witesoxfan

I am 5'10 and 181. I do not consider myself fat. I am not the bone thin kid I once was (5'10, 135), but that is ridiculous. He'll be 24 when the season starts, and I bet he's closer to 200 next year too. He's still going to be razor thin, but he'll continue to add weight as he ages.

QUOTE (Swingandalongonetoleft @ Jan 29, 2013 -> 02:07 PM) I've always imagined the real Mr. Thomas as one who would say No Diggity and now that image is shattered forever. Err, NO DIGITY, no doubt (about it)

The NFL is about protecting their players, yet they fail to properly blacklist players who use steroids and/or other illegal substances like this. Nevermind that these kinds of things make you stronger and faster, thus leading to increased damage on blows to the head, but that these illegal substances also do irreparable damage to the human body as well, nor do they actual drug test for it. MLB's failure to control and police their game 10 years ago still overshadows the failure of the NFL to police their game today. You can tell me "but anything to get them out there," "I don't care about the records in football," "Football's a more dangerous game," and I can tell you BS to every single one of them. Football players play an extremely violent game, but they are only guaranteed 16 full games a year, and the most they will play is 19 full games a year. They have preseason and whatever else too, but who cares? Starting pitchers throw anywhere between 30-35 games, and position players can play up to 160 games a year - excluding Spring Training and the postseason. Oh, and people love seeing these records in football go down - how often did they bring up Rice's receiving yards getting broken, Marino's passing record getting broken, and AP's chase for Eric Dickerson? They talked about Watt and Smith breaking Strahan's sack record. It's been mentioned ad nauseam that Tom Brady broke the postseason wins record. They are counting down the day until Peyton Manning breaks the all-time yards and touchdown record. People absolutely CARE about these records, they just don't remember the numbers. But suddenly some person who never watches baseball and doesn't follow the sport can say "I care about records in baseball, but it doesn't matter in football." That's BS. Roger Goodell is too busy trying to satisfy his own personal agenda of decreasing crime and whatever else when he should actually get busy doing something about players using illegal substances, because that is the first step in making the game safer.

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ Jan 29, 2013 -> 12:22 PM) Mr. Thomas. May I ask why you say "no doubt about it" every 3.6 seconds? No doubt about it my friend! It's because it's an awesome saying. No doubt about it.

QUOTE (IlliniKrush @ Jan 29, 2013 -> 12:17 PM) You can't be 100% confident about something like that, you don't know, no one but him does. I don't think he did either, but I can't blame a person for being suspicious about ANYONE during that entire era. I've kept myself hidden for far, far too long. I am Frank Thomas.

I bet Brian Kelly goes to the NFL next year. Unless he doesn't, in which case I bet he won't.

QUOTE (Tex @ Jan 29, 2013 -> 11:40 AM) Interesting that someone thought it would help the same market teams, I thought it would hurt the small market teams by increasing salaries. High payroll teams like the Yankees, Red Sox, Dodgers, and White Sox could spend a few million for that last spot, versus a couple hudnred thousand for a small market team. Bringing it up like this, I think you're right, but for different reasons. They'll still generally pay the same amount for the last guy - $500k or so - but that's an additional $500k small market teams have to spend, which takes $500k out of another of their offers, which creates problems of prioritization. For example, we have team A who is large market ($150 million payroll) and team B who is small market ($60 mill). With a 25-man roster, team A can spend $18 million on their highest paid, $6 million on average, and $500k on their 25th. Team B, on the other hand, can spend roughly $10 million on their highest paid, $2.4 million on average, and $500k on their 25th. You add an additional player, and you are looking at team A spending $18/5.5, $17.5/6, or $17.75/5.75 (roughly). There's virtually no damage done, and they are not significant, relatively speaking. Compare that to team B who then has to decide $10/1.9, $9.5/2.4, or $9.75/$2.15 (roughly). $500k CAN make a difference on that average player, which can cost said team anywhere between 1-4 wins, which can cost a division title. It's something rich teams can afford and poor cannot. EDIT: Just to add, the value of the 26th player is likely to be negligible and roughly equal across all teams - there are exceptions to any and all rules, as always, but generally speaking, the value will likely be 0 - while incurring this $500k cost. Thus, it's a proportional tax, which, per the situation as described above, actually hurts small market (ala poor and middle class) teams and deincentivizes spending.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Jan 29, 2013 -> 11:19 AM) Where are these doctors? All I've gotten is bulls*** rehab Apparently, they're in Miami.

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Jan 29, 2013 -> 11:13 AM) The 3-day paternity leave option too, which lets a guy (Youk) leave the team for a few days for the birth of a child, without hurting his team's roster flexibility. I agree that 25 makes it interesting and shouldn't change. That's part of the intrigue of baseball, keeping your pitchers fresh every day, dealing with short starts, extra innings etc. That's why I hate the 40-man roster expansion in September. Playoff spots are on the line and they completely change the rules of the game. I agree with the 40-man rule, although the coolest suggestion I saw regarding that was allowing for up to 40 players, but you can only have 25 of those going into the game. Of course, that immediately rules out at least 4, so it's got flaws too.

I do wonder what Nardi Contreras and his ticking timebomb in the shoulder philosophy had on the pitchers. Perhaps there was a whole group of them that were good and it was the organization's philosophy at the time that got them in trouble.

With 100% confidence, I can say that Frank Thomas was. If it turned out that he used steroids, I would never follow baseball again.

