Balta1701

Mike Sweeney seems like he is always "Available" in the sense that his name is up in trade talks every single year. No one ever acquires him, despite the fact that teams coudl really really use him (Think: The Angels as a DH Last year, for example). Either KC isn't really willing to trade him, or KC is asking way the heck too much given his health and contract status. As a team in KC's division, and given that we just traded some of our best ML pitching, I don't think Sweeney sounds like a very good option

QUOTE(bmags @ Nov 25, 2005 -> 11:35 AM) true...plus sponsorship deals... touche` And after Farmer got to yell "It's a slam, Sox lead, 6 4, light it up!"...I can't think of any city where PK's going to be able to earn more in sponsorship deals than in the 3rd largest city in the country.

QUOTE(bmags @ Nov 25, 2005 -> 11:31 AM) ooh, could we confirm this?! encouraging as regards to fields...isn't he still struggling MIGHTILY with K's? Which I believe is why he's got at least 2 more years in the minor leagues before he's ready...which is why the fact that we've got Crede arbitration-eligible can be quite useful. Crede holds down the fort very well while Fields readies himself, and Crede hits FA maybe a year after Fields is ready to come up, maybe even giving us the chance to use Crede as trade bait. We hope.

QUOTE(bmags @ Nov 25, 2005 -> 11:21 AM) and more home runs = more money... but he's vying for the contract right now! He might still think about the cash he could get when he comes off of his 6th or 7th straight 40+ home run season.

QUOTE(EvilJester99 @ Nov 25, 2005 -> 09:54 AM) Isn't that the same thing they say about Crede too? Crede has a long and loopy swing when he's struggling. When he's hitting right...he's got as sweet of a swing as anyone on our team. September/October...great swing. May...August...he was flying off the ball.

QUOTE(beck72 @ Nov 25, 2005 -> 11:00 AM) I'm tending to agree with that. Esp seeing how Pierre [and Dye] will be FA's after 2006. Giving up one of the OF prospects, after trading Arow, doesn't make a lot of sense. Someone like Josh Fields, Casey Rogowski though, I could see. With Boras being Crede's agent...I think that Fields may well be as close to untouchable as there is in our minor leagues now that BMac will be gunning for the Cy Young award.

QUOTE(Chisoxfn @ Nov 25, 2005 -> 11:04 AM) Agreed. Anderson has the tools to be, but he doesn't get the jumps that Rowand gets, at least not at this point in his career. When you have the ability...getting the perfect jump is something you can learn. Most people here have said that Anderson gets good jumps, has great speed out there, and has a throwing arm vastly better than Rowand's. That's a good combo to build off of.

Konerko Thome Dye Konerko Thome Dye :::Drooling::: Go Get him Jim!

I went to Target and Macy's this morning...managed to get roughly 1/2 of my shopping done, also picked up a printer and a Simpsons DVD for myself. Wasn't that bad here...although I didn't head to the Best Buy across town, which I believe is where the real hell erupts.

I'm sorry, I don't know where, but I think there has to be something wrong with your math. Carl Everett and Aaron Rowand made $6 million combined last season. That is basically exactly what Thome will make this season. Put the buyout of Carl into that...and the Thome Trade basically makes us come out completely even with last year's team. Furthermore, we're saving $4.5 million by buying out Thomas, and we have $8.75 million or so available because of Konerko. Combine those and you can offer Konerko a decent deal including his cash and Thomas's cash and with just that our payroll should still be roughly where it was at in 2005. The increases beyond that should be giving guys long term deals, which I could see costing us $5-$8 million, and that puts us somewhere in the low $80's.

QUOTE(GreatScott82 @ Nov 24, 2005 -> 10:30 AM) Exactly! If Paulie wants to win another title he will take the least amount of money and stay on a contender. The O's have to many boppers and no pitching. The few other teams that worry me are Boston and Anahiem. But they haven't offered him a deal yet? I don't see any reason why Konerko should need to take the "Least" amount of money. There is absolutely nothing stopping the White Sox from making Paulie a perfectly fair offer. The only thing which would beat that is another team offering him several million a year more than Sexson got, and that just doesn't seem like a smart plan for anyone.

QUOTE(timotime @ Nov 24, 2005 -> 08:51 AM) i hear that the O's have made an offer to Kong. anyone know anything about that or any other offers? Where'd you hear that? A quick google of Konerko and Oriole didn't turn up anything on my end.

QUOTE(kapkomet @ Nov 24, 2005 -> 01:02 PM) Since you are such the know it all, maybe you should run for President. I don't know it all...I just know enough not to trust any politician who basically says "trust me, we need to go to war with a country but I just can't prove it to you."

QUOTE(Heads22 @ Nov 24, 2005 -> 08:15 PM) Dayn Perry is a f***ing douche. That hasn't changed. He's got his head so far up his ass he can already see the turkey and potatoes he had for dinner. So here's the question...how will Thome respond when no one believes in his team and everyone picks against him before the season?

I dont' know if he could be a "Lights out bullpen guy"...but he could definately be a better guy at long relief than Viz - he could pitch more than 2 1/3 innings at a time, which would really help in those long extra inning games. And you should probably always expect that no matter how young your pitching staff is...someone will probably miss a start at some point, and it won't hurt us to have a guy who knows how to make a start.

