witesoxfan

What, no love for North and South Dakota Sox fans?

No, no, I feel the same was Aboz does. He never had a great season like he did this year. He'd had good years, don't get me wrong, but never a year where he went 21-9 with a 2.90 ERA and a near pitching triple crown. He'd had years where he'd gone 10-10 or so with a 4.50 ERA, but that's nothing great. I think breakthrough player of the year would be more appropiate. Same thing applies to Bill Mueller. Never before had he hit above .300 nor more then 10 homers, nor drive in more then 60 runs in a year before, but this year he hits .326 19 85....comeback? I think not. In all reality, if anyone really deserved the award, it should be Frank Thomas. But he's almost got more of those then Roger Clemens does Cy Young awards, so he should no longer qualify for that award, because it almost seems like he's doing that kind of s*** intentionally(obviously he's not, but you get the idea) None the less, congrats ELo! Next up(crosses fingers) Cy Young award!

I like Jose's 25-30 homers a year. I like how he kills the Cubs. I like how when he gets it going, he can be a very good player. I like his smart, aggressive baserunning. I liked his much improved defense this year. I didn't like his .240 average. KW wanted to bring in Guillen players right? Well, he found a damn good one. Ozzie's career average: .264....Jose's career average: .246 Similar, no? Jose is not worth $5 mill, plain and simple. I like him more then most on here....but not at $5 million. If Guillen can get in his head and Jose can hit .260 25 75, I will do some crazy things.

If they gave a Gold Glove to each individual OF position, then CLee would have a chance. Not so if you include all OFers for 3 Gold Gloves. You have to include Hunter every year, and Ichiro is always good, and Cameron is also pretty damn good...that's why those 3 won gold gloves. However, as Jas mentioned, Jacque Jones is pretty damn good too(though I must not see enough of Anderson and Matsui....I know Matsui made like 8 or 10 errors in LF this year....that's goddamn terrible for an OFer....and Anderson has come off as a Magglio type to me....but again, that's probably me just not talking and taking first impressions and not watching enough). And a name not mentioned enough as a good defensive OFer is Luis Matos. That guy can use the leather very well. There are obviously a few I'm missing....but I do agree that hard work gets you places. CLee played some very, very goddamn good defense this year, and then we have to hope he improves again next year too.

LOL, this is true. Maybe I just shouldn't even think of something this crazy again....because something crazier(or would that be stupider) might happen.

But I thought it was worth bringing up and seeing your ideas on it. The Rangers have publically announced that ARod is not on the trading block but they are listening to all offers for him. Odds are, he will not be traded, though a few possibilities could come up. If he is moved, I'd have to think it would be to the Orioles. However, I had a crazy idea when reading an article about it. What if the White Sox traded for ARod? It could happen very easily. We'd basically make an our problem for your problem type of deal, where we'd get rid of 3 ugly contracts and take on 1 god-awful horrendous hideous contract in ARod's. We'd trade Magglio Ordonez($14 mill), Paul Konerko($8 mill), and Billy Koch($6 mill) for ARod, and give or take a prospect or two, it looks like a deal that would work out for both teams(except that we'd be stuck with Mr. $252 million until atleast 2007, unless we then traded him again) That would actually save us $3 mill or so this year(not sure his exact salary....but we'd save somewhere between $1-$6 mill), we'd get a well-known player, a very good impact player in ARod who plays pretty damn good defense and puts up huge numbers wherever he goes. We then have a do-or-die situation this year, unless the Rangers take on $5 or so mill of his contract every year, and then it would still be a huge amount of money given to one player. In the end, our lineup is more balanced, we see if Ozzie really could work magic(and if he can, can he do it in one year), and we have an actual franchise player who is very, very marketable. How this benefits the Rangers is long-term. They get rid of an ugly contract that is really no longer effecting them like it would have until atleast 2007. Rather, they are left with $28 mill in decent stats from 1 very good player, 1 potentially good/s***ty player, and then 1 streaky mediocre player. However, after this year, they have that $25 mill per year off their payroll and that $25 mill can be spent on more important things, like good pitching. I know it's crazy and it won't happen....I was just wondering to see what everyone else thought about this.

