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It’s so sad that the White don’t even have someone in the top 50. Could be a rough couple of years coming up.

(via Bill Simmons)

I just recently watched the 30 for 30 documentary about Allen Iverson and it made me think of his famous press conference when a reporter asked him about practice. Iverson is noticeably annoyed and says the word “practice” like 20 times.

Nice to see the tight ship Brian Kelly has going over there. Savior indeed.

So what will the White Sox do to improve their chances in the second half? Kenny Williams is notorious for making moves when the team has a chance. Let me refresh your memory:

2009 – Acquired Tony Pena, Mark Kotsay and Jake Peavy in July.
2008 – Acquired Ken Griffey Jr. in July
2006 – Acquired Dave Riske, Sandy Alomar and Mike McDougal in July
2005 – Acquired Geoff Blum in July

None of these moves meant major contributors down the stretch, but all virtually guarantee the White Sox will do something.

The resurgence of Carlos Quentin the last 3 weeks or so likely means that they don’t need a middle of the order hitter, Konerko/Rios/Quentin appear to be appear to carry the load. If Dayan Viciedo explodes like he might, they are set 3-6. Alexei Ramirez and Juan Pierre have been great in the field (the latter very suprisingly).

From a position player standpoint the only thing that makes sense to me is someone who can play better defense at 1B or RF, both major holes right now. With Quentin’s penchant for getting banged up, putting him at DH makes a lot of sense. If the guy they get could hit 2nd that would be swell. There is a guy that fits this mold, KC OF David DeJesus. I don’t see the Sox meeting their price or KC trading them to a rival. Trying to find a way to pry Michael Bourn from Houston would be nice. If they decided to move Konerko to DH, Casey Kotchman could cheaply be acquired from Seattle, but he is a negative value offensive player.

Pitching is trickier. Floyd and Danks have been the stars, Floyd especially the last 2 months. Mark Buehrle hasn’t been pitching very well, but there is room for improvement. The loss of Peavy was devastating. Meanwhile Matt Thorton and JJ Putz have been amazing. Bobby Jenks has been unlucky and could actually pitcher better in the 2nd half. All this means the Sox are set from the 7th inning on. Sergio Santos has been good, not great but as long as what we have seen is for real, he adds another option. If Threets can be the LOOGY (Lefty One-Out GuY) the Sox might be OK in the pen.

With the trade deadline just two weeks away, my guess is that we will only see two more Daniel Hudson starts before the Sox have to make a move. That means that the most likely move might be getting some insurance in the rotation. Roy Oswalt is available but doesn’t want to pitch for the White Sox and would cost a lot in terms of players and money. Dan Haren would cost even more in terms of players and he gets expensive next year. There likely isn’t much else that would be an improvement over Freddy Garcia.

The most likely scenario of all would be deepening the bench. Brent Lillibridge has been hitting out of his mind but he isn’t a great defender and can’t hit this well forever. Andruw Jones has cooled off and despite what anyone tells you he has been terrible in the field. Mark Kotsay as been one of the least valuable players on the team and can’t play the OF. And “utility” player Omar Vizquel has only added value with his SS defense, but Ramirez has been so good there that doesn’t help.

Kenny Williams will make a move this month. History has shown us there. The question as to what still has to be answered.

I loved the Carlos Boozer signing. I thought it was a vastly underrated moved that would make the Bulls better. This article doesn’t fully support my theory though. I knew the story about him leaving Cleveland, but I didn’t know all of the other issues he had in Utah.

I have already heard one person point out that brackets will have to be in on Tuesday or Wednesday. That will be impactful to the casual fan who doesn’t even know about filling a bracket out until Monday.

Pretty solid article on what the effects of Jake Peavy’s injury means for the White Sox. I completely agree that the Freddy Garcia becomes hugely important.He has to stay healthy and continue to be a positive contributor for the rest of the season. I also agree that they will likely need to add another veteran at some point. At least as an insurance policy in case Hudson isn’t ready.

The dominos are slowly starting to fall in NBA free agency. This makes me 0 for 3 now (I had Amare to Miami, Bosh to NY and Joe Johnson to NY). This also means Bosh is definitely not going to the Knicks (I hear Houston is one of the favorites at this point).

I also think Wade and LeBron are out for the Knicks as well, but Hollinger nails it:

More importantly, adding Stoudemire makes many other things possible for the Knicks. Now they inform other major free agents that they have a centerpiece to build around. That applies this summer and will apply just as strongly in a year, when the likes of Tony Parker and Carmelo Anthony could be on the market and the Knicks will have more cap space as a result of Eddy Currys expiring contract.

I think Carmelo will make a lot more sense next year.

There are rumors circulating that LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh have met and are planning to combine forces and play together in Miami. Chad Ford and Bill Simmons talked about this last week on his podcast and tried to debate whether or not they would be able to put a team around them. With the amount of money they would have, they would keep Mario Chalmers, maybe be able to pick up one other guy, but the rest of the team would have to be making the league minimum. The question is whether or not that would stop them from winning multiple titles?

A friend compared them to the Boston Celtics and said “look how they failed to win more than one title.” Of course, It’s not even remotely comparable. Kevin Garnett got hurt last year and hasn’t been the same since. Ray Allen is old and was a non-factor in the finals. And as good as Paul Pierce is, he isn’t one of the 5 best players in the league. LeBron and Wade are two of the top 5 and with Bosh they would be a virtual lock to have 3 of the 4 best players in any game for a few years at least.

Even with a team of mediocre players around them they would still easily make the playoffs and once in the playoffs, only 8 guys are needed who can solidly contribute. And it’s almost 100% for sure there are veterans out there who want to win so much they would play for peanuts. Would Ray Allen take that chance? What about someone like Juwan Howard, who can still contribute but has never won a title?

The biggest issue would seem to be the pressure associated with this threesome. What is the expectation for number of titles the Heat would have to win to consider it worthwhile. Is it two? Or three? Or more? With those salaries on the team, the Heat would be forced to raise ticket prices and getting to the playoffs year after year wouldn’t be enough. And of course there is Simmons’ “Alpha Dog” theory, would Wade or LeBron settle for being 2nd banana? Would Bosh be OK being the third?

Overall, it doesn’t seem like it will work out as rosy as it seems. Miami is a great town for young NBA players to have fun. And no state income tax means more money in their pocket. But what if one of them gets hurt? What if they fail to win a title in the first two years? Seems like too many ifs.

Albert Haynesworth is a poster boy for why people who are  not professional athletes hate people who are. They are greedy and self absorbed. Haynesworth, who signed a 7-year deal for $100 million just over a year ago, now wants out. He is unhappy that the team made a bunch of changes and that the defensive scheme is changing. A lot of this is because the Redkins weren’t competitive last year. Hey Albert, want to know part of the reason? They are paying YOU so much freakin’ money. The money quote of this article:

“The Redskins are trying to establish a new regime with new schemes at Redskins Park, and it is not an organization that Albert would have ever been attracted to just a short year ago — regardless of the money,” Haynesworth’s agent, Chad Speck, told The Washington Post. “He has made it clear to me that he does not want to play for the Washington Redskins.

The emphasis is mine. The reason being, that if money is NOT a factor, that the Redskins would be happy to tear up his contract, have him return/forfeit some of that guaranteed money and go their separate ways. But the reality is, money does matter to this guy. And now he wants to be traded but keep all the money he feels like he is “owed.” Even his teammates don’t like him now.