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I know we've talked about it before, but what the hell, its a baseball game.... they were talking before the game about Ichiro's free agency. How would he look in CF next season, leading off for this team? Would it be worth paying him a Drew-like contract (or something close), or is that too much? If people are too enthralled with the game feel free to not respond. Like ORS, I like to talk to myself too.

There's a lot to be said about Schilling having the best K/BB ratio in history. Especially since he's there with Pedro and Cy Young at the top of the list. Those sound like HOF numbers to me. That statistic alone is worthy in my opinion. I really think the bar should be VERY high, but this guy is a tremendous pitcher and I would put him up against Drysdale or Catfish any day.

I really don't think this guy is going to have a hard time being a productive member of the Sox rotation this season. Even if he's not as dominant as he has been he just throws too many strikes with too much command to be as bad as 'most' pitchers.

It's not that QBs have been implicated in HGH scandals. It's that they are getting pummeled by the very 270lbs 4.6/40 guys we're talking about. It is inhuman to be that big and that fast. Announcers talk about how atheletes in the past were inferior by pointing to these guys and I just see no reason to think they are clean. Of course they help recover from injuries. They also cause injuries. It goes both ways. Painkillers help you 'recover' from injuries too (Brett Favre comes to mind). The long term effects of steroids are clear and deadly. The long term effects of HGH are not so clear, but the book "Game of Shadows" doesn't make it sound good. Long story short, we're encouraging people (at least implicitly) to put competition in sport above their long term health. It's not a good setup, ESPECIALLY in a sport that already includes tremendous physical requirements and poses physical challenges (not to go all 'Double Dare' on you ). I just don't get this arguement. I understand it from a physical recovery point of view. But it is like you are assuming that these guys just HAVE to play football. There is no choice. The game must go on and it is impossible to find guys who will both stay clean and not use. You're saying "well, using steroids is better than not having football" when in the past we've been able to have both. No argument here. Just like American Idol is the most popular show on TV and Bush is our president. It doesn't make it the best but it obviously is the facts. The NFL doesn't need your defense. Like you said, it is the most popular league and has plenty of people cementing that fact. The very fact that they spent an hour talking about next year's NFL schedule on ESPN is enough to know that the NFL will be fine with or without your defense (or my criticism, for that matter). If the main culprets in the Duke Lacrosse case had 20 previous investigations and charges into abuse, assault and such crimes I would have no problem with Duke kicking them out, regardless of their guilt in this particular case. We put so many things aside for our atheletes, essentially making them demigods, I just don't respect that aspect of current professional sports and think we, as fans, could demand more than simply 'not being convicted'. Would you agree that, although he hasn't been convicted of anything, PacMan needs to get his act together? This is a man who has been on parole a few times and who continually gets let off because he is an athelete. If he were a school teacher or college professor or any other 'normal' profession he would have been judged a 'bad seed' a long time ago.

I really like Pedroia's approach at the plate for a young kid.

Huh, the game appears to be on MLB.com. That's wonderful (until they realize my zip code... probably in 20 minutes).

I hate the Fox game of the week. I hate it that they blackout other games and that FOX bought rights to every Saturday this season. I never get to watch the Red Sox. Instead I get (drum roll) Seattle vs. Texas.

