witesoxfan

That's that guys opinion...and while he may hold guys to a high standard like that...f***ing up and getting a guy 32-year old career minor leaguer instead of a young pitcher. KW took the blame for it, but it wasn't that big of a deal. More of a little funny story to tell around the watercooler. Berry-Barry did not make or break the deal. FWIW...Jon Berry, the pitcher KW intended on getting, didn't pitch this year. Now, if someone contacts the White Sox about getting Carlos Lee, the White Sox could trade them the Carlos Lee that's in the minors...getting a minor leaguer like that instead of a legitamate stud is a completely different story, and something like that would have to be considered for a firing. I would also disagree that most of baseball sees KW as a bad GM. They see KW as a very aggressive GM who will pay a lot for what he wants. They use his aggression to their advantage, and he will tend to overpay, but he gets the guy he wants a lot of the time.

KW took over a team that was a fluke and won the division(and it was a fluke...that was Frank's most recent real good year...meaning he has had a real good damn year 1 time in the past 6 or so...proving that he had a flukey year), and a 1-4 of Sirokta-Parque-Baldwin-Eldred pitched their asses off and won us a bunch of ballgames. How they did it, I do not know, but they did, and we got luckier then hell. Everything went right for us in 2000...Cleveland was injury-riddled, and we were very healthy, the offense clicked and gelled, the pitching staff was just insanely good, and the bullpen was outstanding. That hasn't happened since then...not because KW took over, but because the Sox came down to earth.

Hey, some advice buddy Quit while you're ahead...or while you are not like way, way, way, way, way behind. Most of those reasons are just stupid...sorry, but they are.

Holy s*** where do I start? Polanco would probably be brought in for 3 years, and we'd ask him to hit .290 15 60 .800 all 3 years...or stats similar to that. If we got better, good for us. Odds are very good we would not get worse. Secondly, why the hell are you stroking Orlando Cabrera? I mean seriously, he hit .264 10 62 .306 .689, and you are making him out to be the second coming. He's a solid player, but he's not worth $6 mill at all. And finally, your last point about Polanco hitting in front of Thome all year, that holds little ground at all. He'd hit in front of Thomas here, and Thomas is just as big of a home run threat as Thome is. And, when Cabrera hit in the #2 hole, he was hitting in front of some guy named Manny, who's only been one of the best RH hitters of the past decade or so.

What big picture? Doing what you suggested would have made the team worse in all likelyhood...a lot worse.

The two most important defensive stats are turnovers and YPG...I know points per game matter too, but that's like looking at the amount of wins a pitcher gets when that can be quite misleading(like, for instance, how Kenny Rogers win 18 games this year, but had an ERA of 4.76...that tells me he had a great offense supporting him). Usually, when you look to evaluate a pitcher, you look for his ERA, K's, WHIP, etc...the peripherals...rather then the actual solid stats like points. Same thing applies here...you look at the fundamental reason for success, and those are YPG and turnovers. Anyways, what I'm trying to get at is that if a team forces a lot of turnovers and/or allows very few yards in a game, they will win a lot of the time, no matter what they do offensively. The Pats allowed 125 yards and forced I believe 4 fumbles Sunday night against Buffalo, while not turning the ball over and having Corey Dillon rush for more yards then Buffalo's total yards offensively. And you wonder why they destroyed the Bills. Same thing applies in the Bears-Titans game...Bears forced like 5 turnovers, and you wonder why they won and people think they are a great defense. I don't care if a QB throws for 600 yards against me, if he throws 8 int's, he's either having a real bad game, or my defense is pretty damn good(or both).

Ok. So now instead of having a SS who hits RHP well, plays solid defense, can take a walk, and has some of the best baseball instincts in the game, you want to acquire a guy who has a career OPS of .714 in 494 career ABs? We're much worse at SS now, due to Reyes's inexperience, his injury proneness, and his inability to hit well, we have a rookie 5th starter who is as good as toast in the majors, and all that just so we can get Vlad over Maggs, who put up comparable numbers, with Vlad's being slightly better? Yeah probably a good thing you're not GM.

He's in as good a shape as he's ever been in in his life. Why would you not want to sign him?

Kazmir would not have been in the majors with us. No chance in hell. This is an organization that is trying very hard to not rush players to the majors over what has happened to them in the past. And what hole did we have at SS? Are you referring to the one you just made up right now looking back and realizing that Jose Valentin had a s***ty year? Because you can't do that...that's looking into the future and that is impossible. Remember, with these moves, we are still back in about December of 2003 or January of 2004.

Do some people not even look at numbers before making posting their thoughts on a player? Mantei is very, very injury prone...that's a well known fact everywhere...but he'll be cheap, so if he does get injured, it will not be a huge loss. Also, in 03, he was 5-4 with 29 saves, a 2.62 ERA, a 1.00 WHIP, a K/9 of over 11, a K/BB of 3.78, a BB/9 of just under 3, allowed 1 homer every 9 innings, and a .191 BAA. I haven't check his OPSA, but I'm sure that was pretty solid too. If we could get this guy for $1 mill, he could come in here and be an absolute stud for us. If he were to come back healthy, he is like the perfect guy that KW and co. could go after...he has closed before, so he can close, but he'd come in here and mainly be a setup man or a middle reliever for us. Low-risk high-reward...this is KW's bread and butter right here. Do it Kenny.

