DBAHO

I played some golf for the 1st time in about 5 months today. Key thing I was working on today was to try and keep my right knee pretty much absolutely still, and I was striking the ball much better which was a good sign. Then off to Uni for my 1st lecture on International Finance and Investment. Fun times.

QUOTE(beck72 @ Jul 19, 2006 -> 08:50 PM) The sox have a lot of arms coming on soon that should help the big league club. Trades no doubt will thin out some of the arms but the strong pitching is a nice luxury to have You only had to look at the Warthog rotation to start the season with Harrell, Russell, Whisler and Egbert to see that SP depth in our minor league system certainly isn't a problem at all, even without the likes of Gonzalez and Haigwood no longer there.

You can probably scrap the Linebrink talks then;

QUOTE(SoxFan101 @ Jul 19, 2006 -> 06:57 PM) id say so especially since this year they have shown they can have an immediate impact(Verlander, Liriano, Lester, Weaver, Papelbon, Josh Johnson) You hit the nail right on the head there. Hence why the likes of Mike Pelfrey are sadly nothing but pipe dreams.

Yeah great job with this guys, Dan, Josh, Jason and Evan. You guys always do a fantastic job with the draft picks after the draft, and this year's no exception. Always a good read. EDIT: Yay, 20,000 posts for me.

Bailey in 4 starts for AA has an 0.50 ERA. He could be up by the end of the season. I know lots of people around us want us to trade Freddy or Javy for a top notch SP prospect. But ever since the Kazmir trade happened, more GM's have become much more wary of dealing top notch SP prospects, when they all know how important it is to have good young pitching at the major league level.

QUOTE(Rowand44 @ Jul 19, 2006 -> 12:19 PM) I think as of late, the Sox have drafted some guys who are safer picks because they'll probably get through the minors quickly and they're value will be higher, quicker. With the way Kenny does things, I do believe that is one reason they go with the "safe" pick. Maybe I'm completely off, but it does seem to make a bit of sense. And this is in response to Flash's post about Anderson and his .200 stat line as well; Have a look at the guys who were drafted before BA; Delmon Young Rickie Weeks Kyle Sleeth Tim Stauffer Chris Lubanski Ryan Harvey Nick Markakis Paul Maholm John Danks Ian Stewart Michael Aubrey Lastings Milledge Aaron Hill Ryan Wagner Only 3 of those guys Weeks, Markakis and Maholm are currently in the major leagues along with BA. Someone like Ryan Harvey is majorly struggling down in A ball. BA's shown lately he does have what it takes to hit at this level, and the Torii Hunter comparisons are pretty spot on at this stage. I don't think you can really argue majorly about the Sox's drafting when the guys they have picked in the past few years have made it to the majors, or are doing very well in AA or AAA. At least you know they are going to make it instead of being a high risk - high reward type of draft pick that may never make it out of the major leagues.

QUOTE(fathom @ Jul 19, 2006 -> 11:52 AM) - Tampa doesn't want an outfielder in return for Crawford. They have a plethora of guys in their system. Except that Delmon Young and Elijah Dukes have shown that they are hardly model citizens down in AAA, and there are always injury concerns on Rocco Baldelli. But it's mainly going to have to involve SP prospects. You've seen with almost every Devil Ray trade whether it was Aubrey Huff etc. they've gotten a SP prospect like Mitch Talbot back in return, and it's exactly what they need to do if they're going to be better in the future.

Always a good read;

QUOTE(Rowand44 @ Jul 19, 2006 -> 12:40 PM) He's got a big head. Yeah apparently he's a real jack-ass. Seems like Daniels main trading chip to try and upgrade the SP though.

B-Ham won 7-4. Russell in his 1st start, 6.2IP, 7H, 3ER, 2BB's and 7K's. Collaro 3 for 4 with 3 RBI's. Lopez and Nanita had 2 hits each. http://www.minorleaguebaseball.com/app/mil...mobaax_biraax_1 Winston - Salem won 4-0. Egbert pitched 6 shutout innings with 5K's. ERA down to 2.96 now. Him and Whisler could be up at AA with Harrell and Russell as well. http://www.minorleaguebaseball.com/app/mil...wswafa_lynafa_1

It is safe to say this is probably our most important win of the season thus far?

