Dojji

I have my doubts. The man has only had 2 professional at bats and is 24

Remember who batted after Ortiz this entire postseason. Was that really booing? Or just the fact of life for everyone who makes an out ahead of Kevin Youkilis?

Let's see if the Pats still stick with Cassel down the stretch. If they do, then they believe that if TB can't come back he's the starting QB for next year too. From what I've seen right now, it looks like BB is really serious about developing Matt, and it'd be touch and go whether they wanted to start over with another new young QB or even with KOC, who needs some apprenticeship time. I still find it ironic that the two college QB's that Cassel couldn't compete with for the starting job in college, Leinart and Palmer, are both having much worse seasons. By some accounts, Cassel was considered nearly as talented as the Palmer and Leinart but couldn't bust in. I think we've seen some evidence of that, as just every schlub off the street couldn't come in stone cold after never starting for 7 years and win more games than he lost even with a good team behind him.' BTW -- whatever happened to that Hawii QB, Brennan I think it was, who was so effective with the Rainbow Warriors last year? Looked like Brady Lite like when I saw him on TV. I know he was in the draft discussion but have no idea where he is. If he's holding someone's clipboard right now it might not be a bad idea to take a look at him as a trade target if this Brady stuff goes from worse to worst. EDIT: Found him. Redskins' clipboard holder and third string QB. Selected in guess what, the 6th round. Scouting report, very accurate, tough and spunky but small, not that strong of arm. Considered a system QB. I'd call him underrated, but he was an also-ran for the Heismann last year. Sound familiar to anyone? I think it's a possibility but the NFL isn't my best sport in terms of knowing what the hell is going on.

But those two pitches to Napoli were what turned the game into a loss.

Pass. For what he did for us on the field I'm grateful, but Boston has lived through Manny long enough . We don't need to live through it yet again.

And in that game against the Angels, Beckett's bad start basically amounted to a tale of two bad pitches, both to Mike Napoli.

That was the sound of all Patroits pretensions of continuing their dynasty ending.

Only in the second half of the year after several 120+ pitch outings. Through July and into the early August weeks, Daisuke was as good as Beckett. It's easy to forget, but nonetheless true.

HOW THE HELL DID THIS TEAM PUT THAT SERIES TO 7 GAMES??? HOW THE HELL DID THIS TEAM BEAT THE ANGELS??? What next, more retroactive reports of shoulder problems for Daisuke? It was a factor earlier this year and would explain the wildness and dip in velocity.

Downright ****y, in fact.

Yeah, a playoff contender might be enough to lure Farrell away for sure. That'd suck.

You don't need a stopgap. Gardner would be an adequate fill player until Jackson is ready. He might even surprise you. And you could do worse than giving Melky one last shot for that matter.

Alicea seems to be a quality coach. I'd like to hope a managerial option might open up for him at some point. Soxprospects.com was speculating that Alicea might be brought back in another capacity. He certainly seemed to help our young middle infield.

Kind of like arguing whether the proper purpose of a rifle is to fire a bullet or hit a target with one.

Yeah of course he will, that's his job. I'm pretty sure Theo is going to at least offer him a contract at some kind of value, whether it's enough for his tastes or not is purely up to him. He's told Boras to accept a lesser offer in order to stay with Boston before.

Well, on the plus side, he'll need to work his butt off in the offseason and report next year healthy to prove he can stay that way so we shouldn't have photos of Beckett with a roll of fat hanging out of the shirt.

Well no, if the Mariners have one thing right it's their bullpen. Perhaps the offensive equivalent of Heathcliff Slocumb though [pipedream] Delcarmen, Carter, Navarro, Bowden, Bard for Clement and Bedard. Use Masterson at the start of the season until Bedard's ready. Spring rotation, Beckett-Lester-Daisuke-Masterson-Wake. By the ASB, Beckett-Lester-Bedard-Daisuke-Buchholz with Wake in the pen. Offseason over. [/pipedream]

You'd have a better shot at Johjima. An offensive-starved team like Seattle would have to be profoundly stupid to deal an offensive prospect like Clement at a prime position for anything but a premium return of multiple solid offensive future pieces. I've said this before, but I actually do like the idea of going for Johjima. Kottaras provides us some depth if the pickup goes sour, and after a sluggish year we might be able to pick him up for little more than a contract dump a la Mike Lowell. Johjima has pretty good discipline for all he doesn't walk much (he's sort of like Yadier Molina that way) and he's got a cannon arm. If his BABIP comes back up to the .290 range it was his first 2 years in the bigs he should be a .260/.330/.440 type, which is an improvement on any other option available to us and probably one of the better long term moves. And I like the idea as an intangible of a Japanese catcher to help work with Daisuke and Oki.

Cameron is just about the anti-Yankee isn't ie? Low OBP tools player?

I think you misread that. They're looking at similarly situated all star catchers and their relationship with the team to determine how they should handle Varitek, not necessarily which of those other star catchers they should acquire.

I said it was the ability to hold a lead. Let's get the facts straight, shall we?

Yeah, I'm down with that, not because Wake's a bad pitcher but because trends suggest that he doesn't fare well in Octobers. Possibly something to do with cold air and the knuckler grip.

Phillies took their best shot tonight and I'm not sure the Rays did. I'm not convinced that 2-3-4 in the Philly rotation stacks up against the Rays 2-3-4.

Probably still happen. If it wasn't for the prestige that Kazmir has from times when he was the only brightspot on horrible Devil Rays teams he'd probably be their playoff #4.

Last time I checked, knuckleballers are real pitchers. Could the anti-Wake crowd at least attempt to field a reasonable argument as to why we shouldn't bring back a guy who's third on the team in wins and provides a stable, predictable presence over the season in the bottom of the rotation? As a general rule, you're not going to get an ace for the 5 spot in the rotation, however much you might want one.