bigruss

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ May 11, 2009 -> 05:59 PM) Bay is a bigger name. Last seasons market showed us one thing, the stars got paid like stars and the good to very good players had a hard time getting paid or at least had to wait a while. Bay is starting to look like a star or at least is going to be perceived as that because of what he's doing in a large market in the prime of his career. Hudson was coming off a major injury, Abreu is old, and Dunn had flaws in his game. Now look at Tex, Burnett, CC, etc and you'll see that guys in there prime that were considered stars or had the potential to be stars still got paid and I figure Bay will get a 5 year deal in the neighborhood of between 12-15M per season (probably much closer to 15M and if there were enough suitors I wouldn't be shocked to see him get a little more). Tex: NYY CC: NYY Burnett: NYY Now he may have the suitors to get such a deal, but right now I dont see it. You can count on the Yanks, Mets, and Red Sox to be able to afford and be willing to offer larger contracts, but I still dont see many teams WILLING to spend that type of money. I could be wrong, but right now I dont see alot of teams offering that type of money, unless a team like the Angels get desperate to replace Vlad or something. And I could be wrong but I believe Bay has flaws too, he isnt a huge power machine, has had years where scouts were really down on him, and I believe his defense his shaky (again, this is off the top of my head, and could be wrong)

Just look what Dunn, Abreu, Hudson got last offseason, all of these guys were looking for HUGE deals before that season then the economy tanks and Dunn get what? 20 mill over 2 years from the Nationals? No contender wanted to pay him that much. Hudson could only get a 1 year incentive laden deal when he was looking for a long term deal at about 10 mill per going into the offseason. For the Sox, I actually wouldve preferred Dunn to Bay, because I think he is a great replacement for Thome, high OBP, high SLG and we can put him in the DH role. Bay is actually one or two years older than Dunn.

QUOTE (rangercal @ May 11, 2009 -> 05:43 PM) wtf? How are we going to get Bay for anywhere near 3/30? Like I said, its hard to gauge where the market will be for him, and what the economy is like. Now instead of just blasting my suggestion, what would you say he would demand?

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ May 11, 2009 -> 05:38 PM) Also depends on Viciedo and Fields. And if they are succeeding, and Alexei turns it around, or Nix keeps hitting, and Getz is still going strong, where does Beckham fit? Does he push both Fields and Viciedo into the OF? Or does Alexei go there? Way to many ifs and circumstances to really get a grasp on where we will be in the offseason. But no doubt about it the Sox could use a guy like Bay, just at what cost to other areas of the team.

I would offer him a 3 year deal worth around 30 mill (Also depends on the economy, this could go down to say 7 or 8 mill a year, or his value could skyrocket to a deal like JD Drew's, but this is what I would offer him). Put him in LF, move Quentin to RF, Dye resigned at a lesser deal, put him at DH. Say bye and thanks to Thome, while adding a dynamic hitter who has a fantastic OBP that could work very well with the Q, Konerko and Dye. Only problem is that he is a righty, so maybe say bye to Dye and not Thome? Not sure on that part, but Bay would be a welcome addition to this lineup. EDIT: Its way to hard right now to gauge where the market for him is going to be, and how much he will cost and what the overall market can offer this offseason, but a fair price I would grab him up in a heartbeat.

