Dan Gould

Nine outs from first place and they totally piss away the game in the most embarrassing and pathetic way possible, three errors, eight runs. Their only hope to win the series now is A) the impossible dream that not being familiar with Wakefield will give him an edge B) No Matt Garza to deal with, who would otherwise surely continue the domination he had when he was with the Rays. But that game is one of those that you have to remember if they miss out on the playoffs by a game. And given the way these teams are playing, that's quite possible, that someone will miss out by a game.

Thank the baseball gods the Sox stayed hot after reaching .500. I was sure they'd flirt with that level for a while before rising again. But they're now so desperate for depth with Dice-K and Lack(ey) on the shelf they signed Yankee cast-off Kevin Millwood whose fastball has declined to the can't-break-a-window velocity. But all things considered I can't complain about a game-and-a-half out of first place status. And, I hear that Dice-K's elbow ligament injury is often a precursor to Tommy John surgery - gives me hope that we won't have to deal with his jeckyl & hyde routine in the last year of his contract, which is the best outcome because with yet another injury this year he's got zero trade value unless the Sox pay almost his entire last year's salary, and even then it would be for a modest prospect, methinks.

I hate this silly second-guessing. Colon had zero room for error. If it was a two or three run lead then you can afford to let him try to close it out. But if he allowed Colon to try to finish the game and he blew it the same way, say on one misplaced pitch deposited over the fence, everyone would have screamed at the top of his lungs "MARIANO FREAKING RIVERA WAS SITTING IN THE BULLPEN, THE GREATEST CLOSER IN HISTORY! WHAT ARE YOU DOING THINKING COLON CAN FINISH THAT GAME?" Girardi can't win when this sort of thing happens. And the fact is they won anyway so the only person who should care is Colon, who probably thinks he could have recorded a shutout at the age of 37 and should have gotten the win.

Killebrew was a great hitter and by all accounts a greater man, but let's remember what Jim Palmer said about Rice - one of his homeruns he hit off of him went so high it "brought rain".

Have Rangers fans been treated to the look on Beltre's face when someone tries to touch his head yet? High comedy hijinks ensued whenever Victor Martinez did that to him in the Red Sox dugout last year.

If they make it to October, it will be because the division has more parity because the top three teams have more issues than usual and the bottom two have improved. The bigger question is whether someone from the rest of the league will sneak up and win the wild card. I have my doubts, as I think the Rangers are the best of the rest of the league, if not flat-out the best period, and don't see the other division contenders as likely to get over 90-91 wins. Theo may be wrong, and 92-93 wins will get the WC.

No idea what this specifically refers to but 40% of the Red Sox rotation just went on the DL. Fortunately it was the 40% that was completely dysfunctional, Lackey and Matsuzaka. The day after Lackey played catch and threw a bullpen he goes on the DL, which would seem to indicate more of a "mental health" break than a physical issue (his wife was diagnosed with breast cancer in the spring, so maybe we shouldn't blame him if he's taking that to the mound). Dice-K on the other hand has an elbow sprain and will be shut down indefinitely. I'd say he's out to the All-Star break and maybe longer. So Wakefield gets to renew his assault on the team record for wins, and Alfredo Aceves gets his chance to start too. They can't be worse than the guys they're replacing.

Two Schneiderman releases in particular I really enjoy, both with a strong "Messengers" vibe: Dancing in the Dark (Brian Lynch & Gary Smulyan in the front line) and especially Dark Blue with Lynch and Ralph Moore.

I think you're missing the point. I was subtly playing off of Sonnymax's continuous postings on Chewy's threads that they belong in the Vinyl forum. Even Sonny understood it and came back with the perfect response so the rest of you should pay a little more attention.

Getting to .500 now or a little while from now ... fact remains that having wasted 1/4 of the season, to make 95 wins the Sox have to play .614 ball the rest of the way. I can't remotely imagine that. My wife was shocked when I told her that if they don't complete the sweep, they'll fall into last place. Now their two worst starters face the Orioles and then the streaking Tigers come to Fenway. They struggle and struggle to reach this level and you just know they're going to hang around this level anyway. They'll be lucky if they're eight games over .500 by Indpendence Day. As for drama, I guess its a matter of which side you're on. Yankee fans were probably certain that their flailing team wouldn't get the job done against Bard or Papelbon, while I was equally certain that a flyball would go over the Pony League fence (I didn't think it would come off Salty's bat though) and they'd fall to 0-5 in attempts to reach .500. As far as Girardi goes, I think the strain is showing in the way they kept showing him yapping at the ump about balls and strikes. That's the mark of a manager desperate to get a win somewhere, somehow.

