Balta1701

QUOTE (GreatScott82 @ Jun 29, 2010 -> 04:09 PM) You figure you lose about 28 million in contracts next year. If you add Dunn @ 10 mil, Konerko @ 7 and raises to the other guys while re-signing Putz- your pretty much at even. You're pretty much adding $5 million or so in salary in that case, once you take into account arbitration for D1 and Q.

QUOTE (justBLAZE @ Jun 29, 2010 -> 03:54 PM) Not sure if we can pencil in Dayan Viciedo as Chicago White Sox 2011 1B. None of us are. Especially if Kotsay is on the roster somehow. The reality I keep pointing to is...if you spend $8 million resigning Konerko as 1b, you're still DH-Less. And catcher less. And closer-less. And 5th starter-less. We're going to wind up needing him.

QUOTE (SoxFan562004 @ Jun 29, 2010 -> 03:12 PM) how many years have we heard the Sox are going to slash payroll? Heard it a lot last year and they added the Peavy and Rios contract. Kalapse can correct me if I'm wrong, but I've gotten the impression that we have cut some salary this year compared to last, and last year we dumped 2 players at the end of the season to save about $2 million in salary as well.

QUOTE (SoxFan562004 @ Jun 29, 2010 -> 03:05 PM) as a Bulls fan I don't want the NBA investigating tampering during this summer with some of the stuff that B & B hinted at was going on with the Bulls during the Thibedau hire. I think the NBA is going to stay content as long as you've kept everything under the table. They just don't want it openly on the front page. They can't possibly be mad about having their league take over the media again right around the all-star break.

Wite, my response to you is that while Hudson is MLB-ready now, I will counter by saying that there's still a lot of development needed on him. He's not going to step in and be Strasburg tomorrow, so although his bust potential may be lower, there is still a possibility he'll get to MLB and never make the jump. Hudson isn't, at least as far as I can tell, seen as a sure fire or number one guy, although it's possible that some Washington scouts could disagree and say "get your hands on this guy". If they don't think he's a sure thing, then they're likelyt o ask for more, and they have every right to. They're wagering a more sure thing versus 2 less sure things, but 2 less sure things in a deep draft, and I think right now the Nats believe they have some confidence in their drafting abilities. If I were in their spot, I'd hold out for Flowers + Hudson + more, unless my scouts believed Hudson was going to anchor their rotation right behind Stras for the next 5 years.

QUOTE (JoeCoolMan24 @ Jun 29, 2010 -> 02:44 PM) I'm just saying, I think we got a chance. Yes, we have a chance. But it requires us to basically sell off 2 key parts of our 2011 board without the financial resources to replace them. It's all about that. If I'm the Nats and I get the Hudson + Flowers + some A baller offer, I wait a week or so until the AS break and see if I get a better offer, and if not I'd pull the trigger.

In case you're a lefty who doesn't wander over there, Markos has just published a scathing report pretty much flatly stating that Research 2000 has been fabricating their polling data for a significant portion of at least the last year.

QUOTE (Athomeboy_2000 @ Jun 29, 2010 -> 12:45 PM) I got to thinking this morning: How is Wade meeting with Bosh and LBJ not a very obvious form of tampering? I think it's probably as simple as the tampering rules applying to organizations, not to players.

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Jun 29, 2010 -> 12:11 PM) Just look at the Peter Francis Geraci Bullpen Bar as a perfect example. Really? That's the sports bar sponsor? Man, I've been gone too long.

QUOTE (whitesoxfan101 @ Jun 29, 2010 -> 12:07 PM) The fundamentals deck is still sponsored (by Xfinity), Oh, I'm sure things are still sponsored, but when one sponsor pulls out and you have to find another...there's a good chance they won't be paying the same rate.

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Jun 29, 2010 -> 12:07 PM) My thoughts: If LBJ stays in Cleveland, Bulls go hard for Joe Johnson and Bosh, but would be ok with Johnson/Amare; Miami goes hard for Bosh, but also would be ok with Amare (not sure who else they'd go after, my guess is Rudy Gay) If LBJ goes to Miami; Bulls will probably go after Joe Johnson and Amare, but one of those guys might have reached an initial agreement with the Knicks by that point in time (who knows). I would not be ok with Joe Johnson and Amare at near-max deals. I think when I look at them that they are the 2 likeliest candidates from this list to wind up as some sort of "Bust" either overpaid for their performance or going down with injuries for a decent portion of the deal, and if you can't land the king, then either of those guys not playing at max deal level means that the Bulls are in luxury tax, 4 seed Hell for the duration of their contracts.

QUOTE (Jenksy Cat @ Jun 29, 2010 -> 12:01 PM) Whats the difference in ticket prices then vs now? I'm sure it's been increased since then, but I don't think it's gone up by 33% (someone correct me if I'm wrong), and there's the further issue of possible advertising loss due to things like the recession (i.e. the Pontiac Fun-damentals deck). Either way, I think we're pretty lucky to have held salary level the last few years despite declining gate receipts, and I wouldn't be surprised if there was a small total cutback next year.

