Y2Jimmy0

QUOTE (Tuna @ Jul 4, 2013 -> 01:04 PM) Not sure if this was mentioned yet but Ray Donnovan on Showtime started last week and was pretty good. I was impressed as well. They introduced a lot in the pilot and from what I have read it said not to try and figure everything out right away. I guess the first few episodes are past paced like that with a lot going on.

QUOTE (Buehrle>Wood @ Jul 6, 2013 -> 02:36 AM) "Reminder: Dwight Howard made a smart basketball decision for less money and went out of his way to tell his old team in person. " Good post. Matt Spiegel always calls Dwight Howard the "flaky charlatan" and while I believe that is true, he made the right call here. Golden State may have been the best basketball choice for him but Houston was a close 2nd. Personally, I wouldn't have gone back to LA to play for D'antoni either. The guy has never won anything and will not win anything with that system. It baffles me that a group of people could ever sit across the table from Mike D'antoni and decide that the right decision is to make him your head basketball coach. Dumb.

QUOTE (2nd_city_saint787 @ Jul 4, 2013 -> 04:18 PM) Batting close to .300 in his last 30 games! I wonder if he's ever had a month this good in his career? I would imagine that he has. He always did things like that. He would go on these runs and then fall into 2 week lulls. The man will finish his career with well over 500 homers. I can't prove it but I bet he has seen streaks like this before.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jul 5, 2013 -> 07:37 AM) Zero confirmation of it this morning. I have seen Miguel Gonzalez and Puckett to Charlotte. That's it though.

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Jul 3, 2013 -> 08:16 AM) It's the 5th major sport in my opinion. Love it as well. Can't wait for Rivals II

The Bulls have made some noise in free agency so far, reaching an agreement with Mike Dunleavy and agreeing to re-sign Nazr Mohammed to a minimum-salary deal. The club also reportedly plans to release Richard Hamilton before his contract becomes guaranteed next week. Here are a few more updates out of Chicago as the Bulls continue to tweak their roster: Within a piece about the relationship between head coach Tom Thibodeau and star point guard Derrick Rose, K.C. Johnson of the Chicago Tribune passes along an intriguing tidbit on LaMarcus Aldridge. According to Johnson, the Bulls "continue to rebuff attempts" by Aldridge's reps to bring the All-Star big man to Chicago. The Bulls have been unwilling to discuss a hypothetical deal that would see them give up Joakim Noah and Jimmy Butler for Aldridge, sources tell Johnson. As Hoops Rumors' agency database shows and as Johnson suggests, Aldridge and Rose are both represented by Wasserman Media Group. Johnson notes within the same article that GM Gar Forman's decision to part ways with lead assistant Ron Adams was related to Adams' "complaining about personnel matters." The Bulls have been in touch with Nate Robinson and have offered a minimum-salary deal, according to Alex Kenendy of HoopsWorld (via Twitter). However, Robinson is seeking a bigger multiyear contract after a successful season in Chicago. Hoopshype.com I would love to acquire Aldridge somehow. He is not a free agent until 2015 though and it is widely known that he'd like to be in Chicago with Rose. They can't give up Noah and Butler though and they won't. I would offer Deng, Taj, and draft picks. Portland won't take that deal but that's what I would offer.

QUOTE (GreatScott82 @ Jul 4, 2013 -> 04:53 AM) I agree. I dont think the Sox will have to throw money into a Rios or Peavy deal. However, they definitely would have to for Dunn. You just dont see teams lining up to pay $12 million for a guy hitting .190. Maybe next year a desperate team will snag him at the deadline. At least we can hope. .. I am sick of hearing about how teams would not want Dunn because of a poor batting average. If you are trading for the man because of his batting average then you are an idiot. Any team trading for Dunn would do it looking for power and that's what he'd be paid to do. Stick Dunn in the lineup in Texas, Pittsburgh, or somewhere else and they would have an asset. He wouldn't be depended on to be the best player on the team in those places. Dunn as an extra guy is a scary proposition. The guy is going to hit 40+ homers, walks 100 times, and drive in more than 100 runs. But people on this site specifically reference his strikeouts and his batting average instead.

