Balta1701

Just to see if I can make anyone's head explode...you know...if there was a fairness doctrine in the law, covering newspapers, I think that would have required the NYT to print that piece no matter what McCain said in it.

QUOTE (Buehrle>Wood @ Jul 22, 2008 -> 01:25 PM) Yeah, I think we're decently near the top. I believe 5th in the AL in runs. Far from the problem though. We still have no approach against certain types of pitchers(See: soft tossing lefties, pitchers we've never seen before), and that is totally on the coaching staff. We've shown the ability to score in bunches, but it's just a wonder to me why we can't do it all the time. We're going to need some consistency down the stretch. Also, I'm not sure, but I thought we were near dead last in RISP average. Like I said, I'm not sure, but if someone has the numbers on them, I'd like to see them. We are #8 in MLB in batting average with RISP and tied for #3 in OPS with RISP. Our problem is we're 2nd to last in BA and OPS with RISP and 2 outs. When you add those together, we're basically at the top of the league in batting with RISP and 0 or 1 out. When there's 2 outs though, the batters just seem to freeze up completely.

QUOTE (Buehrle>Wood @ Jul 22, 2008 -> 01:16 PM) How about at the coaching level? Like finally finding a replacement for Greg Walker. That would be a good start. Other than that, we're pretty good at just about every position, except for first base. If PK doesn't pick it up in the next week, we can pray to the gods to defy the odds and trade the untradeable. Honestly, if I were the Dodgers...I'd seriously be talking to the Sox about Konerko right now, because with the Sox holding Swisher as an out of position 1b in CF and Konerko struggling, I might be able to get him at a bargain price and actually pack some punch into my lineup.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jul 22, 2008 -> 12:50 PM) I don't think anyone has said the NYT shouldn't be able to do what they are doing. It seems that most of the arguements are that they shouldn't have done it, because it only fuels the bias fires. It makes them look like they are choosing sides. Which is, I think, Tex's point in a nutshell. If the NYT Does anything that might remotely anger the right, it gets accused of bias, regardless of the reasoning behind it.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Jul 22, 2008 -> 12:51 PM) What big move do the Sox really need? That's what I can't figure out right now. I see slight upgrades you could make all over the roster, but they involve about adding 2-4 players to the roster, and none of them would see a significant amount of playing time down the stretch. Add a 6th starter, add a good bat or two to the bench, and shore up the bullpen a bit. What else can be done? That really is the truth. The Sox really don't need that much in terms of big name guys, and if they went out and tried to find one, they'd have to find someone else to take one of the guys they already have. Give up the farm for Roberts? Ok, Alexei is tearing it up and hitting over .300, move him where, short or CF? Who you gonna bench, OC or Swish? Grab a 6th starter? Well, right now the guys available are a whole bunch of guys with ERA's around 5, including AJ "4.84" Burnett. Going to give up Fields or Poreda for a guy with an opt-out clause at the end of this year who even if he doesn't opt out has a nasty contract as it is and can't get his ERA below 4.75 who also might get stuck in the bullpen? Or a guy like Street? His value is high because he's a successful closer...it'd be darn nice to steal him, but he has more value to a team without a closer (i.e. Milwaukee) than he does to a team that already has Jenks and Linebrink. Sick of Konerko or Thome? Going to give up the ton needed to find a power bat better than them? Then what are you doing with the $12 or $15 million guy you're already holding?

QUOTE (greg775 @ Jul 22, 2008 -> 12:32 PM) We always talk about Kemp. Are the Dodgers willing to trade that guy? Any time the local papers are sporting columns saying "The team shouldn't trade player x", that usually means that if the right deal comes along they'll trade him.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jul 22, 2008 -> 11:20 AM) Up until this point, it wasn't Congress's fault. It was the American general public's fault. By that do you mean energy prices themselves? Because there's an awful lot of ways in which one could find fault with the behavior of the national government in that regard.

