WCSox

QUOTE (BearSox @ Jun 9, 2008 -> 06:41 PM) Sun-Times is a classless junk paper. I don't want to get into anything political here, but they are as far left as can be and extremely biased. I don't care if they're far left, journalism has no place for blatant biases. It wouldn't make a difference to me if they were far-right. I'm not journalist expert, but for good journalism, you have to show all view points, not just your own. Although not relevant to this forum, the above is 100% correct. The Sun-Times has really gone downhill over the past 5-10 years. While I respect Telander, I won't read their sports section as long as they employ obnoxious jerks like Moronotti and perpetual whiners like Slezak. It's a piece of garbage publication is just about every facet.

QUOTE (SoxFan562004 @ Jun 9, 2008 -> 11:53 AM) ERA+ is also good since it's league and ballpark adjusted WHIP is also very telling, and is probably the most meaningful stat for a reliever.

Anybody else getting a really choppy signal over Gameday Audio?

QUOTE (103 mph screwball @ Jun 9, 2008 -> 09:38 AM) I think part of the reason that the farm system looks so bare is because KW has made some impressive trades to get young major league talent on the roster. Our system has produced guys Young, Gio, Sweeney, McCarthy, and more. KW did not want to wait to put a playoff caliber team on the field so he traded those players for more developed players and pitching. We have had a farm. We traded them for Quentin, Vasquez, Thome, Floyd, and Danks. I think he gets too much criticism of the farm at times. Could it be better? Yes. I hope some of the recent changes help. I agree he is top ten and deserved executive of the year in 2005. Hopefully he will win it this year. Outside of Young (and Sweeney so far), none of the guys that Kenny has dealt over the recent past have amounted to much. Agreed that the Sox have developed some good position players over the past 3-4 years, but just about all of their halfway decent pitching has been acquired from elsewhere. That said, I agree that Kenny absolutely did the right thing in dealing good-but-not-great young players like Gio, Olivo, etc. for proven veteran talent. Even if the state of the farm system was his own fault, he made the best of the situation. The one thing that I absolutely couldn't stand about Ron Schueler was the way that he over-valued good-but-not-great players like James Baldwin and Mike Cameron. When the Sox were in the hunt for the Wild Card back in '96 and their window of opportunity was closing, he refused to deal any of his young talent, much to the ire of not only the fans, but his own players as well.

Assuming that Joe stays healthy for the remainder of the season and hits around .270-.280 with 25-30 HRs, he's looking at about $70 million on the FA market this winter. Given Joe's recent back problems and his age, and with Fields at their disposal, I don't see Kenny paying him. As for the "hometown discount", Joe being a Boras client strongly suggests that he's after as much money as he can get. And since this is the one and only time that he'll be getting a big contract, it's highly unlikely that he'll stay in Chicago for 4/55 or whatever.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jun 9, 2008 -> 10:16 AM) But the nice thing is...it also might mean that.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jun 9, 2008 -> 09:10 AM) Well...here's the thing...how do you define talent? Jim Thome is the most talented if you judge talent by how far he hits the ball and nothing else. Quentin right now seems to be our most talented overall player with the bat. But Alexei is solid with the bat and also is probably our best athlete I'd guess...seems to be both strong and very quick...Quentin couldn't outrun Alexei if his life depended on it. He might've meant that Alexei is the most talented ATHLETE on our team. I wouldn't argue with that, but it doesn't necessarily mean that he'll become the next Hanley Ramirez.

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ Jun 8, 2008 -> 07:08 PM) Kenny proves once again that fans (including myself) for the most part don't know s***. +1 Not sure I'd go that far. Kenny's a mixed bag. The criticism of him letting the farm system go to crap is valid. That said, his record on trades and FA signings has been overwhelmingly outstanding. As somebody else in this thread mentioned, he's easily a Top 10 GM.

QUOTE (Cubano @ Jun 8, 2008 -> 05:00 AM) Baltimore is rebuilding. The new GM would not trade for Uribe for sure. He wants young players. Not to mention the fact that Uribe can't hit anymore and is only under contract for this season. I've been pleasantly surprised with Alexei defensively. I imagine that he'll be our Opening Day SS next year. I'd like to see him get more time over there when Cabrera gets a day off.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jun 8, 2008 -> 06:02 AM) Anyways, just for snorts and giggles, Crede is on pace for 37 homers and 104 RBI. If he gets anywhere near that, he's looking at about $80 million this winter. Too bad it'll be with somebody else.

