soxpride77

QUOTE(TitoMB345 @ Jan 24, 2007 -> 02:31 PM) Well, the choice is obvious for me, as I am a diehard Cheesehead. But I'll still give my input just to say it. The 2005 White Sox World Series tops everything else in my history of sports. The 1996 Packers Super Bowl is second, and its not that close. I don't get teary-eyed and goose-bumped when I think of the 1996 team. For the '05 Sox, I do. It's incredible, even to this day I still get that reaction. Same here, I'm also a Packer's fan, but even the 96 Packers championship doesn't come close to the 2005 WS Championship. I don't think that anything in my life will ever top the feeling of the whole playoff run, and I'm only 29, it was an amazing time.

I'm all for Haeger getting it, let Floyd work out his problems in AAA for awhile and bring him up when he is ready.

QUOTE(GreatScott82 @ Jan 24, 2007 -> 09:09 AM) According to Scot Merkin, the 25 man roster is set: How do you guys feel about our 25 man roster on paper right now? Not as sexy as last year, but we should still be in the running to compete for the AL Central title. Starting Rotation Mark Buerhle Jose Contreras Jon Garland Javy Vazquez Gavin Floyd *he must win the job at spring training, will compete with guys like Gio, Danks, Haegar, Logan, Broadway. Bullpen Jenks CL Thorton L SU Macdougal R SU Aardsma MR Sisco MR/LR Massett * he must win the job at spring training Starting lineup Podsednick LF Iguchi 2B Thome DH Konerko 1B Dye RF Crede 3B Pierzynski C Anderson CF Uribe SS Bench Hall C (AJ relief) Ozuna SS, 3b, 2b , LF (Mr. Pinch runner) Mackowiack 3b, LF, RF (Mr. Pinch hitter) Erstad CF, 1B (Defense replacement) Cintron SS, 2B ( can spell Uribe during the long season) I'm a really big fan of our 25 man roster. Assuming some things work out the right way we should be a contender with this roster. Also, everytime I see the names in the bullpen I get real giddy. I don't think they could have done a better job putting the bullpen together.

Someone on the White Sox Official website message board is reporting that we just signed Erstad. The guy said he has a close source, so who knows. Just thought I would mention this.

So, for a first time fest goer, what can I expect?

I got two tickets for Saturday, looking forward to going to Soxfest for the first time!

QUOTE(CanOfCorn @ Jan 9, 2007 -> 12:56 PM) Hey, he has a right as a voter to vote or not vote. To vote for who he wants to vote for and who he doesn't want to vote for. He made a statement and he has his views...so what. Ripken and Gwynn will still get in. This has nothing to do with whether Gwynn or Ripken get into the Hall anyways, this has to do with a sportswriter having the PRIVILEDGE to vote, and instead of voting for players deserving of getting into the Hall, making himself the story. The guy as far as I know is a complete hypocrite. Did he not vote the last two years? Steroid talk didn't just happen this year, this has been an issue the past two years as well. He said that right now he doesn't feel comfortable voting for anybody who played in the steroid era. What about the past two years, did he turn in a blank ballot then as well? This guy is looking to be the story, in my opinion he only did this because of McGwire being on the ballot, and that in itself is a huge story surrounding this vote. I also have a problem with his rationale because he is assuming people are guilty, before being proved guilty. Does anyone in there right mind think that Tony Gwynn or Call Ripken Jr took steroids?

I'm alright with this deal. I would have rather traded one of the other pitchers we have and kept McCarthy, but what can you do. I really think that our bullpen is going to be key to all of this, it looks like we've made some major upgrades. I am also all for having Haeger as the 5th starter, unless Coop can fix Floyd.

QUOTE(Greg The Bull Luzinski @ Dec 23, 2006 -> 08:06 PM) I think it is time for somebody to cue the Haeger fan club sig. Any members besides Pratt and me? ME!

Just saw this on ESPN.com. Figured it deserved a thread. Here's the link http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2700983

QUOTE(GreatScott82 @ Dec 17, 2006 -> 10:48 PM) i like it! good move, i like his passion for coming here. now get us one more reliever and we are in good shape. i guess KW was right when he said he was just going to tweek this team. so i expect no flashy trades or anything crazy to happen, this team as is can contend for the title. KW obviously believes Anderson can turn it around as well as Pods and the starting rotation, and i believe they can also. Why do we need another reliever? I'll take some outfield help, but I think that our bullpen right now is pretty solid.

