jacksonianmarch

where's ADAM, cmon buddy. Post.

hahahaha Nancy Drew with some grit and determination!

DeSalvo yes. Rasner has actually looked pretty good against more than one team. Most notably Oakland and Cleveland. The only funny thing about it is Torre has no faith in the guy and pulled him after 4.1IP of 1ER ball against the Guardians. But as I said before his WHIP will determine his effectiveness. In the 3 games that the yankees won in which he pitched, his WHIP is right around 1. In the 2 games the yankees lost when he pitched, his WHIP was well over 2.

May the pitch of chaos find the bats and may the flamethrower miss the bats. Hail Orange and Black kittens. Cat mojo has to favor the tigers.

Wow. And adam has christened the thread. This is a sure fire loss for the sox.

Dusty did happen to Prior. But look at the jumps. If you consider the modicum that Prior should have thrown a total of 120IP in his first season and 150 in his second, he threw 135 too many innings in his first 2 seasons. Consider Buchholz. He threw just the perfect amount last yr at 119. Right now, he is at 34IP. Lets assume the sox bring him up to the majors right now as a700 was saying and best case is he is pretty damn good. That means, he will get 25 starts for the remainder of the season ((162-37)/5). Assume you get 6IP from him per start. That is 150IP in the bigs alone. That leaves him at 184IP at the end of the season (with the AA numbers) and if he outpitched any of the sox big 4, he'd be in line for at least 6, maybe even 20 or more innings of playoff pitching. That leaves him 35-50 innings over where he should be. It would also cement a rotation slot for him next yr, something that would all but guarantee him 200IP when he should be at 180. You are talking about 70+ innings of overwork in 2 seasons on a young prospects arm. You dont want to do that to a prize prospect. But then consider the alternative. Even though Buchholz is dominating right now, there is no guarantee he will be solid right off the bat. Garza dominated the lower levels too and got hit pretty hard when he came up. Some players cannot handle that. Wait until he has complete control over his arsenal and learns how to pitch before throwing him to the wolves. You could ruin his confidence, his progression or his health in the process.

DeSalvo keeps you off balance. Thats about it. That is why I think he has fringe back of the rotation potential. Rasner, who knows. Also, Mariano's cutter isnt really getting hit Crespo. The homer by Beltre was a 4 seamer. The cutters that have gotten hit really havent been hit all that hard. Crisp's triple was a groundball that should have been played if Minky wasnt so far off the line. Vtek's hit was a broken bat bloop. Cora's too. His cutter isnt getting smashed. The pitches that are getting hit hard are the 4 seamer and 2 seamer. The one thing about Mo that I have noticed over the yrs is that he has perfected throwing the ball up. But his location when he tries to spot down is not all that fantastic. So when he tries to locate a pitch that is pretty foreign to him to a spot that he doesnt normally throw it to, he misses his spot. That 4 seamer has been all over the place. I'd say junk it, go back to what he did last yr with the cutter and the 2 seamer and see if he can work in an offspeed pitch in bullpens as a show me.

I am surprised Tito hasnt DL'd him already to be honest with you. It isnt like he has never had these problems before. And his problems seem to linger on longer than most people's do. With such a big lead and with the season being so young, you shouldnt take any chances.

BABIP is ********. Lets start out by saying that. Pitchers can pitch to weak contact. But you are right about one thing. WHIP is not ******** and Rasner, who has been effective, is allowing way too many baserunners. His luck will run out sooner or later. DeSalvo is a guy who may also be lucky, but I like his arsenal. He throws 7 pitches, and a deep arsenal like that makes him tougher to gauge. Granted, the only pitch that is plus in that bunch is his changeup. If you want to make a good argument about DeSalvo, you can point to his fly balls and say that he is not overpowering and allows the ball to be lifted a lot. That means that he will be prone to the homer. I think long term, DeSalvo could be a rotation candidate, but unless Rasner stops allowing baserunners at an alarming clip, his role will most likely be in the pen. We have shown that we are an all or nothing offense to this point. We can hang 15 on you but can also lay low for 3 games. And we are way too susceptible to lefty soft tossers. They own us. obviously you havent watched too many games. Mariano is throwing harder than I have seen him throw in yrs. His last appearance in Seattle, he was sitting 93-95 and he reached as high as 96. His issue is location completely. The only cause for concern is that he seems to be trying to reinvent himself and has gotten away from the cutter 2/3 - 3/4 of the time. Now he is spotting away with 4 seamers against lefties and in with 2 seamers against righties and seems to be trying to save the cutter for jams or as a K pitch. He still has it, he should use it more. Why would a guy who is a perennial CY candidate reinvent himself when he still has the speed and the movement on his one amazing pitch. But to say that his velocity or his cutter is an issue is not correct. At 8.5 games, you guys have a commanding lead. Like in yrs past when we have trailed, we need to chip off 2-3 games per month starting now. We get you guys next week for 3 games as well. If May ends with a double digit deficit, engrave the plaques now, you will have won the east.

