ptatc

Salome BaROjas (c'mon guys get it right), Marc "Booter" Hill, Donnie Hill, Joel Skinner, Carlos Martinez, Ivan Calderone

QUOTE (scenario @ Aug 15, 2008 -> 09:03 AM) Exactly. And it's particularly true when you don't have any picks in the top 15 players each year. After the top 15 it is REALLY a crap shoot. There just aren't too many slam dunk players in the draft. What is really sad is to look at teams who draft high and screw it up. Anybody who wants to amuse themselves should look at the draft history on www.thebaseballcube.com and just click through the year-by-year draft results. It's pretty interesting. It's got a nice summary so you can see which guys made it to MLB. When you look at some of the picks and think about the guys some teams passed up, it's hard to imagine what some of these GMs were thinking. This is so true. Look at the NFL draft which is so much more accurate than the MLB draft and see where the bottom half of the draft stand for success. When you say see what our first round success is, look at where we drafted. Compare our drafts to the Yankees and Red Sox and other teams who are always in the top 2 in the division. Now you may have a more valid comparison.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Aug 14, 2008 -> 07:45 AM) This reminds me of 2006 all over again. Everything KW did was "magical" and the past (Ritchie trade, trading for the wrong "Barry/Berry" with the Dodgers, dumping Durham for Adkins and getting no draft picks back, "Moneyball," etc.) was forgotten. I think KW is an average to above average GM, somewhere between 12-18 in the majors. I try to be pretty objective about the guy...last year, I didn't think he was the worst GM in baseball by a long stretch. I don't think "KW won a World Series, have/did you?" makes every move he has made perfect and unquestionable. I just really hate that kind of logic or argument. Eventually, even the Bulls had to part with Krause, as most realized that it was MJ and Pippen and not the "wizard" GM who was responsible for the team's success. He's a good GM, but not a great one. He's made some super acquisitions, but he's done almost nothing in Latin America or the Pacific Rim, and the White Sox drafting history/success rate has been horrible, especially first rounders. OTOH, the White Sox, I think, are behind only the Yankees and Braves (maybe the Red Sox now too) if you go back and look at organizational winning percentage since around 1990 or 91. Of course, this leads to the other main point for Sox fans....until 2005, lack of success in the playoffs, and letting the Twins, with a much lower budget, get the better of him year after year after year. i think it's also a matter of perspective. My criteria for a good GM is "does his major league team win." Period. I don't care how he attains his players. I don't care if it's in the draft from Latin America or from Mars. Some people like to analyze or over analyze all of the minutia. All that truly matters is how the major league team does under his watch. So far he has 1 world series win, 1 losing season, and a few good seasons along with them. To me that's puts him at least in the top 10.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Aug 14, 2008 -> 02:48 PM) Is there any word on who Richard is replacing? Maybe it is Broadway. when is the next time we need a 5th starter? Maybe they will send Broadway down to get regular starts and have Richard as a reliever.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Aug 14, 2008 -> 01:41 PM) Definately couldn't have asked for much more from Broadway today. It really validates Kenny and Ozzie's decision to start him and save Carrasco as the main RHP middle reliever. What??? This is on KW. This guys can't get MLB out with an 80's fastball! This guy has no major league talent! What a bust of a first round pick!!!!! Carrasco should have started!!!!

QUOTE (MurcieOne @ Aug 14, 2008 -> 11:52 AM) I thought you guys might find this interesting... From CNN.com There was a good biography about Moe Berg's life. I've read it a few times. It discussed his trips overseas on barnstorming tours and how he collected intelligence. He was the streotypical "he reads too much to be a baseball player" guy. They said his apartment was filled from floor to ceiling with books. It is a good read.

QUOTE (WCSox @ Aug 14, 2008 -> 12:35 PM) Kenny and his subordinates have deemed that Poreda isn't ready. If that's really the case, I'd rather keep him in the minors. IIRC, Richard feel victim to the big inning in two of his three starts. Outside of those big innings, he was pretty decent. I agree that Richard may have a decent ML career down the road. I agree. You don't call up pitchers because they are the most talented in the system (which he seems to be). You call them up when you feel they are ready to pitch in the MLB. Posters make reference to Poreda being the "Jenks" for this year. Jenks seemed to be ready and could learn under Hermanson because Politte and Cotts were lights out.. I don't know with the bullpen in this shape if he would learn or get burned. Either way if they don't think he is ready, let him learn in the minors.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Aug 13, 2008 -> 01:36 PM) Just like I said from day one in this thread... That is why you enjoy every victory and forget every defeat. People waste too much time on who is right, and who is wrong.... On who sucks and who is the star. Forget all of the peripheral crap, and enjoy the game of baseball for what it is. You get a lot more out of it that way. ^^^^^^^^^^^^ I LUUUUV the game of baseball!

