SoxFan562004

QUOTE (SHIPPS @ Aug 12, 2009 -> 05:35 PM) I am pretty sure I heard that he has some Humane Society thing that he is doing for good PR but not sure if that was here or not. The Score is reporting he was only here for the Humane Society thing and he did not meet with the Bears. I wouldn't be shocked if Bears get tossed around because Dungy is his "mentor" (although he said Cutler is inmature and slammed him, but offing dogs in a violent way and bankrolling a criminal enterprise is OK in his book!) and he and Lovie are good friends.

QUOTE (fathom @ Aug 11, 2009 -> 09:35 PM) Did the Phillies have a home run that got overturned? Yes, but it was a god awful call. I have no idea how it was called a HR in the first place, the right call was made in the end. That shows how year to year BP guys can be. Two of the most dominant pen guys last year, Lidge as a closer and Marmol as a set-up, absolutely wet the bed tonight, continuing a their trends for the year. That was typical Cub reactions, Marmol flat out was bad tonight, walked 2 and hit a guy, then on a 3-0 count a borderline call went against him and he and then Lou complained.

QUOTE (fathom @ Aug 11, 2009 -> 08:46 PM) Is the wind blowing in at Wrigley tonight? they haven't really mentioned it on the broadcast, but the shots of the flags it appears it is or at least cutting from left to right

Rhode Island... it's about as big as a county

QUOTE (WCSox @ Aug 11, 2009 -> 10:36 AM) +1 For this year, Rios leading off would be fine. But they need to look for other options next year. Rios hitting 2nd and Beckham moving to 3rd might be a way to go, assuming that Rios' OBP returns to his career average. To me Q is starting to string quality ABs together, it might be time to put him there.

Wow, Gorzellany (sp?) doesn't face the Reds and look what happens! Cardinals have a lot of games left with teams under .500 and the Cubs are now in 2nd place where even if they win all 4 of their games in hand they come up a game short.

QUOTE (G&T @ Aug 10, 2009 -> 06:09 PM) Per Cowley on the Score: Lot of confusion in the Sox club house, but coaching staff telling guys that this is another sign that the Sox are going for it. Beckham is being considered as lead off, or possibly Rios. does this mean Pods is out or something? Rios OBP isn't stellar this year. If it's something they want to work on with him in ST (I believe he's only 28) for next year cool, but this year?

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Aug 10, 2009 -> 06:06 PM) Yup. Our OF options this offseason, and we def. needed one; out-bid the Yankees and everyone else on Holliday or Bay and give up a draft pick, spend a good chunk of money on a 32 year old Figgins, or resign Dye and Pods to try to keep the gang together. Thaks for the breakdown of FAs, sounds like Rios was a good choice, the contract is a little big, but White Sox have the flexability. In a pipe dream I would have love to seen Holliday here, but with Boras and NYY needing another OF, it likely wasn't going to happen.

I think during his whole comeback Hamilton has handled it well. He's never said he was great or some kind of superman for overcoming this. He would always say he took it day by day, etc... He used religion as a tool to help him stay sober and talked about it, other people use psychology or other methods and talk about it. Who handled it wrong to me was ESPN and other media outlets. They held him up to be something more than he was ever saying he was.

well KW apparently thought that Rios is better than what's coming up on the market for the money. Hopefully he's right.

mmaweekly.com is reporting that Diaz is out for Saturday, he never showed up for a drug test. Jesse Taylor of TUF fame is in against Heiron Saturday night.

Diaz status is up in the air for next Saturday's Strikeforce card according to Meltzer. He was scheduled to take a drug test at a MMA show he was going to corner guys in but he no showed that event. Now Strikeforce is saying he'll piss on Monday, but the AC is stressing there may not be enough time to get the results to get him licensed. If he fails he won't be suspended because it's the same loophole Barnett would fall under. Also, M-1 was promoting an event later this month with King Mo vs. Don Frye for the main for HDNet in Los Angeles, except they never applied for a CA promoters license. So sounds like Frye's out of the event all together and they may run the event in KC now. People can complain about Zuffa and the UFC all they want, but they are on top of their stuff.

QUOTE (Kenny Hates Prospects @ Aug 9, 2009 -> 03:31 PM) So the rumor is Anderson is strongly considering giving up the MW title and moving permanently to 205 - but still without fighting Machida. It sure looks like Anderson wants to get out of his UFC contract by escaping the championship clause so he can then go box RJJ. Ugh. I understand that Anderson wants to challenge himself but the guy isn't a boxer. Zuffa will ice him for as long as they can if he wants to go that route. They'll wait to he has one fight left, offer him a title shot at whatever division he's fighting in and if he rejects it they won't schedule another fight until they have to. I thought this with Machida, but now with Anderson looking good at 205, those are 2 more names you could easily add as entertaining fights for Fedor if he fought in the UFC. Would favor Fedor in both, but Fedor's not a gigantic HW and I think they would be good fights.

