Kenny Hates Prospects

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ May 11, 2009 -> 11:08 AM) Are you Scott Boras? This sounds like a combination of Tom Cruise's character in Tropic Thunder and Boras, with a little Jerry Maguire thrown in for good measure. LOL Only you would try to categorize that. I'm just sick of our pitching right now minus Danks and Buehrle, and I don't trust anything at Double A or higher, although I do like Harrell. We need to develop some arms before we get back into that pre-midseason 2004 mode where our 5th and sometimes even 4th starters are black holes. Once we hit that basement, it's hard to climb back out. Upchurch is the one guy in our system that I'm very confident in and the fact that I can't track his progress right now while the team is sputtering its ass is making me angry. He needs to get out there and pitch.

Is the Retherford situation basically that he's at 2B to get at-bats with the plan to move him elsewhere later on, or is he actually a 2B prospect now? How is he doing over there? Maybe he becomes kind of like our Blake DeWitt or something, but with a little bit more pop.

It would depend on where the market is at in baseball. If closers aren't getting paid north of $10-12M annually then as much as I love Bobby, there's no way I'd keep him. Also it depends on what Alexei is doing. Nix, Getz, Beckham, Viciedo... all those questions would basically be answered by the end of 2010 as far as who will play where. Some of these guys would get traded. Also there's no way of telling what we'd have in the minors as far as SP, plus other position players that have become surprises. CJ Retherford could end up as a surprise for example, and maybe he pushes someone out of the picture. As for what I'd do, if our record is 82-80 the previous year then there's a very good reason for that. Either some of our young position players are on the verge of becoming busts and would be trade bait, or our starting pitching really sucks. The bullpen would probably be at least mediocre. So, if the young position players aren't doing it and I don't have much of a core, I think about a rebuild. If I have the core of position players however, but no pitching, then I do whatever it takes to get pitching.

Bobby Jenks is better than Ian Kinsler. f*** you Ian Kinsler. I'd very much want you on my team, but b3ecause you are not then that mean you are the enemy. And f*** the Texas Rangers and that stadium you call a stadium, its not even a stadium, theres no f***ing grass there, grass doesnt even grow in that hellhole. And I fony dcare if you Rnagers think you can beat us at home, you only beat our s***ty ass pitchers, not our good one.s. Enjoy Brandon McCarthy.

If you agree then that is cool. Ypou are cool. If you disagree then you suck. Who here supports the Steve n Upchurch cause? The season does not officially start until Steven Upchurch takes the mound. Everything prior to that is just anticipation, mindless, dumb, dull but red hot anticipation. Who here agreees with me? If you don't, and you disagree, then you need to go to hell. Steven Upchurch rules, and he is a freight train that will ram its way through the Sox system as soon as he gets the chance tol. f*** you if you in any way dislike Steven Upchruch. That is all.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ May 9, 2009 -> 12:37 PM) If there was ever a time to market Dye to the Dodgers (and he's a California kid), it would be now. However, it won't happen for 4 reasons: 1) The biggest, KW won't give up on the season in May, and rightfully so 2) A lot of insiders say the Dodgers are actually happy to save $8 million (which they'd then have to pay Dye) and they still believe they will be in first in the NL West when Manny returns on July 3rd 3) There's no place for Dye when Manny returns 4) They still need to see what they can get out of Juan Pierre, who has that ridiculous contract What contending teams could potentially use a RF or 1B I hope it can bring us something but my guess would be Dotel gets shipped before anyone else. Dotel's still a pretty expensive acquisition for many teams, and he's not up there in that "Juan Cruz" territory as a set-up guy. Trading Colon, when/if they do decide they can't legitimately compete this year, makes a lot more sense...in terms of being able to get back a real prospect from a team that's one 4/5 starter away from winning a division. I don't know what you mean by that. Cruz is 3 years younger at 30 than Dotel is, and he has a much more favorable contract, but it's really no contest who has been the better pitcher over his career, and that is Dotel. Cruz: 31-31, 3.95 ERA, 309 G, 528.1 IP, 453 H, 232 ER, 54 HR, 273 BB, 545 K, 14 WP, 7-7 H/9, 0.9 HR/9, 4.7 BB/9, 9.3 K/9, 1.37 WHIP Dotel: 44-36, 3.71 ERA, 511 G, 717.1 IP, 569 H, 296 ER, 92 HR, 319 BB, 877 K, 32 WP, 7.1 H/9, 1.2 HR/9, 4.0 BB/9, 11.0 K/9, 1.24 WHIP And Dotel missed a bunch of time from 2005-2007 after recovering from surgery. If he's pitching those years, then Dotel completely blows Cruz out of the water. Dotel BTW has only spent parts of 2 seasons in the minor leagues after making his MLB debut, and that was during his recovery. OTOH, 2004 and 2009 (so far) are the only years where Cruz hasn't at least gone to the minors in a rehab stint. I don't get the lack of overall respect for Octavio around here. Yes he has his moments, but the guy is about as good as they come as far as setup men go. I'm a big Juan Cruz fan, but to say Octavio isn't in Cruz's category (like he's worthy of having his own category or something) is absurd. This is Dotel's last year here in all likelihood, and trust me, we're all going to miss him once he's gone and we're going to some minor leaguer in the 7th and 8th innings when Linebrink and Thornton can't pitch.

