caulfield12

Not even regional!!! Here in the Quad Cities, approximately 177 miles from USCF, they still show Cardinals games on FOX over the White Sox, even though the Cardinals/Astros games is not really a "rivalry" game like the White Sox one...and even though St. Louis is almost twice as far away from the Quad Cities as Chicago. They would never show a Cardinals game over a Cubs game here...

QUOTE (greg775 @ Apr 10, 2009 -> 10:28 PM) Nobody has started a game thread yet, but looking at the pitching matchup tomorrow, can you believe we are looking at a 1-4 start with all the games played at home? My god. Even with our team last year, we were pretty bad on the road. Here's a pretty realistic scenario for the next 10 days. 1-1 versus Minn (2-4) 1-2 at DET (3-6) 1-3 at TB (4-9) 1-2 at BALT (5-11) The way things are going now, 6-10 or 5-11 isn't going to surprise me very much at all. Maybe 7-9 if we're being REALLY REALLY optimistic. Luckily, CLE is 0-4 and doing worse than us so far, but DET is really getting some good starting pitching so far, with the exception of arguably their best pitcher, Verlander.

QUOTE (EvilJester99 @ Apr 10, 2009 -> 10:00 PM) What happened to Franklyn German? German would have been an option 8-10 years ago when he was still a prospect...he just doesn't have an explosive fastball anymore. MacDougal did go to Clemson, lol....any pitchers who went to university in South Carolina should be rejected, except for Roberto Hernandez (USC-Aiken)

Jeff Nelson? Aug. Montero? Sean Tracey? David Aardsma? How can MacDougal have a 95-97 MPH fastball and have NO confidence in it at all??? We'll never figure it out I guess....he just throws slider after slider.

Is there anyone in AAA or AA that would be clearly better than MacDougal and Carrasco? I think MacDougal is about one more appearance like tonight from getting released unconditionally for the good of the organization...but Carrasco might have been "lightning in a bottle" for one-half season and we probably will need to look somewhere else for the dreaded 6th and 7th spots in the pen. Egbert? Russell? Broadway? Are there any relievers who were DFA'ed at the end of ST that are worth a look?

Beckham, 2/4 tonight, two singles....6/10 on the season so far Viciedo with a single and 2 runs scored 2/9=.222 Stefan Gartrell and Gordon Beckham led the Birmingham Barons to a 4-2 win over Chattanooga at Regions Park in front of 2,578 fans Friday night. The Barons improved to 2-0. Gartrell went 2-for-3 with a home run and an RBI double as the Barons improved to 2-0 on the season. The right fielder's two-run shot in the second tied the game at 2-2. His double in the sixth added an insurance run. Beckham, a shortstop, followed his 4-for-6, game-winning-hit debut with a 2-for-4 night with another game-winner performance in a brisk 2-hour, 11-minute second outing. The 2008 eighth-overall draft pick poked an opposite-field single to right with one out in the fifth to score C.J. Retherford and give Birmingham a 3-2 lead. Kyle McCulloch (1-0) allowed two runs in six innings for the win. Derek Rodriguez earned his first save of the season. Chattanooga's Scott Elbert (0-1) suffered the loss. www.al.com

Did they not vote him a full playoff share though?

What did Crede do? I know that Ozzie was really frustrated with him in the second half of last season (was he playing or not playing, was he hurt or okay enough to play but advised by Boras to sit/rest?)...and he really lit into him a couple of times, but Ozzie has been nothing but chivalrous since the offseason started about Swisher, Cabrera and Crede.

Yeah, there aren't really any catchers on the horizon for the HOF. Mauer, if he stays at catcher....maybe McCann, but it's way too early to start discussing him or Soto in that way. Same thing with Russell Martin...those are probably the top four guys today.

I think you might be underestimating how many former HOF players really dislike Bonds and don't want him anywhere near Cooperstown. I agree with you, if Bonds went down in a plane crash (Clemente, although he already had 3000 hits) or lost his vision (like Kirby Puckett) around ten years ago, then there would still be no question that Bonds was a Hall of Famer. Right now, Palmeiro, Sosa, McGwire and Clemens are all on the outside looking in...which isn't exactly fair to Sosa, because it was never proved that he did anything wrong, although everyone suspected and there were the obvious physical changes from his "Panther" days with the White Sox. Not even sure what to make of Ivan Rodriguez...I guess he'll make it just based on the defensive impact he made on the game, but how much of his offensive output was HGH/steroids-related? He was in that same clubhouse with Juan Gonzalez and Rafael Palmeiro for many seasons, too.

The Tigers offense against Ponson, Benson, Horacio Ramirez or RA Dickey is a different animal. Wow, that's so sweet!!! Nick Swisher is personally wrapping Xavier Nady in towels to keep him warm on the bench since Nick Wally Pipped his position. FWIW, I think I would rather watch the Hannah Montana movie than see Swisher's mug...and the female Yankees' radio broadcaster has a crush on him already. I wonder how long that love affair will last?

First time we've had two potentially good Venezuelan pitchers in our pipeline since the days of Wilson Alvarez.

