witesoxfan

QUOTE(Balta1701 @ Feb 20, 2007 -> 12:36 PM) Link. so if my future kids cant stop hiccuping, I'm supposed to stick my finger up its butt. Isn't that against the law? "But officer, I was only trying to stop the hiccups!"

QUOTE(TheBigHurt @ Feb 20, 2007 -> 12:34 PM) I hope we don't become the next Kansas City Royals. you have to be kidding

QUOTE(fathom @ Feb 20, 2007 -> 11:59 AM) After last year's debacle by our pitchers, a 5.12 ERA from an unproven starter seems like a longshot. I'm stunned that people have such high hopes for Floyd. I'd be surprised if he put up a 5.12 ERA or better in AAA. Haeger is our best chance at being a decent 5th starter, and even that doesn't seem overly likely. I don't really understand how figuring he'll put up a 5.50 ERA is high hopes. And I really don't think Haeger has any chance of being a decent 5th starter if he doesn't have control, and even with control, he'll probably put up 4th starter numbers at best. With all the starting depth in the minors, I would have guessed Haeger would have been gone, but I would venture to bet that's how little trade value he actually has. A knuckler whose ERA was over 5 after being demoted last year is just not valuable. I'm just not sure how he can be successful in the majors. I honestly would not be surprised to see him traded this spring to a team that has a need for an innings eater.

QUOTE(StrangeSox @ Feb 20, 2007 -> 12:54 AM) The big "?" at the 5-spot is what has me worried. dont worry about that at all. There's actually talent in the minor leagues this time as opposed to the previous years where there was a blackhole of a 5 spot. I mean, if you're depending upon Mike Porzio or Josh Stewart, you were SOL to start. The Sox have Danks in the minors who could be ready to be an adequate 5th starter by midseason with the potential for way more.

QUOTE(Kalapse @ Feb 20, 2007 -> 12:08 AM) I signed up for an MLB.tv Premium Account today, I've been watching some games from last season and I must say I forgot just how good this team was in the first half of last season even when the starting pitching wasn't doing jack s***. I'm really not all that worried about 2007. it seems to me that it's all about Thome putting up huge numbers and getting on base consistently. The on-base part is self-explanatory, but I mention Thome because as great as Dye was all year, he couldn't be the difference maker in the lineup, whereas when Thome was tearing the cover off of the ball in the first half, the lineup was easily the best in the league.

it's quite likely that most of the pen won't have proven anything at all going into the season, but I like it regardless. And I also agree with everything you have mentioned and have been preaching it for months now. You didn't mention the Indians though. They are the team that the Sox should be concerned with as far as I'm concerned. Both Minnesota and Detroit will be good, but I think both are going to come down a little this year, especially Detroit. I just don't think they can be nearly as good coming off of a World Series hangover and the mediocre discipline of that offense.

QUOTE(Flash Tizzle @ Feb 19, 2007 -> 09:32 PM) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OL50ddCSJmo -- New Simpsons movie trailer. LOL, the wolves that homer whipped turned against him. ......... BART'S NAKED!!! I feel sorry for anyone who is going to spend $12 watching that movie in theatres. Hopefully my sister will buy it when it comes out so I can see just how bad it is.

QUOTE(CryptviLL @ Feb 19, 2007 -> 09:53 PM) ill show u guys a before and after pic when i get it done. draw a stache

QUOTE(Flash Tizzle @ Feb 19, 2007 -> 05:53 PM) A website shouldn't be allowed to have "everyvideogame" in the title without any of the mario brothers games. they dont have the Zelda's either, but I still like it maybe we can send them an email that politely asks them to change their name to "almosteveryvideogame" oh, and I finally quit playing Tecmo because Neal Anderson completely destroyed me. 4 carries, 255 yards

