ZoomSlowik

Oh. Sorry, I'm used to getting into heated arguments. Next time try to include a smiley face so people who take thing to seriously(like me) don't jump on you.

You keep trying to throw Kevin Brown into that category. He hasn't been that type of pitcher since he was a Padre, and Mussina is well past that stage. I can't really put Vasquez in that category either, considering he has never even been close to a playoff game. Schilling, Hudson, and Mulder have that ability, but Pedro seems to have fallen out of that category. I'm not even so sure about Hudson and Mulder since the A's haven't won a playoff series. I wouldn't call him a necessity, teams have won without dominant pitchers before. Livan Hernandez became a monster when the playofs started. Do you really think El Duque is that great a pitcher? Look at Anaheim in 2002. I know you can't depend on this, but you can't assume the worst either. Yes, our chances would increase a lot with him, but the Marlins were far from the best staff going into the playoffs, and no one thought Beckett was in that category at the time. The three pitchers in the NL that could make that kind of impact going into the playoffs last year were Schmidt, Prior, and Wood, and their teams fell short. Randy has had a bunch of shots in the playoffs, and he has one ring, and lost in the first round in his other attempts. I'd still love to see him, but I'm not expecting it. I'm also not throwing away any hope for a playoff win if we don't get him. You never know what will happen when everything rides on a best of 5 or best of 7 series.

Judging by my record so far this year, I'm not sure I really want to go to two more games this week. I've been to two thus far, the first was against the Twins when Hunter hit two homers and we lost, the second was game #2 against the Phillies(we all know what happened there). If we lost tomorrow and Saturday, I accept full blame. Before this year I had a solid record. I go to about 6 games a year, I think they had lost 2 that I went to going back to 2000(don't remember before that), and Thomas homered around 80% of the time.

I don't remember anyone complaining when we were hitting. It's not like this team was ever a little ball team. We get guys on, and try to get hits, whether it's a single, double, or homer. It works for plenty of teams. The Yankees, Red Sox, and Cardinals have virtually the same style of offense. We were hitting better than anyone as recently as last week. Is the idea of a "slump" a foreign concept to some of you?

Good point, I totally ignored that. Another 1B would be a great idea.

Nomar can blow me. Most overrated player in the league. He's basically an overpaid Valentin that won't outperform him anywhere except in batting average. Clearly not worth $15 mil or any valuable pieces. Sweeney is staying in KC, the other guys aren't real answers. Maggs is. Magglio "Pay Me" Ordonez can make a huge impact in the lineup for the rest of the year, no matter how pissed off he is. If we add anything it should be a solid arm in the pen, or, if we can get one, a dominant starter. Not a whole lot of those available, basically just the prayer that Johnson will come here.

Brando, I'm not referring to you as much as some of these other guys. I know you desperately want Randy in a Sox jersey, and that you have made that very clear. I'm just saying it's not even close to happening yet. It's probably not any closer than it has been at any other point in the year, it just finally got mentioned by someone remotely related to the Sox. It's clear as to why the Sox should pursue him, as it is any time someone of that talent level is "available," that doesn't mean there is any realistic chance of it happening.

The phrase "much less" is often used a a phrase connecting two things that haven't happened yet. For instance, if someone were to say, "The Sox are going to win the World Series," and someone responded,"We haven't made the playoffs much less won the World Series," that would mean we can't win the World Series because we haven't made it to the playoffs yet. In this case, every indication is that Arizona is not that interested in dealing Johnson, so getting all hyped up about him coming to the Sox is a little premature. I'm not really sure how you turned that into a Chicago-bashing comment.

It's not that dumb a comparison. Look at the runs scored and runs allowed, pretty close. They started like s*** and aren't playing so hot right now. They're still both teams in the leagues. If you want another comparison, how about the Cubbies? They did the same thing we did. Swept a decent team, they get swept by the Brewers,a much weaker team than Anaheim. The point is we are in the tough part of our schedule, while the Twins are playing scrubs. That changes in August in September, when it really matters.

You're talking about our #5 starter, a bunch of middle relievers, and a guy that isn't playing everyday. Last I checked, every team has holes. We still have two very good starters, two others that are okay, and our offense was fine a week and a half ago, and Maggs is still gone. The Yankees have lost 5 of their last 6, you think they are in deep s*** too?

God forbid we play poorly against some decent teams. We lose to the Cubs and the Angels, who have some good players. We're not hitting that well, and Maggs is still out. A week ago everyone was getting our WS rings sized, no we're going to finish in last. Everyone has some ups and downs. Get back to me if we are still sucking in September. God, it isn't even the All-star break yet.

He ain't here yet, so don't get too excited. It's still speculation, and it isn't even confirmed that he is gone yet, much less coming to Chicago. However, if by some miracle it happens...

When did I wish for injuries? I just said the truth, Brown is hurt, and that's a fact. The 2004 Twins aren't the problem, we've nailed them. The problem is the quality teams we are playing now, and our O is in a funk. How about we get to a playoff game before we worry about scoring on them? It's not like we've never scored runs before. Chill out.

A few of those guys you mentioned have been pretty inconsistent. Pedro has been rocked in a bunch of outings, and doesn't have the stamina he once did. Brown has been hurt and was only doing good not great. Depending on him to be healthy is a mistake, and he may not even be effective if he gets back. Mulder, Schilling, Hudson, and Vasquez are a bit of a concern, but we should have beat Mulder already this year(f***ing Koch). The point is we don't need to score 5 runs a game to win like we did in 2000. Our pitching has been decent this year. Don't worry about Garcia's road ERA, half of that is the matchups. Plus, the other guys in these teams rotations are pretty weak. Lieber, Wakefield, and Redman don't exactly strike fear in my heart.

