Rex Hudler

the sad part is the Sox guaranteed him somewhere around a million bucks to play in AAA.

I'd be very happy with JJ Hardy....... would take Lou Palmisano too, as well as a few others, of course.

Just a technicality...... Wasserman was invited to the tryout camp held at the Hoover Met, where the Barons play.

Not during the season, that's for sure.

Don't have anything to add greasy...... just f***ing pathetic

Is Gammons reporting that Sheets will be a free agent next year or just that he could likely be trade material in July? And where and when is Gammons supposedly reporting this?

But treating the Sox players like commodoties is the Soxtalk way, Yas. All you have to do is read all of the "this guy sucks" and "that guy blows" threads during the season. It's okay to get wrapped up emotionally in your team, but most of the people on these boards don't have a clue what these players go through and what it takes to get where they are and the pressures they are under. Sometimes people speak off the tops of their heads when it would be better to think a bit more. I think it has been established by more than just aboz on here (I can personally echo his sentiments) that Joe is a man of character. The Sox chose to give Joe the money he got and Joe has done everything he can to earn it. Unfortunately, things haven't worked out. Joe will be fine whether it is in baseball or whatever.

I don't know LA's roster very well, so help me here........ if they get rid of Penny and Ishii, why in the hell would they get rid of Vasquez too? Who the hell would they have left to pitch?

The union doesn't like $$$ being used. Guess they don't want people to be constantly reminded how ridiculously rich they are.

My take is that Brandon would have to elevate his game tremendously to have an opportunity to make the big club out of ST. While his potential is excellent, he still has a lot to learn. I believe he needs time in Charlotte for two main reasons: 1. Charlotte is a hitter's park. What better way to ready yourself for USCF than to pitch in another bandbox. The safety and security of the Hoover Met is great for young pitchers, but it is basically the polar opposite of the ballpark in Chicago. A simple example in BMac's first start at home for the Barons, he got hit hard by Carolina. While he only gave up 5 hits in 6 IP, several balls were hit hard that ended up as outs, including at least two balls that would have been HR in almost any other minor league park. Giving a kid time to learn at different levels will only make him better once he gets to Chicago. 2. There are more veteran, professional hitters in AAA. Hitters that have been around long enough to know how to make adjustments in their 2nd, 3rd, 4th AB against a pitcher. MLB hitters are even better in that regard. Brandon seemed too predictable last year in the short time I saw him. He almost always started a hitter off with a fastball or two and when he got ahead he immediately went to his curveball. Hitters will recognize such patterns and make him pay. He will have to learn to mix things up, to start hitters off with a curveball or changeup, to double up on occasion to keep hitters honest. The bottom line is he just needs time. The Sox aren't going to be in a position to let him come up, get hammered and learn OTJ at the Major League level. Brandon allowed 4 ER in three of his 5 AA starts. Two were against veteran hitting clubs in Carolina and Chattanooga and the other was against Mobile, who he had previously made one start against. His biggest strength is pounding the strike zone and rarely walking hitters. As hitters adjust, he will have to as well or that will become an achilles heel. He will have to mix things up better and sometimes be selectively wild. Once he learns those things against better hitters, he'll be fine. All that said, the Sox will know soon in ST whether he has a chance or not. I don't see them focusing on him in the role of trying to earn a spot, but they will give him a good long look because they want to see what they have in him. They want him to learn what it is like to be a big leaguer. It would be a longshot for him to make the club, especially before July or August. More likely, he could be a September call up or join the club earlier if (yes, I am saying it lol) the Sox are out of playoff contention.

I still play 2004 farily frequently. I found to make the game more exciting a buddy and I use the following settings: Fielding - Manual Strike Zone - Off Hot/Cold Zones - Off Pitch Cursor - Off Fielding Aid - On Turning off all the strike zones and pitch cursor make hitting much more difficult. Aspects of gameplay I would like to see improved upon are: 1. Pickoffs - It is virtually impossible to pick a player off if they slide to the back of the bag. The 1B needs to have better ability to place a tag on a sliding runner. 2. Stolen Bases - It is way too hard to throw runners out because you can't keep runners honest (see above) and because fielders cannot apply a tag to a headfirst slide to the bag of the bag. 3. Tag plays - This is related to the two above, but not just limited to those two situations. Fielders don't straddle the bag properly which would allow them to make sweep tags on runners coming in. Too often the ball beats the runner, but the runner is safe merely because the fielder could not tag him in time, when he should have been able to easily. 4. Fly balls - The outfielders (and infielders going out on a pop up) catch too many balls. 1B can't realistically go halfway up the RF line to catch a pop up routinely. Occasionaly, fine, but not every time. If you get the fielder close, he makes a spectacular catch every time. Perhaps turning the fielding aid off will help on this. I haven't tried it. Any thoughts? 5. Better Ground Ball AI - This may not be fixable, but it is frustrating when a ground ball is hit in the hold between two fielders and the fielder the computer places the cursor on is the wrong one. Some "tweeners" could go either way, but sometimes it will place the cursor on the 1B or 3B when that player clearly has no chance to get to it and the SS/2B is the obvious fielder. If the ball is hit hard enough, it is difficult to get the cursor switched to the porper fielder in time. 6. LH Glitch - I noticed it was much more difficult hitting HR left-handed, but hadn't really thought of it as a glitch. It is very difficult to pull the ball left-handed, whether for power or not. I did find that you can get HR out of some LH hitters by focusing on going the other way, however. That's all I can think of off the top of my head. I don't get into Dynasty Mode much, because my buddy and I like to be different teams, often playing randomly chosen games. That said, if anyone ever wants to play a game online sometime with the above settings, I am more than up for it. I never play the computer at all, so I don't play it too often. PM me if interested in setting up a game.

