jung

Stars may be in alignment for ya' here VA

Now that is funny VA. Suddenly NESN will wonder why their ratings for the start of the telecast are up as we watch to see if Buckner drops the line up card between his legs.

Holiday makes the catch in left wow what a play. Obviously joking. I kept waiting for a sprinkler head to pop out of the ground and trip him up like that commercial that has the sprinklers popping up out of the football field.

Boy is that an ugly line score or what???

Me too!!! and I so don't want to see the WS end like this...Ugh

First mistake by Wash this game Rested pen...can't really think you can leave Lewis in that long since you are already to the 5th and you give up on bases loaded, two out! Runners would have been going on any hit ball. They could have had two runs if not three on a base hit. Don't like that move.

Wow...I want the Rangers to be the eventual winners here but Geez I don't ever want to see a WS going down this road...brings back too many bad memories for one thing. Still not sure I would have taken out Garcia in that exact spot either.

I know they left something like 12 guys on in game 5...what did I just see....my God what the hell is happening out there....Freeze just plain dropped it.

Gotta give Lewis credit...he is pitching pretty well....Wash too for that matter as he continues to out-manage Larussa I think.

Pesky....

Hey I just noticed Larussa got a hair cut today. Hows that workin' for ya' Tony?

Geez I hope it does not end like this. I would like to see the Rangers win it and in seven if possible. there is little to compare to 7th game of a world series. Don't want to see the Cards stumble and bumble it away. Cards and Rangers deserve better than that. Somebody should check to see what they are putting in Larussa's coffee these days. Napoli should be OK That was Holliday's ball...you are right. Worse than that Holliday was trotting around out there telling Furcal to take it...what!!!!

Garcia had just come off his best inning. Granted Texas had a bunch of base runners early but Garcia is not a SO pitcher. He is a ground ball pitcher and he was progressively getting more of those. What a screw up in left field. That looked pretty bush league.

I really don't know what Furcal is doing up there. This has not been Larussa's best series. Geez Buck and McCarver are like chalk on a blackboard. McCarver "the shortstop has a lot to do in a short period of time to turn the DP". Pearls of wisdom.

Best half inning of pitching for the Cards so far. Looks like Garcia is settling a bit. Boy if he is up in the zone at all it is death for him. Some guys can get away with being up in the zone a little but but his ball seems to be flat when it is up as well.

Initially talking heads talking about a tough time getting the ball to go anywhere tonight because of the cold....sort of like my golf days in the cold. So far though both teams seem to be knocking it all over the place. Neither pitcher is hitting his spots. Both leaving the ball up and very hittable. Wonder which manager will crack first...probably Larussa since he has to have this game.

I think the Cards have played better in spots but the Rangers have been the more consistent team. Here we go for game 6. While I have been rooting for the Rangers (gotta root for somebody) I want to see this go 7. So tonight it is go Cards.

Stats can be deceiving. In 135 games there were only 65 steal attempts against Yadi and he threw runners out at a .292 clip. Salty had 120 steal attempts against in 101 games and threw runners out at a .308 clip. 120 attempts in 101 games is a giant total for the AL. None of us would claim Salty to be in Yadi' league as a defensive catcher but it should be clear that only the best runners in the NL (a run happier league than the AL) will test Yadi's arm. Compiling 120 attempts in 101 games is a staggeringly high number especially in the AL. You had some fat lard asses testing Salty. Surely the inability of Sox pitchers to hold runners is playing into Salty's numbers. More than anything though you have to watch catchers catch to get some understanding for their defensive capabilities or lapses. Clearly Salty will get significant playing time in 2012. Maybe some of his receiving issues will improve. Surely that stat will improve without Wake around but to be honest I am not expecting much real improvement in his defensive skills.

Much like a loan from a bank, the more you need it the harder it is to get. I agree that Henry has goals for both the top and bottom lines and he is not going to be particularly interested in an argument from the FO that they spent all the money and have not gotten much for it so "give us more money John". He would actually be more prone to loosen the purse strings if they had a better record of success,. I would be willing to bet that he has budgeted for more payroll already but not to the extent that the FO is going to be able to use new money to make big signings for this year coming.

