caulfield12

QUOTE (pittshoganerkoff @ Jan 6, 2012 -> 03:25 PM) Exit Poll? What would be really fun is to get a Facebook group of random sports fans in the Kansas City and Lawrence areas together and ask their opinions of random White Sox moves and see what, if any, reaction they have to them. Not just about Ozzie Guillen, but other more significant moves that would register on the sports radar, like Ventura being named manager. Thankfully, the Cardinals copied our idea (after winning a World Series) so the heat won't be as extreme on Williams as it will be on Mozeliak if it fails to work out.

•“We really liked him when we saw him at that workout [in November],” said Beinfest to Mike Bernardino of The Sun Sentinel, referring to Yoenis Cespedes. “It’s something we’re continuing to monitor, and we’ll kind of leave it there. But we were very impressed. Obviously, as a Cuban we think it would be an interesting fit in this market and on this ballclub. It’s something we continue to monitor and stay up on.” •Bernardino says teams will submit a sealed bid for Cespedes to his agent Adam Katz through MLB, then have an opportunity to increase their offers. It's unclear if this is an official process, or just how Katz will attempt to find a suitor for the outfielder.

This is getting to be like a Sherlock Holmes Mystery....Gavin, will he be traded or won't he? Follow the clues to their logical conclusion.

QUOTE (Jenksy Cat @ Jan 5, 2012 -> 11:18 PM) Why would someone make up a Floyd to the Jays trade? I could see someone starting a BS HOWARD TO THE BULLS!!!! But not something as (relatively) unimportant as this Because AA and KW are newfound best friends forever and 25% of new trade rumors should therefore connect the two organizations together. That and the fact that they Blue Jays need a "middle of the rotation" starter and Floyd is exactly that...3, no worse than 4.

Why don't we make a list of all the board trade targets? Then we can start an internet rumor everyday until one of them turns out to be true and we actually get the player we want in return. It will keep Rogers and Cowley busy, and supply material for their weekend columns. So we have... 1) Floyd 2) Thornton 3) Crain 4) Ohman 5) AJ 6) Ramirez (for Marty34) 7) Konerko What possible combination of those players will get us what we want in terms of minor league talent/prospects? The Floyd/Crain or Thornton (depending on need)/Alexei Ramirez package would be the closest we can come to assembling a "mega-deal" at this point. We need a future catcher, CFer (assuming Rios should be moved to a corner and DeAza as the 4th OF), leadoff hitter, more bullpen depth (especially LH side if Thornton is dealt) and a legit top 30-50 SS prospect to replace Alexei Ramirez, assuming KW and JR want to go that route. More starting pitching talent is never going to hurt, but we should probably prioritize CATCHER and CF first, then pitching (starting/bullpen).

QUOTE (DirtySox @ Jan 5, 2012 -> 11:12 PM) I'd prefer the Sox go after Soler instead. Soler looks more like a Viciedo situation....rather than $30-60 million over 3-5 years and whatever other numbers are being bandied around the Net for Cespedes. Jorge's about the same age as Dayan when he signed with us, 19 or 20. The question is how well can he play CF. We need a legit CFer that can rung rings around Rios and DeAza if we're going to invest $10-15 million into a youngster like this. http://www.thestar.com/sports/baseball/mlb...-strike-rangers Interesting article about evaluation Japanese players, their posting/bidding numbers versus actual value, scouting....a bit applicable to the Cespedes and Soler situations as well for the Sox.

QUOTE (Milkman delivers @ Jan 5, 2012 -> 07:55 PM) Honestly man, I have no idea what you're talking about half the time According to a random samplilng of 98 people at Applebee's in Mission, KS, last night....a full 71% understood a majority of my posts at SoxTalk, especially the ones concerning the subject of Ozzie Guillen.

http://www.thestar.com/sports/baseball/mlb...-on-darvish-bid Blue Jays/AA getting skewered for opaqueness with the Darvish deal. Will it be a case of "more of the same" with the White Sox and Cespedes? We've been there before with M. Cabrera, Torii Hunter, Fukudome and a number of high profile FA's we "offered" (like Victor Martinez) but were never really considered front-runners for. If Floyd is really gone, then there's going to be pressure to make some type of splash, and clearly it's being telegraphed that it almost has to be Cespedes.

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Jan 5, 2012 -> 08:20 PM) I think the Javy/Young deal legitimately scarred you. Everytime a trade happens or is rumored you reference that trade. It did. Phil Rogers, too. Ever since Kenny Williams (the prospect, not the GM) failed, I've been obsessed with toolsy/athletic White Sox OFer's that never make a dent. Partially, it's related to the trading of the Sammy "The Panther" Sosa after I had just purchased a custom-made 1989 Sox jersey in the midst of his rookie campaign. Anthony Webster. Jimmy Hurst was another one. Walker, Mitchell and Thompson...same thing. Claudell Washington. Ron LeFlore...I watched The RON LEFLORE story probably five times when I was a kid growing up. Rudy Law was another personal favorite. Of course, Lance Johnson...I remember writing for his autograph when he was still on the Cardinals, and McGee/Vince Coleman were my two favorite players to watch, along with Terry Pendleton. Ivan Calderon. Carlos Martinez. Too many to name/count.

