Harry Chappas

What is wrong with the Raffy contract?

tony, we are on to something now. the sox are not New York or Boston or LA. This is Chicago. now tell me what is wrong with this picture? i think that we (the fans) have been beaten over the head by MLB (in general) and the white sox (specifically) that they "can't afford it" and "can't spend a dollar when you only have fifty cents", which in my opinion is baloney, that we start to believe it. what if i asked you or any sox fan how would you like to have alex rodriguez at short for the sox next year? the answer would probably range from, the sox would never take on that big a contract, or we couldn't afford any other players with him on the team. that would be my reaction. i think that we confuse two numbers. the amount the sox are willing to pay, and the amount the sox can afford to pay. in my opinion the sox management if they wanted to could have a 100 million plus payroll. i think that they have the means or could find the way to come up with the money without much effort. but they choose to go the financially sound or cheap way (whatever way you want to look at it.) there is a reason that we only make the playoffs about once every ten years, and the reason is is because it takes an enormous amount of luck to be successful in the sox system. we rely on our scouting, drafting, plug ins, and the occasional big ticket item, and there is absolutely no margin for error. the years we made the playoffs everything seemed to go our way. no major injuries, guys having career years. we won't cover our mistakes by throwing money at it. now i think it's most important to spend money wisely and not just throw 100+million at the wall and hope something sticks, but the sox, iIF THEY WANTED could do any of the following. trade for a-rod. if we took on his contract the rangers would require probably a couple of prospects, hell they might even take pk off our hands for relieving them of the enormous burden of a-rod's contract. sign bartolo sign vlad the possibilities are endless. i doubt this management would ever do these things but i believe that if they wanted to they could. the financial constraints are self imposed, and i'm sure that bud selig appreciates us not being another NY. but i may be wrong about it all. You are right on. This organization is joke but that is Chicago, city of spendthrift owners, JR, Wirtz, Trib and worst of all the McCaskey's. Each teams makes one move every 5 years and they shove it down the fans throat that they are poor. There will be 5,000 watching the Hawks in January and less than this watching the Sox next September. Why these leagues allow the fools from this city to do this is beyond me. You would think the cub television ratings would prove something. The general economy and morale of a city pick up do to sports but all involved are blind to this and keep the change they make on their teams instead of trying to be something great. Colon, Tejada and Castillo could all be had along with signing Gordon and Foulke. We won't move on one of these though and then wonder why we are irrelevant in the city and world of sports.

Who is going to pay for that flight?

Would you rather have; Cotts or Rauch and Ordonez = $14.5M or Reed and Colon = $14.5; if you give Colon is asking price. In a round about way my point is you can get a good rightfielder much easier than you can a good starting pitcher. Starting pitching takes you to and through the playoffs. Hitting is fun to watch on a Tuesday eve in July. Look at Ordonez numbers in April, May and September. He will leave next year for a warmer/indoor climate because that is when he is a top notch player. He is not a cold weather player, IMHO. Jeff Conine was picked up for the pennant push. There are these types of guys out there. Prime pitchers wheather Bartolo Colon or not, are not out there. If E-Lo, Buerhle, Garland, Cotts and Rauch get you excited for this upcoming year.....well I guess we have different views. I DO NOT WANT TO GET RID OF ORDONEZ BUT IF WE ARE BETTER FOR IT, GO AHEAD.

Tuesday Opener really sucks. The weekend series are pretty god though. My 7 game, bye, bye season tix; Opener; Friday/Sunday cub ((we try and get 7/4 at teh s***hole,) Twins, Braves, Boston, Seattle Much better than last year.

Who the hell this guy think he is? :fyou Some douchebag that has no friends in the world so he will strive to be a pain in everyone's ass becasue nobody pays attention to him. He will come back in a month and tell us we should trade Joe Crede for Fernando tatis or something worthless just to try and get everyone pissed off so he can giggle and play with his imaginary friends.

There is no doubt that Maggs Ordonez is great player and potential hall of famer if he continues to progress. The problem has to do with the fact that we can not afford him. If we were the Yanks, Cards, Mets, cubs, etc. this would not ba a topic of conversation. For every bad contract we have and overpay (Koch, Konerko, Thomas,) the worse off we are. Pitching wins, plain and simple. How many batting champs carry a team to and through the playoffs? How many Cy Young award winners? If the ability of Bartolo Colon was not in the discussion, the thought of Maggs being traded would not come up. I believe that as impressive as his stats are, Maggs does not produce in the clutch as a $14M/yr player should. Case in point, 2000 playoffs and this past season in the last fateful week against the Twins. Teams are built and win with players that know and play to win on a daily basis and a stong pitching staff. I am not sure Maggs Ordonez is capable of this. Don't tell me what you hit, tell me when you hit it. maggs at $8-10M I can handle anything more than this and we are overstating are capacity to compete. See sammy sosa for proof of this.

