southsideirish71

QUOTE(Jordan4life_2006 @ Nov 17, 2006 -> 03:52 PM) Freddy's ERA was over 5 all year long before that last little run of his to end the season. Anybody from John Kruk to Cecil Fielder could've swiped a base off him last year. Look, I like Freddy. I really do. But he's never gonna be the same pitcher again with the decrease in his velocity. He's still better than average. He can be dominant on some nights. But the Freddy from Seattle, or even his first couple years with the Sox, is gone. If we can get a stud like Santana from him, you have to do it. That sealed his fate as far as I'm concerned. Even if that's how you really feel, YOU NEVER ACTUALLY ADMIT IT! No way in hell Kenny/Ozzie will tolerate that bulls***. Freddy for Santana? See ya, Freddy! How many times did ol Freddy show up his players. He would throw his hands up and pout like a child on the mound when someone made a mistake. maybe they should of been throwing their hands up when he lobbed that 86mph heater down the middle that got crushed over the fence.

QUOTE(santo=dorf @ Nov 17, 2006 -> 03:39 PM) Freddy Garcia was arguably our best pitcher last season, yet people are so quick to kick him to the curb. How many times did he step it up big time when we neede him the most? Judging by his record and numbers with the Sox, it happened a lot more time than the situation you are mentioning. His clutch ass had a 5.72 ERA in August and a 5.52 ERA in July. That was the clutch part of the season when we went from being 6 games up on the wild card to running behind. He s*** the bed in the bronx when we needed him to be clutch. It was on the road, during the day against a good team. Well they were depositing dongs over the fence. We needed him to pitch well when the season was on the line, not after the entire thing was pretty much done. But he decided to show up in september after pretty much the entire thing was put to bed. Thanks for showing up Mr. 86mph.

QUOTE(CWSGuy406 @ Nov 17, 2006 -> 03:13 PM) What are you trying to say about Ervin? He's pitched about 135 innings on the road. Are you saying those innings have any predictive value whatsoever? You honestly believe he's going to be a six ERA pitcher going forward because his road stats (which, as I said, are in an extremely limited sample)? Maybe you're not meaning that, but it sure seems like you're indicating that you'd strongly dislike a Garcia for Santana trade. BTW, call me crazy, I'd throw in Fields even if we didn't get anything back besides Santana. One year of Garcia + Six years of Josh Fields for what, four years of Ervin Santana? Hellzz yes, although I don't really like Fields as a prospect, so maybe that clouds my judgement. I am with you on this, if you can send Freddy and his 86 mph fastball and large amount of money he is going to get and you can replace it with a pitcher of Erwin's ilk, who is young. Think about it this way, you are starting to build a younger cheaper rotation that can compete in our tough pitching division for years. Sign me up for the where can I sign club. And people are actually arguing to keep Freddy, not to be too rude, what the f*** are they smoking. Did they or did they not watch him pitch last year. How many times did this guy dog it against a team that he couldnt get up for, because it was beneath him.

QUOTE(Soxfest @ Nov 16, 2006 -> 10:15 PM) Do not understand this trade at all. Still destroyed by the release of Timo also I am sure.

QUOTE(TitoMB345 @ Nov 16, 2006 -> 10:04 PM) ^^^ Even if this is some sick display of sarcasm, its totally true. He is the worst hitter I've seen in a long time. Sure, his defense is pretty good (not GG caliber), but hes got one of the worst hitter's eyes in the league. Uribe's glove is gold glove caliber. Think about it this way. He had to work to fend off Brian Anderson for the worst starters batting average.

People are seriously getitng upset that we are possibly ditching the tasmanian devil. A guy who would literally swing at a ball bounced in. A guy who hit .235 and basically told the radio crew, I am going to hit a home run every single time. The same people upset at this are probably the same that are bent out of shape that we didnt keep Clutch Valentin, and the super sub known only as OMIT. Watching Uribe swing a bat is the most sickening display of crazyness I have ever seen. He cannot control himself, and his front foot for the most part winds up facing the third baseman as he poses for his dong. Meanwhile the catcher is firing that ball over to 3rd because Taz decided to swing at the close neck high pitch on 0-2. Come on now.

