witesoxfan

I'm wondering why Hawk and DJ don't want Willie to take pitches and take on that leadoff hitter's mentality. They were talking in the broadcast the other night about how they want Willie to swing away, and while I have no problem with that, I was wondering why in the hell they wouldn't want Willie taking pitches like he was. Not taking pitches as a leadoff guy is down right stupid. Anyways, I do agree. Willie did look pretty good at the plate. He just needs to start stealing more...the fact that he doesn't have 20 steals yet is BS.

I have to totally disagree with this comment. Garcia and Buehrle can be shutdown type pitchers when they are pitching very, very well. But Loaiza can't be dominant...not without his low-to-mid 90s fastball. This 86-88 s*** he is throwing up there is BP. Unless of course you were talking about Garland...and when he has his best stuff and best control and isn't sticking his thumb up his ass out there, he is a solid pitcher too.

OK b****

Burke's not a prospect. He was a 29 or 30 year old career minor leaguer when the Sox signed him. Fortunately for us, he has been able to hit well in Charlotte and has hit .260 for us.

Oh I agree. I was just responding to what soxman352000 said and backing up SS2k4's original response.

What's even better is Jeckle's post(not the Sox part...that's actually partially possible yet...but very unlikely).

No. If he doesn't pick up his option, we will. Period. He is too valuable to this offense to lose. Regardless...I gotta feeling we will see Frank back, even if it is very limited. I think we will use that loophole that Anaheim exploited a couple years ago when bringing KRod onto the roster. We will have him for the playoffs, even if just for limited playing time. If we DO get him back, we will have a very deep roster for the postseason. I would just take a wild guess and say one of Alomar and Davis is off the roster.

I hate to do this, but... How 'bout them Spartans? Sorry man, couldn't resist.

You don't bunt with an RBI guy(and a slow one at that), period. If this is a must win game, then, and only then, is it a POSSIBILITY to bunt with PK. Of course, if Frank came up in that situation, God forbid he would bunt, and if he did, someone made a bad call, no?

Their rotation is s***. Carpenter-Morris-Williams-Suppan-Marquis is f***ing bush league. I agree very much with SS2k4...they have a Sirotka in Carpenter, and they just threw a s***load of pitchers in the pen and it clicked. If the Giants make it, they're f***ed. If the Dodgers make it, their f***ed. If the Padres make it, their f***ed. Problem is, atleast 1 of those 3 teams will make it, and in all likelyhood, 2 will. Then you have the Mets who have a solid 1-2-3 there(Glavine-Leiter-Trachsel), the Marlins have a very good young rotation(no matter who they throw...DTrain, Penny, Pavano, Burnett, Beckett...all awesome), though the Phils and Braves are not nearly as good. The Cards offense will not win in the playoffs alone, and I don't see the rotation doing anything. If they can somehow, someway get RJ, then it is an entirely different story. If not, they're done IMO.

Just got the game. Started a dynasty with Maryland(randomly selected them FWIW). I noticed one thing real quickly...it's a hell of a lot harder to get to the QB this year...or maybe that's just me. I was on his ass all night long and only got 1 sack. Another thing I noticed was that I couldn't get a stop on 3rd down. After about the 8th 3rd down conversion by NIU, I went apes***. Also, after I changed up the sliders a bit, I had no problems passing. It's about as easy to pass as it is in 2004 IMO. Game seems sweet though. Can't wait to play it some more.

Wish I could have seen the end of this one. Damn umping.

It's a proven fact that when Lofton has a reason to play, he plays his ass off. Just to make this point clearer, last year when he was traded to the Cubs, he hit .327 down the stretch to go along with an ObP of over .380. I have no doubt in my mind that Lofton finishes around .290-.300. Another thing regarding the Cubs...one of the main reasons their offense has not clicked at all this year is due to them not having Lofton setting the tables for them. If they had Lofton at the top of that lineup, they could very easily be in first. They don't, so they're not. It IS kind of surprising to see that they do not have a .300 hitter in their lineup though. That's down right goofy.

