TLAK

Did you hear Ozzie on Rooney's pregrame today? Ask about Valeintin's throwing errors he said he told Jose he got 4 RBIs, two for us and two for them.

I don't think Cotts has anything more to learn in the minors. A period, months or a year, of living in the bigs exposed to guys who get big baseball stars out with less talent than he has, and some good outings like today mixed in can do his development a lot of good. After last year's Yankee melt down, and the Anahiem one before, I wouldn't rush him into the rotation. Reminds of a story from years ago, I was in a bunch of meetings with senior VP's who terrified me. During a break I went to the can and the room smelled like a cattle barn. Then one of the most senior VP's emerged from a stall. I realized that their s*** stinks too, and have never been intimidated by big reputations since.

Thank you and Happy Easter to you too. I think Carlos Lee has to stay in the 5 hole to protect Frank, who in turn is protecting Maglio. Moving Lee up probably puts Paul Konerko at 5, unless Paul gets hot for an extended period of time, long enough to change the book on him, everybody will pitch around Thomas and take their chances getting a GDIP. CLee at 5 is a big key to the offense this year.

Agents seize drug-test samples From todays Sun-Times: Federal authorities probing an alleged steroid distribution ring have seized the results and samples of drug tests on selected major league baseball players from a drug-testing lab, a spokesman for the lab said Friday. Internal Revenue Service agents served a search warrant to obtain ''documentation and specimens'' from a Quest Diagnostics lab in Las Vegas, Quest spokesman Gary Samuels said. Samuels would not say whether IRS agents took the drug-test results or specimen of Barry Bonds, but said the agents took materials consistent with a federal subpoena that had sought test results and specimens from the San Francisco Giants' slugger and fewer than a dozen other players. Among them were New York Yankees Gary Sheffield and Jason Giambi. The raid occurred Thursday, shortly after the Major League Baseball Players Association filed a motion in a San Francisco court seeking to quash that subpoena. IRS spokesman Mark Lessler and U.S. Attorney's spokeswoman Ji-Yon Yi both said Friday they could not comment. --- I'm no fan of Barry Bonds* but I wish the Federal law enforcement people would show the same vigor and relentlessness in pursuing Bin-Laden. Perhaps if Barry's family had been business partners with George Bush we would not be hearing about this. Jerry Reinsdorf From the Washington Post, Mar 19: Deputy Mayor Eric Price held up a chart of MLB's last 11 stadium mega-deals, and suggested to the committee that the proper mix had settled at about two-thirds public funding to one-third private -- a deal that would cost the District more than $250 million but also would cost MLB more than $100 million. The reply came with a smile from the committee chairman, Chicago White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf, but it was not taken as a joke. "Two-thirds/one-third is fine," Reinsdorf said, according to two people present. "But three thirds/no thirds is more of what we had in mind." From todays Sun-Times: NOTES: Washington D.C. officials have prepared a new plan they say offers Major League Baseball exactly what it has requested -- 100 percent public financing for a new ballpark if the Expos are moved to the nation's capital. --- A new twist on owners extorting deals from the taxpayers, rather than build it or I'll move its build it or I won't move. Leon Lee hit by exposure charge From todays Sun-Times: Leon Lee, father of Cubs first baseman Derrek Lee, resigned as manager of the Brooklyn Cyclones, the New York Mets' Class A affiliate, after being arrested on two counts of indecent exposure. According to Deputy Debra Wesley of the St. Lucie County (Fla.) sheriff's department, Lee turned himself in Wednesday after posting a $1,000 bond for each count of exposing a sexual organ. The incidents allegedly took place in Port St. Lucie, though it is not known when they happened, the New York Post reported. Leon Lee was the Cubs' Pacific Rim scout from 1998-2002 and signed Hee Seop Choi. Lee, who managed the Orix Blue Wave last season in the Japanese League, was hired by the Mets last month. The team declined to comment. --- Has to be a big shock and distraction to the Grubs latest savior.

CWSGuy406 is right about the pitch count. What the hell is Ozzie trying to prove with Garland's first start of the year? The season lasts 6 months, he's got a guy who hasn't pitched all year in the pen (takatsu) and another one who could use a tune up (Marte) after a disaster. Adkins and Cotts are ready too. After all those early walks Garland wasn't going the distance anyway. I would have pulled him after 6 complete, or about 100 pitches. We need Jon to beat KC! Next week and in August.

