scenario

QUOTE (bmags @ Jan 14, 2009 -> 10:39 AM) what's funny was that was the prediction for last years team. Who finished first. I think its hilarious that their system ran 100 simulations to try and 'scientifically' predict who would win the division and showed... Cleveland winning 54 times, Detroit winning 42 times, Kansas City twice, Minnesota only one time.... And the Sox winning zero times LOL Note to the authors.... Helloooooooo.... your prediction model SUCKS. Burn your spreadsheets, take a baseball bat to your computer, and start over.

Here are last years' projections (2008 preseason) from the same site... ALCntrl W L RF RA DIV WC Cle07 91.0 71.1 852 739 54.5 3.5 Det07 90.4 71.6 901 792 42.5 13.8 KC07 75.0 87.0 779 862 2.0 0.0 Min07 73.7 88.3 727 816 1.0 1.0 ChA07 67.6 94.4 753 894 0.0 0.0

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Jan 13, 2009 -> 10:47 AM) 15 mill per for Derek Lowe is idiotic. $15M per for Lowe isn't idiotic... it's the length of the contract that is surprising... especially in this market. $15M X 4 years for a 35-year old pitcher sorta screams desperate... doesn't it?

I think it's possible that Hudson and Carter skip Kanny and go straight to Winston-Salem.

QUOTE (Milkman delivers @ Jan 5, 2009 -> 10:01 PM) Didn't Burnett already sign with the Yankees? Yep. A.J. Burnett rhp 5 years/$82.5M (2009-13) o 09-13:$16.5M annually o limited no-trade clause (Burnett may block deals to 10 clubs each year)

QUOTE (Jimbo's Drinker @ Dec 28, 2008 -> 11:17 PM) Any good places to order beef jerky on the internet? Check around some local butcher shops in your area. Some of them are likely to having smoking equipment and make their own jerky. I live in Rockford and there are a couple out here that are outstanding.

QUOTE (bmags @ Jan 5, 2009 -> 08:31 PM) did aaron crow not sign or something? That is correct sir. Thumbed his nose at the Nats... figuratively speaking.

QUOTE (Heads22 @ Jan 5, 2009 -> 03:52 PM) I like how everyone's let my "internship in a bar bathroom" thing slide.... It was pretty tempting. I had a picture of industrial strength knee pads all ready to post.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Jan 5, 2009 -> 03:53 PM) Considering Lowe has a top offer of 3-36 I dont think Garland, who is not close to the pitcher Lowe is, will get anywhere close to 12. I bet he signs for around 7-9 per. Lowe will get more than $12M. Remember, that's the offer he turned down. Things have been slow, but the free agent feeding frenzy looks like it's starting to pick up a little.

I'd be willing to bet someone offers Garland 3 years - $36M. And I can't see him getting less than $10M per year. I'm not suggesting that he's worth $12M per year, or that we should pay that. But I think somewhere along the line before the season starts some pitching hungry team will pony up the money. He's healthy. He's still relatively young. He doesn't walk alot of people. He's had success in the relatively recent past. He's had successful playoff experience. Yeah... somebody will pony up. And I doubt it will be us.

QUOTE (103 mph screwball @ Jan 5, 2009 -> 02:47 PM) There is a mystery team in the mix for Lowe. There's alot of that going around... doesn't it seem? I think that's become an agent's tool to try and keep teams guessing about who's offering what. Much easier to drive up offers when there's a supposed 'mystery team' out there who might want in on a player.

So Size 16 is the National Average, eh? Does that means there are as many size 20's as there are size 12's? And as many size 24's as there are size 8's?

QUOTE (StatManDu @ Jan 5, 2009 -> 02:19 PM) Because of his injuries, Ben Sheets is a drain on a team ... Not worth the payoff He threw 148 innings in 2007 and 198 innings (31 starts) in 2008. Where's the drain? The only risk is if you're depending on him to be the ace like Milwaukee was. As your #3 or 4 guy in a rotation I'd take him yesterday. I'll volunteer to drive up to Milwaukee and get him. This afternoon if necessary.

I'd love to see KW sneek under the radar and add Ben Sheets. I think the current market depression and concerns about his health could cause some teams to back off... and could make acquiring him realistic. There are some rumors dangling out there about Cleveland taking a run at him... I can't help thinking "why not us?"

$700B is going to look like chump change by the time plans are finished and implemented.

QUOTE (shipps @ Jan 5, 2009 -> 09:12 AM) Well good thing you were on vacation Tex...you would have called me out on it right away and shed light to all the other village idiots. I'm sure a few of us village idiots can be pretty creative about ways to get even.

