SoxFanForsyth

Our pitching has been injured and we are still playing .611 baseball. Since Buch went down, we have gone 14-8. We are on a 99 game win pace with our number 5 man out for the season, our number 4 man posting a 6.5 era, and our number 3 man out for a month. Lackey threw better than I've seen him throw in a Sox uni last start, Buch got great news on his back and is only a week or two away from a rehab start, Lester should be back before August, and Miller has been better than DiceK. Our issue is not pitching, in fact, on July 31, we may be only missing Buch, and he may be making a rehab start. JD Drew can't hit lhp, or any pitching for that matter. The hole that Drew provides is much bigger than a number 4 or 5 starter, and Miller has a 3.57 era right now with a 3-0 record. Anything we get off of a trade will be nominally better than that, if at all, and will cost a ton. We can get a RF for fairly cheap to compliment Drew that is a huge improvement over McDonald

Dude what are you smoking?? Reddick hasn't touched .280 since moving from A ball. He is a career .257 hitter in AA, and a career .243 hitter in AAA. He was hitting .230 in Pawtucket prior to being called up. He has never hit for a high average.

So, here's something exciting. Looking at Gonzo's splits, here are his pre-all star and post-all star stats: Career: Pre - .286/.365/.512/.877 Post- .299/.384/.521/.905 Is it possible that we may still have yet to see Adrian Gonzalez at his best?!?

Huh?!? Heyman, maybe. But he's pretty unbiased compared to others. Olney is more of a Sox homer than a Yankees homer.

Joelsherman1 Joel Sherman Exec on K-Rod trade: "Mets did not get good prospects because #Brewers don't have any good prospects left. This was a money deal. Mets wanted to get rid of $ and Brewers were able to take on some"

So, Tito won't go L-L with Ells - Craw, but he will go L-L-L with Ortiz - Craw - Reddick? Hmmm... As far as Pedroia goes, you're not dropping him from 2 to 7. It's 2 to 3. But it doesn't matter, we have different opinions on this, so it's not worth arguing.

Wake me up when a 7 year contract is judged by 3 months of the first season. What if he puts up a 20 HR/95 RBI/50 SB/110 Run, .305/.360/.490/.850 season next year and wins a Gold Glove. Would that really surprise you? Because the year before he was signed, he put up a .307/.356/.495, 19 HR, 90 RBI, 110 Runs, 47 SB line, all while playing gold glove defense. That's better than JD Drew has ever dreamed of.

You sound like a typical Yankee fan who only believes in HR and RBI, which is odd because you're constantly pitching a tent for JD Drew. Carl Crawford WAR in 2009 and 2010: 13.3 Adrian Gonzalez WAR in 09 and 10: 10.0 It was not a bad investment when it was originally made. Is he overpaid? Sure, but from 2009-2010, the 2 years prior to the investment, he was a top 6 WAR player in the MLB.

Our pitching actually matches up pretty well with Philly. Beckett and Halladay are two studs, pretty much a wash there. Lee and Lester, same applies. Pretty much a wash there. Hamels has a slight edge on Buchholz, but that game would be played at Fenway. Lets not forget, last time we played the Phils, we didn't have Crawford, Lowrie (who crushes LHP), we had Darnell McDonald hitting 5th vs Lee, etc. The team we field in the WS will be much different than that team.

Dude, look at his career stats. Clearly the first 3 months of the 2011 season is an aberration. If you think that Crawford is a .280 OBP guy, you're delusional. For 3 of the past 4 years, he had an OBP of .355+, and the only time he didn't have an OBP of .355+, he was hurt and his numbers were down across the board. I don't know how you can look at almost 2,000 PA where he's got an OBP of .358 and think that he's a .280 OBP guy, and that he can't get on base. Yeah, he struggled this year. Is Pedroia a .280 hitter? Is Beckett a 2.25 ERA pitcher? The numbers will normalize. Beckett will be around a 2.80-2.95 ERA pitcher at the end of the year. Pedroia will be at around .300-.305 at the end of the year. And Crawford, even though his OBP is .280 right now, it will probably be around .325 - .335 by the end of the year. And you know what that means? That means he's on his typical .355-.360 OBP season from July 18th to the end of the season. As of today, who gives a s*** what he did from April 1 to today. All we want to see is the real Carl Crawford from July 18th going forward. His numbers may not end up looking like they did the past couple of years, and that's because of a sour first half. But that's in the past, and has no bearings on the future. He should play to the back of his baseball card and be fine from here on out.

I'm a little confused about the Sox this deadline. At the beginning of the season, I remember hearing John Henry say that they set aside some money for any trade deadline moves that they would need to make. Now, I keep hearing that they do not have any room to take on extra salary, which makes Beltran a long shot. It gets old getting the conflicting reports. I've heard the Sox linked to Cuddyer as well. He's having a pretty solid season. 13 HR, 137 OPS+. Higher average, lower OPS than Beltran, but comes at a fraction of the cost. Realistically, I can see Cuddyer more than I can see Beltran. Cuddy vs LHP (100 PA): .369/.470/.726 Beltran vs LHP (103 PA): .232/.291/.547 Cuddyer could be a big addition to the club, and has a pretty realistic shot of being traded here.

I don't understand how/why people are complacent with the line up. I know it's performing well, but if we have the potential to make it perform better, why wouldn't you? Look, it may not work out well, but we go into a 13 game stretch where we are playing the Orioles, the Mariners, the Royals, and the White Sox. Thats 4 series that we should win. Why not take advantage of the streak of weaker competition and see if our line up would be better suited with Crawford in the 2 slot?

Heath Bell is in the last year of his contract. I wonder if he'll be available at the deadline, and if so, I wonder if Theo will make a move for him. That would be a solid addition to our bullpen. If we don't trade for him, it sounds like he's very interested in coming over to the Sox next season.

Yes. The Yankees catchers are OPS'ing .666. 666 = The Devil. See the correlation?

Dear National League Sorry. Love Adrian

After Gonzo did what he did vs Sabathia. DEAR GOD 445 feet. What a BLAST

I don't care what his final numbers look like. We are in first place right now, so we overcame his poor start. Now let's see the Carl Crawford we all know. If he hits .305/.358/.440 the rest of the season, but ends up with a line of .265/.320/.390, I don't care. All I care about is now going forward, and anyone who is concerned more with end of year numbers rather than 2nd half numbers right now is dumb, not saying that's you, just saying at this point, his first half numbers are irrelevant.

You're taking AB's away, but you're giving them a lot more RBI opportunities, which will result in more runs. You're also giving yourself the opportunity to run more in front of Gonzo to avoid the DP ball, which would result in less outs, as Gonzo is very DP prone.