southsideirish71

QUOTE(RockRaines @ Nov 16, 2006 -> 01:16 PM) Maybe the cubs will solidify their rotation with Gil Meche and Neal Cotts.... Neal better pick out a nice towel to throw in ST. This pretty much guarentees Tommy John surgery for Neal after next year.

QUOTE(RockRaines @ Nov 16, 2006 -> 01:11 PM) Oh god, from my perspective as a cubs hater, I hope they try to put Neal into the rotation. Well we have twits on nsbb running wild with Neal in their rotation check. And then we had the resident redsox mouthpiece drop over to crap on the trade. So pretty much I figure that Aarsdman will find his control and dominate due to both of those factors.

More of that high end insight from rotoworld.com or I mean the associated cub fan who writes for mlbtraderumors.com He didnt lose any stuff. Lets see Neal Cotts was winging a 93 mph fastball in there in 05 and had every batter on their heals because he pitched ahead an stayed ahead. Now every other year outside of 05, Neal would work into hitting counts, and was hitting a 91 mph fastball and little to no secondary pitches. I still remember when he would Rick Ankiel a few into the backstop. These reviews are funny at best. Especially when one of hte contributors is a cub fan. You have one year, that is completely differerent than any of their others. Yet lets jump on the one year and ride it into the sunset as the norm instead of the wierd thing.

QUOTE(Reddy @ Nov 16, 2006 -> 12:59 PM) consider me officially convinced. The funny thing is over on nsbb they think that Cotts is the answer to their starter woes. Wait till the wind blows out, and Mr. one pitch is gooving fastballs down the cock. But then again, the twits in the stands who follow that rubish they call a team will be good and drunk by that point.

Neal Cotts 2003 only 13 innings 8 ERA 2004 65 innings 5.65 ERA 2005 60 innings 1.94 ERA 2006 54 innings 5.17 ERA He also did a Mike Jackson impersonation and gave up everyone elses runs also. Now people what looks like the fluke, the year he had in 06, or maybe just maybe the magical 05 season. Neal is a deception guy who had one year were he could throw strikes and had pinpoint control. But if you look at his history in the majors, and in the minors this was a guy who couldnt throw strikes. So what do you think happens to one pitch pitchers, who cant locate and get into hitters counts all the time. Did you really want Cotts doing something similiar to his career averages on the Southside next year. I mean do I think we might have been able to get something else, maybe. But lets take a look at the FA market where a crappy player like Juan Pierre is going to get 3/30, or a LOOGY might get a few million a year and a guarenteed 3 year deal. If you can pick up another live arm out of the pen. It really plays into shortening up the game. With our homer based stadium we need two types of pitchers, either sinkerballers or strikeout guys, especially late in games. So another hard thrower, who can make a mistake and miss a bat instead of a guy lobbing up a 90 mph fastball on 3-1 which will be hitting some poor fan in the head. QUOTE(Friend of Nordhagen @ Nov 16, 2006 -> 12:43 PM) I watched Aardsma a few times last year. He was up with the Cubs early in the year, couldn't get the ball over the plate, and was terrible. He came back up later, had better control, and was pretty effective. Somebody quoted Sickels earlier saying he was throwing 88-92 before last year. Not last year. In the games I saw, he threw a lot harder than that, more like mid to upper 90's. And that's taking into account screwed up guns; hitters had a lot of trouble getting on top of his high fastballs. Lots of swinging strikes. If he gets it over, he's certainly better than Riske, maybe a lot better. But that's the big "if." As for Cotts, I'm disappointed to see him go. And I think he'll be quite effective for the Cubs. Thornton couldnt throw strikes at all before he came here. Jenks couldnt hit the side of a barn before he got here also. Doesnt AArdsma sound like a few other guys we have picked up. The hard throwing projects.

Aardsma has a good live arm, but I dont know if I would of sent Cotts off for that.

Walmart is giving out tickets to stop people from trying to wait in long lines. I am going to run up and get a ticket, if I win I will get a free xbox360 on the profits alone from selling the 360.

