MVN: Most Valuable Network

#1

Posted by Bob, August 19, 2008 7:14 PM

1. Jacoby Ellsbury, RF

2. Dustin Pedroia, 2B

3. David Ortiz, DH

4. Kevin Youkilis, 3B

5. Jason Bay, LF

6. Sean Casey, 1B

7. Jason Varitek, C

8. Alex Cora, SS

9. Coco Crisp, CF

-- Daisuke Matsuzaka, SP

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#2

Posted by Bob, August 19, 2008 7:15 PM

Jacoby seems to cause a lot of throwing errors by catchers, I wonder if someone has a stat on that

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#3

Posted by Bay's Dad, August 19, 2008 7:40 PM

You're right Bob, he forces the catcher to attempt to make impossible throws. It seems like the catcher throws the ball into the outfield just as often as he gets it to the actual base when Jacoby steals.

Varitek looked more like a goalie than a catcher in the first. That ball bounced in the dirt multiple times and was sliding all over the zone from side to side. Daisuke's learned how to put a lot of movement on the different textured balls we use in the States, but I don't think he's learned how to control that movement. He gets a lot of strikeouts, and no one actually gets hits off him.

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#4

Posted by Bay's Dad, August 19, 2008 7:41 PM

Varitek has home runs in back to back games? I think he's making an adjustment and cheating on pitches now. Why not? He's only hitting around .220, so why not hit .220 with some power?

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#5

Posted by Joshua Hynes, August 19, 2008 7:51 PM

Why does every Dice-K start still put me on pins and needles? The walks kill me.

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#6

Posted by Bob, August 19, 2008 9:28 PM

4 innings of bullpen, better break out the pepto

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#7

Posted by Joshua Hynes, August 19, 2008 9:39 PM

Man does Tampa ever lose anymore? Hopefully the White Sox can slow them down, though I'm not sure if their road woes are going to continue. I think if the Sox are going to win this thing from the Rays, they'll have to beat the Rays in their house.

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#8

Posted by Bob, August 19, 2008 9:47 PM

at least the Yankees lost. I don't want phil hughes coming back and that Yankee magic shit happening all over again

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#9

Posted by Bay's Dad, August 19, 2008 9:52 PM

Bob, the Yankees lost TO the Blue Jays who are just as relevant to the Wild Card discussion as the Yankees themselves. The team that leads the majors in ERA is a much larger threat to the Red Sox than the team that's completely falling apart and clinging to a 1 game advantage on the 4th place team in the division who they play the next two days.

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#10

Posted by Bob, August 19, 2008 10:09 PM

please, the Blue Jays are not more dangerous than theYankees and in any case it's irrelevant if the Sox win. BTW what did Dustin do to get ejected?

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#11

Posted by Joshua Hynes, August 19, 2008 10:11 PM

Yeah I'm with Bay's Dad on this. Being 11 games back of the Rays, and 6 games back of the Sox (after tonight's win), the Yankees are largely irrelevant for the postseason this year. They don't have the arms to catch the Sox for WC or the Rays for the division. That doesn't mean they'll go done quitely, but they aren't going to factor into the postseason.

The Sox just need to focus on getting their house in order. If Beckett, Dice-K and Lester can all get any kinks they might have straightened out and in a groove by September (and we're seeing signs of that), then I think this team can play against anyone. Counting tonight's game as a win (even though it's the 8th), the Sox are 12-5 this month. A great month so far.

The team has all of a sudden found its road winning ways, going 6-3 on the road this month. The Sox just need to keep winning like they are and we can worry about the postseason once, and if, we get there. The Twins are close behind so nothing is secure yet and we still have a number of games to play.

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#12

Posted by Joshua Hynes, August 19, 2008 10:18 PM

Bob, the Blue Jays have the best pitching rotation in the American League. The Jays could quite possibly come out of this series with the Yankees in third place.

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#13

Posted by Steven Roth, August 19, 2008 11:18 PM

Dustin thought he checked his swing and got ball four so he started heading down the first base line. After he got halfway down, the first base ump decided to get involved in the game and called him for going around, so strike two. Dustin stopped in his tracks and stared him down for a bit before coming back to the plate.

After grounding out, he had a lot to say to the home plate ump and before I knew it, Dusty was ejected. Boy, he's a frigging firecracker for someone his size! Did anybody read the article featured on him in Sports Illustrated (or was it ESPN?) a week or two ago? It's worth the read!

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#14

Posted by Daniel Rathman, August 19, 2008 11:33 PM

It was ESPN. Here's a link if anyone else wants to check it out.

http://sports.espn.go.com/espnmag/story?id=3512455

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#15

Posted by gerry, August 20, 2008 12:18 AM

Does anyone have a clue where Daisuke Matsuzaka studied to become a magician???? 15 - 2 and a leader in K's and ERA and WALKS? 13 times with the bases loaded and 2 outs and no one has scored? Bless him . . . and Harry Potter, Gandalf,Tek, Youk, Papi, Dustin, J.Bay, the Master'son, Jacoby's 2 hits, 40SB's and D . . . and Lowrie with one hit in one AB. Bless 'em all.

And, as no one else can slay the Rays, our own cardiac kids will have to get to the WS on their own merit.

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#16

Posted by gerry, August 20, 2008 12:30 AM

By the way, we won again tonight without Mike Lowell, JD Drew, or Jed Lowrie for most of the game. And the Rays won without Evan Longoria, Carl Crawford and Troy Percival. Amazing.

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