witesoxfan

Cerb...I agree. He plays incredible defense, and is close to a 5-tool player....but he's not worth $8 mill a year. The Twins are going to be beating themselves soon enough....they overpaid for Radke when they signed him and have just now overpaid big time for Hunter. Then again....we gave Paully just under $8 mill a year as well....and I think Hunter is worth more than Paully....so maybe we overpaid greatly as well.

Just to clarify this.... Without their incredibly good defense, Minnesota is a 75 win team, at best...Mientkiewicz makes more plays than you see....that's why their infield looks like they have 4 gold glove candiates....only Koskie and Mientkiewicz should ever be considered. Their outfield has so much range it's uncanny....you can't put it into words. They are a fun team to watch...and would be even more fun if they weren't competing against us. Hunter will up a season comparable to his 2001 season....hit about .260 or so with 25 homers and 75 RBIs with 25 SBs and f***ing awesome defense. His defense saves about 10 homers a year or so along with several runs as well...probably around 3-5 runs a week. Their pitching staff can also thank their defense....no starter on their team would have had an ERA under 4.00 last year. As it was, only Reed did, and Santana was a swingman that got several starts and several bullpen appearances. They would have lost the division without their defense....meaning we could have won it with about 80 wins. We probably would have won around 85 or so if the Twins defense sucked, but still.

Here's a thought: This plan will never work (fairly) until atleast two things happen: a) The DH rule is either accepted in both leagues or is eliminated from the AL b ) There are an even amount of teams in each league....as it stands, one league will always have a clear-cut advantage, and it will most likely be the AL on the better end....every team has to be represented, and that means more crappy players going to the All-Star game for the NL. What's really sad is that Robert Fick made it last year....correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't it called the ALL STAR game for a reason...meaning everyone should be a star? That rule is one of the worst in the league...I hate it as well. I wonder why the NFL's All-Pro game is more fun to watch then the MLB's All-Star game?

This year, Harris will either be in AAA or riding the pine. Next year, he will be the 2B/CF for us, assuming he doesn't suck ass...regardless, we now have a few middle infield prospects to pick through in case Harris sucks.

As do I....he won't be as good as Erstad but he will be a similar player. Whether or not that kind of player is what we need on the Sox is a question all in its own. However, on Jose's offdays, I think we should have Aaron hit 2nd with Harris taking Aaron's spot in the lineup. He's a good contact hitter and bunts incredibly well....he could be a very key player for us in the future. Maybe he will be a bust....but I'd still keep him. His heart is needed a lot on this team....and he IS a damn good 4th outfielder, if that's all he becomes. He has pop in his bat, has some decent speed, can play all 3 outfield spots, bunts well....he does a lot of stuff well. I say we should keep him as long as possible.

You know what would be funny? If Montreal and New York met up in the World Series and El Duque kicked the s*** out of the Yankees going like 4-0 in the World Series...pitching games 1, 4, relief in 6 and 7. Or what else would be funny is if Boston still totally dominated New York, and then we beat Boston in the ALCS....or should I say, Colon beats Boston.

I guess we'll agree to disagree then.

Valentin didn't leadoff. And if Jimenez struggles at the top of the order, either Harris or Rowand will leadoff.

If the Twins think it will be a cakewalk, they are morons....if they think they will win the division, they're morons. They better be ready for a hard fought battle....if not, then we will win the division and come out of nowhere.

I think you mean Rowand as good as Erstad. Offensively, they are very close...both are players that don't draw a lot of walks, will hit for decent power, will hit for a decent average, will steal 20-25 bases, will make good bunts...I explained it all above. I think Rowand is the key-point in the season. I think we are among the best teams in the league if Rowand performs well...if not, we really don't have a CF....are you going to count on Armando Rios or Willie Harris in CF? I don't want to have to, but we may. Rowand is the key man in the season. He's the kind of gritty, gusty player that Erstad is, and he brings intangibles. He's not as good, and Erstad has more natural talent...he's the better athlete. Rowand will never be close to playing defense in CF as well as Erstad and he will never, ever get close to the kind of year that Erstad had in 2000....but I could see Rowand being a very similar player to Erstad.

Because when healthy, IRod is the best all-around catcher in the game, but he wants to go somewhere where he'll get both catching and DH time. Manuel could tinker something around.

