witesoxfan

Agreed. I just don't know how easily it could happen. I suppose we could get a true LH power hitter at the break, but I personally think that if we had a lineup that looked like this: Damon CF Lee LF Erstad 1B Thomas DH Crede 3B Valentin SS Rowand RF Kennedy 2B Olivo C we'd be fine for now and additions could be made. Erstad is good for 15-20 homers when healthy, and if he were playing 1B, he wouldn't get hurt quite as often because he doesn't have to go all out. And Erstad is the walking definition of a grinder. We've been interested in Erstad before(we damn near had him in the 01-02 offseason for Garland, Singleton, and a couple prospects), so it doesn't really surprise me a lot that we're interested in him once again. If the deal happened, I'd be ecstatic. I won't get my hopes up though.

IMO, not the toughest schedule. NFC South and AFC West teams will have the toughest schedules. Thankfully the Bills schedule is a little easier....not among the easiest, but not too incredibly difficult either. Maybe they'll be above .500 this year. Hey, I can dream.

Who the hell knows why he signed with the Cubs? My guess...only people with sources, Jim Hendry, and Ryan Dempster(and his agent obviously) know why. Maybe it's about winning. Maybe they were the first team to offer him a contract. Maybe he has liked the Cubs for a while. Maybe all 14 AL teams offered him a contract but the Cubs were the only NL team and he wanted to stay in the NL. Your guess is as good as mine.

Well I knew the score was 162-110, and I thought they lost. My bad.

Designated runner, much like Herb Washington of the Oakland A's back in the 70s. And defensive replacement as well.

Rotoworld thinks that we may pay some team a little bit of money to take on Koch, and I tend to agree. Why have a $6 million setup man if you only have a $60 million payroll? Good move though.

I got a letter from Drake. I don't think I even opened it though. Hell, I'm only a sophomore, why the hell would I give a s*** about college now? Also, I heard Drake has a decent track and field program. Also, Drake has the honor of losing a basketball game by 52 while scoring 110. Some defense they have allowing 162 points in a game.

Why would Maggs be considered a rental player for them? I can see why Jose would, mainly because he's 35 or 36 and is getting worse as he gets older(like all players do), but I would think they would resign Maggs if at all possible. Also, if it happened, and Burrell did come back to form, who says we don't trade him to the highest bidder with his price tag in 2006 or so. Then agian, if he doesn't we sell him off for peanuts. I like the deal, and do see why the Phils would make it, but I don't think they will make it. However, I don't doubt that something like this could actually be in the works....it is the type high risk high reward deal that KW likes to make.

Not the reason why, but I would guess a lot of those ticket sales came from half-off nights.

Because of Ozzie Seriously, I've said it before, I think we win more against s***ty teams with Ozzie as manager, but we still only win about 80 games. Striker, we are all baseball smart here, and realize you don't need a roster like the Yankees have to win. We also realize that you still need to be pretty damn good in one area to win, and we, IMO, are not. Our offense is questionable, our rotation is mediocre, and our bullpen is mediocre(at best), and no one knows what the hell Ozzie is going to do as manager. We could be f***ed, or we could be awesome. I hope it is the latter.

That's the best point I have seen made on this thread.

I do realize this, which is why I said the Bears could trade up. Maggsmaggs, while Kevin Jones could be very good, I don't think the Patriots would trade their two first round picks to get him. I think they'd rather get two players and get Chris Perry who, while is not as good as Kevin Jones, will get them 4-4.5 yards a carry. BTW, I love the mock draft idea. Sounds fun.

Were not a top 5 defensive team, looking at all the stats you want. Konerko has limited range, we have Harris at 2B instead of Alomar, Maggs and Lee are average(but improving), Crede's still young, but improving, and Valentin can be bad at times. The only place we are real good is CF with Rowand. We're average if you ask me. Not good, not bad.

