DBAHO

The funny thing is in all of this, did the Sox not know about BA's poor attitude to apply himself when they traded Chris Young and Aaron Rowand in that 1 off-season. Sure his number in AAA in 2005 were good, hence most of us thought, yeah he could be ok for us starting in 2006. But some people at the time were saying his swing needed a lot of fixing. Or did they just think that by giving him the starting job, he would change? Because obviously that 1 decision has caused this franchise a lot of angst.

QUOTE(ptatc @ Dec 9, 2007 -> 03:26 PM) Of all of the options out there, Willlits maybe my favorite. He's basically a better version of Jerry Owens, so his OPS isn't going to wow you. But as a leadoff hitter, that's not going to matter. A .391 OBP last season with a 83/69 K/BB ratio. So maybe he played above himself last season, but if the price was right, I think he would be ideal as a leadoff hitter. Think he can handle CF ok as well (not sure how good his arm is though). Konerko for Kotchman and Willits (maybe we'd have to chuck in something else there possibly), really intrigues me right now. You save about $10M in salary, and that money could be used in a few different ways. You trade Uribe, that's around $15M you free up.

So I guess we're hoping like hell that the Angels decide to acquire Scott Rolen. I still like the idea of making a run at Reggie Willits if Figgins isn't available though.

Yeah Tsyzu was basically a legend down here, so when Hatton beat him, it showed he was certainly no slouch. So I'll be rootin for Hatton.

QUOTE(FlaSoxxJim @ Dec 7, 2007 -> 07:14 AM) I'm still trying to work out how anybody gets involved in a conversation in which the subject is whether you would bang Hall from Hall and Oates. . . And for the record, I would not. I can't go for that. No can do. I thought Lois Griffin had a thing for Oates?

Meh, still think Erica Blasberg is better.

I saw this little blurb on Ramirez as well;

QUOTE(fathom @ Dec 7, 2007 -> 03:07 PM) Babich really needs to get fired, as well as Turner, the second the season ends. Wonder how Ron Rivera feels right now?

Doesn't matter how good of a shape he is in etc. He's starting the year in AAA, and the best hope that he has is if one of either Owens or Quentin don't hit well (and that's if we don't sign another high priced OF). His days here really should be numbered and probably are. A team that needs a CF such as Minny, Texas etc. may take a look at him and try to get him on the cheap. For that reason alone, it's probably worth just hanging onto him and seeing if he can rebuild his value somewhat.

QUOTE(Kalapse @ Dec 7, 2007 -> 03:04 PM) 2007 splits: vs RHB: .320/.392/.527/.919 vs LHB: .123/.215/.142/.356 Not bad Well the likes of Konerko, Dye and Fields must be licking their lips then. Those splits are just truly insane. Surely you'd just load the lineup with RHH against him.

Well that's a good point, considering how bad we are against stud LHP. It'd be pretty welcome on the Southside if we didn't have to face both Santana and Miller in 2008. Of course if Dontrelle rebounds, then we're back at square one.

Also I don't really want to bring this up, how do you think the ego's of the likes of Konerko, Buehrle, and Thome etc. are going to be, if they were to be outpaid by a guy who could hit around .230 the previous season? Surely, there'd be some sort of resentment there?

QUOTE(kapkomet @ Dec 7, 2007 -> 02:45 PM) MMMMMMMMMkay. People with that type of attitude should just follow the Yankees or Red Sox FFS.

QUOTE(WCSox @ Dec 7, 2007 -> 08:34 AM) Perhaps, but it's only a $36 million investment. Hunter was a $90 million investment. I would've been very happy to have Jones at $18 mil for two years. Ok so say we did offer him 36M over 2 seasons. Would he have signed with us instead of the Dodgers? I highly doubt it, for these main reasons. 1 - He wanted to stay in the NL. Has a comfort level there. 2 - The Dodgers are more likely to be better in 2008 then the Sox are. Well talent wise they are. So I'd think we would off had to offer him at least 40/2 to bring him to the Southside. And considering his subpar 2007 numbers, and the fact that we don't want another slugger in the lineup when we already have a slow 3-4-5 core of Thome, Konerko and Dye, I can see why we didn't go down this route. There are better fits out there on the market for us trade wise. Nate McLouth for example. I can't recall if Luke Scott can handle CF or not, but the guy has around an .850 OPS in a couple of season at the major league level.

QUOTE(witesoxfan @ Dec 7, 2007 -> 12:26 PM) Because Richar is better than him. And, honestly, why on earth would you even ask that question? What value does Willie Harris bring to the team that Danny Richar does not? What hope for the future does Harris bring that Richar does not? WHY ON EARTH DO PEOPLE WANT A NEW 2BMAN WHEN THE SOX ARE GOING TO BE TERRIBLE ANYWAYS? This is what gets to me about this site; why on earth would you search for a veteran replacement over the young player when neither is clearly superior or inferior to the other? It appears the Darin Erstad effect has taken over all of Soxtalk. It's simple Wite. Danny Richar is the Javier Vazquez of the 2006 off-season.

