jacksonianmarch

Duddy's got the stroke going

nice corner there. If Lester figures out that there's about 6 inches on the corner, he's gonna eat the rays alive. Nice to see Ellsbury sucking. When he's on, the sox are ridiculously dangerous. When he's off, he's an automatic out

5 pitches for Lester. Awesome

what is the point of an emergency hack on pitch #1. If you arent gonna swing at the first pitch, then dont

He was. And he is our #1-#3 prospect depending on who you ask. To this point, all of the TJ guys have come through the surgery without a loss of stuff. Thats all you can ask for. The sharpness and the control is something they would have to improve upon anyway

Pats with Brady= SB contender Pats without Brady= average

right now you cannot pitch to Manny. Longoria has played in 6 games and was a factor in 2 of them. Manny, OTOH, has a hit in all 6 games he's played in, has reached base an insane 16 time in that span and driving in 8 runs. He is the balls right now.

Manny makes this lineup so much better. BTW, Manny is the best player left in these playoffs

Gom, again, you dont see the big picture. Take a look at the red sox for a second. Look at the home grown talent on that roster. The point is to supplement when needed and never give up the entire farm. Well, we have a first and second round pick protected in this draft. With Abreu likely moving on, we should have 4 picks by the end of round 2 that will be protected. This means that the two picks we could lose (our original 1st and 2nd) will be expendable. This also means that we have the shot at players who will cost only draft picks. Santana would have cost us 4 minor league players, 2 draft picks and 150 mil. Sabathia should cost us the 150 mil and if you consider the picks lost or "insured" with the other picks, then it isnt as big of a loss, see the point. Also, I have always said that this off season was the one to get to. We're here now. Time to make a splash.

So, Josh Beckett is hurt. There is no question about it. I was seeing some fastballs in the 88-89 mph range last night. He topped out at 93. Just last month, Becks was topping out at 98mph. The only difference is the oblique. And if the oblique really wasnt injured, why would he have had a cortisone shot there. Here's the deal. He looked bad, epic bad. It was ridiculous. And the oblique is something that heals with time. Lots of time. It takes about 6 weeks of inactivity for a serious pull to start to feel somewhat close to normal. Ladies and gents, from a fan of a team that is golfing now, methinks Becks needs to be inactivated.

I thought they did player voting for umpires. I guess not. It should be done by player and coach vote. You need 6 umpires per series, which comes out to 24 umpires. The top 6 will end up doing the WS. 7-12 will do the ALCS or NLCS. 13-24 will only work in the divisional series

He could be the biggest ******* on the planet, I do not care. I do hope he is true to his word. If he is, then his recent comments about fixing the problem and diving into the FA market should mean big acquisitions.

Cause he's a bulldog and Tito likes bulldogs. As a matter of fact, he adopted three of them prior to the ALCS just so he can prove it.

But he's gritty

Every pitching matchup in this series is a good storyline. Game 1: DMats vs the aggressive Tampa offense should be a good matchup, but Shields is one of the best pitchers in the game. Game 2: Beckett vs Kazmir, two guys with lights out stuff but serious question marks. Beckett because of his injury and ineffectiveness in the ANA series. Kazmir because of his location problems. This could be a 1-0 game or a 10-9 game Game 3: Lester vs Garza, the biggest mismatch of this post season, although Garza is 2-1 with a low 3's ERA over the last 2 seasons vs the sox. Game 4: Sonnanstine vs Wakefield. Wakefield dominated the rays throughout his career, but was mauled by them this yr. Sonnanstine was mauled by everyone prior to this yr and suddenly becomes and ace vs the sox. In 3 of the 4 games, there is something going for each team. Game 3 seems like the only significant mismatch.

More crap from the post about Mussina "might not retire" although we all know this and nothing actually new in the article. Looks to be a slow rumor mill during the playoffs. Once players start filing for FA, the mill will heat up

Well, Philly has a considerable dropoff from 1 to 2 while Billingsley is a capable 2. I think tonight all depends on if the Jekyll and Hyde Myers remembers that he should be an ace or if he decides to leave cockshots down the middle. Hamels is the best pitcher in that series, and right now, he and Lester are the hottest pitchers in the post season. Either NL team looks to be a formidable opponent as compared to last season when ARI and COL looked like pushovers from the start.

