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Wilbon is about the only "expert" who picked the Sox to win the Central this year.

QUOTE(Controlled Chaos @ Mar 27, 2007 -> 10:39 AM) Don't worry about it?? Perhaps your mistaken on what the board is here for? I think shoota was just kinda asking a question . and what's with all the exclamation points? way to feel your way out on the board dude. I took shoota's comments in the same context as the new guy, as in shoota feels that they don't belong there. Would you please mark my name and critique my use of punctuation on each of my posts? I could really use the help. Thanks.

10 team roto keeper league 6x6 (OBP and Holds added)...I'm not happy with my team C -- K. Johjima 1B -- D. Lee 2B -- C. Utley SS -- D. Jeter 3B -- G. Atkins OF -- M. Teahen OF -- J. Willingham OF -- J. Gomes U -- C. Duncan SP -- J. Bonderman SP -- C. Hamels SP -- R. Hill SP -- S. Olsen SP -- M. Pelfrey RP -- J. Nathan RP -- F. Cordero RP -- T. Saito P -- S. Shields P -- S. Linebrink P -- J. Speier My OF is really weak. This was the first draft with keepers out of the pool and I completely underestimated the shallowness this caused in the OF. I wanted to set my IF, especially SS and 2B first, which I did, but ignoring the OF could be my demise. I should be good in SV, Hld, ERA, WHIP, and compete in K's. But my offense, outside of R and SB, is complete crap.

Iguchi is a great hitter in the 2 hole, but by the same token Erstad is a helluva contact hitter. He strikes out considerably less than Gooch and, batting from the left side, may be able to avoid DPs with more ease. I think the problem is that we're looking at Erstad as this old, broken-down player instead of concentrating on the fact that the guy can handle a bat regardless of his age. His entire career has been based around being a great situational hitter, let's give him some credit for his accomplishments and the fact that he can STILL offer that ability to this team. I don't like the fact that he's pushing BA off of this roster, but he's here, let's use him as wisely as possible.

QUOTE(Tony82087 @ Mar 18, 2007 -> 02:49 PM) The games have been on Friday, Saturday, and are on Tomorrow. Of course, it's not on today. O well, I'll be listening. Big day for this team. I can't believe that mlb.tv isn't offering spring training as a "free sample".

QUOTE(beck72 @ Mar 11, 2007 -> 06:12 AM) If Danks wins the 5th spot, and then comes north and gets lit up, he seems the type to be able to go to AAA to work on his stuff w/o it harming him. If Danks was rushed up, though he earned the spot with his strong spring, he seems very capable of learning from his mistakes. I'm not too worried if Danks does take the 5th spot and then needs to go back to AAA. From what the sox have said about Danks' maturity, I don't think the sox would be worried either. The best man will get the 5th spot. IMO, Haeger seems a lock to make the pen. He's got the versatility to be the long man and pitch in the 5th, 6th innings. No one else seems to have that ability to go 3 innings--besides Floyd if he's not the 5th starter. Yet if Floyd isn't the 5th starter, he should be in AAA throwing every 5th day as a SP. That would make the last spot a competition between Masset, Aardsma, and Logan. Hard to say who gets the nod there. Agreed...it seems Danks has a much better mental make-up than Floyd. After seeing each of them interviewed, just based on the way they responded to questions and such, Floyd seemed very uncomfortable. His demeanor didn't scream "confidence", while Danks certainly has that edge. I just find it odd that this whole article fails to mention Floyd's spring #'s. From what I've seen, he hasn't been doing well. His "annointment" took place as soon as that trade went down, it's his spot to lose and I honestly can't believe he hasn't already lost it.

QUOTE(Alpha Dog @ Feb 25, 2007 -> 10:29 PM) A better way would be to remove many of the non-violent offenders that are in jail for pot possession and such. Fine the crap out of them if you want tp prosecute it so badly, but Johnny with a half a dozen joints in his backpack doesn't need to be costing the state $20k+ a year to be housed next to Bubba the buttraper. Agreed...and it's not just pot. Drugs are drugs. There are so many important programs that could be funded by the monies spent on the ridiculous "war on drugs". Pull out of Iraq and legalize drugs, suddenly this country has 100's of billions of dollars every year to spend on a myriad of programs as well as putting a few more dollars back in the pockets of taxpayers. But that would mean shrinking government, so we might as well dismiss those ideas.

I made my TV debut on the freakin' Danny Bonaduce show, back when he had an Oprahesque talk show. The show was about older people still living with their parents. I attempted to act angered and frustrated by the guy getting interviewed and laid into him a bit. Good fun. Now for the weird part...Not long after the shooting in Chicago, I was back down in Biloxi at my Air Force tech school. There was like this "lobby" or what have you for each floor equipped with TV/couches/etc. So I'm walking through that room and some of the dudes sitting there ask me what the heck I'm doing on TV, I look over, and sure enough there I was. Apparently they ran a repeat of that episode and I just happened to be walking through a room which actually had that horrible show tuned in right when I was on. Craziness.

