jung

f*** face Maddon walked right into that. I would pity the guy if he wasn't such an *******.

No sense in rubbing it in but I can't help myself...."Don't you just love it when Maddon outsmarts himself....AGAIN"

Don't you just love it when Maddon outsmarts himself....AGAIN

Vic has been a gimp waiting to happen all year. He plays with it....tweaks it and takes a few days off to get back to the point where he can run again and eventually tweaks it again. Not sure there is an amount of rest he could get with so little time left in the season to change that dynamic. Just going to have to hope that he can get through the post season without repeating what has become a pretty common practice for him this year.

For all of his supposed "genius" that Maddon can not keep a guy like Zobrist from just taking a first pitch from Ueh which would have clearly been a ball I just don't know what to say.

Well we do have yet another example of what happens when the starter leaves too many outs between himself and Ueh.

Well s***.....at least Workman is spelling Taz and learning the realities of pitching closer to the end of the game at the same time. So far, Workman has not done so well closer to the end of the game but if he can learn in situations where he does not hurt us, it could make him a more valuable asset in post season, especially if Farrell finds himself again using Taz too often to the point of wearing him down. Interesting spot for both teams. Clearly the Rays have to win this game.

So much stupid s*** going on in baseball that just extends the length of the game for no purpose. "Lets scratch our balls some more, adjust our gloves more, shift all the infielders all over creation and back again".....silly

Boy has Cobb had WMB's number tonight.

Lowe has settled in and has been much better tonight. I do agree that this shift s*** has gotten entirely out of control both Rays and Sox. In the first place, IMO you really have to have a preponderance of evidence to be compelled to move away from optimal field coverage generally and the ability of the pitcher to pitch the best way for him to pitch and move to an overloaded positioning of players which forces the pitcher to pitch to the shift. If a hitter is so prone to hitting the ball to a certain field and he is so dangerous as a hitter that the shift is the ONLY way to counter him, then that is the only situation where I would feel like the shift is justified and there better be a career worth of evidence pointing that way. Anything less is not better than a hunch. In the first place in many cases, who is to say that the regular fielder would not make the play on the ball anyway. Yet the Manager ends up getting to look like some genius because the shifted fielder made the play. At the end of the day the number of times you might actually handcuff your pitcher can't even be calculated. In fact that is a second criteria that I would demand in order to be satisfied that we should shift. So the first criteria for me is that we are talking about a dangerous hitter, somebody that can really hurt me. Then, I would want a preponderance of career evidence that the hitter hits to a particular field a very high percentage of the time and I would want the shift in every case to play to the strengths of my pitcher and not force him to pitch in a way that is simply out of character. IMO once you satisfied all three of those conditions the number of times a team would shift would MAYBE end up being once or twice per game. The way it is done now is mental masturbation for Managers and Coaches.....

Not to compliment an opposing pitcher but it was just a good example of their tiny margin for error. Cobb did a terrific job pitching to WMB there. Just staying inside enough and under his hands enough to get him to swing but not be able to do anything with the pitch. Those pitches were about two inches away from meat soaring over the LF fence. So they were close enough to get WMB to swing but not good enough to get anything out of it.

Drew absolutely saves Dempster's nuts.

This park is such a chamber of horrors. Not sure Myers saw that as good as he should have. If anything he got caught in no mans land not even trying to play it in the air. Nothing sounds right in this dump. Nothing looks right in this dump. While guys in exposed bullpens are used to taking a bit of a risk while a pitcher is warming, here you take your life in your hands just trying to sit and watch the damn game. Ya' got fans sitting right over your shoulder. Probably can't even talk to your pen mates in this dump......and then there is the catwalk.

I have to agree. I think Drew would jump at a QO. So if the Sox make one they better not be trying to make some "too cute by a half" play cause they are getting the player.

O's seem to be trying to put on their stretch drive right now. Pretty good time for it. That light Indian's schedule gives them a legit shot at getting in. That has been pretty impressive. Did not think the Tribe had it in them even with some help from the schedule.

All three are terrible. Longer the season goes the more I think (if they are smart) they will bring back Eck as the full time analyst next season.

Now we are shifting inside the count? At this rate the 3rd base position is going to be renamed "rover".

Don't think we will be learning anything from Lowe tonight. Maybe he will settle in and be better for game two. Think Price and Molina should have a little talk in the dugout and see if they can get on the same page? If not we will be playing this game tomorrow morning at this rate.

This would have been a great game to have Eck.

Well here we go. Buch starts his 2013.5 campaign. Maybe at this point it is his 2013.75 campaign.

Predictable.....said they would pick it up...even if they did not want to keep him for some reason...sign and trade would be a better move than just not picking up the option.

Sox have some decisions to make for infield in the off season. 2nd base is the only one locked down without question. Sox like the players they have I think. May want to start moving them around a little and that might result in Naps being the odd man out if anything.

If anybody is interested, Kershaw is pitching on ESPN for LA and the Reds right now. I don't know how anybody hits that motion of his. I swear he does not time that hitch in his motion exactly the same way every time. However it is close enough that I don't think an ump could challenge him on it if he wanted to...really a sneaky deal. Just close enough to stay within the rules but probably just enough to keep a hitter off balance. It would be way more distracting to me than Demps and his glove waggle. I don't think that would bother me one way or the other. Boy I could see where that Kershaw hitch would be a whole other deal though. Kershaw is so damned tall.

But the announcement is that it is a compression fracture. He might actually be able to return from that sort of fracture. However it would likely mean he would be out for all of what is left of September. But it is possible to return from a compression fracture. He would not IMO be playing at 100% even in early October if he did return. But a return is not out of the question I don't think.

I love Taz in the role he has been in. But if he runs out of gas he runs out of gas. A pitcher can reenergize himself once in a season and come back as Taz has after running low on fuel at the ASB. Twice is hard to do. it is a lot like a pro cycler that gets close to oxygen death on a big hill but just makes it. He is still riding...he is still in the race but if he gets close to oxygen death later on in that same race, the chances of him getting through it are slim at best. Oxygen death will come on much faster the second time around and the cycler won't likely overcome it the second time. Same with a pitcher that gets close to the bottom of his fuel tank more than once in a season. The second time, fatigue catches up to him much faster and recover is much more difficult if you allow him to get close to the cliff edge. Farrell is likely to have to use Taz less at this point just to try to reenergize him again. Fortunately the Sox have days off scattered throughout September. I look for Farrell to try to extend the periods Taz has for rest in an effort to back him away from the cliff edge. We actually saw the last relevant pitch Paps threw for this team in 2011 and it came on the Fenway mound, well before the Baltimore series and the game in Baltimore that we tend to blame Paps for losing. I would prefer that not happen to Taz but that is where he is heading. If he gets there I don't want to see Taz on the mound in a critical spot for this team.