jphat007

QUOTE(RME JICO @ Feb 21, 2007 -> 08:38 AM) It is specifically mentioned in the fourth paragraph: "Before that comes to a head, manager Ozzie Guillen would like to try Iguchi again in the seventh spot because of his run-producing skills—but only if he can get a better on-base percentage from those at the top of the order."

QUOTE(vandy125 @ Feb 18, 2007 -> 02:05 PM) No problem. I am tired of all of the overreaction from every little thing that is said right now. Can we please just get to some baseball? Only a week and a half!

QUOTE(Dick Allen @ Feb 18, 2007 -> 01:26 PM) KW has signed free agents, but mostly with the exception of Konerko, and if the White Sox don't win the WS or at least make it there, Konerko is probably gone, at bargain basement prices. The fact is, all 3 of these guys are playing for way below market value in 2007. If he's so concerned about their families getting by on the millions these guys get paid, why when he heard Dye had a better deal somewhere else, didn't he tell him to take it? Or why won't he just pay them what the market bears, unless they are going to use lack of funds as an excuse. I know a few people who have made 5 year commitments to suites and that new thing in the old pressbox who aren't going to like this new approach. Unless of course, he has that money earmarked for Johan Santana and Miguel Cabrerra or even Zambrano. I can't see the Sox dropping payroll significantly. They would have to spend it elsewhere. But at the level all three of these guys get paid, if that's what they are willing to spend, the team is really going to dropoff in the next few years. Possibly. It could all blow up in his face. But he's not going to way overpay guys if he feels they aren't worth it, like what happened for almost every player in this offseason. He has done well at finding good bargains in the past, hwoever. If I had to guess he is going to oversign a little bit for 1 FA, sign a bunch of others that are kind of off the radar, and then try and supplement it with younger talent. Like I say though, who knows til next offseason. It'll be interesting to watch.

QUOTE(Whitewashed in @ Feb 18, 2007 -> 01:14 PM) I am tired of this f***ing, "we can't afford them in this market" bulls***. I don't think it's so much that "we can't afford them" as much as "we aren't going to overpay for them." Whether that's right or wrong is up for debate, but that's KW stance.

QUOTE(southsideirish71 @ Feb 18, 2007 -> 01:11 PM) They need to resign Tad. Thats not even an option. I would like to see them resign Dye, but if they are not send him to the Dodgers and pick up some nice young talent. For the Dodgers Dye would be the difference in getting past round one in the playoffs and maybe getting to the WS in a weak NL. They need to ink someone, if they dont want to do a pitcher fine. But you cant say the same about the position players. You can go young with the pitching, but you still need to spend money on the position players. The sox need to start to keep their top lip and their bottom lip together on contract negotiations. When has the price of anything gone down. The teams are getting large profits from radio and broadcast rights like the Direct TV package. The agents know the money is there, and someone will pay it. Our minor league system cannot sustain a talent push to be an elite team if we dont infuse some top FA talent on the team. To answer your first question, it came down some after the ridiculous contracts of 2000-2001. Second, I agree, we'll need to sign some FA talent to sustain ourselves. KW has always shown a willingness to sign people though. I doubt our payroll is going to go much lower, if it all than 100 mil. But who knows. Won't know until after next offseason

QUOTE(Tony82087 @ Feb 18, 2007 -> 12:57 PM) It just doesn't make any sense. -Sox have an unbelievable year in attendance in 2006, drawing 2.9 million fans. -Sox sign Darrin Erstad and Toby Hall. Give Macdougal an extension. Give a few players small raises. -Sox have what is said to be a "97%" renewal rate on season tickets for 2007. Raise ticket prices, have already sold out 6-7 games, and look like at least 2.5-2.6 is a lock for next season. -We are already getting quotes about the Sox big 3 FA's after 2007 exploring Free Agency. I never, EVER had an idea of this organization being cheap in anyway, but the last few months have really put a bad taste in my mouth. I hope Kenny and the organization surprises me, and I think there is a good chance they will, I just don't like where things seem to be headed. Am I missing something? There is a difference between being cheap and not paying ridiculous contracts for players who aren't worth that amount of money. KW has always shown a willingness to sign people, he's just not going to overpay. It's not like we won't sign anybody to fill those holes next year. And like I, really Milkman, said above, he is hoping those prices come down so he can gets the ones on this team already. Going cheap makes me think that our payroll would go way down, but we haven't seen any sign of that. It's just not going to go way up past 100 million, which it would have to do if you are going to give guys like Buerhle 5 year, 15 mil a year.

