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The guy is only 30 and one of the most talented players ever. If I've learned anything, it's that you don't make statements like this because they will bite you in the ass. He'll get the job done in the clutch, and he'll fail again at some other point in the future. Statements like yours make ARod2212's sig line about retarded arguments very valid.

Maybe your own words will shut you the f*** up.... f*** man, it's on the same damn page. Don't you remember what you said 5 minutes ago? Hypocrite.

Well, considering his comments are coming at about T+14 months, and his doctors initially projected a 14-18 month period for full recovery, I'm inclined to believe that it is just starting to feel normal. Call me crazy, but I don't see that as a coincidental timeline agreement. He was healthy when he came back in July? Are you high? He didn't have good drive until mid-August at least. And his mechanics were still jacked until mid-September. He actually started to approach his old peripheral numbers the last 3 starts of the year. He struck out 8.4, walked 1.39, and allowed .93 HR per 9 innings pitched. Those are right in line with his 2004 rates after coming to Boston. You may be a good doctor, but your baseball analytical skills are beyond suspect.

Why would you even consider last year remotely relevant to this year? He was still hurt for a large majority of his appearances last year. In fact, he just recently said his ankle felt normal for the first time since before he injured it. Pitching with pain/tenderness in his ankle affected his mechanics since he compensated for lost drive with increased arm action. I would think a doctor would have enough upstairs to recognize last years sample as tainted data.

Apples and kumquats. The elbow is not the ankle. I'm sure some super slo-mo would support my claim that an RB puts more stress on the ankle than a pitcher.

The only thing that makes sense to me is if you change the word in bold to "hope". If he's healthy, his mechanics will be fine, and if his mechanics are fine, he'll still be in the mid-90s, with a splitter, and good location. I have yet to see good reason to suspect that this procedure won't help him recover from his injury.

You are a doctor, right? I'd love to hear how a RB changing direction at close to full speed, about 3 times per play, up to 50 plays a game, with a body collision to end each play is less stressful on the ankle than the rigors of throwing 100+ pitches.

You said.... Which is stated in a clearer fashion here... Given the way he pitches, velocity is just as important as his secondary pitches IMO.

I know he needs his splitter to be effective. I've never said he doesn't. You are the one who said his velocity is immaterial, which is bogus considering the way he pitches. The thing that sapped his power and hurt his mechanics on the splitter was his ankle. He couldn't drop and drive like he was used to because he wasn't fully healed. According to doctors, and Curt himself in recent interviews, he's fully healed now and his ankle feels like normal again. And, he's had an entire offseason to work on those mechanics (something he couldn't do last year since he was on crutches). Every Yankee fan I knew was saying Giambi will be back while every Sox fan said he was cooked prior to last year. I tried warning them that is was very unlikely that he'd still be a .220 hitter with little power after he kicked the bug and got some reps. Now it is the polar opposite. You mentioned doubts about the effectiveness of this surgical procedure since Jamal Lewis is the only other major sport athlete to have it done. Curt is pitcher, Jamal is a RB, and is still a good one at that. If it can allow an NFL RB to return to form, I'm pretty confident that it would allow a pitcher to push off the rubber 100-120 times every 5th day.

Ask Glavine, Maddux, or Moyer to try and go upstairs with their high-80's heat. They'll laugh. If it's slow, keep it low. Schilling was still pitching like a power pitcher, only w/o the power. You can fool 'em at the letters if it's 95+, but you had better keep the ball down otherwise.

Do they still teach reading comprehension in Brooklyn? Or is it all picture books now? You said velocity didn't matter, but velocity does for a FB/Split power pitcher. Especially since most power pitchers drop and drive, and when the drive is jacked up, the mechanics of all pitches are affected. I've never seen much to question about your intelligence before this ATG, but you are being fairly dense on this one.

I doubt you watched any of Curt's games pitched, aside from the Yankee ones, last year. If you had, you would know that velocity was a problem after he returned. He was sitting in the high 80's/low 90's. He's usually in the mid 90's. Take away a power pitchers power, and he's going to struggle. Not having his lower half made him overthrow with his arm, which affected his splitter. Toward the end of the season, the splitter had bite, the velocity was close to all the way back, and he pitched some very good games.

