Chisoxfn

Lets not forget that trades in the next few weeks could open up a spot or two in Birmingham or Charlotte as well which would lead to a few promotions.

I assume the Sox and Barons are going to extend there agreement, but the release I got gave no guarantee of that. I guess we'll all find out tomorrow around 1 when the announcement is made. I hope the Sox and Barons stay affiliated. The Barons have been a very sucessful team while utilizing players from the organization.

QUOTE(Buehrle>Wood @ Jul 19, 2006 -> 10:34 AM) Good look, but the orange may seem a shade too bright? Maybe its just me though. We got the color from the Bears site and did our very best to match it.

The Quarterback's Will Bring on An Offensive Renaissance By Jason Gage TalkBears.com The 2005 Chicago Bears took the league by storm. Led by a vaunted defense, they were able to overcome playing with as bad of an offense as there was in football. The team lacked a quarterback, had trouble finding a receiver that could catch the ball, and as a result had trouble putting points on the board (29th in offense). With that in mind, Bears General Manager Jerry Angelo went out to build an offense…right??? WRONG. Angelo instead focused defense, working to improve their secondary and defensive depth. Instead of improving a weakness, Angelo went the route of strengthening a strength. This was to the chagrin of many Bears fans and analysts around the league were left scratching there heads. But the ‘06 Bears (and Bengals) will enter training camp (on July 27th in Bourbonnais, Illinois) with more returning starters than any team in the league. Yes, that means most of an unheralded offense is coming back. Thomas Jones will look to show the Bears (or a trade partner) that he is a franchise back. The offensive line will attempt to continue to open up holes in an effort to remain one of the best rushing attacks in the league. At the same time that line is going to have to protect opponents from teeing off on quarterback’s Rex Grossman, Brian Griese and Kyle Orton (as Bear fans, we’ve come to expect all 3 QB’s to get some action). However, most importantly, Grossman will look to prove to Bears fans, the coaching staff, and the rest of the league that he is the quarterback of the present and future. Two major injuries and one playoff start are Grossman’s career in a glance. In 06, he’ll look to put himself in position to get a few more playoff starts than injuries. Jerry did make one move this off-season on the offensive side of the ball. That one move and one position was all that Jerry Angelo had to upgrade to improve this offense (QUARTERBACK). Grossman is the best QB this team has had in years (sadly, I’m not even going out on a limb as I yearn for the days of Erik Kramer), but if he isn’t able to complete the season, the Bears have a competent, veteran QB named Brian Griese. Signed to an off-season deal, Griese gives the Bears much needed stability at the QB position. Angelo hopes this stability will carry right over to the offense. Angelo may not have said it directly, but he did so indirectly by not making any major upgrades to the receiving corps. Instead Angelo, Lovie Smith and the rest of the coaching staff will hope that Grossman (or Griese) will be able to execute the passes and get the balls in the hands of the backs (Jones, Benson, Peterson) and receivers (Mushin, Berrian, Bradley, Gage, Currie, Davies). The offense now needs to step up and mature. Bradley and Berrian are both talented receivers, Benson and Jones have the ability to be solid backs (in Benson’s case an upper echelon back) and Grossman and Griese are both capable of making all the passes (especially Grossman). On July 17, the Bears old offense will disappear and the beginning of a new offense (with a year of Turner’s system under there belts) and a more balanced team needs to begin.

QUOTE(Rowand44 @ Jul 19, 2006 -> 08:21 AM) Wes and Harrell both intrigue me a lot. Were working on something with the two new members of the Barons rotation. Not referring to Wes, but Rus

QUOTE(JimH @ Jul 19, 2006 -> 05:47 AM) Very nice job by the SoxTalk staff on the draft coverage. Looks like almost all our high draft picks are having a bit of trouble adjusting to pro ball. Not a lot of impressive numbers so far but let's see what they do by years end and in their first full season next year. Most times it takes a while to settle in. The only relatively scary part is that the Sox seemed to ease these guys into the league by sending most of them to the short-season league when in years past they were more agressive. My guess is the Sox were expecting the easier adjustment to pay off with more immediate numbers but the long term reality is that what they do in there first month or so in the league really don't mean squat as long as they are getting comfortable and improving. Josh, Evan and Dan all did awesome work on this and I think everyone will be glad to know we got quite a few interviews lined up and will have an interview posted on the site from Matt Enuco (draft pick) in the next day and a half and than are working on getting some from some current farm hands.