Ad Aware?? I had to fix a computer at work a year or so ago and just lucky, finding the files that were causing the problem by just browsing the C Drive and the Program Files folder. I wouldn't go deleting things you aren't sure of, but other that that, I am not sure what to tell you. Depending on which version of Windows you are using, there is another way to find it. You'd have to go into the Startup tab in the System Configuration Utility and uncheck applications systematically until you find the one that is causing you the problem. In Windows 98, you get to that Utility by running msconfig. I am not sure how you find it in XP. That should at least give you a direction to go.

To honor that one, he would have to be dishonoring the one he signed with ESPN. One cannot be honored, so what's the difference?

Hey, don't forget Evansville-Purdue from Conseco Fieldhouse tonight! On ESPN Full Court for those that don't get it locally.

Much better.........

I updated the salary list with Timo Perez.......

2 pages and no gratuitous shots of Jennie in this thread? I'm disappointed in all of you!!!

Paulino Reynoso

Ditto....... My guess is that is an erroneous report somehow. If they give Timo a multi-year deal, then KW is dumber than...... well, fill in your own blank.

I said all along that Uribe COULD continue on an upward trend. I just want to see him do it another year before I start buying into it and making such lofty comparisons. It's simple. Until he does it again, he is Pokey Reese. If he has another good year, then he proves himself.

That seems to conflict with the Sox Press Release....... either way, we are only looking at being $100k off, but it would be nice if different sources reported it the same way

The only problem with that is, Sox fans harshly criticize the media and dismiss them as idiots every time they bash the Sox. Most of the time, they just say the same things that are said on here. It's kind of the "we can say it, but can't" rule.

I'd say welcome to soxtalk, but not with a post like that..... ugh "I have said for a while now the best thing for the sox would be jr to have a cancer scare or something ( just a scare, i don't wish anything really bad for anyone.) " Are you kidding me with that?

The thing you missed on is you picked Uribe's 2nd and 3rd seasons (arguably 3rd and 4th if you count the 72 games Uribe played in 2001) to compare with Tejada's 1st and 2nd. You left out 2002 when Juan played 155 games. In total, Uribe had played a combined 448 games in the Majors while Tejada had only played 288, based on the years in your example. I do very much pay attention to numbers. Here are some numbers I pay attention to in this comparison: CAREER BATTING RECORD - Juan Uribe YR Club LG CLASS POS AVG G AB R H TB 2B 3B HR RBI SH SF HB BB IB SO SB CS GDP SLUG OBP TPA 97 Rockies DSL R SS .269 65 234 32 63 75 12 0 0 29 3 3 2 31 0 22 7 6 0 .321 *** 273 98 Rockies ARI R SS .277 40 148 25 41 52 5 3 0 17 3 2 3 12 0 25 8 1 0 .351 *** 168 99 Asheville SAL A SS .267 125 430 57 115 176 28 3 9 46 11 4 6 20 0 79 11 7 0 .409 *** 471 00 Salem CAR A SS .256 134 485 64 124 199 22 7 13 65 4 2 4 38 0 100 22 5 0 .410 *** 533 01 Carolina SOU AA SS .231 3 13 1 3 4 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 4 1 0 0 .308 *** 13 Colorado SprPCL AAA SS .310 74 281 40 87 149 27 7 7 48 0 2 2 12 1 43 11 8 0 .530 *** 297 CAREER BATTING RECORD - Miguel Tejada YR Club LG CLASS POS AVG G AB R H TB 2B 3B HR RBI SH SF HB BB IB SO SB CS GDP SLUG OBP TPA 94 Oakland DSL R 2B .294 74 218 51 64 129 9 1 18 62 0 5 0 37 3 36 13 5 0 .592 *** 260 95 Southern OreNWS A SS .245 74 269 45 66 115 15 5 8 44 0 3 2 41 2 54 19 2 0 .428 *** 315 96 Modesto CAL A SS .279 114 458 97 128 210 12 5 20 72 1 7 4 51 3 93 27 16 0 .459 *** 521 97 Huntsville SOU AA SS .275 128 502 85 138 230 20 3 22 97 1 8 7 50 0 99 15 11 0 .458 *** 568 Oakland AL MAJ SS .202 26 99 10 20 33 3 2 2 10 0 0 3 2 0 22 2 0 0 .333 *** 104 98 Edmonton PCL AAA SS .000 1 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 .000 *** 4 Huntsville SOU AA SS .327 15 52 9 17 29 6 0 2 7 1 2 0 4 0 8 1 0 0 .558 *** 59 Like I said, Tejada's track record was proven and his success was expected. There is no way, before this season you could say the same for Juan Uribe. The guy had a good year. That's a good thing. But I'll wait until I see two in a row before I annoint him in category comparable with an MVP Award winner.

Would you be singing the same song if the Sox are tied with the Twins on July 30 and don't have any money left to go get someone else? I'm not much one for quoting Billy Beane, but his belief has always been take a team to spring training that has a chance to win, evaluate your club over the first four months of the season and then go get what you need to give them a boost to finish strong. Granted they haven't advanced in the playoffs, but I'd take their performance the past 3-4 years over the Sox.