HSC....we really don't have the same fielders and lineup we had last season. For atleast half the year, we had Lofton, Durham and Clayton(along with Alomar, but he's coming back)...we then had Rowand in CF for Lofton, Jimenez and Harris in at 2B for Durham and Valentin back at SS for Clayton....MJ and Paul were a formidable catching platoon for 2 months and Crede then replaced the vacant 3B job left by Jose once he moved back to SS. We started clicking as a team then and we played very, very good baseball over the last two months of the year. Also....we had a rotation of Buehrle, Garland, Wright, Ritchie and Glover for much of the year last year. Thisis with Garland and Wright still developing as pitchers and two very s***ty pitchers in Ritchie and Glover as starters....this year, we add Colon and Rauch to the mix, along with a matured Wright and Garland, and their ERA was going to drop just because of Don Cooper, and will drop more with experience. This year, we have a rotation of Colon, Buehrle, Garland, Wright and Rauch....if you tell me that that rotation isn't a huge improvement over last year's, then I'll have to call you crazy. The bullpen won't improve that much. We'll have Koch, who is as good as Foulke is, regardless of what the stats say. Marte will pitch just as well, and Glover will as well. We'll have Wunsch, who will be coming back at 100% from his surgery. We will then have Almonte(my preference) or Ginter or Munoz or someone else....whoever it is is a good arm in the bullpen. I'm hoping that Almonte wins the job out of ST....he's a very good pitcher and has shown it in the minor leagues. We've been waiting a couple years for this kid to come up...let's see what he's got. The best of the worst is KC....Cleveland is going all young and will suck...and we really did hand it to them last year. We must have won atleast 10-12 games against them last year, and we played them for about 6 games in a stretch where we were really sucking badly. We were the team that swept them after they started out 11-1...we were the team that put them in their grave, threw the dirt on them and and put up their tombstone. They were done after that. We then took 3 of 4 from them in the next series. We dominated them early on and ended up with a decent record against them. KC is the only team that scares me in the AL Central, aside from the Twins of course. They don't have a good offense, but they have a bunch of quick playes and Tony Pena likes to steal bases. Their pitching is mediocre, but it looks like it could be get hot and win a big stretch of ballgames....was it them that won 9 games in a row last year? I think so....it just shows that any team can and will get hot at any given point and play the unbeatable team in the league. I think KC will play a major role in who wins the Central.

Maggs is a better outfielder than Anderson....if ANYONE took Anderson over Maggs, I'd slap them silly. Lee is as good as Salmon and has the age on him. Rowand could be just as good as Erstad....they both will probably hit for a high average, both hit for decent power, steal around 20-25 bases, be a real good bunter, get on base, and on defense, both will hustle their asses off and make the plays they need to, and will use their arm to their advantage....and to think that we are saying Rowand is a good 4th outfielder. Rowand brings intangibles that Erstad also does. Defensively, Anderson is better than Lee in LF, Erstad is better than Rowand in CF, and Salmon is better than Maggs in RF...I think the offensive viewpoint virtually evens it out.

When at a latino party and he hears the word salsa, he says "There's salsa? Where?"

Oh s***....I just saw on the Best Damn Sports Show that Kevin Mitchell once injured himself eating and then vomitting a cupcake back up....if anyone in the majors is capable of that right now, it's Colon.

If they can deal Tatis and Cabrera, they'd be under...odds are, they won't be able to. But it's a possibility. The Mets, if they want to compete next year, really don't have that great of a 3B or SS...but I'm not sure they could add both Tatis's and Cabrera's salary. They might have to deal Vazquez...but at this point, I think they'd want someone damn good in return....ie, a team's #1 or maybe their #2 and a blue chip prospect or something like that, along with about $2 mill in cash...then they could deal Armas Jr and Barret and be under. They wouldn't be good, but they would be decent....probably a 75 win team or so. Then again, they'll have Jeff Liefer as their opening day 1Bmen....so who the hell knows?

