What heat? It's cold in NY.

How 'bout Nunez, E at DH?

[2] interesting. he does have a glove for dh though.

[3] That's what I was thinking: The glove of a DH ... minus the bat. ;)

Jetes legs it out!

Cano did you have to hit it that hard?

I've turned the sound off so I can listen to Boston sportstalk radio. It's good. All about "the lost weekend". And Dan Bard's latest ill-considered remarks.

Come on, Mark. Concentrate.

Yuck.

It's up to Grandy. Come on, don't waste this opportunity.

Yay, Curtis.

That'll do, pig.

Yeah, Curtis.

That's great.

Nice, easy swing.

Thanks, Curtis!

Yay, Curtis! I was afraid he was going to make an out, and that a lost opportunity would come and bite us in the ass.

[7] Jesus, the hits just keep on coming, huh? What'd *he* say?

Excellent. Not beautiful, but really just what the doctor ordered.

[16] Here are Bard's comments: http://www.boston.com/sports/baseball/redsox/extras/extra_bases/2012/04/bard_willing_to.html

[18] I don't think Bard said anything wrong. He's right, you can't ask him to do something he hasn't done this year.

[16] It was in his meet-the-press on the topic of his pitching from the bullpen for the next ten days (they skipped his start for the rainout). I could look it up, but off the top of my head: he said he's "okay with it for now". And even better, he said, "I'm not gonna be able to make eight guys pitch better."

I do think he's a perfectly decent guy, actually, but something's wrong with the clubhouse and they've gone way off script.

Lemme see if I have this right - we root against these Rangers but we root for the other Rangers, who are already down a goal.

Oh, thanks Dimelo.
What he said may be true, but that's not exactly the point! Can you imagine Mo saying, "Look, there are eight guys in our bullpen and I can't make those other guys pitch better"? Would D-Rob say that under any circumstances? Whether or not it's true?

WTF CC!!!

Pitch better, CC.

Hm.

Well played.

I'll take that. The .417 batting, 7 HR, 17 RBI Josh Hamilton grounds into a DP.

[22] He was trying to level-set expectations, he's saying that the bulk of the problem is not going to go away with him in the pen.

I don't really think he said anything controversial. He's a starter, he's trying to make sure he stays as a starter.

I can only imagine the excitement Nune(7,8) would cause in the outfield.

[28] He said the bullpen sucks. Which it does, but it's not something you say. There's a correct answer to these questions! The correct answer is, "Of course I will do whatever the team needs me to do. We just have to start doing better, and I'll do everything I can to help us do that in whatever way our manager needs me to."

Jeter looks very quick through the zone.

You don't need to send it to Mexico, Swish.

Nice call, Kay.

[33] I know. Kay's a douche.

Glad I have learned to have my excitement inversely proportional to mk.

Must be heavy air in Texas - to go along with all of their hot air.

Jeter kind of aimed that to first.

There ya go.

Good at-bats from ARod today.

Also said was: "On whether this is temporary, Bard said, “I asked a lot of questions as to what their goals were in this. "

Their goals? Gee... what could those be? Maybe to make Bard as happy as possible? I mean when a team like the Sox makes a move like this, what in the Universe could possibly be their goals?

I can't figure it out.

Hamilton loves Ya-Yo!

Big Fella!

[40] They're kind of lost, is what it is. It's like they're all the way A-Rod used to be, no ear for the right thing to say.

The SWB Yankees were snowed out today.

[44] !!!
Where? Oh, upstate.

Michael Young looks like Gritner, kinda.

[45] Batavia, NY. Closer to Buffalo than Albany.

The SWB Yankees have no home this year. The field is supposed to be renovated this year. So they're playing all their games on the road. But they've missed the deadline to start construction. The Yankees and Lackawanna County can't come to an agreement on finances.

Gotta think though that Boston's problems are not of Bobby V's origin. basically, he's saying what everyone else is thinking, which is not what anyone in RSN or in the clubhouse wants to hear. I'm willing to bet though that this would have gone under the radar a little longer had he not provoked the players to snap back at him in public; Pedroia basically gave fans permission to sock it to Bobby every chance they get with his comments. So he may or may not be in over his head with this team, but he's certainly not alone no matter what the fans think.

