Balta1701

I thought we were trying to elevate the level of discourse here. Anywho, I think the most important thing here is that it's obvious that even KW is working to keep this team playing as a team. When we won in 2000, everyone on that team was saying how much fun it was. This year is the same thing. Everyone seems to be picking up everyone else. And when people go into a slump, I guarantee you that pat on the back helps. KW having an "Open door" can really help that. Get things out of the back of people's heads. Get Crede, for example, to stop thinking he needs to hit the ball out of the park every pitch so that he can keep his job, and maybe he keeps his head back and shoulder closed on a few more balls.

QUOTE(SoxFan562004 @ Jun 9, 2005 -> 09:59 PM) I've always like Neils arm, but wanted to see him at AAA being a starter. He's really turned me around this year. He's throwing strikes and has done a great job settling into a bullpen role. He's been rock solid lately. This might be out on a limb, but if KW does make a move (and Marte isn't seriously hurt) I wouldn't be suprised if Cotts is a young pitcher they use as bait. If he keeps pitching this way, a team can easily stretch him out next ST for a starters role. God I hope not. The last thing we need is to be trading 1 of the guys in our bullpen with an ERA below 3. Not if we're making a playoff run. Especially not if the guy is a lefty. 2 quality or near-quality left handers in your bullpen gives you a ton of options in the playoffs, and that's a very good thing.

QUOTE(mmmmmbeeer @ Jun 9, 2005 -> 07:36 PM) Agreed. I'm not trying to dog the trade. I'm just saying that if we could have pods leading off and el caballo still hitting 2nd or 3rd...good God. To get talent, you have to give up talent. Personally, I think our biggest pickup was probably A.J. Giving Garland and Buehrle a smart play caller...wow. That wouldn't have happened without the Lee trade. It'd be nice to stick him back in this lineup, but then again, it'd be nice to stick lots of people into that lineup, but they aren't all going to happen. Also remember 1 thing...Lee had a good year last year, but not a great year. He wasn't producing power at all for the first 1/2 of the year. He's been on fire this year, but he has a habit of cooling off. During his 29 game hit streak or whatever it was last year, he only had like 1 home run. He's driving in runs like mad right now, but I'll lay you 2 to 1 odds he doesn't lead the NL in RBI's.

QUOTE(ScottPodRulez22 @ Jun 9, 2005 -> 08:40 PM) Didnt the sox get dye before they made the trade? Yes, they did. The way I did the numbers...Garcia and Dye were bought with Ordonez's money, while El Duque, A.J., Pods, Hermanson, and Vizcaino came from El Cabayo.

Ichiro was ridiculously hot during the last few months of the year last year. It was like he'd never make an out. It was remarkable. Everyone goes through good streaks and bad streaks. That's why it's so darn hard to hit .400. You literally can't have more than a bad week or two during the entire season, otherwise you fall pretty far away from it and have to struggle back. Ichiro will end this season hitting .350 or more. He'll find that grove again. If nothing else, he'll start slamming the ball into the ground again, and that'll get him a hit every 3 at bats.

QUOTE(Jabroni @ Jun 9, 2005 -> 05:56 PM) Most likely. But they sure must be pissed that they signed Beltre to that huge contract now. :puke Beltre's contract isn't exactly "Huge"...it's large, but not like $20 mil or anything. I still think Beltre will find his swing. He was absolutely amazing last year. He will pull it together.

Wonder if we'll see any of Valdez this weekend. I'm sure they got him to replace Loretta while he's on the DL. They've been playing a replacement, Damian Jackson I think, at 2nd.

QUOTE(Gene Honda Civic @ Jun 9, 2005 -> 09:19 PM) Did you catch Mark Grace with the Hawkism there?? I've heard like 3 or 4 announcers use that line in the last month or so. I swear, it's like a disease. (one of them, I think it was the Mets' guy, actually credited Hawk)

QUOTE(Gene Honda Civic @ Jun 9, 2005 -> 05:49 PM) The sox are 27th of 30 teams in # of RISP AB's...http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/stats/aggreg...=39&season=2005 Just to be clear - that statistic is number of at bats with runners in scoring position, not total number of runners in scoring position.

QUOTE(soxman352000 @ Jun 9, 2005 -> 02:43 PM) Maggs robbed the Tigers blind (Well actually that was Scott B.) What do you think Maggs numbers will be when he returns from the DL? I'll go with .275-.280, 40-50 RBI's, Mabey 10-12 Homers. Thoughts? He's been out of baseball so long I bet his strength has diminished quite a bit. And I'm still a bit curious over these "wierd injuries" he's been having. Throw in that he's playing in Tiger Stadium (or whatever the hell its called), and I'll bet he struggles a lot more than that. .250 or lower, maybe 8 hr's.

They've been in pre-production on this thing since 1992. I'm not going to believe it's really happening until I actually am sitting in the theater.

John "I am not a" Kruk

QUOTE(ScottPodRulez22 @ Jun 9, 2005 -> 01:41 PM) If you look at the record there the same but common the cubs are most likely going to end up with a better record then them. Last year, the Brewers were far worse, so the Twins really did get to fatten up their record against them while we got our noses bloodied by the Cubs. It swings back & forth every year. Last year I was pissed because the Twins had an easeir one, this year the Twins are pissed at us. Besides, we have to play San Diego at Petco, they get S.D. at the Humphreydome, that's a pretty good advantage to them as well.

QUOTE(kyyle23 @ Jun 9, 2005 -> 01:38 PM) This gets better. Mariotti is getting killed today for his lies yesterday http://chicagosports.chicagotribune.com/sp...-home-headlines Man, being out of town I didn't see that correction they post. That may be the single longest correction (aside from the NYT WMD Mea culpa) I've ever seen in my life.

