whitesoxfan101

QUOTE (kev211 @ Jun 29, 2010 -> 09:39 PM) I've began to love Bill Simmons the past year or so and its funny because I hate Boston sports. Simmons is a brilliant writer when he puts effort into it, which he often (but not always) does. Doomsday is approaching, less than 24 hours until all rules are off (other than the salary cap of course). I just want to see what happens already, but I have a feeling we might still be waiting a while.

Soxtalk whipping boy is a title only taken on by those universally hated. People like Scott Linebrink, Andy Gonzalez, Jizzcan (I don't think I've refered to Luis Vizcaino by his real name since I first saw that nickname), Darin Erstad, DeWayne Wise, Mark Kotsay, people like that (I wasn't here pre '05, so I can't speak to those players). The only player I didn't feel earned the whipping boy status he actually ended up with was Jizzcan. He had a really catchy nickname, and a few blowups in 2005 (I recall a REALLY bad one early in the year), but he actually wasn't too bad for a guy pitching in the role he pitched in. He just got a lot of hate as basically the last guy in an otherwise amazing bullpen that year.

'05 was definitely Jizzcan IMO, '07 was Erstad as well. I think Linebrink deserves some sort of lifetime achievement award, although I think you could argue he's the '08 overall winner as well. His struggles, which mounted as the season went on, as well as the realization that his contract was absolutely awful (although many realized that from the moment he signed it) did him no favors. Recently, whoever is Ozzie's pet usually seems to get the title (Erstad in '07, Wise last year, Kotsay this year).

REALLY needed the win tonight. It'd have been nice had we done what we should have offensively on Monday, and we'd be going for a sweep tomorrow. But alas, we'll have to just do it the hard way and beat Grienke.

QUOTE (girlslikebaseballtoo#26 @ Jun 29, 2010 -> 12:53 PM) I'm not that kind of a woman ..I just don't think she's pretty, she has a weird face to me. I could name gorgeous women all day every day and it wouldn't bother me a bit. I don't consider myself to be all that attractive either so I have no reason to say she's not if I didn't honestly think she is. ...I have plenty of reason to back my opinion up also ..I think her forehead is huge, her eyes are gorgeous, but too far apart and her lips are too thin ...those are just my opinions! Obviously someone thinks she's beautiful, or she wouldn't be a model. And to think people say I'm too picky with women.

The Bulls are tampering just as much as everybody else is I bet. This is like when one school who is paying it's players gets mad that another one is.

QUOTE (knightni @ Jun 29, 2010 -> 02:38 PM) Will James have a press conference area with caps on a table? Then, he can put one on during the conference, like when a high school kid commits to a college school. This has actually been a very similar process to college recruiting. Lots of made up rumors and people pretending they know where the players are going, when really, nobody knows. Additionally, the players talking to every team to see what they can offer, both in terms of chances to win and money. All kinds of violations of rules, players being run out of town to make room for the better ones, stuff going on under the table, potential package deals for multiple players. It's dirty stuff, and pro fans are seeing what it's like to follow it in college.

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Jun 29, 2010 -> 02:38 PM) Wade was in Chicago. He was in a box with Big Buff. Is that tampering?

QUOTE (iamshack @ Jun 29, 2010 -> 02:34 PM) Cowley did claim he saw Wade's kid in the washroom at the Cell on Saturday afternoon... Wade was definitely there, he was shown on the big screen and a friend of mine has a picture of him from the game on their facebook page.

QUOTE (DBAHO @ Jun 29, 2010 -> 11:38 AM) Joe Johnson's got bust all over him after his performances in the playoffs this season IMO. Indeed, which is why him going to the Knicks for a max deal makes all of the sense in the world.

QUOTE (SoxFan1 @ Jun 29, 2010 -> 11:45 AM) Why the f*** does it matter to you who I root for? It doesn't, lots of people root for their ancestoral countries in these things. I'm just pointing out that anti-American commentary from you is common, which both make your comments on Altidore easy to ignore, and is also interesting since you live here.

QUOTE (SoxFan1 @ Jun 29, 2010 -> 11:41 AM) Yes, I'm not an Altidore fan because of "years of tough Serbia losses" even though they have only playing under that name sine 2006. Hey, that's about as long as I've regularly posted here, and it's been going on that entire time. Four years is a pretty long time when it represent more than 15 percent of your total time on earth like it does for me, although I do admit I don't know the full history of the country you seem to like far more than the one you actually live in.

