bighurt574

We seem to be very good the past few years at being the "contender" with the worst record for waiver claims...

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Aug 24, 2011 -> 10:48 AM) I'm actually pretty happy the Sox claimed Thome. The team is on the brink, chances of winning the division are dwindling fast, but it is not quite over yet. Besides, Thome being there will put more butts in the seats, which helps the team's payroll situation (partially offsetting his cost). And Thome has said he enjoyed his time with the Sox. So the only reason to hesitate, really, is the whole thing with getting Jim a shot at a ring. I can understand that, I'd love to see him get a ring, but it isn't exactly a known thing he'd go somewhere else and have a better shot anyway. And if Jim doesn't want to come here, he can just say no. Acquiring Thome at this point would have no measurable effect on ticket sales.

I like Danks but I wouldn't pay him $17M/year. If the Sox are going to spend that kind of money on a pitcher, he better be a legitimate ace, and that's not Danks. He'll be very good for a while but at this point I don't see him taking his game to a new level.

QUOTE (The Baconator @ Aug 15, 2011 -> 03:33 PM) Welp, I see no one has spoken their reason why Sale should stay in the pen yet (I was the first to vote pen earlier today) so I guess I'll air my reasoning. I love Sale's stuff and I think he can (and possibly will) be an awesome starter. The reason I said he should stay in the pen is because of his frame and delivery and risk of injury. My fear is that he is going to be at risk for a career worth of injury with his small frame and long limbs whipping with his delivery. And now that he's conditioned to come out of the pen, I think he'll be at an even greater risk of injury as we stretch him out, no matter how slowly we move with him. We can't afford to waste a young arm like this by having him injured often as his innings pile up. This may just be an irrational fear from my youth that that we're going to break our toy but I am very content with him in his current role. Can anyone allay my fears on this? PTatc? You can say pretty much all those things about Lincecum (apart from the bullpen experience), imagine if the Giants never game him a chance to start. I think you have to give Sale that chance. Starting pitching is just too valuable, especially for a potentially elite guy who can anchor your rotation not just in the regular season but in a playoff series. If he flops for whatever reason, you can move him back to the pen. And if it is any consolation, we seem to be one of the better organizations at protecting our starting pitching from injuries.

I was just excited that we scored 7 runs yesterday. I think that counts as fun bad...

MLB (or perhaps more accurately, the MLBPA) doesn't allow performance-based contracts, apart from some limited incentives for awards and what not.

A normal person/family would at least apologize after such an outburst. I'm not expecting much from Oney/Ozzie.

QUOTE (elrockinMT @ Aug 2, 2011 -> 01:45 PM) I am going to go out on a limb here and go against popular sentiment. I am looking forward to seeing Viciedo up at some point, but I doubt he is our super hero in waiitng. He may produce and help us win, but I think it's unfair and unrealistic to put the burden of winning it all on this fellow's shoulders. We may be expecting too much and will be greatly disappointed. He doesn't have to be the savior, he only has to perform better than the guy he'd be replacing -- who is hitting around .160. Not a difficult task.

QUOTE (Allsox @ Aug 2, 2011 -> 04:25 PM) What'd really be funny is the Sox pitcher ignores the order to plunk Teahen. I can't imagine a Sox pitcher actually obeying such an order. Even if the pitcher otherwise likes Guillen, why would he care about sending a message to a well-liked former teamate for getting into a spat with Oney? Doesn't make sense.

Ozzie just bought a $2M house in Bucktown. He's either a fool or has more job security than people want to admit. The former certainly isn't impossible.

QUOTE (Lillian @ Aug 1, 2011 -> 07:00 AM) The physics of the swing are that the longer the arc of the swing, the longer it takes the bat to travel to and through the hitting zone. The length of the arc is determined in part by the length of the batter’s arms and the length of his bat. The longer his arms and his bat, the longer the arc. A tall player, with long arms, can reduce the length of the arc by choking up. Choking up also provides that added advantage of increasing the hitter’s control of the bat. A big strong guy like Dunn could choke up, reduce the length of the arc, increase his bat control, and still hit the ball a very long way. The greater number of times that a guy that big and strong can make contact, the greater the number of times a ball has a chance to leave the park. Why is this not obvious to baseball people? He should choke up, and then emulate Konerko’s short and quick swing. I assume he's been swinging more or less the same his entire career, which has gone reasonably well up until this year. That leads me to believe the length of his swing isn't the problem.

