thxfrthmmrs

http://insider.espn.go.com/mlb/insider/col...&id=5338763 Keith Law is putting out his updated top 25 prospect list today, and to no one's surprise, no sox prospects were on it. Realistically, I think Hudson is pitching like a top 40 prospect this season, but Law might not even have him as a top 100. Though he didn't include any white sox in the top 25s, he didn't waste the opportunity to bash our new 1st rounder Chris Sale. Here is what he has to say about Sale. Of all new draftees, he has be bash on Sale, not that we even expect him to be on the top 25 (Harper and Taillon wasn't on it either). What a jerk. But what I am really mad about is the number 3 prospect Mike Trout of the Angels. Supposed he was on the Sox radar going into the 2009 draft and many mock drafts have him going to the Sox. But the Sox went ahead with a safer college choice in Jared Mitchell. Trout was regarded as a better prospect going into the draft. What a difference a year makes, Trout is looking like the best player in the minors with .370 BA and over 1.000 OPS as a lead off hitter. He is closing in on 40 SBs and we are not even in July yet! Crazy right, and he is still 18 years old! Mitchell on the other hand has yet to play a game this season and still has a long way to go till he reach the bigs. I guess one of the main reasons the Sox passed on Trout is the fact that he might be a tough sign as a high school player. But it really frustrates me that we are passing on top notch talent to go with safer ones. I think we haven't drafted a high schooler in the first round since Kris Honel in 2001.

QUOTE (chw42 @ Jun 27, 2010 -> 12:55 PM) He's the almost the same exact pitcher he was last year. That 4.65 ERA is due to a .342 BABIP. maybe he's still the same pitcher as last season, that only means he will falter in the second half just like the previous years, and a switch from NL west to the AL especially pitching in the Cell only makes matters worse. and would we really want to pay top prospects for him when we have hudson on the horizon and we are more in need of a bat? What do you guys think we could use the $1 million from the BP cup for? (assuming it's assigned to the team immediately.) perhaps picking somebody up from the waivers? or use it to help pay for half of LaRoche's salary at $2.25 mil?

we have viceido right? though his defense is not any better than teahen's, his bat is worthwhile. I think a lot of people here want vizquel to get more playing time at third, viceido can play a few time a week. as for teahen? he will be the new jayson nix or trade his &$@#!

whatever happen to trayce thompson? he's be gone for a month now, but i haven't notice anyone bringing him up.

maybe B'ham needed a refrigerator... hard to imagine they could get anything significant for him.

what's with all the teahen love now? having teahen back means our defense will suck again at third, part of the reason why we have been good lately is vizquel's defense at third. LaRoche is not a liability defensively like Teahen is, he can more than enough handle first base. teahen is always going to be a bottom of the order hitter, will not hit over 16 HR, or be a run producer. but LaRoche could be a number 5 or 6 hitter for the sox and hitter over 30 HR while playing good defense, all that for 4.5 million/yr also, we do not have the $$ or the 'spects to acquire a big name like AGon, if he is even available.

QUOTE (JohnCangelosi @ Jun 27, 2010 -> 08:38 AM) Any ideas on what happened? Hopefully he doesn't miss a week. Who would be the logical call up? johnny nunez since he already have major league experience, or maybe torres? who knows

QUOTE (Lemon_44 @ Jun 27, 2010 -> 05:33 AM) i agree. I don't get all the LaRoche lust. He's a decent player but the only way I want him is if Haren comes with him. Teahen was starting to hit when he was in jured. His return will have a similar effect of adding LaRoche and he's already on the roster. If they are going to make an addition, make it a worthwhile one. LaRoche is a very nice upgrade at the DH spot for the sox, or he could be at 1B and Paulie will DH, because he is very good with the glove too. he basically put up clean up spot type of production for the pirates and the diamondbacks the last few seasons, 25HR and 85 RBIs for those teams is pretty impressive, and by moving to the hitter friendly US Cellular, he could hit over 30HR and drive in 90-95 per season while batting .270, and plus, he only makes 4.5 mil, so he's definitely worth trading for. As for Haren, thanks but no thanks. His ERA is ballooned at 4.65 so far this season, and over the last 3-4 years, he's been known for pitching great in the first half and falling apart in the second, if we do acquire him midseason, good luck with that. And we don't want to guess how much worse an NL west pitcher would fare after trading to the Cell

