Dojji

The Pocket Ace bails us out again. I don't think there's a better longman in all of baseball right now, and it's saved our butts over and over again this year.

I actually agree with this. The Sox brought him up to pitch replacement innings, and replacement innings is just about what he pitched. I don't think you're going to get that much more out of him in terms of positive production. He's not a guy with the consistency to keep pitching indefinitely in a rotation. I think that you have to give him some credit considering we brought him in as a MLFA and he's got a winning record. But people are probably eyeing that ancient-history top overall pick and still trying to hold the kid to that standard, and by that standard he's been wretched.

Interesting, considering Miller's our 7th starter I'm not sure I see the point to your statement though.

Well there's the "our 5th starter should be an ace" caucus heard from. Kid's a replacement that we signed as an MLFA and he has a winning record. It doesn't look pretty, but he's doing fairly well.

I got good value out of my Red Sox Nation membership. They bundled in Gameday Audio which I would have paid the exact same amount of money for, and I got some cheap bling besides.

Before this year Andrew Miller wasn't a guy you even dared give the ball. Year by year his season lines were beyond wretched. He's only had one year in the past where he was even halfway tolerable and he was completely dead in the water last year. As bad as he's looked recently, this is still progress for him. I wouldn't call him a good pitcher, but he's at a level where he's mixing some tolerable to decent starts in, and you can ask the question -- well, what do you expect out of a guy who's 7th in the starter depth? He's a bad major leaguer but a major leaguer. I hope the Red Sox work with Miller for maybe another year or two. I don't think he'll be an ace at any point, but he's drifting gradually in the general direction of adequacy, and as a depth option, he's a guy you could get lucky on for a few starts to replace an injury, which is all you need to get out of the guy for what we're paying him. It is frustrating though, because even where he sucks you can see how he could be overpowering if he could just find the freaking zone. But he's what he is, and we can still get use out of him.

Doing a bit of that too, not stupid enough to deny it.

I wonder if the Mariners have any interest in Che-Hsuan Lin as part of a Bedard package. He's still young, still has some bounceback potential, and he has a skillset they seem to like. Maybe build a deal around him and Chih-Hsien Chiang whose value is on the high side at the moment. Just throwing ideas out there.

The key word here may be "almost." How close was it?

Point taken. It's just hard to get a feel for Lavarnway's value when you get people talking up his bat and talking down his glove in the same paragraph. Is he a catcher, or is he a DH? I imagine any team receiving Lavarnway would try to convince us that he's a DH and has no position, and that really hurts his ability to be traded for his actual value.

Nope, but he's still got the same stuff he had there, at least when he's in the field. Look, you don't want to give up a blue chip and you want a good pitcher, a guy like Bedard is your best bet. Something has to be there to bring down the trade value, and when it comes to shopping for flaws, I'll take injury risk over most of the others when you're talking about a short-term rental.

Then criticize the things that are actually the problem, not this other stuff that isn't. First time I've ever heard Camden Yards called a pitcher's park.

Umm, nope. Honestly it says more about how they feel about Lackey. Buchholz should be back by September at the latest and that should be enough to get up to speed for October. The question is can they count on Lackey to make playoff starts, or whether it's time to cram him into the 5th role.

The pitchers aren't any more of a problem than hitters who are forever calling time. The fact is that controlling the speed of the game is part of the gamesmanship of baseball. You really can't compress a baseball game into 2 hours without reducing it to a 6 inning game. The whole charm of the game is that they don't keep clock. It's part of what makes baseball, baseball, I'd be very slow to sacrifice that.

Yeah, but not for lack of success on Bedard's part. Isn't he still the last pitcher on the Orioles to win 15 or more games? He's won on bad teams when he's healthy for his whole career. A good power lefty is worth a risk or two. I don't see a good reason not to make a reasonable offer. Just don't be afraid to skip a start or two down the stretch to keep him healthy.

Cricket. And then some. A cricket match can be a weekend event. Also -- golf, tennis, etc. aren't major sports any more than boxing, MMA or horse racing.. They're niche sports with large followings. Not a bad thing to be. But the big 4 is the big 4 and the big 4 don't use ties. I mean what are you going to do, go to a home run derby? Use Hits as a tiebreaker? Both have some legitimacy to avoid extra frames, but extra frames are so traditional that you're not likely to see it. What's more reasonable is simply starting the game earlier. But the broadcasters won't let you do that so where does that leave us?

You want to beat the Phillies and Giants? He's a guy who'll help you. I wouldn't part with, say, Middlebrooks, who looks like a 2 way all star third baseman, but I could be talked out of Lavarnway, who's a guy we'll have trouble fitting into the lineup and the Mariners won't.

Intriguing, especially since he's pitched in the AL East, but I'd rather go after Kuroda. If the price in talent favors Bedard though, I'll get behind it. The Mariners would have to be interested in Lavarnway. They are dying for a bat and Lavarnway offers them some immediate help there with the possibility for elite offense. They have a ton of places to put his bat and have their DH spot live to slip him into if that's the way it has to be as well. You could get something done around that.

All the other major sports do not use ties, what gave you that impression? In fact sports are going away from ties. Basketball plays extra periods. Hockey goes to the shootout, and plays sudden death in the playoffs. Football plays sudden death overtime. Only soccer in the US plays to a tie. and in the playoffs, they use penalty kicks.

Gotta be some way to call this guy up and get him at bats. Can we play him in left field and just deal with the lack of range?

That would be ridiculous, considering that you have to pay a premium talent for a shortstop, you're destroying a lot of the value you get back if you make him a right fielder. Sides which, we have 3 solid starting outfielders right now.

Nope. LOL TITO He's a good manager but he had a terrible night last night.

TRY. NAVARRO. AT. SHORT. HE. CANNOT. POSSIBLY. BE. WORSE.

There's going to be games no matter how good the lineup is where you can't buy a run. It happens. If you're good, it doesn't happen often. Doesn't make it fun to watch though.

On that note, good night. This has "the Royals squib a fluke run across in extra innings" or "16th inning failapalooza" written all over it and I want no part. I saw what I wanted to see today -- Lester. Later folks.