Flash Tizzle

Jesus f***ing Christ. This is so incredibly frustrating to watch.

This has become REALLY embarrassing. Reminds me of the Carolina game from last years playoffs. They came in with a swagger, underestimated their opponent, and wet the bed. Christ, one first down for the offense and four turnovers by Grossman?! Should really be six when you reflect upon two near interceptions.

QUOTE(RockRaines @ Oct 16, 2006 -> 02:50 PM) Agreed. Matsu is 26 years old and has been dominating professionals in and out of Japan. I would rather overpay for his talents for the next several years, than take on A-rod for more money. One problem next season is adding together Matsuzaka's salary AND the cost of paying his former team for negotiating rights. Those two together could realistically run over 20 million. Rodriguez would cost well under this-- especially if McCarthy and Crede were traded. Remove Garcia and it becomes more realistic, but then again, there's the issue of raises across the team.

QUOTE(RockRaines @ Oct 16, 2006 -> 02:09 PM) Heres the question, would you rather trade those pieces for A-rod or spend the same amount of money on Matsuzaka? I'd rather overpay for Matsuzaka. Anyone can suggest to me "Arod has proven himself at the major league level," or "Daisuke dominated inferior Japanese talent," but I personally prioritize starting pitching over offense. His presence could make it easier to absorb the lost of several starters (Buehrle?) in a season or two. I've said it many times before, offense can be compensated across a diamond. For Rodriguez's pricetag, we could duplicate his production across two players. Cut his numbers in half, and expecting two FA's or minor league players to 15-20 HR's and 70 RBI's becomes a realistic expectation. Uribe does that alone. If McCarthy is traded, we're once again depending upon the same five starters from last season to rebound. That's ridiculous, IMO. I wouldn't understand how Williams realized his 2005 rotation needed an upgrade, yet after 2006 -- when it was obvious there was flaws -- trades away McCarthy. It wouldn't make a damn bit of sense. Does anyone even realize how much we'd help the Yankees? Suddenly a team with a 200 million dollar payroll has a 500,000 dollar starter? In addition to Hughes upcoming promotion and Wang's salary, that's a relatively cheap threesome. They'll have an abundance of money to spend wisely. I believe Cashman and company realize the importance of quality signings now. Just as they understand how crucial a contributing minor league system is.

It's despicable, but not uncommon. Airline industries, for example, hire high-priced corporate lawyers to devalue the "price" of victims following crashes. I'm sure many companies follow similar measures when people are injured (for legitimate reasons) and seek compensation. I don't know how any laywer working this particular case could live with themselves. Does a life of luxury compensate for the suffering thousands of families must endure? First responders and those whom spent thousands of hours digging at Ground Zero didn't exactly have an idea what they were breathing. As I recall, sensors were sent up to detect asbestos. False security, really. They weren't breathing asbestos -- they were breathing polverized concrete, among other objects burnt from the jet fuel. Hell, it was actually worse than asbestos when you think of the rapid onset of illness.

Anyone happen to catch highlights of Troy Polamalu tackled by his hair? Hilarious. I quietly cheer for moments such as those. Whichever player is willing to give the opposition another exposed item to attach themselves to deserves a good hair tug. Granted, he's a safety, but it's bound to play in your mind whenever running back an interception/fumble.

QUOTE(RockRaines @ Oct 15, 2006 -> 03:48 AM) Its hilarious to think that the reason we didnt win the WS this year is because of our scouting in latin american. its like its Mecca. Haahahhaah Oh yeah, I agree. Just show me a direct quote of the person who said that so I can truly appreciate the humor. Sure as hell know I never made such a distinction.

QUOTE(RockRaines @ Oct 15, 2006 -> 12:31 AM) Yes, the answer lies in Latin american, Of course!!! Why hasnt anyone thought of that!!!! Man you are a genius.s I'm not quite Kalapse level of genius, but I like to believe I'm a notch below. Criticize all you want, but realistically, how can you ignore our deficiencies on this issue? Thirty percent of major leaguers originate from Latin America, yet we haven't signed and developed a contributing player from this area in 10 years? We're not the damn Royals. This is embarrassing, and needs to change. Travel south of Florida and give yourself a chance to develop pitchers who are out of reach in the draft. Sounds to me like a realistic way of upgrade the starting pitching. May take years for results to arrive, but devoting resources to this issue would prove more beneficial than any ridiculous FA shopping spree.

