cabiness42

That statement is 100% true, but unfortunately, Dan Johnson is not capable of playing any of the positions occupied by Wise, Viciedo, or Ramirez. Find a guy with Dan Johnson's offensive skills that can play somewhere other than 1B, and that's what the team needs.

If the Sox offered AJ 1 year/$12M he would sign the deal before the printer was finished spitting it out.

Scoring 713 at the Oakland Colosseum is a far better offensive performance than scoring 748 at US Cellular Field.

No, it's based on the average salary of the top 125 players, which is something around $12M. It no longer has anything to do with the player's previous salary.

Under the new CBA, a qualifying offer has to be something like $12M, which isn't happening. Only player the Sox might get a pick for is Peavy.

Who are big market teams in the AL that need a DH? Baltimore? Boston?

I don't see any team offering AJ $15M guaranteed. I want him back, but not for more than $6.5M for one year or $11.5M for two. If some other team will beat those offers then they can have him. As much as I like him he is going to be 36 next year.

In 31 plate appearances over 14 games, Dan Johnson surpassed Dayan Viciedo and Gordon Beckham in offensive WAR.

Yeah, except that the Sox got him as that on a minor league deal. They didn't have to carry him on the ML roster before September 1 unless Dunn/Konerko had significant DL time. This time around, there is a good chance somebody is going to offer him a major league deal.

I watched poker instead of the debates. It's still two guys who are full of s*** lying to each other, but it's much more entertaining.

The way we have structured the agreement, the contract is for 3 years, and at the end of the contract he will have $4000 credit towards the purchase that he loses if he doesn't buy, so I'm not going to be upset if he doesn't. The housing market can't be worse in 3 years than it is now, and I'd have $4k profit.

Wow, I can't believe Frank only did it once.

Because I think the majority of Sox fans believe that more media attention = higher attendance = higher payroll = better team.

Only four of his 340 career defensive appearances have been in the outfield.

Oakland led MLB in team strikeouts and they won 94 games. The Sox had 184 fewer strikeouts than Oakland and won 85 games. Oakland had a K/BB ratio of 2.52, the Sox had a K/BB ratio of 2.61. Maybe sometime this decade people will realize that K/BB ratio matters more than strikeout totals. Sox K/BB ratios: Konerko 1.48 Youk 1.86 Dunn 2.11 Beckham 2.23 De Aza 2.32 AJ 2.79 Rios 3.54 Viciedo 4.29 Ramirez 4.81

I think Dan Johnson has shown that he can be a valuable bench bat for an NL team, and if it's not the Cubs, I'll wish him well. There just isn't a place on an AL bench for a guy who can only play 1B/DH.

Rangers are now under .500 since acquiring Dempster/Soto. I guess they forgot to have them de-Cubbed before leaving Chicago.

Selling our house on a rent-to-own contract. Anybody have any experience in buying/selling a house in this manner?

Hudson 4 Wise 9 Konerko DH Viciedo 7 Johnson 3 Lopez 5 Gimenez 2 Danks 8 Olmedo 6 Floyd 1

There are plenty of things to do to get more people to Sox games. (1) Special online promotions: On <DATE>, anybody who buys at least 4 tickets to a Sox game for the next homestand will receive a $5 discount on a prepaid parking pass. On <DATE>, anybody who buys at least 4 tickets to a Sox game for the next homestand will receive two Buy-One-Get-One Free coupons good for any food item at a concession stand. (2) Mobile Ticket Van: On <DATE> the new Sox Mobile Ticket Van (and two lovely Chevy Pride Crew Girls) will be at <LOCATION> and anybody who buys at least 4 tickets to a Sox game for the next homestand will receive 10% off the face value ticket price (plus no Ticketmaster charges!) (3) Radio Affiliate Head-to-Head Battles: On <DATE 1>, Sox radio affiliates in <CITY 1> and <CITY 2> will be selling tickets to the Sox home game on <DATE 2> at special discounted group rates. As an added bonus, the city that sells the most tickets will receive a free hot dog at the game. Another thing that will help is to be able to have more night games on Saturday. If JR has any pull at all in negotiating the next FOX contract, he needs to push for fewer night games for FOX, because night games on FOX force the Sox to play day games. I haven't looked, but I'd guess that attendance for Saturday day games lags well behind Saturday night games.

If Rios, Dunn, and Danks are unacceptable contracts, then you should be prepared to have a team that never has an above average player with more than six years service time.

Define bad contract? My definition of a bad contract is that you could go out and sign a free agent who could perform just as well for less money. Konerko is owed $13.5M for one year (with the money spread out). You might be able to get a 1B with an .853 OPS for less than that, but not much less. Rios is owed $25M for two years. You certainly aren't getting a corner OF with an .850 OPS for that. Even if you assume Rios regresses to an .800 OPS, $25M is still at or below market value for two years. Dunn is owed $30M for two years. Probably overpaid if he can't get his OPS over .800, but you can't replace 41 home runs from the DH spot very cheaply. Danks is owed $42.75M for three years. Definitely below market value if he recovers from injury and becomes the old John Danks. Ramirez is owed $26.5M for three years. Probably the worst contract the Sox have. That's a lot to pay for a .651 OPS no matter how good the defense is. Thornton and Crain have $5.5M and $4.5M for one year each. Probably overpaying a bit for relievers that don't close, but only one year left on those contracts. So there is only one contract that I would call really bad at this point. As for the young talent part, there is quite a bit in the system but none that will be able to contribute in 2013. It may be a challenge to compete in 2013 but things start looking up a lot soon after that.

I know a lot of Chicago transplants from Michigan. They aren't Cubs fans because of Wrigley Field or Harray Caray or anything like that. They're Cubs fans because they've grown up as Tigers fans who hate the Sox. That aspect is never going to change. Same will apply to transplants from Minnesota, Northern Ohio, or (unless they are younger) Milwaukee.

Washington has tiebreaker over Cincy.

Boston?