Oh yeah, cw, well, He Hate Me says Carolina wins. Rod Smart, aka He Hate Me BTW, I love He Hate Me's hair in his Yahoo bio. Awesome

I agree. Also, do look at Brady's weapons offensively....they are about the same, at best, as Indianapolis's. Just so we all realize this. And cw, I also agree with you. Haven't you said that Drew Henson was one of the best QB's you have ever seen play at Michigan, talent wise that is? That says a lot about Tom Brady right there.

In that case, if after workouts both Tom Gallery from Iowa or Shane Andrews from Arkansas stocks haven't fallen, I'd trade up and get one of them, and then just sign a good DT to help take up blockers so Urlacher can get to a few more guys. I do think the #1 need on both sides of the ball is getting a lineman.

My main thing is, when the game is on the line, who do you want out there? In Superbowl 36, the Pats got the ball left with little time left on the clock, and Brady drove them down the field and won the game. This past Sunday, Peyton had a horrific game, but he had a chance to lead his team down the field and tie the game, send it to overtime, and maybe even win. He did not. I think Tom Brady does. He's a good leader and he does what he's supposed to do, no more, no less. Peyton sometimes tries to do too much, and he hurts his team. It's real hard to argue with results, and to me, it seems that Tom Brady is the QB you want going into the playoffs. You want to build a franchise, take Peyton. You want to win the Superbowl and already have a decent team, take Tom Brady. It's kind of like in baseball when you see a guy with a 22-8 record with a 4.00 ERA, and you see a guy with a 17-10 record with a 2.50 ERA. Most guys will take the guy with the low ERA, but I take the guy with the most wins, because he seems to do what it takes to win, and in the end, the win is what you are looking for.

Draft the best available lineman, doesn't matter if it's offensive or defensive. If I may take a guess, I'll say Vince Wilfork out of Miami.

Atleast we got that cleared that up.

Ahh, I was shooting the person who wrote the article, not the messenger. Unless you wrote the article too

I also predict us to win about 80 games, mainly due to little pitching and a weaker offense then we had last year with a slightly better manager who will lead us to more wins against cellar dwelling teams. Fair prediction, no? We'll just have to wait and see what shakes down.

Which is exactly why Troy Percival has a no-trade clause to both New York teams and both Canadien teams, and why, for Brian Giles, San Diego was on his list of teams he did not have to waive his no-trade clause. It is not always about winning, whether or not we want to admit it. Sometimes it is about playing close to home, sometimes it's about not wanting to go to a city, and sometimes it's about winning.

Tell me, do you think KW would take just those two, Damon and Williamson, for Maggs, the franchise player? Methinks no. He'd probably try to unload Konerko and/or Koch and then either take Nomar, Nixon, and Williamson, or Nomar, Damon, and Williamson. And honestly, do you think Milwaukee would accept Gabe Kapler and prospects for Geoff Jenkins, even with his salary? I know they could easily get more for him at the All-Star break. To get Jenkins from Milwaukee, it would probably take Nixon, which would also mean that they don't get Carlos Beltran, and if they don't get Carlos Beltran, they wouldn't trade away Johnny Damon, which leaves Magglio Ordonez for Scott Williamson. If 1 thing in this person's proposed deal goes wrong, the whole deal is toast. There are too many question marks in the deal to get it done, and too many things have to go right and in huge favor of the Red Sox for everything to work out. And as it was mentioned before, why would LA want Ramirez's fat ass contract when they could just get Maggs while paying him less and having the choice as to whether they want to keep him or not? Just a Red Sox fan's wet dream. That kind of deal may work in video games, but it doesn't work in real life.

I think he will definately surprise a lot of people. I think he will have a breakout season. He's one of my favorite players to watch.

I agree. But not in his first damn day on the job. I would have talked to him privately first, maybe waited until the middle of the season, something like that. Ozzie had the job for maybe 24 hours, if not less, and he's already burning bridges. Just not a good way to start out IMO.