I won't be surprised if I see this thread up again later this month and then next month too. We all know how Miami has played in December the last couple years now don't we? Meanwhile the Patriots keep on f***ing winning....goddamn Patriots.

Welcome, and no. Minaya was made into KW's and Cashman's b**** last year in the Colon deal, but he's not a dumbass. We'd have to give them a top prospect or two to make that deal happen.

Wasn't he The Little Hurt?

We have seen many times, White Sox hitters go up to bunt, and fail. Carlos Lee time and time again comes to mind. To expect Frank and Magglio to bunt is ludicrious. Name 1 player who hits 35 homers a year and also bunts consistently. It doesn't happen. Going the other way, that is a different story. The only decent bunter the Sox had was Alomar. I agree everyone should be able to bunt, but it is simply not the case. Asking Frank or Magglio to bunt would be a huge relief to the other dugout. You don't sacrifice your best hitters. We wouldn't be having the discussion of Frank, Maggs, and Lee bunting if they all didn't try to pull the ball in '03 and hit a HR every AB. Lee started to hit to RF in the second half and, lo and behold, his average increased and so did his RBI totals. Frank and Maggs became two of the most selfish hitters over the course of '03..... trying to hit a HR every AB. Frank was at his best when he utilized all fields. Now he's a "HR hitter." Expect the same crap in '04 if Frank and Maggs worry more about their stats than the team. It's also worth noting that Konerko got his act together when he started hitting to all fields. He still didn't have a real great year, but it was better then I expected after the first half.

I've seen it before too, so I know what BigHurt is talking about. I don't think he pitched though. The guy can't throw from 1B to 2B without throwing it away, how the hell is he gonna pitch? It'd be funny as hell to watch though

Am I the only one that is not on the "Trade Maggs for Soriano and Johnson band wagon?" Magglio is a proven stud in the majors, the previous season was obviously not his best that he has had considering that he only drove in 99 runs. However he was the only guy that hit considerably over .300 on our entire team. Soriano struck out A TON this year. I don't see him helping us batting in the lead-off spot which is what this team desperately needs. As for Nick Johnson, he's had a couple of decent years. However, I don't think he's much better than Konerko. (That is when Konerko is hitting the way he's capable of.) If we are going to pursue a first baseman let's go after a solid defensive player like Scott Spezio. CWSOX45 I see it as more of a cost cutting move then anything else. We can cut payroll by $14 mill and get Soriano(who is a tremendous talent) and Johnson(who will be a damn good 1Bman one of these days). With that $14 mill, we could sign Ponson, and that would still leave us with $7 mill left. Then if we can trade Konerko to LA and only have to take on, say, $2 mill, that leaves us with about $13 more mill to spend on other FA's. Then(and this is a pipe dream and in all likelyhood, will not happen), we spend about $8 mill of that on Kazuo Matsui and use him at SS, and then either sign a CFer or use Harris/Rowand in CF....if Rowand is used, you can then sign a guy like Reggie Sanders in RF as like your #6 or #7 guy in the lineup, and hope he puts up .260 25 75 25 numbers(slightly better then Jose Valentin's numbers) and hope Rowand has like .280 15 60 type numbers. If Harris is used, you use Rowand in RF....and you don't contend, plain and simple. It seems it could be simple to actually cut payroll and put a better team on the field next year then to spend a ton of money and end up with another 85-win team. As many have said on here, Maggs is a great player. But he isn't worth $14 mill. His 2002 numbers are close, but are worth more like $10 or $11 mill. This past year's numbers, for the $9 mill we gave him, are s***. I think that has more to do with Manuel being a douchebag manager and not sitting his players down and explaining to them to do something that will benefit the team and not benefit the individual(*cough*cough* Frank Thomas *cough*cough*). Maggs bats 3rd and Thomas bats 4th....we could have been playing in October. Odds are, we would have won 2-3 more games and would have still lost the division by 4 or 5 games(only difference being that Detroit would have lost 121 or more)

Which always has been and always will be why I'm a fan of closer-by-committee. However, the way I look at it, I'm not sure I'd call it closer-by-committee. More like "closer can come in whenever you need him to come in." Damaso Marte has been the closer for the past year and a half now IMO. He's just not gotten a lot of save opportunities because he's had to come in and close the door on games in the 7th and 8th inning, and every now and then in the 9th. We just never have had a a great arm, other then Gordon's, to close out the 8th and 9th innings.

