Chisoxfn

That secondary description fits what I've heard about Rasner. Basically a guy that is really projectable. Whether he'll develop the secondary stuff and add velocity (which many scouts think he can do) we'll have to see. But the guy has some ability.

Can you post the snippets from Rogers? I never saw that.

QUOTE(bmags @ Jan 10, 2007 -> 02:36 PM) now, i would never need this for, well through college, but in my mind, if i was in the market for a blackberry, why would i not pay 50 extra bucks for this? Considering it would replace your ipod as well this would be pretty nifty. Plus I'm sure prices would come down a bit.

QUOTE(NorthSideSox72 @ Jan 10, 2007 -> 10:09 AM) When I think "athlete", that does not necessarily mean "skilled". Michael Jordan was a phenomenal athlete who sucked, for the most part, at baseball. But he was SUCH a phenomenal athlete that even without the individual skills he needed, he sort of got by in AA baseball. My point is NOT that Jerry Owens is anything near MJ in any way, shape or form. Its that athleticism can sometimes help to overcome specific skill deficiences. Owens seems to be a guy who they are hoping for exactly that. He has a lot of raw talent that may nor may not translate to the skills he needs, but that talent is strong enough that it might work (and, looking at his minor league career thus far, it is in fact working to some extent). The thing is, Jordan was not a good athlete baseball wise. Baseball athletism is different than other sports. It factors in having a rocket arm (bball players don't need that), great speed, tremendous power (bball players don't need this and this doesn't necessarily coincide with being strong, just look at Soriano who I'm sure is strong, but not near as strong as other guys, but he has tremendous power due to the swing speed and flat out mechanics of his swing). Jerry Owens has a piss poor arm, absolutely zero power. Basically he has good speed. Thats not what I call being an athlete in baseball. He is getting by because he's a decent player in the minor leagues (and there are zillions of those guys at every level and very few will ever play in the majors). The guy is absolutely nothing special and the only way for him to be special is if he ends up developing an absolutely beautiful swing and hitting for a high average. Now, Vladdy Guerro in the minors is what I'd call an athlete. Or Felix Pie (even though he's a bit over-rated). You are talking about guys whose stats may not stand out as they are getting by on athletism, but they have every single tool in the books (and you just have to hope that they will develop the baseball skills to put those tools to full use). Jerry Owens has one tool and one tool players rarely have success at the major league level (sometimes if your that good defensively at a position where defense is a major need...SS/C/CF or if you can hit 50 HR's, you will find a way to start or get a significant role playing job but otherwise you are pretty much screwed). Most teams have little desire for a fast backup outfielder that can't play any defense or hit (especially when his base running abilities are average at best which negatively impact his one tool). I hate to be overly harsh NS, but I think you are completely off on Owens and he's probably the one player I target more than anyone because I see too many people think he has this amazing skill set when in reality it couldn't be further from the truth (it was like people thinking highly of a kid named Miller because BA said he threw easy heat...turns out BA was full of crap and the guy topped out at 88-90 and eventually faded away).

QUOTE(southsider2k5 @ Jan 10, 2007 -> 10:54 AM) As does Lee Smith, in the Eddie Murray consistancy genre. Is Smith eligible already? I imagine he should be, but maybe I'm wrong, because the guy definitely deserves to be in the HOF (2nd most saves in baseball history). He was the steadiest closer of his time and aside from Rivera and Hoffman I can't name two other closers that were steadier ever.

Considering the market its not too bad of a move if they are fairly confident he can get healthy. The guy was one of the better left handed pitchers in all of baseball when healthy and is still relatively young. The Cards have money and I think this is a good move, especially since I think in 08 (if healthy) at 8 mill bucks you have a bargain. Of course by taking that chance you also have the risk that he stinks (but heck I'd rather have him than Ted Lilly or Gil Meche and those guys are getting more and already stink, even when healthy).

