daa84

avacado is made in guacamole all the time....im guessing its watermelon, but there are watermelon flavored popsicles, not sure if that counts....

oh and FWIW Freddy Garcia accepted assignment to minor league camp after going 0-3 with a 16.71 ERA....supposedly he was low 80s early in the spring, but is getting into the mid to upper 80s...still, im glad we went with colon even though i probably wanted freddy at the time of the signings

is this game on mlbtv? The Sox schedule on their site says yes, but the front page says "listen live" and usually would say "watch live." Also I don't see it on the mlb.com schedule, so i'm not optimistic....damn

I would say the roster is set at all but 3 spots Locks.... Getz 2b Ramirez SS Quentin LF Thome DH Dye RF Konerko 1b AJ C Fields 3b Anderson CF Bench: Miller, Betemit, Lillibridge (useless at the plate, has some value as D replacement and PR late in games, versatility and D i think has won him a spot on team) Rotation: Buerhle, Danks, Floyd, Jose, Colon Pen: Jenks, Thornton, Linebrink, Dotel, Richard That leaves the 4th OFer, and two pen spots (assuming we go 12 pitchers). 4th OF - Frankly, any guy that makes it (of Kroeger, Wise, Owens) I am ok with, as long as it is purely as a 4th OFer. My concern with Owens is that Ozzie would be tempted to play him in a platoon. Ditto Wise. I actually really like Kroeger here as he can provide some pop and will have better on base capability than the other two. Bullpen: MacDougal will probably make it, which I'm fine with. I still believe in the guy if can throw strikes (a big IF). I want Marquez in AAA starting, and would rather see either Carasco or Broadway make the team. I gotta believe Egbert is headed back to AAA, but who knows. If colon starts on DL, that opens up another spot for one of those young righties, or could open a spot for Randy Williams should Clayton be pitching in the rotation.

i like broadway...not sure why but i do....i also think id rather he be the long man in the pen than marquez right now

beckham pops up...but you can just tell that kid knows what hes doing out there...i feel like he never gets cheated with a swing...he won't be long

jerry owens is a really bad baseball player as of right now anderson has to be the starter with wise coming off the bench and bye bye to owens

hmmm hawk isn't right with that stat about dimaggio....dimaggio actually struck out 8 more times than he had HR...either way thats crazy

wise takes a terrible angle to a liner and makes the catch

supposedly right now the favorites are getz to leadoff against RHP and anderson vs. LHP...more proof that ozzie never looks at stat sheets as getz has actually been better in his career vs. lefties

while poreda has been walking guys...he hasnt been all over the place...getting squeezed and just missing

yeah poreda isnt good enough to not locate his fastball....that looked like a boone logan hanging slider right there

poreda losing home plate a bit out of the stretch

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Mar 24, 2009 -> 03:42 PM) Was that ball hit by Getz an error by Gimenez or a double? Haven't seen the ruling...I guess he shattered his bat on the inside fastball and ended up helicoptering the barrel down the line, distracting the fielder...but the ball did go between his legs. Getz always seems to do something positive, with the walks, hustle, speed..."little things." should have been an error

QUOTE (Reddy @ Mar 24, 2009 -> 03:29 PM) Poreda looking beastly. his location is what has impressed me so far...getting in on guys hands and shattering some lumber

QUOTE (Reddy @ Mar 24, 2009 -> 03:19 PM) so do we think Pronk was on PED's? good god i was wondering where the rest of him went.... seriously though it looked like someone stuck hafner with a pin and he deflated

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Mar 24, 2009 -> 12:16 PM) I'm willing to believe that, but, I have seen nothing so far about his defense other than the games this spring. He looked competent in corner OF to me (VERY small sample size), and 1B isn't his natural position so I don't care much what he does there. He has played all three OF positions in the minors, so, someone thought he could man the position. Does anyone have any good info on Kroeger's defensive abilities? kroeger hasn't played CF with any consistency since 2005....in 05 he played 50 games in CF and since then he played 0 games there in 06, 4 games in 07 and 2 games in 08... like you, i was hopeful he could play CF, but judging by the fact that he hasn't played there in 4 years, and the fact that he hasnt played there this spring, despite the team having a glaring hole, while he was hitting well...i doubt he actually can play CF

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Mar 24, 2009 -> 11:55 AM) Because that helps us SO MUCH right now! Seriously, I love Kenny, and he's done a lot, but going this long without answering CF/leadoff is inexcusable. i have to assume that KW went to look at a player in the draft that would be a CF/leadoff hitter, and that Cowley took some journalistic liberties and spun that to make it sound as if KW is going in search of this kid because of the problem we have there now. I hope (and frankly believe) that KW is smart enough to look at the two independently of one another.

