lvjeremylv

QUOTE(YASNY @ Mar 1, 2008 -> 08:22 AM) I think this entire f***ing discussion is asinine and I'm out of it. Probably a good idea to bow out since you don't have a leg to stand on in this instance. It was a ridiculous managerial decision, and the date on the calendar doesn't make it any less stupid. To argue otherwise is a waste of time.

QUOTE(NorthSideSox72 @ Feb 29, 2008 -> 07:06 PM) Dude. ITS SPRING TRAINING! This is where players try all kinds of stuff to get ready for the season. Its why it has "training" in the title. LOL, another one who doesn't get it. Oz should go to manager training if he's the one who told AJ to try and steal a base on an 0-2 count with the strikeout king at the plate.

QUOTE(YASNY @ Feb 29, 2008 -> 09:57 PM) So just exactly when would you try and teach a promising young ballplayer the nuances of the hit and run? When he's got a count that's conducive to it being successful maybe? Setting him up for failure isn't the best way to encourage him to do it again.

QUOTE(Jenks Heat @ Feb 29, 2008 -> 04:19 PM) They were probably botched hit-and-runs not straight steals. What manager hits & runs with an 0-2 count and a windmill at the plate?

QUOTE(LVSoxFan @ Feb 26, 2008 -> 11:01 AM) I have to agree with Greg. If there are players who can't even get motivated to do what they're paid obscene money to do, I find that appalling. Let's hope this is indeed a "new" year; I would hate to go through 2007 ever again. That was embarassing. Money doesn't motivate. It might in the short-term, but in the long term, you have to love what you do. Otherwise, all the money in the world isn't going to make you work hard and take pride in what you do. Motivation and pride comes from within, and it doesn't matter how many 0's are on your paycheck.

QUOTE(BaseballNick @ Feb 29, 2008 -> 04:02 PM) I think we need to get Toby Hall more time at 1B this spring. Thank you. At least someone here sees that ST isn't designed to do stupid things. The ONLY thing that can come of having guys like Thome or AJ steal a base is a pulled hamstring or worse.

QUOTE(Cowch @ Feb 29, 2008 -> 03:52 PM) As long as he's not pulling things like that during the season, I'm fine. You're fine with inane decisions by the manager of our team? I'm not. Would you "be fine" if he decided to play Thome at 1B to get some work in for him on fielding grounders? Or how about putting our backup catcher at 1B...oh wait, that already happened last season. Spring training is the time you play with lineups, showcase some trade bait (sadly, like Joe Crede), get a look at some of our youngsters, etc. It is NOT the time you practice things that will not be taking place during the regular season. AJ should NEVER be trying to steal a base. A hit and run with a guy like Cabrera hitting would be fine, but with an 0-2 count and Josh Fields at the plate, the only guy we have that I would be OK trying to steal a base would be Owens. At least that makes some kind of sense.

QUOTE(Cowch @ Feb 29, 2008 -> 03:47 PM) Well unless gameday is wrong, he was. It was on an 0-2 pitch to Fields which he struck out on. So with a guy who struck out 125 times in 408 plate appearances last season at the plate with an 0-2 count, the Sox decided it was a good time to try and have A.J. Pierzynski steal a base? Makes sense.

QUOTE(Cowch @ Feb 29, 2008 -> 03:44 PM) Well AJ just got caught. I hope you're joking. If not, Guillen is proving further that he's an idiot.

QUOTE(heirdog @ Feb 29, 2008 -> 03:32 PM) Damn, MacDougal just annoys me. I'm glad Lumsden and Cortes haven't panned out (yet) because I really hated that trade at the time, even though he was good in his stint with us in '06. I guess he reminds me of Billy Koch...less intimidating but a hard, STRAIGHT ball that gets rocked. How in the world did Thome get a SB? I would have thought that the day I saw Thome get a SB, he would have been traded and running against the battery of Contreras and Pierzynski. I'm sure it was some kind of botched play. I'd guess a 3-2 count where we struck out and the catcher missed the ball. No way it was a clean steal. If it was, Oz should be fired for having Jimmy voluntarily run.

QUOTE(heirdog @ Feb 29, 2008 -> 02:25 PM) Wasn't there a game thread yesterday? Any updates on score? He was referring to HIS first game thread of the year. Which makes it more special than the others.

