DBAHO

QUOTE (Jenks Heat @ Jul 11, 2009 -> 12:12 AM) I thought Boozer was like 32 years old. He is 27. Wow did Cleveland screw up. Boozer played like a 32 year old last season. He's become pretty weak defensively inside and probably isn't the player he was a few seasons ago, hence why the Jazz are desperate to get rid of him and keep Millsap who's only going to get better.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jul 10, 2009 -> 11:35 AM) Random question on a different subject. Does anyone out there look at all the money Dallas has spent this offseason and think "There's a legit title contender"? Possibly, but they need a lot to go for them. If they had Devin Harris instead of Jason Kidd I would say yes, because I think come playoff time, Kidd's aging legs are going to get shown up on the defensive end again. And Gortat has to show that he is a legit starting center in the league, which is still a question mark. I'd say they're behind the Lakers and Nuggets still but on the same level as the Spurs and Blazers in the middle tier of playoff teams in the West.

QUOTE (Buehrle>Wood @ Jul 9, 2009 -> 03:37 PM) First off, settle down. Second off, relax. Third off, I apologize in advance for sharing my opinion. Fourth off, you have missed the point entirely like so many in this thread. You are right. I haven't seen Allen play and probably not the guy we traded for either. But who I have seen pitch is Aaron Poreda, Matt Thorton, Scott Linebrink, Octavio Dotel, DJ Carrasco, and Bobby Jenks. Here's the scouting report on them: they're all f***ing good. It comes down to why make this deal to begin with. To say we have the best 5th best guy in a bullpen in MLB? Even then, it will be hard for him to pass up what Poreda and Carrasco have been doing for us. And still, to me, not a legitimate reason to make a trade, and I would think so for most. Did I mention everyone in out pen except for Dotel is signed at least until 2011? Is it to replace Dotel? So we bring in a guy to be our 3rd righty out of the pen at best a year in advance and give up a guy who is by everyone's account a top 5-6 guy (in the very least) in our system? Sorry, hard for me to get excited personally. Well there's no guarantee that Carrasco and Poreda are going to keep doing what they're doing in the 2nd half of the season. Pena I think switching leagues etc. can do quite an effective / underrated job for us as we chase a playoff spot. Good bullpens win ballgames. We've all seen that in the past when we've had bad bullpens and how many games that has cost us. I don't mind KW trying to turn a strength into an even bigger strength going forward.

I think Campbell to Atlanta is still a distinct possibility. They want to show Kovalchuk that they can win now so that they can re-sign him long - term, and they were our major competition for BC last off-season.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Jul 8, 2009 -> 11:26 PM) Oddly, I am more annoyed with the Obama coverage than the Palin coverage. I agree that the media is fawning over Obama in a way that is just way over the top. However, in Palin's case, she's basically creating a series of car wrecks and shouting LOOK AT ME, so I can't really blame the media for following it. Eh if I wanna watch people worshipping Barack's ass, I'll watch CNN. If I want to become 1% dumber in an hour and watch people bashing Obama's ass, I'll watch FOX News. Simple really (well at least down here on basic cable it is).

Fields to Baltimore makes sense because Mora is quickly declining and getting quite old, hence a replacement is needed sooner rather than later. Would I want Felix Pie though? Eh probably not, I don't really see him being an upgrade on someone like BA or Pods overall, even though he is young and has good speed. I'd either add something to try and get Adam Jones, add Getz to make a run at Roberts, maybe go after George Sherill (although that doesn't make sense after the Pena acquisition), or get some more spects into the system which KW isn't likely to do.

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Jul 8, 2009 -> 11:44 PM) Did 80,000 people really show up in Madrid just to see Ronaldo get introduced? Wow Yep. They'll try to get Xabi Alonso now and Barcelona want Mascherano from Liverpool also.

Depends who's leading when they hit the Mountains would be my guess.

A good stat to look at for Pena is FIP. 2007 - 4.28 2008 - 3.28 2009 - 3.79 This season, Linebrink has a FIP of 3.95, Dotel's is 4.09 and Thornton's is 2.95.

QUOTE (whitesoxfan101 @ Jul 8, 2009 -> 02:56 PM) The return for Allen should be much more of a sure thing than a risk/project type. Well I don't think Pena is that much of a risk/project type, but you could argue all RP's are nowadays.

Look if Pena can pitch as well as Matt Thornton has for the Sox, this is an excellent trade by Kenny and there's a good chance that could happen IMO. Unfortunately, there's also a chance he could turn into Mike MacDougal v2.0.

I think this is a decent gamble from Kenny. Pena's a pre arbitration guy who the Sox control for 3 season after this, he's got good stuff, albeit control sounds like the main issue as it was with Mac, and with Dotel, they'll take the draft picks and let his $6M expire to use on a CF/DH/SP. Allen I did like as a spect, because of Thome's age and Konerko's injury issues and thought he'd be ready to go from next season if need be. He's EXACTLY what the D-Backs needed though with Conor Jackson's issues. But the Sox have had no issues finding first base prospects over the years, and Viciedo may end up there or even Fields if he gets his act together so they've got options.

