jsc1973

Probably was already warming him up before the two runs were tacked on. Once you warm him up, you should bring him in.

The Red Sox have a lot of relievers I could say that about. Time to get the Maalox just in case...

Rays are losing 5-0 in the 8th. Looks like the Sox can take first place tonight if they win.

10.19 Saves For Relief Pitchers A save is a statistic credited to a relief pitcher, as set forth in this Rule 10.19. The official scorer shall credit a pitcher with a save when such pitcher meets all four of the following conditions: (a) He is the finishing pitcher in a game won by his team; ( He is not the winning pitcher; © He is credited with at least a third of an inning pitched; and (d) He satisfies one of the following conditions: (1) He enters the game with a lead of no more than three runs and pitches for at least one inning; (2) He enters the game, regardless of the count, with the potential tying run either on base, or at bat or on deck (that is, the potential tying run is either already on base or is one of the first two batters he faces); or (3) He pitches for at least three innings.

Atchison would get the save regardless of the score when he came in. When you finish a game and pitch three or more full innings, automatic save.

I would have voted for Werth, but he's off the market now, so neither. I don't think Crawford is worth the money. He has a career OPS of just over .700 in Fenway Park, in well over 300 plate appearances, and the Red Sox don't need to pay $20 million a year for someone to do that. At the same time, though, I don't mind the Sox bidding up the price that the Angels will pay for him.

Fortunately, the Red Sox don't think like the Yankees. We'll keep Fenway, thank you very much, and you can enjoy the House that Greed Built, and we'll both be happy.

Beltre is doing what a player does when he spends his entire career in horrible hitter's parks and then suddenly goes somewhere and finds out his foul balls don't all get caught and his fly balls don't go to die. I remember another defense-first third baseman named Terry Pendleton doing the same thing when he went from St. Louis to the Launching Pad. He went from .250 to a batting champ and MVP overnight. I would have been surprised if Beltre hadn't busted loose. And you'd better believe Boras knew what was going to happen, too. That's why he encouraged Beltre to sign. I wish we could keep him for another couple of years, but Boras is going to try to get Beltre one more big contract. And he might just get someone to bite.

Bingo. He has exactly the right skill set to be a successful manager of the Boston Red Sox. The hard part of managing the Red Sox is not what goes on between the white lines. Just don't be a moron like Grady Little or John McNamara. Tony LaRussa might be a better manager overall, but we don't have Tony LaRussa and he is not available to us. He will probably die in a St. Louis Cardinals uniform.

I think you saw one of them tonight.

The ump was squeezing the pitchers all night, on both sides. Yeah, that pitch to Green should have been strike three, but the Red Sox pitchers were victimized by some crap calls too. You don't want to let a bad ump decide a game in the ninth inning, you don't walk a .231 hitter on four pitches with two outs, then give up back-to-back hits, then go to a full count on a .236 hitter and give the ump a chance to mess up. You do that and you can't blame the ump.

The only problem I have with Drew is that I feel he is overpaid because he can't stay healthy. At the same time, if I were Drew and I had been offered that contract, I'd have signed it too. When he's healthy, he's a good hitter and a Gold Glove-caliber outfielder. And I hope he stays healthy the next two seasons and helps the Red Sox win.

I'd just use one of the guys already in the organization as the backup. Let them all compete for the job in the spring and whoever does best gets to back up V-Mart, and catch Wakefield if they don't want to subject Martinez to that. No need to make a deal for a glove man when you already have guys like that in your system. Catcher is not a place that the Red Sox need to spend a lot of time on going into 2010, unless it's to give V-Mart an extension.

My impression is that he is average or maybe slightly below average defensively at third. But if he's minus-2 or minus-5 runs on defense at third, he's still one of the best players in the league there because he is a great hitter. As long as the added defensive responsibilities don't affect his hitting, I see no reason not to play him there. Besides, if you pick up some slugger who is a defensive liability to play first, you can always move Youk over there to finish up the game. That's not a problem with Gonzalez, but it would be with some other options. Left field should be out of the question. He's done it before in a pinch, but I don't think he likes being out there. I don't think you put a player where he's not comfortable defensively.

A completely successful season would end in the team's third World Series championship in six seasons. The Red Sox play to win championships. As a realist, that goal will be very hard to achieve, because of the mess in the starting rotation. I won't complain on here about the outcome of the season unless it were to end like the last two Mets' seasons did.

The problem is, Beckett hasn't started on short rest since 2004, and Lester has only done it once, in April of last year. Wakefield could do it if he's healthy, but he would at most be the No. 4 guy in the rotation for the playoffs. Tito is very conservative with his starting pitching, even in the postseason. I don't think he'd throw anybody on short rest unless he had no other choice (like Game 7 of the '04 ALCS).

Dice-K, and not just because I am a Red Sox fan. I'd pick him because he has a much better chance to be good going forward. Wang, even when he was good, was winning games with an abysmal strikeout rate. Historically, a starting pitcher like that will only be effective for a few seasons. There hasn't been an exception since Lew Burdette, and that was 50 years ago. Even guys like Tommy John struck out more than Wang. If Wang ever comes back, it will be because he either: 1) learns a strikeout pitch that he can throw without it being hammered; or 2) becomes a reliever, where he only has to fool a hitter once.

I don't know what to think of Gathright, to be honest. He's always hit in the minors, but never follows through in the majors, and God knows he had chances in K.C. He has speed to burn, but his stealing technique is poor. He ran wild on minor league catchers, not so much in the bigs. I suspect the Red Sox see a lot of Otis Nixon in this guy. Nixon never did anything in the majors until he got to an organization that believed in him and gave him a chance to do something other than pinch-run for the lumbering catcher or first baseman. It's easy for me to envision Gathright doing what Nixon did.

You forgot about the innings of suck from Dice-K, who is even more expensive... But you hit it on the nose. If the Red Sox can pay that kind of money for pitchers who stunk and had to be released, then $4 million for 120 innings of slightly above league average pitching from Tim Wakefield is a steal. Heck, there are Red Sox fans who want Theo to chase after Rich Harden in the off-season, who will get three times that much for anywhere from zero to 150 innings of slightly above league average pitching next season, but who seems to impress people because he throws 96 on those rare occasions when his arm isn't sore. The way Wakefield's contract is structured makes allowances for these things. He gets an extra $50,000 for every start between 11 and 20, and an extra $75,000 for starts over 20, and $50,000 for an All-Star selection. I would add that in spite of this, he has on more than one occasion (not just the '04 ALCS) voluntarily given up a start to help the bullpen. This is a no-brainer. You keep renewing that contract until Tim Wakefield decides he doesn't want to play anymore.