QUOTE (fathom @ May 8, 2009 -> 10:13 PM) I also assumed I'm not the only one who noticed who the different janitor was during the very last scene. He was one of the janitors who appeared during the janitor arrival to work, and Neil Flynn's character had just lost the election for union president to the midget janitor. Im pretty sure he was the one who informed JD about the whole situation there. Edit: Atleast I think that was him, could be wrong. Maybe Lawrence played that guy too, they looked really similar... Double Edit: IMDB.com does not show taht Lawrence was that janitor in the earlier episode, so Im probably wrong...but damn they looked similar.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ May 9, 2009 -> 08:27 PM) If he can learn to be a leader like AJ and build a repoire with the starting staff, there's no reason he can't play the position...he won't be any worse than AJ or Victor Martinez throwing. Let's give him 18 months in our system before we declare him a DH or 1B. Not saying he cant improve, hopefully he has the mindset to become a good game caller and staff manager, we can deal with a weak arm. But his skills are incredibly raw, and he has a long way to go. Im not declaring him a 1b, but its a longshot at this point for him to stick at catcher.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ May 9, 2009 -> 08:25 PM) How do you know he's without it? Maybe he just got ahead of the testing. He is the prize in the Vazquez deal. Him and the $ savings. You would think the Sox would do a s***load of background checks on a guy who had tested positively in the past. They SHOULD want to make sure taht he is for real and wont get suspended in the future. Plus, you would hope that Flowers is smart enough not to risk getting busted again. There are alot of ifs out there, and it is possible he still is, but Im pretty confident that he isnt. Again, I could be wrong.

QUOTE (fathom @ May 9, 2009 -> 08:24 PM) He does have huge power, but you don't see too many catchers in the non-PEDs era hitting over 25 homers. He isnt really a catcher, yet. Right now he wont make it as a catcher in the bigs, he needs to improve ALOT for that to happen, so youre looking at a 1B or DH, and in my mind he has plenty of power to hit 25 or more.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ May 9, 2009 -> 08:21 PM) Flowers is a PED guy And is proving that he is still good without it.

QUOTE (fathom @ May 9, 2009 -> 08:19 PM) I highly doubt Flowers ever hits over 25 homers in a season. Really? I thought I remember hearing from JPN that his power is ridiculous.

Danks around 100 pitches, keep him in for next inning?

Anybody watch NCIS? Im not a huge fan of crime scene shows, but this one has drawn me in, mainly because I like the personalities of the characters.

QUOTE (fathom @ May 5, 2009 -> 07:33 PM) I have no idea how we're still tied. God made sure.

QUOTE (kristofer @ May 5, 2009 -> 07:04 PM) OZZIE. KEEP THIS SAME LINEUP FOR THE NEXT THREE GAMES. MAYBE CONSISTENCY WILL HELP THIS OFFENSE. LOUD NOISES

QUOTE (maki @ Apr 30, 2009 -> 01:09 PM) as per the attendance figures thread that includes a 0 for the first game of the DH, otherwise we would be tracking ahead thus far. Beat ya

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Apr 30, 2009 -> 01:03 PM) So going back to all of the economy/attendance/payroll arguements we had over the winter, I actually went in and checked what our attendance #'s looked like this year so far, to the same point last year. Through 12 games this year we are averaging 24,608. Through the same point last year, we averaged 26,095. In other words there are about 10% less people at ballgames this year. Couple that reality with the big losses in sponsorships that Jerry has been talking about, and this franchise could have been in major trouble financially, if they hadn't have made the move to raise revenues and cuts costs somehow. It might not be the best thing for the team on the field, but the reality is that the Sox were either going to cut a little bit now, or a whole helluva a lot later. Watch and see the losses that Detroit is going to take this year, and the huge purge that is going to take place up there, and tell me if you would rather see that happen here, or the way that JR and the Sox have done things. The revenue picture you are trying to paint just isn't real. At best the Sox are probably even on ticket revenue (with the fall at the turnstiles getting balanced by the raise in ticket prices), and losing money on concessions, parking, and advertising versus last year. Someone mentioned elsewhere that the one of the DH games had an attendance of 0 in the MLB books, so that brings down our average. I believe the same poster said that we were averaging around 28K a game before that, which is an increase from last year.