QUOTE(Gregory Pratt @ Nov 15, 2006 -> 11:22 PM) I suppose someone should defend Ozzie and say that he isn't entirely to blame for the fact that Brian Anderson couldn't hit water falling out of a boat for the first half of the season and couldn't get a big hit, or hit for power, in the second half. I'm not sure what we should do for Anderson (I much prefer Sweeney, internally), and I am opposed to trading him for something not-too-thrilling (but that's mainly because he's cheap, and gives us payroll flexibility, as I don't have faith in him becoming a stud), but, I really don't believe Ozzie's to blame for Anderson's season. Not playing BA in the first half sure, the platoon I guess was needed. Playing a corner OF in center when the rookie started hitting was not smart. Especially with our contact pitchers and the shear amount of times that Mack threw himself on the ground trying to get to something only to watch it scatter to the wall that BA or any normal CF would of caught in stride. Whatever Mack brought over BA's bat was immediately nullified with the amount of boob plays and non skilled plays mack made. Mack isnt a CF, in fact he has stated this on the radio, in the paper, and on TV. However as we have seen before the minute Guillen gets a man crush he runs with it no matter how illogical it is. Do you remember our DH when Carl went down, oh yeah that was Timo Perez, who was our backup 1st baseman, our backup leadoff hitter, and all around backup. BA gets crapped on for not hitting and we were trotting out Timo Freakin Perez as a DH in Yankee stadium. I find some irony with how one is poo poo, and the other is the main insert here guy. Thank God KW dropped him, or we would of had another season of Timo can play everywhere. The problem is very simple. BA had a slow start, and then of course people have revisionist history on how great the lord and savior Aaron Rowand was. I love Sweeney as a prospect. He is my favorite hitting prospect ever in the sox farm system. However he needs to learn how to hit lefty pitching, especially with the good lefties we have in our division. I would rather see Sweeney play another season at AAA and work on playing CF and hitting lefties better. Lets see if our starting 9 can play a bit more than 25% of the time as a group. KW has to think hard about who he puts on this team no matter what their limited role is. Because Mr I am resting my guys for October will start resting his guys in like game 2 of the 162 season like he did last year.

QUOTE(Whitewashed in @ Nov 15, 2006 -> 10:33 PM) Wow, Big Frank a Blue Jay... Hope to see him hit 500. I hope he does well. I hope when he faces everyone else he goes 4 for 4 and hits 4 home runs per game. Against us I hope he goes 0-4 and strikes out looking foolish all 4 times.

QUOTE(Soxfest @ Nov 15, 2006 -> 10:24 PM) BA can go! And replace him with whom..... Maybe we can watch more of the Mack juggling show in CF this year. I did love the circle route to the ball or the dive and watch the ball bounce past you. Our contact pitchers thrive under that type of world class defense in CF.

QUOTE(JDsDirtySox @ Nov 15, 2006 -> 10:22 PM) The Orioles are close to signing Jamie Walker to a three-year contract worth at least $10 million. Walker is 35 and he's never made more than $1.25 million in a season, so it's hard to blame him for cashing in, though he is picking a team with little chance of going to the playoffs over the duration of his contract. It's another misguided move for the Orioles, but it's not like it's going to take away from what they can offer other players. It's not the lack of funds that keeps them from getting big names; it's that most star-quality players can find teams more likely to contend. Source: FOXSports.com Because teams that have large gaping holes and no chance of competing for a long time, need to spend some money on that situational lefty that can keep the score 10-4. They tried this before when they dished out large amounts of cash for Kline. Angelos is a boob with his decisions, maybe they would take Garcia/toolsy prospect for Eric Bedard. Hell give them Vazquez and Garcia. Bedard, Garland, Bmac is a nice rotation that we can build around. And Peter can build his team around expensive has beens and never were's.