A couple of those plays that Ozuna blew were really hard plays to make. From what I could tell, the error that led to those runs was on a running play that yeah, he should have just not made, but an inexperienced 3b doesn't have a clue which throws to make and which to not make. Also...he had a very good night at the plate, which makes up for a fair amount of field problems IMHO

QUOTE(SoxFan1 @ Jun 8, 2005 -> 09:49 PM) Hunter's shot on Burke was more of a cheap-shot because of the timing. IIRC, Burke didn't even have the ball yet and the Hunter play was unnecessary IMO as well. Estrada was in the process of turning to tag Erstadt when he was nailed. He already had the ball. Erstadt had 2 options; nail him or try to slide around him, and he wasn't exactly in a position to slide around him. That was pretty clean baseball.

QUOTE(chi-guy2 @ Jun 9, 2005 -> 10:20 AM) if anything id say it helped him, a lot of legends played for the yankees and if he puts up numbers that are respectable he himself would get praise, plus who wouldnt want to be in the hall of fame they have in the outfield I think it hurt him to start, but mainly because he had an incredibly off year last year. His home run total dropped by 11 from Texas the year before. His average dropped. And he fell apart just like the rest of the Yankees offense against Boston in games 4-7. This year he's turning it around. Leading the AL in HR, that 10 RBI/3 home run game, hitting his 400th in a Yankee uniform, those things are helping to rebuild him after last year. But last year a lot of the talk was "what happened to ARod, why's he so far down this year". This year, if he avoids a prolongued slump, he'll get whatever luster he lost back and more.

QUOTE(RibbieRubarb @ Jun 9, 2005 -> 09:01 AM) Here's a good question: If A-Rod were to have a career-ending injury this year...Would he go to the Hall?? If Fred McGriff can be called doubtful with something like 490 home runs, then Arod isn't a definite with 400. He's got an MVP or two, but I can't name a single stat of his that immediately puts him in. He has not won triple crowns, he doesn't have 3 MVP awards, he doesn't have 3000 hits (or even 2000), and he hasn't put together any stellar postseason performances (i.e. Jeter or Rivera). And it's not like the numbers he's put up are happening in a poor offensive era either. 1 or 2 more seasons like this one and I start saying he's a lock. Let him get to either 450 home runs, win another MVP, or have a spectacular postseason, and then there will be a reason to put him in first ballot.

QUOTE(whitesoxjr27 @ Jun 9, 2005 -> 10:25 AM) whats with all the trade threads. cant we enjoy what we have. people need to calm down a bit. i know we can talk about anything on here but we have 5-7 threads already about trades. :headshake There's no ballgame today.

QUOTE(White Sox Josh @ Jun 9, 2005 -> 10:19 AM) I was very surprised to see last night that leftys are only hitting .269 against him. I always thought that lefties gave him the most trouble. Anyways I thought it was a good outing for him and he seemed to be throwing a lot of 1st pitch strikes or he was just missing. On a similar topic (although not exactly Shingo)...last night during the game, the Rockies' announcers (MLB Extra innings) were talking about how Vizcaino has been very good against left-handed hitters. I believe they said that lefties were hitting under .200 against Viz, and his tailing fastball might have something to do with it. Well, i checked this morning, and lefties are hitting nearly .400 against Viz. Did anyone else hear them say this? Am I looking at the wrong stat? (btw, righties are only hitting .218 against him, which isn't bad if he can avoid the walks)

QUOTE(WHarris1 @ Jun 8, 2005 -> 10:21 PM) HAHAHA @ JR on Comcast "Jay Mariotti wrote lies, this doesn't suprise me, Jay always makes lies. I don't care what he says, he says things that are untrue" The best part was Mariotti's reply...that JR will be hearing from his lawyer. Man...a guy really has to piss me off to leave me cheering for JR.

At some point, the Catholic church is going to have no choice but to do this. They're already suffering from a massive shortage of priests. There just aren't enough unmarried men left out there to tend their flock of over a billion now. They need to find new candidates. There are 2 possibilities...women or married men. Eventually, they're going to have to ordain one or the other, or the Church itself will start falling apart. You can't put 10,000 people into a mass every week in every country in the world. It just won't work.

The U.S. public will realize how much valuable time has been wasted on this case, will riot, and will destroy the entire city of Santa Monica in a bloodthirsty quest for revenge. None will survive. The event will be edited out of history texts, and by act of Congress, the existence of a person named "Michael Jackson" will be expunged from history. All evidence that he ever existed will disappear. America will then enter a new golden age of enlightenment and learning, where we lead the world to a peaceful, happy future. Thousands of years down the road, historians will discover the great "Michael Jackson purge" in documents buried in archives under the U.S. Capitol building, and will credit this purge with leading to a thousand years of peace and prosperity amongst all men and nations.

QUOTE(southsider2k5 @ Jun 9, 2005 -> 08:02 AM) Sounds awe-inspiring. I have always wanted to go to Hawaii just to see the active volcano's. The closest I have come to mother nature was riding out a hurricane in Texas in 1983, and that is what got me on the whole natural disasters thing. One of the nice things about being a Caltech Grad Student working on igneous (i.e. Volcano derived) rocks is that you occasionally get to play around with these sorts of things. Barring anything going terribly wrong, in a few years I should have a chance to get a nice trip through Hawaii to look at Kilauea and a few other things. Can hardly wait.

I'd still give it 5 to 1 odds in favor of having Uribe find some month this season where he just goes wild and hits like .400, like he did to open the year last year. If he gets a couple of hot weeks, this team may go undefeated during that stretch. His defense is not terrible and is improving as he gets more used to playing short, and while his offense is still the streakiest on the ballclub (yes, including Crede), when he gets hot, he looks unstoppable.