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QUOTE (JoeCoolMan24 @ Feb 21, 2012 -> 01:18 AM) Anyone else follow Brandon McCarthy? Dude is pretty damn funny. Seems like a fun dude to hang out with. Brandon McCarthy @BMcCarthy32 "Well if you didn't want to get farted on, you shouldn't have tried to cuddle," I said to kick off Monday night's fight. This is one of the reasons Ozzie didn't like him. He didn't take anything seriously especially his preparation (too much nightlife) for game days.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Feb 19, 2012 -> 04:40 PM) And there's no reason that the likes of Santiago, Petricka, Castro and/or Axelrod can't be put into that starting rotation before Molina. Obviously, the same goes with Stewart. There's just no compelling reason to rush him, other than to justify that trade immediately. We finally have some semblance of pitching depth in the upper minors...let's use that to protect Molina's development and psyche to nurture him for as long as necessary before he's 100% ready for major league hitters. The problem is you do not know the Pyche of any of the players nor do I for the most part. The only people that do are the ones that deal wih them on a daily basis. They may come to the conclusion that Molina is best suited for MLB success from the mental aspect. The others may best suited for a relief role. I'm not saying this is true, just that the people in the organization are the only ones you can decide this and to say that there is no reason that the other shouldn't be ahead of him is not accurrate.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Feb 20, 2012 -> 01:27 PM) I am going to absolutely hate seeing a ton of platooning, I'm going to complain about it every time it happens to any of the kids, and I absolutely expect that you're right. I don't think any one really knows with Robin as manager. I agree with you so let's hope he uses the beginning of his career as a reference and let's the kids fail and learn to succeed. Because everyone knows that especially hitting is a faling job. You fail more than you succeed and learning to deal with failing is one of the keys to becoming a good hitter.

QUOTE (Milkman delivers @ Feb 18, 2012 -> 08:47 AM) Why would you pay extra money to watch batting practice? The opportunity to catch a meaningless ball? It's not meaningless to a kid. That ball can make a fan for life which is a lot more income.

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ Feb 17, 2012 -> 03:56 PM) Those two are 1987 Arnold Schwarzenegger from Predator compared to Tom Arnold, oh, I mean Babe Ruth. He got a candy bar named after him. That's all you need to know. I would disagree, they are both fat and out of shape slobs. But like you've said before, I know nothing about athletes. I've only worked with olympic and professional athletes for the past 30 years.

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ Feb 17, 2012 -> 03:32 PM) Did somebody just imply that Bill Russell could play in today's NBA? That's blasphemy and preposterous. What's next? That fat, out of shape, porker Babe Ruth would rule the game of baseball like he did when entire teams were hitting 20 HRs and pitchers topped out at a 2006-Freddy Garcia like 86 MPH on their FB? Bill Russell played when there was no athleticism, everybody, even point guards, dribbled with only their strong hand, everybody was built like Wite, everybody shot in the low 40's percentage wise, and everybody played at a clown pace. Bill Russell is not even as good as Sabonis. Now there's always room for interpretation. You've got some guys who were good for their time. Then you've got Wilt, Magic, Michael, Shaq and LeBron. They'd be good ANY time. But just stop with Bill Russell. I can't take it anymore. That's true. Fat out of shape guys can't hit kind of like Prince Fielder and Miguel Cabrera.

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Feb 16, 2012 -> 09:35 AM) It's impossible not to like Doc Rivers. Thanks for posting that article. Of course he was a product of the Marquette Warriors, before they became the Marquette Hugging Geldings

QUOTE (Quinarvy @ Feb 15, 2012 -> 03:36 PM) He specifically says he does "prehab", preparing athletes to avoid injuries and recover quickly. It's a combination of those two. Coop's handling/teaching of the pitchers and Herms conditioning programs, most of which comes from Andrew's group.