There's a rain/weather delay in CLE right now, too. Very convenient, as the Blue Jays just took the lead in the last inning, 4-3, now with one out in the top of the 5th...oh, well. Adam "Chico" Lind already has 3 homers this season. BTW, Asheville is one of the prettiest settings of all minor league baseball...make sure to check out the Biltmore Estate while you're there, too.

Well, the Yankees are roughing up Ponson, and I'm sure Sabathia will beat Horacio Ramirez tomorrow (not to mention that Guillen is now injured)...but if Bannister and Hochevar ever got their heads out of the a--es, they'd be a legitimate contender in our division.

Wise is a bit faster and a better baserunner than BA, but that's it. Powerwise, I guess they're about even...with both striking out a ton and both capable of hitting 22-25 homers if they played everyday...but with a .220-.240 average in all likelihood. Wise doesn't have a bad arm, and BA's a bit overrated (just like Rowand was) in terms of his arm strength, but BA gets the advantage there.

QUOTE (Thunderbolt @ Apr 10, 2009 -> 03:30 PM) Given his track record we could probably screw him out of his best pitching prospect too. Daniels has done a very good job building that offensive juggernaut...although that Michael Young contract will haunt them in the end almost as much as the A-Rod one. Hamilton for Volquez has to be considered "even," but they lost Chris Young and Galarraga too, not to mention the Danks/McCarthy trade.

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/boxscore.jsp?gid=2...texmlb_detmlb_1 Cabrera had 6 RBI's. Of course, Nick Swisher had 5 the other night... The Tigers have gotten excellent pitching from Jackson, Miner and Galarraga today. Porcello pitched very well until he reached the middle innings. I don't think they are going to lay down and die this season by any stretch of the imagination. Swisher had a horrible defensive play in the outfield but the Royals' scorekeeper gave his player a gift double. Indians were up on the Blue Jays but the Jays have rallied for four runs to go up 4-3 in the middle innings against Scott Lewis.

But does that type of pre-game or "in-game" entertainment really constitute "gross negligence"?? Isn't it also the security guards who should be maintaining order in a section? Well, is that realistic? How many times when there has been a historic Sosa, Bonds or McGwire home run ball that anyone could stop a "scrum" from occuring? I worked for a minor league team for two seasons...let's say the "bat race" (when often drunken fans have to put their forehead on a bat, run in a circle 3-5 times and then run for a short distance to the finish line) ended up in an injury? Should that also be banned in minor league stadiums? We had a whirlpool that you could sit in (like AZ)...if a fan suffers a heart attack from using it, is that the club's fault too? I mean, where does it end? If you have to have a heart bypass because you eat churros, nachos and hot dogs 81 days per year at the ballpark, couldn't you sue the White Sox also? What about maple bat manufacturers? Because they're much more likely to break/shatter/helicopter into the stands than any other type of bat, couldn't a fan injured by one of those make a case that these particular bats are "more" dangerous and should be outlawed because of the danger to players and fans alike? How many times have their been lawsuits about smoking and drinking (even with the warning labels)???

Beckham's totals from his Barons debut: 4-for-6 with a double, a bunt single, three runs scored and that final RBI. "Put it somewhere where they weren't," he said of his approach in the final frame. "I was trying to stay easy. I wasn't trying to hit a home run or anything. Really just stay on that ball cause it was a 2-0 changeup and I didn't pull off. That's good hitting. It worked out." Another player making his first appearance in a Barons uniform made his heroics possible. Second baseman C.J. Retherford, batting last in the lineup, homered with two outs in the ninth to tie the game. The 5-foot-10, 185-pounder cranked a 2-2 fastball from Lookouts reliever Brent Leach over the left center field wall to tie the game at 4-4. Birmingham had trailed the whole game until that point. Barons reliever Derek Rodriguez, who struck out Lookouts catcher Lucas May with two outs in the top in the 11th, got the win. Other much-anticipated debuts for Birmingham: >> Third baseman Dayan Viciedo, who last played in the Cuban League from 2005-07, posted a 1-for-5 night with an RBI single and three strikeouts. The 20-year-old, ranked second among all prospects in the organization, hit sixth in the lineup. >> Catcher Tyler Flowers, batting third, went 1-for-4 with an RBI double. The No. 4 prospect in the organization, the 23-year-old was involved in the trade that sent Javier Vazquez to the Atlanta Braves during the offseason. But it was Beckham who attracted the most attention. Batting second in the order, he looked eager to impress in his 15th professional game. Several pitches before he pulled a double down the left-field line in the third for his first hit, the 22-year-old University of Georgia product swung and missed so hard he fell to one knee. In his next two at-bats he singled to left in the fifth and led off the eighth with a bunt single. "It's always nice to start the season in a good way," Beckham said. "It worked out today, but it's a grind. We still got, what, 130 games left?" from bhamnews.com Mr. Beckham is never lacking in confidence, is he? Nice to see. If he keeps this up, he will have a "montage" (too) when he arrives in Chicago. Kind of feel like Frank Thomas got a little short-changed, but the ovation from the crowd that day was genuine and not forced. Cubs fans are already creaming their pants waiting to welcome back Wood and DeRosa this summer.

