caulfield12

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Jan 21, 2010 -> 08:18 AM) I don't know why I get the hell I get when I turned out to be correct all along. I called them cheap last year when KW went into his $.50 speech BEFORE he got Peavy and Rios. So they did have money to burn. It wasn't buried in JR's backyard. He didn't forget he stashed it above the drop ceiling in his office. They had the money. Now payroll is a little higher and they admit, first JR last week, now even Brooks, without 7-11's 500k, they have money for another "established" player. Its not like they have sold more tickets yet. Single games haven't gone on sale. Some season ticketholders that haven't been able to upgrade for years have moved to better locations, so its a good assumption season ticket sales have declined over last season, probably just not at the pace they were anticipating. They are even hawking sponsorships and ballpark ad placement on their website, something I have never seen before, so you would assume they have had more sponsors previously. JR has been quoted as saying he will not lose money to win games. These are all facts. I was correct all along. Bring on Johnny Damon. Maybe some of the TARP or stimulus package accidentally was diverted to 35th and Shields... Let's say the season tickets went from 17,500 down to 15,000...you're a season ticket holder, right? So multiply 2500 times the average price of a season ticket and maybe 1000 X the price of a parking pass and then also remove 7-11's $500,000 and whatever we were getting from Bank of America/Fifth Third Bank. That's a pretty significant amount of "missing" revenue at this point. So I wonder if their enthusiasm is simply based on the team as composed and "forecasting/projecting" that walk-up, Ozzie Plan/partial season ticket packages will be scooped up if the team plays as well as expected and June arrives with nice weather??? Is it based on the idea of a financial recovery starting to take hold as the year goes on in Chicago and sports marketing dollars again being freed up by the second half of the season? One thing I found interesting was about Spring Training. Didn't they charge some crazy amount for parking last year? Maybe that's wrong, I know it wasn't the same as regular season games, but I don't remember parking being free either? Or maybe it's simply because they feel they can make more from Spring Training with everything being more organized and the fact that Viciedo's contract/signing bonus doesn't affect the bottom line as much this year, I don't know.

A Dick Allen comment, lol? Well, I guess that's good to hear...although it certainly be "spun" to mean they won't do anything now and will prefer to wait at least until the end of spring training and possibly well into the season to make a move at DH. Of course, the White Sox are also putting themselves into something of a Catch-22, the same situation Congress and President face with health care...namely, if they pass watered down legislation or withdraw and do nothing at all, BOTH will be utilized as potent arguments in the fall, no matter what happens in the next 9 months. So, in a similar vein, if the White Sox DON'T add an additional player, they've put it out there before the season that there wasn't a reason for them not to do this financially. Heck, you can even over-read into the comments that if they can bring back a banking sponsorship and some of the "ovens in the fire" come through, then we'll have significant breathing room with the payroll. So are they really being truthful about another player being added or just trying to PR spin the fanbase to get more season tickets sold? That's why I am absolutely not buying the fact that Ozzie actually wants the Kotsay/Jones combo for DH, OR Kotsay/Jones in RF. If you said to Ozzie, you can have Vlad Guerrero, Damon, Matsui or Jones/Kotsay, does anyone really think he would prefer the final option over the first 3? Ozzie's stubborn, but he's not that stupid when it comes to talent.

Lisbon, Portugal, is another city that's directly in the danger zone for a possible earthquake and has many buildings that aren't reinforced, at least 40% of the city would collapse. Lisbon last had a huge earthquake about 260 years ago, the same time frame as the last huge Haiti earthquake. At the time, it was the worst to ever hit Europe.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Jan 19, 2010 -> 11:30 PM) To be fair, the Twins have more division and World Series titles in the past 25 years than the White Sox, yet the White Sox have spent more on player personnel and have consistently outdrawn them in the standings. Further, your point was that the White Sox didn't win with Jim Thome, and that only winning a World Series is winning. If during a 10 year period, a team wins a fluke world series and loses 90-110 games in the other nine, and another team wins 10 straight division titles, makes it to 4 World Series, but doesn't win one, which team is the bigger winner of the decade? I'd say the team that showed that they can consistently play at a high level, rather than some fluke. I don't have any teams in mind, but there are enough examples like this out there that someone could come up with one. The Atlanta Braves would be an example, the Indians in the 90's and early 00's. "Outdrawn" in the standings (overall winning percentage over that time?) or in attendance/revenues during that time? Would you put 2005 in the fluke category or can we say that we played at a consistently high enough level for the last decade to be satisfied? In many ways, the 89-94 White Sox and 05-08 White Sox are fairly similar, with '07 sticking out as the aberrational year.

