Punch and Judy Garland

We are now the Houston Astros. Their Tejada deal was WIlliams-esque. Short term splash but it won't change the fact that its a mediocre team. Interesting that both of our teams peaked at the same time and we're both terrible and invest our money in big money deals for players in their 30's while we ignore our farm systems

Who said he had a great chance? He had probably among the 5 best chances of 154 pounders on down but Mayweather is definitely #1 P4P. I would say that Cotto currently has the best chance. Other guys who could give him a fight but still probably lose would be Mosley, Margarito, Paul Williams would be interesting, and then probably Vernon Forrest. I don;t think Floyd would ever fight Vernon because its at 154 and there is not a ton of money that Forrest brings to the table but he'd give FLoyd some problems with his size. In general, it would take a bigger man to rough Floyd up and it likely has to happen at jr middle. Floyd did not carry the 154 pounds that well against Oscar. I don't think he'd go back to that weight class unless it was a superfight

I think its safe to say Quentin has NOTHING left to learn at the minor league level. Even if he struggles at the start, this guy needs to stick in the bigs to start progressing beyond being a AAA masher. Still think he will if we show good patience which we've done in spots during the Williams era

Yeah I think these Japanese guys are bargains as long as there is no posting fee. You don't have to develop them at all and they are relatively lower risked. Of course you never get them at pre-arb cheap prices but it certainly beats the dreck Scott Boras is trying to sell this winter

It seems that people who following fielding more closely than I do say that Crawford would be an abomination in center. So we clearly would have to play him in left which is fine but we'd still have a problem in center. Plus it seems the price for Crawford would be not that far from the cabrera haul for a lesser player too. Coco Crisp? What's the point? We might go from winning 78 games to 80 if that? I'd be pissed if I were Jermaine Dye and Mark Buehrle and believed what Kenny Williams sold me last summer

I can't see him reading all 80 names. I think those will be released separately. I just can't imagine Mitchell uses any specific player names during the actual press conference. In addition, I imagine any questions about the players will generally lead to responses like "its in the report". The Selig press conference hours later is the one I look forward to....

Hatton a fraud? Do you follow the sport? He's the 140 lb champ. The REAL champ, not some alphabet champ. He's an amazing jr welter, he just was in the wrong weight class and Floyd is too good for pretty much everyone Jr. Middle on down. A fight with Cotto would be fun to watch though

When I said Board, I obviously meant the one with Jerry Reinsdorf not this one, haha. Anyways, these contracts are not ridiculous. All of us, myself included, need to stop looking at 2007 contracts in 2004 terms. Its a new day in MLB

The Board certainly deserves a share of blame given that Kenny is taking probably more than he should. That said, Kenny has been more talk than walk

My offseason hopes now rely on us getting Fukodome. At least the unknown is more exciting than the slightly better than mediocrity you get with Aaron Rowand. Aaron Rowand is the type of guy you draft and develop when he is inexpensive but you don't pay big money for. Plus with Fukodome we get to hear what nickname Hawk might come up with that will infuriate the FCC...

Well MLB gives a "recommendation" for what you should pay each draft pick. In general its supposed to work like the NFL where the 15th pick makes a touch more than the 16th pick but not as much as the 14th pick. The problem is that the number one overall pick might only be "slotted" for 4 to 4.5 million dollars. When a client has Scott Boras as his agent and he's the top talent in the draft, he might say before the draft that he will only sign for $10 million dollars (Mark Teixera and Mark Prior have done this). Then those guys fall as the teams picking at the top generally don't want to pay that much money given the risk, they don't want to spend that $ in general, and they don't want to piss off the commissioners office. Some teams, namely the Yankees, Red Sox, and recently the Tigers don't give a damn what the office says they should pay the players. The slot is more of an unofficial agreement. The union doesn't really mind this unofficial salary cap because these are not union members. They will not support an official rigid slotting system though. THis scenario is how the best pitcher in the draft can be picked 26th or 27th. We've gone above slot before (Joe Borchard) but we generally fall in line with what MLB says to do. Now, some players like Nick Adenhart are a first round talent but have an injury that prevents them from being picked in the first round. A team like Anaheim pays him 1 to 1.5 million in a much much later round so that he still gets decent money but they go well over that rounds slot to do so.

