Balta1701

QUOTE (Jake @ Jan 23, 2014 -> 09:24 PM) I think J4L was arguing that LBJ forfeits scoring opportunities for himself in favor of teamwide efficiency, something he thinks Durant contributes to less, despite perhaps being able to score more himself Of course...one could have said the same thing about Lebron a few years ago before he gave up and decided he couldn't win without a super team to stack the deck.

QUOTE (Jerksticks @ Jan 23, 2014 -> 08:33 PM) Now that's what's up! Playoffs baby! Abreu could do that and still have this be an under .500 team.

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Jan 23, 2014 -> 08:03 PM) With the amount of cash the Sox have committed it's a drop in the bucket. Would you care to predict jiminez's era next year also?

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Jan 23, 2014 -> 08:09 PM) There is risk in every signing particularly starting pitching. It's acceptable risk given the Sox current salary commitments. If they were a starting pitcher short of competing on paper in 2014 I'd agree. They are not. That means assuming that risk for a very unlikely reward.

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Jan 23, 2014 -> 07:55 PM) 4y/$44M I wouldn't in a hundred years pay that for Ubaldo Jiminez on the 2014 Chicago White Sox. I might do so on a team ready to compete next year needing back of the rotation depth.

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Jan 23, 2014 -> 07:53 PM) Exactly. The other thing about adding a SP is it will give them flexibility to deal a Danks or a Quintana after next year. I'm not happy about the idea of giving up a 2nd round pick for Jimenez, but that will make him cheaper and the value of that 2nd round pick can be recouped by what they receive back in a trade for Danks or Quintana. This is immensely risky. You're assuming that all of them pitch up to their best level of performance to get that value back. If you sign Jiminez and Danks or Jiminez pitch like they did in 2012, you're out your 2nd round pick, the money it took to sign both of them, and you have no ability to trade either of them if they're overpaid. You're gambling on a bet that...if everything goes right, you come out even at best. If guys pitch well, you're still a loser because you paid the price for them assuming they'd pitch well already.

QUOTE (Stan Bahnsen @ Jan 23, 2014 -> 07:53 PM) Has one more arb year - not FA til 2016. But,yeah, if he signed an extension in the interim, that would set the market, yes. And he's younger than the others. Really? Wow, you're right, I thought he was 2015.

QUOTE (Stan Bahnsen @ Jan 23, 2014 -> 07:45 PM) Next year, Scherzer (or whoever has the best 2014) will set the market and the rest will fall, more cheaply after that - and it will all happen earlier in the offseason with no Tanaka situation holding it up. There'll be plenty to go around, even after the "big spenders" have had their bites, imo, obviously you don't agree - we can afford the guy we'll want and Rick will get him. I like all of those guys better than what's available currently. Tanaka was simply not a typical situation. David Price should darn well be the biggest price SP next year unless he is out of shape or something like that. The fact that he's left handed should be a selling point even if he and MS put up the same numbers next year.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jan 23, 2014 -> 07:12 PM) Give a number that would be your maximum contract so that I can laugh at it please. QUOTE (Marty34 @ Jan 23, 2014 -> 07:40 PM) It will save them money. I'm waiting. You haven't done so yet. For it to save them money you need to tell me what this contract will be rather than just stating so. I would not have paid Matt Garza 4/$52 to be on the White Sox 2014 rotation if I were in the GM seat. I'm skeptical enough for the Brewers and they won >10 more games than the White Sox last year. Give me a contract that you think makes sens.e

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Jan 23, 2014 -> 04:37 PM) The last couple years I think the Brewers have had some horrendous bullpen work with just some crushing blown saves. Shore that up, their rotation is Gallardo, Garza, Lohse, Wily Peralta, and Marco Estrada. Nothing over powering, but if the last two guys keep improving, contending for the wild card isn't out of the question. Here's some appropriate skepticism as well. Their SP were 28th in MLB last year in WAR. Garza helps that, but even to be competitive, they're counting on big improvements from other guys in their rotation as well as guys like Gomez not regressing in the least and other unnamed guys contributing to their lineup more.

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Jan 23, 2014 -> 07:34 PM) But why wait? It's not like next year will be the year the Sox outbid anyone for the top of the SP market. So based on the fact that you're probably right about this....we should outbid people at the lower end of this year's SP market because...?

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Jan 23, 2014 -> 06:36 PM) We also have an old hand me down self propelled kirby As a former salesperson who owns one himself...seriously, if you are willing to spend $500 on a cleaning system you should consider these. I won't repeat my drunken rants from 7 years ago, but they're absolutely worth it and head and shoulders above what you think you're actually doing otherwise.

QUOTE (thxfrthmmrs @ Jan 23, 2014 -> 06:09 PM) This just in, Keith Law thinks Tanaka will be an elite pitcher from day one. If you look at their raw numbers in Japan during their final seasons in that country, he outpitched both Daisuke and Darvish significantly, and did so at a younger age.