Beane's obsession to use absolutely no small ball whatsoever is what caused that right there. The A's still did win...but small ball should have been used. Sacrifice them to 3rd, and a flyball wins the game.

I think someone forgot to mention to Boston that Foulke has to blow atleast one save each year to the Twins, Mariners, and Yankees, no matter how good or bad those teams arm, and he has to blow a huge save late in the season/in the post season. It's like a rule.

Strikes Out Swinging Again

Hernandez is not available. The Expos need some type of a core for their new home, wherever that may be...Hernandez and Vidro in all likelyhood will be the face of the new franchise. Besides, he just inked a 3-year deal in ST. He is going nowhere.

It's been reported elsewhere on the site...in the Pavano and Benetiz available thread. And they want an MLB ready bat for him. That, in all likelyhood, will not come from us.

Just like you wouldn't take Ben Sheets or Josh Beckett either, huh? I mean, this is only Sheets first year of real good success, and Beckett has never put together a great full year. rolleyeyes.gif However, I think some of that $10 mill did go to Garcia. Is Garcia + Everett > Maggs? I think so...some may not.

IIRC from the article, it said Benetiz and Pavano understood the fact that they could possibly become available if the Marlins dropped out in the next 10 days. No where did it say Pavano and Benetiz are available. With how s***ty the Marlins pen is(I mean, they gave us a potential utility IF for Billy Koch...and they practically OVERPAID), Benetiz will not become available unless they do drop out.

I assume you mean that Cleveland and Minnesota are a wash. Afterall, Minnesota is above .500, and Cleveland is not.

He must have gotten his blue and red teams mixed up. You can't fault the guy for wearing Cubs gear. If I went to, say, a DBacks-Pirates game in Pittsburgh just to see a game, I'd probably wear a Sox hat and a Sox jersey(if I had one ) I wouldn't throw a homer back...I think it's stupid...but that's entirely different.

You can't compare Everett and Maggs...I don't think anyone is doing that. But to say that replacing Maggs with $10 mill extra along with Everett is just down right goofy. Maggs is a good hitter, but .310 35 120 .900 is replaceable with $10 mill(or more if Lee or Konerko is traded).

How does this trade suck? I think we overpaid in the fact that we gave up more talent then we got...and I think it would be hard for people to argue with me. But Rauch had attitude problems, and every organization knows this. The stuff that got him minor leaguer of the year in 2000 was lost when he tore his shoulder up, and it is no longer here, and will not return. We essentially needed to get rid of him, because he had no future in the organization, and 29 other teams knew this. Majewski was traded to LA, traded back to the Sox, picked in the Rule V draft by the Blue Jays, and given back to the Sox...he has bounced around and just finds his way back to the Sox seemingly every time. We did not give up too much in the end. We gave up probably the right amount. Same thing happens in the Garcia trade. We had to give up Olivo, Reed, and Morse. Otherwise he ends up in New York or Los Angeles.

Uribe is not helping this team right now with his cold stick. I think it would be wise of Ozzie to let Uribe take 3-5 games off. We all wanted Ozzie to make Lee sit for watching a ball that ended up staying in the park, and that's fine...but Lee was atleast getting hits, and still is. Uribe tries to put one into the LF seats with seemingly every hack. He needs to know that that will not be accepted, especially when he is not a homer hitter...or not so much that it will not be accepted, just that it does not help the team, and that he will get limited playing time when doing it. I don't give a s*** what kind of funk Harris is in right now, and I don't give a s*** how badly he looks at the plate right now. I'd rather have him up there getting on now and then and helping the team any way he can. Uribe is not helping. Manuel did this with Paulie last year, and it did help a little(then again, Paulie was hitting about .110 for a good stretch of time, that made the decision a lot easier). Paulie started to hit much better over the second half of the year. I think if we do that to Uribe maybe the message will finally get drilled into his head and that he needs to just get base hits and he will be fine. When he was rolling in April and May, he was not trying to kill the ball and hit homers every at bat with every swing, he was getting singles, doubles, hell, even triples. What he's doing now is hurting the team.