DBAHO

QUOTE (rangercal @ Mar 31, 2009 -> 12:50 PM) You are not accustomed to following a team where rookies come to die. Did you expect Curry or Chandler to dominate from day one? Rookie bigs take time to develop. Look at Dwight Howard, he's only become a bonafide superstar in what is his 4th season, and a lot of that is due to SVG pushing him a lot harder than Brian Hill ever did. I see a lot of similarities b/w VDN and Brian Hill actually FWIW.

Because there hasn't been an "Adam Russell" or a "Boone Logan" this spring training (unless you consider Randy Williams I guess). It's why someone like Juan Cruz would have been a nice acquisition if you didn't have to give up draft picks for him.

QUOTE (rangercal @ Mar 31, 2009 -> 12:29 PM) Rather than agree with your pre-season concerns, I am going to look at the net results. Playoffs + ROY= he stays. I don't think you should justify keeping a coach just because the #1 draft pick in the NBA wins the ROY award. Should Eric Spoelstra lose his job because Michael Beasley isn't going to win it? Of course not.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Mar 31, 2009 -> 11:03 AM) He's off the clear and the cream, has a bum shoulder and is old. I would love for the Indians to sign him. He is subtraction by addition. I'd imagine that Shin-Soo Choo would be given a starting gig after putting up a .946 OPS in 317 AB's last season. The other spot should be wide open though. The likes of Delucci and Francisco didn't put up OPS's above .800, and they traded Gutierrez to Seattle in the Putz deal IIRC. They could sign Sheffield to platoon with Hafner at DH also.

Seeing him pitch on Saturday, Eggy didn't look too bad in his inning of relief. He got squeezed on the Manny AB, but the main thing for him is to throw strikes obviously as a sinkerball pitcher.

Something must have happened behind the scenes or with Sheffield and Leyland. Either way, I think it shows that Detroit is almost basically committed to rebuilding. As for where Sheffield will end up, he'd actually make sense for a team like Seattle, but then they just signed Griffey Jr. I'm worried the Indians could sign him actually. They need power hitters, and their corner OF's aren't exactly top notch.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Mar 31, 2009 -> 10:45 AM) According to the Trib, Jack Egbert is going to the pen in Charlotte. Interesting. I wonder what they are planning for him? Long reliever? Closer? Middle Relief / Long Relief I would have thought. He could be the first guy who the Sox could turn to if Macdougal sucks again. Also, very happy with the Owens news obviously, as I guess most around here are.

AL East; 1 - Boston 91-71 2 - Tampa Bay - 88-74 3 - New York - 86-76 4 - Toronto - 81-81 5 - Baltimore - 75-87 AL Central; 1 - Minnesota - 83-79 2 - Cleveland - 82-80 3 - Chicago - 81-81 4 - Kansas City - 75-87 5 - Detroit - 69-93 AL West; 1 - Los Angeles - 94-68 2 - Texas - 81-81 3 - Oakland - 76-86 4 - Seattle - 70-92 NL East; 1 - New York - 96-66 2 - Philadelphia - 89-73 3 - Atlanta - 88-74 4 - Florida - 82-80 5 - Washington - 62-100 NL Central; 1 - Chicago - 99-63 2 - Milwaulkee - 82-80 3 - St. Louis - 80-82 4 - Cincinatti - 75-87 5 - Pittsburgh - 74-88 6 - Houston - 68-94 NL West; 1 - Los Angeles - 90-72 2 - Arizona - 86-76 3 - San Francisco - 81-81 4 - Colorado - 78-84 5 - San Diego - 58-104 AL MVP - Mark Teixeira (moving into a ballpark that's favorable for LHH hitters). NL MVP - David Wright (just over Ramirez because the Mets win the NL East). AL Cy Young - Daisuke Matsuzaka (His season last year would have won it if not for Lee). NL Cy Young - Chad Billingsley (Bit of a surprise but I worry about Santana's shoulder a little. Billingsley is an excellent wildcard who's put up a sub 4 ERA in each of his 3 MLB seasons so far). AL Rookie - Matt Wieters NL Rookie - Cameron Maybin First Manager Fired - Cecil Cooper from the Astros.

Colon looked as if he was only going through the motions anyways. Coop said he didn't care about the results either, and it was just about Colon getting the work in. But on yesterday's form (even though he was probably only pitching at about 40-50%), he still has a LONG way to go unfortunately.

QUOTE (JPN366 @ Mar 29, 2009 -> 12:13 PM) Ever met Lucas? He's a nice kid. Jason talked to him quickly on Sunday at the Spring Training, and he did seem like a real nice guy. Hopefully he has an injury free season and does well.

I think the Bulls have the talent to be a top 4 team in teh East next season. If VDN doesn't have them in that spot by the all-star break, then he should be fired IMO. And there are plenty of good coaches out there such as Avery Johnson and Eddie Jordan.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Mar 24, 2009 -> 01:55 PM) I hate to say it, but GMJ is a pretty good fit outside of his contract situation. I disagree. Look at these stats lines from the past 2 seasons. 07 - .252/.323/.419 08 - .242/.319/.357 That's a declining hitter right there. If I was going after an OF from the Angels, I'd go after Willits who you could prob get on the cheap right now.

