Balta1701

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Apr 20, 2011 -> 11:33 AM) More than the money is the years. that is the part that blew me away. He'd have gotten that easily from the Yankees and you know it.

QUOTE (PlaySumFnJurny @ Apr 20, 2011 -> 10:33 AM) The Bears schedule looks brutal. Atlanta, at NO, and GB to open the season, and at GB, at Minn to close it. At least they won't be playing the first couple games...

I blame this on Greg Walker.

QUOTE (fathom @ Apr 20, 2011 -> 10:27 AM) I didn't know they were all in this season and telling their fans that they need them to show up in order to support the record organizational payroll. I think they're more on the "they need to show up in order to support the existence of the franchise" level.

QUOTE (fathom @ Apr 20, 2011 -> 11:28 AM) Obviously not, but it goes to show you that if you have a "dream season", which I believe they did after all their ridiculous comebacks, you better capitalize in the postseason and go far. Also, I thought it was foolish of them to go into this year with basically the same exact team they had last year. Especially with how young that team is, I don't think that's foolish at all. They have the luxury of playing for time and pretty much expecting to get better, not worse. And even if they struggle this year, with Wainright out, the NL Central is totally winnable for them.

C'mon Phil...um, uh, make the Rays see their shadows? I got nothin.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Apr 20, 2011 -> 09:14 AM) And we'd go through the exact same process again, only worse. Honestly that is the scenario we are looking at with any of the "OMG SHUT HIM DOWN" posts. It's also worth noting that if there is any structural damage...it's not going to heal if you "Shut him down" for another year. The only way that would heal is surgery.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Apr 20, 2011 -> 08:42 AM) Bullpens can be pretty volatile and it's no uncommon for a guy to fall off a cliff one year to the next. That said, I did overstate my case there. I think they'll be better than their terrible start so far, but I've no reason to expect them to be good or even above average. But when a guy has been stable for 5 years, like Matty, or Ohman, there's every reason to conclude that this is a weird blip. I posted a stat last year where typically Matt Thornton retired somewhere around 77% of the batters that he got 2 strikes on, and this year, he's down around 50%. That's the kind of thing that will work itself out.

QUOTE (fathom @ Apr 20, 2011 -> 06:58 AM) Reds pitchers already look gassed as compared to last season. That was quite predictable. If you were a Reds fan, would you have traded last season's Central win for the possibility of better pitching this year?

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Apr 20, 2011 -> 08:26 AM) I've no confidence in this bullpen and no reason to expect them to get better all of a sudden. Really? Outside of Crain, who in this bullpen is not underperforming where they should be? Sale had a couple bad outings but is looking a little better, Thornton's clearly underperforming, Ohman is well below his career points, even Pena is worse than usual.

QUOTE (nitetrain8601 @ Apr 19, 2011 -> 07:38 PM) I'd choose Los Angeles or the Tri-State area first if I had to go to a city that already had a team. If it's any city including ones that don't have a team, it depends on the sport. If it's basketball, I would put one in Louisville and profit like OKC. Los Angeles needs an NFL team playing in a legit stadium. The NFL needs to be there.

QUOTE (DBAHO @ Apr 20, 2011 -> 04:55 AM) Michael Wilbon's an idiot. I remember when he called for SVG to be fired during the playoffs last season (when we made the ECF); Sad thing is, he might well be right, the Pacers are throwing the kitchen sink at the Bulls right now, and Derrick Rose is just saying "no". It's worth asking whether the rest of the Bulls are playing bad because they're tired/playing bad or because Indiana's playing some solid defense. I lean towards the latter, Indiana's playing a tough, hard-nosed series, but there might well be some battered Bulls in there. It would really help the Bulls to polish this off in 4 and give Noah a full week to rest.

QUOTE (kapkomet @ Apr 19, 2011 -> 10:04 PM) I seem to remember an EMP capable bombing raid - which is the first thing you do when you go into somewhere. If you detonate a nuclear weapon in the upper atmosphere you get an EMP. At present however, there is no proven technique for generating one without the nuclear blast. Not to say that I have any classified info in there, there could be a technique of doing so that has been kept classified.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Apr 19, 2011 -> 10:32 PM) Or steal. I heard Juan Pierre was good at that. Yeah.

