a700hitter

I get them with the kids meals. What kind of example would I be setting if I stole them? Future generations of phony, self-anointed internet forum king would be lawless.

Most of the time the attire is Monarch casual-- just an adjustable cardboard crown. The official crown is only worn at formal events like Red Sox games, Monster car shows, and happy hour at the bar.

Sometimes I am the only one here.

... and so ends Doug Mirabelli's comeback bid.

We are really in the realm of saying "if this works out and if that works out and if we stay healthy...and if and if" That type of stuff starts to scare the heck out of me, because something always goes wrong. If we need everything to go right, that's just not realistic.

Let's have a night for him, maybe hand out a bobble head doll and let him throw out a ceremonial first pitch, but thankfully no more starts.

That's ugly.

Halleluiah!

It's a lot easier after winning the two championships, but it was tough growing up through the 70's.

If 1 of the top 3 go down or Bard can't cut it and has to go to the pen, what does the rotation look like?

I was hoping for some analysis. In 2005, the top 4 guys averaged around 200 innings and almost 15 wins, the depth option returning from ankle surgery was Schilling, who was still the ace when he got healthy In 2006, they had 3 pitchers in the rotation that won 200 more games in their careers --Wells, Wakefield and Schilling. Clement was coming off a year with 13 wins and he was on the All Star team. Wells was coming off a 15 win season. There was no reason to believe he would fall of a cliff, or Clement would blow out his arm. s*** happens. You are judging 2006 with 20-20 hindsight. If judged at the moment when Spring Training ended, I don't know if I would come to the same conclusion. Also the the depth option of Lester was better than what we have in 2012.

Who cares what the original point was? We only need to lose 1 starter to have a catastrophe. That's how thin our rotation is.

Here's a list of our starting rotation coming out of camp since 2004. I have included the depth options as well. The names listed do not include people who were not with the organization at the start of the season, e.g. Paul Byrd, Kyle Snyder and Bedard. Compare and contrast. There was only one season where a career reliever was in the rotation -- 2007-- Tavares. At least Tavares had pitched for a few seasons as a full time starter. Also, the depth options were Lester and Buchholz-- 2 major league ready guys. 2004 Schilling Pedro Lowe Wakefield Arroyo They averaged 31 starts. Fewest starts was Arroyo 29 2005 Wells Clement Wakefield Arroyo Wade Miller Depth: Schilling (11 starts), Papelbon (3 starts), Geremi Gonzalez (3 starts) 2006 Beckett Schilling Wakefield Clement Wells Depth: Lester (15 starts), DiNardo (6 starts), Tavarez (6 starts) 2007 Beckett Schilling Dice K Wakefield Tavarez Depth: Lester (11 starts), Bucholz (3 starts) 2008 Beckett Lester Dice K Wakefield Buchholz Depth: Masterson (9 starts), Colon (7 starts) 2009 Beckett Lester Dice K Wakefield Penny Depth: Buchholz (16 starts), Masterson (6 starts), Smoltz (8 starts), Tazawa (4 starts) 2010 Beckett Lester Buchholz Lackey Wakefield Depth: Dice K (25 starts), Doubront (3 starts) 2011 Beckett Lester Buchholz Lackey Dice K Depth: Wakefield (23 starts), Aceves (4 starts), Miller (12 starts), Weiland (5 starts) 2012 Beckett Lester Buchholz Bard Aceves Depth: Padilla, Silva, Cook, Maine, Ohlendorf, and Doubront

But losing just 1 starter would likely be catastrophic for the Sox since we only have 3 starters.

Sox passion has nothing to do with living in the area. I have been a crazy fan for 45 years and never lived within 200 miles of Boston. I have a number of friends and family and co-workers who feel the same way.

Drew was an extremely talented player. He did everything well. He had a classic fluid style that made things looks easy and effortless which contributed to the perception that he didn't care. His biggest problem was that he couldn't stay on the field enough.

Who would you pencil in as the 5th starter?

With a bum shoulder and his 8+ ERA he is more likely to be out of baseball before the end of the season.

Losing 2 starters for the Sox would be catastrophic for another reason beyond the lack of depth on the farm. Let's not forget thet we only have 3 starters. We don't know what we will get from the two converted relievers- Bard and Aceves. Thinking that we have a full rotation at this point is unrealistic.

Do the get the news in the old age home?

Yes, that is when he started using the term low risk/high reward acquisition. That drives me crazy. Jason Johnson was high risk whenever he took the mound. Low cost -- maybe, but not low risk. We lost 5 of his 6 starts. He was the worst starter by W-L in the history of baseball. I used to call him The Ultimate Loser. You bring back some painful memories.