Really, Sutcliffe?

Catchers are the toughest players on the diamond?

Wow, that's some unique insight ...

[44,45] Yeah. My wife had snow day today. I, however, did not. Bollocks.

Sox strike first.
If they can't beat the Twins, it's gonna be a long season.

[50] 85+ degrees here today in Reno.

It did cloud over briefly in the afternoon and drop into the 70's for supper, though, so it wasn't quite a perfect day ...

EAT YOUR HEART OUT FRANKIE BRAINS!

[48] Fans don't really blame him, I think. Some of them lambaste him, but mainly because they're furious at the whole organization. If there were a poll I'm pretty sure Lucchino would get a lot more blame.

And they're pissed off at the players, too. Really pissed off. Which is why the Bard comment is going to echo for a long time.

Cap'n ... oh my Cap'n!

Frickin' Jeter. Unreal.

Damn, Captain. Swing that stick!
[52] I'll keep my four season thank you very much. ; )
Even with snow a week before May.

Chris Stewart is not too terrible a baserunner for a catcher.

Damn, 21 ribs for Swish!

Good job Nick

[59] And Jeter is hitting .408.

A-Rod!!!

Atta boy, Alex!

Ohhhhhhhhhh yeah.
Oh yeah.

That's what we like to see, Alex!

Way to go Centaur!

Haha! The look on Holland's face...

Woo hoo Alex!

Six hundred and thirty-two homeruns.

That's no small number of dingers.

Ballplayers don't sit around the clubhouse and talk about baseball anymore?

Wow.

Really?

[67] He looked like the cops just raided his panel van and busted his child porn stash ...

Damn.

Wow, I thought that catch by Hamilton was way more impressive than his Swish catch.

This reminds me, we seem to have forgotten about the Score Truck here at the Banter. I haven't read any references to it this season. You'd think Saturday would have been a good opportunity.

That's his only nice play, MK. The Swish catch was routine. That was a nice snag.

That was a beautiful swing by Alex.

Hey, who's in the YES booth? I've got the Tejas feed coming in nice and I'm afraid to switch over.

[54] That's good to know, there's still some common sense. The talkies here wonder how long before the organization axes him, which to me would be incredibly stupid since it would be admitting that the inmates run the asylum (come to think of it, you might think of Bobby V as The Joker under the circumstances...)

They had Pudge in the booth and he give a little more color to the story of when he reached over and grabbed a fan's French fry.

He said there was a jalapeño on the fry and because there were no outs he had to have that spicy taste in his mouth all inning. It was pretty funny.

[77] Couldn't agree with you more. If they fire him, they create a completely toxic atmosphere.

I actually think the Red Sox will right the ship soon -- I doubt they'll make the playoffs but they'll play maybe .550 ball the rest of the season. But if they don't, management has to think about getting rid of a lot of the talent. A lot. They'll have to clean the Augean stables...

[76] Kay and Kenny are doing all the talking now -- I had the sound off most of the game, actually.

Nasty. Sit down, Ian!

Sit down, Ian! Sorry, brother, this evening you eat reclining.

Salty homer, 3-0 Boston.

[80] Heh. I'm watching it on ESPN, but I'm also watching it with the sound muted.

[79] ...which (shhh) may have been Bobby's point all along...

Couldn't run that one down could you, Josh??

Cervelli, who?

Chris Stewart. You can't stop him. You can only hope to contain him.

Who is this new kid?

[86] Well, considering Hamilton is playing LF ...

CAP'N ... OH MY CAP'N!!!

Wow.
This is impressive!

Always love a mound visit from Frank Zappa ...

We are giving a beat down to these Rangers and our NHL Rangers are now up 3-1 after 2 periods. Not bad for a Monday night.

Wow, Derek! He is hitting everything. Amazing.

There are tons of Yankee fans in the crowd in Texas.

[84] For some reason I need the announcers, even when they piss me off. Maybe it's the crowd noise I need.

Is it my imagination or has Kay lost what little ability he had to track homers? He hasn't even been close this year and it's kind of spoils the fun.

"It's a high fly, going back."...WTF the guy clocked it out of the G.D. stadium

The dude can hit. Modamn!

Hamilton will do that to you.

Schiste!

Fat kid can pitch.