hold2dibber

I would trade Joe Borchard for Sullivan, if Sullivan A) Wasn't coming off arm surgery, and B) had a longer-term contract. Borchard is a right-handed Dan Pasqua. Borchard is a switch hitter. And while I am not too confident in Borchard's future, I can guarantee that he would bring more in trade than 35 games of Scott Sullivan. Borchard is NOT the PTBNL.

I saw the article and sent Rosenthal an e-mail calling him on the carpet; my gist basically was that Frank is having a vastly superior year to Sosa and, if anybody should get extra consideration for the game being played at the Cell, it should be Thomas, and not Sosa (who had to wear earplugs last time he was there to protect his wussy ears from all the jeering he received). Rosenthal, to his credit, promptly responded to my e-mail, but only said that he made the choices a week ago, had to chose between Maggs and Frank, picked Maggs but now thinks Frank should go instead of Maggs. He completely ignored his b.s. rationale for including Sosa.

I'd do that trade in a heart beat. Wilson, despite playing in Coors, is still playing over his head a bit. Sell high! Beltran is the better player; he'll steal more bases, strike out less and be about even (maybe a little less) in HRs.

With Borchard ready to pounce on the first open spot in the outfield, Rowand really needs to step up this year. If his injury is really bugging him this year, Borchard will take his spot in no time. Rowand needs to get the AB's in and really prove himself as a great asset to the White Sox, or Borchard will. I think Rowand will be adequate in CF this year; a .265 avg, 12 to 15 HRs and a .320 OBP. I also like the intensity and passion he brings to the park every day. One of the reasons I hope he does the job out there is because I really think Borchard needs another year of AAA. If Rowand falls on his face, the Sox are more likely to rush Borchard to Chicago, and I don't think he's ready. That could affect his confidence and his success in the upcoming years.

There aren't any trade rumors swirling around concerning the Sox. I think KW is content to go with what they have right now; if any deficiencies appear once the season gets underway, I would expect them to address trades at that time. Nothing is going to happen in the short term, however.

I totally disagree. White and Glover have proven they can be effective major league relievers (White over the course of several years). Stewart has been great this spring, but the fact is, he has never thrown a pitch above AA ball. So I think it would be quite reasonable for White and Glover to make the team and send Stewart to Charlotte to see if he can keep getting people out at that level. It probably makes more sense to do that than to have him seeing only occasional action in the pen. And although you're right that Buehrle's first MLB action was out of the pen, he spent the first half of that season (2000) getting regular starts in the minors. Plus, as good as Stewart was last year, he is not nearly as accomplished at the minor league level as Buehrle was. Buehrle was absolutely lights out in AA; Stewart was good but not great. Start Stewart in AAA (unless Wright isn't ready), have him spend the first few months there and if he's doing well, he'll get a ticket to Chicago when a major leaguer gets hurt or can't get anyone out.

Of course the problem was that even if they decided to keep Crede and bench or release Clayton, they STILL would have had to pay him his $4.5 mm.

Finley is going back to St. Louis? Where'd you hear that?

IIRC, Hrniak and Sosa never exactly saw eye to eye. My problem with Hrniak was his "one size fits all" philosophy. I think his appraoch obviously works for some (e.g., Frank and Robin) but not for others. He didn't seem able to adjust his philosophy for those who were unsuccessful using the Lau approach.

I think he'll re-sign with the Rangers on May 1. Remember, last year he vetoed a trade from the Rangers to the Reds because he didn't want to leave Texas. He now realizes that Texas' offer of 2 years, $10 mm was a good offer he should have accepted. Texas still desparately needs pitching. He'll go back there, they'll pay him maybe $2 or $2.5 mm per year for two years, but he'll have to sit out the first month.

I think Mike Mussina also throws a knuckle curve. I've heard it's somewhat less stressful on the elbow than a traditional curveball.

Those are some mighty big "if's" about Harris. From what I've seen of him, I don't think he could hit .230 and he doesn't walk at all. Of course, he's young and doesn't have much experience so he might improve, but I'd be shocked if he ever became as good of a hitter as D'Angelo will be. Nonetheless, unless Hummell gets back on track this year, we'll likely see D'Angelo at SS and Harris at 2B in '04.

If the other team starts a lefty, I think Jose will be on the bench usually. He just doesn't hit well right handed. I would imagine Graffinino would take his spot (or they might move Jiminez over to SS and put Graffy at 2B).

If Rowand hits .280/15/70, I'll piss myself with joy. But I don't see it happening. Hell, I'd be happy with .250/15/50. My fear is he'll hit .235 with an OBP of .292, or something horrid like that. It was bad enough when Singleton was putting up those kind of numbers (albeit with less power) but he was much better defensively than Rowand. Then again, I don't think the numbers you suggested are entirely out of reach. I just doubt he'll be that good. I don't think there are more than a handful of CFs in the AL that put up numbers that good last year.

If that's true, Frank sure fire his agent on the spot. He had a four year deal for $40 million (although a lot was deferred). I for one don't understand why he didn't just stick with that. But even under the new deal he signed in December, he's guaranteed at least $22 million with the possibility of making much more. Why would he now agree to tear that up and sign for $22 or $25 million? He would essentially have negotiated himself from a $40 million guaranteed contract to a $22 to $25 million guaranteed contract over the course of a few months. That would be nuts.