QUOTE(DBAH0 @ Dec 7, 2006 -> 06:10 AM) I'm going to put the Sox's new direction in a positive frame of mind for a minute; If they can develop good young pitching, and say pay less than $20M for 5 quality starters (say have 3 in their 1st or 2nd seasons at the major league level) and the others are arbitration eligible, that leaves about $100M to help fill the lineup and bullpen. KW and JR have shown that they'll take care of the guys who produce in the lineup. I'm wondering with Jermaine Dye's contract finishing up, if the Sox are going to make it more of a priority to re-sign him over a Mark Buehrle for example? It's funny, for 5 years we've been jealous of the Minnesota Twins, with how they develop their young players. Now it sounds like the Sox kind of want to go in that direction a bit, and people here think it's a horrible way to go. But the Twins have shown you can certainly be successful doing it, you just have to do it right. This is exactly what I was thinking, why not be a club like the Twins and A's? Develop your starting pitching in the minors, and then as soon as they get good and warrant a big contract, trade them away to restock the minors with quality young pitchers.

XM Homeplate just confirmed the Mets traded Brian Bannister to the Royals for Ambiorix Burgos.

QUOTE(RockRaines @ Nov 28, 2006 -> 04:34 PM) In that situation I would have Figgy lead off, Craw-daddy bat #2 and have both of them stealing every base they could see. Looking at Crawfords splits, he doesn't have great numbers leading off anyway. How unbelievable would that be to have the top two base stealers at the top of the order, followed up by our power at 3-4-5? It would be unbelievable. Hopefully KW can find a way to make this all happen, and still hold onto Santana AND McCarthy in the process.

QUOTE(VAfan @ Nov 28, 2006 -> 03:53 PM) Figgins is worthless. His OBP sucks, and he has no power. In the 2005 ALCS, did he even get on base more than once?? Pods, as bad as he is, played circles around him in 2005. As for Ervin Santana, people are acting like he's Francisco Liriano without elbow troubles. Sure, he has a live arm. And he's relatively cheap because he's just starting out. But is he going to be a dominant starter? Is he a #1 guy? Will he ever be a #1 guy? I don't think so. As bad as Freddie Garcia was last year, he still managed to win 17 games, and lose 9. (Santana was 16-8.) Sure, I'd take Santana for Garcia straight up because of the age difference (though I know the Angels wouldn't make that deal), but I don't think Santana will be that much better of a pitcher over the next 3-4 years, frankly. I think Freddy's arm is going to come back, and he's got enough guile that he will remain a winning pitcher into his late 30's. Mark it down. But the deal buster would be dumping Joe Crede at this point. You might as well add a half run to the team ERA if we eliminate the vacuum man from 3B next year. Especially if you are talking about replacing him with Josh Fields or Chone Figgins. If you want Joe Crede, you'd have to offer me more than Ervin Santana. We don't have our first WS trophy in 89 years if we don't have Joe Crede at 3B. So far, I haven't seen any deals that make a lot of sense for the Sox. We really need better offensive production from LF, SS, and CF, plus a solidified bullpen, and, most important of all, better production from our starters. But it is not easy to fix any of those issues. Which starters do you keep, and which do you trade? Should we give up on Brian Anderson after only one year -- when he was rushed too soon to begin with? Should we abandon Juan Uribe, whose defense is stellar, and his tremendous SS power?? Is there a good option in LF that costs less than $10 million/year? Why do you refer back to 2005 when you talk about Figgins and Podsednik, what does that have to do with anything? At least compare their stats from last year if you are going to compare stats. We already won our first WS trophy in 89 years with Crede, and it's a virtual certainty that we will not want to resign him at the price he is going to command. Notice I said we will not WANT, not we will not be ABLE to sign him. So, why not trade Crede for value now with 2 years left on his contract, instead of a year from now when most teams will view him as a 1 year rental.