Sutcliffe is a terrible announcer. Tonight on the Red Sox/Rays game when talking about David Ortiz he said "he hopes and prays" (exact quote) that it's not true, then goes on to say how he believes him and wouldn't be shocked if it's MetRx or a "vitamin". He then went on to rip Manny saying what a horrible teammate he was for the Red Sox. Finally Dan Shulman chimes in and says "his last year with Boston" because Sutcliffe was completely ignoring Manny's prime role on the WS teams.

QUOTE (The Baconator @ Aug 5, 2009 -> 10:57 PM) Is anyone else getting a jazzed up ESPN feed? For the past two days ESPN has been dodging out on me. I don't know where else to post this, still a virgin poster, and I'm drunk. Answer me this, TV gods. WTF? I need my national sports fix without the effort of reading so BBTN is my best bet, and right now they keep blanking every 5 seconds. Anyone else getting this? I have been getting the same thing, but fortunately I have MLBN, so the second the Red Sox/Rays game was over I got to stop watching it.

QUOTE (rangercal @ Aug 5, 2009 -> 11:01 PM) I was not talking about you in particular. I am talking about people who never appreciated Pods from the start (aka the people who still don't understand the CLEE trade) OK, sorry I quoted you, then. As my first post in this thread says, I love what he's doing and there's nothing wrong with snaring vets and have them have a great year for a team. All I am saying is I feel he can't be plan A next year for leadoff, or if he is, Plan B has to be strong.

QUOTE (rangercal @ Aug 5, 2009 -> 10:53 PM) ^^^^ I'm getting tired of all the f***ing Einsteins around here who get out their calculators and fancy statistics and bash pods. All I know is when he is healthy, we win. Stick to posting on message boards and let Kenny Williams run this ship. I am so thankful Kenny runs this ship instead of all the Pods,Floyd and Thome bashers. Where do I say not bring him back? I say don't count on him. I do not want the Sox retooling this team and hinging their leadoff and CF'er on a guy who doesn't have the greatest track record. Have backup plans or have Pods as the back up plan. The Sox won a division last year without him based on awesome starting pitching, that's the future of the White Sox, and I think they would be better off trying to get a more consistent leadoff hitter in the fold

If that's true, that's a new rule. I've seen Buffet twice there and both times tailgated.

excellent win! Gavin has been pitching so well lately and Thornton has been nails too. Great to Beckham swinging so well and just keep going.

P&T put on very good shows. It's been a great jumping off point for me on different topics.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Aug 5, 2009 -> 10:06 PM) I hate statements like this. He's having an unbelievable season. Can't we just enjoy it? Pods will give us a huge discount. Nobody is going to pay big bucks for him, considering he hasn't played great anywhere but Chicago in the past few seasons. Plus we have Danks to come up if Scotty sucks, right? We can get him cheap. I wouldn't worry about it now if I was Kenny. Pods is going nowhere. Who is going to offer him much more than we will? We are in the driver's seat on Pods. He was washed up in the eyes of baseball before he returned to the South Side. Pods to start the year with Danks ready to come up? I hate statements like "why can't we just enjoy this year?". I am enjoying the hell out of this year, especially lately, and I think it's great Pods has been such an important part of this team, but there was a thread started about extension for him and my brain is able to process on multiple levels so I gave my opinion. Looking back at his career I think it would be a mistake for the Sox to think he's going to have a similar season next year. If they bring him back great, I just want a solid plan B or Pods is plan B. God, I can't even post my opinion without you jumping down my throat. I am a pretty positive Sox fan, except about Greg Walker, and I post something questioning the logic of bringing back a 30+ OF who has had some injuries and been inconsistent in his career and I get this response?

I love what Pods has been doing this year, but I think it would be a HUGE mistake for KW and the Sox to count on him next year.

