a700hitter

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.

Well, we get at least one more game of WMB. If Dice K is being pushed back to the end of June at the earliest, they had better get Oswalt in the fold.

If they are planning another 30 days of rehab, everyone except RedSoxRules, Yeszir, iortiz, J_E, and me would be eliminated.

Everything good starts with good starting pitching. Beckett pitched a fine game. We need Buch to settle in as well. He goes against a real lineup in Baltimore tomorrow night.

WMB needs to cut off that throw. He was moving to 3B to cover the bag and never made a move toward the throw.

He really can't be compared to Morrow and his development as a starter, because Morrow has maintained his velocity and been a big strikeout pitcher throughout his development.

That is a blast. I saw Barry Bonds hit a 459 foot HR in the only game I saw in SF. When you see one of those at the ball park, it is pretty damn impressive. You know it is gone right away.

I am with you on this. There is a notion that he is a spaz in the field, and that is completely false.

Youks isn't in the lineup for the PawSox today. He's probably on the way to Baltimore for the series starting tomorrow. WMB is likely to get optioned to AAA after today's game.

and there is still no one out there that I trust except Aceves.

I don't remember him play 1B in the All Star game. Back in those years, my softball team always got scheduled to play on the Tuesday, so I probably missed it.

and he has pretty good reflexes.

The big guy has always been under rated with the glove. He has good hands an accurate arm and good footwork. That was an excellent play by Papi. Beckett was asleep at the switch.

or a grounder to 3B

Cut him slack? He's not reading this is he? I'll encrypt the next time I make a critical comment about him.

Beckett being alert. Nice play. Salty was looking like a dope on the pop up as usual.

Salty is hot. This hot streak is adequate plus, at least. He has been hitting blasts.