After today's 4th stage Time Trial, Lance Armstrong is now less than a second behind the leader. So will he win it?

How much interest would you have accrued over that 4 year period if you took the money I wonder?

My god does the Sims 3 take a long time to install (and I've played a lot of PC Games in my time).

QUOTE (IowaSoxFan @ Jul 8, 2009 -> 01:17 AM) The Dodgers would need to part with either Billingsley or Kershaw to make the deal according to Rosenthal, so they would not have all three. Viciendo isnt going anywhere, in part because he signed less than a year ago, I think Beckham is off limits as is most of the ML roster, other than that any of the prospects can be had in the right deal. Well that would probably be a deal breaker for them I'd imagine. I could see them offering Dewitt + Elbert + a couple of other things to try and start things from there.

Of course they are going to ask for Beckham. If there's one weakness for the Jays going forward, it's that Rolen and Scutaro are aging and Beckham would fit in very nicely. And plus in the AL East if you are going to win the division, you need to hit. Beckham, Lind, Snider, Rios and Hill gives them an excellent young core to build around for the future. And they've got enough pitching (Richmond, Romero, Purcey etc.) and with Marcum and McGowan to come back still, that they don't exactly need a Clayton Richard (who may not be any better than those guys going forward).

My guess is, Halladay ends up at a team like the Dodgers that have good young talent in their minors and are trying to win now. Halladay's the type of guy, with Billingsley and Kershaw that would make that team extremely hard to beat in a playoff series. Do we need Halladay? Well of course Roy would look very nice on our team. But even with him, would we be able to win a world series with him? I'd have serious doubts about that with our lineup, and considering the talent we'd have to give up for Roy who's 33 and thrown a lot of innings, I'd probably stay away. I'd rather Haren if we're talking about going after an ace pitcher here. At least for the durability factor.

Here's mine back in 2003; http://www.soxtalk.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=8708

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jul 7, 2009 -> 02:30 AM) Eh, right now you're not successfully selling me very hard on the Carter for Turkoglu swap being one that improves the magic a lot. Getting a healthy Nelson back next to Carter will strengthen the backcourt, but your arguments aren't convincing me that their front court hasn't weakened significantly. Basically I think the bench has actually gotten stronger (Anderson > Battie), and Carter's obviously an upgrade on Hedo. And they thought Lee was expendable because they already had 2 other SG's in Pietrus and Redick. They were always going to lose Gortat no matter what they did. I think we'll look better once we get 2 more big guys in. Or at least that's what I'm hoping.

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Jul 7, 2009 -> 02:25 AM) Did you see what Hinrich did for the Bulls last year. He's a premium defender, a good shooter in a spot-up roll and as a starter is very good. Hinrich was hurt last year and coming off the bench because the Bulls had the #1 pick and in the playoffs Hinrich played a ton of key minutes. And you are comparing one seasons worth of stats. Career stats would differ, big time, and take a poll around the league and everyone will be telling you Hinrich is better. There is a reason he was invited to the USA Basketball Trials for the Olympics a couple years back and was one of the final cuts. I'm not saying he isn't better than Blake. I'm saying I don't think he's worth 5M more than Blake (and the original deal that was mooted was Ouutlaw + Blake for Hinrich which I thought was overpaying). I think you're selling Blake a little short also (and he's improved a lot every season). I don't see Hinrich ever getting back to that level of 2 seasons ago with the Bulls (when his stats were good). He needs to be dealt somewhere where he's going to start.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jul 7, 2009 -> 02:18 AM) So basically, right now you're telling me that the Magic don't really have anything solid to fill their frontcourt hole created by Turkoglu's departure. That's a risky place for them to be, although grabbing either a SF or PF would work. Do they have anything left that counts as an expiring deal they could trade for a PF/SF if they can't find one that will sign for the MLE? (I bet the Kings would jump at moving Nocioni's contract if you could offer them something. He could be a really good fit there given his typical ability on defense. Right now I think we'll end up with either Davis or Bass, probably the latter, although the Hornets are after Bass also. Although Otis Smith has said he's gonna go into the tax and split the MLE over a couple of players. But don't forget Ryan Anderson, who's a PF who can stretch the floor with his shooting ability. SVG likes him a lot apparently, and he was 1 pick before Courtney Lee in the draft last year. The Magic just basically need a C and a PF. Pietrus can backup at the 3 (and also play the 2), while Redick can be the backup 2.

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Jul 7, 2009 -> 02:17 AM) Neither. Oh and Hinrich is so much better than Blake. I dispute that. Albeit, Blake was a starter, here were the numbers from last season; Blake - 11.0PPG, 5A, 1.6TO Hinrich - 9.9PPG, 3.9A, 1.7TO. I think Bulls fans think he's still the player of 2 seasons ago when he hit 16.6PPG, shot a decent percentage etc. He'd dropped off quite a bit since then although he's had a few injuries. Is he a $5M better player than Steve Blake though? No I don't think so, and hence why Portland is going after David Lee and Andre Miller instead of trading Blake for Hinrich (which was rumored a few weeks back).

But so are the Spurs apparently;

Women's Tennis absolutely. Besides that, not a lot.