Soxbadger

Its not my job. I dont work for the White Sox, so I dont know how they are going to work next season. I assume they have a plan and that they will do their best to put a winning team on the field. JR has spent more money on the Sox than any other owner has. If he feels the Sox had the money to take on Jackson, then Im not going to question him. I think Jackson is the better pitcher, so if JR has the money, Im going to take the better player.

You can replace Sox with any team in baseball. Id much prefer the White Sox had Matt Bush to Chris Sale. In baseball very few first round picks are sure things, many dont make it at all. (Edit) Jackson was proven in the fact that he had had thrown over 600 innings and had an era + of 100 and 120 the prior 2 seasons. Furthermore Jackson's stuff has never been questioned. Hudson had thrown 33 innings, including his brilliant 3 game stretch with the Sox this year where he went 1-1 with a 6.32 era, averaging 5 innings in 3 starts. You want to win, you take risks. If Hudson had gone out and pitched like he did in Arizona, he wouldnt have been traded. The Sox gave him a shot, he didnt produce. The Sox wanted to win last year, they thought that 5 games may be the difference. They felt Jackson gave them a better chance to win games than Hudson did. You can talk about how cheap Hudson is, but payroll saving in 2011 doesnt win you games in 2010. The Sox didnt make the playoffs, but that was their goal and mindset. Its basically comparing apples and oranges, because keeping Hudson would have been the equivalent of conceding defeat in 2010 for the chance of more payroll flexibility in 2011. If the Sox make the playoffs and beyond, they would have had plenty of money for Jackson +. Id rather go big then just sit around and hope for miracles.

But not every first round pick even makes the majors. The Sox have had first round picks that had less impact than Sale already has.

Id rather have a guy who is dominant at anything. So many Sox 1st round picks havent even been mediocre at the MLB level. I dont see how you can complain about picking a guy with legitimate stuff and hoping he can be a starter, but worse case scenario is above average reliever. That would seem to me to be a pretty smart pick.

No youre not reading correctly. You have parsed out very important points: Hudson was unproven, you had no idea what Hudson would bring for the rest of the season. Jackson was far more proven, furthermore Jackson had far more talent. Some times you have to trade a young unproven cheap talent for an expensive more proven more talented player. You are acing like Hudson has more talent than Jackson. Jackson is the more talented player, Jackson is the more proven player. Generally more talent + more proven = more expensive. The only thing Hudson had going for him was being cheap, and Im sorry but keeping Hudson just because he was cheap is not a good plan if you are trying to win this year. You never know what is going to happen in the future, so you try and give your team the best shot when they have one.

Rock, Scooters are everywhere in Madison. Im not sure why, maybe because of the hill? It should be a great time, night games are insane which is why they dont usually have them. I think its going to be a tight game, whatever team can run and control the ball better most likely will win.

Konerko was brought in when he was pre-arb. Buerhle was home grown. The point is that cheap guys eventually become expensive if they are good. That is having a pipeline flowing. Over 10 years or so the Sox have had different home grown talent play for them. Well have to see what we have in the future. Prospects are a crap shoot, a guy could be a top prospect and do nothing, he could be unheard of and become a star. The Sox have had plenty of cheap talent, just over time if you want to stay consistently competitive you are going to have to pay. And eventually you are going to end up trading younger cheaper talent for more proven veterans. If you want to win you have to risk.

The Sox have filtered in controllable talent. Paul Konerko, Gordon Beckham, Alexei Ramirez, CQ, Mark Buerhle, Gavin Floyd, Matt Thornton, Bobby Jenks Almost a 1/3 of their roster was brought in cheaply. The problem is that if you bring in cheap guys who are good, they dont stay cheap forever. Its the problem with being successful, people want more money. There are 4 teams left in the playoffs shockingly 3 of the 4 have payrolls near $100mil or far in excess.

