a700hitter

YOTN, you are one of my favorite members on TalkSox, but you are overstating things. You don't have to be an expert in psychology to read a player's body language or to figure out that a pitcher can't handle late inning pressure. Other players and coaches can read these cues at every level of ball. SBF is not saying that he has the cure for Bard, but he is saying that in his experience, that Bard looks like his head is messed up. Performing at this level takes a high degree of confidence and focus. Yogi used to say that 90 percent of the game is half mental. Did you ever see Calvin Schiraldi sweating after his first warm up like Patrick Ewing on the Foul Line in a playoff game? He'd have that "deer in the headlights" look and you just knew he had some squirrels running around in his head. By all accounts, Bard is healthy, but he can't throw strikes anymore. Is it a mechanical issue? Yes, that is probably a large component. Is there a mental component to his problems, I would say that is a good bet also. A mechanical flaw doesn't explain the way he would unravel when dealing with base runners. The guy would absolutely have brain cramps in that situation. When I watched him in spring training, I posted that he was having trouble maintaining focus from inning to inning. That was my observation from his performance and body language. I didn't need a degree to see that. Shortly after I made my observation, Bard acknowledged the issue himself. He was letting innings get away from him turning good outings into lousy ones. He acknowledged that the focus of a starter was different than a reliever. In these cases a guy can straighten out by making a mechanical adjustment that boosts his confidence. It is rarely just the mechanical adjustment that turns a guy around. A lot of times a coach suggests minor mechanical adjustments to a player just to break him out of his funk. Sometimes a guy is thinking too much about mechanics and it is hurting his performance. Another Yogi-ism-- you can't hit and think at the same time. Sometimes a coach tries to get the guy to clear his head completely. I agree with Fred. There is definitely a mental component to Bard's problem. If this was just about arm slot, it would be fixed already. I don't know if you remember Don Sutton. He's in the Hall of Fame and he had such severe issues with the mental part of the game that he underwent hypnosis and he was given a post hypnotic suggestion to use to calm himself on the mound. Hopefully, Bard can straighten himself out, but if he doesn't he wouldn't be the first one to be beaten by the mental side of the game. There have been a lot of guys whose career succumbed to the mental side of the game.

I think it remains to be seen whether the Sox will be buyers or sellers at the trading deadline. If they are still treading water in 4th place, I think they will sell off parts of the team.

0-1 without Youk.

I think we will be needing Lester to ace up for us to prevent a sweep. Dice K blows. I am sick of his ********. Hopefully, he starts earning some of his money tomorrow.

Buchholz is leading the league in mystery illnesses.

She probably gave up blowing him after they got married. If he was getting regular head from her, he would not have a nervous or irritable bowel.

Her cooking apparently blew out his intestines.

I am really hoping to lose this bet, because taking on more than $5 million means that we would be getting someone pretty good.

Sounds like a bet.

Don't be a weasel. Ross's money was committed before thewy dumped Scoots or Youk. We are talking about redeploying the savings on the salary dumps. Otherwisew, why not count Ortiz's raise and AGon's raise too?

It doesn't affect the 2012 payroll.

LOL!! Good point

Lillibridge is not a good MIFer.

Okay. But they have to pick up all $7 million on the current 2012 payroll.

I wouldn't count on it.

It doesn't count if he hits and Chicago exercises his option. It doesn't hit this year's payroll even if Chicago buys him out. It is not current savings.

I figured that we would get nothing of value for him, so I would not have been disappointed at all. Did anyone really think we would get anything for him? This is the question you asked me yesterday. My answer is still no, and that's why I would have preferred he'd gone to the NL. If he beats us just one game in July in the 4 game series, I figure that the deal cost us more than we got.

I was joking about the Scutaro money washing with the Youk salary dump. BTW they have $7 million not $8. They got $1 million for Youk, not $2 million. And don't expect any spending at the deadline. Ain't gonna happen. For the stinking $1 million, as a fan, I'd rather him be playing in Chavez Ravine for the rest of the season.