DBAHO

QUOTE(Balta1701 @ Sep 4, 2006 -> 05:31 PM) Without Ortiz and Ramirez, the lineups of both K.C. and Tampa Bay scare me more than that of Boston. Yeah Boston have just been absolutely brutal lately trying to score runs. That said, if our guys come into this series with the mentality "Oh we'll sweep em", we'll lose this series.

She has to go on a diet from one of her messages. "Oh the Humanity".

QUOTE(knightni @ Sep 4, 2006 -> 04:39 PM) Ah yes I do remember that. He will certainly be missed.

Liotta finally had an ok outing. Good to see Zazueta do ok down at Kanny as well. And Gatrell with a good game for B-Ham.

THE Crocodile Hunter, Steve Irwin, is dead. He was killed in a freak accident in Cairns, police sources said. It is understood he was killed by a stingray barb that went through his chest. He was swimming off the Low Isles at Port Douglas filming an underwater documentary and that's when it occured. Ambulance officers confirmed they attended a reef fatality this morning at Batt Reef off Port Douglas.

I'm sorry but this is just stupid logic Ozzie. You played Machowiak earlier in the season because Brian Anderson was hitting terribly, so you were forced into making such a move. We did not trade for Mackowiak to play in CF every 2nd day. Now that BA is hitting, he should be out there in CF every single freakin day, while Macko goes back to his utility role where he backs up at 1B, 3B, LF and RF. You talk about pitching and defense. Well when you have Scott Podsednik and Rob Machowiak as 2/3rd's of you OF defense, well I'm sorry but you are not going to win what that type of defense.

QUOTE(danman31 @ Sep 3, 2006 -> 04:20 PM) Anybody else notice Gartrell in Birmingham? That's one heck of a large jump. Even if it's just for a short period of time, I find it a bit odd. Yeah it certainly is. He must have been impressing in rookie ball, and the Sox just decided to see what he can do in B-Ham for a couple of games. I wouldn't think he would be starting there next season though.

Personally my best case scenario, is to sign 1 year stopgap leadoff hitter for LF, and let Sweeney develop for another season at AAA. We all know he's got a better swing than Brian Anderson, but after see Brian's start to the season, you shouldn't expect Sweeney to hit .270/.280 with a .350 OBP from the get go. But if he gets some AB's now, and produces, well the Sox may decide "we'll give him LF for the next 5 seasons" and trade Pods in the off-season.

There's nothing better to drown your sorrows with than some good quality Belgium Beer.

QUOTE(Flash Tizzle @ Sep 3, 2006 -> 12:43 AM) Sorry, 26. No other counterpoints? I'm shocked, Dbaho. C'mon Flash, it's late, I'm tired, alright what can I come up with here? Well on the minor league level this can possibly be argued, but I would only do it for our pitching prospects. We've got Anderson who has come in, Fields has torn up AAA, and Sweeney has really raised his stock this season, On the major league level guys like Crede have improved, while the Sox brought have brought in the likes of Jermaine Dye for a lot cheaper than Maggs. So how are we going to develop pitching. Well the Sox have actually had some good prospects that aren't with the organization now in Gonzalez, Lumsden etc. So I think they've shown with the vast majority of their earlier picks in the past few seasons that those guys are doing a fairly solid job. Guys like Whisler are finding their feet in AA etc. Well Minny aren't exactly going to go over to their main rival and say "Hey, this is how we drafted Matt Garza at pick #25, and this is why you should have picked them there instead of Broadway". Why are they doing such a great job at it? I dunno, do they have more scouts, better scouts, or more scouts all over the world, and are actually willing to spend money on more prospects than we are? I think the latter point is something we need to address over the next 5-10 seasons, especially in the Latin America Region.

QUOTE(South Side Fireworks Man @ Sep 2, 2006 -> 01:15 PM) He only gave up two earned runs. Yeah the defense behind him in his last few outings hasn't exactly been fantastic. Still we need Jose to turn it around. If he's hurt, he needs to tell the Sox Brass ASAP.

