jung

Bastardo is our 8th inning guy...what the hell does that imply. If a guy has a shutout going into the ninth does Paps come in because he is their 9th inning guy? What a ******** way to play baseball. Maybe their continued occupancy of the NLE basement is not that much of a surprise after all. Boy that big closer contract to Paps is sure as hell doing them a lotta' good. It would appear that the biggest mistake the Phils made was thinking that it made sense to spend that much money on a closer when they don't have enough of a team to get them to their closer with a chance to win in the first place. That has been my general line of thinking with regard to big money for closers to begin with. You better have one hell of a team taking you up to the 9th inning if you are going to pay a guy big money just to pitch in the 9th inning.

CWS can revel if they wish. It was the right move for them to make regardless of where Youk's OPS lands. Realistically, those days are past him. Youk is still an improvement for the CWS where they have had a glaring hole.

It is to bad but I actually think some of what we saw in the very last days was a forewarning not to try to keep Youk while playing WMB. If Youk would have tolerated it, that would have been best for the Sox but I think that the message in Youk's latest behavior was that he was "tolerating" this situation as long as the Sox were making every effort to get him outta' here but that he would have turned sour riding Boston's pine if the plan went from trying to trade him to trying to keep him. Maybe at the end of the day we should thank Youk for that warning. An unhappy Youk is not a pleasant thing to see and regardless of what he did here playing out the year, the Sox were not going to try to keep him next year. So the CWS are the beneficiaries. Somebody was going to benefit...at least Youk landed in a place with a team trying to make a run. I think Youk does have something left but not much. The risk was just to great that trying to access what was left would turn into a real mess here...one where the Sox would be left just releasing him in which case anybody could pick him up and the Sox would still be paying him. So wish him well. Youk did everything the Sox asked of him and likely hastened his physical decline in the process. For the life of me I cannot find a reason to complain about Youk but I don't see in him the kind of potential to even be a successful DH somewhere. Youk lived at the plate off having one of the best batting eyes in the business. Clearly something has changed there. He is back to being more selective again but in reality his ability to process the information one pitch to the next has seemed in decline. I even think Youk realized it and began an effort to turn himself into more of a slugging percentage kind of guy. I really don't think that is going anywhere either. Maybe his ability to turn on the ball has changed so much that he has to decide earlier than ever whether to swing or not and maybe that is really what has changed for Youk. Will Youk remain a major leaguer? I absolutely think he will. However it is rare for a player to make the kinds of changes Youk is going to go through while remaining with the team where he was a star.

At the end of the day I guess the Sox really did not care about getting Youk out of the AL. I guess they are not worried about what Youk is capable of doing in an opposing uniform.

I could have seen possibly keeping him up until that little presser he held and his brothers tweets. I think he has been helpful to the younger guys and has not been a distraction to this point. But I think that is because Youk believed the team was doing everything it could to move him. I think the last few days were a tip off that things would not have been that rosy around here if Youk was not traded. Youk believes he has more left in the tank and very likely does not think sitting behind WMB is the best way for him to capitalize on what he has left. Just the way it is I think. V in his post game presser saying that BC told him late in the game that there is "a situation pending". So it does sound like an announcement is forthcoming, maybe even later tonight.

Well lets see what Marky Mark has today

Now that was to funny......Glad Youk got the break as opposed to somebody else. Hey as far as the GM's will know...he scorched a triple to the gap in right center.

Clearly Nava is white hot and has been since before he came up. I don't think he will fall off a cliff edge though unless we face a bunch of good pitchers in a row, guys that can overpower him. I do think he can be overpowered and some good "heavy" pitching combined with Nava coming off this peak might not look so hot. However unless he faces a steady diet of some tough pitchers, I don't think he will fall off a cliff edge. What he has won't go away easily, at least I don't think so.

Shoppach...the little engine that could chuggin' around third....never saw a guy running on level ground look more like he was goin' uphill:D:D

Heyward does like the ball on the outer half but at least Albers did not serve it up right at the belt line. More like the kind of pitch Ortiz likes to punish.

Well that was a pretty decent pitch. Cook and Minor have been gagging up s*** pitches all day. Albers tosses a decent pitch and gets burned....Go figure

Bard has given up walks all year. Unless he clears that up I just don't know where they can use him up here....long relief coming in to clean innings????

Oh C'mon....he's pitchin' great....leave him in a little longer....please....

And there we go.....a bit surprised the Braves left Minor in for this additional abuse. Been on borrowed time almost since the start of the game.

I cannot believe Minor is getting away with these s*** pitches.

Damn...Pedey just missed that. Actually both offenses have made both pitchers look better than they have pitched. WMB with a no doubter here.

Minor is hideous. Runs forthcoming

All right...the Braves have not sent Minor back to his teepee yet. More runs should be forthcoming. Battle of the futile pitchers here.

McClure probably came out and told Cook that it looks like all the Braves are wearing belts today and it would be a good idea to try to throw the ball so that it ends up below those belts, not above them.

Or clanging off the triangle

Well with where Cook is throwing the ball right now....I will take a seeing eye grounder vs seeing the thing clanging off the foul pole

Oh man...good thing we got 4!

Blue Jays are done with their pitching problems. I think that they are going to lock down last place pretty securely.

Sox finally catch up to Minor. He has been asking for it since about the second inning. Funny how similar the two pitchers are today. Neither one can live up in the zone and have sort of gotten away with it ......that is until Minor here in this inning.

Ball is carrying today. Minor sure set himself up for that one.