caulfield12

Thanks...Chris (I guess Mr. seems to make everyone feel older, haha...maybe if you work in St. Louis someday, they'll call you that too, because everyone is so polite there) When I said Getz was a gym rat, I was thinking of it more in terms of a player who perhaps "overachieves" or who maybe doesn't light up the scouting scales with numbers off the chart in any of the five areas, but he's just a guy that "gets it done" and usually does the little things to help the team win. Sometimes the words like "heady" and "grinder" get overused as well, especially when used to refer to white players (in the NBA or college basketball)...obviously Beckham and Getz are both talented (hitting a baseball is the hardest thing to do in any major sport, arguably...look at all the trouble Michael Jordan had in Birmingham), but they certainly weren't considered as talented coming out of high school as uber-athetes like Joe Borchard, Brian Anderson, Jeremy Hermida or JD Drew. Getz was kind of lighning rod last year around here, and so was Nix. Both had their defenders and opponents. Getz was streaky, had some injury problems that caused a few to be concerned about his durability, played average or below average defense, but he came up through our system (a rarity that a position prospect makes an impact, since Rowand/Crede), had proven himself at every level of the minors, had the POTENTIAL to be a high OBP guy from the bottom of the order or possibly a #2 hitter, very good stolen base percentage, etc. Without stating the specifics, perhaps there were some concerns on the part of KW and Ozzie about him as a starter...obviously that must have been the case, because they certainly have to believe they'll now receive "plus" offensive numbers from that position with Beckham there, and at least above-average defense, considering Beckham is a converted SS. With Getz, there was always a question if he could put up a league-average OPS for a 2B or have a high enough OBP (.340?) to make up for his lack of power. He also seemed to have a hard time adjusting to getting busted in on the hands constantly by opposing pitchers.

Speaking of bad 1/4 seasons, Alex Rios anyone? I know he's younger and should be peaking now, compared to Huff...well, let's just hope the clean slate in 2010 will work wonders with him.

Quarantine was one of the worst movies I've ever seen... I would rather watch the bleakly depressing but very strong "Lilya 4-Ever" 10 times than sit through Quarantine again. Sherlock Holmes was "okay," nothing I will remember next week or want to watch again anytime soon. Rachel McAdams was kind of superfluous in her role as well, although she always makes things more interesting when she's on-screen. Although I am sure they will make a sequel, I would prefer a "pre-quel" more along the lines of Batman or Ironman to establish the Sherlock Holmes character for a new moviegoing audience not familiar with the stories.

I think Eli Marrero might be a better option that Christian Marrero.

I think KW and 95% of MLB GM's would get a kick out of this thread. This isn't Doyle Alexander for Smoltz or Bagwell for Larry Andersen, Carter had legit power potential, so did Brandon Allen, but that didn't stop KW from parting with them. Heck, Chris Young had power AND speed potential at a premium position on the diamond. As history has shown, 1B/DH types are a dime a dozen, I just started a thread about DH possibilities and there are roughly 25-30 names alreadly mentioned that, once again 95% of GM's would take as their DH option over Cris Carter heading into 2010 if they were trying to compete for a division title. Once again, there's no patience in this market for development, you either swim (Beckham, eventually Crede and Rowan) or you sink (see Borchard, Joe and Fields, Josh and pretty much every pitching prospect over the last decade since Buehrle, unless you want to count Brandon McCarthy in 2005). The odds of Carter being a Howard/Pujols type of player are 1-2% While the odds of CQ repeating as a Top 5 MVP candidate aren't looking great right now, they're still significantly higher than Carter being a once in a generation hitter, like Frank Thomas, Baines, Ventura or Beckham. Heck, I would take Ordonez/Lee numbers out of Quentin, I think everyone would "settle" for that after the highs and lows of the last two years.

I think we can all pretty much agree that Dunn's out of the question unless we do something with Konerko/Linebrink/Jenks. Choo's one of the the best players on the Indians (after Sizemore), very good all-around athlete, young/affordable and they're not sold on Crowe yet 100%...and they've traded away Fr. Gutierrez and Ben Francisco in the last 12 months, they're not going to hand him over to us (especially a division rival) for any less than Hudson and Jordan Danks. DeJesus MIGHT just be to the point where Dayton Moore's ready to trade him, and there's obviously a willingness to trade with the White Sox, but again you have to shed salary (don't think they're willing to take Konerko/Linebrink/Jenks in return!!!) and talent at the same time. Does David DeJesus put our offense over the top? I don't think so...he's a complementary player IMO, a very good piece to have on a team, but I just don't think he's THAT good. For all of his speed, he's never put up great SB numbers, he's had quite a few injury problems and he's never been a power hitter. Does changing the OF to Pierre/Rios/DeJesus with Quentin as DH make us a better team? Yeah, probably. However, that's an outfield with the potential to wind up with only 20-25-30 homers at USCF too, heading into 2010. Losing Thome and Dye, you have to get some power from another source besides Andruw Jones or Tyler Flowers. It can't all come from Beckham and Quentin.