QUOTE (103 mph screwball @ Jan 5, 2012 -> 08:01 PM) I think the Sox are much better off getting pitching prospects. I think our scouts, KW, and Cooper have a good track record for getting pitchers into our system and making them a better more valuable player. Floyd himself is a prime example. They are not nearly as good at developing young talented position players. Why not stock up on good pitchers and make them better and when you need a position player you can trade for an established major league proven player using the pitching surplus. The antithesis of the Javy/Chris Young deal. We built up a pitching surplus in 2005/06...and we did leverage it to get Danks. B. Anderson and Swisher have good careers with the White Sox, probably no need to get Alex Rios and Adam Dunn...certainly not Rios, and Swisher could have DH'ed too. And we dealt the legit CF prospect in Young because there was too much confidence (including BA himself) in Anderson's ability to be Torii Hunter-Lite. Then you have the bad move of letting Thome go in 2010. Just little things like that blew up...and Teahen's extension, limiting our return for Edwin Jackson. Overall, the only trade that really really rankles is giving up Daniel Hudson too quickly, but I'll just assume that Ozzie/Cooper had some issues with Daniel behind the scenes that we didn't know about....3 starts, c'mon!

QUOTE (Quinarvy @ Jan 5, 2012 -> 07:44 PM) Also, perhaps an overpay could happen due to AA basically receiving a package of Floyd-Santos-Thornton-Frasor Don't forget them taking on the useless Teahen contract and designating him to the last roster spot on the bench. The Cubs sent $15 million in cash and got back a serviceable starter. We erased $10 million of debt and got back $700,000 of prospects, Zach Stewart, Molina + 2-3 more B level prospects or more. We needed to leverage Jackson to get rid of Teahen's money...Jackson going alone would have gotten us a lot better prospect, quite obviously. And there's no reason we can't go out and sign a Roy Oswalt on a one-year deal, Rich Harden, same type of "band aid" solution the Tigers applied with Brady Penny/Coke until some of their minor leaguers were ready. Joe Saunders and Pat Maholm are out there, too.

We need to get a SoxTalk "EAGLE EYE" computer to filter and sift through all the internet data and give us instantaneous, "real time" status updates of all electronic conversations simultaneously and present probability printouts, haha.

Does anyone else here share the opinion Melancholia was one of the top 5 movies of the year and actually "life-affirming" rather than depressing?

QUOTE (chw42 @ Jan 5, 2012 -> 06:33 PM) AA loves himself some White Sox pitchers. What does that say about Kenny Williams? hmm... Kenny Williams is a Krazy "Gangsta" Genius. Potentially 20% of AA's roster will be comprised of former White Sox players. What's the saying, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery? Just win, Baby!!! KW is building a juggernaut minor league system while the Blue Jays are only preparing to threaten for 3rd place and will see no appreciable rise in attendance/revenues.

It would be much funnier if Santos/Thornton/Frasor completely blew up (performance-wise). Not because we'd like to have a repeat of the Sirotka/Wells fiasco (for both sides), and certainly you never want to see any athlete injured, but simply to read the reactions of j4l and especially Keith Law.

QUOTE (pittshoganerkoff @ Jan 5, 2012 -> 03:31 PM) You can make it even shorter and call it "Lawrence Polling" or "Lawrence Polled". Lawrence Polling shows the Quentin to Padres deal to be a head-scratcher. Maybe Lawrence Market Survey? Lawrence Surveying...? Lawrence Market Analysis/Customer Feedback? Polling almost makes it sounds like the name of some cricket player from Australia or New Zealand. What's that thing they do on CNN right after the primary and presidential debates...? There's a specific term for it that eludes me at the moment.

Balta-ing? Was that word/phrase recently added to the SoxTalk lexicon? Can I second "Lawrence, Kansas-ing" the conversation?

Can we all send off faxes/e-mails to all the major league GM's to let them know Gavin Floyd is currently available...to please bid on him and bump up the return by getting all the teams in baseball to "e-bay him" into a stellar prospect haul?

There's a better chance of moving Andre The Giant than getting rid of those 3 contracts in 2011. Peavy's the only one remotely possible, and we'd have to eat at least $4-6 million of the remaining to make it happen, and be willing to get back the same junk/flotsam/detritus we received for Frasor.

I meant more dubious than the QUentin move, which was telegraphed 6 months ago or longer. I can't remember which offseason it was....that we brought in 10-12 journeyman/MLFA's/veterans on their last legs for an open tryout for a LHR spot. None of those guys stuck. Of course, we've come up with guys before like Marte and Thornton, via trade. But usually picking up guys from the scrap heap (and Sisco counts in that category), not such a high probability of working out in April. Sometimes you get a a Loiaza, Jenks or Santos, but 90-95% of the time nothing. And I just recall that the one guy who pitched well as Javier Lopez and he went on to pitch very well for the Red Sox and had a pretty decent career, overall. Logan and Cotts were both acquired by the Sox...I was referring to journeymen/scrap heap guys like Nelson, Myers, Porzio, Jose Paniagua, etc.

