NorthSideSox72

QUOTE (Thunderbolt @ Sep 29, 2010 -> 09:19 AM) True, although about two weeks ago losing out didn't seem altogether impossible. I'm just frustrated with the whole organization at this point. Everyone is. The DH debacle is reason number one for me, followed closely by Ozzie's bizarre antics. And those are 80% and 100% on Ozzie, respectively. So I guess really, I'm frustrated with Ozzie. Most else I am fine with.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Sep 29, 2010 -> 08:01 AM) Well, we currently have 84 wins. Prior to the last 5 wins, that means we had 79 wins. If we'd lost out from that point we'd have finished 79-83, under .500. There's every reason to believe that under .500 should be in the top 15 picks. Realistically though...finishing under .500 would have required going something like 2-17 in our last 19 games, starting with the beginning of that 8 game losing skid. Yeah, so, not really realistic.

Its all about how much money the Sox are willing to spend on player payroll in 2011. If they are willing to boost it a bit, not even a lot, then I am honestly pretty optimistic about next year. I mean, this team will probably win 87-88 games, after having lost their best SP for most of the year, and having a closer that sucked basically all year - two things that seem unlikely to repeat in 2011. The one obvious hole the team had was the DH debacle, and I highly doubt KW will let that happen again, even if Ozzie begs. And look at those three things for next year. Bobby and his $7M+ likely salary will be gone, with Thornton or Putz to close. Peavy, probably, will be healthy for 2011, and we have up to 7 possible major league starters, which most teams would be jealous of. DH, well, we'll see how that goes, but I predict a near-zero chance we end up with a Kotsay/Jones level disaster again. One other thing - The Twins are having a magical year, playing at an absurd pace for the final 4 months (not 4 weeks - 4 months). The chance of any team repeating that sort of thing year over year is always very low in baseball. So you guys can be sarcastic, but my concern slides on the scale of money available to spend. If payroll has the flexibility to go up a bit, I feel pretty good, pending the offseason moves. If its the same or lower, then it will take some miracle moves from KW to give me the same level of confidence.

QUOTE (Thunderbolt @ Sep 29, 2010 -> 07:29 AM) I can only watch these Red Sox games because of my college sitiuation. Frankly, i'm not overly enthusiastic about watching meanigless wins ruin our draft position while giving Ozzie something to harp about going into his (god willing) lame-duck year. Ruin our draft position? Come on, that's ridiculous. Unless we are somehow able to get into the Top 15 draft group, then the difference between say, 16 and 17, or 18, is nothing at all. Better to throw the youngsters out there and have them work their butts off as an audition for 2011, and hope they win a few. Is getting into the Top 15 even possible? Was it even realistically possible before the little 5 of 6 streak we are on?

QUOTE (fathom @ Sep 28, 2010 -> 08:07 PM) Best pitcher no one's heard of: http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/players/8622 After tonight, 37 K in 19 IP He walks a ton of guys, but those K and AvgA numbers are insane. Anyone know what the scouting report on him is?

QUOTE (T R U @ Sep 29, 2010 -> 03:39 AM) It would surprise me greatly if one of our team figureheads announced he planned on leaving the team with games remaining in the season.. I see no way that happens.. I agree, no way that's what happens. Might be a slight, slight chance he's retiring, but I doubt it. More likely, he'll say he's going to test the market. The way the Sox org works, they probably don't know yet if they can offer him anything substantial, because they don't yet have a target "number" for 2011. Therefore, PK really has no choice but to test the market.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Sep 28, 2010 -> 02:44 PM) Yesterday was the hottest day ever recorded in Los Angeles. It was so hot that the official weather service thermometer actually broke and couldn't record peak temperature. Oh, and Lake Mead is about to hit the danger/water conservation point. If its that hot in LA, I wonder how hot Death Valley is today. Or how hot Phoenix will be tomorrow. Or, is this a localized LA area phenomenon?

QUOTE (joeynach @ Sep 28, 2010 -> 02:58 PM) Since the lease is signed until 2025 I see very little behind the senators statement. It sounds more like political talk than any real action. The lease is a contract that binds the two parties to the terms, there is very little that can be done to change the agreement. You can just say lets take a look at making some changes cuz we want to now, that's the point of signing the contract, so you cant do that. Silly politicians. This isn't really the case. ISFA can sell any property it wants, including the Cell - the contract, unless it states that per se, does not prevent that. What would happen is, if they sell the stadium, then the contractual obligations go with it. So the buying party inherets it, and has to follow it, again unless either of the the two conditions I mentioned earlier are true. Just like when one company buys a business unit from another.

