Balta1701

QUOTE(Athomeboy_2000 @ Mar 18, 2008 -> 03:51 PM) ok, not a major gaff. But it is significant and telling. Like I said, I overstated it. i need to tone that down a bit. I need a bette example. FWIW, even to answer my own demand there, it turns out he made the same gaffe a day before on the Hugh Hewitt radio show. Which does kinda make me wonder if he really hasn't been paying enough attention.

QUOTE(Athomeboy_2000 @ Mar 18, 2008 -> 03:45 PM) It's a MAJOR gaff. It's like me going out and saying those French exterminated the Jew, they tried to dominate Europe, they had a strong dictator. Then have someone whisper... "umm... that was Germany" Edit: Ok, that is a bit extreme on my part. but you get the point. it's a fundamental thing. you CANT make major mistakes like that. Dude...you're calling this a major gaffe...in the age of George W. Bush. In the age of George W. Bush, I don't even think what you mention there would count as anything but another calendar entry. If he keeps making it, ok. It's a gaffe. People can misspeak. If he keeps making it, then that tells you more about his thinking and that he really might not have the simple details straight in his head.

QUOTE(Dick Allen @ Mar 18, 2008 -> 03:44 PM) You might be able to get away with it in the AL, but there are going to be times a couple of guys in the bullpen aren't available and if you only have these specialists available, things could get ugly. Like I said, you need to have the bullpen constructed correctly. You really can't do it with a 6 man pen, you probably need a long man because you can't count on those guys for multi-inning performances in an extra inning game, you can't do it if you're trying to bury a guy who's struggling.

QUOTE(RockRaines @ Mar 18, 2008 -> 03:29 PM) Yeah but thats one pitch, his success rate against Righties is so much higher. .174 BA vs .533 11.57 ERA vs 1.74 . He didnt pitch many innings against lefties, but still, hes situational, and thats ok. IMO, there's nothing wrong at all with having a true ROOGY and a true LOOGY if your bullpen is constructed correctly. You've got Ortiz and Ramirez coming up in the 8th inning, you put in Logan for Ortiz, you put in Wasserman for Manny and Lowell, and then Jenks ends the game in the 9th. But you have to have enough other pitchers performing solid roles in the 7th inning and before for those guys to be used correctly to get through the roughest spot, since you're limited on roster spots for the pen.

QUOTE(Athomeboy_2000 @ Mar 18, 2008 -> 03:24 PM) This will bite him in the butt. He doesnt even know who is who over there! How are we to trust him to know how to deal with them? It won't bite him in the butt. He could keep making that mistake for the next 6 months and no one would call him on it unless he did it during one of the debates in October. Or at least no one other than those evil liberal bloggers.

QUOTE(NorthSideSox72 @ Mar 18, 2008 -> 02:53 PM) Ha! Naturally, as soon as I talk up Wassermann... he gives up a walk and a double, giving up a run in the process. Oh well. Like rock said, he's got options left, and chances are someone in the bullpen will falter or get hurt during the season. Having him, Ohka and Carrasco in AAA as backups is a decent place to be for the team. Compared with folks like Mike Myers, Brett Prinz, and Ryan Bukvich from last year...

QUOTE(kapkomet @ Mar 18, 2008 -> 02:18 PM) She is now a follower... which falls right into the Obama campaign's playbook. I'll tell you, what you have witnessed over the last four days is nothing short of brilliant from Obama's campaign. It's almost like they wanted the flames of his pastor "fanned" so he could make this speech. Think about it. It falls right in line with him "taking back control" in basically three days time. Pretty interesting stuff, and now Hillary's following along. So far, we've seen 2 of these "Major" type speeches from candidates this season...Romney on his religion and now Obama on the race issue. She has 2 issues that sort of hang over her campaign that she hasn't addressed in the same way...that she's a woman and that her spouse is a former president.

