. Yeah, you know, we keep hearing he's an athletic freak, but, I'm not just seeing it so far. Right now, he's just a glorified defensive specialist. To me, it seems an athletic freak should be able to move off screens, get open, and dribble the basketball. Defensively, he's pretty outstanding. Maybe I'll start to see his freakish athleticism when he can dribble, shoot and pass the basketball.

QUOTE(IlliniKrush @ Dec 22, 2005 -> 01:19 AM) Just got back from the 'braggin rights' game, staying in champaign for the night. SnB came down with us. Some rivalry game... We now await Jan 5th for the big one What are your thoughts on Randle? It seems to me he's starting to piece it all together and I think he could be a heck of a baseketball player, but, his passes are real, real sloppy and I'm seeing some things when he's putting the ball on the floor that I don't like. You're probably seeing him much more than I, what do think we can expect from him not only this year but 2007 and beyond?

QUOTE(WinninUgly @ Dec 22, 2005 -> 11:26 AM) So AJ siging a 3yr $15 million contract to stay with the Sox is not loyalty, when Ramon Hernandez signs a $27.5 million, four-year contract? Chipper Jones restructured his contract to lower his salary. It happens all the time. There is always someone to blame. It doesn't just happen and both sides wake up and go "Oh darn we are really in a difficult situation". Jon has always made comments on how he would like to pitch on the left coast, closer to home. He just never had the leverage to do anything about it because he was not a hot commodity. The Sox stayed with him for all those 12-12 years with 4.50 ERA's. What do they get in return? This situation. So I have to put the blame in Jon's court. I understand he is due a fair contract, but he can easily be a one year wonder since that is all he has done in his career. Please. Just humor us and do a little bit of research before this sort of thing. A) Chipper Jones restructured his contract to get more guaranteed money. That got him MORE guaranteed green, while giving the Braves more money to work with in the short-term. B ) As far as Pierzynski goes, he got a very fair contract. He took a fair contract when it was offered to him. Whenever you decide to hold out for a contract, you put so much more to chance. Why go out there and get injured? Why go out there and watch your average continue to dip, hurting your value? Why? He got an offer from an organization he felt very comfortable with and he took it. No such loyalty. How about Ben Sheets? Ben Sheets to a lot of money from the Brewers were he felt comfortable and felt he would be able to secure a bit of his future by signing on the dotted line. If he were to hit free agency, and were healthy, coming off another outstanding year, he would have made MUCH more money from another club. But, why put health and preformance to chance and risk hurting your GETTING MORE MONEY. It's about money. It was about money with Chipper; it's about money with Pierzynski. Do home-town discounts even exist anymore?

A few things: -Some people need to come to grips with Jon Garland wearing another uniform next season and beyond. The writing is on the wall. This is the sole reason why Javier Vazquez was acquired--and I've come to appreciate the genius behind that move. He trades two spare parts and an absolutely first-class prospect for a front-of-the-rotation type pitcher making a very reasonable salary in terms of this completely skewed starting pitching market. Javier Vazquez represents the direction this team, and likewise, Kenny Williams, is heading. Clearly, this organization hopes to keep pitching a priority and wants to lock some of these players up while they can. Garland is not open to coming back to the White Sox without tapping free agency--which is the absolute right move for him to make--and becomes expendable. You trade Garland and you get back to making a five-year board that makes some sense. -A World Championship changes things...it changes A LOT of things. It changes things for both the players and the organization. For the players, they have their rings. They were a part of something very special and had some of the best chemistry ever assembled. Now, they have the luxury of getting paid. I simply can't fault either Garland or Crede for wanting to hit the open-market and get their pay day. Crede's situation is a little different because we just don't have anyone waiting in the wings for the 3B slot and we're stuck between a rock and a hard place. Crede will be this team's starting 3B for this season, but, look for him to either be in trade-talks at the deadline or donning another uniform in 2007. It also changes things for the organization. Kenny is playing with house money. He can afford to shake things up and take some risks because this organization has it's rings now. But, if you'll notice, he's doing it the right way. Clearly, he has a plan and can see that players like Garland and Crede are either not in those plans or are huge question marks. -If you don't like the idea of Garland being moved, you're going to hate to see Crede wearing another uniform in 2007. Sorry.

