5/5 vs Orioles

[wyo-sox]

I have three sons. Often as a parent it feels like one of them has to be grumpy. If any two are happy the third will be pissy, its like they take turns so someone is always in a bad mood. Between starting pitching, bullpen, and the bats..... that is how watching this team feels to me.

[Brennan]

Bring on the Pollyanna attack team to call us all bad fans for wanting better than the crap being passed off as the Boston Red Sox these days.

[jung]

Funny thing, they got rid of Theo and Tito, but I get the impression nothing has changed.

 

Well that is something we have tossed around alot' here. If the guys pulling the puppet strings are still the same, maybe you don't get a different result.

[SoxFanForsyth]

The only good thing that is going to come from this is the potential for some shake up. I hope the Sox brass has seen enough of this. This is an absolutely unacceptable product. Something needs to be done. Whether that means getting rid of Punto and McDonald, and calling up Iglesias and Lavarnway, so be it. But this cannot continue.

[SoxSport]

I guess what I was thinkin' and did not express well enough in that post is that while you could just spend it all on one guy maybe spending it on three guys or four really "good" ballplayers spreads the risk...doesn't have the marketing juice of doing the one big signing but look at where the Angles are now. Albert is being booed. So' date=' so much for the marketing sizzle and they are not playing good baseball either.[/quote']

 

The Angels figured they'd get a big star power boost with Pujols--sell more tickets and get more cable TV subscribers. They changed their name from Anaheim to LA, to get the two-team city recognition. So they are now big market, big spenders. It hasn't worked out so far because Pujols is not playing as well as the guys he kicked off 1B--Morales and Trumbo. Scoscia has a real logjam. The Sox had a similar situation when they got AdGon--though not as bad--though Youks at 3b hasn't worked out as expected.

[Brennan]

And Theo's pet player Salty puts the loser finale on to end the latest clusterf*** of a ballgame as this team of baseball player impersonators washes up, gets in their Ferrari's and goes out to a dinner that costs about the same as the average American's weekly salary.

 

Tomorrow is another day.

[jung]

Geez I almost forgot these guys leave town after tomorrows game. They surely seem to do better on the road. Another sort of "el choko'" aspect of this team I think. I know we are a tough media crowd and a tough audience but Geez Luez

[VA Sox Fan]

At least the Capitals beat the Rangers today and tied the series at 2-2.

[Brennan]

Blow it up.

 

 

I'm serious.

[jung]

I would really like to see the roster changes we have been discussing today happen. It would surely be a different way to play the game. I don't like the way they are performing and I don't like the way they play baseball. Probably not going to get what I want though. I just don't think they will win enough games waiting for Ells and CC to come back playing like this. Maybe if they shake things up they will even learn a different way to win ballgames that will make for a whole new dynamic to this team even when Ells and CC do come back.

[SoxFanForsyth]

I would really like to see the roster changes we have been discussing today happen. It would surely be a different way to play the game. I don't like the way they are performing and I don't like the way they play baseball. Probably not going to get what I want though. I just don't think they will win enough games waiting for Ells and CC to come back playing like this. Maybe if they shake things up they will even learn a different way to win ballgames that will make for a whole new dynamic to this team even when Ells and CC do come back.

 

Which roster moves do you want to make? I agree with you, just want to know specifically what you want to do.

[d-money]

Not surprise at all.They are an inconsistent bunch!!Has been that way the last couple of years.Seems like they just come through the motions.I would blow it up, even with the huge payroll.Something needs to change.

[Brennan]

Bring up Lavarnway and Iglesias.

 

Find ways to cut the ties with Salty.

 

See ya Punto.

 

See ya MacDime.

 

I don't care how well Albers has done so far, anyone trust him in a big game?

[d-money]

Not surprise at all.They are an inconsistent bunch!!Has been that way the last couple of years.Seems like they just go through the motions.I would blow it up, even with the huge payroll.Something needs to change.

