zen archer

Manny is done in Boston ,he will be gone next year . These games are too BIG now to be sitting out witha FAKE knee injury. This is what everyone in Boston was fearing that he would pull this crap for this series.

Good, trade us Salty -- we *need* a catcher... oh captain, my captain is *done* (don't be fooled by that shot last night). Dan, now that's Lowrie's had a few games, are you still thinking he's an adequate solution? I've been busier than a hooker at a firemen's convention and haven't caught any games since the break (lame, I know). I haven't watched too much myself, because of the late starts, and a birthday party I had to attend Sunday. But what I've seen, he's a much better bat and I haven't seen any egregious fielding errors. I remember reading that he's been told "your glove will get you to the majors, your bat will keep you there" - meaning, if your glove is good enough, your bat will make you valuable. I see a kid who who is patient, gets on base, and hits line drives. What's not to (still) like? I have watched the games and Lowrie looks very good . The other night he made a very nice (difficult) catch and he is hitting, so far he has 10 RBIs in limited playing time.

Back in first, period. What a shitty day on the Left Coast - Manny and Cora fuck around with the baseball and Buchholz looks atrocious regardless. He needs some lessons from Masterson in how to deal with adversity and what it means to have confidence in yourself. Because he's got squat. Here's a frightening thought: What is Buchholz doesn't turn it around quickly? What if he's a black hole at the end of the rotation? Colon is weeks away from pitching again, and I do not want to get into the starting pitcher market at the deadline. That leaves David Pauley, Charlie Zink, and maybe Bowden as stop-gaps. But Bowden shouldn't be entrusted with a spot in the rotation, he'll come up for a spot start or be brought into the bullpen. Pauley has pitched up here before; at least with Zink you get Tek's bat out of the lineup one more day out of five. I'm actually curious about Zink - he doesn't have Wakefield's knuckler but its still a pretty good one, but what makes him different is that he throws his fastball in the upper 80s. I always wince when Wakefield throws a get-me-over FB. I've never understood why batters don't work him into fastball counts - if the knuckler is dancing out of the strike zone - and then pound the BP fastball that is coming. With Zink, he's got a better ability to mix his pitches, not throw knuckler after knuckler. That's what made Phil Kniekro a great pitcher - his knuckler was great but he threw other quality pitches too. I missed the pre game last night , WHY would they start Bucholz and not Beckett ? Remember when in Baseball you would always go with your ace to start the season or the second half ? I'm sure this has something to do with the Yankee series . But right now Bucholz looks worse than before he was sent down to the Pawsox. He should be buried in the rotation not showcased .

If they ask Youk to move, they should reward him with a multi-year deal instead of continuing to go year by year. Otherwise he'll be ready to move on. And I'm not sure that he'd really be a great option in left anyway. Yeah, he'll be better than Manny on your average fly ball, probably not as good as Manny on playing the Monster or on the quick, accurate throws. But missing out on Teix particularly to the Yankees would suck. As for Manny and the traveling secretary - the media is reporting that no one believes that his K was a big "f-you" to the front office, and that it wasn't a six figure fine but in the range of $10-15K. That makes sense, because a player has the right to contest a fine under the CBA, and it makes sense if Manny signed off on 10-15 thousand, not so much six figures. That's a lot of grills to sell! SEE , i told you Lobel doesn't know what he is talking about .....

I heard about this like 3 weeks ago, ...i dunno , Lobel just lost his job at WBZ TV he was always a cream puff to me .Ya know , not the first guy i would go to for info . I would trust MacAdam or Edes more than Lobel. I still think Manny has dropped off , considering the kind of shape he came into camp , his first half was so-so. I have never seen him swing and miss as much as this year!

I have been grooving to "Raising The Roof "all week has anything by Odell Brown and the Organ-izers made it to Cd ?