They are going to try and sign them. Just not right now. KW would only be able to go with what is seen as a 'lowball' offer before free agency actually starts and then he'd just have to hear about how he was lowballing them all like he will with Buerhle now. I would imagine that he'll go a little bit above and beyond with Iguchi, but he's not going to try it in this market. Like Milkman says, he is hoping to see it go down a lil bit next year, and if that is the case, offering them anything right now wouldn't be very smart. Let's al hope he is right. THere are always teams like the Cubs willing to overpay out the ass.

The 5th starter race will be fun to watch this Spring, and interesting (notice the fun goes away) to watch during the year. Hopefully that fun will continue on. Watching Floyd, or at least hearing about him, will be really interesting.

QUOTE(Gregory Pratt @ Feb 13, 2007 -> 11:40 AM) He wasn't a guest -- he was just in the audience. ? Great, great avatar. Just awesome

QUOTE(Jordan4life_2007 @ Feb 13, 2007 -> 09:19 AM) No, but you have to keep in mind that Pods has become pretty much the most hated White Sox player of this decade. I'm tempted to have Deploderer make me a Kalapse-like sig with a Pods baseball card that says on the front of it "I hate you to motherf***er!" I find it incredibly interesting that the player that hit one of the biggest, and most meaningful, HRs in White Sox history could be the most hated in the similar time frame that he did it. And really what he did that entire postseason. I don't want to argue that it's not valid or incorrect or anything like that, but I just find it incredibly interesting, especially considering he has pretty much blamed any struggles on himself, been a good team guy, not caused any trouble off the field, etc. It's just interested to see him called the most hated White Sox player of this decade.

I can't imagine them letting Pablo go. What an awful move that would be. But I don't think there is anyway that happens however.

Versus LHP last year Perez .275 .331 .503 .835 Thome .236 .354 .361 .715 Interesting. Wouldn't mind if they let Perez play in LF either. COuldn't be that much worse than Pods. I know he's played the outfield some. I can't wait for some baseball. can't believe P&C is only 5 days away. Snuck up on me this year. I guess that's what happens when you have a good college basketball team to follow.

QUOTE(jasonxctf @ Feb 8, 2007 -> 01:06 PM) seriously though what is Buehrle, Garland and Contreras going to say... "yeah, we'll be fine if Uribe misses some time. It's no big loss??" These guys will stand up for their teammates no matter what. When Widger was getting his ass handed to him, you didn't see the pitching staff lining up calling for his release did you?? Not to speak for him, but I believe he was refering to the fact that most of our SP rely on defense to be productive and when you take a guy of Uribe's caliber and stick Cintron in there instead, it is going to hurt the defense, therefore hurting the pitcher's production and numbers, thus making them not as happy. But of course they would never come out and say that.

Look Hoos #1 in the ACC! Go Hoos!

QUOTE(Kalapse @ Jan 25, 2007 -> 03:02 PM) Totally agree with you on this, no matter how little I think of Darin Erstad he's still a much better option than Sweeney who needs another year in the minors, Terrero who is bad and Owens who might be bad but definitely can't play CF. Atleast with Erstad we know that at a time in his career he was one of the best defensive OF in baseball. I'm not going to call the Erstad signing a good move just because they ignored the 4th OF spot for the majority of the offseason, it was a dumb move in my opinion. They should have found the backup CF first thing after the World Series but instead they waited until mid January and got a guy who I feel to be pretty bad. I'm not going to say signing Erstad is a good move just because they made the wrong decision early on. I'm not saying you have to. All I'm saying is that it was a good addition considering what had happened previously in the offseason. I'm pretty much saying what Balta so eloquently. It is better than going with what we likely would have gone with otherwise. So it was a good signing (to me) at the time because it was either Erstad or one of those others. Additionally, maybe they thought having Erstad was better than having any other 4th outfielder that was available. I guess we'll see in a few months.

QUOTE(Kalapse @ Jan 25, 2007 -> 02:26 PM) It didn't have to be one of the young/bad players you mentioned there were others available this offseason that they could have gone after but instead they decided on Erstad. I don't really see why it would be Erstad or bust with this team he wasn't the only OF available this offseason. They had plenty of time to go for other players before and either they decided not to because of money or they didn't like the player. Obviously they liked Erstad enough to give him the chance. It's not like there was anybody else that we could go after right nwo that would significantly upgrade us. Now if you want ot say we should have gone after somebody else who is now signed, that is one thing, but that time has past so as of right now, it was going to either be Erstad or Sweeney, Owens, or Terrero, or somebody else in the system, and I think they made the right should. Signing Erstad right this second isn't going to hurt the team. Not going after a right handed 4th outfield that was available early might, but they obviously didn't believe so. It was the right move at that time. Not necessarily the right move for the whole offseason.