[redsoxbeatz]

I predict we will see no changes, trades for a while maybe a month. They want Ells back

[jung]

Which roster moves do you want to make? I agree with you, just want to know specifically what you want to do.

 

I think that by bringing up Iggy to play short, moving Aviles to the OF and playing MWB at 3rd (since Youk is injured anyway), you end up with much better defense, close to the same power numbers...maybe the same or better power numbers because Youk is not hitting and more speed and offensive versatility. So to me that part of what I would like to do, does not have a downside at present. You keep Aviles bat in the lineup which you want, you get d-mac out of the lineup, which you want...you put a good arm in the outfield, which you currently don't have and you end up with a monster defensive infield. I would probably not try to trade Youk...why..for what. He is on the last year of his contract and the Sox have an option on him for next year.

 

Now the last part would be Lavarnway. I think you have to bring Lavarnway up to play catcher. If the Sox Management came to me and said, OK buddy, we will give you the infield you want and move Aviles to the outfield but you are stuck with Salty, I would have really pushed to change that but in the end would have taken it......until today. Today all my worst fears were realized. Salty is killing this team defensively and is not hitting. He is hitting "for Salty" but that is nothing worth protecting. I don't think you can keep Salty and off Shoppach because we really don't know how long it will take for Lavarnway to truly settle in. So in my view Shoppach has to stay and Salty has to go.

 

Salty is dropping balls, not able to keep balls in front of him, now he is dropping pop flies. I can go on forever but why. There is not a single aspect of catching where Salty is even adequate. He is terrible in every single aspect of catching, so much so that he is now a risk factor for other team members.... literally. I meant what I said earlier during the game. At every other level of baseball than MLB they literally would have pulled the catching gear off of Salty today and put somebody else in...they would have put anybody else in. He is that bad and it is high time we stopped looking the other way and hoping something is going to change with Salty because there is no reason for it to get better.

 

Now I have to admit to having a bias here. I have never liked taking critical defensive positions like SS and Catcher and tossing guys that are defensive liabilities there or so called adequate defenders there just because they can hit. I am OK with doing that everywhere but Catcher and SS, the two places that the Sox stubbornly continue to do it. However call it good luck or bad, whatever. The Sox have a great opportunity here to change the profile of the team without taking to many hits from anywhere because Youk is injured and is not hitting and d-mac is not hitting. So we have a tailor made opportunity to keep Aviles in the lineup, still get Iggy in the lineup and get d-mac out of the lineup.

 

If by the way I could get pitching for some sort of package that included Youk and or Salty, I would do it. I would probably explore Youk but would likely not find any takers that returned me anything that would interest me. However, because Salty can at least get into a crouch without falling over (just barely) he will have trade value and packaged with somebody or somebodies, we could get somebody for Salty. Catchers are really still in short supply at all levels of pro ball. Besides, keeping Youk gives me some protection in the case that when Ells and CC come back, if Youk can hit, I may just want to go back primarily to the way this team was designed to play before all this s*** happened.

 

Youk becomes somebody that actually with the other players involved in the changes I would like to see gives you the chance to field two teams with completely different profiles by just changing back and forth between the opening day lineup version (without Salty but with Lavs) or this version with WMB, Iggy and with Aviles in the outfield. That might be a hell of a lotta' fun to watch. If both versions were playing well it would sure be fun to watch other teams try to figure out what to do with that two headed monster.

 

I will grant you that you could argue that the better pitching teams might still have us over a barrel. Maybe not though. We would have one offense that would be better at scratching out runs and one that would be better at pounding out runs with both featuring some aspects of pounding and scratching out runs.

[jacksonianmarch]

Iglesias isn't giving offense at AAA. He may hit .150 in the bigs. If you try to groom the bat, you might turn him into a below average hitter. As is, he is an abortion at the plate

[jung]

As is, he is an abortion at the plate

 

As is d-mac. I will take that trade cause I already know how this version of the Sox is playing....like s***.

