The Diceman Cometh

You're right RP....Tavarez on the bench, Lester opening it up tonight.

Timing of this sucks. I'll be at a concert, gonna have to record it.

francona will have an interesting dilemma when schill comes back in about a week -- do you drop gabbard or lester from the rotation?

It'll be tough to bounce Gabbard with the way he's been pitching.

lester made francona's decision tougher by pitching 6 strong innings.
big strike out of sizemore (who had earlier hit a 2-run homer) with the bases loaded to get out of his only jam of the night.

i get the feeling one of the starters will be traded.
i do not envy francona one iota...

more awesome pitching tonight.

dice-K, okajima & pap combined on a 4-hit 1-0 shutout.

sawx have won 5 straight, but the spankees offense is keeping them within striking distance (8 games back pending their game in KC)...

Another option is to put Wakefield in the bullpen. If that were the case, then you have to somehow drop/trade Tavarez, since Delcarmen isn't going anywhere. When's Donnelly getting back?

donnelly had a setback in his recovery.

i think snyder is the logical choice to release or trade.
he's been ok, but not great.

maybe gabbard winds up going to the pen, which would give them a whopping 3 lefties in the 'pen.

getting texiara to play first makes no sense, although i can see them trying to get him to prevent him from going to the NYY...

Snyder has an ERA of 3.03, that's not bad at all. They haven't used him a ton because overall the starting pitching has been efficient.

its a great problem to have -- too much pitching.

tough loss last night.
they wasted what was maybe beckett's best start of the year (8 innings, 4 hits, 1 run, no walks, 7 K's).
2 huge base-running blunders didn't help.

the lead has shrunk to 6.5 games...

andy pet it
(get it?)

***

so wake is now 12-9 in 21 decisions.
what are the odds of getting a decision in every start?

he done good last night (6 innigs, 6 hits, 1 run, 3 harmless walks, 7 K's).
youk's 3-run dinger was all the offense needed a night after they put 14 on the board.

taking 3 of 4 in cleveland was huge.
the lead is currently 8 games...

according to ESPN.com, the sawx have acquired closer eric gagne from texas in exchange for gabbard and 2 minor leaguers...

NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!

i kid you not.

they had to do something -- the C's are stealing all the headlines...

NO???

What the hell are you talking about? They just picked up the former top closer in baseball(before surgery) as ONE of their setup men. He's got an ERA of low 2. Lester will replace Gabbard's #5 spot in the rotation, which is non-existant once the playoffs start anyway. PLUS, Donnelly is done for the season for Tommy John surgery.

They did give up David Murphy though. And sucks they couldn't wrap up the Dye deal...sucks that Wily Suckass Pena is still on the team.

Yeah, I gotta be the only guy in red Sox Nation who isn't excited about
this. To me, it seems they are sending off a promising young starter and
two excellent OF prospects to improve an area that was already pretty
good.

I'm waiting to see how Gagne deals with being one of Papelbon's setup
men.

Oh, well. I'll be happy to be proved wrong.

it occured to me last night that the sawx went and got him so the spankees COULDN'T...

Part of the reason was probably the Yankees...who failed to improve their bullpen, instead got an infielder!

George, this trade makes sense if you look at the whole situation: Gabbard really wasn't part of their long term plans anyway, he was a trading chip. Masterson & Buckholtz are really in their plans for future starters, and are higher prospects than Gabbard. Gabbard is a #4 guy on most clubs...he's not the next Maddux. So they're really still where they want to be in terms of prospects, with Lester in the rotation, and Delcarman still with the club(who they refused to give up for Dye).

Ellsbury is their future center fielder, so Murphy was just another trading chip as well, as they don't have a place for him with the big club. And the younger guy they traded is a highly lauded prospect, but he's far down the road.

With Gagne in the bullpen, they can give Okajima more rest, and not have to worry about Papelbon getting too much work down the stretch, and in the playoffs. They really have been giving Okajima too many innings as it is....at this point today, he's already pitched more innings then he ever has in one season.

Think playoffs: 4 strong bullpen guys that can shut down the opposing team. Delcarman, Okajima, Gagne, and Papelbon. That's a scary bullpen.

gagne pitched the 9th today, with mixed results.
he struck out 2, but gave up a run...

the diceman was sharp last night (7 innings, 6 its, 2 runs, 2 walks, 10 K's) and we finally won a game in seattle.

the spankees (102 runs in their last 8 games) are coming on strong...