WCSox

QUOTE (bmags @ Mar 5, 2010 -> 06:47 AM) You know, I knew it would happen when it became clear this is what we had, but I really do tire of trying to be convinced that putting a combination of really bad offensive players in our offense consistently would make us better. You should probably stay away from any article that quotes Ozzie or Kenny for the next couple of months.

QUOTE (gatnom @ Mar 5, 2010 -> 11:21 AM) I think he's saying that if Quentin has another year that he is capable of (and thus worth acquiring in an AGon trade), he's going to become so expensive that they are going to have to spin him around and trade him right away anyways. If Quentin had a fully-healthy version of 2008, I don't think that he'd be getting a ridiculous one-year contract via arbitration. Maybe $9M, and that's a real stretch, IMO. I realize that the Padres are cash-strapped, but Quentin's contract is year-to-year through 2012 and I don't think that they'd keep him that long anyway. In the scenario I envision, Kenny would trade CQ this month and SD would only be on the hook for his $3.2M, before they dealt him to another team next winter for more prospects (in addition to the ones that they got from AGon). They could certainly afford that. I don't know about that. Dude is never healthy and every other GM knows this. At the very least, I don't think that Kenny is even considering signing Q to a long-term deal. If I'm Kenny and I have a choice between three more years of Quentin or two years of AGon, I take the latter in a heartbeat. The problem is that SD would certainly want a number of top prospects in that deal as well and that Kenny would have to out-bid every other team in the league (which essentially means Hudson, Flowers, and possibly a guy like Harrell as well).

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Mar 4, 2010 -> 12:38 PM) TCQ is about to expensive, which is exactly what the Padres don't want. I don't think that this would be a problem. Quentin's going to have to have another 2008-like year before he's anywhere near expensive. And even then, with his injury history, I don't see him getting $12M or anything crazy like that in his second arb-eligible year. And even if he did go off and hit 50 HRs this year and the Padres didn't want to pay him arb-value next year, he's still under team control through 2012 and the they could easily flip him for more prospects (which is what they're looking for anyway). Dealing AGon for Quentin and a package of high-tier prospects would make a lot of sense for the Padres. Unfortunately, it would make less sense for the Sox.

QUOTE (Ranger @ Mar 3, 2010 -> 04:51 PM) It's not a sure thing that in order for them to be a World Series contender, they need to improve the DH. That position in the lineup may turn out to be just fine. And the offense, as a whole, could certainly be good enough for them to win the division, given the rest of the club. And winning the division is all it takes to become a WS contender. Definitely, I would feel better about the situation going in if they had somebody else, but I haven't predetermined that it is going to be a miserable failure. In fact, I don't think it is. It could probably be better, but I don't think it's going to be nearly as bad as some people think it's going to be. Agreed overall. I'm not expecting jack from the DH position this year, but I'm not missing the forest for the trees either. This team won't score 850 runs this year but, ironically, I think that they out-score last year's high-priced slugging "talent." If the Sox can score 740 runs this year and the pitching pans out as expected, they'll be competitive.

QUOTE (ScottyDo @ Mar 4, 2010 -> 10:19 AM) I'd rather mortgage the farm than replace power with other (albeit superior) power. I'd be open to replacing oft-injured power with two years of superior, healthy power. (Of course, that would leave us with Jones in RF, which is a problem.) But if Kenny is looking to blow this team up if it doesn't produce a division title by 2011, this might be a viable route. That said, I'm sure that SD would want Flowers, Jordan Danks, and others on top of Q, so it's probably not going to happen.

QUOTE (Quinarvy @ Feb 26, 2010 -> 11:16 PM) Sorry San Deigo, but Gordon's staying put. If there's any player in this organization that's untouchable, it's Beckham.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Feb 13, 2010 -> 09:03 AM) Rickey had the best line I have ever heard in an interview over 20 years ago about playing hurt. I'll never forgot it. "When I'm injury, I'm totally concentrated of my mind." The guy interviewing him just moved on like it made perfect sense. [ring, ring] [Harold Reynolds]: "Hello?" [Ricky Henderson]: "Reynolds? Henderson here. Sixty stolen bases? Boyyyy, you should be ashamed of yourself. Ricky had 60 by the break!" [hangs up]

Good for Bobby. Also nice to see Linebrink being a supportive clubhouse guy and a good friend.