So is there ANYWHERE the Bears don't need upgrades on for the offensive side of the ball (and that's including coaching staff).

QUOTE(WHarris1 @ Dec 7, 2007 -> 11:40 AM) It should have been made the day of World Series game 1 in 05... Do you still wear shorts in cold weather Willie?

I'd definitely take JV over Willis quite easily. One is going forward, the other isn't. And you have to consider the ballpark Vazquez pitched in and still had a sub 4 ERA, compared to Willis in an extreme pitchers park in the NL, and he couldn't come close to that. Vazquez's 2006 was actually fairly decent as well, the 2nd half of the season showed that he was going to do well in 2007, and I remember telling a lot of doubters about him this time last off-season that. In fact, they thought he was the most expendable SP we had at the time (my how times have changed). Rogers is solid, but I see him having an ERA around what Garland had this year, something close to 4.50. Robertson too. Bonderman has the potential to put up something below 4, but I don't see that happening, unless he makes a big leap forward in terms of sonsistency and actually putting together a whole season. As for our pitchers, I'll be very happy if Floyd and Danks can put up an ERA below 5. I see it happening for 1 of them, but not both. Contreras is the biggest wildcard. He could do anything, but I'm not terribly optimistic about him. Had a decent finish to 2007 though, which his supporters such as Dick are pointing out. Let's hope he can do what Vazquez did then.

QUOTE(Rowand44 @ Dec 7, 2007 -> 11:15 AM) Heads and I still haven't met, thus this thread should never have been bumped. I'm sure he'd probably try and whip you with a wet towel or something.

Should I talk about the time I met Gage? We talked about how Chris Young was going to be good at Angel Stadium. It was great.

QUOTE(rockren @ Dec 7, 2007 -> 10:58 AM) Kemp could be a big power guy. When MB's name was being bounced in the rumor mill last off-season, Kemp's name came up a lot as a primary part of a package from LA. I'm pretty sure they'd rather keep Kemp instead of Ethier, just because of the power potential Kemp has. Kemp would probably cost us DLS (unless we were willing to trade Konerko, they could move Loney to RF again). I think they've been rumored still to be after a third baseman though, and Crede could be a good fit for them. Still a lot of question over Andy LaRoche's back, so if they let him have a good season in AAA for a whole year, and then they can either trade him or promote him depending on how well Crede does in 2008. Crede for Ethier, maybe with us giving up one of our bullpen arms possibly (may have to throw in a prospect as well).

QUOTE(Brian @ Dec 7, 2007 -> 09:08 AM) What do they do with Juan Pierre? If they were smart, they'd dump him on any takers. But instead they'll move him to LF, and probably make Andre Ethier available. Jason knows a lot more about him than I do, but if he could handle CF, he would be an excellent target for a trade. Not a big power guy, but he's basically a more advanced version of Ryan Sweeney 2 or 3 years from now. Good BA and good OBP. Fairly comparable to Matt Murton I guess.

So just imagining that we did sign him. Do we start him at 2B instead of Richar and have Owens lead-off, or do we give him the CF job and let someone such as Cabrera lead-off instead?

QUOTE(rockren @ Dec 7, 2007 -> 10:07 AM) Regarding salary differences...I don't think it's HORRIBLE to take Floyd over Willis. I watched Willis pitch an over/under of 10 times last year. He's never looked that bad in his career. He threw 85 or 86 every time I saw him and his off-speed (slider) looked like nothing. D-Train will get hammered as the year goes on in the AL and will be a Long Reliever before too long. And if Floyd can prove his last 2 months of 2007 wasn't a fluke, then yeah so would I. But that's a BIG IF though. But who knows, Willis may find himself revitalized in Detroit, but then again he may look the same pitcher he's been recently, and that's one on a downward slope, because hitters have figured out his stuff and funky delivery.

It is all going to come down to pitching for Detroit, and to be honest, I'd be a little worried if I was a Tigers supporter. Jones would be in the bottom 5 of closers in the whole league. It's only been because Zumaya's injured that he hasn't lost his job. Zumaya missing half the season at least is really going to hurt them. Who else do they have there. Grilli? Rodney? It's not exactly stocked with great talent in there. And then with the SP's, beside Verlander, all of the other 4 could be league average at best. Rogers is getting older and older, Bonderman has issues with inconsistency even though he should be dominant, Robertson regressed in 2007, while who knows what Willis will do moving to the AL. So they could very well end up being a mirror image of the Sox of 2006 in 2008. Win around 90 games, and have a very good offense, but it ends up being the pitching that costs them when it's all said and done. But ATM I don't see the Sox winning 90 games in 2008 (without at least 2-3 upgrades at CF, the back end of the rotation and the bullpen), and I doubt we'll see all of those happening.