a700hitter

When you miss major parts of 2 of the last 3 season in just a 5 year career, you have earned the designation of "injury prone.". Does that mean that he is a wimp? No, there's no reason to single him out. They are all pampered princesses who will not return to play until trhey are 100% healed. If he could play at 60%, he'd be 50% better than Marlon Byrd or Lin. Thatks why the old-timers played hurt, because the healthy replacements were not as good as the injured stars. Today it is all about the individual and not the team. It's about the next contract, not winning. At this point, I am pretty sure that Ellsbury and Crawford could be playing. The sore elbow thing by CC kills me. How many high stress throws does he have to make each game? Are they fragile? No, they are pampered.

He is this season's John Lackey. With each outing I am getting less hopeful of this guy turning it around.

Punto has played limited OF, but more than Aviles. I hate Punto's weak arm at SS.

Lee is hitting pretty well right now.

Does Punto have OF experience?

So, who the heck is the 4th OFer right now...Punto?

We should have some interest. Between Bard and Buchholz, one of those guys may need to be dropped from the rotation very soon.

They need to make an acquisition. There is too long a period of time before Ells or CC come back. We can't make do with Byrd, Sweeney, Lin and Nava. That is just horrible.

He has been a reliable bottom of the rotation guy for most of his career.

With the injury to Feliz, he'll probably end up in Texas:

And the instant we would swap Youks for Blanton the Phillies would sign Oswalt. I'd much. Rather sign Oswalt and keep Youk than trade for Blanton.

I won't give you any argument on that.

I don't think you can get much more for Youk at this point until he re establishes himself.

I hate to say it, but the O's are fielding a superior team to the Sox tonight.

Maybe tomorrow they can recall Youk, put him at first and put Gonzo in RF.

What a horrid outfield! Lin, Nava and Byrd. That's enough to make me gag.

He could handle RF at Yankee stadium or Baltimore.

Gonzo for RF

Since his time in Winter Ball has made Gonzo into an adequate right fielder, why not keep him there, play Youk at 1B and keep Middlebrooks with the big club?

I also would not expect that his velocity will increase beyond the 92-93 mph that he is currently throwing. At that velocity, he is just not the "special arm" that they anticipated.

The problem is that this staff doesn't have a big # 1 horse who will go deep into games, I.e. the 7th or 8th inning in most of his starts. A guy like that takes a tremendous amount of pressure off the pen and the rest of the staff. The Red Sox, at best have two number 2's and a 3. Some would argue that we have a 2, 3 and 4. A staff without 1 or 2 big innings eaters needs the bottom of its rotation to be better than it would need to be if we had a true ace and innings eater. The fact that Bard is doing as well as the average #5 is irrelevant, because this team needs an above average #5 if it wants to make a run at the playoffs. Another issue is that Bard is seemingly going backward as his velocity and performance is getting worse, not better. He's going to be shut down at some point-- probably at 150 innings. At that point, we will need another starter. Will that be Dice K? I'm not so sure. Finally, I think it is legitimate point of view that this is poor asset management--- taking a well above average/dominant reliever and turning him into an average #5 starter. I thought the long term plan was to turn him into an above average starter. He has shown no flashes of that yet. He has yet to put together a dominant performance. If all he is going to be is an average #5, I don't see the point of the experiment. There are plenty of those guys available.