CaliSoxFanViaSWside

Bard's a switch hitter and actually hits better right handed . Pretty decent hitter when not injured ( he had ankle problems with the Pads last year). Don't know much about his defense except he had problems catching Tim Wakefield's knuckleball.

There was a similar article in Sox Machine ( one of the best Sox blogs out there) and seems as though many of his picks came from the Sox release of the all-time team that was out in 2000 (which you can find somewhere on the Sox website.

The key thing in this article is hearing that his wrist has been sore. It's possible we won't see the same kind of power from Q we saw last year. So far no HR's in ST and Derrek Lee suffered a power outage after he broke his wrist. Longoria and Vernon Wells also suffered broken wrists and after a quick scan of their splits after coming off the DL , I didn't notice any discernible loss of power. Miguel Tejada also broke his wrist and his power was down but he's on the down side of his career so that's to be expected.

QUOTE (daa84 @ Mar 17, 2009 -> 07:16 PM) getz will likely be the starter, but id prefer to see Nix on the bench than lillibridge, especially if Nix can play SS I think at this point most of us prefer Nix over Lillibridge however the point of the article is that he's hurt now and possibly won't be ready for opening day.

And what about Randy Williams ? Zero ERA so far veteran lefty. He hasn't eliminated himself from the competition yet.

This makes Getz the overwhelming favorite but also gives more playing time to Beckham and Lillibridge a few more chances to fix the giant hole in his bat. Most of us here realize that almost no matter how well Beckham performed this spring he was most likely destined for the minors. Now Beckham has a legit shot to stick.

QUOTE (bighurt4life @ Mar 17, 2009 -> 04:47 PM) Accdg to the box score it was Braun that gave up the 4 run inning, not DJ. Gameday at the time had it as Carrasco .Braun probably wasn't recognized since it was his 1st appearance of the spring. Thanks for the heads up.

Patrick Elias also became the all-time Devils point leader with an assist on NJ's 3rd goal. Needless to say Brodeur and Elias where the 1st and 2nd stars of the game.

Hawks just lost again to the NJ Devils 3-2 on the NHL network. Going on right now is Martin Brodeur cutting off the netting from the goal to celebrate becoming the winningest goalie in NHL History surpassing Patrick Roy.

Sox have tied it in the 9th. Eider Torres with a 2 run triple and Restovich sac fly . 6-6

QUOTE (scenario @ Mar 17, 2009 -> 02:36 PM) I'm guessing that both Richard and Marquez come north with the team... and that both get a couple of starts in April. I think they'll leave Colon in extended spring training until the weather in Chicago warms up a little. I'd agree on Richard. Marquez still throws a lot of flyballs for a sinkerballer. I do think he'll be around until the final cut at least since he was a key piece in the Swisher trade. I think if Marquez makes it then Carrasco won't.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Mar 17, 2009 -> 03:04 PM) Carrasco getting shelled. 4 run 7th. Hey, Anderson has an OF assist today. That's like 4 already for him this spring.

QUOTE (Thunderbolt @ Mar 17, 2009 -> 03:05 PM) I believe there's another rounds of cuts coming up by the end of this week, should be interesting to see who goes. I'll guess around 10 get cut: Von Benschoten, Link,Flowers, German, Santeliz, Torres, Restovich, Broussard, Castillo. Ryan Braun if he's there . He was invited but can't recall seeing him in any games.

Carrasco got shelled. 4 runs by Az. in the 7th . Sox come back with 2 in 8th, Betemit driving in all 3 Sox runs so far. 6-3 AZ.

QUOTE (Kalapse @ Mar 16, 2009 -> 05:37 PM) The biggest thing with Josh is his bat speed, he's finally catching up to fastballs, something he couldn't do in 2007. That's the sort of thing that tends to carry over into the regular season. I think that has a lot to do with just picking up the ball earlier out of the pitchers hand . He can actually see it now instead of it being just a blur.

