Balta1701

QUOTE(spiderman @ Sep 2, 2007 -> 11:07 AM) If the White Sox were to sign Rowand for $9-$10 million a season for 3-4 years, I don't think he' dbe batting 8th. All but 2 years of his career, Aaron Rowand has not been better than a #8 or so hitter in the AL.

Clearly...therefore...the way to fix the White Sox is the Free Agent market.

QUOTE(Soxfest @ Sep 1, 2007 -> 07:09 PM) Another great showing on WGN. This year has left me with so much more time than I had back in 05. I went out and bought a new tent today!

Ok, I've finally found a good reason for a reporter to grant a source anonymity: you can get quotes like this one, on the Republican's Senate situation for 2008:

QUOTE(Gregory Pratt @ Aug 31, 2007 -> 08:49 PM) That's probably not a good team. IMO, it's a hell of a lot better than you think...but then again, I'm the "Overrating our young guys" person and you're the "our young guys all suck" person.

QUOTE(Kalapse @ Aug 31, 2007 -> 08:31 PM) I know everyone is already aware of this but Boone Logan is the balls, seriously he's just that good. I love him like a son. I loved the way he looked from the moment he first came up. Bastard just needed to learn to throw strikes.

QUOTE(Flash Tizzle @ Aug 31, 2007 -> 08:13 PM) I'll play along -- IF we're willing to spend over 20 million for Rodriguez, there are going to be quite a few changes within the rotation and lineup. Cheap alternatives need to be scattered around the diamond to offset Rodriguez' salary. For one, I don't believe we'd sign Eckstein; Richar would be the option. It'd have to be almost necessary for Williams to acquire someone cheap AND talented for LF, because Fields would undoubtedly play 3B. Contreras and Garland would be gone as well. Likely to be replaced by two of Floyd, Egbert, Gonzalez, Broadway. Is a lineup of.. FA/Prospect in LF Owens Dye Fields Rodriguez Richar Konerko Thome Pierzynski and rotation of Buehrle Danks Gonzalez Egbert Vazquez capable of reaching the playoffs? Depending upon the LFer, the progression of Richar and Fields, and whatever we receive from Egbert and Gonzalez, it'd atleast be an interesting ballclub. I doubt they'd reach the playoffs, but attention would certaintly be on the ballclub with Rodriguez. You'd just have to ignore Boras as his agent, or the likelihood New York retains him. Which are fairly important items and just about render the enter scenario unlikely. So, the things I'd say: 1. The key to getting ARod is finding someone to take on Jose's salary. I'm fully convinced Garland will be moved hthis offseason...if we could also move Jose, that covers the salary right there and even saves $5 million by getting rid of Uribe. 2. Don't just pencil in the 2 AA guys yet. I'm fully of the opinion that one of Floyd, Broadway, and Haeger will be in the starting rotation next April after Garland is moved...most likely Floyd IMO, esp. if he can give us one or two more quality starts. 3. Joe Crede will be back next year no matter what, as far as I can tell. So your OF will look like Fields, Owens, Dye. If you have ARod at SS, Dye in RF, Thome at Dh, and Konerko at 1b, then I for one could certainly tolerate Owens and Richar as our 1-2 hitters...esp. if Owens keeps developing (I think he's leading off for us next year anyway.)

QUOTE(southsideirish71 @ Aug 31, 2007 -> 07:39 PM) So much for Sweeney coming up. We get to see Pods and more Erstad though. That will help with the future. Someone can correct me if I'm wrong, but if Ryan isnt' brought up in September, I'm pretty sure it actually saves us a year on his arbitration clock since he won't be on the major league roster at the end of the season and will only have been up for a couple weeks. If I'm right, that's a major benefit of just sending Ryan to winterball and not calling him up, considering that I think he's just not ready yet.

