Balta1701

QUOTE(VAfan @ Jun 27, 2005 -> 07:27 AM) We have 3 great starters that we can afford to sign for the next 5 years - Buehrle, Garcia, and Garland. If we develop BMac, he could be a very high quality but cheap 4th guy. We then need to find a 5th guy. I think it could be Neal Cotts. I would let Contreras and El Duque walk when their contracts are up. There's also no reason to assume we won't be getting additional help from the minors...Gonzalez, Broadway, etc., might be available within a couple of years. I'm still a fan of Cotts in the bullpen. You don't find left handed relief pitchers who can go 2 innings and get a ton of outs that often. As long as he's successful in the bullpen, I think he should stay there. But I am completely with you in saying that we shouldn't mortgage what we have coming up on the off chance that some player could push us the extra inch, when a.) we don't know that we don't have what it takes to win already, b.) we could end up far more dominant in the future with the young guys and c.) holding onto your young guys and developing them saves you a ton of money over paying higher prices for veterans (thus...bringing along BMac helps you pay to keep Buehrle)

I will continue to hope that one of these days the BMac from spring training will suddenly emerge...

Michael Tomasky is one of the sources cited by Klein's book...and interestingly enough, in his first read-through of Klein's book, Tomasky found Klein deliberately misquoting Tomasky's own book.

QUOTE(southsider2k5 @ Jun 27, 2005 -> 08:20 AM) Do you know how hard it is to prove libel/slander? It's even harder to prove it against a public figure. Klein's book is basically nothing but a summary of a bunch of other poorly-sourced allegations that were tossed out against the Clintons over the years. For some great fun, you can hear Klein himself fall apart during his appearance on the Al Franken show last week when Al (shocking!) called him on factual mistakes.

Read their rulings...the court allowed specific sorts of displays of the ten commandments, where the things weren't displayed as part of an overt religious display. For example, the court allowed a display of the ten commandments on government property in Texas, where the religious message was a part of 17 different historical displays on a couple acres of property. They did not allow the overt display of only a ten commandments monument. In other words, they drew the line right where it should be...you can show the ten commandments if your goal is not to stricly promote Judeo-Christian beliefs. If you put it with something, so that it's not just promoting one religion over all others, then it's fine.

Let's go big Jon...Lucky number 13! Let's see how the Cubs do against a pitcher who can actually use the Strike zone.

QUOTE(BigSqwert @ Jun 25, 2005 -> 07:16 PM) At what point do you consider them to be sellers rather than buyers? When they are no longer in 2nd place in the division. Or, when they drop below .500. Think about the Flubs...they're in 2nd place, sitting @ .500, and most everyone would consider them to be buyers.

If the Yankees make the playoffs, it will be entirely because they outscored people. They do not have the pitching to make the playoffs, barring a major trade or two. The old adage is that good pitching beats good hitting. I would much rather face the Yankees with our pitching staff than Boston, who has some pitching of their own.

QUOTE(fathom @ Jun 25, 2005 -> 04:10 PM) The strike zone wasn't nearly as bad as I believe you think it was today. Not only that, but Maddux deserves the benefit of the doubt from the umpire a lot more than Contreras does. The strike zone was not the reason we lost today. Contreras pitching like a pussy in the first inning was. That I will grant you, but I think Maddux's strike zone was what made sure our guys only scored 2 runs.

QUOTE(southsideirish71 @ Jun 25, 2005 -> 04:00 PM) Anyone throws below 90 and our guys s*** themselves to pull the ball. The only way to beat Maddux who lives on the outside corner is to hit oppo. We do this yesterday however the minute our team goes down a few runs everyone is up there swinging and trying to pull the f***ing ball. Hopefully they get a better approach to the plate tomorrow. I still say there was nothing we could have done against Maddux. The strike zone he was throwing to was the Maddux strike zone - every pitch even remotely near either corner was called a strike. With a plate that large, our guys really didn't have a chance...if they look outside they have to swing at pitches that they can't hit, and then they get beat inside because they have no choice but to lean, if they look inside there's no way they can reach pitches that far outside.

QUOTE(southsideirish71 @ Jun 25, 2005 -> 04:04 PM) Another cuban has broken the 4 ERA level. These guys have got to throw strikes, they need to stop giving every team extra chances. It's hard to throw strikes when the strike zone shrinks 6 inches per side every time Maddux leaves the mound and you take over.

QUOTE(fathom @ Jun 25, 2005 -> 04:00 PM) Or the fact that our number 3 hole had a terrible game today, unable to get the runner home in a few potentially big situations? Our #4 hitter had a terrible game yesterday. Rowand looked terrible today because he couldn't hit 1 pitch...a sinking changeup on the inner half. He had a bunch of swings that were right on time on the pitch, but it sunk away from his bat and he never figured it out.

