lasttriptotulsa

QUOTE (Alexeihyeess @ Jan 21, 2016 -> 03:53 PM) Gammons is officially an old coot. I haven't taken anything Gammons has said with anything more than a grain of salt for a long, long time.

QUOTE (bmags @ Jan 21, 2016 -> 03:34 PM) Glad he's back but skeptical he is as good as last year. Well there are not too many relievers that are good enough to put up a 1.21 ERA but even if he's as good as he was from 2012-2014 this is a quality signing.

QUOTE (Tony @ Jan 21, 2016 -> 03:50 PM) He's talking about Albers. Not everything is five layers deep. Lol. I've been in this thread so long that I didn't even realize they had re-signed Albers. Glad they did though. Pretty reasonable contract.

QUOTE (BigFinn @ Jan 21, 2016 -> 03:41 PM) According to Baseball-reference, If Abreu doesn't opt out of his contract and apply for arbitration after this year, he is scheduled to receive $12.17M in 2017 (age 30), $13.17M (age 31) in 2018, $13.67M (age 32) in 2019, and then become a free agent prior to the 2020 season. I don't see anybody in the White Sox system that can produce as well as Abreu can, so they will be forced to pay him a huge salary - either through arbitration or through signing Abreu to a longer term deal. Abreu might opt for arbitration after this year with thought of seeing what the new collective bargaining agreement might mean for player's salaries in the future. That's why all the free agents have been securing opt outs. We are still four seasons away from figuring out how to replace Abreu's production if he does leave in free agency. If he opts out after this year he would have to set a new arbitration record to exceed his contractual 2017 salary. A record that was set by Ryan Howard after winning an MVP. If he does opt out my guess is that they would look to buy out his arb years and the first couple years of free agency. That would probably be something along the lines of 3/45-50 for his arb years and 2/40 for his first two years of free agency. He would not gain much by opting into arbitration until the third year. The first two years he would risk giving up a lot of guaranteed future money just to make maybe a million or two more in the present.

QUOTE (LDF @ Jan 21, 2016 -> 03:21 PM) i made my proposal and i was told it was non sensible or something. it might have been. but with the minor league having J May and A Engel close to step in, and i am sorry but i think i lost faith in Hawkins. i still see a 3-4 yr contract. i like the fact that the sox should give a front loaded contract with a mutual option after 2 yrs. pay the $$$$ for a hitter. The problem is a front loaded contract doesn't work with their budget. The reason they would be able to afford Cespedes is because Danks and LaRoche are off the books after this year. If they were going to offer him 2 years and then mutual options after that it would have to be fairly low value on the first year and then probably have a huge buyout if the option is declined by the Sox.

QUOTE (soxfan2014 @ Jan 21, 2016 -> 03:09 PM) This thread might get to 400 before he signs lol Only on 205 for me so I don't think it will get there.

QUOTE (ChiSoxFanMike @ Jan 21, 2016 -> 02:51 PM) So is Cespedes to Washington confirmed at this point or do we still have a sliver of a chance? Not confirmed. Once it was reported they had the highest offer on the table the sky started falling around here.

QUOTE (LDF @ Jan 21, 2016 -> 02:46 PM) then some shouldn't make assumptions. Even if you meant to say Jordan instead of John your post still doesn't make any semblance of sense.

QUOTE (Jose Abreu @ Jan 21, 2016 -> 02:19 PM) What? Didn't the Sox trade for Danks from the Rangers? Yes, that is just another quality post from LDF that falls about 50 yards short of making any sense.

QUOTE (BigFinn @ Jan 21, 2016 -> 01:58 PM) After this season, Jose Abreu becomes arbitration eligible. He could be looking for a 5 year/$100+ commitment. If the Sox pushed all their chips in on Upton or Cespedes, they might be forced to trade Abreu for financial considerations. And I would rather have Abreu. He becomes Arb eligible, not a free agent. Meaning he is still under Sox control. He can ask for 5/100 all he wants but he ain't getting it as that would be a massive overpay for his arbitration years. By the time Abreu gets expensive, Robertson, Melky, LaRoche, Danks, Frazier and Lawrie will all be off the books. There will be plenty of money to pay Abreu.

QUOTE (blackmooncreeping @ Jan 21, 2016 -> 01:42 PM) I believe Sox knew Danks was getting surgery before they offered that deal. I've always thought it was a terrible deal, one of KW's worst. He signed the extension in December of 2011 and didn't get hurt until the following May.

QUOTE (ozzfest @ Jan 21, 2016 -> 01:28 PM) 20 mill a year for Cespedes is not that bad of a contract. I would be enraged if Sox don't compete with that offer. Freaking John Danks is making 15 million this year. What does Danks have to do with anything? At the time he signed that extension he was every bit as valuable as Cespedes and was worth every penny. It's not his or the Sox fault that his career got derailed by a major injury.

QUOTE (pittshoganerkoff @ Jan 21, 2016 -> 08:56 AM) I keep going back to raBBit's post saying that the talks have been creative and options are the sticking point. Leads me to believe that the Sox are sticking to fewer years (I might believe they'll offer four years), and they are haggling over options for an additional year or two. If the tweet saying the Nationals offer is not good is true, then maybe the Sox truly are the only serious bidders. I just hope this nonsense ends soon...like today. I tend to believe the 3 year thing, but my belief is that means 3 years GUARANTEED. Mutual/player/vesting options are another thing. Based on what Nightengale and others have said and the news that Rabbit mentioned yesterday, I fully believe they have agreed in principle to a three year deal and the language/terms regarding options are what's keeping it from being announced. I also agree with you that they would probably stretch to 4 years guaranteed if they needed to. It would not surprise me at all if that is what Cespedes is looking for because that gets him out of the crazy post 2018 free agent class. I really think by piecing together all the pieces of the puzzle that a deal eventually gets done.

