Chisoxfn

Viciedo, Shelby, and Danks are three major league caliber outfield prospects. On top of that you have Quentin at the big league level and potentially Ramirez. That is a lot of depth, but knowing that a lot of guys fail and that in general you can never have too many athletes (and CFer's tend to be phenomenal athletes) I like the idea of taking Pollocks or a guy like him. I also have long said I am a fan of drafting shortstops like crazy because they can always move to 2B or CF and are phenomenal athletes. When it comes to pitchers, I believe you draft power arms too non-stop. I think the Sox should target pitching prospects heavily though.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ May 7, 2009 -> 02:29 PM) I meant he didn't look physically well...not commenting on how he played. We were talking about Alomar and AIDS/HIV. Ya and I think its pretty f***ing assine to make a comment about him having a life threatening disease based upon his appearance. The guy looked no different at 40 (except older) than he did at 20. He was one ugly SOB though.

QUOTE (BearSox @ May 7, 2009 -> 02:36 PM) From what I have heard, it looks like teams are shying away from him and he will probably go in the mid 1st at the earliest. I guess a lot of teams aren't willing to risk a lot on him with his injury concerns. I believe that was before he made his debut. His fastball was popping. I wonder where Aaron Crow will end up going. He's supposed to make his independent league debut shortly.

Ya, I expect him to go top 10, but you never know what might happen when a guy has something like that to be concerned with. Another injury guy that could fall is the top prep catcher, Bailey. He is supposed to be a f***ing stud defensively and is having tommy john surgery and will miss the rest of this season. That means the Sox could get lucky and take a guy that was a lock to go top 12 picks, with a little later pick, maybe one of the freebies they got for OC. I know we have Flowers, but I wouldn't mind taking my chance on a guy that profiles as a potential gold glover.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ May 7, 2009 -> 01:44 PM) The player who really didn't look well the last couple of years of his career was another former Padre, Benito Santiago. I guess there are some questions surrounding how quickly and completely Alomar went from one of the best players (and fielders) in baseball history to "just hanging on." Ryne Sandberg also faded quickly in his 30's. Santiago was a freaking stud. The guy was in his early 40's and could still throw a laser from home to 2nd from his knees. What the hell are you talking about? He could never hit that well but man did he have some skills during his career.

QUOTE (fathom @ May 7, 2009 -> 01:42 PM) Seems like it's BS, as there was a picture of him taken the week after that came out in which he looked perfectly healthy. I also believe the suit was recently dropped or at least settled. Alomar publicly claimed it was a bunch of crap.

This is a guy that I would absolutely love if he fell to us in the draft. However, with him getting healthy there is very little chance of him ever sliding to one of the Sox selections. Scheppers was widely regarded as one of the top 3 picks in last years draft, prior to him being shut-down, and was selected by the Pirates in the 2nd round last year but failed to sign. He has big-time upside and the only significant question-mark is whether he's heatlhy. However, in this day and age, pitchers get hurt, it's almost a given and I haven't read any reports or heard anyone talk about Scheppers delivery putting too much stress on his arm. Bottom line, this is one of the few impact arms that might somehow slide down the draft due to him missing almost a year and if he is there, you have to pounce on him. Below is a write-up from BA.

If the Sox want to take the option of a prep outfielder, Mike Trout is a guy that is climbing draft boards. He's got very good defensive tools, lots of speed (which we know the Sox want) and profiles as a potential top of the order hitter. He doesn't have great power and some question whether he'll hit at the next level, but his athletism is there and he seems like he'd be a great value pick in the late first round and could potentially be there.

With the draft quickly approaching and all the talk about the White Sox scouting young outfielders, I wanted to throw out a name of a guy that projects to go towards the later first round (potentially in the supplemental rounds), AJ Pollack. He's a junior who plays CF at Notre Dame and is supposed to have good tools across the board, maybe not plus tools, but good tools. He's fast, plays above average defense (very fluid fielders) and has a good eye and a line drive swing. Scouts compare him a bit to a slower version of Jacoby Ellsbury (better bat, a step slower). Baseball America had a nice write-up on him and the draft is getting closer. I still have my preference of getting a good pitcher, but I wouldn't have a major issue with grabbing a guy like Pollack with one of our early picks.

True, but I'll just make sure to get a flu shot this year. Probably works just the same without me getting it, cause I'd always prefer not to get sick.

My girlfriend got a call when I was with her yesterday informing her that a student showed up to her class after testing positive for the Swine Flu. I of course, having just started feeling sick yesterday, freaked out for 15 minutes, and than later on in the day they called and retracted the statement saying that the student had actually only had the regular flu.

