Vance Law

QUOTE(gosox41 @ Dec 16, 2007 -> 11:12 PM) I don't think it was crap. I don't blame KW for not raising his offer for Hunter. The people that do are the same who ripped KW for not overpaying for Colon 4 years ago. How did that work out for LAA. How many wins did Bartolo have the last 2 seasons? Why wait to see how it turns out later when you can complain now. I believe people simply parrot the same attitude and content of the horses*** they read from meathead sports columnists. They write negative articles and complain about s*** like not overpaying for Colon because all the screaming and flailing apparently draws attention and readers. They are not, however, required to ever write an article that says "I was wrong when I made that retarded assertion as if I was certain. Wow, maybe I should completely change the way I do my job and hold myself accountable for the bs I publish. Or maybe I should just quit, realizing how unqualified I am and how idiotic...... woah, big news here Sox Swing and Miss Again: Failure to land Fukudome highlights management ineptness and Cubs Spend Way Too Much for 4 Uncertain Years of Japanese Import

QUOTE(Tony82087 @ Dec 16, 2007 -> 10:00 PM) I'll make it short, because a long post really isn't needed, but I just don't how, with a straight face, you can tell me that this Sox squad, along with Rowand, could be in a group with Detroit/Cleveland/New York/Boston/Anaheim. The Sox would at least have to be better than two of those teams, and I just don't see that, not with Contreras/Danks/Floyd making 60% of the starts for this club. Believe me, I have a straight face right now. And I will reiterate, as this may have gotten lost in the shuffle, if you look at my original post, the hypothetical conditions I laid out included Cabrera not landing on the Indians or Tigers (he did, in the real world) and the Sox landing one of the 5 centerfielders. With regard specifically to the White Sox rotation I will reiterate again, the Sox starters had a better ERA than Detroit's starters last season. That may be difficult for some people at Soxwhining.com to wrap their brains around because anything that doesn't go well for the Sox is greatest abomination ever witnessed in baseball history, while anything that doesn't go well for other teams is discarded after a moment's glance. Sox starters pitched 84 more innings than the Tigers last year and put up an ERA .21 runs better and did so with one of baseball's hitter friendliest parks as home. That is with Contreras having the bad year and with the rookie Danks having a rookie-like year. I believe Contreras will have a better year this year. I believe Danks will improve as players often do better their rookie seasons. Your guesstimates may be different. There is no rational way you can claim that Detroit, on paper, has a clearly better rotation. Maybe Detroit will be better, maybe they will be worse, maybe they will be a lot worse. The did just add a guy who put up a 5.17 ERA in the junior league last year.

QUOTE(sircaffey @ Dec 15, 2007 -> 07:13 PM) Yeah, Willits has hit his ceiling, imo. In fact, I think he overachieved last year. There are many better lead off hitters in the league. The great thing about Willits was his walk total and his eye at the plate. He lead MLB in pitches per plate appearance last year. If that was not a fluke, that makes him better than most of the one-dimensional speed lead-off guys.

QUOTE(2nd_city_saint787 @ Dec 15, 2007 -> 05:54 PM) you guys are ruthless lol I actually didn't see you had Konerko listed in that deal you suggested. Thought it just said Crede, Broadway, and MacDougal. My bad.

QUOTE(Tony82087 @ Dec 16, 2007 -> 03:08 PM) Bull. Hunter/Jones/Rowand doesn't make this team a WS contender, it hardly makes them a playoff contender. It puts the Sox at around 115 million in payroll, gives this team an even older, expensive core, and it still leaves them Contreras/Floyd/Danks as the 3-4-5. "Fine shape to compete" isn't exactly how I would describe the situation. Bull. If you are in the playoffs, you are a World Series contender. My point was that that team could compete for 1st or 2nd in the Central. A lineup that includes Thome, Konerko, Dye, Hunter/Jones or whoever, Fields, Quentin and Orlando has the potential to be excellent. With Danks and Contreras having not-good years last year, our rotation still had a better ERA than Detroit's, and that's without adjusting for the park. With all of the luck, chance, and randomness that affect baseball, that team can compete with Detroit and Cleveland for a playoff spot(s). Are Ordonez, Polanco, Renteria, and Granderson going to have years as good as last year? How about Sabathia and Carmona? How did the 06 Indians only win 78 games? How did Arizona win 90 games last year with a negative run differential?