Is that mid-relief guy Tom Gordon? I'd sign Irod...I've said that we could get Konerko, Thomas and Irod about 130 games each, with each of them doing some DHing. Not only that, but it would give Manuel something to tinker with. We all know how he loves to tinker. Suppose he had tinker toys when he was a kid? I bet he did. Hell....we really only took on about $6 mill of Colon's salary and sent some cash, mostly the cash we got from the Yankees, to the Expos in the deal...I'm sure we could sign him to a 1-year $8 mill contract...our payroll would be about the same as last year with a much improved product. Or we could sign him for $5 mill guarenteed and he'll receive a max total of up to $9 mill or so if he reaches all of his incentives. Not only that, but IRod is the most popular catcher in the AL, if not the majors...I think Piazza is probably the most popular among all major leaguers, but IRod would still get Chicago a hell of a lot of attention from the media and such. It would attract more fans to come to the ballpark than are already there. JR rose the ticket prices...the least the cheap son of a b**** could do is add Pudge. Olivo could use some more ABs in the minors, and IF Sandy goes down, which he probably will, then Olivo comes up. Sandy will make his annual DL trip, but he was healthy for the rest of the year last year. Hell he was as healthy as Moises Alou....what's that tell you? I'll tell you what it tells me....it means that he was healthy, considering he's Sandy Alomar. And then he retires and we hire him as a catchers coach....we then use Olivo and who not....Alomar still teaches him, albeit a year later, and Alomar DOESN'T take up a roster spot. I say we do it...but I doubt we will.

It was like 6th best....they have a ton of f***ing depth in the outfield...they have Hunter, Jones, Kielty, Mohr, Cuddyer, Restovich, and someone else(I'm sure Cerb could help you out)....they have atleast 7 pretty good outfielders in their entire system. Their depth is the only thing that scares me....I'm almost sure that we will win the division....the old adage is good pitching beats good hitting....and we have good pitching. What I'm wondering is what good pitching AND good hitting beat.

On a good day he hits 95....he normally does hit 92-93 or so.....he changes speeds every once in a while, but that hasn't fooled Frank over their careers...what is Frank, like a .700 hitter against Guaradado? That reminds me....there were 4 games off the top of my head that the Twins won very luckily last year....the game where the Sox lost 5-4 or something and the infamous "f*** off" yelling from AJ Pierzynski after Maggs popped up to end the game....Frank hit a screamer right to Jones in left, and if that is 2 feet to the left or to the right, it scores two runs and the Sox tie it up, and it would have most likely gone to extras. There was another game where the Royals had it all but wrapped up, Jones hit a weak grounder to Neifi Perez, he botched it, Jones reached, he eventually scored and the Twins won in extras. And then there were those two Bobby Kielty homers in the last series of the year...for all I care, Kielty can go f*** himself. That son of a b**** is a pest. He hit a homer off Ritchie on a 3-0 count...that kind of s*** pisses me off. I hope Kielty blows ass this year for the Twins....hits like .240 with 5 homers and 30 RBI in like 100 games...that would be sweet as hell. If the Twins lose 3 of those 4 games, then they are a 91 win team(as they won 94 games last year....they won the division by 13.5 going 94-67...come on guys, brush up on your facts! ) and we are an 84 win team....there's a big difference between 94 and 81 wins and 91 and 84 wins....a very, very large difference. And for my wish going into the season....I hope someone, preferably Jose or Thomas or Maggs, hits a two run homer in the bottom of the 8th that puts us up by 1, and then Koch closes it down...and then the next night, the exact same thing happens. We'll see what the Twins like when we shove that up their ass. And then I wish we win the division!

Tim Kurkjian is a dips*** that knows nothing about baseball....all he looks at are stats. If you do a list like this, you should take into consideration EVERYTHING....all tangibles included. If he was smart, he'd realize that the Angels don't have the 3rd best outfield...our outfield is better than their's, or if not, it is damn close. If Tim Kurkjian wrote an article on how to milk cows with your mouth, I think I'd understand his logic more on that than I would on an article he writes about baseball.

Of course I don't want to give up Wunsch....I'm saying he is expendable....meaning if a good trade were to come up that involved him, I would do it....that means if a trade of like Wunsch, Stewart and Josh Paul for Javy Vazquez came up, I'd do it...that trade won't come up...I was just using an example. I think you know what I mean though. If we can get a top prospect(ie Arizona trading Jack Cust to Colorado for Mike Myers), than I'd do it....I'd do Kelly Wunsch for that Wilson Betemit kid in Atlanta, and they may need some more relief pitching....they lost Remlinger, Lightenberg, Spooneybarger, and Hammond this offseason. I'd say they could use a guy like Kelly Wunsch, and we could Wilson Betemit for the future...maybe after this year when Jose will leave(or I assume he will leave, that is)...I'd do it, but I'm not so sure Atlanta would. If we made a trade like that, I'd do it as well. See what I'm saying?

