a700hitter

I was definitely skeptical that his stuff would translate to the AL, especially after seeing him pitch for the Rangers last season. I am not at all saying that he was bad in the NL. What I am saying is that he used to run some high pitch counts because hitters were familiar with him. He was still successful. I didn't anticipate that he might benefit from a move to the AL. A big part of Dempster's game is deception. The hitters will catch up to him as the season goes on. I will be very happy if he is as good as he was in the NL. I don't expect this high level of success all season long.

A very successful series of movies carried that name. WTF is "delicious irony" anyway. Such a ridiculous phrase. If UN wants something delicious, he can eat me. LOL!

Salty seems to have very little awareness and instincts on the field. You can't teach that aspect of the game. They can continue to refine his skills and that will be helpful, but he is still going to pull rocks like turning 360's looking for the ball when it is at his feet and runners are advancing on the bases.

A sticky foreign substance would help grip, command and movement. I heard Jim Rice say it one time, but it is an old saying: "If you ain't cheating, you ain't trying.". Who the heck cares. He might be trying to get in Buchholz's head. Who knows. Maybe it was sugar from a powdered doughnut. I guess we can look forward to Clay getting inspected by an umpire if he continues to pitch this well. Clay can use this accusation rto get into hitters' heads. I remember that Bobby Murcer would be going nuts 2 days before he faced Gaylord Perry. Perry was in Murcer's head big time. All Perry had to do was touch his cap, his jersey and pat himself in one or two other spots and Murcer would go nuts demanding that the ump undress Perry. LOL! They never found anything when he was pitching to Murcer, but Murcer would get so mad that he'd ruin his AB's. So, to those who say that Buch is cheating, I say: Maybe he is. GFY!

The HR Derby bores me too. They need to take a break from it for about 10 years until it becomes a novelty again. Of course since they sell tickets to it, it will not stop until the ticket sales stop.

When he was with the Cubs, hitters would layoff those pitches and he would run up some very high pitch counts. I think that he may have benefitted from the change of leagues. Hitters are not familiar with him and most of his swings and misses come on pitches out of the zone.

His name just lends itself to that nickname. Sorry if it offends you. It's like your posts lend themselves to the nickname "jackass" for you.

think Ital meant that Fred had you on ignore. Eat me, SCM.

We are all probably over analyzing this, but after they went out of their way to say that Bailey would remain as the closer and Hanrahan stating that he is okay with it and just wants to help the team, it makes you wonder why they went to Hanrahan in the first save opportunity after saying that stuff. Bailey's history of frequent injuries leads us down a dark path. I agree with you about the prediction stuff. I love that Nava is outperforming all expectations and that the team is performing excellently in all key aspects. Some people view that as some form of vindication against other Red Sox fans. Weird, especially since very very few people had gone on record in the pre-season predicting a Division Championship. SFF is the most enthusiastic positive guy here, and although he predicted that this was a playoff team, I am not sure whether he predicted a division championship. Should the posters who predicted a good shot at the second wild card be unhappy if the team wins the division? Should they be chided? Bizarre. It's odd that winning is not enough to make them happy. As for Dempster, where were all the posters clamoring for the Sox to sign him in the off season. Pre-signing, almost everyone thought the Sox should stay away from him. I'd like to see the posts where people recommended him pre-signing. Most thought he wouldn't transition well to the ALE. Should they be unhappy that Dempster is doing great? Again, bizarre... right?

It's the Bill Belechick syndrome. In football if you don't know who will be suiting up against you, it makes strategy a little more difficult. In baseball, their is no advantage to holding back on an injury. I would be surprised if this wasn't addressed in the postgame press conference.

Hopefully, it is the former not the latter.

Right. Why isn't it Bailey?

I thought Bailey was named the closer.

At this rate, Tazawa will have 81 appearances.

That's as good an explanation as any I have heard.

He is buried in AAA.

He was supposed to be a good offensive player, but he never really developed. His catching skill was nothing special.

I agree but a red Sox fan would have been more likely to be aware that Buchholz was having a very good ST and drafted him earlier.

Minor league roster fillers. Neither of them is good at all.

d'Arnaud was the prize catch of that group and he was stuck behind Arrencebia with nowhere to go.

I wonder if the 2013 Blue Jays have the same motto as the 2012 Red Sox: "Sooner or later we are going to go on a run.":lol: They need to get Bobby V to manage them and it would be a replica of the 2012 red Sox.

It was a salary dump.

He's done the job in Fenway too. He has gotten good jumps and he has been positioned well to make up for his lack of speed.

How many teams are in your league? Being available until the 25 th round makes me think there were no Sox fans other than you in the league.

I had read or heard that he was working to improve from the right side of the plate. Thus far, that work has paid off. The biggest surprises for me has been his added power and his adeptness in RF (even in Fenway). He has proved more than adequate in RF.