KWs OK for Me

But at the same time the Red Sox of 2003 were far and away the better offensive club, if I'm not mistaken it was when they almost set records for team avg, team slg, and runs scored. But they lost that year to the Yankees because the Yankees had the three keys to winning a championship: 1) A dominant closer in Mariano Rivera 2) A great rotation with shutdown pitchers (Clemens, Petitte, Mussina) 3) Solid defense What did the BoSox do differently this year to win it all with a still good, but less inferior offense to the year before: 1) Acquire a dominant closer (Keith Foulke) 2) Acquire another shutdown pitcher (Schilling) 3) Acquire solid defense (Cabrera, Minkerasdhjfadksjz) So yes offense definately wins games, but pitching and defense win championships!

NOOOO . . . . What we don't need right now is some player who will come over and struggle with a 2-seam fastball for half the year and not live up to expectations.

Mussina - Down year last year but still one hell of a pitcher Vazquez - Has the stuff to be an ace just about anywhere Brown - When healthy better than anyone on the Sox Pavano - If able to repeat will be dominant, but I still think he will be an above average pitcher (doesn't give up HRs or BBs) Wright - Over rated and got a lucky year I think we match up well pitching wise against the Yankees but I still don't know if we are on their level. Everyone has to step away and take away the home town factor and think of this objectively before we start saying we have a better staff than them. BoSox are the same way. I think our staff is the best its been in years, and definately has the potential to win us the division and would look pretty dirty in the playoffs too, but lets see them produce first before we go overboard.

Am I the only one who thought playing the Cubs during the fourth of july weekend was probably the most exciting Chicago weekend in a long time? Now we are playing them in May and mid June, in my opinion that sucks for marketing and appeal, I liked the fact that we played them 6 times in 12 days right around the fourth. I know its not important, but I liked it. I already got my Minny plan and made sure to include the Sept 20th game against the Twinkies, that could be one big game.

We need an infielder that is strong against lefties. If a good lefty comes to town than both of our middle infielders bats might as well be useless. Although Uribe is a righty, he is simply not good against lefties. I think he hits something like over 40 points lower against lefties. So if a tough lefty comes to town that we are minus two bats from the infielders and minus of course our gaping whole at catcher. So to reiterate, we need someone who can hit lefties in our middle infield!

Just to make sure I'm clear, we only have two players remaining (minus Uribe and Schooey) that are arbitration eligible, Davis and Rowand? When is the latest we will hear from them about? I assume they will offer Rowand arbitration and try to sign a multi-year deal before that comes around, but what about Davis? When do we hear about this?

Stealing third is a hard thing for a manager or base coach to call. The players who are good at stealing third do it on feel, they don't get the signal to do it, they do it when they can take advantage of the pitcher. I like having SPod lead off so he has no one ahead of him to stop him from stealing 2nd/3rd.

The Indians avoided arbitration with 2B Ronnie Belliard. The list of IFers gets slimmer. http://mlb.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/mlb/news/mlb...s_mlb&fext=.jsp

By turn around his season do you mean a 5.66 ERA in July, 4.2 in August, and a 6.4 ERA in Sept/Oct? If that's turning around his numbers I don't want to see what the rest of the season was like. I mean the 3.19 ERA in June with the "bad" defense seems pretty good to me, but thats only 1 month.

What about Black Jack McDowell?

What about Black Jack McDowell?

I said hes OK, I didn't say he does a great job. I think KW does the best he can with the resources hes got. I ultimately think that Jerry and the board pull the strings on everything and he does the best that he can.

My favorite Jason Grilli quote comes from Rotoworld: Yet we are considering him for the fifth starter spot on the 25 man rotation, how low the rotation has sunk.

How about this was funny maybe the first time, but by the 5th or 6th post its pretty damn old?

IMO Derek Lowe is not worth the money that he is demanding. For maybe 4-5 mil a year he would be, but not the 7 minimum that he is demanding. He put up a 5.5 ERA last year and had a winning record behind the Red Sox bats, not his arm. I don't think another inconsistent starter (getting at least 7 a year) is what the Sox need. The only upside is that he is a sinker baller and only gave up 15 hrs last year.

I was just looking at the mlb.com report of the possible RJ trade. How in the world do the Yankees pull off such a great deal? They are sending away Vasquez (3 yrs/$34 mil) and two overhyped prospects in return for one of the most dominant left-handed pitchers in baseball history and Ishii (a decent SP who could win 15 games with an offense like the Yankees). I just don't understand why the Dodgers would be a part of this? I don't know, I'm just ranting, but the fact that the Yankees have the payroll to sign anyone and can bamboozle any team into s***ty trades is just getting under my skin. Alright, I'm done.

Along with that the Mariners have an eighteen year old pitcher that every scout raves about and is supposed to contend for a job at spring training, and if he doesn't get it there expects to come up to the bigs if any of the other starters falter during the early goings. I don't think that the Mariners are going after Perez.

I'm pretty sure KW wouldn't make the trade before talking to Ozzie, who spent time with Burnett. And it being his team and his idea for molding it I think he knows whether or not Burnett will fit in this team. So if he does come I have full confidence that he will fit in because it will be with an Ozzie GUillen OK to it. If it doesn't happen it could be very likely because Ozzie said no to it.

4.73 on the road. Puts them in the very bottom of the middle third. Makes them 19 out of 30 in MLB and 7 of 14 in the AL.

Last year after the Cubs-Pirates doubleheader they talked about it on the radio a lot. His dad is a HUGE sox fan and it just made his year that his son did that.

Borchard Confident About 2005 Understatement of the year!

I think that Wade Miller would be a great pick up, provided that he is healthy. I'm not sure what his injury from last year was, I want to say rotator cuff, but he'd be a great pitcher to add. A solid mid-back end of the rotation guy who should win ~15 games and doesn't give up to many home runs.

Here is what Mackowiak has going for him: - From the Chicagoland area - Grew up a Sox fan - Singledhandedly beat the Cubs three times in 2 days! - Can play OF/3B/2B - Powerful left-handed bat off the bench

Can you imagine a rotation with Mulder-Buehrle-Garcia at the top of it. That is three guys who will all chew up over 210+ IP. Than if you were able to hold onto Garland you would have 4 guys who all could throw for more than 210+ IP. You could carry a 6 man pen and a huge bench. This would bring soo much depth and different looks to the Sox.

Even if it does BMac and Anderson I say go for it. It has been too long since the White Sox have won a post season series. With a 1-2-3 punch of Mulder-Buehrle-Garcia we can very well do that. Also, both Mulder and Zito have two guaranteed years here. Even if we do trade away two of our top prospects it proves to whoever it is that we do get ( I hope Mulder, went to HS at Thornwood, grew up a Sox fan ) that we care about winning now and that they should stay on the team. That, coupled with Mulder's history could make him sign an extension here, so even if we don't do it all this year we still have 2-3 years locked down with Mulder-Buehrle-Garcia at the top of the rotation, than we can build the offense around it accordingly. I'm tired of not making the playoffs, I want the Sox to be competitive now.