SoxFanForsyth

Just met Cherrington at the game. Pretty sweet!

Heading to the game! Sitting 8 rows back from home plate. Really looking forward to seeing Webster throw. Going to try to get tickets to tomorrow's game against the Yanks, right now they're crazy expensive but about 2.5 hours before the game, you can usually find them for really cheap

De La Rosa for me. Side note, I'm flying down tonight and catching the Sox/Twins tomorrow and potentially the Sox/Yanks on Sunday before my flight back

If he got checked out twice by the trainers and then an additional time by a wrist specialist and all of them said it's nothing other than some scar tissue breaking apart, and he feels completely fine, then why wouldn't we let him get back in the cage and get to playing again? You don't have to be cautious just to be cautious. If the situation needs caution, fine, but don't just hold him out for no reason.

It's a beautiful thing. This is from today. http://d3j5vwomefv46c.cloudfront.net/photos/large/738277155.jpg?key=8611148&Expires=1362073333&Key-Pair-Id=APKAIYVGSUJFNRFZBBTA&Signature=BHBH7x9s68-iL1iehecLEa2smh-Wpu7Wgy5jTu7ukD~eKW7W8w3gO3Fz2zlN6oS-KaHtritHR7WA14iJtOaAdi8pbehPQuw9OR53m~ei2pW~Rm9H6xVlf5FKqM1BmfS7qUPPxpn-Q3akWWgGxStiiZ-eBFog0I-Km7W7NTpNQaU_

Because he allowed 2 runs in a ST game? Yes. 2 ST innings trumps 40 big league innings.

WMB was checked this morning by the trainers, no ill effects from last night. No swelling, no pain. Looks like he's in the clear. He's meeting with a wrist specialist today just to be 100% sure, and they're making a protective glove for him, but other than that he's all set. Said he could hit in the cage today but they're going to give him a day off. Not sure I'd compare him to JD Drew because he came out of a spring training game for precautionary reasons. He had a couple hammy issues early last year, but those were resolved until he got HBP. Nothing he could do about that. Time will tell if he's got the injury bug, but for now I don't think there's anything pointing in that direction, IMO anyway.

Will Middlebrooks said that the pain is probably just from scar tissue breaking up. I'm not sure how that feels, I know that he said he had to get some scar tissue broken up from his hammy and it hurt, and Pedroia said that he had some scar tissue broken up in his hand and it hurt really bad, so I would assume that's just what happened.

@GordonEdes: Middlebrooks thinks he may be able to take BP tomorrow Felt pain in same spot where he broke wrist on outside of wrist @TimBritton: No X-rays yet for Middlebrooks, and none planned since he has strength in his hand. Will be re-evaluated tomorrow. What a freakin relief.

Holy Cannoli!!!! Just a scare, nothing torn, nothing broken!!! Thank goodness!!! @TimBritton: Middlebrooks said no pain as of now, probably could have stayed in game. Just an awkward feeling on an awkward swing in spot of break.

Farrell certainly left himself some wiggle room with his answer to the Bogaerts question. I mean, would Brock Holt or Pedro Ciriaco give better production than Bogaerts? Would Bogaerts develop better at the MLB level playing everyday than in the minors? He very well could. Going from SS to 3B isn't a huge transition, either, so I don't think he would have a hard time w it. Well see. I certainly think its an option that they will consider. Otherwise, Farrell would have given a much more definitive no answer to that question.

Not to be the bearer of bad news, but..... I did also play frisbee with Middlebrooks over the offseason. Oye.

Yup. I'm not trying to downplay the injury, just trying to think about it logically and what it could possibly be.

I could certainly see them taking a look. Here's what Farrell said about Bogaerts the other day: 'Earlier this spring, Farrell was asked if Bogaerts could play a role similar to Baltimore's Manny Machado, who jumped from Double-A shortstop to the majors last year when the O's needed a third baseman. "The major difference between the two is there's a pressing need there," Farrell said on February 17. "Certainly, provided Will stays healthy, that need doesn't exist here. At the same time, it's an opportunity to expose him to the position and see where things go."' Well, now that there could be a pressing need, it will be interesting to see if Bogaerts suddenly becomes an option. The fact that he's playing 3B in the WBC certainly isn't going to hurt his cause, as he will get reps consistently over there.

