jacksonianmarch

That was incredibly stupid by Nava. There is no shot at Upton, he needs to prevent Joyce from moving to 2

a hit for Middlebrooks? Really? Grounders into the glove of a fielder that bounce out are hits?

What a joke of a play by the SS there

Gonzo might be hurt. He's out of the game now

Beckett has always had the ability to be a good pitcher, but his stuff allowed him to miss. Now, he has to be a pitcher first since he no longer can ramp it up there at 96 on a regular basis. I think Beckett can sustain his success, the only issue will be that when his location is off, he will be bombed a lot more than he was in the past. We've seen it already with a few clunkers mixed in with some dominant performances.

Why is this in the Red Sox forum?

Relievers are not inconsequential. But a reliever vs a regular putting up great power and good defense is always more important. Now if Bailey was a starter, then there is a different argument

Tex with his 2nd HR of the game. He's back! Boy do we need him

He looks to me like he needs to either be sent down or converted to relief. I dont think he can be sent down again and I doubt anyone will spend starters cache for a guy to be converted to relief. Also, the sox are flush with lefty relievers.

If someone said something racist towards Price, then I can understand Upton losing his cool. He verbally engaged him, which is fine. I have a problem when a player physically engages a fan, that crosses the line.

Teixeira is coming alive. 3 hits today, 3 rbi and another homer. I loved what I saw out of CC again today. Once again, he didnt have his solid location, especially through the first 4. But he showed what a true ace can do. A true ace will battle and keep his team in it on nights when his stuff isnt sharp. He came around in the 5th and looked dominant into the 7th. And Girardi showed his small ball roots today. We need to do that more. Our offense isnt what it used to be, we need to be able to move runners. A bunt by Stewart with Chavez on 2nd got him to third and a bleeder from Jeter scored him. A bunt by Jeter set up Stewart to score on a sac fly.

Even Warren Buffett would get a group together and not fund it himself. There is too much risk to take it on for himself

Yankees win a third in a row right around when I was about to pronounce them dead. Good times! 3 encouraging as hell signs right now that may pick us off the mat. 1. ARod is starting to hit. He's 7 for his last 17 with 2HRs and a double. He was looking like a light hitting, singles hitter up until now. But if he can continue to bring the power, then we gain a humongous advantage 2. Nova did EXACTLY what we have been waiting for him to do last night. I know it was the A's, but he easily could have gone 6IP given up way too many walks and gone for double digit K's. He didnt. He went for early contact, which allowed him to go 7IP and only allow 1 walk. He also only struck out 4. He did allow 2 homeruns, but one was a hanging breaking ball. They happen. I want to see more of him pitching to contact and less of him nibbling and racking up high K numbers 3. Teixeira is getting on track. He is 4 for his last 14, most would say, so what, .286 AVG. But, he has walked 3 times in that stretch with 2 doubles and a homer. His big issue this yr was that when he wasnt hitting, he was also not walking. If he can get on track and continue the BB's as well as start pushing up those power numbers, we'll be good

EVeryone knew the division was going to be tough. At the beginning, we knew Toronto was going to be over .500 and that the Yankees and the Rays would be playoff contenders. Right now, the big problem for the sox is that the one team that we all thought would be patsies have started off hot and have gotten pitching. The big thing about the O's run a few yrs back when they were in first into June was that their offense caught fire together for 2 months and their pitching was marginal. Not anymore. Their offense has rallied around Adam Jones, but their offense has been balanced and sustainable. The big thing has been the formation of a suddenly solid pitching staff behind Hammel, Chen and Arrieta. If those guys can continue pitching well, then the O's are gonna be around until the end. I obviously don't think they will win 100 games like they are on pace for, but they easily could be in the mid 80s or higher, which would put a huge crimp in all of our plans.

Reddick did not start out like this. After a few weeks, he was hitting high .300s. That was unsustainable. His AVG is ok, his OBP poor but his power real.

Reddick is proving his power is real. He's not on a tear, he's not way over his head, he's hitting .273 with 12HRs. If he maintains his power, then you lost this deal no matter how good Bailey ends up being

Yes, enough said, emphatically!! 1/3 through the season! SSS my friend

been banned from them. Too much of a doom and gloomer, believe it or not

Back on track here, Gonzo in RF for away games isnt the end of the world. Gonzo in RF in Fenway is a different story and playing the wall isnt easy either in LF. My guess is you will see the 3 of them in alignment on the road with Youk, AdGon and Willy Middle getting time off for home games

Yes, his D is terrible. His double digit gold gloves and rifle arm prove that. Jones isnt what he was, but in a COF spot, he is a very good defensive OFer. And he only faces lefties unless we are desperate, so the platoon split doesnt really matter

Hughes hasnt had more time to prove himself this yr. He was moved to the pen in 2009, he was in the rotation but in the pen come the playoffs in 2010, he was moved to the pen again in 2011 and was in trouble of moving to the pen again this yr. He had just as much to prove as Bard did, and he is the anti-Bard right now. Instead of the FB velo dropping, his is rising and he is finding his curve. Bard's velo is dropping and his breaking ball has disappeared. This is a regression. Now obviously, you dont really have a better option right now, so you are stuck with him. Maybe this is just a little dead arm and he gets back to the 9K/9IP pace he was on in April. But with every passing start, it is pretty obvious that his stuff has dropping in the heavier starting role, and that looks more and more like a failed experiment. Also, you have to look at what he was and what he is now. This isnt some middle reliever who monkeyed around the bigs and the sox are experimenting with. This is one of the best relievers in the game over the past 2 seasons whose power stuff was second to maybe Verlander, Strasburg and Chapman. You have taken a relief ace and turned him into a #5 starter.

Also, UN, Hughes didnt start seeing a resurgence until his fastball rebounded. He never had Bard's power, but Hughes was getting his tits lit when he was sitting 89-90. Now that he is in the 92-94 range, he is getting outs. Bard needs to operate in the 94-95 range to be effective, IMO. It separates his FB and change speeds which would lend some effectiveness to that pitch. Not sure where the slider has been, since that is a devastating pitch. I am not sure if he has the confidence in it since his command has gone to s***.