flavum

Good. Great player. Winning team, and close enough to Kemp's numbers.

They have until march 1st to decide if they'll expand the playoffs in 2012. Uh, hey Bud, just retire. We know you want your ego-stroke before you retire, but MLB should just wait until they go to 15/15 in 2013 to expand the postseason.

3 hours until the announcement, but I'd like to chime in that I think Braun deserves it, but it wouldn't surprise me if Kemp wins in a close vote.

Joe Nathan to Texas. Guess they're seriious about moving Feliz to the rotation this time.

QUOTE (coco1997 @ Nov 21, 2011 -> 06:28 PM) But would Mark really want to spend the last 2-3 years of his career on a team that probably can't contend for at least another few years? Added wildcard possibly next year, and definitely by 2013. Harper and some other prospects can make them good pretty soon.

Good call. The right guy won, but I hate that somebody didn't even give him a 10th place vote. If they just changed the rule, and made it an offense-only award, I wouldn't mind. but under the current rules, I think Verlander earned it.

Washington is definitely my pick of where he'll end up. They aren't afraid to open the wallet, and it's a good fit for Buehrle. Strasburg and Zimmermann are the main cogs to rotation, and Buehrle can be the veteran presence.

Rick Hahn was on with Rongey today. He said both would start next year. Quintana at AA Veal at AAA

QUOTE (elrockinMT @ Nov 18, 2011 -> 11:38 AM) Or the Sox realize lefties are hard to come by? I do like Matt, but would not be surprised if he is traded. Other than just dumping money, I don't think they should get rid of Thornton. When he was in his normal setup role, he was still good most of the time. I really like the idea of a young long reliever--either Stewart or Axelrod, and Reed, Frasor, Ohman, Crain, Thornton, and Santos. That's a pretty solid bullpen I could support. Once they start throwing in a younger lefty, it becomes worse in a hurry.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Nov 18, 2011 -> 11:20 AM) Are both of those guys lefties? Heath is righty. Right now the Sox have Ohman, Santiago, Thornton, Quintana, Veal, and Leesman on the 40-man from the left side. They also re-signed Septimo to a minor league deal.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Nov 18, 2011 -> 11:08 AM) Kuhn is a utility player at best. No need to lock up a 40 man roster spot for him unless he is going to be on the 25 man roster, which he isn't. I guess, but it wouldn't surprise me if gets taken and plays decent for somebody next year.

QUOTE (scenario @ Nov 18, 2011 -> 11:03 AM) http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/baseb...0,2225362.story "Among the Sox minor league players who weren't protected were pitcher Terry Doyle, outfielders Jordan Danks, Justin Greene and Brandon Short and infielder Tyler Kuhn. They are eligible for the Rule 5 draft on Dec. 8." Who did Kuhn piss off? I know he's 25, but he had a great season and is versatile around the field. Don't get it. Doyle surprises me.

QUOTE (Buehrlesque @ Nov 18, 2011 -> 09:31 AM) I know this is the snarky stock comment about the extra Wildcard, but I disagree. All the new system does is increase the competition for the Wildcard spot. If you win your division, you're set. If not, you have to sweat it out in a one-game playoff. After the one-game playoff, the posteason is exactly the same as the past 16 years. I agree. This new format hurts the Red Sox more than anyone. If they won the wildcard legitimately in the past, they moved right to the playoffs. Now they have to not only get there, but win a 1-game playoff to move on. Nobody is going to remember the losers of these 1-game playoffs. They'll finish the regular season on Wednesday, and by Saturday or Sunday, they'll be down to 8 teams again.

Don't know what will happen with 12 more interleague games per team, but here's what would have happened in the AL since 2001: 2001- Min (85 wins) vs Oak (102 wins), division winners-116, 95, 91 2002- Sea/Bos (93) vs LAA (99), dw-103, 103, 94 2003- Sea (93) vs Bos (95), dw-101, 96, 90 2004- Oak (91) vs Bos (98), dw- 101, 92, 92 2005- Cle (93) vs Bos/NY (95), dw- 99, 95, 95 2006- Sox (90) vs Det (95), dw- 97, 96, 93 2007- Sea/Det (88) vs NY (94), dw- 96, 96, 94 2008- NY (89) vs Bos (95), dw- 100, 97, 89 2009- Tex (87) vs Bos (95), dw- 103, 97, 87 2010- Bos (89) vs NY (95), dw- 96, 94, 90 2011- Bos (90) vs TB (91), dw- 97, 96, 95 So look forward to the annual Boston game. Really, I don't think this new format does anything for the White Sox. Same weak division---just win it. This new format will be more compelling in the NL, especially since most of their playoff teams will be in the mid 80's to low 90's in wins, especially going from 252 interleague games to 450.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Nov 17, 2011 -> 03:45 PM) You are forgetting that MLB teams are never, ever off on Friday, Saturday or Sunday (and I guarantee they won't change that). So you don't have 7 days a week to work with, you have 4. And since the scheduling is not a perfect thing, you also need a little wriggle room. So yes, they will need to add more interleague games. If there are 150 interleague series total, and 26 weekend and 25 weekday blocks to work with, then basically they have 50 blocks to work with, with one bye for 1 AL and NL team on a Tuesday and Wednesday. For the purposes of this example, let's just assume the weekday blocks are all Monday-Wednesday, and there won't be any interleague games on Thursdays. 24 Monday-Wednesday blocks (1 bye, 1 AS Break) 26 Friday-Sunday blocks If they had 3 IL series at a time then there is your 150 IL series. But they'll probably stack more toward the middle of the season and only have one at a time in the last month of the season. One new thing they could do that I like is Opening Day vs the Cubs. It would be a new twist on interleague play that could work and help attendance the 2nd and 3rd games of the season. Not every year, but once in a while would be kinda cool. On less interleague---they could have done 12 game each, which would have been 4 series each--60 total series: 5 weekends x 3 series= 15 series 21 weekends x 1 series= 21 series 24 weekday x 1 series-= 24 series One weekday bye for one AL and NL team on a Tuesday and Wednesday