QUOTE (BearSox @ May 9, 2009 -> 08:19 PM) I don't know of a list, but I was planning on coming up with one myself this week if I couldn't find one. The only way we draft someone with Boras as their agent is if it is like the Danks situation last year where we had prior connections and they were planning on firing Boras anyway. Correct me if I'm wrong, but we don't have 1 Boras client on the team, do we? Per Cot's Baseball Contracts, Jenks, Thornton, Wise, Corky, Carrasco, Lillibridge, Getz, and Nix are the only players on this team without agents listed, and I don't think any of those guys have Borass. No one else listed has Borass as his agent. I know Jenks and Thornton don't, so Getz and Nix would be the only other players who would matter if they do. But I doubt those guys have him either, because if they did we'd have probably heard of it by now. It appears Crede was the last one. As for our minor leaguers, I imagine the only ones that might apply would be players like Marquez, Nunez, Gilmore, etc. that we acquired in trades.

I did some googling and found just a little bit about this guy: Full Name: Sergio Morales Born: December 17,1987 in St. Croix, Virgin Islands Height: 6-1 Weight: 190 Bats: Right Throws: Right High School: Hollywood Hills (Hollywood, Florida) "Spartans" College: Broward College Drafted: Selected by Chicago White Sox in 12th Round (375th overall) of 2006 amateur entry draft (June-Reg) Apparently he was also ranked the 25th best prospect in Florida by BA. http://www.minorleaguebaseball.com/news/ar...b&fext=.jsp http://www.baseballamerica.com/blog/draft/?p=28 His minor league career so far: YEAR---CLUB----G------AB----R----H----2B---3B---HR--RBI--SB--CS--BB---K----AVG---OBP----SLG---OPS 2007----Bristol--55-----196---35---53---8-----2----6----24---11---3----14---67---.270---.326---.423---.749 2008----Kanny--112---401----62---90---24---2----6----27---18---2----50---132--.224---.311---.339---.650 2009----Kanny--16-----62-----6----19---4-----3----1----10----3---0-----4----19---.306---.353---.516---.869 Anyone know anything about his defense, range, arm, etc.? He's off to a great start for Kanny, although the K rate is still pretty concerning. It's nice to see that over 40% of his hits so far have gone for extra bases. Hopefully he can keep it going and move up to take Danks' spot once he gets promoted to Birmingham.

QUOTE (BearSox @ May 9, 2009 -> 10:38 AM) I thought so to, but turns out he picked Boras as his agent, so we can kiss that idea goodbye. Ugh. I don't mind the idea of backing off of SOME Borass clients due to demands that are so outrageous that it makes no sense whatsoever to give in, but the lack of negotiation with Borass for ANYONE really pisses me off. Is there a list somewhere online of Borass client draft prospects? I'd like to know who it is I may as well not pay any attention to at all, even if they're projected to go very high and end up falling to the Sox.

QUOTE (SoxFan1 @ May 8, 2009 -> 10:37 PM) The best thing to do right now is probably go completely radical. C Pierzynski 1B Konerko 2B Getz SS Beckham 3B Nix LF Fields CF Ramirez RF Quentin DH Dye We have to play Alexei somewhere simply off what he did last year, but if Nix and Getz both keep playing like they are we can hardly take them out of the lineup. But then again, as a BA fan I really liked the way he was playing before he got hurt, and I think it would be wise to keep him out there to see if he's for real and capable of becoming a .265-.270 hitter with an OBP at .330+. If he can do that then at the very least he'll become a nice trade chip if nothing else. The only way I see us being able to accomplish those things is by trading Dye. L Getz 2B R Nix LF R Quentin RF L Thome DH R Konerko 1B R Fields 3B L AJ C R Ramirez SS R Anderson CF That's not too bad of a lineup and no matter what, that lineup would answer a lot of questions about young players in our lineup. I wouldn't imagine Nix as a LF long term, but putting him out there could help us decide who it is we trade in order to make room for Slayer.

