CWSGuy406

QUOTE(southsideirish @ May 9, 2007 -> 10:16 PM) He didn't play, unless you have a different definition of play than I do. I never said he wasn't very athletic. I said that he isn't in the Borchard/Anderson athleticism category. The Sweeney comment wasn't directed at you, but the original poster who I quoted. Ignore that. Also -- you did say he wasn't very athletic. QUOTE(southsideirish @ May 9, 2007 -> 09:59 PM) Frank Thomas played one season as a TE for Auburn and was not very good or athletic. Also, this from Answers.com: So I guess you're half right. He didn't play, but it looks moreso due to injury. Either way, I think you'll be hard pressed to find many players with more strength them Thomas (looks) to have had coming out of college. But now I think we're just getting into semantics of what an athlete is, so...

QUOTE(southsideirish @ May 9, 2007 -> 09:59 PM) Frank Thomas played one season as a TE for Auburn and was not very good or athletic. Wikipedia says Thomas was a standout in both football and baseball. To even play one year at tight end at Auburn, I'd imagine you'd have to be fairly athletic. Saying Thomas "wasn't very athletic" isn't right... And to disclude Sweeney from the 'athlete' group is stupid, too. From the looks of it, I'd say Sweeney is every bit the 'athlete' that Anderson is, if not moreso. If you want to say Sweeney has more baseball 'smarts' than Anderson, I guess that's reasonable, but I'm not sure how, as a scout, you project 'baseball smarts'.

QUOTE(fathom @ May 9, 2007 -> 09:37 PM) Don't forget pitching to 21 game hit streak Hunter with an open base and 2 outs (and a great fastball hitter against a fastball pitcher) instead of going after Cuddyer, who looks terrible returning from injury. As bad as those are, I can't help but laugh at the stupidity it takes to walk NICK f***ING PUNTO... And stupid intentional walks like that add up, because it means more at-bats for better hitters like Hunter and Morneau later in the game.

QUOTE(BearSox @ May 9, 2007 -> 01:44 PM) Yeah, but Sweeney is a ball player... the rest were athletes. Borchard - athlete. Anderson - athlete. etc. So what you're saying is that the Sox shouldn't have drafted Frank Thomas? After all, he played football just like Borchard did and was an athlete... BTW -- can we have a poll for what was the 'best' Ozzie moment of last night? I think you can put up three solid options... -Intentionally walking... wait for it... Nick Punto. -Matt Thorton can't get Josh Rabe out -- apparently -- so Ozzie brings in Aardsma. Gardenhire predictably responds by bringing in the hitter he wanted at the plate all along, Jason Kubel. -Not walking Justin Morneau with -- again, wait for it -- Jeff Cirillo on deck. What a pathetic all-around performance last night. Ye gods... We suck.

QUOTE(caulfield12 @ May 9, 2007 -> 03:56 AM) The heat in Chicago takes a lot of out us in August and the first half of September. We've traditionally been a lousy second half team, holding on and treading water in 2000 and 2005 and fading in 2003, 2002 and 2006. 2001 is the only year we played better the last four months (without Wells, David and Thomas), and that year, the struggle was to get from 14-29 back to the .500 mark, which we did accomplish. Minnesota and Houston play in climate-controlled parks. The Gospel According to Dusty. Thanks for that. Probably the dumbest thing I've read here in quite a while.

If Sisco throws anything other than a fastball here.... STOP DROPPING DOWN!!

Why the f*** is AJ calling for a slider when Sisco is throwing 95? And not a backdoor slider that he can pull, a f***ing slider at his knees?!~?!?!

QUOTE(caulfield12 @ May 9, 2007 -> 02:31 AM) Find a single Royals' fan who is upset Mac is gone...I dare you. Wow, that's a great argument.

QUOTE(caulfield12 @ May 9, 2007 -> 02:26 AM) And there's the essence of the trade...against really good teams, in difficult circumstances, Mac buckles. It's why the Royals parted with him so easily, he's not reliable when you really need him to get an out, his control just isn't good because he has no idea where his FB is going. Give me a f***ing break. One ball was hit hard that inning. Buckling my ass... I love when people here become psychiatrists...

QUOTE(RockRaines @ May 9, 2007 -> 02:03 AM) Well because he is a young homegrown OF'er just like Brian. They are both top prospects. The comparison is inevitable. While all of that is true, Brian Anderson isn't in any danger (at this point in time) of taking Sweeney's job. Podsednik, OTOH, is. It's a question that needs to start to be asked -- is Sweeney a better baseball player right now than Podsednik? Considering Pods pretty much won't be 100% for the rest of the season -- Ozzie pretty much admitted as much -- is there any facet of the game that he's better than Sweeney at?

QUOTE(RockRaines @ May 9, 2007 -> 02:00 AM) Is there any doubt, whatsoever, that Ryan Sweeney is a flat out better ballplayer than Brian Anderson? Why is the comparison vs Anderson? I'll fix that for you. Is there any doubt, whatsoever, that Ryan Sweeney is a flat out better ballplayer than Brian AndersonScott Podsednik?

QUOTE(fathom @ May 9, 2007 -> 01:59 AM) Sweeney had a better approach on that offspeed pitch than anyone else. Even on his outs he looks fine. He drove that ball to LF very well there, nice to see that. He's certainly not overmatched which was my initial fear.

Are the two DHs featured tonight the worst head-to-head DH 'face-off' in the history of baseball? I mean, seriously, Pablo Ozuna vs Jeff Cirillo?

