oldsox

QUOTE (gatnom @ Sep 26, 2009 -> 08:53 PM) While Kenny didn't really "win" the second swisher trade, it was still a good move considering the circumstances. Swisher was not getting along with or listening to the coaches, and he was getting payed a good amount of money to do so. The real thing to criticize is trading for swisher in the first place; Swisher is just not a major league center fielder. Agreed. First Swisher trade was awful; Ryan Sweeney is a solid player who can play CF, and Gio will probably have a long career.

QUOTE (TitoMB345 @ Sep 24, 2009 -> 08:55 AM) Buehrle kind of exploded after his perfect game. I don't recall many (if any) dominating games since then. What the hell happened? exploded or imploded??

He was the PTBNL in the Royce Ring/R. Alomar deal.

Didn't want to start a new thread, so I'll throw it in here... Saw Poreda pitch last night vs the Rockies. He looked awful.

QUOTE (kitekrazy @ Sep 21, 2009 -> 11:05 PM) Of course if look at the other side of the coin. I guess there are no black Cub fans. When all else fails.........draw the race card. Why is it when the N-word is heard, it's assumed the some white person said it? Sounds like a reversed prejudice. Agreed. Bradley has been an angry guy for years. I don't hang out in the right field bleachers at Wrigley, so I don't know what is said or not said out there, but if I had a racist detector, it would probabaly be locked in on Bradley. And, using his three year old's experiences as an excuse is lame. Who makes racial taunts to a three year old? Other three year olds? Parents?

QUOTE (scenario @ Sep 20, 2009 -> 09:44 PM) Other organizations? Yankees and Rockies were the two farm systems ahead of the Sox in wins. I thought the Rockies would be up there. They have a bunch of good prospects.

Bartolo could not get anyone out in either league, plus he was out of shape from the beginning. I never understood his signing, would have preferred Pedro.

That would clear up a lot of space on the 40 man roster. Can't trade Mitchell and Phegley, BTW.

Pardon me for being an old guy too easily offended by new methods of separating money from baseball fans. I'm watching the Sox vs Mariners and Ichiro Suzuki comes up. He had recently experienced a great accomplishment -- nine consecutive years of 200 hits. He is a fabulous player. But when he comes up to bat they shamelessly advertise a miniature bat with an insignia on it that sells for a whopping $129. And it's a limited edition; only 5000 are available (supposedly). Those pieces of trash could not possibly cost more than $10-15 to produce. I presume the proceeds are split between MLB, the Mariners, and the player. Don't they make enough money, do they have to blatently rip off their constituency? How stupid do you have to be to buy this crap? It's another example of dumbing down our country, which includes sports fans. I know the Sox did the same thing after Buehrle's perfect game, and I just shook my head when I saw it advertised. Now the Mariners do the copy cat routine. I can only expect that from now on every single athletic accomplishment will be followed by a similar tasteless rip off. Now, I bet every one of us has bought a T shirt or something similar to celebrate something, whether it was a ball game or trip to the Bahamas, etc. But the overcharge was nominal and not shoved down our throats by a free ad during a ball game. Plus, you could wear it. Probably some folks here at SoxTalk purchased the Buehrle deal, and if I offended you, I apologize in advance. That is not my intention.

Clint Hurdle is available. Carney Langsford is well thought of.

Is Vargus for real?

He threw a shutout yesterday; Now 5-0. Does anybody know if Kenny tried to get Pedro, or was it a matter of choosing Bartolo over Pedro?

QUOTE (greg775 @ Sep 12, 2009 -> 02:34 PM) I still don't know what the big deal is about getting him one or two starts this season. With the way our season has gone, he'll probably screw up his arm. Why the urge to pitch him once or twice? I guess we're clinging to the hope we can sweep Detroit. Because it will be exciting to watch Peavy pitch, and it gives us some hope in the off season, assuming he pitches well.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Sep 12, 2009 -> 04:08 PM) So, let's say that Rios is traded for a Swisher-esque package. Doesn't that mean that KW acquired a guy for nothing, spent a little bit of money to give him a tryout, then moved him along and turned him in to a couple average prospects? In other words, he would have turned a couple million dollars in to additional system/bullpen depth. That's not the worst move I've ever heard. Balta, you are counting on the perpetuation of thr Greater Fool Theory.

