Balta1701

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Aug 25, 2011 -> 02:04 PM) JR saying no to dumping payroll if JR is saying you have to dump payroll? Kenny sure isn't about to cut it on his own. Owners don't have to be consistent. "Cut payroll but keep Konerko and Buehrle" is an entirely plausible marching order.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Aug 25, 2011 -> 02:05 PM) As an organization, that is totally not true. Am I the only one who remembers the first half of the 2000's when people would say things like "I wouldn't care what happened afterwards, as long as we won a World Series!" If the attitude that they need to compete every year is causing them to take the kind of gambles we've seen bust in the last 2 years...then maybe it's time to clean house of that attitude and bring in people who are willing to waste a year or two if it means good things for the future, because "Winning now" seems to be pushing this team towards the gambler's ruin.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Aug 25, 2011 -> 01:55 PM) It is a different fan base now versus 12 years ago. Yeah. I'm much more content since I can look back at 2005.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Aug 25, 2011 -> 01:54 PM) Thornton is much easier to justify sending out versus Alexei if we are going to be in that dreaded middle ground. I'd rather see Paul Konerko get dealt versus Alexei, just because of contract, age, and ease of replacement. Konerko is a more complicated deal for a number of reasons though. The Chairman might say no to moving a guy who will get a statue in the future. His contract will be harder for many teams to absorb. And he has the dreaded 10/5 rights where he also has to approve where you're sending him.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Aug 25, 2011 -> 01:57 PM) That's exactly what I thought. It's going to be a sickening offseason with Sox fans being asked to believe Peavy and Dunn will magically be great again and Rios will work so hard in the offseason. It's got to happen. There's no way around it.

Oh, and one more important detail...Apple also dominates the profitability of smartphones...absolutely dominates. Which means that if that for some reason their market share became an actual weakness, they have the ability to do increase it through price cuts.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Aug 25, 2011 -> 01:42 PM) The iPhone is popular because of iOS. If it were the same hardware running W7 mobile it would be an entirely different phone. You can't divorce iOS from the iPhone, and that's intentional on the part of Apple. They certainly kicked off the current smartphone interface concepts, but they're not the dominant platform and they're losing ground. I'm not saying Apple hasn't been really innovative, maybe the most innovative in the past decade or so. I'm just laughing a little at the hysteria that we'll never have a new piece of technology again now that Jobs isn't CEO. I'm not sure it's fair to say that they're "losing ground" unless things have changed in the last 8 months or so.

Did the fanbase not accept 1999? Yeah, "The Kids can play" is still a running joke, but I don't think anyone was really that annoyed with it once they slaughtered the Indians and Yankees in that 12 game stretch in 2000.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Aug 25, 2011 -> 01:08 PM) Alexei is one of the top 5 SS's in baseball right now, and any deal for him should reflect that. Otherwise it should be laughed out of existence. The one issue that is worth bringing up again is that if the Sox have to make a major budget cut, down to say $90-million-ish, then Alexei and Thornton will be really hard to hold onto, and you might have to take the "Best offer possible".

Yeah, clearly everything would be better if you stopped answering questions from the press! Then we could be pissed at how arrogant you are for thinking you don't need to talk to the media too!

To be fair, don't a lot of us call him the Chairman? I do.

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Aug 25, 2011 -> 01:31 PM) I don't know. IF the Sox think they could keep Kubel next year, this might be a nice move to try and help pick him up. Plus, it would give the Sox the ability to offer him arbitration if they'd like. Kubel would look nice in the lineup next year and would probably see a bounce back in his power numbers moving away from Target field. if the Twins were giving him away for nothing, sure why not. If the Twins were asking for something legitimate in return, there's no reason to do that sort of deal, you get a draft pick back but that's it. If the Sox had plenty of money to spend, Kubel would fit in as an OK DH option next year. Unfortunately, I think the Sox have spent their DH funds for the near future.

Well, at least Merkin's reaching the "Wait til next year" point.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Aug 25, 2011 -> 12:35 PM) They've all been rushed-out garbage beta products pretty much, though. I know the Android software wasn't there at the start, but at this point it's fair to say that most of the other tablets are at least competitive with the iPad 1.

QUOTE (Leonard Zelig @ Aug 25, 2011 -> 12:01 PM) The other day you said that Alexei wasn't cheap, but he is making less than Thornton next year. There's a whole lot more total money on Alexei's deal. Neither of these guys are cheap. But neither of them should be moved without a solid return for them.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Aug 25, 2011 -> 12:12 PM) An unproven rookie who has never pitched in the big leagues is promoted over Frasor and Crain already? One thing Ozzie does show is some flexibility in who he employs in the bullpen. Thornton didn't last long in the closer's role. Sale caught his groove and suddenly became one of Ozzie's favorite toys. Santos was pitching well and took a couple weeks before he was closing. He does crazy things like insisting that will ohman can get righties out. But if a guy is coming in and killing, he'll be an 8th inning guy pretty quick.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Aug 25, 2011 -> 12:32 PM) Right, I wonder if the market was generated because OMG Apple released a tablet! so everyone rushed out to drop $600 on one. The fact that none of the imitators have managed to even come remotely close to gaining a foothold says something. There's no non-iPad tablet that people are flocking to, or raving about. Hell, a lot fo them aren't even making money. HP introduced theirs and 2 months later left the consumer products business.

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Aug 25, 2011 -> 11:37 AM) Ha. Recently for the Sox that definitely has been true. I would say the Indians/Sox lists could be comparable if I had reason to believe the Sox players could reach or exceed their full potential. Recent history bodes me to believe otherwise. So why is the logical conclusion that the Indians prospects will reach or exceed their full potential? Or even will do so at a rate greater than the rate of the White Sox?

Can't blame us. It would die rapidly if the Sox made it to 1st place and we had something to talk about.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Aug 25, 2011 -> 11:39 AM) Apple/Jobs have definitely been influential. As you say, they set the interface standard for MP3 players and now tablets and arguably for smartphones (though Android controls the market now). But the way some people are reacting, like this guy on ABC earlier today, is that basically no other company is capable of innovation, Jobs s***s golden ideas and we’re all doomed to a technological stand-still. It’s like they’re not aware that Google exists or something. With the iPad, I still wonder how much of that is driven by the “OMG!! Apple product!!!” hysteria. Right now the iPad controls over 90% of the total tablet market. It is no exaggeration to say that if the iPad didn't exist, there wouldn't be a tablet market.

I see Buffett has bet a large sum on Bank of America getting another bailout.

Zut alors.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Aug 25, 2011 -> 01:00 AM) JR will never live down letting Hahn go if he won a World Series for the Cubs. Really, I don't know why anyone would care about this stuff. Hawk Harrelson fired Tony LaRussa and that hasn't gotten him blackballed from the organization. You get the occasional joke about it and that's it.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Aug 25, 2011 -> 07:22 AM) Latest update, looks like Quentin will miss entire Seattle series too....yet, in their all-knowing competence, the White Sox never DL'ed him in order to bring up Viciedo because "Ozzie already has 5 DH's." Well, then we can just put Quentin on the DL and pick up Thome from the Twins. That solves that roster spot issue. Thome can play RF.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Aug 25, 2011 -> 08:51 AM) Despite all evidence to the contrary on Rios, Ozzie seems wedded to him as the CFer. Like it or not...because of the economics of baseball, you have to be.