greg775

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Oct 27, 2014 -> 02:52 PM) I don't necessarily think that. Bumgarner will be sitting down the bullpen if Hudson gets rattled at all in game 6. And, if he does, you take him out after 2 or 3 or whatever and Bumgarner pitches 3-4 innings for you. On one day's rest? Is that possible? QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Oct 27, 2014 -> 03:11 PM) The KC Royals make the playoffs for the first time in 29 years, and make it to the World Series, are 2 wins from a title, and their fans still complain about their manager. I hope it takes at least another 29 years before they sneak into the Wild Card game and lose it. Hopefully it will be 7-0 in the first inning. They are sickening fans. All they do is rip on Yost. It's crazy.

Getting him back would make me happy.

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Oct 26, 2014 -> 04:45 AM) One of these days you will give credit to the 05 Sox rotation for being so good, instead of just using it as excuse to praise Ozzie. The main reason I bring it up is to not glorify Oz any more but to point out the insanity of baseball. Managers won't let these pitchers go deep into games at all. It's ruining baseball. Every pitch was a crucial pitch in the third fricking inning. There's no rhythm to the games. A game in an NL park goes 4 fricking hours tonight? Like I said, I wouldn't have been surprised had Vargas been pinch hit for in the third. Ridiculous. I contrast it to Ozzeroo who let our guys FINISH f***ing games heaven forbid.

QUOTE (Jerksticks @ Oct 26, 2014 -> 04:32 AM) I still don't think you've done enough to make the lineup dangerous. The babe needs backup. And tank in LF? Get the ef outa here with that crazy talk. Well, I've given Hahn a break and put Davidson in there. What if he rakes? Also, what if A. Garcia is as good as Hahn thinks? As far as Tank, well, I didn't want to spend too much money and put it over 100 million. My plan still has the Sox as one of the cheapskates of baseball. My bullpen would be improved and my rotation might be a division winner. If Rodon is great, we've got Rodon, Sale, Q and Peavy in the same rotation! Defense is still iffy at best, but I don't know really what to do about it unless we trade for somebody who has leather in the outfield cause Aoki sucks defensively, too. But my team is GREAT cause of my rotation and bullpen.

I've been thinking of ways to improve the Sox through free agency. I think I really can fix our starting rotation on the cheap. Here's my plan. OK. Jake Peavy is 33 years old. He is a free agent cause the player option doesn't kick in since he only pitched 200 innings. The Sox need a righty starter. Why not Jake? Better yet, sign Peavy and Masterson and trade Danks or turn him into a reliever. You sign Peavy 2 years 14 million and Masterson 2 years 14 million. That's a paltry 7 million a year apiece added to the payroll for 2 years. We'd have Sale, Peavy, Q, Masterson, Rodon. That's not a bad rotation. If Danks can adjust, he'd be a damn fine addition to the bullpen. If you can trade him for a fourth outfielder, fine. Now, go ahead and sign Billy Butler for 2 years 18 million. Yes it's risky to give him 9 million a year but you are gambling he can elevate the ball in the Cell. So that's nine million a year. Finally you sign Aoki for one year, 7 million to be our fourth outfielder. So we have that excellent starting rotation I mentioned, and we have Danks in the bullpen. We've only added 23 million to the payroll in my scheme which means we can gamble and pick a closer out of the free agent crop and pay him 9 million a year. So I've added 32 million dollars a year. Isn't that a doable number? I thought I read Sox have a payroll of about 60 million right now; I've added 32 million and it's still under 100 million. Our lineup 1B-Babe Ruth. 2B-Semien. SS-Lexi. 3B-Davidson/Gillaspie. LF-Viciedo. CF-Eaton. RF-A. Garcia. DH-Butler. Fourth outfielder-Aoki. C-Tyler Flowers (still not optimal). If Davidson emerges, this is a heckuva lineup. Davidson is KEY! If Viciedo gets better, that would also help my lineup. What do you say??? My plan is doable.

We need the Royals to complete the deal so they aren't all fired up to win the division next year and get back to the Series. Shields and Butler will be gone, which should on paper hurt KC. You need some veteran starters and Guthrie and Vargas do not necessarily count. Without the automatic wins vs. the Sox, Guthrie has been Chen-like. They'll probably not spend much money in free agency, electing to go with their young rotation of Duffy, Ventura, Guthrie, Vargas and Finnegan or that stud Kyle Zimmer. Even though I'm not a Shields guy, the loss of Shields will hurt them. Cmon KC. Complete the deal and win it all so you can turn into the 06-14 White Sox.

