Dojji

Boy, Jim Rice is such an accomplished MLB hitter. Maybe they should get him out of retirement. What Nomar did in the past before he started sucking doesn't change the fact that he now sucks.

More to their liking than Ramiro Pena and Phil Hughes at least.

As demonstrated by going to his closer in a critical situation in the bottom of the ninth to preserve the tie, yes. I still don't see what you seem to think Tito's obvious mistake was in that game. The only problem I see with the way he handled the bullpen was that it didn't result in a win. You're not going to pull your starter after only 4 innings with a lead without at least letting him start the 5th inning. It is acceptable to put your setup man out there in the bottom of the 9th inning of a tied game. But if you don't put your best reliever out there to face his best power hitter in the bottom of the freakin' ninth inning there's something wrong with you. I would have had a bigger problem with Tito if he hadn't gone to Papelbon.

Other potential sources of MLB ready or near-ready quality shortstops Phillies. Jason Donald. Angels. Brandon Wood and Sean Rodriguez Red Sox. Jed Lowrie.

I agree with Crespo. If we brought Nomar back it would be for nostalgia, not talent. Meaning Theo will never do that.

Wow, I really can't think of too many times when that table misfires. good call.

I dunno about Dipre, but I do. that's actually a reasonable return for one of the best players at one of the most premium positions in baseball. The only question to their ability to do that is can you find both guys on one team. Frankly, the Sox are in a better than average position to be that team depending on what the Jays think of Lowrie. He was above average defensively last year and has nice offensive upside, especially for a SS. Throw in Buchholz and you have the nucleus of an offer that would at least get Toronto to tell you specifically what more they wanted. It's better than Ramiro Pena and Phil Hughes anyway. Lowrie, Buchholz, Anderson, Exposito, would be an attractive Halladay package. Maybe not the best out there, but competitive, and arguably better than what we reportedly offered for Johan Santana in the '07 offseason

If they're not prepared to be at least a little flexible though, they won't get the best possible return of talent.

OK, so apparently your problem is with the closer's role itself, not with Tito. You can debate the role of the closer and the way teams use them, but it's disingenouos to blame specifically Tito for that.

Because Tito was still playing to win at that point, which means trying to save your closer for a chance to actually close out a lead. The original inning was Bartlett, Iwamura and Upton, two righties and a lefty not known for game-changing power. But when Carlos Pena came up, the formula changed. "Play to win" now involved neutralizing TB's best lefthanded hitter by any means necessary,because the alternative was an instant loss. Again, if the Sox score in the top of the 10th, no one has a problem with what Tito did, and with his bullpen taxed, they weren't going to last much longer anyway. The immortal Paul Byrd, Tito's only other option, surrendered 4 runs in relief in the very next game, so again, if the Sox don't score in the top of the 10th there really isn't much Tito can do to keep that game going. He got miracles out of that bullpen in that game as it was. Tito's handling of Game 2 was tactically sound and followed conventional wisdom to the letter. Your problem is either with conventional wisdom itself, or with the fact that Tito's moves did not result in a win. Tito did the best you could reasonably expect with the roster he was given in that series, and with our injury-sapped rotation, Beckett reduced to a shadow of himself, Daisuke wild and no credible #4 starter we still got to game 7 with out best remaining pitcher on the mound and every chance to win. Pity we didn't, but there's enough blame to go round. I'd be more inclined to focus said blame on Theo myself for not taking the chance to strengthen that roster when he could have, and for making moves that sapped our starting pitching depth without responding to the resulting problems until it was too late to get a quality replacement. Also for not taking the opportunity to explore our other youngsters, especially Bowden, to see if they might help solve a known problem in time to get them onto a playoff roster. It's not like Bowden would have been that much worse than Byrd!

IDK, word is out that the Rangers are going into debt with that team and need to lose some salary. Young might be more available than he looks,

How about Michael Young?

If the Angels deal Wood, it'll be for Halladay.

which one? The one where they pulled him too soon a playoff game or the one where he was in the bullpen at all when the team spent the entire second half of the season desperate for a decent 4th starter? If you're talking about game 2 bot 9, I don't know what else he was supposed to do. It was walk off territory, Masterson is not very effective against lefthanders and was up against Carlos Pena with a runner at second base. If he leaves him in with Papelbon warm and ready and Pena wins the game with a base hit, you'd have gone after him for that, and you'd be right. It's not a move that worked, but let's not pretend there was no justification for what Tito did. With Oki having already pitched, in that situation I'd go to Papelbon there too and hope that the team could put something together in the bottom of the inning (i was Pedroia, Ortiz, Youkilis up top 10). If they had, this would have passed as nothing. The real crime here was the failure to get anything going against Wheeler in the top of the 10th. If the Sox can't pull together a run in extra innings, no amount of pitcher use would have made a difference. Theo's failure to rest Lowell properly has more bearing on that playoff series than the decision to pull Masterson after 2/3 of an inning.

Let's not pretend that Paul Byrd was the second coming of Keith Foulke. Guy wasn't used to appearing in relief. Just because Tito tried a different move doesn't mean it would have worked better. Just sayin'. We lost that ALCS when we moved Masterson to the bullpen rather than letting him work through out his issues as a starter, and had to run Wakefield out there as our #4 playoff starter. Wakefield sucks in the playoffs. Or when buchholz spit the bit. Or when they kept running Lowell out there hurt in July instead of DLing him earlier on when he might have been able to rest, come back, and play through the same pain in October to much more useful effect. Or maybe when Beckett was hurt and generally less effective throughout the year. Or when Schilling was unable to come back. The point is that we just didn't have a roster primed to go deep into the playoffs and the team as constituted wasn't winning anything. the Phills would have beat them like they beat the Rays.

No it wasn't. Sorry.

c'mon Pedroia, get on base.

We're going to get one here, just to tantalize us.

Bard's making an eloquent statement on why he needs to pitch more often.

Kotsay was hurt by an expanded strike zone, but he never walks anyway. Green was flat out owned, no bad calls there.

OUCH. No one's hitting that thing.

Would love to have him on my team. We need another run here and to make Soria throw a little or it's all for nothing.

If Green goes long off Soria I don't care if he gets another hit all year.

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