If I were KC, I would just play the youngsters and forget about recycling players like Mike Jacobs or Ryan Shealy. Actually, it wouldn't be the worst idea in the world to acquire and play Uggla at 1B (he could also play 2B and 3B occasionally)...but he's RH and would cost around $7 million, more or less what Bobby Jenks will make. You could also bring in Orlando Hudson, put him at 2B, Beckham back at 3B and Teahen as the 1B/DH/corner OF back-up (certainly not defensive replacement though). That would also give the team a lot more speed, veteran leadership and even better defense up the middle. If would also make Teahen a PT/bench/situational player instead of an everyday starter, and I'm not sure KW wants to do that after giving up Getz and Fields for him. The other option is Tejada at 3B/DH, alternating him with Teahen depending on the match-ups, with Teahen getting some time at 1B as well (although you hate to give up one of Kotsay's bonuses, that he can play that position so well). It will be interesting to see how far down the price goes for Tejada and Guerrero, as well as Hudson again. FWIW, if Fernando Rodney is only worth $11 million for two years, I think KW is going to have the fingers on the trigger with Jenks at $7 million plus.

Whoever gets Xavier Nady gets the best value of the offseason; 5. Are the Pirates still in the league? Updates on nine 1. Troy Glaus, 1B, Braves - A low-risk, high-reward signing, Glaus has tremendous power (five 30-homer seasons - two of 40 - and four 100-RBI seasons), and if he is healthy after back and shoulder injuries diminished his career the past few years, he could be a monster. Glaus is agile enough to be a decent first baseman and a heck of a target for his infielders. The one negative trend for the Braves is the lack of commitment to payroll that the owners are making. They had to pass on their own free agents Mike Gonzalez and Rafael Soriano for cheaper versions in Billy Wagner and Takashi Saito. And they traded a good pitcher (Vazquez) for Melky Cabrera. 2. Kerry Wood, RHP, Indians - The Indians would love to move his $10 million salary and $11 million option for 2011, but with a glut of reliever/closer types out there, there has been no cry for Wood, who still can bring it. Wood might be enticing to the Red Sox if they decide to expand their budget. 3. Fausto Carmona, RHP, Indians - The Tribe would say he’s not available, but baseball executives don’t buy it. Carmona has been an enigma at times, but as one longtime National League talent evaluator said, “He’s got one of the best three sinkers in the game.’’ Not a front-end starter, but if a team needs a middle-to-back-end guy, the rebuilding Indians would have to listen. 4. Dan Uggla, 2B, Marlins - There’s no doubt the Marlins are planning another payroll dump, and Uggla would appear to be at the center of it. There was a lot of early talk about him going to the Giants, but that seems to have quieted down. Some scouts believe Uggla is best suited for the American League as a DH or someone you can move around, like a Mark DeRosa. The Marlins, who receive a ton in revenue-sharing and central-fund money, are looking to keep their profit margin high. 5. Jon Garland, RHP, free agent - A market is beginning to develop, and Texas appears to be the early leader. Another mid-to-back-end rotation guy that is probably better off in the NL, but that doesn’t mean an AL team won’t take the plunge if the price is reasonable. 6. Orlando Hudson, 2B, free agent - Seems he was the hot name for a long time, but that has quieted. The Mets remain the most interested, but until they are able to move Luis Castillo - a big if - the Mets may only be able to dream about a Jose Reyes-Hudson DP combo. 7. Vladimir Guerrero, DH, free agent - His choices are limited by what are seen as diminished skills in the outfield. Suffice to say he will be somewhere. Now that the Rangers have pulled out of the Mike Lowell deal, Guerrero could be a candidate for them. However, Jermaine Dye might interest Texas more (and maybe the Mets), considering he still can play the outfield. 8. Russell Branyan, 1B, free agent - An interesting bat to consider. Seattle may re-sign him if it’s for one year, but Branyan wants to cash in on his career year. So far, it’s not happening. He’s out there with guys like Jack Cust, Adam LaRoche, Aubrey Huff, Carlos Delgado, Jim Thome, and Hank Blalock. So the competition is fierce. 9. Miguel Tejada, 3B/SS, free agent - Still a very good bat who would be more valuable at third base. He may have the Mitchell Report stigma, but he loves to play the game and is a great teammate. Tejada could be a good fit for the Twins, who are trying to come up with a third baseman. He remains a good fit for the Rangers in a modified Lowell role (DH, 3B, and fill-in SS). He would have been a decent fit for Boston had Lowell gone in a deal. from boston.com WHITE SOX DH POSSIBILITIES 1) Andruw Jones/Kotsay platoon 2) Xavier Nady 3) Dan Uggla 4) Orlando Hudson 5) Vlad the Impaler 6) Russell Branyan 7) Jack Cust 8) Adam LaRoche 9) Aubrey Huff 10) Carlos Farmer in the Delgado 11) Jim Thome 12) Hank Blalock 13) Jeremy Hermida 14) Eric Hinske 15) Miggy Tejada I'm voting for Hermida, if KW can pry him loose and the Red Sox get off to a slow start and can't afford to play him if he's struggling.

