"You have to be accountable. I’m always the first or one of the first guys in the clubhouse every day. That will never change. If someone has an issue with something I’ve done, I’m right there, we can talk about it. It’s interesting but the only player who ever complained about me being around a lot was Brian Anderson, you can make of that what you will. I respect their job and what they are trying to do and it’s a healthy situation."

“The more I think about this 2009 team, the more I think the veterans should be ashamed of their performance – especially down the stretch. How many times do you see veterans – not kids – fold down the stretch. It’s pretty revealing about their character (or lack of)."

with acceptable CF defense? yeah, he’s certainly not that now.

They spend too much time talking about the lack of leadership and other stuff. I tend to see that as being rather obnoxious. Isn’t Occam’s Razor appropriate here — that the Sox just weren’t very talented? Why do folks always need to point to some moral failing ("not enough team chemistry, not enough heart, not wanting it enough) as a reason for a team’s lack of success? I’m taking it to the extreme here, but compare the 2009 White Sox roster with that of the Phillies or Yankees. The gap between the latter two and the White Sox is absurdly high.

As colin mentions, the Swisher discussion begs the question (or rather, many questions) — why does the blame lie on Swisher’s shoulders? I say this in two respects — why was Swisher unsuccessful here after seeing success in Oakland and now New York? Similarly, I don’t know why Gonzalez limits the “accountability” to the person/people who wanted Betemit. That was a horrible, horrible trade from the day it was made (on so many levels). For a team that (from time to time) isn’t averse to mentioning their financial position (relative to the big spenders), giving up a cost-controlled Nick Swisher for jack shit strikes me as an organization-wide failure (but everyone here knows this, so it’s just piling on for me to keep ranting).

Gonzalez also says:

The more I think about this 2009 team, the more I think the veterans should be ashamed of their performance – especially down the stretch. How many times do you see veterans – not kids – fold down the stretch. It’s pretty revealing about their character (or lack of).

Which “veterans” — besides the obvious one, Dye — should be “ashamed of their performance”? If anything, the veterans did about as well as could be expected. Pierzynski had a particularly good year, neither Thome nor Konerko fell off a cliff and Podsednik gave the Sox a completely unexpected (in a good way) performance. Linebrink? He made sure to spread his suck over the whole season, so I doubt he’s talking about him.

And no, Mark, I don’t know what about Jermaine Dye’s character is revealed by his performance down the stretch. Please tell me. If that statement is, in fact, aimed at someone like Dye, that comes off as a real douchey comment.

Next thing you know, they’ll go all Socialist and just give the site away

all the format has changed – it hurts my mince pies to read it now – like it before much better.

btw – this is an excellent thread

did you guys here about this steve brantman guy who interfered with a foul ball at a cubs game? that’s why i love this site, the breaking news.

or being eliminated. Either way: CHINA!!!

that the Sox might be looking at Manny Ramirez, as the new dh / spot outfield man, providing that LA pony up some of his wages.

A baseball insider says the club has been contacted by an American League team that is interested in Manny Ramirez if the team will pay part of his $20 million salary for 2010. It’s a team that plays in a very mediocre division, has a few team officials familiar with Ramirez, and always needs a bump in notoriety

Milwaukee Brewers owner Mark Attanasio thought about the teams in baseball’s final four this year – large-market clubs all – and wondered whether there would room for his franchise any time soon.

“We don’t know if that’s a trend or just an aberration,” he said. “The disparity among the clubs appears to be widening.”

Baseball’s four league championship series teams were all among the top nine in opening-day payroll this year, led by the top-spending New York Yankees at US$201 million. They were joined by the No. 6 Los Angeles Angels ($114 million), No. 7 Philadelphia ($113 million) and the No. 9 Los Angeles Dodgers ($100 million).



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“It’s certainly trending in the direction,” Oakland Athletics general manager Billy Beane said. “The big markets are always going to be there. Whether or not they’re the only ones there I guess remains to be seen.”

it is the fuckin NOMs

Very good news for me: Bad moods can actually be good for you according to an Australian study. The study says being in a bad mood makes people less gullible, improves their ability to judge others, and also boosts memory. Which reminds me: Bite me.

http://blogs.tampabay.com/rays/2009/11/rays-working-on-iwamura-deal.html

is the use of white space further down in threads.

scouting, money, Q’s heel, JD, Rios, Fields, Goggles, Swisher, Colon, and everything else that went bad this year on Greg Walker?

PLLLLLLEEEAAAAAAAZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZEEEEEEEEEEEEEE??????

Heeee

about stone pony being fired for using his stone pony? my friend told me about it