I'm hoping not on Honel. His velocity seems to have bounced around a lot during his career. From what I heard, it was 93 as an underclassmen, high 80's as a senior, back up to the low 90's after he got drafted, and around mid 80's after the injury. It doesn't seem like as much of a problem because of his nasty breaking ball. Here's hoping I'm right.

I'm pretty sure Loaiza was a player vote pick. Besides, he's more of a guy that a small market team that is desperate would sign. Yankees would probably go after Radke, Pavano, Perez, Ortiz, or Clement if he was there.

I like Guardado and would gladly deal one of the two guys for Guardado. I'm not sure about both of them, that might be a little steep for a reliever, and might be able to use one in another deal. Maybe one of them and some other lesser prospects. As I have said, the only guy I do not want to see go in a deal is Anderson.

Maggs doesn't get that many endorsements because he doesn't have a flamboyant personality and his English is kind of weak. And no, baseball won't promote you if you play for the Expos. Vlad has been living in obscurity for a while, rising once a year to appear in the All-Star game as the Expos' lone representive. This year is the first year he has been voted in, so obviously a lot more goes into accolades and recognition than just skill.

I was not on here ripping Garland. I can't speak for others. I think Garland has been doing okay recently. Just winning for a pitcher doesn't mean that they are doing that well. By that logic, Ortiz was the best pitcher in baseball last year, which is far from the truth. If you put Garcia on this team from the beginning of the year, he's fighting for the league lead in wins based on his ERA. Loaiza was great last year and deserved to be an All-star, but this year is a fluke in the player vote. Do you really think Giambi deserves to be an All-Star, much less the starter? Who makes up some team that is half based on what the fans want to see and half based on votes from players that don't get to watch other games is not a criterion for judging who is the better player. By that judgement Beltran is a scrub because he just made his first this year.

Freddy isn't an All-star because he is 4-7, while Loaiza is 8-4, which is totally a factor of run support. And at the time of the voting, Loaiza's ERA was more like 4.15, instead of his current ERA that is roughly 4.40, although both are still much higher than Garcia. He's sucked for his last few starts. A look at the games against the Cubs shows that he is having trouble getting guys out, while in both of Garcia's outings he was one bad pitch from being stellar. Since when does a guy with an ERA around 4.40 deserve 9 mil a year?

Loaiza does that every start, Garcia doesn't. In case you haven't noticed, despite his last two starts his ERA for the year is still almost a full point lower than Esteban's, and he is 4 years younger.

I'm sick of this. Face it Brando, Randy ain't coming. We have very few attractive trade pieces, and Arizona isn't going to just give away their best and most marketable player. Randy may be old, but he is still one of the better pitchers in baseball. They wouldn't even save that much money, at least not in baseball terms. Assuming the Sox took ALL of his salary and that the total contract value of the guys we receive is $0(clearly it isn't), they would save $14 mil. That would be enough to get 2 or 3 average players or one stud in the offseason, and it would only cover it for one year, and they aren't going to be able to get anyone of Randy's quality. Plus, they would lose a bunch of money from the drop in attendance and merchandise sales. So to win in an RJ trade, they would really have to get a monster package and commit to spending money in the coming years, which I doubt they would do. We are not going to get him for what, as you have described in other posts as: a mediocre pitcher(Garland), a decent prospect(Rauch), and a guy who is never going to make an All-Star team(Anderson). I'd rather sign Maggs(which surely won't happen with RJ) and try it for the next few years than depend on an aging star to carry us. He has absolutely no reason to leave Arizona. He has his ring, he has his money, and he's playing close to home. What reason does he have to go anywhere else? Get another ring? Go to a contender? What's the point? I'm done arguing with you, since it is clear that nothing will convince you that the Sox can't come up with a good enough offer to get Randy.

Anybody could have won with that Oakland team the way they drafted. Look at the moves he made. Acquiring Johnny Damon and Jermaine Dye from the Royals. That's not working out so well. Damon is gone, and if he didn't have to pay Dye so much he could do more. Trading Koch for Foulke was good, but they didn't exactly win much with him for that one year. How about getting Arthur Rhodes, Erubiel Durazo, and Mark Kotsay, none of those guys are having much of an impact. If it wasn't for their scouting department finding the right guys like Hudson, Mulder, Zito, Chavez, Tejada, and Giambi, that team would suck. Two of the guys he's acquired or signed had a huge impact, and one of them was Koch for that one year before they delt him. As soon as Hudson or Mulder are due a huge payday, we'll see what really happens.

Now that I look at it, Cerbaho is right. Garland Rauch and Anderson might have barely gotten us Garcia, much less the Big Unit. More like those 3 and add Lee and Munoz, maybe more. Just what we need, is to weaken our lineup right now. Look how many players the DBacks gave up for Sexon, and how much they suck now that he got hurt.

I said you have a general disdain for prospects because all you ever seem to do is rip them. The only one I have seen you defend or say you wanted to keep was Reed, and even you said he might never be anything. Yeah, prospects have a chance to choke, but so do established players. Randy might trip over his dog tomorrow and tear his rotator cuff. I'm not high on giving up basically anyone with talent over A ball that we have left, which is roughly what it would take to get Randy. I'd rather see this team ride it out to the deadline and see what happens once Maggs gets back then make a move that is going to cost us a bunch in money and talent when it may or may not be needed. Our pitching hasn't really been the problem the last week or so, it's been our inability to score runs.