Decent write up, but I'm not convinced that Sickels ever really see's these guys play. Mentions Cortes and says potential sleeper, nowhere does he talk about the badass sinker Cortes throws. Talks about Lummy and his lack of strikeouts but nowhere talks about his damn good arm.

Speaking of Russel and harrel, Alex and I are working on setting up an interview with them.

QUOTE(Kalapse @ Jul 18, 2006 -> 08:49 PM) Dude, nobody is above becoming a drug addict.

QUOTE(Kalapse @ Jul 18, 2006 -> 08:40 PM) Dwight Gooden, Vida Blue, Frank Viola, Ramon Martinez, Britt Burns, and even Larmar Hoyt who are they? Pitchers who had good to great 3-5 years to start their careers but then things didn't work out for them to have long productive careers. Ramon Martinez: injuries Dwight Gooden: Druggy Can't really speak on what happened to the others since they were a bit before my time. I don't think Mark is any of them. I think Mark is a Glavine like pitcher.

IIRC, Mark has said that he feels really good. I'd buy the dead arm theory if it looked like his stuff wasn't there. He seems to be throwing about the same as always, the only difference is teams have been real agressive against him all while he's left his pitches up. He fixes his command and makes an adjustment or two and he should be golden to be the Buerhle we've all came to expect.

QUOTE(Rowand44 @ Jul 18, 2006 -> 08:31 PM) Depodesta huh? I can argue this stuff all night but I'll agree with Sabr and just let it be because I've had these arguments way too often. Wow...I'm tired. I was thinking of the Dodgers as the team that failed with it at the same time I was writing about Epstein.

QUOTE(SABR Sox @ Jul 18, 2006 -> 08:28 PM) Yea, and thats just something we have to live with. He's not going to strike people out. At the same time, its a downfall in a way. Striking out people is a really good quality, and he doesn't have it. It was part of the problem for him a while ago, and it still is to an extent. When you pitch for contact, good things can happen, but it also opens the door for a lot of mishaps. His control is still great, and he kind of "makes up" for his low K rates with it. But his lack, and I mean lack, of ability to strike people out isn't something good, and it migt catch up to him, if he doesn't get the big outs when he needs to, like in 2005. I think its worked pretty damn well in Boston and NY too. Boston doesn't seem to use it as much and I wasn't aware of the Yanks using it. But ya, Depodesta used it sucessfully, but it doesn't hurt when you have Ortiz and Manny in the middle of that lineup and at the time a pair of aces like Schilling and Pedro.

All I got to say is who got Neal Cotts...we did

QUOTE(SABR Sox @ Jul 18, 2006 -> 08:23 PM) No, there were a lot of balls "finding those holes too." Not that he wasn't getting smoked, but he was getting "too smoked" if you know what I mean. Certianly more "smoked" than he should have been lol. Not saying he wasn't bad, but he was indeed unlucky too, a combination of both. And thats fine. I don't need another one of these arguments. But yea, everything is down now too, and as a result, his GB% (groundball %) has gone thru the roof. Another good sign. I understand the luck charm but I think in general that gets evened out over teh course of a season. Some games some bleeders fall, ohter games some frozen ropes find the mitts. And trust me, I'm not about to go heavy into this. I respect the Sabr methods. I may not agree with them but I respect that train of thought and its obviously worked semi sucessfully in Oakland.

QUOTE(Rowand44 @ Jul 18, 2006 -> 08:18 PM) To be honest, I'm not one of those fans who's freaking out about his contract. I think he'll be worth it(in the current market) when all is set and done. There are also the people who feel we have way to much money spent on our starters and Jon is obviously part of that. For me, Kenny could use all of the teams money on pitching and I'd be perfectly happy. I was just letting you know the reason that I believe Jon has been more hated on than most players by Sox fans, though Freddy does seem to have become the new whipping boy for now. The big thing I like about Jon is that he's big, he's strong, he throws innings and he seems to for the most part be pretty confident and calm on the mound. I don't see him putting much stress on his arm and I think we got him for a good value (especially compared to what I think he'd have gotten on the open market). But I'm bias as he's one of my favorite Sox players. QUOTE(Rowand44 @ Jul 18, 2006 -> 08:19 PM) That's because he was getting smoked at the beginning of the season, it wasn't bad luck. As usual we see things the same way.

