lasttriptotulsa

QUOTE (timbo @ Jan 17, 2014 -> 04:55 PM) This off topic but why didn't the angels get hahn when they were looking for gm Who knows. Hahn was near the top of a lot of teams lists for a lot of years and was never hired.

QUOTE (Baron @ Jan 17, 2014 -> 05:19 PM) Thanks.....didnt see the Heyman thing a few pages ago. Really cool...that should make everyone a little more optimistic. Yep. Heyman is one of the best in the biz i think.

QUOTE (almagest @ Jan 17, 2014 -> 10:35 AM) Speaking of Iguchi, he's still playing in Japan. And playing well too. He had a .297/.390/.511 slash with 23 HRs and 83 RBIs last year.

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Jan 17, 2014 -> 10:01 AM) lol, they just came in and said "Nintendo owns us. Sign here" Maybe that was the problem. They didn't do their research and had no clue that Tanaka is an X-Box guy and hates Nintendo.

QUOTE (ptatc @ Jan 17, 2014 -> 09:29 AM) I don't think so. JR has a history of allowing money for a special player but not willing to extend it for someone else. They must think Tanaka is a special player. I don't see any other current free agent as a "special player." I think the only thing that may happen if the Sox do not get him is a trade for a catcher, if that. Agree 100%. It seems like a lot of teams will go out and overspend on someone else just because they missed out on their guy, but that is totally not a JR, KW, RH type move. If they don't get Tanaka, they will more than likely wait for the next special player to come along. The Sox are one of the few teams that don't spend money just to spend money.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Jan 17, 2014 -> 08:47 AM) JR still came out way ahead on that deal. MJ made JR a lot more money than JR could pay MJ. I don't doubt that at all. The point I was making is that Jordan playing baseball really didn't cost Jordan that much money as he was still getting his basketball salary and still had tons of endorsement deals.

QUOTE (pittshoganerkoff @ Jan 17, 2014 -> 08:31 AM) I think the fact that the Sox are even involved is quite telling on what direction the team is heading. I can't imagine the Sox even being interested in a potential $140 million guy a few years ago. I'm sure that the $20 million max posting fee is a big factor, but the moves the Sox have made since the Garcia acquisition has shown that they are truly focused on building for the future. Bringing in Tanaka on a 7-year deal (even at $20 million per) would help to solidify the future even more. That being said, I'd still be very surprised if the Sox end up signing him. There's no doubt they will be outbid, so the hope is that Tanaka doesn't sign somewhere JUST for the money. I think in most cases, foreign players are going to sign wherever they get the biggest offer. Their knowledge of MLB teams, facilities, coaching staffs, players, etc. is not going to be anywhere near what a current MLB free agent's is. If a team like the Sox is going to be able to sign these players when they don't offer the biggest contract (Abreu was a rare case of the Sox offering the most money), they better do their damndest to try and sell the team the best they can. I imagine it's hard to sell a foreign, non english speaking player on a team that isn't offering the biggest contract.

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Jan 17, 2014 -> 07:19 AM) Just as plausible as the GOAT walking away from all of that money in the middle if his prime, right? And then choosing to play minor league baseball when he got that itch to compete When Jordan left to play baseball, Reinsdorf honored his basketball contract and paid Jordan $4 million to be a minor league player.

I thought for sure when I opened this thread it was going to be somebody calling for the Sox to sign Pods as a 4th outfielder or something. Certain people around here just can't let 2005 go even though it was 9 seasons ago. If I have to hear one more time how the loss of AJ was the reason the team was so bad last year, I'm going to go crazy.

Kershaw's deal makes me realize more and more just what a steal we got with the Chris Sale extension. Assuming he stays healthy in 2014 and puts up a similar season as 2013, he will have put up a fWAR of 10.2 in the first two years of the contract. Assuming around $5 million in value per 1 WAR, he will have already provided the Sox with $51 million in value. His entire contract, even with the two option years will only pay him $57.5 million. It's not out of line at all to say that if he remains healthy for the duration of the contract, the Sox will have gotten him at about 1/3 cost to value. And that's without even factoring in inflation and rising salaries across the league.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Jan 16, 2014 -> 09:13 AM) Did you guys know that basketballs are orange? An official NBA basketball is definitely brown, not orange.

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ Jan 16, 2014 -> 08:53 AM) lmao. Is Bieber even 20 yet? How much money was Mike makin' at 20? You just forced me to stick up for Bieber. Shame on you. Seriously? Jordan was 20 years old in 1983, not 2014. Completely different world.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Jan 16, 2014 -> 08:13 AM) You guys seriously don't think Bieber is more famous than Jordan? Bieber is the most famous person on the planet right now. And then I see J4L said the exact same thing. First of all, we are talking at their peak. I'll never believe that Bieber is more famous/popular now than Jordan was up until his retirement. If you took a poll of people in this country and just asked them if they knew who Justin Bieber was, I'd bet money that more people could tell you who Jordan is or who Oprah is. And to say Bieber is more famous than Obama would be ludicrous. The vast majority of the world's population could tell you who Obama is.

