BrandoFan

I am disappointed with LTP as well. I think Albert Pujols coming in and dominating right off the bat (npi) and Adam Dunn walking 140 times at age 22 spoiled every fan out there. Hee Seup Choi is looking better at this point I am sorry to say.

He impressed the heck, out of me when he took a letter-high inside fastball and hooked it 400 feet to left in his first Comiskey at-bat. The ball just jumped off his bat. Then of course came a month of less impressive feats with Willie failing to improve pitch recognition without which hitting is impossible at the major league level. With his speed, Harris should hit 250 with his eyes closed. Who is Scott Morgan and why is his OPS 1300?

First attempt at fornication more like it...higher stakes and all....

Where do you draw the line between "effortless" and "indifferent" or downright "lazy", though? There has to be a reason why he basically sucked while playing in SD. Agreed, it was a great trade precisely because DJ wasn't a guranteed commodity and we were giving up the AA All-Star Home-run Derby champ in Alex Fernandez...it worked in our favor to say the least. Could prove to be the trade of the year if Sox make playoffs and DJ mellows out in the clubhouse. The only thing I wished Kenny would do differently is get Adam Piatt for Ray Durham. That kid is underachiver to say the least, but if Kenny pressed, A's might have given in. Afterall they traded away Carlos Pena, Jesus Colome, Corey Lidle, etc.

Ballsy, honest answer. What I've been saying all along.

Now he is a moron? Why, because he is dominating opposition? I haven't heard him come out and say anything...and even if he did, so what? It has nothing to do with my point, buddy. Hating Cubs is great and all, but when taken to the extreme, it makes one look beyond silly...In any case, I wish Garland wasd as big a "moron" once in a while. The kid has "surfer dude" written all over him. Demagoguery at it's finest. Perhaps you should go back and read what Sox fans had to say about Stewart after spring training and 1 ML start then...but not before running a quick comparison (ERA, WHIP, k/bb ratio, etc) between Prior's first 200 innings and those of Ryan, Clemens, Johnson, etc and then adjusting (say half a point ERA-wise) for disparity between offensive output in 70's, 80's and 2000s. Yeah, those "facts"... ____________________________________________ "Great talent is not the same as great career...Duh!" - BrandoFan

It was Jose's play...Stwart made one plus play but he also allowed at least two grounder base hits up the middle (that Burhle catches) so he is adequate at best so far.

Not a single one of Jose's 2.5 (one is shared with DJ) errors cost the Sox any runs. Crede too has made a coupe of mental errors but made up for it with above-average defensive stops on plays that Norton, Leifer, Valentin would have found a way to f*** up...They both get B- Konerko's has looked the worst by far and his "non-error errors" and piss-poor range have cost the Sox minimum 4-5 runs. C- only because he still has a good throwing arm. Lee has been shaky, but no mor so than in previous 3 seasons. C Rowand has been his ususal steady self, with 2 or 3 OF assists already. A- because of one off-line throw to Paul late in the loss to Tribe. Runner should have been out by a mile. Jimenez has been very solid without much experience at the position. B+ Maggs pretty much average D. misjudjing some balls and getting good jumps on others, but a great slide move and good arm alone give him a B Olivo shutting opposition down but release should be quicker. Also game-calling and pitch-framing needs work. A- Outside of Buerhle, our pitchers usually are horrible defensively. Since Wright is on DL, Parque, Baldwin gone, Garland yet to be tested, Rauch sent down and Stewart adequate, Buehle's GG antics give Sox a solid B-

Does this mean Willie is back out of the doghouse? OPS of 970 is almost 200 points higher than Borchard's. You know he has CF potential and is one of the minor leagues' fastest players, though he could use some work on his jumps. I say if this kid hits, Sox have found their 8th spot hitter of the future. This year however he must spend in AAA- he was too raw while with the Sox.

Forget about him being a "prospect". He is a 25-yo major league constributor, not Borchard-esque rookie. He will have to lose about 20 pounds to be as fast as Alomar as well as spend a lot of time with Jose Valentin learning the art of base-running, something is doubtful considering what we know of DJ's "attitute problems". He may not be as good a hitter as Alomar but neither was Ray-ray. As far as fielding, he is somewhere between Alomar and Durham, and will prbably stay there unless he makes it a special goal to be really good defensively. Even then, he won't be as good IMO, but might come close.