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Jul 28, 2011 -> 02:36 PM) Sounds perfect to me. If someone blows you away with a deal, go for it. If not, keeping him works too. You could say the same thing for just about any player...

I wonder how much salary we'd have to eat.

QUOTE (Special K @ Jul 28, 2011 -> 12:52 PM) Obviously, the Sox would do their best to get something good in return. But, he's due to be an 8-10 million dollar player next year. In case you haven't noticed their trying to trim payroll as much as you can right now. Attendance has been miserable and the sox aren't performing. Why else would you trade away your second best hitter in the middle of a pennant race? Are we to assume once Viciedo comes to Chicago he will immediately put up the exact same or better production where we won't miss Q? Not saying it will happen, but given Q's streaky nature, it isn't that far out there to think that Viciedo could match or beat Q's production over a 2-month period. That's a risk I'd be willing to take if we get a nice return.

QUOTE (JoeCoolMan24 @ Jul 28, 2011 -> 12:01 PM) LOL, WHAT? Is that a joke? f***ing s***, I would be fine if Kenny through in Matt Thornton and any prospect not named Viciedo/Reed if it meant Brown, Singleton, AND Cosart. That's beyond video-game level trade. I'd say so, the Phils' #1, #2, and #4 prospects per BA.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Jul 28, 2011 -> 11:50 AM) Its bonerrific to think we could get a top 5 prospect for CQ, add a player or two to that and its unreal. It may indeed be unreal, sounds way too good to be true.

If we can get a good haul for CQ I'd pull the trigger, even if we're still in "win now" mode. We can plug in Viciedo and not have a huge drop off, and still pick up some nice pieces for the future.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jul 27, 2011 -> 04:06 PM) It is obviously a dollar thing. The next week could be big, not just W's and L's, but drawing a nice crowd with BOS and NYY in town.

It would be ironic if Toronto's deal with St. Louis falls apart and they're stuck with Jackson...

Only KW really knows what other offers are/were available for Jackson, but this doesn't seem like a bad deal, especially if we don't have to send over much $$$ for Teahen's contract. There's also some value in a 2:1 trade here, clears some room for someone to be called up to replace Teahen.

I don't blame KW for signing Dunn, he was arguably the most consistent player in baseball over the past 5-10 years, I don't think KW could or should have foreseen this dropoff of truly historic proportions. But at some point, you have to blame KW and Ozzie for how they're handling it. It's premature to just write off all 4 years of his contract, but he just doesn't have it this year. Get Viciedo in there. Either send Dunn to the DL followed by some time in the minors, or have him come off the bench for a while.

I'd think we'd be able to get something of real value in return for Quentin. Sure he's streaky, but he's still one of the better power bats on the trade market and he's under team control for another year. I'm sure he'd get a decent salary in arbitration for next year but that's still nothing compared to a lot of the overpriced contracts out there.

In a rational world, management would understand the concept of "sunk costs" and play the guys who give us the best chance to win, regardless of salary. The problem is that if we give up on Dunn and Rios, KW is pretty much admitting failure in acquiring those guys, so we're trotting them out there every day still hoping they turn it around.

If we get in fire sale mode and make a big trade, I could see moving Quentin before Konerko. With one more arbitration year left, he might actually have some real trade value if he can heat back up a bit.

Beginning August 29, we play 26 straight division games (6 against Detroit, 7 against Cleveland, 6 against Minnesota, and 7 against Kansas City) before ending with 3 against Toronto. If we can hang around until then, that's when the division will be won or lost. Hopefully Dunn and/or Rios are clicking by then.