Gregory Pratt

QUOTE(GreatScott82 @ Jul 27, 2006 -> 04:37 PM) I think its kinda funny how everyone wants Garcia out of here when he has been one of our decent pitchers lately. Javier I can understand because he has been a headcase all year. But Buerhle has been down right terrible lately and im not hearing "Trade Mark now!" stuff. Honestly I think the 4 main pitchers will all come around. (Buerhle, Garland, Garcia and Contreras) I can see BMac in the rotation by September. My ass. Freddy's been awful of late, and will continue to give up four, five runs a game. I have no faith in Garcia. He will not have a solid start. --- Negotiations with Contreras' people had broken off. Contreras' agent wasn't talking anymore, and Jose saw KW at Spring Training, came over to say hello and ask if Kenny was mad at him because Kenny seemed like it, and then he found out that there were contract negotiations going on -- something his agent had been keeping from him! Immediately, he directed his agent to finish the deal, and within a few days Contreras was resigned. I know what you're saying, but that WAS the truth about Contreras.

Damn it. Vazquez and/or Garcia have to go. We can't go into the stretch with a powerless power pitcher and a headcase.

QUOTE(GoSox05 @ Jul 27, 2006 -> 03:38 PM) It seems to be more that for whatever reason hes been keeping his pitches up and his breaking pitches arent breaking so well. His breaking pitches have been flat as hell. My friend Scott and I were hanging out yesterday, and we were talking baseball (he's a Cub fan, but loves baseball and a lot of the guys on the Sox). I told him I was worried about Vazquez and Garcia, and he said, "You know who I'm worried about? Buehrle!" and I said, "He'll be all right, I think, he just needs a little bit of time," and he said, "Well, he had already given up a homer on another flat breaking pitch in the first today when I left the house." I cursed. But his offspeed stuff, his breaking pitches -- they've been off.

QUOTE(Balta1701 @ Jul 27, 2006 -> 12:46 PM) Ozuna hasn't exactly been great during this stretch either, with a nice 1/19 in July. He also has been a bit better against lefties than against righties, and then there's that whole defense thing. I'm not calling for it. I'm just surprised that awhile ago, there were a ton of people suggesting it. Now that Ozuna's back on Earth, nobody's clamoring for a bench player to play fulltime anymore...and with good reason!

I'm surprised there aren't more people calling for Ozuna to leadoff and Podsednik to sit on the bench.

QUOTE(loltrain @ Jul 27, 2006 -> 12:20 PM) Yep, we're only 2 games over .500 against the good teams.... Wait isn't the old saying that you beat up the on the bad teams and split with the good ones? Oh yes, and our team's inability to get it done against Kansas City early on has cost.

QUOTE(southsideirish71 @ Jul 27, 2006 -> 11:37 AM) The only way bmac starts this year is either when we are out of contention alltogether, someone admits that they are hurt, or KW trades on the SP. ozzie will run these guys out no matter how many runs they give up. Forever. Oh, I know that we likely won't be sniffing Barry Zito, and Guillen's going to stick with his golfing buddy and the flamethrower, I'm just saying that the solution (Mac-Vazquez switch) is right there, and so obvious.

I've been listening to a lot of HIM, The Shins and The Avalanches.

I'm real worried now that the Twins have pulled even. Why? Garcia. Vazquez. If we could switch Vazquez and McCarthy, then trade for Zito and get rid of Freddy, I'd be so much happier. As it stands, I'd just be happy by switching Brandon and Javier.

Unless there's something physically wrong with Mark, I'm sure he'll turn it around sooner rather than later. Javier Vazquez? I don't have faith that he'll turn anything around. He's a nut. Freddy Garcia doesn't have a fastball anymore. He'll get lucky, but that's it. Garland? I expect regression, to a point. Pre-eight starts in 2005, he was always an average starter. Now, for awhile this year, and awhile last year, he holds teams down like an Ace. His pitching is dependent on control, and no one can be as pinpoint forever as he's been for the last month and for a couple in 2005. Contreras? He's the real deal, and he'll be fine. He's doing just fine.

QUOTE(santo=dorf @ Jul 26, 2006 -> 10:17 PM) He sure sucked last time out there! If you've got faith in 88 MPH going up against the Orioles, especially after his last start against Baltimore, then have fun with that. -- Back To 94 Ozzie exits Chevy truck ("America's Favorite Brand!"), approaches Freddy Garcia who is twirling his arm like a ballerina: "Freddy Freddy, you've got to come back with me!" Freddy Garcia turns, pauses: "Where?" Ozzie Guillen: "We need you!" Freddy: "Where?" Ozzie Guillen: "Back To 94!"

Yankees take the lead, 8-7, on a HGH Induced Blast. (Jason Giambi homered.) Yankees win.

I always did like him.

Ha, Prior had a no-no and got pulled. Probably for the best. His arm couldn't handle it.

QUOTE(LVSoxFan @ Jul 26, 2006 -> 11:31 AM) This isn't as bad as 2005 because there we had something to lose. We've never been in first so thus far we haven't been in a position to lose anything... that we never had. It doesn't mean that it doesn't suck royally and you wonder how, with a team that on paper supposedly was far superior to '05, this could happen. You wonder how in the hell a Detroit team on the verge of implosion last year (Pudge wanted to be traded, remember?) just cannot lose. You wonder how Minnesota, without three starters, is like the Cleveland of last year (and Cleveland, whom everybody expected to battle us for 1st place, is AWOL). Welcome to baseball, I guess. It sucks, and hopefully we'll pull out of it, but no: that last month in 2005 was absolutely gut-wrenching. A free-fall. This is more like a slow, torturous death, LOL... Uh, we've been in first this year, but I get your points.