My impression and that of several other NYers was that they booed or heckled every single Red Sox player except when JD Drew came through and clobbered one. And Papelbon really got razzed by the rabid Yankee fans WHILE HE IS TRYING TO DO HIS JOB (and yes I am aware of the conroversy.) Must admit I thought it was assinine, do Yankee fans hate the Red Sox so much that they want the NL team to have home field for the Series? Welcome to NY. Ya gotta admit that the best part of last nights game was when they introduced " From the 2007 WORLD CHAMPION BOSTON RED SOX manager Terry Francona .....SWEET ......Last All Star game at Yankee Stadium with a dugout full of World champs from Boston !!!!!

Then Newbury must be doing something wrong cause I'am seeing this more than ever. Also if you buy used Hendrix or Zep Cds at Newbury guaranteed that they are BUFFED !

Lately i have noticed that Newbury Comics is buffing a lot of their used discs ,i have been shopping there forever and have never come across this. Now how do i know , because there is a white powder around the outer edge of the disc( you would think they would wipe away the powder before they put the disc back in the jewel case ?). Also sometimes it scuffs the top side of the disc . So if the disc has a color band around it , the buffing will take off some of the color of the band or whatever is printed on the front .( usually around the edge of the disc) I actually returned an Elvis Costello disc because it looked all scuffed up on the front .

WOW , who would have thunk it that the Red Sox would be in first place at the All Star Break? A week ago we were lining up on the Tobin Bridge !

Wow , you are guys are TOUGH ! Dan , how has Lowrie performed down on the farm ?

I hate to say it , BUT Masterson right now looks like the better pitcher !!!

I didn't see this , was it in the ninth . i shut the game off at the top of the ninth.

No WORRIES.......Its 16-5 the SOX are KILLIN them . 2 BACK !!!!!!!! 18-5............ YOUK just HIT one out of the Ballpark !!!!!!!

No WORRIES.......Its 16-5 the SOX are KILLIN them . 2 BACK !!!!!!!!

What a night YOUK had ,3 hits including a clutch double and then scoring the winning run . And GREAT Defense !!!!!! KEEP YOUK !!!!! Anyway if they were gonna trade Youk they would have went after Harden , Billy Beane loves YOUK and would have easily taken him in a trade for Harden !!!!

I don't believe the Sox would give up Youk, watching him tonight and last night is there a better defensive first basemen in baseball ?..i doubt it. How are Teixeiras numbers ? ......is he good defensively.

According to WBZ TV Ortiz hit 6 balls out of the park and he feels fine , GOOD NEWS ! Youk had a heck of a game defensively tonight !!

The SS situation is totally Theos problem , this guy had a Man Crush on Lugo for years . I still don't understand what he saw in him. On top of that he dished out a 4 year deal , so does Lugo become a bench player ? who are they looking at for SS......i really don't think Lowrie is the answer either he doesn't have much range . He looks like a second baseman, is Lowrie playing SS down in pawtucket ?

Dan, do you think Manny is losing it ? ,even Remy is commenting on how Manny is missing so many fastballs . His batting average dipped last year and its not too high this year , but he just seems like he can't turn on a fastball anymore.

I give Ellsbury credit , sure he didn't scorch the ball but he used his speed to get us the only run . It was nice to see since on the pregame show they were all over him. And as they mentioned on the pregame he just needs to just get on base , bunt whatever ...... That was pretty sad by the Captain , he looked like he didn't want to be there !

And that would be this year, yes? Do you guys stop talking Eastern baseball when your teams suck? We talked about the Red Sox for 86 years , during which we never won the World Series and we had some suckey teams. Thats what we do here , follow the SOX

I'm getting tired of interleague play , i thought the Sox were playing the Rays this weekend? ...but NO its the Astros . This is way too many interleague games .

Haven't yet, but these samples are really tempting... http://www.juno.co.uk/products/316894-01.htm PICK it UP ....listened to it again last night , right after the Brother on the Run soundtrack !....GREAT STUFF !

Whats wrong with Dice-K ??????......this is NOT good news , 7 earned runs ?