elrockinMT

Excuse me but Garland is a pitcher and a fairly decent one at that. Lots of upside to Judy Garland. I guess you can never say never, but I think the Sox will be concentrating on a signing of a super reserve infielder or a position player at SS or 2B. Maybe a catcher, if a good one becomes available. I don't see pitching being the most pressing need anymore.

The most ridiculous stuff you can possibly read is stories about the Yankees being fiscally conservative. That team is the ultimate in overpaying players for their services. Please correct me if I am wrong here, but didn't the Yankmees originally sign El Duque when he defected from Cuba? Huge bonus and all that? Plus, we won't be getting Vazquez. The Sox have 5 starters and have a budget besides. Vazquez will either stay in NY or go to Arizona as part of the RJ deal.

I don't think we should feel too comfortable with the catching staff of either Davis and Burke at all. Burke may swing a better bat, but his catching defense is not that good. Davis is questionable all the way around. They need working with from the catching guru, whoever that might be.

You are right on with your evaluation of Garland and Ozzie's handling of him. Ozzie said the only way Garland was going to learn, develop and get over the hump was to show confidence that he could get himself out of trouble and let him alone. Once John knew he wasn't going to get pulled he would perform better. Maybe that is what happened, but we won't really know until we see John develop further as a winner in '05. I don't know if I always thought Ozzie Guillen did a good job with the pitchers though.

The Cardinals! I always go out on a limb.

I am ok with the starting pitching and I am happy to see El Duckie signed for $4M with incentives. I think incentives should be used more. There have been some terribly high salaries given for players who weren't that good. I was not happy with the C Lee deal, but we will see. Dye I can live with so overall it's not bad. I wish we would have kept Jose Valentin, and I am serious, but maybe Eckstein could be signed. I like Jose becasue he gave it his all every game and hit homers. Plus he was not that bad in the field. Eckstein can hustle and maybe field, but he isn't a big hitter. I firmly believe Paul Konerko stays with the Sox and that's good.

D Lowe would be a good addition, but not at $7M a year. I wouldn't mind trying to bring E LO back into the fold. I think he would be willing to take a contract in the $2M to $4M and maybe less. It might be woprth the chance. I think his problem was a tired arm last year. He hadn't been real effective or pitched as many innings before as he did with the Sox in '03. I just feel he has a lot of upside and would make a good 4th or 5th satrter.

I would have liked some of the free agents out there too. I would have liked to have kept Magglio, which I think we could have done, but these FA's asking prices are outrageous. Where is the sanity?

Let's just hope that as Hawkeroo pours his syrup all over Jerry Reinsdorf, Kenny Williams and Ozzie Guillen and how great the off season moves were we don't get sugar poisoning. He has a penchant for overdoing it and names like Pea Poddy, Podzilla, etc, will ruin it quickly. Another thing will be be a .250 average and a subpar OB% and minsicule RBI's, etc, which I am worried might happen. You can only hope for the best though and try and be positive.

If you are asking for permission then the answer is NO!

Calling Joe B a piece of garbage and other bad things is too harsh. He does have a lot of potential and remember we all cry when KW trades away our prospects. Let's give the guy a chance. It ain't hurting anything to do that and maybe we will get a surprise.

I don't think that a lack of potential 5th starters is our problem anyway. Either our rookies or one that we already have might do the job if needed, but it would be nice to get someone with experience, and one who doesn't give up a dozen home runs every start.

I can't believe that KW and/or others would really consider this type of deal. We lose Maggs, Lee and the Konerko? We also lost Valentin with his 30 HR's. 140 homers and 375 plus RBI's gone and for what? A punch and judy player who can run, but might not get on base. So we get this Pod guy on base and have no one to drive him in. We have a pitching staff that gives up 4 runs a game and we need an offesne to score at least 5, but yet we trade away our hitters, and oh yeah let's trade away our prospects too. I just can't believe these rumors are true.

But KW has plans that he falls back on remember? He might be on Plan ZZ bu now, but he has a plan. We need to trust him becasue after all he works for Jerry Reinsdorf who wants to win more than anything in the world. Just ask him. I have been a Sox fan for 45 years people and I am fed up with listening to this stuff coming out of the front office too. We have lost not only Lee but remember we let Maggs walk and we we let Jose V walk meaning we gave up an offense that could hit about 100 homers between just those three and drive in 300 runs total. What did we replace that with? But, we saved money.

I think it might have something to do with the fact he lasted 4 or 5 innings in his starts. That seems to make him an ace.

I will probably just cuss or maybe cry. Losing Maggs and Lee means we lost 70 homer and 225 RBI's and two .300 hitters. We got in return and punch and judy hitter and an oft injured OF'er.

We live on rumors around here and also on the faint hope that we will actually get something helpful done.

The real question to ask is why did anyone doubt that RJ was going to the Yankees? He said he wanted to and Georgie wanted him so it was just a matter of when and who the Yanks were going to partner with to get the deal done. I think it may be the Dodgers who took it in the shorts this time.

9-13 last season does NOT equate to that type of contract. You would think Kenny would be spending Jerry's money more wisely than that and I bet he is. So this is just some rumor reported by the radio.

Which is why the Yankmees told Arizona no way. The D-Backs want too much and I hope it's not the Sox that fill their stockings. But, as stated before I can see KW doing this. If he does and we don't win next year I think the whole front office should be canned. It is hard staying positive with what I see happening.

I agree. But he is probably AAA bound next year in his final chance.

He is probably way too giddy from his big trade.

Frank Thomas had an excellent baseball attitude last season. But, of course when things go right for us and Frank then something bad has to happen. In this case an injury. Frank will be good in '05 and will be the team leader.

I agree with whatever your "girls" say!

Why would you want to do this anyway? It will just make you sad and mad.