[The Brandon McCarthy-John Danks/Nick Massett deal]

Wow, nice thread hijack. Do you have anything to say about the current topic?

 

Oh I'm sorry, I thought rating Ken Williams' offseason was on topic.

[How is Seattle at home a "Prime" series?]

guys, if mid-summer weekend matchup is the answer, then

 

WHY AREN'T TAMPA BAY AND KANSAS CITY ALSO PRIME SERIES????

[The Brandon McCarthy-John Danks/Nick Massett deal]

meanwhile, Gavin Floyd will be one of the biggest joke acquisitions ever.

[How is Seattle at home a "Prime" series?]

I sort of understand the Toronto with Return of Frank II (although this really isn't gonna be the same as it was last year), and I sort of understand the WS rematch with Houston.

 

But Seattle....a bridge too far...

 

Maybe this is just because it's a summer weekend game. But I agree, not much reason to call it a "prime" matchup.

 

TB and KC are weekend series in the summer, probably are going to have comparable records, and they aren't prime.

[How is Seattle at home a "Prime" series?]

Seattle at home? This is a "prime" matchup? Hahaha.

 

just another way to gouge us with a new pricing bracket?

[Rowand on The Score]

Can we have just a single all-encompassing Rowand thread stickied please, at least until he's back on this team or out of baseball entirely?

[give BA a rest!]

Our offense was mediocre during the 2nd half last year.

 

while BA was hitting .257.

 

I don't know why we are arguing this anyway

 

Ozzie will do everything possible to run this guy out of town as soon as possible for whatever silly reason he has

[give BA a rest!]

to those who say they "can't wait for him to take a half-season to figure this out, they want to win now", when was hitting ever a chronic problem for us last year? And while Anderson was a black hole in our lineup, we were winning!

 

If memory serves, BA hit less than .200 while we went 55-32 or so to start the season...

[So What Do We Think of This Jersey?]

NO KIDDING!

 

Please tell me where you were able to get that done! I have about three jerseys I'd like to do that to!

 

Seriously, that would be awesome.

 

Well, I technically did it at the same place I bought the jersey, but they wouldn't be able to tell the difference if you told them a little white lie. They seemed to be insistent that you had to have bought the jersey there. It's Chicago Sports and Novelty on Michigan just north of Lake, across from Hawkquarters.

[So What Do We Think of This Jersey?]

From what I understand, as I tried to do this last year, it's no big deal to get a jersey numbered and lettered... with your own name.

 

However, if you want a CURRENT player, they won't do it. You had to have bought the jersey that way--licensing and all that.

 

I was bummed because I have a few blank ones to which I wanted to add a number/player's name but no can do.

 

Unless somebody knows otherwise!

 

Now if it's a past player, I'm not sure how that works.

 

But I have a home white pinstripe jersey that I bought in 2000 blank and I sent it away last fall to get Buehrle's name and number on it and it was no problem.

[So What Do We Think of This Jersey?]

unrelated jersey question...I got this authentic one last year for my birthday un-numbered and un-lettered

 

 

where would a guy send a way to get this numbered and lettered? is it possible?

 

Got my road grey Josh Fields jersey coming soon from the guy I won that bet from

[Visit the beautiful southside of Chicago]

"Will I get cell reception on the (big bad poor black) southside"?

 

What's next, "will I get robbed"?

 

Worst marketing campaign of all time.

[Rowand to the Sox??]

can we just sticky this thread for the next 5 years?

[Sox Lockup Vazquez to Contract Ext.]

And actually even better than that, if we have people we feel are capable of giving us a Vazquez type preformance, that contract is EXTREMELY tradable on the open market right now. The contract and length are just long enough to give a team security of knowing he will be around, without being one of the idiotic Meche for 5 years type deals. This is literally the best of both worlds, and really opens up options for us, instead of forcing us to either sign someone else for a more expensive contract, overpay in a trade, or throw someone to the wolves who isn't ready.

 

I like the idea of having three starting vets and a couple of kids that we develop, I just like Mark in there more than Vaz. Hopefully we'll find a way to get Mark done, but I don't think so.

[Sox Lockup Vazquez to Contract Ext.]

Mark Buerhle's going rate is $15M. Javier Vazquez's is $11M. Is your point that you think right now we should pay Buerhle the Zito contract he is looking for??????? It is not a decision of taking one over the other it is a decision as to which deals help the club in the long run.

 

My point is that the dude sees the logic in paying Vazquez $11M when Vazquez has been literally all over the map statistically over the past 5 years, but the ace of our staff has one bad 10 decision stretch and suddenly we're questioning his basic ability.

 

It's bonkers. In my opinion, rookies could be groomed to do what Vazquez does at far cheaper for 09 and 10. We have Vazquez for 07 already locked up. 08 would be the only real question mark, and if had Mark in my opinion it would really not be.

[Managers on the "Hot Seat"]

The Red Sox had a ton more injuries to deal with than the White Sox last year, so they are not really that comparable. Many people think that without the injury problems they could've easily made the playoffs.

 

Also, Phillips is pissed because he ragged on the White Sox all 2005 and they proved him wrong, then he tried backing them till he turned blue in the face in 2006, and he was wrong again. Every time he was on with some prediction, he always would preface it with "well, I'm not gonna get burned by the White Sox again, so..."

 

Dude is a huge moron, I will agree with that

[Sox Lockup Vazquez to Contract Ext.]

