jacksonianmarch

They both suck

The sox will set a value to Bay as they always do and they wont go too far over it. I would say that he has been the most consistent force on the team mostly because of his propensity for the clutch hit and the power he has provided. That being said, he will be offered a deal that will dwarf the Drew deal. It remains to be seen if the sox will offer that. AND, remember. He is a Girardi-denoted yankee killer who is young, in his prime and extremely powerful. Plus, the yankees will have an open spot for him and more money coming off the books. If Cashman wants him, then he'll get him. You know this

Exactly why I wanted him back. He isnt flashy, his WHIP is always in the 1.4 range and nowadays I dont expect his ERA under 4. But he gets the job done, never pretty, but it gets done.

We won, so thats nice. Giving up 7 runs sucks, but at least the O came through and at least ARod was hitting the fastball. They had a stat on ESPN that his BA vs fastballs was in the .150 range, but all of his hits were off the fastball last night. If he gets hot, this offense will pick up again. It is strange that a guy so f***ing annoying is actually the motor that runs this club.

Kris Johnson turned out to be a bust. Thus far, Doubront has been pitching serviceably. He's a 21 yr old in AA, so certainly younger than most in the league by 1-2 yrs. And his ERA is respectable. The thing that makes me think he is still not even close to being ready is the fact that his stuff and his numbers arent really matching up. A guy who sits in the high 80s who cannot locate well is a disaster waiting to happen at the MLB level. Right now, he is walking 4.2 per 9IP. With his stuff, he needs to be much more consistent in his delivery to be of any use to the big club. Right now, I bet he is getting by on movement alone as evidenced by the near 1:1 K:IP ratio. That wont fly at the upper levels. Regardless, he has 3-4 yrs to figure that out and still make it to the bigs before he's 25. That being said, I think Kelly and Hagadone behind him and Buch, Bowden, Tazawa ahead of him makes him a prime guy to trade. I certainly wouldnt hold up any deals if he was going the other way if I were the sox

Tim Alderson SF Giants, MiLB RHP

I dunno Coco. With the market being set at a serious low last yr and the economy continuing into the shitter, I dont think there will be many teams willing to offer more than 16 million a yr, something I think he can get in arbitration. It is a real concern that Oakland will need to address. Now, if Holliday hits .300 with double digit homers after the AS break, then its a no brainer

Bay will be an interesting guy to follow. Coming into the yr, there werent any viable options outside of Bay and Holliday. Well, Bay has been a big part of the sox run while Holliday is recovering from a brutal start to the yr. The good thing about Holliday is that he may not be offered arbitration. If the A's dont find a taker (and right now his price tag is so high, nobody is willing to deal for him) then they will have a rough decision to make when it comes to his arb tag. If they offer him arbitration, a lot of people think he'd take it due to his slump this yr. And at 14.5mil this yr and with his entire history behind him, he will likely see a raise which the A's wont be able to afford.

I agree with that last statement. He used to be a 4 pitch pitcher with a decent change. Now, he is mostly a 3 pitch pitcher with the FB-slider-curve combo. I would like to see a changeup mixed in there to get them off anything straight.

he is a lefty, so converting him to relief wont be a great option since he'd be coming in vs lefties

thats what it looks like to me. He never had control issues until he needed to get more than 3 outs in the bigs. Regardless, it isnt like he is a control disaster every time he hits the rubber. He's inconsistent, something that comes from his lack of experience starting. Look at it. He started in Tampa and Trenton in 2007. Then he comes up to the pen. He starts 2008 in the pen, comes up to the rotation midseason, gets injured, goes back to the pen to close out the yr. Then, he starts back in the rotation. Tell me how this is supposed to get him comfortable with going deeper into games? Regardless, I find he is more inconsistent than he is consistently wild. Look at his starts.... In April, 1 of 4 starts went 5+IP with 2 or less BBs. In May, 3 of 5 starts went 5+IP with 2 or less BBs In June, 3 of 5 starts went 5+IP with 2 or less BBs. The command is coming back and the more he pitches, the better he will be.

both of his feet were ON the baseline. That is legal, look at it again. His feet were on the baseline, which means he was exactly where he was supposed to be.

I know, but he continued his good location out of the pen. Once he went to the rotation, he had some issues with command.