If Mark decides to play past 2011, it probably won't be for us.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Feb 22, 2010 -> 06:53 PM) I used to run an NFL football player's non-profit foundation in 1995 and 1996. We put on a charity basketball game, golf tournament and dinner, so, as the Program Director, I was lucky enough to deal with Coach Landry, Ditka, Schottenheimer, Dan Reeves, Hootie and the Blowfish, Garrison Heart, Rodney Hampton, Robert Porcher, Shannon Sharpe, etc. Well, Deion Sanders was a pain (we had to get first class tickets for his wife, Deion Jr and Deiondra, from Ft. Myers to Augusta, limo service, etc.). The basketball game was the NFL All-Stars against the Dallas Cowboys. And this was Michael Irvin's first public appearance after his drug problems, the event was early 1996, can't remember the exact date. But there must have been 50+ media requests. The one individual I left that experience having a great amount of respect for was Herschel Walker. He volunteered his own time to be the keynote speaker and didn't even accept a free hotel room, if I remember correctly. I think he was still getting paid by the New Jersey Generals at the time, one of the best contracts ever for a professional athlete. But Coach Landry, he had that sort of "gravelly" voice, like Vincent Price from the Thriller video, you just knew instantly who it was as soon as you picked up the phone. The other interesting celebrity I met was almost a baby, lol. She would later go on to win American Idol, Jordan Sparks. I rode to a game in the Meadowlands with Jordan, her mom (Philippi Sparks, the former CB for the Giants, is her father) and my boss' wife. Nice!

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Feb 22, 2010 -> 06:20 PM) Am I an expert because I once hung up on The Coach, Tom Landry, lol? ???

QUOTE (Swingandalongonetoleft @ Feb 21, 2010 -> 09:22 PM) On the contrary, the GM is the one who builds a team. Ozzie wanting a different lineup should be a suggestion. Yeah, I pretty much agree. One of two things could be going on... (1) Kenny has spent so much on high-priced veterans over the past four years that either he's getting pressure from the Board to pull back or wants to pull back himself to keep from endangering his job. Ozzie's rotating DH is a convenient way to prevent extra spending. (2) There has been a power struggle between Kenny and Ozzie in recent years (e.g., Anderson vs. Wise). This DH rotation is Kenny's way of giving Ozzie enough rope to hang himself with, and gives him another excuse to bring somebody else in next year.

QUOTE (DBAHO @ Feb 21, 2010 -> 09:06 PM) I don't think there's any doubt that that's going to be the case. Unfortunately, most people think it's not going to end well, and I'm one of those. With the way that this team has under-achieved, it wouldn't surprise me if this were Ozzie's last year. I wouldn't bet on it, but I wouldn't be surprised either.

QUOTE (MattZakrowski @ Feb 21, 2010 -> 07:36 PM) Alexei lost 30 pounds this off-season He's going to have a tough time fighting those stiff breezes.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Feb 21, 2010 -> 06:30 PM) A CF with a bad attitude? If he doesn't turn that around quick, he'll never, ever, ever play. I'm pretty sure his contact ensures that he'll play.

QUOTE (chw42 @ Feb 21, 2010 -> 01:14 PM) You can change attitude, you can't change talent. If Rios still has it, it's more than likely that he can bounce back in full stride. Maybe and maybe not. He could very well go the way that Antonio Freeman did after the Packers gave him a huge contract. I hope that the better clubhouse adjusts his allegedly bad attitude. Last year didn't show much evidence of him going in that direction.

Interesting. I can't tell if he means somebody in the general sense or in the "somebody else" sense.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Feb 21, 2010 -> 10:16 AM) I'll bet we score more runs this year than last, but not by much. The Sox scored 724 runs last year and 693 runs in 2007. The '07 team featured thee players with 300+ ABs who had an OPS+ below 75 (Uribe, Owens, and Erstad). Pods put up a 73 OPS+ in 214 ABs. Getz (OPS+ 74) and Wise (OPS+ 61) and Fields (OPS+ 68) are also gone. The Sox probably won't hit 190 HRs this year, but there aren't as many automatic outs in the lineup either. Even Teahen has averaged an OPS+ in the mid-90s over the past few years. Jones was at 100 last year (although he's admittedly a question mark due to health). Jones/Kotsay at DH is obviously a problem but, unlike previous years, that lack of offensive production is limited to one position. Unless Quentin misses most of the season with an injury, I don't see the Sox falling below 700 runs this year. But, like I said, a lot can happen that can alter projections to the point of worthlessness.

