Balta1701

I was one of the ones saying all along that he should be given til July 31st before we started coming down hard on him. The guy's a veteran. He's good enough to figure out how to get his swing (and his head) back into the ballgame. I can't wait to see this guy hitting at Comiskey over the summer. 10 home runs already? I can see him hitting 30+.

QUOTE(Hideaway Lights @ Jun 9, 2005 -> 09:26 AM) A lot of sporttalk around town has assumed that McCarthy is some sort of automatic insurance policy for Duque should he go down to injury. I'm not so sure. I'm not convinced that one 5 1/3 start at Wrigley in which he didn't really get touched up is a good barometer...especially when in his next outing he got pretty roughed up by Texas. Admittedly, I didn't see the Texas game...but aren't some people being a little overly optimistic as to what he can do at this level? If Duque goes down again (a probable thing with his injury history) and McCarthy gets called up and maybe roughed up again...where do we go from there? We do exactly what we've been doing...we give BMac another shot until El Duque comes back. BMac is right now by far the best pitcher in the high levels of our organization...maybe the best pitching prospect in our organization (I'll leave it to the futuresox folks to debate him vs. Gio). The reality is, he's shown that he can get big league hitters out. He dominated during spring training, and he wasn't that bad against the Cubs. Almost every pitcher is going to have some growing pains - look at Ervin Santana, he was terrible in his first start against Cleveland and lights out against us in his next start. I don't think I'm being optimistic when I say that i don't expect BMac to come in and win the Cy Young award this year. I expect BMac to be able to come in to replace an injured starter and give us 5 or 6 innings without giving up 10 runs. If he comes up, his job is to make sure the Bullpen doesn't end up pitching the entire game, like it had to do several times last year when Schoenweis went down and the rookies we brought up were being pulled after 2 innings. I think that in his first year he can give us a chance to win in 50% of his starts. He has good enough stuff for that. The others, especially if he has to face a good offensive team...yeah he'll get roughed around occasionally. But as long as our bullpen doesn't have to work 8 innings every 5th day, I consider him a valid solution.

While we're on the Subject...KW talked about trades to the Sun Times today.

QUOTE(thelatinoheat_30 @ Jun 9, 2005 -> 09:14 AM) i totally disagree. he will be a huge part of the sox in the postseason as a starter, which is the biggest reason they wanna keep him healthy the whole season. he has so much invaluable experience winning it all, nobody on the sox has as much experience as him. always helps to have a guy like him. he knows what it takes to win under pressure. the key is keeping him healthy. I agree with this sentiment wholeheartedly. Right now, we have roughly 3 or 4 guys on our team with a good amount of post-season experience: Pierzynski, Dye, Everett?, and El Duque. A couple of other guys have been there once or twice, but done nothing to write home about. Those are the guys who you want to make sure get their playing time in the post-season. El Duque has been there so many times that he knows what it will take to carry this team when it hits. Hell, had his arm not given out last year, we'd probably be talking about El Duque's part in the Curse of the Bambino. I still don't think i twould be a bad ideea to give El Duque another stint on the 15 day DL sometime in July just so he's rested for August and September.

QUOTE(peanut33tillman @ Jun 8, 2005 -> 05:12 PM) not a fan of carl in the OF but im confident we can come outta here with a sweep baby!! also nice to see ozuna get a little PT instead of auto out cruddy With the space in that outfield...I'm worried about Everett's range. On the ohter hand, at least he gets some AB's.

QUOTE(robinventura23 @ Jun 8, 2005 -> 04:50 PM) Here are the lineups: Glad to see Gooch back in the lineup. I knew Pods would get the night off. Hope that means Iguchi is feeling better. With Everett playing left...does this mean we're trying for 2/3 again?

QUOTE(Milkman delivers @ Jun 8, 2005 -> 03:14 PM) How'd this kid not see the shark at all? Aren't those things f'n huge? I can understand him not seeing it before it bites him, but how in the hell did he not see it after it bit him? This blows my mind and scares the hell out of me. The water in the ocean isn't exactly crystal clear, especially near a sediment source like the rivers around N.J. You probably can't see your waist if you're in there swimming vertically. Let alone something below your legs.