How the hell does a thread about a possible Cespedes signing morph into a thread about Forbes team value evaluations? And what's this nonsense about combining the Bulls and Sox values? For the umpteenth time, the Bulls and Sox are two different entities with two different ownership groups. Their values and finances have nothing to do with each other.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Dec 29, 2015 -> 03:24 PM) Went bowling for the first time in two years and rolled a 170 with marks all over the place and my ball having the movement it needs for high scores. Choked on some easy spares and missed some easy spares that I feel would come back to me quickly if I bowled more. This begs the question ... is bowling one of the easiest sports to perform well in? The 170 with pocket balls all over the place means if I bowled more, I would quickly average about 160 or better and roll my share of 200 plus games. Is bowling easy is my question?? QUOTE (Iwritecode @ Jan 1, 2016 -> 04:16 PM) That's all not even mentioning different oil patterns. There's a reason a lot of guys carry 3 or 4 different balls with them. This is the key thing here. If you're shooting around 170 on a house pattern and then go bowl in a competitive tournament using a sport pattern you could easily see that 170 drop down to a 120 or so. House patterns are very forgiving, sport patterns are not. Missing your mark by a board or two can still yield good results on a house pattern while missing by a board or two on a sport pattern could put you in the gutter. That's the difference between casual league bowlers and pro bowlers. Pro bowlers bowling at your typical alley will average in the 240's, 250's.

QUOTE (CaliSoxFanViaSWside @ Jan 19, 2016 -> 09:36 PM) I'm pretty sure he's very close to a 50 goal pace. Currently on pace for 50 goals and 69 assists. Would be pretty cool to see him hit 50 and 70.

QUOTE (LDF @ Jan 19, 2016 -> 11:11 PM) and here i was thinking of trading him for prospects and salary savings..... that would have been a huge mistake.... now i am thinking of who will step in when CC is done as a hawk. He's 31 years old with 4 years left on his contract which includes a no movement clause. I don't think we really need to be too concerned over who his successor will be quite yet.

I'm not the biggest fan of GarPax, but this thread is hilarious. Faulting them for not signing the big free agents? They've made the attempt and have offered max contracts. If the player they want doesn't want to sign there what are they supposed to do? Sure they've made a couple bad trades but what GM hasn't? If Derrick Rose's first ACL tear never happened we may be looking at GarPax's legacy completely different. They had back to back seasons as the number 1 seed in the East and failed in the playoffs. Hard to blame the guys upstairs for that.

QUOTE (ChiSoxFanMike @ Jan 16, 2016 -> 11:17 AM) Is this the biggest thread in the history of this forum? The Peavy for Avi trade thread was 4126 posts.

QUOTE (HickoryHuskers @ Jan 12, 2016 -> 02:32 PM) Funniest thing I've ever heard a student section do. This was at MSU hockey games: Students (at approx. 1:05 left in a period): Hey, Jerry, how much time? PA Announcer (presumably named Jerry): One minute, one minute remaining in the period Students: Thank you. This is done every period at Dubuque Fighting Saints of the USHL games.

http://m.mlb.com/cws/video/v3573498/ramire...o-break-the-tie His greatest moment with the Sox. I have a framed, autographed picture of this moment hanging on my wall. Picture was taken just after he dropped the bat when he has his hands up in the air.

QUOTE (bjm676 @ Jan 15, 2016 -> 09:43 AM) Must be nice to bad at your job, but still bring home $2 mil. He's one of the best few hundred individuals in the world at his given profession which is part of a multi billion dollar industry. That is why he still gets paid $2 million per year.

QUOTE (Buehrle>Wood @ Jan 15, 2016 -> 08:14 AM) Teahen was actually better at the plate when we extended him than Lawrie is now. Teahen sucked defensively but Lawrie may too at 2b. Way to early to give him an extension. Teahen had averaged -0.4 fWAR for the two years before the Sox traded for and extended him. He had put up wRC+ seasons of 86 and 90 and was an absolute butcher in the field. He rated as a pretty marginal base runner. Lawrie has put up an average of 1.1 fWAR for the two years before the Sox traded for him. He had put up wRC+ seasons of 103 and 94 and rated as a very strong defender in 2014 and had a bad defensive 2015 which may possibly be because of the shuffling around between 3rd and 2nd. He also rated as a positive base runner in both years. In the two years prior to their acquisitions Lawrie was better in every facet of the game.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Jan 14, 2016 -> 10:15 PM) If he's in his 30s, he'll have a bounceback year. Minnie's death ruined him. I never understand why fans think certain guys can bounce back (hopes for Dunn back in the day and now LaRoche and many assume Melky will return to stardom) but some guys can't return to greatness (Lexi)? A big reason why guys like LaRoche and Dunn had a better chance to bounce back was because their value was based almost entirely on their power and ability to get on base. Those things tend to age well. Alexei's value is primarily based on speed and defense at a premium position. Those things tend to not age well.

QUOTE (Buehrle>Wood @ Jan 15, 2016 -> 06:53 AM) Any extension sounds like Mark Teahen all over again. Why? They're not even close to being the same player.