Balta1701

QUOTE(EvilJester99 @ Jun 2, 2005 -> 05:25 AM) Tim Kurkjian My only questions is this; can Texas afford to pick up the $12 million tab to get Clemens for half the season? (Clemens' contract is for $17 mil, and he receives a $3 million bonus if he's traded).

QUOTE(DBAH0 @ Jun 1, 2005 -> 10:41 PM) They got Paul LoDuca and Mota at the end of it right? LoDuca and Mota came from the Dodgers in exchange for Brad Penny and Hee Sop Choi. Lee originally came to the Cubs in exchange for Choi and a player to be named (i have no idea who that was)

QUOTE(Wedge @ Jun 2, 2005 -> 03:56 PM) Morneau, Punto, and Mauer all got hurt and probably won't play against the Yankees this weekend. Well, if the Royals can do this to the Yankees with their team, maybe it's better for the Twins that they're down a few players. Maybe the worse the team is, the worse the Yankees play against them.?

QUOTE(Dick Allen @ Jun 2, 2005 -> 03:45 PM) You can tell right away what kind of night its going to be for Cotts. If he has some control he's very effective. If not, they should yank him after 2 pitches. It'd be hard to yank him after 2 pitches if he became a starter.

QUOTE(FlaSoxxJim @ Jun 2, 2005 -> 11:51 AM) I can't answer the NRA question, because I cannot find their charter. In their stated mission to protect the 2nd ammendment the best way tehy see fit, however, I don't see anything that would suggest they are at least nominally anything but party-neutral. In reality, since there's not a whole lot of gun control activity originating from the right, it can be assumed that is the direction most of the membership leans. The NRA currently is organized under U.S. Law as the NRA Foundation, a tax-exempt 501 © organization. There are very specific limits on what political actions can be undertaken by 501 c groups. They are allowed to be advocacy groups, and their members are allowed to advocate positions and encourage others within the group to support certain positions. However, the group itself is not allowed to spend a significant amount of its funds or effort specifically on lobbying efforts. From the IRS Site: I believe Amnesty International is also registered in the U.S. as sa 501c organization, and hence is subject to the exact same lobbying and fundraising rules as the NRA.

QUOTE(southsider2k5 @ Jun 2, 2005 -> 11:30 AM) That's twice you have sighted the NRA now. My question is does the NRA has nuetrality in its charter anywhere? If you as an individual believe in something enough, that you are willing to donate money to it, are you really nuetral enough to not let it influence your treatment of the opposite? Take the Supreme Court. Do you feel comfortable with the ability of Souder to stay nuetral while hanging out with Dick Cheney on the side in his private life? I think it crosses an ethical line, and it makes anything that they publish a lot more suspect. If they were a liberal or conservative organization in their charter and gave to those organizations that is one thing, but when your leadership has stock in one group over another, yet is trying to tell me they aren't against or supporting any government, it rings hollow with me. I think you mean Cheney's hunting buddy Scalia, not Souder.

QUOTE(Dick Allen @ Jun 2, 2005 -> 03:30 PM) You would hope it was Garland, Buerhle, and Garcia's turn to pitch. Or maybe the Count. He's pitched pretty damn good this season, and go to a 4 man rotation. In other words...if we traded BMac and someone did get hurt...we're in real deep dog doo. Anyone want to play the last month and a half of the season with a 4 man rotation? That strikes me as a sure fire way to drop out of the playoff hunt real fast.

QUOTE(GreatScott82 @ Jun 2, 2005 -> 03:23 PM) If El-duque goes back on the DL and McCarthy is an Athletic. Then I can see KW making a move to acquire another starting pitcher. There is NO WAY we will go through that black-hole 5th spot again. Other insurance policies could be Cotts. He has been pitching pretty solid lately. Cotts as a starter? You've just got to be kidding me. Our bullpen has had enough difficulties lately, the last thing I want to do is rob it of 1 of its lefthanders. Would we bring Walker back up to take Cotts's spot in the pen? (shuddering). The fact is this...there is no one who could take over McCarthy's position as a backup to the Cubans (or anyone else who gets hurt) in our organization right now. This means that if anyone does get hurt and we've already traded BMac, either our chance at a title ends right there or we have to go and pay an even higher price for a pitcher. What happens if BMac is traded and on August 15th Contreras or El Duque go down with season ending injuries? You're past the trading deadline then without a backup plan. And Oh yeah, you're starting a 3 game set with the Twins.

QUOTE(Jabroni @ Jun 2, 2005 -> 03:19 PM) McCarthy did well against the Cubs but was shellacked by the Rangers. We lost both games. If we lost El Duque for the rest of the season, we would be in big trouble. Regardless, I'm not so sure McCarthy could save the team this season if that happened anyways. He wouldn't be asked to save the team. He would be being asked to not be a black hole every week. 1 good start out of every 2 something I wouldn't put past the kid, especially after how he looked in the spring. It might even come down to how the wind is blowing where the game is being played, becasue at least to me his problem thus far has seemed to be the long ball more than anything else. I can't name another pitcher in our organization who I'd expect to be anything other than a 5th day loss if 1 of the Cubans went down. If we bring up Adkins or someone, and he gives up 10 runs, its not like we're going to be a team that can outslug the other team 12-10.

QUOTE(kyyle23 @ Jun 2, 2005 -> 03:06 PM) McCarthy got one loss and a ND? He was on the hook for both of the runners on base when Dubois hit the homerun. Sox lost both games Gimme a break on this one, he had 1 good game and 1 bad game. He was pulled early in the Cubs game and Viz gave up the long ball, losing the lead for him. As far as I'm concerned, that's all I want from a rookie 6th starter. 1 good game to b alance out the bad games. But that's a lot better than having a guy like Diaz come up and do what he did last year...bad games almost every time.

