CLOSED!! ? The Official 2006 Sports Thread ? CLOSED!!

According to the WEEI Big Show "moles", Keith Foulke is on his way to the DL and Craig Hansen is on his way to NY from Indianapolis, where the PawSox are playing, to take Foulke's spot in the bullpen.

Edit: WEEI changed the report & is now saying that Jermaine Van Buren has been optioned to Pawtucket to make room for Hansen.

 

Wow, WEEI changed their story? There's a shocker

 

http://boston.redsox.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/news/article.jsp?ymd=20060607&content_id=1494393&vkey=news_bos&fext=.jsp&c_id=bos

The late rounds of the draft for the Red Sox yesterday were notable for the fact that, in the 48th round, they took Josh Papelbon (yes, Jonathan's younger brother), a submarine-style right-hander who had a year of eligibility left at the University of North Florida.

 

Also, it was announced yesterday that Jon Lester would make his major league debut in the day game tomorrow against the Rangers. Nice to see some of the young arms getting a chance.

 

Thanks to some late inning heroics and some pitching troubles the sox split the weekend series with the Rangers and with some help from Oakland managed to stay 1 game ahead of the Yankees. The Sox have got to do something to get the pitching staff back in check. The injuries and poor performances lately have really hurt the Sox' chances to put some distance between themselves and the Yankees/Blue Jays. An off-day today and a new series in Minnesota will serve as a good way for the boys to get a fresh start and turn on the heat.

 

Well, they've already begun to reshape the bullpen. Pauley was sent back down to the minors after last nights game and Timlin will be activated before tomorrow's game in Minny. I've also heard that Wells in still nowhere close to coming back and will probably wither retire or spend the rest of the season on the DL. My guess is even though the sent him back down to Pawtucket a couple of days ago, Craig Hansen will be back up with the Sox very soon.

 

I've got 2 football related things to say here:

1) After hearing about Rothlesberger's accident, can you believe that was riding a motorcycle in the first place?!? I mean come on. You're an All-Star Superbowl winning QB, you're a young guy with a lot of years still ahead of you, and you go riding a motorcycle without a helmet! There are a lot of things that I enjoy in life but if I was a professional athlete I would not risk ending my career, not to mention missing out on the multi-million dollar contracts, just to ride a motorcycle. Even if he plays into his early 40's and then retires, he's still young enough and strong enough to be able to enjoy such an activity. The whole no helmet thing is another story, and another endless debate.

2) Fantasy Football is upon us again (finally)! I'm looking for anyone interested in playing in a FanForce league. I've done it for a couple of years now but last years turnout wasn't so good and I just want to get some feedback before I start a league that only has 4 teams in it. The basics: It will be on Yahoo, have a live draft, standard scoring rules apply. Just post here or drop me a PM if interested.

 

Patriots mini-camp began today with the status of Super Bowl IXL MVP Deion Branch unknown at press time, as many expected the wide receiver to hold out for an extension to his contract, which expires after this season.

Edit: An Associated Press story posted on WEEI.com indicates that Branch is, indeed, holding out. Bill Belichick, of course, declined to comment on the matter.

 

You can count me in for a fantasy league. I am usually in 3 or 4 each football season. I just joined a couple public leagues. One team is alright the other isn't drafted yet. Then I usually join one with all my net friends from back in the good ol' days of yahell NHL chat. I will probably be in another money league this year. I finished 1st in reg season and 2 in the superbowl. Not too bad considering half my team were replacement wonders like Gado, Barber from the Cowboys, Curtis from the Rams, etc.

 

For anyone interested in a FanForce FFL (Star Wars Bowl V), I'm going to make a post in the Northeast Regional board and send a message to some of the local boards. This way all questions, communications, and trash talk can take place in one central location.

UPDATE: Here's the link to the thread in the Northeast boards with all of the league info.

 

Good morning! I wanted to let you know that although I don't usually do fantasy football, my room mate is interested. He will be signing in here later (probably tonight) to introduce himself and to find out when the live draft will be (he wouldn't want to miss it and weekends are best for him), etc. He has participated in yahoo Fantasy football before so, he was very interested.

EDIT: I just clicked on your link to the FF page... I have forwarded the information to my friend.

On a Big Ben note... I was forwarded this link this morning:
http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=2482306

 

Looking to try to improve their bullpen, the Red Sox today sent veteran right-hander David Riske to the Chicago White Sox for minor-league lefty Javier Lopez. Lopez is 2-1 with a 0.55 ERA (2 ER in 33.0 IP) and 12 saves in 26 relief appearances for AAA Charlotte this year. Lopez may be vaguely familiar to Red Sox fans, as he was a Rule 5 pickup for the Sox in 2002 before being traded to Colorado.

