Dojji

Yes, I do, especially based on a 5 or so game sample of infrequent play in the final month of the season. If it was Rask getting that playing schedule you wouldn't want me tryiing to use that as any kind of qualitative judgement. I know because we've had this conversation. Sure, Rask outplays Thomas. Rask this year outplays everyone. That doesn't mean that Thomas is a bad goaltender, or that he couldn't win a game if he was called on to do so. In his own right, Tim Thomas is a very respectable goaltender, and when he was in for the B's he carried his weight. Yes, even this year. The 4 goaltenders immediately surrounding Tim Thomas in the final SV% rankings this year (the two just above, and the two just below) were Martin Brodeur, Johan Hedberg, Chris Mason, and Roberto Luongo. In GAA, it's Jonathan Quick, Thomas Vokoun, Brian Elliot, and aforementioned Luongo. Yes, he slightly outplayed Roberto Luongo in both SV% and GAA. That's pretty sweet company all things considered. Sure he isn't Tuuka the Invincible, but could he win you a game? The guys around him sure could, and he sure has in the past, I see no reason at all not to answer that question with a "Heck yes." Take the emotionalism out of it and actually look at the numbers, this guy's done a good job. Yes, even this year. He got outplayed by a guy with a puncher's chance to be in the company of Patrick Roy when he retires, ultimately that's out of his control. What he can control though, is his performance on the ice, and he did quite a fine job there, thank you.

If Ells goes down, we might see Nava up. He's not off to the best start this year, but he was great last year for Portland and is a good switch hitter with high contact rates in the minors.

We don't need an LF. We have 5 guys who can play the outfield when Cameron and Ellsbury are healthy. All of them can get around LF better than Jermaine Dye.

Honestly, I'm all for rotating Thomas in a couple games here and there if we find ourselves in a situation where we can possibly get away with it. There are pros and cons to it, and the dropoff from Rask to Thomas isn't as drastic as people make it out to be. The local Church of the Holy Tuukka is stridently opposed though, and they hold a supermajority. Just to play it straight, although I know you're being sarcastic, if we do win Game 4 I'd like to see Thomas out there for game 5. If that's going to do Tuukka any harm at all, he's not the Messianic figure he's made out to be.

What can he do that Lowell can't? We're already spending $13M on a RHH with no clear role, why pick up another one?

The Angels would be a better comp. Not as consistently low as we are, but in the playoffs more often than out of them over the last few years -- and while they develop their share of young players tyou'll note that that development tends to be erratic and unpredictable for them too. The Twins are up and down, by design it would almost seem, and they don't build as much from the draft as you'd think. Yeah, most of their stars are homegrown, for certain values of "homegrown." But their franchise player is literally a #1 overall pick, which Boston will *never* have, at least one devoutly hopes not. Basically they play the small market cycles, and try to use clever drafting, good trades and a consistent strategy to force the peaks to be bigger than the vallieys. Since they're a mid market team playing like a small market, they do spend money to keep their players a bit longer, but I can't recall the last time the Twins really spent big on FA -- they just swan dive into the early picks for awhile instead so they don't have to -- thus, Mauer being a Twin rather than a Royal or a Ray.

I have a new favorite player. Elegant in a brutal kind of way, and perfectly clean. Textbook ice hockey contact. Pity Ellis got hurt, but he needs to keep his head up in open ice.

Did you see that Boychuk hit? That was incredible. He completely tuned the guy up.

Riiiiiiiiiight. Pull the other one, it's got bells on it.

You're actually wrong on that (@yankees228). Teixeira to the Yankees was a persistent rumor even during the previous season's trade deadline discussions, the Angels simply beat the best known NYY offer. He'd also been linked to the Yankees in offseason rumors several times well before it was obvious where he was going. Rumors did hold that interest to be somewhat tepid, but I didn't believe that at the time and I still don't. Swisher or no Swisher, you see an opportunity to fill a problem position (like 1B for NYY) with a proven 27 year old star level hitter in an offseason in which you've just missed the playoffs and are committed to spend big to improve the team anyway, your reaction is not "tepid."

It takes two guys to sign a contract, three if you count Scott Boras. Boras and Teixeira felt that playing the Sox-Yankees angle as long as possible would increase the size of the contract. It's pretty standard Boras fare really. On the other hand the Sox weren't making a serious play for Sabathia, and no one else really wanted to play against the offer already on the table, so there was less reason for CC to hold out. Swisher gave them options, but it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that the Yankees would still go 100% after Teixeira, even with Swisher in the fold. Xavier Nady isn't really that good anyway and probably would have been relegated to a backup role on that team even if he had been healthy all year. So yeah, you've got a good point here, but not really good enough to convince me that the Yankees weren't fully committed to bringing Teixeira to New York and beating any effort by Boston to do so. And while I admit I'm basing that mostly on conjecture, what isn't conjecture is that New York really wanted Teixeira and had more money to spend on a new first baseman than Boston did. The running assumption that some Boston fans have that if we had beaten the winning offer by $10M, the Yankees would simply have bowed out and moved on seems very unrealistic to me.

