Dojji

Ace is getting Squeezed a bit people. Chill.

Nothing ever easy.

Just imagine Jacko's reaction if Pineda was a Red Sox. "Oh, that's a particularly bad kind of injury and not only is he gone forever, but he'll be Kyle Snyder when he gets back because you never recover fully from this kind of surgery." There'd be something to it too -- look at Erik Bedard.

If he's back by early June, that could create the excuse to send Bard back to the pen. Considering that we don't want to completely trash Bard's innings cap, that doesn't seem like a horrible time to do it. Bard has the innings cap to pitch about 100 innings this year, so if you get 60 in the rotation and 40 out of the pen the rest of the way, that wouldn't be awful.

Once you get to 150 at bats, it becomes significant. If he hasn't slowed down by then, we really should look at promoting him.

Atchison is making a bid to be this year's Aceves

No, he had like 7 in 2010

Apparently David Ortiz has slaughtered a home run tonight. Thanks, Dave O"Brien.

I've been caught up in the hockey playoffs. Some GREAT storylines going on there right now. Nice to see the Sox kicking some butt.

Yeah, but you can't use the numbers as more than rough guidelines. Especially batting average and ERA are difficult numbers to give full credibility to. What you look at with minor league numbers are tendencies which expose tools. Does this guy walk a lot. Does he strike out a lot or make a lot of contact. Does he have good power or no power. Does he exhibit useful speed. What I see when I look at Cook is exactly what I describe. This is a pitcher who can't put hitters away well enough for me to think he's going to succeed at the big league level. IIRC he's walked more than he's struck out, and that's not because he's walking the ballpark. He just has no putaway power, which reflects a trend he's exhibited throughout his career.

Have you forgotten who our left fielder was from about 2001 to mid 2008?

A real chance this year of no Canadian teams at all getting through the first round.

RSF3: You seem to be under the misapprehension that I care what a player does in the minors and in Spring Training. Go to the Royals spring stats and look up Luis Mendoza. Really similar pitcher to Cook. Great spring. Great year last year in the minors. Currently getting utterly dismantled in a park much more forgiving than ours.

No idea. I just *really* don't want Cook.

Is Hill healthy? He was a decent lefty before he got hurt last year

I'd rather try Miller again than Cook. At least Miller won 6 of his 9 decisions last year.

The other problem with that, besides wanting Bard as a starter, is that Cook would have to actually pitch at some point. There'd be no way around it. You'd try, but despite your best efforts to avoid such a fate ultimately circumstances would conspire against you and you'd be pushed into a corner where you'd have no choice but to say a prayer to Jesus, brace for the inevitable, close your eyes tight, say some choice last words, and give him the ball. It would have to happen eventually and when it did, ugly things would follow. We're talking about a ballpark that's among the best batting average parks iin the league,and the best doubles ballpark in the league barring none, and bringing in a guy who pitches to contact and doesn't necessarily keep the ball down. It *would* be a disaster. Not might. Not could. Not merely a cause for concern. This would happen.

Thing is, if you're going to call someone up, I'd call Middlebrooks. Reward for good early production as well as the fact that he'll bring a more athletic 3B play defensively. Not that Youk is terrible, but he's kind of a handsy player, and neither Youk nor Aviles has much range. Middlebrooks is a former shortstop, so he'd probably boost our defensive performance on the left side of the infield regardless of whether he hit or not. And he's probably going to hit.

How the **** many moves are we talking here and what are they going to cost? It will also help everyone in that bullpen if the top 2-3 starters can start going deep. And people are presuming too much of Bard. Daniel Bard is not Jonathan Papelbon. He would probably be an above average, but not an elite, closer. Strong emhasis on "PROBABLY." People are overestimating the HECK out of what they'd expect Bard to do if shoehorned back into that role. Sure he's a power pitcher, but his command issues make the worst struggles Pap ever had with location look positively prosaic. This is NOT Mariano Rivera, and it probably never will be. See the thing about the closer equation, and the difference between Bard now and Paps in 07, is that Paps is not Bard, and Bard is not Paps. Bard is a danged good setup man. Papelbon was an ABSOLUTELY AND COMPLETELY ELITE closer coming off THE best year a closer has EVER had in a big league uniform. There's a huge divergence in the difference between the relative value of a starter and a setup man, and the difference between an ELITE CLOSER and a starter. The result is different because the math that goes into the equation is different. If we knew Bard was an elite closer? Yeah maybe you move him to the pen. We have no idea whatsoever whether Daniel Bard is or is not an elite closer. He has literally never been tested in the closer's role. He is more proven in the starter's role as of this moment than he is as the closer. People are whistling past the graveyard when they fail to acknowledge this!

Ciriaco is an infielder.

http://freefall.purrsia.com/ff1000/fv00949.gif Is there anything more useless than assigning the blame?

Manny was just the first, and the reason Manny was the first was because he was the most openly emotional and least controlled. I'm more and more convinced that Manny's ability to keep the dugout loose and his cockeyed form of leadership being a veteran who went out and produced in all situations was important to the way this team won. We've gone steadily downhill since we lost him.

We could really use him, I hope he gets called up soon. Youk can play left field. Middlebrooks is far more athletic at third.

The boston media sells papers by bashing the Sox. They've been doing it for decades now, and we eat it right up. Doesn't surprise me that they'll run with any rumor going, and presume any Boston figure guilty until proven innocent.

Sure, but if all you want to do is get to the one game playoff, that's not worth loading up to do in my mind. We're not a prime contender, and the team has too many holes to become one quickly as a result of one trade, and thus should save its ammunition.