cabiness42

This may be just legend, but I'd always heard that Ozzie said, "If AJ is on the other team, you hate him. If he's on your team, you hate him less."

Fan ratio or final score, or both?

That was the impression I got from a friend of my father who was standing within earshot of Kelly when he said, "Tell him to get his a** up there or he's fired"

Nobody is saying that is the standard, but I don't think that beating Tulsa and not causing student deaths are unreasonable standards for the first year.

I guess saying "Tell that kid to get his a** up there or he's fired" could be considered huffing and puffing. It's not like everybody was oblivious to the dangers. People recognized it and made him aware of it, and he chose to risk the kid's life in order to get a better-quality film of a practice. 2-3 turnovers in a 2-game stretch can be a fluke, maybe even 4-5, but 10 turnovers by a variety of players is a sign of poor coaching. Also wondering why the best QB didn't start the first game? Also still waiting for somebody to tell me that the fade route at the end of the Tulsa game was a good idea.

So you're in favor of sending students to their death and in favor of risky passes when you're in chip-shot FG range down by 2 with under a minute left?

Outgaining your opponents by an average of 150+ yards per game, averaging 5 turnovers per game, losing both games, including giving up a winning touchdown after going ahead with 30 seconds left are the very definition of bad coaching. Of course he never should have gotten to this year because he should have been fired on the spot after the Tulsa game last year, not to mention the off-the-field issue of sending a student to his death. The guy who should be Notre Dame's coach has coached a game in ND stadium this month--on the other sideline.

I don't think Texas is going to the Pac 12 nor the Big 10, because they'd have to give up their Longhorn network. I think they'll go the route of BYU and Notre Dame and become a football independent and find a conference home for their other sports. In fact, I could see NBC and Notre Dame expanding their partnership to include the other two and also bring Versus into the mix. I could see it all playing out like this: SEC adds Texas A&M and West Virginia Pac 12 adds Oklahoma and Oklahoma State Big 10 adds Pittsburgh and Rutgers The remnants of the Big 12 and Big East remain as separate conferences for other sports, but merge into a single conference for football.

It correlates to winning games for the Yankees and Red Sox, and perhaps now the Phillies, who can outbid everybody else for the elite talent. It does NOT correlate to winning games for the other teams, because the money that the top 3 spend on elite players cause the next tier of players to get overpaid by the next tier of teams.

To combine a couple different ideas from this thread, how about Rios for Zambrano? How much of Rios' contract would the Sox have to eat to get the Cubs to do that? Not that I like Zambrano, but you're stuck with him for one year instead of three, and a worthless pitcher is easier to hide on your roster than a worthless position player.

I'm still having a hard time with trading Carlos Quentin leading to the Sox being better in 2012. He's one of only two guys who has consistently produced this year. I know that Viciedo is up now, but with Juan Pierre hopefully gone and Morel and Dunn being so bad, there has to be some way to work both into a lineup. I see something more like: DH: Dunn/Quentin platoon LF: Quentin/Lillibridge platoon CF: De Aza/Rios platoon RF: Viciedo 1B: Konerko 2B: Beckham SS: Ramirez 3B: Morel C: AJ/Flowers platoon I also have Dunn and Rios on a short leash, especially if De Aza, Lillibridge, or Flowers hit like they did this year. There is enough flexibility to switch any of those platoon players over to full-time, and I have no problem getting Flowers some DH time if he and AJ are both hitting. Starting pitchers: Buehrle/Danks/Peavy/Sale/Humber Bullpen: Santos/Thornton/Crain/Ohman/Frasor/Stewart/??? So I'm advocating re-signing Buehrle because, like Quentin I don't see how you improve by letting one of your best players go; also re-signing Frasor, and trading Floyd. I don't know if Floyd can get an upgrade at 3B because I'm not sold that Morel will ever hit. Also need a utility IF younger than me, but I haven't really looked at who is available. Yes, this is a high payroll, but not as high as 2011 and All-in is supposed to be for more than one year, right?

Buehrle Danks Sale Floyd Peavy with Humber as long man in the pen to take over when Peavy gets injured. And yes, I know that's 3 lefty starters, but there's no law against that.

Not release waivers, trade waivers. If the Yankees claim him (and they will) and the Sox don't pull him back, the Yankees are on the hook for his salary for the rest of the season, and with the Sox out of contention, there's no good reason not to save that money.

1) Do 10-and-5 rights apply to waiver claims? If not, then the Sox can just dump him and the $2.5M he is owed on the Yankees, who are 100% certain to claim him. 2) Even if the 10-and-5 rights do apply, why would MB turn down a chance to win another World Series, knowing that the likelihood of re-signing with the Sox really doesn't change any because he's on another team for 2 months?

If your backup catcher starts at DH and the catcher gets injured, then you lose your DH for the rest of the game and the pitcher has to hit. This is not the earth-shaking catastrophe that it is often made out to be because: 1) If you are in the latter stages of a game, you can pinch hit for your pitchere 2) Even if this move costs you a game, it is only costing you one game. On the other hand, you are sacrificing potentially dozens of opportunities to improve your lineup in fear of the potential to have it hurt you one time.

I am scheduled travel to Charlottesville Sunday for a work conference. This earthquake was centered about 30 miles away and the hurricane appears to headed there this weekend, so maybe it's me.

My boss was on a videoconference with people in suburban DC and could see the shaking on their end.

Paul Konerko

Paul Konerko

Alex Rios

Juan Pierre

Alexei Ramirez

Questions about the Danks brothers: 1) Does Jordan have a legitimate shot at playing for the Sox in the next few years? 2) If so, does John have some incentive to take less money to play with his brother?

The one thing that Greg Walker and Mark Buehrle being on the same team has deprived us all of is seeing a world record for fewest pitches ever in a 9-inning game.

Don't want that pen too exhausted for the weekend, though.