gatnom

QUOTE (bigruss22 @ Oct 1, 2011 -> 04:27 PM) Anybody ever have rumchata before? My dad and I were at the liquor store and it was onsale, so we were intrigued but for the price and the 27 proof, we decided to pass. I saw it advertised at a campus bar once though, so may have to try it later, because it does sound delish. It's basically rum + horchata, so it tastes a lot like the milk after you eat cinnamon toast crunch. It's pretty popular at the bar I work at, but I'm not a huge fan myself. You can make some decent drinks with it if you have a few other liquors on hand like kahlua, creme de cacao, caramel liqueur, etc.

QUOTE (Quinarvy @ Sep 19, 2011 -> 11:00 PM) The farm system is incredible and I give them all the credit for Ellsbury, Pedroia, Youkillis, Beckett, Lester but they don't have A-Gon on a normal payroll because they have numerous horrendous contracts. I mean, if we had possessed JD Drew, John Lackey, Mike Cameron, Jason Varitek, Marco Scutaro, Carl Crawford, and Bobby Jenks we would want to murder small woodland creatures. I bet they don't go after a lot of those guys if they have a "normal payroll." The fact that they have had a great farm system and a high payroll means they can afford to be wrong with their contracts, unlike the White Sox who only have one of those things. I think that them being successful despite their bad contracts lends more to them being well run than poorly run.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Sep 19, 2011 -> 01:39 AM) You can't exactly call it reloading, but we're much closer to that than any type of rebuilding why KW is still in charge. Maybe a new GM (Hahn) would be given the Marty34 directive, but, until that happens...it's a moot argument. One thing's for sure, it would take Ozzie Guillen another 3-4 years to be fired leading that youth movement into the ground...if his ego would even allow him to take a step back from the pretense of competitiveness in the AL Central and go with the Jerry Manuel late 90's program. All I'm really saying is that you don't need to be the Royals or Pirates or whatever team to rebuild your franchise. The main thing I'm advocating is that we should trade away our 2008 "core" since it's getting to the point where they need to be paid what they are worth, and we don't have a lot of money to throw around while we wait for our bad contracts to expire. Oh, and by the way, we could spend as much as the Pirates on the draft and still have a $90 million big league budget, assuming our "maximum" payroll is $100 million. Nothing is going to force JR and the owners to start pocketing an extra $30 million.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Sep 18, 2011 -> 09:37 PM) If you are selling Alexei, you aren't looking at 2013, you are looking at 2016. You really need to quit the rebuilding hyperbole.

Despite his irrational fears about the rotation, I don't think Marty is all that off in his desire to break apart the team, including Alexei. If whoever is GM after this season plans to reduce payroll to where it was or rebuild, he would absolutely have to look at trading Quentin, Danks, Floyd, Thornton, and Ramirez, and he would most likely have to trade at least 2-4 of them depending on who was traded and on what he decides to do with Buehrle. Depending on the market, you might be able to get the most return out of Ramirez. Trading Sergio right now, on the other hand, makes absolutely no sense because he is exactly the type of player we need right now to keep payroll low, even if he isn't exactly Mariano Rivera. The way I see it is that we are going into next season with holes, regardless of whether or not we decide to "rebuild." With most of our players getting raises, we are going to have to either raise payroll or cut ties with some to keep payroll down. I think the sooner we accept the fact that we need to rebuild at least somewhat, the better off we are. Trying to win again next year without increasing payroll is just delaying the inevitable.