QUOTE (fathom @ May 8, 2009 -> 10:32 PM) Well, it's happened I know, and I'm sure you're right BTW and Richard will be the starter. I don't like it, but it's not like I enjoy watching Count throw batting practice either. I guess it just sucks that we've got all these hitters in our system who are close but no starting pitchers. I made a prediction before the season that this was the year we could end up seeing the Ely, Cassel, Egbert types and for now I'm sticking to it. Please get a starter Kenny.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ May 8, 2009 -> 10:19 PM) DJ Carrasco might be the most logical person to start, but they should PROBABLY first go to Richard or Broadway, because it only makes sense to try pitchers who theoretically could be here the next 2-3 years. We need to replace Jose and probably Colon after this season, so at least two starters are needed. Torres, Van Benschoten, Egbert, Marquez (right now, for sure) and Whisler just don't profile as big league pitchers, but they simply won't bring up Poreda and Beckham and start their arbitration clocks in what could be a lost season. My choice for one spot start would be Omogrosso (he pitched last night for BIRM) and then working long-term to build up the arm strength of Richard and/or Broadway to give one or the other 4-5 consecutive starts to show what they can do. Omogrosso would probably be a better choice to replace Broadway in the bullpen IMO. At least then maybe we'll come up with a guy who can pitch one useful inning here and there instead of a guy we only want to go to if the game is out of hand and we want to save the important members of our staff. I don't like the idea BTW of replacing Contreras with something you know that for the most part isn't going to be any better. I'd rather keep running him out there with the hope he changes things up if we're not going to go outside the organization for either a young guy who profiles as a starter or a healthy veteran with a track record. Edit: I would probably agree with you on Carrasco being the best choice, but if possible I'd rather leave him in his current role. The LR/inning saver type is a very important role in a bullpen when you can find a guy who can keep you in a ballgame. We may have found someone in Carrasco so I'd like to keep him there, especially for the period when the weather really starts warming up and our sluggers can win some 7-6, 8-7, 10-8 type of games for us.

QUOTE (fathom @ May 8, 2009 -> 10:08 PM) Well, he was supposed to be in the starting rotation this year if Contreras/Colon wasn't working. It can't hurt to give him a shot, as we're going to need to find a few starting pitchers for next season. I think most of that was lip service though. There's no way Kenny is going to sign an old Bartolo Colon coming off an injury to block a talented young SP prospect that he feels is ready. He probably got Colon to back up Contreras or something and hoped that he wouldn't have to stick with Marquez and CR/AP for very long if it came to it. Now that Count has blown up, I can see Kenny going to Richard, but I think everyone knows he's not the answer at all as a SP. He's not going to just suddenly develop the repertoire to pitch 5+ innings against Major League hitters over the span of a few starts, and I thought the plan was to put him in the pen, use him sparingly, and have him work on his overall game there. What I'd do is call up the Braves and see what Johnny Morton costs. He's not a world beater, but he's a young guy who is out of the Braves' plans and is posting solid peripherals in Triple A. I'd rather see the Sox target a guy like that and give up a middle of the road prospect or two than run Richard out there, because IMO doing that is basically throwing away games for the Sox as well as risking ruining Richard's confidence. Either do that, or try out another FA like Byrd on an incentive-laden deal and hope to catch not lightning in a bottle, but mediocrity in a bottle.

QUOTE (fathom @ May 8, 2009 -> 09:47 PM) July 1st. This team doesn't seem competitive in far too many games. Put Richard in the starting rotation, play Alexei at either SS or CF, and see what they have. Also, when Anderson is healthy, you absolutely have to give him the chance to prove what he can do. If he reverts back to hitting .235 with terrible ABs, you get rid of him this offseason. Please, please no 300 ABs for Pods this year. Yikes! How about we let the month of May play out first, and then in the mean time we can go out and get somebody who deserves a shot a lot more than Clayton Richard does. If starters were only supposed to last 3IP then Richard might be an All-Star against LH-heavy teams, but since the expectations are beyond that, PLEASE no Richard.

