Balta1701

QUOTE (CaliSoxFanViaSWside @ Nov 30, 2013 -> 02:20 PM) I don't think the Sox have the kind of organization to make huge leaps in one years time. Most organizations built step by step . You'd prefer the Sox lose another 90+ games and then all of a sudden compete somehow ? I'd really like to hear how they would accomplish that given that every lousy year will mean lower payroll. I want to compete in 2014 also but right now there's no indication of that considering we hear about an $80-85M payroll and letting Konerko decide if he will play for the Sox next year. Maybe Hahn has some surprises up his sleeve but getting back to.500 in one year would be a big step in the right direction for me if it can be accomplished with a youthful core and promising players in the system . The Sox are just not going to sign big money free agents and you can't trade fool's gold for real gold. The last time the White Sox lost 90 games, they had an even worse system than the one they have right now, and they came out and won the division the next year without making many major FA signings other than keeping their own guys (and could very well have gone farther had their key guy on offense not broken his hand).

QUOTE (TheFutureIsNear @ Nov 30, 2013 -> 01:35 PM) Its a 6 year deal. He's a rookie who will be not only be adjusting to MLB pitching, but the entire culture of the country. You're honestly going to tell me you expect him to perform that well right off the bat? .857 OPS would have been good for 21st in all of baseball last year and 8th among 1B. Plus you act as if the $7M he will be making each of the next 2 years is a big contract. Thats peanuts in todays MLB. If he's playing everyday and maintaining a .775ish OPS its great value. Not saying Abreu can't or won't be a good player, but .850 OPS in his 1st year just seems a little unrealistic to me. He has an opt-out after 3 years and he's got a $10 million signing bonus this year which is paid right now in addition to that $7 million. If he's not putting up .850+ OPS numbers next year that's a disappointment. If he need a "rookie year" or two to adapt, then all of a sudden he's opting out of his contract and the Sox have gotten very little production from him.

QUOTE (raBBit @ Nov 29, 2013 -> 03:41 PM) Floyd's contract was 4/15.5 and he signed it just prior to the 2009 season. If Quintana signed something like 4/25 or 5/31 I'd be pretty happy in this market. Quintana has only 1 full year of MLB service time, he has 2 more years pre-arbitration. It makes little sense to sign a deal that doesn't buy out one of those post-arb years so with options you'd be talking about 7+ years. I'd be willing to do so as well, but I don't think the structure works out the way you wrote. At the very least, 4/$25 doesn't make sense as that only covers his first 2 arb years and he's unlikely to make $25 million before then even if he goes to arbitration and wins.

QUOTE (beck72 @ Nov 29, 2013 -> 02:32 PM) Seeing how the sox have real other options at C, it makes sense (as long as both guys have options left in the minors) to have one be part of a platoon with a lefty, and the other in AAA. Even if the sox added a decent LH bat, keeping both around at low salaries on the bench or in the minors is decent insurance. Flowers is out of options.

QUOTE (TheFutureIsNear @ Nov 29, 2013 -> 09:19 PM) Anybody who is expecting Abreu to match a .857 OPS or Garcia to maintain close to a .850 OPS needs to take off the rose colored glasses. If we're not expecting an .857 or better OPS from Abreu next year then that contract looks really, really dumb.

QUOTE (Knuckles @ Nov 29, 2013 -> 11:17 AM) Not only that, he is probably willing to take a hometown discount. 3/$30 would be a hometown discount for him. At the start of the offseason if have guessed 3/$40 for him, which I'd guess would push a fair deal for him even higher in this market.

QUOTE (Tex @ Nov 29, 2013 -> 09:09 AM) Nice to be Japan. You get to play chicken with American lives. Because when I think of countries that never use their military irresponsibly and come close to putting allies in jeopardy...it's the United States.

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Nov 29, 2013 -> 09:28 AM) Couldnt disagree more. I hope some other team signs him and saves the Sox from it If his price is only 3/$30 that suggests to me teams have way over corrected in keeping their draft picks, because that'd be far under what he ought to make based on what other guys are getting, 3/$45 or higher seems much more comparable in this market. I might well consider that, the 2nd round pick isn't likely to be worh as much as Granderson on a contract that really underpays him.

QUOTE (Tex @ Nov 28, 2013 -> 07:39 PM) If Japan and China start shooting each other are we obligated to fight China? Assuming Japan doesn't blatantly start it, the US and Japan have a mutual defense agreement and so an attack on Japan is an attack on us. secretary Havel made it clear that they would judge a Chinese attempt to take these islands by force as an attack on us a few days ago.

QUOTE (scs787 @ Nov 28, 2013 -> 01:08 AM) Would you guys do Waiters, Earl Clark, and Tyler Zeller for Deng? It's over 9M so it would work. Clark's contract next year is non guaranteed next year, then you have a potential starting 2 guard and a backup C for the next 4 years. Worth pointing out that the Bulls would save a few million on luxury tax with that deal, but it would cut a substantail amount from the Bulls available cap space next offseason.

QUOTE (DrunkBomber @ Nov 28, 2013 -> 01:24 PM) Lions look like s*** right now. And the Lions have the lead.

There's a comet about to fly through the f***ing sun.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Nov 27, 2013 -> 05:25 PM) Unless the Cavs are under the cap, it doesn't work. Presumably the Cavs would be willing to throw in additional players/contracts that they have in order to make that work if it's been mentioned.

If anyone wants to see a comet creeping up on the Sun (it whips around at 1:28 EST tomorrow), here you go.

QUOTE (Jake @ Nov 27, 2013 -> 02:18 PM) FWIW, Melky was always s***ty until that season. Peralta has had a smattering of decent seasons before last year, so if they think he only used last season then they might think that it at least isn't an impossibility that he has had good offensive seasons drug-free before. Of course, the obvious comeback is that it's impossible to know that he didn't use previously. In fact, you could really make a good case that he juiced in 2008, maybe lost his supplier, struggled for a couple years, had a contract up after 2011 so he juiced for that season to get an extension after finding Biogenesis, had a down season in 2012 when they went down in flames...and then finally had a good 2013.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Nov 26, 2013 -> 08:46 PM) Nah,I checked it out after seeing something,I think by Ezra Klein, that it looks like it really will be functional by the end of the month. Should have been functional the first week, but hopefully others who actually need to use it have as much success. Apparently now is actually a really bad time to be saying this, FWIW, because from people's experience with Medicare open enrollment there's a "Cyber Monday" for that as well - the first Monday after Thanksgiving regularly hammers those sites and is by far their biggest enrollment day of the year, so the PPACA website might have some real trouble handling the rush on Monday even if they're up to being able to process 100k users at a time like they say they are.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Nov 27, 2013 -> 09:22 AM) On top of that, he was hurt - he had a knee/leg injury and had a benign tumor removed from his lower back in September of last season. Reading this i couldn't help but be reminded of how naive I was in, what was it, 2004, when Giambi had a major issue liek that, a thyroid or something like that, and I thought it was because of the fact they had to play their opening game overseas and he came back sick and spent the whole season collecting a huge paycheck while hurt.

QUOTE (Reddy @ Nov 26, 2013 -> 09:28 PM) oh i completely agree that it was pathetically introduced. the thing was delayed a year for god's sake and they still couldn't iron it out? Wait, huh? How was this "Delayed for a year"?

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Nov 26, 2013 -> 10:38 PM) He already served his unpaid suspension according to the rules, if the owners still think he can hit, why shouldn't he get paid? The "boy, Melky Cabrera looks like he could be a great value signing if he can hit like he did before his suspension" theory didn't work out very well because that great hitting season was steroid-powered.

QUOTE (ZoomSlowik @ Nov 26, 2013 -> 10:27 PM) Eh. No one is trading for Rose right now, and it would take some pretty significant pick value to trade Noah for an expiring. Gibson maybe, though I doubt they do it. I'd very much consider trading Noah for an expiring contract and a first rounder at this point. Maybe it'd take 2 first rounders but that's a move they should absolutely consider. With his health history, age, and contract, he only makes sense to the Bulls if they're looking at a loaded team next year, which right now no longer looks to be the case. But...you put him on a team that needs defense and rebounding and that's a major upgrade.

QUOTE (ZoomSlowik @ Nov 26, 2013 -> 09:42 PM) The only way they can get significantly over $10 mil is if they traded Rose, Noah or Gibson for an expiring deal. Which suddenly sounds like a fairly good idea if it can be done.

QUOTE (Y2HH @ Nov 26, 2013 -> 06:45 PM) In order to critically injure the US, China would have to deliver a near suicide blow to itself. And visa-versa. It's a no win situation. So while they can, they have nothing to gain by doing so, and neither do we. The us wouldn't have to critically injure itself in this sense. It could just push harder on the inflation button. The country has survived that before.

"That's exactly what our roster is missing, left handed pitching!" Seriously, not a bad idea with Coops history. Maybe a late offseason signing if he lasts a while.

When George Zimmerman was arrested this time, he was carrying 5 guns, including 3 handguns, the shotgun he is alleged to have pointed at his girlfriend, an AR-15 model, and 100 rounds of ammunition.

QUOTE (Soxbadger @ Nov 26, 2013 -> 06:14 PM) what do you think the result will be if the US can no longer borrow money from China. A dramatic rise in the value of the Chinese currency relative to the U.S. dollar, which suddenly completely destroys China's export market and their industrial base, wrecking their economy and rapidly causing their government to fall. China holds less than 10% of the U.S. debt. They hold 1/2 as much as the Social Security accounts do. They do so in order to keep the value of their currency from rising, which effectively is a huge jobs program for them. It's not to gain political influence here; in fact the U.S. would really like them to stop doing this. If they were to sell them all simultaneously yes it would create something of a crisis, but not because they were selling US treasuries, because they'd be trying to sell so much - same thing as if, I dunno, 50% of the shares of publicly owned companies in the world were put up for sale simultaneously within a millisecond, the market wouldn't have the resources to adapt to it and that would cause a short crisis.