Balta1701

QUOTE(Kalapse @ Apr 15, 2007 -> 06:11 PM) Who gives a s*** if he was a 'blue chip' prospect anyway? It's going to be fun as hell this offseason when KW has to decide who will be in his future outfield because he has nothing going for him right now in the way of young OF. I'm sorry, but to my eyes, this is just wrong. OF is still one of our strengths in our minor leagues, especially if we start counting Fields as a LF. The organization just seems to refuse to acknowledge this and give it a shot.

I think long-term, that's an excellent young nucleus to build around, as long as there is pitching and veteran leadership kept around as well.

QUOTE(Kalapse @ Apr 15, 2007 -> 06:54 PM) Well we know for sure that one of them is Brian Anderson. It's not like he was going to be playing anyway. Anyway, wonder if it could have been anyone else. Are Crede or Uribe still considered young? QUOTE(greg775 @ Apr 15, 2007 -> 07:03 PM) Play the younguns in the minors. Bring em up. I agree. Play the best younggun CF we've got...Brian Anderson

QUOTE(Wealz @ Apr 15, 2007 -> 04:12 PM) The real problem is that neither Erstad or Anderson is an acceptable answer in center. I'd say a much bigger problem is that too many people are assuming that Brian Anderson will never improve beyond what he did last season.

QUOTE(mr_genius @ Apr 15, 2007 -> 03:12 PM) how about:Computer technology advances/the internet /communications advances/engineer breakthroughs. You can probably add the human genome project and associated DNA work to that list as a major accomplishment. Progress decoding the basics of life.

QUOTE(The Ginger Kid @ Apr 15, 2007 -> 03:08 PM) really? I thought he's been doing pretty damn well with one exception. Masset has been throwing pretty darn well, but his velociy hasn't been nearly where advertised. He was advertised in upper 90's, we've only seen low to mid 90's at best.

What big things need to be done? You can't just say we're not accomplishing big things if you can't come up with things we're not doing. I can think of one...energy independence. And I'm not sure it's that we don't have the gravitas to take care of that...it's that a lot of people who have a lot of money don't want it to happen.

QUOTE(The Ginger Kid @ Apr 14, 2007 -> 09:27 PM) Sure looked like BA in CF for the first 80-90 games that I saw. But my reception is bad. So, games played where Mackowiak has more than 3 plate appearances from last year, followed by Wins and Losses. By month. Games W L Apr 9 4 5 May 15 10 5 June 11 7 4 July 8 3 5 Aug 9 4 5 Sept 5 3 2 Mack was pretty useful in May and June when he was on fire and Anderson was pretty bad. But he was getting games right from the start of the season. That adds up to 57 games. For the first half of our season, Mack and Anderson essentially split time, and Mack was the starting CF for more than a month. There are an awful lot of other games where he got 2 at bats which I didn't count.

QUOTE(The Ginger Kid @ Apr 14, 2007 -> 09:24 PM) not to mention his ability to handle the bat better than Brian. Which he neither did during Spring training nor is he doing so now.

QUOTE(hitlesswonder @ Apr 14, 2007 -> 08:47 PM) Really, I get it -- Anderson had his shot and blew it. Just ship him to the Marlins already instead of repeatedly telling the beat reporters that he sucks and failed as a ballplayer and professional. I'm tired of reading that story. Call up Terrero and use him the way a defensive replacement should be used. Starting 90% of the games in CF because Erstad isnt' that good?

QUOTE(The Ginger Kid @ Apr 14, 2007 -> 09:09 PM) Yeah, that worked great last year. 3rd place. woo. We only saw that lineup in what, 30% of the games? Hell, Mackowiak was in CF for half the season.

QUOTE(caulfield12 @ Apr 14, 2007 -> 09:01 PM) Thome will be attractive to other AL teams, and his contract wouldn't be impossible to move, since we're only paying a little more than $9 million....with the Phillies' subsidy. I'm not sure if he still has a no trade clause to certain teams, off the top of my head. Konerko could go either way IMO. Big Jim still has a full no trade clause. According to his people Jim was only willing to waive that clause to go to either Cleveland or Chicago when the Phils wanted to clear space for Howard. Basically, the only chance we might have is in dealing him to another AL Central team.

Like I said, if I wanted to, I could do this weekly. Maybe we should also mention the $25 billion in bailouts that the Congress gave those companies after 9/11 as well. So there goes some of your fancy tax dollars. Enjoy!

I don't think you resign Javier Vazquez to the contract he received if you are planning to drop salary by $20 million. I think KW is trying to do the best job he can to make sure he can compete every year. So if he loses JD and Buehrle this offseason, he hopes that Sweeney, Fields, and some of his young pitchers can step in to make a difference. But he spends some money on people he thinks can be relative bargains if they start to perform, and rolls the dice. If Vazquez performs for the next 3 years exactly how he has in the past few, he is probably worth his contract, but barely. But Javy also has the ability to pitch well above those numbers, and that's what Kenny is hoping for; a little luck with that money. Buehrle though seems almost certain to get a lot more than Vazquez no matter what, even if he stinks up this season, and it sure looks like he'll be paid at or above what his ceiling could be. KW is trying to find a way to keep this team winning.