I understand that power isn't the most important part of a lead off hitter, but the fact that you want to completely write it off and say it is worthless is absolutely absurd. You see no value at all in having a lead off hitter put himself directly on second base instead of having to risk stealing it or to require 2 hits to score? You also act as if the only statistic by which you can measure Pierre is by batting average. That is incredibly flawed not only by considering what I said above about power, but also by the fact that his job is to get on base pure and simple, which includes walking. No matter how you slice it, Juan was bad to mediocre this season. Cherry pick arbitrary dates to show that he hasn't sucked since a certain period of time all you want (and the fact that he hasn't gotten ribbed nearly as much since then reflects that), but you can't just throw out all he did poorly and say that it's an accurate representation of his season.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Sep 9, 2011 -> 02:41 PM) Well, if you look at the salaries and contracts, I really think 2012 gets carried along with 2011 in that sense. The only guy going to FA that would be costly to re-sign (and that we actually want) is M56. In 2013, you have Danks, Quentin, Peavy (option), Floyd (option), Frasor, AJP and Ohman coming off, as well as Viciedo and I think De Aza hitting arb. The 2012-2013 offseason is the big reckoning.=, contract-wise. You're assuming that they considered the way the season turned out to be a real possibility. I know if you told me what happened this season before it started I would have probably laughed in your face. All of our arbitration eligible players and excess bullpen arms are very trade-able, so that could easily cut a huge chunk out of our payroll should they decide to go that route.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Sep 6, 2011 -> 05:09 PM) I wasn't necessarily looking for specific player names... more, what positions are you trying to upgrade? Because your team as stated has a bunch of downgrades and no upgrades. Only way that works is if you think Lillibridge can do better overall than Alexei, and if you think the great majority of players will bounce back and improve next year. I think the reality of our situation is that you cannot go into next season without downgrading. It's just an incredibly difficult task to shave ~$25-30 million off a payroll (pending who we bring back) while still upgrading the roster with little impact talent ready in the minors. If we only have to shave a few million off while we wait for some contracts to come off the books, it'll probably still be difficult to tread water let alone to definitively upgrade the team. It's hard to say anything for sure without knowing how much the owners truly plan on cutting back payroll, but a very safe bet, in my opinion, is that we enter next season worse on paper than we leave this season.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Sep 1, 2011 -> 01:41 AM) The average Sox fan obviously isn't an internet message board user. Ozzie is not hated by most. Nobody has yet proven to me how a team can have a better record than we have with Peavy, Rios and Dunn. I know this is a waste of my time, but I'll bite. The problem is that with a manager who is so poor with in game managing, he stakes his entire reputation on things like "getting the most out of his players." Ozzie definitely hasn't done that in the cases of Peavy, Rios, and Dunn. It's not so much that I blame him for their failures; rather it's that if he can't get these guys motivated to turn around their seasons, what can he do? It's certainly not developing young players. It's certainly not making good moves in a game. It's certainly not filling out a line up card. What is it? Other than being a pompous ass, I see nothing that Ozzie Guillen is good at.

QUOTE (chw42 @ Aug 29, 2011 -> 11:59 PM) Wow, that sounds like a lot of fun. Meanwhile, I have... Fields and Waves (Physics class disguised as an electrical engineering class) C++ Data Structures Engineering Ethics Digital Systems Lab Statistics and Probability I have homework or work due every day except Monday, unless I have a Machine Problem for my Data Structures class. Does Cinda Hereen still teach this class?

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Aug 28, 2011 -> 01:53 PM) No, this is what you wrote: It's starting to get to that point where you can label him a bust, at least relative to his projections. Implying that he has not yet reached bust status and that he needs to start showing improvement relatively soon or else he can be labeled as such.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Aug 27, 2011 -> 11:20 AM) Only if you want to be an "I told you so" type of person, and brag to everyone you knew he would be a bust. Of course if he isn't you could always fall back on the I'm glad I was wrong, Go Sox line. He's obviously been a dissapointment, but he's still real young and we know he has it in him to be a really productive player. Whether it will come out is the question. I personally think it will, but the longer he goes without being really good for decent stretches, the longer the odds become. The bold part is pretty much what I said. You should probably read things more closely before painting me as something I'm not and attacking me for it.

QUOTE (maki @ Aug 27, 2011 -> 03:22 AM) no, it's not. Yes, it is.

I'm surprised to see all the believers in Beckham. It's starting to get to that point where you can label him a bust, at least relative to his projections. Personally, I think Dunn is most likely to rebound simply because of his track record. Rios seems least likely.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Aug 17, 2011 -> 10:46 AM) First, the Sox spending the least money is meaningless. Cut out the other teams' first round picks and then compare - then it actually tells you something. Second, as in articles I have seen, I agree the Sox draft looks pretty decent on first glance. The last few seasons the Sox have been improving in their drafting, in my view. And good to see they signed so many of their picks this year as well. Of course we won't really know how the draft was for another year or two. I think the thought is that they could have still spent that money on the draft.