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ Feb 15, 2012 -> 07:27 AM) I don't think the Marlins are going to be that good. But healthy Johnson, Sanchez, Nolasco and Buehrle is a way above average rotation. Forgot about Zambrano. SP shouldn't be a problem for them. Too many health issues throughout the staff for me to trust the rotation. Zambrano is still as big of a question mark. Even if he pitches well which is shaky, he has a whole new group to fight with.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Feb 14, 2012 -> 11:45 PM) No way this is true. Our team is expected to be one of the worst in baseball. It has more to do with the respective divisions than anything. Also, 2 other reasons. 1) no way the Sox play as bad as last year so I don't fall in line with them being one of the worst teams. The Sox aren't going to win the division but aren't going to be awful. 2) I don't see the Marlins pitching staff doing much. Johnson and Buerhle and pray for a hurricane?

QUOTE (greg775 @ Feb 14, 2012 -> 09:29 PM) Makes sense. It's not fair, though, that Ozzie gets this talented team in Florida that acquired a bunch and Robin (and we fans) is left with this rotten team on the South Side. The Sox will have more wins than the Marlins.

QUOTE (Iwritecode @ Feb 13, 2012 -> 01:25 PM) My wife and I have been having a debate for the past couple of weeks. We are planning on getting a new car in the next 1-3 months. My daughter is 15 and just started taking driving lessons. She has to have her permit for a minimum of 9 months so she won't be getting her license until December at the absolute earliest. The car we have now is a 2003 Grand Prix with over 222,000 miles on it. It has a few minor problems but runs pretty good for the most part (knock on wood). The debate we are having is whether or not to keep the old car for her to drive around so we don't have to worry about her getting into an accident with the new car or trading it in and knocking some money off the new car. My wife wants to keep it so our daughter can drive it and there's no chance of her wrecking the new car. I'm looking at all the added costs of keeping it when the only person that will be driving it doesn't even have a license yet since my wife doesn't drive at all. Our insurance will go up, we still have to keep up the maintenance, plus we have to find a place to park it since we only have a single car driveway that's already filled up with 3 other vehicles. We have full coverage on our car now but if when we get the new one, we could drop to liability on the old one to save a little money. The problem with that is if my daughter has a minor accident (say she backs into something and takes out a taillight and cracks the bumper) then we are on the hook for the cost of the entire repair. Also, if the car suddenly needs some major repair (engine blows, transmission goes out) then we might as well junk it and get something else. At least if we trade it in we'll get something out if it. Even if it's only $1000. We do have a suburban that she could drive if she really needed it but my wife thinks its too big for her. I think she'd actually be safer in it. It takes a lot to wreck a suburban. If she is at all a decent driver, put her in the suburban. That's what I learned to drive in and I was comfortable driving vehicles of any size because of it. Also, it is safer. My first "accident" was when someone hit me from behind and I was to nervous to avoid it. The wreck totalled the other vehicle (Z24) but barely dented the bumper on mine. Turns out she was 16 with a new license as well. Her father called mine and wanted to see if everything was OK. My Dad laughed and said don't worry about it and explained the situation. The girl's father's reply....can I buy the Suburban.

QUOTE (StatManDu @ Feb 13, 2012 -> 12:59 PM) Was this performance Grammy worthy? On 6-19-77, White Sox first baseman Lamar Johnson sang the national anthem & hit 2 HRs in Sox 2-1 win vs A's at Comiskey Park They should have had him sing the National Anthem at least once a week after that.

QUOTE (JoeCoolMan24 @ Feb 13, 2012 -> 01:45 PM) I don't know, but now he just tweeted this.... Keenyn Walker @Keenyn_Walker About to go get a massage and lucky the family I'm stayin with is a chiropractor! Should be good to go tomorrow! Probably just from lifting Either damage control realizing how bad his other tweet sounded, or he was just being dramatic the first time. If this is true he could be in a lot of trouble. If he goes to a chiro without consulting with any of the team medical staff first, he will get in some deep #%&* from the team.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Feb 9, 2012 -> 05:45 PM) 1.) I like that post a lot, but I just don't understand why Peavy, Rios, Dunn aren't enough reasons to bury Kenny. Having those guys cost me my favorite player in Mark. I will say this. The booing will start on Opening Day this year and The Cell will be a very very negative place to be with all 3 of those guys getting booed big time all year IMO unless they produce. It will be such a negative place to be. 2.) I love that post. Post of the new year. A lot of Sox fans were against the Dunn signing. My dad was furious. Said Dunn would be a bust. I trusted the folks on here who were so excited and figured it'd be nice to have an automatic 40 homer guy to go with Paulie. Just because you focus on those 3 not everyone does. The Dunn move was bad last year. Doesn't mean it will be. I'm glad you can predict the one of a kind injury Peavy had, no one else di. Rios, you get that one. KW has made many more good moves than bad ones. Overall he has done a good job. Do you really think a player will get booed if they don't produce? That would happen regardless of past performance. Fans were booing Thomas at the end of his run here. He's a HOF who had a devastating injury. I have complete faith in Sox fans will boo if they don't produce as is thier right.

