witesoxfan

2006...almost positive

That picture is a lot more telling to me. Bonds was last a Pirate in 1992...and that picture that Addison posted of Bonds in a Giants uni was within the last 4 years, so we'll say 2002 just as an example. If you lifted consistently as often as you could and you worked your ass off for 10 years like that, you could go from being Bonds in the Pirates uni to being Bonds in the Giants uni. Still...with a lot of heavy lifting, you can get pretty big, pretty fast. I'm not actually totally sold on banning Bonds because of the drugs. They probably took him from being a hall of famer to being one of the best players ever...but did the roids really increase his hand-eye coordination and his danger at the plate that he can take any pitch and hit it out? His hip turn is insanely fast and powerful. I just do not see how roids could do all that for him...I could see how it would have an effect on him, just not nearly as much. Going into the hall with an asterik is probably the most likely situation. He would have been a hall of famer regardless, just not one of the best of all time.

I would guess to get Hudson and Dotel we'd have to give up Uribe, Marte, and depending upon what Oakland intends to do with their 1B/DH/LF situation, Caballo or Konerko too. I almost want to think that the second Beane asks for Uribe I say no deal. Uribe is gonna be a stud someday...potential .300 35 110 .900 gold glover type. And he's cheap, and there really are not enough options out there to help replace Uribe anymore. Then again...I Uribe.

Actually, I think technically, Lee would be dealt to Florida for Castillo and a prospect(not that bad of a move). But then we would ship that prospect off along with Anderson for Podsednik I would like the trade, and I can see why all 3 teams would make it..but the Sox would be giving up too much.

You mean a weak AL Central that includes an Indians team that won 79 games last year and will only get better, and a Tigers team that figures to spend in the upwards of $70 mill in salary, along with the 3-time winning AL Central champ Twins, who will likely resign Radke and could end up resigning Koskie too? I also do not think he'll like the fact that, as of right now, Carl Everett is penciled in to be our starting RFer, our up the middle combo is giong to be Uribe-Harris, we have Crede at 3B who regressed offensively in a year he should have progressed, our bullpen is not good at all, we will lose our starting 1Bman and one of our SPs in the trade for him, and we will have little money left to sign anyone to fix any of these holes if we were to acquire RJ. Getting RJ is not a clear cut way to victory...not when Cleveland is potentially 2 or 3 pieces away from running away with this division and Minnesota is still a very solid team, along with an up and coming Detroit team. The White Sox are the team on the fall, and they were never that high to begin with. The clear cut way to the playoffs is by going to the Yankees. This is a team that has won 95 games or more in 7 of the last 8 years(and the year they did not win 95 games, 2000, they ended up winning the Series anyways), and they've won 100 games or more in 3 straight years. I do not see how they are not like a lock to win the division again.

How are the Angels not interested in him at that price? I gotta think someone is pulling our leg here and the Angels are interested. $13 mill is less money then what Vlad has, and Beltran's arguably the better player.

"BUCK FUTTER!" Sorry, I just love that one

Joking...probably should have put one of these guys in there...

It would be way worse then that.

Eh, I'm not so sure about Nelson. For the right price, I would...but the right price is around 1 mill, 2 mill tops. His numbers just continue to get worse and worse as he gets older. 2000 NYY - 2.45 ERA, 1.27 WHIP, K/9 of 9, K/BB of 1.5 in 69.6 innings 2001 SEA - 2.76 ERA, 1.13 WHIP, K/9 of 12, K/BB of 2 in 65.3 innings 2002 SEA - 3.94 ERA, 1.38 WHIP, K/9 of 10.8, K/BB of 2 in 45.6 innings 2003 SEA and NYY - 3.74 ERA, 1.36 WHIP, K/9 of 11, K/BB of 3 in 55.3 innings 2004 TEX - 5.32 ERA, 1.52 WHIP, K/9 of 9, K/BB of 1 in 23.6 innings He'd be a risk, but at the right price, could be a steal. I could actually see the Sox picking him up ala Cliff Politte last year.

Had we hypothetically resigned Colon at 42 mill a year, the Sox would have ended up trading Konerko for absolutely nothing, because they would have had to have made that move. And why in the world would Colon resign with us at 42 mill when he could sign with Anaheim for 52 mill over 4 years? Or was that a typo? Either way, that would have been a terrible move...he would have been killed by the likes of the Tigers and Indians, and while that sounds funny, both teams had very solid offenses. And in USCF, he could have given up 35-40 homers...his ERA would have probably been around 5.00. For 10-13 mill a year? No thanks...thankfully that move was not made. Also, had we signed Vlad(who, for that much money, was a risk anyways...so soon do we forget that he was hurt and out for half the year in 2003 with a back injury, and back injuries can flare up at any time), Maggs's value would have dropped an incredible amount. And we would not have been able to get a good young starter, even from the Mets, for the league minimum. The Mets may(or may not have) given up Kazmir for him, but either way, he would not have been in our rotation this year, so you can give up that pipe dream. Your plan has many flaws in it and, quite frankly, would not have worked. Sorry to burst your bubble.

While Benetiz is good, I do not think anyone has ever thought the Sox would even be in the running for him. We need bullpen help, but we don't need it that badly.