QUOTE(The Ginger Kid @ Aug 31, 2007 -> 01:31 PM) he is a prick, i'll give you that. But he's a great manager, there's just no two ways about it. I'd love to see him back in a Sox uniform. In the last year, He's been caught for DUI and one of his team's players killed himself doing the same thing. That's reason enough for me to not want him running our clubhouse right now.

QUOTE(Yossarian @ Aug 31, 2007 -> 01:00 PM) I agree, but not for a s***ty Class A pitcher. Given that Tad was a FA and we'd have spetn $1 mil and gotten nothing for him and not even gotten any time for Richar to learn the ropes of the big leagues, I think that getting anything to move Tad was a good thing, even if it's just a class A pitcher. Mack on the other hand I'm less sure about, because we really didnt' need to move him at the time.

QUOTE(NorthSideSox72 @ Aug 31, 2007 -> 11:51 AM) If they only move one starter, that all makes sense. We'll see if that is what they do. If they move a second starter, I still say it will have to be either Javy or Danks, because I view Jose as an immovable object.

QUOTE(Flash Tizzle @ Aug 31, 2007 -> 11:37 AM) It's just another no-nothing move. Since we're probably not going to be winning anything for quite awhile, while not set our sights towards acquiring young talent for SS rather than waste resources on Eckstein? Completely pointless, imo. Only purpose it serves is to give the illusion of improvements. A feeling of "anything is better than Uribe." Sure, for one or two seasons. Then who replaces Eckstein? Pedro Alvarez.

QUOTE(NorthSideSox72 @ Aug 31, 2007 -> 10:59 AM) Its entirely possible that Gio could be in the 2008 rotation. Think about this - what if he trades both Contreras AND Garland? That leaves you MB, Javier, Danks and 2 open slots. Even if Floyd gets one (which is no guarantee), I'd have to think that Gio is going to be seriously considered for the other slot (along with Masset, Haeger, and possibly Sisco). IMO...if the team still likes what they have in Floyd, and I think they do...they will probably attempt to move 1 guy. My money says they'll keep trying to move Jose, fail to do so utterly, and move Garland around X-Mas as with last year, hopefully bringing back someone who can play SS. You leave one open spot, and you do so with this thinking; you pencil Floyd in, but think that if he really sucks in the Spring and someone else looks an awful lot better, then you consider the other person. The goal should be to start Gio in AAA next year. If you start with Floyd, or Broadway, or Haeger in the rotation, and they spend a month or two being lit up, then it's either Gio time or time for one of the other guys (If Gio struggles a little). I'd really prefer to give Gio at least a few starts at AAA before we bring him up.

QUOTE(Rex Kicka** @ Aug 31, 2007 -> 11:33 AM) Kap, If you want a different nominee, work to get that candidate the nod. When did Kap become a billionaire?

QUOTE(NorthSideSox72 @ Aug 31, 2007 -> 09:37 AM) I haven't watched Eckstein play, I can only see his numbers. I am sure he (and most other SS's) would be a defensive step back from Uribe. I guess its a question of balance - how much D to give up, for how much O you get back. And I don't think Richar is a real option at SS. EDIT: I haven't seen Eckstein play very often. Ah blast, I meant Richar performed well at 2nd base, sorry. Richar is not an option for SS and we should all remember that...that was a typo from me.

QUOTE(NorthSideSox72 @ Aug 31, 2007 -> 09:16 AM) I'd prefer Furcal, but Eckstein would still be an enormous improvement from 2007. With the bat...yes, he'd be a gigantic step forward, if he was healthy. However, this season, he's only played in 91 games...let's not forget that. And that was after only playing in 123 in 2006 (prior to the playoffs) so he missed some 40 games that season and probably 50-60 this season. And on top of that...his defense is still a step back. If Crede came back at 100% and Richar performed well at SS that would help cover that somewhat, but still, we'd be sacrificing defense for offense. It's a good trade based on how abjectly awful Uribe has been, but it's still worth remembering that point.

