ScottyDo

Alright so I'm in this fantasy keeper league, right? And I have too many options so I'd like people's advice. The set-up is this: H2H points with pretty standard scoring. We MUST keep one pitcher and one position player. We MAY keep one additional player if we wish. *EDIT We lose draft picks for EVERYONE we keep, including the ones you must keep./EDIT* We lose the draft pick in the round they were chosen the following year if we choose to keep someone. So say I picked up Alex Rodriguez in the 18th round (hey, anything's possible!), I'd lose my 18th round pick the next year if I chose to keep him. Any additional years I choose to keep him, that round is moved up by 2. So if I kept him 2 years, the second year I'd lose my 16th rounder, etc. So the emphasis is on balancing new talent with overall skill. Alright, so here's my dilemma. I have Hanley Ramirez, drafted in the 5th round, so I'm probably keeping him. From a position player perspective, I also have Chase Utley, drafted in the first round. And Nick Markakis in the 11th round. And Corey Hart, undrafted. Those are all options. But with my pitching staff, I have a litany of cheap talent I have to choose from: Tim Lincecum - Undrafted Chad Billingsley - Round 19 *SP AND RP eligible! John Maine - Round 21 Mark Buehrle - Round 17 Oliver Perez - Undrafted Scott Kazmir - Round 7 Chien-Ming Wang - Round 10 Carlos Zambrano - Round 3 Roy Oswalt - Round 3 I also have Brett Myers but he's probably not worth keeping at round 4. I'm really leaning towards Lincecum, but I'm worried about long-term durability and sophomore slump. Also, Billingsley looks to have pretty tremendous value, as do Maine and Perez, and possibly Kazmir. What I WANT to do is keep Hanley Ramirez and one of those guys as the necessary keepers and keep Utley additionally, because what a solid core at weak positions I'd have. But then I'd be passing on a LOT of good value in the pitching game. Any insight?

oh yeah...good call. wow, that was quite the brain fart. scratch my previous post

well, my interpretation would be that ozzie doesn't make the draft picks. Kenny Williams does. Sure, Ozzie probably has some say, but Kenny Williams' drafting mantra has been "draft pitching all the time". Makes decent sense, young pitching is the strongest MLB currency, but that would explain why we don't have any of those Venezuelan SS prospects. Additionally, I wouldn't think Ozzie would have THAT much pull with prospects since they wouldn't be playing with him for a few years. He probably has more pull when it comes to free agency and overall managerial acumen.

In a fistfight? Danks, cuz he's scrappy.

I won't even say his name, but a certain closer we got from the A's with a stupid-ass beard. GOD that guy infuriated me. I've never been a big Crazy Carl guy, but I don't think he belongs on my MOST hated list. He was around at the right time.

Not that it'll mean much, but I'd like to have seen more pitchers on that list. If we're bare anywhere, it's either the bullpen or the back end of the rotation. Granted, the odds of any invitee making our rotation are slim because our back end is young, but the bullpen? It's certainly possible.

QUOTE(bigruss22 @ Jan 8, 2008 -> 10:48 PM) Sorry to be offtopic here, but I just noticed you were from Ann Arbor, are you a student or what? I thought I was the only Sox fan here! I actually just moved out of Ann Arbor, I just haven't updated my profile to reflect it. Right now I'm in Carbondale, but I was in Ann Arbor for like 3 years previous. I'm not a U of M student, I was born there, moved to Chicago, then moved back for some reason. I was very disappointed to learn that even though I was moving to the Sox's state, I wouldn't get Sox games in Carbondale. Doesn't seem fair to me. All of Illinois should show them. At least I have WGN. And B-dubs like I had in Ann Arbor.

