Balta1701

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Feb 12, 2012 -> 02:40 PM) You'd rather win an IL title. Weird. No, I wouldn't, but the end result of that is people like you calling for KW's firing because he's taking a down year or two at the big league to develop talent at that level and leaving the system bare.

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Feb 12, 2012 -> 02:19 PM) Chairman Reinsdorf got rid of Jerry Krause when everyone said there is no way he'd do it. If this team is as bad as it was last year, Williams will be gone. The fan base is restless enough with this outfit. Nope.

QUOTE (GreatScott82 @ Feb 12, 2012 -> 02:21 PM) I think the farm will be much better this year as well. They have definitley made moves to improve the pitching depth.. . we still have a far way to go but i dont think we will be on the rock bottom for much longer. Of course, if recent history is any guide, the "improvements" on the farm will be on the big league roster by sometime in 2013.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Feb 12, 2012 -> 09:56 AM) Who is saying the Sox are ready for contention? I sure haven't seen it. Yeah, Marty's trying to find a way to argue that KW's job is on the line this season, which pretty much requires he argue that the team will be in contention. And Molina and Stewart belong no where near a team 5 games out of the divison.

Yankees trying to send AJ Burnett to the Pirates

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Feb 11, 2012 -> 10:25 PM) Williams said at Soxfest he expects Molina to be with the team sometime in 2012. Remember, Buehrle at the end of a season pitches more like a #4 then a #2-#3. Whatever KW says...he might get a callup, but neither of those guys are ready to play a role in a team even remotely close to contention. IF they're up and playing any sort of role, then that means the team isn't contending, they're retooling.

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Feb 11, 2012 -> 09:08 PM) Danks and Peavy will suck up some of 80 of those innings. The rest will come from a combination of Stewart and Molina. And without any doubt, I can say that those 2 are no where close to ready for the bigs right now.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Feb 11, 2012 -> 08:31 PM) No one has said at this point. Also no one has said she hasn't.

QUOTE (zenryan @ Feb 11, 2012 -> 08:29 PM) the Grammy's are going to be unbearable tomorrow night. Good thing I wont be watching. I'd hate to be one of the writers for that program tonight.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Feb 11, 2012 -> 08:27 PM) But the difference is Sale has a real chance to be special, an All-Star pitcher, and make a huge impact like Floyd and Danks did in 2008. For Sale, this is much more likely to be comparable to Danks's 2007. He hasn't built up innings or had to really rely on or develop his 3rd pitch yet.

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Feb 11, 2012 -> 08:16 PM) The bullpen is weaker overall, but the 7th-9th innings I don't think will see a huge dropoff. They do have some right-handed relief depth that I think will allow them to patch together an effective pen. But without Mark!, the bullpen is going to have to be relied on a whole lot more.

rMoney has won the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) straw poll. The last 2 years it has been won by Ron Paul.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Feb 9, 2012 -> 03:57 PM) No, she's 100% aware that this money will be paid by the banks. Her contention is that it's going to be structured in a way that amounts to them unloading some bad debt and impacting people who have invested in those mortgages primarily instead of actually effecting BoA etc. Just read a report which suggested that the loan writedowns resulting from this deal would be eligible for the HAMP program, according to administration statements. If that's true, then writedowns from these settlements would be paid back largely by the federal government.

QUOTE (JoeCoolMan24 @ Feb 11, 2012 -> 04:14 PM) Not anymore. Peavy, when he is healthy, is still pretty damn good, and better than anyone on our staff. Depends though...Jake Peavy might be a 90-91 mph fastball thrower now even when he is healthy. He may just no longer have the stuff he used to have.

QUOTE (Tex @ Feb 11, 2012 -> 03:59 PM) Yes, out of scale in both the defense and the attacks.

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Feb 11, 2012 -> 03:53 PM) Pierre gone too. Replaced by Deaza, Viciedo, and Reed. Pierre was worthless last year, so losing him doesn't cost us anything. De Aza does have a bit of improved upside from Pierre, but that's about the only spot in the lineup you can look at and say "This spot is almost guaranteed to improve from last year".

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Feb 11, 2012 -> 03:37 PM) How do you drop 8 wins off the list to start? Buehrle, Santos, Quentin gone, Sale to the rotation.

Last year, if everything went right, the Sox could have won 100+ games, but they should have had a margin of error for guys like Morel to struggle, leaving them in a position to win the division at 90+ wins. Drop 8 wins off that list. If everything goes right for the Sox, they're now in a position to be a 90-95 win team. If anyone struggles, if Rios or Dunn doesn't play at an all star level, if Konerko gets a little older, or Sale tires out after 90 innings, then the team misses the playoffs. There is no margin for error.

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Feb 11, 2012 -> 03:24 PM) Then the optimism going into last year was misplaced. Can you not add?

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Feb 11, 2012 -> 02:59 PM) Yeah, but their spots & roles on the team are being directly filled by Sale, Reed(or Thornton I guess), & Viciedo. One would hope that those 3 combined would produce positive WAR, so that's the number you should compare to the 8 WAR those three put up lat year. Now if you want to go into it, Sale already put up 1.5 WAR last year and Viciedo 0.5, so they're already starting at having to make up those 2. If everyone steps up, those 2 can make up for the losses, but then we're just at the 78 wins we were at last year, and still uncompetitive. Then we need Dunn, Rios, Beckham, and Morel to step up, and no one else to step backwards.

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Feb 11, 2012 -> 02:59 PM) Viciedo and Sale are the standouts of the young players and exactly who you want to replace Quentin and Buehrle. It's likely that it was part of the plan before last year. But, especially after viciedo got hurt last year and Sale pitched out of the bullpen, you can't expect anywhere near the performance that you got out of the veterans last year. If you get that, great, but that's your entire margin of error otherwise.

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Feb 11, 2012 -> 02:47 PM) How were they better off in February of 2011 as opposed to February of '12 though? They cut what $30M+ off the payroll and didn't create any real hole on the roster. Except the fill-in guys now are all rookies/inexperienced guys, and therefore are pretty big risks...and the bullpen and bench right now are actually holes.

QUOTE (DirtySox @ Feb 11, 2012 -> 02:41 PM) The likelihood that all of these things happen in tandem are remote. The Sox will be lucky to finish above .500 this season. Last year, with Dunn added in, we should have had enough of a margin for 1 or 2 guys to have below-projection seasons. We had room for Morel to struggle and someone else to have a down year. Instead, we had liek 15-20 guys have below projection seasons. This year, we have basically no margin of error for anyone to struggle if we are going to compete for the division. This includes guys like Konerko and AJ, who are both up there in age and should be expected to perform below last year's level.

Don't have a good thread to put this one in. Jesus. Anonymous took down the CIA's web page. Either Ballsy or crazy.

Here's the full poll.