Brian Goodwin sounds like our pick. A lead-off hitting natural CFer with a great attitude who is projected to go late in the first round. This sounds like the guy Kenny and friends were checking out. Goodwin had a very successful summer in which he participated in both the Aflac All-American Classic and the Under Armour Classic, being named the MVP of the Aflac game. Goodwin is the type of player that makes it very obvious when watching him that the game of baseball comes very naturally to him. He does a lot of little things well, and has four legitimate tools, lacking power as the only tool to make him the always coveted five-tool talent. And despite his lack of power, Goodwin will surprise you with his pop from time to time. Most of his power goes to the gaps, and his 6.5 speed allows him to leg out plenty of extra base hits. His bat is made for contact, as he excels at putting the ball in play and going with pitches to drive the ball up the middle and the other way. He is extremely fast out of the box, and gets down the line to first base as a left-handed hitter as well as anyone, allowing him to be a threat on infield grounders and bunt plays. His speed makes him an additional threat on the basepaths, and his overall offensive package profiles perfectly for a leadoff hitting centerfielder. In the outfield he takes good routes on fly balls and has plenty of speed to cover a lot of ground in a hurry. His arm is also a plus tool, and overall he profiles in a very similar fashion to the Pittsburgh Pirates' Andrew McCutchen, or on a more complimentary scale, Kenny Lofton. The icing on the cake is his character, with a great personality and strong leadership qualities. His athleticism and speed allows him to excel in football as well, although his future lies on the baseball diamond. He has committed to North Carolina, a university that has a knack for not letting too many of their recruits slip away, although Goodwin has the talent right now to be considered a legitimate first-rounder.

QUOTE (santo=dorf @ May 6, 2009 -> 01:32 PM) West, Voodoo, PHG and others (most of whom have been banned or left for soxtalk) from 2001-2003: JR is cheap and needs to sell the team KW is a moron who only has a job to boost diversity numbers Ozzie Guillen is a back stabber who spat in the fans' faces during the 1994 strike and had bad things to say about Frank (a still ban worthy offense there) when he left. After 2005 any criticism of KW and or Ozzie was worthy of an insult and/or ban with the usual response of "they have a ring, you don't," and JR is easily the best owner in Chicago history I thought the mods to that site were just fine, in fact I actually liked them and had no problems. The banning would get a little crazy sometimes, but when you see some of the things posters would get banned for you understand why (sometimes). Anyway, they all for the most part seemed cool to me. What got me was one know-it-all poster who seemed to spam everything and the fact that there would always be like 9000 stupid trade threads (which isn't to say trade threads aren't entertaining, but when you think you can get a superstar for a package involving Lance Broadway it gets old). It seemed like there was an influx of posters from the idiot factories that are the MLB forum and the MLB Trade Rumors comment fields or something, and many of the better posters weren't posting anymore, and much of what was left was this weird like kind of fraternizing between posters who weren't funny but thought they were and never seemed to actually discuss baseball. But anyway, as far as some of those opinions you list above, how many Sox fans didn't have similar opinions prior to 2003 when KW and JR really showed the fans they were going for it? That period between the white flag trade and the 2003 season where we made the deals for Bartolo, Everett, Alomar, etc. was really a dark age of fandom IMO, with the only light being the 2000 season which proved to be nothing more than fools gold really. Yes we had a few very good young players, but that pitching staff wasn't going to take us anywhere. Burls and Garland were relievers at the time. I think JR and KW have definitely done enough to redeem themselves. It's easy to say JR is cheap and KW is stupid, but what have JR and KW done since 2002? They went for it all in 2003, then had a good team in '04 prior to the injuries to Frank and Maggs, but still added Freddy and Jose and tried to add Carlos Delgado. Then in '05 they rebuilt much of the team and won a World Series. In 2006 Jerry upped the payroll and they picked up Thome and Javy, then went out and added a very expensive bench to keep the players fresh, and tried many different things to fix the pen including taking on Riske and dealing for MacDougal. From 2007-2009 Kenny has worked to get younger, because he has to, and yes payroll is falling now but that's what happens when you work on building a new core. How many fans in 2007 wanted this whole team blown up? And yet JR didn't pull off another white flag. The Sox gave the biggest money to a pitcher in their history (Buehrle) and then extended Dye and AJ in the midst of their worst season since 1989. And all the fans (including me at the time) who were complaining about not offering a 5th year to Buehrle, well that has proven to be a very wise decision given today's economy in baseball. Overall I think the Sox have done a great job since 2002. They went for it when they thought they had to (2003-2006) and happened to win a WS during that timeframe. 2003 should have been a division title, and in 2004 we would have had enough if Maggs and Frank didn't go down. 2006 should have been a division title as well. Every year from 2003-2006 I thought we had a very realistic chance of winning the division and perhaps going further. Then we start building a new core and we win a division in 2008 after losing 90 games the previous year which is a direct tribute to JR for NOT blowing it up in 2007 as we don't win jack s*** without Burls and JD. And still this year, we've got a chance at the division so far, and we've addressed the minor league system so that if things do go south in a hurry there's at least something to hope for in 2010. Just imagine what Sox fans would do if we traded away Johan Santana, or let Torii Hunter walk without getting anything for him, or if we kept getting to the playoffs but didn't go anywhere because we couldn't sign anyone better than Ramon Ortiz. Image how Sox fans would feel if we had Sabathia and dealt him away, and if we had to deal with busts like Andy Marte and Adam Miller, while having to watch Kerry Wood get hurt and Joe freaking Borowski blow games. What would Sox fans think if they didn't have such a "cheap" owner and instead gave out contracts to the likes of Gary Sheffield, Dontrelle Willis, Nate Robertson, Brandon Inge and company? s***, how would we feel if we were actually Kansas City Royals fans? Or what about the Orioles? Or the A's constant rebuilding state? Or the f***ing Mariners of the past several years? Or Tampa Bay, who has tons of talent, just went to the Series, but is now losing again and will soon be on the verge of losing players to free agency? How about Texas? I wonder how Blue Jays fans feel about all the good-but-not-great teams and the s***load of bad contracts they have? Personally, when I look around the American League, the only teams that have had it as good or better than Sox fans in recent years are the Angels, the Yankees, and the Red Sox. Anyone still b****ing about KW and JR is ignorant of the plight of many other disgusted baseball fans around the country. In the last 6 seasons, the Sox have 2 divisional titles, 1 WS title, and 3 of those other teams were contenders that fell apart due to circumstances generally outside of KW's and JR's hands. We're in a great position for the future considering the talent on the farm and all the money coming off the books over the next two years, and that's not something you can say for a lot of teams, especially those who have had success in recent years. Usually you can't have your cake and eat it too, but the Sox fortunately are in a good position for the future AND have had contending seasons to look forward to in the recent past and currently.

