YASNY

Ok. We'll continue to finish in second place, five games out for the next 10 years. But, we'll still have our prospects! Helluva plan

That makes sense for the Yankees, but I can't see why Philly would be thinking about trading Millwood.

That's good info. Thanks.

We are looking for staring pitchers. The Yankees are looking for starting pitchers. Garcia and Ortiz are both available. Of course, the Yanks are going to be interested. They should be.

That Sammy Soso imitation just totally f***ed with the Cubs minds. They were so worried about Jose doing that, that they forgot to actually pitch to Lee and he hit one out.

Because he's a kid who wouldn't know a good baseball player if one fell from the sky and landed on him.

:fthecubs

OK. I propose we don't acquire Finley until after the D'Backs spank the Twins next weekend.

If we get Jones, we wouldn't have to limit our LH bat options to a CF'er, though I feel Finley could handle RF quite well.

I'm glad I won't be seeing any brooms in the stands as I watch today's game. Though, I'm sure some of those brooms would end up someplace where the sun don't shine.

I've also been one not to crucify a kid that struggles as he's learning how to pitch in the majors. I've been defending guys like Garland, Cotts, Diaz, etc on a very consistent basis over an extended period of time. It is great that Rauch and Diaz come through for us when we needed it so desperately. If they hadn't have performed so well, we'd really be mired in a nasty slump right now. Instead, we are basically treading water. Now, it's time to turn that around and put together a kick ass streak. Here's hoping yesterday's win was the start of an 8 game winning streak or so.

And a smart gentleman too. I know a guy who took six punches in face, bloody nose resulted, before he finally retaliated with a single backhand. Guess who spent the night in jail....

That's sounds good to me. It's time to take this damn division away from them.

That win means plenty. It means the Cubs can't come into the Cell and sweep our asses. Can you imagine the hell the city based Sox fans would go through?

I don't know, but I'd ask Shingo.

SHINGO STARR!!!!!!

I'm reasonably and hopefully confident about todays game. Diaz beating Zambrano has to be just a huge lift for the Sox. I think it's time to get on one of those great hot streaks they can get on. In fact, it was just about this time last when they started a torrid streak.

It's difficult to speculate on what might have been if he would have been closer from the start. The way things worked out, he was able to get comfortable and confident in his ability to get major league hitters out. As it is, we now have a closer to lead us to the promised land through the second half.

Jim Parque gave his heart, soul and left arm for this team. Anyone that criticizes him at this point just doesn't appreciate a hard-nosed competitor. And to not like someone because they didn't sign an autograph for you is just childish. Maybe if you would have walked up and offered to shake his hand and ask "How are you?" instead of thinking "me me me me" all the damn time, he might have had a different attitude. These players are people, too. Good luck to Jim Parque. I think he'd make a damn good pitching coach down the line. He knew how to pitch with limited natural talent. Thanks for your guts and class, Jim.

Wow. That's all I can say. I've been reading this thread and it has been a very interesting discussion with some very good points made. Honestly, if the Sox can make a Magglio/Rauch deal for Ortiz/Jones-or-Drew I feel they have to pull the trigger. As to my preference between Jones or Drew, I feel that in the short term, Drew fills our current needs better than Jones. In the long term, it's hard to pass up a guy who make all our pitchers that much better for the next five years or so. I mean, a CF'er with Jones defensive abilities comes along once every millenium or so. He makes Tori Hunter look like a caddy being compared to Tiger Woods. I think I'd make the deal for Jones, then try and add a quality LH bat for the RF slot. I think I'd try to pry a quality RH reliever out of the Braves, in addition to these two. Though, it won't be Smoltz. I just don't see Smoltz accepting a trade at this point of his career.

Cotts had a good outing today, for sure. In fact, he also proved he's more than a "one inning pitcher" like I've seen him referred to here. Kudos to Cotts for a job well done.

I don't see KW getting both Ortiz and Garcia, unless there is more to Schoe's injury than they are letting on. I think Rauch's promotion was strictly a showcase situation, as Atanta had a scout on hand.

I think Gload did, in fact, cost us this game. That ball he left for Uribe was THE key play in the game.

Wow. I see this totally different on Garland. I saw Garland not get shook up when Gload dropped that short fly in right that put a runner in scoring position with 1 out. Garland pitched through that without looking the the least bit flustered. Then, when he made the errant throw on the pick off attempt, he still didn't get shook up. He was on his way out of that inning without any further damage when Gload decided to dog it on the ball Uribe dropped. You could tell Uribe was expecting to be called off of that one. That's when JG finally choked. In my opinion, Garland is getting there but not quite there. As far as him not "challenging" Hollandsworth, I don't quite follow the logic on this. He had a 1-2 count and tried to make a pitch the Hollandsworth would get himself out on. You don't want to give them something very hittable on that count. Hollandsworth just did a damn fine piece of hitting there. Something our hitters didn't do much of yesterday when they could have gotten Prior on the ropes.

Jackson was just laying pitches in their wheelhouses. This guy is ineffective and over the proverbial hill. Cut him. Now. Bring up Baj or somebody. Keeping Jackson accomplishes nothing. At least with Baj, he'd start the learning process of how to pitch in the majors, even if he was no more effective than Jackson. Though, I'd be inclined to think Baj would be better.