The Ultimate Champion

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Jan 19, 2014 -> 11:24 AM) There is a pretty big Jpop base in LA as well. Well if that's true then LA is just f***in weird.

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Jan 19, 2014 -> 11:18 AM) If I said always I apologize but right now they are the far superior team. It isn't really debatable. Yankees rotation is a hot mess right now. Definitely agree. But things could change pretty quickly for LA with a couple key injuries. They have a lot of long-term money locked up in players right now who are paid like stars and superstars and aren't nearly playing at that level. But I agree, if Tanaka is going to go to NY or LA, if he wants to win he'll go to LA. I think one of those teams gets him anyway but it's impressive that we've even been involved in this thing. Definitely not something we'd have done before. I wonder.... is JR going to.... can't even say this.... getting an itch to go Illitch? Certainly not, can't happen.... hmmmm.

QUOTE (Frank_Thomas35 @ Jan 19, 2014 -> 11:15 AM) Let's be honest, people don't move to Chicago to pursue singing careers or whatever movies or what she wants to do. People move to LA, that's the lifestyle out there, plus its a lot easier to make connections out there. I don't know the reasoning just that's where she wants to be. Plus if she is some major pop star being in LA allows her to travel back to Japan easier shorter flights etc. I'm not saying she's the end all be all by any means, just made an observation off a nugget I hadn't heard before. Yeah but she's not going to be networking with a bunch of other Japanese pop stars. If she wants to do that stuff she'll probably need to spend a lot of time in Japan. Well, in baseball you have an offseason (they'll be in Japan) plus long road trips (she can head to Japan) and so on. In the mean time I'm sure she'll have a few friends who wouldn't mind traveling all around the US basically living like Gods for free. It's not that big of deal for her IMO. If she's willing to leave Japan at all and go halfway across the world then I think she probably has other priorities she is weighing over her best and most immediate career interests.

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Jan 19, 2014 -> 10:42 AM) Expensive in terms of what the Sox would have to give up, but still relatively cost controlled, which will be key if the club does sign Tanaka. Additionally, the incentive to win earlier moves up and that means the Sox can't realistically go into the season with the s*** they have at catcher. If it were me and Tanaka came, there is no freaking way I have the turds we have behind the plate as our every day catchers. I'd make sure at a minimum, we had someone who called a really good game and could control the running game. Castro could be that guy. That would be so amazingly awesome. Especially if we didn't have to trade Q & could build a deal around Johnson. Sale-Tanaka-Q-righty nobody cares about-Danks with Castro behind the plate... f*** yeah.

QUOTE (Jeff Liefer @ Jan 19, 2014 -> 11:13 AM) Gimmick account?? That guy doesn't think Jose Abreu is really Jose Abreu. Right....

QUOTE (Jose Abreu @ Jan 19, 2014 -> 11:09 AM) I don't think it's that far-fetched. Mark Teahen's wife and Eric Grabe's dad read this forum, so.... 2 + 2 = 4

QUOTE (Jose Abreu @ Jan 19, 2014 -> 11:05 AM) Do you guys ever think that maybe, just maybe, someone from the FO has read important threads here to see what the more intelligent fans think? Maybe not a Rick Hahn or a Kenny Williams, but someone lower down. Yes, all the time. Especially my posts. Kenny watches from the trees though. Hahn's not quite so shadowy, but when you do see him he's ready to do business by any means necessary. God I love how aggressive this team has been in the last seven months. Seven months, I'll say that again. Seven months. I was worried Hahn wouldn't move like KW does, but with KW behind the scenes & Hahn out in front they seem to work even quicker. This is great.

QUOTE (Frank_Thomas35 @ Jan 19, 2014 -> 10:57 AM) I agree I think he ends up in LA. Up until last night I had downplayed the whole "his wife wants to be on the West Coast" thing. But after reading she's some major pop star in Japan and wants to still be able to pursue her career kind of dampened my hopes a bit. I think it's LALA land Tanaka. However I do think of its not them the Sox have a chance. Just the quietness, KW comments publicly, the fact we were the only "confirmed" meeting. I still have this gut feeling but well see. Based on the numbers from the tweets this is where it stands: AZ- 6 years- $115 million NYY- 6 Years- $115 million LA- 6- years- $120-125 million CHC- 6 Years- $135-140 Million CWS- ? ? ? ? ( was speculation of 4 Years- $125 million with options, never confirmed or reported on) Why would it be easier to be a Japanese pop star in LA vs. a Japanese pop star in Chicago? Her husband can purchase an entire studio for her & pay her personal agent and production staff to make trips whenever they need to. The world has gotten a lot smaller as it is, and when you have $20M per year or more to play with there's not much you can't do.

