Jim Fainter

Harold Reynolds was talking up the Sox again while the 9th inning is till going on. As if we are going to win the division.

How did he make out?

Quick. Shave Wunsch. Smuggle him out to the bullpen, put on Schoeneweise's uniform, and bring him back in.

Why did he take out Wunsch?

Does Lee get a lot of 0-2 counts, or am I just dreaming?

IF he signs, he'll probably get a few shots in Charlotte. That will tell a lot. Then, September call up if he is good enough. Other than Cotts, who else is?

I never heard HOW Olivo hurt the shoulder...........

Why can't anybody on our team get Ibanez out?

I'm sure he ws licking his chops when he saw Schoenewies throwing those meatballs to his KC buddies.

Taking out Garland works if Schoen can just get a few outs, but he didn't have the balls or the stuff to throw it over the plate. We had a three run lead in the sixth. JM is thinking get me two innings and Flash/Marte will win it. The problem wan't taking out Garland early. The problem was Schoen couldn't get anybody out. He is just another run of the mill pitcher who is going to give up runs. Then, once JM brought him in, he's going to leave him in. The feast had started.

10-6. Uh, I think the playoffs are down the drain.

Once again, every leadoff guy that gets on comes around to score.

Supposedly, if a leadoff hitter gets on first, there is a 55% chance he will score. With garland, it must be 90%.

Still no Sweeney for KC. Hope we can hold Ibanez to a couple of hits.

Way to go, Jim Bullard.

Anything can happen in the playoffs.

Loooooooong rehab. First 4 games at Bristol, now 2 games at Kanny. Malone is on the 40 man roster. Will he come off when the roster gets rearranged in the off season?

We have options on Loaiza and Gordon.

Clujer, pls enlighten me.

It's way too early to have intelligent, meaningful thoughts on next year's roster, other than pure speculation. The exception is shortstop but I think Jose will be back next year.

JM is getting very consistent in how he handles Kelly Wunsch. In our previous loss, to Tampa about a week ago, we had a key part game where Aubrey Huff, a good lefty, comes up with 2 out and men on base, and he left White in to give up the key hit of the game. 5th inning as I recall. Last night de ja vous all over again. In both the 6th and 7th innings, Olerud, a good lefty, comes up with men on base against right handers (Wright and Ginter), and both times hit home runs. Now, I realize that the Seattle game was not win-able, but still, the situation called for a left handed pitcher. Jerry will not, under any circumstances, bring in Wunsch until very late in the game. Which is what he did yesterday, letting Wunsch pitch the 8th when the score was 10-0. Why can't we bring Wunsch into the game in the middle innings if the situation calls for getting a tough lefty out while the game is not only on the line but winnable?

No other team has a fifth starter that wins all the time. That's why they call them fifth starters.

With Tim Hummel's strong showing and Joe Crede's rather ordinary season, is there any chance that Hummel could compete for the third base job next year, or is it set in concrete for Crede to prevail no matter what?

Porzio made 3 starts. So we were either 9-11 or 10-10 in those 20 starts. However, I think it's fair to say that the quality of the starting pitching for those 20 starts was slightly below expectations. Of course, almost the whole team was below expectations for the first two months of the season. It still would be nice if someone stepped up in the next couple of starts from the 5 hole.

I agree with Rex. There is always some pressure in your first start. So what. Last time I looked, Cotts is a professional baseball player/pitcher. He might give some hits and walks, but he's not going to fall apart like a 29 cent mop. Every pitcher has a first start sometime. If we are still in this thing on August 12th, we should consider Cotts.