QUOTE(Pauly8509CWS @ Jun 8, 2005 -> 03:18 PM) I hope you're lying. Rules like that arent the problem. Third man in, instigator, and the clutching and grabbing need to go. And contraction is also a VERY good idea. Bettman ran this league into the ground and now he's trying to NBAify it and market it to casual fans. They arent trying to fix the probelms on the ice, only the $$$ off the ice. :fyou Bettman When the season was canceled, the talk going around was that if they managed to save the thing, they would end up instituting some new rules to allow for more offense, so the talk of rule changes has been around for some time.

QUOTE(qwerty @ Jun 8, 2005 -> 03:33 PM) Are you on crack? Why the f*** does prior and wood make them a lock if they are healthy? Because it made them a lock against the Marlins when the Cubbies won it all in 03...

QUOTE(kapkomet @ Jun 8, 2005 -> 02:45 PM) I know you all are entitled to your opinions, but damn, if you hate it that bad, don't post. I'll bet you would have gotten the same reactions here in January of 1995 if this place existed.

QUOTE(jasonxctf @ Jun 8, 2005 -> 02:43 PM) yeah the republicans have made a big push for the latino vote. They are still 9 pts behind nationally and I think it depends on the candidate rather than the party as a whole. Bush being an ex-texan did pretty well with this demographic. i'd venture to guess that other's such as Bob Dole didn't have this same level of success. While it's still early, unless McCain gets the nomination (which the religous right won't let him get) i'd bet that this difference between repubs and dems goes back to double digits for latinos. i'm actually surprised by how large of a gap there was for asian americans. for some reason (which i can't explain) i would havee thought the republicans would be polling better here. From the poll numbers I've read...the thing which made the difference for Bush with latinos was that in January of 04 he proposed a guest-worker program. It was never again discussed in the campaign because it didn't poll well with anyone outside of the latino community, but a very significant number of latinos did cite that proposal as a reason they voted for Bush.

QUOTE(RockRaines @ Jun 8, 2005 -> 02:46 PM) Alot of his DH-ing was due to having our DH injured, and to get some at-bats for his backup who was also swinging a hot bat. Yes, but playing DH also gives a guy a break from fielding, thereby keeping him more rested.

QUOTE(RockRaines @ Jun 8, 2005 -> 02:34 PM) When Healthy PK plays about 155 games a year lets say. So you are calling for a trade so we can have someone play 7 games!!!! Well, PK played 155 games last year, but he only started at 1st in 137 of them. The rest he either DHed or pinch hit. That leaves a few more than 7 games to fill in based on that number. Most he's ever played in teh field is 144.

NHWha?

QUOTE(Milkman delivers @ Jun 8, 2005 -> 02:00 PM) Fanastic Four (which looks like an awful movie). But...Jessica Alba...!!!!! (The bald guy is Michael Chiklis by the way)

QUOTE(Antonio Osuna @ Jun 8, 2005 -> 12:54 PM) The Cubs, sadly, are a contending team now. And they're about to get a ton better as people get off the DL. Last year, the Tampa Bay Devil Rays had like a 9 game winning streak. And I have a lot of trouble thinking that people will be coming back from the DL and not going back there pretty fast. And even if they do...Kerry Wood will not perform any better than Sergio Mitre did today. Right now, all of the Cubs replacement pitchers are holding it together. That is luck. Even if they get people back, they won't be a better team than they are now. (Unless Prior comes back healthy)

QUOTE(RockRaines @ Jun 8, 2005 -> 01:42 PM) Does this mean Wagner will be able to be moved??? I think this means the Phils realized their bullpen was costing them games, and that they needed another reliever to stay in the hunt in the tough NL East. Which means, no, Wagner will not be moved.

QUOTE(JimH @ Jun 8, 2005 -> 01:16 PM) The triceps injury was from playing in the field, but the ankle thing? I thought he hurt that running the bases. I thought the ankle thing was from playing the field... In fact, I found the article that tells me for sure. "Thomas fractured the navicular bone in his left ankle on June 17 of last season, while fielding a ground ball hit by Juan Pierre during a contest in Florida."