Denard Span was a 1st round pick. As was Michael Cuddyer, and Morneau was a 3rd round pick. The fact of the matter is that the Twins development is far better than most teams in the league and that their scouting really isn't all-world. I also don't think that "odds are" Delmon Young will have a breakout season. He's had over 1800 plate appearances in the major leagues, his defense is still awful, and he's shown no type of power whatsoever in the major leagues. That doesn't mean he can't get better, since he's only 24, but I would say that he's probably going to end up being the same player he is. The only reason the Sox have to worry about the Twins is because they are good. They play good defense but traded their best defensive player away for a good shortstop in Hardy, they have 2 very good hitters in Mauer and Morneau, and have several other players who are good but not great in Kubel, Cuddyer, and Span. If anything, it seems like you are giving the Twins far too much credit. They have just as many question marks as the White Sox do, but I would say the Sox main problem - the lineup - can be fixed pretty easily. I would say the Sox are a heavy favorite to win the division, even with a poor offense. First of all, it would be nice if the White Sox could develop anyone that was CLOSE to the 20th pick in the first round. Most of our successes (Rowand/Crede/Buehrle) were lower picks too, heck, you can even put the likes of Chris Young or Brandon McCarthy on that list, too. Where they have been clearly better than the White Sox is with developing pitching internally, and that's part of their organizational philosophy, the so-called "first pitch" strike (simple enough?) ideal that's drummed into their draft picks from instructional and short-season leagues. Without the four way rotation (Cuddyer/Gomez/Young/Kubel), you're going to lose some defense but probably gain overall in OPS when you switch Hardy for Punto/Cabrera over a full season...and it's just a hunch, but I think that now that all the rumors of Young being traded are dissipating, he might settle down and start to play like Hawk thinks he's capable of. He's still 3-4 years away from his supposed prime, and his numbers and impact were much better overall in the second half of the season. (I'll just put it this way, would you be willing to bet your house or life savings on Alex Rios having a better season this year than Young, probably not...) And our bullpen is still a HUGE question mark...a lot of things have to break right for us to win the division without a DH. Yes, theoretically that's easier to fix than finding an everyday CFer (we have failed in that area four seasons in a row!), so we'll just have to wait and see if it's Kotsay/Jones on April 1st. While they do have question marks at the back end of the rotation, they have more depth. If we lost one or two starters (and there's concern automatically how long Garcia will last based on the past 2-3 years), who would we go to after Hudson? Torres? Hynick? Basically, both teams are flawed, but the Twins are a more balanced team overall at this point. Until the White Sox or Tigers knock them off, they should still be the favorites for the division.

I'm just curious if anyone here has read ZEITOUN, the Dave Eggers book about the Katrina aftermath? The first thing that came to mind is WHERE the authorities (if there's such a thing in Haiti at this point) were building their Guantanamo Bay outdoor cages for all the prisoners and looters in Haiti, as the Dept. of Homeland Security did the day after the storm at the Greyhound terminal in New Orleans, actually using prisoners from Angola and other prisons from Louisiana. Of course, back then, they were also arresting (mistakenly in the case of the main character) "suspicious" individuals and somehow trying to tie them into Al-Queda attempts to further sabotage the US during a time of national emergency. Hopefully everything will hold together in the next 72 hours before the the majority of US troops arrive.