QUOTE(DBAH0 @ Feb 27, 2008 -> 05:25 PM) No offense to Uribe, but I want no part of him on this team this season. Ship him off to B-More puh-lease. Unfortunately with what has happened to Richar, I get the feeling, Uribe is the favorite to start at 2nd right now. Another season of a sub .300 OBP with a .220-.230 AVG and over 100 K's. YIPPEE!! Eh. He's a career .254 hitter who will probably hit around 20 bombs and drive in 60-70 if he gets regular playing time. He also plays pretty good defense - at least at SS he did, 2B who knows how he'll be since I don't think he's ever played 2B with the Sox. He's very streaky and can get in a zone and carry a team for a week - then, he'll tank it for 3 weeks where he'll bat .115 and strike out 37 times. What else can you say? It's unfortunate the Sox don't have any better options, but it appears they don't.

QUOTE(Kalapse @ Feb 25, 2008 -> 08:45 PM) Here's my rule that I've just come up with now and have put no real thought into: if you're bad for about a full month then good for about a full month then bad again for about another full month then you relinquish credit for that good month sandwiched between the 2 bad ones. Otherwise you can really lend no credence to good or bad stretches of play, they lose all value since you can just play around with the dates. Any date in time you choose is going to arbitrary whether it's the beginning of a month or the day after the all star break it's an arbitrary date. You say Brian Anderson was terrible in 2006, someone else says he was actually pretty damn good in July and August, another person says between July 21st and August 13th he was brutal, where does it end? Do you go game to game? Week to week? Month to month? Is there any value in cumulative stats between arbitrary points in time? Did Jim Thome have a great first half in 2006 or did he have 2 really good months followed by an only ok month? Was Jermaine Dye really that good after the AS break last year or was it just a great August that makes his 2nd half look a whole lot better than it actually was? It's all semantics. For the entire season he put up a 4.00 ERA. Like I said, not a great ERA at all, but all that matters is saving games since that's his job as a CLOSER. He was successful 91% of the time. So even in his worst season, he was still extremely reliable. Pay him before it's too late and we end up with someone like Billy Koch closing for us again.

QUOTE(Kalapse @ Feb 25, 2008 -> 06:48 PM) That does absolutely nothing for the Sox except maybe save them $3M between '09-'11 (assuming Jenks continues to produce and stay healthy.) If the Sox are going to give him a long term deal it's going to have to be at least 4 years, buying out all 3 years of arbitration and the first year of free agency. And giving a 4 year $28M-$32M deal to a closer with a history of arm problems, velocity loss and 1 full season of success under his bealt would be just silly. The Sox aren't in the business of unnecessarily rewarding players for doing their jobs, they're in the business of winning championships and guaranteeing big money to a guy who plays a notoriously inconsistent position just to guarantee themselves a 5th year of control over him would be irresponsible. And they are rewarding Jenks for his fine play by paying him 25% more than they have to next season. 1 full season of success? Have you been hibernating somewhere? Since coming onto the scene mid-2005, he has compiled 91 saves in 103 chances (counting the 2005 playoffs). That's much more than 1 full season of success. His ERA wasn't the best in 2006, but all that matters with closers is that they come in and close out the game, and he was successful 91% of the time that season (41-for-45). The guy is clutch. Pay him.

I hope the Sox and Bobby can come to terms on a long-term deal some soon. I've heard people on here saying "Why pay him before we have to", but the simple fact is that he's been one of the best closers in baseball since taking over in 2005, and he deserves to be compensated for it. Something along the lines of a 3 year, $18M deal would be good for both parties. I'm pretty sure Bobby would take it, and it would be a good deal for the Sox.

I voted for Ozzie getting fired. I know he is under contract, but he likes to shoot off his mouth and I wouldn't be shocked at all if he finally crossed the line and said something that left the Sox brass no choice but to can him.

QUOTE(greg775 @ Feb 24, 2008 -> 04:30 PM) I went with the Royals but I do think MacD could be the closer cause it would anger me the most of any of those options. That would mean Bobby getting hurt though which would suck. It would also mean that Dotel also is either hurt or simply ineffective. MacDougal closing would be a horrible scenario for the Sox.

QUOTE(greg775 @ Feb 24, 2008 -> 07:06 PM) Colon may not have been the answer, but does anybody really think Danks and Floyd are going to do much this year? Garland has so much more experience than those 2 and he struggled at times for the Sox. I'd hate to be Kenny risking his future on Danks and Floyd as well as big question mark Contreras. Who would have thought our rotation would be so much of a question mark just a few years after our starting pitching led the Sox to the WS crown? I agree that the Sox have big-time rotation issues with a very unreliable Contreras and 2 youngsters, but Bartolo Colon certainly is not an answer. He would have been another problem.

