chiguy79

2-0 fastball was BP...that should be tater time.

QUOTE (ROC Sox Fan @ Apr 7, 2009 -> 03:03 PM) Allright A.J., enough trying to be "smart" on the base-paths. I'm tired of seeing that s***, it's been going on since last season after you got that call against the Rays. Ut oh. Dotel.... Remember guys, the Red Sox lost to Meche Opening Day 07 and went on to win the World Series; and the Sox lost Opening Day last year and went on to win the division.... f*** THAT LET'S WIN! Yep, I see it being ok if he gets thrown out on a good play by the defense and it is close, but not out by 5 steps, just like Cox waving Dye before, did they not see that Dejesus had thrown two previous strikes to home on the previous fly balls! FARNSWORTH IS MY HERO, GIVE IT UP!

AJ thinks he is fast...our baserunning has been pretty $$#@ today.

could we get a baserunner please...before we get to Soria

this is why they need to just schedule some double headers and shorten the length of the season, remember when Clevelands entire first series 2-years ago with the Mariners was snowed out. I know the owners will never do it for revenue purposes but they should, have a few Saturday day/night DH.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Mar 31, 2009 -> 02:13 AM) These fat pitchers are a joke. They should be forced to get in shape before they step on a big league mound. I wonder if they'll bunt him out of the league like they did poor Wilbur Wood. Colon got bunted out of the park 10 years ago when he was on the team, I recall a game against the Cubs we were down 6-0 in the first thanks to Colon not being able to move, thankfully C Lee hit a GS to win it. Colon and Richard are both terrible, we need another starter, KW and JR know it, I think 80 wins is about right with the way things are going, if the team starts out hot they had better be ready to make some upgrades pretty quickly.

I would get my money back ASAP, got my tickets weeks ago.

I think the point is that the Cubs were dumb to let Maddox wear Fergie's # which should have been retired, now they have an issue, the shame is that Fergie has to share his retired # rather than getting his own recognition and he will be overshadowed by Maddox, who never won his important games with the Cubs and for 99% of the country will be remembered as pitching the braves to numerous division championships. I can't wait till the Cubs immoralize ronny woo woo with something, perhaps a statue of him on the red line platform...

Prairie Dogs!

How about banning all politicians from attending games this year so they can do some actual work and get things done (especially our local politicians, if they do show up they should all be booed). I was in Istanbul in October, great city, but not opening day!

Anyone but owens, he tries to bunt everytime at the plate and yet he still isn't a good bunter. Everyone acts like Owens is a 21 year old top prospect with upside, he is 28, wise is 31, Owens also has a history of injuries so even if he did play well for a bit eventually he will have another leg issue and his speed will be gone or he will be on the DL. The sox need to move on from Owens, Wise is playing the best give him the shot... Not to mention attitude difference between the two, Wise shows up keeps his mouth shut and performs while Owens makes comments as though he is a future HOF and just tuning up in ST and trying to stay healthy. How about learning to hit, why not work on that.

I don't think teams fold but there is definitely going to be a strike as owners refuse to pay salaries that the players are used to, I think the current collective bargaining agreement ends in 2011? so just hope the economy is back on track by then otherwise their won't be baseball in 2011...which would make the s***ty economy feel even worse!

Lovie is another reason Ozzie is the best, Lovie = Jerry Manuel with similar results. I can't stand boring coaches, and then we wonder why the team doesn't play with fire...perhaps because the coach sleeps through the games. Take away the bears turnover ratio and we are a pretty bad team. Maybe instead of whining that they weren't paid enough in the off season the players should have prepared for the season. Someone had it right Cubs=Bears, both are too popular with no real competition to require them to win on the field.

QUOTE (Swingandalongonetoleft @ Dec 26, 2008 -> 05:07 PM) Caught a glimpse of the Cubs recap. Loved every second of them triumphantly glorifying the Cubs sweep of the Sox and fast forwarding to the All Star Game/4 game sweep of the Brewers right after that. I hope the Sox recap doesn't roll like that. Yeah I caught that also, was hoping they were going to have a sox version also will have to set the TIVO.

