JUGGERNAUT

http://mlb.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/mlb/events/a.../final_vote.jsp Please make this a sticky. We still have a chance to make Frank an all-star. Don't forget to vote! Betw SN & WSI we should be able to garner enough votes for Frank. EVERYBODY vote betw 7/6- 7/9!

http://chicagosports.chicagotribune.com/sp...tesox-headlines .244 team suddenly has too many O weapons? When Doug Glanville went on the disabled list April 17, the Rangers used the underwhelming Ryan Christenson in center instead of Everett. That doesn't say much for him defensively, though he has played far more center field than right or left over his career. Everett came up empty on two tough chances Wednesday night against the Twins. In the seventh inning, Everett's sliding attempt came up just short on Torii Hunter's game-tying bloop single. Then he appeared to take too sharp an angle on Luis Rivas' 12th-inning triple. Perhaps it was a one-game thing. Everett might have been gassed after arriving at the ballpark from Anaheim less than two hours before the first pitch. "Is he going to get to as many balls and close as quickly as Willie Harris can? Perhaps not," he said. "But it's a little give and take. Part of why we acquired him was to break up some of the right-handed hitters in the middle of our lineup." With Everett playing center, Harris might get most of his work as a pinch-runner or defensive replacement. Aaron Rowand, batting .367 since his June 10 recall from Triple-A Charlotte, might start only against certain lefties. If Everett doesn't play center every day, he could compete with Paul Konerko and Brian Daubach for at-bats as the team's designated hitter. Daubach, who hit a two-run homer Wednesday, is batting .333 over his last 19 games. Konerko rose from the dead Wednesday with a game-tying pinch-hit homer with two outs in the 11th. It was his first extra-base hit in six weeks. Even before that, Manuel said Konerko would get "most of the reps" this weekend at Tampa Bay. Starting Konerko likely would prompt Manuel to move Carlos Lee into the No. 2 spot behind Roberto Alomar, bumping Jose Valentin back to No. 6 or No. 7. How will the Sox respond to all the changes? "We have a lot of guys focused more on the potential prize at the end rather than individual things right now," Williams said. Does a game tying 11th inning home run warrant starting? It does when it helps complete a sweep of your most hated rival :wink: Help Frank make the all-star team: July 6-9 for voting http://mlb.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/mlb/events/a.../final_vote.jsp DON'T FORGET! Who's hot: Frank Thomas is hitting .379 during an eight-game hitting streak. He has reached base in 29 of his last 30 games. Jose Valentin is hitting .319 over his last 13 games. Tampa Bay's Aubrey Huff has hit 32 home runs since the 2002 All-Star break. Who's not: Carl Everett, who went 0-for-4 with a walk in his Sox debut, has one hit in 14 at-bats against the Devil Rays this season. Miguel Olivo is 5-for-31 (.161) in his last 12 games. IF EVERETT IGNITES THESE NEXT 10 GMS (AND HE JUST MIGHT WITH THE R-L look the SOX spotted on Wed) LOOK OUT KC !!!

http://www.suntimes.com/output/sox/cst-spt-sox041.html From Tuesday's double-acquisition blockbuster to a just-completed two-week stretch in which they won nine of 12 against two major rivals, the Sox have become the healthiest .500 club baseball has seen in a long time. Help Thomas with his All-Star cause: http://mlb.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/mlb/events/a.../final_vote.jsp He deserves it as he has become the player/spokesperson for the team. JR & KW could not have imagined a better scenario when they made the new contract. http://www.suntimes.com/output/sox/cst-spt-ssep04.html Thomas needs four home runs to become the 35th player in baseball history to reach the 400 mark. He also is 22 hits shy of 2,000. ''We've played as bad as we possibly can in the first half, and we find ourselves right in the middle of it. With these key additions, I really feel we might go to another level.''

