caulfield12

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Apr 24, 2011 -> 02:33 PM) We're not paying Juan Pierre all that much. Teahen might be unmovable, but caring about $5 million is stupid. Konerko and AJ are playing for us basically earning the same amounts that other teams offered them last offseason, and frankly, AJ is looking better at the plate than he did last year (although he's got a low OPS, he just hasn't homered yet). We're paying Juan Pierre $7 million this season. Last year, he was only $3.5 million. Throwing away $12+ million is what's causing us to have to think about trading Danks or Quentin (eventually, if things continue on this path). Let's not forget Linebrink as well. So that's basically $15 million.

QUOTE (elrockinMT @ Apr 24, 2011 -> 02:35 PM) Why would you trade anyone for nothing in return. Every loss we suffer through and this is inevitably what we see posted. It's early folks and this team will snap out of it. The same reason we traded Ray Durham for Jon Adkins. To save money. Even Michael Cuddyer and the Twins are saying it's not an excuse to say "it's early" anymore.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Apr 24, 2011 -> 02:31 PM) Although MLB doesn't publish official numbers so things are a little opaque, you can take it from the yearly Forbes published numbers. Here's reality...Forbes published that the Sox were $26 million in the black last season, and then suddenly the Sox went out and boosted their payroll by just about $25 million. Although they're not publishing everything, that's telling me that the Forbes numbers are pretty darn accurate. They're not going to lose money on this team. If they get in danger of really losing money because they're at the bottom of the Central on June 15, they'll ship enough people off to cover the potential loss. You also have to consider that while we got $4+ million when David Wells went down in 2001, the amount of insurance for a pitcher with Jake Peavy's history has to be at least $2-3 million in additional payments per year. Heck, with all the pitching injuries and "babying" of superstars these days, I wouldn't be surprised if it was $4 million. At least that's what I would charge if i was AIG or Lloyd's of London.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Apr 24, 2011 -> 02:26 PM) Let's be honest though...if Dunn ever resumes hitting like Adam Dunn...there are possibly only 2 guys on the roster you really look at and think "Unmovable", and that's Rios and Peavy. Rios could easily make himself moveable again, he did last year, and Peavy isn't hurting the team in salary if there's insurance on his contract. Ummm....Mark Teahen and Juan Pierre say hello. Probably AJ Pierzynski as well. You might be able to dump Buehrle's contract for nothing in return. I don't think Konerko's going to be moveable without sending a financial subsidy along in return. Just depends on a contending team having an injury there....but even with an injury, taking an aging 1B at this stage in his career is a big risk for any organization because of the multi-year implications down the line.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Apr 24, 2011 -> 02:22 PM) Keep a couple details in mind...the Chairman probably made $20 million last year with a struggling team, and he basically committed that $20 million to the roster this year. If the attendance figures come in similar, he's at break even. If there's a drop in attendance, that'll push him towards losing money...but there's also a possibility that there may be insurance dollars coming in again if the Sox hold a policy on Peavy, which has been rumored ever since we traded for him. Where does that figure come from? $20 million? You said they hadn't been under 1.6 million since 1999, but there's no way they draw over 1.85 million this year if they don't at least get back to .500.

QUOTE (JoeCoolMan24 @ Apr 24, 2011 -> 02:18 PM) At least Thornton looked solid. Threw a TON of sliders. I think I only saw 4 fastballs, and everything else was sliders. I was going to say at least that will increase his trade value. Someone will want Crain or Thornton. I guess at SOME point this season, the Sox will get hot again, make us ALMOST believe to the point where these comments look silly. Then we'll face Minnesota again. Well, at least having lost 9 in a row now to Detroit, it can't get any worse. We usually have played well against the Tigers, which is the scary thing. It's the Indians and Royals who have caused trouble recently.

QUOTE (justBLAZE @ Apr 24, 2011 -> 02:14 PM) Sox on pace for worst start since 2001, they were 7-15. Finished 83-79. What was our record last year at this time? Last year, we went to NY with a 9-14 mark and lost 2/3. 10-16 after 26 games. We'll be lucky to be 8 games under .500 when we come home this Friday.

QUOTE (Chet Kincaid @ Apr 24, 2011 -> 02:09 PM) Not that I'm saying that it should happen, but if they lose this game and get swept or lose three of four to the Yanks, I got a feeling that either Walker or Ozzie is going to get whacked. Changing Walker out won't matter. I think the first consideration is whether a managerial change BEFORE a possible firesale is going to make any difference...to me, it's worth a shot. You'd hate to see them go down this season without trying everything possible. KW knows that the Twins are only 1/2 game ahead of us...this NY series and how we respond will be a key determinant of how things go for the rest of the season. If we just lie down like we have for the last 13 games, it doesn't bode well for this season. Last year's run is almost a negative here (in terms of creating any sense of urgency), because there's the magical belief we can just magically turn it on again simply because a once a decade run happened last year.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Apr 24, 2011 -> 02:07 PM) His ERA since his rookie year is 3.56, and that's been while pitching in a big pitcher's park. It's not worth 7/$120 to the White Sox, but that's the going rate for this caliber of pitcher. Then they're going to have to start charging $50 for upper deck tickets or they won't ever be able to afford him. Danks simply isn't the kind of player who puts fannies in the seats like a Braun or Fielder.

Danks hasn't ever gotten run support by his teammates, hard to blame him too much when you're pitching with no margin for error. 46-47 career, 3.9+ ERA. Is that worth $75-100 million? Not to the White Sox. We better beat the Yankees ONCE before facing Sabathia on Thursday or we'll be 8-18. Colon on Thursday, Nova on Wednesday, probably Burnett tomorrow. AJ's the type of pitcher we normally light up, but who knows these days. Caught stealing coming up on Pierre?