Are you seriously going to compare the marlins and the NL East to this division? Buchholz could probably start for the Marlins right now and be at least a NL average starter. This isnt the NL East. This is the dogfight in the AL East where every offense is vicious and loaded with premier talent. Hell, even the Rays are hitting this yr. And most people in the know (scouting services that I have asked, mostly on scout.com and not the sox site which is f***ing trash) do not consider college innings in their formula. Typically, you bring along a SP 30 innings at a time, starting them off in the 90-120 range their first full season and increasing by 30 every yr after that. Last yr, Buchholz threw 119IP. Therefore, if you want to stretch a starter out, you cap him this season at 149-150IP. Look at what happened to a guy like Prior. First season out of college, they had him in the majors and he threw a total of 176IP. The next season, he threw 235IP (included playoffs) and now he is scrap heap material. That is a ridiculous jump. Also, as nice as Buchholz composure and such is, his bread and butter is that he still overpowers hitters and although his walk totals are fantastic, they are more due to him overpowering hitters than locating where he should be locating. IE, he needs some work to fine tune his stuff. And right now, you may get a MLB average starter but it may take longer for him to become a finished product as he will just have too much learning to do and you could risk injuring him. But if you let him finish out the season in AA or AAA and work on locating all of his pitches, he will come closer to his potential sooner and could come up as a top of the rotation kind of guy. And the bigger question is, do you need him? You have 4 guys in your rotation capable of throwing 200IP. All 4 are pretty damn dominant right now and you have a 8.5 game lead. Why risk it?

I am not one to sit here and say the 07 season is over. Hell, a lot of things are going wrong. BUT. The rotation is rounding into form with Wang healthy, Pettitte pitching very well, and Mussina returning strong since the hammy healed. Rasner is a solid #5 guy, but is a BP drain and DeSalvo is on fire right now. With Clemens taking over for Rasner and Hughes taking DeSalvo's spot, the rotation should continue to pitch very well. The lineups underachieving significantly, but when you have 8 all stars in the lineup, all either slightly past, slightly before, or in their prime, you know it will turn on. The bullpen has Mo at the end, which once he gets his head on straight will be fine. Unfortunately, we are wildly inconsistent. We get a great pitched game and O doesnt hit. The O gets us runs and the starters suck. The O and the SP are hot and the pen blows it. It will work out. And for those who subscribe to the "all you gotta do is get to the playoffs theory" we are only 5 games back in the loss column to the Guardians for the WC. The only other team I see contending in the wildcard is the White Sox, but both the CWS and CLE teams are terribly flawed and are far inferior overall to the yankees. Give it time.

it isnt chemistry. They are wildly inconsistent. Lets take a look at something here. The sox offense right now is the MLB leader in runs scored. They lead in AVG, OBP and OPS as well. But look at the players. Ortiz- 1.046 OPS, he could theoretically continue that all season Lowell- .925OPS, completely dominating right now, will likely fall back into the .800 range. Youkilis- .890OPS almost entirely AVG and OBP driven. His average will fall as will his OPS. Varitek- .799OPS he could feasibly continue that. So you have 2 overperformers, 2 right about where they should be. And then... Manny- .757OPS this will come up Drew- .714OPS this will come up Lugo- .710OPS this could continue Pedroia- .715OPS this could continue Crisp- .600OPS who knows You guys have 3 hitters over .800OPS, 2 hitters between .750 and .800 and 4 hitters under .750 in your everyday lineup. Yet you lead the league in runs, AVG, OBP, and OPS. But what is really killing teams is your ability to drive in the runs. You lead the league with a .299 BAw/RISP, so you make your baserunners count. AND a .298 BAw/RISP and 2 outs AND the 2nd best AVG in the AL in close and late situations. Your team is hitting well as a team aggregate wise with 2 guys wildly overperforming, 2 guys wildly underperforming and the rest of the team (sans Ortiz) in the .700 range. If you ability to make the most out of your baserunners continues, you wont be beaten. But what makes the sox so dangerous is that right now they are finishing. Something the yankees have had trouble doing the past 3 seasons to begin the yr. You guys close better than anyone. And not just because you have a rotation that goes very deep and a closer that scares the bejesus out of the other teams. But because your pitching will keep a tight lead and then your offense will step on the throat and put the game away. We started doing that last yr right about mid May and the rest is history. If you continue to do this, we wont have a shot. Your pitching has been fantastic, but lately, your hitting has been very solid and is the reason why you are so far ahead. If that offense didnt awake from its slumber w/RISP and in clutch time, we'd be talking about a 3 or 4 game lead, something that would be a whole lot more tenuous.

that is from 5 days ago. And as we all know, the ESPN analysts are told what to write anyway. This came out last yr and the yr before.

