4/29 vs. Seattle

[Wil Corderos Wife]

Dice-K Matsuzaka says enough is enough. After a modestly successful swing through lands of pretentious birds, pouty manager faces and gratuitous gangbangings, these Boston Red Socks now return home to the friendly confines of America's most beloved/awkward ballpark!

 

Sir Dice managed to get into one hell of a groove on the road swing and looks to improve on his previous outing at the Fens, in which he allowed more hits than the Duggars have childen...

 

http://www.celebitchy.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/duggar2.jpg

 

Back to back solid outings is one thing, but it shall not be until the third consecutive such outing that I will declare him restored back to Samurai status! To do so, he will have to conquer these Seattle Mariners, against whom he is 2-1 with a 4.11 ERA, including success against MLB's resident spiderman.....

 

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_uu4vrVC5BRo/TAVLSSoN_NI/AAAAAAAAA9c/EujK4QUtZ8E/s400/ichiro+RobbingHomerun-1.jpg

 

However, I have the utmost faith that ninja Dice K shall once again emerge and shut down these Mariners and that our offense will once again miss the memo about sucking with RISP as they did late in their most recent affair. They must do so against Jackwagon Jason Vargas, who has started most successfully with a 0-2 record and 5.53 ERA, not to mention a robust 0-9 record over his last 13 starts.

 

The team has started to click, we're back home, and the time to go on a tear is upon us. It continues tonight!

 

Make it so!

 

http://homework.never-ends.net/wp-content/uploads/picard_finger.jpg

[boy racer]

Vargas ain't too different from Bergesen. We should perform just as well if not better tomorrow.

[RedSoxfanforlife305]

Vargas is winless in 13 straight starts, including five this season, and he is 0-9 with a 5.67 ERA in that span. This year, the 28-year-old left-hander has pitched well on three separate occasions, but he hasn't been rewarded.

 

If we lose against this scrub I'm going to be pissed.

[SoxFanForsyth]

 

Sir Dice managed to get into one hell of a groove on the road swing and looks to improve on his previous outing at the Fens, in which he allowed more hits than the Duggars have childen...

 

Not to be a stickler, but Dice had his first gem on Patriots day at Fenway. But, either way. GO DICE! GO SOX!!!!!!

 

Note to Francona: Hit Crawford 2nd. Drop Pedey to 3rd, Gonzo to 4, and Youk to 5. Thank you.

[ORS]

http://www.ratewall.com/cpics/e27cb604-503d-4623-a367-2017482bc753_star_trek_jean_luc_picard.gif

 

You! You over there! That was better last night, now do it again!

[SoxSport]

Not to be a stickler, but Dice had his first gem on Patriots day at Fenway. But, either way. GO DICE! GO SOX!!!!!!

 

Note to Francona: Hit Crawford 2nd. Drop Pedey to 3rd, Gonzo to 4, and Youk to 5. Thank you.

 

You know they ain't gonna pay Crawford $20 mil to hit 7th. Sooner better than later he gets back to the 2-hole where he belongs. Ells-Crawford batting 1-2 is where they will live or die.

 

Belichick draft prediction: Jabaal Sheard, DE, Pitt. #33. The guy he probably wanted all along.

[ORS]

Note to Francona: Hit Crawford 2nd. Drop Pedey to 3rd, Gonzo to 4, and Youk to 5. Thank you.

Vomit.

 

I guess the meme of "gotta have fast guys at the top of the lineup" will never die. Ellsbury should stay up there because he's pounding the ball right now, but Hot Carl needs to stay at the bottom.

[SoxSport]

Dice-K and the other starters have to show some consistency. A quality every-other-start won't do it.

 

Watching Beckett blow up because some guy hits a HR off him is not consistency. Beckett was just showing up his problem.

[DirtDog]

1 Dice-K has had probably his 2 best outings in a Red Sox uniform in his last 2 starts

2 it's Seattle who is probably one of the worst offensive teams of the past decade.