Yeah, but KC is a AAA team this year. We should be somthing like 15-4 vs. them this season. Well then I guess they have a pretty good prospect in Mike Sweeney

Killa...I don't think he has to. He is a similar pitcher to Koch...he throws a bunch of straight s***. Every once in a while, he'll drop his arm angle to fool the hitter, and sometimes it works. However, I remember watching Guardado nearly blow a ton of games last year....he is a shaky closer, at best, and was lucky as hell to save 35 games, let alone the 46 or so that he did save. Koch can get by with throwing the straight s***(though he states that he has 4 pitches....LMAO). He can throw it 98 or so and on a good night get it up to 100....Guardado is lucky as hell if he can hit 95. It's a hell of a lot easier to catch up to a 95 MPH fastball than it is 100 MPH fastball. I don't believe the Twins have the intangibles....this team will take on a 2000-like attitude. You got a bunch of young kids who've got talent with Jose Valentin at SS....that was a hell of a good mix in 2000, and I think it will be in 2003 as well. Our starting rotation is better, our bullpen is just as good, if not better, and our lineup is much better. The only thing they have on us is defense, and defense alone doesn't win the division, especially when one other team has the advantage in starting, relieving and hitting. With the obvious signs that we want to win and us not getting raped in a trade, I think we'll be very good. If you want a sleeper team to go all the way, I'd actually pick the Sox. We have a very durable rotation, with 4 guys that threw 190 innings last year including two who threw 220 and won atleast 19 games. We can get by with Rauch sucking this year...but I don't think he will. I am already excited for September to come around...and it's only January. God I hope I can talk my parents into buying a package that I can get nearly all the Sox games. I don't want to have to watch the goddamn Twins all the time.

So let me get this straight... Our rotation is Colon, Buehrle, Garland, Wright and Rauch....which is possibly amongst the best in the league, and if our #3-#5 aren't that good, then our #1 and #2 are....we were .500 with one great starter last year, so we'll probably win atleast 88 games or so guarenteed this year, if Garland and Wright don't improve and Rauch is just as bad as Glover/Ritchie in the rotation. We'll most likely win 90-95 games with our rotation though, atleast. Our bullpen is Koch, Marte, Gordon, Glover, Wunsch, and Almonte along with maybe someone from the group of Ginter, Munoz, Sanders or someone else(maybe even Porzio, but don't count on it). With our surplus of lefty-reliever prospects, and Munoz being the best of them, I'd say that Wunsch is expendable...because even if we turn Munoz into a starter, we still have Ring and Sanders and Stewart....we have so many lefty-reliever prospects it's insane. If this is correct, and it is, we have a sick pitching staff with our offense...hell, if this pitching staff was being supported by a weak lineup and defense, it could still win 75-80 games...and then you add our lineup, which is among the best in the majors....I don't think we are even going to f*** around. We will blast out of the gate and continue the winning. That's all we can hope for anyways. 20 years ago, we nearly tied a team record for wins, but were beaten in the postseason. 10 years ago, we had a very good team, but were outplayed by Toronto. We had an even better team in 94, but our season was cut short by the strike. This could be our year, guys....I ain't s***tin you. We got the team to do it. I'm probably be a bit too optimistic. But our division, in my eyes, is pretty much clinched. We were a team that should have won more games last year....we were very unlucky as a whole. The Twins were a team that should have lost more games last year...they were very lucky as a whole. Don't expect that trend to continue...I think we could seriously win the division by 10-15 games....it won't be as close as people will expect it be going in.

I never said that....but that trade is nowhere near the level of importance of the Colon or Durham or Ritchie trade....if something is as bad as the Durham trade is, it is important. KW got hosed terribly on that deal. Diaz wasn't the Giants top prospect and Meaux won't amount to much more than a reliever. In Colon, we got a great pitcher for one of our biggest needs. And we got screwed in the Ritchie deal as well. The Lofton for Diaz-Meaux deal was great...I was happy that we got anything at all. It doesn't make KW any more or any less of a dips*** though.