Balta1701

QUOTE(DukeNukeEm @ Dec 1, 2005 -> 02:55 PM) if he goes back to 12 win Garland, he's going to feel like a dumbass for rejecting that. Do we have any clue what he actually rejected? Loaiza just got a 7 million a year deal, and he only won 12 games last year.

Well, let me put it this way...Craig Nettles wasn't suspended over the superball incident. That I know for sure. And I read at at least 1 source that the reason he wasn't suspended was that there was no rule under which he could be suspended...I'm afraid that source I don't recall, it was back when the juicer from the north side embarassed himself with an exploding bat.

QUOTE(qwerty @ Dec 1, 2005 -> 02:29 PM) They didn't know they were given steroids from balco just like i don't know you get wet in the shower. How exactly do you know that? Giambi certainly knew what he was taking, he admitted it. If Bonds got that stuff from his trainer...and suddenly he added 20 pounds of muscle with the trainer actually not telling him what it is, why the Hell would Bonds have just assumed it was normal? He would have had to be an idiot to just think it was "Flaxseed oil". When all of a sudden you go from hitting 40 home runs a year to 70 right after you start sticking a new chemical in your body (after the age of 35 too)...would you really just think it was some random plant? Furthermore, if you're caught with an illegal drug that someone else gave you, only you testify you didn't know what it was...no one is going to care and you'll still be convicted of possession.

QUOTE(Gene Honda Civic @ Dec 1, 2005 -> 02:39 PM) Things I've learned in this thread: Jeckle has the best handle on Garland's value given the current financial market. Most people have no clue how much a 26 yo pitcher with Jon's resume is worth. Which is why we need to lock him up for 3 years with something like a Garcia contract, IMO. 1 more thing to consider...Garland and Buehrle are very good friends. It may not be the final item on their list, but just like getting Thome helped convince PK to return, holding onto 1 of those pitchers will probably help us hold onto the other one, all things being equal.

I understand why people are skeptical about Anderson next year, but let me make these few points. 1. Brian Anderson is almost certainly the best defensive outfielder we have in our organization right now. Good throwing arm, great speed. Owens may be better in time, but Anderson is better now. And we do not want a major downgrade in defense in center field right now. 2. Aaron Rowand was not in any way a key part of our offense last year. ARow struggled to hit .270 with home runs barely in double figures. Especially late in the season, his clutch hitting even faultered. Yet we still won the world series and put up enough runs to do so. 3. If Brian Anderson experiences some growing pains in the big leagues,it will be almost impossible for him not to generate as many runs as Aaron. He has more power than Aaron, and even though he'll strike out more, it's not like Aaron was tearing apart the league with average or walking like a leadoff hitter. Even a poor season from Brian Anderson will virtually replace Rowand's production. 4. We are not in desperate need of an offensive upgrade in center field. We just massively upgraded our offense by fixing our biggest needs from last year - left handed power and a guy with a high OBP. Anything Anderson does is a bonus beyond that. 5. Brian Anderson already spent a year in AAA. There is only so much he could learn from another year there. 6. Brian Anderson's arbitration clock has already started. Owens's has not. 7. Brian Anderson is dirt cheap, compared with someone like Pierre. If necessary, by plugging him in, we may be able to afford to eat a portion of El Duque's contract if he is traded. Or we'll have more flexibility next year. Etc. 8. Brian Anderson is too good to languish in the minor leagues forever. He has the potential to be a very good outfielder for this team in the future. He's going to suffer some growing pains when he first comes up, but that will happen no matter when he gets his first full season in the big leagues. Brian Anderson is not the best possible player we could plug into Center field next year, but I think he's the smartest option right now.

Bly apologized.

QUOTE(SoxFan1 @ Dec 1, 2005 -> 01:46 PM) How Timo has survived, I do not know. I still say Borchard>>>Timo, even though that's not saying that much.

QUOTE(nitetrain8601 @ Dec 1, 2005 -> 01:47 PM) I don't know about that. The Indians are probably going to lose Milwood. Wickman is 50-50 on returning. They already lost Howry. They're going to be weaker than they were last year. If the Twins make a move or two, they're right there again. But...their offense struggled mightily for the first part of last year - Martinez and Boone took forever to heat up, and that won't necessarily repeat. Hafner could improve agian next year too. They also have more young guys to plug in - I think they have a replacement for Broussard ready who could be very good. Also, there's still room for improvement in some of their pitchers - Sabathia always seems to me to be bette rthan the numbers he puts up, so they could still improve there too.

QUOTE(kyyle23 @ Dec 1, 2005 -> 12:47 PM) Are the dodgers moving or giving up on Izturis? Bad injury, surgery, unsure of his status.

QUOTE(Punch and Judy Garland @ Dec 1, 2005 -> 12:20 PM) and you would be likely correct. Unless they lock themselves into a Pierre or Damon-they will be gunning for Hunter soon enough. Even if they get Abreu, they could let Sheff walk after this year and move ABreu back to right and get HUnter next year Is Hunter a FA Next year? I don't know why, but if I'm the Twins, and I've lost to the Yankees in the playoffs several times, and I want to win a world series someday, I'd just be a bit hesitant about making a big trade to help the Yankees improve even if it cleared up cash.

Can't say I'd mind seeing the Twinkies lose some pieces from that bullpen.

