Balta1701

QUOTE(the People's Champ @ Aug 9, 2005 -> 04:28 AM) Did Thigpen get the Cy Young the year he broke the save record?? Cause if that doesn't get it for him then no closer should get it IMO. I would have to say that demolishing the old save record by what 15 or so?? That is otherworldly wouldnt you say? No, he did not get it that year. Only like 9 relief pitchers have earned it in history...2 in the last 15 years...Gagne and the Eck.

I'm not surprised we landed the #4 and #1 web gems on a game when we were playing the Yankees. People @ ESPN were actually watching! We also had 2 on the list on sunday - ARow and Garland.

QUOTE(JUGGERNAUT @ Aug 9, 2005 -> 06:55 AM) The links to Darwinism & mass-murder: Hitler was from a right-wing party...hence all right-wing parties everywhere are throroughly discredited.

Something tells me this may very well be the last time you get to write about any of those shuttles landing.

QUOTE(Kid Gleason @ Aug 9, 2005 -> 08:20 AM) Can we send them a few bombs to get them started? Our airmail still works...right? Yeah...because the Iranian army slamming up against ours in Iraq is exactly what we need right now. It's been so easy occupying 25 million people...why not add another 68 million? And also...thank Goodness we have a proven negotiator and a man who's willing to work diplomatically with people running things at the Security council right now.

Hitting & running is the 1 thing I'd like to see Ozzie do more. It should pop open more holes on the infield for people to hit the ball through.

QUOTE(fathom @ Aug 8, 2005 -> 10:29 PM) If Ozzie really does want to use Duque for the playoffs, then he should start conserving his arm now. Every game where Duque throws over 100 pitches, the chances increase that he won't be completely healthy for the playoffs. I'll lay you 75-25 that when we clinch in September...Adkins and McCarthy either make this a 7 man rotation or a 6 man rotation with Duque on the bench. This is our toughest stretch all year...the better we do on this stretch, the sooner we clinch, and the more rest we can give his arm before the playoffs.

QUOTE(3 BeWareTheNewSox 5 @ Aug 8, 2005 -> 10:18 PM) I am starting to get sick of the El Duque experience, are we led to believe that in October he will magically click his heels and work quicker, be able to pitch over errors and blown calls (Contreras also has this syndrome) and throw more strikes? I loved the signing, but now cringe through every start, and am spoiled by the fast pace our other pitchers use. He has a nice record, but the offense has saved him a few times. He ended up with a better line than it looked like it would look like last night, but thanks to Aaron, or else this would have been a blow out quick. If you nibble around and start to walk batters in the playoffs, they will hurt you, and it won't help if you're on the road. They say he feeds off pressure and always comes up big in October but last night was a pressure situation with facing his old team in a packed Yankee Stadium, and he looked very fragile in the early innings, not like a guy that feeds off pressure. He got better as the game went on, but couldn't even go 6 again... He went 7 2/3 innings against Boston, gave up 2 runs and got the loss. He went 7 innings against Torotno, gave up 4 runs, and got the loss. He went 6 innings against the Yankees, gave up 3 runs, and got the loss. Yeah he works slow. Yeah, he gets 0-2 on too many people and ends up 3-2 on them. But I think it's hard for me to condemn any of those performances. If you're holding Boston, NY, and Toronto to those numbers...those are games that you should win.

The first playoff series is a best-of-five correct? So let's see...Mark starts game 2...that puts him on schedule to start game 5 of the ALDS if Ozzie follows the scheme he laid out in that article...Yeah, I can live with that. The only thing that scares me about El Duque pitching a game 1 is the fact that it could chew our bullpen up early and leave us in worse shape if we have any extra-inning contests. The only thing that scares me about Freddy pitching a game 1 is the fact that a game 1 would probably be at home. You know what? I'll bet you Jon will get game 1 unless he pitches the last game of the year.

QUOTE(robinventura23 @ Aug 8, 2005 -> 04:12 PM) Question for this series: Will Ozzie get ejected? These umps in New York? I say the question is "How many times will Ozzie get ejected"?

QUOTE(Brian @ Aug 8, 2005 -> 04:10 PM) nice call, froemming, tag missed Well, at least the umps are getting an early start on screwing us this series.

QUOTE(AddisonStSox @ Aug 8, 2005 -> 03:54 PM) I believe I heard Carl will be back in the lineup tomorrow. I just caught the tale-end of it on ESPN, but I think they announced during one of the Sportscenter updates that Carl told Ozzie he was ready to go today, but Ozzie wanted to give him one more day. That usually means he'll be available to pinch hit if the game is close.

