Gregory Pratt

QUOTE(SoxAce @ Jun 17, 2007 -> 10:44 PM) Taking my favorite pitcher who everyone knows I have a man crush on huh...? You ass. I've loved Hamels just as long as you have, pansy. Also: he likes me more than he likes you.

Let's not sissify baseball. They've been fighting forever. They will fight forever. You can't take a player's right to charge the mound if he so chooses away.

Since day one? If I recall he doubled and had a great Opening Day then...poof.

QUOTE(Craig Grebeck @ Jun 17, 2007 -> 10:38 PM) Maybe Anderson and McCarthy busted because our manager couldn't f***ing handle letting young players develop. It takes more than one season. Ozzie decided from day one Anderson was s*** so he played him sporadically throughout the year. Real managers stick to the young guys despite their struggles (Pedroia anyone?). Now now, no personal attacks mister. Ozzie was good to Anderson for half the season. Something changed between the start and the rest. You know what changed? Not Anderson's approach, that's for sure. He had the same abysmal approach all year long and the results showed. And please don't cite a couple of batches of 60 or so at-bats where he was good because he wasn't good at all last season or this. His swing and approach were bad. But there are a lot of behavioral issues that need to be taken care of. As far as Pedroia, I imagine he's got an attittude that gets on with the manager's, but I don't know the whole situation. He's probably made adjustments at the plate.

QUOTE(Rowand44 @ Jun 17, 2007 -> 10:03 PM) There's less than a 0 percent chance that David Wright is traded, no need to even bring his name up. If we trade Mark it's going to be for prospects, I hope everyone realizes that. Yeah, that's nuts. Also:

QUOTE(Tony82087 @ Jun 17, 2007 -> 08:26 PM) *Waits for Brandon McCarthy is trash response* To write off a 24 year old 1st round pick who is putting up solid numbers at AAA is moronic. I'm being pragmatic. The league is awful. I'm just not willing to write him in as anything successful after he's busted for Philadelphia and sucked in the spring and now that he's doing good in AAA in the IL? No, I'm not willing to do that. DBAHO, Danks and Floyd are complete opposites of one another and the difference for them isn't a luxery. I'm not giving Danks a luxery when I say that he was young at all his levels and that's the difference between him and Floyd who is old for his levels and bad for them to boot besides this current stretch. -- Is it true that Floyd's stuff is back to what it was when he was a hot prospect? I don't think so. I've heard otherwise and ST was different. We'll have to wait and see when he comes up, eventually. I'm cynical about it.

Completely different. Danks' history, his youth, the time it usually takes him to get acclimated to leagues -- all of it works in his favor while all of those same issues are opposites with Gavin Floyd. That's why John beat him out.

QUOTE(Wedge @ Jun 17, 2007 -> 08:00 PM) He moved to the bullpen so he could get more chances to try to work on some other pitches. Additionally, he loses $10,000,000 if he leaves the Cubs for football. IMO, it's a no-brainer to stay.

Podsednik's line is not very encouraging

With no disrespect to any of the other Sox bloggers/Internet posters, I've always thought Jim of SoxMachine was the best and I think with posts like this one he made last night prove it:

QUOTE(Dick Allen @ Jun 17, 2007 -> 07:28 PM) How many more times is Ozzie going to say that if the players think losing is OK they are playing for the wrong GM and wrong manager, before the GM and manager actually do something about it? At this point, it's on Kenny to move them. Ozzie can't do it alone.

I'm really interested to see what Hamels does against the Indians tomorrow. I hope he does well because he's my favorite NL pitcher and he's on my Fantasy team but I'm somewhat curious how he'll do as Cleveland is nasty. So's Hamels, though.

QUOTE(Dick Allen @ Jun 17, 2007 -> 07:13 PM) That rat bastard. I have my speech prepared, but its useless now. I'm pretty serious, though. That guy screwed Dick Allen and I hate him for it. PS: check your PMs more often.

Me too. See? We have more in common than you might've thought.

Bill James screwed Dick Allen out of making the HOF. Bill James is mean.

Yeah, that was something.

If it's true that the Twins have that many more scouts than us, I'm really frustrated by it. More scouts, please.

People are so shameless.

Well, listen, if he comes up throwing in the mid-90s consistently, whenever he comes up, I'll apologize, and if he's a good pitcher, I'll apologize again. You're not going to get into my argument based on my discussions? I don't think I've been major wrong on much or any wronger than anyone else here has been at certain points, but I'm not going to sit here and boast about times I've been right or wrong.

QUOTE(CWSGuy406 @ Jun 17, 2007 -> 06:45 PM) WTF are you talking about. Overhype them? Can you find me the specific person who is overhyping Milledge, Pelfrey, so I can agree with or refute what he (or you) are saying? I honestly don't even know what you're getting at anymore... Oh, and by the way, I've just been in the corner crying for the past half hour, just so you know -- you've totally destroyed me, so much so that I don't know if I can consider myself a man anymore. Jason, I tend to think people are overstating the Mets' pitching problems. Buehrle would be an upgrade for sure, I'm not doubting that. But at what price? Oliver Perez and John Maine are a very good one-two punch. El Duque has been awesome in his time with the Mets and comes with that 'clutch playoff performer' tag. And they also get Pedro back in a month or so. If the Mets made that trade -- Martinez, Milledge and Pelfrey -- they are gutting their farm system when they really don't need to. I've said it before, and I'll say it again -- the Sox will be lucky to get two of those. If Minaya even thought about offering Milledge and Pelfrey, Kenny should take that and run. That would be huge -- it would give the Sox sooo much financial flexibility (especially if you could work out a Contreras deal in the winter), not to mention the amazing talent the Sox would be getting back. Those two bolded portions say it all, I think. I just hope KW doesn't wind up holding out for the world and winds up with nothing, like Bowden last summer. QUOTE(CWSGuy406 @ Jun 17, 2007 -> 06:46 PM) Haha. I'll bite my tongue and just laugh. I've considered that I don't know what I'm talking about. And when I'm wrong, I admit I was wrong. Have you ever considered that you don't know what you're talking about, with whatever?

