Balta1701

QUOTE(JimH @ Mar 20, 2006 -> 10:41 AM) If they can't find somebody who fits better, don't be shocked if Ozzie wants to bring Sweeney north, regardless of whether this board thinks it's a good idea or not. Guillen is not afraid to bring anyone. Again, do not automatically conclude the Borchard trade means Gload has a spot. Lots of things can still happen. I'm sorry, but I will be absolutely shocked if they start Sweeney's arbitration clock already, entirely based on his performance this spring, when he's still only spent 1 year at AA, is still very young, and still has a lot of development to do. You're right on the Gload thing...but if anyone surprising winds up tagging along, it will not be Sweeney.

QUOTE(SHAFTR @ Mar 20, 2006 -> 10:38 AM) Well, Cotts is in. For the final 2 spots (with the Hermanson assumption), there are 3 lefties competing (Lopez, Logan & now Thornton). If only one of them makes it (Thornton), who gets the final spot? Well, first I'd say that Hermanson isn't on the DL yet...and they'll probably give him a chance to stay off it if possible. Beyond that I don't know, but it's probably easier to find a ROOGY than it is a LOOGY floating around after the rosters drop to 25.

QUOTE(Controlled Chaos @ Mar 20, 2006 -> 10:30 AM) Thanks to this "parable about terrorism and totalitarianism" (Roger Ebert) I have been "prodded to think" (The San Francisco Chronicle). And I now think that the Bush administration blew up the twin towers and tried to blow up two other U.S. targets on 9/11 in order to scare Americans into giving them more power. I think that conservatives hate art, literature, and music—especially jazz music—and want to lock it all away because, well, they’re just mean like that. Does anyone else completely get lost at that point in that piece? Yowza, now there's a jump.

QUOTE(SHAFTR @ Mar 20, 2006 -> 10:34 AM) So, for the bench we are looking at: Mackowiak, Cintron, Ozuna & Gload For the bullpen (assuming Hermanson is done, which I feel is a safe assumption): Jenks, Cotts, Politte, McCarthy, Logan, Lopez/Thornton I can't see us carrying 3 lefties in the bullpen, and I get the feeling they wouldn't have made this deal if they had full confidence in Logan making the jump from A-ball to the bigs. I think Logan will start the season in AA-AAA now, just so that the jump to the big leagues isn't as big later in the season (i.e. what they did with Jenks last year), and Thornton will get a short time to do something good while working with our coaching staff in the bigs. That's the only way this deal makes sense to me. They won't carry 3 lefties, but they also won't just want to let Thornton walk after 13 days (they could have done that with Borchard).

QUOTE(LEXNLIV @ Mar 20, 2006 -> 10:22 AM) Does anyone think Ryan Sweeney can sneak in and take the 5th outfielder's spot? NO. Sweeney will be playing everyday in AAA. As will Owens. As they should be.

QUOTE(southsideirish71 @ Mar 20, 2006 -> 10:03 AM) Lets get him away from Seattle and get him in Coops hands for a bit and lets see what he can do. Jenks was the same way, a guy with a great arm who could throw a ball throw a wall, but couldnt hit it. Boone Logan couldnt find the strikezone also. Sometimes is about getting the right advise, something that works. Problem is, the season starts in 13 days. That's not a lot of time for Cooper. Maybe they're thinking they'll start Logan at AAA, let this guy just have the big league spot for a few weeks, hope he figures things out, and cut him loose if he fails & Logan succeeds?

Sounds like Seattle was trying the same thing we were. Hey Hargrove, want to try Pedro Lopez? Eh? Eh?

Seattle Post-Intelligence on Thornton last Tuesday.

So...who thinks that in 2 weeks Thornton will be back with the Mariners' AAA team and Borchard will be back with ours?

See, this is why I don't rely on other people to do my Google searches very often. Took me 2 seconds. I shouldnt' be so damn lazy.

QUOTE(Frank the Tank 35 @ Mar 20, 2006 -> 09:22 AM) Is Wells resigned to playing for the BoSox this year? I don't like this trade for the Reds after all the hype around Pena. Arroyo will never be better than a 3rd starter for a bad team. He certainly has an affordable contract though. (What happened to the gentleman's agreement between Arroyo and the Sox not to trade him?) Wells rescinded his trade demand a week or two ago, and has said he'll probably play out this season then retire. The concern with the BoSox shouldn't be Wells wanting to pitch, it should be whether or not their guys can stay healthy. Schilling and Wakefield are 39, Wells is 42, and Beckett has well-known injury problems.

QUOTE(WCSox @ Mar 20, 2006 -> 09:19 AM) My original point was that we won't be seeing Thornton in a Sox uniform for a couple of years (if ever). That's assuming that he's not out of options. EDIT: If Thornton's competing for a left-handed spot, he'd better show Ozzie some control before the end of the month. Talk about a long-shot. So does anyone actually know whether this guy has any ML options left?

Contreras is almost certainly not 34. Cuban record keeping isn't exactly first-world.

