jacksonianmarch

well, that was fun to watch. Youks is gonna be out for a long time

Wake to have a rehab start on Friday and then might be back next week. If anyone watched the game today, they showed a clip of Tim covering first today. Not pretty

Actually, Gaudin is slotting into Chamberlain's spot on Sunday where Joba will get skipped. Yankees up 2-0, Tex was out by a half a basepath at home

Tazawa got victimized there. That being said, 90mph tops on the heater is not impressive. Maybe he pulls a Joba and jumps up in velocity as the game goes on

SCREAMING, LOUD NOISES!!!!

I disliked Bonds as a person, but his baseball achievements were unreal.

dont care if he shoots up in front of his children and has a scrotum the size of a raisin. What he is doing right now is unhuman even with PED assistance

Tazawa vs Porcello should be interesting. Penny gave you guys a big lift and Jackson was awful. Those games happen. The sox should at least split now, and might be able to take the series if they can hold fort tonight. I have a feeling you lose the last game regardless, Buch vs Verlander

I think Gaudin slides into the Mitre spot next week. The experiment needs to end. When the Jays, who have no offense, deal away both Rios and Rolen, I would expect any pitcher worth their salt to pitch well vs them. The fact that Mitre only got 5IP 3ER vs them makes me even more concerned that he cannot do that against anyone else. It is funny how Aceves comes in and essentially dominates the Jays for 4 innings without breaking a sweat. Kinda miffed we couldnt score off the Jays pen through 5.2IP, but the offense was due for a downturn and when both posada and matsui are out of the lineup, we are dealing with a lame part of the order. Oh well, Joba on the hill tonight with what I hope is the A lineup. With the Mariners throwing crap out there in the 3 game set, we might be able to turn this into another long winning streak.

wow, we agree on something

I think it will take some creativity if Theo doesnt feel like filling every need with a high priced FA. Also, its Harden, not Haren. Haren is signed long term in Arizona. Harden will be a FA.

7 games ago

I have a new dilemma to tackle here. Can the sox fix their problems internally for 2010? Then, if not, can the sox right their problems with what is available this offseason? I think it is a fair question set. My take is as follows. First, for some background, I thought the 2008 Yankees and the current version of the 2009 Red Sox shared a lot of similarities. We lost Matsui and Posada and Cano slumped. The sox are playing their first season without Manny, and Ortiz is completely lost. We lost Wang and Chamberlain from our rotation. You lost Wakefield and DiceK. Very similar seasons. But the Yankees had the fortune of running into probably the best free agency period we have seen in many years. With that preface, how comfortable are sox fans with the in house options at problem areas. To answer that question, one must be a sox fan. And then, one must look at the problems the sox face position by position. Starting with the easiest, the pen needs no upgrading. Then to the rotation. You have Beckett and Lester at the 1 and 1a position. Perfect. At the 5 slot, you have to have Buchholz unless he gets traded. Now in that 3 and 4 position, one must be concerned. Do you think DiceK can return to greatness in 2010 or do people think he might have more going on in his shoulder/head than he is letting on? Can you just re-up Wake and hope this back issue stays minor? In terms of the lineup. The catcher position has a switch hitter who is also your #3 hitter. He isnt going anywhere. Unless you think he is better served as the primary 1b and then you re-up Tek. Regardless, you wont need to go OUT and find a C. Firstbase is covered. You dont need a 3b since you will have Youk and Lowell under contract. 2B is covered. SS is a massive hole. Does Lowrie slot into the starting position? Is it time to get a player better than Nick Green to battle Lowrie in ST next season? In CF and RF, you arent moving Ells or Drew. LF is wide open. And with Papi, Lowell and others around, you wont be signing anyone for the DH position. So, that leaves the #3 slot, the #4 slot, SS and LF. In terms of pitching, there are a few options, but they will be expensive. Washburn is coming off a career yr. Lackey is a surefire top of the rotation guy who will command REALLY big money. Harden and Sheets could be good gambles to go for. And aside from that, a lot of questions akin to DiceK. At SS, the FA market sucks, but do the sox make a deal for Hardy? Do they try and deal for Hanley? Who knows. And in the OF market, there is an upper tier (Bay and Holliday) and a middle tier (Damon, Ankiel). So the external options are there but are fewer and farther between than last season. So the prices will be higher for the marquee guys. Also, those pesky yankees will share both a starting pitching need and a LF need assuming they let Johnny go. It should be an interesting offseason, but thus far, 2009 still has a lot of life to it. Enough life to potentially see both our teams in the playoffs

Michael Young is NOT being traded this season. The Rangers are tied for the WC right now. Why would they deal probably their best top of the order bat?

