DBAHO

QUOTE(southsideirish @ Aug 24, 2006 -> 10:17 PM) Just curious, but how is is K rate and hitting with RISP? To me it seems like he has been striking out more and hitting worse with RISP. That is just from watching the games and I could be totally off and it is just standing out to me more. Do you know the actual stats? His power has dropped off lately, that is why it is not hard to replace at this moment. On these points; Thome has 17K's in 20 games this month. His highest was 32 in 27 games in May. So that's pretty good I'd say. On his power he only has 3HR's this month. But, he also has 9 doubles, which is 5 higher than his previous best in any other month this season. And his OBP is at .444, 2nd best month of the season. So even though he's not hitting the long-ball as well as he was earlier in the year, he's producing well in other areas this month, which is still very important.

QUOTE(Heads22 @ Aug 24, 2006 -> 10:32 PM) He'll need to find a pitch or two. Yeah he would. And I mean we were talking about this for Neal Cotts a season or 2 ago. Finding good bullpen pieces is hard to do, I think it's more likely if we ever needed another starter, it would come from the minors or outside the organization.

QUOTE(Felix @ Aug 23, 2006 -> 11:16 PM) Because Green sucks and is paid way too much? And besides, would you rather Green replace Jermaine Dye or Paul Konerko right now (unless you wanted to pay around 5-7M for a bench player next season).

Tom's reaction to the news was this;

QUOTE(Chisoxfn @ Aug 23, 2006 -> 10:36 AM) Markakis had a really slow start to the season, but he's kicked some serious butt since than. Him and Brian Anderson have been very similar this season (well not in thier numbers but in when they've hit better). It just shows the kind of patience you need to have with rookie hitters if they don't succeed immediately at the major league level.

Damn looks like I missed all of the fun and went 3-4 months too early.

SnB I am going out on the town Friday Night with a few work mates (I am assuming we'll end up at a strip joint or something). I am just wondering if I should use your methods that you used at the bars or not?

Yes good luck with the moving process there Los.

QUOTE(southsideirish71 @ Aug 23, 2006 -> 12:53 PM) Celtic transfer rumor. Celtic in talks for Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink of PSV. He would help balance the attack up front, and help in Europe. the fee between the teams is agreed on, however Jan wants more money. Vennegoor of Hesselink to Celtic I've heard Portsmouth have pulled out of the race to sign Petrov. I imagine Martin O'Neill and Aston Villa if the Randy Lerner takeover goes ahead, would try and get that $7M pound deal done before the transfer window closes though. Steed Malbranque looks like he's moving from Fulham to West Ham on a 1.5M - 2M deal as well.

Just look at the young core the D-Backs have in their lineup right now (They're kind of my 2nd team since I saw them twice last season, and I love their farm system); C - Estrada 1B - Jackson 2B - Hudson SS - Drew 3B - Tracy LF - Gonzo CF - Byrnes / Young RF - Quentin They did very well to dump Green's contract after the season he's had. Now they can re-invest the $$$ they save into some SP.

I thought the Astros would definitely be interested in him, but they don't like dealing with Bora$$ now after the whole Beltran fiasco. I'd imagine he'll get a very good deal from a team somewhere. Remember that Bora$$ got Maggs a 5 year $75M deal.

So I just want to get a grasp on this here. So far this season Pablo Ozuna has 137 AB's in 61 games. Ryan Sweeney for Charlotte has 421 AB's. That's almost a 3 to 1 ratio of AB's right there. So my point on this whole issue is this. If you're going to use Ryan Sweeney next season, he should play everyday. If he's going to be in a platoon situation, why not just keep Ozuna, who has hit well this season, let Ryan get much more AB's in Charlotte to continue his development, which will help him immensely. I think it's more likely Josh Fields would get used everyday over Sweeney at this stage for next season though.

QUOTE(qwerty @ Aug 23, 2006 -> 06:26 PM) The sox are in the top of the league is many of the major offensive categories. What i put up in bold is just a guess and you have zero facts to back up that claim. Jim thome is still the very least of our problems and will continue to be all year. The sox were not a power offense last year? Is that why they hit over 200 homeruns along to go with one of the highest home run to run ratio in baseball? Hmm... Yeah the offense hasn't been a problem this season at all. It's only been in the last 5 games or so, they haven't particuarly gotten the job done, and since that's fresh in people's minds, people are going to say, it's the long ball or nothing.

From the Trib;

The Trib said that Ricardo Nanita would also be playing.

We drew with Watford 1-1. Very lucky to end up with a point after in the lead up play to our goal, Harewood clearly handballed. Full credit to Watford, they may stay up this season actually.

QUOTE(whitesoxin @ Aug 23, 2006 -> 12:16 PM) I just had some Chips Ahoy! and they were delicious. There was a thread a couple of months back when Balta when to China, and Irish71 and I were describing the food situation in China. Needless to say, I lived off those Chips Ahoy for a few weeks. They are delicious indeed.

QUOTE(tony72 @ Aug 23, 2006 -> 11:54 AM) At least our bullpen can pitch... Like Neal Cotts has for the past few weeks?

Yeah I just think that people are looking for a scapegoat even though we're still well above .500, and in the lead for the Wild - Card. Is it Ozzie's fault our starters have dropped the ball this season?

So I'm assuming he'll never be allowed back into the Playboy Mansion again, much to his digust? Shame how something like this would happen though.

QUOTE(SnB @ Aug 21, 2006 -> 02:12 AM) let's just say......girls with boyfriends, like to lead you on........alot, then drop the just friends line. As some of you on here know, I have had alot of problems with this lately, Just use a little reverse psychology on them next time Steve.

QUOTE(hammerhead johnson @ Aug 22, 2006 -> 03:14 PM) The Blue Jays organization has a "Get with the program or get your effing ass kicked" type feel to it. I think that it's great. They're just trying to weed out the bad element. They're going to have no players to weed out soon enough.

You know how Ozzie gets crucified on here for his in game managerial decisions. Imagine if Terry Francona was our manager instead. There'd be mutiny.

QUOTE(ive stopped believin @ Aug 22, 2006 -> 11:23 PM) Bonser is a right hander Ahh my bad, for some reason, since I heard of him in AAA I always thought of him as a lefty sort of like Buehrle because his stuff isn't great. That actually makes our performance against him even worse.

QUOTE(fathom @ Aug 22, 2006 -> 03:03 PM) Well, that's 4 times now out of our last 5 losses where we tipped our cap to the starting pitcher. Pretty soon, we need our offense to step up and put up some more runs no matter who's on the mound. I think people are worried that we'll continue to play .500 ball the rest of the way (like we've been doing since the ASB), and the Twins will continue to play at such a high rate. Our offense performance against Bernero and Hernandez was pretty much inexcusable. But in the last 4 games we've faced off against Bonser (a lefty, and we've struggled against them this season), Radke, Santana and Verlander. So that 2 SP's who have had very good seasons, one who is rebounding, and then Bonser who I was still dissapointed with our performance against. Hitters like Iguchi (.654 OPS vs. lefties), Anderson (.574 OPS vs. lefties), and Uribe (.679 OPS vs lefties), really do need to step it up against them.