witesoxfan

It looks like Harris sort of has a clue to what he's doing up there. Jose looked very s***ty early on, but he too is starting to hit a little better as of late. Thomas's timing is off as he has had two balls that he has hit that normally would be gone if he had his timing down correctly but were about 10-20 feet foul just due to him being a tenth of a second too early. Crede seems to always look like s***(I swear I don't think I've seen swings as s***ty as the ones he's put on the ball in the past couple days, yet he somehow managed to get a homer out of the whole deal). Rowand has always started out slow(remember him hitting .125 in April last year? Man was that bad!). And Marte pitched a scoreless inning today, and it's always good to see a struggling pitcher getting back on track. That Twins team also had a much deeper starting rotation and bullpen, and AJ Pierzynski(and he only killed the Sox every time they played). But Pierzynski's part of the head to head, and we haven't seen that yet. That lack of depth in the rotation and bullpen will hurt them, and, unless they get another starter quickly, is what will cost them the division if they do lose. Anyways, I really don't think we should be doing any scoreboard watching until May or June. Both the Indians and Royals have gotten off to fast starts in the past two years respectively, and have both ended up in 3rd place. Just goes to show you that getting off to a fast start is not necessarily the thing needed to be done to win. That's the key. If they start dumping players for prospects, we win. A 10-12 game lead come the All-Star break would do it nicely. If we can find a way to be at around 55-35 at the break, or at the very least, 50-40, I like our chances a hell of a lot. They've have to be atlesat 10 games under to be 10 games back of us, but I'd also take a 5 game lead at the break as well. But like I said, if we can get to 55-35, our goal is accomlished. If Minnesota and/or KC is at 50-40 or 55-35, then there is nothing we can do about it(unless we've lost most of our games to them when we've played). RJ would be a stellar choice. This all depends on if Arizona is in or out at the deadline. The NL West could be a 5-team race this year, but at the very least, I expect San Fran and San Diego to be in it, and I could even see LA, Arizona, or Colorado sneaking in...or I could see all 5 getting in there, or I could see one of San Fran and San Diego fall out. The NL West is as hard as an old man on Viagra watching women's mudwrestling to figure out right now. It could be a 5-team race, it could be a 1-team race. If Colorado is out, and they'd be willing to take on some of his contract, I'd be interested in Todd Helton if they are interested in giving him up. Can I be greedy and ask for both Helton and RJ?

No I did you sonuvab****! :finger However, now that we're on the subject of 2003, I have to bring it up one last time(after this, the only time I ever bring it up will be because of an accident). Just think, for maybe 5 minutes, about how that team looked during that stretch during late June and early July, and a week in late August when they won about 6 straight over Anaheim and Texas(of course, I was busy moving and was depending solely on my info from a newspaper). You visualize that team and how well they played, and consider what they could have done in the playoffs. You consider what a 1-2-3 of Colon, Buehrle, Loaiza could have done in the playoffs with that offense. Just think about the bullpen that we had. It's crazy....almost scary to think about what that team could have done. OK, I'm done with Zen for tonight...forget the what-if, forget 2003 ever happened, and let's play some more in 2004.

The fact that he is not good enough to be a starter and that he has had a surgery before(I believe it was a major surgery, though I am not sure where. It did cost him all of 1998, which was the first year he could have played). Adkins hasn't proved he could be a good starter in the minors, what in the blue hell makes you think he can be a starter in the majors? There are examples of guys losing like crazy in the minor leagues and ending up solid major leaguers(Kyle Lohse was 3-18 one year as a pitcher in the minors, and he is now a solid 12-15 4.25 ERA 200 innings kind of guy, and he still has a ton of room to grow into a better pitcher), but I am quite sure Lohse atleast had a better ERA then Adkins did as a starter. Leave Jonny in the pen where he can actually succeed atleast a little bit. It's bad enough that we got him and only him for Ray Durham at the trade deadline.

The law of averages and other neat s*** like that says that the Twins and Royals will not continue to rally late in the game and win games, while the Sox will not. "Luck" balances out in the end. Some teams are hot, some teams are not...that's just the way s*** plays out sometimes. If we play to the level we can, the 2003 Twins would have no shot against us. Consider that we're in 2004, and that this year's Twins have a s*** bullpen, a rookie(or s***ty, depending on when Mauer gets back and how much longer Blanco is the starter) catcher behind the plate, a 1-2-3 that rivals the Devil Rays when comparing how good it is(and the Royals is worse than that, believe it or not), you have Carlos Silva as a full-time starter for the first time in his career, Rick Helling as the #5, Hunter out for atleast another week, LeCroy out for atleast another week...something tells me that once they start playing Oakland, Anaheim, New York, Boston, etc, they are toast. Meanwhile, the Royals have s*** for starting pitching, and really, with that patchwork rotation they have, should not even be considered a potential division winner, but to top it off, their bullpen is about as good as the Twins. I think that's all I need to say. When you have s*** for pitching, usually you don't fare too well. Cleveland can't close out a game to save it's life, and Detroit is playing way over it's head and hasn't played a real good team yet. I just don't see how we aren't in it at the deadline, and that's really the goal. If we are in it at the deadline, we'll acquire another starter(hopefully a good one, like, for example, Joel Piniero or Kip Wells), and we'll have 3-4 good pitchers in the rotation. We have that, and you can start cooling the champagne and get ready for the playoffs. Of course, we'd have to add a position player or two to help get us over the hump and into a perenial World Series team, but that would be done afterwards. I'll try not to get ahead of myself any further. It is only April, and there is still a lot of baseball yet to be played. But I love our chances at a division winner, moreso then I did last year.

