YOUKS PLAYS HERO, DOG TRIES TO REPLACE ME...ON MY ANNIVERSARY

This is Kevin Youkilis, our new first baseman. He came up through the farm system with the Sea Dogs, played some third last year and now has locked down his place in the lineup at first base. His pesky presence at the plate made him a solid replacement at leadoff (Johnny who?) in the absence of Coco Crisp. A little slower than most leadoff hitters, his numbers prove that Johnny Damon IS, in fact, replaceable and is so for a fraction of the price. Here's the early comparitive numbers:
YOUKS DEMON
H 60 60
2B 14 13
3B 1 0
HR 6 6
RBI 26 27
R 39 41
OBP .433 .347
SLG .495 .429
AVG .316 .283
SALARY $354,600 $13,000,000

Who's the sucka now? Getting the same numbers, same productivity at 2.7% of the salary. Now, with Coco back in the lineup, the Sox are near hitting full throttle. Youks moves deeper in the lineup at the 7 slot last night and, with the Sox down 2-1 in the top of the 9th with two outs and a man on, Youks comes up and obliterates a 0-1 pitch and sends it missling into the Detroit night. Paplebon records his 20th save (Mariano with only 11) in the bottom of the 9th and Sox roll on maintaining a .5 game lead on the Spanks and Youks has now cemented his place on this team.

Meanwhile, our anniversary (honeymoon #5) was awesome. I'll go into more detail later, but for now, just something that I want to make you aware of. My dog Jackson is clearly trying to move in on my position as man of the house, loving husband to my lovely wife. My wife took our anniversary off while I went to work to get that cheddah. Jackson's a freakin snake, man. Dude's trying to boot me out of my spot in the bed. As evidence, I provide you this picture. You judge for yourself. Laters.