in this economy the sox aren't going to add any financial burdens...why would they 2 years from now the salaries today may look huge if MLB revenue drops 20-30%. Think about all the advertising income that is going to be gone.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Dec 15, 2008 -> 07:52 AM) Some might argue NOW is the time you have to "attack" and take advantage of the DET economic situation and the fact that Minnesota and Cleveland (Kerry Wood move notwithstanding) are more sensitive "mid-market" teams to seize control of the division by the throat. The White Sox are the team most "cushioned" for the downturn/recession in terms of their ability to generate revenues, and coming off a playoff appearance. Does everyone not agree? CLE, DET are very vulnerable cities...OH/Cleveland because of the auto industry, and Ohio has been hardest hit by the foreclosure bug, particularly cities like Cleveland. I'm certainly not saying go out and spend Burnett or Lowe money here. I do think they really have to look hard at the second tier (Garland, Brad Penny, Andy Pettitte, Oliver Perez, Randy Wolf and a couple of others like Paul Byrd) and solidify that starting rotation with an additional pitcher. I can see NOT adding a leadoff hitter/CFer, I get that, or maybe just adding Taveras on the cheap, but to not cushion the blow to our starting rotation and have to make a move out of desperation in mid-season seems to be putting us behind the eight ball. Surely there's no desire for a repeat of 2007, and we have better depth now than having to go to an Andy Gonzalez or Wasserman for large stretches of the season. HOWEVER, even if there was a major teamwide system failure, having a veteran pitcher signed for only 2-3 seasons SHOULDN'T be a difficult piece to trade at the break if everything just falls apart....I'm thinking the only back-up plan right now is Jose Contreras, and that makes me really nervous at this point. Still, we have two months to wait it out, and pitchers like Ben Sheets might not get what they want. Certainly, Burrell/Dunn/Grifffey/Rivera/Abreu/Bradley will be under considerable stress to get over 2 years and over $10 million per season....this both works for and against the White Sox both trading Dye and/or acquiring a LF option on the "cheap" simultaneously. Same with the "diminishing" closer's market moving against the Sox and Jenks. I totally agree with this, we should have the payroll flexibility to have a much better team on paper at least, not 3 "unknowns" in our lineup. The Sox can't play it both ways and cry that the economy is bad so they have to cut payroll while at the same time raising ticket prices on their customers 10%. Will be interesting to see how the seaon plays out becuase I am sure at the higher prices if they have a .500 or sub .500 year they will lose a large amount of the ST holder base that they should be doing whatever they can to retain.

Forbes #s aren't that accurate, there is a lot of money not reported I am sure and they can only estimate. I think the sox spending/income is where it is supposed to be. What shoudl benefit us the most is that we are the largest market in our division and thereby we should have the largest payroll in our division which should keep us competitive every year (Cubs benefit from this even more). The only outlier for us is Detroit but I think we all know their payroll is going to be getting sliced big time over the next five years and the albatross contracts they signed last year look terrible now, I could see the tigers going BK or being moved out of DET in the next 5-years (although the new stadium makes it tough). Maybe they will just suck with a $50mm payroll every year and be managed by Sheffield.

this is a good article also http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story...mp;sportCat=nfl

I just saw this article from August about the Tigers payroll and the downturn in the economy, considering the picture in August vs. Today makes August look prosperous, I would guess the Tigers $120mm payroll is going to cause big problems as if the bailout is going to go down the big three and their supplies won't be able to expense luxury boxes or advertising at the stadium, not to mention that all the employees that are going to get their salaries cut in half probably will be canceling season tickets a year after their team really sucked. http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/artic...396/1004/SPORTS I would have to think MLB is very worried that the team as a whole is in serious financial troubles, I wonder how their stadium was financed as well, wouldn't want to be holdling the debt on that! That all being said I would think the Tigers would be looking to move every large contract they have and getting their payroll down into the $80-$90mm range (if that is even a possibility). Perhaps their owner will go to congress and ask for a bailout also?

I like this trade...hopefully KW/JR reinvest the saved $$s although I am very concerned this is a salary dump in disguise...between $30+mm in payroll already freed up and 10% increase in ticket cost we have plenty of money to spend. We aren't going to get the big $$ players but there are going to be plenty of players looking for jobs as small market teams aren't going to be able to increase payroll at all. Unfortunatly the competitive landscape of the game will probably suffer even more and there are already quite a few teams that haven't been competitive for decades at a time (yes I realize TB/PHI played in the WS this year but face it many teams are out of the race by the end of April).

They have us hostage this year they had to push through the increase now because they probably won't be able to jack prices up again for 2-3 years. If the team doesn't perform this year I think a lot of ST holders will not be renewing for 2010.

Low ball him on a 1-yr offer to stay in Chicago, he said he prefers to stay in Chicago, make him say no, if we could get him for 1-yr reasonable $$$s why not, I am all for loading up our bullpen. If he thinks he is going to get $10mm and more than 2yrs he is crazy, not with his injury history.

take a bag of chips and move on...thank god we won't have to see him pitch for us again.

See ya Swish, enjoy watching called 3rd strikes on the Yankees, and I am sure you will do as well as your former A's teammate Giambi on the Yanks. I am all for flexibility and this is what KW achieved with this trade, he didn't want Swish on the team for years without a position, Konerko/Quentin aren't going anywhere so there was no position, Uribe is not the answer for super sub so we replaced him and he can try to find a starting job. I am fine with this free up some flexibility. I am also sure Reinsdorf wants to minimize his exposure to long contracts with the economic issues going on, who knows 18 months from know things could be pretty ugly and I for one think JR is going to play it prudently, I am sure many teams with high debt levels are going to go BK or need to be bailed out by the other owners.

I am guessing this year that I won't move up much at all since they made the playoffs, last year I made a nice move figuring retention wasn't great and some of the WS season ticket buyers canceled, also helped that I was willing to move to the RF line, seems 3B line is more popular. Also as an FYI, I am currently unemployed so anyone interested in picking up a 15/20 game plan out of my season tickets PM me as I need to cut down expenses ASAP. Cheers.