FourZeroSix

No matter how you look at it, it's unfortunate. Law is one of the better players the Patriots have had and it's too bad it has to end like this. I don't see what the huge difference of $17M to 15.6M is? It's certainly enough to eat.

Just one quick comment if I can.. Benny - It is too late to save Pedro. No matter what he does or how he acts from now on people are going to hate him and he's going to be painted as the "bad guy" and as an *******.

Apparently the weather in Baltimore tomorrow night is going to be quite ugly. The Weather.com forecast for the Inner Harbor shows snow flurries at game time, with increasing winds and temps holding steady through the upper 30s until 10pm. God damn.

Exactly.

Because, Pedro Martinez, the most-hated man in the Bronx, will still find a way to deal with the Yankees' offense, even if he really is losing his fastball. Because Pedro Martinez sent Derek Jeter and Alfonso Soriano to the hospital last year, after hitting them both. Because Pedro didn't even pretend to be sorry. Because Pedro body-slammed Don Zimmer. Because Pedro didn't say he was sorry about that, either. LOL... He does know that both Jeter and Soriano were swinging, right? And that Clemens put one up by Millar's head just a couple days earlier.

I'm already over this thing and over Ty Law.

Red Sox . . . . . . Patriots Celtics Bruins Really though.. I love them all. They all have rich histories and all-time great players in each specific sport that I'm proud played in Boston.

Well, you asked me who I thought jumped out as contenders. Others not mentioned: Josh Beckett Brandon Webb Roy Oswalt

Let them rank the Sox 30th if they want... it doesn't matter. Aslong as they go out and do what they have the ability to do, everything will fall into place.

Actually, there are: ERIC GAGNE - Dodgers In 2003, Dodgers closer Eric Gagne became the first relief pitcher to win the Cy since Dennis Eckersly accomplished the feat in 1992. Although to many, a reliever winning the Cy is ridiculous, it’s really hard to argue against Gagne after the numbers he posted. Out of 55 save opportunities, Gagne blew a grand total of zero chances. With 137 strikeouts in just 82.1 innings, Gagne posted an outrageous K/9 of 14.98… or you could just say 15 strikeouts per nine innings to go along with a cool 1.20 ERA. Nobody before Gagne ever had two 50 save seasons… Gagne has two back-to-back 50+ save seasons in his first two years on the job. He has saved 107 of 111 opportunities, and the last 63 in a row (a ML record). RANDY JOHNSON - D'Backs Every year, it seems, Randy Johnson is written off because of his age. And every year, it seemed, Johnson would prove them wrong by delivering an even better season than before. In 2003, it looked as if the skeptics had finally gotten their wish. RJ fell hard…he required surgery to remove lose cartilage that was floating freely in his knee. When he came back prematurely to help Arizona’s October chances, he wasn’t the same. Six months later at 40 years old, Johnson looks like he’s had the time needed to heal… he looks strong, feels strong and is more determined than ever to regain his former dominance. Taking a glance at the radar guns in his Spring Training outings and seeing 97-98 is a sign of good things to come. He has his heat… he has perhaps the nastiest pitch the game has ever seen with his 91-92 mph slider. He has the determination and intensity to post the triple crown numbers that earned him a unanimous 5th Cy Young Award in 2002. KERRY WOOD - Cubs It's already well known that Kerry Wood has the best pure stuff probably in all of baseball. His former catcher, experts and knowledgable fans have all recognized this. Last season, Wood posted career-bests in Wins, ERA and strikeouts including leading the ML in K's (266). This Spring, he's shown much better control while posting a 5-0 record with a 1.05 ERA. I'm not a big fan of ST, but it's certainly more encouraging to see good numbers (Wood) than bad ones (Pedro).

Some people don't. Why can't they realize it all has to do with Effectiveness and Pitch Count? Innings aren't set in stone. Some nights Pedro will throw the same number of pitches in a 6-inning performance as he would in a complete game.

Everyone's favorite pick. I don't think he'll get it this year since he won't be back until May at the earliest. However, Halladay had a winless April last season and ended up taking the AL CYA, so anything is possible.

Pedro doesn't always have to come out in the 8th, it's all relative to how he's pitching. If he's throwing a shutout, you leave him in the game...build up his durability... if he gets shaky in the 7th (like Game 7), then you take him out. Otherwise, don't hold him back from building his body up, especially when he is pitching excellent.

I don't think the Yankees will have any problem getting into the postseason. However, I STILL think the Sox can take the AL East over them.

I don't quite know what to think of him either. I suppose we'll just have to wait and see how he goes about managing in regular-season and postseason games to really form an opinion on him. What I do know is, if the Red Sox win the World Series, he won't be getting most of the credit, and if they don't, it will probably be all his fault...lol Curt said he can handle the pressure, so....

He's also got a nasty change up. You can ask Keith Foulke about that too.

Haha, I just saw what Prior had to say on BB Tonight. Couldn't hardly hear him with the LIL JON bumpin' in the backround. YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAHA!

