ORS

No squander, no squander, no squander.....

Home. Run. Javy!

Told you, that was painful to watch.

Papi will bring the pain here.

Not that I care, but Pettitte seems to be getting squeezed a bit this inning.

Is Garrett Jones for real? Guy hit his 3rd bomb in the first two games of the season. Pick'em up if you can fantasy players.

I can believe it. I don't agree with it, but I can believe it. Last years cold start opened the door for the knee jerk reaction.

It's an old running joke, but Derek Jeter isn't even the best shortstop on his own team.

Um, no.

Gameday is saying there's an error, but Youks is still on first. Doesn't there need to be a base involved for an error to be scored?

I'm sensing a LaRussian inning from Girardi. Robertson for Youks, Marte for Ortiz, Chubby Bunny for Beltre.

Does Angel Hernandez not understand that the outside edge of the ball does not need to be inside the edge of the plate?

Seconded.

Apparently Bard needs to throw a cookie to get a called strike.

He actually unstunk, because I expected him to stink, and, well, he didn't.

Don't have the game on video, but two/two lineouts for Pedroia is unfortunate. Were they sharp liners?

Throw strikes.

I'm not being ornery, merely expressing my opinion, just as you. In my opinion, you overstated how bad he was, particularly when you said his bust status was established in your mind prior to his injuries. It was a bad case of revisionist history. Do I like watching him pitch? No he's frustrating as hell, so is Wakefield, but both, when healthy are effective, and in the end, no matter how ugly their path, I appreciate it when players are effective for the team. I say this realizing that advanced pitching statistics suggest Dice K is unlikely to find continued success if he pitches similarly upon his return. I agree with those stats, he needs to get better in his areas of deficiency. All that being said, the predictive value of those stats, and the frustration anyone feels while watching him, does not unmake what he did for this team in the past. He was a decent pitcher for this team one year, and a good one the next. Will that come back? Don't know, but it was what it was.

I'm debating you on that term because you are such a chameleon on how salary can be used in creditting/discreditting the FO. In the past, and I haven't the patience to dig this up, you've said that you didn't care if one player was a better value than another when the lesser valued player was superior in overall performance, using this superiority to call the FO cheap. It's a common meme from you. One that is completely contradictory to the tack you are taking now. Apparently, any inclusion of salary in the discussion is OK as long as it's used against the FO. It totally unsurprising that you are comfortable in your own reality, even if it doesn't match the worldview that most have. Almost everyone I know thinks superlatives, grades, ratings, etc should eminate from the same ground zero, ie everyone is graded on the same scale. Sure, you can qualify, but for clarity the qualification needs to be stated. Otherwise, there will be disagreement over the superlative assigned (sound familiar). As far as me thinking it was a good acquisition for the money, consider this. Are you happy with the Beckett extension? If so, in four years he's pitched to a 4.05 ERA averaging 195 IP per year. Dice K's two healthy year average was 3.72 / 180. Beckett is getting $17M per for that performance. Dice K getting $16M per isn't too far off. Anyway, continue to be stubborn about this if you want. You've given me a well of quips in the future if your definition of stink is going to be relative to expectation. Just think how many times I'll be able to correct you when a fill in takes the field and you gripe about how much they stink.

http://www.markallencam.com/GayAlienSkeletons.jpg

Apparently, this kind of imagery finds a permanent home in your memory bank. Maybe that's telling.

Absolutely incorrect. In a game where I thought the refs allowed a remarkable amount of contact, Butler stayed alive in the second half at the stripe with several calls that could have gone uncalled and fit in with the way the ref's officiated last nights game. The charge, as mentioned by others was definitely questionable, but it came on the heels of a blocking call that was also questionable. Those calls essentially washed each other out.

If you need to bring performance relative to an arbitrary expection into your justification of saying he "stinks", then, quite frankly, so does your argument. Is it so hard to say, "I overstated how bad he was", and move on?