QUOTE(Chisoxfn @ Dec 16, 2007 -> 02:00 PM) The worse parrt is that it seemed like that was the only way this team could compete This team would be in fine shape to compete if Williams did everything exactly as he has, and signed one of the 5 free agent centerfielders, and most importantly Cabrera lands on any team other than Detroit or Cleveland.

QUOTE(Balta1701 @ Dec 15, 2007 -> 03:23 PM) Yankees will scoff at SS's as in, "why do we need a shortstop when we can have Jeter situated in that position on the field instead."

QUOTE(Balta1701 @ Dec 15, 2007 -> 05:50 PM) And Jimmy Crack corn, and I don't care. Sounds like what someone on steroids would say. Cheater.

QUOTE(Kalapse @ Dec 15, 2007 -> 04:51 PM) Gary Bennett also admitted to using HGH, which confirms another portion of the Mitchell Report. So it seems like guys are willing to admit (after being called out in the Mitchell report) that they did HGH prior to 2005 when it was not yet banned. And the only guys to admit to having done steroids have done so after they retired (Segui, Canseco, Camminiti), or somehow got busted (Gibbons, Grimsley, Giambi [sort of]).

QUOTE(2nd_city_saint787 @ Dec 15, 2007 -> 03:19 PM) PK, Crede, Broadway, Macdougal for Figgins, Kotchman, Santana, Shields Nice. See if they'll throw in Guerrero and Hunter, too, plus cash.

QUOTE(DBAH0 @ Dec 13, 2007 -> 10:23 PM) It comes down to whether Cabrera re-signs with us over the long - term. Because if you sign Eckstein and then have Uribe replace him in defensive situations, at the end of 2008, you have no SS and need to go into the market to get one (don't know off the top of my head who the potential FA SS's are in the 2008 off-season). Furcal. Potentially CabO.

QUOTE(Jenks Heat @ Dec 15, 2007 -> 01:50 PM) Have the Cardinals done anything to improve team? Their fans seem to be getting a royal screwing. Made way for Ankiel. Saved bucks. For what exactly, I don't know.

QUOTE(GreatScott82 @ Dec 14, 2007 -> 11:19 AM) In 2007 it was purely KWs fault. He went into last offseason basing his 2006 season winning 90 games. Well KW your team won 60% of the 90 games in the first half of the season. He didn't add anybody and was content in thinking the team would just simply rebound... He added "Power Arms" to the bullpen with limited to no experience at all. He re-signed Pods to play LF because of the way the "market was out of whack". He signed Erstad to be the everyday CF.. wow those 2 moves worked out well. Because of the market going up, KW's agression went waaaaaaaaay down. He wouldn't go after big name free agents anymore, he would simply just rely on trades. He traded away big game Freddy for Gio and Floyd. (This was the one good move he had last offseason as Freddy went down in the beginning of the 2007 season). But he shocked us all by trading McCarthy for Danks and Massett. Well this trade is pretty much McCarthy for Danks straight up because Massett will likely be non-tendered.. I was a BIG McCarthy fan and saw this deal as why?? Danks could be something special but so can McCarthy.... KW failed last offseason its that simple. I would say the opposite of that. Kenny didn't fail last offseason, and it's not that simple. The players failed on the field during the year. The hitting was historically bad all at the same time for a couple of months. The bullpen gave away 8 or 9 games in the span of a month or so. Williams was not a genius because the bullpen was so good in 2005. He is not an idiot because it tanked so bad in 2007. It's a bullpen. It's a crapshoot. Everyone was certainly happy with Thorton in 2006 and happy about the MacDougal trade at the time and were very happy about the affordable extension he signed. Then they sucked on the field. I suppose Williams should have told them to not suck. A failure last offseason would have been signing Juan Pierre, Gary Matthews, or Dave Roberts to the expensive long term contracts they got. The maxim that the GM should get "all of the credit if they win and all of the blame if they lose" is retarded, illogical, simplistic, juvenile, and nonsensical. It exists only as a product of the overly emotional fan's need to place blame and or to parrot what they heard from a meathead radio sports jock whose goal is to be "provocative" by saying outlandish things.

Eckstein, Mackowiak, Kip Wells all signed

QUOTE(jackie hayes @ Dec 14, 2007 -> 05:27 PM) And the A's shift to full-blown rebuilding mode. Hey, look who's going to Oakland! rotoworld: What, no Chris Young? D-Backs send 4 of their top 8 prospects.