QUOTE(beck72 @ Dec 22, 2005 -> 05:32 AM) What I'm saying is this--we don't know what the market is for Garland. Yet I can see [based on the asking demands of many, ie "KW should get X or no deal"] what the reaction will be if / when Garland is dealt----'KW got taken', 'he sucks', etc etc. I can hear the b****ing and moaning already. IMO, KW should be given the benefit of the doubt that he got the best deal possible, given what was available. So now we have built-in acceptance mechanisms regarding Kenny Williams? This is the kind of s*** I'm warning Soxtalk about. Kenny has not yet earned "Can't Do No Wrong" status. He simply hasn't. To accept a lesser package and chalk it up to "Kenny doing his best," puts you in dangerously close to the North side Sheep Phenomenon. I've been one of Kenny's biggest backers on this site. I was down-right confused by the Vazquez deal, but, I have since seen the light. All I'm saying is we can not grant Kenny a hall-pass just yet. He has a HUGE chip here in Garland and he needs to get a fair package in return. As for the rumors of Garland being shopped to the Dodgers, I swear to God, sometimes I think these writers just read the message boards. I know that sounds bizarre, but, c'mon, this isn't the first time this has happened.

QUOTE(Rowand44 @ Dec 22, 2005 -> 09:51 AM) I was just giving you a hard time because you didn't write out that sentence correctly. I guess it's never good when you have to explain a joke, is it? No. No it's not. QUOTE(WinninUgly @ Dec 22, 2005 -> 09:52 AM) He said he was happy to be on the Sox of White and he thinks the Cooper of Don can help him win veinte games next year, whatever that means. Someone used free translation.

QUOTE(Rowand44 @ Dec 22, 2005 -> 09:48 AM) You don't speak english? I speak english quite well...Vazquez on the other hand...

Low risk, high reward. Love these signings.

No hablo ingles.

Yikes. Before the holidays? Oh no. My prayers go out to the Dungy family.

Looks like Chris Kattan's Mr. Peepers.

QUOTE(Chisoxfn @ Dec 21, 2005 -> 09:26 PM) Majerus is awesome. Great person, great coach, pretty damn good analyst. Ok, let's just clear up this confusion I'm having. You're referring to Rick Majerus? Former Utah and almost-former USC coach Rick Majerus? Damn good analyst? He epitomizes ESPN's and other national sporting-news organizations failed attempts to have ex-athletes and ex-coaches analyze sports for a living. What will it take for them to stop force-feeding us the Rick Majerus' and Bill Maas' of the world? It's really sad and makes some of these broadcasts nearly impossible to enjoy. You can have Majerus. You can have Maas. You can have Steve Phillips. Successful basketball coach? Yes. Successful midwesterner(Milwaukee)? Yup. Great guy, great all-around guy? Sure, I've hear similar things. Keep him the f away from a microphone. He might know quite a bit about the game of basketball, but, when you can't articulate yourself out of a paper-bag, you do not deserve to be "enlightening" the American sports drones on national broadcasts.

Snore.

Rick Majerus is an absolute ass-wad. Waiting for this evening's Braggin Rights game, I had to sit through this gem... In reference to UConn's Rudy Gay: "I'm not a big Gay guy." He felt he was still too raw of a player and instead of saying he wasn't as high on him as the rest of the nation, or, he feels he needs to refine his game, he came at us with, I'm not a big Gay guy." How Lavin didn't crack up is beyond me. You might not be a big, Gay guy, but you're surely a big, fat guy. If this is Majerus' attempt at physical and mental fitness, I think he needs to "refine his game."

Charlie Hough

QUOTE(Steve Bartman's my idol @ Dec 21, 2005 -> 03:51 PM) If I was JG, I'd ask for a 2 year $16 million contract...when that ends he's only 28, THEN...MONSTER DOLLARS!!! Precisely. No use in pitching through this year and obtaining your "monster dollars" contract next. off-season while the starting pitching market is completely absurd. No use in obtaining that contract while you have your health and teams are willing to overpay for your then, young pitching talent. No use in putting two more years to chance because you feel you will make "monster dollars" at the age of 28 instead of 26. No. I'd say you pretty much nailed it.

QUOTE(quickman @ Dec 21, 2005 -> 02:32 PM) I completely agree with you. I would if he complies make a serious inquiry to sign him. He could be your long man in the pen. Bingo. Glad to see we're back on the same page.