jung

Thank God...get back to the dugout and think about what you are doing Dan. Must think those are Tiger unis the A's are wearing.

Good point 13...Bard was trying to be to fine with Inge...

God damn it....think Bard got squeezed on inge

Damn...that was a good pitch to Byrd.

their afraid of him. 4 pitch BB to WMB

Go yard Salty!!

WMB flashin some glove

Pedey did not miss that by much

Funny...Sweeney has seemed to resist wall ballin' and has done pretty well without it. Not sayin' it is a formula for other LH hitters but it seems to be workin' for him.

DP....Way ta' go Dan

Geez it has been awhile since I have seen these unis. I kinda' like em. Add the new caps to the rest and they have something.

Reported by V as stiffness in his back from throwing 126 pitches in his last start. Plans for now are for him to miss one start meaning one turn. So he will likely not pitch for something like 10 days or so.

Well I have to admit that my expectations may not have been as high as others and as such it might be easier for the starters to be meeting my expectations. I have never felt that Lester has pitched like a 1 either this year or last so I have not been disappointed in Lester so far. In fact if only marginally, Lester has pitched a little better than I had expected I think Beckett is a solid 2 and he is pitching like it at least to me I think Buch has got some issues and I have said so since before the season started so I have really not been as surprised as some might be and: I think Doubront and Bard no longer have those big question marks over their heads as they have pitched really well as the 4 and 5. It will be interesting to see what happens as their innings pile up but I don't think 150 is a hard ceiling. In any event I had high hopes for those two guys and they have not disappointed me at all so far. They have been better than I expected given the circumstances. They have sort of been thrown into the deep end of the pool and have come up swimming! I mean there was legitimate concern expressed here that they would flop. They sure in heck have not flopped. I remain convinced that this is a team designed to win games with its offense. So that by itself should say something about my expectations for the other end of the equation.

I think it would be neat to see Iggy and WMB on the left side at the same time for a kick. More fun than that, Pedey would be sure to be there at 2nd if it happened. So we would have WMB, Iggy, Pedey and Agons as the infield. Salty would probably fake a headache and hand the glove to Shoppach out of embarrassment.:D

Even though Youk has not been very impressive I think Middlebrooks would have to be very very impressive to bump Youk at this point. Not saying its right or wrong but I do think that is the way it is. If this turns into an endless string of injuries for Youk where he just cannot get healthy that could change in a hurry if Middlebrooks is performing.

Cook may not work out. I have been as skeptical as anybody has been with regard to his ability to pitch effectively in the AL East and yes he pitches to contact which can be a problem by itself in the AL East. I just don't understand why we would not give him a shot especially at this point in the season. If he does not work out what did we hurt? On the other hand can you just imagine the uproar if somebody in this division picked him up without us even having given him a shot and he ends up pitching against us! Geez my monitor would probably be smokin' hot just from coming to visit TalkSox. In truth Buch might need a bit of a breather...who knows...we are always worried about the injury bug...Beckett has some stiffness now that may be nothing but may not be.

Geez we have some bull pen issues but it is hard to swallow the idea that our starting pitching has stunk. There has been a blow up game here and there but holy cow.....stunk???? I would have to say that the rotation has been a pleasant surprise. How much better would they have had to pitch to be "impressive"? I don't really understand what more we could ask for. Buch has had problems that seem to run deeper than a blow up game here and there. Granted Doubront and Bard will likely run into an innings ceiling but I am not inclined to buy the idea that 150 innings is a hard ceiling. Also we have dice coming and Cook is going to at least get a shot at a time when he really does not have to face the metal of the division. I guess I can buy the argument that there might be some issues for which the Sox don't really have an answer later this season. That is a possibility. But if you are not impressed with what they have been able to do to date...shot I don't know what more to have expected.

V was sort of cagy in his discussion of Beckett today. He said Josh would miss one start and that would be that. I suspect they think he is OK but don't know for sure as V was really hedging in the way he discussed it. I am not sure we will know until the next start that Josh does make. I am cautiously optimistic.

Well I have to do more analysis to pinpoint the actual numbers but the 26 games that Youk missed in Aug and Sept were not the only games Youk missed all season so you have to account for the other 14 games somehow and I suspect that the only way for his absence in those games to have real statistical relevance is if the Sox were forced to give up something between 3 and 4 at bats per game. A player did play 3rd base on the days that Youk did not and that player did record pitches and at bats. While I suspect that I will find the difference in average p/pa between Youk and a Youk replacement to be significant, maybe as much as 1/4 or 1/3 of a pitch we are talking about that difference bearing on something like 330 pitches over something like 9,000 total pitches for the period. Once you start talking about games that a player did not play you are entirely within the realm of assumption.

