BearSox

QUOTE (Heads22 @ Jun 2, 2008 -> 07:33 PM) Ned Colletti loves his veterans, so I would think he'd do it just to fill a hole at third base. I just LOVE the idea of dealing Swisher when his value is at his ABSOLUTE LOWEST. That and the fact PK is 10 and 5. While Colletti loves his veterans, I doubt he's stupid. So far Dewitt has outproduced Crede, and Loney, Kemp, and Eithier have outproduced Konerko and Swisher. And when I say outproduced, I mean offensively and defensively. If LA does eventually trade one of their OF's, I think it'd be Eithier before Kemp. Of course they'd love to unload one of Pierre or Jones first, but it will be tough for them to do that unless they throw in lots of cash and take them for practically nothing.

I like Richar and think he has potential, but I like Cunningham more.

QUOTE (Heads22 @ Jun 2, 2008 -> 06:16 PM) Jerry Owens is playing for Charlotte tonight, thank f***ing God. I laugh at deals saying something like Konerko, Crede and Swisher for Kemp. Nothing makes sense quite like dealing 3 starters. What makes even less sense is LA dealing Kemp for two guys who can't hit their weight, and a rental player who hasn't exactly been lighting the world on fire.

Just going off of the top of my head real quick... Pitching Prospects I'd say are: 1. Poreda 2. Broadway 3. Egbert 4. Cassel 5. Ely Hitting Prospects: 1. Fields 2. Richar (if you count 1 & 2) 3. Shelby 4. Cook 5. Getz So yeah, it does not look very bright.

QUOTE (letsgoarow @ Jun 2, 2008 -> 05:57 PM) So i just had a 30 minute coversation with White Sox scout Bill young and got his take on this. Lets just say he does agree with some of our statements cough cough Walker... How did you get a chance to talk to him? Talk to him about anything w/ the draft?

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Jun 2, 2008 -> 03:34 PM) What leads you to that conclusion? I see no similarity in their numbers. And I don't think Retherford is known for the glove anyway. Are you privy to some scouting reports or something? From what I have read, Retherford is very athletic and very baseball smart. I don't know if his bat is similar to Inge's, but from the defensive standpoint, they seem very similar, IMO. Retherford in college played 3B, C, 1B, 2B, SS, OF and even maybe P here or there. That shows great athleticism. I have a hard time seeing him being much of a hitter if he ever gets to the bigs, but his ability to play everywhere and pure athleticism should allow him to being a good bench player.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Jun 2, 2008 -> 01:07 PM) I remember a number of people last year saying Retherford's numbers at GF were a fluke, he wasn't destined for anything good. No one can say for sure what his future holds, but, let's put this in perspective - after putting up a 1.002 OPS in GF in 2007, he skipped both Bristol and Kanny to go to High A W-S, and he's now got an .810 OPS with 11 homeruns in 52 games. His walk total is a bit low - that's a concern - but overall, for a 22 year old that made a 2 level jump, I'd say he's worth keeping an eye on. Best case scenario with him is a very, very, extremely poor man's Brandon Inge, IMO. However, I'd gladly take someone on our bench who can hit w/ a little pop and play all over the field with decent D.

I hope that the only reason why Smoak and Crow aren't being talked about are because they are projecting them to be gone by 8. Because if Smoak and/or Crow are there at 8 for some reason, and we draft freaking Gordon Beckham (who I think is extremely overrated) or Brett Wallace (or even worse, Jason Castro) over them, I would cry a lot and throw a big hissy fit.

If we draft Castro at 8 overall, I quit life.

QUOTE (bighurt4life @ Jun 1, 2008 -> 01:01 AM) Whoever had TB is an idiot. They just signed Longoria to a 6 year deal and Alvarez wants a major league contract. They will NOT take Alvarez, nothing is more clear than that Alvarez could easily be the pick. Not all teams are sold on his defensive ability at third, and could be moved to LF or 1B.

QUOTE (southsideirish71 @ May 31, 2008 -> 10:51 PM) I love it when Millionaires tell kids who need to pay off 40k in loans about how money shouldnt be something you run after. If this guy gets in, he will ruin the economy like Carter did in the late 70s. He will tax what he considers those who make too much and it will bury our economy. No matter how you slice it, its socialism. Also, I guess in that little speech he made, he completely butchered the name Wesleyan college.

QUOTE (Sonik22 @ May 31, 2008 -> 08:45 PM) We just played two of the nastiest pitchers in the league and simply got beat. Shields and Kazmir have wicked stuff, and these Rays can pitch. Two games like this don't call for a thread about Fields needing to be called up. Whoa now... Kazmir is nasty, but Shields isn't anything special. He has a good changeup, and can give you a lot of innings. He's good, but far from one of the nastiest pitchers in baseball.

QUOTE (southsideirish71 @ May 31, 2008 -> 07:54 PM) Whoever thought the sign commercials was a good idea must of been drinking for those presentations. the swisher/vazquez one was decent the first couple of times, but after about 100 times, it gets old. the PK and OC ones plain suck.

I love how mlb gameday now has in-game video updates. Very useful for times like these.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ May 31, 2008 -> 04:29 PM) Mercy, how did we get out of that unscathed? Javy's awesome-ness.

Javy striking out the side in a tough situation! Chris who?

