TLAK

He has trash canned the best hitter I ever saw in Frank Thomas and traded the man threw the best single ½ inning a baseball I have ever seen in my life, in Orlando Hernandez. He disposed of the epitome of the World Championship team in Aaron Rowand, a guy we watched grow and regress in Marte and a guy who took one for the team in April that haunted his entire season in Vizcaino. He discarded Carl Everett who carried the offense at times. He dismissed the man who hit a game winner in the first World Series the team went to in 46 years. He is bringing in some big names to replace them but I miss my guys. I waited all my 53 years for a championship and now 6 of the 25 heroes from the playoff roster plus Frank – a quarter of them – are gone and we haven’t even gotten to spring training yet. The magic of 2005, of our guys, a team that nobody else respected but knew in its heart it could do it, a team that got great plays from the most unlikely sources is gone. The warmth I felt for the team going against all probabilities is being replaced fantasy baseball-like expected run production ratios. When Williams starts his BS about the Sox being a family all the players need to do is look how Frank, Aaron, Orlando, Damaso, Luis, Geoff and Carl were all s*** canned within 2 months of winning the ring for them -great family. When is Kenny going to stop killing the best thing that ever happened to the White Sox for a half century?

I like Jones but you really need to spot him. His numbers went down the last two years when Gardenhire couldn't hide him for certain pitchers because of injuries to Hunter, Stewart etal. You pick the right guy and he's superman, but some he can't hit with a broom. Last year he hit .340 against Garland and .037 against Buerhle. (They gave him the ball when he finally got a hit against MB). Dusty has never show a talent for recognizing, much less exploiting, match ups. He just gets his group and sends them out there day after day and blames the player when they fail.

I am a stat'r myself and have learned that they measure what a player did in the past, not necessarily what he will do in the future. Stats are predictive in a broad sense, guys good enough to hit .300 are more likely to do it again than a guy who never hit above .240. But it's no guarantee and will never take the place of a good scout. Like they say in the stock market, past performance does not guarantee future results.

QUOTE(SoxFan1 @ Dec 12, 2005 -> 01:59 PM) Wow, the Carl Everett haters need to shut up. Man, watch the World Series DVD or the Sox Pride DVD and see how much of a cancer he was to the team. Carl produced on the down-low. He didn't have monster numbers but he was there when we needed him. He helped us win the world series and was DEFINITELY a one of the clubhouse leaders. I, for one, will miss Carl and wish him the best of luck. I recall he whined pretty loud when he was moved out of the 3 spot in September. I'll buy that, overall, he helped the team and pretty much stayed out of trouble but I wouldn't call him a leader on last year's team.

Someone suggested over in Trade Winds that the White Sox should look at Felix Heredia for the pen, which led to a discussion about his steroids suspension. He was nailed under the old agreement so he gets a 10 day suspension. In the new system the suspensions go 50 games, 100 games and life. But I haven't been able to find out if a suspension under the old rules also counts as one under the new rules. Matt Lawton is in the same boat. If they count against the new policy it significantly increases the risk to anyone considering signing one of these guys. Anybody know?

QUOTE(bogie @ Dec 10, 2005 -> 05:32 PM) WHY NOT? Because you would have to tear up the best team in baseball to get him and pay him.

Anderson, Borchard, Owens and Perez will play off for 2 spots in ST. Plus Chris Young or Ryan Sweeney could be a phenom, crazier things have happened. It should be fun to watch and may the best men win. You never know with KW, he will always bring a guy in if the opportunity presents itself, but I think the two out of the above group who play the best will stick, even if it's two rookies.

QUOTE(White Sox Josh @ Dec 8, 2005 -> 11:48 PM) didn't he get ejected for flicking the Umpire off or something like that. He was released the next day. Thats exactly what he did, thought he was getting squeezed and gave the ump the bird when Manuel took him out. He was released before he got to the dugout. One of the announcers, I forget who, later said that at that time they kept a picture of each White Sox player on the wall by the exec's sky box. A couple innings later, one of the aids came walking by with Paniagua's and said 'We don't need this one anymore.' Legendary...

Hmm...

QUOTE(Balta1701 @ Dec 7, 2005 -> 07:34 PM) Boras will turn that into 7 years, $70 million. Don't ask me how, he just will. Does not compute, amigo. 5 @ 70 > 7 @ 70

I enjoyed Tommy John when he was doing network just after he retired. He would be a good fit. Never heard Jamie Quirk, so I have no opinion. That neither of these guys are named North is great news.

This is wonderful.

QUOTE(Tony82087 @ Dec 5, 2005 -> 07:00 PM) Dont forget DH. I think Mueller could get 400 AB's, and help the team a great deal. Crede is not going to be 100% next year, I think that is almost certain. I remember Oz saying in August and September that Iguchi was getting worn out because in Japan there seasons were not this long. On top of that, if Thome plays 140 games, I will be SHOCKED. 110-120 I would be extremely pleased with. Giving these three time off will not only give Mueller some good AB's, but also help Joe,Tad, and Jim get some needed time off during a long season... I respectfully submit that the power drop off from Thome to Mueller will preclude your suggestion. Mueller had 85 RBI in his batting tittle year, 62 last season, compare to Thome's 105 in '04, 131 in '03. Two different types of players and I don't see them as interchangeable.

