Progressive Boink

[Alicia]

Lose:
The word "Devil"


Who the fuck are the Tampa Bay Rays.

lol

Who knows, but their shitty mid-relievers will end up Dodgers so I'll find out eventually.

[A Link to the Matt]

Gained:

- Aaron Rowand

something interesting thank god.

[Duzzy Funlop]

You know, if we lose 100 games without Tejada and 81 games with him, that's a 19 game difference based on a quality position player who contributes to the team. If we got one more of those, we'd only be losing 62 games. How many more games do we win with minor leaguers? "Future magic games" is the answer to that question.

When I say "Tejada" I mean "Tejada, Roberts and Bedard." There probably isn't any player that can give you 19 wins besides Bonds and Ruth in their primes. According to WARP at least, which I don't like, but still-- you're not gonna get that good of a player. moot point whatever.

Basically what I want from the Orioles is a gameplan that can be stuck to. For my entire life I've had one Orioles fan going "THIS IS WHAT THEY'RE DOING YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND" and a second Orioles fan coming from a completely different direction with the opposite of what the first guy said, explaining that no, THIS is the plan! That's what we're doing here. I'm like "the orioles suck god damn" and you have a whole lot to say explaining why they're going to get better and why what they've done is the right thing. The problem with that is that I can find five different people with five different reasons why doing something else is the right thing. It's all equal when it's on the opinions stage, but shit, the team keeps losing games no matter what they do. I say "they are losing games" and you say "yes but here is why they will do better soon," and I say "they are still losing games." In two years I guarantee we'll be having this same conversation. In 10 years we'll have this same conversation. The problem is deeper than rosters and age. The problem is a fucking owner who'd rather sign a guy because of his ethnicity than his talent. It's a matter of absolute horseshit ownership. All we're left to do is say "this is why this will work!" and then be sad when it doesn't. At least that's been the last 25 years since we won a World Series.

So what the shit is it going to take to prove to you that this time they might actually be gaining a real direction? Is there any point in arguing it if there's no chance that anything good can happen until Angelos grows demon wings and flies away?
I understand where you're coming from with the "they'll do better soon" talk, definitely. Everyone's been saying that every year. Everyone's also assumed that the improvement will come immediately, next season, rather than admitting that we need some patience to right the ship. I can assure you, you can search every year in the Sun for Angelos/Flanagan/etc quotes and every year they said: "We're coming back strong this year."
But this time is really different, and you won't hear anyone saying that we're going to come back strong cause everyone in the damn world knows we can't. And MacPhail knows we can't, and he's convinced Angelos of it as well, and from the looks of it, he's convinced Angelos that you won't get nearly as much money from Sammy Sosa as you will from winning. And from the looks of it, according to a million sources in the Sun and a million times from MacPhail himslf, Angelos has given complete control to him. And from the looks of it, Angelos is completely on board with the youth movement and he wants it done right. Joe Jordan credits Angelos entirely for swooping in, negotiating with Boras and signing Matt Wieters minutes before the deadline. Angelos himself gave Boras an assload of money for a draft pick.

I'm not worried about Angelos anymore. He's given MacPhail permission to trade his one true love, Brian Roberts, the face of the team. He was a great scapegoat for a long time but I think he's learned the hard way that losing = no one buying tickets.

And we're not the A's or the Marlins, we're not trying to stay below a miniscule payroll. We're sending away expensive guys for league-minimum salaries. We'll have a couple years of extremely low payroll, so that when the youth is developing in the majors, we can afford to overspend like crazy on free agents that otherwise wouldn't come near us. I'm excited about that part. And that could come as early as Teixeira next year.

[MattZakrowski]

White Sox

Gained
Alexei Ramírez http://youtube.com/watch?v=o81usn3BtKA
Nick Swisher

Lost
Gio Gonzalez
Ryan Sweeney
Fautino De Los Santos

[Borkelmans]

This kid is 18 and just had his professional start with our team today. He wreaked all kinds of havoc on the other guys' defence and scored a goal himself. I know that I'm barking up the wrong forum here, but watch out. He may be one of the few soccer players that enter the American sports lexicon, alongside his teammate who scored twice today:



aka


(The one on the left)

[kliq]

The Jays gained Eckstein and Rolen and lost Glaus and Towers. I'd say thats an upgrade

[Alicia]

football ftw

[Borkelmans]

[Alicia]

pffft

[knightni]

White Sox

Gained
Alexei Ramírez http://youtube.com/watch?v=o81usn3BtKA
Nick Swisher
Orlando Cabrera
Scott Linebrink
Carlos Quentin

Lost
Gio Gonzalez
Ryan Sweeney
Fautino De Los Santos
Jon Garland
Chris Carter

Konerko and Crede could be gone next.

[Z.S. Ghost]

They're gonna resign Valentin and probably release Estrada. Also, the offseason might not be done just yet

Please don't do the Johan thing to me.

[Matt W]

[Matt W]

[B]

[knightni]

[Z.S. Ghost]

OK, that's clearly Satan.