http://www.suntimes.com/output/mariotti/cs...-spt-jay04.html Kotex Boy: NO WAY SOSA AN ALL-STAR! A cheater should be punished, not rewarded --assuming lessons conveyed to children are still important to baseball. His lukewarm numbers aren't good enough to merit a start, particularly with the added spike of the winner leveraging home-field World Series advantage for its league. The spotlight belongs to Pujols, whose astonishing 2-1/2 seasons--he's batting .378 with 24 homers, 76 RBI and a .698 slugging percentage--have us wondering if he's the new-millennium Ted Williams. It's one thing to market the game globally. It's quite another to invite silly, disproportionate All-Star results by allowing an online voter to cast as many as 25 ballots. In a perfect world, the NL outfielders would be Pujols, Gary Sheffield and Barry Bonds. And a reserve would be Corey Patterson, who has joined Mark Prior and Kerry Wood in saving the North Side season while Sosa has foundered in cork-cheating, helmet-beaning, toe-bleeding hell. But when Sosa is named to his fifth consecutive starting berth Sunday night, it will have a negative domino effect that could keep Patterson off the NL team.

http://www.dailysouthtown.com/southtown/ds.../pro/041sd7.htm But his latest accomplishment is his best work yet. He did what former GM Ron Schueler and even what a 2000 Sox playoff team couldn't do — he captured the city of Chicago. The Sox are it right now, period. They beat the Cubs on the field, and then stole their thunder off of it. The Sox are now this summer's blockbuster movie, while the Cubs are still stewing in talk of corked bats and Manuel going James Brown on them after last Saturday's win. For the first time in a long time, Cubs fans are jealous of the South Side. They wish their GM would wake up and make a deal or two like Williams did Tuesday, when he acquired Robbie Alomar and Carl Everett in separate trades. While the other GMs were innocently watching their teams play Tuesday night, it was as if Williams were pulling a Michael Corleone, finding a way to whack the hopes of the other teams in the American League Central in just one fell swoop.

BRIAN DAUBACH

FRANK THOMAS

CARL EVERETT

Rangers salute Everett Traded outfielder's intensity, professional will be missed, they say 07/03/2003 By SEAN HORGAN / The Dallas Morning News ANAHEIM, Calif. – There was no shock, only regret when news moved through the Rangers clubhouse after Tuesday night's loss to the Angels that outfielder Carl Everett was traded to the White Sox for at least two and possibly three players to be named. Everybody understood the value of the move as a baseball business decision, a necessary move in this vanishing season to help replenish the Rangers minor league system and put this franchise in the youthful direction in which it must travel. Still, manager Buck Showalter and his players were sad to see Everett go. "I've really come to appreciate Carl for the way he plays the game," Showalter said. "The White Sox are getting a professional baseball player who brings it every day, a guy who always answers the challenges. No one plays the game with more intensity." Rangers Subscribe to our free Rangers newsletter Lackey, Angels four-hit Rangers Rangers salute Everett Notebook: Ludwick doesn't waste time Have your say on the best Rangers Box score | Highlights Thursday's scouting report Rangers Forum More Rangers In a short time, Showalter came to value Everett's no-nonsense approach as player and a person. He had heard the stories of Everett's celebrated meltdowns in Boston, but chose to disregard them and find out for himself. And what he found out was that Everett, unlike other players on the roster, wouldn't come out of the lineup unless he's placed in a cast. He found out that Everett feared absolutely no one, and while he didn't go looking for trouble, he would never back down. He found out that Everett played the game as hard, and as cleanly, as anyone in baseball. He found out that Everett had a way of speaking to younger players that got through to them without belittling them or patronizing them. In short, he found out what Jay Powell, who played with Everett in Houston, already knew. "You can't find anybody in baseball who plays the game harder than Carl," Powell said. "He's a clutch player and a guy who comes to play every single day. The White Sox are getting a great player, a guy who plays the game the right way. "When he's healthy, as we saw this year, he's an All-Star-caliber player."

As reported in the Dallas news: They will get two or three prospects from a group of eight minor leaguers agreed upon by the Rangers and White Sox. If they go for a top prospect, Texas will get two players. If they opt for more mid-level prospects, they get three. That pool could include: • Right-hander Rick Hummel, 22, who is 1-0 with a 0.39 ERA at Class A Kannapolis; • Right-hander Frankie Francisco, 23, who is 3-2, 2.95 at Class A Winston Salem; • Left-hander Corwin Malone, 23, who is 2-2, 7.16 at Double-A Birmingham; • Left-handed hitting outfielder/leadoff type Anthony Webster, 20, hitting .297 with 18 steals at Class A Kannapolis. "While not everybody may be one of the their top prospects, we should be able to get a package that's intriguing," Rangers assistant general manager Grady Fuson said. "The best part is this deal still gives us time to go back and take a couple more looks at some of these guys."

