witesoxfan

Who knows?

Atleast. Maybe more. I think I'm gonna watch it a little more right now too.

Agreed. He's too good of a talent for them not to take, especially because it is one of their needs. Consider the fact that he will probably be a solid CB in his first couple years and has the potential to be a complete shutdown CB...at 17, that's not a bad pick. Cincinatti's lucky, because he's by far the best player at this point, and usually you draft best available, but as I said before, he fills a need.

It could e Brady Anderson or Mark Bellhorn types...but I still want to see how many unsuspecting players have used them. Maybe Craig Counsell or something like that. Alright, that's probably uncalled for, but it is sometimes still fun to speculate none the less.

How about 418 homers, all as a White Sox player? a .310 average? 1390 RBIs? or the more telling stats, a career .428 OBP, a career .568 SLG%, and a career .996 OPS, which is only the 10th best of all time. Or being considered the greatest player in your franchise's history. That's an OK honor as well. If he were your troublemaker of a kid and he was in his first day of school, yes. Actually, he usually gets in trouble by opening his "big trap", saying nothing controversial, having the likes of Jay Mariotti, as well as others, twist Thomas's words into something he didn't say, and then he gets into trouble. Leaving that part out is huge. You would be just as bad as Mariotti, and the others, by saying he gets himself in trouble by opening his mouth....twisting words into what you want However, the main exception to this is his "I only care about homers" remark. That's about the only one. And Mark Buehrle has, and Magglio Ordonez has, and Carlton Fisk did, and Nellie Fox did, etc, etc, etc....when you have a history of disappointing results, not a lot of people will lead you to the promised land. He has been to the playoffs as a member of the White Sox more then many, many other players who have played with the White Sox.

Neagle and Wendell are acting like complete dicks about the whole issue. Hey, I got an idea, let's completely suck ass and then try to bring down other people with us. Giambi has always been a good sized guy, and Sheffield is not what I'd call overmuscular. Bonds has admitted to taking things like creatine and amino acids and those types of things, and I think he's telling the truth. I personally believe that he nor Giambi nor Sheffield nor even Sosa have taken steroids. My honest guess would be is that the players on steroids will be players you wouldn't suspect, sort of like Wilton Guerrero getting caught with a cork in his bat a couple years back.

Green polar bears will do. Anyways, I saw someone else already has it. Brett Favre's monday morning QB advice to Tice in the sig is good enough for me.

blah Mods and/or admin, you can lock this thread or merge it with another now

Fuuuucckkkkkkk It's too big. Has to be 25 MB or smaller, and this one is like 25.9. I guess I'll stick with green polar bears.

I got dibs on it for my avatar...for now atleast. It looks like he's trying to be a monkey or something like that.

If Harris did that, we would win the division, guaran-f***ing-teed. I hope we do win. I'm still every bit as skeptical though. Remember Maggs's "Chicago White Sox 2003 Champions" shirts from last year during ST? If we do have an us against the world attitude, I'll love it, espeically if we win. I'll have to see it to believe it though.

Well, that's a b****.

Bledsoe would be used this year as the starter, however, if he can't get back to atleast being a solid QB(because last year it was pretty much get the snap, drop back 5 steps, and go into the fetal position about every other play), then Henson would take over. Regardless, come 2005, I would expect Drew Henson or whoever the Bills have to be starting. However, if I'm Parcells, I look to improve at HB first, and then QB. Carter was atleast decent last year, and while he wasn't great or pretty much even a QB who will lead a team to the Superbowl, he will be good enough in the regular season, and with receivers who can catch the ball, especially a Keyshawn Johnson type. However, their Cunningham/Hambrick/Murrell/whoever the hell else was at HB for them last year combo was awful. I'm definately looking for an improvement in the Cowboys there, whether it be by drafting a good HB(like maybe Tatum Bell in the second round) or getting one via trade/FA(getting Corey Dillon or someone like that). Then I look to get Henson or Fiedler, whichever I can either get or whichever is better for the team(like for instance, I'm sure Houston will give Henson up for a first round pick or a second and third round pick, but that probably wouldn't be a wise move...the Bills have the higher pick, therefore making their pick a little more valuable...I think this benefits the Bills and because they have the higher pick, they have leverage over the Cowboys).