QUOTE (Jake @ Jul 3, 2013 -> 05:24 PM) We don't have a thread about Alexei and he is most certainly among the more likely to be traded. Let's have a groupthink about where he might fit. Cardinals' need for a shortstop is getting more and more problematic. Kozma/Descalso is an atrocious combo. I don't know if the Reds love Zack Cozart at this point. Dodgers could probably benefit from moving Hanley to 3B and Uribe to the bench. As an added bonus, they don't even know what money means. Mariners could use an SS, but I have no idea what their strategy is right now. Some seemed to think they were pushing to compete soon, but this year has been a total flop. Someone a little more in the know might be able to shed some light. Any other ideas? There aren't many good shortstops out there right now and not many with much of a track record. Alexei may not be great, but the dude can throw some leather (even if he's been a bonehead this season, he just makes SO many more plays than the average SS) and you know that you're going to get at least a passable, roughly league average hitter out of him. He has to have some value. Pittsburgh could be an option as well. I was in Pittsburgh all weekend though and seem to think that Jordy Mercer is just fine. I also mentioned Rios. The radio guys there and their fans would like Rios but were in agreement that they didn't want to give up anything. They made it sound like guys like Alen Hanson and Josh Bell would even be too much.

QUOTE (Soxbadger @ Jul 3, 2013 -> 02:47 PM) Id just be fine with a guy like Steve Kerr or Craig Hodges to be honest. Steve Kerr and Craig Hodges don't get you past LEBRON JAMES though!! Mike Dunleavy is a better player than Steve Kerr ever was. The Bulls need a 2nd star that isn't Noah or Deng. The problem is that Luol Deng makes way too much money. He's a good player. He can't be the 2nd best player on a championship team though. If you look at the league as a whole it's star players making good money, players on rookie deals, and vet minimum guys. At least that is what the good teams are doing. That's the model for the future with the new CBA. The Bulls have too much $$ locked in to good but not great players. The Bulls are no doubt in my mind the 2nd best team in the East. However, they do not have enough to beat Miami when Miami wants to play.

QUOTE (Jake @ Jul 3, 2013 -> 02:35 PM) If I'm Hahn, I'm asking Jerry for permission to make decisions only based on baseball and not finance. We are not in dire straits with money, lots is coming off the books no matter what we do. This is especially pertinent with Dunn. If we agree that Adam Dunn today is no worse than the guy we've seen for the past two seasons (low, low average but 40 HRs and 100 RBI pace of production), then there should be a nice return in trade. Even if a trade partner this year agrees that Dunn has turned a corner and can be counted on to hit a bunch of homers, I highly doubt we can get enough of a return in baseball terms to make the trade make sense -- because, of course, the other team will leverage the remaining year on his contract as a big risk. On the other hand, imagine Dunn is on a 40+ HR pace at the All-Star break next year. We are either competing due in part to his production (this would assume a couple FA signings and good luck) or...he suddenly has tremendous trade value because his contract no longer carries risk. Likewise, we would have the leverage of potentially getting a draft pick from him if he walks in FA in that scenario. In the worst case, we pay him bad money. We'll have saved so much already, though, that to us (you know, fans that don't fund this payroll) there is no harm. You pay him in hopes of getting some great young baseball players in return. If you dump him now, you've saved money for sure. However, that money is EXTREMELY unlikely to become good baseball players since we are already likely to have 30-60 million dollars off the books by Opening Day next year. Another 15 probably isn't going to become yet another FA signing because I don't see us signing 4 players to big FA contracts in the same offseason because that's crazy. Didn't you learn anything earlier in the thread? Nobody will acquire Dunn because he will immediately make their team worse because he is a loser.

QUOTE (Jose Paniagua @ Jul 3, 2013 -> 02:42 PM) one comment i saw on Facebook: "why dont we encourage our young people to pursue their education?" sometimes i want fierce winds to take my computer and let it fly far far away Haha most of my friends that went to school with me to also become teachers are not working. I got lucky enough to find a teaching job. Most of them have not. People are morons.

