jackie hayes

What's amazed me is how little confidence some teams have in their young players. Taguchi/Bigbie and Gibbons/Newhan are not nearly bad enough to justify paying these guys 5 or 6 million a year, especially when you're talking about more than one year. (To be honest, I think you'd get at least equal production out of those.) That said, calling this the worst deal of the offseason is a stretch.

QUOTE(Balta1701 @ Dec 27, 2005 -> 08:26 PM) If I were them, I'd still be looking to add starting pitching, but they may very well think they're set with Eaton and Millwood fronting that rotation and their series of bats. They may be right too, with the Angels still treading water they may have a shot at that division, if people on Oakland keep having injury problems. Padilla > Eaton

QUOTE(Soxbadger @ Dec 27, 2005 -> 07:29 PM) Harris is a good player. Every game he plays you know what you are going to get. He takes pitches, he gets on base, and has above average defensive skills. When you have speed and the 3 latter things, you are going to have a spot on a mlb club. SB In the minors, he also had a bit of gap power and (I've read) hit lhp about as well as rhp. It'll be interesting to see if he can reclaim those with more regular playing time. I'm a Harris fan, I hope he gets some decent pt with someone.

There's no question that Rex is better, but I still think it's right to give some credit to Orton. He was not asked to make plays, just to not turn the ball over, and for the most part (excepting the 5 int game) he did just that. When your first priority is, 'Don't throw a pick', it makes sense to err up and throw it high towards the sidelines -- which he did over and over and over... Compare his rookie year to Kyle Boller's, they're extremely similar -- both were told to let the run game and the defense win it, don't try to be a hero. And each basically followed instructions -- didn't take chances and didn't complete many passes. Boller's been better (rating and completion percentage) each succeeding year, and I don't see any reason Orton can't do the same. Hopefully Rex is the starting qb for many years, but I like the thought of Orton in the backup role.

I'm not. I don't like Encarnacion, and I'd be pissed if I were a Card fan. But Reggie gives you 500 abs, tops. And that's questionable. Encarnacion likely gives you a full season. For a team that had to use 29 ofers (hyperbole...) last year, it's understandable.

Not saying he's great, but he is almost a decade younger. It counts for something -- especially for a team that was as snakebit as the Cards were last year. Sanders only gave them half a season, after all. But you're right, it's still pretty underwhelming.

QUOTE(SoxFan1 @ Dec 22, 2005 -> 05:08 PM) Not necessarily true. He signed a minor league contract so he'll be in AAA unless he show's us something in ST. And if he shows us something in ST, he must have improved something. See: Pablo Ozuna Most minor league deals are not guaranteed, so I'd guess that he's gone if he doesn't show something in st. No reason to waste even a minor league spot on him if he performs anything like he has the past 2 seasons. Basically zero risk, it's a fine move, but I don't think he's worth any place on this team, whatever his spring looks like.

QUOTE(Chisoxfn @ Dec 21, 2005 -> 07:08 PM) Non-tendered so we can still negotiate with them. They just wouldn't be able to take the pay cuts the Sox wanted if they were to actually go to arbitration with them (IIRC). I think there is a shot we still see one of them back. They could only ask for a pay cut from Timo, as the other 3 are making the minimum. Please, no more.

Being Cuban, he's probably reading coffee grounds instead of tea leaves, but close enough.

No, you're wrong. You just are, that's why. At least provide an argument, people... Having watched him play quite a bit, I think his defense is very good. He has good range and a strong arm, although his hands aren't the very best -- he's a somewhat better (and respected) version of Jose Valentin. His bat is very good, but he can be very inconsistent. Look at his dropoff from 1st half to 2nd half of last season. I'd still love to have him, but I can understand how that would cause some concern. Still, good power and a good eye from a position without much offense, usually. Reasonable contract, still fairly young -- very much worth acquiring. If he were going anywhere, which he's not.

QUOTE(FlaSoxxJim @ Dec 16, 2005 -> 04:21 AM) I challenge you to substantiate that etymology – that 'holiday' derives directly from Christmas and not from any and all other observed holy days. Certainly there were scads of pre-Christian and non-Christian holy days (we're all well aware that early Christians coopted an existing Roman holy day feast on which to build the birth of Christ observance). And there are other Christian holidays other than Christmas that have been around for a long time. What is known about Christmas that conclusively tells us that is where the contracted holiday (= holy day) comes from? Because this is a way to get my mind moving today without investing more than 5 min or so, I thought I'd chime in on this. "Holy" is derived from OE "halig" (not really a "g" at the end, but I'm not gonna bother with putting the real OE letter in there). Trouble is, noone really knows what the word originally meant -- it may have meant something like "whole", or something like "hale" (so sez the OED). The only recorded uses are post-Christian, so it's impossible to say whether or not the word was used before that as we use it today. As the OED puts it, "we cannot in OE. get behind Christian senses in which holy is equated with L. sanctus, sacer". Though, even if it basically began with Christian holidays it seems to have been used for days other than Christmas.

