Balta1701

Here's the question...who will throw more innings this year, El Duque, or Mark Prior?

Last year, everyone thought Signing Gonzalez might be the unheralded signing that pushed Cleveland over the top. Clearly, this will be even more reason to pick the Red Sox in the East. I mean, Ortiz, Ramirez, Varitek, Gonzalez, what can go wrong, am I right?

QUOTE(NUKE_CLEVELAND @ Mar 19, 2006 -> 11:13 AM) LOL Someone who Konerko can race and have a legit chance of winning? I thought Thome has actually scored from first on one or two doubles this spring.

QUOTE(NUKE_CLEVELAND @ Mar 19, 2006 -> 11:15 AM) Infield depth was a huge weakness last season. Thats totally been fixed with adding MAC and Cintron. Once again........... to KW. One other really nice thing about getting Cintron...now we have someone who can come off the bench late in games and Bunt when Dye or Crede are up with guys on, which is something we didn't have at all last year (I'm sure I'm not the only one who remembers those painful attempts at bunting by Dye)

QUOTE(T R U @ Mar 19, 2006 -> 10:15 AM) Who is this Boone Logan guy and where did he come from? Right now, it looks like that will compete with "How exactly does one Boone a Logan" and "Why the Hell is Hermanson still pitching" as the most commonly asked questions for the Sox this year.

QUOTE(IggyD @ Mar 18, 2006 -> 10:57 PM) This is nice that the Cub Fans still have nothing to brag about. They will be living to beat us... They could win every game against the White Sox for the next 10 years, and as long as they don't win 11 games in October...they wouldn't have a shard of bragging rights. They can live to beat us all they want. I can just start singing "Don't stop believin'" in reply.

So, there's so much in this one that I'm just going to point you to it and tell you to read it. No way I could excerpt enough to do it justice. NYT Reports on task force 6-26, who's goal supposedly is to find Zarqawi, and who seemingly have been using any means available, on anyone they could get their hands on.

QUOTE(SSH2005 @ Mar 18, 2006 -> 03:56 PM) WTF? I assume he meant he was leading the clubhouse chase for the 2nd lefty spot. Unless he beat up Konerko and ripped the C off of his Jersey.

QUOTE(SSH2005 @ Mar 17, 2006 -> 11:48 PM) Great point. The whole point of the draft is to replenish farm talent every year anyways. I love KW's method. Trade away unproven talent for proven talent. I will take that method any day of the week over keeping every single prospect until they either get injured or never end up panning out. The Cubs do this with almost every pitching prospect they have and look where they are at. Um, I think in response to that, it's also worth noting that another thing which helped "Decimate" our farm system (to use other people's words) is the fact that currently 3 and Soone to be 4 guys from our minor leagues will have come up to the big leagues within the last year to fill key roles, BA, Jenks, BMac, etc. That takes a decent chunk out of your minor leagues too, but they're not guys who are being traded away. KW's mastery, IMO, has been not only in using prospects to get players, but using them to get players and cash in some circumstances, and then using some of them to fill in other holes. I.e. He traded away a couple of prospects and created a hole in order to get Thome and a metric f***ton of cash, but he held onto another prospect who will make the league minimum for several years. He traded away a key outfield guy to get Vazquez, but doing so makes it so that BMac has more time to acclimate to the big leagues, helps our team this year, and all without forcing us to find another outfielder in FA. He's held onto other guys (Sweeney, Fields, Owens) who may be needed to fill in key spots for us within the next few years. He's traded away a bunch of talent, but he picks his guys and holds onto them, and when they work their way in, they save a ton of cash. So he's not just doing 1 thing...he's playing a balancing game, trying to bring youth onto the squad while still trying to pull in veterans. And it's worked very very well.

QUOTE(SSH2005 @ Mar 18, 2006 -> 03:11 PM) Wow, this could be the worst signing ever... http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentSe...id=968332188492 Darren Dreifort would question whether it is even the worst 5 year, $55 million deal given to a pitcher ever.

QUOTE(DBAH0 @ Mar 18, 2006 -> 05:34 AM) For this team to move forward though, we need a real good shooter at the wing spot. I'd love to get Adam Morrison. I know a lot of people here don't like him, but we play a slow half court offense, and Brian Hill's offense allows for guys like Stevenson and Hedo to shoot a lot of outside jumpers. They're just not that good at it. Getting a guy like Morrison, who's got serious skills shooting the J, would take our offense to another level, especially since Dwight's getting double teamed down low, and he can dish off to the open man on the outside. There are teams that a guy like Morrison could be really good for, if he gets the right coach and players around him. I don't think he'd be a good fit on the Bulls though, since we already have too damn many guys that can do everything he can do. The Magic, on the other hand, have the guys the Bulls don't - they have an inside presence, but are limited on the perimeter.

