Princess Dye

QUOTE (HeGone33 @ Feb 14, 2012 -> 11:05 AM) Just watched Moneyball this weekend...... I keep thinking of KW sitting in a room acting like Beane coming up with this crazy a@@ signing.... The problem is every offseason he acts like a different GM. Always with a new plan totally contradicting the plan from the prior year. At least that's the way it has come off in the last five years. Easy to say that perhaps when the L's have piled up.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Feb 13, 2012 -> 04:49 PM) Do you really think that $9 million a year for a guy who has effectively never played above A ball is exploting a market inefficiency? Especially given where the A's are in terms of who they already have in their OF and the number of players they have sold in recent years. This is only a "New trend" in that the new trend is spending a fortune on these kind of guys from Cuba. Kenny Williams clearly pulled off the moneyball here in finding the market inefficiency, then Beane came in with big money later once the inefficiency had ironed out. And in fact, he may have paid a premium, given that the international-cap takes effect in only a few months and that has pushed this price up. To be clear, not saying I'm sure it's going to be a great or even good move. But before anyone here calls this reckless Oakland spending, it bears noting that we're hearing they had four or five years worth of scouting done on Cespedes. Oakland is meticulous and it will be interesting to see how a team that does everything in measured fashion handled this one.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Feb 13, 2012 -> 03:20 PM) But spending $36 million on him (and winding up in a position where he is forced to trade him because there can be no arbitration/compensation) is not a Billy Beane move. Moneyball is not as some purport (not you) solely about OBP. It's about exploiting market inefficiencies. So no matter how much A's payroll goes to one player is immaterial. What it's about is getting bargain buys, and what Beane is betting on is that right now major league teams are undervaluing Cuban players. It's a Beane move, in that it's taking a new trend by the horns and looking for an advantage through it. The sheer dollars isn't anything crazy, because Oakland's payroll isn't $1M per player or something crazy like that. There's a total amount he gets to spend, and it looks like from here on in a lot of it will just happen to go to one player. But obviously this contract isn't Pujolsian.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Feb 12, 2012 -> 07:01 PM) Then LaRussa is stuck with a bunch of players that KW picked up that he wouldn't have wanted. That's nuts. Stuck with? If LaRussa values his year off over getting youngsters that happen to not be named Molina/Castro etc, then that's all that matters. I don't see why you think the opportunity cost of keeping KW an extra year is so high. It's one thing for you to find it unlikely (of course that's normal) but I don't see why you pretend it'd be something disastrous. It may be Tony wants to be home for a bit. It could even be JR is flat out indecisive. His history is to wait out GMing changes past the point when the public expected them (Krause). But in the end we have no idea what goes through his mind on the topic. My guess would be KW gets more chances at this thing, but I have no way of knowing that's in stone simply from the circumstantial.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Feb 12, 2012 -> 03:12 PM) Not at all. KW keeping his job for 2013 is already pretty clearly going to happen, probably 2014 as well. The evaluation for him already happened. How do we have any idea what kind of conversations the White Sox FO has had in the last year? A whole range of possibilities could be on the table. KW could have an agreement where he moves on after another year. JR doesn't necessarily have to love Hahn and be in a hurry to shift the reins to him. LaRussa could want a year before getting an important position here. There are all kinds of possibilities. The story is JR chose KW over Ozzie, but we still had rumors last year that KW was wearing thin on JR as well and that they could both be out. Seeing as how it's a rebuilding year, it could very easily be JR deciding to postpone a decision on KW a year since stakes are low. Point being, we have no idea what's going on with them. All guesses are just that.

Just general banter here-- I'm not going to just default to putting this down. Get talented people, get creative. That line of thinking worked with Sergio Santos and increased his value dramatically over a short period of time. This is more of a reach than that, but I'm not opposed to low risk-anything

QUOTE (DukeNukeEm @ Feb 6, 2012 -> 03:57 PM) Sucks for Bogans but this is pro sports. The Bulls had a clear upgrade in Hamilton ready to go and frankly Bogans didn't even really fit on the bench anymore. Be glad he had a really fun season but not so bitter that it wasn't forever. "but this is pro sports" and not citing you specifically, but as soon as a player makes a business decision, he's called "greedy" or solely in it for the money I like that he's bitter. More players should care about fit, winning and teammates. He played like 9 minutes a game for us and was begging to stay apparently because he loved the vibe here. Bulls are better with Rip and did what they needed to do. But I feel for this guy, and I dont like hearing that we kept him hanging while other teams filled needs elsewhere, then cleared out his contract from our books.

Trayce Thompson's brother Mychel waived by the Cavs

There are sooo many other things to go after besides Alexei. Alexei's fine. PK and a few starters. The rest of it is botched.

QUOTE (flavum @ Feb 1, 2012 -> 11:13 AM) Can we get away with a bench of Johnson, Flowers, Lillibridge, and Martinez? Who's Martinez, I'm embarassed to ask

So sad how excited I am to see something. anything.

#3 - statistics... i mean "given his position" is already taking it out of what-deserves-a-statue realm. He's fine as a hitting catcher. Merely decent since he's allergic to taking a walk. and then #2 is too small to matter for high honors. statue is career achievement #1 i'll give you. And I'll get Pat Mannelly a space outside Soldier Field while i'm at it

AJ is not statue worthy. No way. Swing at everything / can't throw. Intangibles can't be everything, jeez.

what level will Trayce be at this year?