QUOTE (Real @ Jan 16, 2010 -> 12:23 PM) Sounds to me that a lot of people here don't even have "high" expectations for this team, just "reasonable expectations" I don't see how anyone who pays attention to what other teams in this division are doing, can say we aren't the favorite as of right now to win this division Minnesota has Mauer, Morneau and to a lesser extent Kubel coming off a career year, moving outside of the metrodome (this fact seems to slowly become less acknowledged, and it's a huge factor in how their team will perform). They also have a starting rotation full of question marks. Which Nick Blackburn is the real one? Baker and Slowey are huge question marks as well. How will their team defense be affected by playing outdoors, especially in April and May when it's still cold Their bullpen also has question marks, outside of Nathan Detroit is trying to do what Kenny did last year, and that's rebuild on the fly. Dumping CG for cheap talent who may or may not perform well, given a starting position, and losing Rodney for Valverde. Their starting rotation is less questionable than Minnesota's due to having a true ace, and possible legit #2 , but Verlander (RHP) > Porcello (RHP) > ??? (Scherzer) > ??? (Bonine) > ??? (Bonderman) is going to most likely force their offense to score a lot of runs to win games, something we hopefully won't have to do You do realize the Twins are a coin flip, Thome homer, Griffey throw and Danks outing away from winning 6 ALCD championships in a decade? Dismiss them at your own peril. As far as the Twins' pitching, the fact that they made the playoffs without a true ace (Baker was the closest) should scare everyone in the division. Before, they had Santana, the best pitcher in the AL at the time, and a healthy Liriano breaking off nasty sliders and dominating. Baker is not a huge question mark, any more than Danks or Gavin Floyd are. Blackburn is very solid, and clutch. Yeah, Slowey's a bit like Sonnanstine, but never count him out, either. And a healthy Glen Perkins is a very talented pitcher. Liriano always has a chance to bounce back now in the 2nd full year after surgery. The Twins are always unearthing minor leaguers like Denard Span who can actually contribute at nearly an All-Star level. Plus they have Revere in the minors, and the odds are that D. Young might actually have a breakout season without the pressure of having to fight for a job or playing time. And if the key to their bullpen, Neshek, can return from surgery, they're a much different team innings 7-9.

Well, at least the former Real World SD cast member was good eye candy in Dragonball. So strange and sad to see a movie with two very talented performers, Emily Rossum and Chow Yun Fat, ridiculously underutilized.

Thought this was worth reading...from Anderson Cooper's blog page Dear Mr. President, The wonderful historian, Stephen Ambrose, wrote at length about the amazing accomplishments of normal American troops during World War Two. He went as far as to suggest that their initiative was what won the war; their instinct to make decisions on the fly and adjust their battle plans, while not always waiting always for instructions from above. I was fortunate enough to visit with Stephen several times before his untimely death, and he spoke passionately about his faith in the essential creativity, courage, and trustworthiness of ordinary Americans. However, when I look at situations like Haiti, Katrina, and others, I find myself wondering if our leaders these days, at all levels of management in both public and private offices, are driving that spirit into retreat. Often I am frustrated by the measured lack of bravery and boldness in confronting great problems. I feel like too many leaders, faced with challenges such as a natural disaster, worry too much about having the “perfect” plan, and so they have no plan at all until it is too late. They fret so much over taking excessive risk that they start thinking any risk is unacceptable. They give up on satisfying needs, and instead focus on satisfying lawyers. And in the process, they cage the true heroes who work with them; folks who are ready to put their own concerns and careers behind the needs of others. Don’t be mistaken. I am not a fan of cowboys who rush headlong into danger with little forethought. They often make situations only worse, and I understand why they frighten corporate and governmental leaders. But greatness does not come from people who shrink endlessly from any chance of failure. Nor does leadership flow from those who deny their followers all self-determination. True leaders earn the trust of their teams, by putting trust in those people. In places like Haiti, the American spirit is at its best when set free; when the “leaders” show their true judgment and greatness, by unleashing the people who have come to help…to do just that. Hope you can encourage them, as the struggles down south continue. And of course, Go Saints! Regards, Tom Foreman, CNN

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jan 15, 2010 -> 02:53 PM) Pretty much. Honestly, in terms of scales, I think the Boxing Day Tsunami might have been the biggest disaster for generations. We were just lucky its effects were suffered in a spot of the world that wasn't as densely populated as others, or the death toll could have been multiples of what it was. I think that in the end, this one will be even more remembered than the Boxing Day Tsunami. Right now, they've already buried 40,000 (there's no exact numbers, they're not being documented by taking pictures of every body like they did in countries like Indonesia and Sri Lanka) or so and there's another 100,000 or more just in P au Prince alone. The part of the story that hasn't emerged is the many thousands who were killed in the smaller cities outside of the capital (particularly to the south and west)....the 2nd biggest city (600-700K) west of P au Prince has barely reported anything at all, and roads are completely cut off or destroyed/non-functional. Because Haiti is the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere, and the existing infrasture has been more or less decimated, it's going to end up as a bigger story simply because of the proximity to the US, the historical relationship with America, the fact that it was the capital city with a population of 1.2 million or so, the pressure on Obama and the American relief efforts to surpass the Katrina response, everything is converging in a perfect storm, ala the Tiger Woods story that just dominated the news for almost 3 weeks in a row. There are too many emerging storylines for this story to go away. It's not like Kashmir, where 80,000 died in an earthquake this decade and nobody remembers it. Not to mention the 4 million Haitians living outside the country, mostly in Florida and NYC, celebrities like Wyclef Jean, etc. The ONLY good to come out of this is being able to finally start from scratch building an infrastructure, schools/educational system, hospitals, tourism industry, government buildings that will be completely modernized and hopefully go 50% of the way towards removing Haiti from the cyclical path of poverty it has been on for centuries. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100116/ap_on_...ne_man_hospital Nice story about a Haitian doctor treating hundreds of victims in his own home.

