witesoxfan

Hypothetically speaking, our rotation will be... Buehrle Wright Garland Colon Rauch This way we don't have a weak back end of the rotation....Wright is in the #2 spot, so he'd have to go up against some pretty tough pitchers....however, Colon would then go up against some weak starters and those would be almost auto wins for us. I like it....because Wright is very inconsistent....some times great, sometimes terrible. I think we'll see him pitch much better this year...so when he is on, we'll be able to win a few games because of it...he could go 2-2 with a 4.50 ERA or something like that....and then Garland goes up against pitchers that are worse than last year...and then Rauch pitches like a young kid does, though I believe he'll pitch better than Garland did last year, and Garland pitched the 2nd best in the rotation last year....from what I've heard or what I know, Rauch knows how to use his stuff, similar to Buehrle, or essentially meaning he stays focused pretty well, he has better stuff, he is taller(way taller), and he is older and thus is more mature....he's just got more advantages than Garland did, and I think he benefits from it and has a 13-10 4.10 season with 150 K's and 190-200 innings...and I think we'll have one of the better rotations in the league....but this is just from my optimistic mind. That's quite an interesting idea....and would be good for the fans as well.

I figure we may make some more minor moves to increase the depth of the team....maybe signing a starter to a minor league deal, signing a few position players and signing a few minor league catchers to deals....you gonna count on Mark Delasandro to be our 3rd catcher(assuming Sandy goes down)? I sure as hell ain't. I also agree that Borchard probably will open in CF, unless Rowand is fully healthy....or else we sign Cruz or someone else to play CF. That is the only position you could call a hole, and it's essentially filled....it is just a matter of either Borchard or Rowand. Also....Harris will probably make the 25-man out of ST, regardless of how well he plays. We will need a backup CFer and it his speed would be nice off the bench in the late innings.

whitesox247...it is an ass...and so is KW.

Oakland over Tampa 35-14....Oakland's just gonna thread through the Tampa defense all day long. MVP: Gannon

Rowand is a very gritty player....he hustles at all times....have you ever watched him play? The Aaron Rowand I saw at the end of last year hit .280 with decent power and speed in August and September while making the routine plays and some tough plays while making smart throws and doing whatever it takes for the team to win. I never said Rowand was or ever will be as good as Darin Erstad....but rather, a mini-Erstad. Both hustle, both play good defense, both have good arms, both are contact hitters who don't walk a lot, both have decent power, both have decent speed, both can bunt well....those are the kind of ballplayers it takes to win. You need a guy like that on your team to help you win ball games....a hustle type ballplayer who actually does give 110% every time he puts on the uniform and glove and steps onto the baseball field. Did you even read my post the first time, because this one sounds a lot like it. If you would just watch Rowand, maybe you'd figure it out that he does in fact hustle like that....he'll be a decent CFer for us.

I forgot about Guardado....he is not a good closer. He got lucky as hell as the year went on....it looked like he could get lit up on any night. He is a closer with power pitches but not power stuff. He has a 92-94 MPH fastball at most, a decent curve, and a decent changeup, and maybe a slider(you know....the same curve, change, and slider that Koch has )....he drops down his arm angle every once in a while to mess up the hitter....but he's not that good of a closer. I could definitely see him not performing the way he did last year...in fact, it's almost a given. He may have to go back down to his middle relief job this year and give way to Romero as closer.

Mark Buehrle's the opening day starter....just because he's earned it. However, I see our rotation like this: Colon Buehrle Garland/Wright Rauch Right now, I wouldn't have a clue who to put in at the #3 and #4 spots between Garland and Wright....I guess that will be decided during ST and as the year goes on. WSC...which holes? Rowand is the CFer....if he isn't ready, Harris or Borchard will take that spot. 2B is filled...Jimenez will take that spot. Catcher is filled....Olivo will take that spot with Alomar as the backup until he goes down, and then it is Paul's spot. We have all 5 spots in the rotation filled, and all 6 spots in the bullpen filled(Koch closing, Marte and Gordon as setup guys, Wunsch as a lefty-specialist, White and Glover doing middle relief/mopup/spot starting). Our bench is virtually filled...I don't see any holes...I just see a few question marks. All teams have question marks though.

There's one minor problem there.... We have one of the best DH's in the history of the game on our team right now in Frank Thomas. WE also have an above average defensive first-baseman in Paul Konerko, so Thomas can only DH. The only way Carlos Lee will DH is if Thomas gets hurt or Carlos is traded. He'll be fine in LF for this year....then we'll be ready to figure out the situation of Thomas and Lee....it's pretty hard to have two DH's on the same team....one of them has to go. Lee's a FA after this year, and Thomas could opt out of his contract....so we could be without both of them after 2003. If JR has anything to say about it, only Lee will be gone though....because Reinsdorf stepped in at the last second to save Thomas from going to the Dodgers, and he then complimented him in saying he was the best player in White Sox history(which he is). I think Reinsdorf wants to keep him....regardless of what Williams wants to do.