 

After a rather pathetic performance in Minnesota the Sox were swept by the Twins for the 1st time in 12 years !!! Not good for the team as they continue to struggle offensively and with their pitching. Off to Atlanta for round 2 of Interleague play over the weekend. The Braves arent't doing too good either so hopefully the Sox can edge them out and start making some steps in the right direction.

 

Wanted to let ya know I joined the league. I look forward to having some fun with this. I do have one thing to ask is it possible to get the draft date changed to the weekend before? I will be in MN that weekend and may not be home in time for the draft. Thanks in advance.

 

After the terrible start to the road trip the Sox come back to life with a sweep of the Braves over the weekend! This was a much needed boost as the Sox were looking pretty bad for a couple of weeks there. Next up is more Interleague play against the Nationals, Phillies, and the Mets.

I don't know if anyone here follows golf at all (not that I do) but all I've been hearing this morning is how Phil Mickelson (sp?) booted a 2-stroke lead and ended up in 3rd at the US Open this past weekend. The only reason I'm bringing it up is because despite his good fortune lately he is notorious for choking at the last minute. He's been around for a while and it seems crazy yo think that after all of his years in pro golf he hasn't gotten over that phobia yet.

 

Good thing the Sox ran into a team (Atlanta) with an even worse bullpen that theirs. I feel bad for anyone going to tonights game. The Sox are starting recently acquired P Kyle Snyder who they claimed off waivers from the Royals (ugh).

I watched the US Open yeserday as well. I could not believe what happened to Mickelson (Same thing happened to Montgomerie as well). The tournament was his to lose on that last hole and he did. Absolute brutal club choices and decision making on the 18th. I think he only hit 2 fairways in yesterday's round. Why he didn't just pull the 3-iron out of his bag and use that off the tee instead? Then after that horrible tee shot instead of just poking it out into the fairway he goes all macho and tries to split those tree and go for the green. Bad, bad, bad. It's too bad because he was probably the best golfer out there for the first 3 rounds. His performance on those last 3 holes just killed him. I was talking to my dad last night who's a Mickelson fan and he was just sick about what happened.

 

Could be worse, though. You could be Tiger Woods and miss the cut of a major tournament for the first time in your professional career.

 

The only thing better than seeing the Sox win last night, making to 6 in-a-row, was seeing John Lester get another win under his belt and throwing 10 K's while doing it! He looked great last night! At a time where pitching has been an issue with the team it's nice to see someone from the farm step it up.

 

Yeah. If Jon Lester continues with these kind of performances, he'd get Rookie of the Year consideration, but there may already be another RotY candidate on the Sox roster...Papelbon. The only way I see Papelbon as not eligible is if he spent 45 days on the active roster last season.

 

Papelbon is considered a rookie this year. He didn't have enough MLB service last year to qualify. Unless he gets hurt or pulls a Schraldi, he's a shoe-in for the award.

 

Trading the leagu MVP for .40¢ on the dollar...It's called BRUINS!

 

Here's a good one. Separated At Birth...

[image=http://www.minorleaguebaseball.com/images/2005/07/11/HroVkyiV.jpg]
Jon Lester, rookie left-hander for the Red Sox (shown here in his Portland Sea Dog uniform)

and

[image=http://www.charliemoore.com/photos/images/bf_det_2.jpg]
Charlie Moore, NESN's "Mad Fisherman"

 

With no errors last night, the Red Sox have set a new club record for consecutive errorless games as a team with 11. Let's hope they continue to play defense at this high level.

 

The Sox also have the best defensive ranking in the majors as of Friday's game (.991%). Even though there's still 1 game left in the Phillies series today all I'm interested in is the game on Wednesday when the Mets come to town and Pedro is on the mound. Ought to be an exciting game.

 

From the pre-game festivities to the actual game itself, last nights action was great to watch. First things got started off with a Pedro montage then a trip down memory lane to 1986. It was kinda funny seeing some of those guys come back for the ceremony and it was a nice tribute to them.

As for the game itself ! Not a whole lot of action until the 6th when the Sox exploded and really moved away from the Mets. The exception to this of course was when Lester found himself in a major jam in the 4th and 5th, loading the bases then settling down and only allowing 1 run to score over both of those innings. The bullpen made it a little interesting, Pedro was joking with Manny out in LF during the game, and in the end the Sox win #10 in a row AND move to 3.5 games ahead of NY thanks to the Braves.