Chisoxfn

QUOTE (maggsmaggs @ May 26, 2008 -> 10:18 AM) I saw some highlights of Alonso, and when he runs, it looks like he has weights on his feet. Slow kid. Might put up good numbers, but I hate guys that are so slow. I agree with your picks there, Smoak gives us a tremendous three hitter who will be a big time power guy, walk a ton, I question whether he will be a .300+ hitter, but his other numbers will be great. Beckham seems like a great five hitter, but people are questioning his ability to stick at short which is key, but then others have said he can, so that will be interesting. Wallace might be the best pure hitter of all of the guys, seems like a Todd Helton-type if Helton didn't play in Coors. Crow would be real interesting for me because he is a Mizzou guy and he is a guy who could succeed in the bullpen immediately this year and then start in the minors the following year. Wishful thinking, but I think he could be a solid pitcher in the pen for the Sox with a mid 90's fastball with movement that he commands tremendously, a great slider and solid change. When it comes to Beckham in the clips I've seen he shows good range and a strong arm. I think he can stick there. Still, given that guys like Brandon Crawford should be around in the 3rd, I wouldn't have a problem going for a more raw/toolsy shortstop/middle infielder later on and going with the pure sluggers (who also appear to hit for average, so these guys aren't Adam Dunn's; just want to point out that I'm not being a hypocrite because I've made it clear that I hate pure sluggers in the sense that all they do is draw walks and hit for power; they also have to hit for an average to be worthwhile in my book). Wallace has a sweet swing and shows some good power too. It could turn into a stellar pick because like Smoak he has very few holes in his game at this point which should lead to a quick path to the majors and they also have the ability to be game changing offensive players at the big league level. Wallace and Smoak are both better athletes by a long shot than Alonso (he looks slower than Paulie for god sakes).

QUOTE (Chet Lemon @ May 26, 2008 -> 06:37 AM) Obviously if the team is in good position at the ASB (and they should be), trading Contreras wouldn't make much sense. I do believe that he is a ticking time bomb right now, and will likely blow up in the second half of the season. It seems to be a trend that he pitches well for one half of the season, then pitches lousy the other half. I appreciate Contreras and given the fact that he's a consummate pro, I do not wish to see him gone, yet my head tells me that it will be hard to watch him in the second half. The only way trading Contreras makes sense is if the Sox are significantly upgrading the lineup. Otherwise, we hope he keeps things up and Kenny can move him this off-season (and I think that is the ideal scenario, you get an above average season from Count and than move him for a couple valuable pieces in the off-season).

Thankfully not. Going to be studying though.

I actually watched a lot of clips of Wallace yesterday and my opinion is changing. He's in my better shape than when I saw him a year or two ago. My flaw with Alonso is out of all of the guys he seems to have the least athletic build. I'm now leaning, Smoak/Beckham/Wallace if we go the college route & Skipworth if we go the prep route. I would take Crow if he somehow fell to us (But I can't see the Reds passing up on him).

A Stanford vs Fullerton Super Regional would be awesome. Those two teams are big time rivals and are the epitome of college baseball on the west coast. I'm going to hope that it happens.

QUOTE (maggsmaggs @ May 26, 2008 -> 09:51 AM) Kyle Pederson names top 5 pitchers to watch and Aaron Crow not one of them. Wow. Great analysis. Yes, I am a homer, but he is a top 10 pick and he picks Andrew Oliver from OK State over Crow. I was stunned not to see Crow. Than again, they listed top hitters and you didn't see Pedro Alvarez in there (although that could be because statistically he isn't). Crow is 12-0 though and I sure as hell wouldn't want to face him or Matsuz.

QUOTE (daa84 @ May 26, 2008 -> 09:44 AM) they still havent posted the bracket online...im not by a tv, can you tell me where vandy ended up if you saw it or remember I don't remember, but they were a 2 and had a tough #1 seed in there bracket IIRC. Jesus, Mizzu/Miss, two of the best rotations in the country. Going to be a rough run for Miami as the overall #1.

Wow, making it tough on Miami. They get to deal with Mizzu. Titans get UCLA/Virginia as the 2 & 3's in there conference. They've played well against the Bruins this season, but there is no doubting UCLA's talent (preseason #1).

Selection show starts in 5 on espn.

QUOTE (Kenny Hates Prospects @ May 25, 2008 -> 09:29 PM) I see. Bureau hasn't been banned has he? I hope he can still post here and at least give us updates on our prospects. No one was banned.

QUOTE (CaliSoxFanViaSWside @ May 25, 2008 -> 08:06 PM) Sox talk always seems generally excited over 2 things, young power pitchers and young power hitters. When we got Aardsma, Sisco and whoever else KW got for the 06 pen this place was loving it. I remember making a post about experience and the wildness of unproven youth and was pretty much flamed. Gotta love CQ though. He seems like the real deal. Remember, while those guys didn't end up panning out and throwing strikes, the big flaw with last years Sox (along with the pen) had to do with the veteran hitters that couldn't do anything worth a damn. Heck, even this year, the biggest problem with the club has to do with its veteran players. The young guys (Danks/Floyd/Quentin/Ramirez (as of late) have all done a great job.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ May 25, 2008 -> 08:01 PM) I would very much like to have a sexy time with Carlos Quentin. I don't think it's an impossibility to think that he could be the best offensive prospect that the DBacks had in their system...at this point in time, the only other player you could make an argument for is Justin Upton. I think you could probably make a case for Stephen Drew as well. Long term, Drew, like Upton & Quentin are going to be stellar ballplayer. Of course I don't know if Drew would have been considered a prospect still at that time, considering he was playing in the majors while Quentin/Upton were in the minors. I would also say that Upton is freakishly good. He has such ridiculous bat speed/athletism.

