I'm giving a little bit of a free pass(not much) to Delcarmen mostly due to the fact that he's just getting over a flu. The others, at least until further notice, have no excuse.

Mehh every bullpen has a bit of a time like this. As long as they get their shit together when it matters...

I just like to find new and inventive ways to blame things on Gagne.

I cant get over ur site! I love it so much! How do you get the picture to change at the top? Ahh, i'm just so jealous! lol. I just made my own blog site today, and no one has looked at it =/

how did u get ur site to be so popular?

Animal sacrifice and bribery.

Animal sacrifice and bribery.

was that supposed to be the answer to my question? lol.

MDC was only hitting 93 today, so I think the flu was definitely still lingering...a lot of people at the game were pissed Tito didn't bring him in initially for the 7th, but I'm sure they only wanted to use him as a last resort, or try and save him and Oki for the 8th and 9th.

Lopez needs to go though. I honestly thought he'd be gone before Snyder. I'd love for them to bring up Hansen permanently (he looked much better than he did in '06 yesterday, despite the one bad pitch to Kotchman). The bullpen was awesome before Gagne showed up last year so it couldn't have all been due to his wonderfulness:- P But...if they suddenly all get better after the Brewers series then we'll know something is up. Then Theo would just have to convince Gagne to be a mascot of sorts and sit in the bullpen during games for luck. I'm sure the Brewers will be more than willing to give him away to any team offering to pick up his salary by that point anyways.

At the post game interview with MDC he said that that he didnt want to use the flu as an excuse, but he still had a runny nose..hehe

but i'm sure that it was the flu because it does make u weak. And he usually hits 97ish on his pitches, not 93.

I am going to Friday's game in Tampa. Last minute ticket buy. I am just hoping that some of my favorites will be playing. You never know these days.

Gagne's doing his job over in Milwaukee, motivating Derrick Turnbow and Seth McClung into becoming super-l33t pitchers. I'm so thankful. ;)

Scary thing is that Javier Lopez is a whole lot better this year. I don't know who taught him to pitch, but he's been worlds above where he was last year.

That being said, clearly he still has his off days.

Also, I think more people had the flu than were reported. It is HIGHLY contagious... HIGHLY. So I wouldn't be surprised if everyone was exhausted, at the very least from fighting off the bug.

I dunno. Just kinda giving people a "Get Out Of Cranberry Jail Free" card this week.

I mean the flu this year was bad enough that emergency rooms across the city were having to close their doors to new patients. People in their 20s and 30s were being hospitalized for it. I can't believe no one else in that clubhouse is feeling the effects, however minor.

I didn't get to watch the game yesterday, but I have read that it was pretty ugly. Poor Masterson. To pitch 6 strong innings and have the bullpen screw it up for him. That has got to suck.

mh- The vaccine for it was bad this year, correct? I know quite a few people that got flu shots but still ended up getting it quite badly. I just wish the Sox players could have gotten in back in January/February like everyone else did.

um, maybe they all suck right now because Varitek's been out. maybe he's the secret here to the entire pitching staff's success. and Cash just doesnt have the experience or knowledge that Varitek has to get a bullpen thru a tough lineup.

Tek's been out about a month now and counting...someone go check on him stat because I'm certain he's rotting away in quarantine somewhere.

jesus, we got another Lindsay up in this place with an Ellsbury obsession? Lord someone get the hoses...

My husband read that MDC was still battling the flu. Of course Manny didn't want to use it as an excuse, but it does take a while to regain your strength.

cranberry, I think you're correct in thinking that the flu has had a bigger impact than we've heard. It sounds like it's hit your area with a vengeance. I read that the flu shot this year was off from the project strains.

Do we have two Lyndsays?

Tek started last Saturday, so he hasn't even been gone one week. He was in the bullpen warming up pitchers yesterday, so he's probably just waiting to be at full strength before hitting again. I doubt we'll see him tonight cause Wakey is pitching, although Tek could PH late in the game.

In the spirit of it is soooooooooo Friday, I thought I'd share a Red Sox word search I created this morning.

Long story short: I coworker asked me to try the site because he wanted to see if it would work on a Mac. So, as I usually do, I used our guys as test data.

