BrandoFan

wow.

Made a fool of himself in yet another at bat. Had a cookie, got greedy and pulled it way foul. Then K'd......Contrast it with the way Posada aprroached his atbat, Will this guy ever put it together?

I like that Sox brought short and level swings today. Sandy's just missed a 2-run double and Paulie's GIDP was really unfortunate, but other than that....if Sox make a habit of swinging like this, they will put some freakin' numbers up this season. Salvaging today's game, although freakin' nice, is not important. Saving face ala Colon start against Detroit right after the ASG last season would provide some serious confidence boost. Lee, on the other hand, should be f***ing benched. The guy can't get a strike over and this Sosa wannabe swings at pitch 1 neck-high with an 8-2 score.....Next at bat, he uppercut two outside pitches, one of them find a 2B's mitt for 3rd out with Maggs on base. Dumbass.

I am not saying this team will be as underachieving and lifeless as last years's; anyone can see that the attitude is better and this year's team wil go farther. But I am just amazed how quickly lessons learned from last 3.5 years are forgotten because of 10 days worth of good, fundamentals-happy play. 5 bad defensive plays in 1 inning. Ooops....Rowand just took a bad route to the ball. Ah, it doesn't matter anyway. As soon as Kong rolled over that 3-1 pitch and Sox only scord 1, the game was effectively lost. Not biggie it's just one game. Hopefully, the team rebounds in the next 2 games.

The first inning alone featured: -A non-hustle by Mark that opened the inning up -A throwing error by Crede -Kong showing no range on Posada weak grounder -Crappy relay throw to the plate by Uribe -Willie Harris mis-timing a blooper 7 runs score, 5 of which could have easily been avoided. Corpseball might be dead....but this is JM Era ineptitude with a capital 'I'

Man I wish I saw that mockerific mess!

With possible exception of Beltran, the rest of the group is either A) arguably better than Maggs (Sheffield, Abreu, Jones, Giles, Guerrero, Sosa) or B.) signed back when the over-valuation-happy market was still paying bums like Mondesi 15 Mill and Kevin Appier - 13 Mil. I mean Bonds only makes a little over 18 Mill this year, and the money he brings to the Giants is literally twice what Magglio is bringing before adjusting for Berroids's superior on-field production.

You just made my point. There is no question that from 1999 to 2001, Maggs was a better hitter; if you were awarding strictly on past history, Maggs would be at least 3-4 Mill better per year. BUT Anderson's value SHOT UP BIG-TIME since 2001; he's been very clutch in that span (how else do you drive in 120 runs in 2001 with the kind of OPS he had), and unlike Magglio, he actually led the team SOMEWHERE with the unspectacular Scott Spezio protecting him in the order. Now he has Jose Guillen, Vlad Gerrero and Troy Glaus for full season around him, so the Angels GM (correctly) assumed Anderson could put up 900+ OPS and 120-130 RBI this year, which coupled with his underrated defense makes him a 12 Mill a year player to a big-budget team. Hell, right now Anderson is unexpectedly struggling with LHP (unlike 2002-2003 when he hit them very well), so his production is diluted -- as he starts hitting them again, he will be Maggs' offensive equal at the 930 OPS levels. Maggs will laugh at 10-11 Mill offer and Sox can ill-afford to pay him much more than that. Is a 915-930 OPS hitter who does nothing else spectacularly worth 5/75 to a team with payroll problems in 2004?

Unless Rowand totally craps out, I don't want to see Reed up. Let him polish his swing and batting eye against AAA scrubs, and gain confidence heading into 2005. Sox will get an extra year of service out of him as well. If Rowand and Timo's combined OPS is not over 750 a month from now, and if Reed's AAA OPS is well into 900's by then....Then call him up. Otherwise.....Brian Roberts is struggling, so KW might pick him up for real cheap to light some fire under Willie's ass.

On sunday, Hurt's injury definately looked more serious. Hmm....

S'phardics?

Yes, they have done as well, but Valentin hasn't even gotten going against RHP yet and last year he hit them hard. Let's see how they handle everyday duty. Trust me, it's a bigger blow than you think. Unless Crede and Rowand go out of their mind this series, Sox will be lucky to win a game without Frank and Jose. I hope I am wrong, though.

Ya sure about that? Cuz I remember someone hitting 350 with 1000 OPS after starting the season off 0-for-6. Nah, it must have been Crede, my bad.

Good things bear repeating. This is just the thread for it.

Think of it this way, Jimbo: when poor people hit rock bottom, they become desperate. And desperate people are more likely to slit your throat and take away your wi-he-kle....among other not-so-pleasant things. Also, when plenty of like-minded poor people get together, they tend to start revolutions and heads roll. Just keep on paying poor people off so they don't f*** you up and shut up.

"Well, I am sure after this you won't call me 'Chris' anymore" [pause] "Chris" [there goes the table]

F-14....... Winning is important. Hard to win without talent. Payroll strongly correlates to talent on the field. Attendance, ratings, merch. sales, etc.....greatly affect payroll. Ergo.....

**flashes back to multiple threads where Sox fans gloated over various KC, Minny and Kub injuries and ailments as though 2001 never happened and Sox players are made of flexible titanium* Frank and Jose too? :puke

Yeah, I realize that it's a money-maker, but is there a way to shrink them and move them around the ballpark? Don't tell me ANYONE like the views of LF and RF when looking up -- concourse is great, fan deck in CF is great, the jumbothron, etc, but the BILLBOARDS are tacky and grotesque that it begins to spoil what otherwise would have been a GREAT park to watch a game in. Not for me, but I am guessing for a lot of casual fans. The RF porch will be great and will eliminate one ofthe boards. I just hope they build something in LF -- look at every cool ballpark, they always have something in the outfield.

Poor babies, they didn't "believe"......Am I the only one who sees what's wrong with the above scenario? Excuses, excuses, excuses....Now, substitute 100 wins for 95 wins in the above (let's say, Sox get a few more wins out of May), and one could STILL make a neat case why Sox fans wouldn't/shouldn't have attended in bunches in 2000. See, a nice thing about this board is that die-hards post here for the most part. But the flip-side is that it's harder to get a pulse of an average Sox fan.....of which there is a majority.

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/clubhouse?team=chw Something just doesn't look right.

Are there plans in place to do something about those damn boards, though? If they could chop off the UD, it would be piece of cake to tear them down and build something cool there in the off-season.

You keep saying this for some reason even though it's not true. Anderson got the money because his 2002 and 2003 numbers and accolades warranted it. While Maggs was feasting in non-pressure situations in 2002, Anderson quietly led his team to the WS title and was excellent last year despite having no line-up protection. Did I menton he was the best clutch hitter in baseball in last 2 years and won the All-Star Game MVP? A Gold Glove-caliber LF'er who can play CF and at this point of his career can generate 900+ OPS is definately worth 10+ Mill. Watch out for him this year. And don't feel sorry for the Angels just yet. They are in GREAT shape and will free up a lot of dough in 2005 if they ever wished to get Delgado.

The Yankee sweep would go a long way toward accomplishing that goal. From there on out, it gets easier schedule-wise. 2.4 Mill is about 28-29K a game, not sure.

Cute. And wrong. But don't let it stop you or your baitess friend from pretending that you actually know anything regarding my attending habits. It helps to know whereof you speak, and you obviously know jack. Oh and...stop hijacking the topic.