"The whole season rides on the pen, assuming the other high risk (Peavy, Rios, Pierre) moves all pan out, and betting on a pig and a Putz is as high risk as it gets." Beaver I like that quote. Seriously, Jenks needs to get in better shape if that's actually what is causing his back problems AND loss of velocity. If there's another reason (besides weight) causing the back and hip problems (congenital defect, etc.) I would be happy to hear about it.

The trading Jenks "shelf life" has come and gone... Now we're going to be asking another team to be paying more for Jenks than Jose Valverde AND give up talent in return. Until Jenks proves he can throw 96-98 in spring training, he stays put. And for those who follow Bobby in ST, he NEVER throws hard early.

QUOTE (Vance Law @ Jan 15, 2010 -> 12:55 PM) All of this Kotsay/Andruw Jones talk. People, please! Think about what you are saying. Even if you like to complain about Kenny Williams because you are a person who like to complain about things and/or you don't fully understand baseball, you've got to give him the benefit of the doubt about being a smart person who at least kinda sorta knows what he is doing. He knows he has an opening at DH. He can sign absolutely any baseball player and fit him into the scheme. Sign another outfielder and you can have outfielders rotate around, dh, and still start every game. He can pick up any player and all he has to care about is their offense. And you think he came to the conclusion that his best bet is to sign Mark Kotsay and Andruw Jones to share a full season of at bats? Sign Andruw Jones- an increasingly brutal hitter who still has some power- immediately assure Sox fans that he is merely a 4th outfielder only to have him platoon at dh? Sign Mark Kotsay when for a little money more he could get the far superior Aubrey Huff to do the exact same thing and be a legit full-time dh? And please, tell me, where you think Thome is going to sign? Couldn't we have made the same argument that KW wouldn't/couldn't possibly go into 2009 with Anderson/Owens/DeWayne Wise as the de facto CFers and Josh Fields at 3B? SOMEHOW, Detroit found a way to free up $14 million for Valverde when they've blown tens of millions on Bonderman, Sheffield, Renteria, Robertson, Dontrelle Willis, Carlos Guillen and Magglio Ordonez (more for 2009 and being stuck with him for '10, too). We've had a grand total of 3 bad contracts in that same time frame, but NOTHING close the $71 million the Tigers wasted on the 2009 season. Those bad contracts were Contreras, Linebrink (surely we wouldn't have gone to the playoffs without him in '08) and MacDougal...although some will want to count Konerko and Rios (already). I sure hope KW isn't using the acquisition of Rios as an excuse already for financially hamstringing the organization.

QUOTE (Quinarvy @ Jan 15, 2010 -> 05:46 AM) Didn't Anderson always want to go out and party when guys went home to there wives? I think there were a couple of incidents with Anderson and the "late night honeys" that didn't sit well with Ozzie Guillen...having to do with him going out after White Sox losses or poor personal performances in 2006. He was one of the younger players on the team, and one of the few single guys, so I think he kind of got stereotyped as a partier. How much of it was actually the truth and how much rumor, Ozzie pretty much gave up on him after that season, for all intents and purposes.

''But I do know this: When you walk in the doors of our clubhouse, you're free to be yourself and free to go out and do the things you're capable of. Be ready for the answers you get. You might not love them, but you will know where you are going. That's why guys have had career years here. I'd like to think we somewhat liberate them. The player has to do it, but what we do control is a positive work environment.'' Don Cooper I think that's the most interesting insight in the article about WHY the White Sox have been successful (mostly) this decade. For some reason, the first names that came to mind to my mind were Borchard, Fields and Brian Anderson. It has been pretty rare that someone failed miserably with the Sox and then lit it up for another playoff contender. We've had players excel at times for lesser teams (like Kip Wells with the Pirates) or Aardsma/Masset/MacDougal this season, but Aaron Rowand is one of the few position players to do well outside USCF.

