jung

Geez Agons was up and down so fast that time all I saw was him walking into the dugout.

This guy Reynolds is my Red Sox player of the game so far.

Orioles strung together Some hits around an error by Mike and that has been the scoring so far. Lester has looked fine. It was touch and go around the error but Lester got outta' that and has been pretty good since.

Lots of helmut throwing this year. That could easily have bounced forward and caught the ump. That could have been interesting. Bouncing the thing that close to the ump is just asking for it.

I don't know ump....I think that guy must be safe at first also!:blink:

that might be as bad a 1st base call as I have seen....he was not close to safe...not in the same zip code with safe!

Wonder if Andino was the only guy playing in sort of a shift there. He was pretty far back and way on the grass of the outfield.

Geez Hammel is cruising.

Excuse me guys...thst is more Jen than I can take at one time. I will have to retire to a cold shower for a few.

Right those can't be earned runs. I hope I typed that way above....ya' I did.

Well those can't be earned runs but we are still doen two runs. I would bet V has a guy up because he worries that Lester is letting that play get to him and that was why I was worried about him glaring back at Mike as well.

Uh-oh.....I hope that was not Lester glaring back at Mike after that hit after Mikes error got the Orioles their first run.

Orioles seem to have some speedy guys for an AL team. Although was watching some NL action this weekend. Still kinda' obvious how much more they go for speed over there.

Well Morales might get a few more chances to distinguish himself before they have to make a decision but it should be one of the left handers...they have three all with about the same function on the staff. Morales would have to go a long way, like have more outings like the one he just had to make up ground and be one of the retained LH RP. I suppose it is possible but I would not bank on it. Even the last and best performance by Morales was certainly not pressure packed. Bard had screwed up badly enough to remove any pressure from Morales coming in after Bard.

V mentioned that he would be thinking about what to do next with Bard today since it is a day off. I would bet that we will not find anything out until later this week. Then once they get past Saturday the Sox really would not need a 5th starter again for a couple of weeks anyway if they want to go down that road.

I did not mean to imply earlier that Bard is not a bright kid....I am not convinced that he is a tough kid. I don't think he is a confident kid even when he is pitching good. I think his confidence and his conviction are easily broached much like his focus on the mound is easily broached resulting in the Balk-a-thon we saw a couple weeks ago simply because a runner got on base. Now using the Optional Assignment Waiver I discussed above may not be great for his confidence either but I still think he needs to solve this out of the limelight and he has to understand that he can't be put back on a ML mound pitching the way he is pitching right now.

Bard has all three of his minor-league options remaining because he hasn't been in the minor leagues since the Red Sox placed him on the 40-man roster. But because more than three years have elapsed since Bard made his major-league debut, he would have to clear Optional Assignment Waivers. If I am not mistaken, the way the Optional Assignment Waiver works, if he were claimed the Sox could revoke the option and could continue to use the optional assignment waiver through the current waiver period which started on the 31st day of the 2012 season and ends in August as I recall. It is generally understood by general managers that a player on optional assignment waivers will not be claimed by another team. Bard might be attractive enough to prompt another team to break the gentleman's agreement. However, the Sox can simply revoke the waiver if Bard were claimed which is why ML league teams don't break the gentlemen's agreement not to claim a player from Optional Assignment Waivers. It is a waste of time since the team can continue to use the Optional Assignment Waiver on the same player through the current waiver period. It just becomes a big circle jerk for the team trying to claim the player. Also if a player is claimed and his team does not revoke the waiver, the claiming team has to pay the player's entire salary.

If Buch can pitch like that again his next outing, that will become one hell of a turnaround in a really short period because his last bad starts were really bad starts and his last good starts have been a night and day difference. Another good start like the last ones he has had, at least you can say that Buch might be set for the rest of the year baring injury.

Well Bard has had a number of issues some that followed him into this season from last and some that seem to have become an issue this year. For example, he has not thrown with consistency now from part way through last season into this season. Haven't they been trying to find an arm angle for him to throw at that he can repeat? That sounds like something they would do and in fact I actually thought arm angle was one of the things they were fooling with in an effort to gain some consistency. Oh by the way, he has had consistency issues before last year that were pitching issues, not starting pitching issues. I don't think they would change his arm angle in an effort to ratchet back the juice on his FB. If they did or if he did, that just sounds stupid. Somewhere the Sox are going to have to deal with the fact that some of the stuff that has plagued Bard this year followed him here from last year and maybe earlier than that. So using him as the 5th starter has not had anything to do with that. Also I will say it again, when he is wild he is wild from pitch 1 in his stint. So I don't see where he can go back into some important role in the bullpen. I still think he needs to go down a notch whether via DL or option and let him just try to push the reset button at a level in baseball where mechanics are dealt with on a regular basis. Frankly I have never thought he was a strong kid between the ears to begin with so he is a little fragile in that regard as well. So, for my money , if he has a career in baseball left, he needs to go down a notch, get out of the spotlight and try to get things figured out. I actually think they do have an option left on Bard. There is surely a chance that he just does not have it. There are tons of guys baggin' groceries that could throw 97 but could not hit the broad side of a barn consistently. It is not that unusual.

dice would seem the natural choice even if he is not to the Sox way of thinking completely ready. Not sure why they had been sending us such good vibes news on dice and then sort of pulled the plug based on a start that just did not go that well. Anyway I would like to see the Sox just do it....bring him up at this point....unless they have a better option for the 5 hole. Just don't know who. Feel bad for Cook not because I thought he was the answer but because he worked hard for his shot and really does deserve one at some point. Almost wish he would beat dice back just to at least get one real shot at a start up here.

Interesting month coming up...God I hate this interleague play. At least a bunch of the interleague coming up is at home. We get Nationals, Marlins, Cubs and Braves and it really does eat up most of the month. I guess playing them is still a break in the schedule compared with playing more AL East games. I think it ends with these same Jays only in Boston and Mariners. July could be the real make or break. Hope the CWS are a break by the time we get to them. If not July is nasty.

I would not let Bard close. It does not matter whether he has heat or not. How many times do we have to see it to recognize that when he is wild he is wild from the first pitch he throws. Ya' want that out there in the 9th inning? The Sox backed themselves into this situation when they did not get themselves a 5th starter that they could use at the start of the season and at that point the pen was a train wreck that really needed Acives. I don't know how far off Cook is at this point but the Sox either need Cook back or dice ready or a start from somebody before 5 comes up in the rotation again. Not sure what the schedule looks like for the next couple weeks but the Sox have played a tremendous number of games over a short stretch the past few weeks. Maybe there are a few days off coming that will allow them to go with 4 starters for a turn in the rotation. Maybe that is enough time to get Cook or dice in here. If you can play a game per day for 20 days you can play 4 games in 5 days without a 5th starter at least for a turn. I would do that before putting Bard out there again. However I would not want to lose sight of Bard having filled a hole that the Sox left themselves with and did it pretty admirably for two months. Who knows what he will ever be from here but he did do a heck of a job at a point when the Sox would have been up the creek without a paddle.

I don't think the position matters as much as how difficult it is to make up ground in this year's AL East and I don't think it is realistic to think these teams are going to go away. They will all have their streaks up and down and somebody will finally fade at some point but this is a tough tough division. Spread these teams around and you might have three division leaders playing in one division.

Boy Salty was really late with that strike 2 swing

Geez ump robbed poor Nickie Punto on that one