KW should be talking to Frank Wren from the Braves right now. They have 3 candidates for the CF job, and Gregor Blanco is a guy who could leadoff for the Sox for the next 5 seasons, and he's shown he can get on base at the major league level in his rookie season.

Considering the low interest in the Nats from the people in Washington, if they couldn't sign Strasburg, then I couldn't imagine the ramifications there for that franchise in terms of fan interest.

I'm guessing obviously the Space Needle is the main attraction up there. The Seaport is meant to be pretty good for food also I've heard?

QUOTE (GreenSox @ Mar 24, 2009 -> 10:07 AM) The mistake was the first Swisher trade. Sweeney and Anderson could be platooning in CF and that would be that. Ozzie can't stand called third strikes- of course, if you're going to take walks, you're going to have your share of called 3rd strikes. Guillen didn't like Swisher, so Williams had to get something for him and he did. That's the thing, the Sox want to have more of these OBP guys, and players like Podsednik and Swisher who did get on base, definitely had their share of the called 3rd strike on them. The key is, the Sox need to find good OBP hitters, but not ones with a .240 AVG like Nick Swisher put up last season.

QUOTE (shakes @ Mar 24, 2009 -> 11:50 AM) They're putting a premium on defense at that position, but their defense as a whole could be pretty awful. Getting Teixeira to replace Giambi will certainly improve their infield defense no doubt. If they play Gardner / Swisher / Cabrera more than they played Damon in CF last season, that's probably an upgrade. Losing Abreu and replacing him with Nady in RF should be an upgrade. So I think the Yanks defense will definitely be better than it was last season (and last season it was definitely pretty bad). They're probably mediocreish now though.

QUOTE (lostfan @ Mar 24, 2009 -> 09:46 AM) If Swisher's batting average (and consequently his OBP) was 30 points higher, along with better consistency, he would've been an excellent player to have. I don't get why some here are so down on his CF defense though, he was ok out there. I thought he was ok too (RZR rating wise for 2008 I think he was around the league average IIRC). Really surprised that the Yanks are gonna go with Gardner out there to start the season, but I guess they're putting a premium on defense this season.

QUOTE (Soxbadger @ Mar 23, 2009 -> 04:56 PM) I disagree. The best way for US soccer to grow is to start making deals with South America for talent. If the US could start getting the top 18-19 year olds from Argentina, Brasil, Columbia etc to go to the US instead of Premier/La Liga/ Serie A etc, the league would improve drastically. Eventually the top Euro teams would start having to buy the best players from the US, and then the US can begin to further develop South America. The advantage the US has is it that it can conceivably be part of a league with South America, whereby the South American countries could keep their talent and not have to sell it to Europe. Even a "Premier League" with 8-10 US cities and 6 or so South American cities could really damage the European brand. Imagine the North American league having: LA, NY, Chicago, Mexico City (etc) The South American league having: Buenos Aires, Sao Paulo, Rio De Janiero. If you're say Lionel Messi though as a 17 year old playing for River Plate and you have a choice playing for the NY Red Bulls or Barcelona, which club are you going to choose? That's the problem. And it doesn't help when a great prospect like Jozy Altidore is playing at Villareal now.

I just use BitTorrent the program usually, but it does take up a lot of RAM, so I might switch to one of the other programs that's been mentioned on here.

QUOTE (danman31 @ Mar 20, 2009 -> 03:39 PM) I agree with the first part, but the 2nd needs a lot of change. They already have a CONCACAF Champions League and it runs during the MLS offseason so they aren't going to have any success. The Copa Libertadores isn't that far in, but if those games are going to have meaning good luck finding fans that will go to games in Chicago in late February/early March. On paper it's a good idea, but I don't think it will ever happen. They need to have it during the season then. But soccer is really a winter sport, so they shouldn't have any issues playing right now. I think they definitely need some sort of competition against the best South American Teams though. Or at least a knockout cup or something with a lot of prizemoney.

Am off to the Miami Music Winter Conference tomorrow. Mainly for the Dance / Trance scene.

By July, I think you'll see Getz as the leadoff hitter. It wouldn't surprise me to see Wise leadoff, and then the Sox go to Anderson in CF and move him down the bottom of the order and move Getz up to the leadoff spot. But BA, needs to become a more patient hitter as well I think. But then again, his history shows that the less pitches he's taken in his career over his 4 major league seasons, the more productive of a hitter he's been.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Mar 23, 2009 -> 01:42 PM) Honestly I have no idea how there can be any negative reaction to this signing buying out his arb years, especially from the folks who clammored for us to re-sign Garland. Well I guess the thought is there, if Floyd has a bad year over the next 2 seasons, the Sox could probably be paying him less than what they're paying him with this contract, but then again, if he pitches well, then we're going to be paying less. I like having the cost certainity, but then again, there are risks invovled.

From one of my favorite online publications;