Balta1701

QUOTE(spiderman @ Dec 21, 2007 -> 06:08 PM) If this is accurate, I don't have any issue with the signing - I don't know if we just signed a starter or Andy Gonzalez's replacement though. For an order of magnitude fewer dollars than what the Cubs gave to Fukudome (and for a younger guy at that), it's a reasonable risk. What would you rather have for $4.5 million, one year of Juan Uribe, 4 years of Alexei Ramirez, 2 months of Fukudome, or 1.5 months of Torii Hunter?

QUOTE(sircaffey @ Dec 21, 2007 -> 05:30 PM) Fair enough. Nothing I have read or seen would agree with you, but I hope you are right. He's right on 1 level at least...every prospect, and I mean every one must be looked at with a skeptical eye. You can clear space for them, give them every shot to succeed, but no matter how highly talented they are, there's never anything close to a guarantee that they'll succeed. That's how you wind up with Kip Wells being our most highly ranked pitching prospect in 2000, Jon Garland our 3rd highest, and no one noticing this Mark Buehrle dude. It happens to every single team. It's really hard even from AAA to the Big Leagues to predict which guys will go on to long, HOF type careers and which guys will come up, struggle, and never put it together. Looking back through BA's top 10 prospect lists for the past 15 years or so, I'd say that on average half of them wind up busting or never being stars like they're supposed to be.

Does anyone know if Ramirez fills up that last spot on the 40 man?

QUOTE(mr_genius @ Dec 21, 2007 -> 04:36 PM) Cynthia McKinney announces presidential bid http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/dek...y_1219_web.html I will personally put up the funds to see an Alan Keyes/Cynthia McKinney debate. I figure I'll sell it as a pay per view event and make my money back easily.

QUOTE(JohnCangelosi @ Dec 21, 2007 -> 04:31 PM) Carlos Quentin's Lifetime Stats: http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/players/7485 Am I missing something here? Why are we so high on him? What is his upside? I realize he has been hurt and is pretty much a rookie but what do we really know about him? His minor league stats should answer that pretty quickly. The quick 4: .312 .427 .526 953. .953 OPS in the minors is good. He came up and hit 9 home runs in the big leagues in his first 166 at bats. His big league numbers were hurt last year by injury.

QUOTE(NorthSideSox72 @ Dec 21, 2007 -> 04:10 PM) That 2 last sentences are a good point - longer, tougher season, all that stuff. All the more reason to start him by platooning with Owens and Richar. Or, starting him in AAA if he doesn't prove ready in ST. IMO, you have to keep that option open when you have 3 young guys in 2 positions like we now have.

QUOTE(GreatScott82 @ Dec 21, 2007 -> 04:02 PM) Any chance he battles it out with Richar for that starting 2B spot in spring training? Or do you guys think he will battle it out with Owens for that CF possition? If either Owens or Richar were to completely flop in ST and Ramirez had a good ST, I could see him taking the slot of either of them. I think Richar has a bigger margin for error because of his talent and age, but I could certainly envision a case where Ramirez would take that 2nd base slot next year and Richar might go back to AAA.

QUOTE(Chisoxfn @ Dec 21, 2007 -> 03:53 PM) Volquez is incredibly over-rated. He has a nice live arm, but I don't consider him one of the best pitching prospects in baseball and I would have gladly given up one of Gio/DLS for Hamilton (I'd have taken my chances) and I think the Reds would have considered such a deal. Personally, I think that right now, giving up either of those guys for Hamilton would have been a mistake. Even without Ramirez, we still had 3 young OF's who at least had the ability to step up and be cheap, we have at least 1 potential rotation opening that Gio can fill, and DLS has too high of a ceiling right now for this team to deal him at this point for anything less than a top of the league guy. Even putting aside Hamilton's drug issues, I wouldn't have dealt either Gio or DLS for him straight up right now, just because of the guys we do have and their costs and ages.

Old post, on Ramirez's purported birthday nonetheless.

