baggio202

ill give you my take on olivo.. alot of good and bad...alot of oddities with him.. the good...runs extremely well for a catcher...playing in your ballpark and the way he hits (alot of gappers) it wouldnt surprise me if he led or was close to the team lead in triples...has a real live bat...when he makes contact (which isnt often enough imo) the ball really jumps off his bat...his arm strength is outstanding as is his footwork behind homeplate..does a good job of throwing back to a base after a pitch which helps shorten baserunners secondary lead...when he is on his game defensively he can shut down any teams running game..good bunter too the bad...i guess like the catcher you sent us , olivo is not known as a good game caller...his playing time has been reduced to catching just 2 pitchers because there were complaints by the other pitchers (buehrle was one i believe - cant remember the other) that they didnt like working with olivo...while he has a cannon for an arm its pretty erratic...also he gets lazy behind the plate when blocking pitches in the dirt...he likes to try backhand them instead of moving his body and using his chest to block them...this ,imo,is why pitchers were getting fed up with him...its hard to throw breaking balls to him with runner's on base...he could become a great defensive catcher but he has alot of maturing to do....offensively he streaky..he can go in long funks...some of the stuff he swings at when he is going bad just has me shaking my head...he will swing at a pitch in the dirt and he will be swinging like its a high fastball...im thinking , doeshe even have his eyes open...that also happens to him behind the plate...a pitch will be high and inside and he has his glove low and away and you see the umpire backing away trying not get hit as the ball flies to the backstop...i honestly wonder if there is something wrong with his vision... all in all...he has alot of talent and has skills that most catchers dont have(speed - ability to play small ball)..but he doesnt seem to be maturing at a fast rate... as for reed...well i havent seen him so i wont comment on his individual skills but ill comment on our minor league organization...i dont know what it is but we have had alot of everyday players come through with tremendous hype in the past few years and all have been disappointing....joe borchard was compared through the minors to adam dunn...dunn is a year younger than borchard and already has close to 100 career homers and an all star appearance...borchard is still in triple A...joe crede was suppose to arrive in '01...didnt get here until '03 and while he hasnt played bad..he was suppose to be the next scott rolen and so far thats not the case...he's not a bust but back in '01 by now we would have had pegged as an all star..his development is pretty slow...those are the two big names in the org the past few years...other have disappointed tooif you look at our line up all the main stays got here in the last millenium... so i wonder if reed will be another thats all hype..after hitting well over 300 last year and being named player of the year he's hitting 275 with 8 homers playing in charlotte..a hitters paradise.. as for morse..we just got him in a trade..dont know anything about him

both ryan and clinton made the fatal mistaked that ruined both of them...they lied about their skeletons...ryan was asked by the GOP if there was anything in his divorce that could be used against him...he said no..nothing...wrong answer clinton looked at all of us right on TV and said..i did not have see with that woman..the policy problems created by clinton's lying was the next time if he was telling the truth about a legitimate political concern , who could anyone believe him???..no credibility means no ability to lead.. no one really cares that ryan has a kinky side...but when you lie about it..you gotta wonder what else is hiding and just how big a closet are we talking about.. dont want your life under a microscope then dont run for public office..its really that simple and steff...if ryan had any concern for his children's mental health and knowing what was in those documents he would have never ran for office..he put power and fame over his children's well being...

hopefully pollitte can keep it up...he still scares me everytime he comes in a game though...probably because i see alot of billy botch in the way he pitches...though he is by far better than botch i dont need the flashbacks

nice to see jose getting alot of love here...great post

if we did get cabrera we could resign jose to play 3rd base...most power hitting SS when the get in their mid 30's usually move to 3rd base anyways to extend their careers...that would mean giving up on crede...so if KW did make this move that would , imo , signify the end of the crede era... uribe , cabrera , valentin from 2nd to 3rd...not a bad infield...but i dont think it will happen..it doesnt really address the concerns of this team this year..in the off season cabrera could be a FA option..especially if we could get something good for crede in a trade..but not now but anything can happens with the expos..