QUOTE(Heads22 @ Nov 15, 2006 -> 10:11 PM) Young K'd out a ridiculous amount..... Joe Crede K'd what 111 times his last year in AA. Our Lord and Savior Aaron Rowand K'd also 117 times his last full season in AA.

QUOTE(Balta1701 @ Nov 15, 2006 -> 07:20 PM) I know there were more than a few people here who liked him as a backup option for the Sox...so to shoot that idea down... Blanco signs 2 year extension with Cubs. Thats a lot of money for a backup. But with whats out there right now, it was a good signing. I was hoping the sox would of picked him up. He would of been a nice right handed bat to complement AJ in the catchers position.

QUOTE(winninguglyin83 @ Nov 15, 2006 -> 05:29 PM) won't bother me if BA is dealt. will bother me if they get only scraps for him. We can't keep wasting Number One draft picks. And if he was so flipping bad (which he was in the first half) why didn't they do something about this last season and send him back to AAA to fix his stroke and confidence. Brian has the same hole in his swing that every single player that comes up through our organization has. He has a long looping swing, that can be exploited by low and away pitching. Crede was horrible at it until recently, Rowand couldn't hit it, and was exploited by sliders in his last year here, Borchard couldnt hit anything low and away, you name the prospect and they can hit low and away. We breed softball type hitters, lift and pull and drive for yardage. The first hitter that I have seen come up without that methodology is Ryan Sweeney. Something seriously needs to be done in the minors with our hitting instruction. I know that rookies struggle, but good lord do ours just drop dead for a few years and take forever to mature as a hitter. We should hire someone that can teach a nice line drive swing. When they come up here and they can make some contact, then you start to work on picking a pitch to drive. Not every single pitch, especially on 2 strikes is a candidate to drive out of the park. IMO I see something from Brian, I think that with the right hitting instruction and the right mechanics he can be a really good player. I think he has the natural physical skills to hit for average and hit a 280 in this league. But not with his current swing mechanics. I find it funny that the Rangers think that he would be a good fit because he can work with their hitting coach. We cant give up on this kid just yet, unless someone gives us a kings ransom.

As long as the insane dwarf who runs their country gets underage girls, and nuclear weapons all is well in the NK. I wonder if the cure is somehow linked to plutonium or centrifuges. If so they are on the verge of a breakthrough.

QUOTE(redandwhite @ Nov 15, 2006 -> 12:18 AM) Theo has done a lot of wrong. Of late, he's done more wrong than right. And no, as much as I respect Jason, he's wrong. Not only would 51.1 million dollars not be enough to ink the both of them for two seasons combined, the Red Sox wouldn't have done that, because they would be right near or possibly over the Luxury Tax, something they have come out and said they wouldn't do. Schmidt might be able to be had, in addition to Matsuzaka. Curt Schilling and him are friendly and said today he'd love to talk to him and do some convincing. 51 million + whatever Boras bends your team over for. Say he gets 3 years at 10 mill, which will be a low ball. Thats 81.1 million dollars over 3 years for one pitcher. Tell me again, how that is so much better than getting Zito and Schmidt and paying some luxury tax. At least those two have won in the majors, at least those two have been in playoff baseball. 51 million dollars might as well be a luxury tax, except it benefits no one besides some Japanese team.

QUOTE(Rex Kicka** @ Nov 15, 2006 -> 12:05 AM) That's great that this is what you see. Unfortunately, it is not what the DOJ is arguing. This specific argument refers to the appeal by Qatari Citizen Ali Saleh Kahlah Al-Marri. He entered the country with his family on September 10, 2001. He was arrested and transported to a naval brig where he has been held under the classfication of "enemy combatant" ever since. He has been denied any kind of legal hearing and has been held indefinitely without charges. Al-Marri was a student at the University who was living in the United States legally. Here's his brief. http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/pdf/al-marriappealbrief.pdf There were a few guys on flight 93 that were in the US legally as well. They just were innocent foreigners who wanted to be commercial flight pilots.

