Soxbadger

About Bidens trickiness: Its how he phrases answers and says things like: "Thats what you agree with right Governor Palin." Its a really b**** move to keep putting words in your opponents mouth, especially when you make a statement that you know they dont really agree with like the rights of gay people.

This debate isnt about them though, its about making their principal look good. Biden and Palin's job is to make the Presidential candidate look better.

Biden is a tricky son of a b****, the experience is showing here.

The moderator called biden on it. The problem is why is the moderator calling Biden on things, isnt that Palin's job? She saw the human foot prints in a dinosaur fossil foot print!

Shes got a tell, when shes nervous she looks down and smiles.

She wont answer the questions. The problem with that bankruptcy question is that neither Palin nor Biden have any clue what they are talking about, but Biden can at least pretend like he sounds smart. Changing the principal on agreed contracts? Thats ridiculous, is the bank going to get that money from the seller? Banks wont even take short sales or deeds in foreclosure, at work we have a million dollar property that a bank is not sure theyll even take a small loss on.

Biden is dividing and conquering, hes using Palin's own stances against McCain. Palin just had a chance to but the moderator did it for her lol

You can tell what Palin is comfortable talking about, Alaska. When she speaks about Alaska, she is actually pretty good. On other subjects she seems to be struggling to try and make sure the catch phrases are inserted.

Game 5 would be Mark on regular rest so thats not really a problem at all.

The problem is the Sox have no other starting options that would likely get them a better result. Javy's era is lower than Richard's era. Youd just be playing a gut feeling basically.

No but against Kazmir the most important thing is to work the count and not help him out. I think Andreson can get up there and make Kazmir through 5-6 pitches before he K's, where as I think Alexei would k on 3. This team is just put together strangely so there arent a lot of good options.

Okay if we make the ALCS it depends on how we do it. For the sake of argument lets say that we go to game 5 where Buerhle has to pitch. In that scenario if its Danks on 4 days rest and then Gavin on full rest, I would start Danks 1, Gavin 2, Buerhle 3, Javy 4. I dont really like the idea of taxing our starters to much especially if they are going to for sure get the ball (ie in Alcs all 4 will start no matter what so no reason to start them tired and screw the whole series.) The argument for Richard and Javy I break down as follows: Javy is a veteran, he may not be the best pitcher but usually even in his worst start he only gives up 6-7 runs. If he gets hit, Ozzie can leave him in there to die and save our pen. Richard is a rookie and completely unproven. He looked good today, but Im not 100% sure that he wont have control problems or feel the pressure starting an important game. Id like to say just give the kid a shot, but I think that the more prudent position is to start Javy and then have Richard come in later. If you dont start Javy, you are just asking for a world of trouble if you bring him in from the pen because you just have no clue how he will react to that.

I know but it seems Alexei does better with men on base and in clutch situations. 2nd just seems like a spot where hell do a lot of free swinging and get behind in counts. But obviously Id like him 2nd, just not sure that he has the patience yet.

Where is anyone giving Javy a free pass for today? Every single post Ive seen has been about how Javy is the worst player etc. Even when some one says "Hey other things went bad today" people just keep harping on Javy. Im just sick of reading it for the last 3 years, maybe some people find it fun and amusing, but it just is annoying as hell imo. The Sox have a great chance this series, todays game they easily could have won. I blame Javy, I blame Ozzie, I blame the team for not winning that game. Javy didnt pitch amazing, but at the same time the Sox had an opportunity with the leading run at the plate. Its not like Javy flat out lost the game for them and gave them no chance at winning. This game was there for the taking, even with Javy's performance. At the end of the day the blame belongs on a lot of people, my belief is that Ozzie cost the Sox the most this game. But you dont see me saying that I hope Ozzie dies or that he never manages another game etc, Ill critique what he did, and then hope he does better the next time. Thats the part I dont get, why do people want Javy to fail? Shouldnt they be hoping that each time hell some how figure it out?

