DBAHO

QUOTE(Tony82087 @ Dec 1, 2006 -> 11:18 AM) I am looking at the case of that game right now. "Virtua Tennis" was the name of the game. Without a doubt one of the best sports games ever. There's never been a better tennis game since that game (they even made it into an arcade game), and I don't think there will be for a long, long time. The controls and shots worked perfectly on that game.

QUOTE(Balta1701 @ Dec 2, 2006 -> 03:49 PM) Applause. If we're trading talent...get pitching in return. Do not sacrifice young pitching for young hitting. Do the opposite if you want to win. You cannot stress this message enough. Get good young pitching. Draft it, develop it, trade for it, but whatever way you can, just get it. Because well if you would rather pay around $10M a season for a Gil Meche in FA rather than pay under $500,000 for a Brandon McCarthy (who would be under your control for another 4 to 5 seasons), well I don't know what to think.

QUOTE(jackie hayes @ Dec 2, 2006 -> 06:55 PM) I'd love to see this list of "similar" relievers available who don't lose you picks. Ok. Aaron Fultz - LHP from the Phillies. Arbitration declined. Arthur Rhodes - LHP from the Phillies. Arbitration declined. Rick White - (yes I know that Rick White, but he had sort of similar numbers to Riske in his Phillies stint). Arbitration declined. Matt Herges - RHP from the Marlins. Arbitration declined. Jose Mesa - Arbitration declined from the Rockies. Mike DeJean - Arbitration declined from the Rockies. Ray King - Arbitration declined from the Rockies. LaTroy Hawkins - Arbitration declined from the Orioles. Steve Kline - Arbitration declined from the Giants. Eric Gagne - Arbitration declined from the Dodgers. David Weathers - Arbitration declined from the Reds. Kent Mercker - Arbitration declined from the Reds. Rudy Seanez - Arbitration declined from the Padres. Octavio Dotel - Arbitration declined from the Yankees. Russ Springer - Arbitration declined from the Astros. All of those guys today weren't offered arbitration by their respective teams, so they won't cost a draft pick to sign. QUOTE(Gene Honda Civic @ Dec 2, 2006 -> 07:06 PM) Riske is better than LaTroy Hawkins who just got $3.5M for a year. I understand what you're saying. Offering Riske arbitration would have limited the suitors at free-agency, but when LaTroy is getting $3.5M/yr, Walker 4/year, and Baez is getting $6/year. Riske will sign for multiple years with somebody for more than the $2.5M he would have gotten at arbitration. The worst thing that happened if Riske accepted arbitration with the Sox was they paid him $1+M to pitch from April-June while one of the guys they wanted to be in the pen was sitting in Charlotte. The reward for paying him $1+M before they trade him possibly would be greater than the draft picks they would have received by offering him arbitration. It's win-win. The only way they lose is by not playing the game. Which apparently is what Williams and Co. chose to do. It's a HUGE mistake, and I don't really see how it can be argued any other way. I suppose the argument with Hawkins is that he has much better stuff than Riske, so the Rockies must obviously think it's in his head and that they can turn him around. Still the O's (probably worst run baseball organization in Baseball today) are stupid not to offer arbitration when he's only a Type B FA. And that's the main issue with offering Riske arbitration. He's a Type A Free Agent, so the team that signs him would have to surrender their 1st round pick to do so. So that basically means that no team is going to do that, when you can go out and sign a Russ Springer (who's better in my mind) to a similar sort of contract without having to give up a draft pick. The Sox obviously thought, they can't have a guy who's going to get over $1M on their roster, if they're not going to use him. And I mean the Sox only used him 6 times from September for a 6.00 ERA so the writing was obviously on the wall in terms of his future here.

So say if you're another team and you could sign a similar reliever to Riske, without giving up a draft pick, then well you would probably do that. So the Sox probably figure, if they offered arbitration and no-one wants to give up Riske, then well they have to keep him, because Riske will accept arbitration, and the Sox may have a guy like Charlie Haeger or David Aardsma in mind for Riske's role. Also it wasn't like Riske had a great season, and he's not very good at striking out hitters, and had problems from time to time with walking guys. At least if you're the Orioles, you're trying to sign "quality" relievers, and although I don't like the $$$ and contracts they're giving out, Riske doesn't fall under that category.