QUOTE(southsideirish71 @ Jun 8, 2005 -> 01:06 PM) The only thing I worry about is the last few injuries with Frank have been a direct corelation with him in the field. I think we need to go and get someone to be the backup. That's exactly my worry with Frank as well. Everett isn't a great fielder, but he's not going to end up on the DL if he plays outfield every few days. Frank on the other hand seems to end up on the DL for months every time he's in the field. I've been as opposed to this team making a deal as anyone around here, but if Gload cannot play first base, and we don't have anyone else who is big-league ready to play first, then we are going to need to find someone else. What Happens if Paulie gets hit by a pitch or something and can't continue in the game? (Or twists an ankle running). Can anyone name any people out there who can play both first base and the outfield or first base and the middle infield who we could grab as backups? Even if they're not that good with the bat, it would just be very nice to have someone who isn't a defensive liability there. (You'll also note that I think it's a good idea if the person can play more than 1 position, thereby giving a strong suggestion as to who he could replace on the roster).

QUOTE(RockRaines @ Jun 8, 2005 -> 11:43 AM) Well barring a trade, who would you rather have in vs. lefties, Cotts or Marte????? If there are people on base or the game is very close, I'd prefer to bring in Cotts. He has a far lower WHIP than Marte (1.08 vs. 1.57), which means to me that he's going to be much less likely to allow the run to score if he's already there. He's also yet to give up a long ball this season. On the other hand, if no one's on base and it's not a 1 run game, I'd bring in Marte, because Marte's ERA is lower, which means he is going to probably let a guy or two get on base, but they're not likely to score. He has given up 3 home runs however, which means that in a very close game, he's a bit of a risk. I also don't think I'd leave him out there for 2 innings unless I had no choice (going into extra innings, etc.)

QUOTE(qwerty @ Jun 8, 2005 -> 09:53 AM) They held teams to the lowest field goal percentage in the league. Field goal percentage is all it comes down to in the end... not the amount of points given up. Well, yeah winning in FG percentage is nice, but you also have to control rebounds and turnovers to keep the points lowest. I consider those topics linked. If you create a lot of turnovers, you give up less shots, and therefore give up less points. If you own the defensive boards (hi Tyson!), you give up less second shot opportunities, and therefore give up less points. If you don't do those 2 things, then even if you hold FG percentage in check, you still can give up enough points to hurt yourself.

QUOTE(southsider2k5 @ Jun 8, 2005 -> 10:53 AM) To me it sounds like the Bulls called his bluff, and he realized it before it was too late. I think based on my readings this morning that he actually got a better deal from JR yesterday... From what I could tell, the Bulls were offering a 3 year contract with a team option on a 4th, and Skiles yesterday got the team to agree to make it a 4 year guaranteed deal. Either way...I'm glad we're keeping a coach now that we've found one who at least knew how to win a few games.

QUOTE(LosMediasBlancas @ Jun 8, 2005 -> 10:31 AM) Does he do that rocking thing with his body and bat wiggle from his right handed batting stance? Not to my eyes...he seems far more settled and stationary from the right side. Not that it's a bad thing either way - there are guys that have far wierder motions than anything Carl does. I think he still opens his stance up when he gets 2 strikes against most pitchers from both sides though.

If you got to play with any 1 person in the big leagues, who would it be? Have you had the chance to speak to either KW or Ozzie? If so, what are your impressions of each of them? If you got to pick a jersey number, what # would you wear?

QUOTE(southsider2k5 @ Jun 8, 2005 -> 09:33 AM) It is funny to hear everyone jump on people who discredit certian media for their views, but as soon as a "conservative" columnist gets mentioned, everyone comes out to discredit them. Irony. Are we talking about people being discredited for their views or because they were completely wrong about something? Drudge has been repeatedly, utterly wrong about a very large number of his "breaking scoops", and I think that the Kerry Smear was probably the worst of them. When CBS screwed up that story...I stopped using CBS as a source for anything for roughly 6 months, until the people responsible were gone. I still hesitate to use them as a source. Likewise, I don't trust a damn thing Judith Miller writes at the NYT, because she was the one who the Administration/the Iraqi National Congress spoonfed their anonymous stories about Iraq's WMD programs. On the ohter hand, Drudge gets something wrong, and it gets picked up by networks all over the place...most of which never bother to issue a retraction, and neither does he. And even though he shouldn't have credibility left at all, people still consider him a legit source.