BrandoFan

It's all about Mt. ARARAT, baby

Defensively, maybe. BB has a liver bat and better wheels. Neifi is hitting .180 with 500 OPS as we speak.

I can't stand poseurs like J-Hood. He wants to have it both ways -- have the street cred AND be a cynical ratings whore at the same time. At least Mariotti doesn't/can't hide what he is. I remember JH taunting Sox fans as "bitter and jealous" just because they -- GASP! -- didn't want to see Cubs succeed last October. He even went ahead as to suggest that Cubs winning the WS would actually be **stiffles laughter** a GREAT thing for the White Sox, and that Sox fans who (rightfully) disagree with this idiocy aren't real Chicagoans. He is just a more artifulate, younger version of Mike North as far as I am concerned.

And yet....for 5,000+ years, everything you describe has pretty much been yawned at. You probably shouldn't visit Dominican Republic or Rwanda or the rest of the world for that matter. Lots of poverty and alienation and suffering.

Yes, because JM would have had an actual effect on his swing.... Jerry should have been fired by May 1st of 2003, but looking back, I can see why it's easier to blame him for 1st half collapse -- after all, Crede, Buerhle, Konerko, Gordon, White, Koch, Thomas were obvisouly "uninspired" and that's why they sucked fried skunk ass in April and May....Now here comes Ozzie with the magic wand; the air is cleaner when he is around.

Human civilizaton has been tolerating this and worse for millenii. Why are you so surprised?

That's right, cuz Doug Jones ain't gonna stand fo' such blatant display of degeneratery.

Miles is a not a ML material IMO. Uribe kicks his ass on Defense, on the pads and lately at the plate as well. And, at 24, there is a chance BB might actually, gasp, IMPROVE....

Kenny f*cked this team in the ass in 2001-2002 alright, and it continues to haunt the Sox each time Wells, Foulke, Konerko, etc take the field......But not paying big chunks of payroll to Colon, Ponson, Sullivan and Everett should NOT be held against him.

I think people got spoiled with his 2001 season. At 21-22, he wasn't supposed to be that good. Alas, there is a reason why Unit, Kevin Brown, etc didn't win 20 games at 24-25. Right now, Mark is not even close to being "there".

I see what you're saying, Wite, but Honel AND Cotts? If Delgado was healthy, young, cheap and signed for more than a year, then maybe....But I am not sure I like the deal. Something HAS to be learned from the Ritchiegate.

In 2002-2003 off-season, after two minor-league MVP campaigns and an awesome finish to 2002, I am guessing half the GM's in the majors would have LOVED to have the privilege of overpaying for a 24yo JJJ. Now that he's turning 26 and after VERY mediocre 2003 and even worse start to 2004, he is no longer the golden boy -- and rightfully so. And, yes, I would consider 500 OPS (and he's a baseclogger who will hit into his share of GIDP so his OPS is even worse than, say, Willie's would be) a "dire emergency" when we're talking about a franchise that's fighting for survival. The team must win. Putting LH-throwing Gload aside for a second....something has to be done about both Joe and Willie -- get Spivey and now Joe will have some competition from Uribe once Jose comes back. You'll see hat stroke shortened in a hurry.

Little known fact: Bobby Fick played an instrumental part in helping Cubs win NLDS in 2003. In the first 3 games, before Cox finally wised up, RF: Couldn't hit. Couldn't hit in the clutch. Couldn't field. Considering how close the games were, had red-hot Julio Franco started from Game 1, Cubs would have been finished in 4 games and we would have been spared the whole 5-outs-away-from-apocalypse thing. Fick just killed every rally for his team and prolonged a rally for the Cubs.

Speaking of which.....Mariotti hinted he might sue Hawkaroo if the latter is not careful. His basic spiel boiled down to "I am too big in this town to bother with a senile company man-cum-worst announcer in baseball that shall remain nameless" For all it's worth, which is admittedly not a lot.

It was a mock-theory, which for some unknown to me reason you took seriously. But even so......Leave 2000 out much? Last 3 times Jose played full-time SS (2000, 2003, 2004) the team was winning. And considering how good the RH-loaded Sox are at slapping LHP around and how brutal Jose is as a RH-er.....If anything, the team should have been WORSE when he started, not better.

I know you think 2002 is an ace in your sleeve but I am sorry (but not really) to inform you that, once again, you're absolutely incorrect. 2002 OPS C - 660 V - 790 2002 OPS with runners in scoring position C - 598 V - 1086 CW....do you understand now why when you say that Clayton "outhit" Jose in 2002 people are laughing? I mean, those aren't even CLOSE....And I am not even gonna go into who was a bigger Cub Killa -- which matters to some of us, believe it or not. As far as defense....Jose kicked Clayton's ass in Total Defense (example of of which you probably read in the Diamond Mind article I linked to a few times.....it usesdifferent weighted Range measures as well as conventional stats to paint a more accurate picture than just using raw fielding % which admittedly was never Jose's strenght) in 2001 when you extrapolate his numbers at SS to full season and once again in 2003. Sure, in 2002 Clayton was clearly better, but that's why they call it a "career year". That's 2 out of the last 3 years that Jose was arguably as good if not better defensively than the Choice. I know you're a big believer of intangibles.....Should I mention Klayton steam-rolling Hurt's ex...and generally making Robbie seem, well, like he gave a s***, by comparison?

Spend a Mill to make 100K indeed.

See, I found Bunts to be immensely enjoyable, esp. his head-to-head with Donald Kagan.

The point is. you could get similar production from Brad Fullmer or some other chap for 25% of what Kong is making in the next 2 years (17M) and invest the rest into starting pitching - 4 Mill buys you an Al Leiter at the deadline, etc. Koch's 6.3 M, too prevented the Sox from getting an Urbina type. When you have a limited budget, every grossely overpaid player "cripples" the team in the long run. That's not the players' fault -- it's Kenny's.

If you know how the parts of the brain responsible for learning and communication form and function in children vs. adults, you have the answer to your question. And yeah, Northern European languages are closer to English on the phonetic scale, in addition to the advanced foreign language carriculum; hence the preponderance of Dutchmen, Sweedes, Finnes etc with very little accent, comparatively. Do you remember Joe Millionaire 2? Where were the four girls with best pronounciation from? Sweden and Netherlands. Forget about the foreign stuff.....Say, how's your generic Cockney?

Hey man, I can sympathize with Sooser on this one. It ain't easy.

No, you must be thinking of the yellow teletubby.

I think Harry Carey already used the Leaping Latino gimmick...

What, they couldn't share the JM fella with the Cubs? Cheap bastards.