WCSox

QUOTE(gosox41 @ Jun 16, 2007 -> 03:04 PM) Having a strong farm system gives the team a lot more flexibility. That's true, but it doesn't guarantee anything either. Larry Himes drafted/traded for a bunch of future studs in the late '80s and they couldn't even win a playoff series.

Big price tag + no defensive skills + Thome = No thanks

I would expect at least one player who has had some success at the ML level if I'm going to deal Buehrle. I kind of doubt that Minaya would do this, but I'd try to package Mark and Fields for Wright and a high-tier prospect. Reyes is an attractive option as well, but I don't think that he'd be under our control for as long.

QUOTE(southsider2k5 @ Jun 11, 2007 -> 05:36 AM) After that, I like Minute Maid a lot too. The Sky Dome was pretty cool as well. Yuck. The Sky Dome was out-dated about 10 years ago. I stayed in one of the hotel rooms overlooking RF back in the late '90s and still wasn't really impressed. Minute Maid is a lot nicer, but the exterior is incredibly dull (as is the surrounding neighborhood). And watching a game with air conditioning blasting just seems unnatural. The upper deck seats are very nice, though. Out of the retractable roof stadiums that I've been to, Safeco is easily the best. Never been to Miller or Bank One (or whatever it's called now). Indeed. The renovations in the late '90s made it a lot nicer, but the seats were still way back off the field. Its saving grace was the fans. Cards fans are polite beyond belief. The ballpark that I've been most impressed with was the Jake, and a lot of that had to do with the atmosphere. Then again, I haven't had the pleasure of visiting Camden Yards, PNC, or SBC.

QUOTE(southsideirish71 @ Jun 14, 2007 -> 02:37 PM) A splitter is something that the more over the top you go the better. You pull down on the pitch pretty hard and snap your wrist to get a backspin, that makes the ball drop. On a forkball you spread your fingers out a bit more and dig deeper into the ball more, the spin almost has a knuckleball look to it. Dropping down is not a good idea with a splitter. The more on top of the pitch you are, the more likely you are to get the tumble action you are looking for. That what I would've thought. I never threw a splitter when I pitched in high school, but it seems logical that one would get more downward rotation by throwing overhand. I didn't understand what Dusty was talking about, but gave him the benefit of the doubt. I won't make that mistake again.

QUOTE(Brian @ Jun 15, 2007 -> 10:40 AM) Tallest midget, etc. Yep, guess the grass wasn't greener on the other side. I'm still surprised that he took such a dive from '06 to '07. Hopefully he's figured it out.

QUOTE(AirScott @ Jun 15, 2007 -> 11:24 AM) Like Kalapse said, I was being sarcastic, Since I didn't see your original post and it wasn't written in green, I didn't pick up on the sarcasm. No hard feelings. Absolutely

QUOTE(AirScott @ Jun 15, 2007 -> 10:46 AM) Then you can't be older than 16 years old. Sorry. LOL at the infinite wisdom of the 20-year-old. Apparently you haven't followed sports long enough to know that a bad start isn't a death sentence: How about the 83-79 Cardinals that got hot in the playoffs and won the WS last year? Or the mediocre 2005 Steelers that entered December at 7-5, ripped off four straight wins to get the Wild Card, survived three tough road games in January, and won it all the following month?

QUOTE(spiderman @ Jun 14, 2007 -> 08:17 PM) IF they were to win 15 out of 20 games, they would probably be about 6-7 games out of the division lead, and and 5 or 6 out of the wildcard, and I think Kenny Williams would look to add on. This is a great post though. Perhaps Kenny is looking at these next 3 weeks as a final measuring stick to see if they can muster up a run. In my opinion, the White Sox aren't nearly as bad as they have been in the last 18 games, but they aren't really much better than an average team. They could just as easily go 12-8 or 8-12 in this stretch. I agree with that. I'm not sure if they'd be looking to add on if they played really well over the next few weeks, but they may decide to hang onto either Mark or JD and take the draft picks, rather than trading them next month. I'm very cautiously optimistic, given that they're playing well below their talent level and they have some soft opponents coming up.

QUOTE(Steff @ Jun 15, 2007 -> 09:29 AM) It had something to do with AM1000 sharing frequency with other AM or FM stations. West of Darien after 7pm on weeknights and most all day on weekends, AM100 was non-existant because the station they were sharing the signal with took over. Ah, well that would make sense. Thanks.