Happy B-Day Zach!!!

I'm not a big Ross Gload fan. In fact I wanted him offf the 25 man roster at about May-June when he was hitting below 200, only had about 25AB's up to that point, and the fact we needed a RHH CF who could actually handle CF defensively. So I don't think if he was an everyday player he would put up good enough numbers to be a starter. We all know that Pods is starting for one reason and that's his speed. There are better options out there, but the question the Sox had to ask themselves, was it worth say signing a Ray Durham's who's older, and getting about $4M a season than Pods? Do they think Pods will return to his pre 2005 ASB numbers? The only way Pods is going to be effective is if he 100% healthy, and I cannot stress that enough. The Sox should and will be looking for upgrades, hence the Figgins interest for example (although some may argue that may not be such a huge upgrade).

QUOTE(T R U @ Dec 2, 2006 -> 11:48 AM) I hate Romo so much I thought you hated Bledsoe.

QUOTE(Tony82087 @ Dec 1, 2006 -> 09:34 AM) Where o' where is the rolly eyes and shake head smiley???? I got rid of it, specifically for this thread. I actually like Snowboarding, and well, that's about it when it comes to Snow.

QUOTE(Chisoxfn @ Dec 1, 2006 -> 09:45 AM) Not worth it. That deal makes us a lot worse. I'd like Soriano a lot more if he wasn't so damn prone to injury. And yes Clement was a top pick, but he's still a long ways away and I wouldn't consider him an upper echelon prospect as of this moment. Plus I am not a big fan of acquiring catching prospects considering there success rate is absolutely horrendous. You guys got to understand...crappy teams trade their better players for packages full of prospects that will have little effect on this years roster (and future years rosters) and most of the time those crappy teams stay crappy because those deals never pay off (plus they do lose a lot of those guys once they become good due to salary limitations). Ken Williams job right now is to make the Sox better. To make us a better team you do not get prospects a few years away from helping us. Now if you get prospects that could help us a bit this year as well as every day players that help us now, I can see that move making sense (helps us now and later) but none of these deals do that. Soriano would be nice out of the pen but I'm not trading Garcia for him. Realistically you're right, because Kenny wants to win now, and we'll only trade for prospects if they're almost ready to contribute and are most likely SP's. But the Sox need to understand that to continue to stay competitive in this division for the next 5-10 years they are going to have to keep working in young players into the mix to help give them payroll flexibility. We don't want to turn into the Yankees anytime soon, and that's why I get worried if you trade a Brian Anderson right now while his value is so low. But if I mean if we can get some SP's like Ervin Santana, or SP spects such as Danks or Hurley for Garcia I'll be very happy. My philosophy is a lot like Flash's in terms of bringing in young players, finding the best talent, and developing them.

QUOTE(mreye @ Dec 1, 2006 -> 02:15 AM) That's crap that Captain Feathersword doesn't get mentioned. He's way cooler than Dorothy the Dinosaur! He probably quit the group. Major tensions b/w him and the Dinosaur from what I heard.

Yeah I so couldn't live in Chicago. I complain enough about our winters down here in Melbourne, and we don't even get snow.

Rafael Soriano and Jeff Clement would be 2 guys I could see us certainly being interested in if we traded Garcia to Seattle. Maybe if the Sox decided to trade Uribe as well, they could go after either Lopez or Betancourt. Don't know if Lopez is capable enough defensively at SS though, but he's the better offensively out of the 2.

I know people have their heart set on Crawford, but in my mind if you get Santana, you keep both him and B-Mac. So some alternatives, what about Ryan Freel? Wayne Krivsky seems like the type of GM who would like a Scott Podsednik to me. He's from the Twins school of thought where you try to manufacture runs remember. And you know he loves his bullpen pieces. So I wonder if you could offer a package like Pods + a bullpen piece for Freel? It's probably not going to happen, but if the Reds don't resign Weathers, they'll want to sure that position in the pen I would imagine.

QUOTE(sox4lifeinPA @ Nov 30, 2006 -> 11:26 AM) how sad is your life if you're known as Yellow Wiggle #2? I wonder how his relationship with Yellow Wiggle #1 was?

