daa84

QUOTE(Steff @ Jul 29, 2005 -> 09:45 AM) Apparently all you're interested in doing is acting like a condescending ass.. I've told you what I know based on personal conversations with people who work for the Rays.. they don't care. They don't care about the fans, about the players, the stadium.. nothing. They don't want to do anything - hell... most of the time they don't even show up for games or general office time. Yes.. they are running a business. The best business. They DO sit there with their feet up.. do NOTHING... and collect big fat checks. It's not rocket science... to most... to see that there is no reason for them to bother scouting, researching, inquiring with other teams, etc, etc... when they can do NOTHING and still live high on the hog. No effort, big reward.. that's the Devil Rays. No reason to change. if thats what you believe to be true, then fair enough.

QUOTE(DBAH0 @ Jul 29, 2005 -> 09:44 AM) Well wouldn't you trade every player who makes over the minimum salary for prospects then? haha well.....2 answers. 1.) is there is a diminished return in which you spend so little, that the quality of product decreases so much, that eventually your business doesnt become profitiabe because your product stinks so much it doesnt make any money. 2.) ever look at the drays roster. i believe 2 years ago they ahd 3 players making over league minimum. that was it

QUOTE(daa84 @ Jul 29, 2005 -> 09:40 AM) ok steff, ill explain this to you slowly. i can run a lemonade stand. i buy lemons for 7.50 and make a profit of 20 dollars on my lemonade. but someone comes along and says hey, your lemons are really good, ill trade you my 30 cent lemons, which may taste slightly worse than your 7.50 lemons, and all you have to do is give me your 7.50 lemons. i make the trade, and i use 30 cent lemons. fewer people buy my lemonade because it tastes worse, but i spend less, so my profit may increase to 21 dollars. now the trade for my lemons makes sense, not because i want my lemonade to taste good, but because i want my money. the devil rays are running a business, not a baseball team. and its simply dumb to sit tehre and say that doing nothing and sitting back with your feet up is teh best way to run a business on that note im done with this btw, back to real baseball

QUOTE(Steff @ Jul 29, 2005 -> 09:35 AM) They want to do as little as possible which for them means doing nothing. I don't know how much more clear I can make that for you to comprehend... ok steff, ill explain this to you slowly. i can run a lemonade stand. i buy lemons for 7.50 and make a profit of 20 dollars on my lemonade. but someone comes along and says hey, your lemons are really good, ill trade you my 30 cent lemons, which may taste slightly worse than your 7.50 lemons, and all you have to do is give me your 7.50 lemons. i make the trade, and i use 30 cent lemons. fewer people buy my lemonade because it tastes worse, but i spend less, so my profit may increase to 21 dollars. now the trade for my lemons makes sense, not because i want my lemonade to taste good, but because i want my money. the devil rays are running a business, not a baseball team. and its simply dumb to sit tehre and say that doing nothing and sitting back with your feet up is teh best way to run a business

QUOTE(HSC's Biggest Fan @ Jul 29, 2005 -> 09:32 AM) How do you know what they care about? Sorry but I think Steff really does know what they are like and how they are run and it is apparent on how they are run on a day-to-day basis. Lamar and the owner are good friends he ain't going nowhere and does not need to do anything but keep the salary down. Wins, losses and attendance do not matter.Lamar is a fool and there is no recourse against, I guess this makes him brilliant. ok 1.) i agree on keeping salary down. 2.) i disagree taht attendance does not matter. it does matter, becuase it will bring them more money. if they can raise attendence by not spending more on salaries of players then WHY NOT DO IT?????!?!?!

QUOTE(Steff @ Jul 29, 2005 -> 09:28 AM) Good grief... :banghead question: do you agree with me that tehy simply want to make money? if yes, then answer this....to make money, they want to spend nothing right? so trading away 7.5 mil makes sense right? now trading that 7.5 mil away will lose them more games, but tehy dont care, as long as their profit is higher. if they can get players in return, that somehow (maybe by contributing to wins) increases their profit as well, then why not?

