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QUOTE(Rowand44 @ Mar 19, 2008 -> 03:11 PM) Number 3 starters with 3.63 era's in the AL are all over the place. Uh, I'm going to assume that was supposed to be a green comment. Because in 2007, based on ERA, Buehrle would have only been a #3 on 2 AL teams, which would have been the Angels and Indians. And on all but 6 teams, Buehrle would have been the ace in 2007. Again, this is based on ERA. The durability and quiet leadership that Mark brings to our club is extremely underrated, and I think most people with baseball smarts know this.

QUOTE(RockRaines @ Mar 19, 2008 -> 01:10 PM) Fields OPS by month June .607 July .823 Aug .773 Sept .936 SLG by month .333 .490 .509 .568 He's improving with time, produced better than Crede offensively already and is in spring training as well. He's a better player for the Sox, hands down. That is a good sign that he improved as the season went on, but I still am not willing to accept a hitter who offers only power to strike out 33% of the time. That's just unacceptable unless your name is Ryan Howard. This spring he's struck out 9 times in 33 at-bats, so that's a *slight* improvement. I still think a few months down in AAA will do nothing but help him. He can work on his fundamentals and try to learn some discipline at the plate. And I don't think it's fair to judge Crede on how he's playing this Spring. The main thing is that he shows he's healthy after coming off BACK SURGERY. Cut the guy some friggin slack. He played hurt for a couple of seasons, tanked last year, and it was time to have the surgery done. I think it will take probably the month of April before he finds his stroke at the plate, and from there he can up his trade value and come summer, we can deal him for someone better than is being offered now, and Josh can come back to the club an improved hitter. Sounds win-win to me. I have Josh on my fantasy team, but it's a keeper league so I'm willing to forgo the first half of the 2008 season if it means my fantasy team will be better in the long-run, and I think Sox fans should be willing to do the same.

QUOTE(max power @ Mar 18, 2008 -> 08:25 PM) Good to know. I am just repeating what hawk or kenny or someone else said about who was competing for the long relief job on saturday. So if it isn't Masset, who is it? I really hate masset. Why not broadway or haegar? Anyone but massett, seriously, anyone. Did Masset #%&* your wife or something? How can you say you "hate" a guy you've never met? Settle down, man.

QUOTE(Steve9347 @ Mar 19, 2008 -> 08:15 AM) You can't in all good faith send Josh Fields down to AAA after the season he had last year. You mean the season he had in which he struck out 125 times in 373 AB? A rookie who strikes out 33% of the time needs more seasoning in AAA. Sure he hit 23 home runs, but that doesn't come close to canceling out all those strikeouts. And it's not like he put up a .400 OBP - it was .308, and he offers no speed. Granted, Crede's OBP and speed are also not up to par, but you're acting like Fields had a season like Tulowitzki or Braun. The fact is he's a free swinger who needs more work to cut down his swing and get those whiffs to an acceptable level. Not to mention that his glovework at 3B is not where Joe's is. Our 3-5 in the rotation are going to need all the help they can get in the field, and having Joe at 3B bodes better for them than Josh. Crede puts the bat on the ball and is one of the best defensive 3B in the league.

QUOTE(flavum @ Mar 18, 2008 -> 06:46 PM) Unless there is a trade, I think the pitching staff is set: Buehrle, Vazquez, Danks, Contreras, Floyd Masset, MacDougal, Logan, Thornton, Linebrink, Dotel, Jenks Wassermann and Ohka fall just short, but they'll be needed this year. If at any point we need Tomo Ohka, it's going to be a very, very long season.

QUOTE(hammerhead johnson @ Mar 17, 2008 -> 10:58 PM) We're talking about the same Bobby Jenks that retired 41 consecutive batters last year, yeah? Didn't he have a 0.89 WHIP and .198 BAA? The scary thing is that he ain't even peaking yet. If you look at his 2007 strikeout ratio, he underachieved big time. He had less than 8 strikeouts per 9 IP. He should be in the 10 range this year. I don't know, man. The guy looks like an elite closer to me. A top 10 reliever in the MLB, no doubt. Top 5.

It better be Jenks. If he scuffles in '08, it's going to be a very long year for Sox fans. Plus he's on my fantasy team, so he better get around 40 saves for me.

QUOTE(joemg311 @ Mar 16, 2008 -> 10:31 AM) Yeah I hope thats what they do too. They really should have shut him down last year, he needs to be 100% to be on this team. I'm sure they can find someone that can at least throw a runner or two out while not hitting. I wonder what Ron Karkovice is up to these days?

