Khan

Similar story to Cabbie.

I think that applies to his pitchers that can hit the backside of a barn. He is after all a catcher not a miracle worker. In terms of Gagne, the blame falls squarely on Gagne. It is hard to place the blame for his failure to execute on Tek. He does not even put the ball where it is called for. Now if you want to stray from the thread topic and talk about the short comings of the RS offense, then sure, Tek gets honorable mention behind numerous others. But any offense from Tek this year wasto be a bonus. I think Drew gets the brunt of it because well, Arroyo probably has better power numbers than him.

Criticism of tek's pitch calling? Why - he calls for one low and outside and Gagman puts it behind the batter. When the pitcher can't hit the backside of a barn with any of his pitches what does it matter. Besides 1) Tek is not thtowing and Gagman can always shake it off. Tek's pitch calling is incidental to the real problem, Gagne velocity is down to what 93 and he needs to comand, but can't. If you want to blame Tek then blame him for not painting his glove in dayglow paint.

Maybe we can make some use of him as one of the guys who cleans Fenway after the games with a leaf blower?

I'm feeling a bit scitzo this AM, so my opinion of this is in flux. On the one hand it smells like the FO trying to spin this like Nixon at Watergate - crapcrapcrapcrap. On the other hand, with the bumps and bruises there is a certain level of reason - more WC teams have won the WS and plenty of teams have limped din and done well. ahhhhh - shitballs

I'm still wrapped up in this summer with our first place team. Still, it is good to dream, so a couple of quick thoughts. Matt Clemment comes off @ 9.5, Curt comes off @ 13 (I see Clay taking his spot), Mike Lowell is a question @ 9. I would love to see him back, he has been a good fit bringing offense and generally solid defense. So here is my dream: RS take a run at and land A-Rod, somehow move Lugo then resign Lowel. Manny stays. Then again, maybe he is packaged with say Youk in another blockbuster. 3 Ortiz 4 Manny 5 Arod 6 Lowell I'll get real when the season is over, the money just does not add up.

Then again, the Tampa FO is not really known for making good moves.

or for that matter D-Lowe's "Suck It"

The problem with pointing to pitch selection as the source of Gagman's problems is that in seveeral of his blown opportunities he has been unable to locate his off speed stuff. So there has not been any real choice to begin with.

Apparently he is no longer nineth inning pitcher either.

I'm all in on the Gagman bashing, but Fancona. Not for that move. First lets get the facts strait. Pap came in at the top of the eight with score 7-4. Before you go calling that a soft save recall there were two on, and you want Gagman there. The problem with saving Pap for the second game is your using the benefit of hindsite. At the time, Francona has no way of knowing if there will even be a save opportunity. I'm sure like all of us he was hoping for a blowout and no need for Gagne. You got play to win the first game in the eight with the tying run at the plate. Had Francona put Gagne in there I'm sure you would be asking why wasn't it Pap in the first game.

and one more Fastbol

Can you call that a sprint?