QUOTE(JimH @ Dec 5, 2005 -> 05:44 PM) Don't let nostalgia for an ex-White Sox blind you. Mueller is a far better fit. Better hitter, excellent defensively at 3B, gives Guillen more flexibility due to his switch hitting ability, can fill in at DH. I agree but I think he just makes too much money for the role. To get him 400 at bats Crede and Iguchi would need to sit out 100 games, I don't see it happening unless Crede gets hurt -he looked pretty healthy in the World Series. More likely the White Sox will look for a Herb Perry type, a border line starter who is affordable at 250 at bats.

QUOTE(VenomSox @ Dec 5, 2005 -> 06:41 PM) He said that was the asking price. Then allow me to impersonate Kenny Williams. NO

QUOTE(VenomSox @ Dec 5, 2005 -> 06:35 PM) Jason Stark said the 3 most aggressive teams in the Pierre hunt are Rangers, Cubs, and White Sox. Rangers- John Danks or Thomas Diamond Cubs- Felix Pie Sox- McCarthy or Chris Young I do not believe for a second that McCarthy is being offered for anything.

QUOTE(SHAFTR @ Dec 4, 2005 -> 09:31 PM) I don't know. I like what they got in exchange for Beckett, Delgado & Lo Duca. I think the Castillo trade is the only move where they didn't get as much as they could have. They did better than I expected with Castillo. Since Luis hurt his hip he has not been the player he was when the signed his contract, he's a $2-3 million player making $5.75 IRC, and I think there is another year after this one. From what I see in the papers, they don't expect him to ever get all his speed back. He is still a very good player, just not the same guy who's great play led to the big contract. The Twinks are taking a risk on him, keep an eye peeled to see if 81 games on turf wears him down. Between the contract and the injury, the Marlins were not going to get a lot for him.

QUOTE(Milkman delivers @ Dec 4, 2005 -> 12:04 PM) What scares me is that FG might want to go deep into these games because he actually cares about these games. It's not like he's going to be facing the Royals. They say they won't let anyone go deep. I haven't seen the pitch count limit but there are so many pitchers and so few games (even the champion team will only play 8) that it probably would be about the same as a regular ST camp.

QUOTE(nitetrain8601 @ Dec 4, 2005 -> 01:51 PM) Not true. White Sox were supposedly finalists for the A-Rod sweepstakes coming behind Texas. Boras was the one who wasn't happy with the way the White Sox wanted to negotiate which basically was to sit down with A-Rod alone, face-to-face. You pretty much have it. It was 5 years ago so I couldn't find the article on the web. The White Sox offered what Boras initially had said it would take to sign him and then Boras rejected it, which stunned them. The Sox felt that Arod wasn't being told what was going on and tried to have meeting with him but Boras froze them out. He got an extra 60 million dollars out of the Rangers -rumor has it he got that by fabricating offers from other teams when they actually had dropped out. On the Fernandez deal, Boras told the Sox not make any offers until the free agency period. After Alex signed with the Marlins, he said he was miffed at the Sox for not trying to sign him earlier, he was obvously unaware of Boras' shenanagans. So again, the Sox thought Boras lied and screwed them. Add the Magglio tactics to this list and you can see why the White Sox would prefer not to deal with Boras.

QUOTE(bmags @ Dec 4, 2005 -> 11:59 AM) care to explain for me? First i've heard. They had a deal made and Boras backed out. I'll look it up after the Bears game.

QUOTE(timotime @ Dec 3, 2005 -> 10:37 AM) so hes the most hated man on soxtalk because he gets good $ for his clients. sounds like some people on here are unappreciative of someone being good at their job. i could hate dell for selling the most computers, but i dont, because its business, and they're damn good at it, otherwise they wouldnt be #1 in the industry. its exactly the same thing. The problem with Boras is his lack of ethics. He lies, hides information and breaks his word. For documentation look at his dealings with Texas on the ARod deal (lied about other clubs offers), the whole Magglio situation (hid information on his injury) and backing away from an ARod deal he verbally agreed to with the White Sox (broke his word). While none of these is a crime, they are over the line of honorable dealing among honest men. A funny thing about him is JR describes him as good agent until the player hits free agency, then he becomes impossible to reason with or believe.

QUOTE(timotime @ Dec 3, 2005 -> 08:17 AM) dude during the playoffs, you were the biggest b****er and complainer. how many times did you say the sox would lose the next game...and how many times were you completely wrong?? shutup, man. 12 and 11

QUOTE(SoxFan101 @ Dec 1, 2005 -> 11:56 PM) If they can they should sign Lofton and Furcal.... than if that trade is actually available to the Rangers do it. Id include Angel Guzman in it if it was neccesary..... Lofton Furcal Dlee Ramirez Soriano Mench Barrett Murton SP thats a great lineup... they could also trade for Pierre too but both work really. And while Im not a big fan of Eyre I think Howry is a great RP so they have a nice 8th/9th inning combo with Dempster. And while Wood is crap Prior/Zambrano are both legit aces and Maddux still pretty decent. For our older readers: Thats a Bing Crosby line up. bum, bum, [DLee], bum, bum, bum, bum bum.

I see the Phillies are going 3 years, $18 million with 38 year old Tom 'Flash' Gordon. Aren't these the same guys who said they let 34 year old Billy Wagner go because they didn't want to give a 4 year deal to that old a player? Me thinks the $ 4 mil annual salary difference has more to do with it than the Phils want to admit to their fans.

Didn't we just go through this exact same scenario with Mark B? It ended up OK.