End of season update... Rem had surgery to repair his knee (due to a cover play at first base) in mid-July, and is still rehabbing, with hopes of being ready for ST. His final numbers for 2010 at W-S, which were very similar to his Kanny numbers after a month adjusting... 25 G, all in relief 2-1, 5 SV 39.1 IP 34 H 12 ER 3 HR 13 BB 60 K 2.75 ERA 1.19 WHIP 1.71 GO/AO .236 AvgA 13.7 K/9 2.9 BB/9 If all goes well with Rem's rehab, and he looks strong in ST, I hope to see him in AA Birmingham. He adjusted well to High A and finished strong before his injury, and at his age and development, that is where he should be. But he may end up back in W-S again, especially if they feel he's not quite 100%.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Sep 28, 2010 -> 01:33 PM) I'll agree that it should be higher. But I would also argue that a lot of things should be higher...and that cutting taxes on high-earners should be lower to balance that out. When it comes down to making that choice though, I think we can see which way the wind is blowing. Eh? You have an odd way of looking at budgeting. I'm saying, with the given budget constraints, this should be higher on the list than some other things. So, you can choose to cut some things from the bottom, or, raise taxes in some fashion. But either way, this is higher than many things the government at any level is spending money on.

typewriter, I have merged your thread with this one, which is the exact same topic, and contains a list of the FA's in the first post.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Sep 28, 2010 -> 11:50 AM) You don't think that there are more than a couple hundred Santa Barbara size districts in the country? Just do the math here. 100,000 votes per election for $1.3 million. Last presidential race, the turnout was somewhat around 100 million. Carry those numbers through...and that's $13 billion using that ratio. And remember...if you're solving this problem...you need to buy enough voting machines to handle the largest turnouts. And really, stop pretending that there is "waste" that can be trimmed. If we're talking about finding more money for schools, using your old voting machines longer or having fewer voting machines is counted as trimming waste. That'd be heroic if it we were discussing school funding, and most districts are going to think so. My point is, you have to prioritize all spending. And making sure people can vote, to me, should be near the top of any list.

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Sep 28, 2010 -> 10:14 AM) If Konerko weren't to return because of Ozzie leaving I'd be perfectly fine with it. I don't see him matching this year's production next year or the year after and we'd have the money to go after Dunn. See, value-wise, I think this isn't the case. I agree that PK is unlikely to put up 2010-like numbers in the next couple years. But, I also think that PK would sign with the Sox for a lot less than Dunn, and this team's financial constraints may make that the best move.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Sep 28, 2010 -> 08:03 AM) What city is out there hunting for an MLB Team? I think part of it is that those cities might have a shot at supporting a team, but neither one of them has had the facilities to do so. Most lists I see have some combination of: Portland, Charlotte, Nashville, Las Vegas, San Antonio/McAllen, Salt Lake City, Albuquerque/Santa Fe, and San Juan PR. QUOTE (Milkman delivers @ Sep 28, 2010 -> 09:26 AM) I'm not sure which cities are looking for teams, but there are some pretty populous areas out there with no teams. Off of the top of my head, there's New Orleans, Charlotte, Portland, Oklahoma City, Memphis, Nashville, Louisville, and Las Vegas. New Orleans is still a disaster and a shrunken city, I don't see them being viable. Nashville is Memphis but with money and no Cardinals nearby, so Nashville wins out there. Louisville is very near Cincy. And I hadn't heard OKC before for baseball, that might be interesting.

QUOTE (Milkman delivers @ Sep 28, 2010 -> 09:00 AM) They're going to remake a movie? That doesn't seem like them. I wonder why they would remake a classic like True Grit, instead of a movie that had potential it didn't reach. Similar but not the same, didn't they direct No Country For Old Men? Because that movie was a pretty much direct treatment of the book, very little added or taken away. NCFOM was new as a film, but it wasn't truly new material either.

QUOTE (justBLAZE @ Sep 28, 2010 -> 08:57 AM) Not trying to say I told you so, but some of the 15 page threads with some posters saying how Ozzie WILL be gone come 2011 were pure comedy gold. It played out exactly how I thought it would, he is under contract and he is back, if Kenny really wants him here for good they will probably work out an extension next season. I am tired of Ozzie's act as much as the next guy, but he still is the only manager that Sox won World Series with in my lifetime, I think this team has a great chance next year and will be better than this years team, pending an offseason catastrophe of course. Can't say it's gonna be hard for me to root for the White Sox next year because Ozzie is the manager, GMAFB. How good this team is next year, IMO, is entirely about money. If the team is willing to bring back some of the key FA pieces, and make an investment (in trade and/or money) in RF/DH, maybe add a bit to the bullpen... then I agree, this team has a strong shot at being better this year. If on the other hand, they need to stay put or bring down salary, then it will take some very impressive manuevering by KW to make this team better.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Sep 28, 2010 -> 07:50 AM) PA by month for Mark Kotsay: March/April: 41 (Jones was on fire) May: 79 (Kotsay actually had a hot streak and earned some of this) June: 68 July: 65 August: 69 Sept: 28 Games played: 10 19 16 16 16 7 I sure don't see his playing time falling off the map until ManRoid was acquired. Started in late August, just before ManRam was acquired. As you show there, with September being a down month.