Jon Rauch was one of the Top 5-10 prospects in the game until his labrum injury. Jon Garland was somewhere around 20-40, too. Before the 2000 season, Kip Wells was expected to be the ace of that staff for at least five years. Wright, Ginter and Myette were all Top 100 prospects. Barcelo was there briefly, too. Arguably, Buehrle and Fogg were the least likely to become anchors of any rotation, heading into 2000. I don't think anyone could compare the likes of Hudson, Holmberg, Hynick and Torres with that group. And none of those pitchers ended up having a huge impact in Chicago, only Buehrle and Garland, unless you want to count Danny Wright as being "huge" in any way besides being more disappointing than Jason Bere, who was awesome until injuries knocked him out. So that's why I never have gotten excited about a "Sox pitching pipeline" or Braves' like dynasty again, I've seen it completely fall apart in a hurry countless times.

In 2000, we could have said we were set for 10 years with Kip Wells, Parque, Mike Sirotka, James Baldwin, Jon Rauch, Jon Garland, Josh Fogg, Aaron Myette, Mark Buehrle, Lorenzo Barcelo, Danny Wright, Matt Ginter, Kevin Beirne, etc. Things change in a heartbeat with pitching prospects...actually, we're still not very deep at all in this area, and the chances we sign Maya are 10-15% at best. To project Holmberg into a future rotation is just a bit more relevant now than projecting Jordan Danks or Mitchell as our 2011/2012 starting CFer. Remember last year at this time? Names being speculated about were Clayton Richard/Aaron Poreda (C.R.A.P.) and Jeff Marquez...only one of those guys came close to making an impact on the starting rotation.

Or he simply realized with Hudson and Flowers in 2011 and going forward, that gives him a lot more payroll flexibility. Considering Hudson, Viciedo, Flowers, Beckham and Ramirez will all be making relatively TINY salaries still, it makes for a very good situation if you're a GM (of course, I'm assuming three very big if's/maybe's about three of those players panning out). It seems that Jordan Danks and/or John Shelby III (a favorite of scenario's) would be the first to go with the way things are set up for now, and with Mitchell looking to be a late 2011 or 2012 arrival.

Mr. Rongey, Can you give us a little more "behind-the-scenes" on Mike Gellinger and his role with the club. If there's anyone who seems like they would be into this "stats world" in the White Sox organization, it might be him. On the other hand, if you look at players like Iguchi (video-scouted but never actually seen in-person by KW), Ramirez, Viciedo, etc., it still seems the White Sox are more traditionalist in their approach to scouting. I would call them Moneyballers in quite a different regard, they find undervalued players with potential/ability and/or injury concerns (Jenks, Thornton, Dye, Rios, Quentin, Ramirez, etc.) and maximize their talent/performance output. This "buy cheap" philosophy goes back to the 80's and 90's when seemingly every year we found corner outfielders (like Ellis Burks, Mike Devereaux, Dave Martinez, Cory Snyder, Ivan Bubbling Calderon, Lyle Mouton, Shawn Lil Abner, etc.) in the same way. I think Beckham and Chris Getz would be the two players who would be "gym-rats" if they were basketball players...contrasting with some of the higher round draft choices the White Sox made over the last decade, where they alternated between "projectable" athletes and "MLB-ready" pitchers like Ginter, Wright, Royce Ring, Broadway, McCulloch, etc. Whatever has been said about Beckham's physical limitations (speed/range/throwing arm), the guy is just a baseball player, hopefully with a career-track similar to another one we grew up with in Robin Ventura. On a scale or spectrum of 1-100 (with 90-100 being teams like the Red Sox and A's that use a blurrying amount of statistics to analyze players), how much do KW/Hahn rely on this for their analysis of both players for the draft and potential trade/FA acquisitions? If you look at this offseason, you have the typical KW "special" in Putz and then it seems you have Vizquel, Jones, Kotsay and Pierre who feel more like "Ozzie picks" than KW ones. Well, I'll amend that, Jones and Kotsay feel like players that KW and Ozzie both wanted over time, whereas Vizquel and Pierre will be more like "Joey Coras" both on and off the field for the organization, serving as teachers/mentors/role models for everyone about how to approach the game.