QUOTE(nitetrain8601 @ Dec 1, 2005 -> 11:37 AM) Boston wants an ace pitcher in return from what I heard. That means Manny is staying in Boston. I can't see any team giving Boston what they want. I question Philly though because I would've done Manny for Abreu straight up. That doesn't mean that the price won't go down as the season approaches if Manny really keeps saying he won't play. I bet several teams might even be betting on that and just holding their cards.

QUOTE(AnthraxFan93 @ Dec 1, 2005 -> 11:46 AM) I thought that Thome was suppose to hit behind Paulie for protection. OBP and OPS numbers suggest it should probably be the other way (Until PK has a monster start to this year and crushes everyone else in the MVP race of course)

QUOTE(RockRaines @ Dec 1, 2005 -> 11:01 AM) I hope you are kidding or drunk. Compare that with this years crop...please I would take at least 4 LHP in that list. That list also says nothing about the Bats that the Yankees are going to be signing in the FA Market next year (2 guys named Lee, for starters)

Iguchi is clearly missing from the 2005 version...he made a lot more than what is shown at 2nd base.

I wouldn't be surprised if we saw Ozzie bouncing Thome and PK around between the 3-4 spots several times this season depending on how people are hitting at a particular time.

QUOTE(Steve9347 @ Dec 1, 2005 -> 10:14 AM) i think jon will get 6.5 in arbitration. he wasnt such a huge piece to the puzzle that i wouldnt consider trading him at peak value before he gets paid. the risk of him reverting back to 12 win jon are there. So...you're saying that you think Jon will nearly double what he earned last year ($3.4 million) if they go to arbitration? I have trouble believing that.

QUOTE(Steff @ Nov 30, 2005 -> 08:16 PM) What leaked testimony are you referring to? Are you mixing him and Giambi up..? Because Bonds came out clear as day and told he was using the cream that he was told was not a roid.. did he lie.. who knows. But what "leaked testimony" was about him...? Like the day after Giambi's testimony leaked in the SF Chronicle, Bonds's testimony leaked there too...he testified that he had unknowingly used the cream and the clear...having been told it was Flaxseed oil. Firstly, I don't believe a word of the "Unknowingly" part, but secondly, as far as I know he never publically admitted using the oil either. The only one who publically admitted using the "Flaxseed oil" was Sheffield, who said he got it from Bonds.

It appears that last night, Connecticut became the first state in the union to create a fully publically funded system of financing political campaigns.

QUOTE(RockRaines @ Dec 1, 2005 -> 07:31 AM) They will go back into the draft and select arms once again, early rounds, late rounds, doesnt matter. it seems to be working for us. I'd say we've been better off lately with our arms picked in the late rounds than in the early rounds, wouldn't you? Our starting rotation next year should have 2 guys we drafted, 1 in the 17th round and 1 in the 38th round.

Oh, by the way, just a reminder for people, I read about a week ago somewhere that the Sox have only gone to arbitration with 1 person in something like the last 10 years. Have some confidence in KW. He has plenty of time.

QUOTE(SSH2005 @ Dec 1, 2005 -> 09:39 AM) It makes sense though. Why would Garland want to sign a cheap 3 year extension now when he could just wait a year and break the bank for a huge deal like B.J. Ryan and Billy Wagner? 2 reasons. 1...he'll get money sooner. In Arbitration this year he'd probably get a fairly small increase over what he got last year, so if he signed a 3 year deal now, he'd get a bigger chunk of money sooner. 2...risk. He's being offered a big contract extension now...what happens if he pulls a Loaiza next year and his performance falls off dramatically, or worse yet if he gets hurt? You lock that deal up now and you're guaranteed the money even if things don't go well.

QUOTE(sox4lifeinPA @ Dec 1, 2005 -> 09:34 AM) actors and film makers used to spend their time on issues like this and ram it down our throats. Unfortunately, it seems more and more time and money is spent towards "we hate bush" campaigns and less and less for people in need. that goes for both sides I would say that there's another issue in that thanks to AIDS drugs, that disease is at least under some level of "Control" in this country - it's not growing exponentially any more, and only certain groups, which the media doesn't care about anyway, are really still having problems (see above post). It's a lot harder to get U.S. citizens to care about people dying who aren't citizens of this country. We all know that. Right now the people being slaughtered by this virus are mainly in Africa and Asia. Our government has decided it has other priorities...foreign aid tends to not go over well with the U.S. populace (polls tend to show that significant minorities or even majorities of the people think a huge portion of the U.S. government's money goes to foreign aid, when it's well below 1%), and every time there's talk of forcing drug companies to cut their prices overseas, we're hit with the old "but we need that money to develop new drugs" canard.

QUOTE(Texsox @ Dec 1, 2005 -> 05:32 AM) From my new bestest buddy Gary Hart The more I think about it the more I like Bush's plan of keeping them there until politically it will score more GOPer points bringing them home. Yeah, um, because it's done a dynamite job of keeping Bush's poll numbers strong this year.

QUOTE(Steff @ Dec 1, 2005 -> 09:31 AM) I think the bigger issue is putting it on college web site..? Well, if the college has rules about pornographic material on university-hosted web sites, then there's no question the kid earned the suspension by violating a clearly spelled out rule (assuming the rule is clearly spelled out somewhere).