QUOTE (qwerty @ Jan 14, 2010 -> 09:24 PM) The post that bob dylan had should go down as the number one post in soxtalk history, it was pure genius, if you know what i mean, kyyle. I would actually like to read it again sometime. Well, I'm filled with a feeling of elation that someone parodying my writing style would reach the #1 highlight of soxtalk history. Oops, I've now been notified by Google China monitors that I just went over the 100 word attention span they proposed for all White Sox messageboards.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Jan 14, 2010 -> 06:46 PM) Destroyed. They save money for the new bar and restaurant they don't have to pay for. Personally, I think it's sad that many now accept the company line that we should always have to wait until mid-year to make season-saving adjustments. In 2006, Konerko/Thome/Dye said everything's okay, we don't need to make any changes. In 2009 and now, from all appearances, 2010, we're going into the season with OBVIOUS holes on the roster that could very easily lead to us getting buried in the first half of the year. In this case, it's the DH and relief pitching. Last year, it was Corky Miller, Josh Fields, Brent Lillibridge, Jerry Owens, DeWayne Wise, Brian Anderson, Jayson Nix, Chris Getz, Wilson Betemit, Williams, etc. Basically, 25% of our team would have been lucky to start for the Royals. I really have no clue how KW thought that was a GOOD idea to start the season in that fashion. Banking on Minnesota struggling in their new ballpark and not running away with the division, and knowing that the Tigers, Indians and Royals are in disarray, that doesn't sound like the best plan for this year. We have a two-year window, possibly just this year...KW has to get it done. I'm tired of this crap about Ozzie wants a rotating DH so we're not going to spend the money argument (enough believe it that it won the recent poll, the Kotsay/Jones option) and KW will give Ozzie what he wants. You can come up with about 30-50 better possibilities for DH that will create more of an offensive output than Jones and Kotsay will. What's really sad is that we have 80-85% of a possibly great team (because of the rotation) but we're going to end up with DH OPS numbers in the bottom 3 in the AL, playing at USCF. The same thing happened last year at 3B/2B and CF. Ozzie has never said he doesn't want players or hitters, all he asked for was versatility. It's KW's job to find someone that fits the bill. It's all too predictable coming into this season again, where things will go wrong. Even elementary students can see the problem. Just once, I'd like to see KW trying to put together a team chemistry that can coalesce immediately in April instead of tinkering constantly and risking what happened last year, when we had all the talent in the world at mid-season but zero team chemistry. The roster has been in flux ever since 2006. You can't expect to keep dumping and adding around the core without having some affect on the overall team identity and "togetherness."

