bighurt4life

I honestly see him hitting either #1 or #5. I don't think that he would be such a good #2 hitter becuase those guys are supposed to take pitches and lay down bunts etc... Alexei's game is all about being aggressive at the plate and swinging whenever he damn well pleases. That's why you can't put him in the 2 slot. If CQ wasn't so damn good I'd say that Alexei would be a great #3 hitter but CQ has more power. If he can improve his basestealing then put him in the 1 spot, if he can't then have him focus on his power stroke and put him at #5.

I'm quite satisfied with this season overall. When KW was talking about winning the division I thought that he was crazy and I was one of the people calling for a rebuild by dumping Konerko, Dye, etc... I thought that the only players we had who would be able to help us this season and for several more seasons were Buerhle, Vasquez and possibly Danks depending on how he developed. I had almost zero expectations for Floyd, Quentin, and thought that Ramirez would probably spend most of the season in AAA adjusting to the jump in competition. I had little hope for the future as I saw us as an aging team without any young bullets ready to step up anytime soon. I was damn wrong. With the emergence of the aforementioned players we've really caught lightening in a bottle. When was the last time you saw a team have 4 young unknowns all breakout in the same season? We've really got something to be excited about for the future and I for one am proud of the way this team came together and gave us another taste of the postseason. We also got to the playoffs by knocking the Twins out which was extra sweet for me personally. I can't wait to see what KW has in store for the offseason and I can't wait for '09. GO SOX!!

Griffey was definitely too far forward and didn't really get his momentum moving forward as he made the catch, that play shouldn't have been as close as it was, but I'm still damn pleased with the result. One of the more exciting plays of the year.

1. CJ, you played lots of different positions in college, do you think that this hindered your development as a player. Side note- in your opinion, did your lack of a position prevent you from being taken in the draft because teams didn't know what you were, or was it simply a case of your talent being overlooked? 2. Because you didn't have just one position in college do you think that this means that you have even more potential for improvement in your defense now that you can zero in on a position-specific set of skills? Also, do you think that settling in on one defensive position will help you at the plate? Moderator-feel free to adjust or reword questions as needed.

QUOTE (Heads22 @ Sep 30, 2008 -> 05:59 PM) Thome's blast goes 461. Wow!!! Blackburn missed his spot on that pitch, Mauer set up low and away and he left it middle-up, bad place to leave a change-up for Thome.

how far was the thome HR? I'm guessing 450

QUOTE (Palehosefan @ Sep 26, 2008 -> 09:28 AM) Just noticed Brandon Hicks above Brandon Allen as well. Now I know they are delusional. Hicks, 9/14/1985, .235 20 HR, 63 RBI, 52 BB 139 K's ....... really Hicks plays a premium position at SS while Allen by all accounts plays a below average first base. Not sure is Hicks is a good SS but having a middle infielder with good power is always a plus and probably why he's rated higher.

We don't really have a whole lot of options at catcher in our farm system. There's a couple of guys in our Dominican system that look promising and obviously Dubler has potential but nobody else jumps off the page for me and AJ is nearing the age where catchers historically see a drop in their performance.

I'm excited about Cole Armstrong. He had a good season this year, may be the heir apparent for AJ. Looks like a nice rule 5 pickup.

make it happen

I'm f***ing sick of Javy and I'm really f***ing sick of Ozzie playing Griffey in CF. There's no f***ing way that he gives us a better chance to win in center than Brian Anderson.

QUOTE (Allsox @ Sep 23, 2008 -> 05:57 PM) And I'm through with Javier Vazquez. Trade his ass to some other team in the offseason, I'm tired of him crapping his pants whenever it's a big game. Totally agree, he's got no huevos. Even when Ozzie essentially challenged his manhood recently he didn't even respond to it, his summarized response was "whatever".

I think that we've got a really good chance of winning this series. They have a lot of young pitching and they seem to be getting pretty tired lately. In fact, their team overall is very young and they look like they're just worn out at this point.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Sep 20, 2008 -> 09:23 PM) Do any of you really think there's any way in hell we win MORE than one that series? We lose two minimum. The question is can we get one or do we get swept? Way to support the team. Come to think of it, they probably shouldn't even play. The Sox should just forfeit the series to avoid any embarrassment.

QUOTE (BearSox @ Sep 21, 2008 -> 03:40 PM) I'm still trying to figure out how this magic number stuff works... all I know is lesser the value, the better. The magic number is just the number of wins we need to get into the playoffs. As was previously mentioned it goes down with a win by us or a loss by closest competitor. So right now if we win five more games this season we're guaranteed a playoff spot no matter what Minny does

Just check my screen name and that tells you all you need to know. Frank Thomas is the reason I became a baseball fan and the reason I became a White Sox fan. I used to spend hours pouring over the stats in the sports section as a kid to see how Frank had done the night before (this was before this internet). I lived for that morning sports section and I don't think that there will ever be another athlete that I idolized the way I did Frank. He wasn't even a human to me, more of a demi-god, I saw him through eyes of pure wonder an amazement, the way that only a sports-obsessed little kid can and that's why I'll be a Sox fan for the rest of my life.

QUOTE (fathom @ Sep 18, 2008 -> 02:54 PM) Honestly, I don't care much about Oney and if he was promoted for one game to a higher level. Hopefully he has a productive career in the Sox organization with personnel decisions. I think a lot of the anger in this thread has more to do with the pathetic draft pick that was Ken Williams Jr. Well put. To take that one step further I believe that it is the overall nepotism that has been seen in our drafting strategy. I don't necessarily believe that it has hurt our level of talent but it still sucks when everyone is not judged on an equal playing field.

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Sep 17, 2008 -> 11:49 AM) The 600K signing bonus got him on the Appy league prospect list. His play did not. What about Po Yu Lin? If i recall he got a pretty fat signing bonus and he's not on any lists.

Even though all they did was bash Silverio they must have liked him at least a little bit otherwise they wouldn't have put him on the list so hopefully with another year of maturation and development he can start to pull it together.

Wow, I just wanted to start a thread so we could keep track of the magic number on a daily basis. This thing has turned into a monster.

Sounds like he has had the locker cleaned out. Usually reporters don't make statements like that unless they have pretty good intel on it. If they print BS under the guise of truth they can get shut out pretty quick.

Take it for what it's worth but this site is usually pretty accurate. If they have indeed cleaned out his locker that's a pretty powerful message.

QUOTE (GreatScott82 @ Sep 15, 2008 -> 07:22 PM) Unless we have a 3+ lead heading into that Minny series, there is no magic number. minny isn't exactly setting the world on fire right now, they've been under .500 their last 10

QUOTE (scenario @ Sep 15, 2008 -> 12:51 PM) Exactly. He was a 36th round pick. Not exactly a big deal. 5th round?? Different story. I agree to some extent, however, I still think that you should spend every single draft pick on people who have legitimate skills, talent, or potential because as we've all seen you can get lucky and get a mark buerhle, mike piazza or albert pujols. Why waste a pick as a favor to someone's kid instead of drafting a kid with an electric arm but no control, or someone with marginal stuff but great makeup (buerhle) use all those picks, don't waste one You never know who the next pujols is going to be

As of the twins loss a couple minutes ago our magic number is at 12 right now. Even through all of our injuries we're still playing .500 ball and closing in on a playoff spot with the Twins fading down the stretch.