Forget about his 1000 OPS, the thing that surprises me is just how many hard outs (line-outs, etc) the dude makes- that game in Cleveland alone (oh fer) he could have been 3 or 4 for 4 just as easily. Even if half of those outs (must be 8-10 by now easily) get by, he leads the league in hitting...I know it's early but right now he is looking much better than anyone expected, though the saem thing can be said about Valentin and Graffanino as well. Defense has been very solid and base-running above average. Considering he is making next to league minimum, not a bad deal for Kenny. (In fact, Glover, Cotts, Olivo, Diaz, Dabach, Loaiza, Rios, D.Wells and Alomar deals weren't all that bad now that I think of it. If we can only wipe out the Ritchie Fiasco out of our collective head, KW has been one of the best GMs in AL in the last 2 years. You can't fault him if Reinsdork doesn't want to expand the payroll beyond 55-60 Mill....)

Yeah, but does he have a mid-90's fastball he can pinpoint and a change he can control? Because it takes mastery of least 3 or more pitches to have sustainable success as a 1-2 in the majors...that is if he can stay healthy. After Barcelo, Stumm, Biddle, Malone, Rauch, etc I am keeping my fingers crossed to say the least.

"Keep on tossing Buerhle's salad" right back at you, eminemboy. . There is nothing wrong with "wait and see" mentality per se. (If you ask me it's too lazy, "play-it-safe"-y for my taste, but that's me- I've already admitted that I am not afraid to be proven wrong in 3-4 years or make a fool of myself with my predictions...) But you have to understand--and this only applies if you weren't being facetious and have actually watched Prior pitch--that saying "Prior is the best 1st year pitcher I have ever seen" is not such stretch either. Roger Clemens and Randy Johnson weren't nearly as good in their first 200 innings (and that was comparatively low-offense 80's!), so quit yer b****in' about how it's "disrespectful" to make comparisons and get your facts straight. Afterall, here we are proclaiming Josh Stewart "Buerhle 2.0" after one friggin' start... It's ridiculous for me to have to repeat the "great prospects aren't guaranteed a great career" boring-ass truism, but apparently I have to preface every single semi-prediction with it lest I run the risk of being "misunderstood". And the fact that I am a Cub hater as well as a Sox fan and in no way related to Prior clan should tell you something about how much I am impressed with this kid (he is a few years older than me, lol).

if he were healthy. This guy had a breakthrough year during the magical 2000 season and a very respectable (for 3rd starter) ERA of 3.79. depite having one of the worst defenses in the majors and giving up a whopping 18 unearned (think about all the 4- and 5-out innings he had to pitch over!) runs. He did give up more hits than innings pitched but since he didn;t walk a lot of batters and kept Slug%-against to .405 (10th lowest in AL), it wasn't a problem. Even without a slider (which led to the injury), he still has a fastball, change and curve and control to be of help. Does anyone know if he has recovered? Any chance of getting him from the Cubs? Does he carry a grudge against us now? Thoughts?

Hitting jaggernauts don't bat .090 on 2-0 count. Something is horribly wrong with his "eye" and his approach. Too many strike outs and pop ups, somebody should etch the "if you hit it hard homers will come" on his forehead if there enough room.

Once again: being very high on (healthy) Rauch is not the same as printing the Coopers Town jersey...no matter how many times you say it out loud. Just say you've completely given up on him and get it over with. Newsflash: 99.999% of all pitchers are not as good as Randy Johnson. Randy Johnson wasn't as good as Randy Johnson until about 8 years ago.

