Balta1701

My wife told me I needed to take a champagne sip every time Rose did something impressive. Rose stole a ball before she finished the sentence. He missed the layup after blowing past 2 people on a crazy move. The Cavs took the ball up the other way. Rose then stole the ball again. And maneuvered around a couple guys for the basket. I don't have a big enough bottle.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Jan 22, 2011 -> 08:52 PM) I think they'll probably go with Dan Johnson at 1B. I expect something similar to Jack Cust in his numbers, perhaps something like .230/.350/.450. That's who's there right now...but that's a bad version of last year's Carlos Pena if everything goes correctly. I'm sorta surprised they didn't attempt to go after LaRoche. I think your numbers are optimistic. They total an .800 OPS, and he's only topped .800 in 1 season; 2005 with Oakland, and he only got 434 PA's there. He's never finished a 600 PA season, his career OPS is .757, and he hasn't topped 140 PA's since 2007. I think Jhonny Damon will see some time at 1b, honestly. IF they move Damon there for part of the year, they can ease Desmond Jennings in for 1/2 a season.

Olbermann's Facebook page. Supposedly he's got at least 2 years of a contract remaining with NBC/Comcast.

QUOTE (lostfan @ Jan 22, 2011 -> 08:47 PM) Why the hell would you buy an iphone and install Android on it? When there are Android phones of comparable quality to an iphone? Huh?

QUOTE (Rowand44 @ Jan 22, 2011 -> 06:47 PM) Their pitching still sucks though. Gotta admit that they did one hell of a job improving their lineup, but there's no chance they're competing for a playoff spot just yet. I dunno, they "could" be better than we think. Matusz, Arrietta, and Tillman all are up and in have some big league work, Guthrie isn't bad...it's not the Red Sox...but compared to the Yankees...if you drop Captain Cheeseburger, it's not all that different.

QUOTE (Rowand44 @ Jan 22, 2011 -> 06:39 PM) I expect him to absolutely murder the baseball this year. I expect him to get about 200-300 at bats.

QUOTE (Quinarvy @ Jan 22, 2011 -> 06:56 PM) I don't know, with Dayan's arm, if he shows he can be good in RF, I'd leave him there and put Mitchell (if he's ready) in LF. Mitchell is no where close to ready.

To start ST, why not. At this point, there's a few certainties. Pierre will lead off. Morel will start off hitting 9th unless he fails to earn the job. Dunn and Konerko will be in the 3/4 slots. Aside from that...Beckham, Ramirez, Quentin, AJ, Rios...there's not really a terrible option amongst them, but there's not an obvious stellar candidate in there either until one of them proves it. So, name one. If he comes out raking, then he keeps the spot. If he doesn't, then 2 weeks later it's different.

QUOTE (Princess Dye @ Jan 22, 2011 -> 05:34 PM) Doesn't he have a strong arm? Has a cannon. (of course, arm strength is one thing, arm accuracy is another).

QUOTE (Kenny Hates Prospects @ Jan 22, 2011 -> 05:06 PM) ^I'm not sure I could come up with many reasons to doubt the Red Sox (at least on paper) and I hate that team. Boston alone could probably cut their 40-man roster in half, add a few more specs to create 2 25-man rosters, and then run out two separate teams in two separate divisions in baseball and either contend or win in both. Beckett's injury history. Papelbon and Jenks in the bullpen are both iffy right now. They lost Adrian Beltre who gave them a spectacular season last year, and they have to move Youkilis back to 3b to put Gonzalez into their lineup. They lost a lot of production from Victor Martinez, and Saltalamacchia/Varitek is a very weak catching combo. They got about 1 1/2 of a full season out of their 3 starting OF's last year; they added Crawford to that mix, but Ellsbury, Cameron, and Drew don't exactly have spectacular records of health. Lackey and Matsuzaka are at worst worrisome right now. David Ortiz's slow starts and weight issues. They ought to win that division and should do so easily, but this is baseball...one wrong injury combined with a couple players struggling is what killed the Red Sox last year.

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ Jan 22, 2011 -> 05:03 PM) Whoa there. You're A LOT more optimistic than I am. I had been pimping the O's, along with lostfan, pretty hard in '09 and '10. And even then I never expected anything more than a .500 team. You're talking some 30 games or more improvement. They're going to need 3-5 pitchers, starters and bullpen, to really emerge for that to be remotely possible. Just from their lineup, is there any spot where you can't reasonably say that they have the ability to have improved by 2 wins over last year? Mark Reynolds versus the .670 OPS they got from Tejada. Cesar Izturis to JJ Hardy would be 3 wins or more if Hardy stayed healthy the whole year. They were missing Brian Roberts for >1/2 the year last year. From Ty Wiggington to last year's Derek Lee is 2 wins, any better than that is 3+ wins. Nick Markakis was a 6 WAR player a couple years ago and a 2.8 WAR player last year. Adam Jones isn't at his ceiling yet. Matt Weiters could be anywhere. In terms of WAR, you could legitimately be starting with 10+ extra wins with no additional development from Jones, Weiters, or Markakis.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Jan 22, 2011 -> 04:51 PM) Happy Birthday Sheldon, I mean Balta Enjoy your day!

2k5 really ought to like this one. Based on someone else's interpretation of the Wikileaks cables, it sounds like one big reason why the U.S. was willing to look the other way regarding the Swiss government, UBS, and the 20,000 or so U.S. tax cheats being helped by that bank, is that Switzerland agreed to take a few of the non-violent, non-controversial prisoners from Gitmo off of our hands in 2009. So...that's the deal that gets exposed by all these leaks. Yeah.

