BrandoFan

But...but.....our recent drafts have been most excellent (it's like, didn't you read this board?)......and Coop, our awesome pitching coach extraordinare.....And Ozzie to guide the rookies....

Bradford is just a good old-fashioned piece of s***. What else could one expect from him? Cubs are unstoppable.

As opposed to what other teams are doing, which is waving their rights to their picks? Didn't we have that once already? Myette, Malone, Guerrier, West, Stumm, Kane, Allen, Ginter, Fogg, Rauch, Diaz, Barcelo, Biddle, Pacheco, Honel, Cotts, Rings, R. Hummel, Bounds, Nanita, King, Almonte, Ring, Valido, Shurnstein, Gonzalez, Rogowski, Leifer, Simmons. Christensen, Abbott, Daellaro, Caruso, Valenzula, Fernandez, Borchard, M. Johnson, Paul, etc......Thanks, but no thanks. I don't care how "fun" it is. I care about how many above average ML'ers it produces. Buerhle and Wells mold. Hell, I'll settle for Ordonez and Lee. Nanita sucks. Sweeney can't hit in A-ball thus far. Anderson needs to show something in AA before we can start talking about him.

Why would TB give up Crawford who may have a higher upside than Baldelli? Lou won't stand for it. Craford is just 22 - already the best defensive LF in baseball now that Jones is playing RF, is a monster on the base-paths; should develop serious gap power and patience as he gets older. Never a big-time HR hitter, but when you have all those other things going for you, you don't need HR to be an All-Star. He will be cheap for another 4 years. Tampa will never win ALE, but they're concerned with building a fan-base - no need to get rid of one for your most promising players for Marlon Byrd or Jon Rauch or some other underachieving stiff.

Old man Valentin can still run them bases.....LMAO,

No, for morbid curiosity I turn to In the Realm of the Senses. Have you seen Salo, or The 120 Days of Sodom?

Good movie, good performance. Wrong thread.

Looks like Smilie Moonface will be back in about 10 days. In time for Cubs series?

Oh yeah. You couldn't pay me enough to go to that place - or be in the military for that matter. I mean...WHY? Is a few extra 10,000K worth your life/well-being. Be less greedy, you'll happier, not to mention safer.

Rusch out-dueled Matt Morris and Roy Oswalt (that's when it became painfully obvious Cards and Astros will not challenge healthy Cubs) , but he get hammered in AL, trust me. Cotts is nothing but a lefty specialist at this point, but he is cheap and young and talented, so NO to the trade.

Oh yeah, especially with DePaul and Northwestern.......

Yankees are on pace to win 110 games - and that mostly without Giambi, with horrible starts from Bernie and Jeter, and with Sheffield and A-Rod yet to hit their stride. Somehow I think they'll be ok.

I don't what you call it, but a 340 Slugging in a A-ball is unbecoming for the Next Mickey Mantle.

How do you figure? If Reed hits like Catalonato, walks like Youklis, fields like Kotsay and runs like Posednik....I'll take him over Joe "Russel Branyon" Borchard any day. Remember, all the power in the world won't matter if you are way tardy on a fastball and way in front of a breaking ball.

No s*** they rejected. That's like dirty dogs offering to return a body of a dead Israeli soldier in exhange for 200 militants freed from Israel's jails. Hello, any government official who would entertain this "offer" should be beaten by a nice bag of oranges.

The money saved is probably not enough to get a big-time player, but it would be enough for Urbina and almost enough for Finley (assuming Arizona picks up at least 2 Mill of his remaining salary in return for prospects). I wonder NYY could possibly do to help Sox get Beltran...that they couldn't do to get him for themselves.

They also gave TREMENDEOUS praise to Rowand.

Ditto.

Speaking of Marte..... FINALLY he pitched a clutch game, striking out 5 of 6 batters he faced. If this Damasso is back (knocking on wood), and you got Shingo closing and Cotts as a lefty specialist.... All Sox need is Urbina at the ASB (will cost you a couple of low-level prospects), and Sox bullpen will be one of the best in the majors.

Valentin is 34 and is playing on a bad hamstring that gets treated after every game. Let's not get carried away and pretend things like that doesn't lower a player's value. The only reason he is even making 5 Mill this year is because Kenny f***ed up big-time. There wasn't a team in baseball that would have paid more than 3-3.5 Mill for his services - and that was before the hamstring thing. Plus, when you sign a player for more than a year, you can get away with lower yearly sum. 2/4 Mill base plus another Mill or two in health-based incentives since you only need Jose for 500 atbats, mostly against RHP - not exactly a full-time player. Contrary to the popular belief, you can't have an Amezaga/R.Ordonez in your line-up. And that assuming Valdez is even that good with the glove - both of our current SS have a ZoneRating of over 900 despite being slow starters, so how much better do you think he'll be defensively? I can see Valdez occasionally filling in against LHP, sure. Konerko? If Billy Koch at his worst can net you a B-prospect, I bet Konerko is tradeable as well since he is having a really good year. You can't have both Lee AND Konerko on the roster next year making about 9 Mill each, and since Lee has a higher upside and is less one-dimenional, I think Konerko's contract should be the odd man out. Casey is a 1B Sox won't overpay for. Lawton is a LF. Drew will be too expensive and injury-prone. Finley will be 40+. And Gibbons is not good. Sox will have Rowand-Harris platoon in CF next year in all likelyhood.

Forgot about Salo and I Spit On Your Grave. Not cool.

You left out the part where I wish you were castrated with a rusty scythe.

Valdez is a nobody and his name is nothing. I cannot believe you're buying into the Koch salary dump hype. He is a glorified Jason Daellaro. Jose will cost you 2 Mill to re-sign. Garcia will be asking for 10+. One really has nothing to do with the other - if anything, it's Paul Konerko's contract that will prevent the Sox from overpaying for Freddiatolo Ponson. As far as Borchard and Reed.....You're making a very dangerous assumption that they can hit ML pitching. The last time Borchard was up, he was thoroughly embarassed. And Reed.......Let's just say that 400 Slug in the Charlotte park is not very good. Both have LONG ways to go.

You need some help with figuring out fielding for 2003? http://www.diamond-mind.com/articles/gg2003.htm

Same here. If he made 5 Mill less, I wouldn't mind having Ol' Billie Goat around. He was a refreshingly honest athlete - none of that Nuke LaLoosh meaningless crap or LaTroy Hawkins's moronic tangents. Straight shooter. I will never forgive him for his part in 2003 AND 2004 debacles, but at the same time William Koch, as a person, is ah'iiit. Wish him well in spite of everything.