SouthSideRyan

Grace didn't sleep with Cindy. Just everyone else. If Palmiero, then no Sandberg IMHO.

They also just cleared a pretty decent amount of payroll. Couple that with the five million or so they had to play with before the season even started, and then they have space to make a pretty significant move if they so choose. Okay, I just had a chance to look at the numbers, and I don't see Oakland clearing any payroll. A's send: Byrnes= 2.2 million Bradford= 1.4 million Total= 3.6 million A's recieve: Payton= 3.5 million Kennedy= 2.2 million Witasick= .316 million Cash= -? Total= 6.016 million - cash from Boston So in order to free up any payroll, they need to get at least 2.5+ million from Boston. So even if the Red Sox pay all of Payton's salary, Oakland doesn't free up more than a million(500k in essence since half has been paid) in payroll. I wish I'd read ahead, and saved myself the effort on this stuff. EDIT: According to the report from the A's site, the Red Sox sent some cash in their deal, and the A's sent some cash to Colorado in their deal.

8 out of 10. But I'd agree that something's wrong with the quiz because the percentages right are still the same, and they suspiciously add up to 1.000

I love Jim Bowden!

Hairston Walker Lee Ramirez Burnitz Nomar Barrett LF And I'm really sick of snide comments/awful jokes about the Cubs training staff when O' Neal has not had a single Groeschner like incident.

I know Ed Wade is a pretty awful GM, so he may not realize it, but the Phillies really shouldn't be in a rush to trade Wagner unless they're getting top of the line prospects, cause they'll be getting 2 draft picks when he walks anyways. Here's hoping he surprises with another Sterling Hitchcock or Mike DeJean-esque move :)

I understand that we needed to replace what Sosa did last year, but in the context of the trade, it isn't a fair comparison. We were already stuck paying Sosa 18M(?) to perform like he is this year. The deal should be judged based on what people think we could've gotten in return for a declining Sosa.

No doubt. Unlike last season, the Cubs will have to go through St. Louis to get to the playoffs. The rest of the 2nd half schedule, however, is every bit as soft as last year. btw- the balance of July: PIT (4), @CIN (4), @STL (3) SF (3) ARI (4) . Win fewer than 10 of those games going into that last weekend and I'd be a seller on July 31st. The Cubs had to go through St. Louis to get to the playoffs last year too. Just like they do every year. Playing them late makes no difference.

Of course.

Ordonez's out clause had solely to do with DL time due to his previous injury(knee I wanna say) His DL time this year, had nothing to do with it IIRC.

You shouldn't compare Burnitz's numbers this year to Sosa's last year. Becasue Sosa this year does not = Sosa last year.

i remember that. i despise that guy for it now. another reason i can't stand that club is jack mckeon. when he argued that the ball that cabrera (i think) hit off of the basket in right field at wrigley was a homer while they were up by 10 runs, i lost any respect i had for him. de los santos and loduca displayed the only acts of class i've ever seen from the marlins last night. After Cabrera did that, My nickname for him is "The Punk". That's funny, I started calling him "Future Best Hitter in the Majors". I call him pre-pubescent due to his resemblance to an 11 year old boy. And Jefferey Loria is a horrible horrible person. That was what made me most sick about losing in '03. Was watching that load walk out on to the field celebrating.

Sox fans were absolutely cheering against the Cubs in the '03 playoffs. The majority of my friends are Sox fans, and not a one was rooting for them. The drink specials are true, they'd also change their marquees on their signs to put up anti-cubs/pro-marlins signs. I for one cannot wait for their collapse.

Burnitz was bought with the money saved in the Sosa deal. Paying the money earmarked Sosa for Burnitz, Hairston, and Fontenot has been far more valuable statistically than paying the money earmarked for Sosa to Sosa. And that's without getting into any sticky arguments over team chemistry or clutchness. People seem so hung up on this idea of paying Sosa to play for another team. Do you honestly think there was a trade out there that shedded Sosa's entire salary? If there wasn't, would you rather be paying him to suck here rather than paying Burnitz, Hairston, and Fontenot the money to be contributors?

