VAfan

I vote yes to all of your questions.

Call it the "Daubach feint." He's done it 3 times already in the last couple of weeks and won two ballgames with it. They nominated it for "managerial move of the week" when he used against the Tigers to get Graffy a 3-run HR, but I don't know if he won. The second time Graffy flied out to right, but I think was critical later in the extra inning win at Toronto. Then last night. After starting the season by leaving Rios and Daubach idling while Rowand and Sandy flailed away in the 8th of a 2-0 loss to KC, I think JM has come a long way regarding the use of his full roster. He consistently tries to use everyone now.

Believe it or not, the Yankees are still vulnerable, which is why George is in such a bad mood. Their main weakness is pitching as I see it. Do any of their starters scare you any more?? Mussina has to be the best of the bunch, but he doesn't always have it. Wells is probably #2. And Clemens is still a fighter. But with Bartolo on our side, I wouldn't be worried about a headhunting contest. Plus, in the bullpen, everyone down there has blown games. Even Rivera after the 2001 WS. On our side, I like the fact Gordon closed in Boston. He's been exposed to Yankee stadium intensity. And Damaso will throw 95 mph chin music to anyone. In 2000, our offense exposed their weak starting staff during the season, and would have matched up much better than the M's against them in the playoffs. I wouldn't be afraid to meet them this year. But this is the league's open window. If George misses out again, he'll empty the bank for Vladimir.

I second that motion.

Everett hasn't torn it up by any means, but he's had a lot of key hits behing Maggs that we didn't have earlier in the year. Here are a few I can recall off the top of my head during our winning stretch. 1. 4-3 win over Cleveland. Bottom of 3rd hit 2-run single to retake the lead Porzio had just given up. No more runs were scored in the game. 2. Next game. He was intentionally walked to pitch to Konerko, who was hit in his cup to drive in the winning run. 3. Escobar game against Toronto. After the rain delay, he hit double which drove in first run and put Maggs on 3rd where he promptly scored second run to tie game at 2-2. Score remained there until 13th when Sox got 2 and won 4-3. 4. Last night. Single in 6th set table for Konerko's 2-run bomb that put us on top and gave us just enough room to get to 11th when we broke out for 3 more. I may have missed something, but that's 4 wins out of 12 where he made a key contribution to help us win the ballgame. No HRs there, but key hits or walks that led to crucial runs. The kind of thing we almost never saw in the first half. I'd be happy if Everett continued along at his current pace until the playoffs and got hot then.

I have no idea if a pitcher can regain his lost velocity, or if it is a mechanical thing (remember earlier in the year when Coop worked with him and they announced whatever flaw he had was fixed?), or if he should try to develop a splitter with only 50+ games to go. But I totally agree that it would be a huge boost if we could get some productive outings from Koch in close ballgames before the end of the year.

I assume they don't have to make the move until after tonight's game. That way they could use either Ginter or White today, whichever one of them is going to be shipped out.

Wait until they sign Vlad Guerrero in the offseason to fill the only remaining hole they have. All-Stars at 8 starting positions. It is truly disgusting. But you know what?? They aren't going to win the World Series this year. The way the White Sox are playing right now, I wouldn't be afraid to take on the Yankees. Their achilles heel is their starting pitching and bullpen up to Mariano, and even he was beaten once so he can be beaten again. I think they've made a lot of moves, but other than helping their offense some by getting Boone and jettisoning Ventura, they aren't that much better with all their moves. Boston is the team that helped itself the most in that division by completely retooling their bullpen. Yet the White Sox have a good chance against them too, as our starting pitching is deeper, and Pedro can be beat.

Thanks for the response. Now let me ask you a second question. One of the reasons I think the Sox should go with Cotts this year is because he has a chance of really shutting down a team, at least through 6 or 7 innings, as he has recently, where his pitching performance wins the ball game. The best we can really hope out of Danny Wright, on the other hand, is to get the misnamed "quality start" (6 IP, 3 ER), where the offense has to win the game. Now maybe this doesn't make that much of a difference for the few games we'll need a 5th starter in to the end of the season, but you never know. So my question is whether you agree that Cotts -- right now -- is more likely to shut down another team than Danny Wright. The final reason I like Cotts is because I wonder if Danny Wright shouldn't be moved to the pen for the rest of the year to give us a power right handed arm. Cotts starts, and Wright replaces White in the bullpen. To my mind, that would give us the best possible staff at this point in the year. Buehrle, Colon, Loaiza, Garland, Cotts Gordon, Marte, Wunsch, Schoney, Wright, Koch What do you think?

I hate to see the A's get stronger, but this guy may come back to earth. He's never hit anything close to what he's doing this year.

So Rex, as someone who has watched Neal all year, how does he compare to the other phenoms we've seen this year -- Willis, Jerome Williams, B. Webb, and Rich Harden?? While it would be nice to see fewer walks, if they can't hit it, it seems like a small glitch. (I mean, Danny Wright walks too many batters too.)

