southsider2k5

QUOTE (santo=dorf @ Nov 17, 2008 -> 04:07 PM) I am getting so sick of the "it opened up a spot for Floyd or Danks" comment about Garland. That's completely hindsight and could've been applied if Garland was released eating his entire salary which wouldn't be fair to say either. Couldn't I say the trade of Garland allowed us to suffer from Javy all season long, or that we could've had someone step in Contreras' spot and not force our guys to go on short rest for so long (could possibly effect them for next season.) "Opening a spot" without hindsight would be something like a Liriano situation where he is dominating and is blocked. Danks and Floyd were coming off of 5+ era seasons. Also, if it's true that the Sox aren't planning to offer Cabrera arbitration, I hope there's a filter that wipes out anytime some posts "player X is a type A free agent so that's two picks we'll get back." It might be hindsight here on the message board, but it was what Kenny Williams intended to do, so I think it is a valid point. Williams was putting his chips in on Danks and Floyd developing into servicable major league starters. He deserves full credit.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Nov 15, 2008 -> 12:51 PM) Torres has changed his tune from the end of the weekend/Monday at the latest to the end of next week...wonder what happened? I wonder if he showed up out of shape and scared some people off?

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Nov 17, 2008 -> 03:03 PM) Not sure where else to post this but it's an interesting read: Are you an idiot to keep paying your mortgage? I watched the press confrence where this plan was announced and I had two thoughts. #1, my first mistake was not buying a big enough house and my second was paying my mortgage. That is my biggest problem with this crisis from top to bottom is that we are rewarding risky behavior. I hate the fact that we are basically put into a situation where we are forced to make the decision to either let these institutions die at the expense of our economy or bailout bad behavior. Its the same issue at the individual level. My wife and I planned to keep our payment under 25% of our net income. Both our realtor and banks were trying to get us to go higher, and we wouldn't. Now it turns out we could have gotten a free ride, and we have to pay for people who didn't plan like we did. This whole situation is a clusterf*** of epic proportions.

QUOTE (ChiSox_Sonix @ Nov 17, 2008 -> 02:41 PM) I'm getting really sick of people claiming Garland for Cabrera was a bad move. -Garland performed at his usual mediocre nothing to complain about but nothing to blow you away 4th starter self -Garland is a Type B FA who'll net the Angels 1 pick; Cabrera is a Type A and will net us 2 -Cabrera did not have a bad year for us and it was better than what Uribe would have done -Trading Garland allowed Floyd and Danks to land a spot in the rotation and we saw how that worked out I'm having a really hard time to claim a "loss" for KW here The only "loss" in that trade was that Cabrera pissed off the organization, plus he wasn't interested in signing and extention. Luckily the work of Kenny Williams got us Alexei Ramirez so we aren't going to be as hurt by his departure.

QUOTE (DBAHO @ Nov 17, 2008 -> 02:33 PM) Found this little blurb from a Cards' Blog about him; It's safe to say though, that Cards' fans weren't happy with what he did at the MLB level however; Judging by his monthly splits, he is either a guy that got "figured out", or a guy that is tipping his pitches, and word got out. http://firstinning.com/players/Kelvin-Jimenez-a Any scouting report for the guy?

QUOTE (Raf @ Nov 17, 2008 -> 01:15 PM) Wow. The analysis is spot on. The Sox DID sell shockingly low on Swisher, AND gave up the best pitcher in the deal on top of everything. The chances of Swisher rebounding are much better than any of these former Yankee scrubs ever amounting to anything. There's a reason why South Side Sox is regularly linked to by other, respected publications. It's a great site with extensive analysis and scouting predictions, which is more than I can say about Sox Talk. I'm sure I will be kicked off now, so I will leave you all to bicker amongst yourselves. Yeah, we even let you on!

QUOTE (Texsox @ Nov 17, 2008 -> 11:47 AM) Was this some kind of Fathom type bet . . . If I win the Presidency, I will never post on Soxtalk again!