QUOTE (knightni @ Dec 28, 2009 -> 01:14 AM) McCourt and the Dodgers should sue Park for failure to compete. Andruw Jones and Juan Pierre wouldn't be too far behind, maybe along with Darren Dreifort and Kevin Brown.

http://mlbsecrets.com/baseball/salary/Kreuter/Chad/kreutch01 What's most interesting about this case is that here's your average MLB "journeyman" catcher who played 16+ seasons and made over $8 million dollars in his career, yet even that apparently wasn't enough. It would be interesting to see where things went awry, as it would be instructive to former and especially future players to understand more about investments and finding the right accountants/agents to manage their finances...or perhaps this was just a case of getting caught up in the real estate market like the rest of America around 2000-2008?

QUOTE (bmags @ Dec 26, 2009 -> 08:54 AM) Chris if you could tell me how Dye, Podsednik and Quentin were not a bad defensive outfield trio, I'll concede the point. I don't know if it's possible to really quantify what did the most damage....certainly, if you deconstructed all the earned runs, you'd find 75-80% of them were caused by the infield errors, both physical and mental ones that didn't show up in the box scores, or double plays that often weren't completed as well. We could probably point out at least 10 significant areas of weakness in last year's team, and you could have legit arguments about which areas were most debilitating overall. I don't think it's a coincidence that one of our better defensive years ever (2005) was the year we won it all...and it's not a coincidence that the Twins teams that have been the most dangerous this decade were the ones that played superior defense as well (actually, it's interesting they traded Gomez because he was certainly their best overall defender, but they must have reached the conclusion he wasn't as valuable on grass going forward as on that carpet). Dye has always been a myth defensively, he has horrible set-up mechanics on throws (usually throwing flat-footed or from his heels going backwards instead of charging into the ball like you're taught from Little League on) and very rarely threw out anyone while with the White Sox. His height allowed him to snag some balls that would have gone over the fence, but he was barely adequate out there the last 2-3 seasons. He probably had the worst range of any RF in the majors as well, I'm hard-pressed to think of someone any more limited in this area. How many balls have we seen drop down the line or over 1B or into foul territory that would have been caught by a "normal" MLB RFer? That said, there's no argument he earned his money until the final two months of 2009 and that he was perhaps the best "value" sign ever by KW (after the frigid start in 2005). Pods was better than in the past, Quentin was obviously much more limited physically...overall, it was close to a disaster everywhere on the field except for 1B. Even the highly-touted Nix was never GREAT at 2B, and he was barely adequate at SS and 3B. Except for Teahen, at least going into this year they have the potential to be league-average or better at every position except for 3B and C, and AJ brings so much to the table, it's not reflected in CS/SBA numbers, not to mention our history of pitchers like Contreras, Floyd, Jenks and Garcia that let opposing baserunners run at will on them.