QUOTE (Chicago White Sox @ Feb 8, 2012 -> 09:37 PM) I'm pretty sure KW hired Wilder from the Brewers and it was a highly regarded move at the time. IIRC, Wilder then went on to interview for the Red Sox GM job a few years later. Clearly the guy was considered a strong talent evaluator and had a great resume, so it's hard to blame KW for hiring him and trusting him in a significant role. The question is why did it take so long for KW to become aware of Wilder's illegal activities. It's one thing to have trust in an employee, but you still have a responsibility to oversee their actions and it doesn't appear that KW did a great job of that. Unfortunately, we'll never really know the details of the whole Wilder fiasco. OK, I thought Wilder was there prior to KW. I just remember KW talking about how he always looked up to him and thought of him as a trusteed mentor. He must have known him from outside the organizartion. KW is definitely on the hook for hiring him. I think it took so long because he did trust him and gave him a lot of room to operate on his own. Maybe that's why he Wilder thought he could get away with it.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Feb 8, 2012 -> 07:27 PM) Another reason for KW to fall on his sword, in the collective scheme of things. Still...I'm sure he learned a valuable lesson. But that same type of situation toppled Bowden and Jose Blame It On Rijo in Washington. To be fair KW inherited him from Schueler and subsequently let him have too much free reign. I don't think KW should fall on the sword for someone he inherited even if it did happen on his watch. Bowden hired Rijo and thus was more responsible for him and his actions.

QUOTE (JoeCoolMan24 @ Feb 8, 2012 -> 12:10 PM) Keith Law doesn't like our minor league system. While I am w/ the people who think he has irrational hate towards the Sox, it's hard to say this has any relation to that. He writes.... I like the part where he says "get the other teams to play by his rules." This is actually smart business and many owners wanted to force caps on bonuses. This way a) you don't have to pay alot of money for someone you has never and may never play in the MLB (simialr to the NFL rookie cap), 2) the teams with the most money don't always get the best players. This just shows how Law is biased against the Sox, we also may have found the reason: he doesn't like the way JR weilds power in the MLB

