Rex Hudler

Don't know why Walker would straighten him out since he has had his worst two seasons as a pro so far with Walker as his hitting coach.

Why thank you. I do try.

Cause he is a career AAA player. A solid player, but there are many just like him in AAA. Calkl him a AAAA player if you will.

My bet is he will play CF. He will handle it adequately but not knock anyone's Sox off. He'll make an occasional error that will have Sox fans all over cursing at their TV and pounding f*** into their keyboards. Why not give the guy a chance. If Willie can tear it up in AAA and fail miserably in Chicago, then why can't the opposite be true for Borchard? Sometimes things just don't make sense and they don't always progress naturally. We'll see if he can "find himself" in Chicago.

Dumbass me thought you were making a sarcastic comment about Yofu. Missed the White reference somehow. It was after an 18 hour work day yesterday so cut me a little slack, will you?

MSF, thanks for summing up everything I said in only one sentence. You're making me look long-winded. ;-)

The best farm system is no longer the best for several reasons: 1. Trades 2. Graduation to the Majors 3. Injuries 4. Failed Expectations (or slowed down progress) All of these along with luck (good and bad) affect every club. The Sox haven't had the best luck lately, nor have they had top 5 picks either. Remember, they loaded up on prospects when they had bunches of extra draft picks (99, I believe) because of the loss of guys to free agency (Ventura, etc.). The last few years they have had one pick per round. It is much more difficult to be good with less margin for error because of fewer picks.

Hate to burst your bubble, but the following guys you mentioned are not legit prospects. They are either Minor League vets or marginal prospects... Brumbaugh - AAA/AAAA guy Gload - AAA/AAAA guy Miles - Still has to be considered marginal. He is doing everything he can to change that, but there will still be skepticism until he proves it in the Majors. Many guys with similar talents make it, have a colid year or two and then fade back into AAAA status. He still has a great chance and is doing exactly what he needs to do. Aceves - organizational guy/backup catcher type Alvarez - was a prospect in 97 and spent parts of 98-00 in the bigs with Detroit and San Diego. Bikowski - Marginal. Solid average hitter with a decent amount of walks but not much power at all. He's a solid outfielder with a decent arm. Overall, his skills are good, but not great. To make it, he'll have to keep getting better and hit so well that they can't keep him down. There are lots of guys in AAA with his talents that never make it. He has a chance, but he won't be near the top of any prospect lists. He is also 26 and repeating AA which is not in his favor. Holt - Marginal at best. He is 24 and back in Class A after AA last year. He strikes out way too much and doesn't walk much. You could say he is almost Borchard without the upside and doing it at 2 levels below. Martel - Don't know a lot about him, but his numbers don't favor him. He's 24 and still in A ball. Has no power and doesn't look like a lot of speed. Only has 69 AB's this year, so either he is playing part-time or has been hurt. Reed - From all indications he is the first real position player prospect on this list. He is tearing up high A in his first full professional season. He should get bumped to AA after the first half of the season. If he excels in AA, he should jump right onto the fast track. Very much a pure hitter from I have been told. Stats do nothing but back that up. Yan - His only drawback is he is repeating High A right now. He's only 21 so he still has time. He should be dominating at W-S since he is repeating it, but increasing his average over 100 points so far is impressive. He really should be in AA right now (don't get me started on Schaffer). If he continues and doesn't drop back into the .250 range then he'll have a legit shot to be a nice Major League player. He doesn't walk enough at this point to support an average in the .250 range so he'll need to keep it up. Julio Reyes - Don't really know much about him except that he has never played more than a half season. Played only 55 games last year at Kanny. He is hitting very well right now, so I won't try to grade him. Webster - Have never seen him, but everyone seems to rate him highly and his numbers don't make you want to think differently, so he has to be considered a legitimate top level prospect at this point.

Yes Tetsu is starting (see Yofu topic for more)...... Bullard is doing so-so in the pen. Sometimes he is really effective and others he gets bombed. Actually he has had three really bad outings, the rest are more than respectable. His ERA is 5.65 (before tonight) which is skewed by those three outings. He seems to do better in situational outings where he is brought in to face one or two batters, or to get out of an inning.

