February 16, 200620 yr Spring fills the air By Jayson Stark http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/columns/stor...yson&id=2330477 Most Improved Teams (American League) 1. Blue Jays 2. White Sox 3. A's Best Free-Agent Signings 1. Billy Wagner (Mets) 2. Johnny Damon (Yankees) 3. Paul Konerko, White Sox Best Trades 1. Mets get an RBI machine (Carlos Delgado) who drove in more runs by the All-Star break (66) than all Mets first basemen knocked in all year (62) -- in exchange for three prospects (Yusmeiro Petit, Mike Jacobs and Grant Psomas) who don't figure to make an All-Star team ever . 2. Red Sox get a 26-year-old ace-class arm (Josh Beckett) from Florida (plus Mike Lowell and Guillermo Mota) for the gifted but enigmatic Hanley Ramirez, plus three pitching prospects right off the All-Radar Gun Team. 3. White Sox deepen their already vast pitching pool by getting Javier Vazquez from Arizona for flashy center-field prospect Chris Young and two pitchers they won't miss (El Duque and Luis Vizcaino). Most Important Injury Comebacks (AL) 1. Keith Foulke-Curt Schilling tag team (Red Sox) 2. Jim Thome (White Sox) 3. Frank Thomas (A's)
February 16, 200620 yr Entertaining, especially the section on weird clauses added to players' contracts.
February 16, 200620 yr I don't think we are in the top 3 for most improved teams in the AL nor would I count Kong as a free agent signing. Yes, it's an unwritten rule, but that category usually belongs to players signing with new teams.
February 16, 200620 yr Author I don't think we are in the top 3 for most improved teams in the AL nor would I count Kong as a free agent signing. Yes, it's an unwritten rule, but that category usually belongs to players signing with new teams. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Why not? Even if you don't count Konerko as an improvement... 1.) Thome instead of Everett as our DH 2.) Vazquez instead of El Duque as our 5th starter 3.) Mackowiak instead of Timo/Willie/Blum as our utility man 4.) McCarthy instead of Vizcaino in our bullpen where he can also serve as a 6th starter That's quite a bit of improvement.
February 17, 200620 yr did you guys catch this part about strange injuries? 3. Diamondbacks outfield prospect Chris Young breaks his hand jumping up and down off boxes during an agility workout -- meaning he won't be quite as agile for most of spring training.
February 17, 200620 yr QUOTE(SSH2005 @ Feb 16, 2006 -> 02:49 PM) Why not? Even if you don't count Konerko as an improvement... 1.) Thome instead of Everett as our DH 2.) Vazquez instead of El Duque as our 5th starter 3.) Mackowiak instead of Timo/Willie/Blum as our utility man 4.) McCarthy instead of Vizcaino in our bullpen where he can also serve as a 6th starter That's quite a bit of improvement. 100% agree. There is no way in hell that you could say we haven't improved a lot from last year.
February 17, 200620 yr QUOTE(Buehrle>Wood @ Feb 16, 2006 -> 03:35 PM) I don't think we are in the top 3 for most improved teams in the AL nor would I count Kong as a free agent signing. Yes, it's an unwritten rule, but that category usually belongs to players signing with new teams. semantics - schemantics. If you dont want to view Kong as a free agent signing then you can call it player retention. Either way, the Sox are better off with Konerko than they are without him.
February 17, 200620 yr So we WON THE WORLD SERIES last year AND are the 2nd most improved team in the AL? Now THAT is some s*** right there, well done Kenny!
February 17, 200620 yr QUOTE(Harry&JimmyRocked @ Feb 17, 2006 -> 08:54 AM) did you guys catch this part about strange injuries? 3. Diamondbacks outfield prospect Chris Young breaks his hand jumping up and down off boxes during an agility workout -- meaning he won't be quite as agile for most of spring training. The stuff he was doing kinda sounds similar to the workout routine that Adam Archuleta made popular back before he was drafted.
February 17, 200620 yr QUOTE(Harry&JimmyRocked @ Feb 17, 2006 -> 12:54 AM) did you guys catch this part about strange injuries? 3. Diamondbacks outfield prospect Chris Young breaks his hand jumping up and down off boxes during an agility workout -- meaning he won't be quite as agile for most of spring training. We did that exercise every wednesday morning when I was on the swim team in H.S.
February 17, 200620 yr QUOTE(Balta1701 @ Feb 17, 2006 -> 11:05 AM) We did that exercise every wednesday morning when I was on the swim team in H.S. sounds like they were doing plyometrics. I did that alot when i was on the basketball team. How he fell and broke his hand? I have no idea.
February 17, 200620 yr QUOTE(RockRaines @ Feb 17, 2006 -> 09:59 AM) sounds like they were doing plyometrics. I did that alot when i was on the basketball team. How he fell and broke his hand? I have no idea. I'll bet it was over a hard floor, he lost his balance, came down hard, either directly on his hand or he used it to break the fall.
February 17, 200620 yr QUOTE(SSH2005 @ Feb 16, 2006 -> 02:49 PM) Why not? Even if you don't count Konerko as an improvement... 1.) Thome instead of Everett as our DH 2.) Vazquez instead of El Duque as our 5th starter 3.) Mackowiak instead of Timo/Willie/Blum as our utility man 4.) McCarthy instead of Vizcaino in our bullpen where he can also serve as a 6th starter That's quite a bit of improvement. ^^^
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