Linda

The 24 thing, where I said something like "I'm guessing that Curtis dies" is NOT ban-worthy. It was only AFTER it showed that you guys got pissed off. Give me a break. You are just butthurt because I bring up some unflattering points about your Sox.

It works for pitchers AND batters. When they are new to a league, they both usually do well for a stretch.

Explain what I did that you consider a bannable offense? Was it.. uh... pointing out that the Red Sox made a bad decision? No it couldnt be that. These are the perfect Red sox we're talking about. Seriously, someone hurts your feelings with the truth and suddenly everyone gets ban-happy.

Switching coasts? How the hell does that make a player forget how to hit the ball? Switching coasts! Now I've heard every excuse in the books. Most players do well when they switch leagues until the pitchers figure them out. And please explain how switching positions makes someone forget how to hit. I know when I played, I was in a zone when I stepped to the plate. I don't get up there and start thinking about my footwork at the hot corner.

Get used to this: http://static.flickr.com/71/165195807_4ba2dea15b_m.jpg and this: http://img215.imageshack.us/img215/6480/capt765b45202ce845c5b870c8fb6da8703bdodgersgiantsbasezg4.jpg and this: http://mlb.mlb.com/images/2006/10/04/XCvsdMpv.jpg

I agree with what you said about Drew, but not Lugo. The guy supposedly had some power, but he's skinny as hell. Probably weighs less than 100 lbs. Manny could use him as a bat. I don't see how he can hit the ball out of the infield... come to think of it, I never saw him hit more than a "lil' nubber" (Thanks Vin Scully) as a Dodger. It's gonna take a hell of a lot of luck (and some steroids, most likely) for him to get stats remotely close to what he had in TB. 39 total bases in 164 plate appearances as a Dodger. Holy crap. And you guys bash the Pierre signing.

As a Dodger fan, I have seen both of these players suck ass on the baseball field and piss off all Dodger fans. I realize it is only a matter of time before you all see the light (or the darkness for that matter).

Thanks for pointing that out again. Seriously, do you even read the thread before posting?

And NYM is supposed to be the Latin Destination? LMAO.

If healthy (and that's a big IF), Drew will make you guys happy. But if he's hurt at all, either he won't play, or he'll try to play through it, and you'l get a RF playing at 25%.

Re: Cashman... anybody could be a good GM with that budget. If he can't win with that $$$, he's a failure.

Bull s***. Minaya traded away Kazmir. L.A. is still the Latin destination, unless he's referring to buying Beltran and Delgado. Reyes is not the whole team. On the other hand, the remark about Colletti trading away the top prospects is false. Here are the guys he traded away and the return: Edwin Jackson -- gave him plenty of time to pan out and he got worse. Traded him for Baez, which was a good move at a time when Gagne appeared to be injured for a while. Baez was then traded for Betemit. Jackson for Betemit is a great trade. Dioner Navarro -- blocked Russell Martin's path to the majors. Couldn't hit. Traded for Lugo. Another good trade. Antonio Perez -- traded for Ethier, went on to hit .100 for Oakland. In the meantime, Ned Colletti held on to Billingsley, Kuo, Martin, Ethier, Loney, Kemp, Laroche, Elbert, etc. Colletti is showing that he's one of the best GMs in MLB.

Shaq couldn't win without Wade or Kobe. On the other hand, both Wade and Kobe are winning this year without Shaq.

He's the reason why the Giants are clinging to their veteran core, have an average age of 37, and have absolutely no farm system.

Kobe should be MVP.

How was your english teacher? Did you, by chance, go to Arcadia High School? Maybe you were a mathlete.

No probrem.

