a700hitter

At least he is not a rat and a religious hypocrite too!

The OFers can't defend the ones over the fence. Wow, a manager that takes his starter out before a 7 spot is on the board. What a novel idea. Watching Tito for years, I just assumed it was against the terms of the collectively bargained contract to take a starter out before he gave up 7 runs.

The Orioles and Rays are wearing throwback uniforms. I hate that s*** . I remember the Orioles hideous orange circa 1970 unis. The Rays were not in existence, and i don't ever remember them wearing what they are wearing tonight. Has anyone else seen these? BTW Felix Pie just misplayed a pop fly into a triple by over running it and falling down.

What happened to Pettitte... did the needle break off in his ass?

Lowrie is raking. The kid could always hit when healthy. The Texas OF is killing us with their fielding plays so far, and Beckett is still a steaming pile of s*** like in his last start. He hasn't pitched for basically the entire season. By the time he gets his s*** together we will be mathematically eliminated.

Maybe. I'll be glad to have Papelbon around for another season.

The good guys in that group want closer's jobs. The rest of the group would give Tito ulcers.

Dude, you are going to have to argue with yourself about this. I really don't care about the direction of the Royal organization. I am pissed that the Yanks will miss Greinke this weekend. I also remember that Guillen has had some very good series against the Yanks in the past, but he is gone.

I brought up Broxton, because he too is a great closer that has had some real stinkers this season. People get so overboard reactionary when Papelbon has a bad game. They all have some stinkers (maybe with the exception of Rivera). You say that you are not willing to pay Paps $10 per year, but for that same $10 million can the FO improve the team in other areas that will more than make up for the tremendous loss in the bullpen from letting him go. That is the value decision that the FO will make. They are not going to decide not to pay Papelbon because he is running his mouth and they have Bard. If Papelbon brings more value to the team at $10 million than they can find on the market at other positions for that $10 million, then the sound business judgment would be to keep him.

How is Jonathan Broxton trending after yesterday's game? Probably not too good. Here's what people tend to overlook. This Red Sox team is a much better team with Papelbon and Bard at the end of the bullpen than with just one or the other. I am dubious about the opportunity to use Paps money to upgrade another position to equal or exceed what will be an enormous downgrade in the pen. Papelbon will be gone soon enough when Bard can demand the big $. Until then, I'd prefer to go with both horses.

Must you argue about everything. Lol! I guess the Giants traded for him to make sure that he didn't go to another team when he was released. As for Yankee luck, they will not be facing Greinke either. I'd rather the Yanks face a Royal lineup with Guillen rather than without him, but that's just my opinion.

For a PTNL. Nice pickup by the Giants, although he is no Eric Patterson. http://m.mlb.com/news/article/2010081313403346/ Also, as luck would have it for the Skanks, there opponents have traded away their best player.

We pounded Papelbon for yesterday's game against Toronto and deservedly so, but did anyone see what the Phillies did to Broxton last night. It was brutal. It happens to the best of them. I wouldn't throw Broxton out with the garbage just yet. http://m.mlb.com/news/article/2010081213374814/

I am jst wondering who the new crop will be. We heard about Buchholz, Pedroia, Lester, Ellsbury and Papelbon long before they got here and the high hopes that the organization had for them. Bard was considered a bust for a while until he righted his ship. I don't see the same type of optimism from the FO in the press about any of the prospects other than Kelly and Kalish, and Kelly will not be here next season. I think the Westmoreland thing had a big impact on the organizational plans going forward. He was at the head of the list of guys who they expected to burst onto the scene in the next year or two. Without him, the foundation on the other side of the bridge doesn't look very firm.

Good point. Maybe Derek Lee or Aramis Ramirez? Mark Reynolds?

I understand that payroll money will be freed up after this season, but at the beginning of this season we were reading and hearing that the FO was expecting a new crop of young players to hit the big club by 2012. That's what I am not seeing. After Kalish and possibly Dubront, I'm not seeing a lot of promise. I am certainly not seeing the type of promise that would convince the FO that 2010 and 2011 are just bridge seasons.

Ah, the bridge season. I still don't understand what is on the other side of the bridge or if 2011 will still be part of the bridge. Who are the big impact players that the organization expects will be with the big club next season or 2012 who will take this team back to championship caliber. I'm not seeing the potential.

Saying that the FO bears responsibility is not a condemnation. It is part of being accountable. Papelbon will end up with 3 or 4 more blown saves than usual. If we miss the playoffs by 3 or 4 games, he bears responsibility too. Does that mean that I think he stinks and I want him off the team? No, I'd like to see him at the end of the bullpen with Bard until we start having to pay Bard big $. The same thing with the FO. I think they do an overall fine job, but with the 2010 club they seriously miscalculated on their balancing act of winning now vs. long term. They should have done more. I don't think they need to do a lot more, but let's face it, they did nothing.

It drove me crazy that they actually thought Schoenweiss and Embry were options early in the season. I saw Schoenweiss a lot when he was with the Mets. He stinks. Even the mets won't touch him anymore and they stink. Schoenweiss is so bad that I was rooting for Embree to take his place. The FO approach to getting the lefty was to go to the Dollar store to get damaged and spoiled goods. It was a mistake. If cost the team wins. Period.

This team has the potential to be very dangerous in the post season. The problem is that they probably will not make it to the post season due to injuries and other reasons. Yes, I said other reasons. The failure of this team is not due entirely to injuries. Sure they are a major factor-- by themselves they are probably a deciding factor. In the end, we will probably miss the playoffs by a small handful of games. Had it not been for the injuries, they certainly would have closed the gap. Despite the injuries, I think this team still could have made the playoffs, but other mistakes were made. Our third base coach easily cost this team 3-4 victories with his terrible decision making. A third base coach should never have such a negative impact on a team. If we miss the playoffs by 3 or 4 games, Bogar shares the blame and that is sad. There were a number of games early in the season that were handed to inferior opposing teams due to bad defense, bone headed plays and general sloppy play. Good teams let bad teams give away games, not the other way around. Sloppy, fundamentally unsound play against inferior opponents leads to a conclusion that the 2010 Sox are not a very good team. They are a very talented team, but not a very good team. There is a difference. Their record against the weakest teams bears this out. Injuries is not an excuse for that. They have themselves to blame for the poor performance against those teams. If they had taken care of business against those teams, they would have 3 or 4 more wins. The FO doesn't escape responsibility either. They did virtually nothing to build a bullpen during the season even though the need for a left handed pitcher was obvious in April. The bullpen cost us 3 or 4 games more than it should have. As the string of long term devastating occurred, they did nothing helpful to reinforce the team. We have seen weeks and months of AAAA players, who have performed admirably, but we depended too much on them. The acquisition of Patterson was a joke. Expecting Cash to be the starting catcher for weeks after Tek and VMart went down was also a very poor decision. They acted much too slowly to get Salty or someone else to step in. We went for a good couple of weeks rolling out lineups with 4 or more substandard ML hitters. Yes, blame the injuries. The FO could not have replaced everyone, but one more good bat might have changed the outcome of a couple or 3 of those games. That 2 week tailspin was devastating to the team's prospects. Yes, the FO gets a share of blame too. Injuries were the major reason, but they are part of the game and they do not excuse everything else. All that being said, if this team gets hot and gets a few breaks, they will make it to the post season, and none of this will matter. We need Pedroia to come out of the gates smoking next week. That could be the jump start we need.