mmmmmbeeer

This is dead wrong. Franklin, Jefferson, etc., including Madison, the author of the constitution, warned us of the evils of a democracy, thus our democratic republic was born. Here's one quote of several from Madison, "Democracies have ever been spectacles of turbulence and contention; have ever been found incompatible with personal security or the rights of property; and have in general been as short in their lives as they have been violent in their death.” As far as the actual point of your post goes, what exactly would sway you to vote for one candidate over another? How do the candidates go about campaigning? Would there be judicial parties? Let me give you my answer...it's a ridiculous idea. Judges SHOULD only have 1 thing to answer to, the constitution. The only reason you feel like you do is because of judges across the nation who have decided to start legislating and recognizing international decisions instead of answering only to the constitution. I'll agree with you on that atleast, I'm fed up with many of the members of our judicial system. I would agree that there should be term limits. Although, I'd rather see term limits put in place on the Congress first.

E-Lo for one looked absolutely exhausted by Sep. of last season. I don't know how he'd hold up in a 4 man rotation. Schoe hasn't pitched 200 innings so that could be interesting. I think Mark and JG could handle it alright. One option would be to go to a 4 man until we are able to pull off a decent trade to fill the hole. I wouldn't agree with a 4 man for the rest of the season, for the reasons Fotop mentioned, but I don't think that as a temporary deal we'd be harming our pitchers. Anything has to be better than what we've been doing this season and last. A decision needs to be made quickly though IMO, one way or the other. I don't think that there are any other holes in our team that are near as glaring as our 5th starter. I can't imagine that KW is worried about anything more than that.

I couldn't vote Tex because I think it depends. Hawk made a nice statement last night about this very thing, he said that once a team finds its stride the manager's job is to step back and let it ride. Now when you say "the team is set" do you mean they've hit their stride or are you just saying the roster is set? IMO, JM had a set team but didn't do anything with it to help them get on a roll, get their heads in the right place, which is very much the manager's job. I'll give OG credit for getting this team where they're at but now they're on their own, until they hit an extended losing streak, at which point it's time for OG to step back in and manage.

And Big Juan is only 24 years old too. We should see him in a Sox uni for a few more years atleast, he's got great potential and it appears that we'll have the opportunity to see it all unfold. Looks like Colorado gave up on a "top prospect" just a tad bit early.

Why would Seattle want Lee or Konerko? Wouldn't the aim of the trade, atleast on their part, be cutting salary? I could understand if they felt they could contend this season and just need a bat to do it, but they can't feel very good about their chances or they wouldn't be trading away their best pitcher. I think we could get Garcia for a couple of prospects and end up paying all/most of his salary.

Was it Pacheco or Diaz that had all those K's in winterball last year?

No s***. Man, that's not cool at all. I just came into work and usually read the boards prior to reading the sports page.

aahhh...what incident are you referring to?

Tough to hit the ball when it rarely goes over the plate.

I used to feel that way. But now his ERA is probably over 6.00. You're closer CANNOT have an ERA over 6. That's not a closer, that's a lucky foooo. He still can't consistently get ahead of hitters, even after his pitching coach and manager drilled it into his head. With his weak fastball he needs to get ahead. I've seen enough. BTW, the team looked shaken while congratulating one another. I think that the team has seen enough too.

I watched the last 5 innings of this game and, as much as I despise the Twinkies, they were robbed a few times by the home plate ump, including the game winner. But hey, I ain't compainin'..... 1stPlace!!!!

Good to see Uribe 6th in the SS ranking. Glad Dransfeldt was playing SS tonight.

With Jose coming back we've got absolutely no use for a minor league player on this team.

I'm with ya. I sub Willie for Dransfeldt and move Uribe to short. Ozzie must make a statement here. There was the non-2B-cover on the steal in the first which turned into a run, the HORRIBLE AB with the bases loaded, and now a 2 run error that turned into 4 runs. OG needs to get E-Lo's back and let him know that that s*** won't stand on this team. BTW, I don't give a f*** that the scrub saved a game for us. That only makes us for one of his errors. H

Did KD forget that Maggs is hitting behind him?

