crector

Kerry Wood is a loser who has refused to learn how to pitch and who has banked on a single fluke of a game, a 20k game back in 1998. He isn't even worth a bag of used baseballs. The team that trades for him is screwed and deservedly so.

http://www.whitesoxinteractive.com/vbulletin/index.php? Also, if you want to see an example of the kind of mentality that the WSI Staff has in a political setting check out this piece by a Democrat who once wrote a column criticizing a Bush Administration official: http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0413/smith.php

As some of you are aware, White Sox Interactive has either banned or suspended the Marlins fans at their forum for the high crimes of (A) sticking up for the Billy Koch trade and (B) sticking up for the Marlins ownership. What you probably are not aware of is that over the years a lot of White Sox fans have also been banned or suspended for simply disagreeing with the positions taken by the alleged moderators there while others, such as myself, have quit posting there. Actually, those moderators are really trolls under any other name. Here?s a case in point from last fall. After Sox GM Kenny Williams traded career minor leaguer Aaron Miles to the Colorado Rockies for Juan Uribe, there was a great hue and cry amongst Sox fans certain that this was a horrible trade, that the Sox had been ?fleeced.? Well, I looked at the Rockies websites and forums and found that Rockies fans were equally conviced that their team was the one that was ?fleeced? and talked to a couple Rockies fans of my acquaintance who believed that Uribe was a much better player than his stats indicated and that they thought that Uribe was a continually improving player who was literally on the verge of greatness. Well, I listened to what the Rockies fans had to say and after looking through Uribe?s record in the major and minor leagues and whatever else I could come up with, I decided that they were right. Juan Uribe really was a major pick-up for the White Sox. That being the case, I wrote up a post that summarized my conclusions and placed it on the WSI Forum in the form of a new thread.. The next day, I checked the WSI Forum and found that my post/new thread was missing. I then saw that I had received a msg from one of the moderators. I was informed that my post/thread had been deleted and that if I did that sort of thing again, I would be banned from the forum. In the follow-up, it was revealed that the moderator had determined that my post had been made with the intent of creating controversy on the forum and not for any legitimate reason. In other words, my Uribe post was the work of a troll, not a serious Sox fan. Now, you are probably wondering just what kind of sense that makes. Well, its like this. The feeling amongst the WSI Staff was that Uribe was a dud, that the GM had screwed up big time was pretty much universal. In other words, there was a consensus, the idea that Uribe was worthless was the conventional wisdom among the WSI Staff. In the view of the staff, everyone who was any sort of legitimate Sox fan ?knew? that this was a bad trade. Therefore, the only persons who would post that this was a great trade, that Uribe was a good player with the potential for greatness, just had to be a troll. Only a troll would write such a post. Since trolls and troll activities have to be severely regulated, the moderator believed that my Uribe post had to be deleted. From what I've heard from other Sox fans, there have been a number of other instances of posts/threads being deleted at WSI simply because they went against the conventional wisdom as defined by the WSI Staff. Its because of nonsense like this (which has only gotten worse with the passage of time) that I decided to quit posting at WSI. The WSI moderators are often no better than trolls and other delinquents. If anything, the WSI moderators often engage in behavior that?s worse than the crime.

Here is my spin on this deal: White Sox give up a servicable major league reliever and the cash to pay for him for a second/third tier minor leaguer that the Marlins would never use. As a lifetime White Sox fan, I think that you're right on the money. A big part of the reason why Koch was unsuccessful in Chicago was the fact that Keith Foulke was hugely popular among both fans and teammates and when the Sox traded Foulke for Koch, Koch was massively resented. Even before he threw his 1st pitch in a MLB game for the Sox, he was probably the Sox player who the fans hated the most and they really went after him every time he got on the mound. In other words, Koch was in a situation in which he was subjected to far more pressure than other closers were, and being a closer is a high pressure spot as it is. For what its worth, if Marlins fans and players alike embrace Koch and cut him some slack, I can easily see Koch becoming the comeback player of the season. Even if he does not fully regain his pre-White Sox form, the Marlins have clearly gotten the best end of the deal. For Sox fans, this is a depressing deal. Even more depressing is those of us who feel this way are not allowed to post our thoughts on the matter on the main Sox fansite forum at whitesoxinteractive.com because the moderators there are really trolls in disguise who take the position that you either agree with them or don't post at "their" forum. In other words, if you are a Sox fan like myself who believe that the Marlins have (A) gotten the best end of this deal and (B) have a very good management team that is solidly committed to winning, you have to post your opinions elsewhere because the troll-moderators at WSI will not allow disagreement with their pre-ordained beliefs.