witesoxfan

QUOTE(Whitewashed in @ Feb 9, 2007 -> 03:05 PM) I don't have a problem with it really. Especially since were still competitive compared to other teams. I just don't want to hear them cry broke when they need to re-sign players *cough* Crede... I'd give it a 90% chance Crede is dealt next offseason. Fields is almost ready, and barring a major setback from him (and that's entirely possible), he's the 3Bman for the 2008 Sox. If not, I'd be surprised if a stopgap wasn't brought in. There's too much risk involved with resigning Crede - namely his back - but also his price compared to production. He's likely to get 5/$55, and that's just really not worth it for the Sox. Dye, Iguchi, and Buehrle are my bigger concerns for getting contract extensions. Dye is almost certainly gone, just because he's going to get like 4/$60, and I'm not sure that's entirely worth it, and Iguchi is almost a must to be resigned unless KW can pull off a deal for Orlando Hudson or Michael Young or someone such as that. Buehrle is a hometown favorite and a pretty durable starter, so he may be worth the money dished out, though that's not a certainty either. QUOTE(Steff @ Feb 9, 2007 -> 04:19 PM) It sucks for a lot of you guys. I don't know what I would do if I couldn't see the Sox as much as I do. Having lived in the f'ing Dakotas all my life, I get used to watching 40 games a year on TV. It's just a hassle and a half to drive even 8 hours to Minneapolis to watch a game, let alone drive/fly to Chicago.

QUOTE(Steff @ Feb 9, 2007 -> 01:29 PM) Regardless, the Sox are one of the most affordable teams in the MLB to see play at home. unless you're a college student and you live like 1200 miles away But there is no argument to what you've said at all, and you're going to get a (pretty) good product on the field, which has been proven to be true for the entire decade so far. You really can't ask for much more than that.

QUOTE(RibbieRubarb @ Feb 9, 2007 -> 11:43 AM) Awwww Thanks everyone! Please leave work early in celebration of this glorious day!!! I slept through my history class, is that good enough?

4 nominations, 0 wins. I think that's a record or something

QUOTE(CanOfCorn @ Feb 9, 2007 -> 12:51 PM) Um...since when is 90 wins a "crap season?" I believe this team has been in the top 5 of wins during the 2000's, which I think would constitute a raise in ticket prices. As much as I hate to say it. The Sox have been competitive for awhile, playoffs or not, so...don't connect season results with ticket hikes. It was a craptacular second half. They easily looked like the best team in the majors in the first half, but in the second half, the pitching was mediocre (or slightly better) and the offense was garbage. If they'd played .500 or .525 ball in the second half, they're in the playoffs.

QUOTE(Balta1701 @ Feb 9, 2007 -> 11:26 AM) I sort of liked what I saw from Logan last year. Sneaky fastball, looks like in the long term he'll be an excellent lefty reliever for someone...he just needs to not p*ss himself when a donkey-man walks to the plate, and throw some freaking strikes. He needs to get used to the fact that he is actually good at baseball. The Sox were like essentially seconds away from releasing him and they just changed his arm slot, and he had instant success and the next thing he knew, he was in the majors. That would kind of be overwhelming. If he gets used to that, he'll be money stuff regardless of who he is facing, so long as said batter is left-handed.

QUOTE(southsider2k5 @ Feb 8, 2007 -> 01:43 PM) I think we need to fix our catching yes we do either that, or Javy throws a 12 foot high fastball and gets people to swing at it every time.

QUOTE(shoota @ Feb 8, 2007 -> 04:56 PM) No, you didn't. You said: "No, you just don't appreciate a SS that can hit the ball past the pitcher, and you apparently don't appreciate gold glove defense at SS as well. So retro1983hat's post was accurate. lol This link should help you out a bit

QUOTE(jphat007 @ Feb 8, 2007 -> 01:00 PM) Not to speak for him, but I believe he was refering to the fact that most of our SP rely on defense to be productive and when you take a guy of Uribe's caliber and stick Cintron in there instead, it is going to hurt the defense, therefore hurting the pitcher's production and numbers, thus making them not as happy. But of course they would never come out and say that. bingo All 3 have their days where they get a few K's, but none of the 3 are 8 K an inning guys like Javy, so they need good defense and range behind them to succeed. Simple as that. Uribe provides that, where Cintron and Ozuna don't.

