Balta1701

QUOTE (The Ultimate Champion @ Feb 16, 2014 -> 08:41 PM) Any smart parent will then teach his child about the need for a credit card, and any good banker will then provide him one. s***, your f***in 2 year old has a cell, why not a VISA? Then he can spend all his cash on candy & just charge the f***in phone bill. Go Murica. I bet you would back that too because I bet you could skew a 28% APR into something positive just like you tried to skew Adam Dunn's Sox career into something positive. You could have just said "I don't have anything creative in reply" and gotten the message across just as well.

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Feb 16, 2014 -> 07:37 PM) I advocate the Sox take a $5M loss to do both. I believe there are parents who have taught their 5 year olds how to handle money better than you. "No honey, you only have $1, you can't buy both candy bars."

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Feb 16, 2014 -> 06:56 PM) I declared the Jacob May pick a disaster. Because they went with a person who would take under-slot money at that point and because you couldn't be bothered to know how the MLB draft works. Would you be infavor of the White Sox drafting someone in 2014 with the #3 pick that they could sign for $5 million under slot in order to allocate that money to the MLB team?

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Feb 16, 2014 -> 06:52 PM) Why are they taking $5M+ from the major league payroll to pay for the draft? As far as next year goes, I'm sure there will be another reason not to spend money. That has been the case with this organization for quite some time. Because they have the 3rd pick and if they were to draft someone who wouldn't use up their slot spending you'd declare the draft a disaster like you did last year?

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Feb 16, 2014 -> 05:30 PM) What about the other $35M missing from last years payroll? >$10 million was saved by trading away Thornton, Peavy, and Rios during the 2013 season. An extra $5 million will be put into draft and international talent spending beyond what was spent last year. $10 million goes to Jose Dariel Abreu's signing bonus, which is money the Sox will pay out that isn't being accounted for on the budget lists but is . Thus, >$25 million of that difference is quite fully accounted for. The rest of that I will grant as of right now stands as a salary cut, but of course, they also cut ticket prices last year and then still had erosion of ticket sales due to the team being awful, and as we've pointed out repeatedly, that money would be much more effectively spent next offseason when we have a better idea of the team's needs than right now on a "the kids can play" type team.

If their pitchers were to continue being hurt and Danks pitched healthy this year that could create a market, but that's months away from being plausible.

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Feb 16, 2014 -> 04:28 PM) And you shockingly took to the organization's defense. And you shockingly could come up with zero examples of any team ever doing what you said the white sox should do, and you only said that after the injury happened.

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Feb 16, 2014 -> 04:26 PM) Well, they haven't. I agree. I can't think of a single example of the White Sox turning their available funds into players. Not a single one.

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Feb 16, 2014 -> 04:08 PM) I don't care if they were injured or not. They don't need salary relief, they need players. I know. What use is salary relief? You can't turn money into players.

QUOTE (ScottyDo @ Feb 16, 2014 -> 04:12 PM) WTF are you talking about? Crain was injured so he didn't get much in trade, but had to be sold off anyway. What is your point? Also, Alex Rios was once as despised as Adam Dunn. Not to call anyone in particular out, but: http://www.soxtalk.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=82553 Yet they eventually traded him along with his salary for a replacement-level youngster. How is that bad asset management? His point by including Crain was that the White Sox should have known he'd get hurt and benched him in June when he was pitching well, like no team ever does (but he spent July insisting they should have done so).

QUOTE (zenryan @ Feb 16, 2014 -> 10:49 AM) MMQB he's the defensive player of the year in the best conference but he's projected in the middle rounds at the earliest. Why is that? He had what, 12 sacks? 3 vs Arkansas St, 3 vs Vandy and 3 vs Florida in a 4 week stretch. He was getting his stats against the weaker teams he faced. The thing people said when I asked why he was only a middle-round projection is that he's somewhat undersized compared to most DE's and it's unclear whether he'd be successful as an OLB. In college you can get away with being undersized because the offensive lines aren't nearly as big as the guys in the NFL.

