Dojji

Oh, and amusing to note this: Jason Varitek's age 26 season was worse than Saltalamacchia's. He scored a .716 OPS good for an 83 OPS+ and was a below replacement level defender. He also threw out 28% of baserunners to Salty's 31%. Nor was Tek exactly that good a receiver in his early days. Game caller and pitcher handler sure, but he was good for double digit passed balls every year until 2001 and led the league in passed balls twice. Sounds eerily familiar to me. People like to give up on Salty because he's been in the big leagues for so long but he was promoted WAAAAAAY earlier than Tek was. Tek's rookie year was his age 26 campaign. Tek got a lot of time to work on what Salty's still working on now, in college and in the minors. Now I'm not saying anything more than exactly what I'm saying. No implications stated or implied. But it's worth thinking about isn't it? It's way too early to give up on Jarrod Saltalamacchia.

Salty from Opening Day to August 31: .781 OPS Salty in September: .542 OPS Hope you worked on your conditioning, kid.

Salty IS league average. Everything he does pretty well and everything he does pretty poorly average out to a reasonably normal starting catcher. If he can work on blocking pitches better and get on base a bit more consistently he'll be above average. He's good for a 95 OPS+ which is actually substantially above the catching norm and he's a replacement level defender dragged down a bit in numbers by trying to handle the K-ball for the first time in his life last year. He also caught 31% of runners stealing against him, so his arm isn't awful. Like I said, it averages out. He compares roughly to a Miguel Olivo type, or did last year. That's not awesome, but it isn't a hole at catcher either. Frankly before he ran out of gas in late August he'd been doing much better. September was murder for Salty and probably played a big role in what happened to the team. Through August he had a .781 OPS, which for a catcher is outright good. He'd been a nontrivial asset to the team up to that point. I'd expect him to try to improve his conditioning so he can take 400 at bats without flagging like that and that ought to make a big difference.

If it's actually GDA, then it doesn't need to just be the iphone. Sounds like ORS is right, that the GDA itself would apply across platforms and the At Bat app is just a way to access GDA over the iPhone That said get the annual subscription, I can't see it not working on your iPhone and if for some bizarre reason it fails, you can still access it over the computer.

So if you have at bat and a good data plan you probably don't need to pay for GDA.

Well, we've got a good crew on the radio. Joe Castiglione is an institution.

Not sure you have to get both at bat and GDA. Make sure getting At-Bat doesn't give you audio access as a perk before springing for both. They bundle audio into a number of packages -- they seem to realize that radio/audio broadcasts are their best ambassador and are spreading that technology in the hopes of upselling everyone to video. So don't overspend if you don't have to.

I absolutely love GDA. Had it 5 years running now and don't plan on doing without it any time soon. Baseball was made for radio and I'd pay $15 just for the Red Sox games, which I can't always receive dependably because a nearby hill causes radio interference. The out of market stuff is just so much bonus.

MLB.com at bat 12

http://boston.redsox.mlb.com/bos/fan_forum/redsox_nation_sell.jsp Get the basic membership. $14.95. It'll include GDA at a reduced price along with some cheap made-in-china junk. The junk is worth putting up with for the audio discount. I think there's a way to access this stuff on a smartphone, something called the MLB At Bat app, but since I don't have a smartphone, can't confirm or deny.

Yep. I purchased early and got a $5 discount by going to the Red Sox website and getting a Red Sox Nation basic package so I'm paying $15. On the main MLB website, it's $20. It can take some finding BTW. They really would rather sell you the more expensive MLB.TV package that's $20 a month. Since it's still Spring, look into the RSN membership, you might get the reduced price still.

I'm getting the audio through Game Day Audio. $20 a year for pretty much every audio broadcast all year and through the postseason. If you love radio baseball, it's a good cash outlay considering how many out of market games you get. Not all spring games are broadcast.

Yes. YESSS. Definitely. My favorite part of baseball coming back.

Actually I can definitely think of an "exception that proves the rule" in the semantic sense. The scenario I'd have in mind would be someone coming up with an off the wall "exception" that's technically legit but has no bearing in reality. Sort of using the phrase as a more polite version of "if that's the best you can do, we're done here." Regardless, all this straining at gnats has little bearing on the fact that Emmz has nothing in this argument but skepticism not particularly well backed by persistent ad homenim argument and repeated attempts to prove a negative -- or to admit by omission that she can't. You really aren't in a position to crow to anyone about Logic 101 at the moment, Emmz. Just saying.

Emmz. that post didn't even need to be made. It existed entirely to allow you to get the last word in a debate you weren't all that interested in and had managed to embarrass yourself slightly, And it proved his point brilliantly. You're better than this. Stop using nastiness in the place of logic. You're too good at logic for me to let you get away with that.

Who says we have to be realistic? Like baseball always conforms to your standards of realism (or mine). What's wrong with a little hope? Miller's hard-throwing ways give a bit of hope, and make him an interesting candidate for the pen where command standards are lower and it's easier to bring your A stuff. Is that really so insane?

Doc needs to be a guy who had the stones to hold both the player and the team back when it's important. These stiffs don't.

In theory he's supposed to have a cutter and a circle-change, so quoth Soxprospects.

Attaboy Crwaford. Return early, exacerbate your condition, show up much later. Someone please tell me his contract was insured.

It's BACK! I'm listening to Mariners-Athletics ball on Gameday Audio and I hadn't realized just how much I'd missed it. Full year of baseball audio, any team any time. Best $15 I've ever spent.

Oh OK. Sorry.