a700hitter

If that is the case, then they should just cut him. If he can't start and he can't pitch in high leverage late inning situations, then he should just get released. I think the Red Sox believe that he can still be effective in late innings so they are trying to get him back on track. He wasn't really as bad as a meltdown freak show in September 2011. That's a bit of an exaggeration.

He's in Fort Myers now. They can send someone to watch him pitch down there. They should be able to judge how he is throwing without putting him in a minor league game. Also, I didn't say that he should be thrown into the rotation. I said let's see if he has any bullets in his gun. Preferably, they should see this in a low leverage situation or two out of the pen. Holy crap back at you.

Have you ever heard of a figure of speech? There comes a point where a players performance is unacceptable and he has to go. Lowe has reached that point with the Guardians, and I am hoping that Cook meets the same fate with the Red Sox. You are an incessant nit-picker. Stop it. They both suck. That's the point. And I disagree with putting him in Pawtucket. Cut Cook's ass now. Bring Lowe here to see if he has any bullets left in his gun. If not, adios.

But so far they have only put Crawford and Punto on waivers-- no one else.

So, we are going to pick nits over degrees of s*** now? Neither one's pitching has been acceptable recently. We already gave Cook a chance. He blew his chance by giving up 6 HRs in his last 3 games. We can give Lowe a chance.

So Lavarnway hasn't had a major league AB this season, but Bobby V is batting him in front of Middlebrooks tonight. His lineups usually leave me shaking my head.

Our pitching needs to be good. Bashing any team into submission 4 times in a row is difficult. There's a good chance that there will be at least 1 low scoring close game in this series. The pitching will have to win that game.

He can't be worse than Cook. I'd give him a shot.

Cook against Texas would be a blood bath.

Here's my last statement on this. Scutaro still has more market value than Mortensen. It was a salary dump. Mortensen has done better than expected. He is not a prospect. He has no future. Once his options expire, he will be worthless to the Red Sox and probably every other team. Am I allowed to disagree with you about this trade? I think I am. All trades are not held to the same standard. There are different dynamics involved in every move. They affect who you keep, and how those players perform is relevant. A trade may be a good trade straight up in a vacuum, but if it doesn't address the needs of the team, that affects the judgment of the trade. So, correct, there is not a single standard by which to judge a trade, and often there is not a definitive verdict on a trade. I disagree with you on this. Let it go.

I'm not going to go into the whole rehash. The team didn't have enough starting pitching coming out of the gate. They insisted that they had enough. They were very wrong. Under performance by the top 3 exacerbated the situation and the team basically collapsed out of the gate and it has been stumbling ever since. I did not expect the pitching to completely crumble like this, but I did expect for it to break down later in the season like it did last year. We added nothing to a staff that imploded last year. Two rookies on innings limits is a recipe for a late season collapse. One of them blew up spectacularly and they stuck with the guy until he helped bury the team in last place and maybe even wrecked his career. If you want to use the under performance of the big three as an excuse, waht is the excuse for not rebuilding the pitching during the season when their suckiness has become obvious? Yes, I blame the FO for this season. The flaw in this team was obvious to everyone. It was so obvious that they were asked about their pitching on a daily basis, and they had their talking points that they were happy with their starting pitching. They were either being disingenuous or stupid about the issue. Yes, I blame them, and I have heard and read every excuse by and for the FO. I don't need to hear them or read them anymore. They messed up. It is on them. They have rolled out a team that has been just awful, because it kicks you in the gut before you can even get comfortable in your seat. The unexpected under performance has made things far worse, but their rotation was obviously weak before the season started , and there were no viable contingency plans. Dice K, Cook, Ohlendorf etc were not viable contingency plans. You don't want to blame the FO. Fine. I blame them. We can agree to disagree.

They had no problem putting him in the rotation previously when guys were injured. The bullpen is not our problem. Plus Bobby V has to do so much matching up because our starters suck and can't go deep into games. It's all about the starting pitching. It wasn't addressed in the off season, and it still has not been addressed. It is the downfall of this team, no matter how you want to twist and turn the reasons for it. It still comes back to the starting pitching.

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.