QUOTE(ZoomSlowik @ May 8, 2007 -> 09:32 PM) I'm aware that it's hard to find a good catcher, but even the people who wrote the article said that they don't really know if you're getting the next Johnny Bench or the next Kevin Neilssen with him. Mauer at least has a bit more than two full seasons behind him and is a very solid defensive catcher, McCann has a little over one full year to his name so far, and I seriously doubt that he hits .333 with 24 homers again this year. If he does it again, then fine, put him up there, but no way I take ahead of a whole lot proven All-Star caliber players until he has a bit more of a track record. Well, it's a little more than a season -- he's at 715 at-bats in his career, so that's right around a season-and-a-half, but I'm probably just splitting hairs. I was more surprised at Hanley Ramirez ranking sixth, but after looking at his numbers, you can make a great case for him. 751 career at-bats with a 122 OPS+ with a real "athlete's" body to boot. You also have to understand that Silver's main backing for his rankings are the PECOTA system and age. He's putting full confidence in the former.

QUOTE(ZoomSlowik @ May 8, 2007 -> 09:01 PM) There is a serious emphasis on youth here. I'm sorry, but no way I take Bradley McCann #9 even if he is only 23, and Chris Young needs a lot more than a month of mediocre at best performance to make the list... Brian McCann had an equal year to Joe Mauer last season. I can see your gripe with Young -- he hasn't done anything for a prolonged time in the majors -- but McCann deserves that nine spot. He's 23 and is already a career 130 OPS+ hitter at the catcher spot. You don't seem to realize just how hard it is to find such a good hitting catcher. He's as valuable, if not moreso, than Grady Sizemore.

QUOTE(fathom @ May 8, 2007 -> 02:12 PM) Heck, I even saw his fastball reach 91 mph on ESPN last week. The same ESPN gun that had Miguel Batista's two seamer running at 95 yesterday? The same gun that had Batista's fastball consistently in the high-90s and guys like Dice-K touching 99? Sorry, that gun's more of a joke than the Comcast reading. I can understand people being pissed at KW's infatuation with Gavin Floyd, but overall, I don't think the return was awful. With a good year, Gio will re-affirm his spot as a very-good-but-not-elite prospect that he had coming into last year. It certainly wasn't an awful trade, though. If we even get one year of league average starting pitching (at the major league level, of course) from Floyd or Gio, the trade will be a wash, and anything more, the Sox move in front.

QUOTE(whitesoxfan101 @ May 8, 2007 -> 04:28 AM) Luol Deng and Ben Wallace are the only people doing ANYTHING in this series. To blame Gordon is crazy, everybody is doing poorly. And it's no coincidence those 2 guys are the only 2 doing well, because besides them, the Bulls are overmatched by a wide margin at every spot on the floor. At this point, it's obvious PJ Brown isn't going to do very much this series. He's useless offensively because he doesn't have a post-game, and he's not getting those wide open fifteen footers that he can usually bury. And he's obviously not going to do anything offensively. The only group that didn't get dismantled was the Bulls' all-athlete group -- Thomas, Deng, Sefolosha, Gordon, Hinrich. Since nothing else has worked, I want to see more of this group. Sefolosha needs to be on the floor more, as he can do a competent job on any of Prince, Billups or Hamilton. Gordon and Duhon are useless at the defensive end as they both give up height, quickness and power to anybody they try to guard. Basically, any spot that Duhon used to see the floor in, Sefolosha ought to be in. More than anything, though, the Bulls have to hit open shots. Christ... Everybody is missing, this is sick. It took Nocioni what, five shots (not counting Saturday) to hit his first three? Captain Kirk isn't hitting. And on top of that, Detroit is hitting everything. Detroit is a f***ing buzzsaw right now. The crowds at home are going to have to be real, real good or we might be looking at a sweep. Both of these games have been decided in the first 12 minutes of play.... yikes.

Damnit. ESPN is so going to f*** this up. I personally loved the conference call way of doing it, nice and quick. It's five minutes this year, but just wait -- in the coming years that'll move to ten minutes, and eventually, it'll be like football where the first four picks take an hour. Oh joy!

QUOTE(fathom @ May 7, 2007 -> 02:09 AM) Lowry's not exactly a spring chicken, he's going to be getting to his FA years soon, and he'd be going from one of the best pitcher's park to one of the worst. I'd want to get something a little younger and with a higher ceiling for Crede. San Francisco has nothing that could possibly interest the Sox, unless they want to give Cain or Lincecum to the Sox (not happening). If the Sox trade Crede, I'd hope that they could target a team that has a good middle infield prospect to take over for Iguchi or Uribe.

Great pitching matchup about to start on ESPN -- Lincecum vs Hamels.

I didn't see the game, but I love seeing that 2-for-4 from Sweeney. I hope he gets hot as s*** over the next month so we can call the end to the Scott Podsednik era.

John Shelby played CF, huh? I wonder if that was just circumstantial or if he can actually play there reasonably well.

QUOTE(3E8 @ May 6, 2007 -> 02:07 AM) And that against a good hitting Tennessee club (as Gio found out). Egbert wasn't missing as many bats as usual, but he kept the ball on the ground for a G/F of, well, you can't divide 15 by zero. I thought you were kidding when you said that. Fifteen groundouts to zero flyouts... amazing.

QUOTE(SoxFan101 @ May 6, 2007 -> 01:11 AM) PJ Brown and Chris Duhon are going to be completely worthless for this entire series. Brown can only be an asset if he is backing up Ben Wallace moreso than if he is at PF. Everyone's been worthless today except for Deng. Gordon missing open shots, Thomas out of control and not doing a whole lot at the defensive end... Awful start to the series.

QUOTE(Gregory Pratt @ May 5, 2007 -> 09:34 PM) f*** the sanctimony. I wish we'd signed Bonds in the offseason. You're part of a minority, but I agree with you. It would have been such a great financial move for the Sox on top of all the offense that Bonds brings. Even if people were to boo him, they'd still be paying for Sox tickets to boo him.