The Ultimate Champion

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Apr 1, 2013 -> 12:56 PM) Is there some sort of succession plan in place? Yes. Worms --> Maggots --> Dirt

QUOTE (PlaySumFnJurny @ Apr 1, 2013 -> 10:44 AM) Welcome back, boys of summer. I survived another offseason. Freezing or not, I wish I was going. Can't wait to smell the onions. If that's all you're after then if you like you can sniff under my armpit right now.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Apr 1, 2013 -> 12:10 PM) My point being that it's still not easy. Yes, I would prefer the latter too, but it's not like those are 3 stiffs. They're all pretty good pitchers. It wouldn't be surprising if the Nats are the best team in baseball this year.

I enjoy real baseball :hawk: :hawk: :hawk:

QUOTE (joeynach @ Mar 31, 2013 -> 03:33 PM) I was being a bit sarcastic since the current state of the game is getting crazy with the amounts of money being handed out to both average MLB talent (Victorino, BJ Upton, Pagan) and top tier starters (Wainwright, Verlander, Cain, Grienke). Looking it all straight up, they are all way overpaid and have been handed way too much money given their ages. That being said such is the state of the game today, fueled by the massive influx in capital teams have from TV rights deals. So like I was saying adapt or die. If the Sox maintain their status quo by the time they can react to new TV rights, 2019, they will have been left far behind the rest of the league. Last year the Giants won the World Series. Their best player, Buster Posey, made $615K. Tim Lincecum & Barry Ziot combined to make $37M to be 4th and 5th starters. The best players out there are often on the most efficient, team-friendly contracts you see, and the salary arbitration/team control system during what is likely to be some of a good player's best years is the reason for that. Why are the Rays good? Why did we suck balls in 2011? The game isn't changing much. Free agents always are overpaid on the open market but if you do the work you can get deals on your own talent like we got with Peavy & Sale. There are also always values on the free agent market (JD in 2005 for example) and players you can pick up as Rule-5 guys, minor league free agents, waiver claims, cheap trades, etc. to further develop a core and/or round out a solid roster. And who cares what Angel Pagan got from the Giants? The Mets got him for just about nothing from the Cubs because they gave up on him, and we picked up a similar player in DeAza for nothing from the Marlins. Teams are fine signing players like this if they have a hole and can fit the salary into the payroll by virtue of bargains elsewhere.

That Posey contract BTW is absolutely horrible. That's a lot of future money to a catcher.

I sense that overall the Sox thinking is to acquire as much talent as possible in the most cost-efficient manner possible, and to put the best possible team on the field each and every season while still building for the future. That's so wrong. It is always foolish to concern yourself with your own matters, especially when others around you are doing more interesting things. f*** the hamburger in front of me, I'd rather go hungry watching that guy eat his steak. Why? Because he's better than me. IMO the proper approach for Sox brass should be to hold an emergency meeting every time a division rival acquires, promotes or extends a good MLB player or prospect and at that point decide whether it's best to play any games at all or instead to shift the focus to monster truck rallies. And right now, after the Verlander deal, all I can hear in my head is Gene Honda shouting "Sunday! Sunday! Sunday!" because we're totally f***ed and the sky is black and holy s*** we're doomed and Jerry needs to sell among other things.

The surprising thing is that Santiago isn't taking the spot right away, but maybe the Sox are trying to make him "earn" it. With Axelrod you know what you are going to get, and it's not a lot, but he's composed on the mound and doesn't shrink when the game gets tough. The Sox can save options on other players by going with Axelrod over another righty and I think that's probably a factor in the decision too. Also there is the potential of a trade/injury insurance, where if one of the veteran relievers gets hurt or is traded by the time Danks gets back then Axe becomes the long man and Santiago takes the rotation spot permanently. By going with Axelrod Robin may be going with someone he sees as being on the team for most if not all of the season.

QUOTE (Reddy @ Mar 28, 2013 -> 05:14 PM) that's not big enough for a joint announcement... fields change names all the time What if the new name is "Suck My Balls Field?" Because that's original, and very worthy of a major announcement.

