YASNY

If Reed's power develops, yes. He could still be valuable as an OBP type of guy, but that's not what I'm talking about. Giles, in the middle of our lineup, would be awesome.

A major league baseball team does, in fact, contribute to the financial health of a city. Is it enough to justify the taxpayers footing the bill for the construction of the ball team's place of business? Only if the the taxpayers can return a profit on their investment.

Retired numbers. That is an honor that should be reserved for the very few. To do otherwise would be to cheapen the honor of those that have preceded. I thought it was a mistake to retire Harold Baines' number while he still was an active player. As of right now, there is only only one person who should be on that wall when he retires and that's Frank Thomas. Ozzie? No way ... just a slightly above average SS. Robin? Nope ... very good, but not great. Maybe, just maybe, you'd have to consider #15. Dick Allen. Why? Because that man single handedly saved the franchise for the city of Chicago. In fact, the more I think about it, the more I like the idea.

It's not OK with me. Not for Carlos Lee.

When it's all said and done, Crede will have good numbers and will contribute significantly to the Sox.

Good righthanded pitchers can shut down the Sox bats.

I agree that Mark can't be considered an ace, in the true sense of the word. I do believe the Buehrle will be a quality starter for a long time. He'll have years like 2003 and he'll have years where he performs like an ace. The majority of the time, he'll sit comfortably between the two. I can live with that for the next 7 to 8 years, if we keep him that long.

I've been saying this since after the 2000 playoffs. The White Sox need, desperately, a good solid left handed hitting RBI producer. A good right handed pitcher can shut this team down. You know, the kind we'd see in the playoffs if we make it? .... I've seen it time and time again. A good righty, or a mediocre righty on a good night is trouble for us. The Sox have been throwing the team batting average or slugging percentage vs. righties out as "proof" that they hit righties very well. That's been going on for years. Well, there are a lot of bad to mediocre righties out there in Detroit, Texas, Baltimore, etc. Unfortunately, we won't be facing that kind of pitcher in mid-October. Look at what's happened this year. We've lost 6 games. The opening day fiasco in KC, shut down by Vazquez in NY, beaten by Mussina in NY, shut down by that kid in Tampa, then Buehrle's meltdown last night and shut down by Vazquez again. That's four losses directly attributed to losing to right handed pitchers.

Interesting. I just checked out your link. 5 of the cities I listed are in the top 20. Wow.

That was a point I was trying to make. Thank you. I knew that some of those cities would "out-populate" some of the multi-team cities. I didn't know which ones. San Antonio is interesting in the fact that in most peoples minds, it is an afterthought coming after Houston and Dallas when thinking of Texas cities. In other words, though those were my "perceptions", I knew they were not accurate.

The first poster proved our point that Cub fans are classless morons. The second poster, being an obvious exception to that rule, backed it up with his/her observations.

Dransfeldt has never been much of a hitter. I don't expect much from him while he's here. I just hope Jose heals 100% and is not on the DL too long.

The moral is: "Do not allow your team to fall behind by 7 or 8 runs." You'd think we'd learn not to do that.

I wasn't implying it was personal. Sorry about that. I phrased that badly. I considered it a discussion with opposing viewpoints. No more. No less. We're cool.

Carlos is scuffling and over anxious because of it. Kinda like ARod is right now. I don't think it's a case of Lee being stupid or selfish, he's falling into a trap a lot of guys do. When they slump, they press. When they press, they slump more. He just needs to relax, and "see the ball, hit the ball".

I agree. He could have been. The way you quoted me and then said "Pretty unfair judgement... " kinda led me to believe that you were singling me out.

This scenario makes the most sense, imho. I basically laid this out in another thread about 24 hours ago,

I don't think there is anything "unfair" about saying a guy that pitched 14.1 innings is receiving too much credit for solidifying the bullpen.

One team cities, US, that I can think of from the top of my head. I'm only counting the Big 4 of baseball, football, hockey and basketball. Memphis (Grizzlies) Sacramento (Kings) Salt Lake City (Jazz) San Jose (Sharks) Jacksonville (Jaguars) San Antonio (Spurs) Portland (Blazers) Columbus (Jackets) Green Bay (Packers) I don't think I'd consider any of these major cities. That's just my perception, of course. I may have missed some one team cities in the above list. Some two team cities would probably also fit into the same catagory as the cities listed here. (Nashville, Indianapolis for example).

How much did Sully pitch? Wasn't it like 14 innings or something? I think he's getting just a tad too much credit for solidifying the pen last year.

Typical Sox luck.

As well as Reed is doing, it pays for the Sox to leave him in AAA as long as possible. It cuts down on options used, if that ever becomes an issue. It also pushes back his accumulated service time till he is closer to his prime. It keeps him ineligible for arbitration and keeps him from becoming free agent eligible as soon. Which, in turn, keeps payroll down so that those "missing pieces" can be picked up when we need them.

Don't feel too bad. I asked the same question on this forum sometime last year. By the way, I got the same answer.

I agree with you. Game 1 is the key to this series. I don't like our chances of beating both Vazquez and Mussina. The Sox hitters need to give this kid every opportunity to hang himself. Make him throw strikes and he may pitch like Cotts did against the Yanks last September. If there was any game to be be patient as a hitter, this is it. At least, until this kid proves he's going to throw strikes.

What Jiminez has in talent he makes up for with a lack of everything else, including class.