ZoomSlowik

QUOTE(AnthraxFan93 @ May 25, 2005 -> 12:27 PM) Are you talking last year or this year? Cause I think I have made the point that we should have never traded for Everett back. KW lets his personal feeling get in the way and clouds his judgement.. AKA we still have Bochard and got rid of Rauch who we could have used in this past offseason.. With that said here is my orginal off-season plan. Trade Pauly to Baltimore for Roberts and Gibbons..The O's were looking for a big bat, and at the time (early Dec I think I mentioned this) The O's would have went for it, with still have harriston to play second for them. Roberts would play SS For us with Gibbons playing 1b, Uribe moving over to 3b. Ink Iguchi, which we did.. Nice Job KW.. With that said think about the range minus Gibbons we would have in the INF. Now onto to the OF Trade Lee and Daiz to the Brewers for Pods and Davis..This gives us the lead-off hitter we need plus finishes out the rotation (Davis is making 1.7 mil less than we are paying Hernandez and coming off a very breakout year 12-12 with an ERA under 3.5) Here is where it gets tricky, I wanted to play RF Jose Gullien, I felt that will Ozzie as his manager this kid could have shined playing for the SOX. Who would have been a part of this deal I am not to sure on, since we didn't have an OF like Rivera.. Maybe Bochard and a double a pitcher would have finished this deal. The only thing left was working on the bullpen, which is the hardest part about building any team IMO. AS for the DH..It probally still be everett, unless we were able to trade him away, but honestly I never saw us being able to do that. The Orioles were not going to give us Roberts and Gibbons. Maybe one of the two but not both, and certainly not both of them for a guy that only had one year left on his contract. More importantly, why would they want to acquire Konerko when they already invested a bunch of money on Palmeiro? I'm also mystified at the mention of moving Roberts to SS since he has a grand total of 53 career games played at short, and he had 16 errors in that stretch. The Brewers have no reason to trade a solid young starter in Davis, and Diaz has no value whatsoever after getting rocked last year. There's a big difference between having a bullpen guy and a PTBNL in the deal and having a major league level starting pitcher in the deal. Jose Guillen was not going to be had for Borchard and some random AA pitcher. Borchard is another guy that has no value at this point, no way you were going to get a hitter of Guillen's quality with a deal centered around him. You're not going to get two starters for one of ours, which is your main problem with the first two proposals, and you need to give up more than two mediocre to poor prospects to get a potential .300/30/100 outfielder.

QUOTE(whitesoxin' @ May 24, 2005 -> 11:04 PM) What's so bad about Marvin? He's not that great a fit for Miluakee. Of Miluakee's players that are back, two of the credible players are Desmond Mason and Joe Smith, who normally play William's two best positions. It's possible that Mason could move to SG if Redd leaves, but it seems that the Bucks would be making the smart move by taking the best big man that they could get. Another factor is that the Bucks need some immediate help, which Bogut would be more likely to provide. That would leave them with a core of Williams/Ford at the point, Mason on the wing, Smith at PF, and Bogut at C. Then if Redd were to return, that'd be a team that could compete in the East. Nothing against Marvin, I like him a lot and I think he will be the better player in the long run. I just think that Miluakee would be better served taking Bogut, and teams usually lean towards centers and power forwards in the draft.

The Rockies/Phillies would have to eat an awful lot of money for us to get either Helton or Thome, and because of that we'd have to give up a lot of talent. Plus, it would be much more likely that the Phillies would deal Howard instead. I like the Overbay idea, but I wouldn't give up a ton for him. I still want to see him perform for a whole season. He was awesome in the first half last year and has started pretty well, but he was not good at all in the second half last year, and he doesn't seem to have as much power as a lot of guys. He looks like a pretty good option though, so as long as he doesn't cost us too much that would be nice.

A comparison: Uribe 2005 salary- $2,150,000 career numbers- .264/.304/.434, .971 FPCT, 5.12 RF, .847 ZR (at SS only) Cabrera 2005 salary- $6 mil career numbers- .267/.315/.407, .977 FPCT, 4.87 RF, .854 ZR Face it, Cabrera is not that good, and is certainly not worth the money he got on this contract. I see no reason we'd be better off with him at SS, and given the choice between the two, Uribe makes a lot more sense for our financial situation. Please god stop touting your talent evaluation skills, your desire to pay that much for Ortiz and Cabrera clearly shows that they are lacking. Polanco would be a solid pickup that can let us give Uribe and Crede some breathers and another option when they go into prolonged slumps. If we can somehow sneak Howard into the deal, all the better. My guess is they'd want Anderson and Tracey, which might be a bit much for those two. Young, Tracey, and another decent prospect sounds better to me.