Jeff Cox could be in it too, then that would be a pair of Cox... always excitable that Jeff Cox

We could get Boobby Cox in our commercials... he'd show up everywhere, we'd pay him Tanaka money to be in the commercials We'd show Abreu & Taanaka & Sale & then Paulie and Thome could come into the room and salivate & be like "We should pull out our Cox" and then Bobby Cox walks in

If the Sox sign Tanaka they're going to need a nice new marketing slogan (please send Boyer out for coffee while this is being decided) They're going to need something good I say if we get Tanaka & also trade for Jason Castro without giving up Q then I'd a good new slogan would be "Hey it's the Sox. Pull out your Cox." Or something like that. SWomething with Cox in it.

BTW I hope that we can make the Tanaka signing without necessarily *having* to make payroll room reappear from somewhere else. If we could keep Danks that would put us in much better position to trade him for good value later should be come back to near 100%. Also I would wonder if the Sox would take a hit in payroll this year, spend more than they would like to because of the posting fee, but would view Tanaka as a $20M per year payroll hit that feels more like a $12M payroll hit or so because of the added benefits.

QUOTE (HickoryHuskers @ Jan 18, 2014 -> 04:21 PM) If you want an accounting of every dollar a company takes in and spends, then buy stock. Otherwise, it's really none of your f***ing business. The team is going to allocate its resources the best way it sees fit, and if that makes you miserable, then that's your problem and please don't whine about it to me. Whoa, retract the panties there darling. Money and payroll is a huge part of discussion around here, always has been.

QUOTE (pettie4sox @ Jan 18, 2014 -> 04:07 PM) It's a simple negotiation tactic. You don't want to tell people you have all the money in the world so that they can attempt to fleece you for more. You say, "Hey, this is my budget and what I am willing to spend. I can't really exceed this." I'm not referring simply to the pursuit of Tanaka, I'm referring to their entire offseason stance since they signed Abreu. Immediately after Abreu was signed Hahn, Kenny, the media, pretty much everything out there said that there weren't going to be any other transactions at Abreu's level or beyond. Tanaka money is going to be huge money - and while I can believe that having him here would open up some new revenue channels & his deal would be in part offset by that, it's still big money that they supposedly didn't have. So either they have it & were bulls***ting, or they don't have it (or refuse to spend beyond a self-imposed limit even if they are capable of doing so) and the money is going to have to come from somewhere else.

QUOTE (raBBit @ Jan 18, 2014 -> 03:52 PM) Uh, since when? Uh, since like we've all been paying attention. $20M posting fee and looking at an annual salary approaching if not exceeding $20M per Sox stated that they have some room within their budget... $40M laying around is a little bit more than "some room" Either the Sox have been bulls***ting as Dick Allen is implying or somebody would have to go

Here's a question: Let's say the Sox sign Tanaka (I don't think they will, but just pretend for a second) Let's say John Danks, Bronson Arroyo, Matt Garza are the Free Agents on the market who only cost money and no draft pick, whereas Ubaldo & Ervin Santana cost money and a draft pick. How do you rank those guys? I say this because let's say the Sox need to move Danks' contract to fit Tanaka into their budget. If the Sox win the Tanaka derby and everyone else loses, how good does Danks' contract and years plus no draft pick look compared to the rest of the SP FA market? Maybe the Sox can't get anything much for Danks, but I bet that he looks like a good option compared to the rest, and a Danks dump could be similar to the Rios dump, where we get a serviceable piece but really the move happens to clear up salary for the signing of an international player. Second Swisher deal with Viciedo coming in was more of the same.

Cubs shouldn't worry about that ace offer too much though. If Tanaka signs elsewhere the Cubs can trade Samardzija and make Bronson Arroyo a "real offer to be there ace and grow and play and be happy with their other talented young players."

