caulfield12

Then how do you explain one of the most unathletic teams in Iowa beating Florida, LSU and now South Carolina? Iowa didn't have better athletes on the field in any of those games, did they? Sure, we've had a Shonn Greene here, a Dallas Clark or Bob Sanders there (the last two were two star recruits or not even on the "map" in terms of rating services)...but can you really say that it's impossible for Big 10 teams to defeat USC or teams from the SEC? Yes, Iowa was wiped out by USC in 2002 in the Orange Bowl, but USC and LSU beat Oklahoma when those Sooners teams were SUPPOSED to be the best team in the country, and OU had plenty of athletes as well. Georgia was predicted to be the preseason #1...they could beat any team in the country on any given day, especially at home. They could also lose to just about any SEC team this year, as proven. If you want to talk about conferences that have fallen off, look to the ACC and the Big East. Are they relevant to anyone anymore? Did anyone really expect Northwestern to beat Missouri? They played a good game...against a Missouri team that was fighting it out for the National Championship at the end of 2008 and heading into 2009. Minnesota didn't even deserve to be in a bowl game, look at their final game against Iowa (also for Wisconsin)...heck, you could say pretty much the same thing for South Carolina, and they certainly played like a team heading in the wrong direction today, while Iowa had all the momentum in the world on its side finally after some very close early season losses at Pitt, against Northwestern (they had that game put away until a fumble at the end of the first half let NU back into it)...and they were in the games until the final minutes at MSU and Illinois. That said, Iowa would have been the worst undefeated team in recent memory had they snuck into a BCS game somehow. Whenever Iowa fans get discouraged, Ferentz always figures out a way to resuscitate the program. He has done it twice now. It's easier to rebuild from scratch than to have a sustained level of success (three consecutive #8 finishes in the country from 02-04), lose it almost completely and then get back to a very high level again. You almost never seen a program under the same coach recover these days in those situations. With all that said, with the weakness of Michigan and the surge by Texas Tech and OSU this season, the Big 12 South and the SEC are the two dominant elements of college football, along with USC.

Only if he's coming back as a "fundamentals" instructor.

Cue the Roberts to Cubs speculation. Almost as annoying as the Konerko/Figgins annual storyline, Willy Taveras or Peavy to the Cubs talk.

Well, no matter what with Stewart, Miller, Cole Armstrong and then Flowers, our depth at that position is the best it has been in a decade. Not to mention the infamous Francisco Hernandez, if he's even still with the organization...and I Love Lucy.

DeRosa is going to be 34, his career OPS is .770 and he's going to the very competitive American League...I think his best offensive days are behind him. An upgrade from A. Cabrera and Josh Barfield? For sure, but he's also a pretty weak defender and that infield has all kinds of question marks to me with Peralta at 3B, Cabrera at SS, DeRosa at 2B and Hafner/Martinez/Garko at 1B. That might be the worst defensive infield in baseball today. With their pitching, it's a far cry from Alomar and Vizquel up the middle.

1) First, you trade Jose Ceda, our closer of the future who was "untouchable" in a Roberts deal last year, for Kevin Gregg, who led the NL in blown saves last year. He's going to battle Marmol now to be our closer? 2) Then you let Wood go, saying we don't have money while you try to trade for a pitcher we don't need (see below) and who was hurt for a time last year who makes much more than Wood wanted. You didn't even offer arbitration, costing us a draft pick. 3) You try to trade everyone we have left (including Josh Vitters, who is all we have left in the minors)for Jake Peavy who was hurt last year, makes a ton of money that we supposedly don't have to pay him, and who would give us (at that time) 7 starters. You offer up everything, including spinning DeRosa into the deal, even though you were dealing from advantage and should have been controlling the deal from day one. 4) You trade DeRosa for three worthless pitchers, who the media says aren't even going for Peavy anymore, to give Fontenot and Aaron Miles a chance to play. I like Fontenot, but he's no Mark DeRosa and by playing every day he takes one of our best weapons off the bench. You wanted to get rid of his $5 million salary? So you sign Aaron Miles to make half that for a total net savings of $2.5 million. Book the cruise.... 5) You sign Joey Gathright, who is the equivalent of if Tom Goodwin (during his Cubs days) and Felix Pie had a child. 6) You are on the verge of signing Milton Bradley, a DH, to play right field and who won't play more than 110 games next year and who you will be trying to dump his contract off (while paying a good amount of his salary) by the following offseason. You won't even discuss Adam Dunn, who would probably take a lower pay to play for the Cubs and who would give us power to replace DeRosa's, who you threw away to the Indians for nothing. So Mr. Hendry, unless you are going to pull a rabbit out of a hat now and actually improve this team, then on behalf of Cubs fans everywhere, we are very disappointed. My wife doesn't even want to go to the Cubs Convention anymore, and I don't blame her. from chicagotribune message boards....loved this rant, especially #5