QUOTE(farmteam @ May 24, 2005 -> 08:50 PM) Anyways, without BMac, who do we include for Huff? So, who would we give up? Some combination of Crede, Tracey and perhaps Ray Liotta? Too much? Too little? That sounds somewhat close, although it'd probably take another solid prospect, maybe Gio (not high on my list). I don't think they'd want Crede as much as good pitching prospects. Huff would be solid, especially since he is cheaper, but he isn't really a third baseman. He's almost exclusively an OF/1B now, which would be nice for next year assuming Paulie is gone but wouldn't help as much right now.

I know I'm pretty much echoing what a lot of other people said, but if it doesn't involve B-Mac I'm all for getting Chavez. His numbers right now are a mirage, he'll hit better, even in that s*** lineup. Put him behind Pods and Iguchi and in front of Thomas and Konerko and see what kind of numbers he puts up, especially in our park. However, B-Mac is untouchable. The guy doesn't turn 22 for two months, and he is for all intensive purposes major league ready. In fact he'd be starting on pretty much any other team now. He looks like at worst a solid #3 starter, and with that nasty curve possibly more. Although it looks like he either needs to add velocity or throw the change more, he has been very impressive. I'd happily deal Anderson, Crede, and Tracey, but not B-Mac.

Interesting statement: on the ESPN Insider Rumor Central, they are stating that the Phillies want to try to include Ryan Howard in a deal for Placido Polanco. They speculate that the Dodgers are a prime destination, and mentioned the Cubs before throwing in the Howard statement. I love that idea for the Sox, although it will depend on what it costs us. I wouldn't touch B-Mac, Sweeney, Fields, or Gio, but for those two guys I wouldn't complain if they dealt any other prospects.

Are there any decent 1B replacement options in FA this year? Does someone have a list of guys? I agree that we shouldn't pay Konerko a ton of money, but I also don't want to see Ross Gload or some other in-house schmuck replacing him (unless Fields develops faster than expected). It looks like it would be pretty tough to get one in a trade: the only ones that come to mind are Overbay and Huff, who will cost a ton, and hot prospects like Adrian Gonzalez and Ryan Howard that are much less of a sure thing.

I can't imagine that it would be Dunn and Graves in the deal. I don't see why the Reds would trade Dunn, he's got a ton of power and he's fairly cheap. That'd take some monster prospects, and I don't think they have them. Graves and the Reds makes sense though. Maybe Griffey? If the Cubs ate the money I could see it, but I'm not sure they would do that. Kearns or Pena would make more sense, but they aren't lefties. Huff and Baez definitely makes sense unfortunately. I'd hate to see that because it would actually be a good move. The problem with that though is they wouldn't want OF's in return with guys like Crawford, Baldelli coming back, and some solid prospects like Delmon Young, and Upton potentially switching positions. So basically, I don't really see where the rumor fits.

Trading Lidge doesn't really make much sense for Houston, since they don't really have a solid option backing him up. I can't really see them trading an affordable top notch closer. Even if they did it would have to be a monster package. That doesn't seem to make much sense for the Sox to make a deal like that since it would have to probably involve a package that includes B-Mac, Sweeney, or Fields. Wagner can probably be had for less since he is a free agent at the end of the year, possibly a deal revolving around Tracey and another decent prospect would work unless we get in a bidding war. I'm definitely not worried about the offense once Frank gets back. I am confident that a middle of the order with Rowand-Frank-Paule-Dye/Everett-AJ will produce enough runs to do some major damage.

I would probably do it because it would add a ton of power and two solid bats from the left side (Texieira is a switch hitter), but it would never happen. First off, I highly doubt McCarthy goes anywhere. Second, I highly doubt Blalock goes anywhere. Third, I doubt we acquire Texieira because he is due for a payday soon and Boras is his agent. I don't see how this makes that much sense for Texas, they could get much better for those two guys. Maybe it would make more sense if it was Garland instead of McCarthy, but I still doubt the value for Texas. Plus I don't see why they would need another outfielder, it seems like they have a ton of decent young players that can fill in there.

