Beaneater

I guess if you're on Oakland, you just say, "Hey, I'm making half a million dollars to play baseball. Life is good."

Wow, the A's are really really really bad.

Baseball, as we know, is the sport of heaven. Other sports are not as good, and here is how I would change them. Basketball: The interminable series of fouls and free throws makes the end of basketball games ugly and boring. I was trying to watch the end of the NC State vs. Marquette game and almost died of boredom. It must have taken half an hour to play the last three minutes of the game. Fouls in the last minute or two of the game should result in free throws plus possession of the ball for the team that gets fouled. Soccer: I normally work in a country where soccer is king, so I have to at least pretend to like it. But flopping is awful and really detracts from any enjoyment one might otherwise draw from the game. Every match should be automatically reviewed by a video ref after the match is over, with sanctions imposed for flops. Bad flops earn a yellow card, meaning that the flopper starts the next game sitting on yellow. Really bad flops get a red card, meaning the flopper is suspended from the next game. That would end flopping in a heartbeat. Any other ideas? EDIT: What I would also change is not having a typo in the thread title.

First post in many months, as I have found the Sox entertaining for the first time in a while. My thinking is something like Millar's in 2004 before ALCS Game 4: don't let the Red Sox squeak into the playoffs. Because I don't think anyone really wants to face Paxton, Bello, and a hypothetically healthy Sale in the postseason. So I'm optimistic and really hoping they don't trade off any important pieces.

OK, fair enough! EDIT: I mean, honestly, Marco has been good this year. I know, small sample size and all, but so far he's been not just average but actively good. So why isn't he just playing 2B by default?

I haven't been following things closely recently. Is there some coherent reason that Marco Hernandez or Holt isn't playing 2B? Do we gain anything by having Owings in there?

Rafi is an assassin.

No, the "13-year old Dominican boy" is the best part about this!

Bogaerts' shot was hammered. Devers' was fired from a frickin' cannon. That ball went directly from the bat to the stands without passing through any of the points of space in between!

Devers first. Then Holt, who got a lot of practice hugging JD last year.

I've got to go with Rich Garces.

It's Pomeranz vs. Buchholz tonight in the Jays/Giants game. I find that interesting!

YEEEEEEESSSSSS!!! 4:21 AM here but this was worth staying up for!

You will be in a couple of minutes... I hope.

So glad it's not a one run lead right now...

I'm thinking Pearce, Price, and Kinsler as co-MVPs.

3 good hits was enough for JBJ to get MVP!

If all holds, Prce will be MVP. Either Pearce or Price, either one will do.

9th in fWAR this year. He's good – not "easily top 5" good. Anyway, I don't think he'd do well in Boston (understatement alert).

Here's a random thought re: possibly facing the Brewers in the WS. The Brewers are very shift-happy – the shiftiest team in the NL. The Red Sox hit it everywhere. Just look at our big inning in ALCS Game 5 for one example: Moreland oppo 2B, Kinsler oppo 1B, Devers oppo HR. It's been obvious from day 1 that you can't shift JD, but really at this point you can hardly shift anyone in our lineup. Mookie will beat you the other way, as will Bogie, JBJ, Moreland, Devers... So if we face the Brewers, we're either going to see them continue to play shifts even though we'll probably make them pay for it, or they'll have to (partially/mostly) abandon one of their commonest defensive strategies. I like both of those options!

As cp said, unless the video I saw was a fake, it was pretty clearly off the wall. How clearly? 85+%, I'd say. His glove lightly hitting the wall at almost zero velocity (since he was at the top of his leap) can't make the whole panel shimmy violently like that. Plus the ball apparently changes direction before settling into the glove, although that is less clear. . That said, I couldn't be happier that this is an entirely moot point. Thanks, Steve Pearce, JBJ, and the Sox pitching staff! With a special shout-out to Robert "Insert Joke About Hitting People Here" Osuna! EDIT: Obviously this is one of those Yanni/Laurel things.

Me too, Moon. Well, not always, but for some years now. When I was younger, my favorite was Jim Ed, as you might infer from my avatar. JBJ checks the South Carolina box (the state where I was born) by having attended college in SC, which is not quite as good as Jim Ed actually being from SC, but still. And defense trumps offense for me personally, so watching JBJ gliding around CF and making the impossible look routine is about as good as it gets. Love to see him doing well. May he have many more ABs with the sacks packed this postseason!

How did I miss the Brasier vs. Sanchez kerfuffle in ALDS Game 2? That was pretty epic. I think Sanchez understood pretty well what Brasier was saying to him – did you see his swing on strike 3? He swung so hard that he stumbled and almost lost his balance. Of course, that giant swing also meant that he was about a half-hour late on the 97-mph fastball. But he was clearly trying to hit it to the mid-Atlantic region. Fun moment.

Shin-Soo Choo!

Good point. There might still be some really specific game situations where an AL manager would crunch the numbers and decide that it's still better to chuck the pitcher into (say) RF for one batter. But he'd have to be a real iconoclast to try it, especially if, as you say, Girardi has already done it and had it blow up in his face.