ORS

Did home plate become home platter for the 1-0 to Carter?

Carter - LF Drew - CF Youk - RF

Nightmare OF defense.

It's really sad how full of s*** Joe Magrane is. He's a former ball player. I do not accept the idea that he doesn't know that you don't do what Bartlett did. Therefore, when he goes into high-whine about how all this is Crisp's fault, I say ********. I'm thinking in my next trip to the Trop, I might just communicate what a f***stick he is.

NY Post tomorrow: Jays Pound Wang! CMW out after 4.1, down 7-2.

I recall wanting to see more of what Petagine could do with how he was swatting the ball at Pawtuckett and how miserable Millar was that year. As for Pedroia and Ellsbury getting a chance to prove themselves in light of Francona's usage pattern with everyone else, I can't help but think they only got it because of directives from above. With a player like Carter, I'm doubtful that such direction will come and the Francona preference will prevail. It's not like we are talking about a guy who the FO views as a potential long-term starter for the team.

This plays into my biggest gripe with Francona. He's totally reluctant to use those on the AAA shuttle. Coco Crisp is on the bench most nights for a reason. He's not that productive. Perhaps he's ready for a night off after the incidents at 2B on his slides. In this instance, I'm using "perhaps" in the sense that I'm driving knitting needles into my Coco Crisp voodoo doll.

Youks needs to put this game into Timlin time.

Question for the guy pitching the 7th. Who are you, and what did you do with the real MDC?

Do the voices ever scare you, Thumper?

Naturally.

Drew is on a rampage. A spiritual fellow by reports. He's not fooled by the removal of "Devil" from their names. Their evil is apparent without names. He is out to smote them.

Lineup Ellsbury - LF Pedroia - 2B Drew - RF Manny - DH Lowell - 3B Youk - 1B Varitek - C Crisp - CF Lugo - SS Leaving Carter on the bench makes me sad in the pants.

Sung to the tune of Devil Went Down to Georgia. The Devils came in to Boston, lookin' to extend their lead Their team was playin' hot, and thought they'd do the deed When they came across this young man, with a right arm touched by the Lord above And the Devils jumped up on the field, and said "Boy, go get your glove I'll bet you didn't know it, but we play hardball very well And, we figure if you're man enough, you'll wager enough to tell Now you've got a fine right arm there son, but we're the best team in the East We'd bet a field of gold against your soul, we'll beat you by 3 runs at least The young man said: "My name's Josh, and it's probably gonna rile your fuzz But I'll take your bet, and your gonna regret, because I'm the best there ever was" Josh you loosen up your blessed right arm and sling that rawhide hard Cause hells broke loose in Boston, and the Devils have no regard And if you win you get an enshrined field made out of gold But if you lose the Devils get your soul The Devils took their turns in the batter's box, and they made some mighty cuts They slashed at the ball with all their strength, they poured out all their guts For all their effort they got a few hits, and at one point scored a run Josh's team held the lead in the 9th, when he came back out for another round of fun He took the bump, "Not bad" he said, his voice an angry hiss "But you haven't seen my best stuff yet, and you ain't hittin' this" Fire at Fenway, run Sox run Devils in the house of the risin' sun Maddon's got a bedpan, shittin' out dough "Papi does your dog bite?" "No, man, no" The Devils bowed their heads as knew that they were beat Josh struck out the side, and made it look like an ordinary feat Josh said: "Devils come on back if you ever want to try again Cause I told you once, you sonsabitches, I'm the best that's ever been" Win.

While I agree that Pvt Pyle should be building up his stamina in the minors for a team that is trying to win games, I do question who makes starts while he's down there? The 4 guys in the rotation are Wang, Pettitte, Moose, and Rasner. Who's next, bat-shy Kennedy? Homesick Igawa? Perhaps they viewed these games as one's they had to punt anyway and let him go out there hoping for lightning in a bottle while he builds his pitchcount.

I could see him being a 1A type pitcher. Just short of an ace. The reason he falls short is that he lacks dominant, knockout stuff. The reason he'll succeed is that he commands his pitches and keeps the ball in the park. Scouting reports of his stuff make me think Mike Mussina or James Shields. And, his minor league performance is right about between the two. In the minors.... [table]Player|IP|H/9|HR/9|BB/9|K/9 Moose|189.0|7.48|0.57|2.05|8.43 Bowden|322.2|7.91|0.59|2.60|8.85 Shields|544.1|9.06|0.86|2.18|7.86[/table] These are courtesy of thebaseballcube.com, so they don't include this year. Thus, his stats are trending more toward Moose's performance. Moose has the low innings total because he was a college pitcher, and he cracked the bigs at age 22. Shields took a little more time to develop and made it to the majors at age 25. Mind you, this is what I think his ceiling is, as in absolute best. That's really good, a borderline HOF'er with the longevity that Moose has had. A young Mike Mussina was consistently one of the better pitchers in the AL for about a decade without ever being the best. The thing I like most about Bowden is that even if he doesn't hit that ceiling, with his demonstrated command, he's a safe bet to be a serviceable pitcher at a minimum, provided he stays healthy.

You know what sucks? In another fantasy league I'm in, I proposed trading Bedard and Soriano for Hamilton and Volquez. It got vetoed by the league (Yahoo public) thinking I was giving up too much. Despite Soriano's recent hot streak, I would have made out like a bandit in that trade. I hate veto mongers.

I realize it may take some time for him to be game-ready. That said, I'm not an advocate of bringing him in until a couple of things happen. The first is that Ortiz needs to be out for the year. If he's coming back, there's no need for an external replacement. Second, they won't know for another couple of weeks if he'll be able to come back. If, in that time, Carter is able to pound the ball like he did in Pawtuckett, then bringing in Bonds is no longer something they need to consider. All told, I'm only advocating the signing of Bonds if Ortiz is lost for the year and Carter proves to be unable to handle MLB pitching. The next 2-3 weeks should make that picture clearer. In the meantime, they should contact Bonds agent and let him know that they are interested and would like Barry to focus on being game-ready as soon as possible.

I think the idea of Sosa in lieu of Bonds ignores a very important fact. Sosa sucked the last two years. Approx .300 OBP and .430 SLG. I'm confident Carter or Moss can do that, with Moss providing solid LF defense allowing Manny to DH. Bonds OPS was north of 1.000 last year. He's the best bet to produce like Ortiz.

Throwin' BBs out there.

LaTroy flushes La Toilet.

It will be a weapon for only a short while if he can't occasionally throw it for strikes, like he just did to Gross. Previously, he's had it falling off the table but rarely threw if for a strike.

I see what Tito's doing, he's testing Hansen. Sack up kid.

He seems to have changed his arm slot.

Depends on the year. That was a vintage 2007 result (and would have been his 3rd of the night if Bartlett hadn't booted it last inning).