Tuesday 7:08 PM Lester (9-7, 3.9 era) vs. Garza (7-8, 3.69 era) Wednesday 7:08 PM Penny (7-5, 5.07 era) vs. Price (4-4, 5.10 era) Obviously this is the start of very important week. While still behind the pack, the Rays remain one of the most dangerous teams in the AL imo. Their offense and starting pitching are both good enough, and if their pen comes along they will once again be a force to be reckoned with this fall. This has been the Sox house of horrors the last few seasons.
Btw, I knew Bard had been lights out pretty much since he had been called up, but my jaw dropped when they showed his stats for July the other day. Daniel Bard's dominance in July of 2009: 12 IP, 4 hits, 0 WALKS, 20 k's, .103 BAA. Dude is so nasty that his k/bb is undefined for an entire month.
I'm not sure what else you could really want from him. Yeah, he will probably fall back to earth at some point and have to adjust, but at this point he is their bullpen ace. This isn't early 2008, he's proven himself. edit: fuck all of you. i'm just really excited about this guy and you are trying to doubt him. h8ters
I guess you missed it. I love Bard, but a particular poster here claimed he "isn't that great" and more or less called out Sox fans for being excited about him. The other comment is a jab at TBJF.
Holy shit, dude. :lol: You need to: a) Get over it. b) Learn how to utilize context to improve your reading comprehension. The emphasis was, "Bard is not THAT great," in relation to all the fellatio he was getting up here. If you recall, you even said "He hasn't been great, but he's been pretty good," directly after my comment. Gee, I guess my statement was so ridiculous that you agreed with me. In any case, my point was that Bard was a guy who had pitched pretty well, and was exciting to watch... mostly because he threw really hard. His performance to date was not up to the hype he had been given, though. Similar to the Sox fans who were sooooo pumped because Smoltz was going to be like trading for a #1 or #2 starter in June! He might still be serviceable (or not) but a #1 or #2? Yeah, how's that working out for you?) As for Bard's performance this year... his issue (until this year) has been control (6.0 BB/9 in the minors). Obviously, he's improved in that area. Good for him.
You need to: Learn to take a fucking joke and recognize when someone is just taking a jab. Bard HAS been great, and it was pointed out so I took a little shot about your comment. No need to get bent out of shape. By the way, I wasn't agreeing with you, I just didn't feel like being sucked into a typical conversation with you. I did post the stats he had put up to that point (something like a 1 ERA and over a K/IP) which showed great performance and left it at that. And his minor league numbers once he became a reliever certainly did warrant the hype surrounding him. That BB/9 number as a reliever was 3.8 and was 2.8 this year. His WHIP was under 1, his ERA was under 2, his K/BB was 3.88 and his K/9 was over 13. He was absolutely dominant as a reliever in the minor leagues.
1. I'm not bent out of shape. 2. I was unaware that you were capable of untwisting your panties enough to make a joke. My mistake. In eight innings! No. It did not warrant the hype. And that has almost nothing to do with his performance and almost everything to do with just how much hype there was.
Which is exactly why I didn't say he had been great, because I knew you would say that and I didn't feel like arguing. I certainly wasn't agreeing that he hadn't been though, because even though it was a *gasp* small sample size, he had been. Yes it did. A reliever with those numbers and a 100 MPH fastball and quality breaking ball warrants every bit of hype he gets. And the only hype I heard was that he was going to be a very good reliever, even dominant. If it had been "OH MY GOD HE'S GOING TO THE HALL OF FAME!!!!@!!" I would agree with you, but expecting him to be a very good to dominant relief pitcher was perfectly reasonable given his numbers and stuff.
Oh, so you said he hadn't been great, just pretty good, even though you thought he had been great, because you didn't want to admit that you were disagreeing with me? That's just... odd. Do you live in Boston? Because, yes, people practically were reserving a spot for him in Cooperstown, days after he was called up.
Yes, I did. He had been pretty great at that point, and it had been only 8 innings. I didn't feel like getting involved in the back and forth over this, with you and your patented SSS(tm) argument because I was aware it had only been 8 innings and I really couldn't counter that. But his performance in that span, as short as it was, was pretty great. Sometimes, usually with women, you just have to smile, nod and move on. Pick your battles. That was what I was doing. No I don't, I live in Springfield, but I listen to EEI all day long. I didn't hear anyone saying Hall of Fame, and I think people are aware that middle relievers don't go to the Hall of Fame. I heard a lot of people who thought he was going to be a dominant member of the bullpen, but not really anything beyond that.
