Balta1701

The remarkable thing about the Sox though is that you could have said just as easily that the core of the team was declining/lost in late 2006/all of 2007. We were calling up guys like Andy Gonzalez because we had no depth, for example. I'm as worried as anyone about having to replace 8 guys this offseason (that's why I generally think that moving Hudson, Viciedo, or Santos in a trade is foolish)...but let's look at the roster turnaround from 2007-2008. New starting SS. New starting LF. New starting CF Bust (swisher). 2 youngins who had struggled the previous season sliding into the rotation (Floyd and Danks). 2 new big money guys in the bullpen (Linebrink and Dotel). Bench overhauled/new backup catcher. That's basically 7-9 new guys depending on how you count a guy like D1, and in 1 season, they whipped around from worst to first. Frankly, that overhaul was harder than the one we have to do this year.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Jul 28, 2010 -> 09:42 AM) That isn't what I said at all. Where are you even getting that? If BP wanted to pay for an advertisement saying, GOVERNMENT BAD!!!, they can do that. If they wanted to meet with every senator and house rep they could, talk with them, try to tell them what actions they'd take to avoid this in the future, etc., they could do that. They could NOT donate money to the candidate, or to a PAC, or to the GOP. I thought I was pretty clear. And that's exactly what they can do right now...they just don't have to acknowledge that it was done by BP at any step. (one other note, your "They can't donate money to the candidate, PAC, or GOP line would be tossed out by the court, so yeah, it's a lot more complex than you want it to be)

QUOTE (bigruss22 @ Jul 28, 2010 -> 09:37 AM) For all those who say we should be happy with where we are at, I agree with us being in first place, but how long will that last if we dont make a move? How long will this franchise be able to field a first place team without impact players from the draft? Do you really want to go from fringe all-star team to a team out of it like '07 and '09? First of all...the only year we were really "out of it" was 2007. We hovered close to .500 for most of 2009. Secondly...you ask how longn this team will be able to field a first place team without impact players from the draft. My response is...well, they've done it with that format for 4 of the last 6 years, if that's how you're describing them now. They've been in first place at some legit point in the season in 2005, 2006, 2008, and 2010. The only year that they were truly out of it was 2007. Whatever their current scheme is...if you want to describe it as not having impact players from the draft...they've been quite successful for it.

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Jul 28, 2010 -> 09:31 AM) Of course he used a small sample size since Carlos is seemingly injured half the time. And yet he still has more HR and RBI than Dunn over that period of time.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Jul 28, 2010 -> 08:29 AM) Just make the lobbying laws such that those elected officials can't take gifts of any kind from lobbyists, period. This stuff COULD be made much simpler than it is, if the people elected to office wanted it to be. They generally do not. So, if BP noticed that Representative Joe Barton thought it was a horrible thing that BP had to pay for the oil spill cleanup and the government did not, and they decided to spend $50 million dollars to elect Joe Barton behind the scenes, and did so with absolutely no coordination with Joe Barton, you'd have no problem with that? That's not a gift, that's them supporting a candidate who's belief that BP shouldn't have to pay for the cleanup happens to line up with their belief that BP shouldn't have to pay for the cleanup.

QUOTE (Vance Law @ Jul 28, 2010 -> 01:54 AM) Unless my counting was wrong, it looks to me that we could skip the 5th starter without pitching anyone on short rest enough times that a 5th starter needs to make 9 more starts. One of those would be the final game of the season, so I will subtract that one (if we still had not clinched the division going into the final game, someone would go on short rest or multiple starters would be available in the bullpen). So let's say we need 8 starts from a 5th starter the rest of the year (assuming our others stay healthy). What is the difference between Hudson and Torres/Marquez in those 8 starts? How many of those 8 do we expect to win with Hudson vs. the others? I probably should have noted who the starts are against. Well...first of all, you're assuming there's no negative effects on the guys we have from them pitching with zero extra rest. This season, Garcia's ERA is 6.03 on normal rest, 4.79 with 1 extra day, and 3.12 in games after 2 extra days of rest. Mark!'s ERA is 5.11 on normal rest, 3.67 on 1 extra day, and 2.48 after 2 extra days. Floyd is 4.48 on normal rest and 2.06 on extra rest (this could, of course, just be a function of when his extra rest games came relative to June/July, when he got hot). D1: the Pitching Danks is 3.59 on normal rest and 2.64 on extra rest. So...with every other guy in our starting rotation, the extra day of rest has been worth 1+ runs to their ERA's. Even ignoring that, I'd say that I think Hudson is likely to be close to a .500 pitcher the rest of the way, if he gets run support. I wouldn't be surprised if Torres/Marquez could win a game or two. So there's at least, to my eyes, a 2 win difference between Hudson and the other guys we have, compiled on top of the help of extra rest for the other starters. Trying to use Mr. Offday as your 5th starter is a recipe for giving this division to the Twins.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Jul 27, 2010 -> 11:08 PM) Nice pitcher, I'm just glad I don't have to hope a wife beater pitches well. I agree. If he was getting more love from anyone else, they'd probably wind up punched.

QUOTE (Real @ Jul 28, 2010 -> 08:06 AM) Isn't Dunn's arbitration value around 17-18m? Who the f*** is going to offer him arbitration? No. Dunn's side could ask for that much but they'd almost certainly lose.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Jul 28, 2010 -> 02:46 AM) I agree. Tank should stay. I was going to copy and paste something off the AP notes story tonight. It said Kotsay's teammates burned 2 of Kotsay's bats before the game to take the hex off him. That's bad news. They are playing around trying to help Kotsay which probably means he's a great clubhouse guy and he's going nowhere. It was written in a light tone like Kotsay's teammates were trying to take the hex off him. He's obviously well liked and his role won't be reduced. Like with Swisher's blow-up doll hex breaking ceremony?

