Punch and Judy Garland

I'll take a stab, haven't read others yet. Fact or Fiction: A White Sox starting pitcher will win 20 games this season.-Fiction. The AL will go without a 20 game winner this year but Garcia will win 17 and Buehrle 18. Fact or Fiction: Willie Harris will be on the White Sox opening day roster. Fact. He will spend the entire season on the roster Fact or Fiction: Orlando "El Duque" Hernandez will toss more than 140 innings this season. Fiction. I see him making about 20 starts for about 120 innings. That said, he'll be there at the finish. Fact or Fiction: Shingo Takatsu will record more than 30 saves this season. Fact. He might not clear it by much but I think that we'll win enough close games to give him 35 saves. The era will rise a little though, to around 3.40 Fact or Fiction: Scott Podsednik will set a career high in both batting average and OBP this season. Definite Fiction. I think his average and obp will be better than a year ago, but nowhere near the numbers he put up in 03. I also think he will fail to nab 70 bases and ends up with 54 steals, less than Carl Crawford. Fact or Fiction: Frank Thomas will play in more than 120 games this season.-Fact. I think he misses the first 15-20 games and misses a few more due to interleague play. I think he winds up with 130 games played when all is said and done. Fact or Fiction: Carl Everett will get more than 350 at-bats this season. Fact. The caveat being that crazy carl is not a white sox player in july. I think he gets few ab;s after frank is back and gets moved. Fact or Fiction: A White Sox starter other than Mark Buehrle or Freddy Garcia will throw a complete game shutout this season.Fact. There is no chance of Duque sniffing the 9th and Jon ain't getting there either. That leaves Jose Contreras with a dominant performance, surely against a bad team like KC. And finally....Fact or Fiction: The White Sox will win the American League Central in 2005.Fiction. A full year of Joe Mauer and Justin Morneau leave Minnesota with about 94 wins. Needless to say, the wild card is not an option.

rolle is good but with the money the Bears have invested inthe secondary, I dunno. IF you could send R-Dub a one way ticket and keep Zoom as a nickel back, it's not a bad idea. It just might be a bit superflous

I'll go 85 with a tie for second with Cleveland. First will be that horrible city to the north

thanks very much. Pelfrey is coming to town (carbondale) in May. I'm pretty stoked to see him

actually mvp's do help. By definition, the most valuable player, is the most valuable player to his team. By your logic, Dougie M is better than Frank because his team won. That's just weak.

you are right, my bad. I think I went to a night game against the Angels where Kong ended it. good call

I was at that game. It was tremendous. I actually got lucky with another Angel game this year where Timo had the big hit of K-Rod and Kong ended it with a a ball to the track.

he was instrumental in the 03 division race. He had so many big hits. Frank has been loyal to the team. He's never demanded tobe traded and his contract has been below market value most of the time. The team should reward his loyalty by keeping him. Let's not act likes he's a liability at the plate. A .430 obp last year says otherwise.

It comes down to how much free reign JR will give him. If the Sox winthe divisionthis year, it may give KW the capital to dump the big man

Could someone please post or e-mail me the first round projection from BA for 05. I would be fforever indebted to you if you could do me this solid. thanks

Frank has always been used by writers to stir the pot. I will say this, this has been a trying offseason for me as a Sox fan. They got rid of two of my four favorite players. I know Buehrle will be around for awhile, but if things end badly with Frank, I may not forgive the organization. We don't need another Fisk situation. I know that Frank will try to stay in town as long as management doesn't slap him in the face. I swear that Kenny Williams better not try to run him out of town.

I don't like Uribe leading off. Wasn't he about 45 % stealing bases without patience at the plate. He airs it out too much to hit 1-2 in my eyes. I do agree that the lineup is goign to be revamped in a big way probably many times in the next month

I actually really like Dibs. He was great on the DP show.

I think a KC-Chi trade with Willie for Graffs might work. Our "rivalry" is not all that heated at the moment and it would make a lot of sense on both sides. I don't think the division would get in the way a lot with these two teams. Now the Twins or Cleveland on the other hand....

you seem to be leaning on a great deal of health. Not saying it won't happen, but there are too many question marks to say definitively that they Sox will jack 200 plus homers.

I do think "shutdown" is overused for corners. People are looking for the next Dunta Robinson, not hte next Trufant. And when I say that I mean a rookie that plays like a vet in year 1, whereas Trufant looks wonderful but had some gorwing pains. I've read antoine windfield-pac comps and they sound reasonable

I've heard good thngs about Johnson, you may be right. I think it's a bad draft this year though. I picked Pac-Man because he looks like a potential lockdown guy

I highly question your prognostications. No way Pods and AJ combine for 35 homers.

If I could take any player in the draft I'd take Pac-Man. I think he'll be an outstanding cover man.

do you mean consensu #1 overall or first round pick? I think he's picked top 12 at the latest pretty much no matter what. Earliest? 4 I guess

I don't think the Bears will be willign to rationalize taking a player at 4 overall who didn't play last year. That HAS to weigh in. If Williams were light-years above Edwards, then I'd ignore it. But, they are clsoe enough together that I think the Bears will take Edwards. Willaims isn't the prospect that many have made him out to be. He wouldn't have been top 10 last year and may not be this year either. I think he;s a really good player but he's not the uber prospect some on here have made him out to be.

if we don't beat Radke and Santana head to head, we ain't going to the playoffs. The "all comes down to pitching" is sorta true, but it's oversimplified. To beat Johan, you gotta hit a little and pitch great.

I love how people that don't drink the kool-aid int he national media are not disagreed with here but totally discredited. it's unreal sometimes

I really don't like Joe Liebermann. I know he already turned down a cabinet position. Maybe he was holding out for this one.

take Barry Bonds off the team? It doesn't work that way. Take Jeter off the Yanks and they don't have as many rings. How about Sabean bringing in Jason Schmidt when nobody wanted him?