witesoxfan

QUOTE (Stan Bahnsen @ Jan 2, 2014 -> 08:30 PM) Yeah I figured we'd keep Santos ahead of those guys, due to left-handedness and the dearth of that in the system. Bolded may have been kept for more ego related reasons. The diminishing return from the Javy trade diminishes. Sigh. Sometimes you eat the bear, and sometimes he eats you. The guys they got back didn't return a great deal, but Lillibridge gave us a fun season and was part of the package used to acquire Youkilis, Flowers is still with the organization and seems like a decent back up catcher at the very least, and until Rodriguez is gone, he's not gone from the organization - I don't believe he has enough service time to refuse an assignment and choose free agency. Compare it to the Swisher trades and you'll start feeling a lot better.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jan 2, 2014 -> 05:55 PM) Assuming he's not extended and gets the largest arbitration deal in history (which barring injury he obviously should), his contract will look something like this the next 4 years: $500k $12 million+ $15 million+ $20 million+ Whereas Chris will look like this: $3,500,000 $6,000,000 $9,150,000 $12,000,000 I honestly think it will be closer to $15, $18-20, $22-25 before he's a free agent. There's no reason he won't get $30+ million a year in free agency.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jan 3, 2014 -> 08:01 AM) Paul Konerko was so bad in 2013 that watching him struggle and be hurt for 2014 is not going to make me celebrate a darn thing. Of course, you do not know whether or not he will struggle and/or be hurt for 2014 either.

QUOTE (PlaySumFnJurny @ Jan 2, 2014 -> 04:33 PM) Who will get the Bears' franchise tag now that Cutler is locked up? You would hope for no one. It's not something you want to use but at times it's absolutely necessary.

QUOTE (Jerksticks @ Jan 2, 2014 -> 04:26 PM) That would be awesome. If he's good it doesn't matter and if he's bad it's a nice little present for those of us that enjoy cub futility. There's just no way the sox pay this kid more than sale, is there? Chris Sale is signed to probably the most team friendly contract of any pitcher in the majors, and frankly it's probably the most team friendly deal of any player in the majors right now. The could easily offer him more money than they're paying Sale and they wouldn't even be 1/3 of the way to his total contract. I think they will post the full $20 million and could offer him about 5/$70, and they wouldn't even be in the vicinity.

QUOTE (Charlie Haeger's Knuckles @ Jan 2, 2014 -> 03:02 PM) I am wondering if they will outright him off the roster if/after he clears waivers or release him. His BB/9 was scary bad at AAA last year. Have the Sox cut ties with Jon Gilmore yet? If so, that would leave Flowers as the lone remnant of the Vazquez trade. Jon Gilmore was seemingly out of professional baseball last year.

Seems like he's a guy you expect to hit .270/.340/.410 with the upside to be around .300/.380/.470 or downside around .250/.300/.350. That's still a really good player, but take the best player available, period.

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Jan 2, 2014 -> 11:57 AM) Getting in is pretty important, even if you feel your team doesnt have a shot. Nobody thought those same 7-9 Seahawks were going to maul the Saints like they did a few years back, but they did. And that absolutely helped their confidence overall too, and now they're one of the best teams in the league.

QUOTE (chisoxfan310 @ Jan 2, 2014 -> 10:57 AM) With Alexei's durability, I'm sure Beckham can step in to play short once or twice next year. He did play short a bit in his minor league rehab last year and I think at one point was the only backup ss on the mlb team. I have actually made this point a couple times and stand by it. You really don't need anything more than an emergency shortstop. You go into the year fully expecting Alexei to play 162 games, and if he needs a day off here or there, you can simply use Beckham there. It's an extremely small sample where they'll need a back up at shortstop, like 2-4 games

Damn, well that ends that debate.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Dec 31, 2013 -> 03:14 PM) I'd say a .612 OPS isn't very respectable even if he's still taking walks. He's at .243/.340/.341/.680 for his career. Not good, but that provides at least some positive value.

Jesus, I don't even follow basketball that much, but the Bulls FO is just totally f***ing incompetent.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Dec 30, 2013 -> 10:45 PM) There's a .400 point OPS between his LH and RH splits. We're keeping Konerko as a part time DH who may randomly steal playing time from our most important and valuable prospect for less extreme splits than that. How do you know he will play well in a platoon? It's not like he isn't respectable against left handed pitching. He still gets on base.

The 49ers were just torched by the Falcons and the Cardinals through the air. To think that Aaron Rodgers can't pass against them is silly. I think Green Bay wins.

