BearSox

This one is one of my favs... You just keep watching hope the one time, it does happen. I remember I found the one where it did happen, EVERY TIME, and I was so happy.

I must say I'm not hating the Mitchell pick as much anymore. I still think his bust percentage is higher than your average 1st rounder, but he does provide a LOT of upside.

QUOTE (Kenny Hates Prospects @ Jun 26, 2009 -> 07:57 PM) I'd bet almost anything we're not offering arb to a $6M/year set-up man, regardless of how good he is. Even if we can't get a whole lot out of him because of that and our refusal to eat salary, I'd still like to deal him so we have a shot at signing him back over the offseason to a deal much more in line with today's market prices. His contract shouldn't be an issue considering a team would only have to pay 2-3 million of his contract and bullpen arms are in high demand right now. Personally, if we could dump Linebrink on some team, I'd have no problem with offering Dotel arb. Best case scenario, some team bites because of big need in the bullpen and we not only get two draft picks but also free ourselves of a good portion of contract. However, if we can't get rid of Linebrink, offering Dotel arb would be too much of a risk. That'd be way too much money invested in two average-above average, IMO, bullpen arms with injury risks.

I really don't think it matters which way the backup bats if you have a right handed starting catcher. As for Lucy, I'd take him over Miller any day.

QUOTE (SoxAce @ Jun 26, 2009 -> 09:44 PM) When Mike put up his sig that day... already knew her name.. and waaaay ahead of ya BearSox. I've known about her for a while.... I'm sooooooooooo horny

QUOTE (fathom @ Jun 26, 2009 -> 09:55 PM) Give him the whole season. His numbers so far this year are around where he was at last year at this point. I don't think you'll see any really good numbers from him this year. This screams sophomore slump (offensively) to me. Hopefully next year he realizes he's not a big home run hitter and that he's a good hitter who sometimes hits the ball out. I would not be surprised to see a huge year out of him next year, better than 08. Also, hopefully he gets a lot more focused and gets his head into the game. Even with that being said, I think it might be the best course of action to move him to the OF. The thing that scares me about him moving the OF is his lack of communication. If it was up to me, I'd make it mandatory for every non-english speaker in the organization to learn english. I just don't see how you can have really good cohesiveness and communication if you got a decent portion of the players speaking a foreign language.

There's been a lot of talk about whether or not Beckham can stick at SS, and what scouting reports and analysts said... IIRC, most of them were 50/50 on whether or not Beckham could play good D. Personally, if Beckham can be Jeter or Michael Young defensively and provide big numbers offensively, I got no problem with him at SS. While Jeter and Young are far from the greatest SS to ever play and they get/got over hyped because of their bats, both of them made the routine plays and were leaders on the field. A lot of the problems with Alexei are just his brain lapses and his laziness, but he doesn't communicate well with the rest of the infield or outfield. He doesn't direct traffic on shallow flyballs, today we saw him and Getz both covering 2nd with a righty at bat (Alexei should have stayed home), just too many mis-communications. Maybe this is something that can be worked on, but maybe not. Beckham just emits leadership, IMO. He's cocky alright, but not a bad cocky. I think he could definitely be a leader on the field. However, one thing is for sure, Beckham will have to change his approach. With his bat pointed towards the pitcher so much, he's gonna struggle to hit fastballs and it'll hurt him in the long run. If he was bigger than 5'11-6'0 and 180-190 lbs, he might be able to get away with it. He's gonna have to make the bat at least a bit more vertical than it is now.

QUOTE (WCSox @ Jun 26, 2009 -> 12:37 PM) I've been on the "Alexei will be at least as good as Jose Valentin" bandwagon. Not great defensively, but good enough. And his bat is a plus. I'll take an error-prone Alexei with 20-30 HR power over a defensive-stud 2005-2007 Juan Uribe who can't hit for crap. He'll never get back to the 20's in home runs if he keeps trying to pull everything onto the concourse. It's sickening to watch major league hitters try and pull an outside breaking ball 400+ ft only to pop it up to the 3B. He was such a good hitter last year with a great approach at bat, but in all likely hood, because he hit so many home runs, he's trying to do nothing but hit homers this year.

