DBAHO

If only we'd see you around more on the site Ribbie, definitely one of the funniest posters here ...... oh and congrats on the milestone.

There's a simple solution here.............. he can always move to Australia.

Well most of you sucked the fun right out of that promotion.

QUOTE(witesoxfan @ Feb 3, 2005 -> 05:12 PM) Paul Byrd got a 1-year, $5 mill deal from Anaheim. Byrd > Contreras That's probably because of the arm surgery factor, but Byrd's also an extreme flyball pitcher. What about Kris Benson getting $22 million over 3 years or Derek Lowe getting $36 million over 4 years?

QUOTE(AnthraxFan93 @ Feb 3, 2005 -> 01:37 AM) I think you mean Kenny is the Joke.. How many Div Titles do we have under him.. anyone ??? People we changed managers and now players when this year fails.. who is to blame? Herb Schiender? Jimmy the Hot Dog Vendor.. When it comes down to it.. The GM is to blame period. Fire KW lets get a GM who knows what he is doing.. I read a another post and it sums up KW to a tee.. KW gm's like he played. How true is that So you're basically giving up on the season already?

QUOTE(witesoxfan @ Feb 3, 2005 -> 04:16 PM) He won't necessarily be great, but he should, at the very least, be solid for Cleveland this year as a LOOGY. He is one of about 15(or so it seems) Indians players that is a low-risk, high-reward type player. Boone, Rhodes, Juan Gone(hate you qwerty ), Sauerbeck, Shuey...and if you count last year too, you can also include Belliard, Howry, and probably others too. If he's a bum...they release him. If he's solid, they have a steal. Those are great situations to put your team in. An example of a very poor situation to put your team is to look at trading for Jose Contreras...he is our #4/#5 starter for $6 mill...if he doesn't put up respectable numbers, that quickly becomes a terrible move for the Sox. Realistically if Contreras was a free agent this off-season, with the inflated pitching market, do you think he would gotten more or less than the $6 million he is making now? You could make a case, that he's better than other pitchers that got bigger deals than he did.

They both could start the season down at Birmingham, Sweeney certainly should, but Anderson could be up with the Knights, but I'd prefer for him to have half a season down at AA, because there's no great need to rush him at this point.

Put me down for 1.

QUOTE(Melissa1334 @ Feb 3, 2005 -> 01:02 PM) (hey, just wondering, how do u add a picture? i know u go to 'attachments' but how do u put a sox picture or something? im lost ) Copy the link of the picture you want to use (if it's already somewhere on the net), and then when you edit your signature, clink on the IMG tag, and paste the link, and it should work. If you have a image you want to use from your computer, you can upload it in the how does it work forum.

I have to say I was suprised when the Tiggies didn't sign a starting pitcher this off-season, they could have really gone for the local boy in Derek Lowe, but would you give him $36 million over 4 years? Even though they play in a pitcher's park, they Tiggies are trying to upgrade their offense, to overcome their pitching shortcomings. They'll regret losing Bonderman in a few seasons, if they don't try to lock him up to a long - term deal, before he hits his prime. Cleveland are in the same boat as us really. They need production from the 4th and 5th starters (Millwood or Lee, Elarton, Japanese Porn Star Dude), and their bullpen has to actually perform adequately this year, but they've made some ok additions to it, and having Wickman for a whole year, depending if he can stay healthy, will help them.

QUOTE(DonkeyKongerko @ Feb 3, 2005 -> 10:53 AM) I have to force myself not to laugh whenever I see a college kid wearing a Royals hat. That's the equivalent of me wearing a White Sox hat down here, and people laughing at me.

QUOTE(ChiSoxyGirl @ Feb 3, 2005 -> 03:00 AM) I can eat 50 eggs. At once?

QUOTE(YASNY @ Feb 3, 2005 -> 02:33 AM) I still picture mariotti as a statue covered in pigeon s***. Seems appropriate. No I still think that's above him, but it's a good thought nevertheless.

QUOTE(Texsox @ Feb 3, 2005 -> 02:45 AM) Actually the practice of drawing by mouth goes back centuries. I wouldn't jump to the pedephile issue. I'm just not going to jump into it at all.