QUOTE (29andPoplar @ Jun 7, 2008 -> 01:28 PM) Of course I am biased about having veterans who know what they're doing, especially when you're contending.

QUOTE (whitesoxbrian @ Jun 7, 2008 -> 02:16 PM) The Cubs swept us in The Cell last year. Hence the "almost always" caveat, or did you not read that part? IIRC, the previous sweep was '99 (Sox over Cubs at Wrigley). In other words, it's usually a pretty competitive series, despite some rather lopsided match-ups over the years.

QUOTE (SoxFan1 @ Jun 6, 2008 -> 09:27 PM) TV gun. He hit 88 once, the others were 84-86, with 74-78 on the offspeed. Comcast's gun isn't very reliable, so it's difficult to tell what's real and what isn't. But if it was even remotely accurate last night, the fact that he only hit the upper 80's ONCE suggests that, unless he develops Maddux-like command/movement, he's done. I still like this signing, though. Loaiza might be able to make some adjustments and improve over the next month and a half or so. And while doing this with a rock-bottom price tag, he gets to play mop-up man, while Masset (who isn't pitching badly this year) gets to throw some more meaningful innings. And it's not like they were going to keep Wassermann in Chicago for much longer anyway.

The one prediction I'll make is that neither team will sweep either of the two series. Sox/Cubs is almost always very competitive.

Nickelback? Madonna? Kenny Loggins???

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Jun 5, 2008 -> 05:03 PM) AJ is decent in that role, but for him, he's better in the 6th slot. Yep, but until PK, JT, and Swish start hitting like major-leaguers, AJ should stay put in the 2-hole. Completely agree. When he starts hitting again, he'll definitely be an asset there.

QUOTE (Controlled Chaos @ Jun 5, 2008 -> 08:29 AM) "My concern was the bullpen, the way we were using it,'' White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen said. "We've got to protect our pitchers the best we can. Loaiza can do both. He's going to be the long man and an emergency starter. That's the way we're going to start with him. That will give us an opportunity to use Masset more. Because the way Masset is pitching, I think we should use him a little bit more.'' I like the sound of that.

QUOTE (Controlled Chaos @ Jun 5, 2008 -> 09:14 AM) I think the expectations I had of Swisher were he wasn't going to be a good CF, but I think he has been real solid out there. If he's not equal, I think he's pretty close to Rowands level. Rowand was an elite defensive CF three years ago. Swisher is a corner OF/1B who has been essentially forced to play CF in Chicago. Agreed that he's been really solid out there and has exceeded expectations... but I don't think that makes him equal to Rowand in his prime. Rowand's only weakness back then was his arm strength, and Swish doesn't exactly have a cannon either. That said, I think that we would be OK with Swish in CF for the next year or two. Alexei is clearly more physically-talented than '05 (past his prime) Tad. I think that Tad played a better 2B better than Alexei (who is essentially a utility player). JMO. Of course, Alexei clearly has more potential at this point in his career than Tad did three years ago. It's just a matter of when/if he realizes that potential.

QUOTE (RME JICO @ Jun 5, 2008 -> 06:52 AM) Hopefully this means that Big Jim is seeing the ball better which would translate into better AB's. I don't think you can luck into a shot like that. Paulie hitting one was nice to see too. Hopefully both of these guys can start to heat up to take some stress off the pitching staff. Big Jim is also only 2 behind Frank. I didn't think he would catch him this early; and only 3 behind Williams and McCovey. Not to rain on the parade, but I'll be more excited about Thome's power when he inverts his BB/K ratio. He's whiffing WAY too much this season.