QUOTE (Ozzie Ball @ Dec 26, 2009 -> 04:08 AM) But at the same time just because someone is paid to put a team together doesn't mean that his opinion is superior to the opinion of the well informed fan. As has been previously mentioned, there are many terrible GM's. Is it just a coincidence that teams are leaning towards sabermetrics more and more? I don't think so. People are starting to look at the Oakland A's and Billy Beane as an example of why sabermetrics don't work, but these people are failing to see the whole picture. The A's were able to put great teams together on a small budget because their methods of evaluation were different to everyone else, they were able to sign the underrated, unappreciated player on the cheap who in turn gave them great value. Now, however, these players are no longer underrated (or at least not to the previous extent), now you have Boston and New York swooping in and snapping these players up. That is why the A's haven't been as competitive of late, it's not because sabermetrics don't work, but rather, because the rest of the field has caught up. Hmmm....always thought it was 75% Hudson, Zito and Mulder. Well, there's some other interesting things that the A's did that other teams have tried to model....like going pretty cheap on closers, changing them quite frequently and trying to get value back in trade whenever possible (Koch, Street, Dotel, etc.) Everyone in baseball has pretty much caught on to the Dan Johnson/Scott Hatteberg theory that you can pay corner outfielders, 1B and DH's significantly less money and still get a benefit investing your money elsewhere on the diamond, namely in the pitching staff, 3B (Chavez), SS (Tejada), CF and also catcher. The biggest problem was making a huge bet on Chavez....and over time, they had to let Giambi, Carlos Hernandez, Swisher, Tejada, Dye, Damon and Beltran, to name just a few, go. After awhile, the Braves' syndrome set in, where they had good enough pitching to get them to the playoffs but not quite enough offense to do any significant damage against the bigger budget teams that were more balanced.

QUOTE (ScottyDo @ Dec 22, 2009 -> 09:03 PM) With all these names being thrown around (LaRoche, Thome, Huff, Delgado, et al.) how can people be panicking? We'll end up with a bargain-basement DH but with legitimate power. I said it in the Delgado thread, but I think it merits repeating: anyone remember Carl Everett? Same thing. Not perfection, but I didn't cry myself to sleep at night either. It will be Winn or Hinske, just because KW wants to drive us crazy putting together a team with Vizquel, Winn and Pierre at USCF.

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Dec 23, 2009 -> 09:20 AM) I am hoping you are wrong, for good reason. He's "only" 32 and last year his salary was only $1.5 million. Former Rookie of the Year in 2002, I would rather have him than Kotsay as the DH. I never said it's ideal or perfect, but given our salary/payroll situation where it's at right now, I'm sure he's hovering somewhere on KW's Top 5 list of available options, largely based on the low salary we'd have to pay him for putting up a 775-850 OPS (not great, but okay) out of that spot. He did hit a homer every 12 at-bats as a Yankee last season...Delgado's not realistic from a salary standpoint. I see there's another thread about LaRoche, and I suppose that's possible, and so is Thome coming back, but I wouldn't discount Hinske too quickly.

I'm still betting the guy we end up with is Eric Hinske, for some reason.

QUOTE (ptatc @ Dec 23, 2009 -> 08:41 AM) The problem is that there is no proven program that is better than another. What hes saying sounds good and it's always better to be in shape but there's no guarantee that it will make him a better pitcher. Professionals can't even agree on the best mechanics. There is zero research showing that stronger muscles will be more effective in pitching. The only thing that is mostly agreed upon is that pitchers injure the rotator cuff the most so a stronger more pliable rotator cuff muscles should help to prevent injuries. However, this has ever been proven. Even with my research, we just try to do what makes sense and take as much stress off the arm as possible but it is far from absolute. Has any official research ever been done on our system and all the injuries pitchers experienced around 1999-2003??? Jason Stumm Danny Wright Jon Rauch Jim Parque Rocky Biddle Lorenzo Barcelo Kelly Wunsch Bobby Howry James Baldwin Mike Sirotka Corwin Malone Kris Honel (he was later) Kip Wells (health problems later) Brandon McCarthy (later) I'm sure I am leaving some names off, just off the top of my head... Was it a run of incredible bad luck, or something that could actually be looked at from a system-wide standpoint, etc.?

While we're at it, we should also bring back Aaron Rowand or Chris Young.

Well, let's just agree to think of Teahen as the new Jose Valentin on the basepaths then, although he's certainly not fast, perhaps he has what is called "baseball quickness" and instincts/anticipation. The strange thing is that I lived in Kansas City until 2005 and then 2006-2007 and have no strong recollection of Mark Teahen as a baserunner, so I'll just defer to what others have said.

You can make another argument that with our pitching staff set up the way it is, scoring runs in the first inning (like we did in 2005 and then 2006 a lot, holding many one or two run leads throughout the entire game) and getting the first lead of the game, those will both be critically important. (So another interesting question would be to study what's the best way to get someone with 30+ stolen bases home from first base with no outs, based on his stolen bases percentages being around 75-80%....steal....sacrifice or hit away). If you have Beckham batting 3rd and Pierre gets on-base, there SHOULD be numerous runs scored on Beckham doubles without Pierre having to steal 2nd base. That's another reason I prefer to have Ramirez batting second, although it might be Rios, too. If Quentin, Konerko, AJ and Teahen are "jamming" up the basepaths in the middle of the order, things won't be any different than in the past, we'll just have lower OPS/SLG totals compared to Dye and Thome. It would be nice to have CQ running at 100% too, because that makes a big difference in his value as a player, if he's able to go 100% around the basepaths. That's the irony of our line-up, that three of best possibilities for the 1-2 spots (Pierre/Ramirez/Rios) might be better served being at the bottom of the order...but I still think you have to bat Beckham 3rd, Quentin 4th and Konerko 5th and the DH/AJ/Teahen 6th.

