nitetrain8601

QUOTE(Kalapse @ Mar 30, 2008 -> 10:18 PM) Crede said KW never made an offer to HIM personally. KW came back and said he doesn't make offers to players he's makes offers to agents. He called Boras with the intention of negotiating a long term deal but Boras turned him down on the spot. It's actually stated in the CBA that a GM can not go around an agent and negotiate a contract with a player. Correct, if KW went around Boras, he'd be reprimanded.

It looks like we won't get an answer

QUOTE(BobDylan @ Mar 30, 2008 -> 07:58 PM) Confidence can work wonders on a player. There's no stat in baseball for that. I won't defend Uribe all year, but I'll defend him on opening day even if he goes 0-5 with 5 K's and 20 men left on base. I just don't agree to make an already bad situation at 2B worse. With what people here expect the Sox to do this year, it doesn't matter who they roll out where anyway. How would it make it worse? Uribe has more power than Ozuna and that's it. Ozuna is a much much much better hitter against lefties. It makes no sense for Uribe to start.

QUOTE(BobDylan @ Mar 30, 2008 -> 07:29 PM) Says who? The numbers? Everyone knew since day one Ozzie was hired that we wouldn't see the every day norm. I couldn't care less what Pablo hits against C.C. If Juan Uribe is my starting 2B, then he's starting at 2B on opening day. Some people even want to bench Thome? How else can we micromanage the game? Maybe we should just go the Bill Veeck route and put signs out in the stands and let the fans call the game. (...waiting for the first 50 people to tell me that Veeck's team won that game...) If there is any way for Juan Uribe to get worse -- after going through the justice system, being replaced at SS, shoped around in the off-season, and then placed on waivers -- it's to tell him he's the starting second baseman and then sit him on opening day because there is a bench player behind him who missed more than considerable time last year that hits the pitcher better. Give the man a break. I disagree. Why have Pablo? What he brings to the table is his ability to hit tough lefties such as CC. He's one of the very few who could hit him, yet we're going to bench him for the Tazmanian Devil who can't hit worth a lick? I don't advocate benching Thome because he's probably your most dangerous hitter. But complaining because we won't bench an awful bat for a guy who actually could hit a tough matchup just doesn't sound right to me.

QUOTE(BearSox @ Mar 30, 2008 -> 06:32 PM) If all of Logan, Wasserman, MacDougal, Thornton, Linebrink, Dotel, and Jenks can't pitch more then 1 inning, then they shouldn't be on an mlb roster. Logan can easily give 2, I'm sure Wasserman can go 2, and Thornton and Jenks are both former starters and can give at least 2 each. Thornton probably could go 3 easy. Linebring could go 2. Dotel and Mac, better not risk it. So, lets say Buehrle gets knocked out after the second. Put Was in there for 2. Then put Logan in for 2. We got ourselves to the 7th Then Thornton/Linebrink can get you 2 and/or finish the game, depending on the score (and it's probably not good for us if Buehrle gets knocked out after 2), and if they can finish or we have the lead, Dotel/MacDougal/Jenks could close it out. It's not an ideal sitaution, but there is no rule that a relief pitcher can't go more then 1 inning if they aren't a "long man." And the next day if Vazquez or perhaps Danks leave in 2 innings? You have half your bullpen gone, so you have to hope for a great game the next day.

White Sox break record for most wins ever. Perfect 173 - 0

QUOTE(Balta1701 @ Mar 29, 2008 -> 05:16 PM) I think it was sort of by the "our eyes" format, which saw him have an abjectly terrible start, but pick it up in the last couple weeks. Considering how hard it is to come up with "bi-weekly spring training splits" or something ridiculous like that, it's hard to make that argument, but by all accounts, his first week or two were by far his worst, and he did significantly improve in the last couple. I thought his first couple of weeks were good but his only 5 starts were god awful! I'm pretty sure they mentioned it in the Sun-times today as well how he was only good because he was facing ghosts in the batters box.

