Balta1701

No one has ever lost 4 games in a single postseason. CJ Wilson has lost 3 and is on the mound tonight.

QUOTE (kapkomet @ Oct 24, 2011 -> 06:57 PM) Okay. Whatever. What would we ever do without your business saavy and corporate executive skills? Not go through the 2008 collapse. But hey, continue pretending wall street has shown effective management.

How can releasing him because of his poor health be based on a lie when the guy is in a coma?

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Oct 24, 2011 -> 07:02 PM) Simple, Ricketts/Epstein get their new ballpark/luxury suites, etc., and they'll be able to expand their payroll by at least $25 million, if not $50, per year. That's a long ways off, and in the current "anti-tax/anti-government" period we're in now, would be very difficult to pull off. But, as everyone who follows politics knows, Emmanuel's a big Cubs' fans and he'll choose the most opportune time to strike. The Cubs cannot get a new ballpark. They could build the worlds nicest ballpark and they'd lose 1/3 of their regular ticket buyers. Maybe more. That's the quickest possible way for them to turn into the White Sox; lose their biggest asset.

Come on Caulfield...he needs to maintain relationships with the other 29 gms...the whole "trade" thing.

Phillies decline options on Oswalt, Lidge. No idea what will happen to the bullpen next year, but I'd take Lidge on a near-league-minimum "Coop will fix him" deal if he's healthy enough to pitch in Feb.

Netflix only wound up losing about 800,000 subscribers so far from their debacles and price increase...still have over 23 million.

QUOTE (lostfan @ Oct 24, 2011 -> 06:27 PM) Hey when can we all start calling Suh a dirty player? Is it enough blatant late hits and facemask twisting and not-even-close-to-legal s*** yet? James Harrison doesn't have s*** on Suh, seriously. I think it's already happened. A lot.

A significant number of the people who signed up for the HAMP program weren't in danger of foreclosure until they entered the program either. Just be real careful on this one...there's no reason to trust the administration to set this program up well right now. Don't rush into it.

Hate to have to say this...but be patient and see how the program develops before you put in the call. The last time the administration tried to do something on Housing it was the HAMP program which did nothing but find a way to shuffle hundreds of thousands of people into foreclosure...and I'd never have guessed that from when the program was announced.

QUOTE (Leonard Zelig @ Oct 24, 2011 -> 06:05 PM) Well, I think their payroll this year was around $125M. With this World Series run, they may be willing to add to that next season. I believe Lohse, Berkman, and Westbrook are free agents after 2012. Their Payroll for the year was $125 million if you count the full salary of the expensive guys they traded for (Jackson, Furcal) - which the baseball reference calculator does. They only had most of those guys for a couple months, so they didn't pay their full salaries. Their opening day payroll was $105 million, and they probably added less than $10 million to it through their trades. Jackson they probably paid $3 million, Furcal about $4 million (2 months of each guy). They may very well also have received insurance dollars for Wainright; impossible to guess on that one. Their total payroll this year is still less than $115 million, and they're starting at >$100 million next year without Pujols.

Link

QUOTE (Leonard Zelig @ Oct 24, 2011 -> 05:13 PM) If they don't sign Pujols, they should have a nice chunk of money to spend on SS, 2B, and/or 1B/RF. Without Pujols, they're at $90 million for 9 players if they pick up the options on Furcal ($12), Wainright ($9), Molina ($7) and Dotel ($3.5). If they add in pre-arb players and offer arbitration to the guys they do have, then they're already in the $110-$115 million range. Letting Furcal go helps get them down to $100 mil, but then they need a SS. They've got a lot of money committed already, and replacing Pujols's production would be incredibly difficult even if they had a lot of room to maneuver.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Oct 24, 2011 -> 05:04 PM) Anyone else having a problem where you go to Facebook, and it just says "Forbidden 403"? Got it in multiple browsers. Weird. Not me.

QUOTE (fathom @ Oct 24, 2011 -> 04:58 PM) Cardinals aren't going to be rebuilding with that pitching staff locked up and Holliday/Berkman/Molina/Freese all returning. If they don't get Fielder, they'll spend that money on a few pieces like Cuddyer and Furcal, etc. Be honest man...subtract that monster...and is there any combination of players/pitchers they could reasonably get, even you assume Wainright comes back immediately at 100% of where he was...that would make you think "This team should own the NL Central next year"?

QUOTE (fathom @ Oct 24, 2011 -> 04:41 PM) Only teams I see Pujols leaving Cardinals for are Yankees, Red Sox or Cubs. No way could I picture him going to a small market team. The one thing I will say here is that teams like the Tigers and Nats have set the precedent here...throwing a ton of money out of the blue at someone to establish credibility or whatever else it is they're looking for with their fans.

QUOTE (Milkman delivers @ Oct 24, 2011 -> 04:47 PM) I really don't see him going to the Cubs. Besides their budget constraints, I don't believe he'd go to the most hated rival of his team. It sounds cheesy, but I seriously don't think he'd do it. He'll just end up re-signing with the Cardinals after they win the World Series. The Cardinals simply won't be signing Mark unless he's close to the league minimum. Either they're blowing $28 million a year on keeping a fairly good 1b or they're rebuilding.

QUOTE (fathom @ Oct 24, 2011 -> 03:35 PM) Amazing stat about unearned runs...thanks! You want to be amazed more? The White Sox gave up 41 unearned runs last year, 2nd fewest in the AL and 4th fewest in the MLB. Matt Thornton, a reliever, gave up 29% of the White Sox unearned runs.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Oct 24, 2011 -> 02:54 PM) Didn't Thornton have a fairly s***ty season by his standards? He had his highest ERA since 2007. His ERA was also still 3.32 in his worst season since 2007. He was really killed by defense though. In his entire career before this year he'd been credited with 1 unearned run. Last year...12.

Rick Perry and Ron Paul will soon be the first candidates on the air with TV ads in Iowa.

QUOTE (sunofgold @ Oct 24, 2011 -> 01:53 PM) You mean 82-80 would be enough? Aim higher. Just kidding....but I want a 100-62 winning record. OR you say a winning team on the field. ...guess you want us to only schedule games against teams like the Rangers and Yankees. lol! I do not consider an 82-80 record to be a winning team, no. I consider that an "over .500 team", not one competing for the playoffs. More seriously though...no one cares what the White Sox fans want. They will turn out in droves if you have a shot at the division and especially if you compete multiple years in a row and make a playoff run. They will not show up when you put a mediocre, .500-ish team on the field or worse multilple years in a row. No signing will make a difference, no "making the place more fan friendly", nothing. Win and that stadium will fill up, lose and you'll get 18k a game to see a fun ballpark experience.

That's why you keep me around.

Discovery's " "?

QUOTE (sunofgold @ Oct 24, 2011 -> 01:43 PM) I am focusing on 2012 White Sox. I will do anything I can to help this team. Do the White Sox ever run focus groups? I would gladly give my honest opinion. However, I just read the Steve Jobs and Apple didn't believe in focus groups b/c they didn't believe that the consumer knew what they wanted. They believed and may still believe that they create the product(s) that consumer didn't even know that they wanted. lol! They just figure out what people want...without talking to them??? Hey, it has worked well for Apple. but the White Sox aren't Apple. lol! Don't they want to talk with us? And I am not talking about Sox Fest. lol! The White Sox fans want: 1. A winning team on the baseball field.

Somehow, this is the fault of a union.