a700hitter

I step away for a quick phone call and this jackass has guys on the corners and no one out.

Without a doubt, yes. They need to step up.

I was leaving the financial aspects out of it. I was just looking for reasons why we suck. People think the pen has been good it has not. Bailey doesn't even enter into the discussion because he hasn't pitched and I was not debating whether they should have kept Papelbon. I was just discussing the effect of losing him.

If Middlebrooks is the real deal, what are Boegart's prospects with the Sox?

Lester has been declining since last season. He needs to turn it around. I think Beckett and Buchholz will be fine. Lester is lost and can't figure it out. That has me concerned.

My expectations are not very high about getting an ace. I think few if any will be available. I'd be surprised if more than 1 such ace changes teams at the deadline. I expect minor acquisitions and lots of excuses for some of us to lap up.

It's balanced out with all the 3 run 1 inning saves.

I am dreading the White Sox series.

Atch is DL'd. Tazawa is up.

Me too, but they can't pitch, so they are not going to propel this team the way that some people expect.

What are people feeling in their gut when the Sox get to the late innings with a lead this year? They forget that they didn't have that kind of late-inning heartburn for the last 3 years. The late inning pen wasn't perfect, but it was a night and day difference from now.

Pitching is very important, but prospects are prospects. If he could help land King Felix, I'd pack his bags and drive him to the airport.

When he gets to and starts lighting up AA, we can start to get excited. Otherwise, at age 22, he is looking like a prospect to pump up hype-wise and then dump in a trade for an established player.

The Papelbon negativity from some people always perplexes me. He was nothing but excellent for us. He will undoubtedly be inducted into the Red Sox Hall of Fame, and although it is very tough for a closer, he does have a shot at Cooperstown. People took a dislike to him because he wants to maximize his earning potential. At least he is honest about it. All the rest feel the same way.

We can't complain about the job he did. He did a fantastic job for a prolonged period. The unfortunate truth is that he just is not a major league OFer that a good team can keep on its roster for an entire season. I think he might be able to find a spot in the majors as a bench OFer because he has made tremendous improvements fielding and throwing. His drawback is that he can only play LF. Teams usually want their reserve OFers to be able to play at least 2 OF spots.

I am not at all saying that the bullpen is a bigger problem than the starting pitching. I have thought the starting pitching would be a problem from Spring Training, when people were convincing themselves that 2 rookies in the rotation would not be a problem, because Buchholz would pitch the entire season, Lester would bounce back from an off season and we have Beckett too. Some people even thought that Dice K was a good depth option. So, I am clearly not pointing at the bullpen more than the starters. The reason for my posts about the late inning bullpen is to counter the commonly accepted belief that our bullpen is doing just fine, better than expected and some people think it has been great. They come to this conclusion on the basis of the ERA. The bullpen is not great. You pay the pen to handle the late innings, and it has done a lousy job in innings 7 thru 9-- one of the worst in the league. Last year it was the best. The commonly accepted belief is just flat out wrong. You are all hung up on this 5 game thing. Who knows how many games better off we would be if we still had Aceves, Bard and Papelbon in our pen. We could argue about it all day. Our late inning bullpen in 2009-2011 covered for many deficiencies in our starting staff those years. We don't know precisely how much of our record is attributable to the starters as compared to the relievers. It is clear that neither has done their job well at all. A Papelbon in our pen would have helped without question-- maybe not 5 games over the first half, but maybe so. Over the course of the season, at this rate, it will easily be a 5 game difference.

Gonzo is back, Hopefully, he didn't lose the stroke he had going before the All Star break. His timing was the best it had been all season.

What a wild 9th inning in LA between the Dodgers and the Padres. The Dodgers were up 6-5 to start the inning. The closer, Kenley Jensen gave up two hits to start the inning to set the table with a first and third situation and no one out. The next two batters struck out and popped up. The batter on forst stole second at some point. With 2 Balls and 2 strikes on Amarista, the pitcher starts pawing at the mound with his cleat and as he was working on the mound, he turned his back on home plate. As soon as he turned his back, Evereth Cabrera on third took off for home plate. The pitcher panicked and threw the ball passed the catcher and 2 runs scored. Wow!!! I have never seen anything like that steal of home in the 9th inning.

Also, with regard just to innings 7 to 9, in 2011 our Bullpen was best in batting average against and OPS. This year it is 12th in both categories. These are the innings that are important -- the 7th thru 9th and the close and late situations. We kinda suck at those. We are blowing smoke up our own asses if we don't think losing Papelbon has hurt this team by at least 5 wins. Look at tonight. In the 7th last year, Aceves and/or Bard would have stopped the bleeding in the 7th, shut them down in the 8th and handed Papelbon the ball in the 9th.

I didn't say that. But a $174 million roster has to have a guy to come off the bench to take a hack in the 9th inning instead of sending up a .150 sacrificial lamb.

Having Lillibitch bat in the 9th is ridiculous.