kapkomet

:fyou Torre

Good points. I see what you're saying - but from where I sit, these guys have the opportunity thanks to the team's successes in 2000 - if we had to trade them all away to win in 2000 (thank goodness we didn't) - they wouldn't be here. My point behind all this is you've got to be careful about that fine line between selling your future soul for the present. I keep hearing it's been 80 some years, I agree, and winning would help keep some folks here. But, there's next year, and eventually some of these youngin's need to stick around. I'd rather be an Atlanta model (go to the playoffs every year) then be an Arizona model (win one year and suck forever the rest). If you go to the playoffs every year, you ALWAYS have a chance to win, rather then catching lightning in a bottle. Trading prospects for today doesn't allow the Atlanta model to happen.

But how many times can you tap the well? And how many "prospects" have made it lately? Not disagreeing 100% with what you say, but you've got to grow from within, too, and I don't want to see them trade everything high level to hope to find a diamond in the rough later, that is lightning striking in a bottle type of thing...

Pretty soon, though, we are going to be just like the Yankmee$, all vets and NO prospects. Makes it hard to pull deals later, doesn't it?

ok... Clemens ain't goin' NOWHERE. He's in Houston because it's home. As far as RJ, they'd have to absolutely sell the soul of this franchise to land him. Worth it? Think how much y'all b****ed about Olivo leaving - and RJ's value is WAAAAAAAAAY higher then that. I just can't see it.

But something Mike Davis does is recruit. How he gets the guys he does, I'll never know. But you're right, you have to be able to coach that talent. As deep as they're getting, they ought to be pretty good the next couple of seasons... but can he coach the team?

And Dusty Baker is Peter... you think he'll deny "him" 3 times?

You have to get the "Sunshine Poster of the Year Award"... :headshake

ok, ok, I don't know why or who broke the birthday calander, but you had to really pay attention... cw... have a wonderful birthday... if I didn't raz ya, I wouldn't know what else to do...

Now I'm with ya. And I think it's possible. I agree 100% that all of Ozzie's tools to win are unavailable. Let's see what 3 days off brings...

But "Sox are Sox"... and you say that Ozzie's hands are tied? Where did this attitude start? 2002-2003? I'm not saying bench Jose forever, but sometimes veterans need a wake up call. Not a hard ass, necessarily, but hey, I'm giving someone else the chance, go out there and kick someone's ass tomorrow. Where that can backfire is someone like Nomah... obviously hard-ass ain't working with him, nor will it every player. But when you're wallowing in a 5 game losing streak or longer, you have to start kicking ass where appropriate. At that point, you can lose the ship in a damn hurry. So to take another angle, what does a manager do? I just don't buy your he's along for the ride. I agree with you in that he's dealt the cards he's given, but sometimes, you have to shuffle the deck. If you don't, you're not managing. Equate that to business. I have to shift things around in my department all the time, depending on people's talents. That's how you succeed. If I didn't do that and just went along for the ride, I lose respect, and I get fired. Same thing happens in the game of baseball. I just have a hard time stomaching "he can't do anything".

Linky link - Funny Stuff

I hear ya. But consider this. Why did the Yankmee$, with tons of talent, not get the most out of the players there until Torre arrived? What about Texas? If I put the lineups of the Sox against the lineup of the Rangers on most nights, the Rangers lose head to head. And don't even get me started about the pitching - the Sox kick ass compared to the Rangers. But the manager here gets the most out of his players. He makes them want to achieve more then they ever would in another setting. These boys have a confidence about them that no matter what situation they are faced with, they are going to win. Now granted, I don't get to watch every Sox game , but what I do see, I see the same underachieving BS. Why don't these guys down here "underachieve"? Because it's not tolerated. There's been some dumbass things in the last couple of Sox games I've watched (didn't see today of course), because it's tolerated. I don't give a rats ass about Jose V - if he's swining the bat like it's a 6,000 lb. weight up there and he's 34, grab some bench. It shouldn't be, "oh well, he's just that way, it's his best" and I see some of that in the Sox. Let me say that it's not near as bad this year, but there is still symptoms. And to get to the next step, they need to kick the bad habits to the curb, and that is what Ozzie is supposed to help them through, vets or kids.

I can see TMS (Texas Motor Speedway) from where our new house is. If I go on the roof, maybe I can listen to the race.

I agree with most of what you say, but I don't agree with the part of "players playing up to their potential". The manager is supposed to *help* make that happen. If Ozzie is along for the ride, he's not doing his job.

woah! I was reading a half hour ago and thought the worst. Good job guys... have no idea what happened, but they won and that's all I know.

In 2000 I went to daytona and got the pit passes - really cool stuff. The race was boring though. That was the year before DE crashed.

Done.

Often times, when a poster puts stuff out there in a light of an "insider", people start some pretty malicious things with "insider information" from these boards. I think it's harmful, and frankly, people's balls need to be busted when they are shams. It's easy to just say "don't read this", but integrity is important in my book, even in our psuedonym world of all our "names" on here. Why be something you're not? And if you're not, you deserved to be hung. /back to the rant

I'm shocked. Isn't that illegal?

Dirty bombs are "suitcase" bombs, not of the missle variety, from what I understand. - to have it in a missle capable state, it has to be "cleaner", otherwise it would be too unstable... but that's speculation from tidbits I have heard.

Ewww. Poking eyes out is messy.

Agreed, leadership is what pulls you through these tough times. Not managerial leadership, leadership of the players to hold each other up and accountable.

The year that wasn't...