a700hitter

We would have been better off if Melancon had been on the DL for the whole season. He hasn't helped at all. Lowrie has helped the otherwise pathetic Astros, and put up pretty good numbers.

In the post to which I responded, the Breslow trade was not mentioned. I already said theat was a good trade in a vacuum, but it didn't address the teams needs. As for the others, they are all big losers. If you want to continue to beat the drum for the bush leaguer Mortensen, go ahead. That trade was a salary dump. No one wants Mortensen. The Giants the first place team in the NL West made a move to reinforce their team by getting Scutaro. It's just a ridiculous argument. Scutaro is a commodity with value. Mortensen is not. I thought we had moved on from this. As for Youk's, if you wanted him to clear a path for WMB and you were going to get nothing for him, send him to the NL. Unless Zach Stewart makes our rotation, this was a stupid move. Your argument may make you feel good about the Youk give away. It may even convince others, but it doesn't change my mind. My score is 0 for 4.

Yes, I think you are right that we will need to go about 10 -4, but that type of consistency has eluded this team all year long. Picking up ground will not be easy because the teams we are chasing will be playing each other during that period. Texas will be playing series against the Tigers and the Yankees. The Angels have series against the White Sox and Oakland. The A's have series against the Angels and the White Sox. The White Sox have series against the Angels and Oakland. We have our best chance to gain on Tampa and the O's in our division, because they each have only 1 series against teams we are fighting in the next 2 weeks. Tampa plays a series against the O's. This is our opportunity to move up in the Division.

The King thing has been a joke from the beginning, but the reaction to it by some people has provided me with amusement. Here is my characterization of the trading deadline activity by the Red Sox as succinctly as I can say it: They upgraded a bullpen piece, but the bullpen was not the major need or deficiency of this team. Nothing was done to address the lack of starting pitching. That has been and will continue to be the undoing of the 2012 Red Sox.

We are on the short end of all those trades big time-- as of now. There's not even a question. The Youk thing was not a trade. We gave him away. My beef is still that he should have been given to the NL. We are fighting the White Sox for a Wild Card. That was just stupid IMO. This dead horse was made into glue weeks ago. The only thing that will ever convince me that the Youk to the White Sox move was not stupid is if the prospect we got makes our rotation. That's a real long shot. BTW, Youk did bash in or skulls in the game we lost to the White Sox. We should've swept them.

He's definitely running on fumes. He can be very streaky too. He pitched himself out of the post season rotation in 2004 with a horrible September. All in all, how much worse could he be than Cook. There is a chance he could be better. Why not explore it? He also has experience pitching out of the bullpen.

^ I am sure that this from UN added value to the discourse. Too bad that I did not take the time to read it.

Don't play with my words to try to tell me what I meant. I just told you what I meant. Listen Newb, plenty of people come here and try to prove me wrong, because I call myself the King. None have taken me down a peg yet. Most have come to appreciate my point of view and we engage in good dialogue. ^ This last post of yours was argumentative nonsense. I told you what my position is. I stand by it, and most of all, I am right. The FO did not address the teams most pressing need-- starting pitching. Now, you strike me as the type of person who has to have the last word. Take it if you must. I think that have stated my opinion clearly. You are not going to change my mind. Breslow is not a starter. We needed a starter. They did not address the team's biggest need.

Not if Beckett get DL'd., and Doubs will hit his innings limit right around the beginning of September.

It could because Bailey has contributed nothing, Sweeney is out for the rest of the season and he didn't hit a single Home Run in 2012, and Melancon's ERA is still over 8. Oh, and the White Sox are ahead of us in the Wild Card race and Lillishit is gone already and the minor league pitcher we got is a piece of garbage.

We need starting pitching. Could he be worse than Cook?

You guys have completely missed my point. I have said consistently that I like Breslow. Second, I never said that Breslow wasn't an upgrade over Albers. I said that it didn't address the team's major need-- starting pitching. To those who say that getting a Breaslow allows us to put Morales in the rotation, I disagree. We'd already had him in the rotation. We didn't put him back in the pen because the pen was struggling. We put him back in the pen, because we already had 5 starters. Our 5 starters stink, and pitting Morales back in the rotation should help, bit we didn't need Breslow to make that move. We needed Cook to do his Home Run Derby routine 3 times in a row. He would have been replaced with Morales whether or not we got Breslow. Morales was already in house, and he will not be enough. Who takes Doubs spot when he hits his innings limit at the end of August? Do they go back to Cook? Dice K? Are they solutions? Is the solution that we blow out Doubs arm by throwing him 200 innings? Who steps in if Beckett lands on the DL or Lester continues to s*** all over himself? The problem is not getting Breslow. Do I have to type it all in caps. I have no problem upgrading a bullpen spot in a vacuum. The observation that I have made that it was a nothing Trade Deadline for the Sox is because it did not address the major need that this team has had since day 1m. We don't have enough good starting pitching. About that, I am completely right. If they don't get at least a wild card berth, the starting pitching will be the reason. Ther Sox should have won that game last night, but we sent an over the hill infwrior pitcher to the mound that had their big dogs licking their chops. It was a missed opportunity at home. Cook shouild not be in this rotation down the stretch. He should not even be on the roster.

It's time to cut ties with Cook.

2 k's and a DP for Salty tonight, and his timing couldn't have been worse.

Oh, Ross is DHing. Too early to give up the DH. Ciriaco does it again. I liked this kid in Spring Training. He was a guy who I didn't know when I got down there, but he was an attention grabber. I like him even more now. They should package Iglesias and send him someplace while he still has trade value. Salty really took an axe to this inning.

he could have PH Lavarnway here.

I thought they should have sold high on him at the deadline and brought up Lavarnway to share catching with Shop.

I agree. I voted to sell. I think this was as close to a nothing move as they could have made. It certainly wasn't a "buy" move.

WMB picked up Salty.

I'd rather he have k'd than the DP.

1or 2 lefties in the pen is not going to make a difference for us. I don't think that was our biggest concern. Did anyone think before the trading deadline: "damn, I hope they pick up a lefty BP guy so we can put Morales in the rotation"? I don't think anyone had that on their mind. People are just rationalizing the move now so we can feel good about it. Don't get me wrong, Breslow is a nice BP pitcher, but exchanging Albers for him was not a burning need.

poor us if we have to trot out Cook to the mound every 5th day.