Well let's just hope that Ozzie finally gets it, and we see BA pretty much every game from here on in.

QUOTE(Soxy @ Sep 2, 2006 -> 02:50 AM) 330 calories and 24% of your dv of saturated fat (from McD's website) Yikes. But I'm sure that's part of their "healthier options" menu right?

QUOTE(The Critic @ Sep 3, 2006 -> 12:17 AM) Oh, and I totally agree about the "dry heat" thing. When I visited Phoenix a couple years ago, it was 105 to 110 every day, but I sweated more when I came home to 85 degree heat than I did the entire time in Arizona. Yeah, my experience was the basically the same there. I hate having the heat down here, because usually when you do you'll get a really bad breeze from the ocean, so when you walk outside, you feel like you're in a vacuum basically. 105-110 weather doesn't sound bearable, but it actually is.

QUOTE(Flash Tizzle @ Sep 3, 2006 -> 12:17 AM) 29 other teams don't have this misfortune of facing Minnesota 18 times a season. They're in our division, thus, it'll remain a comparison until we improve. And you better believe I'll be there every step of the way citing Minnesota's pitchers (among others within our division) and comparing them to ours. I absolutely hate this shoulder shrugging, defeatist attitude. Too bad for us if we're not willing to drastically revamp and update whichever dated methods used to evaluate players. As I've mentioned on numerous occasions, we're going to need VAST improvements from our system within the next 5-7 years for any chance of competing. Minnesota and Detroit's pitching is far superior to ours, and won't be going anywhere anytime soon. What I don't understand is how we're willing to assemble an entire team after Minnesota's pitching/defense philosophy, yet we're not willing to mimmick their scouting patterns? What, are we somehow above that? Is there some secret locked within a safe on which qualities they look for in pitchers? Or position players? Except those in our division.

QUOTE(BHAMBARONS @ Sep 2, 2006 -> 05:43 AM) Maricopa in the East Valley about 20 mins from Phoenix, but I have family that lives about 1/2 mile from the stadium and can see it from the upstairs window. Phoenix it self still has a lot of work left but the suburbs are real nice Glendale, Avondale, Chandler, Mesa, Scottsdale are all real nice. Yeah they are just building like crazy over there. Even in areas like Suprise, there was a lot of new housing lots being built etc. I just loved the whole desert scenery and weather over there though. And Phoenix is so wide open as well.

QUOTE(SoxFan101 @ Sep 2, 2006 -> 03:28 PM) lol she is hot but you guys act like she is america's next top model or something like that. There are tons of girls who are as hot as her. Of course most of you wouldnt have a shot with them either Brutally honest there 101. I it.

QUOTE(Flash Tizzle @ Sep 2, 2006 -> 12:29 AM) You know, it'd be really easy if someone merely overpaid for Garcia next offseason. Gave us their best pitching prospect. Some other team always seems to be the benefit of these deals, but never us. Where's the psuedo Kenny Williams willing to overpay out there? We've been having discussions in a couple of threads about a Pods + Garcia + prospect for Jake Peavy type of deal. I doubt Kevin Towers would go for it, but it's definitely worth doing from our end. Otherwise you could simply trade Garcia for say Matt Bush and Cesar Carillo (possibly more wishful thinking from me). But Garcia still has trade value, and teams might bank on him rebounding next season and getting his velocity back. The WBC did him no good and a lot of other pitchers as well.

Have a good one Tex!

QUOTE(kyyle23 @ Sep 1, 2006 -> 10:38 PM) Is Pods still the Sox' player to trade in November, or will he be a FA by then? He'll be arbitration eligible, so we can trade him.

