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R, H, RBI, HR, AVG., SLG., OBP., OPS Ichiro: 45, 86, 26, 5, .304, .345, 421, .766 Damon: 51, 94, 41, 3, .338, .387, .468, .855 Doesn't look too obvious to me. Especially now that I've seen Ichiro's stats... Damon #1.

I'll give you Ichiro, maybe. Somehow, I managed to forget about him. But Pierre is NOT better than Damon. Period.

I disagree. He shouldn't deserve more money than Varitek, but probably about the same amount. If the Sox win again this year, they'll likely try to do everything they can to retain their core, and Damon is DEFINITELY one of their core. There aren't many players who can do what he does offensively, he plays the Fenway CF very well, and is the best leadoff hitter in baseball. He does exactly what the Sox would want from a leadoff hitter, takes pitches, makes the pitcher work, runs the bases intelligently, and has some pop (especially when absolutely necessary). I'm pretty sure they'll keep him assuming he puts up the numbers he's been putting up all year already.

I disagree, although I don't think they've been great. If you get rid of one of Miller's starts (his 2IP, 7ER vs. Toronto) he's got an ERA of 3.98, with every start being more than 5 innings. That's not so bad. Arroyo has been inconsistent, as has Wells, but they don't blow big time. They aren't as good as recent Sox rotations, but they're not as bad as all that. Every starter can keep the Sox in any game against any other pitcher, which is all you're looking for at this point in the season. By the end of the year, we'll need Clement, Schilling and probably Wells to be regularly throwing quality starts, or we'll need to get another quality starter. IN either case, it could be a lot worse. We're only 2 games back and we're playing pretty well right now. Manny is coming around and the rest of the lineup has really gelled. BoSox: 1.39 WHIP Baltimore: 1.34 WHIP Yankees: 1.39 WHIP So, although that's pretty bad (compared to say, the Twins' 1.19 WHIP) its pretty consistent with what's going on in the AL East currently. We also don't have our best pitcher. It will be alright ya'll, seriously.

What was Payton expecting when he came to the Sox. It appeared obvious to everyone I know that he was going to do little different than Kaplar has done in recent years, and for 3.5 million, that seems like a pretty good deal. Come on man! You should be able to wait for a year; however, if it gets us a good reliever or helps get us a starter, then that's better than a disgruntled payton.

The sox still have a great chance to get to the World Series. They have a great lineup that is starting to come together. They have played, what, 3 of their last 5 series against #1 teams (Cards, Angels, Braves (at the time)) and have played very few home games. Manny seems to be coming around a little bit, Wells, Clement and Arroyo have been solid (young-Bronson looked GREAT last game) and Millar has stepped it up with one of his absurd-runs over the past two weeks or so. The biggest concern is Embree right now. Hands down! But Embree is a veteran, he can't be this bad all year, can he? I don't think so.

Vegassoxfan, I agree with you... but nobody else seems to. We will end up eating a huge chunk of Manny's salary regardless of where he goes and Mike Cameron is NOT that good a player. Money is not a problem for this team right now. We CUT salary from last year. I'm okay with them shopping Manny at the end of the season, if need be. But not now. He solidifies the center of our line up and is bound to bust out soon. You don't just drop last years world series MVP, lose the ace of your staff, and assume that we'll be able to get to the same spot as we did last year. It just doesn't happen that way very often. I too want to kill the yankees and o's and win the division the next 3 years and I think Manny is the best way to go with that. If we lost manny we would no longer have the best offense in baseball (in theory) unless we got, say, helton or someone like that to replace the spot in the lineup. I say wait it out, but don't expect any team to take Manny or Theo to be dealing manny at this point. I just don't see it happening.

This team just absolutely SUCKS. They are a lot like the Yankees, actually. They have good players who come up big sometimes, but their pitching is simply awful. It is just really, really average. We don't have a single pitcher who is overpowering. I am just really pissed off at this team right now and there is no ONE person I can point to with my frustration. We get a 4-0 lead, and blow it against the Cubs. Then, of course, we put up a little bit of a whimper in the 9th inning. TOO LITTLE, TOO LATE GUYS! What the hell is wrong with Manny? Why do we keep thinking Damon is such a good defensive outfielder? He has no arm and doesn't catch a lot of balls that other "good" fielding CF's would have without too much trouble. Damon's a great hitter, so we shold obviously like him for that, but let's not kid ourselves.. he's not Beltran, he's not Hunter. I also feel like the umps play a much more significant role with the red sox than a lot of other teams. We take so many pitches that if there's an ump who just likes the pitcher to hit the mit (as in todays game) we don't get walks and we don't win. Teams that consistently throw first pitch strikes can kill our team. ARGHHHHHHHHHH

Alot of stuff I've heard on EEI has to do with certain broadcaster's religious views and their opposition to homosexuality in general. Typical professional athlete homophobia. Millar kept making offensive statements too, prancing around and holding his hands all "femmy" when he comes out after his makeover. I don't blame Millar or any of the sox, its not everyday that professional athletes are exposed to homosexuals, but they could be a little more worldly than that, if you ask me. Overall, the episode was funny and had good intentions.