Phil Hughes had 12 starts in A ball, 10 starts in A+ ball, 21 starts in AA ball, and 3 starts in AAA ball. He was rushed, no doubt about it, but he jumped one level every season. 2004- rookie 2005- A and A+ 2006- A+ and AA 2007- AAA and MLB Buchholz looks like this. 2005- A- ball 2006- A and A+ (3 starts) 2007- AA- ??? Even if you put him on the fasttrack, you shouldnt see him any higher than Pawtucket this yr. And if you want to draw a paralell to Hughes, Hughes wasnt brought up to AA until right about this time last yr. If Buchholz follows the Hughes model, he'd see the majors mid season next yr IF NEEDED. But right now, Theo would be smart to take him off the shelf as a viable rotation option.

Gabbard against the yankees is a smart move. Soft tossing lefties own us.

they are just not putting it together. Since the sox game where Igawa came in (if you consider him the starter essentially) our starters have a 3.39ERA. That is over a span of 15 games. And if you remove Igawa, who is no longer in the rotation, the ERA drops to 2.92 over 13 games with the rotation averaging 6.2IP per start. Our SP is there. The offense or the pen, the two strengths of this team, are letting us down.

this is all I got? Cmon now. I read the post about bringing up Buchholz and laughed. You dont rush pitchers!!! Here and there you can skip a levelm but bringing Buchholz to the majors would be akin to what they did to Hansen. Hear me out. Hansen was signed and skipped all levels essentially and made it to the majors, got shitcanned and now is pretty bad in AAA. Buchholz spent nearly the entire season in A ball. He got all of 3 starts in A+ ball. Starting him out in AA skipped the A+ level essentially. If he comes up to the majors this yr, you have him crossing A+ ball, AA ball, AAA ball and MLB ball in one calendar yr. That is insane. That is rushing. And THAT will result in him getting crushed. And when a young pitcher with lights out stuff learns the hard knocks of major league pitching way before he is ready to, it can ruin him. I think anyone who is wishing for Buchholz to be your 5th starter in May or June should take a long look at what rushing did to Hansen. In terms of a playoff team needing pitching help, wake up ORS. Why did he only get 3IP then? If he was so critical to a team that needed BP help for the stretch, why was he hardly even touched? Your excuse is ********. And you always rag on me for small sample sizes, wake up and smell the hypocrisy. His "amazing stint" in AA before he was called up was a grand total of 9IP with a hit per inning. That should tell you something. The sox rushed him. Dont cover it up. Dont BS it away. He was rushed. And now look at him. Showing uncanny control issues, something he hasnt had to this degree since his freshman yr at college.

Look no further than Craig Hansen. Great stuff, composure shaky. Comes up too quickly, loses confidence, becomes bat shy and goes into the shitter. If Hansen had been handled properly, he would probably be an effective member of the pen. Now he is getting the s*** kicked out of him in AAA. 14IP 18H 10BB 14K And off-topic. The sox balked at giving up Delcarmen for Helton? Wow. 17.2IP 22H 8BB 25K 5.60ERA Delcarmen, OTOH, was brought along as his age dictated and as his success dictated. He just isnt all that good of a MLB pitcher. But Hansen, a first round pick with Papelbon-esque stuff is struggling mostly because he is now bat shy after getting the s*** kicked out of him. If you bring up Buchholz and he gets s*** on like Hansen did, you risk losing your biggest chip/prospect when you honestly dont need to right now.

the only situations where putting the ball in play are ABSOLUTELY beneficial are runners on 2nd and 0 outs, or runner on 3rd and less than 2 outs. Crisp in situations where there is a runner on 2nd or 3rd, is 2 for 13. I do not know how many productive outs he had there.

if I remember correctly, the last time wake faced the tigers, they hit 7 solo homers and still lost. As for Maroth, the Tigers are 7-0 in his starts.

okaji against a bunch of all or nothing right handed power hitters? This may be the one time Okaji is not useful. Send Mats out there for the 8th.

Glass Drew drawing ire from the nation. In his defense, if he dove, he'd break 3 bones and be out for his career.

Orsillo is so dumb it is hilarious.

or Jacoby.