JUGGERNAUT

1B/DH: The name that pops out is Sweeney. I'm going to assume that's Mike. In keeping with the whole speed & D approach this is the next logical move. Maybe for both teams. He's an aggressively smart baserunner who reads pitcher's moves well. He has above average speed & with decent range & mobility. Few players bring as much emotion to the park as Sweeney. As a hitter Sweeney's situation is similar to Gonzo's but less severe. When his back his healthy he is capable of producing 120-130 RBI on a team like the Sox. At the very least a healthy Sweeney can produce 100R, 100RBI. Koney's min price realistically is 27/3. We can all fool ourselves it's not, but if he puts up 30+HR, 100+RBI that's the lowest Sox offer he's likely to except. Sweeney should cost considerably less than that. Probably a base of 21/3 w incentives up to a 27/3. The Sox should take the risk. They have other options for 1B if Sweeney should go down. But if he's healthy he should be able to make up for Koney in the RBI dept & add more to the R dept. He's a natural born team leader type.

As long as he has a good year in 05, Thomas will be back. Either under the terms of his current contract or a new one. Thomas & JR are friends. That's very unique in this day & age of major league sports. I think both envision Thomas being one of a dying breed of players that only played for one team in their career. That will certainly help his HOF chances & continue to boost Thomas market value for the team. It's pretty simple when it comes to Thomas really. If he has a sub-par year, he'll return to the Sox under a new contract. If he has an MVP like year, he'll return to the Sox under his existing contract. If he has something in between they'll probably re-negotiate a contract extension. He's not going any where. The only exception is trade value. The Sox will be willing to trade Thomas in any year if they think the player they can get can help them win a WS more than Thomas. But he won't be traded just to improve the team for future years.

I think you are underselling the value of Iggy at SS. We're not asking him to bounce around the IF. We're just asking him to play SS when Uribe needs a spell. That would allow Harris to remain on the team & cover the UIF need. Depth: 3B - Crede, Uribe SS - Uribe, Iggy 2B - Iggy, Harris 1B - Koney, Gload That's pretty solid depth to give guys days off or just sit them a spell if they struggle.

He shoudl love playing against the Tribe. They gave up a division leading 117 SB's last year.

The naysayers are missing the point completely. Pods + Iggy - speed Dye + Koney + Everett OR Thomas + Koney + Dye - power Rowand + Uribe - speed AJ + Crede - power It doesn't matter whether Koney, AJ, Thomas, & Crede are slow. What matter is the mix the speed & power. It does 2 things for: 1 - stretches weak hits w RISP into runs 2 - reduces GIDPs 3 - puts more pressure on pitches & middle IFers But since you are so hell bent on the subject here are the players as they rank speed wise: 1-Pods 2-Iggy 3-Rowand 4-Uribe 5-Dye 6-Crede/Everett 7-Thomas/Crede 8-AJP 9-Koney There is better speed on the bench: Timo > Dye Gload > Crede Davis > Rowand Harris > Rowand The team is deep when it comes to both pinch hitting & running.

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/stats/battin...Min=0&ageMax=99 Take a look at this list in terms of levels & playoff teams. Lev 1: Hou(WC) + LA (DIV) Lev 2: Atl (DIV) + NYY (DIV) + STL (DIV) Lev 3: MIN (DIV) + BOS (WC) Lev 4: OAK (DIV) Roberts is actually split betw BOS & LA so BOS should probably be slotted in Lev 2. Now I shouldn't have to tell you that in 05 the SOX expect to have Lev 1: Pods Lev 2: Iggy Lev 3: Rowand Lev 4: Uribe I can't wait to see these 4 reek havoc on a tribe pitching staff that gave up a division leading 117 SB's last year.

For the CLE fans in this thread: 04 CLE: 94 SB. 117 SB vs. Did you do anything to improve that? 04 SOX: 78 SB. 90 SB vs. 05 Expectation: 150 SB, 90 SB It so happens that MIN has lead in this category 4 straight yrs. Not just in SB, but more importantly the differential. http://www.sportsline.com/mlb/teams/stats/...ly?&_1:col_1=12 http://www.sportsline.com/mlb/teams/stats/...ly?&_1:col_1=12 http://www.sportsline.com/mlb/teams/roster/CLE Would you agree that with the loss of Vizquel & Lawton you might be the slowest team in the ALC? Do you honestly believe that will not factor in your win totals? We won't just be the fastest team in the ALC, we might be the fastest team in MLB. Seeing that you're not very good at protecting the base pads I think you should be the last team to think you'll beat the 05 Sox.

