sunofgold

It is making me think. It could be an interesting scenario. Maybe could schedule 2 games on some days, cuBS in the afternoon, White Sox at night. Would make it easy to see a baseball double feature. Maybe they could offer White Sox season ticket holders some extra tickets at a discount. Would give White Sox fans a chance to see more National League teams and cheer against the cuBS at the same time. The Marlins coming into US Cell would be cool to watch. Cheer on Ozzie. Make Buehrle would get a start here. Still I don't want to see a good cuBS team that year. They would have to suck to make it work for me. The worse their home record that year the sweeter it would be to watch. Ideally they would go like 30-51 at home.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Feb 14, 2012 -> 01:43 PM) Roger Bossard laughs at your worries. Doesn't he use the off days to work on the fields. If the Cubs play on our off days, then when is he going to work on the field? Extra wear and tear, less time to work on the field and less time for it to recover (in particular the grass portions)

I am not really excited about this possibility. Wouldn't the extra play do damage to the field?

Does this bring us some more fans in Japan? Isn't Fukudome fairly popular in Japan? I liked having Japanese players on our team in the past like Shingo and Iguchi. Usually have been taught good fundamentals (which some of our players lack) and they play hard. Grinders. haha! And how cannot you like the dude's name..Kosuke Fukudome. I just hope that those karate headbands don't show up from the North.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Feb 14, 2012 -> 12:15 PM) Benching Gordo doesn't hurt his value or admit failure? I wouldn't bench Beckham. Play him or trade him. Hope that he corrects his hitting woes. If not, there might be a team out there that thinks that they can correct him and he does play stellar defense.

I wouldn't trade Lillibridge. I don't think KW will. He spoke praises for Lillibridge after he traded for him. Seems like a player that KW loves. However with KW, you never know. Also, Lillibridge doesn't cost that much and while a lot of teams are interested I don't see us getting a lot back for him. And Lillibridge deserves more playing time to see how well he performs. And since Lillibridge can play so many different positions, it would hurt us to trade him.

QUOTE (robinventura23 @ Feb 14, 2012 -> 11:59 AM) Have them play @ Alexian Field. It has the same dimensions of Wrigley, anyway. Or Thillen's. Nice North side stadium. I played there.

Glad that we didn't get Cespedes especially at that price. Cespedes could turn out to be the new Fukudome..expensive but not close to a superstar player. Ironically, we got Fuku now for a lot less $$$. A's are gambling here.

However, there is some risk. I know that it hard to imagine but what if the Cubs have a miracle season that year and make the playoffs. Do we really want Cubs playoff games at the Cell? That would make me sick. If I was guaranteed that the Cubs would be in last place that year and lose the majority of their games at the Cell...and we make money off of it..then I am 'All In'.

QUOTE (Princess Dye @ Feb 14, 2012 -> 11:36 AM) Lillibridge could start at 2b for this team. Build up his value that way for half a year and maybe he's traded, maybe he just sticks here as cheap labor. While Beckham's defense could entice teams, I just don't see us trading him anytime soon. Once you held onto him during AGon negotiations, you pretty much anchored yourself to him. Trading him now for a prospect would be an admission of failure. So you can experiment with Lilli since he's been trending upwards. It doesn't hurt you to sit Gordon. You could say it hurts Gordon's development, but how long do we want to say that? Sample sizes are growing. This is Beckham's make it or break it year. Moving Lillibridge into utility IF role would be good. I look at Lillibridge as Beckham's possible replacement. Fuku is mainly a corner OF, but I like the price and this signing. Also have to look at a possible OF of Fuku, DeAza, and Viciedo. If Rios cannot pull his weight, bench him! Fuku has a career .360 OBP. On the bad side, he strikes out too much and isn't a RBI machine.

It is baseball season. Mariners had catchers and pitchers report little bit earlier b/c of their games in Japan. A's (their opponent in Japan) cannot afford to do the same.

Maybe we got this guy to throw batting practice. Help boost the confidence of our hitters. Just kidding. The scouts probably saw a good, strong arm. This guy has some baseball experience. You never know. It could benefit him that he hasn't pitched in awhile. No bad habits to break. Our coaches can start from scratch with him. He isn't the first athlete to try a different sport. Even Michael Jordan played some ball with us. Bo Jackson did too.