QUOTE (Paulstar @ Jan 23, 2014 -> 06:08 PM) Am I the only one who thinks Andre Rienzo has potential to be a really solid starter in this league, maybe even as good as a no 3. He has a really big curveball and a fastball in the low 90's. He needs to learn a number of things...to change speeds on both pitches and to improve his control with both pitches, but both of those are learnable with time. He doesn't have Chris Sale's makeup, but if he can learn how to "pitch" he has the ability to be a middle of the rotation starter with time.

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Jan 23, 2014 -> 06:48 PM) Jimenez could be a real bargain if Garza only went for $52M. Give a number that would be your maximum contract so that I can laugh at it please.

QUOTE (Tex @ Jan 23, 2014 -> 05:01 PM) It takes more than two to blow a .08 for most people. But let the hyperbole and falsehoods continue. Using a couple calculators I found on-line (message me if you need help finding one) a 150 guy drinking two beers in 10 minutes would be .045. Start spreading out those two beers and it drops quickly. But of course, it's worth noting in addition to this that tests show impairment in driving ability starts at >0.0 BAC. It increases with increasing BAC of course, but a 0.045 BAC does involve reduced response times and degraded performance in most skill categories.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Jan 23, 2014 -> 04:10 PM) And the difference with catchers is that they have so much more going on both on and off the field. They are working with pitchers at all times coming up with plans of attack for hitters, learning hitters' weaknesses and pitchers' strengths. Then during the game, his knees are inevitably going to be sore from croushing while he's balancing what's going on with his pitchers and their batters while he's trying to worry about the pitcher on the mound as well. It's a bit overwhelming, especially for a young guy. And on top of that, last year was more games/innings than he'd ever caught previously (and as others have noted, he has that 2010 season where he caught fewer than 50 games and probably 2-3 years that really hurt his long-term conditioning0>

QUOTE (ScottyDo @ Jan 23, 2014 -> 04:40 PM) Sure. We'll have that next year, too, if we don't spend it on a veteran pitcher in 2014. So, why now and not in 2015 when we might theoretically be better? Are Santana and Jimenez so attractive to you guys that you think we'd be wasting resources by choosing to get someone next year rather than this year? Furthermore...if hypothetically we don't spend $12 million this year, and the result would be appreciably the same (perhaps the difference between 75 and 78 wins or something like that), then we're left with an extra $12 million to spend next year. That could, for example, be the difference between offering a pitcher $12 million a year next year and $16 million a year. If we want to spend money on a pitcher...saving some money now could offer us the funds to target one of the real serious guys next year.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Jan 23, 2014 -> 02:27 PM) If Mark Reynolds and Lyle Overbay can combine for 1 WAR, they will have added 5 wins to that team. They were the only team in baseball last year with a worse situation at 1B than the Sox. That was a 74 win team though. Add in another 2 for Braun back for the full year perhaps and they still need something big to happen to be a competitive team? Do they have that? Serious Q I don't know their roster?

QUOTE (DukeNukeEm @ Jan 23, 2014 -> 02:21 PM) Im pretty sure those crazed MADD whores Dignified and classy as usual.

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Jan 23, 2014 -> 01:31 PM) That actually sounds like a pretty good deal for the Brew Crew IMO. Do they legitimately think they have a chance to be competitive in the NL Central next year with the Pirates, Cardinals, and Reds all in that division? I mean they get Braun back, but do they have something else useful coming down the pipeline this year?

QUOTE (bmags @ Jan 23, 2014 -> 02:12 PM) I'm fine with NFC championship game because there is a degree of Home Field advantage that the home team played for all year. The Super Bowl is supposed to be a neutral field, and s***ty weather kind of ruins that appeal for me. It's kind of neutral in that it's s***ty and not what they're used to for both teams.

QUOTE (IlliniKrush @ Jan 23, 2014 -> 01:26 PM) Natural disasters are something you can't plan for or expect. Cold/wind/snow in NY in February? Not a surprise. They are proactively planning around expected weather. There's your difference. I seriously can't imagine they'd move the game for "expected weather". What the area got 2 weeks ago would be reason to move it, something causing serious disruptions of public transportation (2+ inch an hour snowfalls the entire day, 2000+ flights canceled) might be a reason to.

QUOTE (IlliniKrush @ Jan 23, 2014 -> 01:13 PM) This is bulls***. You made your bed, you gotta sleep in it. If you're dumb enough to put the super bowl in cold weather, deal with the consequences. This isn't a surprise that the weather could be awful. If you wanted to control the weather, you had opportunity to do so, like you do every other year. I hope this s*** blows up in their face. I was looking forward to a good Super Bowl, now I just hope it's miserable weather. To some degree though you have to plan for contingencies every year I'd imagine. It's outside of hurricane season but powerful storm hitting Miami could be possible, earthquake at the Rose Bowl, dust storm in Arizona, etc.

QUOTE (He_Gawn @ Jan 23, 2014 -> 12:51 PM) Dude walked into the class where the TA was working... Shot him point blank 3 times in the chest. Pulled out an army knife, slashed throat ear to ear. Then stuck knife in the guys forehead and walked outside and turned himself into police. WTF There were 28 school shootings reported in 2013. Counting Purdue, there have been 7 so far in 2014, with schools in session for ~14 days.