witesoxfan

If Bernard isn't healthy, I expect Valenzuela to get the 4th OF spot. Borchard is considered a top prospect(top 10 in the organization still), so they will want to see if he can develop into a good power hitter, and Reed absolutely will not be a 4th OFer with us, leaving us with basically no other choice then Valenzuela. Part of me hopes Valenzuela gets it. I would love to see what he can do at the major league level, even if it is just as a 4th OFer.

The Bears need some help on the O-line, don't they?

You and I feel the same about this season. I think this year will be a good year. Another thing I liked about this article was a little snippet about Garland, and when Guillen asked how he gave up that many homers, and Cooper said it was because he left it high and was, if I get this correctly, falling asleep(or probably losing concentration). I think Ozzie will do something about that. and I think Garland will have a real good year with Ozzie as headhoncho. Ozzie seems like a real good guy to have lead this bunch. BTW, am I the only one who thinks Cooper is a stoner with all those eye drops? He probably smokes a joint before every game.

I am in

If Troupe is available at this point, he is definately selected by the Rams. He is the 2nd best TE in the group and could be a solid possession end with a little speed like Heap is in Baltimore. I wouldn't say it is a steal, but IMO, he is the best available right here.

That was a different trade

I smell a lawsuit.

I'd look for Tennesee to look at Rashaun Woods with that pick. He's moving up the boards very quickly.

Rex, you da man! Pittsburgh now has NOTHING to show for the best LH reliever in the AL. Sweet.

What the f*** is this best bullpen s***? I'll take my chances with Koch, Politte, and Shingo coming to form if you give me only Damaso Marte, but then I also get Kelly Wunsch and 1 or 2 of Mike Jackson/Jason Grilli/Dan Wright/Arnie Munoz/David Sanders on top of that. I'll also take my chances with Juan Rincon and JC Romero being my only guaranteeds if you give me Joe Nathan, Carlos Silva, Grant Balfour, and probably Pete Munro. What an assbag. Curt Leskanic, Scott Sullivan, and Mike McDougal are all quite solid, and Jason Grimsley who will have to return to form(I believe he had about a 4.75 ERA last year), and then I'm not even sure who will be their 5th and 6th relievers. Probably at the highest, I rate KC 3rd best bullpen in the Central, firmly behind Minnesota and Chicago, and I could see Cleveland jumping ahead of them with Betancourt, Riske, and Jimenez in that bullpen as well as a return of Bob Wickman. Twins best starting staff? I'll take Cy Young runner-up Esteban Loaiza, a solid Mark Buehrle, a young, inconsistant Jon Garland, and then a ? mark in Schoenweis and a ? mark in whoever is the 5th starter over a good Johan Santana, an erratic Kyle Lohse, an inconsistant but sometimes very good Brad Radke, and then two huge question marks(probably Rick Helling being one of them, and maybe Carlos Silva, maybe a starter from within the system...I'm not sure exactly). And I'd probably rate KC at 3, but I would mention that there is a huge differential between #2 and #3. I mean, their ace is like Brian Anderson, is it not? It's someone who is probably not as good as Brad Radke or Mark Buehrle, who are both of the Twins' and White Sox's respective team's #2 starters. What I find funny about his infield is that he says we have question marks all over, when quite frankly we do not. What he means to say is that we are not sure what kind of production we will get out of 1 spot of the infield, that spot being 2B, and I agree with that. We know who our 1Bman(in fact we have two OK 1Bman), we know who our 2Bman is(though we don't know how he will play), we know who our SS is, we know who our 3Bman is, and we know who our C's are. Anyways, I do agree somewhat with his rankings, but I think I would rate the Tigers infield and catcher higher. IIRC, the Tigers infield is IRod at C, Carlos Pena at 1B, Fernando Vina at 2B, Carlos Guillen at SS, and Dmitri Young at 3B(I am only assuming this, because they have Craig Monroe at DH, Rondell White in LF, and Bobby Higginson in RF, so from that I conclude that they have no place else to put Young but 3B). Personally, I feel that the Tigers INF+C is the best in the AL Central, however, that's the only thing they have the best of. Another thing, he says that if Juan Gonzalez stays healthy, the Royals have the best OF in the AL Central. Is that question mark not as big as if Aaron Rowand comes through and produces good numbers this year? Or is it a bigger question mark than that? I think it is, so I'll also include Maggs' numbers improving on last year's and also I see Frank's average raising a little bit as well...to me, that gives the White Sox the best OF+DH in the division. It gives us power from 3(or all 4) of the positions, solid OF defense, and even some speed(Maggs has stolen 25 bases in a year before, and is usually good for atleast double-digit steals, so probably 10-15, Carlos stole 17-20 or so last year, so he's probably good for atleast that again, and Rowand could probably steal 15-20 as well. Those stolen bases cancel out whatever Guiel and Beltran will do). If Gonzo gets hurt, and Rowand does not produce good numbers(and by good I mean like .280 15-20 HR 60-70 RBI 15-20 SB .750-.800 OPS), then the Twins have the best OF+DH in the division, White Sox 2nd, Royals 3rd; Gonzo stays healthy and puts up good numbers, Rowand doesn't, I'd have to say that Minny and KC are very, very close to #1 with us being #3. If Gonzo doesn't put up good numbers, and Rowand does, I'd have to say that the Twins and the Sox are very, very close(I might give the advantage to the White Sox personally, but it's atleast up for grabs...basically, do you prefer very good offensive numbers plus solid defense or very good defense plus solid offensive numbers? Offense helps a lot, but defense is very underrated...usually, the better your defense is, the better your pitchers are, and the better your pitchers are, the more games you win, but we've seen the Yankees, Red Sox, Braves, and others, use very, very good offense to just take out opposing teams and hit the hell out of them...so it's really all up to you), with KC being a distant 3rd. If both Gonzo and Rowand put up good numbers, the OF+DH's are all about equal. BTW, Posnanski's formula is this: let di = take a little bit of blue and white koolaid, psh = put on the rose-colored sunglasses, and it = sit your fatass out on the porch and rub yourself, thinking about the Royals. After multiplying, the formula is this: dips*** = Posnanski Go ahead, check it. I bet it works.

