Kalapse

QUOTE(StrangeSox @ Apr 19, 2007 -> 06:30 PM) Screw it, he should just punch Padilla regardless. Tell me that wouldn't be pretty damn funny, it's the 2nd inning, 1 out 2-2 to Crede and all of a sudden Brian Anderson comes storming out of the dugout and knocks Padilla out cold with as stout forearm shiver. Do it Brian, do it.

QUOTE(Milkman delivers @ Apr 19, 2007 -> 06:14 PM) I just took about a 4-hour nap. I dreamed that the Sox cut Erstad. I am not kidding. Are you known for your premonitions? Please tell me you are.

QUOTE(FlaSoxxJim @ Apr 18, 2007 -> 09:30 PM) When my kids ask me for a handout I like to tell them 'There's always money in the frozen banana stand.' They are 7 and 9 so they just look at me like, 'What the fock are you talking about?!' Solid. I also find myself calling for high fives in odd situations. "See! Kids love Franklin!"

QUOTE(LVSoxFan @ Apr 19, 2007 -> 06:07 PM) Why would Padilla bean AJ tonight? It's what he does.

If Iwamura is truly as good has he has shown the first 2 weeks of the season he is going to be one hell of a player in all facets of the game. He is so much fun to watch.

QUOTE(SoxFanForever @ Apr 19, 2007 -> 05:24 PM) In Iguchi's first two years in the league his OBP was .342 and .352. Pods was .351 and .330 in those two years. Iguchi can get on base just as much, if not more than Pods. In the last two seasons Pods SB% has been 71% and 67%. Iguchi's is 75% and 68% (albeit he attempted less bags). Iguchi can perform just as good of a job if not better than what Pods has given us the last two years. Also, he doesn't hurt his groin constantly. You're also adding about .100 points of SLG% with Iguchi which becomes quite valuable in the leadoff spot.

QUOTE(southsideirish @ Apr 19, 2007 -> 04:47 PM) Since when is Iguchi speedy or high OBP? I don't get it. Plus, I read the whole thing, and you never mentioned who you wanted. Nixon and Delluci is better than what we have now or are they the same? You would pay more for the same thing we already have? Please give some better ideas than that and don't just say someone did a horrible job but then have no solution or other option. The only way he did a horrible job is if he had another better option and didn't get it done, which I can't see. What exactly is wrong with David Dellucci? He's a high OBP hitter who gets out of the box quick with decent speed, he would have to be platooned but the guy stays healthy and produces. That is better than anything this team has right now. And Trot Nixon in LF with Iguchi leading off would be far more potent an offensive punch than anything the Sox currently have. Iguchi is a solid .350 OBP guy with good speed, which of those 2 is incorrect? His extra base hits could also be incredibly valuable out of the leadoff spot, you don't have to steal second if you're already there. Plus he still has some decent upside considering the tools he displayed in Japan. I'd take a .350-.360 OBP and 20 SB at a high success rate from Iguchi than any of the other options on this club. Iguchi, Mackowiak, Thome, Konerko, Dye, Crede, Pierzynski, Uribe, Anderson would be a nice lineup. There's others but I don't care much to continue with this, since the Sox do have a pretty decent in house option right now but if you'd like you can do a quick google search of my posts and I'm sure you'd find some pretty good names from the countless threads we had on this subject over the offseason.

Just for the record, this is not the Game Thread.

QUOTE(witesoxfan @ Apr 19, 2007 -> 04:58 PM) The Sox should just abduct Grady Sizemore so we can end this entire thing. Kick both Anderson and Erstad to the curb. You know, if they had gone out and found an actual replacement for Brian Anderson there would be no problem here. The only problem is they went out and signed the same exact player only 8 years older.

QUOTE(southsideirish @ Apr 19, 2007 -> 04:24 PM) Ok, who was he supposed to acquire? How did he f*** it up? You saw what Pierre and Roberts received. WOuld you pay that for those guys? I would be pissed if we signed either of those chumps to those contracts. So please, tell me, who was available, and who were we supposed to get? You could always read the rest of the thread instead of replying to a post that was made 5 hours ago.

QUOTE(bmags @ Apr 19, 2007 -> 04:18 PM) wrong. Those will always havee a special place in my heart. Exactly, anything less is blasphemes.

QUOTE(greasywheels121 @ Apr 19, 2007 -> 02:59 PM) Wow, welcome to Soxtalk man. I'm really sorry for everything you've had to experience in the past week. I haven't really seen any actual pics of him wearing it, but I just screen captured an image of it for you. Hopefully this is of some help. Very cool.

Charlie Manuel was also wearing a VT cap when he announced he was moving Brett Myers to the pen.

Mark is going to be on with Boers and Bernstein in just a few minutes.

QUOTE(LVSoxFan @ Apr 19, 2007 -> 02:02 PM) Oh PLEASE. Are you effin kidding me? Crede not top 5? On a list where you don't even have the GOLDEN GLOVE WINNER until #7? Scott Rolen isn't a gold glover? He's one of the greatest defensive thirdbasemen of all time. QUOTE(Tony82087 @ Apr 19, 2007 -> 02:30 PM) I know you said you don't know much about Atkins, so I thought I should post his numbers. Atkins in 06- 117 R, 198 H, 29 HR, 120 RBI .329/.409/.965 While that is in Colorado, I have a real hard time putting Crede above Atkins. And to lend credence to these numbers: HOME: .346/.416/.583/.999 | 23 2B | 15 HR AWAY: .313/.402/.531/.933 | 25 2B | 14 HR About equal

I'll take Chipper Jones and Scott Rolen over Crede in a heartbeat, if you're going to use injury concerns against those 2 then you need to use them against Crede as well. I'm waiting for Joe to show that he can put up consistently above average offensive numbers before I anoint him anymore than an excellent defensive thirdbaseman (something he has not been this year). Aramis is an excellent offensive player and his defense for the past 2 seasons has been atleast serviceable. Atkins is just an outstanding hitter who produced both home and away last year. He's above average defensively. I'm tempted to take Mark Teahen. Adrian Beltre and Hank Blalock are both incredibly similar players to Crede as well, especially when looking at their defensive abilities.

