Chisoxfn

QUOTE (rangercal @ Apr 7, 2009 -> 10:22 PM) right ok. You are suggesting stickers for numbers. What am I? nine? Dang it Aj, your making fun of all of my jerseys. I buy the replica's typically for 30 bucks (only have a few) and I have no problem with em.

I think Fields or Ramirez would be the best fit and I'm leaning towards Fields.

There's a thread already started.

Badass

QUOTE (sweatpants @ Apr 7, 2009 -> 01:39 PM) Instead of taking shots at Wise maybe we should be taking shots at the general manager for not finding a better option. Is it really Wise's fault he is on this team? He's a .214 career hitter, what do you expect. Completely agree and it goes in line with a post I just made in the wise thread.

Wise should be happy he's getting a chance to be an everyday player and that the Sox have let him play some baseball. At the same time, he's in a position where he can do nothing but fail. There is absolutely zero chance that Wise should be starting and leading off for any baseball team, let alone one that intends on contending. Its not his fault he's in a spot where he can't succeed nor is it Ozzie's fault that he was given zero options for the top of the order. I understand he wants to keep Getz out of a pressure situation early, but ultimately Ozzie might not have that leeway and I really can't blame Ozzie for not wanting BA to leadoff cause he's still got a long ways to go as well. I don't blame Ozzie, I don't blame Wise, I blame Kenny. I still like Kenny though, but the in-house options were plain bad.

QUOTE (Kalapse @ Apr 7, 2009 -> 01:33 PM) Bobby is throwing real hard. The bullpen has been incredible today. *knock on wood* Whats his velocity? (I'm stuck at work).

Wise is horrible. Fifth outfielder, fine, your opening day starter at the top of the order (and not because of injuries), puhhlleease.

Pretty soon it will be Getz/Alexei as the 1/2 punch with Anderson being pretty much the regular CF (unless we make a trade).

Wow, everyone has some shaky back-ends of the rotation, but I dont' think there is any rotations back ends that I like least than the Royals and Tribe which is why I'll pick those two as having the worse rotations. Plus Carmona has had one good season and a couple meh ones so I don't even love the Indians front of the rotation that much. The Twins and Sox probably have the best 1 through 3 and the Twins have the most depth, if they are healthy, with the Sox clearly having the chance to be the best, but your talking about major iffs in Contreras and Colon and I'm not in love with the Sox 6th starters depth (not a Marquez fan at all, nor do I think Richards projects to be that great of a starter, same with Poreda, but I think both will have very long and productive major league careers). I put the Tigers as a solid three and if there young guys develop quicker than expected and Verlander gets back to what he's capable of, they could be the surprise of the Central, imo. Anyone the tells me the Tribe is really overrating the Lee/Carmona combo, imo, as well as ignoring the fact that Reyes was a poor pitcher in the NL and that Pavano is a bigger if than anyone in the Sox rotation.

There should be a basketball hall of fame. Its not the MLB Hall of Fame, its baseballs hall of fame. You have negro league players who never played a MLB game in there lives enshrined in there and honored in there.

I've been hearing A's this A's that for the last two days on this site and there lineup isn't that great. The whole rest of that division sucks but I wouldn't be shocked at all to see the A's be the team that finishes dead last. Giambi is past his prime and is going to a much large ballpark, Nomar will get hurt, Sweeney isn't ready to leadoff, Holliday is legit, but other than that, very very blah lineup. Rotation completely young.

QUOTE (ChWRoCk2 @ Apr 6, 2009 -> 05:05 PM) Buehrle getting lit up on opening day is nothing unusual however. Seems he struggles the first game every year. Would be nice to get the first win on the first gm though. Not in 2005, where he outdueled the Tribe.

Does anyone know if I can watch mlb.tv via my PS3?

QUOTE (qwerty @ Apr 6, 2009 -> 12:07 PM) It is unfair to say carmona was a fluke. He had a damn solid minor league career and was touted pretty well during that span. He was higher touted than say laffey, who some expect big things out of. I just think it is too early to put a label on carmona's 2007 season, we do not have enough of an mlb track record to work off of just yet. Last year he just had massive control issues, nothing like he has experienced in the past. His periphs in spring training were alarming though (Carmona's). I look at his periph's from spring training since he had a small sample size of a season last year due to injuries. Bottom line Carmona didn't show much this spring but I agree its far too early to write him off, given how dominant he looked two years ago.