QUOTE(whitesoxfan101 @ Mar 27, 2008 -> 11:38 PM) So you want us to re-sign an overrated 3rd basemen who outside of one fluke year can't hit, and who has a bad back, just to see the boards get mad? I have a name for people as unwise as you: Cub fans. I think your rooting for the wrong team if this post is serious. As for the answer to the question in this thread: No, hell no in fact. Boras is bad enough, but we have enough problems as is, no need to keep an expensive 3rd basemen with a prospect who very well may be better than him in the wings at his spot. Not to mention a prospect who has proven he can hit MLB pitching. Yes because it would be so entertaining. How come a resigned Crede automatically means I should root for the Cubs? And Crede suffered an injury, to speak on his back as if it was in terrible condition his whole career is stupid and I'm getting sick of it. Yeah, he had a great offensive year in 2006 which if no one remembers correctly is when he played with the bad back all year long and he couldn't take it anymore last year which is why he got it fixed. Up until then, he was improving offensively. I'm not saying Crede needs to be on this team, but it seems like it's life and death with you guys if Fields isn't the starting 3B within the first month of the season. That's what I find funny.

82 wins.

I hope we do resign him just so he could piss off 99% of the board and then watch everyone talk about how we ruined another sure HOF career. LMAO

I don't know why people say Jenks. Yes, he's the best listed of the bunch, but closers in general don't let you as much as you think. Look at the past 15 offseasons and I don't think you'll see that much of a coup for each closer. Position players usually net you more, but not the most. What nets teams the most is starting pitching. Even crappy starting pitching, as long as the guy could eat up innings, you'll see those players get the most in the trade. With that said, Javier Vazquez will net you the most IMHO. His peripherals are great (even when he does suck) and compared to the market today, he's signed at a very reasonable contract.

QUOTE(Want2Repeat @ Mar 26, 2008 -> 08:26 PM) I don't get this. I guess I can live with the notion of Swisher batting leadoff, but how does he start in CF, vs. LF, with BA and Ramirez, who both would play the position better. Why not get Ramirez in this lineup and bat Swisher in an RBI producing position? BTW - Gavin Floyd sucks and KW is insane to hold to the notion that he will somehow be good. I think it means Quentin will start in LF as some have suggested. If BA is starting in LF anyday, Ozzie is an idiot.

QUOTE(almagest @ Mar 26, 2008 -> 07:47 PM) Complain all you want, but we have some genuinely exciting young talent waiting in the wings. Quentin, Anderson, Fields, Richar, and Ramirez all have pretty high ceilings, and even Owens can be useful as a 4 OF/speed off the bench guy. Plus, we have Swisher locked up for a while. Seems like a good core of young players to me. Trading Crede and/or Uribe for nothing is a stupid thing to do. KW is right to hang on to them, especially with the rash of injuries this Spring Training. He's betting on one team getting desperate, and giving up something of genuine value. It's a good risk to take. And if no team bites, what's the problem in keeping Crede & Uribe? It's not like benching either or both of them is going to magically make us win 100 games. The offense will score enough runs. We're going to live and die by pitching, as most teams do. If we can't catch lightning in a bottle again, you can bet we'll find some takers for our veteran talent at the break. And other guys, like Cabrera, we can hang on to until the end of the year and grab some type A or B draft picks. I actually think Kenny did a pretty good job this off-season, especially considering we only won 72 games last year, and pretty much all of his "Plan A" moves didn't work out. One of the most honest posts and just in case I never welcomed you, welcome!

QUOTE(Heads22 @ Mar 26, 2008 -> 08:14 PM) Mmmmm...grinder. I don't see Swisher batting 3rd. I think he'll bat behind Thome, Konerko, and Dye on OD. I'm pretty sure Ozzie already said somewhere that he'll be hitting Thome 3rd.

QUOTE(BaseballNick @ Mar 26, 2008 -> 10:00 AM) The pessimism on this board is getting laughable. And to think, I was a pessimist on this board. Probably the biggest one. Damn, I've been easily surpassed by at least half the posters here.

QUOTE(Balta1701 @ Mar 25, 2008 -> 11:08 AM) If you believe at all the multiple reports, including at least one directly from Paxson's mouth, Kobe Bryant was never available. The Lakers talked about him because they wanted to placate Kobe, but unless Kobe held out, they were NEVER going to trade him. He was very much available which is why a 3 way deal was in place to obtain him, but the Lakers wanted one more piece from the Bulls which is why it fell apart.

