Kalapse

QUOTE(RME JICO @ Mar 29, 2007 -> 12:23 PM) I don't know if this has been posted before, but I was surprised to see Erstad's success against AL Central pitching for his career: vs Sabathia 7-21, .333BA, .364OBP vs Byrd 4-13, .308BA, .357OBP vs Westbrook 6-14, .429BA, .429OBP vs Rogers 25-80, .313BA, .360OBP vs Bonderman 5-11, .455BA, .500OBP vs Robertson 3-9, .333BA, .400OBP vs Santana 8-29, .276BA, .276OBP vs Silva 9-22, .409BA, .409OBP If he could even put up numbers close to that, the Sox will be in good shape. We can only hope, I wouldn't count on it though considering the age and major league experience of most of those pitchers as well as the fact that Erstad has found himself on the DL quite often over the past few seasons I'd venture to guess that most of that success came early in the pitcher's career.

QUOTE(The Ginger Kid @ Mar 29, 2007 -> 12:21 PM) ...yet somehow wins the MVP in the world series. too funny. Yeah, kind of like Scott Brosius and Pat Borders. Name me a few of Eckstein's redeeming qualities. Just curious.

QUOTE(fathom @ Mar 29, 2007 -> 12:08 PM) I can only imagine a team with Eckstein and Erstad as the 1-2 hitters. Grinders! A combined .300 OBP at the top of your order but more hustle and tenacity than you can shake a stick at.

Why wouldn't Bonderman improve? The guy is 24 has some of the best stuff in baseball and has improved each year since coming into the league. Everything points to him taking the next step and moving into the upper echelon of starting pitchers in the American League this season, I don't see much that would suggest otherwise. The guy is just nasty. I do agree with you on Robertson though.

QUOTE(caulfield12 @ Mar 29, 2007 -> 12:02 PM) You would think we LOST 90 games last year, instead of winning 90. I think some of the constant local and regional media blitzkrieg has soaked into Sox fans, the pessimism is back in full force. It's almost like we never won a WS. I'm not going to be surprised if they make the playoffs, I won't be surprised if they're around .500 either. This club could go either way. There are many positives with the line-up of everyday players, but the PITCHING concerns are still paramount in everyones' minds, to the point where each member of the rotation and bullpen has more question marks surrounding them coming into the season than "certainty." Not sure who you're responding to. At any rate, I have never once said Buehrle isn't replaceable. As far as 2B goes, Iguchi, at his age, won't get more than 3 years and $13-16 million. There are a ton of players out there like a Loretta that are comparable. In terms of Free Agents, you have Kent, Marcus Giles, you could move Eckstein from SS to 2B, and you can move Uribe or Cintron or even Ozuna there as well. I really like Iguchi, but he's not a priority for KW to retain if we have to completely rebuild this team. Politte release Marcus Giles will not see free agency after '07 the guy has an incredibly affordable team option and if he's even decent next year they'll pick that up. David Eckstein is a pretty terrible baseball player and will probably be re-signed by the Cardinals, even if he's not he's going to make the same money as Iguchi so that swap would make no sense. If they're not willing to pay Iguchi $4-$5M a year then I don't see why they'd give that asshole Kent $7-$8M to spend half the season on the DL and tear apart the clubhouse.

QUOTE(CanOfCorn @ Mar 29, 2007 -> 11:45 AM) My question to you is...how do you know that the personnel decisions are botched? I mean, what if Pods is his 2005 first-half self before he got injured? What if Erstad turns out to be like Jermaine Dye and rebounds well? What if Jenks just needed to work some kinks out? What if Sisco and Aardsma are better served staying in the bigs working with Cooper? There are always lots of "ifs" coming out of ST for every team and no one knows over a 162 game season how it's going to turn out. Remember the great first half the Royals had a couple of years ago? They were media darlings...can they keep it up? Look at their young players stepping up! And then they faltered and kinda fell back to earth. Anything can happen and we shouldn't judge a team until the end of the season. Last year was the most disappointing 90 win season in a long time...they had a good year...probably a B- and I can say that because that's what HAPPENED. None of us know what's going to happen starting Monday, so let's just lay off. Of course we can say that we don't like what we've seen in Spring Training. I just think that we should all save our energy for the regular season, when the games matter and not blow our wad on games against minor-leaguers in Arizona. JMHO. I know they were botched because they went against what the manager of the team said near the beginning of spring training. A lot of this is opinion too, IMO a few of the personnel decisions put this team in a worse position to win than they have to be. I don't play the "what if" game, that is a 2 way street and in "what if" world anything is possible no matter how ridiculous it is. So it makes factual discussion impossible.

QUOTE(Heads22 @ Mar 29, 2007 -> 11:43 AM) I'm thinking about moving this back to How Does it Work once the season starts, cause it seemed to work nicely last year. Any thoughts? Sound good to me.

The record has nothing to do with it for a lot of us. I honestly couldn't tell you what the hell their record is this spring because I really don't care. It has more to do with the personnel decisions being botched, the inability to fill holes this offseason which are being exploited in the Spring, the lack of velocity from the pitching staff and an injury to a key player. I don't see how any of these things can be written off as "it's only spring training, none of this matters." Now, I wrote this without reading any of the initial posts and only a few near the backend of the thread so this is probably offbase a bit.