QUOTE(Steff @ Jul 29, 2005 -> 09:20 AM) No... we get it.. YOU don't. Tampa isn't going to be around much longer. There is no reason to invest in the team so they wont. They make their money with ZERO wins and NO fans in the seats. They don't care... haha im not saying tehy should invest. thats why im advocating them trading huff. hes 7.5 million dollars spent by ownership. if they can cut that spending out, they will make more money. AND additionally why not get players that can help you contribute in teh future. if they can contribute at 300,000 dollars, maybe they will help to bring in some revenue, which also increases their pay check. i completely agree with you that they could win 90 games make 200 million, or win 60 and make 300 million that they would choose to win 60 and make 300. i think, you must be under the assumption that i dont agree with you on that, but i do. alls im sayin is that if they can win 56 without huff, then they make 207.5 million (with the extra money coming from the money they save on huffs contract). and maybe, just maybe, the prospect tehy get turns into a player like huff and that brings them back to 60 wins. maybe a few more fans will start to show up then, and the team is spending less, and maybe that 207.5 with 56 wins jumps to 209.5 with 60 wins. i agree tehy dont really care about teh wins, but if the wins bring in money, without them having to spend money, then they do care

QUOTE(Steff @ Jul 29, 2005 -> 09:08 AM) Sigh... They don't care about the team.. what the team does.. how many fans come.. etc.. they are making their money regardless. The ownership does not give a ratts ass about the Rays. They are cashing checks without doing a damn thing. Anyone with common sense would have seen that when the manager s*** all over the ownership and they did nothing about it. They don't care... wow, some people just dont get it, of course they care. if the team does better, they make more money. but the key here is that they dont want to spend money. youre right, they dont care if the team loses 100 as long as they get their money. BUT if the team can win 80 games, and ownership spends the same....lamarr and co. will make more money. so to say that they dont care at all if the team wins or not, but claim that they care about their money is complete ignorance

QUOTE(DBAH0 @ Jul 29, 2005 -> 09:07 AM) The problem is you trade Huff for say prospects and then you want to re-invest that money into the FA market. If you're a free agent looking for a nice contract, do you really want to go to Tampa Bay and be stuck in a losing situation? no, which is why they need to trade huff for prospects. they dont want to spend enough money to lure the FAs who only care about making money, otherwise their dollars spent increases. they do try to sign old vets they think have some more productivity in them for cheap, ie mcgriff travis lee, by trying to get some good producitivity and keep their spending down. but what happens is those guys go onto suck, and productivity decreases. so what do they do? they trade huff for a prospect. for example lets examine what happened when the sox got cotts. they got him as a throw in, they bring him up to the bigs, he breaks out, and they get a terrific year out of a guy they pay 300,000, when a team like cleveland is getting worse production for more money out of a guy like arthur rhodes. if htey can net a guy like anderson, maybe they can get a .300 20 85 season out of him before they have to pay him.

QUOTE(Steff @ Jul 29, 2005 -> 09:01 AM) And you missed mine... THEY DON'T CARE Butts in the seats.. LMAO.. that's funny. ok what is it that they care abotu??? MONEY. we both agree on that. how do you maximize your money?? spend the least and get the most production out of your players. if you went to lamarr and said hey chuck, you can win 60 games, or you can win 70 games by spending teh same amount of money. what do you think hes gonna do. maximize the productivity with keepiung money the same. anyone who has had any sort of econ class would understand this edit: an econ class isnt even needed...its not a difficult concept

QUOTE(Steff @ Jul 29, 2005 -> 08:56 AM) Yes.. it is that they don't care. Trust me... I know. They don't care about anything but cashing the checks. you missed the whole point of my response. how do they maximize those pay checks??? most productivity from players with the least $$ spent on them. what worth is a guy like huff gonna do for them at 7.5 million when hes not even gonna help them win right now? you can make a trade for anderson or bmac who will help you win somewhat less than huff, but will cost a whole lot less. they are trying to maximize their production per dollar. paying huff 7.5 doesnt make sense then. and to the other poster, i doubt huff puts 7 million dollars worth of butts in the seats

