Jim Fainter

While on the subject of Frank, somewhere on another thread there was a comment about some pathetic slide he made at home plate. Can anyone fill me in? Tks.

Speaking of Wade Boggs................... One thing that people have forgotten about him is that he was OLD when he broke into the Bigs,-- 26 I believe. He was kept in the minors for years because he was a third baseman without much power. Then, when he finally got a chance, he won a batting title his rookie year, hitting around .350 or so. I don't have the benefit of having his stats in front of me, just my feeble memory. If he was in the majors when he should have been, say three years earlier, he would have ended up with about 3600 lifetime hits. General Managers can be SO stupid when they profile a player according to his position. Imagine keeping a great hitter like that in the minors for so long. Actually, a similar situation existed for Edgar Martinez of Seattle. He was kept at AAA for years while hitting close to .400 until he finally was given a real chance, and he also had a big year his rookie season. I believe he was also 26 when he made it with Seattle, and they were a s***ty team in those days. General Managers should just decide if a player can play the game instead of saying that a certain position should yield so many home runs. I can't believe their judgement, sometimes. End of rant.

I think all of those moves are correct.

Yes. Anytime a player is removed from the 40 man roster, every team has a shot at him in reverse order of performance. The Sox now are at either 37 or 38, and they will be adding Loaiza and Daubach, possibly Miles.

The guy can sure hit.

If Ring is on the Southside next year, he'll have to pass up a lot of pitchers.

If Dan Wright falters, I think they would look to someone else to bring up.

I liked Sammy until he showed up at Clinton's State of the Union address -- sitting next to Hilary. What a f***ing joke. Fools Rush In.

Did he ever get Derek Jeter out?

KW and JM cannot possibly justify keeping Rick White or even Gary Glover over Josh Stewart, unless they all reverse courses in the final week of ST. The comparison to Mark Buerhle is obvious. Correct me if I am wrong, but didn't MB get his first few appearances with the Sox out of the pen? That would be the perfect scenario for Josh. Then neither one of them would have needed a stint at AAA. Josh's good year at AA last year and his strong showing in the Arizona Fall League are not coincidences. He gets people out.

Unless Olivo gets hot in the last week of ST, I think Paul will start the season on the team and MO goes to Charlotte.

That was the play CubKilla.

Why would the Marlins think that they need Glover? Chances are, they rate both of their catchers ahead of Paul. If some other team has an inflated value on one of our "marginal" players, sure, go for it. If I were the Marlins GM and this was presented to me, I think I would be asking for Stewart, not Glover.

Among other things, Bo made the greatest outfield throw I have ever seen.

I have said it in several other topics: White throws line drives. Trouble in River City if he makes the team.

Regarding Rauch, look on the bright side. He is a breaking ball pitcher who struggled a bit in the thin desert air of Tucson. Give him five or six starts in Charlotte, he should regain his sharpness. Any team would love to trade for him, just like in the case of Kip Wells in 2001 when he was struggling with us. He will prove to be a bona fide big league pitcher , in my humble opinion.

I predict that the Sox will be the only team with two, count 'em, two Aarons.

Rob: This year's team is potentially better than all of those teams. Of course, "potentially" is a big word, but everyone has a few question marks. Let's hope that ten years from now you will be writing about that great team in '03.

I enjoyed the article, but I would like to make one comment. In the second paragraph you compared the 1993 team to the successful "Go-Go Sox" teams of the late 1950's and 1960's. Actually, the "Go-Go" Sox were born in 1951. That team finished fourth, which was the first time they finished in the first division in many, many years. They had a 14 game winning streak along the way, which turned on the whole city. They were a running team, led by Minnie Minoso (his first year with the Sox), Nellie Fox, Chico Carrasquel, Bob Dillinger, and Jim Busby, to name a few. Whenever one of those guys got on, the whole crowd would yell "Go, Go" in unison. I was there and I loved it. That season had a lot to do with my becoming a Sox fan for life. Thanks again for the article.

Maybe Cooper can help him. Rex, did you like Majewski?

Thanks Cubkilla. I think Crede was a lot more "ready" a year ago than Clayton. But it's all ancient history now. I like this team. Crede is positioned to be a big time player, and Rowand looks to be recovered. He will be solid and will improve over the course of the season. Those two kids will really complement our better known sluggers.

This is Majewski's third tour of duty with the Sox, and he hasn't made the 40 man roster yet. He spent a year in the Dodger's system and came back to us in a trade. Wasn't he part of the Barry/Berry mishap?

JimH Great report. Did you see any of the minor league guys? Any news on them?

It seems to me that we almost have too many pitchers for our top two minor league teams.

Think about this for a minute. Exactly one year ago (plus a few days) some genius decided to keep and START Royce Clayton and send Joe Crede to the minors. And as a by-product of this decision, the Sox were privileged to pay Mr. Clayton $4-5 Large.