ksushi

I think 1999 Pedro was the most dominant pitching performance I will ever see. They should show more old school pedro dominance on NESN.

These announcers are HORRIBLE. He keeps calling 2-seamers sliders, wtf. Too bad they are spoiling one of the best post season games I've ever seen. This is unreal. Way to go Fausto.

Don't get mad, this my honest take on what I think will happen, not what I hope will happen. BOS CLE PHI ARI CLE PHI CLE 6 games MVP: Sizemore

JD is gonna make himself some fans if he keeps hot right now. I've been cheering for him since the Yankees series whenever he gets up, ive been going to most of these games, and everyone just kinda looks at me and laughs when I do it. But, in September, he is hitting .342 with 4 homers and 18 RBI, so I think its lookin good right now. If Drew was hurt and playing through it, or if his mind was else where, it looks like all is well for right now. If he can play like this in october and on into next year, we'll be ok for awhile.

You shall not wiggle out of that. You stuck by Josh not getting his ERA under 4, and guess what it was 3.27, chief. Take your lickings.

Hey Jacko, looks to me like Becketts ERA ended up being 3.27 when I think called for a 3.23? So, sir, whatever shall we do with that sig?

Today was the best sporting event I've ever attended, I felt the monkey jumping off of the back of every single person in the park.

Ditto. I was at the game, this game was ruined by Francona. One thing wins us this game, having Manny Delcarmen getting loose. Thats all he had to do, but he shot us in the foot tonight by warming only papelbon in the 8th. It was f***ing ********. We deserve to lose this division. I hope we win it, but I think at this point, the yankees are smelling the finish line a little more strongly than we are.

Like I said, I don't think offense is a priority at shortstop, I would rather have someone who plays the position well... Like Cora. If our offense was better top to bottom, it would be a little easier to advocate for a light hitting defensive shortstop.

I know what the numbers are. Cora's playing time post-all star break has been far reduced. You can't really go by stats when a guy doesn't get regular time to play out of slumps and get more chances for balls to drop etc. etc. In 46 games pre-all star break Cora hit .326. In 20 games since, he has been really struggling, but plays fantastic defense at a key position. I like defense over offense at short, and I like Cora way more than I like Lugo at short. Neither guys are my top choice, but I like Cora a lot as a player, and Lugo has just never really done much for me. That said, Lugo has been a big factor in Cora not seeing as much playing time, and he has earned that time back. He's been ok in the second half, but still as a player, I just can't bring myself to like him.

Actually, I don't. Cora is a smarter player, worlds better on defense, and if given regular playing time would hit for a better average than the dismal .240 Lugo has put up. The only tool Lugo has over Cora is wheels. Thats it. Even during his recent tough stretch Cora has still done more to win us ball games by making great plays in the field. Lugo sucks.

My MVP is Beckett. The ace of our staff, and has basically been a rock all year long. Clay Buchholz re-energized this team and made them forget about what could have been an ugly lingering wound that the yankees gave us in new york. He put some skip back in our step and in my opinion saved our season.

Well, I wouldn't jump to say no one was thinking that, 700. Clearly there was going to be an adjustment peroid, and the FO has been tempering this acquisition since day one with the reminder that he is still a rookie and there is going to be adjustment. He clearly is a polished pitcher, and has a ton of promise, and I don't think this "exhaustion" is going to make him a non-factor in the playoffs, but this is obviously a rookie hitting a wall. The league made adjustments, and at this point in the season he is taxed physically and now having to face the league a 2nd time, it's become mentally taxing as well. It happens. I think this is a signing with more promise for the next five years rather than this one. I think, all things considered, this year has been a successful one for Dice-K with the sox. With that said, its still not over and no one knows that more than our little asian kawala (he does look like a kawala [sp?]). He'll build it back up for the playoffs, a competitor like him has to be thinking about that right about now.

Top prospect in our organization, great in the minors, practically set the world on fire when he was called up. He will be given every oppurtunity to win a starting job out of ST.

