Balta1701

You know, I hate being one of those conspiracy folks, but this is one of those cases that just seems to say "There's something going on here" other than what is a cries out to my eyesctually written in the story. As 2k5 said, it seems like all of the forces are suggesting this is more than a cyclical rise, the profit potential should be enormous, and yet nothing is happening, which allows for a couple of other groups to cash in. Of course, the peak oil concept could well be playing a part in here also, in that if people think oil production worldwide will be declining within a few years, then the point of building a new refinery is gone.

QUOTE(CanOfCorn @ Jun 6, 2007 -> 09:03 AM) Anyone thing the Sox will go after A-Rod if he opts out of his contract? I know he's going to be ridiculously expensive, but Kenny him. Then the IF could be Konerko, new 2B, A-Rod and Fields. Not saying it's going to happen, just wondering if anyone is considering him. I think it's in the back of a lot of our minds that KW might do something crazy like that. It would be nice, and we know he likes him. The issue of course is $. Teams like Texas and the 04 Sox showed pretty conclusively what happens when you lock up all of your money in a couple of power hitters. For the Sox to be able to afford an ARod, we need to save some money elsewhere, and that almost certainly means that our OF next year would involve 3 guys out of Fields, Owens, Sweeney, and Anderson, with no room for anyone else, and our 2nd baseman could well wind up being someone like Getz simply for lack of money to go after a better option. Of course, that is one scenario where we could survive with Uribe @ 2nd, if ARod could keep himself in SS playing shape. And our bullpen would look a lot like this season's bullpen. And Buehrle would almost certainly be gone. Garland/Contreras/Vazquez might well have to be traded as well to clear room for that, which means that our rotation would have Danks and at least 1 other rook, possibly 2 other rooks. I mean, maybe we could get by with Floyd and Gio in the rotation next year, and that OF, with Konerko and Thome, but do we really want to?

QUOTE(WCSox @ Jun 6, 2007 -> 08:56 AM) Could the Sox wait until the end of the season and then trade their "rights" to him next year to a different team? Not sure how that works in MLB. Yes, the Sox could trade him even if he was on the DL, until the trading deadline in 2008. The big issue of course is why anyone would want a guy who's back is so bad it keeps him hitting .216. QUOTE(BearSox @ Jun 6, 2007 -> 08:58 AM) Well, no one can blame Crede for not wanting back surgery. I wouldn't want someone cutting open up back and playing around with my spine and such. They do more harm then good usually. It is a tough decision. Take the chance of being a cripple or playing ball again? Man.... I think Dallas McPherson had the same type of surgery this offseason. Any word on his condition? Link.

QUOTE(BearSox @ Jun 6, 2007 -> 08:17 AM) Obviously, for political reasons, that will never happen... Plus, I couldn't bare to see my PK with another team I wouldn't just say political reasons...if Konerko's bat ever wakes up like it did in 05 after that horrendous start, then having him around for $12 mil a year is actually a pretty darn good deal in this market, and I think he's an excellent guy to keep around in terms of being able to deal with the kids as well. If nothing else, supposedly Anderson spent a bunch of the offseason working with PK on his swing.

QUOTE(caulfield12 @ Jun 6, 2007 -> 08:13 AM) I'm not 100% opposed to moving Uribe over to 2B if we could bring in a better SS. I can't be the only one who thinks that Mr. Uribe's talents would simply be wasted @ 2nd base, can I? If we're tolerating his struggling bat in the lineup, then we might as well maximize his defense, and the things he's pretty good at are covering a lot of area and having a cannon for an arm. Putting him at 2nd makes both of those less useful.

QUOTE(knightni @ Jun 5, 2007 -> 11:36 PM) http://chicagosports.chicagotribune.com/sp...-home-headlines This article sure makes it sound like Crede's back has been bothering him for longer than even the team has known about it, which strongly suggests that it's been bothering him for the entire season so far. To me, it sure sounds like his suckiness with the bat is therefore directly related to his back, once again, and just as some of us predicted it would be when he decided against the surgery. QUOTE(BearSox @ Jun 6, 2007 -> 08:06 AM) Where's he playing now with Anderson back? Anderson was their DH last night. The Halos seem to be moving around the DH spot between their OF's, Willits, Vlad, Anderson, etc. to keep them all in the lineup and give them a little more rest.

If...Green does not suffer ill effects from that concussion. You never know what it's going to take from this point out to ring his bell again, and there may well still be some subtle lingering effects. He certainly wasn't the QB late last season that he was in previous years, at least to my eyes.

0 walks? When someone posted stats in the 5th inning for Floyd in another thread I could have swore it said 4 walks.

I'm just going to laugh.

QUOTE(BearSox @ Jun 5, 2007 -> 08:34 PM) He has a better upside then his brother Willy (who is with the Braves now), and could become the type of SS we need. Actually, Willie Aybar is not with the Braves now. In fact, for a while, no one in baseball had a clue where he was, including his brother. It appears now he's in rehab for something at an undisclosed location. Possibly serving as target practice for the Vice President, I'm not sure.

Well, at least they finally got it done. This was really getting annoying.

QUOTE(GreenSox @ Jun 5, 2007 -> 05:40 PM) Why in the world would you want Thome bunting? Rowand is a horrible bunter, FWIW. That said, I think it's an interesting question: Freddie Garcia (1 year later), Aaron Rowand and a Prospect (whose name escapes me) for Jim Thome and Gavin Floyd (1 year later). Good trade or bad trade? Daniel Haigwood. Who I believe is no longer even with the Phillies organization. And feel free to also note the $22 mil or so that came along with Mr. Thome when you add up that deal.