1. 1 out of 4 2. 4 out of 4 3. 1 out of 4 4. Bust, I honestly don't know. So 6 out of 12. This applies to 2 of the decisions, both of which were probably decided since the beginning of the Spring, going against what was said just a week into the Spring. QUOTE(caulfield12 @ Mar 29, 2007 -> 08:40 AM) If either Erstad or Pods don't perform, you will see Anderson in there. Just like Ozzie did with Podsednik last year right? A Mackowiak/Gload/Ozuna platoon in LF would have been just fine. I would have had no problem seeing Mack or Iguchi leading off against righties and Ozuna leading off against lefties but the completely incompetent Podsednik was left out there to rot in the outfield. I don't have much faith that Ozzie would be able to pull the trigger on such a move this season, his history suggests a much.

QUOTE(Jimbo @ Mar 29, 2007 -> 01:33 AM) Cereality is a block from my office, and a huge mistake I made. You get a bowl of cereal and milk for like FIVE BUCKS, its just an awkward concept. I bought a 20 OZ box of Cheerios and a gallon of skim milk from Jewel today for a total of 4 bucks. To even think of going to a place like that every morning you either have to be insanely lazy or have way too tight a schedule.

QUOTE(Flash Tizzle @ Mar 29, 2007 -> 01:38 AM) If anyone wants that distinction they'll have to take it from my cold, lifeless....internet....fingers. Or something. /profile Outstanding. QUOTE(Jordan4life_2007 @ Mar 29, 2007 -> 01:41 AM) Kalapse, you're one of the best posters here. I wasn't trying to attack you. You did kind of rile me up when you called me a "fascist" pig. lol. I wasn't even sure what that meant. I had to look it up. And I'm sure you were joking. Just caught me at a bad time. Everything is cool. I haven't made a serious post all night. I had a pretty eventful and all around excellent day so I'm probably at my goofiest right about now. You don't need to apologize, knowing that I'm smarter, wittier and more attractive than you is consolation enough.

QUOTE(Jordan4life_2007 @ Mar 29, 2007 -> 01:27 AM) Well, I was speaking about the entire offseason. Going all the way back to the Freddy Garcia trade. Ever since then, it's just been one big bag of "Ozzie sucks. Kenny is unfit. We got ripped off in the B-Mac trade. We got ripped off in the Freddy trade. We're destined for 4th place. This guy sucks. That guy sucks. Ozzie is to blame because Toby got hurt" ect, ect, ect. Like I said, I have no problem with anybody expressing their opinions and thoughts, positive or negative. There's just a certain way to go about it. But that's just me. I just can't wait for Monday to get here. In my defense, I never really stated my opinion on the Garcia trade, not having him on the club in '07 was good enough for me so I guess I did like that trade (+1). I never simply state "-soandso- sucks" because that is pretty lame, I'm not a big fan of his as a manager though so you got me there. (-1) I like Kenny Williams and I think he is quite fit, the guy works out for like 3 hours a day. (+1) I liked the BMac trade, hated the reasons behind it and the initial loss of McCarthy was bothersome but I did like the trade. (+1) Even if all my worst fears are realized this season I still think the Sox will finish with a better record than the Twins, the worst the Sox can do in my mind is 3rd place. (+1) Actually I think this guy is pretty good. (+1) I don't know what the hell you're thinking, that guy is pretty terrible. (-1) I do think Ozzie is mostly to blame for the hall injury so you got me there too. (-1) +1 -1 +1 +1 +1 +1 -1 -1 = +2 . . . I guess I'm an optimist.

QUOTE(SoxAce @ Mar 29, 2007 -> 01:10 AM) The stress this club has presented on certain posters' behaviors is humerous. It's turning me into Billy Packer. Yesterday I pulled a handful of hair out of my shower drain, I've gained 35 pounds over the past 2 days and I killed a drifter this morning just to watch him die.

QUOTE(Flash Tizzle @ Mar 29, 2007 -> 01:09 AM) Poppy Hidalgo (whose birthday no one acknowledged yesterday) Hideaway Lights southsideirish71 (mick bastard) There you go. SSI71 is the biggest b****ER on this board, no one can deny that and I'm pretty sure Poppy Hidalgo is Ron Artest.

QUOTE(Jordan4life_2007 @ Mar 29, 2007 -> 01:06 AM) LOL. Fine Kalapse, you're in the top 5. And don't even try to tell me there's 3 other people in here that complain more than you. When did I become a whiny b****? I'm pretty sure I was one of those jackasses telling people to f*** off if they didn't believe in '05, I can't really remember that far back. I blame the violence in movies that s*** rots the brain. Just to appease you I shall post in the style of Soxfest for the remainder of Spring Training, this way no one can claim I have a negative opinion on subjects because I won't have one to begin with.

