SoxSport

Nolan Ryan is a pretty good judge of pitchers (!), and if the Rangers don't sign Oswalt, it could mean Ryan doesn't think he can help at this point in his career.

The thing that hurts Nava is he is a 29yo trying to break into the big leagues. If he was 22, everybody would be raving about his hitting. As for his size, he's listed as 5' 11", 200lbs. Quite a bit bigger than Pedey. Yaz, by the way, was listed as 5' 11", 175 lbs. Size clearly doesn't matter.

I think Ross deserves a slot in the OF--as a Rhd platoon player. Hits lefties well. Certainly over McDonald, who probably will be odd man out at some point. It's disturbing to hear V talk in contradictory terms--like putting Gonzo in RF at Fenway(he says no to LF--Gonzo is used to flies on the right side!) and saying Youks goes back to 3B. Now who's playing first? I guess he means during interleague play when Papi plays 1B. But what about non-interleague play? The Sox are a slightly dysfunctional team right now--mostly due to bad management. I pity Gonzo having to play RF in Fenway. He'll need a go-cart out there.

I have a feeling that at least one of these guys--Youks, Ells, Crawford and AdGon-- will get traded before the season is out. Most likely Youks or Ells, because the other two have almost untradeable contracts unless you eat large amounts of salary. The Crawford and AdGon signings have hamstrung them salary-wise, so they will have to turn more to the farm system to improve the roster in the future. That means players like Nava, Lin, Kalish, Lav, Brooks and Iggy. Notice not one a pitcher. I also have a feeling that Henry will sell this team in the next year or so. I see this morning the Steinbrenners are selling the Yankees. It is certainly a sell-high time for big market sports teams.

... and V said tonite Youks is still in the mix at 3B. Much to Youk's consternation, I bet. Aside from the pitching, the Red Sox also have one of those "who's on first" problems.

Oswalt will get hit in that Texas stadium. He isn't anywhere near the pitcher he was in Houston at this point. Wasn't in Philly, either.

Ha. Nava might be "juiced." Brooksie, too. AdGon could use some of that juice! God only knows what's going on in Baseball. You just don't know. What's it do for pitchers? Apparently lets them come back quicker from injuries and soreness. Clemens sure turned it around after he left Boston. Sometimes I think those that say, screw it, who cares, might be right. But what about Ruth and Maris? They made a joke of that HR record. You gotta love Nava's swing. Left handed, that's just the way Yaz swung when he came up his first few years. A line drive hitter. He could hit .350 if he can stay focussed and make adjustments.

AdGon can probably handle LF at Fenway. If Manny could, AdGon can. He's a good fielder. I would move Crawford to RF when he returns. AdGon in left, Ellsbury in center. Youks at 1B, Brooks at 3B. I would also put Iggy at SS, and split Lav and Salty behind the plate. They would need more defense on the left side with AdGon in LF. That's where Iggy fits. The team right now is s-l-o-w. They need some speed in hitting and defense to offset the mediocre pitching.

Nava is now hitting like he did at the AA level. Took him awhile, but maybe he has found it. The kid is a natural hitter.

RF in small parks. LF in Fenway.

The Sox have two headaches as starters right now--Buchholz and Bard. Bard isn't pitching well enough as a starter right now compared to what he could do in the bullpen. And Buchholz has a problem he needs to resolve either in the bullpen (heaven forbid, Ben) or in Pawtucket.

Blanton is pitching over his head right now. Stay away. Youkilis needs to get back to form before they deal him. It doesn't look like he can force Middlebrooks out the lineup--but it's the Red Sox.

I wonder whether there is serious interest in Oswalt--anywhere. He wants top dollar and he is a guy with something to prove--that he is healthy and not over the hill. Can't see anybody throwing big bucks at him without some conditionals.

Isn't it about time Crawford got back to work? Put a band aid on his arm and get him out there. The management treats these guys like a bunch of pussies.

Pitchers rarely come back close to 100% after arm or shoulder surgery--at least until the next year. Wainright, for example, isn't close to his previous form yet--probably won't be until next year. They shouldn't be counting on Dice-K very much this year.

Bat speed is a very common term in baseball, but it's actually bat acceleration--how quickly you can get your bat through the strike zone from standing--and the velocity of the bat at impact. Speed is the scalar term for velocity. Velocity is speed and direction-- a vector quantity. Acceleration is rate of velocity change--that's critical in reacting to a pitch--it's what diminishes with age and conditioning.

The latest AL stats today have the Sox no.2 in hitting and next to last in pitching. No.2 in hitting even with the injuries they've had in their lineup. Texas is no.1. The top pitching teams are Texas, Baltimore, Toronto, Oakland, and TB. Texas is no. 1 in hitting and pitching--clearly the best AL team.Nolan Ryan does it right. The W-L records generally correlate with pitching, not hitting. It seems like the Red Sox management hasn't gotten that message. They continue to spend most of their money on hitting. This is the mentality of the early Yawkey teams that never won anything. When the Sox have won, they have won with pitching. Three of the top 5 pitching teams are in the Red Sox division. They are all higher than the Sox right now. Unless there is a pitching collapse with those teams, the Sox probably won't make the playoffs, no matter what happens with CC and Ells. Are they satisfied with Bard's ERA/Whip numbers as a starter? If they are, it is maybe a symptom of the problem. After Bailey's injury, the Sox effectively downgraded their bullpen by keeping Bard as a starter. And he hasn't been good enough as a starter to offset the downgrade. That's one of their problems in a nutshell.

I didn't realize Nava was a switch hitter. Prior to last night, the only times I saw him was batting left-handed. He just missed being star of the game last night with the bases loaded--hitting that liner to left down the line that was foul by 2 inches. It would have cleared the bases. Then he struck out on the next pitch on a changeup that was way low. On seeing the video of Lawrie's tantrum, he threw his helmut down much too close to the umpire--which probably caused the suspension. Too bad he doesn't have Clemens' lawyer to argue in a court of law about it. The suspension would be overruled in a minute. Getting off-topic, it's disturbing how these baseball stars who took steroids and lied about it are weaseling their way out of it in court on technicalities. Granted many fans could care less, but it has damaged the integrity of the game. Clemens' big years in Toronto after Boston apparently were due partly to steroids. He looked better conditioned as well, but maybe that had something to do with fast recovery from fatigue taking steroids. The benefits of steroids to a pitcher has never been spelled out. Of course, the whole steroid issue in Baseball is still not transparent--deliberately, I suspect.