QUOTE (SoxFan562004 @ Jun 29, 2010 -> 11:50 AM) but doesn't how they end the season effect that too? Sure it does, but it's harder to play catch-up. There's only so many tickets you can sell down the stretch; even if they're stellar at sales from here on out, you can't make up for the games you've already played. As of right now, we're over 3000 tickets/game fewer than last year's pace and nearly 6000 tickets/game behind the 2008 pace. And 12,000 tickets/game behind the 2006 pace. That's 1/3 lower ticket sales than 2006, when we first hit the approximate salary level we're currently at.

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Jun 29, 2010 -> 11:47 AM) I find it absolutely comical that the same people who are gung-ho for LeBron and Bosh coming to Chicago to play with Noah have huge issues with them going to Miami and altering the NBA landscape. Just because we're Chicago that doesn't gives us more right to the dynasty that would come from those two joining a Wade or a Rose. Between the maintenance of some sort of a rivalry between teams (Lebron and Wade on different teams in the East) and not having an honestly small market dominating the sport for 10 years, I think there's lots of reasons why all 3 of them going to Miami would be a bad thing for the league. I'm not sure that a Chicago dynasty with no rivals would be a great thing either.

QUOTE (robinventura23 @ Jun 29, 2010 -> 11:42 AM) Anyone know the progress of Phegley? If we were to trade Flowers, it be nice to have some other C in the system to look forward to. He's been on the DL the last few months with a serious medical condition and has just gotten back to playing. He has 31 at bats this year at high A ball Winston Salem, and has a .593 OPS. He's been assigned to rookie ball at Bristol this week since the Dash are on break to get some at bats in. If we're very, very lucky, he's 2-3 years away.

QUOTE (SoxFan562004 @ Jun 29, 2010 -> 11:25 AM) you can always roll the dice and think that a big year this year increases the payroll for next year. Also, are you basing the 12m on next year compared to this year's payroll? because JR has said they have money for the right player and supposedly offered Damon 7m, so that could get up to around 18-19m with that. Again, it's a balancing act of this year and future years, but it's KW and he'll explore every possible option. With how this team opened the season, I think there's probably a serious salary cut looming. At best I'm hoping we stay level, at about $100 million, but I think $95 ish is more likely. It's hard to guess where D1 and Q's arbitration figures will come in (depends in part on performance the rest of this season too), but I'd say that $12 million available strikes me as a likely #, $15 million is plausible if the team keeps its salary steady and neither D1 nor Q win a huge arbitration settlement, and $18+ means that their revenue position is better than we've heard and they're willing to gamble a bit more on player salaries. Meanwhile, I count 10 spots to fill for next year. Closer, RH setup man, LH setup man, DH, all 4 bench spots, 1b, Catcher, 5th starter. And that keeps whipping boys like Teahen and Beckham in the lineup as-is.

QUOTE (chw42 @ Jun 29, 2010 -> 11:18 AM) If Kenny plans on paying Putz and Jenks a combined $14 million next season and not risk other off-season acquisitions, I wouldn't really care if he traded Santos away. But he's not going to do that. Which is why I think a trade is a difficult move to make period this year, because we have 10 or so MLB level roster spots to fill next year and by my count, $12 million or so to do so with. We're going to have serious need for Santos, Hudson, and Flowers next year, Viciedo and Morel would be useful as well, and we don't have the money to find FA replacements if they are traded away, nor do we have other obvious backup options. You can pick which guy out of Jenks, Konerko, AJ, Putz, etc., you want to bring back, but once you start talking about bringing back more than 1 of them, you start running out of money.

I wouldn't be surprised to see the Lakers take a serious step back any of these coming years, nor would I be surprised if they kept it going. Between possibly losing Phil, Kobe seemingly having less and less in the tank every year, and Bynum's legs starting to go all Greg Oden on them, they could use an upgrade soon.

QUOTE (Chet Kincaid @ Jun 29, 2010 -> 11:16 AM) Wait... isn't he talking about Santos Rodriguez? Are you talking about Sergio Santos? Sergio should be a guy with some serious trade value right now if the Sox wanted to make a move for a bat, and they can do so without killing their bullpen for this year since Santos is the 4th guy in it.

Really, I'm going to keep panning him until I see about a 25% decline in his k rate. It's that simple. If he's striking out 150+ times a year, he's not going to be a successful major league baseball player.

Different subject...I got polled last night! yay!

Consumer confidence number declines sharply and surprisingly in June and the markets are cratering in response.

QUOTE (scenario @ Jun 29, 2010 -> 11:01 AM) You say that like a .361 average and .395 OBP is a bad thing. Actually, that is a pretty bad thing when you've struck out 11 times, because that means you haven't walked a lot and a lot of the balls you've put in play have landed for hits (aka high BABIP stretch).

QUOTE (scenario @ Jun 29, 2010 -> 10:57 AM) If so, THAT will determine the price. That would only be the case if there were no upside to holding on to him for the Nats. The Nats do have potential upside in holding onto him, in terms of 2 draft picks and possible improved ticket sales (especially with Strasburg generating more interest in the team and already getting screwed on run support). They can ask for an arbitrarily high price in terms of a minimum deal that has to be more valuable to them than the 2 picks they'd get if he walked.

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Jun 29, 2010 -> 10:51 AM) But we already had a Brian Anderson on the roster And his name was Gordon Beckham...