ScottyDo

QUOTE (whitesoxfan101 @ Feb 21, 2010 -> 02:54 PM) Well, that's a fair question. I'm not accepting that because it's the projection, persay. The Sox could score a significantly higher run total than that if Quentin returns to 2008 form and Rios returns to mid 2000's form and Andruw Jones has a good bounceback season. Even if only one of those three things happens, the total is probably a little higher, and if two of the three occur, that probably increases the run total into the mid or maybe upper 700's. But odds are more likely those things won't occur, so odds are in favor of the run total being just below 700. However, the good news is those aren't hopeless causes, it is realistic that any or all of those things occur, which is where the hope for 2010 lies. Well that, and the fact we know the pitching should be great. I think the big wildcard here is how the defense performs. I don't think it's great, but it could and probably should be significantly better than it was in 2009. Yah I see where you're coming from here, but the way I see it, this is the most unpredictable offense we've ever had so our attempts at sorting it all out are futile. I can completely realistically see us scoring anywhere from 700-820 runs. That's a pretty wide range of possibility, simply because every player in our lineup has a high upside but fair odds against fruition. I just don't see how everything is doom-and-gloom, because more than any year I can remember, we simply have noooooo idea. I think maybe we're really just scared of the uncertainty.

I think it's hilarious that we're all just accepting under 700 runs as an inevitability because projections say so. Team-wide projections are wrong more often than they're right. By a good margin. How many runs did Minny project to score last year? I don't know the answer to that, but I'm gonna guess it wasn't mid-800's.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Feb 21, 2010 -> 10:21 AM) Before we start saying guys are done if they go 0 for 10 during spring training or give up 8 runs in an inning, or put them on the All Star team because they are 9 out of their last 14 or pitch a couple of scoreless innings with 5 ks lets all keep in mind these spring training facts from the Tribune: In 2005, White Sox pitchers a 5.59 spring ERA before proceeding to win the World Series. Brian Anderson batted .309 the next spring to win the starting center field job, only to lose it by midseason. And infielder Wilson Betemit led the Sox last spring with six home runs and 18 RBIs, only to be designated for assignment two months later. Hahahaha EXCELLENT points. Unless Beckham looks good. In which case, he is a demi-god, and we will anoint him such.

Add Russell Branyan to the list? That said...Damon.

QUOTE (JoeCoolMan24 @ Feb 21, 2010 -> 03:03 AM) Outstanding? I think Rios is the only one of our 5 OF who has that potential. Jones was, at one point, an outstanding CF. Unless you think he's lost it, I think he has potential to be an outstanding corner outfielder as well. Sounds like his knee was what was keeping him relegated to the DH in Texas. Pierre has average to above average defense in LF, throwing arm aside...which, let's face it, you're going to save WAAAAAAY more runs catching the ball than you are throwing it.

QUOTE (chw42 @ Feb 20, 2010 -> 11:19 PM) Williams is far from fat Damn! Who am I thinking of?

QUOTE (JoeCoolMan24 @ Feb 20, 2010 -> 11:14 PM) Hopefully he looks like the one of the left, and not the one in the middle. http://www.mouthpiecesports.com/soxmedia/2.../picture-71.png Honestly, I wouldn't recognize the man in the first picture and the man in the third picture as the same person. Wow.

QUOTE (Quinarvy @ Feb 20, 2010 -> 10:14 PM) Don't we have someone in the bullpen? Yeah but he lost like 30 lbs, that just takes the fun out of it. Isn't Randy Williams fat? He'd be fun to mock.

QUOTE (2nd_city_saint787 @ Feb 20, 2010 -> 09:15 PM) after reading the article i just posted im gonna change my answer to stand pat. I think Andruw Jones is hungry and thats not a fat joke Well then, who are we gonna make fat jokes about this year?

QUOTE (chunk23 @ Feb 20, 2010 -> 08:20 PM) Replacing Dye with Pierre is a massive offensive downgrade. Teahen isn't good. Better than Fields/Nix/Getz, but still below average. There is no guarantee whatsover that Rios will bounce back or Quentin will be healthy. KW is counting on way too many lucky breaks. I don't think following normalized career trajectories for people like Rios, Alexei, Beckham and Quentin who should all be on the uptick is "counting on lucky breaks". They're not a toss of the coin, the odds are weighted towards success this year, even if there is a risk of them failing.

If Blalock is willing to sign for $3m or less, I say sure, go for it. Otherwise, I don't think he's got much value. Moderate power by itself is not worth much. I mean, some of us would have killed a man to be rid of Juan Uribe a few years ago, and he can play pretty superior defense. Same goes for J.D. He's not signing here, though, under any circumstances.

QUOTE (whitesoxfan101 @ Feb 20, 2010 -> 07:16 PM) Well, we've done it once before, 9th in the AL in runs in 2005 with 741. I can't see this offense hitting either of those plateaus, though. You really can't see this offense scoring 741 runs? I can. Not that I didn't want Damon, I really really did, but I don't think his absence puts us that far back. Certainly not worse than last year.

Tigers sign Damon, Purdue beats Illinois...can we go back in time 30 minutes?

Personally, I think we may undervalue Beckham's power. He'll grow into it, he's still very young.

