whitesoxfan101

QUOTE(Sonik22 @ Aug 8, 2007 -> 10:41 AM) Being a Buckeye fan, I'm scared because he looks 10x the talent that Hart is! I'm glad you never saw the Mike Hart Rivals tapes then. I was scared he might rush for 31 yards a carry after seeing those back in the day.

Shumpert FINALLY admitted he dropped Illinois today, saying his final 3 are Georgia Tech, Marquette, and North Carolina. As soon as he also admits the obvious and says he's going to UNC, the better. It's one thing to play the game, it's another to play people for fools. Also, Bruce Weber, signing day for '08 is only 3 months away, do you know where your recruiting class is? Or where ANY verbals are? What an idiot.

QUOTE(Steff @ Aug 8, 2007 -> 11:03 AM) "I just hope he didn't get hurt," Bonds said after the game, which the Giants lost 8-6 to the Washington Nationals. He said he had no interest in getting the ball back for himself. "I don't want the ball," Bonds said. "I've never believed a home run ball belonged to the player. If he caught it, it's his." www.yahoosports.com What a jag. To be honest, I've never disliked him for any reason other than steroids. He strikes me overall as a decent guy who just so happens to hate the media, thus getting a bad reputation in that regard. But hey, if I dealt with the media like he's had to for 21 years, I'd probably hate them too. I just think his one flaw is the classic "invisible athlete" mindset he has, which is what probably led him to take illegal stuff, think he could get away with it, and still think even now he wasn't wrong to do it since so many others did.

This is on Selig moreso than Bonds. On Bonds, to be honest, if Bonds were just a jerk, or even "just" a bad guy, I could still appreciate and enjoy last night, but I know that the reason it happened was not natural, so I couldn't. The one thing I hold against Bonds is this: had he never touched steroids, he STILL ends up the only 500/500 player ever, and more than likely ends up the only 600/600 player ever IMO, along with like 4 MVP's, a dozen gold gloves, 18 all star games or whatever....he didn't NEED steroids to be arguably the greatest ever, he'd have been that without them. So, in that regard, I'll never forgive nor understand why Bonds did it. I can understand a fringe major leaguer who wants to stick and make money becoming a science project, but not Bonds. I wish he had gone the route that Griffey did and ignored the juice, but it's too late now obviously. Getting back to the main point here though, which is the true man to blame is Bud Selig. As TexSox perfectly put it, he used guys like Sosa, McGwire, Bonds, etc to bring fans back to the park. First, Selig allowed a league with a long history of labor issues to have a strike SO BAD that the freaking World Series was cancelled, and thus a lot of fans lost interest. Then, he comes back with a monopoly system that makes it almost impossible to win without a big payroll, thus the Yankees win every year almost. Then of course, he wants fans to somehow through all that come back to the parks, so he ignores all ideas of steroid and performance enhancing drug testing and you end up with a science project instead of baseball games. Some people might say Bonds is the face of the steroid era, others might say McGwire and Sosa in '98, even others might say guys like Brady Anderson and Luis Gonzalez, who went from average/below average players to 50 home run hitters thanks to the juice are the face of this era. But to me, the face of this era is that of a clueless Bud Selig, who has ruined man great records, including now the greatest in sports, thanks to his own ignorance. The players made the choice to do all the steroids and such yes, but if Selig weren't an idiot, they'd have never had that choice. What a damn shame.

I honestly think if after Owens reached on the gift dropped 3rd strike, Ozzie could have called time, went out on the field, told Borowski and Martinez that Owens was running on the 1st pitch, and he'd have STILL stolen 2nd base pretty easily. It's bad enough to give a pitcher as bad as Joe Borowski a free out, but AT LEAST take the easy stolen base off the worst defensive catcher in the game before you do it. That way, the bunt gets Owens to 3rd and Thome's just missed it flyout to right field ties the game. What a concept!! I mean come on, Owens stole 2nd on the first pitch earlier, Pods stole 2nd on the 1st pitch earlier, they both were safe by a mile, AND that was off Jack Westbrook, who has a far, far better pickoff move than Joe Blow. Ozzie should be glad we suck and that the newspaper writers here never ask him a tough question, because that was epic work in the bottom of the 9th last night.