QUOTE (Jake @ Jul 3, 2013 -> 11:49 AM) The regular season does matter. A really nice first step in beating the Heat would be having home court advantage. That isn't something that you haphazardly not care about. A really nice first step in beating the Heat would be realizing that this core won't get it done. If you have 1 player that can create his own shot, you are not beating Miami anywhere. There is 1 player in the NBA that can shutdown Derrick Rose. Lebron is that player. The Bulls can tinker all they want with a "new bench mob" but until they get better players next to Rose they will not win a title.

Not sure if this has been posted yet but it's a good article about Micker Zapata. It also mentions their plans to sign 2-3 more guys. http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20...ws&c_id=cws

QUOTE (Chicago White Sox @ Jul 2, 2013 -> 11:05 PM) Are you Dan Berstein? What inefficiency have they exploited here? They had the second largest bonus pool because their team sucked balls last year. That reason alone gives them an edge with the top players. It doesn't make Theo & Jed genuises. Why don't you do some research before you question me on this. I don't come on this site and just spout off nonsense. Nor am I a Cubs fan. Even with their 2nd largest bonus pool, they could not sign all of the guys that they wanted. They traded for more bonus pool money. It is something that not many other teams did. That is how they found loopholes and exploited the market. I would have liked it if the Sox did something like this.

QUOTE (Harry Chappas @ Jul 3, 2013 -> 10:29 AM) They are 21 and 23 years old and are the Rays number 2 and 3 rated prospects. Also saved the Rays some money which is what they needed. You think that trade will help the cubs when they need talent in two years? The rays have not missed Garza and have two highly rated prospects to boot. The cubs are almost 50 games under .500 with Garza. True. It wasn't Theo and Jed that traded for Garza in the 1st place though. That trade is not on them.

QUOTE (balfanman @ Jul 3, 2013 -> 09:04 AM) I could be wrong, but I think that most here are overestimating the amount of activity that the Sox are going to be involved in the next few weeks. Im thinking that the F. O. very much sees this as a bad year and has every intention of contending next year. A rotation of Sale, Danks, Peavy, Quintana, and Santiago is pretty good and if they can get even a mediocre offense they should contend. Its possible they could really start unloading players, but unless they get a haul for someone, I really don't expect much more than Crain, Thornton and Lindstrom to be gone. Maybe Konerko as a favor if he is willing. As always JMHO. I disagree. I think Hahn knows exactly the battle that he is in for here. He knows that he needs to rebuild it with his type of players. Hahn is a smart guy and also knows about the fickle nature of the White Sox fanbase. Hahn may have the toughest job in baseball right now. If I had to guess I would say the following guys get moved: Rios, Thornton, Crain, Lindstrom, De Aza. Maybe even Alexei.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Jul 2, 2013 -> 09:19 PM) Mitigated somewhat by screwing up the Dempster deal, getting nothing for Marmol and really looking to be in trouble with the Edwin Jackson contract. I think they have done way more good than bad though. That contract was market value for Jackson. Dempster screwed up the deal not the Cubs.

QUOTE (fathom @ Jul 2, 2013 -> 10:27 PM) mlbtraderumors stating that Cubs will sign Jimenez. Kinda shocking to see the top 3 guys on MLB.com list signed by the Chicago teams. It's a big move. The new draft rules really hurt the style of Theo Epstein and Jed Hoyer. But when you hire those guys you do it because you trust that they will be able to find the new inefficiency in the market and exploit it at all costs. They have done so with these moves. Not all of these guys will pan out but when you invest this much on the top talent some of them are bound to hit.

