ZoomSlowik

Not exactly anything new, when was the last time the Sox signed one of the top free agents that wasn't one of their own guys? Jamie Navarro? The Sox have usually tried to find bargains on the market to fill in their holes. That generally seems to be the better way to go, otherwise you often end up overpaying for guys that aren't quite true difference makers and giving them really long contracts (ie Zito, El Caballo, Burnett, Drew, Beltre plenty of other examples). Who do you think is happier with who they signed, the Sox with Dye and Iguchi, or the Yankees with Carl Pavano? That's especially true when you have multiple holes to fill instead of just one or two, and even moreso in our case since the bullpen, the most volatile part of the team, is one our major concerns. Unless we're somehow going to get Joe Nathan or Ichiro (or I guess A-Rod) we're likely going to be better off getting 2 or 3 players instead of one. Adding a group like Luis Castillo, Jose Guillen, and Dan Miceli would probably help more than just getting Andruw Jones or Torii Hunter in our case.

I missed the early to mid 90's back when those two were the biggest stars out there (well, pre-steroids Bonds too I guess, but I don't remember him being talked about as much), back before Sosa and McGwire went on their little run...

QUOTE(knightni @ Jun 27, 2007 -> 01:54 PM) Stoudamire, while very powerful and manchild-ish, doesn't seem much of an improvement over Thomas in playing style. They both have very limited "games". While their styles are somewhat similar, I'll take the more proven and bigger option every time. You PRAY that Tyrus will be that good in a few years. I have absolutely no problem with a 20 points-10 boards-1 steal-1 block on 57.5% shooting guy who's still only 24.

QUOTE(Kalapse @ Jun 24, 2007 -> 10:45 PM) When was the last time a pitcher of Buehrle's caliber despite being a possible rental became available for trade in late June? Has there ever been a better pitcher than Buehrle to be dealt at the end of June/beginning of July? Has a pitcher of Buehrle's caliber ever been dealt at the deadline? I mean, I'm certainly not Mark's biggest fan but he has to be one of the best pitchers to ever become available for trade at the deadline in the era of free agency. Well, you could sort of argue Garcia, or the other one that comes to mind is Randy Johnson a while back. Neither is a GREAT comparison, but both got pretty decent talent (well, at the time in Freddy's case).

QUOTE(Dick Allen @ Jun 6, 2007 -> 04:51 PM) Considering how well Durant played while he was so weak, it will be interesting to see how much better he gets when a team gets him to hit the weights. I wonder how Larry Bird would have done on these drills. He was pretty good. You have to take Odon #1, but I think Durant is going to the HOF. The names of the players previously that have scored the highest on these drills haven't exactly become NBA stars. If Durant isn't picked #2 it will be an idiotic move that someone will be known for for a long while. Yeesh, bad. People would have overlooked it because of his insanely good shooting though, much like they will with Durant. I can't imagine any GM's really care about how someone like Durant performs in these things, if they do they should lose their job immediately. I don't know about Hall of Fame yet, but he'll be a very good player. I agree with what Danman said a couple of posts ago, Rashard Lewis is a pretty good worst case scenario...

He'll still go #2, they might as well contract Seattle if they don't. He probably went into the thing half-assing it knowing that he was a mortal lock to go #2. Anyone who watches him play for more than 5 minutes knows he has insane talent and has a handful of All-Star games in front of him...

Cordero ain't happening, their asking price is ridiculous. They wanted Jon Lester, Craig Hansen, AND Clay Buchholz from Boston...

QUOTE(Chisoxfn @ May 30, 2007 -> 04:02 PM) My question is who was ever considering him one of the top 5 or 10 players in the league. I know I wasn't. Do I consider him one of the 10 best defensive centerfielders of all time, yes. Well, that often seems to be a perception given the level of hype he gets and the amount of money he has/will receive, and that is generally true of guys considered likely HOF'ers. I always get the impression that the average fan considers him one of the top handful of players in the game (not among the super-elite, but maybe back end of the top 10). Given his usually decent but not stellar offensive production I just can't say that even with his awesome defense in his prime.