I disagree with you. I have MLB audio and listen to many other teams during the year. Rooney is excellent! I like Scully and Ross from the Dodgers (forget Rick Monday), and Joe Buck from the Cards but the rest are all the same bland stuff. I sense Rooney is trying to bring a little more energy into his broadcasts this year and I have no problem with it. I applauded the additional energy he brought to the ALDS for ESPN. Farmer is Farmer, he knows much more about baseball than the sainted idiot Steve Stone (who just chalked up Furcal flubing a routine grounder to youth, the guy is 28 years old). But Ed does get out of whack sometimes, maybe Father Giovinetti from St Rita hit him a couple too many times. I went to Rita too, so I'm prejudiced. Campbell from ESPN is better though. But neither one of these guys will build up a bum to please the office, they pretty much let the game decide. They are my summer companions, I spend many hot evenings with them on the patio listening to and scoring the games. Try scoring a game from Hughes and Santo some time! You can't even tell what inning it is!

I'd like to see someone better then Juan Uribe behind Joe Crede myself. But Uribe is the only guy on the team behind Jose Valentin that can play short. If you trade Kelly for a utiilty then either Juan goes down, or he takes 2B and Harris goes down. I haven't seen enough of either to decide. I think a situational lefty of Wunsch's quality will prove to be a strength in the long run, I'd be escared to go with Marte as the only good lefty in the pen. The next question is when Kelly is ready what pitcher goes down? Is Cotts doing well enough to make Kelly irrevelent and just let Kelly go and plug him in? My take is to let them play a couple weeks and the players themselves will tell you who should be up and who should go down.

Its on now, top of the first.

I don't know what the statue will look like but my choice for a representation would be if old Chas was depicted hanging from a lamp post. This is the guy who drove the 1919 team into accepting bribes to throw the series. The guys were guilty but the motivation was real. He and his family then presided over 40 years of perhaps the worst francise management baseball has ever seen. I would be pleased never to hear the name Comisky again.

Quite a group of guys, we have Bullard teaching his friend Portuguese and Baj teaching little kids everything else. Sounds like a fine circle of friends to be a part of and I wish all of them success.

Perhaps he'll hit number 660* tonight.

Thank you Cheat.

None of the guys we're arguing over really played enough last year for FP and range to be definitive. Corey was tops at 82 games, Aaron started only 39 and Everett 63. I also didn't mention that RF in the National League is always a little lower because they only use 8 Major League hitters, so a CF will get less balls. Further the Grub pitchers got a lot of K's last year which again reduces balls to a CF. But mitigating that, Corey played between two bad corner men, which should have got him more chances. We can go around and around in circles. I didn't see any Grub games except the Sox series (he hit .174 with 5K) and the playoff collapse when he didn't play. So if there is a hidden Corey Patterson, the emerging SuperStar who impresses you so, I may have missed him. Perhaps he plays in the alternate reality that Grub fans live in. All I can go by is the Major Leagues where they write down what you actually did. 4 errors in 156 chances for Corey, 0 in 101 for Aaron and 1 in 138 for Everett.

I love you guys, but you are incredible. Maybe I missunderstood you, a long stretch is less than a month. My bad. You may have had to bench him too. We'll never know. Play him all year this year and let me know how it works out. If Carlos Beltran didn't have the gold glove defense and high stolen base percentage rate he wouldn't be Carlos Beltran, would he? He'd be a Corey Patterson type. Everett fielded .988 with a range of 2.52 in CF (which shocked me, I thought he would be a disaster). I agree Corey's .975 and 1.96 is not equivelent to Carl Everett.

True, but Patterson in 2002 struck out 142 times and hit 14 HRs. Different ratio. Again, you are right, but it's also nice to get a jump on a ball, run a direct route, catch the freaking thing and throw the ball to one one your team-mates instead of the stands. I see Patterson turning into Caudell Washington in drag, the drag part provided by the C on his hat. I respectfully disagree.

Hammer, my friend, you got to start looking things up before you make some of these statements. I guess Magg's .281 in June is one of his couple of bad months. Or perhaps July when he hit freakin .429. While we're at it Maggs had 73 Ks in 606 AB. Corey had 77 in 323 AB. I'll grant you that if Rowand and Patterson switched places I'd try to argue against Aaron, but since I wouldn't have a leg to stand on (no santo pun) I'd keep my mouth shut.

No wonder you guys are in love with the Gubs, you remember everybody hitting 30 points higher than they really did. He hit .298, not .330. He had a hot start but was was going down the tubes and only saved his numbers by getting hurt. Lets talk about his fielding, FP .975 vs the league average of .988. Range f was 1.96 vs 2.50 for the league. Compare to Aaron Rowands 1.000 and 2.54 as a late inning replacement. Superstar in the making? Maybe in Iowa.