When I first saw this on the ESPN ticker I was shocked, but I get the logic. Replacing him will cost more in the future. As for MB, he needs to show me the second half of last year was an aberration. If he does, then I pay him the going rate.

 

 

In other words, you see the logic in giving 11 million per year to a guy who's been a total s***bag for 75% of his career, but one bad halfseason (in six full seasons) for Buehrle changes your entire opinion of him?

 

Makes total sense to me.

[Levine reports Sox and Buehrle to talk]

Kenny Williams would tell you no.

 

 

Not true. Kenny Williams just paid Javy Vazquez based in part on the market that Gil Meche helped to set.

[Levine reports Sox and Buehrle to talk]

Levine is on 1000 right now

 

the sound byte from Mark was:

 

Levine: have you talked with your agent

Mark: yeah, we talked last night

Levine: so are you guys planning on approaching kenny

Mark: well, that's why I hired an agent, to do contract talks. So any contract questions you'll have to direct to my agent.

 

(end soundbyte)

 

Levine on 1000 immediately after sound byte ends: Yeah, translation, Buehrle's agent is going to make a pitch for a 3 or 4 year deal in the next couple of days.

 

 

WTF? LOL. Talk about trying to create a story.

[Sox Lockup Vazquez to Contract Ext.]

Because Vazquez had a much better season than Buehrle....

 

As it stands right now, I am very happy the Sox don't have Mark locked up.

 

how the hell is 11-12, 4.84 much better than 12-13, 4.99????

[Sox Lockup Vazquez to Contract Ext.]

1998 - Vazquez 5-15 (.250), Montreal Expos 65-97 (.401)

2002 - Vazquez 10-13 (.434), Montreal Expos 83-79 (.512)

2004 - Vazquez 14-10 (.583), New York Yankees 101-61 (.623)

2005 - Vazquez 11-15 (.423), Arizona Diamondbacks 77-85 (.475)

2006 - Vazquez 11-12 (.478), Chicago White Sox 90-72 (.556)

 

Hmm, four of the last five years the teams would've seemingly been better off without Vazquez. And 5 of the 9 years he's been in the big leagues overall.

 

Although I'm sure the apologists will have an explanation for all those years...like maybe it's all one big coincidence.

 

I'm sure that's what it is, guys, right?

 

Also Carmen DeFalco made two really good points on the air tonight

 

 

the first was...how do the White Sox b**** and complain all offseason how they're not going to get caught up in this over-inflated market and then pay a guy based on that overinflated market value????

 

the second was...how do the White Sox now say to their fans well, we gave Vazquez this 34 million, but we aren't going to offer Buehrle 4 years 60 million or 5 years 75 million? You're going to give a mediocre pitcher "fair market value" but not a high second tier pitcher the same consideration?

[Sox Lockup Vazquez to Contract Ext.]

Javier's games in which he got massive run support:

 

April 14th against Toronto. 13-7 loss (L). The Sox score 5 runs in the first three innings but it's not enough.

 

June 3rd against Texas. 8-6 win (W) . Javy gives up 11 hits and 5 earned in 6.1 innings, but the team bails him out by scoring 8.

 

June 25th against Houston. 10-9 loss (ND) . 9 earned runs and 10 hits in 6 innings pitched. Iguchi almost wins it by himself despite that.

 

July 1st against the Cubs. 8-6 win (ND) . Pierzynski's homer bails us out after Gload extends the inning.

 

July 30th at Baltimore. 8-7 loss (ND) . Sox break a 2 all tie to take a 4-2 lead in the top of the 6th inning, Baltimore takes a 5-4 lead in the bottom half because Vaz implodes.

 

So there were 5 games in which he got massive run support, and the team goes 2-3.

 

 

 

The team scored less than 2 runs in support of him a grand total of 6 times down the stretch.

 

 

Like I said, sort of evens out, huh?

 

 

 

 

Did some one really post that .620 and .690 was not a significant difference in winning percentage?

 

If you add .07 to Javy's win percentage its .550

 

Which would be better than Garlands win %.

 

Not sure how you disproved my point, cause even an HOF suffered terribly from playing with the Expos.

 

I think that Martinez's age might have had something to do with the fact he wasn't as dominant until later. Usually this is the case with most pitchers. I'll break down the rest later.

[Sox Lockup Vazquez to Contract Ext.]

the 2002 Expos were 83-79.

 

Vazquez was 10-13 for them.

[Sox Lockup Vazquez to Contract Ext.]

Jesus. Now we are comparing one of the best pitchers of all time with Javy to make a point.

 

Im out

Dick, we'll just see if you ever get YOUR tickets.

 

Yeah, leave it to you to completely miss the point of bringing Martinez into the conversation.

 

Again, for those not quite as slow, playing for the Expos does not significantly impact your winning percentage necessarily.

 

Also, I can't wait to bump this thread midseason, even if I'm wrong.

[Sox Lockup Vazquez to Contract Ext.]

I wouldn't embarrass someone by comparing them to Pedro Martinez.

 

The point is whether pitching for the expos makes a significant impact on your career winning percentage

 

Pedro was 55-33 (.625) with the Expos

 

He is 206-92 (.691) in his career

 

Seems to me like it wasn't altogether that significant. Sure, it went up, but he was also younger with the expos and came really into his own in his last year in Montreal.