Royals fans are officially insane, at least the ones who use Twitter. Now they are incensed at Yost for not calling for the bunt. They wanted Duffy to bat and bunt. Had Duffy screwed up the bunt they'd have never forgiven Yost for having an AL pitcher bunt. Also, these are the same fans who want Yost fired immediately for his use of the bunt whenever he calls for it. The Royals should just name Frank White manager for next year so these fans shut the f*** up. KC got its ass handed to it tonight. Now it's 2-2 going into the Shields-Baumgarner matchup. I'll tell you one thing ... why is it so hard to get a pitcher to go more than 5 innings who is not named Baumgarner? You guys may despise Ozzie but I'll forever thank he and Coop for all those complete game outings from our starters in 05. The way this Series has developed, every pitch is seen as crucial and tonight's game especially had no flow because of this. I'm surprised they even let Vargas go more than 2 innings the way the pace of this game was going. I'm surprised they didn't pinch hit for him. It's 2-2 now with 2 of the next 3 in Kauffman. It's the Royals' fault if they can't win it. The AL was superior this year; no need for the Giants to win it again. I won't shed a tear for these Royals' fans, though. They are insane on Twitter. This bunt thing is an oxymoron. Yost can't win either way.

I wonder if after a few weeks off Dunn has already changed his mind. There's no reason for him to quit if some team is willing to pay him and I'd suspect he could still get a contract. The guy is going to hit 20 homers again if he gets similar amount of at bats to this year. Of course he's going to do all the other things Dunn does.

Surprised the Royals picked him up. I guess they figure he replaces Aoki cheaply. No big loss. Sierra is just another guy.

Can you believe this Brownback disaster is going to win re-election in this woebegone state of Kansas? Do you folks laugh out loud when you hear the word "Kansas?" and/or "Brownback?" My gosh.

QUOTE (Buehrle>Wood @ Oct 25, 2014 -> 04:38 AM) Brother Rice beats St. Rita tonight. They've probably played the hardest scehdule in the state, so impressive season for them. Yes, I watched it on the Cube. Good high school game. Brother Rice tried an entertaining, crazy trick play late up by seven, which lost about 30 yards in its own territory. They punted, but the defense held out Rita. I guess it was worth a gamble. The kids doing the broadcast on the Cube were funny, criticizing the call and criticizing Rice being in a shotgun and the QB almost fumbling the final snap. Kind of funny to hear the high school broadcasters who attend Br. Rice "telling it like it is." Like you said, nice season. One of these years I'm going to do the walk down memory lane thing and fly in for a Rice game, maybe catch a Sox game the same weekend, and visit my old neighborhood if anybody ever wants to meet at a Rice game some year.

Royals fans are starting to piss me off. They buried Yost on Twitter tonight. Second guessing is starting to become silly by fans of a team that has lost one postseason game so far. They were furious he pitched Guthrie to start the sixth. I mean, f***, hindsight. WTF. The guy can't go out for the fricking sixth? Then they were furious he let Herrera bat. Fair enough criticism I guess but he wanted Herrera to face the tough righty to lead off the inning. Yost has a well oiled machine (great catches in right by Cain), great play on the bunt by Perez, clutch hit after moving Gordon up in the order but all he gets is grief from second guessing morons. Yes, Yost I guess is a horrible manager. But when you win games, you SHOULD shut your fan base up and those pricks aren't shutting up, just ripping Yost more and more with each victory.

Another shooting at a school today, a high school in Washington. Some dead. Get mad. Get a gun. Go kill as many people as you can before you get killed or shoot yourself. Happening way too often, folks.

QUOTE (Jake @ Oct 24, 2014 -> 08:02 PM) Managers just don't matter that much. I'm not too worried about it. I love the way any manager who lays down a bunt in the AL now is a buffoon. It's all cliche. It's about managing bullpens and hoping the guy you bring in doesn't implode. Robin had no chance with Sox bullpen but to look like a clown. Robin is fine.

QUOTE (Boogua @ Oct 24, 2014 -> 03:27 AM) Very doubtful that the KU offer is legit, but he's very talented. He would be a welcome addition if he can qualify. Kansas has about 3 scholarships to give and this guy is way way way down on the list.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Oct 23, 2014 -> 08:29 PM) Listen to some of these dopes who have been in college for 4 or 5 years try to put a sentence together. That is blatant proof they have been getting by with some BS classes or someone else doing the work. It is amazing how rare it is for a star player who really needed strings pulled to get out of high school has no problem staying eligible in college, and more specifically a real good academic college. I have always felt letting these guys actually graduate without really earning it cheapens the degree for all graduates. And as long as there have been boosters, your better players haven't had to worry about spending money during their eligibility. As usual, Dick Allen is spot on.

QUOTE (Cknolls @ Oct 24, 2014 -> 02:22 AM) And visited a bowling alley. Let's hope nobody came into contact with any glasses he may have drunk from. Folks this is SCARY.

