winninguglyin83

it's Under The Radar Ball

I believe it's called Ball One. Or Ball Two.

How BAD is Charlotte? Worst record in baseball? no pitching. No hitting. looks like a very grim season for that club.

Kruk also seems to be touting the Sox more. And Garland is indeed the guy who was hyped. Former Number One pick. Dominated at AA and AAA. Game up and went straight into the rotation during the 2000 division championship season. Garland came up several weeks ahead of Buehrle that year after Eldred blew out his elbow in the first or second start after the all-star game. Buehrle pitched one inning of mopup in a blowout win against the Brewers. Only Baseball America subscribers knew who he was.

Several thoughts on the bullpen. 1. Shingo needs to be used as a setup guy for a bit. Pick the situations carefully. Rebuild his confidence. I think his effectiveness will increase when we stop playing AL Central teams. They saw him more than anybody last season. More chance to be on to him. When we start playing teams from the West and East who don't know him as well, I expect him to pitch better. 2. There's nothing wrong with spreading the saves between Hermanson, Marte, Shingo and Vizcaino. Go with the arm that's hot -- and provides the best matchup. 3. Cotts does have to improve. He needs to be able to come in and pitch at least an inning -- maybe two. He also needs to be able to serve as the long relief guy. If he can't throw strikes, they need to go to Plan B and find somebody in the minors who can. And, personally, I don't think he'll ever have the control to be successful at the big league level. Nothing in his track record suggests that he will.

BMac, Gonzalez and Liotta give us hope for some solid pitching in the future. Tracey, too. If they can do some good work with Jenks, he has the tools to be a solid bullpen guy. IMO, they're rushing some of the hitters. Just hope the slow starts don't translate into a loss of confidence that lasts into the summer.

thought it was a strange pick when the Sox made it. He had a crappy last season at Tennessee. lit up the radar gun often. But his command was in the Danny Wright category. Somebody will give him another chance when he gets healthy. But he'll be a bullpen guy at best.

I don't think we've had eight combined wins from the fifth starter the last two years.

truth is a defense

This question can't be serious. Even Mrs. Valentin knows the answer

Hey, if Magss sits against us, Higginson plays. Not sure that's good for us considering the way Higginson rakes against the Sox.

my thoughts exactly. this has been going on with Maggs since the end of spring training. Amen to his departure.

I watched him play against the Tigers Tuesday night. Looked different. About 10 to 15 pounds lighter. (IRod looks even lighter than Maggs.) Stance is much more open than it was last few seasons with the Sox. And he looked a bit tentative in the outfield. Can't believe playing in Minnesota on turf could be the best thing for his knee.

just wonder if he's really got a virus or he's really got bad wheels. Can't the Tigers get out of his contract if he misses X number of games because of knee trouble? I just wonder about his overall health. And it certainly seems like the Sox did the right thing by not paying him.

From today's Detroit Free Press. Something about this seems a little strange. TIGERS CORNER: Ailing Ordonez home for tests April 14, 2005 BY JOHN LOWE FREE PRESS SPORTS WRITER MINNEAPOLIS -- In the five-year stretch ending in 2003, Magglio Ordonez averaged only 11 games per season in which he didn't start in the outfield for the White Sox. He might be out of the lineup for 11 games this month before he gets his first RBI as a Tiger. For the second time in the regular season and third time in the past few weeks, Ordonez has been sidelined with intestinal trouble. Ordonez played Tuesday night for the first time in nearly a week. Wednesday, he had discomfort that makes him "feel he can't play," said athletic trainer Kevin Rand. As the club prepared to play the Twins on Wednesday night, Ordonez headed to Detroit "for numerous tests . . . by a battery of specialists," Rand said. Manager Alan Trammell said he didn't expect Ordonez back for tonight's series finale. If Ordonez misses tonight's game, he will have missed six of the first nine games. The intestinal trouble first knocked him out for the final three games of spring training. In three regular-season games, he's 0-for-10 with no RBIs. After he struck out in his first two at-bats Tuesday night, Ordonez told Trammell, "My timing is off." Ordonez didn't appear to run full speed to first when he grounded to third in the eighth. With the Tigers ahead by a run, Trammell lifted him for defensive replacement Nook Logan. Rand said Ordonez will undergo a more thorough level of testing. "I can't get into specifics, but we're looking to run whatever tests we need to run to get to the bottom of this," Rand said. "We want to leave no stone unturned. ... We need to find out why this has continued to plague him." When Ordonez signed his $75-million free-agent contract, he said his foremost desire was to play every day. The implication was that if he played he would produce, as when he averaged 118 RBIs per season in those five years with the White Sox in which he started virtually every day. "Magglio wants to compete in the worst way," Rand said. "I think it's extremely frustrating to him that he can't perform at his level.

The rankings say one thing. The teams they persist in televising says another thing. They're on the scene for every BoSox burp and Yankee hiccup. Here's hoping they go back to all Cubs all the time.

need to pick it up offensively to keep winning -- but we have faced some solid pitchers (Santana, Millwood, Radke, Westbrook).

They've had a problem with innings pitched in the boxes from the start of the season. it was much better last season just to get the boxes from baseball america.

What is Freddy's pitch count?

Now Hermanson is throwing

Politte is throwing. That means Hermy in the ninth, if necessary, i believe

two lefties up this inning, but Freddy still on the hill, eh? I predict we will NOT see Shingo

Nobody is quite as insightful as DJ. Nobody. We're lucky to have him in the booth.

on the Sox radio broadcast they are speculating that it might be the flu with Pods.

supposedly a lot of guys have the flu. First it was Garland. Now it is Rock Raines and some others. Maybe Pods is one of them.