QUOTE(Jenks Heat @ Feb 8, 2007 -> 12:23 PM) I still do not see a very clear indication that Uribe's problem will be cleared up and put behind him before the start of the season. My point was not stated as clearly as it should have. Uribe is the best option. Should he not be available Ozuna and Cintron are better options while obtaining the pitching as oppossed to getting a young SS and not have a spot for him should Uribe turn it around. I actually don't agree with that either. Erick Aybar from the Angels can probably be acquired for a pitcher like Gio, or something of the ilk, and he'd be a better option than Cintron or Ozuna simply because he'll likely be better offensively than those two will be. Personally though, I don't see any way that Uribe's mess isn't cleared up. As I recall, the farmer didn't even show up to a court date, so this should (re: should) get cleared up soon.

QUOTE(Jenks Heat @ Feb 8, 2007 -> 11:28 AM) The strategy was to stockpile pitching. An alternative could have been to move Garcia or McCarthy for a younger shortstop instead of the extra pitchers in the deals. My thoughts are Ozuna and Cintron can play short and be more productive hitters while dropping off in fielding. Ozuna is a shortstop by trade. except they wouldn't be more productive hitters. Cintron had a .703 OPS last year compared to Uribe's .698, and that was with Uribe drawing 13 walks all year. You also have to realize that Ozuna had 520 career PAs and 31 career XBHs. You can't rely strictly upon singles hitters, which is exactly what Cintron and Ozuna are. To go along with that, the drop off in fielding would be significantly more than you may realize. Also, a huge point to note is that if Cintron and Ozuna are platooning, either you are depending upon a rookie to come in, or you are expecting KW to make a trade halfway through ST to find a platoon partner for Scott Podsednik/Darin Erstad in LF. Uribe's not a problem on this team. Podsednik getting paid more than half of what an underappreciated player in Uribe is making is a problem.

QUOTE(Damen @ Feb 8, 2007 -> 10:23 AM) 100 degrees and high humidity is unpleasant. -40 windchills are painful. Plus, if it's 100, you can spend a day in the air conditioning or at the beach and know that in a week, the temps will be back in the 80's. Whereas today, we can look forward to temps getting back in the 20's. I dont' mind winter, but I'll take the summahtime extremes any day. Unless, of course, you're from Texas. I take the cold, simply because I've gotten used to it. If I had to deal with 100+ for days and days and days, I'd probably come to hate myself.

not naming names (coughknightssi71cough) but I see a couple of whores in here

QUOTE(jasonxctf @ Feb 8, 2007 -> 10:38 AM) that's why his absence won't be missed. Buehrle, Garland, and Contreras beg to differ With how dependant upon defense the White Sox are, a loss like Uribe would be bigger than anyone would imagine. Imagine Mackowiak x2 - and Cintron isn't even horrendous at SS.

QUOTE(retro1983hat @ Feb 8, 2007 -> 07:44 AM) Did I miss Juan Uribe's Gold Glove presentation? Must have been on the same day he was near that murder. Anyways, yes, I don't appreciate guys like A-Rod, Jeter, Tejada. They never hit the ball past the pitcher. Of course Uribe actually has to make contact to get it past the pitcher. Perhaps you missed the part where they make $20 mill a year and up (except Tejada of course, who is just involved in steroid rumors all the time), and the fact that none of them are even close to Uribe defensively. And if you are actually going to use gold gloves to indicate how good a player is defensively, then you've lost your mind. I use the term "gold-glove caliber" because when used, people instantly equate it with good defense. Derek Jeter isn't half the defensive SS Uribe is. The only real alternative to Uribe this offseason was a similar player in Alex Gonzalez. Did you really want Alex Gonzalez? ...unless of course there were alternatives that you knew of that KW did not

QUOTE(Gregory Pratt @ Feb 7, 2007 -> 08:58 PM) I just thought I was the only one who thought that BA would be miserable this year, too. Although I don't blame a lack of playing time -- I just don't think he's going to be anything special, or above average, with the bat, ever. duly noted

what the f***, can this just end? do they really want to make an example out of Uribe that f***in badly? It's just getting annoying at this point. It seems quite obvious that Uribe is innocent in the matter, yet they persist on keeping it going.

