a700hitter

Good job by Breslow bailing out Lackey who was not sharp tonight.

Tall.

That's right. It is bizarre for people to have personal hatred of a public figure without knowing the person. Yet, there are those who hate Papelbon personally despite his admirable performance for our team. I agree with your post 100%.

I can't imagine how they will use him.

I never said that I dislike Ben. Criticizing moves or no-moves of Ben is different than hating the guy like you admittedly hate Papelbon. My opinions of Ben's performance are not colored by any personal like or dislike. Your reasoning may be consistent but it is flawed.

Who would want him if he blows this.

Fred, no doubt that after 2011, the owners decided that they had spent enough. There was no money left for Papelbon. That issue was beat to death on this forum. This time I brought him up in the context of an in-season salary dump from Philly if the Phils fall out of the race. If they ate a few million of his salary for the next couple of years, it wouldn't be a bad deal considering all of the dough that they have wasted in failing to find Paps replacement. Paps is a touchy suspect on this forum regardless of the context. There is an inexplicable amount of hatred for a guy who played a huge part in a World Championship and who brought us a lot of joy closing out over 200 wins. If you mention how he is doing for the Phillies, people say "that he is gone and get over it." If you reminisce about his days as a Red Sox, we are told to "stop pining.". I still reminisce about seeing Yaz, Tiant, and Rice. Should I "get over" them and "stop pining". I missed Carlton Fisk for the entire 10 or so years that he played with the White Sox. I can't help but remember the great players that played for us throughout the years. Heck, I miss Nomar and Manny too. So shoot me.

You have no credibility to comment on the issue, because you hate the guy. just sayin. Edit: When I play gotcha, I get you. Unlike your attempts.

The team had starting SS off the scrap heap and they had 2 rookies in the sarting rotation which equals a recipe for disaster. Add in Bobby V's nonsense and there was a disaster.

I think that scale is as good as any.

Good players. Period. As far as the clubhouse stuff goes, Casy Stengel used to say that 5 players will love you, 5 will hate you and 15 don't have an opinion. The trick to a good clubhouse is to keep the 15 that don't have an opinion away from the 5 guys that hate you.

You have been on record that you didn't like him before he left. http://www.talksox.com/forum/710287-post22.html

As I have said before, I don"t see Lee becoming available. The. Phis are very much in the wild card chase, and they will need to ride with Lee, Hamels and Kendrick. If the Phillies fall out of the race and become sellers, I think he will go to Texas. I don't think the probability of coming to Boston is very high. I think it would be more likely that we would have a shot to get Papelbon. I realize that he is an anathema on this forum for reasons beyond my comprehension, but I think he is a more realistic option than Lee.

The key is staying healthy. We have not had a health starting 5 since 2004. That year we had a couple of studs at the top of the rotation followed be a group of major league average guys. That's all you need at the bottom of the rotation is guys that take all of their turns and pitch to league averages. It will keep the pen fresh all season and help cove up weak spots in the pen by keeping them off the mound.

Most teams are retaining their top pitchers, even small and middle market teams. I agree that they don't have much of a choice, and the contract would be ugly. It's just the state of the game with regard to pitching. It's at a ridiculously high premium.

I don't even know what you are disagreeing about. I think you are disagreeing to be disagreeable.

If he continues to punish the baseball, he can be a diva. He wouldn't be our first diva.

And there was nothing wrong with J.D.'s game. His problem was that he didn't play enough.

Salty down on strikes too. What a surprise!!

He kept up his pitches per AB which is soooo important.

Rice said in his day they didn't tell him or Yaz to walk. "No one walked except the mailman.":lol: He said they liked 1 hour 45 minute games. I do miss the days when a game took less time than a round of golf. IMO, the length of the games is the biggest factor undermining the popularity of the game.

This is a pretty even matchup. Both of these starters are on the spectrum between meh and suck.

Oh, I think I said "the league". I was referring to the AL. IMO think he is definitely a top 5 hitter in the AL, but it depends on the metric being looked at. I measure a hitter by how tough he is to get out. Mauer has the 5th highest career OBP of all active players. Runs are produced by getting hits and getting on base. Mauer is one of the best. He is still top 5 AL, IMO.

AL or MLB?