7/6 @ the Evil Empire (and the Evil Umpires?)

[a700hitter]

Mo may have saved their season the last couple of games.

[yeszir]

Well, Tampa's coming into NY now to steamroll them.

[CrespoBlows]

That was Cora.

[a700hitter]

Honestly Lugo you need to stop that s***. No excuses.

It was Cora. Lugo gets to that ball.

[a700hitter]

I hate when Papelbon goes to his secondary pitches when the batter is so clearly overpowered by his fastball.

 

Edti: It almost always ends badly.

[The Dustball]

Well back home tomorrow against the twins. Get back on track.

[Rdsxmbnt]

Can someone remind me again what Cora adds to this team?

[CrespoBlows]

I love these one run losses.

[Jayhawk Bill]

Somebody else start a game thread.

 

Night.

[CrespoBlows]

Can someone remind me again what Cora adds to this team?

 

Team chemistry.

[yeszir]

Addition by subtraction? He subtracts from the talent, thus adding to the suckitude.

[Cocos Disciples]

Balls. That game sucked them.

[TheKilo]

Can someone remind me again what Cora adds to this team?

 

GENIUS

[VA Sox Fan]

OK - I have a question. Who is the worst looking player in MLB?

 

I vote for Tavarez and Shelly Duncan.

 

Randy Johnson IMO.

 

BTW, Kevin Cash looks like Keith Foulke's long lost brother.

 

Couldn't stay up for the big finish last night. What's up w/ Paps?

[Jayhawk Bill]

Can someone remind me again what Cora adds to this team?

GENIUS

 

Actually true--Alex Cora is reputed to be an excellent future managerial candidate.

 

I was impressed in previous years with Alex Cora's ability to position himself perfectly at SS for each hitter. He still does that, but his fielding skill has eroded so badly that he simply isn't reaching enough ground balls:

 

[table] Year | SS RZR

2005* | .867

2006 | .859

2007 | .804

2008 | .750[/table]

 

* BOS stats; RZR with Cleveland .831 in 2005

 

I'm seeing a guy showing a steady decline at SS from roughly an .850 RZR--comparable to a Gold Glove contender--to .750, worse than the worst-fielding regular SS in the AL, who happens to be Julio Lugo.

 

Certainly Cora can't earn his position with his bat.

 

If Boston can't find a reason to DL either Cora or Lugo, it might be worthwhile to see if Alex Cora would retire and take the rest of his 2008 salary to work elsewhere in the Boston organization. I wouldn't be upset to see him released, although I'd miss him. Jed Lowrie is certainly better than Alex Cora right now.

[ksushi]

I feel like this team is taking good advantage of all that talent on the 40 man.

 

Question: Is Sean Casey a better option than Chris Carter? Does he bring things to the table that Carter doesn't in terms of veteran presence? To me, this is a pretty veteran clubhouse as is, and I don't think I see anything on the field that Casey does especially well that would keep us from bringing Carter up in his place. I mean, other than maybe we want Carter getting more regular AB's than he would if he were up, but even though his defensive ability is almost non-existent he can DH occasionally, play left at Fenway, and a little 1B, no?

 

Second, it's definitely apparent to me that Cora and Lugo can't hold down SS defensively and neither can swing an adequate bat, but that has been touched on already.

 

Then there is the whole Masterson thing I've been bitching about forever (or like two weeks). Masterson would be death on righties out of the bullpen. He wouldn't have to go to his change as often, but his experience in the rotation would help him use it in rare spots, I just feel like he could be lightning in a bottle out of the pen and Buchholz has done very well in AAA this time around and has apparently taken big strides as far as FB command, or at least we hope. I think it might be time for him to try his hand in the 5 spot. It seems like the problems we're having now are fixable in-house.

[BoSox21]

EEI just announced that Masterson has been sent down with Jeff Bailey being called up

[ksushi]

Lol, wut.