QUOTE (scs787 @ Dec 30, 2013 -> 07:48 PM) Had no clue Bassit can fire it up there at 96 if need be. I thought he was following in the foot steps of Axelrod and Leesman as guys who were soft tossing guys who somehow made it through the minors with great success using smoke and mirrors. Leesman average 90.4 MPH in the majors with his fastball. At the worst, he's an 89-92 guy, but I saw him run it up to 94 a couple times too

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ Dec 30, 2013 -> 10:45 PM) You know, I don't post on PHT anywhere near as much as I used to. I'm strictly NBA thread and that's it these days. But I do lurk. And I will say this much, I want to have emotional, internet sex with Eminor3rd. This dude believes in the numbers and he backs it up. He reminds me of Kalapse/Qwerty in their primes (or even me before I became a peter griffin-like drunk). #Eminor3rd What type of internet sex? There are lots

QUOTE (oldsox @ Dec 31, 2013 -> 07:14 AM) With every day that goes by, I like the Reed/Davidson trade less and less. I want to see him play. There are things that surprise me in life. This does not.

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Dec 30, 2013 -> 08:27 PM) Only way they get in is if Denver loses their first game somehow. Even though they beat Denver this year?

For what his role would be in the offense, I just don't see needing explosion as a justifiable reason. The Bears are going to need help literally all over the defense - the secondary, linebacking corps, and defensive line all need a vast amount of help. He's not quite the same back as Lamichael James, but consider what he's done in the NFL in the context of this situation.

QUOTE (DukeNukeEm @ Dec 30, 2013 -> 04:54 PM) What I'd like to see done: Resign Slauson Draft De'Anthony Thomas in the 3rd Solve #3 WR internally, push Marquess Wilson into that role, keep Weems #4 and scour around the late rounds or UDFA for a few guys who can compete for the #5 and #6 spots in camp. C is tough, I don't think we'll find a starter outside the first 3 rounds and with Thomas already you can't use 2/3 of those picks on the offense. I'm not using any more money after Cutler, McCown and Slauson. So you either find a Jordan Mills or go in with a wild card there. I think its a given McCown comes back on a team friendly deal, he had a lot of fun and $1m ain't bad. Cutler goes nowhere, that is becoming obvious already. Given the bust rates and ability to pick up running backs late, for a team that has one of the most dynamic all around running backs in the NFL with huge, huge needs all over, especially on defense, a 3rd round pick on a backup running back seems like a reach.

QUOTE (Tmar @ Dec 30, 2013 -> 04:22 PM) Jerry Slowik on jeopardy from Arlington heights = zoomslowik? Maybe a relative, Zoom's name is Joe

QUOTE (The Ultimate Champion @ Dec 30, 2013 -> 03:22 PM) The Japanese league sucks. Put whatever marks on it you want, they still suck. There are a few good guys who can play in the Majors, and a scant few who can do so at a very high level. But when you look at your average AA league you find lots of seriously talented prospects, most of whom will never make it of course, but there's athletes and ceiling there all over the place. And much of the AAAA players dominating the AAA level in America are at least experienced somewhat at the MLB level, many of them veterans who would be arb eligible should they get another shot in the bigs. There is great parity there & there's a pretty large talent pool of players who are fringey 25-man roster types who can't get a spot on an MLB team in a given year but who IMO would beat the s*** out of the league in Japan should a ton of these guys all go over. Of course there are Americans who will play in Japan or elsewhere but the money has to be there, as well as the playing time, to provide the incentive for a guy to leave or move his family that great of a distance & have no assurances of a job in MLB the following season. But yeah, if Japanese teams started buying up a bunch of fringey MLBers I bet those guys would go over there and beat the hell out of that league & it would be a total embarrassment to Japanese baseball. That's probably why it would never happen, because it would be embarrassing to have 1/2 gaijen (sp?) teams made up of guys who really don't want to be there in the first place with talented ethnic Japanese players failing to crack the roster because they're not good enough to beat out some teams ex-bust prospect. Call me a hater, I'll put my balls out there, and if that excites yall & you feel like being flamers well I don't know what to say other than the fact that where I'm from we have a saying "If you're coming on, come on!" And if you know where that's from I'll give you an internet cookie. And if not you don't get one. Unless you agree with me then you will get one. It's a different game, but they're still plenty talented. And you see fringe MLB players both succeed and fail all the time, whereas these same guys destroy AA and AAA. Like I said, I think you're way wrong. You have the right to believe what you want to believe, and it's not really worth arguing anymore.

Byrd's gonna have to get away first. He was saying some good byes yesterday, but he can still be tagged for $8.3 mill, which is a perfectly reasonable amount and the Bills have plenty of cap space.

I still want to know if he wants BBQ or Pizza more

QUOTE (lasttriptotulsa @ Dec 30, 2013 -> 11:23 AM) Not referring to just you or even this message board in general. Games over. Refs miss calls every game and the officiating in this game was not any worse than any other so let's just move on. I just get sick of people using the refs as an excuse. My facebook feed is ridiculous after a Packers loss with some of my "friends" blaming the refs because the Packers lost by 20 points. I agree, but I don't think anyone's disagreed. I just thought the Packers received the benefit of the refs yesterday, but it ultimately didn't affect the outcome of the game. The Packers deserved to win that 100% and it was a highly entertaining game.