iamshack

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Mar 6, 2009 -> 07:46 PM) He's 16, in some states for serious crimes (and this is serious battery), he can be charged as an adult. Especially given the previous record. Try him for battery, put him in jail. You can't fix someone like this most of the time, but at least you can take him out of circulation for a while. Oh, they could try him as an adult for this...it's usually something that is left up to the judge's discretion (assuming the State asks to try him as an adult), and because of his long list of priors, I'd be willing to be he does indeed get tried as an adult.

If he does indeed have "several" offers as he claims (sort of reminds you of what Drew Rosenhaus said about T.O.), then he is probably holding out for some sort of guarantee of substantial playing time and a reasonable amount of guaranteed money (my guess is $4 million or so), then throwing an incentive-laden, $1 million guaranteed offer and a backup job probably isn't going to do much for him. You also have to consider that A.J. likes playing quite a bit and doesn't seem to care for sharing time with anyone... I'd love it if they brought him in, but I just don't see it in the cards...

I'll be interested to see if they put him back in that "multiple arm angles" mode again. I much prefer he just throw over the top, as I think his pure stuff is far more devastating that way, despite it only coming from one arm angle.

You know, the sad thing is, I am almost just impressed that they even know who Nix and Beckham are...

QUOTE (JorgeFabregas @ Mar 2, 2009 -> 03:28 PM) I'm also concerned that he may be over or underweight. Maybe he is following the same career path as Kenny Powers...

QUOTE (knightni @ Mar 2, 2009 -> 12:33 AM) Hopefully it doesn't involve moonshine and one's own sister. Believe me, even that is better than what they offer in Cinci...

QUOTE (whitesoxfan101 @ Mar 1, 2009 -> 08:19 PM) I'll be there, probably for 2 games like I was when we visited in 2006. Hopefully the White Sox fanbase turnout will be even close to 2006. We basically took over the place that year, I was in Cincinnati for Red Sox/Reds last year and there were more White Sox fans in the ballpark in 2006 than the Red Sox even had there last year. My friends and I did the same. What a great time and a great turnout. Note* Cinci sucks to party in so plan on heading across the border to KY - that's where all the fun is...

QUOTE (Kalapse @ Feb 20, 2009 -> 03:22 PM) He gets at least twice that if he just accepts arbitration. What a colossal mistake that was. Yeah, talk about your all-time backfires...of course, he wasn't the only one to do so this offseason... Just goes to show you how crazy the market can be in a relatively short span of time...on both ends of the spectrum.

Looks like Cabrera and the Dodgers are talking again... http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20...rtnerId=rss_mlb

QUOTE (scenario @ Feb 19, 2009 -> 12:15 PM) Put a little gray in his hair and he could probably get "senior" discounts. Honestly, he would look damn close to Bill Russell if they did that...

QUOTE (Kalapse @ Feb 18, 2009 -> 11:49 PM) He felt worn down near the END OF LAST SEASON as, you know, a 37 year old 18 year veteran who walked up to the plate over 600 times and has to workout like a madman throughout the season to stay in shape. He said nothing about the offseason, just that he feels good now. http://www.usatoday.com/sports/baseball/al...244246021_x.htm Yeah, I agree. It's not like the guy just hits the 600 times and that's it. He has to work and work and work like crazy to stay in playing shape and hitting shape. I think the guy looks great for his age.

QUOTE (BearSox @ Feb 18, 2009 -> 08:28 PM) I still question if he is really 19 or not. I don't know, maybe he is actually 19, but with his current size and the fact his frame looks pretty filled (from the few clips I have seen of him), I wouldn't be surprised if he is really 22-24 years old. Did LeBron James look 18 or 19 when he entered the league? That dude is a MAN. Just because the kid is from south of the border doesn't mean he lied about his age...

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Feb 18, 2009 -> 09:38 AM) is Ptak around to talk about how ridiculous this could be? I do remember Steff saying over and over that one can recover and rehab after 6-7 months. It's been 7-8 months now, hasn't it?

I rarely agree with Dick Allen, but I have to say I am leaning towards his point of view on this one. Because of the information age, there is so much more focus on this stuff than there ever was in the past. Players have cheated since the game was created. Certainly some have been clean their entire careers, and it's quite a shame when a player gets looked over for an honor or award because he was beaten out by someone that cheated, but honestly, what can you do? I think it's impossible to draw any arbitrary line to separate the cheaters that deserve major punishment from those cheaters who deserve little or no punishment. And you obviously can't punish all the cheaters, because then there would hardly be anyone left... I tend to think of this as the same way I think of it in life...where cheaters often do prosper, and indeed much to the detriment of those who don't cheat. But the best thing we can do is be honest to and with ourselves, and know we did our best in the end. These things always tend to sort them out in the end anyways.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Feb 17, 2009 -> 08:33 PM) In this economy, the value of those guys as trade chips is just going to keep going up too. I have been saying for a year or two now, and I still believe it, that eventually the pendulum will swing back the other way and veteran certainty will become more valued as many of these prospects eventually bust out (as they always do). Perhaps this is the year it happens, as many solid veterans are (or were) having difficulty finding jobs at what was thought to be market value. The market always seems to trend too widely (and go overboard) on things of this nature, and I think either next year or the year after we will see a rapid correction (if not even an over-correction).

