Gom

Damon upper deck shot. 4-3 Yanks.

Wang's sinker is flat. How it's only a 3-3 game is beyond me.

I could care less about Pedroia, but if that is a real pic of noapril, she's hot. Giggity!

No, but it's based on a similar principle. I knew you would scoff at QS, so I picked something that you might appreciate. However, QS is the single most important stat for starting pitchers IMHO. That's basically how we won 4 in a row. We never had the best pitcher, but everyone of our pitchers could give a quality start. Why would you take out your pitcher with a six run lead on opening day after 5 innings? I don't remember that game in particular. A freak injury? Part of the game. Still burned your pen. The fact that Beckett hasn't been injured this year considering his history is a minor miracle. Last year was the first time he topped 200 innings. In fact, before that, he never topped 180.

Wang doesn't have his best sinker, but so far, it's been good enough. Yanks up 1-0 going into the bottom of the second.

Welcome to TALKSOX, where Red Sox players can do no wrong, but every other player on every other team can and does! Come on, what he did was wrong. If you don't know that, you never played the game on anything but your Nintendo. How would you have felt if Arod had admired the bomb he hit off of Papelbon that started our season turn around? Or if Tejada watched his tie breaker against Gagne? So if Ortiz gets drilled today, the Angels pitcher is the anit-Christ right?

So I guess none of you would redo the deal? Thought so.

Matchup favors the Angels. Go HALOS!

Watch the replays. He didn't do it to my team, so I don't care. He's been frustrated, but what does that matter? It is bush when Krod does it, Papelbon does it, etc. Say what you want about Mariano. He is the consummate pro. So is your captain and ours. Can you imagine Varitek posing and admiring his homerun? This isn't against Ortiz, who I like, even as a Red Sox. This isn't about my hatred for the Sox either. It's just about the way the game is played. Would you teach your son to admire his homerun, to show up other kids? I like Ortiz, but he deserves a fastball in the ear for that one. All he did was fire up the Angels for today.

I like it because regardless of what people think, I think the most important statistic out there is a quality start. I believe a pitcher's job is to keep his team in the game. Baseball is a game based on statistics, we all know that. However, one thing the statistics don't do is tell you what a player should do. Runner on second, no out, tie game, move him over. A ground ball to second is an out. A pop up to short is an out. One of those outs gets the runner to third, the other doesn't. To me, quality starts for a pitcher is key. 3 runs in 6 innings translates to a 4.50 ERA. However, what nearly everyone in America fails to realize is that that is the MAXIMUM WORST to qualify. One less run, and it's a 3.00 ERA. One more inning, its a 3.85 ERA. Quality start is the single most important statistic for starting pitchers in my opinion. Your team stays in the game, your bullpen doesn't get burned out. I'd rather have two games in which my pitcher gives up 3 runs in six innings than one game with 1 run in six innings, and 5 runs in the next. Your pen gets used up that way. You give me a starting rotation with a 4.50 ERA, and they go 6 innings giving up 3 runs, and I'll show you a 100 win team. You know where Josh Beckett is for quality starts? Behind Pettite. Tied for 17th. Elite pitcher, my ass. Hope you sign him to a 10 year extension.

Matsuzaka is the only one that worries me. Schilling is batting practice, and we have always hit Beckett well.

It's how you play the game bosoxnation. It's bush league. Admiring that homerun is bush league, no matter how you cut it. Ortiz deserves one in his ear for that. If you ever played the game, you would understand.

I'm not saying he is a fluke. I didn't think he would be as bad as he was last year. I also don't think he'll be as good as he is this year. I think he will fall someone in between. My point is that Hanley is one of the top 2-3 players in the game right now based on skill, age, positiion, etc. This is my opinion. I don't put Beckett in the class of of top 3 pitchers in the game. Top three in the AL East, yes. If you look at WPA, which I like to look at, Beckett is 5th in the AL and 11th in baseball. It really depends on what you value as a statistic. That being said, if you had the deal to do over today....would you guys do it? I'm curious, since I am not a fan of the Red Sox. Would you do the trade again today?

Ok, so Kennedy was't compensation, but Joba was. That's what I thought.

Fellas it was bush. I like Ortiz, I think he is a great player and loves the game, but if I was a pitcher, I woulda drilled Manny right after the home run. Your teammates will get you to stop showboating. I will never forget Ortiz walking around the dugout with plastic cups on his ears, implying he couldn't hear the crowd with the Red Sox leading 5-2 in Game 7 of the 2003 ALCS. We all know how that turned out. Personally, I hope Weaver drills him the next time he sees him. That "admiration" would never come from the guys who play the game right, like Jeter or Varitek. Can you imagine your catcher showing up someone like that? Just because he wears your team's uniform doesn't make it right. Can you imagine if Arod admired his homerun off of Papelbon?

We did? Any documentation on that, I'd be curious to see it. I knew about Joba, but not Kennedy.