 

If I've learned anything from the last 5 years of Dice K it's that he will go 4.1 IP 10H, 5 ER, 5 BB

[Wil Corderos Wife]

I stand corrected....

 

change that to "his previous outing at the Fens without Kenyan mojo."

 

Now WINWINIWN!

[Station 13]

A-Gon been practicing his left field stroke on the road trip. Tonight he rapes the monster.

[SoxFanForsyth]

Vomit.

 

I guess the meme of "gotta have fast guys at the top of the lineup" will never die. Ellsbury should stay up there because he's pounding the ball right now, but Hot Carl needs to stay at the bottom.

 

You're killing Crawford's potential by hitting him in the 7 hole. Hitting Ells Craw 1-2 is the best thing for this team.

 

1. I cannot stress enough how huge it is for our team to have 2 guys who can score from first on wall ball doubles hitting in front of Pedroia at Fenway.

 

2. With Ells and Craw back to back, you take away a TON of double plays.

 

3. Pedroia absolutely crushes fastballs. With Ellsbury and Crawford on in front of him, he'll get a ton of fastballs.

 

4. Gonzalez strokes with RISP. He's hitting .393 with RISP and .405 with RISP and 2 outs.

 

5. By hitting Crawford behind Drew or Salty, if either of them get on, you're taking away Crawfords biggest asset. His legs on the basepaths. Why bottle him up??

 

6. Final thing - Look what it did for Ellsbury when Francona basically told him "Hey. We believe in you and want you in the top of our line up. We're going to lead you off, where you feel the most comfortable." It gave him confidence. He's hitting .429/.448/.607 since being bumped up to the leadoff spot. Crawford is right on the cusp of catching fire, why not put him in the 2 hole and see if we can't give him that last little spark to get him going??

[ORS]

Crawford is on the cusp of nothing, not in my opinion, not when I watch him. He still looks like s***. He looked better earlier in the year when he was at least hitting the ball hard with some bad luck.

 

You can still have them hit back to back by hitting the weaker hitter 9th. The only difference is at the start of the game, but that, to me, is a chance to get in the head of the other team by putting up runs in your first turn at the plate. By putting a weak hitter up there, you give the pitcher an easy out to get around early trouble.

 

I don't care if Crawford is making $20M to hit 9th. If he's hitting like a #9 hitter, then hit him #9.

[SoxFanForsyth]

Crawford is on the cusp of nothing, not in my opinion, not when I watch him. He still looks like s***. He looked better earlier in the year when he was at least hitting the ball hard with some bad luck.

 

You can still have them hit back to back by hitting the weaker hitter 9th. The only difference is at the start of the game, but that, to me, is a chance to get in the head of the other team by putting up runs in your first turn at the plate. By putting a weak hitter up there, you give the pitcher an easy out to get around early trouble.

 

I don't care if Crawford is making $20M to hit 9th. If he's hitting like a #9 hitter, then hit him #9.

 

I have no idea how you can possibly believe that. He was 3 feet away from going deep yesterday, and then hit a double to right center. He got fooled in one at bat, but he's making solid contact, and he looks much, much better than he did last time he was up. I don't see how you can say he looks like s*** when he was 4 feet away from going 2/4 with 6 TB. :dunno:

 

And by the way, Ellsbury was hitting .174/.296/.435 before we bumped him to leadoff. And I already told you what he's done since then. Sometimes that little vote of confidence can do incredible things for a player.

[Palodios]

You're killing Crawford's potential by hitting him in the 7 hole. Hitting Ells Craw 1-2 is the best thing for this team. [/Quote]

 

You would be killing the Team's potential by batting him second. Tito's words: "I wouldn't be doing my job if I let him bat higher in the order right now". Why take away AB from guys who deserve them? You're talking about dropping Youk in the order, but talking about bringing up crawford, who is getting on base roughly half as often as Youk is?