I very little doubt about it. I've heard that Payton is moving up pretty quickly. IMO, he could be a mid-2nd to early 3rd round pick if he keeps on keepin on(I think he will). And if Clarett keeps doing what he's been doing, he'll continually move down and down until he gets to about the mid-3rd, early 4th. He hasn't played a game of actual football in well over a year, was injury prone in his only year as a starter, and is chubby...at about 240 pounds, I would guess he'd be better suited as a fullback right now then a halfback, though I would also venture to guess he doesn't block worth a damn either. Clarett is going to have to work his f***ing ass off to get back to where he was in the 02 season, and that will be for the start of the NFL season...he has virtually no shot at getting there before the draft. He and Drew Henson are in the same category, however, Henson has actually shown that he is still solid. He has had a good attitude through the whole thing, has worked his ass off, and now has some value(and the Texans gamble will payoff). Meanwhile, Clarett has not missed many meals.

It's things like this that get funnier and funnier the more you watch them. I think for the first 20 times I watched it, I laughed harder each time. After that, it was only moderately funny. I was still laughing my ass off.

Does someone have about $1200 for me to borrow?

So? It's still funny as hell.

Just saying

He's never done it? What are you talking about? In 1994, Frank Thomas was having one of the greatest seasons of all time. Consider that this is before the juiced ball era began(though in 1994, the ball was somewhat juiced...IIRC, Griffey, Thomas, Bagwell, Belle, and Matt Williams all had 35+ homers, and Williams had 43 at the time of the strike). In this 1994 season, Frank Thomas had .353 38 101 .487 OBP(at that point, and still today, that is nearly unthinkable), as well as a .729 SLG%(which is a decent OPS for some guys), and you add those up, and you have yourself a 1.217 OPS(actually 1.216 when you add .487 and .729 up, but if you take .487 out to about ten-thousandths or hundred-thousandths place, and you add, you'll probably get roughly 1.217). I'm sure if you adjusted that to the juiced ball era and it is probably something close to 1.350-1.400...not sure exactly, but it is insanely good. In fact, one Barry Bonds, even in the juiced ball era, has only surpassed that 1.217 3 times, the last 3 years...and I'm almost 100% sure that Thomas's 1.217 OPS in 1994 was the highest of the 90s. He was on pace to walk about 160 times or so while only striking out about 81 times or so. Probably would have hit 50 homers, if not more then that(55-60 was possible if he got hot enough...8 or 9 weeks to hit 22 homers? Not likely, but not impossible). Thomas HAS done it before. And if he works hard enough/gets enough breaks/does his homework, he can probably do it again. Or he can just do what Bonds does, whatever the hell that is. BTW, Bonds never did what he has done the past 3 years before either. Bonds had never hit 50 homers before in a season, let alone the 73 he hit in 01, he'd never driven in 130 runs, let alone the 137 he drove in in 01, he'd never drawn 155 walks, let alone 177 or 198, he had never hit above .320 except in 1993 when he hit .336 before 01, let alone the .370 he hit in 02 or the .341 he hit in 03, the fewest he'd ever struck out in 140 or more games before 01 was 69, let alone the 47 times he struck out in 02 in 143 games, he'd had an 1.100 OPS only twice before 01, once in 1993, once in 2000, and he's been above 1.278 since 01, including 01 when he had a 1.379 and 02 when he had a 1.381, he'd never had an OBP higher then .461 before 01, since then he's only had an OBP of .515, .582, and .529 respectively, he'd never had a SLG% of higher then .688 before 01, and then he put up SLG%'s of .868, .799, .749 respectively....need I say more, or should I go on? He will most likely not put up Bonds-like numbers...he'll probably just drive in more runs and hit fewer homers. He won't steal 500 bases. He's not the athlete Bonds is. However, I see no reason why Thomas couldn't hit .340 45 145 1.100 that I mentioned earlier....that's only a fraction of what Bonds can do, and only a fraction of Thomas's best season. If he outdid his best season, like Bonds has done, you'd be looking at probably .375 60 165 1.400. I'll bet the odds are that he does that are almost worse, if not worse, then having the DRays put up back-to-back World Series championships this year and next year. However, if he put up Bonds like numbers, that is what probably what you'd see from Thomas. As I said, I expect .260-.270 or so with 25-30 100-110...similar to the numbers you posted. I just said don't rule out .340 45 145 1.100, because he did it 2000, and he put up a .950 OPS in 03, so those numbers are not out of the question.

So if both Giambi and Gagne are on steroids, and they face each other, it's fair game, is it not? BTW, I highly, highly, highly doubt either one of them took steroids. Just a gut feeling I get.