QUOTE (fathom @ Jun 26, 2009 -> 07:21 PM) I'd say he's average. For a "grinder", he's shown some questionable baseball IQ. Like you said, who knows who's to blame for all the issues the infield seems to have. The one thing 99 percent of will agree on is that Jeff Cox is not good. I'd say he's above average. He's made some E's recently, but overall, he's made some solid plays. Nix on the other hand is GG worthy if he could hit consistently. Nix has some great reactions at 2B and gets great jumps, and has a very strong arm. And you're right about Cox, he needs to go. I could handle him as maybe an infielders coach or something, but otherwise, he's got to go.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jun 26, 2009 -> 09:19 PM) Hopefully we have a version or two of him on the way. Danks will be our Sizemore and Mitchell will be our Granderson..... That'd be jizz worthy.

Shay Laren.... get the kleenex ready.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jun 26, 2009 -> 01:28 PM) I keep wondering whether we'll be able to keep Podsednik as a stolen base coach after his legs finally give out. He's not that fast any more and it kills him on the basepaths this year, but he knows when to run and he has the technique down pat. He'd be an ideal guy to have working with people who have speed but need to develop stolen base skill (Owens, Mitchell, perhaps D2: the Mighty Danks) He's still plenty fast. Obviously not as fast as he was in 05 (before that Hammy injury, he could tell you when and give the catcher a head start, but he'd still be safe, I still remember that game in Toronto when he got the 4 steals), but he's still got a lot of speed. However, maybe it's because of the overall lack of speed on this team that makes him look faster than maybe he actually is. The surprising thing about him was not until recently, his technique on the bases was pretty bad this year.

QUOTE (JPN366 @ Jun 26, 2009 -> 04:47 PM) I've said it over and over, W-S has an open roster spot. It's been open for more than two weeks. Even with all the movement lately, it hasn't been filled. I think the holdup is for the rest of the guys to sign and report to their clubs. In all likely hood, we'll see Mitchell (along with porbably Phegley and maybe another 1 or 2 players) start out in Kanny with Greene moving up to W-S to take that open roster spot.

WTF... he doesn't want to play with us, but he'll gladly travel to the opposite end of the world and play ball in Japan? Not sure I get that one, unless he likes to travel and they offered him a nice size contract. I really wish we kept Phillips, both of them actually. They seem like good AAAA players who can step in a pinch when needed and be decent.

QUOTE (Kenny Hates Prospects @ Jun 26, 2009 -> 08:05 PM) He's a veteran who the pitchers like and he can hit, so maybe. But I think because of his salary he'll be gone after the year. We won't offer him arb and he'll end up signing for near the minimum elsewhere. And actually, if the Sox do blow this thing up, he's a candidate to get moved anyway since the Mets are paying his salary. If we blow it up, I see Pierzynski as the likely trade candidate with Castro as the guy staying to be the vet leadership with Flowers as the catcher. I think Dony Lucy has a chance to be a solid backup catcher in the future. Not much of a hitter, but from what I've heard, read and the little I've seen, he seems like a really smart player who's very good defensively, and JPN always says he's tough as nails. I can live with a weak hitting backup catcher if they play really good defense and don't play more than 1/5 of the games.

Awesome... how the hell did we get Norris Hopper for Corky Miller? That's a better package then what we got for Iguchi a couple years back.... are the Reds really that desperate for bad backup catchers.

This is absurd. The house yet again passes another insane bill. I really don't care how you feel about Global Warming, but honestly, how can anyone be in favor of this particular bill? It's the largest tax increase in American history, the debate about Global Warming is far from a settled one, no one read the bill and it was about 1300+ pages, no one really understands the bill, and right now in this bill, the only people who seem to gain are politicians and select businesses. Okay, you want to do something about Global Warming, fine. But how about we first prove Global Warming is a real threat, and come up with a much more logical and well thought out bill? This is sickening. Hopefully the Senate has more sense than the house, but I doubt it... The country that I love is really going down the s***ter.