QUOTE(NorthSideSox72 @ Mar 18, 2008 -> 02:11 PM) 6th in doubles, 7th in triples. Those are good signs. But only 15th in OBP isn't great. The problem is though, given the kind of quality we have in the upper levels of our organization after this offseason's trades...how do those numbers get slanted by the fact that when we take out our regulars, we put in guys who will never make the big leagues, while other teams are putting in much better talent? And while we're at it...Joe Crede isn't helping.

One of the guys @ the Atlantic (usually pretty good place) is claiming that Obama wrote the whole speech himself, no speechwriters.

QUOTE(iamshack @ Mar 18, 2008 -> 11:57 AM) That's what my hang-up is, with one exception- I wouldn't mind moving Owens right now, but I think that is the last guy they want to move. I think you're oversimplifying it a bit though. The question isn't just "are we maximizing our value," but also "are we hurting our chances for success (both long-term and short-term) by having this glut of players at the same positions." And then you have to weigh the two against one another. Sure, it may be best (in terms of returns in trade) to let guys like Owens or Uribe or Richar or Anderson increase their value with a few solid months, but is it best to have them out there in the first place trying to accomplish that? Unfortunately, I couldn't disagree more with the team's OF stance right now, so my prospective is probably a bit skewed. But I just don't see any value in Owens being on this ballclub this season considering what Anderson is doing and what Quentin will do. I guess that's what might lead me to agree with your initial statement about Konerko. Even with Owens, I think he has a shot to have his value go up quite a bit this season even if he and Anderson are treated as basically platoon partners. Owens hasn't put up a full season of the sort that will convince other teams that he can be a legit leadoff hitter. Let's just say, hypothetically, he could put up a .280 average, a .350+ OBP, and 50 or so steals in 400 at bats. Numbers which are at the high end of his performance but certainly by no means out of the question. Look what we gave up for Scott Podsednik on a down season. I think we're actually in a position of luxury. If all 4 of these guys make it, then next offseason, we're trading from a position of strength. Yes, we'd need to trade one. But we'd have 4, maybe 5 guys that we could choose between on who we wanted to move. We could move a cheap guy, keep the vets, and go for more of a power team with a ton of youth still permeating the field thanks to the young IF's, or we could move one of the Vets and try to bring back a major piece like a pitcher. If one of these guys blows up, we're in a position where we don't need to play them as they each have options. Right now I think that there's little downside to holding all of them and trying to work all of them in as the season progresses.

QUOTE(heirdog @ Mar 18, 2008 -> 01:23 PM) Trade Konerko, Crede, Uribe and Richar to the LA Angels for Kendrick, Adenhardt and a B prospect...problem solved. Stick Swisher at first. Platoon CF/LF with Owens, BA and Ramirez. Kendrick is your 2B. If Swish needs a day off, put Kendrick at first and let Ramirez or Ozuna handle 2B. It would be nice to have a future rotation with Adenhardt, Poreda, Danks, Floyd (if he truly has figured it out) and Buehrle/Vasquez. For the Angels, Crede/Uribe hold down the fort until Wood is ready for 3B or SS. Aybar can take over if Wood settles in at 3rd. Richar replaces Kendrick and Aybar can handle 2B too if Richar is hurt early on. Konerko will be primarily a DH but can spell Kotchman at 1B. That allows them to keep Garrett Anderson in LF and use G. Mattews Jr. as a 4th OF/late innning defensive replacement (expensive but no one will take his contract). The Angels are, sadly, not nearly that dumb.

QUOTE(jackie hayes @ Mar 18, 2008 -> 12:19 PM) Ask him. He had a press conference to tell everyone, presumably so it couldn't be sprung on everyone later. He chose to bring it up, I'm just relaying the story. I think it's far more interesting that he chose to bring it up than allow it to be an NY Post headline 6 months from now.

Oopsie.

QUOTE(kapkomet @ Mar 18, 2008 -> 11:43 AM) Noooo... I just typo'd it. We're NOT racist was the point. Ooops. For once, I was being nice. I wasn't meaning to sound like Obama, but apparently I do. I just can't work a room like he can. Ok, thanks for clearing that up.

