Balta1701

Before that AB, PK was hitting .154 with 2 outs and RISP. That number is going down.

Pods starts the game off reaching on an error.

It might hurt him a bit having Pods and Everett in the outfield instead of Pods and ARow

QUOTE(OfficerKarkovice @ Jun 29, 2005 -> 03:02 PM) Well both actually...but I'm more surprised with the Twins play. Last year it was Santana, Nathan, Radke, and a few other pitchers who basically carried that team to the playoffs, along with timely hitting. This year, Santana's not doing as well, and their bullpen has struggled of late. Combine that with a lack of timely hitting and some worse defense on their infield and that's how they got here. I hope they keep playing this way.

I think this will be his night, the one we've been waiting for. 6 IP, 2 ER.

QUOTE(southsideirish @ Jun 29, 2005 -> 02:40 PM) Has anyone mentioned the Dodgers yet? Are they sellers? 6.5 out of the divison in third place and 7 out of the wild card. KW seemed to always like Odalis Perez and with him coming back next week, would this be something we would be interested in? Just throwing it out there as a speculation. I don't know what his situation is or if the Dodgers like him too much not to give him up. As a person who gets the LA Times every day, and who usuall flips to either Dodgers or Angels games after the Sox game ends in the Central time zone, let me just say this; There is not a single person on the Dodgers' roster who I want the Sox to pick up, aside from Wunsch. They have a couple of decent guys, but I wouldn't go anywhere near the contracts on those guys. The guys who are of decent value are either hurt a lot or are terrible additions to a club house or are not big upgrades over what we already have. On top of that, I still expect Depodesta to be a buyer this year..

QUOTE(kyyle23 @ Jun 29, 2005 -> 01:57 PM) Cubs have the 6th best batting average in the league Derek Lee.

Reed was expendable last year because we had 2 guys named Anderson and Sweeney coming in behind him. Show me who's coming in behind those 2 and I'll start saying a trade is fine. Ditto McCarthy.

QUOTE(VAfan @ Jun 29, 2005 -> 01:23 PM) I think he has some value as a throw in to a team like SF which is going to be looking for a replacement for JT Snow next year. I'm not saying he's the key to the deal. This team needs a backup 1b more than it needs any other piece...thereby allowing us to either rest Konerko every so often or more importantly pinch run for Konerko in late innings of close games. If Gload is lost, then we absolutely better find someone who can play 1b. If Paulie walks to lead off the 8th inning in the ALCS when we're down by 1 run, do you want him running or Willie Harris running?

QUOTE(Milkman delivers @ Jun 29, 2005 -> 01:13 PM) I think Johnson pitched great for them after they traded for him. I don't see how your question has any relevance. If the Sox picked up Schmidt and he pitched great, but the rest of the team went into a funk, it would still be right move. You pick up a guy hoping that he will help the team, and Johnson did (if I'm not mistaken). I think my question is very relevant, because of the last piece I wrote. Things happen. Teams go into funks at the wrong time. There's an enormous amount of random variability in baseball. So if you trade away 3 solid players/future all stars for a 1 year shot at a guy, you run the very high risk that something will go wrong - an injury, a great performance by someone else, etc., and you end up costing yourself chances to compete for a W.S. for several years. If you're in the race and in the playoffs for 3 or 4 years, then your chances of having 1 of your guys be the one who steps up and dominates the series dramatically improves. This is the relevance of my question - if we trade 3 all stars for some guy because we think he's the missing link who can win us a W.S., but then something happens and we don't win the W.S., we've hurt our chances for multiple years and gotten nothing out of it.

QUOTE(southsider2k5 @ Jun 29, 2005 -> 01:10 PM) Could anyone guarentee that any trade will guarentee the Sox a World Series? Its all risk/reward. Houston as a middleish market team had to take a chance on the best pitcher in the game at the time to try to get into their small window at winning a title. No one could guarantee that any trade will win a team a W.S., and that's the real problem here isn't it. You could trade for the best player and pitcher in the game and still lose to the Red Sox in game 7 after going up 3-0. My point is this; if you want to build a team that can really make a multi-year run, be good for a while, and give your team several shots to get over the hump and actually win a W.S., the solution is not found in making the 1 big trade for that 1 guy, it's found in developing your own talent and finding the right pieces around hit. The real key here is cost - we're a middle market team, so every player we have on our roster who makes less than $3 million per year is a player who opens up room under our salary limits. This means young guys are a necessity. If we want to be able to resign Buehrle, Garland, and Garcia, we need a couple guys like Gonzalez and McCarthy who are young and who haven't yet hit arbitration/free agency. Otherwise, we'll be looking at needing $50-60 million to hold together the rotation alone, and for this team, that's just not practical. The same thing goes for guys like Anderson and Sweeney - if we trade them away now, then during the years that they're good an inexpensive, we'll be left with either a hole in the order or a really inexpensive sub. And that's just not a good place to be. If we trade away guys like McCarthy, Anderson, etc., we're dooming ourselves to mediocrity in the hope that nothing will go wrong in that 1 year that we really shoot for the stars. We're hoping there won't be an Aaron Boone who makes some magical hit to beat us, or there won't be a Josh Beckett for another team who just gets on a roll and can't be stopped. Personally, I think we're far better off holding pat and building, unless something comes along really cheap. And for the people we're talking about here, the cost will be very high indeed.