I'd say 95-100....I really like our team as a whole. We are very balanced....the worst area of our game is our bench....and that should be solved by the end of July, somehow, someway.

We'd be playing some long, hard games in that stadium, I know that for sure.

Uhh...no. I remembered who it was. Mike DeJean.

I'd take him in CF....he is a very gritty ballplayer....kind of like a mini-Darin Erstad, though he bats RH. He plays solid defense, but not as good defense as Erstad....he won't get to all the balls that Erstad gets to, but he still hustles his ass off...so does Erstad. Both have very good arms, both are contact hitters, both will hit about 20 homers and steal about 20 bases, both will hit about .280-.300, both will make the bunts they need to....they are pretty similar players in my mind. 5th outfielder my ass....at worst, he is a 4th outfielder....guys like Jeff Liefer and Armando Rios are 5th outfielders...guys that are versatile....can play atleast 1B as well. Rowand is better than most people think and make him out to be....I think he'll be a pretty good ballplayer in the end.

I'm still quite uneducated for life in general....but that's what the next 10-15 years in my life is for.

HSC....f*** means have sex....f*** also means kill. Same as do. If you do KW, you'd have two choices. 1) You could have sex with him 2) You could kill him f***ing is essentially the same thing....so I think, if given the choice, you would f*** KW....not having sex with him though....don't even think about that. :puke...just worry about killing him.

Whether it means anything or not....I'm not pro-gay or anti-gay....but if I had a friend that was gay, I would just basically tell him the same thing that roman would tell his friend....that he doesn't want to get a part in any of the relationships, or atleast physically....I would have my word in his/her relationships maybe, as he/she would probably mine, but I wouldn't want to mix with his/her boy/girlfriend physically...I think you understand what I'm saying. I had a teacher at my middle school who was gay....that is the only person I know personally that is actually gay. I think I know who a couple people are on here that are gay, but I'm not going to make any guesses on the board and I don't think anyone else should either....it's just wrong. Regardless....someone being gay shouldn't matter....they either are or they aren't. I believe Reggie White said something like homosexuality is not a race, but is rather a choice. Kind of like a choice between which sports teams you want to cheer for or what job you want to do or which retirement home you want to live in....that kind of choice. It may or may not have a big impact on your life. I'm not going to verbally abuse someone because they are gay....it's just wrong. If someone wants to be gay, that's fine....I personally don't want to be gay. I think I've done enough rambling for this time around. Friends are what matter most in life.....regardless of what type of person they are.

They got lucky as hell and their bullpen was way overworked...their starters won't be as durable and their rotation will have to pay the price because of it, and some pitchers won't perform as well as they did last year....I bet Romero doesn't put up a 1.89 ERA and Hawkins a 2.13 ERA(epecially considering the year he had in 2001....a 5.97 ERA and a WHIP of near 2.00 and Romero had a 7.02 ERA as a starter in 2000 and a 6.23 ERA in 2001)....Tony Fiore can't be expected to repeat his great year that he had....Johan Santana should be made a starter, but they have 5 starters already....so he'll be in the pen. The way the Twins pen collapsed last year in the playoffs is not quite how bad it will be this year....in fact, it's not even close. But it won't be quite THAT good this year as it was last year. Our pen will be fresh next year, assuming one or more of our starters don't go down with injuries.

Soxfest: Link If you want to read it for yourself, it is in the part called "Colon, Dr. Atkins and Jenny Craig"

i will respect your opinion, but on espn an article said that george of the yanks started it. then i showed before where i caught kw in lies about the trade. including the BA linked where it was said that all he concertated on another trade. all that aside if he was behind the trrade or not. i am none too happy of being called ignortant, just b/c i do not have the same opinion of your or anywhen else. LDF....George may have started it, but that doesn't mean that KW didn't do the main part of the deal....as I said, I think that KW did most of it with help along the way. Besides, ESPN is quite biased towards the east coast....I'm not surprised that they'd give a lot of credit to the Yankees in their article. KW has f***ed up quite a bit....but this is one that if you give most of the credit elsewhere that you are being misguided somehow, because KW did think of a lot of the deal. Soxfest....KW said in an article about the trade that he got very little sleep the few nights before the trade initially occurred...I'll try to locate the article for you.

