ksushi

I don't like small ball, but I also don't like being just strictly station to station. I like that they are taking advantage of Lugo's speed, and I like the occasional coco crisp bunt, but, that said the way the Sox are going to score a lot of runs is by being patient. See a lot of pitches, swing at strikes, the big hits will come and before you know it, we are into the bullpen. The Detroit series comes to mind, when we faced Nate Robertson, a very solid veteran pitcher, he had 100 pitches thrown in the 5th inning. That is a hell of a job, that is how the Sox are gonna score, not bunting guys over and that crap.

Hell, I would try to sign Lowell and A-rod. A-rod is a shortstop! He plays a pretty bad 3rd base, but a great SS. Lugo at second, A-rod at SS and Lowell at 3rd? Best infield in red sox history defensively as Lugo is supposedly a very nice 2nd basemen. Most of his errors come on throws, and being that much closer at 2nd makes him really valuable in the field. EDIT - this will never happen, and A-rods nerves of foam don't exactly excite me, but I think if he opts out its due diligence to at least inquire.

Who is mussina against?

Harden is not nearly as expensive as Hudson and Mulder got. Plus, Beane has a job to keep and while Haren and Blanton have been big for them, if Harden doesn't get healthy soon enough the A's have no chance in the west. I know Harden is the kind of guy he likes to deal, but he'll wait until his contract gets a bit shorter and he is on the field a little more regularly. In the mean time, Harden has to get the A's to the playoffs this year or next before Oakland gets tired of Beane, I think. But maybe its not as pressure packed as boston.

Does anybody know where 700 is? I feel like maybe we should check on him, he might have had a heart attack when he saw two "minor league bags of s***" were getting consecutive starts...

Yeah... Drew definitely wasn't going 100% when he ran right into that wall chasing down a homerun... He definitely doesn't look like a guy who would run... through a wall... every managers dream. Drew is doing a fine job in right field, it would have been a very very awkward play for him dive for that ball.

Yeah, the umps strike zone is like this: top just under the letters, bottom at the knees, sides are the black and the corners are about non-existent for the rookie.

He is getting a lot of ugly swings. His stuff is very nice. Sharp curve, good fade on the change. I like him as a fifth guy. He has never not done well at the major league level and it looks like hes even improved his game.

Gabbard has some nice stuff. Plus change and curve and he spots his fastball very well. I've always liked him and I would really like to see him take the 5th starter job from Tavarez.

Well, in regards to re-signing once or twice in a lifetime talents, you can criticize the marlins for leaving Miguel Cabrera without an extension and maybe Dontrelle too. As far as the firesale thing, trading Miguel might be a great idea right now. The firesale tactic works wonders for them. WS title in 97, firesale that netted them Burnett, Beckett and others. WS title in 03, firesale and well we'll wait and see what happens with this crew but this looks like maybe their best returns yet. Olsen, Johnson, and Anibal all have ace stuff. Hanley has a chance to be a once in a lifetime type player. Willingham, Jacobs, and Uggla have a lot of talent too. Who knows. I would love to see Miguel Cabrera not get traded and hit the market. He hits at the same time as Manny... just sayin' As for Harden, no way does Beane trade him IMO. They need him and they need him healthy if they want to do anything at all this year and I think Oakland is getting tired of the lack of returns on Moneyball lately.

Bowden might have the best ceiling out of all of them. Best control in the system and a fantastic curve ball, not to mention he is the youngest player in AA right now. Bowden is a keeper. He has a much better repetoire than papelbon or lester had at their age. He reminds me a lot of Bucholz and eventually he will explode like Bucholz. He could be in the Majors at 22 years old.

agreed, whats amusing to me though is that if the Jays can find a late inning solution, they are scarier than the yankees. look at how well burnett is pitching lately. get roy halladay back and reed johnson and they might actually do stuff. bet they wish they didn't let speier go though.

that is a good call.

Why is gabbard starting tomorrow?

Yeah, thats what I love about this offense, they are GREAT at getting to the bullpen.

Man, the braves wish they could take this double header back. They had the option to play one tonight and make one up later, but the braves pushed to play 3 in 2 days. The bullpen is f***ed and ours might be fine if Dice K goes 8 or 9. Might be, actually, it will be for sure.