QUOTE(Kalapse @ Jan 25, 2007 -> 01:31 PM) Like I said earlier in the thread, if Erstad blows/gets seriously injured and is released/placed on the DL it will hurt the team big time. Erstad right now is being counted on to fill a role that was severely lacking last year and was one of the top 3 reasons why that team didn't make the playoffs, 4th OF. If Erstad is incompacitated for one reason or another this team becomes a whole lot weaker and a giant hole is created on the roster, a hole that this team for whatever reason doesn't really see as a priority to fill. The 4th OF would have just been Sweeney or Owens or Terrero or somebody in that ilk without the Erstad signing, and that's who it will be if he gets hurt. It's not like getting Erstad was going to change that fact. It was going to be one of those people, and now it's Erstad. If Erstad gets hurt, it will be one of those guys anyway.

QUOTE(CWSGuy406 @ Dec 23, 2006 -> 11:08 PM) No. I wouldn't want Arias one bit. OBP is a problem? So is the fact that he hits for no power. He's slugged above .400 once, and just barely at .423. His OPS has topped .750 once in his minor league career. Why would I want him when we already have him. No, the third guy doesn't really excite me a whole lot. He is what he is, another young arm to add to the system. He is what he is -- a young arm. Just turned 20 years old a couple of weeks ago. And yes, I'd rather have another live arm in the system than Arias, because Arias isn't good. He'll probably make an okay backup. If he's starting for your team, you have lots of problems, though. And twenty-some-odd stolen bases don't change that. That's not to say that I'm a huge fan of this deal. I'm excited to have two of the best lefty pitching prospects in baseball in our system, but I'm quite pissed that McCarthy is gone. I'm excited at our prospects (no pun intended) for 2008 and beyond, but 2007 is going to be very tough with Flaeger as our current fifth starter. Unless, of course, they ink Clemens, which makes so much sense right now, but probably won't happen. I don't think that McCarthy would have been that much better than one of the other options to call 2007 "very tough" without BMAC. But I agree with you on the rest. Of course we're all shooting opinions at this point. Who knows what BMAC does in a full year as a starter. Maybe he gives up tons of HR, which could really hurt him. Maybe he fixes it and becomes dominant. Will be fun to watch and find out.

I like it. Two pretty good pieces for one guy I wasn't totally sold on. I think McCarthy would have recovered, but his numbers were really scary on a per inning basis last year, and while I think some of it was the bullpen, I'm not convinced it all was. He's gonna give a ton of homers next year. I think it was going to be that way in Chicago or now in Texas. As for this hurting us much in 2007, I don't buy it. I think Bmac would have been around a 4.20 to 4.70 next year, and I think one of the other guys can do that, about like Freddy did last year. I hope he really gives a shot to somebody like Danks, Gio or Charlie, cause I'm not a huge fan of Floyd until we have some time to work with him. But I can understand the angst as well. A lot of people really liked McCarthy and his promise from 05. But I trust KW. His moves work a lot more than they don't.

One that I must say I'm not a big fan of. Could just be because I love Gload's game so much and think he was a perfect PH off the bench late in games. Unfortunately we already ahve two with Mack and Cintron. It's also too bad that he really doesnt' have a position except first and we are all filled up there. I really expect him to have some big base hits against us this year. On the other hand, hopefully Sisco is another Thornton. He has been some kinda awful the last two years.

Amen Freddy. Great job. Thanks for everything you did. Great thread

QUOTE(joeynach @ Dec 7, 2006 -> 02:19 PM) Im not that down on the Garcia trade I wanted him out and McCarthy in. But I still beleive we could have got better than Gavin Flloyd, a more MLB ready player. Its this landscape of now Garland being traded and KW saying he wont retain on of his pitchers after their terms are up. Thats the spitefule "I cant handle" this market mentality im talking about. Hence the firesale like trade rumors. Yah, I think KW had all kinds of great offers and took the worst one out there just so he could stick it to the man.....right? KW is going to spend money, he's just not going to give Gil Meche 55 M and Ted Lilly 40 M. Our payroll will still be high.

I would love it. Throw him in center.

It think Ozzie was obviously trying to sabatoge the team and season. That and he wanted to play his best bud.........Robby Mack?

QUOTE(SoxHawk1980 @ Dec 6, 2006 -> 06:22 AM) Few deserve to get into the HOF as a broadcaster less than Hawk. Do you guys just want him in the HOF because he's a Sox broadcaster? Does that mean you want all Sox players throughout history to be in the HOF too? Hawk is a bad broadcaster, period. Nothing like turning an institution with a proud tradition into a joke. You remind me of a poster who used to post around here a lot. Well, actually in two different segments. Hmm.