bc2k

Had Z been a free agent this offseason, I think he'd have received more money in his contract than Zito.

I don't know what the negatives of Lou Piniella could be, but I'm definately aware of his positives. He's a gem and I'm thrilled we have him.

It's actually quite different. It would be tough to say for certain which is the better NFL conference. It's at least much more of a debate. Carolina, Seattle, Dallas, Washington, Giants and Bears would all be in the running in the AFC. The NL has one team that could stand a chance in the AL. I see your point but would add the Dodgers to your list.

No flames please, just going to throw out another potential factor: steroids and/or HGG. There is certainly some circumstantial evidence: Prior's longtime association with Tom House and Tom House's admitted substance use. As I said, no flames. I'm not asserting he did or didn't, but the evidence is worth addressing. Thoughts anyone? What's HGG?

Agreed. I didn't see his injury occur, but I'm assuming it's minor and will work as a nice unexpected rest so he can finish the season strong.

Yeah, he's really spoiled playing in that half-empty, historic, vibrant baseball mecca known as the Cell. Speaking of which, have I missed 2006's Mullet Night? The Sox have sold more tickets thant he Cubs this season. The Sox had the 2nd most wins in the 90's and a World Series championship team playing in Sox Park. Mullet night is on Friday actually. I've never been, but it sounds like a fun time. I'm not going to troll, but if you want to rip on the Sox you need to find some better ways than that. I'm just here to talk baseball. Fixed: I'm just here to talk baseball, make up facts, and get defensive when corrected on false stats.

I'd love to hear some of the depositions in this case. Wouldn't Thomas's lawyers have to prove that playing on his misdiagnosed broken navicular bone is what lead to a second broken bone in that foot?

Could someone explain to me why Lovie Smith was criticized for poor coaching during last year's playoff game? I think there were a few reasons, but the only one I can remember was for his bad decision to put a scrub, possibly rookie DB on Steve Smith.

Good news... good news! Why not skip this turn of the rotation, just to give him a few extra days and make 100% there is nothing there? How many times have we heard from the Cubs training and medical staffs that player X is OK and then a week later they end up on the DL because they were not sure of the extent of the injury. What if he alters his mechanics slightly because of the pain, and ends up really hurting himself? I see no drawback whatsoever of skipping his turn, and a huge possibility for trouble. QF-effin'-T. What is possibly worth it this season to risk a guy like Z? Give him an extra rotation off, big deal. Learn from your past mistakes, you dumb $#&^^$^$@$!@@$$#$#'s!!! But that will be held against Dusty's record, dude. :lol:

What would Z's motive for publically backing Dusty be? Or, did he not have a motive, just truly believed Dusty should remain manager?

I don't understand this. I hate the lack of details. I'm skeptical this ever happened. :?

He's too young and inexpensive to give up on. See how he does in the second half of this season and assign him to winter ball. He can only get better.

That would make sense if it were the same injury, but this is a new injury, one that has nothing to do with his previous ones.

I can't believe he's only 29-years-old. To think his career might be over before 30 is depressing.

Online voting isn't something I see myself doing, but that said, Liriano is more deserving than AJP.

What, do you think some third party is gonna yell "ROUND! ONE! ... FIGHT!" like in Street Fighter II? I think people can figure out when a fight is gonna start. Some of you people still don't get what a sucker-punch is. Eye contact would have been a start. AJP was on the winning end of a clean play so there was no reason for him to expect a punch in the face. I hate defending this guy because he is of questionable character, but this situation was entirely on Barrett.

Those defending Barrett's punch must admit that the reason he punched AJP was because he had taken an ego hit losing the play at the plate and reacted like a child. Barrett's physical reaction is an elementary response popular with children and adults who never learned to control that fundamental behavior.

6 games. So a part-time player (pitcher) gets 6 games for running around 50 already fighting individuals to piledrive someone for no apparent reason and gets only 6 games. An everyday player punches a guy who just ran him over and gets 10 games. That was a fight, though. If the "dude" was out there in the middle of a fight, he at least had the opportunity to defend himself......... or should have. Barrett sucker-punched a guy who had no reason to expect it, and was completely defenseless. To me, there's a difference. Besides, at least Farnsworth's assault was effective. :lol: I don't even know what most of that means. The "dude" Farnsworth piledrived was not in the middle of a fight, and even if he was, it does not make the actions any more right than what Barrett did. Pierwhatshisface had more opportunity to defend himself as the "dude" did. Maybe you didn't see the Farns in action, I don't know. I'm not going to argue semantics on whether or not it was a sucker punch, but when words are exchanged face-to-face and one ends up getting punched, I do not consider that a sucker punch. I do not condone Barrett's behavior, and I think he should be suspended, but 10 games is a bit harsh in my opinion when conjuring up memories of suspensions past. AJ didn't say anything to Barrett after the collision. It was Barrett who said something like, "I didn't have the ball, [expletive]" right before he punched AJP. Also, the Reds pitcher, Paul Wilson, made a move towards the pitchers' mound, so that was a mutual fight. AJP did not even make eye contact with Barrett after the play at the plate. I'm not defending AJ, I just had to clarify your inaccurate post.

If I remember discussion about the Players' Union contract, no player can be resigned by his current team for less than ~80% of his previous year's salary. So the lowest Kerry could resign with us if bought out is ~10 million. This means we can forget about signing KW for an incentive-based contract like we did with Dempster and Miller. I'm not well-versed on the Union's contract rules, so if someone who is can provide clearer information on this, we'd all benefit from it.

I personally don't think the manager should have to order it, but I think the reasoning here is that it was the 4th inning, the Sox pen sucks, and they needed Javier to eat some innings. Had Vazquez hit a Ranger after the first time AJP was hit, he would not have been ejected from the game since the umpire warnings came after the second time AJP was hit. You might argue that Vazquez didn't know Padilla was intentionally hitting AJP until the second hbp, but Vazquez said in a postgame interview that he thought Padilla hit AJP intentionally the first time. Thus, the responsibility is on Vazquez for protecting his catcher and the rest of his hitters. Had he done so, he might have saved his catcher a second hbp, or gotten Padilla ejected since warning would have been issused after Vazquez's retaliation pitch.

Ok, I know there's hot girls everywhere, but Mississippi seems to have a higher ratio of hottieness than the rest of the country. I want to move there. Seriously. Is Ole Miss near the Gulf?

Welcome back, Mark. :D

Anyone else notice an audio problem with the crowd noise? Inconsistent.

Ozzie Guillen is a classman man. Javier Vazquez should have been the pitcher to retaliate. By Vazquez not throwing at a Ranger, and Ozzie not ordering him to, they both send the message that Vazquez is too good for that. If I were AJP or any other hitter on the team, I'd be more upset with Vazquez for putting himself before the 9 guys in the batting lineup. Vazquez watched his catcher get hit with twice, both on the first pitches of his at bats and did nothing to retaliate--not even a brushback pitch. Vazquez continued to pitch as if nothing happened. At least Tracey brushed someone back.

Awesome.