This is not even close, pitcher B is head and shoulders better than A. Age is important if A is less than 24 but A appears as an average pitcher (Jon Garland,) and B a stud (Bartolo Colon.)

Colon gave us a chance to win every time he went out there. The reason we didn't win had nothing to do with he, Buerhle, or Garland. Our top four guys led the majors or were right there in quality starts. A duplicate performance this year would be great. You remove one of these guys and the chances of this suffer greatly. Good pitching is not that readily available. Any other pick-ups will perform at a much lower level than Colon. That is not to say they won't win, Danny Wright won 14 games two years ago. The thing is, a weak bullpen will be greatly exposed. If Colon is not back, there needs to be some huge money spent to build the pen. The Ginter's, Munoz, etc. cause us to have a repeat of this season.

This is a trade that would allow us live without Colon but this board would probably crucify KW. I really think Weaver could do some damage with us.

Anyone have this handy assuming Thomas picks up his $6M option? Looks like Buerhle has no interest in signing long term as they already are planning for arbitration. How much cash is out there to get us to $60M?

N,O,P,E, p,l,e,a,s,e,e,x,p,l,a,i,n,t,h,a,n,k,s,

Thanks for the insightful post us morons really appreciate it.

See cub v. sosa, cash is king and the wrigley blue did not get thome and I-Rod becasue they have $18M tied to the man.

I think Johnson is overrated and Fonzie looked like a fool in the playoffs. I think these guys are pretty overhyped and wouldn't like either of them for Maggs. I could see Konerko for Nick Johnson. For Maggs...Soriano and Weaver. Sorry I haven't given up on Weaver just yet. These movesd and resign Colon and I have faith.

The sheep that are cub fans feel the same way about Sosa. $14M players do not allow a team to loss 1-0 to the Tigers twice and padres. Maggs is a good/great player but he does not do enough to absorb about 25% of our salary. Not sure why we can only operate at $60M but that is the team.

Sounds like he doesn't want to manage unless the team and organization are serious about winning. Not sure why he would change his tune for the White Sox and why I feel the Sox are just putting this out there to be in a position to lowball Guillen. Then when they lose Colon and all attendance for next year, they are not paying a manager $1M to try and be successful. Resign Colon Trade Ordonez for Kevin Brown and Guillermo Mota; Then we are serious. A rotation of Loiaza, Buerhle, Garland, Shoenweis and Rauch/Cotts/ etc. is pitiful

If the lovely Chicago State ever allows me to I am returning for Secondary Ed. great move, the business world really sucks. I am also looking into Elementary Ed alternative programs. I can toss fourth graders around if the screw off. Ooops, I can toss fourth graders around if they screw off.

Carl Pavano, he can handle the pressure. I bet the Red Sox get him back though. What a bad trade by the spos'

Not sure I totally disagree with this. Although I have never enjoyed video games and am not too old 32, I really don't see teh need for these type of games. The perspectives of reality and respect have totally left society.

That guy could've played it off much better as he could have drageed it out for a bit; What are thinking? "If Robin and BaBa Booey have met with Fred errr, Eric yet and have gotten out? Oh my god Howard is doing anal right now in front of me, Ba Ba Booey, Ba Ba Booey.

Sun-Times is usually never right though.

What happened to Slingin' Sam McDowell? Hawk calls him one of the best pitchers he has seen. That is all I know of him.

I think the Marlins are going to do alright. If they get starting pitching from Penny and Redman, I think they may win. The Yankees starting pitching can be had by the Marlins.

I've always said that Cub "fans" are more concerned with Wrigley, attendance, and beer more so than winning. I like beer as much as the next guy but Miller Lite is hardly the reason why I go to USCF . Posts like this just prove my theory. The attending game cub fan is of the attitude see and be seen. Winning is cool by-product, should it occur. Make the headlines and get your face out there and the ultimate goal is complete. Winning is great but no more so than being hip and being with the in crowd. The 25 year-old long suffering cub fan is sitting in a bar in Berwyn, not hanging out on waveland Ave, NOT EVEN WATCHING THE GAME!!!!!