QUOTE(Chisoxfn @ Jun 14, 2007 -> 11:31 PM) I'd have been even worse. QUOTE(Tony82087 @ Jun 15, 2007 -> 06:21 AM) North had Cooper on as a guest. Attacking him as soon as he comes on is no way to treat a guest. +1 There's no justification for what North did. He was clearly baiting Coop and is more interested in creating controversey than engaging in intelligent sports discussion. Didn't North interview for Imus' old job at CBS in NYC? Hopefully that means he'll be leaving sometime in the foreseeable future. QUOTE(klaus kinski @ Jun 15, 2007 -> 08:22 AM) Maybe Reinsdorf's worst move ever was leaving AM 1000- I don't think that anything will top forcing out Harry Caray. QUOTE(maggsmaggs @ Jun 15, 2007 -> 08:28 AM) Also by moving WSCR, the Sox could be heard farther away from Chicago since the Score's signal travels much further than ESPN's. It does? I could get AM 1000 down in Lafayette, but not WSCR. The signal strength might vary with direction.

QUOTE(Kalapse @ Jun 14, 2007 -> 04:29 PM) Back the f*** off the personal s***, I didn't take any veiled shots, next time don't get your numbers wrong and maybe you won't have to be corrected. Why does everything have to be so damn personal with people? LOL, this coming from somebody who went nuts when somebody made a general comment about Soxtalk a week ago. And nice use of four-letter words to get your point across. The flaw in that argument is that Anderson doesn't produce at the plate AT ALL, not even when he's 100% healthy. I agree that Erstad misses a ton of time with injuries but he at least produces SOMETIMES. I'll take him and Terrero as a backup over Anderson any day. How Anderson even made the Opening Day roster is beyond me.

QUOTE(Dick Allen @ Jun 14, 2007 -> 04:18 PM) If you're going by last year's stats to rip on Anderson, you really have a weak argument if the counterpoint is Erstad. Wasn't his average lower than Anderson's last year. I do think a lot of people make way too much of the 90 wins last season. First off, it was good for 3rd place. Secondly, they were 10 over .500 against the NL which was clearly a weaker league last season, WS win or not. As bad as you think Anderson is or was offensively last season, remember in spring training when Ozzie said he didn't care what he hit, only that he played good defense? Its interesting that Anderson's OBP was .002 lower and his slugging % was .001 higher than Ozzie's when Ozzie was a rookie and named rookie of the year. If he can't play, than neither could Ozzie. (1) Comparing Anderson/Erstad hitting stats to Ozzie's stats 20 years ago is like comparing A-Rod's hitting stats to Cal Ripken's. (2) Prior to this season, Erstad has hit reasonably well when healthy. Anderson has not. (3) Ozzie's comments about defense were obviously crap. I have no idea why he said that.

QUOTE(Kalapse @ Jun 14, 2007 -> 04:04 PM) What good does Erstad do you if he's on the DL or hobbled by a bum ankle? And I never said you did it on purpose maybe you shouldn't take s*** so personally. And what exactly is the difference between a strikeout and a ground ball to 2nd? Strikeouts don't bother me all that much when he's walking at a decent rate like he did last season. Or maybe you shouldn't take veiled shots at people, since you have a history of being overly-sensitive to criticism. Erstad has a track record of being a halfway productive hitter. Throwing out last year, which he missed most of due to injury, his OPS was around .700-.750 in '05 and '04. KW took a small ($750k) gamble on a vet who had actually been productive in the recent past. It didn't pay off, but Anderson's so freaking bad that a career bench player like Terrero took his spot. What has Anderson ever done to earn his way into the starting lineup?

QUOTE(Balta1701 @ Jun 14, 2007 -> 02:50 PM) In 17 at bats. No, it's not. .632. And only 51 of those at bats were outside of 2006. My mistake. But it doesn't change the fact that Anderson can't hit major-league pitching. QUOTE(Kalapse @ Jun 14, 2007 -> 02:54 PM) Kind of a big difference when you drop someone's career OPS by 100 points. You're right. I misrepresented data on purpose. :oldrolleyes You crack me up. Anderson struck out in a full 1/4 of his at-bats last season, he only drew 30 walks, his average is laughably low, he doesn't really hit for power either, and he can't steal bases. But he was supposedly a better option than Erstad at the beginning of the season? On a team that was supposed to be competitive? LOL. I have no problem with people criticizing KW for signing a cheap, broken-down Erstad instead of a more reliable veteran. I have no problem with people criticizing Ozzie for playing Erstad in CF and not using Anderson there as a defensive replacement. But at this point of his career, Anderson is worthless outside of his defense. Absolutely worthless. And I'm glad that he's back in the minors right now because that's where he belongs.