This is pretty good evidence of a) our drafting/development ineptitude, B) the relative worthlessness --or maybe i should say overratedness, if that's a word -- of prospects in general (I mean, I'm sure we got some useful players in return for some of those guys) and c) solid reasoning behind the swisher trade. now what would be interesting to me is to see the prospect rankings of some of those guys at the time of their trades. Most likely none of them were at the level of Gio or DLS but if they were, that's even MORE evidence. anybody got that information?

QUOTE(iamshack @ Jan 2, 2008 -> 10:56 AM) Thank you for trying to explain this yet again. And it can even be explained more easily than that. Say I want to buy a new car. So I go to the dealership, some guy shows me some wonderful sports car- says it will allow me to deliver more papers on my paper route because it is so fast and handles so well.I start thinking to myself, "wow, I could probably make alot more money with this faster car- probably even enough to offset the monthly payment and make more profit then I currently am." So I say to the dealer, "What kind of financing can I get? Can you tell me what my monthly payments would be?" And so he tells me they can finance the car for 5 years, for $500 a month, with no money down. The total cost of the car is $25k. Then, just as I am about to make an offer on the car, Johnny the magazine subscription seller rolls in and offers the dealer $27k for the car. The dealer, surprised and blown away, accepts before Johnny changes his mind and sells him the car- the only one of that model they have in stock. Shocked, I go home empty-handed, and keep the car I already have. The next day, I'm playing my Wii on my roommates tv, and I accidently throw the controller right through the screen, breaking it. My roommate says "That tv cost $2,500. Give it to me NOW! I tell him I don't have $2,500. He says "Yes you do! You were going to buy a $25,000 car just yesterday! Don't lie to me!" Is that a true story?

QUOTE(BearSox @ May 18, 2007 -> 01:21 AM) From the years 94-00, the M's were a mediocre team. Had a few playoff seasons, nothing special. Then, all of a sudden, the year ARod leaves, they win 116 games! From the years 01-03, the Rangers were the basement dwellers of the West. Then all of a sudden when he leaves, they win 89 games. Coincidences, I think not. Wow, that's the ultimate basketball fan's response. Replace A-Rod with the average 3B and I guarantee you you're no better off. No 3B/SS with an all-time great bat has ever caused a team to be worse than it was without him. Now, the rangers may have been basement dwellers because of the CONTRACT they gave A-rod which tied up all their money, but it wasn't his presence that hurt them. And the M's winning 116 games after A-Rod left is in no way related to his disappearence. No one position player is bad enough to lose their team 40+ games like you're asserting. QUOTE(santo=dorf @ May 17, 2007 -> 10:12 AM) Any chance we can package Crede and some minor league bullpen arms (Dewon Day) for Griffey? Personally, I think the last thing we need is to get older and more injury prone.

I hate them both with a fiery, burning passion. But Yankees fans have become parodies of themselves so they're easier to laugh at. Actually I guess Cubs fans have too with their insane adoration of mid-ranged pitching. Regardless, I have more Cub fans as friends and they need to be knocked down a peg. The Yankees losing to the Sawks this season is enough humiliation for me to enjoy. That said, the Cubs fans are more used to losing than Yanks fans are so maybe I should switch my vote.

QUOTE(BigSqwert @ Apr 28, 2007 -> 10:41 AM) From the official Sox site: I'm with Ozzie on this one. Get him completely healed and run without him for a week or two, rather than risk a long-term injury. I honestly think we'll be fine regardless if we continue to pitch.

QUOTE(Jordan4life_2007 @ Apr 28, 2007 -> 02:16 AM) Losing Thome for a couple weeks is hardly a season killer. I think will be fine. Ahhh, the voice of reason! Seriously, we're in 2nd place in the hardest division in baseball with virtually NO offensive production. I think we'll do alright without Thome for a little while, especially if any one of our boppers breaks out of it. Thome has been good so far but it hasn't translated into much production yet we're winning games regardless. Now if Thome is out for more than a month or two (which hasn't even been insinuated), then we might have a problem but I still don't think it would be cause to forfeit the season.

