jung

One thing that makes him fun to watch is that I think it is not hard to see what Morales looks like pitching when things are going to go well for him. If he has it he really has it. This game is likely going to be a tough game for the entire team just from the perspective of travel and time zones and start time for the game itself.

I know the two things might be completely disconnected but I have to admit that he did not look that healthy to me right from the start of the season and I said so at the time...thin and lacking color is one thing but he looked like he was auditioning for the next vampire thrills movie......Full Moon Major Leagues or somethin'

Yea I don't expect that we will see anything like a steady diet of Salty in the 4 hole. V has had screwier lineups this year. I am more concerned when he drops a couple guys right smack in the middle of the lineup that are just not doing anything. It is just a big hole and before you know it, you go from 1 on with nobody out to the same 1 on in the same spot with two outs.

It is something of a bygone era kind of lineup thing but it really was not all that unusual at one time for managers to take a guy that had a relatively low BA but was successfully swinging for the fences at a pretty good clip into the cleanup spot just for that reason. Get a guy or two on base, wipe the bases clean with a dinger....start over again with the bottom half of the order. Not saying it is the end all of clean up hitter ideas but it has been done before. More recently, the kind of hitting profile Salty has might more often find its way to the 5 hole and no higher. But like I said, it is not that unusual....just not done as much recently.

Folks talking about the late hour of tonights game reminds me of how difficult this game will be for the Sox to win. Fly coast to coast and then start a game at what your body thinks is 10:00PM....good luck. Wish it could be some other way for all of the teams that have to endure this.

I think Hamels is arb eligible for 2013 but not a FA till 2014. I think Garza's deal goes through 2013 and he is also a FA in 2014. I have not seen any Dempster references of late but he is a FA in 2013.

Well the Yanks are leaving a lot of runners on base. That is the other side of the HR to runs scored stat the does sort of count for something. It would appear that they are not doing a good job of moving runners along either. What it does say is that good pitching can really control their offense. All hitters are mistake hitters. Don't make mistakes to good hitters and you can control their offensive output. That is particularly true if the team you are playing is not very adept at manufacturing runs and situational hitting. They Yanks may also be more vulnerable away from that bandbox they call Yankee Stadium. 314 down one line and 318 down the other!

The best thing Morales has going for him is that his last performance was his best. If he can just keep up the momentum from that last start he has every chance at being terrific tonight.

I would be absolutely in heaven to see Morales mowing down pinstriped ding-a-lings

I think Morales definitely could be something special. With pitching such a priority for everybody everywhere, you do have to wonder why he was not given more time to develop as a starter....the why did people give up on him question or Maybe he is truly a flash in the pan. I loved the way he threw in his last outing. I just could not believe that smooth and flowing delivery.....it was something I had not seen in any of his previous stints in relief and did not see in the first starting stint either when using the full wind up. It seems pretty clear from that performance, the key is how he slots his arm angle and maintaining that smooth, flowing delivery. It is what made that stint look so effortless. However just the fact that I had not seen it in any of his previous stints probably says something about the kinds of things that get in his way. Would love to see him turn into a stud. If anything we have more question marks in the rotation now than when we started the season. As a group they really have not distinguished themselves to this point. For different reasons they have all been up and down. Beckett has been the most dependable of them but Beckett will have missed 5 starts by mid-season and will have had two complete whip-outs. Not exactly something that instills confidence. Lester has finally settled at about a 2-3 in a rotation. I have given up on Lester as a 1. Simply does not have the head or the pitches to be a 1. Buch is throwing as good as he can throw right now....certainly as good as we have ever seen him throw. However he always seems one step away from the DL which he usually does visit for a variety of reasons.....come to think of it..... Felix is fine but as I have said before once you get down to guys at the back end of the rotation, even if they play something of a staring role when compared to other back end rotation guys, there is just so much you can expect to get from back there. dice is dice. I think we have seen enough of him to know what he is. My hope for dice is that he shows about what he has shown so far for the rest of the season. If he does that then 4 and 5 seem OK in this rotation. Still does not look like a top of the league rotation to me. They are mired down there middle of the pack in this league for a reason. As a group, that is what they are. So either we get a guy or we don't. I would prefer to only give up a solid prospect or prospects if we can get a guy with time on his contract or clear up any contract issues at the signing. I would not give up much for a rental. The downside of the new WC format is questioning how much you are willing to give up just to gain access to the 1 game play in. Fortunately the Sox have a shot at the division....at least they do today. Also we get four with the Yanks before the ASB. So we get to see how we really stack up before making a final decision. I just cannot see us playing for the division with this rotation as is. So what do you want to do BC....play for the division.....play for the WC?