People need to stop assuming that the Cubs are going to make a major move for a player with a monster salary committment that is going to seriously help their team. They have only one player with a $10 mil plus salary in the coming years, and that's when they had to sign Wood. They'll make some moves to get decent, cheap, younger players like Ramirez or Lee, but not the big knockout blow for an elite player, outside of Nomar for a one year committment (I wouldn't call him elite at this point anyways). Thome was damn near begging to play for the Cubs, not interested. In a free agent class where they had the means and the need to grab Tejada or I-Rod, they wait until everyone is gone and overpay Maddux, who plays a position that they didn't need that much. This year they passed on Renteria and Benitez/Percival, getting absolutely nothing. They make surprisingly few major moves for a team with such a high payroll. The only reason it is this high is they had to pay homegrown players like Wood, Prior and Sosa, and were nearly forced to resign the players they got in trades like Ramirez, Lee, and Nomar.

Charles Barkley wasn't in some of the NBA games in the mid 90's. I remember one early Playstation game that didn't have Jordan, Shaq, or Barkley under their normal names. It kind of sucked. I also noticed that the classic rosters on Madden no longer have accurate numbers or player names because of liscening issues, and it sounds like that might be the case in future college games.

I don't think the in-state thing is that big of a deal right now. Scheyer isn't that damn good, plus Coach K has always recruited pretty well in Illinois (Maggette, Thompson, Dockery, Livingston, now Scheyer). I really can't imagine us stealing a whole lot of recruits from Coach K. Seriously, if you were a top college basketball prospect, would you go to Illinois, or go to Duke and play for arguably the top school in the last 10 years and the best coach? My bet would be about 1 out of 10. There are better players that are considering Illinois, if you can get some of those guys, that will make a big difference. They do need to start getting some better players eventually though. Dee Brown, Brian Cook, and Frank Williams were key to their run.

QUOTE(SleepyWhiteSox @ May 17, 2005 -> 01:46 PM) How did Ill and Oden ever become mentioned in the same sentence? Was it just cubs-caliber optimism by illini fans? It happened because Conley listed Illinois as one of his options, and as others have said, Oden seems very interested in going to the same school as Conley. I'd be absolutely shocked if he goes to Illinois, he doesn't seem to have any interest. Illinois is the only school Conley has listed that Oden doesn't. I still think Oden ends up in NBA regardless of what he says anyways, people just don't pass up that opportunity.

Maris is simply not plaque material. He had one fantastic season and two other pretty good ones, but was merely mediocre outside of that. He hit 39 homers in 60, 61 in 61, and 33 in 62. He hit 142 homes in his other 9 seasons combined. I have no problem with putting one of his bats from the 61 season in there or something like that, but no way he should be enshrined and have a plaque.

Interesting collection: Full name- chimpanzee (doh!) nickname with last name- Jessica Alba Full first name- Gwen Stefani (meh) nickname- Britney (still hot, but too much going on in the background)

I love the one guy who supports us. He says the Sox are going to win the WS, and when someone says that their staff will fall apart, he says something like, "Yeah, just like the Cardinals last year." Priceless! I also love the one moron who says, "Their pitching staff is full of shaky players historically, their offense hasn't done crap all year, and it doesn't even look that good on paper." How he can say that with the makeup of the Cub's staff is beyond me. Maddux did his best work in another uniform and has been only decent the last few years, Wood has never won more than 14 games, Prior has only had one full season so far, and Zambrano had his first good year last year. I won't even waste my time discussing Rusch or Dempster. On the other hand, Buehrle has won at least 14 games each of the last 4 years and only had an ERA over 4 once, Garcia has won at least 15 games 3 times and probably would have done it again last year if not for poor run support on Seatlle, Hernandez has been about as effective as Wood when healthy and actually did something in the playoffs, and even though we've been hard on Garland in the past, he's won 12 games the last 3 years. I love the way they rip on the offense too. Despite our struggles across the board and Derek Lee having the two months of his life, we have still outscored them by 10. I would shutup if I were them. Even considering that their pitcher has to bat, they wouldn't be that far ahead of us. Konerko won't hit around the Mendoza line all year, and Rowand seems to be heating up a bit. Even if they use the Nomar excuse, we can just as easily cite Frank's abscence, who will probably have a bigger impact on our offense.