I think the other problem here in Chicago is that they never envisioned Sweeney as the answer in CF, for whatever reason. And putting him on a corner outfield spot or even 1B didn't seem logical from a power standpoint, either. Playing in that stadium, he'll never put up great offensive numbers, but it seems he's one player the White Sox gave up on too quickly, and if we had his second half numbers in the first half of 2009 out in CF, we would have been in a much better position to compete in the 2nd half, although you could say the same thing about 5-10 players on our roster performing up to their usual standards. If you looked at our roster, would we put Gio over Daniel Hudson in the pecking order? Maybe, but I doubt it. I think most are higher on Hudson because he appears to the be the most durable of the two, although Gio didn't exactly break down as a starting pitcher like Brandon McCarthy, he just hasn't pitched well enough consistently. Just lots of flashes broken up by wildness. As far as DLS, when he puts up a dominating half-season in AA, then I'll start to take notice again.

QUOTE (Kenny Hates Prospects @ Dec 22, 2009 -> 10:05 AM) Yeah, a lot of us wanted Jackson but then some others thought he sucked and Sonnancrap was better (even though Jackson was still young, extremely talented, gaining experience, and his numbers were trending upwards, pointing towards a possible breakout). Speaking of moves we could have made in hindsight, imagine if we'd been able to land Jackson and Zobrist (who was only a bench player at that point) for Dye and Getz? If I had a time machine I'd probably use it only for baseball purposes. Agree, but Kenny only won that game of chicken because the FA market hadn't crashed yet. Agree that 2010 is supposed to be the start of the next era of truly meaningful Sox baseball (shooting for the WS). Disagree on the Rios deal being Kenny's riskiest move. I wanted this guy before and IMO this is going to be a brilliant acquisition. I mean, any long-term contract is risky (look at Dye with the A's for an example) but in terms of what Rios can be expected to give you, along with his age and the fact that his contract takes him into his prime and not beyond it, plus the salaries that even average all-around CF'ers get, I think he'll be at least worth his deal if nothing else. Kenny's riskiest moves IMO have been the ones like the Tony Pena trade, the Mike MacDougal trade, the Ritchie deal, etc. where he gave up prospects with higher ceilings than the players he was acquiring, and the players he was acquiring weren't exactly models of consistency either. He hasn't been burned yet, but those types of moves eventually will burn him (and any other GM) the same way the Cubs got burned by the Garland-for-Karchner deal. Moves like the first Javy deal, the first Freddy deal, the Thome deal, etc. are usually considered the riskiest, but IMO they aren't all that risky because you pretty much know you'll be winning that trade, and if one of your former prospects does break out, at least you got a proven star/borderline star in return. Agree, but more than anything I think the problem is that they sucked. The back of the rotation was a mess; the bullpen always had some s***ty, unreliable pitchers; the offense had nothing much at the top to begin the season, and nothing much at the bottom all year long; and the guys in the middle were not doing what guys in the middle need to be doing. Oh, and the team defense was atrocious, as was pretty much every other element of fundamental baseball. Had the Sox been a better team I think they would have clicked just fine. We'll always have some veteran leaders, and as far as I'm concerned, there's no better leadership than that by example, and there's no better example than solid play. And really, if AJ, Buehrle, and Peavy were the main veteran leaders of this club then I can't see that being anything but a good thing. Agree with all the rest too. How come you're not around here as much anymore, Caulfield? I was waiting for W. Taveras to be acquired, lol? Actually, have just been busy here at my university in Thailand and teaching ESL as my second job, also travelled to Taiwan. I guess the disappointing end to the 2009 baseball season....the Yankees again on top of the baseball world...needed spring training to get closer in the rear-view mirror b4 I got excited again. That and the fact that Univ. of Iowa basketball has become an embarassment, so I guess I have to talk about some sports now. But it sure feels strange to be running the air conditioning when my mom in Iowa is talking about a white Christmas. Well, at least I have seen Avatar two times...that's one accomplishment of the last week, haha.