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ Jul 28, 2010 -> 01:07 AM) Is it me, or are the Giants one big bat away from being downright scary? Andres Torres has been one of the best all-around players in baseball. Aubrey Huff's sporting a wOBA of .404. Buster Posey is 1997 Mike Piazza. If Pablo Sandoval starts hitting? Wow. But they've got to upgrade 1B. Travis Ishikawa is too much suck. I don't even have to talk about their rotation (looks like Bumgarner found his velocity). Underrated bullpen. Just a lot to like. Yesterday, I made the mistake of flipping on ESPN for a bit, and they were discussing trade possibilities. The question to Bobby Valentine is "what's the one trade that needs to be made". His answer was that the Giants needed to trade this year's Pablo Sandoval for last year's Pablo Sandoval. I was somewhat confused...because that's um...NOT A TRADE YOU IDIOT! Sorry, had to say that one.

QUOTE (chw42 @ Jul 27, 2010 -> 10:32 PM) Looks like those bad mechanics are starting to take somewhat of an effect. With the type of mechanics he has...would you worry more about the shoulder or the elbow?

QUOTE (Kalapse @ Jul 27, 2010 -> 07:17 PM) Strasburg has been scratched from his start tonight after injuring himself during warm-ups. No word on how serious. Ben Goessling, MASN: Boos for Miguel Batista as he warms up. There's a steady agitated murmur at #Nationals Park right now. 12 minutes ago via TweetDeck And an update: Rizzo said #Strasburg had trouble getting loose in the bullpen. They'll do an x-ray and MRI on his arm. Precautionary for now -- no pain. 3 minutes ago via TweetDeck They're calling it shoulder inflammation for now.

Soxnet.net game wrapup.

QUOTE (clown baby @ Jul 28, 2010 -> 03:32 AM) Thome has a .933 OPS, and is the exact lefty power bat that we are missing... Hating the Thome shift is a pretty dumb reason to not want him. Ozzie really screwed up picking Kotsay over Thome. It's going to cost us some good prospects now if we want to get somebody of equal production to Thome. That move is really not talked about enough. It could end up costing us Hudson and another good prospect. Ozzie screwed up. Plain and simple. Frankly, I think we talk about it a lot. Still do.

The Senate has filibustered the DISCLOSE act, the proposed response to the Campaign Finance Supreme Court ruling that would require corporations and unions funding ads to reveal themselves and require groups to reveal their donors. I'll bet you'll never guess who the 41 Senators voting to Filibuster it were. This would have been an excellent response to the Citizens United decision. The only possible reason why you'd oppose it is if you thought a key part of your support would be made up by money coming from business or union interests who's support you didn't want to acknowledge publicly.

So what you're saying is I need to go put some money on the Twins for the Central. Crap.

Someone finally has filed a patent for a working hybrid setup involving a capacitor in addition to the batteries. (read the link if you want details for why that's important).

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Jul 27, 2010 -> 06:41 PM) If he could do that, it would mean he has successfully hidden 3 or 4 top prospects for the last couple of years. Or that the Royals and a lot of other teams think something is seriously wrong with Greinke and they want out of that right now.

QUOTE (BearSox @ Jul 27, 2010 -> 05:44 PM) I wonder what the asking price if for Berkman right now. I still think a change of scenery would give him a boost. I think the Sox would have probably already traded for him if they thought he was healthy.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jul 27, 2010 -> 05:30 PM) Attendence was going to fall anyway. You could either do nothing and lose revenue for sure, or cut payroll, if you weren't willing to raise prices. Which would you perfer. Of course, the question becomes whether or not by raising ticket prices they've depressed revenue further than they would have otherwise due to ticket sales falling even further (my guess is no, but I'd assume they spend a fair amount of time and money doing the books on that question).

QUOTE (Rowand44 @ Jul 27, 2010 -> 05:23 PM) Winner. The only way Huddy is getting traded is if we have another deal to bring a sp over here. And on top of that...they think that they can do so without killing their salary situation for next year (if you lose both Hudson and Viciedo for example, just to replace the 5th starter, the DH, the 1b, the Catcher, and the Closer next year in FA will take a ton of money, even if a few of our guys are just extended)

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Jul 27, 2010 -> 05:03 PM) It's also possible that the Sox, you know, really like Hudson too. Or that they're not foolish enough to think they can win this year or next year without a 5th starter.

QUOTE (chw42 @ Jul 27, 2010 -> 04:50 PM) The thing with Dunn is that since he's nothing but a DH, that's all he should be worth. Should be...I can grant you that...but in reality...how many teams thought that the rotating DH idea was a great concept coming into the season and are now stuck with .750 OPS's from that position? If you were the Angels, wouldn't you pay that easily?

QUOTE (chw42 @ Jul 27, 2010 -> 04:43 PM) 2 years at $24 million? Maybe. I'd be astonished if he gets stuck with that level deal again this offseason.

QUOTE (hawksox13 @ Jul 27, 2010 -> 04:39 PM) I would do a Hudson and Morel combination to get Dunn IF the White Sox are granted a period to negotiate with Dunn to get that four year, $60M deal worked out that the Nats won't give him. He strikes out a lot but his OBP is over .380, he hits 40 HR's per season and drives in nearly 100 runs. No offense to Paulie but give him Konerko's money. That's a lot more than Konerko's money...and that's probably such a large deal that we'd have to find someone else to take a salary off our hands in the offseason just in order to afford to add a near-minimum contract 5th starter, C, and Dh for next season.