My top few are kind of tough. Maggs definitely lost some points because of his ugly departure. He was basically an unquestioned #1 at this time last year. 1) "Shoeless" Joe Jackson- great player that probably got a raw deal 2) The Big Hurt- Was the man in the early 90's when I was growing up 3) Maggs- I really liked him when he was on the Sox. A quiet, unassuming guy with a ton of talent that was really underrated. Too bad everything went so wrong. 4) Buehrle 5) El Caballo 6) Garland- always been a fan, even through the frustrating moments 7) Mike Cameron- not sure why, but I liked him a lot as a kid 8) Jason Bere- my Dad and I really got to like him during that 93-94 stretch 9) Jack McDowell- was solid for the Sox, but was never really a personal favorite 10) Ventura- same as above.

I'd put Rolen and Thome on the DL. Those two guys probably have the most value. If you let those guys hit FA they will almost certainly be picked up. I also think they are more likely to have a major impact whenever they come off the DL. Just let Bagwell go, I doubt he is going to have much value anymore. Because of his shoulder he doesn't have the same kind of power that he once did. If you can afford the bench spots, I'd still try to hang on to Frank and Vidro. If you had to make a choice between those two, keep Frank. He'll provide some power numbers no matter what, while Vidro probably won't have the same impact.

I'm really looking forward to getting some more information on Black. There hasn't been a whole lot of information out there about this game. It sounds like an absolute monster, at least that's all I read from the few people that saw it at E3 last year. PS2 needs a top flight FPS, and it sounds like they might finally get one in this game.

PS3 definitely looks like it is going to destroy this version of the Xbox. I saw some video of this PS3 game called Dark Sector that looked ridiculously sweet. Just what I need, an excuse to drop hundreds of dollars on a new system. Oh well, at least I have some time. Edit: My bad, Dark Sector will be on the next generation Xbox and Playstation. Still looks sweet.

Yes, Manny (and A-Rod for that matter) would probably play for the US. The lineups on ESPN are probably more accurate. I gotta give the advantage to the US because they have a lot more pitching depth than the other countries. It could be interesting though. The Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico have some nice hitters, and someone like Santana, Pedro, or Zambrano have the potential to carry the staff. I like Team USA's odds with guys like Rocket, Unit, Sheets, Prior, and Peavy potentially making up the rotation though, no matter who the other guys are.

I wouldn't do it, the guys trying to take advantage of a mediocre start from two early draft picks. Matsui isn't much of an upgrade over Rowand and Wilkerson, and if Uribe is 2B eligible then Loretta isn't a that big over Uribe. Loretta is overrated, he might hit for a decent average, but he'll top out around 100 runs with okay production in RBI and not much in SB (has not hit double figures ever). Rollins will definitely get you steals (probably at least 35) and a decent amount of runs. His batting average might be lower than it has been, but that isn't that important a category in fantasy baseball because of week to week fluctuations. Chavez will be fine, he's a top hitter that typically starts slow and starts hitting a ton right before the All-Star break. I'm not worried about the lineup, it isn't really any different than the lineup he had last year. He had 87 runs, 29 homers, and 77 RBI while hitting .276 in only 125 games, and had a similarly awful start to the season. I'd be seriously surprised if he doesn't end up around 80 runs, 30 homers, and 100 RBI with about a .280 average. The guy has produced too much in the past to worry about an early slump. Just hang on to your stars and be patient. Remeber, Chavez hit .221 in April last year, Jeter didn't get over .200 until May, and Huff hit .191 in April. All of them ended up with pretty good numbers. Don't give up on guys that have historically produced because of a rough start.

QUOTE(Indywallin @ May 11, 2005 -> 08:41 AM) Can you believe that someone offered me Aramis Ramirez for Miguel Tajada??? Ok Southsider, I know....I Know.... You countered in ridiculous fashion after I offered you Iguchi for ARam, but... Through May 10 Iguchi .364 with 5SB ARam .258 with 6HR's Iguchi will hit for average all year. Average doesn't win fantasy titles. Unless Gooch starts running a lot he doesn't have much value.