QUOTE (bmags @ Feb 20, 2010 -> 03:25 PM) This was never my position. DH was the ideal position to fill via free agency because of the depressed salaries it was commanding. As far as criticizing an executive for, imo, making a really shortsighted commitment that will cost them games, sorry. I guess I should just result to insulting posters and trying to convince everyone that putting two horrible baseball players at a position, and relying on a great rotation to overcome what is likely to be one of the worst offenses in the AL, are REALLY great ideas. Because...we're on a budget Personally, I get where you're coming from, but I don't think it's as doomsday as all that. I expect a middle-of-the-pack offense next year even with the DH situation as it currently stands.

I don't really think the Johnny Damon situation was a budget issue so much. I think it was more that KW placed a cap on what Johnny Damon was really worth, got Reinsdorf to okay that value, offered Boras that value, and was essentially rebuffed. I just think that, for whatever reason, Dombrowski placed more value on Damon than we do (which is weird, because why trade Granderson then sign Damon in one offseason? But I digress). Thus, the budget constraints were pliable, as they probably should have been, but that doesn't mean you just pay any amount for a player if you want them mildly.

QUOTE (bmags @ Feb 20, 2010 -> 01:49 PM) No, again, I'm not, so you need to get over it. If I went to the store to shop for a big birthday party and had $100. And then spent $60 on some real nice ingredients for a great cake. s*** is gonna be a Texas Red velvet cake, will be comparable to any cake any one else could make that day and birthdays are MADE on that cake, and then spent 15 dollars on some nice potato chips, some on some candles, some tomatoes, buns, mustard... and then all the sudden realize I only have $2 left for the hamburger meat! s***! You don't say, "wellp, I was working on a budget, NBD" and have it be a legitimate excuse. And it turns out, a 10 lb package of ground chuck was on sale for $5. But hey, you were working on a budget, nothin you can do. Hey, sorry Insurance company, I'm workin on a budget and I spent the $30 on body shots last night, but it's okay man, I'm on a budget, you don't understand, you're operating in a video game mr. insurance man, if my budget was 500 and i spent it on other things, you have no right to claim that I owe you that money, mr. fantasyland. :lolhitting

I'm just saying, the perception of the worn-out veteran getting another chance appears to be much different for pitchers than it is for hitters. Maybe that's Greg Maddux's fault. But yeah, I guess there was some backlash against the pitching staff. The whole CR/AP thing.

QUOTE (ptatc @ Feb 20, 2010 -> 12:08 AM) I'm not disagreeing about the development of players. However, the 5 million you are referring to will not help anywhere significantly. There is a budget the 6 million they offered Damon is already over the budget. This is money that doesn't exist. You may think "just spending a little more" will help bit JR is not giving that money to KW. KW spent his money on pitching if he had the extra 5 million we may not have the pitching staff that we do. As you said it's all about allocating the resources and KW decided to load it up in one area. It's like the NFL. Very few teams spread the money between the offense and defense because spreading it out only makes them average to above average. They concentrate on one area to be really good there and fill in the rest. This is what KW has done. It's just that the filling in part is on the offense which goes agianst what has been done here lately and people feel more comfortable with it. I agree with that. For some reason, people were significantly more accepting of bartolo colon and co. at the end of the rotation last year than they are of jones/kotsay this year. Talk about holes...40% of our rotation was holes last year.

QUOTE (MattZakrowski @ Feb 19, 2010 -> 11:17 PM) Completing a major league roster isn't like choosing a team template in a video game. You should try to put the best players you can at each position, and Damon/Thome/Matsui/Guerrero/Johnson would have been a huge upgrade over the vortex of suck that is Jones/Kotsay. I think every time someone mentions Thome as a "shoulda been DH", they should have to put Jones/Thome like they do with Kotsay.

QUOTE (bmags @ Feb 19, 2010 -> 09:15 PM) that's really nobodies fault but his own though. Which contract(s) are you mad about that put them in this situation? PK's is big, but it was a discount in the market of the time. Jenks? Rios? And who should we have in at those positions instead with lesser contracts? And yeah, I agree, more investment in scouting/development is important, but it sounds like you have more of a problem with KW's budgeting than just that.

QUOTE (Flash Tizzle @ Feb 19, 2010 -> 09:12 PM) Even if Jones and Kotsay exceeded everyone's expectations and did well in their DH roles, would anyone be fooled into bringing them back for the spot in 2011? I guarantee, bad or good, those two won't be the DH past this season. So really, what's the point of it? Just to prove to people that it can work? There's no reason, other than Williams not having enough money left over to fill the position; and he can use the "Ozzie wants these type of players" excuse to justify it. That's a pretty big reason.

QUOTE (chunk23 @ Feb 19, 2010 -> 08:58 PM) We have a hole in LF, might have a hole in CF, and have a hole at DH. If Juan Pierre and Alex Rios are holes, especially with Rios playing CF, then pretty much every ML team has serious holes

QUOTE (longshot7 @ Feb 19, 2010 -> 08:53 PM) To be fair, we don't have gigantic holes on this team. They've done a better job this year at filling their holes than in the past. Yeah, this. People are just getting their hyperbole-pants on because they think the biggest hole (DH) should be easy to fill. I agree, to a certain extent. Except I'm somewhat satisfied with half the platoon so I really only see half a hole. But I'm not lamenting that we trot out some disgrace of a team.

Wow, this really surprises me. I know it's just a reality show, so it won't show the most intimate workings of the club, but the Sox management are usually such a clandestine front office that I never thought in a million years they'd consent to this. I guess it does raise the Sox' profile somewhat, so I'm sure it makes good business sense. It just surprises me, though. Also, since it's MLB calling the shots to a pretty large degree, I bet they pretty much had to do it once it was proposed.