QUOTE (kapkomet @ Jul 22, 2008 -> 10:54 AM) This should scare the poop out of anyone who has a clue how the market works. This could be the worst piece of legislation ever, and that's saying something. Who's going to criticize McCain and Obama for skipping this vote?

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jul 22, 2008 -> 08:51 AM) Which isn't any better to me. If they are going to publish editorials, the writer of them, not the editor, needs to decide what his message and relative content will be. Forcing changes in that, changes the authors message. If they wanted to have something specific to print, they should have just written it themselves and put their own name on it. But every op-ed writer faces the same hurdles. Every piece you see on the op-ed page of a major newspaper has gone through that process of being submitted to an editor and probably coming back with comments about length, content, etc. Are you arguing that the editors simply shouldn't exist and that the paper itself should have no control over the material it prints once it decides to hand over column inches to someone?

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Jul 22, 2008 -> 09:07 AM) I don't think Crede will get Type A compensation but I could be wrong. As far as that goes...I don't think anyone knows what level compensation Crede will get until the list is actually out, but with an all star berth this season, he's at least got a shot (one more hot streak this season would certainly help). Technically the system is supposed to look at their last 2 seasons...but in the past they've certainly ignored that rule, otherwise Eric Gagne would never have been type A when he left the Dodgers after pitching 7 innings in the 2 seasons before he hit FA. Joe's had solid seasons 2 out of the last 3 years and is going to be the top 3b on the market and probably one of the top infielders...hopefully that's enough.

QUOTE (shipps @ Jul 22, 2008 -> 09:12 AM) The pitful part is that he answered the question.They probably gets thousands of questions in their mailbag,I would think they would want to pick the best questions. That might tell you something about the ones they don't print. "Pujols for Fields!"

I think this probably sounds about right to me.

QUOTE (gosox41 @ Jul 21, 2008 -> 05:01 PM) For the right deal, anyone is expendable. But...it would have to be a really lopsided deal for me to be willing to open up the hole at 3rd base that we'd have to spend money on in the offseason to fill.

QUOTE (GreatScott82 @ Jul 21, 2008 -> 02:31 PM) sorry i meant Kalapse's interest in trading Fields not Balta. You interested in trading Fields too Balta? LOL, no, not without having another 3b option available first so that we're not stuck with Uribe there next year.

QUOTE (kapkomet @ Jul 21, 2008 -> 01:59 PM) To clarify, "you all" generally means the people who want to politicize the issue, not necessarily any of you specifically. Ok, that I can live with. I think you know me well enough to know that I cover my tail on that one by trying to be accurate.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Jul 21, 2008 -> 10:42 AM) Please don't put Josh Fields in the same sentence with those 2. When they were his age, they weren't hitting .251 with 9 homers and 71 k's at AAA in a bandbox. In 52, injury-hampered games.

QUOTE (kapkomet @ Jul 21, 2008 -> 08:55 AM) Yet you all do the same thing when it fits your "warming" model. B.S. 95% of the time you'll hear the phrase "You can never tell too much from one month" included in any line by any legit person who understands the stuff talking about the monthly composite numbers, and if you don't, it's probably because someone else is making too big of a deal of the 1 month numbers.

QUOTE (WCSox @ Jul 21, 2008 -> 08:56 AM) No kidding. These guys don't exactly grow on trees. I suppose that Kenny could pry an aging vet like Lowell from the Red Sox for the right price, but I don't think that's the right move for the organization. Whether Kenny wants to admit it or not, the Sox are probably not going to be competitive two years from now, with all of the roster turnover. Unless he can get a 3B equivalent of Alexei or Tad on the cheap from overseas, the Sox are best off going with a young guy who will be cheap and under team control for the next 3-4 years. This is a better strategy than paying $10 million a year for a productive veteran to be in Chicago during a two-year rebuilding process and then leave when they're competitive again. Why do people keep asserting that the team will not be competitive in year x? First of all, we're still sitting on Trader Kenny as our GM, so our team will almost certainly look nothing like it currently does in 2 years.. Secondly, we'll have cleared a hell of a lot of salary space 2 years from now with Jose, Konerko, Thome, Dye, AJ, Dotel, Crede, Cabrera, and Javy all off the books. But we'll still be sitting on Danks, Floyd, Buehrle, Fields, Alexei, Richar, Quentin, Swisher, Anderson, and whoever else from the minors we can develop in to something useful. That's probably as good of a position to be in as any team other than Arizona and Tampa bay has, where they're competitive now but are doing so with a decent number of young guys already in. Third...people insisted until they were blue in the face that we wouldn't have a shot this year and it was a rebuilding year. Then suddenly Danks and Floyd pitched up to their potential and now we're hoping we can beat the Twins this year and we've pushed the year people are writing off 2 years down the road.