QUOTE(Jabroni @ Jun 25, 2005 -> 03:34 AM) "Cirillo placed on DL with fractured hand Infielder expected to miss an estimated six weeks" http://milwaukee.brewers.mlb.com/NASApp/ml...t=.jsp&c_id=mil I saw the pitch last night...late innings from one of the Twins relievers...nailed him...bounced off into the air, looked painful as all Hell.

QUOTE(fathom @ Jun 25, 2005 -> 03:51 PM) I still think that against a pitcher like Maddux, Thomas should have been in the lineup. I like Frank's chances against the slow stuff a lot more than I do against Prior's stuff tomorrow. And the Home run that Carl hit?

QUOTE(southsideirish71 @ Jun 25, 2005 -> 03:46 PM) Its funny, when our offense clicks we hit pitches to right. Then they are forced to pitch inside and we pull line drive homers. When our offense blows, we lunge at crap away and try to pull it. Or we have excuse me swings on the outside corner and just slap crap to right. Square the ball up and hit it where its pitched. Maddux pitched us away and we got pull happy. Arow is definately trying to pull everything now. Joe Crede yesterday hit the ball the otherway. Today he fell over lunging at a pitch in the oppo batters box, rolling his wrists over. This is why he will be a 240 and below hitter in the majors. Conteras should not be allowed to think. Watching him shake off AJ in the first inning made me want to puke. How does someone who has a 96 mph fastball not want to throw it and just fall in love with his junk. He pitches backwards. Irish...the biggest problem I saw was that Maddux/all the Cubs pitchers were getting pitches in the left handed batters box called for strikes all day. Our guys didn't have a chance on a lot of those, but they were called strikes. So either they could take the pitch and strike out, or they could swing at pitches 6 inches outside the strike zone and try to protect the plate. Contreras et al would then throw the same pitches and they'd be called balls. ArRow's problem today was he couldn't hit that sinking pitch on the inside half...he swung over it like 4 times, but his timing looked good.

Well, the one thing we can say about this game is that Jose Contreras beat himself...he couldn't throw strikes, and it killed us.

Depends on the girlfriend...whether or not she understands the rules, whether or not she can figure out when she shouldn't be cheering (my fiance let out a "Come on White Sox" right after BMac's balk on Monday), etc. Sometimes you have to sort of nursemaid them into it.

Because of the way the question was phrased...who is the "Best" offensive player, the only answer that is possible right now is Paul Konerko. Right now, Konerko is 15th in the big leagues with 52 RBI's. No one else on the Sox is even in the top 30. Konerko also leads the team in runs scored, with 44...Pods is a close 2nd at 42, but the same guy is leading in runs scored and RBI's. Now, on top of that, this is not even the first year for Paulie to lead the team in the 2 main offensive categories; he was 10th in baseball last year with 117 RBI's, and 3rd on the team with 84 runs scored (although both Podsednik and Dye scored more runs last year.) If the question was "Who is the most valuable offensive player"...that's a much different question, because it takes into account speed, timely hitting, etc, and Everett, Rowand and Pods become factors, but in terms of simply who the best offensive player is, it's hard not to say it's the guy leading the team in runs scored and driven in.

The Mets had an interesting record tonight. Against the Yankees, the Mets became the first team in NL history to record 3 sacrifice flies in the same inning. Yes you read that right, 3 in 1 inning. Bernie Williams dropped a fly ball, was counted for an error, but it still counted as a sac fly.

The AP recap of the game today (if you can even call it that) contains this little blurb about Uribe that I thought should be pointed out. Hopefully the rest will be good for Juan anyway...he needs something to get his swing shortened.

I like the Borowski one

At least it's a nice picture.

QUOTE(ScottPodRulez22 @ Jun 24, 2005 -> 06:04 PM) :headshake I hope note. In other news ajp is 6-9 lifetime off of greg maddux. With any luck that gives us a guarantee that Widger won't be told to catch Contreras tomorrow. The guy Timo has always hurt that you might be remembering is Brad Radke from the Twins...Timo's also had an excellent career against Radke, Ozzie played him in that game, and Timo hit quite well, including another long ball.

Putin doesn't need to give it to them. Any reactors that Russia has sold to Iran are pretty much just a drop in the bucket. Iran has large deposits of Uranium that are available to mine, and because our army is totally tied down in Iraq, they've been given a couple of free years to go and build enough equipment to process it into highly enriched forms. They've also received technology from Pakistan that could have been useful in this process as well.

I just checked...no Timo did not face Maddux when he pitched against us earlier this year...he was 8 for 19 against him coming into that game. I think I was surprised he didn't face him.