Jayhawk Bill

7-0 Seattle. Lopez coming out.

Brandon Moss played that fly ball well up against the wall. Another good thing!

Meh. These games happen. :dunno: Look on the bright side: there are many beautiful women in the world, there are fortunes to be made, America now enjoys the world's finest beer, and tomorrow is another day in Red Sox Nation. I've got crab-stuffed mushrooms in the oven. Life is good.

He was hitting .271/.318/.380 entering the game. Among AL second basemen with 100+ PA, he was fifth in VORP with 6.7. He's at +3 FRAA. His WARP3--a quick metric of his full-season value given historical norms for his position--is 5.6. A team with 15 players at 5.6 WARP (nine starters, five starting pitchers and a closer) and ten others at 2.0 WARP would have 104 WARP, easily enough to win a division. Pedroia is doing his part. I'm not expecting Pedroia to be a HOF second baseman--that's not fair. But right now he's a playoff-caliber second baseman playing for MLB minimum salary, and I'm very happy to have him on our team.

We have to cite other message boards as links for Red Sox news??? I found this: http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20080605&content_id=2847075&vkey=news_bos&fext=.jsp&c_id=bos

Yeah, I noticed that the 25-man roster had Moss, not Carter as you posted. It wasn't on the BDC Extra Bases blog; got link? Still want to string up somebody by the scrotum for not giving Carter a better chance...

Manny sits out the game vs. a RHP. Chris Carter sits on the bench. I want to string up Terry Francona by his teeny little scrotum and let him hang upside down until enough blood gets to his feeble brain to make a reasonable decision.

In his last seven starts, King Felix is 1-5 with a 4.67 ERA. The ERA is mediocre, not bad, but he has only averaged 3.29 runs of support per game this year, possibly because he is the Seattle Mariners' ace pitcher. Bartolo Colon has a 3.50 ERA in his three starts. He has enjoyed 6.92 runs of support per game this year, possibly because he is a very fat has-been, a man rivaling David Wells in the potential to self-destruct with every pitch. You know, David Wells enjoyed 6.93 runs per game of support with the 2005 Red Sox. I know not whether a certain has-been quality or a tendency to corpulence might be a common reason for a pitcher's getting run support, but for tonight I can only hope.

Yo, Gom: I like escargot. I like Brie. I like them with wine, too. I like escargot with pinot noir. I like Brie with Vouvray. I like the sauteed kidneys of Yankees fans with a fine Sauterne. So you think that makes me gay?

From best to worst, Major League Baseball: Red Sox Angels Cubs Phillies Blue Jays Yankees Athletics White Sox Guardians Braves Rays Twins Diamondbacks Mets Cardinals Rangers Brewers Tigers Marlins Dodgers Astros Reds Orioles Padres Rockies Pirates Mariners Giants Royals Nationals Wow. Why would I call the 29-30 Yankees the sixth-best team and the 35-25 Cardinals the fifteenth-best team? These are yesterday's standings by BP's ELO system. International soccer has used an ELO system for years to comparatively rank teams that mostly play in leagues of dissimilar quality but occasionally play each other. The formulae are complex, there's a big factor for recent winning streaks, and there's a central tendency adjustment between seasons, but I consider it the best way we currently have, given the unbalanced schedule, of comparing teams. Note that only two of the top nine teams are NL teams--despite the hype about "the NL has all the young stars," maybe those young stars look so good because the opposition is so weak. Also, note that four of the top 11 teams and three of the top six teams are from the AL East, where they beat each other up frequently (and literally ). The Yankees would be the best team in either the AL Central or the NL West. Right now, despite recent injury challenges, the Red Sox rank as the best team in MLB. With current issues regarding Big Papi, Dice-K, Manny, Jacoby, and perhaps suspension issues with Coco Crisp (sure to be appealed to give Boston time to recover), it's good to note that the Red Sox have both a lead and a dominant competitive position. Let's see how this goes.

Bunk is such a strong word... What you're doing here is cherry-picking examples. A better approach might be looking at both good and bad pitchers. I ran a few numbers and communicated offline with ksushi that I really didn't see any strong correlation supporting his premise. I'll tell you, though, that Josh Beckett in 2007 DID get some hefty run support--it's easy to see where he got his perception.

Red Sox win the game. Let's hope that the game doesn't cost them the season.

BTW, did you know that testicular cancer is a common side effect of steroid abuse? Did you know that Mike Lowell had a sudden, unexpected power surge that made him an MLB player, prior to his cancer? *** Mike Lowell knowingly and intentionally used steroids contrary to the rules of Major League Baseball. That is a fact.

7-1 Boston!!! 5 RBI for Manny!!!

Chris Carter sprints home.

Chris Carter, Manny Ramirez and David Ortiz are in the same speed category.

Yes! Occasionally he drives or rides in fast cars, and he's been known to lumber his way through airports to board jetliners for some real speed.

Hmmm...Chris Carter looks good. Can I yet say "I told you so?"

OK... Tonight's OF defense sucks, but JD Drew is actually OK in CF and the Red Sox can work this out with the folks in Pawtucket.

Carter displays his baserunning!

Crisp displays talent in charging the pitcher: good speed, ducks the first punch...