:party:

There is no "buying out" of players under any circumstances. They are guaranteed their salaries, unless they announce their retirements, and neither A-Rod nor Jeter strike me as the kind of player who would walk away from tens of millions of dollars. So the only option is to trade or DFA those two. With the money they are owed, trading doesn't get you anything of value unless the Yankees take on 90% of the outstanding salary. So while Jeter is unlikely to ever again have a sustained positive impact on a team's prospects, how does the idea of giving A-Rod away so he can hit 30 home runs for someone else - maybe in your own division - sound? They made their bed with A-Rod and Jeter and they have no choice but to lie in it. As for Cashman, someone was in charge when they signed those guys that everyone wants to see on the major league team. Is there really a reason for Cashman to be fired outside of the fact that he seems so comfortable standing up and saying things like "I didn't want to spend the money on Soriano" and things like that? Girardi is way down on the list of problems for that team. Are Yankee fans so certain they can't compete with the roster as presently constructed that they really want to get rid of so much supposed deadwood in order to give a bunch of AA players a chance? You don't want them to try to compete now while giving those youngsters the best chance to finish their development and then have success in the majors on their time-frame, not yours? Probably the smartest and only thing the Yankees can do, aside from making some sort of trade to improve the rotation, is to give Posada a few more weeks to right the ship and then DFA him and name Montero the DH. Its obvious there is no sentimentality in the team, Posada isn't going for any personal statistical accomplishments like Jeter is, they should decide whether he is worth some more time to figure it out or they should just cut ties now.

All of the recordings released by Blue Note in the two decades being discussed were issued on vinyl. Please move this thread to the Vinyl sub-forum. Thank you.

then its really well done.

I hope that girl realizes she owes her life to him.

All I am interested in is keeping the Yankees slide going so that hopefully the Rays beat on them next week.

I can't remotely comprehend why people are opposed to the actions taken by some members to post positive reviews of All Music, when no one is posting on a record they don't own or don't enjoy and recommend Chuck is offering no compensation for "helping" him Very few people here have any true "relationship" with Chuck - he is, to 99.9% of the membership, an occassionally gruff bunch of pixels on a screen

So yet again the Sox are a game under .500, with two to come against a slumping Toronto team and then three in a row at Yankee stadium. Can they crawl above .500 by then? Can they finally get above .500 and then stay there? I have my doubts but I am glad that Francona is treating it like an important series, lining up Buchholz, Beckett and Lester in NY. And if they'd manage to get hot and stay hot they could actually make a move, as they get Toronto, the Yankees and Baltimore while after the Red Sox series the Yanks play Tampa. If only they could take care of the teams they are supposed to beat ... And fwiw, Crawford is beginning to hit and despite what certain people here have said, Beckett looks very much like the Beckett we've been hoping to see: 1.99 ERA now on the season.

I might actually get behind Keynesian economics if they could find a way to flood the world with Mobe.

That right-turn was f*cking crazy.

Isn't it the same as going to youtube and using their search function?

Take a look at the OBP and SLG rates and you'll realize that the nine-point difference in BA hardly summarizes the difference between the two.

Which should be viewed as more exciting/encouraging for Sox fans? That they are 3-0 in May and might finally reach and surpass .500 if they keep playing the Angels? That those three wins were in games started by King Felix, Jered Weaver and Dan Haren? That Carl Crawford is 6 of 11 this month? I actually vote for the last one, because getting Crawford on track and productive will do wonders for the offense, which has already seen Ellsbury, Gonzalez and Ortiz get hot, along with Lowrie continuing to get clutch hits. Hell, even if he gets hot I'd keep him down at the bottom of the lineup to act as a second lead-off man, regardless of how many millions he's getting paid. He's not a better #3 hitter than Gonzalez, or a better #2 than Pedroia, or a better #4/5 than some combination of Youkilis and Ortiz.

Excuse me, we're whining because we remain under .500, with many unproductive waste products on the roster, in a division where the Yankees and Rays keep on winning games. I think J.H.'s whining is in a class by itself.