Congratulations Lumpy...err, Lefty!

While we could and quite possibly should be 5-1, I'll take 3-3 to open the season, so long as they realize that .500 will not win the division.

And Juan Uribe is an all-star caliber 2Bman.

They averaged 82 wins with Choice on the team. That's winning? Winning is not winning games. Winning is winning the division, winning in the playoffs, winning the whole f***ing thing. And whether SEALgep realizes it or not, he hit it right on the head. If you are winning, you are happy. Winning cures everything, does it not? Winning and having good team chemistry go hand in hand, and you usually can't have one without the other.

Jose does it for me, considering he is the only LH power we have and he is better then most feel defensively(though he has had three dumb errors in the past two games).

If your team is winning, you have a good recipe for success. You don't have to be happy to be successful.

Over Rowand? No Over Valentin? That's debatable. I still like Jose at SS, even with 3 or 4 errors already this year.

Why would you have traded him when you are in the middle of a pennant race? You wanna talk about pissing the fans of Chicago off, holy s***. Last year would not have been the time to trade Maggs. This year, the only way we trade Maggs is if we are out of it at the deadline, and considering Minnesota has looked s***ty as hell, KC has looked s***ty, Cleveland has been awful, and Detroit is, well, Detroit, you have to look at us and really see a team with a hell of a good shot to win the division. I highly, highly, highly doubt we are out of it at the deadline; in fact, I see us being buyers at the deadline.

:dips*** Watch him pitch, then speak. Koch is throwing 94-96 and has featured what looks like a little 2-seam fastball too that I hadn't seen before. He won't be worth his money(he'd have to have a season where he saves 40 games, below only 3-5 of them, had an ERA of about 2.00-2.50, and have a WHIP of .95-1.05), but he'll be pretty solid.

Jose is NOT bad defensively. So he booted a ball Bernie hit yesterday....I guarantee you that if you hit that exact same ball to the 29 other SS's 10 times that all of them would boot it and some would boot it 3 times. That's a freak play where there's damn near nothing you can do about it. His throwing error was different, but everyone knows he's good for 20-25 errors a year His range factor is among the tops in the league, and he does make most plays. Plus you have the fact that he is the only left-handed power that we have, and he runs the bases like no body's buisness(I assume you saw how he scored from first on a Magglio single on Friday, correct?), and he HAS to be in the lineup. When a lefty starts, it's a different story. Then Uribe is in. That's the only time Uribe is in. BTW, I do not like the lineup. Olivo's OBP will probably be around .300 if we're lucky. I would like Rowand or Lee a hell of a lot more at #2 than Olivo(if we're going to mess with s*** a little bit here). I then move Jose to 5 or 6 in the order and Konerko is in the one that Jose is not(I'd put Jose at 5, due to the fact that he breaks up the righties, he is less likely to part of a DP that Konerko would hit, and if Konerko hit one to the wall, Jose could score easily). Also, Perez is a good 4th OF...let Rowand have the spot. I think Rowand has a little more pop then Perez, and he can steal bases too.

Nice excuse assbag. Just admit that you've gotten the s*** beaten out of you by two better teams. :finger Seriously though, they do look like s*** right now. No one is hitting worth a damn for them, the pitching has been rough, etc. That also happens because of good pitching and getting caught making mistakes. They've really only made one mistake(Hideki Matsui getting picked off 2B), but when the opposing team's starting pitchers allow 1 ER over 16 IP, you know something is wrong.

Less then Ugeuth Urbina

cw, you are correct in saying that Maggs is making $14 mill this year, but he didn't sign a contract for $14 mill a year. He signed a backloaded contract that gave him about $7 mill in 02, $9 mill in 03, and gives him $14 mill this year(so it was a 3-year, $30 mill deal). His salary from this year would go down, but he would actually be making more(around $11.5 mill), but he'd be making a s***load of money by the end of his contract.

I'd like 6-68. If it were a continual increase, it could go something like $9 mill his first year and $1 mill more every year after that(would be around $69 mill by the end), or he could start out at about $7.5-8 mill and increase by $1.5 mill every year after that. If it could be done by the end of the week...sweeter.

This is another what-if, but it is kind of scary to think what could have happened had the Sox made the playoffs. And by scary, I mean unbelievable. That team had the s*** to win it all. Coulda, woulda, shoulda...there's a reason JM is unemployed right now.

I have a feeling some will show up at Turner Field this year and they will ask a person working at a ticket window when the game starts and he'll say "The Braves didn't make the playoffs, dumbass."

A split would be good, but I want more. I'm addicted to White Sox baseball. Give me 3 of 4.

Always has been and always will be the best way to judge a player.

I can say "Sox winner." I can also say "Yankees = most overrated team money can buy." f*** them and their $185 mill payroll. They have faced the Devil Rays and White Sox this year for 7 games thus far, and are BELOW .500.

:dips*** Rowand/Beltran would be watching Jose/Berroa throw it to Konerko/Sweeney