Yossarian

29 and GP, yes I'd like to see Ozzie get players who can execute his style of ball. I like the overall OG baseball philosophy. It's vintage White Sox style ball, good pitching, speed and defense. The overall philosphy I like, the game day decisions sometimes drive me up the wall. I don't want to throw Ozzie under his own bus, but I don't want a big extension either. Let's see what happens next year when hopefully he can get some players that will execute properly, not murder the season like this bunch did.

QUOTE(Gregory Pratt @ Sep 4, 2007 -> 04:19 PM) he handles pitching staffs excellent, for one, I usually agree with your baseball stuff, but I couldn't disagree with you more on this one.

QUOTE(Balta1701 @ Sep 4, 2007 -> 05:08 PM) So, this thread was posted what, 3.5 hours ago, and so far there's nothing about it on whitesox.com or chicagosports.com? Hopefully more BS from Mr. Levine.

QUOTE(drive like jehu @ Sep 4, 2007 -> 02:35 PM) Y'all are treating this like KW is rewarding Ozzie with an extension when it's obviously a punishment. Ozzie wants to be fired. Ozzie isn't getting what he wants until he has a more successful season. KW's extension is telling Ozzie he better shape up or he is going to be stuck with teams like this seasons for many years to come. That's a postively brilliant way to motivate someone.

QUOTE(michelangelosmonkey @ Sep 4, 2007 -> 01:39 PM) Winning is always a good thing. Rooting to lose so we move up a spot because we're terrible just has not proven to be a great stategy (in baseball). Everyone loves the Twins here...and the twins were horrible in the 90's and here's there top ten drafting: Year Overall pick PLayer 1991 3 David Mccarty 1994 8 Todd Walker 1996 2 Travis Lee 1997 9 Michael Cuddyer 1998 6 Ryan Mills 1999 5 BJ Garbe 2000 2 Adam Johnson That's 7 top ten picks in ten years...and the best is Cuddyer who's a RF with a career .790 OPS? It's SO unknowable...that I would rather have the brief happiness and hope of going into the off season with a 18-6 last 24. Excellent.

Heartbreaking. I'm all emotional right now. Did you catch the 1987 ticket prices? Even when you factor in for inflation, how cheap it was to see a ball game as recently as a generation ago.

The baseball draft has always been dicier and harder to predict than say football or basketball. The baseball landscape is littered with first round busts. A high pick in baseball is no guarantee. The Sox are going to need several Larry Himes era drafts in a row to build a depleted farm system. Of course, I hope they manage to pull it off. They've been lousy at this for so long, that as far them drafting players is concerned, I'm from Missouri.

QUOTE(Alpha Dog @ Sep 4, 2007 -> 08:57 AM) I don't mourn the losses, but part of me still smiles when they win. I just pray they have enough brains to make the right pick, whoever it is, come draft day. I don't trust them to pick the best available player. Who ever they pick I don't trust them to realize the highest potential of said player. I've totally lost faith in this organization to draft and develop players, and they have a long way to go before I change my mind.

QUOTE(Flash Tizzle @ Sep 4, 2007 -> 08:33 AM) When I browse that other Sox-related website, I get the distinct impression people are almost afraid to even suggest it. I haven't even seen one person raise the possibility that losing more games for the first overall selection may benefit our future. For a website with over double the number of members Soxtalk has, I find it quite odd no one has discussed the issue previously. If it's the same web site I'm thinking of, there's more than a little fear involved. So many of their best posters have been banished to cyber Siberia for having the temerity to post opinions that displease the founder and some of his mods.

QUOTE(The Critic @ Sep 3, 2007 -> 11:44 PM) I want them to win every time they play, but I understand the draft pick people's point of view. I just can't bring myself to hope for losses. My sentiments exactly.

QUOTE(NorthSideSox72 @ Sep 4, 2007 -> 06:59 AM) But there are a number of good pitching prospects - these two just aren't among them. I'm just asking, but at the AA and AAA level who might these pitchers be that aren't named Gio Gonzalez?

QUOTE(Tony82087 @ Sep 3, 2007 -> 08:24 PM) I just had no idea the type of minor league experts we had on this site. To make blanket statements such as players having NO FUTURE in the major leagues is quite bold, seeing as I'm sure you have seen both Phillips and Broadway make numerous starts, correct? For two guys most of you have never seen throw more than 10 innings of Spring Training ball, it's pretty easy for you to write their future. I can't speak for anyone else, but I live close to Charlotte, and reluctantly concur about the negative assessments of Broadway and Phillips. Broadway underwhelms, has control problems, looks to me like he has a low ceiling. Phillips regressed this year, and is getting "old" as prospects go. We're all Sox fans here, young and old, liberal, conservative and apolitical. No one wants to be the harbinger of gloom, the cupboard just looks awful bare all across the Sox farm system.

IIRC it was the off season after 2000 that the Sox farm system was getting all those accolades. Obviously, the system was overrated then. I'd like to hope that it's a tad underrated now, but when you examine it one "prospect" at a time, things look bleak. The Sox are just going to have to get better quickly at drafting and developing quality baseball players. No matter what, we're probably in for some tough years in the immediate future as Sox fans.