We're stuck between gears. We have a very bright and aggressive general manager who really thinks best in terms of the short term. That's an ok way to do things but that is a game of high stakes poker and Kenny doesn't really have the bankroll to play that game. You don't have to invest a ton of money in free agents, you can do that in player development......except that we really don't do that either. While larger market teams draft the Jered Weavers and Rich Porcellos of the world in the first round and go above slot in later rounds for guys like Nick Adenhart we've been drafting safe low risk low reward draft choices so as not to "waste" money on draft talent. That's how you end up with a fatally flawed veteran team with no farm system that can NOT spend its way out of its problems. I think at this point that Kenny Williams should definitely continue in his job but you do have to question that when its time to rebuild-can he actually do it? Clearly we were in that position this past summer and he made the decision to go the other way with it. I love that Mark Buehrle is back but he brought back an aging Jermaine Dye and promised them both that he was going to do high scale renovations this winter. Kenny Williams master plan (flawed IMO) was to grab Cabrera, get Torri Hunter and strenghten this team up the middle with big names that have a solid defensive reputation and have hit in the past. Hunter fell through and now we might have to overpay for Fukodome-the great unknown. We are now an old team with no direction. Jermaine Dye will likely never have trade value during this deal. Jim Thome doesn't really have trade value because there aren't many teams that could use him given he plays DH. So really, your most tradeable future assets are Bobby Jenks, Javier Vazquez, and Paul Konerko. Unfortunately, if we have to move these guys they likely won't bring back a franchise changing player like Buehrle may have. I am looking forward to the 08 season less than any year as a Sox fan

They dangled Capuano in the Rolen talks which would have led to them taking on a huge salary. I think they are down on Capuano(mind you before most of us say coop can fix him, they have a VERY good pitching coach who has helped a ton of guys) and I think they'd look at Crede's defensive upgrade over Braun mixed with his low cost as being very attractive. I do imagine the Boras factor in terms of not being to lock him up long term would be a huge concern.

I think there's no way they'd move Corey Hart so I think you are off on that but it certainly wouldn't surprise me if it was Hall. That said, my money is on this being Chris Capuano to the White Sox. I would bet on it

With Johan to the Sawx and Miggy to the Tigers, the National League should withdraw from the World Series. Frankly the Willis pickup doesn't do much for the Tigers but man oh man is Miggy a stud. Its too bad we have a bunch of 35 year olds because I'd be more than willing to accept rebuilding because the division is not looking too good for us now. Hell a rebuilding Minnesota might be better than us "going for it now" and thats even without Johan.

Thats a horses*** offer in my opinion. I think that package would be more in line for the Jon Garland's of the world instead of the best pitcher on the planet. I realize there is the extension factor still but I think you have to get one premium player back at a minimum. On Lester and the pu pu platter do not qualify

At least we never got his pet Russ Ortiz. He doesn't ALWAYS get his man thankfully. He did flirt with Andruw Jones once and it wouldn't stun me if KW wanted him all along. Then again, the Boras thing... Anyways-As far as getting out of a Linebrink deal with a loophole it would kill the credibility of the Sox with every player, agent, and club so he is going to be here like it or not

He should be better than the guys last year. I just think at this point that I better be DAMN sure about a guy before I lure him from the best pitchers park in the game in a weaker league and then put him in the Cell. Thats a worry

They were indeed. He was a dominant setup man a few years ago. He was pretty much a liability for the BRewers though

Check out their K to walk ratios. He's much much better

Not that its a good contract but Cordero is more than 2.5 times as good as Linebrink and had success in that league. That said, we didn't need a closer so don't think I meant we should get him. Anyways, I bet the industry is surprised because middle relief is the one place where you need bargains given the cost of starting pitching. Nearly $5 million a season suggests that day is gone (it has been for about a year now)

I think its not the deal itself in terms of money (the Orioles gave out similar deals last year) but I'd guess its the 4th year and the fact that Linebrink was a shell of his former self last year. Thats my guess

Ominous line from the Buster Olney blog this morning: By the way: The signing of Scott Linebrink is getting a lot of reaction within the industry. ... More on that tomorrow.

QUOTE(aboz56 @ Sep 21, 2007 -> 08:14 PM) The last thing we need is another guy to clog up the bases. hilarious! Yeah I know its ridiculous that people claim that our guys clog up the bases when we don't, you know, get on base. I'll be honest with you: my only interest in Bonds were I an AL team would be as a leadoff hitter. I'd put a guy with a 500 obp in that spot any day

Haha, isn't it sad that we've been so terrible that for one split second Bonds in Chicago is appealing? I wonder what AL team he will end up with? Anaheim? Seriously, for the right price I wouldn't mind him in left field for us since we coudl use Owens as his spell guy and then we could target our leadoff hitter being at short or center. Never would happen and I probably would hate it happening but its weird to think about