QUOTE(Steff @ Jul 29, 2005 -> 08:46 AM) MO honestly.. LaMar isn't giving a s*** about what is or isn't done. He's collecting a paycheck and life is good. It would not shock me one bit to see Tampa not do anything just out of spite. no, its not that they dont care about winning. they want to make as much money as they can. in order to do that, they want to spend less. but that doesnt mean that they are gonna insist on bad players. they want young good players who will be cheap and effective. youre right that tehy prolly dont care about a ring. but if they can get to .500 with top prospects, then more ppl will come to watch and they will pay the same salaries to the top prospects. so why would they not trade someone like huff who will make 7.5 for a guy like anderson who can in their eyes be effective and cost 7 mil less? oh yeah for spite. makes a whole lot of sense

QUOTE(RockRaines @ Jul 29, 2005 -> 08:38 AM) They arent going to just deal Wagner, I dont see it unless they get AJB for him. And I think FLA is hanging on to him at this point. why is it that in every rumor post on teh inside beat, it seesm that at one point or another, wagner, burnett, huff, baez will be talked about. even if its a rumor for one of them, the convo will eventually shift to all of them. we shouldnt even have titles for em becuase they all eventually end up the same....i swear this site has been goin downhill as the deadline approaches....that said after the deadline i anticipate it to be back to where it was

QUOTE(AddisonStSox @ Jul 29, 2005 -> 08:34 AM) :enter MVP logic Would you rather have Jeff Badge-in-arrow or Bobby Jenks? What's that? You'd rather have Jenks? Now, what makes you think any professional general manager would be any different? i agree addy, soooo many ppl around here have some strange love affair with baj. i mean yeah hes gettin it done and the #s are great. but minor league closers typically arent big league closers. imo thats the reason the sox let go of ring, valentine, and almonte. besides baj is 28 years old. i mean the guy probably could be a decent major league player. but his trade value isnt very high, which people cant seem to understand

QUOTE(southsideirish @ Jul 28, 2005 -> 10:33 PM) You know it usually doesn't take as much as people tend to think to acquire a disgruntled player that wants out. I know it isn't EXACTLY the same scenario, but an example is the Cardinals trade iwth the Phillies to get Rolen. All the Cardinals gave up was Mike TImlin, Placido Polanco, and Bud Smith. What is that the equivalent with us? Brandon McCarthy, Damaso Marte/Cliff Politte, and ?Uribe?Crede?Everett? Hell I would do that deal. wow bud smith...has there ever been a worse pitcher to throw a no-no

QUOTE(southsideirish @ Jul 29, 2005 -> 07:13 AM) OH YEAH BABY!!!! When did he say this? I just turned off the radio and I missed this? By the way I can't stand Eric CaSILLYASS. Plus all Tom Shaer is reporting is a deal with the Cubs and Soriano, not once has he mentioned Sox stuff. in his stark market report. on espn insider. so i guess he didnt say it, he wrote it....kinda liek the diff between slander and libel

QUOTE(HSC's Biggest Fan @ Jul 29, 2005 -> 07:04 AM) Let's see Houston just swept them and beat Pedro, well the Mets when Pedro pitched. Oh, Houston is also 9-1 in their last 10. Although I think Wade should think about a deal he won't. The white flag deal is very similar to this in that although they are only 3 1/2 games (or something) back the fans, as they should, still believe the Phils have a shot. Their problem is that their division is just tough enough for them to make it hard. stark said the sox have picked up interest and are making a push for guardado now too........he also said the sox could send a slew of young prospects for both huff and baez

QUOTE(DBAH0 @ Jul 29, 2005 -> 01:40 AM) Interesting article from the Florida Sun - Sentinel; in my opinion that deal would have to include baez plus either huff or lugo, with other parts obviuosly being moved in that deal. on a side note: three good outings with a 1.80 ERA a good pitcher does not make. but i sure as hell never thought mccarthy sucked in teh first place.