I think it's worth mentioning that he's also been in a major league front office for 11 years now. It's not like he's never seen the sport before.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Aug 15, 2011 -> 11:34 PM) And these moves drove the Dunn/PK signings. So it could really hurt us...but it could pay off as well. I still haven't written off Dunn/Rios/Peavy as being reasonable producers over the next few years. I think the point is that the "hurt us" option is far more likely at this point than the "pay off" option. If I'm not mistaken, Peter Gammons tweeted a few weeks back that the White Sox stand to lose something like $7 million this season. JR and Co. aren't just going to sit around and lose money for two years in a row. So, assuming that we only pare back our payroll to the ~$100 million mark instead of more to compensate for this years lost revenues, we're going to have to lose at least 3-4 of Floyd/Danks/Quentin/Buehrle/Thornton; nobody is taking Dunn/Rios/Peavy. As I said in another thread, the team missing a few of those players is still definitely competitive in this division, barring unforeseen circumstances, but that's only if Dunn/Rios/Peavy not only rebound but rebound to their well above average potentials.

QUOTE (whitesoxfan101 @ Aug 15, 2011 -> 03:09 PM) The only way Sale isn't starting next year is if Buehrle and Danks are both back, and I see no way that happens. Honestly, the more I think about it the more it makes sense. Dump Danks, Floyd, and Quentin while shaving a few million off of Buehrle's new contract, and your roster is basically set with replacements from the minors with your payroll right about where you need it to be. EDIT: and realistically, that team can be just as competitive as this team is if not more so with bounce backs from Dunn and Rios

Might as well have him start since it will probably be a lost year anyways.

I spend one week in Chicago, and of course the one game I get tickets to is against Bruce Chen... Oh well, good to see another series win. Hopefully, they keep this whole winning thing up.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Aug 14, 2011 -> 02:06 PM) Only if you're comparing it to the White Sox of the last 5 years, where they've had basically the fewest innings out of their bullpen of any team in the majors. Buehrle is the only member of that rotation I think could get to 200 innings. Even if they aren't "destroyed" they certainly will be less effective over the long haul.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Aug 14, 2011 -> 12:54 PM) Well, he's at 145 or so right now...you figure they won't want to push him much more than 180-190. If you can get him to 175 or so, I figure he'd be fine to go as a full-time starter next year. I really will be interested to see what they do with Sale. A rotation of Sale/Humber/Peavy/Mark/Stewart could show you a lot of different looks over the course of a couple series. I guess I agree with Flavum, who advocated dealing Danks and Floyd in the offseason. We could restock our system with a few good arms to eventually replace Peavy and Mark down the road, and hopefully add a quality few position players into the system. Of course, you could always keep Floyd and leave Stewart in Charlotte and see what Peavy and Humber do and then if they prove healthy/effective, move Floyd at the deadline. destroy a bullpen.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Aug 14, 2011 -> 01:38 PM) They don't need some excuse to sell to the fans on why not to move Webb. The average fan, and even most hardcore fans are not going to know/care if they want to put Carimi at LT or RT before the season even starts. Lineman simply are scrutinized as closely as skill players. You can post all the numbers you want, but I'll take Tice's word on this. And Webb may eventually get moved, but at this point, you'd like to think Tice, who has a very good reputation as a O-line coach, knows what he is doing. It's funny how you keep hearing how amazing Tice is as an O-line coach, but the guy who looks the best on the line is the one who's only had him as a coach for two weeks. And, you can say that it's Angelo's fault for not bringing in good talent, but it feels to me like Tice truly believed that he could develop this group of guys and told Angelo he didn't need free agents. I just don't buy into Tice. Hopefully, I'm wrong. Don't get me wrong, though. I'm willing to give this line a preseason to "gel" before I actually start complaining about it.

QUOTE (NIUSox @ Aug 10, 2011 -> 10:34 PM) I can't stop watching RockRaines avatar. Kate Upton is amazing!

QUOTE (Rowand44 @ Aug 10, 2011 -> 12:32 AM) If we're looking at it in hindsight then sure, it was a mistake if we don't at least make the playoffs. But when you're "all in" to start the season, you want your best players up here and Sale being in the pen was the best move for the 2011 Chicago White Sox. I hate to Rongey you here, but we probably could have gotten away with having Sale starting in the minors until late August while he got his innings up.