UofIChiSox

I usually don't agree with Mariotti, but like you all said, he's right on in this. All the points he made have been made before, but I think if we don't sign Maggs to an extension the team will be taking steps back. KW has been active throughout his career trying to bring in new guys that will win, but nothing ever pans out. Well I personally think Maggs is a guy who can be the cornerstone of a winning team and we need to keep him. I realize we have good outfield prospects in the minors, and wouldn't have trouble finding a right fielder, but they certainly won't produce, or attract the fans that Maggs does. Management wants fans to come to the ballpark, and I think Maggs is a huge attraction for them. Lose Maggs and a lot less people will show up.

Rotation Esteban Loaiza Mark Buehrle Jon Garland Odalis Perez Jason Grilli Bullpen Billy Koch (closer) Damaso Marte (setup) Cliff Politte (setup #2) Shingo Takatsu (short/middle) Kelly Wunsch (short/middle) Dan Wright (long) Shoney (mopup) Lineup 2B Harris LF C. Lee DH Thomas RF Ordonez 1B T. Lee 3B Crede SS Valentin CF Rowand C Olivo Bench Juan Uribe Ross Gload Sandy Alomar Joe Borchard

Good: "I want to stay in Chicago, where they gave me my first opportunity," Bad: "I think I have market value similar to that of Vladimir (Guerrero) and (Miguel) Tejada. It could be even more if you take into account that the market is going up again" I personally say keep him, build around him, after this year, we lose Koch's salary, spend our money on a home grown superstar who wants to play for us. whitesox.com on Maggs

Obviously Pudgy realizes that without Ozzie Guillen the Marlins won't lead the league in this new statistical category, feel-good. Without that fountain of youth he'll feel like an old man.

I just wish that every college and high school player could read this so that they would realize that Scott Boras: A. Makes his clients rich and unhappy, or B. Makes his clients less rich than they could be and happy. Boras is undoubtedly all about money. Too bad so many players are too, at least it is starting to come back and bite them in the ass a little bit.

Maybe I missed this, but under the picture of Thomas it says, "All hit and no glove? Frank Thomas prefers playing in the field." I know statistically Thomas does better when playing the field, but has he come out and publicly said he wants to play first base? Usually it's the whatever's best for the team stuff. I know defensive skills would definitely benefit him so that he could sign with an NL team, but I just don't remember him coming out and stating that before. It's also never mentioned in the DH article, wonder where they got it?

I have to agree with Tony here. Being insanely pissed/jealous/whatever of the Cubs going deep in the playoffs is for the fans. A pro player should be upset when he's at home and ANY other team is still playing. Whether it's the Cubs, Marlins, Yankees, or whoever I think the players are jealous that they aren't there. All the players should be hungry this year after three seasons of failed expectations, no matter how the Cubs have done.

Call me a pessimist or a realist, but I think we will do basically what we've done in the past, 80-85, just at or slightly above .500

I love the players we've got, but I think it's time to do something to shake it up. I would also take Ortiz or Washburn, don't buy into Lackey, he did well on the biggest stage of all at the World Series, but beyond that Series, hasn't done much. I would keep Rowand in center and Erstad in Left and see what CLee can do at first. I don't know much about Uribe, but if what you guys all say is true, our defense up the middle would be much improved, and that's good news. MAKE A TRADE OF SOME SORT!

Nice find, and the pic of the Cell is even cooler than the one of that s***hole, Wrigley Field!

Yeah, the pic is too big, I was just experimenting with that in the last couple days, thought it was a cool pic, but I'm gonna try to find something smaller. Sorry about that.

What if money didn't matter and things like winning and team loyalty did? That's so easy to say as a Diehard White Sox fan, and it's easy to say that if I was a MLB player I would play for the Sox for less, but who knows. It just seems like there is something wrong when a player will switch from the World Series Champion to one of the worst teams in the HISTORY of baseball. Success is obviously determined today by the size of the paycheck, not the number in wins column. Scott Boras is killing this great game. There's my rant on that!!!! Go Sox.

I personally like Hawk a lot, think he comes up with some good stuff, and since I am a die hard Sox fan I can appreciate his obvious bias. I don't like DJ very much and really wish it was still Hawk and Wimpy. I live downstate, so I really don't listen on the radio enough to have an opinion of those guys.

Wow, thanks for all that info, I was there last year with my parents for a couple days, but this year I'm going with some guys my age, so it should be a lot more fun. Thanks for all the tips though.

Hey guys, I don't know how many of you have been out to Tucson for spring training, but I am trying to plan a trip out there over my spring break. Do any of you guys know the best way to get out there, places to stay, and any possible player hangouts in Tucson? Thanks for any help.

I started liking the Sox a lot in 93, but 94 was when I became a diehard, clearing my schedule to watch every game and staying up late to watch west coast games (I was only 12). I still think we would have won the world series that year. Damn the strike.

Kock can't possibly be as bad as he was last year, I think the job is his to lose again. Hopefully he comes around, I am a fan of his and was very excited when we got him last year, even grew out the goatee like his to celebrate. I won't stand to be disappointed like that two years in a row.

yeah, that was word for word with a few extra sentences added in. I hope it was by the same person or something.

Make Maggs captain, let everybody know this is his team, he is our superstar. Make it very public, and maybe that will help us keep him.

I was kind of surprised he talked so favorably about Olivo. Also mildly impressed with Rowand's Major League numbers: 17 homers and 73 RBIs in roughly the same number of at bats as he would get playing full time. I tend to think that an everyday player will get into good grooves and bad grooves throughout a season, but produce more than they would as a reserve, but even if he didn't I think I would be happy with rowand hitting 15-20 homers and driving in 70-80 runs. It's no Everett, but it could be a lot worse as well. Also chose to ignore the Frank Thomas drama in the article, which is strange and ignores any impact, positive or negative, that Guillen might have on the team. White Sox Preview by Kevin Wheeler of sportingnews.com

I'll bet Charlie Hough still has a mean Knuckleball. Sign him.

I can't believe that the Union has the power to say that a member can't take a pay cut even if he wants to. I realize the players don't want to let the owner's be able to cut their pay whenever, but shouldn't ARod be able to waive this right? He agreed to the contract after all. Oh well, a lot of excitement about nothing. We still have Maggs though, nothing wrong with that.

Says of course like it has said here that it hinges on ARod, but what happens if the ARod-Ramirez trade isn't sorted out by the Thursday deadline? Then we don't get Nomar, still have Maggs, and are basically forced to move him. How would Maggs be able to play here knowing that we tried to trade him but couldn't due to forces beyond his control? Personally, here is what I want to happen. We get Nomar, Williamson, Kim from BoSox, send Valentin to Seattle for whatever, and get a starter from Konerko and Koch. Also, what about the possibility of Kim starting for us, if he is included?

It's a good thing Rowand has a superstar nickname!! Nice work

The way I look at it is this: We probably wouldn't be able to resign Maggs after this season. We probably wouldn't be able to resign Nomar after this season. We get Scott Williamson, maybe we can resign him? That's an addition we didn't have before. Also, maybe the White Sox feel Nomar is more likely to resign with us than Maggs. Maybe Nomar and Williamson give us a better shot to win than Maggs. Then if we do win this year it makes Nomar more likely to resign. There are a lot of variables, but the bottom line, we are swapping superstars in the hopes that we'll win this year. I like the deal.