I believe that would also work in the 7th inning as well. IIRC, you can get holds in the 7th and 8th, and can (obviously) get a save in the 9th and if you are the visiting team, you can also get a save in extra innings. And as I believe I pointed out very briefly, but wsf99 also brings up is inherited runners. They have a 1-run lead, come in with the bases loaded, give up 1 run and get out of the inning and they have done their job(atleast I feel they have done their job)....they got out of the inning without letting things get out of control. However, this is also a blown save, when really this pitcher should be credited with getting out of the inning and should be praised. JMO To me, you are contradicting yourself in letting Marte go while including Gordon in the group with explaining to do. As I pointed out, Gordon was not closing until June and on, and 4 of his 5 blown saves came in the first two months, and while that's not good, he didn't do it while closer, and to me, that's the big thing. He blows 5 saves as a closer out of 17 and he is doing a very s***ty job, which is exactly why Koch's season last year was so bad. BTW, just so you know, from June-Sep, Gordon's 4 months as closer, he went 5-2 2.94 ERA in 49 innings with a 1.16 WHIP, a K-BB ratio of 3.35, and a K-BB+H(walks and hits combined) of exactly 1(57 strikeouts, 57 walks and hits combined in those last 4 months), as well as about 10.5 K/9, as well as the commonly seen 12 of 13 in save chances(which as said before is 92.3%). That's just to throw a few numbers at you to prove that he was actually quite good down the stretch when closing. Koch's explanation/excuse is probably something about how he lost a MPH or two early on because he gave up a homer, got whiplash, and then lost 5-10 MPH because of the whiplash. Something like that. Or maybe it was the evil lawn gnomes or gargoyles or whatever the hell they were that were in his house...or maybe it is a torn labrum/f***ed up elbow and he'll need some surgery and will be gone for the year. White's explanation is that he sucks ass. LaTroy Hawkins, now with the Cubs, last year with the Twins, went 2 for 8 in save opportunities used primarily as a setup guy. He also went 9-3 with a 1.86 ERA and a WHIP of 1.09. Arthur Rhodes, in his worst statistical year since 2000, had only 3 blown saves this year but also went 3-3 with a 4.17 ERA and a WHIP of 1.31. In 2002, probably his second best year, he went 10-4 with a 2.33 ERA with a WHIP of 0.83, but blew 5 saves(2 of 7). In 01, he went 8-0 with a 1.72 ERA with a WHIP of 0.85, but blew 4 saves(3 of 7). In 00, he blew all 7 save opportunities that were presented to him(yes, 0 for 7 in save opportunities). Paul Quantrill blew 4(1 of 5) saves this past year, going 2-5 1.75 WHIP of 0.98. Felix Rodriguez only blew 1(2 of 3) save this past year, but blew 6(0 for 6) in 02, and blew 3(0 for 3) in 01 along with 5(3 for 8) in 00. K-Rod for Anaheim blew 4(2 of 6) saves this year. All are pretty good setup men. There are probably others I did not cover who also blew saves, but there are some who did not blow very many "saves"(Octavio Dotel, quite possibly the best in the MLB as a setup guy, went something like 4 for 6 this year in saves, and went 6 of 10 in 02...that will all change as he will almost undoubtedly close now for Houston with Wagner gone to Philly). In general, I would say that using save opportunities for guys who have been setup guys is not the best way to judge them. Closers, yes, but not really setup guys. It can be misleading at times. No question about it. Rivera and Gagne are the elite relievers in the game right now, and Wagner is the elite lefty. Right now, as far as how good they are or how they stack up at the moment, the only one of our pitchers you can compare to Gagne is Koch, and that is for monetary reasons alone(the fact that Koch will make $6 mill this year and Gagne will make $5 mill is obsurd, as has been pointed out several times on this board). Otherwise, there are no comparisons whatsoever(however, people are hoping Danny Wright can pull an Eric Gagne and go from a mediocre to bad starter into a good to great to elite reliever, but that has not happened yet, and in what I have said, I'm talking strictly about what has happened or what will happen for a fact, and for a fact, Koch will make more then Gagne this year) And all I gotta say about Gordon is up above.

It'll happen. And I think Portis for Bailey happens too. Also, I think Feeley gets dealt to Miami(and I have no idea why Miami would want him, except for the outside chance he becomes a Delhomme or a Brady or a Warner). And I think Buffalo gives up their 2nd round pick this year for Drew Henson. Just thought I'd say that.

Awww, wouldn't that be sweet.

And Ozzie's still in one piece? Damn, lost another bet.

We don't know that, do we? He might get to watching film with Walt Hrniak on a somewhat regular basis, disect his swing monthly, weekly when necessary, figure out what pitchers are trying to do to get him out, and then look for that. I wouldn't be surprised if he puts up what he did in the mid-90s 2 years from now...I'm not expecting it by any means, but with hard work and doing his homework, along with catching a break now and then, I could honestly see him putting up .340 45 145 with a 1.100 OPS. However, the exact opposite could happen and he could end up at about .240 25 75 .750...Jose Valentin range. I'm expecting middle ground or so.... .260 30 100 .900, about the numbers you posted...but I'm not ruling either of the above to situations completely out of the question.