Gregory Pratt

If we can't light Silva up, something's wrong. Get it done!

QUOTE(fathom @ Apr 5, 2007 -> 10:37 PM) Jack McDowell will be replacing Hawk this coming week. I can't say I'll complain about that. When?

To Australia! Yeah, this bothers me.

QUOTE(Kalapse @ Apr 5, 2007 -> 11:17 PM) They won't trade Woods but that's not the point. The point is they were offered Ervin Santana + Figgins/Aybar I don't remember who exactly and they turned it down. Why the hell would they take Anderson and a meh prospect when they could have had a very good young pitcher in Santana and another excellent major league piece? Baldelli might be oft injured but he's still only 25, has a very affordable contract and has all the same tools as Joe D. In other words, if they choose to trade him they're going to get a valuable piece to add to their rotation. Plus the whole Sean Tracey incident in AAA, Dukes is a crazy son of a b****. What happened with Sean Tracey?

Pedro's "gyroball" -- he throws it like a fastball, as Matsuzaka is said to, and it freezes up batters and jams them because it looks like a slider but it never slides and simply stays in and screws them up. It's a fairly important part of his repoitoire. It's a 92 MPH pitch, so it's much more than Shingo's frisbee which was garbage pure and simple. I'm not sure how hard Matsuzaka throws his, but it's probably more important to his repoitoire than it is to Pedro's. Pedro possesses, after all, the best changeup in baseball, one of the tightest curves, pinpoint accuracy and hides the ball well.

No it's not like the frisbee. It's much more than a gimmick pitch. It's a solid enough pitch. But it's nothing baseball-world-changing. QUOTE(DrunkBomber @ Apr 5, 2007 -> 10:20 PM) Thats the comparison Im trying to make. That frisbee pitch was deadly for a while and Shingo was a great closer. Once it was figured out he dissapeared. If Pedro throws the same pitch Id say he isnt using the delivery as much of a gimmick as Dice-K but it gives it more credibility because Pedro has been one of the most dominant pitchers of our time. Exactly. It's a for-real major league pitch, unlike Shingo's frisbee.

"Well boy I tell you, dag gummit, this umpire's been tight all game." "STRETCH! STRETCH! COME ON, STRETCH!" Ugh.

1. Matsuzaka is more than, say, Nomo, who needed his delivery. 2. The "gyroball" as a "slider that doesn't slide" is actually something Pedro Martinez throws. He doesn't call it that, but the "creator" said that Pedro throws it without really knowing it and it works as a sort-of slider sort-of screwball for him. Not sure if his is as good as Pedro's, but I'd say it's more than a gimmick pitch but less than a real pitch.

Oh. I stand corrected. Well, partially. I still think we should keep him there until we have to bring him up. But I thought the option system was we could bring him back up and then send him back down. My mistake.

Haeger should be up in any event, let alone if Mark is hurt. Floyd only has 1 option left. Let's not use it while he's still garbage. Let's give him the chance to take what Coop showed him and show us he's a "new pitcher," since he "feels" like one.

I don't know -- I understand everything Ozzie says. Glad he's good.

Is your name really Mark Schackmuth? That's a cool name.

First game. I'll be freezing. Let's go Sox!

QUOTE(Chisoxfn @ Apr 4, 2007 -> 10:33 PM) I heard the ump initially called him safe which got me excited at work and than pissed. By the way, I just want to say Chris Singleton is better than Rooney or Farmer (he is real enjoyable to listen to, imo and brings a lot of knowledge of the game to the booth). I don't know about the ump call. I knew it was caught right away.

Okay. Well, what happened was -- Michaels was backing up and fell. It was actually about three feet in front of the wall, and he caught it while falling backward into the wall and then Sizemore came over patting him as if he'd leapt 20feet into the air and robbed a monster shot. It was poor defense. He saved the play, but it was poor.

Michaels botched a routine flyout to the warning track. It wasn't spectacular by any means. Crede should've hit a damn single.

Unacceptable at-bats by Dye and Thome. Unacceptable.

Let's go JD. Line drive into the outfield, man.

QUOTE(Balta1701 @ Apr 4, 2007 -> 04:29 PM) Ok, that's it, I want Erstad leading off. Against Victor Martinez. I don't think he can steal off of anyone else.

Thank God he's taken away the DP.

Terrible at-bat by Thome. Not just because he struck out but because he looked terrible doing it swinging at crap pitches.

What was Thome swinging at right there? Geez.

That one loud dude all game long has been so obnoxious.