QUOTE (Paulstar @ Jul 1, 2013 -> 02:44 PM) .800 OPS can kiss my ass if your batting .200 and striking out over 200 times. There is something telling when a player puts up his best seasons when a team is in last place, and when a team is in contention he's nowhere to be found. Some guys are winners and some guys are losers, and the fact Dunn has never appeared in one post season game, is very un-clutch and does most of his damage in non-pressure situations, I'm sorry, the guy is a loser on the baseball field. Again, if surrounded by the right people in the right situation, sure Dunn could be a productive player for a contender. But he is being paid to be the guy, and he's never been the guy with the white sox until this past June when the Sox fell into the laughingstock of the league. Also, I never once said he was the main reason. All I said there was something to be seen and it might be more than 100% coincidental and bad luck. This is one of the stupidest things I have ever read on this site. An .800 ops is an .800 ops. He is not being paid to be the guy either. He's being paid to hit a s***load of homers and walk a lot. Clutch is bulls*** by the way. It is a myth.

Chris Cotillo ‏@ChrisCotillo 32s The #Braves inquired about Jake Peavy, according to @ajcbraves. #whitesox

QUOTE (Jake @ Jun 29, 2013 -> 03:41 PM) You're right, Greg. It's nice to have a really good draft pick, but the other costs of being that bad far outweigh that one reward. And don't get it wrong, the draft pick is the ONLY bonus to being bad. Everything else can be done with good teams or at least "transitional" ones...something like what the Indians have going on, for instance. Not for long term success though. If the White Sox aren't good, nobody is going. If the Sox don't make the playoffs then I want a top 5 pick in each round. There is no reason to be mediocre. Especially with this fan base. Things I am looking forward to this year: Selling off parts, Erik Johnson starts, Trayce Thompson steadily turning into a prospect, and finishing with a top 4-5 draft pick. That's it. Those of you who are angry because you have to spend your "couch time" watching a horrible team are not thinking about what's best for this franchise at this particular time.

QUOTE (bbilek1 @ Jun 29, 2013 -> 03:01 PM) Why would the Giants create another hole by trading Belt? Why would you guys want a guy who doesn't hit for power at first base? Isn't this the same board that writes Ravelo off as a prospect because of his lack of power? Yeah I agree. Rios and Peavy better net you a package that is worth making the deal. Peavy and Alex could both go in the offseason still. SF is not a good fit. They don't have many offensive prospects as most have elaborated. Also, didn't Peavy play for Bochy in San Diego?

QUOTE (The Ultimate Champion @ Jun 27, 2013 -> 07:01 PM) I don't follow other sports this closely, but I'm pretty sure everyone thinks he's a moron. I remember him going on and on during the NBA super summer free agency period about how he'd rather have Wade over LeBron. Really? Yeah this never happened. I listen to that show almost every day. He is an arrogant douche most of the time but at least he's honest and doesn't have to use the spin of Disney and ESPN. Bernstein is infatuated with Lebron. Always has been. He never wanted anyone on the Bulls more than Lebron.

QUOTE (Jerksticks @ Jun 25, 2013 -> 03:41 PM) Reed has a nice track record closing out games. Castellanos has a blank resume with no past experience. If I'm Hahn, I'm asking for more to insulate against a total bust. Huh? Nick Castellanos is going to hit in the big leagues and play 3rd base. Addison Reed is a relief pitcher. Are you kidding? If the Tigers offered us Castellanos for anyone on our roster other than Sale, I'd personally drive that player to Detroit.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Jun 23, 2013 -> 04:37 PM) If relievers are as easy to replace as you say, no one is going to ne willing to give up much for one in a trade. But any move that makes the team better you make, including Sale. If the argument is you don't need a closer during a rebuild, you certainly don't need a ticking time bomb making meaningless starts. So that would mean Sale has to go. I never said you didn't need a closer during a rebuild. Again, you are hearing what you want to hear. I said I would trade Reed if they got what they perceived as value in return. You'd be an idiot not to trade anyone if you thought your chances of winning a world series became greater upon making the deal. That's all I was saying. Would I trade Reed for a couple of High A pitching prospects with potential? No. I would absolutely trade him for a bat or two though that Rick Hahn felt could be apart of the team's long term future. I would entertain trading Sale as well. Once I saw the offers, I would most likely turn them all down though. There are very few absolute untouchables in sports. Everyone has a price. Whether or not that price is realistic is another story though.