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Feb 8, 2012 -> 05:57 PM) Gonzalez, Hudson on the minus side, not to mention the $4M for a month of Manny. Agreed. I still think the overall body of work is on the plus side.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Feb 8, 2012 -> 03:53 PM) In the end, you take risks. We've seen that money go to the likes of Silverio, Anderson Gomes and Orlando...and it's a better idea to take the risk of 10-20 Jordan Dankses or Trayce Thompson's making it and becoming a superstar than drafting the likes of Royce Ring, Broadway, McCulloch or Poreda in the first round (well, Aaron was LH and at least had some above average heat at one point). Plus it helped to keep his brother in the fold, there was that theory as well. He had all the raw physical tools (not unlike BA) that you look for in a young outfielder, not unlike our drafting of Sweeney. The problem has always been the long swing, power and K numbers. That's what happens with 90% of toolsy outfield prospects, they go bust. And saying is Cespedes worth 8-10 Joe Borchards in terms of price isn't quite the point, although the numbers are scary. If nothing else, it makes the Viciedo and Ramirez signings look even more "genius" in retrospect. Then again, if we just had average results in the Dominican and Venezuela over the last decade, our farm system would actually be competitive vis a vis the rest of MLB. I think some of this was fallout from Wilder and his kickback scheme. Players may have been hesitant to sign knowing they has to give some of the bonus to them.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Feb 8, 2012 -> 03:21 PM) How Kenny has kept his job is beyond me. Dunn.Peavy. Rios.Those are the kind of baseball players who get a guy fired. If Reed fails at closer, he also gave away the Sox only closer candidate for this season. Sergio for nothing. Real wise. Oh I forgot. Ozzie didn't have to play Rios and Dunn so that takes Kenny off the hook. Oz is at fault for playing them. Danks,Floyd,Rameiez,Pierzynski,Thornton,Contreras,Garcia,Quentin,Jenks,Thome. Those are reasons that he has done a pretty good job during his tenure here. If you want to be short sighted and only look for a the last few transactions sure he's had a bad run. It may be time for him to go just like Ozzie. Every job in sports has a shelf life. Sooner or later he needs to go. However to only look at a few deals is a poor way to judge someone. Many people talk about sample size. Those are a pretty small sample size.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Feb 8, 2012 -> 02:10 PM) Have you ever signed an employment contract? Did it tell you exactly what you had to do everyday? Some do, some don't. Every professional job has a job description. If you're going to petty enough to say every single second of every single minute. Of course not, although my current job with the state makes me write down by 15 minute increments on my time sheet. Do you really know JR that well that you know what his decision's would be. At best it's a calcualted gamble. You really do hate KW enough to assume he's always lying and phony. The peopel I kow that know him think he is very straight forward with them. They say he is arrogant and can be difficult to deal with because he wants everything done his way but you at least you know where you stand with him.They also say he doesn't like the media and will puposely mislead them. Which is pretty obvious to everyone. Before you ask I do not have documented proof that my friends work well with him and respect him.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Feb 7, 2012 -> 06:07 PM) The Bullpen Gospels by Dirk Hayhurst. Its really good. I forgot about that one. It is good.

QUOTE (Tannerfan @ Feb 7, 2012 -> 03:27 PM) Last night my wife and I went out to dinner with a group of friends. We talked about the Super Bowl, but then the conversation turned to everyone saying what their favorite sport was. I of course said baseball, and the woman next to me said she enjoyed it but found it a little boring. I told her that once you understand the nuances of the game it is very dramatic and exciting. I used game six of this past World Series as an example. Long story short, she is a very literary person and asked me to reccomond at least three books about baseball. I've thought of Moneyball and Roger Kahn's The Boys of Summer. I know I can count on all of you to help me come up with a third, and probably a better one and two as well. Help me out Soxtalkers. I want to convert her from basketball to baseball! Cal Ripken's book is excellent. If she wants to see how baseball is connected to american history there is a good book about Moe Berg, the catcher who used his international baseball travels to spy on other nations.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Feb 6, 2012 -> 11:34 PM) The better question is how much do we blame our.... 1) college/high school amateur draft scouts 2) minor league development people (Bell now) 3) major league coaching staff, especially Ozzie and Walker 4) front office, KW and Hahn specifically You can say "the buck stops here" and it's ultimately KW's responsibility, with scouts merely providing advice and counsel, guidance and their combined years of collective wisdom (I think Moneyball suggesting it's 150 years is a bit much, don't remember Abner Doubleday or Alexander Cartwright doing much scouting during the Civil War)... I think it also has to do with overall philosophy. Until a few years ago the Sox were drafting the Low ceiling but supposedly safer players such as Broadway and McCullough in the first round. I think they figured out that even these players have a high fail rate so they should change their philosophy and go for the raw but possible superstar talents like they have in the last few drafts with Sale, Mitchell, Wlaker and Thompson. All had big question marks but big talent. My personal opinion is that KW is very smart and knew he didn't know drafting. He knew development which was his role in the organization before he became GM. So he relied heavily on people that were here before him such as Shaeffer and Wilder. He probably gave them to much power as the conservative style of drafting really doesn't fit with KW's "go for it" attitude with everything else. I think is why he is still around. JR is allowing the drafts from the last few years to mature (for lack of a better word) and see if KW can do it his way.