Gregory Pratt

QUOTE(SoxFan1 @ Aug 6, 2007 -> 01:26 PM) Buehrle, Danks, and Gio can be quite the left handed trio in a couple years. Possibly. They could also be quite mediocre, in theory.

Are you the same guy who posts relationship questions every few weeks or am I thinking of someone else?

I have no further comment.

His body is and has been a mess.

QUOTE(Shadows @ Aug 6, 2007 -> 12:33 PM) Im willing to bet you know absolutely nothing about steroids except for "they're bad".. Steroids will not help you hit the ball, that is still a skill that you have to be able to do on your own, if anything, the bulk that you put on from steroids would hinder that ability. Steroids make your muscles grow, your tendons and ligaments do not. If they help so much, why is Bonds pretty much the only player who has done anything while "on them". Why isn't Neifi Perez badass? Why did Jason Giambi crumble, yet Bonds has shown no sign of slowing down? What about those 100 or so unnamed players who failed tests in 2003 when they first tested? Nobody was ever on quite the regiment that Bonds was on. Besides that, nobody was as naturally good as he was nad then bulked. Combine his natural skill with huge, not-God-given muscles, and you've got a beast. All the steroids in the world won't turn Neifi Perez into Harmon Killebrew -- but if Bonds takes enough, he can be Babe Ruth. PS: Bonds has crumbled. His body's taken a ton of damage over the last few years. I mean, Giambi's crumbling for a variety of reasons. He's a party boy, and he's a little careless, and he's not as dedicated as Bonds. Per Book of Shadows.

They used to say in 1925 that the 300 game winner was over. (Says Joe Morgan.) It'll happen again.

QUOTE(LosMediasBlancas @ Aug 6, 2007 -> 02:43 AM) Even if Bonds is a steroid user, cheater, liar, racist, a-hole, he is still a husband and a father. Part of being a man is to respect that about other men. So, when his wife and kids are at a game to celebrate his accomplishment and some f***ball is booing and giving him the finger, yeah I think that's disrespectful. Obviously, his family is not thin skinned or they wouldn't continue to go to the games. That's not the point. Disagree if you like. So protesters shouldn't carry signs when a President's First Lady is with him? Prosecutors should keep their rhetoric chill if a man brings his wife into a courtroom? It's exactly what you're saying taken to a different situation. Listen. Nobody told Bonds to bring his wife and kid to the game. And it's not like Bonds is being given the Aaron treatment.

QUOTE(CWSGuy406 @ Aug 5, 2007 -> 10:17 PM) FWIW, Tom Hicks said that Tiexera turned down something like eight years, $140 million. He might like Atlanta, but even so, ATL is still going to have to give him Soriano money for (at the very least) five years. Yeah. They offered Alex Rodriguez 126 million. Doubt they'll offer that to Tex, or that he'd accept it. And Boras likes to insist on NTCs, which the Braves flatly do not do.

QUOTE(iamshack @ Aug 5, 2007 -> 09:44 PM) I really think he'll sign somewhere he wants to play for a reasonable amount. The Rangers offered 8/140 and he turned it down. There has been massive speculation that he would like to play for the Orioles, being a Maryland native, but I wouldn't be surprised at all to see him sign in Atlanta for something like 7/100. If that happens, he'll have to take it into his own hands, with Boras as his agent, because Boras likes to take players away from their comfort zones for money. He sabotages negotiations and misinforms both sides (per Schuerholz). Hell, Andruw Jones had to personally negotiate his contract extension the first time because Boras didn't want that, PERIOD, so who knows how Boras will handle it. (I know he told Andruw, "If you wanted it that bad, you should've just told me," but Jones + Schuerholz were like, Right.) I don't know what Tex will do, or what the negotiations will be like, but maybe he does want to play there. Maybe not.

I'm not worried because of his year per se -- but because he's getting up there in years and he's caught a lot of games. I worry that next year he'll start to decline.

QUOTE(Tony82087 @ Aug 5, 2007 -> 08:54 PM) Someone is going to give Tex way more than he deserves. He will get 18-20 million, easy, and Tex just isn't worth that, at least not with the numbers he has put up in the last year and a half. The Rangers already traded him away, why would they buy him back? I don't know that he'll get that much, but if he does...sheesh.

I doubt the White Sox would spend the money on Bonds, and I think that's the end of that.

QUOTE(DBAH0 @ Aug 5, 2007 -> 07:47 PM) Peter Angelos probably got invovled in the negotiations, which is a deal breaker right there. Really the O's should consider freeing up as much payroll as they can before the 08-09 off-season so that they can make a run for Teixeira who'd be PERFECT for them. http://www.ajc.com/sports/content/sports/b...yroll_0805.html Braves will have the money to sign Tex if they want him. Not sure that they do long-term, but they've got more money now with less restrictions on their payroll.

This is what I wrote last night: http://officeoftheindependentblogger.com/2...ween-the-lines/ I'd copy and paste it, but there's too much HTML to do that.

QUOTE(LosMediasBlancas @ Aug 5, 2007 -> 05:52 PM) That's funny. I won't try to convince anyone to like Bonds, or to like the fact that he's gonna break the record, but some things you just shouldn't do. So people should be shielded from criticism if their family is around? Should police officers take back arrest warrants if the kids are home?

Absolutely. Phillies too.

QUOTE(Tony82087 @ Aug 5, 2007 -> 06:07 PM) Zito came out of the bullpen today, pitching one inning...... Prolly just extra work. Dear Cubs, Beat the Mets. I'd like to see Glavine get antsy, and I want to see the Mets lose more, period.

Good game for Floyd. Do it again.

I very much look forward to today's game.

Buehrle's going to significantly decline over time, IMO, when he starts to lose a little velocity -- like last year. Not necessarily soon, but I have doubts about his staying power with his current arsenal. I do hope he believes he'll win much more than 200.

You're entitled to your opinion and I'm not going to contest it.

QUOTE(briguy27 @ Aug 5, 2007 -> 12:25 AM) I know, 4,256 hits is nothing. Neither is being a career .338 hitter and leading the NL in OPS 6 times. Rose would be the first to tell you he doesn't belong on that top ten list.

QUOTE(briguy27 @ Aug 5, 2007 -> 12:15 AM) Now you've taken it too far. Steroids and HGH, whether or not he took them, don't improve hitting ability and hand-eye coordination. He still had to amazing hand-eye and hitting ability to hit those homers, steroids or not. Here's my top 10. 1. Bonds 2. Ruth 3. Cobb 4. Gwynn 5. Rose 6. H Wagner 7. DiMaggio 8. A-Rod 9. Hammerin' Hank 10. Ichiro 10. Mantle Rose is not a top ten hitter. Gwynn is not a top ten hitter. That's crazy. -- LCR, it's a stretch to say that the HOF is "filled" with cheaters, and I doubt there are many, if any, who so thoroughly advanced their game with foreign substances. But I know that it isn't "filled." I can remember a handful of known cheaters offhand, and I don't think it's much more than that. So "a handful" out of "one hell of a lot more than a handful" is not "filled." Sorry.

They didn't have his steroids in Ruth's day.

And I promise you, Bonds doesn't put up the numbers he's put up now in Babe Ruth's day.