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ Dec 31, 2008 -> 02:29 PM) I don't know why I said Score. I did hear Murph say Miles is a good defender and legitimate leadoff hitter. lol. What a dumbass. Well, I can't see Miles holding up over an entire year at 2B and leading off. He's not a stolen base threat, if he ever was one to begin with. There has to be more behind this move than just Bradley and minor leaguers, although seemingly their LH bat and leadoff problems are 50% solved theoretically. Although Fontenot will perhaps figure more into the equation now as well. I guess one can look at selling DeRosa "high" in the same light as the Sox potentially dealing Dye. And I guess this puts the Josh Barfield Era officially to an end in Cleveland.

Even more ironic is that he used to play for WVU, and Iowa and OSU both were destroyed by Huggins in the last month or so. Iowa's coming around and becoming more competitive on the road. I just don't know if Lickliter can get enough athleticism to win with his system in the Big 10, in terms of recruiting. I think he will fall a little short of Alford's hype as a recruiter, although the program will be better off from an overall standpoint, I just don't see him taking Iowa to the Elite 8 or Sweet 16 on a consistent basis. However, the fact that Iowa's really learning how to play much better D is a good sign, something that didn't really happen under the Golden Boy.

I don't think Guillen's calling out Vazquez or even Swisher had any effect on their trade value. Lots of NL teams (and GM's) still see (for whatever reason) Vazquez as a 1/2 caliber starter. That will always be the case. The other thing you have to take into consideration is he's not exactly cheap. Lowe's being offered $36 million for 3 years by the Red Sox. I'm pretty sure he will get a little bit more than that, but that's right in line with what Dempster and Vazquez make per season, although Javier's deal only goes for two more seasons. If the White Sox agreed to take on some of that salary (unlikely), then they would have received an even better returned, potentially the top 3 names we heard bandied about so often at that time. But, at least for the White Sox, he was nothing close to what Dempster and Lowe would be expected to be for their new teams, which is a 2-3 type.

It reminds me of all the angst over the supposed three player deal for Jon Garland with the Astros that blew up...people read the Internet, blogs, mlbtraderumors, and they're convinced their GM is an idiot because half of what is written there is nonsense. I mean Gilmore gets compared to Ryan Sweeney and is labelled a disappointment simply because he's from Iowa? What? I mean, give the kid a chance to develop, c'mon. I've seen some premature rushes to judgment, and I'm not saying this is going to work out like the Herschel Walker trade did in the end, but there's almost no point in saying who won and lost a trade until 3-5 years have elapsed. Even then, it's kind of tricky. You can make many arguments back and forth about Vazquez for Chris Young still today...about who won and lost that deal. It might look very different again in another year. Same thing with the Swisher trade/s and the development of Viciedo. Maybe if we don't trade Swisher, we can't sign Viciedo for that amount of money...there are many ripple/cause-and-effect what if's with any trade. Like the one that got us Cotts, who played a big part in leading us to the World Series, even though that trade looked like a disaster at the time. Or Olivo for Bradford. Because it netted us Garcia eventually.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Dec 31, 2008 -> 02:38 PM) I miss Ivan. Actually, if we trade Dye, we could use an Ivan-like player in 2009. In a strange way, so do I....and not just because he passed so quietly away either, barely a blip on the celebrity-obsessed radar screen. In fact, Calderon and Carlos Martinez were two of my favorite players of that era...I guess I still think of Calderon as a more talented, mercurial outfield version of Uribe...and I have fond memories of supporting the White Sox in Old Comiskey in the late 80's when you could almost have a guaranteed foul ball the number of fans in the stands was so pathetic. That's why the 1990 team will always be #1 in my heart, on par with the 2005 team. People forget what it was like to be a White Sox fan from the late 70's (with the exception of 1983) 'til the late 80's when Thomas, Ventura, McDowell, Fernandez, Bere, Alvarez, etc., all came together at almost the same time.

By the way, who was the brilliant GM who ever authorized giving L. Vizcaino $4 million per season? I mean, he was the BACK end of our bullpen, the garbage guy for a majority of 2005...although he had a very good run with the Brewers before those sliders wore down his fastball into the low 90's/upper 80's.

