Balta1701

Personally if I were in cleveland's spot, I'd plan on starting the year with Garko @ 1b, and I think it's a mistake to put anyone else in his way. Broussard IMO should already be trade bait for the Indians for whatever they could get for him. I could understand platooning the rookie with this guy, but not holding onto 2 people ahead of him.

The Rays would be crazy to take Matsui if they have to pay him a cent. NYM should have to pay his entire contract.

QUOTE(RockRaines @ Jan 2, 2006 -> 10:35 PM) hahaha, so true, but his defense is great to watch. Plus sometimes you watch him make a play and wonder where the hell he learned that technique. However watching our SS bat in 140 runs during the year would be more fun to watch. Very much agreed...I still sort of think Uribe's technique is correctable...he's basically making every mistake Andruw Jones made with the bat before changing his stance last year - head flying forward, flying open during the swing, etc. A decent hitting coach, possibly armed with a shotgun aimed at some very painful location on Uribe's body...just might be able to get through to him.

QUOTE(Tony82087 @ Jan 2, 2006 -> 11:12 PM) Like you said, Uribe isnt the greatest, but he is far from being a hole. The bullpen is what needs to be addressed, along with an insurance plan if Anderson is a bust. Even if Anderson turns into a bust (which i still highly doubt), think about this: we're not counting on Brian Anderson to be an amazingly important cog in our offense, not yet anyway. Rowand wasn't a huge key to our offense last year, and even if Anderson has a terrible year, his production won't be a massive downgrade from Rowand last year. Meanwhile, we have massively upgraded our offense in the 3-4 slots by getting a left handed power bat with a very high OBP (so that Konerko can drive in a few extra runs when he kills a ball). We're also hoping Iguchi can produce more runs next year simply because he won't need to hit the ball to right field every time he's up with men on, and AJP had frankly his worst season with the bat since he reached the major leagues last year, so he may well rebound also. On top of that, Crede still may find a way to not be as streaky, ditto Uribe, and we've massively upgraded our bench by removing at bats wasted on Timo. Our offense will be significantly better next year even if Anderson struggles, unless someone is seriously hurt. We need Brian Anderson to catch the baseball nearly as well as Rowand, and we need him to use his arm to get more outs on fly balls. Brian Anderson's bat has plenty of time to develop...right now I want his defense. If you add Tejada on top of that, well, then Brian Anderson could hit .100 and we'd still have one of the best offenses in baseball.

QUOTE(greasywheels121 @ Jan 2, 2006 -> 09:38 AM) Is Vince Young going to turn pro regardless of what happens Wednesday? Linehart obviously wasn't going to get any higher than he was last year. I don't think anyone could top Young, if he were to hold out. Young has said repeatedly that he's planning on staying next year. Who knows how wednesday will change that, but Young's words have all said he's staying.

QUOTE(southsideirish71 @ Jan 1, 2006 -> 09:40 PM) So basically its a political action committee. Just like all of them huh. Both the Dems and the Republicans have pacs, and both sides have just as much behind the scenes crap around them. Pacs are evil, for both sides of this. Its the shadier side of our lovely system. Conjecture and bulls*** aside, and party lines aside, BOTH SIDES are just to blame. And both sides have equally slimy PACs. Anyone that believes this is a republican thing only is a bit naive. When Abramoff finishes up his plea deal...we'll see about that.

Non-partisan CBO study says: Tax cuts do not create enough revenue to pay for themselves.

Doug "I am a deity" Flutie drop kicked a ball through the uprights for an extra point today. The first drop-kick in the league since 1941.

Is Benson playing this week? Since he's coming off an injury I would have figured it might be a good idea for him to take a few plays just so that he could get his head back into the game before the bye week. I'd have considered doing something similar this week with Grossman, and at least giving him a quarter to try to keep himself in rhythm with the offense, except for the fact that he's proven to truly be Mr. Glass, and that 1 quarter might end his season.

According to the NY Times, even that Leftist-commie-pinko-gay-loving-osama-hugging John Ashcroft had some severe concerns about the program and was very reluctant to sign off on it, and almost all of his underlings at DOJ refused to do so. And just so you understand...there's now officially reason to wonder what was done with this info...the NSA seems to have been willing to share the info obtained by these intercepts with a wide variety of other federal agencies, just as was done back in the 70's before Congress created the FISA courts.

Man, the Bulls had some UGLY shots late in that game. That one by Deng in overtime that clanged into the front of the rim and bounced straight down was just nasty. Anywho, at least the Pistons were dealt another loss. Now we just need them to get 7 more of those.

QUOTE(Flash Tizzle @ Dec 31, 2005 -> 07:04 PM) If the Orioles were looking to have Boston pay a portion of Ramirez's salary, they'd have to trade an additional prospect to Boston, as well as Tampa. It would likely have to be a top prospect. So in the proposed trade, Orioles may have to surrender two top prospects, Tejada, and add more than 15 million to the payroll for two average starters and Julio Lugo?! That'll never work. There would almost certainly have been some cash swapping hands, and I'm sure I missed 1 or 2 guys who would have been involved in the deal (Saw it on ESPNews several hours ago), but I also thought the deal sounded bad especially for Baltimore.