Austin was clearly one of the best in the business in his prime. I enjoy him more than I do Flair and Roberts; not more than Funk or Dusty; and Heenan was a totally different character. He managed, so I have trouble comparing them. QUOTE(SoxFan76 @ Jul 26, 2006 -> 10:32 AM) My fault, I just meant that Goldberg wasn't a good wrestler. Poor wording on my part. Foley's stuff as Cactus Jack in ECW is bone chilling. He's the man. No doubt about that. I haven't seen his promos lately hyping his Flair feud, but I hear they're incredible. Brian, with all due respect to the guys you listed, I'd still put Austin up there. Talk about irony though, Austin made his name at the King of the Ring after he beat...yep, Jake Roberts and gave his famous "Austin 3:16" speech. I love Foley in ECW. Goldberg blows!

Freddy Garcia will be pitching Friday. Damn it.

Heh.

Scott is always talking about honesty. That something strikes him as dishonest and he doesn't like it. That honesty matters. You know how refreshing that atttitude is? I appreciate honesty so much. Honesty and openness, and that means that if you don't want to share something, you don't, but you don't make something up or lie. That's one of the million things I like about him. Honestly.

This is a Twins team that could win it all in the playoffs. With Santana and Liriano? Oh baby. They must be destroyed.

QUOTE(premo @ Jul 26, 2006 -> 07:52 PM) I'm sorry, but the performance of the team as a whole over the past 2 weeks or so has been disgusting. Completely sickening. I missed today's game, and I'm very glad I did.

QUOTE(kapkomet @ Jul 26, 2006 -> 01:02 PM) Pure Comedy. ...I was serious! --- Today was easily my best day of 2006, and the best day I've had since November of 2005. When I was chasing the Chicago Debate League City Championship, there was a Judge that I met. Mr. Scott G. Scott was a fine judge, and he did an excellent job critiquing me post-debate (a debate that I won, with my partner -- but, I won't bullspiff you. Max was my partner in theory; in reality, he was a body I had to have there because you must debate in partners). After that debate, I talked to him for a bit, because he looked very interesting. A bit of a beard, a light face, a happy demeanor. I said, Hi Judge, and from there, we talked about his life and mine. I found out that he was a Chicago native who won second place nationally in Academic Decatholon when he was the Captain of the Team at Whitney Young in the late 1980s. He told me that he'd moved to New Orleans, but came back when the city was destroyed. It was a bummer. Scott was, however, a wonderful talker, and a brilliant mind. Aside from one other person, I've never known someone that I bonded with as well as I did with him. We talked everytime at debate about baseball, politics, relationships, sex, everything. Once the City Finals occurred in March, I found myself in a rough spot in my life, and I knew I wouldn't be seeing Scott very much -- or enough. To give you a brief glimpse of my life at the moment: at the 2006 Debate City Finals, me and my partner went 3-2 in the Preliminary Rounds. We lost one of them because I erred. I had a lot on my mind, and I cost us one victory in one of the rounds. In the other, we were tasked with defending the NSA's Wiretapping Program. A Judge who had a personal vendetta against George Bush said she personally disapproved of the Program, and thus would vote against us. She did, and that was rough, because we won that debate hands down -- HANDS. DOWN. It was a slaughter, and I'm not saying that because of my ego. That was genuine. Well Scott's smile lights up the world, and he's such a smart man. We decided recently to meet up, as he's moving to Dallas because he's tired of living back in Chicago at home. Today was that day, and we went for a walk downtown, culminating in my jumping into the lake, pants on, to go for a swim. We went back through train to my house, where we talked, then we got dinner. After that, we went to a park, where we walked about and talked about everything. We sat by a pond and chatted about love, life, sex, politics and everything in between. If I got married tomorrow, he'd be my best man. Easily.

QUOTE(Controlled Chaos @ Jul 26, 2006 -> 10:29 AM) Have we not made the playoffs yet?? The Red Sox were 10 games over .500 at this point last year, we are 19. The Red sox didn't have pitching, we do. The pitching isn't playing up to it's capabilities, but it's there. We also have an offense that has shown it could lead the league in almost every category. They just need to snap out of their funk. There's a difference between a team playing bad with bad players and a team playing bad with good players. There's light at the end of the tunnell for us. These players have proven they can get the job done. We just have to hope they all figure it out soon. This team's pitching won't get better, sans Buehrle. Vazquez is a baboon on the mound. Freddy's off steroids. Jon, Jose are where they should be. Mark will be soon. That's about it, IMO. Freddy and Javier won't just be turning it on.

QUOTE(ChiSox9 @ Jul 26, 2006 -> 10:14 AM) CLEE G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI TB BB SO SB CS OBP SLG AVG 2006 101 384 60 111 18 0 28 81 213 38 39 12 2 .350 .555 .289 SORIANO: G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI TB BB SO SB CS OBP SLG AVG 2006 99 402 74 115 25 2 31 62 237 43 89 25 7 .360 .590 .286 To me, CLee might be a better choice. About the same HR numbers, way less strike outs by 50, about the same BB just a little less in speed. Plus, CLee IS a natural LF with Great D... Soriano is originally a 2B. Carlos Lee is not coming back.

QUOTE(kapkomet @ Jul 26, 2006 -> 07:39 AM) So that was you in the pictures? You look older then (almost) 17. Uh huh... BUSTED! You know, I hear that I look older all the time, although it's usually when I haven't shaved and have stubble, beard or shadow, depending on how long it's been. But since I'm clean-shaven there, or just about, I don't see how you think I look older. I guess it's just facial features? The clothes? I rarely wear jeans, and hardly ever wear t-shirts or tank tops. I carry a briefcase instead of a backpack to school, and some kids call me Professor.