elrockinMT

Interesting info, but have we had any Arizona DB scouts at Sox games that we have heard about? I am thinking Arizona might need relief help, but am not up on their IB situation.

I'm betting the house on PAUL KONERKO for May 21st.

I think Loaiza is the leading Sox candidate for the All-Star game and to start the darn thing too. Let's hope we can get some players hot in the next few weeks and have more than one on the team. It would be a shame since it's at Comiskey. Maybe Wunsch?

I hope not. The only other one to play first would be Daubach, who is a lefty correct? Manuel can't make the move.

You know I just figured out why I have survived this season so far. The .36 caliber wouldn't fire. Lucky me?!?! One more observation. We have a lefty going against us tonight with an ERA over 7. runs a game. This could be when our right handed power breaks out. I am counting on it especially Konerko who is my pick to click tonight.

Konerko may be able to click with Greg Walker. Let's see if he can build on those 2 hits last night. What I am waiting for is line shots and some homers and then I'll know PK is back. I am going to finger him as the pick to click on Wed night.

Don't be superstitious Sox fans. Rogers wrote a real nice article and what I am hoping is that this slump Buerhle is going through is a maturing process for a great young pitcher. He hasn't had a long stretch of ineffectiveness in his two plus years with the Sox and is suffering mentally. Heck half of this game is 90% mental. Watch for Mark to come through like an ace. Tonight will be interesting.

We won and I am happy again. I am putting the old .36 special away for at least a day or two. My wife is putting the insurance papers away. Let's keep it up now. Colon showed us something again tonight. He is the big man who can step up and stop the losing streak.

Bridgeport Joe, with all due respect to a fellow Sox fan, I don't know if Borchard will actually end up in CF. There was some concern about his ability there and that he might be better at LF or RF. The other two are not close enough for consideration, heck even JB has been struggling at Charlotte. Also the numbers and players you want to give up in a trade are to far weighted in the benefit of the trade partner. I do think your on the right track looking for J.D. Drew.

I agree that we have to keep looking at the positives, as hard as it may be. I think we can get this turned around. Jarry Manuel

You don't trade away your young talent. Crede can be another Melton or even Ventura. You can trade Konerko to maybe the Mets, but what do you want in return? White is tradeable to a number of teams as is Garland or Wright, but again they are the young pitching talent and we have given away quite a bit of that already. I like Jose Valentin and don't want to see him go. He adds spark to this team at a time they desperately need it. Jimenez might be trade bait and Miles in his place, or if you trade Konerko maybe Valentin, Miles, Jimenez and Thomas all kind of switch around from game to game. I think Carlos Lee is ready for a bust out season and he is giving it his all trying to improve in his weak areas. CF is the one glaring weak spot I see now so trading Konerko and/or White needs to bring us a CF prospect.

White isn't injured, at least he doesn't look that way. He still brings it at 93 MPH. If we let him go then we need to do so in a trade. He has an affordable contract and there are teasm looking for pitching. Get something for him. I am not sure we can wait around for the guy to get it together like he did last year in St Louis. Maybe we can use him in a trade package or something.

I may agree with you CubKilla, but who out there with money and a real desire to compete has surfaced that may want to purchase the Sox? You can't win with what we have been doing even though I think some of the moves KW has made have been good. In the scenario that I described I think KW might be better in the role as Farm Director, or whatever his old title was, because he seems to be pretty good at rating young talent. I point to the Marte trade as one example and I hope for my credibiity it's not the only one we can use. I am really starting to believe we need to look at the make up of the team and start working on improving speed and defense over the 5 run homer. We also need to stop giving up two or three pitching prospects in every trade.

