a700hitter

Buehrle has averaged well over 200 innings a year and pitched to a 3.85 ERA over 12 AL seasons. The guy is steady as a rock despite his velocity.

The Orioles were not some kind of fluke in 2012. The play very well in tight games.

Adam Jones is a really good ballplayer.

I really don't know what point he was trying to make either time. His argument was childlike. First he attributed something to me that I never said. When I pointed that out, he was insistent that that is how I feel even though I didn't say it. It was especially ridiculous since didn't even have anything to do with the discussion-- my stated preference that Iggy get his shot this year. Is there a right or wrong with regard to an issue like that? He seemed to be arguing just to argue. It was like arguing with a petulant 5 year old. He can't even get along when the team is playing well.

When I saw him in person, I thought that he just doesn't have a starting pitchers body. Rubby isn't Chubby, but he is stocky and not tall. I don't see him as having a durable starting pitcher's body.

I will try to get to Boston when you guys are there. We should sit have a beer some place. RSFFL, if you are under the drinking age, we'll have a burger instead. Maybe SFF and some others could drop by and say hello too.

Rubby got pasted the other night in his first AAA start: IP H R ER BB SO HR ERA Rubby De La Rosa 2.1 4 5 5 1 3 2 19.29

Closers are highly over-rated. Will you be making it to Fenway this year?

WHat point are you trying to prove? Do you have a point? Seriously, wtf are we arguing about?

Maybe longer.

I still think this is a 4th place team, maybe even a last place team if we get some injuries to our starters. I stand by that. Just go to the predictions thread. I lay it out there. I never equated it with a "lost season." I never called it that. I saw the opportunity this season to play the prospects. From the beginning of the off season, all I said that I wanted was a respectable 2013 team that would play some meaningful games in September. That was my goal. I didn't expect them to right the ship in 2013 to get to a World Series or ALCS. I never equated that with a "lost season". Yes, I think they spent too much money on payroll this season, and I am not sold that it will make them appreciably better than if they had spent $30 - 40 million less. It's funny how you and others skewer SBF for saying that it is a failure if the team doesn't make the playoffs or win the World Series, but you are insisting that my prediction that this is a 4th place team means that I have concluded that it is "a lost season." Are you arguing with me just for the sake of arguing? Honestly, your level of discussion is embarrassingly low. I' ll check back later. I have some intelligent people that I have to interact with now. I seriously don't even know what you are trying to prove. I wanted Iggy to get his shot to play this year. This is how this started. U.N. chimed in insisting that I was just whining and you took off on a whole other ridiculous tangent. Go tilt at some other windmills.

Sorry to hear about your wife. I hope she recovers faster than Drew. Pretty cool catching a foul ball. After all the hundreds of games that I have been to, I have still caught just one foul ball-- Lenny Dykstra hit it while on the Phillies. I put that ball away without spilling a drop of beer. It was impressive in front of my co-workers as we were at a group outing. The nephew of one of my co-workers was sitting in front of me and he kept looking at the ball so I gave it to him. I'm still waiting to catch my second one.

I hide from no one. No one ignores me.

Aimed at one of the lamest posters on the board. You are welcome.

Read the posts above. Where did I call it a "lost season"? I don't think I ever used that term to describe the 2013 season. Please if you are going to argue with me, get things right.

Yes, hysterical.

Funny. I had never heard that one.

From the guy whose brain is in the wrong end of the horse.

We might get one of the wild cards, but I don't think this is a strongly competitve team to go deep into the post season. I stand by assessment until prved wrong. Eight games in is a little early to say that I was wrong.

I hate to attribute motive to the FO. I just like to judge results. But, maybe they thought they needed to to enough to make the team fairly competitve in 2013. That would be understandable. They needed to get a respectable product on the field. I thought more attention needed to be paid to improve the pitching to get the team back to respectability. They took a different tact. Several different approaches can succeed if the execution is good. Like I have said before, we could do worse than having Drew as our SS. He's a pretty good ML SS. In my view, it pushes back the Iggy issue another year. Personally, I would have answered the question this season. Which approach is right? Who knows. I am just expressing a preference.

That is because you are so small minded that you can't think your way out of your little box.

Yep, it is frustrating.

I disagree that bringing in Drew was the right move. The 2013 Sox were not going to strong contenders on their planning board. It was the perfect season to give some of the young guys a chance to show what they have, especially the guys with question marks like Iggy, who has a bunch of talented guys coming up behind him at SS. The $9.5 million could have been better spent elsewhere. Drew is a good SS. He will represent himself well if healthy, but we didn't need him. We could have made do with Iggy and Ciriaco.

We can't hang a 5 run implosion on 1 bad call. That would just make us look whiny. There was a lot of bad pitching mixed in. Hanrahan is light years better than that head case Aceves who melted down every other appearance. However, he doesn't have the steel spin of Papelbon. Those who thought that the O's will thud back to earth in 2013 were kidding themselves. The O's play hard, never give up, and they may have the best balanced team in the division. There is a lot of talent on that team.

On the bright side, Nava has become a power hitter from the right side of the plate. Maybe he'll make Gomes irrelevant. Hanrahan has games like this when he loses it. He can blow up very badly. It doesn't happen too often thankfully. He ain't going to make me forget Papelbon, who blew up like this very very rarely during his tenure.