On a side note, Nicholas Turturro, who is on the show The Bronx is Burning and was also one of the fireman in I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry was sitting next to us. His wife had a hell of a rack. He was a pretty nice guy but he seemed a little rattled sitting out in the bleachers. http://www.tvguide.com/celebrities/nicholas-turturro/167885

Wang was the best pitcher in the AL East last year other than Halliday. Bar none. Slightly off year this year, but still a solid pitcher. Becket 2005 + 2006: 31-16 4.21 ERA Wang 2005 + 2006 32-12 3.81 ERA Once again, you make sense, ORS. Schilling IS washed up. So is Mussina. So is Clemens. Yes, they will have an occasional good game. Do you have any real fear when Mussina or Clemens faces your Sox? I don't think so. Schilling is done as well in our view. I wasn't sold on Cano and Cabrera until this year. They have to do it their second year for me to start to believe in them. I also think that Cabrera is overrated. Pedroia, if he cuts it next year, I will be sold on him. Until then, I won't. Baseball is full of one year wonders. Sorry if I don't jump on a rookie's crotch like you do the minute he gets three hits in a game or throws six shut out innings. Unlike you, I don't view my teams players and the opposition's players differently. Let me see a player do it over two seasons before I call him a star. The only exception I have made to this is Wang, because I watch him pitch, and there is little deception to him. You know what he is going to throw, and he still gets you out. He's not fooling anyone. Like Rivera with his cutter, you know what's coming, and you still can't do anything with it. When Wang's cutter is working, he is as unhittable as any pitcher in the game.

Pettite since All-Star break: 5-1 3.15 ERA There hasn't been a dominant pitcher in the second half for either of our teams. Right now, our rotation is in as good a shape as yours. Sorry, but I take Wang, Pettitte, Clemens, Mussina, and Hughes over Beckett, Matsuzaka, Schilling, Wakefield and Tavarez. With Chamberlain added to the pen and Gagne in yours, the pen is pretty much a wash. The way we are hitting, our bench is better than your lineup. 5 games is a lot to make up in this short a time, but if we catch you, or get in the playoffs and meet....you are finished. Most Red Sox fans here will agree with me, I believe. I think the biggest threat to you guys making the World Series is not the Tigers, Guardians, Mariners or Angels. It's us, and you know it. Go back to sleep. Agreed.

This trade will go down as one of the top 5 lopsided deals in Red Sox history. Against the Red Sox. Beckett is having as good a year as you will ever see from this guy. He is not an elite pitcher. He is not a Santana, or a Halliday, etc. He is a good pitcher, but not one that will strike fear in the hearts of opposing hitters. If I was starting a team from scratch, I would probably take Ramirez first, or in the top 3. Look at this guys line: G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SB BA OBP SLG OPS Season 115 475 95 162 35 5 22 62 38 .341 .394 .575 .969 As a SHORTSTOP!!!! This guy is the prototypical five tool player. He can hit, hit for power, run, throw, and catch. Where you can say the overall returns have been a wash for the teams over the two years [they haven't, but for arguments sake, I'll say that] there isn't a GM in baseball who would blink for half a second if he could get Ramirez for Lowell and Beckett. I don't know when this guy is a free agent, but I would just deliver a truck full of cash for this guy. He is a bona fide star playing in a pitchers park. The Red Sox would have won the pennant last year and cruised to 100 wins this year if they had this guy. Imagine a lineup with Ramirez, Youkilis, Ortiz, and Manny.

It doesn't make much sense for the Nationals, to be honest. Why would they trade a guy of some value for someone the Sox were getting rid of anyways after they signed Kielty. Considering that Bowdon is notorious for overpricing his players in making a deal, I'd be surprised. That being said, I wish Wily Mo luck.

You still buy that song and dance your front office told you about him being "healthier, so we can pitch him the pen, which is more strenous" ********? The only one who believed that crock of s*** was ORS, who would believe anything your FO would say as the gospel truth. Papelbon will NEVER be a starting pitcher. EVER. Get that out of your head. He doesn't have the ability to go more than a 2 or 3 innings before his fastball turns into Jamie Moyer's. You saw that in spring training. Now, I never wish upon injury for a player, even one of the Red Sox. However, what you are seeing with Gagne is what you will see with Papelbon in the next 4-5 years. His shoulder just won't hold up. I seriously hope I'm wrong about this, I just don't think that this kid's shoulder will stay healthy. I actually like the kid. I like his demeanor, his moxie. He should be a Yankee. Some players on your team I hate. He's not one of them. I wish him a healthy career, even an All-Star career, but hopefully with another team. Tito did the right thing in limiting Paps to one outing. Just imagine that he did pitch him in both innings, and his shoulder came up lame for a week. Considering what you have in the pen now, how would that look for you guys? His mistake is he picked the wrong outing to use him. Thanks Tito! On a side note, it's not like Torre is a genius either. They both suck. We have a 5 run lead, so he brings in Chamberlain. Why not give Farnswoth a shot? He's never coughed up a 5 run lead this season. Why waste Chamberlain when you may need him tomorrow? Both of these managers blow the games they win. I'm sure you understand what I'm trying to say.

How did this kid look? I didn't get a chance to see the game, his stat line wasn't great, but with new, young pitchers, that can be misleading.

Suddenly, after yet another Gagne implosion after a great Sox rally.... How bad does the comparison of Farnsworth and Gagne look? I'll tell you the truth. It's no comparison at all. I take Farnsworth in a heartbeat. Farnsworth has given up more than two runs only once all season. Gagne's done it three times, twice in the last week. I knew when he took, what 11 pitches on the first batter that the game was over. I have to thank Francona for this loss. Why bring in Papelbon withn a four run lead and render him useless in the second game? I have never seen what was supposed to be an impact player s*** the bed so bad for either us or you guys this quickly. Thank God you got him and we didn't. For all of you guys who ripped me for this thread.....LOL!