QUOTE(BurlyMan56 @ Nov 16, 2006 -> 09:41 PM) Starting off, this may or may not be a bad trade. What irritates me is the fact that Kenny may have pulled the trigger a little early on this one. With lefties like Jamie Walker getting 3 years 12 mil..Teams that need that lefty outta the pen who couldn't get it through free agency may have inquired about Cotts later on...Thus, giving us the tools to get more... Does Cotts make below 1 mil? I feel Cotts would definetly better and an obvious bargain when there's Jamie Walker's out there gettin 4. Not upset with Cotts getting traded, just thought a desperate team might give up more later on for a young lefty guy that a year ago posted an ERA under 2. People like Jaime walker get lefties out. That is the big difference between a LOOGY and Cotts. For everyone who is basing their memories off the of WS DVD and commemerative pin set, watch a few times when Ozzie summoned Cotts from the pen and he got b**** slapped in a crucial game. Mauer is probably upset that he cant hit some more backbreaking jacks of Mr. one pitch anymore.

I have a new analogy when it comes to our fine guesser Mr. Levine. The only thing that makes a rumor more worthless than hearing the bombadeer give his word on it from ESPN 1000, is to see it in print on mlbtraderumors.com. Either one is the kiss of death.

Does Alex spin himself into the ground and try to jack every single pitch for a homer. If the answer is no, then this is an upgrade. Mr Uribe only plays well when his job is threatened.

QUOTE(SoxFan101 @ Nov 16, 2006 -> 03:22 PM) Are you telling me the xbox360 had 0 bugs when it was released... and they already said the problem will be able to be fixed with online updates so its not a big deal. Software bugs can be fixed, harware bugs require a recall which they never do.

QUOTE(Dick Allen @ Nov 16, 2006 -> 03:33 PM) Cotts and Buerhle were equally as bad last year. I think Cotts had a mechanical flaw making him very hittable. If Cooper is such a magician, why not keep Cotts? Aardsma's claim to fame is he is now the first player listed in the Baseball Encyclopedia. Cotts was bad in 2006, but I think he'll rebound, although maybe not as a starter. I think the Sox would have been better off holding on to him and deal him after he had a nice 2007 season. His mechanical flaw is the same mechanical flaw he has had since we picked him up from the As. The latin phrase for it is ....nonthrowusstrikustomuchus. He constantly gets behind every hitter, and then whammo. Cotts was bat in 2004, maybe the oddity was 2005 and he became Neal Cotts again. Like uncle cliffy became the same pitcher that was tossed by the bullpen retarded Blue Jays. He has been in the league for how long and hasnt learned how to throw a decent breaking pitch. I mean come on now.

QUOTE(ptatc @ Nov 16, 2006 -> 03:16 PM) it was also said that he has 4 major league pitches. The sneaky fastball, the not so sneaky fastball, the slower fastball that moves a bit, and the meatball.

QUOTE(FlaCWS @ Nov 16, 2006 -> 02:16 PM) Exactly... I thought we learned our lesson last year with the bullpen. We gave up Marte, Vizcaino and of course lost Hermanson to injury. Not that Marte and Vizcaino were great, but you can never have enough depth in that bullpen and look how much we scrambled last year to get the bullpen back in shape. Cotts, like Marte, is coming off a tough year, but I think we're giving up too fast here. Those hard-throwing lefties are too hard to come by. Gotta be more patient with them, IMO. Not liking this. Marte was poop on a stick last year I dont see exactly what we missed. Was it the hiding of injuries, the quitting on the team during the stretch run, or his propensity to plunk a lefty over getting him out.

QUOTE(RockRaines @ Nov 16, 2006 -> 01:24 PM) Cubs fans also think that Cotts+Cedeno will bring them Westbrook from the tribe. LOL I would rather have our team face Cotts than Westbrook anyday. We never seem to have the ability to hit him. If they use this to package anyone over to get Westbrook out of our division, then KW made a great deal.