Let's see if I can come up with some similar arguments here... This guy has 8 gold gloves, 354 homers in about 90 more games than Andruw, two 40-plus homerun seasons and another 39 homer season, and a .288/.381/.534/.915 OPS. That guy must be great, he must be a future HOF'er, he's one of the All-time greats. Oh wait, it's Jim Edmonds, nobody cares. Jones is a very good player, but he doesn't really belong in the pantheon of the absolute greats. He's going to end up with some very good career numbers largely because he came up when he was 20, but he has not been a consistent game-changing hitter. Yes, he's a likely HOF'er because of his great defense and solid offensive production, but I can't say I'd ever have called him one of the top 5 players in the league, maybe even top 10.

One addendum to that rules post: I'm about 99% sure that the figure has been changed to be 25% instead of 15%...

The Bulls need to put together at least $15 mil to send out for the deal to work financially. That means one of a few things need to happen: 1) Ben Wallace is dealt. Clearly not going to happen, they won't want someone that old or expensive. 2) Hinrich goes. Far more likely, in fact because of his $9.5-ish salary (does he count at $11 mil right now? That'd help...) he's probably the most likely centerpiece. Possibly something like Kirk/Tyrus/pick might make sense (though I think Duhon/Khryapa might need to be included as well). The packages in the next part are probably more appealing though... 3) Noc goes in a sign-and trade. He'd have to get at least $8 mil on the new contract to make it feasible. However, unless he signs an insane deal you'll need at least another $6 mil going out, and he'd be less desirable talent-wise. Packages would vary depending on how much he gets, from something like Hinrich/Noc/Tyrus and/or #9 (or possibly future pick if they get Tyrus, seems a bit much if they got 9 too) to something like Noc/Gordon/Tyrus and/or #9 (same as previous). A Noc/Gordon core in the deal makes the most sense for the Bulls, but IF they accept that pairing I would assume that Tyrus would have to be included. IMO it makes sense if you can manage to keep Deng and one of Hinrich/Gordon. That'd give you 3 pretty solid scoring options as well as at least 3 plus defenders (Wallace/Deng/Kobe/maybe Hinrich or Tyrus), plus Kobe is still only 28. Whether or not the Lakers would do it without Deng is an entirely different story, he'd form a pretty solid forward pairing with Odom. I think I'd consider the Gordon/Noc/Tyrus option, but only if I'm desperate to unload Kobe.

QUOTE(whitesoxfan101 @ May 9, 2007 -> 10:22 PM) IRivals had a story yesterday about Jennings saying Illinois is in his top 3, that list isn't updated. That explains a lot. Didn't bother reading the articles this time...

We have a roster set, we're going to be tweaking it a bit over the next few days. It sounds like they should be posted by Sunday.

Alright, I like to throw in my 2 cents on all food topics. I went to the Claim Jumper in Tucson. Decent but not stellar, definitely monstrous portions. I'm with Rock, I love Champps'. The Southwestern corn cowder is awesome (on Saturdays), and the black and blue sirloin is another of my favorites. Rock Bottom is also pretty solid, good burgers. Plus that one jalepeno chicken sandwich (or whatever it's called, something that sounded spicy) was actually spicy.

QUOTE(maggsmaggs @ May 8, 2007 -> 12:56 PM) Also Trey Thompkins who Weber is recruiting hard (he is 13th I think) and Terrence Jennings who is #9, has a top 3 with Illinois, Cal and Arizona. So lots of Illinois guys up there, I think this is the banner class the BW has wanted. Plus, '09 is stacked and the top two '09 players are from the Champaign area and '10 already has Richmond who is a top 5 player nationally. Things finally starting to look up for a true good guy in college basketball. Actually, according to Rivals Illinois isn't even on Jennings' list. His top 3 are Arizona, Cal, and Maryland, with Iowa State, Nebraska, Oklahoma, and Old Dominion as the other listed schools... Still, nice to see him starting to gain some ground, we'll see if he gets some guys...

Rosters are a work in progress. They will be real MLB players, though we will probably have to tweak our roster set a bit once we figure out which one we're going to use.

This thing is filling up crazy fast.

QUOTE(Balta1701 @ May 8, 2007 -> 03:40 PM) Brian McCann (coming into this season) Minor League, 5 seasons: .275 .334 .462 796, 36 home runs, 1082 at bats. Highest OPS = 835. Major League, 2 seasons: 317 .376 .523 899, 29 home runs, 622 at bats. Highest OPS = 960. Pretty big improvement from his minor league numbers to his major league numbers so far... I'm not saying he sucks, I'd like to have that kind of player on the Sox, we could use a young catcher with his talent. I'm just saying it seems a bit pre-mature to put him in the top 10. Even in the MINORS he wasn't really elite...