QUOTE(Steve9347 @ Jul 28, 2005 -> 07:29 PM) I am sick of getting myself worked up. I want to hear the news that the White Sox have made a trade. This really is uncalled for, because they have the best record in baseball. However, it is impossible to not get worked up and excited. Every morning when I wake up, I rush to the ESPN.com main page to see if there have been any deals. Then, I come to soxtalk, for what I am absolutely sure will be information of a new signing. I get in the car, turn on the Score or ESPN Radio, expecting to hear Bruce Levine tell me that Aubrey Huff is rolling up to the Cell in a '96 Prelude, ready to add that bat to our lineup. KW has been so amazing with his deals, that as a White Sox fan we are pretty lucky to be this excited. Of course, other teams are content, which makes us seem kind of needy. However, the exciting prospect of possibly getting Ken Griffey, Jr, or AJ Burnett, just makes me want to cream myself. For what its worth, I love this team, and would not be offended if we went for the stretch run as-is. I must say that I do feel we need a bat more than a pitcher, and a tiny addition like Omar Vizquel would go a long way to turning our lineup around. I may be going crazy, and July 31st can't come soon enough. Couple this with the fact that (non hockey fans ignore the next part) the NHL free agency period begins on August 1st, and I just might not make it through the weekend. As Hawk would say, I'm sure, "I love trade deadlines." i have to agree and disagree. i dont mind reading rumors in papers or hearing them from reputable sources (yes even bruce levine), but what makes me uber-frustrated is when ppl come on here and say they heard that a deal is imminent, or "we are gonna trade for this guy...consider it done!" thats pointless and a waste of everyones time. that does get frustrating. it does test your patience waiting for a trade to happen when we all know its only a matter of time. but hey at least its less frustrating than in the offseason when we talk about trade rumors and dont get to watch baseball.

QUOTE(southsider2k5 @ Jul 28, 2005 -> 01:53 PM) Another thread down the toilet. Thanks guys. agreed

QUOTE(Milkman delivers @ Jul 28, 2005 -> 01:48 PM) Sure, let's talk about the non-existant trades going down as we speak. yeah that or we could have a conversation that originated with someone speculating about a nonexistent trade for barry bonds, when bonds for sure isnt on teh market and for sure wotn even play this year....besides talk about nonexistent trades that coudl be going down is why teh inside beat was created, not to hear some 15 year old kid and some other people duke it out about why barry bonds hit homers

this is teh most worthless arguement except now im getting excited because SSI is gonna start talking to soxfan1 about how he looks like hes 7 years old in that picture in his sig.......this is gonna be good cuz ive always wondered how old soxfan1 is since that pic is everywhere

QUOTE(southsideirish @ Jul 28, 2005 -> 01:42 PM) Why would he move after he got hit by the ball? I don't understand. He got hit by the ball and then tried to get out of the way? Why would someone do that? You started the argument. All along I said I was not arguing the home run point, but you kept insisting I was. I argued that it made him a better overall hitter. Look at my posts. I even included on base percentage, batting average, and walks. Go back and check it out wise guy. *moves to the barry bonds body armor/best player ever?/carleverettstandsontopofhteplatewithoutarmortoo thread

there was an article saying that rooney and farmer were the best radio announcers among AL announcers. anyone have the article that can post it? santo and hughes were like 3rd from last in the NL lol congrats rooney and farmeio...you guys rock

QUOTE(SoxFan1 @ Jul 28, 2005 -> 01:28 PM) Wow, you guys are making it sound like he wears a Knight's oufit. He's not the only one to wear an elbow pad. Yet, he hits more HR's than anyone else. anyone else find this conversation pointless to be talking about near the deadline?