Chisoxfn

Urbina would be a hard throwing right handed set up man in the pen, something this club drastically needs, imo. They need another good reliever or two.

Fantastic stuff and I think Coop can make him a little better. He already has pitched good out of the pen in Atlanta, not spectacular, but good, and then next year he could be an option for a starters spot. He'll help the club this year out of the pen, especially because it would mean audios Mike Jackson. If someone just got him to trust his stuff and throw strikes, he would be absolutely filthy and thats exactly the type of pitching coach Coop is. He'll give a pitcher a lot of confidence in their stuff. I think thats probably the biggest difference with Jon. Now Jon's next hurdle is forgetting about the mental errors and just focusing 100% all the time. He was absolutely filthy his last few starts. He looked so nasty against the Cubs up until the errors and all the lapses.

I know, everyone is wondering why I don't I make another one of my amazing sigs, but I'm interested in someone making me a sig. I'd like to have Garcia, Konerko, and Buerhle on it and have it say something like "The Time is Now" And you all thought Rob Gallas had retired Thanks and if you need me to send pics I will happily search the net for some

afterall, they expect to be surrounded by a million virgins after blowing themselves up. I just hope we can somehow continue to prevent another attack. Its sick how people thinking strapping bombs on them or just slaughtering innocent citizens is a good thing to do.

If we deal with the Tigers, get Brandon Inge and Ugie Urbina. Urbina isn't having a fantastic year, but he's still a quality arm and Inge (on the DL right now) is finally showing off his offense and he's long been a very good defensive player. He hasn't been a full time catcher for a bit, but he has a very strong arm and quick release and Hawk probably talks once a week how he was one of the best catchers the club has went up against in recent years.

Well Tex, it be over the top if it was you returning

Welcome aboard UIC and by the way thats a great name you have...u can never go wrong with a name like Jason

I did I did Its great having ya back 2k

Thanks Vince Tex, Your head coach left the Fullerton program and the Titans just won their 4th national championship I knew they'd win it at least once when I was still at the school.

Kip Well and Jason Kendall. IF the Sox take on a little over half of Kendall's remaining contract, they will be able to get Kip Wells at quite the discounted rate. Heck, you could maybe see a package of Rauch and Sweeney. I was just looking and noticed Wells has really gone into a funk. I'm guessing it was related to an injury or something. He finally pitched well his last start, but after a very good April, he wasn't the same. Still, I'd love him in the rotation, plus you get Kendall for maybe 6 mill a year and its not as bad.

Oh ya, I remember ya from one of the chats. I remember talking about Freebyrds with ya and how their burritos are the s***

Freddy is big, strong, and seems to be in pretty good shape. He may be the exatc kind of pitcher that JR feels comfortable making a long term financial investment in. I just hope it has the opposite result as the Jamie Navarro fiasco. The only good thing about that was when the Sox finally shipped his ass out and us fans were all able to enjoy the benefits in the 2000 season.

Here is a quote from pitcher Travis Blackley (a teammate of his from AAA): "All four pitches were strikes today," Blackley said. "It's nice when you've got that kind of accuracy with your pitches, that helped a lot. I like pitching to Ben, he calls a good game, he's big and solid behind the plate, he's just a huge zone to aim for. I like pitching to him. I like pitching here, too."

SoCal...hell, its not too often I'm this excited about the Sox. Anytime after a trade I get all antsy and when I saw Ben Davis name involved I thought, this really could be another sleeper that Kenny picked up. He seemed to be off everyones radars all day, so I figured I'd bring up some info on him and I'm not at all saying he'll be a stud, but he's got a chance.

Around the Horn: Catcher - Jan 19 2004 Take notes on what scouts and Melvin and others thought of Davis entering this season (that was just 3 months ago...well from the start of the season). However, I must of been wrong thinking he calls a good game, although I did see a few scouting reports that said he did so. He seems to have pretty good power potential though.

I know...what else can an insomniac do at 2:20 in the morning though

I put a lot of stock in calling a good game and I'm trying to find it, but I know I've read some articles probably a year ago with Mariners pitchers talking about how much they liked throwing to Davis.

2001 (135 games) = 36% 2002 (77 games) = 44% 2003 (72 games) = 35%

In conclusion, combine his 2002 2nd half with his 2003 1st half and you have a guy who hit .294 with 11 HR and 55 RBI in only 255 at bats. I'm intrigued in his potential. He's a better defensive catcher then Miguel (Thats right, I'm going out on a limb) and offensively he is probably a bit behind Miguel, but he isn't as far back as some of the numbers would suggest. Remember, Miguel's numbers are a little inflated by the fact he is mainly playing and hitting left handed pitching. He has struggled all season against righties, something that Ben Davis also has had trouble with historically.

Here is a little more info on him: 2003 Pre All Star Break: .294 AVG, 5 HR, 32 RBI, .333 OBP, .823 OPS (thats pretty darn respectable). Now double that out and he has 10 HR and 64 RBI, which isn't too shabby. He of course went into a big time funk. Actually at the dead half way point, he was hitting just over .300 for the Mariners. So in the 2nd half of last season he went into a funk. He hit just .140 in the 2nd half of last season (94 AB's). I should mention he had those 5 HR in only 153 at bats. IF you assume 500 at bats in a full season you would get about 16 HR's and 100 RBI's although I think that may be pushing it (especially the RBI totals). While further looking at Davis 2003 stats you'll notice he had only 2 poor months, August and September. He hit .250 or higher every other month. He also showed pretty good road splits (Well compared to his home splits) hitting .248 on the road overall. When looking at Davis 2002 season you'll see he hit an impressive .294 on the road with a .338 OBP, and a .822 OPS. After the break he hit .294 with 6 HR and 25 RBI in just 102 at bats. Over 500 at bats, this would project to a tad under 30 HR and once again quite a few RBI. Of course, this isn't to say he'd actually do those numbers. All I'm tyring to say is, this guy worked hard and has always been characterized as a good kid who has a tremendous arm (33% thrown out and 44% thrown out recently; 50% this year, but that was 2/4). He also is good at blocking pitches and has shown a good catchers ERA. He has also learned from a good fundemental catcher Dan Wilson. Manager Doug Melvin was frustrated with Davis struggles and it basically got him in the dog house this season. He started off pretty poor in Tacoma and has since really picked it up. If you ask me, we are getting a guy that could be a lot closer then we all think.

I'm still looking for some other articles. But this article can tell you he's had two halves in the major league where he has hit at a .294 clip and he's always shown a decent eye. I'd say the Sox may have a real sleeper on their hands. Oh ya, and a 44% gunning down runners clip is pretty damn impressive if you ask me. I also took a look at his catchers ERA and with the Mariners it was in the 3's. They have had a good staff, so I don't know what the teams overall ERA was in those years, but I think Davis was one of the guys they preferred throwing to. If Davis slowly works things out, the Sox may not be missing a catcher.

Its good to be Ben Davis - June 22, 2004

Well his previous start he finally started flashing some signs. Who knows whats up with him, but his velocity has been down in almost every one of his starts.

It always confuses the hell out of me.

Well, call it a 2 mill a year discount to play for Maggs then. I do think Cheat is right and he will get the largest contract ever signed by a pitcher in Franchise history. Hopefully he does better then the current holder of that honor (Jamie Navarro or at least I'm 99% sure thats who it is).