QUOTE (whitesoxfan101 @ Feb 21, 2010 -> 09:35 AM) I just meant he'd pull the production from the DH spot itself from worst to average. Considering how important DH production is in the AL, that'd have been a big deal. Sorry, I think that I misread your original post. I agree with this point. QUOTE (ScottyDo @ Feb 21, 2010 -> 09:50 AM) 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. Yep, projections are essentially worthless. There are way too many variables (including the fact that teams are still signing FAs) to even semi-accurately project total offensive production in February. That said, I agree with their overarching point that the Sox will struggle to score runs this year. This team's OBP will be a lot like the '05 squad's. They definitely have the starting pitching (on paper, at least), but replicating that '05 bullpen will be nearly impossible. I think that this team could win 88-89 games, but who knows if that'll be enough for a division title.

QUOTE (Thunderbolt @ Feb 21, 2010 -> 09:39 AM) i'll repeat so that you can stop claiming that Damon's offensive input would be insignifcant. Dude, drop the straw man arguments. I said that Damon would definitely help and compared to a late '90s Ray Durham. Are you going to argue that Durham was "insignificant" to his teams' offensive production? Yeah, it is, but it's also a bunch of hypothetical projections. If Quentin is healthy and Rios has a decent season, I'm pretty sure that the Sox score more than 692 runs.

QUOTE (whitesoxfan101 @ Feb 21, 2010 -> 09:14 AM) Having Johnny Damon at DH instead of the rotating pile of crap probably is worth 4 wins or so over a full season, which takes the club from being clearly behind Minnesota to almost even with them IMO. I can buy the 4 wins part, but nobody knows how MIN is going to play this year. If MIN is a 92-win team, Damon himself isn't going to pull the Sox that close. This is hyperbole. Damon absolutely would've helped, but let's not kid ourselves about him being some sort of an offensive game-changer. Offensively, Damon is basically a late '90's Ray Durham with less speed. That's a really nice player to have on one's roster, but not the kind of guy who will change the offensive output from worst in the league to middle of the pack.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Feb 21, 2010 -> 08:31 AM) Damon would have been a better fit for the Sox. All this does it means that Jones and TCQ have to do more to rebound. If Quentin doesn't rebound, this offense will struggle to score runs with or without Damon.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Feb 20, 2010 -> 04:16 PM) So then I'll roll this question, and I'm pretty sure of your answer. You would hold on to Hudson, Flowers and Mitchell (although I would hope it would ONLY cost Jordan Danks) instead of trading them for two years of Adrian Gonzalez, yes? I wouldn't deal both Hudson and Flowers. I'd probably package Hudson, Jordan Danks, and two other prospects. And I realize that it'll most likely won't be enough and that AGon is basically a pipe dream unless the big spenders fail to match what I'd be willing to deal. I guess that Kenny's "boxed in" with all of those contracts for this year, but certainly not next year. PK is a FA next winter, and the Sox aren't obligated to give Jenks anything past this year. Mark's contract is a steal for a pitcher of his caliber, so Kenny could even get something in return for him if he wanted to risk the potential PR issues. Unless Peavy has more injury issues, I'm sure that Kenny could flip him if need be. Rios and Linebrink are the only guys who aren't moveable right now (and the former's status may change). Agreed about the lack of sustainability, though. I'll say this: If the Sox play .500 ball through 2011, there's going to be a firesale. I'm pretty sure that Peavy, Rios, and any other veteran who will yield a couple of decent prospects are dealt at that point. QUOTE (chunk23 @ Feb 20, 2010 -> 04:20 PM) Replacing Dye with Pierre is a massive offensive downgrade. I disagree. Dye has been wildly inconsistent over the past few years and he's getting worse, not better. His lows were so bad that his presence in the lineup hurt the team for several months in '07 and '09. Jayson Nix would've been a better option than the post-ASB Dye last year. I don't see Pierre's .290-.300 slap-hitting and 40+ stolen bases to be much of a downgrade over a rapidly-eroding JD.

QUOTE (Springfield SoxFan @ Feb 20, 2010 -> 03:55 PM) I bet the no trade clause is what made Damon go to Detroit and we know KW never would have given that. I'll take a shot with Blalock. If Damon's only a one-year rental, I don't understand why a NTC would be a deal-breaker.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Feb 20, 2010 -> 03:46 PM) If the 2007 and 2009 seasons have shown anything, it's our inability to develop and not have to trade our minor league prospects that has put us in this defensive position with roster construction in the first place. Agreed about that first part, but none of the prospects that we've traded over the past five or so years have amounted to much. I'm perfectly fine with dealing guys like Richard and Poreda for Peavy and Olivo for Garcia.