YASNY

QUOTE(whitesoxfan101 @ Aug 2, 2006 -> 10:58 AM) Yeah, it's just a contusion, it originally looked like he might have got it on the funnybone, but in fact it's a pretty good bruise. Knowing Ozzie, Kong might get the day off tonight however, which means Freddy REALLY better be on his game if Kong and Thome are out. Or Joe needs to go 4 for 5 again. I like our chances against the Royals. This may set the tone for a classic Freddie Garcia 'step up' game without the big guns in the lineup.

QUOTE(Chisoxrd5 @ Aug 2, 2006 -> 10:54 AM) This is almost the first time in his career he has been healthy for three consecutive seasons. Playing everyday will tend to help you improve at the plate. When JD came up with the Braves the sky was the limit in his talent, IMO injuries are the only thing that held him back. Hes flourishing now. With all this being said, I see no way we pick up his option for next year. I see no way we don't pick up his option next year.

QUOTE(Balta1701 @ Aug 2, 2006 -> 10:45 AM) But Yas, the other side of the coin is this one; if Israel standing down doesn't accomplish anything, what exactly does Israel standing up and fighting accomplish? Thus far, they've caused thousands of Hezbollah rockets to rain down upon them, they've taken Hezbollah and massively improved their standing amongst the entire middle east, to the point that there may well be pro-Hezbollah parades all over that region when the fighting ends (if the governments allow them), they've removed any urge that the Lebanese government might have had to disarm Hezbollah, and turned even the Christian population of that nation into Hez-supporters. They've pushed far into Lebanon, and caused more civilian casualties than Hezbollah casualties. They're not going to destroy Hezbollah...even 18 years of occupying that whole region couldn't do it. They've once again turned Lebanon into a totally failed state, the same kind of mess that gives birth to these sorts of terror movements. They've displaced over half a million people, and cut tens of thousands off from even the most basic supplies, all of which will just feed into the next set of Hezbollah recruits once Israel does pull back. They've raised the tensions throughout the Middle East, strained relations even further with everyone except the U.S, and made U.S. diplomacy look even more pathetic than it did beforehand. So yes, Israel standing down has not accomplished anything in the past, except maintaining the status quo. But what exactly has Israel standing up done except make the situation worse from every angle you look at it? So, Isreal is just supposed to sit there and keep swatting mosquitos? Let me go a bit more in depth on my reply. What you are proposing has been proven to be ineffective. You can speculate on what will or won't work, but it's been proven over the decades that the status quo doesn't work at all. Let Isreal try and kick some major ass. Let them try and kill Hezbollah once and for all or cripple them to the point of ineffectiveness.

QUOTE(NorthSideSox72 @ Aug 2, 2006 -> 09:56 AM) I'd like to point out here that things like "attitude" and "character" in athletes, while subjective in nature, absolutely have an effect on players' careers, even the very talented ones. Plenty of huge talents have self-destructed. This guy seems to have that written all over him. For that reason if no other, I wouldn't go christening him the next Pujols. Guys who act like this kid acts, more often than not, tend to implode at some point in their careers and end up being no more than a flash in the pan. Not always, but often. His brother is not exactly a paragon of society either.

QUOTE(NorthSideSox72 @ Aug 2, 2006 -> 10:38 AM) i don't recall what he did Sunday, but I do remember the others - and they were screwups. But did they turn the game? How many times did rallies die on Anderson's bat? Mack is a significant defensive downgrade from Anderson. Duh. But when one considers offense as well in the positive (where Mack is a full 100 points higher in average and is better on the basepaths), and looks at the whole season, I recall only one game where the big negative difference was Mack's play on something Anderson would have made. And he won at least one game I can recall. Therefore, all things considered, I think Mack's impact on the team over/under Anderson is minimal. Which is exactly what you want from your bench. Think about it from this point of view. Not games cost but pitches thrown. How many of Mack's defensive gaffes has led to our pitching work more, harder, under stress with runners on base? That stuff adds up over the course of a season. We won last year with pitching and defense. Without the defense the pitching struggles more ... did the struggling pitching steamroll? Who knows. But it's damn sure possible.

QUOTE(Gregory Pratt @ Aug 2, 2006 -> 10:35 AM) Caveman Jim? That nickname sucks. I'll have the roast duck with the mango salsa.

QUOTE(fathom @ Aug 2, 2006 -> 10:19 AM) Our lack of a back-up CF is absolutely important. It's come back to haunt us about 10 times this season, and we would likely have had 2 or 3 more wins if there was a better defensive option out there. Mackowiak has been excellent at the plate this year...but his defense in CF is absolutely medicore. When you say we have a lot of problems, a lot of them come from our awful outfield defense this season. Our starting pitching has struggled this season, but they've gotten no help from our LF defense and CF back-up. A lot of rallies have started against us do to miscues out there. Mediocre is being generous.

QUOTE(NorthSideSox72 @ Aug 2, 2006 -> 10:17 AM) That "depth" you thank KW for INCLUDES our back-up outfielder, Mack, who got two hits, stole a base and was generally clutch AGAIN last night. The guy is hitting what, .310 or so? With all the problems we have, I don't get your obsession with that. Its just not that important, and frankly, given what Mack contributes offensively, isn't even a significant drop-off when he plays. Defensively, it is a very significant drop off if he's in CF, which is where he is most of the time.

QUOTE(G&T @ Aug 2, 2006 -> 09:36 AM) Last night it looked like Alomar moved around a lot to give Mark a better target. AJ and Widge don't move much, so I'm wondering if that helped Mark just throw to the glove. You may have something there. If Sandy is moving his body and not just the glove, in other words framing the glove for Mark, it may make it easier for Mark to pick up the glove coming out of his delivery ... or his eyes hit the target sooner ... or something.