This isn't a surprise. Our system in general isn't good enough to rebuild, but we are in pretty decent shape pitchingwise in our organization and have a couple young guys we like in Richar and Fields (plus Sweeney and maybe even Owens, meh) to go with some talented vets at the everyday spots.

I really like Moreno for some reason, hopefully he gets a chance at Kanny and does well next year. Also good to see Dubee pitch well.

QUOTE(CWSGuy406 @ Aug 5, 2007 -> 08:40 PM) What did you think about the ballpark? I went there a couple of years ago and thought the park was beautiful, but man -- the surrounding area makes the Bridgeport of a couple years ago look like a walk in the park. Yikes -- parking was definitely an "adventure" -- have things changed at all? Put it this way....Mike Wilbon's description of Detroit as "Beirut" is dead on.

When your projected ceiling is Mark Kotsay (and that was right AFTER Reed's great minor league season in our system), your kinda doomed. Also, Mike Morse needs some more steroids.

I went to the games Friday and Saturday so I didn't see today's game, but damn what got into Gavin Floyd? I must say I am impressed with Richar though, and damn that homer Josh hit was a bomb. Also, I sat in the UD behind home plate for the Saturday night game, and just a few rows above me was a crazy ass (I assume) bus group of Sox fans that were going crazy all game. They were great too, didn't swear or anything, none of them even got kicked out, although they got like half a dozen Tigers fans kicked out, and sang na na na na, hey, goodbye after each one left. Also, I f***ing hate everything about Detroit and Tiger fans are dicks.

I'd MUCH rather have Mackowiak as our everyday leadoff man next year. He is a lefty, not too expensive...and although he's not as fast as Pods, he's by far the best baserunner on this team, can come up with an extra base hit at times, and is on his way to having a average/on base of .290/.370 this year, about identical to what he did last year. Also makes pitchers throw a ton of pitches.

QUOTE(santo=dorf @ Jul 26, 2007 -> 06:31 AM) Beating Mega Man 3 and leaving a message on my friend's answering machine. Using Game Genie and playing the hardest setting of Super Smash TV with my brother. My God did that go on for hours. OMG Mega Man and Game Genie. Game Genie really saved my sanity with all the help it gave me.

QUOTE(3E8 @ Jul 26, 2007 -> 11:11 PM) How much longer will Carter be in Kanny? Or does that depend on Schnur No clue. This organization has quite a few guys that really deserve merit based promotions and have for weeks now, yet none are getting that treatment. It's really baffling to me, so your guess is as good as mine.

Pods has to be gone, and not because of his performance IMO. The man is a glass house and can't stay healthy and be trusted, so there is no use in keeping him at all. And if Jermaine Dye is not traded by the deadline, I'm going to lose my damn mind. So to answer your questions, no and no.

Notre Dame would have done it by now IMO. They make the most sense of course, but that NBC deal is too appealing, plus their hoops team is always on ESPN due to their constant televising of Big East games so that seems unlikely. Louisville to me is the best and most realistic option. Either way, the Big 11 HAS to get a 12th team so they can go to the 2 division format and have a football conference title game. Those things just make too much darn money to not have one, and the 11 team system is pretty lame, as the league champion often depends on who you avoid on the schedule.

Upon signing top 5 pick DE Gaines Adams yesterday, the Bucs released Simeon Rice. Of course he's a local kid from Chicago and went to Illinois, and the Bears DE pass rush last year was a weakness. Now I know Bazuin was a 2nd round pick, but Alex Brown sounds like he really wants to get out of town (demanded a trade even IIRC), and you can get Rice not too expensive. He is 33 and coming off an 8 game, 2 sack year. But check out his other years in Tampa sackwise: 14, 12, 15, 15.5, 11, and of course a Super Bowl ring. He is a bit older at 33, but he's a veteran, has 121 sacks, and I bet would sign here. There are already rumors the Bears, Colts, and Lions have shown interest btw. So, what do you think Bears fans? IMO this team is in need moreso of a DT than a DE right now, but if Alex Brown is truly on his way out this training camp, you have to take a look at Rice. I mean Mark Anderson had a great rookie year, but Adewale has underachieved, Bazuin is a ? mark, I mentioned Alex Brown, and heck Ogunleye's huge salary is a candidate to be a cap casualty even if Brown's attitude improves and Ogunleye continues to look meh in camp.