QUOTE(Heads22 @ Jun 5, 2007 -> 05:19 PM) On a completely unrelated note, so far, tonight: Charlotte Player IP H R ER BB SO HR ERA Floyd 5.0 4 0 0 0 4 0 3.90 Floyd's peripherals are still atrocious. Look at that WHIP even just from tonight.

QUOTE(rangercal @ Jun 5, 2007 -> 09:54 AM) How the hell is Pujols only 44? Should be top 10 in sports. Pujols is only in his 7th full year of MLB service, and the Cardinals were smart enough to get him signed to a big, long-term deal of reasonable value after like 3 years of service time, so that they wouldn't go rapidly from him at $5 mil or so a year to him at $18 mil a year, which at the time was a very good deal for Mr. Pujols to sign based on the average salaries in MLB and the fact that it's always a good idea to get signed to a contract early since you never know when an injury could crop up (Hi Mr. Crede).

QUOTE(CanOfCorn @ Jun 5, 2007 -> 01:01 PM) It's fair for the NBA, but I can't imagine, after this debacle, that he would go back to the NBA. He's kinda setting himself up to build a REAL program at Florida. You know, compete with Kentucky every year for the SEC crown. I think they need to hit him in the wallet if they can. For them to be able to do that, they have to prove real financial damages to the team. There were a bunch of season tickets sold on Friday after the announcement, so they may well have grounds for a case, but it would certainly be a difficult one to make given that no money changed hands and they didn't launch a full ad campaign.

This seems like something which needs to be legislated quite carefully before anything horrendous happened and which obviously has not been, so it's going to wind up in the court system now that a really bad case has cropped up.

QUOTE(jackie hayes @ Jun 5, 2007 -> 04:57 PM) We'll never know. Haven't there been posts here from people who've gone through it, or who knew someone who did, who said they'd only go under the knife as a last resort? (I know I've read things like this somewhere...) Those things have changed my mind quite a bit on this. Whoever's right, I don't think Crede was being unreasonable. Well, something along these lines was printed in an MLB.com piece, with Mr. Crede's own words, last October. Yes, there's a risk in any surgery, but if you're a baseball player looking for a payday, I think that having a surgery on your record might not look as bad as the .216 average and .575 OPS Mr. Crede is sporting these days.

QUOTE(Gregory Pratt @ Jun 5, 2007 -> 04:41 PM) The White Sox since 2005, silly! I'm being somewhat sarcastic, but the next few years don't look too good to me. Well, if we can follow that up with 6+ years of sustained dominance in our division, I might be willing to live with that now that we've at least got that first ring out of the way.

QUOTE(jackie hayes @ Jun 5, 2007 -> 04:49 PM) And there's no going back. Doing the rehab now, he can always get the surgery in the future. He did what he thought was best for his career, I can't really fault him. I'm sure Boras did a full evaluation, too. It's in everyone's best interest that Joe plays well. Just a difference of opinion. And, I think in the end, it sure looks based on the rapid recurrence of back problems within a month or so of the start of this season, combined with the incredibly poor performance of Mr. Crede this season, like the team has been proven fully correct and Mr. Boras proven fully wrong in his assessment.

QUOTE(RockRaines @ Jun 5, 2007 -> 04:44 PM) back surgery is so risky though. anyone have any info on whether fields is playing for charlotte today? I think that the team would have fully evaluated that if they were going to reccommend that Mr. Crede have the surgery. I can't imagine the team would tell Mr. Crede to do something that they thought had a high probability of making it so that he wouldn't be our 3rd baseman this year.

QUOTE(WCSox @ Jun 5, 2007 -> 01:41 PM) Absolutely. I think that Zito has a good chance of being an exception, but I don't expect him to get back to his Cy Young numbers either. Even if Mr. Zito pitches out the entire duration of his contract, which I dunno...he's certainly not worth $18 mil per year right now, and I find it almost impossible to believe he'll be worth it in the future. Spending big money on long term deals for pitchers hasn't just been risky, it has been suicide.

QUOTE(The Ginger Kid @ Jun 5, 2007 -> 04:35 PM) I feel bad for Joe. He was starting to blister the ball then got hurt. He hasn't been the same at the plate since that cubs series. I'm afraid I can't return the sentiment. As far as I'm concerned, Joe basically asked for this to happen. He went with Scott Boras's advice on what the best way to deal with his back was (rehab) instead of listening to the advice of team doctors (do the surgery & get it actually fixed).

QUOTE(NorthSideSox72 @ Jun 5, 2007 -> 12:51 PM) If you read the article in today's Trib with KW's full quotes, you will see what a moron this MLBTRADERUMORS guy is. KW did NOT say he would not be trading for prospects. He said right now that is not his focus, but he also hinted as usual at being open to whatever happens. If I was ready to call it quits on this season, I would think it's a real shame KW didn't say he wasn't trading away folks for prospects. Because personally, I won't think KW is even considering going into selling mode until he denies publically and vehemently that he's going into selling mode.

2004 #1 draft pick (of the reds, #7 overall) Homer Bailey will make his major league debut this friday for the Reds against the Indians.

Veteran OF Steve Finley has been Designated for assignment by the Rockies. He is 42 years old, and was hitting .181. He has 10 days for the Rocks to trade him or he'll be released.