QUOTE(Mathew @ Feb 2, 2005 -> 11:08 AM) I have to lose 30 lbs in 2 months, because my mom quit smoking after about 30 years. Shocked the s*** out of me really didn't s*** she could do it. But before the bet my favorite was always KFC gravy on just about anything. I probably need to put on another 30 lbs, so there's another incentive for me to get my ass to the States sooner rather than later, and taste all of this great food. Down here, the only thing I'd say we'd definitely have more of down here is seafood. You can get some great prawns, lobster and salmon anywhere in town, fresh from the bay. I've gone off McDonalds (thanks largely to Supersize Me), and I only really get Chicken and Chips, and Pizza as junk food nowadays.

I could see Mariotti jumping on the Tiffany Bandwagon right about now.

I call myself a Bandwagon Supporter, so I'm riding on the Utah train as of now (thanks to Bogut). Last year it was Connecticut (with Okafor), and I wouldn't mind seeing Georgia Tech do well again (with the Aussie Center Schlerser? dude).

LMAO, this is the Jim Bowden who gave Vinny Castilla a 2 year deal @ 3 mill per, and Cristian Guzman a 4 year deal for $16 million.

QUOTE(qwerty @ Feb 2, 2005 -> 06:22 PM) Evene if he is healthy for half a season he will earn his pay check. And still the chances of that happening I wouldn't take a bet on at all.

QUOTE(qwerty @ Feb 2, 2005 -> 06:05 PM) Am i honestly the only one that would take a combination of wickman, howry, riske, bentancourt, miller, rhodes, shuey, sauerbeck over our pen? I wouldn't but hey that's just me. Wickman, Howry and Shuey are still very risk propositions for 2005. They've all had major arm surgery, and they probably wouldn't be able to throw a lot of innings. I'm going to say, I think 1 guy maybe 2, will be mildly effective out of that 3, most likely Wickman. Rhodes is the wild card for me. If he can get back to his Baltimore and Seattle form, he'll improve the Tribe so much keeping leads in the 7th and 8th innings. I'm interested to see how he handles going from a pitcher's park in Oakland where he struggled (albeit mainly as a closer) to a hitter's park in Cleveland. I think our pen is more reliable in that you are more likely to know what to expect from each guy, and where they fit in and what they're good in doing. e.g Politte in the 6th and 7th, Marte in the 8th, Shingo only being used for 1 inning in the 9th.

QUOTE(qwerty @ Feb 2, 2005 -> 06:14 PM) Why not? The most he can make next year is $2.55 million. Not bad for someone that can potentially be one of the best hitters in the league for pretty long periods of time for way less money than burnitz is gonna get. His ops and slugging is always very solid which is what you are looking for from him. If he stays healthy he will be an excellent pick-up. If he doesn't stay healthy he will not be costing them much at all either way. This is the definition of a low risk high reward type signing. And realistically the chances of Juan Gone staying healthy and contributing for a whole season, well they're just not that good, I think that's all most people are trying to say. Who knows, maybe Jody Gerut will rebound for them, they certainly have an abundance of corner OF's.

QUOTE(kapkomet @ Feb 2, 2005 -> 10:15 AM) September? Try December of 2005. I think they have no object except to break the current union. The ONLY glimmer I have heard (as Juggs alluded to) is that the players were softening on the cap a little because the $42 million was a higher amount then the average payroll per team last year AND they want to guarantee profit sharing all the way through. The thing is the NFL system in the NHL will NEVER work. There's not enough revenue sources, and you can thank Gary Buttman for that. Kap, what are some extra revenue sources NHL teams could have usen if it wasn't for Bettman?

QUOTE(CWSGuy406 @ Feb 2, 2005 -> 01:56 PM) Excuse me while I fall off my chair in laughter... //Green Jim Hendry! Five million to a guy who probably won't even post an .800+ OPS. They definitely aren't going to be paying Burnitz five million to sit on the bench, so it could be safe to say that Magglio Ordonez will not be a Chicago Cub... I'm going to love reading Kotex Boy's next opinion article on this subject.

