Dojji

The Dodgers are the most obvious, as I said last page. They need a player like Youkilis and are in position to contend. The question is what we get out of it. I think Jansen would be ideal but may be too ambitious. I wouldn't scream too loudly if we brought in Ivan Dejesus and a decent A- prospect, because we could use another middle infield type now and in the future and Dejesus has some potential. I think our return is going to be somewhere between the two in value.

No, and he's never in his pro career sniffed time at SS. I've heard some whispers that the workout at short went very poorly. "Fish out of water" was, I believe, the exact phrasing. Just because you try something doesn't mean it works. Even if it might have been nice if it had.

Then they need to do trades for "sure-thing" veterans a lot less, because the guys we traded over the last couple years for "real" talent at given positions could be the solution to a lot of our problems right now.

The Dodgers are the natural trade partner when it comes to Youkilis. They're soft on both corners and Loney and Uribe are both subpar talents offensively. If Youk can go on a tear for a couple weeks and get some semblance of his old numbers back, the Dodgers are in a position both in the standings and talentwise to give us a nice return. I lust after Kenley Jansen. If there was *any* way we could leverage Youkilis into Jansen, do it yesterday.

It's impressive how far he's come back. I hope he makes the majors.

I don't like it. The last thing we want to do is get Middlebrooks hurt, and asking that added level of mobility from him could serve to accomplish that.

If you're talking about pitchers' ERA when a certain catcher is handling them. you're pretty much talking about CERA.

Yeah, because CERA's not a flawed stat at all. There's a lot that goes into a pitcher's performance that has nothing to do with anything the catcher did.

Seems to be good for a walk and a double every game. I'll take that.

two

Idiot. NEVER say crap like that. It never ends well. 2 run lead is not "sealed."

Youk.

And then a walk to Avila

No. IIRC it's out as long as it's caught and held whether it's fair, foul or homer.

That's pretty much how a lot of at bats are won. Stay with the pitcher until you get your pitch. Even on a bad day Verlander was absolutely disgusting and a very intimidating pitcher to face off against. That pitch to Nava was his only really big mistake of the night. All of the 3 hits to load the bases were little Texas league dunks -- bad luck on his part.

Great response. Really. BTW I *love* that it was Nava with the hit that put us over .500

Much better start tonight, against a pretty solid lineup. I'd like him to go deeper, but I'll take 5+ good innings with 4 K's.

I'm just trying to break up the cynical narrative Jacko was trying to create. The fact is that Nava does have the talent. Especially on a team like the Red Sox that plays in a park that rewards line drive hitters. Fenway is perfect for Nava. It's dimensions play perfectly to his tendencies. And the kind of disciplined line drive style hitter he is right now is the kind of hitter Youk was in 07, which is why I used that year as my analogy. There's a lot of similarities between Nava this year and Youk that year. Obviously Nava doesn't have quite that level of power, but it's the same approach for the most part.

Well it looks like Nava's luck has started to normalize. He's down to a pretty normal .310 BABIP (by comparison, Cody Ross's BABIP is .319) and his AVG has dipped to a much more sustainable .280 His numbers on the whole look a great deal more genuine right now. And the thing that stands out right now is that his OBP has held pretty solid throughout the "slump." And both of his ISO numbers (Iso slugging, Iso discipline) remain solid despite the dipping average. Highlight right now for Nava is his hitting discipline. Any time a hitter is walking once for every strikeout you have yourself a disciplined hitter. And am I the only one who thinks he handled the leadoff role pretty well? 1 for 4 with a walk and an XBH is pretty much his career line last night. Point to ponder about Nava's run so far with the Red Sox. Over the 19-20 games he's played he's hit far better with men on base (.333 AVG, 1.058 OPS) than he has with the bases empty (.226 AVG, .783 OPS) He takes most of his walks (all but two) with the bases empty or a man on first (9 of his 14 walks with the bases clear, another 3 with only a runner on first). Which is exactly the best time to take a walk. He gets most of his XBH with men on base (.630 SLG) He has 4 XBH in 10 at bats with a runner at third base. He has 2 XBH in 5 total at bats with 2 outs and a runner at third base. None of it means a lot, but it adds up to something interesting. This cat seems to have the right touch as a situational hitter, which is why he shows up in the clutch hitter category so often. It's clear that he's taking a different approach in different situations and for the most part achieving that objective. Lucky Nava might be, but he's showing signs of being a smart hitter, and one that can be cool in the clutch too. Just thought that was worth posting when I saw it.

that wasn't a bad outing from Bard. I can understand taking him out at 80 pitches. DOn't like it though.

Bard has looked really good at times tonight.

I agree. I don't think there's enough left there.

How do you explain that you didn't expect it? He's putting more wear on that arm in a 5 day stretch than he ever did as an RP. It's one of the reasons you njeed to put a kid like that on an innings cap.

I'm not sure why people thought Bard's transition to the rotation would look anything different from this. Personally I'm far more encouraged than discouraged. And I'd say that yes, Bard stas where he is until he hits his innings cap.