DBAHO

QUOTE(whitesoxfan99 @ Feb 7, 2006 -> 04:13 PM) We got it deleted by having discussions about race. Which is quite sad really considering it's meant to be a BULLS thread.

Looks like the Francis deal is off. Apparently we would have gotten Crawford instead of Q-Rich, Nene and Voshon Lenard, with Francis and Ariza going to Denver, and I assume Martin to the Knicks. I want no part of Crawford though. Deal Francis for Penny's expiring contract for all I care.

QUOTE(Chisoxfn @ Feb 6, 2006 -> 06:59 AM) I liked it when it was all together, but thats just me. Sure we get a lot of Bulls talk here, but we also get mostly big 10 talk in the NCAA thread. That said you also have Rowand talking up his mid major, palehose and UNC, Jimbo and Kansas. Take it up with Spiff.

Well this is certainly interesting; You know my feelings on Francis, even though he's played quite well in the last few games. Just increasing his trade value though. Quentin Richardson does worry me though. He'd be perfect at SG for us with his outside shooting, but he's so frequently injured, and he's got about 4 years left on that contract. Gimme David Lee to backup Dwight Howard for the next 10 years though. And Peter Vecsey says it could be for real;

Can't really see the Red Sox being interested in that Manny package. They don't need Rivera since they just signed Dustan Mohr and Gabe Kapler for the 4th OF spots.

4-0 down to the Preds after 1. This team is a joke. Go Yotes.

After our loss to the Hawks today, I hope Otis Smith finally realizes that we're going nowhere. Every player except for Dwight Howard and Jameer Nelson should be available. We need more youth to build around, and upgrades are desperately needed at C and SG. I don't mind Tony Battie, but not as a starting center. He'd be a fairly good backup center though. Kelvin Cato, well his ass is certainly gonna be out the door, probably sooner rather then later. DeShawn Stevenson's got toughness I'll give him that. He's playing on a bum knee that if he had surgery today, would rule him out for about 6-8 months. But he's not a good shooter, and he doesn't get invovled in enough other things. Again, I don't mind keeping him as a bench player. We're only hitting 42.5% of our jump shots, and that's not good enough for the type of offense we play. We're giving up an extra 5.2 points on jump shots actually. We need a 2/3 that can put some pressure on the ball and generate some turnovers for the opposition. Rudy Gay has slipped down to #5 in the nbadraft.net rankings now. If he's at all available at our spot, they should grab him. J.J Redick's another option, but his lack of size and defense worries me immensely. The draft is very thin on quality bigs, so we're probably gonna have to try and fill that need there. I'd love to try and get Paul Pierce, but I don't think Ainge would be stupid enough (and yes I do realize it is Danny Ainge we're talkin about here) to take Steve Francis or even Grant Hill back in a deal.

QUOTE(SSH2005 @ Feb 4, 2006 -> 05:24 PM) I thought that KW wanted young, talented pitching that could help the White Sox now and in the future. Which why I would prefer having Milledge + Heilman + Dye instead of Abreu and Floyd. I think that definitely helps us more in the long - term, and you don't lose much at all in the short - term either, with Heilman and B-Mac for those 5th / swingman roles. But unless a team like Houston gets the Bagwell situation sorted and are able to trade for a guy like Jose and give up some good pitching spects, I don't know whether KW's gonna be able to get specifically what he wants.

QUOTE(kyyle23 @ Feb 4, 2006 -> 04:10 PM) No s***, I dont understand how Thomas can continue to take on all these insane contracts and still pay people. James Dolan is paying insane amounts of luxury tax right now.

QUOTE(SleepyWhiteSox @ Feb 4, 2006 -> 01:17 PM) Frye? He should be starting. Instead Brown brings him off the bench. Even tonight, Mo Taylor gets the start.

QUOTE(SSH2005 @ Feb 4, 2006 -> 12:26 AM) Every year people say that about Crede and every year it never happens. It doesn't happen because they aren't great hitters, only mediocre to good. A good but not great hitter like Dye and a mediocre hitter like Crede will probably always be inconsistent in that way. They swing at too many bad pitches to have a consistent stream of quality at bats from month to month, hence their low walk totals and stretches of horrible OPS's. Look at Dye's AVG (.274) and OBP (.333) from last season. They ended up being right around his career totals (.272 AVG, .334 OBP). But Dye's SLG (.512) from last season blew away his career SLG (.469), most likely due to the Cell factor. Dye won't be able to put up a much higher OPS than last year's unless he raises his OBP by drawing walks. But at this point in his career, he's just not going to become that type of hitter. I'm not going to get my hopes up that they will be solid for every month of next season. Dye and Crede will continue to have horrid offensive months. It's just the type of hitters they are. I'd rather have a guy who hits 24 homers with a .405 OBP than a guy who hits 31 homers with a .333 OBP. I think the guy with the higher OBP will help score more runs than the guy with 7 more homers and a much lower OBP. The Sox are obviously spending a lot of money now. I can understand how people are worried about this but it's not my money so I hope they keep spending it. So you don't think Joe Crede will improve this season on his past numbers? The guy put up 4 +.800 OPS's in 2005, and remember he had that finger injury which pretty much killed one of those months. I wouldn't call Crede a mediocre hitter, I know quite a few teams would like to have him at 3rd base. I guess it just worries me that Abreu can only put up around 20-25 HR's for the type of park that he's hitting in. As for your money point, it doesn't matter how much money they are spending. The fact is, they are trading a good RF and a #1 SP, for a very good RF, and basically still paying the same money. We've got far less payroll flexibility, and since we're not the Yankees, I don't think it's the right way to go about building this team.