QUOTE (WhiteSoxfan1986 @ May 6, 2009 -> 08:49 PM) This sucks. Yea, let's give up my number to a s***ty player who should be our 4th outfielder soon. I would be extremely pissed if I bought a Fields jersey. That's the key word, and I'm still not counting on it. BA = Bench Assistant. Go get my gatorade, get a number from one of your hunnies for me, suck pudding off my toes, that sort of thing.

I highly doubt the Sox or anyone else is going to offer arb to Contreras, so expect something close or maybe possibly better than what we received in the Iguchi deal (Dubee) for him if he's even movable at all. Thome is not getting offered arb by anyone either, so expect another Jeff Marquez/Brent Lillibridge type of haul there, i.e. a formerly highly touted prospect who has fallen out of favor, but not a former stud prospect who has fallen out of favor like Floyd was. Dye could however bring something decent if he's tearing it up and we can deal him to a team that has enough money and a big enough need to exercise his 2010 team option. If that's the case, a Dye deal becomes more than a rental because in this climate it's almost guaranteed that JD will exercise his player option wherever he ends up. Still, the names mentioned in this thread for the most part are way, way off base as far as a potential return. If we want someone like CarGon we're going to have to give up a hell of a lot more than a few veterans in their mid-to-late 30's. Dotel should bring the most of this group and it is possible that someone would offer him arbitration looking to retain him as a closer, although that's still unlikely IMO. But that said, there's always a gigantic need for relievers and if we do the scouting, we can very easily end up with another Kyle Davies type deal that the Royals pulled off, or if we're really lucky, we can end up with a deal like Texas got for Gagne, which I believe was a potential LR/innings eater in Kason Gabbard, a good cheap 4th OF in David Murphy, and future stud prospect Engle Beltre. IF there is a firesale this year, the biggest piece might actually end up being Colon. If he is healthy and pitching effectively, at his salary he's sure to command heavy interest, and we'd be in a good position because he'll be arb-eligible and thusly easy to retain on a one year deal or else worth a prospect. Other names of interest could be: Getz/Nix if the Sox want to bring up Beckham Bobby Jenks - doubt the Sox would move him PK - maybe to the Angels finally if Morales is still struggling? Thornton - makes almost no sense to move given his salary, unless the Sox are totally bowled over Carrasco - given what little he'd bring there's not much reason to move him and further injure the pen Betemit *Edit: Basically what I'm saying is that if we did have a firesale and we traded Count, Dye, and Thome, we could easily end up with a combined talent level equal to that of the second Swisher deal. Not very exciting.

