witesoxfan

QUOTE (JoeCoolMan24 @ Feb 22, 2010 -> 10:23 PM) I always thought about that. Like if I was Bill Gates, and was a big sports fan. I would be like "Here ya go, take this $2M and get this guy". I mean, Gates makes millions of dollars a week. I wonder if there are any rules against this. I imagine you have to be a significant shareholder to do something like that.

Ultimately, I'm very happy Williams struck out on Halladay. The addition of Roy Halladay to this pitching staff would have been phenomenal, but I would much rather see those resources go towards a hitter. At the end of the day, Roy Halladay is only going to affect about 33 games during the season and he'll probably have about 26 quality starts (78.8%). A combination of Freddy Garcia, Dan Hudson, and whoever else will make up for about 32 starts as well. I'd say, odds are, that combination will combine for somewhere between 18-22 quality starts (56.3-68.8%). Is adding anywhere from 4-8 quality starts throughout the duration of the season worth giving up a huge package of prospects? Halladay would have made the Sox a better team, but his addition doesn't put the Sox over the top. Had Williams found a way to get Floyd or Danks involved instead of solely a package of prospects, there's a bit more value in that. From what it sounds like, that's just not the case, and, at the end of the day, that would have been a terrible move. Now, if you look at a hitter like Adrian Gonzalez, you figure his outcome will have a much larger effect. Not only will he be involved in more games period (which is actually an argument I don't like making, but it holds true here because the rotation is not a weakness for the club), but his isolated effect on a putrid offense would be astronomical. If Johnny Damon's addition would have added a projected 50 runs, Gonzalez has to be close to 75 or even more.

QUOTE (2nd_city_saint787 @ Feb 22, 2010 -> 09:54 PM) posts like this are starting to erk the hell out of me, i may just leave soxtalk till a couple weeks into the season ya know when were scorin runs and all you people wake up and smell the coffee. Plain and simply, this is not a good offense. They'll score a few runs, because there's still some power and some good hitters in the lineup, but I think the only slam dunk for a hitter that is going to have a good season is Beckham. Pierzynski and Konerko are both a year older, Quentin, Ramirez, and Teahen were all mediocre last year, Rios is coming off of a horrendous season, Pierre has never been a great hitter to begin with, and I don't think anyone knows what can be expected out of Kotsay and Jones at this point. As of this moment, there's a lot that can go right with this squad, but there's a lot that can go wrong. With the rotation they have, I'd say they can't lose 90 games, and as such, I think the worst they can probably do is 74 wins, and I'd say the absolute best is around 100 wins (and thats with virtually everything going according to plan). I'm expecting anywhere between 84-88 wins with the current roster.

QUOTE (Lillian @ Feb 22, 2010 -> 08:35 AM) There is yet another factor which I forgot to mention. Last year was his first year in the American League. As he gets to know the pitchers better, his familiarity with their 'stuff' should help him to improve upon his first half season in the A.L. On the other side of that coin is that AL pitchers have now had a chance to see him, and they will adjust accordingly. QUOTE (SouthsideDon48 @ Feb 22, 2010 -> 01:33 PM) Thunderbolt, Jones hit 17 home runs in limited at-bats in Texas. If he had 500 at-bats, he whould've hit 25 homers easily. That's a pretty big 'if,' considering he was hurt at the end of last season.

QUOTE (La Marr Hoyt HOF @ Feb 22, 2010 -> 09:38 AM) ... and as the owner of the Sox, you'd throw-up in your mouth everytime you had to cut a check to pay Rios's salary ... Did Rios run over your dog?

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Feb 19, 2010 -> 10:12 AM) That was one of the funniest moments Ive ever had while watching the cubs. I'm thinking I should probably send that picture to all of the Cubs friends.

Awesome. I like getting drunk, but if I'm gonna get drunk, I'm not going to flex my liver and show how much I can drink. I'll just drink that much and be super drunk.

In that case, Sean Lowe.

QUOTE (since56 @ Feb 19, 2010 -> 06:31 PM) Yep, still don't understand why we let Carrasco go so easily Because you don't pay a guy $1+ million to eat empty innings.

