dmbjeff

There is no reason for PK to be sitting unless he is truly hurt. We need all the offense we can get at this point. I keep giving Ozzie the benefit of the doubt, but my support is weaning.

The past few years CC Sabathia has been garbage in April yet he always puts up insanely good seasons. Baseball is a marathon, not a sprint.

was that pods out there?

Did I go color blind? All the posts today look black and not green. This team is fine, it isn't hitting very well right now, but they are only 4 games in. The SP has been good and will keep us in nearly every game and when we get a little bit more luck from the bats, we will be fine. Relax people.

QUOTE (G&T @ Apr 5, 2010 -> 12:06 PM) If the Sox had Rauch as the closer, would you be saying that? Closing is all about opprortunity. If a manager gives him the shot and can continue to put out good outings, then you get 40 saves.

QUOTE (G&T @ Apr 5, 2010 -> 11:14 AM) The injury to Nathan is sort of a huge deal, and I don't think that rotation is particularly good. I'm predicting that the rotation isn't good enough to go deep throughout the year which exposes that pen. Frankly, it's opening day. I never make prediction about seasons, and certainly not this bold. But I'm putting the balls out there on this one, and I think I'm right. Well the Nathan injury is huge, no doubt, having a proven 9th inning guy makes a team much better, but the rest of the pen, the 6th,7th,8th inning, LOOGY guys are all the same, minus Rauch who is now the closer. I am just saying the bullpen is still solid and Rauch could put up 40 saves and not miss a beat. Closers are so volitile, I mean look at Aardsma, who would have thought he had it in him to close at the level he did last year. Rauch could do it too. I think their bullpen is fine.

QUOTE (G&T @ Apr 5, 2010 -> 10:59 AM) But their pen has always been better than this. Well their closer, yes, but the bullpen outside of Nathan is about the same as it typically is for them. I am not a huge believer that a great bullpen makes a team great. You need good SP first for your bullpen to be worth a damn. If you took the best bullpen and put them with the Pirates lets say, it wouldn't make them all that much better.

QUOTE (JorgeFabregas @ Apr 5, 2010 -> 10:58 AM) http://sports.espn.go.com/chicago/mlb/news/story?id=5056444 Krause always caught a bad rap with the Bulls and some accuse him of running Jordan out of town, but the guy did draft Pippen and Grant and both blossomed and for the 2nd 3 peat, knew he needed a rebounder and got Rodman and that experiment worked out great. He is a pretty damn good evaluator of talent. Hopefully he can help out in the Dominican, because that place has lots of great talent, would be nice to start developing some guys from there.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Apr 5, 2010 -> 10:08 AM) If not for Jim Thome and Ken Griffey, Jr., they might realistically be looking at seven division titles out of nine...pretty amazing, when you think about it. So no, you can't ever underestimate that organization, even when GM Smith makes bone-headed moves like Bartlett/Garza for Young or signing Lamb or Livan Hernandez (then keeping them around past their expiration dates). What is amazing is the type of talent, or lack there of, that they use and continue to win with. Nick Punto comes to mind. He is a bad baseball player, but on the Twins, serves a purpose and can still win with him. Casilla is another one. The main thing they have done the past 10 years is to continue to develop good franchise players. It was Hunter and Santana in the early part of the decade but once they left, Mauer and Morneau took over. That is very impressive for a low to mid market team. That new stadium should help them revenue wise for the next few years as well, that stadium looks awesome. It will certainly help them in free agency heading into the future and keeping guys like Mauer long term.

the link is gone now, they must have sold out, i hope some of you were able to get in on the tixs. i wish they would have released them last night so i could have gotten down there in time to tailgate. ill just watch on tv and get drinky here. speaking of, time for a beer run. go sox!!!

I just pulled two in sec 133....not gonna be able to make it to the game, but if anyone wants tixs, go get them now.

QUOTE (G&T @ Apr 5, 2010 -> 08:17 AM) I'm gonna say it: the Sox are going to win this division walking away. I think there are people who had a pre-conceived notion that the Twins were going to win without looking at that pitching staff. Sorry, but that staff is "meh" to garbage. I thought their pitching was "meh" the past 2 seasons and have made it to game 163 in consecutive seasons. I agree that their pitching isn't that great but I put nothing past that team.

I think everyone here should love Mags and not only for what he did during his time with the Sox. If he hadn't turned down our offers, we never would have won in 2005. Between the money Mags would have gotten and Carlos Lee's money, we were able to get AJ, Iguchi, El Duque, Pods, Viz and Dye. Losing him gave us great flexibility back when we only had a $70 million payroll and allowed us to fill so many holes and become a complete team. Thanks again Mags.