QUOTE(soxpride77 @ Jul 19, 2006 -> 10:54 AM) Then I guess I'll say more importantly our lefties. Thome 3/6 .500 AJ 5/12 .417 Still you have to remember Robertson's been a completely different pitcher so far this season.

Well done to our hitters tonight, getting Robertson out of this ballgame, and gettin to that Detroit pen.

QUOTE(soxpride77 @ Jul 19, 2006 -> 10:35 AM) Which is strange because Robertson isn't great against lefties, especially our lefties. I guess with the exception of tonight. Beg to differ on that. Before tonight lefties had a .182 BAA, righties had a .280 BAA.

That's only the 5th time Robertson has been taken deep at Comerica in 10 GS this season.

That's gotta be a little heartbreaking for the Tigers. Let's keep on the attack here on Robertson.

That's a fantastic result there for Jon. So far so good.

Yeah I saw that the other day. Frankly I can't see him leaving Toronto. The new ownership has a lot of money to burn (hence why they signed Ryan and Burnett to huge deals) and I can't see them letting Wells just leave after the offensive year he's having. Plus BA's doing fairly well for us ATM so CF hardly ain't a problem area for us anymore.

We need to take advantage of Todd Jones anytime we get to face him. And with Joel Zumaya struggling and working on his mechanics, it's a perfect time to face the Tiger bullpen. We need to take advantage.

QUOTE(DrunkBomber @ Jul 18, 2006 -> 11:12 PM) It would be great to start this series off with a win. We need to switch momentum right now and a win would completely do that I think. If we could manage 2 of 3 or god forbid a sweep they might say the Sox are the best team in baseball at least for another week. GO SOX! And we pretty much need to. Garland's been one of our best starters (not really saying much there), and we need to win the games right now where we are actually getting solid pitching, so hopefully he can continue that. From what I can tell with Robertson, we're going to struggle to take him deep, he's only given up 3ER in 9GS at Comerica. So that means smallball should really come into effect tonight. He's only giving up a .182 BAA against lefties which means Pods will probably sit tonight, and maybe A.J as well. And he's not a good starter early, nor is he when that pitch count gets above 90. In the middle though, he's been money this season, so we need to get on the board nice and early.

I don't think you can really complain about our drafting over the past few seasons. As other posters showed, in the earlier rounds we've hit fairly well on the likes of BA, Sweeney, Fields, Broadway etc. who all seem to be doing fairly well, or who project well for the future. As Flash has said many a time, yes our Latin American Scouting ain't great. But to put more money into that, the Sox would probably have to take that away from the payroll, and I for one don't want that to happen. We seem to have a fairly good minor league system, we'd be in the top half of teams I'd say, and we're in a lot better position that other contenders such as the Cardinals.

Yeah Wes is probably ready for AA, but ATM there's really no room for him. No need to really rush him, let him keep building his confidence and get him to start strong at B-Ham next season. Too bad my Bristol prospect Zazueta didn't have a good night, he's done very well up until now.

The N.Y Post is reporting Livan Hernandez could probably be had for 2 mid level prospects. Really isn't much difference b/w him and Garcia with the way they are both pitching, so you would think considering what KW would probably ask for, if Minaya's going to make a move, it would probably be for Livan.

QUOTE(beck72 @ Jul 18, 2006 -> 08:49 PM) The situations are different. If SD trades a guy like Linebrink, they should expect their new guy to come in and immediately be an upgrade over the two stiffs they have now [bellhorn and Castilla]. Fields may not hit much more than those two [and his d isn't gold glove caliber]. A guy like Mack hands down would be an upgrade over those two. Francouer was brought up from the minors w/o the pressure of replacing a solid major leaguer. If he struggled, no big deal go back down. If Fields struggles, SD is back to square one w/o a solid 3bman. And they lost a key set up man. Personally I think Kevin Towers would rather acquire a guy like Fields who he knows could be on that team for almost a decade and contribute for possibly the next decade, instead of going for a stopgap in Machowiak, just to try and make the playoffs this season. You've seen with Adrian Gonzalez how much he has come on this month, kind of like Brian Anderson. I'm sure they would allow that lee-way to Fields as well. They've got a pretty young ballclub that could be good for quite a while, with guys like Peavy, Barfield, Greene etc., Fields would help build that young core. San Diego also has the likes of Justin Leone who is doing quite well in AAA, and Geoff Blum who has shown occasionally from time to time he can hit. Not sure if Machowiak is really an upgrade over that.