Buehrlesque

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Nov 23, 2010 -> 11:10 AM) Aubrey Huff resigns with the Giants on a two-year deal. (Per Giants beat writer) @extrabaggs As first reported by @jonmorosi, Huff will receive $22 million over two years, with a club option for 2013. 10 minutes ago via web Wow, $11 mil per year for Huff. What does this do for Konerko?

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Nov 22, 2010 -> 12:38 PM) I wouldn't mind it if he looked at something insightful. What about the 10 best games of the year? He can write an article covering each one of them in depth. Speculative pieces are garbage and pointless, but atleast writing articles about the past brings about nostalgic feelings (so long as they don't mention anything about the Twins games). I see your point, but eh, Jim's is good enough for me.

QUOTE (sircaffey @ Nov 22, 2010 -> 10:52 AM) McCarthy's not getting a ML deal from anyone. Plus, his stuff hasn't been the stuff we saw pre-injuries. If the choice in between the 2, it's definitely Pena. QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Nov 22, 2010 -> 12:01 PM) If Brandon wants to come back here at all, the most I would do is offer him a minor league deal with an invite to spring training. I sure wouldn't clear a spot out of our rotation just for him. I'd with with Sale first, and then Pena before I would count on Bmac. Injuries or not, I bet McCarthy gets ML deal from someone.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Nov 21, 2010 -> 12:51 PM) Why do we have to put up with crappy writers filling space when that space/money could be spent on better writers? Sometimes I think people's expectations are too high for these writers. I agree this particular article was among the dumbest things I've ever read, but in general what do you want the guy to do? He can't tell the future, and, with the hot stove being pretty boring and void of any real news for both Chicago teams so far, there really isn't much he can put in a long column that won't be mundane and skipable, especially considering his audience is different than a more advanced White Sox blog/fan site/etc. At least Rogers isn't a pompous ass, like some other writers, and he doesn't hold grudges or stubbornly stick to biased coverage even though he's not the most advanced baseball mind out there.

QUOTE (justBLAZE @ Nov 22, 2010 -> 11:23 AM) Man, after a big hot stove opening day, this has been a rather slow week in the White Sox/MLB offseason. Haha, I was thinking the same thing when I started this thread.

McCarthy was cut by the Rangers last month and has dealt with a bunch of injuries over the last few years, but he could benefit from a move to a part time starter/part time reliever. At the same time Tony Pena, despite the high price the Sox paid to acquire him, isn't really anything special and will likely make about $2 million next year if offered arbitration. Assuming McCarthy could be had for $1 million or less, which scenario would you choose: bring back Pena at ~$2 million or DFA Pena and replace him with the less-expensive McCarthy? Maybe not a huge decision, but McCarthy has the higher ceiling (especially if you're not sold on Pena, which I'm not) despite the injury risk and would save KW a million plus that he cold use elsewhere. Thoughts?

QUOTE (Tex @ Nov 20, 2010 -> 06:48 AM) Are you suggesting that players are worth the same regardless of city? And as soon as other factors are tossed in, on both sides, the dollar values change. Take something as easy as state income taxes. Playing half of your games in Texs, without a state income tax is worth something to a player. Living in New York, with it's cost of living, is different than living in Minneapolis with theirs. Then the marketing department gets involved. Some players will sell more tickets in one city than another. The players (and their agents) are left to decide which is the best offer the market provides. It's not like any other team is going to offer Jeter anything even remotely close to what the Yankees are offering. Heck, almost all of the teams out there wouldn't even let Jeter be a SS anymore- they'd sign him to play 2B or maybe an Omar Vizquel-like super sub role.

I should add though that, as a Yankees hater, I certainly don't mind seeing them get screwed.

QUOTE (dasox24 @ Nov 19, 2010 -> 11:50 AM) I saw this on ESPN the other day. Ridiculous. Jeter is worth nowhere near that as a player, and at 37 years old coming off his worst season, isn't likely to get any better. It must be nice to have so much money that you can afford to pay a player that much money for his charisma, leadership, and being a fan-favorite rather than his skills. Oh, and I really can't believe he wants more. He has no leverage at all. No one else is going to offer him anything close to that. I think the whole thing is ridiculous. I understand that people say "yes, but he's worth it to the Yankees as the captain/face of the franchise/only team he's ever played for" stuff. But either MLB is a market economy or it's not. There is no reason the Yankees should have to pay Jeter a dime more than the next biggest offer from another team. His market value is (or should be) his market value- that is the whole point of free agency.

