Balta1701

You know what I think one of the things hurting this season is? I think they've just killed off to many people. One after the other, they've taken out virtually every major character from the early seasons except Jack. One of the things that made the show good in the early seasons was that they had a good cast that seemed to work well together, and they only had to introduce a character or two every season on the CTU side to make things work. This season, they basically had to start everything over anew with a totally rebuilt cast because last year they just killed everyone, and I think that hurt them.

QUOTE(Texsox @ May 15, 2007 -> 09:10 AM) Fear of loss? Get it now or possibly not get any? I'm thinking of Middle East flareups, hurricanes, etc. The growth in demand of gas is not being controlled by only the price of gas. It's being controlled by growth in other places; i.e. if there is growth in the Chinese economy, that growth enables more people to afford vehicles and gasoline for those vehicles despite increasing prices, so the increased price is not enough to offset growth in demand fueled by growth in other industries.

QUOTE(whitesoxfan101 @ May 15, 2007 -> 08:26 AM) I really am amazed at the lack of common sense people are using in this thread. Hunter's contract would be an albatross for, at minimum, the last 2 years of it, and we simply can't afford to have a deal that bad. He is hitting better than ever yes, but his defense has been on a gradual downturn for a few years now and he is aging. I'm also scared of Ichiro for the exact same reasons. Letting Dye go and acquiring Ichiro or Hunter is going out of the frying pan and into the fire IMO. I'd also like to add that I think people are seriously underestimating the amount of Free Agent Salary inflation that went on last offseason. There are probably going to be even more teams with money to burn this offseason than last, and a better crop of players to spend it on. I think a lot of the estimates being thrown out are going to be proven to be way on the low side, just as they were the last 2 years.

QUOTE(forrestg @ May 14, 2007 -> 05:05 PM) I like I Iguchi he is kind of streaky but if we talk about Iguchi replacements lets talk about replacing Crede, Konerko, Dye, Makoviac and Cintron. Each is hitting less than Tadahito....... None of our hitters have a clue.. I wonder if the coaching staff particularly the hitting coach has a part in this dilemna... It makes perfect sense to talk about Iguchi's replacement right now, because Tad is a FA at the end of this season, and we have no logical candidate to replace him next season. JD is a FA, but we at least have Ryan Sweeney waiting around for that spot next season. QUOTE(RME JICO @ May 14, 2007 -> 05:14 PM) This guy might be available: http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/players/6798 Are you kiddingn? You think the Braves will be stupid enough to let him walk if he keeps this up?

QUOTE(kapkomet @ May 14, 2007 -> 01:56 PM) well... go figure out why Greg Walker needs to be fired then. Seriously, you're right in this case - spin and smear are two different terms, good catch. I KNOW the Clinton spin machine works well, and "smears" if it has to so that they come out on top. There's a lot of instances where that's the case, and if I have some time, I'll "link" to some later. The problem with that is, though, you might think it's "spin" and I might call it "smear", and frankly, I don't even want to debate that with you. So maybe I'll just leave it as "spin machine" and I stand corrected. So here's the question I'm interested in...which is more effective, the Clinton spin machine/smear machine/whatever you want to call it, or the machine the Bush admininstration has turned on anyone who crossed it?

QUOTE(RME JICO @ May 14, 2007 -> 01:17 PM) The size thing has been debated for years. Just look at picture of Barry in a Pirates uniform and today. The jersey size is not as big of a deal as the head and foot size. Those are hard to justify, except for the fact that many people believe that Barry always had a big head (ego-wise). vs

QUOTE(Iwritecode @ May 14, 2007 -> 10:26 AM) I thought I had read this somewhere but would Terrero have to pass through waivers to get sent down? That seems like a big factor in deciding which guy goes down. Sweeney can be brought up and sent down with no problem. I'm pretty sure the Sox signed him to a minor league deal @ the start of the season, so they should be able to send him up and down without worrying about the waiver wires.

Um...yeah...and someone thought this was a good idea?

Hmm, it seems Mr. Thome is a little bit behind on the rehab schedule they tried to set last week. Starts a rehab assignment today, will miss the Cubs series.

QUOTE(WHarris1 @ May 13, 2007 -> 01:00 PM) Could easily play 2nd and leadoff for us right now. Interestingly...he was in LF for the Bravos today.

QUOTE(fathom @ May 13, 2007 -> 12:57 PM) I have no clue who was available, but the GM's job is supposed to be to find players that can fit into the holes you have. Willie Harris.

QUOTE(fathom @ May 13, 2007 -> 12:51 PM) Any chance Zambrano doesn't dominate us next week? I really don't like how we match up with the Cubs right now. I'd say that out of the pitchers the Cubs will throw at us, Z seems to scare me the least.

QUOTE(CWSGuy406 @ May 13, 2007 -> 12:45 PM) I'm glad you can already tell us by just watching the whole two months of baseball that Chris Young has played -- and I'm sure you've seen every single movement by Young this year, too. Pray tell, why aren't you a major league scout again? Just to add on to this point with what I think is a more important argument...if the White Sox want to be a better team next year than this year, and have room to bring in someone in FA like an Ichiro who fills a real obvious need, or even just to hold on to some of our guys like MB, the Sox really need to have a couple of young guys to bring in other than just Danks. The only way we can afford to bring in an Ichiro is if we get some success out of Anderson, Sweeney, Fields, and some of our pitchers. If we can't get these young guys to succeed, we don't have the money to buy our way around those failures. If you throw in Young...even if he's never an all-star, even if he's only an average OF...the White Sox could desperately use an average offensive OF who is making the league minimum right now.

