witesoxfan

You get hit on the hand by a 95 MPH fastball, and good things will not happen. This could be the beginning of the end for the A's this year.

Yeah, Teixieria isn't on the block. He's only part of the future of the Rangers. And Darin Erstad is making $8 mill a year. Unless they take Paulie and we do get McPherson, that isn't happening either. Get an ace, and I'll be happy. Steve Finley and Randall Simon would be OK too, but aren't necessities.

Linky He'd be a solid-ass pickup. Use him as a #5 until we can get an ace, and then move him to the pen. Wouldn't cost much either. He's the type of #5 I want...a guy who will eat you innings and give you a shot to win.

Low-risk, high-reward. Those 4 words are music to my f***ing ears. And those are the words KW and JR like to hear as well. Cliff Politte, Shingo Takatsu, and Juan Uribe ring a bell? Low-risk, high-reward? I rest my case. (Obviously, Politte has sucked ass...but that's where the low-risk part comes in...we can dump his ass any time we want to pretty much) Then, if you can move Paulie in a deal, you are set.

Yeah, that's bulls*** too. The fact that that many Sawks and Yanks are in is complete and utter bulls*** and why the votes should be weighted...let the managers, coaches, and fans vote for the starters...fans vote counts for 50%, managers and coaches counts for the other 50%. Having Nomar be leading SS's in voting is an embarrassment to baseball...even more embarrassing then Milton Bradley.

His fastball is quick. It looks faster then 90. Just like Politte's looks slower then 96. So Cotts had a bad night. Thank Uribe, Jose, Paulie, Frank, and even Eric Chavez that we were even in this game. Uribe made a hell of a player, Jose, Paulie, and Frank are self-explanatory, and Eric Chavez missed a homer by like an inch or two...he just hit the ball on the bad part of the bat, otherwise that's gone. We lost to a good team, and we damn near won a game we probably shouldn't have. Get over it. Move on. The sun will rise tomorrow.

Gracias. I knew we had a few. Now just imagine us stringing a few of those 3-game winning streaks together.

He is. Best all-around player. I've said that a few times before. He's got good defense(very underrated defense...booting routine balls sucks ass, but he makes some plays look routine that others make look like webgems), has power, is hitting for average(right now atleast), runs the bases very well, is a team leader...I just don't understand why everyone makes him out to be the team's scapegoat for everything, and why so many people don't like him. Is it the K's, or the errors? BTW, it is Jose Valentin, with no 'E". I think that's by far my biggest pet peeve. The only Valentine we've had in quite some time was traded along with Foulke for Billy Koch, Neal Cotts, and Daylon Holt.

Haha. I knew they were done after the 5th time we played them. Wish I could say I was the first to say so. BTW...the Royals do have a pretty good offense. They just have absolutely NO starting pitching whatsoever. As the Rangers have pointed out before, you need starting pitching to win ball games. Offense can't do it alone.

I don't know how many 4-game winning streaks they've had, but I'm sure they've had 1 or two. Either that, or they've had back-to-back 2-game winning streaks with the one loss in between being the #5 starter...I know this was the case in Minnesota(well, we didn't have back-to-back 2-game winning streaks, but the one loss of that series was from the #5 spot)

I don't either. 6 or 7 would probably put us 3 or 4 games ahead of the Twins going into interleague play. I would like that.

I don't think a win is in line yet. Where's Poppy Hidalgo around when you need him to predict a loss?

15's too much. That's why I said 15 of 17, as in going 15-2 over a stretch of 17 games. But I do feel they can get to 12. If they can find some success from the #5 spot, they could seriously get rolling. IMO, the lack of a #5 pitcher is what has caused this team to not get rolling. If they can get a #5 pitcher who can give them 5-6 innings on a consistent basis with an ERA of somewhere around 4.50-5.00, they are looking damn good, and if we can get an ace, that pushes Scho back into the #5 spot, and he only leads the league in QS. That's just one of the reasons I feel an ace pushes us over the top. It completes the rotation and makes us that much more dangerous. If we can get another ace pitcher, that 15 game win streak COULD happen. If all 5 starters can go through a stretch of having quite a few QS's, we could win a hell of a lot of games.