The travel section on my State Paper actually had a review of Chicago, which I thought you guys would be interested in;

QUOTE(Flash Tizzle @ Sep 1, 2006 -> 09:54 PM) So, how exactly will our future rotations match up against those within our division? Looking at what's available now and in the immediate future, convince me we're on a similar level as Minnesota and Detroit. You can't. This is ultimately my concern. Unless we're able to become the fourth team within the division capable of devleoping pitching, we're going to be f***ed for an extended period of time. Ok 5 years from now a future rotation of; Garland Buehrle McCarthy Broadway FA or McCullough You could swap Buehrle with a FA as well. I wouldn't say Cleveland is the greatest at developing pitching (Sowers and Miller are the only 2 guys that stand out for me from their younger guys besides C.C), we're probably the same as them. But Minny and Detroit have done a good job. The thing is for Detroit, the traded for Bonderman and Verlander was a real high pick, so the Sox don't have access to those type of guys. So they have to do their work in the trade market, with there later draft picks, or signing FA's from Latin America. There was an article I read a few weeks back saying how teams like Tampa Bay had signed something like 15 guys from the Dominican Republic or Latin America, just because it's actually pretty cheap to do so. The Sox were below 5 IIRC, so that's something they need to pick up on (and I agree with you there). I'd really like for us to see more of an international presence in terms of having more scouts in that region, or even down here in Australia (which more teams besides Minnesota and Boston are finally doing). But I guess, the Sox Brass have decided, no we'll put the money into the payroll instead to try and win now, and hope we hit on some guys in the draft to try and keep our system looking ok. Long - term I have worries about this strategy just like you Flash, but at least we're in the middle - top 10 tier in terms of Major League Teams that can develop pitching.

QUOTE(Flash Tizzle @ Sep 1, 2006 -> 09:12 PM) I wish Kenny would abandon such deals in the future. Want a front line starter? Develop one. Light a fire under the asses of those supposed "scouts" working in Latin American who haven't done s*** since Ordonez and Lee. See how they perform when there's actual pressure applied from management. I'm not very confident with McCullough/Broadway rounding out a rotation. If those two and McCarthy are future starters, then there damn well better be another stud pitcher. Look at it this way -- how do any of those three match up against their future counterparts in Minnesota and Detroit? I'm not anticipaing any dynasties with such a trio. How many teams can actually develop a front - line starter though? Let's have a look at the aces in the MLB for the teams in 2 A.L Divisions. (I just like having these long winded discussions with ya Flash). AL EAST Baltimore - Eric Bedard. Shown flashes, finally starting to put it together, but really the only good SP the O's have. Boston - Schilling. Traded for. Have Papelbon and Lester (who they're rushing) though. New York - RJ. Traded for. Tampa Bay - Scott Kazmir. Traded for, also developed in D-Rays system, but terrible decision by Fred Wilpon and Jim Duquette. Has arm issues though. Toronto - Roy Halliday. Flat out stud, but really only the top notch starter the Jays have developed in the Riccardi era. AL Central - Chicago - Right now it's probably Garland. Traded for, same as Contreras, while Buehrle was developed in our system. Cleveland - C.C Sabathia. Developed by Cleveland. Have some other okish good young starters, and have Sowers and Miller coming through. Fairly good overall. Detroit - Jeremy Bonderman. Was traded for, but developed nicely. Have Verlander and Miller, plus Humberto Sanchez coming through. Developing some good pitching, going about it the right way. Kansas City - Odalis Perez? The only starter they've developed recently is Zach Greinke and he's back in AA. Minny - Santana. Yes we know all about him, and Liriano. Perfect organization are the Twins. Every other team should follow their blueprint of how to develop good young pitching. So in essence, we're in a division that just has 3 teams that know how to develop good young pitching. But as the teams in the A.L East, it's actually not that easy to do. You just need to have the right plan in terms of your drafts etc. and make sure to develop them properly when they come through. I consider B-Mac to be a future #2-#3 starter, if he can show what he did in the 2nd half of last season. Who knows what Broadway and McCullough will do in the future, it's far too early to say, no they're not good enough to be really good in the MLB.

We should be thanking Jim Hendry for sending the Tiggies Neifi Perez.

Good deal by Epstein. Here's what Sickels said about Kottaras;