QUOTE(Dick Allen @ Feb 19, 2007 -> 01:17 PM) The hip condition he acquired, the White Sox feel was because of all the extra weight. Considering they marked him at 299 last spring there's really no telling how much over 300 he was. Hopefully the hip problem goes away with the pounds he shed and he can get his velocity back up and build his endurance. I read where his ERA after the ASB was 5.72. If that's someone who can't throw 95-100, that's DFA territory. you read right. A 1.80 WHIP as well, which is beyond Billy Koch bad. The only thing he did well was strike people out (9.8 K/9), and that's even a little below his own high standards. It'd be great if he is indeed in shape and throwing like he was in 2005, because if he is, he'll be solid as hell this year. Hopefully Ozzie won't have to ride the piss out of him with all the talent in the pen.

so I'm definitely hooked on Tecmo Super Bowl. Is that possibly the greatest video game ever? http://www.everyvideogame.com

QUOTE(SEALgep @ Feb 18, 2007 -> 08:18 PM) We'll still have a 100+ million budget. Who knows, how great would it be having Ichiro in LF and Sweeney in right? Ichiro will never play LF in the majors. His arm is way too strong for him to not play RF. And Ichiro would be amazing. It's a leadoff hitter, a huge draw, a hell of a defender, and he's a flat out great player, HoF caliber. You bring him in, and you are looking at one of the best defenses in the league to go along with a pretty solid OBP oriented lineup with some pop in the middle. I could really see a lineup of... Ichiro - RF Iguchi - 2B Thome - DH Konerko - 1B Pierzynski - C Fields - 3B Anderson - CF Sweeney - LF Uribe/someone else - SS or something similar to such in 08/09, and while it's probably not a 200 homer lineup, it's a lineup that may be able to put up a .340-.350 cumulative OBP, which flat out means runs.

QUOTE(greasywheels121 @ Feb 18, 2007 -> 06:50 AM) http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=2769871 Michael Irvin axed from ESPN. about.f***ing.time.

QUOTE(AWhiteSoxinNJ @ Feb 18, 2007 -> 04:23 PM) No I will not shut up. KW has been horrible this offseason. Poor trades for Garcia and McCarthy. Trading Cotts for nothing. And now unwilling to even talk about extending our up and coming free agents. Sure we won a World Series, but I don't want to be a one and done team. And at this rate, why would any good free agent want to come here and why would any of our players want to resign with a hard nose, small market approach. Overall it's not get business to get your own players, and your fan base upset. I really don't understand how he got a poor return for McCarthy; care to explain? I also don't believe you're aware of the fact that the nothing Williams got back in return for Cotts had an ERA of more than a run lower than Cotts himself. And for whatever reason, you feel as though this team will not be competitive this year. That is about the only way KW could have been horrible this offseason. I disagree with that, and I would venture to guess that everyone else on this board is likely to disagree with that thought as well.

He who works harder than normal performs better than normal (most of the time)

QUOTE(Dick Allen @ Feb 17, 2007 -> 03:35 PM) Aardsma, the guy KW got to take McCarthy's place in the bullpen, gave up a ridiculous number of gopherballs himself in a very weak NL, but if you read this board, he's unhittable. What McCarthy gave up was ridiculous. 17 in 85 innings is a horrendous rate, and there's no way around it. Aardsma's home run ratio was bad as well - not nearly to the extent of McCarthy, but 1.5 isn't 1.7, and McCarthy's was worse overall on the year. The other promising stat about Aardsma is that his HR/9 was decreasing as the year went on, from 2 HR/9 in the first half (in 18.1 innings) to 1.30 HR/9 in the second half. McCarthy's got considerably worse from the first to the second half, with a 1.47 HR/9 before the ASG to a laughable 2.25 HR/9 in the second half. And by all accounts, Aardsma has better stuff than McCarthy, so that alone should help as well. Aardsma's may go up from moving to a pitchers park/league to a hitters park/league, but I doubt it moves up the 1.70 range.

I always liked having the hiccups, cuz it made me laugh when I did hiccup. Then again, I never had them for more than like an hour, so I imagine I really can't compare my situation to hers. Hopefully she gets rid of them.

