Balta1701

Right now, we still have too damn many outfielders. I count 6 under our control for 06-07, all but 1 of whom appear ML ready. (Borch, BA, Owens, Sweeney, Dye, Pods). We may lose 1 if he doesn't make the team this year, but that still leaves us with 5 guys competing for at most 4 spots. Maybe 2 years from now I could imagine us actually making a run at ARow. But right now...well, we have a logjam in the outfield. I still say that if I can find a way to get tickets to a Dodgers/Phillies game, I'm going to deck myself out in full Chisox merch, and make a bigass sign just saying "Thanks Aaron" with a few "33's" on it. I'll do the same thing if we trade Garland, and if I get to see El Duque or Viz pitch, or for the Hurt, or for Carl, or for any other player on that 2005 team. Each and every one of them has a lifetime fan right here.

I somewhat hope Borchard gets that last ou tfield spot, simply because if he gets 200 or so at bats (Timo + Carl as outfielders last year), he may very well hit 10-20 home runs, which really wouldn't hurt us. Furthermore, if he could somehow do that while hitting .250 plus, which is the one thing which has killed him in the big leagues (hitting below .200), then all of a sudden that trade value which right now appears to be nothing could skyrocket. Teams right now would give up a ton for Adam Dunn even though he strikes out a lot. Borch isn't that good, but if he could somehow show that he could handle the bat in the big leagues and not kill us, he could net us something valuable. On the other hand, if someone would give us a decent lefty reliever for Borch right now, I could care less if he's on the team next year, because we have several other people we could plug in.

2 Sox Sweaters (1 world series champs black Parade-style sweater, 1 grey Sox hooded sweater), brand new game-style Sox Hat (my old one was falling apart during the W.S. and will now only be worn for championship series), and of course, the Sox Monopoly game. I got my WS Champs hat & T Shirt a few weeks ago as "early birthday presents" The Fiance also got a Sox shirt from my family.

"Just think, Right Now, somewhere in this state, Jeb Bush is eating a live puppy."

QUOTE(jasonxctf @ Dec 23, 2005 -> 07:34 PM) here are all of the recent polls. incl Rasmussen they avg out to an approval rating of 43.07%. Still pretty piss poor. Oh come on man, just look at what you're averaging. Look at the dates. Some of those are 3 weeks old. In fact, like all but 2 came from before the Iraqi elections, and no one but Rasmussen is going to have sampled anything dealing with the FISA violations. They all came before his most recent primetime attempt to get his poll numbers up too. Averaging polls doesn't work particularly well at any time, but its going to be even worse when the polls are spread out over 3 weeks of news. All you're doing is trying to damp out variation by including a wider scale. If I took all of Bush's polls from the last 6 months, I bet they'd look pretty bad too, but it wouldn't tell me anything more than if I took his last 5 years worth of polls and discovered that he's averaging liek 70%.

QUOTE(kapkomet @ Dec 23, 2005 -> 07:10 PM) If the shoe fits... If they listen to someone who's innocent once, and nothing comes of it, I bet that's done and over. If you have nothing to hide, it doesn't matter much. So just because 1 call from the middle east wasn't from Zawahiri, you can assume that all the calls coming in aren't from him? Man, you'd do terrible at the NSA.

We need probably 2 arms, 1 righty, 1 lefty. We have 2 young arms other than BMac, (who WILL be in the starting rotation to start next year or Ozzie and KW will be punished ruthlessly) who might be able to chip in, and those are Sean Tracy and Jeff Bajenaru. Neither one of them has come out and dominated big league hitting, so they should both be considered major question marks. It also seems very clear that Ozzie loves having 2 lefties in the Bullpen, and since I believe both of those guys are righties...that means we will need to find a lefty relief pitcher through a trade. KW alleged when Marte was moved that we at least had some plans for a young lefty from somewhere, but we've really not heard much since. Right now, I think it will probably all depend on Garland. He's our biggest trading chip right now, and until we know where JG is going to end up, we won't know what our bullpen is goign to look like next year. Either way, I think we're better off to start this season with Bobby at the back end of our bullpen and those other 3 guys you mention than we were last year with Shingo at the back of our bullpen. We just need to find someone else to pitch a few innings.

QUOTE(Chisoxfn @ Dec 23, 2005 -> 04:21 PM) I'm sorry, Cubs should get smart and can Dusty "I kill pitchers for a living" Baker. That would be the best move the team could make to bolster its staff. I've really gotten the impression that Dusty Baker's going to help the Cubs make that decision easy and move on somewhere else next season, which would probably be best for everyone involved.

QUOTE(SleepyWhiteSox @ Dec 23, 2005 -> 04:22 PM) I don't like the idea of getting pitchers with a.) health problems, b.) Cubs jerseys. I just don't like the guy in general. He was sure dominant in 2003 and he's fun to watch pitch (and I know how cheap he is), but I just don't want him anywhere near my team.