As Jose said before the series: NO MERCY! He's leading by example tonight.

As Jose said: NO MERCY!! I think all the early season frustration is serving as powerful motivation right now. The key is for the "weak" hitters to stop making outs -- Crede, Olivo, Konerko. When they hit the ball, and Maggs stays completely on fire, look out. I loved the two 5-spots tonight, and all the little 1s in between.

It seems a foregone conclusion that the Sox will bring up Danny Wright as the 5th starter Saturday against the M's. He started last Saturday, then pitched an inning out of the pen yesterday when that would make no sense if he was staying in Charlotte. On the other hand, Neal Cotts threw a no hitter for 7 innings his last outing, and the one before that was also outstanding through 7. With so many young pitchers having an impact this year (Willis, Williams, Webb, Harden), why can't Cotts be #5?? Frankly, what about bringing up both Wright and Cotts and shipping Rick White to Siberia and sending Matt Ginter down? Wright would add a power right handed arm to the pen, and Cotts would get the remaining #5 starts? I think this would make more sense than any of the trade rumors still out there.

After JM gave Rick the rope to hang himself Tuesday, and he did it properly by giving up 3 runs after 2 outs and no one on, is that the last game we will see Rick White in a Sox uniform?? Personally, I thought Rick White should have been on the bubble coming out of Spring Training. And his early season numbers confirmed that. Then he righted himself for a stretch, but is now back to being at best a "mystery" pitcher -- you have no idea what you are going to get when he comes in. I don't think we can afford more than 1 mystery pitcher out of the pen down the stretch. (We're stuck with Billy Koch.) So my vote would be to give him back to the Cardinals or cut him and keep Matt Ginter or acquire another arm instead. We should know by the trade deadline, or by Saturday at the latest when the Sox seem sure to bring up Danny Wright for the #5 hole.

It looks to me like a lot of teams out there unwilling to pull the trigger. So far, the trades KW has made this year have been very good. He may have given up more than necessary, but he injected new blood into a team in need of a transfusion and now we're seeing the Sox as many of us expected them to play to start the year. At this point, it doesn't make sense to deal for a 5th starter with so few starts remaining for that pitcher, and both Danny Wright and Neal Cotts available. What makes more sense would be to jettison Rick White and either go with Ginter or add a right handed reliever we could rely on. I thought Glover could have been the guy, but I'm not sorry to add another lefty with playoff experience. The Boone trade here would make sense for next year if we don't re-sign Robbie, but might create a logjam and some resentment in the infield. Unfortunately, it makes total sense for the M's who have no 3rd baseman and would unite the brothers. This would make the M's more dangerous in our upcoming 3 games, and in the playoffs if we see them.

But we may have to beat the BoSox down the line. Until now, their most glaring weakness was their pen, secondarily their rotation. This move helps them in both spots.

That suggests they are trying to keep him sharp for next Saturday's start against the M's. Otherwise there would be no reason to pitch him between AAA starts.

I wouldn't surrender much for a 5th starter. Frankly, I'd rather see Neal Cotts in the 5-6 starts that position is going to get. If he pitches well enough, put him on the postseason roster. He could be a wildcard like Frankie Rodriguez.

Nice game. Early on it looked like KC effeciency in getting the 2 runs, while we had the same number of hits, but no runs. Then we started turning on the POWER. When it went to 3-2 in the 4th, the Sox started clicking. A Maggs bomb made it 5-2. Graffy jumped on the bandwagon for 6-2. More hits and a sac fly by Carlos made it 8-2. The only nits I have were not scoring the man from 3rd with one out in the 8th and 9th. Crede, after a nice night, struck out with the bases loaded on 2 balls out of the zone. Rick White back in early season form with 3-runs given up after he got 2 outs in the 8th. But Marte and Gordon were sharp. With the trade for Schoeneweis, our pen should at least be 4 deep.

Frank's career OPS is 1.000. Maggs has never exceeded that in any single year. But he's gonna do it this year. I think the way Maggs is seeing the ball, he might have a shot at the batting title this year, though its a tall order for a right hander.

I wasn't all that crazed to see the Sox "talking" before the first game. You don't see any Royals' quotes in there, do you? Better to do the talking on the field and talk after we've done something.

Amen. But the $64,000 question is will the Sox call on him to pitch next Saturday in Seattle? Or will it be Danny Wright?? Or a pitcher we'll trade for this week??? After tonight, I'd vote Cotts in a landslide.

Thanks. I've been posting on the MLB site since the trade deadline in 2000 under the same name. I assume others who post on both sites do the same. I must say, I found the discussion of Cotts more enlightening here. After tonight's game, I'm more convinced than ever that Cotts could add his name to the young impact pitchers who have come up this year. Maybe he can't go 9, but a no hitter for 7 looks a lot better than most Sox options. Walks aren't great, but since no one can hit the ball, they shouldn't hurt him.

They can't pound it if they can't hit it. Walks don't necessarily mean he'll give up a lot of hits.