Balta1701

Rewarding experience, walking outside and throwing back a Molotov cocktail though.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Nov 10, 2009 -> 05:22 PM) I don't agree on the bolded. I think everything in Rios' career says 2009 was a flukey bad year, and I think Alexei is pretty consistently a top flight offensive SS (relative to position is important here). And I know I'm in the small minority, but I think Teahen looks like a good candidate for somoene who will benefit from this change of scenery (ballpark and all else). I agree on everything else though. The real issue is, and where he's right is...every one of them is a gamble. The way that lineup is built, with both D2 and Pods, you need to basically win every gamble for it to be an average lineup. Even if Rios is a 90/10 shot at a win, and teahen is a 75/25 shot at a win, and Quentin is a 90/10 shot at a win, the odds of winning 9 times in a row are pretty low. You put another solid OPS in the middle there, instead of using D2 or instead of using Pods, and suddenly you can afford to maybe lose one of those gambles.

If only we could be lucky enough that someone would jump in and sign him before the arbitration-offer deadline.

QUOTE (elrockinMT @ Nov 10, 2009 -> 04:51 PM) I think he would fit in well with the DH role and rotate as needed in the OF. People disparage him, but he saved us in 2009 IMO. When healthy he is avery good ball player Was he not healthy in the 2nd half? And how exactly did he save us in 2009? .793 OPS on the season, 103 OPS+. He was, overall, an average OF with the bat and pretty darn rotten with the glove.

I'm surprised it's been a couple months since this thread's been bumped. Anyway, Acorn did something evil again. At least I'm sure that's how this will be covered.

If he doesn't want a nearly full time DH slot, then he just doesn't fit on this team.

Probably can get some good stuff from Sideshow Mel too.

I'm not quite sure what point I'm trying to make here, but I found this interesting, and yet, didn't want to post it in the Texas thread.

Naw, he's a Jewish entertainer. He's got to have some standards.

QUOTE (elrockinMT @ Nov 10, 2009 -> 03:30 PM) I seem to reember beinfg told by management that they would spend what had to be spent to win. I do believe that folks like Dye and Thome might be brought back at less and maybe that's a good thing. If we are trying to mold this club into something different I am not sure it's the best yet. We have let go a lot of positive clubhouse presence and talent and I am yet to see what appears to be a good result. If we continue to dump veterans who perform, but now are arbitration eligible or their contracts are up for negotiation you want to see someone capable of filling their shoes be brought in. Early yet maybe, but maybe this is what has occurred because of the economy and failing to win in 2009 My biggest problem with bringing back JD would be the fact that he flat out didn't perform last year. We'd have been better off with De Aza starting than JD in the 2nd half.

One of the remarkable things about a lot of parliamentary systems as well is that they tend to naturally consolidate towards 2-3 parties as-is, because otherwise, they wind up so fractured that the country becomes ungovernable. The case to imagine is the Kucinich led party getting 5%, the Dems/Reps each getting 44-46%, and the Palin party getting 5%. Whichever side "won" the most votes can't form a government without the partiticipation of one of the extremes, and that gives the small group substantial negotiating power. The more parties you have, the worse that can get, and so naturally there tends to be some gravitation towards stable, longer-term parties in a lot of those countries with time.

QUOTE (elrockinMT @ Nov 10, 2009 -> 03:06 PM) We have alowed our home run hitters to walk. Hopefully, a full year of Quentin, Rios, Beckham, and perhaps Flowers coming off the bench or DHing helps take care of some of that. if Teahen could show some promise in a new park that would help too. But yeah, we need some OPS from the DH spot and we need something else in the OF as it stands right now. This is why some of us still think there's a good shot at Thome coming back; he's just a really good fit for what this team is missing (20-25 HR and a .400 OBP from the LH Side).

QUOTE (BFirebird @ Nov 10, 2009 -> 02:59 PM) Please no. As much as I believe in getting some guys that hit doubles and can go 1st to 3rd...that offense would be rancid, even in the NL. The Sox will need to get at least one guy that can hit homeruns to either play DH, RF or 3B, preferably 2 guys. Despite his need for speed...KW has to know they need some pop in the lineup to win. I'll agree on this point...I could take either D2 or Podsednik in the regular lineup. Both of them...it could work if D2 developed and Pods stayed healthy, but that's pretty risky on paper.

Even if everything works in that offense, it's not going to outscore the Yankees. But that's not how this team is built next year; if we fill those other 2 spots with average performance somehow, if we're going to the playoffs, we're going there because we have the best 1-6 starting pitching staff in the AL and we're scoring enough runs. What we need to do is get to teh "Enough" runs point. In 2005 we were 9/14 in the AL in runs scored. In 2009 we were 12/14. That's a fair bit worse, and we need to recover from that. Quentin recovering and giving us a full season, a full season of Beckham, a normal season from Rios, etc., could accomplish that as long as we don't have a complete black hole somewhere. Get me back to that middle-of-the pack range and then our offense can win with this starting staff. That assumes, of course, that the bullpen doesn't implode.

QUOTE (Kalapse @ Nov 10, 2009 -> 02:37 PM) Yes because of all those horrible outfield related injuries he's suffered over the years. How does one get Plantar Fascitis?

Let's all hope Krusty can afford the better stuff.

Just because you lost your pipe doesn't mean we all did.

QUOTE (SoxAce @ Nov 10, 2009 -> 02:05 PM) All this talk about a RF, where KW could just as easily get a LF and move Quentin to RF. There is always that option as well. How exactly does that help? Are there a lot of guys out there who are good LFs but terrible RF's? Or are people just saying RF as a stand-in for "corner outfielder with a decent bat and hopefully decent glove"

QUOTE (Kenny Hates Prospects @ Nov 10, 2009 -> 02:03 PM) Our definite current holes: DH, RF, bullpen lefty Let's say for the sake of argument that we've got about $6M left to spend right now. It's a lot easier to fill 4 holes with $18M than it is to fill 3 holes with $6M. Unless you have to over-spend to fill one of those holes (i.e. you have to spend $10 mil a year on Laroche because he's the only guy on the market who can play 1b).

Heat moves very slowly through rocks.

Fascinating question to a geologist..."Give us something new".

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Nov 10, 2009 -> 01:39 PM) The Cubs are trying hard to trade Milton Bradley, names such as Luis Castillo, Pat Burrell and Kevin Milwood are being throw around. One must wonder, does Jim Hendry still remember that he has Soriano patrolling lf Aside from the Mets, I'm not sure that those other 2 teams are really good matchups in the sense that I don't feel like they need a LH bat. The Rays, for example, signed Burrell because they needed RH pop. If I'm the Rays, I do that if the Cubs pay basically both guys' contracts.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Nov 10, 2009 -> 12:41 PM) Out of curiousity, how much of Jordan Danks have people actually seen that are saying if he is ready or not? I'm going entirely based on his strikeouts when I say I want him starting the year in AA.

Do you know that there are exposures of precambrian schists in Central Park?

Because everyone cares about NYC, didn't you listen to the world series?