QUOTE (fathom @ Aug 12, 2008 -> 06:06 PM) Assuming it's his left forearm, then this is no big deal. The left forearm numbness that someone mentioned earlier is a distinct possibility. The radial nerve runs very superficial through the radial tunnel on the outside of the forearm. This nerve innervates all of the muscles which extend the wrist. If there was any edema in the area it could easily cause a decrease in the strength of the wrist. This could effect his hitting so it's good to rest him if this is the case. He'll be getting one painful massage to the forearm and elbow that would make him wish he was playing and getting hit again.

I was right with Floyd, Danks, Dye, Fields (although could be just a bad injured year) I was really off on Swisher. I normally don't like trading more than one pitching prospect in any deal, because one usually turns out to be at least servicable. But I agreed with this one and it hasn't turned out well so far. My games won could be close, I think it was 88. Although I did have them finishing second to Cleveland. The cleveland part is way off. We'll see about the second place.

QUOTE (DBAHO @ Aug 11, 2008 -> 12:50 PM) Hmmm, interesting deal (if it's true, depending on the prospects). Now do they try to sign him in the off-season? They've got Byrnes, Young and Upton in the OF and Conor Jackson at 1B (who's been their best hitter this season IIRC). But Arizona has gone from having the best farm system argubly a year ago, to probably a mediocre one now. They've traded 10 prospects alone for Dan Haren, Jon Rauch and now Adam Dunn. Do you really need an outstanding minor league roster when the MLB team is full of young talent? They have time to re-stock before they need very many MLB players.

His career doesn't sound all that different than DJ Carassco and everyone wants Carassco to start games now. Although German was never released, bought for a dollar and got cut in Japan after 3 appearances. Whose to say German can't turn it around while a little older? Give him a shot. I don't know if he will but who would have thought people would want Carassco to start at this time of the year?

QUOTE (Drew @ Aug 10, 2008 -> 09:52 PM) "Here I go Again" is Whitesnake. The Great White tune you're thinking of could likely be "Once Bitten, Twice Shy" or maybe "The Angel Song." That's right. Old age kicking in!!!

QUOTE (LosMediasBlancas @ Aug 11, 2008 -> 12:12 AM) Great stuff. Thx for the insight. Why should you not get more than 3 per year? The typical medication that is used, a cortisone cocktail, is a very aggressive anti-inflammatory. It is so strong that more than three will start to break down even healthy tissue especially cartilage (which the discs are made of) and joint surfaces.

QUOTE (BearSox @ Aug 10, 2008 -> 05:47 PM) Has anyone ever thought that maybe Broadway's bad numbers in the 2nd half are due to the org. wanting him to work on something? I know what I saw last year in Broadway, and I saw a pretty good pitcher. He wasn't getting lucky like some other junk ballers, he actually has very solid stuff. I think people are extremely underrating him. I agree. He looked pretty good last year. Hopefully he will do well.

QUOTE (WCSox @ Aug 10, 2008 -> 08:57 PM) I remember us playing Warrant's "Cherry Pie" right after Chuck Finley's then-wife Tawney Kitean kicked the crap out of him back in 2002. That was priceless. That's weird she was in Great White's video of "Here I go Again" Maybe because she is a redhead???

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Aug 10, 2008 -> 11:57 AM) I think the insurance works based on the number of games/starts missed. Wells went down fairly early in 2001, maybe six weeks into the season...I think the White Sox ended up getting something in the neighborhood of $4-6 million back in an insurance payment. Now do we want to use that money on paying half of Washburn's salary for 2009? I would guess that Seattle can either take back half of our farm system and subsidize his contract (what ended up losing Chris Young in the Vazquez deal) or we can agree to pay it and give up very little, like the Griffey deal. Typically, JR has always sided with taking the money and giving up talent, but I don't think we can afford to do it this time. Giving up Poreda to save the money on Washburn's contract for 2009 would be a waste, IMO. There are essentially two types of insurance. The normal worker's comp like every company has where the worker gets paid 66% of the salary without taxes. The other is a policy that can is arranged separately with the club and a re-insurer such as Loyd's of London where a pre-arranged amount of the total will be paid based on the amount of time the player missed based on the normal workload. This was the problem with the A-Rod contract over the 10 years. The Rangers couldn't get the entire contract covered and had to settle for only a portion being covered. Thus, the ballclub has to assume a greater debt if the player misses significant time. All of the policies are individually arranged based on factors such as age, inujury history ... Ihave no idea what Jose's was but it should pay out well. An achilles tendon repair in a guy his age is a 6-8 month rehab.

QUOTE (Elgin Slim @ Aug 9, 2008 -> 01:27 PM) Not meaning to hijack the thread, but with how we've seen things pan out with Crede's back, Can we safely conclude that Chris Williams' career with the Bears is over before it even started? Football is a much more violent sport than baseball, and this seems like the same injury as Crede. Actually, it will not be as serious for Williams. The spine is designed to take the stress of an up and down force much more efficiently than a rotation force due to the S-curves. From working with the various sports a baseball hitter will have much more difficulty returning to a high level of performance than a football tackle.

