Jim Fainter

I saw the replay on Espn about 42 seconds after he hit it.

ElrockinMT: Do you go see the games in Great Falls? I take it you're from Montana??

I just wish that Hill and other players realize that fact.

Rex, you are correct when you say we have to consider the roster, because if someone come in, some one must go out. Understood. I would bring up Gload, and cut Rios. This does not impact either the 40 man or 25 man roster. Then there is the Kelly Wunsch dilemma. At one point I would have said something negative about Rick White, since I was against signing him from the beginning, and have said so many times. But, in truth, he has pitched well of late, so I would keep him, because there probably is no trade value for him now. (There might be on 7-31). When Kelly is ready, I would send Glover down. A) it might wake him up; and B) he is not contributing to the team. If our bullpen suddenly gets overworked, Kelly can take some of those innings, as well as White and Sanders. Knock on wood, but our starters have been giving us innings lately. So I bring up Gload and Wunsch , cut Rios, and send Glover to AAA.

$5.3 MM will buy a lot of patience. I hope the Sox have something planned for him this winter. He needs to keep working.

Every great announcer has has a few "signature" phrases.

Bobby Hill moved out. Juan Cruz moved in. I can almost guarantee that we will face him this weekend. He pitched well at Iowa.

I was just about to post on Ivy, but Grebeck beat me to it. Rex, what do you have on him?

This was the first bad game J. Borowski has had in a while. Lets hope there is one more this weekend.

But we are improving.

Rex, I hope we agree on one thing, and that is that Mr. Rios will not be on the team or in the organization next year. He is the closest thing to history on the 40 man roster. Gload, if he comes up and does well, will be invited back on at least a minor league contract or released if there is interest in him. He has a better chance of contributing than does Rios. I mean, he is hitting over .330 in AAA. If Joe B were doing that, everyone in the organization would be having orgasm. He came to Charlotte and performed big time, and we owe him a cup of coffee, especially since someone else at his position (Rios) is not doing well. It would not cause a problem with the 40 man roster, since Rios would be released. What does he have to do, hit .400? In terms of money, we would sacrifice about one half of Rios' salary and give a slight bump to Gload. What is that, a couple hundred grand or so? If I were in charge, I would give him a few games in left and DH and maybe first and see what happens. If he goes oh for 20, so be it. If he rips a couple in the gap at the right time, which no one else is doing, ............... I'm done.

Augie Ojeda could not carry Aaron Miles' jock strap.

Rex, the 40 man roster is irrelevant. We cut Rios, promote Gload, washy washy. A roster spot and PT are freed up in Charlotte.

Another hitless night. Down to .226.

Rex, your point about comparing Gload to Borchard is perfectly valid. But how about comparing Gload to Rios? I'll take Gload any day, and the wasted money for cutting Rios would be minimal. Plus, we would be doing a service to mankind.

Touf***ingche.

That's right, Elrockin, and it is underscored by the fact that JM publicly ridiculed a player for "poor baseball instincts," subsequently released him (Norton), and now finds himself in a situation where poor baseball instincts abound.

I remember a game 2-3 years ago that we lost, and JM criticized one of his players to the press afterward -- I think it was Greg Norton. Norton had made an obvious f*** up, and JM chose to note it by saying the play in question showed "poor baseball instincts" and we don't want to have players with that quality (words to that effect). Well, let's talk about poor baseball intincts, because if we wanted to keep track of them all this season, we could fill up several pages. The worst offender is Jiminez. He did it again last night as he has done so often this year, and he'll keep doing it as long as he plays. I stayed away from criticizing him, because I really wanted him to do well and make at least one trade look well, but he has convinced me that he is a problem, not a solution, and he should be sent down to the minors or whatever. Those San Diego players knew what they were talking about when they jumped on him in Spring Training. There are several short term solutions, but the thing that the Sox must recognize is that this team shows "poor baseball instincts" and Manual does nothing about it except watch.

That is a tendency that bad teams have. You kind of shoot your wad in one good inning and then relax and hope that the rest of your teammates can hold the lead, instead of continuing the fight to scratch out more runs and play winning baseball for the rest of the game. A psychologist would have a field day with that question, Clujer. The solution starts with the manager. It's an attitude thing, and it is acquired. That game last night was exactly the type of game that was winable and would have been won with a different manager with a different attitude. That tendency to sit on your heels and wait for the rest of your team to win the game has manifested itself several times this year as Clujer noted.

What can we do? Pay him $ 9 MM between now and 9-30-04, and then release him. It makes no sense to put him in the game in clutch situations any more. A lot of people will defend KW and JM for the decison to trade Foulke for Koch, but I'm not one of them. We all know that Foulke had a rough start in 2002 and lost the closer role. But he slowly got his s*** back and was pitching very well in whatever innings they let him pitch in the last half of 2002. He bordered on "lights out." In the last two months he was the best relief pitcher on the team, but he had no closing opportunities. If JM had given some of those opportunities to Foulke, their confidence in him would have returned, and maybe the trade would not have been made. The trade was not about money, since we immediately gave Koch a 2 year, $12 MM deal. It was about being pissed off at Foulke for an unknown reason, and letting these feelings interfere with good decision making processes. They (KW and JM) f***ed up, again, and Oakland is the beneficiary.

Did he scout Koch, Ritchie, and Jiminez?

Indy, you are right. That trade hurts. De ja vu all over again. First the Pirates fleece KW, and then the A's. I've avoided saying this so far, always hoping that Koch will revert to his earlier abilities, but it ain't gonna happen. And then we give him $6 MM for next year,so we have a real dilemma. If he is hurt, put him on the DL.

What happened?

If your objective is to hit a sacrifice fly, it is much easier to do so by hitting to center or the opposite field. It has always been this way. Now, I didn't see it, but was Lee trying to pull the ball? Sounds like it.

I predict Glover will make an appearance tonight. Rios started in right, Glover will come in later to keep the score down.