QUOTE(RockRaines @ Nov 16, 2006 -> 01:16 PM) Maybe the cubs will solidify their rotation with Gil Meche and Neal Cotts.... Neal better pick out a nice towel to throw in ST. This pretty much guarentees Tommy John surgery for Neal after next year.

QUOTE(RockRaines @ Nov 16, 2006 -> 01:11 PM) Oh god, from my perspective as a cubs hater, I hope they try to put Neal into the rotation. Well we have twits on nsbb running wild with Neal in their rotation check. And then we had the resident redsox mouthpiece drop over to crap on the trade. So pretty much I figure that Aarsdman will find his control and dominate due to both of those factors.

More of that high end insight from rotoworld.com or I mean the associated cub fan who writes for mlbtraderumors.com He didnt lose any stuff. Lets see Neal Cotts was winging a 93 mph fastball in there in 05 and had every batter on their heals because he pitched ahead an stayed ahead. Now every other year outside of 05, Neal would work into hitting counts, and was hitting a 91 mph fastball and little to no secondary pitches. I still remember when he would Rick Ankiel a few into the backstop. These reviews are funny at best. Especially when one of hte contributors is a cub fan. You have one year, that is completely differerent than any of their others. Yet lets jump on the one year and ride it into the sunset as the norm instead of the wierd thing.

QUOTE(Reddy @ Nov 16, 2006 -> 12:59 PM) consider me officially convinced. The funny thing is over on nsbb they think that Cotts is the answer to their starter woes. Wait till the wind blows out, and Mr. one pitch is gooving fastballs down the cock. But then again, the twits in the stands who follow that rubish they call a team will be good and drunk by that point.

Neal Cotts 2003 only 13 innings 8 ERA 2004 65 innings 5.65 ERA 2005 60 innings 1.94 ERA 2006 54 innings 5.17 ERA He also did a Mike Jackson impersonation and gave up everyone elses runs also. Now people what looks like the fluke, the year he had in 06, or maybe just maybe the magical 05 season. Neal is a deception guy who had one year were he could throw strikes and had pinpoint control. But if you look at his history in the majors, and in the minors this was a guy who couldnt throw strikes. So what do you think happens to one pitch pitchers, who cant locate and get into hitters counts all the time. Did you really want Cotts doing something similiar to his career averages on the Southside next year. I mean do I think we might have been able to get something else, maybe. But lets take a look at the FA market where a crappy player like Juan Pierre is going to get 3/30, or a LOOGY might get a few million a year and a guarenteed 3 year deal. If you can pick up another live arm out of the pen. It really plays into shortening up the game. With our homer based stadium we need two types of pitchers, either sinkerballers or strikeout guys, especially late in games. So another hard thrower, who can make a mistake and miss a bat instead of a guy lobbing up a 90 mph fastball on 3-1 which will be hitting some poor fan in the head. QUOTE(Friend of Nordhagen @ Nov 16, 2006 -> 12:43 PM) I watched Aardsma a few times last year. He was up with the Cubs early in the year, couldn't get the ball over the plate, and was terrible. He came back up later, had better control, and was pretty effective. Somebody quoted Sickels earlier saying he was throwing 88-92 before last year. Not last year. In the games I saw, he threw a lot harder than that, more like mid to upper 90's. And that's taking into account screwed up guns; hitters had a lot of trouble getting on top of his high fastballs. Lots of swinging strikes. If he gets it over, he's certainly better than Riske, maybe a lot better. But that's the big "if." As for Cotts, I'm disappointed to see him go. And I think he'll be quite effective for the Cubs. Thornton couldnt throw strikes at all before he came here. Jenks couldnt hit the side of a barn before he got here also. Doesnt AArdsma sound like a few other guys we have picked up. The hard throwing projects.

Aardsma has a good live arm, but I dont know if I would of sent Cotts off for that.