Dallasnews.com reports: The Rangers will recoup either two or three young players who will come from a pool of eight players agreed upon by them and the White Sox. General manager John Hart said the trade would be complete by the trade deadline of July 31. "It will be a combination of pitching and position players," Hart said. "We could go with several combinations, some of which will give us two players and others that will give us three." In talking about the players the Rangers may receive, Showalter said all will be younger than age 25 and should bolster the organization. "It's a good deal. We have a chance to put two and maybe three guys into our system that can really help," he said. "The White Sox got a good fit for what their needs are," Showalter said. "He plays three positions and he brings it every day. He's been a rock for us all year."

ESPN is reporting 3 of a pool of 8 ml'ers. Some one at WSI has reported that a Neil Cotts checked into a holiday last night in ANA. Still scouring.

THE SOX SPEAKETH THE TRUTH ! 3.5 gb baby!

FRANK THOMAS

CARLOS LEE

It wouldn't be fair to single out the Times. http://chicagosports.chicagotribune.com/sp...eball/whitesox/ http://chicagosports.chicagotribune.com/sp...eball/whitesox/ By Teddy Greenstein As soon as D'Angelo Jimenez's ground ball slipped past Mike Remlinger's glove and darted into center field, Jose Valentin made a mad dash for first base. A day after beating the Cubs with a ninth-inning homer, Valentin was determined to be the first White Sox player to congratulate Jimenez on his own game-winning hit. "Who's the man?" Valentin screamed at Jimenez. "I am the man today," Jimenez replied. By Paul Sullivan But "El Pulpo" gives up a one-out walk to Armando Rios before Willie Harris grounds into a fielder's choice. Harris steals second, and Alfonseca promptly serves up a 390-foot, game-tying home run to Aaron Rowand, pounding the mound with his right fist in disgust. It's déjà vu all over again. By Teddy Greenstein and Paul Sullivan "There's noise," he said. "Everyone's yelling and hollering. You throw a strike and the crowd goes crazy. You can hear it, and you like that." Loaiza, who didn't face the Cubs last weekend at Wrigley Field, said that in terms of intensity, his only comparison would be Game 3 of the 1999 American League division series. Optical illusion? The Cubs are only three games over .500, but Dusty Baker contends his team is on par with the Yankees, Giants and some other winning ballclubs. Prime-time player Carlos Lee went 3-for-5 Saturday, boosting his lifetime average against the Cubs to .333 with eight homers and 30 RBIs. "I think Carlos is becoming one of those big-game players," Manuel said. "He likes the atmosphere, the full house, people getting on him. He's always put together good at-bats when the pressure's on." Rick Morrissey The life, the energy that was missing earlier in the season? It's back. In the fifth inning Saturday against the Cubs, with Frank Thomas on first, Carlos Lee fisted a Carlos Zambrano fastball to left-center. Lee hustled into second and surprised second baseman Mark Grudzielanek, who thought the odds of Thomas and Lee running hard were about the same as them taking up 17th Century Norwegian poetry. And Manuel celebrated on the field by pumping his fists to the crowd. Now that's life. KW: "The other side for me was that our fans are still passionate about our chances." In the last three weeks, the Sox have won both series against the Cubs (they go for their fifth victory in six games Sunday); won series against the Dodgers and the Twins; split a series with Boston; and lost two of three games to San Francisco. All those teams are contenders. It has been Williams' contention all along that the Sox were built for a marathon this season. That makes them one of the few teams able to overcome a poor start. And it was one of the reasons neither Williams nor Sox Chairman Jerry Reinsdorf panicked. Bartolo Colon gave up six runs and walked seven Saturday. The Sox probably couldn't have crawled out of that sort of hole in April. But the life has returned to this team. Manuel deserves some credit for the resuscitation.