QUOTE(NorthSideSox72 @ Mar 14, 2008 -> 11:41 AM) SF made some offseason moves for not-young players, and they are in a weak division in a weak league. I think they figure, if they put a team out there that doesn't completely suck, they will be competitive most of the season. More butts in the seats. Weak? The NL West? Are you serious? They have the Rockies, who were the 2007 NL Champs. The Diamondbacks, who won the division last year with 90 wins and added a young stud pitcher Dan Haren. And the Padres, who won 89 games in 2007. And weak league? Hardly. In 2007, there were 11 teams that won 88 or more games: 6 in the AL, 5 in the NL. The Giants finished 19 games out of 1st place last year, and there is no chance of them competing in 2008. They wasted their money on Rowand, and if they trade any young talent for Crede, who would amount to a 1 year rental, they are insane.

QUOTE(kyyle23 @ Mar 11, 2008 -> 08:28 AM) no kidding. if you wonder why tommy john has become such a well known surgery, see item A Well, that and kids being forced at a young age by their parents/coaches/etc to throw until their arms are about to fall off. The human arm was not designed to hurl a baseball over and over and over again, ESPECIALLY when it's the arm of an undeveloped child.

That makes my arm hurt just looking at it!

QUOTE(scenario @ Mar 10, 2008 -> 08:06 PM) I think the two oldest teams in baseball (again) this year are Detroit and Boston. I guess they didn't get the 'gotta trade your old guys' memo. I'm not saying trade your old guys. I'm saying trade your old guys WHEN it's relatively clear you are not a legitimate contender and can still get some return for them to help you in the future. What good will it do the Sox to keep the same core of players if they're going to most likely finish 3rd at best?

QUOTE(DBAH0 @ Mar 10, 2008 -> 05:02 PM) And we actually won a ST game for a change. Sounds like our hitters had a good day. Eh we're 7-8 now, it could be worse.

QUOTE(Princess Dye @ Mar 10, 2008 -> 04:11 PM) It kind of irritates me that the organization is saying "hey lets win this year," despite plenty of reason to NOT have that approach. And then, in the face of that, they seem pretty against giving a shot to this guy, who could be feast or famine. I mean, it's not like Juan Uribe is going to have some breakout year at 2b. Give Ramirez a try and Uribe will always be there. Yeah, I agree completely. Why not throw Alexi out there and see what the kid can do. Especially when the alternative is Juan Uribe, a guy who even in his best year wasn't exactly an all-star.

Eh any fan who truly loves their team and wants to see them win will whine when things don't go the way you want them to go. It's teams that don't have demanding fans that should be worried, because that means they don't care one way or the other. That's the kiss of death for a professional sports team. Apathy is the worst possible result.

QUOTE(NorthSideSox72 @ Mar 10, 2008 -> 10:51 AM) There could be some reason they kept sending him out there. But I don't know what it would be. So I have to agree with you - it made no sense. My theory is that the organization (and I am sure other clubs do this too) has guys they like and don't like, for reasons beyond what we may be aware of. So they played Gonzalez over Bourgeois. And go a year back to 2006, as the season went on, why did they keep trotting Pods and other injured ineffectuals out there instead of Gload? When it comes to bringing new blood in, there does seem to be a "in" list of players. Maybe its personality, or work ethic, or who knows what. Companies having favorite employees is nothing new, and we shouldn't expect a professional sports team to be any different than any other company.

QUOTE(Dick Allen @ Mar 10, 2008 -> 07:47 AM) They may have been forced to put him on the field, but guys like Burgiose (sp) didn't get a shot at all, and apparently deserved one. There is no defending having him lead off. None. Andy played in 67 games. Cherry pick his top 4 offensive games where he went a combined 11-14 and he hit .137 the other 63. Add to that some less than stellar work with the leather and a case could be made a beer league is more his level. Ugh, Andy played *way* too much last year. He's terrible.

QUOTE(witesoxfan @ Mar 9, 2008 -> 03:03 PM) 100 point difference in OPS. Thanks for so sneakily leaving that out. .937 at home .843 on the road That's a monstrous difference, and now he's going to a monstrous stadium. I'd be surprised if he put up an .800 OPS. I mentioned the 3 most important offensive stats. Nothing sneaky about that. YOU forgot to mention he walked 11 more times on the road vs. at home. Nice try, Mr. Sly!

QUOTE(gosox41 @ Mar 9, 2008 -> 02:55 PM) I think this should have been done last season. The Sox have had 1 1/2 years of bad baseball. Winning maybe 83 games in 2008 doesn't do much for me. Bob I think I agree.

QUOTE(Texsox @ Mar 9, 2008 -> 09:15 AM) I wonder what happens when a team trades all of their highest value players and keeps their lowest value players. How many have won championships? The teams that are in contention constantly are the teams that realize when it's time to move on and either trade aging players or let them go via free agency. Unless you're the Yankees, who have a $200M payroll.

