Rex Hudler

I have just never heard of any team opening its own ticket brokerage...... I know tickets are always held back and if you know how things work you can take advantage of it. A good tip...... Events that are sold out or have "only bad seats" left 2 weeks before an event, will suddenly have great seats available two days before the event. Sometimes you can be better off waiting to buy tickets to certain events. It is a gamble, because they won't ALWAYS be available, but it works a lot. It's kind of like going to a sold out hotel at 6:05 and scooping up a room that was booked but not held by a credit card. There are almost always rooms available then that are not available at 5:55.

Malone is 3-4 seasons (including this one) before he will be ready to make a real contribution at the Big League level, if he ever is.

Its not like they are witholding tickets and then jacking the price up on them. That is exactly what they are doing. They are moving a certain level of their inventory to a place where fans have to pay X times the price, when they could sell that inventory directly to the fans for face value. I now that ticket brokers are here to stay and yes, brokers will always get a certain number of tickets because they grease the palms of people in the ticket offices. I find a major problem with that as well. If ticket brokers are going to buy tickets they should have to do so in the same manner as any fan and have no better an opportunity to get premium seats. I find it apalling that the Cubs would actually open a business in effect to drain extra money from their very own fans. It makes me wonder how many other teams are doing it too. To me, this is the same as setting up a peanut stand (under a different business name, of course) outside the gates of the stadium and letting everyone know that they are out of peanuts at the concession stands inside the stadium. Fans can feel free to buy the peanuts outside the stadium for only $15 a bag, however. This scenario is bad enough, but if the team sold all of its peanuts to the peanut stand so that it would be sold out therefore enabling them to profit more from the $15 bags (albeit indirectly). It just doesn't sit well with me at all.

USAToday.com is the fastest source for Minor League boxscores.

1. So what? 2. His ERA for the game was still just over 2.00. I wish Garland was as "wild"/ 3. Prior will be the next great pitcher in baseball when Pedro breaks down. Unless Rauch gets healthy and starts putting it together that is Rauch is nowhere near the level of Prior. Prior is in a slot by himself and the only two pitchers below him are Josh Beckett and Brett Myers (Phillies) when it comes to young phenoms. Everyone else is soley a top prospect or wherever they fit in. Brando I still believe that you rate prospects in general much higher then they really are. Most prospects fail, its that simple. Almost everyone in the minors has plenty of ability but it takes a special player with the perfect mix of mental smarts, ability, and of course luck and other characteristics to make them a major league player. Chisoxfn, you took the words right out of my mouth. Jon Rauch at his best is two levels below Mark Prior and that may be generous. Baggs, Peavy is good, but I don't see him reaching the level of Prior or likely Beckett.

How many times has anyone seen 27 K's in a game with ZERO walks? I am sorry that I could not have watched that game. WOW

im lookin foward to seeing a whole new, (well just about a whole new) team down there in barons land.... and btw since your doing all the barons talkin now i guess i can go hang with the knights for a while (feeling a few side trips coming up).......all my boys are there now anyhow......... Sorry to disappoint you HSC, but the Barons have 15 guys returning from last year, hardly a whole new team. Yofu spent 2001 in the Taiwan(sp?) Major League and 2002 in the Japanese Minors after a back injury kept him out of the Majors. He had originally signed with the Daiea Hawks, a Japanese Major League team.

Carlos Lee played a grand total of 9 games in the OF in the Minors. All at Charlotte, just before being called up to Chicago.

Bring back Liefer then!

Of course most minor league scouts are wrong to a point, because its so hard to judge whose going to make the majors and what type of player they are going to turn into. One of the hardest things to tell is how an offensive player will adjust to wood. Not sure what you meant there Chisoxfn. You do know they use wood in the Minor Leagues, right? Also, note pitchers like the guys you mentioned (Donnelly, Weber) usually only have a shelf life of 2-3 years max. Not many that come up late, stick around for a long time. Though there are always exceptions.

I am looking forward to seeing Yofu and Ring both.

