Balta1701

QUOTE(southsideirish71 @ Jul 13, 2006 -> 12:21 PM) If these guys get moved to Iran. Then Iran and Israel will be at war. That was sort of implied when I said I couldn't figure out anything worse than that. Beyond the $100 a barrel oil prices, think about what will happen when the Shi'ites in Iraq who make up the majority of the government decide that their country needs to stand with Iran, and the U.S. doesn't want them to?

QUOTE(Greg Hibbard @ Jul 13, 2006 -> 10:51 AM) I think this raises a much larger issue. In my mind, the White Sox have exactly a three year window, including last year, to compete for the World Series. I'd like to see them do everything possible to win those three World Series, even if it means 2008 is a 60 win campaign. I for one think we have a better chance to win in 2007 with Brandon McCarthy in our starting rotation and Freddy Garcia and his contract traded away than we would with Carl Crawford in LF next year and Brandon McCarthy gone.

We do our job in those 13 games, and it won't matter if Detroit picks up a game or two here or there while playing the Royals.

QUOTE(southsider2k5 @ Jul 13, 2006 -> 11:47 AM) This is from a drudge link so take it FWIW, but supposedly the soliders might be sent to Iran. http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid...icle%2FShowFull Man, I'm struggling to find anything which could possibly be worse than that. It's also a Jerusalem post article, citing an unsourced leak from within the IDF, which means that either the IDF believes there's some nugget of truth to it, or the IDF is leaking it on purpose regardless of whether or not there is truth to it to try to build consensus for adding Iran to the list. And either way, the prospect is abjectly awful.

QUOTE(Chisoxfn @ Jul 13, 2006 -> 09:42 AM) Plus, aside from his baserunning blunder that led to the game going 19 innings, he's been doing pretty darn good since getting more playing time. He's probably our best pinch hitter off the bench (although Cintron is pretty damn good and Ozuna has his spots as well) but Gload is a damn fine hitter. Although I would be the first to say he's in a tough spot considering we have thome and Konerko ahead of him. How exactly did Gload's baserunning blunder lead to it going 19 innings? If he had tagged up properly, he'd have scored 1 batter earlier, and then Cintron's ground ball would have happened with no one at third. Unless Dye was of course able to fix his baserunning blunders on the same play, which came even closer to costing us the game.

QUOTE(fathom @ Jul 12, 2006 -> 06:38 PM) That would be the worst spot for him. His control isn't good enough for the majors yet, and you don't want a reliever who's easy to steal against and prone to wild pitches/passed balls. I'd love for him to be used as trade bait this coming deadline. Haeger really ought to be traded by the end of this year, and if not, absolutely this offseason, simply because there are 6 starting pitchers currently in front of him so he's not going to break into our rotation any time soon, there are multiple pitchers coming up behind him who can fill that "6th-7th starter" role next season, and he's pitching well enough that he'd probably be in the big leagues already if he was on 1/2 of the teams in the majors.

QUOTE(Kalapse @ Jul 13, 2006 -> 09:04 AM) For Carl Crawford, they can have anyone under the age of 26 not named McCarthy. Take your pick of Fields, Heager, Broadway, Lummy etc I still see Brandon as being far too important to this team in the long run to deal him now. On that one I would agree. They can even have combinations of multiple people. However, Brandon and Brian are off limits to me.

QUOTE(Gregory Pratt @ Jul 12, 2006 -> 09:16 PM) A cow decided headbutt me in the groin today. I was fine. It missed, for the most part. Serves you right for insulting a cow's mother during a world cup game.

Just Like Starting Over - John Lennon

QUOTE(Kalapse @ Jul 12, 2006 -> 11:30 PM) Appearantly if you have a $252M contract, walkoff homeruns and 7 RBI games including a grandslam against your crosstown rival don't count as clutch. I'm not one to harp on the clusterf*** of idiocy that is ESPN but the A-Rod hatred comming out of NY/Bristol is just sickening. 1.000+ OPSs w/ both RISP and RISP w/ 2 out seems relatively clutch to me. On the other hand, one could also look at the 8 for 47 he's put up this season in "Close and Late" situations, with the associated .548 OPS, and then start to wonder.

QUOTE(Milkman delivers @ Jul 13, 2006 -> 08:54 AM) This exact injury may not be connected to steroids, but Gagne was clearly on steroids. No comment on the juice question here, but I'll still say up and down that Gagne's series of injuries is directly related to the LoDuca+Mota for Penny/Choi deal in 2004, and the subsequent choice to ride Gagne's arm into the playoffs afterwards.

