Dojji

I'm beginning to wonder if I shouldn't reconsider my idea not to take April seriously. This is ridiculous.

That was the game.

Salty bringing it with the glove this game, I like.

Casual fan since the 80's, lost heart in that real bad stretch in the early 90's, started paying more attention at the tail end of 2003 and into the 2004 season, really turned on the jets in the 2006 season

Not even in jest Jacko. Seriously, you're supposed to be a doctor.

Whoops. I was wondering why I wound up with a 10 man lineup. I do think that any lineup you create for maximim offensive impact should have Lowrie in it as a SS. He could drop off a lot as a hitter and still be better than Scutaro and on days when he isn't subbing at one of the other infield spots or DH, he should be playing short.

Schill was cocksure, but he backed it up on the field, and had his best moments of all in the playoffs, which Clemens never did for us. Schilling's last pitch for us was in a winning effort bringing the second of two rings he brought to Boston, and in both cases he was playing through some serious health problems to get us there (the ankle in 2004, a messed up shoulder in 2007). That immediately rates him far, far above Rajah on the backs-it-up-on-the-field-o-meter. If Rajah had had similar injuries to what Schilling had had in either postseason, there isn't the slightest glimmer of a doubt in my mind he would not have even pitched.

Actually Youks is a little better overall hitter than Gonzo, if you look at all facets of hitting and not just power -- he hits for a higher average and puts the ball in play better, which is odd for a guy who came up at first as a walks-first hitter, but he made that sea change a few years ago and it should surprise no one now. Gonzo's offense is locked into power making him the ideal #4 type. I'm not taking anything away from Gonzo as an amazing slugger, but purely as a balanced all around hitter, Youks is a little better. A modern style lineup might resemble: Ellsbury Pedroia Youkilis Gonzalez Crawford Pedroia Ortiz Drew Saltalamacchia Lowrie

Uggh. I do that sometimes. I know it's really "peace" but I write by sound, and if that makes no sense to you, it still makes more than it does to me. Eh. Will fix.

http://www.boston.com/sports/baseball/redsox/extras/extra_bases/2011/04/former_red_sox_1.html Rest in peace. EDIT: You know, I would absolutely hate someone if this turned out to be an April Fools joke.

There's a real difference between a guy who kills the ball for his entire minor league career, reaches the majors, and still hits at a decent-but-not-great clip in his novice campaign, whose only real fault as a prospect is that he started his minor league career at the age of 25, and a guy who kicks around the minors forever and finally turns it on at age 32. One is just an unconventional prospect, the other is a bona fide fluke. I mean we're talking about a guy with a career minor league line of .272/.333/.404 here. The chance of major regression is NOT trivial. Sure, Nava could bomb out too, but as he hasn't yet, he's a better longterm bet than McDonald. The only reason I make no fuss about the current roster is because we need a backup CF and can't leave that to Drew. Nava doesn't help us there. As for Blanco, he's got 600 at bats in the big leagues, most as a starting CF, and while power will never be in his game, he's a good bet to be an outfield version of Scutaro, and has a career MLB OBP of about .350 with useful speed. No one would mistake him for a starter here, but as a speedy bench RHH with an OBP/speed focus, he's a useful player that doesn't belong in the minors.

I noticed that the Royals waived Gregor Blanco. It kinda floored me -- I know he doesn't have a lot of power but the guy is a legit 4th OF at worst over his career so far. And the Royals outfield, frankly, is crap -- I would have thought he was the one guy who was more or less guaranteed a spot as the only OF in their system who hit to a 100 OPS+ last year Anyone think we should take a look? If there's any way we could grab this guy and stash him in Pawtucket he'd be really useful depth, and we're really short on young RHH outfielders. I don't really trust McDonald, guys like him come and go, and I think he had a career year last year and strongly suspect he won't fare as well in his encore performance, and Blanco is a guy you can play out as Ellsbury insurance, put in the leadoff mix and he can be productive, he's done that whenever he's gotten regular at bats. I dunno, probably just blowing smoke, but the guy's young, cheap, and actually fairly talented and like I said, I'm a bit leery of McD -- I think Blanco is a slightly better bet all around. Thoughts?

We're supposed to be all excitied because Rajah's in the crowd? OK

Butler comming in really impressed me on just how big Saltalamacchia is. He's no shrimp is he?

Gotta love how most of these guys were in the last 5 years. C'mon guys, we had some real stinkers in the mid 90's. None of those guys was worse than Lugo? Seriously?

http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/g/grovele01.shtml

I still think strike three in that all-critical 8th was way outside.

I'm not even going to worry about individual games until about July. I've seen bad starts kill a season, but generally those who want to blame exclusively the bad start are exaggerating its significance. So in the meantime, I'm going to do what I do every early season -- just enjoy the ride and be glad they're back.

Swing and a long drive to left, way back! Deep into the night! Three run walkoff home run by Manny Ramirez The Red Sox go up 2 games to nothing on a bomb by Manny! Can you believe it?!"

All these, plus "back to back to back to back."

Attention recieved, mission accomplished.

Are we really assuming Wakefield? I have to think that at this stage of his career Wake can lose his job. I'd go for the front 4 plus Aceves, Oki and Atchison.

You ain't wrong.

Well, I guess that settles me, doesn't it?