a700hitter

This has nothing to do with the argument. Everything is relative. Playing injured has nothing to do with talent level.

Fifty percent of Yaz was better than 100% of his bench replacement. Also, the opposition never knew how badly he was hurting, so Yaz in the lineup made the pitchers pitch differently to those around him. I believe that 50% of Carl Crawford or Ellsbury is better than DMac hands down. There's no question about it. Plus, Ellsbury and Crawford would bring the speed factor that DMac doesn't have. No, the sitting out when your injured crap is all about preserving stats for the next contract. Better to not play than play below optimum level for the next contract. Roger Maris played with a broken wrist one year, because taking him out of the lineup would have resulted in Mantle being intentionally walked all season long. It worked. Maris was still considered a threat, and the opposition just thought he was slumping. As for carping if the injured guy does poorly, you are addressing that to the wrong guy. If a star plays injured, I applaud him no matter what he does. I realize that big stars play better banged up than the average bench player. What would you rather see a banged up Pedroia or a healthy Punto. Star players get paid mega bucks to play, and IMO, if they are physically able to play, they should play. They owe it to the team. I don't care what JD Drew's OPS was in the 110 games that he played each season if my team didn't win and we had to play bums like DMac et al causing us to lose games. That's just an example-- and not a factual one, but it is meant to illustrate a point. If I spend hundreds of dollars taking my kids to see their hero Pedroia, I don't want to see Punto playing because Pedroia has a tooth ache. Again, this is hypothetical. Players have a responsibility to perform for the fans. Some fans say screw that. The players don't have to play for the fans. The fans that say that never buy tickets and never take their kids to the games. Players used to have that mentality that they played for the team and the fans. Today, they almost exclusively play for themselves and they pamper themselves. It's just my opinion. When I was a little kid, I wanted to see Mantle and Mays. They were both at the end of their careers, but when you went to the ballpark, they were almost assuredly in the lineup. Mantle was severely injured almost all of his career, but he put on the uniform and played if he could walk. I remember seeing him play. It was a thrill. He was a shell of himself, but still better than anyone on the Yankee bench, and benches were much deeper in those days. I remember Mantle, but I couldn't tell you the name of his backup.

Happy Birthday, YOTN! Lester will ace up for your birthday.

I think they realized that if a700 and ORS were in such agreement on an issue, there was no other reasonable option.

Where did his strikeout pitch go as a starter? As a reliever he struck out more than 10 per 9 innings. In his last 2 starts he has had 1 strikeout against the lowly A's and 1 against KC. The A's k like crazy.

I agree that pitch counts shouldn't be dictating pitching moves. The problem with Bard is that he just as easily could have blown himself up in the second inning when he was balking like a little leaguer. Free Safety? The only bigger wimps on a football team are the place kickers.

He played every day and could be trusted to drink beer and smoke in the clubhouse. Sometimes he broke league rules and smoked in the dugout during BP. True story, in 1973 his wrist was so badly sprained that he had to tape his hand to the bat. After he hit the ball, he had to disentangle to run to first. He didn't miss any time. Today's players are overpaid princesses- all of them.

The Red Sox are considering putting WMB in the OF:

3 or 4 games for Yaz.

We do stink. I don't know what kind of magic people think will come over this bunch to make them competitive. They are not going to take shape, get it together or whatever. They can't win in the soft part of the schedule. The good teams will run them off the field.

The signs were there that he was going to blow up, especially after the first batter. I would not have had a problem with him taking him out, but I had no problem with him keeping him in. I still think it was more a case of focus than fatigue. Sure, he wasn't as fresh as a daisy, but you've got to get through the later innings and throw strikes. I'm not going to hang Bobby V on this one, because he probably wasn't going to get 2 scoreless from the pen. If he brought in Albers after the first walk, he'd still have given up the bomb to Sweeney and we'd have lost by 1 instead of 2.

Bard knows that he s*** himself. That's why he was pissed off.

He had plenty left in the tank. He was humping it to the plate harder in the 7th than earlier in the game. He got his only strikeout to end the 7th. If anything, he screwed himself up by overthrowing. Gassed? I don't think so. He didn't look gassed to me. He looked like he lost focus and s*** himself a bit.

The signs of him choking were there in the 7th, but he wasn't gassed.

The arms in the pen are hanging like limp noodles from too much use. Bard's pitch count was low. He was fresh, but he blew it. THe problem is that every time Bard gets in a pressure situation, he blows up. He did it last year in September.

His starters should not be blowing up at less than 100 pitches. They just shouldn't. Bard had plenty left. He just spit the bit.

Bard wasn't gassed. He lost focus and just didn't make the pitches in the biggest part of the game. As Schilling has said several times, the difference between winning and losing is the execution of about half a dozen pitches. Bard didn't execute. He lost his focus and kind of choked. Doubront seems to do the same thing when he is trying to wrap up his starts. The two of them need to handle things better in the late innings. They need to grow a pair and keep their stuff together at the end. This is mainly on Bard and the rest is on Albers.

Daniel san has been focused and saved up the good gas for the end.

Give me a hint. Is he tall?

He would have taken the throw in front of the plate.