I don't think ERA is the end of the world for discussions about pitchers either. However none of the various stats can be taken individually and to be honest some of the recent stat creations are just plain useless cause they are based on a false premise to begin with. Many of these things just become another means to make an excuse for not getting the job done. Others of the new generation of stats are great but I don't think a one of them is worth a damn on its own. If a pitcher can't make enough good pitches he will end up with a poor performance. No matter how you cut it leaving pitches out over the plate will get you hurt....giving up walks will get you hurt. Pitching right into a particular hitters strengths will get you hurt. If I cannot watch a pitcher pitch then I will often try to look at a number of stats to try to get a feel for what he is doing. However if I can see what a pitcher is actually doing, I won't depend on stats that much. I will look at the stats almost as a point of interest and to compare them to pitchers that I cannot see pitch. As I posted recently that is what I don't like about complaints about flairs and the so called bitch hit. If a pitcher makes a poor pitch to a crummy hitter, the so called bitch hit or flair is a very likely result. Good hitters take mistake pitches and deposit them over the wall, poor hitters end up with flairs or the so called bitch hit off the same mistake pitch...does not chance the quality of the pitch...a s***** pitch is a s***** pitch. For the most part the genesis of hits, bitch hits, flairs, HR's, doubles whatever is a s***** pitch to begin with. Sometimes you can count on one finger or less the number of times hitters take a quality pitch and do something with it particularly during the course of a regular season game. All hitters are mistake pitch hitters which is why pitching is the single most important element of the game.

I can't say that I have been impressed with McClure.

Another good win for Sox finally puts them enough above 500 to not have to stare 500 in the face every game out. Mariners should not pose any huge problems for the Sox. Should be a 2/4 series at least and maybe 3/4 then Athletics and then hit the Yanks just as they lose two out of the rotation. Should be interesting to see how the Yanks do in a four game series with these two guys down in their rotation. I don't expect the Yanks to fall apart but more interested to see how the two teams play each other even with Pettite and Sabathia out. Wonder when Buch actually pitches again.

This is why I think the Jays have a death grip on last. Now that their rotation is decimated, they just can't pitch....also why I don't think the O's will not vie for last with the Jays...the O's can pitch some.

Sox just buried Romero today. The guys he left on this inning will likely score as well. Lester should cruise in. Romero is going to end up with something like 7 earned for 3 pitched as I think there had to be one or two unearned in there. Should do wonders for his ERA. No wonder he has his head in his hands under a towel.

Holy s***.....good thing nobody was on....Jays have to be figuring Lester is going to throw strikes with such a big lead. Worse thing Lester could do would be to start walkin' guys.

Jays pen has been crushed by poor performances from the rotation. Probably trying to save them and hope Romero can at least get them through 5 even if it takes 100 pitches to do it. He did finally start to throw some low strikes the last inning. Probably earned himself more time with the game out of reach like this. If the Jays can score a few there is a better chance Romero will come out.

Romero can't get anybody out today...surprised he is still there.

Sox have made base running mistakes all season long....they don't run well and their coaches are either blind or coaches box challenged. Could be an issue when they get into another string of better teams to play particularly if they play tighter baseball than the Sox. Like I said yesterday....the Sox play pretty loosely.

3rd base coach definitely stopped Ross. I would have to say its on 3rd base coach. He had the play in front of him and Ross was depending on him. Agons could have seen Ross stop and might have tried to get back to 1st. Not sure where Agons thought he was going once Ross stopped.....about all Agons could have done was stop and try to get back to 1st.

Christ even when the Sox do somethin' right, its wrong

Well lets see how Lester deals with this embarrassment of riches.

I should just take off for the golf course....any game that includes a d-mac RBI has got to be a Sox win.

Oh my God.....did we ever luck out there. Agons even on a hot streak seems sorta' feeble in these kinds of situations.

Please Agons....just get the damn thing out of the infield