Bannister won't log near 200 innings and even if he does, at his K-rate, he probably won't even strike out 100 batters. He has a nice ERA, but a lot of that can be random. Dice-K has had a way better season than Bannister has and if Dice-K wins it over Pedroia its a crock. Pedroia wins this award.

I don't think anybody saw Carlos Pena exploding like he has. He was a huge talent when he came up, but he was doing everything he could to be average for the last few years.

Pedroia has been hot as a pistol all year long. How awesome is that kid? Swings and misses only 8% of the time. EIGHT PERCENT. That is ridiculous. Tough to strike out, makes great contact, great line drive hitter. He has been huuuuge for this team and will be going forward. Yeah, Lugo cooled down, but I don't know how much I expect for him to turn it back on. I don't know how we can expect that when for the majority of this season he has done nothing. I'm a big Theo fan, and I've defended his bad signings before because his scrap heap pick ups have been amazing (Ortiz, Mueller, Timlin, Embree for a while, Bellhorn, and the list goes on) but shortstop is a position we have been addressing every season and the revolving door should have stopped spinning with OC. It sucked to see him go. Theo chased the bigger name in Renteria, and left behind the guy who proved he could do it on the big stage. The problem is, this team has been shaken up, and we don't have too many guys who have done it here for us. We need to keep a core of guys together for the long haul, and fill in here and there, this drastic make-over season after season hopefully ends now. I can't defend Lugo or Drew because they're awful signings. Drew seems to be tailor made for this offense at a glance, but when you watch him play every day its clear isn't focused. He can't handle Boston. I love defending Theo, and I think hes a great GM, but man, what an awful couple of signings.

Hey, we're scoring late. I'm pretty happy with what I saw tonight given that the entire bottom half of our lineup were outs... I'm ok with losing because of our bullpen, if we take this kind of offense to the park every night from here until september 14th, we'll be in good position to put the Skanks away once and for all (yeah, im breakin' on the demeaning nicknames, its that time). We won't lose many because of the pen and really, you can tag this one on timlin in a big way. We've been kind of on the verge of another explosion like we had in may, and if it comes mid sept and keeps going into october, I'm fine with that. I feel like this team is going to come around in a big way. That said, Varitek looked like a 2 year old and our offense has been bad for too long. Time for Youk to get hot, time for Coco to go back to hitting the ball hard, time for Tek to step up and earn that C on his jersey at the plate, not behind it.

Oh no, what happened to Rodney?

We're horrible right now. I could see us not making the playoffs easily. Our lineup is pretty awful, and our "best" pitchers just got man-handled in new york and our hottest pitcher is down with back cramps... 9 - 3? To the Orioles? Jesus. Anybody miss Bill Mueller and OC and Bellhorn right now? I kinda do... Not saying keeping those guys was the answer, just trying to point out how hard it is to find the guys who get going when the going gets tough...

Pedroia swings and misses only 8% of the time. Every AB is a GREAT AB. He wears a pitcher down and hits the cover off the ball. I'll take Dustin, but I like Robbie.

Gagne's stuff has looked good. I think he is getting sloppy because of the new "lesser" role and I think its going to shape up as Gagne learns his 8th inning blunders are costing us the game, and that the game is just as much on the line in the 8th as it is in the ninth. We'll see. I still think our bullpen is fine either way, Delcarmen has not missed a beat, and if Gagne continues to falter, he could see a diminished role on top of his demotion to the 8th inning. Either way, our bullpen is still a strength. But seriously, Gom, stop this trolling crap trying to fire people up.

Hanley is statistically the second best hitter in the majors right now and I still this was a good deal for us to make. Beckett gives us a staff anchor, and lowell gives us veteran leadership, a good bat, and makes more plays than broadway. The concern with Sanchez was that he might have shoulder troubles and now he might never pitch again because of his shoulder woes... So, Hanley is ridiculous, but Beckett gives us something that is pretty invaluable as a staff ace. Overall, I think its a win for the sox. We get an ace, and without him we wouldn't be sitting pretty with the best record in baseball.

Masterson is quickly becoming one of our best prospects. What a monster. AA for the rest of the season?

So lame. How do you feel if you're glavine coming out of that game and having it blown for you... He pitched so well, he deserved to have that one.