a700hitter

I heard that both Bard and Aceves looked good yesterday. By the time I get down there, March 17th -24th, they should be stretched out to 4 or 5 innings. It will be interesting to see how they do the second time through the order. In 2006, Papelbon was a starter in Spring Training. I was psyched to see what he could do. He would tear through the order the first time around, but the second time around it was a different story. He had a lot of problems going deep into a game. I don't think he had the secondary pitches refined enough to be a starter at that time.

You guys need to find some common ground. You are both sick sports fans and strong personalities. Cut each other some slack. He can brag and be emotional and you can be dismissive and nasty, but you are both good sports people.

I know that I can be a jackhole prick at times. I have had my moments over the years, so I am not preaching to you. I just don't want this to go down an ugly path. People have been banned recently and the forum has calmed down a fair bit, so I don't want to see the whole thing spiral out of control again.

And you and others have anointed yourselves to take him down a peg with ridicule. People have been trying to take me down a peg for years because I like to tweak people with statements such as "I am almost never wrong", "I am right 99.6 % of the time." My custom user title used to be "The Ballpark Pontiff" and now I have dubbed myself the "King of TalkSox". I do it all in fun, tongue in cheek, but people lose their minds over it, adding to my enjoyment. Many have made it their mission to take me down a peg or destroy my credibility etc. It's so laughable. At one point a certain poster said that he was waiting for the day when iortiz would come to his senses and repudiate me, because he couldn't stand that iortiz agreed with me on many issues. Well, how well have the efforts to take me down worked? I am still here and still speaking my mind, and it still annoys some people. If people want to take a run at me to prove me wrong and "take me down a peg", they are welcome to go ahead. I like a lively debate, but ridiculing someone because you think they are bragging is childish schoolyard stuff and less funny and entertaining to read than Fred's corniest nicknames. The internet is full of blowhards. Anyone who has been on this forum for an extended period who doesn't think that he/she is a blowhard is just kidding themselves. If you eliminated the blowhards from discussion forums, there would be no internet discussion forums.

Fred, you must have followed Pedroia pretty closely, because a lot of people missed the mark with him, including me. When I saw him at Spring Training in 2006/2007, I thought his skills were very average across the board. I saw no plus skill from him. Also, he was a little guy with a big swing and what I thought was warning track power. I was completely wrong. He' s the type of guy that you have to see a lot of to realize how special he is. Ellsbury's skill set can be easily observed from seeing him play just a few games, but not Pedroia. The ball does seem to really jump off Lavarnway's bat and he seems to have a strong arm, at least compared to our catchers last season. Right now his path seems to be blocked for 2012. They may send him to Pawtucket hoping that he tears up the pitching and increases his market value. Maybe he eventually sticks wit the Sox or maybe they think Swihart is the future catcher and La?arnway is going to be a nice trading chip. It is certainly something to follow.

I like to read Fred's scouing reports. He has obviously taken the time to follow and watch many of these guys. People beat him up for the nicknames and he stopped most of that. Now, he is being ridiculed for his scouting reports. You people need to grow up. If you disagree with what he says, post your reasons. The ridicule is childish.

Once the lineup around him got weak toward the end of the season, he went into a tailspin.

How am I negative about Salty? I have always said that he is adequate. I think that is fairly accurate.

Why do people hang so much on every word managers say these days. Who cares. Most of them are buffoons in one way or another, and plenty are just plain stupid. Luckily for Casey Stengel that he was not subjected the 24/7 coverage of today. He rarely made any sense when he opened his mouth, but the guy knew the game. It's only important that a manger drills the fundamentals and knows the game, so he doesn't cost his team games.

It's mind boggling what the pros can do. I'd play once in a while with my wife's uncle. He was a huge step down from a pro, but a scratch golfer, and he would do things that just weren't possible for me. Rather than play up and over on a dogleg hole, he'd take out an iron and whack the ball over the trees and the ball would land on the other side of the dogleg in the fairway right in front of the green. I would lose three or four balls just trying that.

Baseball players have a lot of down time, especially starting pitchers. Historically, they filled their time golfing or fishing. Today, there is a lot of electronic gagetry to keep them busy. Tons of baseball players have been avid golfers, and many are washed up as baseball players by their early 30's, certainly young enough to be a professional golfer. None have been able to do it. Zero. They can't master the game. Could they have mastered the game if they grew up playing it and training at it? I am sure that several could have done it, but starting as adults, they can never refine their skill enough to be consistent enough to compete with the pros.

Many baseball players have tried, but almost none succeed. My recollection is that Ken Harrelson retired from baseball to try golf. That didn't work out.

Hundreds, if not thousands, of baseball players throughout the years have been avid golfers. How many have been able to crack into their professional circuit?

What about a centerman skating in front of the net trying to use the blade of his stick or his skate to redirect a 100+ mph slapshot to an open part of the net. The disc shaped puck moves very unpredictably as compared to a baseball. Edit: The guy is on ice skates and he is taking hits from defenders while doing this.

If the expertscould really predict the outcomes, they wouldn't need their jobs as experts. Still, going into the season, those are the teams that should be the toughest to beat.

PSsst. We are the experts. I don't know what happened to iortiz. I dropped him a pm about a week ago to see if everything was alright with him, but I haven't heard back from him.

I noticed that the the experts have us rated below the Yankees, Rangers, Angels, Tigers and Rays. This is pretty much where iortiz said theSox would be rated at the beginning ofthe season.

There isn't enough rivalry in baseball. I liked the days when the players on each team hated each other as much as the fans did. Good for Scott. He is saying what I have heard myself in Baltimore from Baltimore fans. They hate us down there, even though we account for a good part of their team's revenue. Scott took the side of the hometown fans. Good for him, but why did he wait until he left town to talk about it?