QUOTE(Felix @ Nov 24, 2005 -> 06:23 PM) Without raising the payroll to like.. $95 million? Our payroll last year was right around $75 million. After this trade, we could resign Konerko and have our team spend something like $77-$78 million if we don't sign anyone else to long term deals. If we sign AJ and Garland to new contracts, and hopefully Crede as well, as we damn well better...then that will probably push us somewhere above $80 million, but probably not to $85 million. We could trade for Pierre without a $95 million payroll. But that doesn't mean I want to trade for him. We've got so much youth up and coming in our outfield, I just really dislike the idea of trading to get an outfielder who costs 10 times more than any of our other young outfielders and will probably leave after a year or two.

QUOTE(beck72 @ Nov 24, 2005 -> 07:58 AM) The key is, where to get that "speedy 2 hole hitter"? Is it possible that Ozzie won't necessarily get everythign he ever asked for this christmas? I think it's absolutely impossible that KW would grab Thome for Rowand without clearing it with Ozzie. Iguchi and Uribe will not be going anywhere next year. Uribe will probably win a gold glove next year now that his growing pains at short are out of the way and he's been playoff-showcased. Iguchi will probably only get better now that he's seen US Pitching for a year. Right now, we are very strong up the middle, and that wins us games.

QUOTE(juddling @ Nov 24, 2005 -> 06:46 AM) why apologize if they were lied to???? if they were so brazenly misled then they shouldn't feel sorry for believing the 'intel' set before them. Maybe apologize for being gullible but not for the war They could apologize for taking the President at his word when he said he had not yet made the decision to go to war in October 2002, that he would not rush into war, and that the resolution being passed by Congress did not mean that war was inevitable. Or they could apologize for not listening to people like me, who said exactly what happened - Iraq was WMD disarmed, if we got inspectors in they would prove it, and Bush would wind up invading anyway if the resolution was passed before the inspectors went in.

QUOTE(Jeckle2000 @ Nov 24, 2005 -> 11:20 AM) I don't get why Crede is so sure to hit for a decent average... He came up big in the playoffs... It's just as likely he never comes close to anything similar and hits .240 next year... and his track record would lean toward the latter... Joe Crede is certainly not sure to hit for a decent average. He gets himself locked into horrific slumps. But the solution is really simple...if Crede can just shorten those slumps from a month to a week, suddenly he'll be a .280 hitter or better. Last year, he had 2 horrifically bad months, one of which may be due to injury. When he came back from the 2nd, he had a new hitting approach that worked to a T. If he can hold onto that approach, and keep his shoulder closed, he's as deadly as any hitter in our lineup.

QUOTE(White Sox Josh @ Nov 24, 2005 -> 07:07 AM) Borchard will be traded. Who knows about Marte. Personally, I still like Borchard getting the Timo Perez role this year. He's cheaper than Timo (Timo's contract would pay Borchard and Anderson's salary), he can't possibly do worse than "Clutch bloop single" Timo, and if by some miracle he comes out and hits .250 with 10-20 home runs off the bench during the season, then maybe we can hold onto him another year and really turn him into a decent trade piece. If he can't do that, then at least he's cheap and he gives us some power off the bench.

I like Thome hitting behind Konerko myself, with Dye behind Thome. Gives the Righty-lefty-righty in the heart of the order and gives Thome pretty good protection. Thomas's money should go to Konerko. We have $4.5 million left from the buyout of Thomas's contract. The remaining money from the increased number of people in our ballpark and all those shirts I bought should go to Garland, Pierzynski, Contreras, Possibly Buehrle, and Crede for a time.

That one rules. Just keeps making me think...Thunder (a-a-a-a-a-aa)...thunder...

QUOTE(Chisoxfn @ Nov 24, 2005 -> 09:50 AM) I agree with Garland and AJ but I don't know if I'd lock up Crede unless you'd be getting a good value. Also, considering the Sox still have lingering concerns about his back, I'd say the odds of them offering him a long term deal at this point are slim. My hope is that Crede drops Boras as his agent (much like Uribe did). The team should offer Crede a 2 year deal with a team option for a 3rd year. Something around what Uribe got. Fields is not ready and will not be ready for at least 2 years, possibly more...we should expect to see Crede at 3rd at least until then. The beauty of the Thome deal is it lets us sign Konerko to come to roughly the same total salary we spent last year...which means that the attendance boost from last year and from having the 2nd best 1-2 punch in baseball in our lineup and the best starting rotation in baseball next year can go entirely to locking people up.

QUOTE(JoshPR @ Nov 23, 2005 -> 09:48 PM) NO, But we gotta make moves to resign people ans s***. Thome 's health is a question mark The beauty of this move is that it actually leaves us room to resign people, including Konerko, to long term deals without blowing up our salary number. Thome's money is roughly equal to Rowand plus Everett last year. Thomas's money is gone. If you give Thomas's post-buyout money to Konerko, that's enough to pay PK $12.5 mil a season and probably sign him. That basically means that, unless we trade for someone else or sign someone else, we can take our team as-is into the season next year, and the ONLY salary increases it will have undertaken are the increases to sign guys like Crede, Pierzynski, Garland, and hopefully Contreras to long term deals. If we up our payroll next year by $10 million...that either means we signed someone fairly big named or we gave a couple of guys nice deals to keep them in Chicago for a while. And we'll have gotten better at the same time. Furthermore...I don't feel Thome's health is as big of a question mark as you make it out to be. His biggest injury, his elbow, was suffered while fielding. If he's mainly a DH in Chicago...which he would be if we resign PK, that will significantly reduce the stress on his arm and most likely will add years to his career.

QUOTE(HighHeat45 @ Nov 23, 2005 -> 09:46 PM) ? We are paying more for Thome than we did for Rowand. Yes we are...but we're also paying about the same for Brian Anderson and Jim Thome as we were for Carl Everett and Aaron Rowand.