almagest

Lackey is a mental midget, apparently.

Baker has been falling behind the Angels all night and it seems like every single 2-0 or 3-1 pitch an Angel will pop out somewhere. It's really frustrating to watch.

We can't count on the Twins losing. All we can do is focus on winning right now. We're on course to win 93-94 games this year, which should be enough to win the division.

Link Blog I read fairly often presents some interesting season rankings for our Sox. Reading this really highlights how good the Sox actually are, even with all our complaining. Thoughts?

The A's only hit like 78 homers this year, and scored all 6 of their runs on 4 homers tonight. They also hadn't scored 4 or more runs in like 8 games, and score 6 tonight. I think there were like 2 guys hitting above .240 in the starting lineup tonight. I don't understand why you call for a fastball in that situation at all. Suzuki means nothing. Throw a breaking ball outside off the plate and down. Again, I also don't understand why Bobby wasn't in there.

QUOTE (joesaiditstrue @ Aug 15, 2008 -> 10:39 PM) at least carrasco won't get the loss, he doesn't deserve it horasheeo, nice choke job. I don't know why Horatio was in for the 9th in the first place. Emil Brown is one of the only guys that can hit on this team, and you know Narron is going to pinch-hit in this situation.

Leadoff double. Ok, now I'm worried.

QUOTE (joesaiditstrue @ Aug 15, 2008 -> 10:33 PM) i have a terrible feeling about the bottom of the 9th, anyone else? I really don't. Even with our pitching sucking since the 6th, that lineup is just awful. Bobby's probably in for the 9th and 10th, and I have more confidence in him than anyone out there right now. ...And I'm wrong. It's Horacio Ramirez for some reason. An inning too late.

QUOTE (Heads22 @ Aug 15, 2008 -> 10:27 PM) At least we have a chance against Street. Have we EVER hit Street? It seems like I remember a 1-2-3 inning pretty much every time. All he ever does is throw sliders off the outside corner we flail at.

4-4. HR by Cust.

QUOTE (That funky motion @ Aug 15, 2008 -> 11:15 PM) He did you could see it on tv. Nice Dotel!!!!!!!! Yeah, you could see Anderson turn his head and hesitate. He probably would've been safe easily if he didn't, but I'm not sure if you can give him too much flak for that.

QUOTE (fathom @ Aug 15, 2008 -> 11:11 PM) Absolutely the right call to send him. Yeah, with 2 outs and 2 strikes on Swisher, definitely. Looked like someone in Oakland's bullpen touched the ball, though. Doesn't it then become a dead ball?

QUOTE (fathom @ Aug 15, 2008 -> 10:57 PM) The game plan tonight has been horrible. If we didn't have those two bloop hits in the first, we might be losing 2-1 at this point. I'm surprised no one has adjusted to Braden throwing the change more often now, especially since his whole motion seems to slow down when he throws it, and it's really only 7 mph off his fastball at most, from the Channel 9 gun.

Is this guy Braden really any good? He has 3 pitches, supposedly. Looks like 2 to me.

QUOTE (fathom @ Aug 15, 2008 -> 10:48 PM) Yes, and they tell Hawk that Carlos Gomez is the greatest player ever! A blog I read pretty often, http://baseballanalysts.com, posted some stats that rank him as the second-worst player in the AL.

QUOTE (Jenks Heat @ Aug 15, 2008 -> 10:45 PM) Great call. Cust is another of those s*** players that kills the Sox. This game is on the offense inabilty to do anything that has allowed the A's to stay in this game. OPS of .912 last year in 124 games, .796 in 109 games this year. I'd hardly call him a "s***" player.

Hannahan

QUOTE (fathom @ Aug 5, 2008 -> 04:16 PM) So assuming Cubs make the playoffs, who do you think we want them to face in the 1st round? Arizona has the pitching in Webb/Haren/RJ to beat the Cubs, but I worry about Arizona's hitting and their propensity to strike out. I like the Dodgers offense now, but all I see in their rotation is Lowe/Billingsley and shaky bullpen without Saito. The pitcher who's been the best against the Cubs in the past two years has been Cole Hamels, so I wouldn't mind seeing the Phillies get the Cubs in the 1st round. Hiroki Kuroda is pretty solid for the Dodgers, though he's struggled a bit lately. He's already shut the Cubs down once this year.

Redmond's ball was pretty much the same as the one Kubel hit. The difference being, Redmond was shaded to the opposite field. 1 game lead!

Not having AJ bunting all the way in the 9th was a bad move. Keeping Thornton in to face Polanco -- hell, keeping Thornton out there for 4 innings in the first place is an idiotic move.

QUOTE (joesaiditstrue @ Aug 5, 2008 -> 10:16 PM) yeah and watching his past 3-4 games, he looked exactly like he did with that swing right there What are you talking about? Did you read wite's post?

Griffey just got worked over. First pitch was the only real good one to hit.

QUOTE (Princess Dye @ Aug 5, 2008 -> 09:54 PM) it's been 3 hours of general nonspecific baseball talk,w/ occasional brief updates of what's happening in the game I actually kind of like it.

Robertson's plan tonight: throw 90% change-ups. And it's working. ...Is it really a change-up if he throws it that much, though?

QUOTE (WCSox @ Aug 5, 2008 -> 02:53 PM) You're not. But that's the whole point. What the Sox have been trying for the past 2 1/2 years has been met with mixed results. But more importantly, it's garnered them zero playoff appearances. If they fail to make the playoffs again this year, Kenny needs to seriously consider moving one or more of those aging sluggers (if possible) and starting over again. I kind of doubt he'll do that this winter(partially because Paulie and Thome can reject trades). But if they're playing .500 ball next June, it'll be time to hold a firesale and stock up on prospects. We hit over 200 home runs in 2005 and won it all. The makeup of that offense wasn't much different than the past 2.5 years, and it won't be the offense that keeps us out of the postseason this year.