QUOTE(bulokis @ Dec 23, 2005 -> 04:09 PM) That is a bad deal for our SOX. If we get Prior then I'd be up for it. :puke

For anyone out there who believes I never give the Administration credit for doing things right...Here's one that it looks like they're doing very well. At least on the surface, these all seem to be very good reccomendations...in particular the buoys in the Atlantic. Aside from Chicago, some of the biggest cities in the U.S. are actually at huge risk from these things, and it's worth some regular funding just to make sure they're not destroyed. We have a major subduction zone off the west coast, which could produce a tsunami that could strike the U.S. within 30 minutes and do damage the whole way up and down the coast. The Pacific Ocean is surrounded by subduction zones, which can produce Tsunami that can strike either our coastline or Hawaii and do serious damage. The Caribbean is enigmatic, with both subduction and major volcanic centers which can produce major waves, which would swamp the lowlands along the coastline. The Atlantic is the U.S's major population center, and there are islands in the Atlantic which run a very high risk of undergoing major collapse and triggering tsunami at some point within the next few thousand years (and no one knows when). Right now people are actually thinking about Tsunami, for obvious reasons. Now's the time to use that to try to build up a better system, on the off chance that someday it will be needed. If it were to be needed, we'd be glad we had it. Make sure you keep your eye casually on this, just in case some budget-cutting Congressperson decides its not worth the funds.

QUOTE(NUKE_CLEVELAND @ Dec 23, 2005 -> 02:20 PM) Im not writing off any individual persons statements per-se. Im attacking the party line of class/race warfare that dominates the mainstream of Democratic thought. All I see when I watch the news or read the paper is some prominent Democrat going on and on about rich vs poor, black vs white. Pitting American vs American is wrong and destructive and is worth attacking at every opportunity. And yet it's somehow ok to direct the U.S. surveillance apparatus specifically at Islamic populations?

QUOTE(bmags @ Dec 23, 2005 -> 02:43 PM) loewen was their former 1st round pick from canada correct? Yes. I believe he's also had at least some limited health problems in the past, which is probably why he's still in their mid-level minor leagues.

82 on Sunday here.

Well, let's just say I'm less impressed by Byrd and Johnson than Millwood and Elarton.

QUOTE(maggsmaggs @ Dec 23, 2005 -> 10:48 AM) I have a 10 foot aluminum pole. Who wants to beat me in the feats of strength. "Now that you are here, what we have is great strength of feet."

QUOTE(Kid Gleason @ Dec 23, 2005 -> 11:29 AM) ...Brad...Renfro...??? Not familiar... He played the kid in the film version of John Grisham's "The Client". That picture of him was on the front page of my LAT this morning.

QUOTE(SSH2005 @ Dec 23, 2005 -> 01:37 PM) SS David Eckstein, 2B Junior Spivey, 1B Albert Pujols, CF Jim Edmonds, 3B Scott Rolen, RF Encarnacion, LF Larry Bigbie/So Taguchi and C Yadier Molina. That's still either the best or the 2nd best lineup in the NL depending on Rolen and Edmonds's health (the Mets being the other obvious competitor)

QUOTE(Chisoxfn @ Dec 23, 2005 -> 01:21 PM) Odd idea, but I love it. Sadly I really do. Reed would be a great fit for the Sox, but I think they are high on Anderson. I just keep coming back to this...in 2006-2007, we have Anderson, Dye, Podsednik, Owens, Borchard, and Sweeney all under our control. Dye is the most expensive of them, and he's seriously undervalued based on his performance last year. All of them are either ML ready or are nearly so (Sweeney being the only one who may need 2 years). That's 6 outfielders. We probably have room for 4 at any time, with 1 as a backup. Borchard may be lost if he doesn't make the team, but that still leaves us 5 guys. I just really dislike the idea of adding another outfielder when that's a position that we already have too many people at. We still have people who we need to move out of the way to allow the youth we do have to come in.

QUOTE(hi8is @ Dec 23, 2005 -> 01:19 PM) you can do it for lidge too now "lidge" it works. "I don't think that taste is there."

QUOTE(hi8is @ Dec 23, 2005 -> 01:21 PM) i wonder who they pay to FIND positive ratings. Well, I'd actually say that Rasmussen is a pretty good polling outfit, they've been very reliable over the last few elections, it's kind of hard to disagree with them if they say that's the number. Their trend line also looks fairly reliable since the start of this month.

QUOTE(Heads22 @ Dec 23, 2005 -> 01:14 PM) You're the one that claimed the Bears were championship caliber. So is Seattle, and they'd have to play in Seattle. Well, let's ask this about Seattle....who has given them problems the most this year? The answer? Teams who are solid up front on Defense. I.e. the Giants, the Redskins. Teams that can get pressure using just their front guys and slow down the run without having to bring up extra people into the box. The Bears can do that. The Bears CAN be a threat to Seattle. Doesn't mean they will be, but Seattle should certainly not look at that defense and feel supremely confident that they'll be able to overcome it if their defense doesn't give them some help.

QUOTE(Greg The Bull Luzinski @ Dec 23, 2005 -> 01:05 PM) Normally a sentence has a subject AND a verb, but I will presume that you are suggesting that Pujols is the key to which I will a agree. Dude, did you see that bomb against Lidge? Pujols is now officially both a noun and a verb. All at once. You can't be just a noun and hit a ball like that.

QUOTE(Greg The Bull Luzinski @ Dec 23, 2005 -> 01:07 PM) Agreed. Hence, his not yet living up to expectations ... yet. Problem is, as a catcher, he may never...when you're a catcher and you start having knee, leg and groin problems early in your career...it's really damn hard for those things to heal all the way and never bother you, since you're taking such a beating behind the plate.

QUOTE(beck72 @ Dec 23, 2005 -> 12:50 PM) Bedard has been injured through out his career. While he puts up good numbers when he's been healthy [never throwing more than 150 innings], I'd want someone younger with more upside than him for Jon. unless there are other players we don't know about--which doesn't make sense for the O's. Well, the 1 nice thing about such a massive deal is that there's 3 different teams who could potentially toss in a prospect to the White Sox to make it a little more worth while.