every politicans life needs to be an open book..we have the right to what kind of people are serving us at the federal state and local levels...if you cant handle that then politics is not the line of work for you... funny thing about ryan...if he just came forward with what was in his past at the beginning of the primaries..admitting he screwed up and asking the people of illinois to forgive him , he's probably today in the process of a close fight with obama..but he didnt have the guts to do the right thing and he paid for it... when i heard what he was trying to keep a secret the first thing i thought of was the same thing i thought about clinton...if he'd hide something like this..taking his wife to a few sex clubs (or clinton's affairs) then what else is he hiding that could really make a difference in our lives ..plus for ryan , if he had anything else in his past that someone found out about they could use as blackmail to ensure his vote on issue concerning them...his credibility is shot... thats why every politican has to be willing to have their life , the good and the bad , out in the open for the public to see...cant have secrets in todays world..someone will find them out and use them to their advantage..and to the people being represented disadvantage

since the expos are owned by MLB and selig and reinsdorf are like best friends there is always a chance we could have an inside track to any deal involving the expos...i remember when their GM, minaya , came out and said that the white sox would be given a chance to top any offer that was made to the expos...thats kinda how we ended up with colon.. so any trade talk involving the expos is a possibility

bingo!!

we "should" have been winning the division every year since the '00 season...we are in the weakest division in baseball by far...we have ,i believe , the highest payroll within the division and are the only major market team we have been a huge failure the past three years..lets hope we finally got it right

thats why i said he wont even get a look..but a few years ago didnt the AL take like 5 SS to the all star game...nomar , jeter , arod , vizquel and tejada???

if you guys think the cell is bad..try riding the metra trains at night back to the suburbs...omg...some of the most disgusting individuals on this planet...we went to the sox braves game saturday night a few weeks ago..had a great time with the kids...we took the train back to elk grove and omg..the behavior of some of the people just was sickening...people drunk off their butts dropping "f'' bombs everywhere..so pycho woman who was celebrating her 46 th birthday , looking more like 66 decided to take off her shirt and run around the train topless ..of course all the drunks were making all kinds of jokes like , hey i cant tell if those are her breasts or her knees....and she was so drunk she didnt even realize everyone was making fun of her...sad thing was she had her 23 year old daughter with her..felt bad for the poor conductor trying to remove her from the train (lol) i figured confronting these people was futile so i used the time to show my sons how out of control alcohol and how stupid alcohol can make you act if you abuse it...i asked my sons if they saw their mother acting like that one woman was how would they feel???....i believe thats a much better way to handle those kinds of situations then telling a bunch of drunks to shut up and quit swearing because you have kids present....at best they will just laugh you off and make fun of you in foront of your kids...then you have to deal with your kids watching you being insulted and seeing how you handle it...and that situation , especially for guys could lead to them starting a fight because they dont want to look whimpy in front of the kids...and is that the image you want your kids to see of you??? and at worst you get what happens to the cop at the cell...you get jumped by 2 or more drunks and your kids get to watch you get pummeled..scaring them pretty bad...

i think jose is deserving od an all star spot this year..of course he wont even be considered but...he deserves it

hey cw...thanks for the wb..im doing good.. doesnt surprise that washington fans would pick oregon as having the worst fans...washington and oregon just hate each other...something wierd about seattle...people there in general have a very depressing attitude towards life...when visiting ive found them to be very unfriendly...even in resturants where you have people whose income depends on being nice to earn tips have this depressing personality...i saw a stat in newsweek (i think it was) a few months ago and it listed seattle as the number one city for suicide...that didnt surprise me at all...would have been my first guess...guess its all the rain?? the band nirvanna , and that whole grunge attitude that originated in seattle , are perfect examples of the attitude of that city in general

im an oregon state alum...and oregon state is very similiar to the white sox...university of oregon is only 45 minutes away so there is no real geographical difference seperating the two teams fans...oregon state is a much smaller school than U of O and the fan base is probably the same ratio as cub fans to sox fans...we are outnumbered big time...even in towns bordering corvallis you'll find more duck fans than beavers... oregon state also holds the record for consecutive losing season...30 years in a row until dennis erickson showed up...and we only got him as a coach because he was planning on retiring in the corvallis area and this was suppose to be his last job...oregon state paid its last coach before erickson, jerry pettibone , 100k a year..compare that to big names of the pac 10 making 3 and 4 million a year...we suffer through alot of 1-10 seasons...year in and year out we just cant compete in the pac-10...s btw..classless fans arnt limited to teams with losing programs who all of a sudden find themselves winning...so cal won the pac -10 championship in 96 (i think it was) at OSU and their fans were down right ignorant..constantly making jokes about all the dumb hicks they had to put up with coming up to corvallis...and washington husky fans..omg..i could right a book on those guys...