Well here below is my initial assertion which you yourself quoted and highlighted. How did I contract what I asserted. I asserted that they became "less diligent in this area sometime after the 2011 AS Break and remained that way until the last day of the season?. Last I checked, August and September come after the All star break. I include the comment about July for informational purposes. Nothing I posted contracted my initial assertion.

I had said it in other posts but I probably should have said it here...I think this is the best thing for the Sox to do. It gives Buch a chance to continue his working recovery without having every pitch scrutinized. i do think he will get back to pitching in Pawtucket in short order. Two starts down there just being able to work through issues may do him a world of good as he continues to work back from injury. and..... The Sox will hopefully get two starts out of Cook as a means of seeing if his success at AAA translates into some sort of success in the ML. He won't get significant work against the metal of the AL East but this is a nice opportunity for him to show us if he can pitch in the ML particularly in the AL with its DH. So while I am having some fun at the Sox expense, I think we were all banking on the Sox coming up with something like this and at least for my part, I am happy they are finding a way to both get Buch out of the spotlight for a bit and see what Cook has.

Oh my God....a blister....clearly worthy of a stretch on the 15 day DL. "onlookers outside Fenway Park witnessed Buch being carried out of the meeting with team GM and Manager on a stretcher and being administered oxygen as he was put into the waiting ambulance." We thought there would be some way of moving Buch to the DL and Son of a Gun, I guess this is it.

Interesting comparisons when looking at the totals from after the All-star break in 2011. The team that saw the most pitches per at bat in the AL East for the period from AS break to end season was......... the tampa bay rays....hate....hate....hate Here are the numbers, p/p/ab, post AS break 2011: Rays, 4.000 Yanks, 3.971 Sox, 3.954 Jays, 3.856 O's, 3.81 The Sox actually had their worst two month totals of the year for the months of Aug and Sept but their post All Star break numbers are much bolstered by their July totals which were the highest of the year. I really did not think the team to team would be suggestive of who came on late vs who struggled at least not as closely as they do. What is interesting about the comparisons which I had not done team to team for 2011 before is how the second half of the year worked out and the eventual standings.

As I understand it, Cook can inform the Sox that he is exercising the option and the Sox then have 48 hours to respond. I do not think Cook can actually "jump" within that 48 hour period. Again as I understand it the Sox still have a hold on him for that 48 hour period after Cook's notification to the Sox. However if they do not act and bring him onto the ML roster within that 48 hour period then Cook can jump ship at that point. Please anybody jump in and correct me if I am wrong. It seems to be designed around the idea that the team actually does want the player which is something we have tossed around a bit here. Why bring Cook into the process if you did not want him to succeed and having succeeded in a process that the Sox themselves devised it would then appear foolhardy to not take the next step. That would be a couple of starts at the ML level to see how he does when the talent level is ML. Had the Sox pitching woes been erased in the interim period, you could maybe see the Sox letting Cook slide. Clearly that is not the case. If there is a problem, maybe it is that most of the pitching problems the Sox have are in the bull pen and Cook should probably be starting. Regardless, it would seem that the Sox must for their own good give Cook a chance to see what he can do against ML talent.

Since we all lived the later part of last season together, it does not take much to remember that in reality the Sox really became less diligent in this area from sometime after the 2011 AS Break and remained that way till the last day of the season. Now they have started this season in similar fashion even with as you have noted a somewhat different cast of characters. To me it seems more like something that the Sox in general and I guess Magadan in particular must not be emphasizing. When the Sox are working at it you can really tell the difference. Pitchers leave the mound frustrated almost from the first at bats of the game and it just wears them down. While I guess the incentive to do it can come from anybody that the team will follow, to me Jeter seems to me to be the catalyst for the Yanks in this regard. It does not have to come from a player. So that is a real concern for me anyway. This seems to be a carryover from the later part of last season as opposed to being something specific to this particular grouping of players. Starting somewhere around the 5th or maybe 6th inning last night the Sox became noticeably more patient at the plate. Unfortunately they did not do anything with the opportunities that it yielded and it was just a bit late by then. However one thing that was clear just from last night is that they can do it and that even with a pitcher that is pitching a darned good game, better pitches to hit will result to say nothing of the impact to the pitch count. Not sure why it takes five innings of futility to do it and why they no longer do it as a matter of course as they once did.