You forgot the Barack Obama factor in the attendance and merchandising, lol. Well, that's a pretty extensive/good list of reasons not to fret. This is not the late 1980's, and Ivan Calderon is not our best player anymore. Young kids growing up with the World Series title in the back of their minds will start to identify more with the Sox if their allegiance wasn't already formed a childbirth. All things considered, KW is going to be in a much more flexible position than he would be had he kept Cabrera, Swisher, Crede, Uribe, Griffey and Vazquez. With all of those players returning, would we be again favored to win the AL Central? I don't really think so. Obviously, there's so much love out there for Cabs, Crede, Uribe and Griffey that it might be until February before they find teams, and I wouldn't be surprised if they (some) didn't even received guaranteed major league contracts. We won last year with pitching, surprise offensive performances from Ramirez/Quentin and a lot of smoke and mirrors. Just think of the Cubs as another big Ponzi scheme (contracts for Soriano, Harden, Ramirez, Lee, Zambrano, Dempster, etc.) that will collapse/implode on itself at some point in the near future.

Would anyone pay Juan Uribe $4.9 million (the contract for Aaron Miles) to stick around for two more years as a sub? Interesting question. Obviously Uribe had more of an impact with the White Sox (especially 04-05-08) than Miles had with the Rockies, but they are fairly similar players at this point in their careers in terms of their value/s to other organizations. We haven't heard much of anything about Uribe landing somewhere else, and yet Miles, Punto and Felipe Lopez. Adam Everett even found a taker. Cabrera, Eckstein and Uribe are still out there though, among others.

QUOTE (Hatchetman @ Dec 31, 2008 -> 11:17 AM) going from top quartile to bottom half is dramatic to me, but hey, whatever. Was that 3rd to 9th overall MLB attendance or just the American League? No matter what happens, we have the minor league talent and payroll flexibility this year to make moves throughout the season to keep us in the race and competitive...unless we're just totally out of it like 2007.

QUOTE (kyyle23 @ Dec 31, 2008 -> 08:30 AM) He is a sinkerball pitcher, if he is right, he is perfect for that park. The thing about Marquis is that he usually starts really strong and then fades in August when he gets fatigued and starts leaving his sinker up. The Rockies have to have sinkerball pitchers to compete I wonder why they haven't looked at Garland, with that thought in mind? Probably still too expensive for their blood, with the Rockies trying to find bargains and even considering bringing back Josh Fogg. With D. Lowe getting offered (a starting point) $36 million for 3 years (Garland's salary, FWIW, last year was $12 million) instead of crazy numbers like $70-90 million over 5-6 years, the market's really falling in on those LF/DH types (Milton Bradley, Abreu, Burrell, Griffey, G. Anderson) as well as Lowe, Garland, Oliver Perez and Randy Wolf. Maybe Pettitte as well, if he's out there on the market and making himself available.

QUOTE (Hatchetman @ Dec 31, 2008 -> 10:46 AM) What are you talking about, "always come out ok?" This team drew a paltry 1.3 million in 98 and 99. the team failed to hit 2 million from 1994-2004. We're already off 500,000 since 2006. This phenomenon has been studied year after year in terms of World Series teams...usually the "benefit" of that championship wears off after only five years. We're now into the fourth season, although the 2008 playoff appearance will spike it back up a little...with the countervailing force of the economy pulling it back down. We also tacked into a headwind with the Cubs becoming the dominant story in town over the last couple of seasons...and yet we're still going very strong. There's never been a huge crossover...like KW had hoped, in terms of pulling even with the Cubs as Chicago's team. I'm not sure that winning another World Series in 2006 would have done the trick, although it would have been interesting to see the effects 10-20 years later with those teenage fans who grew up with a championship team staying "brand loyal." Yes, 500,000 is a lot, but there have been a few times in Old Comiskey (70's and 80's) they struggled to draw 1,000,000 fans for an entire season. Now it's only a 20-25% drop (only being relatively), but you have to expect to lose some of the "fair weather" ticket plans and also some of the walk-up generated by the promising start to that 2006 season, which lasted until August or so of that year when the team died on us. The White Sox have always been one of the teams more driven by a winning product than by the stadium experience, although that has certainly improved over the last five years as well....Brooks Boyer also deserves a lot of credit, although, as Bill Veeck would always say, the greatest promotion at the major league level is simply a winning team.

Sign Thomas and Uribe? What? Where would they play, exactly? You said that Dotel and Linebrink were good signings, and then that relief pitchers are "poison" and we should wait on the next Politte/Cotts? I'm not sure I understand.