QUOTE (The Ultimate Champion @ Feb 15, 2014 -> 06:05 PM) What you are doing is ignoring large sample sizes of real on-field events just to fit an absolutely terrible argument which you refuse to drop or cede points on. You're being obtuse. Dunn's numbers are what they are. BTW DeAza missed time because of his injury and spent all that time recovering in Triple A. Meaning he was healthy when he put up those numbers and the only asterisk you would be put next to DeAza's 2011 numbers would say "fully healthy and motivated." But I guess that shouldn't be counted whereas Dunn's 2011 shouldn't count because his appendix had to be taken out in Spring & he wasn't happy about some stuff. WTF. It's pointless arguing with you. I used to think you were a quality poster, now I just think you're a troll. That's sad, Mr. Balta. Very very sad. And De Azas numbers are what they are, he's a .725 to .750 ops outfielder, but you can't accept that because it would be clear that Dunn has outhit him consistently the last 2 years.

QUOTE (whitesoxfan99 @ Feb 15, 2014 -> 05:48 PM) If Vonleh goes pro (which he should) does Crean last past next year for Indiana? There is a good chance they don't make the tourney if Vonleh goes pro because that frontcourt will be a train wreck. That $7 million extra on his buyout if they remove him after 2015 instead of 2016 should be a big motivator.

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Feb 15, 2014 -> 05:59 PM) Why did they choose to sign De Aza for $4M? Because he'd get more than that as a free agent and they're not in a position to give people away for no return.

QUOTE (The Ultimate Champion @ Feb 15, 2014 -> 05:57 PM) Alexei at SS, Beckham/Semien 2B, Leury as a backup, Eaton in CF DeAza in LF and full season of Avisail at RF plus improvements from Connor should mean a much better defense than last year. Eaton wasn't a very solid Cf in his short time last year, that position has a strong chance to be just as bad or worse. Was Garcia any good with the glove last year because I'm expecting a defensive downgrade from Rios. Davidson is supposedly a poor defender. De Aza is not going to get regular one in LF with this roster unless there is an injury. And te same coaches who presided over the defensive debacle last year are sill there. They could well be just about as bad.

QUOTE (The Ultimate Champion @ Feb 15, 2014 -> 05:55 PM) LOL So you want me to 1) Take out Dunn's worst year EVER and worst MLB season EVER 2) Take out a quality partial season of DeAza's 3) Factor in the possibility of a freak injury that occurred years ago in Florida as something reasonably realistic AND I AM THE f***ING TROLL?? Cereal you guys super cereal OMG its Manbearpig!!!!! Manbearpig!!! Of course you are trolling. All 3 of those things have just about as much relevance to the 2014 white sox and yet you think one of them is super important.

QUOTE (The Ultimate Champion @ Feb 15, 2014 -> 05:52 PM) Holy dogs*** THIS TEAM IS GOING TO LOSE 80+ f***IN BALLGAMES! LOL We've got the makings of a potential quality starting staff AND a deep bullpen AND potentially a halfway decent defense AND STILL we suck SOOOO bad because of what our offense is. And you're worried about the lack of a DFA candidate in the middle of this abortion. Wow. I have absolutely no idea how you'd come to the conclusion that this team has a potentially solid defense since the same guys were one of the worst defenses I've ever seen last year.

