bigred3535

The about that is although Gossage and Sutter invented it, Eck perfected it.

Hey calm down man, it was just a joke. And anyway, Wells sucked for no good reason. You can say it was management, or injuries or whatever, but the fact is he sucked once he got here and didn't once he left. Ritchie didn't suck nearly to the degree did here before he arrived. Colon was 6-9 with a 4.36 ERA in mid-July, and was never more than two games over .500 for the entire season. He had a 4.97 ERA in June and a 4.50 ERA in August. He was brilliant at the end of the season but I don't believe that we got nearly what we bargained for. I just named it after Blackjack McDowell since he was the last pitcher the Sox had that dominated for more than one season, not because he matched the criteria. As for Loaiza, he was never good and Gordon hadn't been good for several seasons. I specifically said that I was referring to pitchers who were good when they came here. Anyway, whatever, I don't really care that much, like I said I was only joking around.

I'd do that. Anyone know what Washburn's contract is?

Of the players you named Sweeney and Gonzalez both have injury problems year after year and odds are that at least one of them will not play in 120 games. Rnada is no better than Crede and also had injury problems last year. Rondell White signed with the Tigers in mid-December. Berroa was good last year, I'll concede that. Harvey had worse numbers than Konerko in about the same number of at-bats. The Royals bullpoen looks like it will be very good, but they do not have an All-Star caliber starter to anchor the rotation (although Runelvys Hernandez may step up) and all their starters are average at best. As for praising their manager because of one great season let me remind you that JM won the Manager of the Year award in 2000.... Stop building them up like they're unbeatable because they're clearly not. I for one will try to remain optomistic until the season starts and we see how these teams actually do.

I think that was a rumor at the beginning of the off-season before Anaheim spent loads on Escobar, Colon and Guillen. I haven't heard anything about it recently. Plus the Halos won't give up K-Rod, which I'm sure is who the Sox would have wanted.

Koch ain't much taller than Wagner and he used to hit 98 consistently before the curse of being with the White Sox hit him. Screw the Curse of the Bambino, look what we do to good pitchers when they come here from another team: Wells ucked, Ritchie sucked more, Colon sucked for most of the season. I shall call it the Curse of Blackjack McDowell.

I'd take him out of the bullpen, but not as a starter. I doubt he'd be much more productive than Cotts, Diaz, Rauch, etc. I'd take him over Schoenweiss, though. By the way I've decided writing Schoenweiss is too hard so from now on we should all refer to him as "The Show."

Dawson should make it. He was dominating. I think Ryno should too. I'm glad to see the voters don't have their heads up their asses and voted 13 people ahead of Don Mattingly (who was a good player, but not nearly as good as his reputation, since he was a Yank). There are some great players there who should probably make it in, but probably never will (Morris, Blyleven and Trammel being my three choices besides the two I mentioned above). Of course, I never got to see some of those guys play, so I don't know their games. They may deserve it more than I think.

Indians acquire relief pitcher Scott Stewart: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2004/base...a.ap/index.html Damn it, that's a guy the Sox really could have used. A workhorse set-up man whose ERA is consistently under 4.00. Get off your ass and do something Kenny! We definitely could have offered better than what the Indians gave the Expos.

I think KW's plan is to start a lot of rumors (Maggs to Dodgers, Ponson, Politte) so people think he's trying to make the team better, when really he's sitting on his hands so Reinsdorf won't fire him for going over payroll. Man...I didn't mean to sound that bitter...

I forgot Grebeck. I liked him way better than Tony G. He was just a small, scrappy player and that's what I liked about him. I was impressed with Mouton when whe came up too but he never really got a shot at a starting job.

I live in Tucson and I haven't heard anything about a move, so hopefully it's just a rumor. I would be mighty disappointed to have to make the drive to Phoenix if I wanted to see the Sox. I'm inclined to say that the Sox are going to stay though because the relatively new Tucson facility is much nicer than any they have in Tempe. Of course, Reinsdorf's a cheap bastard so he's probably looking for lower rent (and somewhere where attendance figures won't compete with the hometown Diamondbacks and he can ride the coattails of the Cubs by scheduling more Chicago on Chicago games). The coolest thing about having Spring Training here is you can go to the workouts before games even get started and the players are just reporting. You can to see them much closer up and can talk to them at the end and stuff. A couple years back I got Big Frank's, Ray Ray's and a couple other guys' autographs in a situation like that and got to chat with them for a while. If you're coming down to Tucson I would definitely recommend doing that. Also get Mexican food in South Tucson. Yummmm....

Mike Lavalliere (or however you spell that)...mostly beacuse his nickname was Spanky. Norberto Martin was a good one, too. But definitely the most underappreciated Sox player is Tim Raines. That goes for every team he was one. He is arguably the second best leadoff man of all time, but he just got stuck playing his entire career in the shadow of the best one. I think a lot of guys from the mid-90s teams are underappreciated, by the way.