I don't think there was anyone who thought it would be "good" to let Pedro go. Its just how much were we willing to pay him to be a one-man show? I love pedro, easily my favorite player from the Sox, but I just want some of these guys to step up, be a good person and say "you know what, I want to stay in Boston, but I also want 4 years. How about 14 million for 3 years and (since I"ll be stinking rich at that point) the fourth year for 6 million (with loads of incentives). But instead he had to have his extra year, he had to be paid like one of the best pitchers in baseball, and, therefore, we had to let him go. We likely wouldn't have been able to sign Varitek had we resigned Pedro... so at this point we could be seeing a Pedro who would be more like 5-3 with a 3.50 ERA (having played a lot against Baltimore and NYY) while watching Varitek hit well over .300 with a lot of home runs and a great OPS. 20/20 vision is always best when looking back on decisions, but its not like Pedro is without blame here. He made it just too difficult to resign him.

getting schilling back in mid season will be fine if we can stay close to the O's, Yanks, whoever. We have a smiliar record to the twins and braves. Two teams that consistently make the playoffs. We took 2/3 from the Angels (leaders in the west) and Yanks (the hated ones). Yeah, we have some games that look bad. The O's just lost 2/3 to the Pirates. So we're getting some favors here. But if schill comes back healthy then it will be just about the right time for a nice streak of consistent ball. Mix in another starter, reliever 2nd Baseman or 1st baseman in there, and we've got the makings of a great run in the 2nd half. Remember, its staying close that matters most, not winning every game in May. What Schilling adds is the ability to almost universally win every other series. He pitches every 5th game, which means that we should almost be guarenteed one more victory out of five than we're getting now. Given that I think our rotation currently can win roughly 3/5 games (and not consistently, as we saw tonight, Wells can be great, Wake can be great, Arroyo can be great, Miller/Clement can be great, but none is consistently great). Add Schilling and you're going to win about 4 out of every 6 games, or at least have a great shot (3 of 6 here, 4 of six there). Also, Curt Schilling is anything but selfish. A few years ago he had the opportunity to pitch over 200-something innings that would have kicked in his bonus. The manager asked him if he would mind not starting that game, and he took it off to save the team a couple hundred thousand dollars when they were well out of the playoff hunt. He also sacrificed the rest of his career for the red sox and if that helps HIM personally (i.e., he'll forever be a hero in Boston/the rest of the country) then so be it. That's one of the benefits of playing baseball: if you win, people like you, you also get paid more and your fans are happier. So it may look selfish, but I wasn't sitting there saying "Curt Schilling won the world series" last october. No, I was saying "the Red Sox won the world series!" or even, "we won the world series". At no point was it all about Schilling and I don't think he wanted it to be all about him.

Yeah,a big win. 1/3 from St. Louis isn't bad. I think any of us would have taken that last year in the playoffs so this is by no means a bad thing. Wells is pitching like he should be able to. we have so many veteran starters that I'm confiedent that we won't have many 4-5 game losing streaks, especially when father curt returns. Papi, way to go. Tek, you're putting up one of the best seasons by a catcher in quite awhile. Impressive, impressive victory. Foulke, way to settle down and get it done. Edgar, not a great series, but way to finish it off with a HR. That will shut them up for awhile. Its got to be so tough to return to your former city and drive the ball often. At least they're out of there and done with playing in St. Louis... for now!

okay, ugliness aside, let's be patient with Embree. I don't care if he's been bad, he can't get worse, and we know he's a good pitcher. We have a few players who are having a tough time. Should we dump Manny? Should we get rid of Foulke? Bellhorn? Wakefield? Let's just be patient. Personally, I think we're lucky to only be down 4 games. I wish we had put more space between ourselves and the Yanks, but overall, not that big a deal. I AM worried about the O's. They're a good team AND they're injured. They just have that "we aren't going to be intimidated by anybody" approach. That being said, they've had some close games with the Pirates and lost a number of games to the Tigers, so we'll see. I am constantly encouraged by reading "Faithful" by Stephen King/Stewart O'Nan, as well as remembering the 2003 season. Teams go through long periods of just playing lousy ball. What's important is a) staying close enough so that a run is possible and staying injury free. Right now we have both. So that's good.

We don't need Vasquez. He would be like getting another Clement (at best), which is a pitcher who can keep you in games but not win them on his own. The Sox need a pitcher who can SHUT THEM DOWN, and cause some intimidation when he's on the mound. What we need is Schilling back on the mound to cement this staff and give our team some confidence. Right now there is just no room for error at this team is showing that.

We didn't get the game here in Portland, Oregon either. I think its a matter of east/west, not what city you're in.

Hey all, I'm new here (obviously) and get pretty embarassed with introductions, so here it goes. I reside in Portland, Oregon. I grew up in Vermont. I am a life time Sox fan (woken up out of bed for '86 world series fiasco). Favorite player: hard to say; Papi, Manny, Tek, Nixon. I find myself really liking Renteria too, probably because so many people have been ripping on him. Wakefield and Timlin (whom I affectionately refer to as "dad" because he seems like the nice next door neighbor that everyone had growing up... who was invariably somebody's dad.) Anyway, glad to be posting here, and its nice to meet you. Whomever you are. example1