Nathan Jones goes 1 inning, gives up 3 earned runs, and still earns a hold. What a ridiculous stat. BTW, where the hell is Jose Martinez? Is he still in extended ST? He didn't get hurt again did he?

Games like these aren't worth much discussion. It's more appropriate to pick something up and throw it - that is unless you're Lance Broadway, and you happen to pick up a baseball.

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ May 5, 2009 -> 09:54 PM) Absolutely terrible comparison. I dare you to name 2 guys in the last 15 years to play less than 40 games in the minors that got called up and had an immediate impact. That's a great point, but I do think Beckham can hit a little bit in the Majors right now. The issue here is both, how is he going to play SS at the MLB level, and why would we bring him up just to tread water? I believe that if it was a situation where it's midseason and we're 3-4 games ahead in the divisional race, then maybe we go to Beckham if we think he'll help us run away with it. But as much as I would love to see Beckham play all the time, right now really isn't the time. We've got a lot of issues other than the fact Alexei isn't hitting. Also, before anyone jumps off the ledge consider this: we're relying on a lot of sub-par or very sub-par offensive baseball players at the moment, and the front of our pen is still in shambles. Our 4 and 5 starters are expected to be questionable at best as long as they last. Yet, we're still not on the verge of tanking it. Every other team in this division also has a myriad of issues, and even though I expect this stuff to go on all year, maybe we can come up with another reliever to help stabilize the pen as well as get a few guys healthy, and that in turn gives us enough of a lift to stay in the thick of contention all season long.

QUOTE (Kalapse @ May 1, 2009 -> 02:33 PM) Well, obviously I'm talking about weak, playable flyballs, they have to stay out of those f***ing jet streams. This team will kill you with ground balls and I'm still not entirely comfortable with Alexei as a SS, if they're keeping the ball in the park but working the gaps then we're in trouble. There could be more than a few triples in this series. Yeah, weak flyballs would be ideal if they're not sky high, but realistically I think we're screwed no matter what. We're going to need to get the bats very hot to take this series. I'd rather play anywhere in the world but Texas, even the dome in Minny. No park is less baseball-friendly than the one in Arlington. It's hard to watch a series there and think, "yeah, that was baseball."

QUOTE (Kalapse @ May 1, 2009 -> 01:36 PM) There's no reason not to just like there's no reason to believe he'll do much of anything at the plate or in the field except for, you know: blind faith and the undying magic of the 2005 season. I also think he could start out semi-hot just to spite me, which I'd like very much. I just hope the Rangers are pull happy this weekend with lots of high fly balls to the corners. I don't hope that because the ball flies out of that park especially to the corners. The Sox need to throw as many groundballs as possible and hope to God they're hit right at someone. This is going to be a very high scoring series. I'd put the over/under on runs in this 3 game series at 36 combined, and I'd take the over. BTW I'd much rather have Lillibridge out in CF instead of Pods. We're back to the same old argument of whether you'd rather have a bad hitting CF who can't play the position or an even worse hitting CF who can play the position, and I'm always going to go with the defense there.

Bowling gets the promotion then? I can't imagine it's anyone significant.

Jose Canseco is going to be competing in an open weight GP for Japanese mixed martial arts organization Dream on May 26. It'll be on HDNet if you'd like to see him get his ass beat severely. http://www.mmaweekly.com/absolutenm/templa...5&zoneid=13 His opponent is Korean Choi Hong-Man who is this gigantic 7 foot kickboxer who pretty much sucks as a legitimate HW fighter but is very capable of delivering a serious beatdown on Jose Canseco. Knowing it is Japan, a work cannot be out of the question, but I doubt that will be the case considering the amount of US interest this should draw. Choi actually rocked Fedor briefly so if you know who that is, you can just imagine what he's going to do to Canseco...