fathom

Just watching this game, Willie seems like the same-old s***ty player he was last year. In big situations, still either grounding out weakly to 2nd base or striking out looking. Has anyone noticed any reason to be optimistic about him this year? Also, I'm very impressed with the shape that J. Dye looks to be in. Almost seems like he's too skinny.

Like I said, if he's actually trying right now, we have some serious problems. Garcia doesn't strike me as someone who goes all out in ST though.

First time I've seen Garcia pitch this spring. Hopefully he's just going through the motions. No fastball has been over 89 mph, and he just seems flat out there. What shocked me was that he now has like 2 strikeouts in 9 innings.

The thing I'm worried with Shingo is that he's not exactly a young player, and Japanese pitchers usually lose their stuff fast because of the insane amount of pitches they throw during their Japanese career. However, I'm very content with our backup options for closer in case Shingo has declined.

Shingo looks just terrible this spring. He doesn't seem to have any location on his pitches right now. I'm a little worried.

Is anyone else thinking what I am? How in the hell did we not score a run against Rusch last year at Wrigley?

Rather have Giambi than have to face him. I don't think we got him out one time when he was leading off for the A's. I'd be shocked if he made the team this year though.

Schenscher is one of the most underrated defensive players in college basketball. He does a great job at getting in the other players way. He doesn't block a lot of shots, but he's very fundamentally sound at staying close to the guy he's defending.

Thing with Deron is that he hasn't improved a bit this year. Rather, I'd say his defense and shooting have regressed significantly. However, he was dead set on leaving before the year, and nothing has changed. I'm not even sure if he's academically fit to come back next season. I've heard some things from people in his classes that he's totally packed it in .

Without saying too much, I can guarantee you that Deron is going pro. Not a chance in hell he comes back.

I'm reading it, couldn't appreciate it more. Thanks.

This makes the Garcia trade even better now though cause replacing Olivo with A.J. is a huge upgrade. We totally just filled our hole of losing Olivo with a better player this year.

Hell yeah, this is great. It gives us a much more respectable lineup. A.J. is one of those guys you hate against you, but love on your team. Great job KW (wow, did I just say that?)

I think that KW's comments that we would have our final team decided by the end of this week has made a lot of people think that the moves would have been completed already.

How do we exactly know what the Sox budget is? Since when did we get into the 75 million range like a lot of people on this board seem to think? I've always thought we were more in the 66-70 range.

Anyone that doesn't think that the million dollars given to Timo wouldnt be helpful for the Sox right now is naive. We all know that the Sox are concerned with every little penny they spend. If we miss out on a starting catcher or a starting 2b because we spent too much on a reserve outfielder that we didn't even need, then I will lose even more respect for KW and JR.

With absolutely no other catching prospects in the system that will be able to be a contributor in the majors for a few years, there's no reason not to give A.J. a 2 yr deal.

Jolbert Cabrera was released by the Mariners today. I think he would be a great fit for the Sox, as he can play a ton of different positions and is a very capable hitter.

QUOTE(qwerty @ Jan 4, 2005 -> 10:05 PM) This is encouraging. I agree, better than Jon Miller saying that another team like the Dodgers were the team to beat.

QUOTE(southsider2k5 @ Jan 4, 2005 -> 08:30 PM) To be fair, we resigned Ben Davis before AJP was even available on the market as a FA. That is incorrect. The Sox knew that A.J. had cleared waivers a few days before we resigned Ben Davis. Anyways, if it's true that we're not offering enough money, then I can confidently say we won't be getting A.J. KW said we weren't going to get into a bidding war for him, and Pierzynski will definitely get 3 million from some other team (Dodgers, Pirates, etc.) Would anyone argue with me that we have the worst catching core in the majors now?

QUOTE(santo=dorf @ Jan 4, 2005 -> 08:12 PM) How do you know that Davis could receive the same kind of money from another team but Timo couldn't? It's obvious looking at the market for reserve outfielders that Timo wasn't going to get more money from any other team than he was the Sox. Please don't argue that he's better than Hollandsworth or Mohr. I do agree with you that if KW really wanted A.J., he shouldn't have signed Ben Davis. However, in my opinion, it reverts back to his inability to admit that players he has "had an eye on" didn't pan out like he had hoped. We all know how long it took him to get rid of Royce.

I can't see Beltran signing with the Cubs if he doesn't sign with the Astros. He's a classy guy, and by joining the Astros biggest divisional rival, he'd be turning his back on the team that he helped make such a great run in the playoffs.

QUOTE(santo=dorf @ Jan 4, 2005 -> 07:59 PM) That's why we brought back Timo, and there's no need to rush Sweeney or Anderson either. Secondly, why b**** about Timo's contract when Ben Davis is making the same amount and get this, is playing the same position as AJ? Shouldn't these pessimists worried about giving out $1 million to a bench player in a large market be more concerned with Davis' contract rather than Timo's? Difference between signing someone like Davis to $1 mil and Timo to the same amount is that you know that Davis, being one of the top 2 catchers on the team with or without A.J., is going to start around 20 to 25 pct of the games behind the plate. Not only that, but there would have likely been more teams willing to give Davis around that same amount of money to come to the team as a BACK-UP catcher and see if he can fulfill some of his potential. That's the thing though, he's no better than a back-up catcher. That's why we need A.J. The difference between Victor Martinez, Mauer, and I-Rod is ridiculous when compared to Ben Davis. A.J. makes the Sox a lot more respectable.

QUOTE(Sanjay2000 @ Jan 4, 2005 -> 07:50 PM) Maybe he is slightly overpriced...but Neifi Perez of the Chicago Cubs is also making a million dollars so there are other similarly priced contracts out there. The Timo and Neifi signings were two of the most ridiculed by different baseball experts because both players are well below average at their positions for the cost. Mark Sweeney just signed for 550k with the Padres. Last year, he had an OPS of .885 and was the most dangerous bat off the bench in baseball. If we had spent a million on him, then I wouldn't have had a problem with him. Don't forget that Dye isn't exactly good at avoiding injury. When Timo had to start in the outfield last year, he was awful.

I find it interesting how so many people like Timo, and one of the reasons for that in my opinion is how Hawk always has great things to say about him. However, Hawk also had tremendous things to say about Pierzynski, as he always said how he caught the best games against the Sox out of all the catchers that had been in the AL.