http://www.suntimes.com/index/sox.html "We have a nice feeling right now, no matter how many runs we're down,'' said Jimenez, whose recent defensive lapses had him out of the starting lineup Sat-urday. "When I come to the park, I look forward to the game. I saw I wasn't in the lineup, so I was working on trying to make some adjustments. I've been trying to do too much lately.'' "I haven't done too much before this, so it's nice to help us win,'' Rowand said. "It's a big series for us. There's a feeling right now that even if we get a few runs down, we can come back.'' Rowand is hitting 360 since his return on Jun 11. ''You knew he was working hard, but the fastball didn't come through like before,'' Olivo said. ''I don't know if he was that comfortable on the mound. That's why I go out to the mound a lot. But I don't know what is going on.'' In his start last weekend against the Cubs, Colon warned the coaching staff before the eighth inning that he was running out of gas and afterward he was diagnosed with tightness in his shoulder, according to Cooper. ''With all of our starters we really have started to monitor the sidelines [work between starts]. If you look at [Mark] Buehrle, Colon and [Esteban] Loaiza, they're in the top 10 in innings pitched in the league and in baseball. So the way we kind of diffuse that is to back off sidelines. ''He told me, 'I want to win the game. I'm ready and I'm going to throw nine innings today,''' Olivo said. ''I said, 'OK, here we go.' I don't know. He wanted to win the game and he wanted to be in the game for a long time.'' The fact he didn't have his best stuff and still gave the Sox 51/3 innings was a positive for Cooper. ''The guy has a heart of a lion and he's going to do that,'' Cooper said. Skip his next start. After MIN we finish the 1/2 with the AL least. While some players on both sides have said the crosstown series isn't bigger than any other, Williams doesn't buy it. ''Hell no it's not,'' he said. ''This is the Cubbies, man. This is for the bragging rights of Chicago. Our fans care about it very deeply as we care about it very deeply. Hell no it's not another series. Anybody that tells you any different is giving you propaganda. ''You see 45,000 people here. You won't find that next week.'' WAIT TO SET THOSE SCRUBS STRAIGHT KENNY. KOTEK BOY: When Jerry Manuel is getting jiggy with it, a party must be starting. But yes, Soxdom, the winds are changing. Your boys seem to have resurrected their peculiar year in successive interleague scrums against the Cubs, which qualifies on the South Side as winning the Powerball lottery on Christmas Day. ''We have a nice feeling right now,'' said D'Angelo Jimenez, the maligned second baseman who delivered the game-winning single in the ninth. ''No matter how many runs we're down, we believe we can come back.'' Most of the 45,000 fans stayed after a 36-minute rain delay late in the afternoon, more proof that this rivalry means more to Chicago than other interleague rivalries--including Yankees-Mets--mean to their towns. Admittedly, I scoffed in the press box when my colleague, Carol Slezak, said ''home run'' only seconds before Rowand deposited Antonio Alfonseca's fastball into the left-field seats. But he drilled the kind of clutch home run that turns pretenders into contenders. Or, in the Cubbies' case, contenders into pretenders. Reality by KOTEX boy Eerily, this can be traced back to last year's trade that sent Alfonseca and Matt Clement to the Cubs for Julian Tavarez and a little-known prospect named Dontrelle Willis. Since the high-kicking Willis was recalled from the minors last month, he has emerged as an incredible story and almost singlehandedly returned the Marlins to respectability. Sud-denly, Florida is reluctant to trade Lowell for fear of angering a fan base already devastated by the dismantling of the 1997 world championship team. Without Lowell, the Cubs won't win the division. Without a better bullpen, they might not finish above .500. Carol Slesak With apologies to Baker, that the last two losses have come against the surging White Sox is at the moment the least of the Cubs' problems. Rick Telander At the start of this season, it was clear Rowand was not completely healed from his accident and was totally overwhelmed at the plate. Batting under .140, he was sent to the minors in May and had his swing dissected, trashed and totally reconstructed with the help of coaches such as Greg Walker. The fact is, he was 8-for-60 (.133) before going to the minors and is 9-for-25 (.360) since. "To be honest with you,'' Manuel said in a postgame aside, "Alfonseca is a 'down' pitcher. And Aaron looks like he's hitting stuff down well.'' "I didn't expect that,'' he said. "But I expected something good.'' "It was awesome,'' Rowand said. "I was on cloud nine. But we weren't done.'' No, that would come with Jimenez's single, which sent the Cubs home as lovable losers once again.

I never gave up the ship. We we're treading water for a while, but I was bailing it out while the SOX were patching holes. There's still too much water (haven't reached .500 yet) but progress is looking good. With less water to bail, the ship is picking up steam & all are smiling! GO WHITE SOX ! 4.5 gb baby! btw, along the way we came across the scrubs boat & lauched a few cannon balls their way. Slowed them down considerably I'll drink to that matey! PS> This was a 8X (Pirates of the Carribean) theme post.