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ Jan 16, 2014 -> 04:55 AM) Justin Bieber is more popular than Michael Jordan ever was and I can't go 13 seconds without some kinda controversial (fake or not) story about him on yahoo, omg, tmz, facebook, twitter, etc, etc, etc. What might've worked in 1995 sure as f*** wouldn't work today. This is so not true. Maybe he is amongst 13 year old girls but that is it. At Jordan's peak he was arguably the most famous/popular person on the planet.

QUOTE (TheTruth05 @ Jan 15, 2014 -> 01:34 PM) 1.Yanks-Pitching desperation for Yanks,history 2.Mariners-location 3.Sox-future and exciting plan 4.Cubs-would have to blow away tanaka in cash. I really think a lot of that you can throw out the window. Tanaka is probably going to go wherever the most money is.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Jan 15, 2014 -> 12:00 PM) I actually agree. You need to leave yourself SOME room for flexibility. That team would be looking at the possibility of costing like $250-300 million in short order including luxury taxes. I still think he ends up with the Yankees. Their need is far greater than anybody else's and they can spend to make it happen. Personally, I think they'd be better allocating that money between Garza and Jimenez if they think they want to compete, but really, that team is closer to last place than they are first. I honestly think they'd be better tanking this year and trying to rebuild the team, but a 3 year contract to Beltran and a 5 year contract to McCann, along with all the other money tied up on the roster, prohibits that quite a bit. My money would be on the Yankees also, but I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if some dark horse team came in and swooped him up. I doubt it will be the Sox, but who knows. The new rules regarding the maximum posting fee really opened it up for more teams. If the posting fee was still in the $50 million range like it was for Darvish, you can bet the Sox would not even be considering signing him. The $20 million is doable for almost any club especially since it can be paid out over two years.

QUOTE (Thad Bosley @ Jan 15, 2014 -> 11:32 AM) So MLBTraderumors is reporting that Clayton Kershaw and the Dodgers are close on finalizing a seven year, $210M deal, which would be an average of a whopping $30M per year. As we've seen, the Tanaka rumors have him also going for seven years at $140M. That would be $50M committed per year for the forseable future to just two players if they extend Kershaw at that reported amount and sign Tanaka. That's simply mind boggling. Are they that financially mighty that they could pull that off without batting an eyelash, and that's not even considering the salaries of the other marquee players they'll inevitably have in tow. If so, that is really something, and not very promising news for other inhabitants of the National League West. I just don't see the Dodgers signing Tanaka. Between the Kershaw deal, the desire to extend Ramirez and all the other albatross contracts they have on the books (Ethier, Gonzalez, Beckett, Greinke, Kemp and Crawford) I just don't see where the money is going to come from. Beckett comes off the books after 2014, but the rest of the guys I believe are locked up through at least 2017 at around $103 million just for those 5 players. Add in the Kershaw, Tanaka and Ramirez contracts and you're talking $175 million+ for 8 players. I know the Dodgers are willing to spend, but I just don't see how that's doable for any franchise.

I'm pretty indifferent on Tanaka. If they sign him, great. If they don't, oh well. I really don't see it happening. The cost is going to be really high and then the team is just giving away $20 million on top of it. I think he'll end up being a better than average pitcher, but I've got nowhere near the excitement that I had when it came out that the Sox were in on Abreu.

QUOTE (Quinarvy @ Jan 9, 2014 -> 01:21 PM) Professional sports strikes suck. Frank's numbers in a 162 game season (by my own math): 54 HR 202 Hits 156 Walks 144 RBIs He really slumped at the start of the second half and was still on that pace. That's unbelievable. At the All Star break he was on pace for 61 HR 219 Hits 159 Walks 147 RBIs Top that off with a slash line of .383/.515/.795 and you're talking possibly the greatest season of all time. As good as he was, he would have come out of his little mini slump and probably ended up with a slash line very close to his all star break levels. My god was that man a beast.

http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/10231471...all-fame-ballot ESPN unveils their ballots. Maddux and Frank were unaminous.

QUOTE (Middle Buffalo @ Jan 5, 2014 -> 06:23 PM) Refs miss holding on virtually every play, but I don't understand how buck and aikman cann see the Rodgers replay twice and not point out the obvious hold on the play that allowed Rodgers to escape. It has to be an nfl mandate. Aikman did point it out.

QUOTE (chw42 @ Jan 5, 2014 -> 06:07 PM) You take what you get, but don't act like that holding call was somehow fair to the Packers. I agree theyre letting the Pack get away with a lot but there has also been numerous PIs not called on SF.

You guys are a bunch of whiners. They havent called anything on either team all game so get over it.

Forecast in Green Bay for Sunday keeps dropping. Now they're saying a high of -3 and a low of -18. I might be going. Boy is that going to be fun. Have to bust out my deer hunting clothes.

It wouldn't be a bad move for the Bears to still draft a QB, but I wouldn't use a 1st or 2nd round pick on one unless one falls in their lap like Rodgers did with the Packers. Draft one in the later rounds and if he shows something in a couple years, you can consider moving Cutler.