aboz56

Embree has improved, as have a lot of other pitchers who have escaped the wrath of Nardi Contreras, Kip Wells, Rocky Biddle and Embree to name a few...

goodnight fellas

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And here's my contributions for the night....

His fastball is about as straight as Alan Embree's, which is not a good thing....

What is this, bedtime stories on SoxTalk?

"We stink" by Maggs. Pretty much summed up the early part of the season.

For comedic purposes, you cannot have a Billy Koch thread without this:

Agreed. He did a great job this year. No more ripping for me on KW. And he even dressed up to fire JM, gotta love that....

I totally agree Mr. officer. Call me crazy, but I think KW did a great job this past season. It certainly wasn't his fault that Konerko didn't hit the ball, that Koch totally sucked and Frank tried to hit every ball out of the ballpark. He put talent on the field, it just didn't produce, especially in the crucial Twins series in September and against the lowly Tigers.

You're certainly correct. The BB/IP ratio is most important. The K/BB is somewhat irrelevant, because if a guy strikes out a lot of guys but is wild, he's not going to be very effective. To expand on your thought...... If a guy walks a lot and strikes out a lot at the Major League level, then he certainly can be effective (see Kerry Wood). Would he be better if he walked less? Yes if he could maintain his high strikeout level, but that may not be the case. The key is, Cotts hasn't shown he can strike out 1.22 batters per 9 innings in the Big Leagues. More walks give a pitcher less margin for error. Conversely, more strikeouts give a pitcher more margin for error. But when evaluating a young pitcher, you certainly don't want to bank on a high strikeout rate in the Majors. If it happens, great, but it is not likely to be as high as in the Minors. Well I guess I should have stated that in Cotts's case it's not as important and I don't think he's comparable to Kerry Wood. He's never going to strike out as many guys as Wood will. Wood is an exception for being effectively wild. There certainly aren't many guys like him. If you look at the top 10 in walks for the AL this season, here are the names. Judging my standards of who's effective and who's not, I see more pitchers who I would consider not effective than effective, but not by much. Certainly many of these guys would have had better overall seasons with fewer walks. Good points though Rex. Víctor Zambrano TAM Damian Moss BAL Barry Zito OAK Jason Johnson BAL Kelvim Escobar TOR Joel Piñeiro SEA Jon Garland CHA Derek Lowe BOS Freddy García SEA Tim Wakefield BOS

The Sox would be foolish to pay Frank $8 million next season, especialy if they want to keep Mags. Frank declining that option would be a blessing in disguise for the Sox because they'd be freed of his contract and they'd most likely be able to keep Mags next season. They'd also have some change to spend elsewhere if his deal came off the books. No way Frank is going to turn down the $6 mil, he'd be lucky to get half that elsewhere.

Had the Reds not been too cheap to pay McKeon what he's worth, he'd still be in Cincy.

You're certainly correct. The BB/IP ratio is most important. The K/BB is somewhat irrelevant, because if a guy strikes out a lot of guys but is wild, he's not going to be very effective.

Make sure it's during the baseball offseason, you wouldn't want to miss any Sox games...

Gload isn't a youngster, I believe he's 27.

He's lead the NBA in three's made a few times, but his percentage is not good at all from the field. He also commands the ball a lot to play his game, which he won't be able to do as much on Dallas. He'll be the second or third option at best. And his D, while not horrible, is not going to stop anyone. He's lazy and if he's not having a good game offensively, he doesn't play as hard on the defensive end. It's obvious that he wasn't the best player on the Celtics because they chose to keep Pierce to lead them rather than Walker. I think Boston got a better deal here because they also picked up Welsch and a first round draft pick and LaFrentz who will be a good 2nd option for them.

In 10 games, Ryan Hankins is hitting .343 with 10 RBI. He's struck out 4 times in 35 at-bats, while drawing 5 walks. He's also got 3 HR, 3 doubles and is slugging .686. In 7 games, Aaron Miles is hitting .176 with 1 RBI. He's struck out 3 times in 27 at-bats, while drawing one walk. He also has 2 doubles. Neal Cotts has thrown 10.2 innings, with an era of 4.22 while allowing 9 hits and 5 earned runs. He's struck out seven and has only walked one. He's appeared in a total of three games. Gary Majewski has thrown 5.2 innings with an era of 11.22 while allowing 8 hits and 7 earned runs. He's struck out three and walked five. He's appeared in a total of four games. Mitch Wylie has thrown 9.1 innings with an era of 3.86 while allowing 8 hits and 4 earned runs. He's struck out six and walked four. He's appeared in a total of six games.

You're definitely right about that. He's basically good for only hot air and that's about it.

Exactly. Scorers who don't play any D. They've got Finley, Dirk, Jamison and now Walker, who all fit in that category. Jamison and Walker play the same position, why have them both? If you play Walker at the 4, that puts Dirk at the 5, which is going to be awfully weak downlow. Cuban gets props for bringing the Mavs to life, but some of his moves have been totally stupid from a basketball personnel standpoint.