QUOTE(iamshack @ Apr 19, 2007 -> 12:56 PM) Kalapse, you're operating under the premise that KW is the manager of this ballclub, and not Ozzie. Because of his NL days, whether it be correct or not (you don't need to tell me what you think), Ozzie wants a speedy, more traditional lead-off man. With those parameters in mind, the options on the trade market and the free agent market were few and far between for Kenny. And you can bet he kicked the tires on Carl Crawford and Ichiro, believe me. That's still flawed logic though, even if Ozzie wants a speedy leadoff guy he has a player pretty close to that in Iguchi. But even on top of that, Oz needs to realize that players like that don't come cheaply and the one in house option they had (pods) was not a very good bet to give you much this season. At some point in his career Ozzie is going to have to think outside the box if he wants to win again because if we are to assume that he was demanding a speedy player atop his order this season he was hurting the team in doing so. It is kind of funny though, Oz wants a speed guy to lead his lineup instead of a high OBP type player and now do to this stubbornness he has neither.

QUOTE(JUSTgottaBELIEVE @ Apr 19, 2007 -> 12:21 PM) i dont think either of those two guys are the answer at the two hole and i don't want to see iguchi leading off for some reason iguchi forgot how to bunt and i dont want my top two guys in the order being unable to lay a damn bunt down Yeah because Podsednik was a worldbeater when it came time to get a bunt down.

QUOTE(Balta1701 @ Apr 19, 2007 -> 11:54 AM) I think that based on last year, they can only go so long with him hitting like Anderson before they give someone else a legit shot. It would help if B.A. could get some good at bats in the backup role they've given him, but so far that hasn't happened. But seriously, can they live with another CF hitting below the Mendoza line throughout April and May again? Even with Erstad's OBP below .250 and his OPS hovering around the .450 mark Ozzie still says he loves what he's seen from Darin. If Oz can make comments like these while Erstad is possibly the worst offensive player in baseball then my confidence in Ozzie to bench his ass when he's probably hitting about 30 points higher (in order to match Anderson's '06 numbers he'll have to hit a little eventually) is pretty much shot.

I will never eat at Sonic as long as I live, no matter how good the food is. Who actually thought that putting to babbling f***tards in a car and having them gush over fast food and inane subjects was a good way to sell their product? There are actually a lot of them, I starting making a list about 2 years ago of the products/services I would never be using do to their absolutely horrendous marketing campaigns, when the list reached 100 or so companies I decided to end it. There's also a Snickers radio ad where they put a mic up to a person's mouth while they chew on a Snickers bar. Yes because hearing someone saliva fueled smacks makes me want to eat a candy bar.

QUOTE(JohnCangelosi @ Apr 19, 2007 -> 11:39 AM) So here's the question- how LONG does the organization go with Erstad hitting like this before they make a move? I mean, Hawk (who is believes in everything KW and gang are doing) said last night he is SO HAPPY that GrindErstad is here with us, despite hitting .156 or whatever the sick average is. I wonder how long his free pass goes- my feeling is he can hit .200 or below until June 1 without them doing a thing, which is really scary... If healthy, I foresee him starting in centerfield for the rest of the season despite his abysmal offensive production. There's no one else currently on the roster who the organization feels is any better than him and I don't really have much confidence in KW going out and acquiring a starting position player before the deadline.

QUOTE(NorthSideSox72 @ Apr 19, 2007 -> 11:39 AM) Hell, we had at least 2 better options IN HOUSE - Mack and Gload. Right now he actually has a lefty and a righty that could probably hold their own in a leadoff role in Mack and Iguchi but they'll never be used that way. It just sucks that the only players you're going to see leadoff for this team are Ozuna and Erstad.

QUOTE(CWSGuy406 @ Apr 19, 2007 -> 11:34 AM) I don't think anybody was asking for either of those two. It would've been dumb as hell to pay either of those guys $40 million plus. David Delluci or Trot Nixon, on the other hand... Nixon would've been a great fit for the two hole with Iguchi leading off. Erstad still would've been needed (as a backup starting CFer), and we still would've been short a righty mashing platoon mate, but Nixon still would've been a great pickup. Read my mind.

QUOTE(iamshack @ Apr 19, 2007 -> 11:29 AM) You sound like Mariotti there, Kalapse. That's bs, short-term thinking. If you want to pay $9,000,000 a year for 3-5 years for a leadoff man instead of what we have in house for $2,900,000 and 1 year, then puff puff, pass, broseph. Or he could have thought outside the box, instead of targeting the big name high priced free agent leadoff men. He went with his bad, oft-injured in house option which was never going to work, there were a number of high OBP, lower speed leadoff type players available this offseason. You don't need to overpay for high SB, low SB% slap hitters when you can instead target guys who are simply going to get on base for you and now he has neither. The Sox still have a leadoff type hitter on the roster though he'll never be used in that role, in Iguchi.

QUOTE(southsider2k5 @ Apr 19, 2007 -> 10:00 AM) The quote was were are you going to get a guy, not who could I get on my XBOX... If KW is willing to pay the price (which I highly doubt he is) a trade involving a soon to be free agent Ichiro is not totally out of the question. You're not exactly dealing with a genius in Seattle. And as for KW's question, that was his job this offseason, to find a REAL leadoff hitter and he f***ed that up. It's his own fault that he's backed into a corner yet again.