witesoxfan

QUOTE (dasox24 @ Jun 9, 2008 -> 03:47 AM) I think KW is a fantastic GM. You all have pretty much summed up my feeling towards him. He is in the upper-echelon of GM's. He has really done a great job of balancing the big spending with under the radar deals to make us competitive (and for years to come) without having to spend like Yanks or Red Sox. My only fault with him is the poor minor league system, but it seems like he has worked to correct that over the last year with new scouts and scouting philosophies, etc. I don't think it matters how good his minor league system really is. He seems willing to deal away any players he feels will net him the ultimate player he wants; honestly, before the season, who would have ever thought the Sox would have brought in Nick Swisher with the minor league talent he Sox had? Who had even the slightest idea that Swisher was available? Ken Williams has done a fantastic job with talent evaluation. That, more than anything, is the most important factor I could ever ask for in a GM. Don't worry about value so long as you get the guys you know can get outs/prevent scoring runs or prevent the other defense from getting outs/preventing runs.

start............not yet NOW

QUOTE (Rowand44 @ Jun 9, 2008 -> 02:56 AM) Rally Crede says hi. I love that Crede

QUOTE (Soxfest @ Jun 9, 2008 -> 03:10 AM) Time to pony up and pay Danks the 2nd round money. Boras wants first

yeah I better

anywhere from 823 BC to 2008 AD I don't consider those earlier than 823 BC to be baseball managers. Too violent and rude to the public /waits

QUOTE (Gregory Pratt @ Jun 9, 2008 -> 01:52 AM) Gregory went bowling for the first time in his life this week and rolled better than Barack Obama by about thirty points. He hopes to bowl more often and improve markedly in the coming years. The rest of the week is an insomniac's blur, as Pratt was hardly able to sleep for much of it and stayed up watching HBO movies as a result. He recommends "The World According to Garp." Gregory needs a brush up on bowling terminology. A baseball team does not beat an opponent by 3 points; a golfer does not win a tournament by 12 points; similarly, a bowler does not beat another by 30 points. Baseball:runs::golf:strokes::bowling:pins. GET IT RIGHT NEXT TIME Let us not forget that Babe Ruth was hitting to a foul pole down the right field line that was 295 feet away (if you can find any AAA team that has it under 300 down the line, I'll give you a virtual pat on the back) and the right field gap wasn't far away either. If you think hitters had it easy now in that regard, just ask Babe how it was. Imagine how many of today's hitters period would hit more homers simply because of that (righties would hit balls to right more often and lefties would capitalize on mistakes the pitchers made outside more often, taking them to left field simply because the pitcher would be so afraid of making any type of mistake inside). Ruth is one of the 3 greatest offensive players of all time, but let's not act like he was hitting uphill 450 feet away to all directions while being drunk every game he ever played. The drunk part might be right, but whatever... Where's Barry Bonds when we need him most? That's a team that has disappointed me greatly. Last year was apparently an aberration, because they've been absolutely god awful. It's time for Bavasi to go away already. It's a fantastic baseball family, but Bill has done much more damage in Seattle than is necessary and he needs to go back to a supporting role. He's good in those roles. I haven't seen enough of McLaren to see what kind of manager he is, but I'd assume he's probably middle of the pack, similar to Melvin, who just so happened to be the previous Seattle manager to Hargrove. It's too bad he stepped away because he is one of the managers I have a ton of respect for. I don't pay much attention to his Baltimore years, because even the greatest manager of all time (whoever that may be...thread/poll idea spawned) wouldn't be able to manage a pitching staff as terrible as that. When given pitching talent, Hargrove is the man. Randy Wolf is also the man. I'm more surprised about the fact that he keeps making comebacks and keeps on pitching. Good for him. He was overrated with Philly when I recall him being one of the up and coming pitchers of the league, but he could make fortunes and perhaps a playoff team or two by being a #3-4 starter in the league. I have much respect for him. He did his best "I got paid and now I'm going to relax and suck at life" impersonation last year, but he's played well this year. He's another favorite player of mine. I hope he atleast does his best to earn that $126 mill. If he keeps producing, that would hopefully mean everybody else in the Astros lineup keeps producing, and that would hopefully mean they give the Cubs fits all year. Ed Wade isn't much a good overall GM, but he can most definitely build offenses as well as any other GM in the game, given the resources. He just can't build a pitching staff. When you only have one starting pitcher with an ERA below 4.00, and you have Roy Oswalt on your staff, and the pitcher whose ERA is below 4.00 and said pitcher's name isn't Roy Oswalt...well, then Roy Oswalt is pitching like s***, that pitcher is lucky, and you suck at pitching staffs. Brocail and Geary have been surprisingly good so far...not something I suspect will continue to happen as the year progresses. LOOK AT HOW MUCH THAT TOWEL CURVED. DID YOU SEE IT? MAN, IF ONLY HE COULD THROW IN REAL GAMES WITH TOWELS! I consider Prior done and washed up. If you would like to atleast try to continue your love for the [Twins/baseball] (just giving s*** about the Twins trading Santana and your love for amazing players remaining with their original teams (I respect the hell out of it, BTW)), they did select Joe Mauer over Mark Prior, who was the consensus #1 pick in that draft. Prior helped the Cubs to 6 wins in the 2003 playoffs, fizzled out, and now he's done. Mauer's still one of the best pure hitting catchers in the game today and he's only 25, which scares the s*** out of me. I still think he's going to become John Olerud part deux, but whether he remains at catcher will determine whether he's one of the best the game has seen in 25 years or if he's just a damn good 1Bman. I will say, if he has the range and the glove for it, he has the arm for 3B. I'd watch out for that if his knees don't hold up well over the next 2-3 years. Modern medicine and radar guns. You can see the problem and you can address it instantly...it just takes six to eighteen months to heal. I know Sandy Koufax had some of the nastiest stuff of all time, but I would be curious to see what the velocity of his fastball was at the end of his career. Randy Johnson has never had many arm problems and he's 44 (and he'll be 45 in September) and he's still striking out in excess of 9 per 9. A study on the top 50 pitchers over the 60s, 70s, 80s, and 90s, and 00s, could easily be conducted to see why exactly the reasoning is for the shortcoming of pitchers in todays game. Seeing as how teams are carrying 13 and 14 pitchers nowadays, when only 5 years ago 13 seemed outlandish and it was basically either 11 or 12, makes one wonder which change to the game will be next - the 6-man rotation or the 27-man roster...? Another thing I would be really curious to see are some of the greatest pitchers' MRIs of their entire bodies...see which parts of the body you can work and still remain successful and those you can't. It wouldn't be an end-all of end-all analysis, but it'd be interesting to see the results of such a study and then to attempt to employ that with half of your pitching class. Is a book I shall try and find cheaply somewhere. Tell me it's cheap somewhere. And I hate you both for living in Illinois. I hate you, I hate you, I hate you.