QUOTE (Soxbadger @ Jun 26, 2010 -> 11:17 PM) Trading him 1 month early saves about $1mil. I think it depends on how good the spects are, and White Sox mid tier spects arent good enough to convince me (if I was Arizona) to trade now, instead of taking a wait and see approach. Conversely, the Sox would save $1mil if they dont trade till the end of the month, and I think the Sox are kind of strapped themselves. (Edit) Its no problem and I actually dislike it too, and was surprised that I did it, but I was just being lazy and trying to get the point across that if our GM did what people said on a message board, wed never even be here. well 2 weeks ago, no one on the face of the earth would have imagined the sox going on a streak like this, base on their team on paper, it's a pretty bad offensive team and we were pretty much out of it. That's why some of members on this board wanted to the expiring contracts to be traded away. I think it's normal to have that notion. If you are bashing people for being impatient and jumping on those decisions, did you envisioned a run like this? If not, I believe we would still be on those topics. Also, when do you think the sox should make an acquisition for an offensive upgrade? Have you watch the games lately? You will see that the Sox were actually outhit in a lot of the games and somehow came up on top. They were getting 4-6 hits for the game and that will not cut it against the offensively oriented AL teams, and you can't expect the pitching to hold a 2.00 ERA on a nightly basis. Lets be realistic here, if the sox do not make an acquisition soon for a power bat, they will get hammered when they play the Rangers and the Angels next week. Keep in mind that the Sox aren't the only team in need of a bat like LaRoche or Berkman, other teams do too. If we wait for too long, chances are, they could be gone by then.

yea a 149 pitch 8 walk no hitter, i dont think you will ever see that again.

for those of you who wanted beckham sent down, you should be ashamed for yourself.

jenks wont be back next season, too expensive. But guys didn't I just say we will sent some money and Juan Pierre's 8 million contract over in this hypothetical situation? we will be looking at around $60 million committed if thats the case. Historically, the Sox are known to make moves to add on salaries during mid season and push the payroll over 100 million. Also, someone on the forum mentioned that Sox management hinted there are money available to spent. If sox do acquire Crawford, would it surprise you if Reinsdorf is willing to spent a couple million more to retain him? Plus, the sox do have some major league ready prospects to fill the void of the departing role players, Torres, Hudson, Morel, De Aza. If you haven't notice, the Sox have been moving away from the home run hitting type, station to station type of lineup to a speedy, and more athletic, and defense oriented type of lineup. Shredding Konerko's contract and signing Crawford is well within the team's philosophy. Then perhaps target a good defensive first basemen, with some power, and cheap salary player like LaRoche to replace some of the power lost. All these are just hypothetical, but they are well within the team's philosophy.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Jun 25, 2010 -> 11:56 AM) The Rays will receive draft pick compensation for Crawford, John Jaso and Kelly Shoppach will serve just fine as a catching duo, first base is a very easy position to fix, especially when Pena, even as powerful as he is, is putting up a .737 OPS, and they have Desmond Jennings waiting in the minor leagues to help attempt to fill the void should Crawford leave for free agency this offseason. The Sox also have like $70 million already committed to next years roster, and that's not including raises through arbitration and any other free agent signings, so the Sox wouldn't have room to lock Crawford up long term if they were to bring him in through this hypothetical scenario, which still won't happen. The Rays won't be trading Carl Crawford. Mind you that the sox have only $65 millions committed, I believe they will only offer abritration to Danks and CQ, with team option to Thorton and Castro. So the Sox do have some money to spend next season.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Jun 25, 2010 -> 11:36 AM) The Rays are 14 games over .500 and Crawford's been a huge part of that. He won't be traded. crawford is a free agent at the end of the season, and despite their success the Rays are still a small market team. They would risk losing him for nothing (or a few compensational picks i believe) if he bolts for a bigger contract. The smart move for them is to trade him for major league ready prospects (viceido and flowers) to replace Pena (FA next season) and whoever their catcher is, and to have a short term leadoff hitter or fourth outfielder in Pierre. This is at least help them stay competitive from this season and beyond. oh yea, and with konerko and AJ contract due at the end of the season, we have a really good chance of retaining him, especially if we go on and make the playoffs with Crawford at the helm.

carl crawfrod anyone? he is available as we speak, and a natural LF to replace pierre unlike McCutchen or Bourn. We could send Viceido, Flowers, Pierre and some cash to Tampa for Crawford?

