whitesoxfan101

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ May 23, 2008 -> 10:17 PM) Looks like I gave the Spurs WAYYYYYYY too much credit. I guess there's a reason they've never repeated. It isn't done yet, but the Spurs CLEARLY are still thinking about game 1 and the blown chance. I thought they were better than to do that, but touche on the point that they've never repeated. The Lakers, to be fair at the same time, are pretty damn good though, and wow what if they had Bynum? Two straight must wins for the Spurs now, just as I think the Celtics must win game 3 or 4 in Detroit or it's over.

QUOTE (fathom @ May 23, 2008 -> 10:12 PM) Swisher at 1b is pretty mediocre in terms of offense. Who knows what will happen....I can see the Sox going after Furcal with a huge deal. Yeah, it's going to be another busy offseason. The entire left side of the infield (IMO) will be gone, plus Q-dini to right means Dye would move somewhere of course, Thome might be gone as well. The pitching should be pretty stable it seems like right now, but the offense will receive at least a modest makeover, which some might argue it needs.

QUOTE (fathom @ May 23, 2008 -> 10:07 PM) On the radio today, Bruce Levine said the Sox plan on moving CQ to RF next year. Yeah, but my pipedream would never work anyways due to how bad that defense would be. Plus, I think we're going to move Swish to 1st and DH Paulie as soon as Thome is gone, so that means we'll have a need in CF too, and I don't think we have anybody in our organization to fill that void right now. Of course, we could just move Swish to LF too, keep Paulie at 1st, and DH Dye.

Floyd did a great job recovering from the nightmare 5th tonight. First career complete game, only gave up 3 runs and 3 hits, induced 16 ground outs, and gave us a chance to win in the 9th. Just needs to continue to work on that control.

QUOTE (fathom @ May 23, 2008 -> 09:27 PM) I hope Jim Thome retires after this season. My pipedream: Thome retires Dye moves to DH Quentin moves to right Dunn is signed to play left Of course, having an older JD or Dunn at all out there (you could DH Dunn too) hurts the defense, but I'd still love to see it.

QUOTE (fathom @ May 23, 2008 -> 09:33 PM) Instead of articles that try to hurt guys doing good, why not have articles bashing certain players who's performance has fallen off the charts since PEDs were banned? Because nobody has the balls to write the article about how random and suspicious losses of power by Victor Martinez and Travis Hafner are the real reason the Indians are such a mediocre team right now.

Unfortunately, fathom is right about the assassination threats. It's even affected some of his travel plans, if hearsay is accurate. I think Hillary was honest insinuating potential assassination as one reason she's staying around, however that is just evil logic by her (not surprising) and you don't say s*** like that because it only encourages the nut jobs.

This article is stupid and here's why. If you want to be suspicious about a guy, look at his OPS and slugging percentages in his minor league career, and if you see a sudden boost somewhere along the way after a long period of time, you get suspecious. Carlos Quentin was simply a victim of injuries. In four minor league season, he put up a gaudy 953 OPS, .427 on base, and very good .526 slugging. When healthy, he's an extremely good hitter who draws tons of walks and hits for power. We got lucky he was hurt badly twice, and that Arizona is loaded, and acquired Quentin for nothing. This article is just misinformed. If you want a blatant HGH user, look to the north at Cubs catcher Geovany Soto. Before 2007, his slugging percentage career high in the minors was .417 and career high OPS was 756 in six long minor league seasons. Last year, out of nowhere, he went to .323/.454/.652/1.076 at Iowa. Since being called up late last year, he is slugging over 600 and has an OPS around 1.050. Want an obvious cheater? Look at a catcher who went from Toby Hall minor league style to Mike Piazza at the plate after spending half a dozen years in the minors.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox15 @ May 21, 2008 -> 01:09 AM) Funny picture from Soxmachine: Yeah, had to steal that for the sig. VOTE FOR THE GREAT Q-DINI!!!!

He's a real nice guy, but definitely a huge Cubbie fan. Him losing a Sox bet/with pink hair would be just golden.

Two indicators of a good team: Great pitching and scoring runs late in the game. We're doing both almost everyday right now. It's fun to watch.

I will say this: If we finish May strong and do what we should do in June (win at home), we should be in great shape on Independence Day, which is just about the halfway point.