QUOTE(GreenSox @ Jun 17, 2007 -> 06:43 PM) Sure Ozzie gives his backups playing time - look how he loaded the bench - his backups are all swing at everything slap hitters with little patience - the type of hitting ozzie loves. He can stick a cintron or rob out there day after day hitting .230 with no problem - but put a rookie out there and he can't stand it. He has no choice with Fields. What evidence is there that he's willing to develop a young position player? He was unwilling to let Anderson play stellar D in center and bat 9; Sweeney didn't last a month. Right now, he has Gonzales (not a serious prospect) playing left. So who has Ozzie Guillen been willing to develop and teach? Guillen loves Danks and Sweeney, for two, but I'm not going to debate the rest of it all with you because last time you had htis discussion you kept insisting that Ozzie Guillen a. thinks he was a particularly good hitter, that b. Ozzie hates good hitters and c. Ozzie hates OBP all of which is absurd. PS: Ozzie didn't construct the bench.

QUOTE(Chisoxfn @ Jun 17, 2007 -> 06:29 PM) Listen...I'm going to make one thing clear. Unless you are watching the games down in Charlotte you should seriously shut the hell up when making radical assumptions. I have it on record from multiple people (some within the org...some outside of the org) as well as what I've seen with my own eyes (watching some of the games on the MILB.TV dealy) and his stuff is every bit as good as it was when he was one of the top ranked prospects in baseball (his command and tempo is improving and he's getting a more consistent release point and more importantly regaining his confidence). The curve he has been throwing is nasty and he has been consistently getting clocked into the mid 90's (good downward plane to the ball as well). Am I guaranteeing success no, but don't tell me about his stuff not being what it once was yada yada yada. You can say you don't think he'll be good, but this ridiculous he's a stiff and will suck for sure is pure bulls*** and I'm calling you out on it. I've never called him a stiff. It was well-known when we traded for him that his curveball was still good but he didn't have good control and it was well-known that his velocity was down to low-90s with him touching mid-nineties sometimes. I've heard that he's still around that velocity from people on this site, a couple of people I know and I believe I read it recently. I know in the spring he wasn't "consistently getting clocked" into the mid 90s. So either he's really picked his stuff up since the spring and the past or someone in the organization has told him a secret or two about velocity that the rest of our power pitchers should be hearing about. His stuff simply isn't what it used to be and what it was was good for a prospect, didn't work out, and now we've got a bad player in a bad league. I'm all for bringing him up now and if I'm wrong, I'm wrong and I'll be happy to admit it. But listen: if you think we should be counting on Floyd to be anything to write home about, go right ahead and do that. It says a lot about the kid that he couldn't win a starting job that had been giftwrapped for him in the spring against marginal spring training rosters. Oh, and please don't come into this debate telling me to "shut the hell up" if I don't know what I'm talking about because we're disagreeing over how good his stuff is. You ever consider that maybe you don't know what you're talking about? The International League is awful and our scouts and organization haven't, uh, been good lately about tracking the speed of fastballs. See: Masset, for one. So anything coming out of this organization about him having a good fastball doesn't impress me.

I just wish we could deal Buehrle then sign him in the offseason. That's my ideal scenario. No, he doesn't. Not anymore. His stuff isn't bad -- it's still good -- but it isn't what it used to be back in his glory days as a #1 draft pick. Gavin Floyd just isn't a good pitcher and he'll prove it.

QUOTE(Balta1701 @ Jun 17, 2007 -> 02:01 PM) And one guy who is really helping with those possibilities is a kid named Gavin Floyd... I don't want to come off as a dick with a vendetta but the truth is that Floyd has no major league pitching future and if we make any deals with the idea that Floyd is a difference-maker for the rotation in future years we are going to be f***ed. The kid that makes everything possible is Billingsley for Dye.

QUOTE(Balta1701 @ Jun 17, 2007 -> 05:27 PM) Floyd has been doing very well in AAA ball for the last month or so since coming back from some blister problems. I don't care. I wouldn't care if he threw ten shutouts in a row, which he won't. I don't expect him to do anything at the Major League level and his AAA stats don't impress me much like I'm not impressed by, oh, Anderson or Aardsma or Fields or Getz or Rogo in AAA. It's not a good league and besides, it's AAA, not the ML. I'm sure Floyd would get ripped unless he were facing the White Sox. Don't take it to mean that I completely and absolutely discount stats in AAA. Of course not. If they bring up Floyd, I'm all for it. I'd rather he bomb out this year than next, when something might matter. I'm all for bringing up our other players, too. Whoever they want to bring up, bring them up this year, fine, but I'll wait and see what happens, and in a lot of our system's cases -- especially in Floyd's -- I don't expect it to be good.