QUOTE (Texsox @ Nov 17, 2008 -> 11:26 AM) Come on, without a laptop and internet connection, how is POTUS2k9 Going to post on Soxtalk? I was going to learn him some politics in the 'buster Yeah, you guys are going to be really shocked when I quit posting on Jan 20.

QUOTE (Texsox @ Nov 17, 2008 -> 11:15 AM) Personally, I understand the security aspects, and the fear of anything and everything becoming public, but it seems like there should be a middle ground here that would allow the President of the US to use some tools. No computer on his desk? That's crazy. No computer, no cell phone, no crackberry? What's left to do? Hey Monica, whatcha doing . . . Run the country?

QUOTE (DBAHO @ Nov 17, 2008 -> 10:28 AM) Should he be taking advice from Bush Era Economic Advisers then? Seems as if at least during the Clinton Era, the American Economy was doing just fine. Maybe it's just me, but I'd rather take advice from people who have a proven record in doing a good job with the economy then from those who have flushed it down the toilet, so to speak. That's just it. That track record is bogus. It's like taking a click at Russian Roulet and thinking you are invincible because you didn't get the bullet.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/ci...house-useconomy

A late congrats Rex! Awesome. I wish I had half of your willpower!

QUOTE (The Critic @ Nov 14, 2008 -> 06:03 PM) Would you rather he got dog food and dog saliva all over a White Sox jersey??? ....me neither.... Makes me almost miss Bartolo Colon...

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Nov 14, 2008 -> 05:09 PM) To answer my own question here, I at least am giving an argument about why Chapter 11 simply might not be possible in the current lending environment. In other words...if the first bailout had done it's job, we wouldn't need to bail out GM. But if that bailout was constructed in such a way that it did not force lending to resume, we may well have to bail out GM because GM won't be able to finance its way through Chapter 11. As I demonstrated earlier, if they had lent that money out, a lot of banks would have still failed. They wouldn't have been around to lend anything anyway.

QUOTE (Kalapse @ Nov 14, 2008 -> 03:20 PM) And you can only hope to cut his pay by 20%. Given the fact that he qualified as a Type B player at his position and players rarely receive pay-cuts in arbitration (unless they miss an entire season due to injury; save Joe Crede) Juan would make no less than $4.5M in 2009. If the Sox offered $3.6 in arbitration and Juan submitted a number of $4.75M, I think Juan would win. I still think a team would trade for him though, so if he did accept arb. the Sox wouldn't be stuck with his contract for long. At worst, there were teams that tried to claim him on waivers last year.

And he isn't about to leave over $2.5 millon on the table.

QUOTE (DBAHO @ Nov 14, 2008 -> 02:59 PM) Uribe made what $4M or 5M in 2008? What do you think he'd make realistically if he were to accept arbitration with the Sox? If he accepts aribtration we don't get a draft pick AND we can only cut his pay by 20%. All of that for maybe 2nd round pick.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Nov 14, 2008 -> 03:02 PM) I can't imagine how we could possibly trade him if he cleared waivers and no one grabbed him. We pick up another teams "problem" to equal out the cash.

QUOTE (ChiSox_Sonix @ Nov 14, 2008 -> 02:22 PM) I initially thought it was a no-brainer also, but is there actually a chance some team will sign him with less than a half year of AA experience and leave him in the majors all year? With his K numbers, he might strike out 250 times at the major league level if he played a full year.

QUOTE (FlaSoxxJim @ Nov 14, 2008 -> 10:54 AM) The Fixx pretty much only had two hits and that was one of them. Don't pretend you're too young to remember suffereing through them the first time around. He's not pretending to be young, he just doesn't remember.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Nov 14, 2008 -> 01:53 PM) And assuming we don't sign a type A guy this offseason and we offer arbitration to Uribe and Cabrera, we're at least looking at a late first rounder this year, 2 sandwich picks, a 2nd rounder, and a pick that's either a late first or early 2nd rounder also. It sounds like with the aquisition of Betimet, we aren't going to risk Uribe accepting arbitration, so we won't offer it to him.

QUOTE (Texsox @ Nov 14, 2008 -> 01:34 PM) Who wants to tell him . . .

