witesoxfan

I'm pretty sure they knew something like this could happen, not that they did know it was going to happen. Also, they are now the current favorite to get Maels Rodriguez.. I hope they have fun with him and his 53, err, 23 year old arm.

Yes I can't really say why. I just think if Brady is the QB of the Colts in this past game, you are looking at a Carolina-Indianapolis Superbowl. Brady probably doesn't throw 4 consecutive incomplete passes on his teams last real drive of the game, including both 3rd and 4th down being plays where he is looking to get a flag thrown(though you could make an argument that a flag should have been thrown on both). I don't know what it is, but when I look at Tom Brady, I see a winner. He's got something about him that every other QB in the league doesn't have, with the exception of maybe one. That one is the guy who Brady is going to be watching on the sidelines two weeks from now try to pick apart his defense(incase you haven't figured it out, I am obviously talking about Delhomme). They both win, call it the defense, call it special teams, call it good receivers....call it what you want. You may even be correct. But I look at those two QBs, and I see guys who just show no quit, and all heart.

My guess is that payroll increases slightly, but we do lose both Colon and Gordon as mac said. However, I think we would have been a little more active on the FA market, maybe trying to add Hawkins or maybe Urbina and another pitcher here or there as well, be it a starter or a reliever. Nothing spectacular, but not the same as what happened this year. Also, we would still have JM as manager. So getting to the playoffs is a good-bad thing, good in that we lost JM, but bad in that we didn't make the playoffs. Had we made the playoffs, that would still have been a good-bad thing, good in that we made the playoffs, but bad in that we retain JM as manager.

Agreed. This team just doesn't excite me. The only thing I hold on to is that Ozzie will not take the games against s***ty teams like they're easy wins and we'll be motivated and show some heart, and that we'll be better then 11-8 against the Tigers and we'll win the 1-0 games. Then I realize we have to play Seattle, Oakland, Anaheim, New York, Boston, and 4 of the 5 NL East teams, and that is one of the toughest divisions in the majors(3 teams could easily make the playoffs and 2 others are pretty damn tough teams), and the Twins and Royals 38 times, and my heart sinks again.

We'd be getting ripped off! About the up-the-middle thing....recall the Twins from last year, with Pierzynski, Rivas, Guzman, and Hunter. It would be hard as hell to find 4 better players then that, along with an awesome bullpen. Same with 2002 for them. In 2001 with the Indians, you had Diaz(who had his best year by quite a bit), Alomar, Vizquel, and Lofton, 4 very good players defensively, and to boot, they had a stellar bullpen. In 2000 with the White Sox, you had Johnson, Duham, Valentin, and Singleton, all 4 good, not great, and underrated defenders. Durham has little range but turns the DP very well, Valentin who has range as we have seen but at times can have stone hands and an erratic throwing arm, and Singleton, who as Hawk has said in the past, is deceptively fast. And Johnson is a solid catcher. And I forgot to mention with those same White Sox, they had a pretty damn good bullpen too. You can go back to all winning teams, and in most of them, the two constants are being good up the middle, and having a good bullpen. Hell, it's won the AL Central for a few years now, atleast 4 from off the top of my head, and probably even more.

That still doesn't surprise me. 10 bucks says Thomas is in a different uniform next year, unless something drastic happens. He'll realize he has enough money and not only wants to win, but wants to get in a situation where he isn't being called out by his new manager and former teammate in his first press conference as manager.

That actually is pretty much the exact reason Todd Walker signed with the Cubs, was to play for a contender. Given, Todd Walker isn't every free agent, but I think you get what I'm saying. Some players do actually sign with a team because they want to win and they seriously don't care about the money.

Thank you Though, that's not saying much, huh? The Bills still lost 4 Superbowls in a row, no matter how you look at it.