Who ever is playing the cubs.

ChiSoxfn had it right.

That's the most lucid and informative baseball article I have read since Dave Nightengale (sp?) covered the White Sox. Great job, I wish the papers and comercial sites would write as well as you. I really mean it.

I noticed in the box score: Can't tell from the box which happened first but I've noticed the Sox pitchers seem to be protecting our side this year. Remember in Grub game when Jackson tried to take out Harris on an inning ending force, then Cotts plunked him next time up. And tuesday AZ hit Rowand, Crede and Gload. I listened to that game and am sure none were intentional but Atkins took out Kata anyway. On the spring the Sox have hit 13 guys and have been hit 11. Last season the Sox got hit 58 times and plunked 53 themselves. Can't read anyone's mind but it seems that Sox pitchers are protecting our own. Wait until we play the Twins.

From mlb.com TUCSON, Ariz. -- The worst-kept secret during the past two weeks of Spring Training for the White Sox was finally revealed Friday. Dan Wright will start 2004 as the team's fifth starter. It's not that the White Sox had made the decision weeks ago and were trying to keep the move under wraps. Manager Ozzie Guillen wanted to give careful deliberation to the important call during his first year in charge and first time handling a pitching staff. But Wright made it almost unnecessary for Guillen and pitching coach Dan Cooper to explore the other options. With injuries to his pitching elbow and right knee fully healed and armed with a delivery that had its mechanics debugged in the offseason, Wright has been dominant since arriving in Arizona. The 26-year-old right-hander cinched the rotation spot with his six-inning effort against the Rockies at Hi Corbett Field, allowing seven hits and two earned runs in a 5-4 victory. Guillen and Cooper told Wright after he left the game that he had earned the fifth starter's job. "Like I said all along, it doesn't really matter," said Wright, who has a 2.87 ERA over 15 2/3 innings this spring. "I just want to be on the team and healthy. I feel like starting is when I'm at my best, but whatever can help the team. "It was their decision and I felt like I've thrown the ball pretty well this spring. I feel good about my mechanics and the way my pitches are working." Wright will make his first start during the second series of the season in New York. He beat out Jason Grilli, Neal Cotts, Jon Rauch and Felix Diaz among the group of contenders who opened Spring Training. Along with this position comes periods of inactivity, with a fifth starter sometimes being skipped due to an off day or rainout. But Wright isn't worried about losing his effectiveness. "You don't always have to get your work in on the mound in a game situation," Wright said. "That's one area where I failed. I didn't do enough work in the bullpen and staying on top of my mechanics (last season). "I have no idea how (Guillen) is going to work that, and to be honest it doesn't really matter. I feel like if I'm in a situation like I was last year, I'll be able to take care of what I need to take care of -- stay in shape and stay with my mechanics and have a good season." Late adjustment: Wright gave up six of his seven hits to Colorado during the first three innings. But he found his changeup in the final three and immediately settled down. "I wasn't getting anything off-speed over for strikes during the first few innings, just my fastball," Wright said. "The guys kind of realized that. But Sandy [Alomar] did a good job calling the game again, as he always does." Alomar, 37, caught all nine innings Friday in 86-degree heat.

I'm trying to help a rabid grub fan pal of mine cope with poor Mark Prior's injury. I thought some information I pulled from the internet would help. Does anybody know what overpronation means? If its like banging off, this guy's a goner. I see high heels can contribute, perhaps Mark should get together with Kerry and pick out some sensible shoes. I hope this comforts by bro.

Cotts is intriguing. From what little we've seen of him, he surely has major league stuff. All that seems to be holding him back is the confidence to use it. In our little snap shot of him he really has never been hit consistently until he quits throwing strikes and is forced to lay it in there deep in the count. So, from a development standpoint, would it be better to have him with the big club, pitching a couple innings a week but exposed to and eating dinner with Major Leaguers like Buerhle etc everyday? Or go to AAA and try to find it on his own? Success in AAA would never convince him he could handle the show. Experiencing the show, taking your victories and lumps and finding that the sun still rises the next morning, might just inure him to the demons and let him just hang it all out. I think if he just throws strikes he will be fine.

This didn't help. Year G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SB CS BB SO BA OBP SLG 2003 49 104 4 22 3 0 2 11 0 1 5 13 .212 .245 .298