Porcello had a rough July. In 2 starts thus far in August, he has been really good.

Jackson, Porcello and Verlander in the same series is a tough task. And when only one of your top 2 is pitching (and not facing either of the 3 above), there is a darn good chance the sox split at best and lose 3/4 at worst. This happened last yr with us. Wang went down, then Joba went down and we had Moose, Pettitte, then a bunch of s***. You cannot win consistently that way

At the time of his signing, it was fair market value for a guy who OPS'd close to .900. The biggest issue I had with the deal was the fact that he just didnt stay healthy. And while he has certainly not been an iron horse, he has stayed healthy much more than I thought he would. Now in terms of retrospectively viewing the signing. Well, there are a couple ways one must look at it. Most of these deals that sign players into their late 30s are typically made by one of two measures. The first measure is their initial performance. Most teams will pay a player for a long term deal, expecting them to significantly contribute at the beginning of the deal while trailing off towards the end. The second is the unrealistic at time expectation that a player can sustain a performance into their post prime yrs Well, Drew's 2007 was a pretty horrible yr by his standards. Yes, he had a good playoff series, but if you paid players for their playoff performance only, you would run a lot of Mark Lempke's out there. Drew was paid for to be a middle of the order bat and a guy who can get on base. He got on base, but at a bit less of a level than his career numbers would suggest. But the 2007 power outage was the biggest change for Drew. A guy who has SLG's consistently in the .500 range, to drop to .423 was unheard of. So for yr 1, he was significantly overpaid. On to yr two. Now, in yr two, Drew did have a good amount of missed games. But, he hit 8 more homers in 31 less games and had an OPS well over his career numbers. So, even though he was injured for a larger part of the yr, his production was well worth the contract. So for yr 2, contract deserved, although fragile On to yr three. This season, he is seeing his lowest BA in a full season of his career at this point. He is also slipping in terms of power. Not sure why, but the .448SLG would be the third lowest of his career, behind yr 1 in Boston and one of his seasons in StL. His IsoPatience is actually up from his career mark, but the BA is dragging down his overall OBP. And his OPS at .816 would be the third lowest of his career as well. Thus far in yr 3, he is overpaid. So if you look at it like that, then thus far, he is not earning his contract from an offensive POV. And to be honest with you, the defensive argument is valid, but if all they wanted was D, you'd see some skinny jackrabbit out there rather than lumbering JD. That being said, a guy who OPS's over .800 is significantly useful. So while I certainly wouldnt pin everything on JD, he thus far, has not earned the contract. AND, seeing as he will be playing out his yr 34 and yr 35 seasons after this in a sox uni, I would not expect to see the lofty prime JD Drew numbers in those yrs either. This is beginning to look like a "bad contract" but the player is still useful and should still be in RF for the sox for the next 2 yrs.

He also gave up 2 more hits and some loud outs. If he cannot handle the travel, then he wont be a good major leaguer.

Pedroia would be the better choice IMO. Scrappy little bastahhd.

Park effect is something to consider, but it absolutely does not mean that you can discount an obvious offensive difference. Also, Fenway is not pleasant on lefties either.

Switch hitter. Better defense. Better offensive numbers. Not sure where the disconnect is.

Yep. Baseball has always proven that good pitching leads to sustained winning. And if the sox get anything out of Buchholz, Penny and Tazawa from here on out, they will put together a winning streak. It is just difficult to sustain winning when you have Beckett throw a gem, Buchholz s*** a brick, Lester throw a gem, then the other two s*** bricks.

Tex is better.