jung

Jon has got to get over some of this stuff faster out there on the mound. It's OK for me to get all pissed but he still has to pitch.

Nice job ump....dink!

I am not going to be happy if the ump is not going to give Lester that pitch

Damn the wind moved that ball a loooooong way

Would be nice to see the Sox go out and get Lester some first inning runs

Which is why he is still in Pawtucket trying to hone his catching skills. Once that happens, presuming it does, I don't think you will see him at DH. If they were not working to do that chances are he is Salty's defensive equal now.

I do think Salty should continue to swing for the fences with less than two strikes. He has power and it does not make much sense to do otherwise. Doubt he will ever hit for average and would be a road block on the base paths.

Honestly, I just do not think they could package anything with Doubront that gets them back what he is worth in keeping him. No way I would be looking to trade him. Why so somebody else can almost immediately get the benefit of all the time put into developing him.

I also think Buch will be fine. I just don't think we can have the kinds of expectations for him that we had a few years ago. I am just hopefully he can be a solid contributor at some level in this rotation. However I no longer see him progressing up the ladder to something like a 2 or maybe even a 1. He may even get passed as a 3. Lets face it, he will have to pick it up to be a solid 3. I don't see his upside any longer as something beyond that. I for one did have hope at one time. In the first place Buch did not put on weight unintentionally. He put on weight because he wanted to do so, thinking it would help him. That has apparently been identified as one of the issues that is tied to his back problem so that appears to be an idea that is permanently out. So I for one will be happy with a bit of improvement and/or steady performance at some level.

It has become pretty common for me to look forward to 2, 4, 5 in our rotation these days, especially 4 and 5.

Youk is going down pretty easily these days especially to the slider from RH pitchers and his RH/LH splits have been changing gradually over the years from a hitter that was equally dangerous facing LH or RH pitchers to a hitter that on a progressive basis has really been struggling against RH pitchers and has continued at about what has become his usual pace against LH pitchers. This is not that rare. Baseball players do not age or change serially. The biggest concern about Youk is that he appears really vulnerable to being set up by RH pitchers for low, outer edge pitches and does not appear to be able to see that slider from RH pitchers at all. If he was meat for a slider throughout his career, we would have seen that long ago. He has SO 20 times in 61 AB and has had 5 BB in 65 PA. 16 of the SO have come against RH pitchers. Not sure what his future is going to be. It is not like he can go into remedial slider training and not sure what he can do to recover whatever it is that he has lost. The fact is his LH/RH splits have been undergoing progressive change for the past few seasons not just this season. This is so much the case that in his younger days there were actually some instances when he had more success against RH pitchers than LH pitchers. That is long in the past now with this year so far, really telling as he is not even making contact with RH pitchers.

The thing that has been most encouraging is the way that Doubront and Bard have pitched in the rotation. At some point I think folks have got to accept that you simply have to acknowledge the value of what Bard is doing in the rotation and fix the pen the way teams fix the pen. Toss out the garbage cans and try other guys until you get a respectable pen going. It would be both easy and correct to toss Bard back to the pen if he were not succeeding as a starter as that is the usual progression anyway...can't start...hit the pen. However given the success he is having and the steady improvement he has been able to sustain, I think Bard has "shut the door" on sending him to the bull pen.

Albers is a great fit for the Sox pen of early 2012...not sure what you are going to get from any of them from one night to the next. I would love to know what the apparent reluctance was on Tazawa when he was pitching so much better than the rest at the point when he came up. Maybe they could not believe their eyes. Even though it has only been a couple of stints he has been the best they have had when it comes to shutting the door. The Sox seem to have an abundance of guys that may be able to work from clean innings but have real trouble slamming the door if they come in with an actual fire ablaze. They have for the most part been a succession of gas cans instead of firemen in those situations.

Red Sox win...Red Sox win....Reeeeeeeeeeed Sox win....f*** you Serling

This is a good spot for Cook because we really don't face anybody that can hit till late May or something like that. As bad as Buch has been just don't be surprised if Cook gets lit up like a Christmas tree.

d-mac goes yard!!!! d-mac has found something....

I could see Buch going down maybe but I would not do it simultaneously with Cook coming up. I have no faith in Cook pitching in the ALE

Remy selective memory...Jerry look at the flags...the ball is being knocked down to left and left center and is carrying to right and right center.

I don't know if they will move Buch to the DL. I think they believe he is just struggling a bit with his recovery from the back...sending him to the DL won't really help that No????? There are certainly other guys in that pitching staff that can head south...Mr Albers comes to mind.

Youk goes down hackin again. Think he is digging his own grave. In fact the way he is swinging lately sorta' looks like a shovel.

Doubront and Bard have not been a disappointment at all especially when you consider they are the 4 and the 5. Still think there is a chance they might end up the best 4 and 5 anybody has.

Probably see some hate for the current bullpen expressed shortly.

Jones pitching carefully to d-mac! That turned out to be all Ventura could take.

Well one thing the Sox bullpen has seemed to have done is to motivate the offense not to take their foot off the gas.

Guess Ross was not very distracted...nice job Cody...I have not seen him cheated on a swing yet this year.