a700hitter

It will either be WMB or Napoli hitting behind Ortiz. If WMB, starts out hot, I'd put him in the 4 th slot.

If this calcium buildup is what is known as a bone spur, it can be a very chronic condition that will continue to cause pain until surgery is done to remove the spur. If the spur is not removed, it can rupture the tendon. I'll defer to Jacko on these matters. The stupid thing was giving him a 2 year contract before verifying he was healed. It was stupid for a team building perspective and a PR perspective. If they were worried about PR, they could have done what they had done the prior 2 seasons and offered him arbitration for 1 year. No one was going to give him multiple years with a bad wheel. We could have locked him into another year to address the PR aspect. And since he didn't play a full year, his raise in arbitration probably would not have been very large. It was very stupid decision making in every aspectto give him 2 years before he was healed and could run.

The ball he hit to RF last night would have been way out of Yankee Stadium, and he got it off the end of the bat. If Middlebrooks stays healthy, I think he easily pops out 25 HRs and he will be hitting behind Ortiz if Ortiz get back in the lineup.

Iglesias is still swinging the bat aggressively. That is good to see even though he is not getting great results right now.

I think he threw a couple or three splitters tonight.

Anyone who saw him on Wednesday would not have been very impressed. He got hit very hard by a bunch of chumps. The hits off him were ripped. As I said earlier, it may have just been a bad outing. Pedro was a once in a generation talent, so concluding that he will not be the next Pedro is not exactly closing the door on his career. I think we need to see if they let him face the opponent's starting lineup or whether he faces reserves. He was far from impressive on Tuesday. We'll have to wait and see.

There really was very little to report on tonight. Dempster was effective, but I can't see him being very successful in the AL with his stuff. The biggest plus he can give us would be a lot of mediocre innings. Wilson threw okay 92-93. If the gun is 2 mph slow, he still did not throw harder than Carter. Don't know much about Carter but he has a smoother and easier delivery than Wilson. He impressed me more thsn Wilson, but neither is very impressive.

Maybe the scouts guns aren't calibrated right, or maybe the stadium's gun has been recalibrated. I have never read that Wright throws his knuckle ball at 78. Reports are that he throws it hard but at 74-76. I also don't think he throws his fastball at 86.

I think the gun at JetBlue is pretty accurate. On Wednesday, it was showing Wright throwing his knuckle ball at 76 and his fastball at 84. I don't think he throws any harder than that. Tonight, the gun was showing Dempster at 85-89. Most of his pitches were 87-88. The Twins' Pelfrey was between 88-92. I think these readings are pretty accurate.

:thumbsup:

Menaopause at 29. Call the people from Ripleys'

I am glad that you are feeling better. I was being accused of having driven you from the board. I knew that was not possible.

And on a side note, why is a manager wearing a wristwatch? Does he have an appointment that he has to make?

I never watch highlights of Yankee wins.

Fred is on record as 71, so the combined age is closer to 125 than 100.

The greatest one inning pitcher of all time. Big s***. Good riddance.

I think it can be. I have known some adults that got it, and it does knock them out for a long time.

Chicken pox? When I wished a pox on him and his family, it's not exactly what I had in mind.

Yeah right. Passive aggressivity is a form of hostility.

The report I read had him topping out at 95. The velocity is not as important as his command at this juncture.

It was just one outing, and he may have just had a bad day, but I am going to take special note of whether they let him face the other team's starting lineups. They let Wright face the Pirates' starting lineup and he took a beating. I wondered if they brought Rubby in to face the reserves to boost his confidence. He didn't have command of any of his three pitches yesterday.

Steve Wright looked terrible. He had terrible command. His pitches were up consistently and the hitters looked like they wanted to run to home plate to hit against him. Bums were ripping him. Just awful against an awful lineup. I am not encouraged that he is a viable depth option if one of our starters goes down.

Okay, I have been out drinking since the game ended, so I"ll probably have some more meaningful detail tomorrow. Lester looked good today. He had one rough inning where he lost the plate and loaded the bases, but he worked at a god fast rhythym which i think is the key to his success. When he works slowly, he gets into big trouble. My brother raised a point with me today that I think has validity. He said that last year Lester had the Beckett influence of working super slowly. It works for Beckett, but it has been Lester's downfall. Today he had good pace. His command was good except for 1 inning. He didn't get many swings and misses. He was sitting at 90-91 during his outing until his final few pitches where he touched 93 and 94 once. I liked what I saw from him. He didn't dominate, but it was a quality outing. The first batter, Marte torched him for a triple to the left of the home run line in Left Center. It would have been out of any other ball park. As for Rubby, he is not going to be the next Pedro, not this year, not ever. They brought him in after the weak Pirate lineup had been replaced with no name scrubs. The first guy hit a frozen rope over the head of the center fielder. Another guy jolted one off the LF wall and another guy hit a frozen rope to CF that handcuffed Bradley. He fooled no one. He was not overpowering. He was throwing 92-93 with his fastball, reaching 95 once, maybe twice. He does have a varied arsenal, a changeup and curve, but his command was not great. He's kind of stocky. He doesn't have a classic starting pitcher's build. I could see him as a reliever, but I would be surprised if he could take the ball as a starter for an entire season. There was no 99 on the gun today that we have been reading about. Jackie Bradley Jr was tough to get a read on today. He had a no contact day for the 3 ABs that I saw. He k'd looking and walked twice. He showed good plate discipline. He takes a pretty good rip at pitches. Iglesias took very aggressive rips today. He got nothing to show for it, but he took good rips and made slid contact. His plate appearances were encouraging.

Once he had that first procedure, he was lucky just to be able to pursue a normal life. Professional athletics was out of the question.

I just thought it was the menopause.