QUOTE (WCSox @ Apr 27, 2009 -> 07:12 AM) My point was that by picking Rownad in the first round, the Sox expected him to contribute in the bigs. He wasn't some chopped liver 6th-rounder that Schueler took a flyer on, but didn't expect much in return. I don't believe that I used the word "solely," but the results of the draft disagree with your statement. If Prior had 2-3 years of successful experience in college or the minors under his belt at that point, he would've been drafted in the top 3. "Commitments" to universities are fickle. Prior could've easily backed out if he liked what the Yankees were offering him. I agree that this is most likely what happened. But it's difficult to argue that a "commitment" to USC had much to do with where Prior was drafted. If a team was convinced that this guy was going to be a stud and had few concerns about his durability, they would've drafted him earlier and ponied up the money. Everybody knew that Prior was going to be in the bigs after he left college. It's not like he had competing offers from the NFL or NBA on the table. These are BIG time questionable statements. Just look at a guy like Zach Putnam coming out of Ann Arbor Pioneer HS, he was projected as a first or second round pick, but fell to 38th round because of his commitment to the Univ of Mich and monetary demands. To some guys, commitments are a bargaining chip/safety net if a team doesnt offer them enough money in the draft, for others they are legit and they truly mean that commitment unless blown out of the water with an offer. And how many teams did you see ponying up money for Rick Porcello? Very few teams want to give up that much money for a high school draft pick, tehy would rather invest it in other ways even though he was the best high school pitcher coming out of the draft. And players coming out of high school have so much leverage, with those commitments they can easily decide to reject any offer with the feeling that they can increase their stock after a few years in college. Actually, the only type of player drafted that doesnt have leverage are College Seniors, and you see them get VERY little when it comes to signing bonuses (one thing that I really disagree about, but thats economics...personally, I think its a bad message to send to college players, that it hurts them so much financially to finish school, and we all know the chances of them actually making money from baseball is very slim).

Johnny Knox (WR) Ab Christian Taken By Bears with 5th round, 4th pick

QUOTE (lostfan @ Apr 24, 2009 -> 04:00 PM) Bradley wasn't inept, just a product of mediocre offensive coaching along with some bad luck (although Bradley was kinda dumb with the playbook) Well, I was calling Angelo's ability to draft good WRs inept, not him specifically, but I was calling him a bad player, as evidenced by his inability to do anything in the league. Yes, maybe coaching had something to do with it, but thats my point to, you get a fantastic player in Boldin and you just put him in the offense and watch him succeed, no coaching risk or questions aobut ability risk.

QUOTE (T R U @ Apr 24, 2009 -> 03:33 PM) You shouldn't wish Its beyond dumb to give away all your draft picks for players. Its even sillier to think that works. You build your team through the draft, not trading picks. It hasn't worked out for Washington, it wont work out here either. I doubt the Bears are in those talks anyways. And seeing that its going to take 3-4 hours to get to pick #25.. it could feel like an eternity before you get to see the Bears do something. As much as I agree with building through the draft, if you can trade a second round pick for a dominating player who is still young, you do it. Lets see, we can rely on Angelo's inept ability to draft a WR, and have more guys like Bradley, or you can have a known commodity who fills a HUGE hole on your team and instantly makes you a super bowl contender, all while still having a lot of picks that Angelo excels at (later in the draft). To me, if you can do a Boldin for Second Round Pick, you do it.

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Apr 24, 2009 -> 03:19 PM) This. Especially since were trading our second round pick for Boldin..... I wish...

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Apr 22, 2009 -> 02:40 PM) Okay. Brian Anderson is 3 for 13 with 6 K's when he starts out with an 0-1 count. He's 3 for 10 with 6 walks when he starts out with a 1-0 count. In those situations...he's getting a ball 43.5% of the time. That ratio (first pitch balls to strikes) will even out eventually. No quality big league pitchers throw anywhere close to 45% first pitch balls, especially to #9 hitters in the order. So its his fault that the pitchers were bad? What I see is that Brian was adjusting for what the pitchers were giving to him, to me thats a quality AB.

Kevin Youkilis. Senior year of high school I hit .470, with an OPS of almost 2, yet I didnt hit a lot of homers. Too many damn line drive doubles.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Apr 17, 2009 -> 02:55 PM) Now that is good writing. Cowley could learn a lot from Merkin. IMHO Merkin is a good writer, but he tends to be too much of tool of the White Sox, as he tends to never really question their moves.