SoxFan562004

QUOTE (Greg Hibbard @ Jul 23, 2009 -> 11:25 AM) Jim has great stats in terms of OBP and OPS, but consider this...out of his 57 walks this season, he's only scored on 11 of them. So, how valuable are his walks, really? I bring up this point because his batting average is pretty low these days, and I don't think with the way the team is constructed, him walking with say 2 outs is particularly advantageous to the club, because of his station to station nature as well as the station to station nature of the heart of the order. Sure, in the bottom of the eighth or ninth when we can pinch run, it's useful. If his batting average were a bit higher, I'd say go for it, but it's likely to regress further, even if he continues to take walks. The walks that are propping up his OPS just aren't that useful. His RBI+R are And I love this man and would love to keep him...but realistically we need to get out after 2009. I agree he's not scoring on his walks, but if Thome goes the Sox need to bring another OBP guy who takes a lot of pitches in. To me an underated part of his game is helping get pitch counts up. As much as he's hated on this board, last year when the Sox had Swisher, Q and Thome in that was 3 guys willing to take pitches, and I think it helped get starters pitch counts up and into the pen quicker, which is a major help. In 06 and 07 I saw too many SPs going deep into the games and making easy pen decisions for the Sox opponents

It will be interesting. I love Thome and Dye both, but not sure if I want both back next year. Dye at least give the Sox flexability with a DH who can play the field, and if brought back, would like to see him get a ton of work at 1b in ST. That way nagging injuries to others and interleague is helped by having a flexible DH. However, Thome is still putting the numbers up and like Steve points out, probably a bat we wouldn't miss until it's gone. If you get rid of either you have to bring in another impact bat. Personally I would see what the Nats want for Dunn's last year on his contract, but there's obviously other guys out there

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Jul 22, 2009 -> 11:08 PM) That's maybe 20 homers from your left handed hitters, and it's possibly not even that. That's not a left-handed presence in the lineup at all. I'm also not down with just handing anything to Pods going into ST next year. He's been awesome so far this year, but nothing in his career says the White Sox should count on this from him next year

http://www.mmaweekly.com/absolutenm/templa...06&zoneid=2 Meltzer saying $500k to the guy who replaces Barnett

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Jul 22, 2009 -> 10:46 PM) I saw Fregosi at the game tonight. I wonder if he's looking at the Sox or Rays or both. who is he working for these days?

wasn't their a site who said the Sox still had a chance to lose the division after they clinched it or something goofy like that?

great win, with a great AB by Beckham and Alexei to hit it hard. Thorton with a great job too. I wonder what's up with Dotel, either Ozzie has lost faith in him, he's hurt or the Sox have him involved in trade talks.

QUOTE (Princess Dye @ Jul 22, 2009 -> 06:23 PM) For next year we should sign Holliday for RF, stick Dye at DH. Then we have Getz, AJ and Pods still as lefties I would be down for that. If Dye is brought back as DH I would like the Sox to work him out at 1b in ST, it would be good for rests and nagging injuries to have a DH that could play OF and 1b. I love Thome, but sometimes it hurts that he can only DH

QUOTE (Brian @ Jul 22, 2009 -> 06:11 PM) Read numerous things about Oakland is fine with getting the draft picks for Holliday and are not urgent to trade him. true, he'll be the highest, but they'll get some calls

looks like Matt Holliday is doing Beane a favor and getting hot leading up to the deadline

http://www.sherdog.com/news/news/csac-barn...r-steroid-18671 CSAC says it was steroids! Good job Josh!

QUOTE (zenryan @ Jul 22, 2009 -> 05:39 PM) I'm suppose to be house sitting for a friend for 10 days starting tomorrow. I was all excited to order this event, have some people come over and what not. Now who knows if its even worth the hassle. it will be, but I'm a Gomi mark and the Sobral/Mousasi fight has potential. I don't have HDNET, so I wouldn't mind seeing them move the Lauzon/Horodecki fight up to the main card now. http://www.mmaweekly.com/absolutenm/templa...0&zoneid=14

QUOTE (dasox24 @ Jul 22, 2009 -> 04:23 PM) I don't know why Nike/LeBron made such a big deal out of this in the 1st place. So what if he got dunked on? LeBron would absolutely destroy this Crawford kid if they were playing for real. If they had just let the videos come out, I don't think people would be making as big of a deal over it as now. Now everyone is going to know about it and want to see this video, even if it is from a camera phone. yeah, I saw it on ESPN when I was at the gym, and it's not like Lebron strongly challenged the guy, he kind of was lazily drifting back, the kid accelerated and Lebron gave an effort at the end, not bad at all really. Wasn't there a story that Artest was throwing around MJ at some point before he came back for the Wizards?

QUOTE (zenryan @ Jul 22, 2009 -> 05:26 PM) Ken Shamrock has thrown his name out there now! hahaha f*** it, this main event is screwed anyways so lets see Shammy get destroyed. OMG, i would say the NSAC would never sanction that fight at this point in Shammy's career, but they sanctioned that last Cyborg fight, so you never know. This screwed Affliction horribly and they're doing the best they can. He might also get cut warming up too.