The latest Maggs rumor deal is insane. 05 - 12M, 06 - 15M, 07 - 12M, 08 - 15M, 09 - 18M (option years) 10 - 15M/3M, 11 - 15M Pretty nasty yes? Oh but there's more .. Basically if Maggs plays a full season in 09, 10 is guaranteed at 18M. If he plays a full season in 10, 11 is guaranteed at 15M. So basically if Maggs is healthy in the later part of this deal it amounts to a 105M/7yr deal. Just a few dollars short of Beltran. It says nothing about clauses for dl time but you'd have to imagine that at least that is still in there. So the big question is if Maggs is healthy is he worth any where near 105/7? What impact will this have on future deals? Do any teams have any hope of being able to sign their own players or will everyone opt for FA now? This is by far the worst deal of the off-season. Illich should be ashamed of himself. He's obviously bored w/out his Red Wings.

Didn't know about Ozuna's erratic arm. That probably rules him out for SS. I guess we're going with Iggy as #2 in SS depth this year.

1B: Koney even with D Lee - Koney more RBI, Lee more R 2B: Walker even with Iggy - Walker more RBI, Iggy more R 3B: Ramirez over Crede SS: Nomar over Uribe LF: Pods over Cub trio CF: Rowand over Patterson RF: Dye over Burnitz C: AJP over Barrett - We know what Barrett can do at Wrigley. AJ's potential at the Cell gives him the edge. SP: KW, MP, CZ, GM, GR over MB, FG, OH, JC, & JG. Sox have the health & durability edge, but if that holds up for the Cub they have the edge. RP: Obviously the Sox. The Cub have nothing but ? marks at closer & may have damaged Hawkins as a setup guy. With the loss of Sammy, & Alou, the Cub will be scratching out runs. That's going to put even greater pressure on their pen & if you were to ask which pen is more likely to crack it's the Cubs. DH: Sox. More so this year than previous years. The Chi-Town series: No offense to the Trib, but they should at least look at the matchups. KW vs 05 Sox: .280BA .407O .467S MP vs 05 Sox: .317BA .310O .488S CZ vs 05 Sox: .241BA .348O .380S GM vs 05 Sox: .260BA .306O .341S GR vs 05 Sox: .235BA .291O .353S This is where AJ, Pods, Timo, Everett, & Uribe come into play. MB vs 05 Cub: .279BA .326O .465S FG vs 05 Cub: .185BA .258O .259S - He owns Nomar OH vs 05 Cub: .385BA .412O .569S - Hairston & Nomar own him JC vs 05 Cub: .333BA .474O .467S - unknown. No Cub has 10 ab. JG vs 05 Cub: .197BA .239O .328S - 1 HR, 7 RBI in 61AB It depends on the matchups of course but if it fell: MB vs KW (2) , FG vs MP , OH vs CZ , JC vs GM , JG vs GR I give the Sox a 4-2 edge.

I've done this analysis already. The Sox are losing about 20-25 in both the R & RBI dept. But they are shaving off 70+ R in the pitching dept. That's why on paper the Sox are a much improved team. But paper never considers health. When stars go down & team as a slightly better than average rotation & pen you can't win. That's the story of the Sox from 01-04. A main guy in either the rotation, lineup or both went down & the depth wasn't there to make up for it. If Thomas had not gone down I do not believe this team plays 10 gms < 500 in Jul & Aug & could have challenged the Twins down to the wire. With Thomas coming back late I think the odds are in our favor he won't go down again. That means we just need to remain above 500 until he returns to his great form. This team is tailor made to score runs. If Pods can hit 300 this team will exceed it's 04 runs total. I have no doubt about that. I can't emphasize more the two waves of speed & power the lineup features. No other team can offer that. Pods + Iggy - speed Dye + Koney + Everett OR Thomas + Koney + Dye - power Rowand + Uribe - speed AJ + Crede - power Bench: Davis, Gload, Timo, Harris/Everett, UIF When you combine that with the obvious reduction in runs against it hard not to be optimistic. Pray for a healthy team year round & enjoy the winning.