Tell that to Drs who want to keep QBs from getting multiple concussions. I don't think it necessarily makes sense in any sport, and I think that it makes the LEAST amount of sense given the safety issues involved. Do steroids and HGH make you healthier? I hadn't heard that before. It sounds like you are excusing the usage, although you say it isn't intended to. You agree with the ends but perhaps question the means. But you're happy with the ends and maybe not willing to fight against particular means to those ends. I've read it. I understand why we look the other way, but people are quick to point to the 'flaws' of baseball and call it a steroid scandal in that sport, but then come up with philosophically complex justifications once it is realized that the sport that is currently America's darling is experiencing the same problem. I think that a lot of people who criticize baseball are people with short attention spans who can't be bothered to sit through an entire baseball game. I don't fault them for that, but it is a reflection of our society in general: if action isn't happening every second in the news or sports or reality television it isn't worth watching. Who cares? The fact that the NFL said "one more infraction in the next year and you're out" backs up my case more than yours. Why would they bounce him at ALL if he wasn't implicated in something? Go ahead and defend PacMan Jones. Yup. I think it is easier to get high viewership when there is only one game a week per team. In order to see your team you better watch on Sunday. Baseball has 6 games a week (if not 7). I would say the nearly 3 million people who attended Red Sox games last year indicates that it is not an unpopular sport. I'd be willing to bet that if football played 162 games a year it would lose its luster a little bit in terms of people flocking to games and packing stadiums. This is all far afield from the ESPN discussion and really just started with me venting. I like football as a sport, but I don't agree that ESPN needs to show an hour and a half of NFL live followed by an hour long schedule-release show during primetime, in April, on a night when there are other things to be shown--ratings be damned (I'm not so stupid as to say ESPN should, or will ever shirk the ratings completely). Of course, I would complain that they're showing 9-Ball championships too.

By "win" you mean lose in the first round of the playoffs. There are a few players who carry their teams, a few teams that are very well constructed, and then a bunch of teams with holes that have no shot. I agree there is more equality in the NFL (it is constructed in such a way to promote that) but the plight of the Royals is as much the fault of their owner as it is the rules of baseball. You feel I'm comparing a full-on contact sport to a game like baseball? I AM comparing a full-on contact sport to the game of baseball. So what? That justifies using HGH? If the problem with baseball was the kids were going to start using steroids to get to that next step, then you better believe the same is true in football crazy places like Texas and Florida for highschoolers, where the entire town comes out to watch a high school football game. No, I wasn't. I have read reports and listened to an interview with the owner of the strip club, who--as far as I can tell--has no reason to lie about it. Especially given that Jones was in the process of dropping $81,000 that night. A man was shot, PacMan and his crew fought with him and apparently threatened him. 'Nuff said. Yes, we could. Uggie Urbina comes to mind as well. And baseball has an 'imperfect' record at this point. It is 'tarnished' (insofar as it is seen as imperfect). Meanwhile, the NFL is promoted as the greatest league the world has ever seen.

I'm certainly familiar with his voice and the name is clearly familiar. Why no Kay?

An A's pitcher getting hurt? Shocking. Truly shocking!! It looks like he's okay.

Jacksonian, can you explain when/why there are games when Michael Kay announces and ones where he doesn't? Whoever the primary announcer is on this game tonight I like quite a bit more. Just curious.

But some of their commentators make it sound like Football is popular and therefore it is a better sport. I'm thinking particularly of Colin Cowherd, but there are a number of others too. They rail on and on about how clean football is, and how concerned it is with its image and how baseball messed up with the steroid issue and is inferior partially because of it or because of the lack of parity. 7 WS winners in 7 years, a good wild card race every year, that seems pretty good to me. Furthermore, does anyone doubt that the NFL--of all sports--is somehow clean on the steroid/HGH issue. I mean, we're taking about 270 lbs guys who run a 4.6 40yrd and whose job it is to try to rip people's heads off. My take on it is that American Idol is the most popular show on television. Does that make it the best? We all know that America's Next Top Model--despite not having quite the ratings--is clearly the best show running. Enough said. The pacman Jones situation is PRAISED by people at ESPN because he got a year suspension. Seriously? I mean, all he did (this time) was get upset with a stripper. By which I mean grab her by the hair and smash her head to the ground to the point where he had to be restrained, because she did the 'rain dance' improperly. Once released by the bouncer he went across the room and AGAIN attacked the stripper. He was again restrained, but this time it was not before he yelled something along the lines of "I'm going to kill you" to the bartender. Later that night, lo and behold, the bartender ends up with a few bullets in him. Yeah, a season is all this guy needs and we'll all keep bowing to the alter of the pristene NFL. Here is a rap sheet look at all of Pacman’s brushes with the law since joining the NFL’s Tennessee Titans: July 13, 2005- Arrested and charged with assault and felony vandalism after a nightclub altercation. This began Pacman Jones NFL rap sheet. He already had a lengthy one from high school and college. September 5, 2005- Adam was invited to attend the Nashville Sports Council Kickoff Luncheon. Jones went off on a verbal tirade while being told to wait for his car after the event. He then refused to tip the valet service. October 2005- State of West Virginia filed a petition stating that Jones had not been contacting his probation officer and that he had not reported his July 2005 arrest. The judge extended the probation for just 90 days. March 23, 2006- Charged with marijuana possession in Fayetteville, Georgia. He went on to claim that he knew how to beat the NFL’s drug test. August 25, 2006- Arrested for disorderly conduct and public intoxication after being ordered by the cops to leave a Murfreesboro night club several times. Jones claimed a woman stole his wallet. The woman claimed that Jones spat on her. The judge in the case gave Pacman six months probation and told him to stay away from the club. October 26, 2006- Jones was issued a citation for misdemeanor assault after a female student from Tennessee State University claimed that Jones spit in her face at a Nashville night club. :dunno: The NFL has more carefully crafted its 'image'? hmmm....

