Cerbaho-WG

I think the only thing Hankins really needs to work on is blocking balls in the dirt, which he admitted in my interview with him. He has thrown out 35% of the runners who stole against him because of his quick release. Go figure no one ran on him in the 2nd game when he caught.

Halo was classic, especially those sticky grenades to the groin.

Day by day recap from my little vacation: Thursday the 8th Wake up bright and early at 3:15 A.M. and then leave for Chicago MDW at 3:45. Board my plane at 6:30, arrive at Baltimore around 9. Fly from Baltimore to Raleigh-Durham, arrived at 10:30. Jason picks us up and we head off to the town of Winston-Salem. We arrive at about 12 PM, 7 hours before the game. So what do we do to kill time? Hit up the local mall of course. As we wasted about an hour and a half at the mall, we were out of things to do. So we hop inside a bar at the mall to play some pool. By some act of God or MLB, the White Sox were playing a day game....on Thursday...on ESPN. f***ing nice. Around 4ish we head out of the mall and to Ernie Shore Field, home of the Winston-Salem Warthogs. We were greeted by Alan York who treated us like royalty. Before the game he took a picture of the 4 of us who went and later put it on the jumbotron and pubbed the website twice. We also got to stay in the press box....that means AIR CONDITIONING! Kenny Ray pitched but Winston-Salem lost. Jason and I took a ton of photos and videos of the game, and when we got done with that we scouted the crowd for hotties. Since it was $1 beer night, it wasn't too hard. We leave the field at 10:30 or so after setting up some (8) interviews. We get to our hotel room (room 420, lolozlzlzl) and get some much needed rest. 9th For breakfast we go to the local Krispy Kreme shop. The day before Alan told us to get to the field at 2 PM, 5 hours before the game, for interviews. So Jason and I trek onto the field and hang out outside the Warthogs clubhouse. Mike Moore, Alan's assitant got us some interviews which was much, much appreciated. We interviewed Brandon McCarthy, Sean Tracey, Tyler Lumsden and Ryan Sweeney. Josh Fields agreed to an interview but had to start his stretches before I could ask him some questions. Nik Lubisich pitched, Hogs won, but the story of the night was Thomas Pauly from the Potomac Cannons. He hit 100 MPH on the gun twice, and his line went something like this: 5-2-0-0-0-6. In layman's terms that's 5 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 6 SO. Barring injuries, this guy is going to be good, very good. Fields and Sweeney hit jacks. 10th For our third day we head to Kannapolis. Before that we checked out the downtown area of Charlotte....it doesn't exist. Absolutely nothing there. The game at Kanny was an interesting one. Wes Whisler pitched for the Kannapolis Intimidators, and not too well. After the Intimidators tied it in the bottom of the 9th, the rain came and came hard. The four of us escaped into the press box and later Daniel Haigwood, Mike Moat and Rafael Flores joined us. We talked a bit and then we headed out for the hotel. Kannapolis auctioned off jerseys for breast cancer research and I almost won one. Had I known I'd still have $100 bucks left over from the $500 I brought, I would have easily won one. But the Intimidators raised a good deal of money for a great cause and I can't really argue with that. Jason and I scheduled interviews with Daniel Haigwood and Micah Schnurstein for the 12th. Game is called in the 10th due to rain. 11th We head to Fort Mill and catch the Knights doubleheader. The Knight made us custom media passes and also provided us with free lunch. Jason and I interviewed Bryant Nelson, Ryan Hankins and Gary Majewski. The Knights split the doubleheader and we headed back to the hotel. Jason and I played some Halo co-op and owned everything in sight. At 11 PM or so we went out to make a food run....and came back with 2 dozen Krispy Kreme donuts. Hysterical. 12th Back to Kannapolis. Before the game, Jason and I get to go on the field and interview Haig and Schnurstein. I find a ball laying behind the center field fence and snag it. Jason and I can now say that we played catch on a professional ball field. Intimidators get shut out. During the game we meet up with Kirk Champion, roving pitching instructor for the Chicago White Sox. Very nice guy and it was cool to hear his loads of knowledge. We drive from Kannapolis to Raleigh-Durham for a new hotel stay. 13th Home! Highlights Getting our names and FutureSox.com pubbed by Winston-Salem. All of the interviews Darren Blakely Dwayne Pollok Actual media pass given to us by Kannapolis Custom media pass given to us by the Charlotte Knights Moat and Darren Cook Fields' bomb to dead center Getting to actually go on the field Everything

Quite possibly the worst movie I have ever seen.