There is zero chance the Sox end up with Soriano.

QUOTE (hawkubes @ Nov 7, 2010 -> 02:35 AM) I'm sick of all these threads talking about possible replacements for Konerko. I understand that there's a very good chance he's gone. I know that the Sox are strapped for cash. I also gotta believe that Konerko would like to stick around. The talks about Victor Martinez are particularly frustrating. That's fantastic that he's a switch hitter, but you know what? he can switch hit all he wants, but he still is not as good of a hitter as Konerko is. Please re-sign Paulie. This is all nice and good, as long as you realize that if you make the highest bid to retain Konerko, and re-sign AJ, and tender contracts to Quentin and Pena/Garcia, there be will be literally zero money left to improve the team anywhere else at all. So if you're fine with essentially the '10 team coming back for comfort level, that is all you will get.

QUOTE (justBLAZE @ Nov 3, 2010 -> 04:49 PM) Yet another article that points that Sox will most likely take their chances with Brent Morel as their new third baseman. Unless Adrian Beltre falls into the Sox' lap (not going to happen), Morel is the most intelligent option they have. Who else would it be? Teahen? Vizquel? Uribe? Figgins???

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Nov 3, 2010 -> 08:22 AM) http://www.dailyherald.com/article/2010110...orts/101109913/ 3-year, $45 million for Konerko? What's Gregor smoking?

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Oct 30, 2010 -> 01:01 PM) I'm not about to spend $5.5 million on Carlos Quentin to have him face lefties when, in fact, he hits lefties worse than he does righties. Good point, but it's not like Quentin is going to play 162 games anyway. Berkman would find plenty of at bats at DH and (back up) 1B.

Rotoworld/Rosenthal saying that "money will be a factor" in the Brewers manager decision. That could (hopefully) work in Cora's favor, since he's probably the cheapest option.

QUOTE (since56 @ Oct 29, 2010 -> 02:00 PM) Wood, Berkman, Johnson. Do we really want any of them at any price? I wouldn't be against checking into Berkman as a DH platoon partner for Quentin, if the price is right of course.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Oct 28, 2010 -> 03:52 PM) I'm going to be in the minority here, but I think that if you replay the 2010 season, the Sox would be better than what they were 8 of 10 times. The real thing that hurt the Sox is that their pitching didn't perform the way it was supposed to. By far the biggest bullseye there is Jake Peavy. We were supposed to have an ace at the top, and instead he was a bottom of the rotation pitcher and he missed 2/3 of the year. If you replay this season and Peavy doesn't deal with tightness in his shoulder in April and May and then blow his shoulder out in June, this is a different season. On top of that, even though I can pick out 2 guys who had really good seasons with the bats, I can pick out a number of guys who didn't, and in particular, who started off ridiculously slow. AJ, Beckham, Alexei, Carlos Quentin all had down years, and that was on top of going into the season weak at 3b and pretending that DH didn't exist. I don't know what all that means for next year, but its going to mean something. If Peavy doesn't come back and perform, we're in trouble next year and the couple years after that just because of the magnitude of the investment in him. If Peavy comes back, and we solve the obvious, blatantly stupid decision making regarding one particular position...that is a different team. I see your point, and maybe if you replayed the season over in 2010 again the Sox would be better. But if you replay the season in 2011, I don't think they improve enough. Konerko is a year older and due for a regression, as mentioned. And I don't expect anything much out of Jake Peavy post-injury. You can't "replay" the season with pre-injury Peavy- that will affect all future expectations for the guy and mine are relatively low. I hope he surprises me and looks like Padres Peavy, but I'm not counting on it.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Oct 28, 2010 -> 01:33 PM) Let's ask it this way...what positions have we probably downgraded at? If we've lost Konerko, that's 1. Losing AJ could be a downgrade from last year but honestly, he was awful for most of the season. His run production from last year is replaceable. 3b, we might consider a downgrade since Vizquel was decent, but that's not a huge downgrade. DH...whatever you put there is not a downgrade. Pierre and Rios aren't significant downgrades from Pierre and Rios. The 2 positions we have to replace to make up for last year's offensive output are; Paul Konerko and what we got from backup OF Andruw Jones. The rest of the guys...really didn't have good seasons. Plus a little since Castro isn't likely to repeat his last year. If Beckham puts togehter a solid season, Ramirez ever has a good start, Quentin finds some of his 08 form, or (at least as it stands now) Morel or Flowers have good starts to their careers, that makes up a chunk of the offense lost. If you went into last season with the same offense...but had a closer who performed well and solidified that bullpen, and had Jake Peavy not get hurt, that team would have had a shot. I still expect a KW overhaul though. This might sound harsh and I don't mean it to, but I think 1B would be a downgrade even if Paulie comes back. I don't expect near the same stat line from Konerko in 2011 as in 2010. And what you do get from Konerko in 2011, stat-wise, you could probably get for less salary at 1B elsewhere. This team has to improve somewhere, and basically you are taking $12 million that could be used for improvements and spending it on a player that is likely to regress a little- forcing elsewhere improvements to be even more important and come from less money. Of course, at the same time, you could just as easily say losing your Likely-Top-5-MVP player is the surest way to make the team worse. That Konerko decision is going to a tough one for KW.

