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I agree. Wakefield's games are exciting because there are often a lot of runs, or crazy things that happen. But as a pitcher it is like watching slow pitch softball.

This is the stupidest show around. Of course, I got up early to watch it today because a Saturday without sports is stupid too. But do I really need to listen to Ron Jowarski say "Let me look at my notes on QUinn here, he is good under pressure and shows a lot of composure and it looks like my notes were right today. This is pressure and he really handled it well." HE SAT THERE AND WENT UNDRAFTED. WHEN HE GOT DRAFTED HE STOOD ON THE STAGE AND SHOWED HIS NEW JERSEY. Sometimes ESPN is so lame. First, we'll show Brady Quinn all morning, showing the worst and most embarassing moments of this kid's life while asking him to interview with us, then we'll turn it into the feelgood story of the draft because of our own fake pressure. Lame.

Brady Quinn goes to Cleveland.

Where the HELL are the Yankee fans. Seriously, this should be embarassing for Yankee supporters. The stadium looks like it isn't sold out. That's not possible, is it? Are they just fashionably late?

What does his sexual preference have to do with it? If he could pitch you wouldn't care whether he liked boys or not, right?

A "bowlful of jelly" laugh, or a "it hurts too much to cry" kind of laugh? I'm guessing the latter. OKei, let's kick some ass.

First of all, I think your opinion is all you're going off of here. So let's get that out of the way quickly. No, if he was "unknown" overall you're idea would be correct. If he were some guitar playing, pot smoking beach bum from the DR I would understand your blanket statement speculation. This guy isn't unknown, he's just unknown to you, which has little bearing on his actual value. I imagine Daisuke was unknown to you two years ago as well, even though he had had two successful olympic stints, an amazing career in Japan and his Koishen performance and the fact that the Sox had been quietly scouting him for quite awhile. The crux of my 'theory' is not "all unknown players can be great", but that "players who have great success in a legitimate baseball league like Japan could probably contribute at a MLB level REGARDLESS of whether or not BoSox34 has heard of them or whether he makes outright claims about them not POSSIBLY being able to replace a mid-to-late thirties Manny if his contract expires." I didn't see anyone saying he would be plugged into the middle of the 07 lineup. I saw people say he could play LF, but LF doesn't come with an automatic #4 spot in the lineup. Like it or not this team may need to replace Manny Ramirez with a player who is "only" the caliber of, say, Matt Holliday or Jason Bay. Just like they replaced one of the best pitchers of all time (Pedro) with someone who is "only" the caliber of David Cone or Mike Mussina in his prime (I think we've seen that level of upside already).

3 consecutive gold gloves, and 2006 league MVP doesn't sound like this guy is some slouch. He hit a 2-run PH home run off of BK Kim against Korea in the Semis of the WBC.

Might you have said the same thing if the Red Sox had said 2 years ago the the replacement for Pedro Martinez would be a pitcher named Daisuke Matsuzaka? Just because you haven't heard of a guy or seen them play doesn't mean they can't be really, really productive.

I thought Damon was young and healthy? So far, in his second season with the Yankees after being unsigned by the Sox it isn' tlooking like a poor decision. We'll see, of course, but it was his health that was one of the main reasons that argument was made.

It's hard to tell what the Yankees priority is right now. If Karstens gives up 5 in the first I wouldn't be suprised to see him in there until he's thrown 100+ pitches no matter what.

I'm pretty sure he threw the infamous 'gyroball' in last night's game with the Yankees, and it wasn't the idiotic screwball-motion changup that I heard even Remy talking about. Here's the best explanation of the pitch I can find (in Japanese, with english subtitles): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFvNWDKAxAs&mode=related&search= The pitch I'm talking about was in the 5th inning, the strikeout pitch to A-rod. It looked on the replay that A-Rod actually held up and was able to check his swing, but he was called out. In any case, the mlb.tv feed wasn't nearly as good as the NESN feed was on EI. In any case, it is a pitch that clearly looks like a fastball and a slider.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2yTPVo5KA20 Here's a few video clips of him. Looks like he has some good size and a sweet swing. I don't think asking about trading Manny is really out of the question. He will have one year left in his contract and should be affordable. Plus, the Sox getting much of anything for him before he's a FA would be a good thing. I fully expect them to try to trade him this offseason and this guy looks like one of many good options.

Sounds fun.

Thanks a700, you can go back to sleep now.

A cop-out? It's not like my having them on my team is going to dictate how they do in real life. s***, if there are players out there who are going to do well I want them on my fantasy team regardless of who they play for. There is very little room for allegiances in fantasy baseball. If one of my other red sox fan friends in the league had Jeter and passed me because of it I would be pissed off. I play to win, what can I say?? Also, I'm the commish and spend too much time organizing it to finish in last place.

I had A-Rod and ended up trading him for Manny at the end of the year when I had a solid lead and needed a good OFr. You take what you can get when you can get it. Nice win by the Sox.

That's funny, I was going to do that last week, but then mariano got torched so I thought it was good luck to leave him in.