QUOTE(kyyle23 @ Feb 17, 2007 -> 08:59 AM) this shall hencetoforth be known as "The Kenny Rogers Rule" http://www.soxtalk.com/forums/index.php?s=...t&p=1356103 I agree

QUOTE(Gregory Pratt @ Feb 17, 2007 -> 11:30 AM) Anderson was terrible last year and apparently had an ego and poor work ethic behind the scenes. Guillen is saying he isn't guaranteed a starting job this year, whereas last year it was quite clear he was The Man and all the eggs were in his basket going in. That devilish Osvaldo! And that was all last year. As far as I can tell, Anderson was the first outfielder to report this year. What's that say about his work ethic?

QUOTE(shipps @ Feb 17, 2007 -> 02:31 AM) They didnt trade for all these young arms for no reason.KW obviously anticipates losing some starting pitching and MB is gonna be one of them. "gonna"? We'll see It'd be a helluva PR hit to lose the face of the franchise for the last 5 years. JR hasn't made any exceptions to his policy of no more than 3 year deals to starters, but he really hasn't had a case like Buehrle's yet either. It's simply wait and see at this point.

QUOTE(rock1735 @ Feb 16, 2007 -> 06:35 PM) I tell you what, look at the other mid/long guys in the AL. Find me two that did a better job than McCarthy. Homeruns, doubles, singles walks, who cares. A run is a run. I don't see any difference in a homerun versus two hits and walk mixed in. It's about eating up innings and giving the very good offense a chance to battle back. Sure, McCarthy gave up a high percentage of bombs/IP. If you want to argue the end of the season was poor, you're right, his ERA jumped over the 4.5 mark and he struggled. Then at least give me that until September he was perhaps the best in the AL when his ERA was at or under 4. All in all, the sox were way ahead of the game compared to the rest of the AL. Just so we're clear on this, McCarthy splits as a reliever... 51 G, 4.78 ERA, 1.34 WHIP, 3.7 BB/9, 6.8 K/9, 1.8 K/BB, 1.7 HR/9 in 75.1 IP. Secondly, home run ratio is incredibly important for a reliever, because if those 2 hits and walk can easily turn into a 3 run homer instead of just a run or two, and from there it can really only get worse. I'd rather have a long reliever that puts up a 1.50 WHIP and allows Third, McCarthy's ERA was under 4 at the end of April (3.38). After that point, his ERA wasn't under 4 until July 26th, which is a stretch of almost 3 months, and the lowest it ever got was 3.82 on August 26th. So no, I won't give you that he was the best long reliever until September when his ERA ballooned, because his ERA was ballooned all year. Next, disregarding everything McCarthy did, what in the hell does having a good long reliever even do for a club? If you really think about it, the only time a true long reliever will come in to play is when a. The score is so ridiculously out of hand that there's no need to waste good bullpen arms b. The starter was so bad that the long reliever has to come in early to try and bridge the gap to the rest of the pen c. Extra innings a and b are tied together, but b could be an injury, or a could be the bullpen getting shallacked on any given day. That means they may have an effect on true, full-out, game saving effect on like 3, maybe 4 games? Possibly less? It's not a huge effect at all. Finally, the 2 you wanted... Darren Oliver Hector Carrasco ...plus a few others... Oscar Villarreal Jason Davis Jason Grilli Chad Gaudin McCarthy was bad last year, and there's no way around it. Sure I would have rather had him than Willie Eyre eating innings, but that sure as hell didn't stop the Twins from winning the division.

QUOTE(Rowand44 @ Feb 17, 2007 -> 12:36 AM) let it play out. I don't think the Sox and Buehrle are done negotiating yet.

To add a bit to the Cornell discussion, I too enjoyed his solo album, and he made a couple songs - Sunshower and Seasons - that weren't on Euphoria Morning, but rather were on the Greater Expectations and Singles soundtracks respectively. And I really love Seasons, probably one of my favorite songs of his that he's ever done. And Audioslave breaking up is for the better. I liked bits of both of the first albums, but I really don't think there was a song I liked at all on Revelations. That album was complete garbage, and I really wish I could get my $13 back for it.

QUOTE(Tony82087 @ Feb 17, 2007 -> 12:26 AM) This should be a friggin blast.... Brian Anderson really is a communist

Rule changes in the MLB Foreign substance to a ball - the "Kenny Rogers rule" - is now an automatic 10 game suspension. There are a few others too, but they are pretty minor moves.