QUOTE(greasywheels121 @ Mar 20, 2006 -> 08:37 AM) Not horrible for the Reds either; they definitely needed SP. I'm not sure what the BoSox are going to do with more holes in their rotation, but at least the Reds are trying to plug their's. The BoSox IIRC have more pitchers than they have spots for anyway. Beckett, Wells, Clement, Wakefield, Arroyo, Schilling, Paplebon. That's 7, with the rook as a backup (same formula as us with BMac). Unless they thought that 2 of their starters would hit the DL simultaneously and they wouldn't have any off-days to play with, there was little reason to hold onto all of them.

QUOTE(RockRaines @ Mar 20, 2006 -> 08:24 AM) I like that he has two out pitches for both RH and LH batters. His fastball is sneaky, but he also pops the mitt. I like this kid, he deserves the chance IMO. If he doesn't walk people, he can have his chance. He starts walking people, and he should lose that spot immediately. He doesn't walk people and guys can hit .320 off of him and I won't mind. He walks people, and I'll mind a ton. As long as he's making people put the ball in play, he'll be damn good.

QUOTE(RockRaines @ Mar 20, 2006 -> 07:34 AM) He's referring to all the reports of Gload not fitting in, being a bad guy, having the clubhouse dislike him, etc., and how they contrast with him going full speed into a wall in ST.

Tadahito is as nervous about his 2nd base job due to Cintron as Buehrle is about Nomo getting the start. Dye, Konerko, and Crede were godawful until about the end of May last year, saving a few games to start the season, and at least to Ozzie, none of them came close to having their jobs in jeopardy. Cintron is a great backup. That's all.

I think one guy who isn't getting enough love is B.A. Good speed, combined with a couple of excellent stolen-base coaches in Rock and Pods.

Is there any chance there's a PTBNL attached to this deal somewhere?

QUOTE(longshot7 @ Mar 19, 2006 -> 05:19 PM) final score? 8-7 Milwaukee wins. Box Score.

QUOTE(NUKE_CLEVELAND @ Mar 19, 2006 -> 11:02 AM) Rock on guys!!! Great job, not only torturing the innocent so they have a reason to shoot americans, but also giving them $$ to go buy a gun to do the job.

QUOTE(iWiN4PreP @ Mar 19, 2006 -> 03:46 PM) dam, i dont want thome injured, even if it is np. Folks, it's a tweaked hamstring. I got news for you...these things happen all the bloody time in Spring Training. It's what happens when you go from working out in a weight room to build muscle to working out on a baseball field, where you're starting from 0 and going to a sprint on sand in as little time as possible. These things happen to every single team. Players on every single team tweak hamstrings in Spring Training. Usually, around the beginning of the year, there'll be a few teams who have several guys who wind up missing games in the first two or three weeks because they pull a Hammy. Why? Because they took it too easy during the spring, never got these things otu of the way, and when the season hit, they weren't ready for it. All this means is that Jim Thome hasn't been playing baseball for the last 6 months. It doesn't mean a thing about his body, or his physical condition, or annything else. We should be happy it's happening now and not 3 weeks from now when it could cost us real games...because there are teams who's managers let that happen.

QUOTE(SHAFTR @ Mar 19, 2006 -> 12:45 PM) Richard vs Bush ... Dick vs Bush And oh god, one of them has a shotgun!

QUOTE(NUKE_CLEVELAND @ Mar 19, 2006 -> 11:10 AM) The Iranians are already responsible for aiding the insurgency in Iraq with technical assistance for their IED's and with "muslim brothers" willing to die for the cause. That alone is provocation enough to hit them and if they are truly controlling elements of the insurgency creating a proxy war then its REALLY time to make them pay for it. Oh yeah, and there's that little nuclear weapons thing also. Ugh. Let's begin. 1. Iran has not been providing help on IED's, according to statements by the General Pace the day after Bush made his B.S. statement. The Daily Show bit on that was priceless. 2. It still remains fairly illogical to expect that Iran is going to supply components for IED's to a Sunni Insurgency which is trying desperately to break up a Shi'ite dominated state that will certainly be incredibly close to Iran if it ever forms a government. It doesn't matter if they're "Muslim Brothers"...The Sunnis and Shi'a in Iraq are Muslims, and that doesn't seem to stop them from despising each other. 3. The article tells us how Muqtada Al-Sadr went to Iran. First of all, Al-Sadr's group is a key constituency in the elected Iraqi government. It makes sense for him to be visiting Iraq. He's not an outlaw, he's now a political figure. Disagree with that? Well, that's the system we've built there. He has every right to be visiting Iran in that regard, he's basically a representative of the government of the state right next to Iran. On the other hand, yeah there is still that nuclear weapons thing. But if there's going to be a strike on Iran, let's at least base it on facts. We've done enough lying to get ourselves into wars.

QUOTE(RME JICO @ Mar 19, 2006 -> 12:02 AM) Mike Hampton signed a contract with the Rockies for 8 years/121 million in 2001. Average $15.125 million a year. His contract goes thru 2008. He currently has 53 wins from 2001-2005. He would have to win 68 games in the last 3 years of his contract to average $1 million per start. That is a pretty bad deal too. Especially since he's out for this entire season, IIRC.