scenario

It's only August 21st and the Angels "magic number" to win the AL West is down to 21 already.

8/21... Eleven games remaining: The Warthogs start a 3-game series with 1st place Myrtle Beach (Braves farmclub) tonight at home. Then they have 4 games against Kinston (Indians) at home. Kinston is the team they must stay ahead of to make the playoffs. Finally, the finish off the season with a 4-game road series at Frederick (Orioles).

And scouting is by no means a perfect science... If it was, Albert Pujols would not have been a 13th round draft pick.

"I'd like to have an argument." "No you wouldn't!"

I still think it's Fields. If it turns out in 2009 that he doesn't do well enough to keep the position, then I can picture them looking for someone else. Given this scenario... I think the odds of the Sox resigning Uribe to be the backup plan in 2009 are very high.

Lee Cruz 2-3 with a homerun and 3 RBIs tonight in Birmingham's 8-3 win. Cruz's career was heading straight down the toilet this summer after failing at Winston-Salem (.196 BA in 194 at-bats) and even worse at Kanny (1 hit in 20 at-bats). In a bizarre twist of luck for Cruz (probably the organization giving the 25 year old outfielder a last chance), the Sox promoted him to AA. In Birmingham, after struggling early he has caught fire. He's hitting around .370 in his last 10 games and now his season average (155 at-bats) is up to .283 with an OPS over .820. Good for Cruz... and for the Barons. He's now batting cleanup and playing a key role in the team's offense.

QUOTE (elrockinMT @ Aug 20, 2008 -> 07:34 PM) I am not an animal. "I am a human being!"

Winston-Salem wins 3-2 Great start for Anthony Carter 6 innings; 0 runs on 3 hits; 5 K's; and 1 BB. AC stepping up big in a playoff race!! RBI's by Sanchez, Paiml, and Ricks. CJ Retherford 2-3 with a walk. W-S moves 1/2 game ahead of Kinston in the Wild Card race.

8/20 Games: Warthogs beat Salem 3-2 Kinston loses to Potomac 6-0 Winston-Salem takes a .5 game lead in the wild card race!!!

QUOTE (Cerbaho-WG @ Aug 20, 2008 -> 06:59 PM) From a purely statistical standpoint, the Sox brass have had a great draft. Yeah they made a huge mistake of drafting Williams, but seeing Beckham, Upchurch, Carter, Hudson and Kuhn put up impressive numbers is nice to see. Some other 2008 draft picks who have really played well... 1B Jorge Castillo... 26th round pick... was the leading hitter in the Appalachian League (.365) when he got promoted to Kannapolis. Hasn't missed a beat. He's hitting .375 (15/40) since moving to Kanny. CF Justin Greene... 20th round pick... batting .292 at Bristol with a .374 OBP and .821 OPS. Had a cup of coffee at Kanny before returning to Bristol to open a spot for JDanks. Steven Sauer... 10th round pick... reliever at Great Falls. His 3.41 ERA doesn't show how well he's done. He's got a 4:1 K/BB; a WHIP under 1.00; and a BAA of .178. Very nice peripheral stats for a reliever. Justin Kuehn... 19th round pick... reliever at Bristol. A 1.61 ERA with a .147 BAA. Kevin Asselin... 30th round pick... the closer at Bristol. A 1.45 ERA with a .206 BAA.

Danks is leading off for Kanny tonight. Beckham batting second. Nothing exciting to report yet. Both struck out in their first at-bats.

Don't know. Could just be that Paiml is raking in the last week and is hard to bump from the lineup. Paiml is 11 for 25 in his last 6 games, including 4 multi-hit games. That middle infield is packed with bodies: Paiml, Miranda, Persichina, and Mollenhauer. Might just be tough to get everybody enough at-bats.

QUOTE (lostfan @ Aug 20, 2008 -> 01:42 PM) I guess once you've burned the option for the players it doesn't really matter how many times you call them up or down. Yep. Once you've optioned somebody, there is no limit to the number of times you can promote them and demote them in a year. All it costs you is a plane ticket. And technically, anyone on the 40-man roster who is sitting in the minors has been optioned in that year even if they are not called up to the big leagues. So why not use them? To provide bullpen relief and blowout insurance to save the pen... plus give a few guys some big league experience. Other teams do. Boston does it alot. The Angels... the Cubs have done it ALOT this year. The Sox simply haven't done it recently because they haven't had a pool of pitchers in Charlotte they could dependably draw on.