QUOTE (The Ultimate Champion @ Feb 15, 2014 -> 05:44 PM) We already covered this in our good old friend, the Sox break out player thread. Remember? Let's go back and revisit, shall we? I posted: "Adam Dunn with the White Sox: .197/.317/.405/.722 Alejandro DeAza with the White Sox: .279/.343/.420/.763" You made this brilliant comment: "To be equally fair to what they're likely to produce next year we should count a full season against De Aza for the year he destroyed his leg. It's just about as relevant as what you just posted to what they'll do next year." To which I again responded with facts: "Yeah let's just go ahead and pretend 2011 never happened & also pretend that DeAza has been anywhere near as bad as Dunn has been. BTW you factor out Dunn's 2011 completely and guess what? Dunn 2012-13: .211/.326/.455/.781 as a DH DeAza with the Sox: .279/.343/.420/.763 as an OF with 60 SB in that span DeAza's far superior even if you hack off what was at the time the single worst season in MLB history, which is completely unfair to discount especially with an all-or-nothing power hitter going into his age 34 season with a slow enough bat already. Dunn could very easily have a similar season next year. If he declines any more than he already has he won't take the field for anyone in 2015. " Which prompted you, continuing in troll mode, to post: "Alejandro De Aza could just as easily seirously injure a leg again next year, he has a history of doing so. Why are you discounting that?!" See? The problem isn't Matry and I who are making sense, it is you guys just trolling. Of course you're trolling. You continue to add in De Azas outlier 2011 stint to make his numbers look better. Without that he drops down into the .740s for his OPS te last 2 seasons, and last year it was only .728. That guy can still be a solid contributor but he makes no sense as a guy hitting 4th or 5th an of course you didn't respond when people called you out for ignoring how much of an outlier his short 2011 stint was.

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Feb 15, 2014 -> 05:39 PM) Why do they need to break the right-handed hitters up and why couldn't De Aza bat in the middle of the order if need be? This one is as basic as you can possibly get. The sequence of Garcia, Abreu, Viciedo, Ramirez, Beckham in the middle of the order would be incredibly vulnerable to right handed pitching, to the point where having to constantly deal with tough right handed pitching could easily start screwing with them. The White Sox wouldn't see a lefty reliever all year. And De Aza simply is not an impact middle of the order bat. He won't play there even if he's the only option. Feel free to count that as an insult to the coaching staff if you'd like. The reality is that this team is incredibly right-hand heavy and that will be a weakness if there's no balance in that part of the lineup. It will hurt both performance and development if there is no balance. Right now, that's Dunns job, to break up the righties, get the pitcher out of his groove and at least make him look at the other side of the plate, and occasionally to force the opposing manager to consider pitching changes.

This is thoroughly unpleasant.

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Feb 15, 2014 -> 05:31 PM) At the expense of the rebuilding effort. That is tremendously shortsighted. Actually by balancing the middle of the lineup with a lefty bat, which De Aza won't do because he's not a middle of the order bat, Dunns presence should be quite valuable for Garcia and Abreu. The team absolutely needs to break those righties up and De Aza will not be hitting 5th any time soon.

The actual sad thing is...if the Sox didn't have Dunn on their roster, they'd probably be considering whether to sign a guy like him to balance out how overly right handed the middle of their order is. There's a good chance that next offseason a left hand hitting DH candidate who can hit 5th or so is shaping up to be a major roster need in order to turn this into a competitive team. Had the White Sox not already done the Adam Dunn experience there's a decent chance they'd try signing him to a 1 year deal next offseason.

QUOTE (raBBit @ Feb 15, 2014 -> 12:32 PM) It's amazing that Magglio, A-Rod, Nomar and Manny Ramirez were all either obviously or proven steroid users. And if anyone watched the 30 for 30, I could not believe how much of a bonehead Kevin Millar is. I could not believe I never saw that clip. I don't know if he could have said anything dumber. I know Canseco threw magglios name in his 2nd book but other than that, where does the statement that he and Nomar were obvious or proven users come from?

QUOTE (GoodAsGould @ Feb 15, 2014 -> 08:17 AM) Wasn't there a lot of texts that painted Martin in a bad light as well. I think incognito is a scumbag pos but I don't really feel much sympathy for Martin either. If I read that section of the report correctly, a lot of those texts were suggested to be Incognito trying to leave a record that made him look better once stuff started coming out.

QUOTE (Jake @ Feb 15, 2014 -> 12:14 AM) With Herm around, Nomar would be doing a Jeter "circle jerk around baseball career finale" right about now If he could have stayed healthy he would have been a HOF candidate by now, but his body clearly started breaking down by age 30, never played more than 122 games in a season after age 29. Not sure Herm is that level of miracle worker.