Have fun. It's just a gif image, so you'll need to grab it and print if off. Or, open it in Photoshop and color out the words as you find them (not that I'm doing that or anything--MAN is it ever FRIDAY after a wicked long week).

On the flu: It's been worse this year than in the past four years. The flu vaccine this year was ineffective against this particular strain of flu.

In addition, you feel like crap for 4 days, have a day of feeling better, and then feel like crap again, as it's been reported to me from friends and colleagues who have suffered with it.

On the Bullpen and Gagne: I'll concede that if we need a Gagne cardboard cutout in the bullpen to keep Parlay company, and to get our guys on track, let's make it happen people!!!!

Contact the K-Men. I am sure they can concoct an articulated Gagne.

What's missing? There's not empty water bottle band.

10 points for The Office reference.

I heard the Sox are bringing Corey back to fill Masterson's spot... I'm sure why we didn't just keep Hansen up... apparently one HR was enough to demote him despite an 0.00 ERA and 13 Ks in 12+ innings at Pawtucket...

Well, they sent Hansen back down to make room for Masterson. And after someone gets sent down they have to wait 10 days to bring them back up. So they may actually prefer Hansen, but he can't be brought up for 8 more days:-/

is this a throwing up kind of flu? or like a sniffles flu?

I've never been a throwing up-flu-getting person, always the respiratory flu, until last Thanksgiving, when a norovirus swept through my family in a matter of 3 days, and everyone was throwing up for 24 hours straight - and then just like that it disappeared.

Its actually neither. Real FLU just kind of makes you feel like death and a half. SEVERE headache, chills, dry cough, SEVERE body aches and exhaustion. High fever.

Norovirus, to be picky about it, is not the flu. Influenza is a very specific organism. Sniffles are usually a rhinovirus, stomach "flu" is usually one of a bajillion organisms. And norovirus is UGLY, but not as deadly as influenza.

Re: vaccines: each year a bunch of smartypants get together in Geneva and based on a lot of surveillance and microbiology data, select the three flu viruses they suspect to be bad that year: three for the northern hemisphere, three for the southern. It is a very educated guess but it isn't always correct. The virus needs time to be incubated for inclusion in vaccine production, so they can't wait it out and see... anyway, this year they only had about a 40% match.

BUT-- STILL. GET YOUR FLU SHOT. Not even funny. For all the media hype about influenza pandemics, it is a very very real threat, and we've all seen how infectious these things can be. Getting your immune system as familiar with influenza strains as possible is very important.

(Tip to the Sox: STOP SPITTING EVERYWHERE. It does spray when you do that, AND its basically like little projectiles of germy grossness.)

I can forgive Delcarmen, as he's getting over the flu and promised to relieve Masterson in his next start in better fashion ("I'm pretty sure he'll be back, and we'll be giving the ball to Papelbon with a 2-1 lead"). I can forgive Okie because he got those outs. I can sort of forgive Aardvark because he rocks the Masterson style (bald head and tall socks) almost as well as the starter himself.

I can't really forgive Lopez or Tavarez, though.

Also, re: what type is it, there was a throwaway line in the Globe today about how Tek's voice is "still" not completely back, so I assume there was some sort of cough involved...

Because of the cough, the vocal cords can become irritated, and you can have a sore throat too.

I kind of forgive Okajima. Inheriting bases loaded, no outs? Poor guy. And of his three outs, two were strikeouts. And his ERA is still less than 1.

Yes, there are 2 Lindsays with Jacoby obsessions! haha.

And yeah, the flu definately does suck. I've had it a couple of times and it just makes you feel weak and miserable. I forget where i heard it, but i heard that some of the trainers and bench coaches also had the flu over the past week, which is probably why all of the other players are getting it.

Yeah, at least MDC had some kind of excuse for why his pitching was bad-- but Tavarez and Lopez have NO excuse. I never thought that Lopez was any good, however like someone else said- he definately has improved ALOT since last yr.

Oh and also, I started my own blog-- so if anyone wants to check it out they can. =)

However, i'm already 100% positive that its not even close to being as great as CENTER FIELD.

Well, here it is: Rock My Sox

Im heading to the games in Tampa this weekend, sitting close to the 'pen.... my hubby has me chuggin' airborne. Granted, there's like 50 feet from our seats to the pen, but pregger & flu are not fun....

:)