a700hitter

Lowell is still a pretty good fielder, and his mobility is coming back. His defense certainly doesn't warrant taking up a roster spot with a guy to be a late inning defensive replacement. Mientkievicz was a defensive replacement for Kevin Millar who will never be on a ballot for a gold glove.

Does Youkilis need a late inning defensive replacement? He's better than Kotchman. The problem with the OF is that you have one OFer Drew who has had injury problems throughout his career. Right now he has one of those nagging things. This could last a game or two, but would anyone be shocked if he missed a couple of weeks? He's way ahead of his games played pace that he has established over his career. Baldelli can't play more than twice a week. Who plays the remaining games?

Why sit the guy with a 10 game hitting streak--Lowell? Why not sit Varitek?

He sucks. Why would we want to keep him in the organization.

I think you must only be watching Pujols when the cards are on. Duncan is so bad that he is the son of the coach who is the best friend of the manager and he still got sent to the minors and then traded to a team where he has no shot at playing time. I hope you are right, because he'll have to help the grounds crew at Fenway if he wants to contribute to the Red Sox.

Any OFer would be an upgrade, because we don't have a viable OF replacement right now. Baldelli can't play two or three games in a row. We have 3 first basemen. That's at least one too many. I'd swap Kotchman for just about any OFer, because Kotchman will not be used. He is a wasted roster spot.

When you see him play the OF you will agree with me. I'd rather have Kapler on the roster than Kotchman. I'm not saying that he is better or more valuable than Kotchman, but what role will Kotchman have? I can't imagine that kapler would cost much. Kapler is an OFer. Duncan is not, no matter what the stats say. Kapler would be an upgrade over what we have now which is nothing. Baldelli can't play two days in a row. Missing two games for Drew is not a rare occurrence in his career. We don't need a third first baseman. That makes no sense at all.

It's probably just as inaccurate to pin him to his last 79 ABs.

I know that it is against the rules, but I have watched Duncan play the OF several times. I don't know if that's how you have followed him, but his average stats are hugely misleading. He plays every ball like it is a live hand grenade and those are the balls he gets to. I hope we don't have to see him in Fenway's OF to prove me right. He's a first baseman, but there was no future for first basemen on the Cards. Eric Hinske would be a huge defensive upgrade and Hinske looks like a linebacker that wandered onto the wrong field.

...and over a longer period Kotsay would produce numbers closer to his career stas: .280/.336/.412/.748 and I don't think Reddick can perform at that level yet in the majors. Again, I am not a Kotsay fan, but he can play the OF and Kotchman can't. Cobwebs will form on Kotchman because he'll get so little use.

There are about 120 major league OFers. I don't know which ones could have been available. You clearly don't watch many NL games. Duncan is a horror show in the OF. He's laughable. No way no how could he play RF in Fenway. It doesn't matter what his offensive numbers are. He shouldn't be issued an OFers glove. You might be able to hide him in LF at Fenway for a short period, but Bay can't play RF. Kotsay is a bona fide major league OFer. I am not putting in a big plug for him, but Kotchman can't play the OF and he will not be getting much time at 1B. He is going to collect dust.

The guy hasn't been able to stay healthy. I like his bat, but I am not sure that he'll be at full strength until next season. I wouldn't mind getting O'Cab as insurance for Lowrie. We should have said thank you to Green and then DFA'd him. There are lots of major league OFers, and im sure that a lot were available. I would prefer to have Kotsay instead of Kotchman at this point. Kotchman will get 0 playing time. kotsay could have played against Righties if an OF goes down. He's better option than a AA Outfielder.

That's possible, but if they only wanted the two guys-- Buchholz and bard, they should had done it. Also, they should have explored Haren more and taken a better run at Cliff Lee.

It is disappointing. We want to believe our heroes are good honorable people. Unfortunately, most times that is not the case. They have no loyalty to any town or group of fans. Those days are over for good. Not only wouldn't they have a drink with a fan, they usually don't patronize any places where you would find regular fans. If you ran into one of them in a place, they would be likely not to say hello nor would they let you buy them a drink. Many of them view fans as schmucks. Are these generalizations? Yes, but they are more the rule than the exception. I too was disappointed at the news about Ortiz, despite the fact that I am more jaded than most. I felt bad for those fans who put him on a pedestal. When a hero falls off a pedestal, it leaves an emotional crater. The owners, managers, players, players union and the press let the game get tainted in this terrible lasting way. Shame on all of them. They did it for the temporary popularity, adulation, economic profits through ticket sales, merchandise, advertising, and newspaper circulation. They irreparably sullied a game that it is our heritage. We can no longer compare stats of players across generations. We cannot trust in the integrity of any records or accomplishments in the last 20 years. More of them should suffer the Karma of the Wilpons who were swindled for $700 million. Screw them all. I root for the laundry, but I couldn't care less about the players or management. They have one primary goal, and it has nothing to do with community etc. Their singular focus is on picking the fans pockets clean.

ARod trying to pad his stats by trying to stretch a single into a double down by 5 runs in the 9th inning. What a selfish idiot!

He's a 4-eyed nerd with good speed and he has a bit of pop in the bat, but he is not ready for the majors, and hopefully he will not be playing the OF for the next couple of weeks.

The cheapest of victories by Smoltz. He should retire and take with him what little dignity he has left.

Good job by Papelbon. Cue Dirty Water in Fenway South.

Okay, one more out needed.

Pie was pesky in that AB, but Papelbon did a good job finishing him.

Papelbon needs to lock down this game. Tampa is winning 7-1 and the Yankees are tied in Chicago.

He has to. I guess we will be seeing AA reddick up for a while since Baldelli can't play back to back days and he sucks against righties. Seriously, we would have been better off keeping Kotsy to play the OF in this situation than having Kotchman rot on the bench.