C.Rector

Its that sort of attitude that's responsible for the Sox not winning the World Series in 87 years. Trading away the stars of the future means that future teams won't be that much fun to watch.

How is Adkins terrible when he has a <3.00 ERA?

Under no circumstances should the Sox even consider trading Reed. Guys who can hit .400 in the minors are extremely rare and anyone who can do that has unusually high potential for greatness at the major league level.

We've all seen the Sox's struggles at the 5th Starter position this year. As it happens, the Cincinnati Reds have also had this problem, but it appears to be solved for now due to the way that the Reds handled the situation. On June 8th, Jung Bong had his 1st ever MLB start. He gave up 4 Earned Runs in 3 1/3rd innings. Now, if Reds mgmt did things the way that Sox mgmt does, Bong would have been sent right down to the minors. However, they stuck with him and in his next 2 starts, Bong has gone 1-0 with his latest start a 3-hit 6 inning shutout against St. Louis on June 20th. What this shows is that the way for the Sox to fix the 5th starter problem is to be patient with whoever they put in that slot for at least 3-4 starts. Not this nonsense of having it that if they don't win right away, they get sent back down.

As for Reed, anyone who can hit .400 or better in the minors should be absolutely untouchable.

Reds pulled it out to sweep the Marlins. Now, its on to Montreal where their latest winning streak should get even longer.

So, Buehrle's batting average against is still going up 4 years in a row. What that means is that his recent decline in ERA and improvement in W-L record is due to the improved defense behind him and not to any improvement in his pitching. If it were not for the pickup of Juan Uribe, the Sox fielding would not be any better than last year and that higher BAA would be even worse, working to Buehrle's detriment. For the time being, Buehrle can have a decent ERA/W-L record, but if his BAA keeps on going up, then by the time his contract expires, he could very well be toast.

No it isn't just like being in Cincy since Cincy is right now in 2nd place in the NL Central and if they can avoid the injury problem that they had last year, they might wind up winning the division this year even with the Junior Griffey albatross.

Crede simply is a poor 3B who's been hyped up to be something that he's not. What the Sox need to do is trade for Pittsburgh's Rob Mackowiak so that we can have a good fielder/hitter at 3rd.

KW's record is a lot better than that. The Ritchie trade was the only one that he was really swindled on. Usually, its KW who's doing the fleecing. One example of this is getting the budding superstar Miguel Olivo for some relief pitcher.

With this team's problems with pitching, I'd rather not give up any of our really good prospects. If we trade for Giles, KW should limit any pitchers traded away to the likes of the oft-injured Kelly Wunsch or the always dramatic Billy Koch.

From: http://6-4-2.blogspot.com/2004_05_02_6-4-2...364399493708519 : Colón is an overpaid number two. (Sorry, Richard, I hadda do it.) It makes you wonder, did they evaluate talent based on asking price? If that's true, I'll start telling the Angels' front office about my $12 million price tag. Two rotten starts in a row against a weak AL Central team, and this time with no excuse about temperature. Now, aren't you all glad that the Sox did not shell out the big bucks for the guy that Ncorgbl called the "Tub O' Goo"?

What this team needs is a new starting pitcher. Currently the Sox have 2 #1 Starter quality pitchers in Loaiza and Schoeneweiss and 2 #5 Starter quality pitchers in Garland and the declining Mark Buehrle. This team is winning in spite of most of the starting rotation, not because of it. Instead of going for a new #5 Starter, KW needs to pick up someone better than that. Ideally, it would be someone such as Cincinnati's Cory Lidle or the Milwaukee Brewers Ben Sheets. I'd say that a straight up trade of Carlos Lee for either one of these 2 guys would be a fair deal.