I am going with Frank Thomas tonight

Let me try and wax the philosophical for a bit. I see the Sox problems starting farther back like towards the end of the 2000 campaign. We played pretty ragged towards the end of that season and then got swept by the Mariners in the playoffs when I believe we had the best record in the AL. You had a good mix of players and most having outstanding, even though I would not say career years, and then we went into 2001 and again in 2002 trading away some of those pieces. We also continued to slide. We never get off to a good start even in 2000 we didn't. We gelled later. I see a lot of talent on this team as far as hitting anyway and some real good pitching when their on their game, which has been up and down and for some none existent. We have tried to build a team on offense. The old baseball axioms are you win on speed, defense and pitching. Offense is nice, but when it ain't there the other holes in your team are magnified. If we had the consistent pitching and at least some offense it might be good enough to keep us in contention. Right now we have no defense and no speed and no offense and inconsistent pitching. Sometimes the hitters step up and at other times we have good pitching, but usually only for a couple games out of 5 or 6. The old Sox teams of the past were built around speed and defense and pitching and were in contention with the likes of the powerhouse Yankees all the way to the end. I think, that if this present team makeup can't start producing then we need to start looking at some BIG changes. We are wasting money on free agents like Colon, who can be a super star pitcher, if we only keep him for a year. We should have had him signed to a long term contract before the season started. If we don't plan on doing that then we need to start looking at what we have in the farm system and what we can obtain through trades and change the makeup of this team. I hope the season is still young enough, and since we are only 5 or so out, there is still that hope we can turn it around. However, as much of a diehard Sox fan I am, the reality I am seeing is we don't have the talent or the drive to compete for the pennant. It doesn't matter if Minnesota has to go and face the likes of Oakland, Seattle, NY or Boston, if we can't beat any of those teams either and the Twins besides. Heck we can't even beat the Royals. I hope we can get focused now...

He is the team leader no doubt about it. Even though he makes errors the man plays all out and gives 100% everyday. We need more players to play the way Jose does and not trade the guy. Right now the fielding lapses are magnified by the zero hitting we have been getting. I had hopes that after the sweep of the O's we might be turning the corner, but I am still waiting with the turn signal on.

Hope will come when we have a baseball team that can play real baseball. I hope it's this group of guys, but I am not so sure anymore. Jimenez can hit, but is a poor fielder and poor baserunner Valentin can hit but can't field Crede can field but can't hit Konerko has shown some real golework, but isn't hitting and can't run Thomas shows stretches where he hammers the ball then returns to 0 for lots of bats for 3 games in Minnesota. No matter who plays CF they can't hit, run or field Ordonez keeps hitting into DP's Oh well. Let's hope we get turned around here pretty soon.

Manuel should never had taken Loaiza out after 6 innings. The guy pitches with all his heart and the offense/defense let him down once it went to the pen.

The negatives ONLY come into effect if there is a tie between players. I didn't like the idea of using negatives to determine a winner, so we decided to use them only as a tie breaker. Only asking a question here Southsider: Are ties that bad? I can see your point in doing that though if we have all 9 hitters tied, which may have or can happen. But thanks for the explanation.

I liked Walker when he played for the Sox. He had a sweet swing. I agree that Crede, Harris and Konerko need some help. Crede especially becasue I couldn't belieev some of the weak and flat out dumb swings he has been taking lately. You see him reaching out flatfooted and with his rump stuck out a lot and looking lost. He has made up for it with his defense though, which is more than can be said about others. I picked Crede to click tonight, which might be too early but we'll see.

Joe Crede for me.

How about just accenting the positive on offense: a single and a run scored count for 1 point each a double is 2 points a triple is 3 points a homer is 4 points an RBI is 2 points You total up the box score as follows: Frank Thomas hits a homer with two on base 4-1-1-3 so he gets 12 points D Jimenez gets a double 4-0-1-0 so he gets 2 points You could add walks if you like and give a score of 1, but let's not accent the negative. We have too much of that already. You could do pitchers, but I think that's a lot harder to evaluate in a single game. I am open to whatever everyone else thinks there.

I was THINKING real hard about picking Jose does that count?

Manuel went against the very tactic he claimed he was going to start using. Remember he said he would use the relief pitchers for 2 innings if they were hot? Marte is hot and he takes him out and puts in someone who pitched the day before!? I like Gordon, but this 1 inning stuff makes little sense to me. I also can't see why he didn't let Loaiza pitch into at least the 7th. The guy is a battler and we don't seem to be seeing much of that lately. Our defense is pathetic, we can't run and of course we can't hit. But what's new? We have been over this same stuff for 43 games now and there is no improvement. We have talent, but it just ain't showing itself. Tell me it ain't so, Joe?

I am going with Carlos Lee today. I am impressed with how hard he is trying. Getting good swings too.