How's his batspeed? What about weaknesses in his swing? How's his eye/pitch recognition? You are asking questions that I think none of us can answer, unless someone has seen him up close and for more than a handful of at bats. Brando, there are lots of players that fall into the Kieshnick category of good hitters that never make it out of AAA or land back there after limited time in the bigs. AAA is full of 30-something year olds that can play, but just weren't good enough to stick or never got the proper chance. Every once in awhile one of them gets a break and makes waves in the Show, but it usually doesn't last long. Many of these guys put up serious numbers in AAA, but they never translate to the Majors. Remember Mario Valdez? Most of the time, once they get to a certain point, they are never really given a chance because there is always a younger guy in line ahead of him.

He is a AAA bat. A AAAA player, if you will.

I don't think we need Beltran. We have enough "All-Stars". Rather than tinker, let's have a little faith that the team we expected so much out of will produce. No need to panic after 6 games.

Eason and Yofu with nice outings.... Bikowski with 3 hits... Not much else too exciting to report. BIRMINGHAM (2) AT WEST TENN (3) BIRMINGHAM AB R H BI WEST TENN AB R H BI D Sandoval 3B 5 0 2 0 R Sadler CF 5 0 2 1 G Reyes 2B 5 0 1 0 B Barbier 2B 5 0 3 1 R Hankins 1B 4 0 0 0 B Harris 3B 4 1 1 0 G Alvarez DH 4 0 0 0 J Dubois RF 3 0 2 1 S Bikowski RF 5 1 3 0 J Hamilton LF 5 0 0 0 J Acevas C 2 1 1 0 B Sing 1B 5 1 2 0 J Shaffer SS 4 0 0 0 M Dzurilla DH 2 0 0 0 C Durham CF 4 0 0 1 J Velazquez PH 1 0 0 0 J Piniella LF 3 0 0 0 J Cardona C 4 0 1 0 J Arteaga PR 0 0 0 0 C Kopitzke C 1 0 0 0 T Schrager SS 4 1 1 0 TOTALS 36 2 7 1 TOTALS 39 3 12 3 BIRMINGHAM 000 200 000 00-- 2 WEST TENN 001 100 000 01-- 3 0 OUT WHEN WINNING RUN SCORED E--S Mitre. DP--BIRMINGHAM 1, WEST TENN 3. LOB--BIRMINGHAM 8, WEST TENN 14. 2B--B Harris. SB--T Schrager 1 (1). CS--G Reyes, B Barbier. S--J Shaffer, B Harris. IP H R ER BB SO HR BIRMINGHAM J Bullard 3 2-3 6 2 2 2 2 0 C Eason 3 1-3 2 0 0 1 4 0 T Yofu 3 3 0 0 1 3 0 R Ring (L,0-1) 0 1 1 1 1 0 0 WEST TENN S Mitre 5 1-3 5 2 1 2 4 0 F Sanchez 1 2-3 0 0 0 0 3 0 J Leicester 1 1 0 0 1 0 0 J Karnuth 1 0 0 0 0 2 0 M Nannini (W,1-0) 2 1 0 0 1 0 0 HBP--J Acevas by S Mitre, J Piniella by S Mitre, R Sadler by R Ring, B Barbier by J Bullard. SO--BIR: C Durham 3, G Reyes 2, J Piniella, S Bikowski, G Alvarez, D Sandoval. WTN: J Cardona 2, B Sing 2, J Hamilton, B Barbier, J Dubois, B Harris, R Sadler. BB--BIR: J Acevas 2, G Alvarez, R Hankins. WTN: M Dzurilla 2, J Dubois 2, T Schrager. T--3:19. A--2,065.

Other numbers on Carlos (these do not really support or contradict my argument, they're just numbers I found interesting): Lee's batting average with specific counts.. 1st Pitch - .377 0-1 - .283 1-0 - .476 1-1 - .306 2-1 - .342 And the one that doesn't fit...... 2-0 - .091 That tells me that perhaps he is swinging for the fences on 2-0. He also was only .235 on a count of 3-1, another traditional hitter's count. He hit .277 after a 1-0 count and only .207 after an 0-1 count. Obviously those numbers tell you he is much better earlier in the count. Yet he took more walks last year so he was working deeper into counts. My last random Carlos Lee observation is that he hit only .233 at home and .288 on the road. Yet, his HR, RBI, BB and K's are all almost identical. So despite his consistency, there are some strange inconsistency inside his numbers.