My Top 10 Favorite: Reasons to NOT Get Circumcised (that I pulled together from different sites) 10. Because if it aint broke: don't fix it 9. Protection against sunburn (Not a big problem in the upper midwest, but probably handy in some parts of the world) 8. Because if you don't, you'll belong to an exclusive club that includes celebrities like Bono, Mick Jagger, almost every European you can think of... and Nick Nolte. 7. Avoid losing skin usable for plastic surgery 6. Can use foreskin to store contact lenses or smuggle heroin 5. Because condoms slip off circumcised penes more easily. (I never knew the plural of penis was penes. LOL) 4. Cost (That's why Elvis was intact.) 3. Circumcision results in loss of protection against frostbite*. (Yikes... see below) 2. Because the foreskin evolved over tens of millions of years and every male mammal has one. (God must have known what he was doing when he put it there. So why fool with mother nature?) And #1... So you can perform the full repertoire of "Puppetry of the Penis" (BTW - the website says they are looking for puppeteers if anyone is looking for a new gig.) *Frostbite? "...my private parts were nipped and swelled up. When I mentioned this to Mike, it turned out he was having the same problem only worse, with a blistered end. He was circumcised and therefore, in effect, had one less layer of insulation. I made a note of this factor in terms of selecting future candidates for polar expeditions." Sir Ranulph Fiennes - Mind Over Matter: the Epic Crossing of the Antarctic Continent A Few Sources: 39 Good Reasons Not to Circumcise 17 Functions of the Foreskin Famous Intact Men (A list of unsnipped actors, athletes, leaders, historical figures, etc.)

QUOTE (Gregory Pratt @ Jan 4, 2009 -> 05:57 PM) I've been one of KW's biggest critics -- though I've mellowed out in the last year and a half -- but signing Andruw Jones to the contract the Dodgers gave him wasn't terrible. It's a short deal, big money but not crippling money, for one of the best defensive players in the history of baseball at a fairly young age and who could be fairly guessed to have something left. Nobody thought he'd slug lower than Adam Dunn's batting average. If they cut him, it will end up costing them $36M for one year in which he hit .158. The only way that can be considered 'not terrible' is that it was: - only a two year contract - a large market team that took the hit

Imagine how badly KW would getting barbequed on this board if he had signed Jones to the type of deal the Dodgers did.

QUOTE (GoSox05 @ Jan 4, 2009 -> 04:59 PM) So are you saying that Chicago is more dangerous than Iraq? I think people would look at it a little differently if 314 policemen died in Chicago last year... Which is probably a more realistic comparison.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Jan 3, 2009 -> 11:40 PM) Pls answer this: Why would we want Jones? Isn'tt he done??? He played in 5 games in the Venezuelan winter leagues. He went 3-16 (.188 average) and struck out 8 times. On the positive side, at least that's 30 points higher than he batted for the Dodgers this year. I'm soooooo glad it was the Dodgers who made the huge mistake on him last winter instead of us. Can you imagine if they have to release him and eat the entire $36M of his contract... for what he gave them in terms of 'production'? That is an epic fail.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Jan 3, 2009 -> 07:50 PM) I'm off for a while, but here's what I can tell you: I think Roberts would sign an extension if there is a tentative deal in place. The Sox would have 48 hours to strike a deal under this scenario. No surprise that Baltimore finally has warmed to the idea of moving him, this could have happened sooner had talks with Vazquez and Atlanta fallen apart. I still think Dye will be moved, although the glut of corner outfielders on the market limits KW's options. With one year left on Thome's deal and two on Konerko's contract, it's possible Viciedo could be a DH if he's limited on defense. But I'm hearing he's got a solid arm. response back from Trib's M. Gonzales on the deal....hope this helps Not sure what to read into that caulfield. My impression is that he doesn't know anymore about the Roberts situation than we do, and he's just speculating what might happen.

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Jan 3, 2009 -> 05:16 PM) Plus if your going to bring in Roberts and his salary the Sox would have just been better off going after Hudson or Furcal. Absolutely!! Is the difference between Hudson and Roberts worth giving up a 25 year old #2 or #3 starting pitcher to get Roberts? For ONE YEAR before he hits the free agent market??? I like Brian Roberts... but given the choice, bringing in Hudson instead seems like a no-brainer. And frankly... I'm not even sure we NEED to bring in another 2B. Chris Getz is NOT going to make or break our season. The biggest risk we have next year in sucking is if our young starting pitching doesn't deliver. No way should we be trading the little pitching we have.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Jan 3, 2009 -> 03:22 PM) He's not a hack like Cowley. On Jan 26 his blog entry included this: If Erik Bedard is still listed on the Orioles’ 40-man roster beyond next week, I’ll be very surprised. My crystal ball keeps showing Adam Jones, George Sherrill and Chris Tillman reporting to Fort Lauderdale Stadium. They have another guy with them, but his image is fuzzy. He was off a bit as Bedard was traded Feb 9, but all 3 of the guys he mentioned from Seattle were part of the deal. Doesn't count. I think there were people in the third world without electricity and running water who knew who the players were coming back in the Bedard trade by the time he wrote that.

QUOTE (knightni @ Jan 3, 2009 -> 11:47 AM) This isn't X-Box. KW won't trade Dye, Floyd and pitchers just to add more salary by taking on Jones, Roberts and Bailey. I don't see Jones being part of the picture. Even at a discounted value he's too expensive for the putrid production he's put up two consecutive years. But... if we did do a Roberts deal (a big IF)... I'm only suggesting that it would probably mean that KW had another trade planned to bring back pitching. And since the Bailey rumor had some legs earlier, it might be the followup deal to fill the slot vacated by Floyd. Again... this is complete speculation... but it seems to make some sense. So... who would we rather have? Floyd + one year of Dye... or Bailey + one year of Roberts.