QUOTE(SABR Sox @ Jul 18, 2006 -> 08:17 PM) He was simply unlucky at the beginning of the season. His BABIP was crazy high, now its starting to go down a bit, as a result so are his H/9 and ERA. Good stretch here Jon. He's not out of the woods yet thouugh. The hits are still going to come, and it'll be tough for him to dominate against lineups such as NY or Boston. His K rates are just to low. All I can tell you was early in the season he was leaving everything up and thats why the hits were there. But than again I'm about as anti stat as it gets and prefer to watch the games because I think that tells you a lot more about a player. I have no problem with stats being used as some sort of evaluation tool, but you can't find out everything about a guy from the statsheet.

QUOTE(greg775 @ Jul 18, 2006 -> 08:01 PM) Not by me. For some reason, some people hate the guy. I think it's his pretty boy California laid back I dont give a s*** personality, which some fans take as being a Judy. I think he's great. He beat a team that's been beating everybody except the Sox. Hope we keep it up. GO SOX. I'll drink to that Greg

QUOTE(Kalapse @ Jul 18, 2006 -> 07:56 PM) No one has b****ed about Garland in quite a while and deservedly so, it still doesn't forgive him for being useless in April, horrid in May and pathetic for half of June. Though all in all it's great to see Garland finally comming around after being pretty bad for 2.5 out of 3.5 months this season. As a long time supporter of Jon, I'm really glad to see him get rolling but he's going to have to keep it up and put the team on his back. If he can do that hopefully the other starters can see it and this staff can get back to what it was last year. I'm talking about a staff that fed off each starter who would go out trying to out duel the prior starter. They were all flat dealing and they all built up some serious confidence and weren't to be stopped. Now lets see Javy carry the momentum Garland gave us.

QUOTE(Rowand44 @ Jul 18, 2006 -> 07:40 PM) He's got a big head. They don't call him Shrek for nothing.

QUOTE(fathom @ Jul 18, 2006 -> 07:30 PM) Another thing with Crawford, which likely would prevent a deal involving Fields.....the Durham Bulls moved B.J. Upton to 3rd base. Do you think the Rays would consider moving Fields to 1st or LF? I realize they don't really need outfielders but Fields is the type of minor league bat a team like the Rays could use (although they will obviously be more focused on pitching). I could see a 3 team deal with a Sox starter going to a team, prospects going to the Rays plus a few prospects of our own and Bmac joining our rotation. Of course the Rays would want Bmac badly I'm sure. I should also note I'm talking about over the off-season cause no way are we going to get Crawford right now. The Angels, maybe, but only if they stop asking for Santana.

QUOTE(Rowand44 @ Jul 18, 2006 -> 07:28 PM) Guardado has been closing since he got traded there. Definitely agree with this. Both teams are looking for pitching help and I just don't see anything even plausible to work out with the Reds. I was thinking Coffey wasn't closing anymore but had a brain fart and couldn't think of who would replace him.

QUOTE(NUKE_CLEVELAND @ Jul 18, 2006 -> 07:28 PM) I like pushing the envelope here but that's a little much, even for me. I'm glad to hear that Nuke

QUOTE(nitetrain8601 @ Jul 18, 2006 -> 04:34 PM) Bailey is still a high prospect in Cincy. Coffey is still seen as a guy who could develop very nicely for them. They both won't be traded in a deal for Freddy Garcia. Maybe one if you're lucky, definately not both. Isn't Coffey the closer? There is no way the Reds are about to deal there closer plus there only legit front line pitching prospect for a guy like Garcia. It wouldn't be a bad move for the Sox but they wouldn't be getting much to help them this year, unless they were planning on spinning Coffey and/or Bailye to another team to fill a need. I can't see us matching up with the Reds.

QUOTE(fathom @ Jul 18, 2006 -> 06:52 PM) A couple of thoughts: - Vernon Wells is a superstar. If you can get him, I have no problem giving up Fields, Anderson, and big prospects. - Tampa doesn't want an outfielder in return for Crawford. They have a plethora of guys in their system. Completely agree on Wells. In Crawfords case I prefer a deal over the off-season. In both guys cases you are getting above average players who help you now and 5 years down the road and those are the type of deals where you should be willing to throw in upper echelon prospects to get things done. Also to the poster who suggested that big deal with the Rays. Its nice on paper but there is absolutely no way the Devil Rays are about to take on Garcia's contract.