I'm back for League 1, and League 6 which walleye ran last season IIRC.

Guess this means Q-Rich is probably on his way to Atlanta soon probably, or even Portland, with Harrington or Ratliff coming back the other way. And what's the point really of getting these 1st rounders when Brown's not even going to play them. They make the Blackhawks look like a functional organization.

QUOTE(SSH2005 @ Feb 3, 2006 -> 02:01 PM) Well, I'm not expecting Abreu to put up another .879 OPS. I'm expecting him to put up around a .925 OPS next season. And I'm hoping that Dye can repeat his .846 OPS. Dye doesn't really walk at all so if he isn't hitting a lot of homers, his OPS will drop quite a bit. Abreu draws a ton of walks so even if his bat is slumping he can still get on base in that way. I think Dye can improve on that .846 OPS, if he can keep hitting more like he did from late May onwards, compared to his terrible April. I'm just a little wary on acquiring Abreu, for the amount of money we'll be paying him, possibly for the next 3 seasons. He's not worth 8-10M more then Dye that's for sure. Dye led all RF's with 31 HR's last season, while Abreu hitting in most possibly the best hitting stadium in baseball only had 24. And in 2 of the last 3 seasons, Abreu hasn't posted a +.900 OPS. There was also not much of a difference b/w Dye's home and away splits for 2005, and he also had the same OPS's against lefties and righties, another plus (compared to your Jackass Jones's). He also doesn't strike out as much as Abreu. All in all, Abreu is a better player then Dye, but the margin isn't as great as a lot of people would probably think at first glance. He's not worth the extra money he's making, and he's not worth giving up Jose Contreras as well, on top of it.

BUMP. Mike are you going to get the ball rolling on this one again?

QUOTE(SSH2005 @ Feb 3, 2006 -> 12:46 PM) Even including salaries, Abreu is a pretty big upgrade over Dye. I don't necessarily agree with that statement. Of course if you're a GM here, and you take on Abreu, suddenly that's about 8-10M less you can put into your team, so it signifcantly decreases your payroll flexibility. Consider this from Pat Gillick's point of view. If he could trade Abreu for Dye, and then sign a #1 or #2 starter in FA, you think he would jump at that? I think he would, because he knows how important good starting pitching is. And like I've said before, is Abreu gonna be able to keep stealing bases as he gets older, and will he be able to get back to the numbers he put up in the 1st half of 05 compared to the 2nd half? And his away splits from Philly, aren't really encouraging either.

I've probably spent at least $600 on suits, ties, shirts and shoes. Gotta dress for success though.

I wouldn't bring Dye's career OPS into the discussions considering he spent quite a few years hitting in Oakland, which is a notorious pitchers park and how often he was injured over there. What he put up for us in 2005, he could even do better, considering the terrible start he had.

QUOTE(q\/\/3r+y @ Feb 1, 2006 -> 09:31 PM) Marcus banks? He is a no body i thought :rolly It is pretty surprising that diaw got his first triple double considering him stat line is as good as it is. When amare gets back they are gonna be simply amazing to watch as ( stating the obvious there). Right now the West is shaping up to be a real good race. San Antonio should go in as the favorites no doubt. Phoenix if they get Amare back firing, they're going to be incredibly deep and tough to stop, if they can get all cylinders blazing. Avery Johnson has turned Dallas into a pretty good defensive team. But they'll need Dirk to play some defense in the playoffs this time (cos Amare owned him last time). There's also the Clippers who seem to be getting back on track (and Maggette still to come back), and a few other teams around the mark. But right now, I think it comes down to San Antonio, Dallas or Phoenix to come out of the West, and most likely play Detroit in the Finals. But San Antonio needs Manu Ginobli to stay injury free comes the playoffs. He's the 3rd highest player in the NBA in Net Team +/-. This site 82games.com, is really good when it comes to all that type of stuff. http://www.82games.com/index.htm