Willie has 4 doubles in his last 8 at bats.

QUOTE(caulfield12 @ May 13, 2007 -> 11:33 AM) The problem is that it's highly unlikely that Anderson is an .800 or even .700 OPS player next year. Perhaps that second or third prospect will be Josh Fields in LF. I think it'd just be absolutely outrageous if this team couldn't turn Brian Anderson into a >.700 OPS player next year given how much time and effort they've put into him as a first round draft pick, how he's performed in the minors, and how much simple athletic talent he has. If the team can't turn him into at least a decent player, then the White Sox really don't deserve to be a playoff team. At some point, unless you're the Yankees, you have to draft and develop players.

QUOTE(briguy27 @ May 13, 2007 -> 08:36 AM) ah yes, i have been saying it all along- ICHIRO if they do not resign erstad, i would love to see them go after ichiro. now keep in mind ichiro is already 33 and will be 34 in october. maybe a 3 year 24 million or a 4 year 36 million dollar contract. i would love to see him in a white sox uniform if we cant get ichiro, and if crede is gone, go after a-rod. see what we can do. lets spend some money, and actually get a well known mlb SUPERSTAR in chicago. im tired of everyone saying konerko isnt, even though he has 3 straight season of 40 homers/100 rbis and dye hitting 330 last year with 40 homers and 110 rbis. come on KW, lets get ichiro or a-rod in the cell. I've said it before and I'll say it again...the only way that the White Sox can afford to get a player like Ichiro is for Fields, Sweeney, and Anderson to come up and produce, along with at least 1 more young pitcher to replace Buehrle (if not 2). To hold onto this team as-is right now next year will cost something on the order of $130 million or more, and that's without a single upgrade. Plug in an Ichiro replacing a Podsednik, and that team is a $145-$150 million team.

QUOTE(Greg The Bull Luzinski @ May 13, 2007 -> 12:18 PM) I don't think Iguchi is worth the $5mil he will ask for after the season. Tadahito may well be pricing himself right back into something the White Sox could afford.

QUOTE(Texsox @ May 13, 2007 -> 08:57 AM) We trade with so many countries with terrible track records against the US, their human rights records suck. Perhaps it's time to drop the embargo. It's been time to drop the embargo for a long, long time. Man, the economy of that island is just going to absolutely explode if that ever happens, and it'll make a lot of people a lot of money. Then again, I just want sugar to replace the corn syrup in my carbonated beverages.

Here's a chance for all you Republicans to laugh at me and say "I told you so".

QUOTE(whitesoxfan101 @ May 12, 2007 -> 09:00 PM) That is correct, and if Javy keeps pitching as well as he had and should, this trade won't be one we regret. I dunno entirely about that, and here's why. The White Sox 1 big need coming into next season is some additional cheap, successful, producing young talent. We're a $110 million team right now, and if we want to keep this exact team together as-is next season, we'd have to be a $130 million team. Add in about another $8 mil for Buehrle, raises for Crede, Uribe, Thome, God knows how big of a raise Dye gets, and even more to hold onto Iguchi, and just to hold as-is right now, we'd add a ton of payroll. And that leaves us no room to upgrade, say, our LF/Leadoff spot or anything like that. The White Sox really, desperately need a couple young guys to insert into the lineup next season. Just 1 won't do it, it has to be on the order of 2-3 guys. One of those young pitchers will probably step into the rotation, possibly 2 depending on what the Sox do with Garland, but that's still not going to give us any room to upgrade. So, what do we really, really need? We need 2 of our 3 top prospects to produce well in the field next season, so that we can afford to fill other holes. If we could, for example, get Anderson and Sweeney both to produce, along with another young pitcher in addition to Danks, then that could give us room to resign Uribe, Iguchi, and to make a serious run at someone to fill our other OF slot. But that doesn't work if we only get 1 decent producing field prospect. If that happens, we're pretty much going to wind up stuck with Erstad as a $6 million option because we don't have any better choice. If Anderson continues struggling and Dye walks, then we lose a lot of salary flexibility and really have no other option than Erstad. If we had Young, we would have another young OF option ready and waiting, which could have freed up salary this season and beyond. Long story short; for me to be happy about this deal, we need Anderson and Sweeney both succeeding for the Sox next year. End of story.

Fields seems like he was hitting below the Mendoza line like 3 days ago.

Give em Jell, Havy.

QUOTE(fathom @ May 12, 2007 -> 10:33 AM) Yet he keeps putting Erstad out there, who's now 3-30 against LHP all year, and his only extra base hit was in his first AB of the season. When you're a grinder, you contribute more than your numbers. Of course, that's a real strong argument for an Erstad/Terrero platoon...which would require keeping Luis on the roster...

Now this is just sad. "I'm sorry, I only hate gay people when I have to pee." I wonder, if Thompson keeps this up, if he can move into Gravel territory.

I don't know if anyone else noticed...but damn, that swing by JD reminded me an awful lot of one he had in the 8th inning against the Astros.