Walmart is giving out tickets to stop people from trying to wait in long lines. I am going to run up and get a ticket, if I win I will get a free xbox360 on the profits alone from selling the 360.

QUOTE(Gregory Pratt @ Nov 15, 2006 -> 11:22 PM) I suppose someone should defend Ozzie and say that he isn't entirely to blame for the fact that Brian Anderson couldn't hit water falling out of a boat for the first half of the season and couldn't get a big hit, or hit for power, in the second half. I'm not sure what we should do for Anderson (I much prefer Sweeney, internally), and I am opposed to trading him for something not-too-thrilling (but that's mainly because he's cheap, and gives us payroll flexibility, as I don't have faith in him becoming a stud), but, I really don't believe Ozzie's to blame for Anderson's season. Not playing BA in the first half sure, the platoon I guess was needed. Playing a corner OF in center when the rookie started hitting was not smart. Especially with our contact pitchers and the shear amount of times that Mack threw himself on the ground trying to get to something only to watch it scatter to the wall that BA or any normal CF would of caught in stride. Whatever Mack brought over BA's bat was immediately nullified with the amount of boob plays and non skilled plays mack made. Mack isnt a CF, in fact he has stated this on the radio, in the paper, and on TV. However as we have seen before the minute Guillen gets a man crush he runs with it no matter how illogical it is. Do you remember our DH when Carl went down, oh yeah that was Timo Perez, who was our backup 1st baseman, our backup leadoff hitter, and all around backup. BA gets crapped on for not hitting and we were trotting out Timo Freakin Perez as a DH in Yankee stadium. I find some irony with how one is poo poo, and the other is the main insert here guy. Thank God KW dropped him, or we would of had another season of Timo can play everywhere. The problem is very simple. BA had a slow start, and then of course people have revisionist history on how great the lord and savior Aaron Rowand was. I love Sweeney as a prospect. He is my favorite hitting prospect ever in the sox farm system. However he needs to learn how to hit lefty pitching, especially with the good lefties we have in our division. I would rather see Sweeney play another season at AAA and work on playing CF and hitting lefties better. Lets see if our starting 9 can play a bit more than 25% of the time as a group. KW has to think hard about who he puts on this team no matter what their limited role is. Because Mr I am resting my guys for October will start resting his guys in like game 2 of the 162 season like he did last year.

QUOTE(Whitewashed in @ Nov 15, 2006 -> 10:33 PM) Wow, Big Frank a Blue Jay... Hope to see him hit 500. I hope he does well. I hope when he faces everyone else he goes 4 for 4 and hits 4 home runs per game. Against us I hope he goes 0-4 and strikes out looking foolish all 4 times.

QUOTE(Soxfest @ Nov 15, 2006 -> 10:24 PM) BA can go! And replace him with whom..... Maybe we can watch more of the Mack juggling show in CF this year. I did love the circle route to the ball or the dive and watch the ball bounce past you. Our contact pitchers thrive under that type of world class defense in CF.

QUOTE(JDsDirtySox @ Nov 15, 2006 -> 10:22 PM) The Orioles are close to signing Jamie Walker to a three-year contract worth at least $10 million. Walker is 35 and he's never made more than $1.25 million in a season, so it's hard to blame him for cashing in, though he is picking a team with little chance of going to the playoffs over the duration of his contract. It's another misguided move for the Orioles, but it's not like it's going to take away from what they can offer other players. It's not the lack of funds that keeps them from getting big names; it's that most star-quality players can find teams more likely to contend. Source: FOXSports.com Because teams that have large gaping holes and no chance of competing for a long time, need to spend some money on that situational lefty that can keep the score 10-4. They tried this before when they dished out large amounts of cash for Kline. Angelos is a boob with his decisions, maybe they would take Garcia/toolsy prospect for Eric Bedard. Hell give them Vazquez and Garcia. Bedard, Garland, Bmac is a nice rotation that we can build around. And Peter can build his team around expensive has beens and never were's.