This is what most (non-Sox) scouting reports had to say about him circa summer 2000: Fastball: 94-96 four-seamer some movement Sinker: 92-94 with a lot of movement, one of the best in the minors Silder: above average, controlleable Curve: way above average Change: barely average As you can see, this is a making of an All-Star pitcher and atl east very good #2. As with Xavier Vazquez, etc, minimum of 2 years is required to learn ML hitters and gain confidence. His smooth arm motion should ensure longevity and lanky 6'6-ness--effortless leverage, weird release angles and intimidation factor. Kevin Brown-clone. ________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________-___ Now this is what I have seen him do so far this season (Fox Sports gun): Fastball: 90-91 four-seamer, straight and hittable Sinker: 88-90, his best pitch, but not nearly as consistent as advertised Slider: non-existent and uncontrollable Curve: erratic and ineffective Change: better than expected but doesn't work without the above pitches to complement/set it up. As you can see, he is now a finesse pitcher without control or mental make-up in addition to being a horrible fielder and a poor base-runner-holder. On bad days basically a one-pitch pitcher...Congrads to the Sox- they now have a passable #4-5 guy to bragg about. Somebody kidnapped the real Jon-Jon, the one whom I personally saw reach 96mph in the 6th inning and generally dominate in Charlotte in 2000...and replaced him with a Sucky McOverrated that couldn't do s*** with two weak line-ups (Royals and Tribe), constantly falling behind hitters and laying the ball in there Parque-style...Something doesn't quite compute. Help!

Does anyone know of labrum tears are 100% recoverable? Cause if they are Rauch may surprise quite a few people before it's all said and done. Beckett? Throws too hard, will probably blow his arm in a few years. Poise- and control-wise ain't in the same league as Prior. Overrated.

He is too good for DL.

You mean like Jim Parque?

So much for me overrating the prospects...Welcome to the Dark Side, man (I am 20 and have been following baseball for 5 years.) You're right, this kid is amazing. The thing that strikes me is that he, unlike the long-fingered, small-framed freak of nature that is Pedro or the skinny Eifel Tower that is RaJo, is like the prototypical pitcher, embodiment of everything you'd want so see in an ace: maturity, poise, flawless mechanics, lethal arsenal of pitches and superb control. Pedro might have more movement and just as good a control, RaJo may throw harder...but they lack the total package this kid has. While it remains to be seen if he will be as good RaJo is at 40 (doubtful), there is no doubt that he will be better than he was in his first 5 seasons even though ERAs are more inflated than they were 10-15 years ago. He is alredy better than Wood and Clement and those guys are much more susceptible to serious injury than he is.

I saw the game and it was something to behold considering the cold and all that. Reminded me the Wood-Rynolds battle in '98... Both guys were amazing...Looked even better in comparison to the sorry-ass Anderson-Garland "duel"

After seeing Prior today and Garland tonight I can't even begin to describe all the things the former is better at. At least in 2001, Garland could get it up 94-95 mph. Now he throws in mid to high 80's almost from stand-up position, no leg power whatsoever. He's 6'6 for crying out loud, where is the leverage, the arm span, the velocity? He can take his sinker and shove it up is arse as it's worthless without control, good secondary pitches and a fastball hitters are afraid off. If I have to see another hanging curve...

But can you imagine Borchard in the hands of this moron? Do you want to have Kieshniek 2.0 on your hands? I think Borchard needs a full year (maybe 2) at AAA. I'd rather have him up at 26+ ala Helton and dominate than to have opposite pitchers find a small hole (as of spiring training it wasn't that small, lol) in his swing and exploit it until he is sent back down crying. Part of the reason is Lee's salary and the fact that nobody expected PK and CLee to suck this much. They were suppoed to finally put it all together this season, having each displayed 3 months worth of all-star talent in the past 2 years...s***, Borchard and Valenzula are insurances for next year if one of Lee/Konehead/Hurt isn't back.

It's fine if Konerko wants to "cheat" a bit with a power swing on a 2-0 pitch or (less likely) sees the pitch so early and so well that he feels confident about jumping on it...but it isn't the case: I see so many 0-1 power swings that result in foul ball and pop ups I feel sick. Gary Ward should get the f*** out if he can't teach his hitters value of opposite field hitting. Konerko and Lee in particular should be embarassed, they are so lousy mechanically. If he is as dumb as he seems during interviews, I am scared for these hitters. Somebody tell me why I shouldn't be pissed right now