Balta1701

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Jan 8, 2012 -> 01:42 AM) Epstein has the huge financial advantage to eat contracts like Zambrano's and bring in more big name FA's...plus the possibility of revenues generated from a new/retrofitted stadium, but, all things considered, the balance of moves should end up in KW's favor... Epstein really doesn't have anything resembling the financial advantage he had in Boston. In Boston, it took $100 million worth of bad contracts to really damage the roster, on the North side he can be beaten by $20 million in bad contracts. And "new revenues" are going to be a long time coming at best. The advantage they might have is that they're still going to sell 35k seats even if they win 65 games next year. So they can afford to eat Zambrano's contract, but they can't build upon that by signing a big name replacement or getting someone to give him a big name replacement for free like he could in Boston.

QUOTE (Quinarvy @ Jan 7, 2012 -> 08:37 PM) THANK YOU. Meanwhile, we'd be furious that we gave up on Zambrainless, paid the entire bill, and only got back a guy who might be non-tendered at the end of next season.

Hopefully Thibs puts the bench mob in early enough tonight. We have 3 in a row starting Monday.

QUOTE (NCsoxfan @ Jan 7, 2012 -> 08:07 PM) Who has done a better job this offseason, Cubs or Sox? Hard to compare apples and oranges, but seems like Epstein has gotten some good prospects not to mention Rizzo. If the roles were completely reversed, everyone would be saying what a stellar job Theo had done by keeping Danks around while still stocking up on pitching prospects.

Rose has been passing more often out of the pick and roll this season than last season, leading to better shots and more points for the Bulls.

Of course, this doesn't count hidden, unaccountable SuperPAC spending, but it's a fun graph nonetheless. Money spent per vote in Iowa.

I'm not ruling out the Sox being competitive next year...I just want you guys to realize how far away this team is right now. Right now, with what we've lost, we're starting as like a 72 win team. We need another what, 20 wins before we're going to be a legitimately competitive team? I see that there's lots of room for improvement, you don't have to list the guys, and the only guys who might take a step back are Konerko and Thornton because most everyone simply can't even play worse, but understand this...we could see legit improvement from 10 different guys on this roster and still be a .500 team. Adam Dunn alone can't be the key, we need it up and down the list. We could see Beckham, Dunn, and Morel on the All Star Team somehow and still be an 85 win team.

QUOTE (103 mph screwball @ Jan 7, 2012 -> 04:12 PM) Ozzie and Walker gone make it very possible that several players could have improved seasons under the more stable personality and calming influence of Ventura as manager. I think Dunn could be one of those guys and I believe the Sox will compete. I'm hoping for a few more trades and a few lower key free agent signings, but I already am more optimistic now than I was at the end of the season last year. Even with that though, we've already lost some major contributions from last year's team. Between Buehrle, Quentin, and Santos, that's a full 7.5+ WAR we need to replace just to get back to where we were last year. Yeah, there are guys who can step into some of those roles...but let's be clear...we need an enormous number of improvements and adequate performances from those guys' replacements for the Sox to be able to push being competitive.

QUOTE (oldsox @ Jan 7, 2012 -> 03:04 PM) ....and Kenny gave Koch $6MM. If only it'd have been $12...he could have been stolen to be the Cubs GM.

QUOTE (The Critic @ Jan 7, 2012 -> 03:35 PM) Sounds like they may as well keep Soriano and hope for the best. At least he'll hit his 20 or so homers and drive in around 75 runs. There is a motivation to get this done...Soriano could still be productive as an AL DH, but he's just not $19 million productive. If the Cubs ate enough of his deal to make him an affordable DH option, they ought to be able to realize some salary savings.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Jan 7, 2012 -> 01:05 PM) the first one may be a fair point; I've heard PETA criticized for that before but I'm not at all familiar with it. The second one isn't, at all, because that advocacy could lead to a reduction in global carbon output that's several orders of magnitude less than one person's jetting about. A better example would be Gore's gigantic house. The point that Vice President Gore has made repeatedly is that right now, we have the technology to move beyond fossil fuel energy use and deal with climate change without sacrificing our standard of living...and it is government policy directed in the wrong way that is keeping that from happening. Personal sacrifice is nice, but it's not what he's asked for, he's asked for government policy to be fixed.