QUOTE (balfanman @ Oct 27, 2010 -> 11:16 AM) I heard the interview, which is being remanufactured to be a story when it isn't. Ozzie clearly said in the interview that he does not know Ryne Sandberg. Thanks, that's what I thought.

QUOTE (3E8 @ Oct 27, 2010 -> 10:32 AM) Unless we move one of our higher paid players in a trade, this isn't really the case. The Sox policy is well-known, put into the team what was gained the previous year. We should expect '11 salary to remain similar to '10 ($103M) after a decline in attendance. I'll fill in the '11 roster as of today with salaries SP - Peavy 16 SP - Buehrle 14 SP - Jackson 8.75 SP - Danks 6.5 (arb estimate) SP - Floyd 5 C - empty 1B - empty 2B - Beckham 0.5 SS - Ramirez 1.225 3B - Morel 0.3 LF - Pierre 5 (after cash from LA) CF - Rios 12.5 RF - empty DH - empty BP - Thornton 3 BP - Santos 0.4 BP - Sale 0.3 BP - Linebrink 5.5 BP - empty BP - emtpy BP - empty BN - Castro 1.2 BN - Teahen 4.75 BN - empty BN - empty 2.25 commitment to Viciedo Total = $87M This leaves us less than $20M to fill starting catcher, 1B, DH, RF, three pen spots, and two bench spots. That's an average of $2M/year per remaining roster spot. If you tender a contract to Quentin, who get $5M in his 2nd-year arbitration raise, then you have less than $15M for 8 remaining spots, or less than $2M/year per remaining roster spot. KW is definitely in a tough spot this offseason given how many roster spots we have to fill and our budget constraints. We do not have plenty of money to spend, we have plenty of spots to fill Great post to sum it up! If the Sox bring back Konerko at about $11-12mil, Quentin at $5 mil and Pierzynski at $3-4 mil, all of which I think they'd like to do, that leaves almost literally nothing to spend anywhere else. So either a.) one of those three players aren't coming back, b.) someone else with a significant contract is traded (Danks, Floyd, etc.) or c.) this team won't improve much on paper for 2011.

QUOTE (Wanne @ Oct 26, 2010 -> 10:40 PM) why the F would the Brewers hire Cora instead of sticking it to the Cubs and hiring Ryno who wouldn't be all that bad IMO.... Shhhh!!!!!

QUOTE (bschmaranz @ Oct 26, 2010 -> 10:18 PM) Considering what Ozzie thinks of the Cubs, I wouldn't put it passed him to do it. I wouldn't mind it personally. I wouldn't mind it either, but Ozzie tends to bring in his close friends to coaching positions. Is he "close" enough to Sandberg, and/or would he consider hiring him strictly from a baseball point of view?

If the Brewers go with Cora (long shot), what are the chances Ozzie would consider bringing in Ryno for bench coach?

QUOTE (Swingandalongonetoleft @ Oct 22, 2010 -> 12:13 PM) Btw, anyone notice what looked to be an entire section in the left field upper tank either covered by green tarp or empty? I have a hard time believing the place wasn't sold out, and have no idea why they wouldn't make the entire place available during the NLCS... I noticed that too and was wondering the same thing.

Did the cameraman have some kind of crush on Pat Burrell? They couldn't go 40 seconds without showing a random close up shot of him in the dugout when the Giants were batting. Mark DeRosa a few times also.