QUOTE (Quinarvy @ Jun 24, 2010 -> 04:27 PM) For those wondering Assuming a 56.1 million dollar cap, and the Bulls sign one max guy: Max Guy: $16,568,908 Luol Deng $11,345,000 Derrick Rose $5,546,160 Joakim Noah $3,128,536 James Johnson $1,713,600 Taj Gibson $1,117,680 Roster hold $473,604 Roster hold $473,604 Roster hold $473,604 Roster hold $473,604 Roster hold $473,604 Total $41,787,904 Remaining for final FA: $14,312,096 That falls right in line with Johnson's reported 4yr/60M deal. What I want to happen is they trade Deng + The Bobcats Pick + A Future Pick for the Clips 8th (I think about a $2.3M cap hold) pick to bring the remaining $$$ in addition to one max guy to: $23,357,096 Subtract the money for Bosh ($16,568,908) and you get: $6,788,188 Using that money you could probably get Ray Allen here if he doesn't want to resign with the Celtics, and depending on his price, possibly have Brad return to further tutor the big men. Edit: To fill out that roster, you'd probably bring back Law/Kurz/Byars/Alexander at the minimum. And with the 8th pick, I'd draft Henry to get: PG - Rose/Law SG - Allen/Henry/Byars SF - LeBron/Johnson/Alexander PF - Bosh/Gibson/Kurz C - Noah/Miller/Asik correct me if i am wrong, isn't roster hold only apply for 8 spots, and no more holds if you have 8 guys already?

just imagine if we dominated the Cleveland Indians like we are suppose to, then we would be the best team in MLB.

QUOTE (Kalapse @ Jun 23, 2010 -> 04:00 PM) Gio Gonzalez - supplemental pick of the White Sox in 2004 having a very nice season for the A's. That's about it dating back to Kip Wells and Aaron Rowand in 1998. his numbers prior to this season was beyond terrible. Besides, I was more or less talking about a first round pick position players having success coming from a white sox farm system, gio has gone to the phillies and to the A's before reaching the majors. yes, beckham did have the highest batting average of all the recent sox first rounder last season, but that is his calling card. Fields had 23 hrs in 2007 and became totally irrelevant next season. We may be witnessing the same thing with becks now, and if he doesn't get demoted soon, it's really going to affect his success from now on.

hello brian anderson, joe borchard, josh fields. who was the last Sox first round pick to come through their farm system and have success in the majors? can't think of any recent ones if they don't send beckham down soon, I am afraid we will see his name in that infamous group soon.

lets hope Peavy feels alright after going the distance but you gotta respect the guy, sore shoulder and all, but he goes out and gives everything he's got. You can see while throwing the last few pitches and walking off the mound, his face is grimacing a bit. but i am glad that he's able to finish up what he started.

here is a genius idea for Bud Selig and other baseball people. Since we have the designated hitter, why don't we add the designated fielder as well, where a guy only plays defense and does not take swings. If we can combine Teahen's bat with Vizquel's defense, third base should not be much to concern with.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ May 5, 2010 -> 03:29 PM) First of all, this thread belongs in the Diamond club. Second of all...this strikes me as totally unusual for a winning team that just opened up a new ballpark. i didn't say this was unusual, but kind of unexpected for such a high attendance rate winning or not, they have sold out most of the home games this season. would say you expected them to have an attendance like this and sell out most of the home games before the season starts?

the minnesota twins, as we are speaking, are 18-9, tied for the third best record in the league, have the best 1-2 punch in the AL, morneau and mauer ,and they are both lefties. they also play in a lefty friendly ball park with a plethora with lefties in the lineup according to ESPN http://espn.go.com/mlb/attendance they also happen to have the 3rd best attendance rate in baseball with close 98% full for their 12 home games thus far, and their attendance average of 38,600 really scares me. even the monday and tuesday game with the tigers had attendance over 38,000. i tried to look for their tickets online and most of their home games had already sold out this season. Their tickets are also some of the highest priced this year in baseball. while our attendance is averaging little bit over 23,000 thus far, and has declined each of the past 3 seasons. Now i know the twins have spent over 100 millions themselves to fund their new ballpark, but looking and their tickets sales and their payroll in the recent years, i think it's safe to say that they have moved out of the small market team label? could we see in the coming years that their payroll scorching up to 100 millions while we fall back to 75-80 millions? the twins' management has been known for being able to build a competitive team with a small payroll. just imagine what they can do with a higher payroll. as it stands now, in the next 5-10 years twins will be very, very, very competitive. that is something sox fans should be concerned about.

