jacksonianmarch

he isnt throwing old men to the ground. But wait, you guys defended Pedro, so I shouldnt leap to conclusions. Only this time, the old man wasnt coming after Manny.

when I read first hand accounts about this kid, it seems interesting to hear that he isnt actually bad at making contact. From the sounds of it, he goes down looking a lot, a la JD Drew. I dont have the stats on his K's looking, maybe JHB can help

I dont consider something that is managed outside the hospital setting and resolves in 10 days a SERIOUS illness. I guess it is just semantics

"flu-like symptoms" without being hospitalized. IE, a bad cold. Not a statement of fact, just a second hand POV on the info available and what was done.

He will struggle off the bat. Look at his history, he has always had a 30-40 game adjustment period. But once he adjusts, he is just plain solid. High OBP with tons of steals and a lot of range in the OF. He is a potential leadoff guy.

Scumbag

If Manny is hurting, putting him in LF while the DH spot is unoccupied is a bad thing. You want Manny to be 100% by the time Papi comes back.

I think Buchholz is ready to come up as a starter and it might be time for Masterson to assume his role as pen arm. His stuff in a short stint would be nasty.

I have had dogs at both places and must say that the Fenway frank is the tastiest. Mostly because I think they fry them then throw them on the grill.

Well, Matsui is down for at least 2 weeks. Damon has been in and out of the lineup with a foot injury. And Melky is hitting like he's blind these days. If we lose Damon, I'd expect Gardner to get a shot. Christian was called up because he was on the 40 man and we were facing some lefties. I dont see him lasting long as a 28 yr old rookie. Gardner will be up this yr and we'll see how he does.

Jacoby doesnt have power either. But, that being said, Gardner has almost as many EBH this yr than he had all of last yr, so the power is coming. He wont ever be a HR threat, but he's become more of a gap hitter.

that was NICE!!!!

He has dominated this yr. He's in the Ellsbury mold. Better eye, worse contact, same speed, better arm.

MDC wilts under the pressure

This would mean more time for Betemit at 1st, more time for Giambi at DH and more time for Damon in the OF. If Damon ends up needing the DH slot, we could call up Gardner. All he's doing is leading the IL in walks, OBP, triples and is 3rd in runs.

Lester is hurting and should be pulled. Everything is hanging after the comebacker.

more BB/9IP and a much higher OPS against leads to a poorer showing. His WHIP of 1.37 is .39 points higher than last yr, or equivalent to 2 more baserunners every 5 innings. But you need to look deeper than the numbers. His April and May were ridiculous. Like, crazy ridiculous. 24IP 17H 5BB 20K. Sounds almost like his last season production In June, 8IP 16H 5BB 12K. That is good for a WHIP>2.6. What happened? Is he having a dead arm spell like he did at the end of last yr? Is he hurt? Is his stuff flattening out? I dunno. The current Okajima is terrible. The Okajima of the past 2 months was ridiculous. It will be intriguing to see how he does the rest of the way.

there will be an adjustment period. Bowden seems like the kind of guy who needs a little bit of time before he hits his stride.

Pedrowned

Harden?

Joba has the stuff and the location to smoke any team. It is the pitchability and the pitch calling that needs to be consistent for him to have a successful season from top to bottom. Early on, when he was making the change to the rotation, he hardly threw the curve. It was pretty easy to figure him out in starts 1 and 2 since the slider was breaking out of the zone and the heater was the only pitch he could locate. The curveball has started to get integrated in and it is nice. He locates it better and more consistently than he does the slider. It gives him more of a change of speed than the slider does and it has a deep break. If he is locating 2 of his three pitches, he is dominant. If he locates all 3, he wont be stopped. In terms of his changeup, I have only seen him use it a couple times a game. It was the pitch that got hammered in most of his MiLB reviews and for good reason. It doesnt have any break to it. It will likely be the focus of his offseason, because right now it isnt even worth mixing in.

O'Brien and Richardson constitute two of the high end HSers that the yankees drafted in the higher rounds. There are still a ton to go with Monar and Dwyer likely being the most coveted of them. But O'Brien is a small framed pitcher who can get the ball to 96 mph as an 18 yr old. Very projectable breaking ball and crude change. He is a project just like Richardson, but he is a bit more refined at this point in his career.

Smith's changeup is better than his curve from the 6 innings I have seen of him. He is intriguing, albeit not irreplaceable.

I said before that I think Vtek is a good platoon option. But his days of being a useful #1 catcher are passing. His bat speed is abysmal and he is easy to figure out at this point. That isnt anything against him, hell, he's old and he plays a demanding position. To be honest with you, Cash has been playing better D than Vtek IMO and doesnt call a bad game himself. Even if the sox get a mid level catcher this offseason or bring up Kottaras next yr, they wont have to pay Tek for his services. Maybe platoon Kottaras and Cash for a little while.