QUOTE (lostfan @ Aug 20, 2008 -> 01:18 PM) I kind of find it hard to believe it was planned this way, and banked on to work out the way it did. This kind of shuttling is pretty common in baseball. But the Sox haven't done much of it in the last few years because you have to have a pool of good prospects at the AAA-level to pull it off. They're not "banking on it" to turn out the way it did. They're just moving fresh arms up based on need. It doesn't make alot of sense to keep a fringe guy on the 25-man roster if he can't help you for 5 days... especially when you can swap him out with another guy who can pitch tomorrow. Is it? It's just smart roster management that can potentially save the bullpen if somebody blows a start But again... you have the prospects available to pull it off. Right now with Russell, Wasserman, Richard, and Broadway the Sox have a nice potential rotation of players who can rotate through one roster spot based on need (reliever or starter).

QUOTE (lostfan @ Aug 20, 2008 -> 06:56 AM) If Richard had pitched like he did tonight - that is to say, lights out - instead of imploding like he did before being sent down do you think they would have bothered sending him back to Charlotte and calling up Broadway? I don't. Yes. I do. Remember... they didn't send down Richard and call up Broadway... They called up Adam Russell when they sent Richard down on August 5th. They added an available arm for our bullpen, which was really struggling at the time. Broadway was called up on the 11th when they sent Logan down (after his implosion). Richard was not available because he started a game in Charlotte a couple of days earlier. Broadway hadn't pitched in a week so bringing him up made more sense. He was immediately able to pitch in relief (which he did his first night up).

One of the things I like most about Richard's success last night, is that it gives us lefty-righty options out of the 5th spot.... Lets us pick the starter (Richard/Broadway) based on matchups. I like it.

8/19 games: - Winston-Salem won (on the road) 10-1 - Kinston lost (at home) 17-14 Wild card deficit down to 1/2 game with 12 games to go.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Aug 20, 2008 -> 09:34 AM) Someone told me yesterday that Carlos Quentin doesn't do push ups. He does earth downs. He also told me Carlos Quentin counted to infinity..............twice. He is the most interesting man in the world... Stay thirsty my friends.

QUOTE (GoSox05 @ Aug 20, 2008 -> 10:21 AM) Gavin Floyd looks like a weirdo with a shaved head. Hopefully he can over come it and get a win. Actually I like it. He had no chance of scaring hitters with that goofy blond mop he had pre-shave. He looks angrier now. Maybe he is.

QUOTE (Cerbaho-WG @ Aug 19, 2008 -> 07:24 PM) Crede is back for Charlotte, where he will undoubtedly work on popping up weakly to the right side. LOL. The sad part about that is that it is so true.

Winston-Salem wins 10-1 to climb within 1/2 game of the wild card. Solid pitching by Clevelan Santeliz for the win: 6 innings; 1 run on 2 hits; 6 Ks; 1 BB. Shelby and Harris each 2-5 with a double and a homerun. Retherford 3-5.

QUOTE (ROC Sox Fan @ Aug 19, 2008 -> 09:35 PM) Remember the spots have come against two of the worst AL teams, I'm not saying, I'm just saying. The Mariners suck because they can't pitch... not because they can't hit. They have a good offense. Since the all-star break they're batting .302 as a team... 2nd best in MLB. (Kansas City is 25th. Their offense does suck.) On the other hand, since the AS game, the Mariners have the second worst ERA in MLB (5.96).

QUOTE (lostfan @ Aug 19, 2008 -> 09:17 PM) Right. Unless I'm totally misunderstanding what Kenny and Ozzie were doing, Richard went back to AAA not to bring up Broadway, but because he was horrible and unready. I don't think anybody expected 6 shutout innings, even against a garbage squad like Seattle. No. He went down because he just pitched and was going to be unavailable for 5 days. By sending him down and bringing up another AAA pitcher we had more depth in our bullpen. It's the exact same strategy the club executed after Broadway's start. It's good roster management if you have the arms in the minors to do it.

Infante perfect through 6 innings for Bristol.

QUOTE (Rooftop Shots @ Aug 19, 2008 -> 04:26 PM) A couple of years ago, Hawk read one of my e-mails on air, and my question was, "As far as you know, Was there ever another lefthanded knuckleballer besides Wilbur Wood?" His answer...Some guys threw it once in na while, but overall, the answer was "NO, not that he could recall" Gene Bearden (No, I'm not that old. LOL. I did remember hearing that question before and looking it up though.)