QUOTE (joeynach @ Feb 19, 2010 -> 03:36 PM) 100% correct, I dont think we will ever see another slow, lift and pull, all or nothing slugger filling the DH position for this team for a very long time I think you're wrong.

I'm voting for Frank Caliendo cuz he's like sooooo funny

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Feb 18, 2010 -> 05:08 PM) If you were there a month earlier we'd bump into each other. Did you get your visa too? Haven't gotten that, I'll be applying for it in 2 weeks. I should have been a bit clearer...I just filled out and have all of the necessities for my passport into the Dept of State, and I had it expedited so I could get it here ASAP as the person leading our group wants us to be able to apply for our visas right around March 1st. So I imagine that's going to be another $120 and a 4-6 week wait. So long as I get it, I'll be happy. What are you heading over there for? Business or just to tour?

QUOTE (whtsoxfan @ Feb 18, 2010 -> 01:03 PM) If the White sox sign Damon then either Andruw Jones or Nix will be out. The White Sox typically carry 12 pitchers. The choice to be made if Damon signs will be to carry 6 outfielders with only 5 infielders or 5 outfielders and 6 infielders. With 5 infielders the reserve infielder would be Vizquel. Just because the White Sox typically carry 12 pitchers doesn't mean they will. With the pitching staff this team has, it shouldn't be a requirement that they have 12. I know Ozzie likes having his two lefties, but a bullpen of Jenks, Putz, Thornton, Pena, Linebrink, and Williams/Santos/Hudson would get by just fine to atleast start the season considering the Sox have 4 guys in the rotation very capable of putting up 200+ innings. The Sox went into last year with 7 bullpen pitchers because the final two rotation spots were filled by an aged Contreras and an overweight and terribly out of shape Colon. Garcia is the only pitcher I would consider injury prone in the rotation. QUOTE (dmbjeff @ Feb 18, 2010 -> 01:11 PM) That 94 team would have whipped the 05 teams ass by the way, they were unbelievable. It's funny, I was watching the World Series DVD last night as I went to bed. I wasn't following baseball close enough back then, but, taking out August when the Sox went 12-16 and including the playoffs (it's cherry picking for sure, but I get to do this because I want to), the Sox played .671 baseball, going 98-48. I did take out a pretty substantial amount of games - 16% of them in fact - but .671 is pretty f***ing good. A .671 winning percentage in the regular season gets you somewhere around 108 or 109 wins. Fluky or not, the team put up an ERA+ of 124, which ties for the 3rd best ERA+ by any team of the decade (2002 Braves put up an ERA+ of 133, Dodgers of 2003 were at 128, and the 2005 Sox and 2001 Braves both put up 124). It's an interesting debate, but I think the 2005 White Sox beat the 1994 White Sox. The '94 team may have had more talent, but the '05 Sox were the better team.

Finally got my US Passport information in today, with intentions of going to China from May 12th-24th. So f***ing excited.

Oh, BTW, I do like how Rotoworld mentions that Damon has a .743 OPS at USCF. Personally, I think that's a bit more indicative of the White Sox pitching staff than Damon's offensive capabilities, but maybe that's just me.

QUOTE (chw42 @ Feb 17, 2010 -> 09:49 PM) If anything, Damon takes away playing time from Mark Kotsay and Juan Pierre. It affects those guys more than Jones. That is unless Jones breaks out and produces like he did back in 2005. I actually think Jones is in a great position for his future value. Rios has to prove himself to the White Sox and Quentin has had a few injuries to deal with and it seems very possible and even likely that Jones could benefit from that.