QUOTE(iamshack @ Mar 18, 2008 -> 11:33 AM) I sure hope so. Unless the name is Konerko, I'm not sure I actually want there to be a trade (Although I'd still be a fan of moving Crede's contract). My simplistic justification for that statement is that if we move anyone right now, we're doing so from a position of weakness. Anderson, Owens, Quentin, MMac, any of those guys we'd move have their values depressed compared to where they will be if they can put together a few solid months. The other team would be looking to pick up a bargain. You don't build a successful team by being the guy the other team steals a bargain player from, you build a team by being the guy stealing all the bargains and maximizing their value.

QUOTE(kapkomet @ Mar 18, 2008 -> 11:27 AM) Maybe I should be a politician. Man, what is it? I'm agreeing with all you 'libs' today... Seriously, all junk aside that we banter back and forth, most of us aren't that far apart on main issues that confront us. None of us here on this forum (at least I'd like to hope) aren't racist, and really, are looking out for what's best for America (Canada, in your case, Kip). Or hell, throw out the nationality. We're looking for what's best for people. That's all that matters. So we disagree on how we get there sometimes... but I wouldn't want anyone here to be any less successful then I am, in fact, I wish everyone could be at least or more successful. You know why? Because we're all better for it. Ok, I'm done being all sappy. Back to the snarky Kaperbole. Am I reading this wrong, or did you use a double-negative there and assert essentially that all of us are racists? Was that a deliberate point that I'm somehow just not understanding?

QUOTE(iamshack @ Mar 18, 2008 -> 11:30 AM) Well I personally don't see any reason to sign OC long-term regardless, but they seem quite impressed with his leadership ability and intangibles. I guess if Ramirez is really tearing it up in Charlotte than that opinion could change. And while it would pain me to think we traded Garland for such little pt out of OC, you can't be stubborn and continue to make more mistakes to try and justify a previous one. The best thing in that scenario would probably be to just let OC walk and take the picks. Which would mean to me that we traded Garland to: Save a couple million $, get an extra late first/early 2nd round pick, and clear space to give our young pitchers a solid tryout. I think all of those are positive things.

QUOTE(iamshack @ Mar 18, 2008 -> 10:23 AM) That would be the ideal situation- starting Richar and Ramirez at Charlotte and get them accustomed to working together. But from what I understand, Kenny has all intentions of signing OCab long-term. I guess a lot of this does depend on whether or not the team plays well, what kind of year OCab has, how healthy he is, etc. There is no reason at all to sign OC long term until at least midseason, and then only if one of the 2 guys I just mentioned has flopped and Uribe has been his usual .220 self. Regardless of what KW has said, the right move now that we have Ramirez is to wait.

QUOTE(iamshack @ Mar 18, 2008 -> 10:06 AM) I think you've got to start Uribe. My issue with Ramirez is that he's not ready to play second base on the mlb level yet. We've heard from Ozzie that he probably isn't ready yet, and I've also heard from a good source who saw him in camp that Ramirez looks really raw defensively at both 2b and CF. So I've got to believe he probably needs more time at 2b in Charlotte. The other issue is this: Do we want to spend valuable time with Alexei learning 2b when he might not even have a future at that position? I'd really like him to shore up his skills at ss, but then again, we're not sure if OCab is going to be brought back long-term or not. If the organization forsees OCab as our long-term ss, than Ramirez needs to be spending all of his time developing at a position he will actually be playing. But if that is 2b and not ss, than the question is what is Richar's future? This is a pretty tough call considering we have some options that need to be played out and worked out at all 3 of Ramirez's potential positions, and yet, he really needs to develop at one of them to be the best player he can be for us. Yes, I know that the MI positions are such that he could develop the necessary skills for both of them, but I'd rather he work on one and really get strong there since he is supposedly fairly raw at all three as of right now. If the Sox think they have something useful in both Ramirez and Richar...which by every account they seem to...then the right move is to play Alexei at SS and Danny at 2nd base to start the season in AAA. Hell, not only would they be working on the positions where we'd expect them to play, we'd have next year's double play combo working together. IF Ramirez is as good as people seem to think he can be, then given the fact that we have no other SS anywhere near ready, he absolutely has to be put in that position to prepare for next year. Worst case scenario, one of them, either Danny or Alexei flops this year. The solution to that can be met with money; we will have an easy ability to offer arbitration to Uribe and OCab this offseason and can put our efforts towards signing one of them if needed. Hopefully neither one will need to be signed, and that will set us up as having an infield in 09 with Fields, Ramirez, and Richar...making something like $3 million between them, which, compared to the $18 million or so we're spending on Crede, OCab, and Richar this year...leaves us plenty of money to go after someone like Captain Cheeseburger or another starting pitcher next offseason if that's where we choose to move.

