This mortal coil

Bill:
Hey, a win is a win, as they say, but geez, one friggin run is all they can manage against the Royals with Cheese?

 

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Doug:
I wish yesterday's offensive famine was a one off, but the Sox have only put 22 runs across the plate since coming off the All Star Break.

 

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Bill:
Yeah, at this point this offense is as disappeared as that Suri Cruise runt.

 

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Doug:
Meanwhile, does Tim Wakefield lead some double, secret life or something? I mean how and the fug do you fracture a rib throwing the knuckleball?

 

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Bill:
Evidently, while it's rare, the stress fracture is overuse injury and occurs when the bone is repetitively stressed without allowing sufficient time for recovery.

 

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Doug:
Argh. That doesn't sound good. Not good at all.

 

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Bill:
Hurts me to say it, but we may very well be witnessing the beginning of the end of the Wakefield epoch.

 

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Doug:
Christ, that's the saddest thought I've heard in awhile. I mean the Red Sox without Wakefield is like a chowdah without potatoes. He's the starch, the filler, the stretcher of of rich flavor.

 

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Bill:
Agreed. But what can you do? The mortal coil tangles and twists, and knots tightly as the years pass for all of us.

 

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Doug:
Well, a toast to youth, then, and the promise of Josh Beckett for the next three years.

 

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Comments

[louclinton]

Just goes to show that the front office was right to take my advice to bring the young guns up earlier in the year to get them seasoned for Crunch Time. You are welcome.

Off to the game today. Beer's on me if you can find me. (heh)

[Bob]

H.B., I think your boys are killing off Wake a little early. He'll be throwing that wobbler until he's 45.

[h.b.]

Hope you're right, Bob.

[NolaSox]

The Wakefield Chowdah simile is spot on. I not-so-secretly would love to have my two year old grow up to be a knuckleball pitcher who gets nominated for the Roberto Clemente award repeatedly. Forget the "I wanna be like Mike" or "I am Tiger Woods" campaigns. But first I have to get him to stop putting his glove on the wrong hand.

[Bob]

//Hope you're right, Bob.//

Well, my buddy Robert and I were sitting in the first row behind the on-deck circle the night Tek broke his elbow. Rght after it happened, I said he'd be back in a couple of days.

Obviously, I know about these things.

[h.b.]

Thanks on the chowdah metaphor. I like how well that works, too. I mean it's the potatoes you can count on to stretch the chowdah out from bowl to bowl, just as Wakefield is always there to go innings when the rest of the rotation/pen is tired.

[blade87]

Wake's been throwing the knuckler since the early '90's. He's been solid.

But when potatoes go bad, they go BAD.We who love Wake don't want to see the day he takes the mound and completely stinks up Fenway. Or grow extra eyes and get squishy. Or worse, turn into a noxious liquid before our very eyes.

Chowder potatoes are firm, fine smelling gifts from the earth.
So let Wake go out smelling like the freshly dug tater he is.

The new youngstahs are the Sox best hope for their future pitching regime; with one crafty vetertan thrown in the pot. Dare I say.. the elusive fifth starter?

[NYSoxfan]

Schill, Beckett, Lester... then? Wake is a mainstay in the rotation, he doesn't spit the bit, he shows up ready to play and give it his all. We need him back and quick. Wells? He's been Bigtime in the past but what does he have left in his tank? Guess we'll see soon enough. Snyder? he's a big boy and has pitched better than his numbers reflect... still some questions remain. Would rather stay with the yoots than trade Trot for an arm though. go Sox...

[COD]

Greg Maddux should be available from the Cubbies - wouldn't be a bad deadline addition if we can get him without selling the farm.

[paddy24]

Beckett stinks. This is not a good signing.

[Rob in CT]

"Would rather stay with the yoots than trade Trot for an arm though."

Yoot? What's a "Yoot"?

God, I love that movie line...

[tessie]

Being a confirmed Theomaniac, I just know Young Mr. Epstein will come up with something to replace Wake with IF IT'S NECESSARY which it won't be due to our collective desire for it not to be ;) (That works, right?)

Major Kudos on the Chowdah Metaphor. Good enough for capital letters!

[Kaz]

paddy24

After watching Mr. Beckett yesterday pitch a great 8 innings, I disagree.

He simply needs time to step up to AL pitching quality as opposed to NL stardom. He'll be a very solid #2 for years to come.

[Griffin]

//Greg Maddux should be available from the Cubbies - wouldn't be a bad deadline addition if we can get him without selling the farm.//

Maddox can veto a trade and has said he will not go to the AL. Not only that, he's been pitching like crap lately and would cost the farm. Forget it.

//Beckett stinks. This is not a good signing.//

LOL. Josh Beckett is all of six months older than Jonathan Papelbon, has already won a WS MVP and throws 97 mph. It's an adjustment to the AL, but he'll make it. This is a stupendous signing.