QUOTE (DBAH0 @ Jul 21, 2008 -> 09:04 AM) Here's a question. Does anyone think that Minny's defense has the potential to be better than Chicago's defense this season? I mean they trade for Jared Allen in the off-season, who's argubly the best pass rusher in the NFL. They've got a great front 4 with Kevin and Pat Williams, and the secondary's pretty good as well with Winfield in there. As a Cowboys fan, they're the team I'm most worried about this season. Jackson should be better with the addition of Berrian as well. Don't forget that the Vikings have had terrible WR's ever since Randy Moss left. Any time you put together an excellent defensive line, it has the ability to cover up many other flaws on your defense. Case in point: the Giants last year rode their D-Line through the playoffs to the title. This is some of the beauty of the NFL. Outside of probably 5 teams...everyone else can look at their roster and see reason to think that they could be a super bowl team. The Vikings could certainly put together one heck of a team this year, but so can the Bears.

QUOTE (CanOfCorn @ Jul 20, 2008 -> 07:22 AM) I went Pat Gillick...he built that 90's Blue Jays team (even though they were horrible for a long time). He built the Mariners and made them into the 116-46 team. He built up the Orioles. And he's doing a decent job with the Phillies, although I wonder if the game isn't passing him by just a little. Anyway, he got my vote. While yes, Gillick's moves were a part of that 115 win team...wasn't another big part of it that their 2nd baseman suddenly inflated in both physique and numbers? Can you give him credit for predicting which guys were going to start juicing big time and when?

If the team is convinced that Josh Fields will never be able to even replicate what he did in 2007 for this team for some reason (which I find hard to understand, unless there's a chronic injury that we don't know about) then we ought to deal him. Beyond that though...here's what I think is a simple point. Josh Fields isn't going to bring you back a top level all star ace guy right now. If you offered him up for Street from the A's, I think they'd still say "Yeah, and what else". So, I think if you traded him...you'd be opening up a hole for next year in exchange for bringing back a solid, if unspectacular guy. What has more value...another solid if unspectacular guy or having someone to play 3b next year?

QUOTE (bmags @ Jul 20, 2008 -> 09:33 PM) god, more proof how stupid america is, space chimps is in 7th place. People here just aren't ready for good cinema. /green. "That's what he gets for not hailing to the chimp!"

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Jul 21, 2008 -> 06:54 AM) LOL at #3. He's seriously trying to make a scientific argument about cooling, while looking at data since 2001? They're right back to the classic "December was colder than last year, so let's ignore every other month and declare that the great Ice age of 2007 has begun" gambit.

QUOTE (danman31 @ Jul 20, 2008 -> 02:34 PM) Yeah, let's get a faster guy with less on-base and significantly less power. Sounds like a plan. 2 points. 1. I can think of other ways to spend $10+ million than putting another DH on the Sox now. 2. OBP and home runs are 2 things we've tried to load up on since the end of 05. That will win you a lot of games. But if you're not able to win games in other ways...you're going to have some trouble.

Other than Fields, who we just can't afford to trade, Poreda...and the guys already on the big league squad, I just don't know what bullets we have left in our revolver. Poreda for Street?