QUOTE(sox-r-us @ Jun 2, 2005 -> 03:03 PM) Give them Anderson instead for Chavez. OFs are easy to find in FA. Hell, if Dye turns it around, with Pods and Rowand bound to be around, we are set for next year too, after which Sweeney could replace Dead Anderson + Crede (and maybe + 1 other pitcher not named McCarthy or Gonzalez) for Chavez I could live with. The other thing to remember in terms of contracts is that if we were to absorb Chavez's contract, it would really help us to have some cheap people at other positions. Cheap means young. Young means guys like McCarthy and Gio and Sweeney and Fields. Some of these guys would have to stay around in order for us to afford Chavez's contract. Otherwise, we'd be coming to the park with big holes to fill again. Like in our starting rotation last year.

Given that we have the 2 Cubans in our rotation and we expect them to get hurt, I'm still not comfortable giving up our best backup pitching option at this point. We're going to need the 6th starter to make this run. And even if he ends up going .500, just like he did against the Cubs and Rangers, that'll be a lot better than what we saw last year from our 5th starter spot. I'll agree Chavez is an upgrade from Crede, and I'm willing to accept that he'll probably turn his season around. But I'm not willing to remove that "Untouchable" label from McCarthy. That's the only line I won't cross.

QUOTE(Sox Hustler @ Jun 2, 2005 -> 01:48 PM) I give them props no doubt but I don't know of any other f***in team that pulls more games out of their asses than them. If Uribe's shot had been a few feet to the right...

I believe that last year, Billy Beane's big move (getting Dotel in the Beltran deal) also happened well before the trading deadline actually hit, if that means anything.

QUOTE(kyyle23 @ Jun 2, 2005 -> 11:53 AM) If he was plunked, i dont think they would call it a strain. I think it would be called a bruise. Strain sounds to me like he landed on it funny. I think it m ore than likely had to be related to a swing - he grounded out in the half of the inning before he was replaced. I doubt he had to dive or anything, but I didn't actually see the play.

Stolen from an ESPN.com chat: "News: Justin Morneau was removed in the 5th inning of Thursday's game against Cleveland with a left elbow strain. He was replaced by Matt LeCroy.Analysis: Morneau will be re-evaluated after the game. The extent of his injury is unknown at this time."

QUOTE(Hideaway Lights @ Jun 2, 2005 -> 11:41 AM) I don't think the team's 11-9 record is indicative of whether or not our team is playing like crap. If it was 9-11 and we'd lost those two anaheim games monday and tuesday, what would you say? I'll grant you that we were really damn lucky to win those games on Monday and Tuesday. But on the other hand...how many games have we lost this season on terrible luck? I'm thinking like those games in Oakland earlier this year where the umps went wild, or even yesterday when a GW grand slam went just foul. Monday we got lucky, but we also showed some heart and some talent. We came back after bullpen difficulties and still salvaged wins. Most teams aren't good enough to do that.

QUOTE(Milkman delivers @ Jun 1, 2005 -> 06:37 PM) I can't believe how many times I've seen someone say that recently. I also can't believe that it's always true. Here's the question...can anyone remember a single series where we've played worse than these 3 games? Can anyone remember a series where any team has played this bad for 3 games and won 2 of them?

Pods with a nice bunt single to lead off the game. Great to see him using his speed. It seems like its been a while. He better be on 2nd within a few pitches.

And the Count strikes out the guy who homered against him last game. 22 pitches for Contreras in the first inning.

Big out here...2 outs in the first, 1st and 2nd, McPherson up. Count did some good work on Anderson, but again the walks already look to be a question. At least he's getting ahead of most everyone he faces.

Well...Contreras threw a fastball good enough to break A.J.'s glove...I think that's a good sign.

QUOTE(Wedge @ Jun 1, 2005 -> 02:56 PM) These are questions that you should ask yourself about Chavez before you blindly think he was on steroids (or his numbers won't return to career form) due to diminished numbers (I don't know the answers, either) and assess whether he would have value on our roster: 1) Does he appear physically diminished from prior seasons (a la Giambi's trimming down)? 2) Did his past levels of high offensive production stem from hits that a player on steroids would benefit from? 3) If he joins the White Sox, would this new environment prevent him from becoming a player similarly productive to his past self. 4. Are you confident enough that his past production will return to give up your top level prospects and take on a bloated contract?

QUOTE(kyyle23 @ Jun 1, 2005 -> 02:43 PM) At this time any player with a huge dropoff in production is going to be suspected of Steroids. I think the fingerpointing shouldnt start until the season is over and the sample is more than 2 months. Fine...I won't start finger-pointing either, but something has made his production plummet like a rock tumbling off a cliff for the early part of this year. Just because I won't point fingers doesn't mean I immediately want to give up our #1 and #2 prospects to get the guy. That lineup just got Nick Swisher and Bobby Crosby back from the DL, so it has taken a step up. Jason Kendall has been down this year as well. If his problem is protection...that will fix itself pretty quick, and he should have a solid June. If his problem is something else, and he has another month hitting .230 (or .170 like he did in April), then you really have to start asking questions. Especially if your team is thinking of making a trade for him.

QUOTE(RockRaines @ Jun 1, 2005 -> 12:53 PM) Chavez is more productive at the plate??? Have you looked at Konerko and Chavez's numbers this year? Thus far this year, Crede is outperforming Chavez.