Balta1701

I don't think there would be a big reaction if 1 of the Cubans went to the pen. They'd still both be on the same team, and I think that's the big part. Personally, I still say that no matter what happens, I want El Duque on this team come October as long as he's healthy enough to pitch. This team is a very inexperienced team when it comes to the playoffs - we've got only a couple guys with decent playoff time, A.J., Dye, Timo, Frank a little bit, and maybe a couple of other guys who have seen a few games. The core of our team, guys like Buehrle, Garland, Pods, Iguchi, Crede, ARow...most of them weren't around when we were there in 2000, and even then we were only in there for 3 games. This team will have a need of a big game pitcher before the end, and that is what El Duque is.

Just because a guy has bad numbers this year doesn't mean he doesn't have value. How much are we talking about getting in return for a guy named Brandon with an ERA over 7? The Pads get a veteran reliever with playoff experience who's struggling, and a couple of roster spots. The Yankees get a roster spot, and a couple of guys who might throw together a decent season at some point in the future.

QUOTE(WHarris1 @ Jul 2, 2005 -> 12:02 PM) He's a RFA and I don't see Pax letting him go, so we are good there. I love Du too. I agree, but my 1 point would be to say that he shouldn't get so much money that it prevents us from signing Curry, Chandler, or Hinrich in the future. He's an important piece of the puzzle, because he might be a better pure point guard (passing) than Hinrich.

QUOTE(Milkman delivers @ Jul 2, 2005 -> 11:54 AM) I haven't forgotten how well he pitched, but I feel like the Contreras we see now is the real one, and the good one was an aberration. It's just my opinion. Do you think they'll get another starter? And if so, who? The 1 thing I'd also like to point out is that there are very few teams who can expect a huge amount from their 4th or 5th starters. You don't expect that guy to be the stopper. You don't expect that guy to come out and win 3 games in 1 playoff series. The goal of your 4th and 5th starters, in my opinion, is to be able to give you a quality start 1 time out of every 2 times they pitch. You shouldn't really expect to get more out of them...if they're in the big leagues clearly they can win games, but you don't really expect a 4th or 5th starter to be a 20 game winner (Hi Jon!). Sometimes when your 4th or 5th guy comes out, you'll face the other teams' 5th guy as well, and you'll simply outscore the other team. So if you're a good team, you can win even some of the bad starts by your 4th or 5th guys, but the real goal should be for them to give you a chance to win a decent number of games, while your lead guys really head out and pile up the wins. I'm willing to live with Jose Contreras having ups and downs, as long as I know that every time he has a down, there'll be more ups. I'm willing to live with El Duque gong on the DL every now and again, as long as when he comes off the DL he can run out there and give us a shot to win in 3 or 4 games. Your 4th and 5th starters aren't aces. We shouldn't expect them to be that. We should expect them to be the guys who need help from the offense, and we should expect them to get help from the offense because they'll often face the other teams 4th and 5th guys. If Jose has a July exactly like his June, then I may lose confidence in his ability to have another up period, like he did in April & May. In that case, another piece could be plugged in. Aside from that, I still say the only thing we need is a backup 1b.

Gosh, if I keep doing this I'm going to start becoming the guy who hates all trades...seriously, I like the Lee for Podsednik deal! I think that the lineup the Bulls have right now is basically as good of a lineup as anyone can build, anywhere. It's missing exactly 1 piece. Curry and Chandler both have strengths and weaknesses. Both are still developing, but the key for me is that their weaknesses and strengths perfectly complement each other. Chandler is a dominating force on the boards and in clogging up the middle. Eddy Curry is a dominating offensive post force. Chandler needs to work on the offensive post, Curry needs to work on rebounding and defending the post. But when you slap them together, you cover the asses of both of them; you keep both defense and offense in there. I think the lack of Eddy Curry was probably the biggest reason why the Bulls lost to the Wizards. Why? Because Washington's big men were able to dominate the lane - Davis, Harrington and Chandler weren't enough to stop them. Why? Because our guys were constantly in foul trouble and none of their guys were. This means only 1 thing...without Curry, we didn't have a solid offensive post presence. When we got the ball, we couldn't go down into the lane and work their guys, so we couldn't draw fouls on the big guys from Washington. Then, those guys with no fouls would go down to the other end, draw fouls on chandler, break down the defense, and their outside shots would open up when our guys had to double down. Curry and Chandler make up a perfect pair; you have offense and hopefully improving defense, and you have defense and improving offense. What do you need to go with this combo? First, you need a couple of guys who are money from outside, so that when teams double down on Curry we can hurt them. Read: Ben Gordon, and partially Kirk Hinrich. You need a guy or two who can get the ball into Curry and Chandler's hands on offense in good positions, where they're not immediately double-teamed. This is Hinrich and Duhon. both can make shots, so their guys can't leave them, and both are improving as passers. And finally, we need 1 last piece...outside defense. We have to be able to defend on the arc...for most guards, there are 2 ways to score, either they drive into the lane or they stay on the outside and make shots. Ginobili and Parker are perfect examples. If we stick an average defender in Curry and a dominant defender in Chandler in the lane, it'll be damn hard for anyone to penetrate. This means that the outside shot will be the only other piece that can hurt us. Therefore, we need a couple of guys to clog up the outside. Deng can do some of this...good long arms, athletic, etc. Right now, Gordon can't do this. Hinrich can do some of it, but he's not dominant yet. Therefore, the big piece I'd say we're missing right now is an outside defender. Someone like a Doug Christie, who I believe is a free agent this year, would give us the ability to cover all our bases. Therefore, my goals this offseason are; 1. Re-sign Curry and Chandler. 2. Re-sign Duhon if humanly possible. 3. Find a defensive minded guard.