The fact of the matter is that the Sox simply have 1 too many hitters that are past their primes and extremely slow. Having Thome and Konerko in the same lineup at this point in their careers is not in the best interest for the Sox IMO. I think they should trade the one with the highest value, and right now I think that's Paulie. Paulie, I love ya, but we have some young guys who are the future of this club that are going to play less because we already have Thome as our DH. I'd say trade Thome since he's 37, but his value is far less than Konerko's. If we traded Paulie, we could get some pretty good prospects in return, save on salary that we can use to sign a top-tier pitcher this next off-season, move Swisher to 1B, and get Quentin into left field (when his shoulder is ready to go). The scenario now if Quentin is in LF is having Swisher in CF, which isn't best for our defense. Or if Owens makes the club as our CF, then you have a young potential stud Quentin sitting on the bench and only playing part time. That's not good for our offense, nor for his development. Let's face it, the Sox aren't going to win in 2008, so why not cut a little of the fat and work our young guys into the mix to get them a lot of big league face time?

QUOTE(Greg The Bull Luzinski @ Mar 8, 2008 -> 05:31 PM) Call me a skeptic, but I think he played way over his head last year. I know I do not subscribe to the grinder/Rowand could walk through a pool of flesh eating fish with meat pants myth, but Rowand does not strike fear in the hearts of pitchers. And with nobody to surround him the the order (ie, Ryan Howard), his stats are going to fall this year. Don't forget the Phillies also had Chase Utley (.332, 22, 103 in '07), Jimmy Rollins (.296, 30, 94), and Pat Burrell (30 jacks, 97 ribbies) who had extremely solid years. Throw in Howard's 47 and 136, and you have an extremely potent lineup that Rowand happened to be a part of, and he certainly carried his weight with his best season ever. The talent level in Frisco is going to be laughable compared to that, and yes, it is more of a pitchers' park. Factoring in that '07 was a contract year with a great lineup in a hitters' ballpark, you can look for a significant decline in 2008 for Mr. Rowand. If he had come to the Sox instead, then his numbers probably wouldn't have changed very much. Stick him in our lineup, and we'd be just as good offensively as the Phils were last year, if not better. *sigh*

QUOTE(witesoxfan @ Mar 8, 2008 -> 04:48 PM) Rowand was the primary 5th hitter in Philadelphia last year in an offense that scored 892 runs. He had a monster year, and going from the bandbox in Philly to the cavernous stadium in San Fran will take a ton off of his production...more or less just saying Eh his numbers weren't THAT much difference between home vs. away in 2007. Home: .319 avg, 17 HR, 48 RBI Away: .299 avg, 10 HR, 41 RBI Not a dramatic difference. His power numbers will suffer a bit, but who wouldn't take .300 on the road? He's a quality player now, but the Giants really overpaid for his services. That's how it goes with free agents, though.

QUOTE(kwolf68 @ Mar 8, 2008 -> 02:55 PM) In other news, water is wet. If the Sox tank this year, we'll have a brand new farm system next year at this time, book it. That's why I am at peace with what KW has done. He dumped all the prospects for another gung-ho go at the gold. If the team wins this year then it will have been worth it...if the team just misses, we may try again next year with some minor tinkering...if the team flames, we'll see the team totally revamped, that is why I am OK with the mad scientist KW right now. If EVERYTHING breaks right we can make post-season this year. Had we 'rebuilt' last year we couldn't say that. So lets give it a go...and if crap falls apart we'll be doing next year what many wanted to do this year. Our minor leagues can be rebuilt via trades within a year or two. I generally agree with everything you said. That's why I like KW and his "win now" mentality. FAR too many fans out there follow teams that have management that never takes a chance and never risks looking bad. KW couldn't care less what the pundits say about him, and he's not gun shy about making moves he feels will help the Sox win now. Granted, that strategy doesn't always work (duh!), but even if it works once, it's worth it in my opinion. And like you said, if by July we're under .500 and 15 games out of the playoff picture, you can bet we will be unloading a lot of players (probably Konerko, Dye, AJ, etc) and getting prospects in return. And yes, that will put us right back in the middle of the pack in terms of minor league depth. Another thing to consider is we have 2 starters that *maybe* shouldn't even be in the majors. If both were on a team such as the Red Sox, Danks and Floyd would be pitching in AAA, so I think the fact they're in the majors should be taken into consideration when evaluating the strength (or lack thereof) of our minor league system. If they both were on our AAA team, I'm sure we wouldn't be dead last.

QUOTE(Pants Rowland @ Mar 8, 2008 -> 08:46 AM) Not to get off topic, but I believe Ventura deserved some discussion as a HOF candidate. He is close but in the end probably comes up a bit short due to a lack of an MVP trophy plus his offensive numbers seem a few inches from the goal line. Anyway, I have used Ventura's career as a good benchmark for why Santo also does not deserve to be in the HOF. I think the numbers you just laid out illustrate an excellent career that just comes short of the hall, no matter how much we love him. Ventura's not a Hall of Famer. Not even close, really, IMO. A solid, capable major league player, but HOF? No way.