IlliniKrush

Ya, the age difference probly causes different people to see the game differently, but i think it only helps contribute to the way we view the game on this board. It's more of an honor for us, the "youth" to have posters with years upon years of knowledge and experience on this board than the reverse, but either way it's good to have the different viewpoints.

Let me second that. cwsox and I are roughly the same age and we have seen many a phenom come and go. I was starting to compile a list of cub phenoms in my lifetime that were busts. The list got so long I said the hell with it. Some of the names made me laugh as I remembered them from baseball seasons gone by. That being said, I've seen Prior pitch here in Pittsburgh and he appears to have great potential. I'd much rather have him than Kerry Wood, who I think is one blown elbow or shoulder away from disaster. I don't understand dissing our own Mark in favor of their Mark. Whatever happens in the future no one can tell, but as of right now our guy has really done something. I hope I haven't harmed cw's credibility here. No one on these message boards bats .1000 but cw does know a little about baseball. Youth is great but there is something to be said for the wisdom that comes from experience. Alright, but how many of those were #1 picks (besides van poppel) AND were labeled with THE next best phenom label? Secondly, no one on this board bats .1000? What does this say about the board when no one can bat Clayton's career average? LOL, i know it was just a typo. Anyway, as far as cwsox's credibility goes, i haven't been here long but he seems like one of the more knowledgeable posters on this board, even if his picture of navarre with the false caption makes me want to puke every time i read his posts. Also, i don't know how much of a "youth" you want to label college kids...and, isn't chisoxfan roughly my age also?

CWSox, i'm not offended by it. I don't know if you know how old i am...but i'm 19 just for future reference. And i've played baseball and watched baseball all my life, and i know more than my fair share about the game and how things work. Granted, i don't know the history as well as you older posters do, but at 19, i'd like to think you thought you knew a lot about the game. And about the Prior hype...i mean, i'm not an 8 year old saying "prior is god, he's super, he'll win 30 this year and every cy young for the rest of his life"...i'm giving some lengthy reasons for my beliefs that are pretty solid, and it's a nice debatable topic that we will just have to wait and see about the results. I'll admit i haven't experienced as many of these flameouts firsthand, but i've heard of them just the same.

It's not just my observation, but experts/scouts observations that he has the best mechanics they've seen in years. There are plenty of young, touted pitchers, ala Jeff Weaver, with ridiculously terrible mechanics. It's easy to see. And no, i'm not comparing weaver's hype to prior, but weaver was supposed to be better than this. If you watch Prior throw, it's effortless. Keep in mind, i'm not knocking MB at all. I think both of them will go on to have really great careers. I just think Prior's will be better. And i did not say the Cy Young should be named the Mark Prior...i dont know what that reference is to...but if anything, he may win a few before it's all said and done.

See, i don't know how sure you could be that Buehrle is the "real deal". After all, he's had two good years....two. While i personally don't see him flaming out, it could easily happen, especially considering his very worrying strikeout to walk ratio. I'm not saying strikeouts are the most important thing about a pitcher, but we all know it's a very good tool to predict future success. In which case, Prior should do very well. And though i'm not all that old, i think i can pretty much assess where Prior fits in the realm of hyped pitchers over the years...he's pretty damn high up there. Even if he was a complete bust, he could be a .500 pitcher, which isn't bad. But i just don't see it. If last year is any indication, he's gonna be a phenom, and i'm not worried about the chance of him getting injured because of his flawless mechanics. I'm not arguing that Buehrle hasn't proven more than Prior...i even think he'll be better than Prior this year...but as for their careers, i see Prior coming out on top.

Stewart...only to return punts. You have to sign someone like Plummer to fill the void until someone like Boller, Simms, or Ragone is ready to take over. I'm assuming they won't take Leftwich at 4, which has been Kiper's latest word.

Where's Jamie Navarro? LOL. And just a random though: Dan Pasqua ruled. I remember he hit one of the ads in right field, what a blast.

If they don't show Buehrle a long term contract or at least a decently sized one for this year, i'd say the hell to the sox and move on to St. Louis. While he's not a sure thing, 2 excellent years is enough to get you somewhere. I'd rather have the mistake of locking him up to a long term contract and having him falter than to have him go elsewhere and continue to produce at this level (or higher) for years to come. This situation just really pisses me off, and i'm just waiting for the day where i wake up and it's all over. I don't want to think of Mark in another uniform anytime soon. Lefthanded starting pitchers of this caliber don't grow on trees.

While i will also wait and see on pitcher's performances, good outings this early in spring are very good, when hitters are supposed to be ahead of the pitchers by a wide margin.

Osuna striking out Sosa swinging to end the Saturday game after walking Bellhorn (i think) to put runners at 1st and 3rd with 2 outs

I love the Sox/Rays grudge matches. Nothing gets me going more than watching an epic battle between Mark Buehrle and Jason Tyner, as Tyner furiously tries to get a bunt put down the first base line. And if that isn't enough, a ball hit of the cat walk and the time spent waiting for the umps decision is really really intense.