Maybe Kenny was trying to improve out draft position. Just kidding. His acquisition of Rios is another example of the 'Greater Fool' theory in general managerhood. One GM (Toronto) offers him $60 MM for 5 years, making him a Fool. What, would Rios not have accepted if he were offered only $40 MM for 4 years? Was some other Fool forcing the price up, or was Toronto just outsmarted by the agent, which is often case? So the Toronto GM, Fool Number 1, wakes up one day to discover that he was a Fool, so he now needs another Fool to take him off the hook. He speed dials Kenny, and the rest is history. Unfortunately, the Fool Train stopped at Kenny's desk. No other GM is a big enough Fool to take Rios off his hands. The 'Greater Fool' theory was originally created and perfected by real estate syndicators. There is a similarity. Both play with funny money. Real estate syndicators used the public's money, and Kenny uses Jerry's money.

QUOTE (VAfan @ Jul 31, 2009 -> 01:27 PM) Why did KW trade Nick Swisher this offseason and go into the season with DeWayne Wise and Brian Anderson in CF? When Nick hit his tying HR last night, I sat there wondering about this move. The fact that Wise came through with a single to win the game doesn't change this calculus. Nick Swisher has produced 56.2 runs created this season in 371 plate appearances. DeWayne Wise has produced 7.1 runs created in 112 PAs. Brian Anderson produced 17.7 runs created 205 PAs. The difference is that Swisher has 27.4 more runs created. Since he has 54 more PAs, we'll discount the difference to 25 runs. If you plug that into the pythagorean expected win totals, you'll see that the Tigers are +31 runs, while we are at zero. So, had we kept Nick Swisher, we could easily be tied with the Tigers at this point -- or ahead of them if Swisher had helped us beat the Tigers even one time. Meanwhile, KW ends up trading for Mark Kotsay to fill the same kind of role Swisher fills, yet he's several years older and dramatically less productive. So unproductive offensively, in fact, that I'm not sure he's much better than Brian Anderson at this point. Swisher would have given us a major league player in CF from the start of the year. He could have kept that job when Scotty Pods came over because Quentin went down. And now he would still be a super-sub for Quentin, Pods, Dye, Konerko, and Thome, giving him plenty of ABs that will go instead to less productive hitters for the Sox. I realize KW and Ozzie wanted to dump Swisher after last season. But it was a dumb move without getting someone to replace his role. That one position has been the weakest on the team, and has certainly cost us games, and very possibly another division title. I think the better question is why did we trade FOR Swisher? We gave up a great prospect in Sweeney, who can play CF and hit. He's around .280 now and is bound to improve; plus a promising lefty in Gio.

The Rockies did it two years ago. They won their last 14-15 games or so, tied San Diego, beat Peavy in a one game playoff, went the the WS.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Sep 10, 2009 -> 03:04 PM) I do agree that part of it is probably mental. At least part, maybe most or all. It's half physical and 90% mental.

QUOTE (DukeNukeEm @ Sep 10, 2009 -> 01:06 AM) I refuse to speak ill of Dye after all he's done for this organization in his time here. He was a great player for us. Maybe we should start him in CF next year.

Arizona sent Chris Young to AAA in August, and he hit .370 in 13 games; still not hitting in NL, however.

QUOTE (CSF @ Sep 8, 2009 -> 09:05 PM) http://minors.mlblogs.com/archives/2009/09...s_thinking.html Picking in the top half is certainly nice, but with the season going south, I'd love to see them move up a few places. So, go Stros, Brew Crew, & Reds. Do you think Washington will be smart enough to stay away from Scott Boros's clients next June? Did this year's # One ever play?

QUOTE (son of a rude @ Sep 7, 2009 -> 08:35 PM) Do we have any idea how much we will need to pay him in arb? I thought it was a small enough amount where he wouldn't definitely accept it. 80% of current salary.

QUOTE (son of a rude @ Sep 7, 2009 -> 11:12 AM) matt holliday isnt making that much this year either. Holliday is at $20MM per yr or so.

Back injuries are tough, even with the best of medical care and rehab. Makes me really appreciate what Todd Helton accomplished this year.

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ Sep 2, 2009 -> 05:13 PM) Where's the Dexter Carter and Aaron Poreda performance threads? Oh that's right. That wouldn't serve the obvious purpose here. 1. Richard has been solid for the Padres since the trade; he had one bad start that skewed his stats. He is 4-1 for a last place team. 2. Carter is not a major leaguer; stats not relevant yet. 3. Don't have an obvious purpose. All I said was I think the Pads like the trade.