Thome article & rumored payroll increase

[SSH2005]

Here's an interesting article on replacing Konerko if he does leave:

 

http://chicagosports.chicagotribune.com/sp...ack=1&cset=true

 

The following excerpt is for all of you guys who think the payroll is just going to jump to the $90-$95 million range.

 

If Konerko does depart, it shouldn't be assumed his replacement will make big money. With two expensive arbitration cases (Jon Garland and A.J. Pierzynski) looming and most of the signed regulars in line for seven-figure raises, Williams will face some tough choices even if his payroll does increase from $75 million to $85 million, which would represent a $20 million increase over two seasons.

Edited November 12, 2005 by SSH2005

[Gene Honda Civic]

Here's an interesting article on replacing Konerko if he does leave:

 

http://chicagosports.chicagotribune.com/sp...ack=1&cset=true

 

The following excerpt is for all of you guys who think the payroll is just going to jump to the $90-$95 million range.

You can go back to last season and dig out the same articles from a year ago that said the Sox payroll was going to be

 

I know what's being reported in the paper, but I've also followed this organization too closely, for too long, to take everything that's printed in those papers at face value without filtering them through my own patented Bulls*** Detector© and drawing my own conclusions.

[Rowand44]

You can go back to last season and dig out the same articles from a year ago that said the Sox payroll was going to be

 

I know what's being reported in the paper, but I've also followed this organization too closely, for too long, to take everything that's printed in those papers at face value without filtering them through my own patented Bulls*** Detector© and drawing my own conclusions.

Bingo.

[YASNY]

Here's an interesting article on replacing Konerko if he does leave:

 

http://chicagosports.chicagotribune.com/sp...ack=1&cset=true

 

The following excerpt is for all of you guys who think the payroll is just going to jump to the $90-$95 million range.

 

That quote fails to take into consideration that JR has consistently put profits into payroll for the next season, regardless of how much it jumped the previous year or two.

[southsider2k5]

You can go back to last season and dig out the same articles from a year ago that said the Sox payroll was going to be

 

I know what's being reported in the paper, but I've also followed this organization too closely, for too long, to take everything that's printed in those papers at face value without filtering them through my own patented Bulls*** Detector© and drawing my own conclusions.

 

Spot on. There were how many articles last year claiming that the Sox were barely going to be over the 2004 payroll of $63 million, and that was with a flat attendance to base it off of. Then we get to Spring Training and we have all of the sudden found $10 million somewhere. KW doesn't advertise his budget, and these guys are just stabbing in the dark if they think they can guess it.

 

 

That quote fails to take into consideration that JR has consistently put profits into payroll for the next season, regardless of how much it jumped the previous year or two.

 

Spot on again.

 

The White Sox payroll budget ALWAYS follows profits from the prior year. Some people want to argue with me on this, but you can go clear back to the 90's on this, and find it true year after year. If revenues tighten, payroll drops. If revenues increase, payroll rises. The White Sox are run as a zero sum team. They might as well be a not for profit organization, because that is exactly how they are run. Every single stinking year profits turn into payroll increases. The ONLY way the Sox don't hit a big payroll number is if Kenny can't find guys that he likes to fit into Ozzie's system, who happen to have big paychecks.

 

Also factor in JRs history. For almost 10 years the Bulls had the highest payroll in the NBA and were a perenial title contender. He kept the core of that team together until Jerry Krause convinced him to do otherwise. Personally I think even if Paul Konerko isn't on this team in 2005, there will be another big named player who is. There is just too much history to think otherwise.

[Pierzynski 12]

INDIAN WELLS, Calif -- Three years after the Cubs should have signed him, the White Sox could get a chance to bring power-hitting first baseman Jim Thome back to his home state.

 

General manager Ken Williams says re-signing Paul Konerko is his top priority this winter. But let's face it, the Sox never have thrown money at anyone—even the $55 million deal with Albert Belle came with exquisitely crafted escape language. And the Konerko sweepstakes is certain to be a drawn-out process that ends with him getting an offer from someone that will be difficult for the South Siders to swallow, even if Konerko offers them a chance to match it, which is not a given.

