Jim Fainter

I'm always looking for ways to make you guys happy. Just saw an interesting stat. Royce has the lowest batting average in the National League in month of May.

Can you believe that Mo Vaughn is the 4th highest paid player??? In the words of the immortal Bob Ryan, someone should smack the GM who negotiated that deal.

A more interesting race would be Corey's Mom vs Frank Thomas.

I watch Wilson a lot, and he has been tremendous this year. He's got it all, and the Rockies love him. There is no way on God's Green Earth that the Rockies would trade him for Lee. The Rockies' biggest needs are pitching, either starters or bullpen, and shortstop. They have a couple of outfielders who could help us, but they would not part with Wilson or Payton.

I was sorry to hear of his passing yesterday. I have a couple of memories of him. For some unknown reason, I have a vivid memory of Dave coming off the mound after shutting out KC on either 3 or 4 hits. I was sitting behind the Sox dugout, so I had a perfect view of him. It looked then as if he had the baseball world by the horns. Happiest guy on Earth. He could really throw hard, and he had all the pitches. Then, another memory occured because of the stupid Bonus Baby rule that baseball had in those days. You could only "protect" two players that were signed to a bonus of over some arbitrary figure. The two guys the Sox had that fit that category were Dave and another hard throwing righthander named Denny McClain. Then the Sox signed a third bonus baby, which meant that they had to get rid of one of the other two, and, of course, they put McClain on waivers, and he was claimed by Detroit for $ 8,000. I always felt that one reason they kept Debusschere over McClain was that one great game he pitched against KC. This probably ranked as one of the dumbest personnel decisions ever made by the Sox, not necessarily for keeping Debusschere over McClain, but for signing the third guy, who never made it. McClain went on to win 31 games in one year and 24 in another. Still, I always pulled for Debusschere whenever I saw him play basketball.

Miles had three more hits Wednesday in a losing cause. Average now up to .375.

Trade R. White for Finley, but not Garland.

Thanks, Rex.

Hey, guys, your trade talk is fascinating, but you have to leave Thomas out of the equation. He is untradable. The only thing we could do is release him and continue paying him millions. We are stuck. We lost a lot of flexibility by the inability to get Joe B ready for the majors. He was going to take over center AND hit. I don't see it happening yet.

The Rockies have some good outfield candidates, plus their GM is dumber than a bag of rocks. KW should start trade talks.

He had one terrrrrrible outing where they left him in and he gave up a s***potful of runs. Other than that, he's done alright. I'm not second guessing the trade, just commenting on his success, because I was not a big fan of Biddle's.

Word has it that the Oakland GM is running a campaign to stuff the ballot box.

He just needs a good PR agent. Get some snappy interviews, say all the right things, start a foundation, a video of his good plays, etc. Then, his agent can complain about how the pitchers are pitching him, you know, too inside, get some sympathy, get the media behind him.

Three more hits Tuesday in a losing cause. Now up to .365.

He just got his 10th save yesterday. I under-rated him. Maybe short relief is his niche.

Please be aware that I was not advocating signing Lugo, just thinking out loud.

I can't see KC trading Beltran as long as they are contending. Plus, he's a free agent after this year and will get a big time salary next year from somebody. He is not in our cards. It turns out that Chris Singleton would have been the man for the job after all, since Rowand didn't come through. I bet the brass are wishing that he will force his way back onto the team this year. Shortstop and center field will be sore spots next year.

Looks like we will have to exercise his option for 2004 at $3.5 Large. Can anyone hear JR gagging?

He was officially released by the Astros. Think KW will consider signing him? Jose figures to be gone, and there is a lot of doubt on this board if Jiminez can handle the job (SS) defensively. I don't read the Houston papers, but you know Mr. and Mrs. will publicly kiss and make up any day now, just like the Kidds, the Moons, and probably others that I can't think of right now.

Reed might be ready before Borchard.

Did you all see their current list of the 12 top prospects? No Sox were listed, but they had a second list of "prospects to watch" and they had Cotts in there. IOW they think Cotts is our top prospect. No mention of Joe B, of course, now that his average has dipped below .250.

Jeremy Reed. Aaron Rowand could be back in the mix if he ever starts hitting and if the Sox don't make a big trade.

Anybody have any details??????

Mariotti is not part of the Frank Thomas Fan Club.

ChiSoxfan: did you really say "funner?"