Jose Abreu

Last year, the Sox went 32-44 against the AL Central. In the offseason, an already-stacked division got even better. All five teams may contend for first place. While I am happy with the acquisitions of Frazier/Lawrie/catchers etc., I am still unusually pessimistic entering the season. The reason for this pessimism is our division. Detroit's power bats, Kansas City's all-around team, Minnesota's young hitters, and Cleveland's pitching are all very scary, especially considering that 47% of our season will be spent playing these teams. This leads me to ask, how will we fare against our division rivals in 2016? I fear that our intra-division record may be what stops us from making the playoffs.

Washington to sign Arroyo

QUOTE (SoxAce @ Jan 26, 2016 -> 11:03 AM) So apparently Blake Griffin got in a fight with an equipment staffer and broke his right hand as a result. http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/14651663...equipment-staff What a guy!

So is every free t-shirt day shirt going to have "Sponsored by the village of Bedford Park!" on it?

QUOTE (103 mph screwball @ Jan 26, 2016 -> 08:28 AM) It's possible they could be planning it as a SoxFest treat. They could have it all worked out to trade for CarGo and they have agreed to wait a few days to pull the trigger. Just because it doesn't happen before SoxFest, doesn't mean it won't happen. The closer it gets to spring training, some of these players like Desmond might be more receptive to a fair offer. Agents know the Sox missed out on the big 3 and will try to see if the Sox will get desperate. Stay cool RH. I feel like that would be foolish. There are many risks in doing that.

As others stated, the Mets are also clearly the best rotation in baseball. Harvey/DeGrom/Syndergaard/Matz/Colon or Niese... nobody else can come close to that.

Hawks sign Stan Bowman to 3-year extension

And yes, Snell was horrible. Missed wide-open 3 after missed wide-open 3 after missed wide-open 3. Despite McDermott's defense, you at least know that he can hit that shot.

The fact that we still don't really run Hoiberg's offense is pretty alarming.

I'd take our rotation over the Cubs' any day...

*Sees Caulfield, does a "Control + F" search for 'Royals' and finds nothing* I approve! In all seriousness, great post. India is an interesting market. There was the movie, Million Dollar Arm, (which caulfield mentioned) about those two pitchers who went to the Pirates from India. That probably got some people thinking about the market. It would be great to see the Sox/baseball expand to there.

Isn't that a sarcastic/joke-thing? I didn't take it as a serious insult

Here we go again

QUOTE (Chilihead90 @ Jan 25, 2016 -> 07:10 PM) He wasn't even a qualified pitcher in 2014. 25 starts is a good enough sample size for me. He did finish top-ten in Cy Young voting, too.

QUOTE (Alexeihyeess @ Jan 25, 2016 -> 06:17 PM) What is the actual population of Bedford Park? 580 (2013 data)

QUOTE (hi8is @ Jan 25, 2016 -> 01:17 PM) 6,000 posts. I just had to. You were the 6,000th post, and I was the first post of page 400. Cheers!

QUOTE (Chilihead90 @ Jan 25, 2016 -> 12:57 PM) You take that back, sir! Pablo Sandoval (-2.0) and Chris Owings (-1.4) had worse WARs than Avi's! And if we change it to only 400 PA required, Avi drops from 3rd down to 8th! (LaRoche pops up and goes in to 4th). Surprising, given his defense

Hey, it's unlocked!

QUOTE (Tony @ Jan 24, 2016 -> 11:55 PM) He could win it, I think his view as just an OK goalie is from fans that hate on the Hawks, not so much the media. BUT, Braden Holtby is playing out of his mind. Unless the Caps fall off, he'll win it. Plus with the MVP and ROTY coming from the Hawks, they'll probably want to spread the wealth. Hart/Calder/Vezina from the same team = MVP/ROY/Cy Young from the same team? Like a team triple crown that would be something!

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ Jan 24, 2016 -> 11:10 PM) Am I the only one who thinks Toronto could take Cleveland? I've watched a few of their games in the last week or so. These boys can play. They're legit 10-deep. They're athletic, versatile, and can go small on you without losing much on the boards or defensively. If Cleveland really struggles with the coaching transition, then maybe. But, if they're struggling that much, the Bulls are the best bet to take them down, not the Raptors. The Bulls would have eliminated the Raptors by then, anyway.

QUOTE (3GamesToLove @ Jan 25, 2016 -> 08:13 AM) I don't have any issues with this list. I love Abreu, but in 2015 he was merely a good player, as opposed to his rookie year when he was truly a great player. He may well return to that level. We'll have to see. He was playing through a lot of nagging injuries in 2015 and still managed to put up 30+/100+. The offseason will do him wonders in terms of recovery.

To be fair, this was Arrieta's second straight year of Cy Young level pitching. Not his first.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jan 24, 2016 -> 07:03 PM) Well yeah but he turns 33 this April. When 100% and in his athletic prime Pujols is #1 out of active players but time is undefeated* *Tim Duncan In all seriousness, while Cabrera is much better while healthy, I'd still take Goldschmidt over him. Votto, maybe not.

Mine would be: 1. Clayton Kershaw 2. Jake Arrieta 3. Chris Sale 4. Zack Greinke 5. David Price 6. Dallas Keuchel 7. Max Scherzer 8. Chris Archer 9. Corey Kluber 10. Felix Hernandez

QUOTE (SoxPride18 @ Jan 24, 2016 -> 12:14 PM) John Smoltz had Sale as the 9th best pitcher lol. Probably because "his mechanics make him a TJ waiting to happen!!!". That's everyone's defense for underrating him, although it makes absolutely no sense as to why he'd be a worse pitcher.