Man...are those doctors for the Cubs ever going to have some problems if this precedent gets set.

QUOTE(My Dixie Normus @ Jul 13, 2006 -> 07:17 AM) Pods, Fields and Vaz for Carl Crowford would work for me. How many times do we have to point out that the D-Rays do not want a $10 million a year pitcher before people get it? That'd seriously be 1/4 of their whole salary on 1 guy.

Man it was a shame in 05 when he couldn't throw the changeup or curve for strikes.

The LAT ran with some interesting details on the actual attack that led to the capture of the 2 soliders this morning. Multiple ambushes aimed at the Israelis. This took some serious planning on their part.

I bet Beane would do that for Pie, maybe with another piece thrown in. Which the Cubs would have to be insane to do.

QUOTE(iamshack @ Jul 12, 2006 -> 04:27 PM) Anyone know if this is really in the organization's plans, or if it is simply speculation and conventional wisdom? If they really were serious about moving him to left, why has he not yet played there? Well, it's more than just us speculating, it's been speculated on whitesox.com within the last week. But yeah, I can't figure out why he hasn't played there yet either.

QUOTE(NUKE_CLEVELAND @ Jul 12, 2006 -> 04:20 PM) What do you guys think the odds are that this expands into a wider war in the region? If Israel were to launch a large scale attack on Syria, I'd say it'd be very likely. It might be able to be contained to just an operation in lebanon if they don't. My big worry might be the fact that there's already 1 civil war on in that region, and a 2nd simmering conflict would probably feed into that, and make both situations worse.

QUOTE(NUKE_CLEVELAND @ Jul 12, 2006 -> 04:17 PM) Not very bright are they? There's a real obvious joke about the Israeli bomb there which I'm not going to take...

QUOTE(CWSOX45 @ Jul 12, 2006 -> 12:48 PM) I agree, that was a disheartening sight. However I'm still not intimidated by the Red Sox. Our starting pitchers and bullpen were just plain s***ty that series. I know that come October if we are matched up against the Red Sox, I for one will not be worried, regardless of our record against them during the regular season. The one thing I will take heart in is that it's hard for me to fathom how our starting pitching could possibly be any worse in the next half. Buehrle, Vazquez, Garland, and Garcia are all pitching significantly worse than their career marks, and Contreras hasn't gotten in a good groove since hitting the DL. If the law of averages holds, then these guys are almost all due for more consistent performances throughout the rest of the season.

QUOTE(Felix @ Jul 12, 2006 -> 12:49 PM) Yep, thats very true. When it comes down to it, which is more important for a leadoff man to do, get on base for the middle of the order, or move runners along on the bases? If you had a choice between someone who hit .250 with a .400 OBP and someone who hit .300 with a .330 OBP, who would you take to leadoff? If Thome, Konerko and Dye are hitting behind him, and Anderson and Uribe are hitting in front of him, clearly you want the .400 OBP guy. If your middle of the order is missing thunder, but you have somewhat of a balanced lineup with a couple of .280 hitters at the back end, then the reverse might be useful, especially if that .300 translated into more power.

QUOTE(Felix @ Jul 12, 2006 -> 12:40 PM) Why do you care about the high average? As long as you get on base, which is the key job of a leadoff man, who cares if you are hitting .300 or .250? Hits still move runners along more than walks, hits drive in more runners if people are on base, etc. Just because he's a leadoff man doesn't mean his hits are totally useless.

Damn WSJ hippies with their fuzzy math...

QUOTE(LEXNLIV @ Jul 12, 2006 -> 11:03 AM) Personally, I dont think Vasquez is the one who would be traded. I think Freddie is the next in line to go. If the Sox could net a solid to very good reliever and a good prospect with upside in return for Freddie it would make a lot of sense. You improve your bullpen by adding a good reliever and moving B-Mac ( who is not suited to relief) into a starting slot. I think you also improve the rotation because B-Mac (the starter) is a definite improvement over Freddie Garcia(version 2006). You also replenish the pipeline of minor league prospects. I dont know if vasquez is a better pitcher than Freddie rightnow, but he certainly has better "stuff".. Am I the only one who's been pondering what we might be able to get in exchange for Garcia and Podsednik this offseason?

"The President is always right" Steven Bradbury, head of the Justice Department’s office of legal counsel, before Congress when quizzed on the Hamdan decision.