ZoomSlowik

It's pretty simple why they can throw that kind of money around. The Mariners' attendence was over 36,000 per game last year, even in a near 100 loss season. The Sox were somewhat in contention most of the year and averaged about 24,000. That's a lot of extra revenue.

An important addition that I plan on doing- Raid liquor cabinet full of stuff that isn't Smirnoff(replace with other cheap liquor as necessary) to simulate a college weekend (or Tuesday night, or whatever other excuse we find to drink).

I definitely agree with you, from my perspective it doesn't make sense. Why would the A's even want Jackson? They'd still have Mulder, Zito, Harden, and Blanton. Starting pitching would be the least of my concerns. If I were them, I would seek an affordable bat with some pop to give Chavez some support and another power arm in the pen to go with Dotel and the probable emergence of Jairo Garcia to give the team some more balance.

I understand that, but for some reason people still regard him as a monster prospect, and compared to B-Mac he is a little more advanced. And yes, Hudson would be an absolute monster in LA. I think he'd be under 2.5

I don't think so. Jackson is a highly touted prospect that is borderline major leagues already, and Perez hit pretty well at AAA. B-Mac is still a little off in terms of getting to the majors, and Willie hasn't shown much. I think we'd have to throw in a better prospect than Rogowski, or give them someone off the MLB roster.

I can't imagine this trade actually happening unless the Dodgers throw in another major player. Beane would be nuts to deal Hudson unless he gets at least one guy that is going to make a major contribution on next year's team. Think about this for a second: the hot rumor before the Dodgers one was Marcus Giles. There's quite a difference there.

That would be the problem, thought I got it last time but apparently I didn't. That damn thing is up there.

Interesting, it wouldn't let me jump out when I tried it. Oh well, I'll try again later. Too much school work right now!

Don't know if anyone posted this, but I do believe it is of some importance... ESPN (Jayson Stark) is reporting on Insider and the FA tracker that Jaret Wright has signed with the Yankees for 3 years, $21 mil. So much for that idea. Edit- sorry, wrong thread. someone please move this to the FA resource.

The girlfriends aren't at those spots 24 hours a day, although I have no idea when they are available (seems like for long periods of time, it's never been an issue for me). I think all of them were typically there during the day except Katie who I found in the early evening. Your stats have no effect on whether or not they show up, that only determines whether or not you can get a date (they throw insults at you if they are not interested). For the NRA chick, you can't be a fat ass, it's more average guys, like your physique when you started the game. On a side note, is there any easy way to get a parachute? I need one for the Dam and Blast mission, and the only easy place I can find to get one was at Arco Del Oeste, which I already used.

She's out in no man's land in the desert(Blueberry, Red County) on the roof of an ammunation. All of your girlfriends respawn, so don't worry about killing them. Actually, they take a couple of extra hits before they go down. It was pretty funny, the NRA b**** has a gun and did some damage to me before the 3rd shotgun blast to the head took her down. Since there is some interest in this, I'll list info on the 4 non-mission girlfriends. Michelle- Car Mechanic at driving school in San Fierro. Likes larger men, so it is a pain in the ass to start dating her. Helena- NRA nut previously mentioned. Likes average men, under 20% muscle, so it was too late for me. Barbara- cop in El Quebrados sheriff station. Also likes larger men. Katie- nurse at country club in San Fierro (edge of the course by the street, pain in the ass to find her the first time). Likes guys with muscles. Hope this answers some questions.

I really don't see how that deal makes sense for the Clippers. Simmons has outplayed Dunleavy so far this year. They are the same age and I would assume Dunleavy makes more money due to his draft position. And then they'd throw in Wilcox too? If the Bulls can get this deal, I think It'd be pretty stupid to pass on it.

Actually you don't need to reach 100% progress, you just need to find them and start dating them. I only got two of the other ones so far, but Michelle gets you free car repairs and Katie lets you keep your weapons when you die and you don't lose money. There's also an NRA nut(I would assume she lets you do something with weapons), a cop (keep stuff when busted), and the croupier that gives you the security card.

It isn't exactly difficult to find someone that can do a decent job in the outfiled for the $14 mil over 3 years difference in commitment between Colon and Garcia. You're assuming that Reed is going to be an impact player (or at least decent), which is completely premature considering that he has only 18 major league games under his belt. I'm not 100% sold that he can hit .275 over a full year, the guy hasn't exactly been playing well for that long on any level (basically a year and a half that looks good) and could easily be a fluke. We could probably get Jermaine Dye for less than that, who I have more faith in doing something in the next couple of years (yeah, I know health is an issue).

Back to the original topic, which was FA pitchers... I honestly think that if they don't manage to get Randy Johnson that they will eventually get one of the starters on the market. There aren't that many teams that have significant sums of money to throw around. If the Yankees get Johnson and Beltran, I can't imagine they'll still get more than one starter, if they even do that. Boston will probably get one, or in a longshot two of them, and the Mets/Angels could both get one, and maybe Baltimore. Those are about the only teams (I'm probably missing one or two) that are able/willing to add a major starting pitcher. This leads me to believe that the Sox will get one of the free agents after most of the big money teams have signed their guy, basically whoever draws the least interest of guys like Perez, Radke, Clement, and Ortiz.

