Dojji

OK, what is it with losing count of the outs? The Dodgers did that last night too. And yeah, that would be on Lugo.

Actually I think Smoltz got lucky. He got to regain strength by facing big league pitchers but didn't have to face the full strain of a start. Like a stretch-out start in Spring Training. Enough experience to help him settle in but not enough wear to be any kind of concern. This might be beneficial down the road.

Agreed. We need a guy who can slot in and be productive at 3B, preferably with a bit of versatility to shore up other positions too -- just in case Lowell DOES come back strong. Chone Figgins would be an incredible acquisition if you could get him. The Angels will never deal him but could you imagine a 1-2 of Figgins and Ellsbury? Talk about "Speed Kills!" A Yankee killer too.

http://sirocco.accuweather.com/sat_mosaic_640x480_public/rs/isarVA_.gif Won't last.

Here comes the tarp. I thought 4 1/2 did it.

Official game.

Nice first inning for Smoltz. Threw strikes and went right after guys.

The Nationals benefit from having Morgan and Burnett too i think.

Fair point but Guillen's slumping so bad I'm pretty sure the point is moot.

Teahen, LaRoche and Johnson are probably your best bets, and of the 3, you're most likely to get laRoche for an acceptable price in talent. I don't see a lot of really good alternatives out there.

Bailey won't cut it long term. there has to be a deal. Ideally I'd want to find an RHH 3B but I don't think that guy's out there right now. We're going to have to become a bit more lefthanded if we want a quality replacement. Maybe we could do a deal with the Angels for Chone Figgins, but his price is likely to be inflated because he's having a good year. or maybe a deal with the Tigers for Carlos Guillen, although he's not the best 3B in the history of ever.

So that's Milledge's third team now. Third team in three years if I'm not mistaken. does tell us I think that if we decided we wanted him we could make a deal for Adam LaRoche with the expectation of getting a hearing.

Jason Bay has been a big part of winning, and will continue to be one if we can retain him. Since we don't have that guy who can come in and replace him I think sometime before the free agency period Theo's going to sit down with the guy and make him a very generous offer. If Bay refuses, it's because he wants to test free agency, not because Theo isn't prepared to take care of him and make him a Red Sox for a long time.

Actually, let's talk about this. We saw Francona make moves last night that interest me. With 2 innings to go we saw all of MDC, Oki, Ram and Pap last night. Rather than making his relievers complete their innings, Tito brought out the big guns one after the other. Of course, Tito still has Masterson, Saito and Bard still available to clean up if we go into the 7th with a narrow lead tomorrow night, but you basically saw Tito using all his weapons to get the win last night. it's interesting to see how a manager will perform when gifted with the ideal bullpen. Tito has shown that given the ability to do so, he will be aggressive in bringing the guy he wants into the game. and not giving the other team a chance to hurt his pitcher if he can avoid it.

If they don't repeat the mistake they made last year. The thing to do the first time Lowell showed signs of injury is shut him down until the postseason. if he's going to aggrivate the hip with baseball activities let him do it in October, not July. We do it that way, we have time to trade for a 1B or 3B last year to help us contend and maybe Lowell gets healthy, plays in October, and we win #8. That's also the thing to do here. Shut him down, far far longer than he wants to be, and get him properly healthy before even letting him take infield practice. We've got another year of the guy and if we want it to be a good year, we have to override his impluse to try to play through the pain.

Paging Mark Teahen, paging Mark Teahen: your tickets to Logan International are at the desk.

I smell bovine byproduct. I can['t imagine Lowell saying anything else even if the injections were a complete and dismal failure.

Best manager in Boston since the dynasty in the early 20th century.

Dear gods, there's stubborn and then there's deliberately working against your own best interest. Insanity.

In a 19 game sample in 2008 when he'd spent most of the year learning how to play right field. The one year he went into the year as the Royals' presumptive 3B, Teahen had an 0.4 UZR in 2006. I think he's better than his sample suggests but because of limited exposure and having his position coopted by a younger prospect we may never know. even if not, though, he's good enough at 3B to be useful to Boston.

-10>-16

Right, but you can see what Im saying there. It would be reasonable to read what you wrote as if that's exactly what you were saying.

this could be useful on the subject of how best to replace Lowell if all the desperate measures we're using to keep him in the field fail. Looks to me like bringing in a 3B is the way to go. Bringing in a 1B can work but it will tend to rob Peter to pay Paul and will result in turning 1 excellent position and 1 mediocre one into two average to below average positions. Not sure the upgrade of Youks over Lowell at 3B is downgrade at 1B, either Youkilis' bat vs Kotsay's, or his glove vs. LaRoche or Johnson. My favorite move is a trade for Mark Teahen, replacing Kotsay on the roster. While Teahen is a mediocre 3B (-10 UZR/150) he's an improvement over Lowell so far this year. And Teahen is a respectable outfielder over his career, His UZR/150 isn't below zero in any outfield position although the CF sample size is negligible. I imagine that he could do at least 80% of what Kotsay provides defensively, add 3B to that, and hit much better. he also destroys righties, which is a weakness of Mikey's, so even if Lowell doesn't go down I think having Teahen over Kotsay would improve the team.

I honestly don't care that much about the ASG. It's little more than a curio to me.

Want a chance to fix that typo before people call you on it?