Adios, El Caballo

[doublem23]

Originally Posted by Chez

One of Hawk's best nicknames. I believe Carlos has a brother also named Carlos Lee.

He does, the younger Carlos Lee also played baseball professionally in the Sox's minor league system for 4-5 seasons, I believe

[Irishsox1]

Now that guy was a Cub killer. In 79 games at Wrigley in his career, he hit 24 home runs, 61 RBI's and batted .293

I hated to see him go, but they got 2 big pieces for the 2005 World Series run for him. It's odd but after the 2004 season, the Sox lost Magglio and traded Carlos and then won the world series.

[WLL1855]

Originally Posted by Irishsox1

Now that guy was a Cub killer. In 79 games at Wrigley in his career, he hit 24 home runs, 61 RBI's and batted .293

I hated to see him go, but they got 2 big pieces for the 2005 World Series run for him. It's odd but after the 2004 season, the Sox lost Magglio and traded Carlos and then won the world series.

Gotta agree here. The guy could rake. Especially against the cubs.

[DonnieDarko]

Wow. I remember when I was really young and he was really young (well, in his 20s anyway). Time sure flies. Thanks for the memories, Carlos Lee. May life treat you well from here on out.

You know that you're starting to get old when guys you remember coming up through the system are retiring. :(

[Bobby Thigpen]

I like Carlos, but he was easily the poster boy for the softball era White Sox. He could hit and not really do anything else. How he never ended up a DH anywhere is beyond me.

[Mohoney]

Originally Posted by Bobby Thigpen

I like Carlos, but he was easily the poster boy for the softball era White Sox. He could hit and not really do anything else. How he never ended up a DH anywhere is beyond me.

He made $19 million a season from 2009-2011 and $18.5 million in 2012. That contract wasn't going anywhere.

[ComiskeyBrewer]

Originally Posted by Mohoney

He made $19 million a season from 2009-2011 and $18.5 million in 2012. That contract wasn't going anywhere.

Yup. I STILL can't believe the Astros signed him to a 6 year, $100 million deal at age 31.

[infohawk]

Originally Posted by Huisj

My favorite Carlos Lee memory was the gave tying homer he hit off Mariano Rivera in leading off the 9th in a game in the June of 2000 when the Sox were on fire. It was a week after the 7-day 7-win road trip to Cleveland and New York. I had a closing shift at my summer job, and in the car on the way home I heard that the Sox had just given up 2 runs to fall behind by a run.

I got home in time to turn it on on WGN to see Lee mash a rocket HR to left on the first pitch of the inning. I jumped and pumped my fist and woke up my dad from upstairs, and he came down expecting to complain to me to keep it down, but then realized what had just happened and stuck around to watch the end.

They continued on to win by manufacturing a run on a single (Herbert Perry), a sacrifice bunt (Brooke Fordyce), and groundout to move the runner to 3rd (Ray Durham), and a broken bat looper over the infield by Jose Valentin that I later had vivid flashbacks to when Luis Gonzalez got basically the same hit off a Rivera cutter to end the 2001 World Series. Heck of time to get home from work in the middle of a heck of a fun stretch in a fun season.

I was AT that game. When Rivera came in I figured that the game was over. Surprise! It's too bad that the core of that year's team ended up so frustratingly inconsistent over the next few years. With that much power and offensive potential, they only managed one division title. I thought at the time that they had created a powerhouse line-up that would dominate the division like Cleveland did in the late 90s. If only they had a 5th starter and could manage to beat the Twins (or even the terrible Tigers team in 2003!).

[infohawk]

I loved that Ozzie quote about Carlos Lee "sliding into second base like his wife was turning the double play." LOL! Classic Ozzie. That was in 2004. In 2005, Carlos was playing for the Brewers.

[russ99]

Originally Posted by ComiskeyBrewer

Yup. I STILL can't believe the Astros signed him to a 6 year, $100 million deal at age 31.

He earned that with them for at least the first 4 and a half years of the deal, and then they flipped him before the deadline last year for good defensive 3B, Matt Dominguez.

IMO, it was a good signing overall. Better than letting the Cubs sign him...

[TheVulture]

Obviously, we would all kill to have a bat like Carlos's in today's lineup. Man, we had a lot of good hitters ten years ago.

[HomeFish]

From 2003-2007, I took up residence in Section 159 at US Cellular Field. Of all the left fielders I saw, Carlos Lee was the most fun to have in front of you.

I was sad to see him go, but the trade to Milwaukee was critical for the World Series championship.

[Bobby Thigpen]

Originally Posted by TheVulture

Obviously, we would all kill to have a bat like Carlos's in today's lineup. Man, we had a lot of good hitters ten years ago.

There were a lot of "good hitters" running around baseball ten years ago.

[ComiskeyBrewer]

Originally Posted by russ99

He earned that with them for at least the first 4 and a half years of the deal, and then they flipped him before the deadline last year for good defensive 3B, Matt Dominguez.

IMO, it was a good signing overall. Better than letting the Cubs sign him...

I wouldn't go that far. The first 3 years were good, but he never had an OPS above .800 after his 3rd season with the Astros, he only hit more than 30 HRs once in the entire contract and that's playing half his games with a short porch in left. The guy was a defensive sieve and should have been playing DH after leaving Milwaukee.

For comparison, his last 3 full years were worse(or basically the same) than Adam Dunn has been thru the first half of this year. Would you be OK with Adam Dunn's current production for the next 3 years if he was making 4 million more than he is right now? A player hitting 24 HRs and hitting .246 shouldn't be making $19 Million. Had it been a 4 year deal, it's probably not that bad. But 6 years was insane for an NL club.