QUOTE (soxfan-kwman @ May 5, 2010 -> 02:00 PM) he got a couple of walks last night & a nice hit later in the game last night but Beckham is hitting different...Beckham has widened his natural stance & swing. I'm not saying Greg Walker is to blame, but someone should tell him to start with his feet closer together. Watch tonight, he takes a practice cut with his regular swing & then he moves into the batters box with his legs bent & almost pigeon toed. Anyone else notice? his new 3/4th stance when he was doing the practice cuts and the regular swings reminds me of iguchi back in the days. perhaps they both took it from walker?

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ May 3, 2010 -> 11:38 AM) Baseball is a different situation. It's really hard to compare total salary from 1 league to another. Baseball has 2x the number of games that the NBA has, baseball stadiums typically hold 2x the number of people of NBA stadiums, the NBA has a soft cap while MLB has none. One mistaken contract in baseball and you're in trouble, but you can get out of it if the owner is willing to pay more or if you can trade the guy to the Red Sox/Yankees/Cubs. One mistaken contract in basketball, and you've got no options. You try to spend around that contract and you wind up in tax territory. You can't trade that contract for salary relief except in very rare circumstances, and you often have to take on even worse contracts. It's really interesting to see how much a single bad contract does in each league. In the NFL, a single bad contract only really hurts you if you keep playing the guy. The Redskins and Raiders have handed out so much idiotic money it's not funny, but the Redskins look competitive every year and the Raiders might look competitive if Russel wasn't a tool, and then they hand out another large contract the next year. In MLB, a single bad contract can hurt a team, but they can still win with it if they develop guys around it, or they can find ways to dump other salaries around it (see; the Padres, Blue Jays, Pirates). In the NBA, it really is a killer, because that bad max deal eats up 1/3 of your salary. i think you're twisting the truth a bit here. since when do the yankees and the red sox take on players who are busts do not worth the money they make? had the tigers been successful in trading dontrelle willis, jeremy bonderman to them? did the braves trade mike hampton's 20 mil/year contract to them? would the yankees and red sox show any interest in alfonso soriano now for his contract? no. the yankees and red sox trade for productive players who are worth their contract 95% of the time. I am looking at the yankees and red sox roster right now, and i do not see that they have taken on anybody who makes big money and yet at the time the teams got them, they are already busts. the point is, no matter what the sport is, if the player signs a big contract, but turns out to be a bust and is no longer productive, teams aren't going to take them, unless you pay them extra money, give them your top prospect. it's the same in any in any sports, baseball is no exception. i am glad that you brought up jamarcus russel, the guy has done like 1% of what david lee did in the nba, and yet he already got 40 million in guaranteed money, and guess what? he sucked ass. there was a great article about him this weekend on ESPN of how the raider fans hated him by burning his jersey, creating hate groups on facebook, blogs, whatever, because he absolute stole money from the raiders!! do you see that in the nba? oh and by the way, he makes 1/10th of the teams salary cap, and the team still have to pay 52 other players, now isn't that more screwed up. you see big moneys thrown around more loosely in other sports, such as baseball and football, and teams always have to take repercussion for it. there is no way out. but u see money is thrown around more easily in baseball and football, so i am not sure why you call basketball screw up. baseball and football pays players for their potential, where a first round draft pick like stratsburg demands a certain amount of money, a unknown guys like viceido gets 10 million and haven't been to the U.S. yet, a guy like jeremy bonderman gets huge contract after one decent year because the teams thought he is finally scratching the surface of his potential. in the nfl, what happens if russels doesn't help the raiders out, and they end up having the 3rd overall pick next draft and have to pay another 40 million guaranteed to a rookie? that is 80 million guaranteed right there. but the NBA rarely pays for potential alone, but they pay for performance. a guy like kawame brown was the first overall pick, or darko a second overall pick, they didn't make much money their first couples years in the league, when he is a proven bust, people won't pay them. now i come to think of it, the nba salary system is actually pretty fair.