QUOTE(Jordan4life_2007 @ Mar 29, 2007 -> 01:02 AM) Most of Flash's complaining is about our minor leagues. I don't even pay attention to that anymore. Will agree to disagree on Ozzie. Fine then Fathom b****es more than I do plus he's very condescending. That's 2 strikes against him.

QUOTE(Jordan4life_2007 @ Mar 29, 2007 -> 12:54 AM) Look, nobody b****es on a daily basis more than you. I get that. That's just the way you are. But why such nonsense before the damn season has even started? It's fine to question. It's fine to have doubts. But after a while, it gets tired and annoying. And I'm more than sure I'm not the only one that feels this way. Oh I know there's people on this board who despise me because I b**** so damn much and you know what? I love to read them b**** about me b****ing, there's some just so b****in' about it. WORDS ARE FUN. And that is such bulls***, Flash b****es WAY more than I do. All that guy does is complain. Honestly, at this point I don't really have much respect for him anymore, basically in every way imaginable. I think he's earned it and he's lucky he did because no one is just handed my disrespect, the have to earn it on the playing field. QUOTE(Flash Tizzle @ Mar 29, 2007 -> 12:56 AM) Further down in the article. Spot f***ing on. I'm just going to go ahead and cross his name off now. McCarthy, Tracey, Anderson, Logan We'll never see him in a Sox uni again.

QUOTE(Jordan4life_2007 @ Mar 29, 2007 -> 12:46 AM) It'll atleast be more justified to curse the team to hell if they fail to perform. What if the team starts 20-8? Then everybody can play the "I always had faith. I was just worried. I'll eat my crow" card. If I can't b**** then what should I post? I don't have much else to say at the moment, this team isn't giving me much to go with on the positive side of things. And I don't believe in "what if's" so take that you fascist pig. QUOTE(Jordan4life_2007 @ Mar 29, 2007 -> 12:48 AM) Like I said, I'm not defending the move. But we saw Logan do the same exact thing last year, then fall on his face come regular season. And atleast with Sisco, he has had some success at this level. Technically what you just did is defend the move.

QUOTE(Jordan4life_2007 @ Mar 29, 2007 -> 12:32 AM) Let's just get the season started. We've had 6 months to curse Ozzie; deem Kenny an unfit GM who gets ripped off in trades and praise the Indians, a team that underachieved worse than the Sox last year. I'm pissed that Logan didn't make it, and I too question some of the things we've done of late. But it's time to stop b****ing, crying and whining everyday about stuff we have no control ever. It all starts Monday. Let's see how it plays out. Well technically we have no control over any of this s*** at any time during the season so we should really cut out b****ing and moaning for any time of year. If we weren't aloud to b**** and moan I'm pretty sure I'd cease to exist. QUOTE(Jordan4life_2007 @ Mar 29, 2007 -> 12:39 AM) I'm not defending Ozzie or the move, but we did see this movie last year. Maybe they're not confident in his ability to get major leaguers out yet? Maybe they want him to get a little more run down at Charlotte? It's not out of the question. How is Andy Sisco and his non-existent control any more of a sure thing to get major league hitters out? At least Logan has had some sort of success retiring hitters over the past 15 months. I don't really see how Sisco making the team and Logan going to Charlotte benefits anyone involved (Sisco, Logan or the Sox.)

QUOTE(fathom @ Mar 29, 2007 -> 12:07 AM) There will be other 2nd baseman that are free agents are available. I love the Indians acquisition of Barfield, as he's going to thrive not having to hit 81 games in San Diego. Anyways, if Iguchi at 3 years, 15 million is too much money for the Sox to spend, then it's not even going to matter in the long run. We'll just bring in every golfing buddy that Ozzie has and every grinder that no one else wants. Juan Pierre really should have signed here....he would have had more job security than Brittany Spears' psychiatrist. Iguchi will be the best seconbaseman on the market after this season, if the Sox are going to sign a replacement, it's going to have to be a SS or 3B.

QUOTE(fathom @ Mar 28, 2007 -> 11:58 PM) Quite ironic that some of us have been fighting all Spring Training for Logan and Anderson to make it, as I'm sure others are like me in not exactly thinking these guys are world beaters. For me personally, it's all about the message the organization is sending, as well as the incompetence of our manager to evaluate personnel. Could not agree more.

I'm going to go out on a limb here. McCarthy, Tracey, Anderson, Logan Remember how much Ozzie hates it when his young players decide to open their mouths.

QUOTE(caulfield12 @ Mar 28, 2007 -> 11:09 PM) Ozuna supposedly has been playing very well in limited time in CF (in B and minor league games), but your point is taken, there will be no repetition of Mack (or Pods, for that matter) in CF. If the Sox went into the season with Ozuna as the 4th outfielder there would be a major revolt by the fan base. The guy can't even play left. I wouldn't put it past Ozzie though.

The Angels as the #2 team in baseball? Did they trade for ARod and no one told me? Now that is what I call a crock of s***. Braves 10th? I love that team, oh how I love Jeff Francouer but they aren't anywhere near #10. The Diamondbacks don't have the rotation depth, bullpen or experience to be anywhere above 15th.