Honestly, I could give a s*** about Raines and whether or not he stays. Never appeared to help Guillen much while on the bench. We need someone, whether a past Whtie Sox player or not, who can provide Guillen some rational alternatives to his whacky ideas.

QUOTE(bunkerf16 @ Oct 14, 2006 -> 08:24 PM) You guys crack me up..........our team is extremely young at the core.....we have players in the minors who are ready to come in and pick up the slack........we will be active in FA and with a team like ours, and with the manager we have, we'll attract our share of talent....... It's sad you can't just congratulate your opponent without trying to tear them down....sounds a lot like sour grapes to me........guess that's to be expected though..... I'm certaintly not dismissing the Tigers' success. Even entering next season with the possibility of regression occuring I'd still rate your club and Minnesota ahead of ours. For everyone about to wet themselves and criticize me, put it this way -- Detroit and/or Minnesota lose one arm within their rotation there are viable substitutes available. Even though Miller and Sanchez are raw arms for Detroit, they possess quality "stuff" capable of dominating lineups. Minnesota, on the other hand, actually got BETTER without the most dominating pitcher in baseball down the stretch. They hold several quality starting pitchers in their system as well. I'm sure Guerrier could spot start if worse came to worse. What happens if one of our starters go down? Sure, last season McCarthy was available, but what do you do now with his eventual promotion? Our teams lack of depth (ie, piss poor minor league system) is again exposed. Considering Buehrle's alarming troubles and Contreras' late season injuries, we're not exactly in the clear here. Yes, it's a broken record, but I'll continue to annoy every single person until it's resolved. My complaints will only intensify with every quality prospect promoted from teams within our division.

QUOTE(SinkingShip06 @ Oct 14, 2006 -> 07:02 PM) f*** YOU TIGERS YOU LUCKY f***S. CAN'T WAIT TO SEE YOU AT THE BOTTOM OF THE DIVISION NEXT YEAR. It's quite possible their starters can regress next season as ours did this season, but even with such a possibility, Miller and Sanchez are available in the wings. We sure as hell didn't have such alternatives this season, or next season for that matter.

Honestly, that gave me goosebumps. Ordonez hits a walk off, series winning HR. Detroit in the World Series. Oakland, well, they just waited several more games to choke.

QUOTE(Rowand44 @ Oct 13, 2006 -> 07:35 AM) Zito and Matsuzaka are Boras clients. Jason Schmidt is 33, going to receive probably much more money than he is worth and I'm not sure if he's better than what we already have. And that pretty much does it for the free agent market. On the trade market? Maybe Dontrelle(not a fan) and who else? Besides the obvious trading of one starter to make room for Brandon is there really anything else Kenny can do to improve the staff? Thoughts? Ideas? Ignore the trade market. We're not going to enter, much less win, a bidding war for top-tier starting pitchers. And I'm tired of trading prospects or players on the current roster for starting pitchers. Want an upgrade? Here's my solution: Heavily scout it. Now. Don't want to? Forget about succeeding in this division beyond next season. Nearly 30% of the major leagues is represented from this area, yet we haven't produced any talent out of there since Ordonez and Lee. It's embarrassing. People need to get their act together.

Sox castoff Jason Grilli throws 12 straight balls to walk the bases loaded. Tie game, 8th inning. Grilli should be thankful Frank "0 for Series" Thomas grounded into a DP. NOW Leyland goes to the bullpen. That was a definite Ozzie Guillen move to leave him in there after two consecutive walks. Ledezma remind anyone else of Liriano in his delivery and pure stuff? Not quite the slider Liriano has, but that awkward delivery appears to be common between the two.