Since I doubt this deserves a new thread, here's a brief round-up of yesterdays' interesting Iraq news...and there were actually 3 interesting bits of it. 1. About a month ago, the administration released a report which stretched to say that the Iraqi government had made some progress on about half of the 18 benchmarks Congress set for it at the beginning of the year. Yesterday, a different version leaked from the non-partisan Government Accountability Office saying that they had in fact only really done anything on 3 of them. And another interesting note...the reason the leaker says that they leaked the draft report was that they believed that the DOD or the administration would "Water down" the final conclusions of the report before releasing it, as supposedly happened to the very negative National Intelligence Estimate that came out a few weeks back. 2. The generals in the Pentagon have finally gotten to the point where they seem to be basically telling Mr. Bush "It's up to you" by not even being able/willing to give him a unified plan for the next few months. And finally, 3., the Bush Admin. has decided to ask for an additional $50 billion in funding for the war as part of the upcoming Dept. of Defense funding bill that is coming up before Congress...thus putting nearly $200 billion in funding in that bill (enough to, presumably, make it so that the administration does not have to come back to this Congress for another supplemental appropriation until the Bush Administration departs office and the next President starts cleaning up his mess). But if that weren't interesting enough, according to Secretary of Defense Gates...out of his own mouth and even on Fox News (so no one can possibly call the source biased, video @ the site), the administration decided to add in this additional $50 billion without even telling the Secretary of Defense. I have absolutely no idea how that works.

QUOTE(Rowand44 @ Aug 31, 2007 -> 09:07 AM) I'm not as opposed to Eckstein as a lot seem to be. I'd prefer him to be at 2b but I wont be too pissed if he's our ss next season. I just have this real feeling that he's going to wind up EXACTLY like Erstad...looked upon as a savior, more expected out of him than is realistic at his age, and he'll wind up just like he did this year; missing a good chunk of the season hurt and winding up being a weak spot with the glove.

Just what I'm sure we all wanted to hear... Oh sweet grinder!

QUOTE(farmteam @ Aug 30, 2007 -> 04:53 PM) Does anyone know how to find out if certain games are in certain areas? Not in the home market, that is. I remember someone posting a map once of where all the games would be broadcast, does anyone know where to find stuff like that. There's some Patriots fan who posts them...this year's maps will be able to be found here. They usually appear a few days before that round of games because the NFL doesn't announce everything in advance.

QUOTE(kapkomet @ Aug 31, 2007 -> 08:36 AM) You mean you've tried it? Sorry, I had to. No, but I was thinking about the details while on the commode this morning, and it just seemed remarkably impractical.

So, there's one other thing about this whole issue that I'm still wondering about. Is there anyone out there who actually sits on a toiled with a "Wide stance"? Seriously, I can't figure out how or why anyone would do this. If I'm wearing pants, then doing so actually requires me to remove one of my feet from the pants in order to spread my legs out that far, because otherwise, the waistband holds my legs together at a certain distance no matter what I try to do.

QUOTE(mr_genius @ Aug 30, 2007 -> 04:57 PM) Actually, I am thinking about selling some carbon credits. I live close to work and ride my bike there. Sooooo, I figure I can sell the amount of carbon I would have created if I lived 40 miles from work and drove. I should send Mr.Edwards an email telling him I can sell him some Mr_g carbon credits. Then we can both go on Good Morning America and brag about how great we are, even though we haven't really accomplished anything. Unfortunately...your President refuses to acknowledge the existence of anthropogenic climate change, and has failed to set up a carbon offset trading system in this country. Therefore...in order to have that plan work, you'll have to move to Europe.

QUOTE(Gregory Pratt @ Aug 30, 2007 -> 04:39 PM) This is a crazy thread. Some people have heard and seen such great things of Shines and I've heard and I know people here have heard some awful things about Shines. I don't like him, for what it's worth, but he confuses me. You know what I find interesting? I haven't heard nearly the number of complaints about Shines this season that I heard about Cora @ 3rd the last 2. That to me says somethjing about his in-game performance, I think