LorfTVP

You need to retire with the Sox and then go into the HoF to have your number retired. Manny's gonna be the exact same price, if not cheaper, than the other options on the market and the Teixeiras and Hollidays of the world would cost a bundle. I think this is just one of those bumps in the road that we go through every season. People say it's gotten worse, but honestly, it's Manny. How do we fill in his slot? We need another power guy to replace him and there are very few options. Manny's only had one bad month in May and has lived up to his reputation every single other one. I hope this blows over.

I don't see any reason to chase him out of town. So things got ugly, and he has crossed a line, but I still wanna forgive and forget because he is still one of the best hitters of our generation and I would love to retire #24 in Fenway Park. His projected stats on the season are an amazingly steady 103 30 103 with a .302/.400/.531/.932. There's all this talk about declining stats but they're still at the top of the game. He's top 10 in pretty much every stat in the AL. A trade wouldn't make sense. We'd never get anything fair. Honestly, I really want to see a Red Sox hero type retire his number there. We haven't had one since Yazstremski and we won't have Clemens, Pedro, or Nomar filling that slot.

Exactly, because Sox fans and Yankee fans will never let this rivalry die. For every sportscaster who complains about the rivalry being overrated, there's a crazed Yankee fan driving drunk into a crowd of Sox fans or a Red Sox fan beating a Yankee fan with a baseball bat in front of his family. It's in our blood...The entire New England area plus New York and New Jersey. But by the way, you can have Connecticut. I have no real love for them.

He does that to make the hitter visualize getting a long, slow one and lose concentration. It's called strategy. But yah, xxi is right, this was the media, no matter what the city, blowing a single sentence out of an entire press conference out of proportion. He complimented Mariano multiple times during the interview and even called him the godfather of closers or something of the like. The comments were simply that he said he wanted to close because he's competitive. What closer wouldn't? What if George Sherrill had said he wanted to close? Yankees fans are just looking for things to get riled up about other than looking at the win columns.

Just one?

I think we best make do with what we have. Moving Justin Masterson in the bullpen should work wonders. I think the major problem is that we have no 8th inning guy anymore. Okajima is going through some woes, although he's improved a bit of late, and Timlin is past his prime and is more of a sixth or seventh inning type. Currently, Francona just tosses in whoever has the most rest between Hansen and Delcarmen. They have to stick with Delcarmen now who is no longer the "Trampoline" (as he was nicknamed for bouncing from AAA to the majors) who is still a damn good pitcher. He still has the 36 Ks in 37 innings which is a decent sign. I'm a bit more worried about Hansen who has walked 18 in 25 innings. I like the guy, I really do. He has that nasty slider and has had some damn good games for us but then he goes and walks people, loses all of it, and takes the loss. I figure if others step up, Hansen can pitch in some lower stress situations. All in all, we gotta stick with it. There's not much else we can do except try and trade for a Fuentes or a George Sherrill. We're better off holding onto our prospects rather than getting another Gagne in my mind. The Red Sox are trying to stick with their own guys in the pen of late because of the volatility of the trade market and RPs especially. Current rotation: Beckett, Lester, Matsuzaka, Wakefield, Buchholz Current pen: Hansen, Delcarmen, Okajima, Papelbon, Lopez, Aardsma, Timlin In the wings: Colon has had another setback and should take his time coming back. He should come up for a couple of weeks when Lester gets a phantom injury to keep his IP down. The Sox learned last year of the wonders that can come from a rest in the middle of the year. Masterson, meanwhile, will be back. I hope he can handle the 8th.

He has a 7 million dollar option for next season on him which made him that much more valuable. i just don't understand how the Cubs didn't learn their lessons from Prior. Can't hurt Harden to have a better offense behind him.

I also think it's a nod to him because he just caught his fourth no-hitter this year. That's insane, and with four different pitchers to boot. Says a lot more about his ability than Nolan Ryan's personal catcher catching four of them. No offense to Ryan, just saying it's more difficult with different pitchers than the same and it says a lot about his skills. Varitek's the type of catcher that impresses everyone around him and this is the one free pass he's gotten. I honestly have no problem with this pick because it shows a lot of respect from his fellow players.