I wish GP was wrong, but I think he is right. The Sox farm system is abominable at this point.

QUOTE(witesoxfan @ Sep 1, 2007 -> 01:00 AM) I'll also say I think Richar's got a better shot at being a good big league player than Ryan Sweeney. Maybe you can compare that opinion to me also thinking it's going to be cold in December, but who knows. I don't think either one of them is going to amount to much, but yes I agree, Richar is more likely to succeed.

QUOTE(Tony82087 @ Aug 31, 2007 -> 11:48 PM) Fine. 2B is a hole now( I don't agree, but for the sake of argument, lets say it is) Lets say Iguchi stays. Not traded at the deadline. Tad stays here to the season is over, hits his .260, puts up respectable numbers for a last place team. He then becomes a FA. We can re-sign him, or move in another direction. Those are the choices if he stays. Now the choices we currently have. Iguchi is gone, Richar is showing what he can do on an every day basis. If the Sox don't like what they see in Richar, they can re-sign Iguchi over the off-season, or move in another direction. Wow, pretty similar if he would have stayed, actually.... So with the trade of Iguchi, the Sox gave themself a two month window to see what they had in Richar, got a prospect out of the deal(a mediocre one at that, but a prospect) and still can go out and sign Iguchi, same as if they would have kept him. I have a hard time seeing what the problem is. Good post, probably a better approach than mine. I just don't trust them to go after a real 2bman if Richar continues to struggle at the plate.

Sorry I will never agree with just giving a player like Iguchi away. Also, Richar despite his two hits tonite looks like another horses*** White Sox "prospect" to me. Iguchi, if he stays healthy has a couple more productive years in him. I don't romanticize Rowan, or any other ex Sox player. The Sox got something for him. I know Iguchi started off bad, is at the end of his contract, blah blah blah. I still wanted more for him, and no amount of torture will change my mind. 2B looks like another gaping hole in the wall.

Whatever.

QUOTE(Kalapse @ Aug 30, 2007 -> 09:16 PM) Who gives a s*** about Iguchi? There wasn't a single good reason to keep Tadahito but there were many good reasons to trade him. I agree, but not for a s***ty Class A pitcher.

QUOTE(The Critic @ Aug 31, 2007 -> 10:40 AM) The next insightful thing Mariotti says will be his first. He's a newspaper "shock jock", whose only intent is to rile someone up. Praise comes from him like frozen glue, while complaints/criticism/stupid nicknames flow from him like diarrhea. He is to be ignored and avoided. Nothing I can add to this. You truly have earned your moniker with this accurate apparaisal.

It probably won't help but here it is. Growth rates of various religions Pentecostals

QUOTE(NorthSideSox72 @ Aug 31, 2007 -> 12:18 PM) I am not sure what you found dizzying, but I see you chose to ignore my examples. The Middle East is not the fastest growing part of the world. And neither is Utah. Of course there are examples of extremism on the rise, as I just said. but the largest growing countries, India and China, have populations that are walking away from religion as a trend. Not entirely of course, and not everyone either. But that is the way its going. Add them to the U.S. and the rest of the West, and that's a huge portion of the world population. Feel free to keep banging that head. Let me know when you want to discuss the examples I have given. Or when you want to give any of your own. I did. We don't agree. Leave it go at that. Like Strother Martin once said, "What we have here is failure to commincate."

QUOTE(NorthSideSox72 @ Aug 31, 2007 -> 12:04 PM) I'd like to see some support for the fastest growing religions being stricter. I don't see that. I see the largest countries in the world (China, India) having a lot of people that are either only marginally religious, or are parts of LESS behaviorally stringent religions. I see the U.S. and the west generally having more and more of their core populations eschew religion entirely. So what religions, in what part(s) of the world, that are somehow more strict, are growing so quickly? Your reply made me dizzy from banging my head against the wall. Islam, the Latter Day Saints, and various small Pentocostal faiths just to name a few. Just because Europe and the West are busy and gleefully flushing traditional religion down the toilet, doesn't mean that sits well with everyone. Why do you think so many Second and Third World countries and societies have abolute contempt for us.? The thought of their daughters videotaping themselves having sex a la Paris Hilton is nauseating to them. Everyone in the world doesn't want to be like us, and everyone in the world doesn't like our social and religious mores. I thought that was obvious, but I guess not. Every day it's shown to me in big and small ways how out of touch I am. Or maybe it's the other way around.

I listened for a minute or so, and that's about all I needed. My views on this guy would make no one happy, not the fundies, and not the Fla Sox secularists either. He is right about one thing. Christianity, as it stands now is lost. One thing to consider though, the fastest growing religions in the world, are those who profess strict and uncompromising moral strictures. Just a statement of fact, with no editorializing intended. I myself, would hardly be considered religious in the traditional sense.

Jay Mariotti. Is there a meaner, more duplicitous back stabber in the world of sports? Has there ever been? Oh yeah, the Sox will still stink if he's forced to deliver papers instead of write for one, but it would be a big step in restoring my faith in truth, justice, and the American way.