Neither of those guys are going to play CF for the Sox.

Shouldn't that have been in green, Yas??

Catch is, Yofu is a starter now, not a reliever. Has started his last three outings, including tonight where he got roughed up a bit (4 ER in 6 IP). His ERA before tonight was 1.67 and rose to 2.45 after tonight. Yofu is an excellent pitcher and has a good chance of pitching effectively in the Majors. He is 29 as Cerbaho said, so he is not your typical prospect. He was a lucky find, who played in Tawain and Japan before coming here. His last start in Birmingham, he reached 93 a couple of times on the radar gun, but doesn't throw his fastball enough. He has such an impressive array of offspeed pitches that he can throw for strikes that he tends to neglect a very high quality fastball. Even though he is starting, he could end up back in the bullpen with the Sox, or he could surprise as a starter. He is the pitcher on the Barons closest to the Majore Leagues right now, albeit not with the highest ceiling.

We'll have to agree to disagree. I don't think any Major League GM in the right mind or even in KW's mind are gutsy enough to bring back a guy who failed for you last year. Especially one whose presence wasn't that great in the clubhouse, from what I understand. There may be another option, but I do not think Lofton is it.

Barons hit 3 HR's and lose. Former Sox farmhand and former Barons Juan Figueroa picks up the win in relief. Ulacia with 5 hits allowed and 4 BB in 4 innings. He is killing us in the rotation. Time for An or Honel or Wing to come from W-S. BIRMINGHAM (4) AT TENNESSEE (7) BIRMINGHAM AB R H BI TENNESSEE AB R H BI D Sandoval 2B 4 1 2 2 J Nelson SS 4 0 0 0 G Reyes SS 4 0 1 0 C Cosme 2B 5 0 1 0 R Hankins DH 4 1 2 1 S Krause 1B 3 1 0 0 D Ingram LF 5 1 1 1 B Jacobsen 1B 3 1 0 0 S Bikowski RF 4 0 1 0 S Schumaker CF 0 0 0 0 C Maldonado C 5 0 1 0 P Bolivar LF 4 3 3 0 G Alvarez 1B 5 1 3 0 C Erickson 3B 4 1 1 0 J Piniella CF 3 0 0 0 Y Molina C 3 1 2 2 J Shaffer 2B 3 0 1 0 D Moylan DH 4 0 2 3 J Acevas PH 0 0 0 0 C Weekly RF 3 0 2 2 C Saunders 3B 0 0 0 0 TOTALS 37 4 12 4 TOTALS 33 7 11 7 BIRMINGHAM 001 100 200 -- 4 TENNESSEE 000 202 30x -- 7 E--C Erickson. DP--BIRMINGHAM 1. LOB--BIRMINGHAM 12, TENNESSEE 8. 2B--C Maldonado. HR--D Ingram 1 (5) (off J Figueroa), D Sandoval 1 (1) (off N Stocks), R Hankins 1 (4) (off N Stocks). SB--D Sandoval 1 (7), C Cosme 1 (4). CS--G Reyes 2, S Krause. SF--D Sandoval. IP H R ER BB SO HR BIRMINGHAM D Ulacia 4 5 2 2 4 6 0 J Bajenaru 2 3 2 2 0 1 0 J Meyer (L,1-1) 1 3 3 3 2 1 0 M Smith 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 TENNESSEE N Stocks 6 8 3 3 3 8 2 J Figueroa (W,4-0) 1 2 1 1 0 2 1 K Sprague 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 M Lyons (S,14) 1 2 0 0 0 2 0 WP--J Meyer. HBP--J Piniella by N Stocks. SO--BIR: D Ingram 2, G Reyes 2, R Hankins 2, S Bikowski 2, J Piniella, J Shaffer, G Alvarez, D Sandoval. TEN: C Erickson 2, S Krause 2, B Jacobsen, D Moylan, J Nelson, C Weekly. BB--BIR: G Reyes, S Bikowski, J Acevas, R Hankins. TEN: S Krause 2, B Jacobsen, Y Molina, J Nelson, C Weekly. T--3:09. A--1,837.