QUOTE (Cknolls @ Nov 14, 2008 -> 12:57 PM) By Michelle Malkin � November 13, 2008 08:55 AM Didn�t have time to post an alert beforehand, but I did a brief segment on Fox& Friends this morning on the mega-auto bailout. Reader Alan e-mailed about his experience in the industry: Dear Michelle, Thank you for taking the time to read my comments. I worked in the Automotive Industry for most of my career as a supplier to GM, Ford, Chrysler, Honda of America, Toyota, Nissan, and BMW. You were exactly right with your comments on Fox & Friends this morning. The UAW has handcuffed GM, Ford, and Chrysler with unreasonable and unrealistic burdens. Their balance sheets will never improve until they shed this weight. There is another aspect affecting their business and is not being talked about in the media very much. Having dealt directly with all current domestic automobile manufacturers, there is a distinct difference in how the Big 3 do business with their suppliers as compared to Honda, Toyota, and other foreign automotive assemblers. Toyota, Honda, and Nissan in particular want to make sure they are entering a partnership that insures financial success to all parties. GM�s business practices generally lead to no profit, tremendous oversight by their internal supplier quality watchdogs, who demand unrealistic expectations, and extremely slow payment in the reimbursement of tooling costs to start new programs. It is not unusual to see reimbursement for tooling costs years after the program has started. Their business practices are not a tax payer problem, but a terrible management problem. It was a noble idea for the Federal Government to lend them $25 billion to help. It is now known 4 X�s that amount will not cure the root cause of the problem., but only buy them 4 X�s the amount of time. When a cancer is identified inside a person, it is immediately removed if possible. The Big 3 has a cancer that needs to be removed. It doesn�t take a rocket scientist to understand why they cannot compete profitability. They have parity on supply costs, materials, and energy with Honda and Toyota. So why can�t they compete? It is clearly the cost of labor. A few years ago I was in Warren Assembly, in (Warren, County, (sic) [Macomb County,] Michigan. Two plants side by side make the Ford Focus and the Ford Expedition. As you drive from [Dearborn] to Warren County, every abandoned shopping center parking lot was full of vehicles. A friend of mine was then the HR Manager for Ford Truck and I asked him why they were still building. His answer astounded me. UAW Labor is paid company wages whether they work or not. America has to wake up concerning this. Until we can get organizations like the UAW to understand the only missing ingredient to creating a level playing field is getting the cost of labor to a realistic level, domestic car makers will never be successful. The funny part is that AIG is getting such grief in the media about a $400,000 get away, when it would take exactly 8 autoworkers, not even getting fired, but just taking the wages of their Toyota counterparts to make up that same money that AIG wasted, yet no one is even talking about the payroll as a source of their problems. We are talking about 123,000 employees times $50,000 is $6,150,000,000 in extra costs! We hear about a CEO taking home an extra $10 million in compensation, but six BILLION dollars is only mentioned on the blogs? Come on.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Nov 14, 2008 -> 12:30 PM) What is idiotic about the unions refusing to negotiate is that if the company(ies) fail, and go bankrupt, the union contracts go fully out the window anyway. Then they will get far, far less. They are taking a huge gamble with people's careers and lives. I for one think that bankruptcy may actually be better, in the long run, for GM and possible the others as well. They would come out the other end as stronger, more competitive enterprises. I know the popular boogeyman to blame the auto company's is the lack of research and development over the last decade or so, but when you are talking about an extra $50,000 of compensation PER EMPLOYEE over what Toyota is paying, there is pretty much no money left over for things like R&D. That extra compensation forced the US automakers to pour all of their resources into the high returns of SUVs and trucks, because they don't make any money on cars. When oil prices went crazy, the Big Three was toast. This handicap is a direct result of the unions.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Nov 14, 2008 -> 12:11 PM) Yeah, short term I think it ranges around in the 50's and 60's, and that's what the commodities guys I talk to are saying. Maybe flirts with $50 even or so. But long term, its headed up. I'd be buying calls for 2009 and 2010 contracts. It looks like the Dec09 par calls could be had for about 4.00. The 150's are 0.50 at 1.83 if you really wanted to stay small on your bet.