SoxAce

QUOTE (JoeCoolMan24 @ Mar 10, 2010 -> 01:32 PM) The video was taken at the end of January, '09. Well.. a year ago.. (still a while back) but it was posted before here..

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Mar 10, 2010 -> 08:12 AM) Who was imitating him? Gar Ryness, known as the batting stance guy. (which a poster said prior) Pretty old video actually.. (08' I believe) it was posted before on this site.

QUOTE (flavum @ Mar 10, 2010 -> 12:49 PM) 3 cuts today. Catchers Miguel Gonzalez and Josh Phegley, and OF Jared Mitchell were reassigned to minor league camp. 52 left in camp. "Well you were crushing the ball this spring Jared.. in order for you to not stay hot, were gonna send you down early." He was going down anyway, just shocked it is this early, as usually the sox give prospects a longer look in camp. Perhaps they already know his A+ or AA fate though.

QUOTE (chisoxfan09 @ Mar 10, 2010 -> 12:53 AM) Yup you were right. Threets has a horrible K/BB rate and control issues. I guess another reclamation project for Coop. I know he can´t fix everyone but maybe this guy is another Thorton type project? What is his best pitch? I am guessing power fastball right? Fastball for sure, even he would say that.. though his slider is nasty too. It fact.. he always threw pretty hard (94+, can really dial it up) but his control is always an issue not to mention he's quite an enigma (great stuff.. but doesn't get the K's). I'm willing to give Randy Williams the benefit of the doubt though. As a LOOGY, he was effective, though a small sample size last season. Last three years even Williams K rate has gone up from the minors to now, though he's also not the best control pitcher either. We'll see.

QUOTE (chisoxfan09 @ Mar 10, 2010 -> 12:39 AM) Apart from Thorton do you think we will be weak from the left side in the bullpen? Well when your choices are Williams and Threets, it leaves alot to be desired.. but they are serviceable for LOOGY roles specifically. I personally hope the younger Threets somehow wins the job, but that also depends on his control. Santos didn't help him the other day inheriting a run charged to him the other day.

QUOTE (thxfrthmmrs @ Mar 10, 2010 -> 12:37 AM) too bad milwaukee owns the right to swap first round picks with us for the upcoming draft after the warrick - salmons trade It's top 10 protected, so unless we finish 11th or so.. were fine. QUOTE (thxfrthmmrs @ Mar 10, 2010 -> 12:37 AM) But John wall plus D rose? that would be a good consolation prize if we don't land d wade over the summer. I personally wouldn't want that, and IMO, the Bulls would have to choose to either draft Wall, and decide to trade Derrick (highly doubt they have the balls to trade the hometown guy, and they have to decide if Wall projects better/is the better player.... ouch...), trade the pick, or pass on Wall and draft Turner. (that should be interesting as he and Rose had "beef" in high school) I highly, highly doubt that the Bulls will ever win the lottery again (cough.. Stern wouldn't do that again before NJ, NY, etc... cough), but as of right now.. don't want to think about that either as we are still not in the top 10, and still in the playoff hunt. And great game today by Derrick (and D. Williams) Nice to see people making shots for Rose (and Miles jacking up Williams' assist stats.. )

QUOTE (whitesoxfan101 @ Mar 9, 2010 -> 10:12 PM) I don't find that question to be inconsiderate at all. I think the answer is no though, they'd have probably spent the money somewhere else. Yea I'm mixed on it.. Personally you could also ask if JA never makes that deal (to lose the 2nd rounder), does he get Julius anyway.

QUOTE (whitesoxfan101 @ Mar 9, 2010 -> 09:22 PM) One day they'll realize they have talent. If they get can Volquez healthy and Chapman up to the majors later this season (I think I read somewhere there is something in his contract which means you probably won't see him until Mid May at the earliest), they'll have a shot at making a 2nd half run IMO. The Cardinals still have to be a very strong favorite though obviously. Agreed. Chapman is as good as advertised BTW. I thought he would be all arm (honestly thought his velocity wasn't as advertised either, then he's throwing 100+ mph bombs to hitters shutting me up), no control, but he's been the opposite. If Volquez returns to form, they got a nice nucleus of young pitching in the future (Volquez, Cueto, Chapman, Bailey, Leake etc..)

Tony Pena is quietly having a nice spring so far.

It will be Nix no doubt. I like Retherford a year or two from now, depending how he hits in AAA as he wasn't too good in the fall league. Hopefully we see Nix improve at SS/3B though. I like De Aza if Pierre gets hurt though.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Mar 9, 2010 -> 03:30 PM) Really? Smoak was brutal at AAA last year. If a .244/.363/.360/.723 is considered "brutal" then I'll take it. That is usually a slap hitters numbers sure, but the man can still get on base. I liked Beckham more than Smoak then.. still do now. But I'm surprised he's done so well. I didn't think he was as good as Wallace, Alvarez (who many views as a 1B too depending on his progression at 3B.. if he's a 1B then Beckham I would prefer as well) etc.. comming out, though I liked him more than Alonso.

QUOTE (Soxbadger @ Mar 9, 2010 -> 10:11 AM) Well it seems Im the only dork who is looking forward to the first Final Fantasy release made for this generation of consoles. Well you, and my little brother (though he's 17 if that makes you feel better).