QUOTE(IlliniKrush @ Jan 10, 2007 -> 01:00 PM) Win or you might as well board up the Hall for the rest of the season. If you can't beat Iowa at home (I bet we're favored by around 10) after a losing streak like this...enough said. If we shoot with our eyes closed tonight we'll probly have a better % than we did against OSU. I want to see if Iowa comes out flat on the road. We all know how tough it is to play on the road in the Big 10, especially at Assembly Hall. Even with you guys struggling a bit, you are still a more talented team than my Hawkeyes (at least with the Hawkeyes still waiting for a consistent 3rd scorer). However, if Iowa plays like it did against MSU well we may just have a game. Too bad this thing isn't televised nationally cause I'd love to catch it. GO Hawkeyes!!!!!

Wow, I'm left speachless. I need to send a message to my Giant buddy. Ridiculous.

Big game for the Hawkeyes tonight against the vast majority of this boards Fightin Illini.

QUOTE(T R U @ Jan 10, 2007 -> 09:10 AM) Oh man, Rhett Bomar is in my Raquetball class.. I think I am gonna give him crap about his OU shenanigans

Phenomenal athlete is what he is not. If Owens was a phenomenal athlete he'd be one of those 5 tool players and he would have been playing in the major leagues already. He's a good athlete in certain area's (weak arm and is not near as fast as some of you guys make him out to be...Willie Harris was fast and was three times the ball player Owens was and we saw what he did at the major league level).

Shaun of the Dead was great so I'll definitely have to check this out.

QUOTE(danman31 @ Jan 9, 2007 -> 05:37 PM) Not to combat the Duke bashing, but I haven't noticed a HD game for them yet. The Va Tech game might have been, but that was ABC and I missed it. CBS is the first to do HD games this year that I've seen. I believe the LSU UConn game was the first HD game this year for the ESPNs. Maybe all there camera's were being taken up by college football? Still no excuse, imo, because they should televise every major sporting event in HD.

If Garret Anderson can find a way to get healthy for a few seasons, he has a shot at being an Angel his entire career (since no one would take his contract) and if he did get healthy he'd have a shot at 3000 hits which would obviously get him in.

Last years was ridiculously over-crowded (my guess is this years won't be as bad in that area).

Next year will be as good a year as any for Goosage to finally get in. In addition, anyone else that hasn't gotten on even though they may deserve it would have there best shot next year, since next years class lacks total star power.

QUOTE(bmags @ Jan 9, 2007 -> 01:42 PM) i liked jill from home improvement. Yes, I'm so in on that.

QUOTE(NorthSideSox72 @ Jan 9, 2007 -> 01:55 PM) I used to feel the same way. But the last 6 years, the GOP (at the national level) has been nothing but fiscally irresponsible. They are now far more concerned with interfering in people's lives, than keeping government under control. I wouldn't disagree with them being more fiscally irrisponsible than I'd like. However, they are still far superior in that category to the dem's. So for me it is the lesser of two evils at this point. Kind of like when I voted for Arnold who I actually think is pretty terrible (just better than Gray Davis) because my guy (McClintock) had on chance at winning.

QUOTE(Gene Honda Civic @ Jan 9, 2007 -> 01:51 PM) Smiths numbers and game are far more comparable to Heisman runner up Brad Banks than they are to Drew Brees or any of the elite QBs in the upcoming draft. Banks was amazing that season. Its too bad we couldn't have had a few seasons with him running the show. I also still think that had Iowa played like they did all season they could have beat that USC squad (that absolutley dismantled us). Heck had it not been for the Clones and Seneca Wallace, Iowa probably was playing in the national championiship game that year. Oh and I think I'd say thats a very good comparison. I think Banks was a better runner while Smith is a bit better passer. Did Banks ever even stick on with any team (I thought he'd have had the ability to play wide-out or sometihng).