When you think of a pen you think of durability, consistency, & wins. I think even the most ardent tribe fans would agree that the Sox have the edge over the tribe when you consider that. The tribe won 80 gms last yr because of a late 2nd 1/2 surge. The Sox have been doing that for years. It doesn't mean much. The biggest off-season signing for the tribe is Milwood. If he can manage at least 15 wins the tribe should finish with 85-90 wins. That would be a reasonable ceiling. The twins won 92 gms last yr mostly because of one of the best pens in the majors & Cy Santana. Santana's dominance took the pressure off the team. That & the fact the Sox played 10 gms under 500 in Jul & Aug. It should be weaker D & that should put pressure on both the 4-5 spots in the rotation. Realistically maybe 25 wins at best will come from those spots for the Twins. Meaning Cy Santana, Radke, & Silva need to produce about 50 wins (avg 17) between them to have a shot at 90-95 wins. That's no easy task. The Sox have the best upside potential in the ALC. They have the best rotation in terms of durability, consistency, & quality starts. They probably have the best depth as well if a 1-5 should go down. No matter how you draw it up there is a 70-75 win potential based on the strength of quality & winnable starts alone. Those are games where the starter gives up no more than 3r over 6 or 4r over 7. Those are games the Sox should win. The pen is much improved if you consider it a specialist pen. You've got light's out strength against both RH & LH & good strength against RH. That's really what the addition of Vizcaino & Hermanson provide. It's not a pen built for long relief but rather specific role relief. The Sox can afford that with the expectation that the vast majority of their starts will hand the ball over to the pen in the 6th inning. All of that is expectation not potential. Potential wise both Contreras & Garland could have breakout years. If they both can cut their walks by 30-50% they are capable of winning 15 gms. In the lineup there is the potential that Pods will regain his 300 hitting discipline. If that happens this team could surpass it's 04 run total. All the other changes are pretty simple. As long as the guys produce as good or better than their counterparts in '04 the team should increase it's win totals. What all this means is that if the Sox can remain healthy this team should win 90-95 gms & challenge the Twins. But if the potential finally emerges this team could win 95-100 gms & run away with the division. I don't think you can say that about either the twins or the tribe.

I can't believe BorASS is still trying to get a 90M/7 deal out of the Tigs. Illich needs to be patient here. The asking price is way to high & more potential bidders are dropping out. I think it's better the Tigs & the Rangers right now. If the Mets & Cub aren't even bothering to show up for his workout then what does that say for Maggs worth right now? The Tigs should reconsider even their 70M/5 offer. At this point Maggs is looking like a Nomar situation. A bargain price at a high health risk.

Keep in mind those questions are really indicative of what you are like in public life. I suspect most of us including myself have a much higher score if the questions were indicative of our postings. The spiritual questionaire is too long. Confident Believer.

I have a solution for you. We will just make the mandatory age in which you can drive or operate machinery the same as the drinking age. Would you like that?

Am I the only one who visited this thread thinking "another Rodney King incident?" To the author of the thread, you can not consume alcoholic beverages until your 21st birthday. If you do not like the law then lobby lawmakers to change it. But keep in mind you will face a very uphill battle as MADD & other groups will lobby hard against you. I realize you might be too self-absorbed in your own desires to bother to consider the big picture but the fact is the police are there to stop underage drinking primarily because underage drinkers have a right to drive as early as age 15. And if you don't think underage drinkers are involved in DUI related incidents, injuries, & deaths guess again.

Nothing's ever simple any more. This is likewise a reflection of America's credit debt. Home ownership is up in America. Home mortgages are. Most Americans have simply exchanged a rent check for a mortgage payment because of low interest rates. I read somewhere that the avg American has a debt cushion of about a few thousand dollars. If they exceed that they'll go bust. One solution of course is to regulate the medical industry to accept installment payments. In otherwords when you are slapped with a 12K medical bill that hospital has to accept the fact that you are going to pay it in installments. If you think about this nationwide just this simple regulatory move could have a major impact on healthcare costs.

Lady luck has not been kind to the Sox. Do you disagree? How many impact players have been on the DL for the Sox in the past 4 yrs? Eldred, Wells, E-Lo, Thomas, Maggs, etc. So as optimistic as I am about the 05 Sox I can't deny that lady luck's evil sister seems to like them more.

The Sox did not have a choice. J Jackson brokered a deal with Gov Thompson to built it where it is. The only choice the Sox had was to walk away from the deal & seek private financing.

You're funny. I actually could post facts & figures in this thread to support the Addison Sox 30K avg argument but I to upset right now with AL fans. Maybe it's just me. When I talk to MLB fans & non fans alike & tell them Sosa went awol & lied about in on FAN APPRECIATION DAY at Wrigley they all come to the same conclusion : what a loser! Yet on the verge of his signing to be an O I read about surges in ticket sales for O road games across the AL. Why? Is that what we are going to see at the Cell? Are O games going to sellout because the loser is in town? It sickens me. I can't wait to see the Unit battling the Sox at the Cell. That is going to be so cool! But Sosa? He'll always be a loser in my book until he apologizes to Cub fans for going awol on a day that is a TRIBUTE to THEM!