QUOTE (tommy @ Apr 10, 2009 -> 10:54 AM) Doesn't the back of the ticket say organization is not responsibly of injuries that happen during the game, by baseballs, bats, etc. Wouldn't that be enough to have the case dismissed? That's just the question...is the waiver/disclaimer all-encompassing or "blanketing" to cover in-game activities like this...or someone accidentally getting hurt at the Fundamentals Deck? Do you have to sign a special waiver there? Let's say someone blows out their arm trying to throw 80 MPH on the radar gun, can you then sue the White Sox, or someone has a heart attack from turning on the Sox shower in CF? Or let's say the guy in box seats is really drunk (his vendor didn't cut him off?) and he's hit by a batted or thrown ball and sues the club for not preventing him from getting completely wasted, contributing to his slower reaction time?

It would be like the Adenhart family suing the drunken driver and his insurance company (hopefully he had coverage) for $100 million, projecting that's how much money Nick would have earned for his family had he not been killed at age 22...although I am sure the insurance company involved is probably pretty nervous about just such a lawsuit. If it was just an accident, that's one thing, but the added elements of fleeing the scene and drunk driving push it into another category of actionable offense/cause.

I thought it was going to be a funny one...that Sox fans were suing to get a return of their season ticket checks because KW didn't make a "reasonable" effort to improve the ballclub from 2008 to 2009, especially pertaining to the leadoff position. As far as the lawsuit goes, that's the kind of thing that makes the US so great!!! And why there are no diving boards at hotel pools anymore...isn't there a waiver on the ticket stub that would be a "blanket" coverage to something like that? Certainly, there is for batted or thrown balls or bats flying into the stands. Suing GM now? Get in line there, buddy. I could see the argument if he didn't even get out of his seat, he was sitting down, and a huge pile of people landed on him and broke his neck or paralyzed him from the waist down....it's all about the "reasonable standard of care," did the White Sox knowingly create dangerous or risky situations in the stands by firing t-shirts into them? How would doing that be any more dangerous than going after a ball or bat? I guess because one is deliberate/intentional, the other is random/chance/probability-related and part of the game and "expected," although everyone knows about the t-shirt cannons in MLB parks and minor league stadiums all across the US. If it's becoming too dangerous, they should just hand them out or toss them directly to little children (and hope the adults don't dive over the kids or act like drink a-holes). Obviously they're just looking to make a quick buck, the economy is hurting this guy probably and he said, "Why not sue and see if they can settle out of court?" for $15-50,000? I am not sure what the legal precedent here is in terms of similar situations...the lawyer doesn't strike me as one who actually wants to set a precedent, he just wants his 40-60% cut.

Yes, exactly....851 vs. 745 OPS (Arlington/away games) over the last 3 years for Byrd. I would certainly rather have Byrd than Michael Young, but who would you be willing to give up?? They already have two catchers and KW will hold onto Flowers anyway (his prize possession after Beckham and Viciedo)...so that leaves a package based on Poreda and Shelby, something like that. So do we want to give away someone who could be as good or better than Byrd in the future AND our best pitching prospect? Up to you or KW. My GMJ shoutout was more for the sake of comparison...someone like GMJ or Luis Gonzalez or Brady Anderson, players that were decent/so-so and then just really took off offensively (of course, most players who did that, we can now say with 95% certainty it was chemical improvement) and came into their own. Carlos Pena would be another example, a player who any team in the majors could have picked up multiple times, just like GMJ. But you'd have to admit Byrd, until the last 2-3 seasons, was very much a below-average major league outfielder almost on the verge of being out of the game.

If you ask most baseball scholars and reporters/media, they would take Jim Thome for the Hall of Fame over Edgar Martinez. Having said that, Edgar SHOULD make it, if not on the first ballot, sometime in the next 2-3 years. And Bonds won't ever make it in...in fact, all the inflated HR numbers has made it a bit more difficult for some of the other players who weren't accused of cheating, like a Jeff Bagwell, to make it. It's so difficult to know who was doing what, exactly. At any rate, Edgar was a professional hitter in the same way Harold Baines was, but NOT a slugger. Thome's in a different category.

You can forget about Hamilton or Cruz unless you want to give up one of our Top 3 starting pitchers in return or a huge minor league package that involves 2-3 of our Top 10-15 prospects...Hamilton is probably untouchable. Byrd, maybe...but how much of his offensive output (or Milton Bradley, or Michael Young) is due to playing in Texas? Byrd struggled for many seasons (kind of like GMJ) and then seemed to find himself the last year or so, but that doesn't mean it would automatically translate to USCF. I think we need to wait at least 6-8 weeks to see what we can come up with internally. At that point, some of the teams (like the Padres, Nationals, Blue Jays, Orioles, Mariners, etc.) will be dropping out of their races, suffering lowered attendance/economic problems and looking to dump payroll. Players like Jody Gerut will be available right now, but if we can only hold on til May 15th through June 1st in the ALCD race, then KW will have to leeway/flexibility to make a move hopefully. At least CLE and DET didn't get off to hot starts, we can be thankful for that. If we just take 2/3 from the Twins, we should be in decent shape.