QUOTE (Wanne @ Jan 18, 2014 -> 02:41 PM) I thought letting Thome go was a good move... I loved the Chris Young trade! Waiting to hear from the people that said Gordo should be hitting 3rd...or would be our #3 hitter very soon! There were a lot of people really excited about him but that was to be expected. Beckham - if you take into consideration the polish, the ceiling, the fact that he was as close to MLB-ready as probably anyone in that draft, the skill position - he may have been the best prospect we've had in god knows how long. It's hard not to be excited about that. I argued against trading him for Adrian Gonzalez when Gonzalez had 2 years and only something like $10M remaining on his deal. I don't feel bad about that though, every once in a while you have to hold on to someone at the risk of getting burned, but I do feel bad about other things, like my pre-2005 thoughts of Joe Crede for example.

QUOTE (Al Lopez's Ghost @ Jan 18, 2014 -> 02:35 PM) Have you seen it happen before? We're always talking about players from other teams. There are probably a lot of click-throughs in there. People on the Sox site clicking into Castros bio page, watching Castro media, etc. Only a small percentage of MLB.com users are actually going to purchase that massively overpriced garbage they sell on their website, so every bit of concentrated interest in a player is probably seen as pretty important. I mean doesn't that sound just a *little* more plausible than something involving, say, Reptilians and secret underground bases?

The Sox should always try to do what's best for themselves but yeah, there are a lot of fair-weather fans, young fans who may tend to gravitate to the team with greater start power (they will grow up), and there's no reason not to explore some sort of attendance spike/trendy thing to help you offset some of the costs while you're rebuilding. The Cubs probably would have a few fans go our way should the Sox do very well while the Cubs just continue to suck, but overall I would agree with Balta, the focus should be on attracting disinterested fans & fans who just go to a game for the experience. The Cubs were nice and trendy, the Sox should try to do the same. Personally I'm too busy to go the games all the time, I like being a fan from home, and so I don't care if the people at the park know a lot less than I do about the team when I am there, I'd much rather the stadium be packed with trendy Cub-type fans who will support a better team with a higher payroll that I can be happy about all the time. So getting back to the original topic (dicks and ballsacs) I'd say that the typical WSI-style Sox fan baseball elitism is kind of small-dickish and I'd have no problem with taking advantage of a potential opportunity and swapping places with the Cubs.

Castro is expensive. We can all reasonably assume the Sox have checked in on him and probably have a good idea of what that price range would be.

Dude really? Discussion board users at ChiSox.com have probably been discussing Castro and making Castro-related searches. If Castro-related interest is coming off the WhiteSox official site then why wouldn't MLB's shop services try to sell them something?

^All those guys aren't going to pan out, but I was just thinking, if we get really lucky and Eaton stays healthy & is a productive CF, Semien is a quality 2B, and Mich Johnson makes it as a LF, that's one pretty nice looking 9-1-2 in terms of speed and contact.

QUOTE (beautox @ Jan 17, 2014 -> 05:53 PM) If the sox land Tanaka do you move Johnson + to the astros for Castro? seeing how you can slot in Rienzo or Paulino in the 5th spot with Beck a stones throw away and a possible #3 pick of Rodon or Hoffman on the fast track? I do that deal no matter what happens But my God, we'd look pretty strong and nearly rebuilt at least on paper; bolded areas would look pretty weak ATM but trading Alexei, DeAza, Paulino, Lindstrom, and Belisario could help strengthen those spots a bit. Sale-Tanaka-Quintana-Danks-Beck/Danish/Draft Pick/Other C Castro 1B Abreu DH Viciedo 2B Beckham/Semien/Sanchez/Johnson 3B Eaton SS Leury/Semien/Sanchez LF ???? CF Eaton RF Avisail 1B/3B/corner OF Gillaspie IF UT/CF Leury C Phegley/Nieto OF Jordan Danks CL Jones RSU Webb LSU Veal/Leesman/Other MR Petricka MR Bassit/Other Lefty specialist Leesman/Veal/Other LR Rienzo Edit: that last SP really doesn't look too weak at all but I bolded that out since those guys are probably 1+ years away; maybe Beck moves pretty quick & Danish could be here now if we wanted him in the pen, but as a starter he'll probably take a little bit of time.

The Dunn signing caught everyone by surprise I think. On paper that was a terrific move, which is why as much as I'd like to see us eat his remaining salary and trade him to the highest bidder in terms of talent, I completely refuse to criticize the Sox organization for making that move. There's no way things should have gone so bad so quickly, especially without some sort of catastrophic freak injury occurring.