QUOTE (IamPabloOzuna @ Aug 9, 2008 -> 12:59 AM) let me clear this all up for everyone...i have literally the same problem as joe and have had a couple epidurals myself. Like this previous poster said, the term "epidural" simply refers to the region of the injection. I have a terribly herniated disc that is putting pressure on my sciatic nerve. without treatment it causes severe pain that is absolutely unbearable. I have had 2 epidurals in the last year for pretty much the exact same problem as joe, except i never had surgery. the surgery is only done as measure that could possibly end the problem for good. I never had it, and apparently in joe's case it didnt work very well. an epidural is a direct shot of cortisone that bathes the spinal canal between the vertebrae. think of it as a super potentially long lasting anti-inflammatory/pain killer. my last one was in may and it absolutely melted the pain completely away. the only problem with epidurals is that they are not completely reliable for long periods of time. the pain may go away for a week, it may go away for a year, it may go away forever....but you can only have around 3 in a year. joe had this done as a measure of pain relief, and if it works as well for him as it did for me, he'll be fine. as far as how the sox are saying they are waiting for the epidural injection to kick in, it takes about 3-4 days to take full effect. Just because he has some pain now doesn't mean the surgery did not work. As I stated earlier it's very possible it could be scar tissue and this could relieve it. It's also possible that it is a disc above or below the previous one and the injections can relieve it. There is also the possibility that the problem is not related to a disc at all, there are many other structures that can aggravate a nerve. The disc is by far the most common. The epidural injection in the case of nerve dysfucntions is usually an anti-inflammatory which means it's not a pain killer but attempting to decrease the cause of the pain. This is why they take a few days to work and can get rid of the pain for good or have the client return for no more than three per year.

QUOTE (Steff @ Aug 8, 2008 -> 10:08 PM) I'm not Dr. Ptatc, but having done a lot of research on the topic I'll add what I know from that and the doc's. Simply a form of pain management, the "block", level of medication, that Joe would be getting can't be very substantial as if it were he would experience loss sensation, muscle power, and posibly loss of function of the sympathetic nervous system, which controls blood pressure. A level at which he would still be able to function normally would only give relief for, at best, several hours. And in almost all cases the patient is recommended to be confined to a bed because side effects can be life threatening - mainly paralysis of the diaphragm, and loss of function to the heart itself, causing heart rate and blood pressure drop. I don't really understand why he would be getting one unless he is about to have more surgery. Anything else said other than "Joe had an epidural..."? An "epidural" describes the location of the injection. The dural layers are the covering of the spinal cord. There can be many medications injected there. As Steff said one is for numbing and pain. The one Crede probably received is for anti-inflammatory purposes. The big worry here is that the epidural means they suspect the problem is nerve related not superficial muscle or movement problems. Since the back surgery is fairly recent it could be scar tissue. Hopefully, it is not a disc problem again. Even though they did a partial discectomy problems can arise from the other discs taking the load or the same discs can have problems again. The torsion the back endures during a baseball swing is violent and could cause these repeated problems. I think we've all noticed his defense has been where it should be.

QUOTE (BearSox @ Aug 8, 2008 -> 07:40 AM) well, if Richard could succeed at Charlotte (and before him Heath Phillips), I have a feeling that the AAA international league struggles vs. soft tosing lefties who work fast (I am assuming Whistler does this) and throw strikes. I wouldn't be surprised if Whisler has some sort of hitch in his delievery thats throws some hitters off. You mean every team in the league is the Chicago White Sox?

QUOTE (danman31 @ Aug 8, 2008 -> 12:33 PM) If his stuff was that good he wouldn't be having such a tough year. Stuff does not make a good pitcher. There is a lot more to it. Everyone has good talent if they make to the high minors. It's the mental approach and mental toughness which can get guys with good stuff pushed out of baseball.

QUOTE (BearSox @ Aug 6, 2008 -> 09:35 PM) Oh puh-lease. Pitch count is so overrated, it's not even funny anymore. Pitchers can easily throw 130 pitches a night, but because teams invest so much in pitchers now-a-days, GM's and managers baby the pitchers. Tell that to Zambrano who threw 130 one night and was on the DL after his next start. Too many pitchers today do not have the ability to reach that pitch count without breaking down. Most of the pitchers today would have blown out their arms in the minors and never seen the majors prior to 1980 or so. Expansion has created the problem of talented but fragile pitchers.

QUOTE (fathom @ Aug 6, 2008 -> 02:41 PM) Amphetamines has had a huge impact on baseball. More than PED, I think. Because while the PEDs were more obvious the Amphetamines were much more common. I can recall very few players NOT using them at least occasionally toward the end of the season.

QUOTE (lukeman89 @ Aug 6, 2008 -> 04:44 PM) miguel tejada, a-rod, michael young, grady sizemore, bobby abreu all of those guys, to name a few, play every day if they are healthy Well we know the reasons why Tejada and abreu didn't have drop offs (chemicals) Even if those players don't have decreased production at the end of the year you are talking a very few, usually younger players that are able to do that. To expect every player to do that is wrong. Again it is more mental than physical. Especially the older players who were used to the amphetamine boost at the end of the year.