6/23 @ Rockies

[yeszir]

Where did this LYN NAY thing come from?

[VA Sox Fan]

Dear LYN-NAY,

 

My apologies for using the possessive pronoun "your" when clearly the proper application was the contraction "you're", the lazy man's way of writing "you are". Even properly applied, a contraction is simply not acceptable grammar for reasonable composition.

 

I clearly assaulted the delicate sensibilities of one of our scholars a few posts above; I would (and notice I didn't use the contraction "I'd") never, ever want to disappoint you even a fraction of the degree that I let the site down last night.

 

Yours in baseball and correct grammar,

 

YAZMAN

 

:lol: LMAO!! :lol:

 

A minor error IMO. A rarity in your (or is you're? case. The nerve of the scholar.

 

You could never disappoint me bro!

[Dojji]

You won't have both relievers if the one who's looking for the most money isn't the one with the better overall performance.

 

Don't let your love for the player blind you. There is something wrong with Jonathan Papelbon.

 

There is nothing seriously wrong with Jonathan Papelbon.

 

It's a common career trajectory for any star player and especially relievers. A couple years of brilliance followed by many years of very-good. I fully expect Paps to put his bad outing behind him and be a solidly effective closer for the rest of the year.

 

Also, I bristle at "better" when comparing a middle reliever/setup man with a closing reliever, it really isn't apples-to-apples. The closer is the guy who gets the brunt of the advanced scouting from opposing team, you need to be a lot better than the middle reliever just to do as well as the middle reliever. Besides, you have your own concerns about Bard's usage and I echo them, and as well, the difference in performance between Bard and Paps is exactly two bad innings so it's not exactly heaven-and-hell here.

 

And I have no problem paying Papelbon if that's the best way to maintain maximim relief depth in the bullpen, even if that means that Bard isn't closing. As long as Papelbon is a good closer it doesn't bother me too much that there's a better reliever in the pen, that just means that we have a decent pen.

[YAZMAN]

Where did this LYN NAY thing come from?

 

It came from me. "LYN-NAY!!!" is a play on "TIM-MAY!!!", demonstrating the fair lady's love of Tim Wakefield and all things Red Sox.

 

Please make sure you appropriately apply the dash.

[yeszir]

It came from me. "LYN-NAY!!!" is a play on "TIM-MAY!!!", demonstrating the fair lady's love of Tim Wakefield and all things Red Sox.

 

Please make sure you appropriately apply the dash.

 

My-mistake.

[VA Sox Fan]

It came from me. "LYN-NAY!!!" is a play on "TIM-MAY!!!", demonstrating the fair lady's love of Tim Wakefield and all things Red Sox.

 

Please make sure you appropriately apply the dash.

 

[VA Sox Fan]

For openers, what about the closer?

 

Posted by Peter Abraham, Globe Staff June 24, 2010 09:45 AM

 

Jason Giambi stuck that hanging splitter in the upper deck last night and 90 seconds later, the first e-mail arrived.

 

"How long are they going to wait before making Bard the closer?"

 

Jonathan Papelbon has blown exactly two saves since last July 30, so such panic is a little unwarranted. But those two were dramatic ones.

 

Papelbon gave up two home runs against the Yankees on May 17 and two more last night. He has allowed six homers this season, one more than his previous high for an entire season. Papelbon allowed 21 home runs in his first 284 appearances in the majors. He has allowed five in he last 13.

 

Papelbon also is averaging 7.5 strikeouts per nine innings, the lowest rate in his career since he averaged 9.0 as rookie in 2005. His four losses this year match the most he has ever had over an entire season.

 

All bad signs. Come the winter, Theo Epstein probably will give serious consideration to the idea of trading him.

 

But now is not the time to make a switch or make a trade. Daniel Bard hasn't even thrown 90 innings in the majors yet. He has a 5.59 ERA in 12 appearances against the Yankees, is prone to homers himself (9 over 87.1 innings) and when called up to be the closer in Cleveland earlier this month, had all sorts of issues.

 

Papelbon has earned the right to try and get himself straight — at least through this season — and Bard deserves the right to further develop himself as a pitcher before being tossed in the fire. Beyond that, if Bard becomes the man for the 9th inning, who is throwing the 8th inning? Nobody on this staff as presently constituted.

 

Bard looks every bit the kind of pitcher who can be a great closer ... but in 2011. For now, don't let one bad inning get you too riled up.

 

What do you think? Is Papelbon still the man you want closing?

[Palodios]

Bard makes a dominant setup man. But he's not ready to close, and we've seen that lately. Last year, back before Delcarmen's back injuries, there was talk about him being the next closer, and some mentioned that he might get traded to close somewhere else. I honestly think they'll try to trade paps, and then look for a stopgap solution for 2011.

[jacksonianmarch]

I think Papelbon, even in his currently reduced state, is still a top 10 closer. That being said, I think another glaring issue is the usage of Bard. He has appeared in 36 out of the sox 73 games. At that pace, he'd be around 80 games, which would surpass his previous high of 60 set last yr.

[RWTP24]

7 fastballs and 1 slider.... That is not going to get it done in the big leagues. When is Pap and Tek or V-mart going to figure this out? A trained monkey can hit a 95 mph fastball if it sees it enough.

[Palodios]

7 fastballs and 1 slider.... That is not going to get it done in the big leagues. When is Pap and Tek or V-mart going to figure this out? A trained monkey can hit a 95 mph fastball if it sees it enough.

 

Somehow Farrell seems to get immunity every time a pitcher has technique problems. If the pitching coach-- the guy paid for the sole purpose of making sure pitchers get it done-- doesn't realize that a pitcher can't rely on one pitch, why even have him around?

 

Its one thing if a pitcher is underperforming because he's hurt, but half the time its because Farrell can't fix technique problems if they spat in his face. How many times have pitchers lost full seasons of effectiveness without any serious injury? Beckett 2010, Dice-k 2009, Buchholz 2008 come to mind. He had no idea how to fix Smoltz in 2009, Delcarmen was afraid to talk to him about his injury last year and he has no clue how to handle Dice-k. Lester is always the first one to spring training every year, but why is it that he always has such a rough start to the season? It took Farrell a month and a half to figure out that pitchers need to hold base runners. I stand by the argument that Farrell is an incompetent bumbling fool.

[Flynnatic10]

Dude' date=' I said the Red Sox not the Gulf of Mexico.[/quote']

 

:lol:

[VA Sox Fan]

Rays won today

NYY off today

[VA Sox Fan]

My vote is for yeszir to start tonight's GT. Your mojo did not fail. The fact that you couldn't make 5 minutes available to do the GT on Saturday because of some lame reason was ....FAIL. :thumbsup:

[yeszir]

Your wish is my command