FredLynn

They can do that retroactively if it becomes obvious that he cannot play in a few days.

Horseface Teixeira blew an ground ball over first base allowing the lead run to score. He deserved that.

I haven't heard anything more about the injury other than that he has a hamstring injury. Anyone got an update? Until then, no need to make any moves at all.

Hardly. They also decide when a pitcher will be removed and who will replace him, when to get someone ready in the pen, when to bunt and when not to bunt, when to pinch hit, when to issue an intentional pass, and when to ask a player to try to steal a base or use a hit and run. They also manage clubhouse politics and they have to deal with the press-no easy task in a voracious city like Boston. I believe that managers can lose games for the team by making stupid moves during the game, but its much harder for them to win a game for the club. Its their job to put their club in the best possible position to win a game, then its up to the players to execute. If the manager hobbles the players, as Francona often did, it makes it that much tougher to win a game.

Valetine made some mistakes early, but for the last couple of months he has made very few errors. He has fashioned a pretty good bullpen out of second rate has been pitchers by carefully choosing appropriate roles for them after losing his closer. He has been quick to remove struggling pitchers instead of sticking with a pitcher until we were hopelessly far behind, a favorite trick of Francona. He has had that relief pitcher ready to go. Valentine has been much better than Francona at utilizing all of the offensive weapons at his disposal, including bunts and suicide squeezes. Not sure what Francona even knows what the word means, even now. Valentine has utilized the pinch hitter much more effectively than Francona ever did. He has emphasized hustle and although the player execution has not been 100% accurate, at least he made them practice it more than the previous manager. Finally (for now), he is up there cheering for the players in the dugout whereas Francona hung out near the spitoon all game long, barely paying attention to the game, seemingly. Where Valentine could improve nowadays is by not allowing players to run the show as much (he should be disciplining insubordinate players, no matter how much money they make) and he should not be penciling into the lineup stiffs like Lillibridge-EVER. They should ride the pine until the FO realizes that the man who makes out the lineup card is not going to play incompetent ballplayers. Overall, Valentine has not been perfect, but he is a refreshing improvement over Terry Francona.

DiceK is going to have to show up in the first inning instead of tossing batting practice then. We cannot afford to fall behind against the A's because they have the best pitching in the league. Coming back against them is tough, so playing ahead is mandatory. On the other hand, if we manage to get 3-4 runs ahead they have the worst OPS in the league; they do not play catchup well. Key to the game: getting the first few runs.

Trading Youkilis was still the right thing to do. Middlebrooks is ready and Youk was blocking him. There was no way to predict injury to him. Furthermore, I haven't even heard how long he will be out yet. Could be just a brief period. He didn't look like he was in a lot of pain at 2B yesterday.

Calm down people. As far as I know there has been no announcement about the severity of the injury yet. If its a couple of weeks that includes the ASB we can weather that with Ellsbury and Crawford returning-if our pitching holds out. Middlebrooks is young. If its not too serious he will heal relatively fast.

In fairness to Doubront, he is a rookie and its conceivable that he will become better next year or the year after. A good pitching coach would help. And today, despite leaving after five innings or so, he gave up only one run. Right now he is probably tired, stressed, and is performing at a mediocre level. He could use a stint on the DL soon.

Seems like the kind of player the Yankees would lust after, what with Jeter in decline and all.

I do not want to see the Sox mortgage the future by swapping top prospects to rent Hamels for two months. What makes this a difficult situation is that Hamels is going to get a very large haul when he is a FA. So we would be locked into another long term expensive contract AND we would have to surrender too much young talent for him. Bad combination. I think Hernandez is under control for another couple of years. Thats the kind of situation I would be looking for. At the end of his contract we would have other absurd contracts ending and could then sign him (or someone like him) longer term if he works out well.

You only have 825 posts. You obviously have another life. Get rid of it.

Exactly. Our pitching IS improving. There is no denying that. We just cannot afford to fall too far behind (where that is is anyone's guess: mine is about 9 games out now). CC is hurt, and he is out of shape. Who knows how long his leg will take to heal with that kind of body mass, or if he will come back at 100% or reinjure himself. Petitte is out at least six weeks. If we can manage to go into the ASB about 5 behind the Yankees we then have a good shot at catching them if our pitching holds up.

No problem SFF. Never had an issue with you. We rarely agree but we disagree agreeably. I still don't trust us in the WC race. I think we can still catch the Yankees, especially if we get another quality SP or if Morales continues to dominate. Playing a team with a real ACE SP is going to be very tough for us to match up against. I would rather win the ALE.

Exactly who is going to be a ghost around here? Some seem to leave when we are losing, but winning makes everyone here but Jacko happy.

Yup. You are what your record says you are. Gotta be consistent, right?

Well, we won a game we could not afford to lose. Now we gotta to into Oakland and sweep them while the Rays and Yankees duke it out