QUOTE(CWSGuy406 @ May 8, 2007 -> 04:08 PM) Brian McCann had an equal year to Joe Mauer last season. I can see your gripe with Young -- he hasn't done anything for a prolonged time in the majors -- but McCann deserves that nine spot. He's 23 and is already a career 130 OPS+ hitter at the catcher spot. You don't seem to realize just how hard it is to find such a good hitting catcher. He's as valuable, if not moreso, than Grady Sizemore. Haha, whoops, got the DPBL league on the brain. I'm aware that it's hard to find a good catcher, but even the people who wrote the article said that they don't really know if you're getting the next Johnny Bench or the next Kevin Neilssen with him. Mauer at least has a bit more than two full seasons behind him and is a very solid defensive catcher, McCann has a little over one full year to his name so far, and I seriously doubt that he hits .333 with 24 homers again this year. If he does it again, then fine, put him up there, but no way I take ahead of a whole lot proven All-Star caliber players until he has a bit more of a track record.

There is a serious emphasis on youth here. I'm sorry, but no way I take Bradley McCann #9 even if he is only 23, and Chris Young needs a lot more than a month of mediocre at best performance to make the list. The same goes with Alex Gordon at #23, only he's been awful early (and there are a few others as well)...

QUOTE(StrangeSox @ May 7, 2007 -> 10:50 PM) Does that factor in all of the money other teams might get or have to pay? No, it definitely doesn't, but then again I can't really think of a whole lot of other massive ones outside of Texas paying a chunk of A-Rod's money and Colorado paying a chunk of Mike Hampton's off the top of my head... Edit: Hey, another Hypno-Toad avatar.

QUOTE(joeynach @ May 7, 2007 -> 09:37 PM) And we also have the 3rd or 4th highest payroll in the league which puts us in a different class of team. We can afford to be one of those 13 qualified teams and we should. Even the Yankees don't have one hitting 8th, unless you think Robinson Cano is going to hit .342 again. That's also a .330 OBP, not the .340 you wanted. There were even fewer the past few years. If we could even acquire/find said SS, he'd almost certainly be batting 1st or 2nd. Also, we're closer to 8th in payroll when you factor in money we're getting for Thome and Vazquez and have other things to worry about with our money.

Let's see... Arizona California Colorado Florida Illinois Indiana Kentucky (I think, I was pretty young when we made that driving trip) Louisiana Maryland (briefly) Michigan Ohio Tennessee (same as Kentucky, though I'm more sure about this one) Texas Virginia Wisconsin And Washington DC...

QUOTE(whitesoxfan101 @ May 7, 2007 -> 03:11 PM) The success of the A's for many years has been based on maximizing the performance they get out of guys, and then trading them to teams who will overpay for them, only to see the guy they got regress to the means (SEE: Mulder for Calero and Haren for example). In fact, they do it well in cases like Frank Thomas, Chad Bradford, etc as well in cases without trades. That is the true essence of moneyball, far more than on base percentage (although that is important too). They also let Tejada and Zito walk rather than trade them, and have held on to Chavez despite his obviously declining performance (well, since his extension, had a solid year in 2004 right before he signed it, though he missed about 30 games). They could have had a king's ransom for those guys at one point if they really wanted to. Also, if they had a payroll closer to the Sox probably two out of Hudson, Mulder, Zito, Tejada, and Giambi would still be there, they did that out of financial necessity. I'd credit their scouting which allows them to find affordable replacements a lot more than that particular strategy.

QUOTE(BigSqwert @ May 7, 2007 -> 02:48 PM) I'm sick of hearing about our tough schedule. It really isn't much tougher than our division rivals. When it's all said and done the schedules all even out by the end of the year. So far it has been a lot harder... Winning percentages of opponents: Sox: .519 Indians: .497 Twins: .490 Tigers: .467 Detroit has already played the Royals 9 times. That said, our schedule doesn't really get significantly easier at any point, not with 19 games against those other 3 spread out across the year. They haven't exactly had a whole lot of easy series so far though.