Bullard

You're damn right we clinched! Now us and Winston are in for sure with Great Falls and the big boys trying to wrap up a playoff birth as well. Hell even Charlotte has a chance still. By the way the last I heard Neal is starting tomorrow on TV. So watch it and love it. Bull

YOu better believe we won! The score was 7-1. Another solid day for the offense. They have been awesome lately. I think our magic number is doen to 3 now.

You would think that it would be weird but it really isnt. Guys come and go, thats just the nature of the game. It is more weird when your buddies get called up to the show. This year I have seen one of my best friends in this organization, Neal, get called up, along with my best friend growing up, Dan Haren, who is with the Cards.

No need to try to make me feel good about myself. I know my limitations, and looks is one of those. Whatever though at least I'm tall.

Every one thinks he's hot. It gets old real fast when you go out with him and all the chicks are trying to get all over him but he just ignores em and acts like no one notices him.

I gotta give you props Rex for your insight. These people are lucky to have your first hand knowledge of Bham and some other players you've seen.

Thats my boy!! s*** it took ya long enough Deal Hotts.

I accidentally found sox talk in Dec. of 02. I showed it to Neal and he enjoyed it as well.

Ya Neal is a Lebanese Cards fan.

Thanks Rex. Thats my longest outing since the All Star break. I have no idea who is gonna take his place. Neal is officially on our roster until Tuesday, so we wont have to make a move until then. But he's flying to Anaheim tomorrow morning to meet the team. I dont think we'll get Honel or Winger becuz Winston is playoff bound and they need those two for their playoffs. I would say maybe Carlos Castillo or Malone. But I dont know for sure. PS How did you know so fast what happened today at our game. Radio? Internet?

Well boys and girls my little buddy Neal is headed back to Bham right now to pack because he's headed for Anaheim to join the Sox. He doesnt know what day he's pitching yet, either Tue. or Wed.

I am probably the smartest guy on the team but at the same time I am definitely the weirdest too. I think the guys would attest to it. In fact Neal got interviewed by the Sox media dude a week ago and one question was "who was the weirdest guy he had played with", and of course he picked me. I'm not crazy or anything just a bit off the wall. Thats why the bullpen is better becuz it gives me more time to screw around during the game and Wally is in the dugout far from my antics.

Rex its tough to drive in runs when there is no one on base in front of you. Gabe and Reed and Carlos knock in the majority of the runs before Biko has a chance to do anything. Also we dont score that many runs as it is. We're last in the league in that category but oddly enough second in team BA. I like Biko as a hitter a lot and if the game is on the line I would want him Reed or Gabe at the plate. Its no accident he's hovering around .320.

Thanks Rex. I understand your anonymity and I respect it. I requested the move to the bullpen mainly because I have the mentality of a reliever and I havent had a sore arm since the Bush Sr. administration. Also, I wanted to show the Sox or for that matter every team, that I am versatile and that I can pitch in any role at anytime. As you know I have started, spot started, long relieved, set up, closed and been a lefty specialist. The later 3 things mentioned are what my role has ultimately became since the all star break. It makes me feel good to know that somebody has noticed me this year. I think I finally got the bullpen thing figured out.

I'm not calling Rex out. I just want to meet the man. I think he's very knowledgeable and I just wanna be graced with his spirits. Every game Neal and I look around at the crowd trying to figure out who the man is. He is a great mystery to us Barons. :sosasucks

Hitters 1. Reed 2. Borch 3. Anderson 4. Sweeney 5. Bikowski Pitchers 1. Cottsy 2. Honel 3. Pacheco 4. Winger 5. Me ( HA, just kidding) Seriously it could be any number of guys : Rauch, Adkins, Munoz, An, Diaz, or one of those young kids in Rookie ball I havent met

Rex hit the nail on the head in his interpretation of my assessment of Reeder. When I say he is doing pretty well now I mean that he hasnt been ungodly like he was when he first got here in June. But thats expected of course. No one can hit .500 for half a season except maybe me!! He got 3 or 4 more hits tonight in our 5-3 loss so maybe he's about to venture back into the world of ungodliness. Anyway he could, and most likely will play centerfield for the Sox. He has some serious range and even better instincts out there and his arm is a 50 on the 20-80 scale.(meaning it is big league avg.) He reminds me a lot of Steve Finley. He, along with Durham and Biko cover more ground in the OF than I have ever been apart of. Especially playing in a big park like ours, its nice to have guys roaming the OF that can cover the gaps and balls that are blooped in front of them. And everyone here should also listen to what Rex has to say about us becuz he's usually pretty dead on with his assessments of our team and players. I just wish the man would come out of hiding and introduce himself to me before the season ends. (Hint, Hint) Or at the very least he should introduce himself to Neal.