I skipped the ESPN2 broadcast for the Orioles home broadcast. The one dude, I wish I could remember his name, was BK's manager up in Toronto. He seemed to appreciate Ozzie's move not to have anyone up. He was talking about how Billy was just a kind of wild closer, seldom easy, but that Ozzie was just letting Billy know that it was his game, do or die. I remember Oakland fans warning us about Koch's 9th innings when we got him. Seems he's still the same pitcher, minus 5-7MPH velocity. Oh, and CW, man I gotta say that Ainsworth was the luckiest pitcher of the night. Maggs was ROBBED over the wall of a grand salami thanks to Larry Bigbie, in the 2nd I think. That would've been a nice 4 spot to have on the board.

I think these polls are pretty much crap, but nonetheless it's great to the Sox get some due props. http://www.sportsline.com/mlb/story/7303689

I miss the chat today and you guys were talking in depth about a favorite pitcher of mine coming to the Sox? That's my luck.

Mulder please....well s***, Hudson will work too.

give him 6/$90M. He'll pay off with attendance and with a winning baseball team. The Sox could afford him. I think you're right that NY will definitely try to schnag him, especially with B.Williams getting old as hell. I don't know if Beltran will want to play in NY. Also, I think NY would lean towards signing Maggs if both were available. I also don't see Beltran getting more than Vladdy got. He should be on par with Vladdy, but no more.

So you're suggesting that we give him $60M for 4 years so that he plays better and is able to concentrate? Shouldn't a guy making $15M/year be focused all the time, with extremely rare slumps? Here's the best way to handle this. Offer him 4/$48M. If he doesn't like it let him know he's gone at the end of the season and that he better step up his performance if he thinks he's going to do better than our offer. Then, in the offseason, give 4/$60M to Carlos Beltran and we end up with a better team.

Well, I've said a few times that Cotts needs to get the nod but now that DW is actually gone, I'd have to say we go with Diaz. Sure, he's very young, no experience, but he's tearing some s*** up so far this season. I like Cotts in the pen, until next year. If they do pick someone other than Cotts, I really hope that either Ozzie or Coop sit down and explain the situation to Neal so that he doesn't lose any confidence.

Not only did he cost us the game with 6ER in 3IP, but because of those 3IP we just beat the s*** out of the bullpen today. Even without the doubleheader/extra innings, a 3 inning outing will strain a bullpen. The guy needs to go. He looks absolutely HORRIBLE on the mound.

That was pretty much hilarious. It kills me to say that considering it was spawned from a sCrUB fan, but damn, seriously, that s*** was pretty funy.

As a leading sportswriter in Chicago, who also regularly appears on a national sports show, who also has his own radio show on a local sports station, the man does carry some clout. He has faithful fans of his work. People who are new to town recognize his name and therefore read or listen to his bulls***. When arguably the most popular sportsperson in town continuously throws stones at a franchise I find it hard to believe that that doesn't result in a certain negative impression of that franchise amongst the public. That's why we should care. He obviously takes pleasure in knocking this team, this ownership, and the fans. He is no longer neutral, no longer unbiased, he is out to do as much damage as he can. Sox faithful like those of us on this board can't be swayed by his propaganda, casual baseball fans looking for a family outing can. I think that a promotion at the park bashing this guy would be an outstanding promotion. Obviously you wouldn't get him into a dunk booth, but we could have paper shredders at the gates. Bring a Mariotti article, shred it at the gate, and get a free ticket. It would forever label him as a hardcore sCrUBS fan after the media attention the stunt would garner, no longer would he be able to declare himself neutral. Finally, casual baseball fans who find themselves reading his crap, would realize that they are reading an extremely biased opinion.