clujer420

Good point. As long as the Sox have Graffy as their backup infielder, Miles won't be anywhere near the big league club. Maybe if Valentin or Jimenez or Crede get hurt, he'll get called up -- but he'd probably rarely play.

You're right, there is a difference. That is why I said that SO FAR it hasn't happened.

His A numbers were bad, yes -- .256 avg in 930 AB's (about a season and a half's worth) In AA, he only had 152 AB's (about 1/3 of a season's worth), but improved to .270. But, in AAA, he had 1321 AB's (about 2 season's worth) and hit .286. Since when does a .286 average "blow"? And in 889 career AB's in the majors, he's hitting .271 -- that is very above average. I don't care what he did with other teams or in other levels of the majors, though. All I care about, ultimately, is what he's done with the White Sox, and in about a third of a season, he's hitting .296 since joining the team late in '02. His OPS is around .850. When did these numbers become bad? He sees a lot of pitches, walks more than he strikes out, and has a lot of pop in his bat. Sounds like pretty good qualities for a lead-off hitter. And you're right -- who knows what Miles would do in the majors. We DO know what Jimenez brings to the table -- and that is solid numbers. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

Me too..... but I'll take the Sox winning over management getting canned anyday. I am a fan of the Sox first and foremost and a member of the "firing lines" when the situation arises. I am still for the firing of KW, JM, and GW..... I just want to see the team do well too. I'm torn Well of course we want the Sox to win first and foremost. I was simply pointing out that some of our sources reported information that, so far, has been inaccurate.

Now that you made me look up his minor league stats, I can say again that he's never gone .300,.400 and his hitting in the minors was s***ty. Except the one good year you mentioned. Sound familiar, to a Sox minor leaguer who has had one good season. .294 and .390 is so not even close to .300 and .400, you're right.

He was supposed to be gone "any moment"... I'm still waiting for "any moment" to arrive...

Until Prior wins 20, he can't be put in the same class as Colon or Zito, or any of the other top level pitchers in baseball, IMO. And yes, he's a stud, and I hope he's signed by us, but unless we make the playoffs, I really don't see that happening.

One thing I don't understand is this -- Willie Harris was hitting like .400 or something, and when he was called up and AR (who was hitting like .150) was sent down, some of you guys were saying that Willie didn't deserve a shot. But when it comes to Aaron Miles, who is hitting very well, he DOES deserve a shot? Not only that -- some people want to replace our BEST hitter, D'Angelo Jimenez, with Miles. That doesn't make sense.

Colon is a veteran and he knows how the game is played. He didn't have to be told by anybody to hit an Oriole hitter, although someone like Jerry or Coop may have reminded him about it before going back out to the mound. He's been around long enough and is savvy enough to realize that someone had to pay for Magglio's beaning. It sucks that it was a scrub like Hairston who had to get hit (someone like Conine would have been a little more worth it), but Bartolo did what he had to do. His teammates will respect him even more today because of it, you can bet on that. To know that your teammates have your back is invaluable.

I love the collectiveness that this team has shown on the field so far this season. I have no clue what's going on behind the scenes because I'm not there to witness it first-hand, but so far in '03, this team has been a TEAM. The first case of it was in the game vs. Minnesota a couple of weeks ago when Garland hit Mientkiewich (sp?) and the benches emptied, and last night with Colon sticking up for Magglio. And how about Jerry getting ejected for the 3rd time already in 40 games? We're 20-20, and we've got a huge series against our perhaps biggest rival on the road -- hopefully the Sox can keep up their play!

This team is going to have "problems" at more than 1 position. Unless you are the Yankees, every team does. The trick is keeping those problems at a minimum and stressing your positive points. For the Sox, our positive points SHOULD be our offense and our bullpen. So far in '03, the bullpen has been about a C (getting better, though), and our offense has been about a C- or a D+. Our starting pitching is above average IMO, and I'd rate them at about a C+. To sum it up, AR isn't going to make or break this team.

I was thinking about this earlier, and I think we should be rooting for the Royals, if anybody. My reasoning behind that is we all pretty much agree that KC will come down to earth at some point, and I think it's already started to happen. The Twins, on the other hand, proved last season that they aren't flukes. So, when it's all said and done, the team that, IMO, poses the most real and long-term effect is Minnesota. Go Royals!

It was probably the 43rd take by the time they got it right, LOL, so I don't blame him for not looking amused.

Keep in mind he's playing in Coors Field -- Vinny Castilla got a huge contract after playing at Coors, and whatever sappy team gave it to him deserved to get ripped off. That said, I think Preston has some talent. I don't know who you'd be willing to give up to get him though. Maybe if they would do it for Carlos Lee, but I wouldn't trade any pitching for him.

Watching us steal and watching us throw out others while trying to steal are 2 of my favorite things to see the Sox do. Willie needs to work on his bunting during BP. He should never hit a ball in the air in BP -- all he should do is bunt and slap the ball the other way. He's not a very good hitter, and his only real attribute that he's displayed in the majors is speed. Hitting flyballs and popups is not going to utilize his speed. As Hawk says, "speed kills", and swinging is killing Willie's average.

My thought on Aaron is that he's young, tries hard, and deserves the benefit of the doubt one more time. If, upon his return to the majors, is still hovering around the low .200's, then I think he's exhausted his chances. But, until then, we all need to root for AR -- he nearly died in the off-season -- I think he deserves a little more lee-way than some of you are giving him.

You should stop thinking.

"Smart ass" isn't the best way to describe it. It came off as being a negative comment IMO.

If he could give us a .260+ average, that would be fine with me. He got off to a very rough start in '03 (combo of injuries and not playing every day), but I think that if/when he gets back to the big leagues, he'll help this team not only offensively, but defensively as well. He may not be THE answer, but if he can give us what I think he's capable of, he definitely won't hold us back as a team.

As long as these mugs are full of vodka and OJ,

Sure can. And congrats to you for figuring out how to use a dictionary!! Steff, your hubby must have done a good job last night. You're a lot more jovial than usual!

Great post. I'm glad there aren't some f***ing ass holes around here. Saying our team is underachieving, then proceeding to to rip ONE single player is a great post? Cool.

That's why I said "Off-topic morality question". Emphasis on "OFF-TOPIC". If I put it in the off-topic part of the board, nobody will see it.

The way that pitch hit him, he's lucky to only have a broken nose. It didn't look like he even tried to move -- deer in the headlights syndrome, I suppose.

I'm watching Maury Chung..er, Povich..and he's got a woman on there who just had a 10th man (yes, I said 10th) tested to see if he was the father of her child, and he was not. Am I a bad guy for laughing about that and rooting for the test to come back negative? Just curious.