Cry me a river. FOX News has never denied any liberal the right to appear or speak on an issue. That is essentially what Fair & Balanced is. It doesn't take an IQ of 150 to realize the network is essentially conservative. It follows a pattern of conservativism that it's founder Murdoch aspires to. It didn't grow it's audience on the belief that it was non-partisan. If the liberal left doesn't have the balls to appear & challenge a viewpoint presented on FOX News then whose fault is that? That's why Fair & Balanced has been so successful. Conservatives had to put up with Turner's liberal vision expressed in just about every CNN show with the exception of Crossfire. His arch-rival decided to challenge that vision & was successful in doing so. Liberals should be crying over MSNBC & CNBC. There you see the makings of non-partisan news being molded to a conservative bias for the sole purpose of ratings growth. People turn to MSNBC for what they percieve as the middle ground perpsective of the news. But in the last year they seem to be moving further to the right. There is an easy & obvious solution for liberals on this: tune into CNN. The less you watch CNN the less influence you will have in American politics. If you could make CNN #1 again then MSNBC would lean to the left.

Someone mentioned thought police & the analogy is obvious. There's no solution to this because the students are doing this intel on their own volition. There is no CIA directive coming down to them to do it. No orders to follow. No paper trail that can be used to mount a legal challenge. In the book, 1984 they don't give much credence to the almighty dollar. It seems the thought police are a by-product of brain-washing & correction education. But in the year 2005 money is the greatest human influence. The thought police will arise from the payoff. Make it high enough & these same students will be gathering intel on their own mom & dads. What's scary is when you tie this to the extremist viewpoint that Iraq & the war against the Al-Queda is just a diversionary exercise. They believe that officials in the US knew an attack was imminent. They didn't know the details but they did know that they need to put a plan into place to get the Saudi's & other members of Wahabi's out of the country in the event an attack were to occur. They believe that Wahabi's are using all of this to expand their sphere of influence around the world while moving governments to a form of control they favor. The nightmare of course is that when the level of control & influence reaches a state they desire the Wahabi's will control what is acceptable or unacceptable thought. I don't know if it's true or not but I do know that some of the construction companies in Iraq are controlled by members of the Wahabi.

If you own or operate a business this is not a surprise. The hikes in premiums the past 5 yrs are un-F'g real. That 46% number is interesting. That's about the growth in premiums over that time. The insurance companies are quick to blame this on medical liability insurance. There is some truth to that. Just look at the rate increases in IL & the number of doctors leaving the state as a result. Obviously the system is F'd & it's getting worse. There are FAR better alternatives than government contolled healthcare. - Give the people more choice. It's institutions like the AMA that define the standards, limit the number of admissions at medical schools, & create other regulatory constraints to squeeze the industry. Allow people to choose their health care based on what they can afford & the risk they are willing to bear. If that means being treated by doctors who have limited medical liability insurance than so be it. Competition tends to drive costs down. - Increase applications to medical schools. The AMA for years has been capping these numbers on their belief that too many will dilute the quality of education & reduce overall healthcare service levels. That's old antiquated thinking that has no value in the modern age. Advances in technology allow for more healthcare workers. If you increase the labor supply you can drive down costs. The more 2nd & 3rd opinions you can afford to a patient the less likely a malpractice claim will be filed. - Stop sending medical services overseas. This is not only a violation of privacy rights (which true conservatives uphold) but it's also weakening the quality of healthcare in the states. When the network goes down & the MRI can't be sent to Bombay delays are encurred. Is that really what we want? I know I'm preaching to the choir. We are on the 1 way express train of global capitalism & you either hang on or get thrown out. Nothing can stand in the way of profits. It's the American way. Carry on.

If Dems start sobbing uncontrollably: GOP: point and laugh, Dems: join them, Both: 2 shots Greens & Independents: No drink for you! So how many drinks do we got for the sobbers here? What surprised me the most about the networks was CNBC. After the election it really became the conservative voice of network tv. FOX News made millions on fair & balanced which really was nothing more than extending the Crossfire plot to just about every show they air. But CNBC's slogan should be biased & Reaganesque. I was really surprised. As for there being no liberal voice, well you still got the loudest mouth when it comes to print news. Though that's shrinking for you as well. You're left out in the cold because you don't have an issue to rally people behind. The GOP has abortion, school prayer, religion, morality, etc. These are things people appear to care about & tune in to listen & watch. What do the democrats have? Gay-marriage? What the democrats need is to stop selling their souls for profits & make unions their core issue. They should never appear on tv or radio news w/out mentioning the need to grow unions both here & abroad but especially abroad. Teach the American people what is at stake, paint the GOP as the union killers, & watch it trump all other issues. They'll never do it though. Gephardt tried in 2000. He was silent on the issue in 2004.

15 - Selfless spirit. You don't think much of yourself--literally--and it's probably helped you get along with people and reduce the anxiety in your life.