QUOTE (iamshack @ Jan 14, 2010 -> 06:55 PM) I always think of luge lessons in Rangoon... Nobody calls it Rangoon anymore, it's Yangon. But I'm glad we're back to the practice of poking fun at posters but not making any substantive comments about a post. Fine, sorry, I've lived in Asia for 2 1/2 of the last 3 years. Really, your reaction is perfectly appropriate...because most people in the Midwest are blissfully unaware of the economic tsunami headed their way. Maybe it's better for you that way, I don't know. I would LOVE to make a comparison to the real estate boom in the US, but there's not exactly one to speak of at the moment.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Jan 14, 2010 -> 03:55 PM) This is only as stupid as the other side. You can't dismiss stats and what they tell you, nor can you say stats tell you everything. You saying people "pretend" to know because they use stats, is just as narrow minded as what you are accusing them of. Its also a little insulting. I think BOTH situations are amazingly annoying, because if there's anything more aggravating than someone saying "I go with what I see," it's making analyses of players that not-too-rarely posters have never even see play once. For example, minor league players. Look at Derek Jeter's error totals from 1993 at Greensboro. Now he's not exactly a Gold Glove defender these days, but going by his minor league stats, you would have thought he never would have been a major league shortstop or Hall of Famer. You can't take two months of success for Jordan Danks or two months of "failure" by Dayan Viciedo statistically and write them off just based on statistical analysis from behind a keyboard. Especially with pitching...because scouts have a lot better idea about "repeatable" and stress-free deliveries and which ones will hold up over a career and which ones seem more doomed to failure and injury (see Wood, Kerry). That's why I always enjoy reading minor league reports by posters and writers who have actually seen the players play. Not only seeing them play, but watching them on a day-to-day basis. You'll still get many posters arguing that Valentin was a better shortstop than Royce Clayton, for example, because Jose's range and throwing arm made up for a tremendous amount of errors. But even KW got caught up in the error totals and media focus on that specific number and made a change that turned out to have negative overall consequences to the team. And some of the SABR/STAT "geeks" also tend to take a holier than thou attitude that they're right, they know they're right, and everyone else needs to see the light and stop hiding underneath that rock of ignorance that is the "old school" Grady Fuson/Moneyball tradition of going with your eyeballs...what you actually see in front of your eyes. And then part of it's generational warfare, the posters who've been around White Sox baseball for decades and could care less about OPS, VORP or fielding indexes, versus the Internet-era posters usually around age 18-34. So of course the best posters will draw from both...no mountain of statistics will convince anyone otherwise. Take a look at Tadahito Iguchi, one of the most important players to the White Sox this decade. Looking at him statistically, almost NOTHING stands out (although his stats, overall, are still 'better' than Chris Getz, for example)...but unless you watched those 05/06 teams on an everyday basis, you might come to the average he has an average player. Actually, he was the perfect player for our club and made a good team great at times. But no SABR report will ever come to that conclusion. Heck, a computer doesn't "feel" the terror that Pods put into opposing teams in the first half of 2005 and how that threat affected the tenor of many games from the get-go. That's why when I read about having a Swisher or Youkilis leading off, I recall the days of Tim Raines, Willie Wilson, Rickey Henderson and Vince Coleman/Willie McGee, when speed would literally run another team off the field. Teams like the D-Rays and Angels are more modern examples of this approach, although it changed because of the steroids error.

QUOTE (rowand's rowdies @ Jan 14, 2010 -> 03:37 PM) thanks joeynach for explaining that. you're absolutely correct. not sure why that is such a suprise to people to hear, but it always is. Truth is as much as people talk about sports and think they know what's going on and how it works, they have no idea. Here's most people's idea of how it works: Billionare Owners - Salarys (Players on the 25 man only) + Ticket and Sponsorship Revenue (which is way over valued) + Food and Beverage and Parking --------------------------------------------- = Lots of money for the owners if your team sucks, people just assume that the owners arent making money and that they should throw more of their money at the problem to fix it. Among other things, people never take into account front office salaries (from GM to scout to ticket rep to guys who pull the tarp), minor league salaries, spring training costs, travel, insurance, commission for sales reps, taxes, utilities, stadium costs, and a million other things. Running a sports franchise and making money off of it is a VERY rare thing. Unless it's the NFL, you might have 10 teams in the other 3 leagues that turn a mentionable profit. There are things like salary and stadium depreciation and tax shielding, dont get me wrong. The owners still find ways to make it beneficial, but these myths about how baseball economics work have gotta stop... You're not mentioning the tremendous amount of franchise value appreciation (think the Shanghai/Hong Kong/Shenzhen real estate market) that has happened over the last 20 years or so. Buying and then selling shares of the Rangers was the best business decision former President Bush ever made. Then you have the revenue sharing making it profitable for the bottom 5-7 teams to stay in operation...in fact, for some of them, like the Pirates or Marlins, they've shown that they have no desire to improve as long as they can field teams with mostly league minimum salaries and shed most of their players in the arbitration years. What they really need to do is to put in a provision about teams in the bottom tier putting together "competitive" teams that are at least 76-86 or something like that so there would be an incentive for teams to at least try. I'm sure the only teams struggling are those like the Royals, Blue Jays, Astros, Orioles, Padres, Indians, etc., that... 1) are in the bottom 10-12 for local media rights 2) have middle-tier payrolls 3) have created a losing tradition for their fans, with no incentive for the fans to have hope after trading many stars away I'm sure the Top 10-12 teams in MLB are doing very very well. The other thing to take into consideration is the national/MLB media rights that have exploded over the last decade or so, since the McGwire/Sosa duel and the resurgence of the Yankees (coinciding with the rise of the stock market). Even if 1/2 the major league teams weren't making a profit, if you look at their losses versus franchise appreciation over the period of investment, they're still going to get a decent payoff in the end. Drayton McLane or the Moores/Padres immediately come to mind. Look at how much he paid for the Astros less than 20 years ago and how much they're worth now. Yes, NASCAR and the sagging economy have cut into the NBA and NHL to an extent, but there are surely more than 10 profitable franchises among those 60 or so teams as well. If there weren't, the salaries would be coming down in the NBA...or more teams would be going out of business or relocating, or the dreaded contraction would be heard. Look at the Blackhawks, they're tremendously successful now...after years of mismanagement. I would guess that at least half the NBA/NHL teams have to be profitable of the leagues would be going the way of women's professional soccer or the WNBA. When's the last time you heard the word contraction in connection with MLB? Not long ago, they were going to get rid of the Twins, remember that?

