Friend of Nordhagen

QUOTE(103 mph screwball @ Jan 24, 2007 -> 09:42 PM) Rick Hahn was on Comcast Sportsnet Trib Live show. Not a whole ton of new stuff, but here is a recap for those interested. Pods workout routine went to full throttle last week and he aggravated an old injury on the right side of his groin that he had previous surgery on 3 years ago with the Brewers. Not the same injury as last year. 6-8 weeks, but since "speed is such a part of Scott's game, we have make sure that he is absolutely 100% healthy and confident in his ability or he's not going to be able to help us as much as all of us would like." They are going to be conservative with him. This was not discovered earlier because he didn't have a problem until he turned his workouts up to ten. Again we hear that Podsednik needs to believe that he is fully healthy at all times. This goes far beyond his health; it's his state of mind. This is just all too fragile for me to have any confidence in.

QUOTE(daa84 @ Jan 23, 2007 -> 08:52 PM) as long as he does to joe mauer and victor martinez what he did to johnny estrada..ill be ok with this... Its on the June 6th highlights.... http://losangeles.angels.mlb.com/NASApp/ml...a&ym=200506 Great announcer quote: "Johnny Estrada holding onto his face."

QUOTE(Kalapse @ Jan 22, 2007 -> 10:10 PM) He recently said it himself that he may not be able to play CF anymore, period. His lateral movement is all but gone as well as any makeup speed he had at one time, his arm is subpar and his instincts are completely out of whack after being away from the position for 3 years and barely playing baseball at all last season. The funny thing is I used to be a HUGE fan of his because of my love of all things defense, he and Edmonds were about as good as it got during the 97 and 98 seasons, super fun. However, that Darin Erstad is long gone the new no power slick fielding firstbaseman Erstad is all you're going to be seeing these days. I didn't know that he'd said that about playing center. Aren't the Marlins looking at him as a CF, too? Or is something else going on? Agree about him and Edmonds, both. By the way, Edmonds doesn't look so good out there these days, either.

QUOTE(Kalapse @ Jan 22, 2007 -> 09:24 PM) At this point in time there might not be much of a difference defensively between Erstad and Mack in CF and Rob is the far superior offensive player. C'mon now, Kalapse. I know that Erstad's old, is always an injury risk, and is overrated offensively. Believe me, I know that those are all really valid points. But not much of a difference in center between him and Mack? Even with diminished range, Erstad is a natural outfielder. What that means is that he can judge a fly ball, which by itself makes him much better than Mack out there. And he'll throw to the right base, too. No question, though, that Mack is better offensively.

QUOTE(dwalteroo @ Jan 5, 2007 -> 02:54 PM) I'm not an attorney, but this seems like a judge making it known that he's in charge. I don't think this would last unless there were really something to the case, in which instance Uribe would perhaps be in custody or out on bail and not allowed to leave the country anyways (assuming that's how it works down there). I am an attorney. And my conclusion is that Juan Uribe is still fat.

A couple of thoughts: 1. We can talk about trying to get a top-flight deal for Buehrle, but it's pretty clear that what many here think is a top-flight deal differs from what Kenny Williams actually secures. Just a few weeks ago, we all thought Garcia would bring a King's ransom, or at least major-leaguers to fill needed positions. What came back was possibly good, but hardly proven. And I think the McCarthy haul, while potentially good, took many of us here a little time to process. I'm not saying Williams couldn't get more, but I think we should be ready to accept that the haul will be less than we think. 2. There's a reason that some pitchers -- not all -- but some pitchers get more expensive as they approach free agency -- beyond a crazy market. By the 6 year mark, a lot of growing pains have been suffered. Jon Garland today is a vastly different pitcher than Jon Garland 2 years ago. Experience does that. For that reason, I think it's a little foolish to continue to insist that we want cheap pitching, guys with 6 years service time, and not expect that they're going to struggle. Again, sometimes the salaries are just out of whack -- like with Lilly and Suppan -- but sometimes you have to just say that you're paying for experience. John Danks is a great prospect, but let's not pretend that he's not going to struggle at first. (By the way, his numbers at every level shows that is exactly what he does, before becoming a very good pitcher.).

This all reminds me of the 1980's Bears -- won a title and then management decided that they had a "plan" to replace old parts with new parts. So you let a Wilber Marshall and a Willie Gault go, proclaiming to the fans not to worry -- because you've stocked up with Ron Rivera and God knows who else. But before you know it, the fans have lost guys they identified with, watched grow up and become attached to. And they were talented guys. That was bad. Now, to be fair, McCarthy hadn't done a ton. But the degree to which Williams has now let the new free agent market for pitching get into his head is now clear for all to see -- because, presumably, McCarthy would be PART of a plan shaped around young, talented, under-your-control-for-many-cheap-years pitchers. But even McCarthy, apparently, doesn't satisfy the Williams plan. Instead, I gather, the plan says that it's better to get two good young, under-control arms -- even if less tested than the arm you're trading -- for the price of one young under-control arm. I would imagine that if Williams could trade Danks and Masset for 3 really good AA pitching prospects, he'd do that. That would be the next logical step. Then you just repeat the process until you have 24 top-level "power arms" in rookie ball. Can't wait. Strange.

QUOTE(Milkman delivers @ Dec 6, 2006 -> 11:28 PM) An hour of tape swung their decision in favor of trading for him? Well, that's either incredibly good or extremely bad news. Ah, in the hands of mere mortals, it would be bad news. But, this is Coop and he can fix him.

