YASNY

QUOTE(JUGGERNAUT @ Mar 21, 2005 -> 12:55 PM) Let's think about this. They go out & trade for Garcia, Contreras, & sign Hernandez to insure that Garland is the 5th. Contreras looks awful right now. I do not see Ozzie moving the starter who's having the worst spring to the 3rd spot. He's more likely to move BMac there. Thinking about this. I think the rotation to start the season will be Garcia, Contreras, McCarthy, Hernandez, Garland. My reasoning is as follows. Ozzie has already stated his preference for having El Duque make the first road start, since he's more of a road warrior than Contreras. Having BMac start the 3rd game at home will allow him to pitch without all the pomp and circumstance of someone's opening day and he'll have a friendly crowd cheering him on.

I feel for Todd Helton .... but not much. This is exactly what their silence all these has brought upon the players. They should have been forcing the union to play ball with the owners. This is part of the price they all have to pay. It's a shame, but then I'm not even making close to a rookie's salary, either. We all have our burdens to bear.

With all the hand wringing going on about BMac, I thought I'd make a couple of points. All we've heard out of Arizona is that BMac is ready. That has come from Ozzie, from scouts, from opposing managers, from the hitters. Also, they aren't going to be jacking BMac around like they did with the 5th starters last year. He won't be pitching on 2 days rest, oe on 10 days rest. They'll put him in the rotation and let him take his turn. I'm excited Brandon's getting the opportunity and I believe he'll succeed.

This makes me want to :puke

QUOTE(FlaSoxxJim @ Mar 20, 2005 -> 11:58 PM) McGame: In the lower left of that image I just posted, major cool points for anyone who can tell me what's up with the green Grimace. St. Patrick's Day Grimace .... Did they use him to promote the green shakes?

Highly distressing news.

QUOTE(quickman @ Mar 21, 2005 -> 07:33 AM) What does that mean. Bruce Levine just reported he broke his foot I was really hoping you were trying to f*** with us.

QUOTE(quickman @ Mar 21, 2005 -> 07:31 AM) Just heard on ESPN radio Mark broke his foot yesterday. Unreal Don't even go there

QUOTE(RibbieRubarb @ Mar 21, 2005 -> 07:20 AM) But it just hasn't been toward the White Sox. Several spring preview and off-season articles from many publicatins have been shoddy. So many moves not reaserched, so many players forgotten. Even though we focus mostly on the Sox, our Sports Bar section is more factual than other sports news outlets! True Dat!

QUOTE(Butter Parque @ Mar 20, 2005 -> 07:22 PM) We can argue that forever, but I won't give in on that. You're right. We could. Let's skip it.

There has been some shoddy journalism this spring.

QUOTE(hi8is @ Mar 21, 2005 -> 03:45 AM) id honestly rather have walker on the big club and send cotts back down to AAA to get streched out for a starting role in the future. I really don't see that as a problem. Cotts can be stretched out in winter ball and spring training. That's why I've taken the attitude of "May the best pitcher win."

QUOTE(The Critic @ Mar 21, 2005 -> 03:46 AM) I'd take UD behind the plate over LD down the line anytime, except when I have my daughter, cuz she likes to roam the concourse. Favorite attraction for a 5-year-old girl? The drinking fountains! What else would it be??? HA! I love that kid!!! She cracks me up! They are great at that age. The best is yet to come. :rolly

Walker's making it difficult for the Sox to send him down. What else can the guy do? He's been damn near perfect.

I guess I'm finally going to speak up on this topic. Mark is not an ace in the classic sense of the word .... The guy you want to pitch the BIG game ... the stopper. However, if you take Buerhle's numbers over the past 4 years, and compare them with the rest of the starting pitchers in baseball, he'd be near the top of the list in almost every important catagory. He's been more of an ace at this point than either Kerry Wood or Mark Prior have ever close to being. Yet, those two guys get all the glory and Mark just quietly and consistantly does his job.