Where is the love for Blyleven? 287 career victories, career ERA of 3.31, 3701 career K's, career WHIP of 1.20, 9th most career shutouts all time with 60. I mean, I look at his numbers and try to figure out how he is not in the hall of fame. What are the arguments against him? Is it no Cy Young, or not enough All-Star appearances, or what exactly? I'm just honestly curious

I do think it's funny that the Bills are 5-6 and are out of the playoff picture in the East, yet in the NFC a team like the Bears at 4-7 still has a good shot at the playoffs if they win out. Oh well, the Bills won on the road yesterday. I'm happy.

I thought San Diego was going to be terrible, quite honestly. It truly is amazing what they have done.

Kevin Brown has a blanket no-trade clause. He will veto any trade to the White Sox. I see him in New York or Atlanta next year, and no where else. I do not like Vazquez, not in USCF. At the right price, with the Yankees taking on a ton of his salary and with us missing out on RJ, Perez, a healthy Clement, Radke, and others probably too, then yes, I'd take him. I just do not like his GO-AO ratio whatsoever, and he'd be asked to come in here and have a very important role in our rotation. If I knew he would have a Freddy Garcia like transformation, where adjusts to his condition properly(Garcia had a GO-AO ratio of about .99 in Seattle, and it was around 1.10-1.20 in Chicago), then I'd take him as well. As for Contreras...I agree with qwerty, unless somehow he just magically finds some control and consistency and something clicks inside. He's gonna be our Esteban Loaiza of 2005...which Esteban we get is something we'll have to wait and see. I have no idea what to think about regarding Cleveland. I look at them and I see a lot of things...I see an offense that just broke out and became one of the best in the league, I saw a pitching staff that became one of the better staffs in the league, and I saw one of the worst bullpens in the league, which is the exact opposite of what I saw in 2003 from the Indians(when their offense and rotation were mediocre, but their bullpen was their strong point). I also saw a lot of guys either play over their heads in 2004, or I saw them play to their full potential(or both perhaps)...Vizquel had a nice bounce back year, Lawton actually stayed healthy, Belliard busted out and had a huge year, Casey Blake hit about .280 30 100 year or so, Hafner hit the hell out of the ball, Victor Martinez put up excellent numbers, and there were others too. I'm afraid that they could be very, very good next year...but I do not rule out them having a regression this year either. I will say that I do not envision them having a .500 year...they will either win around 85-90 games, or they'll win 70-75 games.

ARod is a true SS. He moved to 3B to go to the Yankees and play for a contender

I asked this on the other board too, so I only need one answer... Just for clarification... Are the rosters on... http://free.hostultra.com/~ootp6simleague/...SITE/index.html or http://free.hostultra.com/~ootp6simleague/SITE/index.html

Agreed very much. I want no part of him...I just said that above. But if we were to sign him, another physical would need to be done. No way I want to just sign this guy with the second half he had last year.

I think playing to the level of their competition suits them about right. They'll need something close to a miracle to pull this one off.

Jamie Navarro maybe holds a little ground. Ritchie holds no ground whatsoever. Minnesota gave up on him, true. Pittsburgh did not, however. They were overwhelmed with an offer and could not turn it down. Get a couple good young starters plus a decent bullpen arm for a guy who went 11-15 with you the previous year with an ERA of 4.47? A guy who has had one good year in his career? Anybody makes that move in a heartbeat. FWIW...I do not want Clement either. There is too much risk for injury with him and that nasty slider of his, and he was very mediocre in the second half of the year, going 2-5, 5.09 ERA, 1.46 WHIP, K/9 of 9, BB/9 of 4.5, K/BB of 2 while allowing around 2 homers per 9 IP or so...just to put it into perspective, he gave up 10 homers in 117.3 innings in the first half and he gave up 13 homers in 63.6 innings in the second half. I want no piece of Clement. I do think there is a good chance something is wrong with his arm right now, and he probably will need to go under the knife.

"You know, if my head weren't so comfortably lodged up Brett Favre's ass, it might be up Tom Brady's" Ha

Who cares whether he was in the minor leagues or not? Each of their roles in both trades was the exact same...a young starting pitcher with excellent stuff. What do you not see in that? :banghead

The 2000 Sox were one of the biggest flukes in Chicago sports history. Get over 2000 already. It was a fun year, but was not a championship caliber team. Schueler just threw a bunch of players together, and hoped the mixed well...which they did. They had a rotation of Baldwin-Parque-Sirotka-Eldred-whoever, a patchwork bullpen, and an offense that just took off. They were also fortunate enough that KC, Detroit, and Minnesota were all terrible(again), and Cleveland was riddled by injuries. There was a reason they were swept in the playoffs(Foulke and Manuel), and there was a reason they would have lost anyways. This is not mentioning one of the most overhyped minor league systems in the game at the time. How many players from that minor league system came up and produced very good results at the major league level? As of right now, I can think of a couple...Wells did in Pittsburgh, Rowand and Buehrle have here...and while I'm sure I'm missing a few, there were not many more other then that that have been any good. KW, in the technicality of it, did take over a division winner. That team was not a perenial championship team though.