QUOTE(Kalapse @ Jun 14, 2007 -> 02:52 PM) I would hope Erstad and his shaky ankle would take over LF duties with Terrero staying in CF. That would be fine as well. As long as Erstad doesn't bump Terrero out of the lineup.

QUOTE(vandy125 @ Jun 14, 2007 -> 02:13 PM) ^^^^ That was the first thing my mind jumped to. I enjoy watching Terrero play right now. Will he still be around? I would hope that Terrero would start in LF once Erstad is back.

QUOTE(Balta1701 @ Jun 14, 2007 -> 12:07 PM) He also did add that pretty good split finger pitch at the end of last year. New pitch=new problem? Possibly, but don't pitchers typically drop down a little to get more break on their splitters? (Heard that on the radio yesterday, but it was from Dusty Baker, so it very well may be wrong ). IIRC, that would shift the stress from the rotator cuff to the elbow.

QUOTE(IowaSoxFan @ Jun 14, 2007 -> 01:47 PM) If Dunn is traded he becomes a free agent at the end of the year. Which means that the Sox won't trade for him. Outside of his age, he's not an improvement over Thome.

QUOTE(Balta1701 @ Jun 14, 2007 -> 01:33 PM) Brian Anderson's OPS over all last year: .649. Darin Erstad's OPS over all this year: .652. Anderson's OPS this year: .387 Anderson's career OPS: .532 Despite the career-high OPS in '06, Anderson still struck out 90 times last year (with only 30 walks) in 365 at-bats. Oh, and he can't steal bases either. Erstad is clearly in the twilight of his career and his production has slid significantly, but it isn't difficult to understand why Ozzie didn't want Anderson starting in CF at the beginning of the season.

QUOTE(Kalapse @ Jun 14, 2007 -> 12:38 PM) I wouldn't, Erstad's only going to end up playing around 3 months this year atleast with Anderson you have some upside and relative health. Erstad's only costing $750k and Anderson was a complete disaster at the plate last season (.225 BA, .290 OBP, 90 K, 30 BB). He was more of an automatic out than many of the pitchers in the NL. No matter how good his glove is, nobody with Anderson's bat is going to start on a team that's supposed to be competitive.

QUOTE(dasox24 @ Jun 14, 2007 -> 11:02 AM) I don't like the idea of trading Vazquez. He has a reasonable contract (in this day and age) for how he's pitching, and we'd be hard pressed to find another pitcher capable of putting up his #'s for what we're paying him. Absolutely. If I were to deal any of our SPs, it would definitely be Contreras. Vazquez will continue to pitch at his decent-but-not-great level for several more years. Contreras appears to be declining quickly.

QUOTE(Kalapse @ Jun 14, 2007 -> 11:22 AM) Which has more to do with the way this team was put together than anything else. When you're putting incredibly injury prone players in important positions and expecting them to stay healthy you can't blame injuries for your team's failures. Can't argue with that. Then again, this organization's young, healthy players are overwhelmingly mediocre. I'd rather see an injury-prone-but-productive Erstad in our lineup than Anderson.

QUOTE(WhiteSoxfan1986 @ Jun 14, 2007 -> 04:45 AM) If we could get a lot for him I wouldn't have a problem with it. His loss of velocity coupled with his weight worries me. Not to mention he has a history of injuries. That is true. Then again, so is this... QUOTE(beck72 @ Jun 14, 2007 -> 05:11 AM) The sox aren't going to be in complete rebuilding mode in '08. With some salaries coming off the books, the sox can add a few key pieces. Not to mention if the sox get near ready prospects in deals this year. Jenks isn't going anywhere. Given how bad the rest of their bullpen is and the fact that Kenny isn't going to completely blow up this team, I don't see it happening unless somebody is willing to give up a ton for him.

QUOTE(fathom @ Jun 14, 2007 -> 10:06 AM) You know what WCSox....I give you credit for actually coming up with the type of trade that KW would like to do. I'm very worried that we'll go after Figgins. Actually, I was just trying to think of what we could possibly get from LAA from an inexpensive-yet-aging-and-often-injured Thome, in response to Balta's comment. Outside of Jared Weaver, who is almost certainly untouchable and worth more than Thome anyway, I don't think they have a whole heck of a lot to offer. I would've loved Figgins two years ago, but I'm not so sure now.