Dojji

Actually Clay Meredith's first name is really Olise. Olise Claiborne Meredith. And if you've never heard of that name before you aren't alone. Apparently someone's parents owned a book of 18th century baby names and a pair of dice or something. Not really disputing your premise, just dispersing trivia.

If the Rays drop out of it, maybe we can snag Kapler on waivers.

Pretty much a lost season for Anderson. No one's going to give up on him but I hope he can at least identify the underlying issues so he can work in the offseason and come back better next year. If he starts off slow next season Anthony Rizzo might just pass him on the prospect charts.

Who could forget Carl Everett? He belongs in this thread somewhere.

I'd say it's on par with the time Jacoby hurt his shoulder on a diving play in the outfield and had to sit out awhile. Sure it didn't have to happen, but the way the guy plays sometimes it happens anyway. You want to try to tell Youkilis he needs to play with less passion and intensity, you might take him off the rest of his game. I'm not going to say that the suspension was at all productive, or even that it had a silver lining. I wouldn't change the parts of Youkilis that led to that suspension though.

And then there's some favorites from a team that drove me into inactivity as a fain. http://z.about.com/d/baseball/1/0/5/F/-/-/scottcooper.jpg Scott Cooper was not an awful baseball player. He wasn't the all star prospect he was supposed to be and he had the great misfortune to succeed one of the best third baseman we've ever had. He got on base pretty well and put together a couple good seasons. That said, the guy was not the medicine we needed at third base in the early nineties. When I came back, I came back to the Youk cheer, which was very much like the old COOOOOOOOP cheer. It brought back the memories of this guy and all the things he did for Boston as a player. You might say it affected my opinion of Kevin Youkilis. http://jaredran.files.wordpress.com/2007/10/carlos-quintana.jpg How you, as a team which fancied itself a contender, could countenance Carlos Quintana as your starting first baseman, I have no freaking idea. The guy made Casey Kotchman look like Prince Fielder offensively, and he made Prince Fielder look like Casey Kotchman defensively.

I have to admit, I pretty much flamed out in the mid 90's. I was around for Garciaparra's debut and then just... lost interest. Didn't really have the Internet around to keep me informed so I was left with AP news clips and the occasional radio broadcast and that really didn't do it for me. Dad's a Padres fan and a career bean counter -- far more interested in the sheer numbers and stats of things than he is in MLB baseball. Not exactly the right type to really convey the exciitement of the game. Other than a handful of radio broadcasts I never really got the feeling back. I watched 2004, celebrated with everyone else, then I drifted away again. I was glad they'd done it, but if you understand, it was because I was glad for the Sox fan I USED to be. They still didn't really have my attention. I think I maybe listened to 3 games from the 2005 season. Amazingly, one of them was the debut of Jonathan Papelbon. The name stuck in my head and without knowing anything else about him and with extremely limited access to team info I still had a hunch we'd be hearing from him. Really, and I think this explains some of my screwed up priorities sometimes, but it was the 2006 team that actually got me hooked back on the Sox for good. You see, I can't necessarily love a good team that I didn't watch get built. I'm just not wired that way. As we coasted slowly towards disaster that year I actually began to do things I'd never done before. I started looking up names and researching players. I started looking for venues to talk team. As the team died down the stretch I woke up one morning and realized I'd memorized the 25 man roster of a team whose roster was constantly in flux. It's the oddest thing. I come in in media res in '03, '04, and '05, see teams in action that are already good, and I sort of followed for a few games and then wandered away. I followed the meltdown in '06 and couldn't get enough of that, and ever since seldom miss more than a couple games in a row. For some reason I needed the one bad year to remember why I loved the game. Ehh, humans. They're nice to have around but good luck trying to understand them. I guess it's because there was no suspense before 2006. The team would win the vast majority of their games, and get into the postseason far more often than not. It was like it was scripted and that made the regular season unimportant. I could start watching in October and let the national pundits tell me what I needed to know (heh!). It took '06 to remind me that the postseason wasn't a God-given birthright: however good a roster is (and the 2006 roster on paper was pretty darn good) things can always go wrong and lots of them will. I needed to see what failure was like again to really appreciate the success, I suppose. Anyway from that point I never really looked back. In 2007 for the first time in my life I listened to a game on Opening Day. Schilling versus Meche in Kansas city. if I recall it correctly. We lost. Tony Pena Jr. of all people killed us with a triple and a couple great plays in the field. I haven't missed an Opening day since -- not even when I had to wake up at 5 in the morning to catch the broadcast from Tokyo.

Thank goodness, it's all academic now. Sox win.

OK, you're once again loading my statement with implications I never put there. You seem to have certain natural talents in that area. What we all saw was a guy who had nothing in the prior inning. Having faith in the guy to turn it around is one thing, but taking him out for a different pitcher who might be feeling better today is by no means insane

Only thing that'll save us right now is if the Jays suck worse than Papelbon.

Please tell me they're not bringing Papelbon back out. Someone, anyone, please tell me this. Just because he's Teh Clozar!!! doesn't mean you trot him back out when he's already thrown a ton of pitches and clearly doesn't even have his C stuff today.

Nick, could you at least focus on just getting yourself out?

Free baserunner. Cool. Single from Green drives in the run. Is it just me or has Green been a bit better offensviely over the last month EDIT: Checking the numbers, apparently it's just me.

Yeah, duh. You need to win those games too. You don't get shutouts all the time no matter how good your pitchers are. that's one of the big reasons run prevention runs into diminishing returns. Sooner or later SOMEONE is going to light you up.

Another one from the "you'd never guess this to hear people talk" department. Jason Bay is now hitting BETTER this year than he did for us in 2008. That's on the year, and inclusive of his slump.

http://blogs.dallasobserver.com/unfairpark/freak%20out.gif

Now for the real question: Do you DARE to actually bring him back out for the bottom of the 9th??

For pete's sake Paps, at least make 'em put it in play!!

We're going to walk in the tying run aren't we? EDIT: Ahh, Lind. Nevermind, this one's going out. Papelbon isn't getting the close pitches and most of his pitches aren't close. He'll have to come into the middle of the plate. Boom, gone, 13-10 Toronto.`

Strike zone's that way.

Wow, ump, most people call the outside corner at the knees a "strike."

Nothing to do but sit and wait for the hold or the blow.

This is not happening...