Jayhawk Bill

Impressively quick throw by Pedroia on that 4-3 DP.

Yeah, but Reilly has only missed two calls tonight, that third strike (admittedly a big call) and a very borderline strike of Dice-K's called a ball.

Put up or shut up. Challenge the veracity of a particular post or retract your direct personal insult.

At 7:30 EDT Mussina had received five gifted strike calls from umpire Sam Holbrook, pretty impressive considering that he'd thrown only four called strikes that he'd deserved. The Orioles are getting the regulation strike zone thus far.

Why is making a correct call failing to help the Yankees? :dunno:

:dunno:

:lol: FWIW, "Old Boy Network" MLB got 1,780 Google hits... The words "are really high" might be relevant...or, there might be collusion, just as was rumored back with the Lidle-Abreu trade. Dunno. Let's check contemporary discussion of that trade: Hmmm...well, I guess that collusion could be possible...:dunno: We know! It's hilarious watching you purposefully ignore every shred of sober logic and research to stick blindly to your cherished beliefs! Roughly a meter up from my ass, centered in my brain...yes, that's quite far up my ass. I'm not sure of your point...I gather that yours may be centered closer to your ass? :dunno:

http://www.mlb.com/images/2003/06/19/gTWhWoVI.jpg Damn! If Farnsworth could mess me up this bad, can you picture what Big Papi could've done?

Farnsworth is, IIRC, an 8th Degree Dan Black Belt. David Ortiz, however, is very, very big...don't read his listed weight without laughing...and he has the reflexes of an elite MLB batter. Furthermore, he came from poverty in the DR...I think that he learned how to fight, too, although his training academy didn't give out black belts, maybe because the kids where Big Papi grew up were lucky just to afford belts. But I still might've trusted you, Gom, except for that bit about your link to support your words being dead.

I don't think that Big Papi's wrist is that injured. Of course, YMMV.

So Yankees fans refer to self-restraint in the team's best interest as "Needing to grow a pair?"

BP third-order standings has Oakland up by 3.1 games over LAA...part of that, of course, is Mike Scioscia, but part of it is that LAA has probably gotten lucky.

Sigh. What to say, what to say? :dunno: That'll almost do the trick! RSN as an artificial construct? Not at all. RSN as a term for the uniquely rabid and loyal Red Sox fan base? Hell, yes. Pardon, but in context the average New England reader could have easily discerned that I was referring to the dedicated fans of our Red Sox as "RSN." You must not have benefitted from New England public education. Which isn't, of course, anything against you, but rather an acknowledgement of the hard knocks of circumstance. Yes, owning one's own Regional Sports Network is certainly an advantage...but YES is far more lucrative than NESN, only strengthening the positions I've made previously. Ridiculous? Let's actually check. http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601079&refer=home&sid=aTcfoWsgk6Yg OK, that's revenue, not profit...out of that $125 million NESN has to pay for cameras, monitors, facilities, travel, 60 salaries including RemDawg's, and Heidi Watney's makeup, wardrobe and lingerie. Hoover's estimated $9.8 million in revenue from NESN in 2007. Maybe YES had about three times that much on almost three times the cash flow...maybe they had a bit more. Neither figure would alter the ordinal rank or relative revenue positions of the Yankees or the Red Sox, except, perhaps, to give the Yankees an even greater advantage. But that wouldn't alter my position, now, would it? I wrote, "If the Yankees ever mobilize their fan base as well as Red Sox Nation is mobilized, they will be unstoppable under the current CBA and Rules of MLB. It is only because RSN pumps so much money into the Red Sox, and because so much of that money is reinvested into talent, that Boston can even compete." Beyond obfuscating by complaining about my use of RSN (Red Sox Nation) to represent the fan base of the Red Sox, you tried to suggest that RSN (Regional Sports Network) revenues turned the whole thing around. It doesn't; YES just makes things worse, if anything. One more table: [table]Team | Payroll/Media Market Population Kansas City Royals | $14.60 Seattle Mariners | $13.03 Minnesota Twins | $12.98 Boston Red Sox | $12.62 Milwaukee Brewers | $12.28 Colorado Rockies | $11.91 Chicago White Sox | $10.67 Detroit Tigers | $9.95 St. Louis Cardinals | $9.94 Baltimore Orioles | $9.81 San Francisco Giants | $9.48 Arizona Diamondbacks | $9.46 Oakland Athletics | $8.71 Houston Astros | $8.60 Chicago Cubs | $8.29 Los Angeles Angels | $8.22 San Diego Padres | $7.92 New York Yankees | $7.85 Toronto Blue Jays | $7.73 Cleveland Guardians | $7.58 Los Angeles Dodgers | $7.41 Philadelphia Phillies | $7.28 Texas Rangers | $7.08 Pittsburgh Pirates | $7.05 Cincinnati Reds | $6.92 New York Mets | $6.58 Atlanta Braves | $5.43 Florida Marlins | $4.95 Washington Nationals | $3.70 Tampa Bay Rays | $3.27 [/table] Boston pays $12.62 in payroll for every soul in their media market. Most of the other teams paying that much are from tiny media markets, and they're using revenue sharing to meet their payrolls. The Yankees are only paying $7.85 in payroll for every fan in their media market--less than two thirds of Boston's payroll per capita. As I stated earlier, if the Yankees ever mobilize their fan base as well as Red Sox Nation is mobilized, they will be unstoppable under the current CBA and Rules of MLB. Picture the Yankees with a payroll half as big again as their current payroll--that's what they could afford if they enjoyed the same per capita revenues as the Red Sox do. Even without considering that YES Network thing. Gom, quit the insults. Start thinking yourself. Start actually doing research rather than insulting other posters on your erroneous bigoted assumptions. I can respect Yankees fans, and I can respond in light-hearted banter. "Start thinking" isn't light-hearted, it's insulting. Go post on NYYFans.com if you're going to act that way. Oh, I forgot...they banned you.