God, stop calling the Yankees a sleeping giant. Sure, they are good because of their offense, but seriously, they're a 85-90 win team and any yankee fan that doesn't have their head up their ass will tell you so. That is not a f***ing giant. They're in it, yes, but christ, they aren't going to come to the ball park one day and decide to go on a 30 game winning streak because they don't have the goddamn pitching! The bullpen is awful, the starters are weak outside of maybe wang. Pettitte has question marks, but has done a lot to shed those so far so maybe include him too, but those guys aren't "aces" by any means, but they're pretty solid. Outside of that, you have mussina whose four seamer isn't getting north of 85 and whose 2-seamer was a laughable 81 mph against the ChiSox. Clemens will help when comes back, but he needs to be bailed out by the bullpen and last year, averaging 5.2 innings per start, he was getting bailed out by a very solid group in Qualls and Wheeler. So, while he'll be ok (the velocity needs to come up but he has plenty of time to get that back, but the bite isn't there either) he won't be resting anyone out in their pen. Therefore, the yankees are not a giant. Their offense is a giant, but their pitching staff is panty waste. If they turn around and trade humberto sanchez and jose tabata for Roy Oswalt, well, then I'll start worrying. If they can move melky and someone for a good reliever, then its a dog fight. Right now, as long as the Sox stay healthy and keep playing well, it's more like a rabbit vs. tortoise type deal.

Gabbard is pretty good, I like what he can do. Way better than Hansack, IMO.

It's 1-10. 1 probably doesn't find its way on there, but 7 is an average pitcher, 8 is above average, 9 is ace potential and 10 is hall of fame potential player. Hitters, 7 is solid, 8 is above average... you get the picture. All hitters are different, but when you take what kind of game into account... yeah. not very complicated.

My point isn't about speed, though despite his size, Wily Mo can move. My point is about K's versus guys who are more likely to ground out. I would rather see a guy at the plate with the bases chucked who can hit it far or strike out than a guy who hits mostly for contact and might put it on the ground potentially getting 2 outs on one swing of the bat. When you K, you can only get out once.

The only thing about guys who strike out is they tend to have no consistency with their batting average. They might hit .301 one year and then .260 the next. Supposedly, guys who K a lot also age less gracefully than the guys that consistently make good contact. That said, I would rather have a guy hit .260 with plus power, and RBI potential, than a guy like crisp who best case scenario hits .260 with virtually zero potential for power or RBI who might make contact a little better. I would way rather see Wily Mo with the bases loaded, because he has a good chance of putting one over the wall for four runs and if there is 1 out, I'm not worried about Pena ending the game with one swing grounding into a DP. With Coco, I am. Strike outs have their uses. Besides, at least in limited time last year he hit .301 and showed good power. Sure he looked bad sometimes, but he is producing. Personally, I'm not worried about how Wily Mo will age because I don't think he will still be here past his prime. I think he is capable of 30+ home runs, a good amount of RBI, and could protect anyone who bats in front of him because he always is a threat to go deep. Always. I also don't care what his average is. If he plays enough, he is a presence, its just where do you play him. Thats my problem with Wily Mo, he doesn't have a position because he is terrible every where. If I were Theo, I would think about maybe packaging wily with a Hansen or a Bard (at the deadline) and see if I couldn't reel in a quality reliever from someone out of the race. IF the Twins are out of it, Juan Rincon could be available. If the Rockies decide to have a fire sale, Fuentes could be out there. There are other guys too, but thats what I see wily mo being used for. Right now he has way more trade value than coco crisp does. He is 25, lots of hitting potential, he could DH for the twins which would be his best option. He isn't a bad player, but because of Papi, he doesn't really have a role on the team and people think he is worse less than he is because in order to get him at bats, we have to watch him fumble around in the field and see the strike outs and the impatience at the plate. It makes people wanna strangle him. He has a lot of value to the right team... like the twins. I hope we can find something to put this division away out on the trade market, and wily mo could help us get that piece. Kilo, you're the man.

Fred, get off the ledge buddy, Beckett going down for 15 days is hardly the end of our season.

Coco has until Ellsbury can't be denied anymore. Ellsbury heats up in AAA, he might get the job in the majors, he plays better defense and he can't hit any worse. He might even be faster than Coco. So, if Coco is still hitting below .250 when Ellsbury starts banging on the door, can you say no?

thats why i dont think it warrants putting him on the DL, because it would have been done awhile ago if it did. they don't take chances, and we have Lester on the way, gabbard down in AAA if we need an arm.

I doubt Beckett misses too especially with Rain maybe on Wednsday, we can just keep our rotation on a normal schedule like Josh did make his wednsday start and on the next time through, I think he'll be back in. Apparently, the avulsion is just an annoying thing that can keep him from making a start, but not really DL threatening... sounds worse than a blister to me, but eh, never had either because I don't have baby skin.