Very nice to hear a very respected writer make these projections. Rosenthal is about as solid as it gets amongst baseball writers.

I know I met get flamed for this but we have the pitching staff to win 100 games. If we can win 4 games a week on average, it certainly is possible. While I don't think they will win 100 games, it is possible. A realistic win total though is about 87-91 I think.

QUOTE (JoeCoolMan24 @ Mar 23, 2010 -> 12:28 PM) And what is the difference in payroll? 50 to 60 million? that is just a guess

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ Feb 28, 2010 -> 11:29 AM) Dunn is going to make 12 million this year. Not happening. At the midseason that figure is really 6 million, the same exact thing we were going to pay Damon. Granted, it is for half a season, but a deal for him doesn't deplete the farm like a AGon deal. AGon will also require an extension that will cost as some are saying 20 mil per season. A Dunn extension would be for half of that amount I am sure. Even if we got Dunn tomorrow and had to pay 12 million this year and were to lock him up on a 3 yr 30 million deal through 2013, it would be cheaper in the long run than AGon at 10 million the next 2 seasons and then 40 million for the next 2 after that. That's a savings of 10 million and a savings of Flowers, Hudson and Mitchell. So long term, I think Dunn is a better choice.

Seems to me it would be alot cheaper sending 2 prospects, preferrably OF types like a Danks or Thompson or a Morel type guy to Washington for Adam Dunn for the year rental. We can afford to lose OF depth as I see it and we would hold on to Flowers and Hudson still who I see as major contributors by 2011.

QUOTE (chw42 @ Feb 26, 2010 -> 12:43 PM) Except Howard hasn't broken 1.000 in 3 years. Howard is a vastly overrated 1B IMO. He is a glorified Adam Dunn IMO. If Dunn had the guys hitting in front of him like Howard does, he would have more than the 100RBI he gets yearly, he would be a 120RBI guy I think.

QUOTE (ChiSox_Sonix @ Feb 26, 2010 -> 10:42 AM) I would hold out for Hanley Ramirez. Didn't you hear, we are clearing cap space for Hanley, Albert and Howard.....oops, wrong sport.

QUOTE (Thunderbolt @ Feb 22, 2010 -> 11:25 AM) Here's two things i like about the Jones thing. "Guillen and several members of the Sox's staff were encouraged after Andruw Jones weighed in at 221 pounds - about 25 pounds lighter than last year. Jones is determined to regain playing time in center field as well as share the designated hitter duties with Mark Kotsay.: http://www.chicagobreakingsports.com/2010/...hout-damon.html He looked like he was easily 275+ in his LAD days. So 221 is a real good sign. If he can get around on fastballs again and can lay off the offspeed stuff which he was abysmal at hitting he has the chance to have a decent season I hope. Now if only he were to get 60%+ of the DH platoon over Kotsay.

I think it's time to start discussing players who will be a midseason pickup via trade at this point, because that's where all signs are pointed towards going IMO. I think the most ideal pick up at that time will be Adam Dunn. He is a huge power bat, great OBP and in the last year of his deal so could probably be had for a prospect. He has the ability to play 1B and LF, poorly, but can be trotted out there if necessary.

QUOTE (SoxAce @ Feb 20, 2010 -> 02:00 AM) Funny thing is.. Thome is actually FASTER than Konerko. Konerko is one of the top 3 slowest guys in the game right now. (not to mention one of the worst rally killers of the last 50 years, if I remember correctly) If it wasn't for 2005, class act/leader, and what he's meant to our sox org. since he's dawned the uniform, I probably would hate the guy. I'm sure most of us will be happy to see only he will probably struggle on scoring from 2nd to home or 1st to 3rd.. maybe A.J. (though he's probably the best or second best baserunner [next to Teahen] on the team) but thats about it. I am all for having a more athletic and speedier lineup, but there is still room for a few slow and powerful guys in a lineup if they are productive.

QUOTE (Quinarvy @ Feb 20, 2010 -> 01:36 AM) The clog the bathpaths argument is old. Seriously. To clog the bases enough for them to be a problem, you have to get on base a lot, which Jim does. Also, we would have won with Thome in 2006 had the pitching not crapped out. People act like you needed to hit 3 singles to get the guy home. Granted he couldn't score from 1st on a double most of the time, but the guy got the job done and could have gotten it done part time vs RHP certainly.

QUOTE (hogan873 @ Feb 18, 2010 -> 02:17 PM) Did you just argue with yourself? Indeed I did. This DH bullcrap has got me pretty riled up the past month.