 

There is a difference between moving up a guy who has a .300 OBP, and a guy with a .200OBP. If we're looking at Crawford, and saying "I think I would rather have Reddick in LF right now" then we shouldn't be giving him the extra AB.

[ORS]

I have no idea how you can possibly believe that. He was 3 feet away from going deep yesterday, and then hit a double to right center. He got fooled in one at bat, but he's making solid contact, and he looks much, much better than he did last time he was up. I don't see how you can say he looks like s*** when he was 4 feet away from going 2/4 with 6 TB. :dunno:

 

And by the way, Ellsbury was hitting .174/.296/.435 before we bumped him to leadoff. And I already told you what he's done since then. Sometimes that little vote of confidence can do incredible things for a player.

One game is one game, I'm talking about how he has looked the last two weeks. If he can look good more than one game at a time, and only when the pitcher for the other team is awful (Bergesen, Palmer), then there might be a case for him. Right now, there isn't.

[SoxFanForsyth]

You would be killing the Team's potential by batting him second. Tito said "I wouldn't be doing my job if I let him bat higher in the order right now". Why take away AB from guys who deserve them? You're talking about dropping Youk in the order' date=' but talking about bringing up crawford, who is getting on base roughly half as often as Youk is? [/quote']

 

We all know exactly how good of a hitter Crawford can be when he finds it. And judging by his recent AB's, he's about to find it. We're going up against the Mariners this weekend at home, Gonzo is getting hot, Ellsbury is hot. Why not put Crawford up in the 2 slot and see if it's that extra boost he needs? Is there a better team to do that against? And Youk isn't doing his job. We're getting runners on for him and he is striking out. Its not his job to walk with men on 2nd and 3rd and nobody out, although that would be better than what he's doing now. Don't get me wrong. Youk is one of my favorite players on the Sox, but I'm extremely frustrated with how he's playing right now and if Francona isn't doing his job by letting Craw move up, then he's not doing his job by keeping Youk in an RBI slot with the way he is hitting.

 

There is a difference between moving up a guy who has a .300 OBP' date=' and a guy with a .200OBP. If we're looking at Crawford, and saying "I think I would rather have Reddick in LF right now" then we shouldn't be giving him the extra AB.[/quote']

 

True. But over the past few games, the hits have started to fall. His BABIP is .184 compared to his career mark of .330. The reason that Craw's BABIP means more to me than Youk's right now is because Youkilis is striking out in 33.3% of his AB's. Crawford is striking out in 18.1% of his AB's. You can't have a guy hitting 4th who is on pace for 200 K's this season. Obviously, that's not going to happen, Youk will fix whatever is off, but right now, it's horrifying for the team to have him in the 4 hole. Bump Craw to 2, that puts Gonzo at 4, and Youk at 5. I would be ok with putting Ortiz at 5 and Youk 6 even until Youk can figure out his swing.

 

Francona can't have double standards when making the line up. If he's going to keep Crawford down at 7/8, Youk should be at 6/7.

[SoxFanForsyth]

One game is one game' date=' I'm talking about how he has looked the last two weeks. If he can look good more than one game at a time, and only when the pitcher for the other team is awful (Bergesen, Palmer), then there might be a case for him. Right now, there isn't.[/quote']

 

Who on our team outside of Gonzalez HAS looked good against good pitchers??

[Palodios]

We all know exactly how good of a hitter Crawford can be when he finds it. And judging by his recent AB's' date=' he's about to find it. We're going up against the Mariners this weekend at home, Gonzo is getting hot, Ellsbury is hot. Why not put Crawford up in the 2 slot and see if it's that extra boost he needs? [i']Is there a better team to do that against?[/i]

 

I think you may be overlooking a certain Cy Young pitcher that is coming to town on Sunday. There is never going to be a "good situation" to pull him back up, because every series is going to throw either an elite righty, or a mid to high tier lefty at us, and even if he has a solid game one day, he might go an 0-fer after that. The simple fact of the matter is, keeping him low in the order takes the pressure off him.

[ORS]

Who on our team outside of Gonzalez HAS looked good against good pitchers??

