VA Sox Fan

Papi with the wall ball! Bay on 3rd, Papi on 2nd, no outs! Score some runs boys!

The game is being played now and you're an idiot

The only people that would surprise me are Derek Jeter and Albert Pujols. I was surprised by A-Rod. But Papi's decline makes sense. Still love him.

Drew: 84 games, 12 HR, 39 RBI Lowell: 76 games, 11 HR, 49 RBI

No he doesn't, we fans that have never managed a MLB team before and don't know everything that goes on behind the scenes do!

Red Sox 1. Jacoby Ellsbury, CF 2. Dustin Pedroia, 2B 3. Kevin Youkilis, 1B 4. Jason Bay, LF 5. David Ortiz, DH 6. Mike Lowell, 3B 7. J.D. Drew, RF 8. Jason Varitek, C 9. Nick Green, SS SP -- Jon Lester, LHP Pitch well Lester. WIN!!

Francona: “It was a good step today talking to Dice.” Posted by Julian Benbow, Globe Staff July 29, 2009 06:00 PM Red Sox manager Terry Francona said he spent “a pretty good deal of time” on the phone with pitcher Daisuke Matsuszaka, who recently voiced frustrations in the Japanese media over differences with the organization on how he should be training and the way its affected his performance this season. Francona said the conversation was a healthy one, pointing out that Matsuzaka made an effort to speak in English, which Francona respected. In the end, Francona, who along with Red Sox pitching coach John Farrell initially said they were disappointed, made it seem as thought the team and the pitcher had come to a better understanding of each other after the conversation. “He made some points to me, which I appreciated,” Francona said. “He understood how we felt, and he was trying to make some points. The points I made to him were, 'Yeah, this is how we felt now where do we go from here.' I think that we had a real good day. The goal of the conversation was to take the emotions out of it and move forward, Francona said. “If you’re mad at somebody, or you’re disappointed in somebody sometimes you raise your voice, sometimes you get mad," he said. "Hopefully, when you get take the emotion out of things, then you come up with, ‘How do you make this better?” That’s how you always try to approach it and we got there today.” Francona said he gave Matsuzaka a written exercise asking him to list the things that bothered him, so the manager would have a clearer idea. Among the items on the list were pitch counts and mound visits. “Trips to the mound, sometimes he didn’t view it like we do,” Francona said. “When John Farrell makes a trip to the mound, we’re not trying get in the way of the game, we’re trying to help. But if it doesn’t help then we want to try and know why." Francona acknowledged that as much as the Red Sox had done to make the transition from Japan to America an easy one for Matsuzaka, that there were some things they couldn’t account for. For instance, neither Matsuzaka nor reliever Hideki Okajima was prepared for the travel, Francona said. “Both of them kind of hit a wall,” he said. There was also the strike zone, significantly different between the two countries. Another subtle but significant difference was the actual American baseball. “You pick up a Japanese baseball, and I think the best word is almost ‘supple,’” Francona said. “You don’t need to rub them up. You take it out of the box and go play and it’s got a nice feel. That immediately got in the way of his split, and I understand that.” Francona frequently sympathized with Matsuzaka’s position. “I don’t think it’s fair for us to expect him to come to the United States join our team and jump on board when he hasn’t done that his whole life,” he said. “Saying that there are some things that we’re not willing to bend on because of health and productivity, and he understands that. I don’t know if he fully agrees. If I grew up in a different environment with different training methods I probably would feel the same way, so we’re trying to put our heads together and come up with the best of both as opposed to knocking heads.” At the same time, he said there were certain things that the team would be unwilling to bend on. “We do not discourage him from throwing as long as his shoulder can handle it,” Francona said. “He likes that physically, the touch and the feel, the repetition which I understand. He has to be able to handle it or it doesn’t do him any good. He’s going to regress. His shoulder’s going to be weaker, he’s going to go to an area where our medical people know he’s asking for trouble.” “So when it gets to that point, we don’t let him. We’ve had to shut him down, we’ve had to cut his throwing back. We’ve told him if he shows up and he’s in shape and his shoulder’s strong then we will not get in the way of his throwing. That’s where we’re at with him and he understands that. Now it’s his responsibility to be that so he can throw. In all, Francona said, “It was a good step today talking to Dice.” ***Francona gave an update on Tim Wakefield, saying that he threw from 60 feet yesterday, but also saying that there was no timetable for when Wakefield would throw from the mound. “Wake is throwing as tolerated,” Francona said. “Yesterday he was about at 60 feet. We’re just not trying to go backwards. It’s a little bit slow. He is getting better. We’re encouraged I think he is. You guys saw him, he was walking crooked for about a week. I think he’s slowly starting to get better which is good. I don’t have a timetable when he’ll throw off the mound, but he’s doing better." ***Francona offered some inside baseball after last night, when the Sox decision to give up third base to runners played a role in their 9-8 loss. Francona was of the school it was as risky to defend third -- giving up the gap on the left side of the field to hold the runner at second while at the same time covering third -- as it was to let him run, since a single would score most runners from second anyway. “When a guy runs into third uncontested, and the crowd ooos and ahhs like we haven’t paid attention and they fooled us – there’s times when we elect not to do that. And that makes sense. “There’s a lot of different things that we think about that actually is kind of fun to think about during the game that doesn’t ever get noticed, but it’s just interesting. A lot of conversation goes on in the dugout about why.”