Taveras' deal is worth $6.25MM over two years, according to our old friend Hal McCoy. WOW. That's more than we are paying Alexei Ramirez for four seasons. (And I say this keeping in mind how much we've been paying Uribe the last couple of seasons). Maybe KW was sniffing around at some point...but I'm sure he wasn't willing to pony up that kind of money. Interesting (VERY!) move by the Reds to shell out that kind of cash when they supposedly can't afford Jermaine Dye. If that was the option he was presented, even Jerry Owens looks attractive in comparison.

Pretty simple logic. The Cubs were looking to dump Marquis on just about anyone who would take him, and I'm assuming they will pay 60-65% of his salary...maybe even more. For Vizcaino, another change of scenery trade, they probably had to include SOMEONE instead of just basically giving him to the Rockies. I read somewhere where the Dodgers were willing to eat almost $20 million of Andruw Jones' contract for next season. I think that would be pretty tempting for KW, although Jones is still struggling in the early going down in the Dominican from what I've read. EDIT: I looked up the deal, and I can't believe the Cubs are getting away with murder again. Their payroll would go down by $5 million...and they would only have to pay $1 million on Marquis' salary after heading into the offseason expecting to contribute $5-6 million to get him off their hands. However, they do take a very questionable reliever's contract on in Vizcaino, who had almost as rough a year as Marquis and then had a DUI already this offseason.

http://blogs.chron.com/sportsjustice/archi...y_cap_tell.html Another article on the topic du jour...maybe the best one, but with a Houston focus specifically.

QUOTE (maggliopipe @ Dec 30, 2008 -> 10:43 AM) What gets me in articles like this is they focus on the fact that the Yankees haven't won a championship since 2000 and suggest that despite their super high payroll, the playing field is even because we've had a laundry list of other teams win it all since them. What their payroll buys them is hope from the first day of spring training and basically (with the exception of this past season) an automatic ticket to the postseason.. Pirates fans sure as hell know they have no chance of winning it all on Feb 9th. Ditto Royals fans and all the fans of other thrifty organizations. To suggest that their payroll gives them no advantage by pointing out they haven't won since 2000 is ridiculous. Well, I guess the point is that the Yankees were much better off as a team when they had complementary/role players and weren't comprised solely of superstars. Heck, you can say the same thing for the 2005 White Sox versus the 2006-2008 versions. Spending money guarantees a "chance" to compete but not success, certainly in terms of winning the World Series. Most experts aren't even ready to pick the Yankees over the Rays or Red Sox yet. More and more teams are studying the path which teams like the Twins, A's, Marlins and Rays have taken in terms of developing their own players. The fact is that even the Red Sox have only signed Drew and Dice-K to pretty huge FA deals. They spend generously on their own players, but more and more, they're looking to develop internally, and the results bear that out (despite trading Hanley Ramirez), with 2 championships to none for the Yankees since 2001. Or look at the Cowboys with 13 Pro Bowlers and a huge payroll missing the playoffs. It's all about chemistry, baby (that's for Al Davis). Terrell Owens even made a point to compare the Eagles' locker room and their own, and noted the huge difference in the two organizations, their coaches and their approaches to maximizing their players' potential.

Wells really came after Thomas for being a sissy and being injured (faking it) when it turned out that Thomas was legitimately hurt...I think that was the bone spur/foot/bursitis injury. Didn't he go on the local radio (he had a show for awhile) and make himself look like an A-S-? The option was also declined because it looked to be a huge risk coming off the mysterious back problems/injury and with his age and weight issues. They did received about $5.5 million back for the 2001 season in an insurance claim, but KW really didn't show much interest in bringing Wells back, even with "make good" contract terms. Sirotka wasn't known by most in baseball to be likely to be done with his career...I can't imagine Gord Ash was so foolish as to take a picture they thought was injured. Obviously, they didn't do their 'due diligence' in that case.

You have to give the Royals some credit in this area...the guy who wrote the article basically wrote them off as hopeless, and I don't think you can go that far. Probably the author doesn't know the many difference/s between Alard Baird and Dayton Moore...Gil Meche and Jose Guillen (agree or disagree with those moves all you like) are just a couple of signs this club is going into a more competitive direction, not to mention the alleged pursuit/s of Furcal (moving Aviles to 2B permanently) and their name being mentioned much more prominently than the White Sox this offseason. I'd say they are even more free-spending than the Twins even, at this point.

The irony here is that Pohlad and Lerner are two of the richest owners (worth between $3-4 billion) and they run their franchises like middle level managers afraid of losing their Sam's Club middle management golden parachute. David Glass, penurious as any, looks like a free spender compared to those two (although I'll give Lerner credit for okaying a go at Tex, something we might never see out of Pohlad...if it happens, it will be with the new stadium opening for 2010).