GOAT

QUOTE (SuperSteve @ Jun 8, 2008 -> 11:18 PM) That's pretty cool the Rays got Beckhams brother too. Interesting read. You seriously pop in once every like 6 months. You are kinda funny like that though. The Twins picked up Joe Mauer's brother a few years back too, but I'm pretty sure he sucks.

QUOTE (BearSox @ Jun 7, 2008 -> 06:48 AM) Fine, but there is no denying the similarites between KWjr. and Owens. Owens is a 27 year old slap hitting outfielder whose arm is only slightly stronger than mine, and I'm pretty sure I have something wrong with my shoulder too...his arm may even be just as strong as mine. He's also not 22 and just drafted out of Wichita State. He also doesn't have the pedrigree that Kenny Williams Jr has...KW was actually a pretty damn good prospect in his younger years and, from what I understand, really didn't become a non-factor until he was moved from the outfield to 3B. That fact actually makes it seem pretty reasonable as to why KW is afraid to move his good prospects all around the field. The KW2 pick was a reach, but it's not a humongous reach like many are saying...I also think all of that was made up for by the fact that the Sox selected Danks in the 7th round, when he's probably a 2nd-4th round talent.

QUOTE (Soxfest @ Jun 9, 2008 -> 12:23 AM) He never should of been considered at all! Except for the fact that a few teams did have him in the top 10 rounds, but yeah, not considered at all.

I still wonder if they aren't fast-tracking him in hopes that he becomes a reliever/trade bait.

QUOTE (Brian @ Jun 8, 2008 -> 08:30 PM) YOu guys are tempting fate with this thread. No fate is being tempted. Soxtalk has no effect whatsoever on the Chicago White Sox. Only the Chicago White Sox have an effect on the Chicago White Sox. They are playing their asses off right now and it's shown up with 6 straight wins.

QUOTE (BobDylan @ Jun 9, 2008 -> 12:26 AM) Either way, Konerko is not going to drop the no-trade rights he earned. He's the captain of the team. He's in his 10th season here. They're in first place. He won a World Series ring here. He took a discount to stay here. It'd be bush league for the organization to ask him to leave this season. Maybe if they sucked dick and offered him an opportunity to win a ring elsewhere... but that's not the case. Especially not when his opportunity to win a ring elsewhere is likely equal or less than the chance he'd have at winning another here.