Rays fan, kinda like jumbo shrimp

In terms of matchup, Shields vs a rusty/potentially injured Beckett is a win for the Rays. DMats vs Kazmir is a wash since both can be dominant or be out after the 5th due to pitch count. Lester is a beast. And Sonnanstine and Wake have owned the opponents, but Wakey had some difficulty with TB this yr. I think the pitching matchups favor the Rays in this one, but not by much.

As you all know, the media is not very dumb. They get to sit down with the GMs and the players and managers and have off the record talk, so they know what is gonna go down. Especially in Boston, where you can tell which way the team will go about 6 months in advance. In NY, it is similar in some respects, in that a paper will start talking up a player a few weeks prior to that player's acquisition to muddy the waters a little bit. But a couple things I have noticed lately. 1. The papers are all saying that CC will land in California. Even though CC has said to reporters that he would love to play anywhere and refutes the idea he is going back to Cali. I even saw it today in the newest Post article. http://www.nypost.com/seven/10072008/sports/moresports/a_j__decision_coming_asap_132464.htm This tells me that CC is not someone we are going to flock to. I guess Cash and his friends dont like the idea of a massive lefty throwing cheese and 200+IP every yr. Whatever it is, I am getting the vibe that we'll kick the tires and nothing more. 2. The national media has been showering Manny Ramirez in love over the past two months since he left the fishbowl that is Boston. Manny, a polarizing figure for Yankee fans, has been anything but in the NY media. Nothing, mum. This makes me think we might be making a play. The Post would be reminding all of us about his antics, his long hair and how bad of a teammate he was if we were gonna pass. But the silence is deafening if you know what I mean. 3. I have seen multiple articles on just how good Lowe and AJ Burnett are. Forgetting the fact that Lowe is gonna be 35 and Burnett needed his ridiculous finish to get his numbers back to respectability. I think these two are going to be options 1 and 1a for our offseason, mostly because they will be shorter term deals than CC with less money. 4. I just saw the first article about Tex today. While we havent seen the articles breaking down his flaws (I dont think he has any), but we havent seen the ga-ga articles about how he is the second coming of Lou Gehrig either. I am skeptical about our ability to sign him, but the media isnt really ruling it out like they are with CC. But the Manny thing is what i wanted to focus on. With such a polarizing figure and with no NY team in sight for the time being, I would have assumed we'd be reading about how the yankees dont need a malcontent like Manny and how he quit and how he is a bad LFer etc, etc, etc. But with the media not really putting much into it, it leaves us to speculate and watch as he rifles through NL pitching on his way, likely, to the world series. I think this shows us more than anything else. And if, notice it is a big if, we do sign or go hard after Manny, then that indicates a few things.... 1. Abreu will be history. Gone, long gone. Getting Manny locks up one of the 3 spots that Abreu could occupy (LF, RF, DH). Matsui isnt going anywhere, he is untradeable, so he locks up another. Nady being under contract, younger and seemingly improving would lock up the last. 2. This would also mean that Damon will be aggressively shopped. Damon had a resurgence this yr, and a ton of teams would love to have a leadoff guy who can do what Damon did for us, this yr. .303/.375/.461 with 17HR 71RBI and 29SB. Being in the final yr of his deal at not big coin, especially if he mans the leadoff spot, and the yankees could get something significant for him. Those are my theories on 10/7. We'll see how they play out

You better believe the yankees will be in the market for Manny, but as I said before, A LOT needs to happen for Manny to slot into our team. We have a lot of LF/DH types and adding another, albeit superior player, to that pile does not help the problem, but extend it.

The Rays are just a very interesting team to say the least. They can pitch both starting and relieving. They dont hit for high averages and arent terribly patient, but can hit the longball as needed and run like the wind, especially in that outfield. They remind me a lot of what the angels used to be before they got Vlade and Tex.

So the series starts on Friday, meaning Lester will likely be throwing game 2 and game 6? Will they move Becks to game 1? I dont think the sox would have Jon throwing on short rest to start the series but you gotta have him as high as possible. He's the best pitcher in baseball right now.

well, great game. Lots of fun. Go Rays.