im always a bit worried about MBs arm just because of the massive accumulation of innings he's had over the years....but frankly i'm not at all concerned about what happened vs. the cubs the other day....mark does that 2-3 times a year, where he goes out and guys put the ball in play, are aggressive and gather up about 10 hits in 2-3 innings. Also, considering its spring, and he had the time off with the birth of his child, i think its a bit much to be overly concerned. I'm ok with lining him up 4th though...especially beacuse that means he opens the series at home vs. the twins....especially since contreras vs. the piranhas = not good

1.) god I hope KW isnt really looking to draft a leadoff hitter because we don't currently have one...take the best player available 2.) this article really pisses me off. The organization, specifically ozzie, seems upset that "nobody is making the organization open its eyes." This whole f***ing problem is the fault of the organization from the GM down to the manager. The manager ran a capable CF out of town for who knows why, and the GM didn't address the gaping hole that has been there all offseason. We've thrown s*** out there in CF and have expected something better. Doesn't happen like that. I still love KW and ozzie, but im just really sour about the CF spot, because we ran a guy off without having a reasonable in house replacement or going out to get a new one. at 3rd and 2nd we at least had options. The more I think about it, the more I really think the white sox thought Jerry Owens was going to come out and win the CF job, which is just mindblowingly stupid. Now i just pray to god that Ozzie doesn't make a bad situation worse by playing Owens or Wise instead of Anderson. For KW to just now be noticing that "there might not be a center fielder or leadoff hitter in the organization" is inexcusable, and i hope to god hes not letting that problem cloud his draft decisions. boo f***ing hoo ozzie....nobody is going to feel bad for how hard it is on you when you make s***ty plans in the first place. I dont blame the players who haven't performed, in this case I blame the people who actually expected those players to preform, when it has become abundantly clear (at least in the case of Wise and Owens...i still have the smallest bit of hope for brian) that those players aren't the answer. end rant

btw you can gladly refer to me as a swisher defender...i am. i truly believe he was run out of town by our manager who didn't like his antics and body language. If you ask me im not even sure Swisher was one of the 5 worst players on our team last year. IMO he had a better year than AJ, Crede, Uribe, and Cabrera, and was roughly the equivalent of Konerko. btw i found this is rob neyers blog this morning...

QUOTE (GREEDY @ Mar 24, 2009 -> 07:14 AM) BINGO! And that is where you are dead wrong. Just because Swisher took what seemed like a ton of called third strikes, then grimaced like he just swallowed Ozzie's spit cup, doesn't mean he was one of the worst offensive players in the league last season. It also doesn't help that the guy you essentially watch the games with (Hawk), hates taking a called third more than he hates watching DJ's ass try to chip in from bunker 100 ft away. Swisher needs to work on the Scott Podsednik half swing and emotionless walk back to the dugout. Player A: 65 R/21 HR/77 RBI/.317 OBP/22 2B Player B: 86 R/24 HR/69 RBI/.332 OBP/21 2B Player A was recently annointed the future of the franchise and a will clearly be a fan favorite for years to come. While Player B was dealt and would have been run out of town by an angry mob if KW hadn't moved him. Player A had Soxtalk posters clamoring for him to win a postseason award, Player B had Soxtalk posters saying he was one of the 10 worst offensive players in baseball in '08. this is an excellent post...and by many accounts (people can choose whether to believe them or not) player B is likely to have an even better year than the one posted above....and could also provide adequate defense in CF, which is a huge glaring hole for us. i like marquez and betemit a bit for what they do, but frankly i dont think enough of marquez as a long term starter to convince me that this was a good trade. The insurance marquez provides this year, and the likelihood he will become a rotation fixture to me don't have enough value in comparison to the value a .340 obp with 25 HR (and i personally think it could be .360 with close to 30) has in CF, especially when CF is such a huge black hole. the more i think about it right now, the more i wish i had a time machine and could go back and prevent KW from this trade. a top of the order of Getz, Swisher, Quentin, Thome (Dye, Konerko, AJ, Ramirez, Fields after that looks damn good) would not only get on base a ton, but would also see a ton of pitches

nice deal for the sox...they basically gave floyd the exact same contract paul maholm got...the pirates bought out maholms 3 arb years for 14.5...so the sox got the 3 arb years plus 2009 for 15.5

not only did fukudome just let a ball drop in front of him in CF...he got a terrible read on the HR and was really slow breaking back.. the cubs must really think he can play CF...but i am skeptical

It sounds as if Richard might be in the rotation to start the year, perhaps with colon on the DL. What happens to the bullpen? Who will be the second lefty behind Thornton? Right now it appears that the only two candidates are Randy Williams and Poreda. Is Randy Williams really going to make the team? I think Poreda will probably start at AAA, so is Williams really the answer? Or is it possible that we will only go with 1 lefty, especially given that Clayton could potentially be used as a swing man since we don't need a 5th starter all that often early on