Took em like 5 years to figure it out: AP headline: "Bush using Straw-Man Arguments in speeches"

6 months: Amount of time that House Majority Leader John A. Boehner (R-OH) has spent on privately funded travel junkets in the last six years, often to “golfing hotspots.”

Man, 4/4 for the Rally Crede. He's up to .296 on the spring. B.A. up to .265, which would be very nice to see for the whole season. The pitch BA crushed, BTW, was that outside & Low pitch that all our guys have so much trouble with...and he took it deep to right field. He does that sh*t all year and he could hit .300.

QUOTE(Felix @ Mar 18, 2006 -> 08:18 AM) You forget to mentioned how he doesn't know how to hit outside of The Ballpark in Arlington, posting a pathetic .639 OPS on the road last year, and a .735 OPS on the road the year before. And an .805 OPS at Yankee Stadium the year before that (with a .917 OPS on the road that year).

I believe he was in the 95-96 range today.

Even if he hits the DL for a stretch...if he avoids NAGGING injuries, the kind that slowed him for months last year, he'll still probably do 80. Let's not forget how good he was last year at stealing 3rd after he stole second...every time late in the season he was thrown out at second robbed him a chance to steal 3rd too. Even if he hits the DL, as long as it's not a nagging injury like that hernia, he'll hit 80.

QUOTE(Rowand44 @ Mar 18, 2006 -> 02:18 PM) Hawk can't use a computer. But he's one of my friends on Facebook! Surely that's actually him, right?

QUOTE(Flash Tizzle @ Mar 18, 2006 -> 10:55 AM) Now add in back issues, this problem can't possibly be resolved come April. This is what I believe will happen: he'll remain on the club, continually insist his back is fine, and basically become Soxtalk's whipping boy because health issues limit his effectiveness. I know Hermanson's personality enough to where you'd have to drag him off the field before he agrees to surgery. I understand the situation he's in--back surgery is inherently risky and may jeopardize his career. But is wincing on the mound after every follow-through worth it? Or meeting with Schneider frequently to limit the pain? Or putting management in a tough position because they certaintly don't want to suggest surgery, but if Hermanson's not completely healthy, atleast there's remains enough time before Opending Day to acquire bullpen help. Hopefully, we can count on Dustin Hermanson to be slightly more honest about his condition than Marte was last year. If his back isn't fine, hopefully he'll at least tell the management how it feels.

QUOTE(greasywheels121 @ Mar 17, 2006 -> 08:57 PM) Well there goes my first FF team. What a waste. I lost 1/2 of my FF today. Which is why I don't put money on these things.

QUOTE(SoxFan101 @ Mar 17, 2006 -> 07:36 PM) it seems neither reynoso or munoz really got a fair shot and those were prob the 2 favorite candidates going into the whole thing. Well maybe outside of Lopez. Each of those 2 clearly have room for improvement, and some additional time at AAA will help. Hopefully Owens can do at AAA what he did in winter ball and in AA, and maybe be considered for a callup in July/August...thus slowing down his arbitration clock by another year. Anywho...I didn't want to see him in the big leagues based on 1 good season at AA. Give me a good season at AAA too, then we'll talk about that left field spot.

So, it seems that this guy also last year bounced a $111 check for a haircut.

Hmmm...did every major media outlet in the U.S. get fooled by this?

QUOTE(samclemens @ Mar 17, 2006 -> 07:03 AM) this would exponentially increase the number of auto tort claims in my state. as a lawyer, i therefore support this as it directly correlates to my livlihood. Damn liberals...always wanting to expand the federal government for their own benefit...

QUOTE(NorthSideSox72 @ Mar 17, 2006 -> 08:01 AM) Which begs this question for me: who, aside from McCain, can the GOP put up in 2008 who isn't part of this recent socially-conservative, fiscally reckless movement in that party? Who would they put on the ballot that might be considered at least somewhat moderate, or somewhat in the small government mold of the Republicans of old? Depends on who runs. Guys like Frist, Allen...they seem to have really bought into the Bush-worshipping. Gingrich, who's still sort of a dark-horse right now, might have a legit shot at it (He finished 3rd in that SCLC straw poll) and he's certainly managed to stay away from some of the Bush-worshipping. Guiliani might have a shot just based on his name, but then some other part of the party would have to outgun the socially conservative side (Rudy = not anti-gay enough and pro choice IIRC).