Government mandated study on abstinence only programs discovers...Abstinence only programs appear to do exactly nothing.

QUOTE(greg775 @ Apr 14, 2007 -> 06:43 PM) Of course no need to panic but I am not impressed. Erstad looks worse at the plate to start the year than BA did a year ago. Or just as bad. And Iguchi is pathetic right now. Crede has been bad and our big bats are doing nothing with the exception of Dye of late. No need to panic, but we're not exactly playing good baseball. Today we got some guys on base and not once could anybody pick up the team and knock in a run. I'd give us a C about now. So, I'm sure this is the mirror image of an argument I would have made last year...but the way I see it, Jim Thome, Paul Konerko, and Jermaine Dye are not going to have horrible seasons. These guys are still going to hit 30+ home runs and drive in somewhere in the neighborhood of 100 runs even in the worst case scenario. All 3 of them have had a habit of being poor starters at some point in their past. Konerko and Dye started slowly in 05 and before, Thome has been a legendary slow starter before last year. The offense will heat up. Iguchi and Crede certainly have the ability to improve, even though that's far less guaranteed than the other guys. Thus far, the bullpen looks solid except for the missing fastball at the end. The starting rotation has so far looked a lot better than last year; after the first 3 games, once guys got into a groove, they've been putting up quality start after quality start, whether or not they win or finish the 6th inning. And Uribe and Podsednik have been hitting, which is an unexpected bonus. If these hitters heat up, as they're going to unless they're hurt, and we don't lose the pitching in the process...we'll start looking a lot better. Based on the last 2 seasons, I'd much rather be worried about the offense than about the pitching. Especially with Thome, Dye, and Konerko. Now if we could just do something about Cf...

What exactly has Erstad done to earn sympathy?

QUOTE(hitlesswonder @ Apr 14, 2007 -> 07:31 PM) It's only semi-sarcasm. Anderson probably isn't a major league caliber CF (at least at the plate). If it were my team, I'd give Anderson a shot at starting again. So the bottom line for me is that if the Sox aren't going to start him he needs to be out of the organization and the Sox need to find a CF. Brian Anderson was not a major league caliber CF at the plate last year for 4 out of the 6th months. But there's some ray of hope...Brian Anderson is still a couple years younger than me. Brian Anderson has plenty of room to learn. Brian Anderson supposedly spent the winter working out some of the kinks in his swing with Paul Konerko over the offseason. Now, look, Brian Anderson may never hit .350 with 30 home runs. Brian Anderson may not even have a good season with the bat. But IMO the White Sox are not going to win another championship giving Darrin Erstad 650 at bats this season. Brian Anderson at least has the ability to be a lot better. Darrin Erstad is not going to be better. This is who he is, an at-best inconsistent hitter. Brian Anderson was an at-best inconsistent hitter last year, who has the ability to be a lot better, and plays stellar defense. At least make it a damn platoon and give the kid a reasonable chance.

An observation about Erstad: He's a decent backup OF.

QUOTE(Kalapse @ Apr 13, 2007 -> 07:35 PM) 29 AB .207 avg, .604 OPS, 18 or so weak groundouts. 1 for his last 16 w/ 5 K Grindingly.

Well, that could have gone a lot worse. QUOTE(fathom @ Apr 13, 2007 -> 04:28 PM) Good jump by Erstad...that could have been a much worse inning with the LF/RF situation. Erstad has been getting better jumps out there than I anticipated. I think everyone expected him to get great jumps, the question is always going to be his closing speed. And his OPS of course.

Chris Shelton says hi.

QUOTE(Soxy @ Apr 13, 2007 -> 02:24 PM) We need to change something somehow in our approach over there (and I don't count the surge as a new idea), so I'm not exactly sure what fresh ideas are being brought forth. All I know is if we keep doing the same stuff (that isn't working) then we're never going to make any headway. But I don't think we can, in good conscience, leave it in such a mess. So now, I'm going to fire one more bit of reality into this discussion. There is one more key point, and that is that George W. Bush thinks that things over there are doing fine. He has acted this entire time like he has thought everything is great, and all we need are patience. George W. Bush wants us 100% to stay the course, exactly as it currently is. No matter how many great plans we come up with here, no matter how many problems we identify, no matter what people think the solution is, George W. Bush will not accept them, because anything that would acknowledge even the slightest mistake or failure seems anathema to him. Therefore, there are 3 things that can happen. Either we have to take control of this war away from Mr. Bush, which essentially can't happen because he can give orders to the military, or the Congress makes use of its budgetary authority to take the troops out of his hands. Or...we sit around just like this until January 21, 2009, at which point we'll have been nearly 6 years into a civil war, thousands more will be dead, and the situation will be 18 months further into the depths of Hell.

Give em Jell, Javy.

QUOTE(AbeFroman @ Apr 13, 2007 -> 03:04 PM) Did Piniella got nuts in the post-game? If he's blowing up already, he'll be dead way before this team ever wins the big one. Seriously, he'll have a heart attack if he goes off every time the Chicago Cubs implode "The Cubs are who I thought they were!"