QUOTE (GreatScott82 @ Jan 4, 2012 -> 06:34 PM) With Peavy's BO its up to 69 million and with Floyd's option. (I think they should take it.) It would bump the payroll up to $78.5 million. Going into that year, you may have a rotation of Danks, Floyd, Sale, Humber, Castro/Molina/Axelrod. With a young rotation and about 22-$30 million to spend on free agents and maybe more (pending on if they trade Thorton or not). This team can significantly be much better sooner than we thought. I actually don't mind taking this 2012 season as a "Lets see what we have in our guys" type season. I really hope KW deals Thorton soon! You really believe we can win without Thornton in 2012, using Ohman/Santiago/Hernandez/waiver wire? We've tried that before and it was a disaster. Actually, the only useful piece in that LHR tryout spring was Javier Lopez, and we dealt him for Riske. If they can get a return somewhere between Molina and what they got for Quentin, and save all that money committed to Thornton, they should look closely at it. Personally, I think they should see how things go the first half of the season...wait until the demand is even higher and Thornton can prove last year was "flukey" and maybe you can get yourself yet another Molina for Thornton.

QUOTE (DirtySox @ Jan 4, 2012 -> 06:40 PM) I hope Floyd goes too. Send him to the Jays for Deck McGuire and other pieces. Another trade with Toronto, really?

Fair enough. The argument to be made on KW's behalf is that they believe Hernandez can help right away (assuming Santiago is in AAA starting) and/or they're trading Matt Thornton and need additional LHR depth. Seems Hernandez will definitely get a shot, as the 2nd or 3rd lefty...depending on whether or not one of the many RHR prospects blows everyone away in ST. Castro clearly has been perceived as having the talent and the ability to be a big league pitcher. To start off the 2012 season? Well, probably not, unless it's in the bullpen. He has more upside than anyone currently in our organization not named Molina, so clearly he should be building up his confidence in the minors...although we know with Frasor gone that another hole has been blown in the bullpen. Castro, Axelrod, Santiago and Zach Stewart...all of those guys could be fighting for the final spot on the pitching staff coming out of Arizona. So I'll agree it was 60% salary dump (they could have just not offered arbitration and let him walk) and 40% about believing they could get some legit talent back for him in return, which is exactly what happened. Frasor was more dubious...bringing him back, but we still got $700,000 worth of prospects and saved paying him this year...that one was much more of a head scratcher (along with Santos/Molina) than the Frasor move. QUOTE (elrockinMT @ Jan 4, 2012 -> 04:04 PM) No, I think it's because folks don't seem to read all of what I am saying or make an effort in some cases to look at both sides of the situation. They then do what they accuse me and other posters here of doing and try and justify it with name calling and slights. Believe it or not I know baseball and have been involved in the game for a lot of years. I try hard not to slight others when i post, but I have my opinion and I voice it. I accept that others may not agree and that's fine. I don't really think this board is set up in a way to be a battle ground of competing opinions. I am not in this to win the argument. I simply state my opinion. The ole Milkman is right when he posts "It's like arguing with a wall." As well it should be because it shouldn't have to be a winning argument. That's one of the only times I will agree with Milk. Carlos Quentin is gone, Mark Buerhle and Frasor are gone. Nothing can be done to change that. I look at our return for CQ and my question is was it enough? Was it the type of transaction Kenny Williams said he would make only if the retuirn was major league ready? I don't think it was and thus the next assumption would be if the trade was in reality a salary dump. Why was it a salary dump? Because of bad decisions by the GM. Now he has to dig himself out of the hole. Can it be done with the return we are getting. That is an unknown. Maybe what some folks need to do is take a step back when responding and edit their posts. It is really getting out of hand with name calling, etc. Again I have my opinions and take on things and others have theirs. Let's be civil please. I know I have answered beyond what you have posted in reply to my statement, but I think it is necessary to write. By the way I don't think you -Balta- have been unprofessional when reponding just as I hope I have not been.

Why would/should Huntsman do well in NH? Don't quite see it. Santorum will likely finish a tight 3rd/4th....and do VERY well in SC, maybe even coming in a close 2nd. Depends on how much soft money the GOP uses to crush Santorum so as to protect Romney for the general campaign. Paul going independent really would hurt the GOP just like Nader in the past (to Gore), or Perot in 1992 (that worked to Clinton's advantage, clearly).

Greg, how many Royals fans attend White Sox games in Chicago? It's kind of irrelevant. I'm sure Royals fans in 2004-05 thought the White Sox were crazy to get rid of Jose Valentin, Carlos Lee and Magglio Ordonez, too.