BainesHOF

Anderson's only job on the team is to be a defensive replacement. Ozzie has a lot of explaining to do after this one. Jenks can't be trotted out there in a save situation until he regains his fastball. Shame on A.J. for his pitching oh-so-predictable pitching calling with Jenks on the mound. It's first-ball fastball and then a curveball to punch out a batter with two strikes. ALL THE TIME.

The new pattern looks fine from the outfield or behind the plate. But as I was moving around the park the pattern does not look the same to the eye if you're down either line. Then it looks bad. Give a rare E to the God of Sod.

I don't think he looked so hot. Yeah, he got hitters out in a meaningless game, but his velocity wasn't quite up to speed no matter what the radar said, his location was much too high too often and his breaking stuff was erratic with much of it guilty of being high. Buehrle's a smart pitcher with guts. I hope that's good enough for him to finish above .500. I believe his arm is not what it used to be, and isn't about to get any better with this being the second season of it being off its long-time peak.

What I'm most disturbed about is bringing back Uribe, Podsednik and Anderson to the starting lineup. I don't think we're going to win the division with all three. Personally, I'm really in favor of Uribe returning. He's got a great glove, but let's face it, he was pretty bad offensively last year. We can put up with it, however, if Podsednik returns to form. If he doesn't, that's bad news. And I have no clue why Anderson is even being considered again. He's dumb offensively and defensively. It's been amusing to see a certain segment of fans annoint Anderson as a Gold Glover. Do they watch all the games? (Newsflash - a center fielder should be good defensively.) Sure, he's above average, but he suffered too many mental lapses in the field and he had trouble going back on the ball. Overall, his range is very good, but his arm is so so, and certainly doesn't scare anyone, especially when he throws to the wrong base so often. I'm hoping Williams makes at least one change at these three spots before the season starts.

Maybe Murphy got bored picking fights with Mike Mulligan.

Maybe we can call Mickey Rivers and see if he'd be interested in playing center field for us in 2007.

I doubt that Anderson will be on the team in 2007. His offense was horrendous. For those who are quick to point out how much he improved after a terrible start, remember that he disappeared in the last four to six weeks. He's also overrated defensively by many fans. He's great at tracking down balls to the side and in front of him, but he's weak on balls hit over his head. His arm is nothing special and he had several inexcusable mental lapses. If we want to win the World Series in 2007 we'll need a better center fielder.

Crede is a great fielder, but he's not the best third baseman in the American League. Apparently it's a good thing Sox fans don't vote for the award because the winners would be worse than they are now.

As Hawk and Drysdale used to say, there's nothing like a good piece of ash.

Perhaps he's trying to find Buehrle to take him back to Chicago by the ear.

QUOTE(Rowand44 @ Oct 19, 2006 -> 12:22 PM) To be honest, I just don't think we're a good fit with Seattle unless they'd want one of our veteran sp's and then a Josh Fields or a Sweeney or a Broadway. Trading Brandon is a no no, he's just too valuable to our club at this point. Yeah, McCarthy was so valuable that Ozzie barely pitched him in meaningful situations.

The cost in time and money to get autographs at Soxfest does not equate to making money off the autographs. You'd be better off working at McDonald's that weekend if the goal is to make money.

Giving big bucks to Buehrle after the season he had and all the innings he's pitched in his career makes no sense whatsoever. You sign a guy for what he's going to do not what he did. At this point I have serious reservations whether he can return to all-star form. His arm may be shot.

Frank can hit lefties so I'll take Frank.

No lie. There's a footnote in the great Bob Dylan interview in the current "Rolling Stone." It's a short riff on baseball, which Bob clearly likes as evidenced from his 1975 song "Catfish" about Catfish Hunter to his recent satellite "Theme Time Radio Hour" show on baseball and his tours the last two summers of minor league parks. Here is Bob's quote when asked who his favorite team is: "The problem with baseball teams is all the players get traded, and what your favorite team used to be - a couple of guys you really liked on the team, they're not on the team now - and you can't possibly make that team your favorite team. It's like your favortie uniform. I mean...yeah...I like Detroit. Though I like Ozzie (Guillen) as a manager. And I don't know how anybody can't like Derek (Jeter). I'd rather have him on my team than anybody." For anyone who would like to hear the baseball episode of his radio show, here's the link to his program's archives (It's episode No. 4. Click on that, and then you'll find a little download link for the show toward the bottom of the page): http://www.whitemanstew.com/2006/05/...ime-radio-hour

I counted 16 players in attendance, including Joe Borchard. Baines got shout-outs from Bush on three different occasions.