From the NY Times website: January 17, 2007 January 17, 2007 On Baseball Unsigned Bonds Awaits Further Review By MURRAY CHASS Six weeks after they agreed to terms on new contracts, Barry Bonds and J. D. Drew remain unsigned. Bonds hasn’t signed with the Giants; Drew hasn’t signed with the Red Sox. That prompts a thought. If both contracts were to fall through, the Red Sox could sign Bonds to play left field and move Manny Ram?rez back to his original position in right. The absence of a contract for the two is highly unusual. Free agents and clubs rarely take this long to complete contracts. Theo Epstein, the Boston general manager, and Scott Boras, Drew’s agent, have made light of the time it has taken them to complete the five-year, $70 million contract. Epstein was on vacation; Boras was attending to other free-agent clients, they said. Except general managers are known to negotiate contracts and trades by telephone while on vacation, and Boras is capable of completing one deal with his left ear while he negotiates another with his right. Drew’s questionable right shoulder has obviously created a problem for the Red Sox, and they are seeking ways to reduce their risk. Bonds’s $16 million contract created more issues for the Giants, but by the end of last week Bonds had backed off many of his stands and was prepared to accept the Giants’ positions. The Giants, however, suddenly slowed the talks, and a resolution has not been reached. A lawyer on the Bonds side said yesterday that they suspect the Giants, reacting to negative news media views in the Bay Area, are exploring ways of getting out of the contract. When an official on the management side with knowledge of the talks was asked yesterday if the deal could blow up, he said, “It’s possible.” Brian Sabean, the Giants’ general manager, did not return a telephone call yesterday seeking comment on the contract circumstances. His secretary, told what the call was about, said she did not think Sabean would comment. Given the chance to comment, Jeff Borris, Bonds’s agent, didn’t. “I can’t really comment on that situation right now,” he said when asked about the contract talks. Could the deal blow up? “I can’t comment on that,” he said. • The Giants did not offer Bonds a contract lightly. They agonized over their decision and even looked for alternatives before making the offer to Bonds, their left fielder for 14 years. He was not necessarily their first choice. They sought a free agent, Alfonso Soriano or Carlos Lee, and they pursued trades for Ram?rez and Adam Dunn. Failing at each turn, they went back to Bonds. But before offering him a contract, they asked their baseball people for an evaluation of the 42-year-old Bonds as a hitter and a left fielder, and they spoke with some of the team’s veteran players to find out if having Bonds on the team would be a distraction, or be destructive in any way. The response they got was if they would be a better team with him than without him, they should sign him. Those conversations occurred before news emerged last week that Bonds had tested positive for amphetamines and that Bonds said the reason was a substance he took from the locker of a teammate, Mark Sweeney. The Giants haven’t reacted publicly to that incident, and it’s not known if they will use it in an attempt to get out of the contract. If they do, the players union would certainly challenge their action in a grievance. According to the lawyer on Bonds’s side and the official on the management side, the Giants had not raised the incident as an issue. The two sides had plenty of other issues to resolve, but contrary to published reports, the lawyer said, they did not include anything about the Giants’ desire to alter the guarantee language in the contract based on any legal problems that may envelop Bonds from the Balco investigation. One of the thorniest issues was Bonds’s entourage. The Giants erred five years ago by including a provision in Bonds’s five-year, $90 million contract that allowed his personal trainer and assorted other associates access to the Giants’ clubhouse. Bonds wanted to continue that arrangement, but the Giants adamantly opposed it. To get around Commissioner Bud Selig’s rule banning such people from the clubhouse, Bonds proposed that the Giants hire the members of his entourage so they would be club employees and legally allowed in the clubhouse. The Giants had no intention of agreeing to that idea, and even if they had, Selig would have seen through the subterfuge and voided the contracts. Bonds, however, gave up his effort to retain his entourage rights and will be naked in the clubhouse this year, if the contract is completed. Bonds made or was prepared to make other concessions as well. The two sides seemed to be a document away from completing their agreement, but they remain in disagreement. • The remaining issue could be who needs whom more. At this juncture, the Giants would not have a replacement for Bonds as their cleanup hitter and left fielder, but they could still seek one in a trade. Without the Giants, would Bonds have any way of hitting the 22 home runs he needs to break Hank Aaron’s career record? Would another team offer him a contract? If any other teams had been interested in Bonds, they have probably moved past that point. Selig and other baseball officials might welcome a breakdown in the talks between the Giants and Borris, but they can do nothing to facilitate it. Selig cannot call Peter Magowan, the Giants’ managing partner, and urge him not to complete the contract. That call would violate the labor agreement’s rules against collusion. Another collusion case would be far worse than a Bonds home run record.

Hello World! I like your avatar. It looks like he's vacuuming the guy's nipples. Hot!

I'm pretty sure it was LF.

I'm trying to talk baseball with you guys. Give me a break. It so happens that I like Buckner from his L.A. days, and I wanted to hear if you all were still bitter about that incident. It's not beating a dead horse unless it's been discussed here numerous times, and by my calculatins it hasn't. Sore subject, maybe, but not a dead horse. Speaking of sore subjects, why are Mr. Crunchy and Budlight asking if I'm into double penetration? By the way, I think guys who like anal are closet fags. Anyway, you guys are not my type. I'd rather settle for someone like seabeachfred who knows how to stick up for me in this thread. How's it going, Fred? I hear you've been working out.

First of all, I am a big Buckner fan. He was my favorite player during his time in LA. With that said, I just finished watching the last 10 minutes of the Buckner game on YouTube ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2BzhTUcRgI ) and I had a couple of observations. 1) Vin Scully is the best announcer in baseball. Period. 2) Buckner went 0-for-5 in the game, each time with runners on base. This was just the icing on the cake. 3) After all of the other mistakes that inning, including the wild pitch, Buckner's error was the straw that broke the camel's back. It's a shame it got blamed on him. Kind of reminds me of the Bartman fiasco, and how Cubs fans forget the mistakes their team made prior to Bartman's catch. 4) That ball actually did have some weird spin on it. You can see the last hop kind of skips low instead of coming up. If Buckner takes it on his knee, he probably doesn't make the play to first in time. Buckner's knees probably don't allow for him to charge the ball hard. 5) I thought the pitcher was slow getting off the mound and Buckner was trying to decide whether or not he was going to have to try to race Mookie to the bag. If that had happened, it would have been a close play at first, Buckner had bad knees. 6) It's a shame that Buckner's kids were getting beat up at school, and he had to move to Idaho. Got driven out of town. It shows where Boston's priorities lie.