QUOTE (Rex Kicka** @ Jun 26, 2009 -> 05:33 PM) My guess? Mrs. Sanford (who discovered the affair by finding a letter around the same time) I doubt that... while she was/is pissed, she doesn't seem like the type that would want to completely ruin his political career and have all this stuff wide open in a scandal. She knew about the affair for at least a couple of months, and I assume they tried to keep it private. However, I guarantee the Argentina trip over Father's Day weekend really pissed her off.

Savage's points aren't that crazy. First off, how did the newspaper get all the emails in the first place? Also, if you are a conspiracy theorist, Sanford takes a ton attention away from the cap and trade bill. Also, it seems Savage and Rush are pissed about all the media attention for Sanford and Ensign and the lack of it for Edwards.

QUOTE (lostfan @ Jun 26, 2009 -> 11:13 AM) Honestly the only part about it that I care about is the hypocrisy. I don't care about politicians' personal lives otherwise. People f*** up, it is what it is. But let's use a similar example in Eliot Spitzer. Spitzer had built a reputation as a successful attorney general, then it turns out he himself was involved in criminal activity (ironically he'd done a lot of work against prostitution). So he is exposed as a hypocrite and a f***up, so he resigns, as well he should have. Sanford on the other hand, same thing. He's a social conservative preaching family values, morality etc. then it turns out, after an incidental display of breathtaking stupidity, that he doesn't live up to these same values. When he was in Congress, he voted for Clinton's impeachment, but as of yet he's ignored calls to resign (he very well could change his mind, this hasn't been out there that long). So by doing that he's made his stance clear on what politicians should do in his situation, it remains to be seen if he thinks it applies to him. I think that's all pretty s***ty. It just shows you how much arrogance politicians have. They don't think they are in the same boat as everyone else and they can do whatever the hell they want to do.

QUOTE (lostfan @ Jun 26, 2009 -> 11:14 AM) Goes for Democrats and Republicans. There are very few representatives I actually like. The House Dems are acting exactly like the House GOP did when they were in control. I'm thinking they should just get rid of the party system. It's becoming almost pointless. It's almost like you have no choice because everyone's the same.

I have no problem with spending money in research for alternative energy sources. I have a problem with a bogus cap and trade tax that is pretty much gonna raise energy taxes on everyone, by a large amount. Not only will we paying more for gas, heat, etc, but the prices of all products will go up because business' will have to raise their prices to compensate for the ridiculous increase in energy prices. This is completely the wrong way to go about finding new energy sources.

why do we want to be so much like Europe?

QUOTE (Baines3 @ Jun 26, 2009 -> 11:07 AM) Obama's health care plan will never get through congress. I would be very surprised if it did. The senate would be the only ones to stop it because the house is filled with what seems to brain dead idiots who do whatever their party tells them to do.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jun 26, 2009 -> 10:49 AM) And this bill isn't structured to be smart? It is limited in how much of the carbon credits are auctioned off, most of them are given out at first to industries that aren't hurt. It's cost is very limited. The money coming in is rebated out and the people in this country least able to afford it actually will get money back from it. It's not a hard cap. It's been negoiated downwards heavily, especially to wind up helping farmers. I'd say that a smart bill would be one even stronger than this one, but I'm willing to take this one because of what we've seen in Europe; simply setting up a flawed system and letting it run for 5 years produced results that were vastly stronger than what was hoped by the designers of the bill in spurring energy efficiency and renewable energy development. Basically, if you're opposing this bill because "We need to be smart about how we go about doing it", then there is no environmental bill you will support. That doesn't mean the discussion can't be edifying. Question, how much will this bill help the environment. From what I've read, the most difference it will make is a 2/10's of a degree, and that's being very generous, drop in temperature in 100 years.