DBAHO

How huge is that play going to be in our season possibly. OMFG.

Ross Gload goes YARD BABY!!!!!!!!!!

Anyone just get the feeling, the D-Rays may just cut their losses with him soon, and trade him for another really top notch prospect?

The Newark Stark Ledger pretty much repeats my message;

QUOTE(BigSqwert @ Jul 29, 2006 -> 12:00 AM) For real. At least the Angels were smart enough to finally pick little Weaver over the awful older brother. Looks like we will continue to be stubborn and keep going with the guy making the big bucks. Well it doesn't help when you owe that veteran guy about $10M next season (Garcia) or a multi-year deal into the future with Vazquez. Weaver only had a 1 year deal so it wasn't really a hard decision to cut him loose. QUOTE(iamshack @ Jul 29, 2006 -> 12:04 AM) I think we might see Brandon move into the starting rotation very soon... I wonder if Beane would be willing to talk Broadway and Haeger? Think he would want a top notch prospect as a minimum. Broadway's probably a mid rotation starter at best, and nobody knows what Haeger is going to do in the future.

QUOTE(rangercal @ Jul 28, 2006 -> 04:56 PM) perhaps you want to go back to square one. Let's bring the 2003-04 style of play back. That will work. Unless you want Carlos Lee to become our leadoff hitter instead of Soriano all of a sudden.

Maybe this will force Bowden to drop his asking price a little, as other teams may tell him unless that's the case, we'll go out and acquire Carlos Lee instead.

Man Yoo went out and signed Michael Carrick for $17M. Definitely a huge overpayment, but I won't be complaining as West Ham will get 15 or 20% of that transfer fee from a sell on clause. QUOTE(sayitaintso @ Jul 28, 2006 -> 01:49 PM) WEST HAM!!!! Nice to see a fellow Hammers supporter here.

QUOTE(Hangar18 @ Jul 28, 2006 -> 12:02 AM) yeah, but the SOX had a humoungous lead, and Cleveland had to play like .800 ball the rest of the way to catch us. They nearly did it. That and the fact that the Twinks/Tigers/Royals were non-factors. The Twinks are in this thing now, and I said the TWINKS are going to determine who wins this division. Theyve answered 1/2 the question by SWEEPING US, if they lay down against the Tigers, we know who the division winner is. The SOX have to start Sweeping people and running off 15 of 18 if they want to get back in this. The Bullpen is going to have to shoulder alot of this burden the next few weeks. That Yankee series was so important, because us laying down in NY set up the Sox-must-sweep-Tigers to regain what they lost scenario. Yeah, your right you cant write anyone off but the SOX have allowed too many other variables to enter the equation now. We had a 15 game lead at about August 1 right (correct me if I'm wrong with the date there). The Tribe went 19 - 8 in August and 19 - 8 in September, totalling 38-16 for those 2 months, that's about .700 ball right? And no I don't think we have to win 15 of our next 18 to win this wild card. So long as we play +.500 ball in that series, we'll still have a fairly good chance of getting a wild card spot. The Twins can't keep playing as good as they have recently for the rest of the season.

Let's see if I can get this to work (screw it here's the link); http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FbFVBiGuQlU

QUOTE(Hangar18 @ Jul 27, 2006 -> 11:50 PM) Teams rarely comeback after being on the bottom of the pile. Well they certainly did last season when Cleveland almost caught up to them, hence why no-one IMHO should be giving up on this team at all.

No I don't think he has. And I think we should be thankful that Ozzie is actually our manager instead of someone like Jerry Manuel who we've experienced before.

Mack's an extremely streaky hitter. I think if you put him in the lineup everyday, he would get caught out, and go into one of those slumps soon enough. He's at his most effective with what he's doing now, playing a couple of days a week with favorable matchups. It may be time to give him an extra game or 2 instead of Pods though, with the way he has been hitting.

I still have faith we'll get the wild card, but it's not going to be easy, but that doesn't mean we should all start walking the plank and give up on this team. Just look at Minnesota and how quickly this game can change. The start of the season the way they played, they probably would have been happy to just get to .500, and now they're are probably favorites for the Wild Card. Hopefully our players have learnt in the last 2 weeks that you can't take anything for granted in this game, and you need to go out there and perform every single day.

QUOTE(JimH @ Jul 27, 2006 -> 11:31 PM) Buehrle's and Vazquez's confidence is wavering, it's not anything the manager has done though, it's their own poor execution and bad pitching. If anything, Guillen has tried to enhance their confidence by showing faith in them. Not sure why that's hard to understand. I do agree with you that a 15 day DL stint might not be the worst idea for Buehrle and possibly Garcia. How do you think Vazquez would feel if Ozzie started pulling him out about 5 innings for every game for the rest of this season? All of a sudden he'll get this reputation around the league, and his trade value would decrease I would say. Like you said Jim, Ozzie is putting faith in him to get the job done, now it's time for Javy to repay the faith.