Since it's popped up in previous threads, I think I'll note here that the Yankees have reportedly dealt Paul Quantrill to the Padres for a couple struggling pitchers and cash, according to ESPN. link.

The San Diego Padres have decided to take a chance on one of the Yankee Relievers who was released this week, according to ESPN, Quantrill will be going to the Padres in exchange for 2 struggling Padre pitchers; lefty Darrell May (1-3, 6.69 ERA) and Tim Redding (0-5, 8.94). Both will go to the Yankees minor leagues. The Yankees will also reportedly receive cash. God only knows they need more of that.

Let's go big Jon, we need you to be our stopper today, let's even up this series. Jon, you da man! Let's get that career high in wins today.

Right now, I'm still willing to say that Jose has just had a bad month. He's gotten away from what he was doing earlier in the year, and is throwing far too many balls...thus getting him behind in the count and letting people hammer him. The thing I'd say at this point is that everyone goes through good and bad times. The year the Marlins won the series, Dontrelle Willis had an ERA nearly 7 during August. Last year, several of Boston's starters were terrible in June. I'll agree that Jose needs to be kept on a short leash, but he still should get some leeway. At least until after the AS break. Give him some time to work through this and try to get some control back. If he keeps walking 6 guys in 4 innings, then I will come around to the "we need another starter" point of view. Yesterday's game was just intolerable. We beat ourselves because Jose (and a few others) couldn't throw strikes.

Lawrence O'Donnell himself has put up a post at Huffingtonpost.com confirming what he said last night. Link.

Don't count this as a complete certainty yet, until we actually learn what is in those Time documents we really don't know for sure. But if he actually said it, that probably means he's in a position to know, and that means there's a possibility he's actually telling the truth.

No one has video of this yet, and I think it caught everyone completely off guard, but this supposedly happened on the McLaughlin Group tonight. Lawrence O'Donnell was one of the people originally investigated by the special prosecutor, so he may very well know what he is talking about. Here's the link to the place where this quote was found. A few other people are planning to Tivo/Record it. Can check here and here to see if anyone grabs video.

Ugh, 3-0, low and inside on all 3 pitches

Dammit, all 4 balls that at bat were on the forkball, got 2 nice strikes with the fastball and then never went back to it. I hope that walk doesn't hurt us...

QUOTE(Spiff @ Jul 1, 2005 -> 07:37 PM) I do, but until it happens I'm happy with the amount of runs he saves per game. I keep wishing more people would say that about Crede.

He threw Chavez a strike and Chavez beat him...I can't complain, at least he threw him a strike. He keeps throwing strikes, we'll win this game. That's all that matters. Good work on Hatteburg. Pop up foul to Crede on the forkball, 1 down. Another nice thing to note - the A's almost never are going to try to steal, so that's 1 less thing to worry about with Jose. Maybe it'll help him focus on throwing strikes.

QUOTE(Spiff @ Jul 1, 2005 -> 07:33 PM) Uribe's swing is like Happy Gilmore's golf swing. But I don't care cause he plays a hell of a shortstop. Yeah, but do you realize how many runs this team could score per game if Uribe could just find what he had the first 2 or 3 months las tyear?

14 pitch inning, 48 thrown by Harden through 2. Not great, but not terrible that inning in terms of pitches thrown. God I wish someone could teach Crede & Uribe not to swing at that low pitch. They always try to uppercut it and end up swinging above it.

Come on Joe, make hiim work, stop swinging at those low & outside pitches!

3 up, 3 down for the A's, Contreras threw exactly 8 pitches, 7 of them for strikes. Keep doing that Jose! I know that pitch to Chavez went to the wall, but just THROW STRIKES. If they beat you while throwing strikes, then they beat you...these things happen. JUST DON'T GIVE THEM THE WALKS. Do that inning 7 more times Jose.

QUOTE(CWSGuy406 @ Jul 1, 2005 -> 07:21 PM) The Oakland fans seemingly hate Dye. I don't know why... I realize he wasn't great, but was he known as a guy who 'dogged' it or something? Great first inning. I think it's a matter of them having paid him a lot of money and them feeling they didn't get their money's worth. Oakland doesn't pick up many guys making $10 mil plus per year...they got him expecting him to put up numbers like he did his last year in KC (OPS like 1000), and he never really came close.

what's that, 34, 35 pitches for Harden in the first?

QUOTE(Rowand44 @ Jul 1, 2005 -> 07:19 PM) Ozzie didn't do much on that play.. Just raggin on ya. Rowand was running with the pitch...that's why he scored. On a 2-2 count, the manager called it.

See, now this is small ball, stolen base, productive out, error scoring a run, guy takes off in a hit & run & scores on a double. I missed this kind of ball!

GREAT JOB CARL!!!! GREAT JOB OZZIE SENDING THE RUNNER!!!!