Altidore definitely still has potential, but he needs to start showing more than that soon. I wouldn't take the anti-American opinions of SoxFan1 too seriously either though, those are common in international sporting threads and have been for years after tough Serbia losses.

QUOTE (Controlled Chaos @ Jun 28, 2010 -> 08:30 AM) I think that is a done deal already. No way his contract will be on the books this year. Still though...the numbers just don't add up unless they dump another guy. Exactly, getting Huet's contract off the books means they only need to dump one more guy. If he's not gone, you'd need to dump two more guys with pretty high cap numbers, and even then it's tight.

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Jun 29, 2010 -> 11:28 AM) You can't really say it's all BS since the rumors are based on sources. The big three did have a meeting and did express interest in playing together. They talked about the contract situation. So, being worried about this as a possibility is totally justified. It's not like people are making this stuff up. Believing the rumors as fact is another thing. Sure I can. Every source leaking information has some sort of agenda, and many of them are stretching their stories, if not outright making things up. Even if some of them are telling the 100 percent truth, we have no idea which ones are, so if the truth is out there, we have no idea where it is. And of course there is reason to be worried, there has been all along and will be until the deals are done.

You're all just haters. Or I have bad taste in women (which is the more likely choice).

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jun 29, 2010 -> 11:10 AM) Oh, I'm sure things are still sponsored, but when one sponsor pulls out and you have to find another...there's a good chance they won't be paying the same rate. Ahh yeah, true. I don't think any sponsors are paying the same rate for any team right now that they were pre economic crash though.

Let's be honest here: if the Bulls don't get Lebron or Bosh, the summer was a failure and it'll be VERY difficult for the Bulls to win any rings in the next decade even if they get some other pieces, particularly if the superteam scenario in Miami plays out. On a side note, I find it funny how so many people are STILL taking some of these reports seriously. THEY ARE ALL BS! Just wait until somebody makes a verbal commitment or signs a deal, because you aren't going to know what will happen until then. Period.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jun 29, 2010 -> 11:04 AM) I'm sure it's been increased since then, but I don't think it's gone up by 33% (someone correct me if I'm wrong), and there's the further issue of possible advertising loss due to things like the recession (i.e. the Pontiac Fun-damentals deck). Either way, I think we're pretty lucky to have held salary level the last few years despite declining gate receipts, and I wouldn't be surprised if there was a small total cutback next year. The fundamentals deck is still sponsored (by Xfinity), but we've definitely had advertising loss, and you're also right about ticket prices (unless they've actually went up that much and I somehow didn't notice). I'm also surprised the payroll didn't take a big cut after last year though, so who knows.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Jun 28, 2010 -> 06:08 PM) It's June 28th. And the Cubs still suck. Indeed. No matter how bad it gets for our Sox (although it's obviously been a lot better lately), it's always good to have the Cubs there to remind us it could be worse.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jun 29, 2010 -> 10:30 AM) With how this team opened the season, I think there's probably a serious salary cut looming. At best I'm hoping we stay level, at about $100 million, but I think $95 ish is more likely. I think 90 million is even more likely (although if we stay in the race the rest of the way, 95 is close). Only way we can even think about keeping the payroll in 9 figures is a playoff appearance IMO. Up through early June though, I thought we were on course to end up under 90 next year without question, so there has been mass improvement.

A general thought I have, regardless of who we go after: if we're going to acquire a bat, we need to do it as quickly as possible. This team is already a bat short (and really has been two bats short all year up until Quentin's recent turnaround), and now that we're back in the American League, this fact hurts us especially so. I don't think we're going to go back to being a nearly 10 games under .500 level team because our pitching is back on track, but this team is very unlikely to be in the playoffs unless another bat is acquired. Thus, if we're making a move, we need to do it as quickly as possible.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jun 28, 2010 -> 04:30 PM) Whether or not it's effective should have no bearing on the constitutionality. But his point seemed to be that it's constitutional, but we need to keep in mind how old the document is.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Jun 28, 2010 -> 03:18 PM) Not to open the Pandora's Box here, but once again, it's time to remember when this document was written. That's definitely opening up a Pandora's Box. How about we go through that old document and find everything in it that seems dated and change it then, seems fair enough. Even if I were to just give you that it's an old document with some dated things in it though, it's not all that hard to make a case that the handgun ban didn't do anything for safety in Chicago.

Katy Perry has nice boobs and that's it. That alone doesn't put you into the top ten thousand in the world, let alone number 1. Not sure how Brooklyn Decker isn't attractive though.