Soxbadger

Danks is pitching game 3. The Sox have 2 lefties pitching the first 3 games and could potentially have Buerhle game 5. The start by Javy was to put Buerhle on normal rest and to give everyone else a chance to get ready.

If Richard starts the game its an entirely different scenario. Who knows how he comes out for his first playoff/big game, if he gets shelled early then what happens? If he has no control what do the Sox do. Javy may not be great, but he is a known commodity. You know that he will give you 5 or so innings and at his worst give up 6 runs. This is not 2005, the Sox offense is going to have to win some games if we really want any chance at advancing. Shields didnt look great, the Sox had plenty of chances, and they failed. Just like Javy failed to get out of innings when he had 2 outs, the Sox failed to score when they had runners on and less than 2 outs. Thats the difference so far, one team came through, one team did not. Now if the Sox come through this inning, nothing matters.

I dont love Javy, I dont even like Javy. It just gets so annoying to hear everyone blame 1 person.

JR cant play LF, he will not play LF no matter what the circumstances are.

I already said I made a mistake thinking that Javy was still on his old yankees contract. Regardless other teams are paying 8mil (omg 3mil less) to players who are as equivalents of Javy. Every team has 1 or 2 bad contracts, Javy's really is not the worst contract out there.

Until the Sox are down 0-2 its not a must win. The Sox are just a drastically better team at home than on the road. Just like the Rays are better at home than on the road. If the Sox can steal 1 of the first 2 games they are in the best shape most could realistically hope for. The way the team was playing lately it was hard to imagine theyd win 3 straight, especially in Tampa where they always seem to suck.

Well some positives so far: Richard has gotten playoff experience and looked good. He didnt need to come into a game that was tied or where the Sox were in the lead so some pressure has probably been off of him. Sox havent had to use the pen for the better 3 pitchers on our staff so they should be fresh the next few games. Tampa has gone to their pen so the Sox will have already had a look at them. That beings said, what about 2 walks and a Griffey jack?

There was no pinch hitter because the Sox have no one who can play 3b respectably. If they put in Fields TB starts bunting and trying to abuse him. A lot of the Sox problems stem from managing and roster decisions, how they have no one else who can play 3b defensively is a joke.

Yeah as Ive said I forgot that hes not still under the old contract. but you really cant fault Javy for the Sox paying him, they could have tried to sign him to a more reasonable contract.

Time for thunderbolt and Nick Swisher?

My bad I thought he was still on the last contract haha

Sox dont pay all of Javy's contract. Yankees pay some, AZ pay some. But I dont know the exact numbers, im pretty sure that Kalapse knows them haha

If the Sox cant score more than 3 runs does it matter if Richard or Vaz pitched? At least with Richard he can get some confidence and save our bullpen because this was our worst match up. The next 3 games is where we have the edge.

Schilling sat on the bench this year for the Red Sox making 8mil. As you said Lilly makes 8mil. Dice-K was paid much more than the Sox have paid to Javy. Jon Garland makes as much as Javy. So 3 of the 4 Al playoff teams pay as much or more to a Javy style player (Schilling, Javy, Garland) What are you talking about?

Who is making excuses? All I keep saying is that people who expected Javy to play like a 1 or 2 starter because he gets paid a lot dont know s*** about baseball. Pay checks have no correlation to players ability. Thome gets paid more than Longoria, so he must be better?

Most playoff teams pay their 4 starter comparable to Javy Vazquez or have worse players who are getting paid more. This isnt about "average" teams, this is about playing the BEST teams. Javy would be a 4 if not 5 on most of the playoff teams, just because some one paid him money doesnt make him good. Maybe we can get Driefort, I hear he got paid a ton he must be amazing.

Yeah ive watched Javy show up to every game and pitch, he never complains doesnt blame other people, he just shows up and tries to do his job. Maybe hes not that good at it, but he takes responsibility for his own actions and does what he can. /shrugs

I dont even understand how some of you consider yourselves Sox fans. Javy is the Sox 4th starter, due to having to play the last few weeks we could not set the rotation. Javy is not supposed to shut down the other team, he is supposed to keep the Sox in the game so that we have a chance to win. Anyone expecting more is just setting themselves up for failure. If this was any other pitcher people would be talking about how easy grounders were getting through our infield, how we let pop ups drop, how the Sox couldnt get a double play. but since its Javy you all just want to kick him around. f*** that, Im not going to sit here and say hes good, but I at least respect the effort that he has given to the Sox.

Im watching the game where Bartlett hit a weak grounder to third for a single. Im watching the game where the Rays went to sacrifice on the next pitch but instead Maddon out manages Ozzie and has Iwamura swinging. Im watching the game where the Sox continue to pitch to Longoria with 2 outs. Could Javy done better? Sure. But the facts are in this case he is not being put in a position to succeed. Outside of what 3 hits no one on the Rays has even come close to hitting the ball hard?

No Javy should not be throwing pitches to Longoria in those situations. I dont care if Javy left them up, the fact the Sox were throwing him anything close is ridiculous.

That inning wasnt on Vazquez. The first hit if Uribe plays back is maybe an out. Iwamura goes to sacrifice on the first pitch so on the second pitch they called a fastball for him, unfortunately he was swinging. Longoria, Ozzie is retarded why are we even going after him, we should be working around him and letting the rest of the team beat us.

LETS GO WHITE SOX!

Came down to Paulie or Kenneth, and im going with Paulie as Steve already stole the Kenneth.

I think Javy is going to show up today hes fully rested and ready to go.

Im actually not as bad as I was last week because now the Sox are at a point where its just good to be here. The Sox were in first place for so many days that had they not made the playoffs it would have hurt. Now that they got here though, all the expectations are gone. All they need to do is put together some more solid pitching outings and see what happens.