greg775

Wow! Was it coach Kellogg I think his name was? Was there a poor tryout system when u were there, too? I had a bold friend who was our best player at Martyrs who got cut like me. He went up to the coach and said 'I am better than anybody here. I want a real tryout.' Coach let him come to play with the returnees and he got added to the team. He only lasted a year or two and transferred to Naperville. I still want to hear why he transferred. The coach at Rice ultimately added a kid from Martyrs who didn't even make our grade school juggernaut team. WTF? Talk about a good team ... the Martyrs squad won the St. Anselm tourney and we only lost one game all year and our coach had us entered in a ton of events. Fun.

My two alma maters, Brother Rice and Benet, are both going to state in different classifications. I went to BR my first two years; Benet the next two. I'm more of a BR fan for some reason (probably since you always have a soft spot for where you grew up) but I do love the Redwings, too. I enjoyed the coed aspect of Benet, but Rice was outstanding as well. Happy memories. Anyhow I've watched some BR games this year and third-year ageless coach Conte Stamas must truly be a genius. Three seasons of incredible winning records and now his first trip to state as a coach in 25 years or so I think I read. Would be a shame to lose in the semis to St. Patrick especially since we proved we can beat DePaul Prep earlier this year. Benet is ranked No. 2 overall in the state and has placed second I think three times but never won it all. I don't think Rice has won it all either, but the Crusaders are in a smaller class this year; Benet the large class. I forget who Benet plays in the semis, Evanston I think, but Benet is for real. They've got a major college guy I believe in the starting lineup and a great coach. Rice hit a rough patch late in the season where it lost to Marist and Mt Carmel and St. Larry but now has won six in a row. Benet is a juggernaut. Hope they both win it and hope the lack of a shot clock is not a factor in any of the state games. p.s. I love Rice despite getting hosed over by the basketball coach. Back in the day they didn't scout grade schools. Rice's old coach held tryouts in gym class. We scrimmaged and the ball didn't come to me and I was just average in the scrimmage and got cut despite being on the city league champ Queen of Martyrs team. Only one guy from our team made the Rice team because of the stupid tryout system. ... I also got cut from Rice baseball tryouts. I survived the first one. The second one i was competing with 30 other kids at 3B. No errors. But when we got to bat, some pitcher was busting off curves (even though coach said they'd all be fastballs) and I kept fouling them off. As I feared my name was not on the list the next day. Sad memories of getting cut. Skills rusted too much much by the time I headed to Benet and didn't try out. I had to settle for CC. Yuck. Go Rice; Go Benet.

I've said it before, but how can baseball owners justify throwing big bucks at any starter who hasn't yet had Tommy John surgery? I mean it seems like it's what happens to all pitchers nowadays. I realize baseball owners make so much money it doesn't matter, but still, how can you justify giving any pitcher a 3, 5, 7 year deal if they have yet to undergo TJ surgery? Cole was great last year but he's now old news. He's gonna be out a long long time. Wasted $$.

Early in the year it could be a matter of luck more than anything. Wat if the Sox get lucky and we are at 7-7 with Robert hitting .420 with six early homers?

Can u imagine how happy we'll be if the Sox go 7-7 the first two weeks and let the world know they are a .500 club?

There's absolutely no reason to believe we can win 50 games. Even the rare games we do well we could blow it via closer, set up guy or absolutely no bats on certain nights. If Sox are as bad as last year I hope the word 'contraction' comes up in the national media at least.

Is it ok with the board if I call DeLoach DeBong? I miss Mr. DeBong.

And in typical Sox fashion the name of the game now is HR hitting. It's all any hitter tries to do and doesn't care if he K's as long as he tries to hit a HR. And here it's our main weakness. No pop in the bats. Hilarity.

Sounds like he'll be fine very soon. So no big deal.

I got a feeling Michael A Taylor will play every single day and be my least fave player. I smell a .150ish BA from the guy.

Serious question: Could any of the guys mentioned in your post here play for any other team besides the Sox? I'm talking the 11 guys you mentioned. I think Vaughn and Elko could play for somebody but none of those other stiffs. Our team is gonna be shut out prolly 25 to 35 times IMO.

I was just thinking it's time to reacquire Sheets.

Holy smokes. Just logging on and saw this. I was starting to actually like Beni and consider him moderately valuable. Like Fathom said recently this team is not going to score runs. I'd say our offense will be historically bad. How the hell did Beni hurt his hand? I will like this if Colas plays. I might even consider buying mlb.com to see him bat a lot. I always liked Colas and that big fat outfielder the Sox would never give a chance to, Yermin.

I figured some people like to post things and would be willing to inform their friends what is going on with the team. But I forgot $$ rules the world in all instances I guess.

If somebody has the time you know what would be greatly appreciated? A thread every day by one of you that watches every game to summarize the things we want to know and not the propaganda of mlb.com. Example: Thread title: Sox vs. Cubs (Feb. 27): Things you should care about: Montgomery played 8 innings and was flawless in several opportunities on defense. He raced in the hole and threw out xxx; so and so pitched four innings and struck out 10 and was great; so and so played right field for the third game in a row and did xxxxx. What I learned watching the game: So and so appears to be a lock to make the team; Vaughn looks lost at the plate. Etc. Thanks in advance for your consideration.

All it would take is for some team(s) to start promoting the guys who just left college and having them succeed to change the perception of rushing players

You are a great fan.

Terrible in the minors. Let's start his clock like the Royals did with Witt and see where he stands after 2 seasons. Witt stunk year one.

But how do you make real $$ with the strategy. If you bet the Sox to lose it'll be -250 or more every game. Is it worth the bet to bet when the Sox will be -350 or so every game to lose?

No. Why should a player 'waste' all those at bats or 'waste' all the stress on the arm in something as uinimportant as minor league baseball. These guys can play college ball 3 years then hit the pros running rather than play 2-3-4 years of minor league ball.

Amen. I've never been fooled by this, "He is not ready," talk in baseball. So many fans 'appear' to live in fear of 'rushing' their top prospects. Why? You give me one good reason Montgomery would play AA or AAA this year instead of MLB. Or even some of these pitchers who are 'close' but certainly 'not ready?' Now because of analytics a player is basically done after his age 34 season. He has to be coddled and not be an MLB regular til 24. So we're down to 8 year careers now (Hall of Fame in the future, lol) max compared to say the Pete Rose era guys who played 20 years. Yes Pete Rose made his debut at 22. It can, and should be the norm for the studs of baseball IMO. Glad to see somebody finally agreed with me on an issue, in the form of Texsox.

How come NBA doesn't care about "rushing" prospects? They play the 1 and done college guys on 2 way contracts their rookie seasons then if they aren't good in year two they quickly lose the 'top prospect' tag as they've proven they can't play. I see no reason guys 21 and 22 can't be regulars on MLB teams like in NBA and in NHL and soccer.

This may be a sign that Getz is worried that our pitching staff (without the young studs being ready) is putrid. I'm sure he'd like to win 45 games instead of 41 with our new manager.

As an off season topic I was wondering how many people across the country actually buy mlb.com for the White Sox games this season. You think it's even 50 people? I think our team is so bad there literally could be only a dozen or two fans who buy mlb.com for white sox games. This team is irrelevant. ... Can you imagine trying to sell season tickets for this crew? The pitch would have to be how nice and comfy it'll be, being able to spread out and watch other teams come to town and perhaps catch a glimpse of some young pitchers who are our future.

It will be really depressing if the Sox lose on opening day and start out something like 2-23.