I'm not being a downer but these are remarkable #'s for the Roys: They are 15-5, 120 runs scored, 71 runs given up in their last 20. That's an rpg avg of 10 & and an rpa of nearly 4. We need some help from the rest of the league to catch them.

Biggest reason for optimism: We were 6.5 gb chasing the Twinks about a week ago. We've gone 6-4 against division contenders. We are now 5.5 gb chasing the Roys. They've gone 8-2 vs the AL least & STL. We're still gaining despite facing tougher competition! 6 gms from now we too will face the AL least. Times are looking better!

PAUL KONERKO

CARLOS LEE

JOE CREDE 5.5 gb. KC 8-2 in last 10. SOX 6-4 in last 10. CLE really sucks!

I think we need to take our hat off to both Marte & Koch as well. So far we've just been talking about E-LO for the all-star game, but soon we're going to have to start talking about E-LO for Cy Young. To get that 3rd out after Valentin cost a run was HUGE. Nerves of steel E-LO has. And then Marte & Koch in the 9th was a thing of beauty. The best the Twinks had to offer at the plate vs the best the SOX had to offer in the pen. 4.5 gb & now we're chasing KC. I Can't help but feel good right now.

Where is your freaking optimism? We just took 2 of 3 from the heralded NL contending cub. But MUCH more important than that, our rotation is really coming into form! Danny Wright In his last 5 starts, the SOX are 3-2 when Danny pitched. He's lowered his era a full pt. His hit total is the real gem: 20 hits in 28 ip, 4 hits in 12 ip. JON Garland In his last 10 starts, the SOX are 5-5 but that doesn't tell the story. How about 7 starts of 2 runs or less? How about lowering his era from a high of 6.88 to 4.71 in his last 7 starts? There is something to be said for Rogers 190ip, 30gs theory. So far Danny & Jon are looking like #2 & #3 starters. E-LO In his last 10 starts, the SOX are 6-4. What more is there to say about him? One bad start in his last 10 & that was due to injury. He's past the worry mark with 100ip in 15 GS. He's presently 10-2. COLON In his last 10 starts, the SOX are 4-6. The BP has really let him down. I remember last yr the knock on him was K's. Well, he's currently ranked 4th in AL (84). He's not been as sharp as in 2K2, but the real difference this year is that he's been victimized by the long ball. Even so, his #'s are impressive: 7 winnable starts in his last 10, 5 ace worthly starts in his last 10, 116ip in 16gs & 5 cg. Buehrle In his last 10 starts, the SOX are 3-7. The blame is shared here. It's Mark's worst 1/2 in the ML since he came up. He's actually fared better in his last 10: 6 winnable starts, 5 quality starts. If you're looking for hope (as I am) there is some. In this stretch he raised his era to 3.54 to 5.19. But in his last 6 starts he's lowered it to 4.90. At one point it had dropped to 4.6. I think the hope is that Mark has a shot still of getting his era down to 4.5 before the break. If he does that I think he'll be able to have a much better 2nd 1/2 & a shot at maybe getting below an era of 4. Any thoughts of his winning 20 are now gone. But I think if he could pick up maybe 2 more wins before the break he still might be in line for 15. Summary: Sox went 3-2(Wright), 5-5(Garland), 6-4(E-LO), 4-6(BC), 3-7(MB) Sox went 21-24 over these 45 starts. In that same stretch: Min went 6-4 (Rogers), 7-3(Lohse), 4-6(Radke), 7-3(Mays), 3-7(Reed) Min went 27-23 over these 50 starts. KC went 4-6(Affeldt), 2-8(May), 2-0(Lima), 2-7(Snyder), 6-4(George), KC went 16-25 over these 41 starts. KC Notes: Their best pitcher Hernandez is on the DL & hasn't pitched in over a month. Lima & George account for 8 of their last 16 wins with eras of 4.76 & 6.53. I think it's easy to see that with the Twinks having 3/5 starters sporting > 5 eras they aren't going to run away this year. And KC is really hurting without Hernandez. It's going to be very hard for JR to justify a white flag trade this year. He's been blessed with E-LO, Colon, Garland & Wright & Buehrle look to turn it around.