QUOTE (Controlled Chaos @ Jun 5, 2008 -> 08:53 AM) I think this team is far better defensively. Agree 100% on the fundamentals... Quentin>Pods Swisher=Rowand Dye=Dye maybe lost a bit...but I don't think enough to warrant him being much worse than his 05 self Crede=Crede maybe lost a bit...but I don't think enough to warrant him being much worse than his 05 self Cabrera Alexei>Iguchi Paul=Paul AJ=AJ Outside if Quentin > Pods and Paulie/AJ being essentially the same, I disagree. Crede already has more errors this year than he did in '05, '08 Cabrera is a drop-off from '05 Uribe, Rowand was a much better CF three years ago than Swisher is now (although BA is better than '05 Rowand, IMO), and Dye has lost range in RF. I also wouldn't say that Alexei is better than '05 Iguchi. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that the Sox are defensively "bad" this year. But they were EXCELLENT three years ago, and I don't think that the current group is at that level.

QUOTE (whitesoxbrian @ Jun 4, 2008 -> 10:55 PM) Only difference- one team started off 18-5, the other didn't. One team could also successfully execute a bunt and hit with RISP. I like the Sox's chances this year, but they lack the funamentals (and defense) that the '05 squad had.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Jun 4, 2008 -> 10:42 AM) So, seems like four possibilities here, as far as I can tell... 1. Send Wassermann down, Loaiza goes to the pen 2. Release Masset (no options), replace with Loaiza 3. This is a pre-cursor to a trade of some kind 4. Send Loaiza to Charlotte, and boot Tomo Ohka. He becomes the backup to the starting 5. I personally think that 4 makes the most sense. 3 might be good, depending omn the trade. 2 seems silly, as I don't think Masset is bad enough to warrant replacing him with Loaiza. And 1 would be odd role-wise, but might make sense. I am really hoping for 3 or 4. I agree. No way I want Masset released. Regardless of Loaiza's situation, I think that Wassermann needs to be moved back down. I'd rather see a position player on the roster than Wassermann.

QUOTE (Steff @ Jun 4, 2008 -> 08:58 AM) Long relief would be my guess. Regardless, it never hurts to have some insurance. And at the league minimum is a plus. Absolutely QUOTE (fathom @ Jun 4, 2008 -> 09:02 AM) I'd rather have Wassermann on the team than Loaiza. I saw him pitch a few games for the Dodgers the past few years, and his stuff was below average. Just about anything would be an improvement over Wassermann.

QUOTE (southsideirish71 @ Jun 4, 2008 -> 05:52 AM) I am not a fan of greg, however you can't blame him for being upset. Dangling anyones job in the press will piss off anyone. In my view, if you have come to the conclusion to do something, then you do it. You don't use the press the threaten. Nothing is accomplished with that. Ageed, but Ozzie also dangled his own job in the same sentence, and has done so on several other occasions. Because of that, I don't think that Ozzie was trying to throw him under the bus per se. But it's understandable that Walker was pissed, as Ozzie's comments were, as usual, not very professional. On top of that, I get the feeling that Walker is sick of dealing with the heat from the media and fans as well. It's probably best that he parts ways with the organization sooner this winter, if not sooner.

QUOTE (Frankensteiner @ Jun 2, 2008 -> 10:13 PM) Well, what you think of Swisher probably depends on what you think of his previous "training regimen." There's a chance he might not be the same player again in which case his value is only going down. It's sad to have these sort of doubts about players but those are the consequences of steroid era baseball and a player showing very little power through 2 months of the season. If Swisher was a former 'roider, his numbers probably would've began falling off a couple years ago when they implemented testing, rather than suddenly fall through the floor this season. His past two seasons were very similar (more HRs in '06, more 2Bs in '07). That's not to say that he definitely didn't use, but it's not like he had a long Mike Cameron- or Bret Boone-like track record of little power and suddenly morphed into a 30-HR hitter five or six years into his ML career. After watching him swing at balls in the dirt last weekend, I'd say that most of his problems right now are mental. And I would definitely not trade Swisher either. If Anderson and Owens don't pan out (which is likely in both cases), we're going to need somebody capable of playing CF. QUOTE (G&T @ Jun 3, 2008 -> 03:04 PM) According to the Score, Walker's response to the what have you was "Out of respect to the owner, I decline to comment." What that means, I don't know. At face value, it sounds like he's pissed at Ozzie. Then again, who knows if the Score took his comments out of context.