QUOTE(Steff @ Aug 2, 2006 -> 08:21 AM) That shark creeps me out... But it has such a warm friendly smile.

QUOTE(Gregory Pratt @ Aug 2, 2006 -> 08:35 AM) You know, if I were in charge, we certainly would pass it, and then, I'll bet, George Bush would veto it. Regardless, I hate the practice of merging things for this purpose. It lacks honesty. I agree. But those politicians are not going to tie their own hands. This isn't the exclusive technique of one party.

Of course, this a horrific tragedy for victim and her loved ones, but I had to point out this eloquent piece of journalism from this article ...

Great discussion. Those who are proponents of Isreal standing down, well, this will not accomplishment anything. Isreal has been negotiating with Arab regimes for decades only to have the 'militants' disregard any agreements that have been made. Cease fires don't work because the 'militants' don't cease firing ... or if they do, it's only for a period of time that it takes for the group to rearm and reorganize after Isreal cut through them like a hot knife through butter. This has been a vicious cycle that, like I said, has been going on for decades. Isreal sits there like a man getting repeatedly stung and bitten by insects, until he's had enough at which he breaks out a can of insecticide and kills a bunch of them. Yet, eventually, the insects always come back and he has to do it again. Not a great analogy, and I kind of stumbled into that, but you get the point. It seems whenever Isreal attempts to put the smack down on one of these militant groups, whether it Hamas or Hezballah, the militants hide among civilians and refuse to let the civilians get out of harms way, then when some innocents are killed the world screams bloody murder at Isreal. Yet, you never hear or see any meaningful actions take place when Isreali citizens are targeted. It is met with a collective yawn from world body. The only ones who will take meaningful actions are the Isrealis themselves. I wish they'd let Isreal finish the job for once. This vicious cycle will keep going until they do.

You should be shot for leaving Clayton's name on that list.

There's logic to some of the things he's saying ... the need to improve team speed, outfield defense and Dye peaking this year. However, I still can't see the Sox just saying "Thanks and good luck" to Jermaine after this year. Moving Dye to LF and inserting Sweeney or a young, reasonably fast young OF with gap power and a good OBP would improve the OF defense, if BA plays 98% of the games in CF. Considering I think Pods is the one to get the "Thanks and good luck" this offseason, our team speed and leadoff hitter will have to come from elsewhere.

QUOTE(DABearSoX @ Aug 1, 2006 -> 01:18 PM) well Bobby only had 3 or 4 save oppurtunities in July, so lets hope paulie fares a little better now that he's got his own wallpaper Plunked and removed from the game. Not a great beginning.

Unfortunately, I can't hand around at the moment and discuss this. But, I will certainly come back to this thread and read the discussion with interest, and then offer my comments. However, I have this comment as of the moment. Rex, you are going off on a tangent with your remarks on Rice and Bolton. What should Isreal do?

QUOTE(southsideirish71 @ Aug 1, 2006 -> 12:13 PM) A lot of baserunners go first to third on a single. Unless you have an absolute cannon or the guy is slow you cant get that throw on the money for the out. Pods you can criticize for his D. But Anderson and Dye have done a great job this year. I just astarted a thread dedicated to this subject. Please continue the discussion there.

This subject was being discussed in another thread, and I felt it was worthy of it's thread. What are your opinions of Jermaine Dye as a right fielder? Strengths? Weaknesses? Discuss please.

QUOTE(Shamrock4Life @ Aug 1, 2006 -> 12:03 PM) its a funny story get over yourself. No. It's juvenile. Extremely juvenile. Grow up, yourself.

QUOTE(Balta1701 @ Aug 1, 2006 -> 12:06 PM) And that, right there, is exactly the line of thinking which has made the "War on Terror" go so poorly thus far. When your enemy is willing to attack civilians with no regards to any of the laws of war, a nation can use that reasoning to justify any action in response. The only problem is, of course, that it totally neglects any thought about how the rest of humanity will respond, which is exactly what we're seeing in Israel right now; a dramatic strengthening of support for Hezbollah, and for almost every terror organization, due to the Israeli response, and Israel will spend its next few decades fighting against the terrorists born out of this campaign, just as they've spent the last few decades fighting terrorists born out of previous campaigns. So ... what exactly should Isreal do?

QUOTE(Rex Kickass @ Aug 1, 2006 -> 07:58 AM) When you couple that with the idea that Lieberman said he'll run with or without the nomination of his party, why would Democrats want to give it to him in the first place? If I was a Connecticut Democrat, that in and of itself would put me on Team Lamont. I'm guessing that is because you more concerned about losing the senate seat for the party. If you wanted Leiberman to continue being your senator, would your opinion be the same?

QUOTE(BigSqwert @ Aug 1, 2006 -> 08:11 AM) But we need to trade for Aaron Rowand! As a fourth outfielder.

QUOTE(Milkman delivers @ Aug 1, 2006 -> 11:07 AM) No, he's extremely slow in the OF this year. If a ball is hit into the corner, it seems like he's jogging to it. And balls are falling in front of him more than ever, it seems. Just asking.

QUOTE(Gregory Pratt @ Aug 1, 2006 -> 11:28 AM) The thing that makes me doubt that, though, is that he has hit the mid-90s in a few games this year. He can still do it sometimes, and that makes me wonder about his 'roid use. In my mind, the alternative is that he's just been getting fatter (that we can see with our own eyes) and has lost a lot of focus, and probably is hitting up too much marijuana. Hell, it could be both. Freddie's just trying to save himself for the stretch run.