fathom

Will Omar Vizquel get in? Some announcer the other day thought he'd get in for sure.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ May 7, 2009 -> 04:05 PM) The other way to look at it...if this is what Manny tested positive for, he wasn't just an "I tried it once and realized what I was doing was wrong" kind of guy. He was a serious abuser who went through at least a full cycle and was in a position where he or his doctors knew exactly what he was doing well enough for them to have a schedule for how long he can stay on it and how to come down effectively. Exactly what I was thinking...he's likely been masking his use for years.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ May 7, 2009 -> 02:52 PM) One more point in my back-from-the-gym flurry of posts...Manny Ramirez had an incredible 2nd half last season. Most people wrote it off to him being motivated. His numbers surged, he hit like .400. There's another totally logical explanation for why his performance would surge like that; a cycle of doping. Such as flipping your bat at the ball and hitting a 420 foot homer into a 20 MPH wind against the Cubs in Game 1?

QUOTE (Kalapse @ May 7, 2009 -> 01:46 PM) Cameron got busted for stimulant use. Canseco has already thrown Magglio's name out there, that's 1. When Magglio first started with the Tigers, Boers and Bernstein had KW on the radio, and said "I didn't know that knee surgery would make your foreams so much bigger?" KW gave his creepy little laugh, and said no comment. It was pretty obvious that KW completely agreed with this.

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ May 7, 2009 -> 01:32 PM) Was Albert Belle's name ever tied into steroids? Anyone that would take a short cut to cork their bat probably would take other short cuts as well...ie: Sammy Sosa

I'll say this about Thome...my best friend is very close to Thome's best friend in baseball (former pitcher). I have never heard one thing about him doing illegal stuff. All I heard was the usual "Bacon and Eggs" diet.

QUOTE (Kalapse @ May 7, 2009 -> 01:16 PM) I have trouble finding any world series championship team over the past 20 years or so that didn't have at least one highly questionable figure. As we were talking about it the other day, the 2005 White Sox team had to be the cleanest World Champs in 3 decades.

QUOTE (Kalapse @ May 7, 2009 -> 01:09 PM) So what's Gammon's gonna say about this? Will he be forced to defend Manny, a player whom he's called out and ripped apart over the past year? If Manny is dirty then it taints both Sawx Championships. That Red Sox team had so many questionable players....how about David Ortiz and his sudden power surge? Maybe it wasn't just a change in philosophy. Trot Nixon? That was about as obvious as Ben Davis.

QUOTE (whitesoxfan101 @ May 7, 2009 -> 01:09 PM) Well if that rule of thumb is so easy, do you think Frank, Thome, or Griffey used? It would shock me, absolutely shock me, if all 3 of them were clean. I have no inside knowledge about any of them though, but it would seem unbelievable that everyone else was doing it, but 3 of our favorite players from the generation weren't.

Rule of thumb: if a player comes up in baseball looking like a toothpick, and 10 years later, they look like a professional wrestler.....they're probably using PEDs. Manny, Sammy, and many others. They were showing highlights of Andruw Jones from his rookie year the other day on MLB Network, and he must have weighed 165 pounds.

Wait, I can't believe someone from those Boston's teams was on PEDs.

I didn't know we're 4 games out of 1st now. What was the most we were out last year?

QUOTE (SoxFan101 @ May 7, 2009 -> 12:57 AM) Its past the arbitration cutoff for either of them to be elgible, so why are they both still not on the big league team? From some early reports I had heard, Price wasn't throwing very well.

Watching Yanks/Tampa now...Troy Percival looks like he ate someone.

Contreras will keep his starting spot come Friday night, and won't be skipped.

Can't catch a f***ing break with pitching match-ups. We won't see Miner this series now. I wonder if Ozzie will skip Jose's start on Friday vs a Rangers team that demolished him.

Over/under 20 runs scored by Cubs in 2 games vs Hampton/Russ Ortiz?

Rather they play tonight so we can face Miner tomorrow.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ May 6, 2009 -> 06:07 PM) Ozzie didn't say "benched", though he did say it wasn't "rest". See my post in the game thread, that covers my feeling on this. Good, on the radio before, they said benched. Alexei being benched for an extended period would be awful, as if this truly becomes a rebuilding year, you have to see what he can do at the SS position.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ May 6, 2009 -> 07:03 PM) I wasn't talking about permanent solutions - I am talking about giving Alexei a day off occasionally. For that purpose, Nix is a good option, in the absence of anything better. The permanent solution IS Alexei. He started cold last year too, and I think he'll figure it out and adjust. Well, he's "benched" according to Ozzie. I almost wonder if Sox thought Betemit would be more competent defensively up the middle than he showed in ST.

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ May 6, 2009 -> 06:40 PM) However, I remember Cotts struggled with his command and thus struggled during his initial call-up with the Sox. So maybe you are talking about how Poreda also struggles with command. Regardless I don't look too into the numbers in that sense, I look more at the fact that Poreda has a lot to learn, although I've heard his breaking pitch is getting better and better and I also know the Sox are trying to have him throw less of his best pitch (FB) so that he can further develop and hone his other stuff. Yes, more about command. I know their stuff isn't similiar at all. It just seems like Poreda would have a hell of a time completing 5 innings at the big league level right now. It will be interesting to see if he can cut down on the wildness the rest of his minor league season.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ May 6, 2009 -> 04:42 PM) It looks like Ozzie may have been talking about Anorexei last night. Nix at SS tonight. Getz 2B Fields 3B Quentin LF Thome DH Dye RF Konerko 1B Pierzynski C Nix SS Podsednik CF Awesome, no Betemit against one of the toughest pitchers in baseball against righties. I'm surprised Ozzie didn't put Pods in the leadoff spot for his first home game.

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ May 6, 2009 -> 06:17 PM) Which is why I kept saying it was a massive failure for the Sox to do what they did. People kept saying we had depth and the smart ones knew that Marquez was crap (at least currently), that Richard doesn't have enough pitches to be a successful starter, Broadway doesn't have command, etc etc etc. Fact is the Sox were counting on Colon and Contreras and had absolutely no alternative readily available. In fact, I still think the Sox priority in the draft should be on pitching, pitching and more pitching because the fact of the matter is aside from guys in the lower levels (who have a lot left to prove) there are very few even potential high impact arms in the system. Poreda is the only one at a high enough level and I consistently will tell you that he isn't ready to be a high impact starter with his current arsenal, although if his sinker is truly plus plus, that could change. How similar are Poreda's K/BB ratio to those of Cotts when he was in AA?

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ May 6, 2009 -> 03:42 PM) Yet the Sox love Lillibridge and what's his only tool? The Sox have had a year or two with a lot of selections in the first 50, and really screwed up. I think Pedroia was available when Whisler and Lucy were drafted. Maybe another problem is the total inability to develop players at lower levels. Bucholtz, Kershaw a couple of pitchers still on the board when Broadway was taken. Maybe Boston is just a lot better in the lower levels of developing guys. Yep, the incompetence of the previous minor league regime continues to haunt the Sox, as you can argue they still haven't developed a solid MLB player since Mark Buehrle (from draft to the pros).

QUOTE (Thunderbolt @ May 6, 2009 -> 02:10 PM) I can tell though. A couple more losses and this place is going to be nuts. I'm still waiting for the first, "BRING UP, RANDY WILLIAMS" thread.. Are you kidding, I wish we could put money on which player is called out in a specific thread after tonight's game! It was Pods on Monday, Broadway on Tuesday...maybe it will be the National Anthem singer or Southpaw.