Please welcome the Chicago Cubs to US Cellular Field.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Mar 25, 2013 -> 01:52 PM) I dont see any truth in this. If anything we have almost too many starters. We have 6, and with Danks hurt we now have 5. Nobody else counts.

Theodore Roosevelt Lilly has a 4.52 ERA & 1.37 WHIP in his 7 years (912IP) in the AL. His fastball has always been pretty non-electric but the change and curve make it effective. Harang is garbage, rich man's Adam Russell IMO. Capuano is a decent 5th starter option too. I just don't see why the Sox would *not* want to put Santiago out there, in fact I don't know why they even went with Axelrod. It's a brutally easy decision to make and yet they're f***ing it up.

Oh and yes I know BattleAxe is our guy to start the year but he doesn't count really, that experiment obviously isn't going to work. Santiago should be the guy if Danks misses good time. I'm not excited to see him in the bullpen anyway, seems a little bit of a waste and a low reward scenario overall.

Per MLBTR post, and a link this time http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2013/03/cafa...en-dodgers.html

Is anyone surprised about Danks? If he's good by May I'll be thrilled. Santiago is the 5 and Danks needs to be in Charlotte. Supposedly one of Robin's best qualities is to take down a vet a notch for the good of the team, so if Danks needs to be down there working on things then hopefully all it takes is Robin's advice and he'll go without making any noise.

Jiminy Christmas! I didn't post a link because I got the info off a headline post on MLBTR, and posting a link to MLBTR seemed kind of potinless. Maybe it's just me, but starting a thread about a worldwide draft and posting a link to MLBTR is kind of like starting a thread about spaghetti and posting a link to Chef Boyardee products, I mean it's not really spaghetti, and MLBTR isn't really news either. I was hoping someone else had more real info & actually was surprised to see there wasn't a thread on this already. I checked 3 forums, no thread, my mind was blown. Anyway, great news for the Sox. I'm not sure why the MLBPA would care enough to fight this at all since they would probably rather see more resources committed to proven players and US-based prospects than buscones and Japanese teams. It's amazing this has taken so long but it'll be terrific for the Sox once it goes through.

Can't believe there isn't already a thread on this. AWESOME news for the Sox, s***ty news for Theo, lots of crying on the North, probably some cheers to be heard in Sox FO once this goes through. LOVE IT! Please discuss.

The Cubs are trying that classical/romanticized/ideological style of total rebuilding where you tear down absolutely everything and rebuild it from scratch. In their case however they are potentially hamstringing themselves unnecessarily by doing it. The idea should be to identify all the resources you have, all the advantages, all the major disadvantages, etc. and then come up with an action plan to use your strengths to create the best new product possible in the least amount of time. With the Cubs their biggest advantage is that the fans will support the team and spend their money even if the product quality isn't very good, and their biggest disadvantage is their need for a new or greatly renovated stadium. I don't know what they are planning to do re: the stadium but I'm not sure how a s*** team helps them get one (they aren't the Marlins) and I'm also not sure why they feel it best to test the resolve of their fans (again) by intentionally putting a dogs*** team on the field and talking about "the future" all day when their fans will happily support a mediocre club that in ST is promoted as a contender. I'm not sure why they would choose to rebuild the way they are, I mean, rebuilding from the ground up starts in the FO, deals with scouting and player development, Latin America, overall organization and communication internally, etc. and then when it makes its way onto the field that starts in Rookie League and below. The ground-up rebuild doesn'tn start at the MLB level, that's just where it ends ideally in 3-5 years, so why tear that down if you don't have to? Buy talent, take advantage of your fans commitment level, trade it if you want to collect picks, etc. This isn't the NBA where the draft pick game rarely produces stars and superstars past the first couple picks; in MLB this draft routinely produces stars and superstars intermittently anywhere from 1st overall into the 2nd or 3rd rounds and sometimes later, and often the best players aren't even eligible for the amateur draft. And the draft is the only positive of losing, Rule-4 or 5, plus waiver claiming order. That romantic type of approach to rebuilding only seems to work for the Rays. Don't count on that, don't even think about them. No one can be the Rays. The Royals made a trade and are a better team because of it, because they added proven veteran talent, and if they want to win a division in the next couple years they will have to continue on in that path. The O's only made noise after continuing to add vets around a couple developed prospects. Detroit's rebuild completed with the signings of IRoid & OEO Magglio. Etc. The EJax move was a good one & they should probably try to extend Samardjiza too. Spend some money, try to compete a little (even if you're not really trying, just get the fans to buy into it so they fill up the stadium) and add talent to the mix at the MLB level, because you can always trade that, and sometimes the best prospects you get come out of another organization. JMO.

