jackie hayes

Three sweeps in three series is "easily"? The time for the Texas sweep was last week. Too many coincidences/miracles are needed now. EDIT: Okay, only 2 sweeps in 2 series are needed to get us 4.5 back (I was thinking of the original post). Still too much to ask, IMO.

I was thinking yesterday that it would be interesting to see who would be the last believer on the board. I think you may have just won the cupie doll. You're a stronger person than I am. Well, I can not really believe but still act like it come game time, right? (If no, too bad -- I will, anyway.) So, .

Some clarification: Does this apply just to other posters or to other people in general? What qualifies as an insult? I mean, "you're an idiot" and "this is an idiotic post" are only trivially different. The latter usually clearly implies the former. When does aggression become insult? Seriously...this applies to Cubs fans as well??? :fthecubs I'm worried about the same issues Black Betsy brought up -- it's okay, as long as there's enough self-control, which means some pretty careful cross-checking by all the admins. And enforcement has to be uniform.

Thanks. I guess that's...good... I was mostly wondering if Ozzie or Cooper could lean on him to throw what the catcher puts down, whatever he thinks about it personally. That worked well.

Question for everyone who has the games on tv -- Is Garland shaking off the catcher when he throws his junk?

I agree with almost everything you say here. Only difference being, I'd rather keep Jose and platoon him with Uribe at ss, and sign a free agent 3b. I like Jose, but not against lhp, no way. Jose's overall numbers would not be nearly so horrific if he played less against lhp.

What do you mean? The Sox are all grinders. At least in the sense that watching them lately has been like watching sausage getting made.

I thought Crede would have a breakout season this year. I don't mean 'become a star' breakout, just .260 ba, .330 obp, .450 slg, something like that, which is where I thought he would consistently be. He has the ability to make great defensive plays, and for that alone I still enjoy watching him play. But...he's been a huge disappointment, and he hasn't shown an ability to learn from his mistakes. Last year was a sophomore slump, this season should have been the rebound, as he figured out how teams threw to him. Instead, the pitchers have found even a few more holes in the zone (holes in the o-zone, as wide as the holes in the ozone, there's got to be a way to work that in... ). Maybe he will still improve -- his k/bb ratio got better over time in the minors. Then again, his ba was never this poor. Personally, I would like to see the Sox shop around. I like Koskie, although he doesn't k much less than Crede. He draws a lot more walks, has a good obp. But he would have to be priced appropriately, since you can't count on a full season. I wouldn't expect much for Crede, but you could probably get a role player or 1 or 2 low- or mid-level prospects.

I didn't say "steady decline", like a path down, and I wasn't looking at 2003 alone. I was looking at 2001-2003, when he had just a .330 obp overall. The perception that Valentin has been in steady decline is a little misleading -- a large part of that drop in average is due to the fact that he has been used more and more against lhp. Everyone knows that Valentin should be a pure platoon player, so the only reasonable explanation seems to be that Harris is even worse against lefties than Valentin, forcing the Sox to platoon him instead. I don't make that claim myself -- I don't think he's had enough abs vs lhp to tell, only 117 in his entire mlb career! But I can't think of any other explanation. But if that is the case, that Willie is even weaker against lefties than Jose, I think replacing Harris would make more sense. That way, you aren't sacrificing Jose's power as well. Of course, a lot of people believe Willie's speed is more valuable than Jose's power. If that's your belief, I can't refute that, although I disagree. Willie will probably end the season with 15-18 steals, 4-5 cs. The value of that, compared to the 15-20 hrs Jose would gather as a pure platoon player, seems small.

Vizquel will not have this good of a season next year. He's only had a couple seasons in his entire career better than this one. If we sign him and he returns to his form of the last few years, it's going to be a big let-down. That's not to say age is everything, but Vizquel has already shown a clear decline (until this one fluke year) -- so unless you think players only hit their prime at age 39, you would probably want to stay away from Omar. As for defense, I don't see how anyone can argue that Vizquel is an improvement over Valentin. By any good statistical measure -- range factor, zone rating -- Valentin is a good sight better than Vizquel.

Lofton's the more likely trade candidate. Someone will take him if the Yankees pay enough of his salary -- Lofton at the minimum wouldn't be a bad deal. And he's making too much, but little enough that the Yankees are able to make roughly that scenario possible. I used to think you may as well tattoo those pinstripes on Beltran, I'm not as sure now, but I still think the odds favor it.

Exactly -- they're pretty happy w/ Tejada and Lopez, and rightfully so. Tejada in particular has been easily one of this year's best players. I'm not so sure about the Yankees -- they'll move Bernie or Lofton or both. But if they don't want either in center, they'll go for Beltran, not Maggs.

Whatever the reason, it's a good decision at this point. The Sox are out of contention, so I'd like to see some of the bubble prospects show their wares. Plus, now's a good time to be careful with our stars.