QUOTE (zenryan @ Jul 22, 2009 -> 05:17 PM) I think Barnett is more of a threat than any of those guys. He is a big guy who if he got Fedor down he could avoid getting submitted. Vitor would probably be giving 15-20 pounds to Fedor. Vitor has never won a big fight. Not counting the fluke cut vs Couture. Lashley would get the take down but would be submitted within minutes. Rogers has some steam right now but I dont see him as a threat to Fedor. He has only beaten 1 fight worth noting and Fedor could end the fight in 2 minutes if he decided to go to the ground. Sucks that Overeem is healing his injury. Shoot, I think I'd be pretty excited for a Fedor/Roger Gracie fight if he wasnt dealing with the health problem of his kid. Only fight that really makes any sense is Vitor or me. I'd be willing to take a 30 second beating for 30k. Well Arona makes a ton of sense to me, but I imagine getting him sanctioned in time and the fact he has zero name value in the US past hardcores made that a non-issue. I would imagine that Vitor's people talked to Zuffa and they said they would still be interested in him at 185 no matter what happens, and if he pulls out a victory, which hey, it's MMA, you never know, he can tell Zuffa to back the truck up to his house. Sounds like there's a ton of red tape with Rogers and if that's not the matchup that's why. I'm out of town that weekend and was going to TiVo it, but two of the big fights I wanted to see were Fedor/Barnett and Vitor/Santiago, I'm a huge MMA fan so I'll likely just still get it. that 15-20 pounds is even bigger considering he was cutting to 185. He had to have a camp focused on that weight, I would have been more interested in the fight if he had a camp where he was prepping to come in at, 210-215

QUOTE (Kenny Hates Prospects @ Jul 22, 2009 -> 04:45 PM) I hope it's: 1. Belfort 2. Lashley 3. Rogers 4. anyone else If it's any of the first three then I am immediately much more excited about the fight than I'd be if it were Barnett as scheduled. At least Belfort has big speed and power, Lashley has very strong wrestling, and Rogers has sick power. Barnett has nothing that can even come close to challenging Fedor anywhere IMO, he's just well-rounded. Would still take Fedor via KO over all of them, but I think those guys are more dangerous for him, especially on short notice. Meltzer is saying that Tompkins, one of Belfort's trainers, said Belfort has signed a contract, so it sounds like it will be him. I have a ton of respect for Belfort, but this fight doesn't really excite me because it's a guy who was cutting and training for a 185 fight in eleven days jumping up to take it. I have a ton of respect for him, but as a MMA fan, it doesn't really excite me too much. Belfort has big power I agree, but Fedor's fought HWs with big power for HWs. Fedor will swarm him and put on a sambo clinic and get it to the ground. This really hurts Affliction, not that one PPV was going to turn them around, but Barnett was ranked in basically all top 5 HWs, and don't underestimate well rounded, those are the guys that can sneak up on you. Worth noting that Meltzer said they haven't tested the B sample, so there's a small chance, but never in CSAC history has the B sample been different than the A sample.

tmz bought a tape of Lebron getting dunked on that Nike didn't know about when they took the other tapes. Still on their site, video will be shown at 5:45 central

Brett Rogers is another name being thrown around

QUOTE (zenryan @ Jul 22, 2009 -> 12:52 PM) RIP Affliction Wonder if Dana got to CSAC... Seriously? I highly doubt he would risk criminal charges and being banned from ever being allowed within 1000ft of another U.S. AC sanctioned event to try and take down a company that is most likely running their last high payroll event.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jul 22, 2009 -> 10:41 AM) No. They can currently hold out fora similar price to what they got for Sabathia, and they're not going to get that. His contract for next year (can't remember if it's a team option or what the status is) is also really reasonable. If you're Cle and look at the division right now, with some health next year they can be right in it

multiple websites are reporting Josh Barnett is out, or at least the match is in jeopardy, of the Aug. 1 Affliction fight against Fedor. (Edit: Attencio now confirming Barnett is out) mmaweekly aludes to a "positive test" and he can't get licensed in CA. Talk about Lashley taking the fight, but Lashley said he hasn't been training much since his last fight and isn't sure he would want it at this point. Belfort is the other name being thrown around. I mean, I guess, but he is eleven days out from a planned 185 cut. Also, it would make sense for his camp to somehow get Zuffa's feeling on it. If Zuffa says they don't care if he loses at HW, and they still want him at 185 after this event, then he should take it, but if they indicate they wouldn't want a part of him if he loses to Fedor, then it would make good sense for Belfort to turn it down. I imagine they can't "officially" talk to Zuffa, but there's ways. Tito is a name, but I'm not sure on the the status of his back, I think I remember hearing he wouldn't be available to the fall, and also from a business standpoint, 11 days notice to fight one of, if not the best P4P fighter on earth? Wouldn't make much sense and eleven days to promote it wouldn't bring a great return. Werdum is a reasonable. Overeem pulled out of his Aug. 15th fight with him on Strikeforce due to an injury, so it's realistic for him to be ready and sanctioned in 11 days

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Jul 21, 2009 -> 03:12 PM) Part of the neat little trick with those cameras is, since they didn't want to put in a robust appeals process, they made then non-moving violation fines. So it doesn't go on your record as a traffic ticket, its more like a parking ticket. So definitely no arrest warrants. ah excellent, the county (McHenry) I worked in when I was a PD we only did misdos so wasn't sure how the red lights were classified, so yeah, no moving violation no warrant and no 2 sups in a year to worry about. Only real thing I could think of is they take judgment and it messes with your credit a little. But I do stress to change your address ASAP, they can suspend.

QUOTE (SoxFanForever @ Jul 21, 2009 -> 03:14 PM) Yeah, that is pretty weak. Hendo definitely deserves a rematch. I guess we will have to see him go through Rich before that happens though. If Franklin somehow wins what is next for him? A fight against another 205er or a rematch with Silva where he gets murdered again? they could say Hendo gets a 185 shot no matter what happens at the 205 bout, and since Silva's fighting in Aug and Hendo in Sept, it really wouldn't delay it barring a major injury from one of the two.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jul 21, 2009 -> 04:25 PM) Garcia's arm really started falling off in 2006, and then he added an extra pitch that seemed to work great for a few months, but also may have been the final straw. I think an argument could be made the WBC didn't help

well, hate for him to miss any starts, but when I first saw "missed start" I was dreading shoulder or elbow, so blister I can live with