Dojji

Desperation, that's why. They need to bring in a veteran OF. Or... OK, let me be clearer. They need to ditch Hermida and bring in someone who can play 3 positions. Hall's the only reason Hermida's even adequate -- that won't do.

Time to look for replacements. We can't keep the patchwork outfield going all year -- if nothing else, we need our backups to be able to cover for the inevitable 3 week Drew back-related vacation towards the second half of the year. Also, I don't want Reddick up any more than he has to be. Dejesus is the guy I want, but it's time to discuss alternatives as if we might have to use them. What else is out there that's worth going for?

This just in: Water is wet. Rose, I think, knew more or less what would happen to his legacy. Sometimes something's worth laying EVERYTHING on the line for, even your dignity and self-respect, maybe he thought the record was one of those things.

I guess I don't feel that way because I always take hype with an oceanful of salt and set my expectations accordingly.

I'm an ardent believer in catcher's defense being important. I would rather have Yadier Molina on our roster than any of the league's big thumpers (other than Joe Mauer of course, who is great at both). If you can't get one of those guys, then sure, shore up bad defense with the best offense you can, but a catcher's primary job is to be our defensive general.

There's a place for acquiring a few veterans and key players to stabilize a roster, but lasitter's right that there's a lot of ways it can go wrong. Look what happened to the Kansas City Royals. They signed Guillen and Meche, and for a couple years it almost worked -- when Guillen hit and Meche was effective, there were signs that the Royals were beginning to move in the right direction. But then Guillen just plain fell apart down the stretch of the first year and hasn't even been somewhat effective since then, and their manager pulled a total duncecap move and left their $11M/year ace on the mound for 130 pitches and he hasn't been right since. Now both of those two are major anchors on the roster stopping them from making good positive moves and performance wise they're at nearly their maximum downside. I'd say that's more of a disaster for a franchise than anything that's happened to us in living memory. It's worth pointing out though that even with the Guillen and Meche signings the Royals have been among the biggest draft spenders in the league -- and that their minor league ratings are starting to reflect that. Even with two major, hugely expensive blights on their big league roster I think KC is still lurching drunkenly in the general direction of success. So I see where Lasitter's coming from, but I really think that he's kind of overblowing the impact of the Daisuke signing. One thing the Sox have not had trouble doing is paying over slot for worthy talent in the draft. Besides which, other than 2009 where he was suffering from a well-documented shoulder injury, Daisuke has been, if not exactly an ace, at least someone you can enfold under the Wakefield Clause -- looks very ugly in many given outings, but if you look back at the overall season you can see a lot to be satisfied with.

yeah well, you know me, any odd novelty gets me intrigued and I want to see it tried. I agree that the downside may not be worth the upside.

Decided to go through the Gameday stuff and apparently I wasn't wrong about Hall's movement -- Gameday's Pitch F/X identified 7 of Hall's 11 pitches as Cutters, which is almost certainly not accurate but does at least indicate his fastball was running a little. http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/gameday/index.jsp?gid=2010_05_28_kcamlb_bosmlb_1&mode=wrap

Glad I'm not the only one. Hey, maybe Hall should develop a knuckleball.

Crazy Dojji Theory Time, but what with the state of the lower echelons of this bullpen, I wouldn't mind seeing Hall tried on the mound again in a no-pressure situation. Basically I really liked what he managed to do and think he might be able to repeat it. He did a lot of what people pull their hair out trying to convince a pitcher to do -- kept away from the middle of the plate, kept it low, hit his spots at 89, and induced 3 ground ball outs, that starts to hover around the fringes of actual usefulness, especially when you're talking about pitching in relief. It went beyond the novelty of having a position player pitch to the point that Hall actually looked good out there (I know, I know, it was the Royals, but still). My eyes might be tricking me but I even thought I saw his fastball move a little towards the end of his inning http://mlb.mlb.com/video/play.jsp?content_id=8455089 Two of those outs the catcher isn't even moving his glove, the third is a perfect 0-2 pitch on the outside corner where the hitter has to go get it and probably hits it on the ground.. Again, pitching coaches tear their hair out trying to get that from a lot of young kids. It's not like we really have a great deal to lose, he's on the roster either way, and you never know if we could wind up in the kind of situation that had Javier Lopez in right field a couple years ago -- having a guy who could come in from left field, retire one righthanded hitter, and then go back into left field, could potentially be useful. Being able to wrangle having 13 pitchers and 13 players on a 25 man roster could also come in handy in some of the crazier games you encounter in a regular season. Ehh, it's just a vagrant thought. I put it out there mostly so I can have said it somewhere so I can move on from it, so take it FWIW.

Hall has kinda been an unsing hero for the Sox this year. He plays all infield and outfield positions, posts an .800+ OPS at the moment, hits with righthanded power, filled in nicely when 2 of our 3 starting OF were/are out and apparently can hit the corners with an 89 mile an hour fastball. I just thought it was appropriate that he recieve some love. He's been a pretty important piece for the team and it's easy to miss IMHO.

My thought was that it was 7 fantastic innings against a mediocre team. No more, no less. he's certainly got great stuff, let's see if he can keep it up for a few months before crowning him God. Couple warning signs going forward though. He's got that W to his windup that can raise concerns about his health longterm and I thought he threw too much from the shoulder. I'm hardly an expert though. It's up to his team not to abuse him and let him develop the muscles he needs to fully achieve his ceiling before trying to treat him as if he already has. talented young phenoms are the most vulnerable possible thing, if you abuse them you reap hell for it for years, but it can be hard to resist when you have this kid with unbelievable stuff and you're trying to win games.

It's a pertinent bit of info, so it should be added to the mix a medical professional should be considering.

There's a rumor that we may have inked Cecchini at a 1.6M figurre. No link. I thought he would be a tough sign, so this would be an interesting development.

But it hasn't been 8 weeks. Ellsbury tried a comeback a couple weeks ago. If he's reinjured something...

I think it's at least time to call a few teams to see what we can get for an additional MLB-caliber outfielder.

You're very wrong.

http://badgerandblade.com/vb/attachment.php?attachmentid=80384&d=1261624114 http://i217.photobucket.com/albums/cc198/youngbloodz531/soccer-kidfail.jpg http://pwnedvideo.neswblogs.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/pwned.jpg

Holy crap, Suns doesn't even know basic baseball terminology. Hey Suns -- it was a borderline call. Shelley needs to protect the plate with 2 strikes when it's that close ANY freaking way.

http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e81/Imgran/Durr.png

Use the file attachment thingee.

I'll take my chances.

http://www.boston.com/sports/baseball/redsox/extras/extra_bases/2010/06/red_sox-Guardians.html Vitek has agreed to a contract, if that hasn't already been brought up..

Save yourself the embarrassment of having to admit that you believe that every pitch to the catcher's left is "outside.'