Harry Chappas

Thanks for the update but minor league success is minor.

Mitre is another overhyped cub prospect along the lines of many other. If Reed, Honel, or now Diaz were with the cub they would have stories on the back page of the weekly cub update in the trib.

I never heard of it either, great term.

He hasn't played well enough to get a free pass. There was no way he should have swung at the pitch he struck out on, actually the last two. We were winning without him.

Can Rauch be sent back down if he does not cut it? I think he would be the first guy because he has experience and there would be no debut nerves. If he is out of options though they be reluctant if he were not the clear choice.

As a favor to his godfather (Tommy Lasorda.) Wasn't Don Mattingly like in the 23rd round or something like that.

Based on our record I do not think anything will be done unless it is to get a top end of the rotation pitcher. We have options as we missed our shortstop for 12 games and went 9-6 not too bad.

I was listeinignt o WSCR on teh drive in and it was kind of weird. I listened for about and hour and they turned the conversation into pedestrains neglecting the Walk / Don't Walk sign. They did not condone the actions but they were somewhat trying to explain a logical rationale. I really do not like either of them and think thier show is terrible but I wanted to hear what happened. It was strange.

The short of it is I think Ananheim had a bad enough record that we couldn't get that high of a pick and Quantrill was better than Gordon. Doesn't something carry over into next years draft???? I think the Sox should go with what the Bears did, grab as many college guys as they can get unless a Sweeney type is out there.

I think it could be something like Lee, Wunsch and Felix Diaz for Garcia. Soriano won't be going anywhere. Seattle is in the drivers seat and they have money to spend, remember they saved $10M with the reliever, I forget his name leaving. If Soraino is in the mix I wouldn't be surprised if Takatsu is given up as Seattle has some Japanese players. Freddy Garcia would put us in the drivers seat and again in the elite teams in the Amreican League. If the Ordonez resigning is not working out, what makes you think he would not be in a package for Garcia, Winn and some young arm. Would Ordonez for Winn, Garcia, and Soraino/Pinerio make any sense???? Assuming we could talk to Garcia about a contract extension. If Garcia long-term is not an option I think he could be had for Borchard and a pitcher (Diaz, Pachero, Banj.)

Aren't we tied for the best record in baseball??? Uribe is the only guy playing over his head and he may just be this good. He had some background to say he could be. Koch has four saves in the five days. No matter what, he came in with a save on the line and he earned it. He has thrown a ton of pitches and has not been hit hard. Last year he was giving up homers, this year, he is not. He is throwing the ball past people and I think in the end our bullpen will be one of the best in the bigs. If Koch is getting squeezed which it looked like he was last night and Monday, he will struggle. I thought there were pitches to Palmeiro that looked good. I think we have the best bullpen we have had in a while. There is nobody out there that is unrealiable. Right now, Valentin looks like a stud on the bench as the LH bat for late in the game. The White Sox need to see if Harris, Uribe and Crede have a future here. We know what Valentin can do but he wasn't doing it and he had hamstring problems a couple of years back so what makes you think he is 100% the rest of the way. His AAA numbers do not warrant a spot in the lineup. I am not sure about Willie leading off but at the 9 slot, I like him.

He is not overrated but he has three of the top pitchers in the American League. If he was a genius or even a great GM he would have gotten out of the first round of the playoffs by now. His teams will beat mediocore teams to death and lose to comparable or weaker teams in the playoffs. Didn't his team lose to the Twins a couple of years back? He has three guys that would be our number one, it is much easier to lose guys like Tejada, Giambi and Foulke when you have Mulder, Zito and Hudson. I think anyone that agrees to have a book written about how great they are has a bit of little mans disease.

Didn't fu.. get though with the technical difficulties when the brother-in-law began speaking. Steff - as far as your quote this was a sports story on a sports station. Was the coverage a bit much, I suppose but this is truely a unique and inspiring story. The more you hear about this guy the more amazing the story is and I do not think it can be told enough. The thing about him was that there are so many people that try and get in the spotlight using their sport and what not (cell phones, TD antics, homerun and three point hops, etc.) and here is a guy that refused to accept any credit but worked his ass off to be a model citizen and good person. Not to sound corny but I watched this thing and was inspired some what by his drive and determination. I tis gone today but for a while last evening was inspired to be a better person.

Danny Wright has 4 losses, the rest of the team 5. Other starters 3 losses. Bullpen 2 losses. Danny Wright 4 losses. Now then I think another starter could make this team better. I believe the bullpen has more than enough to keep us in this thing as long as we do not give away roughly 20% of our games. A good number five will allow the off day to be an off day and not force the starters to pitch every fifth day. I think this will wear a staff down. It is true we could skip the fifth starter with every off day but don't you think the pitchers could use five days rest once in a while???? Also, if the fifth starter is skipped and not used as a reliever on his skipped day, he can go 10 days without pitching. Is this good for keeping him sharp???? Could this be the reason why our fifth starters are never successful????

It is hard to give him breaking balls if he can lay off of them. The guy behind him makes him will make him a better hitter and therfore Harris the same thing.

Wasn't that the third day in a row he has pitched and earned a save. Nobody hit a ball in the air. Didn't Marte blow a save Saturday which forced us to extra innings and then allow a run by allowing a runner to third with a wild pitch. I am not saying anything against Marte I like the way he has pitched but this is how it goes. The guys on BBTN are morons. If that was another reliever they would have talked about the good at-bats by the O's hitters all three guys were down 1-2 and then fouled off pitches to draw walks. Koch has done a nice job, not Mariano Rivera but he is getting the job done. Last year he was getting pounded.