QUOTE(Jimbo @ Nov 15, 2006 -> 12:08 AM) Call me crazy but I really dont want prospects for our starting pitchers...I want proven talent. We need pitching to replace pitching, and proven talent is going to cost you a s***load. If we can extract a teams version of Bmac, like someone like a Pelfrey for 86mph Freddy Garcia, call it a day and run to your hideout and take off your mask.

QUOTE(redandwhite @ Nov 15, 2006 -> 12:09 AM) The YES Network is broadcast overseas. It's been rumored that NESN will go the same route and as a result money will be made. Has Theo ever done anything wrong in your eyes. 51 million just to negotiate with a pitcher who has some serious wear and tear on his arm. Maybe Theo should ask Bill James about pitcher abuse points. As Jason had said, you could of taken the large amount of money you dished on a might be and put in on 2 of the offseasons best starters and still had some change left over.

How stupid can a club get, 51 million dollars just to get the pleasure of getting bent over from Boras. I wonder how his arm will hold up with going every 5 days, and having the mileage of the silly 150 pitch games and crap that they put him through. Now lets see if the SABR community craps all over this, because if they apply pitcher abuse theories to this guy, he is a walking time bomb. Red Cubs strike again.

QUOTE(Gregory Pratt @ Nov 14, 2006 -> 01:22 PM) I wonder what we could get for Jon Garland in a trade. He'd be my first choice to ship out for young pitching + some youth in position players as I think he's overachieved heavily, but he has fair numbers and good win numbers, so I figure someone'd be willing to overpay for him. Contreras, too, as well as Buehrle. Garland is a sinkerball pitcher playing in an extreme home run park. IMO there are 2 types of pitchers the sox should employ if they want to keep this style of park, sinkerballers and strikeout guys. Out of all of our pitchers Garland would be the last pitcher on the list I would trade. He is young, is affordable, and has some good upside still. Bmac is the next guy I wouldnt trade. The rest, whatever gets us the best deal.

QUOTE(Rowand44 @ Nov 14, 2006 -> 12:52 AM) Well to be fair, Crawford is a different type of player and I believe that's the reason every wants him. He's a young player with ridiculous potential and is a solid leadoff hitter already. I agree with your main point though, to have two guys like Pelfrey and Mac in the rotation starting next season is just invaluable to a franchise. Pitching is what wins in this game. Its the formula that keeps on getitng teams to the postseason and to the world series. Why do we think that Boston just paid eleventy billion dollars just to pay a Japanese pitcher a kings ransom. Pitching is at a premium. If we can spin Vaz or Garcia off and get someone like Pelfrey to mix up with Bmac it will help our team more in the long run than having a guy who will become a lift and pull powerhitter the minute he comes here.

QUOTE(Jordan4life_2006 @ Nov 14, 2006 -> 12:44 AM) Rowand, my friend, Carl frickin' Crawford! I like B-Mac, too. But if Kenny was able to pull off what Tony proposed, I'd s*** my pants. How many years have we had rediculus offense, and then we trotted the likes of Felix Diaz, and company out there. I would rather stock up on pitching, and just go easy on the bat in LF. Everyone looks at Carl and drools, but we all need to remember what happens to players when they come here. I dont care how they hit before, the minute the come into the homerdome they forget everything they have learned, and just lift and pull. Carl will become power Carl, and we will see less and less of his speed. You will just have another power guy in a lineup of powerguys. Bmac and Pelfrey with our current offense > Pelfry and current offense + Carl. Hell we might as well just kept Mags, Carlos Lee, and just stayed the good ol softball team we have been for years.

yawn

QUOTE(Tony82087 @ Nov 12, 2006 -> 11:31 PM) From the links I see on ESPN, Walker already made more in 2006 than what Myers did in 06. Walker is going to get paid this off-season, and I dont really have a problem with it being from the Sox. Guy has put up solid numbers the last 4 years. But his numbers against the tough lefties of our division are not that good. Twinks Morneau is hitting 400 against him Mauer is hitting 714 against him Injuns Hafner is hitting .385 Sizemore is hitting .750