My guess is that the AAA OF is filled with the likes of Moss and Murphy and Ochoa etc., I think the sox really use their AAA as a holding pen for MLB established sub-quality guys and older prospects. They use AA as the place where a lot of development takes place (watch, tomorrow they'll send Ellsbury to AAA! ).

If this team is plodding along at .530 or so throughout the season I would be in favor of bringing Jacoby up if he's playing like he has been (or even to his career averages). This guy is 3 months older than Hanley Ramirez.

Just like the JetHawks Thread, it's too hard to follow prospects in individual threads if they're not one of the top 10 or 15 specs. Again, if you have the patience make individual threads (or once players deserve it!) I won't be offended. This is simpler for me: Greenville falls to Columbus 6-0 tonight. Of Note Dustin Richardson (6'6 Lefty, 5th round pick from Texas Tech in 2006). In 2 starts he has a 3.00 ERA in 9 IP, giving up 5 runs (3 ER) with 15K and 4 BB. He k'd 10 tonight in 5 innings. *This is the guy who finished second in Bobby Knight's "Knight School", the show that pitted Texas Tech potential walk-ons against one another for a spot on the basketball team. *

Instead of putting things in each individual thread I figured I would start this and let peole update it whenever they can. If you don't like the format feel free to update the individual pages: The Good: 1B: Aaron Bates: 3/4 with 2 2B and 1 HR tonight. So far: 24AB, 9R, 9H, 3 2B, 3 HR, 9 RBI, 5 BB .375/.467/.875/1.342 The Bad: Another bad start by Daniel Bard. This season he's pitched 4.1 IP and given up 7 ER. Apr 11: 1.2 IP: 3 ER, 6 BB!!!, 1 K Apr 6: 2.2 IP: 4 ER on 6 H with 1 K So far a 14.54 ERA for one of our first round picks from last season.

Ellsbury: 3 for 6 with 3 R, 1 SB, 1 BB. Hit his 5th double of the season. In the 8th he stole 2nd, claimed 3rd on an overthrow and scored on a second overthrow.

PacMan should be booted out of the NFL forever.

I would call Jeter a tremendous contact hitter, but he K'd 117 times two seasons ago and 102 times last season. They both work counts and get into situations where a K is possible more often than other hitters do. Of course, I would say Jeter makes better contact than Youk so Orel was a little off there regardless. Still, you can be a high K guy and still make good contact. If they were both afraid of striking out I bet they would just swing earlier and make contact. :dunno:

He gave up 3 runs in 7 innings. He wasn't bad at all. The story of the night certainly wasn't that Dice was bad. Felix was better. Felix had the most dominant performance of the night throughout baseball without a doubt.