Not defending him. Just Im not sure what is worse, giving up 6 runs or not getting in runs from 3rd when you have less than 2 outs, or making horrendous fielding plays. Javy didnt pitch bad until he started walking players at that point its all on him. But early in the game he was pitching to contact and just getting absolutely no help from his defense. Hell even the 2 hrs to Longoria most would prefer to walks and big innings, it just was a bad game. Im just tired of it being only Javy who takes the blame, not to mention all of the personal hate attacks that people make on him. Hes just a f***ing baseball player and people are wishing that he got hurt etc. Its just annoying as hell cause ive always been taught that you support the people who struggle and you pick up your weakest link. You dont throw them under the bus and disown them, at least that is my position on how a team acts. I mean this isnt the first player, Judy Garland, Gavin Floyd, all have been attacked like Javy. Now that Gavin has turned around many of them are all of a sudden huge supporters, I just dont get that. I support the Sox players from the day they join the Sox until the day they leave the Sox. Maybe they arent the best, maybe they lose, but every time they go out Im hoping that they win and every time they do bad, Im hoping that the next time they turn it around. Just gets lame to hear all the hate over and over again.

Wouldnt get your hopes up, I think that Cubs will make adjustments and win this game. Z comes out strong and the Cubs offense just gets enough to win. Thats my prediction.

This is what Id like to see: 1. OC - SS 2. BA- CF 3. JD- RF 4. Konerko - 1B 5. Thome- DH 6. Alexei - 2B 7. AJ - C 8. Uribe - 3b 9. Swisher- LF I hate having to put BA at the top of the line up, but I think at this point the Sox just dont have any other options besides Alexei and that could potentially mess him up.

Why would the players be mad at Javy? From what I remember Javy has been given some of the most brutal defensive plays over the last 3 years by his team. Today there was a dropped ball on potential double play, a pop up to left field that no one decided to even try for, and 2-3 weak ground balls to the left side of the infield that rolled right through with out the Sox even getting a glove on them. You can all have your scape goat if it makes you feel better at night, but the bases were loaded with 1 out and the Sox couldnt even score 1 run. Since when is giving up 6 runs impossible to come back from? This team is not going to get far if the pitchers have to keep the other team to 4 runs or less, the Sox are not built that way.

What makes me confident is watching this game and seeing the exact Tampa team I imagined. Our statistically worst pitcher, pitched against their "Big Game" pitcher. We had the bases loaded with 1 outs and came up empty. Tomorrow the Sox "big game" pitcher goes up against Kazmir who never seems to be able to go deep in games due to control.

Actually you might be able to sell a national league team on Vaz. Just say things like: "Look he gives up 1 or 2 big innings in the AL, if hes in the NL the pitcher spot is going to come up some of those times and Javy would most likely not get hurt as bad." Even in this game it was the 9th batter Bartlett that started off the 3 run inning with a weak grounder to 3rd. If thats the pitcher Javy gives up no runs that inning... NL is an entirely different game and a place where Javy has much better chances.

No its hindsight now that Richard pitched good. The reality is no manager is going to a rookie in the first game of the playoffs when that rookie hasnt really been dominant as of late. I dont care how Richard looked, starting Vazquez was the better call. Just because you make the right move doesnt mean youll always win.

Javy is not a number 1. Hes not a number 2. Hes not even really a number 3. He is at best a number 4, but generally a 5. Some one who will some times be dazzling, other times be mind boggling. He has to pitch in situations where the wheels are not going to fall off, and if they do fall off it has to be in games that are generally not going to be make or break. I suspect Javy will be back next year at the end of the rotation, he is good at eating up innings and keeping the game at least manageable. 6-4 loss when the Sox had the bases loaded and 1 out. Just even a single and its a tie game.

Its easy in hindsight to say Richard should have pitched. But if he starts and gets off to a bad start the whole series could be over. With Javy out there even if he f***s up we arent going to potentially ruin a player. Richard could be a future player for the Sox, if he gets roughed up in his first play off game who knows how his career pans out. For better or worse the Sox put Richard in the best position to succeed and he did that. Now if he works off that maybe we will have a pretty solid LH bull pen arm for the rest of the playoffs and next year maybe a quality starter.

Sox should have scored at least 5 runs today and could have stolen a game they had no business winning in terms of season record and ability to play in Tampa Bay. That being said, I think that the next 3 games are decent to good match ups for the Sox. The pen got some rest, Buerhle got some rest, and Danks, Floyd will now be on normal rotation. This game could have really gone the Sox's way but they just give up way to many 2 out runs.

LETS DO THIS THING (or at worst lets get in the Rays head)