The pitching hasnt been the issue there Crunchy. 26 runs over the last 9 games comes out to a 2.8 runs per game. That is what our entire pitching staff has allowed over our 4-5 stretch. Also, CC would have the Sox lowest pitchers ERA, the most IP, the third highest K total, and their lowest WHIP. Not sure what your definition of an ace is, but if CC doesnt fit it, then nobody on your staff does as well. That being said, what will happen to Hughes is very intriguing in Yankee circles. I think Joba's recent performances (4 of last 5 starts have gone 6 or more IP) have quelled any talk of him going to the pen. And with Wang actually starting to look better, I doubt very much that Hughes ends up in the rotation anytime soon. One situation that has been repeatedly discussed is as follows. Right now, Joba is at 75.2IP. His IP cap will be in the 150-160 range for this season. If he continues on this pace, he will be in the 175IP range, which will exceed his cap. And, if he continues to throw 6IP per start, he'll reach 150IP in 12 starts, or by mid August. So one thing that I have seen a lot of is the idea that Hughes goes to AAA by early July and gets stretched out. By late July, Hughes comes up and takes Joba's slot in the rotation and Joba slides back into his relief role for the stretch run. This obviously is entirely predicated on Wang continuing to improve in game situations. Obviously, if Wang fizzles out entirely, then Hughes would slide into his spot and Wang might be the pen man. Regardless, for the stretch run, I expect one of the trio of Wang/Hughes/Joba in the pen and if we make the playoffs, I expect two of them in that role

Chamberlain never had control problems until he was stretched out into the rotation in the bigs. In the minors, he never walked people and in 07 when he was setting up, he didnt walk people. Bard is different, IMO.

I certainly agree with that last statement. I do think control and repetition come into play here. With Bard, his stuff is so good, that inferior hitters wont battle him at all. This means that although he might go 3-2 on a hitter, all he needs to do is get close to the plate and he's got an out. In the bigs, the batter can battle more and require that the pitcher hit the target more often, which seems to be Bard's problem. I still think he is a serious work in progress, but he wont get anything out of being in the minors.

BTW, Jason Bay would look wonderful in pinstripes. A 3-4-5-6 of Tex-Arod-Bay-Swisher would be ridiculous.

Tim Beckham Bryce Harper

Chamberlain was great. If it wasnt for his error, he probably closes things out in the 7th and hands the ball to Bruney without a situation to get out of. Regardless, a win is a win. One thing I didnt get was the Cano play. The Atlanta announcers were saying he was interfering, but he was right on the baseline. Not sure what they were seeing. It wasnt like he was in the grass or anything.

Not all pitchers have the kicking babies, punching kittens and punting dogs mentality on the mound like Papelbon does. Some of them, despite their looks and their stuff, are puppy dogs on the inside and just need some positive reinforcement. Hansen got none of it. IIRC, he was the closer for a short period of time, even though he showed he did not deserve the honor and i remember the yankees just going to town on him. That ended it for him in Boston. He was booed off the field and that was the last I saw of him. That is not how you bring a pitcher along.

you arent really thinking this morning are you. Are you really saying that Hansen's location isnt as good as Bard's. Really? I am sorry, but Hansen could find the plate with regularity. Bard has a major history of missing the plate and he's walked 9 in 15IP. So its not like he's the picture of control Sorry Dise, didnt see your post. This message is for Dojji

Joba tried to give that inning away. We still have the lead, but need another couple runs.

it did spark something. He should get tossed daily

After starting 13-15 without ARod, I said we'd be fine. After we got on the hot streak, I said, we'd be fine. And after this most recent 4-8 slide, I will once again say, we are fine. Right now, we have had 2 bad stretches and one hot stretch. The sox, OTOH, have had two hot spells surrounding a cold spell. It all comes in streaks. And even with our most recent abysmal play, we still sit 1.5 games up in the Wild Card and only 4 back of Boston. And there are reasons for optimism. First of all, an offense like ours will not stay this dormant for long, especially with Nady coming back to sure up the bench and our O vs left handers. It will also allow us an option to improve the O on days when ARod needs to take a breather (Nady over Melky in a COF slot). Secondly, the rotation is actually coming together. CC had been rolling before his bicep tendonitis spell which wont cost him any time. AJ is starting to get back on track after being embarassed in Boston (1ER, 16K in his last 13.1IP). And thats how his roll started last yr, I think it was the O's who completely obliterated him and after that he went on a 20 game roll that led to his ridiculous season. Andy Pettitte has been as consistent as we all expect. Joba has been inconsistent as we expected, although he has gone 6 or more innings in 3 of his last 4 starts. And if Wang's last start was any indication, his sinker may actually be starting to have a downward migration from belt high to knees high. If he can get back to any semblance of prior form, this rotation will be huge for us as the summer heats up (if this goddamn rain ever goes away). And the bullpen has been much, much better since we made some personell changes. The BP ERA in April was over 6. The BP ERA in May was right around 4 (I think it was 4.09). And the June BP ERA was under 3 until the last game (thanks Tomko). And I assume that Tomko will be DFA'd soon anyway. To look at how effective the new bunch has been, one needs to look at the ERAs of the guys in the pen. If you subtract Tomko, which I expect to happen over the next couple of days, the Pen ERA of the guys out there now is 2.88. So, overall, guess what. We'll be fine. Our pitching is coming around, our bullpen is coming around and our offense will heat up once again. Just gotta give it time.