illinoisredsox

Loose is one thing. Ready is another. I doubt Bogaerts did much baseball related activity while he was gone, and Hanley had the full blown flu. He can't be at 100% yet. He still might be better than what they've been putting out there, but I would temper expectations. It might take another couple days.

Because the way the scoring works, the inner bullseye ring is worth 50 points and therefore the best throw is actually one that lands in the triple (inner ring) within the 20 point segment (worth 60 points). The same thrown within the 17, 18 or 19 point sections is worth more than a bullseye as well. Also, in traditional darts, you start with a fixed scored (301 points, 501) with the aim of reducing it to zero, with the last dart ending in a bullseye or the double (or outer ring) If you make a throw that reduces your total below zero, your score goes back to where it was before your turn. So just throwing bullseyes will never win you a game; you have to be able to "command" the board.

You might be able to live with top stats if Brooks Robinson is playing 3rd (yea, I know Brooksie was higher than that offensively) You might be able to live with the bottom if Miggy Cabrera is playing 3rd. Dealing with the combination? An adjective escapes me.

4, 3 of them were by Moreland. Not exactly strung together.

This. I'm pretty certain that does not include Young, Holt, Sandoval and Hernandez in the line-up on a daily basis, especially when sprinkled with some Selsky.

I had no issue with Sale facing Castellanos. Today, Sale had struck him out twice and induced a pop up. And he still got a ground ball, just not one hit in a good spot. If Hembree gives up the same ball, everyone is screaming that Farrell should have left Sale in. And getting Bogaerts back will help a little, but I'm sure he's done zero baseball related activity since Wednesday. Hanley will not be 100% for a while after he gets back either. Remember, he's got the full blown flu. The Sox just have to try and tread water until they get everyone back. That very well could take another couple weeks to get to a point where everyone is close to 100%.

Need to be careful here. Base open and he's handled Castellanos pretty well today.

Betts ties a major league record.

I'm getting off of the CBS Sportsline that Verlander is less than thrilled with the home plate umpire's strike zone. Does JV have a point? Has th eplate ump been consistent regarding the low strike? IS Sale getting the same strike zone or a bigger one?

It is amazing how fans don't bat an eyelash if a guy goes 0-12 or 1-15 in August but are ready to ship him to the Gulf Coast League if he does it in early April.

Sandoval has worked Verlander for 16 pitches in 2 ABs. Walk and a K, but if it helps get JV out of the game an inning or so earlier ...

The swings left handed at least looked aggressive; futile but aggressive. The right handed ones looked no better than 2 years ago when he gave up switch hitting.

And the magic number is down to 162.

I see Kimbrel's highwire show from last year has been renewed for another season.

Former Sox pitcher Rick Wise can top that. When he was with the Phillies, Wise pitched a game where he hit two home runs AND threw a no-hitter.

The classic example of this was Cardinal Hall of Fame pitcher Dizzy Dean, who had a tremendous fastball. Dean got hit in the foot by a line drive in the All-Star Game one year and broke a toe. Instead of letting it heal, he changed his motion to avoid landing on the toe so heavily, ruined his arm and basically his career. A guy who would start 35 or more games a year and appear in 45 or 50 had to try to rely on guile and would pitch in only 40 more games over 4 years before having to hang it up.

Yes, Burgeron played Game 6 of the Stanley Cup finals (an elimination game for the Bruins) with broken ribs. He was on the ice, but he was also a shadow of the player he had been earlier in the series. He was of no help to the Bruins that night. Had that injury occurred in December or January, he would have sat several weeks until they healed.

I don't have a problem with September callups, but you should be limited to a 25 man roster for a given game. It wouldn't be that hard to implement; you make a couple guys inactive for that game and sub in your call-ups in their place. Last night's and the next day's starting pitchers are obvious choices to be inactive (maybe the entire rotation outside of today's starter). Or you have a guy with a nagging injury who needs a day or 2 off just to heal a little. Hockey does it all season, baseball could certainly do it for a month.

A bit of trivia on Reggie Smith. We remember him as the Red Sox CF for several years in the late 60s and early 70s, but in 1967, he was the Sox opening day second baseman and played there for the first week. I don't believe he ever played the position at any other time in his 17 years in the big leagues. As Annie Savoy (Bull Durham) would say, you can look it up.

The year of the Impossible Dream, 1967: Cy Young - Jim Lonborg MVP - Yaz in his triple crown year To add on, Reggie Smith was second in the Rookie of the Year voting that season (albeit a very distant second to Rod Carew).

Actually, the Guardians (1920, 1948, 1954, 1995, 1997, 2016) are now tied with the White Sox (1901, 1906, 1917, 1919, 1959, 2005) and the Senators/Twins (1924, 1925, 1933, 1965, 1987, 1991) for the fewest pennants among the AL original teams at 6.

You can listen, but since he will have to agree to any trade as a 10-5 guy, moving Pedroia is more complicated than trading anyone else on the team. Pedey will want something extra to agree, and since he likes it in Boston that price could be steep financially. Not impossible, but a lot tougher than it was in July.

I heard that in an effort to help Moncada beat his allergy to curve balls, they sacrificed a chicken. Then, to help them forget that awful sight, somebody brought in some sort of barley-hops based magic potion and had everyone drink it.

Exactly. For all those who seem to think that the line-up Farrell put out on September 29 somehow screwed up the season, I give you the line-up the Guardians fielded on September 27 (after clinching the AL Central the night before): Tyler Naquin, cf Michael Martinez, 2B Abraham Almonte, rf Carlos Santana, dh Brandon GUyer, lf Jesus Aguilar, 1B Chris Gimenez, 3B Adam Moore, c Erik Gonzalez, ss Mike Clevinger, p I count 3 regulars there. BTW, the Guardians lost 12-0. By any measure, Francona tanked that game. They also lost the next night (with their regular line-up) and at that point had lost 4 of 5. Then it suddenly turned around and they swept KC over the weekend. I didn't bother looking, but it would not shock me to see that every team that clinched something early ran out a second string line-up the day after clinching. What the Red Sox ran into was a team that got hot. They ran into what the Blue Jays, Orioles, Yankees and Rays ran into during the Sox' 11 game winning streak. It happens. We've seen it many times.

Baseball Reference lists Craig's servie time as 4.154 years, which I think means 4 years, 154 days. I'm pretty sure the standard is 180 days = a year of service time (season is about 180 days long), so he is 26 days short of the 5 years.