QUOTE (Kalapse @ May 7, 2009 -> 09:09 AM) He's a tricky case. The only middle infielder with more GG than Omar is Ozzie Smith and they're incredibly similar hitters only Omar never got the same pub for his game that Ozzie did. Only 5 position players have more gold gloves: IRod, Brooks, Smith, Mays and Clemente. That's some prestigious company. Only 15 players have more than 10 GG and the only guys not in or not getting in would be Keith Hernandez, perhaps IRod and we'll see what happens with Andruw Jones. So Omar would be the only non-drug user/probable user with 10+ gold gloves to not get into the HoF. To me he's a hall of famer. The guy was easily one of the best two to ever play the position for a long period of time and that makes you a hall of famer, imo. Plus offensively he had some pretty productive years in Cleveland.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ May 7, 2009 -> 08:35 AM) David Ortiz, age 21-26 with the Twins 58 homers in 1477 at-bats=1/25.5 AB's age 27-33 with Red Sox 231 homers in 3259 at-bats=1/14 AB's Pretty dramatic change... I'm not 100% sold on Chipper Jones for the Hall of Fame quite yet, Vlad yes, Pujols until something like this comes out...but it would be a shame, especially the way he's been elevated to God-like status as the MLB icon, child with a disability, non-profit organizations and community/charity work, his Tebow-like Christian faith, etc. It's one thing if A-Rod has gone down, but quite another if Pujols does, too. That might really damage baseball with this generation of fans...yes, baseball is resilient and got past the Black Sox, the world wars, gambling/Pete Rose, strikes, cocaine scandal in 80's, 1994, and it has always bounced back and always will (feel like the speech from Field of Dreams should be inserted here), but this really sucks. I'm not saying one thing or another, but you can spin it many different ways. He was also hampered with injuries most of his time in Minnesota and he was playing for an organization that tended to frown upon the hr's. I'm not saying the Twins didn't want Ortiz hitting 50Hr's a year, rather they look for more complete hitters and when he went to Boston he was entering his prime, was healthy, and was able to actually swing away and was allowed to drive the ball more. There were a lot of people around baseball for a couple years when Ortiz was with the Twins talking about how good he could be, but injuries led to him getting DFA'd and the Red Sox took a chance. No one thought he'd be as good as he was, but people thought he had ability. Even Sammy, the guy hit for power well before he was roiding or at least well before his body was super huge.

Ya, I hadn't read it was a female pill. Didn't get that far in the thread. Thats really suspicious.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ May 7, 2009 -> 07:19 AM) Sexual enhancer? interesting. I still think its odd that a player, nowadays, would allow ANYTHING to be injected into his body without checking with the league. Which makes Manny either not-too-bright, or its a cover-up or lie of some kind. And as DA said, ED is a common side effect of some PED's. He's also refusing the appeal process. Seems like we still don't have the whole picture. But at BEST, he was stupid, and there are multiple pieces of evidence to suggest it goes beyond that. Ya, but ED is also a relatively common thing for people his age or at least I'm led to believe that given all of the commercials on TV.

I loved Fringe when it first started but I haven't watched it much lately.

Was Albert Belle's name ever tied into steroids?

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ May 7, 2009 -> 05:28 AM) The timestamp on the LAT article posting is 34 minutes before I send this post in. I just realized the clocks on the board are f'd up. s***, insane. I wub Manny too.

What the f***. Why was this not on ESPN thsi morning?

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ May 6, 2009 -> 12:58 PM) How has Crede's glove been this season? He's been solid, but Punto has been the only above average defender consistently all season. That said I know the Twins have said nothing but good things about Crede's defense and I'm sure it'll continue to get better as the rust wears off.

The Twins don't look like the Twins. There defense has been f***ing horrible outside of Punto.

QUOTE (fathom @ May 5, 2009 -> 08:06 PM) The Hudson signing was fantastic for them, as he's provided such a cool demeanor to offset any of Manny's craziness. If it happens, I can't wait to root for them again when they face the Cubs in the playoffs. I've seen a lot of Dodger games this year and Hudson is playing freaking phenomenal. Why the hell the Sox didn't sign him and figure out a way to go Getz/Ramirez/Hudson in some order in CF/SS/2B is beyond me. Absolutely foolish, foolish.

Watermelon is so freaking good.

QUOTE (shipps @ May 6, 2009 -> 07:34 AM) Well swine flu symptoms are sore throat,over confidence,uncontrollable farting that makes people vomit, and urge to be cheap under any circumstances. So you should probably put a mask on. you know I love ya buddy. I'm not feeling tired or anything like that though. I had like a stomach bug for like the past day and a half so maybe it has to do with me fighting that off. Or maybe me popping a zillion mg's of zinc is really helping me. I guess I'll know more when I wake up tomorrow.

QUOTE (Heads22 @ May 6, 2009 -> 11:22 AM) Jas, if I remember correctly, weren't you a Lucy guy early on? Nope. I said that he had a lot of raw catching tools and had the ability to be successful and didn't hate on his physical abilities. I always pointed out the fact that he was "raw".