ptatc

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Aug 29, 2008 -> 09:42 AM) I don't see this as a winning combination. What will she even talk about in the debates? Caribou? Drilling for oil in a National Wildlife Preserve??????

QUOTE (lostfan @ Aug 29, 2008 -> 08:35 AM) It's funny to me that now I'm the same age as young baseball players seeing their first MLB action or the guys who get called up later than others. I'm a few months older than Quentin, and me and Anderson are about a month apart. Until recently baseball players were always older than me. I'm already a few years older than NFL rookies, since they are 21 or 22. lol. I'm an adult. Actually this kind of sucks. Is it possible to stay at this age indefinitely? Wait until you're older than some of the managers and you remember HOFs when they broke into the MLB.

QUOTE (The Ginger Kid @ Aug 28, 2008 -> 03:31 PM) I think Buck Martinez made an interesting point in the last series. He said that "everyone" knows that tingling and numbness in your hand is a sure sign you need elbow surgery. He said it as if it's an after thought that Beckett would be going under the knife. Makes the sawks very vulnerable. The most common reason for the numbness and tingling is the ulnar nerve getting stretched. This happens because the ulnar collateral ligament (on the inside of the elbow) gets too loose. This is the common "Tommy John" scenario. However, it is by no means the only reason. There is a problem up a the neck called thoracic outlet syndrome which can pinch either the nerves or the arteries going down the arm. For the old timers, this is what happened to Richard dotson and the surgreons removed a muscle called the pectoralis minor to relieve the compression. The condition does not always need surgery. As Martinez said though the elbow is the most common cause and it usually requires surgery.

QUOTE (letsgoarow @ Aug 28, 2008 -> 04:09 PM) Josh Beckett has been scratched from his scheduled start Friday and is scheduled to see Dr. James Andrews. No details yet, but Beckett must have had more tingling in his hand yesterday and/or today. His bullpen session Tuesday reportedly went fine, causing him to be penciled in for Friday. The Red Sox figure to place him on the DL and call up someone -- perhaps David Pauley -- to start Friday. That's good for the Sox. However, I hate to see it for him. I worked with him at Kane County when he came out of high school. He was like "Nuke" Laloosh. He hit the mascot as much as the strike zone. And he threw HARD. He is a good kid.

QUOTE (Texsox @ Aug 28, 2008 -> 08:00 AM) Most states have "right to work" laws on the books. Plus, most of the time the parties involved just do not care when it gets to that level. The only area I ahve heard of it being enforced was when a group of sales reps left to start their own company and took clients with them. Then the suit was like a pitchfork. Theft of trade secrets, fraud, the non comps, etc. Even then, with those guys basically putting their employer out of business, very little happened to them. A couple of clinics I worked at had me sign a non-compete clause that I could not open my own clinic within 10 miles. I don't know if it could've been enforced, since I didn't want the hassle of starting my own clinics I really didn't care.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Aug 28, 2008 -> 11:29 AM) Good starters are more valuable than relievers correct? Take out your point of his elbow which none of us know much about and many opinions state that its better for the pitchers arm to throw on regular rest. Lets say Jenks came out and had a Ryan Dempster type year, then would it be worth it? He's had the workload before, he just wasnt a pitcher, he was a thrower who didnt have command nor any knowhow on how to use his stuff. And the reason its being considered is because this is a message board. It is usually better for a pitcher to have the regular work and not have the up and down, starting and stopping of a reliever. However, in ths case with the history of stress fx and the screw, I don't think it would be advisable to load up the number of pitches on the arm. The screw can work its way out or even break with stress. Remember Cal Eldred he had a great first half for the Sox one year, then a screw would work its way lose and he wasn't the same. I think he tried to pitch again with St. Louis but he was never the same.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Aug 27, 2008 -> 04:47 PM) Also, 5th starter for next year should be a question mark as well. My Vote: Bobby Jenks returns to his roots as a starter. The screw in his elbow would explode.

QUOTE (YASNY @ Aug 25, 2008 -> 02:59 AM) Scott's homer was one of the most magical moments in Sox history. Rowand and Anderson's reactions just added to moment. I was about 9 seats from where it landed. I'll never forget that feeling of being frozen and wet then all of a sudden it was if the sun came out. The White Sox had one another WS game and the noise was so loud it was quiet.