For good measure, let's look at Daubach's numbers last year.... Avg. .266 - basically same as Lee OPB .348 - comparable to .359 SLG .464 - slightly less than .484 2B 24 - about the same HR 20 - 6 less RBI 78 - basically the same BB 51 - 24 less than Carlos K 126 - 53 more than Lee All in all, fairly similar numbers, yet Carlos makes much more contact and walks more. The fact that Fenway Park is very favorable to LH hitters must be considered as well. I did not post this to bash Daubach because as you can see he is quite respectable. But rather than whine about Carlos not putting up Frank numbers, why not be glad that the Sox actually have some depth this year?

I know when Carlos came up expectations were big and everyone is still looking for that breakout year, but let's not jump the gun here saying he sucks. What you get with Carlos is one of the most consistent hitters in baseball. His numbers may not be spectacular, but they are certainly more than respectable. Some numbers from 2002: Everybody was focused on his .264 average, but no one wants to give him credit for an OBP of .359 and a SLG % of .484. Would you rather he hit .285 yet with an OBP of .340? Or a lower SLG %? His breakdown by Half in 2002: 1st Half Avg. .263 12 HR 38 RBI 28 BB 37 K 2nd Half Avg. .267 14 HR 42 RBI 47 BB 36 K His OBP fluctuated some because he only walked 5 times each in April and May and then all of a sudden found some patience. If you think a guy that hits .270 ish with an OBP of .359 and a SLG % of .484 including 26 2B, 26 HR and 80 RBI while walking more than he strikes out, sucks, then you guys need to wake the hell up.

thanks for the update hon... i appreciate it...........ya know everytime i think of yofu i cant help but think of that yao ming commercial .........yo no yao........... Catch is Yofu is Japanese and Ming is Chinese. Mind if I call you Canadian? LOL

Not sure about daily posts, but I'll be around from time to time... They are playing on the road in Greenville so all I am getting is what I hear on the radio broadcast which is bits here and bits there. Interesting story on Yofu (as told by barons radio announcer): Yofu dominated the Tawain League two years ago, leading that circuit in K's. He signed with the Daiei (sp?) Hawks in the Japanese Major Leagues. Before the season started he had a back injury and ended up pitching for one of their Minor League clubs. He had a good year for them, but never got called up to the Major League Hawks. One of his teammates on that team was former Sox pitcher Carlos Castillo. Yofu became good friends with Castillo. During the offseason, Yofu flew to Miami to work out with Castillo and several others. While working out in Miami, a scout saw him and recommended the Sox sign him. We did, and here he is. Backman was quoted on TV as saying this guy is good and sill make the Big Leagues here. Apparently he throws 95. Once I see him pitch a few times, I'll give you a report. Also, I heard Backman say on a radio interview that Yofu will likely close with Ring as his setup man getting occasional save opps. The idea is that Ring needs innings and it is easier to get 2 or 3 inning stints from a setup guy than a closer.

oh yeah, didn't he beat adam wainwright or something like that? Yep, sure did.

Birmingham went 2-0 beating Greenville 3-2 Friday night. Cotts gave up 2 hits in 5 innings, but walked 4 and struck out 6. Yofu gets the save with 1 2/3 innings of scoreless relief. Bikowski went 2-3 with 2 RBI. Josh Shaffer had 2 errors.

My guess is that Clay Eason will be promoted to AAA to replace Parrish. Ross Gload will make 24 players on Charlotte's roster, so someone will have to be released or sent down to make room for Eason. Birmingham will likely get a pitcher from W-S. It isn't easy when you move a pitcher for a position player. Usually takes more than one move to work out the rosters. Also, note that Jacquez, Wylie, Kane and Dellaero are all on Charlotte's DL. As they come off (if they do), moves will need to be made. Also, after the first month (not sure of the exact date) Minor League rosters are trimmed to 23 so one more player will need to go. Look for some players to be released.

I don't recall what the deal with the Dodgers was. He was acquired in the middle of the 2001 season.

Parrish was acquired from the Dodgers.