Will617

Goddammit Beckett. He looked terrific his first two starts, and now he can't keep anything down.

Isn't Chung a second year player?

Oh s***, not VMart again.

Kalish nearly had that one. Damn he's got a great arm.

I don't think Ron Washington made the right decision. His relief pitcher barely got any time to warm up, and he was a former starter apparently.

No 4-peat I guess.

Oh s***, 3 peat.

And Beltre too.

Well how about that. Big Papi to center.

That outfield defense is wrecking us. Texas' I mean.

Sup Jed.

IMO this is our best lineup playing today. Orioles are currently up 3-0 on the Rays. Let's hope that holds.

Ellsbury was pretty elite last year. I wouldn't be surprised if you take Carl Crawford's contract, take off like $3-5M total and end up at Ellsbury's contract. Matt Kemp for Ellsbury is a really enticing trade. He's had high BABIP's the past two years, and a lower one this year, but maybe that's sustainable given his great line drive rate and speed. I'd imagine it would take more than Ellsbury to swing Kemp over, unless there's serious discontent (i.e. how Manny was viewed by Boston).

Closers are a volatile commodity - see Brad Lidge, Brian Fuentes, etc. Paps' year so far is pretty poor for him, and the numbers are troubling, but I'd think that he's worth paying the money for at least another year. The Toronto outing was a little unlucky for him - two first pitch swings (which might be the Jays' MO, idk, but it's still very unusual). I wouldn't mind shelling out the money for Putz, Soriano, or Balfour, don't really trust Wheeler, Francisco, or Gregg, and don't really know the rest - except Downs, who I wouldn't imagine is worth the first rounder.

He reminds me a little bit of what Hermida was at the start of the season - low risk, high upside, low cost, but Salty's got a lot more potential than Hermida, and unlike Hermida he's never had a chance to prove himself (whereas Hermida proved he was not likely to reach his ceiling).

I think Lee is a free agent this offseason, and is notoriously streaky in even a hitter's park (Wrigley). And I still think the Padres would demand Kalish rather than Ellsbury.

Roy Halladay has had superior groundball numbers to Buchholz (not that Buch doesn't have good GB tendencies, but Halladay's ridiculous), his 2007 wasn't spectacular either, and he's been a better pitcher since his K/9 went up. Other than that, I think we're just going to have to agree to disagree. I don't have anything really new to say.

The Rays have been a streaky team all year. They had that incredible start, then played .500 ball for awhile, then were hot again, and now are scuffling. It's possible that the Sox make it, but not very likely. And the Twins and White Sox don't have teams as talented as the Yankees, Red Sox or Rays. It's highly doubtful that only one AL East team makes the playoffs, and two AL Central teams make it.

Many years that Halladay's K/9 was under 7, he was also not very good; he had both good years and bad, not the sustained dominance over the past three years that has many people considering him the best pitcher in baseball. And just because Josh Johnson and Lincecum pitch in the NL, doesn't mean that you can simply discount their numbers. There is strong correlation between high K/9 rates and dominance. Just look at the career K/9 leaders at http://www.baseball-reference.com/leaders/strikeouts_per_nine_career.shtml - most of the pitchers at the top of the list were dominant, and much fewer of the pitchers at the bottom were dominant. It isn't precise, but that seems to indicate that K/9 has a high correlation with continued success. And it's certainly true in the case of Buchholz - maybe he's managing his pitch counts well, but perhaps he could manage it better by not pitching to contact in 2 strike counts? Dojji brings up an interesting point though - Lester went through the same peroid of low K/9 rates, while having good surface numbers and poor peripherals, before becoming a dominant strikeout machine. Maybe part of Farrell's philosophy? Also, nearly all of the pitchers I listed who have high K/9 rates, also go deep into games. Striking out a lot of batters doesn't mean you can't also go deep into games.

Bard in for Paps? Is MLB gameday lying to me?

Lackey is always pissed.

Is anyone up in the pen? I would hope that Paps is warming just in case something goes wrong...