I have said that KW probably did in fact get help along the way in the whole deal....but just because he didn't do it all by himself didn't mean he wasn't the main man in the deal. I wouldn't be surprised if JR, Selig, Steinbrenner, Cashman and Minaya all played major parts in it....but who's to say that KW's tainted ass mind wasn't behind all of it? Remember, this guy is so dirty that he traded a pitcher he knew was injured in Mike Sirotka for David Wells. It wouldn't surprise me. It is a good baseball move, but in the buisness world, it may have been a bad move. I'm not arguing against that. I don't think that this whole deal was orchestrated by Selig and Reinsdorf and Steinbrenner....KW did play a part in it. If he didn't, then why would he get limited sleep worrying about whether the deal got done or not(unless he was lying about that too)? I think KW did most of it, with some help along the way.

I thought Ward had played CF in the past, but after looking at it, he apparently hadn't. But after looking at some names on a list of CFers in the majors, I see that there are some around that could be had. Not only was there Terrence Long on the list, who I wouldn't mind seeing in a Sox uniform, but also Mark Kotsay....weren't the Padres shopping him around once upon a time? I'd take him in a second....he's damn good. He'd instantly solve our problem in CF...he's got a great arm, some good defense and a good bat as well along with decent speed at the plate. And I'm not sure what it'd take to get Timo Perez out of NY, but it wouldn't be much....apparently, unless they can get someone to take on Cedeno or Burnitz, they are planning on using Cedeno in CF, if I remember correctly. I'd give them a couple prospects and Josh Paul for Perez....gotta make it a 3 for 1 deal or else KW wouldn't do it. He'd make a great #8 hitter for us....or maybe even #2 if Jose didn't hit very well from there. He doesn't walk much but doesn't strike out much either....in 444 at-bats last year, he walked 23 times and struck out 36 times....talk about a contact hitter. If given a full year, he could put up some pretty damn good numbers. He could get 200 hits and steal about 20-30 bases....and we all know how much we need more speed. Anyways, I was just throwing a few names out there for us as fans to consider and imagine having in CF for us....not like we're going to get them.

The only legitimate point you brought up was #1....and I haven't seen those stories yet. Mind showing me a link so I can read them? #2 I know is bulls***....because Peter Gammons is full of s***....he knows very little to nothing about baseball. #3 and #4 are your opinion. Can you give me a source for your #1 point? I'd like to see it. Edit: cw....maybe their not ignorant and I just overreacted during my vent. Maybe they are just disagreeing with the interpretation of the same set of facts.

Durham could be a disaster playingin CF...position changes that are that drastic can ruin careers....and you can look no further than the man in charge of the moves for the White Sox. Kenny Williams was moved from outfield to 3B by Hawk Harrelson if I've heard and understood correctly...after one good year of play, Kenny Williams became a s***ty ball player. Durham will probably be fine...but it doesn't mean that the risk isn't there.

What the f*** is up with this...we coulda gotten Ward. Hell, we coulda traded Jon Adkins for Ward....or maybe Adkins and Sanders. That would have been special to have a father-son being apart of the same organization. Ward has some decent power and his dad is the hitting coach...and Ward has power from the left-side for christ's sake....s***...we could have gotten him....maybe now we can trade Carlos Lee for Ward....the Carlos Lee in AA ball and get revenge on Danny Evans for the Berry-Barry situation!

So you think that JR made a KW-ish move to make it look like KW did it? He traded 3 players and cash for Colon and Nunez, a minor leaguer....he's done that 3 times in the past 2 years....traded 3 players, along with cash, for 1 main player and a minor leaguer or two. Think about it. I give KW credit for the Colon deal....he did good for us. He's not a good GM by any means. He's f***ed up the MB situation, he f***ed up with the Ritchie trade, he f***ed up trading for Clayton....point blank - he's f***ed up a lot. However, why are you guys so ignorant in the fact that KW was actually the mastermind behind the whole Colon deal? He did do it, along with some help. Just because he got some help doesn't mean he didn't do most of it. If a player hits a 3-run homer to win the game, he'll get a lot of credit for it....in fact, he'll get most of it. But where is he if the 2 runners ahead of him didn't get on? He's not in the spotlight, that's for damn sure. Or in other words, he got help, but will get most of the credit. However, I agree with cwsox....if we are bad this year, KW is gone. He's made numerous bad trades, but with the moves he's made this offseason, he could be pretty damn good...if we aren't, then KW is gone.

And then having a rotation of Buehrle, Garland, Wright, Rauch and maybe Stewart? Because Durham got a contract that is worth about as much as Colon's, and we definately would not have even considered Colon. Or KW would have been pressured into getting Russ Ortiz and would have given them a top prospect and some decent major league talent. Our lineup would look better with Ray-Ray at 2B....but not necessarily our whole team.