RME JICO

He still has a shot. There are several teams that can use a 4th OFer that will take a shot on him. If he does get claimed, the M's basically got nothing for Thornton.

It is amazing that Count accepted a contract that low, he could have easily gotten $12 million a year. He is definitely an early Cy Young candidate and has been the best pitcher in the bigs since the All-Star break last year. I am just glad to see that he has confidence even though his good friend El Duque is no longer there. At one point this was a slight concern but it is not anymore.

Yes, everybody does it, but why chance your future doing things that blatant. From some of the reports the neighbors in the area all knew what was going on, so it was only a matter of time before someone found out. Receiving money is one thing, other small gifts another, but moving your family into a huge house all of a sudden for a year, then quickly moving out seems pretty dumb to me.

How about 6 over .327 and some guy Thome is the worst of that group batting only .327. The other difference is Rowand and Anderson.

Mauer is the only one doing any damage and he is worse vs Lefties, so bring in Thornton or Cotts.

It is amazing that the Sox have 7 runs and Thome, Konerko, Dye are a combined 1-9.

Hopefully he gains some confidence and starts heating up. 8-9-1 hitters have 6 hits, 4 runs, and 5 RBI

Anderson!

http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/news;_ylt=AteQ...=yhoo&type=lgns If this is true, he deserves to lose everything he earned in college. How stupid can you be, you are about to be a multi-millionaire and you try to slip your family into a house that would be considered a benefit from an outside source. Greed gets the most of people.

QUOTE(Dan @ Apr 23, 2006 -> 11:11 AM) i think the C on Varitek and Sweeney's jerseys look kinda cool Varitek is batting .224 and Sweeney is batting .188. Those numbers look cool too.

QUOTE(qwerty @ Apr 23, 2006 -> 03:02 AM) Dude, nobody is above becoming a drug addict. What does that have to do with Mark Buerhle?

QUOTE(SoxFan101 @ Apr 23, 2006 -> 01:44 AM) Last time I checked a .411 avg > .283 by a lot. Also 8 HR's he has been as good as a hitter if not better than Thome so far. And he wasnt near that last season although as shown still had a great season. Also doesnt everett lead NL shortstops in RBI's or something yeah that will stop he is horrible offensively. Would be kind of cool if we had a rematch Houstan vs Whitesox. One team people shouldnt sleep on though is the Cubs. If they can stay in reach imagine the boost they will get with Prior, Wood, Miller, and Dlee all coming back in a month or two. Their bullpen is very good and with Dlee also have a good lineup. Yeah Everett leading the league in anything is amazing. Two things that cannot be overlooked is their schedule (they have not played a winning team), and their record in One Run games (6-0).

QUOTE(whitesoxfan101 @ Apr 23, 2006 -> 12:37 AM) Umm first of all, it's still early. And 2nd, Morgan Ensberg last year: .283/.388/.557/.945 on the splits, 36 HR, 101 RBI, 85 BB, 30 2B, 86 R, 150 H How the hell has he looked completely different? Dude was a stud last year and he's off to a hot start this year. Umm, Ensberg is batting .128 pts better, OBP of .134 pts better, SLG of .407 better, making his OPS .541 better compared to 2005. Also, the biggest thing making him look different is his K:BB ratio. The one number you left off was his 119 Ks in 2005. He has more BBs this year than Ks, and he has never done that in his career. He also has 8 HRs in 17 games compared to 12 HRs in 64 games after the All-Star break. I would equate that to looking different.

QUOTE(Walker2Baines @ Apr 23, 2006 -> 02:30 AM) Did you ever see Gooden in 84-85? He was a poster boy for great mechanics. Know what the hell you're talking about before talk. And anybody, even those with great mechanics can have injury problems. Look eight miles north at Chewing Gum Dump and #22. I think the main argument is that Mark has a good chance to become a 300 winner and HOFer with his current stats as long as he can sustain that rate for the rest of his career. Which is not an easy task by no means, but he has shown nothing to lead us to believe that he won't do it. You really can't compare Prior and Buerhle, other than they both pitch in Chicago (that is when Prior is not on the DL). Prior has only pitched over 200 innings once, and has one season with more than 11 wins. I wouldn't say that Prior has or had great mechanics either. He is more of a strikeout pitcher on the DL.

http://chicago.whitesox.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb...t=.jsp&c_id=cws

QUOTE(3E8 @ Apr 23, 2006 -> 12:54 AM) Well our 2-6 hitters aren't going to keep up what they've done. This is probably about as good as it'll get offensively because those batters are going to come down to earth a bit while 8-9-1 hopefully improve. But yeah the offense has been much better than I expected so far. I agree that the 2-6 hitters won't keep up the current pace, but none of them are going completely out of the norm like Chris Shelton. That bodes well for when the 8-9-1 hitters come around.

I remember that most of the critics last year said that the Sox could not repeat their record in One Run ballgames in 2006. In April of 2005 the Sox went 10-3 in One Run games on their way to a 17-7 April record. They were right, but not because the Sox could not repeat that feat, just that they would not have to. With the added offense this year, the Sox have only had 3 One Run games, with a 1-2 record. They have scored at least 3 runs in all but one game, and in that game they scored 2. So with the improved offense and quality starting pitching, this team looks to be set for a strong run. It is hard for the critics to bad mouth 33-4, that is the run differential in the Sox last five games. And to think this offense is still not hitting on all cylinders. They have done this with very little production from their 8-9-1 hitters.

Thome also tied the Big Hurt for the most HRs (9) in a month for a White Sox player. He has 7 more games in April to break the record.

The biggest difference has been Morgan Ensberg. He looks like a completely different batter this year. He was good last year, but he has been locked in this year. .411 BA, .522 OBP, .964 SLG, 1.486 OPS, 8 HRs, 17 Runs, 16 RBI, and 12 BBs to 9 Ks. Also, players like Ausmus, Everett, and Burke are all hitting better than last year. Wandy Rodriguez has also been a surprise. Another factor is that they have not played a team with a winning record, so once that happens I am sure their record willl come down to normal.

Mark has a great chance at winning 300 games, but a few things need to happen in his favor. First he needs to stay healthy, he needs to have a few 20 win seasons, and the Sox or the team he plays for in the future needs to stay competitive. At the same age, Clemens and Maddux are 30 wins ahead of him at age 27. The biggest reason for that is they had a couple of 20 win seasons before turning 27. Now if you compare him to Pedro Martinez who just got his 200th win at age 34, Mark would have to average between 16-17 wins a season for the next 7 years to match him - highly possible. Based off what he has done so far, it seems like he has a great shot at 300.

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/recap;_ylt=Atd...F?gid=260422104

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2417471

Crede was 3-9 with a HR, and 5 Ks vs Santana in 2005. He was the Sox best hitter vs Santana last year.

QUOTE(aboz56 @ Apr 20, 2006 -> 05:19 PM) I love all of the low ratings for my columns. For those who voted so low, please leave a sample of your writing. I voted a 4, but I don't think the low votes were because of your writing skills. Since we do not know what happens behind the scenes, we can only speculate that a deal is not in the works for MB. I would assume that locking MB up at this moment in time is not a top priority for KW. He has almost two full seasons to get something done. I am sure they are trying to address the bullpen and maybe even CF if Anderson continues to struggle. It would be in the Sox best interests to lock MB now before his value goes up any further after another 230IP/16+ win season.