Jim Fainter

Baseball players are asking for injuries like this for insisting on sliding into bases head first. Everybody wants to play like Pete Rose. They think they are perceived to be hustling when they slide head first. They are just risking injury to many body parts, and they don't get there any faster. A tradtional feet first, pop-up slide by Jeter makes him safe and unhurt.

Agreed. If we blow ten in a row and look that lethagic, then we have something to b**** about. I would like to add something on the lead post from Chisoxfan, regarding the Boston- Tampa game: It's been a pet peeve of mine for a long time. Boston had 3 or 4 run lead after 7 with Pedro on the mound, and he was dominating. So naturally they take him out, put in Embree, and he comes apart like a 29 cent mop. They leave Pedro in, they win. These lame brain managers all fall into the same pattern. Gotta take him out after 7. When Randy Johnson was with Seattle that happened several times to him in one season (1994, I think), and he got in Lou Piniella's face and insisted on finishing games if he was ahead. He also went right to the press. That Boston game was lost by the manager, end of story.

You're right. We should have pinch hit for Alomar in the 8th inning. We only had 3-4 really good swings all day. I remember when JM was first hired, in one of his first interviews he said that the Sox will be playing National League style baseball -- lots of running, etc. Hope the Sox wake up Wednesday.

That's because the weather is so lousy in Chicago this time of year. Both Cubs and Sox usually open on the road.

Lots of bad swings.

Troy Glaus will miss him.

Chisoxfan, I see your point on Webster. But not Reed. This guy had, what, three years of big time college ball? He should be the perfect candidate to skip a classification or two. And some of those studs from last year's Bristol team should be able to skip Kanny and go straight to W-Salem, I would think.

The official news release that I saw on Miles had him going to the monor league camp for reasignment, or words to that effect. Didn't say anything about Charlotte specifically. Am I reading between the lines?

How did Eason do last year, Rex? I can't bring up last year's minor league stats, maybe they've been purged. Also, I wonder if there is a tendency now to bring up our best position prospects too slowly. e.g. Reed, Webster. What do you think?

He makes Todd Ritchie look like an all-star. But speaking of Tampa Bay, I really like one of their young outfielders, can't remember his name. Not Grieve. Some 20 year old kid who can run . I'm too lazy to look him up.

Parque made the Devil Rays. Doesn't say much for parity.

Rex, I thought for sure that Jeremy Reed was ticketed for Birmingham.

Does that mean we can't get our update on the Charlotte Knights?

Lowe was awful last year for the Rockies, and this was after the Pirates released him.

KC cut Baldwin, also.

Did lyou all notice that KC is in first place in the Cacti League and that Mike Sweeney is hitting close to .500? He alsways hits well against us. I hope JM has our boys on their toes next Monday -- no time to be over-confident.

Who cares about SI's pre-season picks? Did you see their final four predictions? We just need to worry about KC next week and Minnie a month or two later.

I don't think we need to sign every pitcher that comes down the turnpike. Could he even make our Charlotte team? Or Birmingham? We have five young guys will be set in a rotation at both places. We need to keep our young pitchers pitching for us. If Shane is still a quality pitcher, he should go to Tampa.

Speaking of the Scrubs, which I absolutely hate to do, I never understood why the Marlins traded Clement and Alfonseca for Julio Tavares a little over a year ago. I know, I know, they wanted to dump some salary. Clement is a pretty darn good pitcher and Alfonseca was coming off a good year in 2001. You know they could have gotten a lot more than Julio for those guys. Ever since that trade I lthought the Scrubs had dirty pictures of the Marlins' GM. This is the same team that just got Mike Hampton from the Rockies with that obnoxious contract, which has since been dumped on the Braves, but Florida is on the hook for much of it. I think I have come up with an idea for a new thread: "Stupid General Managers." The guy leading the Marlins should be at the head of the class. Trading Clement for Julio?

I also was excited when we signed Belle. Then I called a buddy in Cleveland who is a hard core Tribe fan, and he said we would soon regret the signing.

The Twinkies should be ranked higher than us until we prove we can beat them head to head, which should happen about 12 times this year.

I still remember the day after we signed Belle. There was GR saying he went after Belle because that was the player Frank Thomas told him to go get. Then both of them had terrible starts. Belle had one good year and one not so good year, but at least Reinsdorf had the balls to let him go to free agency after year two with the Sox. Thank you, Baltimore.

I remember those slides last year; I thought he was talking about something recent.

Uh, Chris, I think it was Joe Dimaggio who hit in 56 straight games, not Ted Williams.

I read someplace that Rios hit very well at the end of last year when he came back from the injury. I think he is a solid big league player.