Punch and Judy Garland

QUOTE(WhiteSoxfan1986 @ Aug 21, 2006 -> 08:47 PM) Whats this about John Gibbons confronting Ted Lilly? It was in the bottom corner on ESPNEWS. espn has an article up. I guess Gibbons was seen shoving Lilly in the dugout/clubhouse area after he felt Lilly showed him up by refusing to give up the ball. Gibbons was seen bloody later. The story hints that Gibbons might have made physical contact first. Although I felt the whole Hillenbrand situation was Shea's fault initially, perhaps there is a bigger issue with Gibbons than meets our Chicago eyes.

I don't think you can justify waiving vazquez with a wildcard lead. What if we had a starter get hurt? Plus it might be getting too late to stretch Brandon out. Plus, before we waive him I think its worth trying to use him as a power reliever. He might add 3-4 mph to his fastball and become a dominant 8th inning counterpart for Jenks

I think neither clear waivers but I could be wrong. I think teams like LA, Philly, St. Louis, Cincinnati and others would take a long look before it got to the Mets. I think the Reds couldn't resist

depends who they play. The Mets should face the wild card barring a big run from Philly who is charging which means we should see Dodgers-Cards in all likelihood. We'll see what both teams look like at that time because both have been Jekyl and Hyde teams

Will we face good pitching teams in the playoffs? Detroit maybe. NY is pretty pedestrian and Boston's is not good. It's kind of a rairty, but there aren't really any staffs that scare me into thinking we could get shutdown

very true which is why teams like the Dodgers and Cardinals are still legitimate threats even though they shouldn't be

I thought Garland's two-seam fastball running back over the outside corner to righties yesterday was awesome, just pinpoint. He pitches to contact so you know he'll have a few bad games from here to the end but he's been very impressive lately, no question about it. I think he has certianly surpassed Garcia and Vazquez in the order of guys you have confidence in heading towards the big games of September and October

Check out the espn.com story plus the bit in Buster Olney's blog about Tom Glavine's potential bloodclot that may end his career and season. So close to 300 wins it would be a huge shame. Plus it would have been a lot of fun to see him back in the October spotlight again. Glavine is a true joy to watch pitch as he uses know-how, experience, and deception to confound hitters when his stuff would suggest otherwise. It'd be terribly unfortunate if his HOF career is over now

I was late on the Chris Young bandwagon, or at least later than a lot of our future sox regulars but man does he look like a stud. When your "dwonside" is MIke Cameron and your upside is Eric Davis, its hard to imagine getting traded

After this season, Garcia for Furcal makes so much sense its unreal

Thome is the biggest reason we run less, that and Dye's success. You just don't want to make outs in front of those studs on the bases. It was different last year when we had less success out of 3-4-5

it seems like we still run a lot, just with guys that don't run that well.

well he hits 6th. I don't really consider that middle of the order although its tecnically the end of the middle. It should also be noted that he has a career year and his OBP is below what I believe to be the MLB average (340). Again, if you sign him long term that means that 7 years from right now, you would be paying him around $11 million dollars. Does that seem wise to you? Crede has been wonderful this year, I'm just talking about beyond this year when organizing and constructing this team

I didn't realize his arb years went to 08, my bad. To be honest, and I admit I'm not really a Crede guy, but are you going to want him for 5 or 6 years AFTER 08 realizing they will be expensive years,he's a guy with a bad back, and that he's yet to prove he can be a middle of the order hitter.

The Fields point is a good one but I see no reason he can't spend 07 in the minors again. I know he's probably ready for the bigs but sometimes guys (i.e. Ryan Howard) spend more time in AAA than they want to and they turn out ok. Plus with Crede in doubt for our 08 plans, keeeping Fields at third in 07 might be the shrewdest move

I say let's do Podsednik for Pat Burrell. He's a good OBP guy plus Philyl will likely swallow half his contract a la Jim Thome. We have a working relationshipo with them already and they seem desperate to unload him because of his big deal and because they want to go with the out with the old policy. BUrrell strikes out too much to leadoff(plus he's slow although that hasn't hurt Kevin Youkilis) but he'd be a definite upgrade over Pods I should add that Burrell might want something to waive his no-trade which admittedly complicates things. although the same was said for Abreu and he didn't ask for anything more. Since Philly is benching Burrell to piss him off enough to make him want to be traded, he might just come here no questions asked

Exactly because if you "waive' all of your players, teams might not know which one you REALLY want to slip through. If you put, for instance, Andruw Jones-Chipper-Giles-Smoltz on waivers, maybe Danys Baez goes unclaimed. Thats the rationale anyways, plus it can't hurt you to have options. Although, you can only be waived once after aug 1 so there is strategy on when you do it

There really isn't a great leadoff hitter who plays short available. You could turn Lugo into a Jimmy Rollins/Furcal type who runs a lot and scores a lot without a big obp but Lugo is going to surprise a ton of people with the size of his contract so we'll see

that is extremely smart on your part I must say.

Lugo would be a nice pickup although I think he's going to get 8 millin dollars a year and he might not be worth that for long. Uribe is actually a worse player than cesar Izturis so batting him 1 or 2 would be suicide in the standings. As far as locking up Crede goes, Boras doesn't do that. For anyone. He will test FA. Next year's leadoff hitter is not on this team yet in my opinion

I could be wrong but I believe Don Baylor was fired from the Cubs the day fter the Cubs failed to score a run three innings in a single game with the bases loaded and no outs. Not sure if that is completely accurate but that is the memory anyways

he'd clear waivers in all likelihood. Teams know he is hurt and plus he makes a little bit of money. Not a ton but probably enough to dissuade them from the flyer

I think that we have the better of the trade with performance its just when you factor in the prospects, the money, etc it's really pretty interesting and will be to watch for the next few years. It's a shame though the way people buried Frank

QUOTE(MarlinFan84 @ Aug 9, 2006 -> 11:49 AM) So the Sox traded for Vasquez...a guy who last year put up a 4.42 ERA and 1.25 WHIP primarily against the worst division in baseball(the NL West)...so McCarthy wouldn't get to start? That doesn't make any sense, espicially when you figure Vasquez has...at best...been average for his career yet sucked most of the time. It was also criminally dumb to trade Young for Vasquez in the first place. Yeah I didn't hate it at the time but I didn't like it either. I didn't understand why you trade away a CF prospect when you also trade away your starting CF. I did think Anderson would hit better though. I have Vazquez on a fantasy team or two the last few years and you can actually learn about guys from having them on your team. I learned you can't trust him. Since he had a good outing though I find it comical that guys like Hawk say that his problems are all in the past and he's back on track. Just out of curiosity as a sidebar, was Curt Schilling the last guy to have a successful season moving from the NL to the AL? Am i missing someone there?

I calm down my complaints a bit now because truthfully, Brandon has become our best reliever besides Jenks but it was criminally dumb to go into the season and trade away Chris Young to not use Brandon in the rotation. Clearly he was ready. It's so late in the year that I have given up hope of Mac starting. Its too bad too because Javy Vazquez could have become a dominant 2 inning power reliever down the stretch that would have been Zumaya-like