As everything has come out, the combination of all the stuff he was on, both legal and illegal, along with the concussions, problems with his wife, alleged problems with his sons health, and the fact he was just a whacko seem to all be factors. It was just a toxic mix of everything that seemed to cause this, the imperfect storm if you will. Such a sad story.

Wow what shocking news. I had just read an article the other day on how well he's doing recruiting, they had 3 of the top 10 players in the class of 2008 (all 5 stars) as verbals scheduled to come in for the 2008-2009 season. Also, he was a really good guys by all regards. RIP.

Fields with 2 different at bats that showed his progress today. First, with 2nd and 3rd 1 out, he falls behind 0-2 against the uber nasty Verlander. 3 weeks ago? He probably whiffs, but today he's able to get the grounder to short and score the man at 3rd for an RBI and get the guy on 2nd over to 3rd with 2 outs. Then of course the 9th. He fouls off his first bunt try. Fields isn't a great bunter (he had even screwed up a bunt his last time up), but he finds a way to get a decent bunt down to get Pods over to 2nd, and whatta ya know the Tigers have a 2006 World Series flashback and the crappy throw leads to Pods scoring. About as productive an 0 for 3 as a guy can have today for Josh.

Despite the fact we really should have won 4 out of 5 and despite the fact we're barely out of last place, that was a HECK of a series. Nice to win 3 out of 5, well done Pods, Fields, Danks, Wassermann, and Jenks stuff actually looked good today even.

Well we kicked Verlander's ass last year, the only team in baseball to do so. He's only had 1 start against us this year, and it was 7 innings, 3 runs earned, 4 hits, 5 walks, 6 k's. That game was the beginning of the end for both this team and David Aardsma, as he gave up a 2 run homer in the 9th and we lost in 11 to not sweep the Tigers in Detroit. Danks is 0-1 with a 6.75 in 2 starts against Detroit, and the scary part is he pitched against both starts in late April, when Detroit wasn't exactly on fire and Danks was pitching quite well. Let's get a series win!!

The worst glitch of all time is Bo Jackson on Tecmo Bowl. I mean the man was a beast, but you literally could not tackle him. Still a great game, but come on.

Oneli Perez DOB: May 26, 1983 in Bonao, Dominican Republic (age 24) Height: 6'2" Weight: 163 Bats and Throws Right Handed Transaction Wire: February 15, 2001: Signed as UFA by Padres February 9, 2004: Released by Padres May 28, 2004: Signed by White Sox October 15, 2004: Granted Free Agency November 18, 2004: Signed by White Sox Stats, per Baseball Cube and MILB (was 2006 all star at Kanny, btw): So basically, this guy came out of freaking nowhere in 2006 to dominate at 3 different levels (his numbers were about the same at all of them), and has followed it up with a very strong 2007 so far at Birmingham, which while not as dominant, shows last year wasn't a total fluke. It's a crazy story, I mean I can't even find stats on him from before 2005. I hope he continues to progress. Baseball Cube: http://www.thebaseballcube.com/players/P/Oneli-Perez.shtml MILB: http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/milb/st...&pid=470358

Fernando Hernandez, Jr. DOB: 7/31/84 in Miami, Florida (23rd birthday imminent, so I'll say he's 23) Height: 5'11" Weight: 190 Bats and Throws Right Handed Graduated from HS in 2002 from Miami Southwest, spent one year at Broward Community College in South Florida. Signed with the White Sox on May 26, 2003 according to Baseball Cube. Was a 49th round pick in the 2002 Draft according to FutureSox and USA Today, which makes that signing day make more sense. Anyways, here are his numbers (all games at every level were in relief): So basically, he was trash at W-S in 2005, but has been pretty damn good besides that. 5'11 height isn't doing him any favors, but he's one to watch. Baseball Cube: http://www.thebaseballcube.com/players/H/F...rnandez-3.shtml MILB: http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/milb/st...&pid=467761

Derek is now up to 10-2 with a 3.65 ERA. 20 games (all starts), 111 innings and 111 hits, only 4 HR, 42 BB, 76 K, .269 BAA, 2.01 GO/AO. Carolina League Rankings: 10 wins (T-2nd) 20 starts (T-1st) 111 IP (3rd) 3.65 ERA (6th) I wish we'd call him up to B-Ham.