Analysis Time: Scott Podsednik vs. Coco Crisp - In 2003, Pod had splits (BA, OBP, OPS) of .244, .313, .677, while Coco had splits of .297, .344, .790. Although I expect Pod to rebound a little and improve to about .270, .340 OBP, you'd have to give a slight edge to Coco because he's younger, and looks to be on the up. Tadahito Iguchi vs. Ron Belliard - In 2004, Belliard had splits of .282, .348, .774. I'd expect him to put up fairly similar numbers again, with perhaps a little drop off in production. No-one knows what Iguchi is going to hit but numbers of about .275, .340 would seem about the most likely range. With Iguchi probably the superior fielder, I'm calling this even, and these 2 with Soriano could be fighting it out for an All Star Spot. Ben Broussard vs. Carl Everett / Frank Thomas - I'm assuming Broussard is going to be the Indians DH / 1B here with Hafner, and he had splits of .275, .370 and .793. Although the Sox are going to be paying about an extra $12 to $14 mill for Jurrassic Carl and the Big Hurt, production wise they are probably going to put up better numbers than Broussard, who only really came on last season though. I'd think though if Ross Gload was given a chance at being the !B / DH, he would put up similar numbers to Broussard though, perhaps with a little less power and a little higher average. Victor Martinez vs. A.J Pierzynski - 2004 splits for both were .283, .359, .851 and .272, .319 and ,729. Although Martinez struck out more than A.J, and Pierzynski's numbers will improve moving from SBC to the Cell, you'd have to go with Martinez because he's younger and cheaper and probably only going to get better, although he's not the best defensive catcher going around. Travis Hafner vs. Paul Konerko - .311, .410, .993 vs. .277, .359 and .894. Power wise you'd go with Konerko, but right now as a GM you'd love to have Hafner on your team, he's cheap, and is a lefty hitter. But could 2004 have been a flash in the pan for him? We'll just have to wait and see, but he did hit for a higher average and would have had better away splits than Paulie, so I'd actually rather have Hafner on my team, all things being considered. Juan Gonzalez vs. Jermaine Dye - No contest, I don't even have to go into statistics here. We all know, Dye is going to improve on his 2004 numbers if he can stay healthy moving from Oakland to Chicago. Gonzalez won't even be the starting outfielder, and the Indians will be lucky to get anything out of him all season, considering he's likely to be injured somehow. Casey Blake vs. Aaron Rowand - I'm using this matchup because IIRC, Blake is going to get some in LF for the Tribe. Splits were .271, .354 and .840 vs. .310, .361 and .905. Despite Blake having a little better power numbers, I'm definitely going with A-Row, due to him hitting for a higher average and his ability to hit almost anywhere in the lineup. Plus he's 4 years younger too. Juan Uribe vs. Jhonny Peralta - Uribe is definitely going to be the winner here. Peralta has to show he can translate his good hitting from AAA to the majors, and until we see that he does, you're always going to take the guy with the proven track record in Uribe, who could just get better. Aaron Boone vs. Joe Crede - Interesting matchup here, because I'd say with these 2, it would be the hardest to predict numbers for the upcoming season. Crede had splits of .239, .299 and .717, while in Boone's last good season of 2003 he had splits of .267, .327 and .780. Boone is moving to a good hitter's park in Jacobs, but coming back from his major knee surgery, it's unrealistic to think he's really going to improve on those numbers. We've been waiting for a few seasons now for Joe to improve, and although some people around here have faith, I'm not really one of them. Still I think Crede could improve a little, but not enough to win this matchup. Overall - There's definitely pro's and con's for each team and what they bring to the plate, hitting wise. Cleveland's built its lineup around good young hitters in Hafner and Martinez, and Mark Shapiro should definitely be given credit for what he's done in reshaping his team to a division contender. But I think overall, the Sox's weaker players (Podesednik, Crede) are probably going to be a little better than Cleveland's weaker (Gonzalez, Peralta), and that's probably going to slightly give them the edge. They both have great offenses however. I might do the pitching later, but the Sox would have the edge in that matchup anyways.

Congrats to YASNY