QUOTE(kapkomet @ Mar 18, 2008 -> 09:06 AM) I just read it... it is a good speech. I would like to watch it (I'm sure it will get linked sometime soon). I'm sure he delivered it well...

QUOTE(Chisoxfn @ Mar 17, 2008 -> 08:45 PM) I'd try to press and see if you could find a way to get Reggie Theus from the Kings (obviously he is under contract, but I think he'd be a tremendous hire). I could live with Van Gundy as I think he's a very good coach and I could even live with Larry Brown because as much as I hate Brown, I will admit he is a tremendous coach. I also wouldn't have a problem finding a good young coach somewhere and taking a chance. Out of the guys you cite, I'd strongly lean towards the "Good young coach" if we can find one...for the specific reason that I don't think either Larry Brown or Van Gundy address what I feel is the team's biggest weakness right now, their total lack of any coherent offensive system that makes use of the guys we have. In other words, I think they're too close to what Skiles brought. Both of those guys are defensive coaches. Look at Houston, NY under Van Gundy, they were never great offensive teams but they put together solid defenses. Look at how Detroit went from being a great defensive team under Brown to a much better offensive team under Flip. The Bulls have a bunch of guys who should be good, solid individual defenders, and they've been coached to be that way already. Whether the coaching holds I don't know, but what I really don't want to see is another season of us struggling on offense because we insist on playing the slow-it-down, take the full 24 seconds, and either try to isolate Gordon on someone or feed a non-great post scorer in the post because we can't think of anything better to do.

QUOTE(IowaSoxFan @ Mar 18, 2008 -> 09:40 AM) I am going stick with Uribe now as well. You give Danny some time in either extended spring training or in Charlotte to get in shape and bounce back from his injury. In the meantime you get Alexei plugged in as the teams SS next season so he should be playing the position this year and getting as many at bats against American pitching as possible, and that would mean Charlotte for him as well. Hopefully Uribe can show something that will increase his value and we can move him in May or June when someone gets injured and bring Danny back up. Depending on what happens with OCab next years IF will be very young. If Uribe "Increases his value" then that means he's performing at a significantly better level than what he played at last year, which probably is helping the team win a lot of games. Ergo, he will not be moved in May or June unless a lot of other people implode.

QUOTE(Whitewashed in '05 @ Mar 18, 2008 -> 09:36 AM) Normally, yes, but you know Ozzie won't make the change because of "a bad start" as he would put it. I like a Alexei a lot, but some time in AAA won't hurt him. Especially since we did trade away a top prospect for Richar to rot in AAA. Give him his chance. I don't want Danny rotting in AAA, but I want Danny struggling with injuries in the big leagues even less. He's missed something like half of training camp. There's little reason to push him for now. Hopefully if Uribe does pull his usual horrendous performance out of the bag, his days starting are numbered very quickly.

Link.

QUOTE(GoSox05 @ Mar 18, 2008 -> 09:06 AM) I don't think Alexei Ramirez is ready to take on the job full time. I think he need's more time playing 2B. I think Uribe will be on a very short leash. I could see Richar back there sometime this year. If may rolls around and Uribe is hitting his classic .200, and either Alexei or Danny are putting up solid numbers in AAA, I don't think that the team can avoid making the change.