QUOTE (Athomeboy_2000 @ Sep 28, 2010 -> 07:44 AM) Wasnt there a survey done that shows a lot of Sox fans are in the western suburbs? Arlington Heights is not a western suburb. That's well north of center. Plus, a suburban location means everyone has to drive. So what benefit is there really for suburban fans, unless they are in one of the few suburbs closest to the park? They'd have a traffic-filled drive either way. That would be a lose-lose situation, moving to a NW suburb.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Sep 28, 2010 -> 07:46 AM) The problem is...dictating how many machines there are per voter = dictating that large cities spend a couple million extra dollars on voting machines. The HAVA provided some funding for some cities...but this is a problem that you need to throw a couple billion dollars at before it is gone. Of all things to spend money on, I consider making sure people have the opportunity to vote to be awfully high on the list. This is basic stuff.

QUOTE (flavum @ Sep 27, 2010 -> 11:14 PM) David Price is right, and he shouldn't have to apologize, even though he did. That market simply cannot support major league baseball. Neither Florida team can. They were pretty stupid to put two teams at once down there like that. I can't believe the Marlins duped the taxpayers into building them a new stadium when they can't get more than a thousand people to their current games. One of those two teams will move in the near future, probably the Rays.

QUOTE (NIUSox @ Sep 27, 2010 -> 06:32 PM) About a month ago I stepped on my laptop and cracked the screen. After looking at new laptops, I bought a new screen online for about $100 and installed it myself with a little help from my dad and it has been fantastic. It was pretty easy and neither one of us are very handy with computers. Basically all you have to do it unscrew the screen, unplug two things, plug them into the new screen, screw it back in and your done. Took about a half an hour. What brand of laptop did you have?

Where are people getting Borat? I can't think of a single quote from that movie that anyone ever actually says.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Sep 28, 2010 -> 07:30 AM) Aside from funding in the Help America Vote Act...most if not all voting machine types are chosen, programmed, and paid for at the local level. In terms of potentially opening paths for local election fraud, it certainly is something of a risk. In terms of preventing national election fraud...it could well be a good thing because it's hard to systematically reprogram a large number of machines if you only have access to a single city/county. In terms of having poor voters systematically disenfranchised because of long lines...it absolutely does, on the scale of at least hundreds of thousands of votes. I didn't say you dictate to the local authorities which machines to buy, or when. I'm saying you dictate how many voters per machine as a minimum, and that the machine prints out a hard copy to show the voter and file. Those should be per se federal laws, IMO. The localities can decide where to put the polling places, what hours they are open, what brands of machine to buy, staffing the polls, etc.

Well I was hoping Ozzie was gone, so this is sort of disappointing. But... QUOTE (pittshoganerkoff @ Sep 27, 2010 -> 05:41 PM) Based on some comments made by Konerko in the past, I wonder if this increases the chances he re-signs with the Sox. That is one good aspect of Ozzie returning. PK is more likely to come back, probably. QUOTE (fathom @ Sep 27, 2010 -> 06:44 PM) Does anyone actually expect this to get better next year with Ozzie's extension/future with Sox in even more of the spotlight? For everyone involved, it's time for Ozzie to leave the Sox. Ozzie learned and adapted well his first couple years, so I'm hoping maybe 2 straight disappointing seasons might force him to look in the mirror again. Not betting on it, but its not impossible either. QUOTE (southsideirish71 @ Sep 27, 2010 -> 10:50 PM) I wonder what slappy grindy not so talented lefty we will sign this offseason so Ozzie can fall in love with him and overuse. They believe the DH through bench players is a success. The only person who might sort of think that is Ozzie, and I think even he realizes he had the wrong parts there. Notice how Kotsay's playing time fell off the map in August.

QUOTE (Tex @ Sep 27, 2010 -> 07:06 PM) While risky, a Sox move to Arlington Heights might push them ahead of the Cubs finally. Or destroy them I think that would be an awful move, they'd alienate their south side core of fans in a big way.