jung

Get somebody up or we are headed for double digits. Demps has not gotten a single ball down yet this inning...please get him out of the game. I would have stalled for time rather than have him pitch to ibanez.

I just don't remember Demps completely incapable of keeping it down. An inning yes....several pitches in an inning yes...just not hopelessly incapable like this. Farrell has to get him out next inning if guys get on base, especially on pitches up as we will need a calculator to count the runs if he stays up like this. That is really what I was saying when we had this discussion last time. He never (as I recall) got into the situation he is in today where he simply cannot get it down and he CANNOT pitch up. Nothing he throws gets by hitters when he is up...much like the way Cook was.

Lavs with Middlebrooks disease.

This is the first time I can remember Dempster this year totally incapable of keeping the ball down.....AT ALL! The M's could have 5 more very quickly if Farrell does not get him outta' there. I would let him start the next inning cause we are so depleted in the pen. But if he still can't keep the ball down and gets two guys on, I might be tempted to get him out while we could still get back into this game. Somebody should be able to get these guys out. It's still the M's.

Eventually Demps got so tired of seeing balls buzzing past his ears that he started throwing balls into the ground in an effort to keep it down. That didn't work either as he still could not throw it over the plate and down in the zone.

I may have to PM him for hanging my ass out to dry like this.

Well that was a terrific pitch Demps. There is up in the zone and there is served up in the zone. That was disgusting.

Seems like the baseball gods have got it in for us for screwing around with 3rd base.

Jeez Holt had two shots at it and still couldn't pick it up.

I broke down and started a 7/11 game thread.

Last game in Seattle. Go Sox

Another early bomb off Demps. As well as he has done, it just would not feel like a Dempster pitched game if he did not give up the early bomb.

Anybody can start GT....especially when it is sort of just left open like this. I never do cause I know people like to and it just does not matter to me. So go for it anybody.

Regardless of my comments elsewhere about XB this year...this guy is a special ballplayer IMO and I just don't want to see him shipped off at this point.

Well now I am not sure what we are talking about which could be my fault. So, I am not blaming anybody else. But to me, deciding that the next big test for XB is MLB and determining that the chances are good that the player will pass that test are two different things. All players are different for one thing. I said in the winter and in the spring that to me, Iggy was the kind of player that would no longer improve at any level of minor league ball and that the Sox or some team would have to risk it and bring him up to MLB for him to shine. There are some players that are like that just like there are some football players that suck in practice but are terrific on game day. Being here has instilled in Iggy a desire, more like a necessity to get on base any way he can. I think we would all acknowledge that the change he made in his swing, combined with that necessity in his own mind is what has made all the dif in the world. Iggy has decided that he will not allow Farrell to open the door even a crack to sending him back down again. Maybe the biggest problem for me in discussions about XB is that we have WMB and if WMB continues to progress and you gave me the choice between XB and WMB because the Sox decide they need somebody better than Holt or Snyder playing 3rd and want to push Iggy to SS full time, I take WMB. I might not make that decision in a year when we were not leading the division but in fact we are leading the division.

Maybe that says it is a pretty good standard.

The way Lackey has pitched it will be tremendous if Buch comes back strong. If they get Lester going again it will be otherworldly.

Well hopefully it is clear to Workman (if he is going to hang around for a bit) that while he has some zip on his FB it is flat as a pancake...just the type of FB that gets crushed in the bigs but sort of works in the minors. However he has a terrific hook. As long as he can throw that for strikes he can likely do something. Without it he appears to be pretty helpless.

And that is what I mean...pretty sloppy...thoughtless play there by the M's as they snore through the second half of this game.

Seems to me that the way to beat this M's team is to get up on them early. They seem to fold their tent without much prompting.

Salty trying to put a 4 spot on the M's there

Sounds like even with the recent better news on Buch...(throwing without pain) best guess at a return to the rotation is end of July. Sure did not sound like a two month absence when this all started but I guess that is going to be about one week short of that at best!

i just saw a photo of Harang and have decided to take a Mohammed Ali approach to this thing. Harang is just too ugly to be good. GO SOX!

You would think we would see more signs of this "desperate" effort even as it related to our own organization. As for an effort outside the organization, I do not see many of the "almost" ever present rumors. However I remain convinced that BC will do something.

Well I would put the Sox chance of taking three in Oakland at about 0. I would be totally thrilled if they just took the series there.