Harry Chappas

It is stupid because we live in Chicago and it is true. Our rotation is a complete joke. Unless Neil Cotts comes back as someone else, he is a AAAA pitcher. Remember the strike zone is a-lot tougher in the majors. We are missing two starting pitchers and that assumes Buerhle pitches the whole season like the second half of last year, Garland grows up, and Loiaza doesn't revert back to 2002 form. That is just the rotation. I will not go into the lineup the lost 1-0 to the Tigers TWICE and the San Diego Padres. $8-$14M/year hitters carry teams in these games. I have held out hope most of the offseason but after looking at the 40 man roster the other day, all hope is gone. .500 is old, especially after the big price increase.

I work across the street from the hotel and will not be going why should a guy fly in from Vegas? Ozzie is a joke and this team will prove it. Joey Cora and Ozzie Guillen will make this team a mockery thereby allowing uncle jerry to come in next year with a $30M payroll. If I was Frank I would sit back swing from the heels and try hitting 50 homers and sign somewhere for the minimum next offseason. Buerhle, Garland, Loiaza, all have to improve dramatically for us to win and I do not see it happening. What fanfare is there to be had in that?

I got the feeling the KW Q&A will not take place this year and will be replaced with a Talking Basball type of thing with Rooney, Bruce Levine, Ken Harrleson, Darren Jackson type of thing. Soxfest will be an absolute joke. I work across the street and don't think I will be going. I have no hope whatsoever for the upcoming season. Watching Scott Schoenweis and Danny Wright in our rotation disgusts me. No worse than having to put up with Ozzie Guillen though. I think this franchise is about to hit an alltime low. On second thought maybe I will ask William Ligue and the dude from Bolingbrook to attend the Q&A with me.

Billy Beane has won as many playoff series as KW. The fact he gets there has more to do with 3 great starting pitchers, now maybe 4 than anything else. Jermaine Dye was a complete waste of valuable money and he just got rid of his only catcher. I am not completly sold on Billy Beane being that great.

They can't do anything without losing value for the players they trade. KW hands are tied because of the contracts given to Konerko, Ordonez, and Koch. Enjoy the season for 78 wins.

Three things that may make this legitimate. 1) Old McCormick Place converted to a casino to regenerate the conventions lost and needed for all of the new McCormick place space. Trump adds legitimacy to the operation. 2) Vacant land and regeneration. See the ABLA Homes, Robert Taylor, etc. a good real estate broker could be used here. He already is looking at the Sun Times building. In the next few years that southside land could be worth a ton. See Bridgeport development. Wrigleyville is renovated crap. Bridgeport/southside could be built in good parts from scratch as the indusrtry is removed. 3) Daley is a Sox fan and Reinsdorf is from Brooklyn. Reinsdorf sells to a fellow real estate mogul and Daley uses his influence to have the state sell Comiskey Park to Trump as part of the deal. The downside to this is the Trib wanting to compete against a serious organization and what influence they have with MLB. I think it is pipedream but hey what the hell it beats talking about Juan Uribe.

You need to increase payroll if your minor league system is not ready to produce. When you can get Migel Cabrerra and Josh Beckett for what it cost to get Tony Graffanino you can win. The Oakland A's have never gotten out of the first round of the playoffs because of salary. Where were the Angels last year? You need to spend money to be competitive. Every season someone will be a surprise but they have great young players and they can get on a roll. We do not have this luxury. I do not agree with paying Chan Ho Park $14M/yr. but I would Colon. We use money as our excuse.

I usually go to look at the wares and what not. It is also cool to just get excited for baseball. I thought it was a tad overpriced and now I really feel this way and will probably not attend unless soemthing REAL is done to get me excited for the upcoming season.

I go back to this. We lost 5 in a row to the Twins which cost us the division. Every player on the team failed when we needed them most. Nobody stepped up, except maybe Colon. Therefore I have no problem with gettting rid of anyone. The GM assembled a team on paper that was one of the best in the AL and then lost 5 in a row to the Twins. I think they should've done a better job at retaining players but the owner will ahve no part of that. Therefore we get a joke of a manager to replace teh joke of a manager and cheap crappy players. Blame last years players (Ordonez, Thomas, Alomar, etc.,) and manager/coaching staff. For this upcoming season blame the owner. The GM or who ever did this put a very good team out there. This year is going to be a joke. If Maddux signs witht eh cub, you will be lucky to see the box score of the Sox in the paper. Going into this offseason thsi team needed to do something. Now I feel anythign they do will be a wash. The only way the will get better is to add salary. Well who am I kidding.

Unless the Sox are going with some very inexperienced players something has to give and a trade like this makes sense although I do not think it will happen. The thing with Konerko/Damon is Boston has no use for Konerko so you trade Konerko somewhere, get Damon and have whoever takes Konerko deal with Boston for money and players. We have three outfileders right now and Uribe is our only bench player. If we carry 12 pitchers, this leaves 13 position players on the team (Lee,Ordonez, Rowand, Crede, Valentin, Uribe, Harris, Konerko, Thomas, Olivo and Alomar.) We need something from somewhere (Reed, Borchard are the only players worth a look.) As far as pitching goes we have Buerhle, Loiaza, Garland, Wright, Schoenweis, Pollitte, Grillli, Wunsch, Koch, and Marte. This means Cotts and Ginter are almost assured jobs. Any injury at any position decimates this team. 80 wins looks like a stretch. This is why this trade is plausible and why I think Ordonez will not be here Opening Day.

If KW was smart he would should bid Boston against Baltimore for Maggs services and make one of them take soem dead salary in the process. Float the Maggs to Baltimore to fleece Boston.

Nomar is considered a bigger star because he is in Boston. This trade is an even deal in my book. Valentin can then go Texas.

Mo vaughn meet Grant Hill Wouldn't insurance have soemthing to say about his health and ability to play?

Best news all offseason.

What if the Red Sox were going to give us cash with the deal? They needed Ordonez and had to dump Nomar. Maggs/A-Rod =$35M Nomar/Willamson/Ramirez=$33M KW held the chips in this deal and may ahve been getting a good deal here.

The Tigers will be a draw for pitchers and they can pick up speed. That being the case you can see the mid-80's Cardinals for a blueprint. Juanquin Andujar and John Tudor looked like HOf'ers with that defense. Imagine Maddux pitching in the cold in that park with a speedy outfield.

Like what Koch said last year about the Twins. Was what he said wrong?

94-96 with control is enough for me. I would still like to try and get Williamson somehow but this is a nice solid move. We need another mid-level bat, reliever and starter though. I got a felling Borchard or Anderson will be moved for pitching.

I get the feeling Guillen, Cora and KW are not attrative guys to come and work for and this does not bode well.... Say what you want but nobody really went out of their way to play here except Alomar and I get the feeling he wasn't getting offers anyway.

Konerko dumped his land? There was an editorial in the Times about a month ago about how some older lady in Bridgeport was all excited about Konerko moving to Bridgeport and he better not be traded. I thought he was going to try and trump the guy with the indoor pool just south of the park.

Why ruin our fun when it is so damn cold outside?

styx

Ya but neither do Matt Ginter or Jon Rauch

I think it will come down to Konerko for Weaver as there appears to be a pissing match on who pays for Konerko.