Jayhawk Bill

He wasn't exactly throwing AT him, he was throwing BEHIND HIS HEAD. :thumbdown Even Michael Kay was pretty ripped at what Hawkins had done.

Red Sox win!!!! DFWMM

C'mon, Paps, just one more out...

I had to run out...I come back home, turn on NESN, and Lowell hits a grand slam.

Nice work by Drew. Perhaps Dice-K will try throwing strikes for a change, given a lead. I doubt it, though.

In a day game, and against Boston, I give Bannister respect. Hey, check out today's game thread--I spell it out pretty clearly.

The caliber of discussion goes up with the number of good posters contributing, even for other good posters' work. Missed you...but I was happy to share the game with those who were there, too.

It would be easy to look at a team reeling from three defeats--two at the hands of pitchers called up from AA and AAA, the other a no-hitter--and to write them off. It would be easier still to do that knowing that today's starting pitcher was Daisuke Matsuzaka, 7-0 thus far in 2008. That would be hubris. Today's starting pitcher for the Royals is Brian Bannister. Bannister posted a 3.87 ERA as a starting pitcher in his 2007 rookie season. Scouts discounted his ERA and pointed to his pretty pedestrian stuff; analysts discounted his ERA and pointed to his "unsustainable" BABIP. Let me point at something else: Brian Bannister is one of the smartest players in MLB, and he reviews Pitch f/x logs hitter by hitter before every game. His ultra-low BABIP isn't a fluke: he knows batters better than any other guy in MLB, better than Tek, better than Schilling. Boston's lineup thrives on pitchers' mistakes: Bannister won't overpower batters, but he won't make mistakes. In one previous game against Boston, he held Red Sox batters to a .217/.217/.609 batting line: were it not for home runs by Manny, Big Papi and Dustin Pedroia, he probably would have prevailed. Home runs don't come every game--Bannister matches well against Boston. One other key split that's disturbing: Bannister has a career ERA of 2.65 and a 10-1 record in day games. Facing the Royals for Boston will be Daisuke Matsuzaka. Matsuzaka's 2.15 ERA is lower than Bannister's impressive career split for day games. This year Matsuzaka is getting, on the whole, fair calls, and his ability to paint the corners is frustrating MLB hitters the way it frustrated hitters in Japan for years. What we're seeing isn't a fluke: what we're seeing is the real Dice-K. For what it's worth, Matsuzaka's Day/Night split is good, too: his ERA is 1.48 runs lower in day games over his time in MLB. Look for a good, close, well-pitched game. This one could come down to the bullpens. Game Time 1:35 pm EDT Fenway Park Current weather 53 degrees, cloudy, wind blowing out to RF at 10 mph Royals Brian Bannister RHP (4-5) 4.29 ERA Red Sox Daisuke Matsuzaka RHP (7-0) 2.15 ERA DFWMM :thumbsup:

DFWMM.

OK... Bases loaded, two out, 3-0 count. I don't take strike one: I try to get two runs on a hit off a grooved fastball. But no way I take another grooved fastball for strike two...no way.

Hmmmm... I'll bet that unless the Yankees get 5.0 WARP1 from players acquired in trades, Boston and New York will not finish 1-2 in the AL East. I want a bottle of Pernod as stakes...are you up for the wager?

Colon has serious trouble with pitch count in his comeback--I'm happy that Tito recognized it and pulled him after five innings.

This is a pretty good game. Manny strikes out...5-2, Boston.

Called strike three was very close--most umpires would've called it a ball. It was outside the regulation strike zone, but maybe inside or at the edge of most umpire's called strike zone.

Colon is relying almost exclusively on a 92-95 mph fastball with a slider mixed in every 5-10 pitches. *** Nice leadoff double.

I wonder if scouts discounted him because of his stuff or because of his weight. :dunno:

Rasner and Bruney are 3-0 with an ERA under 2.50. If guys like that can go 3-0, a couple of veteran pitchers might do even better. Even Barry Zito can win games given enough runs; Greg Maddux needs fewer runs. There are a few guys in the Yankees lineup who occasionally drive in runs, so those guys plus some reasonable quality veteran pitchers might result in wins.

A couple of points I didn't mention earlier: Brett Tomko has a career 19.06 ERA in Fenway Park (just 5.67 IP). Brett Tomko hasn't beaten an AL team since April 6, his first start of the season.

Individuals who use the phrase "the fact of the matter" when describing their opinions, not facts, diminish their credibility. Do yourself a favor: don't do it, and watch who does. *** Did I mention "devilish act of greed?" You're projecting. MLB has established a perpetually unbalanced situation where big cities will dominate smaller cities. It's obviously lucrative. MLB has remained profitable for over a century, during which the New York Yankees have been the World Champions roughly a fifth of the time, with the rare period between implementation of the amateur draft and the court decisions introducing free agency standing as a striking exception to New York's dominance. When money matters, New York rules the AL. It's not devilish--it's an intentional decision on the part of league owners to preserve perpetually competitive teams in major media markets. Let's watch what happens, as you request. I predict trades for veterans and a Yankees team that earns about 90 wins in the highly competitive AL East--I do not predict a static team that suddenly becomes competitive. I may be mistaken, and, of course, YMMV.

It takes courage to first perform on any stage. It takes far greater courage to squander one's talent, to fail, and then to return. Bartolo Colon is back. Bartolo Colon is listed at 5' 11", 250 lbs. The height is accurate; the weight is conservative. Bartolo Colon is three days short of his 35th birthday and he is overweight by at least fifty pounds. Despite that, he wants to compete as a professional athlete in an incredibly exacting sport in its most exacting role. He still carries most of the pounds of weight--the fat, the blubber, whatever you will call it--that led to cascading injuries that destroyed his athletic ability. Just three years ago the best pitcher in the American League, in 2006 and 2007 Bartolo Colon became a parody of his former greatness. His decline was tragic to the point of black humor. It was embarassing to fans--it had to be excruciating for Colon himself. But despite the fact that he must not need the money, Bartolo Colon is back. After stuggling to improve over the course of the Dominican Winter League, after being passed over by almost every MLB team before Boston tendered him a high-incentive contract, after some rough innings in Spring Training, after a right oblique injury that sidelined him for a month, and, finally, after posting a 0.64 ERA in three starts for Pawtucket, Bartolo Colon is back. Can he prevail? That we do not know. He has to be injury-prone at his weight; he has not pitched successfully in MLB for three years now, a very long time for a man in his mid-thirties. But tonight a nearly middle-aged man who knows both victory and defeat in MLB will don the uniform of the World Champion Boston Red Sox and take the mound, supported by fellow Dominican superstars Manny Ramirez and David Ortiz. It may not be the stuff for victory, but it is the stuff of which baseball legend is made. Game time: 7:05 PM EDT Royals: Brett Tomko RHP (2-4) 5.32 ERA Red Sox: Bartolo Colon RHP (0-0) no ERA Current weather: fair, 70 degrees, wind 16 mph out to the Green Monster DFWMM :thumbsup: