Balta1701

Start him at AAA and continue changing positions with him. He has had 1 season of AA ball and above. Let him hit his way into the big leagues. Play him around and wait for a position to open up. Either the right trade will come along or one of the 3 positions will open up because of guys at the big league level struggling.

QUOTE (maggsmaggs @ Nov 16, 2013 -> 09:12 AM) I think we just need to get used to having a lower payroll. When KW was GM, he would put almost all available money into the MLB roster at the expense of draft spending and international spending. Now with Hahn as GM, who values the farm system much more, we are going to be spending the max allotment each and every year we can on the draft pool and international free agent pool. I expect this approach will reap benefits major for our franchise. A stronger system means that you can have younger, cheaper talent on the roster. Essentially you can have the value of a $100 million payroll for $80 million. Of course, perhaps Kenny's greatest successes were in finding ways to maximize the value of what he put on the major league roster. Whether it was the entire 2005 team or Floyd or Quentin or Ramirez or Thome, he got players who outperformed the amount he was paying for them. Effectively his successful years he got the value of a $150 million payroll for $100 million.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Nov 16, 2013 -> 01:08 AM) The guy struck out way too much. Hahn gets it, though. That's why you're such a huge fan of Jeff Keppinger, I know, since he doesn't strike out that much.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Nov 15, 2013 -> 05:20 PM) Bayh was born rich. Yeah, because "they already are rich enough" is why the highest-income people in this country are happy to accept a tax increase.

JPMorgan Chase decided that they were going to do a Q&A live over twitter. The results are about as good as you'd expect them to be; good enough to have actors begin reading the tweets out loud for youtube videos.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Nov 15, 2013 -> 01:56 PM) I already think Bayh is worthless anyway, so I don't think any worse of him for showing more hypocrisy. I can accept that assessment.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Nov 15, 2013 -> 12:51 PM) What an odd leap to make. Why can't he dislike the polarization in the Senate, but still want to be involved in politics? Just not as a Senator? That's great. Go ahead and do so. There are likely a variety of ways for a person to be involved in politics that don't involve making the polarization you just decried worse by acting as a registered lobbyist.

QUOTE (oldsox @ Nov 15, 2013 -> 08:03 AM) Right now, it looks like Black and Wilkins will both be at Charlotte next year. Should be interesting. Wouldn't be the first time they were on the same roster.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Nov 15, 2013 -> 09:13 AM) DHing Pierzynski, who is an incredily overrated and mediocre hitter, is an incredibly poor idea. People need to stop thinking about AJ. He's gone. Not only that but the White Sox managers have a habit of not being bold enough to use their backup C at the DH spot and risk losing the DH if they have their catcher get hurt.

QUOTE (flavum @ Nov 14, 2013 -> 08:49 PM) According to a Tweet in Italian, Alex Liddi has signed with the White Sox. http://www.baseball-reference.com/minors/p...id=liddi-001ale Who?

QUOTE (greg775 @ Nov 14, 2013 -> 06:00 PM) I'm also sick of him. I get sick of guys who are mediocre at best in a Sox uniform and horrific at worst. Maybe our new hitting coach can help some of these guys, but Dunn is at the top of my list that I'd like to see hit the road. Also Kepp and Beckham. The sad thing is, almost the entire heroic 05 team would be scoffed at by Greg as horrible failures. AJ was DFA'd by the Giants and had to beg Kenny for a job. Politte was a failed closer Toronto let walk. Konerko had tough years in 02 and 03, had people wanting him sent to the minors. Dye was let go as a waste by Oakland, had injury issues for years, and started so poorly this website nicknamed him Dead. Jenks, loser dumped by the Angels while in the minors. Crede, completely failed prospect who had years where he didn't do jack. Garland never lived up to his promise. Iguchi no one wanted after Kaz Matsui failed with the Mets. Podsednik, are you kidding, that bum hit .220 the year beforehand. Jose Contreras, completely washed out with the Yankees. Another failure

QUOTE (Vance Law @ Nov 14, 2013 -> 06:13 PM) Thome + Anderson was better than Rowand + Everett. So the offense was and upgrade over '05. Fangraphs shows Anderson was better than Rowand on defense in '06 as well. The one and only reason the Sox didn't make the playoffs is because the team ERA went up a full run more than '05. It's unfortunate Vazquez pitched as badly as the rest of the Sox that year, but getting a 200 inn. workhorse who strikes guys out was not the wrong idea. (I'll continue to add...you can't prove it with WAR or anything else like that, but regularly putting Mackowiak out in CF the entire year destroyed that defense and was a huge portion of that ERA spike. I'll go to my grave thinking that team makes the playoffs if he never plays CF.)

QUOTE (DukeNukeEm @ Nov 14, 2013 -> 06:17 PM) You and Tex should get a room at the Motel 6. Ha! I get it! You called them homosexuals! That's so hilarious! What a great and innovative and wonderful joke!

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Nov 14, 2013 -> 04:12 PM) Elizabeth Warren just doesn't have enough of a national constituency at this point. According to everyone who knows her she had to be drug kicking and screaming into the Senate run. It seems extremely unlikely she'd have the desire to go through with a national race. I wouldn't blame her one bit if she felt she'd gone as far as she wants to go.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Nov 14, 2013 -> 05:10 PM) Bayh basically quit the Senate because he thought things were too polarized. I doubt things have gotten any better in his eyes. He then became a registered lobbyist, Fox News contributor, joined a private equity firm, and also registered as a lobbyist on behalf of the Chamber of Commerce. So yeah, he really cared about none of that.

QUOTE (bigruss22 @ Nov 14, 2013 -> 02:01 PM) They are just guessing that's the reason, there are no actual stats showing that is the reason they are leaving. It very well could be since it's the hot issue, but it's all a guess without actually taking surveys of those players leaving the program or surveying potential players' parents. But they are definitely noting it's the largest decline seen in the sport's recorded history. That doesn't bode well for the future viability of the sport.

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Nov 14, 2013 -> 01:58 PM) How much is Cobb County picking up? On paper, $302 million of the cost, which will be mostly financed.

QUOTE (DBAHO @ Nov 14, 2013 -> 01:04 AM) So Bulls fans, what are your thoughts on Aaron Afflalo? Would he someone who if acquired, would help put the Bulls onto the same level as Miami and Indiana? FWIW, he's shooting 46% from 3PT range, and is averaging a career high at 19.5 a game. Jacque Vaughn's figured out that he's not a playmaker, but if you surround him with one and just allow him to focus on nailing corner 3's and playing defense, he's pretty handy to say the least (in his current form). His contract is also fairly decent at 7.5M a season for the next 2-3 years as well. I'll answer this when I start seeing this year's bulls team play like they're capable of. Improving the role players doesn't do much if the team can't play at a high level.

Link

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Nov 14, 2013 -> 12:11 PM) And push the Soviets over the cliff in the process. Taken together, that may have been the best thing he did as President. But it is really not a "conservative" method, since he was spending a ton of government money. Furthermore, he also dramatically increased spending on roads and infrastructure, as well as block grants to the states. He did a bunch of things that are often characterized as liberal policies. Going back at least to the 1950's, "Spending a lot more money on the defense department" sure seems like a policy I'd categorize as "conservative". I'm not sure how those things would have grouped in the 1930's.

QUOTE (Tex @ Nov 14, 2013 -> 01:43 PM) What solution would you have prefered? I like the requirement that the insurer explain why the plan is deficient. This plan could cause severe problems because it forces new, below-market rate policies back onto the market rapidly, when rates for next year have already been set based on previous expectations of demand for them, when the computer systems have been set up with the expectation that those plans would be ending. "This will make figuring out the computer systems tougher" seems like a very high-risk policy.

Oh, another fun detail.

QUOTE (Swingandalongonetoleft @ Nov 14, 2013 -> 01:27 PM) Which is a shame, because in my experience, MARTA is probably as pleasant as it gets it when it comes to public transportation systems in a major city. The leadership in Cobb County has been quite clear that they don't want the types of people found in Atlanta coming to their county.

QUOTE (raBBit @ Nov 13, 2013 -> 06:28 PM) **I don't know how spending works from rounds 11-40 pertaining to us drafting and signing Engel. I assume left over money from the RD 1-10 pool was used? Yes, money left over from the top rounds is able to be distributed in the lower rounds. In the lower rounds you get a set amount of money to spend per pick, but you can redistribute money from the top 10 picks if you have any saved.

QUOTE (Stan Bahnsen @ Nov 13, 2013 -> 06:10 PM) Nah, I'm going all in on the Dane. He'll eventually be regarded as the steal of the '13 draft, and the upshot of it will be the gutlessness of other orgs who passed on guys like he and Sale due to wrong-headed mechanics generalizations. I trust that the org doesn't take Tyler in Round 2 if Coop doesn't give his blessing, and I trust Coop. I'm going to hope this is true because then I'll be able to say I was one of the first people to interview our next ace