Balta1701

Applause.

So, what exactly is the benefit for the team of tabling these negotiations until the end of the season? Esp. with Iguchi? I really have a ton of difficulty buying that "They're distracted by the negotiations" is actually a decent excuse for anything.

QUOTE(WinningUgly85 @ Apr 2, 2007 -> 07:10 AM) what are the chances this new owner of the cubs decides to ship the cubs out of town? LOL The biggest asset any buyer gets is that ballpark. Figuring out a way to act like Fenway and add more seats, pack in a few more thousand drunken people per game, etc. Even a 60,000 beauty with luxury boxes in some other city probably wouldn't have a shot at competing with a guaranteed 40,000 tickets sold per game no matter the price.

Interesting little bit on Income Inequality from the Wall Street Journal.

Out of every single person in this organization...I think I'll trust Roger Bossard more than anyone else to make the right decisions.

I'm pretty sure this is like his 3rd or 4th attempt at an announcement, but Tommy Thompson is running. On a different note, here's a great quote from Mike I Heart Huckabee.

A $50 million hometown discount.

Well, if Pablos Blue Ribbon is in LF, I hope we get our best defensive guy in CF to go with him. Then again, I'm going to say that with anyone except Erstad in LF.

QUOTE(SoxFan101 @ Mar 31, 2007 -> 11:56 PM) If we dont advance out of the first round he has to be on the hot seat for next year. I dunno, depends on how you define hot seat and what it would take for him to be removed at the end of 08. I mean, it's entirely possible that Skiles could have the Bulls win 50 this year, draw the Heat with D-Wade and Shaq in round 1 and lose in 7 games, and just generally be screwed out by the seeding.

Stone? SWEET!

So, for those who missed it in the news today...the U.S. government just reached a plea bargain with the Australian guy held at Gitmo, which will basically have him out of jail in a few months. As far as I can tell...the main thing that the U.S. government wanted to get out of him? Not a guilty plea...the government wants him to shut his mouth about what was done to him to get him to confess. Whatever the government did to this guy, they seemingly think it was bad enough to give him a couple-month long sentance for terrorist activity in exchange for him keeping quiet.

Given where salaries are for everyone else, as an extension, that's perfect. Now that is a deal that needs to be done.

As soon as Every Republican who benefited finacially from the War in Iraq resigns, we'll talk. Including the President. I don't like the fact that there are more politicians on the take any more than you do...but until people start joining me in the solution nothing will matter. Make the salary for Congressmen, Senators, Cabinet Secs, and the Pres in the millions per year so that they are competitive with some CEO salaries, and institute a public campaign financing system so that no one in Congress has to beg industry or any other interest group for campaign donations, and then let new people move in with time. As long as money determines who is in power, the people in power will always be making money.

Drunk and web surfing? Got that covered. Stephen Colbert Rules!!!

If the White Sox pitching can give me 4 things, we will win this division. 1. A solid bullpen. 2. A Solid #1 (presumably Jose.) for the whole season. 18-20 games won, ERA under 3.50. 3. A solid # 2 (Mark or Jon) for the whole season. 15 games+ won, ERA well under 4.00. 4. 3 guys who are average. ERA's between 3.75 and 4.5. W-L records close to .500. If the pitching staff can show up, this team can still win it all. I've been very encouraged by solid outings from MG and JG over the last 2 days. Jopefully Javy keeps it up tomorrow.

QUOTE(Steve9347 @ Mar 30, 2007 -> 02:05 PM) How does Cleveland consistently get ranked high every year, yet every year they fall flat on their faces? Maybe they should put it together for an entire season before anyone runs for the hills. Nearly taking the Division from the Sox in 05 and barely missing the playoffs is hardly falling flat on their faces. In 06, the Tribe had the best run differential of any team to lose that # of games in MLB history. The odds of them performing that poorly while being that good again are so incredible it's hard to calculate. The Tribe got awfully unlucky last year, in no small part thanks to the way their pitching was set up. With another year under their belts and some major defensive upgrades...that team could really pull off a huge improvement this year, depending on injuries.