Wouldn't irony be him getting drafted by the O's?

Other than oppurtunity cost, I don't see how anyone can say Sosa for Fontenot, Hairston, and Burnitz is a loss. And I really think Sosa's trade value was too low to get much more than that.

I translate this as, Neifi isn't striking out much, so he's just getting unlucky that he's not getting hits when he makes contact. If Neifi can follow the Estes pattern does that mean we finally get to see Ronny in September? Only this time we'll be 12 back of the wild card by then and Neifi will have dropped to a 180/210/280 line.

OT, but is anyone else surprised at how much Brenly has seemed to be the voice of reason in terms of playing youth?

Awesome.

But the HR Derby!!

No, he's too busy saying that white guys can't play in the heat and comparing Corey Patterson to Lou Brock. Yeah I know that's crazy. Corey (despite his performance this year) still has the potential to be far better than the HORRIBLY OVERRATED Brock.

Is anybody on this team (their contract - 300K) better than one of our replacements in AAA besides Ramirez and Lee? Should we toss them all overboard and go with nothing but prospects? The money has to be spent somewhere, and in that offseason the only other spot to fill it on would've been SS. The only good SS out there iirc was Tejada, and iirc, there were a lot of people around here that didn't want him at that price either because of his iffy OBP. And I think people are underestimating what Maddux did last year. A 113 ERA+ from a starter is not close to mediocre. Im not saying play every position on the cheap, im saying there is no need to spend all of our money on a strength and ignore our weaknesses. You know I'm not saying that, so cut it out. If, in the offseason, it turns out that there were no possible upgrades available, and 9 million spent on Maddux is the best value for the money, I'll happily eat crow, because I love Maddux and I love watching him pitch. To elaborate on my feelings, the 2/12 part of the contract I have no problem with. its the 1/9 on the end that I hate. I think if it came down to the contract, as is, or no contract at all, then I would have declined. Why was it more important to fill in one hole on the offensive side compared to one hole on the pitching side? Just because our pitching was the strength of the team doesn't mean you shouldn't evaluate the cost benefits of upgrading the weak offense compared to reinforcing the strong pitching. A run saved is a run earned. Asking if Maddux will be worth the 9 million in '06 is not evaluating the situation fairly. It's disregarding the fact that Maddux was probably a bargain last year at 6M, and the jury will still be out on his 9M for this year. It's easy to say now that you'd decline, but at the time the contract was signed, Maddux looked like a stablizing force in the 5 spot. If things worked out the way things were envisioned when the contract was signed (Team wise, not Maddux's stats) then nobody would be complaining. It's hard to blame Maddux for the rest of the team not performing as expected either. And I had forgot to mention earlier, somebody mentioned that Maddux was CLEARLY declining. In '99 people said the same thing. His IP dropped, and all of his rates suffered, his K rate especially. Maddux was 33 that season, and it looked like he was entering a decline phase. Still a real good pitcher, but not vintage Maddux. He came back from '00-02 with ERA+ of 155, 144, and 157. Taking Maddux's one year in '03 as a surefire representation of a decline is some real revisionist history.

Is anybody on this team (their contract - 300K) better than one of our replacements in AAA besides Ramirez and Lee? Should we toss them all overboard and go with nothing but prospects? The money has to be spent somewhere, and in that offseason the only other spot to fill it on would've been SS. The only good SS out there iirc was Tejada, and iirc, there were a lot of people around here that didn't want him at that price either because of his iffy OBP. And I think people are underestimating what Maddux did last year. A 113 ERA+ from a starter is not close to mediocre.

I really don't understand how people can be so anti-Maddux, talk about what a terrible contract it is and always let Kerry off the hook. And I'm not complaining about either, just saying.

Yep, The A's would never give playing time to a low OBP guy