witesoxfan

We have to risk losing Paul....because he is playing terrible this spring. IMO, there is only one battle offensively for the Sox as of right now(because I believe they will go with Olivo)....and that is the 5th bench spot....and the fight is between Miles and Burke. I've seen that Burke can play both 1B and 3B as well as catcher....which is nice. However, with having Graffy, we really don't need a util IF....and Miles brings a LH bat off the bench(I atleast believe I saw him bat LH....is he a switch-hitter?)....and speed and hustle....he'd be a good guy to come off the bench in a pinch(and he can probably play suitable CF as well, if necessary). If Miles proves he can handle util IF....we could see Graffy gone at the deadline for a prospect....and then bring Borchard up and use him like the Twins used Cuddyer last year(all over...1B, 3B, LF and RF....only we'd use Borchard in LF, CF and RF on a regular basis. I'd prefer to see Lee gone...but something atleast needs to be done). If someone picks up Paul....who cares? I am not going to be sad to see him go if someone does claim him.

I swore he was a college closer or something and was a closer for most of his time in the Blue Jays minor league system. For some reason I remember a game he pitched against us when he first came up and they said he was one of the rare guys groomed to be a closer straight out of college, but maybe they were wrong. I believe they were wrong. I believe I have read that Koch was atleast starting Koch in the minor leagues in Toronto, but that he threw out his arm and needed Tommy John surgery. Since then, he has been used only as a reliever, or to be more specific, a closer. I may be wrong as well though....maybe a minor league guru like Cerb or Hudler or someone like that might now.

I'm pretty sure that's his option for next year. I'll see if I can find it.

If worst comes to worst, they'll use Joe Borchard as the 5th starter. Koch is NOT a starter....since his surgery, he has kept the speed, but lost the endurance....and after closing for 4 years or so....it won't be there overnight. And he doesn't have much more than a fastball....starters can't get by with a fastball alone.

The usual Sox guys on ESPN -- Ed Farmer and John Rooney Well....either they've been using soxfan420's bong or Borchard is really fast. I guess that's what happens though when you are a star QB at Stanford....you gotta be fast.

Regardless...another thing to look at is their salaries....Osuna will make $2.5 mill or so this year....and he will put up, at best, like a high 2.00s, low 3.00s ERA....and that is at his very best. At Gordon's very best....he will put up a low-to-high 2.00s ERA....and he will make about $750,000. That is a pretty big difference.

You know what? If Parque does flop as a DRay...I think the least we can do is honor what he did for us in 2000....and sign him to help us in front office management(anything....not GM or anything like that....but something)....and give him a nice salary....maybe like $250,000 or so, just for what he did for us. Without Butter....we didn't have that whole staff, even if he had a ton of run support....I say, who the hell cares? We scored a lot of runs that year....and we scored a lot when Jim pitched. He kept us in games and we rewarded him. Nothing wrong with that. I've never met the guy....but he sounds like a great one. Hell, he even won a game for us this past year, beating the World Champion Angels....how many pitchers on the White Sox that were with us last year can say they beat the World Champions?

Clujer....just curious....who are the commentators today?

LOL....I'll be deleting those. I was afraid I had done that. My damn thing wasn't going through...and when it doesn't, that's what happens.

This is a pretty deep league first of all....just to point that out. There are 15 teams and 18 roster spots. K's count as -2 and saves are +5....it's a nice league. Anyways....I traded ARod and Antonio Alfonseca for Rich Aurilia, Cliff Floyd and Matt Mantei....Mantei is a bigger injury risk than Alfonseca....but is a better pitcher, is a more consistant pitcher, and is pitching with a contender. And Floyd and Aurilia even out ARod in the end, especially if Aurilia puts up another 2001-esque year(he hit like .325 with 37 homers and 125 RBI...in other words, he played awesome). As it is, he and Floyd could be better than ARod, even if ARod is healthy. That could be a steal. The sweetest part of all is....it was a frickin Flubbie Fannie too! Hell....I'm like a fish out of water in that league. There are atleast 3, maybe 4 or 5 Cubs fans(all are nice as hell though), 1 Twin fan(who is arrogant as hell), 1 Blue Jay fan(from Canada), an Athletic fan, and probably even more than that that aren't even crossing my mind.

If he can learn how to play better-than-average defense and not f***-up on the bases....that'll be good enough for me.

Jim....good to hear from you again. Also good to hear things are going real well down in the minor league camp and such, and things are going good for you. Keep it up. I hope to see you in a Sox uniform in the next 5 years, kicking the s*** out of every major league hitter there is!

actually i agree with your selection quite a bit. Hes a great OBP guy and a proven lead-off man.. I think thats about the only area our O is lacking in. And as you said its a far more realistic suggestion then some of the others being bounced around What in the hell are you talking about? Miguel Tejada is a very realisic suggestion!

Josh Paul is NOT faster than Miguel Olivo....he's faster than Alomar, yes, but then again, who isn't? Olivo stole like 25 bases in AA ball last year and hit like 10-15 triples. Slow people normally don't steal 25 bases and hit 10-15 triples. And baggs....how much DOES your son weigh?