I strongly disagree with 2 of the moves decided during St...everything involving Erstad and Logan in AAA, but those are not the key parts. If the starting pitching and the majority of the Bullpen do their jobs and kill people like they should...then Ozzie will be right and this team will kick ass. The starting pitching right now has me terrified. But 7 strong 2 run innings from Buehrle and 6 tolerable innings from Garland yesterday have me feeling a lot better than I did 2 days ago.

7 hours away from my PC, 2 runs, 7 innings for Mark...I'll more than take it. If Buehrle and Contreras do their jobs, then the rest of the staff could be .500 pitchers and we might well win this division.

QUOTE(BigSqwert @ Mar 30, 2007 -> 01:50 PM) Wow. I almost spit out my soft drink as I read that. It's the classic "Give 1 guy a 15 second head start and see if everyone else can catch up" scenario. Santana + Nathan. It's simply impossible to have a bad pitching staff with that. It's always going to at least be decent.

QUOTE(GoSox05 @ Mar 30, 2007 -> 11:57 AM) These are pitchers that they drafted right? That some good drafting. Verlander was a #2 draft pick in 2004. Maroth was a 3rd round pick in 1998 by the Red Sox, dealt to the Tigers while still around A-ball. Bonderman was a #26 pick in the 2001 MLB draft by the A's. He was considered a mistake of a draft pick by Billy Beane, and was dealt as the player-to-be-named in the deal that sent Jeff Weaver to the A's. Zach Miner was traded to the Tigers as part of the Kyle Farnsworth deal. Chad Durbin is a journeyman who started his career with the Royals and has pitched with Cleveland, Arizona, and Detroit in the past 2 years. He has a career record of 17-30 and an ERA over 6. I have no idea what Detroit sees in him.

QUOTE(ZoomSlowik @ Mar 30, 2007 -> 11:51 AM) If you knew that type of season was coming, you're either Nostradamus or an incredible homer (not that I'm complaining that it happened ). Man, I wish I was here before that season started so I had some record of my ramblings at the time, but I was really pumped coming into that year. Really really pumped. Pumped enough that I spent the $150 on the MLB extra innings package that year for the first time, after not getting it the couple years beforehand. And as a broke grad student, that's a ton of cash.

Erig Gagne is going to start the season on the DL to give himself a little more recovery time. He also took out a 1/2 page thank you ad in the LA Times today addressed to fans of him while he was with the Dodgers. A's 1st baseman Dan Johnson tore cartiledge in his hip and will start the season on the DL. The Angels signed Scot Shields to a 3 year, $14.6 million extension running through 2010. SO FOLKS, THEY'RE NOT TRADING HIM.

CC threw 50 pitches in a bullpen session today, ate a cheeseburger, and pronounced himself ready to go for Monday.

QUOTE(Kalapse @ Mar 30, 2007 -> 11:41 AM) Now do they go with Miner or Miller? We can only hope they want to give Miller a bit more seasoning before they start his arbitration clock and instead turn to Zach Miner to fill out the rotation. At least the Sox proved they could hit him last season. With the way Miner pitched last season, I think they'd be crazy not to give him a shot at least for the first month or two. Slowed down later in the year when people got to him, but he started off 6-1 with a 2.57 ERA before the AS game, gave them 100 innings, and wound up wiht a 7-6 record even with some struggles down the stretch (like a lot of the Tiger pitchers).

QUOTE(BigSqwert @ Mar 30, 2007 -> 11:34 AM) I agree but if they somehow manage to hang around until July he might prove to be a nice shot in the arm for them when he returns. Totally the wrong way to phrase that. Anyway...I think there's also a real chance that Rogers could come back and struggle more than helping when he does return. I wonder how that newfound positive attitude he seemed to have last year will be able to take this injury.