QUOTE(Dick Allen @ Jun 29, 2005 -> 01:07 PM) Would Houston have won the WS since if they didn't make that trade. The answer is no. Its worth the gamble. Did Houston win the WS that year?

QUOTE(beck72 @ Jun 29, 2005 -> 01:01 PM) I don't think SF would give up Vizquel [though he'd look great on the sox--what he could do for the sox at the plate would be immeasurableI'd be giddy as a school girl with everything POds, Iguchi and Omar could do to set the table for the bashers]. But he'll be needed for next yr when Bonds comes back. A swap of Uribe isn't a half bad idea. SF can get some power out of the SS spot, as long as they had a #2 hitter to replace Omar in another position, and would help them get younger I think there's a reason KW only offered him 2 years in the offseason.

Cleveland drops 5-2 to the BoSox also...final score. Twins 9.5 games back Indians 10.5 back.

QUOTE(Milkman delivers @ Jun 29, 2005 -> 12:52 PM) I don't think anyone questioned Iguchi, did they? And Contreras won 2-1 against Rockies in Colorado, right? Not saying he could do it again, just playing devil's advocate. I think Contreras is going to for his whole career be one of those guys like Kerry Wood...when he comes out on a night where he has his best stuff, he can beat anyone, but when he's off he looks really bad, and he'll give you about 60/40 good games or so. Considering that almost every other team in the big leagues would like to get that out of a guy who's basically 4th in talent on that team, I don't think he's that much of a weak link. My perspective on all of this is that if someone like Schmidt came for free, he'd be a wonderful addition, but given all of the concerns laid out here by everyone else, he's just not going to be worth the price.

Bottom of the 9th, still 3-1. And in a related story, Boston's up 5-2 on Cleveland.

Minnesota's made it 3-1 in the 7th, still batting, 2 outs, 2 on.

Carrasco pitches out of a "man on 3rd, 1 out" jam in the 6th to keep it 3-0 Royals.

QUOTE(ChiSoxyGirl @ Jun 29, 2005 -> 09:38 AM) Funniest joke: Cub's payroll: $87,032,933 Cubs record: 39 36 .520 (2nd place) Does that include the $10 mil or so they're paying Sosa? Not really a joke, but funny nonetheless.

As many teams as there are out there looking for starting pitching, it's going to cost us a ton if that's what we go for. We will literally be in a bidding war if we go after Schmidt. Yankees, Red Sox, Orioles, Rangers, hell they could all use another starter. We're in a much better position that almost anyone else in the league.

QUOTE(SoxFan1 @ Jun 29, 2005 -> 11:07 AM) But the ASG isn't about preivous performance unless Torre is managing. Loaiza: 3-5, 3.63 ERA, 94.1 IP, 73 K, 28 BB, 1.33 WHIP, 1st Place Not great at all but good numbers. He got extremel unlucky in all his losses. Contreras: 3-4, 4.15 ERA (in the AL), 91 IP, 69 k, 1.25 WHIP, 1st place. Overall, better numbers than Loaiza except for ERA, which probably would be better than Esteban's if he was in the NL (rule of thumb - subtract .94 to convert from AL to NL). Do you think Contreras is an all-star?

3-0 Royals in the 4th.

FYI, it's now 3-0 Royals over the Twinkies, Single by Graffinino, bunted over, scores on a base hit by David Dejesus.

QUOTE(SoxFan1 @ Jun 29, 2005 -> 10:56 AM) Loaiza is having a great season and deserved the Cy Young that year. The Nats are in 1st place...does that make him an All-Star? In my view, their numbers are too similar and the fact that we have the best record in the league gives him an edge. That's a red herring...Loaiza isn't having a great season this year. Buehlre and Halladay have comparable numbers, so he's suggesting that the previous Cy Young award will count then...only after you get to the point where the candidates have comparable numbers.

QUOTE(3E8 @ Jun 29, 2005 -> 10:50 AM) I think a young Uribe is a better defensive player than an old Vizquel. You're right, I believe I was reading the numbers wrong. I'm still not too thrilled with the # of errors Uribe has made.