jacksonianmarch

Rasner dirty today. 5 shutout innings.

Sounds like Tavarez is about to sign a deal with Milwaukee.

Consider this... Sox have the best offense in baseball. Tied for best in R, SLG, and 2B, lead the league in H, AVG and OPS. The yankees are 8th in R and 4th in OPS without Posada and without ARod for 3 weeks. This will improve but the sox also are playing up to snuff offensively. The only players with conceivable declines coming up are Youk and Lowell since they have a history of fading late and Tek since he is coming off 2 pretty poor seasons. The rest are either underperforming or performing where they should be, which is quite a feat. On the NYY side, the only player who is outperforming his typical yr is Matsui and that is mostly based on BA alone. His power to this point has been marginal. ARod is under .900OPS. Jeter is hitting .287. Giambi is hitting .230. Cano is hitting .229 and Damon is hitting .266. Couple that with the loss of Posada and the fact that Molina and Ensberg have started more games than ARod and Posada and you see why we struggled. Posada is expected back in 2 weeks and ARod is already back. Cano is back on fire and Giambi is getting on base at a high clip. This offense will rebound On the pitching side, the sox are interesting. Their SP at right around 4 in ERA, good for 7th in the AL. They lead the league in BB and K. And their BAA is 2nd best. They also average 6IP per start. The Yankee OTOH are 12th in ERA, mostly thanks to Igawa, Hughes and Kennedy's earlier struggles. Wang, Mussina, Pettitte, and Rasner have combined to be a pretty solid, albeit unspectacular 4. But the numbers dont lie. The Yankees have allowed the second fewest BB in the AL, but have the 4th highest BAA. The pen is where the surprise comes. The sox pen has been pretty poor this yr. The Sox have a 4.43 pen ERA, good for 11th in the AL. They have the 4th highest BAA, which is surprising for a team comprised of power arms and K specialists. They are 9th in K/9 and 8th in WHIP. What is surprising is how well the Yankee pen is performing with Mariano, a bunch of kids and 2 old useless guys in Farns and Hawkins. Especially when you consider the yankees best MR option early on (Bruney) and their best long man (Albaladejo) are both pretty much out for the yr. The pen has the third lowest WHIP, the 5th best K/9IP, the third best K/BB, the 4th best BAA and the second best BB/9IP. Just some interesting food for thought is all this is. The sox O is killing the ball as a unit although their individual numbers arent spectacular. The Yankees O is finally picking it up but are statistically in the bottom 3rd of the AL in runs scored. The sox rotation has been carrying the load in terms of innings and effectiveness, but they are walking the park. The Yankees rotation gets hit hard, but doesnt beat itself with walks. Also it is still evolving as its final rotation member is pitching for his job every game he starts now. The pen has been underperforming in the sox case, and in the yankees case, it has ben stellar. It all adds up to a 3 game lead in the L column over us.

we pounded Felix earlier in the yr.

Sox lose again. Swept out of Oakland.

it isnt the fact that they arent hitting. its the fact that they didnt take any pitches yesterday. Duchsherer hardly broke a sweat.

taking advantage of the other team's mistakes. Putz gave us an inch and we took a mile

there's your HBP

Tavarez has declined his assignment after initially accepting it and has become a FA.

new skipper new rules. You hit our captain, be prepared to get plunked.

Are they trying to help us once again? Regardless, I have never had a problem with headhunting. If you go after one of our best players, be ready to be scared shitless.

Not really. I think the point was to have him starting come the end of the yr rather than converting him back to relief when he nears his pitch limit. If their intent was that the playoffs would be in sight, then it is a sound plan. With the yankees playing so poorly, it may not end up mattering at all. It all depends on how they decide to use Joba. If he goes 2 innings every 4 days then up to 3 every then to 4 every 5 or so then it will work. Kinda like how the dodgers did it with Billingsley. Get high end innings out of a great arm at the MLB level. If this were a club hell bent on rebuilding, then this would be done at the AAA level. Since the yankees seem to have a few people tugging in different directions, then I think this needs to be done in the bigs. Regardless, I love the fact that Joba is being transitioned. We'll see how much I love it when they put it into practice. If done right, this would be awesome for our future. But there are plenty of areas to f*** up.

wow, LOL

We'll see how Colon does. I truly hope he gets a chance to pitch against us. For some reason, we pummel Colon.

haha. I have seen it too many times. 3 yrs ago, I panicked after April. 2 yrs ago, I started panicking in May. Last yr, I panicked in June when we still sucked. Eventually, the panic will be warranted as you can only go 56-20 a handful of times before you just cannot do it anymore. Right now, the signs are there. The pen has been fantastic in spurts and then fails us in a game or two before going on a solid run again. Our top 3 have done more than we could ask for. Jeter, Abreu and Matsui are hitting well. With Melky now hitting the skids, we are relying on 3 hitters to carry 9 guys. You just cannot hit like that. With the weather warming up and Arod returning, things should straighten out a bit. Posada is due back in 2 weeks as well. Giambi is showing signs of life. Cano has his BA over .200, which was a feat from where it was. The O will go on a run and we'll start winning. If the O doesnt, we wont. Our pitching is serviceable for a good offensive team. Our pitching is not capable of turning 2 runs into a victory more times than not.

what would Santana bring to this team right now? As bad as our team has been, our pitching has been serviceable. The top 3 in the rotation have been getting the job done and the bullpen has been very good. Our problem is the offense. Posada and ARod out really hurts, mostly because they are our only righty power options when we face a lefty, and we have faced tons of lefties lately. You take out those two patient bats and put 2 guys who swing freely and you ruin the entire dynamic of the lineup. This lineup is not clutch. It wears down pitchers and gets em when they tire. Unfortunately, we arent doing that now.

this is just a bad team right now

I played against Sammy Fuld back in the day. Pesky son of a bitch. I K'd him a couple times.

To be honest with you, the Rays worst asset right now is their offense, which I fully expect to kick up. Their SP has always had potential. Kazmir and Shields are legit #1s. Jackson and Garza have ace stuff and right now are hot and Sonnanstine is a nice middle of the order innings eater that moves the rotation along. Add to that Percival shoring up the closers role and every other BP pitcher has shifted down a role and are working well. Their pitching has always been the problem. Now, their SP is dominant and their pen is solid. If they continue to pitch like this, then i think they can be in this thing for the long haul.

Lester was good today as has been his recent trend. When he trusts his stuff and can locate, he is a solid starter. He just never proved he could do it over a lengthy stint. If he continues to pitch like this, then he'll be good.

Concussions are a bitch. Some people are fine, but the majority of people note some residual symptoms even 1 month out. These can include mild intermittent headaches, vomiting, or in severe forms disorientation and regression of function. I forget the player exactly (for some reason Koskie comes to mind) but ESPN did a very solid interview with a post concussive player. He couldnt leave his house because he'd get somewhere and then forget how to get home.

exactly why I hope Joba goes to the rotation and not the pen.