witesoxfan

I really don't mind it. Axelrod is a bit of a smoke and mirrors pitcher, but he's a good pitcher nonetheless, and he was relatively effective as a starter last year.

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Mar 28, 2013 -> 02:53 PM) 2011 was not a financial disaster. The Sox have done a great job making the public believe they have no money. It's also difficult to make people believe you have no money when you spend $100-110 million on payroll each year. Why do you interpret anything that managements says or does as them suggesting they have no money/lost money? If you want to appease your fan base - which the Sox have done to the best of their abilities - you don't cut payroll by $30 million. QUOTE (Marty34 @ Mar 28, 2013 -> 03:11 PM) You don't say you made money and cut payroll. I believe Forbes numbers. The Sox also have no problem spending money when there is money to be spent. Danks extension last year, Peavy and Keppinger contracts this year, Sale's extension. I have a tendency to believe the White Sox when, generally, anything over the past 5-10 years that has shown up in Forbes has been put back into the team. When they haven't done as well, they've cut payroll. When they have done well, they've added. People on message boards with no hard sources suggesting that ownership is poor and lying does not sway me.

QUOTE (floridafan @ Mar 28, 2013 -> 02:13 PM) Yesterday he went 1-2 with a walk and said he hit the ball well. He started 1 DP and had about 8 other plays at 2B. If I can report good stuff later I will, lol! Hoping for the best. Sounds like he's putting in a ton of work.

There is always a time and place to overpay, whether by money or players, to try and compete. With the Sox current positioning, that time was not now. There are some building blocks in place, but it is an older team without a true identity moving forward - even 2 years from now, there are going to be several contracts off the books that the team will look drastically different than it does going into this year. And while you can say this is generally true, I believe that you could realistically see 9 completely different players as starters in the lineup in 3 years. I don't see that as likely - I think Flowers, Viciedo, and De Aza will still likely be here at the very least - but it's still very possible. There aren't many teams you can say that about. Spending any more significant money could have very easily been a waste. There was no reason to tear it down either because this team could easily win the division this year too. I don't see that as likely either, but again, it's very possible. Going to either extreme would not have been smart. It rarely is.

QUOTE (Iwritecode @ Mar 28, 2013 -> 01:20 PM) The second-to-last 5 tool player? Which makes him that much more rare

They went above and beyond anything they'd spent in 2011 and that was a disaster. That was the calculated risk you talked about, and it cost them money, which is why they cut costs last year. You can only do that so often and remain operational.

QUOTE (floridafan @ Mar 28, 2013 -> 12:35 PM) Just curious since Grabe is playing 2B with the AAA club yesterday and today. They indicated the AAA 2Baseman was with the Big Club. Let us know how he handles it. Versatility is probably the easiest way to get to the majors.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Mar 28, 2013 -> 10:08 AM) Tell yourself about it

Timo Perez

QUOTE (MHizzle85 @ Mar 28, 2013 -> 09:44 AM) This was this morning at NASDAQ. It's pretty cool if you're into that sorta thing. You must have had a 2 foot woody when you saw that

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Mar 28, 2013 -> 09:03 AM) Well that and LeBron put his shoulder into Kirk like a RB going for a short yardage first down... Not sure what game you were watching, but from my angle, it looks like Kirk went all Incredible Hulk and smashed LeBron in the face with his fists. They may have to investigate this foul in the offseason and come up with a flagrant 3 that prevents white undersized point guards from turning into heaping monstrosities with a 20 game suspension if they fail to comply.

QUOTE (Brian @ Mar 27, 2013 -> 08:10 PM) Wish the game was tomorrow Gf is Kansas fan so we bet that if Kansas wins, I have to watch a Twilight movie, if Michigan wins, she has to watch any movie I want. She hates horror movies so probably going with that. God help me. I am forever going to think of you as Gabe Lewis now. Awesome.

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Mar 27, 2013 -> 07:03 PM) There's no point to being in the middle as they have been. Bump the payroll and compete for the division. The White Sox slashed payroll dramatically last year and still had the 11th highest opening day payroll in all of baseball. They spent quite a bit more than that previously and had been consistently in the top 10 for the previous 5 years. They have not been in the middle spending wise, so this statement is flat wrong.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Mar 27, 2013 -> 02:57 PM) A photographic journey through Montana’s vanished towns I love this kind of stuff and could honestly spend a good week or two just ghost town hopping. There's something sort of spooky yet all together fascinating about places like that to me. http://www.ghostsofnorthdakota.com/ I have cruised through that site quite a bit. There are still remnants of most of those towns, but very little. The comments for Tagus, ND is especially entertaining.

Because Axelrod was named as the 5th starter

QUOTE (Soxbadger @ Mar 27, 2013 -> 01:36 PM) What am I supposed to be protesting, I didnt get the memo. Gay marriage in Supreme Court, duh

QUOTE (buhbuhburrrrlz @ Mar 27, 2013 -> 12:15 PM) I think reading some of the blurbs from reviews set my expectations way too high. I mean I was reading things like GREATEST STORY OF OUR GENERATION, and GREATEST CREATIVE FEAT I'VE EVER EXPERIENCED. It's hard for a game to live up to that. It's a good game don't get me wrong. I just wasn't feeling anything like that. Also it's on the short side, it can be beaten in under 12 hours. Sounds like Fable. Given, two completely different genres all together, but I remembered hearing and reading the same things about Fable for XBox, and it was like...uhh, yeah, this is good, but where's the other 60 hours you usually play in an RPG?

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Mar 27, 2013 -> 12:16 PM) Look at all these people making a difference by changing their profile picture. Ha, that's why I didn't change. I felt like the activist in me needed to say it, and then I just posted some Macklemore. Way easier. I had a friend who said "if you have a plus sign or an x in your profile pic, I am going to unfriend you" to which I said "it's a good thing Switzerland isn't playing soccer right now"

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Mar 27, 2013 -> 12:08 PM) 11, but who's counting? Ehhh, 9, 10. He's been playing for the better part of a month now. Why play in a game when you can play in practice? Not sure if you knew this or not, but he is just KILLING it in practice.

There's no way I wouldn't wear those, except for that ridiculous price tag.

Very true, which is why they're a 4 seed rather than a 2 seed.

QUOTE (Jake @ Mar 27, 2013 -> 09:31 AM) Game 163 after about four months of constant speculation. #thereturn Sox sign Jim Thome just before the game and he takes Nick Blackburn deep (who the Tigers acquired after Doug Fister goes down with a case of hand-syphillis) and the Sox win 1-0.

I still think Louisville and Michigan are the two most dangerous teams remaining. There are obviously only (pretty) good teams left, but Louisville's all around intensity and Michigan's inside-outside game are very tough right now. I'd be more surprised if Michigan doesn't win their next 2. Kind of crazy to think that it is not out of the realm of possibility to still have an all B1G Final Four. Michigan State has the toughest road, but that's still a very good team capable of beating anyone in the country.

Another part of the problem is that, for the sake of the study, the only constant you have is the theory of a 9 inning game and that the goal is to win. While they'll still play 9 innings (assuming no rain), game 1 of Spring Training is far, far different than game 25 or game 28 simply because early on you're trying to get guys some work in just to basically see how guys look while stretching them out into their roles while later you are trying to get more into game situations as well and, to some extent, trying a little harder to win those games. Really, the best games to look at in Spring Training are probably about the last 7 or so, and you'd have to look at Spring Trainings for the past 40 or 50 years to get anything close to a worthwhile sample. Still, this is awesome.

for the Mariners!