I thought Kenny had already spoke with MB, Dye, and Guch concerning contract negotiations. Guch's comments sure sound like the media broke the news to him.

QUOTE(The Ginger Kid @ Feb 19, 2007 -> 01:16 AM) I actually kind of like Kenny's approach toward the FA's. It's no secret that the last year of a contract drives players to perform better in hopes of landing a big deal the next season. If these guys have a big season then the Sox' chances of winning another WS gets a lot better. Winning has a way of greasing the wheels, just look at Konerko. I'd say that if the Sox would've fallen short in the playoffs in '05 then he's probably wearing an Angels jersey right now. Let's win, see what happens. That's what he's saying. This is precisely what I was thinking too. In addition to offering incentive for performance, he's also already dismissed any of the circus media crap pending FA's, and their franchises, have to deal with. There will be no sideshow concerning deals being signed this spring nor this season. KW is now on the record not only with the players, but also with the media, explaining the White Sox stance concerning contract negotiations.

QUOTE(YASNY @ Feb 14, 2007 -> 11:57 PM) That's a cop out. I'm just asking for a reasonable alternative. Corey Patterson Victorino Freel Clark Davanon Delucci Reed Johnson Markakis and these are just some of the non-superstar types that would be a step up from Pods/Anderson/Erstad. Sure some of them are debatable, but it really wouldn't take much to improve on what we had last season.

QUOTE(YASNY @ Feb 14, 2007 -> 11:48 PM) Who would this "strong contributor, preferably a leadoff type who could play in the OF" be? Don't throw Baldelli or Crawford at me as it was obvious those options were explored. There is a limit as to how much a team can afford to "overpay" and as of yet, no one has met the DRays price for either of those guys, so I have to conclude that they were not a reasonable option. Who do you suggest the Sox should have acquired that meet your criteria? Again, I'm not a GM nor am I privvy to insider info concerning who's available and who isn't. I'm not going to go through every team's roster to pick players for you. I'll tell you what, make a list of OF's better than Pods, Erstad, and Anderson (I know, a tall task) and throw a dart at it. That's who we should have gone after.

QUOTE(vandy125 @ Feb 14, 2007 -> 09:48 PM) I see a whole lot of this in the thread... Seriously, I would love to see someone actually give some suggestions as to what could have been done better. Upgrade CF. Ok, give a suggestion, and I hope it is not the almighty Rowand. Upgrade LF. Maybe we should have gotten Carlos Lee. Wasn't he available? Upgrade SS. Let's just throw away all our talent and get someone like Miguel Tejada. At least throw something out there that we can consider. I don't even see those pathetic suggestions I listed. The FA market was crap this season, not to mention expensive. That leaves upgrades via trade, something that none of us have any knowledge to speak to. I will say this, if a GM identifies a weakness on his team and wants it filled, he can get it done. It's just a matter of whether said GM feels the need is pressing enough to warrant overpayment. IMO, KW misjudged our 8-9-1 in the lineup and should have overpaid for a strong contributor, preferably a leadoff type who could play in the OF. He didn't even need to get a superstar, just a contact hitter who can hit .300-ish with decent D to stick in that 8-9-or 1 slot. I mean we saw it last season, what the hell is the point of having a 3-4-5 of Thome, Kong, and Dye if you've got crap for production out of 8-9-1-sometimes 2 hitters?

QUOTE(maggliopipe @ Feb 14, 2007 -> 08:21 PM) What about Atlanta? I think they're a better comparison for us than Oakland and Minnie, and KW has stated on numerous occasions that the system Scheurholz runs is his model. They've got a top 30% payroll year in-year out, a great pitching coach (well, until he left), and consistently make trades with both the present and future in mind. They're always competitive, but don't ever seem to get it done. It's tough for me to decide whether I'd prefer to be a fan of a team like the Braves who are competitive every year but never good enough to get over the top, or a fan of the Marlins who mix in a championship with a whole bunch of ass seasons. One difference between KW and Scheurholz is the latter seems to prefer to let free agents play out their contracts and let them walk, whereas KW tends to prefer trading them before their walk year. Because they were in the NL East all those years. That division sucked complete ass for the majority of the seasons the braves took the crown. Also, the Braves had a ton of homegrown talent, something which we surely lack. I'm not saying it can't be done or hasn't been done before. What I am saying is that this is an extremely ballsy move. I would have felt much better about KW's idea to stay competitive if he were able to upgrade LF, SS, or CF while still sacrificing the pitching in trades. Those positions were already horrible last season and now we've got Uribe with legal troubles and Pods hurt. So what was a glaring weakness last season has now gotten progressively worse. He didn't use his resources to upgrade any of those positions and I think it's a big mistake. I have no doubt in my mind that this is a weaker squad than we started 2006 with. Is it still a 90+ win team, I think it can be. But last year's team should have won 100 games with all the talent they had.

