scenario

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Feb 8, 2010 -> 09:58 PM) And you freeze your ass off in Chicago in April, and in Detroit and Cleveland and Boston, and New York. I'm from Chicago. I went to college in Milwaukee. Minneapolis in April is colder. Hands down. If you want to argue this point, are you doing it from personal experience... or do you just feel like arguing?

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Feb 8, 2010 -> 09:48 PM) Cleveland and Minneapolis have the same average temperatures in April. Chicago and Detroit average about 2 degrees warmer. I don't know what their average temperatures are. But I do alot of work in Minneapolis and I know I freeze my a** off up there in April.

Sandra Bullock's character in The Proposal

The Twins have enough power to play outdoors. But I will be VERY interested to see how they play outside in April. There won't be a colder ballpark in MLB in the first month of the season.

Humphrey Bogart's character in Casablanca. Robert Downey Jr.'s character in Iron Man. Matt Damon as Jason Bourne... real nice guy... wants to stop killing people... seriously... but 'they' won't let him dammit.

William Munny... Client Eastwood's character in Unforgiven. In fact, you could probably make a case for most of the characters Clint Eastwood has played in movies.

The Twins acquiring Hudson is not the problem. (We were targeted for 2nd by most analysts before they acquired him.) Ozzie's insistence that rotating a series of sub-standard hitters through the DH is a good idea... and Kenny's willingness to indulge that delusion... is the problem. Would Damon be a good fix for that problem? Probably.

Hmmm.... If the Cubs move to Naples... I wonder what team all those Chicago-area transplants and snowbirds in the Phoenix area will go watch during spring training.

The Indians were high bidders for Orlando Hudson. 2 years - $10M + a club option with a buyout. Not sure what Mark Shapiro was thinking there. And interesting that Hudson decided to take a 1 year deal instead.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Feb 5, 2010 -> 07:36 AM) Alexei really struggled with breaking stuff for most of the season...that would be another reason. That would be my guess.

Interesting article from Baseball America. Worth a look. Quentin was picked as one of the top 3 college outfielders of the decade. Beckham finished 2nd at shortstop. Here's the introduction to the article... To celebrate the recently completed decade, we put together an All-2000s team to honor the best of the best. Like our annual All-America teams, this team recognizes four starting pitchers, three outfielders, one two-way or "utility" player and one player at every other position. We selected the team and our decade award winners by sending out ballots to every Division I head coach, and 150 of them responded. Pie charts for each position indicate what percentage of the vote each player got at his position. The highest vote-getters who did not make the team were then considered for the DH position.

Note to Soxtalk posters, I really appreciated winning the minor league scouting award last year. And I sincerely appreciate being nominated again. But... this year all of the other candidates deserve it much more than I do. So... Please pick one of them instead of me. JPN, OzzieBall, Flavum, and Danman... all of you are very deserving. Thanks for your outstanding contributions to the FutureSox board this year. S

Turns out it's not a done deal yet. The Twins have made an offer and are waiting for an answer.

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Feb 4, 2010 -> 12:03 PM) In other news, the Twins are hot after O-Dawg. Ugh. If they sign him, their payroll will almost be equal to ours. Pretty aggressive for a small market team.

Another great little book on time management... How to Gain Control of Your Time and Your Life by Alan Lakein Very useful not just theory. Gives exercises which are quick and meaningful to help set priorities, tasks, etc. Two thumbs way up.

I know I've knocked Law alot... but now I'm going to play devil's advocate. Here are a few concerns he's expressed about Hudson which may have some legitimacy. In his opinion, the pitches and pitch combinations that Hudson has been so effective with don't yet translate well to success at the major league level. For example... - His fastball tends to drop from low 90's to high 80's and flattens out over the course of a game. - He needs to demonstrate more success with his slider against right-handed hitters... otherwise he's going to be too predictable. (He tends to go almost exclusively fastball-changeup against righties. Not sure if it's a confidence issue with the slider or effectiveness issue or both.) - His flyball rate is too high. So far, those issues have not been a problem in the minors, but could limit his success (especially as a starter) at the major league level.

If Viciedo's offensive tools develop as expected, they'll find a place for him to play. He's only 20. They have time.

I'm less irritated than I was earlier with Law's comments. Frankly, it sets him up to look really stupid when Hudson does well this year. And that's just fine with me. I love his comments suggesting Hudson has a low ceiling with his low-90's fastball and 3 other pitches. What?? So... a pitcher with a low-90's fastball, with a good change-up and slider, and a respectable 'show-me' curve, who can get the ball over the plate consistently (4.5 K/BB) is a marginal prospect, eh? LOL.

QUOTE (Thunderbolt @ Feb 2, 2010 -> 10:29 AM) I don't think J.J. should of had to make a change. Everyone knows that the White Soxs' new song is Your Love. The last line of the article says... "And no offense to Gordon Beckham, but no more songs by the Outfield."

Well... that sucks. The thing was only posted on the 22nd and they picked on the 28th? Booooo. I figured some of our creative minds over here would come up with great ideas for him. Too bad I didn't find this earlier. Bah.

From an interview with Putz by Chuck Garfien on csnchicago.com... ------------------------------------------------- "But when he walks to the mound at U.S. Cellular Field when the season begins, he’s going to need a new song announcing his arrival. Putz has always used “Thunderstruck” by AC/DC, but that's been the White Sox team song since their 2005 World series title. So, clearly Putz needs a new song and hes asking you for suggestions. That's right...you! Email me your ideas ([email protected]) and I’ll be sure to pass them along to J.J. If he chooses your song, you'll get White Sox tickets for this season!" ------------------------------------------------- Interesting interview as well.

QUOTE (Springfield SoxFan @ Feb 1, 2010 -> 06:24 PM) I wonder if Tavares is coming now that that A's have cut him. I sure hope not. Reading this clip from the AP story on the trade today only reaffirms my opinion about Taveras... The Reds thought they’d filled their long-standing hole at the top of the batting order when they signed Taveras to a two-year deal, but he struggled with injuries last season, batted .240 and had an on-base percentage of only .275 with 25 stolen bases. A free swinger, Taveras drew only 18 walks in 435 plate appearances.

QUOTE (SoxAce @ Jan 29, 2010 -> 02:54 PM) Well they did get the 2007 prediction right on the money. The funny part about that is that the Sox, according to Bill James, had something like 7-8 regulars underperform their career averages by 20% or more... an occurrence which has only happened to 5 teams in the last 25 years. In other words, 2007 was a perfect storm of individual underperformance creating a situation which is sort of like the baseball equivalent of getting hit by lightning. So anybody claiming they "knew" the Sox were only going to win 72 games that year... and suggesting that their system is accurate because they predicted it... is full of s***.

QUOTE (wilmot825 @ Jan 25, 2010 -> 09:42 PM) #1 will always be the One Dog Lance Johnson Good mlb.com story on the connection between Johnson and Pierre. (Went to the same college, etc.) If Johnson was One Dog... maybe Pierre should be Juan Dog. (Sorry.)

QUOTE (spiderman @ Jan 29, 2010 -> 04:08 PM) The 2007 White Sox were 72-90 More proof that I'm not perfect. Damn.