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=3262747 I think we can all breathe a collective sigh of relief. We already have an over the hill pitcher more than capable of putting up an ERA near 6.

Ugh. That is all.

My thoughts are as follows... The subtraction of Garland probably costs us 5-7 games from last season. Whoever fills in is obviously not going to be as good, and while Garland wasn't the best Sox pitcher, he was rather consistent and logged a lot of innings. The addition of Nick Swisher adds 3-5 wins. He's a HUGE upgrade from the platoon we had in LF/CF last season, and the pop he'll bring to our lineup is going to be very impactful. Cabrera I think also adds 3-5 wins. His Gold Glove defense is going to probably save us a game or 2, and his offensive production compared to Uribe's is going to be a huge plus. Sure, he won't hit 20 bombs and drive in 70 like Juan did, but he also won't hit .234 with an OBP under .300. Linebrink + Dotel (if healthy) = 5-7 games. As we all know, our bullpen last season was atrocious, and was the biggest problem we had. If these 2 are healthy and can create a sturdy bridge from the 7th to the 9th inning, that easily adds 5-7 games when compared to last season. Plus guys like Quentin could possibly add a couple of games if he can be healthy and play on a regular basis. I expect Danks to be better than last season. Maybe a 2 game increase. I think Mark and Javier will be about the same. There are some that think Javier's season was a fluke, but I think it's more a product of him finally having some stability in his career and getting comfortable. I expect him to put up fine numbers again in 2008. Doing some quick math, that's 15-21 games up, and 5-7 down. For a grand total of 10-14 more wins in 2008 vs. 2007. NOW, here's another thing to consider. Taking a look at what our other offensive players did in 2007, I think you can expect an improvement there. Paulie, AJ, and Jermaine (until the 2nd half) should all perform much better in 2008 than last season. They had off-years for sure. Thome can improve if he stays healthy, and another year of experience should help Josh out too. Having Toby as our back-up rather than the scrubs we had in 2007 will help, and if Richar is our 2B the extra year of experience should help him, too. Those offensive facts, I feel, could (and should) add about 7 games maybe? Obviously these are mere SPECULATIONS on my part, just for the record. But I feel they have some merit. Grand total = 17-21 more wins than 2007, which comes to 89-93 wins for 2008. I don't think that is completely far-fetched, although like I've said before, I don't see us hanging around with Contreras, Danks, and Floyd in our rotation. I hope I'm wrong, but based on what I've said above, I do see us being much more competitive in '08 than '07.

QUOTE(haroldbainesknees @ Feb 15, 2008 -> 04:44 PM) Though, I must admit Swisher may challenge Buehrle as my favorite if he goes 40 bombs, .400 OPS, 1.000 OPS, and plays a "passable" OF. If Swish goes 40, .400, and 1.000, I couldn't care less about what kind of defense he plays.

QUOTE(Balta1701 @ Feb 15, 2008 -> 05:29 PM) Whether or not he actually has worked for them, there is actually evidence to support the claim. The main nugget was thrown around all the time when the Vick Indictments came down...Most federal prosecutors in this country have a rate of success (in terms of either a conviction or a plea bargain) well over 90%. Basically, if they come after you, the odds are in their favor unless they're coming after you for personal or political reasons. Thank you. I thought this stuff was common knowledge? A person doesn't have to work for the feds to know how they operate. They don't want to be made out to look like fools, so of course they're only going after someone when they have a lot of evidence.

QUOTE(Soxbadger @ Feb 15, 2008 -> 02:27 PM) Why is that a huge huge deal? State prosecutors prosecute more cases on average than federal prosecutors. You just answered your own question. The federal government doesn't go after people unless they have overwhelming evidence. They aren't stupid, contrary to popular belief.

QUOTE(Soxbadger @ Feb 14, 2008 -> 10:41 AM) And people have gotten off of very serious crimes because most people can not afford the type of legal representation that is necessary to combat a criminal prosecution. See: OJ Simpson, Claus Von Bulow Who does Clemens remind you more of: A) Random criminal on street who will be getting public defender B ) High profile criminal who will be getting a private attorney Winning cases is about resources, when resources are equal it gets much much harder to convict. OJ beat the state of California. Roger is going up against the FEDERAL GOVERNMENT. Huge, huge difference. For me, the sworn statement from Andy Pettitte is going to be enough to ruin Roger's chances at escaping prison time.