The latest report on Delgado was that the Mets had scouted him twice in PR and he was having a hard time moving at 1B...and that they wanted to continue to monitor the situation and look for some improvement. Toronto's interested in bringing him back as well, but they already have Lind and Overbay, so that doesn't seem to make as much sense as the Mets' best option at 1B right now might be Murphy.

I think the idea about Viciedo playing 1B is simply due to his size...he's not the most mobile guy in the world, I'd have to watch him playing LF or RF for 10 games to see if he's more limited than JD in terms of range. As far as the height thing goes, it would be nice to have a 1B with a strong arm, but it's not integral. Sure, you'd rather have the tall, rangy, LH type at that position, because even if he has the ability to leap in the air (vertical has to better than Paulie), usually those plays are beaten out by fast or average runners at the major league level. There's also the possibility they bring in another hitter like Tejada or Blalock for 3B and shift Teahen to the super-utility role where he could play 3B, 1B, RF, LF and DH some. Although that idea replicates the value of Kotsay, in that the only difference is Kotsay couldn't play 3B.

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news?slug=jp-h...o&type=lgns The funniest thing is that four of the five players they acquired (Pods, Anderson, Fields, Getz...to go along with Jason Kendall) are all former White Sox players. Argues they might threaten the all-time Mets' record from the 60's of being shut out 30 times or more this season.

Well, we all know Rios was atrocious in 2009. Perhaps there's no point in even revisiting that one...we just will have to wait until October 2010 and see where we stand with him. No doubt KW might re-think that move if given a chance to undo it, but too late for that. It was a big, but calculated risk on his part. No matter what you say about KW, he's never been averse to risk-taking, which is the only way a team like the White Sox can go far into the playoffs. Unfortunately, it seems like he tinkers too much trying to find the right combination. I don't know where to find the statistic, but the roster turnover in this organization the past five years has to be Top 5-7 in the majors if it was ranked from 2006 through the beginning of the 2010 season. The only players still around from that World Series team are AJ, Mark, Konerko and Jenks, and they all have short "shelf lifes" at the moment. Obviously things went downhill after Mark's no-hitter, that was the high water mark last season.

We haven't had a great record with unproven players or rookies being thrown into the heat of the fire of competitive ALCD races. As someone stated, when you're looking to "max out" at 825 or 850 OPS (if everything goes perfectly), that's not a very high ceiling for a 1B or DH. It's okay for a team like KC trying to find the pieces to the puzzle, but the White Sox can't afford to experiment like they did from April-June last season with so many different players and line-ups. Brian Anderson in 2006 comes to mind, if the team's struggling...too much focus from the media comes down on that player not carrying his weight, rookie or not. Now maybe the likes of Fields and Borchard were fatally flawed, but they also failed mightily when they were asked to produce in meaningful games. I'm not a Branyan fan at all, I had been hoping for Matsui or Guerrero. Damon would be fine, but, once again...the budget, the budget, the budget. Don't know if it would take $7 million to get him (one year deal) or if he would be happy DHing most of the time and not playing the outfield. But I guess we have no idea how Quentin will hold up. If he's physically capable, you get the feeling he'd be more productive offensively if he could play the field for 140+ games. Just depends on his health, but you can't have Pierre and Damon in the same outfield with their arms, no matter how good Rios in in CF. Miguel Tejada? I guess I would take Blalock or Tejada because I'm not 100% convinced of Teahen being an everyday player. He's had ONE really solid season, and flashes/glimpses at other times, but then bringing in another big RH bat leaves you really a bit exposed. Dye and Thome are possibilities still, although Thome seems the better fit from a salary standpoint AND the way things "feel," after what's been written and said so far this offseason. Guerrero going to TEX closes one more door for JD, though. You wonder what NL team would take a shot playing him everyday in RF...not more than 2-3, and probably not a true playoff contender.