As a 9-year old, I caught a screaming line drive out to right field. You always had the s***ty kids play the outfield and the good kids play the infield, and the team we were playing was incredibly good, and as such were hitting bullets to the outfield all day long and getting triples and homers because the girls we had out there sucked. So, even though the score was about 10-2, I told my dad to move me from SS to RF. Next inning, sure as s***, a kid hits a screamer out to right. He started running assuming it was going to be another huge hit, and it ended up in my glove. Threw it back in like I was king s***. Oh, and throughout the ages of 12-15, I never had a home run. I had the same coach two years in a row, and I actually became one of his better players by the end of the second year, and he knew I had never had a homer, though he knew I did have a bit of power (sidenote: in the playoffs that year, we lost our first game. Our coach came up to us and said "you guys are talented, but you played terrible and I don't know what to do to motivate you. Don't take it so seriously and have fun. It's a game. Come back here tomorrow night and be ready to play." So after the speech, we went and played jackball, and I won by hitting like 3-4 out of the park and a few to the fence. The next afternoon, we did the same thing, and our coach came and pitched/actually played with us, and I hit another couple out. We had to win our next 4 (double elimination tournament, and we were 0-1) and, spoiler alert, we won our next 4). Anyways, final at bat of my Pony League career, I hit a ball to the left center gap. Their left fielder was slow and their center fielder was playing shallow. As I rounded second, I saw my coach giving me the green light to go, and just as I was about to round third for home, he put up the brakes. The cutoff throw was on the money, and their shortstop, who was also a pitcher, had the best arm in the league, and I would have been dead at home. So that sucked.

QUOTE (The Baconator @ Feb 17, 2010 -> 08:47 PM) I don't know how much this would actually play, but here me out: does it make sense for Boras to have Damon come to Chicago being that he will likely take away the majority of Jones, another one of his clients? Does something like this have any affect on an agent's dealings? Damon isn't going to take away any of Jones' plate appearances. Jones is strictly a platoon player going into the season, and he'll be viewed that way unless something happens (either him proving otherwise or someone getting injured).

QUOTE (kitekrazy @ Feb 17, 2010 -> 11:03 AM) I wonder if this will ever change in MLB. I would like to see a salary cap. Would you be willing to lose an entire season for a salary cap? That's what happened in the NHL, and the MLBPA is a hell of a lot stronger and better at what they do.

I don't know that Tampa has room for him. I have to imagine they'll go with some combination of Crawford, Upton, Jennings, Joyce, and Kapler in the outfield with Burrell at DH. And considering there is no DH in the NL, Damon would have to find room amongst Cabrera, McLouth, Schaefer, and Heyward. I'd say they are officially out of the running too.

QUOTE (WCSox @ Feb 17, 2010 -> 11:27 AM) Pierre is superior defensively to Damon. I'm sure that Damon would get some time in LF, but he'd be relegated to DH for most of the time. Agreed with this. If the Sox sign Damon, they could only realistically carry 11 pitchers on the 25-man roster. Jones is probably the odd man out in that case (I'd keep Kotsay, since he can actually still play defense somewhat). Um...? From everything I've read and seen, it's Jones that can still play a bit of defense and Kotsay is rather terrible defensively now a days. Kotsay can play a good 1B and that's about it.

QUOTE (Rowand44 @ Feb 17, 2010 -> 02:27 AM) So I had this real good looking girl really into me at the bar tonight and as we were leaving she asked me if I remembered her name...um whoops. At that point in time, you either say something to make the story legendary, or you make a last ditch effort.

Wang should be decent, but I think he's more or less a #3-4 starter who became overrated in New York due to him being the best starting pitcher in otherwise very mediocre rotations. He never put up good WHIPs, never put up good strikeout numbers, and never have fantastic control, and was supremely awful last season. He got by because of a fantastic sinker, which is why he should be good; I just don't necessarily think he's going to be great.

I'm interested. If there's enough interest in a 3rd keeper league, I'd love to do that too.

QUOTE (Thunderbolt @ Feb 16, 2010 -> 08:48 PM) I think they just improved dramatically if this Golf game story is true. I put it at 45%. Actually, I agree. I don't think he'll sign but one might imagine he wants to be comfortable in the clubhouse. He seems like a guy that'd be able to fit in well rather anywhere, but if he's going to sign a short-term deal, I'd imagine he might want to sign somewhere where he'll be comfortable, and does have atleast one friend in AJ. Maybe he will, maybe he won't; I just want some baseball to happen.