Balta1701

QUOTE(YASNY @ May 10, 2006 -> 08:51 AM) I can't disagree with you. But, I can present another question. Wouldn't his trade value be greater as a 3B than an OF? Of course, it would be much greater if could effectively play both. Well, the question then is who we're going to trade. If he's a 3rd baseman who can hit 30 home runs, yeah his value will be greater than an outfielder who can do that. But that doesn't mean his value to us would be greatest as a 3rd baseman. If he could cover one of those corner outfield spots, that could just increase the "Loaded-ness" of our lineup if he does make it up and Crede winds up staying.

GO GET EM CHARLIE!!! MLB's due for another quality knuckleballer to appear, and the Sox are due for a pitcher to come up and blow someone away in his first start. Kinda like that Ervin Santana kid did to us last year. And oh yeah, he has the #3 offense in MLB to back him up.

QUOTE(Cuck the Fubs @ May 10, 2006 -> 08:43 AM) How? Pierre robbed Bonds of 714 last night They still have 2 more games, and plenty more rookie pitchers.

QUOTE(RockRaines @ May 10, 2006 -> 08:44 AM) He wont have a huge chance of breaking in our OF either. With Sweeney, Owens, Anderson probably filling the gaps. There was talk of moving him to 1st base, but with Paulie there long term, and Thome as our DH, theres also a log jam there. Who knows what we will do with this kid. Well, the one thing I'll say in reply is this...what are the odds that all 3 of Sweeney, Owens, and Anderson will wind up being great successes in the big leagues? I for one am not going to project a 100% success rate on our outfielders, and I think having a backup plan might be a good idea.

QUOTE(greasywheels121 @ May 10, 2006 -> 06:32 AM) Haha. You're brushing it off as if it were nothing. Dye looked great tonight, for not seeing live pitching for about a week. That could mess someone's timing off big time. Yet, he came back without missing a beat, with the oppo-field HR. He did look a little slow in the field to my eyes. May have just been taking it easy his first time out.

QUOTE(RockRaines @ May 10, 2006 -> 08:25 AM) I think Thome will finish under .300, just based on his career numbers. However his OBP will be over .400 which is what his true value is. He really does make this lineup more dangerous though. Just not relying on Konerko for all the power is making the lineup more loose and comfortable. Thome is also used to shouldering the entire offensive load for a team, so he really takes alot of the pressure off. Also alot of the player have been interviewed, and they claim that one of the things Thome does best is come to the clubhouse with the same attitude everyday. He is never upset about K-ing 4 times, he is the same guy. I think that blind confidence has rubbed off alot on crede, AJP, and Dye. Jermaine Dye's performance this year has been a bit overshadowed, but he is really important to our lineup. Last year he started out the season in a huge slump, and still ended up with a great season. This year he has a ton of protection in front and behind him, which is causing him to relax and swing the way he is capable of. Our 3,4,5 hitters have to be one of the best heart's in the game. Iguchi is benefitting from having murderers row behind him. I think there's some more influences you're underestimating. With Iguchi, for example, he's not sitting there and waiting for Podsednik to steal or sacrificing himself as a productive out nearly as often, because with Thome behind him, there's no great reason to open up a base, so he's just putting his best swings out there. Konerko, I think, has finally gotten that piece of "Pull hitter granite" out of his skull, and now he's decided to be a good hitter who pulls the ball most of the time. In fact, a lot of our guys are using the opposite field more than they did last season, Konerko and AJ and Crede most notably. It's also worth noting that now we actually have a reason in our lineup to have managers screw around with their pitching staff...i.e. you bring in a lefty to pitch to Podsednik and Thome, and it winds up draining your bullpen depth sooner. There's a lot of things going on there. I think I like just about all of them.

Ok, so I just replied to 1 person's quote in a thread, posted it, then replied to another person's quote, and the system joined those 2 posts together automatically. Is that normal? Because if it is, it's really cool.

QUOTE(RockRaines @ May 10, 2006 -> 08:32 AM) Fields does rake though, I would hate to trade young talent like that, but it appears thats what we will have to do. Is there any chance this team will start wising up and playing Fields in the OF a little bit at some point this season? QUOTE(SnB @ May 10, 2006 -> 08:30 AM) with the amount of time it took for crede to turn into anything, i really don't think the sox are putting too much faith in fields being able to take over for crede, at least i hope so. The good news is...thanks to Crede, there's no reason to Rush fields to the big leagues to fill any kind of hole. We can hold him at AAA til we're 100% confident he's ready. We can give him 2 years at AAA, then still have an All Star Third Baseman that we can trade for pitching before he's a FA, if we can't get a way to sign him. Here's the real question IMO...can Ozzie carry 3 3rd baseman on his all star roster?

QUOTE(Jordan4life_2006 @ May 8, 2006 -> 12:37 PM) I got this series going 6 games. That's it. The Mavs don't fool me. They are not capable of beating the Spurs 4 times in a playoff series. Now they only have to do it 3 times, all of which are at home.

QUOTE(Cuck the Fubs @ May 8, 2006 -> 08:49 PM) He's washed up, and he just got lucky at the start. That start was a lot more than luck. That was Guile. That was skill. Greg Maddux is still one of the smartest pitchers in the game, and age is not going to change that. There will be plenty of nights when his arm just can't do what it used to, but there's going to be plenty of others when his arm is just right on the money. Especially if the Cubs don't overwork him (with that manager, not bloody likely).

