Palodios

This whole Dice-k situation has really bothered me quite a bit, partly because I've backed him so much over the last three years, but mostly because of how much this team needed him to simply do better, and he instead pitched the worst I've ever seen. But you know what? Everything we've ever seen from this guy makes me think to myself.... if he goes out and throws 7 shutout innings on Monday, I wouldn't be one bit surprised.

I did MLB.TV the last few years, but now that I'm living around Boston again, I'm back to NESN again. You can actually stream MLB.TV straight to your tv if you have a ps3/xbox/roku box/anything else that will receive the signal from your computer. Its kind of a hassle, but if you're short on cash, it could be worth it.

I agree with you. Crawford definitely needs to take a break from leadoff, atleast for now. I want to point out though--- Lead-off hitters with monster OBP were incredibly uncommon in 2010. The majority of the guys who had an OBP above .350 aren't leadoff hitters-- they are sluggers. Take a look at the list of guys who had OBPs over .350 with low HR numbers: Barton, Utley, Gardner, Markakis, Infante, Butler, Mauer, Ichiro, Damon, Crawford. That's it. Narrow that down to leadoff men, and you end up with Gardner(.383) and Ichiro(.353). Crawford had an OBP of .356 last year, and Ellsbury has a .342 OBP for his career. I think in the long run, one of them will be a good fit, but they need to start hitting first.

No, you're exactly right. This doesn't have anything to do with Varitek. But it does have to do with Salty. He hasn't had a full year as a catcher in his career. And as we're watching him struggle at the plate offensively, we're also watching him struggle defensively AND 89% of the time when he's calling the game, the pitching has sucked. Is it a coincidence? Probably. But so far, does anyone see anything positive from him whatsoever?

Someone brought up something about the Hamilton... Apparently Beltre was at the plate at the time.

1)Start Lowrie. I like Scutaro, and everything he provides, but you play the hot bat. Lowrie will get injured, and Scutaro will have his shot again, but for now, playing a lessor player to boost his confidence just isn't the right move. 2) Stop shifting the lineup. Find something that works and try to keep guys in the same place. If you have to move guys in and out of spots, do what you have to do. Keep players in spots that work-- ie Pedroia 2, Agon 3, Youk 4. Throwing everyone around isn't helping the offense. Crawford at 1 isn't working, he just doesn't like hitting there. 3) Let Dice-k do whatever the hell he wants. Its been 4 years, and he still isn't listening, so let him pitch how he wants to pitch. If that doesn't work, phantom DL him. 4) Stay the course with Lackey and Buchholz. Lackey pitched to career numbers in the second half of the year in 2010 after he got used to Boston, he will figure it out. Buchholz is too good for this, maybe he was distracted by contract negotiations. 5) Have a serious discussion with the pitching staff about Saltamacchia. Figure out if he is part of the problem. In opportunities starting, Varitek's pitcher has been 2/2 on QS, and Salty has been 1/9. If we need an offensive blackhole at catcher, so be it, but if our catcher is part of the pitching problem, something needs to be done. Personally, I don't know enough to make this claim about Salty, but Tito is in a position to figure it out.

Based on the massive walk numbers, and what I've gotten from watching the gamez, is that pitchers are trying to pitch around him. Last I checked, he's leading the league in walks, and is 10th in the AL for OBP, which I think is pretty damn good for a slump. Sometimes he gets to a point where the ball just can't find green, but he'll get there.

Pessimism towards the Yankees counts as optimism, right? Jeter sucks. He sucks so badly that even Jacko admits it.

So I was sitting in the bleachers today, watching Bard pitch, and he was throwing like 95 (instead of the normal 99-100), and I said to myself... You know, I feel like if a lot of these players got some exhibition time, like as if they went to the minors or something before the season started, they would be able to get ready for the season. Then I stopped myself. That's what spring training should have done.

Awesome thread. I've been thinking about doing something like this myself. Here's my top 5 pieces of optimism 1) This team is healthy. Albers is the only hurt player on this team right now, and that is saying something. 2) Lester is having a good April. 3) Did you see Beckett's start on Sunday? If that didn't give hope for this pitching staff, nothing will. 4) Pedroia is playing at a MVP level again. After insane family issues in 2009, and injuries in 2010, every single thing I've seen him do has amazed me. 5) No team has ever come from 0-6 to start the season and won the World Series. Well, no team has ever come back from being down 3-0 in a playoff series either.

But that's the problem!

What is Tito's obsession with Scutaro at SS? I'm not all that concerned with the other guys offensively, but Scutaro AND Lowrie? Not only that, you're putting this kind of defense out there for your ace? This is unreal.

Daisuke has a very strange way about pitching. He usually likes to nibble the strike zone, throw a lot of pitches, and only allow 2-3 runs in 5-6 innings. That's what we're going to see from him, and we saw this "classic dice-k" on his first start of the year-- 5 innings, 3 runs. Arguably, the best season we've seen from him was in 2008, when he pushed closer to the limits of 2 runs, and 6 innings, and ended up with a sub-3 ERA. But if you watched closely to his last start, he wasn't mixing it up. He was going too far into the zone. His first 12 pitches were thrown to either strikes or contact, which is absolutely unheard of for him. And after that, he was trying too hard to get it in the zone that he left it hanging down the middle, where he got pounded. It just felt to me like Dice-k was saying to Curt Young "f*** you, this is what it looks like when I pitch how you want me to". I've spent a lot of time defending him on Talksox, and honestly, after that POS outing against a pitiful lineup, I've had enough.

If we have a 44 year old Wakefield, why not a 39 year old Pedro?

Yes. A million times yes.

I'll be at the game. Looks like rain today though. I don't care if Price ruins my Fantasy points league for the SEASON with this game. Just get it done guys.

Could they do that? I wonder if we could trade him for Yu Darvish....

I'd bet he's going to have a mystery injury, and they'll try to fix him again.

I'm still intrigued by Lars. It seems like he takes a long time to get used to pitching every time he moves up a level, but eventually figures it out. That being said, he will not be given a considerable amount of time in the majors to figure things, but if he continues to produce at AAA, he could turn into a good trade chip.

As long as you're not too loud, I don't think it'll be a big deal, unless you get seated next to idiots. I've seen Yankee fans be obnoxious and no one messed with them. Most of Fenway is full of pink hats, and families-- its not like football. Boston fans hate the Yankees, but the Rangers aren't anywhere as big a deal, I don't think-- there hasn't been much history between the two teams.

they're intentionally loading the bases for A-gon? Wow, just wow.

Either way, the balls are getting hit hard.

Tex hit one juust foul earlier. And now another hard shot just off the left field line. Lots of hard hit balls, and no results so far. I'm loving this game so far though.