QUOTE(Jordan4life_2005 @ Dec 16, 2005 -> 03:24 AM) All of them were drafted by the Sox I believe. Trade for Alvarez. O/w I think that's right.

Rowand should arguably be there, and if you're going that far back, there'll be a lot, w/ a whole passel of good 1st rounders from the early 90s -- how can you forget Ventura? Seems kind of arbitrary to exclude Latin American signings -- CLee and Magglio were both originally signed by the Sox. Edit: Mostly late 80s, actually, some early 90s.

They just spent a bajillion on pitching. Why would they trade consistent offense, their biggest need?

QUOTE(Balta1701 @ Dec 7, 2005 -> 10:59 PM) Good lord, that's worse than we were 2 years ago. Could you imagine if Beltran had signed with them? That'd be like $82 million for 6 players, with like $6 million going to the other 19. Ya, looking at figures like that is why I was praying they'd sign Beltran last year. B/c that's the only way Berkman could conceivably be available -- if you have someone only 3/4ths as good already signed for gobs and gobs of money.

QUOTE(Texsox @ Dec 7, 2005 -> 06:46 PM) Imagine all the people, sniffing airplane glueooooooo Kevhead version. I can't remember the rest of the lyrics. I remember laughing the first time I heard it. Wonder if anyone remembers this... Wasn't it KM that did "Bill Cartwright Sings Christmas" a while back? I laughed my ass off at that bit.

Born to Run? The comments are that, first, she never liked Springsteen's whole style of music anyway, second, that he's trying to say too much ('breathless lyrics'), and third, that he has nothing to say. Umm... Controversial choices are nice, but putting BtR in the same list as Wonderwall and Hey Ya, ya, okay, lady.

I blamed him at the time of that St L dinner. Even as a joke, that went too far (and I don't remember it being just 'at the end of his career'). But it's been buried a couple years now, no reason to resurrect this.

Check if yr school has special deals for students. They aren't always great deals, but it can't hurt to check. I've had a Dell Latitude for years without any problems. But it is one of the bulkier models.

QUOTE(Balta1701 @ Dec 3, 2005 -> 04:48 AM) Somehow, I just have this feeling that next year will be the year that Crede's streakiness turns into a nearly .300 average and a 25+ home run campaign. Especially after he finally found a stroke that worked for him from September on. I hope your gut is right, but remember that Crede has had more than one good September followed by a mediocre season.

QUOTE(qwerty @ Nov 30, 2005 -> 02:04 AM) But podsednik had an injury that hampered his running abilities. :rolly How about stop f***ing running and wasting outs for your team... common sense i suppose. Yeah, but that's an argument that never leads anywhere good.

QUOTE(Rowand44 @ Nov 30, 2005 -> 01:57 AM) *sigh* nevermind, my whole point was missed. Carry on.... Your point is that we are a slugging team, but that's something we should change, right? Okay. Disagree. We still play in a great park for hrs, and I think a hitter like Iguchi is much more valuable on any team, in any park. Pierre and Pods are both streaky, even in terms of just getting on base -- not good for the top of the order. And anyone who says speed doesn't slump didn't see Pods in the last couple months of the season. There are much better options.

QUOTE(Rowand44 @ Nov 30, 2005 -> 01:48 AM) That's my point you whore. We had one guy who was the type of player ozzie wants, add another to the top of the order and the offense can score in more then one way. Wow. If we keep going, we could have Podsednikses 1-9, and then we'd be unstoppable! And unpronounceable. Iguchi was great in the 2-spot. Pierre would almost certainly be a step down from that. Oh, please, Cubbies, trade for him already...

QUOTE(Balta1701 @ Nov 30, 2005 -> 01:35 AM) So you're telling me Juan Pierre will hit a walk off dinger in game 2 of the W.S. against the Mets or the Cardinals closers next year? Hey, I will give that caveat. If KW can guarantee that Pierre does that, hell, get him here no matter what the cost.

QUOTE(SoxFan1 @ Nov 30, 2005 -> 01:33 AM) You just described Scott Podsednik....look what he did. And I appreciate it. Just as I appreciate what Aaron Rowand did. But just like I can think the Sox made a good move in the Thome trade, I can think that the Sox DON'T need yet another Podsednik.