Dojji

The last time Lowe was here our middle infield was a total shambles, which wrecks havoc on a sinkerballer. I wouldn't count on Lowe for much less than a 4.2 ERA, but he'd be useful at that level. I wonder what it would take to get Gil Meche from the Royals. THey love Meche, but I'm pretty sure that with the pitchers on the market now they could wish for the financial flexibility to go after someone this year.

Wakefield was not remotely postulated as the 4th playoff starter last year. ALL of Schilling, Colon, and Buchholz had to fall apart AND Masterson had to be moved to the pen before there were no better choices. That's why I would like to get my hands on a middle of the rotation type or better. We've just watched a lot of contingency plans fail at once, it makes sense to stockpile as many as possible.

Great game! Worthy of two very good teams!

What a dagger play by Pierce and Powe!

Underestimate Wideman much?

Don't look now, but the Titans are 7-0.

Why not? Before Thomas showed up and proved what he was goaltender was a continuous running sore for this team. He's not the most talented goalie in team history but he was the right man at the right time.

I tell ya, Tim Thomas has been one of the best things to happen to the Bruins in a long time. No more revolving door carousel of goalies, and we can use the stability from holding onto Thomas to develop Rask. I know a lot of fans don't like Thomas for one reason or another but it's hard to overlook the fact that the Bruins have improved each year he's been between the pipes. The young offensemen have been fantastic as well.

That was awesome. Everything a lover of defensive hockey wanted to see -- except too many mistakes and turnovers, but a lot of that was forced because of the frantic pace of the game. And hey, overtime shutout for TT

Gotta be Seattle. Largely healthy all year and STILL sucked.

Rays about to join 2 of the other 3 top HR hitting teams in playoffs history in NOT winning the world series.

Especially because some kind of changes are part and parcel of living the offseason dream. If you don't have new faces to look forward to next year then all you can do is calendar-watch and hold out for March

The three biggest improvements to the lineup will be a return to health by Ortiz, Drew and Lowell. That said, if a genuine imrovement to a genuine area of weakness is possible, it should be pursued. Right now with Boston, that's pretty much catcher and only catcher.

Who would have thought that the Patriots would be putting this much pressure on the young upstarts from upstate NY?

I do not get the infatuation with moving Mike Lowell. That move all by itself acconplishes absolutely nothing while simultaneously opening a hole in the roster to make way for a move that we will HARDLY be the only team attempting to make, whether it's Teixeira or Atkins. The Red Sox will not both resign Varitek and trade for a stud young catcher. The reason is simple, and its name is Tim Wakefield. Remember what happened the last time we acquired a young catcher. Theo is going to want to make sure that whatever else happens, at least someone on the roster can handle a knuckler. You've got two young catchers right now in the minors who have some experience handling a knuckleball and one of them, at least, will be catching for the Sox next year.

So that Cassel guy might work out after all. He had his ugly patch with the 2 picks, but with Faulk and an undrafted rookie to hand the ball to by way of a running game, you were going to get picked because you're relying on an inexperienced guy to make big plays. He still made enough of them to beat a team the Patriots should beat. With Morris, Maroney, and Jordan all out, that was a job well done by Cassel and BB. I noticed he seems to be making decisions a little quicker, which is nice. He still tried to break a triple-team tackle rather than get rid of the football, but all the guys who said that Cassel would become a useful QB with experience should feel a bit of vindication

So when can we swap out Fernandez for Rask and go make a deal for a strong defenseman?

Oh lord. Scaffolds, is that you? Lack of clout in the lineup? Boston's was one of the best lineups in the big leagues this year, even with Ortiz hurt and slumping. And just by the nature of some of the young players we've got in there now like Lowrie and Pedroia, it should be even better next year, especially if you factor in healthy seasons from Lowell, Drew and Ortiz. "Wasting" the #5 starter spot on an above average pitcher... that's a waste I'll make five ways to Sunday.

You do realize that you're saying absolutely nothing that we haven't known for the entirety of Wakefield's career.

Pathetic.

4 point night for Lucic, too, including a hat trick. Really starting to see what the scouts were raving about.

THe sad part is he put enough thought into this to read the titles and figure out something vaguely pertinent to say.

That, and Ken Huckaby got hurt at just the wrong time if you'll remember.

Longoria is a defensive choker in the clutch, isn't he? Don't be too hard on the Rays fans, SOTK. Prior to this year they hadn't even had a .500 season or third place finish to give them any reason at all to hope.

THere seems to be some disagreement as to what we have in Kottaras and whether he'll amount to a major league catcher. There's legitimate arguments to be made on both sides of this debate and I'm interested to see where the board comes down. We've basically got a catcher who hit 20 HR's and OPS of over .800 in AAA, but with a very low AVG (.243). Countering that is the fact that Kottaras works at bats and takes a lot of pitches, and knows how to draw a walk. (.348 OBP, .105 Isolated Discipline). Defensively we've got a guy who calls games pretty well and who's beginning to draw positive review for his defense, but the arm's a bit on the shaky side. Once again a combination of strengths and weaknesses with not a ton of middle ground. He can handle the knuckleball, but with already a below average arm... My thought on the subject is informed by a very similar story of a catcher. Once upon a time in the Boston system was a catcher named Scott Hatteberg Until the beginning of 2008, Hatteberg and Kottaras were pretty much walking the same path. Their paths diverged in this their age 26 year when instead of improving his average 30 points to put himself in the conversation as a catcher of note in the minors, Kottaras did so with 20 HR's in roughly 400 at bats. Hatteberg came up for good in September of his age 26 year and did't hit much of anything, then took over starting catching duties in his age 27 season and was an unspectacularly solid offensive backstop who got by defensively. I distinctly recall that Hatteberg caught Wakefield regularly and his arm was roughly the same as Tek's until an arm/shoulder injury took away some of his throwing ability and he was eventually moved to first base. The question is, with Kottaras' contact being such a legitimate issue, can he really take that next step like Hatteberg did and play this kind of Jack Cust style offensive game in the big leagues? Usually, the guys who do that made good contact in the minors. It's hard to see this guy not having a large amount of growing pains adjusting to the league, especially since unlike Hatteberg every time he's gone up a level, his AVG has gone down and not recovered which says depressing things about Kottaras' ceiling.