delben91

I'm only "watching" on GameCast, so I'm not "seeing" anything. At the same time though, I think Lee looked pretty disciplined on his Home Run at bat earlier. Taking several pitches and fighting off several more. Granted, he looked horrible in his last at bat. All the same, I'd rather one solid at bat than none, at least a step in the right direction.

I know the Sox haven't come through on all the opportunites they've had tonight, and that's very disappointing. At the same time, I think it should be noted that Rodriguez, even after giving up 3 ER in 6 IP tonight, still has an ERA of 2.08. Not exactly a gimme pitcher. He may be young, but that doesn't mean he isn't throwing well right now.

I don't see Willie Harris on that list...I'd say it's him

I wonder who will be the first announcer to state, when Royce Ring is brought in from the pen, "And the manager's bringing in a Ringer for the ninth..." Maybe I'm the only one that thinks about weird s*** like that...

Did McKay go over to the Dodgers in the James Baldwin deal? Or do I have that completely wrong? I'm pretty sure we got him in a deal with the Angels, he wasn't originally drafted by the Sox. As far as his abilities, he was thought to be the Sox future leadoff hitter, but he never developed the ability to hit major league pitching even a modicum of the time.

I'll be home in D.C. watching the all star festivities, and of course, the game.

He's here now, courtesy of the Sun-Times. (It's towards the bottom of the article).

Hell yeah, my brother! That's what it is all about! Can I get an AMEN! AMEN!

It's only a fantasy report, but here's what Sports Illustrated had to say about Miguel Jimenez is also mentioned in there. Good stuff.

Great report, the more I read about Heath Phillips, the more I want to see him pitch.

All right, so something about Bartolo and all the worries about his weight (though relatively unfounded it seems) had been giving me flashbacks about that Sox pitcher from a few years back, Carlos Castillo. You want weight problems, there they are. I remember a couple of times on one of his brief call ups to the Sox, the runner would beat him to first base on groudballs to the right side of the infield. After two or three of those, he got sent back down, and if I recall, was gone from the organization soon after. Anyone else remember this guy? And is he still around baseball someplace?

Yeah, from the sounds of it, all the necessary precautions were in place and followed. Makes you wonder if there wasn't something else in play here besides the heat and pushing himself too far. Such a horrible thing to happen.

I remember reading about his signing, and then not hearing another word about him the rest of the season. This organization can tend to be a black hole for catchers, so him just disappearing wouldn't surprise me too much

1982-2000 - Gaithersburg, MD (just NW of D.C.) 2000-Present - Newark, DE (college at University of Delaware)

Do you remember how horrible the O's were at the end of last season? No way they finish any higher than 4th. They haven't done anything of consequence to improve their team. The front office changes were needed, but that hasn't translated to the field yet. But I also remember how they played pretty stinking good during the middle part of the season. They have some decent young players, but they missed out big time in free agency. They tried signing quite a few players and fell short. I'm pretty sure they lost 32 of their final 36. That's beyond bad...that's cub like.

Well, we did sign those two catchers to minor league deals the same day we signed Daubach, Heredia, Loaiza, et al. So, even if we lose Josh on waivers when trying to send him to Charlotte, it isn't as if we don't have replacements down there in AAA.

Damn straight, Tombstone is great. Also on my list: Heat, Ferris Bueller, Field of Dreams, 61*, 13 Days

Got to go with Jon Garland on the pitching staff, and Jimenez in the lineup and on the field. D'Angelo has to step up huge in the leadoff spot if the Sox are going to go anywhere.

No way in hell. Eldred and Valentin were two very, very key components of that 2000 team. Snyder and Navarro combined wouldn't have contributed what Eldred did in 2000, even though he just pitched for the first half of the year.

The Redskins are definitely THE TEAM around DC. Regardless of the talent on the team, the coach, anything, they sell out every year and have a waiting list on season tickets that is years long. The Capitals have their own rather strong fan base, though not close to that of the 'skins. Since the Caps manage to squeak into the playoffs most years of late, their following remains rather consistent. The Wizards had slumped in the attendance category this year, but I don't know if it's picked up of late since MJ maintains he's going to retire after the season (I'm not a big NBA fan, so I don't keep tabs on "The Wiz" much). As for the Orioles, they always draw consistent, if somewhat less than fanatical crowds. You see a lot of people in ties and dress shirts, taking a client to a ball game and such, since Camden Yards is such a huge draw. I haven't seen too many stadiums, but for pure beauty, nothing I've seen has beaten Camden Yards (though admittedly, Jacobs Field is a close second). Most DC area fans are fed up with Angelos much the way Sox fans have a healthy hatred for Reinsdorf. Angelos however, doesn't fear paying out cash for players, but he fancies himself a GM and often picks which players he wants to sign. This resulted in the several high-payed but horribly performing teams of the late nineties, early "oughts." So, in part, many baseball fans in the DC area would love to see the Expos come here just to piss Angelos off. I think if the Expos came, they'd get a solid fan base. People here of the older generation (my grandparents among them) still remember the old Senators, and you see a decent number of people of that age group going around with Senators hats and jerseys. So, in my very unexpert opinion, I think a lot of factors could combine to make a DC area baseball team pretty successful. Hell, we'd have to be able to do better than Montreal has

Being a DC native, and being tired of listening to Peter Angelos b****, I would love to see another option, any other option in DC for sports. Let's see, we've got the Redskins, Capitals, Wizards (soon to lack MJ), Orioles and Ravens. Despite the Ravens superbowl win a few years back, not exactly your hotbed of quality teams. While the former Expos might not change that, the newness of them would be nice.

That's mildly scary, but at least helped by the fact that buerhle vouches for him. Still though, replace the hole in the 9 spot vacated by royce with another hole created by sandy.

I agree with you there LDF. Good competition for Rauch. And if Rauch wins the #5 spot, as I think he will, Loaiza provides an arm to be the long relief guy in the bullpen, and spot start as necessary.

I'm going to go conservative and say 85-88. 95+ wouldn't surprise me too much though. Wish it was spring training, all this waiting is killing me.

Please no, anything but that! Willie Harris in CF brings back memories of Julio Ramirez, except without the great arm.