QUOTE(greg775 @ Mar 25, 2008 -> 05:26 PM) Exactly. Fields should be on the team. I love Crede and love his defense, but like Fathom said, if KW and Oz were leaning toward going toward Crede, Josh should have stayed in the outfield. Josh should demand a trade like somebody said, or at least really let the Sox have it in the press. We should have never made the Swisher trade if Crede was to be the third baseman. For fathom, power hitting is even lower than the need for 3b defense. If you don't think this is important for the White Sox, there's something terribly wrong with you. Again, if the Sox had strikeout pitchers, then you could make a case for defense not being as important, but we have a bunch of groundball/flyball pitchers who don't strike anyone out. Even Jenks has said, he rather get a hitter to ground out (which is why he chooses not to throw 100, but more in 94-96mph range) than a strikeout. It's the team's philosophy along with stupid speedy leadoff hitters. Josh is being developed as a 3B because he eventually will replace Crede at that position, next year being the latest. If we do somehow keep Crede beyond, Fields has way more value as a 3B than a LF.

QUOTE(southsideirish71 @ Mar 25, 2008 -> 04:39 PM) I am going to call you out on this nite. How many times did we get on Crede when he first came up, and talked about how he can't hit and you wanted to stay with him because of his one tool, which was defense. His ass should of been in AAA with the pathetic bat he had for the first few years of his major league existence. It can't be both ways. And let me remind you that Crede wasn't the slick fielding stud you see today. He was guy who couldnt hit, and couldnt field. Well I wasn't on this board until the very end of the Jerry Manuel era, so I don't know what exactly you would be talking about in regards to me defending Crede back then. And also, who was a suitable 3B on this team that was better than him? I can't remember any. Also, Crede accomplished almost everything you can in the minors. If he stunk in the majors, he stunk in the majors, period. Fields hasn't. And again, I'm not saying Crede would be a better overall option if all things were equal. I'm saying right now, he makes the most sense. The most important reason for the Sox to keep Crede at 3B for the time being besides trade value is because this pitching staff heavily relies on its fielders. No one outside of Vazquez is going to strike out a lot of guys. This is why I would advocate for Anderson or Quentin in the OF over Owens as well since Owens doesn't bring anything that special with the wood. QUOTE(fathom @ Mar 25, 2008 -> 04:39 PM) We sure did a great job of developing McCarthy. Defense in the minors is nothing compared to the majors with regards to the condition of the field, lights, etc. I haven't seen McCarthy done anything in the majors minus two months of work. Fields needs to work on footwork and technique before he even sniffs "lighting or field" which is not a percentage different in the majors. In fact, it would probably be easier to field in the minors because of the dimmer lights. Any way you put it, he needs defensive work and he could gain that in the minors while Crede is here for his last year.

QUOTE(TitoMB345 @ Mar 25, 2008 -> 04:35 PM) He's better than Crede. And thats the ONLY thing that matters. He has shown better offensive potential than Crede, but over the course of the season, he is nowhere close defensively to Crede and offensively, he hasn't had a full year like Crede. I'm not saying I rather have Crede if all things were equal and I had a choice to pick, I'm saying Crede fits better as of right now and all the people complaining about a move they should've saw a while ago is pretty stupid. Please refer to my edit in my last post.

Nice to see Fields is the next legendary HOF according to this board, following former greats, Jeremy Reed, Royce Ring, and Brandon McCarthy. Honestly, it's only a year and Josh doesn't need to concentrate on his swing, he needs to concentrate on his defense which is something he doesn't need to be in the majors to learn. He could gain experience in AAA for that. I'm so sick of the whining.

QUOTE(ZoomSlowik @ Mar 25, 2008 -> 12:13 AM) Yeah, OJ had a lot of hype. He also slid down the rankings as he got older (junior and senior year) because other guys that were considered to have higher ceilings (Beasley, Rose and Gordon) started passing him up. He finished #4 on Rivals. I didn't realize that hype and draft position are the ultimate determining factors of future success . Kobe was also the first perimeter player to ever declare for the draft straight out of high school, was only the second player to declare in recent history, and was in a historically strong draft class. Because of the success of Kobe and Tracy McGrady a guy like Martell Webster went #6 three years ago, who can't hold a candle to those guys. Mayo may be able to handle the ball fairly well, have good quickness, and have a decent jumpshot. So do Jamal Crawford and Larry Hughes among others though, and they're not exactly franchise-changing stars. Kobe is on a different level. At the same age Kobe was averaging 15 a game on about 12 attempts with a 1.25/1 TO ratio in the NBA. That takes a lot more than just pretty good skills, and is quite a bit harder than doing what Mayo did in college (as Gordon and Bayless support to some extent). Really? You're about the only one then. Even in a sub-par rookie season Durant is averaging almost 20 points a game, albiet he has turnover and shot selection issues and plays for an awful team. OJ has the same kind of issues, which isn't a good sign. Durant was an elite gunner in college too, and he's shooting below 30% from behind the arc. Any benefits from improved spacing is negated by the quality of opponents. He's not going to be able to light up second tier guys on lesser schools anymore, and he already struggled a fair amount against most of the better competitiion on the schedule. He's simply not the kind of guy that is going to come in and totally dominate from day 1, his decision making skills still need a lot of work. Yes, he has talent, but so do a lot of college players, and very few of them turn out to be true superstars, possibly none out of this draft class. We'll have to wait and see, right now he just looks far too inefficient and turnover prone to come in and dominate right away, and I'm really not convinced that he's an upgrade over Gordon and Hughes in the short term. I'm sure we've both been wrong before, so I plan on stopping contributions to this thread-jack. Mayo has great quickness, very much on the level of Kobe's. He handles the ball pretty well and his jumper is good, but it's setup by his ability to penetrate and get easy shots. Jamal Crawford should not be thrown in this. He has no feel for the game as he only played 1 year of high school ball and a little more than half a season of college ball before entering the NBA. Hughes his very best season is OJ's worst case scenario. His talent is far above others and his feel for the game is excellent. He's one of the hardest working kids you'll ever know and has that killer instinct. He doesn't want to just beat you, he wants to embarass you and make you not want to play the game ever again.