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Jan 26, 2012 -> 02:45 PM) Does that make Greg Walker the greatest hitting coach in White Sox history? Greg Walker, mere advisor to untalented hitters is what his tombstone should read

QUOTE (bigruss22 @ Jan 26, 2012 -> 10:49 AM) Meh, Ozzie put himself in this position. He had Kenny build him that 2010 team the way he wanted and it didn't work out but he kept looking for excuses. JR chose the guy whose family hasn't tarnished the Sox name in the media countless times in the past few years. If you don't think Ozzie was playing Rios ahead of guys like Viciedo just in spite of KW, then you obviously don't know the Guillen family. I am no KW apologetic, but this s*** is Ozzie's s***. I wouldn't be surprised to hear that Rios was playing as a spite move, but I also will need to see all the great talents that were benched in favor of Rios during that time. Kenny won the press conference when De Aza had a nice stretch last year, but I find it hard to believe that there was this huge movement by Ozzie to suppress De Aza's advancement. And Viciedo didn't exactly turn into a world-saver last year. Again, we get back to a poor bag of groceries to work with. And yes a sometimes unfair manager. But when he had proper talent to work with, he too was easier to live with. It was also nice when his kid was a bit more anonymous.

I'd hate to see an all-time Sox great have his legacy tarnished by this cloudy mess For a smaller example... Magglio should be remembered as one of the great Sox players (assuming we never get the conclusive call on his possible PED use). It's a shame he's vilified or at best forgotten. Ozzie did a lot of good here, and I think to say he "quit" is a shorthand way for the way people really want to describe it, which is that his feud with Kenny got him to the point where he lost sight of what was right for the team, and affected his motivation for going forward (with Kenny specifically) JR was in a position to choose between KW and Ozzie, and JR chose the guy who brought in Dunn/Peavy/Rios. The very guys that were causing Ozzie's L's to pile up. It was a bad situation and we should just be glad it's over, and that all sides can get on with it. No manager is eternal, and honestly-- this is less messy than it could have been. As strange as that is to consider.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Jan 25, 2012 -> 01:30 PM) This is an example of a columnist (who is this Rozner guy anyway?) blasting big bad Ozzie WHEN OZZIE IS SAFELY OUT OF TOWN. He's writing for an audience that hates Ozzie. An audience getting ready to follow a team with a new manager. Great. Bu what did that column say? Oz is a clown? Where's the mention of Cooper and calling him a clown? Or Rios? Maybe he's written those before or will soon. If so, I apologize. It seems to me that column was damage control for when Ozzie erupts next IN ANOTHER NEWSPAPER. His paper is not getting the next eruption story from Ozzie, so just call him a clown and pretend the next story will not be newsworthy. Even though you quoted me, I have to say this is not entirely the scenario here. If you have followed Rozner & Cowley on their Score 670 appearances, they do like to go at it on the topic of journalistic sources & integrity. This is a continuation of the battle. If Rozner was waiting to only report when the Daily Herald gets a scoop, he'd be waiting a long time. Rozner has his viewpoint, it's valid, it's just not well articulated in that article. Not convincing, little in the way of examples. Just fire.

uh...doesn't 'start the rumors' indicate it's just a joke? no need to overreact on the ones that aren't as horrifying.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jan 25, 2012 -> 10:02 AM) What exact supporting evidence do you need? When you have guys like Cowley reporting that Guillen continued to play Rios expressly because Kenny traded for him, instead of benching him for the good of the team, what more do you need? When Ozzie is screaming about an extension in the middle of a pennant race, what more do you need? That's exactly my point though. Something like the Rios thing you mention -- If actually it had been in Rozner's article-- would have be great supporting evidence for Rozner to use. Rozner doesn't have stuff like that. In the article. I can't judge an article based on what's in other articles, buddy. Anyone can look at a bad team and write a piece that the manager quit. To be convinced, I would need both Rozner's passion and some evidence that he really knows the inner workings of the team. I don't see that here.

Even if you agree with Rozner's sentiments, and dislike Cowley heavily, it probably still needs to be said that Rozner's article lacks meat. Not really loads of supporting evidence here for his claims.

What made Ozzie effective as a leader (taking the attention, letting his players just have to play) is as expected awful in the divorce. Lets just leave it as that.

QUOTE (DirtySox @ Jan 24, 2012 -> 04:33 PM) I wouldn't do it unless blown away. His trade value surely isn't very high right now. True, but value as far as defense is at the highest it's been for him. A team sees that, looks at the team control years, and then pictures his rookie year OBP, and maybe for the right team this is actually the most intriguing he'll be ever again He'll be 26 by late next season--the question has to be asked at some point here...

Now I understand the Atlanta Hawks' Joe Johnson contract.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jan 24, 2012 -> 02:55 PM) Soriano was not an abysmal, career-defining move for a GM. It was exactly the kind of move management wanted. Hmm... is your meaning that the brass above Hendry at the time called for the Soriano contract specifically, or at least called for a drastic overspend splash w/ minimal focus? I think we saw a similar thing happen to Theo in recent years, where these gigantic moves the Red Sox have been making lately almost become this expected thing and if anything take away from our ability to fairly evaluate the GM. I guess I see that, although Hendry was still a GM that only got his once-in-awhile offseasons to open the checkbook wide...