QUOTE (Y2HH @ Jan 29, 2013 -> 09:58 AM) Not that I think much of the White Sox farm system, but let's try to keep in mind that these "farm rankings" are a huge steaming pile of bulls***... Granted, this is the Cubs, but these same people ranked their farm in the top 10 five years in a row (even hitting #1, #2 and #3 in consecutive years). 2001: Cubs #2 2002: Cubs #1 2003: Cubs #3 2004: Cubs #7 2005: Cubs #10 ...that really seemed to make a difference. From http://www.baseballamerica.com/today/featu...ntrankings.html Well the Sox were #1 after 2000. It produced a buttload of decent to good relievers, a few journeyman starting pitchers, a CFer who had his moments, a 3Bman who had an incredible calendar year, and some dude named MB.

Not sure if you've bothered to look up AminoRip, but I think there are probably better alternatives than to spend $1,000 on a highly concentrated and pre-digested protein to lose weight. I don't believe Max Gonzalez for a second.

QUOTE (bigruss22 @ Jan 29, 2013 -> 09:25 AM) Right, but Jake's point was that it hurts the pitcher vs. a base stealer immensely and why he is upset by it. Naturally. They are removing an obvious advantage a pitcher had, which directly influences the baserunner, thus, the baserunner will gain an advantage. It doesn't make it wrong. They haven't removed the ability for the pitcher to check on the runner - he just can't be nearly as deceptive now, which is good.

QUOTE (maggsmaggs @ Jan 29, 2013 -> 09:02 AM) Well prior to the new CBA, that was risk you took. If the Twins could afford that risk money-wise, the Sox should have, too. I think that was primarily management of the team. Given the choice, Williams re-invested that money in the MLB team rather than the minors. I think that changes in a big way under Hahn.

QUOTE (bigruss22 @ Jan 29, 2013 -> 09:00 AM) It's quite different, the leg going straight up looks much more like a pitch is happening than a simple check down to 1st. Which is deceptive to the runner on 1st base, hence why they are starting to call this a balk.

QUOTE (3E8 @ Jan 29, 2013 -> 08:54 AM) The concern in general about the whole bench is a bit much, I think. Last year our bench had a guy coming off a .845 OPS and another with a career .360 OBP. They were terrible. It's hard to predict how guys who aren't good enough to start anymore (or never were) are going to perform in a very small sample. You just have to hope they aren't used much. Luckily we have the best conditioning staff in baseball and miss fewer days to the DL than anyone. It'd be nice to have at least one guy on the bench with some power, but I'll wait to see what the roster is two months from now. If there is truly a problem with the bench that turns out to hinder the team significantly, it will be addressed during the season. As long as they try hard and can play multiple positions pretty well defensively, I could pretty much care less how they hit.

If the Sox are going to win the division this year, they're going to need a lot of players on the current roster to step up and improve in a big way anyways. If it gets to the point that the Sox are in contention and they need another bat, they will go out and get one. Worrying about something that is going to be a trivial upgrade at this point is silly. I wanted the Sox to sign Kelly Johnson because I too think another left handed bat could help. They didn't. That move won't win or lose them a division, and neither will another left handed bat in the middle of the lineup.

QUOTE (Lillian @ Jan 29, 2013 -> 08:55 AM) Yes, but the Sox faired very badly versus both the Royals and the Tigers. And they had A. J.'s left handed bat. Sure would have helped if he'd have put up better than a .712 OPS against the Tigers then.

QUOTE (flavum @ Jan 29, 2013 -> 08:52 AM) I am too, but it seems like a 50-game suspension isn't enough of a deterrent to not try to get away with it. Only the Olympics have a tougher penalty system, and people aren't paid for that. I'd be OK with like 50, 1 season, lifetime, but as is, baseball's policy is tougher than even football's - you miss 1/4 of the season with increasing penalties after that. In baseball, you miss 1/3 of the season. I think it's plenty fair.

QUOTE (Lillian @ Jan 29, 2013 -> 08:50 AM) I don't propose to have the solution. It might be constructive to start by identifying the problem. Do you agree that the absence of another left handed impact bat is the highest priority? If you agree, then you tell us. How can the Sox acquire such a hitter? No. The absence of baseball is the biggest problem.

QUOTE (flavum @ Jan 29, 2013 -> 08:49 AM) I wish they would go to stiffer penalties-- 1st offense-- 1 year suspension and voided contract 2nd offense-- Lifetime ban It's plenty stiff right now (that's what she said). I do wish provisions could be put in to void contracts based upon positive tests, but the MLBPA would never go for that.

QUOTE (justBLAZE @ Jan 29, 2013 -> 08:46 AM) You should take Steve up on that bet when he says Viciedo Dunn and Flowers won't hit 80HR. Well they're going to hit 160 between them, so not sure what the debate is. Seriously, I think Flowers is going to surprise. Of course, he could put up an .825 OPS and people will be upset because he hits .230 with a zillion strikeouts, so it's pointless anyways. If he cut back on his strikeouts, people would say "how come he doesn't swing his hardest, he might hit a few more home runs!" Seriously, I can't remember the last Sox catcher who had a minor league track record like Flowers' starting for the Sox.

I would like to quote the greatest song in the history of the world... "This is f***ing awesome."

QUOTE (SoxAce @ Jan 29, 2013 -> 08:38 AM) Damn Cesar Carrillo too? He actually lived right around me on the southeast side of Chicago back in the day and I saw him play in little league. That sucks to hear. Got him paid, because he was not very good at pitching.