I dont think Cheat will have a problem with me posting this... Sums up my feelings to a tee... QUOTE Here is a list of current White Sox who will be free agents at the end of the year: Sandy Alomar & David Riske. That's it. The entire rest of the team is either under White Sox control thanks to the reserve/arbitration clause, or has a team option on their contract. Kenny Williams has built a team that will contend for a World Series for multiple years. Multiple years. Not just this year. Kenny's job as a GM is to give the Sox the best team on the field that he possibly can. After that, it's up to the team to perform. Kenny did that. But as I tried to point out in the previous post -- some of you aren't into brevity, apparently -- the starting pitching simply hasn't performed to expectations. 4 of the starters are having seasons at or below 25th percentile projections from PECOTA, with Vazquez falling below 10th percentile ERA projections. No team is going to win with 80% of it's rotation under performing. In fact, I'm amazed that the Sox are just .5 games out of the Wild Card given the rotations struggles. If the rotation had performed as expected, with the Sox owning the best offense in baseball, the Sox would have the best record in baseball as well. So what do you do with 80% of the rotation underporming, but locked up for at least another year? You wait. You wait, because the starters will not be this bad for the rest of their contracts. It's hard to believe they can be this bad for the rest of this season. They just have too much history of success to be this bad. You don't overreact and start dumping players when their value is at it's lowest. You don't overreact and make a move for the sake of making a move. Because that's all any move would have been. Even if the Sox had dumped Pods and acquired Soriano, the pitching still had to perform. Even if Vazquez or Garcia was shipped out, with McCarthy going to the rotation, McCarthy and the other 3 still had to perform. And as we saw in Brandon's relief effort on Saturday, he's no guarantee for success. This White Sox team can make this playoffs. This White Sox team can win the World Series. But they need their starters to perform as we know they're capable. No move that Kenny Williams could have made would change that fact. That's why I'm not sitting here at my computer, face red, pounding my keyboard because our GM didn't pull off a blockbuster. It's up to the players. And even though I don't think they will win the series this year (I didn't think they would on Opening Day either.) they still have a shot, both this year and next, which is better than the alternative on the Northside. I'll buy into this as well, nice post Cheat. QUOTE(Frankensteiner @ Jul 31, 2006 -> 05:05 PM) I don't consider being so locked into these players such a good thing. Our best players are a 36 year old slugger, a "34 year old" Cuban pitcher, and a 32 year old outfielder having by far his best career season. Good luck trying to duplicate that next year. As far as the pitchers, I see Buehrle having the best shot of improving. Hopefully Garland can pitch more like he has in the second half. But after that? Vazquez has sucked for quite some time, at some point he's not underachieving anymore. Garcia sucks because he has no fastball, and how many players lose their stuff at 30, and regain it at 31? Right now I see us as the 4th or 5th best team in the AL, and very lucky that our offense has produced up to this level. Upgrading this roster in the off-season is a must, imo. But don't you think KW will address the problems that we have this year in the off-season. I'd rather him do that then get fleeced at the trading deadline. I want this team to win back to back championships as much as the next person, but I do like the fact that our GM has the mindset to keep us playoff caliber from year to year, whereas Cubs fans are reduced to HOPE for mediocrity.

QUOTE(Kalapse @ Jul 26, 2006 -> 02:31 PM) So? The guy plays all 3 OF positions well with a solid arm and good range in CF, bats righthanded, knows how to take a walk (.386 OBP), makes good contact, has hit lefties very well the past 2 years and is quite available considering the current abundance of good young OF the Brewers find themselves with. I think he's an absolutely perfect fit for this team. You think the Brewers would take Pods back?

QUOTE(StrangeSox @ Jul 26, 2006 -> 03:00 PM) They've got to be more fed up with this BS than the fans are. If they are, I can't tell!

QUOTE(Hangar18 @ Jul 26, 2006 -> 02:51 PM) Mark Buerhle (06 AllStar) 5 1/3 innings, 10 HITS, 7 RUNS. BRUTAL Ozzie should have never picked him to bring to the all-star game anyways. He wasn't deserving of it even back then.

I'm really, really just speechless at this point.

QUOTE(supernuke @ Jul 26, 2006 -> 02:39 PM) This teams got no marbles. I completely agree with that statement.

QUOTE(StrangeSox @ Jul 26, 2006 -> 02:34 PM) It carried the team for half a season. Half of what season?

QUOTE(elrockinMT @ Jul 26, 2006 -> 02:24 PM) Just logged on. How is Buerhle looking? I see from sportsline that he has given up 6 or so hits in 4 innings. But the offense is clicking today for us. The offense hasn't benn clicking per say, it definitely clicked last inning though.

QUOTE(shawnhillegas @ Jul 26, 2006 -> 02:20 PM) can liriano pitch for us? Now that's an idea!

QUOTE(shawnhillegas @ Jul 26, 2006 -> 02:15 PM) it has to be this game. we arent going to beat bedard on friday. Why can't we beat Bedard?