Dojji

C'mon rook, bear down and get this last out.

OK looks like the Yankees are going to make Tazawa work a bit harder.

He gets Tex, Tazawa should give us 6 today.

He could, concievably, go 7 if you assume about 20 pitches an inning. Wouldn' that be something.

I wouldn't think so, pitch count 61 through 4, he could get 6 without a lot of trouble barring a total implosion..

I think the kid might just work out. He seems to have the right kind of amnesia.

Well done, rook. Got out of the jam.

Nice pitch.

Get the ball down, rook.

juuuuuust a little high.

Don't get ahead of ourselves though. This is a rookie on the mound, and implosions happen.

Don't respond to them. Especially don't quote him. First of all it only encourages them, secondly that means those of us who have wisely already put the guy on our Ignore List still have to read his posts. Good work so far by the rookie. He's done what he needs to do.

the trolls are out in force.

You wouldn't mistake Tazawa for an ace but he's doing his job so far.

YEAAAHHHHHH!!! OUR TURN!!!

because we're getting curb stomped by the Yankees -- which happens every year in the second half of the season -- and so certain of the less veteran fans around here are starting to panic about how the season is over. Honestly I'd be more nervous if we DID dominate the yankees for an entire season, espcially if there was no reason for it. That would break the pattern, you see.

even if true Gom that's a pretty big difference.

John Lackey is overrated. He's a good not great starter who's had injury problems each of the last 2 years and will want paying like the ace he isn't. Given the choice I'd rather have a guy I know will either be effective or injured. Really given the choice, I'd prefer a superior third option worth really spending money on but all those guys are getting locked up by their teams.

Is it just the health or do you have some other reason?

Do look seriously at Bedard. Yes, he's less than healthy, but the health problems he's having are arm and shoulder related, and those are issues that we're better than an average MLB team at dealing with. It would be possible, although I'm not altogether sure how likely, to get Bedard at a reduced rate for a short term deal to give him a chance to work with our system, get his arm in order, and then go back to the well for his last big contract. If you can do that it would be a huge coup and would make our rotation extremely formidable, especially if Daisuke goes back to at least his 2008 form and Buchholz shows flashes of the form he's showing in these last few starts.

Lowell will still be with us next year and would benefit from time at DH. Sitting Ortiz against LHP makes sense on two fronts next year. I'm banking on the Red Sox being able to re-sign Jason Bay. If we do that, the entire offseason becomes predictable. I'd cut ties with Ortiz, swap for Adam Dunn, DH him, acquire Hardy, and take a serious look at bringing in Erik Bedard to bolster the rotation. The downside is one of his usual disappearing acts, but Bedard is still effective while healthy and is proven in the AL East. A rotation of Beckett-Lester-Bedard-Matuzaka-Buchholz would be phenominal if it works out. Personally I'd make Varitek a generous offer to switch roles from player to bench coach and call up Dusty Brown to be the backup catcher, or allow him to act as the bench coach while also playing catcher part-time. I'm not sure he'd accept because he seems to think he can still play (and in fairness, he still has OK numbers on the season) but I'd at least make the attempt before I expected Varitek to move on which is really what needs to happen this offseason..

I want to be clear that I'd look at Dunn mostly as a DH and not want him in the field in non-emergency situations. that said, I have nothing against acquiring Dunn as long as we don't stop there. I'd really like to grab Hardy. Shortstop is our biggest point of deficit with this lineup as it is and there really isn't a lot of downside to a Hardy acquisition.. At his current level he's an upgrade on what we have, and that's sad. If he gets his 20 HR form back, the difference will be amazing. And as a righthanded pull hitter, a Mike Lowell style bounceback is far from out of the question.

I guess in the end my problem lies with his batting average. As long as he can hit at least .240 or so he should be OK, but low average sluggers make me a bit nervous because they don't have to fall back that far before their lack of AVG impacts their OBP and SLG and begins to neutralize their primary advantages. Carlos Pena suffered from that for years before he got it together down in Tampa. If Dunn is your best hitter and he goes into a BABIP driven tailspin for a month, you're in trouble even if his numbers wind up looking good at the end of the year. However, if you surround him with a lineup full of other competent power hitters, he might thrive in a way that'll blow your mind. I would replace Ortiz with Dunn at the moment in a heartbeat. I would not count on him as our best power hitter, with Youks ahead of him and Bay, Lowell and Drew behind him (in other words as the #5 hitter) he'd be a great option.

For the sicnkess to be termed a clinical depression, there is a physical (read: probably chemical) aspect to the illness. I agree you need to do more than just throw pills at a victim of clinical depression, but medication can be a necessary part of the recovery process too.