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Nov 17, 2011 -> 01:36 PM) @PWSullivan Paul Sullivan It's official. Sveum in as Cubs manager. So how do you prounonce it?? "Svay-um?" "Svee-um?" "Svem?" He's been around MLB for 25 years. It sounds like swaim.

QUOTE (HickoryHuskers @ Nov 17, 2011 -> 12:50 PM) Did you read that somewhere, because spreading out the IL games over the entire season does not require having more interleague games? I know there are off days, but for simplicity's sake let's suppose there are 162 days in the season. Each day has to have at least one team in each league playing an IL game. You have 15 teams to cover 162 games, so each team would only have to average 10.8 IL games to be able to cover the season minimally. If each team maintains the current number of 18 IL games, you can have some days with one IL game and other days with three IL games and that covers it. You don't HAVE to increase the number of IL games per team. No they don't have to increase it. They just want to because they think it makes them more money. In fact, they could reduce it to 12 games per team and still have enough schedule to spread it out over a 26-week schedule. With 30 games per team, there will be 150 interleague series, which means on average there will be 6 AL, 6 NL, and 3 interleague games going on at any given time. This whole thing just pisses me off. They add a wildcard where teams have the time to play the games against each other to compete for those spots and they decide to play the opposite league MORE games? f***ing ridiculous.

QUOTE (Greg Hibbard @ Nov 17, 2011 -> 12:06 PM) This is a pretty egregious exaggeration. First of all, the disparity is not as skewed as it was 4-5 years ago. I think it was closer last year than it had been recently. Second of all, 5-6 teams with winning records at the end of the season would require an outlier interleague winning percentage that we have never seen. The NL had 7 winning teams this year with the Dodgers going 82-79...in a year where interleague was pretty close. If they have years where there are few truly good teams AND the AL dominates in interleague with almost 200 more games, it's going to be noticable.

QUOTE (Greg Hibbard @ Nov 17, 2011 -> 11:59 AM) 9 vs. 15 is really that big of a deal? Effectively, with pinch hitting, we're talking about a difference of less than 20 plate appearances. Yes, I think that's a significant jump, especially when they are sitting three days in row. Also going from 252 to 450 interleague games, we're going to see some truly awful NL records, where they only have 5-6 teams with winning records at the end of the season, and 9 or 10 NL teams will have better draft picks because of this potentially.

How the hell can you have a DH sit 15 games a year? (No Dunn jokes please) That's too many out of 162. I also despise a one-game playoff between wildcard teams where the potential of one of them having 98 wins vs an 84 win team. The game will be worse in 2013. Thanks, Bud.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Nov 17, 2011 -> 11:52 AM) It sounds like each team will have 30 intersquad games a year now. Interleague. And that sucks.

QUOTE (flavum @ Nov 2, 2011 -> 02:51 PM) I think Dale Svuem is the next manager of the Cubs. I rule?

Doyle has completed a very successful AFL. http://mlb.mlb.com/milb/stats/stats.jsp?si...msswin_surwin_1

Haven't hated the Sox this much in many years. Kenny should have been fired. I'll always be interested in the Sox, and look forward to the moves. I'm at about a 2 right now. M-56? Stop.

QUOTE (DirtySox @ Nov 16, 2011 -> 10:47 AM) Beat me to it. I also despise the idea of Kenny shipping off Thornton, Floyd, Danks, and Quentin in order to re-sign Buehrle. I'd hope he wouldn't want to return to such a mess anyhow. I hope that goes for all Sox fans. What I don't understand is if Buehrle signs elsewhere, why they would want to trade those pitchers as well. They have an opportunity to compete and hopefully catch lightning in a bottle with the pitching staff they have now. If it doesn't happen, the Sox will have plenty of attractive pieces to sell off next July--Floyd, Danks, Crain, Thornton, maybe Peavy. It just doesn't seem very Kenny-like to blow it all up now.