QUOTE(fathom @ Dec 6, 2006 -> 09:59 PM) Which further illustrates how much of a disaster the Vazquez trade was. Also true.

QUOTE(fathom @ Dec 6, 2006 -> 09:53 PM) Didn't he say he wouldn't make any moves that wouldn't make us better in 2007? This isn't the time for the Sox to be going about things like a middle market team. There's too much at risk with the momentum in the city we've established. Totally dead on. I feel like, during the past week, we've just heard Williams cry over and over about how out of whack the market is. I felt like we were being set up for some mid-market bull move, and sure enough, here it is. Even if that 10 million from Garcia gets re-invested into the team, it's net neutral for payroll -- just the way you think when you're a mid-market ballclub. Silliness.

QUOTE(fathom @ Nov 19, 2006 -> 02:33 PM) No way is Hendry done in the FA market though or in the trade market trying to improve his starting rotation. Exactly. The budget should've been larger for years. They can still afford more. So, in that sense, it's not all that crazy. Well, I mean, it's kinda crazy, but still . . . QUOTE(Jordan4life_2006 @ Nov 19, 2006 -> 03:30 PM) True. So what do you guys think of this lineup? Soriano Derosa Lee Ramirez Jones? Barrett Murton? Izturis Well, among other things, I think that this signing can be Aramis Insurance. The guy is always more productive when the players around him are better.

QUOTE(kwolf68 @ Nov 18, 2006 -> 03:10 PM) if we can unload Vazquez and get talent for him, we should bust a move and do it soon. Texas would be fools to get that guy...Vazquez would have a 6+ era in Texas. So true. When hit hard there, balls travel very, very far. And that's very, very bad for a guy like Vazquez.

QUOTE(RockRaines @ Nov 17, 2006 -> 12:36 PM) He'll also miss at least 20 games. And hit 8 homers in each of those.

I watched Aardsma a few times last year. He was up with the Cubs early in the year, couldn't get the ball over the plate, and was terrible. He came back up later, had better control, and was pretty effective. Somebody quoted Sickels earlier saying he was throwing 88-92 before last year. Not last year. In the games I saw, he threw a lot harder than that, more like mid to upper 90's. And that's taking into account screwed up guns; hitters had a lot of trouble getting on top of his high fastballs. Lots of swinging strikes. If he gets it over, he's certainly better than Riske, maybe a lot better. But that's the big "if." As for Cotts, I'm disappointed to see him go. And I think he'll be quite effective for the Cubs.

QUOTE(Kalapse @ Nov 12, 2006 -> 04:32 PM) $20M - $25M? No way was he going to be offered a contract like that. At the most he'd get a 6 year deal but most realistically he'd recieve 5 years. So that would be $18M - $19M a year for Aramis Ramirez? Um no. Yep, here's the paradox with Aramis Ramirez. He'll put up the numbers -- and big hits -- that reflect being worth $15 or $16 million, but ONLY as long as he's surrounded by other good hitters who are raking. Which, of course, demonstrates that he's not worth $15 or $16 million. The better the players around him, the harder he plays and the better he looks. That's the definition of a frontrunner. And that's what Aramis is.

QUOTE(RockRaines @ Oct 31, 2006 -> 10:53 AM) Everyone on here keeps calling him a dog, etc. But the guy flat out has great stats. Even with his lazy attitude, he will produce over 100 RBI's for you. He's the Vince Carter of baseball -- total and complete frontrunner, whose effort is directly affected by how well his team his doing.

QUOTE(klaus kinski @ Oct 2, 2006 -> 11:34 AM) The difference here, though, is that Fields appears to be ready-nothing to be gained by not playing him now and keeping someone that will not be here very long. With the age of our star players, working in young players one at a time is essential. We have one ready to play. Is Fields really ready, though? Could be, but I didn't see a guy who looked ready -- yet. The good: Seemed to handle himself pretty well at 3rd, especially for a guy who's relatively inexperienced. Has some pop. Appeared to have pretty good strike zone recognition, again especially for a pretty inexperienced player. Had a good season at AAA, much better than in lower minors, which might demonstrate an impressive learning curve. The bad: Seemed totally overmatched by fairly pedestrian fastballs, with a long swing. We've seen this movie before. So, I'm not sure what we have there. He's no doubt talented, but I question whether he's ready right now.

Lifeless team.

QUOTE(SinkingShip06 @ Sep 16, 2006 -> 12:12 AM) Trade Thome. he carried us for a stretch but the sooner we get rid of him the better. to me he seems like his decline won't be steady. it'll be a big drop off Thome's hurt. He's been hurt for months. The problem is he's 36, so you can't expect he'll be injury-free in the future. But the guy has been sucking it up for months. He's Jim Thome, but dude can't turn on a fastball. That's all you need to know.

QUOTE(santo=dorf @ Sep 14, 2006 -> 09:17 PM) Who said that? He's definately an upgrade, but he's not worth the price. Early Spring training continues in Cleveland. Extremely tight-butted and silly people at another White Sox fan web-site.

QUOTE(RockRaines @ Sep 13, 2006 -> 03:20 PM) He gone. I know this will come as a surprise, but Juan Uribe struck out a changeup low and away.

They're still complaining about Iguchi not getting to 3rd. Dye strikes out on yet another off-speed pitch.

Iguchi doubles to right. Ball rolls around in the RF corner. Hawk and DJ are all over him for jogging into second and not getting to 3rd.

Ozuna nearly beats out a bunt, Alomar to second. Ozuna's activity level is about 300 times higher than Podslownik.

Twins lose.