If Theo had 190 million on the table we'd have Tex playing first base for the Yankees on a 200 million dollar contract. If he had 210 million, we'd have Tex playing first base for the Yankees on a 220 million dollar contract. And so on. Get the point yet? We have a ton of money to play with, but we're the #2 guy playing up against the chip leader. Just because we could beat the best known offer, doesn't mean the Yankees wouldn't have simply re-raised until we had to fold.

We haven't missed the playoffs in what, 4 years? That's actually about right. 03 04 05 we make it, we miss 06, 07 08 09 we make it. even if we miss this year any GM takes that pattern.

Alternatively we could have had Lowell at first, Youk at third. I have no reason to believe Beltre was ever Plan A. Youkilis isn't so bad at 3B that we couldn't have gone for a power-hitting 1B for a year, especially not with Lowell on the bench to retain flexibility.

These are the ones that I either agree with or, at least, would look into. 5: Pedroia isn't a conventional 3 hitter, but his and Victor Martinez' offensive profiles (apart from the obvious speed issue) really aren't that different -- and going Ells-Scutaro-Peddy-Youk-Vmart-&c. might help stretch the lineup out a bit. 7: If you did bay Pedroia third, you could get Ells on, move him over with Scutaro without wasting a good hitter, and then be a Peddy or Youk single away from a run. I'm not a big small ball fan, but our offense isn't going to be what it usually is, so looking into ways to make runs happen makes some sense. 8: We definitely need to upgrade defensively at catcher.

Yeah, no real desire to trade with the Angels over here. Anyone we deal will come back to haunt us in the playoffs. I'd rather deal with marginal contender like the Rangers or Diamondbacks, both of whom have quality catchers.

Anyway guys, point being that he then had, and had when we acquired him, substantially more velocity than he now has, thanks to a string of injuries which are probably on his refusal to fully adjust to an American baseball paradigm. and when a guy's velocity drops that much and his command, once one of his major assets, suffers that much, there's probably a shoulder related reason why. The fact that he's rehabbed that shoulder twice and the problem hasn't gone away probably suggests that it's structural. The longer Daisuke drags his feet getting that problem taken care of the less we'll get out of him

LOL. So basically we're going to come back to this game sometime in May or June, and come in in the bottom of the ninth with probably different rosters on both teams, when one swing coulda ended this game tonight.

ARE YOU FISKING KIDDING ME??? Rain delay? NOW??

Larry Doby was an excellent power-hitting outfielder and served the Guardians and whoever else he played for to several fantastic offensive seasons. But in terms of overall talent, he wasn't Jackie. Great in his own right, deserving of more respect than he got, but just not Jackie.

Beckett has been impressive. Let's see if we can get him a win.

I wouldn't worry too much about scoring a young catcher guys. We have some young guys with good arms in the minors. Wagner's supposedly got a gun, and he could be with us next year, or sooner if the Sox decide to eat Tek's contract. He could be valuable on that basis even if he can't hit at the plate. And longer term, we have Exposito, Federowicz, and Lavarnway hasn't gone the way of Jon Still just yet

When Daisuke first came here, the first 2-3 months he was sitting at 93, 94 miles an hour and flashing 96 from time to time. I don't know what's happened since then, mabe he just couldn't sustain it with the faster turnaround in the 5 man American rotation, maybe his stubbornness with his workout regimen just plain came back to bite him, but ever since about August of 2007, 93's the upper end of his velocity and he doesn't get there very often. Also the vaunted command, excellent the last time we can definitely confirm he was healthy, deserted him at about the same time. Those two signs put together point to shoulder trouble, and have done fairly consistently for 2 1/2 years. I think that shoulder is more screwed up than he's prepared to admit, and I think he keeps making other excuses so that he doesn't have to admit he needs shoulder surgery. because when you have shoulder surgery you know you're out for a season, whereas if you're just rehabbing, you could still come back and pitch much earlier. It's that twisted Japanese work ethic screwing the investment up again, where being as effective as possible comes second to showing up out of loyalty, trying your impaired best, and failing valiantly. If you're hurt, get better, then come back and pitch. Don't try to impress us with your dependability by dependably sucking.