But I find it hard to fault the offense tonight. Five runs isn’t bad. The massive runner stranding was bad, but I think that just happens sometimes. They had some bad at-bats and Joba Chamberlain is tough (if only the Sox had drafted Joba….sigh). The number of baserunners was great and if the Sox continue to do that I won’t worry about the offense.

The bullpen is a concern. They don’t have the peripherals that the offense does. Dotel is a key guy—I think Marmol and Zumaya have shown that a lock-down “middle relief” guy is very valuable (they come on with runners on base while closers start an inning). If Dotel and Mac continue to pitch lousily, I don’t see anyone to fill that role effectively in the organization.

I mean, we’re losing games that MLB doesn’t even have scheduled.

one thing this game did make me realize is that all the hitters on our bench are essentially worthless. when uribe came up with the bases loaded my first reaction was "you can’t let him bat here," and then i thought about it for a second, and realized that hall, anderson, and ramirez all would’ve been woefully overmatched (in all fairness, most bench hitters would be against chamberlain), and pablo might’ve been a better choice than uribe because he makes contact, but not so overwhelmingly that leaving juan in there was indefensible. not having a lefty isn’t great either.

i guess what i’m saying, crazy as it may sound, is that i miss rob mackowiak. he’s just rotting on the bench in washington, maybe we can get him back! sadly, i’m only half kidding. i’m sure someone will explain to me that even a great lefty bench hitter is only likely be worth 1 win over the course of the season, but i’d still feel better about it.

“The Sox gave up 5 homers in their first 160+ innings pitched. In the 9 innings since an unnamed poster boastfully claimed the Sox have “some of the nastiest pitches” in baseball, they’ve given up 3 more. Coincidence? I think not.” Yeah it’s my fault that our pitchers gave up all those taters last night. I should have kept my mouth shut. Although I did not say anything about Dotel’s pitches ;)

I’m sick of thinking about that goddamn GS. How a leftie isn’t facing Abreu, when one was brought in for Johnny fucking Damn, is mind boggling. There are any number of ways Ozzie could’ve used his bullpen less incompetently.

And then…we have to watch Uribe against Joba with the bases loaded. Can’t look at one freakin’ pitch Juany? How many times have you faced Joba in your career? Oh, that was the first time?

Poreda Outshined by Fellow ‘07 Draftee: The top prospect in a bad system, left-hander Aaron Poreda’s 2.35 ERA at High-A Winston-Salem doesn’t reflect the true story of his initial struggling this spring. Carolina League hitters are batting a healthy .302 against the former University of San Francisco star, as he continues to live off of his fastball, showing little in the way of secondary pitches and allowing his opponents to simply sit back, dead-red. The development of his slider is the key to his future, and so far, it still needs a lot of work. The more impressive performance in the Warthog rotation is coming from righty John Ely, a third-round pick last summer out of Miami (Ohio). Known more for his command and his changeup than any kind of overwhelming stuff, Ely has a legitimate 1.89 ERA in three starts and a fantastic 15-to-1 strikeout-to-walk ratio in 19 innings. His upside doesn’t come close to Poreda’s, but he could be a quick mover who is ready for an audition for the back end of the big league rotation in 2010.

Whither Josh Fields? When Joe Crede went down last year, Fields did a more than credible job by slugging 23 home runs in 100 games in Crede’s place. A closer look at the statistical line does find cause for concern, however, as Fields hit just .244 while striking out 125 times in 373 at-bats. With Crede healthy and productive so far this year, Fields finds himself back at Triple-A Charlotte, where he’s come out of the gate slowly with a .254/.333/.356 line in 15 games with just one home run. With Crede’s impending free agency, Fields could be taking over again soon, but one veteran scout I spoke to is convinced that Field’s isn’t going to make many more improvements: “What’d he hit last year in the big league? .240? That’s about as good as he can get if you ask me,” he concluded. “There are just a ton of holes in that swing.”

http://www.baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=7409

Upside: Jose pitched well for Jose and the offense continues to show they can be in most games even when down a few runs. And…Jeter 0-5…hah!

Downside: Juan will never be any better offensively than he is now so we better get used to it, stranding many guys on base will get you every time and the bullpen is going to have an off night every once in awhile – pretty easy to do against the Spanks.

Bottomline: I still hate the Yankees and who is this monster named Joba? – Jeeeez!

bye bye wayne, we’ll miss you.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2008/baseball/mlb/04/23/krivsky.fired.ap/index.html

http://blogs.tampabay.com/rays/2008/04/from-the-happie.html

In case you were wondering about the May 25 Frank Thomas Bobblehard Night that has been cancelled (from the Canadian Press, eh?)...

“The Blue Jays are donating the Frank Thomas bobbleheads that were to be given to fans May 25 to their Jays Care Foundation. The team’s charity will auction off some and give away the others.”

Guillen to third.

it may have made a difference, or not

anyway, let’s get ‘em today!

Miss anything? Oh yeah. Hell yeah Uribe should have swung.

The Tigers announced that Miguel Cabrera will begin playing first base on a regular basis, with Carlos Guillen moving to third.
If they weren’t trying to sign Cabrera to a long-term deal, there’s a good chance they would have arranged it this way in the first place. Now that Cabrera is signed for eight years, he won’t have to worry about a switch diminishing his value. As much of a liability as he was at third, he should prove to be quite a bit more valuable to the Tigers at first base. Fantasy leaguers, though, will be upset the team didn’t wait another week to make the switch. He’s played only 14 games at third, making it unlikely that he’ll qualify there next year in most leagues.