And Tim Wakefield will be back.

[d56]

I'm not into a Maddux trade - the current meme is "add 1 pt to the ERA when moving NL -> AL" . . . his ERA right now is 4.92, so . . . yeah.

He's one of the all-time greats, but at this point we'd be paying for some underwhelming work attached to a magic arm and the best pitching brain I've ever heard of.

[Jason O.]

Wakefield is a model of consistency and longevity, and his knuckleball is a weapon.

Excuse the non baseball tangent, but this is worth it: Today Floyd Landis made at least the top 10 list of individual American sporting accomplishments.

Yesterday he cracked in the 90 degree heat on a mountainside, looking 2x worse than anything your heart of hearts could dream up for Alex Rodriguez. He went from leader to 11th place, an abject failure.

Today the guy from humble Lancaster PA, in a display of pure rage and world class athleticism, destroyed both the field and 4 massive mountain climbs to cut his overall gap from 7 minutes to a mere 30 seconds. To breakaway and actually gain this much time on huge mountain climbs does not happen.

After blowing the Tour yesterday, Landis's performance today was at least a 100-1 shot. They used to write greek myths about events like this. Herculean tasks and shit.

[IkeG]

Took the morning off from all news and hadn't heard about Landis. Very excited about that.

Is anybody else not so sorry to see Sox killer Hillenbrand getting shoved from the Jays? Send that dude to the National League, please.

[Dave S.]

Hey Jason...isn't Landis getting a hip replacement directly after the tour as well? Pretty incredible.

Yeah...I don't think the Beckett signing is anything to get too excited about, especially if you think of his as a #2 starter. Kaz, am I right in remembering you as disparaging the Yanks' comeback of 9 runs earlier this year? If not you, some others here suggested that such a comeback coming against the Rangers was non-relevant in light of Texas' useless bullpen. Let's just say shutting out a team with Matt Stairs V.2006 as its cleanup hitter, while a great job falls into rather the same category: it does not necessarily describe the act of a great pitcher. Put another way: would you consider either Mark Redman or Brandon Duckworth a great signing after holding the Sox offense to just one run in each of the last two games? Look at Beckett, hard and close, over his career, and you have a guy who is inconsistent, fragile and prone to the long ball. His past performance (this season's 4.78 ERA included) suggests that he'll be a solid if irregular 4 or 5 starter, possessed of good stuff but never realizing its seeming potential. I don't know what he signed for...maybe the money is good and that's all the Sox were looking for...but I'll be surprised to see this guy anchoring any major league rotation.

[Jason O.]

P.S....Ike, Bobby Julich wrote in his ESPN blog that "if there are miracles in cycling, we just saw one."

[h.b.]

1) Landis' performance was incredible and, you're right, Jason, one of the greatest in all of the history of sport.

2) Beckett was a really good value at $10mil a year considering what just OK pitchers command on the FA market. Steinbrenner would pay $15mil for a guy half as good.

[COD]

Actually, Maddux just lowered his ERA to 4.66 as the they changed an official scorers ruling this morning, taking 5 earned runs of the board for Maddux. He started off the year unhittable, and then went into a funk that he shows signs of coming out of. But if he isn't coming to the AL it's all a moot point.

Random trivia - I played T-ball with Maddux, although I have no specific recollection of him - for all I know he was on my team.

[Bob]

Landis was incredible. Absolutely, positively incredible. But as those of us in the porn industry say, I'm afraid he may have blown his load.

Hopefully, his teammates can act as fluffers in upcoming races.

[h.b.]

Ah, fluffers...

[beth]

really interesting how the entire, astute, erudite, articulate and well informed argument made here against the beckett signing was that "he stinks". apparently the red sox should not be signing "poopie heads." message to theo...

[Dave S.]

The world needs more fluffers, everywhere. Especially in my office.

$10 million a year for 3 years is a decent deal for the Sox...But HB, it's a slippery slope when you justify contracts as being less evil than Steinbrenner, especially when the comparitive hypothetical example is an exaggeration...

[h.b.]

What can I say, I'm an exaggerator and a fornicator.

[Rob in CT]

Just keeping everyone informed:

Wily Mo comes off the DL today to spell Papi at DH and hits a nice two run double to put the Sox up 4-3 in the 4th. Boston chased Rheinecker after 3.2 innings and 75 pitches. Schill's got 3 ER's on 8 hits through 5 innings now (3 Ks, 1 walk).

Still leaving a lot of runners on the bag. Need to be better than that.

[Bob]

Mussina vs. Halladay tonight. That should be interesting.

[IkeG]

What's the over/under on runs scored in the NYY @ TOR game? Moose vs Doc ... should be a bahnburnah.

6-4 - Hitting the road on a good note!