QUOTE (almagest @ Aug 27, 2008 -> 09:20 AM) Jon Garland this year: W-L ERA WHIP BB-K HR 11-8 4.49 1.466 49-72 20 So basically, his peripherals are worse this year than every other year except his rookie year (ERA+ of 95 is the lowest since his rookie year of 78), but his ERA is decent, and he has a decent record. Something tells me we'd be pretty unhappy with Jon if he were still here, given the numbers he's posted for a very good team that plays in a pitcher's park for 81 games. I also don't understand the "well my eyes tell me OC sucks on defense, so the stats are obviously wrong" mentality at all. We're fans. We don't know more than professional scouts, and we don't know more than professional metrics that have proven time and time again to be very good ways to measure a player's performance. We're also a lot more likely to overreact to and remember a bad or mediocre play by someone we don't like, and it's pretty obvious OC isn't well liked by a good number of the members here. No! not on this board. You must be thinking of another one, no one overreacts here.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Aug 27, 2008 -> 12:57 AM) Thanks Angels for cooling off Minnie and you M's for winning close games. Wouldn't it be nice if the Twins went to s***? It could happen, look at the Indians on the opposite end of the spectrum. They've won nine in row. Maybe Minnie will lose many in a row. I can hope. Unfortunately we have 6 more games with them. They're getting hot at the wrong time for us.

QUOTE (ptatc @ Aug 25, 2008 -> 09:40 PM) With the 6 run lead in the 9th who needs a closer? Ahem.... I believe I was close.

QUOTE (quickman @ Aug 26, 2008 -> 11:11 AM) this sounds like he should have had surgery a month ago, but they want to get something out of him in case we make the playoffs. I am not anything close to a doctor but this smells like offseason surgery to me, and no linebrink for most of next year. That could very well be. There are a number of undersurface tears and others things that will just show up as fluid on an MRI. This just shows as white which can also mean inflammation. My guess is that there is an underlying problem and there will be at least an exploratory arthroscopy in the off season. However, it could also just be some inflammation and it will take a bit to regain the strength his lost sine being out. The article didn't sound like he was in pain just that he didn't have the "crispness" on the pitches.

QUOTE (oralsoxpodcast @ Aug 25, 2008 -> 11:08 PM) you're right, Clay (his mama called him Clay, I'll call him Clay) pitched well. I just meant that without Carlos being denied a timeout, we very well could have lost that game. We're better than the O's and should beat up on them. Let's hope this isn't a sign of how we're going to play for the rest of these road games. Nice Coming to America reference. Very funny movie.

With the 6 run lead in the 9th who needs a closer?

QUOTE (WilliamTell @ Aug 25, 2008 -> 12:41 PM) I don't and will never understand why Twins fans of all people hate Pierzynski. Being from Twins Territory, I always call out Twins fans when someone makes a remark about AJ. (Granted I never thought I'd back up AJ, but still.) I always mention that AJ got them Liriano, Nathan, and Bonser because they were making room for Mauer. I just think it's idiotic that a lot of Twins fans hate him when he helped them win a lot of games, plus helped them get one of the most lop sided trades ever. They probably met him.

One of the funniest plays I ever witnessed was an inside the park HR by Karko. He wasn't that bad of a player. Great defensively, a little pop and a really good guy.

QUOTE (shipps @ Aug 25, 2008 -> 08:57 AM) Have one of those delicious fresh lemonades for me.I drank 4 of them in one game when I was there,they have the best I ever had. Or a freshly poured Guiness from the stand on Eutaw!!! I love Guiness from the tap.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Aug 25, 2008 -> 07:18 AM) When all of the experts predicted 4th place, and everyone here agreed with them, being in first place in the end of August is a prize. Its a helluva lot better than 99.9% of people thought we would do. Is it time to bring back the pre-season prediction thread? I think we have already surpassed the victory total that some of the more pessimistic posters predicted.