QUOTE(daa84 @ Feb 7, 2007 -> 11:00 PM) the vazquez stuff is legit...easily had the best peripherals of any of our pitchers last year, and toward the end of the year his ERA and success started to reflect taht more and more....im glad we dumped freddy isntead of him, but i know im in the minority on that one You shouldn't be if you are. You flat out don't give up on a guy after 1 season, atleast one with the stuff Vazquez has. Freddy was great for the Sox, and he helped lead them to a World Series victory, but his stuff was deteoriating and he has just 1 year left on his contract. It was really a no-brainer (even though I wasn't completely against trading him at the start of the offseason)

QUOTE(WHarris1 @ Feb 7, 2007 -> 08:29 PM) Gotta love posting less than ever before and getting nominated for poster of the year. wite = pwn3d kinda

QUOTE(Steve9347 @ Feb 7, 2007 -> 04:19 PM) The Cubs were dead last in the worst division in the Majors last year... that's a lot to put on the shoulders of Alfonso Soriano (and freaking Ted Lilly and the even-worse Jason Marquis) The lineup is pretty loaded for a mediocre NL though. Soriano - CF (lol) DeRosa - 2B Lee - 1B Ramirez - 3B Floyd - LF/Barrett - C Barrett - C/Murton - LF Jones - RF Cedeno - SS P Maybe it's just me, but that does actually look like a pretty potent lineup.

QUOTE(3E8 @ Feb 7, 2007 -> 07:37 PM) KW is one of the best GMs when it comes to judging talent, and our pro-level scouts are top notch. If they watched Floyd for multiple outings this fall and could confidently say he would've given McCarthy a run for his money had he not been traded, this is really all I need to know who will win the spot. We have seen KW bring in guys with sporadic to no success in the past who have broken out as White Sox because he knows their true ability. Haeger seems to be the only other probable candidate for 5th starter. He excels at keeping the ball in the park, but is a mediocre pitcher when it comes to everything else. His minor league total runs surrendered are 27% higher than his earned runs due to lack of control, and this makes his stats seem better than they are. As someone mentioned above, I think if Haeger has an equal or even slightly better Spring than Floyd, the spot will still be Gavin's. I haven't seen any minor league splits, nor do I really care to research it right now, but I definitely recall reading that Haeger's ERA after he was sent back down was north of 5.00. That's not exactly promising either.

QUOTE(jackie hayes @ Feb 7, 2007 -> 03:50 PM) Sheffield's alright, but it's the other Tiger pickup that makes me shudder. let's just omit that move QUOTE(thedoctor @ Feb 7, 2007 -> 03:52 PM) that's the most important question. last year we were one of the six best teams in baseball, but had the misfortune of playing in the best league. it stands to reason that a first or second place finish in our division would provide a strong opportunity to make the playoffs. looking around at the rest of the league no one made any watershed move that is going to push them head and shoulders above anyone else. the royals will be the royals and it wouldn't surprise me to see a bit of drop off from the tigers and twins. i do think the indians will be greatly improved, however. in that climate i like our chances. we didn't do anything earth-shattering, but despite the conventional wisdom we probably didn't have to. agree completely with this move, and I think that's why we didn't see KW bust a nut to make a huge move this offseason. Had he, we wouldn't be competing in the next few years. Now, the Sox have a few young arms they can develop into a potentially respectable rotation, and they'll have room in the payroll to add a few bats. That's why I am actually really happy with this offseason, because he essentially kept the team in tact while making room for the future.

QUOTE(Hideaway Lights @ Feb 7, 2007 -> 03:22 PM) What makes people think Javier "Headcase" Vazquez will somehow be able to magically pitch in the AL? What makes people think Podsednik could possibly offer anything but disappointment? Worst offseason in recent memory. I feel worse about this team than about any team since 1999. First of all, we've heard it before dude, and it's already been discussed. http://www.soxtalk.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=56373 Secondly, you name 2 players as to why this season is going to suck and why the offseason was bad. Completely disregard the amount of depth brought in to the bullpen - proven or not - and the amount of pitching brought in that will be ready for the future. And, finally, may I ask...what did the other teams in the division do to improve themselves? The Tigers added Gary Sheffield, the Indians added 200 years of experience in their bullpen and a couple solid OFers, and the Twins added Ramon Ortiz and Sidney Ponson. Maybe it's just me, but I'll take the Sox offseason over their's. But maybe that's just me.

QUOTE(hi8is @ Feb 7, 2007 -> 02:44 PM) we need to stop bringing up good prospects so the scouts from all the teams stop picking up on them.... there obviously watching our every word. I'd believe it

yeahf*** Tigers traded Jeff Frazier - a guy with an OPS of .625 in AA last year - for him today