how the hell does billy koch stay in the majors???...any other pitcher pitching as poorly the last 2 years would have found himself on the schaumburg flyers or some other po dunk independant league team

finley would be a great fit if arizona would move him...gotta figure they are going to have a fire sale soon...finley is 39 and with 19 - 40 .305 numbers has to be the first guy on the block...it would cost alot and at his age alot of fans would wonder if its worth it...but if we are trying to win it all this year who cares if he is 40 next year???...finley could really solidify this teams chances in october..probably cost rowand and a top pitching prospect ..perhaps rowand and cotts

good catch...cutting off the top of the upper deck and opening up the back wall has led to sdox park going from a balanced place to pitch to a hitter's paradise...look at the number of homers runs per innings pitch all of our pitcher have given up...now look at how many newcomer freddie garcia has given up all year...its laughable ,the difference...almost all our pitchers, except for a few in the pen are giving up homers at a rate of about 15 -20% per innings pitched...freddie garcia is under 10%...and he is a power pitcher..not a sinker ball pitcher

my son and i have been fooling around in the backyard trying to throw like takatsu..and surprisingly my son , who is 14 has been throwing the ball real well that way... one thing i noticed when you drop down like takatsu you get a lot of underspin on the ball along with throwing it on an upward plane...making the ball rise...giving it the frisbee effect...a couple of times when my son really gets it right ill go to catch it and it will go right over the top of my glove and hit me in the stomach (thank god it didnt sink a little )...it really does rise some...just like a frisbee try it out for yourself..it really isnt that hard to learn...you can make the ball do some funny stuff throwing that way

its not like takatsu is the first pitcher to throw this style...dan quisenberry and kent tekulve both threw exactly like takatsu and both were sucessful closers for years..chad bradford has been pretty sucessful in oakland the last 3 years as their set up man... takatsu has been pitching long enough to know he has to vary his patterns regularly to keep hitters off balance...and while im sure he wont carry an era under one all season long, he's not going to implode either..he'll be fine...its the rest of the pen i worry about

buehrle should be the least of our concerns..so he is going through a rough stretch (tonight withstanding)...he's proven in the past that he will turn it around... 61-37 in his career at age 25...whats to complain about??

thanks guys

shouldnt one of his teams actually have to win the weakest division in baseball before we even consider calling him the best GM in baseball?? i agree that the garcia is the best move he has ever made for this team...we didnt go cheap..we didnt make a move for a guy that over 35 and declining or a guy thats trying to rebuild his career after a long stint on the DL...we finally went away from trying to catch lightning in a bottle and went after the best available player at the position we needed to fill... but one trade doesnt make a break a GM...the key is putting together 3 or 4 deals in a row that each improve weaknesses in your team..or in some cases not pulling the trigger on a deal that might actually weaken your team...this has always been KW's downfall...he will make a series of moves where some are for winning now and some are for the future..and in the end we finish 4 games out of first scratching our heads wondering what the hell happened... if KW doesnt follow this trade with two more sucessful trades (minimum) we will fall short again..we need an everyday left handed power hitter to go with jose or in the playoffs (if we make it that far) i think we could be looking at a '00 repeat...we also need another quality arm in the bullpen since its pretty weak after takatsu imo.. can KW pull off two more winners this year??...or will we again fall short again???

thanks greg...its good to be back !!

hey guys...first post in a long time..finally got my computer fixed...good to be back to trade valentin right now would be nuts...he's the only left handed power hitter in the everyday line up...his clutch hitting and leadership are setting the tone for the success so far... when maggs comes back valentin plays SS...as long as uribe is hitting he'll continue to be an everyday player..mainly at 2nd base...figure timop and rowand will split time in CF...if crede or val need a rest harris plays 2nd and uribe plays their position....he can spell uribe at 2nd and get a few starts in CF too... as for uribe...he's been a 240 or so hitter all his career...either one of two have happened..he's either matured as a hitter after 4 years in the bigs and will be a better than average player or american league pitchers havent really figured him out yet....if its the former he'll hit 290 -300 this year..if its the latter look for a 2nd half tailspin and he'll finish up around 250-260...time will tell...but if he slumps harris will take over at 2nd base and uribe will resume the utility infielder role he was hired for in the first place...

is there a trend here??..the sox lost last year not because they wernt good enough but because of jerry manuel.....the bears wernt good enough not because of talent but becasue of shoop and i guess jauron..now both teams have rookie head bosses that will most assurdly make rookie mistakes that will cost games...of course they will get blamed too.. neithr team, sox or bears , have the talent to be real contenders...they can sneek up on people every once in a while..might happen this year with one or both of them...but niether team as constructed from front office on down will be a perennial playoff team