QUOTE (scenario @ Feb 17, 2009 -> 02:14 PM) I agree power rankings at this point in the season are completely pointless. But I just scratch my head reading some media experts analysis of our team as 'aging'... with 'guys on the downside'... etc., while giving other teams with players the same age or older a pass. On most rosters in baseball, Konerko (just about to turn 33 in March) and AJ (just turned 32) would not be considered 'old' guys. But I guess guys like JD Drew, Mike Lowell, David Ortiz, Posada, Jeter, ARod, Damon, Matsui, Derrek Lee, Soriano, Eric Byrnes, Carlos Delgado, Maggs (and most of Detroit's roster), Vlad, Torii Hunter, the list goes on and on... (who btw are all older than either Paulie or AJ)... don't age. And in what bizarre twisted parallel universe do the Cardinals, Reds, Orioles, and Giants rank ahead of the WhiteSox? I think the "old" moniker comes from having guys that have been with the team for a few years...it tends to make the team seem a bit stale. The Angels will be praised for bringing on Bobby Abreu, but JD, Pauly and AJ will be considered "aging."

QUOTE (Milkman delivers @ Feb 17, 2009 -> 12:54 PM) It's like when a bully roughs up your brother. You can kick your brother's ass all you want because he's your brother, but when someone else does it, you kick their ass. Agreed wholeheartedly. But sometimes your brother is acting like a dumbass and needs to be taught a lesson. So you let him get schooled.

QUOTE (Kenny Hates Prospects @ Feb 17, 2009 -> 10:38 AM) There's nothing wrong with a predicting a bad year for the Sox so long as you have an actual reason to do so. If he'd said the Sox don't have the SP depth to win I'd be fine with that. But he says Quentin is the only up-and-coming position player the Sox have and doesn't know that Betemit is a UT player. He doesn't know who Dayan Viciedo is either, and he says Paulie is on the way down like he's been on top of some mountain for the last two years. What's he going to do, hit .212? If I had been tasked with writing a prediction for say the San Diego Padres, the least I'd do is go to their MLB page and read a few stories to find out what's going on. The dude wrote this without even thinking of doing any real research into the matter and comes off like an idiot as a result. How much time does it take to read a couple of Scott Merkin's mailbags? If I may be Canadian for a moment, what a hoser... Ahh, give him a break, the guy is writing a Power Rankings article. He has to cover every team. Sure, it's a bit bland and he didn't mention Alexei or Dayan, but he covered the basics, and I really don't think he is too far off in terms of the result if you compare him to where other writers will ultimately place us. Bottom line is, the theme is pretty spot-on. We've all been posting on the jurassic-ness of Pauly, JD, and Thome for months if not years now.

Hah, we fans will rip the hamburgers out of our team all day and night long. And that's fine. But when an OUTSIDER does it for us, well that's when the hamburger really hits the fan! What a no-good, know-nothing, fat, pathetic loser! White Sox fans have become fairly noteworthy for writing in and harassing these writers for unfavorable predictions...

QUOTE (elrockinMT @ Feb 15, 2009 -> 09:32 PM) I would think the Duke might be worth a shot and there are some others that aren't bad either. Time to strike while the iron is hot KW I'd pay him just to bs with Jose, Alexei and Dayan, to be honest.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Feb 15, 2009 -> 06:22 PM) We're a lot closer. If I manage to know that I have a job next year from a phone call/email in the next couple weeks, I'll suddenly be considering a drive to Glendale. Great article, Balta. Thanks for posting. Just curious, anyone planning on making the trip to Vegas for the Sox/Cubs spring games (I think like March 4/5 or so)? I'm going to try and make it out there, pending my work schedule, so if anyone is going to be in the area, I'd love to help show people around (I live in this wretched town).

QUOTE (Reddy @ Feb 12, 2009 -> 12:01 PM) ps, where did all the money go from dumping Swish, Javy, etc? It was never there to begin with. We have lowered our payroll. We did not keep it constant. So just because it was theoretically budgeted at some point, our budget was reduced this year because of economic conditions. It's staying in your pockets, or it's staying in some employer's coffers who laid off Joe laborer, or it's staying in some big corporation who did not renew their skybox tickets (or won't renew for 2010). That's where it went.

QUOTE (Reddy @ Feb 12, 2009 -> 12:34 PM) i disagree, there were plenty of options at one point or another - and options that were CHEAP. why DIDN'T we trade Dye? In my book, the best thing we could've done was trade him (plus whatever) for a starter and signed a CHEAP ASS Adam Dunn. Dye was rumored to go to practically every team in the National League at some point. Do you think he didn't TRY to trade him? It's fairly clear to me that it was going to pretty difficult to get anything of value for Dye when there were indeed guys like you mentioned out there on the FA market - Dunn and Abreu, for instance. Do you not think that these teams Kenny was trying to move Dye to didn't realize that? I think Kenny did the best with the situation he was given that can be expected. Obviously we don't know the exact parameters and conditions JR gave him when the offseason began, but it's fairly clear that he was given a mandate to shed some salary. Couple that with his desire to get a bit younger and more athletic, and you see the result. Could other moves have been made, perhaps? Certainly. But all in all, I don't think there were a whole lot of other impact moves available out there that were wise in both the short and long term picture for the organization. It's kind of a shame that we do have so many holes that are sort of riskily being patched-up this season, but I think that is more the rule than the exception in the league this year.

I think it's pretty clever. Why not try and capitalize on what works for them. Let's face it, if that was the atmosphere at the Cell, we would all think it was brilliant!

Sorry, the obvious benefit went right over my head...