Let me guess... Because Joe Nossek is the bench coach!

I wouldn't mind Todd Walker personally. I think he would help us greatly in the two hole. Castillo is a lefty though, that is huge. I'm not sure how big it really is. I think a LH power hitter to stick in the middle of the lineup is huge, but not necessarily a LH leadoff hitter. It wouldn't bother me how Castillo hit as long as he hit and got on base, plain and simple. The only place where I want to be more left-handed is in the middle of the lineup...and a Maggs + whoever else with the exception of Cotts and Honel for Soriano and Johnson would be a nice move, and then getting anything you can for Konerko.

Just like he wouldn't trade for Bartolo Colon last year?

I actually hope we don't. In all reality, he's not that much better, if he is better, then Alomar is. I'd prefer to eiither trade for an available 2Bman or sign Castillo....whichever is cheaper in the long term. For example, trading Maggs for Soriano and others(whoever else we'd get) would be a damn good move in my mind.

Note that one of them was a greatest hits album(unless they don't include that one). His Greatest Hits album was released in 98....so IMO, that one shouldn't count towards one of the 7 he's released since death(again, unless they didn't include that one on the 7) That's just one of the reasons I think he's probably still alive. You don't record like 72-84 songs(going by a general 12 songs per album....odds are very good that there were more songs on each album then that) and then release them after you die. It's kind of confusing for me. It's not really that I've concluded he's alive, it's more or less that I don't see how he can be dead(which in turn, makes me think he's alive)

Who will beat them, Texas A&M, Baylor or Texas Tech? No chance in hell. Then in the Big 12 Championship they will play Nebraska, Missouri, or Kansas State and none of those teams has a chance against OU. They will finish undefeated. While I do agree that Oklahoma will finish undefeated, I wouldn't say it's a definite lock. Texas A&M does have a decent team, with a strong defense and I believe a freshman QB who is pretty damn good and has a bright future. They are a team that could pull an upset. Also, Texas Tech has a pretty damn good offense. Their defense is nothing to be proud of, but if BJ Symons had a good day and the defense stepped it up a notch and held OU to under 28 points, I'd say Texas Tech would have a shot too. Like I said though....I do believe Oklahoma will win out, and then when they get to the Sugar Bowl, they will beat whoever they play, whether it be FSU or Va Tech or Miami....anyone....they will win it.

That would be rugged. And they'd (possibly) be within driving distance of me then too! Damn, that would be incredible. Those 45 degree days at the Cell in April and early May would feel like 50-60 if they started in Montana. I know it's in jest....but that would be excellent. And it would be funny as hell too.

A delayed response, but.... I'd say probably somewhere around 75-80% think he's gone, and if most people understood the situation, it would be more like 90-95% would not only think he's gone, but would want him gone(like me). I love Maggs and all....think he's a great player with a great future somewhere....but at $14 mill, I don't think he's worth his numbers. He'd have to hit .340 40 150 with an OPS of about 1.050 or 1.100 to be worth all $14 mill.

Where'd you hunt?

Hey Beastly, did you ever consider the fact that Borchard, before getting to college, never really ever played baseball, but focused mainly on football? Or that some guys take just a little. He really did not fully put things together until he was about 28(that year, he hit .315 33 123 with an OPS of right around .950-1.000). He had a few decent seasons before that too(like the year before he had an OPS of about .850-.900). He just kept gradually getting better and had 2 excellent years in a row in 2000 and 2001, then signed with the Yankees, and has since seen his production level drop. Borchard is 24 or 25. Because he has such little baseball experience, he still has a ton of potential. One or two adjustments, and he could be the next Jason Giambi. And who says he doesn't listen to coaches? I mean, he did play football, and if you play football, you have to be very coachable....which he is. It's just taking him some time to get s*** together. He should be up on the big league club in 05 and getting better every year after that.

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Wow, I'm so smart. I am the best ever.