Jim Fainter

Tejada's value might go down a bit, but with so many stupid GM's out there someone will bid against himself and force the price up. I can't see him coming our way next year.

How did he get such a big contract so soon? This is just his fourth season. Probably the same GM that gave Kendall $10+ MM per year.

Saw replays of his two blasts tonight, one homer and one long fly out, and he is swinging so much better than last year and the first two months of this year. Quick, compact, head down all through the swing, nice follow through.

Will Robbie be better than Willie next year?

nine is fine.

Re: Dibble. Koch, Colon, and Benson. He might be right.

Dibble always has liked Frank.

I was in Comiskey in game 2 of the 1959 World Series against the Dodgers when Al Smith got a beer in the face as he was looking up at a home run. I was on the third base side half way up with a perfect view. Never have forgotten it. Of course, that was an accident.

Flash and Marte have done the job. Wouldn't bother me a bit if we extended them right now for next year.

I promised elsewhere that I would leave the Everett trade alone, but here I am; just want to answer Joel and HSC Fan. First, Joel, I made my post before Ev's big double last night. I'm sure he will have other big hits down the road, and I will be cheering for him with you. I don't dislike Carl, I just think we drastically overpaid for him. It reflects poorly on the competence and judgment of our maximum leaders. As I said earlier, Webster is a tremendous prospect. True, he might never make it for a variety of reasons, but today he is a tremendous prospect. If we shopped him alone to every other team, we would have gotten a lot more for him than Carl Everett. If we had shopped Webster, Rupe, and Francisco to every other team, we would have gotten a whole lot more than Carl Everett. If the Rangers had shopped Everett to every team in the majors, they would not have been offered anything near the value of those three kids from any other team. I hope Carl hits like crazy, hustles his ass off, and leads the Sox to the playoffs. But the fact of the matter is, I bet we could have gotten Carl for just one of those kids. The Rangers would have been crazy not to do it. But we were probably bidding against ourselves and just kept throwing more chips in the pot until they finally stopped us. I have no reason not to believe that when this trade came up, we reacted much too quickly, all to the benefit of the Rangers. They won the battle of the brains and baseball judgment, IMO. Now I am really done talking about this trade.

If we can't hit Tampa's pitcher tonight, maybe we can get a rain delay in, say, the sixth inning to cause him to lose his stuff.

Friday, 7-25. Pete gave a long rundown of trade possibilities and closed with a comment about how well the Rangers have done in their trading this month. He was obviously referring to the Everett trade. He said it, not me.

Let's not get overconfidant vs the Rays. They tattoed Boston yesterday for 15 runs, 21 hits.

Rex, what do you hear on Malone? Prognosis? Tks.

I know this board is not the right place to start a topic on those yahoos, and I hope my comments don't create any kharma in favor of them, but they have a really big series this week end in Houston. They are down five in the loss column, Wood pitched yesterday and got tattoed, Prior is on the DL, Cubs are reeling and on the road, Astros are playing well and at home......this is probably their biggest series of the year.

Plus, he himself said right before the all star break that his swing was back and his hitting would improve, or words to that effect.

On the subject of the Colon/SFO deal, I just read where columnist Skip Bayless recommended the Giants trade Foppert for Colon.

Point taken, Rex. I'm done. Sorry for bending everyone's ear, or whatever.

I still don't understand how John Hart convinced the Sox to throw all these blue chip prospects into a pool for selection. I mean, this is still Carl Everett we're talking about. We get Carl Everett for three months. We're not talking Pujols or Helton or Hank Blalock. We are talking Carl Everett. I'm quite sure that they originally asked for Cotts, Honel, and Reed to be put into that pool. Nooooooooo, we said, much too smart for that ploy. But since you can't have those three, we'll include the best of the rest.

The way the Cards are hurting for pitching, they migh be willing to take a chance on Koch if we don't ask for anything. Maybe an A Ball pitcher. That way, if they fix him, he won't haunt us for 2 years. Remember, he gets $6 MM next year.

Joel, Koch doesn't have some psycological problem where he needs to be pumped up, and it wasn't the Rays that cost him his role. His problem is that he does not have big league stuff any more, and he comes in late in a tight game, those hitters are are concentrating and doing their very best to hit the ball really hard. Koch is now overmatched because he doesn't have the same stuff he used to have. We need to win these three games and can't be experimenting with Koch. I have no solution or suggestion for Koch, other than to put him on the DL to see if there is a physical problem.

Get the first guy out.

I noticed that Cerb, but did not want to sound negative. Legitimate power is the last thing these young guys achieve.

Another 9th inning rally??

Does Nanita go to Kannapolis now?