jackie hayes

He's not someone you could count on as a "solution", anyway -- he'd probably be more of a project. Unless scouts have been totally mistaken in judging the level of Korean baseball.

The playoffs are a dream. And out of those, only Dallas might be easy. Look at what Detroit is doing w/ Minny right now, and Houston hasn't been bad -- unless Carr is definitely out. But if he's in, Johnson and Davis make it a pretty good matchup.

Against the Cowboys? If they could play well against a competent team (I mean, just not be embarrassed), that would give me some confidence, but Dallas is in such a tailspin, I don't think it means anything if they look good.

The coaches noticed -- didn't they pull him from the last game after only a quarter or so?

I know what it means -- I meant that I hope a lock isn't needed.

I hope not -- this is something like 3 threads where it just erupts into nothing. It really does kill any good debate -- I'm not going to bother reading 7 pages of sniping just to pick out a few posts that make levelheaded points.

Disagreements are one thing, and strong disagreements are fine, but this flat out b****iness is getting real old real fast.

Jose always swung hard -- his k rate was higher this year than before, but it's not like we're looking at a different player. I think one factor that people should consider is that Jose made it an objective this year to hit lhp better, and he spent time learning how to hit lhp as a lhb. And the thing is, he succeeded at that -- his ba against lhp over the last 3 seasons, .152/.130/.191. His obp, .204/.190/.262. His slg, .261/.196/.404. Each one of those 2004 numbers is a vast improvement. (And it's not like this is due to a small sample size -- Jose hit lhp a LOT this year, more often than PK and Carlos as a % of total abs.) Putting time into improving against lhp means less time spent working on other areas of your game. And since everyone faces more rhp than lhp, anyway, his slumping avg against rhp (.226, vs about .260 each of the last 2 seasons) dragged his overall numbers down. I'm not sure Jose is finished, as much as I'm certain he picked exactly the wrong year to work on his weakness against lhp.

He meant Maicer Izturis (who's part of the Guillen trade), not Cesar. The Diamondbacks do need a shortstop, and Izturis will probably be ready within a year.

I don't know if this has been mentioned yet, if it has I apologize. The prospect going with Rivera turns out to be Maicer Izturis, their ss of the future until they signed Guzman. Guillen's a very good player, but I think Anaheim did really well in this trade. They got Rivera, who had a great season in 2004, and Izturis, who's put up great numbers in the minors. (Last year for Izturis was a fluke, but he still draws a ton of walks and hits decent.) They parlayed a player they didn't want into 2 excellent young players, who could be used in a package for RJ.

So they're trying to acquire him in a trade?

Lol! Along w/ their pitching staff and 3b -- I could live w/ that, I guess...

So we'd either be the Cox or the Subs -- I'll pass. Don't taint my Sox!

The Sox do have a better chance to win than a lot of teams. Certainly our odds are better than Washington's. As for money, we're about middle of the pack. We'll never win a bidding war with the Yankees or Angels, but that doesn't mean we can't offer significant contracts (Belle's, for example).

Good point, but man, pick one metaphor and stick with it!

Juan Rivera looks like a pretty good player, himself. A great trade for the Angels, considering they apparently wanted to dump Guillen anyway.

From Rotoworld, the Red Sox are interested in Polanco. Not a total surprise, given how his numbers look. Especially if they trade Youkilis, it's a good fit for them. But this is the first time he's been discussed as a full-time shortstop, that I know of.

Subtitle of thread should be, First one to 10 jokes wins. Anyone else want to try their hand at it?

Even if the Sox aren't the only ones, he might prefer playing in Chicago to elsewhere. When you think about it, it kind of sucks to be him if the Cubs don't have interest -- you then have to ask, Coors or Coors East for my comeback season?

I know, But there's no guarantee they're interested in him. If they are, we probably don't stand a chance, but I won't lose any sleep over Mantei. I'm not saying the Sox should get into any bidding war over this guy.

He'll definitely get a contract. I wouldn't mind if the Sox signed him, though. (After checking him out, of course.) His agent already said something about 'not looking to break the bank' -- odd thing to announce in November, but good to know.

Punch and Judy's pretty good, but I get a kick out of NO!!MARY!!! (or something like that).

Don't you hate hometown discounts when they apply to the Cubs?

Maybe I'm missing something here -- so Guillen laughed when Harris said he could easily bat .300 and steal 60 bases in a season. Couldn't Guillen have been laughing at Harris's brashness (the 'no problem' attitude), not Harris's talent? After all, Guillen in his whole career never did either one. I'm not saying Guillen is very confident in Harris, but what does this anecdote show?

Speaking for myself here, I don't want to see racist s*** like this anywhere on this board. If you can't play nice w/ the other children, SHUT THE f*** UP.