I noticed Van Hekken, too, but thought anyone who wasn't good enough for the Tigers probably shouldn't be signed. Anyway, back to Simon. It doesn't matter if Simon is great in clutch situations in September because the Sox have to get to situations like that first by playing well earlier in the year, and Konerko has a much better capacity to do that. Yes, he was absolutely miserable last year April-June but if you look at his three year splits (even with last year included) he is excellent in June (.981 OPS), very good in April (.877) and below average in May (.624 OPS). So if you disregard last year's stats in 2002 his April-May-June splits were .949-.802-1.151 and his 2001 splits were .974-.533-.1.119. As far as someone saying that Simon is young enough to improve, Konerko is younger and his a higher potential to improve over last year. Somone also said Paul struggles against righties. With the exception of last year he's always hit rights better or at least as well as he's hit lefties. Even if there is an opportunity to unload Paul and sign Simon the Sox shouldn't do it because his market value is so low right now the'd get nothing in return and would live to regret it anyway, since odds are pretty good he's going to rebound and have a another typical, .850+ OPS Paul season, whereas odds are good that Simon will not surpass a .780 OPS, since he's never done that while playing more than 90 games. Paul's also better in the field than Simon.

Well, I think that KW has a deal in place with Vlad Guerrero to sign for somewhere around 10 mil per year. He's going to spin Nomar to LA for Perez and prospects, stick Vlad in at right, Perez in the three spot in the rotation and the Sox will finally get that World Series title next year. Well, I better get back to my half-empty bottle of vodka and beer-can-bong.

It was kind of a pipe dream that KW would sign someone decent at a low price anyway. I do think Beane might have overpaid for Redman though. Last year was by far his best, so I don't think he can be necessarily counted on to do the same thing again. I think he does have the potential to do it again, but that's a lot of money for a team like Oakland, too, especially one that's going to have to try to re-sign their big three in a couple years. Redman now makes more than Zito and Mulder combined.

Simon is no better than Konerko! If people think it's ridiculous to pay 8 million to Konerko why do they think it's better to pay 2 million to a backup first basemen or 10 million to a first base platoon. Sticking with Koney and hoping he comes back from last year is the best choice. Simon's stats last year: .276 BA, 16 home runs, 17 doubles, 72 RBI, 16 walks, 37 K's, .309 OBP, .743 OPS Paul's Stats last year: .234 BA, 18 home runs, 19 doubles, 65 RBI, 43 walks, 50 K's, .305 OBP, .704 OPS The biggest difference between the two is that Paul has had one All-Star caliber season, and four good seasons before that. Simon is no safer bet than Paul. He's had two seasons at the above level (including last year) so a dip in his stats is more likely than Paul's was last year, whereas a significant increase in his stats is far less likely than Paul. The Sox need to concentrate on getting bullpen help, a starter and a second baseman, not a mediocre first baseman (especially since those are more readily available than the others).

I don't think Anderson would be much of an upgrade over Harris/Uribe. He probably wouldn't be much of an upgrade in most categories, just older and slower. The Sox should pursue other second base options over him. It would be better to take a chance and spend money on the other three since they all have more upside than Anderson.

The problem with Simon replacing Daubach is that Daubs could play the corner outfield and corner infield spots. As far as I know, Simon is a 1B only. He's also likely to cost more than Daubach did last year since he'll probably get more than the non-guaranteed minor league contract that KW gave Daubach. Rotoworld says the Pirates are interested in bringing him back, so if that's true the Sox should go after someone else since a) Any competition wll drive up his price to the point where it's not worth it and B) he'd probably prefer the Pirates anyway since he'd be more likely to get a starting spot there. Face the facts people, Konerko is probably not going anywhere and he's a better option than anybody available right now anyway.

Signed with the A's.

I was just browsing and saw these. I don't know if they've been posted yet or not (I don't think so): LHP Valerio De Los Santos (Phillies) IF/OF Russel Branyan (Reds) OF Ruben Mateo (Reds) OF Reggie Taylor (Reds) LHP Nate Bland (Astros) 1B Randall "Sausage-Beater" Simon (Cubs) I wouldn't mind seeing the Sox pick up De Los Santos for bullpen help. He was always pretty decent with the Brewers.

Going back to the original topic of this thread, there's no way in hell that the A's want Jose. a) They've already got a top shorstop prospect in Crosby they want to play there next year. B) Jose doesn't walk. c) He also doesn't hit for average. d) Or play good defense. e) And he makes too much money to justify his performance (which is precisely why the Sox don't want him in the first place). There is absolutely no way in hell KW could convince Beane to give us anything at all decent for him, plus we'd undoubtedly end up paying part of his salary.

Whether or not the Sox sign Ponson (which I really hope they do) or Garcia or anyone else, I would hope the Danny Wright isn't in the rotation next year. He already proved last season he's more effective in relief and amy even be a closer option since he has some nasty stuff. Assuming the Sox sign no starters before Spring Training (No, God no!) Here's my tentative rotation: 1. Loaiza 2. Buehrle 3. Garland 4. and 5. Schoenweiss/Cotts/Rauch/Diaz/Grilli The way I see it, it's better to have a mediocre lefthander (Schoenweiss) than a mediocre righty (Wright) just to throw some variety at opponents. After that, I'd rather see them try to inject some new blood into the rotation than go with the same old guy that seems to have hit his ceiling. All four prospects there have a very high potential and if one of them can meet it and have a very good season, or two of them can have decent seasons, I'd say it's worth the risk to keep Dan in the bullpen. But if none of them can beat him out for a rotation spot in Spring Training than maybe he'll surprise everyone. Who knows?

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=1689677 So much for that idea. I wasn't really looking forward to him as closer next season anyway. He was pretty crappy the second half of last season. Unless we get Williamson it looks like it may be Koch or Marte next season, and I don't really htink Rhodes would have been that much better than either of those guys.

Why should we focus on getting a fifth starter when there is more than one 2-3 starter available? Don't make no sense...