Whatever you gotta tell yourself, man. You sure got a funny way of "smiling, nodding, and moving on," though, considering you keep bringing up the comment. I suppose all those women you usually have to use that approach with find passive aggressiveness to be a quite attractive quality. I'm sorry. Doubly so. You either have a memory like a sieve when it comes to your radio listening or you're just lying to save face. I can recall a handful of people on WEEI in the limited times I've listened to it calling up to say that Bard should be the closer for the Sox or that he could break the saves record, or that he might go the rest of the season without giving up a run. And this was within a week of his call up.
Well, Bard certainly COULD be the closer. Papelbon has been shaky this season, Bard hasn't been as shaky. He could feasibly go without letting another run score. Doubtful, but if he continues his great stretch, certainly possible. The saves record is rediculous tho. Especially concidering it's a bullshit record anyway. FROD had what? 22 saves with a 3 run lead or only making 1 out? C'mon. He had a good season, but the record is BS.
Well now it's been more than 8 innings so I don't really have to worry about that anymore. And like I said, you need to learn to recognize when someone is just taking a jab. You made a fairly dumb comment (maybe not dumb so much as ignorant of his numbers as a reliever, seeing as you posted his BB/9 for his entire minor league career) and when it gets brought up that Bard has in fact been great, it's fun to rub it in your face a bit. It's part of being rival fans. I would expect if I had said during his slow start that Teixeira was going to suck all year, it would be mentioned more than a few times when he hit a home run. That's all part of the rivalry. Save face? Really? As if this is something to go out of my way to lie about so I don't embarrass myself. How much hype a prospect got when he was called up. Jesus Christ. Anyway, you have already admitted to "limited" exposure, so might it just be that you have a Small Sample Size(tm)? On these examples: Saying he should be the closer: Yes, but a lot of that was driven by talk of trying to trade Papelbon before his contract is up and Papelbon's shaky performance. Regardless, I don't see this as extreme hype, just a normal situation where fans want to see a top prospect take over for a player who wasn't performing like he usually did. Breaking the save record: I don't remember this one, but if a 23 year old is handed a full time closing job for a good team and is any good, he's probably going to rack up a lot of saves in his career barring injury. Obviously that's assuming a lot, and I wouldn't predict it, but either way it wasn't a prevailing opinion. I doubt this got much thought at all. Maybe someone called and said it and a few people later commented on it because it had been brought up, but he wasn't called up with the vast majority of the fan base expecting him to break the saves record. Not giving up a run the rest of the year: This is either some of your non-pet peeve style (ie anytime YOU do it) hyperbole, or else one random idiot called up and said it and you happened to hear it. And if that did happen, he was probably called ridiculous and got hung up on. Nobody who watches more than 2 games a year honestly expects ANY pitcher to go an entire season without giving up a run, and to suggest that Bard was surrounded with hype suggesting that he would do so is at best dishonest and at worst very very stupid. In any event, "a handful of people" from the "limited times you listened" wanting him to be the closer hardly qualifies as the masses designing his plaque for Cooperstown.
To be fair, you can't really judge anything by WEEI. The people they actually let on the air on call ins are always fucking idiots. In fact, I'm not even sure they are real people.
who isn't proud of bard? He's on track to be the future closer. He has a plus 4 seamer and a breaking ball that tails away from righties, that changes speeds enough. not sure what devils problem is. His production is all he has to go by.
Oh, so all of a sudden you've found a sense of humor and care to take friendly jabs? Good to know. Not really buying it considering your track record (never mind additional comments in this post), but for now, I'll just take you at face value. Ha ha ha ha! Good one, dude! You really got me there! Let me wipe this egg off of my face for not dropping to my knees after the guy had pitched a handful of innings in the bigs. Possibly. But I also live in Boston, read Boston papers, frequent Boston bars, work with Boston fans, and generally get a decent earful of what the typical Sox fan thinks, whether I want to or not. And most of the time, what they think is some variation of that kind of overblown hype you hear on EEI. Haven't you already been schooled enough on that front? What's your deal? A guy did call in and say that. Was he being 100% serious? Like, serious enough to put money on it? I don't know, but that's irrelevant to my point. He said it, even if he was just saying it to fluff Bard. Key word you chose to ignore: Practically.