McGwire is completely deserving, imo, and its a sham he isn't in there. The guy was single handedly the greatest power hitter of the last 50 years (although Bonds had an amazing couple year stretch as well). That said, when you look at Big Mac's overall stats, they aren't near as impressive (although the total Hr's are still there and he was possibly the most powerful HR hitter ever cause god could he hit bombs). Plus even if he did juice, they were not banned from the game of baseball (yes they were an illegal substance in the US, but they were not banned from baseball) so I can not possibly hold him out because of that.

In regards to Frank Thomas, I think last years season made him a first ballot hall of famer. Prior to that I think anyone that didn't follow the Sox would have had doubts because of Frank really fading later on in his career due to health issues. However, his overall career numbers are crazy and than when you factor in a 6 or so year run where he ranked amongst the best to ever play the game and well you have a first ballot HOF. I've never seen a man hit for as much power, avg, and show the ability to draw walks as Frank Thomas. Of course one player that I think is a better overall hitter would be Manny Ramirez, who is an absolute phenom as far as I'm concerned. I even remember telling buddies of mine that the Cubs would have been smart to dump Sammy at his peak and sign Manny because Manny was twice the player Sammy was (and boy was I right). My question is will Roger Clemens get 100% of the vote? I'd like to think a guy like him, Pedro (best I've ever seen when at his prime) or Maddux would absolutely clean up, the guys are legends considering what they did in a pure offensive era.

QUOTE(witesoxfan @ Jan 9, 2007 -> 01:12 PM) Albert Belle 19 3.5 That surprises the hell out of me. Belle's s***ty attitude keeps him out, because it sure as hell isn't the numbers. 373 homers and 1673 hits in 10 years are both pretty impressive, and a .933 OPS to boot as well. Jose Canseco 6 1.1 That has to be the lowest number and percentage of votes for a player with as many career homers as Canseco has. My twisted side really can't wait to see how many votes Palmeiro gets, because I imagine it could be similar to Canseco's. Eric Davis 3 0.6 That's a lot of talent that got wasted. I can only imagine how ridiculously good he looked coming up. I don't think Belle deserves it. I tihnk part of what makes you a HOFer is the ability to be good for a long peirod of time and while Belle was good for 10 years and was one of the best players in the game for a few of him, he didn't have the longevity to be in the hall. And in case you were wondering, no, I don't think Kirby Puckett should be in the hall either. However if they vote Kirby in (and he wasn't near the character guy everyone thought he was) than those same voters should give Belle the same shot (cause he was one of the very best at what he did for a few year stretch). Of course I am very strict when it comes to HOFer's. Mike Piazza isn't in my hall simply because I consider him a first baseman and as a first baseman I think he should have been great for a long period (and 99% of the world will disagree with me on that one).

QUOTE(RockRaines @ Jan 9, 2007 -> 01:13 PM) Not sure who Brown is. But Smith was somewhat of a late bloomer as far as passing goes. Last season he was almost exclusively thought of as a running QB, which hurt his passing numbers a bit. Not to mention OSU is and always has been a run first team. Brees was in a wide open spread offense that does inflate numbers quite a bit much like the system of Texas Tech. I would put him in the second round mold where it may take some time for him to adjust to the NFL system, but I think he will still be a successful NFL QB based on how quickly he came along and his propensity (except for last night) to play well under pressure. Whoops and now I understand Rowand's reference to the Pats any better.

Duplication of what he did the past two years. Ie, be a very good #2 hitter who plays steady defense. Guchi does nothing flashy, but everything good. I would like to see him improve against LHP and see his strikeouts go down a bit.

QUOTE(RockRaines @ Jan 9, 2007 -> 12:48 PM) After attending for several years I have come to the opinion that Soxfest is overrated. Your thoughts? Completely agree. I think the seminars are interesting, but I'm not a huge fan of autographs, plus I figure if you want auto's your better off going to spring training. That said it is a fun environment and there have been many a classic night had at the Hyatt (back when it was there).