This is a strawman. My point is that Crawford has been awful, with his best two games being against two awful pitchers. However, all of them, aside from the catchers, have looked better against good pitchers. Lowrie, Youkilis, Ortiz, Pedroia, Drew, Ellsbury.... all of them, have had at least one good game/performance against a quality pitcher. Crawford...none, zero, zip.

[DirtDog]

People are worrying about Gonzalez way too much. He's fine. Every once in a while a power hitter only hits 1 homerun in a month. If he was battign .200 I'd be worried, but he's batting almost .300 and driving guys in with a lot of doubles.

[Wasatch]

Hopefully we will get back on the right track. Go Redsox!

[SoxFanForsyth]

I think you may be overlooking a certain Cy Young pitcher that is coming to town on Sunday. There is never going to be a "good situation" to pull him back up' date=' because every series is going to throw either an elite righty, or a mid to high tier lefty at us, and even if he has a solid game one day, he might go an 0-fer after that. The simple fact of the matter is, keeping him low in the order takes the pressure off him.[/quote']

 

I know we face Felix on Sunday, but I also know that Crawford hits .286 against Hernandez (6/21) and is 4 for his last 7 against him. The M's have a horrible offense, so any offense that we lose if it doesn't produce won't hurt us as bad as it would if we played a good offensive team.

 

I understand that keeping him low takes pressure off him. But it also tells him "We don't have much confidence that you can be effective right now". Give him a shot in the 2 hole and see if it sparks him.

 

I don't understand how you can say that Youk is fine and we should leave him in the 4 slot when he's hitting .167 with RISP, he's hitting .208 overall, and has a 33.3% K%. You absolutely cannot have that hole in your 4 slot.

[SoxFanForsyth]

This is a strawman. My point is that Crawford has been awful' date=' with his best two games being against two awful pitchers. However, all of them, aside from the catchers, have looked better against good pitchers. Lowrie, Youkilis, Ortiz, Pedroia, Drew, Ellsbury.... all of them, have had at least one good game/performance against a quality pitcher. Crawford...none, zero, zip.[/quote']

 

So, 2 posts ago you savage the 1 game theory in which Crawford struck the ball well last game (which, lets not forget, he went 2/4 in two consecutive games @LAA), but then you cite 6 hitters who have had 1 good game against a good pitcher? Which is it? You can't have both.

[Palodios]

I understand that keeping him low takes pressure off him. But it also tells him "We don't have much confidence that you can be effective right now". Give him a shot in the 2 hole and see if it sparks him.

 

I disagree. I feel like it is more like "There are 16 All-stars on this team. We'll carry you now, and you'll carry us later".

[boy racer]

You would be killing the Team's potential by batting him second. Tito's words: "I wouldn't be doing my job if I let him bat higher in the order right now". Why take away AB from guys who deserve them? You're talking about dropping Youk in the order, but talking about bringing up crawford, who is getting on base roughly half as often as Youk is?

 

There is a difference between moving up a guy who has a .300 OBP, and a guy with a .200OBP. If we're looking at Crawford, and saying "I think I would rather have Reddick in LF right now" then we shouldn't be giving him the extra AB.

[SoxFanForsyth]

I disagree. I feel like it is more like "There are 16 All-stars on this team. We'll carry you now' date=' and you'll carry us later".[/quote']

 

I understand that. I do think, however, that hitters feel more comfortable in certain slots, and Crawford has his most AB's in the 2 hole, so maybe that comfort level along with the confidence will get him going. I think getting Crawford going should be a priority for this team, not so much that we don't give ourselves the best chance to win, but at the same time, if Craw gets going, hitting him in the 2 slot does give us the best chance to win.

[SoxFanForsyth]

 

I don't know what you're trying to say in that last post.

[msubulldogs21]

At least we're missing Pineda in this series.

[Station 13]

The Red Sox are 1st in walks. 19th in runs score. DOES NOT COMPUTE