You know I love these little minor league conversations we have b/w each other Flash. I'll make some points on your post, and we'll continue the discussion from there; 1. Yeah Garza will probably start next season no doubt, but I don't think it's a guarantee he'll dominate like Liriano has done this season. Even in his last start (the shutout vs. Charlotte) IIRC he had a 5/12 GB/FB ratio. So major league hitters could take advantage of something like that, it's why a prospect like Chuck James isn't rated as highly as say a Chad Billingsley if you get my drift. 2. You know I really do wish we had Minny's scouts and minor league system. But they are absolutely the best team in the major leagues at finding good young pitching and developing it. Why aren't we as good? Well I'm sure 29 other teams would be asking themselves that question as well. Personally I think we're just above middle of the pack in terms of drafting pitchers and then developing them. Guys like Gio Gonzalez who would have been about our #4 or #5 prospect, is probably Philly's #1 prospect right now. 3. You know Flash I would LOVE to build from within as well. And I've preached that on here, you've probably heard my message of why it is SO important to have good young players like Brandon McCarthy. Because it offers you payroll flexibility to help you acquire guys like Jim Thome. We don't want to become the Yankees here. As for who would be that guy in 07 to replace a Buerhle. As much as you'll hate me for saying this, all signs point to Broadway at this point, if he's with the organisation at the end of this week. 4. How many organizations have a good Latin American Farm System right now? Off the top of my head I can think of the Dodgers, the Mets, the Brewers have a couple etc. It's becoming harder and harder to get impact young guys from down there. You would have seen how many teams were after 16 year old catch Francisco Pena, and how much of a bonus he got. I think the Sox have realized though that things need to improve down there, hence why they built the academy etc. Hopefully they take more steps down there, but there's no quick fix. 5. Would I consider Lumsden to be a blue chip prospect? No I wouldn't. He's a good one don't get me wrong, but I just find it a little ironic that all season you have said "Where's our Liriano", when people have been trying to talk up the likes of Lumsden etc., and now Lumsden's a real blue chipper? 6. The Sox HAVE inserted prospects here and there. Brandon McCarthy, Neal Cotts and Brian Anderson just to name a few. And in the next few seasons you may see the likes of Fields, Sweeney and Broadway there as well. It's the right model for success. 7. KW's an aggressive GM we all know that. Would you prefer a Bill Stoneman or Terry Ryan though, someone who won't make the big deal at the deadline to win now? As for drafts being a staging ground for establishing trading chips, it depends on the situation. The Sox rebuilt their system from the 2004 draft with Lumsden, Gonzalez, Liotta, Whisler etc. When you have plenty of prospects in your system, I have no problems at all dealing a few to help you win now, providing it's a good deal. And the floor is yours Flash.

QUOTE(RockRaines @ Jul 27, 2006 -> 04:42 PM) we are f***ed. It isnt the players, its the way they are playing. We have the best lineup in the AL, and yet are getting killed. The attitude, and chemistry fishing blow. we arent making the playoffs. I love posts like that. All I will say is that we have seen how things can turn around in a matter of weeks. After what happened last season, I am not ruling ANYTHING out at all, in terms of making the playoffs and doing well once we get in there.

Could you DFA someone like Gload, and put B-Mac into a 6 man rotation and acquire another reliever like Roberto Hernandez perhaps?

I wouldn't necessarily be happy with Pennant Felix. The guy's an absolute nut off the field, and I think you guys overpaid. And Slav, apparently in today's rumors Bolton are after Zigic. That would make you one happy camper.

QUOTE(Gene Honda Civic @ Jul 27, 2006 -> 09:35 AM) Which essentially means VMart's days as a catcher are numbered/over. They can either go two ways with this. Promote Ryan Garko to take over at 1st base, or let Kelly Shoppach be the everyday C and let Martinez start at 1B. I think they're going to go for the former, but the latter sounds like a better idea to me, providing that Shoppach could actually hit well enough to be an everyday catcher.

QUOTE(Dick Allen @ Jul 27, 2006 -> 12:22 AM) I don't think Boras is ever going to change the way he does business, so I see no way that fence will ever be mended. They may have been discussing a contract for Crede. Either that, or maybe JR wasn't at the game Boras was in his box. Even better news if the they can get Joe locked up to a long - term deal for a few years. Has certainly earned that with his play this season thus far.

QUOTE(Felix @ Jul 27, 2006 -> 12:18 AM) Fish no (and yes, I typed fish). Furcal is not that good a baseball player, and is hardly worth the 13 million he'll be making both next year and 2008. I suggested that because maybe you could get the Dodgers pay a bit of his deal, like they did with Odalis Perez. And with Podsednik probably leaving next season (even though he is arbitration eligible IIRC), we'll need a leadoff hitter to replace him. Upgrading from Uribe, seems like the best choice for me, if you can't get a guy like Carl Crawford. Plus if you trade Garcia, you save the $10M you'll have to pay him next season as well. You might as well put that money towards something right?

QUOTE(southsider2k5 @ Jul 27, 2006 -> 12:13 AM) Well that certianly makes things interesting. Could we be talking about a signing along with a trade then? If you could get Zito locked up, then hell yeah do the deal. But looking at Bora$$'$ history, how many of clients has he allowed to re-sign with their current team when they are about to hit FA that off-season?

QUOTE(beck72 @ Jul 27, 2006 -> 12:10 AM) That's why, if this story is correct, I think the Sox could be the 3rd team, not getting Zito, but other useful players Yeah for example if you traded prospects to acquire Zito right, then you traded him to a team that desperately needed him like say for instance the Dodgers, who could give up a package including say a Jonathan Broxton, a young stud reliever who can help you now and in the future. That's the only way I could see us being invovled in a 3 way deal revolving around Barry Zito. EDIT: How does a Zito and Uribe for Broxton, Furcal and maybe a spect deal sound?

QUOTE(Felix @ Jul 27, 2006 -> 12:07 AM) Both Meyer and Haren are pitchers Yeah I know, switch the position player and SP spect in that sentence, but u get my drift.