QUOTE (The Critic @ Jan 7, 2012 -> 11:31 AM) Not sure how much Roberts has left (I don't pay any attention to the Orioles), but if Theo and Ricketts have proven one thing this offseason, it's that they will eat money now to build for later. To answer your question, in the last 2 years, Roberts has 439 PA's, he has $20 million remaining on his deal, and last year he hit .221 with a .604 OPS. Last time he was healthy was 2009 and he still put up an >.800 OPS, so if he could stay healthy for a year or two he'd be a good gamble for a team that wants to try to make a run next year...but that isn't the Cubs.

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Jan 7, 2012 -> 11:21 AM) Yeah, Russell Westbrook has immense talent, but he wants to take over too often instead of facilitating. If he was on a team that didn't have one "Kevin Durant", no one would care about him taking over.

QUOTE (Lillian @ Jan 7, 2012 -> 07:33 AM) This article from yesterday suggests that he will be back: http://espn.go.com/los-angeles/mlb/story/_...-trade-possible Others said the opposite yesterday.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Jan 7, 2012 -> 07:46 AM) I would trade Rios straight up for Soriano, straight up. I would, in no way, shape, or form, trade Dunn for Soriano. I wouldn't take on an extra $20 million to get rid of Rios.

QUOTE (bigruss22 @ Jan 7, 2012 -> 12:18 AM) Best Buy won't even pricematch Fry's or Frys.com, at least the one near me in the NW burbs. I've bought one thing from them in the past 7 years, and that was a tv stand that was on clearance at the store and actually was a decent price. Tried to buy a digital camera at Fry's in Vegas after mine stopped working. Might have been the worst shopping experience of my life. Couldn't get them to ring up the camera correctly. When they finally rang up my order after about a dozen tries and two managers, they wound up giving me the speakers that the person next to me was ordering (price was disturbingly similar so I didn't notice until they tried to give me the speakers). I then had to cancel the speakers, which took another 30 minutes and 4 managers. That of course set my credit card alarms off, so I had to call and tell them I was actually using the card. I wound up driving to a best buy the next day.

QUOTE (Rowand44 @ Jan 7, 2012 -> 12:59 AM) The Thunder are definitely up there with the Bulls and Heat but I feel as if there is still something missing or wrong with that team and it just might be Russell Westbrook if that makes sense... When does Westbrook become a free agent? Because I totally get what you're saying and I really struggle to see that team holding together/keeping him long term.

"You know how Thibs is, he crazy."

"The Human Blur." I like it.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Jan 6, 2012 -> 07:51 PM) My question is what is the Padres' angle here? They really, really like Cashner? More than that, they must really dislike Rizzo.

QUOTE (kjshoe04 @ Jan 6, 2012 -> 05:48 PM) Shaq would disagree. He raves about Atlanta in his book. I'd assume Shaq has access to facilities and funds that very few people who regularly post here can access.

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Jan 6, 2012 -> 05:36 PM) yeah. hoyer. You gotta give him some credit, it takes some combination of skill and cojones to attempt that hard to destroy San Diego as punishment for what...hiring him in the first place?

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Jan 6, 2012 -> 04:47 PM) Sounds like Atlanta is the Detroit of the Southeast? No, it's quite a nice city. Just not worth another 3.5 hour each way drive for this game when I'm not going to top being there for a clinching game. And I've hit Atlanta up severalt imes this year.

QUOTE (dasox24 @ Jan 6, 2012 -> 04:43 PM) I'm going to the Bulls game tomorrow night. 6th row in the lower deck. I'm pumped. Enjoy. I figured "I've seen Atlanta recently enough".

QUOTE (dasox24 @ Jan 6, 2012 -> 03:51 PM) This... I was at the game last night and the crowd was completely out of it... but when your team is losing to a Heat team without LeBron or Wade, I guess that's to be expected. Atrocious loss last night for the Hawks. The Bulls fans for game 6 last June were at least as loud as the Hawks fans.