Yeah, this warranted a new thread..

Thank you...but that doesn't matter, Tito is just an idiot.

Ortiz: 'That's my baby girl' Posted by Julian Benbow, Globe Staff July 29, 2009 05:17 PM Red Sox slugger David Ortiz, who left last night's game in the seventh inning upon learning that his youngest daughter had fallen ill, said today that she was fine. Partly joking that she "ate too much," Ortiz said his 8-year-old daughter Alexandra came down with a stomach sickness that required being hospitalized. But he said she was back home recovering before the night was out. "That's my baby girl right there," he said. “We went back to the house late-night last night. We were watching the game on TV. Kind of crazy." Red Sox manager Terry Francona also expressed his relief, saying, "That's good news for us. There was some concern there last night. She's OK." Ortiz is out of the lineup tonight with a scheduled off-day.

Red Sox 1. Jacoby Ellsbury, CF 2. Dustin Pedroia, 2B 3. Kevin Youkilis, 3B 4. Jason Bay, LF 5. Mike Lowell, DH 6. Rocco Baldelli, RF 7. Adam LaRoche, 1B 8. Jason Varitek, C 9. Jed Lowrie, SS -- Brad Penny, RHP WIN!!

Copperheads are poisonous snakes.

I love Paps. Just hope he figures out what the hell is going wrong.

I blame Papelbon more than Green. But both of their timing sucked. I jokingly said to my boyfriend when he was throw his warm up pitches on the mound, Paps will give up 2 runs and load the bases but will manage to get out of it. WRONG! I never feel good when he comes in anymore. Hope he figures out the problem.

2 RBI for Lowell. Drew left on time... 7-4

Looked rough early but lookin' good now!:thumbsup:

OMFG!

Everyone has at least one RBI except Ells, Pedey, Kottaras and Green. Papi, Kottaras and Green need a hit.....

Farrell: 'There's no openness' Posted by Ben Collins, Globe Correspondent July 28, 2009 05:45 PM Red Sox pitching coach John Farrell tersely shot back at Daisuke Matsuzaka's public disagreement with the Red Sox' shoulder conditionining program for the second time today. "Do I think he's more open? No. This couldn't be any further from it," said Farrell. "There is no openness. "There's been a lot of conversation back and forth. Thoughts have been exchanged. The disappointment comes from him airing his dirty laundry," said Farrell. Farrell also disagreed that Matsuzaka's suggestion of throwing more pitches would have any positive effect on his shoulder. "The rigors of this schedule presents energy and taxation regardless of where you're from," said Farrell. "The body needs a recovery and recuperation period. It comes to a point of diminishing returns when you pile on volume. "If you're going to throw 115 pitches, you've got to go out and be effective. At some point there's got to be some accountability and responsibility from the player," said Farrell." -------------------------- Damn, this is the last player I would have expected any controversy from/about. The airing in the media is surprising. Tomorrow, in the Globe, I'm sure Dan Shank will be ripping Dice-K a new one.

Team sources dismiss report that Buchholz, Bowden, Westmoreland were offered for Halladay Posted by David Lefort, Boston.com Staff July 28, 2009 05:56 PM Sources from both the Red Sox and Blue Jays tonight denied to the Globe that Boston had offered pitchers Clay Buchholz and Michael Bowden and outfielder Ryan Westmoreland to Toronto for ace Roy Halladay, which had been reported this afternoon by Yahoo! Sports’s Gordon Edes.

I had ALREADY posted this at 4:00PM!!!! You START the GT and POST the line ups?? YOU ARE OUTTA CONTROL!! :lol: I don't think the rumors will effect Buch negatively, he wants to pitch in the Bigs every day and he'd have more of a chance with almost any other team. WIN WIN WIN!!!