Dojji

Hmm. Lester Buchholz Daisuke Lackey Wakefield Until Beckett comes back strong from the DL, you could make a case for either Lackey or Daisuke as the #3 right now.

5-2, 4.59 ERA. Consistently sitting 93-94 and touching 96. Coming right along. He's got his fastball back, he's logging innings again, he's finessing his way out of trouble again, and he's beginning to bear a slight scent of consistency. He even looks a little more confident out there. He's gonna get rolling as the days get longer and will be our #3 by August.

NOW it's over. Feel free to gloat.

let's see if we can win this game. This is technically not over.

That was quick. Ehh, it's the price you pay for a pure power reliever.

Bardo in. Put 'er away. Good work, Daisuke. You earned your money today.

Who's warming?

Great game by Daisuke. Let him finish?

He's 28 years old and got called up from the minors.

Better deal than I thought. I still would rather they had not re-signed Ference, but oh well.

He'll walk into the hall. First ballot, no question. What a run! I think he was the last active position player to have played in the 1980's. (Moyer, obviously, is the last pitcher) I wonder, if you'd ask him what his favorite career moment was, if he'd still say playing the outfield alongside his dad in 1990 and 1991.

Indeed, instead of "correction" meaning his ERA gets worse, right now his peripherals are getting better.

That sounds fair. I'd expect Moore not to hang up the phone. Bowden is a tempting player for a small market team because you see the potential if you can straighten him out, and everyone loves power LHRP's.

defnitely need to look at trading for an OF. It looks like we really screwed up Reddick for the year with the upsy-downishness.

What pieces would you look to deal for Dejesus then? What would you consider a fair price?

I definitely wouldn't want Hulett playing SS for more time than absolutely necessary. I'd honstly rather move Pedroia to SS for a couple games and play Hulett at 2B. He's not a very good SS. So it's a legitimate concern. One hopes Jed Lowrie will be available at some point this season for at least emergency duty.

At the risk of making an ass of myself, isn't that what we got Tug Hulett for? minor league depth at a couple different IF positions? If you mean "a guy who can back up at SS" then say so. We definitely have a problem there and 3B as well. Something like this was why I wanted to bring back Nick Green last offseason. (also, if we picked up a veteran OF, Hall would be more available to spell our IF if we needed him to)

So Dipre. You're playing Theo for a day. Dayton Moore calls you on the phone. He wants to sell us David Dejesus. The proposed return is Felix Doubront . Do you touch that deal? Pros: A player who primarily plays the 2 positions we need the most at the moment, LF and CF Doubront's future here is limited, since all 5 rotation spots are locked down for the next few years at least and Casey Kelly's waiting in the wings. Dejesus' style meshes well with what Boston's trying to do Would help ensure we don't have to rush Cameron and Ellsbury back. Mike Greenwell had a good run in Boston. Cons: Dejesus is a guy who does a little of everything but is very good at nothing. He can hit doubles but is not a 20 HR hitter, can run a little but is not a speedy baserunner, Solid defensively but not great in CF, and his skill in LF is rendered less useful in Fenway. Likely he isn't going to be a great Fenway RF given his average arm. He's basically a rich man's David Murphy, in other words. Doubront is a fairly talented LHSP who is currently among our top 10 prospects. Dejesus could get caught without a position if Cameron and Ellsbury both do return healthy after all, making the deal look silly.

That's what Bill Hall is for.

I still wouldn't count on Cameron and Ellsbury to come back until they are back. If it's mid June and we still have one or both of these guys out it's time to make a trade IMHO. Not a blockbuster, but maybe for a solid guy who could play a couple different roles down the stretch. You can't wait forever for guys to get healthy when they might not, that's the mistake we made last year with Lowrie and while we got lucky with Green, it was the right move to bring in a veteran to finish out the season when Green wore down and it would have been the right move 2 months prior when he started showing signs of falling to earth. I have no interest in repeating the mistake in both left and center at the same time. Cameron's 37 and it's just as likely that even if we get him back from his current thing, something else goes wrong -- that's part of what happens to an older ballplayer. As for Ellsbury, I consider him a good bet to recover eventually, but the last time we had broken ribs on this team it took Wakefield out for the entire remainder of the season other than a handful of starts in September. Admittedly this was Wakefield's age 40 season and Ellsbury is much younger and healthier, but agaiin, I'm not counting on him until he's actually back in the lineup, and it's only going to take one of these guys not coming back to make acquiring a veteran OF a very good idea.. I wonder what the asking price is on David Dejesus. No surprise coming from me, I know, but he's a fit IMHO as a guy who could fill either role decently, is probably underrated enough to be affordable, is on a team that should be looking to deal its veterans, and isn't a guy who'd take playing time from someone else if all our OF's are healthy. He's also a guy I'd like to have on hand for Drew's inevitable 2 week back-related vacation down the stretch. Honestly I think he's a better fit for Boston's philosophy than Cameron in particular anyhow.

Lakers in 5. I really don't believe in this Celtics team at all. Their regular season leads me to believe this is just exactly the kind of team that sneaks its way into an Eastern Championship only to get stoned by the Lakers.

http://static.funnyjunk.com/pictures/triple.jpg

Trailing only the teams in our division no less. One win and a Toronto loss and we'll be second in the WC standings. They turned it around! We're back in this race, folks! Now let's see if we can sustain a run and get into the wildcard lead.

Well played, sir.

http://pilar.homelinux.org/~mcphailb/photos/galleries/01/20021231/bigimages/DSC00275.jpg