He's definitely been more patient. Another factor is Crede has had people like Uribe and now Swisher hitting behind him all year, and with Joe's hot start and general good work at the plate this year, people would much rather walk Joe to get to those guys who aren't hitting. However, Joe deserves kudos for taking the walks, something he hasn't done in the past. He also seems to be doing a better job with two strikes. In the past, he'd always tend to pop up two strike pitches to the right side for easy outs, but this year a lot more of these pop ups are foul balls into the stands, keeping the at bat alive and leading to him seeing more pitches, balls, and walks.

The Spurs blow a 20 point 3rd quarter lead and lose game 1 at LA. If they lose this series in 6 or 7, there is why.

This pitching is just unreal. Second night in a row Thome hit an oppo home run too, maybe he's coming around a bit. Man this team could be really good if we get some consistent offense, and the offense is improving recently.

Monday is technically the first day I say you should look at the standings, but I heard Stoney say we are 3 up in the loss column on Minny, 4 on Cleveland. Nice.

Question: Does D.J. sah "Uh Oh" because it's his trademark bad homer call, or does he say "Uh Oh" because he's scared that he's about to have to make a home run call?

QUOTE (jackie hayes @ May 21, 2008 -> 01:34 PM) I have no idea at all if this is realistic, but just suppose the Bulls were able to trade for another good, young pg. To make it concrete, say there's an opportunity to trade for Calderon. For those who prefer Rose, would you switch if the alternative was Calderon + Beasley, or would you stick with Rose? Honest question, I'm not trying to lead, and I don't know which way I'd go. I'm just curious what the reactions will be. Good question, and many like this exist, which is why there are a lot of factors far beyond the current roster that will determine who the Bulls will pick. The Heat want Hinrich is another thing I know, and are interested in dealing Haslem.

QUOTE (jackie hayes @ May 21, 2008 -> 01:07 PM) He eats candy for breakfast? Bring that man to Chicago, Pax. Yeah, he loves candy, is nicknamed "Pooh" which I believe is short for Winnie the Pooh, and is generally regarded as very quiet but a good leader. In terms of attitude and potential trouble factor, Rose has as big an advantage as you can get over Beasley, who is known to be a bit crazy and generally to have attitude problems (although to be fair, I don't think Beasley has had any sort of legal problems).

I do not have a link on this, but I heard on the score that Mark Bradley had his knee scoped and isn't expected to be ready by the start of training camp. Not surprising news, but this WR corps is thin (bad) enough without any injuries.

Also, we have two setup men currently in our own division for this team. Juan Rincon of the Twins and Rafael Betancourt of the Indians have both tested positive for PED's.

QUOTE (Athomeboy_2000 @ May 21, 2008 -> 12:40 PM) I'll trade some of our guys to the Knicks for a few first round picks I think a trade will involve a guard or guards (Ben Gordon sign and trade perhaps or maybe just dumping Hinrich for bad contracts involving big men) to gain a bit more roster balance and take Rose. The alternative, also possible, is trading Gooden (he might actually have decent value) and then taking Beasley. Another alternative might be to trade Tyrus, but I don't think and don't hope Paxson has given up on him yet.

QUOTE (Texsox @ May 21, 2008 -> 11:57 AM) They could platoon Is Gagne tainted enough? I was just tossing out a name, I prefer Gagne if he "qualifies". Gagne is as qualified as anybody. He was an undrafted nobody in the Dodgers system, suddenly and randomly gained 7 MPH on his fastball and a biting slider, missed almost two full seasons (2005 and 2006) to injury after three dominant seasons, and now has not been able to get people out since he came back despite only being 31 and now 32 years old.

I love that the Knicks fans are crying fix. KNICKS FANS, whose run of being good in the 90's was based on the draft lottery being invented, and fixed, for the soul purpose of saving their franchise with Patrick Ewing. That is delicious irony, and I just love how they still hate us for the 90's, Curry trade, and now this. And I'm seeming to gather that a lot of people agree that we should try and package some of the guys we have now in a trade before the draft, and pick according to who we can trade and what we get back. I would agree with that, as long as we don't trade the pick (with the exception of if Miami wants to move up the one spot).

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ May 21, 2008 -> 11:09 AM) On ESPN 1000 Pax just said he "doesn't care where a player is from." Good for Pax. Get the best player be he Beasley or Rose. I agree with Pax there, Rose being from here shouldn't matter. As for a trade, the only way I see the Bulls trading this pick is with the Heat if the Heat fall for Rose or Beasley and the Bulls can convince them that they will take that guy #1. I'd hope, if they do that, it works out better than last time when it led to the Bulls getting Tyrus instead of Aldridge (yikes) and only adding Viktor Kryhapa in addition in the trade.