Salmon with a seafood rub (purchased from costco, so nothing fancy or anything, just a low sodium rub) with squeeze lemon juice on it. Broil at 440 for about 17-18 minutes (change time based on thickness, but this is for a relatively thick salmon fillet). Brown rice (uncle bens stovetop, takes like 12 minutes, sprinkle a little parmessan on it for flavor; if I get creative, use chicken broth to make the rice a little more flavorful). Microwaved veggies (from a bag) and a spinach salad (from a bag). Damn tasty and if you are eating for yourself just make a little extra and have it two nights. Damn delicous and I don't know how Salmon prices are around you, but over here its usually on sale for pretty cheap (and is such a tasty/easy fish to cook). Takes about 30 minutes of overall work (including cooking time).

QUOTE (daa84 @ May 25, 2008 -> 07:39 PM) well we gave up Carter, who was a A ball 1b...and at the time was our position player prospect....not sure that anyone complained about it too much, but there were plenty of people who wanted quentin to have no part of the roster and wanted owens to start because he is fast Most of those people were on Ozzie's coaching staff and not Soxtalk. In fact, I remember most everyone being downright excited over the Quentin acquisition, much like most of Soxtalk was exstatic over a minor acquisition made by Kenny before the start of the 05 season (Bobby Jenks being claimed off waivers).

QUOTE (Brian @ May 25, 2008 -> 07:36 PM) People actually complained about the CQ deal? We gave up a AA catcher who may never see the majors. Technically speaking, the Sox gave up there best power hitting prospect (personally speaking, Carter is a better power prospect than Fields, albeit more raw). The Dbacks than packaged Carter in a deal with the A's which landed Haren and Carter is amongst the minor league leaders in HR's. I just want to point this out. I'd make the deal 1000 out of 1000 times though and thats because while Carter is a very good prospect he was still a few years from the majors and Quentin was an all star type prospect who was ready to contribute now and filled a position of greater need (OF compared to 1B, where Carter will inevitably be stuck at).

As great as Carlos has been, I want to point out that without this rotation, you'd be looking at possibly the worse team in baseball. All I can say is that hopefully Q keeps kicking ass and that some of the other bats finger things out (or Kenny finds other guys who can). And to the pitching...keep on being BOSS!!!!

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ May 25, 2008 -> 06:13 PM) This reminds me of Jordan and his early years with the Bulls. We've got exactly one guy we can count on right now. And 5 guys in the rotation and a few in the pen.

QUOTE (BigEdWalsh @ May 25, 2008 -> 06:10 PM) The last time Linebrink gave up a run was April 28 in the 3-3 tie game. His velocity is up too. He looks freaking awesome on the mound. That was the most jacked I've been over a Sox HR since the playoff run in 05.

QUOTE (daa84 @ May 25, 2008 -> 06:07 PM) i dont remember if contreras has ever had 10 Ks with us He was dominant for a while and was getting a lot of K's. I'd be surprised if he didn't have a 10K plus game. This game ain't over people. Lackey pitched a good one, Sox pen is gonna have to man up now and hopefully the offense can muster up enough runs to win this (hopefully all it takes is one more run by the Sox).

QUOTE (Brian @ May 25, 2008 -> 06:03 PM) Not much you can do when our batters are having 1 or 2 pitch ABs. I thought Alexei's was in the gap for sure. If Dye were playing RF for the Angels it would have dropped by 10 feet. Matthews Jr is freaking stellar defensively.

QUOTE (daa84 @ May 25, 2008 -> 05:51 PM) AJ, Crede, Uribe, Ramirez and even OC are guys who simple dont work pitchers...we have too many guys in this lineup liek that....the fact that konerko, thome and swisher are the only ones who really do is really tough when those guys are scuffling like they are OC has actually worked pitchers pretty well. He may not draw a ton of walks, but he's pretty effective at fouling pitches off and as a result working pitchers. I would agree with the other guys fitting that case. Heck, I'd actually compare OC and Dye in the sense that neither work pitchers tremendously well but they do a decent job of it (and shouldn't be in the same sentence as the other guys).

QUOTE (greg775 @ May 25, 2008 -> 05:44 PM) Do we have one good hitter on this team? And that's it? I'm starting to think so. Dye & AJ have been good. I realize AJ is in a funk, but you wouldn't be hitting what they were at this point in the season if they were bad hitters. The bright side is OC is looking as good as he has with the Sox.

QUOTE (fathom @ May 25, 2008 -> 05:43 PM) Anyone following the Reds game? Nothing like pitching your young superstar on 2 days rest in the 18th inning. Technically speaking, this would have been a day where he'd probably do a bullpen session. f***, DP.

That would have been a great catch given how much ground he had to cover to get there. Too bad, now the Angels are in a prime spot to take the lead.

QUOTE (Brian @ May 25, 2008 -> 05:33 PM) You're being generous. I honestly have not seen a more pathetic batter in some time. Swisher is right up there in terms of futility though, not going to lie.