QUOTE(NorthSideSox72 @ Dec 21, 2007 -> 03:43 PM) Bear in mind, I had thought I read that Ramirez was expecting to have a shot at starting before signing with someone. Therefore, KW must have at least promised him that shot. Maybe not a guarantee, but at least a reasonable chance. Anyone else remember seeing that somewhere? Yes, that was certainly one of the things being said about him earlier. If he beats out Owens for CF, great. If he struggles in ST, fine, stick him in AAA for a year and teach him to be a SS. Either way, our organization is now stronger at a point it was weak at yesterday.

QUOTE(Tony82087 @ Dec 21, 2007 -> 03:39 PM) Sorry, but until finding out a bunch more about this guy, as well as seeing how much he was signed for, I don't think you can pencil Ramirez into the lineup, let alone the top of it. I would not be surprised in the least for him to spend most of the season in AAA. If he isn't ready for the big leagues, that doesn't make me mad either. Because we put him at SS for a year in AAA while he works out the kinks in that position and works with the bat, and then with a little luck we now have a SS in 09. Whether he's penciled in or not, adding anyone who could play middle infield to the higher levels of our organization makes us stronger.

QUOTE(NorthSideSox72 @ Dec 21, 2007 -> 03:31 PM) Nice thing there is, if Cabrera doesn't re-sign, Ramirez may be able to slide to SS. That flexibility is a nice side bonus to this signing. That's exactly my hope as well. If he could fill that SS hole after Cabrera leaves, that makes this team 20x stronger for the next 4 years.

I really hope we can get him playing a decent SS. That would help so much.

QUOTE(hitlesswonder @ Dec 21, 2007 -> 03:18 PM) Supposedly.... I think it's generally believed that the record keeping on these guys has improved for the younger ones and the more recent crossovers.

QUOTE(bschmaranz @ Dec 21, 2007 -> 03:13 PM) How old is he? He turned 26 in September.

QUOTE(heirdog @ Dec 21, 2007 -> 03:04 PM) I would argue that Floyd had the same type of hype when he came up as the names mentioned above. Danks was considered one of, if not the best lefty prospect a couple years ago. Danks has been pushed up very quickly and Floyd hasn't met expectations. Those names mentioned above may face a similar fate. But in terms of stuff, some of our guys have it or had it and we will see how it plays out. Gio and Egbert have both performed well last year. In my opinion, Gio has the stuff to be an ace and Egbert could overachieve but I think he's more bottom of the rotation on a good staff. Actually, I can speak on Danks and how he's been viewed from the BA lists. Typically, people move up those lists as they move up in the minors, especially young guys. Danks came in at #59 on the 2006 list, but only jumped to 56 in 2007 despite moving up to AAA and performing at a young age. Danks really hasn't been viewed as highly by BA/that community as he has been by the White Sox. And yes, Floyd definitely had that kind of hype, but the only reason we were able to get him as basically a throw in is that the hype was gone after he struggled when he hit the bigs. But, again, just as we've seen guys come up and rule who weren't highly regarded (Buehrle is clearly better than say Kip Wells, who was several hundred spots above MB in BA's rankings), we've also seen guys come up, struggle for a while, then find it. But in both of those cases, the guys had to make a big step at some point before their value would go up, and that's what we need for our guys to do. They have very little value until they prove themselves over a full season in the big leagues.

Link, legit

BOOYEAH!

Oh, and this would be one hell of a test for how well built those rovers are.

QUOTE(Brian @ Dec 21, 2007 -> 12:47 PM) Are they wanting it to hit just to see what it does to Mars or because we have something against Mars? Do Not Get. It would be really really cool, from a scientific perspective, to see an asteroid slam into a planet. Especially if it was a planet not named Earth. We can simulate those type of impacts all we want, but a lot of times it turns out if you want to know everything about what happens when an asteroid hits a planet...you need to see an asteroid hit a planet. Also, if it's big enough, it could pump up our supply of Martian meteorites. Which, until we get people there, would be pretty cool also.