The Chicago Blackhawks have at least one and perhaps two important decision(s) to make. Should Coach Brian Sutter, whose contract expires at the end of this season, be rehired? If not, then who should his successor be? In this writer’s opinion, renewing Sutter’s contract is the best option. Sutter knows the team and is totally committed to hockey on a 24/7 basis. True, this season’s record has been one of the worst in Blackhawks history since Arthur Wirtz bought the club in 1954. However, this was caused by team management’s decision to blow up the team and the resulting flurry of trades combined with constantly sending players up and down the Hawks system has resulted in a constantly changing roster. Pretty difficult to win under those circumstances. However, unlike the Bulls, the Hawks have never quit and have kept on trying under Sutter’s firm hand. Another reason to retain Sutter is that he has finally found a way to keep Tyler Arnason fully motivated and playing solid hockey. Under a new coach, there is the possiblity that Arnason will revert to his old apathetic self and slack off. Perhaps the best reason is that in between Brian Sutter’s tenure (2001-) and that of his brother Darryl (1992-1995), the Hawks coaches were a muddle of mediocrity and given the state of Hawks management, its all too possible that a born loser will be Sutter’s successor. However, if the Hawks do drop Sutter, there is a path that it should not take. This is hiring the coach of the Hawks primary minor league affiliate the Norfolk Admirals, Trent Yawney. Yawney is a minor league coach whose teams have been quite successful in the regular season, but not in the postseason. The minor league postseason is rather more intense than the regular season in much the same way that the NHL regular season is more intense than the minor league regular season. If a coach can’t make it in the postseason at the minor league level, then its a sure sign that he can’t make it in a NHL regular season. Now, if the Admirals were to succeed in winning the American Hockey League championship this season, then that would be proof positive that he’s the man that the Hawks need as head coach. Until then, Yawney’s just another minor league coach and as such unfit to coach the Blackhawks. Instead, the Hawks should consider hiring one of the assistant coaches, such as fan favorite Denis Savard, or someone who’s a proven head coach at either the NHL or college levels. One example is the head coach of the University of North Dakota, Dean Blais, who as the UND athletic department website put it, “The winningest active coach in NCAA Division I hockey." If the Hawks choose to take a post-Sutter road, it should be with a coach who is capable of bringing the young Hawks into contention for the NHL Central Division.

Just why is it "Trollery at is reachingist,"? Really, you should provide reasons to back up the accusations that you make. There is nothing wrong with the initial post to this thread which made a perfectly legitimate point that the Sox bullpen has a tendency to give up too many inherited runners.

Why does Danny Wright get to be 5th starter over either Neal Cotts or Felix Diaz? Cotts or Diaz each has a decent chance to contribute to the team's success while Wright has a good chance to embarrass himself.

4-0 is perfect. How Loaiza does it is irrelevant as long as he stays perfect.

Are you surprised?

So the man who so many Sox fans were certain would be a disaster as starting pitcher is now the one hope for splitting the series with the Aboriginals. Ironic.

Wrong. The so-called experts predicted that 2004 would be a very good year for the Royals with several of them predicting that KC would win the Central and many predicting that the Royals would finish ahead of the Sox. It was only on Sox fan forums such as this that folks pointed out the lack of quality KC pitching.

From: http://www.robneyer.com/robrany.html Rany: Maybe the Royals aren't a contender - I know that's your position - but until that's proven, the Royals have to play as if they do have a chance - and that means pulling out all the stops against the Twins and White Sox. Crappy managing - again, Graffanino lighting out for second base in the first inning cost us two runs. Crappy announcing - do Bob Davis and Paul Splittorff ever say anything that's not 1) a cliché; 2) watered-down (when discussing bad performances by the Royals), or 3) obvious as all hell? Crappy pitching by everyone in the bullpen save Nate Field, who might be the best reliever we've got - he's certainly the only one who can throw strikes. If the Twins hit their way to a six-run rally, I'd tip my cap to them. But they scored six runs on three hits - and six walks. Scott Sullivan: 11 strikes, 10 balls Curt Leskanic: 12 strikes, 13 balls Dennys Reyes: 6 strikes, 13 balls And yesterday, protecting a two-run lead: Jason Grimsley: 4 strikes, 11 balls That's beyond unforgivable. It's unwatchable. And unless and until they start turning things around, I'm not sure I can bear to watch this team on any sort of regular basis. It's just too painful.

Want one good example of anti-Sox press bias? My county's (McHenry) daily newspaper, the Northwest Herald, had the Cubs boring win over the hapless N.Y. Mets on the top of the front page of the Monday Sports section, but the Sox's thrilling victory in the bottom of the 9th inning over Tampa Bay was not covered until the bottom of page 4. Inexcusable.

Buehrle's pitching against Tampa Bay was hardly any better than the previous game, so his decline and fall continues........

Turns out that KW's pick up of Juan Uribe was a great move after all and that KW's signing Lee to a 2 yr. $15 Mil. contract was not so great. Let's face it: If the lineup spots were reversed and Lee was in the batter's box with the bases loaded, he would have gone down hacking away at pitches outside the strike zone. What KW really should do now is package Lee with Wunsch and trade them to Pittsburgh for Rob Mackowiack (Chicago native & Sox fan in addition to being a solid player) or to Texas for Soriano or perhaps some other team for a decent player. That way, we can get some good out of an injury prone reliever and a space cadet player. What do you guys think?

They won the series because Dusty Baker was managing the other team.