Al Lopez Ghost (old)

I can confirm that Stefff's right about this... Nancy Faust told me last summer that we were getting a mascot.

The better question is why did he get called up?

It was pointed out in the paper yesterday that, believe it or not, Grilli is 2 & 0 against the Expos in his career, having beaten them twice in 2001. Now, whether anyone from those Expos is still around is uncertain. I would hope that the Sox would make their decision based on who is throwing well now, and that looks like Munoz. I just hope we're now on a 3 game losing streak when we head into Canada - we're facing the best pitching we've seen in a while.

All I ask of a mascot is to stay away from me while I'm watching the game. Ribbie came up to me once and refused to leave (maybe it way my aftershave), so to get him to leave I said "I bet you smell horrible in the rain." He shook his snout and left.

It's on the Sox website, our new mascot is Southpaw. Yippee skip.

I think there's gonna have to be at least one really good prospect in any Beltran package, and after watching these guys for the last two to three years, I don't think either Rowand or Cotts fits that description.

He won't be able to keep Beltran. His agent will see to that.

Well that's what makes this a tough decision for Ken Williams. You're right, you make a move for Beltran, whose agent is not gonna let him sign with anyone but the highest bidder, and things don't work out, then life sucks.

Personally I don't think Beltran is the answer to our questions. We need pitching. But to those who want Beltran, what would you say if the deal was some combination like Beltran, Randa, and a pitcher like Affeldt for Borchard, Crede and Cotts, or instead of Cotts a minor league pitcher. KC will want someone to bleed a little for Beltran, and from the Sox point of view you wouldn't be losing a lot of the current major league lineup. Yeah, you're trading youth for age, the next few years for this year, but that's what going for it all now means.

With Mussina being pulled early, and Brown's back being questionable, the Yankees aren't going to let any quality pitching get away. So if Contreras can't help them, he can't help us.

Did you notice the brief commercial, during the FSC broadcasts, that the Sox are looking for a younger, hipper, edgier voice to broadcast for the Sox? I inferred that they will do an alternative broadcast, sort of like a SAP, for those who sometimes get a little tired of Hawk's act. They said they wanted someone between 21 and 30. Does anyone here know more about this?

The last game of the Sox trip to Wrigley has been moved to ESPN, 7:00 pm start time. Let's see, Sunday night, a holiday, everybody has the next day off, and a night game. No, no problem with drunks that night. Good luck, and let's be careful out there.

Do we have another Josh Fields in the minors too? A pitcher I think. Plus two Carlos Lees. Still there's only one Billy Koch.

In Tuesday's Sun Times Ron Rapaport wrote "Despite Magglio Ordonez's vehement denials of that recent report out of New York that he and the White Sox are at contract loggerheads, the NY Daily News is now saying a tentative 4 year agreement for about $50 million broke down recently when Jerry Reinsdorf wanted to defer much of the money." Confirms what so many of us thought about negotiating with the Sox.

Ryan Madsen, a 6 foot 6 righty, been used in the pen, is a rookie, with a 1.07 ERA and a 24 K to 7 walk ratio. And of course, we've never seen him. So, Tuesday is Pepsi Half Price night, and visiting pitcher no hitter night too. At least I hope the last part is a joke.

I thought that Ozzie should have saved Marte for the Ichiro and Winn at bats in the ninth. That was his big mistake as far as I was concerned.

The 6 million you're on the hook for is gone. That's bad money, and the Sox should forget about it, and release the mother. Because having him lose games and paying the 6 milllion is far worse than having him gone and paying him the 6 million.

The last few years Frank has been mediocre at best on the road. Not so this year. AB R H 2b HR RBI W K OBP SLG AVG Home 79 20 23 5 9 15 25 18 .467 .696 .291 Road 85 17 26 7 3 18 23 14 .464 .494 .306 IF he keeps that up, it's a huge lift for the club compared to the last couple of years.

Tomorrow it's Jamie Moyer. I hope Elo is up to the challenge.

You're right - this is the part of being aggressive that Hawk overlooks when he's complaining about sabremetrics or Billy Beane. The outs you run into, the runs you don't score, get overlooked.

I've noticed him dogging it to first on more than one occasion...I recall he loafed to first on a flyball he hit that was dropped, and he didn't get to second. He's the only guy on the team whose engine isn't going flatout all the time.

I was watching the Twins game and they just said Rick (Rich?) Helling, the old Texas guy, pitched a 4 hit shutout for their minor league team yesterday, then quit the organization because he wants a major league contract, and his deal with the Twins allows him to walk. We could do worse, obviously.

Hey Ozzie - give Valentin Wednesday off.

It's an old trick, but it just might work!

I hope we don't, but Ozzie seems to be an "every game is important" kind of guy, meaning he doesn't view that game as more important than the next. There's just gotta be someone capable we can trade for.