He was talking about signing him while he was already on our roster after we acquired him. For once I actually made sense of him. However, we offered him a rather large deal and he turned it down. As for the starting/finishing thing, the Angels would have absolutely run away with the division if he had done anything in the first half, and a 3.6 ERA over half of a season isn't exactly stellar for a guy making that much money. Second, he didn't exactly help them out in the playoffs when they really need him to step up. He did what he always does during the second half. When he is his normal self, out of every 4 starts he'll give you one really good one, one pretty good one, one medicore one, and one where he is terrible. He's simply not an ace pitcher, any scout will tell you that. So why should we have paid him like one?

How about taking a look at the first half? Or do you always just use the numbers that support your case? The guy is simply not a $13 million a year pitcher. He had 18 wins entirely because of the Angels' lineup, and his ERA would have been at least 5 on the year in the Cell if not more(It was over 5 anyways!). He had one fantastic year in 2002, but has been in the general vicinity of an ERA of 4 for every other season. There are MUCH better pitchers that you can get for that kind of money.

Have you SEEN Bartolo Colon this year? He has been godawful, and there is no way he was worth the $12 mil deal that he got.

According to the guide you can just kill her the first time you meet her, wait a while, and the card will be in her house, skipping the whole dating thing. Sounds like it is a little late for that though in your case.

Hard to go wrong with Ruth, Cobb, or Koufax. Two other guys I would love to see in a Sox uniform in their prime... Ted Williams and Walter Johnson. Those were two of the more dominant guys of the past. IIRC Johnson was the only pitcher to have 3000 strikeouts before 1960. Hank Aaron or Roberto Clemente would be nice picks too. If you hold me to one guy though, it's gotta be Willie Mays. He would absolutely kill in U.S. Cellular. Considering that he played a lot of his games in a park that was 475 to dead center and 450 to the gaps, he'd add a ton of homers.

What a load of crap: no first team and 4 second team for NU, and Ward doesn't even get honorable mention. Strief and McGarigle should have been locks for first team. Nevermind on part of that, didn't look at the media first time. McGarigle deserved that first team. I still think Ward should have gotten at least a second team.

I don't think Hilario is an upgrade. He's been a decent scorer, but he's got a case of Eddy Curry syndrome. Despite the fact that he is 6'11" 260, he is not a good rebounder or shot blocker. He's played more minutes than Tyson the last two years and still only average 6.1 and 6.5 RPG and .5 and .8 blocks. He might have some more value because he is definitely a center, but I think keeping Tyson would work out better. Tskitisvili (don't really care if I spelled it right) would have to actually live up to the hype for us to win this trade. Right now, Tyson strikes me as a guy that would be a nice piece on a good team but because of his limited offense he doesn't help out much for us, kind of like a poor man's Ben Wallace. I'd really like to see us keep him and add either Allen or Redd, and then deal Curry and try to get Stromile Swift. With a perimeter lineup of Hinrich, Allen or Redd, and Deng, Tyson's rebounding and shot blocking become much more valuable and his lack of scoring isn't as much of an issue.

Hinrich, Gordon, and Deng are almost certainly going to stay. Those three guys look like they are a decent foundation. Nocioni and Duhon are affordable so they will probably still be around. I'm sure they will try to unload Davis or Harrington in a trade. They will probably keep Chandler or Curry, I don't think they can afford to deal/release both of them. One of the rumors on ESPN is a Curry deal with the Warriors that involves us giving up Curry and getting either Dunleavy, or Wilcox from the Clippers in a 3 team deal. I like the second option much more. He's played some center and has been pretty good, and would probably be better in the east. The Bulls should have a bunch of money to throw at a big name free agent. Two guys I would love to see here are Ray Allen or Michael Redd. I think either of these guys would help immensely because they are consistent scorers that can create their own shot (I'd personally rather have Allen because he seems to be slightly better than Redd in every area). Stromile Swift also might be an option. A lineup of Hinrich, Allen, Deng, Chandler, and Wilcox/Swift is a much better looking lineup, especially with Gordon, Duhon, Nocioni on the bench, plus the potential to get some help in the draft (maybe Chris Taft or one of the foreigners). Here's hoping.

I'd try to trade one of your guards for a decent PF. You've got four pretty solid guards, looks like you could use another rebounder and shot blocker though. Duncan is solid at both, and Marion is a good rebounder, but I would think you need help in those areas. My personal preference would be to trade Crawford, but I think trading Ginobili would be the move right now, he's got a very high value at the moment and I'm not 100% sure he can keep it up with the other options that team has. BTW, how the heck did you get Duncan, Alllen, and Marion? Usually all 3 of them are gone by the mid second at worst when I draft.

I got a question, has any of the material regarding this situation stated whether or not they might let Artest play if/when the Pacers make the playoffs? I personally think the suspension is more than harsh enough already, but making him sit through the playoffs while they try to make a run to the title would make it even worse.