What percentage of posts on Soxtalk are posting of a prediction or guesstimate by one of the one million credible or completely retarded "baseball" "analysts" on the internet of some trade, free agent signing, or draft pick that the White Sox might potentially make (displayed all nice and shiny in a numbered list format), followed by a Soxtalk poster, all in a huff as if this extremely unlikely transaction has in fact occurred, stating, "if this happens, Kenny should be fired, and I'm never watching baseball again!" I posit that that is 85% of the posts. Here is another top 10 picks list. This one from Baseball Prospectus http://baseballprospectus.com/unfiltered/i...&mode=login

QUOTE(iamshack @ Dec 14, 2007 -> 12:34 PM) Well, it is hearsay in the sense that the report is authored by Mitchell and his team, and they are saying "this guy said he shot Clemens in the ass with steroids." It's not a report authored by McNamee claming he did this. Therefore, it's hearsay because Mitchell is essentially stating "this guy said this." Mitchell stating that Bigbie said he heard Cust or Roberts admit to doing steroids is actually double hearsay. I follow you, but I still think there is a difference. What McNamee is quoted as saying is the equivalent of him on the witness stand saying all of those things. He is not contesting them. This isn't Mitchell saying "I heard McNamee say all this stuff about Clemens," and McNamee saying, "I never said that." Mitchell being the one who wrote the report is the equivalent of Mitchell being the lawyer in the courtroom asking the questions.

QUOTE(iamshack @ Dec 14, 2007 -> 11:46 AM) I was referring to both of them. One being Kirk Radomski- he was the one who supplied the cancelled checks, and the other was this McNamee character who trained Clemens and Petitte. He did not provide any physical proof of the allegations he was making. Rather, just his own word- his own word after he had been charged with a felony. He then offered up what he did in exchange for the charges being dropped. Ok, but when you say "hearsay," I think that applies to Bigbie saying, "Cust told me he did steroids." I don't think that applies to "I personally shot Clemens' ass full of steroids on multiple occasions." I'm just looking forward to the trial, where McNamee is able to describe Clemens' ass in detail from memory and it matches the photographs.

I like that it says AOL user uploads.

QUOTE(iamshack @ Dec 14, 2007 -> 11:12 AM) The evidence presented against the players is primarily the word of two men- two charged with felonies, no less- and one of those men only offers up hearsay evidence. Which one are you referring to here?

QUOTE(DrunkBomber @ Dec 14, 2007 -> 09:44 AM) Im kind of sick of the media now talking about if everyone owes Barry Bonds some kind of apology. It doesnt matter that anyone else was doing it, the fact that he cheated and lied about it is why he got the criticism he did. The people who owe him an apology are the media, first. If there were 1,000 players who have done steroids over the years, Bonds has not gotten 1/1,000 of the blame and negative attention. He's gotten 99% of it.

QUOTE(iamshack @ Dec 13, 2007 -> 11:03 PM) CNBC is claiming the list they have is the original Mitchell Report list, but that those 39 names were eventually excluded because there was no "direct" evidence to inculpate those players. Meaning, these players were highly suspected or commonly known to use performance-enhancing drugs but there either was no one who came forward claiming they sold them the drugs, saw them use the drugs, or had a record of payments for the drugs. But the thing is, there are a lot of names in the report that are not on the CNBC list. It's not like the CNBC list has 39 more names than the report has. The have roughly the same number. So are they suggesting there were 145 names, and CNBC just decided to pick 75 that it liked. And meanwhile, the Mitchell Report picked the 86 names with the most tangible evidence?

QUOTE(Linnwood @ Dec 13, 2007 -> 10:36 PM) Parque told the Sun-Times in a phone interview. ‘‘You have a guy that was trying to plea-bargain to save his own ass, so of course he’s going to throw as many names as possible out there.’’ Yes, Parque! I love this. Mitchell grilling Radomksi under hot lights: Radamski: I swear that's it. Those are all the players. I swear. Mitchell: [slams fist on table] c'mon, Radomski, talk! Goddamn it, if I don't start hearing names, you'll be the locker room attendant for the f***ing Toledo Mud Hens. You think I was born yesterday? Brian Roberts, Clemens, Pettite, David Justice, Mo Vaughn, Eric Gagne and those other 55 players and that's it?? Radomski: Ok, ok, you're right. I'll talk. There was also..........uh.......Jim Parque? Mitchell: Jackpot! Nailed him. Allright, call the commisioner, this investigation is over.

QUOTE(Tony82087 @ Dec 13, 2007 -> 06:36 PM) Anyone going to stop going to games, stop watching the product? Me neither. No. Sign Bonds.

Didn't get the 3 years at $6 million per he originally expected.