This is a compelling series so far. 1-1 heading to San Frisco. I'd like to think the AL superiority will emerge and KC will win the series, but look at it realistically. Game Five is an automatic SF win (Shields vs. Madison B). That means if KC splits games 3 and 4, KC returns home down 3-2 with two games to go. Can KC then sweep 2 at home to win it all? That's pretty difficult to do. KC has to win one of game 3 and 4 or the season is over. p.s. The talk shows here are calling for something radical in Game Five. One host said you start Duffy for 3 innings, then go right to Davis and Holland. One host said he'd actually start Holland. The fans are paranoid here about the Madison B game.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Oct 23, 2014 -> 07:32 PM) Its not just big time program, at Miami U our coach's wife taught a special course for players. I think this all started at Michigan back in the late 80s. I believe they had an easy major for basketball and football players, other coaches noticed, got jealous and the ones on solid ground at their own schools pushed for the same. Schools finally started beefing up "academic support" departments. Those schools with "huge" academic support departments are probably the ones who the NCAA should red flag the most. Big time football and basketball ... cmon, many of the stars either don't want to do any coursework or frankly aren't able to pass coursework. The fact colleges allow "one and done" students at all shows what a sham the notion of "student-athlete" can be in the major sports. You are not going to make any real progress toward a degree in one year and you are majoring in being eligible for one season.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Oct 23, 2014 -> 08:17 PM) For shame greg. For shame. Thing is, in my case, I'm a college freshman and I go to Western Civ class the first day my freshman year and I have 15 books to read and the teacher assistant tells us about classroom discussion and papers and tests and I come back and complain to my upperclass roommate in the frat. He gets the nutty professor on the phone, gets me in the same class where there are no books, no tests, no papers. The nutty professor is some famous guy who gives Western Civ lectures and all you have to do is show up and you get an A. I had no interest in Western Civ, had other difficult classes and a 20-hour a week parttime job. The upperclass frat guy goes with me to drop the tough class, tells me to trust him, and indeed the nutty professor gives me an A and all we had to do all semester was show up and listen to him speak for two hours at a time. He tells the class he's teaching Western Civ II and I quickly enroll in that as well and get another A and don't even buy the books. Was I wrong in accepting these two, easy A's? It's the university's fault for employing this famous guy to teach advanced Western Civ. I just took advantage. Should my diploma be discarded? other kids were in the class, too.

QUOTE (Harry Chappas @ Oct 23, 2014 -> 08:14 PM) Mens college football and basketball need to be taken as a whole other entity when compared to NCAA athletics. Curricula are created for them and if other students benefit great. Good way to put it, Harry.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Oct 23, 2014 -> 07:32 PM) Either way, it's just another glaring example of how much "student" there is in "student-athlete" Very true. I'm guessing most football/basketball powerhouses have it down to a science. They have easy majors (Afr American Studies, Communications). They have friendly wink wink tutors. They have online courses. It's all a machine now. The real laugher is spring semester when the one and dones or two and dones turn pro. They take off a good month and a half to two months before the end of the semester to go work out in Vegas and yet the schools are not concerned about losing points to the APR. Somehow they've taken care of their academic responsibilities with six weeks left in the semester and they're free to go get ready for the draft. yeah right. If a normal student tried that, I'm sure it would work out. If a football player or bball player wants to major in a real field, however, like pre med, or engineering or architecture, obviously it's a different ballgame. Those kids I'd think can't be put through the mill of gift courses. I will say this, though, as far as the North Carolina situation? Some athletes and non athletes taking a gift class or two to save their grades? It's not right, but I did the same thing in college a few times because of my frat. An upperclassman steered me to an advanced Western Civ class in which the nutty professor had no papers, no tests, no classroom discussion. Everybody got an A. And I took him for Western Civ II and it was the same deal. Meanwhile, the real Western Civ classes were a BEAR to pass. No lie there were about 15 books you had to read and discuss and here I was with this class in which I did absolutely no work. I also took an honors biology course in which my frat had all the papers and tests and I basically did nothing. I do believe Roy Williams was right in his quote yesterday that he trusted that the college had legitimate courses. My school had this nutty Western Civ teacher and a few lucky students took advantage of him giving everybody As for no work. Now did I have other courses in which I worked my ass off? Sure. But I took some easy gifts, too. Did I do something wrong? Yes. But I also worked 20 hours a week and had 15 hours of difficult classes. Let's face it. The situation at Carolina happens at a lot of places. I'd say for many football and bball players, the term student-athlete is definitely a sham. I'd love to know the inner workings of all this. I'm sure the Carolina situation gives us a glimpse.

He was so bad in my eyes, yes, more often that not, he ruined the game. He did connect for a few big homers and for that I give him credit. But he was simply a horrible hitter and I applaud the writer for pointing out what he brought to the park.

That was a pretty good game for a 7-2 game in my opinion. I still can't believe Cain scored so easily on that bullet base hit to left. I'm used to Sox station to station baseball. Butler looked good tonight. KC will miss him in the lineup in SF. There's really no way he can play. No where to put him.

With Peavy's performance tonight, I'd sign Jake to a two-year deal for six million a year. Can Sox get him on the cheap?