scenario

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Feb 4, 2011 -> 03:53 PM) If you've taken profits out of a ponzi scheme, you don't get to keep those profits. Just 2 months ago, the investigator seized $7.2 billion in ill-gotten gains from the estate of one of Madoff's large clients. Most clawbacks don't recover much from clients unless they're family or founding members of the ponsi scheme... or unless it's determined that there was knowledge on the part of the client. HOWEVER... After seeing your response, I read up more on the relationship between Mets owners and Madoff... and it was pretty tight. So, I think you're right... it could get really interesting.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Feb 4, 2011 -> 03:21 PM) So, the Metropolitans are in some serious trouble. Nice try by the trustee going after a deep pocket, but... not sure how the Mets could be held responsible. Like Wilpon said, it's a classical example of where a merit-less suit is filed to try and force someone to settle a case rather than risk getting their reputation smeared in a fight.

Solution seems simple to me. Sign a minor league contract that allows him to walk if he doesn't make the team by the end of spring training. If he's not willing to do a deal like that, then he should just buy a damn rocking chair and get it over with.

QUOTE (Chet Kincaid @ Feb 3, 2011 -> 10:02 AM) Umpires can and should be eliminated. We have the technology. You thinking guillotine? That could be a ratings coup.

IIRC, Infante had consecutive games last year (in the minors) where he threw 100mph pitches.

Law also projected Alexi Ramirez's ceiling to be a utility guy... And preseason 2008 said Gavin Floyd could not be a major league starter because he had lost his curveball.

I think the economy has had a bigger impact on attendance the last few years than their record in a particular month or homestand/road-trip.

Should we have some sort of "Saber" award for statistical knowledge/contributions to conversations?

I do wonder why the Tigers are trying to move him. Decent inexpensive starters don't exactly grow on trees.

Nothing wrong with debate. It's the name calling, kidney punching, and eye gouging that are discouraged.

So... no credit to the Sox player development and coaching staffs for turning a struggling minor league shortstop into a serviceable major league reliever, eh? That was just an accident that we lucked into?

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Jan 6, 2011 -> 02:51 PM) In 2010, Sergio Santos and Chris Sale could both qualify. And Viciedo

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jan 7, 2011 -> 08:49 PM) Threets had Tommy John. We won't see him this year. More on Threets injury from whitesox.com

Anyone remember the context of Rizzo's comments on B&B the day after the deadline? My memory is hazy but I seem to remember him saying there was no Dunn deal in the works.

Hmmm... I hadn't heard that. But I'm not shocked. He missed quite a few games in the second half due to a strained elbow.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Dec 31, 2010 -> 08:42 PM) I think I just read 100 million, right? Over 100 million accounts but approx. 15 million active users.

QUOTE (Paint it Black @ Dec 31, 2010 -> 12:51 AM) Well all teams do as draft and follow guys. I'm talking about Mitchell type guys. Huge athletic tools. Raw talent. First round. Oh and please stop drafting relatives of current organization members. At least not in the first 10 rounds. I'm not talking about draft and follow. Look at our picks the last 3 years. A much higher ratio of higher-risk "upside" guys than before.

QUOTE (Paint it Black @ Dec 30, 2010 -> 09:57 PM) Just once I want to see this team draft a player on upside and actually develop said player. I think we draft quite a few players using this philosophy... just not in the first round.

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Dec 30, 2010 -> 10:17 AM) It was a sample of 100 random players. The question was who you'd LEAST like to play for and he came in first. LINK Interesting bar room discussion material which means absolutely nothing in the real world.

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Dec 29, 2010 -> 11:32 AM) An organizations job isn't to go out and air dirty laundry. Absolutely correct. People seem to forget sometimes that this is a business and things employers do/say fall underneath HR guidelines. Management is legally held to a different standard than employees.

I may be in the minority, but I don't think Jenks' comments were that unusual or out of line. IMO, it's only Oney's over-the-top media whore-ish reaction that flamed this into something larger than the backpage footnote it would have been. While funny, I do wish he would STFU. Because this kind of stuff does nothing except perpetuate a negative image of the organization... Even though nobody from the organization has said anything (yet).

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Dec 27, 2010 -> 08:58 PM) Edwin Jackson? Forgot him. He'll have to start throwing with his other hand.

Trade Floyd and we'd have the only all lefty rotation in baseball.

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ Dec 24, 2010 -> 11:28 AM) This post is all over the place. First of all, what do you mean by "hate the minor leagues"? Because I don't give two s***s about overall minor league records, playoffs and championships? If that means I hate the minor leagues then so be it. You couldn't pay me to care if the Knights won the AAA title or not. Your minor league system serves exactly two purposes: To supplement your major league team with impact talent and to be able to go out and upgrade at other positions with other talent. We've done a solid, not great, job with the latter. But a horrible job with the former during the KW era. And why are you acting as if the only difference between the masses ranking our system at the bottom compared to maybe middle-tier is one first round pick getting to the majors quickly? Now I'm not gonna lie. I don't get to see a lot of these guys. It's not like minor league games are on TV all the time. All I can go by is statistics, scouting reports, projections, age appropriate guys for whatever league they're in, ect. And when our system is consistently ranked in the bottom 5 by people who get paid to do this for a living, that's enough for me. I like Mitchell and Viciedo's potential. Besides that? Color me extremely unimpressed with what we currently have (and I'm not counting Sale, he's not really even a prospect anymore at this point). First of all... my post is NOT all over the place. I simply made an observation questioning your interest in the topic before beginning the main point. And second, the reason we are consistently ranked low IS that we trade away most of our highly ranked talent to obtain major league players. Our minor league system would obviously be higher ranked if, for example, we didn't trade Chris Carter for Carlos Quentin, etc., etc. In fact, many of the players we traded away in the last few years made OTHER teams top prospect lists. For example, 3 of Oakland's top 10 prospects were former WhiteSox prospects; 1 of Kansas City's; 1 of Arizona's; and I'm sure I could find a couple of others if I looked harder. Which helps illustrate the problem... would we be better off if we kept all the minor league players we traded? We would have had a MUCH better minor league ranking if we had kept them. And if we would not be better off by keeping them, then what the hell is the point for berating the team for its minor league ranking???

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ Dec 24, 2010 -> 09:59 AM) So when were ranked in the bottom 5 by every minor league publication there is I'm supposed to believe we have depth? They include Sale. As did BA. So one first round pick making it to The Show quickly is not really a viable defense for having such a bad system. For a guy who hates minor league baseball you sure seem concerned about it. I completely disagree with your logic about speed-to-show vs. depth-of-system. Go look at the drafts of any team. See where the people who represent their top prospects are and when they were drafted. It's mostly high draft picks... from the last 3-4 years... because most prospects 'aged' more than 3-4 years in the minors no longer make "top prospect" lists. So, any player from that 3-4 year group who moves through the system more quickly degrades the quality of that team's minor league ranking. Which means exactly squat from the perspective of a major league team, who would rather have the player in MLB rather than making their minors look good. Example: is Cleveland better off than Chicago because Lonnie Chisenhall (drafted the same time as Beckham) was a highly ranked AA prospect this year, while Beckham was starting in the majors? Hell no. A much better measure of whether a system sucks, IMO, is to look at the number of busts among high picks. But don't criticize teams for picking players who move through the system quickly. That makes absolutely no sense.