ZoomSlowik

I agree that the Yankees should have 3-4, I just got a problem with the fan vote. Giambi and Jeter(although he has gotten better) should not be starting. Yankees should have A-Rod, Vasquez, Sheffield, and Rivera for sure, Matsui is okay, but I would have much rather seen Konerko or Thomas. Only other guy I might have selected is Gordon, but setup men often get screwed. That's still a lot, but short of 8. They gotta stop Torre. Managers shouldn't have the call, of course they are going to take their own players if it is close(yes, I know McKeon isn't taking a ton of Marlins). Remember when he took Mike Stanton? Another problem I have is that guys that should be locks are automatically left off because they get hurt. Is there really any doubt that Chavez and Maggs are among the best players in the AL? Any manager would love those guys. Guys that were hurt can be elected, so why shouldn't the manager take the injured studs. I know that they would take some crap, but since "this time it counts" they should take the best guys.

Point taken. Ring doesn't have a 67 mile per hour breaking ball though. Besides, Shingo did well in the Japanese leagues before he came here.

Yeah, because having our two players in the future's game has such an impact on the major league team's success. How's Royce Ring doing right now? He's at AAA with a 3.63 ERA and only 22 k's in 34 innings. Sounds pretty medicore to me, and that we traded him while he had valuable. Do we really want a closer with a 90 mph fastball anyways? I can't believe we passed on Bobby Brownlie and Joe Blanton to pick him.

But do they have a full roster of players now? Because Beltran was listed on the AL roster? I didn't really count. Nevermind, just counted. They got their full 32.

I'd take Olivo back, but we would have to give up Anderson and/or Sweeney. I don't care about Reed at all. Although I haven't seen him play everything I've read seems to suggest he's someone who is okay at everything, but he can hit for a solid average and has a decent eye. IMHO he's not going to be anything spectacular that we are going to regret trading. As for the .500 pitcher thing, with that ERA, what do you think his record would have been if we had him all year? Buehrle is 9-2, Loaiza is 8-4, both have higher ERA. Even his "horrendous" stats last year, (4.52 ERA, numerous solid starts after the break, 2-3 shellings jacked up his second half ERA) would be an upgrade over our 4 and 5 starters(and Esteban the way he is pitching recently).

My beef isn't with Westbrook persay, he is doing well. I just have a problem with the Indians getting that many guys. Their guys are having some decent years, but for them to have 5 guys with none of them being elected, that's pretty ridiculous. I will credit Torre for taking Martinez over Posada, and Sabathia and Westbrook have pitched pretty well, but Lawton and Belliard don't really wow me. I'd have rather seen Jose Guillen than Lawton, and Belliard doesn't impress me a whole lot, although I will admit this is a weak group of secondbasemen. Uribe's numbers are pretty similar, except Uribe has several more homers and stolen bases, Belliard has a better average and more walks. Plus, I gotta believe these stats were closer a couple of weeks ago when the voting happened. I think it's a joke that we didn't get Konerko or Thomas in, and despite his record Garcia should have made it. Would have been easier if Giambi hadn't been voted in, and if they got rid of that every team must have a player rule Lilly and Harvey would be gone. By the way, doesn't the AL need a replacement for Beltran?

Pretty crappy Mariners' lineup tonight, no Ichiro, no Olerud. Not the prettiest win, Buehrle gave up some hard hit balls but not the kill shot, offense didn't do much outside of take walks in the 5th. Who cares though, it's a win! If they put the same lineup out there against Freddy tomorrow(or add Ichiro, subtract Boone and/or Martinez), it might be a rout. Without a full Mariner lineup, I evision 7 innings, 2 runs max, 10 k's or more. Of course last time I predicted a route, Rusch pitched 8 shutout innings...

I love Shingo's entrance. The gong sound when he gets an out and when he gets the save is a nice touch too. I was laughing my ass off in the stands! Guess it's easier to do that in a win.

There are only 3 Mariners I would really want to get: Ichiro(not a chance in hell), Piniero(struggling, but would be a hell of a 4th starter, nice stuff. Not likely to move), and Guardado(maybe). The rest of the team is either too old and fading or do not possess a whole lot of talent.

I enjoy getting pissed off at posts like this. I can't have baseball discussions with my Cub fan friend(some of the arguments feel like this... :banghead ) while I am at home, so I gotta find some place to find arguments that I can tear holes in.

Not s*** man, that's bull. Only one I definitely agree with is Sabathia, Martinez is decent. No way Belliard or Lawton should be there over Buehrle or Konerko. Hell take Garcia. His record sucks, but not a whole lot of guys have pitched better.

Please. Brown(hurt) and Mussina(sucking, ERA over 5) are far from the top 15, and the way Pedro has been pitching(several shellings, not a ton of innings), I doubt he is either. Garcia has outpitched all of those 3, and Buehrle has done better than the first two. You could easily argue that 4 of the top 15 are on the Cubs(2 is my vote, I think Wood and Clement are overrated. Great stuff, highly inconsistent), 2 on the Marlins if Beckett is healthy, and clearly Schmidt is in there. Plus there are those ageless wonders Johnson and Clemens, maybe Glavine too the way he has been pitching. Sabathia, Sheets, and Santana also must be considered. Even assuming all of those guys are that good, you're going to face two in each series(3 if Brown is healthy, ha! ). You beat one of two and they are screwed. Buehrle and Garland have already come up with nice starts against really good pitchers(Mulder, Santana).

