BrandoFan

Come on Critic, fess up -- both?

Not every time, but often enough. Good hitting CAN and HAS beaten good pitching when they got enough lucky bounces and umpires gave the hitters a high % of close calls. Great pitchers can be beaten with bloopers, bleeders, steals and walks. The problem with White Sox is that they struggle against dominant pitching in big games even more than a playoff team with World Series aspirations has any right to. Knowing their history, I don't the Sox to score more than 3-4 runs a game in the playoffs, which means Sox pitching has to be TOP-NOTCH as well - otherwise forget about it.

Unless he loses 5 mph as soon as he puts on the ol' Black and White....

Let's just hope it's not a "phantom" offer designed to boost Kenny's ego and Jerry's reputation, but which ultimately amounts to nothing.

Have you checked The Daily Show webside?

and that's fine....

Don't worry about it, he is more afraid of you than you are of him. Bit of a temper problem, but tempers are meant to be tamed and egos - deflated. He IS taking Denny out, tough. Kudos.

Sorry Redbird, that's not now it works. There is this thing we like to call "individual merit", and the Indian 5 happen to score higher on that. When the selections were made (early Sunday before Mark lowered his ERA against Cubs and Seattle), both Sabathia and Westbrook were having better seasons than Mr. Run Support Buerhle. By a good margin, too. Belliard was kicking Uribe's ass. Lawton - Caballo's. Since the ASG picks were made, Lee has gone on a big streak while Lawton's numbers took a dive, but Lawton is STILL better than Lee this season. Carlos has noone to blame but himself - had he picked up where he left off in the 2nd half of 2003 this year, then maybe he wuuld have been the one going to Houston. Victor Martinez is Victor Martinez.

Yeah, but it's more publicity for the team and sometimes it can do wonders for a player's self-esteem. Guys like Frank crave "respect" and validation. Just make sure they stay away from anything to do with a Derby - Magglio still hasn't been the same since winning the 2003 Las Vegas HR Challenge. If Paulie makes the All-Star team, that could help his trade value as well - it's probably the highest it's been since 1st half of 2002. Then again, with Frank going down, Kong is no longer as expendable as he used to be - unless Sox use the money saved the deal to get Randy Johnson or a premiere lead-off man, then I am not as eager to part with Paulie as I was a week ago when Maggs was about to come back and Hurt hadn't yet revealed the extent of his ankle injury.

People are missing the point. Hawk was making it sound as if Torre pulled all 8 selections out of his ass. That's just ridiculous. He conveniently forgot to mention most of them were voted in by players and fans. Others deserve to be there. And what's wrong with Matsui? 903 OPS to Carlos's 828. His 'Close and Late' OPS is almost 200 points higher than Caballo as well. And that considering that Carlos plays in a hitter's paradise. Yankees have a much better record, too last time I checked. No, Matsui was a marginal all-star and Torre was right to put him as a 32nd man candidate. Take up the rest with Japanese folk who voted for him. Konerko/Thomas failed to make it because fans got to vote and because each team has to have at least 1 rep, NOT because Torre was too biased when choosing the reserves. Shingo - should thank KW for sticking with Koch. Uribe - shouldn't have sucked so bad the last 3 weeks of June. Buerhle? If Westbrook got that much run support, he'd be 10-1. Magglio was injured. Hawk's outrage couldn't be more misplaced. He's just not as fun this year as he used to be.

Sox grade: B (stop pulling the ball so much) KW grade: B (get me Unit, b****!) JR grade: B- (see: KW)

No, the point is that Hawk doesn't realize that at least 4 or 5 Yankees were not chosen by Torre, but by fans and players. I agree - the players and writers have to do all the voting. Or some independent commision. Or me.

Correct me if I am wrong, but weren't A-Rod, Jeter, Giambi, Matsui and Rivera voted in? If so, then it's not Torre's fault entirely. I mean, Yankees are on pace to win 105, shouldn't they have AT LEAST 4 reps anyway?

I don't know whether to laugh or cry at the above. I think I'll just :puke

Yeah, Kenny really f***ed up by not getting him today. :headshake