QUOTE (ZoomSlowik @ Jan 22, 2011 -> 02:42 PM) Bogans and Korver aren't exactly great defenders either, and Brewer is generally considered to be better matching up against 3's. Gordon averaged 24 PPG that series and Salmons averaged 18. Those two had a pretty big impact on the series regardless of what they did in the regular season. Obviously Boozer and Deng make a difference, but it's not the same as Boston just adding Garnett to the group they already had in that series. You really can't draw any conclusions at all from what happened in that series. The Bulls absolutely have to do something about this SG spot before the end of the year, and I think they know that. Between Johnson being totally buried on the bench and having an extra pick from Charlotte, I have to think something happens. It wouldn't be a "Contracting VDN" level mistake if they didn't, but it'd be a pretty obvious one.

QUOTE (ZoomSlowik @ Jan 22, 2011 -> 02:42 PM) You really can't draw any conclusions at all from what happened in that series. Well, you can come up with 1 conclusion. Rondo couldn't guard Rose. Still can't. Rose couldn't guard Rondo. If Rose still can't guard Rondo, the series will go the same way.

QUOTE (Brian @ Jan 22, 2011 -> 02:15 PM) Tyrus was hitting jumpers all over that series, wasn't he? In the first couple games yeah, but then of course he went to the bench as punishment.

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ Jan 22, 2011 -> 03:24 PM) Yeah, runs scored shouldn't be much of a problem. Especially if Wieters, Jones and Markakis live up to their potential. Runs prevented is going to be quite a different story. That rotation is straight ugly outside of Matuz, who I'm a big fan of. Their bullpen could be decent with Gregg, Gonzalez, Simon and Uhera, though. When you look at the AL East this year...it at least tentatively doesn't look as strong as previous years. The Yankees starting rotation is full of holes, their offense is going to get old one of these years (although they do have an incredible bullpen). The Rays bullpen is a gaping hole, they lost their best player, and they're counting on Ramirez and Damon to fill the hole. The Red Sox clearly got an awful lot better, but one can come up with reasons to doubt them if you try. If all their kids came out and hit, that could legitimately be a contender for at least the wild card. If their kids struggle somewhat, then of course they're rebuilding, but that's not a bad starting point.

QUOTE (Chicago White Sox @ Jan 22, 2011 -> 02:29 PM) Oh come on Balta, you're going to fault the White Sox for not playing Viciedo in RF two years ago, when Quentin and Dye were coming off .965 and .885 OPS seasons respectively? At that time, they had what appeared to be a young, superstar type player under team control for four more seasons who they thought they could move to RF eventually. Dye was still under contract for another year and could possibly last more. When it appeared that Dye was done in 2009, they went out and traded for another outfielder signed to a long-term deal in Rios. They also spent their first round pick on a college outfielder, who I'm sure they hoped would be in the major-league mix sooner had he not gotten injured. All things considered, outfield wasn't a huge need for the White Sox at that time. Meanwhile, you've got Thome a free agent after the 2009 season and Konerko after the 2010 season. The team then trades it's only other possible 1B/DH option in Brandon Allen during the 2009 season. You're third baseman to start 2009 is Josh Fields and your best 3B prospect is Brent Morel who's in low A. In fact, 3B was so bad you replace Fields with a rookie SS and then eventually trade for Mark Teahen. Clearly, 1B/DH and 3B were bigger concerns for the organization than the OF was at the time. Had the organization knew it would sign Dunn and Konerko long-term and that Morel would have such a rapid rise to the majors, I'm sure they would have considered playing him in the OF earlier. Unfortunately, there would have been no way to know that and therefore, it's wrong to fault them for how they handled Viciedo. I know, I know, I just hope you're seeing my side a little here. Yeah, hindsight is 20/20, but you have to admit...he might well be starting on the big league team this year if we'd committed to the right position for him 2 years ago and not moved him.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jan 22, 2011 -> 04:24 PM) A lefty who puts up 200 IP every year, and usually has an era under 4? Heck I'd be he could get his same contract again on the open market. Forget two years, I bet someone would offer him four or five years easy. I know not every team does player values the same way, but FWIW, Fangraphs thinks Mark!'s player value has been about $15 million or more every year other than 2006. And I don't think they do defense for pitchers.

For post 60,000....I'd like to say...thanks everyone!

Quit talkin smack about vesiculated rocks.

QUOTE (beck72 @ Jan 22, 2011 -> 01:31 PM) That's on Dayan though-he's played 3b mostly in the minors-some 1b. Yet it's not like he's been ready defensively or offensively enough to stick in the bigs, and the Sox haven't found him a spot. If he can't play major league 3b defense, he doesn't have much value for the sox. But I still think it's early for the kid. If he can be serviceable in the OF, ala Quentin, he could still stick with the Sox. I know it's still early and he still has development time...but compare this reality to the hypothetical situation where we put him in RF immediately upon getting to AA. Instead of 2 years of bouncing between 1b and 3b, he could have had 2 years already playing RF, and by the end of this year, 3 years working on his RF defense. He could have been ready to replace Carlos Quentin this year if he got hurt, or next year if he's DFA'd. Instead, we need him to almost start from scratch. Yeah, hindsight is 20/20, but still.

QUOTE (flavum @ Jan 22, 2011 -> 12:12 PM) I don't think Buehrle deserves an extension during the season. All he's been talking about the last two years is retiring at the end of his contract. I love the guy, don't get me wrong. But I want players on the Sox that want to be there and want to bust ass to win a championship. If Buehrle has reservations about continuing his career, the best thing he could do is play on one-year contracts. If Mark comes in and asks for an extension, give it to him. If he doesn't want to talk about it til the end of the year, let him wait.

QUOTE (Heads22 @ Jan 22, 2011 -> 12:03 PM) Well, if JR loves Mark as much as he loves Paulie, he'll try his damndest to get something done. It's not even a matter of love...it's actually good business for this team to keep these guys around if they're helping winning.