If Pirates offered Jackson a 3 year deal anywhere near $30M, he should have taken it. However are the Pirates really throwing that kind of money around? Their team salary was around $45-$46M last year.

Orlando Magic should be able to beat the Clippers tonight, right? Why is everybody else telling me the Clippers are going to win tonight. Am I missing something? Dwight Howard distraction factor?

All In. Well, what do you know. Our marketing slogan worked.

QUOTE (Swingandalongonetoleft @ Feb 5, 2012 -> 02:16 PM) Word on the street is that the 2011 White Sox drove him to the airport and chipped in for airfare. I guess if you take out his starts against the White Sox he would be 8-11 and that ERA would be going up. White Sox also helped Verlander win that MVP. Except we did pin one loss on Verlander. He was 5-1 against us.

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20...lb&c_id=mlb I heard the deal is worth $3M plus incentives for one year deal. Surprised that no major league team woulda match that. I know that he had a bad season last year but still could eat some innings and possible fill a long reliever/insurance starter role. A fifth starter type for $3Mish isn't a bad deal for one year. Tigers went 5-0 against us when Penny started, thus maybe this helps us that Penny isn't going to be on the Tigs.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Feb 3, 2012 -> 09:34 PM) That 3 run homer he hit off Matt Thornton gave the Rays their first lead in any game of the year, which was after they had already broken the record for longest string of innings to start a season having never held a lead. That is true. I forgot about their bad start. Thus basically Dan Johnson jump started their season and then helped them at the end to get into the playoff . Tied the score at 7 with two outs in the ninth against the Yankees. Seems to be well liked by Rays fans. Except for one Rays fan who got hit in the groin by Johnson's last HR as a Ray.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Feb 3, 2012 -> 09:27 PM) I think he would back up 3B about as well as Ryan Braun could back up 3B. True. But who else do we have? Dallas Macpherson might be the only other guy.

QUOTE (Swingandalongonetoleft @ Feb 3, 2012 -> 11:24 PM) KW should try flipping Dunn for EJax. That sounds good. Then take Ejax and trade him to Arizona for Hudson. That would restore order in the universe.

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Feb 3, 2012 -> 05:32 PM) I agree with you. Plus, it's possible that Greinke, Cain, & Hamels are all free agents next off-season. Do you really want to compete with those guys for FA money? He took the $10-$11M one year deal b/c that it what he wants per season. If he has a great season then maybe he will find a multiyear contract in that range. He might have been offered a 3 years deal but it might have been around $21-24M. Orioles were a team that was interested but I doubt that they were going up to $30M for 3 years. And the Nationals are looking like an improving team but there is no guarantee that they are going to contend this year. They never have contended in Washington. They are in a very tough divison where they could easily be decent but finish in 4th place. Kinda like the Blue Jays.

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Feb 3, 2012 -> 03:50 PM) Decent cash in the end for Edwin. I'd have taken the $30 million, though, if that report is accurate. I call bs on the 3 years for $30M. If he turned that down to play for a contender, then that means a non-contending team offered him $30M for 3 years. I cannot think of a non-contender that would offer that amount. Until I hear a team associated with that offer, I don't believe it is true. And why would he turn down $30/3 years for a non-contending team. Wouldn't he make that team better and maybe over 3 years they could be contending team. And EJ got a ring last year. It isn't like he has been on a losing team every year. He was also on the 2008 Rays that went to the World Series. And he is 28 years old. After a 3 year contract he would be 31 years old. He could have taken a big contract with a 'non-contender' and then focused on being with a contender after that contract. And he might have been traded the last year to a team in a pennant race. Oh yeah. I forgot. There is some irony of EJAX going to Washington. Didn't we trade to work a three way trade with the Nationals when we traded Hudson for EJAX. We were trying to get Dunn from the Nationals.

Dan Johnson will make the roster as a surprise. Nobody else really available to backup at 3B and he provides a left-handed power bat.

The article said that something like 7 of his 11 home runs with the Rays either tied the score or gave the Rays the lead. He hit one the last game of the season against the Yankees. He hit one against Matt Thornton (3 run home run) last year in the ninth early in the season to give Rays a 9-7 lead and eventually the win.

He has hit some clutch HRs in his career. If he is healthy, this could be a nice UTR signing. However, last year he hit below the 2011 Dunn Line with his bad wrist.