Molina is doing quite well as the Yankees full-time catcher...one cannot expect injury or swift decline from a catcher over 35 years old to be unanticipated. Upon reflection, given the Yankees' astronomical payroll and their significant benefit from deadline trades, it is odd that they haven't won for years, isn't it? :dunno: Oh well.

Youk looks as if he would fight dirty, perhaps by kicking Joba in the nuts to start the fight. :dunno:

Took a few minutes for me to find this: http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=news/sports&id=6286350 OK...they were asking for a total of One sure thing One good prospect One "iffy" prospect Two prospects better than a first round pick and a sandwich pick That's a total of FIVE players, including a "sure thing," three more first-round types, and one "iffy" prospect. The Pirates accepted from the Yankees Tabata--looking to be an "iffy" prospect after his miserable 2008, but possibly (maybe, optimistically) filling the role of "good prospect/first-round pick"--and three mid-20's AAA/AAAA starting pitchers, none of whom could be expected to contribute to a contending team now or ever. The Pirates accepted a deal from the Yankees that didn't include a "sure thing" and that fell at least two more first-round picks short of what they were rumored to be demanding. The value received by Pittsburgh was maybe a quarter of what it was rumored they were asking. That's not even close--and that explains quotes like these: http://www.courant.com/services/newspaper/printedition/sports/hc-skinnystory0728.artjul28,0,3209072.story :dunno:

The LAAofA have been absurdly lucky this season. Part of that can be expressed as "Wins Over Pythag," where the Angels are eight games higher than they "should" be. Their D3 is even higher, with the Angels exceeding their third-order projected W-L total by a whopping 10.8 games. A big part of D3 is often the caliber of a manager, and Mike Scioscia should be, along with Ron Gardenhire, one of the two big AL Manager of the Year candidates. Still, it's tough to believe that no luck is involved. Another area where the Angels appear to be getting lucky, though, is defense. The Angels are eighth in MLB in DER at .708. Last season they were twenty-fourth at .688. That's a 20-point difference in opposing teams' BABIP--that's almost a hit a game saved by better defense. How could this be? 1) Jeff Mathis is better than Mike Napoli this season. That's not necessarily true of their entire careers, though. 2) Erick Aybar and Maicer Izturis are having career years at shortstop. Those both appear to be flukes. 3) Torii Hunter has somehow returned to the fielding rates of his halcyon days in Minnesota. That, too, appears to be a small sample effect. 4) Nobody is doing worse than average on defense. It's easy to point to a hitter playing over his head and to know that it's not going to last. Because the effects of the Angels' unusually good defense up the middle is distributed roughly evenly across its pitching staff, it's harder to identify--but it's just as much a fluke. *** A stat lost in the morass: Angels' starting pitchers are tiring. Their ERA over the first half was 3.75, but it's dropped to 5.33 in the second half. *** Our hitting came back last night, assisted by Ponson. Big Papi looks OK, and Manny has beguin his end-of-contract sprint for the finish (regardless of what DeMarlo Hale signals). The Angels have the best W-L record in the league, but they've been lucky to get it, and that luck may be running out. Boston is good enough to beat this team tonight.

I missed this one Sunday: Bold added. The trade remains inexplicable.

http://www.boston.com/sports/baseball/redsox/articles/2008/07/28/salvage_operation/?page=full

OK... Just in case you're serious, here's a tutorial: 1) Go to BaseballReference.com http://www.baseball-reference.com/ 2) On the front page, you'll see the current MLB standings, updated each early morning. In the AL East section, click on "BOS." http://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/BOS/2008.shtml 3) You're now looking at the roster of the 2008 Red Sox, along with their current-season stats. Click on "Tim Wakefield." http://www.baseball-reference.com/w/wakefti01.shtml 4) You're now looking at Tim Wakefield's career, year-by-year. At the top there's a choice box next to the word "Splits." Click the arrow and click on "Career." http://www.baseball-reference.com/pi/psplit.cgi?n1=wakefti01&year=00 5) Check down the page to find splits by Opponent (Franchise). Wakefield is 9-17 with a 5.14 ERA vs. the Yankees through his career. *** Using the year-by-year splits, you can also check ERA vs. the Yankees by year. Let's go back through each year of the 21st Century: [table]2008 | 6.94 2007 | 10.93 2006 | 5.49 2005 | 4.20 2004 | 1.83 2003 | 3.96 2002 | 2.25 2001 | 1.59[/table] Wow. It's as if the strike zone suddenly got smaller in 2005-2006, and especially in 2007-2008. Wakefield has faced the Yankees twice under Pitch f/x, both times in 2008: let's check the strike zone. [table] Date | Unearned balls* | Bonus strikes* July 26 | 7 | 0 July 6 | 13 | 5[/table] Wakefield is getting squeezed when he faces the Yankees. A net loss of seven or eight pitch calls each game is worth between 0.70 and 1.60 runs most of the time. He's only pitching around 6 IP each game, so the impact to his ERA is 50% greater, between roughly an extra one to two-and-a-half runs allowed each game due to his being squeezed. * Graphic representation of Pitch f/x results used to compile these columns. Numbers may vary very slightly from these figures if exact pitch locations and batters' stances are checked, but usually graphic interpretation is better than 90% correct.

The key to the A-Rod deal was that the Rangers couldn't afford his salary. Everybody knew that Soriano