Well after a long hiatus I am back on the posting circuit. The internet has been hard to come by lately since we've been at home for most of the last month and a half and I have no phone line at my apartment. Anyway, we are sitting pretty in first place in the second half with about 25 games to go. Right now we're in Chatt. Lately our starting pitching has been awesome. Cotts, Pacheco and An have been all giving us solid starts for the last month while Wylie and Yofu have been nearly as strong as the other three. Its amazing the Neal and Pacheco are still here and not in the show. If the Sox were doing s***ty, I would guarantee that those 2 would be up for sure. Our offense has been up and down but for the most part they have gotten us enough runs to put us in a position to win. Alvarez and Bikowski are on some serious tears (Biko just ended a 16 game hit streak) and Reed has been pretty good as well. The rest of the line up has contributed as well, as it seems we have a different offensive hero each night. The bullpen, who according to the coaches, are either gonna make it or break it for us, has been pretty solid for the most part. Baj, myself and Meaux have all pitched well since the All star break, while Smitty has begun to pitch better too his last couple of outings. Thats all I got for now cuz we have the bus to the field in 10 min.

Reed is unbelievable. He can hit, run, play D and he has great instincts. He has a very good arm in the outfield and he is accurate with his throws. Everytime he's up it seems he gets a hit. and when he doesnt he still gives us quality at bats. he also is a menace on the bases and always seems to take the extra base or steal a bag when its needed. We have all been kidding him on the team that by the time we get back from this road trip he'll be in AAA and that he'll be the first guy ever to play 2 weeks with a team and never get to play a home game with them.

ya i agree that 100 pitches in 5 innings is a lot. you want to be in the 75 -80 range if you can. we only are alotted 100 pitches as a starter anyway so we all try to minimize our counts as much as possible so we can get deep into games and put ourselves and the team in line for the win. But when you strike out 7-10 hitters in 5 inn. as Neal often does then right there you lose 21-30, assuming of course that every k is in 3 pitches, which is never the case. so actually you are losing around 40-50 pitches with those k totals. the funny thing too is that cotts wants early pitch contact but the hitters have some serious issues with putting his ball into play. thus he k's more guys than he actually wants to. yesterday he threw only 85 pitches i think so if he wasnt coming off the dl he would have gone 1-2 more inn.

Cotts is 88-92 with an above average curveball and solid changeup. He has mastered the art of throwing fastballs above the zone and getting hitters to swing. He also punches out a lot of guys with fastballs in. His fastball looks like it is 95 with the way that some hitters react to it. He has a little funky foot tap like Rob Nen and It think that throws off the hitters timing a bit thus making it look like he's pumping 100 mph by guys but it is usually around 89-90

I think Cotts, like myself, need to be protected on the 40 man after this season. It is only 2 full seasons for guys drafted out of college and it is 3 full seasons for high school draftees. ie Honel etc. Cottsy has almost solidified himself on the 40 man for next year and we have heard that a Sept. call up is not out of question for him this season. In terms of his pitch count and 5 inning starts, those have come about because when you strike out 10 dudes in 5 innings youre gonna throw a lot of pitches plus he is only 2 starts deep since his stint on the DL. Finally be sure to watch the Cardinals game tomorrow if anyone gets a chance because my best friend form high school Dan Haren is going to make his big league debut against the Giants!!!

Well we're spending our off day in Orlando. Purvis and I went golfing this morning and then we came back to the hotel and took a nap. We finished the first half yesterday with a 6-4 win. I think I actually vultored the win in relief. Our first half was very rocky as I think we finished 33-35. Lately the injury bug has been kicking our ass. Cotts is on the DL for a couple more days and Westy went on the DL with some imflamation in his elbow but I think he'll be alright. Malone and Ulacia were sent to Salisbury college in NC to rehab.(thats where our rehab center is this season, beause of the approximation to the majority of our affiliates) So we have had a lot of guys in and out of here the last couple of weeks. Hankins went to AAA yesterday and I think Reed is coming here. Phillips came up here for a spot start and didnt exactly pitch good but its tough to go from low A to AA.(its a whole new ballgame up here) He was 84-89 and his offspeed was pretty good but he left a lot of stuff over the plate and paid for it. But now when he comes back here for good he'll have an idea of what it takes to be successful here. Byeong An is coming up here to take Philly's spot in the rotation so I dont have to make anymore spot starts.(thank God!!) Right now we only have 5 guys in the pen until Neal comes off the DL so I will probably continue to have to pitch extensively for the next week or so. I have been blessed with the cleanest bill of health on the team so far this year so I have had to pick up some innings out of the pen the last couple of days. We begin the second half with a 16 day roadtrip that covers almost 2,000 miles of travel. It begins here in Orlando and continues on to Mobile, Jacksonville and Huntsville. Basically we will be made or broke the next 2 weeks for the rest of the season. The scheduling of this trip is a freakin joke but I guess the league wanted it to be as hard a possible for us to repeat as champs. Finally I read the the list of prospects 1-50 and I must complement the guys for how well it was put together and basically how accurate in ranking and ability it was.( except for West's bio!) And Rex thanks for the kind words and the understanding of my back door slider, that is 9 times out of 10 a strike, but for some reason the ump wont call it. Adios

You guys are probably wondering why I am still online right now, but we have been rained out tonight at West. Tenn. So we have a double dip tomorrow and Sunday. So me and Cotts are just checking out all the replies to the post that we started with West. I just want to make it clear that what was written was not solely my opinion but the combined opinions of our trio. Cerb: Dude we totally appreciate your prospect lists and the guys within the list are all worthy of the slot that they were assigned. The only problem is the commentary that went along with the list. We didnt read all of the list but those we did read ie. West was pretty rough on him. I understand that it appears he has struggled but he has actually been working on a variety of new things ie. new windup, changeup, 2 seamer etc. and so his results have been mixed. He has given up a lot of soft contact early in the count, thus contributing to his low K's and higher hits. by no means has he fallen by the wayside. Dont think that we hate you or anything, we just wanted to get his side of the story on here as well. I guess this is the price I pay for showing my teammates the things you guys write. cwsox: thanks for the understanding of what we were trying to say and not taking it as a personal hit at any of you guys on this site. I appreciate the fact you understand what being teammates is al about. Brandofan: Dont take so many things we write so personal. We each have an opinion and we both have stated it. You dont need to trip out. We arent gonna waste any more time with you so. Lastly, I have introduced this site to a lot of guys on the Barons and some others in the org. and they really enjoy reading what you guys have to say but none of them have enough balls to write.(actually half of them are illiterate retards!)J/k Anyway keep on posting and I'll try to post more as well. JB

Westy, Cotts and myself were not commenting on where we were in terms of the list. None of care if we were #40 or # 20. What bothered us was the uneccesary attack on Westy and his abilities. We werent trying to tell Jason and the others that we should be ranked higher or what not. We are actually honored in one sense that we were included on the list but at the same time it was hard to read a prospect report that was an attack on West. He is much better than you give him credit for. Actually everybody on this team is better than give us credit for. We understand that you all have a right to your opinion, as do we, but I think unless you have covered all corners of a persons career you dont really have the right to judge him. You guys who post on here regularly know that I(bull) enjoy fan comments and reactions but my teammates who just saw this site for the first time today took it a little hard. More than just the three of us who are named have read this stuff and everyone is in basic agreement of the thoughts portrayed on this post. I love how you guys are so into our organization and how you research stuff but I just ask that when you criticize a guy keep it minimal and general because all of us, good or bad numbers, all have positive and negative attributes that we bring to Bham and that is why we are ultimately here to improve on the negs and keep demonstrating the pos. PS Brandoman : Dont take offense at us for posting our thoughts and quit with your rambling and big words and get to your points. JB, BW, NC etc.