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Apr 20, 2011 -> 07:59 AM) Pretty sad when this thread has become an annual one. Yeah, I mean, we haven't come up with a better idea for a thread title since this thread showed up in 2005 when that season fell apart. Our lack of creativity is astounding.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Apr 20, 2011 -> 12:33 AM) From Sun Times story. My god, he takes anti inflamm medicine for six days and maybe starts throwing Friday. How can that be good news? I'm not stressing cause I'm not counting on him pitching more than a start or two this season. I'd just shut him down frankly until next year, unless all of this discomfort, etc., is totally "normal." ptatc? any opinion? shut him down for the year? There is absolutely no reason to even consider that shutting him down for the full year would be good for anything. Unless there is actual underlying damage in his arm which would necessitate another surgery, then shutting him down would just give the muscles in his arm time to atrophy more.

QUOTE (Knackattack @ Apr 19, 2011 -> 06:50 PM) Yeah, I don't quite get putting him there.. 4 or 5 hitter for sure, he is here to slug, not be our best hitter. He's in the 3 hole because of that .380 career OBP.

QUOTE (MuckFinnesota @ Apr 19, 2011 -> 06:48 PM) How are the Sox prices compared to the Cubs prices though? The Cubs have the highest average ticket price in baseball. The White Sox have the 4th highest ticket price in baseball. At least based on 2010 numbers that is.

QUOTE (MuckFinnesota @ Apr 19, 2011 -> 06:43 PM) Also...why should the Sox offer discount codes when the Cubs suck for a vast majority of that 81 games and still charge full price? $5 tickets? How about no? Buy the standing room only and watch the game if you can't afford it. The ticket prices charged by the Cubs should only be a very tangential consideration for the White Sox, in the sense that the 2 teams are partially competing for the same casual fans and pricepoint might matter for them. The Sox shouldn't set prices based on the Cubs unless the Sox are trying to undercut the Cubs's price point. Otherwise, the Sox's business model should be set such that the Sox are trying to maximize revenue...which doesn't always mean a packed stadium.

Here's a question for y'all. If this season is "Ova" before the trade deadline, it's highly unlikely that the Chairman will change GMs before the "Firesale' happens. Are you content with KW being the guy whose job is to dismantle this team for whatever he can get mid-season?

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Apr 19, 2011 -> 06:06 PM) Outside of the Yankees, Red Sox and Angels, no team has had that kind of run this decade. Whatever you say about the Twins beating us, they've never been seriously considered to be capable of winning it all or the best team in the game. You can say some of that about the Twins though. Last year they looked like a legit threat until meeting the Yankees, and on top of that they'd lost Morneau and Nathan. In 2006 they had a shot at blazing through on the arms of 2 of the best LHP in baseball but lost Liriano for years due to his elbow.

I first read this and thought it was cool...then thought "Hey wait, haven't they done nothing other than build a batting cage ball tosser and give it wheels?"

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Apr 19, 2011 -> 05:42 PM) Or you hire the Twins', Rays', Rangers' or A's entire front office and pray for post-season success!!! If we did have Beane or Ryan/Smith and this team started appearing in playoffs like the Braves or Indians but almost always coming up short, I wonder if the b****ing/moaning/whining/griping would be any worse? I think a lot of Twins' fans might trade the last decade for our World Series, that's for sure. Fortunately for them, they still have memories of 87 and 91, at least a large amount of the fanbase. It's worth noting that out of that list...one of those teams went bankrupt, one of those teams had to give their GM part ownership of the team and yet hasn't been back to the playoffs since 2006, one of them spent so long at the bottom of the league that they might as well call it the "Tampa Bay Memorial #1 pick", and the final is the Twins, which are on that list because of 2 hits; Joe Mauer and Johan Santana.

QUOTE (Milkman delivers @ Apr 19, 2011 -> 05:35 PM) WOWIE! I can't wait to use that defense the next time someone mentions that the Sox have only been in the playoffs twice in ten years in a division in which they've had the highest payroll twice since 2001 and been in the top two every single year since that point. Or when it's mentioned that we've had 1 title in over 90 years, at least we average 85 wins when we should really only be at 81. I much prefer to be slightly better than mediocre than to be the very definition of it! Here's the problem though...if only 5/30 teams do a better job of extracting wins from a fixed amount of dollars, then what are the odds that if you fire everyone you're going to do a better job? It's 16.7%. It's much, much more likely that you fire everyone and get worse. Then you do the same thing again.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Apr 19, 2011 -> 05:33 PM) Don't you mean based on their attendance, and not payroll? No, based on payroll. The Sox's attendance is in the lower part of the league but they have some of the higher ticket prices in the league.