QUOTE (KyKyGruber @ Jun 8, 2008 -> 11:14 PM) Didn't the sox offer Brandon McCarthy for Soriano in 06? supposedly something like that happened...Kenny also apparently didn't want to deal away Broadway either, so I'm not entirely sure about that entire rumor

QUOTE (Cali @ Jun 8, 2008 -> 07:36 PM) I thought Kenny William was fired back in 2002? (Only old board members will get that, and if you do you are awesome) yessir...he also was never the actual GM, he was just a public figure who had general manager in his title I gave Kenny s*** this winter, but I really liked the Swisher deal, the Quentin deal, and the Dotel signing...not as big a fan for Linebrink, but he's been absolutely fantastic. He's also had some "rapings" that Flash had been wanting for a while (it doesn't get much more lopsided than the Garcia and McCarthy trades at this point in time) He's accomplished priority #1 and that's make the big league club good. For all I care, that's really the only priority there is.

QUOTE (Tony82087 @ Jun 8, 2008 -> 04:57 PM) http://www.soxtalk.com/forums/index.php?s=...t&p=1474457 I'm just sayin. I rode that horse all the way to the finish line. I started sometime last year and I still beat Big Brown to the finish line at the Belmont. YOU'RE MY BOY GAVIN

trade Konerko to bring a nearly 40 year old player in. Quite honestly, that doesn't make sense to me in the least.

QUOTE (JPN366 @ Jun 6, 2008 -> 09:21 AM) Not as much as there should be. Well, the team's in first place by 4.5 games and the minor league system is f***ed anyways thanks to the Wilder fiasco, so really, what have they done wrong?

QUOTE (daa84 @ Jun 7, 2008 -> 07:19 PM) nice game so far for the 4 worth watching in charlotte..all have reached at least twice .... fields 2-3 with a walk, a HR 3 RBI owens 1-3 with a walk Richar 2-4 with a double and rbi getz 2-3 with an double and rbi getz up to .314...definitely developing well...i assume next year uribe will be gone, cabrera gone and alexei at SS with getz getting a long look at 2b to start the year, and beckham pushing for time by the end of the year I think I'd rather give Richar a shot at 2B before Getz.

I'd be OK with bringing him back. Having a bit of depth on the bench wouldn't hurt, especially if Ozzie uses him at all 4 corners (or maybe not 1B, but the other 3 would be OK).

QUOTE (scenario @ Jun 7, 2008 -> 02:24 PM) Frankly, I'm more worried about the Twins than the Indians. Carlos Gomez is better than advertised. They have the best defensive outfield in the American League. Their young starters are stepping up and they've got a very good bullpen. Mauer and Morneau are having good seasons. And their SS-2B situation has been much better than anyone expected. I don't think there is any doubt at this point that the Twins are the better team. Agree on Gomez, but their starters have been terrible of late...it was like a 7+ ERA in their past 8 leading up to last nights game, and tonight didn't help that at all. 4.79 combined ERA for their starters on the year, and as the summer, extended traveling, and the innings wear on those arms, it could very easily get worse. I also don't think their defense in the outfield is real good...Gomez is young and raw and misreads a few balls, Young has been mediocre in LF and Cuddyer looks like he's lost a step. All have fantastic arms, but that's only about half the battle. And their production from SS has been terrible...given, Everett is fantastic defensively, but he's put up a sweet .560 OPS on the year (people complain about Uribe) and they've gotten a combined .614 OPS out of the position all year long. This is the Sox division to lose at this point in time. I view the Indians as a bigger threat simply because their rotation is pretty solid and bullpens can turn it on in an instant, but if their pitching remains mediocre and the offense doesn't turn on at all, I think the Sox could sort of back into a division crown seeing as how all 4 of the other teams in the Central could finish below .500. I don't see that happening, but it's a definite possibility.

QUOTE (Rowand44 @ Jun 7, 2008 -> 01:15 PM) The Rowand picture is just pure awesomeness. Everything about it...all you see is sky, Rowand's body and the ball are perfectly still and the bat and his arms are moving. It's a thing of beauty.

QUOTE (Tony82087 @ Jun 7, 2008 -> 11:20 PM) Except it doesn't make much sense at all, seeing as Uribe is on a one year deal, and even with the little surge Baltimore is on, they certainly aren't playing for this year. What would the O's want with Uribe?? In hopes that he heats up a bit but the team tanks so they can trade a nobody prospect for somebody with a shot. That'd really be the only legitimate reason I could think of. That's a team I'd hate to be a fan of because they just seem to be run so poorly...it's impossible to tell if they're going into a win mode or a rebuilding mode from year to year, and even worse is that they have the Sawks and Yanks in the division too.

if I made a prediction right now, I'd say the Sox could very well run away with the division from this point forward. The lineup itself is heating up 1-9, the pitching has stayed strong, and the defense is pretty damn good all around. I think I might be more relieved that there will be no further comparisons between 2007 and 2008.