QUOTE(Rowand44 @ Aug 8, 2005 -> 03:19 PM) :puke :puke Time to start taking bets on: # of our pitchers ejected # of our position players ejected # of times Ozzie is ejected # of runs we will lose directly because of bad calls by umpires. 2, 1, 3, 2.

QUOTE(wsox08 @ Aug 8, 2005 -> 03:03 PM) Let's see how many more of those games will be blown by Vizcaino and how many losses he ends up with..... damn him His ERA since the start of June is 1.73. His ERA since the start of July is 1.05. His ERA since the all-star break is 0.93.

QUOTE(WSoxMatt @ Aug 8, 2005 -> 02:56 PM) I like it, AJ kills the Moose, and dye and rowand are a great addition to the bottom half of the order, this lineup is definetely balanced!!! And see...they'll intentionally walk Paulie 4 times to get to Timo...Timo will bunt Paulie to 2nd each time, and thus we'll have 4 good RBI opportunities for Dye and Rowand

QUOTE(Balance @ Aug 8, 2005 -> 02:47 PM) I don't get it. Must be Ozzie's gut again. "Obviously Ozzie's thinkin....I don't know what the Hell he's thinkin"

QUOTE(Balance @ Aug 8, 2005 -> 02:47 PM) I don't get it. Must be Ozzie's gut again. Well, he does have a home run off of Mussina (he's also 1-11 off of him)

QUOTE(3E8 @ Aug 8, 2005 -> 02:35 PM) I just think it is ironic how the Cardinals may have swapped one pitcher for another who is actually equal in talent, while at the same time losing their best non-pitching prospect and a bullpen arm. All while taking on $5M more in salary. Jason Schmidt for Brandon McCarthy, Damaso Marte, and Brian Anderson.

QUOTE(Rowand44 @ Aug 8, 2005 -> 10:22 AM) How about a walkoff grandslam in game 7 of the world series. Make it game 4...I'll have a heart attack if we get to a game 7.

QUOTE(Ozzie Montana @ Aug 8, 2005 -> 01:17 PM) I think this is El Duque's kind of game. There'll be alot of noise over there which doesnt bother him, actually I think it makes him better, and I think he knows his former mates pretty good. I think tonight's our chance to see how much we can count on the "Big game" El Duque. It may not be big in the standings, but for him, it's his old team, it's a great hitting team...it's a big game for him. This is really his chance to prove how good he can be in big games - he already had a good one against the BoSox.

QUOTE(GBlum27 @ Aug 8, 2005 -> 09:47 AM) I'm pretty sure ARod can more than hold his own at the hot corner. We aren't going to be beating them by bunting. Actually I think bunting is exactly 1 of the ways you beat the Yankees. The Yankees are a great team at 1 thing; hitting the ball real hard. But they're not that good at really anything else (except closing games, but that's a different story). They're adequate at most positions on defense...not great anywhere, although Jeter's pretty good. Arod is servicable...Cano has been a step above Soriano, and their outfield defense is basically a hole. Their pitching staff is certainly not in good shape, and their bullpen has 2 guys with an ERA under 4.00. You beat the Yankees with 3 things; good pitching, good defense on your own side so that the Yankee hitters aren't given extra outs to play with, and good enough hitting. The Yankees want to beat you like we wanted to beat people last year; lots of home runs against pitchers/defenses doing a bad job. But if you put pressure on them...by bunting, running bases hard, putting the ball in play...you're going to make them be the team struggling to keep up. And if your pitching staff holds its ground and doesn't let them explode for 8 runs, then you're in a good position to beat them, because their pitchers aren't going to dominate you in most games.

Well, we gave Jeremy Giambi a chance in our minor leagues didn't we? Maybe if he has the same agent as Frank and we need to suck up to him more (as happened with Giambi), but other than that...

QUOTE(robinventura23 @ Aug 8, 2005 -> 12:37 PM) I was just thinking that. I'm sure the last week or two, McCarthy or Adkins may be thrown in to a start or two to align the rotation for the playoffs. They're already talking about giving Adkins 1/2 of the Twin Bill at Texas. By the way...I think few things would go over better than having 2 20 game winners on this team.

QUOTE(ScottPodRulez22 @ Aug 7, 2005 -> 07:49 PM) If congess got involved steriod use would fall dramitically to wear in 5-10 years nobody uses them. Then kids would see there major league role model dosent use steriods why should I. No, that's not what would do it...what would do it would be the fact that Congress would apply the olympic rules to any steroid suspension if they wrote the law - in other words, outside testing and if you're caught with them you get a 2 year suspension.

See...this trade is as much proof as you can get as to why you shouldn't hold onto guys in the final year of their contract (ahem...Ordonez, Lee, 1 done right, 1 not). Because when you get something for them...that something is usually around for a while and does very well