jung

Have to check Brooks but usually when Beckett is not throwing his FB it is because he does not know where it is going. That usually means it will be wild in the zone....up and right down main street. If he is not throwing it to these guys it is because they are going to deposit it over the fence.

Man I will just about take that considering what Prince is capable of doing.

At this rate somebody is going to yard on Beckett and put the Tigers ahead

Man Beckett get the ball down please before one of the fat cats get up

Would like to see Beckett get the ball down more this inning. I can't believe he will live long up in the zone like he has been. Still hasn't thrown the ball down main street though.

Another good at bat for Nava so far

V is happy!

Another Garfield cut down at home plate! These guys need Jackson back desperately. You can have lots of injuries but if you get injuries to guys that really fill a hole in your lineup you are in trouble. Tigers just cannot live without Jackson at the top of the order.

I bit disconcerting how often Beckett is up in the zone...just not in the middle of the plate but he is living up which is not good for him

Isn't it amazing how easy these cats are to control if you stay away from the middle of the plate...back to the litter box for you Prince.

I think Gonzo has two BB this month.

Beckett may actually be a better hitter than Punto.

Since I have already posted that I want the Sox to find a way to move WMB to some position other than 3rd mainly to get AGons out of RF if the Sox are going to insist on keeping AGons, Youk and WMB in the lineup at the same time, working WMB out in other positions works for me.

I think that if they want to keep all these bats in the lineup at the same time they need to find a different position for WMB who is a much more athletic player than AGons. Agons in RF is looking less like risk and much more like Russian Roulette especially after tonight. AGons is not out there for his defense. He is out there because they want to keep his bat, Ortiz, Youk and WMB in the lineup at the same time. Agons is not my favorite player for a number of reasons. However we are asking him to choose between the risk of injury and making routine plays. That is a lousy position for the player and really an unfair position. We should not kid ourselves that we are doing less. We are asking him to choose between risking injury and making routine plays. Really when you look at AGons production in last few weeks either they should find another position for WMB if they are adamant about keeping all these bats in the lineup at once or they should "rest" Agons a bit more. He is doing very little with the bat at this point to justify the risk they are taking with him in RF. That HR he hit a few days ago was the consummate Fenway homer, an out everywhere else. That RBI double he got tonight was an embarrassment for both Coke the pitcher and the Tigers Right Fielder. It should not have happened. Agons is not hitting at present. Rest him a few days. He might actually come back and hit again. We can live without watching AGons swing aimlessly for a few days. We cannot live without Ortiz, Youk and WMB for their power and we cannot live without Nava for his overall playing ability at this point. Either find another position for WMB or rest AGons for a few days and see where we are then. While they are doing that, work WMB out at another position and see what they have.

I am more concerned with Pedey being out for an inordinate amount of time than any of these other injuries mainly cause Pedey is such a great defender as well as being an offensive threat. The Sox have been second in offense in the league so it is hard to say that the offense has really suffered with the injuries. Do we really think more runs would have made a significant difference? I thought they were going to suffer more than this offensively myself but it has not happened. They have lived and died with their pitching. Short of Pedey spending any real time out of the lineup, it appears to me that the Sox have at least for 50 games found a way to keep the offensive ship afloat even with the injuries. Not saying they will not need their players back because guys have played over their heads to make this happen. I doubt that can go on forever. But to this point I think it is hard to make a case for the injuries having been that much of an issue.

The Ross injury is a little baffling to me. That is the one I really don't get from the perspective of the amount of time he is apparently going to miss. Ells, big joint injury in the upper body Crawford, keeps adding injuries on top of injuries, not sure I understand why he went from one injury to the next especially now that it appears that his elbow is the bigger issue. He suddenly can't throw. I know we heard about that injury but when the hell did an injury that is preventing him from throwing for months happen? Pedey, we have seen what happens with thumbs when it comes to hitting before so I just don't know what to think about this one yet. I get Bailey although that seems more like a very unfortunate injury more than anything else.

I think V is taking a lot of risk all over the place at present. Maybe it will work out...maybe it will blow up in his face. All it would have taken to look like a blow up would have been for AGons to roll over that wrist on his glove hand tonight and that would have been that.

I think they can live without Pedey for a bit if they can find a way to keep WMB here that does not force Agons to the outfield. If they can do that, they should at least try to get Pedey to where he is not just aggravating it every couple of days, where he seems to be now. Plus I don't understand what V was talking about. He hurt it hitting, then really hurt it again playing in the field. So how can V say they are not worried about it playing in the field...playing in the field is what finally put Pedey on the bench.

I should have qualified my last post. The AAA teams masquerading as ML teams are going to take the brunt of the damage from the number of better teams we have in ML this year. I still think some of those teams are going to end up with records that are going to be truly appalling but nobody is going to put away any of the mid-level and better teams until much later in the year if at all. As for AL East nobody is likely to be put away. As for AL in general, Royals, Twins, Guardians, Seatlle maybe, Oakland maybe gets put away early. Everybody else will be up and down but none are likely to be put away. Been sayin' it for months now and nothing I have seen so far tells me it is any different.

Don't we get it yet....nobody is going to put anybody away this year!

Very nice win for the Sox...decent outing for Lester....think they used up all of their good fortune for the next few weeks though. The Sox really had alot' go their way this series but they made the most of their breaks as well. injuries are worrisome but the growing list of injuries around the league would suggest we don't have it any worse or better than anybody else. As far as injury goes, I don't know if I am more sensitized to it or not but it just seems to me that more and more guys are working their way to the DL these days. Maybe it is just the overall sensitivity to injury. Concussion certainly gets treated differently now. Sweeney would likely not have been looked at twice 10-20 years ago. Maybe steroids were masking more injuries for that period.

I wonder if the Sox have been trying to work WMB out in the outfield somewhere. This has not worked its way out the way they would like as the Sox continue to be shorthanded in the outfield and are log-jammed around the horn. I really do not want to see AGons out there any longer. He is either going to get hurt or he is going to end up not making plays other guys who are just more athletic than he is would make. The play tonight was both a play a more athletic player would have made and a play where AGons could easily have been hurt.

Hey have we got some word that Agons DID get hurt on that play in RF. I am assuming that these are just defensive changes cause this is the way I would have done it as well. Anyway has anybody announced anything on Agons?

Finally an RBI hit from Gonzo....Coke should be ashamed for giving that up on an 0-2 count....and where the hell was the Right fielder?

Geez here comes another Tiger's porker out of the pen. If you could earn wins by tipping the scales, the Tigers would never lose a game. They should rename these guys the Detroit Garfields.