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Mar 9, 2010 -> 11:19 AM) I think Dolsi, Cabrera and possibly Threets have made bad enough showings (early) that they may now be out of the picture. Williams has the LOOGY job unless he looks awful. The last spot in the pen will come down to Santos or Hudson, and I'd bet they want Hudson getting more innings, and they keep Santos. Actually Threets has not pitched bad at all (he only ER was inherited by Santos) We'll see how his control is, as that has always been his bug-a-boo. I like him much more than Williams though. I still think Santos would win it regardless cause of politics unless he had a 8 era or something.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Mar 9, 2010 -> 12:30 PM) Really? Ahead of Posey, Smoak, Alvarez, Matusz, the other Beckham? I think you can make a case for any of them. Probably others too. Don't know about the other Beckham (still young and early, but from what I heard he isn't the player many were expecting) but Smoak for sure would be in the top 10.. possibly top 3. Was surprised he dropped to 13th then. Skipworth and others would even sniff the top 10 if theres a do-over.

Twins might be shopping. Big blow to them, which is good for us and the Tigers. I could see Liriano easing into that role if they want to save his arm some more, though he's been pitching very well.

You would have to hope Linebrink has a love for the Cubs org., Chicago, or the NL in general (that or his friendship with Peavy and others on the sox sucks now). He has a NTC in his contract FYI. So even if the sox did/wanted to, he has the final say. Funny thing is.. when they signed him, most of the posters were mad of the money he was gonna make. I was more upset of giving a reliever a NTC.

QUOTE (whitesoxfan101 @ Mar 9, 2010 -> 01:45 AM) Not to be hyperbolic here, but I keep thinking Carl Crawford with a better batting eye when I think of Jared Mitchell. Thats who he was compared to comming out. Though I was of the very few who saw more of Grady Sizemore with less power in the draft thread about him.

QUOTE (JoeCoolMan24 @ Mar 9, 2010 -> 01:38 AM) My pitcher is just smashing AA right now. Just finished my 3 CG of the season. 9 IP, 7 H, 1 ER, 0 BB, 11 K's. Season stats: 9-2, 2.19 ERA, 103 IP, 102 H, 2 HR, 6 BB, 67 K, 1.05 WHIP, and of my 9 wins, 7 were on the road. I am hoping to get the call to AAA soon..... Future bust.

QUOTE (Rowand44 @ Mar 9, 2010 -> 01:26 AM) I think everyone though would agree that Mitchell's tools are much more impressive than Reeds ever were. Now, don't get me wrong, I completely agree with the premise of your post as we shouldn't get too thrilled or too disappointed by the way he does this season at whatever level(s) he's at but the raw talent of Mitchell is quite exciting no matter what. Beat me to the punch, great post. His upside is much higher than Reeds was (and this pains me to say, since I was Reeds biggest fan.. ) I would also say that Reed wasn't a first round talent/pick either (though at times.. that doesn't matter when you find sleepers). I'm glad your thinking about some Jeremy Reed sexiness though Andy. I also find it funny the guy Reed was compared to, is who I'm now cheering for on the sox, though he's old(er) and might be a part time DH on a questionable offense.

QUOTE (whitesoxfan101 @ Mar 9, 2010 -> 01:23 AM) I love how Ozzie and Kenny enforce hustling on some guys and not others. I was gonna not say anything regarding that (usually it seems more younger players get called out, than the vets who do it.. I.E. A.J., Dye when he was here, Castro, etc.. etc.. [Konerko is just naturally slow]) but you just had to make a post like this.

QUOTE (DBAHO @ Mar 9, 2010 -> 01:00 AM) I don't think there's much chance of that happening even if he does have a bad season for B-Ham or Charlotte. As it's been said, the Sox control his rights, so I can't see why they'd just release him. Would be bad management on their part. Not to mention he's still only 21 freaking years old and probably gonna start in AAA. Prospects his age are usually still in A ball.

QUOTE (chisoxfan09 @ Mar 9, 2010 -> 01:06 AM) He went 2/3 of an inning with 1 K. Not bad. He did inherit a run to score (charged to Threets) so his line looks better than it really was.

I found this very interesting.... BTW Clark resigned with the Steelers, not to mention they signed Randle-El and Will Allen.. http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=4976203 If the Steelers cut Limas Sweed, I would hope the Bears look into the 6'4 tall WR former 2nd round pick. Could be a diamond in the rough and the big WR the Bears (and Cutler) have been dying to get.

QUOTE (SoxFan1 @ Mar 8, 2010 -> 11:20 PM) I'm pretty sure you didn't even get anything past the batters box. Whatever helps you sleep at night Slavko.

QUOTE (SoxFan1 @ Mar 8, 2010 -> 05:34 PM) As for my guy, I chose to keep him as realistic as possible to myself, so I started off 4-seam, circle change, and 12-6 curveball. Then I added a splitfinger. The change is definitely my strike out pitch. I have a ton of success with it. The curveball is a tough pitch to develop though, but I'm seeing improvement slowly. Working the count is the key, as is getting ahead in the count though, obviously. The things thats kind of annoying me as I go further though is the inability to avoid the big inning. Sounds about right. If it's anything like you realistically, I'm sure hitters will have a feel day hitting those hanging curves like I did.