Hopefully a more effective approach to offense might be one of the benefits we will see out of a complete house cleaning of the coaching staff and manager (although I think I would like to see the hitting coach stay). This will not be easy though. There are a whole bunch of things that they have not been doing or even practicing to do. That much is clear. Speed just allows you to decide to play the game a certain way offensively but if you don't practice it that way and if your mindset is contrary, speed alone won't get you to second base. For example, while the Sox were just about the worst team I saw at holding runners on, that does not mean that every other pitcher in baseball is exemplary in that regard. Yet the Sox tend to get terrible jumps when they do try to steal. I think somebody has said this already but eventually the Sox were ridiculously predictable in their offensive tendencies. While I don't expect them to come out in 2012 sporting some NL fleet footed team approach to running it will take work just to become a more balanced team.

Actually Paps faded in September as well, also from overwork. Aceves is the only guy that survived it although for the life of me I don't know how. He probably survived it because he has not been a Red Sox long enough for their vaunted conditioning program to turn him into the bowl of jello the rest of them have become. Frankly, they play like a 87-92 win team regardless of who is closing and while I am fine with resigning Paps as long as we don't pay him Rivera money this team has bigger problems than who is pitching in the 9th inning. Sign him...don't sign him...just don't pay him too much and don't waste a bunch of time getting it done as they have to do something about the other 8 innings so that Paps comes in the game with at least a Save Opportunity on the line.

I don't see how they can keep Ortiz unless he comes at a very favorable price. When you look at the salaries for Closers in MLB it would be hard to argue that teams aren't taking some risk at that position. There is only one Rivera. I still don't think Paps is a make or break decision but I do think that it is sorta' funny the number of places where the Sox appear bloated in salary position by position and in that respect both DH and Closer are good examples. Do we have to pay Ortiz for his left handed bat on a team full of left handed bats? Do we have to pay Paps big money to pitch in the 9th for a team that has made 9th innings virtually meaningless? For a 3 year deal fine....sign Paps if you must as long as you don't make him the highest paid Closer in baseball but Ortiz needs to be on the list of guys that you can only keep at really favorable money.

I think you may be right about that. LL used exactly the same language and tone that he had used when Tito had commented in his last interview in Boston that he was unsure about support from management. However I don't know if LL knew what Theo had actually said. LL sort of got the answer out very abruptly "you will have to ask Theo about that" (insert Tito for LL's response to Tito's comment) and the question and the line of questioning was sort of cut off at that point.

I have been struggling with this since the TJ announcement was made. I have a bad habit of applying my own business sense and experience to the business of baseball. While I know that is wrong, my own business experience is all I really have to draw upon. Lackey got all the money in the year he made the deal with the Sox right. He was the top pitcher in that FA market and he got top pitcher money for that year. The language that the Sox had inserted in the contract regarding his elbow seems not to really mean much in practical terms. Sure his contract is insured but insurance does not cover the contract at full value nor does it go back and recover the lost games and it does not suddenly put somebody else in that uniform pitching for the Sox. So given that the Sox clearly had some concerns I have to believe that at the time they must have at least made an effort to sign Lackey for a lower number. While I am only guessing Lackey and his agent must have rejected that. What I don't understand is why the Sox did not just push back from the table. Even if the Sox did not make an offer at less money that Lackey rejected why not just push back from the table anyway? The Sox had their three big guys and surely wanted/needed another starter but it sure as hell did not need to be Lackey and his damaged elbow.Hindsight is 20/20 but based on the 2010 and 2011 results, we never got a "healthy" Lackey out of that deal and now he is another guy on the shelf going through surgery and rehab. You could argue that Lackey pitched innings but if they did not have Lackey they would have gotten somebody else. Sure, arms can be damaged and any pitcher can suffer an injury but in this case the Sox would not have been looking at the possibility of an issue, they had a real issue staring them in the face before signing on the dotted line. So I am asking because I just don't know why they went through with it and even though Theo is gone I have to admit that the actual reality of the Lackey deal has really left me adrift. if anybody has a rational for having gone through with it believe me I have no argument in rebuttal and don't even want to try to make one. I am just really lost and trying to understand.

Not agreeing with it but apparently it is a marketing thing. Since Tex can win the game and therefore the series the don't want to take the chance of having the ceremony at 2:00 in the morning. They are going to look pretty stupid if the game could have been played and the additional day off creates some pitching changes that normally would not have been available.