jung

One of the funny things...maybe not so funny about Felix is that the word is that he takes too long to prepare to pitch to be in the bullpen...it is start or nothing...yet he shows up outta' shape and looking like he is unable to maintain through the 6th????

Koji has got his new Christmas glove on tonight.

Could not have expected Napoli to hit that. Great pitch 3-2.

By the way Napoli's HR was legit gone anywhere but that Jays HR and Ciriaco's shot there did not look that dangerous off the bat.

Holy Crap.... do they have the air conditioners blowing out to right center? That ball did not look all that great off the bat either. Bsll carrying like crazy at least that way.

Nobody wants to hear this but that is twice already this season that JBJ has misplayed balls headed into the LF corner. I will say it till my dying day...LF is about experience and judgement...not so much athletic ability and not just a position you can tumble out of bed into just because you have been a sterling minor league CF.

Man does the ball carry here. That looked like fly ball off the bat.

I'm sorry but if Johnson throws like this all season and the deal was Johnson is the cornerstone of the Marlins deal....that will turn out to be a tough deal to justify. The pub at the time though was that the Jays actually wanted Reyes as opposed to considering Reyes a liability in the deal.

Do you mean Beckett? You mean Johnson right? Junk baller to me means a guy that throws excessive offspeed breaking stuff looking to enhance his FB. So far, Johnson is throwing tons of offspeed breaking stuff early in counts...excessively so and way more than I would have expected....then sticking the FB on the tail end of it. Maybe he just does not feel it tonight.

I did not expect Johnson to have headed so far south to be mainly using junk to set up what is left of his FB. Thought he would have more than that left in the tank. He is qualifying as a junk baller at this point. Unlike Beckett for example also steadily losing velo but at least last year not qualified as a junk baller yet. Heard he got bombed yesterday. Anybody see how Beckett's FB looked yesterday.

Johnson seems to be getting sharper. Would have expected more velo out of him....maybe too early in the season.

Drew does not make that play. Don't like seeing Iggy's arm hangin' like that though.

So I heard Orsillo say that what really got under Toronto fans skins was Farrell calling the Red Sox job his "Dream job". Come on people. So Managing a ML team playing America's pastime in Canada was not his dream job.....wow.... string him up!

Johnson is throwing balls in bad spots to the LH hitters so far. That is not where you want to throw to either Victorino or JBJ or any LH hitter for that matter. Victornio has done really good not trying to do to much with pitches.

Pedey bails them out in the field again. If there is one thing ya' don't want to think about its this team without Pedey.

Gotta' believe Napoli will show better than he has so far. Don't like seeing him beaten upstairs as much as he has so far. Still early though. Salty with the hot glove behind the plate.

Looks like another interesting home plate ump tonight. Barrett was terrible in game 1 in NY. Bellino was very good in game 2. Dimuro was sort of between the two in game 3. Barrett is one of the most inconsistent home plate umps I have seen.

A heard from a few Tornonto fans today that said the prevailing feeling was that Farrell had signed a contract and should have stayed in Toronto. But it is not like Farrell had a gun to their heads. If Toronto wanted to keep him they could have. It is not like Managers can pout and start managing like s*** cause they don't get their way.

Napoli certainly has a way better shot at hitting one in Toronto than in NY. They will be indoors I would guess. So they will be out of the cold. Napoli can certainly reach LF in Toronto.

However the Dodgers now set the market. There are now more teams capable of setting the market for players with the Dodgers at the top of the pyramid currently. There is no question that CF is the premier outfield position in baseball. Players that are offensive forces that also have the goods to play in CF really get the long green. Look at the numbers for guys that are no longer cost controlled.

I already qualified my contract/FA discussion by defining it as "terms favorable to him" (Ells). If terms favorable to him are not available, all bets are off. However I do not think he will have to duplicate 2011 to achieve terms favorable to him...not with the Dodgers hanging around.

Which is my point...they won't nor should be willing to shell out the dough when their cost controlled CF of the future is sitting their right in front of them. "Grabbing at straws" because it would appear that some of us are trying to make argument for whether or should the Sox shell out the dough to keep Ells here with Bradley or that once Ells reaches FA, he would stand for a move to LF anyway. I just don't see it.

Now your grabbing at straws but I understand. I just don't see it. I don't see it as smart for the FO nor in fact for us to bite on some monster Ells contract if we think the best team they can build will be a team built by using their assets as effectively as they can as it relates to the potential performance of the team on the field. The whole point of having a farm system is to build as much as you can off that farm system, letting go of guys that appear fragile in some sense or that see their promise resolve itself in disappointment or that simply do not provide you with enough value relative to other choices. Ells may not fall into the former categories but if he does go to FA under terms favorable to him he will certainly fall into the latter relative to the Sox. Besides, if the whole issue of trying to build super-teams has not been put to rest by now, I just no longer know what it will take. A "team" is best described as component parts that are as effectively complimentary as possible. Professional teams must deal with the additional component of doing things that make good business sense as well. As for moving Ells to LF, at the point of his reaching FA, I very strongly suspect that Boras and Ells will insist that the Sox will keep him in CF. The Sox would be even dumber to overpay Ells to move him to LF. While the Dodgers are going though their period of spending money foolishly just because they have it and are trying to draw fans back from having endured one of the worst ownership groups in history, I just do not think it wise for a professional sports organization to supplant good judgement and planning with money.

But you are defining the issues in absolute terms which don't matter in this particular case. The Sox will NOT keep Bradley, a super CF cost controlled to boot in LF and PAY for the privilege by virtue of keeping and paying for Ells in CF. If Ells goes to FA under circumstances favorable to him, the Sox will not pay for that privilege and they would be complete dolts if they did. Bradley has much more value to the Sox in CF and they will take full advantage of that value ala' his cost controlled situation and they will let somebody else play the less athletically inclined LF and let somebody else pay Ells to play their CF. By the way, the situation is somewhat exacerbated by the fact that at the end of the day, JBJ is going to turn out to be superior to Ells as a CF. So how idiotic would it be to keep your more skilled CF in LF just because your fans have wet dreams about JBJ and Ells in outfield together long term.

I think that is it more than anything. Boras will take Ells to FA and presuming a decent healthy year this year, the Sox won't want to match the price. They have their next star CF sitting right in front of them. Unless they are complete idiots, he will be cost controlled till 2019. Don't need his skills in LF. They are nice to haves not got to haves and there is no way the Sox will not take advantage of having such a good, cost controlled CF.