QUOTE(DBAH0 @ May 8, 2006 -> 08:31 PM) 40IP and not 1 HR this season is mightily impressive indeed, especially down in a hitters park at Charlotte. 20BB's though, so if the Angels are patient at the plate, that spells trouble. Happily, the Angels are #13 out of 14 teams in the AL in terms of OBP this year.

QUOTE(Jordan4life_2006 @ May 8, 2006 -> 08:27 PM) It's getting uglier and uglier for those bums. They're already down 6-1 in the 4th with Cy-Maddux on the mound. Make that 7-1. You know, I really don't like having to enjoy it when Maddux loses. Why couldn't he have signed with someone I don't mind?

Link.

QUOTE(EvilMonkey @ May 8, 2006 -> 07:18 PM) Ever hear of a gate? Have you ever tried to cross the border at one of the places where there is a wall and a gate? Hope you have a good 3 hours on a fast day...if you really want inspections of every vehicle, hope you have a good 12.

QUOTE(NUKE_CLEVELAND @ May 8, 2006 -> 06:32 PM) Is that with or without the 2 decimal places reserved for cents? Do people still use half-penny's?

QUOTE(DABearSoX @ May 8, 2006 -> 08:12 PM) Everytime I think about it its a bunch of bulls***..... You need offensive production for a defensive award.....Its like giving the 6th man award to Michael Jordan One of these years, they'll actually fix the way the gold gloves are awarded.

QUOTE(SpringfieldFan @ May 8, 2006 -> 07:41 PM) OK everyone, pony up here - if Count misses more then a couple starts, does Brandon eventually move to the rotation, or has he already been "Cotts'd"? To be honest, I haven't liked the decision to make him basically a setup man. Last year he excelled in long relief and frankly, he hasn't looked that great in the late inning role. Plus, he would already be somewhat conditioned to move to the rotation if he were still a long reliver. The dude was our rotation insurance! I know, I know, he is too valuable as a reliever now to be moved. SFF If right now, the trainers thought Jose would miss more than 2 starts, I would want Brandon. Pitch Garland on Wednesday if Brandon needs another day, but I don't want Haeger having to be counted on for more than 1-2 games. No offense to Charlie.

MSNBC's David Shuster is convinced Rove will be indicted.

QUOTE(FlaSoxxJim @ May 8, 2006 -> 05:55 PM) Balta is a slacker!!! You have to understand, Balta, Mr. Genius comes from a world where grad students regularly earn a 6-figure stipend. I'll put in an NSF proposal for a mission to this world tomorrow.

QUOTE(mr_genius @ May 8, 2006 -> 05:51 PM) are you white and male? if so it's your own fault because you have been given every advantage ever (atleast thats what the rationale will be). 85% tax rate, deal with it. You do realize I wasn't being serious with that tax proposal correct? The math would work correctly, but yeah, it wouldn't be all that smart. And yes, I'm a white male who makes under the median income. Why? I'm a grad student. I'm just trying to get y'all to give me $50k. Tricky, ain't I. And yes, this is a prime example of why Communism doesn't work in practice.

QUOTE(mr_genius @ May 8, 2006 -> 05:45 PM) sweet, lets set up a communists ecenomic system.. those always work. i assume you will be the first to sacrifice 85% of your pay to the federal government in the name of progress. Actually, I'm well under the median income, so I would be on the other side.

QUOTE(Heads22 @ May 8, 2006 -> 05:36 PM) And that's what's still got me wondering......it'd really seem like everyone could just be bumped up with today's off day. But, I'm not a professional baseball type person. The last 2 years they've really tried not to do that to any of our pitchers (i.e. an off day is an off day for everyone). Ever since we blew our staff out in early 04 using Mr. Off day as our 5th starter for 2 months. Especially with the # of innings these guys threw last year, pushing them up to cut out 1 start sort of ignores the big picture at the expense of focusing on one game

QUOTE(Heads22 @ May 8, 2006 -> 05:26 PM) Well, for starters, I wouldn't have him pitch to Vladdy. I can just envision a hanging knuckler to him. Well, I'd like to disagree with you, but i just checked Vlad's stats against Wakefield. 6/13, 4 home runs, 5 walks, OPS of 2.073. Eek. Garret Anderson's also hit Wakefield pretty well, but the rest of the Angels haven't been that great against the Knuckler.

QUOTE(WHarris1 @ May 8, 2006 -> 05:32 PM) I heard that too. They said it's back not hip, and it still wasn't 100% he is going on the DL. Hell we might all just wake up tomorrow and Jose is fine and Haeger is still in Charlotte. If he's having any pain at all, have him take the start off. He's our best pitcher right now, and he's probably 36 or 37 years old. There's no good reason to break him down now, even if he says he's fine.

I've been holding off on buying an Ipod for the longest time, and I'm still doing so. I just can't justify the expense of several hundred dollars on what is basically a hard drive. At some point, someone is going to come out with a comparable product that costs far less. It just has to happen. Until then, I spent $30 on a CD Player that can play CD's loaded with MP3's. Fit like 130-140 songs on a disk, burn the CD, and just play that. It's an order of magnitude less expensive.