QUOTE (Cerbaho-WG @ May 31, 2008 -> 01:18 PM) Sickels has his first round mock up. I think it's completely f***ed up, but that's just me. 1) Tampa Bay: Pedro Alvarez, 3B, Vandy 2) Pittsburgh: Tim Beckham, SS, Georgia HS 3) Kansas City: Justin Smoak, 1B, South Carolina 4) Baltimore: Eric Hosmer, 1B, Florida HS 5) San Francisco: Yonder Alonso, 1B, Miami-Florida 6) Florida: Buster Posey, C, Florida State 7) Cincinnati: Gordon Beckham, SS, Georgia 8) Chicago WS: Kyle Skipworth, C, California HS 9) Washington: Brian Matusz, LHP, San Diego 10) Houston: Aaron Crow, RHP, Missouri 11) Texas: Ethan Martin, RHP, Georgia HS 12) Oakland: Aaron Hicks, OF, California HS 13) St. Louis: Christian Friedrich, LHP, Eastern Kentucky 14) Minnesota: Brett Wallace, 3B, Arizona State 15) LA Dodgers: Tim Melville, RHP, Missouri HS 16) Milwaukee: Shooter Hunt, RHP, Tulane 17) Toronto: Brett Lawrie, OF, Canada SS 18) NY Mets: Jason Castro, C, Stanford 19) Chicago Cubs: Gerrit Cole, RHP, California HS 20) Seattle: Tanner Scheppers, RHP, Fresno State 21) Detroit: Josh Fields, RHP, Georgia 22) NY Mets: Ike Davis, 1B, Arizona State 23) San Diego: Jake Odorizzi, RHP, Illinois HS 24) Philadelphia: Tyson Ross, RHP, California 25) Colorado: Jemile Weeks, 2B, Miami-Florida 26) Arizona: Anthony Hewitt, SS-OF, Connecticut HS 27) Minnesota: Reese Havens, SS, South Carolina 28) NY Yankees: Zach Collier, OF, California HS 29) Cleveland: Andrew Cashner, RHP, TCU 30) Boston: Casey Kelly, SS, Florida HS If both Matusz and Crow are available, I think you have to pull the trigger on one of them. High School catchers in the first round are really risky picks. I just checked, that's not Sickles first round mock draft, that was an online mock draft where members of his site were the GM's of each of the teams. They did 5 rounds, and in the 3rd round we got Jordan Danks. The 4th and 5th round guys are players I never really heard/seen much about. I'd be ecstatic with our first two picks being Skipworth and Danks. Even more ecstatic if it was Crow and Danks.

Chris who?

QUOTE (fathom @ May 31, 2008 -> 02:46 PM) As of yesterday, the Rays are leaning towards taking T. Beckham. Not surprised. He's more of toolsy, athletic type that Tampa likes.

QUOTE (Cerbaho-WG @ May 31, 2008 -> 01:18 PM) If both Matusz and Crow are available, I think you have to pull the trigger on one of them. High School catchers in the first round are really risky picks. Definitely Crow, but I wouldn't pick Matusz. There's this love fest for him, even though his stuff is fairly average-above average. I mean his stuff isn't bad, but he doesn't have any plus pitches. His mechanics aren't even that great, and he has trouble repeating his delivery. He's a nice prospect and all, but not top 5 and more like a top 10-15.

I'm not high on Alvarez like everyone else, and if I had the choice between him and Smoak, I'd choose Smoak. Hell, I'd be tempted to go with Wallace over Alvarez. I just think Smoak and Wallace are better pure hitters than Alvarez.

QUOTE (daa84 @ May 31, 2008 -> 02:25 PM) word is that pedro wants beckett or teixeria type money....if thats the case, i think hes gonna drop, because with the way hes been struggling at the end of the year, his broken hamate from earlier in the year, and his contract demands, i think alot of teams might be willing to just go with a guy like smoak who may be as good of a prospect, will probably be cheaper, wont hold out and is healthy and hitting The Royals are going to pay either him or Hosmer, IMO.

At least with Konerko and Thome, we have gotten some production. With Swisher, it's walk or nothing. And unless he can walk 200 times a season, he provides almost nothing to the team. He needs to start seeing more bench time, and Anderson (and I'm Anderson's biggest doubter here) and Wise should see more time at CF. I'm not saying an outright bench, but he should see his playing time cut in half until he proves something.

QUOTE (KevinM @ May 31, 2008 -> 08:45 AM) And I think anyone who can put on a glove would be better than Ozuna with the leather. What do you want from your utility IF? Uribe is the prototype for utility IF. Maybe if Uribe would get the same amount of time as Ozuna does, maybe. But as long as Uribe is on this team, you know Ozzie will use him over more deserving players.

QUOTE (KevinM @ May 31, 2008 -> 08:38 AM) What the f*** are you talking about? Ozuna is a terrible player who offers negative defense at every position. Uribe can play 3 IF positions quite well and is a better hitter than Ozuna. Good grief. The career .252 hitter, who is batting in the .190's this year and batted in the .230's last year, and who is argueably the worst offensive player in the majors, is a better hitter? Sure he plays better D, but Uribe is one of the worst offensive players I've ever seen in the past 3 years. Ozuna might not be a great hitter, but he is sure as hell better than Uribe with the stick. I think anyone who can hold a bat would be better than Uribe with the stick.