QUOTE (almagest @ Aug 4, 2009 -> 11:17 PM) The great Jarrod Washburn wasn't so great today. Looks like the media praise for this deal was perhaps a bit short-sighted. I still think it will be a quality trade for them. It was his first start, I'm sure he had some extra juice pumping, and for a pitcher like him that's not good. He'll come back and give them good starts IMO

I know Strikeforce has been around for a long time, but they're attempting to make a major jump with a different business model, IMO it's not unfair to compare them. Now the difference might be if the Fedor experiment fails they'll have an established fanbase and operating procedure to catch it, but they and their partners are going to have to lay out serious money to attempt to establish Fedor as a marketable name and attempt to break into network or PPV. It's a whole new world of promotion they're entering. It's a different industry, so please allow me some leeway, but Krispy Kreme was a successful regional donut shop, they tried a national expansion and over expanded and had some early success but a major crash thereafter. Looking at a sport, look at the AFL. Pretty successful, then they tried to partner with ESPN to expand and now they're shutting down. Never underestimate a jump. The Dream co-promotion is intriguing, but it goes both ways. Dream will want Diaz, etc. on their shows. A fighter can only fight so many times a year in the U.S. Guys who walk away seemingly unscathed often get 90 day medical suspensions from US ACs, and if you fight during tha suspension, even outside of the US, you run a serious risk of not being licensed again in the US for a long time. Also, if you have Dream co-promoting on a card Fedor is fighting on then you have 3 promoters, which can quickly become a cluster F. The chasm between the UFC and anyone else in the U.S. is insanely large. They're #2 by default but not even in the same league. Actually WEC was doing well before Zuffa bought them and I would imagine rival the box office numbers and viewers Strikeforce does on Showtime. In no way am I rooting against anyone in the situation, I just think with out CBS shows this is a serious uphill battle for this to be a smash success for Fedor/M-1/Strikeforce. Consider they only have Fedor for 1 year at this point. Again, with Werdum, I can guarantee you the UFC would show JDS KO'ing him on a Spike show for weeks leading up to the show and then they will probably put a live show or a rerun of a fresh PPV on the same night. I'm still waiting for them to announce what they'll show next Saturday as Spike has been pretty flexable about them putting things on. I wouldn't be shocked if they put 100 on. The show got enough attention that people won't feel they're getting ripped off by it being shown on standard cable a month later. I don't understand how you're saying Rogers would be a good fight for Fedor and then downplaying Carwin and Cain. http://www.sherdog.com/fighter/Brett-Rogers-16048 http://sherdog.com/fighter/Shane-Carwin-14013 http://sherdog.com/fighter/Cain-Velasquez-19102 Other than his win over AA, who, sorry to say, is not the same fighter he use to be, it's hard to distinguish those records. All 3 good HW prospects, but to say Rogers is somehow a better fight for Fedor at this point, I don't see it. Not to mention if Fedor would have fought in the UFC, Carwin and Rogers would have had another fight or two in the UFC to build their resume.

Have to disagree with you Zen about Dana and the UFC. They caved into EVERYTHING but copromoting, which would have been silly to split 50% with M-1. Dana is rough, but he and Zuffa have made MMA a major player in the U.S. The ratings they get for key demos is crazy. As an MMA fan I wanted Fedor in the UFC. It's the dominant promotion in the U.S. and by most, if not all, HW rankings they have more top 10 HWs, with a good chance of Carwin or Velazquez making a jump in the next year or so when Fedor would have been around. Also, don't under sell Dos Santos. The Dream alliance is intriguing, it will add sorely needed depth to Strikeforce hopefully. We'll see, barring a network deal Strikeforce probably won't make a major jump, because as Bodog, Affliction and PRIDE US proved, Fedor alone can't do it. Midafternoon yesterday, after Fedor's deal had been signed and announced for several hours Meltzer reported that top searches for Yahoo that day were "Ultimate Fighter" at #3 and Fedor was at #88. It's one example, but that is some evidince that the signing didn't cause a major buzz amongst casual fans. So now they're going to have to generate a ton of buzz in a few months for a network not many homes get while the UFC will run many events. Also, say he fights Overeem in that fight, the UFC will run the PRIDE footage of Chuck beating him years back. As MMA fans we realize fighters can progress, but the Affliction wearing casual fan will downgrade Overeem (who I believe only has one "win" over a top 10 HW and that was the Cro Cop win). EDIT: Actually it seems the Cro Cop fight was ruled a NC, but I believe Kharitonov was in the top 10 when he beat him. Also, UFC will have plenty of advanced notice, I would not be shocked if they run a UFN on Spike with a pretty decently sized name as a headliner. (As an earlier posts indicates, I wouldn't be shocked if it's Tito vs. a can or a top LW vs. KenFlo if he loses Saturday). As great as a fighter Fedor is, the facts are he hasn't had a major impact in the U.S. marketplace. The Bodog fight against Lindland are reportadly epically low, like under 20k, and the Afflictions weren't huge either, and one can reasonably argue that AA was a bigger US draw than Fedor at that point.