If you don't like Tom Delay...it doesn't get much better than This WaPo piece from today. Brief summary before I excerpt: 1. U.S. Family Network was a gigantic advocacy group basically run by Jack Abramoff 2. U.S. Family Network never did any advocacy or lobbying work, they simply served to funnel corporate donations, including those from overseas, into Republican/Delay campaigns. They never had more than 1 employee. 3. The Russians donated over a million dollars to this group to try to encourage Delay to support them in a vote. Several businesses in the Marianas Islands gave them hundreds of thousands of dollars in exchange for Abramoff's help securing Delay's support on another vote. Got that everyone? One of the most powerful men in Congress appears to have been in bed with Russian oil companies! Goodie!

The NYT Public Editor appears to be quite furious with the way the management @ the times handled this case (getting the leak before the election and holding it). And the editors aren't even bothering to talk to him about it.

ESPN is reporting that this may turn into a gigantic, 4 team mess involving the Devil Rays, Mets, Orioles, and Red Sox, with Manny and Baez going to the Mets, Julio Lugo and Clement (and I think Benson?) going to Baltimore, Tejada going to Boston, and a few other guys including Andy Marte going to Tampa. I think it just looked like way too big of a mess to ever happen, especially with the dollars the Orioles' would be taking on.

QUOTE(SoxFan101 @ Dec 30, 2005 -> 10:58 PM) Tejada doesnt need to convince anyone because there is no evidence against him lol..... Just like Jose Canseco didn't need to convince anyone in 1988 that those Red Sox fans chanting "Steroids" against him were wrong, correct?

QUOTE(knightni @ Dec 30, 2005 -> 09:37 PM) Can of Worms Whether or not he actually did them, that can of worms is the 3rd biggest reason I don't want himi...the first being McCarthy, and the 2nd being the possibility that he quit on his team last year. After the fact that the White Sox were by far the most honorable team in the league with regards to Steroids (we had Frank, and our team was the one that tried to force the league into more strict testing in 2003 by refusing to support the sham testing program), and you've got something that i don't even remotely want linked to our franchise. If there's any question in KW's mind about Tejada's past, I hope he won't touch him. Tejada better convince KW that he's clean before he can convince me.

QUOTE(TheBigHurt @ Dec 30, 2005 -> 12:24 PM) Buck and McCarver blow. I'd much rather listen to that ass chris Berman, at least he has some damn enthusiasm... "Back, back, back, GOOOOOOOONNNNEEEE!!!!!" Compared to... "It's going... back at the wall... this ball is GONE. Podsenik. Home run." If you remember the call (or numerous calls with bass when there should be shouting), all you have to do is imagine it in your head again. ( -Poetic Justice.

QUOTE(GoRowand33 @ Dec 30, 2005 -> 07:25 PM) I think it all depends on our record as much as I would like to think that we have the diehard fans that will come out full-force even if we suck, it's just not true that said Brooks Boyer was a genius with his world series-season ticket deal he must of boosted the season ticket base to atleast 15,000 add that to all the scout seats being sold out and walk ons I would say payed attendence of atleast 20,000 a night add sellouts and I think they'll draw 2000000 this season if they suck if they're good and draw really well even for bad matchups, then I think we can average 30,000+ a night bringing a total more close to 2500000 this season things also have to be taken into account such as april and may, which are always slow months 1. Go look at our lineup. WE WILL NOT SUCK. Jim Thome could get hurt and leave us with a lineup equal to or better than last year's. And our pitching staff is better than last year's. WE WILL NOT SUCK. It will take a team winning 105 games in our division for them to firmly beat us. 2. April and May are normally slow months, but there has to be some offset due to our playoff performance, especially in April. I'd be there if I could, and I'd want to go ASAP, when I knew I'd see everyone there. (Maybe we could get KC to sign Frank...that would turn all the KC games into sellouts)

QUOTE(Mr. Showtime @ Dec 30, 2005 -> 08:05 PM) For the Orioles? You have made an enemy today....

QUOTE(southsider2k5 @ Dec 30, 2005 -> 04:51 PM) I haven't heard anything, but judging on the Sox past, I would guess a cutter would be more likely. That's what I fully expected him to be working on too, but the report said it was a 2 seamer/split finger pitch of some sort that he wanted to work on. I do think a split finger/2 seamer makes sense though, at least as much as a cutter, simply because the kid is freaking tall, and he'd really be able to get on top of that thing and push it downwards, just like JG. (Imagine JG with BMac's changeup...he might give up 3 hits all year)

QUOTE(Middle Buffalo @ Dec 30, 2005 -> 09:31 PM) I am a Joe Crede pop foul. Greatness is just around the corner, though. Dude, don't you realize...after he came off the DL in September...those popups went fair...and traveled about 420 feet? He earned 1 offseason with no Credepopsup jokes. You may resume next season, if he does. But the kid had the best OPS of anyone in the AL with more than 50 at bats in September. He practically carried us to the postseason with his bat, and he was right next to PK for the ALCS MVP. "OH! WAY BACK! HE LOOKS UP YOU CAN PUT IT ON THE BOARD...Y-ES! JOE CREDE! HIS 2ND HOME RUN OF THE GAME, AND THE SOX WIN IT 7-6!!! JOOOOOOOOOOEEEE CREDE!!!"

A few months ago there was some talk that he might be working on a split finger pitch over the offseason.

QUOTE(Heads22 @ Dec 30, 2005 -> 01:57 PM) Man, there's got to be a better way to phrase that.... Nope. Absolutely perfect.

Kobe suspended for 2 games for throwing the elbow.