If Lyons were a more notable analyst this never would have happened. Fox probably has been looking for an excuse to remove him. Hell, considering how much time has elapsed since the initial comments, not ONE article had been written about the remarks. I doubt many were legitimately offended. Keith Hernandez, for example, was torn apart only hours after he criticized a woman's role in baseball.

QUOTE(Rowand44 @ Oct 12, 2006 -> 06:32 PM) For those who watched espn today, it seems that if the media has picked up on the ARod for Crede and a sp rumors. I figure you watched this on PTI as well. I have to imagine the starting pitcher the Yankees would be asking for is Brandon McCarthy. On that note, no deal. Realistically, we'd have to include him to beat the Angels offer. Not worth it.

This entire incident is surreal. For all the coverage initial reports received, no one would have guessed the planes pilot was someone famous such as Lidle. When I heard he died earlier from an aviation crash, the thought didn't even cross my mind of it somehow being connected to the accident in Manhattan. If anyone has browsed the National Transportation Safey Board's website, there are literally hundreds of small aircraft crashes every month. Surprised to turn into ESPN once I arrived home to find out the connection. Definitely a sad situation.

QUOTE(Chisoxfn @ Oct 11, 2006 -> 01:05 PM) Or throw it into the player development pool each year. That could buy them a solid younger player or two per season. They'll need a LOT more than an additional 1.5 million. Need atleast 10 million to shovel away the crap we're witnessing within our system.

QUOTE(Milkman delivers @ Oct 11, 2006 -> 12:16 AM) Though, it will be funny to see how the Academy rips off Scorcese somehow again. Academy has a hard-on for Eastwood -- and war films. Deadly combination for Scorcese.

QUOTE(JohnBasedowYoda @ Oct 10, 2006 -> 12:05 AM) Hey we have more burrito stands and poolhalls than you can shake a stick at! Your signature is great by the way. Don't forget about liquor store to citizen ratio which rivals the inner city. Or how about Fun Times Square-- that's always a hoot. Which just happens to be next to a Burrito stand and Pool Hall...... I loved driving by there the other day and noticing the recently installed paint-ball section. I wonder how long that continues. The Polish people running the place can barely control the customers from bumping one another on the go-kart tracks, yet they're going to allow people the opportunity to handle paintball guns? LOL.

QUOTE(JohnBasedowYoda @ Oct 9, 2006 -> 10:14 PM) I'm either going to see this or the John Lennon flick Alsip might as well honor you in their watertower. Towns turning to s***.

QUOTE(LowerCaseRepublican @ Oct 7, 2006 -> 10:00 AM) Umm...how about the Army of God and their bombing of medical clinics killing doctors and nurses? What about them? It seems people are picking apart minor points within my posts rather than the key reason I addressed Reddy -- Waco wasn't an event you could group with Christians. Neither was Oklahoma City Bombing.

If Scorcese doesn't win an oscar for Best Director the Academy deserves to be disbanded. I don't even want to hear about Clint Eastwood's Iwa Jima film. It's Scorcese without a doubt.

QUOTE(Chisoxfn @ Oct 7, 2006 -> 02:00 PM) Our system blows. It doesn't get much worse than what we have to be completely honest. We have an extremely overrated top 3rd base prospect and Ryan Sweeney. Oh we also have a ton of 4A guys that really aren't that good of prospects. Hate to tell it like it is, but we got s*** to be proud of in our system. We have some raw talents down in the lower levels, but I haven't seen many of those raw talents pan out. Oh and I have nothing against McCulloch and Broadway, both are good looking prospects. They just aren't great looking prospects. You've finally waken up, haven't you? Maybe now that you're the one admitting to our minor league systems pitfalls people may believe it. It's coming to a point where we're going to have to produce legitimate, blue chip prospects. Players capable of immediately producing. That's if we're going to have ANY hope of consistently winning past our supposed "window of opportunity." Which, btw, I believe have already closed; but don't tell people that. Guess everyone will have to wait another two years to finally realize the truth, much as they have with our minor league system.

QUOTE(Greg The Bull Luzinski @ Oct 7, 2006 -> 06:20 PM) Should this thread still be called "Twins Playoff Thread"? No, it shouldn't.