QUOTE (scenario @ Aug 22, 2008 -> 02:17 PM) Here's a contrarian view from David Gassko of The Hardball Times. Here's a key paragraph from the article/analysis... Seems like Verducci is wrong. Verducci writes: The bottom line: a dramatic increase in innings on a young pitcher elevates the risk of injury or a setback to their development. But the evidence points to the opposite. Pitchers who see a large increase in workload are more likely to continue to be successful than those who don’t. It’s important to remember that correlation does not mean causation—just because throwing a lot more innings than a pitcher ever has before is correlated with future success does not mean that managers should be riding their young pitchers hard—but it does imply that Verducci’s argument is incorrect, and there is absolutely no reason that we should expect these YAE candidates to do worse because they’ve overworked. One of the flaws in the study, and he does admit there are a number of flaws, is that the number of pitches throw was not a variable. Sometimes the increased number of innings actually had a similar number of pitches. Meaning the young pitcher became more efficient at getting outs and therefore threw more innings. Even with the flaws it is an interesting study and one of the few that has really looked into this problem. Like all good research the first few studies just find more questions and lead us in the right direction to study. There will never be a study which satisfies this problem. Although baseball is a numbers game. The injuries are not. The are too many human variables which cloud the numbers. My view is pretty simplistic, each pitcher only has a certain amount of work they can handle. The variables include but are not limited to body type, mechanics, genetics and work ethic. We can work with a number of them to prolong the career but no matter what we do there are always going to be the variables we can't control and the pitcher will eventually breakdown due to the stresses placed upon the body.

QUOTE (thedoctor @ Aug 22, 2008 -> 12:48 PM) you know, i've always had an issue with the innings pitched stat as it relates to pitcher health. wouldn't pitches thrown be a more reliable and accurate way to measure the chances of a pitcher breaking down? some pitchers can get through an inning in 10 pitches, others use many more. kind of an off the topic thought but it's always something i've wondered about. i'm sure some of the more stats-oriented folks here could provide the rationale behind using innings pitched as a primary measure that dictates pitcher health. There was that debate. That is where the dreaded pitch count came from. While there isn't much research on it, pitchers who throw more than 130 pitches, more than a couple of times in a year tend to lose time with injuries. Again, this is by no means good research. Alot depends on mechanics and many other reasons but the pitch count has become the standard on which to base pitcher's workload.

QUOTE (That funky motion @ Aug 22, 2008 -> 11:11 AM) Game worn Caldaron, KW, Dent or Orta. If that's Ivan Claderon, you are my hero!!! :notworthy :notworthy

QUOTE (Pants Rowland @ Aug 22, 2008 -> 10:12 AM) 2008 IP to date is 150.3 2007 IP was 139.0 What was the litmus test on acceptable increases to innings pitched before breaking down your pitchers over the long term? Most coaches will use somewhere between 15-25% of the previous season, unless injuries are involved. This has no basis in the research literature and is strictly based on anecdotal evidence from coaches.

Alternate between game worn jerseys of; Warren Newson (black jersey), Wilson Alvarez (white jersey), Roberto Hernandez (gray jersey), and Chris Snopek (green St. Patrick's Day jersey). Hats vary.

QUOTE (Felix @ Aug 22, 2008 -> 09:47 AM) And thats what I edited right after I posted Sorry, I missed that part. I think you get the point though.

QUOTE (Felix @ Aug 22, 2008 -> 09:38 AM) That certainly wasn't my purpose, as I've enjoyed reading these. I apologize if that did happen as a result of me. And I didn't mean to turn it into anything else. However, if I'm reading these things and something is said that clearly isn't true, I'm going to say so. I don't think I did anything out of line, as I thought the whole purpose of these forums was to promote discussion about baseball (and other things). Now if I were to start talking politics in this thread, I could see how it was out of line, but when I was merely talking about the worthiness of saves in a thread about the guy who holds the saves record, which doesn't seem off-topic or out of place at all to me. This is the point they are making. You may think "it is clearly untrue," however other people think otherwise. There are many ways to look at it. Is it arguable, yes, is it clearly untrue or a definitive right answer, no. You can argue it, but don't attack it as if it were fact. As a great philosopher once said, it is true, from a certain point of view