Can we get back on subject here?

I can tell you. The Sox have basically guaranteed a spot to 4 guys as it is(Koch, Marte, Gordon, Glover), and Wunsch has already basically earned a spot as well, bringing the total up to 5. The 6th spot is up for grabs between Almonte, White, Ginter, Sanders, and others I'm not even thinking about off the top of my head, most likely. If we traded Glover at the end of ST....then it is a possibility for Matty to get on the roster. Otherwise....he has to go back down to AAA. Atleast it isn't as bad as what the Cubs have done to Joe Borowski(basically sending him back to AAA after he was their best bullpen pitcher last year, because they brought in Guthrie, Remlinger, Veres and are most likely going with Farnsworth and Alfonseca as well....so Borowski still has to pitch his way onto the roster....and that fat-ass Rod Beck is pitching better than Borowski. They sure as hell could trade him to the Twinkies, if the Twins want some help in the pen)

Sweet. Nice job by the team of holding the Angels after allowing 3 pretty early runs. Wunsch and Ginter are looking good, and Josh did a fine job today. Maybe he can squeeze his way into the rotation? It's possible. Sox are playing good this Spring! If Danny starts hurting again(knock on wood), then Stewart is a lock. He is the 6th starter on a team with only 5 starting spots available(sorry....we're not the Yankees).

And baggs said it before....that is truly a sad thing(that Borass won't let his players sign with or stay in Chicago very long)....because if so, we could have an OF of Borchard/Lee( :fyou Lee backers! ), Beltran and Ordonez from left to right or right to left(it has to be left to right if Lee is in there). That OF would be THE best in baseball.

Does he play CF? I thought he only played LF because of his weak arm....I know he DHed a little too. If we could get him for dirt-cheap(like maybe 2 minor prospects)....it might be worth it.

Had we had the A's past two seasons....we would have played the Angels in the first round this past year, not the Twins, and could have possibly slugged our way to the ALCS. I'll just assume that's not what you meant. Yeah....I'd rather have constant 100+ win seasons and then lose in the first round rather than having 1 year where we make it to the postseason and then play .500 baseball every other year(or near that).

I'd add Willie Mays when he was in his prime in CF. If you are talking about players in today's game....I'd definately go with RJ or Zito....another tough-ass lefty to face the Twinkies.....preferably RJ, because of his high velocity, nasty-ass slider.

I feel better with JM giving the ball to the likes of a Gordon rather than who we had last year with Osuna. MM.....while it is OK for you to not be comfortable with giving the ball to Gordon on a regular basis....you do have to remember what Killa pointed out.....we had Osuna last year. I'm 15 years old, and I was reaching for the Tums. Otherwise....it was a pretty good article. I disagree on the bullpen....but agree on everything else.

That truly was a great game...and still is. I still own it....and play it alot. I had a whole season with the Sox....Thomas hit like 50....Ventura hit like 35....Karko hit like 40. I had George Bell and Bo Jackson split time(because if hadn't put Jackson in until about July)....and they hit a combined like 35 or 40(like 28 from Jackson). Burks hit like 30....f***ing Joey Cora hit like 20....Raines hit like 25....Johnson hit like 10...and then Guillen hit like 10 too. Thomas hit .475 or so with 180 RBI....and my pitching staff was butter. Hernandez had like 45 saves...and I had a team ERA of like under 2.50(maybe less). That was also my first season with that game....so I did pretty s***ty(I was only like 130-32 or something...lol). The key is to finding the sweet spot of the batter's box....if you can find the spot where your team is hitting the ball hardest, you are in good shape. It is always sweet to hit 575 foot homers. That is a classic game.....a great game...and I'm sure you could get it for like $10 on EBay and get an SNES system for like $20 max...maybe even less. There were some pretty games for the SNES too....but that and Griffey's slugfest for SNES are the only two real good games I have. I have Mario All-Stars somewhere and the orginal Super Mario World too.

The Diamonbacks just keep dishing out the pain to us everytime we play them. I dread the season series ! Don't worry. We'll whoop their asses real good when we play them in the regular season.

Ummmm if you say so? The twins were given a good shot to win the division last season, and they have not been good for only a year. The Sox were chosen over the Twin's last season. The people who predicted that were wrong. Frank didn't do what was expected of him which really shout our chances. The Twin's are sure to put up a fight this year, as well as years to come. It wasn't even a race last year for us, this year, though, I think the Twin's are going to be the ones playing catch-up ! By the way, I am now in AAA ball, so hell yeah! We didn't win last year because we had ONE good starting pitcher....Garland and Wright were decent, and Ritchie, Rauch in April, Glover....etc....sucked. Biddle and Rauch, for the limited time we used them at the end of the year, were OK as well. Had we had Colon last year and a better Garland and Wright(as they improved tremendously in the second half), we would have won the division. If Thomas has a good year this year....the Twins are already dead.