Chisoxfn

QUOTE (Paint it Black @ May 7, 2009 -> 10:56 PM) No, this stuff is for losers. How about actually beating KC, that helps a lot more than some silly ass bean ball war that leads to suspensions/fines/and embarrassment. Bulls*** it is. Talk to any old school pitcher and they'll tell you the importance of protecting your hitters and pitching inside. I was taught at a young age there is nothing wrong with hitting someone, as long as its because your protecting your teammates or more importantly establishing the inside of the plate. And I know I hit a lot of guys during all my years of pitching (despite having great control my entire, short-lived, career).

QUOTE (Jenks Heat @ May 8, 2009 -> 06:46 AM) In the post game press conference that I was watching and missed the Hawks first goal, Guillen said that Nix would get another day at short then they would reevaluate the situation. I think Ramirez is going to be staring down the barrell of the Juan Uribe role really soon. Ramirez will be in CF. The guy was fabulous last year. Fabulous. You don't give up on that after a month of the season. That said, if the right offer came along, knowing Beckham is in the wings, I would trade Ramirez for a young starting pitcher in a heart beat.

QUOTE (Thunderbolt @ May 7, 2009 -> 11:13 PM) Jayson Nix, a prodigy with the glove, and not too shabby with the bat. Nix has only been up a short time, but the f***er has won me over. He looks good, real good.

QUOTE (BobDylan @ May 7, 2009 -> 04:57 PM) http://grammartips.homestead.com/than.html It's gone on for too long, man! And it will go on forever

QUOTE (G&T @ May 7, 2009 -> 04:50 PM) Well if it's that cheap, then it's tough to lose. At worst, she doesn't like it and you didn't waste a lot of money. At best, she wears a bikini you want her to wear. Of course, this analysis changes if she's the type to get pissed when you buy her a style she doesn't like and it's the wrong size.... Good luck with that. She's never gotten pissed at me yet. Afterall, how could you get pissed at the owner of Soxtalk :shrug

I'd love to see Crow on the Sox, but I highly doubt he'd fall that far. Plus he'd be stupid not to sign this time around.

So I'm going to temp fate this weekend and buy my girlfriend a bathing suit. This could really blow up in my face, given how picky she is with crap like that. But I can get like a super nice one for 5 bucks at an employee only sale. I guess I should say Bikini.

QUOTE (BearSox @ May 7, 2009 -> 03:11 PM) I agree. I think God hates baseball because usually the first 1-2 months for baseball, the weather is crappy. It's either bitter cold, or non stop rain. But I don't see what you can do except maybe those sail things Balta was talking about. No way minor league teams will start building domed stadiums. However, as I stated the other day, all new ballparks in the MLB should be required to be built with a retractable roof. I think it's beyond idiotic that all the new stadiums that have come up over the past couple of years, and most of them that are coming up shorty are all open. Minnesota is having an open stadium! Are you kidding me? You think early April Games are bad in Chicago, they will likely be much worse in Minnesota. Why should the Angels pay something obscene like an extra 100 million in construction costs to have a retractable dome when they've had something like one rainout in the past 20 years. Bottom line, it costs a lot to do that. So if there was some cheap alternative, like a giant tarp, fine, otherwise, it just happens to be that its a cost benefit analysis for that particular franchise.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ May 7, 2009 -> 03:03 PM) Anyone who is getting upwards of 30 on this board will surely agree with me that is isnt really the competition that is harder as you age, but the recovery time. PED's for alot of those guys eliminated those aches and pains from day to day which allows you those extra hits to go from .250 to .300 on the season. The extra strength built up, flexibility and recovery is what has allowed some players who SHOULD have naturally fallen off in their mid 30's extend their careers at the same level until 40. f***, I'm 26 and have been playing basketball three times a week for the past few years and I freaking hurt a hell of a lot more now the next day or two after playing than I did three years ago. I can't imagine the way it is when your in your mid to late 30's. And before someone asks, no, Its not because I'm in worse shape now than I was three years ago. I'm 6ft, 155 lb's and would not be considered by anyone to be overweight or out of shape. I wouldn't be called a freak of nature athlete either, but I have a lean, relatively athletic build, although I do not have a muscular upper body (lower body is strong as rocks, despite my jacked up knee).

On a sidenote, I'm going to try and do a few of these a week leading up all the way to the draft, that way a lot of us will have an idea of most of the top candidates that might be there with some of the Sox early selections. I encourage others (BearSox, Scenario, Dan, whomever) to do more of the same, that way we have a nice informational database right here on Soxtalk.

Trout appears to be a lock to go somewhere in the first. Some people have him rising into the top 15 range where others have him going in the first round or at least the supplementals. A lot can still happen but he's hit for a lot more power in his scout showcases this season and that had been the one draw-back on him.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ May 7, 2009 -> 02:52 PM) I just said he didn't look physically well...didn't mean to intimate something more insidious. Stanozolol Winstrol, Winthrop, Stromba Medical Use: Prescribed for hereditary angioedema, which causes episodes of swelling of the face, extremities, genitals, bowel wall, and throat. Performance-Enhancing Use: It builds strength and muscle mass with minimal bulk development. Preferred by pitchers who typically want stregth but not bulk. Side-Effects: Less damaging to ligaments than most anabolic steroids. Liver damage, acne, sterility, baldness, enlarged prostate, gynocomastia (development of breast tissue in males), virilization (development of male characteristics in women) Admitted or Implicated Players: Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire, Jose Canseco, Rafael Palmeiro, Benito Santiago, Paxton Crawford, Ivan Rodriguez*, Juan Gonzalez* What does roiding and aids have to do with one another. You were saying Benito had aids, not that he was a roider.

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.