QUOTE(iamshack @ Dec 21, 2007 -> 01:55 PM) Why so eager to throw Egbert into the lowly back-end rotation or bullpen category, given his success this past year, and amazing ability to keep the ball in the ballpark? Right now, none of our guys will fit into that great stuff, highly drafted, highly viewed category that guys like Garza, Price, Kershaw, etc. fit into. Not Danks, not Gio, not Egbert, not Floyd, etc. Egbert doesn't throw 98 with a killer slider, so most baseball people will not count on him for anything until he proves it in the big leagues. And they probably shouldn't. But as we all know, just because someone isn't highly touted doesn't mean they won't crack the big leagues or will be stuck at the back end of the bullpen. I'll give you an example. This pitcher named Mark Buehrle never once appeared in BA's top 100 prospect list. Garland appeared once, ranked #32. Teams may not give you Delmon Young for guys like Egbert or give you a top ranked guy like say, Corey Patterson in 2000 for a guy like Buehrle, but sometimes the game of baseball is a funny one. And hopefully we can get a little luckier with these guys than people think we will.

QUOTE(NorthSideSox72 @ Dec 21, 2007 -> 11:08 AM) I think the chances of this team, as its stands now, being competitive for a playoff spot, are very, very long. If they manage to pull of something unexpected to upgrade CF, and/or they do something elsewhere that significantly improves the team... then maybe that 1 in 50 shot becomes 1 in 10 at best - if the improvements at a couple slots are strong enough. Without that, this team would need a miracle to get into the playoffs. Like I said, everything needs to go right.

QUOTE(NorthSideSox72 @ Dec 21, 2007 -> 10:59 AM) When it comes to starting pitching, this organization does in fact have some depth of talent. With Gio and Eggy behind the starting 5, and a few other strong starters in the system, that already puts the Sox above the median in terms of depth. But you are almost correct about... well, everything else in the system: position player talent and bullpen depth are pretty bad. Not completely bereft of anything of course, but close. The one thing we might have to hope for is that it's possible that between Quentin, Owens, Anderson, and Sweeney, we might still be able to assemble a young OF soon. But...everyone has to admit, there's 4 question marks behind those 4 guys. Quentin Injury, Owens OBP/Slug/Age, Anderson attitude/swing/injuries, Sweeney injuries/stubbornness/slugging. Beyond that, we do have a couple of young guys in the field, Richar and Fields, but again, both have question marks. Richar = Raw, and Fields = big power but needs to cut down on the k's. Beyond that though, we really don't have anyone to cover several key positions, including 1b, SS, and C if anyone goes down, and we don't have any depth to fill in at positions if any of those guys flop. We at least can say about the pitching staff that we do have that. I'll still say that if everything were to go right, we could be competitive this year. But just in case, I think McPherson is a good fit in that he may give us a backup guy who might have some power left in his bat and who could play 1b or DH if Big Jim gets hurt. And for this team it makes a lot more sense to gamble on Gio, Egbert, DLS, Floyd, Haeger, Broadway, Danks, Sisco, Contreras, and whoever else I'm forgetting as potentially filling those starting spots than it does to gamble on Prior.

Something tells me that money will wind up in an offer to one Miguel Cabrera 2 years from now. If he's not resigned and we don't blow it on some other 33 year old player beforehand.

QUOTE(Gregory Pratt @ Dec 21, 2007 -> 09:43 AM) I'm not an advocate of picking up Prior. I'm just saying, we have a depth of bad players/pitchers and I don't feel comfortable relying on that "depth" into the future. Then aside from wanting to insult this team at every opportunity, what was the point of replying to my post saying that Prior is a poor fit for us because of the guys we have? You may not like the guys we have, but if you're arguing that we can't count on them in a Mark Prior thread, it certainly seems to reason that you're advocating picking up Prior. If you're not doing that, then all you're doing is going after these players without a purpose.