QUOTE (qwerty @ Mar 16, 2009 -> 03:54 PM) From everything he has said about owens in the past up until this very day there is no doubt he is a fan of owens. He always gives owens the benefit of the doubt. I did find this on page 5 of the recent "Ozzie doesnt think Owens is playing too well" thread dated March 12th from Balta : "With the way he's hitting right now and the fact that he seemingly can't run, I have difficulty thinking anyone else would grab him on waivers to put him on their big league roster." Not only does he think he can't hit or run but doesn't even see a place for him in the majors. Surely not an Owens fanboy. I know I vowed not to speak for him but this speaks for itself and took minimum research.

QUOTE (Cali @ Mar 16, 2009 -> 04:37 PM) For some reason, I just don't think Fields' awesome spring is gonna translate into the season. I dont know why. Just every once and a while a player has an awesome spring and s***s the bed once April starts. I hope I'm wrong... I feel good about Fields. He was hurt last year but had a knee operation and had Lasik done on his eyes, showed up early to work on his fielding , looks to be making more contact and hitting the ball sharply. Of course AL Central pitching is advanced beyond spring training pitching but I think he'll be a good addition to the club and if he struggles , Betemit can get a ton of AB's against righties since he crushes them.

QUOTE (Kalapse @ Mar 16, 2009 -> 03:55 PM) Lillibridge 0-5 w/ 3 K. That's a 1/14 BB/K ratio for the spring. That's well over 200 Ks over a full season's worth of AB. He has 4 more strikeouts than total bases. Wouldn't be surprised to see him reassigned to minor league camp early. I agree, he's taking AB's away from Beckham, Nix and Getz now.

QUOTE (CaliSoxFanViaSWside @ Mar 16, 2009 -> 03:55 PM) Liilibridge GO up the middle (0-5 ,3 more K's) , Kroeger K's (0-4 2 K's) , Konerko GO to 2nd (0-5) game over 11-7 Royals win. oops that was supposed to go in the game thread. my bad.

QUOTE (qwerty @ Mar 16, 2009 -> 03:54 PM) From everything he has said about owens in the past up until this very day there is no doubt is a fan of owens. He always gives owens always gets the benefit of the doubt. OK I won't speak for him any more but I know for sure he likes BA so ,maybe , he just hopes for the best for many Sox players as I do. If search actually ever worked I'm sure I could find many of his posts making smarmy comments about BA's lack of playing time. He's a good guy, knowlegdable and very fair minded.

Liilibridge GO up the middle (0-5 ,3 more K's) , Kroeger K's (0-4 2 K's) , Konerko GO to 2nd (0-5) game over 11-7 Royals win.

QUOTE (qwerty @ Mar 16, 2009 -> 02:34 PM) Players actually ''fall off'' much quicker than the age of 30. Major leaguers? No. Life time minor leaguers? Hell yes. This sort of thing happens all the time, especially to players that were never very good in the first place, owens just so happens to fall into that category. Why do all the studs hit or pitch so well in high school, college, or any portion of the minors, and then go on to hit a wall? Generally when this wall is hit it is before the age of 25, thus us knowing they will likely never help out a major league team. Their best days are behind them, they are over matched, really that simple. Aberrations happen all the time in sports, the 2005 season for owens was just that. This is simply beating a dead horse as you are still a backer of his, though nothing will change your mind until he hurts the sox once more with his production, or should i say his lack of production. Btw, owens is really is not all that fast, so there goes his only ''asset''. Actually Balta is a big BA fan.

Fields singles up the middle , Viciedio HBP , Eider Torres forces Viciedo but no DP as Torres ran hard. Flowers 2 run double into the LF corner 11-7 now.

QUOTE (daa84 @ Mar 16, 2009 -> 02:55 PM) it was pretty ugly, which got me wondering what his minor league splits vs. lefties were....and he actually has hit lefties better in his career than righties Every hitter in baseball looks ugly swinging many times in the course of a season. I'm glad you looked up his splits , you just can't look at one at bat and make any kind of judgements. Well you can they're just not likely to be very accurate.

QUOTE (Thunderbolt @ Mar 16, 2009 -> 02:53 PM) I wouldn't mind Coop and Walker taking Poreda and Viciedo aside and just have AP throw live sliders to him for an hour. It might help both of them. An hours worth of sliders from your best pitching prospect would not be a good thing. That could be over 100 breaking balls in a row .