QUOTE(knightni @ Mar 24, 2008 -> 11:47 PM) I hope that JR has the "cojones" to clean house in the offseason. That includes parting ways with Paxson. I'd give Paxson one more year. He saw what happens when you're reluctant to trade players, even for Kobe who's a bonafide top 5 player ever.

QUOTE(knightni @ Mar 24, 2008 -> 11:32 PM) Yeah. The Bulls have too many marginal projects on their bench as it is. I mean, they've had how many lottery/top 20 picks in the last 12 years? What have they had to show for it; an early playoff exit? Blame the fault that the front office has not fired Tim Floyd's staff still. All the coaches we have are inept. And chances are, the next coach we have will be stuck with this same staff and they'll be lucky if they're able to hire just one of their own guys.

QUOTE(ZoomSlowik @ Mar 24, 2008 -> 10:42 PM) Andre was much more raw and on a much better team so his stats weren't that impressive. I would assume the comparison would be to what he is now, which is a pretty solid all-around SG, though he's also on a bad team that's going nowhere. Either way Kobe is a stretch, he'd be doing so much more if he were really on that level and wouldn't be a borderline top-5 pick if he were. Kobe is a once every ten years type player, Mayo can't come close to that yet. He's so "special" that there are two other guys in his class putting up very similar numbers and another player at another position that is playing far better. You were probably one of the same people that said the same thing about Durant last year, weren't you? There's a very big difference between the two leagues, everyone is a lot quicker and stronger and things get a lot more difficult. Even assuming the same level of talent, the 3-point line is two feet farther back, which is just a huge difference. He's barely shooting 40% in college from the arc, I have a really hard time seeing him adjust to that, especially since he's pretty streaky from out there as it is. He simply can't play the same way and be productive, though he'll probably get his numbers. He will have an above average career in the league because he clearly has talent, but there's a very big difference between being a good scorer and being a legit star. You don't remember Kobe's hype coming out of high school, it was a little less than OJ's. In fact, OJ was ahead of Kobe if you compared the two coming out of high school. Both supposedly had maturity problems (Kobe moreso). Kobe wasn't seen as a once in a lifetime player coming out of high school, that's why he wasn't even a top 10 pick. Only difference between Kobe and OJ is that one is taller. They both play the exact same game and both have the exact skillset. And no, I would've taken OJ over Durant last year. Durant IMO is destined to be a quick PF. You put him at SF and you lose out a bit. He needs to bulk up and be able to bang. I also was very down on Jeff Green and Corey Brewer along with Noah. Again, the spacing will help OJ a ton in the NBA. He has a lightning quick first step just like Kobe has. OJ is as legit as there will be. His worst case scenario is being Larry Hughes(at his very best).

Edit Ignore her. Pretend like you're using her just to get to her friend. In fact, get her friends' number, lose it and go ask the girl you like for her friends number. Say you lost it, which is true. The reason why you get it first from her is so when you ask her friend, you don't seem like a stalker. As soon as the girl you like gives it to you, she'll call her best friend to verify if you two are talking to each other. Once it's confirmed, she will get jealous and wonder why you are now trying to get with the friend. Worst case scenario, you end up with her friend.