I have an MPG of Fields hitting a bomb, I just need some webspace. Heads, gimme some

And I helped! Nelson was a great interview, but Tracey takes the cake. When you hear his interview along with Blakely's comments, you'll be rolling.

It should be Jason and I.

Kanny was rained out in the 11th after the Intimidators tied the score on a throwing error by the Lake County catcher. Lisk struck out, ran to first, and the LC catcher prompty threw the ball into right field. When it started pouring we hung out in the press box with Mike Moat, Rafael Flores and Daniel Haigwood. Moment of the game was when Moat called down to Cook during the rain delay to whether the game was cancelled or not: Moat: "DC! What's happening?" Cook: "Rain delay!" Moat: "No f***ing s***. Smartass."

We didn't hear York's PBP, but Jason and I had fun with ours. The interviews went off very well. Tracey's was hilarious, and my interview with Sweeney was awesome. Blakely and Pollok made a cameo in Sweeney's interview. Off to Kannapolis today, later guys.

Jason and Mike here reporting in from the "business center" of our hotel. We attened the Winston-Salem v. Potomac game last night and it was awesome to say the least. The Warthogs treated us like royalty, putting us in the press box so we could escape the 95 degree heat. Later on in the game they took a picture of us and put it on the videoboard in center field during the 8th inning. They plugged the site twice and managed to spell Jason's name wrong. It's Jason Gage not Cage We've got videos and pictures that we'll upload ASAP, but we have to get going soon because we're due to arrive at Ernie Shore Field at 2 PM for interviews. We'll try to incorporate as many questions as you guys sent us in the interviews themselves. We'll report back in tomorrow morning. Adios!

Well boys and girls, I'm heading off to bed for the night. Why am I typing this you ask? Because I'm waking up BRIGHT and f***ING EARLY at 3:15 to go to Chicago MDW for the FutureSox roadtrip. If I don't catch you guys during the trip, I'll be back on the 13th. Auf Wiederhören!

That hitting a lot of home runs will get you locked in a bathroom?

Once again, show me where RJ says that he wants out, SPECIFICALLY to Chicago and I'll become excited. If you've got nothing in that respect, your point is moot.

I'm calling shotty on being the Woody Paige of the "experts". I nominate Jason for Jay "Kotex Boy" Marrioti's position.

11/11

Brando, you're being unbelievably naive if you honestly believe that Zona would pull the trigger and ship RJ out for Garland, Rauch and Anderson. Zona would f***ing pillage our minor league system, end of story. And considering that RJ has a no trade clause, are you merely assuming he would waive it to come here? Do you have any proof whatsoever that says he wants out, especially here? If not, please stop flattering us with your pipe dreams.

I AM HOLDING YOU TO THIS.

Hooray for type A compensation.

You're not going to get an answer because you've basically hit the nail on the head. Does that work?

And do you guys know anything about him whatsoever? I'm serious, I don't have a damn clue who he is.

OBP is the only stat that matters? Your opinion flew out the window right there; that's just an ignorant assumption to say the least. Just plain idiotic.

Hey at least Billy Beane managed to consistently reach the post season with sabermetrics. With the payroll limitations he has, Billy Beane is far and away the best GM in baseball.

Read Baseball Prospectus and ask any sabermetrician. Tony Gwynn and Jeremy Reed were being thrown around in the same sentence.

Because all those rumors had nothing but hot air holding them up.

Brian Anderson = Jeremy Reed? Nononono, two different kind of animals here. Reed is a gap hitter with a superb batting eye, while Anderson has much more power than Reed and has a "good" batting eye. Not trying to shortchange Anderson here, but it's easy to say that Reed has a better eye at the plate than Brian. I think with a little more time down in the minors, Anderson could develop more power and hit 25+ jacks. The man is big, he's not a guy who's going to "only" hit you 10-15 a year.