QUOTE(witesoxfan @ Feb 14, 2007 -> 06:57 PM) Even Minnesota has lost 90 games this decade. That's something the White Sox organization can't claim for shame. With a $30M payroll. Thanks for pointing out another reason why it's so ludicrous to take on this strategy and expect success, we have money whereas OAK and MIN never have. Their GMs build on the fly because that's what they HAVE to do.

This is precisely why I was going to give KW a D+ for this postseason in that "if we're set" thread. I can't think of a single team outside of Oakland and Minnesota that has successfully competed every year while always building for the future. It is NOT an easy task and even those teams have yet to reach their ultimate goal. I'm hopeful for this season, but the realist in me says that DET and CLE are going to be very tough, not to mention that MIN always seems to find a way to play well. We're in the most difficult division in baseball and KW is trying to accomplish one of the most difficult maneuvers a GM can attempt. Back in '03 when the Central was a joke we almost made the playoffs with absolutely no production from the #5 spot in the rotation. This isn't the same division today, we can't afford to be giving away wins. Just like last year's debacles with Mack in CF, those games he helped to blow really came back to bite us in the ass. Although the returns on our pitchers didn't really satisfy me, especially the Garcia trade, the thing that really chaps my ass is the fact that we're still heading into this season with an 8-9-1 of uribe, anderson, and pods. That portion of the order is more like an NL lineup than an AL Central lineup. With a $100M payroll there's no excuse for not being able to upgrade one of those slots. I really think that's going to bite us in the ass, even moreso than the rotation.

QUOTE(Texsox @ Feb 12, 2007 -> 05:49 PM) We see so many messages about don't drink and drive, but riding is equally bad. My heart goes out toi the families and friends. That woman who was drunk will now spend her adult life behind bars, probably never have children, be haunted by the victims she killed. And it probably isn't enough punishment. The driver already has a kid or two...which means she f***ed up their lives too.

QUOTE(maggliopipe @ Feb 12, 2007 -> 11:45 AM) I like seeing Oswego make the news since it's my hometown, but not for this sort of tragedy. This is just awful. A couple of those last names sound familiar. Yeah, I graduated with both an Urso and a Merckel. I don't know if the Urso is a sibling of the chick I went to school with but one of the articles I read mentioned that the Merckel girl had 4 older brothers, so one of them must be the dude I graduated with. I read in another article that the kid mentioned at the end of this article was actually called for a ride by the Merckel chick. Apparently she either didn't know where she was at or he didn't know how to find it, whatever the case he wasn't able to pick them up...and now this. Hopefully those that survived make it without any permanent physical disabilities.

So, assuming this is the same judge that said he must check in twice a month, is there any question the guy is just f***ing with Uribe now that he's set his court date for the exact opening of spring training? What a dick.

Why is Pods even on this list? Seems he should have been replaced by the Count or Jonny G, guys that actually have some fantasy value. Good read nonetheless, I like what they had to say about Paulie and Vaz.

QUOTE(LosMediasBlancas @ Feb 2, 2007 -> 03:47 AM) Maybe now someone will open a real bar. c'mon...what's not to love about a bar that charges like $5 for a freaking can of Miller Lite.

QUOTE(Gene Honda Civic @ Jan 27, 2007 -> 05:39 PM) December 5th http://mlb.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/news/article...rtnered=rss_mlb Rest assured, Kenny continued negotiations with Buehrle well beyond July of '06. Buehrle wanted the negotiations kept quiet, and now that he's created the perception that the Sox have no intention of bringing him back by crying "why me" at the Sox winter media event he's trying to position himself for more money. I'm glad I'm not the only one who sees this as something that MB started brewing. Mark took KW's comments and twisted it to say that KW has already told him that he's not coming back. When the hell did KW say that? I never heard anything of the sort. Also genehonda, you bring up a great point with the silent negotiations. If KW got that heated it's obvious that that agreement was broken.

I think that it's much more difficult to win a world series than a super bowl, 2006 Cardinals aside. What the bears have done is great for their fans, no doubt, but to make it through 162 games and then pull it together to hit stride in the playoffs, needing 11 more wins to win it all, takes a special group of players. A super bowl win just doesn't have the luster, imo.

QUOTE(Vance Law @ Jan 23, 2007 -> 07:51 PM) I agree with this. If Pods is injured or sucks cause he's hurt, Sweeney should be in there. That's what I've been wondering errr, quoted wrong post...i'm also wondering why he waited until now

I recently switched from Cox Cable to DirecTV when I moved. I can't stand DirecTV...their customer service is horrible, they're expensive, and their tv guide maneuverability is ridiculously slow. Not to mention losing signal from even a weak storm system overhead. They lock you into contracts too. I signed up and I'm stuck with it for 2 years, plus any changes you make to your system (ie, upgrade from dvr to HD tivo receiver) extends your contract another year. Of course, being the baseball fan I am, I'd switch if I didn't already have it. I hate these deals, although it is good from a business perspective it s***s on the fans. The football package is something like $280 so it'll be interesting to see how much they jack the price up on the MLB package.