Brian26

Perhaps they're not alive anymore and the family is selling it. Not too hard to figure out. A lot of people in the organization got a ring.

This. 100% correct.

I'm the exact opposite. I've always known he would make it, but I had my doubts he would go first ballot. However, with all of the nonsense over the last two years and all of the writers complaining how hard it has been to make these votes, there's not a doubt in my mind that Frank, Maddux and Glavine all make it next year. The voters are waiting for a chance to make an easy decision, and these three are as easy as it gets.

HAFNER? Dear God.

LOL.

How so?

Nobody gives a rat's ass about the Kane County Cougars. It's low level Single-A ball, on the level of junior college baseball, maybe. The Sox aren't shaking in their boots.

A manager has two jobs. There's the "x's and o's" on-field strategy. There is also the behind-the-scenes managing and guidance of the clubhouse, player's egos, player's personalities, and the overall psyche of the team. Guillen dropped the ball on the latter of the two last year, and that was with a very talented team. I think a very good team of players can overcompensate for a bad "x's and o's" manager. I don't think a very good team of players can overcome a bad "clubhouse" manager. All IMHO, of course.

The Dodgers game was another blunder, that time mental more than physical, of epic proportions. Glad today didn't turn into a Brant Brown moment for the Sox.

Like I said, I think it was someone or a group of guys behind the scenes at the Score that started it as a joke just to see how far it would get. None of the hosts could mention it on the air since they didn't have confirmation (they were being played), although a few of them laid down very subtle hints over the last few days in passing. It only spun out of control last night after WSI and Soxtalk had mega threads going. That's when Coppock, Grobstein and other media people started making statements. Mully & Hanley were probably watching everything unfold last night since they had confirmation that it was false from the White Sox as early as 5am this morning.

It was actually a weird situation because it went down so quickly while most of us were at work. When I saw the thread, I started a PM discussion with the original poster asking him for the name of his contact person at the Score so I at least knew he was legit. He was unwilling to give up the name in order to protect his friend's job. At that point, the thread was put in the "What's the Score" forum where unregistered users could still see it (generally where trade rumors, not PED rumors go). It wasn't put into the Roadhouse until later in the night (where only registered members could see it). WSI didn't start the rumor. Mully and Hanley this morning said they had heard it last Friday. Gonzalez said he had "heard it" last week (I agree, just because he said he heard it, he wasn't lending credence to it). It was floating around WSCR at least since the middle of last week. I have the original poster's name and his work email address. I can confirm he doesn't work at the Score, and I have no reason to believe he doesn't have a friend there. All signs point towards someone (or more than one person) at the Score starting this rumor as a joke to see how far it could spread. FWIW, I don't believe the "Detroit Tigers Message Board" theory unless someone can come up with a link. If anything, it goes to show how influencial boards like Soxtalk and WSI are since this entire thing ignited after it was posted at both places. The media in this town is lazy, and I know they monitor these boards for info. It was a unique situation last night and a learning experience.

Stopped reading there. Funny.

With Quintana coming back down to earth, another starter may not be a bad idea.

Kaplan is the best guy to screw with on Twitter. He's a hothead.

Well, again, his entire premise and the examples he's laying out is that Kenny always "buys low". That may be the case with Youk, Quintana and possibly Liriano. But the author uses Peavy and Rios as examples too. That's just plain wrong. Taking on $60 million worth of salary reamining on Rios' contract and $50+ million on Peavy's contract is hardly buying low when you consider that $110 million could have been used in other places. Just because Kenny didn't give up players when he took those guys on, doesn't mean he bought low. He essentially gave up acquiring future players with those two acquisitions. My experience is that the guys that write at FanGraphs are out of work college kids.

Gospel. And the entire premise of the article is that Kenny buys "low". How the hell were the Rios and Peavy acquisitions "buying low". Those two pickups handicapped Kenny to the point where we had to dump Quentin over the winter and not even offer Buehrle a contract.

I had heard he was going through some "personal issues" and figured it was because of his sick child. What scumbag Score guy brought the divorce thing up? I guess that fills in the blanks. I'm willing to bet it was McNeil or Lawrence Holmes.

Awesome post. You're my new favorite poster.

A rental with no draft pick compensation after this season. That's what separates this from the 2008 Brewers trade for CC.

Ichiro might be a different player in NY with some protection around him. Granderson and Jeter batting behind him, he could be tough.

Maybe '02 and parts of '03. I'm thinking of the Opening Day meltdown in '04 and the Cubs game disaster. Too many bad memories of Damaso....

I liked what I saw from Veal last night. Septimo has a little too much Marte in him.

1 Peavy 2 Sale 3 Quintana 4 Floyd 5 Humber Bullpen 6 Myers 7 Reed 8 Thornton 9 Santiago 10 Jones 11 Axelrod 12 Septimo? Omogrosso and Veal back to minors?

Interesting ...are the Marlin's scouting the Sox or KC?

The best part of this, if you look at the Twitter feed, is dumbass Chris Singleton responding "legit" because he misunderstood the tweet too.