QUOTE(SSH2005 @ Feb 1, 2006 -> 08:56 PM) The Sox would have never even thought of making a deal like this in the past. But now they are spending a lot of money. I would love Abreu over Dye (no offense to Mr. MVP but Abreu is better) but I also like having McCarthy in the bullpen as an extra starter incase one of our starters gets hit by an injury. McCarthy strengthens the bullpen AND the rotation in that way. By the way, Fultz isn't some good young lefty or anything. He's a 32 year old journeyman lefty who had one good season in his entire career... last year. He would probably be a throw-in in any trade the Phillies made. But I guess if Scott Eyre could get all that money from the Cubs for one good season, Fultz could have some trade value. On Fultz, if we're going to try and trade for a bullpen guy, we're not going to get a great lefty just like that, he's going to have some flaws. And there's just that many good lefties available at all, because they're really valuable. Fultz doing what he did in Citizens last season would have probably impressed quite a few teams. Even with our payroll increasing, I don't think it really changes the fact that it's better to have a #1 starter and a good OF, for a very good OF and a SP prospect who's quite iffy at the moment. We shouldn't turn into the Yankees all of a sudden.

There's been rumors of Atlanta trading Al Harrington to the Knicks for Quentin Richardson over the past few days. They may possibly try to expand it to a 3 way deal to get either Toronto or Portland invovled (Rose, Penny Hardway, Theo Ratliff). The Knicks are just a total mess right now. Ever since that 1st half against the Magic, they've been downright terrible. I'd expect them to go hard after Mike James for the MLE in the off-season. Larry Brown loves his toughness, and it's hard to see him stickin with Marbury, and Nate Robinson who's back in his doghouse again. Marcus Banks has always had some good wraps for his defense, and he scored 20 points against the Celtics the other day. The T-Wolves already have Troy Hudson and Marko Jaric, so I'm thinkin something may happen there trading wise (although there's been rumors of Reggie Evans and Flip Murray for Banks, which McHale should probably jump at). And Boris Diaw got his 1st ever triple - double today, 14 points, 11 boards and 13 assists. The guy's turned into a stud, and the Suns look dangerous when they play adequate enough defense and they're knockin down shots. Bell's a 3 PT machine, and Barbosa and House provide instant offense off the bench in the guard positions. And it should be interesting to see how Tskitishvili fits in, once he starts getting into some games. He could play some PF for them, and have a Radmanovic like role off the bench.

QUOTE(SSH2005 @ Feb 1, 2006 -> 08:51 PM) Didn't you say that the Marlins wouldn't trade Carlos Delgado this offseason? That was probably before he knew the team was probably going to move I'd say.

QUOTE(q\/\/3r+y @ Feb 1, 2006 -> 08:46 PM) Only way dye is leaving chicago is via free agency. He is way too affordable and kenny williams knows it. No way he trades for for abreu and his albatross contract + a pitcher that is far from a sure thing in floyd or hamels. I want no part of floyd and hamels especially at this point. Those are those my sentiments there. You don't just trade guy in Dye, who was one of our best hitters last season when he's signed to a very good deal for us, and put him in a trade with a #1 starter for another OF who may not be all that big of an upgrade in Abreu. Although I'm just wondering if Philly added Aaron Fultz to the trade, a lefty who had a 2.24 ERA (and they just traded for Rhodes), then it suddenly becomes more interesting.

QUOTE(SSH2005 @ Feb 1, 2006 -> 08:08 PM) I've got to think that the Phillies would trade Gavin Floyd way before they'd ever trade Cole Hamels. This trade rumor could be complete BS but it's probably the Contreras rumor that makes the most sense so far... 1.) The salaries of the players involved would be an even swap for 2006. Contreras ($8 million) and Dye ($5 million) will earn a combined $13 million in 2006. Abreu will earn $13 million in 2006. 2.) KW would be getting back what he has already said he would require in any trade involving Contreras -- a young starter in Gavin Floyd. McCarthy would enter our rotation as the fifth starter. Gavin Floyd could work out his kinks at Charlotte and possibly be a mid-season addition to the bullpen. 3.) Abreu can steal bases and is Venezuelan. Ozzie loves him. 'Nuff said. 4.) Dumping Abreu's $15 million salary for 2007 would allow Gillick to either re-sign Contreras after 2006 or go after another top-of-the-rotation starter like Barry Zito via free agency. What KW has to decide here, is Abreu a $8M better player then Dye, and is he worth giving up both JC and JD for him? Even if we got Floyd, I probably still wouldn't make that deal. JD outproduced Abreu in 2005 in HR's, and his OPS was only .036 less then Abreu's (who was an OBP machine BTW). You have to ask yourself, will Abreu still be able to steal 30 bases over the next few years as he gets older? But then again there's lots of arguments FOR acquiring Abreu. He's a great hitter against righties, had a .303 BA/RISP, 7.5 RC/G and a GPA of .286. Dye wasn't as good against righties, had a .262 BA/RISP, 5.5 RC/G and a GPA of .273. You can see why Gillick would jump at this. He's gets a #1 starter, and won't lose that much production in the OF, and if they're out of contention at the deadline, he can trade Contreras and totally rebuild their weak farm system, and still have plenty of money to make a run at the likes of Zito in the 06-07 off-season. Is there mutual interest from KW's end though?