Maggs was never really challenged in CF. I would call Aaron slightly above average as a defensive CF. He works hard, gets good jumps and plays a smart CF. No one else on this team can say that. Rowand is a lot like Erstad defensively. Not quite Erstad like, but in regards to hustle and just work ethic they are exactly alike and because of it Rowand is an above average centerfielder. He's also got a very solid arm. I agree. His arm is excellent. He has has the strongest OF arm the Sox have had (Majors or Minors) for years. Give him 2 weeks and if that doesn't work, make a deal for someone. But I think he deserves another chance. He has had time to clear his head and step back and see what failed earlier. He won't hurt us in CF, at least not any worse than anyone we have now. The upside to that move is huge. If he comes back up and succeeds then our problems are solved, at least for the season. If not, then you are giving a home grown guy one last chance that he earned last year. Lots of guys struggle early in their careers. Many make the best of second opportunites. I think Aaron can do just that.

Trading for Lofton is very risky. If he busts like he did last year, the Sox look completely stupid for allowing history to repeat itself. I still say bring up Rowand and give him another shot. Give him 2 weeks and if that doesn't work, get someone else. Lofton could be the answer, but if he is not, the Sox look like the biggest idiots around, and I don't think any GM would take that risk.

I agree there are no comparisons between him and Ritchie aside from a few pretty awful outings, but then again Greg Maddux really sucked his first 4 outings. Don't get too hung up on Buehrle's record. He really has only pitched badly in 5 of his 11 starts and even that is arguable. I do think his problems are between the ears though.

Tell you what......... find a way to get Shaffer included in the deal and I will sign off on a Lofton trade. ;-)

.299 with 9 SB's? In 2002 Lofton hit .343 with 13 SB's and a .420 OBP in April. In May he hit .258 and added 7 more SB's with an OBP of .345. In June he hit .136 with 1 SB and a .268 OBP. He did rebound to hit .280 in July before he was traded, but only added one more SB. Do we want to risk this same diminishing returns we got last year from him? He stole 2 bases in two months before he was traded. He got off to an even better start last year with us and then fell off big time and people couldn't wait to get rid of him. I just don't think we want to run the risk of trading for a guy who may only give us exactly what we are getting now.

Yes, he came to work out with Carlos Castillo. One of the Sox scouts in south FL saw him working out, (there were other Major League players working out as well). and recommended we sign him. The Farm Director or Director of Player Development (or whatever title they give him) handle most minor league free agent signings.

Look at the current situation......... He is better than having Rios out there. Better than Maggs in CF. He may not be the optimal choice, but he is our best option defensively in CF right now.

If only I could get you to agree with me on Rowand. LOL

Even if he is a 4th OF, he is still better than anyone else the Sox have right now. And to say that he has never produced is not accurate. He produced quite well last year once he was given the job full-time.

That made no sense at all. I suggest you stay out of politics. At least not until you have a better understanding of the American Government. You don't have to like him or not, but try and be educated about how things work.

No Ritchie isnt anything compared to Buehrle, Ritchies 2002 season is quite comparable to Buehrles 2003 season thus far. And I hope Im wrong, but right now theyre frighteningly similar. Youre actually the first person to understand my Ritchie-Buehrle comparison which I think makes plenty of sense... A lot of guys have a bad year. The bottom line is we need to realize that Mark is not an ACE. Mark is truly a #2 pitcher in the rotation. On a great team, MB would be an excellent compliment to a dominant starter. He is a a 15-16 win a year guy who will occasionally knock on the door of 20. He has had two great years and will have others, but as the saying goes, water eventually finds its level. I truly believe that Mark is a # 2 guy, not an ace. The problem I believe is he is trying to live up to the expectations of being an ace. He wasn't getting run support early on. He wasn't getting much help defensively. He's trying to be too perfect. Now, that he is struggling, it has gotten in his head. Don't expect him to turn back into the Buehrle of the past two years right away. I am confident he will be fine, but it will not happen overnight. And expectations of an automatic 20 wins a year just aren't realistic.