Develop your own or turn other guys coal into diamonds, that is really the way to do it for the most part. Sure, every once in a while an ace becomes available (see CC) but the number of years you have to go make the contracts so damn risky.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Apr 6, 2009 -> 01:28 PM) Didn't they have a really good run in 2006? But I don't think anyone ever could have legimately given them much of a chance to reach the end all be all goal.

Look, a team rotation full of Lance Broadway/Jack Egberts (ie, guys who might be big leaguers, might not) is going to be a bad major league baseball team.

QUOTE (Thunderbolt @ Mar 31, 2009 -> 09:57 PM) Anyone else really impressed by the job Billy Beane's done this offseason? The guy seems to be able to overhaul a roster faster then anyone in the majors. Even for a great GM like KW, it'll take him, two or three years, while for Beane every action just seems to be another piece in the puzzle. Have you seen there rotation? Have you seen them do anything the past 5 years. I know Beane isn't given much in the terms of budget but he's just a cocky GM (much like Kenny) who thinks he's smarter than he really is and that he can just create new teams every year.

Well Fullerton didn't exactly do there thing this weekend. UCI will certainly be shooting up the rankings.

So the HD quality is really good? If so, I might cancel it on my cable and switch it over. Do I need an HD compatible computer though or is it okay as long as the TV Screen I hook it up to is HD? Also, have they fixed the buffering issues and all that. I have a connection that is way faster than necessary for the premium but always seemed to have problems (I'm over a wireless internet).

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Apr 6, 2009 -> 01:10 PM) Unless something remarkable happens with the Rangers, I agree that division will be decided by whether or not the A's young pitching can come out hot to start the year, and with a bunch of 21 year olds, it's hard to expect the world. Not to mention I think most experts would agree that most of the A's young pitchers aren't necessarily upper echelon pitching prospects. They have a nice collection of talent, but I'm not overly impressed with what they have.

Given that TO has zero off the field issues and the fact that he'd clearly be the focal point of the passing attack, a Cutler Owens combo would have been the fantastic stop gap necessary for the Bears to get things turned over to Hester/Bennett (if in fact they believe in that duo). I expect them to surprise us and get in big with Holt, just too good of a fit. And I think the more Holt things about things, he'll see that there is more potential for him to put up numbers in Chicago and truly be a savior as opposed to Tennesse where he'll be playing with a far worse QB (no knock on Collins, just pointing out how good Cutler is). I'd also argue the Bears would have a strong chance at making the superbowl since they would be playing in the NFC as opposed to the AFC, so Holt might just have a better chance to win in Chicago (however, the Titans obviously have already proven very recently how good of a team they already are).

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Apr 6, 2009 -> 01:04 PM) Well, it's plausible they could suffer at a couple positions. Vlad may finally be starting to show some age related creakiness. Figgins has been hurt 1/4 of each of the last 2 seasons and is now 31. Torii Hunter isn't a spring chicken any more either. Their lineup may be healthy for now, but you never know how it will play out. They need a couple of Morales, Kendrick, Wood, Aybar, etc., to step up. I've been called an Angels apologist in the past, but look at there track record, the people they have, and there ability to develop players and I'll say they are pretty much the next generation of the Braves organization (which is a tribute to former GM Stoneman, who was a Schuerholtz disciple). Plus its pretty given around here how much I like Kendrick, Morales, and Wood. Kendrick has health issues every year though so its hard to count on him, but I like Morales fitting in and Aybar has one hell of an arm and plus range. Plus they took the division by 20+ games IIRC, its not as if a slight slipup would have much of an effect on them and no one in the division significantly upgraded, imo. A's made some big moves but there rotation seems to be completely up in the air and come July will be dealing Holiday and Cabrera.

I think it is Nathan Jones. I'd look it up but some sites are blocked at my new job. Heck, I probably won't be on much in general anymore, but today is a pretty introductory day. He's going to be repeating his level (I think it's either Bham or Winston Salem). I overheard the story between one scout and another as I watched Jones pitch last week, basically saying how the scouts called up Buddy Bell after seeing him whiff the side in two straight innings. The scouts basically said, who is this guy, and why exactly isn't he in the majors. Buddy responded with, check out his numbers and asked if he was throwing strikes, which the scout responded, well he is today. I also was reading something the other day and discovered that Baseball America ranked him as having the best curve in the org and after seeing it I would completely agree. The day I saw him his fastball was nothing special, but apparently he had pitched the day before and was consistently in the upper 90's, topping up at 99.