And even if we can do that, we're still like $8 mill over our limit at the very least(and that's me being very, very generous...that would be like signing Vladdy for $15 mill a year, and then subtracting Maggs's $14, and then adding $7 mill for the pitcher we bring in...that equals $8, and odds are, it would have been more then that), which would have meant trading Paully for nothing, which would have left us a hole at 1B, which would have had to have been replaced, which would have cost more money, at which point signing Politte and Shingo is probably thrown out the window and we go with like Diaz, Munoz, Baj, whoever else, at the beginning of the year in the pen, along with maybe Thriller. Imagine a bullpen that looks like this will you... Koch - CL Marte - SU Adkins - MR Cotts - MR Jackson - MR Diaz - LR Munoz - LR And tell me that team wins the division with a straight face.

That name was ringing a bell inside my head. Now I remember why.

Mainly because Moss hit the shelf. If he comes back healthy, they are a top 3 offense in the league.

Hey, no one said we could get back on topic While I do agree that character matters, I think first and foremost the players you get have to be good. If they suck they can have the best attitude and the most fight in the world, they are still going to lose to the more talented players most of the time...it's that simple. I want a manager with good character and a good attitude who can motivate a group of guys to run through a brick wall.

Coincidentally, I just found the printout for my 300 too X X X X X X X X X XXX = 300 Hehe That's pretty cool though. 253 is not a bad game at all. Actually, come to think of it, I think I've only bowled 4 games over a 253...255, 267, 277, and then the 300 too, and 3 of the 4 have come with a donated Track EMB that I received like a month ago.

That is the most fun I've ever had watching a baseball game. Hearing the Twins announcers voices after Frank hit it was the coolest thing that I've ever seen watching a baseball game on TV.

For being such a crappy year for relievers in FA, there are a few decent ones out there. I'd love to see almost any of these guys brought in, quite honestly.

Damn this post is scary, isn't it? Harris screws up 1 time at any point and he could be sitting for a week. I don't want that at all. Harris is a solid player, there's no doubt about that...but if Guillen has no confidence in him, I want no part of him on this team. I want my manager to have 100% confidence in every player in uniform. I think Willie could be a Tony Womack clone someday...but not if Ozzie shows no confidence in him.

A bonafide ace has to be the #1 priority, though offensively, Kendall is the #1 priority.

Wait till the Winter Meetings are over to start b****ing about us not making a move if we haven't made a move by then.

I would not be surprised at all if Beltran ended up in Anaheim. In fact, that's where I think he'll end up, not in NY. From the what he has said, he does not want to play in NY...something about too much pressure or something like that. They do still have enough though to get RJ. Build a package around Shields and Kotchman and you are almost there already.

Apparently, that guy

Guess if I could give you some advice is that when you get a few in a row(like 7 or 8 to start), just tell yourself you're close and that you're going to do it. That's basically all I did. Don't think about it too much, don't think about what's going to happen to you afterwards, because that's when my legs feel like jello. Just think about actually being determined and getting it. I was trying not to think about it for the first 7, got 8 and, to be quite blunt about it, just basically said "f*** it, I'm gonna get it...I'm not gonna come this far and NOT get it." And so I did. Got real lucky with my 10th strike...I got real soft with it, and it just hung in the pocket long enough to carry the 4 pin. 11 and 12 were flush in the pocket. Funny thing is, before this, the most I'd ever had to start a game was 6...I'm the guy who gets a few in a row, gets nervous, and becomes a deer in the headlights. I'm about as close to a headcase as you could get in bowling. And the most strikes I'd ever had in a row was 10, and my highest game was a 277, and I got both of those this past weekend in Fargo at a tournament(I beat the guy I was bowling 277-267...that was great. Of course, I had a buddy that lost that day 290-279 too, so I guess what comes around goes around, lol) rd5...14 in a row ain't bad...more then anyone in my house in fact, lol. After thinking back on it, I'd realized I'd ended the previous game(a 148, lol, don't ask) with a strike, and then put up the 300, so I had 13 in a row. That's tied with my dad for the most(who ended a game with 6 in a row before and started the next with 7). My brother thinks he's gonna beat my age-wise to his 300...I just told him he'd have to bust his ass, because it isn't easy. Still thinking about it, it feels unreal. Maybe I just have to go back out there and it will sink in a little more. And now that we got to talking about splits, I've had a thing with picking up splits that have to do with the 2-10 recently...I've picked up the 2-10 itself like 3 times in the past week, and I picked up the 2-4-10 once too. I've also picked up the 6-7-10 before, problem was, the split I left was the 3-6-7-10, and I left the 4-7-9-10 and hit it in a way that would have picked up the greek church, but instead only picked up the 4-7-9. I hate splits...lol

The Giants are so stupid, now they have like 4 guys tied up who are starting MI's(Vizquel, Durham, Alfonso, and Cruz). I can see Cruz being a guy that plays a little bit of everything this year...probably a little 3B and a little OF along with 2B and SS, but they do have to get rid of one of Durham and Alfonso before the start of the year and they will not get a lot for either of them.

I'd love Koskie...I think he'd absolutely explode here and he could be a fan favorite ala Robin Ventura...in fact, now that I think about it, he reminds me quite a bit of Robin Ventura. I just don't think we'd be able to get him. As Addison has mentioned, the Jays and Royals are very interested in him, and I've also read where Cincinatti was interested in him as well, with the Kearns to 3B experiment working out terribly(they actually compared it to KW moving to 3B...that move essentially ended KW's career). Minny may have offered him 2-years, $7 mill...but he will get better offers then that, especially after seeing what Castilla got from Washington. I could see him signing a 3-year, $15 mill contract atleast, perhaps even more.