Holy s***. If he can start to consistently hit 98, he is the closer. The only reason he has gotten into trouble in the past, especially last year, is that he was NOT hitting 98. If he has that 98 MPH heater back, along with learning how to pitch a little and now just throw, he IS a $6 mill pitcher. I will feel a little better about the bullpen if Koch can get his s*** together. We could still use a little more depth, but not as much any more. Maybe, just maybe last year was a wake-up call to him. His fastball not hitting 98 and instead hitting 92-93 just made him realize he needed to use his stuff a little more effeciently, and due to that, he has become a better pitcher. If his fastball continues to hit 98, he is one of the most dangerous pitchers in the AL, and in this case, dangerous is good.

In the article, he mentions how he thinks the team can play better. If I understood it correctly, he called the meeting prior to last night's game. Am I the only one who thinks that maybe we played just a little better then we did the previous night? I mean, we allowed 10 hits, but allowed 0 runs. Is that playing better, or getting lucky...or is it both? I like this team's chances, especially heading into June. I hate to make predictions, so I won't do that...but I think we could very well see a big time hot streak come up. Maybe win 8 in a row, maybe 10 in a row, maybe 12 in a row, maybe 15 of 17, something like that. They are playing very well right now, and are heading into their best month. June could be the month where we win a bunch of games, take an 8 game lead of the division, and start to run away.

Mark is money, as has been said. Period. That being said, I still want him going in game 2 with maybe Jason Schmidt going in game 1. To me, Mark is not an ace. At this point, he is our #1 starter, but by August or September, I want him to be a damn good #2 starter for us. If our rotation can look something like Schmidt, Buehrle, Loaiza, then I am going to be happy as hell. Not so sure I'd like RJ, Buehrle, Loaiza, Garland...that's two lefties and two righties right in a row there. I would want to break it up. Also, unless Arizona took on a ton of RJ's contract, he would make $16 mill next year. Too much for any player not named Bonds, Alex Rodriguez, or Pujols, let alone a pitcher who's over the age of 40 who has had injury problems within the past year or so. The one player from Arizona I would like is Steve Finley. Put him in CF against RHP, Rowand in against LHP. Lee would probably be involved with any trade involving an ace, so that would open up a spot in LF for say Harris perhaps(maybe it's just me, but if Harris can play CF, why can't he play LF, which actually suits his arm better?). A lineup of Harris - LF Uribe - 2B Maggs - RF Thomas - DH Finley - CF Konerko - 1B Valentin - SS Crede - 3B Olivo - C is definately playoff ready. Give me a rotation of Schmidt, Buehrle, Loaiza, Garland, and Scho(Jon and Scho can be flipped), and I am happy as hell. Damn, how the hell did I get so far off-topic? Anyways, MARK KICKS ASS!

You will never see him break baseball's #1 unwritten rule...staring down a homer/showing up a pitcher after a homer. He doesn't hot dog his way around the bases or anything like that. Doesn't hop. Nothing. If he hits it, he starts running towards first, sees it clear, and runs around the bases. I think he's probably my favorite player not on the White Sox.

Right now, I would venture to guess that Mark Buehrle has a solid shot of doing it. MB is capable of winning 15 a year, and can even win more on occasion. Honest to God, I would expect someone like Mark Buehrle to get it over a Mark Prior. Power pitchers, even with fluid and flawless mechanics, are more likely to get injured then a guy who throws 88-90. That being said, considering where they are in their respective careers, I like both Buehrle and Prior's chances of doing it. Buehrle just gets wins, and Prior's talent is insane.

I've heard of him. In fact, he's on one of my fantasy teams.

Don't forget about Raul Ibanez either. He hasn't gone from being s*** to being one of the better players in the majors, but went from sucking to being a solid ballplayer all with pretty much one adjustment...shortening his swing just a little. Just another reason keeping Crede and Borchard is a pretty good idea. From what I have heard/seen, both have very long swings, which is why they struggle. If they shorten those swings just enough, they could be very good ball players.

Personally, I highly doubt Maddux is the last. Maybe the last for 10 or 15 years, but definately not the last. I look for Prior, assuming he can stay healthy, to do it too.

What happened to the continuing decline of Buehrle? BTW, I am not saying bring up the thread. Just more salt in the wounds. First place feels good

Well, you got this one this one or, my personal favorite, this one and you can just yell at him too :knob

Timo Perez had a major league career before he came here. Matt Ginter did not. End of story.

Uh oh...