QUOTE(Craig Grebeck @ Apr 24, 2007 -> 02:15 AM) Erstad would be the worst corner OF in the history of the game. i dunno, what about podsednik?

YES!!! GOING TO MY FIRST SOX GAME OF THE YEAR!!! I'll be in the lower deck along the 3B line. Look for the guy with the Buehrle jersey and the broom! SWEEP, MOFOS!!!!

Like what I've seen so far, for sure! Reserving judgement till he sees a team twice, though. If he learns the Buehrle Cutter though, like you were saying, he'll be killer! Cutter in on the hands of righties is devastating.

well since we're on the topic of Ozzie, FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, AM I THE ONLY ONE WHO REMEMBERS MANUAL!?!?!? If you guarantee me we'll get someone better than Ozzie the hell, I'm all for it. But we could do a LOOOOT worse. Call this "intangibles" if you want, but the players like to play for him and that's a good portion of why we win a lot of games. If the players don't like playing for another manager, I GUARANTEE we start losing in a hurry. He doesn't get a free pass forever but just assuming he's gonna be replaced by a Hall of Fame type manager doesn't make ANY sense. And YES, he can have a free pass for 2 years after giving us our first title in like 80+.

QUOTE(whitesoxfan101 @ Apr 20, 2007 -> 01:30 AM) Speaking of things I've never seen For the 3 game series with Texas, Thome was 3 for 4 with 3 home runs, 3 RBI's, 5 runs scored, and 9 walks....so he reached based in 12 of his 13 plate apperances, that is astounding. Holy crap, those are some ridiculous stats! Wow.............

Hey, I know this is a lot to ask, but how about we wait till Pods is hitting below .300 before we throw him under the bus? I know he's on the DL but we paid next to nothing for him, in major-league terms. Obviously, Ichiro, amongst others, is a far superior player but if the Sox are willing to give up market value in prospects for him, I damn near guarantee you someone else will sell their entire farm just to get him. I'd rather not do that. Our best hope to land him is free agency, if you ask me. So, thusfar, Pods has been a more-than-adequate player for the price we paid. And there are a lot of ridiculous claims being made as to who's better than Pods. e.g. Gload for leadoff man? Hahahaha....

QUOTE(SoxAce @ Apr 19, 2007 -> 02:56 AM) He has just pitched an instant replay no-hitter. Wow 2 no-nos in a 12 hour period! now THAT has to be a record!

So I have a long annoying story about why I couldn't watch the game tonight, but needless to say I want to KILL comcast for effing up my chance to see history! I'll have DirecTV within the year because of this. So what I REALLY want is to download the game! But I can't find where on MLB.com to get it. Anybody know exactly?

QUOTE(RockRaines @ Apr 18, 2007 -> 12:07 PM) Hey guess what. The playoffs in 2005 were not the warmest nights of the year, but we hit just fine. We hit better than the other team did. Greg you are f***ED here, resign or be fired. Good point...

I still want to wait till the weather is consistently warmer (who knows, maybe our guys just can't deal with it like other guys can...hard to plan a team around who is a cold-weather hitter though), but I'm very close to being convinced that Walker is a bum. The one highlight was first half last year when everybody's average was high because they were line-driving everything and pulling only the appropriate pitches. Honestly, I have no clue how it happened. Half a season of EVERYBODY (but Uribe) performing that way seems like more than fluke so Walker might have the ability to revert the club to that form, but I'm not sure he's getting the word from above to do so. Seems like an organizational philosophy to me. Ouch.

Hey everybody! his name is TejEda not TejAda! he's not a shortstop. just nitpicking. be on your merry ways. p.s. GO SOX!!! I bet Konerko kicks his awful streak today. Beating the crap out of whatever he was mad at last game was the solution, I think.

I don't see how half those players make the list over Big Frank. He's not mean, but pitchers were definitely afraid to pitch to him in his prime for fear that they get domed, or worse, upper-decked