QUOTE(BHAMBARONS @ Nov 30, 2006 -> 11:22 AM) I just hope we don't give up Gonzalez this kid already at 20 is raking. I do not think Callaspo will be an everyday player he doesn't have the power and he tends to hit to many fly balls. Everybody around here thinks he will be an everyday player I just don't see it. Gonzalez would probably become our best OF prospect. I rate him higher than a Sweeney because I think he'll hit for more power at the major league level, but they'll both be very, very good players. Owings and Gonzalez for Freddy. Only way I can see this though is if the Crede and Garcia for Figgins and Santana talks break down. I wonder if you offered Jon Garland instead though, what the D-Backs would add to that package that I've mooted there. Would have to beat the potential BA and Garland for Masset, Hurley and Danks deal.

QUOTE(southsider2k5 @ Nov 30, 2006 -> 06:41 AM) I bet he would look pretty hot behind the wheel of the big red car... imagine the chicks he could get? I know, it's pretty much the dream job you could want as a Aussie Boy growing up. Unfortunately the lead singer (Yellow guy Greg) is being replaced by his backup (don't know his name, but I hate the jerk for stealing my potential job already).

QUOTE(BHAMBARONS @ Nov 30, 2006 -> 09:44 AM) Deal on 890 today was Scott Hairston + Alberto Callaspo/Carlos Gonzalez for Garcia. I hope Josh Byrnes wouldn't consider trading Both Hairston and Gonzalez for Garcia. Hairston deserves a chance to become an everyday LF but he's Podsednik like in the field. IIRC he was once a 2nd baseman, although I assume he's too bad to play there. If we could get say Owings and Gonzalez for Garcia I'd probably jump at that (but if we wait we could possibly still get a better offer from someone). Don't know if Callaspo is good enough to become an everyday player or not.

QUOTE(Jordan4life_2006 @ Nov 29, 2006 -> 02:58 PM) Nice to know the Bulls are still clearly better than the Knicks. I bet you guys wished you could play against them for all 82 games.

Gotta say that's not the most appealing Santa I've ever seen.

So as for Seattle being interested in Freddy, how does a Lopez, Clement and Soriano deal for Garcia sound? EDIT: I'm prob askin for too much there. We may have to give up a SP spect like Wes Whisler in return as well.

QUOTE(VAfan @ Nov 29, 2006 -> 03:33 AM) Joe Crede ALONE is worth more than Santana and Figgins. Why do we always sell our own players so short on Soxtalk?? That's one of the funniest things I've heard all year. Seriously.

Jason,on Aybar, how do you think he projects as a future SS at the major league level, and if he was traded for now, could he contribute now at SS, with Uribe sliding over to 3B in 2007 (or vice versa)?

QUOTE(beautox @ Nov 29, 2006 -> 10:36 AM) hmm, nothing about his stats over at milb.com scream young power arm. I posted a week or 2 back (and R.Sweeney 8 can verify this), about Masset's Mexican Winter League stats as a closer, and there was an article on the Texas Rangers MLB site outlining his stuff such as a power sinker, and quality curve IIRC. Think he throws in the 95-96MPH range as well.

QUOTE(beautox @ Nov 29, 2006 -> 12:40 AM) What is so good about Massest? someone please enlighen me. Young Power arm out of the pen. Reminds me of Bobby Jenks a lot. Under our control for 5 seasons, so he's the type of guy the Sox would probably target.

At least the last sentence of that 1st paragraph shows that we aren't settling for just Figgins and Santana here (or at least that's what I hope). I want to throw up a scenario here. You make this trade (we get Aybar as well). You trade Garland and Anderson for Hurley, Danks and Masset. You then trade Vazquez for say Mike Pelfrey and another prospect. So we'll have 4 SP's in Buehrle, Contreras, Santana and B-Mac. We save $11M in the 1st deal, about $10M in the 2nd, and about $9M in the 3rd, shaving $30M off the payroll. Ryan Sweeney will take over at CF for Anderson. Figgins plays LF for Podsednik when Pods is traded. With the $30M you save (plus there's probably an additonal $10M in payroll as well), would you then try to sign a stud SP like Zito or Schmidt (or even Clemens on a short - term deal), or trade for a guy like Manny while Figgins takes over at 3rd. The Sox would never trade 3 of their SP's though. But I think with all of the stud SP's we acquire, in the long - term, it would be the best thing for this franchise to do. With that payroll room, we should still definitely be able to contend with a very good acquisition or 2.