I go to the University of Central Florida (UCF). Ten more classes (after this semester) and I graduate. Where do you go?

I think Lebron will get some serious consideration too. 31.1 pts/gm, 7.0 reb/gm, 6.4 asst/gm, 1.68 stl/gm That's one damn good average stat-line. Right now the Lakers are 7th in the West, while the Cavs are 2nd in the East (by win%, not actual seeding). If the Cavs can finish that high at the end of the year and Lakers just barely get into the playoffs (or don't make it at all), then I think Lebron has a shot at the MVP.

In the extreme case that any rate stat has reached it max value (BA = 1.000, OBP = 1.000, SLG = 4.000, OPS = 5.000), runs scored will always be infinite since no one is making outs.

Well said. Although, it would be nice to have some players (Tek, Papi) around for their grand farewell. That said, I can't argue against the sensibility of it.

I don't know where you read/heard this. Here's the correlation to runs scored for each of the rate stats: BA - .828 OBP - .866 SLG - .890 OPS - .922 A higher slugging average results in more runs scored 2.4% more often that it does for OBP. Source

I know this is way O/T, but I'd add Boozer, Duhon, and Hill (when healthy) to that list. Dunleavy Jr. and Battier are on the cusp of being good in the pro game.

Welcome to the site Monster. What branch of engineering? I'm in my last year as well, and I'm studying electrical engineering after 4 years in the Marines. Two vets in the last year of an engineering degree program? It's a small world indeed.

Forget where you got your rumor from, and think about this logically. Damon turns down more money/longer contract from an LA based team that has 3 of his former teammates on it? It just doesn't add up. First, he's all about the money, so I have a hard time believing he leaves one buffalo nickel on the table. Second, he and his wife are complete media whores, and LA is the one place that can surpass NY in terms of media opportunities. LA has more talk shows, more cameras, and more celebs to bump elbows with. This is right up the Damons' alley. Third, Damon was pretty close with Lowe, Mueller, and Nomar; Giambi is the only Yankee he's played with and developed a relationship with. I'm not buying it.

Now you're talking. I was a machine gunner in the grunts. When I made team leader (and then squad leader), I still never gave the pig up when we hit the bush. I got lucky and never patrolled in a hostile land and never had to fire a shot off the range. GUNS UP!!! Semper Fi, right back at ya Hammer.

Ken Rosenthal is a Yankee loving hack that works for Sports Illustrated. Sorry for the confusion; I should have quoted the Rivernator, since he was who I was respoding to. EDIT: RS got it right, he works for FoxSports

Looks like we inheritted a Rosenthal groupie with the rest of the BH members. Looking at career stats, that's right career stats - they are a better predictor of future performance for established players than last year's stats are (especially if last year's are abnormally high or low) , and comparing them to what the Sox got out of each position where a change occured, and you can see why many expect this team's offense to be very productive. 1B: 2005 OPS - .795, Youk OPS - .787 2B: 2005 OPS - .729, Loretta OPS - .773 SS: 2005 OPS - .708, Gonzalez OPS - .682 3B: 2005 OPS - .802, Lowell OPS - .800 CF: 2005 OPS - .813, Crisp OPS - .756 At face value that looks like a slight decline. A big drop from CF is negated by a big upgrade at 2B. 1B and 3B are a wash, so the .026 OPS points lost at SS are what make it a net loss. However, that doesn't take into account two very important things. One is that Crisp and Youkilis are both still working toward their peak. OPS trends for both of them are still on the way up. Last year alone Crisp's was .810, and Youk's was .805. Two is the park where they will be playing home games now. Crisp put up an .888 OPS on the road last year (Jacobs Field is a pitcher's park). Lowell and Gonzalez both have good power and a tendancy to pull the ball, which is good for RHHs at Fenway. Tell Ken we all said, "Hi".

None of the guys coming through our system have power anywhere near what Carlos Lee has. I agree with Crespo, they should seriously consider him for RF.

Small nitpick. Lowell is a short season A ball team, and their season doesn't start until June, after the draft.