Listening to the game yesterday was yet another rant against JM and how you have to practice and implement what you need to do to win. We are 15-9 right now because we are doing the little things to win and playing good fundamental baseball. Over the last few years we have made so many stupid mistakes and have done so many stupid things that it was sickening. Only one player has really shined for us (Uribe) but just about everyone else has contributed, no Daubach's and Clayton's just taking up space. When a player does something stupid he is picked up. Guillen stated again yesterday that we need to get away from relying on the 3-run homer every inning to win ballgames. When we do this we turn into the passionless squad that sits around and looses in the end to a team that executes. A sacrifice means you succeed, this is a good thing no matter how many times or how often you do it. Man on third and less than two outs is a great thing. In recent years, we never got him home, this year we are.

Cotts hasn't piched enough to be given a starting spot. He is worthy but would need to start a couple of times at AAA first. I think he is in his role for the season and it is working. We are 15-5 in games not started by Danny Wright. Not moving anything around with current guys is key. KW needs to get some experience in here. As the season wears on this will be the biggest challenge (Glavine, Leiter, Randy Johnson, Kris Benson????) A team that needs a lefty for their pen could be talked to for Kelly now. I think the safest bet is Rauch followed by Grilli. I am not liking Buerhle on three days rest. If we win the first two and do nto use the pen i would like to go the 3-3-pen route

Can somebody pull together the other middle order guys and get their runs less their homeruns? (Ramirez, Sosa, Bonds, etc.) To look at the runs scored by Frank Thomas is stupid he is an RBI guy. If he didn't do his job the 1 and 2 guys in the lineup would not score and would ahve a poor offense. This argument would be like saying, take away his RBI when he hit a homerun and see where it came out at, of course it would be low. Forget it, this is a stupid topic and BBTN is a waste of time. Last week the cub bullpen was their strength, yesterday it was one of the biggest question marks in ALL of baseball. I wish there was another option out there. One topic if they want to talk about the cub is their offensive production when the wind is not blowing out at 40 MPH at the urinal. In a weekend series against the Mets, they scored 5 runs, same thing against the D-Backs, Then they go 10 innings without a run yesterday. Makes me think before teh bullpen is to be blamed you need to hit a little.

Kind of a back and forth Q&A. I only caught the last 10 minutes. He did say he does not think any of his kids will take over either team. The best thing, he called Mariotti a "piss ant." He went on to say that Mariotti wants to run him out of town and it won't work and that he does not care about him at all. Called Thomas a great guy bu ti svery shy, and Krause the most misunderstood person he has ever been around. Called Guillen delightful.

I am bored at work so I thought I would waste some space on Soxtalk like I am doing at work. Maurice the beer vendor got a nice tip last night. Not so nice that Maurice won't be at work tonight (mother nature permitting,) but maybe he can Supersize his lunch if he so chooses. All winter and Spring Trining I vowed to not go to a game. Well last night was number 6 (4-2 overall.) Damn bullpen and Javier Vazquez. Blizzard of Oz has got me hooked. I think the overall trades of KW (Uribe, Marte, Olivo (Baggs, whereever you are, he is better than Bradford,) Harris (singleton is out of baseball,) Mr. Zero, etc.) The best though is I think Koch and Cotts for a sandwich pick (if that is what they got,) is a steal. Adkins. Maybe KW isn't that big of an ass. I never really liked Kipper, thought he was a puppy. This team has some passion. I hope they keep it up but it is working for now. I think Oz may use his starteres a little to long but I think the net result is the bullpen is sharp and not overworked. If Koch can turn it on, he will be a draw. He fits the bill of a southsider. Security would be all over him if he was a fan. Why do cub fans feel the need to get into full uniform and go to a Bluejay v. White Sox game???? I think they should not be allowed into the park not becasue they run the risk of being pounded but as A Sox fan I feel the need to risk jail time to help them realize how assine they are. How wound up is Hawk Harrelson, I like it. I think he thought JM was a dofus, I know I did. Watching Telemundo is helping but I still really do not know what Ozzie is saying. Hey god bless him they got fire and are sure fun to watch. Good Day and Go Sox.

We would have lost the last two games and our bullpen would be completly fried last year. This team has a way of turning it on during the game as oppossed to last year when they would wilt like a flower and not be seen for nine innings (i.e. lose to Det twice and San Diego 1-0.) When Ozzie ran, not to waste time, to the mound in the ninth and Koch did the job, that was good to see. He didn't hold up the game or anything. Ran out said this is the guy to get now go get him, BINGO, game over.

Friday I and the three guys I went with bought 16 beers off the vendor, $88 total and gave the guy $100. Sometimes nasty cold weather is a benefit. I never really thought about tipping until I read that the price increase of $0.75 would negativly affect them as they get only $0.01 of that. Now that is crap. I would be interested to see what a vendor pays for a beer. I have sat in LF for the last five years and it is usually the same vendors year after year so ia ssumed that made decent money.

In the next five years the land around Comiskey will be worth more than Wrigley. Walk around the park some time especially south and look at the homes they are putting up. In the late 80's Wrigleyville was terrible. Over the next 10-15 years the South Loop extending down the city will be completly revamped and US Cellular field will be right in the middle of it. Look at the work they are doing to the Ryan in the next few years and all of the land available to develop. It is ten minutes from my seat at work (Michigan and Wacker) to my car and then to the park. People would complain about the price of parking and lack thereof if the stadium was built in the Loop. Not to mention the congestion.

Trib is nowhere near is bad as the Times. I really think the Times hates the Sox or just doesn't care.