Santana sounds like a good pick, but I'm really thinking and hoping it's Buehrle, especially if he kicks ass tomorrow. As for another Yankee, how about Brown? He was doing okay before he got hurt(what else is new) By the way Quade, love the Lee Elias tirade as a sig. Classic!

The park is a factor, but it seems like matchups play a role too. Their road opponents for the year are 3 at KC, 4 at New York when they weren't hitting, 3 at Tampa, Baltimore, Toronto, Cleveland, 4 at Minnesota, 2 at Oakland, 3 at Seattle, 3 at Florida and Montreal, and 3 at Minnesota and the Cubs. They have many of the same matchups at home, but add Texas, Anaheim, Philly, and Atlanta. Those are some powerful offensive teams that appear on their home schedule thus far and not their road schedule. That's 84 runs in 11 games. Ouch.

I got nothing against spending money to get a few stud free agents, but it makes life a whole lot easier if a good chunk of your talent is home grown. If you find a stud, you got him at a cheap price for a while which gives you a better chance to go sign some big name guys. It's also nice to have some continuity to your team, not just getting 10 new players every year. If you're not the Yankees, it's hard to keep recycling talent.

I wouldn't rip AZ's GM for that deal. It's a totally different story if Sexon is healthy. He was destroying the ball before he got hurt. Spivey and Overbay weren't going to get a shot anyways, and Councel was going to be a utility infielder. You gotta realize that these guys are looking a bit better because they would actually play on the Brewers. As for Randy, this is the first I have seen of him actually wanting out, and since it came from New York, I doubt its validity, especially since they mention Clemens, who already turned down a chance to pitch in New York once this year. Even then, the article mentions that Colangelo has no desire to deal Randy. I keep hearing how Randy's contract is cheaper because of deferred money for the last year, but we still have to pay that if we acquire him. His full contract value is that $8 mil this year and $16 mil next year, which would probably limit him to New York, Boston, or Anaheim if Arturo wants to keep shelling out money. It would be nice to have Randy, but do you really think Jerry would give up the cash? IMHO there's no way in hell. They're not exactly penny-pinching, their $68 mil payroll is decent, but the Randy move would push us toward the upper tier, something I highly doubt we will do. Nothing has changed on that front. I agree it would be a huge move and make a major impact, I just highly doubt that it will happen.

I will agree with you about Garland, he still has problems now and then, but it is better than it has been. He's starting to get more starts where he dominates for long stretches, but he has problems in one inning. That Cub game really aggravated me. Garland was pitching pretty well, and the team forgot how to catch flyballs. It seems like it is getting to be only 1 out of 5 starts where he has nothing now, instead of 3. As a side note, I think the title of worst offense in the AL goes to KC. They're pretty terrible without Beltran.

Damn it! Second time this week I make an ass out of myself My bad, I misunderstood what you wrote. I gotta stop jumping all over people so fast. I need a beer...

When you call us the worst offense in the AL when we are 6th out of 11 in runs scored, even after a week where we had no offense, you clearly need to either stop talking or get smacked up the side of the head. Since I am I non-violent in nature, I suggested the first option.

Shut the hell up. We've been smoking the ball, without our best hitter for most of the year, and got 9 runs today. We had a bad week. End of story. Garland's last few starts before that weren't too bad either. His start against Montreal was dominating, Ozzie just should have taken him out for the 9th. The game before that he got victimized by some weak defense, would have been fine other than that. You got to go back a few start to find a game where he was absolutely rocked(Philly).

No, I not worried about it, because we've beat these teams before. We're 3-3 against Anaheim, 3-4 against New York(that includes a start by Wright), 0-2 against Oakland(Koch cost us one of those, other was extra innings), and 2-4 against the Cubs(includes two starts by Diaz and a rain-shortened game), and 7-3 against Minnesota. That's not the end of the world.

For once Brando, you and I agree. I still think you need to try to keep Maggs. The lineup looks lightyears better with him in the #3 spot. If he gets $15 mil a year somewhere else fine, but I better not see him sign somewhere for less than 5 years at $70 mil somewhere, otherwise Reinsdorf and I might have some words. If he does go, getting Pavano or Clement would be huge, Perez or Radke would be solid too. Maybe grab someone like Vidro if we sign the latter two, I wouldn't think they would get as much money as the previous two. Maybe Reinsdorf will see the team starting to show signs and will sign one of those pitchers AND get Maggs!

Has everyone forgotten how injury prone Drew is? Even when he was healthy, he wasn't THAT great before this year. One year was solid, but it was only like 100 games. He's got some talent, but he is going to get way to much money, and I'd rather not see a $10 mil a year player sitting on the DL, which is bound to happen if we get him.

Yeah that was neat. Someone climbing on top of the wall and catching some of those homeruns balls like Tanaka in ML2 would have been neater.

I'll be there tomorrow. Hoping Loaiza can prove some of my posts wrong. Haha, U of I orientation, that was the biggest waste of time when I did it. Just find an upperclassmen you trust(maybe me ), you get much better information.