QUOTE (flavum @ Mar 17, 2013 -> 01:58 PM) Dunn is batting 5th this year. Wow! This is easily the best news I've heard all day. Someone woke me up about 4 in the morning to tell me we had just landed on the moon, and I thought that was pretty neat at the time, but now here it is only 11 hours later and I've just been told that Dunn's finally out of the 3 spot. I mean f*** yeah this day is awesome so far. Good for Robin. I'm gonna start calling him the Robinator, or maybe just "R" or "R-Ven" because that's probably how he refers to himself.

QUOTE (The Ginger Kid @ Mar 16, 2013 -> 08:25 PM) It's amazing to me that robin or anyone else thinks Dunn should be hitting 3rd on this team.He looks lost in the cage, much less games Agree. I bet Ranger likes it though, and I also bet he'll defend Robin's decision 100+ times this year during the pre and post shows.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Mar 17, 2013 -> 12:20 PM) Here's your next five to ten thread ideas, Marty34. 1) Trade Sale before it's too late and he goes all Sergio Santos on the Sox 2) Danks and Dunn are horrible contracts, fire JR/KW 3) Trade Viciedo 4) Trade Ramirez again 5) Gordon Beckham should be moved to SS 6) KW sucks 7) JR and Hahn suck....White Sox will never be competitive in the AL Central again in our lifetimes 8) It was a mistake to not keep AJ because Flowers sucks 9) White Sox wasted money on Peavy and Keppinger when they should have gone younger 10) Everyone is too optimistic about the Sox....conclusively, i am 100% sure they will win 72 games or less and draw less than 1.8 million in attendance, therefore there's no reason not to start rebuilding in full Just boil all that down into one thread titled "Among Other Things Reinsdorf Needs to Sell."

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Mar 17, 2013 -> 01:14 PM) With Quintana I just see the league catching up with him. It would be nice, but I don't think he's the next Mark Buehrle. I guess Konerko's 2nd half did kind of offset his MVP-like 1st half, so I guess in the end that might not change. At his age you never know, but he has stayed consistent. If Sale & Peavy pitch as well last year, then that would be huge for this team, and it definitely could happen. From year to year, sometimes starters have up & down years, especially a guy like Sale in his 2nd season as a SP. I guess if everything goes well, I see this team's ceiling at 92-93 wins, but I see some hiccups along the way and them ending up closer to .500 Re: Q, catching up to what? If he's sharp in the zone and mixing things up well then that's what you call pitching, and hitters generally don't like that stuff. Hitters like pitchers who fall behind early, walk people, and force themselves to make mistakes.

Hot start, a couple trades, we end with 94 wins and a division title. This season is going to be awesome. The Royals are going to push us, the Indians will be a mess, the Tigers up and down with long winning streaks and long losing streaks, and the Twins will show some improvement as the year goes on but they'll thankfully spend one more year laying down for us when we play them.

QUOTE (Jose Paniagua @ Mar 14, 2013 -> 10:45 AM) People get down on Flowers, but power like that with defense? Absolutely play him and reap the benefits of that cheap labor. AJ earned way too much to justify defense that substandard It's going to be hilarious watching the reactions you guys have once you realize that we're still going to be run on. You all have been underrating AJ's contributions for years. Catching is the hardest position on the field to find a good player.

I'm still wondering why we traded proven workhorse Brandon McCarthy to Texas. Has anyone been able to come up with a reason by now? Maybe he would have blocked man-child Juan Silverio after we convert him to a pitcher because he sucks balls as a position player.