And we should have gotten three more wins in the 3 games ELo lost 1-0, or had we won more then 11 games against the Tigers like every other team in the Central(we lost 8 times to them, which is pathetic). We win say 7 of those games that we lost between the 11 that I just mentioned, and the division is closer. That has been talked about ad naseum, and is over with. We sucked and choked in 2003, should have won, didn't, and we'll move on. Be happy that the Twins didn't win. And let's not bring up 2003 again for many years

I hate to repeat what Rex has said again and again and again and again, but....this deal will not happen. When looking at the quote, I notice three things. For starters, the title of the rumor is something like Whitesox & Dodgers blockbuster trade. How many times have you seen the words, White Sox, pushed into one word, Whitesox? Also, notice that it was posted by someone, straycats23. I also believe that it is also gramatically incorrect, with the players being seperated by only one comma(ie, John,Jim,Judy,Joan) I would say this rumor has as much validity as me saying Maggs is going to Baltimore for Luis Matos, Jay Gibbons, Kurt Ainsworth, Jerry Hairston, and Jorge Julio. What are the odds of that happening?

For starters, we are reportedly $4 million over right now, and I pretty sure that number is right on the button. Second, explain something to me. If we got Urbina(which, BTW, we will not), why would he be setting up Koch? I think he'd be closing. And if we got Urbina, we would get rid of something for nothing....probably Koch. Our bullpen is, for the most part, set. Koch, Marte, Wunsch, Politte, and two others from within(including our signings) will be the bullpen, like it or not.

Thank you

Who is getting excited about Robert Person? I'm sure as hell not.

I don't know about what anyone else thinks, but me personally, I feel that Ty Law is the best cornerback in the NFL. He's all over. The only one who is close is Chris McCalister or whatever his name is in Baltimore. He's pretty tough too.

Rule V draft. And did Nen and Hernandez go to San Francisco in the same deal, or am I just thinking wrong? I do know he was the main prospect in that deal though.

You ask me, and the only two places the Twins have advantages on us defensively are in CF and 1B, and last year, those were hure advantages the Twins had all year with Dougie M(who IMO, is the best defensive 1Bman in the league, bar none), and Torii Hunter. The only way we could improve on that is by getting a better defensive CFer, and that would probably involve trading Maggs to Baltimore and having Luis Matos as part of that trade. That kid can flat out throw some leather. I have no idea how we would improve at 1B. Maybe send Konerko along with Maggs to Baltimore and have Baltimore send David Segui(who we'd be lucky if he played 60 games), and then have a guy like Jay Gibbons come over from the original trade and have him play 1B(I assume he has more range then Konerko). Something like that should be done.

I know that he has done it before. He did it before 2000 and he did it before last year too. I hope he's doing it again.

I didn't start the f*** Cotts thread. But I started the f*** Billy Koch thread after he gave up a walkoff homer to Carl f***ing Crawford

What, Juan Uribe, Robert Person, Cliff Politte, and Jose Santiago is not improving ourselves?

Anybody but Gilbride would be fine with me(because Shoop is already taken).

As a side note, the Bills are going to retain Jerry Gray as defensive coordinator. All I have to say is thank you Donahue.

I knew you were a football coach and that you love the single wing offense IIRC. To me, winning the close games is determined by those 3. However, in blowouts, or games that are not totally lost but have a shot, I would change it a little. If my team is losing by say 24 points going into the second half, I'm worrying about forcing turnovers and clock management. Score with some consistency, and score relatively quickly. You score 3 touchdowns and kick to the other team with 6-8 minutes left in the game while allowing no points, and you've done your job. If there is more time then that left, you have done a job better then you really needed. If my team is the one blowing the other out, I'm worrying more about time of possession and clock management and less about getting turnovers, because if you try to get turnovers, you are more prone to missing tackles or giving up big plays, and scores can come rather quickly and you can be down within a quarter The one constant in all of that is clock management, and like you said, it is very underrated. More teams should worry about clock management IMO, then they should about other things, like a great passing game or an incredibly good defense. BTW, do you remember what the name of the book is that Mariucci endorsed? Maybe it's something I'd consider reading.

Maybe he gets paid on commission? They made an error with Ponson too, because they had him making like $6.25 billion or something like that.