ksushi

Jack, Igawa can't locate any of his secondary pitches and throws softer than my 4 year old nephew to boot. Thats why D-Mat is better. Please don't try to make that arguement.

Ellsbury has more raw talent that Podsednik.

Pedro Koufax Gibson Clemens Maddux Nolan Ryan is the most overrated pitcher ever. Most walks, the worst winning percentage of any 300 game winner, and never won a Cy Young. He was never considered to be the most dominant pitcher in baseball once. Maddux outclasses him, so does Clemens.

Lester has done well in rehab, getting up there on the radar gun, looking good. He will pitch in the bigs this year.

If ANYONE on the sox gets buzzed, Guillen should get one in the chops. Other than that, no need to keep anything going by head hunting. Only if we are being... head hunted.

Strike outs really aren't that terrible a way to get out. I would rather have a power hitter who can hit around .280 and drive in a lot of runs and strike out than a contact hitter that doesn't drive the ball as much but strikes out much less. If you have guys on base, you want to see a big swinging power hitter at the plate, not the contact guy. The contact guy might not strike out, but might hit into a DP. A big power guy like Adam Dunn who has a .5something slugging percentage has a better chance to drive in more runs and if he gets out, it will most likely be a K, taking down only himself and keeping the rally alive.

700, please take a joke, and your assessment of Lester is awful. I think I bet for the turn around of the sox and I think you let me off because we had the worst rash of injuries since the biblical plagues... sort of reasonable... but if you want to make me pay for it now, go right ahead.

Gabbard should be in the 5th spot right now. Look at what he did last year. Johnson sucked, Synder sucked, but what are you going to do? Sometimes you need emergency options. What are you bashing Gabbard for though? Thats who should be pitching for us instead of Tavarez right now.

I don't like Crisp, but I don't hate him either. I hated the Crisp trade, but he has been a good hitter in the past and it would surprise me if he absolutely sucked. I just liked Marte, almost as much as I like Ellsbury. If Crisp is a stop-gap for Ellsbury and we move him for a reliever or a prospect and bring up Ellsbury at some point maybe not this year, I'm happy.

Lester > Clemens. Suck it, 700.

Dana, you're also quick to say Mueller over Lowell, but where is Mueller now champ? Let me tell you, on the Dodgers payroll, but not on the field. Way to be a moron. Damon, Mueller and Pedro were the three guys from that championship team that were bound to walk because of age. The team had a young core of arms coming up, and it didn't make sense to re-sign those guys with shorter shelf lives to play along side them, the kids would be expected to win now, because with all that money tied up in guys like Mueller, Pedro (both recieving big checks right now to do absolutely nothing) and Damon, when their performance begins to head south it will be totally up to a group of young kids to carry this team on their own. Imagine a staff of Lester, Bucholz, Beckett and Papelbon in the pen with a lineup of back up players at third right and center and guys like Tavarez and other spot starters filling more significant time then they are now. No matsuzaka, no drew, no flashy SS's, and we probably would have traded Manny out of neccessity for less than he was worth for some breathing room in the payroll. Theo makes some good moves and some bad moves but no one ever talks about his non-moves. Letting Mueller and Pedro walk were huge ballsy moves that paid off big time. Letting Damon go was a little wasteful, but thats not to say he should have been brought back. One of my friends at school pointed out that it would have been getting max-value for Damon to trade him at the '05 deadline. Keep Jay Payton who went on to hit .300ish with good pop in a full-time role in oakland that year, get some good pitching maybe for Damon and the Sox might not have made such an early exit in the playoffs that year. Since '04 most people would probably give Theo about a c/b, I have to give him a b+ our team is primed to rip off some serious winning streaks when our pitching starts to click. Schilling is fine, he had poor location but his velocity is fine. 91-94, just like 2004 when he won 21. Pitchers lose velocity with age, not control, it was a bad start maybe due to lack of work in ST. Beckett had poor control in his last start, probably because its rough throwing a curve in cold weather, anyone who pitched in massachusetts in high school knows that. He showed me something though. Beckett last year would have turned that into a very forgettable start, but he battled. He didn't battle once last year. He was either good or awful. And with D-mat, I think we have the best front 3 in baseball. Thank Theo. Don't get down on this team unless they flop all the way through May. The way the Yankees rotation is shaping up right now, we are primed to have a big year and take the division. I'm sure jack-o will jump all over me for that, but the fact is, the Yanks lineup is great, but it won't be able to put up enough runs to keep up with that awful rotation. I'd be more worried about the Yankees dropping 2 to the O's than I would the Sox dropping 2 to the Rangers. Wake put out a great start the other day and we got shut out, that won't happen often... and Tavarez is going to be out of our rotation sooner rather than later. The yanks might wind up in shambles before its all said and done. I'm not in the least bit worried right now. Too many good signs to ignore right now. Sorry this was a huge ramble, but I haven't been posting much and I'm getting back into it.

No, I doubt Lester took anything off his ball intentionally. He wasn't hopelessly wild, he was off the plate, and didn't get a lot of calls being a rookie, and missed his spots. He likes to live on the black, and when he gets into a groove he is almost unhittable, thats why at every level hes pitched at he has much less hits than innings pitched. He throws up a lot of zero's when he gets into his zone. He wasn't matt clement wild, but he was still frustrating to watch a lot of times.

When I saw him in pawtucket last year he threw 97 once and the radar said 95 probably more than three or four times. He can throw hard. He always sits, 92-94 and thats largely where he was in the majors, too. Towards the end we saw a lot of 88-90 and that could have been because of the sore back... which turned out to be more than just a sore back.

Hit 96 mph on the gun at Greenville. Anyone still think he needs a lot of time?

He just owned john buck.

Letting Johnny Damon go was a not mistake. It freed up a lot of payroll, some of which went towards Dice-K. Damon is getting old and if he were here, we probably would have still missed the playoffs last year. Damon is gone, get over it!

I highly doubt Jones goes to either Boston or New York or Ichiro for that matter. The Sox are probably comfortable with Ellsbury unless he does terribly in the minors this year, then maybe we would take a flier on jones, but I don't see the sox being in the market. The yanks outfield is already crowded.

Don, you're the man. Thank you for being awesome.

... wow. Way to be every sports fan in boston. Its the second game of the season.

Maybe instead of just saying 'kool aid' you could make an arguement as to why im wrong instead of just posting two words and being done with it?

You're giving the Yankees the edge in left field over Manny? You are the biggest New York homer on this board, Gom. I'll take Posada over Tek, Youk over Phelps/Minky, Pedroia over Cano, Jeter over Lugo, A-rod over Lowell, Manny over Matsui, Coco over Damon, Drew over Abreu and our rotation and bullpen and bench over yours right now. Papelbon is Mo-like dominant and I think our middle relief is better than NY's. 3rd place won't happen.

I really don't care that much. Bad outing, but really it must take a once in a long while type of off-day to give schilling his shortest start in 10 years against the royals. If he keeps getting blown up, we're in trouble, but he'll be some form of solid.

Gom this is a retarded prediction. The Sox got killed by the worst injury bug thats happened on American soil since pearl harbor and then went out and dropped 200 million on free agents upgrading the rotation, the bullpen, and RF and SS. So... 86 wins? I'm gonna figure out how to catch a crow, you're eatin' that bird live. That will be worth my time.

All of Theo's draftee's are either still in the minors and in their low 20's, or they are Papelbon who is in the bullpen. Lay off 700, the whole hating on every player under the age of 35 thing is getting tired.

Stop.