I hope Sabathia shares his love of cheeseburgers with Fielder.

Pedroia shouldn't be starting but at least he has made himself deserving enough to start it with this recent torrid streak. He's on fire. Francona only picked six players and four came from teams without representatives yet (Carlos Guillen, Joakim Soria, Justin Duchscherer, and someone else) and only really got to choose Dioner Navarro and Joe Nathan. As long as the AL has the firepower to win, I'm fine with whoever makes the damn team.

Whatcha think about Chris Davis? Merely a fill in? From what I've read, he's one of those low contact, high power types.

But you guys called Kei Igawa up. Now that's depth.

Problem is, you always know you're going to double post when you push the button but there's no way you can't push it.

What is his innings limit for the year? Do you expect an August or September break to prepare him for the (possible) playoffs?

He's been a bit more hittable this year but I'm not too worried. He's given up more homeruns than I'd like but he has still struck out 43 in 33.1 innings with 5 walks. Give him time, these things happen. I'm more worried about the bullpen. They made up a phantom injury to finally get Timlin out of there, but still, they've gotta step it up.

Is this a head to head or rotisserie? In rotisserie, you should be fine. If you're in head to head, well, good luck.

Honestly, it was an honor to have a guy like him on our team to impart his knowledge and just deal when necessary. He's going into the HoF eventually as a Diamondback but still, glad he could share his postseason magic.

I'm hoping that he doesn't eat the Sox is what I'm hoping. Someone mentioned in an ESPN chat why Ponson got let go but I can't find it. The basic gist is that the Rangers had a one strike policy with him and he was complaining about something or other.

Thing is, this was random enough that I wasn't quite sure. I don't know how one could even suggest cheating there. Unusual attempt at...jest. What is funny is how a team with the best offense in the league is under .500. Not naming any names. Just, throw a guess out there.

What are you smoking? That's just silly. Poor Chipper just never gets a break. But regardless, he'll still have enough ABs to qualify for the BA title. Only hope is that he continues to hit as well when he comes back. But if you think a guy who depends on his eyes would go and injure one of them on purpose? That's almost as silly as someone who depends on their brain drilling a hole through their head. Have Chipper on your fantasy team or something?

Couldn't have a better guy on the team. I know he's older, and that's been a problem in recent years, but he's an intelligent outfielder, a left handed bat (with a lot of pine tar), and has an attitude which, word is, is needed in the Met's clubhouse. Unfortunately, he's a bit slower on the basepaths now and in his last year with the Sox was a notorious singles hitter. 70 of his 102 hits were singles in 2006. 24 doubles, 8 HRs. Even still, he's a productive player and brings a good dose of the south to the Mets.

I'm glad that all the Tampa Bay players got their due but I don't understand why Sean Casey was suspended for three games. I'm doin' this from memory but... Jon Lester - 5 games for intentionally throwing at the batter (curveball) Coco Crisp - 7 games for charging the mound Sean Casey - 3 games Akinori Iwamura - 2 or 3 games for being an idiot and trying to get revenge James Shields - 6 games for intentionally throwing at Crisp on the first pitch of his first AB Carl Crawford - 3 or 4 games is my guess for running in from center field and walloping Crisp Jonny Gomes - 5 games even though he deserved much more for what he did Edwin Jackson - 5 games but I didn't pick up what he did while watching the footage over and over again. All those Boston haters (and I've heard from a lot) are throwing shit at Coco but I'm pretty sure that the beatdown by the Tampa Bay Rays is a lot more deplorable. Once they got him to the ground, it should have been over, but the Rays were clearly looking for revenge.

A.J. Mass on ESPN"s Out of the Box suggests: It's all conjecture but...who knows.

Apparently had some steam to boil off after the Red Sox game. Looks like they took it out on the Rangers.

Royal snobbishness?