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Apr 24, 2011 -> 12:51 PM) The last time the White Sox drew under 1.6 million fans was 1999. And that's the last time we had a true rebuilding movement, in 1998 and 1999.

Or maybe it's the $15 million they spent on Borchard and Viciedo with not much to show for it so far...

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/larr...49_stone17.html Good in-depth article on the Mariners and the possibility they'll be under the 2 million attendance mark for the first time in Safeco's history. White Sox fans looking at our future fate in a true rebuilding/transition period, it's undoubtedly somewhere between 1.3 million and 1.6 million in attendance for half a decade.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Apr 24, 2011 -> 09:44 AM) Why? I suppose the insinuation is that we'll only win 1/4 from the Yankees. We might get fat and happy on their pitching staff (minus CC), but it's going to be the next true test of our bullpen and hopefully "reinvented" defense. Those kinds of games always get more national media attention, it will be interesting to see how Santos holds up. Theoretically, he's always acted like he's oblivious to his surroundings and situation, but this will be a true test because it is not easy to keep your composure walking into that stadium.

Ozzie GETS IT!! Of course, he might not be able to do anything about it. “We need amnesia after a game like that,” Pierre said. “Doesn’t matter if it is the 21st game or the 161st.” Chicago has lost nine of 10 after starting the season 7-4, and manager Ozzie Guillen said he hopes his players are tired of getting beat. “We need to cut this off right now,” Guillen said. “It seems like we are waiting every day to lose the game. It is time to show people how good we are.” www.yahoo.com/sports

QUOTE (JoeCoolMan24 @ Apr 24, 2011 -> 12:13 AM) Cool. Glad they put out the s*** squad for games on WGN. Maybe I'll just sleep in (and yes, waking up before 1 pm does not constitute sleeping in for me) Something's got to give. Historically, they're more like to get to a World Series than lose eight consecutive games to the Tigers. The last time that happened was 1949-1950, when our Chairman was a young man idolizing Jackie Robinson and the Brooklyn Dodgers.

QUOTE (oldsox @ Apr 23, 2011 -> 05:38 PM) How is Hawk handling this? Is he still blatently optimistic? Does he criticize at all? I don't get to hear hem very often. Isn't this a FOX National game? Don't think Harrelson and Stone are broadcasting.

There's just no way Edwin Jackson deserves to have 7 earned runs in the box score. Between Pierre, Rios and Ozzie leaving him in one inning too long (3 more runs) especially based on his workload the last 2+ seasons, he should only have 2-3, maybe 4 earned runs, even though he really pitched poorly, the outfield defense has been just brutal this season.

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Apr 23, 2011 -> 05:28 PM) Perhaps you should take over for Ozzie. The clubhouse would love you with your glass half full attitude. Unfortunately, those first couple of games of the season don't offset the last 12. If that kind of inconsistent offense meant anything to overall wins and losses, we'd have beaten the Twins every season up until 2010 based on the respective talents of both offenses head-to-head. Last year was the first season you could argue the Twins clearly had the better team/talent.

QUOTE (fathom @ Apr 23, 2011 -> 05:27 PM) Jackson's stuff has been awful since the 120 pitch outing in the home opener. That move to leave him in that long sure paid off. He's given up a ton of hits in his last few outings. He'll be fine if he can rediscover his slider and change-up. He's basically been a one-pitch pitcher recently.

QUOTE (Harry Chappas @ Apr 23, 2011 -> 05:25 PM) Awesome...I'd take Buddy Bell at this point. Cora does nothing to show he deserves anything more than a clubhouse attendants job. The low baseballIQ is attributable to everyone on this team. The pitchers I will give a pass with as they saw this s*** last year. I think things would be worse under Cora or Buddy Bell than Bevington. What is ONE thing Bell has done since coming over here that's led to any positive results from our minor leaguers? Cooper might be a disaster, but at least it would be interesting. With Cora or Bell, it's just more of what we've already seen for a decade.

QUOTE (Wanne @ Apr 23, 2011 -> 05:19 PM) Who's effin' stat sheet is he looking at?... .307 was the team's average for the first 9 games. Obviously, it's a lot lower overall now after 21 games.

Guillen, you SUCK for not pulling him for Gray four batters ago. INEXCUSABLE. Rios, you SUCK once again. Nice throw. NOT. Cabrera, you're an ass for running through the 3B coach's stop sign when your team's up by 7 runs.

QUOTE (fathom @ Apr 23, 2011 -> 04:48 PM) Who would have ever predicted coming into year that Quentin and Beckham would be only respectable defensive players? Hey! Konerko's saved at least two or three balls in the dirt today that should have resulted in the runner advancing to 3B.

QUOTE (JoeCoolMan24 @ Apr 23, 2011 -> 04:39 PM) Morel, yeah. Morel is 14th worst. AJ is the next worst, as the 35th worst player in baseball. Beckham is 42nd worst. But Morel is not a "qualified player" yet this year, so he doesn't show up on the list. The funny thing is that we were 5th in runs scored coming into today, STILL. Living off the first 9 games, but these last 12 games have been among the worst streaks in White Sox history in terms of offensive ineptitude. But it's not even the offense, it's the fact that our defense has let us down so many times this season (along with the closers) that we should still be over .500 and right in the thick of things. When things aren't going well hitting-wise, you have to do the little things to win, and we're failing miserably in that area, from bunting to defense to stolen bases. Pierre is getting more than his share of the blame, but it's going to start finding its way to every member of the team besides Konerko, Buehrle, Quentin and Vizquel.