This is what Buster tweeted: '@Buster_ESPN: We need more details, but Middlebrooks might have second significant injury of the spring for AL East, with Granderson being the first.' The way it looked, and WMB's reaction, it looked like it could be a significant injury but he doesn't have insider info, not by the time this tweet was made certainly. I just can't see how a bone could possibly break from that swing. It's almost got to be a strain of some sort, forearm muscle or something. Maybe something with a tendon in his wrist? I just can't imagine it being bone related.

I just can't believe that swinging the bat and stopping like that would re break his wrist but at the same time, I can't think of anything else it could/would do. Where is Jacko when you need him.

Right wrist soreness = too swollen to get an X-ray tonight, but will take one tomorrow.

That's what Gomes does. Destroys LHP.

I'm not going to sit and argue with you about this. We obviously differ in our opinion. We'll see at the end of the season. You think the Sox are closer to last year's rotation. I think that's a crazy opinion.

I should clarify. SP get injured quite frequently. And the effect of those SP is much, much greater on the overall performance of a team than that of a LOOGY or a middle reliever. The fact that the Sox have at least 2-3 guys who can close makes even losing a back end guy fine. You're counting on Pettitte to give you something he hasn't given you since 2009. You say he pitched well last year, but he threw against a bunch of s*** baller teams. He faced: CIN (21st in RS) CLE (22nd in RS) KCR (20th in RS) LAA (Threw 7 IP, 5 ER) MIN (16th in RS) NYM (2x) (25th in RS) SEA (27th in RS) TB (18th in RS) TOR (2X) (13th in RS) WAS (10th in RS) He faced two top 10 offenses, and got plowed by one of them. If you want to count on him, fine, but his line last year was very misleading considering his opposition. Again, he hasn't thrown 130 IP since 2009, and when he did, he had a 4.16 ERA. That's pretty consistent with what Dempster will give you. Kuroda, fine, but Buchholz can be just as effective as Kuroda. In fact, after Buch shook off the rust from behind his ears last year, he and Kuroda basically went tit for tat from May through September (Buch: 3.19 ERA, Kuroda: 3.28 ERA). You talk about Doubront being out of shape, but completely ignore Hughes having a bulging disc. That sounds about right. Plus, Doubront had much better peripherals last year than Hughes. Nova got plowed last year. And the Sox are much better prepared for when the injuries hit. With CC leading the way, the Yankees probably have a better rotation than the Sox. But #2-5 are comparable.

First off, there are always a lot more injuries to SP than the bullpen, and the bullpen is relied on every single game. Having guys in that back end who can come in and put out fires is a huge deal. Plus, even though the Yanks have an advantage over the Sox and Rangers in the #1 SP, the #2-5 are pretty comparable, so that wouldn't make as big of a difference as the bullpen, that impacts the game on a nightly basis. And I'm not trying to convince you to agree with me, that's just kind of the way I view things. Injury risk throughout the season and overall impact on every game.

JHC dude it is a discussion as to why we think the Sox have such a big bump in ranking. Geez. You need to chill out.

I have the Rangers, Yankees, and Red Sox at anywhere from 86-90 wins each. I have the Rays at 85-86. I think the Angels, Tigers, and Jays win the divisions, and the Yanks Rangers and Sox battle it out for the two WC slots. On a side note, and I have thought this for a while, I always believe that when it comes down to a battle of teams for a slot (or in this case, 2 slots), I always favor the team with the bullpen, so in this case, I would favor the Sox and maybe Yanks. It would be brilliant to see a Sox/Yanks 1 game play in.

I agree that JBJ is better defensively than Ellsbury, but the Sox wouldn't move Ells to LF in his walk year. It would cause a massive backlash.

I would sub the Angels for the Rangers. I don't know about the A's, should be interesting with all of that pitching, can they perform to that level again? Yankees look like injuries are going to eat them alive this year, they're so old and so many guys coming off of big injuries, even Granderson now. The Rays always seem to find a way, but their offense looks horrific this year and they lost about 220 innings out of that rotation. I don't think the Rangers are going to be all that great this year actually, I think they're going to be a massive disappointment. They lost a ton of offense this offseason and their SP is just ok with an average bullpen.