QUOTE(Butter Parque @ Mar 20, 2005 -> 02:31 PM) It's a lost cause when you're arguing with people whi wished that the team they were rooting for had as much success as Duke. Duke= Yankees: They're hated because of all of their success. So when it comes down to it, this whole hatred is rooted back to envy. Correction. UK = Yankees

QUOTE(Butter Parque @ Mar 20, 2005 -> 02:47 PM) Vermont looks like they are giving Michigan State a run for their money. In the Duke-Mississippi State Game, I think Duke is gonna have a lot of problems matching up with Roberts. The game is gonna be really close, Duke is playing like crap and Miss. St. blew away Stanford. They also were a #2 seed last season and have underachieved all year. I hate to say this, but I really don't like our chances. I hope I'm wrong. Actually, I hope your right.

Walker's 2000 year? Ancient history.

QUOTE(ChiSoxyGirl @ Mar 20, 2005 -> 01:53 PM) I agree, Yas, that parenting is difficult. But it seems to me that a lot of parents are too unwilling to take a lot of responsibility for aspects of raising their kids. My parents made a lot of mistakes with my sister and I--but they always knew who we were with, what we were listening to, what movies we liked, and all of our friends and some of their parents. I know that couldn't have been easy since they both work at least full time. But they both went out of their way to keep active in our lives. I always thought they were really meddlesome and irritating and I tried pretty hard to them at bay in high school--but they (my dad especially) kept tabs on both of us. And, as a result I think I turned out pretty well--and I'm a lot closer to my dad now than a lot of my friends who had "hands off" parents. I think nowadays it's so much easier to just buy a kid a car than spend a Saturday afternoon at a ballgame and ice-cream afterwards or going to their play/concert/whatever instead of working overtime. I always hear about tv being a babysitter--but I really think now that money has become a babysitter/parent. I think that's a really disturbing trend. I agree with everything you say here. The best investment a parent can make is time. No ifs, ands or buts about it.

QUOTE(winodj @ Mar 20, 2005 -> 01:00 PM) There really are too many statistics in baseball Amen.

You know, there are a lot of people here that are quick to criticize parents and don't have a clue about what being a parent entails. I'm not picking on you, LCR, despite the fact that my post immediately follows yours. Being a parent is difficult. Kids do not come with an "owner's manual" or "operating instructions". It's a trial and error thing. You learn as you go. You make mistakes. You learn from your mistakes and try again. The best thing a parent can say is that after raising a child they can look in a mirror and be able to say "I did what I thought was the best thing in every situation".

I really am sympathic to all parties involved in this situation. Terri, of course, because of her condition. Michael and the parents because they and their motives are being debated by people, like us, who have no emotional investment whatsoever. Not only do they have a personal nightmare to live with, but they are under a microscope as they do. It must be a little slice of hell.

LCR on Youppi is starting to sound like Anthrax on Cabrera!

QUOTE(beck72 @ Mar 20, 2005 -> 12:40 PM) One thing Neal did have a problem with was his HR's allowed [like 13]. He had always been able to keep the ball in the park where ever he pitched prior to last yr. If Neal keep the ball down, he has a great future. One thing Walker has to do is beat out Cotts. If they pitch the same, the incumbent should win. I'm not endorsing one over the other. I want the best pitcher to be with the club. If all things are equal, I'd give the nod to Walker in order to allow Cotts to get that experience as a starter. Still, I don't think KevHead gave Cotts enough credit.

QUOTE(KevHead0881 @ Mar 20, 2005 -> 11:56 AM) His ERA was 5.65. He gave up 41 earned runs (13 hrs) in 65 innings of work. His iffy control also made me nervous at times. Like I said, I do like the guy, and I agree that he did some good things last year (preventing inherited runners, etc). But those numbers aren't impressive and while I agree that they were somewhat hurt by the performance of others, I have a tough time blaming most of it on Mike Jackson. It is my confidence in him that suggests he should work on his skills in AAA and hopefully he will eventually find himself in our rotation in the near future. I just don't see a lot of progress coming out of limited pen duty. Mike Jackson attlowing Cotts' runeers to score had a direct impact on his ERA. If Jackson would have been as effective in that situation as Cotts was, Cotts ERA would be substantially lower.