Whenever Kevin Brown's name is mentioned when Sox fans are comparing the Sox and Yanks rotations, I see that a lot of the time they will just dismiss Brown as if it is a fact that he'll get hurt. This is a Big Mistake, IMO. I don't know why Brown hasn't gotten the props of the Pedro's, Schilling's and Johnson's, because he sure deserves it. In 7 of the last 8 seasons Brown has had an ERA of 3 or lower. I haven't done the research but probably the only other pitcher you'll find with that is Pedro (seven straight season with an ERA below 2.90), and of those 7 seasons Brown has accomplished the feat, he's pitched over 210 innings six times and 230+ IPs five times. Now, he probably isn't capable of 230 anymore, but he DID pitch 211 last year. That is more than Pedro. More than Lowe. More than Schilling, although he was out. More than Wakefield. To go with it, he had a 2.39 ERA and was actually slightly better on the Road than Pitchers Paradise Park a.k.a. Dodger Stadium. Here is a comparison of Brown and Schilling since 1996 using the two most valuable stats when evaluating starting pitchers: IPs and ERA. Kevin Brown 1996: 32 GS, 233 IP, 1.89 ERA 1997: 33 GS, 237 IP, 2.69 ERA 1998: 35 GS, 257 IP, 2.38 ERA 1999: 35 GS, 252 IP, 3.00 ERA 2000: 33 GS, 230 IP, 2.58 ERA 2001: 19 GS, 116 IP, 2.65 ERA 2002: 10 GS, 64 IP, 4.81 ERA 2003: 32 GS, 211 IP, 2.39 ERA Curt Schilling 1996: 26 GS, 183 IP, 3.19 ERA 1997: 35 GS, 254 IP, 2.97 ERA 1998: 35 GS, 269 IP, 3.25 ERA 1999: 24 GS, 180 IP, 3.54 ERA 2000: 29 GS, 210 IP, 3.81 ERA 2001: 35 GS, 257 IP, 2.98 ERA 2002: 35 GS, 259 IP, 3.23 ERA 2003: 24 GS, 168 IP, 2.95 ERA NOTE: IP totals rounded off. I was actually shocked when I made this comparison... not only has Kevin Brown been much more dominant, but he's also been able to match a bonifide workhorse like Schilling inning-for-inning. A lot of people like to look at 2001-2002 and kind of brush off the fact that he did start 32 games last year, he did have 211 IPs and he did have the 3rd best ERA in the majors. He is easily a Top 5 pitcher when he is healthy. Overlooking him may comeback to slap some Sox fans in the face, because quite frankly - He's nasty, and he's a competitor. Vazquez is another not to overlook - 231 IP with a 3.24 ERA last season.. along with 241 K's. A lot of people like to talk about his 13-12 record but ignore the fact that he was 111th in run support last year... that is NO JOKE.

Hmmm... ? This has been brought up in a few other discussions I've had about Pedro eventually switching to be a closer to extend his career. I honestly think he could be the greatest closer of all-time if he ever gave it a shot. He definitely has the mentality for it and has actually spoken of it before back when his future was uncertain after fraying his rotator cuff in 2001 season. It's obvious that Pedro isn't as durable as he once was looking at his IP, IP per start and CG's the last 7 seasons. 1997: 31 GS, 241.1 IP, 7.8 IP/GS, 13 CG 1998: 33 GS, 233.2 IP, 7.1 IP/GS, 3 CG 1999: 29 GS, 213.1 IP, 7.4 IP/GS, 5 CG 2000: 29 GS, 217.0 IP, 7.5 IP/GS, 7 CG 2001: 18 GS, 116.2 IP, 6.5 IP/GS, 1 CG 2002: 30 GS, 199.1 IP, 6.5 IP/GS, 2 CG 2003: 29 GS, 186.2 IP, 6.4 IP/GS, 3 CG Pedro did throw more CG last season than he has since 2000 and also to his credit, his IP per GS is taken down a little by his 3 inning start after he just came off the DL against St. Louis and the last "start" of the year against Baltimore right before the postseason. Taking away those two "starts", Pedro averaged 6.7 innings per start, also would be his highest since 2000, not to mention his 2.22 ERA being best since 2000. I wonder though, how much longer Pedro will be effective as a STARTER? I think as long as he has the desire, he'll continue to post otherworldly numbers in ERA and WHIP, but eventually wont go 6 on a consistent basis. My guess at this point is maybe three more years? and I'm not mistaken, that is also how long Foulke's contract is. Maybe 4, not exactly sure. If they can hang onto Pedro a couple more years as a starter and let Foulke play out his contract, Pedro could be able to become the Sox closer in 2007. Even though he'd have to pitch two, three days in a row on occasion, he wouldn't have to save his heater for late inning situations. He could warm up and come out flairing his 93-95 mph fastball (assuming this ST stuff is just overblown.. )..although he could probably still throw 90-91 the entire time, pitch his inning, game over. Seeing how dominant Pedro is over 6-7 innings, I can't imagine how stingy he would be at allowing runs if he only had to pitch 1 or 2. Like I said, if he has the desire to stay in the game, this would probably be the best way to extend it. Personally, I think it would be awesome to have Pedro come running out of the Pen with the crowd going crazy... GAMEOVER... just like Pedro the starter was in his prime. This obviously is down the road, but it's just a thought. Pedro's career 2.58 ERA is already the 2nd best since 1945 and obviously the best among active pitchers (min: 1500 IP), can you imagine the dip it would take if it included a couple seasons of closing? YIKES.

Gordon Edes and Holley are ok. Shaughnessy is a prick. As for JOS, I'd see if you can't get him to put your board onto the list of "Sox links"...

Yeah, go read a completely pessimistic Shaughnessy column, it's so much better than actual news. Haha. One place where I like to check on daily for Sox news is at http://joyofsox.blogspot.com

What is going on here with all the RedSox.com articles? lol I think I enjoy Browne's reports more than all the SPIN that comes from the columnists from The Globe, Herald, Courant, ProJo, etc... I'm not a big fan of the mediots anyway... look at what they did to Bill Russell and Ted Williams for god sake. I think it's funny when Pedro refuses to talk to them.

Yeah, it's obvious MLB is trying to squeeze out every possible dollar that they can make. Not really surprising, lol.

Lowe said it will not affect his pitching. Pedro has too much pride to just let himself get hammered in games that aren't exhibitions and both will be playing for contracts. We may see the best yet out of both of them. Schilling is in the ZONE.