[SoxFanForsyth]

Iglesias isn't giving offense at AAA. He may hit .150 in the bigs. If you try to groom the bat' date=' you might turn him into a below average hitter. As is, he is an abortion at the plate[/quote']

 

The problem is that youre just looking at his AAA numbers. They had an article on weei talking about how he is hitting much better than he was last season, just hitting the ball right at people and his numbers haven't gotten rewarded yet. It's a good read. I was in the same boat as you before that because all we have to go on is the numbers.

 

Had a 2/4 night last night with a double and a triple though. Maybe his numbers are going to start getting rewarded.

 

At the time of the article (5/1), he was hitting .200 with a .486 OPS. As of today, his numbers have jumped to .228 with a .579 OPS. That's a huge jump in numbers, and it indicates that the farm director is correct in his assessment.

[SoxFanForsyth]

The Rays are now 17.5 games ahead of the Red Sox over the past 51 games dating back to 9/1/11.

 

That's unfathomable.

[iortiz]

And some dared to compare TB FO with ours hahahaha unbelievable!

[User Name]

Like J_E said, it's really easy being a message board GM. What a joke.

[Brennan]

Yeah, you really have to be a genius to see that this team hit the skids since last summer, did basically nothing to correct it and still looks like crap.

 

But let's shoot the messenger.

[BornToRun]

This losing thing is starting to piss me off. We arent going to get anywhere losing to s*** teams at home. We're better than this. If we are still scuffling like this come May then something's gotta be done. What that would be, I don't know.

[FredLynn]

This losing thing is starting to piss me off. We arent going to get anywhere losing to s*** teams at home. We're better than this. If we are still scuffling like this come May then something's gotta be done. What that would be' date=' I don't know.[/quote']

 

Dude, check the calendar. Its May 5.

[BornToRun]

Dude' date=' check the calendar. Its May 5.[/quote']

 

I meant the end of may. My bad.

[kapsis21]

Things need to be shaken up for sure and you atleast have a chance to make few things happen. otherwise this has started to become a jike of a season so far. I wouldn't be surprised if we dont contend this year if things aren't shaken up

I am with Jung on this one. Move aviles to OF. Get iggy at short.

 

Edit joke

[BornToRun]

Things need to be shaken up for sure and you atleast have a chance to make few things happen. otherwise this has started to become a jike of a season so far. I wouldn't be surprised if we dont contend this year if things aren't shaken up

I am with Jung on this one. Move aviles to OF. Get iggy at short.

 

Edit joke

At least it's early. As crazy as it sounds I think the pieces are still here to compete. We need to get our s*** in order soon but I don't think hitting the panic button is necessary just yet. We aren't the only team with issues. I'm gonna give us until the end of this month to get going in the right direction. If we haven't figured it out by then, I would say change things up a bit. It's far too early to freak out yet. There's still plenty of time to right the ship and I see nothing to suggest that we can't do that. It's easy to be a ship jumper right now and throw in the towel but we can't pull that card just yet. Just hang in there and see where we are when June rolls around.

[SoxSport]

It's clear the real problem with the Red Sox is all those empty seats at Fenway.

[kapsis21]

At least it's early. As crazy as it sounds I think the pieces are still here to compete. We need to get our s*** in order soon but I don't think hitting the panic button is necessary just yet. We aren't the only team with issues. I'm gonna give us until the end of this month to get going in the right direction. If we haven't figured it out by then' date=' I would say change things up a bit. It's far too early to freak out yet. There's still plenty of time to right the ship and I see nothing to suggest that we can't do that. It's easy to be a ship jumper right now and throw in the towel but we can't pull that card just yet. Just hang in there and see where we are when June rolls around.[/quote']

 

By June we might be close to 15 games behind and might be impossible to catch up. It's becoming reaaly hard to watch them play..

By the way clay mortensen seems to pitch better than most starters on our team. LOL.