Doesnt come off harsh. I dont know beyond a reasonable doubt, but Im pretty sure using deduction and rationalization I can come to those conclusions. 1) How do I know what the rest of the league thought of him? Well that is simple enough. In 2010 Hudson was rated as the 3rd best prospect in the Sox minor league system. (http://www.baseballamerica.com/today/prosp...010/269333.html) Furthermore at the start of the season, Hudson was considered the 66th best prospect in baseball with a grade of 65. 66 DAN HUDSON RHP, WHITE SOX Best Tool: Command. BA Grade: 65. Opening Day Age: 23 ETA: 2010 Now to the deduction and argument. KW has been/is one of the most aggressive GM's in baseball. Based on this, I believe that KW called as many teams as possible concerning Hudson and using Hudson to bring in talent to the White Sox. Based on the fact that KW was only able to get Edwin Jackson, I believe that Jackson was the highest price any other team was willing to pay. The highest price any other team was willing to pay, is the value of Hudson on the open market. As for the Nationals, how do I know that they didnt want Hudson straight up for Dunn? Well it assumes that KW valued Dunn over Jackson, and that KW wanted Dunn over Jackson. If those are true, then it is likely that KW offered Hudson for Dunn. The fact that Dunn was not traded for Hudson suggests that the Nationals valued Dunn more than Hudson. If Hudson was > Dunn in the eyes of the Nationals, they would have made the deal. The only other conclusion is that the Sox believed that Jackson > Dunn and therefore trading Hudson for Jackson was actually getting the highest possible value. It could be possible that Diamondbacks didnt want any other spect than Hudson and that Jackson was "KW's guy", that just doesnt make a lot of sense in the grand scheme of things. From all accounts the White Sox #1 priority was offense. The fact that Hudson was traded for pitching not offense, seems to suggest that KW could not get an offensive player who had more value than Jackson, so he made the trade for Jackson to maximize value for Hudson. As for dirt cheap middle of the rotation starter, sure those are great if your aspiring to be Kansas City or Cleveland. If you want to win a World Series ring, you need some one who can potentially dominate in the playoffs. Jackson had the stuff to be dominant. If you are going to be a contender you some times have to give up on unproven prospects for a chance to win that season. Its the nature of trading.

For whatever reason the Sox werent confident in Hudson's ability. Wait, strike that. For whatever reason most of MLB was not confident in Hudson's ability. If other teams thought Hudson was as good as he performed post trade, dont you think teams would have been busting down Kenny's door for the guy? Dont you imagine that the Nationals would have been willing to trade Dunn for him? Im not going to fault Kenny & Co. for this one. Strange things happen after trades.

I assume you know its a joke based on the song: When you hear the song at a club or bar it sounds like he is saying "Teach me how to bucky", so they made a joke song out of it. I have to imagine that you also think The Onion is awful. The horribleness is the joke.

Hey Rock, You ready?

Id agree that if they arent solid, they are a bust. I just am saying that if you are taken 14th overall, and not even the top player at your position, your no guarantee as a franchise player. And I think you can have a franchise player at LB etc, just depends on the team and the scheme.

I guess when I hear "franchise player" I consider it to mean one of the best players on the team. I think guys like Ogden and Pace. I would consider a guy "solid" if he started for 5 years. Might just be difference on how we are using the words.

If you pick a LT in the top 1 or 2 you expect them to be a franchise player. If you pick a LT at 14 and they are the 3rd lineman taken in the draft, you are just hoping for a guy who is solid. Unfortunately Clady and Long went before Williams, but I never was a big Williams fan. Thought he could potentially be solid but never expected him to be a franchise LT.

Some how the computers would magically find 2 different teams to end as 1 and 2. Computers can get paid too.

If the Packers wouldnt pay for Lynch, they wont pay the enormous price tag that will come with DeAngelo.

From a game plan point of view, I wondered why the Bears didnt use shot gun and try and move the pocket. I think the success in the past few games made them believe that they could stubbornly stick to the 5-7 step drops.

Wow Giants could have had an easy first down and then for some reason they catch the punt instead of letting it bounce? Strange play.

Well now that Ive looked into it I do recall reading Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, I guess I just dont recall it being called the Great Revival or the name of the guy. Cant remember everything and its an era of American History that just doesnt really interest me.

Yeah sad to hear about Giraldo. He should have just stuck with the weed.

Got the last one wrong. Didnt even know what it was.

Andruw Jones bobblehead Wooooo

Stupid mistakes are part of the game and play into the "talent" level. Green Bay played pretty undisciplined, it seemed half of their team thought it was a good idea to go head hunting on Cutler. Anyway great game, Bears are in first and just have to keep playing solid.

Plenty of Simpsons episodes have been great in the last 5-7 years. Last nights episode was a pretty weak one.