 

At last week's GM meetings, Williams said that because Konerko wants to stay in Chicago and the club wants to keep him, he is "optimistic" a deal can be done. But the telling quote came later in that interview, when he pointed out that no one is irreplaceable in the White Sox's team concept.

 

"If we don't have Paul, it's not like Juan Uribe and Joe Crede are going to throw the ball and it will go into the stands because no one's there to catch it," Williams said. "Somebody will be there. We'll figure it out."

 

If Konerko does depart, it shouldn't be assumed his replacement will make big money. With two expensive arbitration cases (Jon Garland and A.J. Pierzynski) looming and most of the signed regulars in line for seven-figure raises, Williams will face some tough choices even if his payroll does increase from $75 million to $85 million, which would represent a $20 million increase over two seasons.

 

But in Philadelphia's Thome and the Florida Marlins' Carlos Delgado, there are two proven run-producing first basemen being shopped this winter.

 

Thome, who played only 59 games last season because of a season-ending elbow injury, has been supplanted by Ryan Howard, who was named the National League's rookie of the year. Delgado, the former Toronto slugger, went to Florida with a back-loaded contract that quickly has become a burden.

 

Pat Gillick, the front-office veteran who was an excellent hire as general manager in Philadelphia, denied that a decision had been made between the 35-year-old Thome and Howard, who is 26.

 

"Nobody's the first baseman right now," Gillick said. "Because it's the off-season."

 

Thome, a Peoria native with many relatives in Chicago, is owed $46 million over the next three seasons and has a complete no-trade clause. It wasn't easy for him to watch Howard succeed in his place and feel written off by Philadelphia fans and media.

 

"When you're on the DL, it ain't the best feeling," Gillick said. "Jim is the kind of guy who always has contributed, who wants to contribute."

 

Gillick said it would not be uncomfortable to have both Thome and Howard in spring training, which would allow interested teams to see if Thome was healthy. But if the Phillies did not trade Thome until the spring, they could find themselves unable to add the pitching they believe they need.

 

Gillick said trainer Jeff Cooper has seen Thome recently and that he's in "tremendous condition, the best in three or four years."

 

That sounds like a GM trying to build a market. The question could be how much of Thome's contract the Phillies are willing to swallow to get viable pitching in exchange for a salary they would love to move.

 

Delgado, 33, gave the Marlins a .301 average, 33 home runs and 115 RBIs for only $4 million this season. But the deal he signed last winter includes $44 million to be paid over the next three seasons.

 

His 2006 salary is $13.5 million, which the Sox could reduce to an effective $9 million by sending Orlando Hernandez to Florida. With Brandon McCarthy ready to move into the rotation, the Sox could offset Delgado's salary in '06 and '07 by dealing Jose Contreras or Freddy Garcia.

Edited November 14, 2005 by BMac41

[Fingish]

This is the ranting of a moron. He practically suggests trading 3/5ths of our starting rotation. We won the World Freakin' Series with Ptiching and Defense, but he wants to trade Hernandez and Contreras or Garcia to make room for a 33 yr. old Delgado.

 

We had 2 guys the year before that are .300/30HR/100RBI-type players, we decided to get rid of them so we COULD have guys like Garcia and Contreras on the team.

 

It's amazing how after all of these decades of frustration, we finally do the right thing, assemble a team of players that play the game the right way, and everyone is just as quick to want to trade what made us succesful for power-hitting offensively minded players.

 

Even with McCarthy penciled into a rotation spot for '06, there is no guarantee that he will live up to his potential. I agree that I see what everyone else sees, the guy should be a stud #1 or#2 type pitcher someday, this is baseball, it isn't written in stone.

 

If there was 1 pitcher I would consider trading, it would probably be Garland, and only if it was bringing another SP that helped us either payroll-wise, or we thought we had a better chance of hanging on to. Otherwise, Pitching wins, Defense wins, don't mess with what works.

Edited November 14, 2005 by Fingish

[KevHead0881]

http://www.soxtalk.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=43110

[NorthSideSox72]

INDIAN WELLS, Calif -- Three years after...

 

BTW, as a general rule, you should cite your quotations. Otherwise, it looks like you wrote it yourself, which is plagiarism. Did you? I assume this is from a newspaper or something, but who knows?