Just honestly curious, because I was looking at the Twins box-score for today, saw the name "M.Guerrier", and figured initially that it was Matt Guerrier, looked at the Twins 40-man roster, and sure enough, he was right there, #54. So when did he become a Twin? Twins 40-man

Fine by me. Keeps him out of the AFC East(keeps him out of the AFC period), and puts him in a position to help beat the Packers. And he won't push receivers out of bounds

IIRC, Kris Honel went up against Curt Schilling in a B game last year. At the very least, the White Sox faced Curt Schilling. I can't remember what happened exactly, but I do remember Schilling pitched against the White Sox.

No it wasn't a big mistake. Prior had thrown 7 shutout innings, and would have thrown an 8th shutout inning, had Gonzalez made the play. The obvious problem with managing like that is that every game is NOT game 7 until you are 1 game away from being eliminated. If, for example, the White Sox played the Astros in the World Series, you would not see Esteban Loaiza and Mark Buehrle both pitching for the White Sox in game 1 as well as you not seeing Andy Pettitte and Roger Clemens both pitching in game 1. Jack McKeon managed every game from game 5 on like it was game 7 because it was in fact game 7 for the Marlins, with this game 7 meaning do or die time for them. This was not true with the Cubs. The main point is that the Marlins were extremely lucky that they won the World Series. It was not Dusty's fault that the Giants did not win it all in 2002, and it is not his fault the Cubs did not go to the World Series in 2003. If you can't understand that, then you must have a problem understanding a lot of other things as well.

I'll go with a darkhorse, Jason Grilli. Not sure why, but I am.

:headshake :headshake :headshake You never get it, do you? Without Alex Gonzalez's stone hands, the Cubs are in the World Series. Without Rob Nen blowing a huge save, the Giants win the World Series. Dusty Baker can't pitch for these guys, and he can't field...he can only make the decisions to put them in the game and for pitchers, when to put them in the game. He made NO mistakes in either the 2002 World Series or the 2003 NLCS. His players, on the other hand, did and it cost him probably two World Series rings.

Ozzie Guillen is surely a character. He seemed like he was going to be a real asshole in his first press conference, but I still get this funny feeling about Ozzie. I think he's going to be the best manager in the AL Central within his 3 year contract. I think JR and KW actually picked the right guy. Well, I should see how he manages a 25-man team in the regular season first, but I like what I have seen a lot. If it is possible, I would like to add wins to my total. I don't think our team is as good this year as it was last year, however, I think we will win more games. How about a nice even number like 90 up there? I think we'll go 90-72, just squeaking by an 89-73 Minnesota Twin team.

I liked this quote myself, mainly because it is true and I can't wait.

:knob :finger

Good news on the FA front as Antoine Winfield backs off of Jets offer after agreeing in principle to a deal with them Keeps a good player off the Jets(good news for me), and keeps an ex-Bills player out of the division(for now).

His numbers have been in decline over the past 3 years(with the exception of the win totals...those have varied). His career is not "fading quickly", in fact, I wouldn't even call it fading. But that fact that his numbers have declined is a scary thought to ponder, and we can only hope it turns around, and personally, I expect it to.

Astros can be argued either way. I'd probably say White Sox, but that's a tossup. Cubs I'm not so sure about. They got us at 1B, 2B, possibly 3B, CF, probably C, maybe RF. That's another that can be argued either way. Red Sox, are you kidding me? They had the best offense in the majors last year, had the most extra base hits in the history of the game by any team, I believe they had the highest team SLG% ever, and knowing that, I'm quite sure they ranked somewhere high in team OPS as well. Our offense has nothing on the Red Sox offense. The A's I agree with. I think Tex was just mentioning some playoff teams from last year(with the exception of Houston...I think he brought in Houston probably because he lives in Texas and Houston may be a team that he cheers for), and was making a joke. So, while we may have a better offense then the Cubs and Astros, and do have a better offense then the A's, for this joke, pretend we don't...I guess.

What a brilliant idea!

Hey bastard, just because I don't know what color jerseys Georgia wears at home doesn't mean you can make fun of me. :finger

Settle the hell down, didn't you read what else he said? What's his name at 2nd and what's his name in center...you think maybe that's implying that it is, what I like to call, a JOKE? :banghead