Wow, i can't believe the bias that exists on this board. While Buehrle is better right now, and has proven more, as early as this year, Prior could take the torch from him. He's got ungodly potential, and i know some of you don't like the word "potential", but we saw him prove he was worth the hype last year. I'd probly take Buehrle this year, but Prior of the course of his career. And concerning Buehrle and how he has "proven stuff"...3 years of good pitching doesn't prove a whole lot...he's still got a long way to go also. Mark Prior will win more cy youngs than mark buehrle for sure. And concerning injury...there's a better chance Buehrle has injury problems this year than Prior in my opinion, Buehrle has been worked like a horse while Prior was shut down last year and will come back stronger than ever. And, most importantly, Prior has the most picture perfect, mechanically flawless motion i have ever seen, period. That will help him a lot down the road. He doesn't really exert a whole lot of unnecessary effort to get the ball to the plate. I love the Sox as much as anyone here, but Prior will be a dominant pitcher for years to come, while Buehrle will be just a notch below.

Colon definitely isn't drawn to scale in that picture...

Disco Demoliton night anyone?

Wright just f***ing sucks? What team are you watching?

Milton got scratched from his start and could need more surgery on his knee It's all coming together like i said, that pitching staff is as fragile as a vase.

Good way of putting it. As much as Wirtz is an ass, Smith can't manage a box of peanuts :fyou

Outside shot of Borchard fighting for a roster spot...doubtful, but if he absolutely lights it up in the spring, i don't think you can send him down.

Back in the lead

I've never visited the chisox.com boards, so i basically talk to myself about white sox baseball til now...god this place is a goldmine, the season hasn't even started and i'm already ready for the season mainly cuz of this board. The same thing goes for the blackhawks website, it pure sucks, blackhawkzone.com is the equivalent to this website, real fans, better stories, etc

Well, trust me, they were assholes, they were patrolling everywhere, not just Lot E, but trust me, bigtime jags. I dont' know if it's E, but it's a general parking one right outside the foul pole and close to right field, you don't need a pass

Or the sugar ray

Well specify if you mean overrated by Sox fans. Most teams' fans will overrate a few of their own players...but Konerko is not overrated across the nation, so that's why i don't consider him officially overrated.

The whole way they handled the situation was my biggest problem, i'm sure i'm not the first one who has tried to tailgate after the game. It wasn't like we were putting up a fight. We got cursed at, numerous times, before we stepped up and started to talk back. That's a complete bulls*** way to treat a customer, trust me if u were there u wouldn't be blaming me for any of this, they were complete assholes. Just cuz the rule is on the ticket doesn't mean they have the right to be complete assholes to fans for no reason, i was pissed. They had white shirts on with nametags and ID numbers, they weren't real cops, just a bunch of dumbasses that didn't graduate from high school and thought they'd be tough pickign on a bunch of high schoolers. I think it was lot E, it's the one outside the rightfield foul pole...not sure if that's E or not

I have more than a few proposals for those crappy Sox fan relation people, let me tell you...a quick story. Me and 3 friends went to a Sox/Seattle game last august, a friday night game. Tailgated before the game. We took some cans into the park, soda to be honest (we aren't stupid), and in the 3rd inning we got caught with them...security came up and said they found us with their high tech cameras. Then later, two of my friends pull out another one, i didn' t know they still had any, but anyway, they end up taking them downstairs to security crap and what not and kick them out of the park. So i have to waste a whole inning going downstairs and getting them the keys to my car so they have somewhere to go Alright so that really sucks, and after the game we decide to tailgate again (at the time we didn't know you couldn't), so we light up the grill and have some burgers not even half done, and two security b****es in a golf cart come by and say put it out, you can't tailgate after the game. We were "oh, i didn't know that, alright". We were disappointed. Well one of my friends says "oh man, we have to waste the food". He's talking to us, just commenting. Well, one of the security guys responds with "I don't give a f***, get your s*** in the car and drive off." WHOA. I was like sir, all he was saying was that we have to waste the food and it's unfortunate, you don't ahve to swear. "I don't give a f***, i have to deal with asshole kids like you all day." At that point, we knew this wasn't any normal confrontation. Basically, after we asked them not to swear and they didn't listen, i started talking back, f*** if i'm gonna get pushed around by parking lot s***heads. So started making fun of their job and their life under my breath, and stuff like that, maybe even a wife joke in there. Well then the little scrawny guy of the two, shorter than me, and i'm 5'8", approaches me and says "you need another 100 pounds on you", and i'm like "excuse me" and he's right in my face. And i'm just boiling, just waiting for him to touch me, cuz hell would have broken loose...right about this time some other guy comes over that has no idea what's going on, and tells me to drive off and takes his cuffs out to arrest me! I would have loved to see that, i get arrested for tailgaiting after the game...and the security guy wanted to fight us! Then the morons tell us to throw the grill in the car right away, even though it's burning hot, and gives us s*** about that. Then we are like i wanna talk to your manager, and he goes "reinsdorf is my manager". And he says wanna call em now, i'm like sure...needless to say that didn't go anywhere. We took down their names and numbers from their badges and they were starting to get scared, all the while i kept ripping on their dead end job, it was hilarious. That really pissed me off...probly the worst Sox experience i've ever had...they just treat people like s*** down there